Board of Education Meeting / School Safety Plan - 7/9/2024

001e e e gu good evening good evening I'd like to welcome tonight's attendees to the public hearing for the district safety PL joining us virtually is Heather bombas from the O Safety Office who is also here tonight in support of our safety program and any questions that she may um um help us with uh this evening that we received so this is an annual requirement the districtwide safety plan is a general plan filled uh filed each year by the district that outlines the district's response to emergencies this draft plan can be found on our website I just want to show everybody here uh that here it is um we posted it on our website on uh July 3rd and we have last year's plan as well as this year's plan so here's the draft right

002there so so pursuant to the state um Ed Commissioners regulations 15517 the Waterville Central School District is making this plan available for public comment prior to its adoption as I stated the plan was posted on our website on July 3 um through with an accompanying parent sare notification and tonight is the public hearing to allow for the participation of school Personnel parents students and any other other interested parties who wish to comment on the districtwide plan residents can also email me with questions until it is formally adopted at the August 6th Board of Education meeting the purpose of this plan is to prevent or minimize the effects of serious violent incidents and facilitate the coordination with local and County resources in addition to this plan the principles will be complet their building level Emer emergency

003response plans those plans will be shared with law enforcement and they are confidential they're building maps in there um and a lot of confidential information so we have a lot of new requirements for this school year um so I would just like to read them so many of these have already been updated in our plan we are also waiting for further guidance from State Ed on the finalization of other requirements so so let me share with you what these uh revisions are so uh these are being proposed by the board of regions based on changes in education law and recommendations from the school safety task force school safety plans are now required to include bus drivers and monitors as part of the school safety teams and in certain on policies and training include information on

004behavioral assessment teams so we've always had that our um ensure that drills and trainings are conducted and Trauma informed developmentally and age appropriate ways trainings and drills must not include props simulations and other tactics to mimic a school shooting so we've already Incorporated this in as well so we don't want to traumatize our students when we have fire drills or or whatever kind of emergency drills that we may be conducting students and staff are informed when a school is conducting a drill um that we need to ensure that schools participate in full exercises in conjunction with local and County Emergency responders and we already do that have a component addressing how Communications to parents will occur in potential um violent incident or when we have drills so this is new so we'll be sending out

005um in August just an overview of all of our emergency response drills so that parents are aware of them and then they also want us to send them out regularly in advance of a drill so that parents can um you know so parents aren't worried so students also know that that it's going to happen um and everybody is clear that it's a drill so that's that's what the the the uh the direction that the state is going in with all of those so we um also um are including floor plans and area maps as part of each school's annual building level emergency response plan we've already done that um um and one of our drills has to be an evacuation drill and the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is always the go home early drill so we

006already do that as a region so there are other updates to terminology including the term evacuation so this is for the 2526 school year including the term evacuation um currently defined in the reg regulation um replacing the term Sheltering with commonly used terms shelter and shelter in place defining the term secure lockout when students and staff remain inside locked and secured school buildings during incidents that pose an imminent concern outside the school and hold hold in place um and amending the definition of lockdown to state that lockdown is initiated during incidents that pose an immediate threat of violence in or around the schools and requiring that all schools districts and Bose's use these terms in their emergency response plans and include training for students and staff on these and the other required emergency terms so

007there will be an update to Shell that is the language those are the definitions that we have used for many years and that will be for the 25 26 school year so we will keep you updated on that so tonight in our our board agenda at our reor meeting we always approve our SA committee members I did want to just take a a look at that so we have everybody identified on uh the committee also board members serve on this kid committee so if board members decide uh they're going to change committees we just want to update this tonight um being our resolution so uh you can see we have a huge uh committee here made up of Administrators principls teachers uh buildings and grounds Transportation um our School nurses our office staff um again

008teachers we have um two administrative interns this year so we've included them on this committee as well so they can have a full experience with us we also have parents on it we have um the Franklin is our district uh Public Information Specialist teth on it J uh Mr Fister uh Sergeant Louis Zurich Woody from MPS we have Sergeant Ain AV avard from the anida county sheriff's office um we have our our partners at the Waterville Fire Department again parents our board members Tim Dan and Ken we have our omm BOS safety um Services team um and new this year so we have Cody he's going to be a senior and he is a volunteer fire department for risk any fall so he was thrilled I I called him a few weeks ago he was

009really excited to serve on this committee and represent students in our effort to really Elevate student voices so that is our committee so um we'll be approving them tonight so are there any questions um people can also email me directly at jspr atwat csd.org until the plan is approved on August 6 any questions here by the board um or anything on online are there any teachers on the committee that are not in an administrative role or an administrative intern yes so let me show you just looked like they were athletic director and the administrative interns so uh we have Jeff lonard uh Ellie voer is she the administrative intern well she is but she's also a teacher here in this building um we have uh our social worker from both buildings are on it um

010Natalie Jones is our teacher Natalie Jones is from MPS I mean I can see if another teacher wants to serve on it I mean it does it go out to ask people want to serve on it so people who were on it last year um automatically they're on it again okay and I do reach out just to confirm uh so and I know Jeff really wanted to serve on it so we have meetings at I think we make them now at 7:15 it's a little better than 7 but but they're early um we try to keep them to an hour and 15 minutes no longer so and if we need to meet more frequently we will so the way it works is we have um a meeting in September we have a meeting in January

011we have a meeting in April and we will meet more frequently if there's a need do we not have do we not have it just to Kate's point the general ed teacher from this building we can definitely add something seems like we should have because even you know for Tom he's also the the teacher so probably would be good to have that perspective someone in a classroom I imagine that's what you're getting at yes yeah makes sense to me I hadn't thought of that yeah and we can't make people serve but we can ask sure absolutely maybe um Mrs Paka wants to serve it's safety thought you was safe com tonight wrong yeah and so now our principles go back and they complete their building level uh emergency response plans and also they'll be assembling

012their safety teams in their buildings so Heather is there anything else you'd like to add that maybe I didn't no this looks great all right oh thank you and I know we're awaiting word um from the board of regions on the new regulations and their approval well and in our most recent presentation they consistently said nothing is in regulation at this point it is all proposed so all of these changes have not been voted on by the board of regions what no I'm just no you're and so there is a chance and Heather correct me if I'm wrong I think you were on the same presentation meeting I was in um once they voted on and they said to this is a working document so even at the next meeting when you adopt it if

013there are our changes we're it's okay to make those changes as we go because this is all about preparedness and it's all about you know one of the things we've talked about doing is recovery more too what what do we do after a lockdown drill and how do we talk about it and all that sort of stuff so there's a lot of things that we and strengthening our school safety teams is really critical and that's where they're talking about we need to have you know our monitors our bus drivers um also on those teams so that's the next step here that will be um following up can we uh make a note whenever we've schedule another review of this or portions of this can we have like a specific review of everything we updated changed

014implemented as a result of the learnings from the issue at MPS um I just think that would be good to put out there like hey this is what we so I think what you're talking about is more appropriate for um our building level plans um so that so in the building level plans we specifically go through all of the different hazards and all of our responses to that and that is what we strengthen every year and that is what we have tabletop exercises with our staff at faculty meetings that was something we started this past year so uh so this again is the public document but I think specifically how we handle those incidents um is um covered in our building level plans and I will be sharing those with you in exact session um

015I I want to say in September and then we will approve those at our October meeting yeah no I understand what you're saying to be clear there's still a way to have create a document that's public facing that says we don't have to give the details but we made the following updates to our plan we address yeah to notification procedures yeah it's in there the commun I I think we need like I'm just being honest situational response it's July 9th no one's watching this meeting we've been down this road before this do in there that the public can physically see this was this was struck out this was added and then right we don't most people might not go through and read the entire document and then reference back to the old one but they

016will go through and see the red line edits and to understand that kind of like kind of version right no I I don't I don't I'm making the point like we're doing our due diligence we're checking the Box we're obligated to check no one knows because that became very clear it already was clear to me but in the response to that that incident and the discussion the public was completely unaware of the process that we have in place to review safety and that we have plans whether they were good or not is a different issue so I'm asking if we make it a point to put out there sometime after the school year begins in our normal meeting cases like hey we want to share the good news of these are the updates we've made

017specifically around that incident that were already approved during our review direct them to the resources online like that's part of the positive Communications that we still need to get better at I think and like I said we'll be sending out the blanket you know e or parents Square post and putting it on our website of which explains all of our emergency procedures and we can include that as well yeah and just need to be discussed in the meeting also because there are people some people will watch this broadcast whenever it's convenient for them we know that they still watch but very few like a couple hundred maybe for one so so um if there aren't any other questions no emails came in not so it it's posted until August 6 perfect okay did we send

018a parents Square on the we did y it's on our website I try not to read the somewhere to be honest it's on our website we we sent out a parent square and this is all on our website so we're meeting all of the regulations here I'm not hey I'm just asking my wife reads those I read all my board emails that's that's the way we work all right Heather thank you we look forward to working with you and uh we're we really appreciate our partnership with the ohm B Safety Office so thank you thank you I hope to be seeing you all more thank you bye Compu watch I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6:02 sorry that I'd like to call this meeting to order at 6:02 if everyone would please

019stand for the pledge Al toag United States of America to for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all before we move on to tonight's agenda we have two new board members to be sworn in Ken Boon you please stand I can R do solemly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States in constitution of the state of New York and the constitution of the state of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Board of Education of modern Central School District then I will Faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Board of Education B Central School District according to the best my abil according to

020the best my hi Kaitlyn I do solemnly swear do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the constition of the United States and the constitution of the state of New York and the constition of the state of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the Board of Education of modern school district and that I Faithfully discharge the duties of a member of the of Education of water according to the best ofil according to the hi Dr I spring do do that I will support the Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of St New York and that I will Faithfully discharge the duties and I will Faithfully discharge

021my duties of the Waterville Central School District of the Waterville Central school district superintendent of school superintendent of school according to the best according to the best now we will have nomination for board president may I have a nomination for board president I nominate Dan Nichols doing a great job start the bus are there any other nominations for board president are there any other nominations for board Pres president are there any nominations for board president did I mention I nominated Dan Nichols can I have a motion that Dean Nichols be nominated for the office of president of the Waterville Central School District Board of Education so move congratulations Dan Nichols [Laughter] motion second second second I favor I support the support the United States and theit of the state of New York and I will

022Faithfully discharge the duties duties of the Board of Education president for the water Central School District district according to the best of my ability I will turn the meeting over to president de Nichols we got a picture for your M all right could we get a nomination for board vice president I nominate Justin B I second that any other nominations for vice president you got is there any other nomination for vice president all those in favor sorry who who made the motion I second all right all those in favor I don't need my sweatshirt now not under for a whole year we're not moving the tables now I endar United States and yor St York and I willth and I St didn't water oh moving sale going on correct look so for section four for

023appointments um there's a consent agenda uh can I get a motion for section four for appointments so thank you justice second thank you Pete discuss all those in favor I so who are we are that's that's I'm sorry some of these have to be individual yeah yeah never mind strike that 4.1 uh is a appointment for the New York Cate board annual meeting voting delegate York board NIS NIS wants to go to nisah no Linda now is that the one in Buffalo where is I just read Myer but I didn't see anything but it Chang it's been in Syracuse before it's been it's beenk when is it when is it it's in October usually um like third fourth weeker supposed to be really good is it a weekend it coincides with a weekend as well

024yeah see sometimes it's like all day Saturday like Friday Saturday New York city so we could put TVD and then we can revisit that is it leadership and education that or October 20th so it's in the city it's overnight travel that's not Columbus Day weekend that's 20th or 22nd that's Sunday Monday tues Tuesday yeah definitely not definitely not so we can revisit it later on and and every Ian we haven't sent every someone every we can vote by proxy can we and same with the first alternate yeah all right for that to I'm assuming we're do the same thing this is the alternate for the niso conference TD those so item 4.3 ril Board of Education uh representatives and Alternate to serve on the executive committee the omm uh School Board Institute for 2425 last

