001It is now 6 o'. Do we have feedback on anybody's computer? If you can just turn it down. >> That's my volume. Sorry. >> Okay. And I would like to call the Cocker Carell Regional School Committee to order. >> This one. This speaker up here. >> Is that computer? >> Oh, it's Alicia. >> Sorry. It might be >> just mute it. Conquer. >> Yes. >> Do you region? >> I did the region. Yeah. >> And I will call the conquered school committee to order. >> All right. And first up, we have our consent agenda. I'm actually going to pull the July minutes off the consent agenda and move them into discussion after our workshop. And so I'd enterain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I moved. >> So moved. Second. >> All right.
002Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> All right. And with that, uh, we're really excited tonight to have Alicia Malin, who is our field rep from the Massachusetts Grant. >> That was in the consent agenda. >> Okay, got it. >> Sorry. >> No, I'm sorry. >> Um, Alicia Malin is our Massachusetts Association for School Committees field rep. And I don't think the audience can see him, but Glenn Coocher, as soon as you speak, the camera will go to you. Glenn Coocher is the executive director for the Massachusetts Association for School Committees. Welcome. >> Thank you. >> To approve the July minutes instead of >> No, I pulled it that we move to approve the >> You think I did? Incredible. >> Fantastic. Oh, and it works. I love it when it works the first time.
003Thank you everyone for the time to go. >> So, um, as Ra said, my name is Alicia Min. I think we've all met in some capacity. Um, some of you tarting the course, some of you in the chair chat, things like that. I am a field director for MASC. I'm in the Northeast, so if you look like above Boston and like that, that's me. Excuse me. Um, one of the great things about being a field director, a staff member at MASC is nearly everyone in the office has either been or currently is a school committee member. And I am just now starting my ninth year. I started in my town. I did five years there and I'm just now starting my ninth year. I'm on the Nshoba Tech School Committee. So, we have sat where
004you sat. We lots of us still sit where you do. So, we know where you're coming from. So, I was asked to come out tonight and talk about um your operating protocols, but to start with some roles and responsibilities. So, what we're going to cover tonight, and if I'm talking too fast, I'm sorry. That's I can still hear my public declamation teacher telling me to slow down. Um let me know if I'm moving too fast. If you have any questions, feel free to interrupt me. We're having a conversation here tonight. This is a workshop for you all. So, we're going to start with your role as a committee member and your responsibilities as a municipal legislature and then we'll talk about some communication best practices and do an overview of operating protocols and then I
005know you want to talk about your own operating protocols tonight too. So, we'll finish up here. So, first up, this is a slide that should be very familiar to anyone who's taken charting the course from candidate to colleague. We all have varying reasons that brought us to the table. I can tell you um I was sucked into volunteering because I was doing PTO work and then I was um volunteering for the CPAC. I went to a meeting one day. I have two kids. One has an IP, one has a 504. Um and I said, "Hey, you guys need any help?" And they were like, "Oh, got one." So from the CPAC, I ended up running for school committee. And that was really what brought me to the table was I wanted to be a voice
006for special education parents. I wanted to be someone at the table who spoke that language when we were talking about those things. Everyone comes to the table for a different reason. You're all here for whatever reason you pulled those papers and put your name on the ballot. As scary as that was, but now that we're all here, the idea is, as if we're not beating you over the head with the uh the imagery, to row in the same direction. Our ultimate constituency, our actual constituency as school committee members are people who can't even vote for us because our actual constituents are the students. And the idea is that we need to make all of our decisions and row in the same direction for all of our students. So again, one that will be familiar to
007you all, understanding and respect for roles. So we start over here on the committee side. committees are governance. You guys are the means, the mission, the vision, the goals, the policies, the budget. You are the what, the why, and the how much. The analogy, and if you've trained with me before, that I like to use is um you know that your students need to learn how to communicate through the written word. Why? Well, because it's important that they stay commensurate with their peers and they can advance their educations. And you will all lot a budget amount to that goal. Keep that in mind. You are the bridge between the community and the superintendent. That doesn't mean the superintendent doesn't hear from the community, but you are the representatives at the table where the votes are
008happening. Um, and you authorize by a vote and then you monitor. Now, on the other side, we have the superintendent. Your superintendent is your chief operating officer, boots on the ground, kids on and off buses, in buildings, having lunch, learning, and home safe at the end of the day. Your superintendent is management. where your governance, their management. So superintendents are in charge of the methods. They are strategies, action plans, making sure you're following regulations, making sure that your procedures align with all those policies you passed. They are the how, the who, the when, and the where. So back to the writing implement example, you've told your superintendent, "Our kids need to learn how to write. It's important for these reasons. Here's $100 to do so." Your superintendent then takes that and says, "Okay, this is
009the curriculum frameworks that the state has. These are the um curriculum uh the books and the worksheets and maybe some online things that we'll use." Who's going to teach this? These are the staff members that I'm hiring and overseeing. When is this going to happen? Well, you know, the Massachusetts curriculum framework say this date this uh this school year. And then the where what buildings? The superintendent is the the physical plant manager as well. So you have authorized by a vote. We're actually going to back up. Strike that. Your superintendent is recommending things to you. You are authorizing by a vote. Your superintendent implements and then you monitor. It really should be a back and forth because it is a movement in concert. And if we do this correctly that hopefully we have the trust
010and respect of the community and community trust. If you do not have a student in the schools, the functional relationship between the superintendent and the school committee is the only eyes you have on whether or not you have a functional school district. So that's one of the reasons why it's so important for us to come out and do workshops with you all to make sure that you have functional relationships and a really effective school committee. So understanding and respect for roles. We're actually going to start over here because this is where we all start as an individual member. How many of you have been on the committee for a year or less? Two. Two years. Oh, no. Three of you. Yeah. Sorry. >> Three of them. >> Two years or less. Three years. Four. Anyone
011going the distance to 10 years? >> Oh, no. I'm at five. >> Five years. Okay. There are some committees. My chair has been on my committee for like 11 years. >> We have term limits here. So, it's two terms. >> Oh, you are rare in that thing. >> No, there are there are some people that have done more than two terms, but two terms. >> So, as an individual member, you have no individual authority. You can't speak for the committee. You, as an individual member, you have no greater power than any other qualified voter at the table. you will contribute to and you'll communicate the vision, the goals. You're there to ask the critical questions. Um, and you're there to support committee decisions. This tends to be a place where we start getting into the
012the nitty-gritty of, well, what does that mean to ask critical questions and support committee decisions? Nobody gets to the end of the budget season and goes, "Oh my god, we have so much money. I'm so excited." No. I If you have a district like that, I want to know what happened there. There will be decisions that get made by the majority, and that's the point of a school committee. We vote, we're a majority, that you then as a school committee member have to support going forward. That doesn't mean that you like the decision. That means that we're not throwing sand in the gears, that we're working all towards rowing in the same direction for the students. Um, >> recording stopped, recording in progress. >> Okay. Then we are dedicated to the work on behalf of
013the students. On the flip side, we have the committee. The only power the committee has is exercised through official action at properly posted meetings. We all know what that is. That's the OML, the open meeting law. Your decisions have to be made in a properly posted meeting that is properly agended that has a discussion between the committee and then a vote. Um, do you guys do weighted ball weighted voting here or are you just one person, one vote? One person, one vote. >> God, it's so complicated when it's like there are some towns whereas some part of the town gets a weighted vote. It's very weird. One person, one vote, majority rules and your only power gets um exercised in that meeting. You can't walk into a building and say, "Listen, I just read about
014this new curriculum. This is what we're doing." Nope. Not a power that an individual has. Um you govern through policy. Your biggest role in the district is policy. And I don't just mean that policy manual that goes from A to L. Policy is everywhere. Policy is your budget. Your budget is your largest policy document. You fund what you value. Um your policies are found reflected in your CBAs and your procedures. Your policies are in your handbooks. They're everywhere. You are also the steward of the financial resources. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to suddenly be a forensic accountant because I have to tell you that was one of the most overwhelming things for me when I got on my first committee. And the first warrant I ever signed and I looked at the zeros
015that were after it, I was like, are you kidding me? You are the fiscal oversight for the district. That means you receive reports, you ask questions, you support things, you go through the budget process, um, and you sustain the superintendent school committee relationship. And for the PeeWee's Playhouse fans, we are the employer of record on all collective bargaining agreements. I swear I'm gonna get a sound that makes that noise that um Cherry used to make on PeeWee's Playhouse whenever you repeat the thing. You are as the committee the governing body. The superintendent has one employer, the body. The body has one employee, the superintendent. And you can only exercise your official power through those posted meetings. Can >> I ask you a question? Absolutely. >> So engaging the community, you have that as part of
016the community responsibility. >> Does that imply as an individual member you cannot engage the community? >> No. No. No. It does not. It does not imply that you cannot engage the community. What your role should be when you're talking to the community is listening. You can't promise them anything. And let's be honest, none of you would be here if you didn't care. It's heartbreaking to have someone come to you and say, "This is going on. Can you fix it for me?" And as we talk about in charting the course, there's that super secret fourth role, knowing where to send someone when that per when the end person is not you. Listening is actually your primary role when it comes to the community. All decisions and deliberations are supposed to be made in this room. But
017yes, you should be hearing from your constituents 100%. But only in a listening role and be very careful not to promise any action that you cannot promise them. >> Another question on that point. >> Sure. Earlier in your slide, you said that the prime constituents are students. >> Yep. >> Um in our capacity as the conduit for information. Um how does that balance out with our responsibility to our community and our citizens? >> So ultimately your responsibility to your community is to create the next generation of people who will live in your community. >> We're having some Zoom audio issue. >> Can I Is it the microphone? >> I don't know. I suspect it's because of that thing that just where it said it was stopped and >> stopped the recording. >> Okay. >> Do
018you want me to hold for a second? >> One second. >> Okay. >> Hold for one second. >> I'll have a dance break. No, I'm kidding. We will not I will not be dancing. >> I have no sound on Zoom. >> If I need to be at a seated microphone, I can do that. >> I don't know. Let's try that. >> It seems like the audio is stuck. I just got from someone on Zoom. >> Okay. >> Can they hear us talk? >> I don't not really. >> You could Bob Barker it and use one of these things. >> I could. Yeah. >> So, if I speak into this, can you hear me on Zoom? >> Hold on. I'm getting some live feedback. Ask Barbara. >> Yeah, if you can ask Barbara, that'd be cool.
019>> Okay. Let me see. >> If I have to sit, I have to sit. It's >> You said the recording is stuck in the loop of one word. >> Oh, I wonder what word is. >> I hope it's a good word. Joy. >> God. >> Hopefully, it's something I said with my ridiculous Boston accent. >> Hopefully, it's the word dedicated. >> There you go. Yeah. Or student. Student. St student. St student. I was thinking on the way over here that tonight was going to be a big night for the the Boston accent because I when I learned about conquered and kile I I was in high school and to me this is conquered and kile >> so it is stuck my brain formed around it at that point so >> that's what it is >>
020it is conid that works >> all right they can't hear us So, when we do that, >> might not I don't think so. >> Do you know what? Maybe I'll make a um I'll make a document that says log out and log back in. >> Hold on a minute. >> Do that. >> We'll see if that works. >> Share it. I have to >> Does the chat work? No. >> No. >> Whatever's saying is on minute man. >> More with my hands. >> Is it easier to hear? >> Yeah. >> Let me see how weird it is. [Music] >> How many people are in the Zoom doing? >> Not many. log, but then the recording we won't have it. >> Actually, you sent out this pack this link. >> I'm just trying to find it.
