Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee Meeting - June 16, 2026

001And it is 6 o'clock p.m. So I will go ahead and call the conquered car regional school committee to order. Sundep, do you want to call conquered? >> And I will call the conquered uh school committee to order. >> And as we are all remote, if we can please just roll call in. >> Present. >> Kella present. >> Morano present. Pashardy present. >> Wat present. >> Williams present. >> All right, perfect. Let's go ahead and jump in. The main reason that we are having this meeting is because we had so many topics to cover on the June 3rd meeting that this is sort of a an overflow business meeting uh to cover the discussion items that we could not get to. Uh as a result, there are some things that we will not um be

002doing that we normally do. There won't be a student update. We won't have chairs or superintendent update uh things like that, but we do have the consent agenda. Um are there any items that anyone wanted to pull from the consent agenda? >> No, there aren't any items uh to pull. I I just would there a few little things that are on the May 6th and May 20th. nothing that I would pull them for but again I would urge uh transcribers to transcribe with care so that all voices are heard. >> Okay, understood. Um can I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> All right. And um I think Michael made the motion. Uh Tracy, do you want to second? >> I'll second it. >> Okay.

003Any other discussion? Uh, thank you for that call out, Michael. All right. Uh, we will need to roll call. >> I >> Keller I for region. >> For both. Excuse me. >> Morano. I for both. >> Bashardi. I for both. >> Wat. I for region. >> Williams. I for both. >> All right. Perfect. Um, we do have public comment next. Um, just as a reminder, like any other meeting, public comment will be a period of 20 minutes. Um, this is a meeting in the public, not with the public, and the school committee will not be responding to any comments. Um, as we are all on Zoom tonight, please use the raise hand feature. Um, and as we um identify people, um, we will promote you forward so that uh, you can speak. And, um, as

004a reminder, 3 minutes um, is the limit per person. I'll make sure to get a timer going. Uh, so starting at 6:02 p.m. and um Lori, would you promote Mary Beth Tinker, please? Uh, Mary Beth, if you want to come off mute, um, identify yourself and your address and, um, you'll have three minutes. >> One sec. Lori, would you also promote Michelle? Uh, she's involution of attendees. Thank you. >> Go ahead, Mary Beth. Sorry. >> Yes. Hello. Thank you. My name is Mary Beth Tinker and I'm here in Washington. I'm attending tonight's meeting today out of a concern for free speech rights of students and the importance of youth voices. The issue came to my attention recently when I learned that an eighth grader, Aerys Apo, was held back while on a school trip to

005Washington DC because of a t-shirt that he was wearing that said, "Bombing children is not self-defense." Ironically, the trip to Washington was intended intended to help students learn about democracy, but that was not the lesson from his censorship. While the violation of Aerys's rights was shocking, I was heartened to see a quote by Superintendent Hunter in the conquered bridge saying, quote, "We support students with whatever expression they have, whether it be speech, clothing, or other symbolism." End quote. I applaud Superintendent Hunter and also Aerys for giving the school committee a chance now to affirm such a respectful stance towards all district students. I was once an eighth grader myself like Aerys who was upset by news of the bombing of children. At that time it was in Vietnam. To express that a small group of

006us kids in De Moine, Iowa wore black armbands to school to mourn the dead in Vietnam and to call for a Christmas truce. For that we were suspended. We were punished like Avis and like Aerys and censored. But the ACLU challenged the censorship, winning a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1969, saying that neither students or teachers leave their constitutional right to expression at the schoolhouse gate. The only exception would be if the student expression was substantially disruptive or impinged on the rights of others, and neither of those apply to Aris' t-shirt. Subsequent Supreme Court rulings, several of them, carved out other exceptions such as obscenity in public schools, but none of those apply to Eris's t-shirt either. Today, students are confronting many issues that affect their lives. And in order to thrive, they need to

007be able to discuss these issues and to have a say about them, even when those issues are controversial, just as Ellen Garrison did in the 1800s when she campaigned against slavery. I commend Aerys for caring about the bombing of children across the world and for speaking out about that, especially when those bombs are financed by our tax money. money that is taken away from kids like Aerys and from his school and from our communities. And I also commend Aerys for caring about kids right here in the United States and how he has campaigned against the abusive treatment of children in forprofit detention centers. He has put his civics lessons into action. >> I admire Superend wrap up please. >> I have one more second. I admire Superintendent Hunter for saying that she supports student voices.

008People say that youth are the future, but they are also the present. They are right here, right now, and they need your support. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. If there's any other public comment, please raise your hand. Um, let I think Aris was next. Hello. Can you hear me? >> You're good. Yes. Please uh just say your full name and address, please, for the record. >> Aris Apollo's um Conan Street Conquered. My name is Aris. I'm an eighth grader at Conquered Middle School, and I feel the need to bring to the attention of the school committee the most recent free speech violation at CMS. Two weeks ago on my eighth grade Washington DC trip, I was pulled from the group by my vice principal, Daniel Howerman. The reason I was pulled aside simply

009because I had worn a seizure that stated a moral message that aligns with international law. The message read, quote, "Bombing kids is not self-defense." Houseman told me that conquered parents, who were not even on the trip, mind you, had complained to Superintendent Hunter about my shirt, and that Dr. Hunter had ordered that I be excluded from the rest of the day's activities and sent back to my hotel room. In the 1969 landmark Supreme Court case, Tinker vers De Moine, it was ruled that students don't lose their right to free speech at school or school sponsored events. The message on the shirt I wore was constitutionally protected and therefore the district should not have punished me for wearing it. It's also important for me to note that while we were at the Holocaust Museum, the Holocaust

010survivor that was talking to students had stopped um and thanked me for wearing my shirt. She stated that it's especially necessary for students to speak up against atrocities near and far. Let me just repeat this for all of you. Dr. Hunter went against this the words of support from a Holocaust survivor, someone who has more of a right to speak about what happens when the world turns away from mass murder and genocide than anybody else. Dr. Hunter punished me for this raises serious moral concerns for the district, such as if the district supports the bombing of innocent school children across the world or if the district refuses to agree with the First Amendment. I yield the rest of my time, but I urge the district to take action against this obscene moral concern and free

011speech violation. Thank you and have a good night. >> Thank you. >> Uh Timmy Rogers is next. I don't know if he seems to be declining. >> Okay. Um, looks like the next person then is um D. Wrub. Hi, can you hear me? Um, >> yes. >> So, I'm Debbie Wingitz, 1315 Old Malboro Road and Conquered. And I um I don't ever come before the school committee for anything, but after seeing um a few of the meetings and especially the one on June 3rd, which was very painful to watch, um I felt like I really needed to not be silent anymore, but to speak up. And I think it's because the actions I felt like of the committee hopefully did not really reflect what the values are. because your actions speak much louder than words

012that um are often, you know, easy to say about inclusion and respect and um the sense of community. I felt like there the it was a foregone conclusion before the vote was even taken as to what the outcome was going to be. There were committee members who uh clearly was a confusing u process. The nominating process was confusing and awkward and I um I felt like it wasn't in in handled in a very um you know professional or respectful way. And the other thing I want to say is, you know, consistently when people's voices are not listened to and in some cases it seems like deliberately blocked, I feel like, you know, people are elected to carry forward the voices of many in the community and to represent people who aren't always represented or whose

013voices aren't heard. And I just I call upon you guys to dig deeper and do a better job because you know I think you have it to do that. It's your responsibility to do that and you're should be accountable to do that. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Debbie. >> Thank you. >> All right. The next person with their hand up is Jean Smith. Jean, if you want to come off mute and uh say your name and address and then you have three minutes. >> Hi, my name is Jean Smith. I live at 15 Conan Street in Actton and I think that Aerys is a remarkable young person and he's sort of standing alone. I don't know how many kids in his school stand up for things like that. He's standing up on very

014strong beliefs for good causes and to silence his freedom of speech is just because he's alone. It it seems like it's easier to punish him because not many people are doing what he's doing. but he's doing what's right and he's trying to stand up for injustice and it's just a matter of freedom of speech and caring about doing the right thing and that's all I want to say but thank you. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right, looks like Ellen Quacush has her hand up. Okay, thank you. My name's Ellen Quackenbush, 206 Prairie Street. Uh, title of my note to you guys is, "This is not democracy." I don't know what behindthe-scene coordination occurred to orchestrate the nomination process for the CCHS and Conquered School Committee chair and vice chair positions. But to me, these

015events were pre pre-planned and were not at all spontaneous. Four times Dlozzi nominated Michael Williams for chair and vice chair positions. And each time the nomination and amendment process seemed pre-ordained to defeat Michael. Coincidental? I don't think so. As in every case, the nominators and seconders had supportive speeches at hand and fully prepared. So supporting my point, Dr. Hunet started off the process asking for single a single nomination. This this process was, in my opinion, floored from the get-go. Why not ask for nominations from all candidates interested in the positions followed by a speech by each candidate on their qualifications? This is how the League of Women Voters handles candidate forums. This was not, however, sadly how Dr. Hunter set the stage. The result was a pre-ordained situation denying Michael any position in the school

016committee leadership and simply reinstalling the status quo. Just to remind everyone who is listening to me, Michael was the top vote getter at his election. Your nomination and election election process completely ignored the will of the voters but by denying Michael any leadership position effectively silencing him. What does this teach our children and the the wider conquered community whom you are supposed to be representing representing? That voting doesn't matter. Voting does not matter when the status quo can and will ignore voters to install their preferred candidates. I'm simply saddened by the lessons you're teaching our children and the message you are sending to the community. Please do better. Thank you. >> Thank you, Alan. Uh, I believe next is Abu Sage seems to be declining. >> Okay. Um, do you want to try Rogers again

017then, please? >> Yes. seems to be declining. >> Okay. Um and then Nancy, I may be botching this, but Aanian >> also declined. All right, he has his hand up one more time. Same for Nancy. >> Not sure if we're having a technical problem. Should be an invitation sent to them. I'm gonna hit the button that says allow to talk without being promoted and see if that works. >> Okay. >> Oh, I think did that work? >> Yep. I think you're good to me. >> I was muted. Thank you. Okay. Um, uh, thank you. And I thought what Aaron said was really remarkable. So, what I have to say relates to the meeting last week too and to the last year really. You know, if say Brian, if you were asking to get an issue

018on the agenda, say asking for more representation from the kids from Carlile and the school committee banded together and purposefully pushed back telling you, you know, you're only one person, your voice doesn't really matter and you need more support. And if this continued frustrating you, you know, and your constituency to no end, I would observe this as a public citizen and say that the school committee was being kind of cruel to you, mean-spirited, didn't like you, and that it was being in being cruel to you, it was suppressing your voice. If the committee worked to carefully prevent you from holding a position of leadership on the committee, as you all executed against Michael Williams, has spoken before at your last meeting. I would say, well, they hate Brian and they're using their power to shut

019him up, to keep him out. Cruel people being mean to people. Nobody likes that. Well, many don't like that. But when a school committee denies the voices supporting that minority of black children, both from Boston and conquered, when this committee demonstrates cruelty and mean-spirited suppression of specific voices, that cruelty is given a name, racism. And the reason that this form of cruelty has its own name is because of the hundreds of years black people were held in slavery even here in conquered. For hundreds of years, black people have had their voices suppressed even as they were lynched, raped, tortured, and had their children sold. And even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, officially ending American apartheid, murder, incarceration, and suppression of the black voice has continued to plague American society. And now

020in America, we have leadership that is actively erasing black, Native American, and other minority history across the land. I did not expect to find this racism so alive and well here in conquered the seat of the American Revolution, home of the transcendentalists and founding place of the conquered female anti-slavery society. A town conquered renowned for its leadership. Where are we leading now? It is no wonder that there is bullying, racism, even anti-semitism in our schools when this committee is sending such a strong signal of approval for that behavior to the school superintendent. As Michelle said, this committee should be modeling inclusive emphatic empathetic behavior, not cruel and discriminating behavior. This saddens me to no end. All cruelty towards people saddens me. And since all things are connected and all actions have their reactions, I wonder

