Concord-Carlisle Joint School Committee - May 24, 2022

001all right good evening everybody i would like to call to order the concord carlisle school community and i'd like to call to order the congress school committee it's good to see so many people here in the audience and now that we're live i just want to welcome sharon witt with us our new regional member and court booth is not joining us tonight because he had a death in the family so we're down one unfortunately sorry condolences to court i think we're all set we don't have to roll uh do we do a roll call we're gonna have to roll call our girl here we're all present we're getting used to being in person okay um so before we start just because we're starting new i like i said i'm the chair of the region and

002alexa is the chair of concord public schools so things might look a little bit different our agenda tonight has a lot of k-12 things on it so alex and i will kind of be taking turns back and forth on certain parts of the meeting and certainly if you have any questions or comments please feel free to stop us thanks all right um again thank you to everyone for coming thanks to those in the audience and thanks to those um on zoom before we move to our regular business we're actually going to share with you all a statement from the school committee that the seven of us wrote together um you've all been incredibly engaged with us via email or attending our meetings and we know that you guys are all looking for a response from

003us about our situation with our hostile workplace environment complaint so with a newly seated committee we thought this was the right time to do that so i'm going to turn it over to tracy to read our prepared statement thank you as chairs of the committee we have a statement to read on behalf of the committee to the concord carl in boston communities we value the superintendent and our many contributions to the district our students and staff we recognize that there is a high level of turmoil in our community at this time and we are committed to doing the work to chart a more collaborative path forward since march the committee has engaged with the public education and government's expert to serve as a neutral to help resolve areas of concern and improve internal communication including

004leading the communi the committee and superintendent through mediation last week we welcomed a new member from carlisle and we restructured our leisure leadership team and earlier this week we met as a new committee with dr hunter to begin to establish communication protocols and move forward together we hope you will continue to stay engaged democracy works best when citizens are informed and involved at the same time we hope you will give us the time to do the work we need to do we care deeply about our community and we are confident that each of us will continue to serve with honor integrity trust and professionalism that you expect of us thank you and now i'd like to turn over to lori to give us a statement of our own okay thank you thank you everyone thank

005you to the whole committee initially with great distress i found myself at the center of conflict and attention ultimately however the outpouring of support validated the collective work accomplished in our schools especially over the past 26 months for that i'm very grateful in march the issues i raised were meant to focus on resolution with the committee members to become the high functioning team this community expects i appreciate the committee's time and discussion discussing the issues since then there is much work that has yet to be done we often talk of intent and impact in our dei work intentional or not the impact of the committee dynamic for the past two years has been frustrating at best and deeply painful at worst genuine efforts to acknowledge my perspective listen to my concerns and view my discontent

006as fact rather than rumor or misunderstandings will be critical to our success i share the same hope as the committee that we can rebuild trust support one another and find the collaborative course forward as described by the chairs thank you all right so before we move into our business of appointing committee representatives i thought it would be helpful for people in the public and for some of our new members to just sort of review how we do this process um so our first step is that we send out to all of the members on our committee all the subcommittees and organizations with which we liaise so that each committee member has a full understanding of the charge of that subcommittee or organization what the time commitment is so that they can make an informed decision

007about whether or not that committee will suit them then after that we get input from all of our committee members about the different groups and committees that they'd like to serve on from there the work becomes ensuring that we have a really good strong representative balance of all of our committee members we don't want any one committee member to have too much influence or too much um uh you know being the sort of the face of the committee so we did seek to achieve balance i think that is by design here and you'll see that reflected in our slate and finally we wanted to ensure balance of experienced members who've maybe done some of this work before so that the business of the committee can continue to run smoothly with their guidance but then it

008was also important for us to elevate newer voices to the committee to build our proverbial leadership bench if you will and this when we bring up our slate it does reflect what each sort of um member desired in terms of what they were willing to take on so i think that's important to recognize as well um and before we put the slate up um before i turn this over to tracy you'll notice that we have two new positions um on our slate we um it's very clear to probably everybody that we have been really prioritizing our dei work this year this past year um we're all expecting that that will continue to be a major priority of the committee's work going forward so to that end we established a liaison position to the conquered dei

009commission so that you know their work when it intersects with us we're sort of informed as to what they're doing and that um person will report back to the committee and then we also added two representatives to andrew namichi's dei strategic steering committee um and i will let tracy talk about sort of why we did that and um move forward okay so as most of you know i chaired our dei subcommittee for the school committee this year we had did some great work all year um kristen was part of that dr hunter was part of that andrew was part of that and i we really were we're trying to figure things out along the way as we went as andrea has a new position here so what we i alexa um dr hunter andrew and

010i met last week and we kind of talked about morphing our dei subcommittee into the dei strategic steering committee because then it becomes more we're more part of the work as we're starting into it rather than looking over it so we really want to collaborate with the entire community do some of that work so sharon and i went to that meeting last week and she'll give the update later and it was great to you know work in teams to do that so we felt as though that's part of the work that we're going to continue in the future which is why we're kind of morphing our dei subcommittee into that work now we do need to take a vote on that at the end of the meeting but we will have some discussion about that

011but that's just the background on there and then in terms of our committee assignments i'm just going to read where we have everyone placed right now and everybody's received this document on our committee we've had good discussions with everybody yeah so far yep so okay adulting community ed we have sarah wilson um the cardinal finance committee and board of selectmen is sarah wilson concord finance committee cynthia rainey and alexa anderson concord select board court booth concord dei commission cynthia rainey c-a-a-b uh the climate action advisory board sorry is also cynthia rainey peg access cynthia rainey concord financial audit advisory's court booth the policy subcommittee carrie rankin tracy morano alexa anderson uh cpac will be alexa anderson and sarah wilson cms building committee will be alexa anderson and court booth but we have to vote on

012that after because that is a school committee appointment the calendar committee will be alexa anderson sustainability committee cynthia rainey the dei strategic steering committee is sharon witt and tracy morano and the superintendent's medco advisory council will be carrie rankin and tracy morano okay any questions on that before we move on comments and again the um the slate will be moved as a consent agenda like we did last year um it with the exception of the building committee which will be voted on after because that needs a separate motion yes cynthia so first of all uh madam chairs if i may we will need to pull out the concord vote to separate vote conquered committees we didn't do that last year well we should have i'm gonna say um um we should vote independently for those

013that are appointments so we're clear with the select board bike for instance the peg access advisory committee will need to be nominated and appointed by the select board because it's an actual member of the peg access code sure i thought we appoint them and then that happens after i say we need to say here was the vote sure to the select board so it's all clear okay yeah we didn't do that so apologize well it was a re-appointment i think court was i'm not sure yeah so you didn't do it for any of you yeah yeah building so if they're reappointments like the building committee we don't need to do anything because the appointment is for the term of the project [Music] and we can ask mr johnson if you'd like to enjoy in on

014that because those terms are for the term of the project it's not a three-year term or one-year term or annual term um we can unless the membership changes okay yeah okay so you want us to split that tonight or can we just vote the slate no we should split it tonight unless you don't it's going to hold up these appointments right you know we don't want to do that and that that's all the comments i haven't seen you something i have a question about the i this the policy subcommittee has three members of the concord um sorry the um policy subcommittee has three members of the conquered um school committee but i thought a subcommittee couldn't have a quorum of a committee like a subcommittee can't have it it'd be a foreign public yeah okay

015but are we a quorum of the region you're not a corner of the region right isn't it a regional committee no but you cannot have a quorum of the conquer school committee on any committee okay so yeah we can reconsider that yeah so why don't we pull that one out yeah we can pull that out and talk about it for next week we'll talk about it for next time because we don't have any um policy subcommittees coming up for the rest of the year so we'll just do that our next one okay that's perfect yep so you wanna just go one by one on this yes sure okay great so you could do the slate of the the region's asleep so you want to just do that maybe yeah okay we could do the regions

016of slate and then the concord appointments as a slate okay so do you have do you have the list of the clock appointments um i do do you want to just do that sure um okay so on a slate we will move to approve as discussed all appointments for the regional committee which include the appointment of sarah wilson to adult in community education sarah wilson to the carlisle board of selectmen and finance committee observer to the we will appoint alexa anderson and sarah wilson to the cpac we will appoint alexa anderson to the calendar committee will appoint cynthia rainey to the sustainability committee will appoint sharon witt and tracy morano to the dei strategic steering committee and finally carrie rankin and tracy morano to the superintendent's metco advisory do i have a motion to approve

017second okay second all in favor i guess we raise our hands yes okay and moving on to the concord slate um we are going to need a motion to approve cynthia rainey has appointed an alexa anderson to the concord finance committee court booth to the concord select board cynthia rainey to the concord dei commission cynthia rainey to the climate action advisory board cynthia rainey the peg access advisory committee port booth to the concord financial audit advisory uh alexa anderson and courtney that needs a separate one alexa anderson and court booth to the cms building committee and that's it do i have a motion to approve [Music] so moved up second right all in favor and conquered hi um and we will table our policy great thank you okay well that was uh the business portion

018of just getting we're on to the student update so i think that harry and darcy are with us hello hello and i'm not sure if zarya is with us sorry i we're looking for the participants i'm not sure that she's here that partially our fault i sent her a reminder this morning but that might have been a little bit late i'm sure i can send her i can reach out to her again and i'm sure we can get her for the next one um but we have a pretty quick update i can start the first elevation like a little bit negative and i obviously there's not like a solution to any of this i think it's something that is affecting a lot of the schools so it's helpful to just sort of keep in mind

019in the future but like there is as we mentioned during the last meeting a lot of anxiety surrounding covert 19 with cases reaching levels that are like i think pretty high this year especially and i feel like a lot of students feel they could be a little bit more supported and accommodated with the absences because it sort of feels like you're out for the five days and then you're kind of just left scrambling to get caught up and i think also this sort of tends to happen every spring but i feel like a lot of people are kind of very much in that like final push and struggling to just like you know i would say stay as motivated and stuff like that and i think there have also been a lot of warriors about

