Cohasset School Committee 6 17 2020 Zoom replay

001okay um Thank You dr. Sullivan so we've already opened the meeting and we went into executive session and have adjourned from executive session and before we begin with our agenda I just have a couple of comments I would like to make as many people know we are losing two of our very valued and school staff and and School Committee this is the last School Committee meeting for them and I just would like to say a few words Michael macmillan wherever oh there he is the head headset on he's leaving to go on to Monomoy which is a district much closer to his home and it's been he joined us in July 2018 and for those of you who were here in 2018 he was the fifth businessman manager I had and my fourth four years

002on the school committee and he was a breath of fresh air and she and I clicked I think because I like numbers he likes numbers I like analytics he likes analytics I like charts he likes charts and I really respect the work that he's done for the district he's brought organization on tremendous thought and insight into not just you know generating the numbers but thinking about them he anticipated questions I would have before I would even ask them and he cemented you know along with dr. Sullivan and the team he really has cemented our district's position with the town our credibility with the town it had been waning prior you know in the last years before in terms of you know our FTE number wasn't always writer enrollment was up it's down it was up

003it's down that was a function of systems and people changing and I feel very proud of the fact that dr. Sullivan and and Michael have really done a great job form great alliances with our town counterparts and they listen and they know when they get information from us solids so I thank you for that Michael and really appreciate it and I just want to wish you the best and the committee gave gave out little gifts and I dropped my clothes off at school the other day I don't know if he can he has it with him to show but it's a little Cohasset Cohasset memorabilia so he never forgets us do you know what I left in my car when I came running and to start this meeting so thank you very much and thanks

004for your kind words Ellen I mean I mean I think everybody here knows that I would not believe in if it weren't for this opportunity just so much closer to my home I'm gonna sad it came up so soon I thought I had a few more years ago has the longer I like working here so much I've been very lucky in the staff I've got to work with and and the leadership team and also that you know Geralyn and hey Donna in the business office you know and I ever endorse in central office it's been a pleasure to work there I've really enjoyed it thank you very much because I think and Steve validate this I think boys basketball was playing Monomoy this year is that is that on the schedule that's correct we'll be

005there yeah you'll have to come cheer on the skipper's yeah the boys dead bus drivers are telling me that they do sometimes come up two games in one of my which they're very grumpy though because it's so far so dr. Salvin I didn't know if you wanted to yeah I thought I'd do my partner Scottish brogue just now I'm just kidding you know I wrote a little thing here but nothing too fancy but I just say although we wish Michael luck in his new job near his home We will miss Michaels professionalism his thorough and detailed approach in his wit and sincerity you know Michael is as you said well in a systems thinker who brought a collaborative budget process and vision to Cohasset and he's leaving us really with a firm foundation that we

006can build upon to project to project our vision of classified with schools really well into the future michael is a fabulous listener and he is thoughtful and his approach to everything he takes time to look at problems from all angles and he is able to acknowledge other viewpoints respectfully while still holding to his convictions when needed I have also watched Michael here a logical response reflect on it and incorporate those thoughts into future plans he is a really uncanny ability to be able to take in information as he holds his his own connections and to adjust it if he feels like someone's made a great point Michael is also an excellent communicator who's transparent with information he's open to feedback he's always reflective on how we can do a better job collecting voice and providing

007information to others and perhaps most prominently Michael is a person of high character who makes all his decisions with those he impacts particularly and most certainly the students in mind and on a personal level they'll miss him as an advisor and coplanar but I feel fortunate to have him as a friend and I look forward to continuing their friendship for many years to come so Michael thank you I don't have a party gift right now we do have some time to locate the best party hey the clock's ticking we have a combing the co acid for the perfect gift thank you Michael for all you've done for the class in public schools and we wish you and Kate joy with your family and everything thank you thank you thank you so much Patrick I really

008enjoyed working with you all as well and I mean impute grits in true British style is very difficult for me to hear people talk say nice things about me but I really appreciate it and I am glad this is being recorded so I may have to borrow this recording at some point yeah thank you very much it really is I really feel like you know together we've all really progressed so far with Cohasset and responded so well to these difficult times and I'm really proud to be part of this team something carrying lunch and so the next member of our team who's this is her last school committee meeting is Jen mad and I kind of struggled with this one a little bit um because I didn't know where to start with gem I feel

009like Jen has been the soul of the committee she has been our conscience she understands what happened to see is for our students she knows it's more than just the four walls around them she knows it's what they're learning how they're progressing and how they're achieving their own academic goals she understands our curriculum our assessments how to interpret our assessments and how to respond in our instruction she's a teacher she understands she brings that she's brought that viewpoint to us and it's been very very important on whether you know she talks about tiered interventions or child study teens and all the other mechanisms we have to help our children it's been invaluable it's been invaluable for me I've learned an awful lot about things that that sometimes sound Greek to me the operatives sometimes they

010sound Greek I asked me a percentage or a number or anything like that or a statistic I can get it but but the qualitative part of instruction has been challenging and jen has been our voice on the committee for the students she's passionate about it she knows about it and she also was willing to dive in and do the work and to look at our assessments and to make informed questions based on those assessments she walks the walk and talks the talk so she's always voted her conscious on the committee she's always stood up for what she's believed in and she's always been true to herself um and I think Ashley commented once when we approved a policy Jen got excited and Ashley said I love how you get excited and that's how Jen is

011she gets excited when we make progress on things so um I'm gonna miss her she has she's leaving us big shoes to fill I I know she'll be successful in her next endeavor in in the world of academics and teaching and instruction and I just wanted to say thank you for your service and it's been a pleasure to serve and I'm like Michael it's hard for me to hear all of this but I I am so proud of this district and I am so proud of the leadership team the administrators the support personnel it's the progress that we've made in the last three years and that's a has been really amazing and it's been a joy to see and I'm not going away and I will always advocate because I think students need strong advocates

012there's always more that can be done and that's not to say that what's being done is an excellent at the same time but it's been a real honor and thank you for your kind words and oh I have my awesome parting gift which is my 4 1-3 coaster it's very beautiful and I will set it out with pride and it will remind me of what's been a really interesting challenging time and I wouldn't have given it up for the world so it's been a pleasure and what really makes me happy is that we have two candidates running for this one seat and both bring different strengths and I'm sure they're whoever takes my seat will will be a strong committee member so thank you and if I could just add just quickly Jennifer I didn't

013write something out for you but I just from my heart want to thank you on behalf of the leadership team students the teachers of Cohasset you have I think you're a very student-centered and you have a great mix of really striving and making sure that everyone strives for high standards while still looking out for the underdog and making sure that you advocate for students who might be struggling students who might be under underrepresented student who may not have learned in a traditional way so that spirit it was in everything you do and I really appreciated that working with you so will very much miss you and I know you're not going anywhere though so good to have your year and your your counseling Thank You Jennifer thank you thank you and so and lastly well

014I still have the floor and I appreciate everybody waiting here I just want to say I just want to thank all of you all of the teachers the ESP s the nurses the counselors the therapists the custodians the food service workers secretaries the central office staff the bus drivers our coaches and the entire leadership team for what undoubtedly has been the most trying time in everyone's career our children and our grandchildren well not my children but maybe my grandchildren can't be learning about the pandemic of 2020 and we can all say we survived it since the 13th of March this has been a whole new playbook has come in into our world remote enrichment learning and instruction models were developed in real time not planned for every every call was inaudible I mean you always

015at the line of scrimmage and you had to get it done to the teachers and the principals and the assistant principals and the ESPs thank you so much for keeping our students engaged for checking in with them I heard from parents who said I got a call from a teacher or I got a note from a teacher saying I haven't heard from so-and-so in three days or two days or you might want to check your email above and beyond definitely above and beyond and much appreciated by the parents I've spoken with sorry I lost my place here you teachers have done everything they could to keep our young minds in Cohasset thinking and solving problems and staying connected and I'd also like to take at this time our retirees Patti Thompson Kate neligan peg Jordan

016Maggie Smith Trish Baldwin and Joan Makai like to thank them all for their dedication their sir Mystikal has a public schools and wish them nothing but the best in retirement so wanted to say that I don't know when I have another opportunity to do so so with that being said dr. Sullivan today with the superintendent's report yes absolutely and Thank You Ellen yeah your your words I could not echo more you know I want to thank this team the leadership team here for the work they've done with their staff and one of the great things about this leadership team is it usually when that comes up they direct attention right to the staff and say it was the staff that did the great work and that is true but I want to take a moment

017and just say there they did an amazing job as well inspiring their their teams and we talked a lot some in our leadership circles about the need at times to bring the temperature down when things get really tough and they did a lot of that a lot of that the spring working with people to problem-solve and to help their individual situations so thank you so much and I echo your thoughts about our retirees there were such there were their events planned for all of them but it was nice to play a part in some of the drive-thru motorcade celebrations for our retirees they're amazing educators they've left a long legacy with the students and the families and the staff quite frankly you know they're all teacher leaders in their own way and we're gonna miss

018them very much but they can feel very good about the legacy they have left we had some wonderful celebrations this this past week with our students it was nice to be the play as much of a part in them as I could we I was at the the drive-throughs with Leslie and the principal's and in the teachers and it was really warm all of them were warm a wonderful representation of our district and I think it was impossible to go through that motorcade and not feel that the teachers really cared about the kids and you could see that everything starts with that relationship between the teacher and the kid and it was really on display and Thank You principals and leaders for showing that and then we had a wonderful principal Scott and Tara here

019I'll just compliment them and their team again on our great diploma I guess you'd call it a diploma picture opportunity at the South Shore of the Cohasset Music Circus and Thank You class of Music Circus and everyone in the town who helped with that dan Leahy for this photography and I know he can go on and on thanking people but that was great and I think a really nice moment for our seniors and families you could see it was it was also very social distancing safe and we're looking forward to our graduation coming up on August 7th and we'll see about the other events you know yet the August 5th the prom planned and August 6th a potential gathering of with a some sort of class event so we'll see how that develops but more

020and more hopeful be able to do something on those dates and clearly the graduation is is in place so with all that with all that said and it was important to say that I did ask our leadership team to be here today as a pledge and we all talked about this and wanted to be here to make sure that I know the committee knows this but it's really for the public for the public to understand our pledge to make sure that we continue to and lead in even a greater way with cultural competency education around racial issues and anti racism discourse and discussions throughout our curricula it's very important to us it's what we're made of I should mention to people who don't know that we are a very new team in fact I had

021the pleasure of playing a role in hiring Alex when she came in a couple of years ago and this year I was able to to work to hire Brian Joe and Brian hiring a host IRA and then hiring John is the middle school principal and John hiring Kate and then of course I have Leslie's took my place we are a brand-new team who day one went to our strategic plan and made sure that we put cultural competency as a major goal for us this year and worked with Alisa and her experience to craft that and Alisa I want to give her a big thanks for for really leading a lot of that in the district to making sure that we have a we give a voice for the Boston students and her advocacy and helping

022everyone you know she's been instrumental in helping in book clubs and setting up that amazing professional development that will be realized in the fall so that's what we're about we are about that and I wanted to in these times when you know it deserves real real strong leadership and these are times that we have to realize the role of the schools in forwarding all of that I just spoke of and I want people to just get a sense for what we've been doing and what we hope to do going forward another major focus of ours is going to be to try to get a more diverse staff here in Cohasset and obviously that's been on the docket for I would imagine a couple of strategic plans and hasn't happened we've fallen short in that and

023we're gonna dig deep and open ourselves up to resources so that we can make sure we do that and I've had some conversations with Alisa about how we might be able to use our amazing Boston students who graduate and then want to come back and teach as potential interns that could potentially open up positions for them within this amazing School District but it needs to go deeper than that and I we really want when people think of Cohasset to think about that small town wonderful town of the South Shore the really values diversity and is really centered on cultural competency and I think if that word gets out more than anything that's gonna draw in potential teachers of color who will very much help all of our students here in Cohasset so what I thought

024would be nice is because we do share this common pledge is to just go down and have the principal's talk a little bit about what they've been doing over the last couple of years and for some you know it's it was we got started on it and then the pandemic kept but it's not gonna stop us this is not a short burst of energy this is something that we need to have in our fabric as as a district and I know that's what we have as leaders and those who I hired as leaders in this district the one of the major reasons I hired them and it was a major focus and everything that we did was the idea that they're very much in favor of and they're tied in to social justice issues having

025worked with John Mills Marshfield I know that he that's what makes him tick knowing Brian in the years I've known him and seeing what he's done over the year that you're almost a year now that he's been principal reaffirmed that that that is part of his pulse so and I know certainly Alex and and this team is a team that is linked into that so I'm going to give them an opportunity to talk a little bit about what's happening in their buildings and then a little sort of circle around and end with Lesley and ELISA talking about what we're doing right now some of it might be crossover but first I just want to make sure I tell people who's here because I really appreciate this entire leadership team we're a true team so I

026don't know it might be awkward for me to have you introduce yourselves I'll just maybe just give a wave when I say who you are might be easier than trying to go through the process of the lis unmuting so obviously we have Susan Owen who is our incoming director of finance and operations I'm not sure she's you can hear us but Susan's down there like she's there this she goes okay good we have set at the top here from Brian Scott who is High School Principal Tara noise who is our High School assistant principal we have John Mills who is our middle school principal we have dr. Kate Salas who is our middle school assistant principal we have sandy crow who is our head nurse and Sandy's been on all of our leadership calls about

027the pandemic and you know it's been helpful having her there for sure so much of this has been a health issue we have Alex Sullivan Alexandra Sullivan who is our principal at Gear hell and we have Lisa as always well she's not coming for Steve here so Leah I feel bad cuz I always do it in that order Lisa Farrell who is our principal and we do have Steve rotundi who is our athletic director who is also new by the way he did a fabulous intern last year and Steve is very much about diversity and making sure that everyone has a voice in athletics and that's really important and then those folks who are here regularly we have dr. Leslie Collins our assistant superintendent and Michael McMillan who is sadly our up going director of

028finance and operations but we are happy to have Susan so that's good too and then of course I mentioned the great work that ELISA has done ELISA gettin's Carl our mecco director and has done so much work with with all of us so thank you ELISA so that's the team that's here I don't think I'm missing anybody else but I know that everyone else who couldn't be here on our leadership team as a couple are here in spirit so I'd start with Brian principal at the high school but in Scott talk a little bit about what's happened in the high school over the last couple years sure so thank you then Thank You Ellen and thanks for the invitation I think I'll start by really looking at what we've been able to do with the

029high school since I moved into this role this year and partly last but it goes back about three years with the beginning of it as I hope I've been able to communicate publicly by now my biggest priority in Cohasset and you know frankly it predates my time in Cohasset is to develop a positive culture in which students are excited to come to school you know I think that for anybody to take place you must have an environment where students feel welcomed and challenged and that requires identifying those populations that feel strange in creating structures that help build their voice and see themselves as integral parts of the community and that you know certainly includes our black students but it's much broader than that for me so the first step as Pat mentioned was identifying it