025year we did not appoint anyone but I know that I mean Dan attended a number of the meetings the presentations I should say not meeting when were those meetings so they have monthly presentations so for example last year there was one on electric school buses they always have our elected officials at one event so so they plan it's Jim Van warmer so they excuse are they evenings yes are they Friday nights no no I could probably do it then I just have Friday night football Sunday doer this year I have my senior so we can find out the calendar um and we can update the board and then we can talk about it at the next meeting yeah probably do that I mean they do offer some really good presentations that are very I think

026informative it doesn't we can rotate if other people are interested to like anyone can go if everybody wants to go you can all attend these meetings well yeah we can table that then right just table H sweet okay up these are theint listed that's L 4 five is internal claims aor and 46 is tax collector um didn't change anything do s for 47 47 we do motion yeah we'll do that motion number 44 through 47 please Tim thanks J discussion all those in favor on to the committee on special education a motion please so moved second and Steve discussion all those in favor six approval of designations can I get a motion please thanks Shel second discussion all those in favor for number seven consent agenda 73 can I get a motion please yes so

027move thank you Pete second discussion I did have one question on student accident Insurance like is that new no we've always said it so again we use um Sheila Gilroy through Haler freyer and um for student accident you want talk more about it so it's a supplemental basically we'll cover whatever the insurance of the parents okay so we fill out a student accident report when it happened we send it into the insurance company and the family it's handled all through the family we give a copy to the family got y okay thank thanks any other discussion so yeah on 711 do we want or need any sort of different approval under class one for class activities based on the end of the year incident or are we comfortable with that well again that wasn't a

028sanctioned activity um by the school district right probably should ask that soon but we want to keep that classified in same level as Sports music so the way it works is if there are any activities I mean every you know the adviser would fill out of building usage and that alerts it encumbers that facility for that event and also what are the needs that um the event may require microphone or how many people are you having do we need security um do you need any other kind of supervision so so it's kind of our form so it's just will impact prioritization it doesn't change what's reviewed before it's approve I mean I mean I understand class one they get priority over class two right totally get that but pretty much class one the rubber stamp

029get approval yes that's what that's yes we're comfortable with that Y and we are comfortable because again all the priority goes to our own you know clubs programs whatever we have going on in the school district that's the priority first okay and this follows our policy on on building usage any other discussion um just so U Mr Boon knows that we did add in our contract with kovic okay so that that is part of our reorder um with I this is actually seen this actually sent out to us question I have which it's really nothing um is what what are we looking to cover this year for are we doing the football are we doing everything this year we're doing football and soccer doing the the high-risk Sports um the only thing that was in

030question that was brought to my attention last year was what differentiates from again this is just what it was brought to my attention from a modified football game to a high school football game or excuse me varsity football game and same goes for soccer as well you know um they're doing the same thing yeah it's it's high contact yeah absolutely um so are those being covered as well so again I don't know but I I I mean I can I can see no I was just again I was just asking because that was brought to my attention it's a good question because historically they're not and then not only that I I seen the um the second thing was uh is this an ambulance fully Steed ambulance are you looking at or are you looking

031at a ALS fly car I think that's what the same service we had last year that's what a well actually the service we had last year was only a BLS fly car which and that's what I kind of wish we I discuss this a little bit sooner to educate um the ambulance personally financially I don't think that you're necessary in this situation the BLS y car is basically almost equivalent to your uh you we hired the athletic director athletic uh train who's absolutely phenomenal and I work with them several times um so you're pretty much dealing with the same thing the ALS fly car which is kind of like what I would like to see a little bit cheaper but in the same aspect you have that secondary level of care of they actually have

032pay medications um basically basically what you could do is it's a rolling ambulance that they just don't transfer so and we didn't have that last year is what you're saying no you did not all you had was a a to treat obvious life threats but you didn't if somebody went down with a broken shoulder or something which I we had last year where in the middle of the game we couldn't move this player due to the fact of the pain you know if that fly car was there that you know to that next level um we would have been able to accordingly and then if we if we were able to move so that's just something that we could actually discuss you know but I don't want to show favoritism to The Varsity yes they

033are hitting a lot harder but that's level you know to a modified game and you know was brought to my attention to the parents and it's true you know what I mean it it's not as hard-hitting but again that's hard-hitting for a 12 and 13 absolutely so but in the same aspect you know now you're looking that covering a bunch of games can that agency cover 40 games you know unfortunately I I can't speak from that either but but that's just something we can discuss a little bit more um if need be if you have any questions suggestions any other discussion for Section seven all those in favor eight official undertakings send agenda please sorry motion thank you Tim can discussion all those in favor I to section nine which is board committee assignments um

034how do we want to you want to discuss it first then do the motion motion to open the discussion to put the um pleas don't your resolution it's just so our open committees at this point are SCH board Institute negotiations no and there's an attachment anything ped consultation on I'm sorry open yes open as far as there's nobody there's only one number on Okay so we've talked about the negotiations committee before and I know the board was conflicted on having a board member um serve on the negotiations committee uh so just so you know so we did just settle the seciu contract and Linda was a key member of our team um and that will expire in two years and next year uh June 30th 2025 we'll mark the expiration of this the WTA contract

035and we've talked about a different model with our WTA leadership it is a model where you uh they bring in um uh it's it's more of a condensed version they bring in a um an administrator from perb who conducts what they call an intensive negotiation session for three days that we our team would only be I think four members each we would go offsite and then you can only put five items on for your proposals so the the beauty of this is that it's very focused and the school districts who have done it have a very you know strong track record of having a contract in place after it so this is something that uh Jeff Lenard's very aware of we've talked about it um there was interest and I'm not saying we're definitely doing

036this but I'm saying it's an option that is something that uh I've talked to with a WTA so so with that being said um again up to the board if if you would like to continue to have uh board um representation we did for the last WTA contract I think it would be beneficial to keep it with the board I think we should have multiple people on it I I would like to be on that committee so if you did take that approach someone would have to be there for three days straight yes and it's offsite like well offsite we could go to the O osis I mean it's not like we're going to souag what I'm saying if you want you know what I'm saying is that's three days off of nor that's did

037are like what's J Jeff and the WTA real level of interest because I mean honestly like they've said they're interested before and then they get details like they're not as interested so the gentleman um I forget his name Kevin was anyone no so I name so from CB who goes around the state and he negotiates contracts that's what he does so if you remember we um had to bring in we you know we had to bring in the next level uh to help us um settle the contract and he was very instrumental and it was a very valuable process and so you're limited to five things that you can bring and we're not limited if we do it the old cor well so the only advantage of being limited to five I mean obviously salary

038and insurance salary those yeah those aren't part of the five um but it does help to focus the negotiations and it does help to really have a process that's expeditiously um settled so so that's the attractive thing versus going into an expired contract and something that drags on for a long time and there are hard feelings along the way so again it's something that we can talk with um so we would have our attorney with us Heather Cole and it's and obviously the lrs from nice it would be with our WTA folks um it's something that they've worked with other school districts before and they had positive results with that how' the idea come about because we already worked with um because we had to work with someone from perb in the last um uh

039negotiations with the SE no with WTA oh so this is a new thing that came up it is a new thing but it's something that we're like we both learned about from that experience so you know Jeff learned about it Jeremy craigger learned about it I learned about it okay but it wasn't like oh hey we were chatting with a guy last month no we both are aware of this and we've talked about it nothing set in stone but I I think it's um something definitely to talk about with WTA um so that we can and you know see I mean it wouldn't be until we would do it I don't know February yeah and in the past when we had a negotiations committee we had three board members on the committee plus the superintendent

040the business manager and who who who else was on the committee so it was we used three board so I I mean I knew so it was it was uh Susie it was Russ and it was Linda right but that's it from personel so it was just five people with the with the model from the what is it professional valuation review board that's the perb guy that's what he is with his model there's four people on it there's only four again I I believe it's four but I could be wrong it could might is one of those a board member then it depends on the school district so if a school district would like a board member on then absolutely okay now historically my understanding is a lot of boards have had something similar to

041that but it didn't involve the the Guy where they had a committee which was made up of the superintendent and and the school officials and a board member who was who was the leaon back and forth between the negotiations and the board so wait wait wait wait wait what do you the board member is just not doing the the board my understanding and and I think I saw this in the school board Institute is that the board member acces the go between basically Leon between the meeting and the board that you would report back to yes that that and and so it seems like the perb model is just is just the same thing so the way it works it's similar so the way it works is again we would we would have our parameters

042right the board would discuss the parameters we discuss our proposals and then during that three-day event I think it's after day one or day two there's a they we would meet with the board just like WTA would meet with you know their folks we would meet with the board and we would go over everything what's the cost associated with that no it's free it's free remember perb is New York state public employees and we're pretty sure there's a board member with the par we can do whatever we want want do whatever I mean it makes sense so again nothing settled but it's an idea and I think that you know it's it's a good one how many if we're limited to five topics like how many roughly were there last time I mean there could

043have been 20 it it just makes it so cumbersome you know so so one side is 20 the other one has 20 and then there you are it takes away the old model of having your throwaways that you know you're not going to get it narrows it down to the true the true issu exactly and that's I yeah that happening a lot in in negotiations now I mean there's a lot of there's blind negotiations that go on in our industry where you place what you're willing to pay the other party does too and you reach certain percentage it automatically setts so just ways of breaking through the old style of going back and forth for months and months so just an idea so um sounds yeah I I think we need to keep board representation

044um I think the numbers we could discuss I'm just curious I would like to hear from the WTA you know I don't know if Jeff wants to email us like their thoughts or come to a meeting because I think we just need more information yeah like that's not the feedback that I've heard in my seven years on the board has never been less necessarily it's always been like more communication more discussion like we've reached an impass once that's true I think there were valid reasons probably from both sides and why we got there and I just I don't know that narrowing the negotiations is what they're asking for I think we should check that before we just because me I I'm not prepared to speak about this but I just you asked about it and

045I'm just telling you right yeah I'm I'm just being cautious because they they have sent us pretty clear signals on what they would like from us differently but that hasn't been one of them it hasn't been like less negotiations make it easier it's it's it's not easier it's just more intense I mean three days intense intensive um probably I think it's designed to be easier we can have a difference of opinion there like three days three days in a row with an outcome is easier than what we went through on the last WTA and there's an outsider who's experienced at negotiations who's working with both parties so so we did find it a a very positive um process when we had the perb gentleman with us yeah I I get that I just want to

046hear more from WTA oh absolutely nothing set I'm just sharing an idea so so so Kate War I P page there I'd love to negotiate go for it Pete I would do it as well if needed I'd like to join the consultation on education as well and I so Tim you're you were I'm on there and Linda was on so did you want to stay no well my only actually I think we should rotate that around yeah I think uh setting on it gives you a different view of the world hopefully it gives the teachers a different view of the world as well but uh I think it's useful so but I definitely think would be worth a while for all of us to rotate through that how I know not sure what it is

047what would be the you mean was basically the best way I wanted to approach like that like a rotating model maybe it's just something we Oh you mean rotating the whole year yeah yeah just oh well we could rotate the whole year I was just thinking of new members every year but no I like that concept of rotating through yeah rotating it through fun idea too I just think it's worthwhile for all seven members also a committee that hasn't like regularly met the last couple years so it' be beneficial did so but it would be beneficial I mean couldn't it be if somebody can't make it somebody else just kind of rotates in I mean that I think we get we have three committed members which Sam Lindon and I were this year there were

048some meetings where we all made it but I think maybe we just make this like discussion point at each meeting each I would love I don't know if you need another person on the policy review but I wouldn't mind being added to that one and then I had a question I know I emailed about was the technology committee used to have board members on it I don't know if that's still something that takes place so the decision at last year's reorg meeting was to eliminate that as a board committee it is not a required board bed committee um so we did not have board representation and I would come back and I would present the minutes and I would update uh the board on the meeting and what was discussed and so I'll ask the