021what lessons the children of the school committee members are taking away from their parents' behavior. My mother used to say, "Little pictures have big ears." Your children are learning from your actions. Even if you say things that sound right, they know. What kind of empathy do your children advance towards the black children they rub shoulders with in the conquered public schools? Thank you, Ty. Um, let's try Nancy. Um, again, >> I'm going to try this mode of just allowing to talk and see if that works better. Oh, good. I think so. >> All right, Nancy, you should be able to um >> Okay, can you all hear me? >> We can. Yes. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. Um, I am here to speak uh about Aerys and the situation, the debacle in DC,

022about his t-shirt, but I want to give a shout out to Mr. Rogers who was so eloquent just now about the issue of racism and also about the issue of everything being connected. This kind of silencing repression should not be abided by anyone and let alone by school committee members. On June 4th, I sent a uh an email to Superintendent Hunter with respect to the situation with Aris being uh required to move his remove his t-shirt and then his subsequent removal to the hotel. Um, I indicated that a trip to Washington D is a trip precisely, as Mary Beth Tinker said, to educate students about American democracy by visiting the institutions that represent its values. On the May 18th uh, school committee, when I testified during public comment, I spoke to this issue. I am

023a retired educator and in the commonwealth of Massachusetts it's a requirement of having civics classes in our public schools and that the raisal detra of these classes is to educate young people to become informed citizens who participate actively in our democracy. Uh I argued at that time and it holds true now that Aris was already engaged in this civic worth as an eighth grader. I am very concerned that you will discount all of this and what people are saying in the name of what? I am very confused about that. Um I am the granddaughter of survivors of the Armenian genocide and it's time for the adults in the room to stop colluding with the kind of censorship and repression which is in fact among the last stages of the 10 stages of genocide, denial and

024eraser. At the time at the March 18th meeting, I said I was dismayed when smart people collude with such immorality and irrationality. Do you honestly believe that bombing kids is self-defense enough? You cannot be good Germans. You cannot fall into line like little Ikeman's. And to be honest, it is up to you to challenge what's in plain sight. No matter how you might be uh impact, no matter what the outraged parents or influential political leaders in your district might have to say, why are you so afraid? This is outrageous. You have a moral duty to protect not only free speech but young students like Eris. You are doing him wrong and you are doing therefore other young people wrong. Please protect his rights and thereby the rights of everybody. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Um,

025we are out of time. However, we were having some technical difficulties. There's one last hand raised. Um, Jacob, I'll recognize you as the final person to speak tonight. >> You should be good, Jacob. >> Thank you. Can you guys hear me? Apologize. There's a bit of a tech difficult. Um, so I was here regarding Aris and Fear Trip as well as the t-shirt and I could just be concise and get right to it. Just wanted to be very clear. Acknowledging that children deserve life is not political. Morning dead children is not political. Your children observing the world around them weeping at the sight of human suffering is not political. These are expressions of conscience in the basic human decency that you uphold to have your children become the leaders of our next generation through American

026history has always upheld as your founding fathers people who have questioned authority. Thomas Jefferson who even in his federalist papers to his involvement in incentivizing which was taken out the abolition of slavery. The abolitionist movement to reconstruction has been built upon leaders, freeth thinkers who questioned authority, challenged accepted narratives, and spoke out when something was wrong. In many ways, questioning authority is one of the most American things you can do as a person. Yet when a student peacefully expresses his moral beliefs that children should not be bombed in their sleep and families shouldn't be starved to death, they are treated as a problem to be managed and silenced. that an entire identity as a political struggle and an existence is checked is categorized into boxes into too political rather than young people ex exercising the

027critical thinking schools claim to value. What's one of the most disappointing things to me about this entire debacle is that the focus has shifted away from the material conditions, the lives of those who are being mourned, of those who are being addressed by the shirt and onto punishing one who is acknowledging the suffering and having enough care and morality to even speak out. A school should not a school should not teach students that empathy becomes unacceptable when it is controversial. Children deserve life and acknowledging that children should not be bombed in their sleep and families shouldn't be starved to death is not a political statement. It is a basic humanity and moral statement. Now, the last thing I will say is my cousin, who is now only 19 years old, and in April of 2025

028through drone strikes overnight, had 17 family members martyed in one night, with the youngest being his 9-year-old niece, who was bombed in her sleep wearing the bow her father put on him before her her whole family. All five of them were martyed in that one night. Acknowledging that children deserve night is not a political statement. I surrender the rest of my time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jacob. All right. Uh that is the end of public comment. Um thank you everybody. We will now move on to our discussion items. Uh the first being the conquered municipal decarbonization roadmap. Um we have Megan Zamudo, deputy town manager um here um to discuss this with us. Um, and it is um something that uh the regional school committee does need to vote on because there's an impact

029to the high school. Megan, I'll turn it over to you. >> Hello. Good evening. Sorry, I'm in my husband's basement office and I didn't realize that um that the camera was up here. So, thank you everyone. My name is Megan Zamudo. I'm the deputy town manager in conquered and I am here to speak with you this evening about a decarbonization road map. And I will just pull up the slides. >> And just for clarity, I think both school committees need to vote it. >> Oh, sorry. My apologies. >> Yeah. No, just so we clarify at the end when you decide what to do. >> Can can folks um see the screen? Okay. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> So again, my name is Megan Zamutoo. I'm the deputy town manager in Conquered, and I

030appreciate you um fitting this on the agenda this evening. I know it's a busy time at the end of the school year. I am here to talk about Conquered's decarbonization roadmap. The town was able to create this document through a state funded technical assistance program. Tonight, I plan to share more about the road map and ask for your endorsement of this document. The select board will also consider adoption of the road map at their meeting next week on June 22nd. The endorsement is a critical step. Um there the final requirement for conquered to receive a climate leader community designation and I'll talk a little bit more about that um in a couple minutes. So just to kind of ground us in conquered decarbonization goals, you know, they're really guided by two elements. our 2020 climate

031action and resilience plan, which we are currently updating, and a town meeting vote in 2024, which updated our energy goals, striving to reduce emissions by 50% in 2030, 75% in 2040, and 85% by 2050 from the baseline that was established in 2008. I mentioned the climate action and resilience plan update. We also call it KARP. Um, and I just want to plug that we had a number of outreach efforts and stakeholder interviews this spring and um, we did include students at CCHS. Some of the um, climate clubs were able to participate in one of our focus groups and we will be coming back together for additional conversation and prioritization this fall. So, please stay tuned. So, the climate action and decarbonization, it's really in line with our community values and um, so I just wanted

032to kind of ground where we're coming from. So this this road map was really developed as I mentioned it was a state funded technical assistance program. They looked at 17 municipal and school buildings and our municipal fleets. This is data that we report annually through our green communities program. So, they have all the information and they're just kind of looking at it and reviewing um building age, energy use, emissions, equipment recycle, uh replacement cycles, and identify potential pathways to eliminate municipal fossil fuel use over time. And the goal really was to focus on replacing systems as they reach the end of life, not of move forward with an early replacement. So what the what the road map really includes is it's a highlevel planning document. It's um evaluating future facility investments, a framework for reducing

033emissions over time, and a tool to support grants and other funding opportunities. It is not a capital plan. Um it's not an authorization to spend money. It doesn't have dollar amounts um in the plan. if if you ever had a chance to take a look at it, uh it's it's really not a commitment to any specific project or a detailed study. It's really an overview of if you were to decarbonize, you know, these are the things that would need to be considered. And so some of the key findings here um they really highlighted six buildings and five of them are active school facilities that were identified as high impact buildings. So the buildings that they included were the Bey Center obviously not a school building but then Alcott, Willard, Thorough, CCHS and Ripley. And so

034the heating systems, you know, in all the schools except of course um the the new Ellen Garrison building at the conquered Middle School rely on natural gas and emissions can be reduced over time through the planned equipment replacements. for recommended strategies. The the road map identifies that we should be looking for energy efficiency improvements. We should be looking at evaluating heat pump technologies, considering if geothermal is feasible, and evaluating future solar opportunities in these buildings. But um you know if these these concepts and u plans are going to turn into projects you may be thinking you know where is the money going to come from? How are we funding this? And um so I want to just spend a couple minutes on what you know one of our strategies for accessing funds for these types

035of upgrades or improvements. And so one is the climate leader designation. Becoming a certified climate leader community provides access to grant funding to to a municipality for support of you know design construction studying implementing energy efficient activities. They they can assist with um activities related to construction, renewable energy, energy storage. There's a there's a $1 million grant that we would become eligible for for municipal projects um after this road map, you know, if it is adopted. And so the climate leader program, there's a number of things communities have to do. We have to have a fleet electrification study or fleet electrification plan, which we do. We need to be a green community in good standing. We need to have adopted the specialized stretch code, which town meeting did a few years ago. So of the

036check boxes, we have done them all except for having our community adopt this decarbonization roadmap. And um we got a couple opportunities through the year really two. One is June 30th and one I think is December 30th. And those are the windows that the the towns that have all of those elements are able to apply for this designation and then are able to unlock some um some specific grants for some of these concepts that could become projects. But um you know grants alone are likely you know a $1 million grant is not going to uh take over all of these all of these um you know potential projects and initiatives. So this I just wanted to mention we're starting to look at this other service which is called building decarbonization as a service. Some of

037you might remember about a year ago, we had a um a forum at the Goodwin Library and we talked about the ESCO service. That's an energy savings um function where you can kind of take some of the savings for installing efficiencies and like apply that to the financing of the project. And we were considering that for a while, but as we're looking with the working with the land use working group and thinking about the future of our buildings, it didn't seem like the best model for conquered. We wanted a little bit more of a targeted approach. And so in the last year, Power Options, which is the the group that we are working with on this road map, came up with a new product for municipalities and for nonprofits. And it's really a way to

038help finance and pl and plan proactively for these community assets. And it starts with investment grade audits. So you really have a deep sense of you know we can have say what year a system was put in. But after you really go in there and have the technical experts review the systems, you can really get ahead of you know when things might be failing and plan accordingly. So this is just a teaser. We we will be back. Um you know, we're working with Dr. Hunter and Bob and our finance team on the town side, but this is another part of the strategy to think about funding. Um it's not just all plans and no kind of follow through. So that's really it. I just wanted to wrap up. You know, we're looking to um looking

039to you all. It you know, there's a number of schools listed in here. That's not unusual. Um, but there are a lot of there are some steps for future thinking and I think having this accepted by the town um is a is a positive step in the direction of decarbonization and meeting some of our community goals. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Megan. Do any members of the committee have questions? Uh, Andrew, it looks like you had your hand up. Yeah. So, um, thanks for the presentation. Good. Are are we being asked to, um, endorse this road map just conceptually? Are we are you asking if we're in favor of, you know, reducing emissions or what I mean? Is this just a framework for forward thinking? I'm just confused what

040a a vote tonight would would would do. >> Sure. So, a vote from from both of the school committees um would be one of the two of the steps to the three along with the select board to our community accepting this document. And um what that would do would allow us to apply for a climate leader designation. But, you know, how does this commit us to any of the specific projects? Um, it it it doesn't say, you know, you certainly have to do uh a heat pump at this one specific school. When I talk about sustainability, you know, through my work in the town and with the climate action plan, the climate action committee, we often talk about sustainability as a triangle. And it has to work for both the earth, for the people, and

041for the economics to actually be sustainable. So, this plan is looking at um the emissions, right? It's not looking at the finances. It's not looking at the It is kind of looking at the human piece because it's looking at technical assistance to assist with this, right? Because we're all looking at staff capacity. Um but what this would do is you know it's kind of along the lines of our community values with the town meeting vote and our climate action plan of yes like we have committed as a community that we want to work towards what did I say up here kind of strategize towards decarbonization and some of that is within our control and our buildings and some of it is in private buildings. So, this is one of the steps to um working to

042reduce our emissions with our municipal um properties that we own. Got it. That that's helpful. And so, you know, like if the question is, do we support, you know, um to support this? I mean, I can't speak on behalf of the committee, but absolutely my only fear in voting now since a lot of this stuff is in the future is that you um budget, you know, people ask me what the biggest risk to the school committee is in the next couple years. And I, you know, to me, budget is is up there. And I just don't want to pigeon hole future committees into like working through this if it doesn't fit in the budget. But I I don't think that's the point of this. I think this just kicks in the next step. >> Yeah.