020finals just like especially with code like we've been talking about and i think to me at least that feels very similar to the situation we had with midterms yeah and last year's yeah where i think people were a little bit worried with everyone absent right before and stuff like that and then i don't know moving on to slightly more positive things yeah um just to briefly touch on that so um i personally was out with kobit last week um and my teachers have been really accommodating but it is um very difficult to be out for over a week um with like our academic workload um and it definitely can feel at times like it's a lot of work um with covid especially when you're sick but my teachers were very helpful um but i think

021a lot of students are feeling kind of increased anxiety about being out especially right before final season and i know like personally out of my six teachers um three are out with covid so it is a bit difficult at the end of the year but obviously that's not um the most preventable thing and then i know a lot of sports have been impacted um so i do track and many people were out with covid during um a really important meet last week um and similar sports situations as well but on like a slightly more positive note um prom took place over the weekend um and a lot of juniors and seniors had a great time um not to go back to another negative thing but um people who got coveted unfortunately but i i think

022that was a bit to be expected um but i think harry can probably attest this as well um when you're walking around the school there's definitely it feels like a lot less people oh it does there's never making a presentation in the library today and we were just noticing it's been a little bit quieter the past couple much more and i think also but there are a lot more students being very very like careful surrounding the pandemic um so there's been a lot more students wearing math to school i'm wearing masses they return back hovid and kind of making sure they're being safe and then another exciting thing that's happening is that the pop-up thrift store that senate runs is taking place this friday and it's required a lot of work behind the scenes so

023we um we work with the drop-off swap off every year to collect used and old clothes um that people would want to buy and would want to wear and we make a thrift store um with them and it's always been a really successful event everything's sold for like a really reasonable price you know like one or two dollars or something and then all the profits that we make are donated to second chance clothing and then anything that we don't sell ends up getting donated i think i'm not sure the exact charity a woman's shelter yeah so it all gets used it all goes to a good cause and the town loves it because it gets students out in the community and stuff like that and then do you want to take this last thing yeah

024sure um and then just also about the pop-up thrift store last year we raised over a thousand dollars which is uh a great amount of money to donate um to a charity of our choice and a lot of students enjoyed it so we're looking forward to running it this year um and then also um elections are currently being held for student senate in student government and their voting forms just went out today at around uh just at the end of the school day and it caused a lot of excitement among students and there's many many new faces running which is always good to see yeah definitely a lot of freshmen too which is exciting um so that's currently what's happening yeah like i say in the beginning it can feel a little bit negative and

025there's obviously no solution to it we're not operating like perfect times but i think some important things to keep in mind so yeah that's great i love your updates in this format because you're they're very robust and you have the presentation portion and we can be negative it's totally fine i had copied two weeks ago it's really a pain um it definitely disrupts your life i we have a bunch of teachers with us at the room today too and i'm sure it disrupts their lives and their classrooms and we're just all in it together so i i think it's it's gonna be fine so um i have a question about prom were there a lot of buses that went you guys have a bunch of buses that went in do you know yeah yeah a

026lot of buses so we had the like class government the group that organized it they have coach buses and then a lot of people if they're going in big groups before they'll get their own business like a party bus or they'll get some other form of transportation okay because this is really the first real problem that you guys have probably experienced at the high school right so we were underclassmen yeah we didn't experience it but we know a lot uh well it's been great to have you guys with us here again and we'll definitely see you next time and i look forward to the updates and don't worry if they're negative it's okay bye bye thank you anybody else have anything for them all right okay great thank you all right on to the public

027comment portion of our meeting and we're going to start with public comment in the room before we do it on zoom and just as a reminder that this is a meeting in the public and not with the public so the school committee will not comment uh back on any public comments you'll have three minutes so if you can state your name and address and then you're free to make your comment so if anyone is in the room you can step up to the microphone up here come on up name and address please i'm sarah i'm in the winner 300 street and i also speak in middle school all right i think you should do this for the middle school too there are so many extensions lovely involved kids in middle school would love to have

028this platform to report back on their involvement and involve you with your um i wanted to comment on your discussion you're going to have to make a macro representation on school footy it's a really exciting time i think to be part of this opportunity as you know there's only three other towns that are have thought about this and you kind of what's taken us so long to realize that we need representation for students that are part of our community i want to encourage you all in the discussions to not use the word not use the acronym d i because i think we're forgetting what each of those letters stands for so they each represent something that are important but to just say dei i think loses what we're trying to accomplish for example how inclusive

029has the process been so far in developing this policy have you had people sit with you in the subcommittee meetings have you reached out and done other things in what ways has it been inclusive the folks in boston are sending the emails really concise and cohesive emails but this is what's important to us how well is the policy subcommittee and the larger group listening to those and incorporating that that's the eye the other important piece for this discussion is the equity piece when you're discussing the number of representatives the first way that i thought about it was oh yeah well there's a certain number of carlisle representatives based on the population things like that that's what i thought too and then i heard more of the discussion about the reason to have more than one

030representative from metco families at the table it's not an equality issue it's equity and it's also doing our part to make sure that the voices are heard and not just doing the bare minimum so we have to do something that is out of the norm that hasn't been done before in other towns i think we should take the initiative and do that and because that is showing where what we value which is voices at the table in the way that they want to bring them to the table and that we are going to include them and we are going to work for equity in a way that we can measure and so people say yes you are reaching our goals so thank you for this continued discussion as i said i'm really excited that this

031is happening now when we can all be part of it and i think everybody is going to benefit if we continue to work together thank you thank you did you practice that that was like almost to the minute three minutes very well done perfect three minutes hi um 174 hill street um the comment i'd like to make is on the dissolution of the dea subcommittee and i would encourage the community to think about the purpose of that des m committee and my um interpretation of the purpose was uh for one to sort of engage with the tdx strategic planning process which is the thing that you will continue to do the second piece which i think is even more important is um doing the learning that is required in order to fully engage in the

032e and i work and if you get rid of that subcommittee how will we continue to do that education piece how we continue to think about what each of us individually bring to the discussions and how our perspectives are informed by our own personal experiences and how to take those unconscious biases and sort of recognize them and how it impacts the policy work that the school committee does how does the intent of the policy change compared to the impact of the policy and really start to do that bringing that to work thank you anyone else in the room okay i think we have eric moore on zoom so if you can turn your camera on hi good evening uh thank you for taking my question uh eric moore 45 francis street in concord i have

033one quick comment uh about the proposal uh for the framing the participation of a metco representative on the school committees uh and it's this sentence the medco representative will be authorized to sit at all open sessions of the school committee and i i would urge us to consider that word open i really prefer to see a strongly support the representation for metco on the school committee i would like to see our representative or representatives being able to participate in both open and closed sessions uh i think in particular participation in closed sessions is is this is where we're making budget decisions uh and as president biden has said i'll paraphrase show me your budget and i'll show you your values uh if our representatives are not part of all meetings uh i feel that the

034the district does not receive the full benefit of their participation so please consider including our metco representatives in all all elements of the school committee processes thank you thank you okay anyone else online with a comment okay seeing none i think we're done with public comments so thank you well a public comment at the end also if there's something else that you would like to make a comment about okay and now we're gonna go to recognitions and before dr hunter starts i think uh miss anderson has someone she would like to recognize i see um our friend and former colleague evan mustafi in our audience and i just what oh yes you want to come up with us one last time we just wanted to recognize eva for her tremendous contributions to the school committee

035i personally had the privilege of working with eva um in a heightened capacity on both the policy subcommittee and two years i like to call her my wingman or wing person um as we both were liaisons to the cpac organization and in particular um in our work together on the cpac i just recognize and i think you all should know eva is just at her authentic core a tireless advocate for kids um not only for their way they learn but their wellness and um it is just it's so organic it's so authentic and it just radiates um so she will be really missed um and all of us thank you for your incredible service to this committee and we will absolutely miss you and i was gonna save this for my cpac update but um

036i guess i'll say it now um eva is in the process of joining the board of the cpac so um and i think sarah and i have both been officially cpac liaison so you're stuck with me and um i'm just so thrilled that we're gonna be able to continue our work together there and um we're so excited for you that you've found a way to stay involved because um frankly the district and the kids inside it need you so thank you to eva and we do have a jacket for you on its way so you'll have to come visit when it's ready one more time available for you and i'll say even though i only had one year with you eva i mean really the advocacy you've done for especially dyslexic children is really critical

037to the work that's happening in our district and i know that you've done a lot of great work over in carlile on that too so thank you for that and cpac is lucky to have you so thank you i'll just chime in and i worked together a whole three years on the committee and she's just a great partner and ally and resource and i'll make that phone call and talk through with you what she's thinking and seeing and hearing and i know i'm not your favorite superintendent because that would be mr o'shea and carlisle but i'm i'm okay with it um we're just grateful for all the time and energy that you put in here it really did matter so thank you the number two it's a very good i understand i'm okay with it

038it's a very close to it i just wanted to say thank you this was valentine's day it seems like the valentine keeps finding me because today i had jury duty coffee but i i look forward to uh staying involved um um i this has been definitely a an amazing experience because i feel like when we were going through pandemic we were so we were working so closely together um in carl and in concord and um bring you know and really crisscrossing uh and making sure that you know um each town each district knew what the other was doing and um it it's it's it that was really you know to see community come together uh it's been so powerful because i think that's one thing that is missing from um a lot of of the

039human experience i don't think we get that chance you know soldiers go to war and they unite you know we don't get those opportunities to really show you know shine through and i think that was definitely the experience now that the pandemic is sort of getting forgotten the world is moving on the kids are moving on i know there are other challenges and you guys will have a big big workload but um you know that work has been done before so uh those big challenges i i am so um i i feel like it's gonna be a breeze again you know and you're getting sharon from from kadau which is is another great gift um so i will i'll be here to support you guys um in any way i can now um especially as

040the high school is going through uh through those changes with landmarks so i really look forward to that seeing another uh area of success for our students so be on the internship you're not done yet so evan i joined in the same year so we've been together for three years um uh this is definitely not goodbye because i know you're going to be with us and helping us and encouraging us which you've always done and i really feel like you're all about understanding and not judgment which is a key um skill for a school committee member because it's easy to do the judgment part and not understand so i look forward to your contributions from cpac and i know we'll hear from you so thank you thank you one more comment i hadn't heard that

