Concord Carlisle Joint School Committee - January 21, 2026

001It's now 5 o'lock and we are I'm going to call to order the conquered parallel school committee >> and I will call the conquered school committee to order. >> Okay. Joining us tonight we have attorney Peter Sners who is our district attorney and he's here to do a workshop for us. So he has prepped this and we're going to ask questions throughout it. If anyone has a question feel free to be a little bit more interactive. Is that okay with you? >> Absolutely. >> You can stop for questions whatever you want. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I I can monologue for an hour or you all can interrupt me, but this is intended to be a workshop school committee. So I think that it's better for you all. Ask questions as you have them. Um I'll

002be happy to talk about them. Um I have um some slides here um to go over um a few topics with the school committee. Um and the focus tonight um or the overarching theme tonight is going to be um essentially school committee communications and school committee um access and distribution of information. Um and I think that the best way to go about that is to talk about what the school committee's role is um and then you talk about public records, talk about the open meeting law, and then talk about school committee member responsibilities. So um that's how I've organized this. Um, I'm happy to go out of order if if a question comes up, but that's sort of what you can expect um to hear about tonight on public records in open meeting law. Um,

003each of those topics I could spend, you know, two hours talking to you about each of them individually. So, I'm not going to go into incredible depth on those. It's more just I'm going to touch on them um and talk about how they relate in this context. Um, I have an hour tonight. I I you know I also understand um I've been told that no one will be disappointed if I don't use the full hour. So um I will be as fast as you want me to be. Um so we're going to start >> um I I am going to start with the role of the school committee. So um when we're talking about the role of the school committee, we got to talk about the education reform act of 1993. Um so that act

004uh reformed the the way that schools are controlled in Massachusetts. Uh prior to ed reform, schools were controlled almost exclusively by school committees. And under ed reform, the um control of schools or the authority over schools was split between the sitebased administrators being the principles and the superintendent and the school committee. School committees were given more overarching authority, policy, budget, um hiring and and firing and evaluating the superintendent. Um and then principles and superintendents were given uh operational site-based authority. Um that would include student discipline, employee discipline, employee evaluations, um you know, obviously the instruction of of of students. Um but uh the the day-to-day management and um control of school buildings um all of that was placed in the control of superintendent and principles. Um I have included throughout this presentation some references to

005um your own policies. So um in policy BBA you've basically mirrored that um what the state statutes say about what authorities are under school committee control policym and review budgetary public relations educational planning and appointment of the superintendent and there are certain other um district level uh positions that the school committee appoints as well. So on educational goals and policy um that includes um looking at what the um states statewide educational requirements are and um implementing educational uh or adopting educational curriculum that implements those requirements. Um you have a policy manual section I that has a lot of policies in it but generally speaking that's your policy manual section that talks about educational curriculum and implementation. Um, the school committee has the general charge in superintendents of school buildings, meaning that they are under your

006care, custody, and control on a day-to-day basis. Um, that's under the control of the superintendent and your building principles. Um, school committees also define start and end times of the school day, school calendar, um, and staff evaluation systems and performance standards. Um, school committee also approves budgets. Um, you have line item authority over your own budget. Um that means that you adopt an overall budget which is voted um up or down by town meeting. If it's if it's not approved um at the number that you requested um it is not approved if it's uh and town meeting can't tell you how to spend money within your budget. Um you are required to have a budget hearing um and you have a policy manual section D uh that addresses fiscal management on hiring and contracting with

007certain personnel. So, as I mentioned, you have appointment authority over superintendent. There are also some quirky statutes about other um personnel in school districts. That includes assistant superintendent who you actually appoint upon the recommendation of the superintendent. So, typically, you know, you let your superintendent choose their own staff, but technically under the statute, it's the school committee that appoints them. Um, school business manager, special education administrator, school physician, uh, supervisor of attendance, and legal counsel. All of those are appointed by school committees. Um you also establish compensation parameters. You have budgetary authority within the school district. Um and you can set uh parameters for benefits and compensation for um various positions throughout the district. You also have a role in collective bargaining. Um you are the employer for purposes of chapter 15e for your um

008unionized employees in in Massachusetts or excuse me in conquered and in conquered Carile. Um and then I've I've included there um again you know these are sort of broad rules um and so I just included references to the the entire section H entire section B and entire section C where you address various things under your authority. Um one thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about school committee authority is that no individual member of a school committee has any special authority. Um school committees act as a whole. Um the only way a school committee can act is through a vote of its members. Um so no individual member has any kind of special authority by virtue of their public office. Um unless that authority is delegated to them by vote of the school committee.

009Obviously each of your committees chooses a chair. That gives them some sort of special authority in terms of running meetings. Um but it doesn't give them any kind of special authority over the school district. The committee as a whole continues to hold um its authority. Um you that also means that individual school committee members have no special right to access information um or to take any kind of action to um distribute information on behalf of the school committee. That only happens when the school committee votes to direct somebody to to take that kind of action. You have a policy BBA. Um again it it mirrors what it says in state law about what school committee members authority is. Um, and I included it below um, policy BPA some selected duties um, from that policy. Become

010familiar with relevant laws. You know, you're you're expected to work effectively with the rest of your committee and administrators, respect uh, confidentiality and privilege and to represent your school districts in a positive manner and act for the good of the schools. All right. So, we're going to compare that to um, your school administrator authority. So, Ed reform gave sightbased management um and control to superintendents and principles. So, at a school level, principles are in charge of their schools. And at a district level, the superintendent is in charge of the district. That includes selecting textbooks and educational materials, personnel matters, um student matters, that includes education, discipline, service delivery, um evaluation, all of those things fall under your school administrators. Again, I' I I've gone through your policy manuals and and reviewed what policies you have

011that relate to the roles of the school administrators and school committees. Policy BDD um talks about the relationship between the school committee and the superintendent. Um and again, it confirms what we already know from state law about the respective rules of the school committee and the superintendent. The policy does expect that the superintendent will will make recommendations to the committee on matters that fall under the committee's authority or seek guidance from the committee on policy matters that the superintendent is expected to implement. Um, and it also expects that the superintendent will keep the committee adequately informed for committee business. Now, I think we're going to get into more uh tonight about what it would mean to be adequately informed in order to complete committee business. um because that does not necessarily mean that the superintendent

012is sharing all of the information that the superintendent has um based upon their role as superintendent meaning individual student information or individual personnel information with the committee. Uh but providing enough information that the committee can act on matters its jurisdiction. Uh policy CA uh is your administration goals policy where the committee has adopted um a set of goals for administration. That policy also recognizes though that the committee has um that that the personnel that the committee has chosen to employ um are expected to be qualified for their position and to handle their role um in a professional manner. um policy CA is intended to basically um balance the responsibility that the committee and the um and the superintendent have um with their commission authority um and ensure that everyone is given adequate authority to complete

013their role in the district. You've also got policy CV which talks about um your school superintendent and the expectations that the committee has for how they are going to fill their role. Um that includes implementing committee policy of course and preparing and submitting required reports that both to the state and to the committee policy CCB um is about staff relations. So, as we're discussing the the respective roles of the committee and the superintendent, I I indicated that superintendents have sightbased authority and they have control over individual personnel matters. Um that does not necessarily mean that committee members will never speak to individual staff members and staff members may want to come speak to um the school committee. But in general the responsibility for interacting with and uh with individual personnel and for handling individual personnel

014matters falls to the superintendent and to the building principles. um you have a policy CCB which indicates that the um the committee has adopted a policy that if a matter that requires an administrative action is brought to them it's going to be referred to the appropriate administrator and that if there's a disagreement um when that matter is referred to the appropriate administrator that there are established procedures for how those disagreements are resolved at a building base level. So your policy CCB basically refers individuals or excuse me individual staff uh back to the proper administrator rather than having matters that are individual personnel matters addressed at a committee level. You also have several policies that um confirm that there is sitebased responsibility for students. Policy JCA uh talks about the assignment of students to individual schools.

015Policy JIC talks about student discipline and policy JII talks about student complaints and grievances. Um I included those for your reference. I didn't think that it was um good use of time to to go tonight to go in depth into those policies, but um they're there if you want to go back and look at those policies in your manual. Policy BHC is school committee staff communications. Um so again um staff members may may bring concerns to you and your expectation under under your committee policy is to refer them back to the appropriate administrator. There may also be times when the school committee wants to talk to staff members policy BHC indicates that communications between the school admin the school committee and administration or staff should go through the superintendent. So the school committee has defined

016its policy to say when the school committee wants to communicate with staff we are going to do that through the superintendent. that's the appropriate channel. Um the except there is an exception listed in your policy and that would be um appeals that fall under the committee's authority. Um that may be you know for example a a union grievance that comes up to a committee level if it's appropriately before the committee. In terms of issuing directives to staff generally speaking the committee does not have a role to issue directives to staff. Um, your superintendent is your appointing authority for most employees and school committee members um and and the school committee as a whole don't issue directives to staff. That is something that um is defined well within um the law as as modified by Edform

017when you get um inquiries or requests for um excuse me this is if the committee wants to request information from staff. Just remember that the committee does not necessarily have any greater right than a than a general member of the public to get information from staff. Um again, that communication should go to the superintendent and you should request the information to the superintendent. The superintendent will determine um where to get that information from um in order to provide it to you. Um, generally speaking, if the committee wants to seek information from the superintendent, the appropriate channel is for committee to vote, the chair to then communicate that vote to the superintendent, and then the superintendent and the chair to exchange that information. All right. So, in terms of what information you can receive as school

018committee members, you can of course get any kind of public documents that the um school has. Those are public documents. So anybody in the public can request um you know documents like employment contracts, superintendent evaluation which happens in open session. Um those types of documents are commonly requested and they are public documents. Um if there are other other public documents, you know, related to the budget, um staffing levels, things that you know exist within the district and that you think, um are relevant to school committee business, um those can be requested, uh from district administration, but it's important to remember that you don't have a right to access any kind of confidential information about individual employees or individual students. So, um I will go into a little more detail about what it means to be

019confidential information or private information about personnel or individual students, but generally speaking, that's going to be any matter that involves an individual's discipline, whether it's a student or an employee. Um an evaluation material for a employee. Um student record material, which can include things like academic records, attendance records for students. Um uh BA basically any any record that directly relates to an individual student um and is in possession of the school district can be considered a student record. Um there may be specific need to know exceptions where information is provided about an individual is provided to the school committee. Typically, that comes up when there are security concerns, when there is litigation, or there's a matter where the school committee needs to act on a matter that involves an individual student or an individual employee,

020and you're provided just as as as I indicated before, you're adequately informed. You're provided just enough information in order to be able to act on that matter. The information would remain confidential um and privileged. You wouldn't be able to be shared outside of the information being provided to the school committee. Um but it may be provided to you in order for the school committee if you're being requested to act on some particular matter. >> Is there a purpose under uh executive session for that kind of information to be shared? >> There there is no general executive purpose for the sharing of private information >> or in the case where there's a I mean shared with the public but shared among the committee in executive session about an item like you just described. So if if

021there were an individual personnel matter that the um school committee needed to address um purpose one talks about complaints um against an individual or to consider the discipline um or dismissal of an individual if that matter was coming before the school committee um the school committee would be provided enough information to to make a decision under that purpose. >> If there were litigation purpose three relates to strategy with respect to litigation. um if there was a lawsuit against uh one of the districts and the school committee needed to make a determination about what to do with the lawsuit, whether to settle it, um you know, how to respond, um you know, just a general discussion of, you know, what the exposure might be. You might be provided additional information under purpose three and it would

