001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the school committee meeting of November 17th to order. Could we all stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I couldn't decide. >> I know we were looking all over the place over there. >> Mr. Ling, would you like to read the mission statement? >> Yes, absolutely. Um, Fouthmouth Public Schools mission. The Felmouth Public Schools creates worldclass student learning experiences. Our Clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity, integrity, and resiliency. Felmouth Public Schools vision. Clippers are creative, inquisitive, and engaged learners who participate in their community as socially responsible citizens. Clippers effectively communicate and solve problems that impact the world
002around them. >> Thank you. >> Now, I'll read the recording statement. This meeting of Felmouth Public School Committee is being recorded in accordance with Massachusetts open meeting law. Anyone who wishes to make an audio or video recording of this meeting must first notify the chair. Please raise your hand and make your presence known if you intend to record the meeting. Thank you. Um so we're moving on to uh public comment and uh or actually let me just make a few comments about our agenda tonight. We're going to move on to public comment because our students are going to make their presentation at 6:30. So, we want to give them an opportunity to um gather and rehearse. Also, our public comment tonight is abbreviated um because we would like for our town meeting members to be
003able to join town meeting at 6:50. We'd like to adjourn the meeting then. And to that end, we only have one person signed up for public comment tonight. >> Glenda, can I add my name because I didn't see the signing sheet. Um, let me read the statement and then we can um, so public comment will be limited tonight to 10 minutes. Members of the public are welcome to speak during public comment. Comments will be limited to two minutes in length. Due to the open meeting law, the committee cannot respond to or act on public comment. Additional comments and feedback can be submitted by email to school committee at falmouth.k12.mma. k12.mma us and yes we we we will take you um and miss Deian Rockwood first. >> Good evening Deian Rockwood peace found. Two weeks ago
004the superintendent attended a staff meeting at Ticket Elementary School. At that meeting, she spoke to us and answered questions and I appreciated the conversation conversation that had just begun. Dr. Dur said that she will be presenting to year her findings and clearly stated Ticket will be recommended as the early learning center. This is based on her extensive conversations with preschool staff over the past year because, and I quote, they are the experts and we need to listen to the experts, right? That statement bothered me because I consider the elementary teaching staff members to be experts as well. Yet, there's been no year-long conversations with any of us. Therefore, I asked if she would make an effort to give us the same opportunity to share advice on the impacts of closing an elementary school. She came
005one week ago tonight to speak only to tea ticket staff. No other elementary school staff are invited to join, nor is there a followup or continuation of such discussions planned as far as I know. I ask you to consider this before you hear her recommendations in two days and give the experts a chance to weigh in before you make your decision. This recommendation affects every elementary school in this district, and I'd rather not be part of a plan that sends staff and students running for this door instead of making us an education destination. As I mentioned earlier, I consider this a good beginning. We should be nowhere near the end, in my estimation, near the end of a decision without a strategic and inclusive plan. Not nearly enough credit is being given to the exceptional
006burden that these plans to turn four in elementaryaries into three will place on both the students and staff in K through 4 and for several years potentially fifth grade as well. Please consider Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I'm sorry. I should have said, could you state your name and your address too, please? >> Um, Megan Vodley, Carrot Chef Road. Thank you for letting me speak. Um, good evening. I'm here asking a simple question that no one in this district has answered. Why is this administration fighting so hard to preserve a uniform that violates Massachusetts settled case law? Contradicts our own district policies fueled discrimination at Lawrence and financially burdens families with zero evidence that it improves learning behavior, academics, or test scores. Massachusetts courts have already ruled students have the right