049board what you would like to do with that I always thought it was beneficial as a teacher sitting on it that there was a board member there um I don't know what everybody else thoughts or the reasoning behind eliminating a board member on that we used to have commun community members as well I don't know if they're still community members I can answer on the on the board part of the technology uh committee there were things there which were basically I thought mundane School business which didn't need to be involved in so that's the reason why I why I didn't think it was useful to have more M technology I just think technology is a lot in our policy as well as far as like the cell phones now and chrome Brook usage um so

050I feel like it would be beneficial because we have a lot of policies surrounding that so we actually one of the goals of the committee this past year was to update our acceptable use and all of our phone book policies um and our our handbook so so that is actually on the business agenda for second reading so that was something that we have you know as a goal of the committee and we we met that goal um um so even if the board doesn't want to have a uh an official committee we would love to have Kate you know I know you're really busy it's at 7:15 in the morning but um we would love to be able to invite board members if you would like to you know attend the tech meetings and the

051cell phone we are talking about that tonight so um we've talked about social media policies for staff those are things we've all talked about as well as part of technology I don't know what do everyone else think so hard to schedule because I know so people can attend virtually as well so we also have that option yes I don't see value in the technology piece not I'm f minutes there's only like you know as a board we're here more as an oversight we don't need to be involved even the day to day we have CEO for that it's report to us and that was that was my view on it is we have the the admin team that that's kind of a day-to-day issue bring it back for the meetings or suggestions okay well we'll

052keep you posted on I mean the my suggestion to would just be to ask the technology committee do they want the board on it just ask well do you have community members on so um now we don't so I think I mean I wasn't here when we developed our smart schools plan but I was in another school district as a superintendent and it was a requirement that we had techn techology committees with community members on them so I think that's where that uh originated from from at this point we've updated our smart schools plan we've submitted our uh updated amendments so we're still waiting to have approval so that we can go ahead and order some of these vionics yeah I would just say let ask so we won't be meeting again until you know

053end August later in August or sometime in August we'll schedule that meeting and also um once we have this all set I'll just ask availability you know what time and of the day and what uh day of the week is going to work best for you so that I can set up a meeting schedule Wellness I'll be on capital projects where is that yeah my name's not is that Ken I was I'm on that us three yeah do you want to swap out to you get it take care Apple projects if you want you w when is the wellnesse so that's a 7:15 a we'll be meeting in September we'll be meeting again in January then again in May I can still do that unless some it that works me well yeah I've been on

054it no the capital project what's that I'm soofe like this is just good Peter can and Tim you were on it at one point What's that the capital project uh I may have came to a meeting because somebody couldn't make it or something but no I don't think I was ever I was on it years ago yeah well it's a big it's a big year for that that committee but's already been on that's fine swap audit that no yeah theal want and you want to be on my limit the morning meetings AR bad I don't start so audit um so audit will be meeting in October um so usually three meetings a year for uh for audit we just had a meeting and Peter's gonna be reporting out oh yeah so again there um 7:15

055a.m. everything's early I think they only three times a year for the no more than three yeah I'll join the wellness like yeah I'll can put me under audit and adjust there was an open you can stay okay I'm sorry somebody there all right who else wants to be on um Wellness Dan Dan was gonna we put Dan on audit anyone else for wellness aen did you want to be on Wellness no thank you it's on now it's up your alley I I I got my own w I took all right well we don't have to have three so I don't I don't want to you know stress any you took me off that's right I did my own are we good with all of this I think so all right representation that was it

056right for the re verion oh that is that's so good so we're ready for now for our presentation can I um for the preliminary can I just get a motion for the consent agenda for approving tonight's agenda and the minutes from the uh June 25th meeting so thanks Justin discussion all those in favor so we'll start here with the news first just quickly so our summer programs I didn't yet I was gonna do it after all right so our summer programs are in full swing starting they started on Monday we have over 100 students at MPS who have signed up 107 actually to be exact who signed up for the program attendance of strong and they've had BMX presentation they've done yoga um so so they're having a lot of fun and here in our

057secondary program students are engaged in what they're calling speed dating with books they're um looking for books in the library they're prioritizing five that they want to read this summer and getting to know those books and and so that's their plan um science they are planting they're learning about germination they planted sunflowers and uh they made dirt cakes sounds delicious um and in math they're measuring stride lengths broad jump and vertical jump so that's really fun the intersection of PE Athletics and math love it um whoops they're doing a lot of team building activities and then the field trip so they went to the root Glenn this week and um you know they're really working with students on um just really having a great a great time so more students are signing up so the

058word is out this is fun it's cool so come on down and you can see the kids are you know they're enjoying themselves and the buildings air conditioned so it's definitely a nice place to be so uh as we promised this year first time we're giving you a full picture of our club and activity participation and so now I'd like to turn it over to Lindsay Owens our assistant principal go up to the front and just look at me and I promise I'll cck forward I apologize sometimes I apologize in advance if I cough I now will be the time that I'll have a coughing fit because I'm here so there you go um so we put together this presentation just to show you where we kind of are standing as far as clubs and

059activities go so obviously I've only been doing this for a couple of years so I don't have data for five years ago because it's not data that we collected five years ago um so but basically what this shows me is that our club um participation is generally pretty stable there's not been a huge flux fluctuation in um participation in really any of our clubs we've had um growth in several of the clubs which I'll talk about later um so there's a couple of clubs I didn't indicate like media production was new this year there's no data from last year um I didn't do the classes because obviously those just change based on what the class size is so um but everything else like I said is fairly stable in terms of clubs so so what

060does the process look like okay pause pause me just the flag's in the way okay all right um so we post for advisor so Friday right now is our deadline for advisors um collect applications we'll go through and um next month uh we will put up for um appointments the club advisors so we're in that process right now uh we have a back to school meeting with Club advisers during the superintendent conference days where we talk about you know expectations um you know what they need to fill out for data in terms of that uh we also do an open house or a club fair at open house so we started that last year uh we did it in the cafeteria we'll probably do something similar this year um so that we can kind of

061advertise for students what clubs they can get involved in um and then they have um their club meetings events fundraisers it's all in a Google Calendar one of the biggest challenges of clubs is just that there's not enough time with like pretty much everything else in our lives um so sharing students across clubs and with activities and with music and with uh Sports and academics that's the biggest challenge so this just kind of helps keep us organized and that way you know hope if somebody has a regular meeting Tuesday every other week other people during lunch other people see that and then don't sign up for their Club to meet at the same time so hopefully that helps um data collection Dr spring I don't know if you want to click on the club report

062this is just um what we use to kind of capture the information to make this presentation um so this was something kind of new to them in the past couple of years last year we did a spreadsheet this year I made this document for every Club so they actually went in and filled it out um at the beginning of the year and then there's ways to capture if you scroll down Dr spring um there service activities fundraising activities and then events and then at the end there's a reflection for the next year so that's kind of what I analyzed and then used to put this presentation together so okay and then end of year they turn in their Club reports they turn in minutes so for all of their club meetings and then their ledgers

063go to the business office and that's kind of closes the books for the year on that okay Club goals so we ask that they kind of set goals with their clubs each year um so that you know they have they know what they're working towards or what they're working for so because I'm an English person I had to make it an acronym so there you go um so generally the goals are kind of one of these things to create something like year buuck um to learn something like leadership or public speaking um to uncover something like art Club um or music uh to build something like a National Honor Society where we're supporting and serving our community or to sponsor something like student voice so um those are kind of basically what goals can be

064encapsulated in that and then I just put in there um I took out some of their goals that I felt like supported those different things so um I'm sure Dr spring can share share it with you I'm not going to read through all that for you okay so um events click forward there was approximately 114 events from our clubs and organizations this year um that doesn't include their regular meeting so this is something that's a little bit bigger than just their normal um you know weekly or bi-weekly meeting so things like Musical shows um drama fest spirit days concerts ski trips laser tag leadership events ad competitions even we had a couple of clubs do ornament making during the holiday season so a whole bunch of different things in that um just just kind of

065for your reference FFA and um Junior FFA had uh the most with 27 combined events throughout the year which is a ton that's a lot and a lot of those events are they're you know very involved like Day events or a night event where it takes a lot of preparation so um kudos to uh Mrs Baker and U Mrs gager for you know putting so much time in um and then also student council um across uh high school middle school and MPS they had 18 combined events throughout the year so very involved again in um you know setting the spirit for the school service activities approximately 31 service activities throughout the year so some of the examples uh we had students volunteer at cruin I know that the FFA did a whole whole thing um

066like behind Frank's um where they had animals and things like that um volunteering at College and Career Fair The Vaping presentation we had here um volunteering at the Waterville diaper bank and the Halloween trail so those are just some of them um in addition they did the community talent show MPS talent show um MPS uh student council did a pajama and sock Drive um they uh several clubs were in the parade of lights um a couple clubs Did a teacher appreciation cart during teacher appreciation week uh Park cleanups Elementary School garden planting so I just wanted to highlight that because it's not just about what they do here but that they go out into the community and and serve the community so that's a big part of why Waterville is Waterville so I want to

067make that a point and then fundraisers so 39 fundraisers throughout the year um over 40 $4,000 raised by our clubs um and there were actually 12 clubs that raised money some clubs don't need to or haven't raised money um so just from 12 clubs we raised that much money the musical um had some of its highest ticket sales in a long time so they raised over $122,000 um FFA raised and also got donations over $10,000 and student council raised over $7,000 so again kudos to those clubs for really going out and the the beautiful thing about about that is they'll take that money and then they'll reinvest it into next year in the years to come so that's um a well well done job by our advisers and students so all right highlights so what

068do we learn from all this data um some things that are positives um that I want to highlight again that there's stable participation across the clubs um especially the junior high FFA program because that is newer to the district um that has seen a lot of growth from the year previous to this year um quite a quite a bit um there's 92 students in MPS marching band so that's fabulous um our new media Productions which is now going to be part of a class so we're going to have uh effective communication elective um so that will transition to that instead of being an activity um obviously the money raised by our students and putting all of our stuff our data collection all of our club stuff on online um that has probably been some big

069growing pains because they're used to paper and I just didn't want all the paper I want things electronically so that's something we've tried to do in the past couple of years so um grows some places where we can kind of focus for the future um continuing to elevate student voices and student leadership um we do a good job with having student leadership with student council and with FFA specifically but um that's always an area where we can just use more um uh we want to do a Financial Training um that's some of the hardest part and maybe some of the biggest growing pains for um advisers is like how do we do all of these things like how you have to submit things the proper way and things have to be counted and collected the

070right way so um we want to have uh our financial auditor come in and actually help train them so that they aren't kind of learning as they fly the airpl or you know what I mean flying the airplane as it's getting put to get um continue to develop clear procedures in an electronic handbook um so again I'm trying to go paper free with this so I have started compiling but it's a work in progress uh basically an e handbook that says everything in there so you want to know how to deposit money you know click here it takes you to how to deposit money and then there's a step-by-step process I just that's how my brain works so that's how I want to put it out for other people so still a work in progress

071but we're we're going to get there um and then like I said the biggest um problem that I hear from advisers is just that there's not enough time and that Athletics maybe doesn't always want to share their time with clubs especially after school so hopefully the change in our spell schedules and time will maybe make that a little bit easier for clubs maybe they'll have a little bit of time at the end of the day um that kids don't have to go right to practice so um Anna do I have anything else oh look how you do uh benefits to students so so there are reasons Beyond just their interest and hanging out with their friends that students should do and be involved in clubs and activities so all of those things there but for

072me you know the teamwork and collaboration um leadership skills problem solving growing their self-confidence public speaking just that those are all job skills that they're going to need when they go into college and they go beyond um that they get in in this well-rounded education when they do things like this so um we can teach employees content but it's really hard to teach them those skills if they can learn them now early that's they're all the all the more prepared for life so I think that's really important and I think that might be it yes no coughing wo okay questions sure thanks I know yeah you're welcome thank you yes yeah you know how many unique club members we have so I mean some overlap right oh Lots overlap and that's part of the problem

