001All right, it is 6:01 p.m. Um, I'd like to call the Conger Carile Regional School District meeting to order. I'll call the Conquer School Committee to order. All right. Um, thank you everyone for um, being here. I'd like to start tonight's um, meeting in the wake of everything that's been happening this week um, with a moment of silence for Jimmy Macintosh, Maisie O'Donnell, and Hannah Hannah Wasserman as we open up the regional meeting. Thank you. As you can imagine, um we are conducting this meeting with heavy hearts and we're running on empty um especially our administrators. Given this and our hope to get Dr. Hunter home to some much needed rest, um we're going to forgo a few parts of the agenda. Um, so there will be no public comment during the regional meeting tonight.
002The student update has been removed. Um, and um, we're really happy to have the CPAC here as well as a thorough playground. Um, so thank you so much for being here on such a heavy night. We could use you here. Um, so at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Hunter to open with some statements and comments. Thank you. We just wanted to take the opportunity to really acknowledge in progress. Sorry. acknowledge the community's extraordinary response over the last week and share where we are as a school district. Um, I wrote it, which isn't normally my style, but given the content, I thought I would be better that way. Um, the past week's been the most difficult time for the entire school community and for CCHS particularly. The tragic and sudden loss
003of three members of the CCHS senior class has been unimaginable. All all we hold forth in our thought thoughts for recovery. I share a heavy heart, but one that is full of gratitude and appreciation for the extraordinary resilience, compassion, and care that has been evident. Sunday night made that feel tangible. The days since grew off of that foundation. I first thank the leaders at C CCHS, co-principles Brian Miller and Katie Stall. Their stable and steady leadership creates a structured and safe environment for students and staff. The guidance department of the high school has been key to ensuring the wellness of those most in need. Every member of the high school faculty and staff is providing care and important routines to students despite their own grief. That environment of normaly and support allowed us general success
004over overall over the three days this week as we progress through this week and the upcoming services plans for the remainder of the year and then senior events will be our priority. The outpouring of resources within and outside the community has been a daily buoy. We thank the Carile public schools and Superintendent Jim O'Shea and his dog Scout. The dogs are a theme. Um the partnership with the police departments of both Conquered and Carile has been above and beyond what anyone would have expected. Our great thanks to everyone outside the schools who have been key to the return since Monday. Among those on site in the schools are the north northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, NEMLEC and their STAR Crisis Team, which brings in resources from across Massachusetts, Riverside Trauma, the Elliot Center, retired counselors,
005and counselors from other local school districts, including Newton, Lexington, Sudbury, and Actton, Boxboro. Counselors are available at any time for students and staff in need. The presence of do dozens dozens on Monday of comfort dogs has been significant coming from many many sources especially police departments across all of eastern Massachusetts pets and people and many individuals with trained pups including the waters and pups. Thank you Brian. Food has comforted staff and students. We are so thankful for the donations including Duncan which provides daily coffee and treats for the entire high school and snacks from the Carile PTO and CCHSPA. Those are just a sample of the offers that continue daily today alone. We received flowers and cookies from five school districts and an offer to provide staff lunch next week from a local restaurant. We
006miss Hannah, Jimmy, and Maisy terribly. To Miss Hannah, Jimmy, and Maisie terribly, their memories and spirits will be the model for how we move forward. Thank you again to all who got us this far. We are very grateful. Thank you everyone. Um, like I said, this is going to be a hard meeting for us to get through. We ask you to just bear with us. Um, and we appreciate all the support. Like Dr. Heunter had mentioned, it's been um, it's been a really difficult time, but the community has rallied around so many people and we uh, we are very, very, very grateful for that. Um, and grateful to do all the regular things we're going to do tonight. Yes, we need to get back into the positivity of that. Absolutely. Um, do you want to
007kick off the recognitions? Yeah, I also just want to add to that just a great big thank you to you and your team. Um, it is nothing short of amazing what you what services you provided, not to just the kids, but the entire community. So, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Um, shifting to something lighter. Um, we have long been talking about building a playground at Theo. um and an amazing group of volunteers um parents, students, staff um have worked really hard over the last many months to make that a reality and tonight they are here um to bring Mr. Sparks up um to kick us kick us off if that's okay. Thank you all for need. Thank you all so much for giving us time tonight to um talk a little bit about our playground project,
008The Rose Backyard. A project that is near and dear to our hearts. Um we have some gifts and reading material for all of you, some pins, and there'll be a test at the end. I think Gary's provided some context, too. Um, I just want to also, um, express my deep appreciation for Superintendent Hunter, uh, to Bob Conry, uh, and to Angel Charles for, um, all of their help and support through this, um, journey, which has now gone, um, over just about a year and a half. We started this last year um, with a simple premise as part of our master master campus plan, right? Uh we want a playground that is um fun, nature inspired and inclusive. Um and through the design, many iterations um and a lot of collaboration and connecting uh with community
009members, I think we're we're at a place that we're all very happy with. So, I'm I'm uh thrilled to be here with our our student leadership group. Uh a group of fourth graders. Last year, we we put a call out to the third grade leaders who were interested in supporting this project and uh these fine young people came forward and it's been an absolute pleasure working alongside of them uh for this time as they uh helped us to survey their their peers uh asking simple questions like what makes play fun, right? What do you like to do in play spaces? What do you like to do on playgrounds? We looked at all their data. We analyzed it. Um they uh did a a recent coin challenge uh to raise money for the the on the
010part of the students and raised up to $1,000 uh which which was great. Um you know they put on a popsicle party for the winning group, the kindergarteners. Um they helped with the the design and the fundraising and they've just been fantastic. So I I do want to introduce them. They um are what we uh they embody our core values at the row and at and at conquer public schools. uh and demonstrate leadership, advocacy, and voice, which is what we're big on. So, I do just want to introduce them first. Um just give a little wave. Madison Toronto, Stella Wong, Eliia, Jimmyian, Leo Rothier, Archie Kinch, Robbie Morgan, Simon Goodrich, and Gautam Civa. And I I do want to also express my um gratitude to the adult playground group who have been doing so much
011hard work behind the scenes. Um I am so fortunate and privileged to um have the opportunity to work alongside and really learn from some real experts. And I want to acknowledge all of them too. Um, so our our chair, uh, Mitch Brooks, Courtney Ward, I'm not sure if she's here tonight. Um, Christina Asperu, Ben Klene, is our money guy, Mike Lefonte, who couldn't make it tonight. Adrien Fiss who is our CPAC uh, representative. Matt Stashen, he couldn't be here tonight. Aaron Sahichic. Did I get it? Good. Erin's worked closely with me with the um with the student group and keeps me focused. So um we actually got the chance to present today at our all school meeting and um share the work and share some of the design and there was a buzz of excitement
012all across the school. So a lot of lot of happy kids. Uh and of course our school committee uh representative Carrie Rankin we've been working closely with as well. Uh and our PTG uh presidents are here who we've been coordinating with Mary Little and Colleen Bixby. Thank you all. Um and here also is Joe McMahon. He is our um Altplay vendor uh and has gone through I thought it was more like 30, but he said we're 15 iterations. Very patient. Um, but I think as we were talking in the parking lot, it speaks to the the commitment to getting it right, to getting a play space where all kids um that all kids will love uh and taking into account all stakeholder voices. Um, so now I'm uh I'm going to turn it over. I'm
013going to stop talking and I'll turn it over to uh the real show, our our thorough huskys. Uh so we'll invite them up and if you want to stand in the line right here and they're going to tell you about some of the work they've been doing. When we were third graders, we were each selected to represent throw student body for the newlyannounced playground project. We have continued to serve as members of this team through our current year as fourth graders. It was a lot of work to set goals together and we had fun reaching them, too. We have met as a group almost every Friday of the school year and at sometimes two other times too. We think it is important for our community to know how thankful we are that this project can
014happen in an amount of time that allows the students at thorough to see this project happen and from start to finish. We were there when the idea was just getting started and no one was sure what throw's backyard was. We have been there through the middle part through hard work, researching, fundraising and planning. We'll be here celebrating and playing together with our community when when we are fifth graders when this project is done. One of the very first things our group looked at together was a survey that was taken by every class and grade at the Rose School and staff too. We looked at the results of the surveys and helped the full committee identify choices for a new playground that were important to the in entire student and staff population at the row. We
015had to sort through some of the less realistic but fun ideas such as a swimming pool or humansized hamster wheels as well as ideas that really made sense. As we sorted the ideas, we started to notice some really important things kept coming up. Some general things kept popping up like nature everyone and fun. Also, specific equipment like more swings and a zipline as well as slides were really important to students. Early in the year, we were deciding on the pieces of equipment and we thought we should have some musical instruments, especially since the other playgrounds in Conquer don't have any. We started researching different instruments and their sounds. We were surprised by the multitude of results, but we loved the idea of instruments just played by hand that could also be used by a lot
016of people at the same time. This led us to decide on the street quartet. The whole committee loved it because their sounds will create a zen-like atmosphere for the playground so that they feel joy while playing with their friends and family. Since this playground is for thorough students, we wanted to set our own goal. We wanted to set our our own goal to get the school involved. Once we decided on our mission to get musical equipment, we decided to raise money for it. Our goal was to raise $1,000. Within one month, we raised just over $875 by starting a coin challenge where all the grades competed against each other to raise the most. It was kindergarteners who won got to have a popsicle party. We made it to $1,000 this month and our entire school
017earned a PJ/S stuffy day this Friday. Some students and families set up donor pages and have raised almost $8,000 by asking neighbors, friends, and family members to donate. Students have also been able to spread the word word by talking at thorough events like math night and book fair. Our team here has been working hard to get out the units to all the 400 donors. We tried to handw write them at first, but realized that would be really hard to accomplish. We aren't done yet. Even though we have raised a lot of money and came up with a design we all love for the entire community, we will keep working together and finding ways to help bring our store together. We hope to help with the actual build too when the day comes. During our meetings,
018we talked a lot about when the playground o will open because we are so excited for that day to be here. We hope that our school can have a huge celebration that we will take part in planning and maybe even have an official rabbit hunting for. Before we finish, we want to be sure you've heard some of the important parts of this project for us, the students of the elementary. We love that this project reminds us of our school's namesake, Henry David Theo. He was a person who loved nature and understanding the world around us. A really a big top some big topics adults are concerned about kids are their mental, emotional, physical, and social health. A really big part of staying healthy is having a place to be outside, moving our bodies, building independence
019and friendships. This playground is not just a place for us to play during the school day, but we know it will be a safe, happy destination where kids would choose to have fun in our free time, too. We really love that the Rose backyard is more than just a playground. It's a place for kids to explore and experience freedom, embrace challenges, work together, play side by side, and most of all, a place to have fun. Thorough elementary is a really special school in conquered that encourages kind, caring, kindness, and values all members of its community. The entire throw's backyard team has put so much thought, energy, time, and passion into designing a space that will make amazing play possible for all childrens to be part of. This playground is something that everyone can find joy.
