001have a good meeting thank you all right we are I'm going to take a motion to exit our executive session here at 6:02 and enter into back into Open Session second all right all in favor okay roll call to exit Okay uh roll call Gates yes benwick yes Lind Bob yesos yes Rand all right uh we will move on to public comment now seeing No Hands raised virtual nor any inperson guests tonight we will move forward with our student report we have Jane Ryan and Jonah ryell with us welcome back my bad hello everyone hello thanks for having us um so first up is our athletic update um our athletic teams are off to a great start golf has nine wins zero losses zero ties um boys XT is going one for one wins and
002losses and same with girls cross country volleyball is five wins one loss field hockey is 33 and one boys soccer is three 3 one in one girls soccer is three and one and football is two wins no losses so we look forward to seeing how our fall teams do um some more updates expectations tonight was on Thursday September 12th um care Griers met in the pack and with the administra administrative team to go over um our new updates for the school year and then student leaders LED parents throughout the hallways and I think it was a great night Jonah through there we did some fundraising and lots of NHS students were there to um show parents around um from the oh the Celeste choir at C High School performed the national anthem to the Massachusetts
003Coalition of police officers in hyas on Thursday September 19th um from what I heard that went well and Mr luette and the freshman team is developing a support plan for the Freshman students they will be instituting a multi-tiered student support plan that Gates currently uses and this will be a way to proactively um improve situ High School's uh support for each student situ High School will also be on tomorrow and Tuesday will be held hosting a college night and Mr Adams on October 4th will be running uh another this is our house event in school for all students also be a college workshop on for seniors of situ High School on the 25th uh and parent caregivers are welcome uh have a college app workshop on the 26th the next day and the financial aid
004night will be on October 8th sichu High School will also be hosting the PSAT uh on Tuesday October 29th for our 10th graders and Wednesday October 30th for 11th graders uh and it will begin at 8:15 on both days so no late starts and then we were given a couple of statements from several students to talk about the new cell phone policy and one thing that inspires students at shs all right um do you want to start with the cell phone policy okay so from students um this is one quote from a student I think cell phones pose a great risk to the education and mental health of students I think the implementation of this new cell phone plan has been very successful and has gone without prac practically any opposition from my piers and
005another student shares I believe that the system of putting the phones away during class but having them be allowed outside of class and during home room is a good policy and a good balance of having and not having your phones I believe this because well it limits phone time and helps keep kids concentrated on class and not distracted by their phones it also allows for communication and other abilities during free time such as Home Room lunch or passing time and then reading quick segment on so this was um Mr Gate's idea he wants us to share kind of what inspires students at situ high school and some of the quotes we liked one of them was using my voice to enact change inspires me c High School needs to do better with valuing diversity equity
006and inclusion and treating them with the same importance as sports games s High School also needs to focus more on providing mental health support to his students due to the epidemic of depression running through our school and Country and then another student says I am vice president of my class working with my PE is constantly inspiring me we work so hard to contribute to a common good ensuring our class is inclusive fun and full of opportunities for all specifically seeing the level of dedication that Miss Hayden and Mr kerans the 12th grade uh teacher advisers for our student government put into our class is completely inspiring to me they are so get dedicated students and I hope to be like this someday okay thank you and that's all we have for tonight any questions I
007have a question as student leaders how do you feel about the new cell phone policy yourself um I do not mind it honestly I think that in my classes the fallowing year phones haven't been a huge problem um it I will say like I think that the phone policy definitely would impact like under classman more and I personally would not be too upset if situ went to no phones at all during school time um I think that an important part is like the hallway time in lunchtime to be um communicating with people and like making connections with people you w normally talk to so that's my take on it um I know some people are close to this but yeah and I I do want Focus to remain on campus but I do feel that
008this is a pretty Black's policy and just putting them away during class is something that you know half of my classes were already doing last year and again similar to what some of our statements said like I don't feel it to be intrusive at all and it's it's very simple to just put my phone away during class and then if I need to contact someone that I can just do it during lunch or my Wind Block or passing time and I feel it's it's a good compromise and it it shows how much respect that our our school district has for us allowing us to still keep them interesting perspectives thank you very much thank you okay uh we have uh superintendent Burkhead with a donation here thank you good evening everyone this is a donation
009from the Google team mental health initiative Sor the normal question would be what is that the Google team mental health initiative Under the Umbrella of Google's philanthropic uh branch is a $10 million initiative to provide Mental Health Resources to high school students and teachers in the United States recently Rebecca odonnell special ed teacher at cood high school was awarded with a classroom donation of $1,000 and I just wanted to share some of the things that she got I want to congratulate her and the kids for this um I thought these um some of the things I won't list all the things that she was able to purchase with this some of these are pretty cool sounding might want to join the classes have fun with these scramble squares planets nine piece puzzle challenging brain teaser
010with 161 unique art styles for all ages shashibo shapeshifting box which is an award-winning patent fidget cube with 36 rear Earth magnets transforms into over 70 shapes engaging trivia quiz included with the mobile app and the last one is a studio active chairs adjustable wobble stool flexible classroom seating which improves Focus posture and helps all students including those with sensory issues so I thought this some great fun uh learning tools for the kids want to just thank uh Mr odonnell and Google Mental Health and I would ask that the school committee approve this donation excellent thank you superintendent bad take a motion on the Google team mental health initiative donation from J I make a motion that the school committee vote to approve the donation from the Google team mental health initiative as present second