043And I think I think what we're really hoping to do I think it's a good point and um we we're really trying to come here with with a plan and working on solutions for financing. Um and and we don't have all of that. I mean one of one is a grant opportunity that this could you know work towards some of our early critical needs. But the second piece is um collaborating. So because these are all these buildings are really you know kind of all of our responsibilities and so we want to we want to work together as a team and find solutions to make sure that we're continuing to invest in in these community assets um you know when a system is >> about to fail you know so we can make make proactive choices

044and and kind of >> uh be ready for when that happens. >> Yeah. And and if that's what that this is is like you know are you asking the school committee do we want to be a part of this be helpful work towards a goal you know to me absolutely and so you know I I I like this and if our vote means you can do more work on this that's great >> right thank you Andrew Michael >> thanks again thank you uh Megan the to summarize the vote both from school committee and select board puts us in a better position in terms of being able to get uh the uh climate leader designation and that puts us potentially in a better position for uh receiving grants uh asking for grants. >> I'm sorry, didn't

045mean to interrupt you. >> You know, asking for Well, is that is that a correct? this is the last piece to become a a climate action a climate leader. Um so we will have everything we need to apply for that designation and I have you know once we what you just need to kind of make sure you have all of those pieces complete which we do and yes that will unlock potential for um for grants to to do these types of projects. >> This fits with our uh community's professed ideals and goals towards sustainability. question. >> Yes. >> And it does not tie us into any specific plan, but gives us potentially not not a hard a large piece, but a access to financial wherewithal to put into some of those plans. Correct. >> Correct.

046Yeah. I mean you there would need to be so much more detailed analysis on cost and engineering and you know how would anything you know how would all of this work together before anyone agreed on on a specific project. That's correct. >> Final question. Um, so I've been attending the land use working group meetings and we know the there's a question of whether the Ribbley parcel uh or the the the uh Peabody parcel will still be part of our purview should the land use working groups decisions does that would does that affect would that affect how any of this goes forward from the perspective of the school committee? That's a good question too. I um I did have we in working with power options I did have them adjust some of the narrative for Ripley

047since there is kind of a question mark there about what the future will be. Um you know I've heard from from this group uh about the challenges at the facility and I don't think we have answers to those questions yet. I know there isn't kind of there's and correct me if I'm wrong Dr. Hunter but I I think at this point it's you know kind of fixing the main issues. It's not really long-term um kind of major investment >> keeping it online to be functional. Correct. >> Yeah. So, I did I did raise that with um the group and I think they referenced it because it's not realistic to say, you know, at this point, yeah, we really need to go into a a real deep dive on geothermal for that building when there are

048still some some unknowns um about the future there. >> Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Tracy, do you want to go ahead? >> Yeah. So, just just for clarity, so this vote is so this will allow the town to be able to apply for grant money to move forward with all of this. >> Well, the grant money probably won't cover all of it. Um, >> no, not for all of it, but it will it will help to move us forward. Should we vote in favor of this? It's the Yes, it's adopting this road map which which has the um you know the pathways to decarbonization for the highest emission producing buildings in town, five of which are schools. Um understanding that that's you know the direction we're going in here. Um the endorsement of this will

049help us apply for climate leaders which has which has um the ability to make us more competitive for some grants and unlock some specific grants. And you know it's it's a tall ask for communities to kind of meet all the criteria. Um so the pool of the of those eligible is um you know not extremely large. So it's a helps us get a good chance to move forward on some of these opportunities. >> Michael, another question or comment. >> Uh yeah, I I guess it might be a question to us and and to Megan. Um I look at this uh the the spread of the projected uh de uh carbonization decrease up to you 94% by 2050. Um it all sounds good from from sustainability and environ an environmental standpoint. What is there? Can we

050what the potential downside would be for uh an affirmative vote? I'd like to hear that from anyone speculating or specifically Megan if you've thought on what the downside would be for the schools and for the town of of opting into this. Now, I'm I'm I'm not necessarily seeing one. Again, this is my speculation. I'm not seeing one and that we're just saying that we agree with this concept and not we're not tied into any plan. We agree with this concept and would make ourselves ourselves more accessible to the funding to start working toward that. But my my uh thinking may be short shortsighted. So answer if that was clear enough if you can give me an answer that'd be great. Thank you. >> Sure. Um yeah, I mean I I don't think I have a

051downside on this one. I mean we're bringing it forward um with the support of the climate action committee me members are um some members are on the call here listening in. We also have um our green community liaison from the state um Dylan Patel who's on. We're working closely. you know, this is this is a state program that the town is working towards and it's a way for the state to um you know, ask communities to be thinking about decarbonization and a way to connect communities with resources to do the work. So, I would say um you know, I wouldn't be here if I didn't if I didn't support it. So, I think it would be a good one. But, I mean, I think these are all really good questions and I think, frankly, I

052think it's um you know, I haven't really been before this board. It's been a few years since I've been before the school committee at all and I'm I'm hoping this is really the beginning of you know an additional dialogue um on these topics and we you know I talk with Bob and and Dr. Hunter, but it's it will be good to stay in touch as we're navigating this because decarbonization is, as I said, you know, a goal of this community and we have we do have some work to do. So, let's, you know, kind of leverage these opportunities and and work together and see if we can see kind of our emission numbers uh start to trend down more. >> Makes sense to me. Thank you again. >> I can Bob, did you have something

053you want to say? >> Yeah, I don't know. I saw Lor's hand. I don't know if but I I did >> um I did Megan did preview this with me and I raised some of the same questions that Michael and Andrew raised. Um you know this will not prevent us from buying a diesel bus. We need buses until we have the electrical infrastructure. Um it does not obligate us to put in a geothermal well. Um but you know we can explore options and um it it's a map to try to get there gradually. Um and you know I do think you know the the financial model um at some point there there will be some funding that we need to come up with. It's not going to all be funded through the um the BDAS.

054Um >> so some of these things might not be cost u beneficial. They might be climate beneficial. So um but but it's a roadmap and um it's not a hard requirement that we do certain things. it's that we try our best to move towards this and and work towards getting to the goal. Is am I correct Megan with that characterization? >> Yeah, I I think as I said, you know, we every project is going to have to be evaluated with with a cost and um and the technical side of things. So, we're going to have to understand um you know what the trade-offs are and and have those kind of community conversations about you know how how to move forward with some of these projects. Just my last comment is the MSBA, which is the

055school um building authority, is starting to subsidize some of these transitions. So, there's more and more funding opportunities. It doesn't mean it's inexpensive. Um but at least to I think you're going I think most communities are going to have to put together a number of sources, especially if we're looking at three to four buildings. Um but we're keeping an eye on all of it. I don't think the committee is looking for a capital project up in the millions right now given the town's needs in both communities. I think I think you're all in agreement that we're here to sit tight for a while. But um I think that's those are opportunities we're all keeping an eye on. >> Okay, sounds good. Um Michael, one last question or comment and then we'll um maybe move on

056to a motion. >> Just the point that Dr. brought up. Um, would applying for this put us in any better step for the grants that you just mentioned? >> It certainly could. Sure. >> Yeah. Referencing that this work is already done seems beneficial in any environment. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Y at this point I am happy to entertain a motion if someone wants to make one. >> Moved. >> Um, seconded. I think we got >> I think we need we gota be a little clearer. Yeah. >> I move to support the um decarbonization roadback for the town of conquered by the conquered and conquered carell regional school committees. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> All right. Roll call. >> Um Megan, thank you a lot for putting this together. We appreciate

057it. Um her check I for both committees. >> Kellaher I for region. >> Morano I for both. >> Bashardy I for both. >> Wat I for region. >> Williams I for both. >> All right it's unanimous. So Megan thank you very much. >> Thank you very much for your time this evening. I really appreciate it and I look forward to continuing to partner with you all. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Uh all right. Uh, continuing on, um, a brief dis, um, amenities building update. Bob, I'm going to turn this over to you. Um, Bob, you're on mute. >> There we go. Um, the bid is live for the amenities building. Um, we have, um, two things going on at once. We have are, as I mentioned the last meeting, our with the retirement of our facilities

058manager last year, he stayed on as the OPM uh for this year, which was really waiting for us to get it approved. Um and um now that he's, you know, a year out from retirement, we need to get an OPM. And so we've put u an RFS out that will be due this Friday, I believe it is. Um and um I'll provide an update once I get those submissions and we'll need to select a company to work with us through the construction phase. Um the bid for construction is also out. There's um because of the uh size of the project there's um filed sub bids which happens first and then the contractors get that information and then they submit their bids. Bids are due I believe it's July 17th. So, I will need um to

059um to bring to have a school committee meeting to accept the the bid shortly after July 17th. Um and so we're moving forward. Uh you know, the Gail Associates, the um the design engineering company is working with town officials um on you know, various qu questions, just making sure um they're kind of on board with the plan. And um so so far so good. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we get bids within our budget or or at least close enough to our budget that we can do this because we do have a little bit of extra money from a state uh grant. Um so that's where we are. Uh I'll not use my full 10 minutes. I think I'll have more information to share uh when we get the um OPM uh submissions and

060when we get the bid submissions later in July. >> Great. Thanks, Bob. Just one question. Is this something where we can schedule one summer meeting to to vote on both things or would you need the OPM voted? >> I could probably do that. I would um I'll have the OPM submissions. I can pick one and just tell them that we'd like to wait until December 17th to July 17th to um actually um award them the contract. Um if they have any concerns, I I would let you know and schedule another meeting, but I don't I don't think they would. >> Okay. And I think we would be happy to whatever you need this summer to help move things along. Just say the the word and we'll get a quorum together. Andrew. >> Yeah. Just a

061question about it. You might not know the answer, but with the o oil prices so high right now and does that impact the materials on this project and will that impact the quote and is a risk of it the quote being way way too much and would we have to wait or are you not seeing so much as that? I >> I mean I don't know how much that would affect um I I mean for the type of materials we're getting I don't know that they would think they come from in country um so I don't know that we'd have any transportation costs that would be higher to get materials here built into the material prices I don't know that there's actually any content of that in the materials we're purchasing maybe some so there

062could be some impact I shouldn't say there would be none but um labor is a chunk of the costs a lot of the site work is a chunk of the cost too. So there's certainly a significant portion of the cost that won't be impacted. Um there may be some impact. Um but I I I don't think Gail Associates sounded overly concerned about it. They said there may be some impact to it, but um we've also seen our experience on a recent bid for the nature space that um sometimes bids just come in significantly higher than expected for no reason. We just rebid that and it came in significantly lower. So, we're hopeful. Um, but I can't I can't promise what the what the bids will be. >> Yeah. Got it. I was thinking on the

063site work portion since a lot of that is diesel tractors, you know, and doing stuff. >> Right. Right. >> All right. Any other amenities building questions? Otherwise, we'll look for updates as the summer progresses. >> Thanks, Bob. Thanks, B. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, we'll continue on to the electric bus update. >> So, I don't think this got connected to the agenda, so I'm just going to share my um >> Yeah, Erin's out, so we're doing the best we can to keep up with posting things. I will get it linked. Uh, make sure I got the right one. Bear with me one second. So, I I'm going to read it. It's having It's having trouble uh I'm having trouble st sharing it. Um so, I'll read it. >> We saw We saw it for two