073is that you know a student that's in student council is also in National Honor Society is also in musical is also in um so how many students total yeah it' be if you total up your spreadsheet in the beginning right let's just say it comes out to 200 yeah but if you look it like unique is it 120 like it gives us a sense of the population that's involved yeah didn't know I no and I wouldn't even want to take a guess at that because I'm sure I it's a good statistic so what is our total overall student participation in clubs in athletics because again we know that that connectedness to school is so critical so it's a very important educat what percent of students aren't in anything we need to get it yeah and

074we talked about the kids in Bose participation kids go to Bose and come back we their participation good to have that as well know how many kids go to B particip sure yeah so do we think it it hinders participation in clubs if they go to G SE or do we think that I think that there is definitely I mean truthfully I'm sure that that is because there are some clubs that meet during lunch so if you right yeah and not that I don't think I could name one adviser that would ever discourage somebody from participating just because they couldn't come but it's hard for the student to like oh I'm part of this club but I never get to go there this a naive question uh what time is lunch at BOS same time

075as lunch here there is well I don't know what Bose like if a kid's in there all at Bose all day but like for our kids that go to bosies they eat lunch here first and then they leave for bosies I'm just trying to figure out in this age of Technology why right why could a child a student at B is just not zoom in they have to something we should look at techology should I think a lot of the juniors are on the bus at the time and and that they're like going yes because they leave Lunes happen yeah they leave a couple of minutes before their actual lunch happens so yes and for our middle school students they're at Bose's Al like if we have a student in you know um hech there

076at bosis all day long and I don't know what they're what they schedules if there's any overlap so I wonder to like sorry some sort of like procedure for students that are involved in um uh Bose's like I know I had even paig nef when she was in high school like she was in student council and she went to Bose's she would stop in and get minutes and and everything and still participated in for a few years so I wonder if that's just like a a protocol or a procedure or something so that we can try to get more involvement from those students yeah yeah absolutely have 15 minutes before school yeah by the time students are dropped off and even 20 minutes by the time first period fell range so that's one option and

077then we also have that 19 minutes after school yeah I'm hoping that will help for next year the late bu so want to make sure that the late bus comes at what 3:30 it'll be yeah should be 3:30 this year so we're looking at you know trying to make sure that there are options that don't have to just focus on lunch good point it looks encouraging though I mean all the five clubs had either the same or increased participation even Al the ones that went down wasn't yeah negligible yeah I not not huge yeah thank you very much great so I don't know if you had the chance to see this on the news but it was the stop arm cameras did you see that on the news so so we um you know it

078was important um for our our board of education for our school district that we participate in this program so as you know the camera automatically detects vehicles that pass the stop bus and the the video is then captured and it is uh sent to the Nida County Sheriff's Office so that's the system so you can see a lot lot of citations and this is what's worrisome because any citation is worrisome right but I will say that Waterville um has 33 which again is still way too many but we have the the lowest amount um and if we look at like school districts ofo has 34 so so again it's something that we're going to keep um just promoting to our our um Community um but I'm really pleased that uh we're participating in this and

079and making our bus Travelers you know safer heard the sheriff on the radio the other day promoting it Yes program it's work you know yes and it's a free program for school district so I don't know why not everyone's out there but um so but we are so this is exciting so a so this is the annual professional performance review um there is new legislation that we are going to have a new uh plan so guidance is forthcoming from State at but I think this is a very very exciting time to impact teaching and learning so it's called 30 education law 312 E now 312d you may remember this was this was um uh became law during uh Governor Cuomo and it was more of a gotcha so it was more of a punitive program

080program and so we're really thrilled that now the opportunity is really to focus our resources where we as a school district you know want to really focus them um and we can be creative and work together and how we can positively impact teaching and learning so so some of the features so local flexibility which is good because it was a one-size fits-all approach before um and we basically everybody had to have an announced everybody had to have an unannounced and it was extremely cumbersome for administrators to be able to really comply with all of the requirements so under the new law we'll be able to focus on um differentiation so let's put more of our our time into our untenured teachers that's where we really need to be focusing our our time and our support

081um on our the growth of our Educators so so there is a lot of creativity here on what we might be able to implement even a pure coaching model for 10e teachers maybe a rotating um model where you know they're observed once every three years and then they can choose projects such as maybe engaging in professional development engaging in action research where they're work working with uh colleagues and collaborating um or like I said peer coaching so I think it opens it up to a lot of really exciting um pieces that really are going to positively motivate our teachers make it more of a positive and growth model so that is something and and they've given us seven years to negotiate and obviously that's a little ludicrous um but it's it's actually positive usually they

082say oh you have to have this done within a few months so so anyway but I think it's uh something exciting and it's something that definitely I would like to uh engage with the WTA to just really take a look at this and see what are some creative ideas that that we have and that we might be able to look into so um based on multiple measures um aligning to the New York State Standards with local criteria for assigning level one through four rating for each standard so as I said uh State Ed will be providing more guidance and exemplars in the coming months um there will be a tool to support growth eliminates the mandatory use of overall adal ratings as part of tenure determinations or disciplinary proceedings and um again they're calling it

083New York State steps and the plan um can be adopted as soon as this school year so I'm excited about that and I did negotiate a new plan um we had to update our epr plan so I did that when I first came here so what does that second to the last bullet eliminates the mandatory use of overall evaluation ratings so in order for a teacher to get 10e uh they had to have effective ratings in the previous so like if you take that away what what are you doing well so so again I'm not sure what the guidance says but that's why I think it's really critical that we really focus a lot of our efforts on um really working with our onor teachers and having more Independence um for our tenure teachers to

084really work in areas that they feel that they're motivated and would help in their own professional development I guess point I was getting is you know having a rating system right it exists everywhere right R your employees and at least paper trail and it so there still a rating system based on the standards it just isn't going to be required um as part of tech year oh to have effective numbers to be party yes there's a bunch of ones well obviously I understand you're saying now the numbers don't is not the deciding factor I would think if we we'll see what the recommendation is right but I would think if we in my opinion if we use it effectively I would expect to see a lot of feedback in year one and we shouldn't be

085afraid to provide to shouldn't be afraid to provide the right feedback because that rating isn't going to be hanging there when we get to right hypothetically like that's the idea give the teacher the feedback they need so they can improve yes year over year and reach the laot that we want without the thought right because the dynamic now is like get one rating that's not good it's like everybody's on versus just being able to say like hey you're new it's okay you're not supposed to know everything here's what we got to work on move forward with the growth plan right but your point he' like yeah there should be measuring sticks and we shouldn't have that same feedback year two year three year four like you'd still have the same Lu you just would be

086yeah what's the rating I've gone in position before where like they will rate you they'll tell you what you're how the rating works we'll say we expect you to be here at this date but like you may start as a one we expect you to be three or four in six months or or something you know we'll see POS so this will be a priority this year so we'll be talking more about priorities at our next for so here we are so um really I mean I'm happy that we have Mrs Paka here so Mrs PCA is part of the consultation on education committee and at that meeting uh the WTA had presented the results of a survey so WTA um administered a survey to all of the Junior Senior High teachers and I um

087have permission to share those result that that result with you so um and then I also have a statement by the WTA that uh I'm going to be reading and um Jen Dodge apologizes she wasn't able to be here um but the WTA has a statement so so lots to go through but here we go since it's very small I'm sorry okay so you can see just um the there were 22 responses and we have about 36 teachers up here uh and the responses so the teachers who uh participated it's basically split between junior high and Senior High teacher um the majority of the teachers so here's the question even though school policy says off and Away do you allow students to use their cell phones during class so the majority of teachers reported that

088they do not allow okay so the next two do students use their cell phones during class time without your consent and this one is not including smart watches so what we can see here is that 77% of students use their phones during class without teacher conent so so that that's a concern so does that tie into the so when I saw the previous question I was like all right well well 13.6% say yeah I let them use phone in class is that because it's like spitting in the wind because you can't stop it effectively and you're just like whatever so I think I'm not blaming I'm just thinking like I think for what that question meant was that sometimes and again we have Chromebooks so we have devices you can get anywhere you need to

089go with a Chromebook but what some teachers have told me oh well it's easier if students go and use their phone to look something up or to use a video or something so this is what got so those are other things but um you know but students can do do that with their Chromebook they don't need to rely on their phone all right that makes sense thank you hold on okay so this is another area of concern so the question is do students use their smartw watches during class to receive messages so 77.3% said yes okay so it's when we talk about devices it's not just the phone it's also SmartWatches now I might be dumb when it comes down to this Smartwatch thing I see a lot of them does the cell phone have

090to be some sort is it Bluetooth or can the cell phone be home and you could still answer it depends if you got data plan you can get a watch with own dat it's just like another number oh boy yeah all right or you can have it hooked up to the same Wi-Fi network so basically it's like a second phone by rights I don't have my phone but I got my smart thing mat yeah they could comply with the current partially comply with the current well I hesitate to say policy but guidance Goa by leaving it in their locker and leaving the phone on and still that's what I was saying all right I just wasn't Afra toar all things or I see them i' okay so are kids hiding earpods or are obviously wearing

091Earp pods in your classroom okay so guess what 95.5% that just Astound me and then please include if they walk in and you have to ask them every day to take them out okay so 95.5% so that's like every single student all right the next question do you think students should be able to access their cell phones in the hallways and then put them away during class we're going to talk more about this because um this is a really great book that I've included in the presentation because it lends itself really really well to tonight's discussion and he talks about uh having this mixed kind of practice where phones have to be away in the classroom and then oh but you can use them as in the hall room hallway or at lunch he said

092according to all the research it does not work because it the whole issue is distractability and kids are still thinking about their phones okay so even okay okay I mean I think most kids are using their phones during class and I have some of the the comments that teachers I have included I've picked out some of them but um what he's saying is that it's it's very detrimental kids are only thinking about their phones only think about thinking about checking them and seeing all the notifications and communicating with all their friends on their phones during the school day when they're all here so hold that thought we'll talk more about it all right next question do you write students out for using their cell phones in class without your permission I mean it's pretty mixed

093I mean it looks like the teachers you know aren't doing it um and I and I I think it's just so difficult you know there's I a lot of these is that there students become very angry and it's there's a confrontation it takes time away from trying to you know teach you know the lesson at hand um so we'll talk more about them how often have you asked a student to put a cell phone away and they indicated that they were communicating with their parents so this is six is that 68% so students are reporting that they're communicating with a parent so yeah okay so would you say that the majority of students are distracted by cell phones and SmartWatches um or do you do you think we have a chronic group of students who

094abuse policy so they're basically saying there are group of students across all grade levels who who are using it and they're also saying the majority of all grade levels so and then teachers 80% of the teachers are saying that they would like to see a change so we're going to talk more about that additional thoughts from staff I know it's small but let me just read to you some I pi out some that were very I think compelling here I think it would help everyone if we could separate ourselves from our phones more I think students struggle with a compulsion to check their phones when they are on their person and that they know they have a notification by allowing students to use cell phones in school we are allowing social media which is terrible

095for their mental health sexting texting internet bullying and pornography in our school a school school is no place for this so one thing that I was really shocked about is that all the kids 10 year olds who have access to pornography because of the social media apps it's it's very shocking um so so I believe it and a teacher wrote about it I I wouldn't have expected it before students report all the time that teachers let them other teachers let them go on their phones so again I don't know but without consistency um it's never going to work students sign out to go to the bathroom but it is really to use their phones to check their notifications students sign out to go to the bathroom or text a parent to pick them up and

096they never return to class cell phones can lead to bullying and can create a more unsafe situation in an emergency I would emphasize the policy is one of making the school safer for all students if there is an emergency it should be quiet students may be on their phones creating a safety concern students should be listening to and following staff instructions in the EV in the event of an emergency kids and staff have the right to be in school and not worry about their picture being taken or being recorded with negative um intentions it's bad enough that students have to deal with these things outside of school school should be a safe place if they have anxiety about not having phones deal with the anxiety and teach coping skills in their life After High School

