001It is Wednesday, July 14th, 2021, and it is 7 p.m. We're at the Charlton Middle School, and we are live streaming through Vimeo. We will all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. We're going to take a... a minute for a moment of silence, but we're going to dedicate this moment of silence for Ms. Cheryl Bielek of Webster, Massachusetts. Ms. Bielek was a fourth grade teacher at the Charlton Intermediate School and taught third grade at the Heritage School, and she passed away. Also, Mr. George Pru of Southbridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Pru was the head of guidance at Shepherd Hill for many years, and now we will
002take a moment of silence. Okay. I'm going to entertain a motion to approve our minutes of our regular meeting of Wednesday, June 23rd. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do I have a second? Second. Discussion? Catherine? I have two, one, they're both on page seven. Can you hear me okay? No. Can you hear me now? Okay, thanks. Number five, I think before we talked Mr. Matthews' talks, I had asked, I would like to add to the minutes, Mrs. Cabala said she had been contacted about the ventilation system in Heritage Library and Auditorium, and then Mr. Matthews responded, but I'd like it in that I asked the request, okay? And I have another one on that same page, which Mr. Sullivan has done. Okay. You all set? Number B, letter B, I should say,
003about the summer program. I would like it added after the first paragraph that Mrs. Cavallo and Mrs. O'Coin questioned why there was no pickup in Dudley for food this summer. Because we had asked that question. Okay. We'll make those changes. Anyone else? Subcommittee appointments, curriculum, teaching, and learning. My name's not on there. I just had clarification, Mrs. O'Quinn. Is the capital just Mrs. Terry and I on that subcommittee? I wasn't sure if you were on it with us. So it's just the two of us. Thank you. Thank you. A vote. Okay. We have a motion and a second. And all in favor? Aye. Okay. It's unanimous. approval of the warrant this evening we do have a warrant and you can sign it this evening in person and we still can sign it online so it's
004your choice citizens forum this evening do we have any citizens that would like to come forward this evening okay I will read the policy first Citizens Forum agenda, all regular, special and emergency meetings of the school committee shall be open to the public. executive sessions will be held only as prescribed by the statute of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the school committee encourages citizens of the of the district to attend its meetings so that the public may become better acquainted with the operations and the programs of our local public schools in addition the committee would like the opportunity to hear public comment public comment is not a discussion debate or dialogue between citizens and the school committee It is a citizen's opportunity to express an opinion on an issue of school committee business. The committee may
005respond to a public comment by taking it under consideration when deliberating on an agenda item or referring an issue to the administration for appropriate action or response. Action on any matter should not be expected during the meeting in which it is brought up. To ensure the ability of the school committee to conduct the district's business in an orderly manner, the following rules and procedures are adopted. All remarks will be addressed through the chair at the meeting. The presiding chair of the meeting shall establish the duration of Citizens Forum as an agenda item. This evening, I'm establishing 30 minutes for our duration. speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to present their material and must begin their comments by stating their full name and address the presiding chair may permit extensions of this time limit
006time may not be shared between speakers topics for comments should be limited to those items within the school committee scope of responsibility Disruptive conduct and remarks will not be allowed if an individual continues to engage in disruptive conduct after a warning, the presiding chair has the authority to terminate that individual's privilege of address and or that individual to leave the meeting. If the individual does not leave, authorities may be called. Okay so who would like to come up first come up to us and you can sit there state your name address Good evening and who is the chair that I'm addressing okay Mrs. O'Coin and the rest of this committee thank you so much my name is Carol Sarim Downey Drive Charlton I'm a grandparent and a Charlton stakeholder I am drawing attention to the
007following policies of your committee which you should all be familiar with. Since there are time restraints, I will not read them all just in their titles because you all have this information. For anyone in the audience, we can provide a copy for you. So what I'm going to be addressing is item four in policy for the chair. Item number nine of your school committee member policies. Item number four, policy, purpose, and role of school committee. And finally, the most important in my view, which I will read, is the policy from the Massachusetts Association of School Committee Code of Ethics. A school committee member and his or her relations with the community should, one, realize the primary responsibility is the children. Number two, recognize the basic function is to be policy making and not administrative. Number
008three, remember that he or she is one of a team and must abide and carry out all committee decisions once they've been made. Number four, be well informed concerning the duties of a committee member on both a local and state level. Number five, remember that he or she represents the entire community and community at all times. Number six, accept the office as a committee member as means of an unselfish service with no intent to play politics in any role, in any sense of the word. or benefit from his or her committee activities. So my question is, there are email responses where the words, our, that are acting under the guise and confusion of or upon for behalf and representing the school committee, as well as social media posts that are political. special interest in nature
009and that personally benefits a cause, an ideology, a view, a theory, and a specific agenda, all of which goes against all your procedures and policies as well as the state's. While attempts have been made to this committee via in public forum as well as correspondence, they have not been discussed within this body of this group in a meeting. Why? Concerns are never part of any agenda. We're never part of any agenda, and we're only offered this particular time, two to three minutes in a citizen's forum. The result, many have concerns. I think everyone can agree, rightfully so, as this is spilling over into policies in the district. You cannot use an elected position to further your agenda and or platform. Some parents have actively talked about a recall. While the intention is not to recall
010any of you any elected official, we need this committee to explain why policies are not being followed, especially when you've been notified on these violations several times. Citizens want to be an active partner with this committee about their child's education, their well-being, and have a say on what influences their child's mind. Not addressing these infractions and violations of this committee by being an elected board creates continued and further lack of trust. We don't want that, nor do you. These are serious offenses, and they are being ignored. They cannot be anymore. Thank you. a statement from a parent. Now, obviously, I wouldn't read it because I don't want to go over that time. Is it okay to ask if somebody would volunteer to read it? It's from a resident, but she just couldn't come, so she
011just emailed us at the last second. I'm just asking. I mean, I wouldn't read it, but if we could have somebody from this audience read it. I think our policy, what do you think, committee? Our policy, I think you must. I'll read it as my own statement. Okay. Okay, so I'll just pass it to them. Is that okay? All right. Thank you so much. If they're reading it as their own statement, it's fine. Okay. Thank you so much for all of your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you. I just have a question. We just have a couple questions for you, and I just need, for a point of information, can you tell me the policy letters that you're referencing so I can put them down? Yes. I just want to make sure I get
012all the letters down because we go by letters. Is there a letter like B-E-D-H? No. But where'd that come from? Jean, I think she knows. It's BDB. BDB? BDB. BDB. How about this? Jean, do you know that one? I have it up. She's got it. BBB. BBBA. BB. BB. Just one second. Sorry, we're trying to just write it down. Three B's and an A. Three B's and an A? Okay. Thank you. Item number four is under policy, purpose, and role of the school board. B B A A purpose and role of school committee That's not confuse anybody. My name is Patrick McLeod. I live at 33 L Stevens Road. I have two children in the Charlton Dudley Regional School District one here and one in the grammar school This is from Alyssa Hanson. Hi, my
013name is Alyssa Hanson. I reside in Stafford Street in Charlton. I have two young children currently in the system and a third who will be attending shortly. You will likely remember me speaking the other night as I have very passionate speech regarding our curriculum, more specifically intersectionality and a new health curriculum. I will believe you. You were going to. Okay, I'll read it as myself. You'll remember me as Patrick McCloud. I spoke to this committee the last time we were here. I didn't speak in Charleston. I have an issue with intersectionality and new health curriculum. I believe you when you say you're not weaving intersectionality throughout a curriculum and there is no new health curriculum coming in or requested for a new health curriculum. I want to see why parents are concerned. I want you
014to see why parents are concerned and where it's coming from. On June 12th, the Mass Equity Education Fund made the following statement, and I quote, from their webpage. Dear friend, we have recently been seeing a rise in organizing against critical race theory, comprehensive sexual education, and LGBTQ inclusive in public schools. We have reason to believe that the organization has been led by a larger organized hate group such as the Mass Family Institute and mass resistance. We suspect that they may be involved in these efforts with relation to organized efforts that thwart the efforts of the Equality Committee and the Dudley-Chelton Regional School District, which meets on a weekly basis to discuss issues, race, and how we can better prepare the district to benefit both students and surrounding communities. At this point in time, the Equity
015Committee has reached out to a number of professional anti-racism consultants and started compiling a list of resources that we feel our faculty and staff should familiarize themselves with in order to better understand how racism impacts the health and wellness of our students. The hope is to present a series of plans that pull from these resources and call policy changes and improve curriculum. A Facebook group has been formed called the Charlton Dudley Parents Against Critical Race Theory, which has been working in opposition to these efforts and also seems to be trying to undermine comprehensive, inclusive sexual health education in the schools. Released by the group responsible for Charlton Parents Against... Critical race theory. So not only do they link our concerned parents group to a hate group. But they specifically share a survey that was intended
016for the group and specifically says this group is trying to undermine comprehensive, inclusive sexual education in our schools. This exact comprehensive sexual education is the one that was passed in Worcester Advocates for Youth that encompasses the three R's, rights, respect, and responsibility. This is the content in which I gave cringeworthy examples in the past material that they cover. Can we be sure that, one, we don't currently work with the mass equity or mass equity groups? Two, moving forward, will we continue to not work with them? And three, will we never use their guidance as a similar guidance for comprehensiveness? Thank you. I'm trying to find where that is located. Do you have a picture of that? Because I feel like we got an email on it, and I just want to see. Keep that copy.
