So we're not doing that. The students still have their phones on their person. They're just put away. >> Okay, great. Thank you. And my last question, and I don't know if you have the answer to this, but I'm just curious on what East Side is doing for their phone policy. Are we keeping it consistent? >> Hey, we had that and Mr. Mosley said he almost for he forgot to share that, but Mr. Mosley is always in contact with East Side, right? >> So, as we were creating our cell phone policy, I talked to Miss Pereira that was the principal of Pedmont Hills High School. And so, actually, incidentally, she just took mine and copied it and >> did the same thing. So we're are we all we're all aligned in that area of the cell phone policy. >> Beautiful. Okay. Awesome. That's all my questions.
Uh teachers are engaging with hands-on class projects, so you start to see some of the same things from junior high. Teachers are respectful, meet students where they are where they're at. Teachers separate independent work time and instruction time with appropriate amounts of of each. And then they are allowed to work with groups um and they felt that teachers give a good balance of spoon-feeding and letting students learn on their own. So, that was like, all right, good. Um teachers having uh students act out in lectures, for example, the French Revolution is engaging, fun, and helps students understand the material. So, there's that one. And then teachers create connections with real life to help students retain material. So, I believe at the high school level you got to be able to do this cuz if you don't, you're going to lose them really quick. Some of the recommendations, they still ask for additional hands-on activities and engagement strategies.
Yeah, just we planted another one, but it just hasn't quite >> hasn't started yet. >> Yeah, I don't like I'm hoping this rain though will really start to generate some new buds on our money tree. So, anyways, >> all right. Thanks, guys. >> All right. Um, next is policy updates. Um, so you guys have um I I emailed those to you, but you also have printed ones, and we can we can go through those. So there are quite a few um in there. Um um some this is my continuing frustrating frustrations with Diligent and their new platform. um trying to load things on there from the old board docs and then I get the email last week that now board docs is officially going away and how like for the policy piece of it too and the guy's like when do you want to merge and I go as late as possible because I'm not happy with your new platform so how about never and he said never was not an option um they were eventually going to shut it down so I I was like can you just wait till the summer like at least when you know you have more time with your ends.
We also have a school safety committee in our own elementary school um just made up of teachers. A lot of my teachers are are here tonight. Thanks for being here, guys. Um and and we try to challenge each other as well. And um I've been challenged a lot just this year with obviously with the new um and anytime administration turns over too. Um I think I was trained differently at other schools and I've been trained here. And so there are questions sometimes about what do you do if um we're in safety level three for example and there's a student that was in the restroom and now you block the door. Do you open the door for the student? And so we challenge each other with questions as well. So we just try to keep in mind that as good as we are and as many things as we have in place we can always get better.
Blocks the move. Going to get out of the way of this Kirby. Does a downer. Makes the Kirby trip, but nothing really comes from it. When your character trips, you your opponent gets like a really good uh go your opponent gets a um shall I say um an opening to attack you. >> Oh, >> yep. >> Oo. Hits him with the explosion, the residual explosion of the Lloyd rocket. >> Oh, >> yep. Does a down smash and shielding. Curry tries to do a dash attack through the shield. Ooh, catches him. That was big. >> Catches him right through the upbey with his uh with his fishing rod. So, that's really >> That was neat. >> That was really neat, actually. Definitely evened up the playing field quite a bit. Oh, man. He's He's on his any game. He's got the forward airs. He's got the neutral airs.
As you know, that's approaching, and we have many opportunities to again recognize and celebrate our students and staff. want to thank our principles and our staff for all they're doing right now. This is a tough time of the year. The last the last couple of weeks before spring break, it's a tough time. So, we recognize that. We appreciate you hanging in there and taking care of each other. I've seen many examples and emails of coffee trucks and all kinds of things that you're bringing in just to kind of keep each other um elevated and supported. So, thank you for that. Um and I want to thank the board for all you do um showing up and giving extra effort. And then last but not least, happy birthday to my dear Pamela whose birthday is tomorrow. So >> thank you. >> No, she says >> a >> you get my age.