041you were joining the cpac board and i'm i'm not surprised but um very very grateful and i think that's wonderful i um i really enjoyed working with you it was our short few months together but i always found you to be so honest and um authentic and kind and a fierce advocate for for everyone who needs you all all the kids who need you so thank you so much it's been wonderful to get to know you i'm glad we'll get to keep in touch thank you i'll we'll do a big send off for you in carlisle so i'll save i'll show you for that but i just thank you for for everything for everything i learned so much from you um and hope to continue to be able to keep learning from you so thank

042you okay so now i can't be left out yeah [Laughter] but your work is admirable and um i've been calling over she's going to be in contact with me i'm going to absorb as much of her knowledge as i can so we can continue our work to support our kids so thank you eva thank you sean okay now we can go and then i will turn over to dr hunter for her recognitions so first tonight we have the cchs black student union so i'm scrolling the zoom board there amanda thompson's on the advisor to the group and we'll invite them to turn their cameras on and we'll cue the presentation and look forward to hearing the work of that great group all right well my name's amanda thompson um as dr hunter said i'm the

043advisor currently for black student union and i'm going to go ahead and turn this over to two of our members malia and amelia [Music] um hi i'm melissa peder i've been going to cchs for two years i am a sophomore um hi i'm a familiar with zach i'm a freshman and i've been in bsu for a year next slide please um bsu was created in 2020 in response to a racially charged and homophobic social media post in the community a demographic breakdown of cchs is that 4.5 of the cch students are students of color and out of 1 300 students 56 students are our medco students and our bsu meetings are held every tuesdays and fridays before school um some of the work that we have done this year is creating a kwanzaa board to

044kind of represent um african culture and just culture in general um each of the can candles represent something and on the candles what they represented during black history month every day we would go on the loudspeaker and share prominent figure um in black history such as malcolm x mlk and maya angelou um bsu is a processing space to have cultural conversations and to have conversations about national issues and issues within our school and to find a way to it looks like you're muted but there you go that's yeah that's i mean that's all i really have to say on that um we hope to do a walk walkout in a peaceful demonstration just to bring awareness about national problems and we also hope to do a mentorship program with the middle school to give the

045middle school students a place where they can feel safe and talk about stuff that may be happening nationally and stuff that might be happening in their community um bs2 also hopes to do a black student union summit with other districts within the school or within other schools within the district i'm sorry um just so that we can hopefully start bsu's in other schools and other committee uh communities we also hope to do a day of silence because for so many years we were silenced um not by choice but we kind of want to do a day of silence because now it would be our choice and it's a movement that we kind of want to do all right that's the entire presentation i think malia and amelia um if you had anything that didn't get

046picked up by the microphone but i think you all said what you were going to say yes yeah that's all i really wanted to say yeah thanks so much for speaking for the club thank you so much for this this is really great and especially as freshmen and sophomores i know it can be a little intimidating at the school committee meeting so we certainly appreciate um you know you bring this information to us and i know this is a relatively new group at the high school so we're excited for more to come um you know you probably have about 70 people that just heard your presentation so thank you so much it's really important to us does anybody have any questions or comments about their presentation feedback no i'll just add i've met with them

047once and i'm meeting with them again next week there's a lot of energy here and as you can hear it's a group of underclassmen so there's a lot of potential of where this group is going to go and even what they're trying to to accomplish in the next few weeks so more we'll keep you posted definitely more to come and i know that this group started with a bunch of kids that have graduated already so i'm excited to see that you know as freshmen sophomores you guys are really involved so thank you the overlap between the middle school and the high school like bringing it back i think that's so smart and um great [Music] right okay thank you thank you so much and thank you mrs thompson for coming all right and then our

048next recognition we have a lot of people in this room and i think we do one online so i'll turn it over to dr hunter yes so we're really excited tonight to recognize a number of our retirees who have graciously come in person we're really excited so many of you are able to do that and to dave is on on zoom it's it's an impressive group and it's across all of the schools so we'll take a minute and just name each of them and maybe you can come a little closer and we can recognize you that way your dedication and service to the schools and the children of these districts for the longevity that i'm about to describe is just nothing short of outstanding and extraordinary and there's just no question i know all of

049you and what your legacy will be um is just not up for discussion so all right so i'm going to try to do these in order of longevity but they're not that way on my paper so it may not come out that way we'll do our best um so first i'm going to invite sally quinn reed to come on up sally has been our ally has been our director of center for parents and teachers you have all been hearing about that because it's dissolving along with sally's retirement adult community education actually voted to to incorporate them last week so we're excited for sally she really has been the heart and soul of the center for parents and teachers um and really the whole group of points depending on what's actually happened and sometimes voluntarily without

050any salary so she's done that role for 13 years and we just wish you the best sally so much going on for you with a new grandchild and all we're excited to send you off to your new adventures 18 great years it was very stimulating and exciting and challenging and uh always something very right great thank you and then let's see here judy olson come on up judy is judy is currently our assistant principal at alcott that's a position she took on a couple of years ago moving over from math specialists it's actually our really creative unique assistant principal slash math specialist for a long bunch of reasons and she's really made the job really really powerful in that combination i know her principal naomi would speak very highly of the support you've given to

051her especially as she came on board after sharon young's longevity and all the benefits of that so judy we wish you well after about six how many years of service 15. so we wish you well you know summers will be in maine and with your family and we're just so so excited for you and what's next thank you so much the uh the children and the families have been just a real pilot so it's been a real privilege thank you thank you we i already have it out of order but mike germain come on up mike has been a pe teacher at willard for the last 15 years and i got to say i go over there and those little people are rollerblading and climbing walls and i don't think i have the skills they

052have which is good they're getting their courage early and um it'll last them a lifetime so mike we're just excited by what you've done at willard and the energy you bring to it and you've gotten involved in the dei work and and all of it so thank you mary jenkinson [Music] mary is our school nurse um and has been for 17 years of it right 17 years at sanborn um with the seventh and eighth graders of the last few years and prior to that six seven and eight and whatever other configurations we've made at the middle schools over the years um mary i can't say enough about the last few years in covid and the rock you have been and the support you've given to the sanborn community whether it's adults kids families the 24

0537 on call for what two years pretty much um and we're just so grateful for all that she's contributed and we're wishing you well in a very well deserved retirement so thank you thank you is rhonda here let's see rhonda so rhonda we have a few people that aren't on the list i know you've seen the list so we'll just express our gratitude to her i am next going to invite well let me go to dave davidson who's on zoom dave are you still there i saw him i think he is he has to unblock his camera so we can see him though um i don't see him anymore all right keep an eye and let me know okay great all right so back here in person i'm going to invite cheryl shea to come

054back up cheryl cheryl's the one of the art teachers at sanborn of the seventh and eighth graders similar mary with the whatever configuration we gave her she made work um 23 years at the middle school yeah cheryl brings just a great energy having been in her classroom kids are actively engaged and doing all sorts of different mediums and there's a lot going on all at once in that really big monstrous oddly shaped room that we ask you to make that used to be the guidance department and then they cut down on the walls and they made it like yeah you make it work somehow you make it look like it's meant for that purpose so cheryl we're really grateful um you just inspired a generation of artists and you know that's a legacy you'll leave

055behind and we're excited for whatever's next so thank you no idea thank you thank you very much thank you for all of you for that support and thank you cheryl eric paul would you come on up eric's retiring after 25 years is that right a spanish teacher at the high school um his longevity there is nothing short of extraordinary he's traveled the world with kids he's inspired the language he's inspired connections of all kind i will thank him personally for his role also as uh ccta president for a number of years and the real grace and gift that was to the entire district the teachers of the high school and those of us who worked with you simultaneously so i'm gathering you're getting a little gift of your own since mary's not retiring that sounds

056exciting so uh yeah eric we chat about his four kids who've all come up through and mary's a sand at peabody now and um eric's off to new adventures so thank you so much thank you very much thank you senor paul true honor and privilege to have landed here in concord 25 years ago it's been the best possible job i can imagine and thank you and all the previous school community members for all of your support kids and teachers over the years thank you thank you and last but not least bob farty will you come up please [Laughter] and kristen chaiman anywhere a long way bob has served as our social studies elementary social studies consultant for a number of years but that's only to cap off a career of 54 years of service here

057in the concord schools so i don't even know how to describe the impact that that has had but it's outstanding and amazing and we're just so grateful you stayed with us as long as you have and inspired us all and when we need thoreau to show up you're present and willing and bus tours and whatever whatever new idea we get so bob thank you you leave behind a legacy of congress history and its young people knowing its history and we're very grateful for that thank you to the science program 20 years later and then i officially retired in 2006 at the retirement party uh the assistant supporting the school's doctor greatly came up to me so um when other people said uh parents administrators my colleagues but most of all the students have made this

058almost are not alive i don't think of confidence as the community i think we're talking about schools as a concept steeped in ideas and ideals and even though i'm just a very small thread in that capistry which we call the legacy and history of congress i feel very fortunate to entitle that but i think there's a wonderful scene in my golden fondant founder and without a uh normal fair it's my favorite birthday said i'm rick how did [Music] thousands of students a mom said to me i asked my son jeff why is it about this one's family that you like so much instead it makes us want to learn but at the end of the year they submitted to me all done in one attachment with calligraphy all the names signed thank you you made

059this one thank you bob [Music] i'm going to ask to indulge you with one more recognition this one not quite as happy this past week we lost beth studdy who is a long time human resource manager and administrative assistant here at the central office beth had been out for about 18 months following a stroke so our hearts have been with her for a long time but certainly her passing has left a mark on all of us on all of them and really we should all be so lucky to have touched a district like that so if you could just humor me to read a little bit maybe a quick moment of silence um at the central office beth was a driving light beth worked very very hard and was tireless in the time she would

060put in for many years she made every person across her path feel important which i'm sure many of you felt as she answered your questions or welcomed you as new employee this is from my email to the teachers uh her heart and energy were huge which influenced the climate of the hr office and most of the central office as well we all knew how much she loved boston college big poppy and a good party which she was always more than happy to organize and host she could tell a story with the best of them holding your attention for many minutes while you waited for that final punch line one of our best moments was the fall of 2019. we promoted her to hr manager jared actually did that and um the whole entire k-12 staff