017Do we know who sent this to them? Who sent it to them? It's posted on their website. It's written by somebody in the throne. Madam Chair, can I make a statement? It's more of a clarifying point. Go ahead. Just for clarity, legally I have no association with the Mass Equality Education Fund. It's a different organization than the one that I am involved with personally. I'm on the C4. The education fund is a C3. So by law, we don't interact with each other. Anyone else that would like to come up? Stephan Sage. I live in Charlton. I had a daughter who graduated from Shepherd Hill and went through the entire Charlton school system. I think she's glad she's out and doing other things at this point. But the other night, I did feel a little bit
018intimidated. at Monday night's meeting, especially due to an individual who got up and said that in order to be really a true American, you need to believe in God. And that got a great amount of applause, and that pretty much indicated to me that I should not get up and speak publicly at that meeting. I am an atheist, and I do feel that I am a... proud American and support the democracy that we're founded upon. It was made clear over and over again at the meeting that CRT, critical race theory, was not part of anything the school district was doing. It was made clear probably four or five different times. but that the training that people are going through in this town was considered culturally responsive teaching, and I'd like to read some definitions of
019what that means. Culturally relevant teaching or responsive teaching as a pedagogy, or a method and practice of teaching, grounded in teachers displaying cultural competence, skill at teaching in a multicultural setting. Teachers using this method encourage each student to relate course content to his or her cultural content. I know something about the Dudley system in that my wife taught there for, I think it was 19 years, and she experienced a great deal of cultural variety in that town. Not just issues of race, but of... Where kids where families were coming from to this country? Culture is centered to learning it plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals a Pedagogy that acknowledges responds to and celebrates fundamental cultural cultures offers full equitable access
020to education for students from all cultures Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Some of the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching are positive perspectives on parents and families, communication of high expectations, learning within the content of culture, student-centered instruction, culturally mediated instruction reshaping the curriculum teacher as facilitator some people might have problems with reshaping of curriculum but having been a teacher many many years ago and seeing new math brought into our lives open classrooms into our lives and how those kinds of things affected teaching and my own confusion of how multiplication is done by your children today versus how I learned it. I don't understand the box theory at all. Curriculum gets reshaped all the time and changed and evaluated and I'm
021all for that. Culture responsive teaching is a research-based approach to teaching. It connects students' cultures, language, and life experiences with what they learn in school. These connections help students access rigorous curriculum and develop higher-level academic skills. Culturally responsive teaching involves ways of educating students based on principles of social justice, a key purpose... of culturally responsive teaching is to provide all students with learning opportunities regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or first language. Culturally responsive teachers are warm, supportive, personable, patient, understanding, enthusiastic, flexible, and stay on task. When asked whether culturally relevant teaching works, the answer from the current study is a qualified yes. Teacher methods that connect with students, real lives, interests, and promote understanding of other cultures are associated with better academic outcomes. If all of that is true information that I researched, then
022I am all for teachers having those kinds of principles and guidance in helping our students in the future continue to learn in this community Anyone else would like to come up? Good evening. My name is Chris Staus, Charleston, Ramshorn Road. I first just wanted to take the opportunity to thank the committee and the administration for the time on Monday. I think it was great that the parents were able to get up and be able to voice some concerns and have some questions and, you know, get that information. So thank you all for that time. So as you know, I was one of the many parents who chose to take a risk and speak on Monday. One of the items that was brought up was a need for a social and emotional teaching and anti-bullying program.
023And this done properly, programs like this will help create an accepting and respectful community where our children can thrive rather than creating some sort of division. Teaching acceptance before differences I think is a key to social and emotional learning. But SEL, social emotional learning can be a slippery slope. I've done quite a bit of research on this and there's been a lot that's been coming out. from different districts and throughout the US that some areas are using the social-emotional learning to kind of weave in their hidden agendas and you know even you know CRT teachings so you know that tends to be a little bit of a sticky point I think we need to roll out a program like this with a well-rounded team of experienced personnel that could shape, that should include a qualified
024child psychologist with experience in rolling out such a program in an age-appropriate manner. I think, you know, starting in the elementary school level and really just making sure that it's age-appropriate. I mean, just looking at the three R's, that was wildly not age-appropriate. And then... I think we need to do it in a way that doesn't undermine anybody's religious or traditional beliefs, which I believe the majority of the town holds a fair amount of traditional beliefs, not all of them. This may mean a more individualized approach, but I think given the state of the community, kind of where we are, the losses that we've seen over the last couple of years, I think it needs to be a priority. I also think that it's time to have a school psychologist on board something to consider
025for our students on a daily basis I think that's really important and transparency transparency transparency transparency to parents to teachers I think that's of the utmost importance here and we need to start moving forward and understand that actions speak louder than words So I had some questions, but I didn't realize we weren't kind of getting to questions today. So I'm happy to send them along in an email if that's a little bit easier. I know that we also, I also had talked about an anti-bullying program. So we had a very brave young woman who came and spoke on Monday from Shepherd Hill. And I got to tell you, her speech crushed me. That was... That was crushing. And we need to do better. I think we need to have a zero tolerance disciplinary policy when
026it comes to bullying. And no one should have to face a reality like the one she described. I mean, I think about my daughter. She's nonverbal. She can't tell me about any of the things that happen. So it's, I'll never know unless something comes up. And I think that. We need to hear them. We need to zero tolerance no matter how minor the offense is it just has to be that way and Where in the society that we're living in with with social media and all that stuff But I do think that we need to put in a plan I understand that talking to parents about bullying is really uncomfortable because parents don't always want to believe that their kids bad Or has done something that they don't they haven't taught or done I trust
027me my kids do things outside of my realm that I don't know about so I think that that's something that we need to do and then I'll leave my questions for the committee I'll just send what I have if that's okay in an email to everybody but that's what I guess thank you good evening Derek Donahue 5 Misty Middle Lane Dudley I can't really improve upon anything that's been said by any of the other members of the community. So I just had a general question. In the interest of transparency again, and to understand the formation of the equity committee, as it's not necessarily required to have one, and the choice of hiring Eakins, do school districts receive some sort of incentive or other money from the referral or state government if they implement it? And
