Pembroke School Committee 11/01/22

001well good evening everyone and thank you for joining us for this school committee meeting on Tuesday November 1st 2022. uh if you all stand with me we will say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you excellent thank you thank you Mr Bryant with that we do want to welcome all our guests today uh thank you for joining us again if there are topics today that you wish to speak on um we'll have this sign in here and we can acknowledge you we are having some internet issues as far as being able to uh push this out live today so this particular meeting will be videotaped

002and then it will be aired again later so uh our our challenges with that but hopefully we'll get that going soon so thank you for all working on that diligently um any adjustments to the agenda there are none uh we have a Communications sure um so in your packet that Natalie it's in front of you that I do earlier is a letter from OSD so the operational services division are the folks that set the tuition rates for our special education private placement so any state approved special ed private placement goes through OSD for their setting of their rates for the upcoming year you can see there that OSD is projecting or proposing a 14 increase for their rates for next year so I'm just going to share with you this handy little chart I made

003you um sorry that I didn't put it in the packet but historically the OSD inflation rates have covered between one and two percent so the 13-year average is 1.83 so a FY 24 proposed increase of 14 is a very large number um just give you a couple of little tidbits of information down the bottom so just as far as inflation factors in general in the chapter 7 the funding formula inflation is capped at four and a half percent so some of the conversation associated with this memo that came out from OSD was about holding sped private schools to the same inflation cap as the Chapter 70 formula does just to put it in parameters a little bit for us we have at the bottom there you can see our FY 23 tuitions are just about

004three million dollars two million of that is private placements as opposed to Flavors so those would be the increases usually in a given year we'd budget about 30 or 40 000 for the the percentage increase for inflation if they held it at the Chapter 70 funding cap it would be a 92 000 increase but a 14 increase is just under 300 000. um those are huge numbers those are numbers that will break your budget um again obviously there's we've talked extensively about circuit breaker and how that works any circuit breaker reimbursement for the increase in tuitions you wouldn't get until fy25 because it's one year out there's a larger conversation about the fact that the circuit breaker reimbursement comes from the same pot of money as some of the private school dollars so it's the

005same pod of money you'd be having so there's conversation about the circuit breaker also not being reimbursed at 75 moving forward um so there is a call for advocacy and a call to action so there is a sample letter I'm floating out there for superintendents to put together and send out um so obviously I will do that on behalf of us I believe there's also one floating out on the masc website for school committees to put together if that is something you guys are interested in taking a look at I'm happy to draft it and bring it to you for the next meeting in October I mean in November there's still time quick this has been something we've put in front of this state legislators over the past probably 10 plus years because this the

00614 proposed does not mean that everybody's going to come in at only a 14 increase um so what we've asked them to file legislation is to cap the amount that a provider can increase to that amount um you know we actually asked before if they could cap it to the same level of Chapter 70 increases to at least tie it to some type of of um Benchmark so I it's definitely worth beyond the letter going to representative Cutler and Senator Moran to say when you do when you get into the into the budget discussions because I believe they're both on Ways and Means or at least representative Cutler is to at least make them aware that they need to to something legislatively for the outliers because 14 is not your ceiling it's more of a

007floor right and so part of the driver for the 14 is a nine percent Workforce stability factor that they're using um and so if you get if you dive really deep into the weeds of this you can see that a lot of private schools for the past few years have received a lot of outside grant funding in order to keep themselves afloat during kind of our tough coveted years at the same time they've also been offering employees signing bonuses of ten thousand dollars so again not something we offer here in public education but now the workforce adjustment factor is driving up with their base salary expenses are so again I'll part all those are all part of the letter that superintendents have been asked to draft as well as Aaron pardon my ignorance here but

008it's it's proposed who are they proposing actually already approved it's already said it's already gone through right okay all right so that's this is gonna happen this isn't a proposal it's already been approved um but obviously it has to find its way into the budget documents for fy24 in some way shape before is there any cares money or any of that stuff that we could tap into or we have our we have our spread stabilization fund that we started um two years ago I don't think of this as something that I would want to tap into this for this is a budget issue that's going to affect every Community every every single every town this is the time where you have some bandwidth to make something happen right a one-off move-in that we're trying to

009budget for at the last minute that's what that's about stabilization for that's a budget hit just for us and we're kind of in that alone for that period right this is something where you can create some kind of Groundswell support and hopefully make a change um to what's being proposed or what has been approved for fy24 first glance it means two other things because number one you won't be putting any more money into sped stabilization next year because you're going to need to use it to balance the budget and the second is there may be a need to be more aggressive on taking some circuit breaker money at least for a year to to make to float yeah to make the one to try to make a what is going to be a Perpetual problem

010into at least a two-year problem but you by absorbing some of it with the additional book and stable is in the bed Circle but it happens to be there the problem isn't can Aaron hit it I don't think Destroyer is clear on it more people are going to be eligible the following year for sped stabilization I'm sorry for sped circuit breaker so that's going to make the money for 75 reimbursement could drop below that um and you could get the same amount of money but you're going to get a lower reimbursement rate that's where some that's where this problem compounds so and Aaron to help in my ignorance but this is a proposed for this year 14 and that's not to say they couldn't come back with additional double-digit figures so oh the OSD rate

011increase of 14 has been approved for fy24 so they have they hold a separate kind of it's almost an entirely separate process to the state budgeting process they're like they hold hearings and whatnot but they do they have an obligation to notify us a year in advance of a rate increase which is why everyone got the same memo on October 1st saying that there was no conversation before that or an opportunity usually if an individual school so it in your packet you had a list of kind of what the individual schools are that OSD covers if an individual school is looking for a rate increase we get a letter telling us that they're that they're seeking a rate increase and we're asked if there's any feedback we'd like to provide there's a hearing that we're

012allowed to attend as far as OSD as a whole with the 14 rate increase that's not the process that's followed they just filed a rate increase we're notified of it of October 1st so you can plan accordingly so I guess I'm still not in this sure I'm I'm asking the question right so we could see the next year it would cook it'll continue to go up yeah yeah so this is okay and so are you so you're proposing that we write a letter or a letter of advocacy to you know right so it goes to your your elected officials um you know they're also mass and masc are asking us to supply some just District specific information about you know what is this increase mean Dollar Wise for a district so that they can create

013um kind of a letter on everyone's behalf as a whole but they are asking that individual districts reach out to their representatives and say Here's what this means for my district here's you know do you know anything about this do you know how they got to this do you understand the workplace adjustment Factor do you understand the inflation inflation caps just to kind of get the conversation going okay yeah I definitely think we should do that yeah and I think we're in support of you drawing something up and then also working with our government liaison to reach out to our representatives to do that as well can we need to formalize that to be an emotion no no because I'm going to draw okay Bill schedule uh has been approved there and then um I

014will consider a motion to approve the school committee minutes of October 18th 2022. so moves secondly we have a motion in a second any further discussion on the minutes seeing none all those in favor all right all right the opposed or abstain the ice habit thank you so in your packets you all I think I resent you the school Improvement plans that we had taken a look at on October 18th as a first read I've invited the prince tonight Prince Will Talbot is actually at awakens unable to join us this evening but the other principals are here just to highlight one one item in their school Improvement plan that they're excited about just a reminder that school room plans are a document that really lives outside of this this group it's really a living breathing

015document for the school and the school Community to talk about what their focus areas are and what they're looking to improve and to measure over the course of the year so as you see it's worded on the agenda as a second reading acceptance you don't approve them you're just accepting whoever wants to start me starts just make sure you're talking let's talk into it I'm not going to take it off all right um so I wanted to highlight um under the communication area um so I think it's a big tradition going from elementary school to middle school and I think sometimes we make a lot I make a lot of assumptions about really understanding the new the new system so so many good things happen at the middle school and I think that this year

016I'm really focused on trying to make sure that I'm documenting that and pushing that out to families so they really understand and more comprehensively the things we're doing at the middle school one of the things that's happening right now is most students take a service learning elective for a term one out of the four terms so kids that took it the first term now have just finished identifying and researching a community issue and now they're doing a service learning project so we've had some grounds clean up we have students collecting water bottles to show what a pound of plastic in the ocean is we have a lot of students talking about animal abuse um so I've been trying to push that out so students kind of get the sense of how important the work is