022be an executive session. being privileged. Um, but it would it would be because of the nature of the information that's being shared, not just because it's we consider it private or confidential, but because there's a specific purpose that applies to the matter. >> Okay. So, under those under those conditions, you have the executive session to address to get that information for that purpose. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um so I am gonna drink but uh the uh next topic um that this kind of leads into is public records and privacy. So when we're I I thought I would just include a slide. What are public records? Um public record is any record that's made or received by a public employee. Um it doesn't matter kind of record it is if it is a document or if

023it's in writing um if it's a digital document um it is generally presumed to be a public record and um it would be produced unless it it is exempt from disclosure um when we're talking about public records and I think this comes up often for elected officials um that may include a record on your private accounts. So um if you are conducting public business on a private email account or on a private phone um one of those records could be a public record if it's public business. So if you are um communicating you know exclusively with the superintendent about a u a policy matter that um is before the committee and you're doing it on your personal cell phone and you're just texting that that text message could be a public record. um the content

024of it may make it exempt, but the um the location of it on your personal device does not necessarily mean that it's a personal record. So, it's always good to be cautious and careful when you're thinking about public records um and you're thinking about, you know, communicating with your with your fellow members that you're using school accounts, you're using school devices um to communicate because that way if there's a request for communications, you know, between the school committee about a policy matter, then the um it can conduct a search for that. We don't have to reach out to you and say, "Hey, do you have any of this stuff on your personal account?" Um we know that all of those records exist on our systems. you don't have to worry about records retention and whether

025you're keeping records long enough. Um if if you do everything all of your public business on a public account, all of that's going to be handled for you by the school standard practices. Um the that said, you the the people sitting in this room may text each other about personal business. um you know, how was how was your procedure? Um you know, happy happy birthday. Um things like that. Those don't relate to public business. Um we're not going to be releasing those to the public. Those are personal messages between um between public officials, but they're not about public business. Those are your personal records that um we're never going to be releasing to the public. Um the other thing that are not public records is um personal knowledge that you have, records that don't exist.

026So, the public records law applies only to things that exist um have been created, which means they've been made or received by a public entity. Um it doesn't apply to knowledge you have. You don't have to answer questions and you don't have to create a record in response to a request. But, um it's just important to remember that, you know, if something is put in writing, then um there's going to be a decision that has to be made about whether it's public record and whether it's exempt. Um, so I've I've already kind of covered this slide. Um, but just to reiterate, all communications that are in writing may be public records. Um, that includes any records sent to or from public officials. So, you know, I think we're we're on Zoom. If there are members

027of the public who are watching this and they send something to a public official, they should know that that record may be a public record unless in our possession we've determined that some of the information in it is exempt. Um, so a lot of public officials have disclaimers at the bottom of their their accounts that say, um, all the supervisor of records has determined that all records or all emails are public records. And that's a good warning to people. You're communicating with me. I'm a public official. Um, just know that once this is received by school district, this may be a public record. Uh, and it may have to be released in response to a public records request. We do have school email addresses by the way that has the disclaimer at the bottom, >>

028but still it's you're saying private, you're saying email, text messages. Um, I just have a question about scheduling. Like sometimes it is easier to schedule a meeting with a member or two members, not a quorum through text. Is that okay? So you can schedule a meeting with a quorum um but um because it's not a discussion of a matter under the jurisdiction of it's it's considered a ministerial matter that's not um uh a deliberation on public records law but um you can do that via text although it is not a deliberation um even if it's among a quorum it could be a public record so if you're saying I am not available because I have that procedure that day. We would probably not release the big the the reason why um if someone requested their

029all records related to the scheduling of the January 21st, 2026 meeting, we wouldn't release that someone had a procedure that's medical information. That's nobody's business, right? >> Um but the actual scheduling I I don't know why somebody would want it, but it may be a public record. Um it is about scheduling this meeting. it's about public business between or among public officials. Um, and I just don't think that there's an exemption that would apply. So, some of the things that do in terms of records being exempt whenever we get a uh request for public records, we look at the record itself to say what is contained within the record. Okay, we we have a record that exists. It's in our possession. Um, someone's requested it. Now we have to look at this and say is

030there information in this that is not public that's exempt from disclosure under the public records law. So the there are some common exceptions that come up or exemptions rather that come up when um school districts get requests for records. That includes records that are confidential by law. So that's things like attorney client privilege communications. Supervisor of records has recognized that those are privileged by law and those do not have to be disclosed under exemption A. student or education records. Those are confidential under state and federal law. Those are records that relate to an individual student. Um that is identifiable whether by name or by context um or by other information that's publicly available. Uh that includes executive session minutes or materials. Those are exempt under the um those are privileged under the open meeting law.

031And there's specific language in the open meeting law that says that executive session minutes and materials are not public records. Um, go ahead. >> Can you talk a little bit about by what by context means >> because you said identify by name or by context >> I >> and give an example. >> I can um >> or is that coming up? >> It's coming up but let me just um so the the the rule for student records is that any record that directly relates to a student and is in the possession of a school district is generally considered a public record or excuse me considered a student record. um that record would be confidential. So then the question is well what does it mean to directly relate to a student? If it relates to a

032student's um education, let's say we get a we have a a a record that says um you know John Smith uh got an A in math class. Um that record may be able to be redacted to remove John Smith. and then you wouldn't know who got an A in math class unless you had specifically requested records relating to John Smith in which case no amount of redaction could could remove who the identity of the student who's being talked about is. Um so if the identity of the rec of the student to whom the record relates is known to the requester or to the public then the record can't be released even with redaction because you can't because everybody would just be able to fill in who the the record relates to. Um we're talking about

033by context. If you are talking about well I guess the context would be well what if there are two students in the math class um and someone says I want to know the grades of the students in the math class. Well the context is I know that that in this particular academic class there are only two students. So I can make a pretty good guess about who this student um who got an A is or if both students got an A then obviously you'd know what both of their grades were. Um that can also come up when um you know there's there's an incident at the school and people may know who um was involved in the incident. Well, someone may request all records related to that incident and then we have to go through

034those records and say okay but even if we release you know this student was disciplined or this student was hurt or this student was a witness. um if people know who was involved in that and the context of of the matter allows them to identify the student. And so it's actually more complicated than you would think when you're when you're talking about student record information because we have to be very careful. We we are required by law to maintain the confidential confidentiality of these records. So, we have to be very careful that we're not releasing any anything that's going to um release a student's um confidential information to the public directly or indirectly through identification through other sources. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. in the setting where you're trying to glean information on groups of

035students or classes of students or um and the numbers are small. >> Yeah. >> Uh and you're is there a mechanism under which that can be done where where you're you're in in a population of hundreds of students you're looking at subsets that can be just double digits. So um Desi has a standard that it does not for um student arrest >> 10 I think >> for student arrest data it is six or fewer I believe u and I generally look to desi and see what there there are different contexts and different types of information they may they may use that 10 >> I was thinking academic data >> yeah um so sometimes aggregate data can be released um where it relates to if you want to know like what was the average grade in

036fourth grade last year. Um if there were 100 students in fourth grade last year, um releasing, you know, the average grade, if that if that information exists already, let's say it's a B, it doesn't release information that's directly related to any particular student. You can't you don't know who got a B. Um that's maybe not a good example, but >> scenario scenario uh looking at um low-inccome special special need and ethnic breakdown of students in a and in in grades like Rosarts or math where the numbers are small. It I I can I can understand where by context would apply. The question is if for the purpose of assessing academic performance and how you're meeting the needs of those students, is there a way to for the the the assessing body to look at that

037information probably anonymized or not? Is there a way for that to take place? >> I know in that setting, Destiny's number I think is 10. So your I mean your your in terms of assessing academic performance your your school-based administrators can can they have access to that information and they can view it and they can determine you know um how the academic performance is and whether they're meeting the needs of individual students. For a school committee um we would be very careful not to release even even for a school committee we treat you like a member of the public we would be very careful not to release student record information. So if if the combination of characteristics or even the individual characteristics narrowed the subset of students down so far that you would be able

038to identify the particular student in fourth grade that had a particular grade or a particular uh discipline or was on an IEP or something like that. It's it's unlikely that that information would be able to be released beyond beyond the people who who have access to the student record under the student records law. So it's in most cases if if a student can be identified the information can be released. But if there's aggregate information where that it's it's broad enough it's possible that information could be released. But again under the public records law if we're talking about public records law um it's the question would be whether that document already exists if someone requested it. Um >> okay. All right. So, um there's also a personnel and medical uh information exemption that comes up often.

039You know, people want to request records related to individual employees. Um and then there is an other private information um exemption. So, both of those fall under exemption C and they're treated a little bit differently under the law. Personnel and medical information. There are specific types of things that constitute medical information or that constitute personnel information. Those are considered absolutely exempt from disclosure under the public records law. There are Supreme Judicial Court cases about that. And then there's other private information which requires a balancing test. Um is the information available from other sources? Would someone would an individual of normal sensibilities be embarrassed by the disclosure of this information? Um and is it is it personal and um private to them? So that balancing test is applied to other private information. Um, I, you know,

040I've seen articles or and stats that say that is the most commonly cited, uh, exemption in Massachusetts, the other private information exemption. Um, when we're talking about student records, you know, when we're looking at whether to release information, uh, it's not only confidential by law, but it's also private. So, we may also site, you know, this is a student record, but it's also private information. Um, so we're not going to release it publicly because it relates to an individual student. they don't want their grades known publicly. Um, and so those are the common exemptions that come up >> and typically you're involved in that process. >> Um, >> yes. >> Whether to deterate if something is able to be released, I mean it is the school attorneys are involved in that. I I so um

041yes uh I um I often am communic in communication with your records access officer with your superintendent about um what information is exempt and what information is not exempt. Um there are some requests that don't require I I hesitated there are some requests that don't require council involvement. Um those are you know what we call the easy requests. Yes, we know where that document is. Yes, we know there's no exempt information in it. But I would say throughout the state it's not unique to Conquer. >> No. Right. I am I am on a daily basis talking to people about you know this is what this exemption means. Um you got to look at the record what's in it and uh carefully go through the information to determine whether they're exemptions that apply. Um and when

042we're doing that we're looking at individual pieces of information in the record. So an a student record is not necessarily exempt in its entirety. Um, and I say that because and there's a case that's going to be listed in one of the slides coming up. Uh, Champa versus Western public schools. So, Champa versus Western public schools, I'm just going to talk about it now and I'll skip it later. Um, was a case in which uh a requester um Champa, I believe, made a request to the Western Public Schools for all settlement agreements for the past 10 years for students um on IEPs. Um, and so those are cases where there's a dispute between parents and the school district about the proper um, educational services for a student who requires an IEP and um, the parties

043reach an agreement to say this is how the students going to be educated going forward. Um, Weston said those are student records and we're not giving those up. And there was an appeal and it went all the way to the Supreme Judicial Court and the SJC said um actually what you can do is redact those records so much that no student could possibly be identified in them. So you redact the student's name, all of their identifying characteristics and leave in um basically the boilerplate of the agreement, the um the generic terms, things that can't be traced back to an individual student. and then you can release the what's left in the settlement agreement. So when I say exemptions apply to information, not necessarily entire records, what the SJC was saying is redact all student record