028if so, how much was it? We can certainly email this question as a follow-up. Good. Email the question. Thank you. Do you mean like eligibility for grants? Sorry, I'll say it out loud so that you can hear it They are asking and correct me if I say it wrong, but if if our district received any funding as an incentive to move forward with an equity committee or to hire any specific persons for professional development today some that and if so how much Good evening. My name is Carla Cohen and I live on Daniels Road in Charlton. I just have a question in regards the fall. Do you guys have any plans in regards how the kids are gonna come back to school? If they're gonna be wearing a mask? School is, you know, coming up
029and we don't have any information in regards what the fall is gonna look like. And if you guys don't have a plan yet, are you willing to add it to the school committee agenda or have a special meeting so parents can be involved in the decision of how the school is going to look in the fall? Thank you. And I'm sure our administration will send an email soon on all your issues. I'm sure, because I know you want to know because school is coming up and you have a lot of concerns. And Mr. Lamarche, I'm sure you're working on that right now. Through the chair, we're still in the same position where we're starting as if it was pre-COVID. We haven't changed anything at this point in time. We knew that there was new CDC
030guidance that came out, but there's no state guidance at this point in time. So there's nothing new to report other than us trying to prepare for school as if it was pre-COVID at this point in time. But if there's any changes, requirements, guidelines, et cetera, of course, we'll send them out to everybody, as I indicated in some of my communications. If the plan deviates from the current pre-COVID planning, yes. Thank you. Anyone else? Marsha Wagner, Hickory Drive in Dudley. What is the warrant that you're signing for? You're all signing, and you said they could sign it either here or at home. What is the warrant for? The warrant is just like a town warrant. We're paying our bills, and the school committee has to sign so they can issue these checks to people that we
031owe money to. Also people in the room had questions and they're asked to email them to you how does the rest of the citizens find out what those answers are I was planning to request that on our next school committee agenda we put as a future agenda item I guess it seems appropriate to ask it now that school committee responses to forum or questions be brought up in case anybody wanted to bring any of those answers forward publicly so that you can all hear them Thank you and I wanted to add this later but because I'm talking about it I just don't feel like I've had enough time to give you answers to this forum questions on Monday night so that's why I wanted and also our agenda was closed before the forum on Monday
032because it's a 48 hour posting for open media law so that's why it wasn't necessarily on here now and I don't feel like I would have had ample time to give anybody appropriate responses so whoever's emailed I just haven't gotten back to you And I was going to say, too, at the appropriate time, that in another future agenda, I know everybody has a lot of concerns, and I think we should address them and how we're going to solve some of these concerns. Kelly Zella, 50 Partridge Hill Road, Charleston, Massachusetts. I'm here again. Because I have some concerns really about our district moving forward I'm concerned about some of the policies I'm concerned about how this new reading program was handled I have lots of questions about that which I have come to find my own
033answers which I find to be extremely disappointing I would like to know where the written policy is where I can locate that written policy as far as when new curriculum is implemented because I am under the impression that we didn't go that route for this reading program now I don't know I was pretty happy to hear that our district had finally gotten a assistant superintendent this is great we could have used one for many years But now a few of the decisions that have been made from this Assistant superintendent really don't fly well with me and I'm sure some others Wouldn't be happy if they knew some of the details of how things were handled with that reading program obviously, I won't get into that but I Feel like some there's some questions that should
034be answered and taxpayers have the right to know Just how mishandled this really was now if we don't have our administration and we don't have our committee for Learning and teaching and learning involved in this which I believe is actually dr. Ackerman's title as an assistant and we had a committee to formed with that title and that committee was not aware that this plan this program was going to be purchased I find that extremely disappointing and I know that maybe there wasn't a grievance filed with the union but perhaps there possibly should be I don't really know how that works but I'm curious to look into that because it's extremely disappointing to hear that our administration in Charlton was not made aware of this program after all the time that they've put in and the
035background knowledge that Kathleen Pastore has as a reading specialist, how she could not know about this is baffling to me. It's disappointing. It breaks the trust of the entire district and our teachers. now what maybe you don't know when I said I was president of the PTO for seven years is that I was in those schools our three Charlton schools on a weekly basis so I've put a lot of time in and done a lot of volunteering met a lot of our great teachers They've done some great things. They deserve the respect of their opinion. And I don't feel that they're getting it. I also feel that they may perhaps be a little bit intimidated by our administration. Now things like this are really going to put our district's reputation at stake here. If we
036don't have teachers that are respected by our administration, then they're not going to do the job that we want them to do. I'm under the impression that tonight Mr. LaMarche's review will be here, will be on the table. And I would just like to mention. That as I as I stated I do know these teachers pretty well none of them are going to come forward Against the administration we know who would do that they still have another year if not more and I'm sad to say like Mr Lamar she just don't think maybe you're a good fit for this district And I hope that some the school committee this falls on your shoulders because I've asked many questions And all my answers are it's up to the school committee up to the school committee It's
037up to the school committee to get our reputation back on track, to get the people in place, to respect our teachers. I just can't even believe that some of these things are the direction that we're taking. This is not the way our district was. This is not a direction I would like to see it go. I am a stakeholder in this town. I have a small business. I'm an educator in this town. And I am extremely disappointed and concerned. now i know there's been some great things done but i also know that there is fear in this district and again a disrespect and if the teachers feel that way then we need to do something about it and i hope that the school committee will take that into into consideration i would also like to
038state because i know i can't say it later that we were under the impression that our new superintendent would be in the schools and i know that covid Umbrella's just about everything for everybody everywhere. However, there's a lot of opportunity to go into the schools, and I don't think that 90% of our Charlton teachers, and I know a few of the Dudley, but I haven't spoken with many, would even recognize Mr. LaMarche, which is disappointing to me because the schools do a lot of things that he could be present for. There's events, there's reading days, there's spirit days. If you're not around, you know, it's just unfortunate because I know that our district really has the characteristic of unity, coming together, putting people in place that really wholeheartedly give it all to their kids and
039all their staff. And I just don't unfortunately feel like that we're getting that from this administration. Sorry. Thank you. Time is coming close now. So I'll give one more because we're already at 30 minutes. We're already at 30 minutes, and we have school committee business, too, to do. So come up, whoever wants to come to be the last one. My name is Christina Spencer, Downey Lane. I have one child in the district, and I have one entering the district. Under the school committee members policy number three it states study and analyze all materials presented and discuss the issues at school committee meetings in order to make rational decisions. During this past June 23rd meeting Mr. LaMarche says and I quote the equity committee was not a school committee committee wasn't a subcommittee of school committee.