020We have told you a lot about our team. We hope you take time to look at the documents we have created such as the information about the musical equipment we chose, the blog post that our group wrote, images from our work together, a sample of our thank you note that we delivered to donors and thorough's backyard pins that some of our team made. Thank you for your support. If you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them. Thorough cannot wait to play together in our new backyard. [Applause] I'm sold. That was incredible. Thank you guys so much. Here I heard like you guys did videos, you wrote thank you letters, a blog post, regular meetings. That's a lot of work. Thank you. Um, I hope that it's as fun and exciting and inclusive
021and enjoyable for for everybody as we all hope that it is that you you uh hope we all hope it will be. Um, does anybody have any questions for the kids or threw all the I know. So, you talked about some of the equipment. What's the one piece of equipment that the students are most excited about? The zipline. That does not surprise me. or the gigantic slide. Awesome. Big climbing structure the treehouse. Just a quick comment. Um kind of what Carrie was saying, it's a great process and you guys ran through the gamut. You teamwork. Uh you learned what it's like to work on a committee. Um you gathered requirements. You took input from your friends and I'm sure you got a lot of input and it's hard to get that down into tangible stuff.
022you managed to a budget. Um I don't know. You just and you brought it all together with an amazing presentation. So I guess what I'm trying to say is in 30 years I hope you consider running for school. I crushed it. In all seriousness, I went to thorough a long time ago. A couple of us did. And um I was jealous of the current playground and I I've seen pictures and I know all the work and fundraising that's going into this new one. And now I'm super jealous. So, I'm I'm really uh I'm really happy for everyone in the throat community and I think it's going to draw a lot of people from um Willard and from Alcott and from other other places. So, thank you very much. You can always come and play Andrew.
023I have to bring my kids then or else it's just weird. That's okay, too. Well, thank you, guys. Yeah, great job. Good job. Thank you very much. If you notice, really proud of yourselves. If you notice their shirts, they're the the the rings, they're also rocks, right? But we believe that throw in the power of connection, right? Connection to their school, connection to their friends, and connection to nature. So, they're also on sale or will be on sale shortly. Love it. Well, thank you again. Thank you all so much. Very welcome. We are going to invite Justin, Joe, and Mitch to join us just to kind of talk through the actual design and then we'll have a um discussion later in the CPS agenda um where we'll talk about it as a committee. Great. Yeah.
024Do you guys want to come up here? Yeah. Can I just say it's good to see so many people in person. this this project has been on Zoom a lot. So that's all all the committee members in the audience and Joe and Mitch being live is really fun. Yeah. Um thank you. Thanks for all of this work. I I just want to open it by just saying that um I have been a like involvedish not nearly to the extent that everyone in this room has been. Um and I am just like in in awe of the commitment and dedication from um Mr. Sparks your perspective. Mitch, everyone on the committee has just been working so hard and tirelessly to um gather feedback to do um what's right for kids and the school community and I'm
025just really really thankful. Um and that's been not easy. Uh and so anyway, just a big thank you. Thank you. So no, if you want to just kind of walk us through where you landed. Um yeah. Yeah, but happy to to do that. We um if you remember, I don't know if it was this year or last year, uh we brought to you a uh master campus plan about a year ago, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And um one of the um areas that needed improvement at the row was the play space. So, we tackled that first cuz it's the most fun. Uh and we also had a substantial gift to get started, which was which was great. Um, and we took that and we knew that we wanted to do a community build uh to
026to involve the community as much as possible. So for formed a committee and quickly found Joe uh who specializes in this at Altplay um and got to work sometime last April uh surveying staff, surveying students um and uh analyzed all of that data and came up with some elements um that uh Mitch kind of put together in in a rendering. Uh and from there we kind of revised uh as we went based on feedback. We showed it to our student group. We showed it to our staff. Uh uh we deliberated a lot as a as a leadership committee and made adjustments taking into account stakeholder um input from all over. So uh after about 13 iterations, we uh we're we're here and we're uh happy to put forward a design that um Carrie can show
027you. It's actually really cool. It's a it's a flyover. Can I share my screen? that um will show a I think an an aerial representation of what um we hope the playground will look like. Um the zipline is definitely a big hit. We're also really proud of the fact that we were able to thanks to a contribution from the district um an estate Oh, well, we've had multiple sources, but there's an estate donation here that we're really fortunate. A large um estate donation from the Joyce Winall estate in the amount of just about 200,000,000. Yeah. Um and from the district we were able to rubberize just about 80 plus% of the surfacing uh which will go a long way in making it um accessible for all. Yeah, we closed that delta so that we're sure
028it's an accessible space for everybody. Yeah. So fly over. Yes, I do. Do you want me to start with that? The flyover. Yeah, that'd be great. If you could start with a fly over and then um maybe we'll run it maybe we'll run it through once and then we can stop and explain a little bit what we're looking at if that makes sense. It's not very long. I know if I can help car it right here. I don't know if the audio will work. I don't know if there is a There's no audio. Okay, great. We can I can humans to hoping for music. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. It's a little choppy. It's a little choppy. It's a little choppy. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. We can see the elements. So, the You want to
029explain it as it goes or um I was going to run through once. Okay. If that's okay. Be fast. I think it's actually faster than this. So, we are not getting a reads fairy shed there. That's just what we could get for images. Yeah. All right. So, if you just want to run it through one more time and I'll try to explain what we're looking at the best I can. So, right there, where are the kids? That's the music that they that they've selected. Um, they've created a a space a music has many benefits for children and adults. Um, and I think what you guys picked is is is a is a really some really nice equipment. I mean, one of the things like those tall those tall pieces that are right there, not only
030will they make sound, but like for someone who might have like some hearing problems, like if you feel them, you you can you can feel the vibration on them. Mhm. Um so they really offer that kind of unique experience for some kids and you can you can keep on going. So this does start entering into um the vision of maybe the the the natural area a little bit where we're going to do some paths and some plantings and things like that and that's kind of to be determined what we're doing. You can stop it right there. So that is everybody wants swings. They've they've got lots of swings and there's a an ADA seat swing in there. There's also a basket swing which for me it's one of the you know when we talk about
031inclusive playgrounds what we're looking to do is is have a playground that everyone can enjoy. You know, we're talking about typically developing children, children that might have some mobility impairments, some maybe a child on the on the autism spectrum. So, the basket swing seems to be that place where you pile nine kids on there and seven kids push and they all they don't die and they have a great time. So, I mean, it's good selling. Yes. But it's it's it's one of those pieces where everyone can can enjoy and it's it's it's so important. Um and I think that all those swings will be used probably through recess. You guys might have to have a swing monitor. We'll see. You can keep on going. So this is still part of the the natural area. Um
032and again this is we're still working on this a little bit. I'll just add, Joe, based on the survey, not all students like to play on swings and slides. Some students just like to run off and play tag or just sit and talk. So, there's something for for those kids too, like to engage in imaginative play. So, you're coming up onto this is a zipline that the children were talking about and it's a they call it a Zoom track, but it has a disc seat for typically developing children and there's also a ADA seat there. Yeah, for children that might have some issues with upper body support or mobility issues. Um, and again, as everybody sees, it's it's right now we have all rubber under that entire area. So, that is completely accessible um by
033wheelchair. Want to talk about this? You can go. Sorry. I did go. Sorry, it's a little delayed. Yeah, it's it's choppy. I don't know why. But so right there, that is so that's kind of one of the focal points of the playground. Um, in terms of height, that is 12 ft high. The deck or it's actually rope that the kids are going to stay on, but there's some there's some platforms in there. Um, off that, it's a little bit hard to see, but we have a hammock, we have an overhead event, we have um that rubber climber. So, it offers many different types of climbing and play. I can imagine some kids are just going to use this as a social area where they're going to sit up there and and just talk about how
034their day is going and maybe make fun of the principal or something. Um, this principal And then there's a high slide which is kind of what all the children wanted. And just to to talk about really quick about what we've how we got here. Um when they talk about like 12 or 13 different iterations. It wasn't like okay we they always started with like a rope climber and a zipline and and all these things. We we added we had wood a wood playground. We had a traditional post and platform playground um combinations of and then we the group finally landed on like something like this and we made numerous changes just even to this piece right there. There's that's an overhead event. So, monkey bars again, the kids can sit up on that. And we
035have two spinners in there. You can do just a little bit more. So, that is a double cone spinner can that can be used as both a climber and a spinner. And then further down the road, there's an accessible spinner. um whenever you're putting in when you're designing an inclusive playground, you try to put in different levels of challenge with the same activity. So, I would consider like the accessible world a level one where where everybody can get on that. The cone spinner, even though it's a little bit more advanced, but a child, say like in a wheelchair, could physically transfer out onto that and be within that whole entire group playing on that. Also, um, in the front, um, they really wanted to add some some climbing on rocks. Again, I can imagine this
036being a social area for children to to play on. Um, so there's some rope that's integrated with that. It's a it's a low climber, so it's not all that challenging, but it it it offers a different texture, too. It's like a It's a almost like a It's called a GFRC, which is basically cement with fiberglass in it. Um, but it feels like real rock. So, um, so they they've really thought this through to get to this point. So, I think they're happy with it. Yeah. Joe's been really really um cooperative and flexible with us to get to this. So, we're just Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. There's been a lot of iterations. It hasn't been that bad. I've seen worse. Okay. All right. Um, does anybody have any questions about the process or the
037design later on in the CPS portion of the meeting? We will be voting on both the design and then also to accept the donation from the committee. Um, but are there any questions that No, just a shout out to the fundraising that went on here. It was really amazing the amount of money raised in a very short amount of time to get us to this. What's the target, Mitch? 600. Target is 610. Uh, and with the kind of firm verbal commitments that we have so far, we feel very confident we're going to get there and we can kind of get more contingency in that as well. Just amazing. So, $610,000 donations from, you know, the students and $5 to 50 to 100 to 25,000. Yeah, actually the latest was 36,000. Yeah. Yeah. Um just extraordinary.