021>> Maybe I'll just share my screen and put this on there. >> I I believe I replied to one of Tracy's emails with the packet. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> It's It's cuz somebody just came back in. I'm curious if it's working for them or not. >> Okay. Well, Barbara, can >> How about if I um Alicia, can you stop your share for one second? >> I found it. I'm just going to share this. >> That's what they're hearing right now. >> Okay. >> Yikes. >> Okay. Someone else is sharing. Okay. Let me try this. >> Sounds like a bullfrog. >> Yeah. Okay. Let's see if this works. >> Yep. It's on there. On a serious note, is there since we are always plagued by some AV glitch in this building, is there possibility we
022could consider somewhere else? >> They're working on the upgrade. They were here today. We're making progress. Um, >> but in the interim, if >> some place where we could uh host end of the meeting, >> I think Barbara did that. Maybe let's log back in. >> Okay. Okay. So, Alicia, if you can log back in on yours and then you can start sharing again. Maybe that will >> might be nice for us and for our viewing public to >> recording in progress. >> Go back to Carile. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I like that. >> That's fun. Happy happy to have you anytime. >> Appreciate the uh >> recording in progress. [Music] >> Just don't go into car right now. >> 5:00 at night. >> Yeah. >> Bridge one way. >> I read about that on
023Carile. >> We came down and it was fine, but the traffic going to Carile was ridiculous. Bridge on L. >> Okay. >> The bridge between Bedford and Carile over the C River. >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> Can we see confirm with Michelle that she could back? >> I'm asking Barbara. >> Not for him too long. >> Our paid person. >> Okay. They can hear us. So, the logging out work. We just like pull over this card and use a standing desk. Do you want a standing desk? >> Oh, there we go. >> Or stand and sit and >> Okay. [Music] >> Okay, that should take care of it. >> And Alicia, just turn down your volume. >> Promote you, Alicia. Hold on. It's not letting me for some reason. >> Restarted technology. It's wonderful. >>
024Yep. >> Is your friend until it isn't >> indeed. >> Okay. >> Hold on. We just got to promote you. He just says to promote Alicia. >> Here we go. >> Okay. >> See how Jonathan signs his text now. >> Okay. >> So, Michael, what was your question that you were asking right before? Um again the in in the balance between our constituents being our students and us being the conduit between our community and the administration. How do we weigh and how do we best balance that service to our students is one way to serve our our constituents and getting the the appropriate and correct balance between our constituents and the wider community. >> Sure. And there's lots of ways that you can have that you can create connections with your stakeholders. Um there are
025many school committees that will send representatives to um some of your stakeholder groups. Uh I am the representative to the Nohovite Tech CPAC tiny as it is. It's like but um then I can bring that information back to the school committee. I can bring that experience back. There's also opportunities for um you to work with your um your town. Very often you'll have people who are representative. I'm also the nshobate techch leazison to the westward cat the cable access television. I go there and I sit in the meetings and I listen to what they're doing and I bring that back to my committee. Um there's also you should have student reps sitting with you. You guys do have student reps. That's a great way to do that. And then the just the families in general
026when you're making big decisions. If you can survey stakeholders on major decisions um you put your policies up for public comment. There are many ways that you can have that feedback come back to you. Um it doesn't have to be just one channel and obviously a kindergartener is not necessarily going to know all the things they should know to convey to you but the parents will and you know inviting parents into spaces where you can to say come to us and let us know what you think let us know what your concerns are. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> And if you walk around just grab that handheld mic. >> Sure do either. >> Okay. I think the Z I think the um audio issue is an issue and I think maybe the recording will
027resolve it. I'm not sure it's resolved yet. >> Okay. >> So, it's fine. So, just keep going. >> I'll just talk with my hands a lot. It'll get it out. >> So, before we go any further, um we have there's a lot of acronyms. There's a lot of words in education that we don't necessarily define. So, before we go any further, we're going to define a couple. Your mission is why you exist. Your future, your vision is the future you seek. um your overarching goals, your strategic um objectives, your strategic plans, things like that. Um those are your broad objectives. And then your smart goals, your strategic initiatives, your action plans, those are all your specific short range objectives. So like the when we do charting the course, we show you the pyramid that ends
028with students. This is sort of the flowchart for what these things um mean as they go from largest to smallest. So the school committee is the municipal legislature for your school district. Um like any other municipal legislature, you have some very specific responsibilities. You are determining what your operating protocols are. Um how you talk to each other, how you talk to the administration, the rules of the road sort of. Um, you establish the rules for the district, which as a school committee, that means your your policies, your policy manual are the rules. You hire the chief executive, who is your superintendent. Um, you originate and slash set the budget and approve the expenditures. Here's the thing. Best practices budgets always start with the district and then they come to you and it's a collaborative process
029because none of us has eyes on because we're not day-to-day management. you don't have eyes on the $100 worth of pencils we sent to room five. That's the role of the administration. Generally, budgets will start with the administration. Then it's a collaborative process between you after that. Um, you have other special duties set by state law. You are a public figure both legally and in public. You never take the hat off. Even when you do, as I do, I go to the grocery store. I've got a baseball cap on. I don't usually look like myself. I've got big sunglasses. I'm still in public. I there will still be people you are always a school committee member no matter where you are even if you walk into a room and say I'm not here as there
030will always be in the back of people's minds that you are a school committee member which is why it's so important not to promise things and to listen when you're in those spaces um your meetings and and actions are usually in public with very few exceptions for school committees that's woo sorry for school committees that's executive session and we have those 10 reasons everything else has to be done in public that's why we have the open meeting law u and you maintain maintain the balance of power between the executive and the municipality. You oversee the superintendent who is your chief executive and as a group you go out to your towns and represent the district. So other duties including but not limited to there's always more duties. You serve your constituents. You are here for
031the students. You are here for the families. You're here to listen. You're here to take everything in and make the best decisions you can possibly >> interrupt for a minute. They still can't hear you. So we're working on it quietly. I don't I don't know. >> Oh my goodness. >> Michelle is texting. Michelle is one of our Medco reps and she's texting. >> I can't explain why at this point. Actually, it's not the stuff in this room. It's >> Yeah, >> something else. >> Oh, yeah. Cuz we're all on different mics now. Because I'm on a different mic now. Okay. >> Court says apparently the problem's on our end. I can't >> I don't know what it is unless it's >> I I don't know, >> but the recording should be good so people could
032watch it after. We're hoping that this is >> You don't want to promise anything at the moment. >> Should I record it as a voice memo? >> It is. Yeah. >> And you're zoomed in. >> I'm Yes, I'm presenting to Zoom. >> Speaking to your computer. >> I don't know if I can. Let's try that. >> Uh you're going to get feedback when you got feedback. >> Yeah, you'll get feedback. And this is all working something through the zoom which might usually >> sometimes it's a minute man >> live stream connection all that. >> So Lori why don't you just keep working on that and we'll just keep going. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. This all of this will be available in document form and any supporting documents that we use tonight I will definitely send
033to everyone so that you can make sure that it's put in packets. Um so you are you have limited additional hiring responsibilities. When we talk to you it's at charting the course we talk about the finance director, the legal counsel, school nurse, um >> special education director and if you have one a truency officer an attendance officer. Not every district has one but if you did you would have advising consent on those positions. Um you are part of the goal setting and the strategic planning. You are supposed to approve all of the goals for the district. You approve your goals, the superintendent's goals, and if there are any overarching goals for the district. Sometimes that's in a district improvement plan. Some people call it a strategic plan. Um, you review the school improvement plans, but
034you don't actually approve them. So, each building should have their own school improvement plan. They should come before you for a an item where you discuss them, but you don't approve those. The superintendent has purview over those, and those should inform the strategic plan of the district as well. Um and then again you retain a a legal counsel and the legal counsel works for the school committee not the district. Very often the legal counsel will operate with the district and advise the district but you are the actual employer of record for the legal council. So more other duties including but not limited to you have approval of handbooks. That's any 9 to12 handbook or a handbook that has disciplinary action in it. um that it comes to you for approval. You approve the schedule of
035fees. Uh you approve all grants and gifts and donations that come to the district. Any money that comes to you that will be spent in your district needs to be approved by you. Now, some people get a little panicky when I say you have to approve all grants. Um but I accidentally answered a phone call on my wrist. Technology. Um and it was my dad. Hi, dad. Um, so you approve on Zoom. >> No, he's telling me he can't hear me on the Zoom. Um, so you approve all grants, but that doesn't necessarily mean they come to you as standalone things. Through the budget process, you're going to see a lot of your grants that are title one grants, title three grants, those will come through the the actual budget process. So, you don't need
036to expect those to just stand alone and be approved. They're part of that process. Um, you also approve the strategic plans. Any overnight and outofstate field trips you have to approve. Um, you approve the calendar and sometimes there's things in your um, collective bargaining agreements and memorandums of understanding that will impact the calendar, but the school committee approves the calendar. Um, and then you approve new and substantially different job descriptions. So, if you have an assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum and you're going to turn them into an assistant superintendent in charge of transportation, that is a substantial change. You would have to approve that. If it's minor changes within the already established job description, that doesn't usually come to you. And note, this is not an exhaustive list. So, when we're talking about your
037role in policy, we're going to step through a couple. Oh, sure. on the previous one, that substantial change in job description, who who determines that? >> So, if there's going to be a substantial change, so say you were going to hire a new director of transportation, that's a brand new position. The superintendent should bring that job description to you for approval and then the job gets posted and they go through the hiring process. You're not in charge of the hiring process. It's the description. So, if the superintendent were going to change a superintendent, an assistant superintendent from curriculum to transportation, that new job description should come to you for approval. And it usually originates with the administration and then comes to you. >> So, what I'm gathering is the superintendent makes the determination whether it's
038a substantial change. >> Well, yes. um that should be the superintendent's decision to begin with because sometimes it really is a minor um it could be a title change but the job responsibility really isn't changing and the superintendent does supervise everyone below them in the district. So yes, it would originate with the superintendent. >> So we had we've had two like recently. So one we added we had co-principles at the high school. So we went from a principal to a co-principal model. So the school committee approved that and then the other one I can think of is um uh Bob and Shelly. So their jobs, they became assistant superintendents. It was a title change. So that came to us to approve the title. It was right before I came on the committee. Just a title
039change like that. Excellent. Okay. So we're going to step through pretty quickly your three main um areas of uh your role in the district. So we're going to start with policy. Your role in policy. So policies are supposed to be very clear statements that set forth the purpose and they prescribe in general terms the organization of the programs of a school district. The idea of a policy is to say this is the groundwork we are laying for the superintendent and then the procedures and the handbooks and everything else come from that. We do a lot of work with districts. Uh we have a model policy manual. You guys have I checked your model policy manual. you're online with us and you have most of the same policies that we do. You have a few that
040we don't. Very common for districts to have their own flavor, but your policies should be the thing that everything else will get hung off of. Um, policies create the framework and the superintendent and staff then discharge their duties from that framework. Policy changes generally originate from you'll get a new Massachusetts general law like we did when the MCCAST um, ballot question was passed. Sometimes there's state and federal regulations that change. I know there's a lot of talk about um timeout rooms and CTE regulations that are moving forward now. Um state and federal oversight recommendations. Sometimes there'll be less of a um a legal law change and more of a this is the direction that the um whatever agency it is is giving to you that might need to change your policy or might just need
041to change your um your procedures. And then strategic planning and goal setting might change some of your policies. your policy man. You could do a policy manual review where you go right from the very beginning to the end. You should in some schedule determined by you. Um your policy subcommittee should be reviewing your policy manual every once in a while. We send bulletins out that tell you, you know, these are the major changes that have happened. But it's always a good idea to have a schedule. My committee does it. Um every subcommittee member has been assigned a section and we go through every once in a while and we just make sure is everything the way it should be? Do we have the correct terminology for things? Did we change something somewhere that we didn't
042update our policy manual to reflect that? And then policies are not in effect until they are adopted by the committee at that properly posted meeting. >> And we did a massive overhaul. I think you were part of that with Carrie and Julie and Cynthia last year. >> Yes. I came in at the tail end of that. >> Yes. So we did a massive overhaul. So then I think our goal for this year is to do policy in the committee meeting with the entire committee and just go through the NIC updates. is that that is perfectly reasonable. Okay, there's no reason to review your entire manual every single year. You want to keep an eye on the things that are changing and then set up a schedule where you're dipping in every once in a while
043to make sure. Sometimes the superintendent will get a blast from Desi that says you all need a policy on this. The superintendent will, you know, we send out bulletins. Those are the changes you really need to pay attention to. And everything else is just making sure you're keeping current. And new members should always, you know, go through your policy manual and get a feel for what's in there, too. Hey, do you have a recommendation for how often to review the entire manual? >> Honestly, it depends. I would say if you've gone more than three years and no one's looked at all of your policies, you should take a look. >> Okay. >> It doesn't really require a full overhaul, but someone should be reading through. We do changes where we um we no longer say
044school system. We say school district. We're changing a lot of the wording in our policies. We don't necessarily, unless it's required by law, we don't necessarily use the word children. We use students because you can be up to 22 in a district. I I have an 18-year-old who just started his senior year today. So, there are not necessarily children, but they are your students. So, there's wording changes that can happen, I would say, every three years. You should definitely be looking through everything. >> Chie, I think I shared in Carlile, we look at a third of the policies every year. So, it's just constantly evolving. >> In your experience, is that something that's codified? If you look over the your experience, masks experience in the Commonwealth, it's three years. It's it is a best practices
045that I personally would suggest as someone who does policy for a living. It's there's no law that says how often you have to review your policy manual. It's just a you should be and especially for very small districts that could even extend a little further out because there it's hard to staff um subcommittee meetings when you have a very small board. So, it may take a little bit longer. It's a best practice, not a law. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I have to say I really liked the like just sit down and get it all done. >> Yeah. consider it's not every year we're t I mean I think that's probably a smarter way >> but it just getting daunting >> getting it done was like so gratifying >> absolutely >> then you just have
046to update it for a while >> so when it comes to the budget >> um and that's your second major role >> two things are true at the same time >> the fiscal oversight of the district is the role of the school committee ultimately you are responsible for the budget that is your it stops with you and money is one of the authorities of the committee. However, the day-to-day management of that budget belongs to the superintendent. So the example I like to give is when we start talking about you have to approve transfers. If your superintendent is going to turn a bus route into a kindergarten teacher, you've left the cost center and the school committee needs to approve it. If the superintendent is going to turn two kindergarten teachers into one kindergarten teacher and
047one first grade teacher because you've had enrollment changes, that's within the superintendent's perview. So the oversight of the budget as a whole belongs to the committee. The day-to-day operations belong to the superintendent. And let's be honest, that's what you hired the superintendent to do. >> Yes. >> Functional question. Just for we got uh payrolls this afternoon. um just perhaps more for us newbies to figure out when we're looking at both warrants and payrolls, what are we looking at? What are we looking for? I know you know Brian and Andrew are the signaries, but just so we understand. >> So even if you have assigned signitories, it's always still your responsibility to be familiar with the warrants. My committee happens to have a warrant subcommittee and the signatory is there and they bring it to us.
048So that work mostly gets done there. What you're looking for is again, you don't have to be a forensic accountant. What you're looking for is, oh, this is a very large line item that relates back to the curriculum we just adopted. We know that that's what that is. Are things going out on time? Are we seeing, excuse me, are we seeing um late fees coming in? Are we seeing expenditures that we have no idea that they were coming? You can ask those questions and the school business official should be able to answer them for you, but you don't need to go through with a fine tooth comb and count every penny. The idea is that you are responsible for them, but you have hired the chief executive who then supervises their staff and their staff
049is responsible for it. And then they report to you. There are annual budget reports, um cost center transfers, you're signing the warrants, things like that. That's your oversight role. So, so the thing that I would be looking at is just uh high level over level overview of when you get that spreadsheet that means this, this means that when you're looking at this, this relates to that, things like that. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Yeah. And I what I would say is once you've reviewed them for a while, you start to become even more especially on the um you know, accounts payable side, you're seeing these same vendors again and again. You >> um Yeah. We we had three or four now and yeah I say oh yeah I know who that is and who that is.
