Quincy School Committee: Subcommittee Meeting - April 1, 2026

001Okay. Good evening. I'm going to call to order the policy subcommittee meeting and first on our agenda is the proposed revision to the school committee policy for student personal electronic devices. Yeah. Actually, before we start, the subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole school committee. Therefore, per open meeting law, only subcommittee members may discuss, deliberate, and vote on matters before the subcommittee. And the subcommittee members tonight for the policy subcommittee is Tina Cahill, Paul Bregoli, and Catherine Hubley. Welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us here this evening. And I'm very happy to be here to present the proposed update to our student personal electronic device policy. I do need to thank the members of the team, many of which are here today, who helped us research and draft the policy

002update. Mr. Morani, the curriculum director, Ms. Cavallo, the president of the QEA, Mr. Ellis, vice president of the QEA, Mr. Ford, principal of Quincy High School, and Mr. Gilbert, principal of North Quincy High School. In addition, I would like to thank the Quincy Police Department and Chief Kennedy for their support of this policy update, and in particular, I would like to thank Lieutenant Matt Pennazolis, the head of the school resource unit, who is here with us tonight. He's also written a letter of support for the members. I would also like to thank the principals and the superintendent's leadership team members who are also here to show their support for this important change. Over the The several years, we have seen a significant increase in the presence and use of personal electronic devices in our schools

003nationwide. While these devices are an important part of students' lives outside of school, within the classroom, they have increasingly become a barrier to learning, impacting attention, reducing meaningful participation, and contributing to a rise in disciplinary issues. Simply put, when students are connected to their phones, they are often disconnected from their learning. At the same time, Quincy Public Schools has made a strong investment in ensuring that all students have access to appropriate school-issued technology. Every student in grades 4 to 12 has a Chromebook to support instruction when digital access is needed. This allows us to clearly distinguish between technology that enhances learning and personal devices that often detract from it. The proposed approach that you have before you tonight is also supported by research and field experience. According to Cell Phones and Social Media in Schools,

004A Toolkit for School Leaders and Communities from the Office of the Attorney General, schools that have implemented full-day phone-free policies report that students interact more with one another, are more engaged in their learning, and experience fewer disciplinary issues. Additionally, Massachusetts superintendents have reported that implementing phone-locking pouches and other bell to bell to bell expectations has led to marked improvements, including increased student attention, stronger peer relationships, and reductions in cyber bullying. In a few minutes, Mr. Moroney will be sharing with you an exciting and positive conversation that he had with Taunton High School's principal, who began implementing Yondr pouches this fall. Mr. Moroney and I are working with him to schedule a time for our team to visit Taunton High and see how this process works in action. We believe this new policy reflects a thoughtful

005and balanced approach. It establishes clear expectations, consistent procedures, and a structured system of accountability while still recognizing the developmental needs of our students. By incorporating tools such as secure pouches along with a progressive discipline model, the policy is designed not only to limit distractions, but also to support students in building responsible habits around device use. Ultimately, this proposal is about creating learning environments where students are fully present academically, socially, and emotionally. It is about ensuring that classrooms remain spaces for focus, collaboration, and meaningful engagement. And now I'll we'll begin walking through the policy. So, the policy begins on the first page with definitions of key terms used. Electronic devices, just to quickly run through the definitions, refers to any personally owned technology capable of of communication, internet access, or media use including phones, smartwatches, and

006earbuds. Pouches, which you will hear us refer to a lot this evening, are school-issued secure storage tools that restrict access to devices during the school day. This policy also outlines a progressive discipline approach which emphasizes teaching and accountability through escalating supports and consequences. Additionally, it defines terms such as social probation and phone probation, which limit student privileges or device access when expectations are not met, as well as access-enabling devices, which are items used to bypass or undermine the policy such as burner phones. These shared definitions are intended to ensure a common understanding for our school community. On page two, the policy then moves on to explain that for high school students the following will occur starting in the fall. Cell phones and other personal electronic devices may not be used for any purpose from the

007start of the school day until dismissal. Number two, all cell phones and personal electronic devices must be turned off, not simply silent or vibrate mode throughout the duration of the school day. Number three, cell phones and other personal electronic devices should be placed and locked in the provided pouch upon entry into the school and until dismissal from school. Students are expected to hear it to adhere to the process described in the daily procedures below. Now, I will turn it over to Mr. Moroney who will talk about the procedures. Thank you, Dr. Perkins. Good evening, everybody. Uh so, when we look at the daily procedures as it's written in this proposed policy language, I do just want to point out that I'll be referring to the high school section of this policy. Uh the middle school