That that is below this. I think you said using number 13.2. >> Yeah. I think it's really important that folks understand that even whether there's an actual cut or reduction in a position because of retirement, yeah. That may mean, okay, it wasn't necessarily painful to a person because the person was going to retire anyway. But, there is still a reduction of 13 plus positions going on within this budget before you get to sort of adding anything or putting things back yet. >> And that has an impact on students. >> So, so we will It's about four or five slides down. And I And I will And I'll refer to that because because that Those are the still the numbers that will exist whether an override passes and/or 3.25% number is is what's voted on eventually. And I And I also want to caution folks uh who are listening, uh we still are required by Mass General Law to have a public budget hearing.
Uh this uh study was needless to say very interesting uh to do. Uh before I get into the study, just uh give me a minute to give you my background and it'll kind of give you the paradigm from which I come from to look at this at transportation. Uh I was director of the Lower Pioneer Valley Collaborative for the better part of uh 25 years. Uh and while there over a seven or eight year period we developed school transportation services and over that period of time we took over all the transportation for all seven school districts. We built four uh bus depots across the county uh to service them. Uh and uh we were transporting about 14,000 students daily uh 2500 about which uh were special ed students. And over the course of that time, I got to know a lot about uh school transportation, both from a self-operated standpoint as well as a contracted standpoint.
There are a lot of factors which go into the measure of efficiency and cost effectiveness. Not least of which is the the size the geographic size of the district, the distance between your schools, whether you're using a manual routing system or computerized routing system with regard to routing efficiency, your student riders that are scheduled, in other words, your eligible riders versus your actual riders that are actually riding. As you probably know, probably close to 30 or 40% of your high school students don't ride the bus even though they're eligible to. They either carpool or or drive. The time available between school starting times is is one of the biggest factors which affects efficiency. That's called your transportation tier time, the time between your bell schedules that you actually have time to do transportation. Often times if you have a short bell schedule or short tier time, you could pick up more students if you had more time, but the time limits the number of students that you could pick up and the length of the routes.
I'm excited." Okay? That's all that I want to say. So, I just hope that we have really developed a plan that's going to work. And the parents are coming. Are you going to have an interpreter again? Because those parents are coming to hear what you have to say. And if they can't speak no English and you're not going to have an interpreter for then why do you want to invite them to the board meeting? Because they're coming. Okay? That's all that I have to say. So, um I know some of those questions have come up already cuz we've had some of our principals reach out and with some with some questions as well. Mike, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the logistical things? Sure. So, we've been working closely with the principal and the custodians at at Hayes Town already to make sure that the the building is prepared, the tables and the chairs will be there.
Thank you all so much for your time in this presentation. >> Thank you again. Thank you to all the principles. >> I'm sorry. Uh Trusty Brewer, you also have questions. >> Yes. Okay. Go ahead if that's okay. >> Yeah. No, that's >> um first I just want to say I love the roll out like I I wasn't part of Sierra or or Moral's but just hearing the learnings and then the phased approach I think the awareness building has been really strong as a parent who's very nervous or was very nervous about this hearing it over and over that it's coming is actually like reducing the the anxiety about it. I also wanted to share just a tidbit. My daughter does not have a cell phone. She's in sixth grade. She has a smartwatch. Um, and every friend that eventually gets the phone, she just goes, "Ah, there goes another one." And because that's exactly what happens.
And just as a reminder, we are a block schedule at the high school level, 90 minutes, so we got to consider this because this is coming from our students. Less homework and less time on the Chromebook. Teachers take the time to understand how each student student learns best. I felt that was a uh very key. Um particularly, I remember during that that uh meeting, there was a young lady that shared if every if every teacher could learn how every student learn best, just how amazing would it be if that every individual could learn and grow at their own pace and and understand things at their own pace. And then immediately someone chimed in, "Well, AI can do that." Which was We'll go to that here next soon after. Teachers roam around the classroom to check in one-on-one with students. So, that was a recommendation. Regardless of social emotional learning, you're going to see our counselors and our wellness centers are still a topic that they're doing a great job out there.
But so anyway, so I apologize they're not all attached on there. So that's why I emailed them to you and then you got paper copy. We'll go back like it's 1990 when school boards used to get big paper packets or whatever. So um so anyways, we can kind of go through these one at a time. There are a lot more. Um again, legislatively there was a lot of updates and then again this spring there were more. Um so we'll be tackling probably those this summer, but um I'll meet with Gina and Bryce. We'll go through those. The ones that aren't in here, they were ones that had a lot more just options um as far as like do you want this or do you want this or do you want this? These were pretty much um kind of boilerplate recommendations from ISBA um which you know obviously interpretive law.