050Just just getting an understanding of it. >> It is sometimes it's a completely different language and I always joke. I'm not really joking. I don't do math in public. Budget has never been the love that brought me to the table. Policy is the the what brought me to the table. Um it can be very overwhelming but again there's oversight and there's room for questions and things like that. So, um, so again, your role in budget is to familiar familiarize yourself with school finance. You don't need to, as one of our staff members did, go to Masbo school, but you should understand how chapter 70 funding works, what it looks like when it comes to your town, what town meeting looks like, that whole process. Um, you want to make sure that your policy manual has
051up-to-date fiscal policies. Um, sometimes there's a blast that comes out from the state that changes a purchasing threshold. Sometimes there's something that comes out from DESIE that says, "Hey, everyone needs to go in and update this on student activity accounts." You just want to make sure that your policies are up to date. Procedures, financial procedures in your buildings, the state is overseeing those. And I can tell you right now, if you're doing something wrong, the state tells you you're doing something wrong. So, you don't necessarily need to worry about the procedures. You just need to make sure your policy manual is up to date because again, the policy manual is going to be what the procedures hang off of. Um again, you approve all grants, gifts, and donations. Um you work with the superintendent to
052create the final budget proposal. You advocate for effective funding levels, both the state and the um your local town meeting. Um do you guys have open town meeting or representative town meeting? >> Open. >> Us two. It's wild. It is honestly one of the purest forms of democracy on the planet, but it's always like, whoa, this is a lot. So then you also monitor, you ensure accuracy, you make sure you're um if there are cost center transfers that that comes to you and again you sign the warrants and you keep an eye on the warrants. We have another slide about warrants because I just interrupt you for one second and we are going to have a budget workshop with Bob. Bob is going to run one for the school committee kind of you know what
053is circuit breaker, how does it work? I mean you get a piece of that at charting the course but I think to get it more in depth and see how it really relates to us. So that is coming to the full committee um at some point as as kind of part of this you know new member on boarding. >> I love that. That's great because it is a whole other language that most of us don't speak in our daily lives. So we did talk about this earlier that warrants must be reviewed and signed prior to the bill being paid. Uh there's a lot of questions about warrants will very often come to a school committee on a consent agenda and people are wondering am I signing first or am I approving? You're not necessarily approving.
054The signature is what approves the warrant and then the school committee is noticed very often through a consent agenda because it's just a lot faster to do it that way. Um, per recent MGL, you can have a single signatory. I would always always recommend that you have an alternate. Um, a couple years ago, my first district did it so that we had we couldn't get three people to commit at the same time over the summer. Everyone's in five million different places. So, we designated a single signatory and then an alternate. Um, if the community committee chooses to do a signal sign single signatory, um, definitely needs to be on this next agenda, but again, even that signatory doesn't wipe away your responsibility to make sure you're familiar with your warrants. And then, you know, you
055know what it is that you've approved. You've been given a chance to ask questions. Generally, if you go into the business office, there's the warrant book and all the signatures are there. You can ask for um, updates. I love that you guys are going to do a training on that. That is fantastic. I think there are a lot of committees that could benefit from that. >> And we are single single signatory. We've done it both ways since I've been on here. Um we don't have backup. So if we had a backup, we would vote that as being a leazison. >> Vote an alternate signatory. That way if one you you need to keep the lights on, you need to pay your teachers. If you can't if something happens and that one signatory is not available,
056you don't want to have to call a meeting. Have an alternate designate an alternate. >> And if we So the single signatory we always have in our consent agenda. If we go back to the way we did it before, >> you need a majority of the committee signing it or a subcommittee. Can you just talk through a process that wouldn't be single signatory? >> So I believe if you don't do the one signatory, you would have to have a majority of the committee signed, which is what makes it then complicated when you have to bring all those people in, especially when you're talking about a regional, which is why the single signatory is so much easier to do. >> Much easier. Okay. Thanks. Um and then your role in personnel. So this is the big
057three policy, budget, personnel. Um as we said earlier, the committee has one employee, the superintendent. And the superintendent has one employer, the committee. You are responsible for hiring and retaining district legal counsel and then the advising consent on the assistant superintendent, the business manager, director of special education or student services some districts call it. Um and then physicians, nurses, and the attendance officer. And that's a yearly appointment that would happen. The physicians, nurses, and all those others. Um, an attendance officer if you have one. Not every district has one. So, from here, oh, sorry. >> Can I just ask a question? Is there a place that has all of that the um listed out just for reference besides the slide deck in terms of who the school committee? >> We have documents on our website
058that we have member handbooks on our website that you can pull down all of the stuff that this came from. And yes, it says it there. >> Okay. >> And you have updated the website this summer. So you have a lot more documents on there for reference. >> We are currently updating our website like the field directors have dispersed into all the documents and we're editing them and bringing them back and we're creating we're actually creating glosseries because people are like what is furpa? Here's what furpa is. Um so we are definitely updating our website as we go but there's a lot of good documents you can pull down there and our rules and responsibilities document is there. And actually that one just got updated. Um so additionally you keep you establish and keep current
059personnel policies. There's a section in your manual G. Um you establish compensation. Now what that means is you are the collective bargaining agent. You establish a range for other staff. You're not you're not approving individual salaries for um your assistant superintendent, your director of student services, but you are establishing the range of compensation. And then you are the employer of record on all collective bargaining agreements and clearly you sign the superintendent's contract and you evaluate the superintendent. Um and again that super secret fourth role understanding who to send someone to when it's definitely not you. One of the best things the district can do is to put together that flowchart of who is responsible for what. I had a principal a few years ago, one of my kids had she had this great um handout
060that I stole and scanned and now I can't find. and it was a telephone and it said, "Who are you going to call?" And it said something like, "The pizza was burnt for the third time this week. Who am I going to call?" "Fruit services." Um, "My child is getting too much homework. Who am I going to call?" "The classroom teacher." So, you're not answering all of those questions for people because it's not your role, but you know where to send them. It's super frustrating when you don't know where to send people. and working with the superintendent to have sort of that org chart, that chain of command to know where those questions should be directed is extremely helpful. So, next up, before we get to operating protocols, I just want to go through some
061communication um guidelines for committee members. We talked earlier about remembering that you only communicate as an individual. You cannot speak on behalf of the committee. We've already done a lot of these, so I'm going to probably move through these a little bit faster. Um, you need to avoid violating the open meeting law. They are inventing new and exciting ways to violate open meeting law every day with social media. And it's happened in multiple places. You post something on Facebook. You tag him. You like what just got tagged. You just created a quorum and you didn't even know you did. And whether or not the attorney general's office will say to you that was definitely an open meeting law violation remains to be seen because again it's the open meeting law. Your deliberation should be in
062this room. But if you're spending all of your time saying what I did was legal. You're not doing the business of the district. So be very careful about how you interact on social media. Do not deliberate on social media. Again it should be that listening position. You should be hearing from people and the discussion should happen in the room >> and any opinion is deliberation. >> It's a great area. >> Communicating your opinion out to the committee. >> Yes, you shouldn't be making your decision prior to being in the room anyway. So, yes, don't express an opinion. You can say, "Thank you for sharing that with us. I I understand that you're very concerned. Here are the resources the district has put out, and we're going to talk about this in a meeting on this
063date." Okay. >> Can I just build upon >> build upon that? Um, just for your benefit, I'm the chair of the Carile School Committee. So, some of the things >> I'm being a little selfish here and uh and asking questions double >> dipping, >> but what about individual members? Um, whether it's sending out an article, email, text, reaching out to the full committee as an not as the chair, but as an individual member, like what? So here's what I would tell you. >> If you want to share something, send it to your chair >> or send it to the superintendent. >> Okay? >> You canform informationally from one source. The chair can share information, but I would not be sharing outside articles in that way. If you want to discuss an article that is about
064something that is happening in your district, bring it to the table and discuss it then. But I wouldn't share things that are opinions in emails. The chair can do housekeeping things. The chair can send out information. The superintendent can send out information, but keep those lines very clear that this is justformational. So, it's not I'm going to make up a situation. You found an article about a great policy that another district wrote. That's something that should be discussed in the policy subcommittee. It shouldn't be shared around as an email and people start talking about what's in the article. It should be in the policy subcommittee. So always move informational things like that to the appropriate subcommittee or the full committee. Your email communication should be informational only. Make sense? >> I think so. >> So
065I know it's it gets to the point where you're very concerned about communicating because you don't want to run a foul of open meeting law >> and information only and only coming from the chairs. So to the full committee I would say the chair is the best communication um pathway and that is because when you start sharing one person one person one person you you can create what's called chain deliberation >> deliberation >> and we don't want to have that happen. So it's much easier for and we can talk about this in your operating protocols a good operating protocol is to have the chair be the primary communicator. So the chair and the superintendent would be meeting and establishing agendas things like that. The committee should be telling the chair, I would like this on
066the agenda or I need this information and then the chair would share that back outformationally so that it's a very clean clear chain of communication. >> So, as the chair of the Carile School Committee, I can send information out. As a lowly vice chair, I should be going to Tracy and letting Tracy send it out. >> Here's the deal. Whatever your operating protocols say, >> what whatever your operating protocols say. >> Yeah. Because the chair should be the spokesperson for the committee and the superintendent is the spokesperson for the district. >> Yeah. >> But it should be in your operating protocols. Make that clear in your operating protocols that that's how you're going to communicate. >> So um keeping your deliberations within the meeting and your decisions that last one there, your decisions should be
067made as a result of the meeting deliberation. There are many times that we've all done this. You get to the table and you hear something you didn't know. Now, it might not change your vote that night, but it definitely informs you for what's going forward. So, make sure your deliberations are happening at the table. Um, and you make your decisions within the meeting. Information is gathered. We prepare. We read our packets. Um, we bring it to the table. It is very hard to do this, but your decision should not be made on what is the most popular thing happening on social media. Everyone's taken chart in the course. You've seen our Edund Burke quote. Um, the body together is what is supposed to make the decision and you should be making those decisions in the
068room, not just based on what's happening in the cacophony around you. Um, direct complaints and concerns through the appropriate channels. Again, that who you going to call, where am I supposed to go to make sure that I'm sending this person in the right direction? Um, keep privilege information private. And that doesn't just mean executive session, though. Yes, executive session. But there will be information that happens in executive session that you need to make sure that you keep privileged information quiet. Sometimes you'll hear something. Someone will come to you with a complaint. We sometimes have someone who comes to you and wants to talk to you about their individual child, staff, students. They all have privacy laws that cover them. You should be keeping any privileged information privileged and directing people to the right source. And
069then again keeping executive session um within executive session. So next up a very brief overview on operating protocols and then we can get into your operating protocols and what you all um would like to work on tonight. So operating protocols, can I just tell you that my first committee did not have operating protocols until after we hired a new superintendent and Darthothy Presser came out and she did an operating protocols workshop with us. It was groundbreaking because we had never sat in a room with each other and said, "This is how we're going to communicate with each other. This is the structure of how we're going to do this." And communication got so much better from there on out. Operating protocols are your ground rules. They're your um rules of the road. You should be
070revising them every year. Every summer, you should get together. You guys elect in the spring, right? >> We elect in the spring. And in our protocols, um, it says at the last meeting, this is one of our protocols, uh, school will review and revise its protocols as needed as part of the committee self-reflection and self- aaval each year. So, we probably should have done it with our self- aaval when we did it, but we're doing it tonight. >> But you know what? Doing it once a year is great. And here's the thing, committee self-ealuation and committee goals. I very often tell my committees, you should be aligning your goal evaluation to the superintendent goal evaluation cycle so that you're doing that mid cycle check-in and that end check in to set the next set of
071goals. Align that to the superintendent cycle. So, are you on a two-year or one-year cycle? You can align your operating protocol review to a two-year cycle if you want because it would be part of your goal process, but it should be regularly reviewed. And once you review it, everyone votes on it. You make a big deal about it. You post it everywhere. Are you checking with each other? Um, so it it is definitely a document that you can use for self-evaluation. Are we doing what we said we would? Are we communicating the way we said we would? Operating protocols are not there to stifle dissent or disagreement. Done right, operating protocols will actually make discussion easier. They are not a way to suppress free speech and they are not a way for the majority to
072control the minority. They are also not a way to control information. Part of what your operating protocol should include is how the committee gets their information. Um, I've seen some really great operating protocols that talk about when packets are posted, when agendas are set, things like that. And it helps the committee get the information in a timely manner much more efficiently. Um, and they're not a way to limit communication beyond your limits of open meeting law. They should be a statement of purpose. very often um you can start with you know we believe as a committee that our responsibility is to the students and then you start listing your protocols. They are how you conduct business. Very often operating protocols will include things like this is how you get things on the agenda. This is
073when the agenda setting meetings happen. This is when the packets will be posted. Um they should very often they should include a scope of your responsibilities. There are things that the community might want to bring to you that are not your responsibility. Understanding what those are and where to send them should be part of your operating protocols. Um, very often operating protocols will include standards of conduct. Baseline, we speak to each other respectfully. Everyone gets to be heard once around the table before anyone else speaks again. That's generally a Robert's rules. Um, and then staying on track. How do we stay on track? How do we make sure that we check in with each other that we're doing what we need to be doing? um considerations around communication pathways and we're getting into emails to
074the committee or to individual members. There will be times where you get the blast email that goes to all of you and you're trying to figure out how you respond to the public to give them the information they need without getting nine emails back to one person. In operating protocols, you can establish that the chair can respond on behalf of the committee with the factual information. Thank you for your um con for sharing your concerns with us. Here's the information that you need. This is when we're meeting on it. You can in your operating protocols designate the comm the chair to do that for the committee. That doesn't mean that you can't answer someone directly, but it just means that you as a committee have decided that when you get a a an email to
075to all of you that we don't start that horrible reply all chain that we get the information to the person that they're looking for. And then if you want to answer on your own behalf, you could totally do that too. Um the social media posts being very clear to understand what the district gets to post and what is not district and keeping separate your personal postings and posts about the community about the committee. There is a member in Westford who does this fantastically. Um Valerie very >> um she's like the model for how to do social media as a school committee member. She puts out a summary of a meeting on her Facebook school committee page. her Valerie for Valerie Young for Westford. It says it's only her posting. She's not speaking for the committee.