040On tonight's agenda, it lists future agenda items. Approval of Dudley-Charlton Regional School District student handbooks. In the January 27, 2021 school committee minutes, there was an equity committee update from Dr. Ackerman. A committee that doesn't fall under the school committee nor a subcommittee of the school committee. It was stated. that the group is poised to recommend tangible policy changes for equitable practices of discipline and grading. The committee will continue to review all handbooks. Why? Why was an unelected body recommending and possibly influencing policy changes for material that falls under the elected body, which is you, the school committee? what are these recommended changes of the equity committee regarding the handbook will these changes be highlighted so we can see what their work was I will also conclude because we put a pause on the equity
041committee that the student critical friends group is also paused correct that's it I can email those questions thank you Okay, that concludes citizens forum for the evening and we will be putting Something on future agendas to address concerns Thank you communications Mr. Lamache do you have any? I do not have any Okay How about our members? We did receive many communications and you know, we're certainly We're trying to go through and answer as many as we can and that's um you can't can you hear me now here we go um i was saying that we received many communications via email and you know there are many of us that are trying to go through and answer the questions i will say if a mem if a member has already answered the question i tend not
042to go and say the same thing so please don't take it as me not responding to you it's more so i didn't have anything additionally to add Yeah, no, I agree. If it is a group response, I'm responding to all. To individual emails, if someone has already responded to an individual email with the same type of response I would have given, I don't attend a respond as well. I think they're misunderstanding. One person sent it to all of us committee members. And if I, as the chair, respond, which I have, I'll tell you I spent a lot of time for two days. I think I answered everyone that did send me an email. So I responded. And then the elected officials here. They have. They can respond if they want, but if they think I
043have spoken and they agree, then... Go ahead, Ken. I just think we should also clarify, we have to be careful as elected officials because we can't be deliberating by email because then it's an open meeting violation. So that's the other reason we're very careful on email I don't know if anybody else wants to comment, but that's why we're not ignoring you It's just that if we start talking on an email That's a violation because you have a right because that's an open meeting. That's why Well, that's what I just said we're going to take the time and we know what your concerns are and we have to address them tell you what we're going to do about it well in the past when you come to right when you come to citizens forum you usually
044um make an appointment the superintendent reaches out to you but now we've had a forum we know all we really know all the concerns and it's it's all well then you Will call his office and make the appointment he is willing to meet with you Okay, and that's what we usually do with the citizens forum and your questions are answered If you were asking if we typically don't respond we have a policy not to respond while we're while you were hearing from you a citizen Okay, I thought that's what you're asking correct Correct is that typically happened? No No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Can I just state, like, I have been on the committee now. This is my starting my fourth year. Before COVID, it really was maybe two people that showed up. So
045I don't think it has been an issue in the past. that's what I'm saying I've been here for 30 years let me just say in the past when we had public meetings we had public hearing in the budget we would probably have five people we had very few questions no no no no we always referred them You're not listening. We always referred them to the superintendent if they went up the chain and they didn't have a resolution we always said the Superintendent will meet with you just as I just said now But we've had the forum and I know the concerns and it seems like we're just saying them over and over again so we're going to address these concerns at a future date and we will I'm saying that and we will okay now
046I'm going on to the next we have audit of business and we were on communications and I too received and I tried to answer all of them and I think I saw one or two of you maybe shake your head that you might not have gotten a response. If Mrs. O'Quinn thinks that she's responded to you, it was not intentional for her to skip over you, so please somehow come forward and identify that you did not get a response because our intention is to respond. And the only time I will not respond, and I don't think I did get any, if you're being disrespectful in your email, I will not respond. But I don't think there was any one that I would not so it wasn't intentional if you think I did it because I
047I thought I Answered everybody's email so far Okay all right so Anyone else? Any other members have any other communications? Okay, we'll go on to superintendent's report this evening. You're going to be talking about your evaluation, so there is no superintendent's report this evening. New business, report of the director of finance and operation, Mr. Matthew. Thank you very much. There are no donations this evening. However, we do request permission to dispose of surplus materials. The elementary schools have requested permission to declare the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series materials as surplus. This amounts to 14 sets, including teacher kits for Charlton Elementary and Mason Road. Additionally, there were attached letters from Dudley Elementary and Heritage School regarding these materials, plus additional materials such as library chairs at Dudley Elementary and the dictionaries at Heritage School. So you
048need a motion to accept them as surplus and then you can dispose of them. Okay, so I'll entertain a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, any discussion? When you say dispose, do you mean you're going to just discard them or can we donate them? No, we want to declare them a surplus first, and then we can figure out what the right approach is. I know some of the buildings have some space concerns, but generally we try to make sure that these can get into the hands of students or other districts that may use them, potentially sell them back if there's a monetary value, do whatever we can to not just throw them in a dumpster. Okay, good. Motion then. Sandra can you do that To accept as surplus and authorized disposal of the
049items I don't think disposal doesn't mean just throw them away I think we need to because they have to determine what should be disposed but what shouldn't be. So we can change the word disposal to let the administration determine where the materials will go? Is that okay? I think if you just declare them as surplus that would be sufficient. Just to declare them as surplus? Okay. Then? You would need to withdraw the motion and restate the motion. Yeah, okay. So the second. You take the second. I wasn't the second. Who was the second? I was the second. Okay. And then do you withdraw? I withdraw. Okay. So we'll make it this way, that we will just approve the declaration of the reading materials and other materials stated in the packet that they'll be surplus now.
050Okay? I would like to understand if the teachers that are interested in keeping the material that they have in their classrooms are able to given the concerns that I have heard about the new reading program Just for a point of clarification these these lists were submitted by their building principals Yes, my follow-up is if there was a teacher that wanted to keep the material that they had are they able to Obviously we'd have to go back to the building principals one of which is no longer Employed here, but again, they're the ones who submitted this for school committee to take action on If they wanted to keep them, it would probably be for their own use because you can't use them now for teaching the students if they have a new curriculum. You know that's
051my take on it I move to table this until we have further information on Where we are donating things to like what is the process where our teachers allowed to keep materials if they so wish Are we going to be able to we have all these dictionaries to give out? Can we give these to kids and get them in the hands of kids? Like I'd like to see what we're planning on doing with this before we vote just so we've got a motion Do we have a second? I have a motion to table it I have a move to table on the floor The only thing I was going to add for feedback is in order to give them to students they need to be declared a surplus I think it makes sense because it's
052school property I think you know we've done this forever and then we did find good places for the we didn't just throw it throw it away so I just think what was that I don't think so I don't think so so far because we would lose quite a bit of money as our administration has told us I think we're gonna withdraw first Wait a minute. I don't think we can have two motions on the floor at the same time. I was just thinking, sorry. Go ahead, Jean. I was just thinking maybe it might be best if we just remove those motions and just make a motion to declare a surplus with the addition that nothing will be removed. until Mr. Matthew is able to come back to us with what we can sell and then
053what that way we'll know what we can actually give back to other people who may want those dictionaries for free or because my understanding is the dictionaries are kind of rather old and a little so it's because then that way we know what may be happening with those materials and whether or not as a district we can receive money from a buyback of those materials. Yeah, that's what I just want to say I just want to say in the past we have given Mr. Matthew the authority to do what he thinks is best. If he thinks they should be saved for kids, I know when we had extra math books in Worcester, we let the kids take them. I used to sign them and make a big deal. So I think we've always given the
054principals have asked for the permission. I think by the original motion we had told Mr. Matthew, it's surplus, do what you think is best. That's how we've done it forever. Otherwise we'll be running with these books. The principals don't have room to store them, so we can't keep this hanging out there for months. We've got to get them out of the way. so i would think you've tabled the motion though so no well kathy's got a motion for a table we can vote on that if it's not tabled then we can go with this motion again so kathy is staying with your motion you want to table this you didn't get a second yeah oh you did okay i i am do i get to speak on my motion The reason why I would table
055is I'm just concerned we've already had the teachers not have the ability to have say about their curriculum I just don't want to take books out of their classroom that they could have used as supplementary material not necessarily for the reading curriculum but you know hand kids these for extra reading during a vacation or something like that like I want teachers to have that control to be able to do that And I want to make sure that we have a process in place for it. Okay. Go ahead. I just have a question to Mrs. Comigliani's point. These were submitted by Mrs. Pastore and Mrs. True. I would think that they would have checked with their staff because they can't, the principals, they wouldn't be doing this on their own. The principal would have talked to
056their staff. That would be my understanding. I'm sorry, that's all I had. Thank you. If we pause this, Mr. Matthew can get clarification on that and come back to us with that information. Mr. Lamache. For a point of clarity, we asked our principals, actually our principals asked us if they could remove some of the excess piloted programs that they've used through the years that were taking up space in their classrooms. It was a request from them that we're bringing forward. what she said as far as this is what we do and we leave it up to the administration to do the best they can to reuse the supplies just thank you and i think in the past we have done the best we can with uh distributing these surplus according to robert's rules you need