044information from those records and leave what's left can't be traced to an individual student and so that is um considered a uh what's left after redeuction is not considered a student record. That is a very timeintensive process though because you know if you've got a thousand pages of documents you have to go through every single page particularly with student records you have to think about the con the context you have to think about other characteristics what other information is publicly available when you're making those redactions and make sure you haven't released anything that would allow particularly with a thousand pages that typically that's going to relate to one or two students. It's like well the student's identifiable from one page they the whole release may be identifiable. So it's a really deliberate and time intensive

045process that we go through. Those types of things I'm almost always involved or my office you know a school attorney is almost always involved in in reviewing and advising folks on this information needs to be redacted further or this is what to reject. Um, okay. So, there's Champa. Um, and the question is when you that I put in here for Champa and I posed it two different ways is is there still a risk of indirect identification of the student despite redaction or can the student be identified through other available information again despite redaction? But I listed in here common types of of student and education records. And I put studenteducation records because under Massachusetts law they're called student records and under federal law they're called education records. But we're talking about the same thing. I

046don't think I think I've pretty much covered. Yeah. I mean these are just common types of student records. Attendance records, discipline records, grades. Those are things you would think of typically. Investigation materials may reveal information about a student's education. They're directly related to the student. So, an investigation into a disciplinary incident may be um a student record. Pictures or videos, you know, typically we think of student records as something that's written, but pictures of a student in relation to their um education can and that are held by the school district and videos can be student records, school work of course, and then email communications. Um that's one of the requests we see more and more often now um from parents is to say I'd like to see all emails related to my child. Um and

047we um generally consider those to be student records because um a lot of them are talking about with the student or like there was a disciplinary incident there's oftentimes an email about it. So um that can be student communications if your students have email addresses that can be communications between the parent and a student or communications between staff about a student. All of those can be student records. Okay. Um so the basic thing to remember here is that student records are confidential um if they directly relate to an identifiable student and they're maintained by the school district. It's a pretty it's a simple test, but it applies pretty broadly to any record that relates to a student. So when we get requests and we see that it relates to a student, we we assume that

048it's a student record unless there's reason to believe it's not a student record. Um these are just some citations to the laws that apply um that confirm that student records are confidential. Um so as I mentioned there's federal law that's furpa um there's the IDEIDA so students um who are on special education um may be their their information may be protected under the IDEIDA Massachusetts law chapter 71 section 34D and 34E that is um those are a couple statutes that talk about student records and basically they tell the department of elementary and secondary education to issue regulations and further define it and that's a citation to those regulations. The other things to think about um for student records confidentiality um is actually that you know there is a privacy statute in Massachusetts and and individuals

049have a right to privacy that would apply to employees and students. Um but there's also a constitutional liberty interest when the government is talking about an individual or releasing information about an individual may impact that person's constitutional liberty interest meaning that they have a right to clear their name. So, um, those are the types of things we think about when we're talking about student records confidentiality. All right. Um, so in terms of disclosing student records, as I mentioned earlier, school administrators and teachers may have access to student records, but they only access student records to the extent that's needed for their job. So, a teacher in conquered public schools does not necessarily have access to every single student's student record information. Um the superintendent, you know, being at the top rung of the uh operational

050hierarchy in the school district is likely going to have access to uh most students information if the superintendent needs to get involved in a individual student matter. Building principles obviously have access to information about students in their building. Um they're not accessing information about students in other buildings. Um but outside of that internal hierarchy um superintendent, building principles, um staff and down or I guess that's that's as far down as it goes. But um the information is not disclosed beyond that. So again, the school committee although you are school officials and your responsibility is to the school district and to to do what's best for the students, there's nothing in the law that allows you access to individual student records. And that's because you don't need that information in order to do your job. There's

051nothing that you provide directly to individual students that would that would authorize you to access that student record information. Generally speaking, outside of those school employees who have a need to know individual student record information, a parent can get student record information and no third parties can get student record information unless a parent has authorized it. So, uh there are limited exceptions for health and safety. um if we get a subpoena or a court order, we may release student record information in compliance with that. Generally speaking, we're doing everything we can to maintain the confidentiality of of student record information at a um at the lowest level possible. Uh and and the laws, the federal law is enforced by the Department of Education, what what's left of it, and um the state laws are enforced

052by Desi. Uh there is no private right of action for breaches of um student record information confidentiality, but uh a parent can request that either of those agencies investigate and enforce those laws. All right, the next one is personnel records. Similar to student records, the um the school committee doesn't appoint individual personnel for the most part. Um and for that reason, you don't have access to their personnel files. that access is limited to again people in the district who need to know people with appointing authority maybe a superintendent know you have a human resources director um and that information is maintained confidentially in the school district as I mentioned um personnel record information is absolutely exempt from disclosure as well as medical information that is information that directly or indirectly identifies a individual employee Um,

053and typically speaking, we're talking when we're talking about personnel information, that's information that is um, useful in making employment decisions. So, that's their employment application, which would include their resume and the materials and the information they submit on their employment application. That would include their evaluations of their performance. That would include um any kind of disciplinary documentation, um suspension, termination, demotion, promotion, all of those all of that information is useful in making employment decisions and it is considered personnel information that's absolutely exempt from disclosure. Um things that are related to staff but are not considered personnel information include things like salary, dates of employment, positions held, employment status, um and public contact information. So the supervisor of records says that is not personally related to individual employees and as a result it's public information. Um

054it is important for the public to know what position a public employee holds and how much how long they've held that position and how much they're making. So all of that information may be public. All right. Other private records. As I mentioned earlier, there's a balancing test when you're talking about other private records. Um other private records are basically anything that um you would typically think of as private. So um that's your personal contact information that includes um your marital status whether you're receiving government assistance um social security numbers uh family status medical information your rep information about your reputation can also be exempt from disclosure under exemption C. So again, this type of information that um if if the school committee is looking for information about individual employees, they're treated like other members of

055the public. And so um you may not be able to access all the information you want to access um even if it exists within the school's documents. All right. So I spent a lot of time talking about exemptions that you guys don't typically apply. Um and part of that was just to tell you when you receive a public records request, it's important that you just send to the records access officer. So, Massachusetts has set up a system where every city and town has a records access officer. And for schools, most schools have a specifically designated uh records access officer. When a public records request comes in, the school district has 10 business days to respond. So, it's important that you forward that request immediately to the records access officer to give them as much time

056as possible to think about what records exist, how to conduct a search, um there's exempt information, and provide a response to the requester. Um, you can respond to the request acknowledging the request and I I often recommend that you do. Yes, I received your request and I forwarded it to the appropriate person. Um, but what I try to advise school committees not to do is to try to provide the information themselves. So, if you get a public records request, um, you're not going to necessarily be aware of every possible exemption um, where of of all of the information that exists. We want to respond completely and we want to respond correctly when we respond to a requester. So I again I recommend that you acknowledge the request and you forward it along to the correct

057person. Um unless it is pointing them to a document on the website, generally speaking I I recommend you send the request to the records access officer to let them respond on behalf of the district. And then if the records access officer says you have information that I need, again for someone requests your personal text messages, we may reach out and say do you have text messages about this matter? Um, if so, can you provide a screenshot so that we can determine whether or not it's exempt? Um, it's important as school officials that you cooperate with the records access officer if they reach out to you asking if you have any public records in your possession. All right. Again, we could spend two hours talking about the open meeting law. Um, I'm already 45 minutes in.

058So, >> you're really not going to do great. Um, I'll stay I I'll stay all night if you want me to, but um >> receiving these uh requests, these have to be written electronic or >> So, uh yes and no. the uh if someone was here and they said um you know hi you know Lori or hi Bob could you give me a uh copy of that document that that's technically a public records request but it's not appealable has to be in writing to be appealable. So um if it was ignored technically speaking the person couldn't appeal the the lack of response. So that's why I say yes and no. Um, any request can be a public records request, but in order for it for someone to complain about it, they have to put it

059in writing and get a written response or not get a response. All right. So, um, very very basic stuff about the open meeting law. Just remember that all meetings all all meetings of a public body are open to the public unless a valid reason for executive session exists. I'm more interested in talking about executive sessions here, but I included this information. Um, I've given you guys copies. Um, you can refer to uh what actually does not what does and does not constitute a deliberation under the public records law. As I mentioned, um, scheduling a meeting does not constitute um a a deliberation. Distributing meeting materials. You all may receive, you know, a copy of materials that are going to be discussed at the meeting in advance. that's not considered a deliberation. As long as someone's

060not introducing a new opinion or expressing a new opinion in those materials. So, if there is um if there are materials that you know you've created, if you've written a long statement that you want to present at a school committee meeting um and you're anticipating that's going to happen, sharing it in advance of the meeting actually can be a deliberation under the open meeting law because you are providing your opinion to members outside of the duly posted meeting. So, um, if they if these are materials that exist, you know, if they're created by district administration, you're saying, "We're going to be discussing the budget. Here's the budget, um, document for the next meeting." That is not a meeting. But if it is someone saying, "This is what I think about the budget, and this is

061what I'm going to say tonight." Just be careful. I I just wait and say it at the meeting, and then you can share the written copy with um, you know, going to a birthday party, going to town meeting actually is not considered a a a meeting under the open meeting law. I always thought that was interesting, but um you're considered town meeting members when you're attending town meeting. You're not considered members of your of your boards. Um the agenda for a meeting has to be posted 48 hours in advance. That excludes Saturday, Sundays, and holidays. Um you can hold emergency meetings with less than 48 hours notice. Uh you're supposed to still post notice as soon as possible. Um, generally speaking, if you call me and say, "We have an emergency," I'm probably going to

062tell you it's not an emergency and that you may want to address it sooner, but it actually has to wait 48 hours. Um, emergencies are things that truly cannot wait to be addressed with 48 hours notice. The things that belong on the agenda are the date, time, and place of the meeting and what's going to be discussed at the meeting. There are some other technical requirements like the time and date it's posted. Um, but this is the information that I think you need about what goes on in agenda. >> Can I ask you something? Can I interrupt for a second on the emergency meeting situation? Um, because I have asked Michelle that same question. She's like, it's not an emergency, but like say I'm going to use another district's example. Uh, Framingham, they had four

063buses go on fire, so they have no transportation for their kids to get to school. Would that constitute an emergency >> and you needed to set up transportation and, >> you know, figure out if you had money or that would constitute emergency? Yes. >> But short of that, >> it it's so you know if if Framingham Ham's buses had caught on fire last Monday and then they didn't realize that they weren't going to have buses for this Monday or if if they if they caught fire a week in advance and they just sort of delayed and they it was their fault that they didn't address it, then it wouldn't be considered an emergency. it would have just been, you know, sort of a lack of uh preparation on their part. But if it they catch

064fire on Friday and you need buses for Monday, it's an emergency because you you have to do something to get those buses >> right >> rented or or or purchased or um >> if it required action by the school committee. >> If it required action by the school committee just to be informed >> of something wouldn't be an emergency where you would have to meet. That could wait. Um or it could be done, you know, by email from the superintendent. This is the information >> like this is what happened, right? >> Anything that needs a vote of the school committee, but it would have to be like a catastrophic emergency >> constitute an emergency. >> Catastrophic, not necessarily. It's a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence. Um okay, but it demands immediate action. Something that requires action