038Yes. Thank you to everyone who's donated and um across the comm across the community. I think you guys like really set out for this to be a community effort and in so many respects it has like from input to the design to um how it looks and feels to fundraising um across the board um and then potentially to the how it's built. Yes. Um, so thank you. Thank you all. Thanks for the time tonight and we uh we'll keep you updated on well pending a successful vote. Um we'll uh we'll keep you updated. We hope to do a community build uh this summer. Uh our initial goal was to open it by the start of the school year. That's to be determined at this point. It'll be close. We hope to have it open in
039the fall for the kids to enjoy. So we'll do a ribbon cutting and we hope you all can stop by. Wonderful. Thank you. You might just want to note the vote's going to be later. I did. Okay. And public comments later, too. Public comment is in CPS. Awesome. Well, thank you. We'll give everyone a chance if nobody else wants to stick around for uh budget items and other things. Yeah, we do have CPAC, but if anyone wants to leave, we'll give you a couple minutes. This could have really a really good example of what their future they're going to look like. Yeah, it's great. Exactly. Thank you. So, we'll get them home in Hawaii. Exactly. Good night. Thank you. You all did a great job. We actually here maybe not. You can present. Do you
040want to present it and then we can vote on it later? Yeah. I mean, it's just in this envelope. So, this is the balance of our fundraising. Okay. So far. And so I can give it. This guy will take that. Accept it. We wanted a big check, but it didn't work. It is a big check. Still more time. It's a big check. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful. All right, we're going to move on to um the updates. Um I think that just to start off with the biggest update that we have um in addition to the wonderful one we just had on the thorough playground. um is last week we had the finance committee um made their I'll say their votes or recommendations on the warrant articles that are coming to conquer um and all
041of the school um warrant articles were passed including both budgets um and I should say passed um recommended so um so that was that's probably the biggest update I want to um personally again thank the collaboration with the finance committee um uh especially Lois, Eric and Lindsay Liss on the guideline that we worked on Alexa and I um and Carrie and Dr. Hunter worked on back in oh my gosh October. Yeah. Yeah. In the fall um that work came to fruition um especially around out of district tuition. Um we had a really really thorough discussion um and it paid off just to have that conversation at the budget discussion this past week. Um, I think there's just people are starting to see the thoughtful conversations that need to happen um around who we are as
042a community. We just spent some time talking about um inclusive being an inclusive culture, an equitable culture, a diverse culture um and we had some really good conversations about that last week when we were talking about special education um as well as accessibility for um ADA compliance at the amenities building. So, I just want to say thank you because it's easy at finance committee to talk about dollars and cents. Um, but it was actually a really thoughtful conversation and I really really appreciate that. Um, some other comments and questions did come up like per pupil. There's still some questions from individual committee members, but I think as a as a total um, we just again had a really good conversation about just looking at our community and saying we're going to look at this as
043a communitywide initiative um, and make sure we take care of each other. And that's um, was really I just want to make sure that the finance committee knows how much we appreciate the collaboration. Um, I think second, just getting into the amenities building, there were some questions that came up that by the end of the meeting, um, weren't necessarily in the purview of the the vote for the amenities building, but just some questions about the project that Bob, um, and the other professionals are are working on with public works, um, and the water and sewer department. So, we'll have an update maybe at the next meeting um, on some of that, but don't want to ignore it. And again, I appreciate Allan um, joining the meeting from public works or water and sewer. Sorry, I'm
044still learning all the the names of the departments in conquered. They're different from Carlile. Um, and just again just the collaboration. We really appreciate them making the time to to come out to the meeting and and have that discussion. Um, the other uh update, you jump in as well. The Carrie and I meet with the PTGS um uh monthly. Um, we have uh teacher appreciation coming up next week. So, you're going to see some things around the community that the PTG presidents have been working on um across all the schools that we really appreciate. Um and I would just echo what we've said at the beginning. We This is um the teachers are hurting as well, especially at CCHS, but it's just also been every year. There's a lot going on. And we really appreciate
045the PTG presidents and all their wonderful ideas to recognize um all of the staff and faculty and teachers across both communities um and showing up. And um we hope you can see what comes out on people's lawns next week um for recognition on in that regard. Um what else? I think you covered it. Yeah. Okay. Um anyone else have any leison on updates? I just have a couple quick things amenities building related just to keep everybody in the loop. Um before the break, Julie and I recorded a podcast that is part of the Carile podcast series. Um, so I get to be with a real, you know, legend, uh, doing my first podcast. Um, I'm also working with Aaron just on a web page for the district using all the materials that we approved um,
046in the meeting in Carlile. Um, speaking of Carlile, last night I met with Carile Wreck to walk them through the project. Um, and they voted to, um, support it at Carile town meeting. Um, so they will, um, make mention of that um, on the 18th. And then just lastly, um before the town meeting, about an hour beforehand in Carlile, um we're going to try a poster session, so anyone who has articles can have a poster and people can walk around and ask questions. The goal is to give people a chance to ask questions beforehand and hopefully speed up uh things in the actual meeting. Um and I just want to just kind of pull this group. Are we good with again based off of the materials we've already approved? if I just put together a
047a poster because it is due um early next week. So um it's from the I think if it's from the existing materials and it really is a like for like maybe we could just um send it out to the committee and we could look at it before it posts. Okay. Can you also share the podcast? Is it out? It's not out yet. Oh, okay. Um hopefully soon. Go up on Instagram. We've been putting them up um like one article a day. Yeah, the countdown make you wait for it. Yeah. So, is it the It's the Town of Carile Instagram, correct? That's where he's been posting them, right? Yes. And then you can listen to them on Apple, Spotify. Yep. YouTube because they're videos as well. I forgot about that. Yes. All right. I think Laura,
048you gave your update, but do you have anything else you'd like to add? Okay, that's all. Um, all right. So, let's move on to the consent agenda. Um, we have the surplus CCA CCHS science department materials. Um, we did get an $1,000 an anonymous donation to the class of 2025 and then the warrants as well as the accounts payable and payroll. And I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as written. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I I um correspondents, do you want to go for CPS? Maybe you could go for the region. No, the region. I would just I would just echo I think what Lori mentioned in her opening comments. We have received um just so many wonderful um wonderful notes of support for the community um and offers of
049of support. And I would just say that in addition to what we've already mentioned, um we're doing our best to to hear all those that um it's been a good a good kind of overwhelming with all the support and I would say just keep following the process that we are to make sure that it's coming in in the right way and we're able to actually triage it and put it to to good use. So um you know there is the the email for the school committee if you um don't want to reach directly out to do Dr. and the co-principles, but we would just say thank you very much uh to the entire community for that. Um yeah, there's nothing into the other than all of that into CPS, but and just to echo that,
050we've also heard from like fellow school committee members and other communities. I mean, this has just been from all all channels. Yeah. All right, we can move into the discussion part. Angel, we have uh CPAC more than welcome to come on up. Sorry. CPAC and then special education. My apologies. I read fast. They go together. Yes. Ashley and Adrien, please. You first. My apologies. Um, hi everybody. Hi. So, we sent a slideshow. Um, I have it on my laptop, but I don't know if you have it to put up and I can just kind of look at mine and I'll say next slide. Does that work? Or I can hook mine in however you want. If you give me a minute. Yeah, no worries. It's wanting me to sign in again anyway. So, but while
051I'm doing that, I'll introduce myself. I'm Ashley Healey. I'm the president of the CPAC this year. Um, I have three kids at Willard. Just a second. Ashley, we might have to use your microphone or tilt the one in front of you towards you. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. No, it's okay. Not I'm not That's great. experienced here, but thank you for having me. Great. Um I'm Ashley Healey. I'm the president of the CPAC this year. Um I have three kiddos at Willard and uh two on IEPs. Um and I've been on the board for four years. This my first year as president. Hi, my name is Adrienne Quiry Fist. Um I have I am the vice president of CPAC. I have two children at Thorough. Um this is my first year on the board and my first
052year in a leadership role. Um and that's it. Just just really quickly just because this is the regional um committee you just to clarify you guys are K through 12 for CPAP. Yes. Just want to make sure everyone's in the know on that. Yep. 100%. Thanks. So um yes, this is just kind of a quick overview of our year. Um again we were we were new uh president and vice president this year. Um so if you go to the next slide just quickly um explain you know CPAC is a volunteer group of parents um in the district. Uh we are an advisory group for school committee and the administration on pretty much the gamut of matters pertaining to kids um in special education on IEPs or 504s in the district um from age 3 to
05322. And our group um as you were just clarifying Julie serves the conquer public schools and also the regional school district. Um so next slide. We offer support and connections to families um through coffees, office hours and sort of parentto parent support. Um next one. We also provide information, education and resources to families um and also the greater community uh through a variety of means like speakers, workshops, events um and our social media accounts. Um the next one and we have a goal of fostering greater acceptance, understanding and inclusion um and especially awareness of our special education community. Um it's a very large and diverse community as you can imagine. Um, and we're fortunate to be in a district that uh really takes all those needs into account, but we're sort of trying to just
054be there to make sure that the community at large um understands the issues that face our students in the schools as well. Um, and to support the district around that, too. And then the last one. Skip one. Yeah. No, this is the right one. Sorry. For some reason, in my head, I thought I'd be doing it. I'm sorry to make you have to No, it's totally fine. Um and we meet regularly with the with the administration um and we sort of have that open communication uh to keep each other apprised of the issues that are coming up um on our end that may maybe we hear from parents um and that the district um wants to make us aware of. So those are our main activities. Um I'll turn it over. Um next slide please.
