6/10/25 School Committee Meeting

001Okay. So, in accordance to the Massachusetts opening meeting law, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded. If any member of the public would like to make an audio or visual video recording of this meeting, please notify me by raising your hand either in person or remote. Is there anybody going to be making a recording? Okay. If you want to record your children, that's a different story. So, okay. And we won't nobody will see it but you and your family at Christmas dinner or whatever when you want to show it. Okay. All right. So, now um would everybody please rise for the present time to open this meeting? To the stands under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. The found school's mission and vision. Our mission is that

002FA public schools creates worldclass student learning experiences. Our Clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity, integrity, and resiliency. Our vision is that 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 around them. Okay. So we are here to reopen the public meeting coming out of executive session which we'll we will return to after the public meeting. Um public comment is first always on our agenda but when we have young students who have homework assignments to worry about we ask to change the order. So would everybody be okay with a a morson presentation first? So we'll start with that. So, we're ready whenever you guys are. Miss Lea, when you're ready. [Music] Thank you for inviting us

003to share a recap of our year making more fun and official No Place for Hate School. We'd also like to thank the PTO for supporting us this year. This is our Morris Pond School version of the No Face for Hate pledge. Would you like to say it with us? Yes. I promise to do my best to everyone. I speak every one of the first things we did was to place these these posters all over the building. We've received a lot of positivity comments from visitors to our school. We identified different languages spoken in some students homes and had them record the words good morning in their home languages. Mrs. Moran plays the recordings every morning during announcements. We also make posters to put in each home room to students could say it along with the

004announcements if they want to halfway through the year. We put all the suggestions. Some of the suggestions included make a sports team for the school and no racism because it is bad to our other people. Also, clean up after yourself in the cafeteria. One note was from a student who said his friends helped him get better today. In order to become an official no place for hate school, we had to hold three schoolwide activities. Our first activity was called diversity and children's literature. Each activity combines vocabulary, videos, a chance for students to turn and talk, and sometimes a follow-up activity in our class or the library. After this activity, we created posters in the library that finished a sentence, we need diverse books because these were displayed all around the building. Our second activity was

005called the identity iceberg. What can you and cannot see? This activity stressed the importance of getting know people and understanding that you really can't know someone just by looking at them. When following up this activity by making identity shields in class, excuse me before the next Ryan, can the owls see if a student stands to the side? Uh, it's going to be hard for this because um that way they wouldn't have to have their parents their backs to their parents. Okay, just just checking. Thank you. Our final I'm sorry I didn't interrupt you. Our final activity was called words that hurt health and this was a powerful activity. During the presentation, we asked the audience to respond to three questions while Miss Lima typed up what they said. We asked why people use words that

006hurt, how it feels to be a target, and how we can respond with words that help. We will give you a few minutes to read through their responses. If I could interject, what we did is we had the audience divided into three sections and each section had a couple of minutes to talk and turn. One section was why do people use bias words that that hurt? Another section and that filled up. They were the hands were going up like crazy. The middle section answered the question, what is the impact and how does it feel to be a target? And again, the hands went up like crazy. Everybody had something to say. And sadly, the third one was, "How can we respond?" And that was really hard for the kids to come up with answers. And

007I thought that was pretty powerful. So, these are some of the things the fifth grader said, and these are some of the things the sixth grader said. These We had to visit an artist who loved that whereby summon a no place for hes go so much that he put his murials on our walls. Some of us participate in the Marthur Luther King presentation at the Kuna Mesa and we made signs for the Opra Junth walk. Becoming a no place for hate school means no more bullying, a kinder school and coming together as a community. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any comments? Okay, Katrina. Some of the uh some of the things that were written in your reflections on how it feels to be bullied or excluded or left out, they were so touching. I

008actually started to sort of tear up reading them because it really is a universal experience to be um bullied or excluded. So, thank you for that. Can we give him another round of applause? They can introduce themselves. Miss, could they all say their names for us on the way out? What grade? My name is Lauren. I'm in high school. My name is Ellie and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Jordan and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Elia and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Se and I'm in the sixth grade. My name is Olivia Parker and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Sebastian and I'm in sixth grade. My name is and I'm in the fifth grade. My name is Kayen and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Brien

009Wilson and I'm in sixth grade. My name's Amara and I'm in sixth grade. My name's Chloe and I'm in sixth grade. My name's Sophia and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Annie and I'm in fifth grade. My name's Olivia and I'm in sixth grade. Thank you. Okay. Now, we'll move on to public comment. And I'd like to read the statement about public comment. Members of the public are welcome to speak about items that are not on the agenda. Comment should be comment should be limited to two minutes in length. Due to the open meeting law, the committee cannot act on public comment. For items on the agenda, the chair may accept comments from the public following the committee's discussion of an item. Additional comments and feedback can also be submitted by email. The address

010is school [email protected]. ma us. Is there any public comment? Yes. Good evening, Dian. Good evening. The state rags say now that when people introduce themselves, if they could give their address as well. Okay. You needn't give your house number. Okay. Just if you could give the street, please. Uh, good evening. My name is Dian Rockwood. I live at Jeffrey Lane in Eastbrook, Massachusetts. Time and again, I have heard school committee members say both that our slate is clean and this committee need not agree with any recommendations brought forth by the building needs task force. You have the final say, and vote. The task force seems gung-ho to wrap up their decisions on June 16th, having decided against several of the options included in the NASDAQ report on May 28th. Since NASDAQ's report was released in

011March, there has not been one task force or committee meeting I have attended where any member has actually opened the report and reviewed, analyzed or overlaid the data we paid NASDAQ to provide us with with any of the proposals or options. Both this committee and the building needs task force were quite enthused with the selection of our consultant. Taxpayers spent several thousand dollars for their expertise and yet not a single one of you that I have seen has referenced the data compiled against the plan suggested. Therefore, I'm going to hold you to your promise. I expect that since the building needs task force has not weighed the pros and cons of Nestex's data against any of the district's options that you as a committee will do that job for them. Otherwise, I would expect you

012to recommend another year's worth of building needs task force meetings just as NASDAQ recommended if that's what it takes to do the job right. Taxpayers should not be asked to put any more bills for renovations of buildings, portables, playgrounds, students that don't exist, you name it. Until you show us that the bill we already paid is being used as intended, I firmly believe actions such as these impact our enrollment. Thank you. Any more public comment? Okay. Just to be clear, this is stated on our agenda, but there is no action on this. It is simply an update just to let you know. on what the building needs task force. Hi, I'm Megan Doy and I live on Heritage Shop Road. Um, I just wanted to make public a comment that I was told that I

013could not speak about the dress code tonight and I want the public to know that I'm being silenced. Thank you. Harry Dominique Ker again based on Zoom. Oh, okay. Do you want me to come over here? Yes, please, Ryan. Thank you. Dominique, we're ready for you. Okay. Okay. She'll have to unmute herself now. Okay, she's there. She's She's still mute. She's got to unmute herself on her side. Maybe she wasn't raising her hand to talk. I'm not sure. Her hand is up. Dominic, do you wish to talk? You have to unmute if you do. Okay. Um, if she comes in again, well, we'll see. All right. Thank you, Domique. Or Okay. Um, the next item on the agenda will be a reading of the still doing public comment. Excuse me. Public comment. Oh, no, it

014wasn't closed. I didn't hear anybody else. No, I didn't know if you're getting Dominique on mention. Apparently, maybe after you've spoken, she'll be able to unmute and realize that she is She's unmuted. Yeah. Hi, Raquel Russell. Um, wrote it. Um, since getting involved with everything surrounding all the school business, I've been trying to reach out to the Portuguese community as like a Portuguese speaking member of the community and their feelings surrounding just everything. And it's been really disheartening to hear some of their stories about making attempts to reach out and not being responded to and how difficult it's been for them to understand what's been going on with everything. So, I've been trying to kind of be a segue for some of them. And more recently, I think Maria might speak, but Mar um Maria,

015who's been who's very well connected with the community, and I recently learned of her efforts and trying to reach out for assistance as well regarding getting the Portuguese community aware and involved with all the happenings and the surroundings of what's going on in their own schools at every level, not just where where my child goes. But um I would just like to stress that I think we need to do more for the Portuguese speaking community because they they are not um aware of really what's going on and they they want to be and when they've made certain attempts they they haven't really gotten anywhere with it. So um I think you know maybe if you guys can come up with something to try to figure out a way to engage the community that's not does

016not have English as a primary language because they are out there and they do want to know what's going on. Thank you. Thank you, Raquel. You're welcome. Yes. Hi, I'm Maria Carrera. Um, uh, my address is St. Marks. Two second. Um, I'm just following her. Yes, I've tried. September or October last year we had that was the only meeting I ever went um one of these meetings and it happened that I had someone who spoke Portuguese and did not understand anything what's going on and I did help on what I could you know lower mouth was helping but then she voiced herself out saying that she didn't understand the whole entire meeting right and um I followed up with Henry St. Julian sent him an email. I CC the superintendent on the emails as well

017offering my help on trying to find a a way to support to schools about you know I mean I'm a um public services and education Portuguese interpreter certified in medical as well so and I offered I I'm always offering including a tea ticket every time I walk in if I have a do uh um school meeting with the teacher, I stop at the front desk. You guys need me to call someone? Do you guys need me to do anything? Please let me know. And not to say that the whole entire year I have parents calling me and I'm calling doing conference calls with the schools because they need to help or they've been into a meeting that and I know there's an agency that we use which I worked for that agency but I decided

018because the schools were requesting me not for the only fact that I'm related to come public schools and there would be like can we have Maria and they would refuse say that I wasn't available, which is not true. That's why I decided not to work for them and become a volunteer. So anyway, with that being said, I'm here to help on whatever I can do to help with that and it is a necessity at this point. Definitely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. And it looks like Dominique might have joined from a different device, so she might want to try again. Okay, Dominique, are are you ready? She um can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yay. Okay. Dominique Kirk, Parker Road. I ask you all to vote on a process, a plan of

019action, and a timeline before you decide what Felmouth Public Schools future will look like. We all know building needs started making recommendations without walking through all of the community's ideas, any feedback, or objectives being dissected. Last school committee meeting, I spoke about how it took over 51 days for my feedback to be shared. Turns out I wasn't the only one. Margaret Souza shared her proposals and thoughts, but again wasn't shared until the beginning of building needs last meeting. Margaret's proposals included Lawrence and Morris Pond, never once discussed, but then created recommendations. Feedback should be sent over to the task force before these meetings, allowing them to digest, ask questions, and create a dialogue. Instead, the task force didn't have time to read all the feedback and then was asked to vote. Dr. Door spent $1,000

020on an open forum and hasn't even gone over that feedback, hasn't created top Q&A sections like pro questions sections like promised, nor answered the community's questions. Again, we need guidelines and procedures during this process because even school committee members are being ignored. What does that mean for community members like myself? Please take this seriously. Okay, thank you. Um, yes, Amanda. Amanda McGonagal, Edgewood Drive. Each week you've heard from parents and staff who come to you with critiques, frustrations or concerns, talking about poor decisions, lapses in foresight, inadequate planning, or ineffective execution. As a parent, I'm here to remind all of you on this committee who have kids of your own what you already know. For our kids, we're going to go to the ends of the earth to give them the opportunities that they deserve.