065before 48 hours. >> Okay. Um, just don't get confused because if you have a meeting posted and a matter comes up after it's posted before the meeting, even if it's less than 48 hours beforehand, you can amend the agenda. Does not have to be an emergency. >> So, posting a new meeting require with less than 48 hours requires an emergency. >> It would be super rare. I don't know in 26 years. >> I Yeah, I've only Yeah, I represent a lot of districts and I've only done it >> so three or four times. >> Okay. Okay. >> That's helpful. All right. Thanks. >> Um All right. And and the chair sets the agenda uh for the matters that are going to be discussed at the meeting. The open meeting law places the onus on the

066chair to make sure that the agenda is properly posted uh for the committee and to ensure that when matters come up at a school committee meeting, they are in fact on the agenda. And if they're not to rule somebody out of order, say that's not on the agenda. We can't talk about that tonight. All right. So the I went forward, right? Yeah. Okay. The the most common um executive session purposes for school committees are um purpose one to discuss an individual. So that's the complaint discipline, that type of stuff that we were talking about earlier. Um it is not to evaluate an individual. So you can't perform a superintendent's evaluation under purpose one in executive session. that happens in open session. Um, purpose two is for non-union contract negotiations. Um, strategy with respect to non-union

067contract negotiations and for actual collective bargaining sessions under purpose two. Purpose three is for strategy with respect to collective bargaining and strategy with respect to litigation. So if you have a lawsuit against um you know conquered school committee or conquered carile or regional school committee we might send you into executive session under purpose three to advise you of what the status of that is but that the discussion in those executive sessions has to stay on topic. Um it has to stay limited to the purpose for which the executive session is called. So if we are talking about um bargaining strategy actually if we're talking about per if we're under purpose two we're talking about strategy with respect to contract negotiations um and we're talking about negotiating Lori Hunter's contract and you know how much you

068know does the school committee want to pay um whatever it may be and someone says I'd really like to talk about this complaint that came in and what kind of discipline we should impose well that goes goes beyond the scope because you're no longer talking about the contract um with the superintendent. You're talking about discipline which is not a strategy with respect to contract negotiation and it should have been posted under purpose one and there are certain notice um requirements. Now Lori's not trouble um so you guys aren't going to have to worry about that but I just use that for an example. Um purpose four is to discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices. Purpose seven you guys probably use often for approving executive session minutes. Um it is for certain laws that

069require um a school committee to act and to meet in executive session to discuss them. Um because the information that they're going to be discussing is is confidential and privileged. Purpose eight is actually only for subcommittees. Um it is not for the full committee to use, but it's for preliminary screening committees um who are evaluating candidates for employment. As I mentioned earlier, there's no general privacy exemption. Some you may have information that you want to discuss that you generally consider private. You don't like somebody, you're upset by something. Um, but unless it falls under the one of the purposes, it can't be discussed in executive session. Just like for open sessions, executive session minutes have to be created and approved in a timely manner. Um, and then those minutes and all the materials that are

070used and all the discussions that occur in executive session remain privileged. The committee holds the privilege. So, as I mentioned earlier, none of you individually have any kind of special rights or authority by virtue of your public office. The committee holds the privilege for its attorney client privilege or its executive session privilege. So, if something happens in executive session, something's just given to you in executive session, um, or you've reviewed something in executive session, you have an obligation as a committee member, a f fiduciary duty to the school district not to release that information until the committee has decided this information is no longer privileged or this information is no longer confidential and we can release it to the to the public. That happens by a majority vote just like everything else um for a

071school committee action. All right, I have a few more minutes. I did not end early. Um, but I'm going to try to go through um quickly school committee member responsibility. So, you have a policy actually policy B. Oh, go ahead. Yes. >> Sorry. >> You want to go back? >> No, just a question. When I took charge of the quiz, I said there were 10 purposes for exe executive session. >> I only saw eight. Yeah. What happened to the other two? >> Well, you you may need them. Um, so there's one for um one for real estate, that's purpose six. There's one for filing a criminal complaint. That's purpose five. Purpose nine is, I believe, something to do with mediation. U they're just much less common. Um, this was just intended to be for most

072common purposes. >> Thank you. If there were a quiz, I wouldn't have gotten all 10, but uh they're in the >> they're in section 21, though. They're references in there. >> Um all right. These are your own policies. Um I'm not going to read them to you. Um I'm going try to finish on time, but generally speaking, you have uh MASC has put out a member handbook. Um and that may be the charting the course uh part. >> Yeah. Um so they they have a handbook that they distribute to people in the track course program. Um you've actually adopted I think pretty much word for word the uh the code of ethics that MASC has put out for school committee members and you've adopted as policy BCA. Again I included in here um I'm not

073going to read it to you but generally speaking um you have three different sections of your responsibilities as school committee members. you've listed it as your responsibility to the community which um talks about things about you know your representation of the entire community. You know I know you all have have interests and things that you feel very passionate about but at all times you represent the entire school community. Um that your job here is basically to do work like this is not this is not a place to play politics or have fun. You know you volunteered to to do this work. You ran for the office and now you're stuck with all the work that goes along with it. Um and and you're supposed to work on behalf of the community. Um it also is

074you have says you have a responsibility to administration which is basically you know um even when you butt heads with administration um you should endeavor to establish sound clearly defined policies and support administration um and to respect the chain of command. And then you have responsibility to one another and that is to recognize that your actions at these meetings um are binding and that you can't bind the committee by yourself. So again, committee acts as a whole. Um you're just one part of a larger committee. Um something I meant to talk about earlier and was on an earlier slide is just um this realize that statements or promises should not be made regarding how they will vote on matters that will come before the committee. um kind of goes into a topic which is that

075you need to be careful when you're talking to members of the public to ensure that they know that if you're talking on your own behalf or on behalf of the committee. So if you have not been authorized by the committee to speak on the committee's behalf just have to know that when when you're out there speaking to the community whether it's on social media direct conversations um you want people to know that it's your personal communication with them. You're not speaking on behalf of you're not conveying a message on behalf of the committee. A lot of times people if they're coming up to you as a school committee member to talk to you, their perception is that you are the committee. So, um you just want to be careful to say, you know, this is,

076you know, I'm not speaking before the committee, this is me. Um or however you want to say it, but um that's something I highly recommend. And and you're also supposed to keep an open mind until you actually vote on matters that are before the committee. Just quickly, you have um policy policy regarding conflict of interest and it's also governed by state law. Um that's again another two-hour uh presentation for you. Um but I'll just note that you can get free and confidential advice from the state ethics commission. Um call them. They have an attorney of the day. Um and you say this is the situation. You do it before you act and they'll say you can or you cannot do that or can do it but there are certain thing like a disclosure you need

077to make. here's how you do it. They can put it in writing for you. It's free. It's confidential to you. You never have to tell anybody that you called them if you don't want to. Um but you know, if someone says that's a conflict of interest, you could say, "Actually, I did call them and I did get advice and I followed that advice." Exactly. Um I always recommend that committee members if they have a question about a conflict of interest, that be their first call. >> Can I ask a question about that? >> Yes. Um, just in terms of special municipal employees, so I was told that if you're in the regional school committee, you have to be a special municipal employee in both towns. We are in conquered and it's stated, but in Carile,

078it's unclear. >> Do you Can you get that information if we're considered special municipal employees in Carlile? >> I can sometimes it's automatic. >> Okay. >> Um, >> it was weird. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, if you can um send me the question. >> Okay. writing all >> um I'm just I'm just going to skip ahead a couple slides. I think that you guys um generally understand that you're subject to those complications. So I included some examples in there of things that often come up for school committee members and I've got a link at the end of this presentation to a guidance from the compet excuse me the state ethics commission that is specifically guidance for school committee members and common conflicts of interests that come up for them. Um, but whether it's conflicts of interests

079or or others, I always we we try to give you a visual of, you know, you're acting as a school committee member. We say, "Put on your school committee member hat." And just remember while you're wearing that hat, you have an obligation to school committee or to the to the school district rather. Um, your obligation, you know, you're elected by the community. You're here to serve them, but your fiduciary duty is to the school district. So that means you have to maintain the privilege. You have to be careful not to violate the opening law. be careful not to create any kind of exposure for the school district um in your actions. Um and generally speaking, you just want to act in the best interests of the schools because the schools are here to serve the

080students. So if you're acting in the best interest of the schools, you're acting in the best interest of the students and that is in the best interest of the community. So I always just say try to think of I'm going to put on my school committee hat. I'm going to a school committee meeting tonight. I'm going to act as a school committee member. or if I'm going out to public and I'm, you know, holding office hours and talking to members of the public as a as a committee member, I'm putting on my school committee hat. And if I want to make a personal statement, taking that hat off and I'm going to be very clear to people that I my school committee member hat is off. Um, I'm speaking on behalf of myself. This is

081not on behalf of the school committee. Um, I believe that is it. So, these are the resources. Um, as I mentioned, there's a state ethics commission uh, conflict of interest law explanation there. There's a few other things, open meeting law guide, public records guide, a desi advisory on school governance, which talks about roles of the school committee versus the roles of administration. Um, and then the inspector general's office actually has a guidance for members of public boards and commissions. It talks about fiduciary duty and your obligation to the to the board and the uh entity that you serve. Um, that is all. Was there anything that you thought of that I skipped right over you wanted to ask a question about >> anyone question? >> This is very helpful. Thank you. >> It it's actually

082super helpful and you know I'm someone that I like to go charting the course. Um but it it actually like now like you're sitting at you're in the middle of the school year. It's a good time to do it because sometimes we think about doing trainings over the summer and sometimes you're not quite in that frame of mind yet. So halfway through we figured put another training in here and maybe if something comes up after this that people want or are interested in we could do another workshop over the summer um and just kind of keep in a cadence of just reviewing policies etc. So >> absolutely. Yeah. Um as I as I mentioned some of those trainings are are full day trainings in and of themselves. Um always happy to come back. It's nice

083to meet you all in person. Um >> but um yeah thank you. Yeah, this is super helpful. And I will put the we'll have Erin attach the digital version to the agenda so the public will have the digital version. I'll put it into the school committee drive so people can go through it. I know I can't really read the um small print on the paper so we will do that. So thank you so much for coming. We will certainly reach out if we have any questions. >> Thanks Peter. >> And um just for the public we are going to take a five minute recess to reset the room before we start the regional meeting. So if minute man can mute us that would be great. Thank you. Back from our workshop and now we're going

084to continue with our meeting. So we're going to start with the superintendent and chair's update. So Lori, I'll hand to you first. >> Yeah, I think I'm going to just focus on one main um new piece of news. Uh yesterday, Principal Matt Lucy at Willard announced his retirement nine years that he gave service to our students. Um so that has poured in my attention over the last couple of days and that will be obviously a priority. It is the gift he gave us is it's prime hiring season for administrators. So, I actually posted this morning um just to get it in the mix with the folks that are actively looking right now. Um I'll be outlining a process Cara will help some of the other central office and we'll put together a whole very inclusive