030as a priority and and that's not just done in the district strategic plan but it's in the school improvement plans as well which are really the blueprint for my own and the other principals individual evaluation so it's you know my performance is directly tied to how well we do this the second you know we needed an unbiased assessment of where we are and so we implemented the institutional climate inclusion assessment three years ago this was developed by a Harvard graduate student who also happened to be a minority in the Newton schools and I believe part of Metco in that program and and what made her serve a very different than other cultural surveys and I've been doing those for the better part of twenty years was that she wanted to measure how kids internalize the

031culture at Cohasset so it was a survey that gave us data that was less about you know these sweeping cultural characteristics and it really don't deepened and targeted how specific demographics I saw themselves as reflected in the culture that were projected and you know to no surprise if you weren't white straight able-body and you know relatively well-off it wasn't particularly inclusive and that's something that I've talked about for a long time you know shedding this kind of superficial image of what it means to be a Cohasset kid and having students articulate who they are both as individuals and then us as a school community goes deeper into who they are as people and who we are as a group so that phrase isn't or shouldn't be unfamiliar to kids you know they've long recognized going

032back to my first valedictorian speech that Cohasset operates in a bit of a bubble and and you know they say that recognizing I think that that can be problematic as much as it can be you know kind of quaint at the same time so three years ago we put our first survey out and then we conducted our second one this past February so we're waiting on the data from that to see how fared over the two-year span a little bit delayed because of the obviously because of the pandemic so we had a priorities in our data and needed to begin the work of educating folks but we also needed to create safe spaces for those conversations to begin and the classroom is normally the first place you'd look to start those but we're so lacking

033in diversity that often the person of color is the only one in the class and then they become the spokesperson for everything and that was something we wanted to avoid and frankly something that requires a lot of teacher training in order to navigate a conversation like that without everyone looking kind of in the same direction so that teacher training was slotted for March the week after we closed I think it was the full week that we closed and I believe has been rescheduled to October but in the meantime we started with you know smaller affinity type poops of students so students who share a similar identity and experience and we took the approach that we weren't going to direct the conversation as a predominantly white faculty and building but we're going to create spaces for

034those conversations to happen and then dedicate time and resources to those groups facilitate conversations as issues come up because they are still kids and some of them are contentious and lend institutional support to the importance of the groups and their stories and so and we had dedicated faculty members really eager to do that outside of the contract outside of you know being paid as Club advisors so in that sense you know I'll use this language that I recently read we were more accomplices than allies you know as one scholar put it you know using the tools and the resources that we have in order to support the messages that they have so a couple of things we move the metro office back into the high school and set up an Olmec Code Student Advisory we

035created and gave resources to both the diversity Club in the Asian culture club provided opportunities where those groups could begin to get their experiences out there and they worked with the elementary schools to promote some cultural awareness work with the high school community - you know prominently display and educate and celebrate diversity doing things like book fairs and you know creating awareness around different cultural celebrations and religious holidays in the beginning of the year that group also met with our department heads to talk about their experiences as recipients of our curriculum and you know granted a large part of our curriculum is dictated by the state but we do have some latitude over texts and resources and how the conversations go so the department heads were really listening to what their experiences were as they

036kind of chronicled their four years we also revised some reading working with the PSO in particular and including in the PSO some of our middle eastern population there and that was last summer not this present summer and we saw an increase in student voice this year and that increase led to a conversation with one of our students last last February to February's ago about her experience in a particular class and her suggestion that we consider showing what was nearly released then the movie the hate you give and we decided that would be an all-school viewing with a follow-up panel discussion and smaller classroom discussions and that included panelists of students their parents police and other mecco representatives to really you know get that voice out there prominently and that was very well received at the

037beginning of this year we continued the faculty conversations with the creation of the book club that read both white fragility and beyond the world to me we scheduled an all school anti-bullying workshop in partnership with the anti-defamation league in the greens in October we brought in challenge day to the senior class and that was really designed to build empathy we had 30 or I think 30 faculty and coaches working with every one of our senior class with the exception of a handful we also contracted with the group called one love to provide work around sexual violence and healthy relationships and they did one round in the fall for sophomores and a one plan for the seniors in the spring as they anticipated going off to college but that was canceled due to kovin we also

038had some groups going to the ADL stand up against he conference but that was also cancelled so we had a couple of things we couldn't couldn't quite do for me you know I've tried to lend direct voice all here to the prominence of these issues you know it's predominantly through my newsletter but over Twitter and other venues as they come up and that voice has been echoed by student voices in initiatives like Jess law as I choose poster campaign which deliberately targeted the use of language among the student body Steve for tündi worked with her our athletic director and he's been using his captain's counsel to try to get them to to advocate for such issues and stand out and be prominent and used their position of relative the social power to get the message

039out there so that students were kind of locked in arms and they've done some good things they created an empathy wall in the upper lobby in response to the situation we had in the winter and of course we've seen you know clear student concern around the most recent incidents with participation from both students and faculty in the town why digital and the protests and most recently Monday night in a facilitated conversation between our student council and our Matco students that was facilitated by some some people from echo and finally as you know as part of our summer reading we've assigned an all-school read about the experience of a Medeco student from Weston you know in terms of planning next year obviously a lot is up in the air but we've been talking to challenge day

040about doing some virtual programming that potentially hit all students and faculty and parents so you know institutionally we've made some strides although you know from being Candida you know some of these things have been controversial the I choose campaign didn't have a lot of support from the parent community that the showing if they hate you give and the empathy wall were met with some controversy among you know some of the residents mostly concerned that there were too controversial or they were going to incite tensions with groups like the police you know things that to my knowledge didn't happen and in fact I thought the outcomes were were quite the opposite so you know that kind of caution and deflection mirrors my experience as an assistant principal and as a principal with students who use racist

041and sexual sexist language because they all kind of fall into the same pattern for me you know they start with you know horror and apology but then they quickly move into excuses about you know that's not how he was raised or he was in the wrong chat room or that's just boys being boys you know he has a lot of breath black friends all of that type of stuff and that kind of adult response undermines anything that we're trying to do to school and until we have that collective unified voice on that front we're going to continue to lag in our effort so you know more collaborative efforts in collaborative conversations and collaborative voice from our town our parents our alumni will determine the effectiveness and the rate at which we were able to progress

042and a good model for that frankly the safe harbor which you know started very small but has developed into a very comprehensive and productive town wide collaboration so you know I'm proud of the progress that we made amplifying student voice and being attentive to their desires and my personal desires to create opportunities for uncomfortable but safe conversations to happen and real change to come of it and I think our student efforts over the past year our evidence of wanting just that so you know we have a long way to go but you know I think we've made some some decent progress and I think we're at least trying to continue the conversation so we can you know continue to affect real change yeah absolutely good really great summary of what you what are you doing

043Brian and I would say that you know the idea of creating voices for people to speak we also we do have a Safe Schools team that has an inclusive cultures team on it that's made up of parents leaders students and a lot of what Brian just said is really kind of the focus but I was doing it in his building but that group is ready to to move to and to a be added to and to have voice help help guide them as we as we move as a district so thank you for that and John I know you've only been here a bit but talk a little bit about some of the thoughts that you've had and work you've done at the middle school thank you first of all it's I think was easy

044to come in in the Cohasset and have a sense of where people were when it came to inclusivity and cultural competence I'm gonna be doing my interview Alex Sullivan the principle that deerhill not only asking the question around that but merely engaged in the discussion around it and it sent the message right away that this this is important everybody and then I can't you know tell both tower and Brian how proud I am to share a roof with their leadership which it's just been amazing the first conversation I had with Brian Scott he had told me about the show and the movie the hate you give and the reaction and same thing it just completely impressed me that I come to the right district you know there's still work to be done but it felt

045great to be part of a group of educators who were excited about doing that work so I think Brian and Tara for everything they've done and it's proud of it I kind of dovetail to what Brian had said initially I think it comes down to building culture and certainly our goal as well as to create a culture where our kids enjoy being at school all of our kids enjoy being in school and I think we've made some progress towards that I think a big part of that is the ability to listen a student voice and in looking at data whether it was Climate Survey that Brian had mentioned or Desi's vocal survey which is given that eighth graders every year Cates Alice and I did see a trend where students reported that they often didn't

046have a voice or feel that they didn't have a voice so this year one of our goals is really to develop those opportunities whether it was working closer the student councils and listening to their suggestions about making changes to schedule and lunch and things like that things that actually made their day much better but also left them feeling empowered to to you know feeling that they could pop in when if they had a problem and speak to Kate or myself or Kate neligan the school counselor and and had faith that they were going to be heard and I think that's sort of where you begin and hopefully we're implicating you know leadership and that sense that their voice does matter and that we do it's it's what its gonna make the school better this year

047we had worked on gender identity and raising awareness and making our school more comfortable place for students to attend who you know who identify as a non-agenda something other than they were born with their biological gender identity and I think we made great progress we had invited PFLAG in and gave a professional like a PD day to it after school for faculty a faculty training folks have a rate there and they want students to feel as comfortable as possible but they did report afterwards that it was really good feeling empowered about the issues and knowledgeable about how to you know how to how to navigate something that they might not have grown up having experienced so made I think a more empathetic faculty we had also his Pat said with blessed to have ELISA and

048I think Kate and I worked to really partner with ELISA whether it was but individual students who live in Boston or working with families to make sure that they felt involved and you know they know they were welcome for things like our open house night or even this fall we great conversations before and after our Halloween dance our annual Halloween dance and it was reported in the past Boston kids had not always felt welcome or comfortable and attending this year I think we did but we'll continue that conversation just to make sure that every kid feels that that that's their school's dance and that they're comfortable and they're welcome being there so those sorts of individual moments I think are really powerful we've also encouraged faculty in the classroom to use student voice to make

049you know decisions and evaluate what they're doing during remote learning each of the grade level teams regularly put out surveys to students to sort of garner how it's going and see what students needed and and I think that's important to students and parents to know that their voice does matter and they do everybody's voice matters so those are some of the highlights from this year you know like the high school we have included summer reading choices that are around issues of racial equity and the work that Lisa had done with our faculty book groups his is developed and I like to say she had almost planted seeds among the faculty and it its bore fruit because over this remote learning period I had several faculty members reach out asking to create a working group for

050educators and anti-racism working group for educators we've met and this isn't a top-down initiative of my idea or Kate's but it's something that the faculty wants to pursue we had almost 100 percent of people attend a voluntary meeting and they were excited to discuss a vision and next steps in making that a reality and really what that is is an effort to to have those tough discussions the discussions around racism and white privilege to to raise personal awareness to you know look at our practices our curriculum and change what needs to be done and look for activities and efforts to make sure every student feels that it is their school and their it you know they they they belong there and in the school belong to that I'm excited about continuing that work over the

051summer with this group and and I I'm excited about the the fruit that it might bear for next year and for you know for always for our students thank you John that's great and it's very one of the highlights this year is absolutely the middle school and the teaming that's happening at the middle school and you can feel that underneath all of this so thank you for all that I'm Alex me a little bit about what's happening to your help thank you Joe thank you so as patmos mentioned this is my second year as the principal the deerhill and I'm a Southern California transplant and majority of my educational career was there and so I think I bring that lens with me - you know how I approached this topic that we're addressing you know

052I'm very used to an extremely diverse student population in a variety of ways and so I really found myself you know facing a new question when I came to Cohasset that I'd never had before which is you know how do you promote diversity and inclusion and anti racism in a much more homogeneous community and how do you do that in an authentic way kind of going back to what Brian said about making sure that you're not over relying on on voices and and really sharing in that responsibility and so that you know to me and with my age group in grades 3 to 5 you know a lot of that does come through our curriculum and how we can serve as windows and mirrors to our students and so that's something that we've really addressed

053and and tackled in our curriculum so literature is definitely a place where we've found a home for to start a lot of these conversations in a way that promotes different perspectives and that's something that we're looking at throughout a more recent example was we do a March Madness book brackets every year and this year the theme was windows and mirrors and all of the literature that students were reading and we're responding to was was diverse and inclusive and and all different kinds of perspectives and from disabilities to cultural to identity type things and so we are bringing that into the we're doing with students absolutely and another way is through our school improvement plan that has a specific goal related to diversity and inclusion and I'm very proud of some of the very actionable items

054that we were able to take at our level working in partnership with ELISA we you know created lunch groups with our students from Boston and were able to connect with them multiple times throughout the year with ELISA and and I teach at Winslow and also our adjustment counselor to have those opportunities for just that safe space and that way to connect as a group and I enjoyed those and I was I was so pleased that we were able to continue that even through a remote learning we had one of our lunches and so that was another way um I've also been really proud of how students have taken ownership of some of this conversation we had a group of fourth graders this year under the leadership of a fourth grade teacher Erica Parral establish a

055committee and again this was kind of a grassroots it came it was not a top-down they had formed to teach from the shore committee and they really began looking critically at some of the curriculum that they were learning in school and starting to think of again about that idea of different perspective and through the work of this committee that meant consistently throughout the year and also continue to meet remotely once we closed they wrote letters they wrote letters from all the way down at my level all the way up to the governor and all different levels in between and received responses and in terms of looking to change Columbus Day to indigenous peoples day you know so they were very persuasive in that I think the school committee should be looking like I said they

056just had a remote meeting so I think they have a packet of their letters and their responses and things that they plan to share with the school committee so that was important work again that they saw they saw that they got they got a response for that that their voice was heard Joan Moschino was in our building for our Veterans Day assembly and she walked down the hallway and she saw all the letters and she'd received some herself but then to see more of them and see who else they went to and things and she took time to to speak to some of the students and I think that really showed fourth graders that that they have a voice and they went to every classroom in the building and met with the students and and

057kind of shared their platform and they're thinking and things and are really starting to promote that kind of that change and recognizing that when things need to change that they have they have some agency to make that happen and so that's something that we feel is one example of how how we promote those kinds of things at our level as Brian mentioned through the work he and I and Tara were all on Emily so we were all on the these inclusion committee as part of Safe Schools and as part of that work we did begin to coordinate with the diversity Club and the Asian culture club and so we had a couple of different opportunities within our building where the high school students came down also working with safe harbor so just different ways for

058students to come into the building and serve as role models have the older kids come in and connect with our students and really promote that diversity and that opportunity for voice and identity I also followed in the wake of John Mills I heard how successful his presentation was from PFLAG and so we coordinated that as well at the deerhill just based on on the success at the middle school it ended up being a remote presentation but we did do a staff professional development with that and what I'm so pleased about is when you see when you do something like that and then you see how it affects the change you know you look when I receive emails now from staff members I see that pronouns are listed and that there's you know hyperlinks to ask

059me why it's important to you know share my pronouns and things like that and so seeing those really actionable steps taken as a result of the conversations we're having and the professional development and that just building that awareness has been really really nice nice to see throughout I'm thinking that's um you know kind of an overview of what we're doing here at the deerhill we're in that in-between grade and we really do feel that it's never too young to have these important conversations I do encourage teachers to go there you know to to to go into that little bit of that risk zone and and and and it's okay to to say I don't know and and let's let's talk about this or let's figure out how you know we can how we can start