057to vote on whether you're going to table my motion or not and that's all like and then you can go into discussion about the main motion okay so everybody any more discussion on tabling it i'm sorry none I'm gonna take a vote all in favor opposed okay two in favor and five opposed motion fails okay now we've got another motion but who did make that motion okay and Kenny seconded it okay Are you satisfied with that, Kathy? And you want to make it more clear? You want to make it more clear? You're making the motion. I have to change my motion. I have to withdraw everything. Okay, withdraw. I agree with Ms. Cavani. Okay. I withdraw the motion. I withdraw the motion. Okay, motion that we declare a surplus. You can't hear? Okay. Is this
058okay now? Okay. Yep. I make a motion to declare a surplus listed. materials from the two elementary schools in Dudley and Charlton and to be disposed of as Mr. Matthew and the administration seems appropriate. Is that good enough? I'll second it to get on the floor, but do we want to use the word disposed? Well, it is called. Yeah, because I used it. Nobody wanted to use it. I'll second it and that's fine. It's the chairman of Arby's use. That doesn't mean it's right. He can't be talking about it. First of all, we're having a meeting, so you have to listen and not speak out, okay? Unless I call on you. Catherine, you made the motion. Are you satisfied with it? Well, if you don't like the word disposal, would you read my motion? I
059can change the word. To declare it? Hold on. to declare as surplus the listed materials from the two elementary schools in Dudley and Charlton and to be disposed of as the administration deems appropriate. Are you satisfied, Kenny? I'll second. Okay. Discussion. Okay, I'm just going to join you. I just want clarity that if we were to go through with this motion that you still have, or rather... Let me think about a phrase this if we go through with this motion as it is is this going to put an undue hardship on our ability to remove materials that We may not even like that need to be removed. Is this inconvenient to the administration? I'm happy to Declare if these are declared a surplus I will certainly report back what happens with them and make sure
060that the principals understand That the desire is to make sure that kids get dictionaries access to books all of those sorts of things So they're not the school property basically and then you can do what you want with them give them to kids you can throw them away you can give them we used to give them to other school systems that might need that program we've done that in the past so we do a good job they're not thrown out unless they're completely useless and do our teachers have the ability to keep them if they want to for the reasons that Mrs. Carminiani suggested because if you have books i i was a teacher if i have books in my room and now they're surplus can i just say i i'd like to keep some
061of these so keep in mind this evening you're just declaring them surplus so wherever they end up is is administration will work on where they end up but all options are on the table they're just being declared a surplus so they're no longer school property so if somebody did bring them home and they wouldn't be considered school property at that point in time a resource and give them to kids okay any other discussion before we take a vote I just want to make it clear that we should really communicate with our teachers what their desires are with the materials that are in their rooms don't think so but Dean you're a principal and you've had plenty of surplus right so what has been done with them at your school Thank you okay I if there
062are no body else that would like to discuss I'm going to take a vote now all in favor okay motion carries it's unanimous Thank you And the last item for the committee was simply just an update on champions the before and after school program we hope to What we're bringing into the district for the next year as you can see we have a number of families signed up all but the middle schools have a number that programs can run so it looks like at least the four elementary schools will run I think Charlton middle school given that they stand at nine right now will certainly meet that the threshold of ten for next year as well and Dudley middle has we have a little work to do there if indeed we're going to run the
063program but again there's only been one marketing material sent out at this point in time over the next couple of days we'll start to see more of those and as the summer continues I'm sure these numbers will increase and I'll keep the committee updated thank you for this update Mr. Matthew I appreciate it and these are families that have made a commitment so there are other families that have showed interest that haven't yet made a commitment I would imagine yes okay I really appreciate it and we did receive some communication today from champions so it but it came through I'll try to find it while we're here at the meeting it came through as champions and I think that somehow we might have to identify that that is the program through our school district again
064to families because you may just think it's spam in your email without knowing that it is associated with the school But because we're building an excellent relationship with champions that you know they would work with us for around nine or eight or something of that nature but they you know if the majority of our schools have that are involved in the program five schools if it is ten then they will if the one schools an outlier at eight they'll still work with us Okay, before we go on Kenny question for mr. Matthew on that the champions is rolling enrollment So throughout the school year people could add I just wanted to clarify couldn't remember no cutoff date. It's rolling all the time. Great. Thank you so much I also had a question come to me
065if there were high school students that wanted to have involvement in being mentors through this program does champions take that on and are they is there a process in which high school student would go through to contact them high school students to work as volunteers in their program especially if they're interested in becoming future teachers or along those lines so once we get into August I'm sure we'll work out what exactly those details are I've had somebody ask me so I'm sorry I didn't bring a flyer this evening but it is a before school and after school program I want to say between 5 and 6 p.m. in the afternoons and I want to say reasonably cost I don't have again I didn't bring the flyers Mrs. Costello may have better answers than I do
066the flyer I remember reading I think it was yesterday for a full week I think was $80 and then like two or three days was like 40 I think it was it was pretty reasonably yes Through the chair that is that all goes to champions the school does not Any other questions okay updates specialized summer programs and Lorinda Allen will give us the report thank you madam chair so I just want to make it clear that the report I'm giving you tonight is on the extended school year program we actually this year have two different programs running we have a ramp up program running which is grant funded due to COVID that is being coordinated by Dr. Ackerman and the principals and that is for students who are in general education although we do have
067some of our special education students accessing that program in addition to what I want to share with you is what we call our ESY program or our extended school year program and this is something that's required under the law for students who have special needs we are asked at their IEP meetings to consider whether or not not coming to school in the summer would have the potential to cause regression. And so right now we have a little over 150 students and 56 staff members in our program this summer. This includes special education teachers, tutors, speech therapists, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, our behavior specialists. and many paraprofessionals. I want to say first of all that I am extremely, extremely proud and pleased of the staff at Dudley Charlton who have stepped up. Many, many
068schools around us are having an incredibly hard time staffing their summer programs for students with disabilities and they are seeking people who don't work in the schools, they're trying to find outside companies to contract through and some of them are just having to say to parents, I'm sorry we can't run our programs and we'll have to owe you those services. you know I can't tell you for our teachers who have given and given and given in a year of COVID to then come back two weeks after school ended and say here I am I'm ready to take on these kids for the next six weeks you know we have a lot to be proud of at our staff so I want to say that first of all And secondly, I want to say to all
069those parents who have students in our program, thank you for your patience. Our first week has not been without some bumps and bruises. I know there were several transportation glitches. I know there were some scheduling glitches. And as people reached out, we were hopefully able to quickly resolve those. So again, we thank you for your patience with that. This is the first year that we have run two separate programs, the special ed program and a general education program at the same time. And again, with some overlapping of staff and students, there was just some snags and some things that we've had to troubleshoot. And we certainly are keeping note of those. And at the end of the year, the end of the summer, we will evaluate and look at those areas for how we can
070improve that for next year. So we began our program on Tuesday, July 6th. It runs Tuesdays through Thursday mornings, 8.30 to 12, so it's a half-day program. And like I said, we have a little over 150 students participating in this program right now. And the teachers are working hard to really provide the support in a fun-type atmosphere. We want them to learn, but we don't want them to feel like they have to spend their whole summer in school. So the teachers have come up with themes such as camping and the beach and dinosaurs. bubbles and they're just really having a great time. Again, the goal is to work on preventing regression, so those students with IEPs, they are targeting those goals. At the end of the summer, parents will get a progress report on how
071their student did with those goals and what things that they have accomplished over the summer. And in addition to this extended year program, we have another program that just started today, and this is our pre-camp program. And our pre-K camp program will run three mornings a week. It is led by our two preschool teachers, one from Charlton Elementary and one from Mason Road School, along with some wonderful paraprofessionals. And this is something that provides services for students on IEPs, but it also is opened as a tuition-in program for anybody who has a preschooler in town. So if you have a three or four year old and you are still looking for something for them to do this summer, they have three more weeks coming up. They have a little Picasso's week, which is all about
072art. They have a Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles week. They get a big bubble machine come in. They have a foam party. And then they do a fun in the sun party at the last week. And it's just a chance for our preschoolers to learn some of those pre-readiness skills for kindergarten as well as to be prepared with. just some social interactions with each other I think that is kind of our general summary oh the one other thing I wanted to say is that for our students who receive ESY services through their school through their IEP we did extend our program this year by two weeks typically we do a four-week summer program And again, we felt that because of COVID and the changes and the remote learning that if we could provide some extra time and
073extra support, we would. So we have provided two extra weeks of programming for all of our students in the ESY program. And again, you know, really proud of our teachers who have stepped up and said, you know what, these children need it and we'll be here for them. So thank you. I'm open to any questions you might have. Just for clarification, you said that the ESY, the non-pre-K, I think you said that it was Tuesday through Thursday. It's Monday through Thursday. Thank you. Yes, yes. Majority of the programming is Monday through Thursday mornings. The pre-K camp runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday mornings. Okay, thank you, Lorinda. Okay, next on the agenda is superintendent's evaluation. This evening, the school committee is not doing any evaluation. We will be doing it at our next meeting of August 25th.