085um process like we did at the row a few years ago and um more to come on that but that is the priority all of a sudden. So um we're so grateful to Mr. Lucy and all he gave to Willard and the students here. He's really been a phenomenal leader and really respected and loved. I had a teacher tell I heard um kids got up and said they were really angry at him. >> Um everyone else is that m you know mixed bittersweet. We're so glad for him. He's going to go he's going to do something else. None of us are really wired to like go sit and retire I don't think but um just go enjoy the next phase of his life and uh and we're sad for us. So, that's my my update

086because that's all I've done for two days. So, I think I'm going to stick with that today and um we'll keep you posted. >> Well, we definitely wish him well and I think I think I've said it to you that there's nothing like your kids first principal. Like, you just really connect with them. So, I'm sure >> the parents Andrew will be sad. I know Andrew is very sad. >> We were crying last night. >> Yeah. He's great. >> So, we wish him well, but we understand. Um, okay. I didn't have much. The only thing I'll just mention, do we expect that process to be different than what was it thorough or >> No, I actually pulled all the thorough material up this morning. I'm going to use that as the as the map. So,

087no, very very simple. >> And then the only thing I want to just mention, vision of graduate happened last night. Sadep um attended that. So, that was at the high school again. So, I think you were very involved in that. >> We were all there. >> Oh, you were all there last night. All right. So, >> I had to miss last night. So, I apologize. Um And I didn't really have anything else of the region. Do you have anything at CPS? >> Um I will save it. Uh the only update I had was from our solar the solar project. So I will save that. >> We'll save that for our >> Okay. And then um I'm gonna ask Brian to give like a little Carlo update. >> Little Car. >> Yeah. So we got a

088few things going on in Carile. Um, obviously the biggest news as it relates to the Carlile School Committee is that Superintendent O'Shea is going to retire at the end of this year. Um, we are still in early days in terms of figuring out what this means. Um, tomorrow we're actually and was already scheduled before all of this. We're kicking off our strategic planning process. Um we spoke to the facilitator tomorrow besides talking about strengths and weaknesses of the district. We'll be just talking about been getting a sense from this 50 some odd person group what they um want to see in terms of you know the future structure um of the Carlile leadership. Um because keep in mind he was also this year the acting middle school principal which was a choice of his. Um

089but we've got a lot of work to do um just in terms of um figuring out um the go the go forward plan. I will say and Lynette is welcome to chime in. I am you know all options are currently being weighed right now. I spent Saturday afternoon fortunately there was nobody else at home just charting pros cons. I think I came up with seven or eight different options digging through the archives of the mosquito to learn what we've looked at before. Um, and we're going to have a special school committee meeting next Wednesday to talk about it more. So, that's really all I can say um at this point. Um, in terms of that, just some other Carile updates quickly. Um last night the Carlilele CPC uh met um which was why I was

090in a vision of graduate um our applications were due the 2nd of February um but reviewed the application for the amenities building. The committee is pretty much I would say twothirds are the same as last year. So they're very familiar with the project. Um the only real question was you know based on what we're asking for and what conquered has um what happens if it's even more than that once the estimates um come in and they just want that addressed in the application. So I'll work with with Dr. on that. Um >> and Brian has done the whole application himself from Carwell just I want to give you props on this. >> So thank you for continuing to work on that. Yeah, this year's application was a lot easier than last year had a starting

091point. >> Yeah. >> Um final update for Carile last week was what we call the fincom marathon meetings. Over the course of two nights they meet with every single department um to talk about the budget. Um so the region did present last Thursday. Um there were questions of course wanting to understand some of the the asks some of the spend. The next steps in that is that FINCOM meets this coming Wednesday. a week from today and then if they have specific directions, guidance, advice, whatever you want to call it, um we will get that in writing um next Thursday. So, we're in sort of a holding pattern um until we um there covers everything for Carla. >> Um and Aisha is not with us tonight and Michelle is away. So, the only update Aisha had

092is she's scheduling another parent meeting. Um, they're still trying to get some interest in um people to be on Medco PTG, but they've had one parent meeting. They're going to have another one shortly. So, we'll get an update at our next meeting. And I think that's all I have. All right. So, on to our discussion. You did get materials today on the additional $25,000 the amenities building. So, there is a memo that Bob sent us. So, this does require a vote, but I'm going to turn it to Bob to just kind of quickly walk us through that. >> So, um we had some remaining scope of work left. It didn't make sense to pay Gail Associates to do the work until the sewer connection uh was approved by the department, the public works commissioned in

093conquered with that approval um in December, sometime in December. We uh wanted to move forward with the rest of the project. Um there are some remaining funds that we put into capital stabilization, but um there has been some additional scope of work over the past year and a half they've been working on this. So this will get them to completion. I don't think we're going to use all of the 275 25 and some of that will be returned to capital stabilization, but I don't want to bring a vote again for a small amount if I don't need to. So I'm requesting 25,000 to finish the rest of their work, which is to prepare um invitation for bid like the detailed design specs 100% complete. They're like 95% complete now. Have them reviewed by um Department

094of Public Works, get all the necessary permits and um and then we'll well we'll have bid ready documents that just need um town meeting approvals of the two CBC requesting approval of 25,000. I have the motion language included here as well. >> Okay, great. Any um discussion on that? Just just a question the looking back to the uh 2025 we was a 350,000 that we have the cabin stabilization >> correct >> and my understanding then was that that's going to be part that was partly for the sewer connection sewer work up is that correct >> correct some of that's for the sewer connection um we we can't actually spend what's in capital stabilization without you authorizing us to use it. So, we we put that in capital stabilization. When it comes time to pay the

095sewer connection fee, I'd have to ask you again for authorization to to pay that sewer connection fee capital stabilization, but >> part of that 350 um we'll cover the sewer connection fee. Um we won't need to use all of it for that. And I'm going to use 25,000 to finish the design for the amenities building. I hope that answers your question. Do we have any further insight to what those sewer connection fee will be? When will we know that >> it was in the 200? Uh I I saw a number of like 280, but I think that included um some active work that we're doing in the project. I think that they were looking to compare apples to apples compost to sewer connection. Okay. >> So I think they included a little bit of the

096construction costs in there. I think the sewer connection fee is between 210 and 250. and I can I can get an exact number from them, but it's it's less than 300,000. >> So, would this be up to $225,000 or >> um if you authorize 25,000, I would um we would just transfer it into an amenities building project fund and then if there's money is left um I I just report to you that I'm returning money to the capital stabilization and >> there's an expectation because again the fact I'm looking back at May to have surplus rain >> a little bit. Yeah, we'll have to pay the sewer connection fee this 25. There'll be I think there should be a little bit left. Yes. >> I move to approve I move that the Conger Carl Regional

097School Committee authorize use of $25,000 in capital stabilization funds for additional costs to finalize the design and peritting for the amenities building project. >> Second. Right. Further discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Okay. Um and then we have the approval of the regional bus lease and Bob sent these documents today also. So Bob, >> so first you're on again. >> My apologies about the timing of getting this to you. We had a a different we usually have TD Bank as the low bidder. We made a different bank that we had to work through their lease agreements with with the attorney. Um so we've gotten everything ironed out and we mistake by your bus vendor on the invoice price that caused documents to need to be redone. So, my apologies in getting it to

098you today. I usually get it to you sooner. Um, so let me just share the screen here. So, we're leasing two buses. Um we procured them with Anderson Motors and um the total cost that we'll be financing is 358,784. Um that's netted trading in two old buses. Um getting 6,600 back each. Um the the interest rate that um the bank is Cogent Bank. The interest rate they're offering is 3.49 49 which was decent amount below TD Bank and then a third vendor uh a third financial institution um and what they um what's required um is a school committee vote to execute a a lease. We lease the buses over five years. Um and there's specific language that the leasing company and our attorney have on the next page. You don't have to read the resolution,

099but um you can just say that um we need you to basically approve and authorize the resolution that's on the next page, and you can just use the motion language that I quoted there. Um but this is part of our core strategy of replacing two buses in each district each year to maintain a current fleet of >> we have 35 or so. >> Yeah. Not not some of them in better condition than others, but yeah. I move that the Conqueror Kyler Regional School Committee authorize the attached resolution for lease purchase financing of two school buses as written. >> Second. >> Any questions, comments? >> All in favor? >> All right. And up last on the regional agenda is a $5,000 grant acceptance for Conquer Carl Conquer Carl Adult and this was an anonymous donation. Um,

100can you say please? >> I think so. Um, in memory of James Jovnitch Carla for the US Coast Guard Auxiliary who taught boating and safety classes. >> So, it's one of our roles as school committee is to accept donations. So, I'd entertain a motion to accept the $5,000 donation. Move the we accept the $5,000 grant for the Carile Carile Adult Community Aid. >> And do we have a second? >> Seconded. >> Okay. Any further discussion, comments? All in favor? >> That's great. >> Thank you. And with that, thank you to our Carlo members. I'm going to adjourn the region. Thanks for coming on a non regional night for training. >> Love to have you here. >> Surprise our families for dinner. >> I know. or go to karma >> or don't go home. >> Good

101night everybody. >> Good night. Thank you. >> See you tomorrow. >> Yes. >> Time. Are we on time? >> Right. We have our student for the 31. >> He's not available till 6:30. >> Okay. Should we open public comment? >> We can do the agenda or >> um I move to move public because I'm not the chair. I move to move public comment up um and then move recognitions to 6:30 when our students with us. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay. >> All right. Like to open it up for public comment. I am not on Zoom. >> I'm on Zoom. second. >> I have not received any blue sheets in the room >> and I don't see any hands on Zoom. >> This is never happened someone. >> Okay. >> It's okay.

102>> When we need to buy six minutes, there's no comment. >> That's okay. We we can go to the next item. >> Okay, that's fine. >> Um I will close public comment. >> All right. Um, we need another motion to get correspondence up, right? >> Well, I think we I think we just I think we just do the correspondence. >> Oh, because you said to put it at 6:30. Okay. >> Well, yeah, I said just put at 6:30. Okay. Right. >> Yeah, sure. Um, on the CPS front, the only correspondence I had since the last meeting was a question about when our calendar was going to be released, which has since been released. Um, >> so that that is it on my side. >> And I don't think there's anything. I didn't see much. >>

103I didn't see anything. Okay. >> Quiet. >> That's it. >> Okay. Um >> tricky statistic presentation. Is he on yet? >> No, it's not quite 6:30. I am happy to do the CMS solar update. That will take about five minutes. >> Great. >> So, let's see. Can I do that out of order? >> I'd move to move up the the CM Solar discussion. >> Can Can I I move that we open the agenda until 6:30 when the student arrives? 11. >> Okay. I'll withdraw my motion. Thanks. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I thank you. >> All right. Solar update. Um there was uh some stuff in the bridge and just general chatter about solar and we're getting questions about where it stands. So, um, you know, um, Lori and Bob have been

104pretty involved with CMLP and I thought I just I invited Jason to come tonight. By the way, he couldn't come and that's on me, but we invited him a little late, so he will be at the next meeting. So, my goal tonight was to keep this on rather than just give a um, chair's update, talk about where the project stands, so you guys are in the loop. Um, and then you can formulate any questions, which I'd ask for. I mean, I'm happy to try to answer. I'm not the guru. I'm just passing information but he will be here at the next meeting and we can have more of a discussion. So this is more of a setup. Um so from from our perspective as a committee where this stands prior to this sitting committee the

105previous committee um worked with CMLP primarily Bob and Lori we discussed that as a committee uh we approved an agreement where they were going to CMLP was going to go out and get bids for uh roof solar on the Ellen Garrison building. Um, over the summer, CMLP put together an IFD, so an invitation for bid, which is very similar to an RFP. Um, they had a lot of interest uh throughout the summer and into the early fall with a lot of people asking questions, doing sidewalks, etc. But, um, it's a very complicated project. um our our roof is um a membrane uh on the Ellen Garrison building and so it's not like you just even though it was structurally designed for solar panels um you're not like bolting these in because it ruins the membrane

106and if you do bolt it in it um passes the warranty to whoever is doing the work on the roof which is not in the best interest of all the work we did in conquered to put that together um we don't want to forfeit any warranties so ultimately there were only two biders um that emerged in August and September and um there were concerns with with both basically. So under the guidance of CMLP's legal council, they decided to revoke the um the the IFB. And so um here we are. We we do not have uh an open IFB. We're not procuring this for now. And the reason why it's complicated is if we're not drilling on the roof, there's only really two other ways to attach solar panels on this. And I'm not an expert.