011all in favor hi all right thank you thank you okay new business inate field trip for model un conference miss willinger and miss trer and Company we'll we'll present first and then we brought um some of our officers with you to share a little bit I feel like you know we've come before you every year at least you know one or two times and um I think it's nice also to see the kids and to see the impact that things are having so um these are four of our five officers um um this year which is really great so um we're excited to be before you today to put forth two different conferences um one uh to the Harvard Model United Nations conference in January and the other to the Yale Model United Nations conference
012in Europe which is held this year in Switzerland um and I know that we've been here a million times um but I thought it was interesting or just important to recognize um that last year was the 20th anniversary of situ Model United Nations so as a group I wasn't the first one to start it I started maybe in 2005 um but Norm shakas who was the department chair um started um started back um in 2003 and really just took a few kids to Harvard that was where they went every year um and this club now has just grown dramatically um we have close to 50 60 students every year participating so it is one of the largest clubs at centr high school um so I just wanted to share that um we haven't our first
013conference that I wanted to present today is the Harvard m Model United Nations conference and we've gone in the past like I said it's been quite a few years since um we've gone the dates are from January 30th to February 2nd um and we're really looking at this as an opportunity to build um the club from the ground up because right now we're really senior and Junior heavy and it as you can imagine with you know sports teams if you have all seniors and juniors you have no youth coming up and so that's one of the things that wanted to do by having a closed conference where we could perhaps take as many kids that are interested to be able to go to be able to replace the 40ish seniors I think about that that
014we have so it's a pretty big really strong group that we're replacing um but we need to sort of open up those opportunities for for young people because they haven't been able to have that opportunity to go yet um this particular conference should be pretty straightforward because we're going to be taking a bus into Boston they're going to drop us off um it's similar it's held in Copley Plaza like in in past years um and we'll be taking we imagine around 45 students it might be give or take you know might be 50 might be 40 but we think we have the interest probably for that amount and we'll take five shopon um with us the exciting thing this year and this kind of leads us into the other piece too um is that we
015actually have two students who are sophomores right now um uh I just lost umor Victor Boer and Anna Kelly who are both competing on the college model un circuit now which is a really high level Anna's um competing in Georgetown and Victor's competing at Harvard um so Victor is actually um going to be running one of the Committees um that we are going to so it's kind of a nice tie and so that's why we wanted to especially go to Harvard this year do you want to add anything about Harvard um I think just that because I teach primarily underclassmen and we had a lot of interest the last couple of years but when we go further away the obviously can't take as many students so I think they sound really excited for the opportunity
016to go to one that's also close to home and give it a shot so and we have a really great group of upper classman to mentor and leave them so I feel like it'll be a very good opport opportunity for them too would you like us to present the other one too or do you want or do you have questions on the Harvard trip any question is it I didn't look at the calendar is it a weekend is it Friday to Monday weekend Friday Satur yeah so it'll be like Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday um it is after um the midyear exam so it's not going to interfere with that um and that's probably the best time to sort of Miss because it's not like the week before exams students might be changing classes but it'll
017be right in the beginning if they're taking like a semester course um but for the most part it's a it's a easier time to leave than before that well I'll take a motion on the first conference to Harvard we vote them one at a time um I make a motion that the school committee vote to approve the UN model Boston field trip as presented second all right all in favor fantastic thank you um the second trip this is really a step for us and this was something before Miss tryers joined me here that Mr mof and I had been talking about um thinking about trying to expand a club and take the next step to join some really competitive conferences internationally um with the pandemic that put a hold on things and then the next
018few years after that we said we're just going to stay local we're not going to really go too far um but we wanted to be able to provide students with really high level opportunities in really competitive conferences um in a similar way that they would do if they were on the college model un circuit um because as I said we have students that are going to do that now and we'd like to prepare them for those opportunities um and so what we are proposing is to go to Geneva Switzerland um in March and it would be March 9th through the 17th or 18th depending on flights um it's run through Yale University and we chose that specifically because there are a lot of smaller conferences that are held and things like that and we really
019wanted to go through a very reputable um University and Conference um that we felt would be well-run as opposed to kind of taking our chances with you know some other conference that's held just locally like in the in country wherever we go um we also picked Switzerland because it there were some other ones that Harvard hosted in Abu Dhabi and other places which Morocco which seemed fabulous but maybe this is just a good first step we'll come back and talk about Abu Gabi some other J um but this seemed like a good first step for us in an area that we felt we could take students with us and feel comfortable um we would be leaving on a Sunday and again because they're going to be um in in the conferences we'd like them to
020be able to experience the culture experience the area and things like that as well Geneva is an exciting place to go because that's where um the United Nations has their European offices so it is a really great place for us to go to sort of be a part of the um sort of United Nations Internationals here in Europe um and we're hoping to take a tour of the United Nations in Europe many of these guys had gone um on the UN tour in New York um so it's kind of interesting to sort of Dove um dovetail there um the conference itself is held in the Intercontinental um which is probably the nicest hotel that you could stay in um but they have discount Ed um rates but everything is there so the students would stay