074This is a chance for Mr. Lamarche to speak about his goals. Madam Chair, I thought Mrs. Costello, did you? Oh, okay. I said she take it up on this. So as I was recently elected in May and I've only been on for two months, while I am a parent in the district and I did watch the Zooms for a year and communicated with the school, I was wondering because of the change in the timeline that the evaluation would normally be done, to my understanding, is would it be prudent to reach out to Stephanie Reed to see if she could do an evaluation. And I'm going to ask the committee to, their thoughts on this. Okay, Jordan. I might be wrong, but if I recall, I thought Stephanie actually addressed the request of her maybe being
075an input on this. Like I said, I might be wrong, but I think I remember this conversation. So do we know if she was open to it? Through the chair she never gave me that when I was chair last year she never gave me that indication but I don't remember maybe I'm forgetting I believe that we were under the impression that she would no longer be able to evaluate but considering could you please miss Costello read the MASCC like do you have that front of me and I did contact them and it depends on whether or not what was set up at the beginning of the year for setting up the goals I'm sorry and through the chair not to cut you off Mrs. Costello and that obviously we we had a problem with that
076this year so I think it's going to be difficult to to do this because if we didn't set everything in September and then we were planning on doing it in April then it got moved to the summer so I don't know if we can do it, and I don't know the law as far as a former school committee member who's not on the committee, if that can be taken in. Again, I'm not an expert on the law. And I'm not aware of it. I think we probably have to get legal counsel on it because it could be illegal, but I'm not aware of any law. Go ahead. If our legal counsel says it's acceptable, I'm not opposed to it if Ms. Costello is willing to take that route. I believe that would not be a
077voting member she would just be a communicating that communicating information Mrs. Costello would be a voting member and I would also agree with that but I do think we need to get our attorneys approval I also just want to echo my support of this because I feel that Stephanie at this point is an invaluable resource. And considering she was here with us, it would be good if she consents to it. Just a suggestion, sorry, to get in your face, Gene. I think our first step should be we should have Mrs. O'Coin reach out before contacting legal to see if Mrs. Reed is even willing or interested, right? Or should we do the other? I don't know. What do you think, Mrs. Terry? Before I... I think we should get the legal before we even contact
078anyone. Go ahead. Could I recommend that you ask Mrs. Reed first so that we don't incur legal charges? Yeah, thank you. It's going. Maybe we should stop. But I'm thinking. Maybe it's not legal to even ask her. I mean, I think we should get the legal if we're all for it. And I hear you, Mrs. O'Quinn, because then if legal says we can't, we don't want to even go down the path of asking Mrs. Reed, right? Right. So that's your point. I hear you. I just have to voice, I don't think. Once a person leaves office, their job is done. I'm going to be the one on the other side. I think her job ended May whatever the election was. Even though she might have an opinion, I don't think it counts because this is
079being evaluated now and she's not on the committee. My feeling is we should just go with, and if you don't feel comfortable evaluating, then don't. We just have six members. It's okay. I just, because of the change and how it went off of. off of the regular voting dates. I just wasn't sure. So I just wanted to bring it up for discussion. I'm fine either way. Through the chair? Go ahead. Mrs. Cavallo, just to kind of have a different opinion on that, I think that our evaluation is of the past year while she was a member of this committee, and it should have occurred during the timeline that she was here. And so that's no fault to the election timeline that it changed. I just think this is hopefully one of our final consequences to
080COVID. That's my just my feeling I know we were discussing the dates we made the dates in April before she was off the thing and then we changed it all I think at that point that meant that she was off the committee that's just my feeling and I I'll tell you my feeling my feeling is the same Right now. I think it should be up to the elected officials on the school committee And Kenny, you wanted to say something? Thank you, Mrs. O'Quain. I am in agreement with Mrs. Caballo and Mrs. O'Quain on this. And I do recall, I think, what Ms. Evans was saying. I think when we changed the dates, I think Mrs. Reed understood that was going to be the plan. Again, we could check with her, but I think that's what
081you were referring to. And I also think, too, and again, like we talked about at a previous meeting, Mrs. Cabala, or she brought it up, it's no fault of anybody, but it is our doing. We moved the date. So if that was our doing, then we have to accept the consequence. So that's just my opinion. Anyone else? Okay. Does anyone want to take a vote to see if it's going to be legal or not? to have Stephanie I mean some of the members still probably would like to see her do some evaluation so if anybody wants to make a motion I don't think I have the authority to say if it's legal or not so I don't want to make a motion like that No, well you could make a motion that we will Seek
082legal counsel to see if it is if you feel strongly about having Stephanie evaluate I mean, we can do that. I think we should, if you're going to go that route, I think we should ask Stephanie first and not waste one penny like Mrs. Kamiany said. She may not want any part of it. She has done, she has served her eight years, whatever it was. She's done her duty. I don't think we should be pushing legal advice if the person doesn't even want to do it. So I think we're putting the horse before the horse. Well, we have to take a straw vote to see how many want to go that route. Otherwise, why contact Stephanie? yes mrs. Cabal's point I hear you and I agree but then what happens if we ask her and
083she's interested and then legal says no and and what if most of the school committee says no they don't want her to so we have to take a straw vote and to see how we're going to go that way what do you want to make for the motion I would like to make a motion to allow Mrs. Stephanie Reed to evaluate the superintendent in a non-voting manner pending legal approval Any more discussion on it all in favor of the motion opposed okay motion carries 4-3 So the first step is to call Stephanie. We will call Stephanie. Okay. I will. I will. I'll call Stephanie, and if she agrees to it, then I will call legal counsel. Okay? I just have a few comments regarding evaluation as you know the first stage was for me to
084submit my self evaluation which has been submitted to you as a committee keep in mind that they were on goals that were approved by the school committee on October 14th three goals one was established methods and methodologies to identify individual student achievement and progress as a result of the various models of learning implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic the second goal was established Dudley-Chelton Regional School District organizational leadership to navigate and implement a high quality comprehensive learning program to all students during the COVID-19 pandemic and the last was advocate for a district-wide culture that embraces equity for all students and staff and community members keep in mind that those were presented and passed by the school committee on October 14th and then there were subsequent areas of focus that were presented to the school committee on
085February 10th 2021 and approved by the school committee They were under instructional leadership. Ensures that practices in all settings reflect high expectations regarding content and quality of effort and work. Engage all students and are personalized to accommodate diverse learning styles, needs, interests, and levels of readiness. Which, again, keep in mind, this comes out of the state superintendent's evaluation document. The second area, focus area. which was under management and operations. Environment, develops and executes effective plans, procedures, routines, and operational systems to address a full range of safety, health, emotional, and social needs. And then the third standard, which is family and community. The focus area was family concerns, addresses family and community concerns in an equitable, effective, and efficient manner. And the last one was professional culture. Cultural proficiency ensures that policies and practices enable staff
086members and students to interact effectively in a culturally diverse environment in which students' backgrounds, identities, strengths, and challenges are respected. So again, I provided you with all of that. This was the first time that I used a system that you guys have in this district. So the PDF did get cut off, but I did email you the actual text. a recreated document which is the text in there for you to look through and I also provided you my self-assessment ratings to look at I just want to point out that I did not rate in any areas of evaluation for the district because as previously indicated in our district an MOU was signed with the teachers for no evaluations this year and the same was carried over for all administrators this year there were no evaluations
087the only individual being evaluated this year is myself Thank You Madam Chair any questions Katherine Just in terms of transparency I really I have a problem that the only thing that we put on our website is our agenda I really believe that we should start be giving the public like a Google Drive access I know a lot of different school systems do that because I think it's important for them to see this information not that they have the ability to evaluate but I think it's important for them to see it and as well as any other information that we're getting as a school committee We'll take that, Kathy, into consideration. Other districts that put it in as a packet. Anyone else? Madam Chair, the only thing is I did email all of you and say
088if you'd like to schedule an appointment to go over things with me or have any questions, because sometimes text doesn't do everything. So, again, I am available. I do plan on trying to take a family vacation this summer, as we did last summer. But I am available to sit down with each and every one of you. Anyone else? Ms. LaMarche is this the end of your presentation are you gonna read through what you provided to us Through the chair was not reading through everything that I put it's eight and a half pages and all the other sections as well again it's for me to provide a self-assessment to you as a committee On August 25th Jamie that's when we're going to be public with everything Is the evidence that goes along with this document, you
089know, there might be other supporting evidences, is that included as PDFs in the TeachPoint program? This is the... The teach point now isn't the program. It's vector. That's why vector is teach point. Oh, yeah, it's just a new company that took over Told me right as I'm not familiar. She said it's not teach point. She don't make this vector, right? Yeah, it's yeah, it's kind of I just didn't know because I know that when I do my evaluation I can put attachments within it so I didn't know if that was available for us as well Right if there are attachments I think we have everything right Through the chair that's why I suggested scheduling an appointment with me to go over I didn't create a binder or anything like that but I could go over
090all the physical evidence that you're looking for We don't have any more attachments this is it I'm new to this this is new to me but I thought when we had met with our MASC representative we were told that we were supposed to have the evidence the supporting documentation I won't call it evidence a supporting documentation with each self-evaluation for our review as we do this thorough and that's the evidence that he has given us so you have to go by that No, no, I mean well this is this document does not provide physical evidence for your review. That's that's what I was referring to The chair doesn't provide fiscal evidence, but it provides context in in all of the writings No, no, I right I've read all that I just I guess I may