055So this is a quick rundown of who we are. Ashley at at the president vice president. Our membership chairs are Rupon Gar and Lauren Judge. Karen Hajes does our events. Chris Streeter Tarlo does our publicity and we have two atlarge members. We have Matt Conroy and Millie Jacob is a Carile representative. So there is a um nonCPS presence sort of representing children students under 9th grade. Uh next please. Um so we because it was sort of a turnover for the organization um we set some goals early in the year to just um think about sort of who we were and what we wanted. And so the first one was just to be more visible in both communities in conquered and carile. And um and that means the community at large, not necessarily just attached to
056school. Um provide enhanced Oh, next. Thank you. um provide enhanced opportunities for parents to connect with other parents. So parent peers and that helps with support resources and also just um shared experience is really important in what we do. Next please. Uh we one of our other goals is to build strong relationships with other CPACs and especially Carlilele who has been really wonderful and open and thoughtful as a partner in sort of what we do. So thank you Carlile. I'll say Carile also had a new board this year um and they have a little bit you know obviously fewer people throughout. So, it was really great to be able to connect with them. And we um we happen to their co-presidents and we happen to have kids all around the same age. So, it's really
057special, too, cuz we know all of our kids will be in high school together in fewer years than we'd like to think. So, it's a really great opportunity. Um we can sort of support each other. So, I do see that um a few of them are on tonight. Um yeah, Al Medina, Jesse, Meredith, and others are on tonight. So, thank you so much for being here. Uh next slide. Um so some of the ways we worked to achieve these goals this year um were by instituting weekly office hours at the library. Um, so in the past we've sort of invited parents to reach out to us on social media um or contact us at our conquered CPAC atgmail email address which is all great um and those are monitored but we also realize that some
058of some things that parents might be facing or questions might be very um difficult or very personal and it's can be kind of hard to sort of send a message to an anonymous account. You don't know who is reading it. Um, so we really wanted to give people an opportunity to sort of just talk to somebody in person if they had a question. And so, um, every Tuesday I go, um, from 11:00 to 12:30 and I sit in the cafe area at the main library, um, one of our community's greatest treasures is our library. Um, and I sit there and I have a little CPAC sign and people, sometimes people don't come to see me. they just see the sign and they ask a question or you know they might not even live in conquer
059but they're like oh my sister lives in you know Waltham and she's wondering about this and I'm like here's a great website you know I mean I'm not an expert but it's just nice to sort of see somebody um and on the third t Tuesday of the month we do evening hours so we have one uh time a month where we do have somebody there from 6:00 to 8 um so that's been really great um kind of a new thing it's not always attended but when we do it feels very meaningful So, um, next slide. Um, we also got a lot more active with our coffee gatherings this year. Um, so when I joined the board, it was in the middle of COVID and everything we did was virtual or outside. So, we only could
060have a few coffees a year because as much as we want to connect and meet each other, people don't really want to sit outside at Ride Out Park in December, January. Um, so yeah. So this year we did our first two at Ride Out, but then we actually moved over to Salt Box Kitchen and that's actually been great. Um we can kind of stay for a while. People order whatever they want. It's very comfortable. It's a great space. So we just had our um our seventh one this morning. Um and we had like seven or eight people. Um Dr. Williams was there. It was great to see um folks just were just sort of out in the community that way too. And we have our sign out. So again, that visibility aspect. Um, next slide.
061Um, we also sort of took um kind of a a a new approach to sort of having events that were out in the community this year. Um, so they were open to the greater public. We held them we held three of them. Three of the four-part educational series were held at the library. Um and they were sort of on topics that were um relevant to we hope everybody in the community, but also particularly relevant to um kids with disabilities and just trying to get um more people involved and engaged in those topics. Um and we partnered with local businesses to to make that happen. Um next slide. And um again, we worked really closely with Car Carile CPAC board. Um I also should have mentioned on here but I didn't think of it. Um but
062we have also been working more with the other PTGs. Um so that's been really great additional you know adding to the goal right of just being in open communication with others in the community and bringing awareness. Um and finally move to the next one. um we were able to collaborate with other area CPACs both on our educational series and also we are sharing events through um the massp pack list serve through social media so sort of having more of a regional presence and being more active that way um and it's a really great opportunity to sort of get resources and ideas from other um areas of the state who are doing the same work that we are um so that was really great too. I'll turn it to you. Thank you. Next, please. Okay, so
063quick list. September 27th, coffee at ride out. October 1st, parents as partners with our wonderful partners at the district. November 13th was the uh training on the new IEP form, also through the district. Much gratitude. And then the 14th was a coffee at Ride Out. Next, please. Um, November 21st was Plate to Mind, which was um, a speaker series and panel about the effects of food and its uh, food on mood and brain chemistry. It was at the library. It was free and we had a lovely turnout. Great. Uh, next please. December 10th, innovative current currents envisioning outdoor learning in the K through8 education. Also at the library, same deal. Um, December 12th, coffee at Salt Box. January 16th, coffee at Saltbox. January 23rd, growth, harmonizing, solitude, guidance, and freedom, also at CPL. Um, February
06425th, next, please. No, my my mistake. Um, film screening of The Right to Read at at Conquer Klayo High School. The 27th, coffee at Saltbox. March 6th, lit literacy liberates, bringing literacy to the light at at um at the high school. Also, thank you to the high school for that. March 27th, coffee at Saltbox. April 30th, coffee at Saltbox. And upcoming, very important, the 8th annual CPAC teacher teacher/staff appreciation awards. Um there is currently a form circulating. parents and families are submitting comments and nominations of our wonderful staff and and building folk and they will be um they will I'm sorry reframe they will receive a small gift and a lovely certificate and some the comments that we receive often go to the educators themselves which as um an educator is like one of the
065best rewards you can get is like knowing feeling from families like the direct comments and the like the direct impact of what you do. And so um my understanding is that those are very important to our wonderful staff and we look forward to sharing those with them next week during teacher appreciation week. I'll just add one more thing that should have been on here. Um, I added it to the slides that we're going to post on our website, but just so everyone knows, we also, speaking of working with PTGS, uh, we were co-hosts of the candidates forum that took place at CCHS on March 31st, I believe it was. Um, which again was really big for us. We haven't always been included in those things, but um, it's so wonderful to be working closely with
066the other PTGs. Um and and especially in a forum like that where you know it was a contested election and people with school age kids really had a lot of questions and really needed to get that um edification that you know um special ed parents and parents of kids in elementary school or middle school or whatever your contingency is. It's all overlapping. It's all related. So it's really wonderful to be included in that. Um I think that is all. So our next slide is just our contact information. And again, these are the these sort of um general um handles and email. Um but we Adrian and I are always open for questions or anything that anyone needs as well. Um and then the last slide just asks if any of you have any questions for
067us. Asia. Yeah, I just have a question. Have you reached out to me at all since um Meco is part of our community as well? Um have you reached out to him just so we can get all of your events like on our newsletter as well? Mhm. So, um, we were we had a METAC liaison. We do not currently have a METACon. It's an open position on the board. So, I would love to connect if possible because I would love to we'd love to keep them apprised as well. It's hard when we don't have like a person who's like in a school or, you know, a program that can sort of relay the events and everything, but um, we always are looking for that if we can. So, I think one of the best decisions
068you made was to move your communications out of emails that just went to special ed parents and put them in my newsletters and just invite the whole community in. So, I agree. Let's highlight them and get them in the newsletters the Mechco families get, but everyone's had access all year because of the changes they made this year. It's I think that was really positive. And I think they're going out in your emails and all of the like principal Yeah, they're principal. Yeah, it's different than it used to be where you had to be a special ed parent to receive the seed packing. We've been trying to be more on top of that and it's even with the PTG newsletters, you know, they all have like a weekly deadline kind of thing, but we've been trying
069to follow those and just make sure that your visibility in the district because people see it all the time that you're actively doing things. Somebody made that comment to me at the library one day. They were like, "Oh, I" She said, "I don't know anything about special ed." She said, "But I'm always I'm seeing your seeing grass everywhere." I'm like, "That's cool. Thank I'm like I don't know if you're complimenting me or not, but I'm going to say thank you." For me, that's a good thing. It would be great if um you one of you guys could actually go to their board meetings. Yes, we would really It's needed needed for sure. So, thank you all so much. Your Instagram is really good. Yeah. Then that's public and everybody could see it. So, I think
070that's it's really been updated frequently. I don't microphone. I'm sorry. No, it's great. So, uh, so I think that's a big change in, uh, what the community can see. They don't need to subscribe to anything reading, you know, if they want to go, it's the information is there. So, that's I think a big change or it's improved. I'm not saying it wasn't good before, but thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you all for your support and your attention. Appreciate it. Thank you both. Thanks for coming out. Good night. All right, Angel. Now really come on over speed reading here. So yeah, welcome Angel Charles. I'm going to share the memo or the overview about the infographic first, please. Angel, we're pulling that up. Can you just introduce yourself a little bit more
071formally? Yes. Hi, I'm Angel Charles. I'm the director of student services for Conquered and Conquered Carile. My second year. Awesome. Okay, great. Um, so I have a brief but I think um, important set of updates for all of you with regards to um, special education services and programs across uh, both districts. Um, I've found myself in the time that I've been in this role fielding more questions than I would have anticipated about what types of services and programs that we offer across both of our districts. I think one thing that's made it tricky was that over the course of the years as our programs were developed and created, they've all had very different names. Um, so trying to sort of organize and sync up to figure out what's the best way for us to raise
072awareness about what sort of offerings that we have and then provide the greatest level of clarity that we can offer to um to families to um the community in general. Um, I took a big leap this year by finally getting to move the needle so that we could get to a consistent naming protocol for our programs. And I was really grateful that the program staff um, across all of the schools not only appreciated it, but were like, "Thank you. It's been so long. Seems so small, but it seems it is so big." Um but you know in in the roll out and then putting together this graphic felt really good because I feel like at a glance we can get this on our web page so that um if a parent is I get a
073lot of phone calls believe it or not from people as far as you know being in other states we are thinking about moving to conquer. What kind of programs do you have? It's it's wild. Um, so being able to have this graphic on our website hopefully will provide a level of clarity about the continuum of services that we offer um, from our integrated preschool where everything starts um, all the way to our launch program. So I wanted to talk a little bit about who we're serving in these populations and then also provide you with sort of a brief um, description of each one of these programs. Um, so of course, as you know, um, our integrated preschool is where everything starts. Um, we're currently serving 31 students with IEPs and 32 community peers in our
074five integrated uh, preschool classrooms. And again, if you look sort of we they we do it all at the integrated preschool. It's my happy place. It's where we go for a walk when I need a minute. Um, and they just do incredible work at the integrated preschool. Um the first column that you're looking at are what we would refer to as um specialized instruction but not necessarily within a program. This could be reading services, it could be math, it could be any dose of service that the child requires. Um similar in pink and that's offered at all the levels and all the schools are related services. This is speech. This is occupational therapy, physical therapy, um BCBA, any sort of related service. Um the next column is what has been referred to in the past