064seconds and then it was gone. >> Oh, here. Oh yeah, that wasn't it. That was some that was the agenda. >> That's what I want you to talk. >> Um Okay. So, we uh we've been working with a company called Highland Fleet Solutions. Um and initially we were looking at five electric vehicles. I believe I shared at a recent meeting that they were not able to move forward with the five vehicles because they were from a federal grant that was designated for a low-income district and the federal government did not approve them being transferred to a a a high a non-lowinccome district and um but they wanted to um I think they basically wanted to get their foot in the door with a a a brandame district in town. Um so they uh proposed to

065move forward with the two buses at the same price they would have had if they had grant funded buses. Um so they're they're actually going to have to provide buses um on their own that are not grant funded. They agreed to hold their pricing um that they provided on those buses and um they're buses where we we they've sent us the specs. We've looked at them. we're we're comfortable with them. Um it's two Thomas electric buses. Um financially the cost is 28,600 per year per bus. Um and there's a 3% annual escalator built into it. Um these both of these buses have about 20,000 miles. Um they're lightly used. Um what what's included in this in that price is also the um charging infrastructure. They would install a charger and it would connect to the

066transformer that's already there that CMLP installed. Um or if an upgrade was needed, they they'd pay CMLP to to upgrade it. Um and um so we wouldn't have to fund the um charging infrastructure. They would fund that. It would be one charger with two ports. Um it would not have the birectional capability. Um that was a piece they didn't think was financially viable now, but it will have the capability to be upgraded later. Um they will reverse re uh reimburse us for maintenance costs. they'll pay fully for parts cost and there's specified labor rates that um if we do it in house we get reimbured a certain amount and if it's outside with the contractor uh another amount um or they can pay the vendors directly um this um also they're responsible for the vehicles

067being operational and if there's down times there's clauses built into the contract where we have a reduction in a lease payment. So, we're not paying for an idle vehicle. Um, and that's kind of standard part of their contract. Uh, and then at the end of the contract, um, we would be able to purchase the charging infrastructure at fair market value. Um, we need to work out what exactly that would be. Um, but, um, they obviously don't want to uninstall something that's already been installed. So, the price would be pretty pretty reasonable. Um, a couple context points, like if we were to purchase an electric bus outright, it would be $375 to $400,000. Um, the electricity costs for the buses, uh, based on current diesel prices. I did some modeling and they're approximately 15 to 20%

068less with current diesel prices. Um, so it's not necessarily a huge savings. You know, if diesel prices come down a bit, it it could be break even. Um, and you know, we're not necessarily, you know, doing this for that reason. Um, but I did did want to point out that currently it would be 15 to 20% savings. Um, and um, so I, you know, if you look at the 286 per year for 10 years, um, not factoring the additional 3% because I can't do that math quickly in my head, but 286,000 and and it's spread out over 10 years. you know, if you if you look at it in kind of present value terms, we're we're basically getting the buses for about 60% of um 70% of of the price of the vehicles and we're

069getting infrastructure thrown in and we're getting support from a third party vendor and we're getting maintenance included. Um it I don't know that we're going to find a better deal to um to do something uh sustainable with buses like this uh unless we get you know unless there's another federal grant. So um I wanted to kind of share this. I'm not asking for a vote tonight, but I just wanted to get um before we pursued it. You know, next steps might include, you know, having legal counsel review the contract. I still have a couple points I need to iron out with them, but we thought, you know, we're at a point where we have enough information to share kind of the framework for what the deal would look like and wanted to hear um what

070the committee thought about it. >> Thank you, Bob. Um just a question I have. Have we have we ever gone with lightly used buses before? And what does 20,000 miles equate to? like how many, you know, is that a school year? Is that half a school year? Um how much do we normally put on a bus in a year? >> About a school year based on some numbers that uh the transportation director gave me. Um so I'd say about a school year. Um you know, the the the risk is managed on their length of life by the fact that if they are not operational, we're not paying. Um there's a penalty clause built in where the lease payment reduces. Um, so I that that mitigates the risk significantly. >> Okay. Um, a hands kind of

071popped up at I'm not sure who was first. I'm going to just go in the the list as I see it. Um, so I'm not trying to circumn anyone, but Michael, it looks like you're first in the list, so I'll have you go first. >> Thanks. U, so we were initially looking at five buses and now two buses. What does that do for a scheme in terms of us electrifying our our entire fleet? And um does does that work? Second part of the question, does this diesel buses lower cost upfront, longer cost over time, electricism, bigger costs up front, and we've got that decreased by this plan. and and it will sort of moderate over time. Does having to pay for the buy back the the infrastructure um make any difference? Those are two questions.

072Thank you. >> Okay. I I um I don't know if I completely followed all of the second one. I'll answer the pieces that I think I uh absorbed and then just let me know if I missed anything. Um, so the what it does to our overall infra overall fleet is we currently have three buses and I'd say the two Lion buses, Lion is out of business. One of the buses is is used. One of the two Lion buses is still used. Um, one of them is is basically at end of life. I think it's eight years old and um >> it's nine years old. It's original year was my first year. >> Yeah. So that one's close to end of life. So getting two in would effectively when we when we drop down to two

073would get us back to four. So it would enable us to grow um a little bit. It also uh the arrangement would also have some flexibility in to work with them if they if we were to get if they were to apply for a grant um we would partner with them to potentially get more vehicles up to up to five total. So we have two now like um so there is some flexibility to work with them to potentially get more but that would be contingent on them um on it being financially viable for them. They would need grant funds to do that. Um they're they're doing this they're not making money on the deal they're offering us. They're trying to um get their foot in the door, prove the model to us and um keep

074us interested in working with them as we go forward. Um, in terms of the cost, um, it's these prices are, uh, more than a diesel bus, but less than an electric bus. Well, they are electric buses, but but what's what we're paying is less than we would typically pay for an electric bus. We would pay aboutund The prices are going up a little bit for the diesel, too. So, I'd say 185 or so for a diesel bus. Um, this is 286. Um, and this also includes maintenance. They're covering maintenance. Um, and there's some guarantees on uptime, which we don't get with a diesel bus. So, I'd say financially, um, yeah, maybe it's a little bit more than a diesel bus. Um, but I I think it's about as close as we're going to get right

075now. Um, and then the buyout at the end, I still need to negotiate that. I put fair market value because I don't I haven't worked out what that would be. Um, and I don't know. I want it to be based on I need them to explain to me like, you know, how long do these units last? Um how much do they cost? Like if they cost 20,000 and they last 12 years, I would expect them to just give them to us for free. Um if they last 20 years, it might be fair. If we wanted to stop working with them that we do pay something. So I don't know enough about that yet to know what the deal will be. Um but um so what we both sides just agreed to now is we said

076fair market value and we talk about it more. >> I think if president at the end of the day your your your best judgment is this a plus for us or a question mark. >> Okay. >> Was that a question Michael? Is this a a plus or a question mark? He he he pegged the the the answer the synthesis of it. Is this a plus for would this in his opinion would it be a plus for us or or a question mark? Clearly not a negative plus or a question mark. >> Yeah, I'd say um if we want to be sustainable, this is as good as a deal as we're going to get right now absent getting a free bus through a grant. And Bob, I'll just add, we've tried really hard to access the

077grants on our own, and it's it's very difficult to do. So, this would allow us a pathway to the grants, I think, more reliably. >> All right, Tracy. >> Okay. I was going to ask a question about the infrastructure, the charging infrastructure, but I think you could maybe look to Beverly. I know that Highland's done a lot of work with Beverly Public Schools and they might have some information about what the charging would look like for fair market value. Just a an aside, um I think this is a great opportunity for us. We've been working on this a lot since I go back to like July of 2023. We talked a lot about what's the total cost of ownership electric buses. We have lost numerous grants on them. And the reality of it is, you

078know, a $400,000 bus plus the charging infrastructure is just we we can't afford to do that on our own. Um, so I think it's exciting that they can help us with the infrastructure. I guess my question for CMLP would be I know that you know a few years ago we need a new transformer. So that money was set aside I think by town meeting of 2017 or 2019. So does that need to be done first with the transformer before anything happens? >> So CMLP used some of that money to put in a transformer for the mass CEC grant. So we have another charger going in um a high-speed birectional charger. It's not part of this Highland contract, but it's through the mass CEC grant um which is also going on at Knox Trail. And so

079CMLP um used some of that 2017 money because that was they were putting in the trenching in the transformer um and they had to get approval to you know dig up the the site because there was environmental issues there. So I think I had mentioned that in a previous meeting. So that's been done that transformer um we believe but CMLP will need to confirm to Highland will have the capacity to add this additional charger to it. It's they they've built the conduit in so we so it can be added. Um and if not um there's the ability to install either upgrade the transformer or put in additional capacity and we would need Highland would actually have to pay for that with CMLP. Uh we would not need to do that ourselves. >> And do you

080know if that's still like a year lead time on a transformer like just from a scheduling perspective? This is you know this isn't going to happen in the next 3 months. you know there there is some work to be done and then running it through legal that would have to be done in addition. So what do you think the timeline would look like for this? >> So the transformer is already in. >> Okay. >> Uh but if it needs an additional one or an upgrade uh I don't know what the lead time is. I I do know that CMLP had a transformer um and they used it for this purpose. So I don't know if they have inventory or not. Um but this contract would not have a start date until the infrastructure is in

081place like the deal with Highland um would have an effective date when the buses are delivered and when the electrical infrastructure is in place and operational. So um we would we would sort those things out so we're not paying if we can't charge the buses and run the buses. >> Okay. Thank you. Bob Bob's been on multiple meetings with many many people from the current upgrades that are going on with CMLP and all those vendors. Highland's been on those calls already. It's a lot of organization already happening because we don't we didn't want to bring you a proposal that wasn't impossible or that the two plans wouldn't complement each other. Um so I'm actually hopeful we're getting closer to executing on this. We've been at this for six months now, so I think we're >>

082honing in on it, which is why we wanted to bring it tonight. >> I do feel like this is the closest we've been. You know, I think in some of the other grants, it's like, you know, if we can get another district to partner with us and if we qualify, like this feels like the closest we've been. So, thank you. >> And I think it sets up a relationship for the future, which seems also valuable. >> All right. Uh, Andrew. Yeah, just uh really quickly I guess um the the buses are used, right? They have 20,000 miles, which is you know a year or two as you said, Brian. So So Baba, do we know why they're they're used? Like are they un unreliable? Do they don't have the range or because it's a lot

083of money for people to invest in in electric buses because of the infrastructure. We just talked about it. So, it's it's odd to me that, you know, there'd be two available buses light lightly used without any sort of backstory. And you might probably don't know that, you know, the origin of those two buses, but I guess my my actual question is, Bob, you you managed a fleet and through negotiations of our mechanics and our bus drivers, I just know how challenging that is. So there's a big difference between them covering a day or two of downtime, which reduces our payment trivially, versus you and your team having to actually get kids to school with a bus being down. So my my uh precise question is like you're good with this. >> Um I I so

084I did ask that exact question um about you know why are the vehicles available? That was a question our uh transportation team had too. Um the company it's it's a school district in Michigan. So not too different a climate that um does not uh have the infrastructure to make this work. Um I don't So they basically gut buses and weren't able to maintain it, weren't able to um keep up with the infrastructure. So um that's the uh information that was relayed to us. Um and um in terms of us being good, you know, am I good with this? I'm pretty confident that I am in support of this. I we we would want to see the buses and inspect them. We would say we would say no if the buses weren't viable. So there are