>> Kind of forget your question but just specific things. You know obviously every building's different. what do you look for and what you what concerns you? I guess >> I guess there's two things for me it's uh students and training. So when I when I say students I want everybody to know I love kids. I love your kids and I'm a parent. I'm a grandfather, papa, if you will, husband. Uh so I don't take that lightly. It's it's very important to me. I'm going to say some of the same things that she said. I believe that relationships with kids are very very important. I want to have that rapport with them and and I want students to come to me when they have issues. I I want to be proactive. Um there's been multiple times through my career where I've had kids come to me before they made a bad choice.
>> Oh, boy. Manages to manages to even it up. Holy canoli. In terms of percentage anyways. >> Yeah. >> Does a forward throw goes for an upbe, but Jaden Jaden doesn't get hit by it. >> Okay. Okay, it does forward air and forward air. This one might be coming down to the wire, but Jaden is still fighting on. And Kirby just took his pocket ability. That would probably that probably means he Kirby's able to pocket Jaden's landmines. >> Oh boy. This one's a This one's a going to be coming down to the wire. Kirby at 125. Jaden at 118. >> Oh. Oh, >> Jaden's in disadvantage state. Oh. Oh. Woo! Gets hit by the dash attack. Oh, >> okay. >> This is intense. My heart is beating out of my chest. Oh, bounce smash. Oh, and he manages to take him out. Okay. >> Okay.
It's just >> it's just another year, right? According to Pam, it's just another year. So okay, I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn the regular meeting. >> Can I get a motion? >> Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> It's done. Thank you, D, for accommodating me. We all know it's going to
This is just another update, if you will. This is not our public budget hearing. I'm not asking you to vote on anything. Uh this is just an update based on your feedback, feedback from last night, uh as well as uh feedback from the administrative team. Okay? Is that Just so we're on the same page here. Um And when we look at and you talked about, you know, opportunity a minute ago and social studies HS world language um HS. Well, while that was a point four we still believe we've had this conversation. We don't want to become a a a one language school, if you will, right? We want to continue to to push and and work towards having French and Spanish. Um, this would have required a little bit of of combining of positions. Um, you know, again, I think partly we want to continue to push to see if we can grow the numbers.
Uh so uh when we first started looking at the study uh we were told or asked that uh it was primarily to look at special ed uh transportation but as I said to the superintendent in our first meeting you really can't pull special ed transportation out from uh the total transportation operation uh because you're taking it out of context. And so we looked at both regular and specialed transportation. We looked at both contracted and self-operated transportation. Uh and just as a reminder, uh roughly 50% of your special ed students ride regular buses. Anyways, uh transportation efficiency uh when uh you think of it, it's not just the number of students on a bus or number of students in a van. There are a lot of factors which go into the measure of of efficiency and cost effectiveness. Not least of which is the the the uh uh the size the geographic size of the district, the distance between your schools.
Your distance traveled, your travel time, your population density, highway road infrastructure, especially in in Western Mass, given winter conditions and in some cases mud season in the spring. And not least of which is the community expectations for quality of service. Everyone wants to watch their child get on and off the bus from the from their their window or their door and sometimes there's a there's a real expectation that that can happen as opposed to students walking to to group stops. Typically the morning routes determine the number of buses that you need because typically more students ride in the morning than in the afternoon because of after school activities. The other is that when you look at a 71 passenger bus, doesn't necessarily mean that you can fit 71 students on that bus. These are 13-in seats and when you get to middle school and high school, you just can't fit three students to a seat.
We're going to have a custodian that the typical night custodian will ends his shift at about 11:30. So, we're ensuring that they're going to be there and and doesn't leave early to, you know, go home sick or anything. Uh we also have um a safety advocate that will be there on the premises. Um and you raised a good point about parking. Uh we're we'll send out we'll make sure that there's reserved parking space and we'll send out maps to board members in advance so that you know exactly where to park, because I know um Hayestown can be a a little tricky with the the the different lots they have there. So, I will send that out to everybody in advance. Um and Ken and I have also talked about some of the technology. We're going to have the cameras set up. Yeah, okay. Go ahead, Ken.