060to recognize that something's wrong or not right and make some of the changes we need to see thank you Alex and Lisa starting with our youngest younger stuff kids thank you and thank you for having us here this evening one of the things listening from from Brian Scott's presentation from the seniors down to Alex talking about the three through fifth graders one of the things that I keep going back to is oftentimes you'll see whether it's a picture or a quote and you see two very small young children maybe different races different religions or different colors and you see them there and they're very innocent that's where it starts we come forward at what age do we come forward and start to have judgments in our own thoughts and where do those come from that

061they come from our families do they come from school do they come from what we see on TV one of the best things that I've seen probably in quite a while and it just happened to be on TV two Saturdays ago it was the Sesame Street race anti race talk that was through CNN and it really hit home for me just because obviously each one of the principals here the grades that we work with are very very important and we're experts in the field of the age that we work with but looking at when brian has a senior that's graduating what did they get what did that seen you get if they were all the way through Cohasset schools what did they get when they were in first grade what did they get in kindergarten

062and then as they progressed over to dia Hill what was cemented a little bit more when they got to middle school which is a very tough age how are they starting to feel about themselves and about how they handle what's going on I think the program that CNN had had put on did a fabulous job just asking the kid the little ones what do you questions and taking away from that and then thinking about tonight and talking and listening to what everybody's having to say as far as what we do in Cohasset brought me in a couple of different ideas one is our thoughts one is much like Alex had said I'm this is my fourth year here so I'm the old lady in the group the witch you didn't all need to know that

063but I will say it the other is the different experiences I've had in different school districts before I was here in Cohasset I was in Stoughton mass and I will tell anybody that asked I learned as to my downfalls about how I felt about other things I really thought I was very open I thought I would I knew a lot about different cultures I'm you put yourself in a situation where you are the only person that maybe not of color or the only person that doesn't have the same religion as everybody else and you quickly line what you don't know yeah very quick example about where I was before it was a very bilingual school and my secretary had to translate for me 75% of the parents that came in so I was at her

064I was at her mercy when she was translating because I didn't understand what she was saying to the parents and then she would translate it back to me that was probably the biggest lesson I've learned in life across the board that when something is different and you are not the person that represents the entire population it makes it very difficult and you rely on what others are thinking that was very fortunate that when what went along that lesson was kindness and that's what I've been trying to bring to the Osgoode and working with small young students from the four-year-olds up to the eight-year-olds when they leave kindness in I know Brian's a couple of times stated the quote that I've said and again I didn't coin it but it's who we are and what we

065do you need to be kind you need to think about what you're saying and I'm very fortunate as I've said several times before the staff that I have and I am very honored to work with that the arts good they think about what is look what does this look like which eaching children they come in the age of four and five they've been home when they come to school what are they what do we want to work on we work on sharing kind words being generous to everyone being inclusive the one book one school when I started in Cohasset I brought that idea along with me that are in other districts and last summons one book one school was strictly no elephants and the gist of the story is it's about inclusion in acceptance and

066then just the story is little boy has a pet elephant he's not allowed to go to the dog park he's not allowed to go because he doesn't have a dog he's an elephant so he and his friends get together and they now have a product where you can bring any animal you want in any animal have fun so that was the book that was required suggested last summer that everybody read it at home and then when we got back to school we do activities with them the teachers talked about inclusiveness so it starts right in the beginning this year we haven't chose our book just yet because of where we are as far as the learning and the Kovan situation that happened we want to make sure that we choose a book that and we

067have activities that go with what we want to step with next year but just looking at the items of kindness caring inclusiveness I know it's been mentioned before but I'm very fortunate that safe havens started reaching out to the younger grades they had reached out with Alex last year and they did items they did items this year this year they came down with the high school students a few middle school students and they did presentation on Samantha the skunk which was about teaching children not to take medication that's not theirs working with Ryan in safe harbors for next year is just having them come talk to us about cultural differences being accepting and again bottom line is just being kind so we're gonna be working continuously with both groups from the high school hopefully the

068middle school can come down and work with the students and then safe harbor the last thing I'd like to mention is I've been from day one Sani class i've been very fortunate that Elise's office ELISA on a tisha have their office at the Osgood I'm also very fortunate that we are the last bus stop so in the morning we start right away with a t-shirt Alicia 90% of the time being in the building helping us in the classrooms making sure that we are working with everybody and we're not separate from I believe if I'm not mistaken we have no longer said that mecco students that the students from Boston and that to me was a huge step because it's where the students were class it when students Boston it's where you live the last piece

069that I was very fortunate to have see have begun haven't seen begun is the responsive classroom in the responsive classroom curriculum that we have again starting with our youngest students and going up through daya Hill the general term or the thought behind responsive classroom is helping students become socially emotionally aware and skilled so as we don't necessarily have assemblies or we may not have gatherings when we're talking about specific issues that are going on we do try and weave it throughout our day and again I give a lot of kudos to the staff because they do do that and it makes it really nice when we're talking about kindness and everybody should just take a look at where we are but also look at how you're saying something so I think that's that covers out

070three four-year-olds five six-year-olds seven and eight-year-olds wonderful thank you Lisa and I should mention Lisa talked about our mindset as well it's very important that our leadership team receives professional development and we have we're working with dr. Chile's warned them maybe at least so we'll talk about that but where we need to keep our game moving up and learning more about cultural competency and how it can inspire our staff to to do that as well and some of us had the opportunity of working with me and II as a Fernandez was that Manny's name from from Cambridge and he did a great workshop for our our leadership team as well a few years ago so Alisa and Leslie what you want to add we've definitely talked a lot about what we're doing but I know

071there's a lot going on right now and a lot we want to do going forward to make sure that we encourage discourse which is very important so at least I'll leave it to you and Leslie you can jump in when you feel you should um so again thank you all for inviting me hello again yeah I think Cohasset is i used to say we are stepping our toe into the water I think right now we're probably at the foot part there is a lot of stuff that's going on and thankfully we now have a leadership team in place that really supports cultural sensitivity really supports diversity I think for a few years that wasn't the case and I think if it doesn't start from the top it doesn't matter what I do as you know

072the lone black administrator in the district it doesn't matter what I say or you know I need to have the support of everybody for us to really be able to move the agenda forward and so I'm so appreciative of the fact that we do have a leadership team who is working together to truly support this vision and you know it's in a strategic plan when you go through the buildings you know to hear people talking about the issues that we're discussing is it's so important because as I can say I've been here for 19 years and I think this is the first time he's last couple years that we've really taken a good hard look at our atmosphere and truly making the changes that we need to make so that everybody does feel inclusive that

073everybody does feel as though they have a voice and so it did start for me with writing the grant to the CEO to get an all-day professional development and I knew the professional development wasn't going to happen until March thus the reason why I started the book club because I thought if we can start the conversation you know it would just get us that much further ahead when the actual day came it wouldn't just be me having a conversation with individuals but it would be you know a group of staff who also it had these conversations as well and I understand it's very difficult when you're talking about issues of race issues of inclusiveness you know it's very it is uncomfortable I'm not gonna lie it's uncomfortable but at the same time if we don't

074take the time to have these uncomfortable conversations we're not going to be able to make the growth and to make the steps forward that we need to which are so important I heard somebody mentioned that Cohasset students are in a bubble and so often I've heard that and it's true if all you know is Cohasset once you leave Cohasset there's a whole nother world out there of people who don't look like you who don't pray like you who don't you know eat the same kind of food you eat all kinds of differences and we really need to be exposed to all of that so that we really can you know begin to learn and understand each other and so with that said we do have some things that are gonna happen in the summer that

075we've presented there's a lot of resources that are on the website it's unfortunate that we that we are highlighting this even more so now because of the events that have happened but there are a lot of resources you know I'm so appreciative to see the whole Cohasset community come together at the vigil a week or so ago to see the whole town come out and recognize that this is an issue that we really need to to address even three years ago when I came before the MLK breakfast and I asked you know let's start the diversity committee again in the town and to see individuals step up and begin to join the diversity committee so that we can have these conversations on a regular basis are we you know where I want us to be

076absolutely not we do have a long way to go we have a lot of growth that needs to happen but thank God that we're all walking in the same direction and so let's just keep that momentum going so for the summer a friend of mine actually she's a parent of mine but she actually happens to be a Boston Public School teacher sent something called justice in June and so what it entailed was each day it for the month of June there was an article or video or some kind of an activity that had to do with social justice issues and so after looking at that you know that made a great suggestion why don't we make this a part of professional development for the summer something that really keeps us going and so that's what

077we've done I've had quite a few teachers who have you know contacted me and I'm sure they've contacted Leslie as well to say that they're going to do it it doesn't necessarily have to be June although that was the title of it it can be for the whole summer and then there are work products that we expect to receive at the end even with the book club even having the book this you know discussing the books themselves you know the final thought was okay now that we've had these kind of conversations what are you gonna do as a teacher to change your curriculum to change your lesson plan to change you know how you truly engage in the classroom and so those were some of the that the questions that needed to be asked from

078a personal perspective from the teachers themselves and so it's nice to hear John say you know that there's a group of teachers who now want to start an anti-racism group I mean you know thank God the seeds were planted but it's even better that the seeds are gonna continue to grow because people are taking the initiative and they're putting their putting their words in action and that's what we need to happen is to continue to put words in action some other things that I've discussed with Leslie in Patrick is I know it's been difficult trying to hire individuals of color in any capacity across the district and so now that we've got in a hold and it have been able to contract with the individuals who are going to be doing the workshops for the

079cultural - for the cultural proficiency day I think it's important that we then I can ask a few of them to do you know to be like a teacher and residents in a particular class or you know similar to like an artist and residents have them come in and do some seminar classes with our students that all of the individuals will be who will be doing the workshops our educators or former educators you know there's superintendents principals all you know they run the gamut and so I think to be able to bring them in and to have some social justice conversations directly with the students and to you know have them over a period of time I think that would be an awesome way to begin to introduce more teachers more educators of color into

080the district since we haven't been successful as far as hiring them um so it's just really beginning to think outside the box you know what are some of the things that we can do you know is there you know I know a math teacher maybe he'll come in and co-teach with our math I'm you know another math teacher um who knows I mean there are so many things that we can do if we just begin to think outside the box and then begin to put those things in actions so those are just a few of the things believe you me I have a whole treasure trove full of ideas and thankfully I have Leslie who is so good at taking all of my beers and really formulating what they really look like when you put

081them on paper because I think sometimes it's us creative ones we have all the creativity but we might not necessarily have all the nuts and bolts they go together so it's good so like I said it's really important that you have a leadership team that not only works well together but it's working really well together on you know really building the capacity that we need in order to push us forward in regards to cultural diversity in regards to cultural responsiveness just giving students a voice is so important and so I mean I'm excited about what's to happen I think I said I think it was last year when Pat introduced us to the community and we were all in the library and everybody got to speak and constantly introduce themselves as a member of the

082leadership team and I said I said then that you know I was so excited to still be a part of Cohasset if you had asked me that a few years ago it might not have been the same thing but I can truly say ma'am and I'm excited to be a part of all the work that is going forward I can't wait to see you know the fruit that continues to you know be born as we this journey together so Leslie I know I've talked a lot so I'll hush for a minute and you can go on you did such a good job there isn't really much more for me to say except that I I think one of the most important things that that everyone has said is that this is not flash moment this

083is a time for us to create sustainability and it can't just be in reaction to one event or two events this actually has to be who we are and we have to build it in all around our curriculum and and all the things that we do around school and so everyone here has talked about that and discussed all the things that they're doing and will continue to do I have absolutely enjoyed my partnership at least I love them we meet and we we chat about our grandbaby then we get into the business of what's important for us to do here at school so I can't say enough that that partnership has been wonderful for me and an eye opening for me also so I value Elise's openness and honesty and not afraid to stay what

084she thinks is important and that's been extremely helpful so we will continue as we look at our curriculum to make sure that our curriculum is a voice of many not just one voice well sure that our materials that we use come from different places not just one place or one voice and that would be just weaved into what we do so everyone else does such a great job I really didn't have too much more to say other than we're just gonna keep on doing what we're doing and we're gonna keep on growing it yeah that's and that's part of the beauty of this is you we're learning as we're going as well you know we're educators but we recognize in education that it's a continuous learning with us so I want to thank the leadership

085for being here and I want to just make sure the public knows and this is why I asked to do this how committed we are and how much we appreciate those who want to add voice as well because this is something we have to focus on as a society and our schools are a major part of the formation of our students but I know that it also happens at home so we definitely want to help and include that voice as we move forward so thank you a committee for letting letting us do that and thank you leadership team for being here I don't know if there's any questions for the chair from the chair or the committee or any anyone else anyone from the committee have anything Ashley um I was wondering um I was

086wondering if there might be an opportunity I don't know if it's appropriate or not and I would maybe but she need to decide whether anyone would be willing to share any sort of tidbits from the MEC oh and student council discussion like I don't I don't need them now I just feel like it would be valuable for us to know if that's appropriate and I would leave it totally up to you whether it is well first of all maybe I don't know at least the did you speak or Brian or anyone speak specifically about what it was I just want to make sure folks at home know what ashley is referring to I'm not sure but on this past Monday the Boston students and the student council students came together along with it Brian Tara

087and myself and to facilitate to facilitators from the Metro program and we had a we had a discussion a very real discussion about what's going on and so we started the conversation together you know getting some ground rules setting some norms asking having some questions asked to walk to us from the facilitators and then we broke into two affinity groups so the students of color went into one affinity group and the white students went into a second and then at the end we all came back to kind of discuss what our feelings were what we thought ask questions where we want it to go etc and it was in it was a really amazing time because I don't think in all the time that I've been here that we've ever had that kind of a

088discussion it's always nice to come together and I think if I remember correctly it was the students who wanted it and so I just helped facilitate it you know the adults in the room just helped to facilitate it to bring it together because I think when you faced with the situation that you're just uncomfortable about and you just don't know what to say you know the best thing to do is to educate yourself and I thought it was so courageous of students who really felt like they didn't know what to do how to say it and how to address a lot of what's going on but to be able to ask those questions and you know to risk you know talking about their feelings and their emotions and to be able to come together in

089that type of a forum we are planning on doing some additional get together over the summer because one of the things that came out of that is that they don't want this to die just like we don't and so they want to continue to have those conversations and so we have a couple of things that we're thinking of doing and so hopefully we'll be able to put it together and and you know we you'll be able to hear it from the students themselves as you come in contact with them throughout the community and they can you'll begin to hear the conversations that are being said you begin to hear you know what they want to do and how they want to do it and the change is that they want to see but it will

090come from the students it won't be adult directed based on the conversations that we are having together so I don't know if Ryan or Tyra wanna add to that that's great actually that to answer the question about you know what the conversations were like there was a lot of you know guidelines and structure upfront which was nice and was really facilitated by two people from that go so Tara and I and Mary Beth Reardon who were the student council she's the student council advisor we weren't in the breakout sessions so we didn't hear those conversations and I think you know this is some healthiness to that because they were able to work with the mecco person to really voice what they wanted to do and you know it's my point of getting the student voice