008language is very, very similar, so I will point out where it's uh slightly different. We obviously needed to make adjustments to make it middle school appropriate as compared to high school appropriate. So, I'll point that out. However, a lot of it is similar language, so I won't go through each one uh verbatim. So, at the high school level prior to entering the school building, uh students will be responsible for turning their phone off, placing their electronic devices inside their secure pouch. They'll secure it in front of school staff. If they have headphones that can't fit in the pouch, they would be expected to place that in their backpack. Uh and then throughout the day, those headphones would not be uh visible throughout again, throughout the school day. And then the final piece upon entering is

009all students would be responsible for carrying or storing their pouch. So, they're still responsible for their cell phones the same way they would be anyways, only now it's in a pouch and they carry it with them whether it's in their backpack, their locker, it would be the decision of that student. Now, as students exit the building on the way out, they will have their pouch unlocked. Now, that process requires their small little items that essentially can quickly scan the pouches. So, as students walk by, it's literally a half a second and they can click it and it unlocks. They don't need the device to lock it. They can lock it, but when if they need to unlock it, there's a separate device that they would be using, which again, that would be managed by staff.

010So, there would be staff oversight when that's happening. And there's quite a bit of those devices that we have. So, we can have multiple points, whether it's at the main office, if there's an early school dismissal, other extenuating circumstances that might occur. There's not just one location where this would be accessible, but regardless of where it is, it would be managed by QPS staff member or more. And I do want to mention that on their way out, we are telling students to close their pouch on their way out and keep it locked on their way out. Mainly because what we don't want to do is have them leave anything in there overnight and then accidentally lock it in, right? So, if they close it on the way out, and this was advised from the Yondr

011company as just a nice practice to help avoid any issues when students, you know, head home or head out of the out of the school. So, they would unlock their pouch on the way out, they'd remove their electronic devices, and then as I mentioned, they would close it and take the pouch with them. So, the pouches would be assigned to the individual students. So, there would be a pouch per student. And then I do just want to add that, you know, the language I shared with you is intentionally zoomed out because we recognize that across the five middle schools and the two high schools, there's different building logistical needs. And so there would be further information in terms of specific instructions as applicable in each school in those relative handbooks. So that is by design.

012This is the general overview, but part of the purpose that, you know, Dr. Perkins just mentioned when we go to visit we can look at how they facilitate the process, get some tips and some best practices from them, and see how that could impact uh Quincy High School, North Quincy High School, Point Webster, the other middle schools. So again, that's um you know, something we're considering as we move forward is, you know, do we want to make this available via different entry points or do we want to put them in one entry point? Those types of questions would be answered school to school to school uh because of the needs of the building. So staffing, amount of students, uh current practices in terms of entry. What I will say is that the Yondr company that

013um produces the pouches, they do work with schools from a consulting standpoint to help us develop the procedures within the resources and the facilities that we have. And so it is a pretty smooth process. And what I will share uh my conversation with the principal over at Taunton, and I do need to thank him. His name is Dr. John Harrison. Um They have about 2,800 kids in their high school. And they are doing the same thing in that they assign individual Yondr pouches to every student. They bring them home with them. They come back in the morning with their Yondr pouches. And they have a similar process upon entry where they're locking them in their devices, I'm sorry, locking their devices in their pouches on the way in, and in a similar manner on the

014way out, unlocking, taking their items out, and locking it again. Uh so from a procedural standpoint, it's absolutely feasible for a school with 2,800 students, and I believe it's feasible for every one of our schools. Again, when we look at the building design and making sure that we obviously design it in a way that's uh uh effective. I do just want to point out in my conversations with the principal because beyond logistics, I just needed to ask him, you know, what do you think? You know, you're in year one, how's it going? Uh and he said it's it's absolutely paying dividends already. So, specifically, the suspension rate as compared to this time last year is down significantly. He asked me not to share the specific percentage numbers publicly, so I'll respect that, but down significantly.

015Um physical altercations I again, I would love to be able to share it, but a massive decrease in physical altercations uh in that school since this started. When I asked him, you know, have there been any other changes that possibly could be correlated to to these uh to these numbers here, he said, "This is the only major change we saw from last year to this year." So, of course, you know, you can't necessarily directly relate it to this change, but this is a pretty significant change, and it's it certainly is much more than a coincidence. Um and then the other piece from a more qualitative standpoint was um one, teachers are not seeing the cell phones in class at all. So, we're So, we're seeing kids focusing, staying in the classroom, they're not leaving the