085there are things that we will put in the contract. Um like we would have to accept the buses. Um, we would, um, we would still need legal to review the contract. Um, but I don't think the substance of this will change. I think all the pricing is going to be the same. Um, so there's some additional due diligence to do. But, um, I wanted to bring it to you now because we have the framework of what the agreement will look like and then, um, you know, the details of, okay, we need to see what the buses are. We need to make sure we're okay with them. Um, it's actually a plus that they're Thomas instead of IC, which was what they were doing before because our lead mechanic is, um, he comes from Thomas um,

086and he's familiar with Thomas vehicles and he has relationship with Thomas uh, vendors. Um, so yeah, I I I'm think I think this can work. >> Great. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. Thanks, Bob, for doing all the work on this. This is um definitely a really attractive offer. I just have three questions. Um can you tell me how many buses are currently in the fleet? >> Um about 35 approximately. Um there might be some that are need to be retired that don't go on the road, but about 35. >> Okay. And are they uh stored outside like >> Yeah, they're stored outside at um the bus depot in Actton. >> Okay. And then um so maybe four questions. Did do you know these two particular buses? I was researching these buses earlier and it looks

087like they come with an option of a fuel fired heater. In my question, I'm asking just because I don't know if it'll affect like the decarbonization or if we'll get credit for it being environmentally friendly if they do have that fuel fired heater. Do you know if they have that or not? >> I don't think they do, but I can confirm that. >> Um, and then I saw that there were two different ranges. Uh, there's two different models with different ranges. One was 133 miles and the other was 200 plus. Do you know what the range on these buses? I think it's on the lower I I don't think it's the 200 plus, but um our our bus routes typically would do um on our core routes less, you know, say maybe a 100 miles

088a day because they do drive from um Actton. We wouldn't use these on the Boston routes. I can tell you that because it's a little bit more of a ride. Um and and then within town, so anyways, it's about 100 miles a day is the estimate from our our transportation director. And if any did trips at night, it might be more. Um, so I I mean they would have the capacity and they would also have the ability to charge after they came back. >> Yeah, the highspeed charger is going to be gamechanging and turning on those. >> So um >> even the 100 miles would be sufficient. I just was I'm curious because I was looking at the decarbonization road map and it looks like by 2040 they want to be at 82%. And I

089know that's not law. That's just like a guideline, but you know, just kind of trying to take all this into consider consideration. Um, when it comes to busing in general, >> they want to be 82% of the fleet. >> Yeah. By 2040. >> Yeah. >> So, that's all my questions. Thank you so much. >> Sure. >> Bob, do you have what you I want to move us along because we've kind of doubled our aotted time already on this topic. Do you have what you need from us at this point or >> I do that feedback? I'm just going to characterize what I heard as general support of this with certain questions and I take those questions under advisement. When I do come back with a contract, I'll be prepared to address any of those questions.

090>> Yeah. I just want to shout out that I think uh my comfort anyway and I think Highland's comfort comes with our expertise in this. We were first in the country to have a bus 10 years ago and part of why these other districts are giving up grant money or turning buses in like it's not as easy as it sounds to manage the electric and we're really used to the all the things you ask questions about we're really used to. Um so I think for us it's really just making sure we sustain the fleet and then try to grow it. So thanks for your consideration. >> Excellent. Thanks for the work here Bob. Um, all right. Moving on. Next, we've got uh 10 minutes to do a a final review of our school committee goals.

091Um, as a reminder, we looked at these in November as well as in um February. Um, do I have permission to share? Looks like I do. I'm happy to just go ahead and pull these up so that we can take a look at them. Okay. Um so first one uh just in terms of the budget um I did prefill um these first two as on track just because they were um done and they were done a while ago. Um I personally feel that >> you make them a little larger. Hard to see. >> Is that better Michael? >> Cool. Um I do think in terms of presenting clear community accessible budgets we were also successful there but I didn't want to make that determination for the committee. >> Okay we're too >> are we good

092with on track here? >> Agreed. >> Okay. Um I'm not trying to rush us but I will just move it along unless I um unless I hear anything. um community and um communication and community engagement. When we looked at these in February, the first two were on track and um piloting um new two-way communication was off track. Um though we did have all of our community coffees um after um the February conversation. Um so I just want to get a sense from people in terms of on track off track on on this one as we wrap things up. I just had a few more thoughts on that and the two-way communication. You know, when I was reflecting back on our goals, we do have monthly PTG presidents meetings with all of the PTG presidents from

093the preschool, all three elementary schools, the middle school, the high school, and Carile. So, we do get a lot of feedback. I go to those meetings um and we certainly try and incorporate that feedback. So, Lori and I are at those meetings where that can happen. the chairs breakfast. We also there's a lot of back and forth um between chairs and communications that happens. And then I was also thinking about different groups that we leaz with. There is opportunity like I know Michael you leaz with the DI commission. There's some back and forth there you know that gets passed back and forth to the school committee. I'm on land use working group. So I do think that we have more than we think in two-way communication. I think our coffees were definitely successful this year.

094Um, so I feel as though we're on track with that. We did do a couple of podcasts, too. I know I did one in conquered and Brian, you did the one in Carl. So when I look at that, I feel better about it now in June than maybe we did in February. >> Does anyone disagree with any of these being on track as we wrap up the year? >> I have I have a problem with I think that I have a problem with them. I think that uh I know from the communities that I hear from that in terms of our two-way communication, while we did get them started, we talked about them in September, but didn't get them off the ground till the end of the year. Um when we canvased in our meetings,

095uh most of you said you had very, you know, Sandep Andrew had low outcome. Tracy in Boston, you had uh I'm sorry uh Aisha and Michelle, at least what you told us of the meetings that we had low outcome. Uh it was only Carrie and I that had a big outcome, but events at the end of the in the last uh six weeks of the school year. I think it's hard to say that we are on track in that in terms of even under the communication community engagement goals and trying to strengthen them on issues of anti-semitism, bias and hate in the community. I think we were actually fairly weak on that. Um, I mean, as recently as two weeks ago, we got a request for uh from a sister municipal body for uh letter

096of uh support for the Black Heritage Trail markers and that hasn't even come that won't even come to us as an agenda item. Um, how does that improve our our connection? How does it improve or even speak to our goals of addressing hate in all its forms, anti-semitism and bias if we can't even talk about the issue? Um, we've had this problem throughout the year. Um, you suggest that uh when we want to talk about issues of bias and hate, all I have to do is ask. Uh Tracy and Brian, you know, I asked you from July whether we could talk about in uh the the ADL complaint that we just received and most of the committee, almost half of the committee was new at that time. You you told me no. Uh wasn't until

097October wasn't until October that we eventually talked about it. I would also say that we did not meet from July for 3 weeks and we met only on Zoom and and did not we listen but but did not we did listen but did not engage. We didn't start to talk about these issues until October. And then Michelle reminded us that she represents communities that feel unseen and unheard. Um, but when I asked if we were going to talk about these issues, Andrew looked at me and said, "Uh, I'm not hearing about this from anybody else in the committee. I'm not hearing a change from anybody else in the committee." When Michelle had just attested to that fact, so I'm I'm not seeing that we're on track certainly for bullet three. Um and um I I

098I don't see that there's a strong reason for for say that we're on track for this this whole this whole section because there's so many things that we need to do that we we have yet to we haven't looked at even the way that we communicate with each other. So I I I think that if anything this calls for us to con consider doing better. >> Okay. Thank you for that Michael. Um Sundep I think you had your hand up next. >> Yeah. Um so the the I I I do think the second one is is on track. Uh the third one, the way I read it, I did we really pilot two new um forms of uh I guess uh two-way communication. I I think just the way that is written. Uh it's we

099we've tried we've taken a step forward, but I don't think we've met the mark on the on the third goal. The the the first one is um in my mind a little interesting because I I do think we've done better. uh but I I don't know if we have any metrics to kind of track that and so I'm I I don't know uh I I I feel like we have but I don't think I can show any data to to you know kind of know for sure. >> Thank you for that Andrew. I thought um like the the things we've done to bolster the district bulletin have been really helpful. I've got a lot of parent feedback that they understand what's going on across the district. So I I think you know Lori Steam has

100done a really good job on that. Um I agree we're on track with the second one deepen relationships and then I agree with Sundep and other feedback that we're probably off track on piloting two-way communications whereas we only did the podcasts. So, on track, on track, off track. >> Okay, Aisha. >> So, um I think that um I wouldn't say we're on track. I think we have um room for improvement um for communication overall, just even like Michael said, um just within this board, we have a lot of room for improvement. But, um but I look forward to um you know, next year just being better. um this being this committee being more professional and um the communication being a little bit better. Um I think we could do a little bit better. I think

101that um we have gotten better, but I think there's and I don't really know how to like um those ways to get better, but I think that um we can work on it, especially with um the communication with the Boston community. I think we can work on different ways to communicate because um and it's no one's fault just the ways that we're doing it now. I don't know if we're reaching all the parents. So, um, maybe just different ways that we could look to engage with them. >> Yeah. No, I hear and I agree with what so many of you have said just in terms of there's always rooms for improvement in terms of communication. Um, I know uh I've been given a lot of thought to that just in the the last few weeks

102on a whole variety of topics. Um, so um was there anyone else who wanted to make a comment um related to these? Um so I think from what I heard just in terms of relationships with select board and fincom um you know people felt we were on track though um I don't know that we've uh checked in I know on the carile side yes but I don't know um if we can speak to the to the conquered side um and it sounds like we feel overall off track on the on the last one. Um, and probably a as much as I've said off track or on track, uh, it seems to be a mixed bag on the on the first one as well. Um, so, um, and I I think this needs to be a

103focus point. >> And Brian, I might I might add, on track doesn't mean we're done, right? It's it's we're head Yeah. So, we're heading in the right direction. I I don't think we're where we need to be on first, but uh, >> yeah, maybe maybe on track isn't bad. Yeah. And to that point and thinking also just in terms of you know where to go to get information and news I do think this is how I personally would would view it. Um again committing to we've got to look at this further um next year and as we think about further goal setting >> and you you could make on track um I'm sorry Tracy. >> Sorry. Go ahead Andrew. could make on track orange. Although Julie Viola would not be happy, but you could make

104on track orange. >> The first one >> I do think the Yeah, the the green versus red is a good measuring system. Uh Tracy, >> um just you know, in terms of communication, I think since I've been on this committee there, there are always communication goals. We can always better communicate. I think there's always a challenge because people like things all different ways. Some people want an email, some people want it on Instagram, some people want a text. And so I do think that some of that communication, everyone's going to communicate differently. I think we've done some good work with the select board and the finance committees, you know, just in terms of the budget and really, you know, to to keep doing what we did last year, even in terms of meeting over the

105summer at the end of the summer meeting with finance committee. I think that was hugely helpful. So I do think we have made some improvements and I do think as a committee we can always improve our communication. You know one thing that's not noted in here and it's not two-way communication but it's you know pushing out story of the schools you know the the change to our website where we have all of those news stories that are also on the website. So just to keep reminding the community that that website is live and so there are always things added on there. You know, I think that, you know, I'm I'm just watching Q5 unrolled unroll at our high school right now, which is amazing and I hope that the community gets all the information about

106that. Like there are there are very few public schools that are doing anything that innovative towards the end of the school year and I think, you know, getting that out to the community would be helpful. So, I think we always have room to improve and my guess is we're going to have a communication goal for next year also. Yes, I I did jot that down. Um I'm going to move us along. Um policy oversight. Sorry, I can't get all of this onto one screen. Um but um insure district policies are current, inclusive, and responsive to emerging student and community needs. Um, so when we looked at this last time, we had said off track, on track, off track. I'm going to go back to the policy tracker. Um, which is the I think this is