021No matter what challenges we face along the way, your decision just to charge ahead, ignoring recommendations or concerns aren't going to deter us. We will fight with everything we have to ensure that all of our kids and teachers receive the same opportunities as their peers across town. Equity isn't a privilege. It's something that should be afforded to all of our kids and staff. Yet, over the past nine months, what has happened? You've heard parents talk about their children being bullied and nothing done. You've listened to teachers share stories of their time in the system and how a culture of disrespect and lack of support are driving them out. You've heard people say, "Communication is terrible. So, what's being done about these things?" Those who know me know that my principles are deeply rooted in progressive

022ideas. But today all people hunt. What we're seeing in our nation are people making decisions that affect the many but benefit the few. And in my opinion, we're witnessing something similar happen in our district. Certain groups or certain schools or certain parts parts of town can keep on keeping on while others are forced to deal with frequent lockdowns or temporary principles or threats of change. We don't want to be here month after month and you don't want us here either. But here's the difference. Our kids will be a part of our this system for the next 10 to 15 years. So we'll keep showing up but your seat lasts for three. And so when your time is up, you'll move on. But the decisions you make today shape our children's experiences. So it's been said

023that insanity can be viewed as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. So I asked you this one question. What are you going to do differently today to achieve different results for all of us moving forward or by further in action are you instead in choosing the insanity? That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else wish to make a comment? Okay. Well, I'd like to make a comment about public comment. I want to say that all year long you people have come and we really appreciate that you tried to keep your comments to two minutes. Um it helped everybody more people get a chance to speak. We may not always agreed with what you said. I'm not saying that. But um we appreciate that you kept to the protocol of

024two minutes. So thank you. Okay. Now, um we will be um hearing a proclamation from the superintendent. Thank you. Just didn't want to miss that. So, I'm very proud to be able to um be a part of the Falmouth community and tonight to read the proclamation that the select forward wrote. Um whereas lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, interexual, and asexual pride month, LGBTQIA+ pride month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan that mark the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States. And whereas the town of Felmouth is committed to celebrating diversity and working to diminish isolation, bias, and prejudice, and to promote connection within the LGBTQIA+ community, with the allied community, and with the community at large. And whereas transgender and

025bi non-binary people in particular face severe and increasingly daunting challenges and threats. And whereas the town of Felmouth prides itself on being a welcoming and inclusive community that celebrates diversity. And now therefore, we Nancy Robbins Taylor, Edwin P. Zalinsky II, uh Douglas C. Brown, Robert P. uh Mscali and Heather MH Goldstone, members of the Felmouth Select Board, do hereby proclaim Friday, June 13, 2025 to be Felma celebrates Pride Day in the town of Felmouth and urge all citizens to observe FMA celebrates Pride Day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. And then um and then the second board signed. Thank you, Dr. Jur. That was a happy way to begin our meeting. Um, now we will hear various things and I just wanted to make a statement um about comments from our members and I hope

026you'll bear with me um as about recognizing people for comments. Sometimes when you're the chairman, you really can't see who has raised his or her hand first. And we do veer off a bit from Robert's rules because they say if a spe speaker wants to be recognized he he or she should stand up. So I mean obviously but I don't always see your hands and I thought maybe a way to quicken it and erase confusions would be a rotation automatic rotation. So for the first item on the agenda, we would start on the right for the and everyone goes around on for the second item on the agenda, we would start on the left and everybody goes around. Third item, we start in the middle so that the pattern changes and it's just an automatic

027and please note everybody can do it again. Everybody can have make two comments. Would you bear with me and try that tonight and see just okay? Maybe Melissa who's a timeke keeper can also be a left and right keeper. So just to try that. Thank you very much. Okay. So the first item or the next item on our agenda is a presentation of school success plans. You can see the committee is supporting by wearing similar apparel to our administrators. So okay, it's on the it's all up to you guys. Okay. You want us to present from back here or um present up here? How would you like this? We can move. We can move. Go ahead. And then we uh at at your table, if you can't see the um presentation, you have the the

028slides at at your table. So, I know this room's a little awkward with the u with the screen. I All right. You're good. Okay. So, this is our presentation. I'm going to start out reading our mission. Uh, the family public schools creates world-class student learning experiences. Our clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity, integrity, and resiliency. So, you have seen um this slide many times. Um, this was created. This is the Clipper experience. Um and as you have heard um us say on a number of occasions um to ensure excellence for every student we need to ensure equity. Equity can be in the form of eyeglasses so that you can see better at school. Special education supports um that need specialized uh instructions for students. additional English instruction for those um to access

029learning, counseling support to assist students uh in overcoming trauma or to learn strategies um for uh coping with their behavior and ensuring uh school culture that ensures every student knows and feels like they belong in Fountain Public Schools. Ensuring equity is paramount if every student is to um succeed and and feel the the ex the excellence to achieve excellence. And so a part of this we also have the two-way communication and with that component we believe we want and we need um two-way communication with parents to partner with us in the education of students. Tonight you're going to hear um many stories um about this uh the Clipper experience and so um I will move on to the next slide right now. Can you hit? Okay. So our goals um our goals were set with

030the intent um this year is to and the supports for students um that they that they with their plans that they can move uh forward toward greater achievement. um and improved outcomes. Um you'll hear a lot about the multi-tered system of support uh where students uh receive supports in math, supports and counseling, supports in uh behavior, um whatever a student needs, that system of support is helping students move toward excellence. And you will uh you'll hear a lot about um that. So with that um to hear more about our progress, we're going to start with full one which is the student student learning experience and I'm going to turn it over to the sensational Sonia Ter. All right, ouriteration's taking off. Okay, so our first goal in the Clipper experience is uh intently focused on

031the student learning experience and the way in which we go about creating a safe and supportive learning environment for all of our students. Our goal statement reads that we believe and found that all students will have a sense of belonging that they know that they are valued for their unique identities, strengths, interests, needs, languages, exceptionalities, and background. So, in part that's been encapsulated in what Dr. Jor has shared with us by way of prefacing our presentation and it will continue through the stories. So, I'm going to turn it over to the marvelous Moren. Um, one of the first things that we worked on this year in uh, service of this goal is the selection of the instructional materials that we're using in the district this year. Um, we're continuing to identify and use highquality instructional

032materials that integrate and identify culturally and linguistically sustaining practices. That's a lot of ed you speak, isn't it? A lot of lot of syllables. What that means is that when you're choosing what materials to use with students, you want to make sure that those materials consider all the different learning styles that students have and that they also consider all the different cultures that our students have in Falmouth and that the materials are respectful of those cultures and inclusive so that the kids feel like they are part uh the materials that are being used in the classroom. So what has happened over the past few years is kind of an inventory and a looking through what's being used and saying are these the best that we can do as a result a couple of years ago

033there was a decision made to change the mathematics curriculum as you know and a change was made to Ire and the results so far are good. Um this year a lot of work was done looking at the ELA curriculum. There was a committee of teachers and um curriculum people and reading specialists that got together spent the whole year working looking at different curriculum and thinking about a lot of different things to come to a decision and they've chosen a curriculum called EL curriculum which not only includes uh materials that reflect multiple cultures but it's designed to have scaffolding, differentiated materials, the things that you want to have an inclusive curriculum. It also is going to be used in kindergarten through grades, which is really outstanding. That's quite meaningful in a curriculum. Is being used all

034the way up through 8th grade, as you know. Um, investigating history is being used in fifth and sixth grade. That's kind of a cool curriculum that uh Desi is really encouraging. It's um very um inquiry based. Um it's designed to be um uh studentbased, a lot of thinking and learning, not so much teacher talking, a little bit more digging in, which is what kids enjoy. So, it's very engaging. Um, another thing that the district has been really working on is um, collaborating among the ELV teachers, uh, general education and special educators for the material selection and implementation. I can tell you myself, I had a meeting today with the um uh the ELA wasn't titled director of um ELA and the EL teacher in my school and we were talking about next year, what are

035what will the schedule look like? What will materials look like for EL students with the new EL curriculum? So that was a perfect example of how we're thinking forward about our EL students and how those drills will work for them. So kind of exciting to be thinking forward and to be thinking about how all these materials will be really uh wonderful and supportive for all students. So I am turning things over to the remarkable Rose. Thank you very much. And now that the materials have been purchased, it's the training. So we've been working um as a district and all through the buildings at a times four level to have our teachers trained. So there's been ongoing PD with the new curriculums along with I Ready that as Lauren has said we've been working on for

036the past year. We have started with our department heads training our building schedules now our times four. So you'll have that across the district and how we use uh services through that. The teachers are being trained NTS us where we've all been trained at the instructional level has been started to it will be implemented now in September and will strengthen our growth in using these curriculums. Um at the elementary level before we began this journey we had started trying to make those connections across the district. And when you're trying to um at the elementary level work and have students understand we do it through books right many diverse books which we started to do that again times four getting books diverse books that represent different students into our classrooms um working partners um we been

037um very fortunate in Felmouth that we buildings that had the author studied, Cherry Mo, and she came and introduced her book um home in a lunchbox that came to the elementary buildings that each student was able to leave with a book in their hand to make that connection to understand um the differences and how um we should um be accepting, get along and and embrace everyone's differences. So when we started to get this together today, this the the um slideshow together tonight, um Dr. Door had asked us why, like why do we do these things or how do we know these things are working? And I really thought about that and I have been fortunate this year to be in two buildings and um it has um I came from east, I went to Maryland,

038I'm back at East, but it has given me a lens of how things connect and how to embrace that times four. I have a grandson um if you can believe that. Anyway, he attends East Falmouth and he's in fortunate to be in one of the full day preschools. he was able to um attend Cherry Mo and then the next weekend we went to the wonderful multicultural fair which is another right that we teach and make all the connections to kids and I brought Westy to the fair and the theater gives out books again for kids and it's the good night series good night China good night moo good night cape good night everything as he's going by he looks at me and he says mim he says that's where cherry mole lives in China and

039I thought, "Wow, right, that is that was a connection of a fouryear-old that never I wouldn't be talking about China at home." So, it just was amazing how those real life experiences for our kids um happen each and every day. You don't get to hear all of it, but it does work. Um so, that is how we are doing the training and implementing the beautiful materials. All right. No, the delightful documentation. I was talking about training. So delightful doctor. Well, thanks. So my uh slide is on multi-tered support system and one thing I want to give credit to I came three years ago. So much of what is happening successive happening were was work done before I got here that was long range thinking and part of that is a multi-ter support system right so

040we have uh tremendous support for our guidance and adjustment counselor staff and we have our strength in the district I think by a large margin is caring adults who care individually for students and all the way through as we've done this work the last two or three years particularly at the high school but did in some really the conversations this year, hearing from teachers districtwide, uh, a lot of support and solutions for kids happen simply because teachers care so much and work so hard to make it happen. And and that is essentially tier one, right? That that is what what our teachers do for students on a regular basis. But then there comes that point that they need help and they'll ask an adjustment counselor or a counselor, an assistant principal, and they'll work really

041hard. And again, most of the time they figure it out and the student gets emotional support or academic support and they find their way to success. And then there's some that that's not working. And what we what we found and have been working on the last couple years is teachers and adjustment counselors and counselors and assistant principal that have done that work when they get to the next point that says we need something more or we need to find out if there may be something more clinical with the student that needs support. We didn't have a systemic way of understanding that that was consistent school to school. That was that was a way for us to be able to say, "Oh, this makes sense." And have that work law. And so teachers would say, "I

042just get exhausted because I've worked so hard to help the student." And then when I get to the point of us needing help, we have to recreate what we did and think about what we did. And I think the work that's been in the last couple years, particularly this year, is trying to provide a systemic way of understanding that and to and to document along the memorialize along the way that isn't more work for teachers, but is in time work and helps us better understand and then support students. So here here's the here's the example I'll I'll give of where I think we saw the fruits of of probably five to seven years worth of work. As you all know, we we we faced with the type of tragedy at at a school that that

043you dread getting the call about recently and uh and we put a call out for support and the community was just tremendous. Um so much support that came in and therapists and other pieces and working with uh Riverside Trauma Center. And in the first week, we really just emphasized how do we make sure everybody need gets to know teacher student that they're safe, that they're cared for, and support is there for you. And we did everything from from therapy dogs to having additional counseling and staff there. Most importantly, teachers creating a space that says, "I'm here for you." And students had a range of need there. Think of that as tier one. What everybody got in that first week. As we got to the end of the first week, we sat and listened to our

044counselors and adjustment counselors and our teachers and we got a sense that going into the second week, we still needed some additional support, but not that same level. And so, we shifted and luckily we already had some spaces in place that allowed us and we'd already been using with students who needed supports when they were struggling in class to get those and understand what those were. So we had a couple we we reduced the number of therapists that were that were coming from the outside went to our adjustment counselors and counselors allow our counselors to work per academic adjustment counselors on those therapeutic needs and in that week we found some students who needed some additional support some additional support in the meantime some students who were still struggling to come to school and they

045made those adjustments. Think of that as tier two that second level. As we got into the third week, we recognized that there are some students who are still struggling to come to school for a myriad of reasons. Maybe it brought up past trauma that they had. Maybe they had a particular connection. Maybe it's it's it's had them realize some other things that that were going on. And in that level then adjustment counselors with counselors and teachers and assistant principles specific individual plans for those students on how they work through this rest of this year and how they start the next year. Think of that as tier three. What we have a now is a system to be able to understand that for each of those students and as we go into next year be able

046to meet their needs individually. I think what we've tried to do is begin to have a way of understanding that that way everything from being able to do math and reading to dealing with behaviors that are stopping learning of others or at times can be unsafe and the ways we systemically look at that because I think the the third piece that that we've been working on and you know feel like we're making some really good strides and appreciate the gains made that it's going to be talked about in a bit is the idea that yes, we want to support students for them to be successful. And first and always first the school needs to be safe and when it's not safe and something has happened there is accountability for that and that is consistent across

047the schools. When that's in place then you can provide the support for the learning and behaviors to help them find success but always back to that accountability piece. And with that I'm turn over to the next life since thank you so much. Uh so uh there's a great transition from the instructional to the behavioral expectations. So goal number two uh is uh our commitment and it's ongoing commitment uh to supporting and guiding students with uh with with behavior and it's got to be consistent. It's got to be equitable and that's what we're we'll be uh talking about. And uh the word that we've been talking mentioned right here is that multi-tered response that goes with behavior. Excellent uh example there. But in our multi-tered behavior, we want to with behavior, we want to teach. We

048absolutely want to be instruction. We want intervention. How do we support? We're all assisting. And then is everyone have the shared approach on this? So that that goal number two is going to be dealing with that. And so the progress is going to be our innovative. Do we have an innovative uh Rebecca you um good evening I so I just want to tell you a little bit of the story of we've talked about some of the systems we've talked about some of the things that are directly related related to our students. Um the progress that I want to tell you about is that a little bit about the system and the system in order to collect all of this information that is helpful for all of our staff and educators to be able to continue