097they likely will not be able to use phones whenever they want and should get used to that now while we can support and help them and manage this it is our job as Educators to keep Kids Safe teach them and prepare them for the world after school where they will experience policies they do not like but will have to be able to deal with exceptions could be made for students with medical diagnosis such as diabetes who use their phones to monitor their wait said one question bullet point about students going to the bathroom and never returning to class like they're just walking out of the building no so we have a p system so I think I mentioned to you when I was in Mrs pca's room you need water we okay what uh so

098I kept hearing beeping and I said what is that beeping it was constant so it's our past system it's e-hall pass and but what happens is that kids are just it's a a revolving door of kids going out of class to uh just go to the bathroom so I remember at new Harvard we restrict restricted it to the first five minutes of class and and then they couldn't go out at the end of class either but uh so it's just leading to so many distra actions um and it's really impacting student achievement and so one of the the premises of the book is that with the onset in the introduction of the iPhone in 2012 um their uh students or 2010 and students excuse me 2010 to 2015 is really when he looks at all

099this data that internet this is an international problem it's not just a US problem but uh the Pisa scores academic achievement is plummeting uh globalwide because students are addicted to their phones and I'll talk a little bit more about it um you can see I'm very charged about this and the book really impacted me really really impacted me and then seeing all the commentary from the teachers so uh just to read a little bit more okay the problem the problems are obvious students don't learn when they are texting watching videos or using social media during school student students are who are secretly using their phone or watch are not paying attention and generally respond aggressively when redirected they are not interacting with each other they take videos they text friends um to meet up in

100the hallways or the bathroom they're saying they're communicating with a parent students do not listen to instructions they are typically listening to music or sidetracked when the teacher is talking then they are lost uh when they're working alone students also do not do their assignments and fall behind because they are on their phones disruptions in the classroom arguing refusal and challenging Authority and the decisions of authority students learned that they don't have to follow that rule or any other one because there's nothing that you can do about it I know I have heard high schoolers saying how another student texted them about something during the day ETA and they communicate all day that way so it's a distraction from their education 100 % they are more interested in Snapchat social media and selfies than learning

101in the present Mo moment especially high schoolers it is the number one problem in my classroom and I'm not sure if it's the number one problem in the building so now I'd like to read the statement um so good evening I apologize for being unable so we'll get back to my book hold on this is the statement from WTA I apologize for uh not being able to attend the meeting in person I Jennifer Dodge have asked Dr spring to read the statement on behalf of the Waterville Teachers Association the faculty and staff at the Junior Senior High School is in full support of removing in parentheses Banning the access to cell phones during the school day cell phone usage during instructional time has decreased student participation impacted attention to instructional tasks work productivity as well

102as having an impact on our students social and emotional well-being we spoke at length about this topic during our consultation on Education meeting in June we as a teachers union would like to have a partnership with our Administration Board of Education and Community to tackle this concern and put student engagement instructional time and emotional well-being at the Forefront of our students learning day this partnership would support the use of cell phone lockers or pouches in order to achieve our desired success please join us in recognizing the strength a ban on cell phones would have on our students academic and emotional life so now I would like to uh just draw your attention to this book I'm going to pass it around if people are interested we can order this for board members it's extremely powerful

103And Timely and um I highly recommend it so so uh between 2010 and 2015 the social lives of teens again around the globe moved largely onto smartphones with continuous access to social media online video games and other internet-based activities he calls this the great rewiring of childhood is the single largest reason for the title wave of adolescent mental illness that began began in the early 2010 additionally he also claims the introduction of the front-facing camera filters to make you look more attractive likes you know liking somebody's um post Instagram Snapchat Tik Tock fortnite and other games contributed to the Mental Health crisis the tital wave of anxiety depression and self harm has hit girls harder than boys and it has hit pre-teen girls the hardest of all so he terms this forever elsewhere that adolescents

104have lost the ability to be fully present and he calls us the critical period between ages 9 through 15 lessons and identities imprint and stick more at these ages than at any other time in their lives this coincides with the time that adolescents get their own phones and move their social lives online he says it is causing great harm and he has four different areas sleep deprivation studies indicate that students are spending more than seven hours a day and that's a conservative estimate on screen based leisure activities not including school and homework this has impacted time with friends in face to face settings and other social activities it causes sleep deprivation studies show that students are sleeping less because of their excessive screen time which causes depression anxiety poor learning lower grades cognitive deficits irritability

105more accents accidents and deaths from accidents it causes learning fragmentation with adolescents receiving 100 over 100 notifications each day they rarely have five to 10 minutes to think without interruption this fragmentation of attention interferes with executive function executive function is critical for our students success and for their fure future success in life and learning how to set goals and control themselves addiction um developers of apps used Advanced behaviorist techniques to hook children into becoming heavy users of their products dopamine release is pleasurable but it does not trigger a feeling of satisfaction it makes you want more of whatever you did to trigger the release so the author calls this um a call to action and this is what he's recommending encourage more creative play in school so I know for forever we've minimized the importance

106of recess well recess is and I think you'll agree as parents recess is really really critical um also I think we've underestimated the importance of creative play in our schools and our prek in our primary classes and and making sure students have that creative Outlet to play to be creative and to collaborate and learn how to play in the sandbox um so he advocates for phone free schools um and he does advocate for either the phone lockers or the pouches and so while it impacted girls worth their mental health um there's a crisis for our boys uh we need to re-engage our our male students because many male students are just retreating to their bedrooms and playing fortnite or other call D Duty um and other types of of games now does every boy who

107plays games have an addiction problem with this no but is there is there a lot of them that do and it's impacting their social um Wellness State yes absolutely um so he's also saying no smartphones before high school again there's nothing we can do about that other than getting parents to try to to Really pledge and that is something school districts are doing having parents pledge to know smartphones before they they start nth grade was there much documentation the whole study he's a social psychologist um and he was at the University of Virginia and he's he's a professor yes there's a lot of documentation no I'm just surprised to see just before high school what's the what's the differentiation just well yes is that because they're more mature per say or so he says the

108developing pre-teen brain is more critical and the the rewiring is more the imprinting happening before that age yes and that's why he he is using that as a demarcation okay um and also so no social media before 16 again these apps they said Snapchat was the most dangerous one these apps are dangerous for our children and like I said they can easily go to any kind of site and uh he also says that our focus is wrong as a society we focused more on um overprotecting our our children in the real world and under prototec them in the virtual world that it needs to be the opposite we need to allow students to have a little bit more of flexibility in the real world and we need to highly supervise our children in the virtual

109world so so this is again I was really blown away by this book if if if you're interested I can order copies um I think it really is a call to action and so it just really the timing um works out where this the WTA conducted a very thorough survey and I thought the questions were were outstanding and it did glean a lot of information and teachers were very candid so I think there is a a need for a call to action so so I've said I've said everything I need to say yeah excuse so if my memory is correct our as Justin said our guidance call it a policy if you want was implemented in 2017 right guidance and I remember when we did that uh I had just come on the board we

110took a lot of push back and there were a lot of questions around it but I just feel like it's like our instincts were right and here we are saying you know we've gone backwards big time it's got worse I think Co yes change things for everybody and getting back in school the way things were for that year and a half it was so chaotic we were just trying to tread water but like now we're out of it and it's clear and I'm not going to rehash anything I've said in recent meetings but I fully support a full band a full band and I think for me as a parent with one student now in the high school 10th grader and one MPS sixth grader we need to think about if we're going to do

111that how we make it work how we change enforcement not to get dramatic but like one suggestion I would have is obviously we would need like make parents sign off on the code of conduct at the beginning of the year we'd have to have a sign off and I at the risk of a lot of people I know getting really angry with me I think we would need to look at confiscating devices and forcing families to come get them after school like talk about the P only way they right like like we're gonna have to take pretty drastic measures if we want to go in that direction and I don't think there's any room for compromise like I'm not criticizing the teachers I know I can imagine what they deal with but I was really

112well no I was really disheartened the last couple years when I learned on my own how much my own Junior and then Senior could access this phone and everybody could and that it was a free-for-all because there's no way they're learning I don't need all the data to know that there's no way if this stuff is happening they're not learning and we're not doing our job as a school if we're turning graduates out into the world and they've been allowed to exist in this kind of environment so yeah I'm I'm in support of a full band I just want to know how we make it work I'm also in support of um it as well I know uh several years ago when it was discussed before and enacted um it took a long time to

113adjust to it for the students but that after that year I feel like it worked there were consistent consequences it was have uh you know I think the second consequence it had to be picked up by a parent at the end of the day um and then the third one the same thing and then I think there was an after school detention involved as well I'm not saying that that's you know the route that we might decide to go but I do think that there needs to be consistent consequences across the board so that when teachers do take a phone away um that they're backed up and they're supported and um everybody's on the same page okay so I I am very supportive from I and not if we're going to do it I think

114we should do it from from kindergarten I'm not saying kindergarten so but all way up to a senior you know what I mean um I'm not I seen the to the 16 or high school they get a little more freedom no I we're here to learn we didn't have them you know I I initially I was kind of on the fence I did I spoke to several teachers that actually brought this up to me and a lot of the problem is is in the reason why it got so frequent and my both my kids well the younger one doesn't but the older child um had access to a phone and a lot of the teachers and he has used it during the day sometimes it was to me but um teachers never said nothing just

115because it's kind of like college if you don't want to learn you know what I mean we still have 15 other kids that we're not going to disrupt we're going to stay task you know that's why they the discipline really didn't happen as much you know they didn't want to disrupt so I feel that yes I'm in full support of a full band um but always always to a senior you know you're we this is a districtwide thing you know not as soon as you get to a certain age oh we get Freedom again you it's we're here to learn and that's what we need to stand by the second thing is I I am for you know you know we gota the discipline has to be Stern and we need to make it work

116okay all right number one number two number three and then let it escalate but the taking the phone from that child and holding it I just want to make sure we discuss this with legal prior to taking some you know somebody you know personal item you know I just want to make sure we that's well you can't take that because I pay for that or vice versa you know I don't want it to turn into a well give it to me no I don't have to you know I just want to make sure on a legal aspect we have right to do such you know before we start give me your phone and then there's I'm sure there's that's going to be challenged by some students um and I just don't want the confrontation to

117happen and the district get jammed up so I want to make sure legally that the teacher has that right to all right give me the phone I'm going to be doing this following XYZ policy you know that's my only concern is can we confiscate something which I I believe we can I just want to make sure that we have our correct documation we don't want them in our buildings these are banned these are banned right you know it's all or nothing and right honestly that sounds a bit I'm pretty solid leave them home or I don't whatever so I don't everybody knows the world's right with addiction denial enablement uh I see it at work I see it in my house I do it I get stressed out I start at my phone at work

118probably get attention sometimes right and kids and parents think Al like when it comes to a cell phone so I can't think of um a topic that's more charged than maybe the environment that cell phon right I there needs to be Community Support as well right and I don't know but I would love to have some sort of vote say like hey here's our policy going be course what's Community something like that right and if you have 80% of your community say like no way right how you g to keep that going I'm just I'm just it's just conun right I'm just right I'm just talking out loud about the difficulty of this because I'm not arguing cell phones read right Apple knew exactly what they were doing watch the uh be careful if you

119saw watch the social experiment that was out on Netflix three years ago talking about the algorithms how you adct people how you serve up time it's you know three years ago I was like man I should probably delete everything that I have on here like all my social media and I was like no and now it's like I talk about something else and it's on my follow it's kind of Weir but um yeah so I would love to hear from the community about how much they would support this because if they don't support it I'm not saying that you know leadership is uh sometimes unpopular you decisions right um you know this room's going to be bad you know we're going to get some the letters um I would love to see some sort of