075two years at the high school as our anchor program, formerly known as um access at the middle school and branch at the elementary school. We have gone with anchor um because it's it's pretty simple. It's clear. Um, Ankor is our therapeutic social emotional program. In our elementary anchor program, we're currently uh serving 11 students. There are eight students in that program at Conquered Middle School currently. And there are 34 students in that program at CCHS, making that total of 53 students and our most subscribed um program across the both districts. Um, our next district-wide program is our literacy and beyond, which is our languagebased program. Um, that's a close second as far as number of students that we're serving. Um, we're serving 10 students at the elementary level at the Willard School, 13 at CMS
076in grades 6 to 8, and 24 students uh, making a total of 47. So, those are students in our language-based um, program. Pathways is a program that was named and longstanding at the high school and then has sort of grown from it's preschool high school and now it's sort of grown through the middle. Um and that is our more intensive program. That program is serving 10 students at thorough elementary school currently. There are 11 at conquer middle school and there are eight at the high school making a total of 29 students. Bridge is our partial inclusion program for students with autism spectrum disorder and related um social communication disorders. And that program is also quite large at the elementary level. It's serving 16 students at the row, eight students at Conquer Middle School, and 14
077at the high school making a total of 38. Um to round out our range of programs, we have our launch program, which is our transition program for our students who are 18 to 22, and we currently have four students in that program and more to come. So, I could have shared projections for next year, but I wanted to save that for the fall when I see you in the fall to give you an update. Um but along with this graphic and and information in order to provide some clarity, the next document that I pulled together is a consolidated high-level overview which we would like to be public facing and posted on our website. So when people have questions about so I see anchor, what does anchor mean? What are the related services? What I need
078some sort of a description. So, I couldn't be more pleased to have this be concise. Hopefully, it's clear. I'm looking for feedback on if there's any sort of lack of clarity. Um, but I think this is going to be public facing, raise awareness, and I think parents will feel more informed. There's nothing worse when, you know, parents will say, and they have said this to us, we wish we knew we wish we knew sooner of you know what what you had and what you do. So being able to share this, you know, far and wide is is going to be important. In that same spirit, I think, um, you know, there's this we have a lot of meetings throughout the year. Um, we've talked about special education a number of times. A lot of us
079around the table have did actually went into all the schools with with you and Dr. Hunter um, and had an opportunity to see all those programs on the infographic. So um, and see the specialization at each elementary school. Um, one of the questions that we also received from the finance committee that was really helpful in our discussion, not only in the fall but just throughout and it came up again the other night was um just how great of a job you've been doing with tuitioning other students in. So the numbers that you gave were those just conquered and carile students or was it um neighboring community members as well? Neighboring community members as well. Great. Few more in the queue as well. Yes. Because I think that's which is Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but just I
080think it's it's just a it's a really great best practice that I think we you've shown that you can build on it and been really impressed with that. So, thank you for that. Oh, thank you. Yeah, and I think this document is going to make it even better. So, yeah. Yeah, it's not a small I mean, I hope those numbers meant something. It's roughly 20% of our population are students on IEPs who um who we serve. So, now we could talk about out of district. We've talked about that before, but I think that, you know, looking at totals, we are doing an amazing job at keeping our students um in district when they're able to stay. And that's a testament to the work that the school-based teams have done over the years to make it
081an inclusive and welcoming environment. And they've been willing to, you know, do whatever they needed to do to be prepared to work with whoever they've got in their buildings. Can I ask a question? I can't believe I've never asked this question. Um, this seems to be very comprehensive to me in terms of that we're able to cohort groups of kids in an effort to keep them in the district because we know that that's right for children. Is are are many other districts able to replicate what we've done? Is it common? Is this unique? Like I actually don't know. I mean, go ahead. Yeah. So, I came from a very large urban district that did it all. I mean, they did it all. Um, I think there's a range depending. I think we're just the right
082size. We're doing as much as we possibly can at the size of the districts that we are. I think we the fact that other districts reach out and say, you know, even at the elementary level, you know, is it possible for us to send you a packet to consider students? That's surprising to me. Police, I can give um anecdotal but concrete information. So on the case collaborative board which I sit with 11 other superintendents you know the collaboratives are having to adjust because any of us that are able to do it enough to scale to big build a program are we're doing it um but not everybody can build everything and the collaboratives are seeing they're too we're too into each other before we go to the collaborative because it's cheaper and it's more inclusive
083and the collaboratives are having to then adjust their programming to be the more extensively out of the mainstream type of scenarios. So, I think there are more and more doing it for all the good reasons we did it, but everybody hits their capacity at some point and the smaller districts, you know, Carlile being on the small end, but like we work a lot with like Maynard and even Bedford, you know, they're they're sort of a little bit bigger but not quite big enough to build every program. So, this gift of the regional cohorting is becoming really a positive thing for everybody. Good. And Joel, I wanted to ask you a couple questions about the programming. Um, I'm not completely familiar with it, but as a special ed parent looking at that chart, a couple of
084things that would come to mind would be uh classroom size, how many students are in a classroom, how many educators? Um, are they inclusion? I heard you say that I think the pathways was partial inclusion. Um, are they subsepparate? Mhm. Um, you know, I know the student size of the classroom would be something that would be on my mind based on the diagnosis or, you know, the level of ability of the child. Um, those would be things that I'd be looking for for sure. So, we have that information. It's a more detailed sort of exit and entrance criteria that we work with parents when we recommend a student for one of these programs. Some of these programs by design are set up to offer both inclusion opportunities or depending more or less on the child's
085ability to have meaningful access to inclusion on either a given day or a given period of time where others are designed to be partial inclusion or full inclusion programs. So, we work closely with families to make sure that they know, you know, here's the we have visits when we recommend the program. They get to meet the teachers. They get to see here are the number of students, here's the number of staff. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Just on the infographic, you know, it's my favorite thing that you do is that infographic, but I really like this this updated version is so much more clear and the program names. It makes a huge difference because I mean people like what is branch, what is access, what is this, what is that. Conversation we had was you have
086to just rip the band-aid off the names and fix it. Good. I totally appreciate and it's and it's bigger so you can see it. The other one was just so choppy that you could see the continuum but it was difficult to read. So I totally appreciate the updated infographic and the narrative because the narrative is important to go with it. So when people are looking around the website, am I moving to conquered? Am I not moving to conquered? They at least have someplace to go. Um I've had real estate agents call me before. I mean they they really want this information. Me too. We so to be able to point somebody in that direction I think is really exceptional. Relocation specialists who are moving comfort family like Angel is this um this new like the
087descriptors is that on the website currently or that's I wanted you to see it first and then it's going up on the I think that's wonderful. Following up what Tracy said I think even for K8 parents it was always a mystery exactly what their pathway was. I mean, you could find out from you, but you know, you always this makes it much more clear, I think, and easy to see if you're a fourth grade or fifth grade parent kind of what the trajectory is going to be. Uh, the other thing I want to ask you is that the many many benefits of the new middle school. I would think this would be one of the biggest. Um, you have no idea. Yeah. So because you know I know it was bad to have the school
088separate 68 but at least when you were one building 68 you could see the trajectory but now you are all all in one building because I think that must have been very difficult to take sixth graders who have been one setting special education and move them over to a new building. That must have been kind of difficult but now they're all in one building. So, I'm sure that's making huge something that's already a big task not as big. One other thing that was really sweet and that I I mean I I knew it was going to happen but I didn't realize how wonderful it would be would be that you know some of these students started together in these programs at the elementary level. So when we had the sixth and seventh grade in two
089different build seventh and eighth in different building when now that they're in one building it kind of felt like getting back together with a reunion of your your old friends that you had been with for potentially a number of years. So and also just the physical location and the the mindfulness and plan planning that went into the design of where the spaces are. you know, making sure that there's an accessible restroom right within one of the all of these things were were really just well done to make that transition much more comfortable for those students. So, it's it's been amazing. It's great. I know we have the um the document that was just up, but we have one more the present we Oh, you have the presentation. Yeah. Is there anything else that we want
090to go through? Nope. Those are the highlights. Do you need any um Come to the store. I was just going to ask you. Yes. Can I ask about the store? How is it going? It's going well. Um, we are now like we we're in a groove. The next thing that we do is need to figure out how to get more people in and to raise our visibility. So, we're talking about an Instagram page, uh maybe some PSAs on the radio station, trying to just raise awareness to get more people in. One of the challenges I hear from from teachers and staff who want to come is, you know, the hours don't really work. We're going to have to do something. We're going to have to we'll eventually figure that out because they're open from 9:00
091to 2:00 and that's when some of the elementary schools are in session. It's not ideal, but you know, it's one one thing at a time. We are we're open and we are continuing to create inventory and the inventory gets better and better. Um so just keep spreading the word. That would be great. And that's my other happy place. Is it possible to uh sell Pixar cancer stuff there? I don't know who owns that. I I don't find out. Kicks is Kicks is very specific about their merch and they um I think they have a relationship with a store in Actton that does all of the shirts and all that, but I'm sure there would be something. It might not be the actual shirts, but something that they sell them provider. We just got of um
092of elementary school and preschool size shirts. So, a lot of we started with the adult. So, these are going to be really cute as we continue to roll out the on demand merch. No onesies yet, but we have great throw blankets that you while you're watching your fall and winter sports that you can that say CC on that possibilities advertising that the kids can help with. I mean, I think I heard at in the thorough playground presentation that it's spirit day on Friday. So, opportunity comes kicks like the popups. They're all um a lot of them are run by National Charity League and volunteers that just are selling merchandise. So, I'm sure you could be really helpful with selling their bracelets, their shirts, their sweatshirts, because they do need help with that. And Mighty Moose
093would be the same. Yeah. Yes. Great. Bob knows all the rules about that. So, he'll I'm sure he'll Do we get to keep the money or we donate it? No, you don't get to keep the money. That's the only thing. But they bring their own square and everything. And also, but that's like even though that actually fits people in the building, all about the foot traffic. Yes. So, just because this is a recorded meeting and we do have members of the press either here or watching. Can you give the hours and the location of the store? Yes, we are at 199 Subbury Road in conquered right in the Crosby's Marketplace and we are open Monday through Friday from 9 to 2, including half day Wednesdays in conquered. Yes, correct. So, if you are an elementary
094family and you want to come by after early release, please do. That would be great. Has have there been any stories in the bridge about um Yes, the bridge has done a really nice job. Some really really great ones. Good. Awesome pictures to accompany it. Yeah, keep them coming. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Angel. Thanks. Thank you for the single link programs, too. It's fabulous. It's really helpful for us. All right. So, the next two items should be uh fairly quick. Um I am going to pull up the the goals document that we've had on the the drive, just updated it. Um this is a discussion portion, so if anyone has feedback on this, we can talk about it now. Um screen is not it's behind me.