007to determine their own dress and appearance unless it causes disruption. Our administration knows this. The ACLU advises against restrictive dress codes for this very reason. And across our state, 95% of districts do not enforce a code like ours. So why are we clinging to something that is legally vulnerable, socially inequitable, and academically irrelevant? Families are paying for it, students are being disciplined under it. And the inconsistencies across our own district, schools with no uniform next to a school with one, undermine any claim of fairness or necessity. Worse, it has opened the door to discrimination, something we have already witnessed and documented at Lawrence. So again, why keep it if it does not improve learning? If it contradicts settled law, if respected civil rights organizations reject it, if nearly every district in Massachusetts has abandoned it,
008and if it disproportionately harmed certain students, what purpose is it serving? The answer cannot be control for the sake of control or it has just been this way since 2011. Our school is not an innovation school any longer. This uniform was never a requirement for funding to become an innovation school. And this uniform is not helping students or families. Our policies must be lawful, equitable, and defensible. This dress code is none of these things. >> Thank you. Thank you. You can take one. >> Our next item on the agenda is the superintendent's update. >> Thank you. Uh so just I mentioned before at a uh one of my updates about uh Desi moving to uh uh release staff attendance data and so I we did not have a clear date at that time. Um so
009tomorrow November 18th is when they will release it. It will be done by groups. Um it will be teachers, administrators and then total staff. Um that includes everyone in addition to teachers and administrators. Um it will be averages. Um so it's it's not disagregated but um it will be released and um had start with last year's school data. Um wanted to to speak a little bit about our last meeting when we were talking about navigating the future together and it it was clear to me that um there are still questions um that has uh come up about um the grade configuration. And so what I um would like to do is that at the November 24th meeting, I'd like us to focus on um the fifth grade and then at the December 9th meeting, uh
010focus on 8th grade so that we can have a little bit longer conversation about each separately. Um I I know that our presentation we had a lot of presenters, there was a lot of information and uh I think maybe reviewing it but in smaller chunks may be helpful and uh I will also um the principles will be back to speak and um and possibly some additional uh people to that can help bring some clarity I think to to uh to any questions that the school committee has. So um I will be asking for that to be on the agenda. Um, I just uh wanted an update on SNAP. Um, the stat the statistics that just came out um that uh we have 1.1 million uh in Massachusetts residents who are on SNAP um to be
011able to afford food. 32% are children. Um and so I that's just such a high number and I just wanted to kind of you know bring back home what we're trying to do and um you know the the Falmouth service center um Fmouth um human um services uh our cake pit meals you know there's a lot of help out there and I just um hope that like you know we'll continue to try to get the word out and even though I know that the um at least some of the uh SNAP benefits will um are beat and returned. There are still families struggling. And so I just want to make um the comment. But when I when I saw that it in Massachusetts is 32% um as children, that that really kind of brought it
012home for me and I just wanted to to share that. So um the more we can um share that and and share where um families can go um then, you know, I think you know, the better. So we can all just kind of help out. And for my um year of the Clipper uh um updates, I attended the national um mathematics honor induction ceremony last Thursday at Belmont High School. Uh we had an impressive 54 juniors and seniors inducted. This is one of the largest um in since I've been here in any recent history that anyone can ever remember that we had so many students. And so it was just a it was a really wonderful night. And even though our um student advisor uh Isabelle uh Grayson is not here tonight, she was one
013of them that was inducted. So I just wanted to let you know that your school committee liaison is um was inducted. And since Mr. Bush is here, I'm going to also mention that his son Lucas was also inducted and quite an honor night, but we had lots of students. I'm just so proud of all of them. Um but it was a it was a great night and great turnout. So, and my last um update, Silus Gardner, and you may remember him. I mentioned him last year. He won um the uh division 2 state championship last year. He won on Saturday. So, it is really um rare for a student to win two state championships. Um and so uh his time he won uh he won by 10 10 seconds this year and he beat his