049to track those supports that our students need. So this year we've made some growth with using our powers school system and that powers school system is also housing our special programs which um collects all of the information for our IEPs 504s as well as a behavior management system. So that's a digital collection space which is a little bit different than we the way we've been operating is we've been having some paper copies of what a student's individualized education plan looks like and so teachers have that but as we know it's kind of an old school way of of holding information. So, a little thing like putting together a consistent place that we can document all of these supports that maybe in first grade our student was really struggling because they had some sort of traumatic

050experience, maybe they had loss of a parent. In first grade, there were some supports that were put in place for that youngster. But when they're in fifth grade, maybe something else comes up and there might be something that we may not traumatic experiences. probably track but as an example it as to trans transitions in the upper grades go we may lose some of those extra supports that we put in place for a youngster as they were you know some of our first learners here in Felmouth so this system of powers school has been something that I look forward to because we've been using some different systems my experiences in the different schools over the years you know every every place has a little bit of something um and this I see as really the collective

051way to keep all of that information there. Just a little anecdote of it. we shared at a staff meeting um you know everyone's familiar with powers school um where this the staff can access uh demographic information um you know the a kids schedule but a little icon was added this year that has the student information for IEPs or 504s and a click of a button and there is all the information for you and it was just one of those little things that you can share at a staff meeting that makes a big difference for our staff feeling like they have things at their fingertips that they feel that they need in order to support our students the best way that they can. So again, that's a little bit of the progress in how we've been

052working towards the school too. Um it may seem like a little thing, but it's making a big difference and we're really looking forward to seeing the future of that as it grows over the years and uh going up in the grades. So with that I am tossing it over to the terrific Tim to pick off where Rebecca has left it. I think um my piece is the work that's being done to I think archive and put together all of our best practices that we have currently as a district and where we want to head in the areas of academics, behavioral support, social emotional support and making that available to all staff is sort of our unified set of practices that we really know work well for kids. Um so some of the work we've done

053this year that involves a lot of ongoing professional development. So, we looked at the power school system as a as a staff, as instructional leaders, how is that being used consistently? What have we seen so far and how are we going to evolve it? Um, looking at how we can take all of that knowledge that we have, we've been in the process, but what happens when we onboard new staff come the fall? Having a system is we have digital access for our new uh hires that they can get plugged right into this work immediately when they get onboarded. um doing ongoing training for uh social emotional sport support um restorative practices for our adjustment counselors that they're working as a as a group um vertically aligned um to really kind of increase their professional skill

054set and to do that together that's been well supported this year. um to share an example from uh Morse Pond that supports this work of goal two and one really um we established an MTSS leadership group this year um to work on all of this. So it's a support to me as principal. We have special education general ed specialists counselors. There's a representative from all of our stakeholders here in the building to examine what our practices are here. So looking at what do we do well academically? How do we support a student tier 1, tier 2, tier three, academically, behaviorally, social, emotionally? We've spent some time at staff meetings to say, "Okay, what do we think we already do and where does it fit in that continuum and where do we need to grow?" And

055so with a group like this, we can examine that from a building level related to the district goal. And um it's a place where we can put everything together and make it I think one of my favorite uh administrative cliches is make it sustainable. Say that a lot. This needs to be work that we can put together that's going to last for years that everybody can be part of. So really proud of the work the leadership group is doing. They can review practices. We can look at data and I think it what it really will do is is set us up for success long term. So that I want to turn it back over to the honorable Henry Shane D. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So uh again we're in in goal number two

056and we're getting all this data and we're analyzing we're monitoring we are getting feedback we're in making improvements and it's being intentional. I want to highlight just four areas that we're being intentional of how we're dealing with student behavior. The first one at the high level I'm so glad to be part of this administrative council. They are looking at the the trends. They're looking at the patterns and they're making targeted decisions on how we're doing. So it's not just a reaction but we're proactively dealing with this in a monthly basis and even more for any kind of emergency but this is what we're doing. The second one is broaden up the uh the leadership. So not only we have this but we have an instructional uh leadership group and that instructional leadership group has now

057said okay we have to look at academic progress but behavior progress. Do you understand what we're trying to do? Do we have any kind of synergy that that's going on here? So, we have this group, then it's a broad group. Then, we go down to a smaller group of the uh assistant principles and uh with that data, are they reacting the same way with different behavior? They engaging. So, they they clarify their engagement. So, uh that kind of uh behavior instruction is being deal dealt with there. And then I love that we're doing this once a year. We have um a day belonging. And that day belonging is not just educators. Well, let me just say this. Educators are lunch the uh the service the food service the uh assistant uh executive secretaries there are

058educ teachers the whole staff comes together and said okay how do we engage students how do we deal see the students so that we can properly deal with their uh any kind of behavioral uh issue that they may have. So that was a powerful So we're we're looking at just multi different um this system system that we have and I'll just say on a personal level we just we just had a fantastic I saw Doc and I shook his hand and go doc that was a fantastic graduation love the graduation for me graduation is very uh emotional because I seek this class actually was the uh my last class as assistant principal at the high school. So, I've seen these kids and some of them, you know, I see them. I know the background. Some

059I did not see and I know that we have a high expectation academic and behavior, but those students that really got to me are the ones who were struggling. They were you you like fresh me like I don't know how this kid's going to make it. And they were struggling and they had resilience, teaching resilience. And I know the support that the staff uh had with these students and so when they cross it meant something. was like, "Oh, thanks. I'm so thankful." And that is why I'm a teacher. I'm an educator because that re that getting those kids across and I'm so glad for that. So, with that, I need to start with goal number three with my spectacular colleague, uh, Sandy, right? Can I interrupt Sandy for a second? Sure. Can you step forward

060because I've just noticed that the um owl can't see any of you speaking. So if you just stand like in front of this posting your computer just like you know like the kids were standing there Sandy like if you stand sort of close to the kids. Yeah. Okay. All right. Lucky me. Okay. So uh goal number three was to u continue to improve our two-way communication. And I think this is a goal that takes um a lot of time for us to continue to find ways to improve our communication. So when we talk about two-way communication, we're not just talking about sending out messages, but also looking at opportunities to um receive feedback, look at questions that are being asked and try to develop um some uh collaboration and partnership to build trust with our

061um communication. So, we're going to share a little bit of the progress in these areas and I'm going to turn it over to the exceptional Jill Merur to step right up in front of the poster. Right in front. Um, so following up on what Sandy um has talked about with this goal, how do we improve our two-way communication with families? And all schools have implemented weekly communications to families, but they're important to connect with you, but then how do we gather feedback? So, taking that one step further, QR codes um were implemented this year and they were implemented at numerous district events such as meet your teacher night, um the art show, many of the musical celebrations that we've had. These QR codes were initially on walls of buildings. They're still there. Um and then

062taking it one step further, well, you you can walk by that at your child's event and be so excited and think, "Oh, I want to do that." But then you leave and you don't have it. So, taking it to the next step, they're now being placed in um you might notice them on the back of programs. Um we have two-way communication going in the form of you know the automated do you get emails, do you get texts, it's it's vital to continue this that we get your feedback and in getting feedback targeting it to um specific questions like it could be perhaps did you enjoy the event? What did you enjoy about it? How can we improve our communication with you? So, starting in September, this is still going to continue because it's so vital.

063Um, and you will see these QR codes um especially at our back- to-school events and we're hopeful to, you know, continue our process to to make it more successful to gather more feedback so we can work together as partners. And now I'm going to pass it back to the spectacular Sandy. So, um, we've talked a little bit about P school and that's one of our main tools that we use for communication um, and sending uh, emails and, uh, phone calls or text messages. So, uh, Power School allows us to export a file. So, after we send out a call or an email, we can look back and see what number of messages were delivered. So starting back in October, we were gathering the information um the printouts at each school to find out, you know,

064where were where did we need to make corrections. So we've done a really nice job with the emails. Um we were at in um October we were at 96% of the emails were delivered. All those addresses have been corrected. So we are at 100%. And of course this is always a moving target because you never know if somebody's going to be changing their address. Um and then with the phone calls in October um we were at 80% and now we're at 86% um for the delivered phone calls. Of course there are certain times that um we can go back we can check the accuracy of the numbers but sometimes we'll get that feedback through the power school system that they're not deliverable but that's not because the number is incorrect. Could be a changed service

065the message you know phone was turned off somebody might not want to receive the phone call. So there are other reasons as well, but I think when we look at the, you know, the importance of that information, it's good that we're using that tool to consistently reflect and verify information. In the um in the world of special education, we've been able to use um text messages more uh frequently, which seems to be a preferred method for some people to receive their communication. So one of the things you can do is schedule a message. So for instance, let's say you have IEP meeting or some type of meeting on Monday. We can schedule that text message to go out on Sunday to remind the family that oh you have a you have a meeting on Monday

066which is you know something helpful. Um and then we also are using the um uh emails to collect digital signatures. So when we were talking a little bit earlier about powers school and we're using special programs which is a component of powers school when we generate those IEPs we can now ask families would you like to return that with us you know handwritten signature in paper or we can actually send things digitally now so families who don't want to collect all the paper could actually just sign things digitally and return it to us. So there's a lot of really nice options to um improve our um communications in those ways and we'll talk a little bit more about progress as I turn it over to the super Dr. Sonia. Thank you. All right. So over

067here um so uh as we're going through and we continue to talk about our communications uh there are two different pieces. So part of what you've heard about is interaction with families and community members, but also uh some of that work continued internally as well with colleagues and staff. So one of the things that we've been doing as we gather feedback is visiting staff meetings as a central office team uh meeting with our principles, their staffs when we go to the schools and just listening to ideas that they have both about communication channels and how that can be shaped as well as the nature of communications that are shared. That's been a piece of it. And then uh within that there's been both um the superintendent's messages that go to families uh with a a

068regular cadence and then also we have started sending out a routine uh update from each of the central office offices to our staff. So that's part of where it kind of grows beyond uh the broader um community audience. And then also as we're building out our communications um wanting to pull some attention to the work that we're doing with multilingual families and um you know we certainly we have our ELPAC they are part of helping us gather feedback. Um we use u based interpreters uh we use talking points as a digital exchange um and that's been something that's been really well received. It allows us to have the text space and it can also force text to go over to email. So there's a communication preference. Um but we've also developed a um multilingual welcome

069protocol that also is posted in each of the offices. So going back to that system standardized approach that we have across all of our schools and all of our school buildings, making sure that as um folks come in who may not um speak English or someone who's at the the desk greeting them who may not speak their preferred language, we have a system of connecting um again in part using Bayage interpreters but also our other suite of tools again the talking points. Um, and then along the way, we've built out uh ways that we can connect with families. Uh, for example, when we complete forms at the beginning of the year, updates, um, our team from our English language development department, some of our team here, our administrators and some of our administrative assistants and

070teachers will deploy to different schools or community locations that host um, evening sessions or afternoon sessions for families to be able to come in and complete those. So, we continue to gather ideas. we continue to refine our practices and earlier today I had an opportunity Christine Nicholson who's our English language development department chair to um meet with a number of other districts uh their title three uh design. So title three is our our grant funding that supports directly our multilingual um students and our programming. And so just that idea exchange and knowing that we also belong to a broader community that continues to give us ideas and and also gives us feedback on how we approach things. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to the totally awesome Tom. Thank you. Thanks for

071the opportunity to be here. Uh so some recurring themes you may have heard is uh it's critically important to continue to engage all of our families including multilingual members of our school community and it's why resources like talking points and uh the partnership with Bayate interpreters is so valuable. Uh, as also previously mentioned, significant efforts have been made to ensure we have as we're accurate as possible with uh, our families so that we can continually prize them of the many amazing opportunities that happen at each of our school buildings like fresh market uh, meet your teacher nights and just school-based award award events or community uh, gatherings. Uh recently at the Lawrence School uh we had our bianial career fair and through intentional outreach efforts we had over 55 community members representing a diverse group

072of professionals from our community. Many of them were parents or guardians of our current students which is really exciting to see that engagement. Uh we also have made an effort to provide agency to the families of incoming students by uh polling the family members of the sixth grade families to learn about the best time to hold our summer open house event in August. We've had years in the past where we thought morning would be best, midday's best, afternoon's best, and uh you know, we wanted to make sure that with this specific incoming group, they had as much agency as possible. So we're trying to figure out when the best time to do it for those incoming families are. and so far late afternoons and leave. Uh so these examples are just evidence to support the

073uh ongoing two-way communication efforts. Uh the purpose here is to expand and uh enhance our relationships with uh families in the school district. And we know we can get better. Uh we're going to continue to get better, continue these efforts in uh next year and the years to come because we believe a strong relationship between school families undoubtedly results in a more positive and meaningful and impactful experience for our students. And at this time I would like to introduce the prolific fallback. Right. Hi everybody. Um, I'd like to talk about the fourth goal u for tonight and that is build district-wide capacity for environmental stewardship across all of our stakeholders. And what this means is not just what we do in the classroom, which is critically important, but also what we do with our cafeteria,