107I'm just regurgitating information which I memorized. Um, you can either bond the panels to the membrane, which doesn't void the warranty, but the bonding agent and way to do it is very, very hard to do, and there's only one, as far as we know, there's only one supplier across the US and potentially um f far further that will actually take this on. Um, and then the other method is weighting the panels down so they don't blow away. So, one of the bids had the bonding, one of the bids had the weighting. Though it is designed structurally, the waiting does add like a lot of additional weight and on on top of the solar panel weight. Um, so that contributed to the legal decision um to as well as cost to close the IFB. So, since

108that happened in late October or early November, um you know, we we've been working with CMLP, we resigned our agreement so that they can go back out to bid um and they can re-evaluate the project to see if we want to change the scope or change the bid in any way to make it more feasible and hopefully invite some some more biders. So, um that's that's what the CMLP update was as of um yesterday, I believe. Uh did I leave anything out? No, I think just we want to be sure we're saying very clearly to the community, we are very engaged and interested in moving the project forward. Um, we're working with CMLP very closely to try to be as successful as possible here. There's obviously a lot of >> complications to it and cost

109sounds like it's probably going to be one of them. Um, but we're very committed to the solar efforts at the middle school and serving the community for what they asked for. >> Yeah. And and and speaking to Jason, you know, just echoing like I think everyone wants this. Like there's not like no one wants this. It just I think became more complicated from the initial idea town meeting to actually when the rubber hit the road or rubber is a bad analogy um because of the membrane, but like it's just it's just very it's just very it's very complicated. >> So yeah, and I reaffirmed this with Jason yesterday as did Lori and Bob, but like everyone wants this. We want to make it happen. We want to be supportive. Um, this is the first time

110it's come up in a meeting since last spring. Um, so we will work with CMLP in every capacity we can to to move contracts forward to help support them as they go back out or restrategize what whatever it may be. So, um, that is the backdrop to the next meeting. We will have Jason here and we can talk about next steps which are very much up in the air. >> Questions? >> Sorry. >> Yes. >> If you have questions, >> so one of them was You mentioned the that legal guidance that that's CMLP legal. >> Yes. >> Not school legal. >> Um I think you said that second part of it. >> The the next steps in this process we'll have to identify along with Chase. >> Yeah. CMLP um their board um it might

111even be re rethinking you know how we how we how we go about this in general. So very much in the air. >> So so they're not reading on anything from us. >> No >> Michael just um I know this isn't on the agenda. It's just some information that happened within the last week that pertains to the bison incident reporting work group. Um >> that's not on the agenda. >> I know. Wait, is that Are we talking about solar? >> No, no, it's not. I I know it's not on the agenda. It's just a point of information. >> Can I Can I ask a question about solar before >> um on the part of the conversation around solar was um having the canopies over the parking lot, which I know there was a lot of

112concerns about visibility to the building and >> the just appearance of it, but I'm curious >> the expense >> and the expense of that. So, where does do you have an update on where that stands? that that could be very much so the the original project was scoped for panel on the panels on the roof with the option of of canopies. So >> so so the next phase could include shifting it from the roof to to canopies, but it wasn't budgeted for that. So >> um and I I don't want to speak over my skis here, but >> Okay. >> I I don't think it's off the table. >> So is that what as when you say all options are still on the table, that's one of the >> Yeah, Jason had mentioned that yesterday.

113>> Look to Okay, correct. >> Okay. Thank you. They also have to balance the impact of the rate payers and I think the rooftop is more attractive than the canopies. >> Okay. >> Financially. >> Okay. And does the weighted as it cylinder warranty with weighted? >> Yes. >> So in both options >> both those two there's three options, right? Drilling into the memory >> drilling is the warranty. >> Um >> but the weighted and the other >> correct is called ballast and then also the welding. >> Okay. And and the building can sustain that. I mean, I know I'm talking to you like you're an expert on this. Might >> as well. >> He had a very intense half hour with Jason yesterday. >> Yeah. I don't want to be quoted in the bridge from

114his speaking on I don't I don't know this. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So, next week, yeah, maybe I'll just think about an send some questions. >> Yeah. Put in questions. I'll get we'll get with Jason and make sure that >> he answers. >> So, questions about solar go to you. And do is it going to be on the CPS meeting or do we have to do >> that's the intention? I want to organize with him earlier to make sure he can be here. >> Okay. Okay. >> Which was on me. >> Okay. >> So, one more question >> again. You have a question? >> No, I don't. >> Okay. Um the the let's say this thing had gotten blaster with whatever uh that came. Do do we have kind of an expected timeline or

115>> I think it's out out the door at this point. >> What? Wait, what does that mean? It's out the door. >> Like I think the expected timeline it was to >> Oh, the the the timeline is out the door. Like that's not going to happen because of the complications that we run into. Okay. >> Yeah. >> And so is that is it on CMLP to come up with a new proposal or is it joint? How what's where does the like responsibility? we'll come up with the proposal and we have committed to supporting that, listening to it and then we'll if if the scope changes we'll hear it as a committee and decide if we want to approve it or not. >> Hold on. >> Thanks. I'm done. >> Simple point that I just wanted

116to bring up the night in >> what you're about to talk about is not on the agenda which we just heard. So you're violating open meeting law and that's that's up to you. It's my understanding that the agenda does not preclude something that's occurred in the in in the interview. I'm not putting up as point of information for us all to be aware. It's a conversation district attorney county presented and it's something in front of all of us in the community to be able to watch just to understand. I think it offers us a great opportunity to bring conversation to our community on issues that bear on our community. So, I think it's something that we all >> Yeah, I talked to the district attorney at 3:30 this afternoon. Um, she was very supportive of

117the schools. Um, she said that that conversation, I haven't seen the meeting. I heard this third hand. I got a report from the bridge. It's not on the agenda, but I am going to respond if that's okay through the chair. >> I was not saying yes or no. It's not on the agenda. >> Can I start off by apologizing? I should have, you know, put in a leazison on report after that meeting did not get to it. So, uh, that's why there's a lot of speed on that. We we were at the meeting. We'll try to be better about that. >> Well, it isn't on the agenda, but um, the district attorney is very supportive. Um, feels like she knows what's happening here in the schools. The police are reporting what we report to them.

118Um, she is going to share with me any reports they've gotten through the portal that she apparently mentioned. Um, she didn't know off the top of her head what those were. She said they were a mix of school and community. Um, things have been checked into, whatever they've heard. I haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming whatever she heard about was um, mild or not warranted a phone call. Um, she stated that we will continue to collaborate like we did in July and that we're here to partner and they're here to offer resources. So, I again haven't seen the meeting. I've only heard pieces of it, but um I did pick up the phone and ask for some feedback and that was what I heard it seriously. >> So, the meeting is viewable online and it's

119not up for discussion because it's not on the agenda. Is that what you're saying? >> That's my understanding. >> Okay. All right. >> All right. Do we have our student for the recognition? >> I just texted as well back. >> Okay. >> Oh, okay. That's the chus situation. Um, >> I think >> Justin, are are you are you are you ready? >> He's ready. Yes. >> Okay, >> why don't we start? And if we see that student, maybe we'll either pause or if they can wait. I don't I don't really know. >> Cool day for Conquer Greky. >> I know it's really cold. >> Try to get this so we can do it in slideshow view. I don't know what Peter did to make it work. >> He tried to show me, but I still

120>> So, I'm sorry. I got to use it in that format. >> It's okay. It's big enough. >> Yeah. >> Or you want to provide some context? >> Um, just just briefly, uh, the middle school was recognized by Desi, as you know, uh, for closing gaps, um, specifically back to pre- pandemic performance. And so it really felt really important to have them share with you in the community what they shared at the conference they were invited to present at with other districts that were in the same category. Um and so we're here to really just listen and learn. I think I don't think there's things here you don't know but it's all packaged together in a here's the plan that got made and the outcomes are substantiated and that's what you always ask of me.

121I was like how do you know it worked? Well this time we have evidence it worked. So, um, want you to be able to tell them the story. >> Thank you. Uh, so we were twice recognized by Dusty. We're one of, I think, 38 schools in the Commonwealth that achieved this milestone. And then we were one of, we believe 16 of the 40 uh, who was asked to present and share out some practices of the why, why we think we're back to where we were. terms of, you know, some academic achievement. Um, and as Lori said, you know, closing the gaps and working on closing the gaps. I guess let me preface the fact that we're not exactly where we want to be yet. Um, but we're about to model what we modeled at the

122DESI conference to why we think we'll eventually get there. Like to introduce Olive Bratford, assistant principal, um, part of an amazing team at the middle school. Uh very proud uh Dan Herman and Olive Brford helped Tori and myself be an academic professional development day yesterday with our teachers. Um and just being from three other districts before conquered not your assistant principles aren't always academic leaders and they are here. Um and I just want to share that with the committee. I'm going to turn it over to Olive for the first half of the slide. Okay. Uh thank you for having us here tonight uh to talk about a part of our programming at the middle school that we're really proud of. Um so we're going to talk about a specific part of our master schedule called

123the enrichment block. Um every sixth grader is available at the same time three times a cycle. A couple middle school parents in the room know this. Um same for the seventh grade, same for the eighth grade. Those are different blocks, but each grade level has these shared blocks. Um, and we developed this with the purpose of offering additional support, MT MTSS, um, to students who need a variety of things. Um, so we're just going to talk a little bit about that process, how we identify the students that participate, um, how we do the logistics of placement and then some of the programming that occurs during that block. >> I don't think it's anywhere. So before she continues, I just want to stress the fact something I've said here in the school improvement plan um presentations.