021there the conference is held there um we'd be looking to do some travel um in the area before um and maybe not after but before that um but only really limited close by you know a couple hours by train in in the area the cost we're looking at um about 2500 to about 3,000 for the cost we've done a number of fundraising activities um we've done the lobster Ro fundraiser like we did in previous years um we are doing a car wash we have a um raffle that's also coming up um the Yale offers financial aid for students as well so that they can apply individually for financial aid and Community Christmas has always been really supportive of um kids going to help fund students or sightseeing and things like that so we don't want
022this in any way to be cost prohibitive for for students because we think it's a great opportunity um and so we're able to sort of work that out as best we can um we originally on the sheet put down that we'd like to take 30 students um we had triy outs for the um for the for the trip and we have 39 students who tried out they all fantastic students and we would really love the opportunity to be able to take all 39 um they're mostly all Juniors and seniors um with one one sophomore um we've traveled with all of these students before we we feel good about you know taking that larger size group but it would require taking five would require by the by the school committee policy to take four but knowing
023that things come up on these trips we'd like to take five chaperons with us because if you know I'm taking students for you know health issues we still have four other adults that are there so we'd like to kind of buffer ourselves that way and bring five adults um and the cost itself doesn't include like the food incidentals and things like that although it does include breakfast in the hotel um and I don't know if you would like to ask questions for us first or if if you want our students to talk a little bit about why this is exciting now I from the students sure okay so can you guys just introduce yourselves and talk a little bit about uh hello uh my name is Nikolai bovic I'm Jake lell uh and uh we're
024the captains of the situate high school mod team we're the head delegates uh I'm the head delegate of fundraising and he's the head delegate of Education yeah um so for me I didn't start M until my sophomore year really um and I joined and I went to our conference to New York um and I remember I came back and Miss willinger was my was my US1 teacher and I walked into her room the day we came back or maybe maybe a couple days afterwards and I hadn't signed up to go to one of the three trips that year and I walked into her room and I'm like Miss Willer can I please go to this other trip like can I go to all of these trips all the time because and it's it's not just
025the travel that you're that you're going that you're going somewhere cool and that's a part of it obviously but it's also that you're getting such a valuable academic experience you're getting such a valuable experience within within having this debate with people within having conversations and facilitating a conversation like that it's it's um It's Real World skills that are actually very impactful and not only that but it's it's the work you put in beforehand you research these real world topics that are actually having an impact and I thought that was that was so incredible I I pretty much ran for Treasure as soon as I could um and then all last year I was kind of like talking to miss willinger miss treasure being like hey we should go International we should go International um and
026uh here we are now where we have this awesome opportunity to to a well to a well-run conference um in an amazing diverse culture um and I think it's I think it's something special that we that we would love to be able to experience as students yeah to second that I'm going off with M willinger said about the culture aspect of M uh I recently went to California for the trip and on the way to Alcatraz I got to meet some uh Mormons that went to BYU and it was really cool to kind of like learn about their experience and like learning about like their college experience compared to my high school experience and just that as a whole I just think that's a major part of like model and just like going to these
027new places new countries uh if approved and like learning about their culture the people there their food kind of getting to interact and network with these like International students which be amazing and a really cool experience I just have a quick question I think this is amazing this is fantastic stuff I just have a question I we hear a lot about M can you give me like a sample uh one of the questions that you guys might be debating or arguing or can you just give me an idea of what it is you might be doing at one of these convences um yeah so uh one example the example we did for our um our try out for our um our Geneva trip this year was We proposed the question of how the debate over
028Taiwan should be settled how um what's happening with China right now where um they are encroaching on Taiwanese territory and Taiwan is um claiming Independence and China is perpetuating the one China policy and denying their independence um under their two systems one country policy and having students look into that you get a lot of diverse perspectives you have students that are representing a perspective that you sometimes wouldn't even see you have students representing Afghanistan a country that um you normally wouldn't hear a perspective like that um especially in the United States um but you also have students representing unique perspectives like the Philippines who are currently having a similar issue where China's encroaching on their se- space um to try to take over more more area in the um Asian Pacific uh so you get
029you get a lot of like unique perspectives looking at the same issue and like that's just an example of an issue but there's you could have you could have a question on how to deal with the Ukraine crisis or you could have historical committees like you could go back in time and like talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall so there's a lot of different ways that you can that you can um take advantage of this debate style setting and like really deepen your knowledge about like what's happened in history and what's happening now that's tful one on that example you gave um of Afghanistan like would are you assigned a particular country so you're not always going to be United States perspective correct uh yes you're assigned a p you're assigned a particular
030country so actually normally there's only one or in some occasions two students per committee that are going to be the United States and most of the other um students will be representing a different country in the United Nations uh which encompasses I believe upwards of like 80 90 100 countries Mo a lot yeah a lot of the countries in the world are in the United Nations most committees that will that will see we'll have 50 to 60 countries at Max and maybe like 20 to 15 if it's a small committee specialized committee um but they all bring in these unique perspectives that you would normally see and um in the Western World sometimes yeah like uh to go back to one of my conferences I was cam in a committee about the Amazon rainforce I