061gave her a standing ovation for her new role and i know that's left a mark on all of us and a story we're very grateful to be able to tell her family so in gratitude and memory of best study maybe a quick moment of time she'd want you to clap i know sure [Music] so thank you thank you to all of you for your service i think that my kids have experienced most of all of you in here i know a lot of you uh in the nurses office was a favorite place for lots of my kids sometimes just to chat or have lunch or things like that but you know you will all be very missed so thank you to our retirees and our condolences to beth duddy's family so thank you all okay

062and you can feel free if the retirees you don't have to save the rest of the meeting and you can if you like to we'd love to have you but if you have something else to do we certainly understand thank you all good night everyone absolutely thank you good night okay so next up we have the reading of the minutes so i think everyone should have received the minutes from april 26 and may 1st from aaron and any additions on those or comments okay okay so i'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes from april 26 2022. so moved okay all right thank you in a second okay all in favor aye aye aye opposed no one okay those are approved thank you and then moving on to correspondence so we'll start with uh cps

063first we had a total of i think 12 pieces of correspondence 10 of which were referencing the hostile work environment complaint one of which was about the metco school committee seat and one was a piece of correspondence asking for increased efforts in our diversity equity and inclusion work okay and at the district we've had 52 emails 47 of them referenced the hustle work environment complaint one in support of the school committee one in support of school committee process and many reference their support of our superintendent dr hunter and that's all we had at the region all right and then on to chairs and liaisons reports and i'm going to actually start on this one because it's kind of built off of the correspondence so as chair of the region i had a and i think

064all of you received the email i had a conversation with jack huntress who's the chair of carlisle and you all saw our correspondence and all the points that i sent over to carlisle because i do believe that we will be on the june 1st carlyle agenda so i just want to make sure the public has the same information that i gave out to the carlisle school committee and i just am going to read the five points that i sent out um to carlyle because this will be on their agenda on june 1st so the first point is and these are all in reference to the hostile work environment complaint there has been no vote on an investigation there have been no depositions there is no knowledge of leaks from the executive sessions the joint committee

065is committed to a process of resolving issues with the superintendent and a settlement discussion has started with the superintendent and meetings continue between district council the school committees and the superintendent and her legal counsel so that was all that i had in terms of my report and then if we can just go around and everyone can give their updates um so let's see vincom cynthia do you have anything from people they have met okay no uh next up metco's superintendent's advisory council carrie yeah so um we met last week on may 11th with um dr hunter and andrew nemichi tracy myself and um and then there was probably about 10 members of the the advisory council it was a very frank collaborative productive meeting we talked about three key things one was the policy to

066add a medical representative to the concord and concord carlisle regional school committees which i won't go into because i know we'll talk about later in the agenda um the second was professional development and andrew gave an overview of the various professional development paths offered to and then also mandated for all faculty and we had a good conversation about what um what that currently looks like and some some questions about how that can be improved upon um and then i think worth noting was andrew talked about the fact that a lot of the eighth graders in or all of the eighth graders in concord and then also the eighth graders in carlisle are undergoing um dei training themselves through um playbook initiatives yes through the celtics and um so they'll all be entering ninth grade with

067the same um training and then as part of their ninth grade academy um they'll be participating in adl training so i think that this is going from staff our the school committee did a nine-hour training recently students it's um it's really exciting to see all of this work taking place um and then the last thing we talked about was the a letter um by the superintendent uh prohibiting racial slurs um and we had a really good conversation i thought about um what that looks like so dr hunter shared a draft that she had written and um we all went around talking about reactions to it um and i think that there was wide consensus that um while it's critical that we do this quickly it's really important it's more important that we do it well

068and that has to be partnered with education in the form of like us you know a speaker or an assembly or breakout groups or some type of thoughtful um academic to understand the history and the impact of these words on individuals and and people at our school so um i thought it was a really great meeting um it was certainly helpful to for me to hear a lot of the different perspectives um i don't i don't want to speak for you but i thought it was a really great meeting it was about an hour and 45 minutes right okay that's it yeah so um can you just tell us when and where you met oh yeah it was on zoom it was on may 11th was it evening daytime yeah seven okay great good good

069good 6 30. and then uh all eighth graders in both carlow and concord receiving the playbook initiative training yes so it was in carla it was in concord and sarah shared that carlisle had adopted it and i think they were they did it they did on the same day they did it or it was like days apart yeah yeah the same week great and i think having we've been doing adl training at the high school for some years this isn't a new initiative right no bigger scope it's a bigger it was an advisory before they were doing an advisory so i think you'll probably hear you might hear part of that was an andrew's presentation that you'll see um they're not going to roll it into 9th grade academy so it's part of all 9th

070graders will get it versus the 15 minutes an advisory okay you know good kind of monthly or however long we'll hear about that tonight yeah uh i i don't know if he's that he's referenced it's reference okay so we will hear more you'll hear more about that for the region and i think that it's just in the planning process too but it is good through ninth grade academy okay so that we might be more of a ninth grade academy presentation too so awesome thank you um okay so we also have the dei strategic steering committee so that's sharon yes so we met on the 18th with andrew via zoom the goal was to review revise and offer feedback on the dei priority area goals and objectives um we met as a group and we broke

071into subgroups to discuss uh six main topics should i go into the topic sorry that's okay that's okay because you know what we have those from andrew okay after so and so after those discussions we um met again as a group to just offer thoughts suggestions and concerns yep thank you perfect thanks uh let's see sustainability set you yes yes um the sustainability subcommittee met actually today um this uh this afternoon and we got the highlight for me was um we got an update from the green team at the high school just the continued work they're doing like so many of the other groups at um the high school in middle school these these kids and their advisors are so committed so enthusiastic um it's so clear and evident i think you know kristen can

072corroborate that um and it is it is nice to see um you know different groups from the schools and the towns um together collaborating and discussing um priorities um essentially for now and in the future so but again the highlight was the green team green team okay that's great and you all said cpac oh yeah i do have c back um so uh as i mentioned um one of the more exciting pieces of news was that eva is joining the board um the cpac kicked off their um meeting talking about the ways in which they as their own board can champion dei initiatives and and they're they are currently discussing the addition of three seats to board positions those seats would be a specific carlyle member and i think actually that is the role that

073eva is going to move into a specific metco seat to represent the medco community and the potential for a specific seat for an ell parent again those are just preliminary discussions um but they are really committed to um demonstrating um you know how they can be more inclusive and and intersect with the work that is sort of happening at a larger level in the district next we discussed inclusive design which is a really important aspect of how kids with disabilities are going to be represented at the middle school lori was gracious enough to come and sort of give an update as to some of the new spaces that she is currently working on you know developing with the staff the architects and um and it was great to see the cpac was able to see

074for the first time some newer spaces and how those spaces are being realized and how even little tiny things it always does never ceases to amaze me how little things that look ordinary are sometimes actually quite thoughtful and are really based in things like inclusive design so you know to the average person me i wouldn't necessarily notice them so um working with the cpac to ensure that um you know their their advice and um is incorporated into that has been paramount so we'll have continued updates in that arena and then um as always i can't say enough debbie has been just such um such a great asset this year because the way that the committee and the the cpac board and the administration now interact is just is just very fluid and it's very collaborative

075um the cpac board every month uh sarah you'll see this will come always with a robust amount of questions and debbie is just um she's whip smart and and has you know it has is able to engage them in a really collaborative dialogue and i think just it's a i wrapped up the meeting by saying um that it has been so nice to see the sort of evolution of that throughout the year and um i think a lot of gratitude goes out to deb and to lori um for ensuring that relationship has been prioritized um so yeah um that was really it all right on the seatbelt all right thank you um and then select board to set your court yeah there was really um i mean i was there yesterday was it yesterday yes

076uh last night and there really wasn't anything relevant to the school committee okay um discussion they set their goals they opened and closed for hearings which was really interesting and yeah no there wasn't really any activity this week okay and did i leave anybody out well there's one that's not available uh just town of cars carlisle carlisle update that the uh parking the parking on the ballot pass oh okay great which means what what what does that mean the pavement keeping pavement oh you are parking i thought you meant the paving project okay so yeah so that will come to the concord ballot in september very early in september yes the primary yes okay great all right thank you um i think that's all we have for there so on to our quick question did

077you guys get emails inviting you to the chairs breakfast i did not i saw you emailed chris but he has not i tried yeah but i know they're really in a huge transition yeah um so you probably need to follow up with them again there's an uh probably just copying that okay because he's the chair see him okay um and because they have two new people hi matt and that's that's sorry just started so and please come on down to the next year's breakfast be at eight a.m not at nine a.m we're going from a brunch to a breakfast nice okay that's the third wednesday of each month yeah thank you okay is it zoomer in person it is i zoom you zoom for the next one okay okay thank you and cynthia i should

078follow up with chris for to get that invitation i would they have two new people okay so i don't think he's the point person anymore got it okay so that's why yes okay great and i follow up i will also be joining you great so it's both of us so we'll just follow up together yes we will follow up great okay perfect perfect all right all right on to our discussion which i want to invite andrew namichi to join us um we sent out i hope all of you got the dei draft strategic plan this week and andrew's going to do a very brief presentation and give us kind of an update overview and then we're going to have some discussion if we have any questions for andrew or just general discussion that's how we'll

079roll that so on to andrew all right i'm going to share my screen so i'll give you one second alrighty so good evening everyone uh miss sharon witt it is a pleasure to see you on the school committee there uh welcome aboard uh again everyone uh my name is andrew nemich i'm the director of diversity equity and inclusion for concord and conquer carlisle public schools i want to take a moment to thank dr hunter and the school committee for inviting me here this evening the draft of the strategic plan which i am presenting on this evening is an actionable plan grounded in our shared commitment to anti-racism and advancing diversity equity inclusion and belonging in our schools our dei strategic planning process officially began uh this past fall in september 2021 from september to january