120pack of a consorti schools in the area make a joint sure so I know new harford's talking about this and um also the book I've shared with uh my colleagues in the oosi superintendent group and we're going to be talking about it at a retreat at the end of uh the month so I I agree that it's not just a Waterville issue but get people to move into the area because they love the policy you get people to move out of the area because they hate the policy right right right so it's like if you could get a group and there's unity in well Str in numbers right and you get some sort of unity pretty interesting much more but again we we are Educators we will always do what's right for children and piece

121for the parents yes there is there's a huge education piece go a long way but again it goes back to addic and deny right and parents are texting their kids all day long right don't tell me I can't text them know if they're okay so going on right there's a whole bunch of things you got to think about No One's Gonna argue the fact that this is evil right the phone's evil and creates issues no one's GNA argue that it's about how do you execute it in the right way when you get by right yeah and I I agree with but I think in order I mean I think getting Community buin would be huge don't know if you're going to get there but at the same time I'd like to take a lared approach

122it's got to be I know there's technology out there that in addition to making an outright band where you can you can shut off the signal you can scramble the signal within a certain radius around the building you can bring into tools to do that except for whitelisted devices that can be controlled so in addition to an outright band if you do sneak it in guess what what have it's not going to function here you're not gonna you're not going to get it on Wi-Fi you're not and it's going to scramble the arguments Wi-Fi work I mean if you we have as long as you have a white list of you can M filter sorry but no I that's where I was going same thing I don't know the legality of like cell phone Jammers

123or something but along those lines and then as far as the Wi-Fi goes you can definitely only open it to just you know to the Chromebooks and that's it um because I do like I I am actually very passionate about this and fully support a total ban of it and I think there's a there's definitely a direct correlation in society from people that don't have an attention span anymore to like you look at like that's why reals are you know 10 seconds long or the shorts you get or things like this is exactly what they're doing and that's it's it's all tied together but I will say that some of the points that them brought up and I think it actually ties into what Steve brought up earlier today with the the safety plan one

124of the biggest things I've heard in the community is my kid needs to get in touch with me if something happens at the school because they do not trust the school and that's just that's the perception that's out there that's what needs to get worked on as far as the the safety plan and the things to to proactively engage the community because they should trust a school and honestly there there's areas where communication can obviously get better but I mean you you probably don't can as a first responder one of the worst things in the world is probably having too much communication when there's you know misinformation during a crisis so that was one I actually took a note on this I forgot though when I was speaking um just couple seconds cell phones during

125an emergency situation are actually bomb threats for instance even as a first responder we are not allowed to really do definitely cell phones are absolutely gone we're not even allowed to use cell phones during um a emergency situation on the scene of a suspected bomb threat due to sometimes it's been known to happen that they are able to be detonated when your use of cell phones okay so that is number one and then the use of radio Transmissions during an emergency situation to that extent is also not supposed to be happening um due to cell phones of the suspects are able to get on that scanner radio situation and able to know every move that fire law enforcement everything so School s we have our radios right so we have a bunk you know there

126are bunk channels which that are confidential mainly with law enforcement that they handle you know the in agency specific details of the situation at hand so I need to make sure my kid is safe and everything like that unfortunately I feel that you need yes we are lacking in that situation wholeheartedly we need to work on that but in the same aspect they need to understand that your child gets on this bus comes to this school and they are safe you know and you need to trust us and that's just one thing that we do have to work on significantly as Dan was saying sorry let the parents let the families know of these parent these kids that a situation happened okay we had a bomb thread or a situation emergency happen at n o'clock

127in the morning one o'clock is not soon you know by 10 o'clock as soon as that situation is all right emergency First Responders are here boom we don't need someone driving by and noticing the fire trucks yet we had a EMS situation it's all situated we're all good to go okay you know it's that minor that somebody could be driving by and see Patrol two patrol cars here with no lights they could be just doing a you know just come to say hi you know what I mean one Facebook post it takes one Facebook post and next thing you know there's a a huge situation going on that's why is if you see if you happen just to see you know the office people see all right there's two patrol cars here rescue from the

128fire department's here or something out of the ordinary with red lights on we need to send out something hey this is It's been handled this is what happened you know immediately you know not just specific incidents because it takes one person and it's like phona friend it's going to be somebody tripping fell and bumped their head to there was that shooter situation you know it gets turned around that easy but we need to gain the respect and the trust of our family members and the community members ASAP and I I do agree with that I just I think that it likees your Point View like we got to bring them along you can't necessarily beat them over the head with it like hey you know what's your feedback what's going to make you feel comfortable

129that type of thing but also this is where we're going so get on board if you engage him on a mascot you have to engage like so so just so you know uh Tammy you were with me when we were on the Yonder um when we were in here on with the Yonder rep with a oh okay sorry okay oh okay but you were with me okay so we had um a virtual meet with uh this region um Yonder rep so Yonder is those are the the pouches that um students when they come into a building they carry their pouches with them and they have to put their phones in them okay so we talked to them and so one idea we had was well why don't we do it as you know everybody gets

130to keep their cell phone and then those who um violate that then they their their phone they have to go Yonder right they have to put their phone in so we thought well that's great everyone gets the opportunity first and he said no that that doesn't work because the whole expectation is that you are you know eliminating the distractions and so so that was according to all their research that hasn't worked successfully but he said that it's the total ban that has worked so there are an um nor um just moved to the Yonder pouches um in this area and I know other schools are considering it um and other schools have had success with it so he did say that um you know it's really it is important to engage the community it's important

131to engage your students and you don't like start the year off with Yonder without going through all of this first so he said in many respects he doesn't recommend starting off year the day one of the school year going Yonder but it's something you work towards in the school year you set a date and then everybody's prepared I was I was just gonna add it's kind of everything we've talked about here confirms all the biases I have against sell so it's kind of nice when you're over that your bu but I agree with Pete and Dan to an extent in that one of the things that immediately occurs to me is we have to have some sort of management policy where they have to obviously be able to bring them into school and while I

132was I was thinking about this and I don't necessarily want to spend money on something but if that's the only way that we can really fix it I was a skeptical of the pouch approach and I'm more open to hearing about it because we have to have a way for the kids to be able to get their phone high school high school students so they call their parents or for whatever that occurs but it we we definitely need to find a way to manage it extremely well because there won't be a lot of there will be a lot of push back but I'm convinced I'm I'm I'm with everyone else cell phones are not to mention all the legal implications of kids taking we don't even think about kids taking pictures of themselves of each

133other just all the the horrible things this has brought into our world that didn't go through but here we are so so I did speak with um our o osis to see if we can get this included on our one of the coers so this vendor could be a coer and I know that uh Dr kilborne is working on there so that means all the schools in our area could have a coer there's nobody in the state right now that has a coer on it they've just changed the way they they um manage their their um pouches so basically you buy the pouches and the student just like they take a Chromebook it's their pouch and if they damage it they have to pay like $15 or something they have to pay some money um

134I know we're still trying to work that out where would they leave the pouch so the pouch is in their back book packs backpacks yeah they keep it with them and then but when they're in the building their their phone is in that pouch and they can't access their phone and then they can't they can't just pull the pouch out the backpack no they have to go to they have like the kind of thing that you have on a item when you go in the store unlock them all you have to when they you would have to unlock everywhere there's there's a a it's a fix to the wall station yes there's multiple stations and I have notes that I don't remember I Shar with do spring but you can share them and then you

135board if you want but um I just took notes when we had that meeting so they have basically ways they have like a certain um oh my God that's the right um term like so many students per so many like of the like openers you say 30 was it 30 um let me see if I put that no I don't know if I did but you would need one for every 30 students have a um I don't I didn't write that down in there but I remember him talking about that so they provide you with enough of those stations that basically it in his words shouldn't it shouldn't after it becomes a routine be a timely or be aot of time was his did they talk at all about different types of emergency scenarios so

136I'm just thinking Some of the anticipating some of the concerns and question because things I've heard in the past but say say there was an emergency and everybody had to evacuate the building immediately how do they get their phones out to say like they got to call parent to pick them up or you know if they can't return to the building like I I don't need the the specifics but do they have like scenarios gained out of like if something like that were to happen here's how they would get their phone or you know that just well yeah I well it's I mean I don't know hopefully they could come back in the building and and open their pouches that's what I was thinking is there's a kid it's it's going to be new okay

137if we were to go down this route this is going to be new child the cell phone's in their book bag all right I got centered mind got one thing on my mind I'm out the out this outside we get home I got to get on my phone open up the phone I can't get on it it's G now Mom gets home at 5 o'clock hey I can't get to my phone well the way I would handle it way different people would handle it tomorrow's another day but let's say they need their phone would there be something maybe set on unlocking device outside where after hours you can come up and have the kid walk up to the school you know what I mean you know just a a key fob system up against the

138school all right now you're un lock no one has to be here you know that's you know that's my thing is what are we going to do after hours for the involuntary thing out the door I'm on the bus oh crap I can't unlock my phone now what I'd be like oh looks like tomorrow you're going to be unlocking at tomorrow but you're not looking just EXA right um and also you know give me the my next step so I think one next step is if you can uh I think was it was it just for she has yes nor nor I would love oh they're getting it so they're starting in September so they they had a a community engagement I want to say the end of May it uh you know this came

139from the principles felt it was really really you know important that they had this um in their you know six 12 buildings and um they engaged parents and they're doing it yeah so um I don't know what the others think but my two things would be number one I would love to understand the change management piece get more background right you need to learn we can picate all day but once here it's been actually put in action things that they' run into and then I don't know if there's a school anywhere around here that actually has done it so SC yeah so sco hary they just finished two years in with Yonder and I I know the superintendent there uh SC har similar to Waterville could we could we could talk with him what kind

140of change maybe they've seen and he was one of the first adopters in New York state answer these questions what have you ever had a child after after after hours what you to unlock or as Dan said hey emergency situation all kids have to go off site guess what investigation still going on we decide to send them home early now we've got the whole District out the you know now what policies do or what do they do for situations like that now you have right during an evacuation and they're not able to reenter be they're saying that so the Yonder uh data is showing that grades increase um pretty signant y spelling you something I I think that like as far as the pouches like that definitely we need questions answered but for next steps

141I mean in during the consultation meeting I think the big thing we heard was enforcement be like I think we asked the teacher I think we asked the question of like would you change something along the lines of what would you change was just enforce it basically have it be consistent um so I think because I mean we're already into July we got two month before school starts we have an outdated policy like I think we need to that should in my opinion be like number one policy yeah and spell out the discipline I don't know if you want to put it in the policy or regulation so I don't know you know so less put in the policy strenuous process but to get the policy established ahead of school and then have a public

142hearing or just a meeting invite the community in and say hey get your feedback and ask question you know but I just I would hate to wait and have the same conversation again in August or September and now we're rolling into a whole another year I think at the very at the minimum the moving pieces of policy need to be agreed upon as far as okay are we if we're talking about a ban what does ban mean does ban mean leave your phone in your car or leave it home doesn't mean it has it has to be in your locker and turned off which we know doesn't work or does it mean yes what is the progressive y so very clear and not not long drawn out of warning warning no it was communicated you

143signed off on it first step is it's gonna get taken away it's gonna go down it's gonna we're gonna have it'll get locked out so would I be able to call a policy committee meeting with Kate Justin and Dan and maybe we could start our work okay I'll be in touch and we can can set a meeting get other people that have been through this but here they're learning I mean I almost think that and we can call Dave I'll Dave Blanchard we can during our meeting and we can ask him a lot of questions update policy I mean as far as the pouches go I was very skeptical when we were hearing about it the first time I don't know I'm open to learning more about it I see the early on Administration for

144the admin team in the morning just being a circus I can picture some of the students oh I didn't bring my boou what do you mean well kind of turned into a comedy routine for some of them or oh I'm just GNA bring an old phone in I'll lock that in there there I fixed them so talking through some of those things and how you deal we can ask you know I'll call Lind you know exactly who you're G to be dealing with my concerns and we did bring up um some of those concerns with the representative that we talked to and I mean that that part was at least put me at ease a little bit because they do have a process and suggestions they can share them with us because it's proprietary and