074what we do with our transportation, and what importantly what we do with our buildings. So you'll hear about all of those four aspects. And with that, I'd like to bring back our remarkable Rebecca. Hey. All right. Um. All right. So, I just want to talk to you a little bit about some of those efforts. Again, trying to make this bold progress come alive to you. Um, so you've we've seen some efforts that are continuing such as Lawrence School Warrant Committee uh for the last few years has been engaged in wanting to plant more trees at their school. Um the high school just received an orchard, an apple orchard is now out front. So those are some just small things that we are um really wanting to inspire students to be environmentally conscious aware. Um at

075the elementary schools this year we were able to pull off a both a fall and a spring um walk to school day at all four elementary schools and uh Lawrence school this year had 150 participants for their bike to school day. So other ways of just getting students involved and outdoors coming to school. Um you think about some of those other programs of movement in the morning. Again, just having students engage outdoors to, you know, awaken them to um all of the educational um opportunities that are inside. A little personal note and shout out that I'd like to give is to my green team that is comprised of Miss Clark's third grade class. Miss Clark's third grade class decided to be the green team this year. It was a whole class effort and they started

076this year engaging with the harvest of the month program. So they were just started as volunteers to hand out when chef Laura came for that tasting experience and uh handed out the voting slips, started tallying things and that started in the fall. As the year went on, they were chomping at the bit every single month, wanting to come to the cafeteria, know where the food item was coming from. So again, their their education, their interest started to expand. At first, it was just I want to see if my friend's going to like this funky thing that they're calling funky, you know, like different thing to to try. And then it was where's the farm coming from? What else can you do with it? Um I remember kale month. they were coming up and actually Chef

077Laura was encouraging them to try raw cow and like it became something that just grew. So a little piece of the cafeteria and that harvest of the month program starts to have students think about farms locally. Where is that? Where is that food coming from? And we also think about the expanded experiences that we have for the coursework at the upper grades. And now our students at uh North are talking about a greenhouse that we're expected to install next year and how can we support maybe that harvest of the month program of growing some of our own pieces to add to that. In addition, uh they have also taken on recycling at school. So they went out and you know embarked on every class and and came in and said you know hey we we

078really need to up our efforts with recycling. Sometimes we put the paper over here. Sometimes the plastic maybe goes into the garbage can. And they educated all the students. They they talk to them. They they give them feedback of like, well, this week we had to pick out a couple of things that didn't belong in the cycling. So they're now, you know, invested, engaged. They're out there on the playgrounds picking up the trash on the playground. So it's just an example of what one small group that if you give them an opportunity, they start to engage. their like engagement just explodes. Um and you know I hope that that little piece of third grade we can continue to spread um across all the grades. Um this third grade in particular is a large class for

079us. Uh it's 93 students and uh I was just in the cafeteria the other day chatting with a couple of uh teachers that were um on lunch duty that day. And we were one of the later schools to take on the composting as we were rolling out that initiative last year. And this class, you know, here we are 94 students, 93 students coming up and going through the line and just composting, you know, recycling, putting away food waste. um was just an amazing moment that we both stood back and thought my gosh we have hardly been doing this for a year and these kids in third grade again haven't had that much experience with it at North but it's seamless to them now. Um so that's a really proud moment to report that districtwide um

080we have composted 40 tons of waste which is a really uh great number to start with and uh only grow from there. So, little progress. And now I'm going to turn it back to punctuation focused including decimals and commas all dirt. All right. So, let me uh tell you about what we're doing on the t transportation front and also with the buildings. So, uh, just recently we we signed a a letter of, uh, intent with, uh, power options, which is, uh, going to be conducting a long range study for us to possibly convert our all of our buses, both the fleet that we own that is used in special needs transportation, which consists of vans, uh, and also mini buses, right? as small as uh the fleet that we use for regular day transportation. Um

081and so within that study is a long range plan. So what it would mean to uh transition that fleet to electric fleet. So that would also that would involve what does it mean for acquiring these vehicles? Uh what does it mean for building a maintenance infrastructure for these ve vehicles and also how do you power these v vehicles? the charging stations uh that you need and would be needed throughout the routes uh in the district. So that's being done in cooperation as I mentioned with Paul options ourselves and Lucini who is our bus transportation company uh for the larger fleet of vehicles. So that's again that will be a study over a five-year period pretty intensive. uh we've just begun the de data exchange uh with the consultant group from power options uh and uh

082and we you know we expect a long study uh from this to come out of this. The other uh the other key component as I mentioned at the beginning is what we're doing with our buildings and how we reducing our our usage of either electricity or or of natural gras which we use to heat up all of our buildings. So in this respect, uh, one progress is we've made in April at town meeting, the voters approved the select board to enter into 30-year leases, uh, of our parking lots for North Felmouth Elementary and for the faculty parking lot, lot C, uh, near the stadium at Felmouth High School. So with that, that allows solar energy companies to come in and to build uh solar uh covered can parking canopies um and to and have they

083would pay they would put uh put up all the capital to do that and we would reap the benefit of lower electricity costs over that period of time. So we expect um you know we expect to be signing a letter of intent uh with select energy over the next week or two and that then lly allows them to do the full uh design of what these canopies uh may look like and what it would take to build them and then the financial benefit back to them. But the letter of intent is nonbinding. We're not committing ourselves to a decision. it allows them to really move forward, invest the money into the design of these uh parking canopies at both of these schools. So, that's an exciting opportunity. Our electrical costs have gone up significantly um

084you know, upwards of 30% several years ago for electricity and 14% for our gas. Uh and so these have big economic impact uh on our on our budgets and on on our schools. Uh you know in not counting the environmental impact if we continue to be just uh you know linked to electricity and natural gas usage. So um we look forward to seeing progress over the near term uh to see these parking campers develop at those two camp uh campuses. The other practical uh efforts that we made as part of this goal is is reducing how we approach heating and using electricity on a daily basis uh within our school buildings. Uh and many of you may have known we we started this effort back in November to really try to monitor actively how we

085were using our natural gas. How how what time in the morning were we were heating up these buildings? What time in the evening were we reducing the heat within these buildings? and not trying to impact the actual classrooms but just to try to make it more effective by more active management so that the custodians of each the head custodian can literally sit sit in their home and if it's cool in the night uh and it's not freezing they can reduce the temperature over in the evening. if if it's you know if it reverse is happening if it's very cold out they can remotely increase the heating uh in in that building so they can effectively manage that then we brought the custodians together and set out a hard target for us to do uh and

086with our environmental goals and I I said to you all at the beginning that our goal was to reduce by 70,000 our uh use our costs uh for utilities, for gas and electricity. Well, I'm happy to announce since, you know, as of the end of May, uh we saved aboutund Okay, sorry, drum roll. We we saved $113,000. Uh and nobody's wearing sweaters. U so it really just and we've been actively monitoring. The nice part about this is it allows us to target schools that uh whose control systems for their boilers and so on might not be as efficient as some of the other schools. So we can compare the energy usage on a square foot basis uh from one building to the next. And it's it's really been a successful program and we hope to

087save I'm not committing to this but we'll hope to save another $100,000 uh next year which is again the the level of increase that we budgeted for and and uh gas and uh electricity. So that's on the on the building side and and uh and the uh the other part of this goal was the progress we made in what we've do doing in the cafeteria and really how we're feeding our children um and improving the healthy uh menus that the kids are are being offered. uh we made a big investment uh this year uh and has paid off uh quite well and and what uh and you know the children measure by their feet right if they eat the lunch that's a good sign that the food is good and so um you know we've

088been looking actively through uh hiring chef Laura Laura um to increasing the menus uh increasing the uh the menu items uh for the month uh and also by uh by increasing the participation. And our goal overall for the district uh is eventually to get all these schools to the 60% participation uh rate for uh the lunch program and for the elementary schools they are just bouncing around that 60%. you know, it's maint fluctuate monthto monthth, but they've really done a great school a great job. The kids have been really responsive to it and we're building up that capacity in the other three schools um uh as we're going along and we have to really adjust to this you know u every month every year uh to in you know overall to increase his participation rate.

089So we're really pre pleased with the progress on that. Uh, and with that, that's the end of our call section, but I I leave you to our visionary leader, Lori Do. Oh, yes. All right. So, you've heard a lot about the systems and you've heard a lot about the supports um for students. Um, and I want to bring us back to, you know, um, excellence um, looks many different ways. And tonight, you saw a group of students present and what they were presenting on is what they created. And what I see from all of our leaders here is that they allow students to be creative and what they're passionate about and what they want. They allow them to grow with that. Last year, the No Place for Hate group was here in front of you

090and it was just getting started. I think we had four students and you can see how it's grown. Um Tim like all the um you know all the principles here give room for our students to be what they're passionate about and give them the space and that was that was from them and they grew to become a no place for hate school the same as you know Rebecca with her green team right the students wanted to do things started very small but they kept growing and that's that's excellent and and so I just I I just had to point that out because it was a wonderful presentation and they've really worked hard this year. Um, so and I'm just going to leave to thank my terrific team because they really are terrific and really really

091Okay, thank you. Now you get Were there any comments because we would start on the right. Great job. I have a question. Oh yeah. Question or comment on that. Um the EL education is that a total new program or is it going to be um an extension of the foundations? So yeah, thank you. It is it is totally new and one of the things so um we're going to continue to use foundations uh more towards the tier 2 level of intervention because this particular program includes its own phonics instruction and actually moves a little bit um faster than foundation. So we'll be trying to get a little further. So that tier system they're talking about keeping foundations moving into the tier two. Okay. Thank you. It was great. Good job. Go home. Thank you. Thank

092you. Thank you. Okay. So the next item on the agenda would be an update from the superintendent. We moved this towards the beginning of the meeting. um as a superintendent is the head of the district and it would be interesting to hear what's been going on in the district before we begin our discussion. So thank you Dr. Dur. Thank you. So to continue on our excellent pathway here um I just want to uh tell everyone that class of 2025 there were 192 graduates. 100% of our seniors graduated on time. And I will say that's happened twice now since I've been here. And I am just really proud to be able to to share that information. It's it's a big deal. You know, in other years we'll have one or two students that through the summer

093we help um they all graduate. But it's um it's really nice that you know that they're all all on time at the graduation. 44 students graduated with honors. We had 71 students complete their CTE pathway and we had 21 students earn their seal by literacy. Uh we had um their postgrad plans. Uh we had 57 students um that um plan to have been accepted to four-year colleges. Another 21% um that are going to go to a two-year college first and have been accepted. uh 5% of our students uh are going into career education uh institutes and we have 4% going into the military, the Air Force, Army and Coast Guard. And we have 4% of our students that um are choosing a gap year and then we have 9% that are um going into directly

094into employment. We have um I I just really want to give a shout out for our community. I I I just can't express enough over and over how amazing this community is. It's just it's absolutely unheard of how they come out and support. And I want to talk about scholarships. So the scholarship totals for this year, um I'm just going to give you the big number first and then I'm going to break it down for the different this is the the most ever we've had at the time of graduation. We we always get continued scholarships over the summers for our students. $716,243. It's just absolutely amazing. The FAMA scholarship association uh awarded students 252,800. The individual and community scholarships um all totaled 220,941. The Falmouth Road Race um gave scholarships out uh totaling 76,000. Kate

095Cod Foundation uh 53,594 the Henry Herbert Smite Scholarship 67,158 Cape Cod Association 15,750 the Lieutenant Pford Essay Award 18,000 Martha's Vineyard Bank 12,000 uh and so I just you know thank you to everyone in this community that that really comes out shows up for our kids uh with their scholarships. I'm also going to give a shout out for our our students because when it comes to the scholarships, they write for these and so I just want to encourage all the students coming up that um our community supports the students. So just it take time to to write those um for grants and and the scholarships and and you too can be rewarded. Um okay, so enough about our graduates. It was a great day. It was um excellent students. And so now I'm going to

096give an update on the state budget. Um I've been, you know, periodically through this year um especially on some really key important items. Um the process is still moving. The Senate now has passed their budget. Um the chapter 70 thankfully remains stable at the 150. That's doubling what was last year at 75. So that does seem to be intact. I think we can pretty much say now that the both House and Senate passed it uh and it remains at the 150 that we will expect that increase for next school year. So, I'm really thrilled. It's not done yet. The governor hasn't signed it, but um it's pretty amazing that that has held steady throughout the process. Um among the increases and decreases passed u by the Senate budget um compared to the House budget, the

097Senate budget did pass with a uh budget increase circuit breaker by 7,114 um,000. And so um I'll talk about a second what what will happen now. Um but the Senate decreased the House budget um for school meals by 20 million. Um and the House bill was 170 million. that was what we got this year. So, it's not lowering the the amount um that we've received. Um but the 20 million. Now, here's what will happen. The House and the Senate, they'll have a conference committee and they'll work out the differences between the two. So, there still might be some uh changes with the circuit breaker and the and the food meals along with a lot of other areas. Um but those are two particular ones for us that um that mean a lot and we're following.