080uh through my dei roundtable discussions i had the opportunity to meet and listen to various stakeholders in our school community students parents faculty staff administrators and the school committee who represent uh unique and diverse perspectives across our schools these stakeholders had a lot of feedback to share with me about our dei and anti-racism efforts over the years through february and march i desegregated the data from my dei roundtable discussions and presented my fight-ins uh my findings uh to the school committee on march 8th at that presentation i shared critical dei priority areas and emerging themes that now have informed the development of our draft strategic plan we transitioned into phase three of the strategic planning process at the start of april with a draft of the strategic plan the priority areas goals and objectives so

081tonight i'm going to spend you know a brief moment talking about those refined uh priority areas and then the goals that have since been reviewed by the uh strategic steering committee as of last week so the six overarching priorities and goals highlighted here i believe will advance our mission to be an inclusive equitable and anti-racist school district the goals and objectives of the strategic plan will be prioritized over the next five years the priority areas and goals are as follows number one priority area is focused on professional development we know and i've said this many times in past presentations that the work of dismantling systems of oppression begins with ourselves by examining our own unconscious biases identity privilege social position and power so the goal within this priority area is to enhance the accessibility of

082professional development opportunities for all faculty and staff including students in that work focusing on increasing our cultural competency and embedding anti-racist practices to meet the diverse learning needs of each student priority number two is focused on cultivating an inclusive equitable and anti-racist school culture the culture is something that surrounds us all students faculty and staff come to school with a wide range of cultural backgrounds experiences knowledge and beliefs i believe that the administration of any school district sets the climate of the school and the students the faculty and the staff and even the parents influence how the school's culture is then experienced within this priority area the goal here is to again cultivate a welcoming respectful and anti-racist culture that models behavior centered on equity inclusion and belonging and balances psychological safety with accountability our

083goal area number three is focused on culturally responsive curriculum equity and inclusion in the classroom culturally cultural responsiveness rather requires that educators and staff actively welcome and learn more about diversity and all of their students valuing their students intersecting social identities their lived experiences family dynamics their aspirations and much more the goal of within this priority area is to continue promoting inclusive and equitable practices in the classroom and a culturally responsive curriculum that affirms students social identities and increases their understanding and appreciation of diverse perspectives and learning styles priority number four is focused on student and family engagement the goal here is to leverage the cultural wealth of our students and families by creating partnerships that recognize their voice contributions and needs cultural differences including that of race ethnicity language gender sexual orientation disability etc

084should be treated as assets when it comes to teaching and learning and we need to leverage and celebrate these cultural differences in our schools and especially in our classrooms while schooling has traditionally privileged the capital of families from dominant backgrounds being culturally responsive and how we engage our students and families especially our bipart black indigenous people of color students and families will truly acknowledge and value the wealth of knowledge that they have that they have to enric to further enrich our diversity uh our diverse uh community the fifth uh priority area is focused on hiring mentoring and retention the goal here is simple to increase recruitment hiring mentoring and retention of educators of color and i've said this in the past if we say we are committed to diversity then we need to prioritize the

085representation of racially and ethnically diverse educators in our schools in teaching and leadership positions last but not least the sixth priority area is focused on transparent communication and institutional accountability the goal here is to utilize meaningful data to hold ourselves accountable and be transparent in our communication about how we achieve the goals and objectives of the strategic plan while the burden of accountability is especially felt by school leaders i believe this work still remains a shared responsibility for everyone in our school community if we are to sustain a strong commitment to anti-racism and advance in diversity equity inclusion and belonging in our schools to ensure transparency and accountability in our strategic planning process a strategic steering committee consisted of 24 members with representation from high school students school committee members school administrators faculty staff and

086parents has been established as of last week we held our first meeting last week on wednesday may 18th the steering committee will help guide the implementation of our strategic plan the committee currently has three tasks to accomplish number one as of last week the steering committee actually reviewed the dei priority areas that you just saw as well as the goals and objectives of the draft strategic plan so that occurred last week number two this week actually tomorrow wednesday may 25th the steering committee will assist me in finalizing a unifying mission and vision statement that reflects our commitment to this work and then lastly before our last steering committee meeting on june 9th the committee will determine for year one the objectives we will focus on in each goal area of the strategic plan and the

087key metrics that we will use to measure and track progress so year one is just next year 2022-23 school year now again just as i said in the previous slide our strategic plan is going to be laid out over the next five years but again you know while there are many uh objectives within each goal area we are going to focus on um drafting uh pretty much a strategic plan that that's going to be focused on next year and the objectives that we hope to accomplish for the next school year while i won't spend time going through the objectives of each defined goal area i do want to acknowledge that the school committee has had a chance to review the objectives outlined within each goal area and so again i won't spend too much time

088on that but i will end on this before i open it up for questions comments i want to share with you that this is my proposed mission and vision statement for our strategic plan tomorrow again on wednesday tomorrow uh these the um the strategic steering committee will actually meet as a group and they will either revise this proposed statement or they will work within their own breakout groups to draft a new mission and vision statement for our strategic plan and so i'm going to go ahead and just read what i have proposed here for our mission and vision statement our mission in the conquered and conquer carlisle public schools is to recognize value and respect our diversity of race ethnicity gender identity and expression religion disability sexual orientation and social economic status we are committed

089to fostering healthy learning environments that balance psychological safety with accountability and model behaviors centered on inclusion belonging and anti-racist practices we believe our moral responsibility is to actively confront our own unconscious biases when they show up in our practice and and the climate of our schools we will challenge our policies behaviors and beliefs that perpetuate racist and discriminatory ideas and actions which disproportionately impact are underrepresented and historically marginalized groups to become competent in the cultures of those we work and learn with we will engage meaningfully in cross-cultural engagements that foster trust and promotes a greater sense of cultural awareness in the conquered and conquer carlisle public schools we will bolster equity and justice for our black indigenous people of color students parents faculty and staff the broader impact of our actions will ensure that everyone

090in our school community is treated fairly feels a deep sense of belonging and has access to opportunities and advancements they need to thrive so again that is a proposed mission and vision statement that the steering committee tomorrow will have a chance of reading over they will make revisions or offer up their own mission and vision statement so now open it up for a discussion um so appreciate your time thank you all right so thank you andrew this is greatly appreciated it's been a a busy year of work for you as you know and we're glad to get you back here with us um we did have a cynthia question about can you talk a little bit about um this was ripe for a presentation about adl training within ninth grade academy and how that's gonna

091look i can certainly do that i don't wanna put the carriage in front of the horse if you're not ready it's totally fine i will i will gladly i will gladly talk briefly about it uh so very briefly like high level very basic absolutely and i think i overheard cynthia i will i did overhear some of the discussion and as you know you know our adl training program we've had a long-standing partnership with the adl we've held trainings every year for our upper class uh students our 10th 11th and 12th graders um and you know it's a three-day training program and after the three-day training we select a number of students who then go into advisory um advisory to facilitate discussions however over the many years we've been we've been running the adl training program

092the feedback we have received from students and parents is that it does not our advisory program does not allow enough time for these student leader leaders to actually facilitate um discussions on race um and and just different uh sort of isms that that that appear in our schools and so going into next year i made the proposal that that we would expand our adl training program and train all of our incoming ninth graders through the ninth grade academy program and so currently we are working with the ninth grade academy leaders to ensure that um that this training does happen next year we have already set dates for next year the trainings will happen uh there's one in october one in november and one in march we are waiting for confirmation from the adl that they

093will that they are able to meet on those dates and and in addition to um the number of of instructors adl instructors that they are going to send to us uh very recently actually as of i believe last week um this this proposal for the adl ninth grade uh training um i i actually submitted a grant proposal to the cef and so i'm happy to announce that the cef is going to fund uh the majority of the cost for the training program next year um and and so you know that's exciting news and so we're just you know we're really working together again the cchs admin team myself and the ninth grade academy leaders to ensure that this training does occur in the fall and then later on in the spring that's great does anyone

094have any questions comments um discussion those are my questions sorry i was like i should just like okay sorry about that no no thank you so much andrew i this 23 members is impressive i'm excited to see parents on that as well as staff and members from our organization it's a tremendous undertaking and i appreciate the diversity of the people that you've gathered together in a room it's important and i'm appreciative of all that representation and i think the students on that committee too it's great to have students on the committee and there was i think in the breakout rooms i think some some people that were actually on the committee are listening on the call tonight the teachers um like we're just so excited they didn't really want to go back to the main

095room like they had more work to do so they were ready to go so i thought that was great too but definitely a lot of work has gone into this this year we certainly appreciate you know this format and the goal is next year to get andrew on the agenda with us and to really have him back more often at least four times a year and just to give us updates and i think that you know one of the teachers um i i don't even know if it was a teacher that commented but somebody said you know this seems like so much work and it is a five-year plan and how are we going to monitor that so do you want to talk a little bit about how to monitor you know what's happening in

096our pla in the plan yeah absolutely i mean again you know i do want to emphasize that this is this this current iteration of the strategic plan is in the drive form and so with the steering committee right the goal of of this group is actually to determine uh the different metrics that we are going to use uh to measure each objective right uh and so you know i i can i can probably give you an example of um of one of the metrics which is an easy one in terms of under the priority area of culturally responsive curriculum one of the objectives is to assess patterns of disproportionality in student achievement and identify research-based data-driven enrichment programs similar to our our current partnership with the calculus project right and so how do we measure

097disproportionality right we're going to look at mcas data sats uh data star assessments students placement and honors and ap courses right and so while while those are just some of the elements within some of the metrics that we're going to use to measure that specific objectives you can imagine that there are and i'm sure kristen herbert can share with you there are many other data points that we can that we can um use to measure uh disproportionality around student achievement so that's literally one one focus area um but again the the goal of the of the steering committee is to determine what metrics we're going to use for every single objective within every um within every uh uh goal area and and uh a priority area in the strategic plan [Music] and where you're the

098meetings right now so we have three before the end of the year and then it reminds me we're thinking once a month next year yes so currently uh we are i'm hoping that most of of the members on the steering committee will continue on uh in the fall we will begin meeting right in september and the goal is to meet on a monthly basis this is great okay any other questions comments or anything nope okay well thank you so much for coming and um you know we've enjoyed your time with us this year i've certainly enjoyed your time in our dei sub committee and and all other places that you've been doing this work so thank you for that and we look forward to next year absolutely thank you for having me appreciate it thanks