124Our teachers lead these intervention and enrichment blocks. It's the licensed social studies teacher, the licensed math teacher, the licensed science teacher, um even arts and wellness. Um that's not how it always is in the secondary level. often in the secondary level, even sometimes elementary, it's your specialists or your special educators that lead. Um, and that's one type of uh expertise and license. Um the secondary level um really is um the impact the impactfulness of the relationship that the students have with their teacher that they're seeing for a second time for enrichment or intervention um we find is so meaningful and that's kind of the secret sauce of this master schedule that's been in place since 2021. Um so our process um if if you think about students who might need a little additional support in

125the elementary school model uh they are with a classroom teacher the same classroom teacher for most of the day um my child talks about students being borrowed from that classroom teacher and it's a pretty easy process. The specialist goes in and takes who they need and it's the same teacher and they're interfacing with two adults. Um if you're talking about middle school or high school, you're talking about a much wider collection of adults who are working with students and a more complex schedule where um we're trying not to interrupt students access to the curriculum and the the schedule while also providing something extra which is pretty complicated, right? It's the same amount of time, but we want to give more time to students having certain things. Um so the first step in the process is

126this um identifying uh which students need which and we use um a couple of different we use a process of triangulation to do this. Um so the first is looking at uh the tools that we have in math and ELA and we also have a social emotional tool I'll talk about in a second. So, we use STAR 360, which all of you know. Um, students take STAR three times a year in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, um, at about midway through the trimester in order to start thinking about get that process started early about who needs what. So, the math teachers and the ELA teachers in isolation look at how students are performing on those. They look at the MCCAST data from the previous spring, and they also look at how students are performing in

127their classes, grade-wise, and anecdotal data. Um so you see this was a star report that teachers might be looking at and the next slide there is looking at um MCCAST results and then the last one um so this is our uh DESA screener. So the math and ELA teachers are looking at the STAR data. Our guidance counselors look at how students performed on a screener we give in the fall called DESA. Um it's a five to seven minute online survey that students are actually answering questions about themselves and it is incredibly informative um in terms of how they're feeling about themselves, about relationships, about school, about in general, you can see at the bottom there some of the categories. Um so guidance counselors are looking at that information. the math and ELA teachers are looking

128at their information. And then we ask the classroom teachers, other teachers who teach those students also to come to a meeting um that happens about twothirds of the way through the trimester to share out any concerns about students who may be having challenges executive functioning, just keeping together um materials, staying organized, staying on top of school work, and also teachers who might notice some of the needs um of students they see who may not have screened on DESA but um may be wanting to share those concerns. Um, so that's the teacher observation piece. So all of that information, we ask that two of the three um contribute. So if a student has not performed well on STAR and on MCCAST, but maybe is doing okay in a class, that's still a student who recommended for

129intervention. Same if MCCAST was okay, but now STAR in the classroom doesn't work. So that's a researchbased method for identifying students. And then um we have this meeting that we affectionately call the draft. Um, so there's a team meeting about twothirds of the way through the trimester and the English teacher and the math teacher and the guidance counselor and the rest of the team um that work with those students sit together and there's some conversation because maybe a student needs help in math and also in ELA. That's not uncommon. So what do we prioritize? Um we think about who the group in intervention might be. Um the urgency of the need of interventional often takes priority because that is often a driving force of the performance in that ELA. Um, and the teams put together

130their list of who they want to recommend for each intervention. And OB a student may be in ELA term one and then in math term two. So there's time for that different support to happen. So at the team meeting um there's a bucket of students who are recommended for intervention and we communicate with parents first and share this information. Your students been recommended for intervention for the following reasons. and we phrase it as a recommendation um for the reasons that the parent knows their child the best and is getting this information from the school and may say I understand but we actually um all that my student says they're excited about coming to school is art if there's an art enrichment that's really going to be the thing right now I'm having trouble getting that

131kid out the door a math intervention is just going to be an additional thing that that causes that issue for the most part parents accept the recommendation um but they have the option option to say no thank you. Um so either the student is placed in intervention or opted out and then receiving a menu of enrichment classes. So anybody who is not recommended for an intervention um gets a choice form with a fascinating collection of courses all tied to teachers licenses. So an English teacher might teach a creative writing enrichment. We have a math teacher who teaches a puzzles course. Um a science teacher is teaching a neuroscience class. These are all just sixth grade examples. Um it's really incredible what teachers come up with. Some people teach the same thing a couple trimesters in

132a row because the desire the um so many students requested in the first term that they want to do it again. Other times teachers are saying I'm now really excited about astronomy. You know, there's this mission that's going out into outer space that I really want to get kids interested in. Um so that's the menu that goes home to uh families where the intervention recommendation has not been made or has been uh turned down by parents. to give a little more detail too um on where you see these fall into the master schedule. These are our only trimesterbased classes. So I'll go back to the conversation that Olive um was sharing that we often have with parents about recommendations of intervention. You know, often parents will meet their own child where their child is and

133our recommendation and place their child in intervention for say first trimester and then we will monitor their growth progress monitor them through the star and then we'll look at whether or not they need to continue intervention or maybe in the second trimester which is uh right around Thanksgiving um they might go on to an enrichment class. Uh, one of the things that we were fascinated about um, in 2021 when we put this master schedule and plan uh, in place is we wanted to call all of them enrichment classes um, and take out the stigma of the intervention. Um, and we're very proud to say that um, all the kids carry that as well regardless of the size of class they're in. I really think going back to that secret sauce that I mentioned, it's the

134fact that they're in front of their grade level teacher. Um, you know, so it is tier 2 hiding in plain sight. um you know and preventing not the best word but it's also the gatekeeper um and holding back some families who are looking so quickly to make the testing or the evaluation for special education because we're able to offer this intervention in the tier 2 model. Um, we also lean into the research that says by the third trimester, if the intervention isn't really moving the needle, we actually want to move the student into an enrichment, surround them with their peers that might stretch them and challenge them because at this age, it's their peers as much as the teacher in front of them that is making them grow. So, that happens often in this block.

135Um you see that the teachers and the students uh teach every other day this enrichment or intervention block. Um we borrow a little from our uh tier one advisory model as well. Um where guidance counselors, administrators, both of us are teaching in this block, both of us have a teaching license. Um, I have taught a PE intervention that is a hybrid of kids who need that intervention with kids because they're middle school who just want a second PE class. So, it's like um it's it's a combination or a hybrid of the students who data suggests needs an intervention and data that suggests that they're fine in enrichment, but they leaned into that uh class that was on the enrichment menu for the families and for the students. Um so our MTSS or enrichment curriculum um

136is all about the model that you see here the pre-teaching um the reteing uh the extensions you know the other piece that the enrichment block is doing that I'm sure all of you know is one of the metrics that DESIE is using to make sure that we're moving the needle is growing even our high achieving population. So often for for districts um that achieve well on these metrics, you know, if the students who are achieving well just kind of flatline from like say fifth grade all the way through the middle school years, Desi is not going to offer recognition for that. Um and that isn't how you got into, you know, what used to be called these different levels that DESIE no longer does. So, we're tasked to not only grow um and shorten the

137gaps um and focus on the students who need intervention, but we're also tasked to support our students of the high achieving caliber as well. So, this is um something that Olive uh reviewed about five minutes ago, the different options that are available for the students. Um and again for the students who really wanted to get into let's say you know rocking and roll rolling with Spiros um they might be disappointed first trimester but they can go for it again in the second or the third trimester as well. Um, one of the things that we wanted to make sure that was a part of these enrichment blocks, okay, again, doesn't matter if the students in intervention or enrichment, um, is it's a projectbased course. Um, it's a course that students, um, they should feel re-energized, their

138curiosity, their love for the discipline and the subject matter. Um, we don't give homework in this block. Um but we do encourage a lot of handson uh projects that they're building towards and at the end of each trimester we have a huge gradele showcase that I have to say the building is built for. So when we were doing this at Sanour and Peavedy um you know we were in all these awkward spots um in the building where now you just walk the entire grade level hallway and we have all of these um grade level uh areas um what we call them again >> commons. Commons I don't know how you guys do this pretty late grade level commons where this picture um actually all these pictures are from the grade from um so we're also

139what we're doing to the teachers is we're modeling them you know how kids um thrive of this age level and what they really lean into and what's been really interesting happy accident, if you will, is the number of teachers that take something that was born in their enrichment class and they actually bring it into their core class. Um, to make sure that whatever that is, all the students have access to that. Um, so that's been sort of a happy accident in this block as well. >> Uh, I think that's pretty much it. Um, do you want to hit on the enrichment program? I guess the last slide. Yeah, we just looked at data to compare um before and after since that was the testy recognition. So since 2021 um the MCCAST scores after the first

140year. So 2021 the sixth graders um started the enrichment block and we rolled it out one year at a time. Um so we saw 20 point growth in um SGP in ELA and uh same in math and uh MCCAST moving from 67 to 80% proficiency in ELA and 53 to 71 in math. Um and last year the the ELA just looking at the students who were involved in the intervention blocks over the three trimesters um 38 students participated SGP was 60 um so you can see that's above the others and 12 of the students moved um up a level of MCCAST so oneird of those students from just one trimester of intervention. >> Very impressive. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> you mentioned that you were noticing teachers bringing the enrichment material into their classroom. Is

141that and into the standard classrooms? You is that what you think is part of the uh change in teaching system bringing all raise lifting all boats? >> Yes, certainly for student engagement. You know, I think uh uni universal design for learning is really alive in this block. Um project based learning is really alive in this block and it's just given teachers permission um to not just do it in the block but bring it to their other classes as well. >> So you'll have to excuse my nurse on this. uh h how do you provide the same I guess enrichment uh if kids on IEPs and do you work is is the same process that's followed or >> Yes. So um with with services we're able to for the most part um consult with parents going

142into the school year about where I services fall. So there there is a loss usually of something um in the schedule but parents and families are often able to choose. So looking at you know here are the specials that you have um or taking away from enrichment block for a service. Um so mo I think there may be four or five students who have IEP services during enrichment block but out of 200 uh students per grade level um it's pretty low and yes they have the same opportunity. We try not to if that's one of the things that conversations that happen in the draft. So if the student has a math service on their IEP um and is already getting support there and also needs support in English, it probably makes more sense to have

143the English support and you know, but that varies too depending on who the kid is and what they need. >> Can I ask a question about the enrichment fair? Not a fair. I don't know what you call >> showcase. Showcase showcase. I'm like okay. >> There we go. Um, so if you're getting intervention like in math, so you're still doing a project to participate in that showcase. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> And that came online. So I'm I'm currently doing a creative writing enrichment um which allows for us to build to the showcase so much easier. Um I think the showcase came online right when I stopped the PE um enrichment >> which was a social emotional intervention. >> Correct. >> I think it's it wasn't a peak like the Correct. It was

144an intervention. Um, but I I just remember thinking, you know, like we're building towards this showcase and I I still don't know what I would do for that showcase. Although the PE teachers >> um I think what did they do to the showcase? >> They invent games through their enrichments. Um, so it students made powerpoints with videos of these invented different games and had to come up with the rules and that was the final product of their time there. Um, I did a seventh grade ELA intervention last term and students were working towards a final project in their ELA class which was a persuasive piece of writing um, having to do with Greek mythology. And so we did persuasive pieces of writing about they started five different prompts about schooling. One student ended up writing

145about how every student should take finance classes um just to practice those persuasive writing skills and then that's what they showcased. So it was a group of five students as opposed to 16, but everybody's walking around at the showcase and it's not walking in and seeing this intervention class. It it all flows. So it seems like the same kind of thing. >> And it's you know I feel like it's so developmentally appropriate. you know, at the high school they have flex block where yes, there's choice, but there's also you can get locked into a flex um for that intervention, but here in middle school, like you're giving them a little bit of choice, but yet you're getting to what they really need during those two blocks during the week. Um, you know, and we talk

