DCRSD SC Mtg October 14 2020

001So they hear you. Okay, Mr. LaFerriere, we are good to go. Thank you very much, Mr. Earl. Good evening. It is my pleasure to call to order the meeting of the Dudley Charlton Regional School Committee. It is Wednesday, October 14th, 2020. It is now 7.01 p.m. We are meeting at Shepherd Hill Regional High School at the Library Media Center and also remotely via Zoom and Vimeo. This evening, two of the members are meeting remotely on Zoom. That would be Mrs. Kabbalah and Mrs. O'Coin. And five members are meeting in person at the Shepherd Hill Library. That would be Mrs. Kamanyani, Ms. Evans, Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Terry, and myself, Mr. LaFerriere. We have the ability to meet jointly remotely due to the executive order signed into law by Governor Baker on March 12th. All votes this

002evening will be taken by roll call as required. At this time, I would ask everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and those in the room, if we could step to the side of the screen. Thank you. Thank you. First, let me back up before I begin that. This evening, for the folks sitting in the library, if we want to be sure, we're muted in between when we're speaking. Myself included, thank you for the reminder. And again, if you're hooked up directly to the laptop, you need to just hit the mute button on the Zoom functionality. If you have the other piece on the headphone, you need to mute the headphones as well. Additionally, at this point, I'd like to welcome Ms. Michaela Kluet, our student representative, a senior at Shepherd Hill Regional High

003School. And Michaela, we thank you so much for your time and energy and for you being here to represent the students that we're all here for this evening. You're more than welcome to say hello, but I certainly don't expect an opening statement. Hello. I'm super excited to be involved, and I can't wait for this year. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here this school year. Next, we'll move into our moment of silence, and we'll have our traditional 15-second moment of silence. Thank you. Next, we'll move into approval of the minutes. I would entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of Wednesday, September 23, 2020. So moved. So moved. Okay. And a second? Second. Second. Okay. Mrs. O'Coin made the motion. Mrs. Reed seconded. Any questions or discussion?

004Hearing none, we'll do our roll call vote. Mrs. Comignani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Cabala? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And the chair votes yes. Those minutes are approved. I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the special meeting of Wednesday, September 30th, 2020. So moved. Second. Motion been made by Mrs. O'Coin, seconded by Mrs. Kabbalah. Discussion? Questions? Hearing none, Mrs. Kamenyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabala? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And Mr. LaFerriere, myself, I vote yes. Minutes have been approved. We'll move on to the next item. Approval of the warrants. Again, a traditional item on the agenda. Warrants continue to be signed electronically by school committee members. Any questions or concerns, please refer to Mr. Matthews' usual report and reach out to

005him and his team for any concerns. At this point, we move into Citizens Forum. I would ask the assistance of Mr. Earl. to let us know if there's somebody here tonight that would like to speak with the school committee and the administration. Mr. LaFerriere, currently I have 22 attendees, but no one has their hand up. All right. Okay, we'll move on. Nobody for Citizens Forum this evening. Thank you, Mr. Earle. Into communications. Do any of our members have communications this evening? Mrs. Cabala? I'm sure a lot of us received communications about the Wednesday schedule. I assume Mr. Lamache will be talking about that under his report. Is that true, Mr. Lamache? I'm definitely going to mention it as part of the entirety of the report. Okay. I just wanted to make a people aware that

006we did receive communications about it. Thank you. And through the chair, I received many communications also, Kenny, on that topic. Thank you, Mrs. O'Coin. Any other members for communications this evening? And I will just, on behalf of the committee, acknowledge that we did receive multiple emails regarding the topic of Wednesday instruction and teacher professional development. And we thank the community members and teachers for reaching out to the school committee. Michaela, did you have a communication this evening that you'd like to present? Yes, Michaela, please. So I just have a couple things. Tomorrow, the middle schools and the high schools return to in-person remote learning. And I can say that lots of students, cohort B, are very excited. I know I'm personally very jealous. Also up at Shepherd Hill, show choir, sports, and band has started

007up again. Even today, we had some... games. We had the two soccer teams, boys and girls, had games and so did field hockey against North Brookfield. They did pretty well, I heard. Clubs are also starting up again virtually. Clubs such as GSA, our academic decathlon team and math team, student council, and even academic decathlon and math team are having virtual competitions this upcoming year that we just found out. Along with the clubs, we have a group of students who have been working together these past couple of weeks to create videos for the students coming into Shepherd Hill, stating some of the regulations and the rules that follow with in-person learning. And those videos have been sent out to the families through Mr. Chaplin's weekly communications. And the final thing I have is the National Honor

008Society has been very involved. They had their induction two weeks ago, and that was very successful. And they even have in the works, it's happening, this event called Haunting on the Hill. It's a trick-or-treating drive-thru event on October 30th from 6 to 7.30, where families can bring their children. In the Shepherd Hill parking lot, there will be a route where families can drive through and collect candy, and kids can celebrate Halloween, and they can get some good candy while they're at it and wear their costumes. So that's all I have. Everyone's super excited to start back up again. Thank you, Michaela, for your report, and we look forward to you being with us on this great team. Thank you very much. We'll move on from communications. We'll move on to the superintendent's report. And at

009this point, I turn it over to Superintendent Lamarche. Thank you, Mr. Chairman of the School Committee. Michaela, you did a fantastic job. Next time I'll give you my report and you can present my report for me too. So nice job right out of the gate. School Committee, I have a number of items to talk about this evening in my report. I did provide an update very late this afternoon. I added some more information to it if you wanted to take a look at it, but I will present it to you as well. We have a number of items to share this evening as our community progressively builds on the best of who we are. Most exciting is our welcome back to in-person learning for students grades 5 through 12 this week, starting tomorrow, Thursday, October

01015, 2020. This is only accomplished by the willingness of everyone to continue to work together and embrace the best of our transitions. Each transition does require patience and flexibility as we incorporate and practice all of the required mitigating strategies. We cannot thank our families enough for working with us through these times. Collectively, we must continue to move past what we know about public education and reimagine it. The Dudley-Charlton Regional School District has committed to this new model of teaching and learning and invested reciprocated time for each student and family. We all recognize that this continues to be an incredibly difficult time for everyone. Predictability, projections, and long-range guarantees evade the best of our work. the best of our daily work. But stability, commitment, and fortitude will continue to be our strength as an educational community

011and a local community. I want to share as well that Shepherd Hill Regional High School was named an official Special Olympics Massachusetts Unified Champion School. This recognition comes in high regard as Shepherd Hill has demonstrated a commitment to inclusion. I want to thank Principal Chaplin and his staff for their efforts to do the right thing and ensure all of our students have access to the incredible school experience afforded here in the Dudley-Charlton communities. This evening, I do have news to share with you that we have had three recent retirements to announce. Miss Karen Kirkland, who has worked at Mason Road Elementary School in the cafeteria for many years, is retiring. In addition, Miss Julie Brown, who has served the Dudley Middle School office as an office leader for many, many years, is retiring. And lastly,

012Miss Dolores, and I don't think I need to pronounce her last name. I think if I just say Dolores, everybody knows who I'm speaking about. And that is partially because I can't really pronounce her name, last name with a flow or a flair, who is well known by generations of students, staff, and many community members. I truly believe that Dolores was hired the year prior to the opening of Shepparton Hill Regional High School in 1973. And we really appreciate all of her years of service to the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. I think she worked at St. Louis School prior to being hired here in Dudley-Charlton. So we wish Dolores and we also wish others the very best in their new chapter of life. I don't know if anyone else wanted to say something. about Dolores

013for something at this time? I remember Dolores when I was a student at Shepherd Hill so that she's been around a long time and she's a fixture, has been a fixture of the community. So I wish her well and all the retirees well on the next chapter. Continuing on, Mr. Chairman of the School Committee, last evening I attended the Charlton Town Meeting held at the Shepherd Hill Regional High School Auditorium. Yes, I did say that correctly. The Charlton Town Meeting was at the Shepherd Hill Regional High School Auditorium here in Dudley. The meeting went well and town administrator Andrew Golas expressed his appreciation to the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District custodians and staff for helping provide a safe environment to conduct the town's business through their special town meeting. I know that the school committee raised

014questions about the airflow ventilation in the Sheppard Hill Regional High School Auditorium based on the red indicator and the Consulting Engineer Services HVAC assessment. We did, as requested, we did work with CES to determine that the occupancy of the Sheffield Regional High School Auditorium under their listed RAD conditions in their calculations identified a safe occupancy of just under 800 people. Fully occupancy of the environment is listed at 1500. So obviously it's less than the full occupancy, but there were either a hundred or less than a hundred participant or attendees for this child and special town meeting last evening. So therefore we also look forward to the town of Dudley's fall town meeting next Monday, October 19th, 2020 in our auditorium. Last week, the town of Dudley was listed in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's

015weekly COVID-19 public health report as a community with a higher level of confirmed cases, 8.1 cases to be specific, as determined by an average daily incidence rate of over eight per 100,000 people or population. This labeled us as a red community. As per our guidance, this is a single data point, but it is important and we take this extremely seriously. Our guidance speaks to a series of weekly confirmed cases to establish a deliberative process in determining next steps with regard to schools and learning models. The state does not support making shifts or changes to current learning models based on a single data point. We have no recommendations to change our current learning plan in the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. The Boards of Health and I participated in a joint meeting last Friday at 7.30 p.m.

016to review our process and the information we have available. which is another key component in making decisions about transitions or shifts to learning models in the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. As of this evening, and I finished typing it because the report didn't come out until just before the meeting, Dudley is now considered a yellow community, which means that their cases of COVID-19 positive have gone down, and Charlton is listed as yellow as well, which they were green and they're yellow now. So for a detailed point of interest, Charlton is at 4.6. You get a yellow designation if you're four or over. And Dudley is now at 6.9, which is less than the 8.1. So there is a shift there. Again, this is why the state recommends that you don't make a decision based off of

017one week's report. Our school nurses, moving on, our school nurses are incredible. This is proven daily as they receive communications and questions from families and staff about COVID-19. This is what we want and we welcome. My purpose for sharing this is that we need to be aware of positive COVID-19 cases in our families so that we can properly follow the recommended guidance and provide the right direction to families and increase the longevity of our opening to in-person learning. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep your student home if they are sick. I cannot stress enough how important it is to self-quarantine if a family member is positive COVID-19 or if a family member has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 until tested. On our website in the top left of the main

018page, you can find available testing sites. Additionally, I cannot stress enough how important it is for families to complete the Dudley-Chelton Regional School District self-certification each day. Each day school is in session. This is Monday through Friday, each day. Regardless of the learning model for that day in that we are in, this information is collected for attendance to school and to increase the longevity of in-person learning. This is a necessary form of communication each day and how we need to start all school days. We are preparing an app to help, but... that the habit to do this needs to be established by our families and our students. As of this evening, and I feel like I'm going to jinx us, we do not have a positive COVID case in our schools. If there is, we

019would send out a communication to our community to let you know that we did. Do we have positive COVID-19 cases in our communities? Yes, we do. But as of this meeting, we do not have it in our schools. And once again, I feel like I just jinxed the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. Through the chairman, I just had a request as a parent who has three children in three different schools. Can we make the form one form that we can fill out so that it's the same form? So if I'm filling it out for one child, I just can keep sending it in so that I don't have to go to find a new source to go. Like I have to go to CES's form and fill out for one child and then go to Heritage's

020form and fill out for another child and then go to CMS's form to fill out for another child. Is there a way that it can just be one form that I fill out once and then click the new name and fill out again and the new name and fill out again? And another question is, if we could take the requirements of adding an email address on it, I know that seems picky, but it takes a lot longer for me to type my email address three times every day when it's just an added amount of work. And I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but it is. I appreciate the feedback and we'll certainly take a look at that but please keep in mind that three schools three individual schools there are three sets of

021people looking at the data it doesn't go to one spot that's as soon as we have our app available that will be easier you'll be able to go into the app and see all three students and be able to fill it out for all three students in one one domain in one area that we can definitely look at collecting the email so you don't have to enter the email address then as well we can definitely take a look at that we are working with the vendor we hope to roll out the app sooner than We are today. Mr. D'Angelo and I have another call tomorrow. We're getting close. They've been inundated with requests to have this app, but we're getting very close. So I appreciate the cumbersome nature of it because it is on our

022side as well to review a Google sheet to look at all of the entries as well. So it's cumbersome on both sides. So we're really hoping to get to it, but I appreciate the feedback. Even if it's like in the same general location. So if we know that it's going to be on each individual school's website on the very front cover or something to that effect, because I do feel like right now in my household, we're going to three different areas to pull that data. And it's no fault of anybody that's putting it out, but it is three different areas. it's just my husband and I fight over who has to do it every day. And then we forget. So I'll be the first to say my kids haven't been having those forms every day.