016classroom to maybe sneak their phone out to look at it while they use the restroom, right? Things like that. That's happening much less, and quite honestly, they're just not seeing the phones. It doesn't mean there aren't kids who are trying to find ways around that, but as I'll go through in our policy language that we're proposing tonight, we're addressing that as well. We understand that, you know, not everybody's going to subscribe to this right away. We understand that. We're going to work with kids. we're going to develop uh language and systems that address that. But overall, uh he's he spoke very highly of this, very very encouraging. And I said flat out, if if if you had to do it again, I'm sorry, if you if you could walk away from this right now and

017not do it, would you? He said, absolutely not. This has been a pivotal change in our school community. And so we hope to bring that to to QPS. Um shifting gears to some of the language around uh damaged and lost pouches. So, I'll just review that language very very quickly. Again, similar to middle school, I'll point out the slight differences. So, if a pouch is lost, ripped, cut, torn, or damaged, or if it's open in any way uh other than what's prescribed by the district, there's two outcomes. The first is their student uh the student and their caregiver is responsible for purchasing a new pouch. Now, that rate will be established by the district and made available in each student's handbook. So, obviously, we're we're at the mercy of the price point that we purchase

018these um Yondr pouches at. So, they could change over time. So, we don't recommend offering a specific price point in the policy cuz it could change year to year potentially. There's no intention of that, but we just want to be prepared. Um and then also, the student shall serve a detention from 2:30 to 3:30 the following day. So, again, this is if it's damaged or lost pouch, uh they'll serve a 1-hour detention the following day, and they will not be permitted to attend club, sports, dances, and other extracurricular activities for that day. I do just want to point out the only difference at the middle school level is the the uh detention is a half hour shorter. Uh so, it's 2:30 to 3:00. For a forgotten pouch, if a student forgets their pouch, so it's

019not lost, but they just forgot it a particular day, their phone would be collected in in the high school in the dean's office, middle school in the main office, um and there will be a call home to the parents or guardians, just reminding them of the policy. The phone would be returned to the student at the end of that day. So, at dismissal, the the phone would be returned. Now, if a student consistently forgets their pouch, it would be considered lost. And then at that point, we would just defer back to the damaged lost pouch policy language that you have up there. Finally, as Dr. Perkins mentioned, the combination of the pouch, but also the progressive discipline piece. That's obviously a big factor here for this to be effective. So, I'll just quickly go over

020this and I would say there's definitely different language in the middle school section of this. So, I'll go over that as well a little bit more thoroughly. The first violation, so if a student is using the phone during the school day or not using the pouch, the first violation is an office referral. That cell phone, or wherever you see cell phone, electronic device, would be collected by administration. The parents or guardians would receive a phone call, and that student would serve two 1-hour office detentions totaling to 2 hours of detention. For the second violation, again, office referral, cell phone is collected by administration. However, now there's a meeting with parents or guardians to discuss this, and the student would be serving a three three 1-hour office detentions along with a Saturday detention as well. Now,

021at this point, this would be in addition to students may needing to serve a period of social probation, which it's defined in the definitions earlier in the language as determined by school administration. The third violation, very similar in language. However, now it's entering a 1-day in-school suspension along with a Saturday detention, and that student would be placed on a phone probation. Again, that term is defined earlier in this policy language. Once we hit that third violation, anything beyond that would be considered a chronic violation. So, at that point now, it would be a combination of in school or out of school multi-day suspensions and the student would be placed on both social and phone probation for a duration determined by the principal. The last piece I want to mention, that bottom piece, is that if

022there's students using burner phones, second phones, whatever they might have to try and kind of get around this policy, any evidence of that would put a student on the third violation. So, if they don't have a history of violations, but they're seen putting a burner phone in their pouch and they have another phone and they're they're observed using it, that student would be addressed via the third violation. If they do have a history, they would go right to chronic violations in terms of the disciplinary response if seen using these access-enabling devices. Now, shifting gear, if you go to the last page, I just want to compare that to the middle school discipline cuz it is significantly different. So, up until that point, the language at the middle school level is pretty similar. It's where where

023it starts to differentiate is at the discipline level. So, I do just want to quickly go over that. A first offense at the middle school level, the the phone would be brought to the main office, held by administration. A phone call would be made home and it would be returned to the student at the end of the day. That's the first the first offense. The second offense, it's very similar. The difference is here is a parent or guardian would be responsible for retrieving the phone. So, we would still be calling home, but at this point now we'd be handing the phone off to the parent or guardian to to be able to make sure that they're aware that this is against our policy. And finally, the third offense, same as the second offense above. However,