107the lowest hanging fruit at the bottom. Um, we don't have a publicly accessible policy tracker. What we do have is in our yearly schedule, I've put all the policies, all the MASC updates that are on there, you know, that's viewable to all of us and we're kind of going through all those, but I'm not really sure um what a policy tracker online gets us. >> Um, but th those are just my thoughts on that. Yeah, >> Michael I guess the I I'd still perhaps something we should talk about for our our next set of goals is tracking how we communicate and talk with each other. But that's we moved on before I got to make that comment. That's something I certainly think we should talk about as we haven't done well there either. >> I'm

108making a note of that. Did you have anything about policy though? >> I did capture that. No. Okay. >> I swear the MASC can help us a little bit on policies. I mean, I do think that we have our policy um manual was brought up to date two years ago and now we're just kind of ticking through the updates. Um, so we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, but maybe we can bring that Brian to like the chair's round table and see what other districts are doing to kind of clean up where we're at with this. >> Yeah. Any other thoughts on this one? Just in terms of on track and off track, >> I think it's not my goal. I'll start with that. Um, there are different approaches that I've seen over the

109years. I think maybe you're struggling with what is your approach. Is it that every 3 to 5 years you go through the entire book and in the meantime you just do what you're doing now or are you trying to do a section of the book every year? Like I think we need to memorialize the strategy and you'll feel less unsettled. >> So maybe that's the first goal of the following. >> Yeah. And that's a good point Lori. Like in for Carile our goal for example is we touch a third of the policies every year. So that over the course of three years, we've touched all of them and we just very >> I think we were so relieved to finally get through the whole book that we um are exhaling, but you do need to

110we all need to come up with what the long-term strategy. >> Yeah, >> I would agree that with that. So I mean maybe I I know we want to do green and red and to just get through this. Um I do think in the middle section we are on track. the top section. We have identified reviewed all our major policy areas for alignment. Um we're we're doing some policies tonight. I I do think that policy update tracker maybe we look towards that as establishing a way to review our policies. I mean maybe that's our goal for next year is like like let's put it in writing. Now that it's done, we're doing the updates. Now I think we have to be more like Carl O'Brien where we you know do a third a third a

111third or make a commitment to something broader. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I've made a note as well some kind of policy goal for for next year. Um superintendent evaluation. Um this one was on track because it was completed in September. Um, we've h, you know, we've had Lor's updates over the course of the year. Um, we also have the the Sunday emails, which I just I love. Um, and when I've told others that we get those from you, um, they are shocked. So, I appreciate that that level of detail. Um and then in the last couple we have said on track as well for monitoring student achievement um data but I'll open it up for discussion. >> I definitely think it's >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> I was going to say I think it's

112on track on the last one. I'm not sure. Do we do it three times? That that's my only question. I know we've gotten updates. >> We also covered it in meetings three times. >> Excellent. Then then no reservations. >> Okay. >> And I I guess um Sandep are you done or do you have something else? Sorry. Done. Okay. Um I guess you know I I just I have some notes from you know just in my prep when Lori sends her emails. Her standards are are on there every single week. And I I think this is more for the public to hear what we are doing for evaluation. Standard one on instructional leadership. Standard two management operations. Standard three family and community engagement. And standard four professional culture. So our weekly updates are all categorized based

113on those standards. And then this week um you know I had a a few minutes to look through the articles that Lori sent. So, she has 40 weeks of professional articles that get sent to the staff that we also had access to, which I think is is really important. I think it's important on the work that we do as a school committee to really look and see what our teachers are doing. And I just pulled out just, you know, a couple of the themes, you know, assessment, reading, deeper learning, AI, tech, scaffolding, student voice, high dosage tutoring, prompting, promoting equity. And so there are 40 weeks of articles that that really when you look at them are tied to Lor's goals. They're also tied to the strategic plan. So I do think that we're constantly

114um in an evaluation cycle of the superintendent. I know that we evaluate her every other year, but I do feel like we have so much evidence that we're completely on track here. >> Okay. Thank you. any final feedback just in terms of this past year's goals? Um otherwise, you know, we do need to do goal setting for the year ahead. Um I think last year the chairs took the first pass at setting the goals and then we discuss them if if memory serves. Um and I just wanted to check in with people. Do we want to take a similar approach? Do we want to have a time where we're sort of brainstorming more upfront together? Um >> Michael, >> um if memory serves, when we had our goals meeting was in August last year with

115um establishing goals with the um our our regional uh representative and the executive director of mask. And again, if memory serves, I thought that they were recommending that we get to it earlier rather than at that point. Uh cuz we again recall that we did both the goals and our protocols and the academic year was starting with in like 10 days. And so that's that's uh what I recall from that meeting. So yeah, I think we should probably use the same paradigm but possibly get to it a bit earlier. >> Okay, >> Aisha. >> Sorry. So sorry. I just um I'm all for I think we could I'm I'm for us doing it together. Um just because this past year we've had um is it just the chairs doing it and then us discussing it.

116we do it together so we have a more equitable um equitable out outcome where all voices are heard. Um the two chairs that we had um weren't didn't listen to certain um people on the um committee. So um I think we should do it together just so we were in a better place next year. >> Okay, Tracy. one and a half hours. >> Yeah, I think that um it was helpful when we had our workshop in August to really do goals and protocols and I guess maybe I suggest you know I think we had a a newer committee last year which is why we spent a lot of time on the protocols. I protocols aren't something that you have to really you know rewrite every single year. I think that you know maybe just some

117quick tweaking and so more of the focus for that first meeting could just be on our goals. um you know it might be helpful if if you and Sand Deep identify goal areas and then we all have input into it. I think you know just going through this process of this past year you can kind of see what the themes what some of them might be. So maybe to give us a starting point for then us for us to add to that might be helpful but maybe the protocols discussion doesn't have to be as lengthy. I mean some committees keep the same protocols year after year after year. So just a just a thought as to how to spend more time on goals and less time on protocols. >> Great. Thank you for that. Um

118this this feedback is very helpful and like I said even during this I've been jotting down sort of bigger bucket themes that we might want to include. Um so why don't I take it as an action to um connect with Sundep um talk through a framework of how we um we'll work through this and then um we'll get things moving along accordingly. But thank you everyone for for walking through. Um going to move on then to our second reading of policies. So these are policies JICK AC uh and ACR. Uh we reviewed these back in May. Um I think it was May or was it June? Yeah, May. Um and um these are the policies that the Department of Justice um made recommendations in terms of how we um updated the the language um and

119they were updated in coordination with our attorney um Miss Paige Tobin. Um, and I know we, you know, in our conversation in May, a number of us had um had concerns about about the the recommended language, but we're also, you know, mindful of the of the immediate compliance. Um, so I would like to commit that we will look at these um as we come back again um you know, in August and and in September. But um just want to see um based on the what we have in front of us, are there any further um comments on this version of uh the three policies? >> No, just thanks Brian. I think we're all in agreement. We want to keep working on these and a vote tonight allows us to submit what we need to and

120then we'll come back to it right way at the beginning of the year. I guess uh I I have some concerns. I think Sandeep you you had voiced some concerns uh in that May in in that May meeting. Um if we agree to these now when the the uh I guess JICK uh and ACR are going to go into the handbook, correct? No, they just get posted as your voted policy, but you can bring them back in August and revise them by September. So, it really the one that goes into the handbook, which is a link. So, the handbook just reflect ACR >> ACR, >> but you can also like we can adjust all that in the August September timeline, too. We're just trying to get a version that matches what the DOJ agreement said.

121So I think Michael, we all agree. We're just trying to do it in two steps if that makes sense. >> Yeah, >> I've said my piece on it >> and I have been saying August or September only because coming back in August, I just don't know what else may need attention. So just want that flexibility in agenda setting. Um but um >> my thought process September >> Yeah, I agree with you, Brian. And my thought process was to use the quieter, knock on wood, quieter July to look at what I heard for concerns and see if we could get some language added to this so that you have something to reflect on in August or September rather than um straight up starting as a group. So I'm committing to working on it even in July.

122>> Thank you. So can I make a motion and then if there's further discussion I move to approve policy JICK ACR AC and policy ACR >> second. >> Right. Is there any further discussion? Yeah. And thank you for everyone who shared um viewpoints, concerns. Um and like I said, August or or September as we come back um we'll continue the dialogue here. All right. Roll call vote please. >> Check I >> tell her I >> for both. Oh, >> for region. >> Morano. I for both. >> Bishardi I for both. Wat I for region >> Williams I for both >> okay thank you uh we now have four new policies where this is our first reading um it's JL CD administration of medication to students JLCDC self-administration and self-care of medication JKA timeout seclusion and

123restraint of students and KB BG Parent Advisory Council. Um Lori, thank you for pulling the first one up. Um is there anything in there's a there are a lot of edits in this one. Anything in particular you want to talk through just in terms of >> Yeah. Um all of these except the last one are related to regulation changes that have happened and need to be in place by the start of school. So your first read is now with the hope to vote it in that August meeting. Um you'll see that the medication delegation regulations are changing fairly significantly. Um nurse the short version is the nurses are going to be able to train more broadly and delegate medication administration for certain types of medications beyond what they've been able to do which up till

124now has been pretty much epipens. Um so we can you can read this in more detail. It's can it's very reflective of the regulation. And there's really not much else to um consider that this is the MASC's recommended version. >> Question in our system. Who's the medication program manager? >> So we need to work through some of these um titles that are here. >> Yeah. >> Which is what one of the summer projects I wanted to get this in front of you and we have to sort through all these aspects of compliance that we need to identify. >> Yeah. I looked at the the the mask documentation, all the different varieties of them, and it wasn't clear who that was in in our district. So, uh, >> yes, >> we're working on that. >> Good

125question. >> So, I will have all that plan made for you in August. Um, when it comes back to you, >> Lori, are you going to keep that language medication program manager or is there going to be just because it's policy? So, it's going to be broader and then you'll let us know who it is. >> The medication program manager is what's in the regulations. So, we have to keep it >> keep it. Okay. >> And we have now we have to define it. To Michael's point, who is that? And um my I mean Lisa Lisa Ksky, the lead district-wide nurse is my go-to on this right now. It could be that it's her, but I want to just vet a little more before we firm that up. >> So, the language in this policy

126will stay the same, but you'll identify the people and let us know. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Any other questions on this one? >> All right. Do you want to talk about the next one, Lori? >> Sure. This is a second piece to this where we need to put in a self- administration and self-care medication policy. Um because we do this with the oldest kids. Mo most of what's here is already in place. Um this is the policy that will provide oversight um more specifically to how kids can self-administer. So, it goes along with the one before. I don't see us doing with the youngest kids obviously, but the high school kids pretty much um most many of them are most of them are in this kid. >> Okay. >> Give or take certain situations.