091out there I think it's good for them to talk amongst themselves and come back and say all right so here's what we said here's what we heard now now let's go have that conversation about what we can do so you know again there's a lot of trust involved and you know let the kids speak their minds helping them you know through what they decide they want to do you know but they did initiate I think the other two big takeaways from that group what we could hear loud and clear from the kids was that they want you know more teacher education for sure to be within their daily cost of their learning so as we had already prepared Leslie and Alisa obviously in March we're supposed to start with that I think we are you

092know right where we need to be for the start of that and the second one was really looking at the diversity Club and how they can play a bigger you know more impactful role within the school walls so I think that's something else that we will definitely have to look at and you know potentially look at an actual curriculum or things like that that the kids could follow to get more out of the actual diversity Club as well and also add that folks should know out there that this isn't a one-off like it's not like that was the only discussion where that was just with our with a group of students we're gonna do it with more students where we need to be inclusive with these conference I need to add all kinds of voice

093this is just a step it was a step it was a good one I think well the smaller group kids were more willing to take a risk so we tried to keep it to the 20 25 students so that way at least they could have a foundation somewhere where it wouldn't you know snowball and and I think our kids did an absolutely amazing job of listening and learning other questions from the committee I have a couple questions okay my first question is to Karl I'm wondering if I just don't know this whether it's possible to increase our participation participation I believe that's a school committee decision like if you you mean increase the number of students I do I'm just wondering if it's possible I think it is possible but like I said that's a

094school committee conversation sure if it is possible do you think that that would be a valuable way of addressing you know issues of racism inequality in the district I think it is a valuable way you know the more the more individuals who are similar to you in any setting regardless of what the similarity is you always feel a lot more comfortable and you know you feel that affinity so I it would you know I think it would help but I but again I think you also need to have other teachers other educators other people around the district who also are part of those different groups as well so it's not it's not just the students but it's also having the adults as well so um no agree I was just just but just focusing just

095sort of honing in on the mecco program itself I completely agree with your thoughts specially people in positions of authority it would be good to have people of varying backgrounds as well as students but but that was helpful thank thank you right I mean one of the one of the original but less stated goals of the micro program was that by having students of color in the various districts that you know they would then move into those various districts and so they would become more divert those districts themselves would become more diverse in that way over the 50 plus year history that hasn't quite happened there have been a few districts that actually are no longer part of the medical program because those actual districts have become a lot more diverse but that was one

096of the goals of the program and still that hasn't happened for a variety of reasons okay that's interesting thank you very much my second question is to dr. Scholl ins and dr. Sullivan first I guess initially I would ask is there currently and I guess principal Scott as well is there currently an elective in the high school offered that centers around racism and discrimination I guess starting across the United States throughout time during history right and you want to take that I know it's touched on yeah I mean we have eliminated we don't have any electives that address that topic specifically you know we do have electives and social studies departments that you know like global studies for example Holocaust that address some of the overarching issues and we need to take a look at

097some of the core courses and kind of look at like the American history classes in the American Lit classes and build some avenues into those but we're you know if we could add electives we would you know we just maybe we need to change the ones we have but we don't have anything that looks at that specifically well I think to to a point that mrs. Cole areas may in the past I think it's certainly incorporating in any world or American history forces incorporating lessons that that focus on figures of you know female figures but also figures of varying backgrounds that that would help that's that's not that is not my idea that's mrs. calories idea that she's voiced in the past but but what I'm advocating for you mentioned the holocaust course this this

098is the reason why I'm thinking of it when I was in college I took a holocaust course which was reserved for seniors and it was a it was a very unapologetic disconcerting and troublesome course it was very real and it was very thought-provoking and I think it confronted students with a very harsh reality of something that was terrible that happened and the reasons why it happened and how something like that can be avoided in the future and I think that that scenario can be sort of equated or analogized to the issues of racism and discrimination I'm not only based on race but based on gender and perhaps religion sexual orientation whatever you know it may be that differentiates one human being from the next but I think if we actually had a fairly you know

099like I said sort of unapologetic course that really confronts students in a very harsh way about the realities of some terrible things that have happened over time and how maybe those things can be avoided by by people changing their perspectives in particular young people who we will be teaching this to hopefully I just think there could be some value in that and I guess so I guess you know you answered my initial question does it does one exist you know it doesn't sound like one soul course exists on that and so my second question for dr. SpongeBob Sullivan is it possible and there may be I don't know limitations or hurdles or challenges that we may or may not be able to overcome but is it possible to consider something of that nature if I

100could just jump in real quick just to follow up and your initial question I don't think anybody in the history department would disagree and you know there are certainly pockets with historical figures like Malcolm X and women and you know having been in most of the classrooms on a regular basis they really take that that perspective lense seriously but to an earlier point the problem that we have is that voice from the student body is hard to exist so you know take a Global Studies course for example we've tried to invite in members of the community that are Middle Eastern that have a little bit of a different been part of the Jewish community that has a little bit different of a different experience with some of the Holocaust stuff and and have the kids

101hear the voices from those people themselves and that's where some of the faculty cultural competency training comes in and that's where I think to Elise's point inviting other scholars and inviting other voices and so that the kids can hear from themselves because it doesn't you know and I don't know what your experience was it doesn't always have the same impact talking about race as an all-white class you know and that's where I think our biggest struggles are and that's right that we need a lot of professional development but you know I just kind of wanted to add that piece in that that's definitely on people's minds and we're trying to figure out how to solve that problem those thing you want yeah thank you and I I absolutely agree I think you know being able

102to offer of course that's developmentally appropriate for our students is is absolutely something we'd love to do but at the same time we have to be really cautious or that we're actually looking at all our curriculum across the board and and it should be all moved in together so because it's all about teaching our kids through literature through you know reading of history and all of those pieces and then having experts to talk about it also so I agree with what Brian's talking about to having and that Lisa talked about greeting some people in that then have a different experience or come from a different cultural background to be part of what we're teaching our kids I think one of the things it was interesting when we were looking at our math program one part

103of the rubric was around looking at bias and looking at multiple multicultural pieces that exist within the within the programs and that was a that was a topic of conversation that we needed to make sure that that was represented or if it's not how are we going to make sure it is now whose a little bit different because you're doing with the mers but we want to talk about one of the word problems that are being used what are the contexts from what they're in what are the names what are all the pieces that are about what are the pictures look like so so that's got to be something that we're looking at through everything we do when we're looking at our curriculum so I think it's a it's probably even bigger than what you're

104talking about Craig not just the one class but really looking at our curriculum as a whole to make sure that we are being that it is inclusive and that it is diverse and that multiple voices are represented no matter what it is so there's you know we're just looking literature at the high school level there's context for which when stories were written and it would be a disservice of us not to be having discussions about the context or the time with wing that right that that piece was written and how does that impact us now what can we learn from that now something written in 1929 there are pieces in there that are probably pretty relevant for our discussion now so can I just offer two just an example to your point Leslie is you

105know respectfully Craig I had some of those same call collegiate experiences and there's a form of social studies teacher I tend to think about you know these opportunities to talk and discuss things like civil rights and the historical trends that produce the world that we have now I think in social studies terms but really for instance the the middle school there's some great examples of through project-based learning interdisciplinary approaches to studying these really complex problems that a great example we talked about it earlier in the year when you had invited me was our seventh grade teams project-based learning unit around the book hidden figures which studies civil rights and civil rights isn't in the seventh grade social studies curriculum it's not even in the middle school social studies curriculum but by that choice is a

106reading material allowed all the subjects to sort of you know delve into the question of why are there some figures who have done great things but for whatever reason that color their skin their religion their gender they've been hidden and they weren't part of the story that was written about a certain time period in the sixth grade PBL unit around the boy that harnessed the wind is about creativity and stem but really it's about Africa it's about a young man without opportunities you know value of finding education and in that unit we connected through Skype and the kids got to engage interact you know virtually through a Skype meeting with the author who is in Africa at the time so it's you know I think it's important to Leslie's point to think beyond just the

107social studies teachers having to bear this burden it's really all educators and there's some great things going on with through collaborative efforts of our teachers so I'm sorry to jump in like that but I I just thought it was something we talked about recently that's fine during those helpful I think I didn't make myself clear I'm talking about both I'm not disagreeing that that sort of encompassing sort of involving all this and integrating and corporative all of this in the general curricula is a good idea I'm saying in addition to that it would it be possible and or is it a good idea based on all you know what are your educator you know opinions your insights would that be Abell thing to do to add a course is to do without what you're all

108saying or is what you're all saying the way to approach the issue and the only way to approach issues damaging or detrimental to have a course yeah well taken I mean I think I think we all can would answer probably both if we could do it and I think that's those are the discerning that's what we have to decide how are we going to leave in topics that should be explored more deeply into our curriculum did you a course or through project-based learning probably all the all above I do we do have one question from the public asking you about a local african-american students black students being invited to that initial conversation that happened on the student council the way I understood that student council meeting it was pretty much a test run of a

109conversation and some dialogue on zoom' and we that's like just I am in for my view that's just a pebble in the pond I mean we have to have many many many conversations and we had those some of those conversations of when I know when Brian and team did hate you give but I can't speak to the invite structure of that meeting but we we're gonna have many many more that's my motion oh I think from my perspective and that's just my perspective I am extremely I have been happy and grateful for all of the things that have been implemented thus far and I have considered us lucky to be in a place where leadership is endorsing and encouraging this movement toward a focus on inclusion what would be helpful for me is to know

110if there are concrete things that we are committing to doing now moving forward to actually address this hedaan I understand that we've done things and we're gonna keep doing things my question is are there how are we going what is the timeline what is the process so I can talk to that a little bit Ashley as you know we're starting our we're in our last year coming up about plan and we're starting our strategic plan in really this summer we're gonna be working on it we've already contracted with a team that's gonna help lead us through that and it's just the team is gonna help us collect voice and move it forward so clearly as a leadership team when we think about our professional development and as a district to think about our professional development

111and we think about keeping keeping what we had in place for the last year the second last year of a strategic plan and moving now forward into the next strategic plan we need to outline some concrete steps in that we we had some up until this year we don't and going into next year a little bit we don't have our strategic plan set yet because we're developing it so that's our work and that's what's ahead of us and we knew that and this is just more more punctuation to to make sure we do that hey it's a question that's where we are that's where we are Ashley so we're you know we had we had a strategic plan that had cultural competency as part of it we're moving to another strategic plan and we can't

112move fast enough to get into that to plan the steps that will that will lead us to you know to make sure these things are implemented within the district and you can you can hopefully feel the passion and see that the local planning that's happening but to bring that all together under a pillar on the strategic plan is something that is is the work ahead of us that's good other thoughts I know this was long but I think it's a really important discussion and something you know we need to continue to have okay great all right well I want to let the leadership team go now but thank you for your support thank you for all you do Thank You committee for supporting these efforts and thank you to the public for continuing the discourse

113and for enriching it you know as we do create a strategic plan that's going to encompass all this and move us forward to make sure that we realize we want to realize which is a more inclusive culture more diverse texts a higher degree of discourse around racial tension and racism a bigger and more full population of teachers and educators of color and we want to work together to do that with the community so very excited about the opportunities ahead of us and we understand the responsibility so thank you guys have a great night thank you you hear a lot pings as they leave the good news that I do Thank You committee for indulging us and that I think it's a really crucial conversation but the the good news is the next steps in my

114in the superintendent report I think I can go over very quickly you've all seen that what I hope is a complex question oh yeah is monitoring questions and answers' owns him well I I have it I have one question and I think about it was what about the local Africans so weird oh yeah and Patrick before you move on I liked it at the beginning but if anyone in the public wants to participate and come in on the zoom chat and ask a question please like you would in a public you know an in-person meeting put your name and address please for the record okay thank you okay all right so then the next part of our of the superintendent's report was to talk about the planning for the fall reentry which I think the

115whole committee has received full report of our team the the subcommittee's we have planned I think they're they're very comprehensive I hope you found them representative of all stakeholders and I know this team received the timeline as well the survey we've been working we have a family communication and committee subcommittee that we're working with they're actually a zones of the of the PSO and we've been back and forth on when to do the survey or when to get information out to parents and what we've determined is that we want to see the initial guidance that comes our way so we can really make sure that we're asking parents the right questions and not only about you know what happened with our mouling what we can do better about remote learning but other issues as well

116social-emotional concerns and concerns that they may have with any plan that is prescribed for us so we found that very important and I you know really want to thank the PSO liaisons for advocating for not having multiple surveys that could confuse and muddy the issues that we do it appropriately improperly and we hope to get that out next week if indeed the guidance comes forth this week which I'm hoping it will but again we're moving towards Thursday right now and we don't have the guidance so it's it's a tough situation but I wanted to make sure you you had a chance to ask any questions you might want to ask about those teams and I have been in contact with with those teams and told them about our schedule we have a July ninth this

117sort of a planning for the leadership team a steering team to look at the the guidance and to create questions and templates that we'll be filling in with the with the subcommittee's on the 10th so that's our big plan and we know that we might be coming back and it depends on how how prescriptive the guidance is and we certainly need to have input from staff from parents from the committee and we have a structure that's going to do all of that so I feel very well prepared for whatever's coming away I'm just very anxious for it to come our way so we can create some some dialogue around it just want to put it out there if you had any questions okay all right so the the next the next part was about the

118elementary math curriculum and I'll let dr. skulls talk about that great thank you so much first I want to thank the town for voting to support us financially to be able to purchase this program so thank you so much I know that just happened last night and I also want to thank the committee up front also the teachers and the administrators were wonderful about coming together and really facilitating how we would move forward in looking at how we would adopt a program and it was in place before I got here last July but this group worked really hard and so I just wanted to recognize Julian Duval Gina steel Stephanie Tulio Marcia Campbell Jennifer Clark Suzie Kirkham Julie Bradford Trish Baldwin Christine sewn a and and Lisa Farrell and Alex Sullivan this was a wonderful

119group to work with and it was no easy task when we went into remote learning so it was a it was a little bit more challenging because we obviously weren't in the classroom but we didn't look at two programs that we decided to pilot during the year that was investigations and also bridges all the teachers were instructed to teach at least a unit of each some of that got a little bit interrupted because of remote learning so we had to give it a little bit and figure out different ways but they all used a specific rubric so that everything was evaluated with the same lens and when we once teachers had an opportunity to really look and work with the rubric and look at the programs it came together and did a grade level rubric

120and came to a determination as to which probe you know looking at each program then we pulled those together and looked at what the information was that was on the rubrics the nice thing is that both programs fell into the meets criteria in a very strong way so that they did such a good job just taking two programs from the beginning so that was really nice the one things that we noticed is that in several areas the bridges program exceeded what the criteria was and so that was kind of the deciding factor as to which program we would choose so it was truly the voices of the teachers we spent time last week going over the rubrics and teachers giving their feedback from when we met as a math committee it was really helpful just