098So, uh, I'll give another update the end of the month. I just want to let you know that we are opening a second location, uh, of the tip program, uh, beginning with kindergarten, uh, for the 2526 school year, and it will be located at North Felmouth Elementary. I think that I've uh shared a few times this year anyway about our increased uh number of special education students um el general and our increased number that um is eligible for the tip program. And so, um, the second program helps us in if they if we opened up a a fourth program at Ticket, we just don't have the number of sections to be able to keep our um ratios of students with IEPs with students with nonIEPs in the classroom. So, it was necessary to open up

099another program, which is great. Um, and now they'll be joining our other program at North, the TLC program at North. So um we'll have two programs starting in North and again this just starts with the kindergarten everyone else is staying at uh Ticket and we'll move through the um the program and um so that's where so with that and then um the Cape Cod Kate uh Verdium Museum and Cultural Center is celebrating their 50th year anniversary uh of the Republic Pavo Verd uh next Wednesday the 18th from and you have a flyer at your table 12:30 to 4:30. I hope you come out um and celebrate with us. Not only celebrating the 50th anniversary of our um sister country, the uh Cavo bird, but also our partnership with the Cape Verdian uh board and broader

100community. Um and uh we have really done some wonderful things um you know with that. So, it's a nice time to celebrate uh all the work that we've done here while we're also celebrating um and then just to end again um I'm so pleased to live and be uh in involved in such a community um that our suck board um made a proclamation and um for Pride Month and established a pride day uh this Friday the 13th and there's there will be a block party. As a reminder, I mentioned that last time at the rec center um 4:30 to 7:30 4:30 to 6 4:30 to 6:30 um at the rec center um to celebrate. That concludes my update tonight. A lot of good news there. He likes hearing that. Thank you very much, Lori. Thank

101you. Um next item, are we able to the audience ask a question or anything in regarding this specific topic? question like like how we're not allowed to speak in public comment versus on stuff that's something that's on the agenda but there's you're allowed to comment or did you want to ask Dr. your question. Well, question and comment, but yes. Would you It's It is at the discretion of the chair to have comments after agenda. Okay. Um this is new to me. So, I'll say yes because if I say no, I may make a faux. So, what's your question? Um so, it's two-part. One, I I wanted to say as far as graduation, I am very happy for all of the seniors that they were able to graduate. But as someone who works with those children

102in this community, I feel like presenting that 100% of kids graduated without the caveat that graduation requirements were changed because of AA's passing and the tragedy that happened because I work with kids who absolutely would not have graduated this year had those changes not happened. Attendance requirements were waved. and students who had too many absences were allowed to attend. Grades were also only allowed to improve, not decrease after the tragedy. So, I just for the public's information saying 100% of the seniors graduated is true, but it may not have been the case unfortunately had the tragedy not occur. My question is also when we're talking about twostep programs, tea tickets, kindergarten for next year is full there. There the registration for two classes is already full. I have a kindergartener in the tip program who

103will be at Ticket whose IEP calls for time to be spent in these generalized education t kindergarten classrooms. Those classrooms are already full. So, is there a plan for as we're talking about expanding the tip program and things like that for how we're going to deal with the fact that te tickets to session kindergarten is already completely full? That's the question. Can you say your name? Sorry. My name is Diana Wilson and your address? Uh, Braxton R. I'm paying attention. Thanks, Max. Yep. Thank you, Diane. Did you want to get the stat together and get back out to us about that or? Um, yeah, we deal with kindergarten uh numbers um all the time. We're checking them every Friday. We're making decisions based on that. That happens all through the summer um and right before

104school. Okay, thank you for your comments. Okay, next item on the agenda is an update from Paul. Okay. Um, so you all have the budget in your packet. So outline these numbers are as of the end of May. So similar to the update I gave you last month. Uh, just be cautious. There's a lot of adjustments now that occur. This is the end of the year. Uh, so we start moving funds around. Uh, um, particular when they occur for years. So let me let me just bring you to the far left there. The total salary budget is 49,304. Uh the total non salary budget was 8 million 917. Uh for a total budget of 58,222. So you know in in uh in simple terms we'll hit that salary line uh pretty close on target for

105that salary line. on the non non- salary line. Uh, you know, as we talked about all throughout the year, it was significant increase in out of district tuitions. Uh, offsetting that increase is that we got 177 million in additional circuit breaker funds um through 177,000. I think we don't have any worries at all. the next 10 years now 177,000 um uh in additional circuit breaker funds uh under the emergency relief uh proponent for circle breaker and then we had also the draw uh on our special uh ed stabilization fund for 275 the April. So with those 2x funds, if you move uh over to now the far right column, uh you'll see that non-satellite line at the moment that we're discussing uh this which was end of May was 182,000 in the negative. Uh but

106those are that's before we start started moving uh uh the cost of the out of district tuition into those two uh funds. of the circuit breaker and the stabilization. So that number as of today is down to around $10,000. Wow. Um so on the non salary 10,000 in the negative or 10,000 10,000 in the negative and and we're moving we continue to make adjustments. We you through this process through the up until June 30th you're constantly making adjustments sort of to hit the target. Um and uh and so just to give you a sense of it if we're within the $10,000, but we still have invoices coming in um etc. We may have a a maintenance issue developed within the school. We have to spend $5,000 or something like that to come up. So all

107of these continue to adjust. We run now P&Ls on a daily basis uh to keep track of where we are and sort of land this 58 million budget on the 58 million market. Um so there's a lot of work that goes on and I'll give you a sense of it. We have about $900,000 in open POS's uh that we are building down on a daily basis to make sure that th those funds are either uh have been encumbered and going to be used or if not we free up the POS and uh and reduce our that increases availability of funds for the end of this school year. So uh there's a bit of art a bit of science that goes into this. to land this uh this ship on the target the 58 landing for

108222 by the end of the year. But uh we got a good push back. All right. If there are questions or comments, we'll start on the left this time. No thank you. No, thank you. You know, I like my system. Everybody's fine. Okay, I'm only kidding about that, of course. Um, next item on the agenda would be an update from the building needs task force. I believe Sue and Melissa are going to jump on that. Yes, I'm going to take it this week. Um, I jotted a few things down just to keep my brain on track and if there's any specific questions, I brought my packet with me. The building needs task for task force met May 28th from 6:00 to 7:30. On the agenda was to approve and act on minutes from 42925. Discuss

109the timeline for building needs task force review the NASDAQ report and review consider and act on options. The amendment from the school committee meeting from 5:27 was acknowledged. After lots of discussion and input from all members, a motion was made to recommend 8 to 12 at the high school. Eight members in favor, two not in favor, and the motion carried. And of course, it was seconded. I didn't put that in, but A second motion was made to recommend Lawrence uh to hold 5 to 7, grades 5 to 7 with the same 8 yay and two nay. A third motion was made and seconded upon completion of the renovation at Lawrence to return Morse Pond to the town. This was approved unanimously. Dr. After Tunucci opened discussions regarding the NASDAQ report, one remained on the table,

110two and four were off the table, three, five, six, and eight were removed and seven remains. A motion was made to remove 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, and to consider option one and two and any other recommendations uh forthcoming. This passed unanimously. Dr. and Tinucci suggested to to begin the preschool talks at the next meeting. Additional dates were set and the meeting adjourned at 7:05 questions. Okay. Um it we're starting in the middle. So I have no question. It would be Mark. I have one question. Uh, you just said that number one, the building needs task force moved forward. Nope. I said um one was to remain on the table. Two and four were off the table. Yeah. Okay. Three, five, six, and eight were removed and seven remained. And then the motion

111was made to remove 2, three, four, five, six, and eight. And to consider one, two, and any other additional recommendations to be made by whomever. at the LA at our last meeting. What was the motion that we made to delete one and two? [Music] We referred that question to them and we're waiting to hear back from them at our next meeting. Correct. It's a different one and two, right? Correct. Oh, you're talking about Thank you. Thank you, Chris, for clarifying anything. You pointed. We knew what you meant there. I have a question. I'm just wondering what the next date is. The next date. Thank you. Great. All right. So, at six o'clock. Thank you. No, I'm good. No, we're not going to discuss it today. We're just Yeah. curing the Yeah. Thank you. Um uh

112so this is just like eventually once they kind of make the final decision then it comes to us and then we'll decide. Just check. Uh are we getting an update of any of the feedback that was provided to them at whatever point? Oh, we did have those. We had them all set out. Do you have them with you, Sharon? I'm thinking. Okay. I think it was the whole movie over here. We had them all copied. They were all stacked up at the to bring I mean stack of something right there. Oh yeah, it's uh I don't think that's thick enough. So the two things that we were going to share tonight are the was the uh the company that uh did the transcript for the um the forum the teaching learning alliance. No, no, we

113can get them. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, these two the these are the two that you're that we had already to bring to you today. Um, it was the teaching learning alliance. It was the transcript from the the form and then it was it's uh the online the the NASDAQ report feedback. And so, these were the two items. I Katrina, I know you asked about I'm sorry. We we we copied it way back whatever the date was when we copied it for that and they've been stacked up there and I just think we I just asked Sharon to make copies of um I just asked Sharon so we can get to me. I'm sorry. Yes, you're in the Okay. If anyone wants to take one I can I can pick up another one from Sharon if

114you go ahead. Um, I just want to respond to a comment earlier that leaves me a little perplexed in that it was an insinuation that the members of this committee have not done a deep dive into the consultant report and I will speak on behalf of all the committee members because this is my copy. Um, I think we've all done our due diligence in looking at this and looking at the data and um to suggest otherwise I think is is really um I I'm it's not sitting well with me. So I just um would like to say that that I'm quite confident that each member of this committee has done their uh fulfilled their responsibility and looked at this report. Do you have a comment? Okay. No, I don't have any comments. I I would

115like to make a comment um since we can go around twice, right? Correct. Um it uh I wasn't really going to, but um Glenda kind of opened the door. Um it was also insinuated that um the building needs task force hadn't also looked at the NASDAQ report in detail. And um again, I assure you that everyone at that table has done their due diligence and then some. And Dr. Dr. Antonucci made a great comment um at our last meeting that the reason why we're able to move along as swiftly as we are is because people do their homework before they come to that meeting. So, I just want to say that out loud and it's not um there's nothing behind it other than I do my homework and um I think the people that come

116to that table, this table, other tables um that want to really make an effort do their homework. So, that's all. Anybody else with a comment? I I want a clarification. I thought Chris said that when they I I thought they sent us two decisions they had made. Or is this not their final decision? No, they have made the decisions. They have Yeah, the five. Yeah, because I They have made decisions. It's just not their their full It's not everything yet. Okay. Yeah, but as they're making decisions moving along. They've made two decisions. They want to say three decisions. Melissa talked. Okay, good. I'm happy to read them if everybody would like that. Is that helpful, Terry, Margaret? No, I know what they were, but I thought I when they had when they made their decisions,

117I wanted to be clear that I thought they had made decisions. Correct. We had made decisions. I just think the difference is that when they made their first decision about Lawrence, we had to act because if we were going to submit the So now we're not under that same time. Yeah, it wasn't my point. Oh, okay. Sorry, I was guessing. Can I just ask does the um the information from the online form, do that include the narrative responses as well, or is it just the little the bubble survey question? It's all the narrative. It's all the nar. Thank you, Chris. Just quick question. um are we like the feedback that that we're getting um are we kind of considering that or is that mainly coming from the building needs u I'm kind of just looking

118more for clarification on the process if like are we kind of looking at the feedback from like the forums um in the helps of us making a decision or are we when the building needs has made their final decisions are they going to present this to us with their um kind of reasoning behind it where it's just for us to make a decision based on what they the work that they've done and the research they've done and the feedback that they've taken into account. Um as opposed to us also kind of looking at feedback and kind of just trying to understand that process just so I'm a little more clear. Does the committee member have my my personal observation or or um feeling is that a full report will be made based with and with

119rationale um accompanying that information. Um but then as individuals as we sit here it's up to us to continue to do do our own homework and analysis as well but taking into consideration their recommendations. Okay, that's exactly how I understand. Thank you. Thank Yes. Um just a question. Is there a timeline or a projected timeline when we will receive a report? Um Dr. Anthony has stressed um several times in regards to we are not in a rush as it as Dr. Door has as well in regards to when we get to the point of where we feel our discussions are are finalized and a vote is taken. um no matter what it takes. So, just as a followup, is the committee meeting over the summer? Yes. Uh yeah, I believe so. Okay. Um we don't

120have dates as yet, but we meet on Monday night and I'm sure that we'll be working towards that. There's been no discussion of taking a hiatus. Okay. Thank you for all that information. All right. Next item on the agenda will be the first read on school committee meeting dates. So I don't know that anyone Yeah. Lori will be start this conversation. Okay. So as you'll see in September we normally have two dates. Um the the second school committee uh meeting of September falls on Rashashana and so um that's why there's only one September. Um we still have two October and November. We always have one in December. In the end, after the entire schedule, it's the same number of meetings as every every other year. It's just lighter on the front half and heavier on

121the second half. Um uh sometimes, and this this year, we only had one February meeting. You can see there's two. So, every year because of how the calendar falls on the the second and the fourth um Tuesdays, um but basically, it's the same number. Um, so I just wanted to let you know that, you know, the September kind of stands out, but I wanted you to know why. Thank you. So, the September meeting will be a long one, but um, Kelly, what is it that why we had to do just to reiterate why we're only having one? Oh, um, because of Rash because of Rashana, right? So, get ready for a long one in September. We have to take comments. Are we starting on the right now? Right, Sue? Okay. Um, I'm wondering if we

122can although we do not know when town meeting will be in November. Traditionally, it's more towards the It's on this. We actually have it on this night. Yep. All right. Thank November 17th. Yeah. They announced it the last time. Um, I'm just looking at the November 25th and that is there's no school the following day. Right. Right. And then it's Thanksgiving. So I mean it is us staff, administration, you know, whoever who may want to come to our meeting is it's not great holding up. We don't want to hold anybody up if they have plans for the holiday. We read Monday. So this is the first read where we're getting the opinions. So we can if we can just look we can look into that. Yes. Okay. Um, my question I'm sorry, was that your

123That's my Um, and I It might not matter at all, but I'm wondering if because this is really our our list of meetings so that the public knows when we're going to be conducting our business. And we don't conduct business at the retreat. So, I don't know that it should be on there. And it's also a meeting that we're beholden to oftent times people coming in and facilitating or offering a training of some kind. And every time we adapt because whenever we make an edit to this we have to vote on it because it's the schedule that is available so the public knows what we're doing. So that's my two cents on that. We don't conduct business at that meeting. So I don't think it should be on here. Is that the August 12th time?