076She speaks for no other member. She doesn't speak for the district. Here's a recap of what happened in the meeting. Factual. Done. She doesn't get into a back and forth. She's just posting. If you wanted to do that, you could. I would recommend you keep your own personal social media separate from your from any social media you might have as a committee member because we don't want to get into that gray area where you start expressing opinions and then someone comes back and says I think you're deliberating because again we don't want to spend time saying I was not doing something illegal. We want to do the business of the district. Um and then remembering your board member role in public when you're talking about social media and communication. You're always going to be a
077board member. Um, I walked into my kids' school this morning. I had a baseball cap on. I was in workout gear. I walked in the room. Mrs. Melon, how are you? They all knew who I was. You are always a board member. You are always a committee member, even when you're there on your own behalf. So, you need to understand that when you're talking to people, again, listening and not promising, collecting information, sending people where they need to go, and keeping the deliberations, the lights just went out, keeping the deliberations at the meeting, at the table. Um, all right. So, your operating protocol. Yes. Follow question on that. I I um have emails with Valerie, but I've never seen her um social media. Is she the chair or >> She is the vice chair this
078year because she ran out her um her term limit on being chair. She's the vice chair this year. >> And is she still doing the social media or was that as chair? >> No, that was her own personal me herself as Valerie posting. She was not posting on behalf of the committee and she made it very clear. There's literally a statement at the top of every post that says I do not speak for the committee. I do not speak for the district. This is just a recap. >> So So do you want me to share ours on the screen? >> Uh I actually have them. I can share them if you want. Yep. >> Great. Perfect. And this was a process we kind of undertook with Dorothy. [Music] [Applause] And Alicia, do you have a
079recommendation for or Glenn, you can answer it to either one of you. Um, I've seen a lot of school districts where the school committee signs them at the bottom and posts them on the website. Do you feel as though that's more effective to have each member signing them or not signing them? >> When you're done with your operating protocols, make a big deal about it. Vote to approve them. Everyone signs it. The superintendent signs it because it's the it's the rules of the road for all of you. post it on your website. When you go to the tab under your, you know, policies and things like that, have it there. You can print it and have it at meetings. Um, but yes, I would make a big deal about it because here's the thing. We
080can, we come in to train you guys all the time. You come to the course, we, you know, we are available to you. The public, for the most part, does not get that insight as to what it is you do and how you do it and the reasons why why you have to make certain decisions at meetings because of open meeting law. why you can't get into the weeds on a personnel issue because it's not your purview. Having your operating protocols out there is another way that you can educate the public as to what it is that you can do as a committee and how you do it. >> And I do have this in the Google Drive um and I can make changes live. >> We are we voting on this tonight? Is that
081the goal? >> The goal was to vote on it tonight because we've we've had them since >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the spring. >> If you're going to live edit then maybe you should share. >> I can live edit for you or you can share and live edit. >> It doesn't uh What's easier for you? Do you want me to share and live edit with that? Yeah. >> How do you share and live edit? >> Okay. >> All right. So, let me stop sharing. >> I'm sorry. >> Technology is wonderful and complicated >> when it works. >> Yes. It's terrible and complicated when it doesn't. Okay. >> You make that bigger. >> Yeah. I love it bigger. >> Oh, here we go. >> I have a hard time seeing at night. >> Okay. Okay.
082Now, do you want to take us through these one by one or >> Sure, it's up to you. >> Let's go through them one by one. So, let's start with your um your statement of purpose. I think you have an excellent statement of purpose here. Um given what we just talked about, does anyone want to add or subtract or maybe edit the statement of purpose or does everyone feel comfortable with it as it is? >> So, something that you said actually hit me that um our students aren't listed in our statement of purpose in the protocols. >> Okay. I'm not sure where we want to put that, but so maybe what I would suggest is um a we believe statement. >> We believe that our students I'm just going to put it here for now.
083>> Sure. uh we believe that our students are at the center should be at the center of every decision we make. To that end, we will work within these operating protocols to provide the most support in the most efficient way. You should never do math in public, never edit in public. um um had the most support for our district. Feel free to word smmith that everybody take a look at that. >> Looks good to me. >> Any edits or changes? >> All good. All good. Okay. All good. >> Um, so your next one is about the primary responsibility to advocate for the needs and interests of all students in the district. That's fantastic. Um, I think you're on point with your number one. Does anyone have any edits there? >> I do that. No. No
084edits. Anyone? No. Okay. >> Okay. Um, your next one, number two, I would recommend that instead of saying to set a positive tone, maybe to model appropriate behavior >> because you can disagree appropriately >> and not everything has to be positive, but you can still have disagreement is the uncomfortable place where we live where actual change happens. So, I think modeling appropriate behavior allows for that rather than saying everyone's just going to smile. >> Great. >> Does everyone agree with that? >> Yeah, agree with that. >> Excellent. >> So, I'm going to take this out. >> I was just editing our operating protocols document. So, that's why that was in my head. Was one of our edits. >> What's happening there? I think I have to I might just have to fix that. >> I
085don't know what's happening there. I'll fix that. >> Like underlined a space. That was so >> We'll just fix that after. Okay. Uh so then number three, we'll agree upon up to four annual smart goals. I think that's great. Um do you want to assess the collective progress once a quarter or do you want to establish the review process more in line with the superintendent's evaluation cycle? So this is where um so we evaluate Lori every every two years, but what we we talked about at our last meeting, Lori presented her goals. And so what we're going to do throughout this year is she's going to update us and give us evidence towards her goals and we're going to do it kind of on a timeline. So I guess I would like to do it,
086you know, throughout the year so it's not just, you know, all at the end or all in the middle like just >> and so maybe that is quarterly or maybe it's, you know, three times a year. I think we have to think about how often we want to do that. >> Yep. >> But to be this is about when we're looking at our own goals, right? Not it. >> Yes. Yes. >> I like it. But I don't believe we set smart goals this year. We did more like high level goals, right? >> We did more high level goals. just change for >> we'll just set annual goals. >> What's the problem with not with changing for smart goals is they give you something that's you recognize you can measure and yeah >> use that to
087scotch your performance. I think that's >> those might be more helpful, more beneficial for us to see track how we go and to show that to our community. >> And I I mean we did that last year. I did like that. I thought Julie's template was was really strong. Mhm. >> Have you already adopted the goals for this year? I saw the document, but >> Okay. >> Do you have any feedback on our document? >> So, I think adding the smart metrics is a a really good way to go there. Um, there's I can send you all a version of a set of districts goals. I think it's too where they have what their goal is and then underneath it they list the why and then they list what the action steps are. Mh. >>
088So it's a clear it's the smart goal model where you can see what achieving the goal actually looks like and what the check-in points will be. So I would say your goals are good. Maybe just give a little bit more information on what it looks like as you start to enact those goals. Not every end goal is going to end up with a we hit the finish line, we're good. But there should be some sort of metric of progress that you've agreed time. Can we edit it with >> Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be great if we could do it all be great. Do do we need the to help solve an identified challenge or issue? >> Say again. >> Oh, I think that's a good point. >> That helps solve an identified challenge or
089issue. Smart goals. >> So, why don't we just take that this part out to address an opportunity for enhance student achievement >> or just period just four smart goals? Yeah, >> just four goals. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Because we already set our like belief statement. >> So, take that whole sentence out. Take all this out. >> Yes. Okay. >> Oh boy. Oh no. >> Don't you love it when the go? >> Embarrassing. Okay. Sorry. I'm going to have to fix Oh boy. >> I'll fix this after. >> Yes, absolutely. >> We all spend a lot of time yelling, "Why did you tab?" >> Oh, no. Sorry. Okay. It's not you. >> All right. So, three looks good. >> I guess my only question is, is once a quarter frequently enough when I know
090last year. So last year we had we had a monthly grid and Julie was keeping us really on track and it she did a red red, yellow, green. >> Just red and green. On track, off track. >> On track, off track. >> Ah, yes. Um, do you have any recommendation monthly versus quarterly? Um, if you're doing it monthly, are you perhaps eating up agenda time and creating really long you're having the conversation more frequently, but are you having efficient conversations? If you check in too frequently, I know that sounds weird, but if you check in too frequently, has any progress actually been made? So, I would say monthly is probably too often. Okay, I agree with that because I do think that what we have to work on is having more efficient meetings because our
091meetings are tending it's it's three hours plus um >> set a goal around that. >> So I would love to set a goal around meeting efficiency. >> So there's actually a presentation being worked on right now for the conference titled do we have to meet until midnight? >> The answer is no. You do not. Well, and I think part of what we're doing now is we're splitting the regional meetings from the conquered public meetings, and I think that will help. Um, but we need to be more efficient with our time. So, I guess I would opt for quarterly >> there. Oh, no, different subject. Sorry. >> Okay. >> No, I was thinking about that question about efficient meetings, but that's not what we were talking about. >> We will talk about that later. >> So,
092here's the thing about quarterly. Do not let perfect be the enemy of good here. >> Okay. >> If you go through this year and quarterly isn't working, change it, >> okay? to your operating protocols. >> So, so that that whole goal I feel like you know we can just shorten it and just say four annual smart goals and evaluated quarterly. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I love that. Okay. Evaluated quarterly. >> Yes. >> Is it really good with that? Okay. >> Yeah. >> That's going to help me quarterly. Maybe I have to take all these underlines out. >> Yeah. >> Oh, man. >> Oh, what is happening? I'll fix it later. Okay. >> Are you center justified? >> Yeah, probably. Probably. >> All right. Okay. Oh, yes, I am. Thank you. Good catch. >> Be fine.
093>> Oh, this is also center justified. Okay. Okay. So, ready for four? >> Mhm. Yep. >> Okay. The only edit I would offer you for four is take out the and put all all students, not the students. >> Okay. On behalf of all students. >> Oh, I like that. I like that too. >> Okay. Any other edits? >> N. >> Okay. Five. >> Oxford comma. Sorry. >> Where's it? Where is it? Tell me. Sand. I love it. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. policy making >> after policy stand. >> Thank you. All right. >> I keep putting them in and some people in our office are taking them out >> policy. So, >> I rely on Grammarly to help me with that. >> Yeah. >> You either are or you are not. >> All right. Five.
094>> So, we did just talk about this for communication pathways. >> So, I have I have a question here. Um I certainly understand and agree with the uh passing information requests for reports or requests for data through the chairs or the the appropriate personnel but uh there certainly sometimes for instance when I was chief of department in my relationship with the chief of the department of surgery um there were times it it wouldn't work for our working relationship if I only spoke to him through the practice manager. There are some issues, some concerns, some problems that need to be transmitted directly. Now, understanding and complaints and uh there's a way to point people to the right person. But when there are issues in terms of function, serious issues that Dr. Hunter wants to know or
095serious that she wants to bring to me, there ought to be a way. This shouldn't be I would like some just some clarity that this doesn't prevent that type of communication understanding that we would uh >> I would say you should endeavor to stay to those communication pathways. The idea here is not that we are putting up a wall between the superintendent and the members. The idea here is that the director of student services doesn't get five emails all asking for the exact same thing and the superintendent's already gone to them and asked them and now there's six emails floating around. That's what we're trying to avoid here. We're not trying to avoid communication. We're trying to make sure our communication is efficient. So, it's not precluding you from emailing the superintendent. It's just saying
096that the majority of your requests should be channeled through. >> So, I'd say you can add the majority. I lost where it was. Um, we'll channel the majority of their questions. >> Well, and like we don't go directly to staff either. Like we wouldn't send an email to a staff member, >> right? So, I think that's what we're trying to avoid in this one. >> Yes. >> Like, if I had a question on, I don't know, high school biology, I'm not going to email the department chair like, "Hey, are you doing this in your class? I don't know what the >> I don't even know what they're doing in high school biology anymore. >> I know what even is question. If I get a question from a citizen on what a current curriculum is, is
097appropriate to contact the u um assistant superintendent of teaching and learning just to ask. >> So, so this is how I read that. Well, you answer it. So, here's what I would say. >> You say to that citizen, this is where you go to get that information. And then you heads up the chair. Hey, I had this question. The idea is that you want to leave the everyday actions, the everyday management of the district in the hands of the superintendent and you have to trust the superintendent is doing their job. If you hear back from that person that it's 3 weeks later and they haven't heard from anyone, by all means then email the superintendent. But the idea is to send them where they can get the information and then let follow up with the
098chair and say, "Hey, I sent someone in that direction. Let me know if you have any more questions." >> Yeah. So it doesn't preclude you from also getting the information, but you do want to leave that everyday management in the hands of the administration and we don't want to clog everyone's inboxes. >> Makes sense. Okay. Any other Were we making a change on five? >> Um other question there. You'd propose the word Ashley. I propose the word majority. >> Majority. >> And where would you put the majority of their questions? >> The majority of their questions. >> So add it right here. >> Mhm. >> Because there will also be times where, you know, a subcommittee is working on something and they might need something directly or there's some there's a an administration person sitting
099at the table with you. We don't want to then go, okay, I'm going to leave the table and go email. We don't want that. We just want efficient communication. Or even like when we start discussing the budget, if people have questions because this is going to be new to a lot of you, we could gather all of the questions in one spot and then everybody gets the answer to the questions and sees the questions that are being asked. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Instead of the majority, is it better to say whenever possible? >> Oh, yeah. That's good wording. Will >> I don't know if >> Okay, I'm going to try this >> or or as much as possible. >> A lot of seven people. >> Well, I know. I know. >> That's why >>
100I think it I mean it really like I can under I I think it matters because if if it's actually nine of us so it's not seven, it's nine of us. If nine people have a question, it's like oh Lori, I have one more question. Oh Lori, I have one more question. I mean I even find myself sometimes like I don't want to send one more question right now. So I don't know. I think it's more for efficiency. I like the majority and I think just as a practice know that this is your questions are always going to get answered. >> So I actually don't like the word majority. >> You don't like the word majority. Okay. >> No, because I I think that's putting an arbitrary standard, right? Because >> two subjects. >> No,