095Okay. So um these are the goals that we had committed to at the beginning of our time together. I guess the year for the school committee. Um as a reminder there's I think eight of them. Yes, eight of them. And they all have smart goals. Um we're pretty much been working really hard to move them on, you know, to get keep them on track. So we're we're good. Some of them are completed for the end of the year. Um, so those go out all the way. Um, you'll see that one of them is red. It's the cell phone policy and it's honestly we're going to cover both districts tonight very quickly or more a little bit more of a robust conversation during the CPS portion. But through the lens of the region for where we
096are, the portion of the meeting we're in now, it's read honestly just because we're not going to have a voted on policy by May for the region. Um, but that's after some really thoughtful conversation in the policy subcommittee that Cynthia uh Carrie and I are on with Dr. Hunter. Um, but I think it was some good thought into why we're not going to have a policy by May for the high school. Um, CPS will will discuss uh K through 8 uh shortly. Um, but as far as everything else, we're on we're on track. There are some things that are still need to get done by May, but I haven't heard from anyone that anything is is off track. If there is that, bring it up now. Um, but I would just say that if we
097go through all of these student achievement and success, we've covered Y RBS, we've talked about opportunities to improve. Um, we will continue to do that. That's why it's not green till the end. So, as we start going through um the specifics of of budget items that have come up, how we want to allocate things um based on that feedback, um we spent a lot of conversing that um we just went through some of the special education, especially IEP. We continue to do that. Shel's done a great job going through some of the um AP classes, so we're going to continue to do that. If there's more need for that, we just need to to let us know and we can update the agenda, but I think we've covered that on two occasions at this point.
098Um, Andrew has been here to do the DEIB strategic plan. Um, we can consider doing that again if we if we need to. Um, we've policies, we've actually done a um done what we've said we're going to do. Again, cell phones um with the movement of the attorney general um office. Great feedback. I think between both districts, we've probably had about 50 to 80 emails carrying that have come in. Um, and I don't think um, again, it's really different feedback for K through 8 versus the high school, but um, no shortage of of correspondence on that. So, I think we have a good pulse on on what's happening in the communities. Um, Shelley's done a great job of going through the achievement gap. Again, there's still some areas that if we want to keep on
099going, we can do that. But, I think we've done a great job going through that. Um, story of the school. Carrie's gonna um and and Tracy and Brian have been working on this. Um I don't know if you want to give a quick update, but I think we're still We're just going to put it on hold for a little while. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Um but progress was made. Um we we Yes. Yeah. Y intentional intentional um pause for good reason. Um and then again, we've done some coffees. We had an opportunity to um go into Boston and we say coffees, we actually mean that more generally. Um but the pizza night that we had in Boston was great. Um we actually had our first meeting in we had coffee in Carlile. Brian and I ran
100a coffee at the at the townhouse, but then in addition to we had our first uh CCRSD school committee meeting ever in Carile last our last meeting which was wonderful and really well received by the community. I think we should consider doing that every year. Agreed. Yeah, it was really great. And then yeah, as we move through the the budget, um there have been no shortage of bud budget conversations, which is good. That's our that is our job. Um and then I think just getting to the campus completion plan. Um just a huge thank you to Brian, Tracy, and Alexa for all the work. Um I think it was we heard it loud and clear through the finance committee. There was no stone unturned. um through talking to elected officials, CPC, um DEI, ARPA, working
101with both communities on this. Um so just want to thank you for all the time that you that you put into that and I know we haven't talked about it because it's been so much focus on the amenities building, but I think the start of the track, which is another ask um around the campus completion from 10 years ago. So um really great work, a lot lot has been done there. Um and then in terms of the operations um around uh our evaluation we have um that has been in process. I one piece is the last one which is um Aisha and Michelle if you want to go to charting the course. I know we say this we've said this a few times let us know. Um the other option is um we can work
102with MASC to have them come here and maybe do a mini course. Um, I personally would love to go through it again. Um, Brian and I took it what, like six weeks in, maybe even three pretty quickly. Yeah. Which I'm happy we did. Um, Andrew Yes. Yes. Yes. Andrew completed his this year. Um, Alexa and I did it twice. And it's actually worth doing it. It's worth doing it a second time. Some people do it all the time. And they do do some private charting the courses, too, like we did, which we did a private one, which was excellent. We did it at Bedford. So just I think it's just really important because I think what what there is a lot of misconceptions as to what we can and cannot do. We can do a
103lot. Um and I think it's just really being educated on what the the rules are is really helpful. Um because clarity actually helps you move faster and more efficiently. So maybe we should look into like a the one of the private ones like I was at the Bedford one too. was so much better than it was like a group of 20 instead of like a how many were at was yours like 40. I had 40. I think we had like 15 to 20. It's good because you can focus on your specific community and you can actually have like conversations versus just like a lecture but definitely it's interesting idea. So, for next year. So, yeah. So, as we as we think about it, if there's um times and dates we want to do that, but
104that's great. But if there is one that you're interested in going before we do that, they're offered in very random times and locations. But like Brian and I went to Cape Cod. Yeah. It was like the only one we could go to. Um but it was great. But it also was nice because it was at a vocational school, so we got a chance to see one of the newer schools. Um which was actually really awesome. Mhm. So anyway, that's the the update on the goals. Um the next piece is I like I said, this is really meant for discussion. I was going to create an actual timeline similar to what we did for the amenities building. Um but I did not want to do that because I didn't want it to be written in stone.
105I want to have a conversation about it. And um I'm going to give an overview of what has been talked about specific to the high school around cell phones. Um, from a correspondence standpoint, um, we've had a number of parents that have reached out asking for a bell-to-bell at the high school. We've actually had a number of students reach out asking for us not to do that. Um, and as you I think we all know, but some of those students are 18. Um, and they're adults and they are voters and they happen to still be in high school. Um, which is common for everyone. It's been going on for for as long as a high school has been in existence. Um, but in addition to it, there's also just some um some nuances with the
106high school population that has been brought up to us. Some of them do span K through 12, like medical conditions that we can write into any policy. Um, but some of them are also uh students that go off campus at lunchtime. Um, they're they're that is within their right to do that. Um, that are driving that want to have access to their phone and don't necessarily want to check it in and check it out. Now we can go through all the logistics of that which we will not tonight but in another meeting. Um there's also been um just some questions around social interaction. Some of the students feel like it's something that they want to get used to as they get ready to go into the adult world. Other students are saying take my phone.
107I don't I don't want to I don't want to have access to my phone during the day. So it's it's truly a mix um from both students, teachers, and um parents. and we want to make sure we're not rushing to a decision for the high school. Um so what we have heard through the forum um of the email communications and I'll just say word of mouth around all three communities um is people want to have forums on this. They want us to discuss it here. There is no shortage of expert opinions that have been um brought to us through books, podcasts, literature um connections to people who are who do this for a living in the community. Um, so we want to make sure we're thoughtful in this process. We're not going to get it
108done before the committee turns over. So we really need to come up with a timeline. Um, so we can talk about it here. I would say we put a 5 to 10 minute timeline on that for tonight for just to put some ideas out there. I can take notes and then for the next meeting I can draft an actual timeline for it. But I think it's important for us to we all have had separate conversations with different constituents. So, we want to make sure that um we understand what the Meco families want cuz they're taking the buses from Boston. Um so, what's the expectation of students there when they and again just for the high school um of what's like what kind of communication parents want to have with their students when they're here in
109a totally different town. Um and then again just as we talking about like work release or whatever the um going to community colleges for classes. Um anyway, that's that was the goal of the discussion for tonight. So I think the biggest thing is is anyone want to voice kind of a desire for like how many forums we want to have or what the the cadence would be a goal of any timeline. I think you guys should do that in the fall. Exactly. I think so too. Yeah, I agree. Like I just think Yeah. I I I feel strongly at this juncture really that the role of Lori and of the administration at the high school especially is to focus on the kids at the high school and this is too much for right now. So
110I think we just table to the fall and I think that um we're not doing it next year anyway for next year. We're not doing anything to be implemented. It's gonna take a long time. It's going to take a while and I don't know how many forms it's going to look what that's going to look like but I do think you have lots of groups at the high school. You've got the student senate. You've got the class government. You have school committee reps. You have school advisory council. There's plenty of ways to get feedback and I just think we should wait till the fall to even consider that. Okay. Y so I think the the biggest takeaway that I'm hearing though is that number one the student government and student body that is there um
111should be involved. Um and then I think the the second piece is that I want to make sure we can wrap this up with a vote because of the volume of feedback that we got in. Um I don't want this committee to finish their term and and not commit to what we wrote down. So I think is is it fair to I don't want to take a vote or if we just want to say is it fair to say that we can just wait until the fall for the next committee to the fall is the right time. I think picked us. I don't think you need to take them out. Yeah. Great. Just before we leave that side when they meet, right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Um just feedback on the last three days.
112There's no way I would have taken their phones or made them lock them when the lifeline to their well-being was through that phone. I literally looked at Brian and Katie Monday and said, I can't I would I know every child can get their parent in a minute. And that is giving me an enormous comfort this week. So there's there's a lot that goes into that and it's not simple, but there's some really basic things that cell phones can allow if we can figure out how to mitigate the challenges. And um we didn't undo the rules. We still put them in the caddies if teachers could handle that. But I'll tell you, I had such comfort knowing that families were in touch with their children as they came back this week. I cannot tell you. Agreed.