091be misunderstood what miss Novak men when she came in I thought we were gonna receive significant packet of the evidence with it so that we would all have have that in our hands to review as well I just want to say something because Kathy and I have evaluated and in the past this is how we've evaluated there was nothing else there wasn't a binder so I mean that's what I'm used to so if he came up with something else he's giving us the goals In our district we would not expect our teachers to provide evidence within their binder because I can't imagine we'd ask a principal to go meet with every teacher and not look at you know I just find it for me to come look at your evidence having your evidence in the
092teach point document provides the public is a public record of your evidence me coming to your office to look at specific pages of evidence is Time out of my schedule and it's it's going to be seven meetings for you Go ahead If I may just through the chair for what information this is worth Mrs. Carmagnani we do when it's with teachers teachers principals do meet with every teacher and go through their evaluations So just for clarity standpoint on that Is this something that may be a good idea to consult with Mrs. Novak about, considering she is our MASC representative? Come in for, and I thought that she already did that, and my recollection is that there was evidence that needed to be supporting of each different goal that was, I mean, I don't need it
093to be in a binder, but I thought that we were going to have kind of the supporting documentation for this. Yes. Catherine, do you remember? in the past because we've had these farms they come right from the state I'm just that was it like this yes it was like this so the evidence he has written it down his evidence of his goal okay that's how they've done it in the past so you know maybe he got the wrong counseling then because We have others in the past and I do have samples of them that I had done in the past. Sorry through the chair. So how about This is following through with past practice and then if we're looking for something to be a PDF within the body of the of the system moving forward
094that we make sure that that is an actual item for the next year following Right and we can all agree to that because this act this is past practice I mean he's gone by what we've done in the past Just as a follow-up not to beat a dead horse but we spent a long time with Ms. Novak at a meeting during this year talking specifically about this and so I don't necessarily feel like we have to go with past practice because we received counsel from our professional association this year. Just my take on it is and like we talked about earlier this whole year with Mr. Lamache's evaluation is it's just been not to be rude but a mess and the dates kept moving we didn't set things in september we didn't set the indicators
095as a committee and so it's been one of those years and with covid it was just the focus was getting kids back to school and so i think a lot of this is our own fault i'm not pointing fingers i'm just saying as a committee we could have done better as a committee to set and for everything and really be very clear in the beginning and we didn't do that and I don't mean to be disparaging but we specifically moved this from March until this time frame to give that adequate time to be able to gather evidence so my impression was that we would have documentation with this documents if that's not the case then I'll take it as this and if I have further questions I'll ask Well, it's not the case because we
096don't have it. Go ahead. I'm just asking really that you have a representative here that regardless of what happened in previous years, it sounds like someone came in here, a representative of some sort, or one of your higher armies that said this is what happens. You're also saying that that was also adjusted in March. So what would be the issue with saying we need more evidence or evidence to whatever those specific things and say, Mr. LaMarche, you have seven business days to get that rest of that information. What is the issue? Why wouldn't you allow that? If it was supposed to be done that way, why wasn't it done? Go ahead. Wait. Okay. I just got to be jailed last week, and that's I worked. With mr. Lamar I only had a short time so
097I don't think anyone had worked with them before To give them the direction right Kenny correct when I was chair We weren't at that point because the date kept moving right and so we were with the salt and we this is where we're at and I knew what we did in the past and We've had masc reps coming to tell us how to do it in the past and it was revised in 2017 the form and that's how it was done in the past and like I said I only had a week to wait go ahead and that the the issue on the contract of renewal is separate from the evaluation so it's two separate entities just so you know Whatever. Go ahead. No, through the chair. I think that the issue, my view of
098this is he has evidence. You just have to meet with him to review it. It's not that he doesn't have evidence. He has it. You just have to meet with him, get it, and I'm sure he'd give you copies of everything. So I think that's the, it's not that there's no evidence. It's that he has it. However, if I meet with him to go over evidence, it is not a public document. But we can create one. That's what I'm asking. Right. But I'm saying is you could sit with him, get it, and then they could scan it in and upload it to the website. And I don't know. I guess I don't see the problem with meeting with him to review it. That's my opinion. I'm with Mrs. Carminiani that's seven of us taking our
099schedules to do that and it's seven people taking Mrs. LaMarche's schedule away from our educational district to meet with us individually and I guess the only thing other thing I want to say in that way I just stopped talking is anything that you want to provide in addition to this Mrs. LaMarche I will read and so I would I would welcome Any evidence that you would probably have interest in providing to us? Go ahead. Just for a point of clarity, I welcome meeting with any one of you any time. That if he's asking to meet with us, I mean, he's not the one saying I don't have time. He's asking to meet with all seven of us. You know what I'm saying? So we shouldn't determine that. You know, I'm just saying. Go ahead. I'm
100sorry. This is, I don't know how to word this to make it sound correct. This is a volunteer position. Agreed. And when I am going over a professional's evaluation, I expect to have the documents in hand. I understand, but I do think we were not clear all year long. We were absolutely clear because what I talked, we had a conversation about that you needed more time to gather your evidence. That was implied to me that he was gathering pieces of evidence. Through the chair go ahead I think from listening to this so far I think some of the issue is not whether or not he has evidence is that just some expected that evidence to appear within the document and Not have a separate meeting. Is there any way that we can resolve this so
101some of in some way for those that cannot Take time out of their schedule to meet with mr. Lamar should still have the evidence well Kathy you're looking for some attachments with evidence and maybe we can get it from him There's a statement Let me see. There's a statement that says I am confident I responded to over 95% of all correspondence and telephone calls from parents caregivers and DCRSD staff members How do I okay? How do I equate so you need some examples? I need some examples. I need to be able to justify that. So maybe Mr. Lamas you can do that But again, for a point of clarity, the number of emails and phone calls I received this year, are you asking for me to print out all of those, give you my phone,
102telephone book? Those shouldn't all be public record. Correct. I'm just saying that's just one area. Like, I'm just, I don't know. I'm just not happy. I'm sorry. Through the chair, to be clear, whether it's 95% or not, as a school committee member, you would have heard if I'm not responding to people. You would have heard that. Correct? Miss Terry gets many more phone calls than I do. School committee members would have heard if I'm not responding to people. We see it right online I think we have examples of that one Kathy because we see all the communications coming in and we see all his answers so that one I have evidence because I've seen that but I know what she means maybe on something else you need well I did this some example how you
103did this attain this goal Again, through the chair, just because this is my first time going through this with you as a committee as well. The reason why I'm probably quiet is because I'm not sure what evidence you're looking for in support of what I wrote regarding each one of these categories. And that's why meeting with you one-to-one would give me an idea of what evidence you're looking for, not only for this year, but also for the future. Because I could spend a whole week trying to provide you evidence, but if it's not the right thing that you're looking for, again, it's part of growing together and working together. Sure. I will go through the document and send an email of what additional evidence I would like to see. Thank you. I just want to
104say I'm not opposed to meeting with you miss Lamarche and this week alone school committee has taken me away from my family more hours than I've been with them so I completely support where mrs. Kamran Yani is at and I'm exhausted and it's only Wednesday but my I don't think that we should individually have to meet with you seven different people hearing seven different responses back to an evaluation that is written for all of us. I think that I have concerns with individuals meeting with you and you having responses differently to us along the way. Not because I think you're being devious, but because it's human nature to have a conversation. Five times and it varies a little bit and so I just that's I mean I thought we were coming here to hear you
105tell us all of this publicly openly and then be able to Communicate I don't know maybe formulate is a better word formulate our own Reviews forward and then that will be brought forward at the next meeting, but maybe I'm green to this too Well, as Kenny did say, next time we have to set our goals for what he's going to give us. And we didn't do that, Kenny. Correct. Okay. Go ahead. I fear this might be an issue of mixed context because looking at this, while there are certain bullet points, sentences, paragraphs that I can understand why people would be frustrated with because how do you prove a statement that starts with I am confident? Most of this stuff is concrete and objective. Like this to me is evidence. So I suppose it comes down
106to how did we interpret evidence when we met with our MASC representative because this to me looks like evidence. I thought this narrative was actually the evidence and that's what I thought and if we wanted something other than that we should have instructed the superintendent to do it but no one did and like I said I did the best I could with telling showing him what I thought was right and he he had his goals before I met with him because he had sent them in before to everyone and Kenny did you want to say something I agree with Mrs. Cabala on what she had said Example. What remains elusive. We're having a meeting. Sorry. No, no one is talking. We're talking. Page three. What remained elusive and most difficult was every effort to keep
107the administrative team, in parentheses, building principles on the same page and to consistently apply agreed upon operational decisions by the leadership council. I don't know how I'm supposed to verify that. What are we supposed to go with that? through the chair that was in an introduction that was not supporting a goal or anything that was just an introduction introductory paragraph okay then maybe i need to understand the flow of this and if we meet i can understand it better also just for a point of reference educator evaluation has changed when it originally came out in 2012 there was an expectation that you would bring in you would back up a dump truck of evidence to support you but they were it was overwhelming to try to meet that because expectations of evidence are very different.