017doing and giving them a sense of autonomy and Leadership and communication we also have student announcers sign up for weekly and that's been really great so we have two a week have been coming and they've been really excited and then back to the service learning I said to some of the students if you want to announce pieces of your service learning you can actually add that in so now we've had some seventh graders and the eighth graders like have this you know things they read and they wait for the seventh graders to like then announce their service learning so just trying to be really proactive in my communication for families any questions about what's going on in the Middle School it's great I do get to see those as I have a middle schooler and

018uh those are great great thanks um so something we are um excited about at North is under our social and emotional learning goal um our community meetings changes so every year we have Community meetings in the past and we talk to the students about the different character traits that we focus on throughout the year in the past we've done a student of the month award so the teacher will nominate a student that's gone above and beyond for whatever character trait we focus on that month so you know responsibility respect fairness but we try to think of a way to make it more inclusive because while it was good intention we were finding that students were getting left out who were trying really hard or you know the same student getting the award year after year

019so we've kind of moved our community meetings instead of being to grade level to celebrate Community we're doing a whole school community meeting once a month instead of focusing on one character trait we're kind of focusing on all of them at the same time so the teachers will do individual lessons throughout their day in their classrooms but we also will do some of that character education at these Community meetings and to be more inclusive we came up with these Titan tickets so every person in our school Community has a packet of these and it lists all all of those character traits that we work on throughout the year so this is our way of kind of catching kids in the act so you know every student in the class could get one of these on

020a daily basis so we're able to recognize more students for the positive things they're doing you know they're all working so hard it's nice to have that so what happens is like let's say I saw a student do something really nice in the hallway like picked up a book that another student dropped I would check off wow that was so caring and I would give them this ticket and this is not just their teacher it could be me it could be someone that works in the cafeteria it could be a custodian it can be any adult so I would check off caring write the student's name and read and then this bottom part tears off so we have boxes in each one of the classrooms that the kids can put their name in and we

021do a drawing at the community meeting and that's just a way that we can recognize them we have a pool of prizes whether that's you know Pembroke swag water bottles t-shirts or like lunch with the principal maybe you get to sit with um you know the varsity team at a basketball game just ways to get the kids excited they are absolutely loving this the kids are having so much fun they're running up to me in the hallway showing me their tickets they can take the ticket home to show their parents I've heard a lot of people have them on their fridge so and when we do draw their name we are recognizing them in front of the whole school we had the art classes make a big um they're like cut out letters that we

022have by the gym and it spells the word kind with the eye missing so the student would stand in for the eye for being the eye in kind and then we're putting that on social media so um they are super excited about that and then to celebrate Community we're also trying to get community members in to speak to the students at these so for example next month we're focusing on being thankful with it being Thanksgiving and all that so we are doing um a food pantry drive and we're working on getting someone from the food pantry to come and talk to the kids about that work and how it benefits the community so it's really just been an awesome thing to watch and we're hoping that the kids have more fun with it so foreign

023so we as just so you know as Elementary principals we sort of each picked one that we're all doing in our own way so Erica was focusing on the celebrating community so that you knew that's something a lot less for focusing on I'm going to talk about the reading stuff um which is just as exciting um so it actually kind of is so um our goal the I think what we've realized from the pandemic is the impact of the interrupted learning was a big hit on early literacy so we've been working over the past two years with our K2 staff I'm really taking a look at what we're doing programmatically and consistently across the buildings so from that work Jess and Mary Beth were able to get us PD this year with crafting Minds on

024the science of reading so the science of reading is this it sort of a phenomenon about how students need to learn reading it's it's sort of a new science behind all how it works in your brain so we are front loading that PD this year with our staff so that we can make programmatic decisions in the future on what we're doing to make sure we're doing what's best for those kids so we've already started hegarty program which focuses on phonemic awareness cater to we're having the PD we have reading specialists at each building now which we're able to implement the Dibbles assessment it's not it's a diagnostic it's a screener so basically they we called it the SWAT style they went into every Elementary School and did all of the assessing K to three themselves

025so that it was consistent across the buildings they were able to take that data put it into slideshows for the every grade we know what there's four levels so you're it's red yellow green and blue so we know who's in each zone for each subtopic area it really targets and allows them to individualize the instruction so they were able to form their groups we were able to use that data to support our interrupted learning tutors and the work they're going to do so hopefully with all of these resources and programs and just new expertise and knowledge will really be able to kind of Target those gaps that we're seeing at early literacy to just have that all trickle through questions about the literacy it's great that's awesome we know a lot of challenges there that's

026great to see we've been proactive to really try to make hey I'll just Echo what Jen just was talking about the elementary school in one building which is really important so I remember coming to the school committee winter slash and advocates resources for for the kiddos in the schools no and when we talk to you about he sold it as a program that would really impact Ed to come back with just some preliminary information um so yeah um and we've already actually had a lot of input on those forms we're using Google forms so it gives us some nice colored spreadsheets and some nice bar graphs and all that kind of stuff that it's a good visual to understand where we're at um so what I'd like to just say is that the mental health

027staff over the past three early release days since the beginning of school have gotten together building administrators have come as well to support that endeavor and what we're looking at right now um is common language named our Titan lab in the lab El you need a name that really kind of fits the program something that has no attached to it and some of the things that things that we're finding right now are that kids are utilizing this Resource as it was intended like they're going there for short intervals of time getting what they need to be able to return to class and that's exactly what it was set up to do and we have the data to support that so at our last professional development just a couple of weeks ago we had talked about

028some similarity now um are utilizing the Titan lab the other piece that's really really nice is um we've also identified that outside of the classroom has been able to go inside the classroom and provide that support as well so it might mean that sitting with the child to make them feel more comfortable whether it's math class or history or whatever um to be able to support them so that's just some initial data and I know that you've asked for an updated social emotional update later on and I'm working with Jess on providing her with some of those data points as well so we're really excited and that's we're off to a great start any questions it's nice you know I'm fairly new on the committee so it's really nice to see all of this stuff

029come to fruition it's really nice to hear about it so thank you so much that sounds great can you talk to what the interaction is in that 10 to 20 minute interval what does it look like yeah like it's all communication right so it's really finding that that that person beautiful um people in our buildings um that really those weeks of Education classrooms themselves made some really good connections they played some games with the kids feeling like and then using some of the strategies in conjunction with that mental health staff to be able to support kids with whatever they're kind of dealing with and it's not just you know pandemic related issues so question um when there are multiple students who need to go in there at the same time what's what does it look

030like right because you can't I guess you are prioritizing in some cases what what happens we thought about that as well over the summer we thought about that as you know as a possible need as well and that has happened on a couple of occasions so the beauty of it is we've actually have our mental health staff in tandem working in the tandem with our paraprofessional so a lot of times our social worker is maybe taking a student into one section of the room or maybe down to his or her office and working with them well the other professionals may be working there sometimes it's the principle and the system principle in there as well so it's kind of a whole team approach last question because it could be like one time kid comes in

031one time something bad happened right but the ones that are uh repeat yes attendees what's what's the plan for them in school and what's the plan for communications we're playing for communication uh home yeah and what's really you know impressive right now is the data that we are taking it allows us to say you know have those weekly phone calls with with the parents and say look um your child is actually utilizing the Titan lab actually three times this week and it was only for you know 20 minutes at a time we should be really happy about its facilities facilitating some communication that may not have been there in the past um so we're happy to see that piece of it um and you know I'm sorry the other second part of your question yeah

032I just just always asking when you have multiple times yes right what's communication to the family but then also what's the what's the path right because because at some point it symptoms start to correct continue on what's the ultimate yeah what and it might be too early but what are you thinking is the next step well the next steps would be a lot of those kiddos that are coming into us with that level of need um a lot of times have individual Behavior plans so some of that data that we're looking at right now is actually informing that those data plans so those professionals that we're working with who update those Behavior plans you know have all that data right there at their disposal and they're updating them as such and then getting feedback from