101I Yeah, >> I'll ask five questions through the chair and then ask for four questions. That's not really helping. Right. Okay. All right. That's fair. I >> I I think I prefer the language the way it was. >> Okay. So channel their questions through the chair like that. >> Yeah. But then Brian, you had some point about >> I mean I was only suggesting whenever possible just your example if it's a subcommittee working and it would just be a bottle neck. >> Yes. >> To the extent possible or something like that. Still the I the the flavor of my concern was not for instance subcommittee budget issues. Those are things that actually channel through the chairs and get one question. There are as yet to be undetermined things that can happen that could call for
102a direct interaction. direct interaction that need not be delayed or filtered. And again in my work experience, there was a mechanism to do that. And all adults around the table understand that the intent is not to burden, but the intent is to have that freedom of communication. and I can accept this but I would like some clarity in it to know that that p fashion of communication is not being squaltched and and this could do could be could could be conceived to do that. I have a question is um I I think I think there's a lot of value in channeling questions through the chair. The chair deterine or chairs determine the agenda and are navigating a lot of aspects of the details. Um, and then I think from an efficiency standpoint, I guess like
103to Michael your point, the less so about questions but more about like conversations like have the ability to have a conversation not in a quorum but just like a an opportunity to have dialogue um outside of this room. like is there an opportunity for like you know not a quorum but like two members to sit down and have a conversation quarterly or >> you know like I don't want to overburden Lori but I do think those conversations are can be impactful I don't know >> so I would say excuse me I would say that members are always there is always the option for members to speak to the superintendent >> that's >> 100% >> that's yeah >> I would say having a convers like if you wanted to suddenly have a conversation with say the
104director of student services about something that you didn't understand policy-wise etc. That would be something that I would still channel that request through the chair and the superintendent, but members are always free to email the superintendent and say, "Hey, I have a question about." >> So, I agree with both of you. >> It's a good It's a good relationship. >> I agree with both of your statements, and I would want the clarity in this clause to make it clear that both of those statements can be true. As it stands, it's not clear to me that it is. >> Okay. um >> was wordsmith a fashion a fashion this clause so that it speaks to that. >> So what if you said school committee members will endeavor to channel their requests for information from the staff
105through the chair and the superintendent >> questions. that leaves the path to the superintendent open >> but says that there shouldn't be seven emails to the director of student services. >> I I still think that like I think there's value in like hey I'm I have a question about this policy like giving that to Lori or sorry uh Andrew or Tracy just to say just to collect them all. So there's like you know you sit down with Lori like if I meet with my manager I don't just pop every question I have to that person. and I collect them and then when I have a handful I unless there's something urgent I'm like hey a couple things I want to talk about. So I think there is value from an efficiency standpoint to say so
106if it's not an urgent pressing question I think there is value in that's my my personal opinion. Well, what if we what if we establish something else which would be like a quarterly meeting, you know, and because there are nine of us, maybe partner up, you know, >> that's what this is saying is like a quorum, >> like not a quorum, like two or three members together could have a meeting >> with Lori to just >> have conversations, do whatever. >> Lory's like whatever you want to do. Sorry, I'm just trying to be efficient about this. You know, I do think that the amount of email traffic is really heavy. Um, I mean, I I'm I've had some challenges responding to some emails efficiently and on time. So, >> I think there's a balance of
107of two things because I think what you're looking for is you're looking for conversation. Um, or or just even like, hey, it was just >> I I guess I'm I'm I'm not looking for conversation. I'm looking for access and dialogue when necessary and it's not going to come in a quarterly basis. >> We don't know when it's going to come. I just don't want this clause to foreclose that that option. And the concern I have is that the language can be construed that way. So just to I'm and so everything everything said I agree qu bud questions on budget a question on policy but there might be a crisis that comes up and to use this to say well no we can't talk about that we wait a quarter or >> filter what could be
108a closely held concern through someone else might lose the flavor that I could bring to it if I'm having that direct communication. I don't want this clause to be used to potentially derail that. Mhm. >> So fashionable language that Yes. that that business issues, questions about staffing changes, all that can be handled through one avenue, but it shouldn't preclude us being able to have two and a conversation with our superintendent >> under conditions that only we can determine at the time. So you want something like a a catch all at the ends that says certain scenarios you might have to do this. We don't know what hard to define that which hasn't taken place but we should not preclude it from being able to take place. >> Do you have examples from other school committees
109of something that's similar to the because I've looked at some of the your other model policies that do you have any examples of what other school committees are doing? So, off the top of my head, I would have to I couldn't tell you off the top of my head who has really good language on this. I would have to bring it I would have to send it back to you. Um, but I think having the if I'm hearing correctly what everyone is saying is that you want to make sure that you have the pathway from the committee to the staff through the chair and the superintendent, but you also want to maintain that relationship with the superintendent. So I think if you reward it to say questions, requests, and information through the chair and the
110superintendent, it puts both the chair and the superintendent into that statement and then leaves the rest of it open for interpretation. So add I'm really confused now >> through the chairs and the superintendent >> and wait let me add this first and then Sandep I'm going to go to you and the superintendent >> and then just take out the rest of that sentence instead of directly to the superintendent or other relevant staff. >> Okay. >> Does it need to be said? >> All right. But now I've messed up the first sentence. The first one would just be this members and representatives. >> Members and representatives. >> Good catch. >> Will >> channel. >> You already have wheelchair. Oh. Oh, sorry. Questions. Oh gosh. Okay. this out. >> Just get y >> tough to tell when
111the entire community editing in public. It is >> it's really hard to make all of my worst spelling errors. >> Just so you know. >> Okay. >> Oh my gosh. I can't. >> No pressure. No pressure. I only get up at 5. So, uh, we'll channel their questions and request through the chairs and the superintendent. >> Period. And then I would say the chairs and the superintendent will ensure that all members are kept a breast of and informed. >> Okay. So practically does that mean that I just asked for Andrew and I are we talking that the chairs and the superintendent would be on the email? But I just need to practice. >> No, it doesn't always have to be chairs and superintendent. Does not have to be both. >> Okay. >> It can be
112andor. But for purposes in this meeting, just recognize that there are nine of us. So it would be it wouldn't be a a daily thing. It would be if something comes up that you know, hey, this happened. Can you help me understand what this means in our district? >> I I would like to know more about this before the meeting. Where do I find that information? That sort of thing. It's not a an everyday questioning of the superintendent. >> And it should be related to business of the school committee. >> Oh yes. >> Always business of the school committee. So, if it's, you know, Susie Smith told me that her son Johnny this, that, and the other thing. It's not that. >> Nope. >> I would say, so we're going to get to you guys
113have in here the avoid surprises. We'll get there in a minute. Okay. But >> sometimes it might be something to the effect of, I heard this thing brewing up. I want to let you know, superintendent, that there is concern in the community that this is happening. I'm telling the superintendent there's concern that this is happening and I leave it with the superintendent >> through email like just a just a quick email. A >> phone call. Yeah. It's urgent. A phone call. >> Shouldn't the chair be copied on that as well? >> Think of examples of where >> would you not but that is that is a perfect example of something that should go to the superintendent >> and not necessarily because it's something that's suddenly come up in something you want to get the superintendent.
114And the only tweak I might add to the underlined bold section through the chairs and the superintendent, as deemed necessary. >> As deemed necessary. >> Okay. I would say it's always a good idea to let your chairs know if you've requested information or if you've shared something because your chair is going to sit your chair is going to sit in an agenda setting meeting with the superintendent. >> Yeah. >> What What do you mean by as deemed necessary? I'm going to put it up there. >> I was using it as as another safeguard to perhaps flag that this is not something that you do first. The first people you're going to even move it. So it says we'll move um >> channel information through the chairs and as deemed necessary the superintendent so that it's
115>> so that it's prioritizing the chairs and then as deemed necessary the superintendent. >> That that's fair. That's fair. It doesn't. >> Yeah, >> we should probably keep moving and we can edit this and whenever >> I just address we can come back to it. >> Okay. All right. So, we >> Yeah, I don't want to come back to this. >> Go ahead. No, no, we can come back to this. >> So, we'll spend all evening on this. >> All right. Six. >> So, uh I think this one still aligns with the one you had above. Mhm. >> Um, if you wanted to add what you had in the one above or this and as necessary the superintendent to after chairs, you could so that they have the same wording. >> I feel like this
116one's different though because it's specific to the agenda. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I'm fine with this one. >> I'm good with this one. >> Excellent. Everyone good with this one? Six. >> Yep. >> Eight. >> Seven. So, this is our no surprises. We get this a lot. People are like, "What does that mean?" The idea behind the no surprises is if you really want information on something, if you really want something done, you don't spring it on someone in a meeting and have them scramble and they can't answer you because they didn't know you were going to ask that question. No surprises doesn't mean we don't ask the hard questions. We just want to make sure that we're asking the questions in a way that gets us the information we need so that we
117can make those decisions. So, I think this is a good one. Um, I'm a I would be a little wary of saying short of a significant crisis, it's inappropriate to share grave concerns for the first time at a public meeting because what is an inappropriate what is a crisis so we could take this out? Yeah, >> I do think that um >> Are you saying take the whole thing out or just the short of significant >> crisis? >> I would take that whole last sentence out because sometimes things happen that you don't know about until that evening and the superintendent has to give you an update about something that happened an hour ago. So, I don't think you need that statement in there. We don't need to qualify that. >> But if it's not on
118the agenda, then we wouldn't be discussing it anyway. >> You would not be deliberating. Do you have something on your agenda called continuing items or items not anticipated in 48 hours? Okay. You can put on your agenda if you suddenly they struck oil on one of the football fields and our budget is golden for the next 10 years. >> What you just found out this morning, you can't vote on anything that night, but you can put it in a section called items not anticipated within 48 hours. It's a notice information section. >> You don't discuss it. You say, "Hey, this is a thing that happened. Can we put this on a future agenda and leave it? >> Anyone have thoughts on that? >> We really are struggling with efficiency. So, I mean, I think that
119could really open up a can of worms. That's just my feeling on it. >> I don't Yeah, because I feel like in the moment you can can't you always like take a vote to add something if there's truly something urgent, >> right? Well, >> no, you can't you can't you cannot put something on the agenda that was not on there 48 hours. >> You can take things off. You can't put things off. >> I just think that that sentence is redundant to avoid surprises. >> I agree. >> So, I'm removing this one that's highlighted blue. >> And then >> I guess my only question is what was the history and putting that on there in the first place? I agree. It feels redundant. >> I think there were some um challenges on the school committee
120which is why we had it because there were a lot of surprises happening. I >> think you're still center justified. >> Yes. Thank you. >> At least we know what the issue is now. >> A left justified thing. >> Oh, really? >> Okay. It's a Mac. It's okay. I can >> do the same to your titles at the top. So, fix. >> Okay. I'm going to have to fix. >> You got a lot of formatting issues. >> I have a lot of formatting issues. >> I have eight covered. Don't worry. >> Eight. So I would say sorry try to be efficient. Yes. Um eight is good. Excuse me. With the exception of some things require lengthy discussion. Yeah. Some things excuse me require deliberation. Um I would say school committee meetings are for decision-m action
121and votes. Period. We agree to move the the question when the discussion becomes repetitive. >> Agreed. Or instead of >> Oh, I didn't have to type that. >> Thank you. >> Tracy should be we or the chair. >> Anyone can move that. >> Anyone can move it. Yep. >> Yeah. >> If it's becoming too lengthy and I'm not reading the room, feel free to move it for efficiency purposes. Right. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Robert's rules. There you go. Okay. Nine. Um, I would add to that at the end of committee at a properly posted meeting determined at a properly posted meeting >> and italics. There you go. >> I know there's some unusual things happening with bold and italics. >> I know. Should I take them all off? You want me to take them all
122off? >> Eventually, I would. >> I'm going to take them all out. Distracting. >> They're really distracting to me. They were in our model document, too. And I was like, do we really need this? >> We don't. We don't. >> Okay, I will take them all out. >> So, >> yep. >> Sorry. >> Go ahead, Sandy. >> Official meeting. I was just going to ask why is nine I guess brought up now, not earlier on. >> Oh, earlier in like as an earlier number. >> Yeah, >> I would say let me go back up and see where we can move nine. I will reorder the numbers. >> Make it number two. Make it number two. Okay. >> Make a note with your question. If >> I'm gonna make a note, >> that's one of the
123things that we talked about in in in your opening presentation. Something that's drilled into us when we take the chart charting the course. Is there a need for it to be there at all >> other than as a reminder? I would say it's there as a reminder but again we go back to the public does not always have the training that you have access to. You have heard it many times but I think sometimes the public does not understand that. >> I would agree >> for no it's not a bad thing that someone would not know that. You didn't know what you didn't know until you hit this room and you started getting the training. So I think having it in your operating protocols just helps keep the public informed. >> Sorry just a note.
124Good. >> Okay. 10. >> So these two sentences I feel like they were put together, but do they go together? >> It's fair. >> Like >> it's fair. >> Yeah, >> I think just delete the second one. >> Yeah, I think you've already said up in your first and your original statement. So once you take so basically it's once you take a vote it is voted committee whether it's majority or not and you stand by that. Okay >> that's good. >> Okay 11. >> So I'm not quite sure what the chain of accountability is. I would remove that whole first sentence and let the second sentence stand. I think we can just delete the while the school committee also just end with >> Yeah. >> Agree. >> Yep. >> Economy of words as a teacher
125once said to me, "My daughter's economy of words." In other words, she doesn't expand her thoughts. >> All right. I >> like that. >> 12. Alicia doesn't like this one. >> I just think it's very thick >> and wordy. >> Yes. I I think the school committee will encou encourage debate and differing points of view. Period. >> Period. take out the we want to agree to avoid words and all of that and say and move next to our debates will be conducted with care and respect. >> Yeah. >> Um and I don't know that you necessarily need to say that all members and representatives should raise a point of order. That is the responsibility of everyone if you're going to conduct your discussions with respect. It is everyone's responsibility to say let's keep this respectful.