023Okay. So one of the strategies we've used is you can download into your bookmarks each one of the forms. So you can just hit the tab each time, especially if you have an iPhone, it could be right there to do it. So that's one of the strategies we suggested as well. But again, our goal is to get the app up and running as soon as we possibly can. Thank you. This evening, the governor of Massachusetts, excuse me, this afternoon, the governor of Massachusetts held a press conference around 2.30 p.m. to share news about the fiscal year 2021 state budget. He announced that he has filed legislation. The legislator acted on a year's worth of unrestricted local government aid in Chapter 78. To be more specific, this continues to provide the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District with

024a prior fiscal year level funded budget. In addition, Governor Baker announced that he has made $5.3 billion available to talented schools, but he indicated those funds are especially for those who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. We have a video conference with the Commissioner of Education tomorrow and hope to learn more and the positive impact on the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District. The governor seems to indicate that nothing is really surprising in this fiscal year 2021 filings to the legislators, which does not add a level of optimism that the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District will receive additional funding at this juncture. I also want to announce that the towns of Dudley and Charlton Boards of Health arranging and scheduling a flu clinic with the new state requirement at Shepparton Regional High School on Saturday, November 7th. More details

025will be forthcoming. And at the same time, we are looking at establishing opportunities for our staff to receive a flu shot, a flu vaccination this year as well. Lastly, our schools and principals receive daily requests. Yes, daily requests to enroll a student in either full remote learning or to re-enroll or enroll in hybrid learning. It is extremely important to reiterate what will happen as this is incredibly difficult to organize and navigate. Once a request is either directed, once a request in either direction for full remote or into the hybrid learning model is made, the student will be assigned to a different general education teacher. Again, once a choice request for change is made to enter full-time remote learning or to enter our hybrid learning model, a student will be reassigned to a different general education

026teacher. Additionally, this could take some time to complete as we are using every resource we have to provide these choices in complete reassignments. This could take from two weeks to four weeks to accomplish. Our goal, of course, will always be as soon as possible, but shifts in student and teacher assignments are not simple changes based on incremental requests to move from one model to another. We continue to appreciate patience, and we are working tirelessly to accommodate these requests. Mr. Chairman, that concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you, Mr. Lamache. Questions from the school committee? I had questions myself. Just a question for clarity for the public, because I'm sure we'll get the question. The flu clinic you mentioned, Mr. Lamage, on November 7th, I know more details to follow. Will that be at Shepherd Hill for

027both towns? Yes, Mr. Chairman. It's a joint venture between both boards of health, but they're consolidating into one campus. Yep, sounds good to me. Just wanted to clarify that for the public. Also, again, to piggyback a little bit on Mrs. Terry's question for the self-certification, My question is, and maybe I shouldn't admit this, but I myself have forgotten to do it for my own children, my own child in the district. And I don't mean this in any reflection to the staff or anything, but just as far as the feedback loop, because I think I may have, just as speaking personally, missed it. I assume I'd hear from the teacher, the principal, if I don't do it, just to further expand on that. Mr. Chairman of the school committee, we're hovering between 50 and 60 percent

028participation right now, so it would be almost impossible to contact each individual family to say that. That's why I put it in my report this evening to stress the importance of this, because we know that this will help with the longevity of staying with in-person learning, given the current trajectory of things going on in our state at this point in time. So I am imploring people to really participate in this. It's really a habit, and so if we can create the habit. I know myself, I self-certify every day and there are times that I've arrived at work and said, oh, I need to self-certify. I'm only one, I get that. But it is something that will help with the longevity of staying in in-person learning so that we can trace. The pattern for districts because

029of tracing and not doing self-certification is if they have a positive COVID case, they tend to shut down to get organized and figure out the tracing. If we have self-certifications every day and data that we can rely on and understand the tracing component of that, we would inevitably, we may not have to close down to do the tracing and get organized. So that's what we're trying to prevent. We're trying to make sure that we stay within person learning as long as possible. Thank you, Mr. Lamache. Absolutely. And I certainly don't mean to imply that the district needs to, but I understand it. And maybe I should have pled the fifth and not admitted that I was mistaken in forgetting it. So thank you for clarifying for the public because I'm getting that question as well.

030I'm all set with questions. No one else had questions, correct? No. Okay. We'll move into new business this evening. Item A on the agenda, report of the Director of Finance and Operations, Mr. Matthew. Thank you very much. This evening, I do have a couple of donations for the committee. Dudley Middle School received a donation of three novels for the DMS Library from the Dowd family. Additionally, Gentex has donated 10 gallons of hand sanitizer and 50 face shields. This hand sanitizer will be used on the buses and vans during the year, and they've indicated that they're willing to donate more as needed. So that's a very positive thing. I'd recommend acceptance of these donations. I would entertain a motion to accept the donations mentioned in Mr. Matthews' report. I'll move. Second. Second. Great. I have a

031motion by Mrs. Cabala, seconded by Ms. Evans, to accept the donations in Mr. Matthews' report. Questions? Discussion? Hearing none. Mrs. Kamanyani? Sorry, it's not working. Yes. I hear you now. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabbalah? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes, unanimous approved for the donations. Thank you, Mr. Matthew. Thank you. Next, as unbelievable as it is, the senior plans for Med-X are due for renewal with the Mass Strategic Health Group. As you may recall, members of the committee that were here last year, the rate was guaranteed for 21 and 22. And a portion of the rate was attributable to federal regulations that have since been repealed. So the 2021 rate is actually a 6.5% decrease from the 2020 rate. The 2021 rate would be 275.84 and the

0322020 rate was 295.01. So, again, I think this has proved to be a very positive move for everybody. As much angst as there is in making any sort of change with these rates, with the guarantee for this upcoming year and the following year, and the positive things that we've heard about the service from Retiree Plus and HBI. all of the health plans really have been very positive. So I think it's turned out to be a good move. We did have the annual asbestos notification sent out to the schools. Just as a point of information, the two schools that do still have asbestos are at Shepherd Hill and Charlton Elementary, but it's monitored. and the other five schools are free of that. The last thing in the next agenda item is an update on the HVAC.

033As you all very well may recall, we had a meeting two weeks ago and heard the report from CES. I'm happy to report that since then, we have entered into an agreement with a certified testing and balancing firm, Aerotime Solutions. They'll provide these services at all of the schools. Their projected start date is a few weeks away. But again, all of that work for six of the seven schools, the commissioning, the fixing, and then the testing and balancing is projected to be done by the end of November. For heritage, we found an appropriate solution in lieu of the recommended construction project. In working with Consulting Engineering Services, we consulted with DESE. We believe that the introduction of air purification units can provide a solution for the current situation. CES is working on the calculations to

034ensure accurate sizing of the units. We'll have to go through procurement on this, but we did have a meeting with the two towns yesterday, actually, and they're on board with this additional expenditure. So, again, I think it's good news. It's a path forward. It is not a permanent solution, but it does mean that we don't have to react under pressure. We have a solution to bide ourselves some time and figure out the best path forward for a permanent fix to the actual HVAC system over at Heritage. Rich, I have a question. So this means that we won't have to spend $1.6 million right now on heritage, right? Right now being the key phrase, but yes, that is correct. We should be able to get the students in without having to have the windows open all

035winter for less than that cost. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Mrs. O'Quinn. Mrs. Cabala, did you have a question? Just a quick one. Will this work be done during school time or will they have to come in after school on weekends? How does that work? Some of it will certainly be during school time. Some of it will be right after school, right after students leave. It all depends on the nature of the work and if there's any intrusion in the classroom. Okay. Thanks. Mrs. Terry, go ahead. Thank you for the update, Mr. Matthew. What is the impact to the other schools and the windows being opened? And how does this impact that? Because it doesn't sound to me like the air purification units will go in all schools. Is that correct? You're sitting next

036to me, so I muted myself so we wouldn't get the reverb. That is correct. It's not going to be going in all seven schools. Heritage is the only one where we cannot mechanically introduce the appropriate airflow. And as a result, we have to take this step in this extraordinary measure. And so once the balancing and testing firm completes the work at the other six schools, the need for the windows being opened is alleviated? We'll still need airflow, but we can achieve that through mechanical unit ventilators and HVAC systems at the other six schools. Okay, last question. Will CES be back in after we have this work done that ends in the end of November? And then whenever the Heritage School adaptations are done to review and do what they did in the initial assessment again

037to make sure that it does provide appropriate safeguards? The testing and balancing will actually take care of that. They'll do the same sort of analysis after they do their adjustments so that we know that they're done correctly. Okay. And they'll get us a report that we can review as well? We'll certainly ask them for it. Thank you, Mrs. Terry. Any questions for Mr. Matthew regarding his usual report this evening? I have one question for Mr. Matthew. Regarding the senior plan renewal that you mentioned, I just, for my own clarification, you talk about those being, the rates being repealed, but they're obviously repealed in our favor. So I guess I just wanted to clarify it because I'm confused if they were guaranteed rate. What benefit is it of the company to give us a better rate?

