001the meeting of the dudley-charlton regional school committee is now in session it is wednesday january 26th it is 7 p.m we're at the charlton middle school and we will all stand for the pledge to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This evening, our moment of silence will be for Lynn Teague, who passed away recently. She was a dedicated employee of our district and worked at the Mason Road School. She also was a veteran in the United States Navy. A moment of silence for her. Okay. That brings us to approval of the minutes. I'll entertain a motion to approve the regular minutes of our Wednesday meeting on January 12th.
002Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? okay abstaining okay so we have six and one okay next approval of the minutes of our executive session of wednesday november 10th do i have a motion how about a second discussion okay seeing none all in favor motion carries it's unanimous okay okay thank you i forgot about you okay yes um jordan evans is attending by phone this evening because she is not feeling well so i will call a roll call okay because she's by phone um for the record we probably should redo all that what we should probably redo all those votes because we need to do roll call There was two. So we'll do it again. I'm sorry. I forgot that we had the phone call with
003Jordan. So let's do it again then. We'll do the minutes over again. So I'll entertain a motion. Okay. And there was no discussion. This is the minutes. Yes. This is the minutes of the meeting of January 12th. Okay. So from now on, I will do roll call for all of them, all our votes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. Okay. Aaron, did you get that? Okay. 6-1. Okay. I'll entertain a motion for the minutes of our executive session, and this is Wednesday, November 10th. Okay. Any discussion on that? Seeing none all in favor Kathy yes Yes Yes Yes, yes, and Jordan Yes, okay motion carries With was there one abstention? No. Okay. It's unanimous. Everybody attended that meeting Okay. Approval of the warrant. This evening we do have a warrant, so it'll make its way around
004the table for the members to sign. Communications. Mr. Lamarche, do you have any this evening? Madam Chair, I do not have any communications. Okay. I do not have any. How about our members here? No communications? Okay. Our student rep won't be here this evening, so Mr. LaMarche has a few comments. Madam Chair, I did communicate with Trevor this week. He's been a very busy student as they changed over semesters this past week. He wanted to remind everybody that the Sockery, that the National Honor Society, I think in combination with the middle schools, is still going on to donate socks to the schools. And then also he wanted me to share that he is attending the Massachusetts Association of School Committee Student Rep Conference this coming Sunday. He wanted to make sure that I shared that
005with the community as well. So those were two announcements that he shared. He's knee-deep or waist-deep or shoulder-deep in all of his applications for college and essays, but he's obviously doing very well. He has a track meet today. He thinks it's the last one that will conflict with school committee meetings. So, you know, he's got a lot going on as a student, which is really good. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have Mr. David Isenthal, Unibank, Dudley-Charlton Regional School District, Bonds for proposed capital project. Mr. Isenthal, how do you do? Doing well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was asked to come here to discuss some capital projects and how. the district might finance them. I've spoken previously with two of your subcommittees on this topic. I do have something of
006a history with the district. I worked on the major financings of about 20 years ago, and then more recently on the turf field and the lease that the district did in 2017. So we'll be talking about the capital projects that are proposed, what the process is for authorizing debt by the district, how financings get executed, and then any questions that the members might have. So I understand at this point that under discussion. There are about $10 million in capital projects, some school roofs, and I was chatting with Mr. Lamarche earlier and looking up at the brown spots on your ceiling, which are definitely indicative of perhaps a need for a roof on this building. We're talking about a roof also with the other middle school, Dudley Middle School. Bleachers, fire alarm panels, district-wide camera and
007communication. architectural review and professional fees. So how does one, how would the district go about financing this? So moving on from where, I mean these discussions have been going on for a while, but a first or a next stage perhaps would be to develop a pro forma debt service impact analysis which we could assist with. This will be based on the expected timing of the projects, confirmed estimated costs, how long the district wants to repay the debt over, and then the projected assessment percentages on the member towns. The purpose would be to give voters and other stakeholders a sense of the impact of these projects on local budgets or taxes, depending on how they decide to pay their assessments. Once that happens, or maybe in conjunction with that happening, this body would authorize a debt
008election, working with bond counsel to develop language that would go on the ballot. And I should point out that under Massachusetts law, there are two ways that regional districts can authorize debt, but under the Dudley-Charlton Regional Agreement, only one of these is available to the district, and that is a ballot election. This district can only authorize debt by holding an election. So the school committee would decide the timing and location of this election and would fund the election costs. And the district would coordinate with the town clerks in the two towns to conduct the election. It would be a town decision whether to exclude their assessments on the debt service that the district incurs from their proposition to an half limit. That's not something that... the district would have any direct input into. And debt
009service would be paid for by the district and assessed to the member towns per the regional agreement unless the district and the towns agree to another arrangement pursuant to an inter-municipal agreement. And that's something that if you choose to discuss this, we could get into that more. So if and when the voters approve the projects and the financing, the first step would be to develop a detailed financing plan once that happens. And this should track with the pre-authorization pro forma projection that I discussed earlier. This would be subject to update as conditions warrant. And we would want to look at project cash flow forecasts that would come from the designer or OPMs for the projects. We want to look at desired budgetary impacts, the credit profile of the district, and conditions in the capital markets,
010interest rates, and other factors. And we would show in this analysis types of financing, the timing, and expected impacts. Bond Council, which is a specialized firm that specializes in the legalities of borrowing, would review documents, the school committee vote authorizing the election, election ballot, and other documents as they saw the need, as they see fit. The purpose of this review is to assure the consistency of the proceedings, the votes with state law and with the regional agreement, and also to assure compliance with the Internal Revenue Code with respect to tax-exempt borrowing. We would expect that the interest on such borrowings would be exempt from federal and state income taxation, and bond counsel would work with the district to assure that... such interest did remain tax exempt. And then the bond council would approve the legality
011of borrowing, would render legal opinions, either a preliminary opinion, which would allow small short-term note borrowings, or full opinions on larger note and bond issues. And then the last thing I'll talk about is how the district would actually borrow. For temporary cash flow borrowings there, the district could issue bond anticipation notes. These are temporary borrowings that mature in one year or less. Again, they provide cash flow for the project. Generally, interest is due at the maturity of the instrument. If the district were to issue $3 million or less, just as a guideline, we would probably advise the district to issue through the Massachusetts Division of Local Services. The market for these is mostly Massachusetts banks. They buy and hold these securities. If you ended up doing a short-term borrowing of more than, or short-term borrowings
012of more than $3 million, probably this would be a somewhat more expensive and involved procedure issued with legal opinion and disclosure, and this would entail a national market for resale to secondary markets to ultimate purchasers of those securities. And then the permanent financing would come with general obligation bonds. The district last issued general obligation bonds in 2015 for the turf field at Shepherd Hill High School. Under mass law, generally the bonds can be issued up to 30 years from the date of the original short-term borrowing. Interest is payable semi-annually and principal is payable annually. this would come with a disclosure document legal opinion from bond council and a rating the currently the district has a double-a rating from S&P global ratings that's the outstanding rating on the borrowing from 2015 so that's a very quick
013overview of borrowing madam chair so through you I suppose I can answer questions Thank you, Mr. Eisenthal, for being here. So I just wanted to ask a clarifying question for everybody to better understand. This school committee has the authority to call for the election, and it will be a district-wide election, correct? That's correct. All right. Then if that ballot initiative is successful, that gives this school committee the authority to issue debt to the two towns. Well, it would be, yes, it would be. I would put it a little bit differently. The school district debt and the debt would be payable from assessments. These are determined according to the regional district agreement between the district and the two member towns. The annual debt service would be assessed to each of the member towns consistent with that
014agreement. Okay, but as far as the election, we would be calling an election for the capital project, but not the method of funding. That's correct. I think as I said earlier, again, through Madam Chair. The decision as to whether the capital assessments would be paid excluded from Proposition 2 and a half would be purely a town decision. So in their respective towns, if Charlton wanted to exclude the debt service, that would be a vote of the town of Charlton. If Dudley wanted to exclude the debt service assessment, the capital assessment, that would be a vote of the town of Dudley. But that vote would be separate from the initial debt vote from the district-wide vote, correct? Through you, Madam Chair, yes, that is correct. Now, that vote has to come first by the town of
015Dudley and the town of Charlton whether to do a debt exclusion, right? They have to give permission first. No? Because suppose... Charlton, this is just an example, suppose Charlton decides, well, we have the money to pay for this. We're not going to go for a debt exclusion. Does that happen? Like suppose they have enough money to pay for the capital project. Well, you know as I don't believe first of all as a matter of Sequencing I do not believe that the towns need to consider a debt exclusion before the district takes its vote to authorize debt because that's what I heard before they uh kenny i think you said that yeah so we do our vote first but i wasn't sure you said the selectmen had to decide they would decide the funding source but
016we do our vote first meaning we would issue a district-wide vote first and then that if that's successful yeah then well that's first yeah but you had said first the song okay so that's why i was confused we do the vote first and then they decide whether you know it should be a debt exclusion or go for a two and a half override right well madam chair i'm not sure um with in the absence of a district vote to authorize debt uh if I mean the towns I suppose could consider placing a question on their ballot, but there would be no debt to exclude until the district takes action. Right. Meaning this committee presenting to the voters and the voters approving a question. When we were in our budget and finance meeting, we kind of
017talked about this vote a lot. And one of the things that I wasn't aware of, so I think it would be good for the public to understand, is that the vote is taken as Dudley and Charlton as one community. And it doesn't matter how it splits as far as like if Dudley votes more than Charlton does It's counted as one and they take the majority of that one vote Yes, that's how it always right? If it's 51 It doesn't matter who came from what town. As long as it's a majority, then it passes. Correct. My question was, I wasn't sure what came first. Yeah, you have to vote us first. Like decide how are we going to go for debt exclusion or what. But now you've clarified that. My last question for Mr. Eisenthal was
018the district-wide vote, once that happens and is successful, That's how do I say this? That's a binding decision. So now the towns that we issue debt or the assessment process at that point because the voters have spoken is that am I saying that properly? Through you Madam Chair, the gentleman is characterizing that correctly. I would just place an asterisk and say that this would be subject to review by bond council. They would need to determine that there are no defects in any of the proceedings or no other issues that might impede either the project or the financing of those projects. But assuming that bond council was able to render a clean opinion, then the school committee vote would prevail. Yeah, thank you. And I assume we'd work with bond council through the process. I just
019wanted to clarify it from my own understanding and the public's understanding. So thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that brings us up to Superintendent's report. Madam Chair, I do have a couple of items to report on. One is that I don't like to take risks, but I'm going to take a risk this evening and predict that we'll have a snow day on Saturday. Just so there will be no school this Saturday coming forward. I'm a little early on that, but I just figured I would throw that out there. I would also like to recognize Dudley Middle School National Junior Honor Society inductees. This was a great in-person event that occurred last week. The students listened to messages about diversity, leadership,
020and they all heard a strong message of perseverance from keynote speaker and president of the Shepard Hill. National Honor Society and DMS alum student Sean McCarty. I am publicly acknowledging Principal Stachewski and National Junior Honor Society advisors and Dudley Middle School educators, Ms. Stacy Lynch and Ms. Kelly Bonner for a great student recognition event. Today we offered an extensive professional development program. I visited all schools today. As we always ask for feedback, Dr. Brian Ackerman will have a report at the next school committee meeting for your review. At this time, I would like to just turn it over to Dr. Ackerman just to give a quick update on how professional development activities occurred today. Just a quick feedback on it. So part of what our work was with the Professional Development Committee from a very
021early point this year was to solicit feedback from staff in terms of what they felt was the most useful and optimal time in professional development. And the universal message that was heard repeatedly was voice and choice. So we had a total of, I think, 13 or 14 offerings. within the district our elementary folks had ckla for the duration of the day and then middle and secondary folks had a cornucopia of different offerings everything from therapeutic yoga to teacher self-care to supporting students in trauma and crisis as well as accessing the curriculum for all students the initial feedback was significantly positive But I do look forward to updating the committee and the public with a more detailed understanding of our folks and how they received the PD. But I will say it was a successful day
022of learning for our staff. Madam Chair, in the school committee, I know that there was a question about midterms, so I have invited Mr. Chaplain, Principal Chaplain of Sheppard Hill Regional High School, to give feedback to that specific question that was asked last meeting in Citizens Forum. Good evening, everybody. So I think the question was around why we made an adjustment. So we did a lot of collaborative talk in the fall about having midterms and going back to normal as a building, Shepherd Hill, as well as the midwalk principals as well in the fall. No one anticipated the surge we got in January in terms of having staff and students. Absent consistently, I had up to 12 plus staff out almost every day when we returned. So there was a growing concern from students, from