127>> All right. I don't see anyone with hands up a question, so why don't we talk about the third one? >> Okay. Okay, on to another regulation change. The list is really growing coming out of the legislation and legislator in Desi. This is only a portion. The graduation requirements are probably about to be put out by the governor any minute. That's going to be a whole another bundle. Like we're we're just trying to keep up. Um timeout, seclusion, and physical restraint. The part that's new is the timeout and seclusion component. Um, Angel's been taking lead on this very, very extensively, already started to do training across the buildings. She's met with CPAC um, at least once to go through the changes. And really, this is a limit on timeout and seclusion. Um, the direction is

128to use other deescalation strategies um, so that kids are not confined. Um, obviously when we do it, it's only for a safety reason. So, we're vetting what that is and how we get to a place where we can avoid it. Um, it's pretty pretty thorough here. And then it leads, this is a revision to the actual restraint policy we have now, which you'll see starts partway through. Um, so there's a lot still Angel's going to be in ongoing communication with the buildings as we open school. We have three years to actually implement this which is unusual. Um but we're on our way. Uh we also have a train one of our special ed administrators is being trained through a program at Case Collaborative to train the trainer and come back and do more training. Really

129it's you know how big of a toolkit can we get in deescalation to avoid situations. Um, so that's the work. Again, Angel's been our lead there and will continue to be. Any questions on this one? >> All right. And then the last one related to parent advisory councils. >> Yeah, let me switch. This is a word document. This is another MASC update. And I my understanding of this is they continue to try to um outline that parent advisory councils, CPAC most particularly um and English language parent advisory councils which we have less of um are not subject to open meeting law and that can but I think they're finding and it's really interesting this RC our CPAC had this conversation when I was done with them last week. Um, okay. If they don't have open

130meaning law, what are they guiding themselves by? They have bylaws, but how are they managing transparency and communication? Um, I know RCPAC wants to continue that discussion. So, >> and this is the last of the MASS updates um for the year that we had on there. Mhm. >> And Brian and I, we actually we had a little interesting conversation at the chair's round table over CPACs, too. So, I think a lot of people are talking about how CPACs are governing and running and all of that. So, it's good to have that guidance. >> No, for sure. >> All right. And any final questions or comments on any of these before we revisit them in August? All right. Lori, thank you for stepping us through. >> You're welcome. >> Uh, school committee meeting calendar. Do you

131want to pull that up? Do you want me to pull it up? >> I don't have that as handy as I had the other >> I have it. Okay, I've got it. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Uh, it's going to be tiny, but And I know you all have it in your packet, so you can always refer to that document as well. >> I mean, it's Yeah. Uh, it's tiny even. Um, M >> for me. Um so one thing just in terms of the first meeting date, I did pull every one and August 26 closer to the start of the school year um was the preferred date. So um we will go with that moving forward. Did anyone have any concerns about any of the other dates? The only one that came up on my

132end since you saw this um because of the t this is a conquered school committee piece because of the assuming we still go back and forth um the timing of DC next year potentially which you haven't approved but they've started to plan might put a concert on that May 26th date at the middle school so they've been really good about flagging conflicts like that for us and letting us No, I don't know if that demands a change to what's here. I just wanted to name that they had highlighted that for me. >> Okay. The only other potential conflict that I saw that we might have to work out is in Carile and Lynette help you can help me out here. Carile is the second Wednesday of the month and a lot of these are the

133first Wednesday, but then I know why September is and that's not an issue. Um, and I suspect I know why January. >> It's that all school concert that we keep trying. >> That's right. Yeah, that too. I was thinking was just coming back from from New Year. No, it's that >> it's that concert that pulls from I think from all the schools including Garla. >> Including Carla. Yeah, it does. >> I just wondering >> February, March, and May why we're on the second Wednesday as opposed to the first if there were any. And we can flip-flop in in Carlile um pretty easily. But um >> yeah, this is there's a reason. >> This is just a first draft, so you can move it around as you would like. moon the the first uh meeting in

134February to the 3. >> If we could do three Feb, three March, and >> Yeah. May I think that alleviates a lot of the conflicts. >> Yeah, it's February, March, May, and you what what's the June meeting? and and June >> all compl uh the same night as Carile. >> The the the the June 2nd though I I would caution it'll be just one week after the May. Um >> I think that's what drove some of this shifting. >> I mean so so if we're doing May 5th, we could also do May 19th and then we'd be fine. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And then could we do June 2nd? >> Yeah. and we could do the second March I want to be sure I give these to Aaron correctly if you don't mind. >> Yeah,

135if we could do March 3rd and Feb 3. >> Yep. Okay. >> So, she's vacation until Monday and we'll revise this for you. No, thank you everyone because it just uh I hate to move to a different day of the week and then Lynette and I have double we're not talking about our spouses. >> That just gets confusing. >> Yeah. >> All right, >> that's right, Lynette. >> I think we're good there. Um, school committee leaison assignments is the the next item. I, as I said, as I shared these out, I did my best to take into account requests, look at what people had done previously. I doubled and triple checked. I didn't hear from anybody that there was any glaring error in terms of um any of the assignments. Um, but I'll just ask

136and I don't know if it's worth me sharing the screen or not just cuz it is a lot of text and and tiny, but did anybody have any comments um just in terms of assignments? >> I just had one um to bring up. I don't think I saw Conquered United on there and Michael and I have been on it this year with Lori and I think that and Michael will you correct me if I'm wrong at the last meeting we discuss the chair or their designate is how the language was going to go. >> Yes. And uh at the last DI commission meeting uh Andre Fonerorado was talking about um I guess the next meeting is going to be in August. It'll be at the police headquarters. Um rotating rotating um rotating leadership. Uh she

137was talking about that. That'll come up I guess at the next meeting. So I think that it could be the chair or their design. I I think the goal was to have consistency. So you know you and Sandep if you want to think about that the meetings are typically during the day. Um right >> it's not a Michael is there a day of the week that they've been or no shed some light on >> could you shed some light on conquered united versus the DAC commission and and >> Sure. So what's happening there? >> Okay, sorry. So, Conquered United. So, we had started Oh my gosh. We had started like in the fall meeting with the DEI commission and it was Michael and I, Lori, Andrew Namichi, and the DEI commission chairs. So, that started

138in the fall and then it kind of morphed into a townwide leadership committee that maybe I'm going to get the dates wrong. Michael and Laura, you can help me. I think maybe around like February. Um and but it includes the police, the select board, >> the town manager, >> um Lori, Andrew, Michichi, school committee representation. >> So it's it's to meet, you know, kind of once a month. So it's it's up to you. I mean, I'm happy to continue, but I'm also happy if one of you wants to continue, that's fine with me. Like if if Sundep or Brian, if you say, "I really want to do it." Great. if you're happy to continue. Um I personally am comfortable with that >> and Michael. >> Yeah, Michael's there as DI leaison which le >> but

139it can be the chair or their design. So if you if there's any point that they I'm happy to you know for one of you to do it. >> Okay. So, so again this is a a a uh select board initiative or >> I just something organic. It was a DEI commission initiative I believe that was uh ascribed to by uh I guess the chief police town manager and I guess the idea that the idea was to have um municipal leaders and broad um community representation on board to what we might have been inspired by looking at the issues that we were having. Uh also to look um prospectively at how we can model best for our community and that that's that's I think that's fair. That's the the intent that DEI and police chief

140and the select board um brought to it over throughout through our conversations. That fair >> Yeah. It's become a nice um spoke to the conversation so we all get to hear what each other's doing in a in a setting where we're not doing 10 other things at once. >> Yeah. Okay. I made the adjustment to the um sheet. Anything else for leazison assignments? And Tracy, remind me. Do we vote on these or >> um I think we can vote on them. I I can't recall if we voted on them last year or not. The and the only other thing that I had brought to you Brian earlier is we have two other union negotiations for next year too. So we have four bargaining units next year >> to negotiate with. So we don't have any

141assigned there but those will likely happen towards the end of the school year. So maybe let the year I think your thought was to let the year go. >> My thought is yeah let's get closer to the time and then we'll establish it based on what everyone has um going on. >> Yep. I'll just note because we're in the thick of it this spring. Anyone who's not on a teacher bargaining unit is going to probably have to get tapped because there's not enough of us to get it all done. >> I mean, it's Yeah, it's been um I will just say it's been a lot this spring. >> I I think it's all hands on deck next year with the bargain. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Um are we good on this? Do we want

142to vote on them or just >> I move to approve the leison on list for 2026 2027. >> Second. >> Any final discussion? >> Roll call. >> I >> Kellaher I. >> Morano I. Sorry. >> Shardy I. >> Wat I. >> Williams I. >> Great. Thank you everybody. Looking forward. >> Thank you Brian. Thank you for doing that. >> And thank you for helping as well. So um I appreciate that. >> Uh okay, just making sure I'm not losing track of where we are. Um CPSCC RSD maintenance union agreement for 2629. We need to vote on this. >> Yeah, I can just give a high level. We were able to reach a tentative agreement with them last week, much thanks to and they should speak more than me. Um, Sandeep and Lynette. Uh, it's a

143slow progressive contract to help them be on par with the town of conquered maintenance staff. I think that's the short version. Um, but we're really grateful that you should speak more than I would. It was a it was a collaborative effort. >> Yeah. I don't know. It was It was fun. It was an easy one for me to start with, I guess. So, they were very nice. >> They're a great group. >> It was great. They they do great work and and obviously Bob led the charge with uh um you know, working on behalf of the district. So, thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Bob. >> And Cara, she was part of it, too. She's not in this meeting, but definitely helped with the with the bargaining. >> Cara's online. She's watching online. So,

144thank you to Cara. >> Thank you, Cara. I think some of us have spent a lot of time with Cara, Bob, and Lauria over the past two days. So, thank you for your work on all of the negotiations. >> Yes. >> All right. Does someone want to make a motion to approve the maintenance union agreement? >> I move to approve the maintenance union agree agreement for 2026 through 2029. >> Second. >> Any final discussion except to say thank you to everyone. And as a reminder, um, we need to vote as either both or for region for this one. >> I for both. Thanks for the reminder. >> Killer, I for region. >> Morano, I for both. >> I for both. >> Wat I for region. >> Williams. I for both. >> Great. Thank you. Um,

145we are going to table discussion item J for the administrative assistance unit agreement. um because we're not ready um and we will be talking a little bit more about that um in executive session tonight. Uh so that moves us on to the handbook. We did look at the handbook in our meeting in May. Um but since that time we did receive the CCHS um appendix um which has um different guidelines that are specific to CCHS. Dr. Hunter, I don't know if there's anything you want to elaborate on there. >> No, I mean you can see it's a a range of topics. CCHS just found um the other schools have things like this but the website seemed to be sufficient with CCHS I think much because of the independence of the students um we needed to

146put some things that had been in the individual handbook back in as an appendix for easy reference for um students and families as CCSHs operates. So, um, we'd appreciate your consideration to make that an appendix to the book you looked at last time. >> Great. >> One comment on there. I think uh on on page four of the appendix, there is uh some gendered language. Maybe just fix that. Other than that, there was no issues. >> Oh, thanks. Do you mind sending me an email on that, Sandy? >> Yeah. >> I think Brian Miller has to change it. I don't know if I can. I I also have a a concern more for the handbook uh than for the appendix. Um I look back to 2023. You know, I guess we approved our medical representatives

147in August of 22 and we have the school committees of all those years and the front pages and the um of of all the the uh handbooks. Uh, is there a reason we don't have our medical reps listening? >> No. What a That's a great catch. Nope. It just didn't happen. So, we will put that in. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Right there on page two with all of you. >> Yeah. With with all Yeah. >> Yep. Great. Thanks, Michael. >> Good call out, Michael. Thank you. >> Yep. If there's nothing else, I would entertain a motion to approve the handbook and appendix pen, you know, with the modifications we just discussed. >> I move to approve the 2026 27 student handbook, the CCHS CCHS appendix with the previously described edits. >> Second. Any

148further discussion? Okay, roll call. >> This is one handbook, right? So, it's just approval for J. Well, anyway, her check eye for both just in case. >> Kella her I for region just in case. >> Morana I for both. >> I for both. >> Wat I for region. >> Williams eye for both. I think when in doubt um append the uh both in region and I almost said both that time just following everybody else's lead. Y um okay our last discussion item um climate and culture framework for 2627. Um this is something that I did want to put on. Um and this you know Michael has um brought this up a few times just how in the 2627 academic year um especially you know the work of the bias and hate um reporting group is

149is going to be wrapped up. Um how might we um continue some of the conversations around the climate and culture uh within our schools? We have 15 minutes on the agenda. I don't expect us to solve exactly how we want to go forward um in 15 minutes and you know potentially this is a goal for the upcoming year just in terms of how we might create a framework that that we can use. Um you know things that I'm just thinking of is you know one we want to make sure we're staying in our lane as a as a school committee. Um, I'm also thinking about the, you know, the data points that we that we might want and also, you know, what what types of topics, um, you know, beyond bias and hate might be,