033the family as well so they know exactly what's been going on thank you yeah sure awesome like kind of to build on Mike's questions um you're talking about the data will you be able to put together um like like trends for like I always go back to my insurance with Trend analysis but absolutely you know I'd be interested to see and you know I would think initially as you roll this out you're going to see an increase in participation as the Comfort levels grow yes but my hope would be that as there's Comfort levels and those interactions continues and we might see that cap and then Trend back down from the benefits of doing something like this are you going to be able to put together things that you know we would be able to

034see say at year end so we could kind of gauge the success absolutely I think we're doing that work right now we're actually starting to we actually identified the two trends that I just spoke about um and I think it'd be very easy to do and even like almost a trimester schedule to see actually you know the successes that we're having with kids and I could definitely come back and bring you that information by the end of the year I'd like to see it just so that from year to year we can we can also measure the overall feedback from Trends and see where we're heading and and maybe where we need to expand or um you know as things change just worldwide and the issues that our students are facing we can shift with

035it so great thank you actually sure no problem thank you well we are going to get in depth on this a little bit more coming up so we'll continue to look forward to seeing where that data comes so with that um I'll accept a motion to accept the 2022-23 school Improvement plans second Motion in a second any further discussion see none all those in favor aye your opposer abstain the ice habit thank you and thank you all for your show the day after Halloween's quite dreaming on and so you guys if you like to bring candy please bring it to the kids give it to the kids so the next thing in your packet under my report um is a consideration for approval the new self-administration medication form so in your packet um the copy

036of the form this is a form exist now so this is not a new form this is just an updated form for the School nurses the form that exists now is a little bit more narrative in nature as opposed to kind of check box um and the reason why I'm bringing it to you is because the form is reference in policy jlcd which is the dissemination of medication so self-administration is one of those obviously self-administration is only for high school students there's a whole host of criteria they need to be able to meet as you can read from the bottom in order to be able to self-administer an EpiPen or whatnot doesn't the policy also say yeah it says what they what is acceptable so it doesn't so the original um self-medication form talks about

037inhaler EpiPen auto injector or insulin or any other medication prescribed by a licensed physician so relatively specific yeah it's funny because I just remember when we have right so your student can't be walking around with Benadryl or correct it has to be because we talked about I think the conversation and that has been on for a while or at least the initial was on for a while we talked about it things such as Advil and things like that so I just wanted I brought it up only because just so people were aware what some of the past was on it so the form itself isn't part of the policy it's just referencing the policies it lives on the high school website under the health services tab so the current form that we have is just

038a little bit longer it starts just with a narrative about what what self-administration is this is just a one-page streamlined form but it covers the same thing so the check boxes now are a little bit there's a few more currently but they're they condense them into it will this be pushed out through the registration process at the start of the year if this gets so this is usually a conversation with the family and the nurse specifically right not something that we would just give out there for everybody any other questions for Aaron or [Music] do I have a motion to accept the new itself Administration medical medication Forum we have a motion is did computer ready no this is just a form it's not it's got it okay we're not changing the policy you have

039emotions in a second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor aye aye any opposed or saying the ice habit thank you it's the last thing under my report a waiver for girls basketball so the High School athletic department is seeking an MIAA waiver to allow eighth grade girls to play on the JV basketball team um so they have their interest meeting I think two weeks ago at this point and there was about 20 girls or so that were interested in playing basketball at Pembroke high school that's not a comfortable number for varsity and the JV team they're looking for you know three four maybe even five more students in order over the course of the Season there's injury and illness in one and whatnot last year they were looking for a waiver for

040freshmen for eighth graders to play freshman girls volleyball we didn't move that forward in the sense that it's not our I mean basketball sorry um you know we're not looking we're not necessarily looking to field freshman teams but we'd really like to keep the varsity and the JV going um had a preliminary conversation with the folks at youth basketball just around what their eighth grade numbers look like for girls because our intent is not to kill that program my understanding is that 15 girls are interested in travel basketball at the eighth grade level so if we were to use a few of them at the high school they would still be able to field to have one eighth grade girls team so um I did talk with the girls side so I'm also representing that

041side of it there's currently nine girls signed up for the eighth grade team three from East Bridgewater that will join them because they don't have a program they are prepared to support this they talked with coach and so whatever we decide today they will support they're prepared to send out communication and start that process going so they're in support of this because they want opportunities again we're trying to use programs are there to build up towards the high school and and they're there to support that program so thanks for doing that Lee so all right so they I'm just trying to honestly we only have a small amount of people at the we have 20 girls at the high school that are interested in playing basketball 25 is usually so we did it last year

042with 21 and there were a few times we weren't able to play the JV game because we didn't have enough girls okay in the two teams so I think um when they saw the number was 20 the conversation started around could we look at some of the eighth grade girls I think there are some pretty strong 8th grade Pembroke girls in that program in the sense are there may be three or four families or or maybe even five that would be interested in moving up it's not for everyone um so it would be probably enough girls interested to support the high school program okay because it is a commitment more than the eighth grade program right right okay parents have to make that decision got it all right thanks for Clara something all right with

043that um I'll accept a motion to approve the girls basketball waiver for 8th graders to play at the high school level Motion in a second any further discussion seeing none of those in favor aye any opposer abstain yeah I have it thank you kidding um policy subcommittee has a couple of things to put in front of the larger committee so we met a Wednesday or so ago um yep for policy sub to talk about policy gbaa which is sexual harassment so in your packet you have a copy of our current policy right from the policy manual on the website as well as a copy of something entirely in red which means it's new um so this is the end this is mostly the masc sample for the policy um we are suggesting that we kind

044of do away with what we have and go with the masc sample again this is just a first read to kind of get it on your your radar give you an opportunity to ask some higher level questions Jess is happy to jump in if I miss anything thank you any questions for Jess I know David and I were at this meeting so any thoughts background reasons why we're bringing it um to you is that um there was some changes to the Title IX federal regulations and laws in 2020 called the final Amendment um and so that affects both public schools and um post-secondary colleges um so these changes are reflected in the policy and then as well in what we call our grievance procedures which really outlines um all the steps that we need to

045take so some of the major changes um in that final Amendment of the Title IX um that were implemented um really is about procedures as well as protecting the alleged victims so there is a lot more steps when there is a a known allegation or a known possible infraction of sexual harassment so it's about supporting the alleged victim assuring that we've put in what's called supportive measures for that person there's lots of steps that we take I am a Title IX coordinator Michael Murphy as well we've had to go through training legal training on that as well and then notifying um the potential um um not just the victim but in writing but as well as the um the potential aggressor and then there's steps so I have to assign an investigator there's lots of

046steps for that so it's meeting with the the alleged victim taking their statement meeting with the um with the potential um person the aggressor going over steps with them getting their side putting everything in writing looking for feedback and then there is a document produced which is kind of what's called a final report and that goes to what's called a decision maker so there's lots of roles now the decision maker cannot be me I just follow me assure that the procedures are in place Mary Beth has been assigned for the district the decision maker oftentimes um and so she looks at all of the evidence and we work off of preponderance of evidence then there's a decision made and a recommendation sometimes the billing principle if it's a student to student eight sometimes to superintendent

047Obi if it's a Personnel so again the policy in and of itself has changed more to include the procedures and the steps that are now part of what's called a final Amendment um if you'd like to the nitty-gritty of all the steps that is in our grievance procedures and again these are requirements but it does outline for anyone interested in in the policy and then talks about what to do if you disagree or um we are looking to appeal a decision in the end in some of our dialogue with with them was just they've gone through this a couple times in a couple different situations and they've sort of worked through these policies to adjust to things that work things that didn't work and did they feel comfortable that these reflected those challenges that they

048may have had in some of these situations to sort of Encompass really what they feel is the best case for how this process should work and this sort of reflects that that some of their not only just general policies if we were our best practices out in the industry but what has worked for us and and are they reflected in this document and then maybe our team our team and not not Mast no no our team as as we've gone through this in a couple situations internally does this reflect all right well we this didn't work for us last time can we adjust and make it work and so a lot of the procedures are outlined so you have 10 days to do this each person needs to receive the report in this amount of