024the student would be prohibited from that point bringing any personal electronic devices to school for the remainder of the school year. So, in other words, if this offense continues to occur, we just need to remove that device from that student as an option for that school day. And then, I do just want to mention, you know, students committed repeat committing repeated violations of this policy may be subject to a dis- additional disciplinary actions consistent with the student rights and responsibilities handbook. When you look at middle school and you look at students in grade six and you look at students at grade eight, even though they're close in age, they're very different developmentally, and therefore some discretion needs to be considered when additional consequences are issued for this behavior. So, that's why the language is worded

025in the way that it is. Uh and finally, elementary students, there are no changes in the language. So, we'll continue on with the language as it says for elementary school students, cell phones and other personal electronic devices should be turned off, safely secured in a locker or backpack during the school day. So, there's no changes there. Uh and if I could just offer one final thought before I hand it back over to Dr. Perkins, you know, similar to how we handled the recent shift with the attendance policy, uh we really unified as a community and said, "How do we address attendance?" And we did that via the attendance matters initiative as a response to the shift in the attendance policy. I think we can all agree it's been very successful. We've seen our our attendance

026data improve already. We're very excited to see the direction that's going in, but we absolutely intend on taking a similar community-based approach. It's very, very important to us that we share this responsibility, parents, guardians, schools, all of us here. It's very important that we do this. We really just need to prioritize the mental wellness of our students, and having phones easily accessible might hinder that. Uh and so, therefore, it's it's something that's very important to us. We want to create a school community that's focused, connected, and engaged, and I have to uh just thank everybody for their attention to this policy because it creates a great opportunity for us to help the school community throughout. I'll hand it back to Dr. Perkins. Thank you, Mr. Moroney. I would just echo what Mr. Moroney has said

027and just say that, you know, this is something that was brought to our attention initially from the teachers in the classrooms from the QEA. I think that this shows that we hear them and that we support them because we are all too often, and I think the principals could tell you this, putting the teachers in the position where they have to argue with a student over their phone. Um, you know, and at the high school and the middle school level, you know, that that is not a fun place to be. Teachers should be focused on teaching their classes, and the students should be focused on on learning. And Mr. Moroney is right. I don't think anybody would argue about the information that is now available about the damage that the reliance on cell phones does

028to children. The access to social media, you know, just the just in general, their overall mental health, the addiction that they form to their phones, um, you know, and so this we really feel strongly that this is a step in the right direction to make our schools, to improve our school culture, to improve our community and our climate, and make it a place where everybody comes together and kids talk to each other. They are not on the phones walking down the hallway or sitting at lunch all at a table staring at their phones. The kids actually are engaging with one another. Um, and so we have just a short little video clip to show you of what this would could potentially look like when students enter the building. This is from Yonder itself. And uh,

029so you can just kind of see what it may look like in action. Yondr is the established leader in creating phone-free schools. For over 10 years, our product and program has allowed students to experience the focus, creativity, and relief that comes from a phone-free school day. As students enter school, they place their phone in their assigned Yondr pouch. They close and secure their pouch, keeping it with them throughout the day. When leaving school, students tap their pouch on an unlocking base to retrieve their phone. Yondr is used by millions of students every day. Our school partners report having more teaching time in the classroom, improved student safety and wellness, better student engagement, student behavior, and academic performance. Creating phone-free schools is a community initiative. Our comprehensive program provides support to our school partners from start

030to finish with step-by-step guidance, parent communication materials, policy development, and proven expertise to ensure everyone understands the difference a phone-free education can make. It's amazing to see kids come to school and not have to worry about that phone going off or them being bullied by someone else on social media. >> It was kind of um, annoying at first, but then I saw like the difference between like my old school and this school. I see more people like interacting rather than being on their phones, like especially at lunch time and break time. They are way more engaged. Everyone's happier. It's night and day. I saw kids' faces again. So, we are um, all here uh, to answer questions that you may have about this proposal. We're really excited for you know what what we think that

031this will do for our school communities and we're happy to answer any questions. Okay. Just to make sure I have the right first of all can I have a Yondr pouch because as human beings we know that phones are distracting and I can only imagine what it's like in the schools. And I think that before I open it up to them my my colleagues is that you know our role as a school committee is to support kids so that they're they're learning and they're in a in a safe environment right? But it's also to support our teachers so that they're able to teach and there's nothing more frustrating than trying to get content out to kids and they're not paying attention. You could be in a meeting at even in in work and and people

032at board meetings and at meetings are on their phones. And if you're trying to relay content and no one's paying attention you know it's it's you feel like you're swimming against the tide. So for me I feel like 100% this is the direction we should be going in and I know we have other questions that we're going to be addressing. But coincidentally just really off just weirdly I had a phone call from a school committee member in Taunton yesterday and we were we were talking about another issue and then all of a sudden I was like oh my gosh wait a minute do you guys have that Yondr packet you know that's what we were talking she went bullying down grades up suspensions down fights down no cheating um students working together engaged and attentive.