038You follow me? It's not the company doing it. While I'm sure they would like to provide us a savings, it's the federal government, actually. They had a requirement on the books that they've subsequently repealed. So that charge isn't passed on to seniors anymore. Okay. I understand now. I just couldn't understand. Usually rates go up. So that's why I was commenting. And that's why I said it was good news. I agree. Thank you very much for clarifying. And no other questions this evening for Mr. Matthew. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Lamash has a comment. Mr. Lamash. Yes, Mr. Chairman of the school committee. I just want to reinforce that Mr. Matthew has been working incessantly and tirelessly. on this endeavor to get us to a good place. He has had several consultative calls with CES, but he's

039also the vendor who's doing the tabs and balances. We had a joint conference call with everybody to get on the same page and understand the project that's in front of us and what needs to be accomplished based off of CES's guidance and also the tab and balances skill set. So there continues to be a lot of effort put into this to get things right. So I just want to make sure that the community is aware of that. Thank you, Mr. Lamache. And I want to just comment and thank Mr. Matthew for all his time. When I came up last week to meet with Mr. Lamache to review the agenda, I would just say it nicely. Mr. Matthew looked exhausted. So we thank you for your continued efforts and your support, Mr. Matthew. If I could,

040just a couple of things. So obviously having spent so much time with HVAC, as I told the committee, My work over the summer has been delayed, but I am in a position where I'm pretty confident in saying that I would expect our E&D. I was a little nervous last time I talked to you about that, but I do expect our excessive deficiency funds to be certified at about the same level they were this year. So I'm very happy about that. Again, I was a little concerned before, but I think we'll end up there. And I expect to have... the FY20 budget transfer, final information type stuff at the next meeting, but certainly at the November meeting at the absolute latest, but getting to a path of final resolution on the HVAC, crossing the fingers, allows

041me to start doing other stuff finally. Superintendent LaMarche did mention the FY21 budget update from the governor. I would say that I did print the cherry sheets. The regional transportation is the same as it was previously. So I don't think these numbers are anywhere near finalized. I think we do have to wait for the House and the Senate budgets to come out. But the one thing I did notice is a substantial increase in our charter school sending tuition assessments. So, you know, I think there's an indication that some students chose to attend charter schools as opposed to coming back here or choosing other options. Again, we'll have more information on this at the next meeting. Thank you so much, Mr. Matthew. And we'll move on to item, new business item C, excuse me, item B,

042the update on the Dudley-Chatton Regional School District, HVAC systems and planning. And it's back to you, Mr. Matthew. I thought I just did that. I assumed it was a separate report. My apologies. It was all you combined it and snuck a fast one in there, Mr. Matthew. Thank you for keeping me on my toes. Usually it's my colleagues who point out my faults. Just kidding. Next is C, report of the food services program. And we'll ask Mr. Greenberg to present. Mr. Greenberg, welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good evening to everybody. I wanted to share some good news before I start. The USDA has approved the universal feeding waiver for the rest of the school year. So going forward through the school year, students will not be charged meals. I thought that's very, it was very

043big news. And I'd like to share that with everyone here tonight. So it just means a little bit more work for us, but it's better for the students in the community. So I just wanted to start with that. I'm going to share my screen right now. There we go. Can everyone see the homepage? Yep, I see it. All right. Thanks to Mrs. Lara Carpenter and Mrs. Kelly McDonald, who did a lot of work over the summertime with content and building. We are proud to announce our new food services website that's accessible through the district homepage under student section on the food services. This will be a landing point for all things food service. As you can see right off the start, you have a link to the menu for all the schools, and I'll touch

044on that in a little bit. We have the My School Bucks link, which thankfully will not be needed this year, as well as our Twitter feed where we are posting pictures of our staff and examples of the food that we're sending home with the students. As you scroll down, this section right here on universal free meals will be updated, but I'm going to try to keep this updated as possible for important news. As you scroll down, you have Harvest of the Month, which is worked with Mass Farm to Table. We are able to provide recipes and other healthy ideas to go with these, introduce kids. Free and reduced application. I know that's always something where people need to fill out a form. They don't have it. They can come here. There's a link. We also

045have links to WIC and SNAP to help any families that may need assistance. And as you scroll down, all the frequently asked questions about free and reduced is all here on one spot. So it's easy for a parent to find everything they're going to need. Nutrition and fitness, a whole bunch of. ideas and plans to help students and parents when it comes to healthy eating and nutrition, a section on nutrition ed for parents, students, and teachers. The parents section, we're going to have links to MyPlate from the USDA, personality quizzes, and that will recommend different links and sites to visit. What I'd like to do is go from here to the menu link. This will redirect you directly to our page in Dudley on the meal viewer website. Now this will make all of the

046schools in the district available for menus. The menus are posted three months in advance as of now. So we're set through Christmas break. You just find which school you want. We'll go to Shepherd Hill. Creating a profile is optional. If a parent chooses to do it, you will be able to save the school that the students go to and your personal preference in regards to food allergens, favorites, and nutritional calculators as well. And this is just a quick tour. As you can see here, we're in, today's the 14th. As you can see, tomorrow's entree is a barbecue rib sandie. If you hover over the item, it will give you all of the nutritional facts and a picture, you know, just so kids and parents can maybe get an idea if there's something on the menu

047that is unfamiliar to them. And cherry blossom chicken, it's a Chinese food dish. But once again, it also lists the allergens over here on the bottom right. which is going to be kind of handy for kids with allergens and parents that want to plan. Also over here on the left-hand side, there's an info and an allergen tab, or if you click on the allergen tab, it lists a lot of the major allergens. So if you say, let's say, you know, little Johnny has a milk allergy and you click this, it will take out what milk is in. It'll redline it out. Now, I'd say 90% of these are current and I'm still working on making this 100% accurate. But as a start, I mean, we've uploaded almost 4,000 recipes and 8,000 items into here. So,

048you know, feedback is good, but this should help plan meals for the week, especially as we're giving them home. We're sending them home with kids the day before. So, you know, if your son, if your daughter has an allergy, you can look on here and just either decide when they get home, don't let them have the entree or just, you know, send a email to the building manager or the school nurse and we'll be able to accommodate as needed. So that's something that I really think is going to help going forward. I also like to point out that due to the universal free feeding for the school year, the food service department is not going to be able to bring in any revenue other than meals served. What that means is we need participation and

049everyone is entitled to a meal. So if you have multiple kids in the district and you're remote, maybe you can go and pick up meals for, you know, all three kids for two days, three days. We've worked with some parents where if you're in cohort A, maybe on Monday, you know, one family goes in and grabs meals for five or six kids. The next day, another parent does it. So it's not constantly going to the school. And you can pick up meals at any school, regardless whether your student attends there or not. So if you have a child in Dudley Middle and a child in Mason Road, you can go to Mason Road and get both lunches. during the pickup hours at 1230 to 130, or you can come to Shepherd Hill or Heritage from

050330 to 530, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and Friday. I think that's it for me. I really like to say thank you very much for everything. I know that the principals have had so much on their plate, but they've all been so accommodating and the school nurses have done a really nice job with making us aware of who's, you know, the allergens and student needs. And I know it's. You know, there's no real plan or book for this. This is the first time we're really doing this on a scale this large where we're putting out about 4000 meals a day, but really appreciate all the support from the teachers, the nurses, the building principals and the administration. And I think I think that's it, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Greenberg, thank you for your update this evening. First,

051I want to comment and thank you and the entire food service team for everything that's been done. I know me as a parent have seen the meals and been able to get them for my... children and it's it's phenomenal work i'm where i'm impressed with it and i know mrs terry sent out an email to the school committee with pictures of the meals to show us what they looked like and it was it was great so i just oh great job mr greenberg um and please please pass along the thanks of the school committee of to the entire uh food service team it's truly truly phenomenal i'll open it up to questions or comment to my colleagues Hi, Kenny. Hold on. Mrs. O'Quinn, go ahead. Oh, hi. You know how I'm always interested in kids

052eating. And it's so this will benefit the families greatly and the ones that can't afford it. And we don't have to worry about anybody owing money. And the food looked wonderful. Jamie sent us a picture of the food that her children were receiving. And it looked excellent. So thank you to the cafeteria workers and Mr. Greenberg for all they've done. Thank you very much. Let me get Mrs. Kabala. Mrs. Kabala, go ahead. I just wanted to say that website is unbelievable. It's so good. For anybody, anyone in the street, you don't have to be involved with the school to go on that website to see what meals are being served and what's in each one. It's outstanding. Instead of the paper one we used to get the first of the month, stick it on the

053refrigerator. It's really, you did all that this summer. Is this all brand new this summer? We had the meal viewer program last year, but over the summertime, I was really able to spend a lot more time on it. and customize it and perfect to speak. And the website, Ms. Lara Carpenter, who's an employee with us at Heritage, she took on a lot of heavy lifting doing the website design and creation, as well as helping me research content for it. Great. Thank you. It's great. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Cavalli. Mrs. Terry? Obviously, I like them. I sent out the pictures and gave all the compliments. But I wanted to ask you, and I wanted to thank you, and I wanted to agree with you that my son has a peanut allergy. And the school nurse

054reached out to me personally, sent me a link to this part of the website, told me the stuff that you talked about today. And so I think that they have done a fantastic job. I absolutely agree with you. On that little list of what the dates were for pickup, if your kids weren't going to be in school on those days, Where does the middle school in Charleston fall? I didn't see it on there and I just, I don't remember it. So at the time that I had posted that the middle schools were not open. Okay. Our first day of school is tomorrow. The, they will be added to the list. So all schools will be available for pickup from 1230 to 130, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. And then we will continue pickup for evening, 3.30

055to 5.30 at Heritage and Shepherd Hill, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Okay, great. Thank you. I also want to tell you that I've had no less than 10 different parents reach out to me to tell me how amazing this is and how much food it is and how much their children are trying new foods. And so I think it's great for them all around. I did receive a question about what happens to the meals that are made and aren't given out for some reason. And how do you work that out? So right now our counts are extremely accurate. But for any meals that aren't going to make it, we are working with three, four different food banks. One in Worcester, one in Charlton, one in Webster Dudley and one in Southbridge. We reach out to them

056and we let them know that we have perishable items and who can get rid of them to people that need them. And then we work out a pickup time. So if on Friday, if we have 35 meals left over, they're going to someone who's going to need them either in Worcester, Charlton, Dudley, Webster or Southbridge. So they are donated. That's great. Thanks very much. You're welcome. Ms. Evans, go ahead. First off, I just want to say how much I absolutely love this. Not long ago, I was at a briefing sponsored by the National Eating Disorder Association. And one thing they said that our schools struggle with on a national level is just how little nutritional education we offer our students. Granted, this is just one page and one portion of something much grander, but... access

057to nutritional facts and information and what they're eating is something that our students have struggled with and their families and without that information it leads to really poor eating choices which in turn lead to greater mental health issues so i'm very excited for what this can become later down the road i'm also very excited to see just how much attention and effort has been put into this this year particularly Health or rather meal availability has been down for our students, not necessarily just in our district, but all over the country. So being able to make sure that every student in our district has access to food is phenomenal. So thank you so much for what you're doing. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Evans. Mr. Matthew would like to comment. Thank you. I

058just want to say it's been a pleasure to work with Mr. Greenberg over the last couple of years. He's really brought a different lens to the position, having worked in the private sector previously, and he's been able to blend the nutritional and fiscal aspects of the job very well. He's certainly made, I think, a lot of progress this year in terms of the meals that have been served. I know what my daughter brought home, I was very, very, very surprised at and very happy with. And I do want to stress again that the only way that we will be able to receive revenue this year for the food service program is by serving meals, not by simply preparing them. So, you know, anybody that wants to take advantage of a good free meal is encouraged

059to do so. This is the year. And as Mrs. O'Coin stressed, it's been her pet peeve, pet project for the last couple of years. So I'm pleased that it's actually coming true, at least for one year. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Matthew. I think Mrs. Cominanti had a question. I did, Mr. Greenberg. I will echo that I fed my children dinner tonight from one of the meals and it was great. Yeah, saves me. I wanted to ask just for parents' knowledge. So depending on the school that you pick up at would be the menu that you're going to. Like, so if you're like my little guys are at Mason Road and Dudley L, but we picked up at Shepherd Hill and we got the Shepherd Hill menu. Would that be correct? That is correct. And

060that's something that I will update on the website tomorrow morning. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. And if there's any special reheating suggestions that parents should be aware of, that might be helpful for them as well. I will definitely put reheating instructions on the website. Great. I'll link to it. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Kamanyani. So again, I just have a couple of things. First, again, I echo what everybody said. I think the communities, at least from what I've heard in my networks, people were amazed at the quality of the food. and what's being provided. It's outstanding. And I just want to circle back to, for the public, for clarity purposes, this program is open to all students, regardless of financial need. Correct, Mr. Greenberg? Correct. It's available to every single

061student in our district. Got it. And also just to re-clarify in closing here, this program will be available for this entire school year, correct? Yes. Yes. Excellent, excellent. And the website, I didn't catch it, that shows all the pickup locations and times. So when people can't remember, we should refer them to that website? Yes, please. All food service updates and information will all be housed under that website, which is available on the district webpage in the student section for food services. Understood. Understood. And again, Mr. Greenberg, I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but do you have a rough number of how many meals have been served? And again, if you don't have the answer, it's okay. To date from this year, I can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Give me a. Oh, you don't.