145we're not buying the product yet but um this idea that like here's there are ways to do it and we'll give you the tools if you're going to buy product but he did send us some resources could share those with the board um and I'd like Lind to come to our policy committee meeting as we talk about the cell phones to help but I think it's a perfect opportunity the the WTA is very clear in what they need so I we need to update the policy we need to partner with them schedule out the auditorium and let the public come in yeah I mean it's it's not going to be popular for a lot of people but so doing the right thing isn't always popular one other thing you have to think about though too

146and believe me this I'm in a glass house right hey trust me incoming senior is g to be super excited yeah um you have to have all staff in the building modeling the B absolutely and that's gonna be difficult too again glass throwing a rock and it's easy to sit here and say like okay well I'm not doing it um touch my phone ohone talk I will say um just from my and I did I didn't share them with you before Dr I sh with you now so you can do with them what you will but um he did talk about the representative from Meander you're onboarding and he I I wrote in here there needs to be education behind why um you need to have discipline data on cell phones you need to have

147case studies testimonials statistics there needs to be some kind of thought sharing meetings so he did talk with us at that meeting about what you guys are addressing so I mean that it's nice to hear that echoed from him as well that you know we need to do those things to at least he said where did I put if you do onboarding right you can Garner the support of the community minus a few which exchange 101 right bu that awareness or desire giving people the knowledge and the ability go through and then just reinforce it you uh a couple things for food for thought so Dr spring in the years you've been here how many times have you read a statement from the wtaa that they asked you to read never so this is the

148first time yes what percentage of teachers said we need 0% said they said there has to be a change when was the last time you got 80% agreement from The Faculty well you all did vote for the extended day I mean the point I want to make is and this will be one of those things like I just agree to disagree with points of view and we all have ours just like I I I don't need more study I think at the risk of my my former WTA member right to the left of me and the one sitting in here I want to reference something if you can hear me out so it was always a sore point for me when we didn't get a contract done and our Union used their right to communicate

149and put flyers in their vehicles and people noticed in the commentary in the community was why don't we support our teachers why doesn't the board support our teachers why don't we support our teachers and everyone I heard said we need to support our teachers let's support our teachers and give them the policy they're asking for so they can teach our kids and create a safe environment and every we're saying is right but let's that's our job let's navigate the change man let's navigate the communication let's hold ourselves accountable and let's be honest with the teacher the the WTA we've said it nicely I was here seven years ago when we passed this originally like teachers have to enforce this we can't be here two years from now talking about teachers not enforcing it that's not

150going to go over well with me particularly I'm probably going to be pretty rude about it I'm serious like we we're here you we want to support you I believe this needs to happen and I think the bullying piece like I'm not rehashing it but you all know where I stand on this like it is rampant and this is one way we take it out of the school environment we can't control what happens before and after school I wish we could but we can we can control we can create a safe and Equitable environment in terms of the other thing that's Disturbed me that I keep hearing is oh well this kid needs it for for class no they don't we give them a book the kid who can't have the newest iPhone like my

151kid should have a Level Playing Field I don't want to hear that a kid needs an expensive cell phone to do something in class no they don't they can use the Chromebook like every other kid so it's a fair and Level Playing Field and like sometimes we got to do unpopular thing we had 38 meetings the first 12 months of Co 38 and we got beat up all over the place because you were going to maybe get 50% people to like what you were doing if you were lucky like the community voice we want input we've said that a lot but I'll say it right now the community voice is electing the seven of us and next year if they want to elect two new people and the year after that if they want to

152elect three new people that's the community voice sometimes and like while this issue may be unpopular like 80% of our teachers want this I want to support the WTA like I always have like and and that's where we need to stand I think I I don't need again I'm sorry I don't need to hear from other districts like we can lead on this we did seven years ago we passed this I had students come in here and lay a petition on our desk and they were mad that we had this policy and they wanted to change and we listen and we said no and you heard Kate talk about it it was a bumpy road and like then it was better and then Co hit blew it all up here we are so I don't

153think so I don't think any of us are saying that we don't have sport teachers I think we need to have a good plan where initiate part is to get people to pull them along with us right pull them along with us otherwise you're gonna have all sorts of different disruptions right agree agree I think we have to frame it that way I'm a big Communicator like doing this policy supports the teachers I I mean yes you're right Pete like I can rattle off parents I know who are going to be pissed at me for what I'm saying tonight and no really we're all supporting it I know but but this is this is the communication strategy and I'll hold Administration accountable for this you know I said I'll beat them up if they don't

154enforce it I'll beat Administration up if we don't communicate this well and the narrative starts with like our teachers are telling us this is imperative it's not about a book that's some liberal whatever no you know like come on let's not be naive I don't want to hear about the book anymore 80% of our teachers are seeing this in the classroom and telling us we have to do the teachers we say as a community why aren't we supporting them give them a new contract give them what they want okay this is what they need in their work environment to teach our kids and keep them safe so I'm sorry parents so and so if this is uncomfortable let's talk about how we fix that let's offer solutions to make this manageable for you and your

155particular student but what we're not going to do is say ah we can't be uncomfortable here that's not where we're going we want to bring you along what you and that's what a lot of parents are going to say initi they are I don't want it's not good for my kid so here's something think so is no I think you said no one's watching we have one person watches one person that's it oh they're watching the so when you think about after this right it say there should be another session say not a board session a community like a an information session on why this is happening Ag and what we intend to do about it and that's that's bringing that awareness and saying like Okay this is it like you can't argue with the

156facts so I'm just thinking about open house night so we have open house at both of our what's that um well it's the night before school starts I want to have it Square couple weeks on the next agenda because I mean to Steve's point I think like like I think we're all feel the same way in supporting the teachers but the aspect I'm thinking of bringing the public along is if we just say we're GNA do this it's the right thing to do they're going to tell their kids you don't got to follow that and now it becomes more of a teacher teachers got argue with them and we got and there's gonna be a wrestling match about someone trying to get a phone in a pouch the front door I can already see it

157you got to address this BL especially I mean I think the night before um open or the night before school starts would be too late too with teachers there syllabus and you don't want anything contradicting what the policy is we can we can we can have a community Forum in August July right now I know but we still need to look at our policy we want to do our research on like you said we should book out the auditorium for it and anticipate that we're level one we could put in we'll get it or class one or whatever we call and it's a cell phone informational session right where teachers are asking we're gonna have the board there in front what we know is true and what the go forward policy will be and we

158don't know what that is like still you know a bag is it enforcement is it a policy change with the you know Contin level you know step assignments but um I also would like to see some of the teachers there as well you know I mean just so they know so it's informative to everybody you know if this is what you want and this is what I would like to see and you know there's no well I just barely seen it now you see it it's gone see it that all or not Y what I would just say is from a enforcement um perspective oh yeah there's other Solutions but something like a pouch it just takes out a lot of the human error in like yes I I I'm gonna be really strict about

159cell phones okay three weeks from now God they've worn me down or I'm tired or I'm not here that day or I have a sub or oh they only had it out here and they're begging me just takes out all of the guest work for staff if you have something like that nope put me in the pouch there is no other option that's that and then the teachers never have to worry about it I they have enough to worry about without also having to police right so that is the benefit to something like this system is just it's then it's just not their issue at all then it's our issue can we check and see how long it would take to get to vouches um is this something they have they can just turn around

160in a week they want so so Tammy I wanted to see I'm sorry Tammy is there anything else you wanted to add um because you've been involved with us with the consultation and you're here representing the WTA absolutely okay it looks like it's on to a good feedback the new president will enforce the rules more please no hats so I'm Tammy Paka a high school teacher here um so yes hearing you say 80% the teachers want it we absolutely do it is constant and yes um I think it was Mr Boone you said your son said well some teachers don't because and and that's exactly right you know we kind of kind of like natural consequences you want to zone out for this part that's fine I got 15 others that are are listening to

161me um and also this is the most support I felt as a teacher about the cell phone um thing so it's it's very good to hear and I you know as an officer of the WTA I will say to the to our members look at they're supporting us admin supporting us you you can't be the cool teacher you know because I I know you know some teachers don't like confrontations you know if we're all on board then I can assure you that I will as a wtta officer um make sure my members are doing it as well so that's it and I know the safety piece so if I could tell you like from a parents point of view um because new harford's going to it and my son has already said they try to

162take away my cell phone like what are you gonna do buddy what are you gonna do first of all it's not your cell phone it's my cell phone and so you know that's like the type of attitude parents need to have well I guess if you're an idiot and I have to go pick up your cell phone you're not going to have it for a week it is it's it's hard parenting is hard if you do it the right way um but I can assure you as a staff member um so my daughter two years ago senior at new Harford high school during my planning or my lunch I was sitting at my desk and someone texted new harford's on a lockdown and I knew that was not a good thing so I immediately as

163a parent got my cell phone out and I wanted to text my daughter and I as the professional who's been trained and we had an awesome training in September I mean teacher there are mats we learn how to take down active Shooters I know where to grab on an AR-15 I hope I never have to do it but we know that we're going to defend your kids so I was like nope I cannot have her phone go off and let the active shooter know she's there so I texted someone else my husband he works at herk mosis what is your safety guy know about this lockdown and then turns out it was just a lockout which is totally different but as a parent I I that was my reaction oh my I got to tell

164her I love her what do I but then I got to stay calm I'm the adult so I as the adult in the room if there's an active shooter I I cannot have the kids distracted by anything else you know if a plane is having difficulties in the air who am I looking at the flight attendance what are you telling me to do I'm going to do it to survive this so that's what I would I would like parents to understand and you know if I can just support you um you know with the parents I get it I get that reaction but we are trained and we will do everything we can in an emergency situation to um protect your child would it be beneficial to try to get some of those those types

165of talking points you get the trainings about like use of the cell phones things that either have I don't know it's something that you can include or have something come in when we do the informative piece with the public because you're probably like 3% of the parents out there everybody else I gotta call my kid I gotta find out what's going on my KS so do we want to hold this before a board meeting I because we have I think we just do it a different own so Wednesday how about Wednesday Peter um Tuesday all right we're gonna pick a Wednesday are there weeks that are better or worse that people have vacations I mean 31st 14th or excuse me it be the 14th or 28th of August yeah 14th are people here I mean

166I think the 14th is f is it still it gives us time to plan this won't be well so I mean you're not gonna get no can beat up you need to be here you need to be here 14 Wednesday I'll be I'll be ite we could do it a Monday night I mean are you there Monday are you around Monday night before the no I fly out okay I'll be in Chicago all week okay 19th the fifth how about the fifth is the fth it's a Monday right how about the August 5th do I hear August 5th everybody that's l oh and you're going that wow no but obviously so that would right I mean I'm good for the out that week all right the fifth what about that Wednesday your God I don't

167know you're not find a we word we're all here yet all right so I wouldn't go any later than that okay so then the first week in August we want to do that Wednesday night what is that he's not gonna be here look at how this works I'm like do it the week I'm not here and now we're doing it the week he's not through this once already you can have well we have a board meeting on the six so then if we could do the fifth it's I feel bad St I don't feel bad lie I'll think of you Thursday means of deep dish pizza all right we said what night not Tuesday night because the 14th you wanted to go for August 14th what day of the week is that I can do

168I'll be back 8 you could do 88 so no so so we can have six out of seven board members on 88 88 88 I can that's a Thursday right it's Thursday night 88 88 but Pete won't be here I'll try look at this all right is it okay if we go with August 8th everybody feels like an insurance all right August 8th are you live streaming it or it's in it's a forum so I'll work I'll start working on that I also want to call a meeting poliy committee so I'll be in touch tomorrow to kind of compare dates everybody agree I don't think it should be live stream I want to let's hear people in person no we can I don't think we have to take question I agree with you you ask

169question sure yeah that way there's more incentive to show up yeah I mean we we went we've had every meeting online in Co it cannot get worse than that I promise you we had comments live so it's not live stream but it will be Rec five 500 plus comments All of which were hating on me I mean six o' o to give General Public home you know more family orientated August 8 at 6 and I would say utilize Franklin to communicate possible yeah all the social media well as put Facebook we'll put it on a social media app right are we all right uh before we continue I'd like to move back a bit to the business operations section 11 uh so this be consent agenda for the general fund warrant for June 30th in