121to kind of talk through some of the things talked through some of the questions about the programming and so they did such a great job so we come together and bridges is the program that has been chosen and I'm working with the company right now in order to get an accurate quote so that we can move forward and get this ordered so it can get into their hands so I think it's a lot of excitement at the elementary level they've been really wanting a program they they were so excited to try them both and they're both I will say very investigative hands-on math programs and they really push for math discourse which is what we want for our kids we want them to understand numbers we want them to understand at a deeper level and

122bridges is certainly going to take them there so it will be really fun to implement in the fall so any questions I just I what could you talk a little speak a little to the homeschool component of bridges that was a big question Thank You Jennifer that was a really big question obviously in light of what we've just gone through and so that was part of the rubric as it was originally anyone asked for that discussion was important but the home school piece in particular with bridges there are lots of opportunities for families there's great notifications that teachers can use but in addition there's a variety of different types of home experiences for children so if you wanted to print something out you can print it out if you wanted to play a game online

123play a game online or you can put the game out there are lots of interactive pieces and lots and lots of opportunities for kids to use technology if they wanted to or they didn't have to use technology but there was all very very friendly an intuitive kind of computer component of it so that was a really nice piece and I think that that was important for for the staff for them to feel that they had a wealth of things parents could choose from or that they made that nice homeschool connection great the team other questions no I'd love to you know maybe mid-year come back and hear how it's going absolutely I think it will be fun too it'll be fun for you to see how it's going so yeah I think that would be

124wonderful so we will be very happy to come back bring some teachers and maybe we'll do some math together I love math all right okay so then just the last thing you know obviously it's a major thing and Michael will talk about it but the obviously the town approved budget which is amazing we're very very excited about that and I believe Michael is up next in your section oh yeah thanks Patrick so it's not quite under this agenda item but yeah I can't just you know we were pleased to see the school budget being approved as part of this details overall operating budget so that essentially was a the budget we had most recently approved which included a small reduction in order to reflect the needs of the town in respondent coronavirus and the reduced

125revenue but we and which we were able to afford through a couple of additional retirements which should help deliver some savings so that does allow us to go ahead with some of the investments in social emotional learning through the adjustment counselor's allows an additional adjustment comes like that middle high school also in the ditch No 0.5 ft custodian at the middle high school he and also expanded our kindergarten section number of kindergarten sections to respond to us like that increased a moment a number of other items which we'd identified as probably a highest criteria needs so that was great news and there was also a number of items approved just by the capital plan the tone it forward and was approved last night as well so there's good stuff and a lot of Chiefs and

126we're moving forward with that so that's great and then the other item was a just it just to give you kind of an update and where we're going with the end of the year and how it's looking I feel a little sheepish because originally we plan to maybe be having you've all on our final transfers but I think just there's so much in flux right at the moment we're gonna put off until the next meeting so we can fight so we can get a better picture of our little final log Phills are coming in a couple of decisions that still have to be made about some of our vendors and how we repay them during the coronavirus he closures so if as long as everybody's happy that we're gonna put that off to next meeting

127but just broadly speaking where we are we are still as it advised at the previous meetings we are coming in with a bit of a surplus naturally coming because of I mean supplies expenditure is down and that's due in large part to the closures the utilities you know we've seen a big reduction in heating and electricity over the last couple of years and that's continued and then the school closures as well has a widened the gap between what we budgeted and more actual expenditures so that's also helped us and then we had done some free pays of special ed tuition last year at the end of last year and so that's helped us keep our expenditure down for this year and will allow us to do is or similar level of prepays good into next

128year so we will went to the end of the year with that better surplus we will as we talked about already we'll do the pre pay of special education we will also be able to leave some of those funds to go back to ten for this bed zatia fund about be able to vote on that our next meeting okay thank thank you Michael so Susan will be totally updated on where we are and are you going this why are you here no of course so we've already started some of those conversations today and we're going summer we will continue to do that we're going to some more time together so I promised her we would work together to get that yeah if you follow last year's format it was fine you know what we have

129left words that kind of go and then we can make the decision on the Fed Stabilization Fund and then for the committee to understand anything any transfers that change from one cost Center to the other the School Committee has to approve but any transfers within a cost Center we don't have to approve that so that'll be on the docket for July 8th perfect this is my man question sure mrs. Owen do you feel what do you feel comfortable with everything this far I mean do you feel like the transition so far has been pretty good and you have a grasp of what's going on with the districts yes I do I do um I've been you know sitting in on all the the admin team meetings probably for the last month or so now so

130every Monday and Wednesday I'm participating in those meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm participating in and Michael's business meetings I spent a couple Wednesday's in the office of Michael I was with Michael all day today and knowing that Michael's last week is probably next week yeah we're gonna cram it all in Monday Wednesday Friday next week hopefully it should be fine I mean it's it's more learning how to get the numbers and we don't find the numbers what to do with the numbers in in directions to go with is you know it's it's similar in every district it's just learning where to find it other than that I mean I'm not worried at all really I mean Michael I've done this once before so we're I'm feeling good yeah I mean it was I was fortunate

131to be able to spend as much time as I have with the district and the team which makes it like I'm familiar with with all the you know I'm familiar with the team and kind of the dynamics and the cultures so it's been really good it's I'm feeling good about it in fact I should add that a similar subject that Barbara Wonka has this is her second Wednesday she was in last Wednesday and then she had a lot of virtual meetings a Thursday before and she's planning and going in next Wednesday as well so we've actually you know within a pandemic than some I think good work and transitioning to very important positions into the district but I appreciate you asking that because we certainly want to do well we can fortunate to have Susan

132be so open to working and transitioning it's been a godsend for us so thank you Susan thank you for me Susan if you wish you know we have a finance and facility subcommittee and if you wanted to meet prior to July 8th just to talk over some protocol or anything that I think Paul and I are presently on that that would be fine we will reconstitute the committee on July 8th after the election on the 27th of this month so they're those likely will be a new finance and facility subcommittee meeting so you can think about it and let us know you know or if Michael thinks it might might be a good idea I'm certainly open to it I don't want to speak for Paul but he's always he's always open and amenable to

133to meeting for subcommittee absolutely that would be great okay great excellent anything else Michael no I did have a list of questions I was going to torture you on tenths of a percent of Weiss apartments are off other departments on your last meeting with us but I opted to pass on that thank you I'm very grateful keep those for Susan for next I would just ask for one final update for the projects yep so the off the top of my head there so the projects we updated on last meeting that we were working with the moment we're working with a number of vendors to schedule their work so they kept the cafeteria the high school we're trying to get we're doing the painting and their lights they're just getting there just sort out the schedule

134for the you know painting everything down likewise with the water fountains so we are hoping to do now one every school so an additional one next or you have some one place so just trying to get that so we're they're just they're ordering parts and scheduling eyes a lot of our vendors are backed up at the moment or it's taken a while to get parts I think related to coronavirus closures that should be starting soon we took delivery of our 7d a van yesterday so that was great very same so we're just getting that registered and that'll have to be approved by the state before using it there we actually I took a walk up and had a look at the middle school entrance today and they put in the security window you know like

135a bank window that's not in place it looks great actually actually I mean I don't know why a Patrick and Susan and Leslie fell but it really felt like its own entrance it sounds like a nice space to walk into I would say even it's even more prominent than the high school where you have to walk through high brick walls I mean the middle school you walk up and it it's right there and I think it's um it's a very nice entrance yeah I agree really nicely so that's those are the projects I'm probably I know I'm forgetting some oh the sidewalk we're trying to get that scheduled as well or that's pain and getting sidewalk repairs done so the projector you said they projector yeah we're just checking well so we've got three quotes

136or just checking vendor schedules to see who can get it done before the opener school okay that's gonna help us Jersey yeah that's fantastic so that so would you say this would be all done by the end of the school year and also since we've got the budgeted proved last night we'll be loading is that correct we'll be adding what sorry historian as well yep yeah yeah so July first we can start so well okay Paul I sent out with Michael's help message to the community today that talked about that it outlined you know I said that we were very happy and waiting for then then I listed the position so yet they're all there they're being posted now you know I I also want to give a shout out to Alan you know you

137you work so hard with those budgets and you know I just want to tell you that it was a really team effort there and it's not easy it's something that you know I signed up for really not knowing what got myself into a lot of odd meetings to make difficult choices and you know Alan I gotta say that you know you you won't breath fresh air and it was nice to work with you together and we got it done and I just I know it's a thankless job but I just want to thank you I appreciate that good okay so I think we're on to your section yet we're on to our section and so our first item is our school committee statement regarding diversity in the protests and Ashleigh very kindly took a stab

138at a first draft I hope everyone's had a chance to review it and if we have any any comments I don't want to start but if anyone else wants to start anyone would yeah Oh Genji of comments well would it be helpful to read it or do you think we should let me share it or is that all right Ashley why doesn't Ashley why doesn't actually take a lead on this because she sort of take you're on this yeah so okay so I think that um the agenda and the statement the agenda item maybe isn't exactly what this it addresses but I it's okay that that wasn't actually the for the agenda that's fine so okay are you gonna share it that I would have it I was trying Ashley I just I can find

139it what is it called it's called um it's in the packet I think I've got it Patrick if you yeah that I'm sorry I'm the entry timeline I get so many things open here I'm racing you too so I I think that as mr. McClellan has said he and I had an opportunity have had many opportunities to have some discussions about these issues over time and one of the things he shared with me a while back is that action plans speak more to him than statements which is I think something that I took to heart and I totally understand and I've seen a lot of statements released and I think um the police chief in our town specifically I think released a really impactful statement I think from us because we are the body in

140town that is charged with sort of maintaining policy and oversight for lack of a better term that's not really what I mean in each building but of the education of our kids I it was it seemed like it made perfect sense to outline some concrete steps that we as a committee are going to take to address this problem directly and so that was the effort here to name the prop name the problem the challenge I'm commit to addressing it and then create a roadmap for how we were going to do it and so I don't know if you want me it's kind of long I don't know if I'm gonna read it or if you want to just start discussing it because it's on the screen now I don't think we need to read it

141so one thing I will say is that I think hiring should be the discussion around making more of an effort to recruit and hire candidates who are black african-american and people of color I think will be it would be a beneficial addition to this if that's something that we're interested in I understand that we only are responsible for a certain number of contracts but we can make it known that we would appreciate more diversity in our workforce in the Cohasset public schools so may I comment first so the you you're right the actual hiring of staff is within the purview of you know the building principals and superintendents Sullivan I think the note I made about that is to ensure our budgets include funding for ongoing professional development and recruitment and retention of staff of

142different colors and voices so that that's what we can support and as ELISA and patrick comment we kind of have to think outside the box when you're looking for a staff of different you know of different races and different backgrounds and and that might require some funding for hypothetically I'm just saying hypothetically maybe it's a trip that those you know we go to New York City or we or not we you know dr. Sullivan and ELISA go to a job here in New York City or or something like that and I think if we can support the funding for that and and professional development of training that's how we can participate in that initiative thank you that's just my thought grab just so you know I have had someone from the community reach out to

143me that does this for a living she goes to organizations and helps them become more diverse and recruit qualified candidates of color and different cultures to their organizations and she reached right out to help me so I'm open for that as I said Ashley it's been on the list for a long time man not realized that and it's been on our action plans this this current one and I looking back the one before it as well it's it's it's not been a successful initiative so we absolutely have to figure out how to do better one of the things actually that we're doing is we're creating more opportunities or really kind of getting into colleges and universities around us to recruit student teachers they're pre-packed hours Cohasset hasn't in the past we really had a very

144robust student student-teacher population they just haven't come in so we do have to teacher to student teachers that are coming into the fall from Bridgewater and then at least and I were just talking about going and relationships with some of the schools in universities in the city to see if we could even get them to come down do some of their pre-packed hours you some of his distance and how do you get here but we do have you know we do on the commuter rail and some other things so it's really creating those relationships so I have some relationships that I had already created with some colleges down this way but but I want to you know reach out and make more relationships with people just so that we can get some more people in

145the door because the more you get in the door for it's good for everybody because they bring you energy but also it allows us to have an opportunity to bring you know candidates in that you know future candidates because we don't know you know when they walk through the door so so we'll build that capacity to there any other committee comments or questions no okay I did I just had two more comments I think number five is great and I think that the next committee should look at that as maybe one of the our goals and our action plan so it stays top of mind for the the committee in terms of you know the policy subcommittee and the Holcomb the whole school committee reviewing it and I just have three words that possibly could

146be omitted and the very first line I would say the Cohasset School Committee is committed to an environment for all staff and students take out the word create I think we're we're we're committed to it and that's what we're going to do just my opinion and then in the fifth line down I would just eliminate the words by design so the sentence would read we recognize that our country was founded on the ideals of equality for all with the people of color specifically black and african-american have been systemically oppressed period that's why um I think it I think it makes it a stronger statement that's I just think it's feels stronger to me does anyone else have any thoughts on that right I kind of agree I think it is a stronger statement to just

147say the action of what is happened but I mean I could go either way I do think it makes it stronger so if there are no other comments or questions on this we can have a motion to approve this statement as as amended and then I'm comfortable with if the committee is with Ashley sharing it in her usual format on Facebook 143 and we could get it posted on our district website under the school committee section if that's agreeable to everybody I have I guess I you have a discussion point before I really I thought we were just discussing this because we can't discuss it sort of without you know we can discuss in private basically so I thought we were just discussing our revisions and then we would vote on another voting on it

148I'm wondering about number four I think that I I think that hosting something of this nature is great I don't like requiring each committee member to participate in three what happens if each community member you know isn't around for one of the three I mean just III think that saying and I totally understand we don't need more things on our calendar but I think that could also be seen as like reading a book or listening to a like a TED talk or you know we there's a lot of ways I think that we can do three things each of us over the course of the year that don't necessarily require us to show up to something up on a date Ashley we could obviously we have that major professional development that I think we're gonna

149try to do in October that's an open invitation and then I first see many opportunities for discussion and conversation that the school committee members could be allowed to you know we're obviously you're welcome to come to and we could formally invite you to some of those I mean I'm not trying to comment on the three at all but I just want folks to know that there's a there will be opportunity for you just like us to receive more education on on these important topics yeah so you know would you say in encourage you know each committee member and to participate in three anti-racism trainings or like educational opportunities because that kind of covers a lot trainings to me say okay we're gonna have a seminar oh great would that feel better if I just took

150that out and just said educational opportunities yeah I think I think that would be better and and and Patrick you know I'm not uncomfortable the anti Race I don't I'm just the requirement is is where I'm sort of having trouble like encouraged I like that word you know or I don't know if strongly recommend I just the requirement is like what happens if you can't it's like so is there it's just sort of that's my issue I don't the anti-racism trainings is you know or education I don't care about that part and I'm amenable to change there too if people would like it but I'm just I'm just struggling with the requirement of each committee member to attend three trainings yeah so encouraging sure so so one of those things Patrick what I just popped