062I didn't mean to do that. I just, my point was, I didn't know if you had a number of. Oh yeah. Right. So from. From October 1st to now, we're at 93.43. So 1,868 meals. That's from the start of the school year? No, from October 1st. So 9,343 breakfasts plus 9,343 lunches. So about 18,000 from October 1st. Wow, that's phenomenal. That's amazing work. And so those numbers are higher prior to October 1st, obviously. You know what? I think the numbers are going to continue to rise. But yeah, I mean. As people become aware of the program. Yes. Understood. No. Excellent work as far as I'm concerned. Thank you to the entire, please pass along our thanks to the entire food service team. I will. I do appreciate it. Thank you. And I will comment, I

063ran into Mr. Greenberg at Heritage one day for a pickup of meals, and Mr. Greenberg gets his hands dirty, and he was there bagging them and packing them up and shipping them out. So Mr. Greenberg's part of this great team. So we thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Moving right along this evening, we'll move into new business item D, update on the district equity committee, and I'll turn it over to Dr. Ackerman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, members of the committee. Our committee continues to meet as a means to build on the next steps for our work. Recently, our group has gathered for our 10th meeting and to have further discussion about building the capacity of both students and adults in our district to confront issues of bias and racism. More

064specifically, our current work has turned to student participation into the larger process. And to that end, I spoke with Dr. Akins earlier this week. And Dr. Akins expressed an openness to work with the members of our Shepherd Hill Regional High School student body. We're currently discussing, and Mr. Chaplin and I have had some discussions about evolving and involving students in the most effective, impactful way. so that members of our student body can connect with Dr. Akins and to begin to fold the work of the larger committee into the student body so that students are able to impart this knowledge to their peers. In addition, our committee continues to work on draft communications to local and state colleges as a means of purposefully seeking out a diversified teaching staff. Currently, we've made contact with members of

065Northeastern University and Boston College. We are awaiting further feedback from each of those schools. In addition, a letter is in final draft form to go out to Worcester State University as we continue to work to build and create relationships with local entities so that we can inform the larger community of our goals and our work. On a local level, recently I was able to connect with Renee Pair to discuss the nature of the Equity Committee's work. Our intent in this conversation was to find ways to partner with the mission of the Equity Committee, with the John Pair Foundation, and the work of that foundation. We had a highly productive initial conversation and anticipate further contact and communications between our groups in the near future. Thank you, Dr. Ackerman, for your report. Does anybody have any

066questions for Dr. Ackerman this evening or comment? No. All right. Thank you again, Dr. Ackerman, for that report. Thank you. New business item E, update on opening school year 2020-2021. And we have three items under that, hybrid learning, which under Mr. Lamache will speak to that. Transitions, new steps, again, Mr. Lamache. And professional development will be Dr. Ackerman. So I'll turn it over at this point to Mr. Lamache. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and school committee. I do have a number of items to report under this item. I will start with hybrid learning and try to provide you with an update with the hybrid learning that's going on because we are now two weeks into the in-person portion of our hybrid learning. The entrance of our students to our schools was without question for all of

067us as educators the best day in the last eight months of our positions and our work. The overwhelming joy and welcome provided by our staff and afforded to our students and families was palatable across all schools that opened for in-person learning. And every educator in the Dudley-Chelton Regional School District provided this welcome. We are very excited for tomorrow as our fifth and twelfth grade students will now enter in-person hybrid learning and our community district will then finally feel whole and the first major transition will be completed for our students from March of 2020. This evening, I do want to report on some observations that we have had during the first two weeks of hybrid learning. These observations are comprised through lots of dialogue, collaboration, communication, in-person observations as well. A transition is truly not a

068simple date or a new experience. It involves coordination, synchronization, and every single resource we have to make this work. Our educators' efforts to collectively provide rigor and accountability is a match for the time and period we are in. Each day we provide in-person learning, our systems, procedures, protocols will get better and are more efficient. We cannot underestimate the incredible effort of our educators and what they have in putting forth to make hybrid learning work. We cannot thank our families enough for preparing their students to practice mitigating strategies as it was evident on the first day of in-person learning. We cannot underestimate the incredible amount of time required of our educators to meet the individual needs of students through in-person and remote learning. We have no recommendations to change the current hybrid learning model tonight. There

069is no question if you speak to our educators, this is the most difficult form of providing a comprehensive education to our students at any grade level. This is extremely difficult. And we also identify that students will always rise to the occasion when provided the right structures and when they know we care and we do care for our students and our staff. So that's just a quick update of our observations of hybrid learning after two weeks. We know that we are not perfect, that we have many things to continue to work on. But what I can tell you is collectively and as a totality, our educators, our staff. have moved mountains to make this work this year and to make sure that it's not anything close to what happened last year for in-person learning. They've invested

070an incredible amount of time. And I am sure, Mr. Chairman, as you mentioned, Mr. Matthews is exhausted from HVAC. I know our staff is exhausted from trying to pull this off in a comprehensive way. I wasn't sure if there were any questions or anything else to share about the current hybrid learning and the feedback after just two weeks of being in person. Yeah, we'll open it up to questions for this item A right now. Mrs. Terry? I actually don't have any questions. I want to say for the elementary schools that have come forward and gone through this process for two weeks now, my personal observations for either my own children or children that I know in the district, overall, they've been extremely happy to be back in school. I think that it has made not

071only an educational difference for them, but a mental health difference for them to be back in school. I think that the ability for them to be in smaller classroom settings with closer to a better student ratio has given them the ability to take more educational material in than they would have in a larger setting with more students. So I feel like those are very beneficial things that have occurred for our students. I will say as a parent, the days where the other cohort is in class are hard. There's no other way to say that, they're hard. But I think our teachers have heard that. and they've adjusted really well to knowing that and they've they've done a really good job um I guess I can't say enough about the effort that I think they've put

072in to create these lessons from scratch. This is not new to them. I mean, I'm sorry, this is new to them. This is not something they get to do every year. They've created every single Google Doc that they have to have each student go into, and then they have to upload them into each individual Google Classroom. And I think that as a parent, I can see that. And the amount of work that they must be putting in is just... It's got to be overwhelming to them. So I want every teacher out there that's watching to know I can see it as a parent. And I think that as the middle school and the high school go back for hybrid, I want to give a warning that there's an adjustment period. But roll with it for

073a couple of weeks because I think it will make a difference. So thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Terry. Anyone else this evening? Questions or comment? Oh, Mrs. Kabbalah, go ahead. I just wanted to comment from some of the letters I received, the emails. The amount of work the teachers are putting in is unbelievable. They're working until 9, 10 o'clock at night, and they're still never satisfied with what they're doing. They just are working. It's hard to begin in a normal school year. No one understands how much work is done outside of the school day. But now this is like triple, quadruple amount of work. So I want to reiterate what Mrs. Terry said. You can't thank the teachers enough and the administration, from everybody in the staff, what they've done to make this be successful

074for these two weeks. I hope it continues. Good luck with the middle school and the high school tomorrow when they start the end time. Good luck to you. Thank you, Mrs. Kabbalah. Anyone else? Mrs. Kamanyani? Thank you. I will say I've had a lot of parents talk to me about the need to go for a full day of school. I can understand that. And I'm in a district right now that does a full day of school. But I really want to impress that, you know, while I was skeptical at first. I've really, I think it's a, it's a great plan that we have where, you know, the cohort is there in the morning, but then the kids are all coming back together in the afternoon. And I think that's really good for those kids. And

075the consistency of seeing somebody four days a week is really important. I can tell you, like, from my, my position, my staff at my school is overtaxed. And I see that our teachers are working so hard and our students are working so hard. Definitely. I think our teachers are trying to use that Wednesday time really appropriately to kind of get all the knowledge that they need to make sure our kids are moving forward. And that's truly important for our kids. I do think it would be important if we can in the future to maybe use some of our support staff in a way to maybe have a meeting with the class in the morning to just kind of set a tone, especially for the younger grades, to make sure that they truly understand what they

076have to do that day. I think that might be a good use of our support staff. But just some ideas. And I think that as we move forward, we'll have some more ideas and we can kind of. look at the plan as we go forward. So I hope we do. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, go ahead, Mrs. O'Kane. I also do want to thank our staff for all their effort. They go far and beyond when it comes to their schoolwork, and they put so many hours in and so many of their own hours in. So thank them very much. And as I said, I did get communications from... quite a few staff members. And I'm thanking them because they did tell me all the work that they have put in. And I'm very grateful. Thank

077you. Thank you, Mrs. O'Coin. And I also echo the thanks to the staff. And my personal opinion is we have great staff because this is Dudley Charlton. And that's why we are who we are. So thank you. I'll turn it back over to Mr. Lamarche to continue his report on this. So, Mr. Chairman, that concludes the hybrid portion of this. Nope. We'll go to item B, transition next steps. Correct, Mr. Lamache? Correct. Thank you. You're welcome. transition to next steps and it's important to continue to articulate these and know that we are working on these every day if not in at least once a week with the administrative team and we're looking at all the components of this but we truly want to do what we're doing now right and keep in mind we've only

078been in in-person learning for two weeks and we're starting 5th through 12th tomorrow For some, we know that yesterday is too late for most and for some to start full day in-person learning, but it's still not an option at this point in time. We also know that the pressure is on to evolve planning as soon as possible, but it truly is important that we understand that we are still in the beginning stages of hybrid learning, especially by welcoming 5 through 12. I believe in that we have received calls for full in person. We received calls and emails for full day hybrid. We received calls and requests to stay fully remote. We're still running the gamut on requests and direction on which way we should go as a district from our families. Our transition points, though,

079are predicated on a number of items that are not dictated by a calendar or a clock at this point in time. not to mention COVID-19, which is an important factor in every decision that we make. But to understand our transition points, it is essential to reiterate the design features of the current hybrid learning plan and why it was put into place and recommended. Keep in mind, we are utilizing all of our resources to provide in-person or hybrid learning as it is designed. Our current plan provides daily contact from the in-person teacher of record to students who are in person and those that are remote four days a week for most students. Obviously, that will change as you get to middle and high school because of course selections. Our current plan does not assign multiple core

080subject teachers to students, which would increase the potential for cross-instructional methodology and variances in learning. meaning that we are really investing in a teacher to teach a subject area to their students from the beginning of the year through with this current plan, instead of having multiple teachers teaching the same subject. Our current plan provides a full schedule to include unified arts experiences to all grade levels. I think this continues to be quite remarkable. And I use my own son as an example that he's only receiving four classes per day and it's not a comprehensive educational experience for a high school student. Our current plan provides the smoothest transitions to full in-person learning or to full remote learning, depending upon which direction we need to go. That's the good news. The hard news is how do