023parents about is there any consideration that we can do around midterms coming up in the next week. So we took it under advisement, midwalk took it under advisement, and we approached it and we made a decision to shift the midterm. Just take the word midterm out of it. Kids were still assessed, they had PBL assignments, they had regular assessments and so forth during that during the final weeks of term two but we approached it um with like every decision we've made over the last three years through the lens of being adaptable being adjustable um being flexible a lens of compassion to see where we were at then no one planned no one knew what was going to be like in january so that was the uh that was the decision any questions mr chaplin can
024you just say what pbl stands for uh project-based learning thank you thank you mr chaplain okay um madam chair school committee i have a couple of other items and they're more data points um i know that um you know the way uh the trend is going and the changes that are occurring which i'll report on a little bit more um and when we get to item uh b new covert testing program for our district I'd like to share a couple of data points because one of the questions that I'm frequently asked or emailed is where is our vaccination rate within our communities and are we close to the 80%? So I'm here to report this evening as of the 20th of January, Charlton 5 to 11 year olds, 22% were fully vaccinated. A 12 to
02515 year old, 53% were fully vaccinated. 16 to 19 year olds, 70% were fully vaccinated. Dudley 5 to 11, 17% fully vaccinated, 12 to 15, 47% vaccinated, and 16 to 19, 42%. So my only justification for reporting this is because I am frequently asked about the 80% mark. I don't think we're close to the 80% mark. I do have some other good positive things to share this evening when it comes to data. Could we just wait a second? I just want to say something to our audience. Our policy is to wear a mask and the policeman was notified. So if you don't want to wear a mask, then you must leave. Okay. Your nose has to be covered too. Like all of us. Okay. Go ahead. Madam chair and school committee. I have a couple
026of other very good data points to share with you. As of this week, our school attendance since the return from the holiday break, our average for student attendance is 88%. As of Monday, it was 93%. Staff attendance has been 93%, even though we've had obviously some days of absences. And as of Monday, it was 96% attendance. In addition, I want to share with you that before returning from the holiday break, we reported to the state, and it's on our COVID dashboard, that we had 221 positive incidents within our district in our first week back. We had 188. reported last week and as of today which I have to report every Wednesday we have 74 positive cases so I want to recognize the fact that the numbers are going in a fantastic manner for us supporting
027the transition in the testing program as well as the discontinuation of close contacting within the school and that concludes the superintendent's report this evening all right I'm going to reiterate what I said Our policy is to have a mask on. If you cannot, then you should have something to say that it's a health reason. Otherwise, you have to leave the meeting. Now, I see others that aren't doing it. And the committee has asked me to enforce it because they're here and that's our policy. So we have the policemen. If they don't want to wear the mask, I'm going to tell them to leave. No, you're all right. I'm not talking to you. No, I see. I'm not going to argue. This is our policy, and I'm going to have the policemen remove the people that
028do not want to wear a mask. So if you see someone, please remove them from the meeting. That's our policy. Okay? Again, Madam Chair, that concluded my report. Okay. Do we have – is that in our policy? We took a vote. We have a vote on it. We took a vote on it anyway. We'll get it to you. What, Kathy? Kathy, I cannot hear you. She's saying it's time for citizens' forum. Okay. Okay. We'll have you people come up for Citizens Forum this evening. We do have handouts on our policy on Citizens Forum, so I'm waiving the reading of it. And it will be, as usual, a half hour, three minutes. Mr. Matthew, you'll be timing us, okay? And the first one, who would like to come up? Timothy Paquette, Dudley Southbridge Road. For the
029record, school started 147 days ago and so did the forced masking of our kids again. The mission statement for the Equity Committee on the DCRSD website states, The DCRSD remains committed to equity and access for all students and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. In today's world, there's no more of a demonized collection of people than that who are considered to be unvaccinated. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu continues to advocate for the public to show a vaccine passport in order to exercise in a gym or go see a movie. That should terrify everyone. Whatever happened to my body, my choice. This is the same authoritarian group of people that also try to convince us that it's voter suppression to require people to show an ID
030in order to vote in elections, but then in the same breath mandate and require people to show a vaccine card in order to eat food in a public restaurant. How does any of this make sense? Yesterday, Superintendent LaMarche made clear. School nurses under no circumstances are authorized to request proof of COVID-19 vaccine. This has to always be true and non-negotiable, for we know it would open the door and be a major step towards never-ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed on our children. So taking a step back and hearing the sentiment that is being pushed by politicians in the mainstream media aimed at unvaccinated people, I am asking this committee to consider amending the equity mission statement to include, protect, and not discriminate against any kid on the basis of vaccination identity or status. I'm not sure
031of who is in charge. maintaining the DCRST website but I think it's time to update the pictures on there and put this pandemic behind us instead of continuing to look like our schools are a COVID-19 prison camp held under a permanent draconian mask mandate. We all know now masks don't work and we need to stop promoting them as the untold unprecedented damage to the mental health of these kids continue. It is truly heartbreaking. Lastly, as some of you are aware, there is an active effort underway to recall most of this committee by members of the public. And I just want to make clear, at least for me, it's not personal or part of any smear campaign, but rather a loss of confidence, among other reasons. When things stopped making sense a long time ago, nobody
032wanted to stand up and fight for my daughters and ask some common sense questions and push back on DESE. Instead, this committee pushed CRT into the district when they thought nobody was looking. I guess that's what we get when most of this board got elected by running unopposed. Thank you. And before we go further, I'm going to just apologize. I use the word policy. We voted to mandate wearing masks to the school committee meeting. We don't have a policy. I'm just thinking it over. I used the wrong word when I said policy. We took a vote and we mandated it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Paquette. Go ahead. Mr. Paquette. Mr. Paquette. I have a question for you. The request you made about the language for the Equity Committee to consider, can you
033send that to that specific part? I don't need your whole speech, but to us in writing in an email. Thank you Okay, who would like to come up next? This is citizens forum whoever come up next Christina Spencer Charlton I had a question about the policy or mandate when you took the vote I thought not everyone was here It doesn't matter we took a vote and that was a tie at that time But we take another vote when everyone was there I think We'll have to look it up. It was a 2-2 vote. So that's... You said you'd vote at the next meeting. You never did. That's the rule. We do want to see it in favor of mandate. It's in effect right now, unless we take another vote. It was 2-2, and you said
034that it would be taken up. But before that, you were wearing masks. So when you have a tie, there's no change. Okay, go ahead. Okay. I'm here tonight to address an issue that needs to be put to rest. A member of the school committee posted on Facebook that parents who have brought many issues to light in recent months were none other than pigs who like to play in the mud. That couldn't be further from the truth and only opened our eyes wider to a member's position on these issues. It shows lack of professionalism and an inability to be objective at this table. I do not expect answers to the following questions, but I'd ask you to listen, and I'll get to my point in a moment. Did these parents you speak of bring concerns to
035this board about the formation of an equity committee and the division such school committee could cause in our district? I would recall for you the motto of such committee was to change the hearts and minds of children. Do you feel that your child's heart and mind need to be changed? Did these parents you speak of bring concern to this board about hiring a consultant specifically for professional development around critical race theory? I would recall for you that the same consultant, along with Dr. Ackerman, then tried to take the same acronym and tell us it stood for culture responsive teaching. Please don't insult our intelligence. Sometimes you just need to own your mistakes. Did these parents you speak of bring concerns to this board about mandates handed down by DESE, a party that has no right
036to make decisions that impact medical freedoms and a parent's choice to care for their child? I would recall for you it took pleading with you to send a letter and then still two members did not sign. Did these parents you speak of bring concern to this board about the sexualization of children through pornographic books in the library? I would recall for you that this resulted in the formation of a committee to discuss policies around library and instructional materials. We are not pigs playing in mud. This is not a smear campaign. As said earlier, we are parents and we too are tired. We are tired of doing the investigative work it takes to make the schools a better place for our children. If you can't handle it, then maybe you should reconsider your seat. We do
037not sit behind a keyboard and call you names for the public to see. Only God knows where we would be now had these issues not been brought to the table. Thank you. I've been coming to these meetings for... probably maybe 10, 15 years. And lately, I've heard a lot of things at the meeting since September of this past year that although I absolutely agree with everybody's right to have a point of view and to express that point of view, I do want to say that I do disagree with that point of view. We just heard about critical race theory, which if you looked at the slides of the presentation, it definitely went on to talk about cultural responsive teaching. So I'd like to do a small lesson that probably most of you may not recognize
038who any of these people other than maybe the Uncle Sam. But the four girls, Carol, Eddie Mae, Denise, and Cynthia, were young children going to church September 15, 1963. And some individuals decided that because that church was working toward civil rights, that they would plant 15 sticks of dynamite at the back door and blow it up. And these four girls were the result. for them was their death. Now, just sharing that might make you feel ashamed to be Americans. I don't care whether you're white, black, Hispanic. You shouldn't feel ashamed learning the history of this country. This was not history for me. This was current events happening when I was 13. A lot of things happened those few years. The assassination of Kennedy, the assassination of King, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. That's history.
039And it should not be something that makes us feel ashamed of ourselves, but give us a chance to understand history and how it relates to us as people. The public funeral for these four girls... attracted over 8,000 people, but not one city or state official attended. Back then, those city officials were corrupt politicians. We have corrupt politicians all around us sometimes, and some of them actually probably went to jail. The four men responsible for the murders were not charged until 45 years later. Should that make us ashamed? No, it should make us proud of the fact that we kept on fighting to get to the bottom of this crime, this hideous crime. Some of them were charged after they died, some of them had died in prison, and some of them are still in prison.
040That should make us very proud as a society, knowing that we continue to work toward justice. This is not critical race theory. I'm not even sure I know what critical race theory is unless I look it up and find out that it has something to do with understanding laws and is usually done in a college course, even a graduate course. One more second. Critical race theory is not being taught in our schools, but history and true history ought to be taught. And I'm sure some of this is not being taught. Thank you. Before we go on, we're always very respectful when someone comes up to speak. Now, if someone comes up speaking their opinion, I want the audience to be very respectful. And I didn't think you were right now. So please keep that in
041mind. Okay, who would like to speak next? Who would like to speak next? If you want to come up. Wait a minute. This is I heard a lot of mumbling. I'm not arguing. I'll have you removed. Do you want to come up to speak? It's citizens forum. Come on. Stop. Where's the policeman? Give them a chance and then remove them, please. Susan Smolsky, Charlton. I'm speaking to all parents, grandparents, guardians, and caregivers of any child in this district. The Test and Stay program has been replaced by DESE and Department of Health's at-home antigen testing program. If you choose to participate and you do have a choice, you will be getting enough tests and will be expected to test your child weekly. In Mr. Matthews' report tonight, it... indicates that worst case scenario if every family
042participated in this, all eligible members, worst case scenario this would be an expense of over $100,000 per month. I follow Dr. Kevin Homer, who is certified in anatomic and clinical pathology by the American Board of Pathology. His website is betterpathology.com. I don't have time to read the entire most recent article he wrote, but it was so well written and so timely that I felt the need to share it. He was speaking about the 500 million tests being sent out by the government to Americans, but I believe his sentiments can also be applied to this new DESE testing program. According to Dr. Homer, a new crisis has occurred. a crisis of testing which is completely unrelated to people's health it's meant to perpetuate the pandemic when we should be getting back to normal life when kids
043stayed home when they're sick and went to school when they are well a test result is only good during that sliver of time when you take it a child could test negative on a tuesday night and have covid and it was too early to test or the child could get COVID the day or two days after taking the test. In closing, I'd like to quote directly here from Dr. Homer's website. A negative test does not mean you cannot spread disease and positive test does not mean you will spread the disease. Using test results to control social, educational and business interactions will fail to stop the spread of the virus. So why the push for testing? Two reasons. It's a boondoggle and it perpetuates the emergency. Help end the pandemic. Test as directed by your doctor,
044not by your government. Good evening. I'm Dave Smolsky, Charlton. Wait, just a second. Sure. Go ahead. That's my wife, Susan. She's infinitely smarter than me, so I don't have any websites to quote. I was selected to serve on the District Library Review Committee, and in preparation for our first meeting, I read two policies that were distributed last meeting. One was complaints concerning instructional materials. The second was library media material selection, adoption, and reconsideration. I also read the Library Bill of Rights. and just trying to get ready and prepare for it. And I would definitely publicly like to thank Mrs. Kabbalah for acknowledging my email. Much appreciated. So looking forward to doing some work with the committee. I'd also like to revisit a topic voted on during a December school committee meeting. It was citizens required