151into my head based on the presentation from your leadership team you know they talk about book clubs and book groups and summer readings and I know some of that is for the children and something some isn't I would welcome as an option being part of though you know knowing what those books are and so that I can read them myself and know know what everyone's talking about when you say well we we've read this you know maybe some of them are more educationally driven but personally for me it would be nice to know what those taught what those titles are and and I could choose that could it could fit into one of these is that kind of what you were thinking Ashley yeah okay regarding a vote um I don't I don't mean to

152push the committee I intuitively sensed a little bit of urgency since we aren't meeting again until the 8th but we do not have to vote on this that is up to the committee no I I just didn't know we were I'm not that's fine I think I think this is fine Ashley's worked really hard scholars worked really hard on this night yeah I'm not trying to delay it I just didn't know we were and so I didn't speak up when we were doing revisions I thought I could just maybe handle that another time but that's fine I'm not worried about a vote I just wanted to make that give that employ okay all right I mean Ashley do you think it's important for us to to get this out there sooner rather than later all

153right I can see two sides of it I also know that we're going to have an another member of the committee joining us and I would I don't really I feel like it's almost like six of one half dozen the other yes I do believe there's urgency I do believe that many people in the community are waiting to see some movement on our part on this issue I think we should vote on it and I think we should get it up on our website I think that there is we should do that I think oh and Ashley I just felt like I I didn't have an answer right away why I thought by design should be taken out and I just want to say because you have it that idea captured in the word systematically

154yeah yeah the the idea of what you're saying is captured in that word I think okay thank you though Ashley do you want to just review the changes so everyone's aware sure so we will elaborate on the fact that we will support the superintendent in what what in however possible in broadening his employment searches or employee recruitment and we will take out the word we'll make the first sentence more assertive by saying that we are committed to an environment we'll take out the words by design and we will encourage school committee members to take part in anti-racism educational opportunities yes so if everyone's in agreement could I have a motion to approve the Cohasset School Committee statement on anti racism so moved we have a second checking Craig McClellan hey all in favor roll call

155please I poke learning I asked Larry hi I'm Jen Madden I Craig McClellan excellent and Thank You Ashley for all the work on this I I know it's near and dear to your heart and I appreciate the passion in which you put into this as well as the thought process so thank you can I also just add this is more that I think that um I would have liked to point out that mrs. Cole Erie has been this has been an issue for her well before this was a national issue I mean it's been a national issue for some time but but you know very very pertinent one and a current event so to speak and that's it's pretty awesome that she brings that perspective to this committee and I think we're really lucky to

156have her in that sense Thanks I could I couldn't have said it better Thank You Craig I I agree I definitely agree okay next is our superintendents year-end evaluation so um for the committee I sent you out the wrap-up and I apologize it was late but I literally was just finishing it or making a few typographical changes and corrections and superintendent Sullivan has no issue if we put it up on the screen in the past that has not been done but I'll leave it up to the committee if they feel it would be more beneficial to do so absolutely okay so mr. McMillan has the document to put it up this is our end of cycle summative evaluation of superintendent dr. Patrick Sullivan he's been our superintendent for the past year it's his first year

157as a superintendent of schools the process there are four committee members that submitted individual evaluations and these comments and ratings reflect those four individuals and the I'd like I had sent out a note that you know if you would like to read something at the end that you wrote specifically on your own evaluation that's fine it has been inconsistent past practice whether or not the individual evaluations have gone on to the superintendent and I will leave that between each of you and dr. Sullivan if you want to share your own evaluation of him that will be up to you I do have them all and I'd be happy to send it if you want me to where you can send it individually on your own so this is a rubric designed by you know the

158department of elementary and secondary education it doesn't really leave much room for you you know flexibility the are there are goals professional practice goals student learning goals and district improvement goals and then there are standards and indicators so I'm just going to go through this and I will note how how the ranking everything is marked with an X came about by the by the vote of the four of us who submitted evaluations so under professional practice fall the consensus was exceeded exceeded expectations there were there's one four significant progress in three four acceded under the student learning goal it met expectations there was one four significant progress to ferment and one for exceeded and for the district improvement goals one for significant progress to free and to ferment and one for acceded so it's the

159majority of rankings determined the final ranking under the assessment for performance on standards under instructional leadership it was unanimous proficient was unanimous proficient under management and operations under Family and Community Engagement and under professional culture it was a two two so I kind of put it as an xx plus I can put it in the other box as an X minus or whatever it was unfortunate we had an even number because an odd number would it would have tilted it but overall it was proficient so the overall summative performance evaluation unanimously was proficient and I'll just read I'll read the comments so for the committee's understanding I I went through your comments you'll see some of your statements or phraseology exactly because I thought it was terrific and then some of that I tried to

160come up with a summary of everyone's comments so overall through a year of great challenges some completely unexpected dr. Sullivan has demonstrated a commitment to the district and the community strong proactive dedicated steady unwavering commendable thoughtful inclusive collaborative funny and kind but a few of the adjectives used to describe dr. Sullivan in his first year as superintendent he is a visionary leader with a capacity to unite stakeholders into a shared vision his open house to meet his leadership team indicated to the community that they are indeed a team each administrators energy and enthusiasm was palpable at that meeting and set the tone for the year open and consistent communication is also a hallmark of dr. Sullivan's first year as superintendent his approach has resulted in a sense of unity amongst stakeholders as he has listened

161and learned as he created the shared vision for our educational community by actively listening and learning to all stakeholders on a variety of issues dr. Sullivan has laid the foundation for respectful and meaningful discourse that supports honest assessments and resolution of issues going forward he has demonstrated a commitment to not only improve district performance but the experience that our staff and students have in Cohasset public schools the Navigator newsletter for staff and Families as well and here's a typo I didn't catch as well was well-written and thoughtful but not too abundant and blackboard messages kept the community informed and engaged enough we can scroll up oh who did that Michael did you do that a particular note was the warm and caring approach to staff and Families when dealing with a pandemic while simultaneously developing

162the operational plan for execution of remote learning and instruction he confronted this health crisis straight on staying up-to-date and current on state federal and Dassey guidance all the while maintaining open lines of communication with all stakeholders and a blank page I didn't add it and so now it dovetails into his performance goals his student learning goal was to focus the district on Student Wellness and inclusion through the theme through the eyes of the student this he met expectations there was one for significant progress Toofer met and one for exceeded professional practice goal collaborate with the district and build building leadership to foster effective communication vehicles throughout the district this was exceeded with three three ratings have exceeded and one as met his district improvement goal number one create an entry plan in order to gain

163familiarity with stakeholders to identify effective past practice and potential areas for improvement and to facilitate a successful transition into the role of the superintendent again this is an X plus there were two that met and two that exceeded the district improvement goal number to collaborate with district and building leaders to create a cohesive an instructional leadership team that continues to focus on building structures and practices regarding teaching and learning this was also an X plus and the met there were two ratings of net and two of exceeded the next section is on the standards the performance rating for standards and the first standard is instructional leadership and I'm not going to read through each of the items and what they mean I think we've all read them but you can see that we are very

164consistent in proficient down the line with an overall proficient rating for instructional leadership and the comments were the piloting of a new elementary math curriculum is a proactive response to assessments in our previous curriculum the development of the learning walks allowed dr. Sullivan and its leadership team to notice wonder and be inspired by what they have seen in the classroom dr. Sullivan rates collaboration is a highly effective tool because he has implemented many study teams to look at various areas of instruction such as SEL cultural competency tiered extra instruction cetera so that's instructional leadership management and operations overall proficient rating in the first I will highlight under environment that was an exceed exceeded expectations the environment says develops and executes effective plans procedures routines and operational systems to address a full range of safety health

165emotional and social needs the rest was very consistent across the evaluators as proficient for an overall rating of proficient in management and operations comments are dr. Sullivan leads a staff with respect and kindness he is approachable he is visible at school and community events he's been proactive revising protocols or suggesting policy changes such as hiring protocols mandated reporting the memorandum of agreement with the Cohasset Police Department and Allis training to name a few he skillfully negotiated with the CTA on revised full start times version 2 as well as mo ways of the CTA regarding remote learning and instruction and evaluations avoiding impact are gaining he's developed a respectful collaborative relationship with town leaders Town Manager the town health agent the Chief of Police the fire chief the director of Emergency Management and the chair of

166the Board of Selectmen particularly during the coab in nineteen pandemic hmm standard three family and community engagement proficient in this standard with and exceed or an exemplary I'm sorry I was saying exceeds expectations its exemplary in communication which that standard says engages in regular two-way culturally proficient communication with families and community stakeholders about student learning and performance dr. Sullivan immediately began his tenure with transparent transparency and thoughtful deliberate communication with our educational community the opening day convocation through the eyes of the student was moving and set the tone for the year Cohasset public schools is a well welcoming and warm place to be dr. Sullivan has engaged parents and family members by putting them on various committees such as Safe Schools and hiring committees in addressing the whole educational community perhaps not as enough specific

167messaging was targeted to our students from Boston and last professional culture so this is overall an exemplary rating with exemplary for commitment to high standards communication shared vision leading to exemplary dr. Sullivan has created a professional Ric's respectful caring culture in Cohasset public schools he expects no more from his staff than that which she's willing to do himself he fosters collaboration amongst the staff and supports and praises them for the work they do he's evidenced regular and productive meetings with leadership and other personnel teachers know him kids know him and community members know him and when he asked you what do you think he really wants to know he is genuine he also demonstrates a firm commitment to improvement and he's handled difficult situations gracefully and swiftly so that is the evaluation sorry Ellen I'm

168a little confused because the it's exemplary in the professional but on the top that it's proficient + + + which any comments live at the top for professional culture I'm sorry I okay it's very professional culture Oh if you scroll up all the way to the oh I'm sorry so so so that the forum was highlighted are you talking about the pea that's like bolded on step two standard four so it's on the first page on the very first page yep standard for professional culture is listed as x+ but it I it looks like it was exempt exemplary it should it should be exemplary and thank you for catching that I didn't catch it they were there were two votes in each on this front page but in the detail it came out to exemplary

169so if you follow because I was trying to make catch so there were ratings here and then the ratings the ratings on the detail page did not match so thank you whoever just moved that over was me thank you thank you for catching that Jennifer this is the first time I've done this so I apologize for them errors and the missteps well there's a lot of components to this this forum is like super details it is super detailed and then the tutorial they give you is even more super detailed great job you had to compile four people into one of these super detail for super detail things into one super teacher thank you no it really it really has has been a pleasure but you know at this point I would like each of the

170members to comment they can either read something that they wrote specifically um and we can take this down now Michael please thank you so Jen do you want to start you know I'm the one that's now all nervous but I'm the one that I always liked when each committee member sort of you know picked something to read and I guess I picked up on that because I you know I I rated Patrick as exceptional in creating a professional culture so I wrote dr. Sullivan has created an exceptional professional culture and cope in Cohasset I believe there's a very simple reason for this he cares and this is clear in his consistent actions and in the attention he gives to those who work with him looking through dr. Sullivan's calendar is evidence that he keeps in

171touch with all administrators and personnel as well as teachers on a regular basis recognizing the efforts and accomplishments of colleagues is an important part of creating a positive culture Patrick celebrates the work of others through his newsletters meetings Twitter feed and spotlights on learning a favorite on our school committee agenda beyond celebrations Patrick's development of observation teams offer teachers and principals concrete feedback of positive practices and suggestions for reflection on em cute evidence you can see the learning walks the look for notes having established communication norms and expectations stakeholders can discuss best practices in a positive and nurturing way that moves conversations and ideas forward these discussions have empowered teachers and principals to think critically and consider changes early in his first days and weeks is superintendent dr. Sullivan gathered the leadership team for a

172retreat together this team established norms and expectations and methods of communication in late August dr. Sullivan introduced his team to the community in the learning comment Commons listening to administrators speak it was evident that this team was energized under his leadership as a result of this retreat cultural competency was added as a major part of the SEL in the strategic plan dr. Sullivan's book study group learning walks collab raishin with community organizations procurement of leading consultants have encouraged healthy discussions aimed at creating an environment that invites that serves all students so I just I'll just read the rest dr. Sullivan's theme through the eyes of a student provided a unifying idea that connected all stakeholders to a shared vision the events of this year put that cohesiveness to a test as the world face both

173the covin global pandemic and racial injustice dr. Sullivan has gathered his team to respond to the racial unrest by publicly acknowledging this crisis and his commitment to do our part to end racism and offer as well as offer resources and a safe space for students and families to understand issues surrounding racial injustice shifting an entire district to remote learning was a difficult and challenging task his team provided remote learning and created a remote learning guide for reference while providing emotional support to students dr. Sullivan did not do this alone he led a team of educators who through his leadership was positioned and ready to work hard to help students through these extremely challenging times Thank You dr. Sullivan thank you very much thank you Ashley Craig you guys might want to say I know I

174don't want to say anything back it's going to interestingly and ironically it will be brief something it's not usually my strength but thank you Jen that was perfect I will just read the shore and dr. Solomon has demonstrated a firm commitment to improvement continuously which is what I value most in his leadership in Cohasset I have a great deal of confidence in his ability to lead I think he's a wonderful manager willing to allow those who report to him to demonstrate their abilities and also has shown a willingness to make difficult decisions when they are necessary in order to leave a better way forward for the district thank you I'll just read a few of my comments I actually voted unsatisfactory across the board no I don't have my unfortunately don't have my evaluation in

175front of me so I'm not gonna read anything but I would just like to say that first and foremost while we are obviously evaluating our superintendent I do consider that evaluation reflective of the superintendent can you hear me okay okay dr. stone was making some some strange ear gestures you can't hear I don't I can't hear I couldn't hear I'm sorry my internet cut out I apologize I did so I hope you said good things in here were cut out right after I said I voted for unsatisfactory there after you said something like I heard something like now I'm gonna really let him have it yeah no but I'm serious I didn't so I didn't say much what I said is before I say anything I just wanted to mention that it evaluating you in

176particular I do view the evaluation as reflective of not only this our superintendent but also I think that you work so closely with dr. scones the assistant superintendent and and mr. McMillan did the current director of financial operations it's really that sort of triumvirate that that I think brings all this value to the table obviously under your leadership dr. Sullivan and I that is a that is quite an evaluation for a maiden year here and it is well-deserved you are you and you're very dedicated and we're very very lucky to have you and you know I consider you not only a professional colleague but a friend and I think that I'm just very thankful as a parent for what you're doing for the district I truly believe that that we're heading in a really great

177direction under your leadership along with dr. Scholl and his leadership and thank you as I always say I don't think that you had to caters here enough but thank you so so much for everything that you do great thank you I just like to echo that and some of the other committees thoughts you know dr. Sullivan you're only as good as your team and you have an awesome team and you've been able to put that together and you know that's that's you can see that throughout the district into out the right from all the teachers and their attitudes are a genuine and I said that you know you bring hope happiness and help to our Cohasset families you have a proactive approach to our schools as much as Perico had capacity families have opinions they're