033Like in two seconds all came up all their reporting shows that those statistics. So she was raving about it. So I'm happy that we have them as a source to see how it's working for them. Um Mr. Bagoli. Thank you, Ms. Gale. Um when we initiated this policy several years ago, uh it was um something that was new to everybody and we uh we certainly stumbled a little bit. But um I think our intentions were the right ones. Mhm. Uh and with this particular uh program that we're being intro- introduced to tonight, it sounds like that we're going to be able to get over that hump and um actually make some progress to support our teachers and to also support our our um students. Mhm. I got a couple of I have a couple of

034questions quickly. Um in terms of the cost Mhm. uh for the pouches for the district. Yep. What would you guestimate or what is the cost of each pouch? So they're about They're it's $30 per pouch. Um and and then um with that So we did ask it's about $100,000 for the high school and it would be an additional 100,000 for the middle school. You do factor into that some cost for like to have extra on hand cuz because if kids lose it or new kids um enter the building. Um and I will but I will say that is a pretty much a one-time cost. There is some cost the next year because you have to order replacements, but it's not like that. Because you do reuse the pouches unless you know, they get dirty and

035gross then, but you can clean them. Um but so you know, you would need to order like some new ones every year, but the the major cost is the initial cost. Right. Um so the cost is not directed at families and students. It's a district responsibility. >> It would be the district responsibility. It would be only be if the students, you know, purposefully broke it, which, you know, sometimes that happens and they try to break the, you know, it so that it will pop open so they can get their phone out. So, occasionally they do, you know, they will damage it. Um and so if they purposefully damage the pouch or, you know, obviously we're going to help anyone even if they lose it and they can't, you know, afford a replacement, we're going to

036give it to them. But if they're like a chronic offender, you know, we we may have a different conversation. But but so it it would be a $30 to replace a pouch that was like damaged or lost. And that that charge goes to the family. >> be to the family. It would be similar to how we handle the Chromebooks. So, if the Chromebooks are like if there's a purposeful or, you know, irresponsible kind of damage to the Chromebook, then we do charge families to help with the cost of repairing it. But it would so that would be a it would be a similar process. Okay. And maybe you can answer it or a superintendent can answer. Where's the money going to come from? So, we are exploring um possible business business partnerships at the moment.

037But if the business partnership angle does not work, we would be asking for it to be added to the or be a part of the school budget. Um not only for the initial expense, but also for any replacement cost moving forward. The initial expense of 200,000 as Dr. Perkins said would be the um biggest expense. And then the um preceding years would cover essentially the replacement costs for necessary pouches for new students and for lost or damaged pouches. But we are exploring potential um various partners in the city that may be interested in uh supporting this initiative for our students. Now, we have we've had difficulty recovering Chromebooks for people who have left the system. Uh what would be the protocol for recovering these pouches? Well, I think we do the same thing. We'd keep

038trying to get it from them. Um you know, I mean a Chromebook you have the benefit you can we can actually shut it off. So so that they can't use it obviously. The pouch is really no good to anyone if they don't have the magnet to open it. Um so we would just we would you know, we would try to get it and we would before the child signed out of school that like they turn in their books, you know, we would make them turn in their pouch. >> Yep. Um but you know, I do I mean occasionally I'm sure that there are going to be some students that walk away with it probably not purposefully but just forget to return it or whatever the extenuating circumstances. >> Right. We have a great track record

039of making sure our Chromebooks get back before a student moves on. So as Dr. Breckenridge said we would we would do something very similar. Well, what I like about this is that we have data now that we can hang our hats on. Mhm. And point to it and say look at because of this this is happening and it's a positive um result for again teachers and students. Um and we had nothing before uh in that regard. We just said no, you can't do it because we suspected cheating, we suspected videotaping, we suspected yada yada yada and um now we have the uh the data to back that up. Um one last question. We do have grade five in middle school. Mhm. Um are those kiddos considered middle school or are they considered elementary in terms

040of the um discipline? >> Uh so they would we were we we have set they would be considered elementary and so we have separated so they would follow the same process which it's not allowed. You know, it would go in the when we got the quote I believe we got it for 6 to 12. Correct. Yeah, so we we did separate them so they would follow the elementary policy. They follow the elementary for everything else. They follow the schedule and elementary schedule, elementary half day schedule, everything they do follows they use the same curriculum as all of the other elementary students. So we would continue to treat them as elementary students which is what they are. Right. Well, thank you for for putting this forward. It's just uh it just makes me uh hopeful. Yeah.