045to wear masks during school committee meetings. If memory serves me right, the vote was two in favor of wearing masks, two opposed, and that the topic was supposed to be revisited in January. During a recent Board of Health meeting, a decision was made to require masks in Charlton's municipal buildings through the end of the month, despite board members admitting that masks provide a false sense of security. I sent an article to you all that outlined 376 reasons why masks are not safe. Thanks to those who took the time to read the article and to those who acknowledged my response. I'm sorry, my message. My question is when will the topic be revisited? It's the end of January. I know some people think wearing masks is a minor topic. Again, I respectfully disagree and I don't
046believe that wearing face diapers should be the norm in private or public settings. Personally, I'm not too concerned about splitting hairs, about school committee meetings being public meetings or meetings held in public. Instead, I encourage the committee to focus on the fact that this is a meeting where the public is present and people should be able to use their own judgment. Other meetings where the public is present have taken place in our school facilities and don't require the public to wear masks. And my understanding, based on the information I've come across, is that DESE has no jurisdiction over these meetings, even though they're held in our school buildings. Still on the mask topic, students see adults making arbitrary rules and think the grown-ups have lost our minds. They tell me this. I teach kids outside
047of the school district for different topics, and they think that we're actually completely crazy. So consider this. Kids are mandated to wear masks all day in school, but can play on a town or travel basketball team using the gym where they went to school all day, but they're not required to wear masks. To me, that's just madness. It doesn't make a lot of sense. So to close, in summary, I do appreciate some committee members' responsiveness and acting on feedback that has been offered. I also hope that there's a growing support to break away from what I consider to be political science on these masks. Thank you Mr. Smalsky next school committee meeting I will put on the agenda about the masks for our meetings to take a vote Jamie Paglico Dudley I just want to
048point out a few things tonight quickly 25 states are fighting mandates with state attorneys taking legal action 30 state school board associations distanced themselves from the letter from the National School Board Association deeming concerned parents domestic terrorists. Out of those 30 states, 16 of them actually went as far as withdrawing membership participation or dues from the NSBA. So if anybody is wondering which states and school boards are fighting against DESE and these mandates. There's 30 of them. I can put the list of which ones in your emails if you'd like. You guys aren't one of them, unfortunately. I also want to point out that I did some light reading earlier today. I want to point out that under 21 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 50, 23, and 24, it is illegal to coerce a citizen
049to participate in any experiments. This is how the Nuremberg Code was put into law. Masking and vaccines for COVID are experimental. Under 18 U.S. Code Section 2331, it is illegal to coerce a population. It's a felony. Forced masking to receive public education is coercion. Eventually, everyone from the top to the bottom will be held accountable. I'll end this with a quote from Bill Gates himself at Event 201, which, if you're unfamiliar, was a planning event. where they gamed a global novel coronavirus pandemic in 65 million people one player in the event was actually from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control I quote we have approximately 8 billion people in the world with successful vaccines and health care we can cut that down to 6 billion anyone else my name is Patrick McLeod I live at
05033 All Stephens Road Charlton Just outside of the the boundaries of all this I just I just have a quick question we Have question what goes on in the classrooms? And what's being taught? Is there a chance? That we can set up a program Like I know that if a parent's gonna come into the school and spend some time there they have to go through a quarry check Right to be able to come into the school Can we set up a program? Where parents can volunteer to be Corey checked and be placed in the classroom kind of like a teacher's aide or Just just a volunteer that's in the classroom So that the people in here that are questioning what's going on in these classrooms Can have eyes on and report back to us because
051right now we Come to these meetings to try to figure out what's going on and we have to listen to our kids about what's going on. Is there some kind of pilot program we can put into effect where if you go through the proper background checks, that we can put them into the classrooms and actually see what these teachers are talking about, what they're teaching, at the will of the people that will sign off on these core checks? That's my question. I don't you know, I don't have to have an answer right now But I think it's something that you know, maybe in some executive session or something you should discuss and and I think it's a program that School districts everywhere should should imply, you know put into effect because There's a lot of
052questions from these people in me and there's a lot of questions from parents in a lot of districts besides ours and If you're doing the right thing, open it up. You know, every district, open them up. Let us in, let us into the classroom. There's no problem with a mom who, you know, we have students in Charlton right now that I know that are stay-at-home and homeschooled, and there are people that can teach their children from home. We trust you to do this. But obviously there's big questions in what's going on. recall efforts and talking about what's in our libraries and what's going on. Can we simply put our parents in the schoolroom with our children and report back to our parents in what is actually going on? I don't know how that becomes about
053a vote, an executive meeting, but I think that it's... It's going to I tell you what you know I think that a lot of what you do is great Okay, you know I'm fighting on the recall effort and you know if you don't know it's my name that's on the on the lawsuit and and I have no problem with that but if you're doing what is right and Open it up. Let us come in. You know let us let us come in and sit in the classroom Let us be in a meeting. Let us be in a conference. Let the parents come in on a professionalism day and just be in the school. We don't have to have input, but can we have eyes on it? Is that something that's possible? Just an idea of
054Opening it up to everybody to you know, see what's going on it it gives clarity on What what is actually going on in our schools versus what people are saying what emails are sent out what people you know and and in the in the infighting and inroading Put somebody in that classroom. I can sign a Cori check and sit in the classroom. Put us in the classroom. Just let us sit there and see. You know, your curriculum is the best curriculum, and what you're bringing on is the best curriculum of what is right for our children. Why not why have a teacher have to send out this is what we're doing and it's right when it is above the law and Perfectly fine to have one of us that is arguing all these points to
055just be there in the room Just just be there Be part of it, right? I'm not going to go in there and try to teach somebody quantum mathematics but i can sit there and in in in an advanced calculus class and and see what what is going on or a sex ed class or and and and gain some idea that will maybe mend some fences between the the large group of people in this district in this school committee that are at ogs every single day thank you thank you anyone else Okay, that will conclude Citizens Forum. Next on the agenda is new business report of the Director of Finance and Operations, Budget and Finance Subcommittee, Capital and Safety Subcommittee, Director Matthew, Chair LaFeria, and Chair Terry. Mr. Matthew. Mr. Chairman LeFair, if you would like
056to discuss the budget and finance subcommittee meeting, maybe we'll stop there. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Matthew. The budget and finance subcommittee met on, was it Wednesday, January 19th at 3 p.m. on video conference. It was a simple meeting. We reviewed some updates when administration met with the town of Dudley to review the capital project. So members of the school committee were unable to attend that particular meeting, that meeting. And so that was an update on that. We discussed the fiscal year 23 budget and discussed different fees and where we're going with those fees as far as preschool and parking and athletic. And that's still to be discussed. That's all I have. Did I miss anything, Mrs. Kabawa, Mrs. Kamenani? Yeah, we did decide that. Thank you for the correction. Preschool fees we're going to recommend
057to the school committee, but I don't think that's on tonight's agenda, is it? Are we doing that? It is. It is. I'm sorry. My apologies. So the preschool fees, the budget and finance subcommittee is recommending that the school committee keep the preschool fees the same. But the other two we haven't discussed at this time. We're going to discuss it at a future meeting. But thank you, Mrs. Cabala. And Mrs. Kamenyai, did I miss anything? No. Okay. That's all I had, Mr. Matthew. Chair Terry, would you like to talk about the capital? So our capital and safety subcommittee met via video conference on January 21st on Friday. We've also, as you heard from Ms. LaFerriere, we were updated on the meeting with the Dudley-Sleckman regarding the capital project plan that we've been working on for eight
058months to a year last night. miss laferriere myself mr matthew and mr la marche were on with the charlton board of slackman via zoom and we met and discussed with them again that same plan we did hear some feedback and i guess what i want to bring to you tonight is specifically regarding the bleachers we heard feedback and the cost being high and so we're going to take that back to our committee and discuss it and digest the feedback and We've decided to, at the Charlton Selectmen meeting last night, we were asked to kind of come up with a plan to work together with them, and we're looking forward to doing that. Now a couple of items from my report. First, foster care transportation. The district is eligible to receive a reimbursement of a percentage
059of its expenditures for transporting students placed in foster care. That percentage currently is 20%. However, to receive this, the district must enter into a memo of understanding with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Department of Children and Families. This is to meet the requirements of the federal law that provides this reimbursement. I've attached a copy of the MOU, which needs to be completed. All school committee needs to do is vote to authorize Superintendent LaMarche to sign the MOU, and we have to file the reports and all of those sorts of things, but the state has an agency that will take care of securing the signatures of the other state agencies. I would ask school committee to vote in favor of this MOU. I'll entertain a motion.
060Discussion? Mr. Matthew, your report says currently 20% for the reimbursement. I assume that changes, that could change yearly, or how does it work? That's a number computed at the state and federal levels. So I would suspect that they'd remain fairly static for the next couple of years. But unless we're participating, we receive zero. Understood, very good, thank you. What's the number of faucets you only have, do you know that number offhand? believe the expense that we filed for last year was around $25,000 or so. So we'd get 20% of that back? Yes. Thanks. It's not an extensive amount of students, but the cost of transportation to and from where they are residing, that's why this program is in place. Mr. Matthews, is the only thing that the memo includes just the ability for reimbursement? Is
061that the only purpose of the memorandum of amendment? Yeah, they needed to ensure that we follow the rules of ESSA. Thank you. Kathy, did you have a question? I did. Is there any drawback from us not taking the MOA? Loss of the revenue. Okay. Jordan, did you have any questions? No, none on my end. Thank you, Jordan. Any other discussion before we take a vote? Okay. I will do a roll call. Kathy? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. Okay. It's unanimous. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is the COVID test kit requirement. During Citizens Forum, I think something was perhaps misunderstood in my memo. What I'm talking about here has absolutely nothing to do with the DESE program that was recently implemented. This is a requirement, again, from the federal government for health insurance plans,
062and we obviously offer health insurance plans, to cover up to eight home test kits per member. um and this requirement went into effect on january 15 2022. we do have some information from mass strategic health group that it looks like the program is going to be in place where members can simply go to a pharmacy show their membership card and receive the test for free so not needing to be reimbursed but simply you know actually getting the test itself We did try to be proactive and order a small number of tests in the grand scheme of things because this program is in place until the pandemic is declared at an end. So we did receive a total of 3,268 kits. Each kit has two tests. We purchased this through Mass Strategic Health Group and through
063a local consortium gathered by Central Mass Regional Planning Commission. So while we have the promise and now actually the actual realization of tests from DESE and obviously the promise of tests for schools from the federal government, there are obviously dependents of people who work in our schools that aren't directly covered through those programs. So this is a way of ideally mitigating the cost of these tests. The test came in at $10 per kit, whereas if you go to a pharmacy, you might spend we might be charged 25 or 30 dollars if not more for those kits so it was viewed as a way of uh being proactive having some on hand to deal with those circumstances um and trying to conserve as much money as possible um again the worst case scenario for this specific
064program has which has nothing to do with desi um would indeed be the expense of over a hundred thousand dollars per month but i don't see us ever having to get there again because of the testing program through DESE, through the promise of free tests from the federal government. But again, I felt it important to let the committee know the outside potential liability of this mandated program that came down from the federal government to us. Good, and then how much, what is it per month per member? How much do they, is there a maximum spending? Well, again, our maximum exposure would be over $100,000. No, I know, but per member, do they, how much can they spend on a kid if they went to the pharmacy, in other words? If our program is deemed to
065be, oh, I lose the exact phrase, but if it's in compliance with the rules, our maximum exposure is $15 per test. And suppose they have, they buy three. Test kits that month do they get reimbursed for one or three or they get reimbursed for up to eight? No matter what the prices correct again, that's why that's why we wanted to be proactive and have some right here I understand that but I was just wondering if they if someone happened to go to the pharmacy if there was like a yeah a certain amount that they could spend Again, if the program is deemed to be in compliance, then we have a maximum exposure. If not, then the federal government tells us we have to reimburse. Okay. Thank you. I don't know if... Go ahead, Karen. I'm
066just wondering about the potential liability that you talk about. Does that have an effect on our status in the group? I mean, do you have a that group is is a shared collect collaborative, correct? And do we know how other towns are utilizing that? Well, the benefit of our arrangement through mass strategic health group is that we are a standalone entity within there. So what the town of Douglas does and what it gets charged for whatever its members do has no impact on us. Sorry, Ms. Lomash. I just want to give you credit for thinking ahead and outside of the box on this because I think two test kits for $10 is better than any place that I've been able to buy them for my family personally. So I bought some at CVS yesterday, one
067test kit for $10. Or I could have bought one test kit for $38 at CVS. So I feel like the fact that you thought of the fact that we could. be required we are required under the federal law to reimburse up to eight tests per household per Member, thank you for all of the people under our health insurance plan could really be detrimental to our budget for this insurance, so I appreciate that you tried to think about ways to minimize that Thank you, and I know you were involved as well as part of that bit Jamie. I'm a story Not for this district. Not for this district, but yes. I was for a different, for my health job, yes. It was successful. Yes, we're very happy with it. Any other questions? Did you have anything?