049time they have this amount of time uh reflect and write a rebuttal or a response um but we 've gone through the process a couple times um and have kind of tweaked our grievance procedure to assure that um it's our practice along with the regulations that are set for there's not a lot of variability in what you can do and how you do it it's clearly defined within within the laws which they State at the front of the at the front and then reference at least the other agencies in the back so there's not there's not a lot you you can't say oh we're going to create our own review process can you just just so everybody's aware can you talk to the role of outside counsel within the investigation just if you're listening to

050kind of the conversation it sounds like oh okay it's it's exactly it's everybody internal maybe not even though you went through training me not be trained to talk about the role of outside counsel not only in the investigation but in Communications and kind of because there's different paths this take you mentioned student you mentioned faculty member right because there's different combinations faculty member to student in fact The Faculty staff to faculty or staff so there's all sorts of different variations just overview that not take a long long time but just so people may not have heard this talk before sure so we use our legal counsel to kind of check our thinking per se on our steps so it might be reviewing a letter that we're going to issue or asking a question about a

051request of either the victim or the alleged aggressor regarding you know evidence to include um and so we certainly involve them in a process as we go through but the regulations and laws are are pretty as you said pretty clear on kind of the steps right there's also an appeal process outlined whenever there's an appeal we do involve our legal counsel as in most cases whether it's a student or a staff member there represented by Council as well usually at that point um it's all highly confidential for the alleged victim but also the alleged party correct correct and also Witnesses along the way because these are highly sensitive situations questions yeah so in your packet you have GBA and then the um grievance procedures that just just referenced while she was talking there and there

052as well for our first reading yeah um the third thing in your packet for our first read is the revision to policy jic-r which is our anti anti-bullying regulations so we do have a bullying and intervention a bullying intervention plan that we are working through some revisions on right now with various stakeholders we talked about that a little bit at policy sub the only change to the policy is where the bullying and intervention plan is located so on the last page of our current policy you'll see in red we need to publicize where the pulse where the plan can be found that's the only change we will bring you the bullying intervention plan when we've had a chance to gather all the feedback from various stakeholders but there's no those changes don't change the policy

053at all the only change to the policy is about publication and notification um and we part of the plan is um any questions or thoughts on that I know we'll have more to come on now we have gotten some um comfortable transparency there have been a couple of instances over the past few years we are and we have gone through the bullying um intervention process and plan with students and families um you know if they are not in support of the outcome where the school lies they are able to file a PQ ers complaint with you and they review our process and plan I can tell you that we did have one come up to come up this past spring DSC has reviewed our plan and the only finding was that it needs to be

054reviewed semi-annually in ours is from 2016. content everything checks all the boxes and meets all the parameters it was just a matter of um making it a more living ingredient so those are all Source reads you have to accept those in first read yes do we have a motion to accept um uh all three the revision of policy gbaa sexual harassment the Title IX agreements procedures and the revisions to policy jicr anti-bullying regulations so mood we have a motion do we have a second yep we have a motion in a second and seeing no further discussion all those in favor all right any opposed or abstain the ice habit thank you and then it adds up so edsub met this past Friday um to take a look at our district accommodation plan lovingly referred to

055as the Decap um this is a series of interventions that all of our students are eligible for um in the general education setting you cannot read so I'm not gonna go through a page by Page um for you we have this is not a New Concept for us we already have a d cap if you go on our website you can see what we have for dcap now it is more just of like a list of what you can have um this is more of a document that explains each of those interventions explains kind of you know what's available to your student what the methodology behind the tier one tier two and tier three interventions are we did get some feedback at edsub which I think we were able to incorporate most of it in

056there um again this is just for you all it's not um it's not a policy but we do want to make sure that you're aware of what's out there as living breathing documents we wanted to give you an opportunity to take a look at it and give us some feedback before we update Jessica this is her baby as students become enrolled in the district side of the kindergarten level say it's a their first child entering the district I'm thinking back on being probably a little more naive parent than I am still now but how do we introduce this or make sure that those new parents um no to even look for this right so usually the first step in even having a Decap Converse with a parent is some sort of referral to building level

057so at the elementary schools it's ISD so an instructional support team so uh the kindergarten teacher brings up a student to the the team and the teams made up of you know the folks that work with the student administrators mental health professionals other teaching staff I mean talk through you know what the the problem is they brainstorm solutions they talk about have you tried this have you tried that um that's usually when the conversation kind of starts between the school and the family um you know if a student is coming to us out of a preschool and we have some sort of knowledge of the student we might start the conversation a little bit earlier but it's really a conversation that that we generate with families there's not a lot of parents that come to

058the table and be like you know [Music] right well that's getting to know the student to see like if there are any struggles um you know these if you go through this and this is some one of my favorite things about education a lot of it is explication of the obvious it's really good teaching right so if you look at what their strategies are that are outlined here that's what really good teaching looks like so in most instances a lot of those kids are already getting in their day-to-day classroom setting um but for some of our our students there's you know a need to to look at some additional interventions um you know one of the easiest things on here is additional time for testing so that comes up a lot at the secondary level

059with our students and that's you know all students with the with the a need are eligible for that type of accommodation so these type of plans are really kind of the base level plan in classroom interventions as you go up in the tiers you can see there's some more individualized and specialized interventions for students but the focus is really for this this type of work to be happening in the classroom you know meeting every student where they're at every single day thank you and while this is obviously helpful for families to kind of understand what we do and for for me and like Aaron said a baby it's it's really exciting we do a lot of this as we talk about communication sharing the good work that we do and the resources that are available

060to students when they do struggle so we talk about tier one being all the things that Aaron just talked about that happen every day in the generalized classroom for 80 of the kids with accommodation this one needs extra time this one needs different seating this is just good teaching practices oftentimes this happens at conferences I just want to let you know these are the things I'm finding your child kind of needs to answer your question about kindergarten that's often that first conferences this is how your child's doing but you know these are some things I find helpful I'm not sure if you've noticed them too and then for us it's really a document for our teaching staff as well to know like these are good things to go to okay I'm struggling with this child

061prior to a referral for ISP that I can try prior to bringing a child up as a concern let me make sure I'm doing and trying different strategies to see if they work prior to say like I might need to move on to a level two um so for us it's it's kind of you know a great resource for teachers and for our ISP teams to talk about and it's okay to do these things sometimes we get teachers say oh so I can give extra time or I'm allowed to give them the notes yes that's what you should be doing as part of in your room talk about tier two being sometimes a smaller group or support in the room or a changing of a schedule to have a support class and sometimes it has

062to happen outside and that's and then our Teeter is more intensive more individualized where the supports we have already put in place the child isn't responding for as much as we would like so for us not only is it helpful for families but it's a great working document for our teachings SP as well for our building model staff but for me it's a celebratory thing of like look at all the great things we do have for you know we've worked really hard and we appreciate your support adding things like reading Specialists that is a piece of tier two intervention that we can always do the halftime reading Specialist or the therapeutic um Labs at the elementary level adding a teacher at the high school to Compass those are tiered supports um I'm going to talk

063about response to intervention kind of models daily special thank you so if it's not something you would traditionally approve but I'm happy to give you some time with the document and bring it back just for maybe acknowledgment at a future meeting so that sure no as this plan is together and does this help support some of the potentially pull some of those extra costs that are going out from the earlier 14 is that that's just always good to be there yeah which we add to them yeah so interventions that there are supports like I said that tier two level we haven't always had kids with family or had the resources to be able to offer it to more students so with those resources and those levels of support we are able to provide some and

064students don't move on to a referral for a special ed so right our students that are out and out of District placements um you know for us that's really a last resort right you know our philosophy and our methodology is to keep kids engaged as part of this community for as long as we possibly can service them so there's not anything that's part of our decaf plan that would be you know the reason why somebody would come back out of one of those placements those um you know I'm happy to share with you someday that the special education spreadsheet minus the names and you can see how individualized the policeman yeah and besides tier three being special education being a tier three um intervention this is a general education support plan so it's really lots