014last year's um uh time um by 2 seconds. So he was faster this year over last year. So what a great day. Congratulations to Silus and he's on to the England um uh championship um this this coming weekend. So >> that's cross country. >> Cross country. >> Sorry. Did I Did I miss that when I said that? Thank you for clarifying. >> Appreciate it. And uh that will conclude. I tried to be short because I know we have to we have to get out of here. >> Thank you, Dr. Door. >> Oh, sure. >> Um just one question. So, um will you be able to send us this the attendance data when Desi releases it because we don't have to try and figure out Yes. how to >> Yes. I do have I already have
015the link ready. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any other questions of Dr. Dor? Okay. Um, our next agenda item is to act on some policies. So, the first one is act on policy IKF conditions to receive a FEMA diploma. And so, um, uh, we had a first read on this. This is um all came about uh and updating our policy uh because of the competency determination uh where was the 10th grade MCCAST and then um and when the MCCAST uh went away for a high school graduation. We still have testing um but uh not for the uh high school graduation. Um we needed to rewrite and so this is um the model policy we pretty much followed um made it um uh found a specific um in uh certain areas but this is uh following
016all the rules from Desi and how this was um trying to move forward. So I recommend the school committee adopts. >> Okay. Um, I don't think we have anybody on Zoom, so we can do a voice vote. >> Do you want a motion? >> Yes, >> I'll make a motion. I'll second it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so all in favor? >> I >> Any opposed? >> Any abstain? >> Okay, it's passed. The next one is acting on policy BH public participation at school committee meetings. And so this was the um policy that we updated based on the work that of I believe it was goal two, wasn't it? >> Y of last year. Uh and um so this policy is now uh updated and um all revisions considered >> as we had stated last
017time. So ready to go. >> I'll move to accept E D H. I'll second that. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? Okay. Thank you. Moving along. Acting on MBL science discovery field trip December 9th to 11th, 2025. >> I'll happily make that motion. I didn't get there too soon. >> Sorry. >> I got one that's gone. >> Go ahead. Sorry. >> It's okay. >> Do you want to go with that before? >> No. Can we hear then we'll take a motion? >> Get ready. Um this is uh the uh partnership that we have with MBL um that we started several years ago and our students actually get to to go to uh MBL and stay and it's a um 3-day um opportunity um to just really dig in and
018it's a little different each year um uh in what in what the the focus is but they get to work directly with the scientists and and in past years we've always had after we have the students come and share what they what they've done. So, I highly recommend that we continue with this. Kids are really excited. This is growing in popularity. >> Would anybody like to make a motion? >> I'm going to make that. >> Kelly, you >> I'm on a roll. >> Okay, good. >> Lori, just curious, what age group is that? >> High school. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstain? All right, we've passed it. Let's keep moving. right along here because our friends um from Lawrence are going to uh be
019with us until 6:30. So um our next uh item of business is routine business. We are charged with approving the minutes of October 28th. I'll make a motion to approve them with one edit. Um I'm pretty sure that Ms. Russell's name has two L's under um discuss and act on article 15. >> I will second that with that edit. >> Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Uh all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstain? >> Okay. Thank you. Uh moving along to committee reports. >> I have two. Um, we're still waiting on FBA to ratify the contract, but when it gets done, it'll be back at us. Um, and then the other thing is just a good news. I you didn't share, so I'm going to share. Um, that a lot of us were at the
020MASC conference last week attending many amazing sessions. Um, but one of them was our staff presenting on our um, expansion of farmtot and scratch cooking and it was very wellreceived. And there were snacks, of course. Chef Laura brought snacks which were delicious and uh it was it was great to be able to hear the full story of how the the lunches have changed over time and people seem to really enjoy it and we're excited to follow in our footsteps. So congratulations to everybody. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you for presenting. >> I knew I knew you would want us to talk about that. That's exactly why I left that off because I was like oh I'm going to leave off this >> question. Um, do we have any indication when the um, union will ratify