146a lot about getting back to prepandemic levels. You're actually exceeding, if I'm reading this correctly, are you exceeding prepandemic levels in some areas? >> I think in in some in some metrics we are. Y >> there's still work to be made in others. Um but yes, >> but clearly you know you're being recognized by the state for you know exceptional work. So really great work >> in a spring that we moved into one building >> in the spring. >> Exactly. >> I always forget to bring that part of the story but when I was speaking to the faculty and staff yesterday about being in front of all of you >> um I made sure that they heard the recognition is all of theirs. Um, and we found a way to do this um when we

147took a two building model and we moved it to one. Um, so that's the part of the story that we didn't even bring to law to the Desi conference. >> That's the piece that I find that's pretty pretty special. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I I mean I I have kids on that have had intervention on IEPs in elementary school and we've just been blown away by, you know, the coordination, the complexity of it and the teamwork aspect of it. And then I think the middle school and I look at your schedule on slide eight and there's that whole complexity of the the schedule issue. So I think this is this is super cool. And I was going to ask if the building helped, but you've answered that now twice. That's great. Um, but I guess

148my my last question would be where do you see this going? Like is this is this kind of like locked in as V1 and you you have visions to go like beyond this and maybe you want to see how this goes like how how can we be helpful I guess. >> Yeah. just you know a further commitment of this master schedule you know I felt like some of this was alive believe it or not in the after school program >> um I came into conquered nine years ago you know I think all of you know and I appreciate the support of a very robust afterchool program but I worry about the access that our students have to that we've known this data for gosh decades now that after school is not the best time to

149stretch, grow, and give intervention to kids. Kids are burnt out. Um, so the access worried me. Um, and they weren't at their best. Um, and we are fortunate that a lot of our teachers, all of our teachers are the club advisors, you know, to our multiple math clubs or multiple STEM clubs or multiple um SEAL clubs. Um but all of them are obviously available during the school day. You know, having an elementary school um kiddo who's on an IEP, you know, when that special educator or service provider comes into her classroom, she's very aware and she's telling me that, you know. So, one of the things that is just so important that I've mentioned a few times is a master schedule where all of this is hiding in plain sight. Um and that students see

150all of us as instructional leaders. Um you know, we're adviserss, we're teachers, we're just not administrators. We're breaking down that stigma. Um you know, and I think that's important as well. So just to maintain a commitment to where we are um is huge. So uh one you guys I know have put kids at the center of learning, right? without the student le conference in which have you considered bringing some aspect of that in sense that student led ideas for enrichment classes or something. Yeah, I think part of that um I'm interested in how Oliver gets to this question um is the showcase, you know, because when you're walking the showcase um it's very much like the civics action project um where each kid is at the ready to share out their learning um and what

151they've learned for that entire you know trimester. We pulled students three years ago I think um maybe in it doesn't matter um asking for ideas and I think we got some good course ideas but it wasn't a structured enough question in terms of we wanted to hit all of these different disciplines and I wonder if it's time to do it again here and have maybe more of a guided the way the way to do it and help them pick things >> because enrichment is supposed to be a push. It's hard for them to identify the things that they don't know that they want to learn more about. I think it's so figuring out how to do that better. >> Student developed enrichment class. >> That's true. The civics's action that's happening right now. >> Yeah,

152>> there's the answer. >> We had we had a students try to follow this. the student civics action project be developing an enrichment course um >> for student athletes who are feeling overwhelmed by their sports commitment executive functioning and so it's the three days are like some working out >> so we had a middle school student develop a fourmonl long course um for the school Well, we really appreciate you coming. It's a long day. So, um, please pass along to your staff that we really appreciate all the work that they're doing. I get that. So, that's great. And, um, yeah, this is great. This is something to be celebrated and, um, we love it. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chairman, you might want to stay. Felix is here. >> You want to do? >> Yeah.

153Can we do that? >> He's here. >> One up. >> I'll trade you. >> Project 351. I know there are 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. You tell us more if you learn that. >> H. Wow. It was um really inspirational. Uh we started at Fuel Hall. >> So this this past weekend project 351 had their launch date was Saturday. >> Saturday. >> Yeah. Um I am curious because their goal of the nonprofit project 351 is to get 351 eighth graders to the state house um to launch the year of of service learning. Any idea how close they got to 351? Uh they got way above it. >> Way above it >> because some towns have a lot more middle schools. Boston sent a ton of eighth graders. >> Amherst

154and L sent three and there were a bunch of others that sent multiple. >> Um >> remember the days I tried to send one from puberty and one from Sandboard and they said no to me. >> School two films. >> They do that. So, Saturday, how was Saturday? >> Um, it was really amazing, honestly. We got there there, it was a lot of people, a lot of uh inspirational people. Um, the founder of the playbook initiative was there, the founder of the Boston's Children Orchestra was there. Um, just uh a lot of philanthropists and all these different people and speakers. uh Glattis Vega spoke. She got a good trouble award uh for running a food pantry and just giving so much to the community. Um and then we went off and went to these um

155service sites. Um and we just worked together for a day and made all these different things. Um and they said we made uh we impacted 25,000 people over the day. So that was um really something. >> Which nonprofit did you live? >> It was uh it was a building, but we worked for >> No, that was a different one. >> We just um we made food kits and uh hygiene kits and blankets that are going to be shipped out. >> So I don't know if it was for a specific nonprofit. >> It's great. >> Very cool. Did you work you worked closely with other eighth graders like from other towns? So what other towns did you interact with? >> Uh um towns, uh Amherst, all these different um places around Massachusetts on the bus. Um

156it was just everywhere. All these aspiring students that just wanted to be there and work. No one was trying to um get on each other's nerves or anything. Everyone working together. So, it was it was really something special with that many eighth graders and no one causing a commotion. Honestly, >> what a great >> self-awareness by the way. >> Um what a great leadership opportunity for you and to represent conquered in the way you did. We really appreciate everything that you did and bringing it back to us and bring it back to your students and your school and your teachers, principal, assistant principal. It's it's really impressive. >> I mean, I we can never understate the impact the 351 ambassadors have had. >> How many years ago? I mean, that is where the playbook initiative

157started for us as a district. >> So, this is your audience this year, Felix, to keep bringing ideas and um making sure we're listen. Our question for you is what did this inspire you to do next? >> Um just maybe do more community service because it felt really good. Um we're doing a clothing drive for crayons later. So just work really hard at that and just kind of help people more in general. >> Good question. >> Excellent. Thank you very much for giving up some of your Wednesday night and coming here. We really appreciate it. It's super cool. >> Saturday. >> Yes. >> Saturday. Yeah. >> And he's a skier or a snowboard. >> Snowboard. >> Was it cold at what you said? >> It was really cold. >> Really cold, but it was really

158fun. >> He took prime Saturday ski snowboard time. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Ph. >> Thanks, All right, our last item. >> Wow. Want to bring it home? >> Sure. Um, this is a bit not quite as exciting. Um, the uh you might recall we talked about um the the creation of a special ed stabilization fund. Um, we didn't vote on it during our budget um deliberations and we tabled it for this. Um, we did present it then. Um, give you time to review it. Um I recommend that we do it primarily because um that we create the fund. We don't worry about funding yet. Primarily because we have so little students out of district now that we don't really have a safety net of cir we're not going to have a safety

159net of circuit breaker funds. Um and this would give us a mechanism to put some uh funds aside. Um and we can work out how to put funds aside later but I think the creation of the fund itself would be non-controversial. If it ends up being controversial we can you know can we can always withdraw it like I don't I don't see why it would be controversial but if there's any um concerns from the town side um we certainly can hear those but again this is just to create the fund um what you can do is we could let's just say we had money at the end of the year that was available to put into it we could um get authorization to put money left over and budgeted to it um so there's different

160ways to fund it um we're not asking for money to fund it just asking to create the fund um So, um I realized I didn't have warrant language. I don't know. I think you usually see that. I can share the language if you want, but usually the town council would review it anyways and potentially amend it. So, if you want, I can show you that. If not, I just requesting u your approval for us to bring to the town a warrant for the creation of a special ed stabilization fund. >> And this would then um go to all of the hearings. It would be reviewed by town council and it would be a vote at town meeting. >> Yeah. And I would absolutely >> And there's no dollar amount just to create the fund. Like

161when we created the non-resident tuition fund, when we created something else, the facility revolving fund. >> Um those were similar where we didn't ask for money. We just asked to create the funds. This one >> won't fund automatically. We'll have to figure out a way to fund it. But um I didn't want to have to introduce the fund and explain that at one time um and then try to explain the funding. And at a time I thought it would be easier to get this >> approved and then we could figure out how to fund it later. >> And the only way to create the fund is through the town meeting. So you have one shot a year to create the fund, >> right? We have one shot to create it. And the rules are are

162you know there is collaboration with the town. gets approved to town meeting if we actually wanted to spend from it the school committee and the select board but authorized doesn't need to go to town meeting again we can't unilaterally use the funds if we get money in it but we we can use it if we approve it and the select so that would be a situation where we have some really unexpected costs >> hopefully that's not the case at some point but better to be a prudent plan you point of information. This actually came up in the uh conversations with the select uh 12. >> Oh, it did? >> It did. And at least to my ear, it seemed that there was some resistance. >> That's fine. I'm happy to explain it to them. If

163they resist, you know, we could always I don't think if they hear what we're presenting that there's a reason to be against it. Um >> was it this fund specifically or the creation of is like last year's town meeting finance committee try and create >> this was well if I we were talking about the the adversity that's fac that would be facing Carlo because of the >> that's >> oh okay I mean sorry finish I'm >> the the the I guess I I would I would have you the uh I because I watch it because when I got the agenda out I thought gee I just hear about that. It's from the January 12th select board meeting about a minute and 48 an hour and 48 minutes in. >> Okay. >> They discuss special education

164stabilization fund. >> Okay. >> And just doing a cursory read there you that get it passed. It wasn't going to >> Yeah. and maybe they context rounds to um look at both the the argument that I recall uh was to um they made an analogy to the Minute Man High School looking at rolling averages to try and prevent the ups and downs for the other uh supporting schools and they made that argument for as a counterargument for having this special education stabilization fund. So I would just make you aware of that to look that >> so this will go through the formal process and March will be at a public hearing with the finance committee and usually this is engaged. So >> this requested is right now. >> Yeah. And the deadline the real deadline

165is Friday. So but that'll be good to know that we are probably going to have some questions. Well, it's also easier to explain it in person. Um, they they could be confusing the cap the capital stabilization we're talking about in the region. Um, and the rolling average relates to just the regional assessment. So, I think if there's I think I'm confident we could address questions in person. If they if they aren't supportive of it, so be it. But I think there might be information that we could give them that might change their view. >> Just just pl information. Someone want to be brave enough to do them? >> I'll do it. I move to create a special education stabiliz stabilization fund for conquer public schools. >> Is the sorry is the >> discussion. Is the

166motion about the creation of the fund or about a warrant? >> Only town meeting can create the >> So, oh, >> you need to reference the warrant. >> Okay. I'm going to withdraw that motion. I'm gonna let Carrie um >> not what I intended. Okay. I move that we uh vote to approve a warrant to create special education stabilization. Second, >> any more discussion? >> Thanks, Carrie. >> All those in favor? >> I Okay. >> All right. >> I don't have anything else. I adjourn the meeting. Thank you.