099andrew thanks all right um the equity audit we're actually not prepared to have that in the agenda so we're just going to skip down to my mistake the uh metco school committee representative policy and i think that aaron is going to share the screen with us um as i mentioned court is not with us tonight and court shares policy but we really want to get to this tonight and so the committee as a whole is going to work on this policy and kind of how we've done um some other things as a committee aaron's going to have it on the screen kerry's going to make changes and we have definitely gotten some feedback we've heard the feedback so this is an opportunity for us to have a discussion about that um yes so did everybody

100get the email today the region got it i saw it was sent to the cocker school committee did you get it or no it just yeah but it didn't go to the right didn't go to the region i can forward it yeah okay sorry about that and i don't have it in front of me but okay i'm sure so we've um certainly had feedback from the community we've had feedback from the metco collaborative we've had feedback from the superintendent specto advisory council so we're taking all that feedback into consideration and i do have you know some recommendations that i'm comfortable with um but i'd love to hear everybody else's feedback on that just out of discussions and emails and everything else i think because i think that we need to you know talk about that

101and take all those things into consideration so in looking at this we initially thought on policy and at court evan and i um set on policy that there would be one non-voting representative but we have certainly heard the feedback and the need to have two representatives one k through five a k through eight sorry and the other nine through twelve and the language carry i actually have a suggestion okay do you want this in edit format or do you want me to just make the changes like do you want to see how it's like crosstalk um yeah you could put an edit that's fine great and then i think that's better do i not have in front of me i think that i think i left that piece of paper at home um but we

102i would like to just two non-voting representatives who shall represent families participate in the concord and carl metco program the other feedback that we did have um was if the representatives could be current families or alumni families and i would like to also add that in there and i'd love to hear everybody else's thoughts on that those two changes first one would be two representatives and the other would be alumni and current medco families cynthia yep um so did you say you wanted or did not think it should be specific that's oneness k-8 and one is cchs or no well the request is for two so one k eight and one cchs yeah i was just saying two but we do we need to make that okay i think that would be helpful to have

103would you agree with that one k eight we should put it in there yeah like yeah i it would be good not to have to high school and no representation from um right so i think we should specify that that's a good catch right there or the reverse right yep because i think that um part of the in the discussion that we had was that it can be the needs k-8 are very different than 9-12 the needs that families have and you know different issues that might come up and i think it's i think it's important to know that they'll be representing the students with those interests but the member the representative themselves may or may not be a parent because we are going to be inclusive of alumni and and past participants so so

104i don't so i do think it matters to some extent for clarity just so that they represent interest but it won't be a requirement that they have a you know any student in those right similar to you know you know sitting on this committee you know some of us have children in the district some don't and so that would be the same type of thing yep sarah and and that person could act as sort of a conduit for questions or concerns or issues that are more targeted to the k-8 yes you know from the public if they could their people turn to the channel yeah um do you have anything karen no i i support both changes both changes sharing that's pretty good okay uh so i changed it i don't do you want to

105wordsmith it yeah so we have to wordsmith the alternate because it's because if we make the change to have two representatives then there will not be an alternate any longer and i do think you know that both um you know the k to eight and the nine to twelve first it'll be an opportunity for them to get to know each other and and you know certainly if one person couldn't come the other one could be representative and hopefully you know they'll work with the collective and any other you know parent group in the superintendent's advisory council to just get the information out there the other so do you want to delete the next sentence this in addition there shall be an alternate who will act on behalf of the representatives yes that's great there's no

106strike there's there yeah that's good there we go yeah all right see we're getting we're getting better at uh editing in public uh let's say mexico and so that would have to be medco representatives with an s yep [Music] will be authorized to sit at all open sessions of the school committee and to discuss matters of concern in a fashion similar to a school committee members and in regards to executive session we definitely would need guidance from masc i don't even know that that's i don't think that's a possibility at all cynthia um so just to the point is it worth going to the town of concord and getting at the opinion of counsel on the possibilities regarding the home rule petition and all that we would have fashioned this in this way now but

107just going forward because that question spoke from so many different people right um just to address that the voting versus the non-voting correct member yes yeah i think that that would be something that after the policy is finished right then we can craft that because that's a longer process right i just want to maybe we could sort of informally state a commitment to following through on that or sure um do you feel comfortable with that um sure i would look to lori for that a little bit in terms of it's just that's what's going to do but i'm going to ask you application you want to include it in the policy no no no i just want to make it sort of a commitment to follow through and see what the options are with the

108town of you know be the the select board of the town council the clerk right um which would be us but then lori had also spoken with representative tammy govano so i so we have that as the you know the legislative piece but we would have to deal with the town of concord peace so would we do so the town of concord i'm pretty sure would have to vote a home rule petition at the you know at our town meeting certainly so alexa and i can appreciate that do have a special town meeting coming up in the fall i've heard rumors of i'm not sure why not for okay not for any of our stuff but um but so i was just wondering you know just to show good faith to these people who've been

109asking i i think we're going to hit a pretty hard wall on this um process because i think it'll be ruled unconstitutional to have somebody vote who doesn't live in our on the town of concord but okay yeah i think that will be ongoing work definitely they'll be on the liaison with the town hall okay or just general information okay so so you're really testing my eyes now in addition to in addition the metro representatives may accept other responsibilities including committee assignments as determined and assigned by the chairs of the concord and conquer carlisle school committees yes yep any edits to that i don't see any there anyone have any edits to that oh i have to look at this one this is much easier to see you cannot can you look you can look

110on your computer too no i can't i just don't have it pulled up right now oh okay so okay the two mecca representatives shall be chosen by boston resident medical families via a bi-annual election for two-year term that i think that's fine everyone agree with that's fine that sounds fine yeah yep sarah can i go back to because we did on that on the question of executive session participation and um i just want to you know just just to clarify to the public like what what the barrier is there that you can't participate in executive session right but also there's definitely you know school committee work is is often unknown outside unless you're in the school committee you don't know so there was a comment about that like the budget work happens in executive session

111and that's i just wanted to clarify right yes so the budget is always done in the public and so it's just worth noting that the things that happened in executive session are very particular very very very narrow and there are i i think there were six you know reasons for executive session and those are listener policies so if anyone on the call is listening you can look at our school committee policies on executive session and you can see the reasons for it to just see things that we can discuss in executive session but budget is always discussed in the public yeah so i just wanted to yep thank you for that um okay so all boston resident concord or concord carl metcal parents or guardians will be eligible for this position so we can also

112add or alumni families and alumni and yeah and alumni families thank you and if anyone has any comments just jump in okay an election will take place through a fair and open process determined by the superintendent's medco advisory council so we had that discussion um and carrie and lori feel free to jump in that we had that discussion with the superintendent's advisory council and i think that that it really was that the only way to get the information to every medco family is through either laurie deb jemison can barbara burgos do it too or no she could do it so it's really the email gets sent through the district somehow um the other option that we discussed is the formation of a boston ptg association which would then parallel the ptg's that run at the

113schools in which case people can opt in to the membership and receive the information that way that first would require the establishment of that kind of organization and what we are trying to do is to have the the boston uh we have a few different groups happening right now and i think that's what we're all struggling with we have the superintendent's medical advisory council we have the collective and then if there was a ptg or something like that so really the the boston families are going to run their own election that that's everybody's goal is for the boston families to run their own election so i think it's just a matter of wording it properly so it feels like that and sounds like that yep can you just i know you did so much work

114on figuring what other people do can you can you remind us if there were any good takeaways from like whereas applies in bedford the superintendent of points which that was not an option um in lincoln i think that the superintendent also appoints or somebody just offers to do it on behalf of their school committee and westin has the best policy because they do have the boston west end parents uh organization because it's bwpo which is like a ptg and they run their own election and everything's great and they have they have their regular pto meetings and then they also have the boston western pto meetings at the same time so there's a lot of discussion back and forth and so their process was the best um but you know i think the goal is that

115the boston families will run their own election however they want that to happen and so i just want the policy to to recognize that and something like that if you have any suggestions alexa casting the widest net however to ensure that all families have access would likely at least alerting to the fact like could it be well two steps the alert to the fact that there is an election could be handled let's say by deb jemisin because it would ensure that every family had the knowledge and understanding that this was happening and then i don't know yeah i guess how do you so how do we run that does this have to be um does this fall into like your point of like the how how we do things like do we need to include

116this in this policy do we just take it out and strike this would be a part of the process to figure out how we do this yeah and then because you charge the account charge the advisory group with figuring that out yeah so it's a collaborative discussion okay that makes sense good catch we don't do the how we do that yep so do we are we then deleting this sentence an election will take place can we just say through a fair and open process and put a period after that sure is everybody like that so that's what it looked like because i think what we're all saying is is kind of the same we don't want it to be an appointment position we want it to be a fair and open process election yeah really

117okay so the mecca representatives so you'll need an s there well i think we're going to delete this oh we're going to delete that one okay because this would be they would still i don't know if you want to include something about renomination since it now includes alumni family just delete it yep just and in some cases of other districts uh the representative has actually been fairly consistent for five years seven years for a long period of time and i you know if we just leave it purposely vague so that that can happen if that if we have a family that's you know really active and really wants to say part of it that's great um so a vacancy i do think we still need the policy committee felt like vacancy was important to determine

118what would happen if there was a vacancy because we want to ensure that there's always representation and especially now that it's going to be two we do have to deal with vacancy do we say determined by instead of this the metco advisory council may nominate they would determine how i don't know or do you want the advisory council to nominate a person i i feel like the collective's feedback was that they wanted to appoint someone if a vacancy occurred is there much of a difference between a nominator or a point um is that semantics i don't know it really is i'm being um i'm genuinely asking but we can't include the collective apparently because they're not language right now that was right yeah was there ever a conversation sorry if i missed this was there