081we make incremental steps? Our current plan affords educators the time needed to provide comprehensive in-person and remote learning for their students through organization and the development of asynchronous and synchronous lessons. That is critical to the comprehensive program that we're providing our students at this point in time. Our current plan creates an optimal learning environment while implementing the community's expectations of mitigating strategies, meaning that we have mitigating strategies that we need to implement, but we also have a desire to have rigor, academic rigor, to not repeat, not to have the same experience that we had last year, to ensure our students are moving forward in a comprehensive way academically, to ensure that they're getting a quality education. Our educators established their commitment to the right start for the school year for every student throughout all of

082our models. Educators made connections, established their curriculum maps, and incorporated instructional and diagnostic methods of learning where their students are. This foundation prepared educators and learners alike for transitions through the learning models from remote to hybrid and then beyond and what that might be. Collectively, our educators are meeting the higher expectations of student engagement, rigor, and learning from the experiences from last year. So it's important to understand the value of the plan that we have in place at this point in time, as was shared by the school community members as well. Now, I want to clearly articulate the efforts to move the full-day hybrid, not full in person, full-day hybrid. So going from the half-day hybrid to a full-day hybrid. It does present the following large dilemmas that will require thought and a clear evaluation

083to accomplish. We will need more resources, specifically educators, to carry the remote afternoon schedule, ensuring that our students have daily contact from a Dudley-Chelton Regional School District educator. What is meant by that is if a teacher now is making an afternoon contact remotely, they will no longer be able to do that because they will be teaching full time on a full day. All students will have to be assigned more educators and will not have daily access to their in-person teacher or record who is teaching full day in-person learning. To reinforce what I was just sharing. Remote learning schedules will have to be adjusted to accommodate full in-person unified arts schedules. Those will change. Expectations for more independent student work will be a requirement in full-day hybrid learning. We will need to support full-scale lunchtimes for

084our staff and students in the school environment for full-day hybrid learning. Now going back to number one, when we need additional educators, I can tell you that the state is at a critical point where there are no educators really available to hire. If you read, we really work hard to be students of what's going on around our state. So if you look in some of the local and beyond. newspapers and what school districts are doing and the information and communication, you'll find that a lot of districts are not able to fill educator positions at this point in time that they're trying to hire. Not only because of adding additional staff, but because of the requests for leave of absences. That will be very difficult. So even if we had the funding to add more resources

085and more teachers, we could run up against not having staff available for that. I know that other districts are providing full-day hybrid learning, and I only share anecdotal experiences of such. Again, we try to be students of what's going on around us. We continuously evaluate, reach out, and collaborate with our peers to understand the pivot and breaking points of each model. Many districts have more resources than the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District does. Again, we are leveraging every resource we have. Just to give you a comparative point, the 2019 per pupil expenditure reference point for Dudley-Chelton Regional School District, it's around $13,000 per pupil. For Webster, it's $15,000 per pupil. And keep in mind, Webster just informed their communities that they are going to continue in remote learning until at least November 10th today. Southbridge per

086pupil expenditure is around $17,000. Southridge Public Schools just announced that they will be serving seven meals for one pickup for the remote learners. All in one pickup, they will provide seven meals at one time versus our schedule for meal pickups. And Bay Path's per-people expenditure is $19,000 per student. As a side note, Bay Path is a high school, as we all know, 9 through 12. Our per-people expenditure for Shepherd Hill is just over $12,000. So there is quite the difference in the resource category for our district. We are leveraging every resource we have. Now getting back to full-day hybrid, it really seems to come across in two forms. Two forms of full-day hybrid involves two methodologies of instruction to meet the demand of full-day hybrid. One is live streaming. This model has proven again as

087we continue to read, research, collaborate. This model has proven very difficult for classroom teachers to provide both in-person learning and live stream learning. This model interferes with pace, rigor, and comprehensive instruction. Too much time is spent on managing both environments, which leads to low student engagement. Next, the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District does not have the technology resources to provide live stream instruction. Lastly, our intense professional development focused on academic rigor, pacing, and use of Google Suite to ensure a quality comprehensive instructional hybrid learning program. We have not provided global training for managing simultaneous in-person and remote learning through a live stream format. The other model that I've seen and we've researched and seen is the assignment of multiple teachers and full-time remote learning teachers for both remote learners and full-time requested remote learning simultaneously. What

088this is talking about is for those who have selected full-time remote, and for those students in a hybrid model who are in remote, they have the same teacher. So it reaches complexity, levels of complexities, because the teacher's working with the full-time five days a week remote learners, then they're working with the hybrid remote learners for the two to two and a half days per week. And sometimes that wreaks havoc with class size, instructional pacing. This hybrid learning model presents a very complex transition to full in-person learning as well and full remote learning through teacher assignments. So there will inevitably be changes if they move in any other direction. Adding multiple teachers increases the introduction of multiple models of instruction in specific subject areas. To us, that would create gaps and could create learning gaps for

089our students. Unless additional educators are added, the ability to add students to this model has limitations as classes are maxed out with students providing full remote, hybrid remote, hybrid in-person learning. So it's very, very complex. So what I'd like to do is I'd like to go back again and talk about what it will take to get us to a full-day hybrid. And we will certainly continue to work on this and not... not leave this hanging in any way. We will need more resources. I'm going to try to narrow it down completely. We'll need more resources and more educators. We will need to understand and families will need to understand that there will be the assignment of additional teachers for their students. The model as expressed now when our students are in for the half day,

090it's an intense learning day because they're in one environment. And there is a smaller group, and it is learning from the minute they're there to the minute that they leave. And then that teacher gets to re-engage with those students in the afternoon. Families need to understand that that will change. That will not be the same. In addition, the comprehensive program that we're offering with Unified Arts will have some adjustments because our teachers will be working with in-person students for the full day. The one group that this does not impact is our cohort D students. but it will impact all of our other students when we go to full day hybrid learning. It is obviously something we're looking at and people want, and we will continue to try to evolve that plan. The best case scenario

091for us is to somehow manage to go to full in-person, but to go to full in-person, we would need a relief from COVID-19 in some of the mitigating strategies, like six feet of distance. We would need relief from COVID-19 and the mitigating strategies for transportation of our students. But this plan that we are currently in avails ourselves to go to full in-person learning with very little changes to the current student learning that's going on in the teacher, the in-person teacher assigned. But it is very difficult and we're looking at it and we'll try to provide it. But I want to reiterate, there are no recommendations this evening for any changes because it is true. We have not even started grades five through 12 until tomorrow. And we need more time to understand what that looks

092like moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman of the school committee. Thank you, Mr. Lamache. Questions for Mr. Lamache regarding his presentation on transitions and next steps. Mrs. Terry, go ahead. I just had a question about the technology teachers at the elementary schools. I know that we had slated for originally in the budget and that's not in place right now due to people leaving or retiring and such like that. So I'm wondering when that will be reintroduced to the budget or, sorry, I didn't say that right. When those teachers, when we will be advertising to have those positions refilled and if that would provide additional assistance to make sure we had coverage if we did have the ability to go to full day hybrid. Thank you for the question. To be clear, we're using every resource

093we have right now. We don't have the funds for that. So when we get additional money, we could hire, we could look at that as a possibility. We were level funded from last year's budget. So in order to make the budget balance, we couldn't fill the positions because we had to fill other positions. Sorry, can I just elaborate on that? So I'm confused on it, and maybe it's just on my end on it, but those were positions that were filled at the end of last year. And so when they became vacant because of other reasons, there was still money that was available for those positions. So can you just educate me to understand what happened there? Again, there is no money to fill those positions at this time. There may have been in their approved

094budget to fill those positions. But again, our budget was level funded by Chapter 70. But we had to add additional expenditures to our budget, which included addressing mitigating strategies for COVID-19, as well as additional staff to meet the demands of full remote education for our students, as well as meeting the demands of our students in special education, as well as adding custodians, as well as adding school nurses. So there is no money available for those positions at this time. Okay, I guess I just want to go on record to say I was not of the correct understanding that we were not filling those positions. Every time we talked about these other things that were needed, I didn't realize that we were taking away something that has been in our budget, a position that's been in

095our budget to fulfill the other needs we had. Okay. Any other questions from colleagues? Just bear with me. I had a couple of questions. Actually, a couple of comments. First of all, I wanted to say a great educator once told me that even though we are referring to it as a half a day, in my view, it's an early release day. And that tells me and the community that it's full of rigor. It's an early release day, but we're still having a full day of rigorous educational learning in that period of time. So I always like to refer to it as an early release day. Secondly. I agree that the concerns about moving to a full-day hybrid where I would like to see us move in that direction, but I agree not having the same

096teacher of record for the student wouldn't be a good thing as far as keeping the students engaged and connected. And I think that level of engagement is foundational in keeping the students moving forward. So I wanted to comment on that. I wanted to be clear to your comments, Mr. LaMarche, because I'm getting communications from community members about moving to a full in-person. I'm talking not hybrid, full in-person. So just to be clear and further elaborate on what you had said, that won't be possible unless there's relief on the six-feet distancing requirement. And that won't be possible unless there's relief from the state regarding transportation or busing. Feel free to comment again, Mr. Lamache, but I do think it's important we let the community know that's why we can't, because of those requirements. Mr. Chairman, that's

097exactly right. Unless we have relief from those, which is a relief from COVID-19, actually, in CDC guidelines and the state providing updated guidance, the state has not provided updated guidance on teaching and learning for some time now. Unless we have any of those things and factors in play, it will make it almost impossible, if not extremely difficult, because we would have to double our transportation just to make the transportation part work on that part. But the relief from six feet, they do recommend down to three feet. But if you read the CDC guidelines, you know, they're looking at five to six feet at the most. And so we need relief from that to really move forward on a full in-person learning, which we would love to do. It would certainly make a world of difference.

098And we've already felt what it's like to have students in our schools. And that's the most exciting part. And that's why we're looking forward to five through 12 tomorrow. And we hope we get there at some point in time. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. And I agree, I'm certainly not saying we should not follow the COVID-19 rules. And I know the administration doesn't feel that way at all. But I guess the point I'm making to the community is being able to go to full in-person learning is most likely not going to be possible without any relief from COVID-19, which... No one knows when that will be. So I just wanted to put that on record for that. So thank you for that, Mr. Lamache. The last thing I wanted to ask, a question, and again, if

099it's, I just want to ask it in a way that helps the community understand. I'm getting feedback from membership, community members regarding the transition from last year to this year. So for example, a grade one student moving into grade two. And I don't know if you want to comment or Dr. Ackerman wants to comment. As far as the educational, what was missed last year, and I say that with all due respect, I don't mean to imply that the district didn't do all they could in the spring, but in the spring was a phenomenon unlike any other. I have heard some students and families are struggling with some of the academic rigors that were missed in the spring. And maybe you guys could comment briefly on how we're bridging that and helping those students that may

100have missed some of the learning from, for example, grade one that they should have brought with them for grade two. I don't know if you want to comment and whoever, Dr. Ackerman. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Ackerman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Part of the work that we did during the opening nine days of PD, was to bring all the educators across the district together by either grade level or department to purposefully plan out the first four to six weeks of instruction. And part of that planning was building in the unfortunate but known quantity that many students were going to be behind where they typically would be. So embedded within that planning process was an understanding that We had to identify and delineate the most clearly important standards. And that perhaps also entailed going back to an

101earlier point to reteach certain skills before moving into the next set of standards and curriculum. So that really was part of the work. It is part of a larger calculus as well of having students come back into school after effectively not having been in for six months. The socialization process, even social emotionally, going from one school in grade one to a different school in grade two, learning the rhythms and the routines, the new staff, all of those factors contribute to what a student demonstrates in the learning process. I hope that that's helpful and gives some insight. Thank you. No, and that's very helpful to me. And I just wanted to reiterate to the public and to people who have concerns in this area, I guess I would encourage folks to work directly with the teacher,