124Yeah, Mike, I want to piggy back on what Sue said. I like what she said. Got your back for now. Sue, that's we gota No, no, we got shortlived. help me. You admit I know um the November 25th and December 9th meetings and I know this is first read, but if we shift those back a week, then we would have two in December. Right now, we only have I don't know if that I'm just throwing it out there. Um if we don't want to do it on that Tuesday night, there seems to be some wiggle room in December. You mean the like the Tuesday after Thanksgiving? Bump it. When you say November 25th, bump it to December 2nd, then bump nine and bump. I didn't know if you've been bumping it backward. I don't know

125what those words. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Maybe later for both of those. That's just my So that would solve that problem. Yeah. Earlier and then my dance cards fall into something. I just want to say generally the reason we put it this way is because you know on the town website says that the school committee meets on the second and fourth Tuesday. We can maybe ask them to change that or whatever but I think people get in their mind that that's I'm not saying not to change it. I just wanted to put that out there for you to think about. Oh it's the first Tuesday. I'm good. Yeah. But yeah in moving around the table. No I don't have any comments. I'm just glad next year that we do not have a meeting

126on my birthday because our next meeting June 24th is my birthday. So I'm glad it's June 23rd next year. I feel that it was my birthday last year. No, it's not my birthday too. Oh, what? The 24th. Yeah. Oh. Nope. Nope. Okay. Thank you very much. And if you think of anything, it's hardly kind of force. Yeah. It's so much strike. I mean, I looked at it already and I said I missed the thing about the dece um November being right close to vacation time. Terry, I just want to make a little um notation. It says on here that it's been approved by the school committee. It has not. It just I know that it's just our our first read, but it's it says on the paper that it was approved by school committee. Oh,

127it usually has the date underneath it. It usually says the date. I did want to point that out. That's all. It's not. Okay. We'll have the date when when we do that, I think. Thank you. All those good little points to look at. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the uh school committee um assignments and subcommittees. Could I preface a little bit on this? Um, I looked around what's recommended by mask and I did an AI search that gives you a general thing and I looked at some schools and mask kind of says it's good for committee members to be um on two to four meetings so two to four committees. So I said, "Okay, three that's in the middle." And also the student advisory subcommittee has to it's state regulation. It now

128has to be a standing committee. It's no longer a subcommittee. I'm sorry, which one? The student advisory. Oh, it's now a standing committee. And the other recommendations for membership for members in general was that each member be on at least one standing committee. So I put that together. I considered open meeting laws, not having um too many members and um and then I tried to honor people's first request. It always didn't work that way. Um Margaret had asked a question about um the the did you I sent an email saying that the um the wellness committee does not have a it has an alternate but it doesn't have it's not there and I'm not on any um LEON committee so I assume and make assumptions are bad. Huh? You're on You're on de. Yeah, as

129as an alternate. No, you're the only name. Then you're the only name there, Margaret. It's listed twice. I think that's what she sees. Sorry to speak out. So, one is one is the town advisory committee and the other one is the school. Thank you. Yes, we put the town committee. It was called um affirmative action, but they changed their name. So, that's the town committee first. Okay. Still the health committee is missing. Health is on that. No, no. The health committee that I was on last year. The wellness committee. That's the wellness. It's right there. Chris is the Got that as a liaison? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was alternate. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. And the LPAC one, nobody signed up for that, so I put my name. I'll take Mark would

130somebody Okay. Thank you very much. I got inspired by Maria earlier. Okay. All right. So, good. All right. Um wanted to mention that I I was on that I was on a few but because I work it's very difficult because some of these most of them meet during the day. Um but I appreciate the subcommittee appointments. Thank you T. Okay. No good. Um also one other little edit. If you go up to the VIPS board member, um just just end at the word member. The rest of that is not um relevant anymore. Okay? Just RIP's word member period. Um I want to say thank you to Margaret for last year. She was on so many committees and we appreciate it and we appreciate it. All I just wanted to ask you know uh people work

131and the student advisory committee is a subcommittee meets during the morning. So I wanted to make sure that people who were on that committee realize their commitment to the to when it when it meets. It's 10 o'clock in the morning. 10 o'clock in the morning. Okay. Mike, my job's not that important. I'll be there. You know there's no TV. I don't care. They can see it. They know how I feel. Terry, I had one more. I had a question as well. Sure. Am I Did I get out of Somebody got me out of the loop here? Oh, that's Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Um the um all of these are rotating as far as I can tell except for you being on Cape Cod Collaborative. Um and the um the school building needs

132negotiations stays the same too. No, I mean of the subcommittees, but nobody else Nobody else asked for the collaborative. No, I my point being that um I I understood that all of these rotate and that we move around and I my question is why is the school building needs committee still Susan and Melissa and it has not been rotated. Okay. I made the decision that those people have all the data in their notebooks. They've been in involved in it all. It's still ongoing work. So if somebody knew went in, they would have to go back and relearn all the stuff that's been um compiled. So for the sake of bookkeeping, for the sake of data um a availability that they've been through um I left them there. Can I I I make a further note

133which is that we are um as they are our committee, we've all been involved with the work they're doing. Um I feel confident that all of us would be able to catch up if we have not already been caught up. And my second point is that if it's an ongoing committee and we don't know when it's going to end. Um Susan's term ends after this coming year, there's a chance that the building needs committee will still be carrying on. And so if we have this continuity as our goal, that could be broken in any case. And so in my mind it makes better sense to rotate people through as we do with every other subcommittee and give every you know new people a chance to be involved with the work that the building needs task

134force is doing since they are our advisory committee. Terry could I just make a comment that I um was going to hold till the end that I completely forgot to mention. Is it relevant to this? It is. Sure. Go ahead. So um at the end of the building although we said that um Dr. Dr. Shei did not want to rush with anything. There was a comment made that um that I had forgotten about that it said uh at the next meeting discussions will be to continue or adjourn after the preschool discussions that will be happening at the next meeting. Does that make sense? So while he's not rushing, he's also projecting that we may be wrapping up at that point as well. So I don't know. I just I failed to mention that and I

135was going to mention it at the end, but with Katrina's comments, I feel like um that should be made. I should have said that in the during the building needs update and I apologize. Yes. Are we go right ahead? I think I got out of line. Okay. Um I just wanted to um remind that it per our policy it's up to the chair um in terms of making subcommittee appointments and and other committee appointments. So um you know although it may be a courtesy to rotate it it or or not um it's really up to the discretion of the chair and and you know I think we have to abide by our policy. Okay. Which I gave my reasons for and um I did. Yes. since in fact two members have been on the subcommittee

136the task force uh I think it's um it would be difficult to all of a sudden move two new people into a task force this this has been people on this committee have been on the task force and the task force is a process an ongoing process okay but I would also like to say that that although the chair does have the discretion there is a discussion and and we really approve this or don't approve it, you know, approved at the school committee meeting. Okay. So, we we really do, you know, but I I certainly don't think it's appropriate to take people off the um that committee if in fact they've been working on a task force and the task force is ongoing. Yeah. And to be honest with everybody, this is a first read.

137This is where you hear from people and their thoughts. Mhm. You know, um that's why I did my Okay. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. Um I was going to suggest that. Did you say soup? No. No. You said I'm sorry. Um I was going to suggest adding um a third person to bill signers and I'm happy to do it. It hardly ever gets used, but I think we had one time last year when the um when both people were unavailable. And you know, no, last year someone came to my house. I was the third person last year and last year someone came to my house. The year before you were called on, but last year someone came to my house because I just had surgery and I had to sign. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm happy.

138I don't have a lot of other um heavy lifting things. I'm happy to just feed the third person if you want to add just in case. Margaret had signed up for that. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. already. I just was sticking to my one and two um thing. So, if you want it, you're more than welcome. I just want to make sure we're covered. I I agree with you, but it's whatever. I'm fine with it. Whatever you want, however you want to do it. Fair. Again, we're gathering your input. So, any other comments? Chris, just question. Um, student advisory subcommittee that meets once a month, three times a year. Three times a year. Three times a year. Oh, yeah. I can I can easily make that up. Uh, and the wellness committee was that I was

139kind of reading through the the re blurb in the in our packet. Is that kind of like an outreach where you kind of meet with staff or or the public? How how does that really function? This well wellness committee has three forums right it has sports physical uh nutrition and socio social social and emotional and uh they had the fair last year and we look at health in terms of those three aspects and last year it was wonderful because they were integrated because my previous year on that committee they were sort of silos and last year they were able to really become all integrated it's a um it meets I think three time four times a It's a standing committee. So, it's the same members that Okay. And it's just report back on what what

140happens at the committee and you may have some contributions. Yeah. Suggestions, whatever to keep improving. Okay. What we're doing for the district and the air. All right. Terry, can I ask question about CPAC? When does CPAC meet and how often? We have a binder that has all their meeting times in it. I don't have them all in my head, honestly. I mean, I think it's like the second or third Thursday. And usually, uh, Terry Alves Hunter does a Zoom. Okay. Whoever the chair, she's she was the chair. She was the chair of the last couple. Um, it's in your information binder. It's about this thick. Okay. Yeah. The original. Yeah. Sandy is the the um contact with the CPAC that works directly with the chair, whoever the chair is. Right. And they both cherry each

141year. It's been Terry. It's been Terry for a couple years. I'm sure she'll want to continue, but Margaret I guess why I got confused was when I saw liaison in my head I would think is have alternate and I really think it's important for all of the liaison to have an alternate because having been on committees there are times when people cannot attend and I believe there should only be one person on committee I accept that notion but I think it's important to have alternates for all of the leaders on committee so that we as the school committee get reports from every committee Okay, that's just my suggestion. That's what we're here for. Um that's what we're here for. Um if I sent out a list, would everybody pick a um a committee to be

142an alternate for? Sure. Sure. I don't mind doing that. It doesn't take really long really. Okay. So, I'll send that out to you and anybody that would fill in to be an alternate. Thank you. Is it for the the subcommittees as well as the assignments or all is it for all of them or just the okay? Um I think the wellness comm was probably something different than I was picturing. So I'm not sure if there's anyone else that wants to be the main person for wellness. Like I'm I'm happy to be maybe an alternate. Um just to put that out there. Okay. Anything that you would like reconsider, send them my way. That's the purpose of this. Okay. All right. Any other comments or things? And if you think anything, you can email me. Okay.

143All right. Moving along. Okay. This is to act on the school handbooks. Is there a motion for this agenda item? I'll make a motion. A second. Okay. After the motion comes discussion. Where are we starting? Is it the left side? No, I got the left. I think it's over here. So, back to the right side. Okay. I've already found it in the top. Okay. I don't have anything. Thanks. Um, this is about the handbook. Correct. Correct. All right. I made my comments last time and uh I will reiterate I don't agree with the uh the punishments for uh school dress code andor uh cell phone use. I don't think the punishments match up other uh punishments we have in the district and I cannot vote for it based on that. Melissa, I have nothing. Nothing.