178always met with empathy and very informative in a very informative way of you have great hospitality skills and we're looking forward to working with you next year thank you very much Paul thank you all it's very very kind thank you so thank you dr. Sullivan you know I reflect I reflect back on on the process we went through to to hire you and what the committee did you know we vet we we went through a process and honestly I didn't know you that well which was okay you you were you were the guy at the table you know the assistant superintendent and what I knew for sure that we had the right guy when our consultant from the callin centers said he hit every mark in the focus groups he goes you got a winner

179here he hit every mark from every stakeholder group that participated and he said don't let him go so I'm glad we went through the process and I'm glad we took his advice and I only wish I had children in the district well not really I'm too old too too old maybe grandchildren someday but who knows now we're we're in incredibly capable hands and and I look forward to a year next year that has a little less trauma when you think of what your first task was of the year to roll out revising schools start times in about 25 working days it was kind of amazing kind of amazing what what you did and how you did it and how you listened and how we revised and how we you know we made adjustments it wasn't

180a plan it was going to stick and we were going to move on you listened and I think that really cemented for the community everything looks said about you that you're a listener and you learn and you want you want people to tell you what they think and part one of my favorite parts of our conversations is well what do you think because you really mean it it's not lip service you really mean it so now do you have any questions or anything you would like to say no just to thank the thank the committee for your work on that and the kindness you've shown me in my first year and the support you know as Paul said it's a it's a team effort and I feel very supported by your team and I feel

181honored to be a part of your team so no just uh just big thank you and you know I'm as I mentioned in the previous conversation always learning and I value not only our conversations as a team but when I have a chance to talk to you each individually at various times for various reasons and on various committees it I learned a lot and I I'm just very reflective on what you've told me here so thank you very much and I should add that one thing I feel a little badly about is I didn't congratulate dr. scholars as being in your grandmother I think she has a baby and I was like wait we already talked about the baby I miss I terrible yeah so Leslie take your first are you excited we have leo

182gee I'm sorry is that your first yes and I'm obnoxious yes it's so awesome congratulations what's his name his name is Leo James that's my brother's name Leo James yeah thank you for that and can and I'm gonna do a shameless plug I just want to thank dr. Sullivan for having me come here to Cohasset and everything you wrote about him was just making me smile because it's also true and this is an amazing place to work and I have loved every second of it even if I was crying a little bit over learning and trying to figure it all out I loved it because dr. Sullivan made it he made it doable he made it he made it enjoyable and he also pushed me to think differently and to think always to be thinking

183about the kids and make sure war that that we're keeping them in our sights at all times so there's my shameless plug but thank you so much it's nice that she said that even though I forgot to acknowledge yours and your grandmother so yeah I I appreciate that but no I'm yeah I'm just honored to be part of a team and really to be in the community and you know I'm I'm very open to the fact that I'm I'm still learning and I think you know I feel good that I've grown a lot this year and that would grown as a district one of the things I said when I came on is that you know I'll grow with the district here and I believe that's that's happening so I feel feel good about that

184and I feel really confident and in the way we're gonna move forward so thank you and thank you to the community thank you so dr. Sullivan I will drop by central office the cover page with my signature and then your signature if the committee would like a signed signed top page I sent it the document to you on email I can scan and send it out to everybody so you have it officially thank you all much again very appreciated okay sorry Ellen I just want to make sure I have this straight do do we all have to sign it or no no it's just their inner signs it okay but in case you wanted like a you know you wanted a signed sign thing okay um excellent next we'll move on to the fy2014 goals

185and accomplishments so Jennifer if if I could indulge and let's just go through the PowerPoint and ER get repetitive to the goals report it's pretty much the same thing yeah it is can I am I allowed to share my screen or could someone put the pout it's the PowerPoint presentation yeah it all came through I think as a PDF from the documents if you have it there you should be able to share your screen with Jennifer otherwise I can find it hold on yeah that's it so yeah is that not Michael or is that me just definite on me Jen's gonna present this I'm confused seriously who is who's the puppet master here is it Ashley yeah thank you okay so so each year in in the summer the school committee comes together and sets

186up its goals for the year and so here this PowerPoint is a reflection on those goals and we sort of regularly I want to say maybe every six weeks we review our goals and we give a green light if we were six swollen achieving the goal a yellow light if we made some progress towards the goal and a red light if we didn't I think it's really important to say that these are goals so we might not achieve them all but we certainly as a committee work and try to stay it keeps us on task to make sure that we're moving forward so in goal number one was to recruit retain and develop exceptional district leadership a district leadership team and staff so part of that was for the committee members to participate in a

187welcome vehicle for new leadership so the school committee attended dr. Sullivan's open house for his leadership team August 22nd and I made mention of that in my evaluation because it was so clear from that that the leadership team was energized and so our committee was really we all attended and I think as a committee it was it showed that we supported the leadership team too so and the next goal was to collaborate with the superintendent to create an entry plan with SMART goals that align with the strategic plan and monitor the progress mid-year and complete the year one evaluation and I gave that a green light because we just completed the evaluation goals were presented by dr. C dr. Sullivan on September 18th 2019 his mid cycle evaluation was completed on January 22nd 2020 and

188the end-of-the-year evaluation was just completed tonight on June 17th so so everyone knows these evaluations and the rubric we use are mandated by desi so but it was a it was a lot of work for the or dr. Sullivan as a new superintendent to create entry plan we do have our committee has a subcommittee that worked with dr. Sullivan to make that plan adapt agenda agenda setting process in order to ensure effective efficient and informative school committee meetings year-long general agenda was distributed August 7th so when we meet in the summer one of the things the committee does is set the agendas set general agendas for the year clearly things come up but it does sort of set the course for the year and there are certain logical places to have certain meetings happen so

189for instance you know the budget hearing usually happens in March so we'll set up to you know discussions around the budget and then you know different things come up in here we also set up our spotlights on learning with the in our general agenda the process was established to request agenda items reviewed with the school committee member so one of the things is we were trying to refine our agenda this this year to make our meetings a little bit more efficient so that was something that we're still working on to make the meetings more efficient and to bring everybody up to speed so we gave ourselves a yellow light I'm not create vehicles to strengthen the communication and collaboration with the district leadership team parents Town committees and the citizens of Cohasset develop new and

190effective communication mechanisms that allow stakeholders to feel heard and be informed so one of the things that we did thank you to Ashley was to give a little update on Facebook one for three which provided sort of updates and recaps of the meeting they're not official minutes but they are a way to inform the public about generally what happens at each at each meeting so that we gave ourselves a green light establish a program to honor and recognize individual community members who selflessly give of their time or talents to support Cohasset students so we started that process actually a year ago and most of the work for that has was done last year and we really didn't make any progress this year Jen I'd like to tell you that I just like to follow up

191on this dr. Sullivan I and Michael worked on this last week Patrick could you tell us how that's going about the recognition to the folks who have been helping us something that we worked on last week yes so I I we're creating letters to we're gonna be creating letters that go out to two individuals who have helped financially with US public schools through donations and also who have made great assistance to help our district make some strides this year and we're going to have them going out signed by me hopefully within the week that's that's our goal right now and I know that we were going to work together Paul to compile that list and I'll be glad to you know to do that when I get the list but we're ready to ready to

192go with that and we're information about let it right now I think it's a great idea so thank you and I just can I comment on that so typically the chair at the end of the year sense and thank yous for all the donations because their gifts to the school committee and school committee votes to accept them so I mean I yeah Jen Jenna am I correct in that yeah I think that that that might be something that we need a discussion about because there is sort there are sort of protocols in place for that particularly around donations yeah and yeah I thought it I thought that the spirit of this goal was actually not necessarily a financial but more we were looking for people who really kind of just volunteer they they I mean

193I can think of a number of parents I mean who just go and do the do the bulletin board or take pictures of kids and I thought we were that the spirit of this goal was to focus on not financial giving but more in the spirit of volunteerism yep that was our discussion Jen between doctor Sullivan died and that was mentioned it wasn't just a financial it was folks who give their time as well so this is something that we should be doing yeah well that's that's that's what I was trying to do is to try to collaborate on that so we can put it as a red light I would just say that right now it's still a yellow but still work in progress so glad out but anywhere with that and I obviously

194I wasn't aware of that well you had just mentioned Ellen but I'd be you know glad to just work with Paul to get it out to folks who have made contributions it's very easy to do I don't mean monetary contribution having contributions in their service whatever whatever the committee wants to share that it's really it should be coming from the school committee I think I'd be nice to share that Patrick yeah I'd be fine I'd be happy to whatever I can do to help with that and collaborate on it I'm glad to do well we can i mean it's it's gonna be a new committee and it's a goal carried over from last year there's no reason it can't carry over and continue to be a goal like I I prefaced this whole presentation by

195saying these are goals and sometimes you you know you should aim high and sometimes you don't really make the goal but it doesn't you know that's that's part of the process of trying to strive to become better as maybe you don't make the mark but you keep going so we're on create a system so we're back on the PowerPoint Ashley sorry I realized that my personal notes were on that copy so I felt like it wasn't mine wasn't the best one I didn't you know is it when I be either the punch and she sorry so I asked dr. Walden to put his copy yet is this what you were looking for or did you want the PowerPoint presentation well it's still a PDF Janet tree it translates to a PDF so I was fearful

196that the notes were going to be on that document as well so that's why I put this up but if you want me to try to use my version of that document I haven't looked at it to see if the notes are on it though no they wouldn't be you you can you can put them on okay try to find it here and what is it called again I'm sorry oops well it's it's FY 2010 sigh believe yeah it looks like yeah we go yep thanks I've got here as well Patrick if you're okay okay we're a let's see I'm sorry we're still on goal - there it is create a system for regular policy review to ensure that policies are updated and meet the needs of all stakeholders in the class at public schools

197we gave ourselves a green light on this because what we did is a worksheet was created by policy with the date and creation and date of update to guide the policy subcommittee so what we have is a spreadsheet which helps us know what's been updated and and when it was updated and that's a very helpful document support evening evening public events that showcase community partners and engage our district in productive conversations around important issues I we gave ourselves a yellow light on this and this is really a yellow light by virtue of the fact that we didn't really have any evening public events due to koban work with leadership to establish a student school committee representative and a method to receive school council concerns and initiative so this was great we had student representatives at

198each of our school committee meetings this year and for each meeting they gave an update so we can go to the next page so goal three enhanced the culture of security by strengthening the safety and security of school buildings and grounds continue the safety and security assessment process the security subcommittee along with the SRO and the Cohasset middle high school leadership developed a plan to begin looking at after school safety and security building leadership will develop the plan and the security subcommittee will provide policy if needed an assessment was provided by the Cohasset police department the security subcommittee also worked with the superintendent dr. Sullivan for a new memorandum of understanding understanding sorry with the Cohasset Police Department that was more reflective of the needs of the district that was actually done in the fall

199of this year on it was a you know a joint effort between the school committee and dr. Sullivan in creating that plan place three SRO reports on the school committee agenda for the beginning middle and end of the year we had two presentations this year one in August and one in May and just for scheduling reasons we just missed the third goal for finance align educational goals of the district with the sound financial practices budgeting and managing and reporting collaborate with leadership capital budgets the Weiser e Board of Selectmen and town management for capital budget requests we held a joint meeting with the capital budget committee on September 23rd for special Town Meeting items requested for funding items included a 90 wheelchair van construction for secur secur middle school entrance the Cohasset middle high school

200auditorium projector for a total of one hundred and twelve thousand dollars we reviewed with and bought the Advisory Committee on October 15 follow-up meetings with capital budget were held on October 21st and advisory on October 28th and a Board of Selectmen meeting on October 29th we conducted a walkthrough of the school facilities with invited members from capital budget or to selectmen advisory on November 19th on to file item 't facility needs we worked with the leadership team to but on a budget workshop in January On January 6 2020 ol number 4 on fiscal year 21 budget requested the town to fund a one-time expenditure for the new elementary math curriculum which they did at 75% we met with capital budgets January 28th and March 11th for Town Meeting requests we achieved tier 1 critical needs

201and level services with town allocation on March 4th we absorbed a 66,000 cut to the budget in May of 2020 due to kovat 19 repercussions we presented a revised FY 21 budget to the Board of Selectmen on May 12 2020 and the advisory on May 13 2020 we collaborated with cap cap the capital budget committee on May 11 and based on new guidance from the town for reduced Town Meeting expenditures and increased special Town Meeting allocations due to financial pressures from koban 19 present or quests are two hundred and fifty one eight hundred and eighty dollars for Town Meeting so goal for support of facilities plan through budget review and capital requests the committee supports the comprehensive analysis tool that the Director of Finance and operations has developed in order to rank projects to identify

202funding sources so Michael has put together a spreadsheet that shows all of our projects and a timetable for that and that makes it easier for us when we go to capital budget to request things the committee voted to reconstitute the school Facilities Committee with the intent to explore options for the replacement or renovation of the existing Cohasset middle high school discussion with the Board of Selectmen will be on June 9th that discussion took place and so we were in the middle of setting sort of some ground rules around creating a Facilities Committee is that right Ellen yes it's actually on our coming up next on our agenda to review with the Board of Selectmen on June the 23rd and the if you go on the town website for board and committee appointment applications the school

203facility committee has been added to the list of opportunities okay goal number five student achievement ensure that all students are able to achieve appropriate growth and learning spotlight on learning focusing on project-based learning at the school committee meeting so our sixth and seventh grade teachers presented the results of their project-based learning experiment at one of our school committee and it was on hidden figures and the boy that harnessed the wind and those took place in February fund the fiscal year 20 deferred request for a computer science teacher and curriculum unfortunately that's a red light we did not we were not able to have that position be funded study the feasibility and models for adding foreign language and instruction at the elementary levels that was a red light we didn't get to that goal not everyone

204no excuses their goals their goals spotlight on learning focusing on the arts including participation report in the arts curriculum and the arts related extracurricular activities Teeter teachers Nina Berkowitz and Stephanie Moriarty presented a comprehensive review of the Arts at Cohasset middle high school on January 22nd on this was this goal was created with the idea that we were getting regular updates about the level of participation in sports and we wanted to have a same sort of update to the Committee on the level of participation in the arts goal six social and emotional learning promote the social and emotional well-being of students support the community support community committees focused on social and emotional well-being through regular participation at meetings this is where our committee members go out and we liaised with different community groups so we

205do that with safe harbors the diversity and unity committees Safe Schools committees as well as elder affairs and cpap on invite mecco director and diversity club advisor students for a presentation to the school committee I'm sorry we got a green light in our liaison with community committees we also got a green light we had a presentation given by Metro director Alisa kittens Karl and she presented an overview of PD for staff unfortunately because of Kovac that professional development that she had organized didn't come to fruition and then the next one was analyzed the financial impact of accelerating the implementation of responsive classroom at Deer Hill and Osgood nineteen teachers are left to be trained at a cost of approximately fourteen thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars an hour summary we updated the school committee operating