170the amount of $94,800 school lunch warrant for June 30th the amount of $ 65715 uh C SEC cpse recommendations as listed and the treasur report for May 2024 can I get a motion please thank you Tim thank you Pete discussion all those in favor down to report audit committee sorry Peter so um we had we talk about the uh movement of funds into the capital reserve and we had talk we confirmed that it appropriate like up to x amount of dollar without pushing that all in there so that was the topic of our conversation and we wanted to make sure that that was um all on the uh the correct process that it was so that was very good Y and Trisha Lucas obviously was there with us yes she was there um I'm trying

171to think I think that was the one that really stuck my mind that was there and then we're they're starting end year reconciliation right we discussing the steps in the audit what's our next step we finished our preliminary the next step is the final audit should happen somewhere in August uh we have some federals to close we were discussed that yes you do close in August you do not close in June oh yes because there is a lot of work that goes into closing the school year out after the official dat um trying to think what else that that was I don't think the meeting didn't go the full PA didn't go the full hour I it no it wasn't there wasn't a lot of things on the agenda other than just talk about the

172year right and just talking about our conversation yep Reserve set to complete the feds closing the books I think those were all the notes that I had had on it that that we covered um Linda had asked her a couple questions Linda's GNA stay on the committee as a community member oh nice yeah um Linda had some questions for Trisha she answered them and I think uh we all left that we had all our answers that we needed was yeah and Tim you couldn't make it right okay so this brings us to the board discussion piece is there anything like to discuss um it's not really a discussion it's uh basically I don't even know if it really fits in here but I'm going to say it anyways um Mr P um I just want

173to say thank you from uh I am one of the Deputy Fire Chiefs over water fire department thank you for the spread of dinner yesterday and all your colleagues WTA appreciate it good so but no I I want to make sure that you did SEC official than you did put something out on Facebook as well but um I now that I did actually see you I want to say thank you and it was it was enjoyed I really appreciate it we appreciate you you for our community the question I had was just um status update on our prek program how we feeling yeah read for so I don't know our numbers to date um should see everything though but we really redesigned the classroom I was C like we have water tables and sand tables

174and it's just all about Play It's All About so um you know we're just excited to get everything set up I think we are so the word is really out there and we keep that maybe we have push it out one more time too so we need to get to 36 that's a magic number 36 okay but we're still going to obviously apply for two classrooms um and that that's something that right now we're just we have to work on the grant so it's due uh July 31st and you know um we'll we'll get it done and we're Staffing we got St we have yeah so we will need to hire some teacher assistance so that's something we'll be meeting tomorrow we're we're looking at you know our hiring needs for Teacher assistance and um

175so yeah we'll be we're applying for the waiver but I have all the documentation because we had to issue an RFP we had to have legal notices I have all of that information that we had no applicant so so okay awesome thanks I just had one thing I want to bring up today with the um the website being inaccessible with because of the fiber optic line out here all but need got hit um I think it would be it would set my mind it ease a little bit just because I have some background in that area but um it it's kind of bothered my mind that one Viber Lang getting hit like took the site that like it's not in a cloud with redundancy and things like that but then my mind also went elsewhere

176to like data backups and you know critical like cyber security um topics and I would like to see sometime like if we could get some sort of like presentation or I I I think Mike did one similar to that last year but if you know we could throw some questions out like what I have some specific and I know there's some that are kind of confidential that can't be disclosed in public but just to I just got worried like okay well that if one line took out the website all the public information's done like what about like data backups or thing you know anything like that a the only thing they H as our website I will say that um I don't know how their Network I know that Rick has who we get our

177internet service through and all that has a lot of different connections um they all go all the way up to like Watertown Jefferson Lewis all of that I don't know how the C works with that website um that would be question for Franklin that proce um we can do anct session or you want to sit out the technology committe meeting um we can talk about that but I can't talk about a lot of it during public session live stream so okay well thank you but we do have a um Disaster Recovery plan that is required and all of that so step one's here step two this is the communication you do these are all of our backups and where they're located all that okay how long are we down for today after was like this

178morning until I don't know what time did he send it out about three I think it came back on around three yeah but that would be a question for region if they're hosting it I don't know if they have a back of like Amazon cloud services or a lot of companies are going through and all that yes they are that might be a future question for it seems like they weren't seems like probably UNR SP single point of failure but yeah we can follow up okay yeah definitely not on a not g down we gotta go down once any other board discussion like societal failure this all right bring us to our first public comment public comment paty do you have anything nope I do have one that's I came actually um just want to

179thank you for the consultation on Ed starting that back up this year um we we had a lot of um issues and we brought them to you Mr Stanton Mr Jones Mrs Hughes Kelly Mr Nichols um and we just we just really appreciate it it was nice to when we had members was oh Dr Springs sorry you were there too um when they came to us we said okay and that's how we made our agendas and it was nice to say we discussed about these things so it's just nice that our members felt heard so just wanted to thank you for that thank you you great we do have one email with a couple questions I think this is regarding the cell phone discussion um do we have any substitutes coming back when will the

180advisors be presented and the cell phone policy put in place where was the displ well we didn't include discipline I mean we can we can we can look probably should be part of the future sorry would this question specific is when the cell phone policy put in place where was the discipline so I mean I'll answer from my end I mean there there was discipline but I would like to see and I I already talked to Dr spring about this um depending on what we do in the next month but some sort of flowchart where it's like okay this happens this happens so it's just really clearcut and again you just take out the error for it so um we didn't have that so generally there was if if it got to our level a

181warning um you know cell phones were taken from students so there was there were steps to that um there were a few times we had parents come and pick it up but nothing that was clear CAU in follow to a te so that's definitely something going forward that would be really important for us to have spelled right out so there's just no again no human eror we should probably be ready to answer those questions too on the E okay yeah and I can put something together that's a little bit more elev I think your point is a very clear flowchart as to what it is yeah with it I mean if we're going with a band then I don't even know if you were through like a progressive situation or you know you knew what

182the rule was you brought it so no bring it to the office and your parent can comp Pi yeah first time yeah I do think that what that would look like will depend on you know what we do in the next of course and I think it's probably one of the things in support of the teachers that will need to be built into that policy too is you have the discipline that's associated with breaking that policy but there's going to be a whole lot of discipline when it goes sideways of you know what take your phone down to the office no I'm not going to okay now it's in subordination and now where does where does that lead to so the teachers aren't stuck in a situation where now they're spending 10 minutes of class

183time engaging a student nope I asked you to leave I'm done with it I'm going back to teaching I'm going to make a call to the office and if you don't report then then you know Security will come get you or whatever just make it very matter of fact for the teacher so go to the in I've been looking at say basically that kind of oh there's talking about the agenda and trying to make their job or make the teaching environment better I don't want to make their job more difficult dealing with the outliers so right now um we are uh already sent out the the canvas for our club advisors and Lindsay is collecting that yeah Friday is the deadline Lindsay will be making a recommendation it will be on our August 6th agenda

184as well as our substitutes um Jen Nichols is contacting our current Subs to see if they'd like to come back and um and also new subs and that will be on our August 6 agenda as well or the August or the the one before school starts August 27th so so we definitely have time on that and we still have more people applying to be a sub so so that's good news anything else for public comment we'll move into Old business which is the second reading for policy 5300 for Internet safety 5301 for acceptable use policy for network and internet access overview regulation 5311 guidelines access to network information resources in purpose use signature form in 5301 1.2 for the Chromebook loan agreement get a motion for the second reading so thank you Justin second thanks

185Ken discussion all those in favor all right uh section 17 approval of regular Staffing actions can I get a motion for the staffing actions as listed second thanks Tim thanks Justin discussion next steps oh um so we about bring the next one but yeah it's fine so like we can do this during the next board discussion okay we'll do so I was going to bring that up to you later on any other discussion no all those in favor section 18 new business General uh can I get a consent agenda or a consent motion for 18.1 to 1810 thank you Tim thank you Justin discussion all those in favor I bring us to our second public comments period do you have an actual public comment no yeah I want to address one that came in on

186Boe questions earlier in the day uh to the board who was really referencing some discussion we had from the last meeting that mostly I said so wanted to correct the record that for band lessons in the Junior Senior High there has not been discipline for students missing lessons there there has been discipline for students missing band rehearsals that had conflicts with academic review sessions such as calculus review so just wanted to clarify that because rightfully the teacher reached out and said that that was not correct so that is all I have to say sorry are we having another board discussion now too yes CL out uh yes now we're on to board question board discussion so question what's the next steps more yeah just um Next plan of action we have two vacancies for we

187think about that I know there's a couple other vacancies suround school well so uh just to present a timeline so on July 2nd we did communicate um and notify our our families and our school community of these um of the resignations and one for retirement um and tonight on the board um agenda we did accept those um and so we are going to be posting the openings starting tomorrow and so now that we've accepted th those resignations and we're going to hold first round interviews July 24th second round July 29th uh final round interviews July 30th um in time for an August 6 appointment so question yes do we or have we ever involved any interested Republic members in the process we do not okay no it's not common that you come down to finalist

188oh well present yeah I mean before making the fin selection is that some schools some districts do have like a a public forum and they you know have a Q&A with the candidates um in my experience um I don't think it's that helpful uh again it's the ex the it's the committee who's making the decision um and and that that I think has worked well it's different for a superintendent where you want to involve the community but but for a principal it's mostly the the school district the search committee obviously we would send out I mean tomorrow I'll I'll send out uh um an email to MPS and and just see who's interested in serving on these committees and so that we can form our our search committees I'll share the dates I'll see who's

189available you know a lot is availability so I've had a couple members of the public ask me about that and I I I guess mistak I thought I was like well I think that is part of the process but it was for superintendent but if there's any members of the public who are interested in sharing their thoughts on what they can contact should correct yes perfect thank you okay what about um student voice in the hiring process so I do know some schools um do include student voice um you know again it's summer um I mean I can see if I have some students you know who could be here to to meet you know the candidates but again it is the the search committee's decision Ste yes I'm raising my hand like good student

190uh there's two thoughts I I do agree I think my second point will clarify that but it really for public input the superintendent is a different position than other positions in the district however would it be difficult to push out a survey through parents Square to just solicit like I don't know maybe it's 10 questions like what do you want to see in a principle saying like I think you could get that kind of input right like you know maybe the Public's gonna say we want somebody who's really person food for and that is you know when we have our organizational meeting of the search committee that is what we really look look for um you know what are we looking for in a candidate so we can absolutely send out some some um a

191survey and people can respond and we can send it off to students it seems like an easy thing we do it at work all the time y uh and I joked about it earlier but people really read that parent Square message on the second because I know as a board we've all talked about people were asking us you know hey did you guys no etc etc like so I think it' be good to just push it out there and if we get five surveys we get five surveys but we can say he we gave you a chance to have input on what is important you know yeah so you can do one to students also yeah absolutely get six I mean I could do it to everybody and they could identify you a teacher you

192a student can you send it to graduates um or not no I mean I mean if I have emails I mean people you know what if we okay it's it's fine that could be something we add to like our graduate exit though like it sounds crazy but could they do you want to sign up for parents Square for communication really push that we could push it but you're right they can be a Community member right yeah they're on their phones all the [Music] time yeah for real it's allank pute out there right that wasn't a bad idea no I think that I mean yeah joking but not necessarily put it on the website put it on the front door put it in the stadium make it fun scavenger hunt do surveys to open up your

193couch [Music] when a cell phone hallway usage pass my God we have so much competition there everyone be making high onle all right is there any other uh discussion for the board questions all right give me the hook would that we do have a need for executive session for the purpose of medical financial credit or employment history of a particular person or Corporation or matters leading the appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or Corporation can I get a motion to enter into executive session than discussion all in favor