031got wonder about like the indigenous people there how to like incorporate that in my solution and like learn about the corruption within the country as well and I it's a great experience like learn also about these countries as a whole that you never get to learn about if you w a mol awesome thank you I do have two others that just wanted to say a quick word I know we don't want to take up too much time just introduce yourselves first uh my name is Bry Bost I'm uh Patrick McCarthy um so I'm a senior here at C high school I'm the elected historian from a and I really wanted to be your saying because I think it's important that we give a voice to the many students in mod who are really passionate and
032excited and optimistic about what an overseas conference has to offer um from my experience I know that conferences really can change a person um at a mod conference you're essentially locked in a room for sometimes hours it's good though don't wor with people who are really smart people who know that every voice counts when it comes to making a decision um I think that like M for me has enhanced my public speaking skills my Cooper cooperation skills um and in addition to that we our task is to uh create resolutions for issues that affect the world millions of people and so we get a lot of we get really into it you know we spend weeks researching particular issues and so um like I think the Integrity of this club is very important to us
033um the second trip I attended was from Washington DC it was the first time I ever been on an airplane um it was the first time I ever been to a major city without my parents and I paid for half of the um trip by myself and that's largely because I I could I knew the um opportunities that this trip had to offer for me so following this experience um I ran for class vice president since I I was inspired by this um conference to become more um engag in my Comm in my um community so I ran for class vice president I won and so I highly credit MN would Chang me as a student in a person because before model I was um I was very uninvolved in school I got good grades
034but I was uninvolved and then after M um like I said I prioritized tiic engagement and um uh enrolling myself in different clubs and so now today um I'm the leader of four Club I I I highly credit mod with it um I actually wrote a lot about model in my college application process um but in conclusion I just like to say I I share that story because I think Switzerland has the ability to do that for many other students um I know there's so many students who um begin mun as a freshman um some you know shy uninvolved um but they're willing to grow a student and I think Switzerland serves as a great opportunity to allow that um so I encourage you all to vote Yes on this because I'm super excited I
035think it's the um greatest opportunity high school has given me and I thank you for your time Patrick hi uh I'll make this quick but U I'm Patrick McCarthy I'm a junior here at high school I'm the treasur of I just wanted to make a quick point on like really how many opportunities M can give you and how there's something for everyone uh I'll mention two Committees of um done my time here in Mar my first year my first Committee in New York I um participated in a committee called DAC which was a committee on like National Security and arms which I thought was really interesting and that was really cool we talked about I think the topic was it was it was like smuggling and like drug smuggling and stuff like that over across
036in Europe and I thought that was really cool cuz I was Germany in that committee and I there was so much stuff I there's so much information I didn't know like it was going on across the world and in Europe and stuff like that like there was like human trafficking there was drug smuggling there was all these different methods and we had to we we discussed about that for days and we found a solution which is really cool and then also so that's something called a general assembly it's normally like a more real world committee and stuff like that but then what which is actually my more personal favorite there's also committees called crisises and these committees um these crisises they're more specialized and they're more like historical or like like other things like uh
037one that I did last year which was really cool was actually Roman Carthage so it was um it was about the second carthaginian war and it was a joint crisis so there was one side it was one crisis room that was Rome and there was another side that was Carthage and what was really cool about that is everybody had a role everybody had a position and there was like a um like a war table set in the middle of the room and the decisions you would make in this committee would would move TR like troops to separate parts of like Rome and Carthage and really the whole committee was trying to win this war and your decisions that you made these packs that you forms these groups you forms would do that so that was
038like really interactive and it was kind of like it kind of showed the importance of every decision you make and I thought that was really really cool and like if like I feel like if more people had that opportunity like I did like they could really like fall in love with the allu just like I did like it's it's truly an amazing and wonderful experience I've never had a bad experience M and I think if if we get this um Switzerland commit committee approved I think I think every it would be another amazing experience for our students here and I'm just uh really forward thank you I I have one question so I think I think most easily you'll convince us that this is a great program how do you convince younger classmen that they
039should begin to participate in you and how do you get the word out well I am very proudly in control of the Instagram account so we of course I you know social media is a great aspect of that but um I think you know a lot of m is intimidating to a lot of people of course um but I think having leaders like us who are so like we're involved in sports we're involved in many other things I think that is very influential in getting the word out um so yeah that's pretty much all I have to say on that topic yeah um I was just kind of talking about it but also it is just kind of the fact there's so many such a like a varying range of committees and things you could
040do like there really truly is like anything like so much there's like there's bigger committees there's like who like the the World Health Organization there's stuff like that for people who love health and also I've seen things like I've seen like an AFL versus an NFL merger I've seen like Star Wars committees I've seen like like if fashion committees if you're if you're in M there's no doubt in my mind that you won't find something that you love and you'll find some committee that you love like it's the I've truly in every committee I've had I've never hated it I've I've I everybody love everybody I've talked to everybody that's in mon everyone this joins monent said it's been a POS experience they love what they've done it's just there's there's really no downsides to
041it to be honest that's great thank you questions thank you very much so they've worked on their public speaking skills and they're really persuasive so we're happy to answer any questions that you have about the trip itself about mly men I have a question because and always keeping in mind like cost for students um and this trip is like a little over a week is it necessary to go that that that whole time frame to attend the conference the conference itself um is not the whole week but I think if we're going to travel to Europe we want to make it worth their while to be able to explore things as well um so I think you know typically when students go on a Model trip like when we went to California we went from