108So now they were saying in educator evaluation when it evolved that you may bring in one article of evidence or you may bring in one piece. It was a minimal, the evidence was minimal. The dialogue was the most critical part of the evaluation system. Okay. Anything else before I go along? Go ahead, Joy. I guess I just want to end with this. When I look at this, I see a lot of things that, as I've said, objectively happened, and then I can point to on a calendar and be like, oh yeah, that did happen. This is evidence. However, this I'm interpreting as more of a framework for further questions because we are meeting at a later date for our own evaluations of him, but this gives me a place to start. So I'm still, I
109just wanted to be known that I interpret this as evidence. Okay, so I'll go to next meeting dates school committee meeting August 25th at Shepherd Hill Regional High School budget and finance subcommittee to be determined Yeah, and if the date is wrong, correct me, please because I've got the corrected dates and I don't know if they're still correct Policy Review Subcommittee, Friday, July 16th at 10 a.m. Curriculum Subcommittee for Teaching and Learning, Monday, July 26th, 9 a.m. Capital Outlay Safety Committee, Friday, July 16th, 11 a.m. And these meetings will all be video conferencing. Future Agenda Items. Dudley-Charlton Regional School District Strategic Plan Progress Report, August. Special Education Transportation, August. Superintendent's Evaluation, July slash August. School Committee Summer Workshop, July slash August. Approval of the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District Student Handbook, or Handbooks rather, August. And
110anyone want to add anything to the agenda? Go ahead, John. I just want to clarify that on the agenda we have the policy review subcommittee meeting on July 9th. So as this is posted publicly, it's just something to be mindful of so people at home aren't confused. it's just printed wrong because everybody got a new agenda in their packet you probably didn't look at it um i just sandy sent a new one and that's where i got this one this one was just the one that was in our packet so friday morning uh 10 o'clock this friday about the 16th jamie go ahead but it's a zoom it's a zooming what I didn't oh yes it's a public those are public meetings yes they should be it's not a private meeting it's posted so there
111should be links for that Sandy we did post that we asked the council to post that yes she did so I have down for future agenda items some kind of information about what the fall will look like if we have changes from what we currently believe it's at I know that at the forum Mr. LaMarche made mention of showcasing the social-emotional learning that has occurred during this past year of which if you're not aware there was a lot of it and I believe it should continue my own personal opinion and this is how I wrote it school committee responses to the forum questions you can word it differently if you want but those are the three things that I think should be added I have a question for when we do the approval of the
112Dudley Charlton Regional School District student handbooks could we please have noted what changed in the handbook so that we can see that but I think it would be important that it be made public ahead of the meeting Through the chair My understanding because this will be the first time we've I've gone through this here is that they only submit the changes They don't submit the entire handbook because they're only submitting changes, but maybe I'm incorrect But they show it in yellow what they're changing they've always done that but what do you want it ahead of time to make sure that when they when we see the page with the submitted with the changes can we see can we have a link to the to the other to the book within that like to their original
113book? Dean do you have anything to say about the handbook? Through the chair they're only electronic version so they're already electronic so you would have definitely have the link to the entire handbook and I don't think that there's substantive changes to the handbook from this from last year to this year but any changes you require school committee approval Anybody on the committee that's been here with me is this the presentation that we typically have up on the big screen that shows us is this what's come forth before I really feel like we had a like even if it was short but it was a PowerPoint presentation just so that it was up on the screen okay then when do we review the school improvement plans again we just came out of a COVID year so
114that will obviously be front and center this year school improvement plans it'll probably be the fall thank you Okay any additions? Just to have a point of clarity for the next meeting date to the school committee meeting the last couple agendas didn't have the time and we just want to make sure the times they have for the public at 7 p.m. but just so it's on the agenda the other last thing I wanted to bring up was I'll be in touch sending out a Google form or something about the summer workshop dates I didn't bring a calendar tonight I know Kathy and I talked about it but I'll send out that so we can all find a date just so you know thank you Our strategic plan is now out of date so I think
115that if we can have an update this fall I'm not asking for next meeting because that's a little bit aggressive if we could have an update this fall on our plans for our new strategic plan or how we are going to develop our strategic plan that would be helpful. Definitely it will be in the fall. It should be. One other item I think we should add for a future agenda meeting maybe in the fall when we're able to piece it together and maybe after our professional development I've been talking with a lot of constituents about understanding the role of the school committee member and understanding what our role is and what our role is not and I think that may be helpful to have as an agenda item just to share with the public about
116because I think there's confusion about what we do as far as curriculum and what we don't do you know something you know there are some things that come down from DESE that is not under the local school committee control and I think the public needs to understand that so again that's a small piece of the topic but maybe this fall at some point thank you being able to provide a Google Drive access on our website for the documents. Another question about that, Mrs. Camignani. I agree. I totally agree that it should be. The public should have access to our packets. In some districts I've seen where our packet is scanned and the PDF is right on the website instead of a Google Drive. You know what I'm saying? Because that might be easier. And I
117apologize. I know I referenced my district, but in my district, we have the packet scanned as one PDF document, and there is a Google Drive of all of the documents in one place. So you can have all of the school committee meetings from 2021 in one place. I totally agree. I meant it as we don't need a Google Drive. You just make sure every single one is always there on the website. Like every meeting we have this one gets uploaded the next meeting that gets uploaded You know what I'm saying? It's you don't necessarily have to go into a Google Drive to do it because I've seen districts do it that way I just a point of suggestion I think we can we certainly have more work to do on our website agree And I
118think we can look at that but I do my my thought process is that we need to provide We need to provide more transparency to our public Okay. All right. Anything else? Okay. So at this time... We are going to be entering into executive session for the purpose to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining, non-union personnel. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair, so declares. Only to reconvene into regular session for the purpose of voting, if need be. adjournment right now I'm going to entertain a motion to go into executive session okay any discussion on it okay I will take a roll call Jordan yes Jamie you said yes we are now in executive session