041I have to I have to thank all of them. I mean, everyone's worked really hard on it. Yeah. And we have something from the police department too. Uh Sure, any uh specific questions? >> No, I just want to know what you think. I have I have a question for you. Um so in in terms of, you know, I was going to say probably one of the questions we're going to hear from parents on the parent side. Um obviously we have the support of our principals and the SLT here tonight. Um and once we roll this out we're probably going to get some communication from parents and they want to you know, if I have to get in touch with my child and not and get if there's an emergency. Um from my perspective I think

042that if students are calling their parents when there's something happening it causes more confusion and chaos in the in in the community and the school in the school building. So from your perspective can you kind of give us an idea of what you think? Sure. So the research that I've done over the last couple of the week couple of weeks um pointed to the same thing uh that it has a tendency to overwhelm uh first responder response. Um So I would agree with that. I think I'm in favor of this as a parent myself. Um I think uh we've done quite a bit of training with the Quincy Public Schools in terms of threat assessment and uh active shooter response. We've done training, table top. We We did a practical exercise last year. It was

043awesome. So, we have uh policies and we've done training, so we're well prepared to deal with those emergencies, but uh I again, with the research that I've done, um I think uh kids having cell cell phones would hinder that response and possibly divert resources. Um so, um I'm in full favor of this. I think it's great. Okay. Let me Let me add to follow up with that. If you don't mind, um Dr. Perkins, um so, let's talk about a little bit of um communications with parents and students communicating with their parents and um how do How do we address that? So, you mean uh so, in an emergency or just in general? >> to be honest, the woman I was talking to in Taunton, a school committee member, she has a a student that's at

044the um one of the vocational schools, and then she has a son that's at the high school. So, her son actually thinks it's great as well that he's, you know, everything's going pretty well in school. Her daughter that's in the vocational school can use her phone, and she's like, she's texting me, like, "What's for dinner tonight?" "You know, can we get our nails done after school today?" You know, things like that. And so, she's distracted all day with her phone. Mhm. Um so, but in terms of, you know, needing to get in touch with your parent, we don't we don't need the students to do it directly from their phones in the classroom. Right. >> So, you know, >> Yeah. So, we did put a section in the policy that's called additional guidelines and in

045there we did put a provision for if like, you know, a student really needs to talk to their family, which I will say we do at the other levels like elementary and middle school right now. Um kids are you know, go to the office if they need to call their parents for something. So, we if a child, you know, needed to do you know, talk to their family for whatever reason, we would have them go to the office. They would be absolutely allowed to call their parent. Um they would be provided with a private space if that was necessary. And if a parent called and needed to talk to their child, we would get their child and we would have their child come down and talk to their family. So, we wouldn't, you know, prohibit

046uh a student from if they needed to talk to their family, they they would have that ability to talk to their family. It would be just like doing it back in the day when we had to use the landline. When we used to do it not and not texting. I would just say um with uh Lieutenant Panasellis, I completely agree and just having lived through and experience and I'm sure Mr. Ford can also attest to this, when we did um a few years ago have a bomb threat at Quincy High School and um it the absolute chaos it called it caused for students um when they because they were texting their families. I know a similar situation um happened at North Quincy High School a few years ago. Misinformation was gets out there online. People

047are talking about it on Facebook. They're spreading information that was actually incorrect and also that puts students safety at risk. You know, it's saying what is happening in the school when we have an emergency um is not actually helpful. It actually puts the children in a bigger risk and the school staff in a bigger risk. And and then never mind the dismissal, trying to keep track of where the students were when parents were trying to pick them up. And if it if it God forbid was a real emergency, first responders would be trying to get to the scene and the parents would be jamming it up. And and I am a parent, I absolutely I I understand, you know, how serious this is and and how scary that can be. But we are we all

048have a job to do and our job is number one to keep children safe and we have to make sure that our, you know, procedures and policies are such that when we need Lieutenant Pennazelles to the school, we're making way so that Lieutenant Pennazelles can get to the school because he's the one that is going to make the situation better. As are the Brewster ambulance and the firefighters and all the people that need to be there. Um and that's what keeps students safe. I think when when you mentioned to um if students parents are coming and picking up their their students, you're going back into the building, you don't know who's even there and who's not there. Right. We cannot keep track of them. Yeah. >> You know, someone might be missing. Maybe somebody, you