042a Wednesday through a Tuesday um and so we've typically when we've gone on larger trips we go for short shorter times um no other way around for longer times so sorry we've G on larger trips we've gone for longer times um I think definitely just for them to be able to adjust to be there to be able to see things both in Geneva um but then also in it's right in you know right near France and and Italy as well for them to be able to explore that area would be really great and I know there's a lot of students who are taking a lot of different International trips this year and we have had students that have said you know that they're not going to be able to go on this trip because they've
043choosing to go to the galopus or they're choosing to go to another thing um so I do feel like there are opportunities for for students to be able to bring down their costs as well so we're going to continue continue doing that um um but I this is sort of the upper end of what it probably is going to cost um that we overestimated because we didn't want to come in under estimating and then going back um so we've overestimated it's probably around 25 or a little bit less than that yeah okay I mean you have like March 9th to the 17th is that and so we're stilling I know like flights depending on what day yeah and so that's sort of where we are the nice thing about the day that we're coming back
044um one of the reasons that we're coming back on that day is that students we have a professional development day um so that students will have a day off which will then also allow them to get their work done um because they have very little time when they're on these trips so to be able to come back and to be able to have a day to like readjust both TimeWise and homework wise that was sort of what was leading us to come back on that later end um we would be back at school but they could have a day yeah I mean I think it's fantastic that is my only concern is that they're technically missing a week of school and that Pro you know presents its own anxieties in terms of like every other
045class that they're in absolutely yeah and going um that is definitely something we made pretty clear to them and I will say a lot of the students we have in model un take a pretty rigorous course load especially as Juniors and seniors um and they've practiced this going to California and New York of reaching out to their teachers ahead of time making their own schedule setting up deadlines when they get back and I do think they've done a really nice job in the past of holding themselves accountable with their learning and staying on top of it um because it is a lot of school to miss and we have some that did say that you know what like five days is just like a couple too many for me um but have come to others
046or they want to go to Harvard so it's definitely a big decision that way I feel like that's also a bigger High School conversation as like you're mentioning so many other and and students want these things and these are amazing opportunities I think it's important I totally support all of it and you know I know even just missing for you know band for Disney last year for like three four days was had an impact in you know how that sort of ripples into catch up time and oh how did you get XYZ on that was well I was in Disney okay so now we have to sort of play catchup so I do have a concern about that globally not for any anyone in particular or any particular group or class taking a trip but
047you know I I've never as a school Committee Member approved a trip this long missing that many days of school they're always over weekends and vacations that's my only concern yeah so they would miss the Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday so it would be five days um when we've gone before they've missed four days so those been approved before and just with the length of travel and things like that yeah um but I do hear what you're saying and and and yes it is a challenge for students and I think you know for for a lot of students too it's a matter of recognizing what they need to do ahead of time it's things that we drive home with them I don't know if you guys want to add do you want to add something
048yeah I can yeah I mean so come over here cuz you have to be on yeah the TV this is like real life model you yes they can they can help you with your motions too the these guys are also model un students so we're we're all here so well you can take us all on for me I think that the the real thing with the missing school is the kids that are moden are such high achieving individuals they're are none of the students in mod would accept missing school and not being able to catch themselves up or not being able to deal with the missing workload me me and Jane are both the top 5% of our class the two sitting in front of you right now um and I mean that's it's no
049coincidence that these are the type of people that are that are doing this trip for the the academic experience the experience of being able to get that debate the debate and the real world's issue solving in um and it's it's no mistake that these students are such high achieving individuals and I personally think that despite the fact that they're missing five academic days there's no way that the students that are going on this trip would not be able to recover academically or not be able to plan ahead be able to make the adjustments necessary to be able to miss that many days of school yeah I just want to add that I did the Spanish exchange trip in April and I think I did miss five days of school for that and in all honesty
050that was I was essentially a tourist it was an incredible experience I learn so much about the Spanish culture but with model the kids who sign up for these trips like you have to do a lot of work outside of school to prepare for them and you're honestly saying yes I do want to learn more I do want to do more work outside of school and I don't think it's a problem for these students to have to catch up on the work they miss because they just want to learn so much about the world it's a great opportunity well you guys are great I can see why you're so good at model un but but but this is interesting topic because internally here we're trying to minimize the number of days away from school I'm
051just curious if the district knows do these count as days of absent being absent they're excused I'm just I'm just curious they're excused according to according to desie yes okay I just I was just curious because like these these are the types of days that I would think would be okay to be AB from school but if we were getting for academic if we were getting marked down from the state on it it would be sort of a yeah we would not okay can I also just add to um that most classes or all classes really have a they have access to the work while they're gone um and so it's not you know by Google classroom and things like that so usually on our way there or on the way home they are already