144Unfortunately, I do have something. I don't normally write comments, but I did tonight. And Robert's rule says you are allowed to have a 10-minute comment. This is not 10 minutes. Do not worry. But is it nine? I think it's more like eight. I will read fast, but I would like to share it. Don't go too fast for No, it's fast. I'm sorry. I am a uh what did you say? Odyssey. I don't know. You said the Iliad about something I had written. Okay. Um, I was not aware of the Lawrence school dress code until I did my tour of all the schools back in October and observed that the students were in uniform dress that mostly made them look like golf caddies. It seemed a bit odd to me that the only ones that only

145one school had this dress code, but I did not think much about it again. In January, a member of the community approached me wanting to bring her concerns to the policy subcommittee. Since then, I have researched and questioned and listened and observed everything I can about this topic in an effort to understand the issue. As a school committee member, I am prohibited by policy from contacting staff members directly. But I have had the opportunity for spontaneous informal conversations with three Lawrence staff members and seven parents of current or past Lawrence students. All but one of these parents and teachers have been in favor of the dress code. By my account, the school committee has received emails from um it changed since I wrote this. So, I think 18 individuals on this topic, mostly parents and

146a couple of students and teachers. Of those individuals who emailed um seven, eight, 10, I think, were in writing in favor of the dress code and six were against. The PR principal of Lawrence presented on this topic at our last meeting and shared that out of his 92 total staff members, 60 of them recently responded to a survey asking if they were in favor of the dress code or not. 85% said that they were in favor and 15% said no. This is a remarkable number of staff to be in agreement on any topic. When it comes to student feedback, I have spoken to a handful of sophomore and junior high school students during student advisory who said that while they disliked the dress code at the time, they can now look back two or three

147years later and see the benefits. The only other student input I have seen has come from a community member survey which has been circulating in the last month asking for feedback about the dress code. From the most recent results that have been shared with the school committee on June 7th, 333 people had responded to the survey. You can only take the survey one time. So this number represents 333 individual account holders. Of that number, 166 of them were current Lawrence school students. When I calculate from the current total population, which I think is around 459, what's that right? Something like that. Uh 459 students, it appears that 30 36% of current Lawrence students have responded to this survey. And the results show that at least this 36% strongly dislike the dress code, feel that it

148causes stress, and that the clothing is uncomfortable. The majority of adults I have heard from seem to be in favor of this dress code because it streamlines and simplifies their interactions with their children and students during an otherwise complex time of adolescent life. The dress code eliminates many of the difficult daily choices about individual expression that make adolescence so challenging. and they feel it reduces opportunities for stressful conflicts over fashions and undesirable clothing preferences as well as eliminating perceived societal inequities as expressed through clothing. Of course, clothing is not the only way to show wealth in social status. Coming to school with a $45 water bottle, the latest iPhone model, and a pair of trending shoes can express just as much privilege as brand label clothing. And for this reason, it seems unlikely that even

149a dress code as comprehensive as this revised and expanded four-page policy can create an equitable environment. As I said during my comments on May 27th, this dress code is not reflective of the clothing that is worn by the adults all around this community who are modeling success for these kids. Even the teachers at Lawrence do not consistently model this dress code in their own working attire. I can understand the desire to remove choices about clothing. There's something appealing about having all solid colors with no logos or graphic images to distract you when you look across a sea of students. This desire is very much in line with many private schools including Waldorf, private academies and religious schools. However, I believe it is our job as a district to prepare our kids for the real world.

150Just as we teach digital literacy from the very earliest grades in order to prepare students to be discerning members of a global world and to use the internet safely and critically, we need to teach students how to express and represent themselves respectfully, authentically, and thoughtfully through their clothing choices. Adolescence don't always make healthy, smart, safe choices in their wardrobe because they are in a phase of trial and error. They are still learning. I have seen some limited evidence that suggests that by removing the opportunity to practice and refine their self-expression during these two formative years, kids in our district are actually set back and unprepared when they enter high school. One current high school student who emailed the school committee described how confusing it was to enter the high school after two years of restricted

151dress and try to figure out what to wear without any sense of her classmates fashion culture. During last weekend's graduation ceremony, one speaker mentioned how the class had worn pajamas almost every day their freshman year, but that now as seniors, they had learned how to represent themselves more seriously. It is the prerogative of the school principal to make decisions for the handbook, and the principal at Lawrence has recommended keeping the dress code. I defer to the experience and wisdom of the principal and staff. However, it is the school committee's job to consider, revise, and approve all policies in the handbooks, and I have taken this job seriously and do not believe that it is a ceremonial gesture. As an elected member of the school committee, I represent all of the constituents in this town. In

152this instance, the constituents who will most directly be impacted by this uniform policy are the ones who are required to wear it, the students. I believe that at its heart, the goal of this dress code is to encourage students to take themselves and each other more seriously, act and dress respectfully, and take responsibility for their own actions. But how can these students learn concepts of cons consent, tolerance of differences, respect for others, and ownership of their actions if they are deprived of the opportunity to practice and receive constructive feedback during their daily life in the relatively safe community of their peers and mentors? This revised policy changes the language from a recommendation to a requirement. And I expect that most families and students will not realize they can self- advocate for an exemption if they

153choose. I'm sorry, I'm very close now. Public school education is compulsory. I was reminded of this at last weekend's graduation ceremony when one of the class speakers joyfully explained, "You guys, this is the end of our compulsory education. These children are minors and have very little control over their own destinies each day. They are compelled to come into our public schools every day regardless of their preferences. They may have no intrinsic motivation to want to dress for success in this environment. And unlike dressing, in my opinion, a comparison cannot be drawn between the school uniform and dressing for professional work life. Because unlike dressing for a job, they did not choose to be in school and they will not be reimbursed for their time. In this restricted and highly controlled environment, the primary way that

154kids can express themselves is non-verbally through their choice of what to wear, what to eat, and whether to volunteer part uh voluntarily participate. Our culture values individuality very highly, and self- advoc advocacy is generally encouraged in our learning environments and in society at large. The concept of consent has been one of the top issues in western society for over a decade now. In my view, this dress code deters consent and promotes conformity. Some elements of the dress code do make sense. And these are the elements that appear in other school handbooks of the district. Namely, no hate speech, nothing dangerous or unsanitary, nothing that can reasonably be predicted to disrupt the educational environment, and no hats or hoodies indoors. This last restriction makes sense from a safety perspective, so you can see and identify individual

155children's faces when they are mingling in large groups. These dress guidelines adhere to state and federal laws. They make sense, and they do not financially burden or overly restrict the self-expression of students. I am very hopeful that in the coming year, Lawrence School staff administration and fifth through 8th grade students and their families will be able to engage in a thoughtful, rich dialogue about this topic through collaborative workshop style community forums in order to forge a new vision of what it means to dress for success. We are unfortunately required to vote on the handbooks now before such a process has been undertaken. And so in the absence of comprehensive process-driven data, I must consider the incomplete information that I have been able to gather in the past 5 months. I did not have an opinion

156when this conversation began. Through the process of the last five months, I now have a an opinion. I have considered the views of the principal, our legal council, parents, educators, and students. And ultimately, I must consider my own values on this matter. I am unwilling to vote to approve a policy that arbitrarily seeks to control and restrict student choices and behaviors in additional restrictive ways. Thank you for your time. Okay. I hope to never do that for you again. Not back to follow. Geez. Um thank you Katrina for that. Um so so my so I kind of have a question. So, a no vote on this or a yes vote implements this new handbook policy. A no vote just keeps it to what the original was. Is that my understanding? Well, there's more than one

157school involved in this, right? So, to be honest, Lori, can you help with Yeah. So, I mean things Katrina was focusing um not to speak for you, but I think you were focusing on the Lawrence, right? And there are there's um about um the cell phones. There's a couple things uh for the entire all the um books about assault battery that needs to be updated u because it's law and we need to update the law. Then we have um the cell phones. It's been a been a practice and and it's been working. So, the high school wants to put that in. Morse Pond made their changes. The high school has a couple changes for the dress code. Um Morse Pond and the elementary have some changes to the dress code. So, and I will take

158one more step to uh just mention at this time since you asked the question. So, you give me the floor and I talk more Chris. Um when we talked about the policy at the end, the policy JICA, it's in the handbook. it is um it's also in the policy manual, but it doesn't belong in the handbook. And so there's two things we want to discuss around that. Right now tonight, we're just voting on the handbook and we're saying let's vote it out of there. And then I think the policy subcommittee should be um taking that up. There's reasons why that that policy doesn't apply to us or should be there, but policy subcommittee can do it and then there would be another vote at another time around that. This is just to remove a policy.

159I don't know why it was ever in a handbook. Why does that Oh, because it's a policy. It doesn't belong in the handbook. There's certain policies in a handbook, but it's it's like a repeat, right? You have a policy that's in the policy manual. You don't rewrite your policy to put into the handbook, right? It in the handbook, it should be explaining the policy, not repeating a policy. And so, that's what we've cleaned up here with all the language for the elementary. um in absence of explaining for the elementary that's just kind of been there and so like I I I told you with the handbooks you know we keep taking sections and sections and trying to revise and improve and and that's there so there's other stuff other than the Lawrence changes to answer

160your question um yeah I mean if you don't vote the handbook then these other things that that need to be changed would not be changed so unless it's a different motion I guess can you vote sections? Unless I guess there's a different motion. I I don't know. We've never done that before, but yeah, it's chair. Um it's not an agenda item. Um so to to Chris's question, if if it's a no vote, what does that do? It takes the entire handbook and it does not revert it to last year. It makes it standing. It would be the standing one. So if a no vote would just return it to what it is. seems like um so so I guess you know I'm prepared to vote for this now but you know it has this discussion

161has brought up kind of a larger discussion of um I think really looking at our policy for this and trying to come up with a more unified kind of dress code and looking at you know what what is the purpose of this dress code um whether it's an equity issue or or you know whatnot and really getting as much community and student and teacher input from I would say all the levels you know you know I'm curious I'm still not sure um has the has the policy been successful at Lawrence like do we have data that supports if it's been successful and with the high school not having um kind of a dress code how have the teachers students responded there so for me I don't have enough information you know based on what we

162have received in terms of data and just the population at large how many people there are that this affects for me to make kind of an informed decision on more specifically with the Lawrence dress code but you know kind of having a more uniform dress code policy that goes through, you know, elementary school through high school, um, so that kids kind of have that consistency. Um, you know, obviously I deferred to our legal council, um, regarding the legality of it. But, you know, just because something's legal, is it the most effective, um, policy that there is? So, so I would hope that you know even though we vote for this now that there is a definite timeline for um addressing this issue in the future. I was kind of no this is for the handbook

163to just replace what's in the handbook and explain what's in the policy. Now if I understood it correctly Dr. door said much next year you were going to do a survey about this issue. And you know I I think one of the things I found most helpful was what Susan read last at our last meeting where in fact this is what just one aspect of the innovation school of the innovative innovation school and so there's lots of other aspects. So if we're going to remove this aspect uh as the other aspects going to be going going away too because there's only one aspect of a larger concept um that started several years ago. Now this is about the handbook if I correct Dr. do of next next year and particularly we particularly if we're going

164to change the dynamic of of Lawrence um you're going to be doing a survey in terms of all of the constituencies um in terms of what's best for the students. Yes, that was already planned um for two years from now after we you know got the the feedback from the renovation moving forward. Once we knew it was forward, it was kind of our plan as part of that. But with all the discussion, I certainly said that Tom and I could move it up and do this next year. And could I say one more thing? Since the student who spoke at our last meeting is a fifth grader, this will not affect him next year because he'll be in sixth grade. It's almost said about affects all the kids that are there. No, I think did

165I start with soon? No. No. Yep. We're done. We already did our side. Okay. So, everybody has spoken. But me. Okay. My um comment is it's a very big issue as Chris described. Um I I remember when Rebecca Vier was talking about the little green green team green team how it started small and this um this discussion about all the levels and affecting all the kids this thing has grown and um it's too big to say yes or no right now. So, um I'm believing we should leave it as it is right now as the principal has recommended and Lori has said already the discussion that was going to be two years when we were doing the schools is moved ahead to next year. So, it will be a much bigger discussion. we can um

166you look at all things involved because we're really making a decision on something that's very big and I don't think we should change it until we've looked at all the parts of it. I mean, so I would vote I would I would vote to accept it. Okay, that's my opinion. And now anybody else have opinions we're going around the second time or is everybody done? Um I have a question of clarification and a possible other thing. Um the question I wanted to know Lori did you say that the policy JICA is in here because the elementary school has no explanation about address code and that's why it exists in the handbook. It was here in place of an explanation. Now the ex the the dress code is is addressed in here. because the elementary schools

167the reason I'm asking is because the elementary school handbook still has policy JICA that is not changed in our draft. That that's what we're we're um suggesting that it comes out. The I don't think the elementary school is in it. It's at the very end it's struck second to last page. Morris Pond and elementary schools. So that's what we're voting on. It doesn't say elementary. So it said Morris Pond and then it says and elementary. Okay. Okay. And elementary. Um so if this comes out of the handbook that policy JICA still exists in the policy. It does until you vote right until you know the policy subcommittee decides to recommend it out. you know, leave in or take out as I I have to say though since you're you're asking the policy doesn't apply because

168it's an option for towns and the found the town of Felmouth about 83 but that is that's the reference for that policy policy JICA was written by MASC and statute 83 it was recommended it's a model recommended policy for mask. But the reference, the policy reference from mask is uh mass journal law chapter 7183 and 83 is a local town option. Right. I got that. And that the town of Balmouth has not adopted that option. So it doesn't apply. Uh clauses 62 and 63. I don't see 8. Oh, 7183 at the end. Okay. I'm sorry. I messed that up. Um but but we can take that up in policy subcommittee. Okay. The Thank you. The um clarification, Margaret, I think you were saying that you thought removing the dress code would affect the innovation grant.