119a conversation about having it sort of mirror how the school committee operates like if you know that you can in a little bit of a different way because in carlisle we have a vacancy that you nominate so right but anybody could could you nominate for a certain period of time and like for the remainder of the school year and then have an election for the next one that finishes off that term you know what i'm saying right well so when we discuss the set policy um we discussed how many persons for appointment to complete the unexpired two-year term because i think it would mirror our process here right cynthia it's not regarding this so if you want to finish yeah oh okay um so the question is do we want it to read the superintendent's

120mecca advisory council may nominate a person for appointment i think so because i think that's the only mechanism we have right now to do that and we can amend it in the future if that changes and we did talk about the fact that policies we revisit all the time and we were you know we're gonna try this and and see what happens to get the policy in place and then if we need to make an adjustment the policy committee can do that so yes i want to know what is the timeline on this approximately to get to getting this done or to yeah getting ready right so we need to once we have this policy then i believe we need to do we have a second reading so we need a first reading a second

121reading so the goal is to have someone in place by september good so we have a few more meetings left to do that and then we can get some more feedback from the superintendent's advising advisory council on may 31st see how this looks and then bring it back to the full committee for first and second does that make sense yeah one thing just to note that um came up in the the last meeting with the advisory council is that um one thing that the collective had been asking for was a stipend and millie at metco inc had offered to um to fund that essentially to give amex gift gift cards or gas gift cards for travel and reimbursement so um that was hugely helpful yes i forgot that right thank you so much because we

122don't have a mechanism for stipends but she does so so this would not count as our first read because we're because we're about it's in our discretion okay i i think it could i think it could first read yeah i think this could so then you get your feedback on the 31st in our at our next meeting we would be able to adopt it so that we could you know expedite this okay to the best of our ability one other thing to potentially add is um and i don't know if this is the right place for it but we had talked about putting somewhere in here at least one boston meeting does that belong in here um not in policy not in policy we can make a commitment to that and that's i think that's

123what we were talking about millie um but she was also talking about a school committee meeting at least one would be in boston yeah that's what i'm sorry that's okay sorry okay just clarifying that all right so we're gonna count this as the first read we're going to get feedback from um our boston families through the collective um and not the i'm sorry through the superintendent's medco advisory council and if anyone else has any feedback they can always email the school committee because we do love to hear from people um and then we'll bring it back for a second reading okay on june 7th on june 7. yes okay okay thank you so we're we're good with comments everyone was feeling good good great that's great can we just um link the updated if it's

124not auto linked in our agenda with the edits so that it can be available the new policy correct yes edited whatever you want to call it yeah we'll link that to tonight's agenda and then um would you be able to send it out on your friday email um just what the with the changes are and then you know certainly if anyone say feedback they can give us feedback that'd be great do you want me to send you a clean yeah okay please yeah refreshing it to the top of my email won't be great okay all right i think we're good on that thank you for that and just for the public just so everyone knows um we did this this is what would typically happen in a policy subcommittee meeting but we could not get

125a date that was working for everybody and we felt it was important enough for the entire committee to work on this so thank you to everybody for that um okay on to the school committee calendar which i believe that alexa sent yeah yeah um it's pretty boring we're um we're following our schedule the only thing that i would ask everyone to do if you haven't done it already i haven't gotten any feedback it's just to ensure that the dates work for you if there's anything glaring i know who knows in may i get it i get it um but you know some of us are type a planner types and may have conflict already so if there is anything that jumps out at you just um pop it our way but hopefully this is just

126pretty basic stuff and we're gonna run those dates by millie um to find a location at a time that works she has about 30 i think school committees that are are booking time with her so her schedule fills up pretty quickly and she'll help us you know secure space in boston and we're definitely going to commit to at least one mini in boston question about the january meetings that we have a two week we were two week gap between meetings in january and that i mean this year we needed three meetings in january so because of it was there was budget stuff we might have even had more because i think then you had a concord specific one as well so just to put that on the radar that yeah it'll evolve once we have

127the town calendar yeah we can when carla and concord then things can change right we just don't they haven't i've got sets in the summer i think they've already approached me about a possible town meeting dave some intermittent fasting or in the spring and then they work backwards from that so i heard that we're having a special town meeting in the fall i don't know anything i haven't heard that maybe i'm talking spring she's already i'm not sure she had left the high school yet before she emailed me about next year it's just a plan yeah great so just a question no no i know that she's on vacation you told us about that but i mean so we're gonna make a soft commitment the school committee will yeah we're also waiting to um secure

128an additional um facilitator to help us with some of the work um that we had commenced um in march and um that gentleman is also on vacation um so we just we just don't have anything scheduled yet because we do not have we we really want to prioritize the work um if we can with this new facilitator who has not agreed to work with us yet right but dorothy so yeah and then fill in with um dorothy so update's forthcoming it's just everyone in the world is on vacation right now so um that's really the only reason why we just haven't had any um ability to connect with anyone right but dorothy we we could get an update on with her for on june 7th maybe sure yeah sure yes so she's yeah she's out

129of town until june 1st right and so we can you know like today i contacted you know mas you can contact masc before them but certainly it would be dorothy that would do the scheduling for us so hopefully we'll have an update on june 7th so great yep all right and favorite topic now to dr hunter for the covet update but let's move down darcy and harry have taken it really it is the high schooler watching the numbers are down in the other schools this weekend which is great to see last week we had 110 cases um we've had the illegal elementary schools kind of had a turn at being a little hotter than the week before but the numbers are really great coming out of the elementary schools right now so 15 cases in

130two days at cms 34 coming out of the high school and yes the prom is contributing so those numbers may grow just so for frame of reference we've been in the 40s around 40 the last few weeks at the high school and we're already at 34. so we had known that was likely to happen and heard from other districts of just that so but otherwise we're status quo i keep holding this very variant just diminishes away and i'm at least excited to see some slow down at the elementary schools because to their point it is it is that i mean we're always worried on health issues of course still but the rest of its inconvenience and disruption and things we're used to but and i don't think anyone expected a spike in the spring so

131thank you again to um all the nurses and to the building administrators um just as a parent we see a great deal of communication and it's quite evident that it's it's a lot to manage and i think no one was expecting this in may so more gratitude coming our way or to their way from us if you can convey it there is a desi webinar tomorrow to tell us what any testing options might be for the summer so we'll have more information after that okay and pool testing right now is continuing to the end of the year yeah we're going to go through the last full week of school so that would be the week of the sixth and then it'll weigh off okay great okay thank you for that um all right and at

132this point we're moving on to additional public comment so if anyone in the room would like to make a public comment you can walk up to the microphone and state your name and address um hi everyone my name is maddie fancy and my address is two to six months ago so first of all i'd like to thank everyone here and especially mr mecha um because you want to take the microphone out of that and just hold it that might work there you go okay so uh my address is 26 months ago um so first of all i'd like to thank everybody here especially mr matcha because um the topic of bringing diversity inclusion and equity into the um curriculum public schools is um something related with ibm researching so as you may or may not

133know eighth graders um in the past couple months have been doing their civic action project um which is where we researched a topic that had a really big impact on people in society and justice specifically so i chose hate crimes and specifically how they can be combated um through like education about diversity and so what i found is that teaching students about diversity is very important by adding lessons that teach students to value diversity and other cultures races and religions they will learn to respect and not hold prejudice against others an idea i've actually explored with my teachers is for elementary school students to research a unesco world heritage site and the culture surrounding it this will promote creativity and cultural appreciation which are values supported by the posters and cultural appreciation not appropriations is

134because what i've learned is that exposing students just even exposing them to different races religions genders sexual orientations is very important and i think that building on what mr matcha has brought up building on creating um lessons that bring diversity into passions and um racist religions genders all that that students might not be already exposed to is very important and can have a huge effect on them so thank you i know i'm not supposed to say but thank you very much [Music] it's like we have someone else coming up hi i'm sally willis 15 sweet virgiling in concord thank you so much this lady has been informative and well thought out appreciate that um i understand that in the past if school community coffees for community members are that i know they've probably been um

135i would be really helpful for cleaners to have a chance to speak informally thank you let's see anyone on soon do we have anyone on zoom if you have a comment please use the raised hand feature see no one nope nope we have one more okay mr moore you can just unblock your screen oh there we go well thank you um eric moore 45 francis street concord massachusetts um thank you for addressing my question with respect to allowing the medco representative to be authorized to sit in executive session thank you for pointing to the relevant policy and i'll just ask the school committee to consider uh the the 10 different clauses under the executive session policy whether or not uh one or two medco representatives would be would be germaine would have things to offer

136in those discussions uh i think i'll make a distinction to my understanding between home rule with respect to being able to vote uh an executive session versus being able to discuss and contribute an executive session uh my belief is still that we benefit greatly by by allowing uh medco representatives to be in executive session even if they can't vote uh i believe the issues in executive session are pretty relevant for everyone thank you thank you yeah okay anyone else in the room all right thank you all right on to our action items for tonight we have two and the first one if i can ask dr hunter to go over that absolutely so we're really excited we've we i'm going to say we in a very general sense because it's really adult community ed and

137kristin's support and created a vision of hoping to provide english classes to families of our el kids that need had been made known to us and we're really excited about the execution of that vision that adult community has endeavored on in hopes to be able to subsidize costs for families in need they pursued some funding so middlesex savings uh charitable foundation accepted and approved a grant for ten thousand dollars that is being awarded to delton community ed so we are at for that purpose specifically so we're asking you to accept that donation tonight and then it will be available to families who are in need of funds to to participate in the english classes right okay does anyone have the motion up that they could see the motion prove any discussion thank you i'll just

138say wow that's a big number and that's awesome these little things all seem little but in the aggregate it'll be really interesting to see the compound i don't know success of all these little initiatives all in this area it's it's really neat genuinely can i ask a question about that did it was this just a gift that landed on your lap because i believe that middlesex they they have given other charitable gifts in the past like i think they had two million dollars like maybe five years ago that they distributed to districts so did you ask for an application it was this was application process yes and so it wasn't out of the blue but no much needed so thank you for that okay good and they've given us yes because sometimes those foundations operate