102directly with the principal with those concerns, because I know there are some students struggling because they may have missed some of these milestones that they should have learned in the spring, but couldn't because of the situation we were in. And so. I guess I would just leave it as please do the best you can to work individually with the teachers and principals on that. But because people are sharing that their student is struggling because they missed some things from the spring. So thank you. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mrs. Kamenyati. No, I just wanted to kind of echo what Dr. Ackman was saying, like some of the things that we've been doing with our district, my district as well, is just you need to keep moving. And as you come across an area that

103a student needs to have that extra support in, you immediately give the extra support. And that allows you to keep moving forward through the curriculum. And I think that our use of the IXL program will also show where those dips and missing pieces are for that teacher. So I think, you know, those are the kind of things too that I think teachers are looking at on those Wednesdays. You know, I know that we talk a lot about, we want to see teachers on Wednesdays. They're doing those kinds of things and making sure that our kids are really where they need to be. Mrs. Kaminani, thank you so much. That was very helpful for me. And Dr. Ackerman and Mr. Lamarche, thank you. I just wanted to make the point that I agree with you. We

104need to keep moving, but to help folks understand if students need extra support, please reach out. So that's all I had. Any other questions from my colleagues? Mrs. Reed? So I know that we were just talking about going back full time, how we don't have the money. But we would at some point. be able to go back to for hybrid full-time without having any issues with money, correct? I just have to ask a point of clarity on the, we're in high, we're going to hybrid. Right, full day, full day hybrid. No, again, that presentation was, that presentation for more resources is for full day hybrid. The easiest transition for us is to go to full in person. But we need to change the mitigating strategies for that. That won't add more resource, a requirement for

105more resources for us. Right, right. I guess that's what I was asking for the clarity. I know that Kenny just brought up about full day, how it would be more taxing on busing and stuff like that. But for a full day hybrid cohort, A goes in Monday, Tuesday, cohort B goes in Thursday, Friday. That wouldn't tax us. That would tax us. That would require additional educators. And it would also, once again, it would change student schedules. It would also change their educators for remote days. because the teacher would go from a half day with a teaching in-person students for the three hours and 15 minutes. And then they're re-engaging with all students in the afternoon. They wouldn't be able to re-engage with all students in the afternoon again because they would be teaching students all

106day. So we would need some teacher unless the community was willing to do independent learning for three days a week, which I don't think that they would be. We would need to add additional staff to conduct instructional time remotely. And that would be at every level, including the high school? the high school would be somewhat unique and would require a lot more information to determine that. But yes, there would be some for full day. Again, once you go to full day hybrid, that teacher has a full day schedule now that's in-person. So where all the remote students are in the afternoon, the remote students and the in-person students are doing this mix of cohorts. But at some point in time, there's a nexus where they're not able to meet with their classroom, their in-person classroom

107teacher because they're now teaching all day. So again, we leveraged every resource we had without adding 60. We were at the point where we were to get to full day hybrid and trying to design this plan. We were looking at adding an additional 16 teachers. We didn't have the finances for that. We couldn't do that. And so we tried to design a plan that fit within the resources we had, but also fit the plan of introducing rigor and teacher contact on a daily basis, which to us is the most critical component to get to any in-person learning. Okay. Can I jump in here, Mrs. Reid? I just wanted to further clarify, and if I wasn't clear, what I was speaking to was full five days a week in-person learning. I was just, I'm getting community

108members reach out to me saying we should just get back full time. And I'm trying to reiterate the point that we cannot, under any circumstances, do that unless there is relief from the COVID-19 requirements of six feet of distancing, the distancing on the busing. there's no way we can get to that point unless there's relief from that point. So that's what I was talking about. But I hear you on full-day hybrid. I think I would like to see us move to full-day hybrid, but I also understand and recognize the concerns. from the budget financially to be able to support a full-day hybrid. And also I do agree with the, I think the connection for the student to have the same teacher of record is best for the student in my view. Just wanted to make

109sure that I was clear. That's all. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, if I could add, just let's not forget the added costs for HVAC as well. We're working with the towns to try to fill that, but to get to that, all of that, our starting point wasn't that we had all the money to do it. And when we were hitting 1.6 million as a possible project, I can tell you, you know, we don't live in the same house, but I can tell you, Richard and I, we're not sleeping. with a $1.6 million budget buster and town budget buster on our minds. And we're trying to do everything we can to keep a lid on all of the financial situations that are going on right now with everything in a COVID world for the Dudley-Chelton Regional School District

110with a starting point of a level-funded budget, not a level service budget, a level-funded budget. And Mrs. Cabala, I see you. Just hold on one second. Mrs. Reed, did you have another question? I didn't want to jump ahead. No? Okay. Mrs. Kabala, go ahead. This is fine for Mr. Matthew. How is the bus situation? Are the kids taking the bus? Are they taking carpools? How is that handling it pretty much? So certainly we have a number of students taking the transportation. We certainly do have a number of students that are taking parent transport as well. The numbers, you know, some buses are pretty close to planned capacity of 24. Some buses are short of that. but all buses have at least 18 students scheduled on them. At least 18, between 18 and 24 students scheduled

111on every bus. That way we meet the requirements for reimbursement from the state. Did we cut back on buses? Bama, you thought you could get, reduce the bus numbers? Did we reduce any buses? We did reduce one bus. One. Yep. The recommendation came in for possibly reducing the second bus. Right. I think that's something to take a look at when we're back. in normal times, not now. Okay, good. Thanks. Thank you, Mrs. Cabal. That was a great question. Thank you. Any other questions for this membership? Hearing none, we will move on. Mr. Lamarche, you were complete, correct? Yes. Okay. We'll move on to C, professional development, and we'll move it to Dr. Ackerman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I want to reiterate what has already been said earlier in that our

112faculty across all levels of the district has been working tirelessly to implement curriculum and to also attend to the social and emotional needs of all of our students. There's plaudits to everyone for taking the time. We know how hard you're working and really appreciate the commitment. to our students in our district. To further that end, we've provided multiple professional development opportunities over the past couple of weeks. Most recently, we had educators from kindergarten through grade nine provided a 45-minute diagnostic training into IXL's real-time diagnostic. For those who are not familiar with IXL and Mrs. Carminiani just referenced it, it's a tool that provides both diagnostic feedback to teachers, but also as a practice tool for students to demonstrate proficiency in math and ELA that has a real-time algorithm that tracks student performance and allows for

113students to progress up and down content areas. Our staff feedback from that IXL PD session from staff was highly positive. Over 82% registered users who participated in the survey indicated a positive response to the training. Also, this past couple of weeks, all of our administrative professionals and secretarial staff had training in the G Suite classroom. Just as our educators have become more proficient and skilled in using G Suite, we wanted to provide the same growth opportunity for all of our secretarial and administrative professional staff. This session was hosted by Tech, who had previously done multiple sessions for our teachers. This three-hour session allowed for both question asking and the practice time to apply, learn content. Post-PD survey yielded positive feedback at or above 93%, with almost all participants indicating they felt better equipped to do

114their job as a result of this training. Our final PD update was partnering with School Brains, this effect today. School Brains is our student information system, and we had central office administrators have some small group personalized time with Mr. Steve Cotton, who's a leading developer at School Brains. From this period, all of the administrative professionals across the district were able to come in for a two-hour question and answer session with an ability to try and replicate real-time applications in school brains. I still haven't received all of the feedback yet, but the anecdotal evidence from this was that the PD was highly sought after and effective. I just wanted to reiterate before I finish that we've talked about the value of Wednesday. I think multiple people have referenced how important Wednesdays are. Part of what we're

115trying to do on a district level through all levels of the organization is to ensure that all staff members across multiple areas. have a real opportunity to engage deeply and meaningfully with the tools that are necessary to do this work. Because educationally, we're in an unprecedented time and we're being asked to do things in a fundamentally different way than ever happened before. So being mindful and purposeful in this planning, seeking feedback. And really diving in deeply to these key elements is going to help make all the difference. And we really appreciate both the schools and the community support as we further this work. So thank you, everyone. Thank you, Dr. Ackerman. Any questions from our colleagues? Mrs. Kamanyani. Thank you very much. I just have a couple of comments with IXL. While I'm a proponent

116to know where kids are, I think that we need to allow, like let parents know when enough is enough. I had one parent that worked with her child on, you know, a grade three word problem for 55 minutes. That's way too much. And I think, you know, I'm, I know enough to say we're done after 20. But I think we have to give the permission to kind of give those boundaries for parents. So if we can kind of work on that, I know that a lot of parents would truly appreciate it. In addition to that, I'd love if the teachers could really look at homework and what the policy is regarding that. Because I think I'm hearing that some kids are getting homework after a day of work and it's overwhelming to people. So thank

117you. Thank you, Mrs. Caminiti. Dr. Eckman, did you want to respond? Go ahead. Those are both really good points, and I echo completely your sentiments. With IXL, a general rule is for a third grader on a single problem, 10 to 15 minutes is more than adequate. And really, the intent is to have what we call productive struggle, in which we have students wrestle with the content. But when we hit that tipping point and the emotional overflow subsumes the academic content, I think it then becomes time for us to be smart and to just pull the plug proverbially, so to speak. And then secondly, with the homework piece as well, we want to be mindful of both policy, but also just to be reflective as. We're in a historically different environment. Days feel very long. Screen

118time for kids, screen times for parents can be very taxing, very trying. So I think the deployment of homework should be strategic, but also mindful of what does the day look like? How has the learning gone? And that it's okay not to give homework. Homework is not, especially in this context, necessarily an imperative. So I thank you for bringing up those topics. Thank you, Dr. Ackerman. Any other questions from my colleagues or comments this evening for Dr. Ackerman's report? I can't see everybody, pardon me. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Ackerman. We will move on. We are under new business item F, MASC-MASS resolutions. So as we discussed at the last meeting, we voted and appointed Ms. Evans to be our voting delegate for the upcoming MASC-MASS annual meeting, which will

119be held virtually. So tonight we're going to review the resolutions. The MASC provides a report from the resolutions committee and local school committees can vote to support or not support a particular resolution. And we would give the direction to our voting delegate, Ms. Evans, to vote on our behalf. That certainly doesn't mean Ms. Evans has to vote the way we vote tonight. She may get more information at the conference that deems. for her to cast a vote in a different direction and we'll get a report from you after the convention or the meeting excuse me um I'm going to go, if we can go through the resolutions one by one. I assume the committee doesn't want me to read every resolution because we'll be here all night, but I'm happy to read more as necessary.