052tackling their assignments on Google Classroom you have people that are working in the evenings trying to keep up with their work they're pretty disciplined and that's not to say that some don't fall off and some don't struggle and you know when they get back to get it back because they're still teenagers um but they are they're working pretty consistently um you don't really Hear Too Much from them on the way home from trips because everyone's like headphones in like working on a paper doing this doing that to try to make sure that they're ready to go and I do think that having that professional development day at that beginning of the week is going to just help them that much that much more but I do appreciate the concerns because I have the same concerns
053when kids are gone from my class as well um so looking at it from the other perspective it can be challenging when kids are gone I do to Dane's point and this is not you know my our trip is better than other people's trips because it's not um but but I but I do feel like there are some trips where it's a it's a touristy trip and that is a great opportunity for kids and it's not to take that away um but this is a real academic trip which I think you know with some touristy stuff but the majority of what they're doing is really academic both preparation and while they're there um so I think it just is another level of of a opport for them no I agree I I personally totally support
054it I just want to make sure that we're having these full conversations as a district in terms of you know pulling 40 kids out impacts someone's CL you know the staff The Faculty everybody thank God that attendance thing isn't an issue it's great you know I I think it's great I really do I do I'm I fully think that like I this is going to be a fantastic trip but to be the bad cop I'm gonna I mean we're approving a trip for nine days but conference is three four four four days so I guess that's where I said it's five days they're missing at school so I'm just saying we're we're approving a trip from M yeah when that particular part of the days in missing like four days you know what I'm saying
055I do understand Jenn and I think you know the only thing that would be unfortunate is that if they are just going and attending the conference and coming home they are sitting in a conference ballroom and they might as well be in Boston in a conference Ballroom so if we're going to spend the money to go to the conference you know overseas they should try to experience some of that too because otherwise it really wouldn't be any difference you know it's a different group you know the kids sitting in the same conference room and and that's about it I I think the other thing is like especially if you take like the Spanish exchange trip last year like we had we had kids miss a whole week of school for that but mum what it
056does is allowing us to go for these extra days where we may miss we may miss two more days of school than we would if we otherwise went and made it there right for Thursday and flew straight back um you get the experience of of being in another culture that you get with all these other exchange trips but you also tack on that academic value so I I really think that if there's any reason that student that we're going to have 40 students Miss five days of school m is the reason I think you'll win n and I also just I want to say too that our timing is is chosen on purpose um because sometimes we have these trips and I and I I I could go on about you know from a teacher
057perspective but you know like sometimes we have these trips right before AP exams or right do you know what I mean and the timing of the trips is really poor and kids really do struggle because kids were coming back for Disney the day before my exam last year um and that is really unfortunate because they've worked the entire yeah that was you um so it's unfortunate because they've worked all year long on preparing for the exam and so we've chosen the dates so that they aren't as disruptive for the students learning but I do recognize that it is still a lot of time make a motion to approve the uh out of country field trip to uh the model UN in Geneva second all in favor thank you appreciate it good job man I know
058good job so why we brought them work can I just say something just this is making me think about how we've talked as a committee about wanting to do a better job of um publicizing the awesome things that are happening in our school system this strikes me as a perfect opportunity I think in the past I've kind of tangentially known what model un was it sounds impressive sure but I think we tonight just learned so much more about what it actually is and I'm going to definitely check out the Instagram account but I feel like it's well done but I feel like just doing more as a systems on our part but also everyone else to to just be able to Showcase like look at this really incredible thing you know to the point of
059getting younger kids excited as they're looking ahead to high school but also the broader Community to understand what it is that we as a community are supporting and we certainly can help out in any way to do that um and then also you know we're happy when we get back to come in and and share if that's something that the committee would like us to do so that we can kind of be out in the public kind of sharing the work that they did thank you thank you thank you all right non-un and Union Personnel job description turn over to superintendent burat thanks Mr um these next two positions are part of our restructuring of our technology department and uh I want to give a shout out to our new technology educational director uh Miss
060Jackie felo and um by her moving up the ladder into that position has created an opening uh with her position which is the technology integration specialist um and I just want to clarify because it was a little unclear in the agenda that this is a a union position this is an SDA position um the other position the it operations coordinator is a non-un position so those are the two positions we're voting on tonight for job descriptions um where the technology integration specialist position already existed when Jackie took over that new role it was an opportunity for us to U look at that um job description that was outdated and updated with her input we also collaborated with our HR department and Miss Fluker along with the STA leadership so I want to thank them and
061a collaborative effort to get feedback on this before we brought to the committee tonight in executive session to share the details of it I would ask for a vote in the affirmative on both these positions the second position the it operations coordinator um is a new position added to the budget with the approval of the school committee last year so thank you very much it's an extremely helpful position that complements the other positions and kind of puts us in a position now where we can have a full operational uh technology department with the leadership positions able to focus on leadership Vision planning those types of things and we have an operational Wing as well so we have a true Department um with the approval of these two positions great thank you any discussion before vot
062or comments okay take a motion on the first uh technology integration nope wrong it operations coordinator uh I'll make a motion that the school committee votes to approve the non-union Personnel it operations coordinator job description as presented second all in favor I'll make a motion that the school committee vote to approve the Union Personnel technology integration specialist secondary job description as presented second all in favor I just to note again these were already budgeted in our 2024 25 budget anyway so no new no no budgetary impact at all that's correct and while I'm on the mic may I just steal a few more minutes for a public announcement that I think it's important for the community here that I'm going to turn over regarding mcast that's coming I want Mr Lynch to have a quick