068No, the only thing I was going to reinforce is that even though we are standalone, we've been working with many, many local districts, including those in Mass Strategic Health, to try to get the best price on trying to get this started without hitting the purchase everything at once kind of cost in the program. So it's been a collaborative effort, and I have to give Mr. Matthew a lot of credit for really working hard on this to get the best outcome possible with this new federal requirement. and so do i because every test i bought is ten dollars for one test i think that's the cheapest so thank you mr matthew saving the district money go ahead so next up is uh the french river education uh collaborative oil bid um the uh FREC did advertise
069its bid for oil for the 2022-23 school year. Unfortunately, with that advertisement, no bid was received in a timely fashion. One bid was received an hour late. FREC has re-advertised this bid to be opened on February 2nd, 2022. The award meeting is planned for February 3rd, 2022. At this time, it's difficult to have confidence in the way to go. We all know what pricing is doing out there in the markets, not only for home eating oil, but every product out there. History says that, or the recent history says that price should go down. from where we are now but one of the things that you by doing these procurements and locking into longer term contracts for natural gas and electricity is to provide budget stability um and not gamble with the district's money so um
070at this time uh i think you know if the bid were to come in within a dollar or so of our current expenses. I think my vote would have to be yes to do that. But this is a collaborative bid with 20 odd communities. So whoever shows up are going to be the people that end up voting on it. I think if the bid were to come in at 350, I think there would be a strong desire to throw the bid out and go out again. Maybe not tomorrow, but in the near future. But again, if it comes in within reason of market pricing, then I think it will be accepted by the majority of communities. And I think I would support that decision. The last couple of years, we've only received one. In the
071past, it's been a little more competitive with two or three. But it's a tight market, especially with the requirements that are in our bid for 10% or less for biofuel. Given the age of our buildings, given the age of our boilers, we can't afford to have a higher percentage than that. But we may start to end up paying a penalty as the states start to move forward with looking at higher percentages than that. But again, for this bid, that's our specifications and we hope that we can do well with it. if there are no other questions um i'll go on to the freck paper bid uh we did open the paper bid uh thursday january 13th 2022 the sole bidder was wb mason uh price pricing was higher than in past years as in line
072with everything else that we're looking at the award in may of 2020 was at 23.75 the award this time was at 44.23 a significant increase They have indicated that limits will be on the amounts that can be ordered at any one time due to inconsistent supplies still. We hope that when we go out to bid for next school year that this pricing comes down. But I've got to tell you, I think we're in for a year of inflation. I think we're in for at least a year of higher costs. So I think we have to be prepared for that. And certainly as we prepare for the budget, we're taking that into account in the oil and certainly the electricity and natural gas areas. I just wanted to say that, you know, I spent this morning,
073I work at a school, and I spent this morning talking to staff about how we can mitigate or, like, lessen our ability to use so much paper in school. And I think, you know, I look at my packet in front of me, and I think about the fact that as school committee members, we were all given technology to be able to access this information. And I think that going forward, we should not be using packets so that we can try to. try to decrease the costs on our end it's up to the committee who wants it i think it's an individual um if you don't want it then say that you don't want the hard copy through the chair just let uh aaron know that you don't want to pack it she won't she won't
074make one yeah all right and last um oh yes i'm sorry uh yes i would uh ask school committee to vote to accept that okay The paper bid. The paper bid. I'll entertain a motion to approve the paper bid. Do I have a motion? Jordan moved it. Okay. All right. Discussion. Any more discussion on it? Any other discussion? Seeing none, I'll take a roll call. Kathy? Yes. Katherine? Jamie? Yes. Kenny? Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes, and yes, it's unanimous. Thank you. And last, as Mr. LaFerriere discussed during the Budget and Finance Subcommittee update, we did talk about preschool fees. The current annual fee is set at $1,000 for two half days per week. In light of the ongoing pandemic and economic turmoil everyone is facing, including higher prices for everything, literally everything, the recommendation from the
075subcommittee was to keep fees static for the 2022-23 school year. The subcommittee intends to discuss parking and athletic fees at a future meeting, but I would ask the school committee to support keeping the preschool fees set at $1,000 on an annual basis. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Discussion? Seeing none, I'll take a roll call vote. Kathy? Yes. Catherine? Yes. Jamie? Yes. Kenny? Yes. Jean? Yes. Jordan? Yes. And yes, it's unanimous. That's all I have for this evening. But very quickly, the governor did release his budget. And I did see an email two hours ago or so that cherry sheets are available. So we'll certainly have that information for the committee at the next meeting. Okay. Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda, new COVID-19 testing program for K-12 schools. Mr. Lamarche. Madam
076Chair and School Committee, I put in your folder the letter of the program and also the email of accepting Dudley-Telton Regional School District into the program. Today there was another slide deck that was produced today. I did not get a chance to put that into your... program but we did participate in that as a school district this is a transition that's happening right now so i'd like to talk about it with the information that i know and that we've been working on and i think more importantly is to answer questions that you may have based off of this program So I'm just going to start with a couple of tidbit information that I think is extremely important. One is that this is for vaccinated and unvaccinated. We're currently the prior test and stay program was
077just for unvaccinated. This is for anyone who wants to opt in. I think that's probably one of the best things about it is it's an opt in process. And right now we have 997 students. out of the 3,500 students that we have that have opted in and 347 staff out of the 600 staff members that we have that have opted in. But again, the best situation is that it's opt-in. You can choose to participate or you don't have to choose to participate. I want to be clear, this is no cost to the school district other than time, but this is no cost to the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. this is a transition we're transitioning I honestly from my perspective and from my experiences over the past couple of years this is one step in a
078really good direction for us as a district but us for us as public schools we are removing test and stay programs within our schools which could be disruptive and interfere with the school day in the day of learning so that's really good news from my perspective again the other thing is that it is opt-in So as we transition, and I would certainly ask Mrs. Terry if she wants to add anything into it because I know she's been part of these webinars and this transition as well. I think one of the things that is difficult right now, as we've experienced over the last couple of years, is when they come out with protocols, guidelines, requirements, you know, what have you, is that this program is moving pretty fast, which to me is a good thing. because
079we do need to make the transition. We've been asking for this transition for a while as superintendents. But there are still crosswalks that raise questions. So one of those is that we will discontinue contact tracing within the schools. Obviously, if our school nurses have a concern about somebody's symptoms, and as was said earlier, nurses will be able to now focus on symptoms, students being sick, staff being sick, and not doing contact tracing. But if a nurse has concerns, they will be in touch with the family to talk about it and maybe steps that we'll take. The difficult crosswalk right now, and we heard a little bit more about it today, not from a protocol guideline or requirement, but from a Q&A, is when there are positives in a household, it really falls onto DPH at
080that point in time and to follow the DPH guidelines. It's no longer DESE guidelines. So we will do the best we can to communicate and share DPH guidelines, but it really falls on the family to follow DPH guidelines from there. And that's specifically around quarantining and isolating. So really the school district, if I could break it down, is to try to simplify it as much as possible, is the school district is now operating on positives and isolation. Positives and isolation. We may consult on quarantines. We may work with the local boards of health, which we had a meeting this past week, to try to work on that transition. But we're really, you know, we'll do the best we can to consult with you when you're home, but our job is in school. And we're really
081working on positives and isolation, meaning if you're positive, you have to isolate for a number of days. And the nurses are well adept at calculating out what that looks like, five days, symptom-free, when symptoms started or when the positive test occurred. So, you know, to me, this is all good news for us as a public school moving back to pre-COVID experiences for our students with minor disruptions. Again, I want to reinforce it's a choice. It's not a requirement. We did, as you saw in my communications, I did say we have an expectation, but we're not following up with that. We're not going to ask you on Wednesday morning or your child on Wednesday morning, did you actually do it, did you not do it? That's not, no, we're just trying to give you the best
082expectation because if it is positive on Tuesday and there is an isolation, the student would only miss three days for that week instead of trying to do it on a Monday or on a Thursday and actually having more days missed. So we were trying to share that expectation with you. like i said one of the best things is our nurses can get back to sick kids daily operations with with schools not doing extensive contact tracing if they have concerns they will certainly share them with you we still have to do symptomatic testing as part of the program meaning and again this is no cost to the district meaning if somebody comes in with symptoms covert like symptoms and their concern we do offer a test for that we need consent from you to do that
083though We need consent. Opting in is different from consent because opting in means you're conducting at home. We don't need your consent for you to give your child a test. We just need you to opt in so we can account for it and order the tests to make sure that we have enough for families that want to do it. Ms. Lomarch, just a clarification. When you say if somebody comes in symptomatic, that doesn't mean if somebody comes in to school symptomatic, they should stay home if they're symptomatic. and test with their household. That means if they're in school during the day and they become symptomatic and go down to the nurse, then they would get a test, correct? Yes. That is the best case scenario, but can I tell you from a practice perspective, because
084I've covered the nurse's office in plenty of places, that doesn't always occur. So even if you come in sick, we will offer you a test to determine it. Best case scenario is if you're sick, stay home. We've been saying that for over two years. But I can tell you that doesn't happen. And I get it. I get it. Parents have to work and all that, and we will do the best we can to care for you. Best case scenario is to stay home if you're sick. But even if you're symptomatic, we will ask and communicate with you to try to test to determine if you're positive or not. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, I'll go back to what I heard earlier, too. I mean, we are. We're being bogged down with more tests than we've ever
085thought we'd ever have in our entire professional career in life. But the good news is, is that it's an opt-in. It's not something we were telling you you have to do. We're not following up with you on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The only thing you have to do is share with us if it's a positive. We don't need to know if it's a negative. We don't need to know if you gave it really on a Monday or if you gave it really on a Wednesday and it was negative. We don't need to know those things. We just really need to know that it's a positive so that we can try to work with you and address it and try to keep COVID out of our schools. as much as possible as we continue to
086go down the road. It's one test kit with two tests in it, so the expectation is that you would do one per week. Again, we're not going to... monitor that if you give two on sunday you give two on sunday i'm not advocating for that but i'm just saying it's it's yours you're opting in it's your choice at that point in time but we want to work with you we want to offer it to you as a program or an option again the guidelines and protocols for coming from desi on how to address all of these things especially that tricky one with the crosswalk with dph and quarantining and all that kind of stuff we're still waiting for that the dph guidelines that i've seen and i went back and read are still They actually
087link DESE's guidelines from December 30th, which aren't helpful with this. And DPH certainly has their guidelines of the 10 days you can test out after 5, quarantine, close contact, masks. They have a lot of details in there. Too much for me. I would have definitely killed a tree if I tried to print all of the COVID stuff for you this evening. But I can't tell you how enthusiastic I am about this transition and this change. that we're no longer doing test and stay in our building which again to me was disruptive to learning we are giving you an option it's an option and we will just work on symptomatic students and again our it sounds like i'm oversimplifying it from from the past practice of two and a half years but we're really focused on
088symptomatic positives and isolation that's really where we're at so i'll answer any questions that the school committee may have and i know some of you have had experience i don't know if algonquin went to this program We have pool testing weekly, so we are doing that as well as this. Right now, we have not recommended to enter into pool testing. We tried it last year, and we didn't think it was that. It may be more effective in your district. We didn't think it was that effective. We are not getting results that we, yeah, we're fine. Anybody else? I guess I'll just say that I think that Test and Stay had a purpose and I was glad when it came in because it allowed our children to stay in school and so that was transition number
089one and now as we come down off this peak we're optimistically looking forward to transition number two to get us closer to no more of this. I don't disagree Tesson's day definitely had its place I think it just became too overwhelming for our staff support staff contact tracing for families I just think it was it's it had a place but I think it got to a point even especially when we came back from the winter holiday break of being absolutely overwhelming in every way And what I heard from the school nurses in the district that I cover is that it was wasteful for tests because we weren't seeing high positivity rates for in-school transmission, that they were wasting 200-plus tests. That's probably the wrong word because they were used and students were testing negative, but
090that there was people out there, there was truly a need that were symptomatic and couldn't have access to a test while our... students every day were testing and just that the suit the school nurses felt that it was just not the best use of the tests Agreed miss Terry and I also want to put a plug in for after the holiday break as Principal Chaplin mentioned earlier our staff has done phenomenal With helping each other out through these absences that we've had again even with you know 93% staff attendance and you know 94% today you know our staff has done a tremendous job of covering and supporting each other that includes administrators have been in places that they didn't think that they would be in but they will do anything they can to keep our
091schools open which is they should be all commend our entire staff administrators support staff nurses should be commended for that I'm just wondering do we know because I know parents lot of us have you know we have the school and then we have our childcare and I'm just wondering sometimes they don't always align as far as their rules and regulations so do we know if like the EEC or the ECE is it easy do we know if the EEC is going to be aligning with this I've already been because we had MOUs with two organizations one in Dudley and one in Charlton I've already reached out to them to let them know the test and stay wouldn't would not continue but we still want to keep those open lines of communication and my understanding is
092EEC is now going to enter into the test and stay phase of trying to keep students in so we just you know not that we would replicate that in our schools but just that communication of to know who is in test and stay whatever you know without you know passing on too much information just to work together establish a good working relationship with both of the and again it will work with any ost which is out of school time of eec affiliated facilitated affiliated program to make this work in some way but my understanding is they're going to test and sag so just to clarify because i'm a little confused i can imagine other people might be if my child is deemed a close contact and say they're not vaccinated do they still need to
093do what do they need to do Test and stay program at their if you're saying if they were exposed that their EEC if they're exposed it like My kids were exposed at their daycare They were able luckily to do test and stay to be able to stay in school Now they're gonna be able to do test and stay at their daycare and come to school unless they're positive Okay, so that you would expect the school would expect us to just do the testing at home or if they're symptomatic if you were I'm sorry. No, go ahead. You're doing a great job. If your child was exposed outside of a school setting at soccer, a birthday party, or their EEC, if it's at their EEC, they're going to do test and stay. If they were exposed
094at, like, soccer, a birthday party, whatever, it's that five days out from exposure, get tested. If they're negative, they go back about their normal business. You're watching for symptoms. Okay. But that's following DPH's guidelines, not DESE ones. Because it was an out-of-school exposure. Correct. If it was an in-school exposure, you're not necessarily going to know about it because all you're going to know about in school is a positive, right? Yep. Because you're no longer going to know that my child sat next to your child, my child tested positive because we're not contact tracing out your child anymore. Again, unless the nurses have a concern based off of the information that they're gathering from the situation. Or your child becomes symptomatic. So it's a major transition point. Yep. I had after I sent out my emails