120So we're going to start. If everybody's reviewed the multiple resolutions, I believe there is 10. Yep, there are 10 this evening. So we'll go through them one by one. Questions before I begin? Concerns? Comments? No. Okay. Resolution number one, MCAST and high stakes testing. That resolution discusses MCAST and whether we want to support or not. And I would entertain a motion from the school committee to support or not. Mrs. Kamanyani? Mr. LaFerriere, I think it would be helpful for the public just to hear like that very last paragraph where it says our call for a moratorium. on high stakes testing for the school year. So I think that would put in context what people need. And I agree. That's what I wanted was feedback. So I do. Thank you so much, Mrs. Kamanyani. So therefore,

121be it resolved. Oh, I start with there, but we resolve. That's part of the whole motion. I do both of whatever says, therefore it resolved. That's the whole picture. Yes. So, yeah. So that sounds good to me. I'll read those, but the, the, I'm not going to read everything in between. Is that, does that make sense? We never do. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Cavallo, Mrs. Comigliani. So this is resolution number one, MCAS and high-stakes testing. This was submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that the MASC rejects the calls for the students of 2022 who missed their 10th grade MCAS testing to be required to make it up during the 2020-2021 school year or ever. We demand those students be held harmless for not taking the MCAS and that

122their graduation requirements shall be determined by locally controlled voices of the school committee and school administration within the remaining graduation requirements of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Additionally, we reiterate our call for a moratorium on all high-stakes testing for the 2020-2021 school year so all students can benefit from their time being focused on direct instruction, and we urge the legislature to enact a moratorium on high-stakes testing of three years. Comments? Or I'll entertain a motion to support this resolution. Make a motion to support. Second. Second. Motion made by Mrs. Cabala, seconded by Mrs. Reed to support resolution number one. Discussion? Comments? Hearing none, Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Cabala? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes. It's unanimously approved and supported by our school committee. Resolution number

123two, COVID-19 state funding submitted again by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that the state must guarantee every school district full reimbursement for whatever COVID-19 expenses are required to follow state mandates. We must ensure a statewide school reopening that is safe, responsible, and equitable. There can be no unfunded mandates for COVID-19. I'll entertain a motion. I'll move. Mrs. Evans made a motion. Second. Seconded by Mrs. Kabbalah. Discussion? Hearing none. Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Mrs. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabbalah? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes. It's approved unanimously for resolution number two. Resolution number three, school committee anti-racism resolution, submitted again by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that all school districts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should guarantee that racist practices are eradicated

124and diversity, equity, and inclusion is embedded and practiced for our students, families, faculty, and staff. School committee members should ensure sure that our school culture and that of every district in the Commonwealth is an anti-racist and that acknowledges that all lives cannot matter until Black lives matter. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Motion made by Mrs. Kabbalah, seconded by Mrs. Karminiani to support resolution number three, discussion. Hearing none, Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabala? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes. It's approved unanimously. Resolution number four, lowering the voting age for municipal elections, submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that the sponsors call upon the Massachusetts legislator to pass the Empower Act and take other

125means necessary to allow cities and towns to establish a minimum voting age of 16 years for all municipal elections. I entertain a motion. Hearing none, I assume we're not going to support this resolution. Right. I'm not. I'm not. So I would entertain a motion that we not support resolution number four. So moved. I don't think, Kenny, you can have a motion not to do something. Well, shouldn't we? Oh, we don't need to ignore it? Okay. We're not passing this. Someone has to make a motion to support it, and then we vote no on it. Well, you could do it. Someone's going to make the motion. We all vote no if you want to have it on record. Yeah, but if you don't want a motion, there's no motion, so we're not going to support it.

126Right. I think it's better to have a motion and vote no on it, but I guess that's silly. But no one wants to make a motion. You can ask our town moderator sitting there. Yeah, what does the town moderator have to say? Do nothing? Mr. Moderator? I'm sorry, through the chair. There's no action required as there was no motion on the floor. Can we just pass it over? Thank you, Mr. Stacheski. Thank you, Mr. Stacheski. You agree with me. We're glad to have a moderator in our midst. Thank you. So just to be clear for the minutes, we are not supporting Resolution 4. Okay, thank you. Resolution number 5. Supporting increased federal support and stimulus funding for public K-12 education submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Pardon me. Okay. Therefore, be it resolved that

127MASC align with state superintendents of schools and urge the Massachusetts congressional delegation and state legislators to advocate for and approve additional education funding for our nation's public schools through the enactment of progressive tax legislation. Do I have a motion on the floor to support this resolution? And I know it's a lengthy one. Just to be clear, no motion, so we're not going to support Resolution 5. I'm not trying to speed things along. I'm just making sure we're clear. All right, we're not supporting Resolution 5. We'll move on. Resolution 6, retention of Medicaid revenue, submitted again by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that MASC urges the general court to require that 100% of Medicaid reimbursements to cities and towns be provided in full amount to the public schools of each municipality through

128a school district revolving account and to underwrite the cost of providing an adequate education. Do I hear a motion to support? So moved. Second. Motion made by Mrs. O'Coin, seconded by Mrs. Kabbalah. Discussion? Hearing none, Mrs. Kamenyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabala? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes, unanimously approved to support Resolution 6. Resolution 7, attempts by U.S. Department of Education to direct funding to private schools, submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that MASC petition the Attorney General of Massachusetts to review and recommend to the Executive Office of Education and the Mass. Department of Elementary Education to review the formal language of such statutes that determine the distribution of federal funds to benefit economically disadvantaged students, and further, that the Attorney

129General provide legal guidance to State agencies in Massachusetts to implement such formulas. based on the actual language and legislative intent of the statute, should that be in variance with any advisory issued by the United States Secretary of Education. Explain that one, Kenny. Yeah, good luck. I need to learn it, understand it better myself. I think that's how I'm directing money to private schools. I do too. Whether these kids are in public or private, if they need it, it's directing it to private schools also. So what is the wish of the committee? No motion. We're not going to support resolution number seven. Moving on, resolution number eight, membership of school committee member on the board of elementary and secondary education. Again, submitted by the MASC board of directors. Therefore, be it resolved that MASC submit to

130the General Court proposed legislation that Mass General Law, Chapter 15, Section 1E, be revised as follows. Section 1E. There shall be in the Department of a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in this chapter called the Board, which shall consist of the Chairman of the Student Advisory Council established under this section, the Secretary of Education in this chapter called the Secretary or her designee, and nine members appointed by the Governor. The nine members appointed by the governor shall consist of one representative of a labor organization selected by the governor from a list of three nominees provided by the Massachusetts State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, One representative of business or industry selected by the governor with a demonstrated commitment to education. One representative of parents of school children selected by the governor from a list of three

131nominees provided by the Massachusetts Parent Teachers Association. and then i guess this is the change one representative from a school committee from a list of three nominees provided by the massachusetts association of school committees and five additional members do i hear entertain a motion to approve and support so moved who made the motion i'm sorry mr mrs miss evans made the motion second this is kamanani seconded it discussion Hearing none, Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabbalah? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes, unanimously approved to support resolution number eight. Resolution number nine, providing equity for sexual orientation, LGBTQ students, teachers, and staff submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that MASC file legislation and petition our federal legislative delegation to also file

132legislation which would have the effect of adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes in order to provide equity and support to our LGBTQ students, teachers, and staff, and petition our legislative delegation. Do I entertain a motion to support? So moved. Ms. Evans makes a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Kamanyani seconded. Discussion? Hearing none. Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabbalah? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes, unanimously approved to support resolution number nine. Resolution number 10. Relative to the monitoring of attendance of students during the pandemic. Also submitted by the MASC Board of Directors. Therefore, be it resolved that MASC advocate for legislation and regulation that protects the rights of parents to withhold their children from school for reasons of

133their health or self-risk, and further, that MASC advocate for regulations that hold districts accountable for the attendance of students. Provide appropriate exemptions for students who experience or require extended absences from school due to health-related issues or concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And further, that MASC petition the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to waive all accountability requirements regarding attendance for the 2020-2021 school year. and that such regulations exempt districts from sanction status on the basis of attendance when such absences are related to a public health crisis, including COVID-19. I'll entertain a motion to approve resolution number 10. So moved. Ms. Evans makes a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Terry seconded it. Discussion? I just wonder what the superintendent's spin on this would be. Do you think this is appropriate about the attendance?

134Yeah, I'd like Mr. Lamache. Mr. Chairman, school committee, I support this resolution. Okay, thanks. Thank you, Mrs. Kabala. Any further discussion? Mrs. Kamanyani? I have a concern where it says that protect the rights of parents to withhold their children from school for reasons of their health status or health risks. I'm a little concerned that, you know, if parents are not able to get right into remote learning, that they're going to hold their child away from school. And I just want to make sure that, you know, we're not held accountable for that. I don't know. I don't want to give the perception that we can have kids not going to school. So this is coming out. You just helped me understand better. You're saying that. people may hold them back because for a different reason, I

135guess, could you further elaborate? I guess I'm just concerned about parents that may say, well, if you're not able to fit me into the remote learning, I'm holding my child out of school until such time. And then I feel that we should be able to hold them accountable. Thank you, Mrs. Kamianetti. Mrs. Terry has a comment. Yeah, I have a comment to that point. So if my child in cohort B that goes to school became quarantined, there would still be a plan of action that that child could receive an education by the parent picking up their educational material and doing the... essentially what the work the Monday and Tuesday students, the cohort A students would be doing at home. So even in your scenario where they couldn't get into a fully remote classroom, they would

136still have the ability to have schoolwork that would be done at home. And so I think that that should satisfy your concern while we're transitioning them to a remote classroom. You follow what I'm saying? Sorry, I do. I just, I've seen certain... Not necessarily in this school district. I've had parents in other school districts that say, well, we're not sending them to school at all. And they won't go into the homeschool, like they won't homeschool or they won't. I don't know. It's fine. But we as a district will be providing them an option for schooling. It would be their choice not to take it, in which case we have a truancy officer that would follow up with that. Is that correct? Through the chair, we have a responsibility to every student, no matter where they

137fall into any of these categories. So communication would be a priority for us. So even if a parent was holding a student out for various reasons, we would still have a responsibility for that child. Mrs. Kamanyani, are you recommending an amendment? No, I'm fine. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to be clear. Thank you. Any other discussion? There's a motion on the floor and it's seconded, correct? Help me, remind me. We do have, yes, okay. Any other further discussion? Mrs. Kabala? I think it's important to have this because this would have, in the past, you have to assert a percentage rate. You know how that rate is, a high school has to have a certain percentage. I think this would kind of pull away that they didn't have to have that for this year because of all

138the circumstances. I think it's important to have that there so we're not penalized if kids' attendance looks bad because of this. And that's part of the motion. part of the description yes and that is in the motion for to support to support resolution 10. that's why i think it's a good one yeah any other discussion comment hearing none we'll take a vote mrs kaminyani yes miss evans yes mrs kabbalah yes mrs reed I'm sorry, what, Mrs., was that yes? Mm-hmm. Okay, yep, got it. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I vote yes. Resolution 10 is approved and supported by this committee. So for clarity purposes for our minutes, all resolutions will be supported by the Dudley Child and Regional School Committee except for Resolution 4, 5, and 7. And if I'm mistaken, please. don't

139hesitate to let me know. But I think we're supporting all of them except four, five, and seven. And that would be our directive for Ms. Evans to vote on our behalf. Any questions, Ms. Evans, this evening? No questions from me, and I will do my best to stay true to what we voted on tonight, unless there's something grave and pressing that we learn at the meeting. Exactly. And again, our thanks for being our delegate this year. Of course. Thank you. Kenny. Yes, Mrs. O'Connell. I have a question for Steve. It's about the Lifetime Achievement Award. Now, Steve, in this book, the MASC Annual Meeting Delegate Manual, They've got the recommended for lifetime membership, but they don't have the lifetime achievement award. And this year I nominated Mary Antoshi and my mailing was confirmed. So are

140they awarding this? Lifetime Achievement Award this year because they had nothing in the manual about it. Do you know anything about it? Through the chair, I do not know anything about it. I could certainly look into it for you. Okay. You probably could. I did mail it to Glenn Kuchar, and he did confirm that he received it. And that was last, probably April, when it was due. And so I noticed it isn't in the manual. So I was wondering if they're going to do that again. I know Catherine and I received it one year, the lifetime achievement award. And I did nominate Mary. So you will check it out for me? I will. I'll work with Sandy to check it out. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. O'Coin. And Mrs. Cabala? I just wanted to