049know, so I think that's an important piece to understand. And if if I could just switch gears for one second, uh and uh I was an SRO for a couple of years before I was promoted. Um and over the last 3 years I've I've I was the commander of the special investigations unit. Uh so the amount of damage that I have seen first hand uh in terms of bullying, harassment, non-consensual videotaping, um some of these uh cases have been absolutely uh damaging to some of these kids. They're humiliating. Uh and I've seen that first hand. Uh and I think that's another side of it. Um I think you're going to see a huge reduction in those types of cases. So. Yeah, hope so. Sure. Thank you. Um. Mrs. Hubley. All right, thank you very much

050for the presentation. Uh, and I want to say thank you to Dr. Perkins for taking my phone call and answering all of my questions. It was great to hear. >> You're very welcome. And um. And it was great to hear that Ms. Cavallo um, actually helped with the writing of this. That was very very happy to hear that our teachers are on board and um, and they're supportive of this plan. That was very good to hear. I'm glad glad they're on board. Um, I've been talking with school committee members throughout the state um, through my MAIC um, who've been using Yondr bags for a long time and having great success with them. So, I'm totally in favor of it. Um, I did have a couple questions that came up during um, the presentation though. Um,

051if you could elaborate a little bit more on um, students who have IEPs that um, have accommodations that would include their cell phones. Um. That would be. Yeah, I I appreciate that question. And so, I think one of the things that we realized after the fact um, and thank you for the conversation because you kind of brought it to light was that we probably do need a sentence in there about um, students that need accommodations. And it's actually in the model language um, from the state. So, we will will add that for when it this goes hopefully to um, full committee. And um, so we would we would That would be a decision of the IEP team. I I don't I can't really think of off the top of my head a situation that would

052require an accommodation of a cell phone for an IEP, but I'm never say never. There might be some extenuating circumstance. And in that instance, it would be discussed at the IEP team meeting, put in the IEP, and then that student would be, you know, eligible for that accommodation. The one area, and I did talk to Andrea about this um, Huer, is I do think we need to add that in there because of students with diabetes. Um, and so I was I mistakenly was under the impression that, um, they would use an iPad, which they do use an iPad, but the cell phone has to swipe the glucose monitor and then it talks to the iPad. Um, so I do think that we would need, uh, you know, accommodations for, you know, for children like that

053because currently I think we have, you know, maybe 20 students in the district who do use, uh, glucose monitor like that through the phone. Okay, great. And, um, also, uh, you mentioned that, um, you'd be going to Taunton to to check out what they're doing. Will, um, Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Ford have the opportunity to go and check out first hand how that how Taunton is, um, They will absolutely be invited to go. Yep. Awesome, cuz that would be really reassuring that they they have that experience to be able to see first hand what's going on and going to be in their schools, so. And they can speak with the prin- a principal to principal. >> Exactly, exactly. Um, so also, um, in the discipline, I I believe you said, uh, Mr. Did you say

054about, um, middle school um, having a detention as a possibility of Would that be under the the last line of this cuz I don't see detention anywhere in here specifically, so would that be under disciplinary actions? Sure, that would be if you go to the damage and lost pouch language, the second bullet point, the student shall serve a detention from 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. the following day and shall not be permitted. So, that's if the pouch is damaged or lost. Okay, so it's not under the discipline >> So, that Correct. So, that's that's a specific response to the damage or lost pouch per this language and then obviously we have the discipline language that's if they're using the phone or if they're not using their pouch, then we would respond in this, uh, progressive manner.

055Okay, just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Um, and also with the funding still being looked for, um, what is the uh implementation? When are we When are we thinking this this is actually really going to Uh, we would love to implement this in September. Um, so that would be our goal. And the company, the reason why we liked and we decided and we talked around and round about different options, um, you know, what made the most sense in our team and the reason why we liked the Yondr product the best is because they are working with 40 schools districts in Massachusetts. They do come to the school. They provide professional development to all the teachers. Um, they've done this, as you said, uh, for years and years. And they have proven results and they

056also will come and watch your arrival and dismissal. That's built into, you know, kind of like your cost. That they will come, they will do PD for the entire staff. They will watch, um, the arrival and dismissal and give you feedback on changes that you need to make to your procedures. Um, they do recommend, you know, and all of this comes with it. The magnets all come. They have portable magnets that can be pushed around if you need it. So, one could be left in the office, but it could be moved to the dean's office if it was needed. They recommend, um, one magnet for every 150 students, but they give you more than that. Um, you saw in the video they have little handheld ones that they, you know, security officers could carry around