021the contract viol? >> I haven't heard anything. Have you heard anything? >> Can I just make a comment about the Friday's presentation? There was a lot of really good dialogue uh, from the folks that sat in on the session. Lots of questions. Um, how did we get here? How did how was it self- sustaining? It was it was really um, it was nice to hear positive things. It was nice to hear people engaged and um I I thought it was great. >> So, with that said, thank you. I'm going to add on something. I I really want to thank the school committee that um that supported the idea of having a school community chef. Uh it really has been um a great addition to Fmouth. Um we have we you know, we're still we're still
022moving and we'll continue to to add more items to the menu, but it has really been wellreceived. Um the menu items are great. The harvest of the month has been really, you know, great. Kids learning, you know, new things to taste and how you can make them. And it's just um and and the engagement with the kids. Um Chef Laura gets right out there and then they get to say yay nay or not sure, you know, and it's and they really engage in conversations. So kids are learning to try to identify um different flavors that's in the the food. And it's um it's really remarkable. and you and you know you you took a chance on us. You know, we we came to you. We believed that this was going to be sustainable. We believed
023that um if we put this in place, I mean, we had we have the the school um nutrition program funds to get started and we knew we could definitely go a couple years and we were told we had to spend down our money, but we we had a belief that when we change um the meals that we're presenting, then participation will go up and it absolutely has gone up. Um one of the things and I'll just you know share we shared at the presentation you know we had a target of um 60%. Um all the elementary schools has surpassed that uh and the other schools are edging right up to it and so we are there and at this point it is self- sustaining um program and you know so when we bring good things
024we can actually um be able to afford it. So, I just I just wanted to share and back to the whole school committee that that's um I really appreciate, you know, the the belief in us and and uh and supporting that effort >> and thank you for sharing that with your colleagues. That's great. Um thank you, Kelly. Uh staying to this side of the table, any other committee reports at the side of the table? We talked about policy. Margaret, >> well, it's not really um not really a committee report, but I was at the meetings. Um there's a few things at the meeting that are very important that I will send out. And I will also send out >> I'm sorry, Margaret, which meetings? >> The precinct meetings? >> No, I mean the meeting school
025committee meeting at in Hyets for three days. >> Oh, okay. That one. There have been a bunch of meetings. Sorry. >> MC. >> Okay. Okay. And then I will send out um cliff notes in terms of the sessions I attended. Um and I am making a request that we have a workshop with Sean Sean Castella we got in operation pro protocols. Not a motion. I'm just suggesting that we do that. I um would if I if I may uh Sean Costello uh presented at the same time as our district um Margaret with the sacrifice and went to see uh Sean's presentation and I believe that's the presentation that Margaret is speaking of. Um, it's called Outlier Behaviors. And, uh, I had also thought it would be a great idea if Sean could come down and
026present to our district. Um, for a variety of reasons. I verbally spoke with him and sent him an email. So, it shouldn't be it shouldn't come as a surprise. Um, hopefully he'll reach out to leadership and we can work it out. >> I just want to clarify, I'm not suggesting that he do that workshop. I'm suggesting that he they do a larger frame of operating protocols because I think that those operating pro protocols will inform other behavior and I'm hoping that it will be the first of several workshops that you will be able to come and do. Great. >> Um just a a question Margaret, do you feel that we can wait until we have our winter retreat or do you you would like to have it? >> No, I'm asking for it now. >>
027Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, seeing that there's no other routine Oh, well, committee reports, requests for followup. I don't know if this is a request for follow-up, but at the precinct meetings, uh, my precinct meeting, um, I I heard from, um, a couple people talking about, well, it was in relation to the school safety items, um, articles five and six, but um, not specifically to do with police details. It was more one woman was really expressing a lot of concern and um anxiety and frustration I think from years of waiting for a safer crosswalk at North Falmouth. And I just wanted to mention that. I don't I had not heard about it. She said that it's just not finished. So that's more of a town thing, but it led to another person commenting on