095last week I did have people email and say it sounds too good to be true Mr. Lamarche you must not be telling us the truth here and it's I really am this is a big shift in a big transition and one I fully support and endorse I think it's a good move Jordan did you have any questions sorry I had to mute on no I support it I understand it thank you Steve thank you any other questions before we go on all right Dudley-Charlton Regional School District Student Achievement Report Dr. Ackerman okay so we'll take a minute to warm up give everybody very good there we go thank you would it be okay mrs terry if i sat in your seat for this it might be a little bit easier for me to manipulate and
096see that's okay if you're okay actually it didn't come up so sorry there's food that's still on it wasn't us it wasn't my food See is the mouse is the mouse attached to this? Okay, so trying to hit the trackpad, but it's not it's not moving See if it works. There we go. Thank you everybody and thank you madam chair. I Want to start by acknowledging that this report is the result of a collaborative effort Been able to communicate with building principals well as director Bergeron I've gotten some help with the graphics as well from the principal team so this is really a subation of work that was done by a number of different folks I really wanted to just start with giving some context we're in we're in the third year of unusual schooling
097to say the least in 2019 2020 as well as 2020, 2021. We know there were periods, extended periods, where students were remote learning, not in school, and there certainly are some gaps. I want to open by saying this should really be viewed as a starting point for us. and we should review the data cautiously. We need to make sure that we have conversations about the data, but that we know that there are opportunities for growth and that we'll look forward to some next steps. So I wanted to start by giving folks a quick overview. The top. list the years and the grades and then it's the band so for example if you see in math and an ELA on the top the blue is exceeding the green is meeting the yellow is partially meeting and
098the red is not meeting so there are two ways to look at this data you could look at the total numbers Or you could take a look at the tables beneath the charts. So for example, if you look at grade 10, percentage of students by achievement level, you could look at the percentages in 2019 and 2020 in grade 10. And that would correspond to in 2019, 10% of our 10th graders in math exceeded. and 9% in 2021 exceeded in grade 10 mathematics. Does that make sense so far? Okay. Additionally, if you go down then in grade 10, and I won't go through each and last every number, but I do want to give a textural picture of where we are. 52% in our grade 10 math. met the standard and then 50% in 2021. These
099corresponding tabs here are the state averages. So we have a comparison between our student cohort groups and the state cohort groups. One way of capturing this data is to look at the number of our students at each grade level that exceeded and met and combine that total. Because that is ultimately where we want all of our students to be. And one way to crosswalk that data is to compare that total with the state total for exceeded and met. So for example, in 2019, 62% of our 10th graders in math either exceeded or met the standards. And that is compared to 58% of the state. That's a difference of four points where Dudley Charlton scored higher than the state average. In English language arts, if you were to go in 2019, we had the exceeded five,
10058 met. So that's a 63% group of kids that either exceeded or met. In the ELA group for grade 10. That represents a higher total than the state average because the state was 13 and 48, so that was 61%. So Dudley Charlton exceeded the state average by two points. Is everybody following so far? I just want to make sure I don't want to go too deep. I don't want to skip over anything. Perhaps a more quick way of looking at this data, if you're looking at... the 30,000 foot view is to look at the color coding on the bottom so the more um the higher the ranges where it's green and blue as opposed to yellow and red I think is a helpful way for us to capture succinctly the data set so the good
101news is in math excuse me in ELA in grade 10. We were seven points above when combining the state, excuse me, when combining achieved, excuse me, met and exceeded as opposed to 52% for the state. We were slightly below the state average in grade 10 math. Of course. Okay. I just want to clarify. 2019 was, and correct me if I'm wrong, was the first year of the new set of tests. Yes. So this is. It's a whole new type of test for these kids and teachers. Like, we had never seen it. The only thing that concerns me is that looking at your exceeded mark, like, I do think in the future we want to make sure that we can try to get our kids, like, I understand that your exceeded in MET is higher than
102the state average exceeded in MET. But since many of our kids could possibly get state scholarships if they get into that exceeded category, and I'm sure we have more than 5% of our population or 12% of our population in an honors class, right? So I think we need to kind of look at that maybe as the school and kind of see what they can do to move some of those high-achieving kids into that next category as much as we look at how to move the kids from needs. from not met into the next category you bring up some great points and what I'll be talking about towards the end of the presentation are exactly some of those things Mrs carmignani like recommendations in terms of going forward how we can use this data to to
103leverage Improvement for our group So I wanted to ask Director Bergeron, because we did collaborate on this, to talk about the data set a bit for our students with disabilities in grade 10. So with the NCAS data sets, you can drill down into subgroups. So this is one chart showing performance of students with disabilities in our district compared to the state for each year, 2019 and 2021. Sure. So I'm not going to go through all the numbers. You guys can see the comparison here. But I think the takeaway here is there's a pretty significant difference between the performance of students with disabilities on MCAS testing compared to the state. MCAS testing is one data point that we use to kind of look at our support of students with disabilities in school districts. There are others,
104and I put another example later on in this presentation, but this obviously is something that Dr. Ackerman and I need to drill down on and look at how we're preparing students for this test and whether we like it or not. This is a high-stakes test, and it determines whether or not a student receives a full diploma. So it is important whether or not I'm in favor of it personally. So the discrepancy here seems to be both in 2019 and 2021. I will say the school closures had a really drastic and difficult impact on students with disabilities all over the country. And it's something that's recognized statewide. So this is something that we work with Dr. Ackerman on moving forward. Thank you. So if we want to then turn our attention, we're going to start with
105grade 10 and work our way down. So again, combining the exceeded and met metrics for grade 8 in mathematics, we had 44% of our students either meeting or exceeded. That's slightly below the state average of 47%. For English language arts, we had 54% of our students meeting or exceeding, and 51% as compared to 51% for the state. And so that was a net positive for us for three points. In 2021, we had 23% of our students in grade eight in mathematics meet or exceed. And that is compared to 32% for the state. That is an area of growth opportunity for us. And I'll certainly later on be discussing how we're going to try to remedy that. Similarly in ELA, we had a group, a cohort of 41% meet or exceed as compared to 40% of
106the state. So we're slightly above the state average for grade eight. Yes. I have a question about the not meeting. So is it completely out of line to assume that the same 8% that were not meeting math, it was the same students that were not meeting in ELA? And if so, how does that translate? I know this is only one test, I know this is only one assessment, but how does that translate into those students being able to understand and move to the next level? So those are really good questions. I would say generally, and it would take a deeper dive, but very often you find that students score at commensurate levels in math and ELA. There are always exceptions to the rule, but it's been my experience that students that tend to struggle on
107one are more than likely to struggle on the other. part of what we all need to do it as a district in terms of evaluating our programming our instructional materials are you know all of our educational practices special education practices is exactly as you say looking at that data and then looking at groups of students and saying wow we really in geometry in eighth grade that subset of data something it was up And so that's really where we want to get to a point of looking at data on a school level so that folks in, let's say, eighth grade in geometry say, you know, wow, we really struggled with geometry this year. I think we need to go back and look at our pacing guides. We need to go back and look at our instructional
108materials and figure out ways in that moment to try and improve for the next round of assessment. Another follow-up question through the chair, if that's okay, Pauline. we're going to assume that this percentage of population that's not meeting are already on each teacher's radar and the teachers already know that these students need extra. attention to the fact that they're struggling. I can give you an example. I've sat in and helped on DIBELS training, I mean DIBELS testing before for like second grade. And I've literally been sitting there counting the words as the teacher stands in front of me and says, come on, come on, come on, I need to know, they're doing so much better, I want to see it on paper. So is that the same kind of translation all the way through? And
109is MCAS speaking the same way? Or not really, because this is such a... different tests. It's tough. I don't want to over generalize because I want to be fair to each individual student. But typically especially when you start crosswalking data so like let's say we're looking at data from the unit test in grade three and Then we compare that or on a dibbles assessment and we compare that to an MCAS score Typically if a student is low in one area they tend to be low in another and then What we should be doing and aspire to doing as data teams is if it isn't that way Hypothesize as to why and look to instructionally meet those students where they are So they can get the right dose of what they need to improve I know
110why you're talking about kind of where we stand on the positive side of things, but I'm obviously just as equally if not more concerned about where we stand on the kids that sure need us the most and and I agree with you wholeheartedly I think that so much of what we do is really about each and every student and having data level teams school level teams look at MCAS certainly but other data points as well from local assessments from benchmarking to be able to group kids so that from an intervention standpoint we're making sure that our neediest kids get the right amount of support from our staff. Thank you. You're welcome. In grade seven, again, I'll start with mathematics. Dudley Charlton is not immune to what has happened statewide. So again, we have some opportunity
111for growth. In 2019, 37% of our students in grade seven. met or exceeded and that was lower than the 48% for the state. In 2021, 27% met or exceeded in Dudley Charlton and that was compared to 35% of the state. On a more positive note, we did find 57% of our students met or exceeded in grade seven ELA compared to 48% across the state. And in 2021, it was 49% of our students exceeded and that was compared to 43% of the state. A nice positive win for us over the state average. Then turning to grade six in 2019, we had 56% exceeded or met compared to 51% of the state. That was 5% above for Dudley Charlton. Math was an area of relative struggle. 27% of our students met or exceeded, and that was compared
112to 34% for the state. That was a 7% difference. In ELA in 2019, we had 55% meter exceed compared to 54 for the state. And for grade six in 2021, we have 50% meter exceed as compared to 47% for the state. Again, continuing a larger trend of our ELA scores tend to be above the state average. And there's some opportunity in the middle school for enhancement of math scores. Moving to grade five in 2019, it was 47% of our students' meter exceeding compared to 49% of the state. Similarly speaking, in the LA, 54% meeting or exceeding compared to 52% for the state. And in 2021, we had 31% meter exceed and 33% compared to that state average. uh in ela um excuse me in 2021 we had 52 meter exceeding ela compared to 47 for
113the state again that represents a five point uh difference for us please of course so on the year the grade six numbers it's 2019 2020 on the grade five numbers it's 2019 2021 i should i should have 2021 for both okay yeah and so that's not necessarily the grade five children in that 2019 and then the grade six those are not the same students right there's a gap because we have the gap year so what we were going to do and what this report will look like next year when we have that consistent data we'll have like the staircase so we'll be able to track cohorts okay so like so like a third grade cohort in 2020 yeah that's what i was looking for thank you So for grade five in math in 2019, 47%
114meter exceed versus 49% for the state, 54% in ELA versus 52% for the state. In 2021 math grade five. 31% meet or exceed for Dudley Charlton versus 33% for the state. And 52% meeting or exceeding in ELA versus 47% for the state, a five-point swing range for our district. And again, if folks are looking to kind of follow the global trends, those bars on the bottom really can help you in a quick reference point gain some big picture data. Moving on to grade four and I will say this was a particularly strong cohort for us. 62% of our students met or exceeded in math versus 49% for the state. That's a 13 point difference. And for ELA, 66% of our students met or exceeded versus 52% for the state. That's a 14 point difference. For
115grade four math in 2021, we had 51% meter exceed versus 33% for the state. And in ELA, 58 meter exceed versus 49 for the state. And then our last cohort group was grade three. And that what we had there in 2019 was 52% meter exceed in Dudley Charlton versus 49% for the state. And then in ELA, 61% meter exceed versus 56% for the state. In 2021, we had 21%, excuse me, 26% meter exceed in mathematics versus 33% for the state. and 56% meet or exceed in ELA versus 50% for the state. So looking at some of the more global trends, oh, before, I'm sorry, I did not talk about grade five and eight science. STE but again if we want to take a look and and quickly examine the meter exceed in 2019 was 59%
116for us in 2021 it was 46% in for grade 5 and then in grade 8 the meet or exceed for us was 48 versus in 2021 for grade 8 was meter exceed at 40% And then I will turn it back over to Director Bergeron to talk a little bit further about students with disabilities, grades three through eight. So we just wanted to take a look at the elementary grades up through middle school since we looked at grade ten tests for students with disabilities. You can see by looking at these numbers that we are closer to the state average, kind of across the board, across these grades. So this raises interesting questions about MCAS testing in students with disabilities three through eight versus the grade ten. So I thought this was interesting and something I wanted
117to share with the committee. When data raises questions, it's actually a good thing because it gives Dr. Ackerman and I a route to follow to try to answer some questions. So when you see this big difference between the MCAS exam scores, grades three through eight, compared to grade 10, that means we have a path to follow to try to figure out what's going on here. So I thought I would share that with the committee. This other slide that I have, oops, sorry, not talking. Next slide, Bob. Sure. I just wanted to share other data points that I look at when I'm reviewing how a department, a special education department, is supporting their students with disabilities. And one of the things I always look at is graduation rate in cohorts. So just wanted to share some
118of the numbers from the district from 2020 and 2019. The graduation rate for 2019 specifically was a little bit low compared to both the state average and what we expected. Our graduation rate for our general ed students, which is, covers between 94 and 97% historically. So just to explain this is not as quite as alarming as first and that's the thing with data. The first review of data you need to drill down to kind of get some answers. Sometimes kids with disabilities that are receiving services continue to attend school after four years. So this is only students who got a full diploma after four years in that cohort. So if they stayed another year or go into our 18 to 22 program they're not included in this. It also does not count students who received
119a certificate of completion. So we did have some students, but in that cohort that graduated in 2019, we did have several students drop out. So dropouts, that is an indicator that I look at very closely when I'm evaluating performance of a special education department. I just wanted to share other data points that I look at. So then, I'm sorry, Jean. Did you want me to go back to the last one? No, it's just a quick question. So is some of the graduation rate. Higher than historically for the students with disabilities on this one because of some of the MCAS requirements were waived out due to COVID? That could be. I'd have to go back further in the history of the district and get a better view. But that's definitely a possibility. That's the kind of
120questions that we try to answer when we see this disparity. 94% to 61% raises questions. So that's one of the questions we would ask. So I wanted to spend a moment just talking about the AP exam data and bring you to the attention that AP qualifying scores, unfortunately, are down nationally in math, science, and English. I think we all kind of know why. It's part and parcel with... the last two plus years of interrupted learning but it is important to be public and to display that so that the committee can be aware as as well as the public at large And so if you look at the number of AP exams taken by subject, you'll notice that between 2018 and 2021, there certainly has been some fluctuation. Obviously, if you look all the way at
121the total on the bottom, 2020 was clearly the most problematic year. And we were able to raise that number a little bit in 2021. but there's still more work to be done and part of what our work is going to continue to be will be to look at our programming our instruction our interventions so that we make sure that those numbers increase sure do you have any significant change of staffing that maybe would have accounted for that so i would i would need to go back and look historically my at least from my two years here I haven't seen a huge shift in staffing, but I can certainly drill down deeper into that. similarly when we look at the number of AP exams with qualifying scores so again going from 2018 to 2021 we have
122seen some drop-off and you know there was a fall off last year again part of what we're going to need to continue to do is to look at our enrollment look at our programming and have conversations across the district regarding how we can make sure that those numbers go up again let me just show it like and maybe not tonight but it's just for me to know that 25 students score like took that had qualifying scores in biology versus the 37 2018 i don't know how many total t students took the test in biology you know i mean like is that i do 25 out of 30 first like if we did percentages That might help. I'll certainly. I think it's on the previous page. Yeah. Okay. It's on the previous page. Okay. So like