139as a true gift that you don't see coming to you so yeah i think that's almost the exciting news is jill really pursued funds and was awarded them that's right that's great good so can we have a motion to approve the grant submission i can read it i have it here um i move that the concord carlel school committee vote to accept the donation of ten thousand dollars from the middlesex savings charitable foundation second all right everybody in favor aye hi thank you many thanks to their charitable foundation yes very generous [Music] okay so motion passes and our second action item is a vote to dissolve the dei sub committee and i just wanted to add just two other things to that um you know as part of the discussion and we can certainly have

140discussion before we have the vote but part of this was to involve the entire committee because i know that all of us wanted to participate in the committee to really give equity to all of us um not everyone can attend meetings during the day some can attend at night and this way the entire committee will be involved in this process and certainly our training that we did our nine hours of training is not going to end we will continue to do the work but as a committee as a whole versus a smaller group um and i'm going to re-engage i i have actually reached out to paula for a few more follow-up things because i think in our last training i i said you know do we have like a packet or a takeaway or

141something else that we can have is just to serve as you know just things to look back at and and reminders of some of the training that we did do or any additional things that she wants to pass our way i'll certainly um distribute those to the committee so so that was kind of uh the intention to dissolve it but to be absorbed by the dei strategic steering committee so um any discussion further discussion about that alexa yeah i mean i just think about last year when we formed the committee and laura i don't remember who was aggregating i mean almost everybody wanted to be a part of it and i just i think that for us is such an important piece and you know we talk about these sort of soft commitments and and

142i don't know you know for me uh you know as as i embark upon a chair role uh you know i know that one of the things that tracy and i have been talking about and we've already asked andrew is to ensure that he appears at a minimum quarterly and that we see not just andrew but all kinds of dei diversity equity inclusion matters on our agenda a little bit more regularly because i think um it is important that we all have voice in this work and especially when it is probably um the most important you know it's one of the more important things that we're highlighting we highlighted it last year i think in no uncertain terms is it going to be a cornerstone of our work again and they just want to make

143sure that everyone's voices are able to contribute and if it makes anyone feel better about you know dissolving this committee that the commitment i know is there by the two of us as chairs to ensure that um that there will be ample opportunity to discuss you know all the matters and things that the dei sub committee did but at the whole committee level and i do i think it's important to have all of our voices collectively involved in these so i i really appreciate your perspective but mine is a bit different i think we have so much work to do that we do need to have a subcommittee and i think the community expects us to continue to do that work in the subcommittee um so i feel like i'm i have a commitment that

144we should retain the dea the diversity equity and inclusion subcommittee that's just my perspective okay do we want to just have some discussion about this from every member do you want to okay go ahead yeah yeah um i i see you know i always play by the i see i see both you like that's fine i'm always the middle i know um i see i see i i i like the idea of bringing more stuff to the community i mean we went through this you know even in this iteration this year we just about do we take it to the to the committee overall and we said no that's not where it belongs at this moment right i see a path forward that could be at the same time there's still a dei subcommittee but

145it has it meets quarterly doesn't mean it doesn't have the same frequency just to make sure that that the committee is staying on track on their own work that is separate from the administration's work that's separate from from the the in the building operations but just to make sure that we're staying on our track so i know some school committees have desm companies some school committees don't have cei subcommittees um so i'm just open to some more conversation about this okay thank you sharon i would say much like sarah i see the advantages of both um i do have some concerns about how the work is um communicated to the community if this is an administrative based committee it's not subject to open meeting laws if am i correct in that or in our subcommittee

146no for the strategic uh yes so there are only two of us on there anyway so we wouldn't be we would never be in a quorum on the strategic steering committee okay okay that's that's my observation on it okay great thank you okay alexa um or do you feel like you're good no no um and my only other my only other my my two other concerns are to be sort of you know we all agree that andrew's scope of work is large and enormous and demanding and just also being mindful of his time um you know he is out in he's in demand he's in demand town committees that are seeking his engagement we're seeking his engagement obviously um and i you know to me i feel that there is there's so much overlap in

147the the work of you know these different organizations and groups that we are working on with dei that i do think that is that is another part of a softer concern of mine just being respectful of andrew's ability to to to manage it all and not having too many commitments to too many different committees whose work you know is is is there's a lot of overlap there's a lot of um it can be duplicative so carry yeah i think i i can also see both both angles i i don't love the idea of dissolving dei just for what it means but um it's like you guys did really good work in there but i do think that out of that work these two um really seem to be good um committees have been formed um

148in the the superintendent's advisory council and then in andrew's steering committee um so i um yeah i guess what i would ask is as we go into the summer and think about how we're setting goals for the next year that we're very explicit in how we measure our our dei or diversity equity and inclusion work and hold ourselves accountable so that there isn't anything that falls through the cracks that we don't that we do uphold our promise to to really putting this at the forefront of our our work and agenda yeah i just want to be careful that we don't if we're not i mean the school committee work doesn't end up like on andrew's plate in the in the operations conversation because those the two committees that are that have emerged in in the

149year are not they're not school committee they're not school committee um committees right they're they're they're administrative based um committees so i just no no i just i worry that there's there's so much going on on that on the operations stuff right and it's a lot of stuff that we're not it's good for us to know about that but there's a there is there's a there's an advantage to having a just a a check-in point even for the community right to to be able to say hey like this is a touch this is where i can go to connect with what the school committee is working on um i don't know i just i i i mean and i'm totally conscientious of andrew i mean the amount of time that andrew gave to us over

150the year was was was a lot and very much appreciated but i wonder if there's just as we're figuring out how even with the strategic plan like how how the school committee fits in to all of that like is there a sort of a hybrid path forward for a scaled back you know not the monthly meetings but just a like scaled back approach to i think that's what we're endeavoring to do with the whole committee so that everyone's involved we have our evening our meetings are in the evening as opposed to the daytime um it it has you know i think more access for people um to engage with us at the full committee level and they're getting the benefit of engaging with all of us and you know i don't i don't know when

151the election for the two metco representatives will happen but you know ensuring that the entirety of uh this group is all um a part of that discussion i think is important and again ensuring that we have the appropriate amount of diversity equity inclusion work on our school committee agendas our large format you know sort of the way we did this evening the policy i think is the antidote to that you know and again it provides us with a more inclusive environment to do it that is often i think more convenient for the public to engage with us right and i guess you know from my perspective because we we did have a lot of discussion about this um you know and alexa and i with andrew and laurie we did discuss you know why we

152wanted to dissolve it and it's not because you know i mean it is this work is very important but we want to be more collaborative with the steering committee process versus you know the school committee looking over you know and having andrew present to the smaller group and then present to the larger group we'd prefer that the entire group be informed and be able to participate more than just a subcommittee group so that i mean and i chaired the dei sub committee this year and it would be my recommendation as chair of that committee to roll it into the dei strategic planning strategic steering committee sorry because it will meet monthly we do have you know we have discussion that we're going to have it's you know it's looking at the actual strategic plan now

153and the mission statement and it is getting into that work and there's certainly more work to do as a committee but i think it's going to benefit the entire committee to participate in this work yes cynthia but i think it needs to complement and i think you just said exactly what i think is it needs that complement of a dei sub because the public does not have access to those those meetings at all there's no recordings there's no public still have access to our school committee meetings because what i do i think it works if you're working i i have a different perspective and it's fine yeah which is fine yeah i think it's just about whether we want to put the work of the dei sub committee on our main agendas and and my

154my advocacy for that is absolutely yes because it involves all of us um and that's i guess that's really sort of the crux of it subcommittee on our website i think it's technically like i don't know if that ever got closed off so like you can notice it was even leave it open as like an option to tap into at some point right like we were just it was advised that that in order to if we're not gonna elect or appoint representatives to it you you dissolve it i mean we could i suppose we can go a year and and further i think you know these things are this is for a year we'll revisit our goals we'll revisit appointments we'll revisit the organizations with which we liaise every year and i think too one

155thing that um i want to focus more on this is you know a little bit tangential to the discussion is sort of is is is better self-evaluation of the committee a little bit more robust discussion and that would absolutely be a part of this well that didn't work um or oh you know um you know could could we could we reinstate it and here are the reasons why i mean certainly things are fluid and never off the table but i do think it's worthwhile to to bring this to the whole committee and and and what that means um just to include all of our voices let's just pick a vote okay you can certainly take a vote and i and i just will also say you know laurie and andrew and kristen also sit on

156that um that committee with us and so when those meetings happen during the day then the public can't always be part of it which our goal was to really have the public more engaged with us during the school committee meeting on this so yep yeah like you know everyone's got limited time like our goal was also to alternate the meetings right to meet in the mornings that was like at our first meeting we're gonna meet the ei subcommittee will meet in the mornings and then evenings in the mornings in the evening and we never know and we didn't do that work no and i think part of the reason you know when we are dealing with employees we have to be cognizant of the night meetings you know that they're attending for fincom and other

157things so you know that that just didn't work out this year unfortunately yeah right yep yep yep so okay so does anyone have the motion in front of them we'll just take a vote i think we can just move okay let me just see if i have anyone make a motion so there we go just try and pull it up going once going twice okay so sharon and i can't make money you shouldn't do it i'm sorry sharon and i can't make motions because if it's if it applies to the supposed to comfort and carlisle yes okay so i will um entertain i will entertain a motion that the concord and concord carlel school committee's vote to dissolve the joint school committee's dei sub committee somo have a second a second just to take a

158vote okay all in favor aye opposed abstain so that passes okay thank you [Music] it has 3-2 oh okay okay and everyone will note the change in the agenda um we did not have any we only had the school committee uh sorry the building committee on our cps agenda and we didn't have any meetings court isn't here and he did and there was one design subcommittee meeting he didn't he wasn't able to attend it so we get to adjourn before you do i just want to note we're watching carefully what's happening in texas tonight there's an um death count of 18 kids now one teacher and we're devastated obviously it happens off too often but whenever it's the elementary schools it just becomes completely incomprehensible so um the president's addressing the nation as we sit

159here and i've already sent one letter out and really our work will be security support and [Music] just trying to figure out how it could happen again so more to come but i just couldn't sit here and not note it while i'm watching you thanks laurie so much go on thank you for that okay so i will entertain a motion to adjourn the concord carlow school community meeting second thank you everyone thank you everyone for coming see you on the seven yes june 7th we need court that's our like