065of steps between the District of students with disabilities prior to statement they can no longer access [Music] thank you Aaron with that we will move on to the superintendent's evaluation so I mean Natalie just add to the packet with you perfect so um this is a I will summarize I guess your evaluation and then committee members can add their input please really I just want to preface dialogue by um we obviously have just come through a uniquely challenging time in educational history I would say um and I know Mike can attest to probably more so than ice being in the weeds far more than I was through this process but um I think how you've helped navigate the district through these challenging pandemic times we want to commend and acknowledge your leadership to our district

066through that time it's not an easy time there were new challenges every day and there continues to be uh waves after the fact that we will continue to address right and we are with our health and well-being component our social emotional component um but we just want to acknowledge I know I want to acknowledge and I look forward to hearing others because they've been in this process with you longer just the great work that you've done with your team and and leading us through that it's not over yet but um we appreciate the work that you've done and keeping our district afloat during that time we focused on two different areas out of this out of the four standards can we just remind folks that by law you have to evaluate me in public I

067know it's super awkward and people like why are you doing this right now it's part of the process they do have to do this in a public meeting so think of you at home if you had to have this at your job and have your evaluation in front of everyone it's probably nice TV yeah in front of a live audience and uh taped at home so again thank you it's a it's a challenging role and it's not for the faint of heart shall we say so we chose as a school committee to focus on two different standards one being the standard two management and operations and then standard three family and Community engagement we felt that those bet best sort of met where we're at as a district and we felt that both those areas

068covered all the goals that we have our communication goal our achievement goal our social emotional health goal and wellness goal and then our technology goals we felt both those areas did just sort of summaries in the in those areas when we look at the first group we're talking about the environment um and just how you and your team have really spent the time obviously we're dealing with some major health issues there and trying to get our facilities ready using get our HVAC systems getting our Windows all that process and that whole function and the great work that was done there so getting those systems in place from a social emotional well-being component obviously we've talked pretty at length about the steps done there but just how you and the district have helped to put deception

069place not only as we were in the process when kids were at home but then as we transitioned them in part time and then as we transition them in full time and just each one of those steps and how that that has taken place and even now as we see how they're developing back to full-time students in the processes that you put in there and we talked about the student health and safety so just how you continue to make that a priority how we've um we followed State guidelines we followed local guidelines we've worked closely with the health department through that whole process and how the collaboration that you had as a district working with the different departments in the town to make sure that we were making the best safe decisions for the families

070and for our students and the work that you were doing there seems like it was a lifetime ago but yesterday it's a little bit of both it's a little bit of both so um and the great work that you did there you oftentimes you were well ahead of the curve there as as you and your team work together to really make that happen then in Human Service the human resource management and development indicator so we talked about recruiting and hiring and how I know since I've been here the the sub or the the working group that we had for social justice we made some adjustments on verbiage that we had in our to making sure we're inclusive in our hiring process and how that all worked and really the recruiting and hiring and and the

071type of individual that we wanted for our district to really match how that worked there and and just the people we've been able to add there in the areas that we wanted to add we talked about the the supports with the pairs for for our lab areas now in the elementary schools so really where we're putting our focus when it comes to recruiting and hiring and the great work there and then the induction the PD and the career growth just how we celebrate and and we put resources to developing our teachers so they have the supports they need to bring to their students every day uh and it was highlighted that we celebrated five teachers who obtained their professional teacher status and just how that reflects on our Focus as a district and your focus

072as a leader to see our teachers grow and support their students and and the positive that that is scheduling and management just providing time for our teachers to develop and grow and then collaboration I think it's evident here when you hear the three elementary school principals talk just of how they work together and how that culture doesn't come by itself it comes from leadership that allows that to happen and so we know that's reflective of the work that you do in your team and how you you lead by example with collaboration so we want to acknowledge that and then obviously you keep us we talked about legally right we have Good Counsel but making sure that the district is following the guidelines that we needed to and that was during a time that there were

073a lot more guidelines put on us so uh the work there was a lot of extra work there to make sure that we were abiding by that and we appreciate that and obviously we talk about the budget process and and hopefully Mike can attest more when he speaks but just each year as we we're given a certain amount to work with to make sure that we provide the best education possible for our students you really get to understand what are our needs and what our wants and how do we make that work within the district but not just for this year but having the vision to see where we need to be in the next few years and then also make those decisions now but for for later as well so the great work there

074so with that I'll kind of stop on that and I want my colleagues to hop in on this particular topic because uh I know some of them have been with with you longer but are you going to ladies first or do you want to uh we're good to go where do you usually jump in right away oh I wanted to go first I actually wish this was kind of live on TV um Aaron I I would say to you when I first got on the committee about six years ago uh oh God I came up with this thing six years ago yeah this is the end of my second term which has been interesting um I wasn't sure what to expect I had heard some amazing things about you being a whiz with numbers and

075all these types of things and I said but I didn't know you it was kind of funny I never had that chance I will tell you when I look at this as your team and I always said if if you treat your people well they treat you well it's how it's always been and to go through something as unprecedented as the pandemic with no Playbook with the rules changing every day I looking with you and again you're the team captain and ladies certainly into the um faculty members and building principals I was absolutely amazed I am absolutely I said I look at this and this is all very nice in these little metrics and all these wonderful things we look at but I think when you're looking at schools and education people look at grades

076and I would give this team an a from top to bottom did we make mistakes of course we did we'd never been down that path before was your leadership exemplary I I absolutely incredible every little detail that we could come up with whether it was how do we get lunches to kids or how do we you know get the kids to the lunches anything we could do to make it work and the thing that I I give you full credit for is I know you're a mom you've got two young sons and you've got to balance that that home life and having grown up with a I've mentioned before my dad was a principal and they said he had three loves it was Malden High School my mother and the kids and I joke was

077we just never knew the order um so I commend you and and certainly said this stuff is all very important but I think if you honestly look in the mirror and say did we do the best are we good can we get better I hope we can but you're running the largest Department in the town by far um that's no knocking against anywhere else in town um I am absolutely honored to be a colleague I am honored to call you a friend of mine and I've got to know again so much better but I want to thank you all publicly and I think this town um you know for the people here tonight oh you guys a great deal of gratitude they did not see the nights the weekends the crazy stuff the emails the

078phone calls um that's it we've had our ups and downs but on that I will end it but Aaron thank you and ladies thank you ladies well you know as you know I've only been on the canoe for a year but I have to say like watching everything that you do is like I'm sort of Blown Away at the amount of work that you do um like David says you're it's like you're on 100 of the time even when you should be taking a day off you're not so I don't think most people realize that like there'll be Sundays there's like crazy times when you should be with your family and you're still worried about the district um another thing I'm kind of Blown Away by really is your use of the budget and the

079way that you were able to take all of the cares funds and you know the money that we had coming into the district um because of the pandemic and be able to categorize that where it was needed most and I think that takes a certain skill level that you know I feel like most other districts don't have that benefit and I feel like I'm just really grateful that you were here to take care of all of it um any ideas that I had before I was on the committee about what you did I like my like I'm completely blown away it's like you do triple the amount I ever thought you did and so um thank you very much for all you do I only have the one year to reference I will still be

080manual I wasn't here through the pandemic so I didn't you know you were here though you were I was watching movies and um you know I was all of you did an amazing job through all of it you know all of you were really really amazing so thank you so much [Music] um a lot that I would say was already said um but I you know but don't worry I have commentary um there there were different things I knew and again again the the volume of hours that I think Sue you're you're correct in that as you work with this team you you you see the amount of teamwork um you also see the level of patience anybody that works with me has to be patient um what you don't realize is a lot of

081times we are sending incredibly detailed questions um to this team and if one can't answer it they're coordinating with one another to get an answer so that it can be addressed and then said spoken publicly here in the meeting said that those that didn't think they had that question will hear the answer to it um I I also the the pandemic process um I I'm the daughter of a plumber and HVAC guy so I have to say I really thoroughly enjoyed as you would talk to that about certain HVAC stuff my father would have been proud um you know but again your patients the the number of meetings calls questions and emails um coming in especially during the pandemic I I only have to you know I had about a year of sort of normal