123biology, why we took it this past year. Yeah. I mean, I think if we did based on like, it just might be a better way to look at it. You make a good point. And then finally, we wanted to also take a look at, because we're trying to use multiple measures as well. So these are the SAT mean scores for groups sorted by population. I will say we had a number of population groups because the data size was so small, we could not get an accurate average. but if you look across the cohort groups and the number of test takers across the district reading and writing the mean score was 568 and math was 569 that number did decrease for economically disadvantaged and high needs students going down and then looking at male versus female
124scores you can see those discrepancies there And then there's a further breakdown by race and you can see that because we are a significantly majority Caucasian district, we have a sample that is over representative of that group. What do we care categorizing a student with disability? Any student that is currently on an IEP? specifically a student that's on iep on an iep student so on 504 plans do not are not counted in that subgroup not a 504 nope and high needs students are is any student that is for whom english is a second language uh who are low income or have a disability so it meets any of those three standards it's just glaring to me that only three people took that test who have students with disabilities And you make an excellent point, which
125is part of our next steps in terms of looking at this data is we need to be very vigilant about working towards improving both the outcomes of those tests but also participation. So moving to that phase as we've concluded the data set, and I will say if anybody is interested in taking a more detailed or granular look at this data, please reach out to me. I wanted to make it so that it was digestible and gave a texture for the committee and for the public to consider. But please know that I would welcome a deeper dive with anybody who is interested. So really, what does this underscore for us? Well, we need to continue to adopt high quality instructional materials, which we've done for the English language arts at the elementary level. We need to
126move towards the adoption of the high quality instructional materials the middle school mathematics I will say as an aside I will have an update for the committee at our next meeting about where we are in that process because we Continue to collaborate and move forward Additionally, other things we've done to support the work is we've been involved for the second year in the Early Grades Literacy Grant to continue to inform our pedagogy, our instruction, and our assessment strategies for students. We did run the ASOST program last summer, so that was a bridge between last summer and this fall. And, you know, like we did today, to continue to provide our faculty with deep opportunities for learning and to engage with our instructional materials and our content. I just want to touch on some of the
127initiatives we have happening in special education. As Dr. Ackerman said, all this data is really a starting point for us, especially for someone who is new to the district. So something we're doing today is a good example because we spent all day pretty much with our special education coordinators, including our new special education coordinator. So thank you to the committee for approving that hire. She just started this week. And we've begun kind of this work together. So we are reviewing resource allocations and expenditures in the special education department in each building in the district with a goal to build capacity and flexibility. We are reviewing all Tier 3 instructional materials and methods across the district, including professional development opportunities. As Dr. Ackerman is working toward high-quality materials and instruction for Tier 1 and Tier 2,
128it is my job to work on that same piece for our Tier 3, our special education teachers. We're also creating and implementing guidelines for all special education supports and services, increasing proficiency in sports available to staff around supporting students with mental health and with behavioral difficulties, which is a very hot topic right now statewide. As children come back to us from being out of school or having interrupted educations, we have quite a few students who have struggled with that transition. struggle with mental health concerns always put into a special education category? No, not always. Okay, I just it was kind of under that slide and I didn't know if that's how that was. That worked so one of the disability categories in Massachusetts is emotional so students with emotional disabilities that require Explicit instruction and
129supports in schools through school psychologists or counselors, etc It's a focus statewide to support these students when students with those kind of needs are out of school for the period of time that they were out They it is something that all the directors are kind of talking about is they have a lot of trouble transitioning back into the routine of school a lot of students that are in a general education category that have now had trouble in that category. So I didn't know when does it trigger. When does that transition from general education to special education based on that criteria? Yeah, that's a great question. So our job as a school is to educate the child. So when a disability is going to impact our ability to educate them or their ability to access an
130education, that's when special education steps in and provides supports. Okay. So a student that... literally cannot get out of their car to go into a building honest I mean that's truthfully happening that would be one example that would be an example okay thank you So we know that this data is a starting point, and we've alluded to some of the strategies that we've taken. There are some additional elements that I think are important for the committee and the public to know. So how are we going to help to continue to support students? So the good news is we were recently awarded a nice sum from the Department of Ed for math acceleration academies. At our next meeting, I will have a more... robust description of what they are, but essentially they are for students that
131are at an elevated or high risk based upon data for struggle in mathematics. We've identified through our MCAS analysis that we've got some opportunity for growth in mathematics as we're not dissimilar to other districts in the state. So by providing these acceleration academies, and we've already begun to survey our teachers, we'll be reaching out to families within the next week. By providing this bridge, we're going to really help increase our students' ability to grapple with complex math content. additionally by moving towards high quality research based instructional materials in middle school math I think that will help as well we have some some tools in mathematics at our middle school and they certainly are adequate but I think the direction that we're moving in globally with regard to research based curate and ed reports evaluated materials
132is going to help bear some fruit and again I look forward to giving committee more information at our february meeting additionally we continue to and i credit both our office the building principles we scour the grants page we really look towards every possible avenue in a time of constricted financial accessibility to try and partner with the state so that we can get our students and our staff additional resources to help us move forward And then we will, again, be moving forward a little bit later on talking about how we're going to expand our summer offerings this upcoming summer. Yes. I'm just, you know, I'm just wondering, like, the timeline to get kids to be able to do a February and April vacation, like, it needs to kind of be a really quick turnaround. And, you
133know, talking to some parents whose kids struggle in math, sometimes the last thing they need is to be in school during a vacation. they almost need the break. And I just wonder, like, different schools are using different models, and I wonder if we explore the model of, like, if we can find the staffing, because that is hard as well, do we try to put in, like, extra supports within the classroom and within the day? to kind of be able to, like, as the teacher's teaching the instruction, that you have someone that can move around the class and check in on kids and ask them, ask all the kids things that are important within the day. I just, you know, and I think that it's just important to note that February is the time that we
134all look for summer camps. And I will say right up front and be very explicit, I know already, I have two children of my own. One, I think would do wonderful in an acceleration academy. The other, I'd say I'd have to drag her kicking and screaming to go. So I think what I want to be able to do and I think what we want to be able to do as a district is say, to your point, yes, there are some folks, by all means, take the break, unplug, stay away from school. There may be others that really yearn for that structure, they yearn for that stability, they yearn for that contact. So we'd like to be able to offer them that opportunity. We've done some initial surveying of teachers and it looks like we have
135some interest. soon we'll be reaching out to our families and again it will be explained as a voluntary program but I do to your point I think you're right I think there are a number of kids that it really does make sense to decompress so I wanted to acknowledge that I think you make a very valid point there just that clearly this is a grant specific to the to February Is there a math acceleration Academy opportunity for like an after-school program? So heritage does after the bell could and there's like come I can't even think my kid does it like arts and crafts or whatever, you know like But is there a possibility that there could be a math acceleration Academy? option I'm virtually certain that the ASO ST program will continue over the summer
136and that will likely be eligible I'll continue to look and our team will continue to look for any opportunities for those after-school programs I'm not aware of anyone in this moment Or have we already earmarked that? Title I is fully accountable. It's fully accountable. Fully accountable. Okay. And then some. And the ESSER money is really, you know, when you talked about mental health and stuff like that, our ESSER money is dedicated to students. We talked about it last night at the select board meeting. I mean, that's, we're dedicating, yeah, I mean, we can spend more and then set up a funding cliff for next year or the year after that we don't have these services and things in place for them, but we don't want to do that. So we're trying to maximize everything we
137have at this point in time. So ESSER isn't a blank checkbook for us to just. We can do this, we can do that. We're trying to maximize what we can, but also sustain it over the next three fiscal years. Because even if we try to address it now, as you said, and this is voluntary, some of this is voluntary, we don't want, if those that aren't going to participate, we don't want to now no longer have a service for them available in the future if they do need support in the future as well. So we're trying to be methodical, but maximize what we have at this point in time. Well, I guess mine was kind of different than hers because the After the Bell or any of those kinds of events, I don't remember, we
138pay $45 or $90 or something like that per student, so we actually pay into that, which I assume is to pay for staff and materials. And so I don't know if kids would sign up for it, but maybe they would if you called it like math brains or I don't know, something that sounded more fun than like come back to school for the afternoon. Yes. We could certainly work with the elementary schools. I mean, because if you think that this is an academy that's useful, maybe that's an option. Absolutely. And as Mr. Lamar said, I think we should circle back and have that conversation. Some parents like those activities because the students are happy to go to them, but also because it's easier on child care scenarios. Sure. That is... the conclusion of my formal
139report. I appreciate all the questions and the great dialogue. Are there any other questions that I could answer? I've got a few more. Sure. Sorry. Just going back to the students with disabilities, especially in the high school level, that's just disheartening, I think. And I'm just wondering if... You know, one of the things that I've done in my own district this year is really gone through the data and looked at the equity of students with our disabilities in the classes that they're assigned to. You know, we talked about how our 3-8s are doing better than our 9-12s. Well, most of the 3-8s are in classes with varying abilities. But in 9-12, you start putting kids in buckets a lot more than you do in 3-8. And, you know, does that have an impact? It may
140or may not. But I think we need to look at something. So if I could, one of the reasons why Director Bergeron and I are presenting together and our presence is. Commonly together in the schools is that we're trying to look at all of our kids longitudinally from K to 12 Understanding exactly your point that we need to be really purposeful in how we group and make real methodical database decisions around Placement and around how we help move kids forward So I think you make a really good point and that's work. We're gonna we've just kind of begun that collaborative work together But that's work we're going to be doing in earnest going forward. Okay. I have a couple more. Sorry. When you showed the data for three to eight, it was like aggregate and
141not spliced by the district, by which town, correct? So was the data of the schools relatively similar? And if they weren't relatively similar, have we gone back to those curriculum teams to kind of analyze, you know, what do you do different than what do I do? Or what instructional materials are you using versus what I might be using? From a 30,000-foot view, because I did look at the individual schools, they are fairly commensurate globally. Part of what, and again, we did this again today with CKLA and we did it as well with the math team. We really try to ensure that at our PD days, like today, when we meet together, it's across district. So that folks are have that time to talk about if if we're doing this at Dudley L And we're doing
142this at heritage. Oh, you're doing that. Oh, I didn't think about that so you could have those conversations about cohesiveness and alignment You know, we're not perfect. We're still working towards continuing to build those bridges, but we're certainly aware of the need to be collaborative across district, and we continue to make that investment in our PD and in our instructional materials. Again, to dive in a little bit to our work today for the HQIM team for math, you know, and thank you for Mr. Packard and Mr. Starshefsky today for putting that together. But we had probably... 25 to 30 math educators, roughly even from both sides, talking through where we are in the adoption of materials and talking about piloting. So to your point, I think it's a great question, and that's work we're continuing
143to do. And I sat in a few collaborative sessions today with CKLA with both, you know, all of grade two together, all of grade three together, all of grade one. I didn't go to grade two, sorry. All grade three and one I was in today. And it was very collaborative from one end of the table to the other end of the table. Okay. And are you going to be doing any PD work in the future for, you know, making sure we talk about, like, UDL, like, understanding by design? infusing that into the tier one supports within our regular ed classrooms so that our students with disabilities can feel that they have equal access to that curriculum? So we've certainly touched upon that. We're trying to be mindful of... the competing priorities that all of our
144educators have all the time. Like we've asked all of our English, excuse me, all of our elementary folks to adopt a new curriculum, which has been, and they've done wonderfully well. Kudos to the team. But it takes some time. We're going to do the same for our middle school math folks, hopefully next year. So we're trying to be really mindful of giving pieces and snippets. But if we have... too many competing at the same time i think it would uh scuttle the efficacy of the work that we've already begun so we're trying to really and my point is we're trying to have a balance between Those new pieces and respecting folks ability to adopt them Dr. Akman must must be just forgetting this but almost monthly he meets with the principals and they've been incorporating
145to their faculty meetings They've been very consistent across their all schools about UDL in ways to incorporate that in it's been it's ongoing theme this year Has it been a full professional development day? No, but it has been a monthly meeting separate from the other meetings on UDL Universal Design. Yeah, Universal Design. You guys have lots of acronyms. You're a DPH, you have enough. I'll make flashcards for us. I think, can I just, and I'm sorry to keep harping on it, if, you know, as a parent of a student that may, you know, may fall in a certain bucket. I'm really nervous on where to send my child if this doesn't improve. And I think we really need to make sure that we have the ability to give our students with disabilities equal access to
146curriculum, to different levels, and make sure they're succeeding just as much as everybody else. I thank you for that and I couldn't agree with you more. We have a responsibility and it's equal to each and every student that comes through our door. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Jordan, did you have any questions? No, Steve, nothing on my end. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Next is report of the policy subcommittee. Mrs. Cabala. The committee met last week on the 20th, and we went over some policies. And I just want to say we held back on a few, one of which was policy JKA, which was about restraints to students because we were told that the word caregiver might not be appropriate to be in these policies because the word caregiver, we thought we were being
147inclusive, but a caregiver could be a babysitter for five hours. So we may have to change a lot of policies. I don't know if Ms. Costello has something to say. Point of information. i can't hear you can you put it closer please sure now am i okay now okay so kathy you have that i'll repeat again for the case the audience didn't hear policy jka uses the word caregivers a lot And other policies do too. And we've been told that that may not be appropriate because a caregiver for us meant like in place of a parent. But it could also mean a babysitter, daycare. So any policy where we put in caregiver, you may have to take that word out. So that's why we're still holding it. Mr. Bergeron, that's basically what happened, wasn't it,
148about caregivers? And then there's... Just to remind the committee, the reason we're rewriting this policy is because of a finding through DESC's focus monitoring review. So when I submitted the policy back to DESC in advance of our next progress update, they identified some other issues as well that I had sent to Superintendent LaMarche to forward to you, just about some language that I've been taking out that they are asking us to put back in. So I've sent that back as well. So that's on hold again. So then I'll go through the list that's on agenda. The first one is BEDH. This we've seen a few times. We got some feedback from a citizen, and we changed a few of the wording. It's basically the same policy, but we reworded a few, the third paragraph down,
149we reworded something, and then we added something on number five. But basically, you've seen it before. Okay, this is our second reading. So first, I'll entertain a motion to waive the reading of BEDA. Second. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Any discussion? Then I'll take a roll call. Kathy? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And Kenny? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. The people that are here, it's unanimous. Okay. Now, I will, this is our second reading, and then we adopt the amendment. Yes, thank you. You know, I can't hear her from there, so maybe you're wrong. Oh, okay. All right. So now I'll entertain a motion, which I did. Do I have a motion on the floor? So moved. Okay. How about a second? Second. Okay. And a discussion before we... Vote for approval seeing none.