126It >> could be any member. any member. >> So you would remove that last line. >> I would remove that last line. Yep. >> Okay. Does everyone agree with that? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> It's pre-stated by our debates will be conducted with care and respect. >> So this next one is what we talked about the um the spokesperson for the committee, the chairs. If there is a statement to be put out that the school committee has agreed upon a statement, the statement should come through the chair because the chair is the spokesperson for the committee. It should be agreed upon by everyone, but then the chair would put it out. Sometimes you'll have things where there's media requests, etc. Most of those should be channeled to the superintendent because the superintendent speaks for the
127district, the chair speaks for the committee. >> Yeah. So, we did have a situation like this. So, if we were going to put a statement out, we would have to have a meeting and discuss it in public >> if it's going to come from all of you. >> Yes. Otherwise, it's got to come from the district or the superintendent or like we wrote a letter in public yesterday. >> So, like so Brian drafted it as the chair of a subcommittee and then shared it and we did this in public. >> So, any type of statement we would have to do in public. If it is a statement of opinion on an issue or an event or something like that, the committee has to agree this is by majority what the committee is saying. If it's
128purelyformational, here's the date of our budget hearing. That doesn't require you to get approval from all nine members to say yes, you can send that email. >> And do you have any advice on um media requests to the school committee specifically? Like we get a lot of media requests. So I personally do not have advice for media requests. Do you >> the school committee receiving requests from say the uh the uh clean energy caucus or the uh >> no like >> local paper local paper >> like local paper. So after after a school committee meeting typically we'll get a request from the local paper questions after every meeting. Well, we have two local papers. >> Okay. Um, we may have a difference of opinion on this. >> Yeah, that's okay. >> Because telling somebody they
129can't speak to the press. >> Oh, yeah. >> It's a difference of opinion because telling somebody, whoever they are, that they can't speak to the press is a first amendment violation. >> Right. >> And uh, as you had earlier talked about access to who you could speak to. >> I always joke about this, but this is America. You can speak to anybody you want, but you have to be very careful because you lose control of your words the minute they come out of your mouth. >> Yes. >> So, it calls for great responsibility rather than a rule. Now, if a reporter calls and wants to know what happened at last night's meeting, that's a matter of fact, not a matter of opinion, >> right? >> So, >> and whoever the rep the reporters can call
130whoever they want. They don't have to ask permission. >> Mhm. >> So if a reporter calls a member of the school committee and says what happens at last night's meeting, the member would be well advised to say I'm not the spokesperson for the committee. I could just tell you this is how I feel about this, but I you have to get that from the chair. Uh unless it's a matter of fact. Yes, we did pass this statement. Yes, we did pass this motion. Uh but generally the opinions of the committee would come directly from the chair. >> Okay. >> Um and that you've got to figure out how to wrap that up quickly. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> And always always if you speak directly to a member of the press, say, I'm
131only speaking for myself like you do for anything else. >> I am only speaking for myself. I do not speak for the committee. >> And are you doing any training at your November conference on media? >> I don't know. We've had that question asked a few times. I don't know if we have any panels yet, but we have been asked by a couple of um committees if we have guidance on media interaction. So, >> Oh, >> okay. >> We've got we've got some documents related to media in the in the in the files that I think we could pull out and >> Okay. >> share with you. >> All right. That'd be great. Thank you. >> Chris Chris Han, it's our media consultant. Yes. >> And he will be doing a session where he'll be
132taking open questions from anybody on communications. >> Okay. Great. All right. Um, where are we? >> So, number 14. >> 14. We're almost there. >> So, in 13, move the his or her. >> We move the his or her >> put there >> or just or design is fine, right? >> Yeah. Or would be good, too. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Nice catch. >> All right. So, um, number 14 should go up towards the beginning. Okay. Do you have a number for that? >> Um, what did we move to two? We moved nine to two. >> Two. Do you want to make it three? >> No, make it two and make nine three. >> Okay, number two. Okay. >> It's like I'm calling bingo numbers at this point. >> Sorry. What am I doing?
133>> The nine. >> See, now I can't see anything. >> And that one is three. Okay. Okay. And 15. >> I think that one's fine. >> Although I wouldn't tie it to the self-evaluation because we've done some like playing with the timing around the self-evaluation. Like I think this is a good moment in time to reflect on our protocols. >> Did you want to say annually? >> Yeah, I think just leave it to annually. That's my opinion. I would say that everyone >> good >> because any and all self-ealuation should inform your protocols but your protocol should be reviewed. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Great. >> It's just so tricky and we go this is the problem we run into every single time is that we either do a self-evaluation with a brand new committee who
134has we have no relationship to one another >> or work that we've done together or we do it at the end when a lot of people are rolling off and we're getting new people. So there really is no ideal time to pair those two together. So I think actually when we're a new committee >> because then you're committing to it and you're signing it and making a big deal >> agree to work together is more appropriate than at the end of someone's term who's rolling off. >> Yes. I think reviewing your operating protocols and recommitting them should be tied less to your evaluation cycle and more to when you elect your chair and your officers and when your new members first come on. We're all going to talk about how this on the same foot
135on the same day. This is how we do this. Yeah. >> And I one of the most effective things I've seen is back to how Westford does it is they all vote it. They all sign it. It goes on the website. They talk about it in the meeting. This is how we got to this place. This is our, you know, how we're going to communicate with each other. And then they hold each other to it. But I think making a big deal of of it is a is a really good thing for the committee to do. We put all this work into this is how we're going to be the most efficient committee we can be. >> So um so that comes to the bottom signatures of committee members, representatives, and the superintendent and put
136it on the website. >> Yes. >> So we could vote on this tonight and then do the signing and all of that next week. >> Okay. >> First, I mean, we've just made a lot of changes on the fly. I would >> want to vote it next week. Okay. >> Next meeting. You could consider this your first read and you can wait for the second read. >> I love that. The >> vote. Okay. >> Like you would with any policy, get a second look at it. >> It's always a good idea to get a second look at it. >> And I'd still have a couple of concerns. Five. Five. >> Oh, we're back on five. Okay. >> You know what though? >> We don't have to now if we're doing a secondary next week. >>
137I was going to say it's probably a good idea. There's We just talked a lot. >> Yeah. >> We talked a lot. Let it settle. Come back and take a look at it and make any edits you need to before you vote it. >> Okay. Okay. So, I'm just going to highlight all of five >> cuz we're going to come back to five. I'll clean this up >> and we'll come back to five. Okay. >> Should we go right into goals or >> uh Yes. So, let me stop the share. >> This is protocol. >> Misha, did you have more to present or are you pretty much >> Nope. My last two slides are a question mark and my contact information. >> So, all right. So, we also have this document called practices. >> Yes,
138I saw that. It's interesting that you have I would recommend you only have one document. >> All right. So, see redundant one document. >> Okay. So, that's great. So, we're not going to review that and we're going to go right to goals. I love that. Well, it gets very confusing like practices, protocols, and like okay, why do we need two >> about just so what was the I'm fine with this goes away then yes >> our practices goes away. Um >> is there anything that has to get away and >> sort of seem the go the ground rules for what you do at a meeting get you to the meeting and how we prepare for the meeting. >> Is there is there a necessity for this? >> So what I would say to you about
139this document is that most of this document comes straight out of your policies. >> Okay. It talks about assigning representatives. It talks about subcommittees. It talks about agenda setting. Most of that is in your policy manual already. >> I don't think you need two separate documents. You have your operating protocols. If you felt like you wanted to bring something back to the operating protocols out of this, maybe one or two short things, but I would not keep this entire document because section B of your policy manual, board operations, covers most of this. >> Yeah, >> I'm sold. I would agree with that. >> No, no, no. >> The only other question I had for you on um handbooks, you and I had a a brief discussion about handbooks and you said you were going to
140collect handbooks from different districts. We had one handbook. We had we had a committee that made some updates. Do we need a handbook? Can we use a like this feels handbooky to me? >> Yes. >> The field directors are currently working on collecting um handbooks. There are some districts who do have a school committee member handbook that talks about what the calendar year looks like, the rolling agenda, the year-long agenda. I'm not the rolling agenda, things like that. You don't necessarily have to have a handbook. You should have a place where a new member can go on your website that has here's our current budget, here's all of our current collective bargaining agreements, here's our policy manual, here's our operating protocols. It doesn't have to be a handbook, but it should be where they can
141get all of that information so that the second they're on the committee, they know where to go to get it. >> So, I'll just ask the new members because just easiest to do that. I sent you a document that had all the links to everything in it, like the new member on boarding document with all the links that directs you right in there. And then we have a Google Drive >> that is very um robust, I would have to say, but it's all public documents. Nothing is, >> you know, there there's not exact session minutes. There's nothing like that. It's all publicly facing. So, do you feel as though that's enough as a new member when you step onto this committee? You have a list of things to go through or is it too early
142to evaluate that yet? I guess that would be my question. >> I think it's I think it's early. Um, and one thing that I still would really like is most of you understand the flow of an academic year as a school committee member. We have no clue. So like a year at a glance. Yeah. Kind of. >> Like so this is going to be budget season. This is going to be that season. This is going to be this season. And >> I love a year to glance. >> So So we I know I've told Sandep a few times it's like drinking from a fire hose. So once we are once we are elected and seated but in that little we had a longer interval this year than in past to have an opportunity to look
143at this is how you can expect the calendar year to go as a school committee member and then these are the places where you go get this information that would be that would be golden. >> One of my favorite things in the world is a year-long agenda and I can send you examples of them. That year-long agenda doesn't lock you into just those things, but it you know the numbers are due on October 1st. You know MCCAST results coming like you know when these things are happening. You can anticipate those things. Year-long agendas are one of my favorite things in the world. >> So we have that um we did it Carrie, you were on the committee when we did it. It's kind of like you did it too with Julie. You did the yearong
144>> but that was more um for the chairs. It wasn't I don't think it was shared. Was it? It was probably available but nobody >> I I don't know if I looked at it. It's evolved in my time. Sometimes it's >> okay. So if you could send me examples. Yes, I will send you some examples. No. Yeah, but I think that is a good idea. I mean I think some type of document is >> if you could send me that. >> I can send you Yep. agenda examples. I collect them. >> Okay. >> So Tracy, going back to the question you asked earlier. Maybe I should sit down to talk. Um >> so you did send us a lot of information. Uh and and >> given enough time I can find where everything is. Um,
145but I think finding it quickly will take us time. >> Yes. >> Um, also I I guess with us having a little hiatus over the summer >> um didn't really help the cause, right? Because we come back right now and then it's >> it's right in. Yeah. >> Yeah. And it's harder to find all that information. So even today finding the the protocols, I found it, but it took me like 10 minutes, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I know it's tough to get scheduled over the summer, but I would recommend that this workshop you're doing right now where you look at your operating protocols and stuff, do it over the summer. >> In July, that literally that's what I spent my I spent my summer teaching my son to drive and doing workshops. That's
146what we did all summer. >> Yeah. And I think, you know, we did take a >> we took a break because we needed a break given our spring. So, I think that that's just we needed the break. >> Yes, >> Tracy. No complaints. That was over. No, no, no, no, no. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't worry. >> And I think you we're also we're frontloaded by the fact that >> you have the 250th and that pushed us being seated back. So, we we had several whammies that put us in a way behind the eight bowl. But I think yeah, looking at things earlier in the summer would be golden. >> Okay. All right. So, are we on to questions for you? >> Yes. >> All right. Any questions for Alicia on anything that she >>
147Did we want to go through goals? I think >> Oh, you wanted to go through goals? >> I think we should. >> Yeah. Okay, I'll share that. Hold on. Let me find it. >> And here's the thing. You're going to think of a question tomorrow. Email me, >> text me. >> You're not coming to our next meeting. >> I love when Alicia, >> she'll be doing this at another meeting somewhere else in the Commonwealth. >> Okay, let's share. So I'm I'm going to make a MIA culpa in that um initially in July or uh I guess it was June 10th was our first meeting. I this was forecast to be on u policy protocol and goal setting and we had two goals or our superintendent's goals. We had our our committee's goals in front of
148us but we didn't know anything about goal setting. And I sort of was, so are we going to find out about goal setting? And I searched through and found a packet from mask >> um and was your your learning lunch from January of 22. >> Okay. >> And I sent it out to everybody. >> Excellent. >> So now I So I'm I'm I'm me. That might have been a fauxpaw, but the whole purpose was to get everybody on the same page. So that >> I know we didn't know about goal setting. >> Did you know about goal setting? >> No, I think >> Okay. So, but that's the reason why I did that's why I sent to everybody. But for future reference, I should go to the chairs first. >> So, I would say yeah,
149I would have the chair send it out to everybody just because it'sformational >> and Andrew and I. So we we took a stab at the goals because we have three brand new members and knowing kind of where we left off last year to start out our goals. So this is our draft of what we found we were going to, you know, put forth as a committee to review by the committee. Yeah. >> And so you know our select board does the same thing. So the chair comes up with the goals, the committee sees some feedback on it and then the committee has feedback on it. >> Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And I think when you eventually move to over the summer >> doing operating protocols and things do the goals then >> but for
150now this is yeah this is appropriate to do it this way. >> And I do think it's tricky because Lor so Lor's goals were at the same time. So trying to marry our goals with hers. >> Y >> um >> so here's the thing. You're not always going to have school committee goals that echo the superintendent's goals and the school committee goals are not a way to put more work on the superintendent's >> plate either. The school committee goals are just for the school committee. So having them in tandem is great, but they don't always have to fold in one to one. I think you have really good goals here. What I would suggest for your goals here would be to say um the best goals that I've seen, say the title, so budget. Um
151and then have action items underneath them and then a small note about when you would like those action items to be done by. I I I think that the goals are it's really wonderful that you put them together and have them consolidated. They're particularly for our cons our exact moment in time in conquered there. There's some things that I think we need to speak to that I I think are missing. Um the um and I like the smart goals that we we've gone over the uh something that's um specific, something that's measurable, something that's actionable, resultsoriented, and it's timetracked. >> So, so I'd more to see that in this. But the things that are going on our community now uh addressing hate and anti-semitism and getting a line with the Massachusetts special commission on combating
152anti-semitism um having that and having again a set for how we're going to do it, what we're going to look at and how we're going to measure it. Um looking at educational equity and closing our educational gaps. Um and again having having actionable, measurable and things that we can track and finally uh addressing our communication with two-way communication with our community speaking to and listing um and again ways that we're going to monitor that and follow it and track it to see that we improve over time. So those are those are three things that I I'd want to see. Um >> can we go over the these line by line and we can >> Yes, sure. All right. So, let's start with budget. Um so, do you want to do you want to run this
153part of the discussion? Sorry. >> Yeah. No, budget workshops. Um we need to do that soon. I don't know when Bob will be available to do it, but I think if we we need to put dates to it if they need to be smart. >> Yeah. So, he is putting he's looking at a schedule now to do a date for that and we will likely do it during a school committee meeting. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, maybe >> are we doing that all commit? I thought that was just for new members. Okay. >> So, I guess the question there is is it going to be one workshops maybe, you know, right host one workshop for just the new members or >> Yeah. What do you think? Carrie ran this. You ran the budget workshop before.