082before it really got crazy but the volume increased exponentially and none of you um really skipped if you you just continued to do it and we're out a lot you know Town meetings meetings with the town manager um you know having been in the finance world for a while I especially love the spreadsheets that kept track of what certain changes or requests would actually translate into an estimated dollars you know my favorite topic unfunded or underfunded mandates and you even had a list for that to help especially when I came on board these are important things so you know and your Poker Face you kept the straight face even when our Zoom meeting was hacked and and there was some interesting things going on that's the sign of a leader in not reacting but instead

083responding so I thank you for that and and I'd like to say I won't continue to send you long emails with lots of questions bullet pointed and peppering but I can't because that's just how my DNA is live I look forward to those Sunday nights at 10 o'clock thank you I know but I just want you to have something to read on Monday morning I don't want you to be bored it is what it is thank you yeah just a couple of things real quick and we'll talk about some tactical things that I don't think people understood and do um if just on around the pandemic and then I won't talk about a couple things overall I think strategically and I apologize for not being able to get all my comments in and I'll talk

084about that whole problem a little bit later but there were a couple things that happened what people don't realize that they never get the light of day for whatever reason the measuring of classrooms when we knew we were going hybrid right you know tape measure I don't think is part of the standard operating equipment for a superintendent schools nor is dry hopping in your car having to drive to a state Distribution Center to make sure that we had PPE available based upon what was being mandated you know there's a couple other things talking about when you talk about desirable place to work lands I think to me turned into that place where people would like to go about a number of people who say hey I heard there's an opening in Pembroke can I use

085it as a reference like during using as a reference however I know the pool is going to be pretty big the thing to me when we you know when you look at the staff the fact that we have PHS graduates who actually teach in the district I think when we started a school district back many years ago now which does seem like yesterday I think that was one of the things that you know wow that would be neat if it happened and now it actually does does happen and I think that means something to the kids I know something to those people who are the teachers having known them I think two other things to to know that I don't know if everybody realizes I don't think again with the parent or a community group

086I joined her on a on on several but I know there's more from there you're not always going going to give people the answer they're looking for or want but there was an answer again you can't expect everybody to agree it's just it's not unfortunately it's not the way this works but then on the budget there's been a lot I don't think people realize the organization and planning that goes into it when it starts how it gets to the end and how there's always a path or a plan which goes to my my bigger piece when we and I do mean we literally everyone here was going through what happened um the question that Aaron and I got where we went to in front of the select board during this past budget cycle and then

087we went in front of advisory about the same question a little bit different what would you have done differently clearly there are things and everybody can play Monday Morning Quarterback on this one it's easiest job out there and say we should have done this we should have done that but when you we went back and said based upon the data we had and everybody it's so easy to say oh you had the wrong date at the time well guess what we had the data we did based upon that there weren't major things we could have changed or would have changed based upon um what we were mandated based upon what we knew right the data we had now if you could if you could back test it and bring it Forward yeah you would have

088done it different but you wouldn't have done things different and the two things I know we because I know we talked about this back in you know March of 2020 because I remember getting the call I could tell you where I was what I was doing the two things that were top of Mind were how to keep the kids educated as much as you could because you were going into something you had never done before and how do we maintain food security because those are the two biggest problems that the students had at that point um and I could go into all the detail which I did that night but no but with that to me what that showed is every decision whether you believe it or not had critical thinking behind it and again

089we can always go back and say we would have made a different decision everything in our lives we would have but at the time I feel confident that everything that was brought to this committee was well thought out and if there was a question or hey did you think of this did you think of that it hadn't he got revised it was a collaboration and a discussion not I'm doing it this way and I'm right and I've had the privilege and pleasure of working with all three superintendents this district has had since we've been autonomous and I will tell you they all had different qualities different Pros different cons but when you look at willingness to meet with the community in willing willingness and openness to hearing at least what this committee has to say

090what the other Town committees have to say and what the community has to say I can tell you that Aaron probably everyone's the best of the three and I'm not saying I feel bad hopefully Pat Randall's not watching she does have the Christmas card every year it was a different time it's it's again not saying we always agree with the decision I you know I can tell you I've worked down as long as she's been in the district and I respect that and that's what I think you know is probably the biggest trait whether you like the decision or not I'm not gonna debate that but I can tell you guarantee that thought went into it it wasn't just you know what I feel good about this let's go so a lot of things said

091I think we're just very thankful to have you and and uh we'll do a better job of trying to keep these evaluations on track perfect so that we don't have to get so glowing and look back so far no but thank you thank you I'm appreciative of the time you all put in with your feedback um though it has been a rough couple years it did fly by um you know I think when I first got hired you all took us I know you were the only sitting Committee Member at the time um but there was some concern that you know hiring somebody with an MBA would create a situation where you were running the school district like a business and I would just say that having the business side of it makes running the

092school district so much easier because I know that stuff I don't I don't need to spend time figuring that part out it leaves the time and the and the Manpower and the bandwidth to do the things that are really important for kids so I am appreciative that you all took a chance um I think I could work as my home even though I don't live here I spend probably a lot of hours I spent a lot of hours here and I think you know much to the credit of Mary Beth Jess the principals that are here today it starts with me right so I go to the games I go to the concerts I go to all of that and then they go to all of that right so what you you have to be

093willing to do what you expect at the people um that you work with and I think that that type of community involvement really makes this job that much more beneficial and it makes it easy to do so thank you are blessed to have you thank you with that future meeting dates I believe we've set that for the two weeks from now hey Lance can I do a quick little shout out yes but I'm not sure who sent us the invitation but we're invited to that unified basketball it was Kristen Kelly she sent me a thank you note if you have not gotten the chance to go see a unified basketball game so they only have one game left yeah um in its next but I will get you the date it is by far please

094go it was I want to say it in a 58-57 we lost to Silver Lake the day I was there the gym was packed the students were there I shot a three-pointer but the gym was packed the students were all in like costumes and Hawaiian shirts and I said to somebody what I noticed I mean the kids were so cute you know one of the kids got knocked down and all the kids ran over and I forget his name was like oh you okay you don't think to myself who would do that in a basketball game or whatever I mean that's absolutely crazy and then the thing that I get the biggest kick out of was seeing a lot of the parents sitting up in those stands and they're watching people cheer for their kids

095and play their game and I I tell you I'm a bit of a softy I think at times I almost cried at different points watching it and I was excited I mean you kind of gonna do I want to say there was a kid named Carlos I'm gonna give him a shout out he had like six three pointers I mean I think he was shooting the lights out you give a varsity tryout but sorry I just had to put that out there Mary Beth was there Aaron um and I think some of you made some of the other games but if you get a chance you know even some of the people listening if you're out there go see one of these games it's on November and put it on your calendar it'll it'll make

096you smile like nothing you've ever seen so thank you for indulging me on that thank you David for that reminder uh so if I'm correct number 15th is our next meeting and then December we decided on the 6th and the 13th if I'm correct can I just have one second we're ready to go join right yeah okay um oh but not for a particular time was there anyone in our audience that wanted to share or had anything to discuss today yes yes hi everyone Don Bryant on Mountain Avenue and uh congratulations on your evaluation I know uh I know it's well met after all the discussions going through the the last couple of years uh sort of person to person those those things were voiced to me at that time as well um one of

097the things I'd like to to put on the table tonight so I can be informed and well as make maybe a suggestion or two is the Dei working group that now has been put together uh and I'm not sure the status of that uh I personally think it should be open meeting and the people that are on that committee should be publicly identified as being on the committee now I'm aware that according to statute Law whatever the case may be that it doesn't have to be an open meeting in light of the fact that it's explicitly directed at the at the superintendent for her advice but that doesn't mean it can't be an open meeting uh and in light of what we've gone through as a town where allowing this to be open discussion has

098helped us make some decisions it would be important for me that that conversation not now go underground particularly when it gets close to our children because we all know what this involves do we not we we know it's at stake and the closer it gets to our kids the more open it should get so I was thinking that tonight maybe I could be uh informed I did as you maybe some of you know I did have a list of the previous incarnation of who was actually on it and uh I I published it I put it out there and I I I got a lot of Kickback against doing that as if I was as I was accused of doxing people uh well this is not doxing people if you want to affect their children