150I'll take a roll call again Yes, Kenny. Yes. Yes, yes, Jordan. Yep, and yes, so It's unanimous again. Okay. Next policy was BH school committee public communications Do I wave the reading for us before I discuss it? Yes I'll take a motion to waive the reading of the policy BH So moved so I have a second second. Okay discussion Seeing none. I'll take a roll call. Yes. Yes Kenny, yes. Yes, Jordan Yep, and yes Okay motion carries with unanimous tapping Okay A motion to approve now So moved. Second. Okay. Any discussion? It's pretty basic from what you've seen before. We were just waiting to change citizens' forum on the other one. So get public forum, public comment in place of citizens' forum. All right. So that's the change. And then we won't need to make
151a motion to waive, right, if we adopt. On this one, this is the change. We've already waived the reading. so now you just adopt you have a motion this is our second yeah i know okay so i made a motion for a second reading of bh okay do i have um a second we just did this i seconded it that's what i'm saying okay So what did you change, Kathy? We've seen this before. We haven't changed it. The word citizens form, we wanted to change the public comment. Every place it showed up. We had to change citizens form, which is what we just did tonight. So now we can follow through on the other ones. Okay. All right. Now I'll entertain a motion. We just need a vote. We're ending discussion and we're voting on
152the motion. Okay. All right. So is there any discussion on it? No? Okay, then I'll take a roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan. Jordan. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay, that was to waive it, right? That was acceptance. Well done. We're going on to BBAA. Okay, go ahead. Committee ladies, BBAA. I make a motion to waive the reading of BBAA. Second. Okay, any discussion? Seeing none, I'll take a roll call. Kathy? Yes. Catherine? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yep. And yes. Okay. I make a motion to approve policy BBAA. As the second reading, right? We're going to approve it? Yep. Yes. Second. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion on it? I apologize that I had to walk out of the room for a minute. I just wanted to know, I know
153we put these out as a comment. I guess I'll ask for any of them. Did we get any public comment back for anything? Yes, we did on the one B-E-D-H. Did you already talk about that? I'm sorry. Yeah, it was just a few rewording of the third paragraph. We have the original copies under block. Okay. I know that's fine if we shouldn't go back to that since we're in the middle of this one. But I wanted to ask if anybody commented on it. Yes, we did. If you want me to ask each time, I will. Yes, we did. And we actually accommodated those. We thought they were good points, so we did incorporate that into our policy. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Any more discussion? Okay. Take a vote. Where are we? BBAA. The final adoption
154of BBAA. BBAA. Yeah. Okay. Kathy? Yes. Kathy? Yes. Jamie? Yes. Kenny? Yes. Jean? Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. Unanimous. Next, Kathy, BDA. BDA. School of Reading Organization. You want to waive it first? Make motion to waive it. Second. I'll entertain the motion to waive the reading on BDA. She already said moved. She said second. Okay. Any discussion? All right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Gene? Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. Okay, we raised it. All right. Now I'll entertain a motion for the second reading and the adopting of the amendment. Kathy? Who made the motion? I'll make a motion. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Discussion. None. Kathy. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
155Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes The next one is BG formulation policy. This is an actual first read. The presentation tonight have to do with how we adopt policies, which might help the situation tonight. This is a big help. Because we have so many. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to waive the reading. So moved. Second. Okay. And any discussion on it? Kathy?
156i have no discussion i have a question do you have a question just to clarify this change is that means we don't have to wave the reading anymore and then we're only we're only waiting right now go ahead but this is this is like the next time on the policies we won't have the first or second reading we're only voting on waving right now right okay And any more discussions? Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. And yes. Okay. Now, a motion on the read. I want to make a motion. I make a motion that we approve for the first read policy BG. Okay, so we have a second. I get to go first because I made the motion. So... If the chair allows. She's second. And now it's discussion. We got this. We got
157this. Go ahead. So my question is that we don't have to waive the reading anymore. Not meaning once this is second. Not tonight. No, no, no. What I'm saying is that's the intention here, right? Yes. We've discussed, as Mr. Lamar said, there was no reason why you have to waive the policy. And since we're doing that every time, what's the point? So we're taking that out and just going right first meeting will be the old-fashioned first read, but we're calling it just review. Then we'll send it out to the public. We didn't have it, then we sent it out to the public. So we added that so it's not just district staff, it's also the whole community. Then it will come back to us. It's basically the same routine without those wordings at first and
158second reading because as we see tonight, it's... it's not confusing it's confusing and it serves there's so many and we wave it every night right we're raising the policy every night we should study it's not required by law and we won't have first or second reading it'll just be adopting after all the discussions when it comes back to us And I'm in full agreement. My only question was, that's not stopping us from reading a policy. Because there are sometimes we read a policy, I just wanted to put it out there, that we do read the policy because it affects the public or we really want to make it clear. That's all. She says we don't have to, but if you want to read it, go ahead. We can if we want. Plus we make them
159available online now at the door, so really everyone who's interested has it. Everyone has it. Steve. Madam, through the chair. Point of clarity it still has to be listed on the school committee agenda twice and still has to be presented to the committee twice It's the same routine without the waving and on the second page. It's at administrative regulations We saw no point in that that is a not a policy that's more procedure of how to do this So we took that completely out. We don't even know why I was there to begin with So we dropped the second page So just for clarification, we don't have to vote on a first reading. It'll be just that when we're adopting the amendment or adopting a policy. Okay? I have a question. Yes. Sure. When we
160talked about through the steps and number two, where it talks about distributed to the DCRSD community for feedback. Mm-hmm. What means currently are we asking for feedback like I definitely definitely have received email Are we asking for any other any other ways? for feedback from the community because that would only get the Like the community it wouldn't get the community at large if we're talking about the public Understood. If the school committee's intention is to get the Dudley-Chelton Regional School District community, meaning the school system, to look at the policies for how it impacts them who attend school here, or if you're asking for all community. But when we send that out, it goes out to well over the 3,500 kids that we have here to be shared. And again, we do present this publicly.
161We put it on our website after the first read now for people to take a look at it as well. No, I just want to make sure we were clear on that. We never listed the full community. We just had staff, so we did change it to include community. So that would include the people that may not be employed. Jamie? Can we go back to the comment you just made, Mrs. O'Quinn? I see first reading crossed out. We are going to still have a first reading, even if it doesn't get read, and then we're going to have the ability to give feedback, and then it's going to come back for adoption. So are we naming it something different besides first read second read is it gonna be like action item? It's review So the first
162read is review and it's sent out for feedback. Okay, and then it would be the adoption Okay, so instead of first read I have to change my brain to review Second read adoption. Thank you. But the review doesn't require a vote It's just it just comes forward Like we're voting twice, yep, Timmy over voting for first read and we vote for a second. Thank you It's it's a lot of the previous policy it's just getting rid of the superfluous stuff, right Any of the discussion? Seeing none. I will take a roll call Kathy. Yes Yes. Gene. Yes. And Jordan. Yes. And yes. Okay, motion carries. It's unanimous. Okay, the next one is policy ACA harassment. We want to retire that policy. Okay, so I'll make a motion to waive the reading of the ACA. So
163moved. Okay. Second. Okay. How about discussion? Seeing none, I'll take a roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. Okay. Now I'll entertain a motion to... I'll make a motion to retire. To retire the harassment policy? Policy ACA for discussion. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Discussion? Can you explain to us why? Yes, because we made it up to date. It's now policy ACBB. So it's been replaced. We should have retired it when we adopted that a couple of meetings ago. At that time, we should have retired it. Mr. Lamarche caught it afterwards. So we're not retiring a harassment policy per se. It's just been updated to be current laws. So technically the administration's been following two policies. Because we had them in place. Yeah, we should have done it at
164the same time. So the purpose of the harassment policy is satisfied under ACBB. And so there is no longer a reason to have this. And this is out of date. Some of the laws have changed. That's why we voted to begin with. I think it was one of the first policies we started with. Right. To pick it up today. Do you want to address that? Yeah, through the chair. Remember, this is one we held on to because we have to list specific names in it. So this was up for retirement back May or something like that, but it didn't carry over because we kept waiting to put the specific names in it. You had to list the principals. You couldn't just say Dudley Middle School. You actually had to put the principal's name in, and
165that's why we had to wait until we had all the principals hired. Yep. So we lost in the shuffle. I'll take full responsibility. We lost the shuffle of retiring, adopting ACBB, and then retiring ACA at the same time. Thank you. Are there any other discussions? Okay, seeing none. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. Okay. Last policy, GDA substitutes and temporary employees would like to retire this policy also. Okay. Well, we'll wait for the reading first. A motion to wait for the reading. So moved. Second. Okay. Discussion? Seeing none. Kathy? Yes. Yes. Jamie? Yes. Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. Okay. A motion to retire GDA? So moved. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. Discussion? There's no need for this. It's covered under wages and benefits and we don't really need it, so it
166should be out of the policy handbook. Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Kathy? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Evaluation development adoption and policy IJL was it has to do with library
167and meaning materials. We have put a hold on that Because they kind of should be going together along with the KEC We've gotten some input from mr. Smolsky about this policy KEC We adopted last meeting but we think we should hold off on that too because it's filled those three policies are all kind of about the same thing So rather than have one that have to change because this one changes we figured would look back We would revisit KEC at our next meeting and see how things are going plus the district library committee meeting we want to tie it all together so we're holding off on those until all the work is done i just wanted to throw that out because you might wonder what happened to them they want a previous thing so that
168was the end of our okay good thank you any questions before we go on all right um report of the executive session review committee release of the minutes and mr lamache you wanted to do that you said When I went up with the agenda, you had said you were going to. Okay, Madam Chair, through the committee, we did have an executive session minutes review, which is periodically each year to review all the executive session minutes going back to the origination of the school district. And the executive session committee review of school committee members, Ms. Jordan Evans, Chair O'Coin, and Ms. Kavala, Ms. Catherine Kavala, and we reviewed all the minutes and we're prepared to release the set of executive session minutes that you have. packet that are in your packet and they've all been voted
169on so we don't have to vote on anything we just release it to the public so okay should be made public and all of these have passed what was in there that those like negotiating and so forth they're all going to be silenced so we released 16 of them starting back from april 29th 2020. We don't need it to vote to release. No. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. We'll go on to the next item, and that's the 2022-2023 school year calendar. Madam Chair and School Committee, there was a calendar subcommittee represented by Ms. Jamie Terry and Ms. Kathleen Cameron Arnie and Mr. Dave Deremian from the DCTA. We reviewed the calendar for next year, and we are proposing or recommending the calendar you have in your packet this evening. Please keep in mind
170this is a school committee calendar and school committee decision, so this is just a draft. and we would certainly open it up to the school committee to make a final decision on this. To try to provide some details specific to this particular recommended calendar for next year is we did feel that having the professional development day after the orientation day for staff was very advantageous to setting the year in motion, so we are recommending that for the Tuesday, the 30th of August after the 29th. All students with the exception of pre-KK would start on the 31st. The subcommittee recommended that we attend school the 31st, Wednesday, the first Thursday, and the second Friday of September, which is a change from previous years. That's the Friday before Labor Day. And then pre-KK would start the following
171Tuesday on the 6th. So roughly less than a week start after that, but it does give time for pre-K staff to do all of the work that needs to be done in preparation for welcoming pre-K and K students to our schools. Then we have a half day in service on the 23rd of September. We have a full, our second full. Our only second day, our only other day for professional development is scheduled for Friday, October 7th before Columbus Day. And then as we work through the calendar, we do have the traditional early release days for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We have it. on the 23rd of December, which is before the holiday break. This is a very short holiday break this year, so we are recommending because Mrs. Terry brought this up and it was
172a great point. Most organizations, public, private, are celebrating New Year's Day on Monday the 2nd, so we're putting in the 2nd as an additional vacation day for the winter holiday break. We do have an early release date on January 13th. We have an early release day on April 7th for observance of Good Friday. We have an early release day on May 26th before Memorial Day. And right now, as the calendar sits, the last day of school would be Monday, June 12th. And we have to schedule for 185 days for snow days. So if we did that, we would circle around past Juneteenth day on the 19th. And if we had five snow days, it would go to Tuesday, June 20th. So that is the calendar in a nutshell. Okay, so before we have the discussion,
173do we have a motion to approve this calendar that the calendar committee has brought to us? So moved. Okay. Jordan, you can have it if you want. Okay. Discussion? I have a question for the- the subcommittee i guess uh what was the reason for the change just out of curiosity from the labor day the friday before usually that's either a half day or day off i was just curious why the change so i can speak to that um we talked about how typically the students would come in for three days and then go four days then five and with the change of moving the professional development day additional they only come in for two days that first week and because of that it moves out the preschool and kindergarten extra day So by putting back
174the third and allowing students to come in again three days, then four, then five, it gets students right back into learning without that extra break and allows us to get out a little bit earlier. on the other side right right and it allows the pre-k i'm sorry through the chair it allows the pre-k um k to start on the tuesday the sixth where they typically had started on that tuesday and when we added that professional development for the tuesday before it would have bumped them one to the wednesday and remind me why it would bump the pre-k because they need assessments to be done and they need three days that reminder thank you um that's all i had thank you so much I'd like to play devil's advocate for a second and talk about April
1757th. Of all the dates that are half days, none of them but the April 7th day have anything to do with any religion. I know if somebody is of a Jewish faith and they have to head off to a Passover dinner a distance away, there's no half day for those folks to travel and they have to get there by sundown. And I know that if that was the case, somebody could easily send a note into school and get permission to have their child taken out of school, but school doesn't stop. And they would have to make up what information was lost. for the rest of that day. Whereas with Good Friday being a half day, all the instruction stops, everybody leaves on an equal basis. So that's my double advocacy. I understand it's nice to
176have the half day so people can travel, but I noticed that it really is the only religious day on our calendar that, well, any date that... has an impact it's the only one that has something to do with a religion so that's my double advocacy wondering what the thoughts are that's a good point so i would add to that um personally i'm fine either way with it but either if we make it a full day or leave it the half day it doesn't affect the year the year because the half day counts as the day in school I'm not saying that's a good for learning but I'm saying as far as the 180 days so that was just my only comment that whether we make it a full day or not it's not going to