028um the crosswalk at John Wesley Church, you know, where Jones and um Gford Street are crossing and the kids from Morrison Lawrence going across there. And they've added some safety at the other crosswalk further down, but not at that one. So there was just some conversation about school safety and crosswalks that I wanted to relay that I had heard at that um precinct meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. Um perhaps following up with an email to Dr. Door would be helpful. >> Sure. Okay. >> Were you finished, Katrina? I didn't mean to cut you off. >> Um that's lovely. >> Okay. Um well, we are doing so well with time here. Um it's 6:24. >> This has never happened >> and we have gone through our agenda. Should we take a recess until our students are
029ready? Okay, let's take >> down the hall right now. Oh, okay. So, let's not recess. Let's uh shift our focus. >> So, now we are very um excited to have a presentation by the Lawrence School ac Capella Group. >> They're literally walking down the hall right now. So, uh, just to briefly share, uh, I was moving around the building trying to narrow down what of the many awesome academic and extracurricular endeavors we have at Laura School to showcase for this school committee meeting. And like angels calling, I walked into the choir room and they were singing. And I know it was early in the year, but they sounded so great. I ask case uh the coral group and when she comes in uh she's going to talk a little bit about how she put together
030some kids from the lock capella group which is the extracurricular group and some students from the general choir class which is part of our music program in the school. But here's Miss Gail the one and only and >> hello welcome. Um we're we're delighted to perform here tonight. This is our first time ever singing the library. In fact, I can say in 22 years that I've been here. Um we've never sang. So we'll see what it sounds like. Okay. All right. Come on in. This is SL Capella and the choir. Okay. So members of both groups. So we've decided today to wear our regular school clothes. Okay. So this is what they wear to school. Right. Keep coming down. But the concerts we wear all black concert black and lot of um a little color
031we've gone we've chosen different colors over years. We had um purple, yellow, um maroon and most recently we've gone purple which really stands out. Okay. So, we're going to stand in the exact same spots. Yeah. Step forward. So, we're actually getting ready for um a a district festival. Um so, some members of this group will be auditioning for this uh district festival. It's called Southeast Districts. And um raise your hand if you are planning to audition. OKAY. We'll be filming this piece as well at the winter concert. So, everybody works on these and often um there's if we're auditioning and you're in eighth grade. Yeah. So, yeah. We also get eighth graders going for because they'll see some, you know, the year before, you know, the students doing it. So, you know, I'm really proud
032of seventh graders here who who are going to give this a go as well this year. Okay. So, we're going to stand like we practiced like this. Can you come over here just a little bit more in front of that before? If you can come step forward. Thank you back. Charlotte, you could step forward too. Keep going. And yeah, going to come around there. If you come over here, Henry. Thank you. Um, do you see there? >> No. >> Yeah, maybe we'll just move the piano just slightly out because I think it need a little bit more. Yeah, I think it's looking good. Can you just turn it match that? Thank you. Thanks. You can raise your hand if you're a soprano. If you could just just turn a little bit more. That's it. And
033look at me. Thank you. This is a make me a song the such music. Out of the sorrow with me a song out of the silence. Wake me a song and soft and low. Make me a song in life. The glorious music alone out of the darkness. Flash me a song out of the darkness. Flash me a song. to dark and darkly bright. Bring me a song. Make me a song and let the music. Break me a song. Out of the silence, wake me a song. And soft. Make me a song. Leave me a song with the glor out of the darkness. Flash me a song. Out of the darkness, flash me a song. dark and darkly bright. Bring me a song. Make me a song and let the music sound. going home. >> Okay,
034we just everybody. Thank you for coming. Thank you for inviting us and you know have our rest of our meeting. >> Thank you so much for coming. >> Lovely lovely way >> to end our meeting. >> I don't think we've had a meeting where everyone was smiling at the end. >> Oh my gosh, that was so I kept thinking the town meeting members are going to be following the song. >> What is happening upstairs? >> That was awesome. >> That was great. Um, is principal Wishy still here? >> Really are. Thanks. >> Um, so I think now we >> are in a position to adjurnn. >> That sounds great. Second. >> All right. All in favor? >> Anybody opposed? >> Anybody abstaining? All right. I think we're