099you don't get to do that in private from my vantage point you come above board you say what you have to say you put it on the table I understand the need for trust and it's always easier to talk about things in private it sure is but at certain points you don't get that you don't get that path because of what's at stake so I thought I would ask the question whether or not this is going to be an open meeting to which people are invited or certainly can can view understand uh and whether or not who is on the committee is going to be public knowledge sure so I'm happy to answer the second part of the questions um so we are absolutely planning on listing the folks that are part of the working

100group you all did not udon did not out anybody from the first iteration of the group um so we've presented publicly at least four times over the past calendar year to this committee about the work from the social justice working group including folks names and who's in what working group all of those are public documents as soon as we present them here they're also all found on our website at our last meeting I did just let folks know that we would be putting their names out to to see if anyone had a concern and there wasn't a concern okay we have not had a great internet connection here at North for about 11 days now but today it is uh as steady as it has been even though this meeting is not live because we

101don't have any internet but the intent is to to put the names of the members on the on the um on the tab so we have 13 parent and community members we have obviously myself Mary Beth and Jess our five building principles and a handful of some other staff like our communities content supervisor Our World Language content supervisor but that list will be on on the website good is it an open meeting in its current format it's not an open meet me say that that type work that we do at a school level isn't an open meeting you know we meet about report cards we we meet about the science of reading like you heard principal Simmons talk about um I'm happy to hear your feedback if you think it should be an open meeting

102what I will say is that the number of folks at the meeting is there 18. it's 26 if everybody comes which in that format is is a very difficult number to manage conversation um I don't know how much work would happen if we made it an open meeting and you know because we I've been on a few boards and a few committees here and I do believe any time you have an open meeting that if public comment is a big piece of it right and you know the purpose of having folks there is so that they can participate I would hate to call it an open meeting and have it feel less than open by not allowing other folks to participate so I think then you're talking about you know upwards of 30 people um

103trying to to to work um you know what we talked about is we have our next meeting is tomorrow evening you know kind of dividing the group into smaller subgroups so that we can actually do some work because Susie was there I see Maureen in the audience she was also there it's hard of that size to really you know there's a lot of conversation um it is hard to really harness the energy of of the group towards work there was more getting to know you kind of type conversations I don't you know I think it was a really helpful first meeting but I don't know that we did any actual you know work of the working group so um are there notes or meeting minutes taken from those we take notes they're not official media

104minutes because it wasn't a public meeting we could post the notes if you think that would be helpful just for the sake of I know we used to drive hard for transparency right makes it work and if there's ways that we can communicate the information that's taking place and still have an atmosphere that's conducive to seeing work done I know we're open to that absolutely well the the atmosphere to get the work done shouldn't mean private uh it doesn't do that on any other committee that that's public and I think what Aaron if I understand as she's sharing is this this is been designated as more of a school group similar to the way she does with the other groups and this one is unique and I think you've mentioned that right so right and

105so anything that comes out of the group that I want to move forward to you all I move forward to you all right it's not it's not an Advisory Group to the school committee whereas I think right some of the others are set up that that group in particular reports to for lack of a better word an elected board that has a public meeting anything from the group that we're working on or that has you know impacts under your purview I would move forward to you and then it becomes you know a public record there's not um over there sometimes we've made some policy suggestions that's how we made the change to the the required hiring and recruitment policy that talked about diverse applicants those pieces come to you obviously anytime we're looking towards anything

106that has a budget impact we bring that to you um and it's a work group not a committee correct it is uh it says working group and I understand the difference that people who observe are not invited to participate uh so I I get the difference but they can be observed by the public so we've had working groups hundreds of working groups over the years right in they have different levels of Interest what I would say is I understand the balance between wanting to get the work done and then showing people what the output of the work is could you take at least at the initial stages the tact of a bi-monthly update right you're meeting you're meeting twice a month anyway so pick every other month and give them more formalized update on what

107each of the working groups is doing that's one thing second well maybe it's even part of that and I'm not I'm thinking on the Fly I was not prepared to even discuss this so um but I was trying to think of best practices and trying to because I understand the whole thing about a working group in Corporate America you would not right it would be the working group in the working group would report out just because it's I know you're saying just observing but it sometimes gets tough to manage depending upon the group and depending upon in some cases emotions come out and it could be something somebody says depending upon the topic so I understand that and I respect that and I respect what you're trying to get out of the group could you

108do go with your bi-monthly update and I would say break it into three main categories people are trying to to at least need transparency and maybe it changes from here but at least if you talk about what are the changes with regard to curriculum changes what are the changes in Impact budget and what are the changes in Impact policy everything should someone somewhat fall into one of those three buckets and maybe if you add something else you do but at least that starts to give up bigger update and make it a more formalized updated writing so that's something you could share for people who aren't there and then see how that see how that works right because you're you're starting the whole thing over again you're looking at a new structure if I understand it

109correctly yes and I don't know you know when so at the initial published right goals missions objectives whatever you want to call it but then start it's November right January come out with some type of formalized report so that you at least show what the work of the group is and then you can get comments from people which is pretty much what the structure was last time because we brought it we brought it to you all at just about every other month you got an update but then it it fell off because interest in the group fell off right if you have the same thing Dynamic happen then it changes the way you way you do things but at least at least you're adding some level of transparency in trying to try and find the

110middle middle ground or compromise at least to start I I get I get it and I know there's complications in it it would be very interesting to me if at the Town level we disbanded the Dei committee and that some of those people actually moved to a private Dei committee by another government entity uh and all of a sudden what the town said no to if it goes into the schools then it's not it's not clear to us of course I think some of us would say no to it in the schools too but if it's it's actually the same people and I don't know uh that would be that would be um very interesting kind of dynamic and we've got to be careful with it um I I propose it to you as a

111consideration it's not going to all get done here I understand that but I'm putting it on the table I'm I'm for the closer it gets to the children the more transparent it ought to be that's just that's just the rule of thumb and it's hard to talk about I know it's hard to talk about I don't want to make it easy to talk about in that in that sense because it is hard to talk about and emotions get high things are hard to say uh I get that but that's one of the burdens of doing government and doing public business we found the same on the public Dei committee that some of those groups became very hard and they divided up into four different groups working groups then they had the major group and so

112we were going to all kinds of meetings and working groups we just observed mostly sometimes they let us interact but it became tough and people were feeling that they were getting tracked and hassled of it well so be it this is government work and you put your opinions on the table you put your views on the table and then that's what we do and you have the courage of your convictions so I I just commend these things to you won't get settle tonight the only other piece that out there and we talked to talk to the war is that you know a group of volunteers right do a job is different right right I've been hired to do a job here um you know and as Mike and the others alluded to my evaluation I

113always want to hear what everyone's thinking and I always try to make really thoughtful decisions to me this is just a tool in making you know helping to to make decisions but I have a tremendous amount of faith in our Educators and the folks that work here inclusion is not new to public education that is the basis of public education so though the conversations are difficult they have always been happening at the education table um you know sometimes they take a a different spin but inclusion has always been a subject of conversation and you know with the at the request of this committee we included parents in that conversation in October of 20 and 2020 when the social justice working group started but I assure you that these are not new conversations that they have

114been happening um and you know we really this committee felt the need to have parents involved in the conversations this in this iteration of the working group it's parents and community members before was just parents I think you all were the course of the past year have recognized that the community also has you know some some value to add to the conversations when we're talking about diversity equity and inclusion when it comes to public education but a group of folks have been hired and are paid to do this actual work here um and you are looking for folks input I can assure you that I will post the list of the members of the committee tomorrow as soon as as our communication person is in but there is little to no overlap from the original

115Dei Town working committee other than myself and there's one person on our group that was on the original thank you because when we talk about diversity Equity inclusion education it means a lot different than it did at the town and we just celebrated and I think it was a feel-good moment for everybody here we talked about unified basketball anybody disagree with that anybody unified basketball is part of the inclusion activities within our Public School District inclusion included some classrooms have been in this District since my kids were in here all three of my kids sat inclusion classrooms and are better people so when we talk about it we can't just take a narrow view of it of what is going to support an argument or for for either side we have to look at the