177affect the last day of school Any other discussion I mean I think this is definitely something we need to think about if we're talking about equity in our school system like I do think that there are other religions that that may have days and he's right like having an early release for Good Friday you know specifically there You know, do we have it a PD day instead? Or like, I don't know. For the subcommittee, I know you two have done it for a little bit. How long have we had it this way? I didn't know if people know the history there. It used to be a full day. When did that change? Do we know when about? Mrs. Cabala, you might know. it's been a while but it used to be a full day off
178that's right that's what I mean okay I kept it half day, but people could go to their week services in the afternoon. But it still counted as a day towards the 180 wonderful days. It's an idea to make it a full day, too. I'm not opposed to making it a full day. Full day off or full day on? I actually concur. I mean, as a full day, I know my kids would really hate me to say that, but I would appreciate being a full day and making sure it's a more secular. Go ahead, Mr. Mayor. As I recall, it changed when Superintendent Desto was here because it changed in my time here. From a full day off to a half day? Yes. And I think it did align with the year that we had the
179ice storms and that you, didn't you add that? Was it the same year that we added in like the half day for the day before Thanksgiving to add some extra days on the calendar? Because Thanksgiving used to be a full day off. Yeah. Just to keep this moving along. So I'll amend the motion. Unless you want me to withdraw and make a new motion, Madam Chair. Yeah. Okay, so I'll withdraw the motion if the second. I second first the withdrawal. Or do you want to? I want to make a new motion, but it's easier to withdraw. I appreciate the point, but I don't feel strongly one way or the other about it. So I don't. I'll remove my second if you want, but I don't feel that it needs to change. Understood. Yeah, I just
180was, and we'll see how, we'll see what the committee thinks. The way it is right now and see if it carries. Oh, if you want to leave the motion and then. If she doesn't want to take her second back. I think we should make it a full day. I think we need to move in that direction. It's better for students. You mean full day of school? Full day of school. Okay. I think it's better for that direction for our students to be in school for the full day. That's my opinion. but the motion the motions on the floor so if you want to vote on that I asked Jamie yes or no I mean then it's like the whole votes on me if you want me to remove my second and then you can make
181it is that easier then we can see how the vote falls fine I'll remove my second okay I withdraw the motion okay I make a new motion that we adjust the calendar and we have April 7th be it just a regular day of school and and then approve the calendar otherwise okay do I have a second Second. Okay. Discussion. I'm against that. I think half a day. People have religious service in the afternoon. We have things in the calendar for people that they need days off. Religious teachers, they have personal days, but they're called religious days or something like this. Like the Orthodox, I remember we put in something special, so if you're a Greek Orthodox, you could take that day off and not be penalized. People can put it for a personal day. But
182it's a religious day. There's something called different, but that's besides. But I think that we've already taken half of the day. Some of our administrators are saying yes, that's true. Am I right on that? That's what I thought. So if you're a Greek Orthodox or something else, you can take it. It's not considered a personal day. It's a different day, correct? It's not a personal day, it's a religious day. So I think I would not be afraid of taking a half day off. People do have religious commitments. They could be taking the whole day off, and they might take the whole day off. So my comment, I hear you, Mrs. Cavallo, but I'm leaning towards we need to finally put all the Jewish holidays in, and we've got to put everything in. We can't just
183pick one. That's kind of where I'm leaning. They can take a day. But they can also take this day off. They can take Good Friday off too. That's the point. Sorry, Mrs. Compton. I think to backtrack the history of probably why this is in the calendar, even just to put it in as a half day, is because if you had the ability for, if you have a staff that's predominantly one religion, and all of a sudden they take that same day, then our kids are going to school with substitutes all day. You know, so like, is that getting you where you want to be? I mean, I wonder if we take this back to our committee so that we can get some feedback from our union. If you want my opinion, I'm sorry, I'll wait
184my turn. I'm done. Go ahead. I think we need to move on this. I think we need to have an off link. Let's move on the motion. We have to have a motion. Okay. My only question, Ms. Cominata, your comment to you is that Right now it's a half day, so those same teachers or staff would be taking off the day anyways. Not necessarily. Because it's a half day? Correct. Oh, I see. I didn't... Let me just say that in the Mormon Catholic religion, there was no services before usually 3 o'clock in the afternoon, so it's not like they would take the morning off. They could, but actually that's why we argued about that before, that some people would want that whole day off, but I know I can only speak for myself. Services are
185never before 3 o'clock, so that's why we have a half a day. And I hear you. I'm looking at it from the student perspective that we should have the student in school. Just say one thing. we could take the vote and say let's make this year full day like next school year full day and then look at our data and see how it goes and say you know did what was our percentage of attendance for our students what was percentage of attendance for our staff and really think about it in that regard Okay, as a double advocate, we can take this constructive criticism back and look at it next year for next year's calendar and leave it as it is now and give our union the opportunity to speak to their staff or their members
186over the course of the next, before our next year's calendar and then do that. That's what we could keep it as it is for this. We're already in a shortage of substitutes. Agreed. Okay. I'll take a vote. Roll call. on good friday kathy i really am i don't know how to vote on that one are you abstaining no i don't i i don't think it's fair for me to abstain that i well guess her no do you want to take the full day i get it um yes you can make it a full day no no no Yes. Yes. Jordan? She's gone. Jordan, you there? Sorry, I'm still here. I just couldn't find the mute button. No. Okay. Okay, so we have three no. We have four no. Four no. Okay. Four no. And three
187yes. Okay. Go ahead. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the calendar as is. Second. Okay. Any discussion on this as is? CHRIS JERRAM, RELAXING STAFF, Through the Chair, speaking just because we touched upon it in the earlier motion on attendance rates, I agree with the change to the Friday before Labor Day. But that may be a day we need to look at as far as attendance because a lot of families may pull their student because that was traditionally a day off. I just wanted to put it out there that it used to be that Friday to Monday. the weekend so just so we're aware of it because we may have parents just pull their family i think we just need to make sure parents know they know that it's a day this
188year i understood i just wanted to throw that out there through the chair i would just respectfully we don't ever take one series of data as telling us what's going on right so i would respectfully say we shouldn't just look at one year and say this is what no no what's going on we have to look at multiple years and invest in the decision that's coming forward and look for a trend i agree okay Now I lost my train of thought. We have a motion adopting this calendar. Okay. Thank you for the discussion. Okay. And any more discussion on this? Okay. Seeing none, then I'll take a roll call. Kathy? Yes. Yes. Yes. Kenny? Yes. Jean? Yes. Jordan? Yes. Yes. So that's unanimous. Now there was one remember we inserted Kenny had brought up that
189it was going to be on the agenda I've got it the old one here, I guess because it's not on mine so Kenny You had brought up last time The school committee annual agenda yes yep yep I just didn't know if you were gonna read the agenda yeah that's quite all right so I brought this up for discussion just to talk about kind of getting ourselves organized have a calendar for the school year as far as school committee calendar for planning purposes the public kind of knows September we do X October different months out of the year we could post it on the website This would give everybody the ability to know what's upcoming for discussions and planning. And I also think part of that... discussion about a calendar, I think it would behoove us
190to work smarter and not harder. I think we need to, we discussed this last year when this came up and we talked about it and at that point the committee decided not to make any changes. But I do think we need to look at it being more efficient and streamlining processes. There are many months like today. We've had a long meeting this evening, but our earlier meeting this month in January was a rather short meeting. I don't remember exactly how long it was, but it was short. And so I think we need to look at it that we don't need. Well, short is a relative word, right, Mrs. Terry? No, I said it was because I wasn't here. No, I didn't hear that. I really didn't. So I think. We may want to look at
191one meeting a month on some months. I know sometimes there might be budget season that we would need two meetings a month. So I just think we should look at that, have continued discussions on it. I'm going to work, I've been working with Mr. Lamarche and his team to give us some general talking points as far as each month, what the administration thinks they'd like to bring forward to have like a calendar. And so that's still a work in progress. But so that's where I'm at with it. I think there are many months. We'll put it on next agenda. Right. I don't think we should, but I just wanted to hear the committee if people wanted to discuss it or whatever. we should put it on a future agenda. I'm not asking for a decision
192tonight. I think we should still look at it, pull some more information, and discuss it. But I just threw it out there. So anyone? I think it's a great idea, but I also think should we talk about next month given that we have the school vacation week during the time that we have a meeting the 23rd I won't be here to be at that meeting so I don't know if we should maybe we should not have a meeting that week But February we usually do too don't we but we do we do usually do two in february yes so so i that's a good point i agree in february february might be a month we only need one a month like just as an example i know this is next month is coming up but
193um it it might be something to think about but are you saying we should decide on february now mrs terry well i just feel like yeah no we should talk about it it's a good point and maybe we should make a motion should we move the meeting to the 16th so that it splits the two that we should have and then that way we have instead of having it on the 9th we have it on the 16th and then it covers the month better I think that would be beneficial in my opinion no I hear you I mean it doesn't matter to me do you want me to make a motion this was your conversation you have to waive the policy because the policy says we have two meetings in February so we'll have to
194waive that policy great I'll make a motion to waive that policy B.E. second discussion just to waive the policy I'll take yes yes yes yes yes okay I'd like to make a motion that our meeting in February be moved to February 16th to cover the month better better to the chair just we didn't schedule a meeting with the town of Dudley capital That's that night I was just gonna say that. Finance before that as well with the idea that the meeting was on the 9th but I'm just throwing that out there but again the committee can choose to move anything and we'll try to work we'll try to move other meetings around that if we can. The W meeting is at 530 though so we could essentially do both. True, but then we have budget
195finance. Don't we have budget finance that day? No. I'm sorry. I only made a motion. There's not a second. Oh, I seconded it. You did second it. Oh, I just seconded it. So my comment to this motion would be I think we just leave it at the 9th, but that's it for the month. Because then it wouldn't conflict with anything else. I don't know. I mean, I know there's a motion on the floor, but that's my thoughts. I'd keep it on the 9th. I have a conflict on the 9th, so. Yeah. So any other discussion before I take a vote? I think that we should keep it on the 9th because we've kind of made all our committee plans for that. And then if we need to have a special meeting, we have a special
196meeting. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't suggesting that we needed to have additional meetings. I was trying to say the best coverage for an entire month of time would be if we'd had it on the 16th. But that's fine. Just as a point of just clarity. If we were to move as a committee to a once-a-month meeting, not every month, but certain months that we think we could, February 9th, and then the next meeting would be March 9th. So that would be like if we were in a once-a-month schedule. Okay. If we were. That's fine. You guys can vote it down. We can go to a vote and move on. Any other discussion? Can we reread the motion? The motion was to move the meeting to February 16th. And I seconded it. Okay. I misunderstood this
197motion. Now I understand we're just trying to change it for February. Just this one time. Yeah. It's not the whole Kenny wants to do research. That's going to be in the future. We should get more information, I think. Okay. So we have that to move it instead of February 9th. The motion is on the floor to move it. To what date was it? The 16th. Okay. And we have canceled the 23rd. I only have the ninth on the next meeting date. Okay, so we never had that as a meeting date. Right, it's not in our calendar. It's not in our calendar. Perfect, okay. That's all I'm wondering. But it's in policy that you waive the policy on. Yeah. Okay, no. Okay, no. Yes. No. No. Jordan? I'm here. Yes. Yes. No. 5-2. Okay, and... Kenny,
198you just wanted this evening for discussion. I think you want more data before we come back. That's my opinion, but if the committee has any suggestions. If anybody wants to make a motion, but you don't even have the calendar ready. We don't have it ready yet. I want to work with Mr. LaMache on that, and I think we should look at more information. Anyone can make a motion. I was looking also for feedback, Mrs. O'Quinn, like the committee, you know. Just one thing. I think that when we put it up on our website, it's good to just put, these are typical. This is a typical yearly agenda. Things may change. We need a caveat. Yeah, it wouldn't be like a set. It would just be generally September, October, we do this. November, December, we talk
199about these things, that sort of thing. Yeah, I think that's fine. And I think that that's definitely something that will help us, guide us what we need to do for the year, like if we do have a retreat in the summer. Right and and it would guide us also to see and look at the whole month or the two months and see Can we can we do one meeting a month for those months? But then maybe budget season we would need to that we would be able to have the information in front of us to make those informed decisions We have two meetings I think two minutes are important. There's nothing wrong with having two short meetings instead of a four-hour meeting I've been both ways and I you never know what's going to come
200up So I'm just saying my opinion would be to keep the secret. He was talking about just being able to put the agenda. No, he wants once a month on some of them. I think we should move to once a month on some of them because I don't think, I think we have to look at it. Mrs. Caballo, I hear you and I understand your point. We have to look at also the resources that are being spent as far as setting the room up and having the administration come down here. They have to work a full day tomorrow. We're here late, I mean, twice a month. And then as soon as we're done with this meeting. the next the next meeting agenda gets started and planned and the chair meets with mr mr lamache and
201it's just a constant every every two weeks really not in the summer and not in november december but it's it's a constant thing and i think that we could streamline it and work smarter not harder that's just my two cents okay any more discussion i support what you're trying to do Okay, then we'll get that will look yeah, we'll see on the schedule with the same team, so we'll see how it goes, okay? That brings us to next meeting dates school committee meeting Wednesday, February 9th 7 p.m. At Sheppard Hill budget and finance subcommittee Wednesday February 2nd, that's by video conferencing policy review subcommittee Thursday February 17th 9 a.m. Video conferencing and going back to the budget and finance. I don't I think I said the time. It is 3 p.m. Curriculum Subcommittee for Teaching
202and Learning to be determined. Capital Outlay Safety Subcommittee, Friday, February 4th, 11 a.m., video conferencing. Future Agenda Items, Dudley Child and Leadership Council Update. That'll be in February. Mid-Cycle Formative Review. Superintendent, February. Madam Chair. What? If I could respectfully ask the committee, because there's only one meeting in February now, if I could respectfully move that to the first meeting in March. Yes. Because the next meeting is all about FY23. Yes. Okay. Dudley-Charlton Regional School District mask requirements and that's going to be for the students and I'm adding we'll talk about the school committee meetings okay that'll be in with it school committee annual calendar February Dudley Charlton Leadership Council March video conferencing subcommittee Subcommittee meetings April Anybody want to add anything? Yes, FY 23 Jamie what is video conferencing subcommittee right now? The governor's order
203is set to expire in April what that looks like and at least publicly talk about the, you know, if that doesn't extend, you know, what's going to happen. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Jordan? Yes. We're adjourned.