113Agreed. Good point. And I think the biggest other feedback I'll say at a macro level that we've had be before the past couple of weeks has been um every family has different decisions and I think the six hours at school we have to just I think come together as a community to decide what is the the norm and the expectation within the schools and then what is like a social media policy versus cell phones. Those are the questions at least that I had throughout this whole process. Um but anyway, more to come. So, okay. So, the fall. All right, we'll close that out. So, for the high school. Um all right, so let's move on to action items. Um Lori, can you just give us a quick overview of the CCHS travel hiking in the
114Dolommites? This um this one came in after your last meeting where you approved the bulk of the others. So, Ray Pavick in the science department is looking in Q5 of 26, so June of 26. um he'd like to take some students hiking in Italy. I think you've got the dates, the cost. Uh you've got most of the information in the form. I think um this would be in the first approval so he can plan and start to recruit in the fall right when we get back. Um we he just didn't get it pulled together. I think you probably have one more coming um that a teacher's working on. Probably domestic. But anyway, I I told them I as they were ready. So this is the first read. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Is this a travel vendor
115that's been used previously? Yes. And Ray is one of our most experienced um shops. Okay. I move to approve the uh hiking trip and the Dolommites. Is that what we're doing? First read. Yeah. Second. Seconded. Any more discussion? All in favor? I. Thank you. Great. Um so at this point um the region a motion to adjourn the regional school district meeting second. All right. Um thank you everyone and thank you Dr. Hunter for all work this week. So thank you very much. Bound to give me that's the first time that happened in public. Okay. You're human. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'm going to enter in the region very quietly. CPS will stay in session. Have a good night. Yes, you too. Good night, Carlo. Thank you. It's about right. Are you sticking? Nope. No, she's
116on the night Austin. Good night. Michelle's still here. Michelle's leaving, too. Okay. Okay. Um, so we are going to we uh moved public comment from the regional meeting and we're going to uh start with public comment. So, I will um just as a reminder, our policy our public comment period will be a period of 10 minutes. As a reminder, this is a meeting in the public and not with the public. So, the school committee will not be responding to any comments. If you're in the room and would like to speak, you can submit a blue form to me and you will be called to speak or you can step up to the microphone. If you're on Zoom, you can use the raise hand feature. When called to speak, please state your name and address before
117you speak. We will go every other starting with a comment in the room and then taking a comment on Zoom. Uh we will have three minutes. Um I do not have a phone if somebody has um was there a specific about agenda items that you were going to discuss? If you can clarify this for this evening, we are asking that all comments be specific to agenda items on the CPS agenda which are which are the thorough playground and the K to8 cell phone policy. So with that, if there are any are there any public comments in the room? Go ahead. Um, thanks Carrie and uh Dave Nicholson, Old Malboro Road, and the comment relates to the thorough playground. Um, we'll just start by thanking the kids and congratulate the committee for all the money you've
118raised. Um, a huge, huge time and effort has gone into this. Um my wife and I raised comments about accessibility of the playground back in March and tremendous progress has been made thanks in particular to Conger Public Schools committing $125,000 from the operating budget to help with the service area. Um so thank you Dr. Hunter for that especially given the earlier comments around budget challenges. Um, you know, we absolutely want this playground to be built as quickly as possible and it's a little challenging to stand up here tonight because we know how much work has gone into this, but it's really important to speak up on behalf of a community that has been underrepresented and sidelineed through the process. Uh, I would urge the school committee to take a step back and crit critically assess
119whether the current playground design truly reflects the leading design goal of inclusivity. right now from the lens of someone who parents a child with disability and has lived this experience. The design does not. The design heavily features aerial and rope based elements that are inaccessible to many children, particularly those with disabilities. Those structures offer no meaningful opportunity for equitable play. Despite repeated input, it is deeply troubling that only one play element that supports inclusive play was added to the design. That decision raises real concerns. How can a park be considered inclusive without basic features like ramps? In fact, proposed accessible elements have been removed from the design. Earlier, Joe talked about the pyramid or cone spinner being accessible for a wheelchair user. I'm wondering how are the kids going to get on that? Are staff
120going to help them? I mean, these are wheelchair users, right? So, have we really thought through the barriers that exist? I can tell you that as a parent of a child with cerebral palsy, that comment is not only naive, but it's also too offensive to suggest that consists of inclusive design. Having lived the experience firsthand, having two spinners actually creates an experience of segregation. One spinner is dynamic and cool and really fun, while the other one becomes the disabled kid spinner. We have witnessed this firsthand and in fact we shared this feedback multiple times with Carrie and Dr. Hunter through the process. During those discussions, we were told that design tonight represents a compromise. In truth, not a single compromise has been made as respects the original plans and the extent of the play elements.
121The zipline was added, but nothing else was compromised on. As we said, other elements were in fact removed. So able-bodied children can access everything on that playground, but that's not true of those with physical disabilities. I would argue that that's actually discriminating against those kids who have far fewer elements that they can access. Joe said the high 12oot element was what all the kids wanted. It's the high slide. It's the cool place to be. So I'm curious, do we ever talk about ramps for that so that all children could in fact enjoy it? Dave, I need you to wrap it up, please. Okay, so a ton of time and effort has gone into this and I want to reiterate our thanks to Mitch and the whole playground committee, but right now we fall a little
122short of that inclusive design and so we're asking school committee to think about how you can make us from a playground that's a nice design and a great improvement to something that's truly great and inclusive. Thank you. Is there anybody online? I promoted Heidi Kater. Does she want to speak? She had her hand up. I think she left. Yeah, it doesn't panelists because I promoted. Okay. No. Okay. Anyone else in the room? Okay. I will close public comment. I think somebody just got Oh, go ahead. Hi everyone. My name is Mary Little. I live at 24 Brown Street. Um, I just want to reiterate what everyone said earlier about the incredible process that everybody went through, including the students to create this design. Um, I really truly believe that the people on the committee took
123everyone's needs uh to heart and wanted to make this a space for everybody. Um, I think a lot of work went into it. I totally respect everything that you just said. Um, but I I want you to think about um just all of the needs of everyone in our community and making this a great play space for truly everybody. I think that um even some Well, I'm not an expert, but I guess I just want to Yeah, I think everyone did so much work and it would be um a shame to not let this come to fruition. I think it's an amazing design that really um does allow everyone to enjoy a space with friends. Thank you. Is there anyone else? I will close public comment. Um we're going to move into the thorough playground.
124So we have two votes that we're taking this evening. Um the first is um and and of course discussion on the playground, but just so we know where we're headed, we have two votes. The first is a vote on the design um as presented. We're going to discuss it and then the second is a vote to accept the donation that um Mitch gave to Bob. So is there any um do we want to start? I I have I'll start with a little bit on the playground. I was the liazison from the committee to the playground and um I think from the beginning I I joined in the fall. It has always been thought of as a playground that um is accessible to everyone where everybody can come together and play in some capacity and that's
125going to mean different things to different children. And I think that is why I was listening to the kids as they were talking tonight and it was so interesting to hear them talk about how um they were hearing different priorities from all different kids and how even they had to whittle it down to what what made sense for their own for their own um proposal to the big the big larger playground committee group. Um so I think this has been a very um involved um process. Um Dr. Hunter and I have had multiple conversations with Dave and other family other families about accessibility in particular and we I I'm actually really proud of the progress that we made. We went from 30% um rubber rubberized cover to 80 over 80%. The only place of the
126playground that isn't rubberized is a small portion under the swings. There's like a midsection that Joe walked us through that had um a harness and then also the I forget what the bucket swing um that has rubber under it and then there's moltra wood chips on either side. other than that, the entire playground. And I I think one of the things that I think is so important about that is there were members of the community that came forward and raised some really really good arguments that having having mulch and and wood chips on other aspects of the playground made it so that even if these structures were accessible, they couldn't get there because of a of a wheelchair. And I that that is incredibly um incredibly compelling. And we made a very big change. The
127district invested heavily, $125,000 to make that a reality. We added a dual track zip line instead of a single track. Um, which was a costly change. Um, we added the accessible sprinting structure and this was in addition to the accessible structures that were already in place like the spinning, sorry, the um music station, the sensory area, um the swings and and among some other aspects of it. And I think Justin was talking about just kind of like the free space. Um, so I I think um I hear I hear you. Um, and I I also think there are many other um opinions and and perspectives and and wishes and demands on the playground um that we've also had to take into account as we think about the budget that we have and um our task
128at hand. So the I think to be very clear the initial 13 iterations ago. Um the initial design was not just ADA compliant but but beyond and this one is ADA compliant and then some. So, um, so anyway, I I think it has I'm really proud of the final product, but I I just wanted to share that perspective and we did have that discussion back in the fall about the rubberization and how much rubberization was on the playground because I think I brought up some concerns about that with wood chips and wheelchairs and so like that's been a significant change on Yes. And a good one. I think that was a great one. Absolutely. Yep. And the current playground, I have not been back there for a little while, has no rubber, right? It's just
129So, the one that's newest that we put in a few years ago has the rubber pathways. Got it. To get to the equipment. Um the old one certainly doesn't um have anything. Alcott and Alcott and Willard have no pathways of any kind and is all wood. Right. And these pathways go right to the building. I'm sorry. I I the pathways go through the playground so that a wheelchair has the rubberized surface to go between pieces of equipment and they go all the way to the building. That's pavement. And then that's pavement. Okay. Got it. Yeah. You know, I think having been in on this either in the meetings or on consult with Justin, um I think the the population at Thorough was always the front and center set of needs. There's a wide range of
130needs within that population. I think that the committee addressed those adeptly and thoroughly. We had the special education staff sitting at the table to do those. I think the part with the physical limitations was the part we needed to go double back on and we did to find money we didn't have and that was through the capital budget just for clarity with Fincom or whoever is watching. um capital accounts and I think I think we came as far as we needed to. I know we didn't meet all the asks but to your point I think there were a lot of other asks that we didn't meet as well and I think we're really looking forward to having all kids out there and now I can see them all having their spaces and thriving. I don't