116whole concept and how it applies to public education so we'll talk about inclusion don't forget those kids who are playing unified basketball don't forget those kids who are in best bodies or right they had a great feel good story from Marshfield a kid that I'm pretty close with lost our homecoming King to one of the special education inclusion students who won it and it was a great moment that night I'm not saying I'm saying that's the only thing and I understand where your concerns are but just don't take a now review saying that inclusion doesn't include that because that's a pretty part of our fabric as a community I think you'd find pretty widespread support for that we talked about Equity we have to talk about equity and opportunity I think the three people at

117this table will remember a hill that I died on with regard to what some of them know that what they're laughing at it was a summer program offered for students who were at risk what these what the four principals spoke about earlier right and my big concern was summer program we require parents to transport the child to the to get extra help so they wouldn't fall further behind my concern and they'll tell you we spent probably 20 minutes 20 minutes of their lives they won't get back but I'm glad I spent with thought Transportation why because there only ended up being about four of them but they didn't have the opportunity to get to that program because single parent two parents working whatever the family situation was not my business not my our job here

118was to make sure that that child got equity in the opportunity to catch up so when we talk about it we're not talking about at least I'm not talking about equity and outcome but we have to talk about equity and opportunity and not just looking at it in other ways so the only thing I would ask Don is try to take a more broad approach to it because it is a broad subject and if there are things within that broad subject that are concerning I think then you bring them up but looking at it and just immediately casting it without going into some of the components of it I just thought it was ironic that's why I interrupted Susie with what David just said and everybody felt great about it and then two minutes later

119we're talking we're looking at it like it's a negative and there are negatives to it I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie there are I'm not and I think I when we've spoken I've acknowledged that right and I acknowledge where my concerns are but making sure we have an inclusion classroom right to help both of the students it to me is is a is a win for the community and I think knowing you enough you would agree that that is the same sure and I think my example that I said and I don't know if you watched the meeting but it was in August of 2021 um or I'm sorry June of 2021 yes I do remember I can tell you where I was sitting okay yes but the point the point I'm trying to

120make and then I'm going to stop sorry is look at the look at the everything rather than just what some people are trying to make is that fair absolutely absolutely as long as we're agreed and we know where this can go okay and that that needs to be public and it needs to have a public face to it that's that's all okay don't disagree sorry sorry no it's okay you kind of um I don't want to say stole my thunder but I I I just actually done recently had a conversation saying I don't want to see this group end up just focusing on sexual orientation and gender or color of skin and we've had dialogue in these meetings about people with disabilities I've expressed a desire to have conversations with regard to obesity or food

121insecurity any number of different things that present challenges throughout the district for the very real fear that it will become only about a couple of things that right now Nationwide are super hot buttons and that's that's that's not the that's not where where me as the liaison I want to see the dialogue Focus only on we're taught there to talk about everything but we've brought up a there was a lengthy conversation a couple of meetings that go with regard to folks with learning challenges I don't necessarily use the right terminology that's whatever the newest is but parents spoke very openly about that and that's a lot of what happens in these meetings um and and you know we talk about more than just I think what immediately comes to mind for folks and and that's

122very deliberate and we're pushing to continue with that to not let it narrow in the way that Mike said so that's my kind of not nearly as articulate way of saying that I we I get it and I'm sure you're well met I'm sure you will Matt I uh I went to the Abington school committee meeting and there were a lot of Pembroke people there of whatever side they were on and there's a reason they were there and that is for a conversation that got out of control uh where people felt they weren't being heard where things were kept back and we don't want to we want don't want to go there um clearly my hat's off to the Abington school committee and they handled that evening very well actually uh but but that's where

123it can go so you're aware I'm aware and just words to the wides all the way around right okay thank you thanks John yeah Maureen good evening I just want to take an opportunity on on the wings of the evaluation to say as a parent thank you I appreciate Aaron whenever I come to you regardless of what it's about you always give me your time and you listen to me and and I do appreciate your professionalism and I recognize it and thank you sir did you have something to share hi folks Jay Sweeney uh Kings Terrace and you know to Don's point when you even hear the words nowadays you know diversity equity and inclusion it's a hot button topic that goes well beyond Pembroke and it could be something as innocent as Mike was

124describing could be but there's a lot of occasions throughout the country where it's much more than that and I think that's what many of the parents in the town are a little bit afraid of and so when you leave when you when you leave the talking about it and the meetings about it in the shadows then you can create more distrust and animosity then maybe you thought you would so I think the more open and more sunshine you can give this topic I think it'll be more acceptable to people if they know exactly what it is and for the level of which you're talking about when it comes to that particular subject thank you thank you thank you sir thank you before we wrap things up anyone else thank you guys all right yeah I

125just need two minutes and you know and this is even tougher based on that and I by the way I agree with you the more transparency more information share the better off we all are across the town and it's one of the things I think we've tried to do over the years so kind of go back to my first meeting on the Pembroke school committee was June in this building which was under construction at the time kind of comes full circle I sat next to a boil back then after and I got to sit next to David um so but you know and then it's funny because it was Joel Sugarman I mean Hutchinson and Kevin McCray can remember the day as if it happened yesterday I think everybody's known I haven't been able to

126make as many meetings in the past two months I think in the past two months I've missed more meetings in the past five years if not more um when I took this job I took it to do my best and if I couldn't do my best I couldn't be here yeah I wouldn't be here I should say and it was tough um unfortunately I'm gonna have to step aside and it's not because of anything bad and I don't know thank you it's not because of anything bad I've had a lot of positives in my life because before rumors start of something bad is going on no it's actually very good and it's all broken in probably the past two days you're probably hearing before my kids are um but I have to step aside because

127of some personal and professional things that have happened in my life all positive please and I just I'll say that one last time it's all positive just because of those I can't serve to the level that I think I need to serve or the need that the people in Pembroke deserve that's what I've done for the last 21 and a half years and if I can't do it to that level then I I can't do it um so I just want to quickly to say a couple things and then I'm going to stop I have to thank the people Pembroke for kept putting me back here allowing me um to serve it all times wasn't easy and a lot of times we say we get or we have to do things I can tell you

128the large majority was I got to do this rather than I had to do this and it was a pleasure the students the staff everyone who I've come in contact with over this 20 years has made an impact all the people I've served with man it hasn't been as many as you think over that many years because we haven't turned over you know some are very close friends and will always be close friends many of the people here tonight um we want to thank also the partners in town government over the years I think of some of the people who have made this job easier because of partnership and I hope that doesn't go away I haven't seen it well with this Committee in other committees it's been better it's not as bad as it

129was when I started but it's not where it needs to be where it was before and the only way this town is going to get better is if we get back to I'm not saying everybody agreeing but having the conversation and because that's what we need a lot more of is conversation figuring out what compromise looks like and that doesn't mean the middle it means making sure everybody understands respects the other side this is more than I thought I was going to say but I got going after that um the last thing I want to thank and last thing I'll say is I have to thank my family um they've given up a lot for me to do this because I know everybody here sees two meetings a month they don't see the advisory meeting

130ask Mary and Smith she had my youngest in a baby carry him multiple times in the building inspector's office watching so I could go up to the selectman and beg for money for the district or I could go to advisory like they gave up a lot my wife my kids at least some a lot of people here know them um they understood why so I thank them I thank all of you I wish you the best [Music] because I can send this to you so it's like I said this is emotional but I'm just grateful somebody else scored a tears besides me it's always me I love it for over 20 years and and now I'm gonna choke up because you've been a terrific mentor to me Mike and to all of us you are

131an inspiration to Future Volunteers in this community who make sacrifices on a daily basis and I don't know how the hell you do all that you do and how you've done it this long so now we're both crying I'm better now thank you I know we will have proper time to acknowledge Mike's time with us take a while to build a wing so yeah I'm good this is all uh very raw for us but uh because because it takes a lot of hours it's the this is a great time to serve it I mean I have made lifelong friends doing this and everybody here will and you have to always think back to are we doing this best for the kids in the community because the kids are the next version of the community maybe

132the next version of us so there were people before us there'll be people after us so that's all I have to say sorry took way more time than I wanted to thank you for your years of service I I can't thank you enough I can't thank you enough for your mentorship and you know helping me through my first year and um this town is much better for having you serve in it we really appreciate everything you've done that note [Laughter] you guys have it