206protocols in handle which had not been updated since August of 2015 we approved for trips presented by our staff or our students we approved 14 gifts totaling over one hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars in cash and assets we reviewed revised and approved ten policies we held 25 subcommittee meetings we appointed a representative of the Norfolk County Sheriff's Task Force on juvenile substance abuse and mental health we adopted a resolution affirming that the Cohasset public school district is a respectful district in line with the governor's council addressing sexual assault and domestic violence this resolution supports the development of healthy relationships and we approved changes to school start and end times so I would say it was a busy here okay um I'm gonna ask for any comments or questions but nobody's typing up or does anyone

207have anything nope okay so next on the agenda is a school Facilities Committee objective and committee composition so I'd like Craig if you could take you did the work on this so if you could present it please I'm sure um before I do that Ellen I just wanted to I mean it's a it's a sort of a you know it's a lengthy document but but a ton of work went into what Jen is presented and I really excuse me um miss madness presented and I just wanted to say thank you for doing that that so that was a lot of work and I you know we revisited constantly throughout the year and thank you so much well it's it's totally the it's everybody everybody so one of the things we do is people sort we

208do allocate people to do those goals so there is tremendous amount of work done by by everybody on the committee okay well thanks Jen um I mean the BACtrack they're just just moving on here so I mean madam chairperson I just these were you know I don't know is this document looking at is this like what I sent you yes it's it's in the packet everybody has it okay so this was as I indicated over email I was hoping it would be you know a collaborative effort it this was just these were my thoughts I feel fairly strongly about this this whole plan I think that we could use new facilities but but at the very least explore the possibility and and the viability of such an idea so I guess I'm not certainly not

209gonna read this document what I would ask is if everyone has read it if people have thoughts we just go through the committee so that we get everyone's incorporate everyone's thoughts and perspectives and ideas does anyone want to speak no okay um I will I think I think number one through eight is perfect um I I think I think it's general enough but specific enough and a cut it covers it covers so much safety technology everything I think if I look at the bylaw the school facility committee I think it's point number five and I don't know let me just find it I think they report out to the town I think school facility committee may proceed on its own initiative in these matters and we shall respond Oh probably - all written request from

210the school committee I'm sorry point that's not the point I was looking at um I actually so after I wrote this I sort of I think I came to the conclusion that it was us it would just be CSC it's not the OS correct well yeah it would not it would not report out to the Board of Selectmen no they would the school Facilities Committee like other committees and and boards in town that are appointed are independent committees and they receive like the town hall building committee was an independent committee of appointees and they were presented with a charge by the Board of Selectmen but then they worked independently and they did provide periodic updates to the Board of Selectmen so I look at this much the same way that they would provide the school

211facility committee would provide periodic updates to the Cohasset school committee so I think you're fine and taking out the and/or Board of Selectmen I don't that's that's not appropriate at the end of the day they will make their recommendation to town meeting right so um but but there their point of contact is the School Committee and I just like us to think about what how do I say this which campus it says relative to construction of new school facilities in the district my personal feeling is if we charge them to look at all four buildings three campuses and come up with a plan it's daunting and if I just think back anecdotally where the comments have come they've been coming for a new middle high school or a new middle school or a new high

212so it's been my impression and I could be wrong but it that it's that campus that it is is where the the initial interest comes from because I think I think to have nine people kind of look at three with the work they have to do it is a lot but that's and I would also like to kindly request that it's either Construction addition to or remodeling of because if we say construction of new schools if that's our charge then that's the only option they look at okay so your your proposed language of construction I heard remodeling what was the middle term that you used um addition I'm sorry you said that adding adding on - right right I think that's I think that's valid I think we can incorporate that I would like to

213leave this so to your to your to your former comment i I think new school facilities plural leaves it more general and broad I'm trying to leave this as broad as possible I I understand I take your point Ellen about keeping sort of trying to target their charge as much as possible I kind of I mean it's already targeted in terms of the schools so III mean I don't think they're gonna have to dwell too much on you know which schools need to need need to be replaced if any I just so the reason I'm getting this is because I think your latter point is sort of intertwine the latter point points the fact that construction is too specific and I agree I don't want to limit it to just the high school or middle

214school that's my that's my opinion I'm one one of all I agree and I will tell you why I think so thank you Craig for doing this and for getting this ball rolling I think in matters like this it makes sense to look at the whole picture I have found just to make sure that we're not sort of plugging a hole over here that exists right now but then there's another hole over here that we didn't really see coming because we were just focused on that hole over there you know which is not to say that that's how it will happen but just that I think it is the responsible thing to do to have the committee look at the school facility is in the aggregate to make sure that all of the pieces fit

215together Paul or mr. Tierney or mrs. Madden you haven't you guys have any input on this Jen you're muted if you're talking I agree that having a little bit more focus is a good thing in that we look not at not at everything I think that the char it's it's just better if you charge the committee with you know as Ellen had stated that we're really looking at this for the middle high school so I think that's a good a good change okay can you break the tie here in terms of what you think I don't even know if he's still here so so if you carry here's here's another another way to slice it so that I think if we are open if we leave this initial charge with construction remodel or addition of

216new school facilities in the district we just have to be prepared that the charge can evolve and change as the school facility committee gets up and running and as they asked for her guidance and direction and if we're okay with that I'm okay with that I mean I think I mean I so to your point madam chairperson I think we can always go back right like in other words use me we can always we can always whittle it down we just can't make it broader once we do this right do you understand what I'm saying right right it's much easier to contract an objective than it is to expand it right yes yep so yep so so that the changes would be eliminate Ford of Selectmen and just add addition and renovation construction and/or addition

217and/or renovation of new school facilities of school facilities new construction or addition and renovation of school facilities in the district okay I will take care of that and everyone else is on board with GSA yeah I'm I don't know I'm impressed with myself that no one had any edits to the other part of it but okay great that that was easy yep so if you get the corrections Don Craig and redistribute them I will get them to the Board of Selectmen before their next meeting next week sure can we do we do the same sort of thing we do on other things where we just we are we voting on this subject to the revisions sure sure so can I have a motion I have a motion to approve the school facilities committee charge as

218amended can I have a second I'll second up Ashley all in favor roll call please i gen madam i ashley clearing my LMR i Craig McClellan okay don't believe Paul is mr. nees in the meeting anymore yeah I don't know what happened um okay so um excellent um great and then the other thing which yeah the composition of the committee and there's there's nine members and I apologize I don't I don't have that second page I think I missed it I had sent you an email mmm I've been furiously trying to find it in my email you didn't I apologize I just kind of been a little no III because I thought it out I took the time to think it through and then and then you know now I can't find it yeah I

219know and I'm so inept at multitasking I believe you said chief of police fire chief I think you had two teachers to parents I think your comment was that by virtue of the project planning group there's probably an engineer on it as well already yeah when we get to that stage and an architect well like I did say I did I would like to see an architect just because then there's a different perspective of professional design yep sort of like and I I think I was suggested in an attorney as well procuring grants and such it may be helpful and able to articulate the live but I at the argot so the engineer I feel like one would be one one should be adequate the one that sits on the project architect inmate in maybe

220and this is sort of like I don't know it's an arguable point I just feel like it may be good to have you know just like sometimes with my ability to discuss with with our counsel things that with a little bit more professional background there it may be helpful to have an architect on the actual body so that they can interact with the architect on the job in a more meaningful sense perhaps mm-hmm and that was my thought so I to parents to teachers police and fire chief at six architects seven lawyer eight and I don't remember the ninth was oh yeah yeah I don't remember either I think it might have been the superintendent but Patrick do you think maybe you could speak to if you recall the composition of the Marshfield roof you're

221muted so Marshall did not go about it this way Marshfield really worked with the I'm not saying to do this I think this is the way to go but the superintendent at the time was in charge of creating the whole group as basically that's what the committee charged in the do and he will create that group and literally interviewed folks to create that team it was just a much different situation I so I wouldn't help us much in this you know people were on the team they were they were community there were attorneys architects folks I'm trying to think [Music] different people on different organizations like a member of the m EF which is you know equivalent of the CEF IT professional is the other one I think that's very important yeah sorry duck solving

222I want to say I think I'm offering much but basically folks who were influential in the community as you had mentioned it was it was a pretty broad range of representatives I could probably find it actually in my documents helpful well III think Craig's first stab at it kind of represents that I would just comment I I believe I understand why you'd put the Chief of Police and the and the fire chief on there I think we would be hard-pressed to get them into service on such an intense committee like this but that doesn't mean we couldn't have a Public Safety Representative on it but I guess we won't know till you know we won't know till we ask they have to apply so the processes people apply for this [Music] and we can come

223up with more than nine different types of people depending upon you you know we can ask her what we can ask her the types of individuals would like to have but at the end of the day we're going to have to evaluate based on who applies and and where our three votes go you know I'm thinking but it might be a conflict of interest to have someone from capital budgets on there but perhaps not I'm trying to remember composition of the Town Hall committee was was all independent of other boards the Town Hall renovation committee does anyone have any anyone else have any other thoughts yeah I just want to make sure can you hear me yeah I made sure that Michael did a great job of like outlining some of the procedures going on

224next year they'll all meet along with I think you put together something Michael that I don't want to make sure that we just bundle everything in here I want to make sure that his work continues and that was every year the facilities people get together is that quite right Michael and yeah well that's so that that's their a capsule planning process and that will definitely continue to go on just because it's a you know this forum I understand this committee is gonna be looking at the big picture like you know boy you should for as we are still gonna have to look at you know this you know the tiles have to be replace the windows have to be fixed you know that's gonna be ongoing I mean hopefully the work can we do you

225guys will do will feed into that committee maybe we can advise that committee as yeah they know that we spoke about just the middle school in high school however dear hey lad you know needs a lot of workers as well with the tiles and yeah air conditionings to the windows to I mean there's a that approach yeah well the windows did but they still need a whole host of things such as desks and you know they have some rib bars coming right out of the cement I mean there's just some major issues that yeah first there I just want that to be recognized that it's just not one building that needs and are as good as nice as it is it's there's also a lot of needs there as well I think I think it's

226done Paul I think you bring up a good point and it's very important that these that it runs parallel that the school facility committee runs parallel with the schools and the School Committee in terms of you know everyday maintenance we heard from Diane Sullivan the MSBA wrapped that like if you let your buildings you know deteriorate doesn't mean you're gonna get money from us and in fact they they don't they don't look kindly upon that so we do have an obligation to continue to down archive of school building improvement while this separate committee is working on as whomever just said you know the real big-picture plan so yeah I would not want Paul at all any of the work that's been started to to cease because of this other committee so I think the in

227terms of the composition we don't have to vote on it I think the Board of Selectmen we're just looking at recommendations so when the piles of applications start coming in they can say oh well we have an architect applied but maybe we want to see if they'll be interested in this school facility committee as opposed to something else so as long as we just have an idea I think that's fine one other because you mention the police and fire chief may not be the best candidates because because they may not be available for the time commitment I think it's a fair point maybe they can act as consultants at some you know part of the process but one so it was sort of the runner up for me was that some sort of like energy

228consultant or someone that's into alternative energy it's it may be a good thing to have that perspective on the on the on that committee may be something that for people consider I mean I'm just I'm just trying to add it to the list because I think moving forward renewable energy is a huge thing and if our facility is I put it any charge about no green processes I think it could be really worthwhile and valuable to include that you know have like a really sort of state-of-the-art facility that we're running a yeah no I think that's good and I think if we come up with 10 or 12 different kinds of people we want on the committee and it gets you'll get weeded down just by virtue of the application so I think that's fine

229okay we have some excellent candidates from the alternative energy committee agreed that's what I was thinking Jen I mean they're very knowledgeable and we're very um yeah they're excellent yeah okay okay so we did that we did that excellent um let's keep moving is everybody okay yes okay great so on the next thing it's it's pretty boilerplate it's um a resolution a school committee resolution - - that will go to as you see Governor Baker the Secretary of Education Commissioner of Education just about funding any funding for kovat 19 the last count as of this afternoon that I thought was 19 20 21 22 23 24 generic trees almost 30 districts have voted and returned the resolution including our neighbors in Hall situate and Hingham and East Bridgewater and Michael's new district Monomoy he'll be

230happy to hear that Michael so I just want to see if everyone's in agreement that on this resolution I'm an agreement anyone else any other comments I'm an agreement oh I agree okay great thank you so can I have a motion to approve the classic school committee resolution on Kovach 19 state funding as submitted don't move I have a second second thank you Paul all in favor roll call please hi Paul Kearney I Ashley O'Leary hi Ellen Mar I John madam did you lose Craig sorry sorry I Craig McClellan great thank you okay so I will get this filled out and sent in and they're also asking to send it to our reps and Joe Massino and Patrick O'Connor and so I will send it out I'll copy everybody in so you can you can

231see where it goes thank you I have no experience in terms of how these resolutions if they are or are not successful but it it doesn't hurt okay and then so that that's it are there any reports from subcommittees or liaisons I can just report um two things from the Unity Council and the hanging immunity Council which is one of the members of our unity Council is going to be doing two events upcoming that sound great one is a Facebook live event to celebrate Juneteenth which is Friday June 19th at 7:30 p.m. they're actually having I'm not gonna remember his name but a hang em high school social studies teacher talk about the significance of that date and talk a little bit more about why we celebrate it and they're also doing a fireside book

232chat with Dolly - I think for laughing it spelled ch ugh I'm not sure of the pronunciation I apologize but she wrote a book called the person you mean to be how good people fight bias so that is going to take place on July 9th at 7 p.m. on zoom and you have to register in advance okay excellent I just want to report that the fifth grade parade was adorable and lots of fun and I've heard lots of feedback from parents who thought that the deerhill team did a wonderful job sort of making the most of the situation and that kids were really happy with the parade that's my favorite report so far J yeah I I don't even know if I've been to committee or liaison meetings to be honest with you the days

233are blurring okay so that being said I will just move on to approval of minutes and as I mentioned earlier we're gonna have three groups of minutes to approve so may I have a motion to approve executive session minutes of June 5th October 10th November 6 November 20th December 18th December 4th February 5th February 26 in April 1st thank you can I have a second okay roll call please I am mark I joined madam I Paul Kearney I I'm stayin Ashley Cleary okay thank you can I have a motion to approve executive session minutes of March 25th and may 6th second so second a roll call hi Jim Madden hi Ellen Mar I cry McClelland hey Paul are you going to abstain I think I have to correct yeah yeah yes yeah I'll abstain thank

234you okay thank you okay and finally can have a motion to approve the minutes of August 7th December 10th October 30th and July 11th thank you a second thank you roll call please ilm are by Paul Kearney pain Ashley O'Leary abstain Jen madam hi Craig that glowing great thank you thank you very much um stain I'm just finishing the notes okay great um unless anyone has anything else I think at 8:53 we're ready to wrap up move to adjourn Hey move to adjourn at 8:53 by mr. McClelland a second second by mr. Carney roll call please hey Paul Kearney hi Ashley Cleary hi Ellen Mar I've done Madden hi Craig McClellan Congrats Jen I just had a vision of Michael just throwing confetti bye thank you thanks everybody