063update on thank you sure thank you so uh tomorrow this week uh superintendent burad and I participated in the uh mcast and accountability updates from the state so uh we're just updating you that tomorrow at 10: am the board of Elementary and secondary education meets in Massachusetts and they talk about the results from the 2024 uh mcast and we have uh scheduled our update the school committee on Monday October 7th but we just wanted to let you know that the state will talk about the general results tomorrow until that time all results are embargo the state likes to um sort of share the uh General Trends so they'll do that tomorrow um as well as the the school accountability piece they'll talk about that but we just wanted to let you know that we'll be
064um digging a little bit into the data at the October for in a more detailed way on October 7th and our uh our teachers are and principes are already using that data to think about looking at our curriculum and um looking at Trends and any curriculum gaps and things like that so we just wanted to let you know that's on the radar and the state will'll talk about it tomorrow and we're prepared to share that with you uh two weeks from today fantastic looking forward to it all right uh subcommittee updates miss benwick and miss llam yes with Mr Lynch's help as well okay so I think we um mentioned this before that this is the um updates to the Title Nine policies that are coming actually from the federal level to all states and
065Massachusetts has already been pretty well aligned with some of the um ches that the federal government wanted to make on this so as a state we are not making as drastic or as many um adjustments as in some other places so in our packet are all of the different policies um but I'm going to pull up the document that it talks about the it's called the fact sheet um because that's probably the best place to look just to understand what um the differences are and I don't know if know Janice if you want to say anything else kind of big picture we need to go through these or people have questions I'm not really sure how to well I mean due to the law changing and um we had to update our policies and everything
066was looked at um by our lawyer so all these policies were you know there were some changes that were made just to um have us in compliance so it's pretty straightforward I think y um and assistant superintendent Lynch is our title n coordinator I think is that the word um and so he is the one who would be kind of in charge of implementing um the process and making sure that things are going as they're supposed to be and that will include training staff um and building leaders to make sure that everyone's aware of um any changes to the policy and just it's a good opportunity I think just for re-education on these policies anyway um I think it needs a refresher now that it's quite dry but when you need it to know it
067so it is really important and I think this is also just a nice opportunity to have a refresher for everyone involved sounds good to me so we should review that maybe and then we'll vote yeah I mean typically I think it's easier to talk about um a policy this is kind of a bundle and they're all really detailed so I don't know if you know if anyone has questions but yeah I think at the next meeting we would that would be our second meeting quote unquote and then um we would vote I believe so between now and then it is helpful if you all want to make sure you're familiarizing yourselves a bit more okay and then is there anything else you wanted to add I think you I think you've done a good job
068I think um you you'll see districts around the Commonwealth in this some of their first um few meetings following suit doing what we're doing um sometimes people see Title 9 and they wonder about sports in this case the final regulations do not include any new rules governing eligibility criteria for athletic team so if that question comes up that's in the fact sheet um the grievance procedure outlines what people could expect if um somebody wants to follow the tit onl process for uh sex-based harassment uh or discrimination so those are good ones to look at I think our two school committee members have covered all the other relevant uh pieces and I appreciate both of your time going through them in our in our meetings great all right anything else um just the the the policies
069that are in the backup are the final drafts but I don't know if it would be helpful those are the ones you want us to review yep but um I mean we got versions of um highlights of what was added so I don't know if you wanted to see that to compare I mean it's you don't have not a leeway right it's there's no and in fact if there incident now that was that came up we would have to rely on the federal um changes even though our policies are obviously they proceed to Sate public schools and so even if you know is kind of we got to just do this and we got to do it now because we want to make sure that our policies are are right Place yeah that makes sense
070all right we will review what is in the backup and if anyone has questions we'll bring them to you on the 7th have that dat right for our next meeting clarify so for the next meeting you'd like a second reading and a vote yes thank you perfect all right um approval of minutes we have some minutes from September 9th 24 anyone make a motion to approve the minut from September 9 2024 I'll second all right all in favor okay no warrant and no correspondances any other business um I just give a um I guess a couple comments number one is I did reach out to all to the town side to add you all as the leasons or subcommittee members and I don't know if you've been included on anything I don't really have a
071way of doing it I just asked them to do it and I assume they do I got C on one of my new committees so I'm not sure if everyone else did okay yet but that and on that note um as I went through the process I recognized that um on our again liaison list we just have West cork as a sister city we actually have Kate ver and we have sus onri so again I don't really know what our roles are in those committees but as we Define what those roles are I think we need to at least add those two additional ones maybe we just have a sister city liaison and you're all three I don't really know but that's what I came across in my um efforts and I think that I
072am you are too yes yeah so you think we should maybe see what the well you would know then what's the lift for West cor I have no idea I didn't even know that it was okay okay so maybe we find that out and see if like you said we do it one one and one or we have the sister city Leon who covers all three yeah so what what my next effort was going to be was to reach out to all these the chairs and say what role do you want the school Committee Member to play in your committee but it was kind of cumbersome and I haven't done that not quite sure if I'm going to get a response I didn't know if maybe I should create a survey I didn't I didn't