141mention that Elaine Rabbit is up for life membership. I think it would be nice if we acknowledged that with a letter or something wishing her well. She's in the booklet about that. So maybe the superintendent could write a letter on our behalf wishing her well on that nomination. Sounds good. Okay, thanks. Yep, we'll do that for sure. We wish Mrs. Rabbit well. Thank you, Mrs. Kabbalah. No further questions? No. Okay, we're moving on. New business item G, superintendent goals, and I would turn it over to Mr. Lamache. Mr. Chairman of the school committee, as requested, I have three goals for this school year. I did share these with the administrative team this week. as well. The first goal is to establish Dudley-Charlton Regional School District organizational leadership to navigate and implement a high quality comprehensive

142program to all students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second goal I have is to establish 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. Then the third goal I have is to advocate for a district-wide culture that embraces equity for all students, staff, and community members. And Mr. Chairman and the school community, those are my three goals that I'm presenting this evening. Thank you, Mr. Lamache. And this is my personal first go-around with superintendent evaluation and goals. I open it up to the committee with questions or comments. Hearing none. I have one. Oh, I'm sorry. Mrs. Cavalli, go ahead. I just wanted to say that I think that the whole focus of everybody in the district this year to be

143able to get through this with some semblance of auditory. I hope that the teachers and the administrators have the same kind of overall goal while they're trying to put down things that we know we may not be able to achieve. This is what our whole year should be about for everybody from autumn up to the top. So I think just one goal would be enough to get through this year in some kind of good method. And I hope the teachers are being forced to do all those portfolios. Does that come down from the, are they going to have to do all that stuff like they used to do this year? Are they relaxing that? Do you know anything about that? I think that was relaxed a few years back. But they still have to do

144all that kind of, don't they have to do portfolios and all that stuff? No, no, they didn't have to do that. Well, Mr. LaMarche, do they have to do anything like goals? Do they have to present certain goals and things like that? I'm sure that everybody has goals. But if you recall the MOU that we agreed to with DCTA, the evaluation was put on hold until we're back to full in-person learning. It doesn't mean accountability stops. No, no, I know that. But I think it's another thing that you have to worry about. Evaluation is on hold right now, yeah, because it doesn't need to be another thing for staff to worry about at this point. Exactly. Okay, thank you. And Steve, I think these three goals are excellent because of the COVID-19 times that we're

145in right now. You've hit them right on the head. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And any comment, questions? Otherwise, we'll move on. We'll go through the normal evaluation process in the spring, guided by the state for that process as part of our duties as elected school committee members to work with Mr. Lamache. So thank you, Mr. Lamache, for bringing that to us this evening. That concludes our agenda this evening. I would be moving into next discussion of next meeting date. I just wanted to have a couple of minutes if you'll bear with me. This evening, I'd like to... discuss the option for the future school committee meetings, not necessarily the next school committee meeting, but I've had folks ask me and Mrs. Reed had a few folks ask about when we would be allowing

146community members to attend in-person school committee meetings. Again, I'm not looking for an answer this evening, but I just wanted to put it out for... thought, discussion, deliberation. Administration can take that and work with that, but I know community members have asked when they can start attending in person, distancing, perhaps using the auditorium as a location for us to meet. I don't know if Mrs. Reed, did you want to say a few words? No pressure, obviously. No, when I brought it up to you, I had talked to Kenny about maybe doing it exactly how the town meetings do it, where we'd sit up on the stage and participants that wanted to come in could be spaced adequately in the auditoriums. So I just wanted to see if there was a possibility that we could talk

147about that maybe for next month. Did you want to go, Mr. Lamache? No, go ahead. Go ahead and I'll get to you. I was only going to say yes. We'll certainly explore that and try to design it and try to come up with a plan for next month. for the next i'm sorry next meeting next meeting or the following meeting uh to propose to the for the school committee for the next meeting got it and i would agree we don't need it immediately i just think it's something we could figure out at some point and i know mrs terry had a comment so i'll get you mr kamanyani mrs terry I think that there's a perfectly acceptable way for participants that want to comment or be involved can do that via this method that we

148have here. And I don't think that we need to add additional people to our settings. I think that we have a good amount of people in this room right now, and I don't feel it's necessary to increase the number of people when we have an avenue for people to participate. My own personal opinion. And I agree with Jamie. Yeah, I would also like to say that I think that having meetings on this platform has allowed more participation. by our residents in the towns. I think that people can join in from their homes, ask questions. Maybe we need to send a survey out to our parents and ask them what they think and how they want to be represented and how they want to have their voices heard. Thank you, Mrs. Camiani. I just, oh, Ms.

149Evans, go ahead. I also wanted to echo my agreeance with the two of them as well on this. If anything, I'd be more interested in working with the towns to try and find ways to bring other ways to view this remotely, if that is an issue, rather than bring people into here. Because I do know that there are some people who probably will struggle, technologically speaking, with things, depending on where they are, what technology they have. But I'd much rather work with them on an individual basis than run the risk of bringing more people into a... a system right now that I think is working very well. Thank you. Mrs. Cabala. I'm of the same vein. We have more attendants now than we've ever had in 35 years. I know it's a hot issue because

150of the COVID and so forth, but we never have many people as a rule. I think once this kind of dies down, we'll probably be back to our same numbers. I don't see the point of making more work for the custodians and everybody else. I think we're working fine. Thank you, Mrs. Cabala. So my, I have a comment, but did you want to say something? Go ahead, Mrs. Reed. I'm not saying that we would get rid of Zoom all completely or Vimeo. I'm just saying that there have been parents that have specifically wanted to come to our meetings just for the fact that there are times when they'd like to ask a question and they're not asking the question during Zoom because we're not doing questions. But we'd still... keep it the way that it

151is. But if parents wanted to come in, that's my only concern. And I think having a survey, maybe we send out a survey. I mean, the more public participation we can have by doing a survey, that would be great. Mrs. Carey, go ahead. I would be certainly happy to entertain the idea of somebody raising their hand in the participants, you know, room on this and then seeing if the chairperson could recognize them to ask the question as long as they had their full name. And so we had the best ways to protect from the challenges that this technology presents. But I think that I think it's appropriate for them to want to ask questions. I think that's great. I love the participation. I just don't think we need to do it. more in person when

152our numbers are rising in the state and we're trying to stay in the school for the students as much as we can. If a parent were to become exposed, that could stop us from being able to be in person. I just want to comment a few things. First of all, I'd like to see us move to more. in-person engagement when possible, but I hear everybody's concerns and I do agree. I will say, first of all, the... Question and answer period. Citizens Forum policy, our policy dictates that we have Citizens Forum for community members to come and speak to the school committee and raise concerns. But we don't have a policy where we do question and answer. I'm not saying I don't want community engagement. All I'm saying is this is our business meeting that happens

153to be public. And I don't want to go down the path of question and answer period where it could lead to a very long laborious meeting. Again, let me be clear. I'm not looking to not look for community participation and support, but we need to be mindful. And again, the district policy is. It's Citizens Forum. They have a certain number of time, amount of minutes to speak and share a concern with the school committee, and the expectation is they're not going to get an answer at that moment. It's taken under deliberation. The administration takes it back and discusses it and comes back with a plan or response to that Citizens Forum request. If policy subcommittee wants to review and... incorporate a question and answer period into our meetings. That's a separate discussion. But my concern

154is this is a business meeting for the business of the schools and we need to be mindful of how long our meetings are. But that would just be my own personal comment and opinion on that factor. Any further questions, discussion, thoughts? So in order to give the administration direction, do we want to just drop this or do we want to ask the administration to come up with something, a proposal for next meeting? Because I certainly want to make sure we're clear to the administration on next steps. Mrs. Reed? I'd like to put out a survey. And if it's just yes or no. Mrs. Kamanyani? I would just be mindful of what we send out for survey. Like if we eventually want to ask parents something else, like maybe we need to look and do it

155all at the same time. So I'm not sure if there's another thing that, you know, Dr. Ackerman or Mr. LaMarche would like to ask in a survey that they would get the use out of everything. Kenny. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. At this time, I don't think there's any need for a survey. You were right in saying that this is a business meeting. We're here to get the school business done. We do have the Citizens Forum for the public to come forward. But we don't have questions unless something is pressing and you can occasionally, if someone raises their hand, call upon them. But this is our meeting, the school committee meeting. I don't think it is necessary to send out a survey. Mrs. Kabala, go ahead. I'm not for the survey. What would the survey

156ask? Do you want to open the building up for public meetings? Is that what the survey would be? What would be the question on the survey? Go ahead, Mrs. Reed. I've had parents ask if they could come to the meetings and when they'd be able to come to the meetings, and that was two meetings ago. I understand what everybody's saying with bringing in the public, but I'm just wondering if there's more parents that would want to come to the meetings, especially during this time of such. hybrid and everything else going on, the talks. I mean, I'm for whatever everybody else wants to do, but I'm just letting you know that there have been parents that have come forward. Did they tell you why they didn't zoom in and go to that meeting? Oh, they zoomed

157in. They zoomed in. But again, there's not, during our meetings, we might have a couple of people that would come in and during our conversations, yes, they would raise their hand. The question is when we, we, but we're not stopping. Every time we go through something now on Zoom, we're not asking for participation from parents unless we're putting it at the end or at the beginning. We have them muted unless they're raising their hands and waving. They're not being seen or heard. So that's my only concern is that the parents that have come forward. have asked and if you don't want to do a survey then we don't have to do a survey. So at this point, thank you, Mrs. Reid. So I hear everybody's concerns. At this point, it seems like there are five

158members that want to keep it the way it is, and it's Mrs. Reid and I are the ones that like to move more towards a public meeting. So I think we're going to leave it the way it is for now. But I am going to ask that this topic of citizens' forum be put on a future policy subcommittee agenda for discussion and possible revision, if that's what the committee so wishes. Again, just to reiterate, we... We normally have citizens forum for the public and we don't normally do a question and answer period throughout each meeting. I'm not trying to be inappropriate or disrespectful or rude to the community. It's just that the meeting can get laborious if we continue down that path. Just my two cents. But again, we'll bring this up for future discussion.

159But for now, we'll leave things as is and we'll move on. Our next school committee meeting dates, school committee meeting Wednesday, October 28th, 2020. That will be in person for us at 7 p.m. at Charlton Middle School and also via Zoom and Vimeo. Budget and Finance Subcommittee, Tuesday, October 27th, 2020 at 4 p.m. That's via video conferencing. And then a policy review subcommittee, curriculum subcommittee for teaching and learning and capital and school safety subcommittee. I know those emails have gone out from the central office liaisons. And so those dates will be published and made available as soon as possible. At this point, I would like to entertain a motion to go into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Dudley Charlton Teachers Association if an open session may have a

160detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares. We will reconvene into regular session to take votes if necessary and to adjourn. I will entertain a motion for my colleagues to enter into executive session for this designated purpose. So moved. Second. Motion made by Mrs. O'Coin, seconded by Mrs. Carminiani. I assume there's no discussion. Hearing none, Mrs. Kamanyani? Yes. Ms. Evans? Yes. Mrs. Kabbalah? Yes. Mrs. Reed? Yes. Mrs. Terry? Yes. Mrs. O'Coin? Yes. And I, Mr. LaFerriere, the chair, votes yes. It is unanimous. We are now in executive session.