154We've done whole committee. We've done committ. >> I actually What do you think? >> I've done it a couple times. Like Bob did it with me and Sharon when we were new and then I sat in on it again cuz I I learned something new. It's so complex. Um >> so I I'm all for it being on committee. >> But I found it it was really helpful when it was just a like a conversation with Bob because you could just ask all of the like, hey, I don't I don't understand this at all. Can you >> please explain circuit breaker to me? s can I think there's benefit to both >> about sort of like sort of breaker again and again and still learn new things >> I still feel like I fuzz out a
155little bit and I'm like >> I don't know I I I tend to think that like a smaller >> so maybe a new member and then a full committee >> and there could be two different things >> well yeah but I think it should be a full committee first and then new member afterwards to clean clean up >> clean up okay these are just really rough notes here that we'll have to clean up Okay. >> I I almost think the opposite. >> Oh, really? >> Yeah. Because cuz the new member one is supposed to be where you can ask like all of the questions you don't want to ask in public. And if you're just like you know what I mean? You're like I don't want to I don't want people to think I'm an
156idiot. >> Can Can Bob meet with all three members at the same time? >> Yes. Because they're not a quorum, >> right? They're not a quorum. Okay. >> Yeah. So Bob can meet with the three of you at once, which would be great. And I I always sit in >> and Lori sits in on that. >> Yeah. Okay. >> I don't really I I just imagine that people are not going to align and then he's going to get the same questions two or three times. >> Oh, no. All together. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, Sharon. I mean Sharon and I at least did it together and then I think it was I did it last year with Julie and somebody else I thought. >> Okay. It was I was going to say I was
157on with Julie. I don't recall if you were on it. >> So So Carrie, I think I think thinking about this maybe having the new member first >> That's what I think. might make more sense >> because then you then you have the cleanup with the whole committee. >> But but the downside of that is that that first meeting might be a lot longer because we're starting at zero, >> right? >> Okay. I'm going to say in September and the full committee it might just I mean that really might just be during the meeting. >> Yeah. Okay. >> That should be in by October because budget's coming quickly. >> I was going to say before budget season is probably appropriate. And we had also talked with the finance committee about um letting them know when
158we were going to do our full committee workshop because they might have members that want to come to understand circuit breaker and chapter 70 funding and all of that. So that was kind of our intention of working with the finance committee to do that >> and that's a new trend to have finance committees in meetings like that so that they can hear the same things that you're hearing so that you have the common vocabulary moving forward. Um and feedback that I hope you is any place where we say finance committee it needs to be >> thank you for town it needs to be towns >> finance committees because we are conquered in carile. Yeah. >> And I think uh >> both town meetings >> the CPS CCSD I think some places we have it called
159out by that and some places we say district. So >> yeah. So just let's just do CPS CCRSD. >> Okay. >> And we need to put dates to those, right? Like >> so this date. Okay. There's going to be notes. I'm really going to we're not going to vote on this tonight. Maybe our next meeting. >> It could just be Q1 of 26. >> Uh Q1 of 26. I'm just putting this on there. >> Guideline. I don't know when we're getting our guideline number and when >> that's probably Q4. Q4. >> No. Oh, Q4 of 20. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Don't we usually get it in >> I was gonna say October. >> November. Yeah, >> it's October. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Qudget Q1 2026. >> Q1. Okay. Okay. Anything else on budget for
160now? >> Yeah. So, the number that works for the town is a little confusing to me. >> Okay. >> I I I don't think I have an answer there. I I just think saying something that works for the town is is hard to judge. >> Yeah. >> Um until the town meeting, right? >> Towards a guideline number period. >> Yeah. Sure. >> Guideline number period. A mutually agreed upon. >> Like, you know what I mean? >> Yeah. I a mutually agreed upon guideline number. >> I mean, that's good. >> We can strive for, but we don't have control over that. But that's our group. >> Yeah, >> that is the end goal of all budget seasons anyway is to try and come to an understanding what >> between the towns and >> so we have
161to like kind of clean this up. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. And then there would be um >> I think you could Sorry. >> Yeah. just cut and paste the >> Sorry, >> maybe you can work on this after. >> Yeah, there's >> Thanks for the notes. >> I can clean it up with the notes. >> Totally fine. Okay. >> Right. >> I think we have enough. >> Michael, you had something. Yes. >> Just go I would go back to just also the first bullet workshop is for new members, but from what it sounds like, we're talking about two meetings. meeting for new member and then the meeting for the for the full committee. >> So first the first bullet doesn't speak to that just talks to >> the second the note below. >> I
162I'll address that. >> Will you address it? >> It's not in the right place. >> All right. You're going to fix it. I'll fix it. Okay. >> All right. Let's move to policy. So here's what I would suggest for your policy goal. Mhm. >> Um, evaluate and ensure current policies are up to date and then task your subcommittee with coming up with a process for going through the policy manual and reviewing it. The full committee doesn't need to tell the subcommittee how they should review the policy manual. the full committee should say subcommittee we are tasking you with making sure that our policy manual is up to date figure out how you want to do that >> I wrote this because as of like June of last year every policy had been touched by the
163subcommittee and so it was good and so going forward I thought it's just changes that come to us or that we want to make >> and we also don't have a policy subcommittee we do it in full committee >> we did last year >> last year we did didn't this year be >> and the plan was not to have one and we also have a lot of working members There won't be as many. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um and again being mindful of what's happening in our community now, >> are there reasons for us to look back at certain policies to make certain that they're addressing our moment now? I I think there are u there's got to be a mechanism in this. I think we need to address since this policy is a
164living document for this committee in this time. That's something that I think we need to address. >> And is that something the MASC has recommendations on >> about how you make sure that so policies come in a couple flavors? >> There's the what a colleague of my call mine calls the choose your font policies. That's like your Corey, your um background checks. You don't get to decide anything in that policy, >> right? Then there's the aspirational policies. This is our mission. This is our vision. This is what we believe in. And then there's the ones in the middle that are a combination of both. So when you're looking at evaluating your policies, are you looking at clearly you want to evaluate the ones that you need to change. Um you need to update your competency
165determination policy, etc., etc. Um and then there are you look talking more about the aspirational policies, the ones that are statements of value. Um yes, but also on on on our functional policy, we've been in the news of late >> and there are as recently as this morning. So looking at our policies to make certain that what we have in place is addressing that. >> So it does say right evaluate >> I was going to say the current policy. Sorry. >> Yeah. Yeah. So that's not necessarily an upto-date. That would be more of a review policy manual to ensure alignment with the district mission, vision, and goals. >> In Carlile, our one of our sub bullets for policy for this coming year, review policies re ensure reviewed policies reflect equity and inclusion goals. >> There
166you go. That's like all right. Say it again. >> So our upto-date >> Just read the I would up to date. >> Yep. and reflect equity and inclusion goals. >> I think we might also need to mention hate and anti-semitism include >> include community values. >> Sorry. Go ahead. >> If you have something about the community values, it'll cover the >> uh but you know the Massachusetts special commission comeback anti-semitism says we need to name it. So, I'd say I think we'd need to name hate and anti-semitism. >> And are you naming those in your policies for MASC? >> Most of our policies are high level policies that include protected classes and things like that. We when we give our policy manual to a district, we're making sure that they are up to date as
167far as what they need by the state. We don't necessarily make recommendations for what their mission and vision and goals policy should look like. That should be every district should have their own I >> think our moment calls for that though. I'm just hesitant because I mean we got an email yesterday and I thought it >> there was value in it that you like >> in some ways you're like you can't highlight one group over >> that's why I'm saying hate and anti-semitism not highlighting one looking at all the flavors of hate >> so then do we have to name everything out or I mean I We're going to have to look at I mean some of >> you need to decide what policies you're looking at. Yes. Knowing the policies the way I know
168them certain things are going to matter differently in different places. >> So I wonder if there's a look at certain policies you think need review because of what you're talking about >> or saying that this that is a guide for us to if we're under equity what was the wording that you used Brian? >> Equity and inclusion. equity, inclusion, hate, anti-semitism. There may be a bunch of different policies. I can think of the policy on bullying, the policy on on on harassment. Uh those policies are going to be called to. But >> those are very legislated policies. So that would have to be part of the discussion. But but but I think if our goals tell us, our institution, and our community what's important to us at this moment in time, our institution, our community,
169um we might need to speak to that something something for us to consider. >> So you're saying to put it in the goal? >> Yeah. But in terms of the policies though, we would need guidance from MASC and and you know to look at which policies we're actually looking at because like it would be the non-discrimination policies. It could be but they're all legislative, right? >> A lot of section A is legislative. A lot of your non-discrimination and harassment policies are legislative. There are some things that are in the instructional section and the um the student section that talk about students rights um access to an equitable education. So there's a couple of others in other places. There's also the there's like I said the mission and vision goals kinds of policies that can be
170the introductory statements to a section. >> So like you right now I think have all of our model policies. I think it would be a matter of determining which of those model policies you wanted to adapt to have more conquered carile centric information sentiments in them. >> I actually wonder if um this like responding to this current moment in time belongs in the communication and collaboration. It's all about collaborating with our community partners versus because our policy is like they are >> I mean maybe it's both but I actually think it's collaboration. I think it's both because it again this tells us that we will look we will use this as a guide to look at our policies and in our communication it tells us that that will also be mirrored in how we communicate
171in the things that we highlight when we discuss when we discuss how we are and how we expect to be >> just add the note and then I'll okay I'll look at I'll add it in some way in this we'll add I'm just going to write anti-semitism and hate Yeah, >> I'm trying to figure out how you put that into a sentence. >> Well, it could be like it could be like you put that into a sentence anti-semitism and hate or something like that's not an that's not a beall end all but right >> calls it out. >> Well, and I do think that you know so we do have you in the room Alicia and Glenn and if you're wondering how to put it in a in a sentence is this something we should
172be embarking down >> for this part of the goal. So I would say it's always a good idea to make sure that your policies and your policy manual reflect the goals of the district, reflect the values of the community and the goals of the district. So it's it's fine to have it in a goal. I would say what policies you then end up looking at. Um you want to make sure that you are staying within the legislative things that you need to stay with staying within MGL's um adding things to the aspirational policies as needed along the lines of your mission and your vision and your um like your strategic plan, things like that. I would say you can also run things by your district legal counsel if you feel like there's wording you want
173to add to a policy that feels very choose your font run it by your district legal counsel and see what they think about that language. >> Okay. >> So So sorry I'm I'm anytime we're reflecting the equity inclusion goals anti-semitism all that I I don't know how we make that into a smart goal. >> It's it's it's almost like that's a goal we'll never achieve. [Music] So how do we make that measurable? I don't know. and get to make it measurable in a collaboration like >> yeah collaborating with our community partners towards a um you know a community >> of like a positive culture of you know no hate and anti- you know like we can work with it but like I think that belongs in in the collaboration because it means that we're all
174in this together this moment from a policy perspective I actually >> I think that it is the law we it It is our obligation to ensure that um students are not that students are safe that there is no harassment that there's no bullying. That is the law. That is not a a value statement. Although it is our value >> my perspective >> but we measure our success at it by looking at our goals by putting a metric looking at the incidents are what's our dashboard for. if we're not going to look track what what has been happening and look at whether our policy is improving things or not and so that's why I think it needs to be stated in our policy and it can be made in a spark goal because we have metrics
175that we can look at we look at our metrics >> but that's part of the the communication collaboration right that's that's >> no no it's part of our policy it's also in our communication because our communication should fit with our policy so it can be in both places, but I don't think we know that we're getting better at it unless we're tracking it. We don't track it, unless we look at our policies and make certain that they are uh uh consistent. >> Here's what I would suggest. I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. Go ahead. >> Here's what I would suggest. Moving communication and collaboration above policy because then that will inform the communication and collaboration that informs the policy goal. And it's sometimes goals, the metrics as to whether or not you've achieved them.