169They're not connected. Um the dress code was not part of the innovation grant. It just came in at the same time. It was not required as part of the was a part of the innovation. It was required and their plan that they submitted. Yeah. I thought we've we've talked about this so many times and I thought we had said that you guys when when the innovation first happened it was part of the program. It was not a requirement for funding. Okay. Requirement but it was voted on by the staff lumped in with everything. Okay. I think that was not anyone that was sitting on the committee at the time. All right. Thank you. Oh, Mike. I have a quick question which I don't know just came up now. innovation thing. I don't know what that

170is, but are we still an innovation school or is the dress code the only thing left behind from that? No, other things are left behind like you can have you can alternate your scheduling. You could um there's other things government model initiatives all the things that Tom shared at the last meeting. Yeah. Yeah. And then Susan read the detailed report from her phone. Yeah. But it did expire, didn't it? in 2022. They are no longer an innovation school. Can I can I just point of clarification? We are just voting on what and just correct me if I'm wrong. We are just voting on what will be in the student handbook next year. We are not voting to change any policy. We're going to revisit that next year. So, this is only what is going to

171be in a student handbook. Am I correct in that? Yeah. Okay. So that's what we're voting on. Are there any other comments? Okay. For voting, would you um please raise your hand? Why don't we do a roll call vote on this? Okay. Okay. So, is it the left side that starts? Yes. Okay. Margaret, yes. A lumping yes. Neon. Yes. I guess. Cohen, yes. Moske, yes. Michael Halen, no. Welch, yes. Augusta, yes. Maduras, yes. So, did somebody count them? I did. It passes. Okay. All right. Okay. The next item on the agenda would be to act on the school calendar. Okay. Second, you want to Sorry, I jumped the gun. No, it's okay. Um, so as we talked about last time, I've got no um suggested changes since our our last meeting. So, this calendar for

172one year only, we're going to pilot going um before Labor Day. It'll be the Monday, uh, August 31st through Thursday, September 3rd. There'll still be a long weekend for um, Labor Day weekend from Friday through Monday. So, there'll be a 4-day uh, school week, four days off, and then another 4-day school week to start the school year. And then everything follows the same until the end of the year. And you can see that um the last day without a weather contingency day would be the 16th of June. Okay. Um is it the middle that starts now? Sure. And I have a question. Okay. So, previously we didn't use the word pilot and I feel like you're sneaking pilot in because I feel like you want to start before Labor Day. Oh, no, no, no. I

173meant it's a one year only. I did not mean anything about the pilot. No, I don't really because the pilot to me sounds like, oh, we're going to try this this. Okay. I I am so sorry. Let me I it is I really I have I really don't have feelings one way or the other, whether it's before Labor Day or after Labor Day, honestly. But but this was a the only time I would ever suggest is when it's so late in September. And that's what happened in this year. and um and the uh FBA had looked at it and said they would also like to try it one year. And so I'm that I'm just reporting on that. That's all. So no, sorry. Take the pile away. I was trying to make emphasis. We're going

174to do it for one year only. We're not going to say this is the way it's always going to be. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for letting me clarify. Okay. Who's next? Mike. Um I have no questions, but I do have a comment. I've talked to a few teachers last week and they're all pretty excited about starting earlier. Okay. And some of them said we should have done this years ago, but Oh, actually, I do have a question. Take it back. Um, I like it, but can we do I know the FBA has chimed in, but can we do like an a larger survey to see if it's I know Melissa doesn't love this, but it's okay. A more permanent idea with um families because the FEA does their survey with their staff. Yeah. So, I

175mean it I could do a larger one with families, but that more concerned with staff and teachers than you know. Well, so they did their survey when they're okay with it. It leaned toward trying it. I'm not going to say it was 100% by any means. Um but but they said it leaned toward giving it a try this year. I was going to survey families when we get to the 26 27 school year and survey after we do that start to see how people like it. Maybe do that. Yeah. And then we would know, you know, to kind of inform. Yeah. After the fact after the fact infor to inform us whether they liked it or didn't like it because the option is you push it into July. You can't understand. Yeah. But it does

176if we don't do it, it does take us with contingency days right up to the last day of June. Yeah. And it was late last year. Yeah. It was it was late. Huh. Um just a comment. So I'm I'm sort of guessing that this is going to pass. We didn't have any major issues with it when we talked about it first read. I think if we do approve it, it would be good to have something on Facebook that says like the 2026 27 calendar has been approved. It's different because you know Yeah. Just something before because I know it's crazy but you know people plan I was planning a big family trip a year out and you don't want people to feel like they didn't have any idea was coming. Yeah, that's the whole reason

177why I've started the doing two years out is so much better so people could plan plan their trips. So we'll we'll definitely do some advertising. I think that would be really as well reiterating that this is 2627 this summer. Yes, Margaret. I'm okay. No comment. No comment. No comment. Round two. Go ahead. This isn't about the calendar per se, but if I could do a throwback to the committee meeting dates, I feel like Tuesday, December 9th on the school committee meeting dates is Wednesday on the real calendar. That's Oh, I apologize. I did that last time, too, Melissa, and you caught me last time. I apologize. No more second comments for you. Shut up. Okay. Okay. Um, I guess we're ready for a vote. Sure. Right. Okay. So, we have the motion. Um, all in

178favor, will you please say I and raise your hand? I Okay, it passes. Perfect. Thank you. Um, next item is to act on the um, attorney Gonza's Mary Ganza's contract. Lori, um, as we talked last um, last time um Mary's contract is up. we did a one-year uh this was her first year out of the director position um with the school district and we contracted with her and so uh we did it as a one-year only um and now um we're putting forth a contract um that like any other attorneys we hire it's kind of it's ongoing um as one of the district attorneys continue in this role. Okay. Um, are there any questions? It's starting at the left. We need a motion. We need a motion first. Oh, yeah. I'll make a motion to

179approve the contract. I'll second. Okay. Margaret, did I understand this was a one-year contract or it's just a contract? It the past one was one year. This one now is a standard contract that that we do with this. Yeah. This was just clarification. Thank you. There's no term. Notori. Yes. No, we're not. Oh, sorry. Just sorry. You have a question first? No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay. Um, roll call vote. We don't have to do for that. Okay. You can do the same. All in favor say I and raise your hand. I All right. So, it passes. Yes. All right. Um, see, I told you guys it really is hard to keep track of votes and who raised their hands first. It's really difficult to do that. Um, so that's why I thank you

180for letting me try this system of rotating it. It's It's easier. Okay. Sharon, did you get the votes on that one? She didn't. I have. Oh, you have them. Okay. Okay. Um, the next item on the agenda is to act on the superintendent contract. And I will say um this vote tonight is to approve the majority vote of the committee done in executive session of the superintendent's contract. Okay. Is there a motion? So move. Second. Okay. So it's a vote. Um we start in the middle this time. We have no discussion. Oh, sure. Um, I just wanted to clarify that the entirety of the contract I um am fully in support with about the the increase in pay and all the other elements. The only problem I have is with the term um six years

181is the exception in the state. I would have preferred it to be three years. So, unfortunately, I'm going to vote no, but it's not because of the rest of the contract. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. So, now we start voting, right? Okay. get where we're starting from. Is it the middle? It's a roll call. August. Doesn't have to be a roll call. Oh, yes. Alen, no. Yes. Glendon, yes. Nevin, no. Yes. Yes. Maduras, yes. So, it passes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The next um the next item on the cont on the um contract on the I'm getting tired. Okay. On the agenda is routine business which be the minutes. So move second. I'm on a roll. Is there any I never I never used to make motions. I'm catching up. Okay.

182Is there any discussion? Any mistakes or anything? Great. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Abstaining. Okay. Now is um committee reports. Um so first of all negot contract negotiations is going swimmingly. We're moving right along. Um and the second is on the um senior breakfast and voter registration. Um Margaret, as I sent each photo, we had a great time chatting with the kids. They were amazing. So many of them said that they were already registered and they were grateful to know how to sign up for their absentee ballot. It was another great voter registration day. Mike, isn't that a committee report, but I'm going to say it anyway. The Lawrence Tool Choir and band. I saw you in there. I think I saw you in front. I sit in the back. Um on

183Friday, they won um gold for their chorus and band. And I don't know if you're going to touch on that, but okay. That's right. That's it. Not a committee report. Just want to keep it out there. Thank you for saying that. Awesome. Yeah, that's it. I love that chart. Okay. It's a long day, but I love that chart. Any other committee reports? I have Go ahead. No, I have. No, no, I don't because I don't. Okay, go ahead, please. Um, I don't have a committee report, but like Mike, I'm gonna sneak this in. Um many of us were at the graduation on Saturday and I just want to commend Dr. Door and her team. Um I've been to many high school graduations and that stands out as one of the most touching and um wonderful

184and I just want to thank you for um just a wonderful community event. Thank you. And one individual at the high school that I really think needs to be her name called out is Carol Lori. Yes, she's excellent. She the Yeah, I mean I remember when I worked at the high school it it's such a hard thing and she had a plan not only in inside where it was but outside. I mean there were two sets of plans for that. So the work that woman did is just phenomenal. Um my committee report is um having gone to the VIPS appreciation dinner at the yach club last week. It was wonderful. all those pe we mentioned so many times how good our community is to us and BIPS is a shining example of that and it

185was also nice to have um Dylan Fernandez and David Vier came our legislators there who expressed how important education is to them which is a wonderful event okay allround event okay um Terry Katrina had something I think no I think you're still going no I'm done oh um so the tech meeting happened um last week and um we Andrew who leads the tech meeting um talked about the Desi AI cohort which he had gone to a conference and um he reported that the Desi people who are representing said we know everyone is looking to us for the answers but we don't have the answers yet. Um, so it was a room full of people talking about AI and how it can be utilized and what are the uses and how it should be regulated so

186teachers can manage um, plagiarism and academic dishonesty and all those issues. Um, we spent a lot of the time tinkering with AI ourselves to see if we could replicate an image that Andrew had come up with. And in the process, we had a great conversation about um, how you can use that as an exercise to get kids using descriptive words, you know, because you can't put in like swimming pool with a rubber ducky and a floating ball. You have to then say like overhead two-dimensional with brick outlines. Um, not a yellow ball, a yellow ducky, you know, like. So, it was that was fun. And then also at the end um we talked about the responsible youth policy that we had all approved. Uh we talked about uh the cell phone conversation that's about to

187start up with Lori and Sonia I think maybe I don't remember. Um a conversation with the Morse Pond principal about cell phone use and um there was mention of something called Play Lab which is a nonprofit that helps teachers to use AI in their classrooms um to the lesson plan of AI. So all around great meeting and I agree that the graduation was was great. It was a really nice event. Okay. Are there any requests for followup? Okay. So now this is the first time I've done this. We're going to adjourn the public meeting but we're going to reconvene in the um executive session because we didn't finish the business before the meetings. Terry, before you start that, can I just interrupt really quickly? I this is not a request for followup and it is

188not a policy or excuse me a um committee report. It's just something that I sort of jotted down that I wanted to mention. Okay. If I may, it's extraordinarily brief. Okay. No, it's Thank you, Terry. Y the function of our school committee is fractured. There are a variety of reasons and a variety of stakeholders that have created a culture of tension that is simply not sustainable. Members of this community as well as members of the community are all active voices in this conversation and are all here because we care about Fountain Public Schools. In order to ensure that we continue to advance and improve the educational environment for our students, we must all do our best to speak to each other with courtesy, the whole truth, and listen to each other with an open mind.

189We must all remember that it is okay to disagree, but it's never okay to be disagreeable. I would also like to add root. Let us all try to come together, find common ground, perhaps reach out to each other personally if there is a direct question or concern. I've had the honor and privilege of sitting at this table for 10 years and I do not recognize this committee right now. I'm certain we can correct course and be the best committee I know that we can be. I just want to add one additional thing. If I could have added the entire Morse Pond mission and all of their statements surrounding No Place for Hate to have it be not just here at this table, in this room, but in our entire district, in our town, in our

190community. I sincerely hope that people are listening to those little fifth and sixth graders that aren't so little that have quite large voices. That's all. Thank you for listening. I look forward to the great work that I know that we can continue doing. Thank you. And did you mention that the officers have kind of formed a officers have uh decided that we are going to be a united front and come together and see how we can work with the committee to mend this fracture that has happened. My part in that um trio is research. Um I don't know if you've noticed little here and there comments I made. I've researched things. So that's one reason I didn't want to be on one less committee this year because honestly I'm spending a lot of time research

191and I kind of um coralled Margaret into being a parliamentarian because Margaret has experience with Robert's rules. Okay. So, um, she has volunteered even though I kind of coraled her into doing all right. Okay. All right. Thank you very much every and do I need to repeat my uh thing? Okay. So, we are um going to adjourn the public meeting and move back into executive session because we didn't finish it. So, I would like to make the motion to adjurnn it. Is there a second? I'm going to second that. Okay. All in favor? Roll call to go into executive. Oh, we already did. We didn't. We didn't We don't have We didn't execute. Very good. Thank you. We're in recess.