131think I think there's other kids in other settings that aren't going to be able to access all of the equipment. There are some students with sensory needs that I don't know that the musical equipment is going to be their thing at all. We're putting headphones on them as they walk around the building on a daily basis. So I think I think the goal of a playground of this scope is to have something for everybody, but maybe not everything is for everybody. Um so I I think we came a long way and tried to be really responsive. And can I just ask two questions? So I had watched the um commission on disability meeting and there was some discussion about compliance. So this is fully ADA compliant. Plus we have never not been ADA compliant. From
132the beginning we were ADA compliant and beyond and to Carrie's point to be at 80% rubberized with multiple equipment we're ex you know way beyond legal requirements right and then you know in terms of school committee like this is out of our lane for operations but I just want to ask you the questions so um only because it came up there would be training for staff members as to how kids can access different features of course and we do that on an individual basis Now, based on the child's needs, we go out and assess the playground and okay, adults appropriate to them, scope it out, and sometimes bring them out there individually when nobody's around and get them set up for success. Okay. Can I ask a dumb dumb question, but we're pretty much at
133budget with this, right? There's no pennies unturned, right? Yeah. We've optimized supplier and supply chain, all that stuff. Oh, yes. Yeah. Joe's been really great at all of that. State bid list means you're getting the best price anyway and meeting all the legal requirements of prevailing wage and all that goes with public building work. Yeah, I'm I'm good. Does anyone want to make a motion? Uh, sure. I will move to approve the design of the thorough playground as presented this evening. I'll second. There any further discussion? Just thank you guys. I know that this work is hard and you know to your point I think not everything can be everything to everyone and so I feel comfortable that you've addressed that appropriately. I'm not on the committee but I trust that that's happened. So I
134appreciate that. It's hard. Yeah. All in favor? I I um and then the second vote is to approve the um accept accept the donation. Correct. Yeah. So while not large in size, it is large in large. Um so I the amount do you have the open written here? We'll read it. 300. It's a big number. Let's do it slowly or thanks to the fundraising committee. $383,35754. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I move to accept the playground donation in the amount of $383,35457.54. Who's it who's the entity it's from? Is it the throw back? Is it the PTG's been carrying the funds designated for the playground? Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Yes. And then if we could have the authority to approve the additional donations they potentially would raise. We don't have to name the amount, but you
135could we don't have to bring it to school committee again. Oh, do you want to add that? What? As well as any additional um raised funds raised. They have verbal commitments. Okay. So, I'm going to retract my motion. I'm going to put out a new one which is I move to accept the donation from the thorough PTG in the amount of $383,35754 and also any additional funds raised subsequent to this acceptance. Thank you. Second. Second. Any discussion? No. I just want to say Courtney Ward and Christina Aspiru um have been the like absolute fundraising beasts for this project. They are incredible and I am Don't put your phones down because I'm going to call you about the track soon. Um you two are absolutely phenomenal. You're organized and like fierce and you are fearless and
136you will not stop until you reach your goal. And I'm just so eternally grateful that both of you were leading this charge. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you guys have moms who are total rock stars. You should be really proud of them. And it would be great if you could when you go to the next chair's breakfast, maybe talk about the fundraising that's been done for the thorough playground just so you know the town is aware of the fundraising. We're doing on a very regular basis. Good. I love that. I love that. But we will continue. $383,57454 570 $357.54. Amazing. So all in favor I I um and with that we will adjourn. Yep. Uh do I have a motion to Kate cell phone policy? Oh my god.
137Sorry. Sorry. Not with it. K to8 cell phone policy. Okay. So um K8 cell phone policy. Okay. Um so we have been talking for a while. Obviously Julie um started this conversation at the high school. We are completely having completely separate conversations because the needs are very different between preK to 8 to um 9th grade and beyond. So this is the K to8 conversation already in the handbook. Um there is a rule what what do you like an expectation that kids will not have cell phones. I included that in our packet. the language says they are prohibited from having them. They will remain in backpacks all day long. However, there is no um policy that would um support that. Um which typically the school committee has some kind of policy backing up the handbook. So
138this is um so what I have done is I took the um attorney general's recommended bell-to-bell policy um that is geared to well geared towards all ages K through 12 um and they break it out by what's expected of different age groups. It is very detailed as I uh mentioned and um I think for our purposes we we are not we we do not have operational authority as a school committee. So we would not be talking about enforcement or consequences or anything like that as it is mentioned in this example. But I wanted to have a starting point for us to kind of launch into the conversation. So this um I had created a Google doc. I also set the um attorney general's doc uh document around. And I guess before we even go into
139the line line item, I'm I'm curious if we can just kind of go around the table and get a sense of where everybody is on this. Um are we all on the same page that a bell-to-bell policy for C for CPS makes sense? And if so, do we want to kind of discuss at a high level what we like or don't like about the AG's policy? I have a question. Is the consensus on the hill at this point that the AG's policy is you know there are like 12 proposed pieces of legislation all of them are very different experts in our own community are supporting different bills is the consens is has consensus been reached as to what we think the prevailing policy is going to be? No. Yeah, this is this is this is
140an example. Okay. Yes. Um I mean yeah I mean to you know when when we think about the differences between policy and a handbook um I think it's very right that's um easy is probably not the right word but um you you we can I think we can easily draft a policy that then um that we could agree with that supports what's in the handbook and then gives you authority to enforce and create protocols and procedures to enforce it. I don't think that's going to be particularly challenging at all. We want to do this all together tonight. Well, no. I think actually if we can agree on a direction then um then then you'll draft I can draft a policy that we look at line by line. But I wanted to give something as like
141a a starting point as like I just feel like a blank page is hard to start a conversation. Um so if at a high level like what the um what the handbook says is again devices it actually specifically says cell phones and we should probably like one question I had for the committee is like do we want to expand upon that to devices like Apple watches and gizmos and all of the things gets harder and harder the more you Well, it changes. Well, I guess you could just say devices, but I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it changes. The watches are harder to enforce because they're on their wrists. Yeah. I harder to know they're there. The cell phone is I Well, my opinion would be I think the cell phone is the
142prevailing Yes. device that creates the most challenge. Yeah. In schools from both the perspective of the psychological impact on the student as well as the attentional problems in a classroom. So I don't I would not recommend to expand it to other devices. I would not. Yeah. Okay. And also you're going to have legislation that's going to be about cell phones. So I think it should mirror what the track is. Yeah. I think that that's um that is where the direction is at the conversation is. Yes. So, and I guess my only other piece is just um the school events. Like I just think about the DC trip in particular. Like I do think that that we're talking about in the school building. So you in the school building, but it says school. This actually does
143include school events. School sponsored events. So that is just one consideration that I think that we need to have. That's up to staff. Yeah. And that's I think for discussion. Also, that's part of the enforcement I think. Yeah, I think collecting talking about school hours. School hours. Yep. School events. I would take out events on a field trip. Yeah. Yeah. I would take out events. Staff doesn't want people to bring a device on a staff doesn't want kids, which I know happens at certain times. That's up to staff. Yeah. Right. But to your point, I think we'd want discretion and not to have you put it in the policy. I would agree. I think we're talking about 8 or whatever 8:30 to 3:30 school. It's the academic hours. I think you're focused. So, and I
144think and I think the So, sorry to interrupt you. And I think the social I just and the socialization that occurs in those hours. I think you're talking about both a physical location and a specified number of hours at a dance, at a soccer game, on a trip. I think are very different things that we should not include. It becomes too complicated. Yeah. You notice that they said K5, don't bring it to school, which is different than what we specify right now. So that's just something. Yeah. I Yeah, we haven't felt like that's our decision necessarily. That's what this says. I'm not the parents who get them at K5 have usually very specific reasons they've done that and I think that we need to get Michelle's input for K5 too, right? For Michelle McDougall. Yeah.
145Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like when they have them that young, there was a there's a reason thinking going on. Totally. This was just a start, you know. She was just throwing something out and I don't think she got a lot of feedback. It was fast, you know. She got a lot of feedback the day she was with the superintendents. I know that I was there for that. So I think we were generally were in favor of K8 not having folks out in school. Is that Yeah. kind of summarizes in school which is what we're doing. Yeah. Right. It's still difficult as they get older, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So we're working hard at it and and I think it's always a community effort. Right. Agreed. So very much agreed. Okay. So, it sounds like
146to me um we should move forward with a K to8 or I guess for the purposes of CPS preK I can't imagine a pre a preschooler having a cell phone but prek through 8 um yeah a prek through 8 bell-to-bell policy that is high level specific to cell phones um during school hours during school hours with the exclusion of of school events And then I think we also have to include um of course exceptions for medical, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah, definitely. Okay. And I whatever exceptions. Yep. Okay. Anything else? And then I guess from there I will take the the attorney generals that we have some language from there and then I'll if you have other like policies that you've seen at the state or other level that you want me to take a look
147at. I'm happy to do that as I write it. I've seen some others that were very similar with having a lot of consequence in there and discipline. So I think which is not what I haven't seen many. The ones I've seen that's what's been in there. Okay. Do we all kind of agree that that's not our purview and it should not be policy? Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And it can change. It should change what the it for you to determine and the purpose of it is for this policy to back you up in Yep. determining that. So would things like smartwatches then just be in your handbook or Well, yeah, we can talk on that when we bring the handbook to you. We we don't, you know, go the youngest kids. We try to say
148don't bring them, but like I I I think there are people who do it with intention so they can right know where their child is or get a quick whatever. I I I agree like maybe it doesn't need to be in the cell phone policy, but then I think you might just see a shift in like middle school and like everyone I mean that's already happened. I don't know. It's already Yeah, we we discourage them I guess is the word I'd use right now. But yeah, they're there and then if they're there we tell them not to be policy or in a handbook, you know. Yeah. I mean, they have to take them off during endcast. That told you something. Yeah. Can they be an airplane mode? It's a whole new world to me. That
149mean Casio. Yeah. I don't wear your watch. Okay. Um, great. So, I will bring this to our next meeting um for I guess that would probably be our first read or does this count as our first read? Probably have an actual draft of the policy. Yeah. Okay. So, we'll have a first read at our next meeting and then hopefully vote on it by the end of this school year so it's in place for the fall. Perfect. Otherwise, you have to start all over. Yeah. Exact. No, that's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. Uh, anything else on cell phone policy? Okay. So, thank you. With that, I will take a motion to adjurnn. So, moved. Thanks, guys. Second. Do we have to Okay, great. Um, we I will adjourn. Thank you all. Thanks. Good
150night. Oh yeah.