176Sometimes they're quantitative, sometimes they're qualitative, sometimes it's an action. And the action is reviewing our policies and having the policy come after the communication and collaboration. Maybe what you need first is to find out what the concerns are before you actually start addressing them in the policies. >> Well, and I think when I'm I'm hearing some different things around the table of where people want it. So, I think we have to just figure out where do we want it. Um, and maybe we can just go around the table and I I don't know what else to do besides that. Sandep, you had an opinion. >> Signed to clean this up. So, >> go ahead, Andrew. >> Oh, boy. I mean, I don't think it hurts to have it in multiple places and so I'll take
177the action to clean it up and >> All right, we're going to let Andrew clean it up. >> I'm going to try it offline without all the voices and then we can react to it next next week. >> Okay. I'm going to put it in both places and we're going to That's your note. Okay. >> So, now we have to communication now that I moved it up. >> Um, this is where I do I I mean I I felt strongly about providing um some information to the community and that is you know that goes through the district bulletin, school newsletters, newspaper all of those things. I think Michael had mentioned one point on on the communication is you know exploring additional avenues for two-way communication that might be something we can put on there >>
178and in the past we've done coffees and things like that you know we've talked about podcasts right talked about podcast different podcast is one way though right one way >> yeah I mean unless you let people call in >> a call-in show >> radio show. >> Do I know we do have a radio station? >> Yeah, there you go. Do you have a Tik Tok? Cuz I feel like you could do some like >> I don't know. >> I love Tik Tok, but I love Tik Tok, too. >> Question which, you know, I had in the back of my mind at some point. Are there any kind of social media channels that we cannot use for for guidelines? >> So, here's the thing. I would say there's not I would never say don't use certain
179social media things. I would say Glenn will tell you don't use I would say not don't use things but there's so much out there don't spread yourself so thin that your message is getting diluted >> that you know keep it into as narrow of a channel with the most effective information possible because people are bombarded with absolutely everything right now from every direction. I make the joke about Tik Toks, but I know someone who the town had a Tik Tok and there was a video of someone like flipping a sign in front of the library and I'm like, are you really reaching anyone with this? It's quiet because I knew the guy, but >> keeping the channel is effective, I think. >> Yeah. I I also um and I frame this as a question because
180I mean it as a question, but I I actually wonder if not to put this on Lori, but like I actually wonder how much external communicating do we really need to be doing and um is it more >> more of the district doing more communicating >> on behalf of >> the committee like like I think I don't think people I don't think our work Yes, it's very important and we have to be communicating but I think it needs to be coming from the district. That's you have the channels, you have the audiences and um >> let's not forget story of the school which we've been working on like >> finishing that and are there other last time we talked about it that would become a district project a district document like that would be something
181they own not future committees. >> So maybe we put story of the school in here finishing story of the school and transitioning to the district. How about that? I well I I guess one question would be I wonder if it's worth the communications working group sitting down and coming up with some goals for for communications for I don't know >> maybe I'm sorry I'll let you go. >> We need to keep in mind that the majority of the community does not have children in our schools >> 100%. >> So so when we're talking to the community we're talking to >> all of us. Yes. and and and this smaller subset has children in our schools and but we need all of us to understand what's going on and so every tool that we have uh
182be it Tik Tok be it Mand media be it coffees be it the story of the schools they all are important and we need to figure out which and how which which one gets the most pen managements and which one to lean on, but I think we need to lean on all of them a bit. I guess um Alicia, do you have any thoughts on is this >> do you see committees doing a lot of external communication like you know social media and newsletters and >> podcasts and radio and all of that or or sometimes but I think most of what the committee will do is amplify what the district is doing because the district knows which kids can be in which pictures the district knows what's happening in the buildings if the committee move
183if the committee more makes their actions to amplify what's happening in the district um telling the district's success stories and then communicating what the committee is doing. I think that's a better way to do that. >> So, I'm going to have to agree with Michael here, Carrie. Uh I I I think it is our role and responsibility as shown in that chart earlier to be that conduit of information um to the community. So certainly amplifying what Lori is putting out there is great, but but I think that responsibility falls into our bucket. >> But then again, I've been here two months, so I don't know. >> I would say again, you could communicate for the committee. The superintendent should be communicating for the district. >> Yeah. If you're amplifying the superintendent's communication, that's great, but
184the the superintendent should be the only person speaking for the district. So you're saying that first bullet is Lor's goal, communicate monthly articles for the district. We would have a separate goal. >> So maybe we just take this out. >> Yeah. Communication. >> I think we just take this out. >> And I think, you know, as much as >> No, I don't think you take it out. I think you amplify >> amplify. Yeah. Change it, I guess. >> Amplify district communication with broader community or something like that. >> Okay. >> Amplify. Okay. And in the interest of time, I'm going to try and move people along. amplify uh dis district district communication. Andrew, you're really going to clean this up. >> And it's fine, Alicia. Like, if >> we give this to Andrew as chair
185to clean up for the next meeting. We've all discussed this and he really cleans up these goals prior to our next meeting, we could vote it at the next meeting. And we may not all agree on it. >> I don't think we will. I think next next week would be first read because there's still a lot of work to do. I would think that next week would be final read for the policing >> protocols. protocols, >> but this means our goals are not getting approved till October, >> which is fine. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Rather have better goals. >> Better goals. All right. >> Approved too early. >> Well said. >> And Carrie, I think this should be full committee. I'm going to take working group out. >> That's fine. >> If that's okay.
186>> Yeah. >> All right. So, in the interest of time, I'm moving us right down to superintendent evaluation. And then Andrew will clean all of this up and you'll put the timeline in and everything else. >> Um, >> I'll make them all smart goals. >> Make them all smart goals. You got to We got a lot of work to do, >> but I'll send I'll send it around, you know, to the committee. >> Yeah. >> Um, one comment on the superintendent evaluation. Uh, I I know the actual evaluation takes place every two years. um probably have something in there to provide timely feedback as not necessarily as part of the evaluation process, but you know, uh if we see progress in certain area or or we'd like you to do work in certain area, just
187let her know sooner rather than later. >> We have some really good resources on superintendent evaluation that when I send you the year-long agenda and a couple other things, I will send those as well. We have a learning lunch on it. We have a couple of workshops that we've done. So yeah, we have really good resources on that. Okay. Okay. So we're going to leave our goals for now. >> Tracy, one more thing. Go ahead. >> One question. >> That first bullet under our superintendent uh evaluation. >> Yeah. >> We say continue to review because we're already doing that review, right? So just add continue to >> continue to. Thank you. And separate thing u before we leave goals when we going to be re evaluating your goals that you put out uh Lori >>
188will we be doing that? >> So Lori's going to So Lori's not on an evaluation year this year. We're just evaluating her list. >> No, not not evaluating her. Evaluating looking at the goals. >> We're going to look at her goals. Yes. Okay. We're going to look at her goals throughout the year and she's going to provide some evidence of where you see the goals. kind of like her weekly update that you just sent this week that you had the rubric on it. >> Give you a big flow of evidence. >> She's giving us a big flow of evidence. Is >> that quarterly though? >> So, um >> yeah, that that's just the weekly. >> That was just the weekly one, but probably formative update. Is is this a formative? So, what will then happen
189is at the end of the year it will be the conversation when I send you guys the there's a lot of >> stuff in there about what that conversation should look like, etc. myself. >> Okay, that makes sense. All right, so we're going to move on from this. Our discussion items are getting really quick. After that, I'm going to stop sharing. >> We have Peter coming on it in 5 minutes. >> Yeah, we do. So, we can do this in five minutes or less. Um I think that I didn't properly vote the first item. So, I am just going to um entertain a motion to approve the Conquer Carile Foundation grant awards just to make sure we did did it. >> Seconded. >> Okay, Carrie moved it. Michael seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? >>
190Thank you. >> I thank you. Big thank you. >> Um our practices and protocols, we are not going to vote on that. So you can check that off. And our goals, we're not voting on that. School committee leaison, you had that in your packet. So I think we just have two openings. Let me just take one look. And I've just put them as TBD at this point. Um, >> did you say access? We can let Alicia. >> Yeah, we're almost done. She almost done. Took two seconds. >> Oh, if you need to leave. I'm just saying. >> No, no, I was just sending myself. >> Okay. Okay. Peg advisory. Do we have any takers on that since last week? >> When I said >> TBD, >> if nobody's there, put me in, right? >> You
191win, Sandep. >> You win. >> No one sign. >> Okay. Sand Deep wins on that. >> Congratulations. >> Wow. Congratulations. Um, and I would just ask for backups on the warrant signers because we just learned that tonight. So, uh, >> suppose Michael will be a backup. >> I'll do it. >> I'll be a backup. >> Okay. >> Do you want to be a backup? >> Sure. >> You're all over him. I love it. >> All right. CPS. CPS for Andrew. You're Andrew's backup. And Carrie Regent. >> Sure. >> Okay. Okay. So, um, >> so Bob better hurry up and get that uh that review together so I'll know what I'm doing. So basically it just means if Brian Brian doesn't reply in a timely manner, they can ask me if I approve it. >> Yes.
192Or if Brian goes away and he's on a fantastic trip to Greece or maybe something like that and he's on a boat or something, he can't do it. You could do it. >> Hypothetically speaking, >> but I don't need to reply on a regular basis. >> Nope. >> Correct. >> If that was the new normal, >> just the backup. >> Okay. So if they can't do it, they will re it's their responsibility to reach out to you and say you got to be my backup. So I entertain a motion to approve the school committee assignments for 2526. >> So moved. Second. >> All in favor? >> Any discussion? Any discussion? Further discussion. >> Oh. All in favor? >> I. >> Um and last up is the AI policy. The Mic will love this. We have
193an AI policy. We did a first read at our last meeting. Um >> all of it. >> I don't know. >> Policies make me nervous. >> I know. So we have a policy >> very broad >> it's very broad very broad so I would entertain a motion to approve the AI policy and guidelines >> so moved >> sorry I have some comments on those >> yeah you can wait let's get a second first second >> okay discussion go ahead >> so the the AI policy and the AI guidance the AI guidance uh there were a couple of areas where I don't think there is proper alignment. Um, >> Thank you, Alicia. >> Watch your emails. I'm going to send you some more stuff. >> Awesome. Thank you, Glenn. >> Thank you both very much. >>
194So, and and I don't know if that uh alignment needs to happen. So, that's that's the first question. I'll give you an example. Uh the GI guidance talks about you know how enforcement will happen, but that's not necessarily specified in the >> in the policy. Yeah, policy. >> So required. >> Do you want to talk about policy? >> Policy typically doesn't have that level of detail in it. It refers off to something else, which is why the guidelines and we actually purposely had the guidelines refer to our codes of conduct in the student handbook to just be sure everything aligns and not have separate documents. So >> that'll drop the number of questions by a lot. And it's and it's one of these things that policy sits with us >> and how um you kind
195of enact the policy sits with the district in the day-to-day operations. >> Um then I think the only other thing I want to bring up is that the scope of the AI policy is teachers and students uh and the generative AI guidance had students, teachers, families and others. So >> is that >> that was intentional when we worked with the group of teachers that we wrote it with you know this group so focuses on policy they were very focused on the other side so we had to keep trying to address what their needs were in the guidance but some of it didn't feel like it fit in policy and to Al you know Alicia's reaction is why like we're just trying to stay very broad in the policy these are going to have to come
196back a few times I think we just wanted something to start with so those are feedbacks and I think we'll know more as we start really getting into the work. >> So, and actually there there's kind of a misprint on here. We're only approving the policy and not >> Yeah, I guess that's true. >> Yeah, but but I wanted to make sure the policy was in line with it. >> In line with it. Exactly. Exactly. >> That's it. >> I I found a typo, but I can't and then I took a note and I can't find it. >> We'll read it in the policy. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, any more discussion? Okay. All in favor? >> I >> Okay. And with that, >> what about the July minutes? >> Oh, the July
197minutes. We forgot the July minutes. Um, those are in the drive and those were with the amendment that Michael proposed at our last meeting. So, it was in the red. >> And so, I have a I only have one copy of the the amendment. Um >> I think I put the I put the full um minutes in the drive. You want me to share that? >> Do you guys want to see that? >> Okay. Here are the July minutes. >> That's the amendment, right? >> With the amendment. >> So everybody see that? >> No, I can't. >> Sorry. So, how do we want to proceed with this? Do we >> Okay. So, let's Why don't you make a mo Why don't you make a motion? >> A motion to >> approve the July 22nd minutes
198as written and then we have to amend it. We want to do that. >> Um, yeah, I'm happy to do so. Um, I will make a motion to approve the July 22nd minutes as originally written. >> I'll second. >> Okay. >> Now discussion. >> Discussion. >> So, did you want to start? >> Sure. Um, at the time I was the commenter, I've gone back a few times and reviewed the original minutes and then reviewed the videotape. And I add the amendment only because that section of our conversation that touched on the other mechanisms for communication weren't shown. That that that flavor wasn't related. in the original minutes and this relates what was was said by the uh regional chair and the chair of the working group at the time. So, what I was just going
199to say is I was not at this meeting, but I did watch the recording this week. And I just think some of the language here maybe there's a mix between what has been done to date versus going forward. And so, I just wonder if we need to tweak the language. I actually wrote how I would tweak it if that is helpful. But there's a matter of last year the charge was very much the story of school the print version and then there was this in the future other modes of communication besides print um were discussed and I agree they were all like social media radio podcast inerson listening sessions were discussed for something to consider in the future. um I didn't hear a commitment to look at all of them. So that's where I'm just
200I'm hesitant with this language because um I don't know that it it this language to me makes it sound like there's more of a commitment to social media radio podcast in in person listening than I heard in the recording. But again, I wasn't there. And and the only thing I'll say is I I wish that um Alicia had talked about a word about minutes which is on the MAC website that minutes are not to be a transcription of the meeting either. They're supposed to capture who's present votes. It's actually very minimal what we typally capture. Um well actually we capture more than what is necessary for us to capture. So it's who's present, what votes were taken, what actions were taken, and it doesn't have to be a transcript. So, I can really go either
201way on this. Um, but I think we need to just do it really expediently. >> Well, Brian, do you want to just read what you proposed? >> So, I would just say the communication work the first sentence is the same, but the communication working group chair regional chairing committee recalled the 2024 charge to the working group to enhance communication between administration, school committee, and our community. Following the update from Mrs. Ranken. The committee discussed other forms of communication to consider including social media, radio, podcast, and inerson listening sessions. The end. >> Okay. >> Because I don't know that the joint chair superintendent have looked at any of these other ones yet. And the third sentence makes to me made it sound like it was happening already. >> I was not actually looked into anything yet.
202So, um, >> so do we want to end amend the minutes or just leave them as is? That's what we're talking about. We have a motion on the table with the minutes as is. >> And the minutes as is >> as not the red. >> Not the red. Brian discussed an additional change to the red. So, I think we first have to decide. >> Are we going to amend? >> Yeah, >> I think we should amend my opinion. So, do you want to make a motion to amend? >> Wait, shouldn't we vote? No. Like, do we need to vote down? >> I'm happy to withdraw my motion to approve. >> Approve the minutes. Okay. Brian's withdrawn his motion to approve. >> So, then can you make a new motion, Brian >> or Michael? >> I
203would make a motion to amend the minutes and I'm open to the language either that I have or the language proposed by Brian. >> So, we have one second. Do we need a I feel like we need a more concrete again. >> We need a one or the other. I think we have to decide one or the other. >> I make a motion to amend the minutes as described by Brian Wat. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> I'm fine with that. >> Good with that. You good with that? Okay. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi, Brian. For the um purpose of our minutes, can you send that along that language along to Aaron Higgins? >> Yes, please. >> And we're going to amend those minutes. So, we voted on the amendment. Now, do we have
204to approve the minutes with the amendment or we good? We're good. >> I thought we were fine. I think we're fine. Okay. >> Wait. No, because we just voted on the amendment. We just >> We voted on the amendment and not on actually approve the minutes. So I didn't entertain a motion to approve um the July 22nd minutes as amended. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> No. All in favor? >> I. And with that um I will adjourn the region. Thank you very much for car members. And >> um you want to read? >> Yep. The conquered school committee will enter into executive session under purpose three of the open meeting law to conduct strategy sessions concerning whether to hear step four grievances filed by CTA and we will not return to
205open session. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> We have to roll call. >> Roll call. Excuse me. Her check I uh I >> Morano Iard I >> rank and I skipped you. >> No. It's CPS. CPS only. >> Okay. Sorry. No, >> William's eye.