150um, included here. But I think this is just a chance to have a little bit of a a brainstorm session and see if there's um, you know, what we might want to do moving forward. Um and Sandep I know you have some thoughts on this as well so I might give you a chance to >> I so so I I think I shared this during the last meeting right uh I I think um having having this on the you know a review that we do couple of three times a year uh makes a lot of sense to me. uh say perhaps in the beginning of the year we can uh assess where we are uh some some progress in the middle and my machine wants to update so I'm going to say no sorry uh

151all right yeah so so I I I think evaluating where we are um at at specific intervals makes a lot of sense to me um I I shared last time I I think I'm I'm fundamentally opposed to doing this every meeting primarily because I think if you just you know do do uh track every incident on its own you know if you if you are uh putting it on every agenda then it it just becomes something that is routine and and you know the updates get thin uh you know people tune out and that's kind of the opposite of taking stuff like this seriously so I I do think we need to take it seriously and and having uh it reviewed say three times a year is is what makes a lot of sense to

152me. >> I guess I would u suggest that particularly in view of the things that had happened in the past that there's reason to track it and to track it on a regular basis. Um I think not just looking at incidents but looking at climate is what's important. There's several things we could use to gauge that. We already have our pan panorama data. We have our youth risk behavior survey which comes out every two years. We also have a great tool in our student affinity groups. Um there's there's a way to pull them through their advisors and get a feel for what the climate is through the course of a year. certainly it's going to be peaked by events and I don't think we can predict when they're going to occur, but we should certainly

153use them and the trends that we see in them to um either augmented and determine whether we're going to do them more frequently or less. Um, I don't think any I don't think anybody suggested that we would look at this information or or determine what we're going to do in in a prefuncter manner. We're actually called to do this because we're facing problems and the only way you kind of see if we're affecting effectively addressing the problems is to follow things and follow them closely and then if we see that it's warranted to step back, we do that. We I don't know that we've seen that yet. >> Yeah. And to be clear, I I think I think having this on a schedule doesn't mean we go quiet in the middle, right? It's if if

154something serious happens, we we take it up right away. This is kind of like the floor of of the the the times we discuss, not necessarily the ceiling, right? It's not like we will only discuss this three times a year. Uh I I I think this is a framework that we can put in place which we can build on. >> We do agree that then as a body that this is something that's necessary. I don't think anyone on this committee would disagree that you know a look at climate and consult is not necessary. >> Okay. I think I I like the idea Sandep that you said the three times a year because I don't think we have any agenda item that we consistently put on at every single meeting and that way will give us

155some room and if you know if if we get into the year and we feel like maybe we need to meet more and meet le or put it on more or less that's something that you know people can discuss but I think that having that time in between time is also important and I think I look like the anti-semitism coalition and the cadence of those meetings has been really productive this year. So if you meet if if you're discussing it too often, you might not see the results that you want. But I think there's another actually re actual resource um information from the uh anti-semitism coalition anti- information that we could get from conquered caral anti-semitism awareness or uh conquered carell solidarity initiative um to find out both from both communities how things are feeling.

156So, so there are a number of sources that we can use as touch points to find out how our communities feel and also canvasing both Aisha and Michelle for our Boston families. So, we we this is something that with our coffees we we failed to do. uh this is something that we did not necessarily touch upon in years previously because if we if we had been mindful of that perhaps we wouldn't have gotten the complaint that we did. So, I I think there reasons for us to be mindful, to be vigilant, and to use all the potential tools that we have to just have our finger in the pulse of our of our school and our community with an eye toward making things better for our students. >> So, just one thing I Oh, sorry,

157Sundep, I just realized you raised your hand. Please go ahead. >> Oh, no. I I raised my hand because I don't want to hog up all the conversation. So let others talk and then once no one else is talking just remember. Uh just what I was going to say is you know I wonder do we need similar to the communication working group as we're working on story of the schools do we need a working group just to come up with what the framework like what do we mean by a framework um so that we can move that along and you know that is potentially even some some homework for for people um because again you know for me as I said earlier like besides all the things that people mentioned data is important to me.

158I want to make sure that it's, >> you know, it is tied back to >> to something and not just whatever happens to be top of mind whenever we're we're meeting about this. So, um, if a working group makes sense to people um, as a way of helping to to put this together in time for the start of the year, that is something that I would support. Um, >> so I I I I agree with you on I I think, you know, us, you know, putting our heads together and think, well, this is a good idea. I was thinking of it more as a goal instead of a working group because I don't know if a working group will, you know, turn back its results in in time for us to be, you know, effective

159next year. So, um, perhaps it's a goal that we, you know, one of the steps of the goals could be what does this framework look like? What are the measurables? Michael pointed out there are multiple different uh groups from which we could get data aggregate all of those and and obviously we we collect our own data right and and then see what that looks like and obviously with you know all student privacy is paramount. We don't want to infringe on that but uh uh see what we can what we can learn from >> you know I guess I setting it as a goal to figure out what we want in terms of data. Is that what you're saying? >> How we measure or or what the framework looks like. Uh, I think that that might

160actually be too slow to set to set a goal. I I I might suggest that certainly in in school systems this has been done before and there might be people that have skill off the top of my head I can think of two facilitators that have been in town recently and actually been our schools Carlos Hoy Donna Hicks in terms of looking at ways to look at this and actually Carlos had done this and his his Dr. Hoy had done this and and actually presented at the biosate incident reporting work group for what he had done through his schools and to give us a primer on how we might look at it and we could not have to reinvent the wheel for us but perhaps tweak the wheel so it fits our environment and that

161might give us something that's would be applicable almost uh applicable sooner and we could put it in place. I might suggest that that we look to see if there models and I'd be glad to reach out to both. So Lori, can I ask you a question? I I I know you track this in in in the district, right? Do you have some thoughts you could I guess send our way on on what we might used to uh or or what you used to and see see, you know, if that's adequate or if there is something we need to build on. Yeah, I mean I think sometimes our issue is we're overwhelmed with how much data we have. So maybe there's a path there to sort through it all. We're anxious to get the local. We

162have the aggregate YRBS for all the districts that took it, but that's obviously not what we're really looking for. That's due to us any minute now. We have Panorama, which I've been doing a lot of thinking about. Panorama is like your MCAST dipstick. It's not helping you diagnose what's actually going on. Um, it's like MCCAST versus dibbles in the elementary school. Like if we don't do dibbles, we don't know why we're getting what we're getting on MCCAST. So for me, Panorama is a summitative check-in once a year. It'll be high level progress or not progress. I think we need these other tools to look at. I know we've talked about data dashboards for incidents and things. I It's never as simple as it sounds. I guess that's my short answer after many years of trying

163to figure out how to do that work. But I think that's some of what I'm hearing you talk about too is something like that where we give you some reference to incidents and then there's just so much in the gray as to what happens on a daily basis. You know, we get allegations that don't turn out to be actual incidents. we've been talking a lot about like about that because that's where a lot of our time is going um is getting those concerns and then vetting them and maybe nothing to that egregiousness is happening but there's some gray there that we're not comfortable with. So um yeah, sorting all that out plus I think the triangulation of the data with the proactive work we're doing on cultural competency, professional development. I mean the playbook which

164is all the antibbias work and what we're hearing from the kids which Michael just to mention the leadership of those affinity groups have been change. They've ch they're changing me the more we talk to them. um they want us talking about not any one group but all groups and how do all kids feel connected. So maybe there's a triangul I mean I'm really anecdotally off the top of my head here but maybe there's a triangulation of all that qualitative quantitative data to sort through um to look at what we're doing and what else we could be doing. I' I'd love to see qualitative stuff too, right? Because yes, quantitative is great, but you know, I have, you know, two kids in the school system. If if >> they experience something, I don't care if it's

165rare, right? I just care that it happens. So, >> absolutely. >> So, I I think qualitative also helps a lot. >> I I agree. Um the things that I found most moving is hearing from students, hearing from their parents um across all all three of our communities. So the the the objective data is nice. The the protocols and and programs that we have in place are nice and we should be vetting them. But the important thing is seeing at the end of the day what it's like when the rubber meets the road. How how how are the the end users feeling about the results? And you know so we take pieces of all of that. we could take pieces of what we hear from our um community affinity groups um and then that that we

166sit with that uh so so I I don't doubt there's a lot of data to be gathered but this is you know what I was asking early on that this we change the focus not from that bias and hate working group to our biased climate and how folks are feeling that that that would be useful and and absolutely I think necessary as we go forward. So thanks >> you know that's intent versus impact which we talk about a lot and uh I think that's where you're going with those ideas. >> Can I just ask um just you know thoughts on summer work in this regard and then um you know how we how we reconvene in in August here. I kind of like the idea of I'm just going to try and make everybody happy

167now because that seems to be the mode we're trying to go in. Um, so I like your idea of a working group. I might suggest that Brian and Sandep and Michael work together over the summer to develop a plan for um, you know, for for us to go with next year. And I guess I and I totally appreciate all the input from our students and the affinity groups. I guess the one thing that I don't want to happen is for us to kind of spotlight our students in a public meeting and ask them to report on things like I don't think that's helpful to the student and sometimes it can be really harmful. So I think we just have to be careful in how we're gathering that information and I would then look to Lori

168uh or Andrew and the professionals to have some of those private conversations with students and bring the information to us. So, and I did Sunundeep also like your idea of a goal of putting it somewhere in there because then you can make it smart, measurable, and put all of everything we want to get done during the year for climate and culture into that goal. >> So, it's kind of like taking everything that we just talked about together and maybe sorry that I want to volunteer. I guess I'll also say you're not a quorum. So that's >> but working groups have to post. So >> yeah, >> the working group has to post. Sorry. But >> um >> if if we're going to do that, I I think either Michelle or Aisha would be great to

169be part of it, too. >> You read >> or both? >> Yep. >> I was just going to suggest that. >> Um Michelle, I don't know if you want to think about that one. um and talk to Aisha not to put you on the spot, but I think the concept it's just a matter of who it was going to be. >> I had already unmuted to suggest the same thing. So, she and I can talk, but um one one of us will do it. I I'm happy to do it. I just don't want to take it if she wants to do it. >> Yeah. And then I think um Lynette, I will also say that whether it's whether it's you or me, I think Carile representation is important, but um >> yeah. Um why don't

170you and I just talk about that one. Um so I think we've got I think we got a few things summer working group so that we can come back in August with more concrete ideas. I do agree that a cult a climate and culture goal where you know maybe the working group is the first thing or a part of it but you know again it's not to say that we're get to the point of June 30th is to help us give visibility to this and and move the needle on it over the course of the year. Um I think those are those are good next steps. Any final? >> You're not going to set a goal that erases all of the isms that we're all trying to wish we could erase. You're going to set

171a goal that says we're trying to do more to make it better for kids. Yeah, >> exactly. >> Any final comments on this? I guess a qu just a question um in terms of uh reaching out to any any uh facilitators that have experience in this or is this something we'll talk about in the work group? >> I would say we talk about it in the working group. also want to reach out to other school committees and it was something that was on my list before this meeting and I just ran out of time but reach out to some of the other chairs to see um what they may be doing in this area as well. All right. Uh so that ends our discussion items. Thank you everyone um for talking through that one. Um,

172it is time for executive session if somebody would like to make a motion. >> I move that the conquered school committee and conquer Carlo Regional School Committee will enter into executive session under purpose 3 of open meeting law to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the K12 administrative assistance and CTA ESPs and not to return to open session. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All right. Roll call. >> I. >> Kellagher. I >> Morano. I >> I. >> Wat I. >> Williams. I. >> All right. That concludes tonight's uh public portion of the meeting. We won't be returning to executive session. Thank you everybody.