073really know rather than open-ended response of what you expect from us but I still think for me going on eight years I still don't know what my roles are unless it's a manal forecast and I have a vote other than that I don't really know what my role is and I don't know if the other committees know what our role is so I I I don't even know if we're supposed to be defining that but someone should and I don't know why we we can't take the initiative but I don't know how best to facilitate that I mean we could each reach out to the committee that we're supposed to be on and ask I guess that's another way to think about it also think a little survey yeah survey actually be really I mean
074assuming people respond that's the rub right right I don't even I don't really even know I actually I had an email right to go and it just got cumbersome because I had like 12 different people to send it to because I wanted to come from us the school commit I didn't want to come from the town saying oh the school committe is asking for this I wanted to say hey we are the I'm the school committee and I want to know what you uh expect from us I just haven't done it um but I'm trying to figure out really what we want them to tell us in terms of what they also I think we should have a point of view too right like yeah I mean about what we think we would like or
075what makes most sense you know like when I look at some of like so who's on planning besides me is it just me you J I think it's just just me one I it's is a single so when I look at the agenda for Thursday I'm kind of like nothing on here applies to me I will just be listening which is fine I don't mind doing that but um it kind of feels like if I don't know like maybe it makes more sense to look at the agenda and think is there anything on here that relates back or is it okay if I'm just like listening on zoom and in person present you know those types of things make a big difference yeah we all have kids at home like being out of the house
076twice a week is tough sure at hour yeah yeah so what so how do you think I should proceed survey open-ended response you I think either an email to all the Committees just saying we're really trying to understand historically the role of the school committee and curious what the chair's perspective is on I mean just really that's pretty much what I had I just didn't do it yet I would just do it do any of them have to on to us some I think yeah but they don't come to meetings who has who has Le on to us besides I don't think the other subcommittees do it's I don't know all right I'll I'll just I'll do that and um why don't we as a backup whoever doesn't respond then the person who's on will
077have a better way to say hey this is me I need to know okay okay I'll do that thank you yeah I mean I think it's a good it's worth it because yeah I don't think we should be doing this just because we've always done it way and I'd rather have like two people attend the financial forecasts and get you off of planning if we don't even need to be at planning unless they invite us because there's some specific so like I just feel like we should use our time in the best way that advocates for our our kids and our families if there's something on their agenda that they think oh this relates to the school then I think they should invite us you know and proactively do that I think makes a ton
078of sense and I I know this has been going on for a couple years as we've done the charter review but which committees we really get a vote on and I try to do that document but I don't even know what's accurate I still don't I know that in the charter we weren't supposed to get a vote on Capital but we still do we still do last year I did for sure yeah so so in that sense State I think up and something approv so in that vein and the capital planning because we get a vote I think that our that unfortunately Maria has to go to Every meeting because she's going to be voting I I actually do think Capital planning is worth your time because you get to learn about like how we're
079spending our money on different projects and where we sit in these Pro I think it's very important I mean I went a lot to make a quorum so I think you do actually have a vote on plan we do you vote onal oh you're planning I'm sorry so it's confusing I'm sorry I have no idea very very confused why we're on I don't understand I understand thank you for I didn't know we even had a planning Le okay I will tell you the S City stuff it's a ton of work it's so I I was just saying if you're saying one person doing it all I think we should be mindful of because it it can be a lot the sister cities yeah yeah it's it's just a lot of events and activities and so
080just thinking strategically about again what's you know what's important about that for the school committee and who should be doing what be like a two person well that's what I'm wondering justl it or I think they're great events I think they're really interesting I just it's it's a lot going on with those um often so just to keep that in mind okay okay yeah so it's a work in progress but I have the email ready to go just I just I say start by sending the email and then we'll what happens I mean I can just make it easy and send it to the town and then they can send it toly see what you get back and then if you need us as Liaisons to those committees to follow up with our committee representative
081committees we can it'll pull it all together okay it's it's it is that twofold like what do they what could we be doing for them but then also what you know it's that two-way relationship okay fantastic um um any future agenda items of note well I'm just really curious I led that our student reps are bringing the voice of the students and the voice the students mentioned Dei and mental health and I I would love to hear from folks in those areas just to educate our students let our students know what we're trying to do I don't know I just think if our students are revoicing these Curiosities we should act and make information available and so I don't know what that looks like Bill specifically but maybe just have I don't know a report
082or share like initiatives I don't know I'll leave that to you to decide I feel like I want to honor what the students are bringing to us so yeah I think um and that small sample it's the leadership my own I think it's a good point um principal arranger share with mean that's his leadership group that meets like gu Council Leadership Council so I think it he's going to share the they had results obviously I'm going to talk about those address them as a group so organically talk about student voice and then addressing those responses well I think it would be awesome because if you if we put on a future agenda that that's coming if if Mr ler has specific questions that the students have then we could really like give somebody who's going
083to report like what they actually are asking about of course so and I think that ties to some budgeting things because if they if that comes through that group for next year I mean as we're already thinking about you know 25 26 like tiny tiny Pockets that we can you know even that thousand donation went really far in that classroom so especially both areas mental health Andi be work it's like can really you can go far with yeah yeah you know so all right um if nothing else take a motion to adjourn motion toour at that's 71 second hey all in favor hi