057in case of an emergency. Um, you know, so there's So, all of those things, like so, you know, we would have we wouldn't be, you know, I don't want people to think there'd be this big logjam because that's not what would happen. We would have multiple, um, you know, magnets to lock the devices. So, you know, kids wouldn't have to necess- like it wouldn't be like they would have to necessarily wait in line. Um, with that being said, I do think that the first week or two that we implement this, it's probably going to be figuring out and tweaking, you know, how to get it going as quickly as possible. But I do, you know, in everything that we've heard and from all the schools that we've heard, that we've talked to and the Yondr

058people, the you know, that it takes about a week or two to get used to it and then it's pretty much smooth sailing and very few incidences. You're always going to have kids who are going to try to beat the system and put a fake phone in the phone in the pouch or pretend the pouch is locked or something like that. It's going to happen and so we'll work with those families and address that. Thank you. If that's all right. I I think the the visit to Thornton will be good too because did you say they have 2,800 students? Yes. Yeah. >> how they're coming in and coming out and how they manage that's probably going to be a big big thing and actually having the extra magnets for maybe the nurse's office or, you

059know, other places where the student might have to get into the to the pouch. My last thing would be that we're going to need I would think that we're going to need to have some strong communication with parents before the school year starts in regard to, you know, the discipline, the loss and damage of the the pouches and maybe some communication because you're probably going to have questions about parents being able to communicate with their kids and and give them a good understanding of how why it can cause problems if there's too much communication, you know, during the day and distraction, but also for safety measures and how we how we deal with things in terms of safety measures or communication with each other. But I think for me, my only other, you know, hopefully

060we get the funding for this. If we don't get the full funding, what is your expectation if we only got like a hundred thousand dollars, would we We would we would absolutely recommend that we focus on the high schools. >> high school. Okay. So, hopefully we'll we'll get it all. We'll we'll do the what we need. Um Mr. Golding? Yeah. For students who are participating in after school activities, for example, um a kid has to jump on the bus uh after school uh not for an evening game but for uh an afternoon game at Urban High School. Mhm. Um where do they go to get there? Uh phone. So, they're carrying the phone with them all day? >> Yeah. So, they would just unlock it and we at the one of the magnets. Okay. So,

061they're >> So, right when they would it would they'll be right at the entrance and in the exits, you know? So, they would just unlock it um before they left the building and take the you know, take the phone out and then close the bag again. And we would we did I somehow we lost it in the edits. We had a sentence about after school activities. So, we're going to put that back. We caught that today that somehow or other we we lost that sentence but we did have a sentence about you know, that it would be you know, we'd work with the coaches and and you know, our our idea would be that the phones would be out at you know, at at a sport or a club or whatever, you know, we're we're

062not going to restrict the access after school um unless there's a problem, you know, and there's uh there's some kind of issue with the phone, then of course we would work with that coach or that club leader or you know, to work with that family and we could potentially, you know, use the pouch for the after school club if we needed to, but that would be I would think pretty rare and um based on working with a family. Who monitors the magnet? If they're just there and so >> Well, so it'd be security, the security staff and um like you know, the school security, the deans, the administrators, um you know, those would be the people at the beginning we probably would need some assistance with, you know, some of the other um school staff

063like guidance maybe potentially or um educators especially like the first 2 weeks, but then after that and we'll work with the QEA on that um you know, to make sure that that all works smoothly, but um after that we we don't anticipate needing really anyone else. So a kid just couldn't walk up and swipe it and >> No, because it would be right where the school security sits. That's where the magnets would be and and Mr. Bugoli, good question. You can cover the magnets. There's a magnet box that flips over that you can you can lock and you can cover the magnet. So, we we can do that. Why didn't I think of that? >> I yeah, I know. Yeah. They've thought of everything. Mhm. Okay. Oh, yeah, this is you. Just have to be

064devil's advocate on this. This isn't something they can go on Amazon and get some kind of a magnet that would work just as well. Well, we asked him that and I think, you know, there's always kids that are savvy and that potentially probably you could, but they are this is their copyright. So, when they monitor their staff does monitor Amazon and when they see something like that um pop up they have them take it you know, they they have a cease and desist. They have attorneys or whatever that deal with that. So, they do monitor like the market space because this is their their product and um you know, I'm not going to say it could never happen that a student could find something like that, but they do monitor it and make sure that,

065you know, like that that that doesn't happen. Okay, great. Thank you. Just on that too, the student would be subject to disciplinary action. >> The access enabling device or tool, that's essentially what that provision in the policies referring to is we did anticipate potentially there would be a tool online that a student could get to access access the pouch but that would then cause a disciplinary intervention. Okay, thank you. And therapy for addiction. Yeah, I need that. Okay. Yes. Motion to approve to move to the main meeting. Seconded by Mr. Bergoli. Just an all in favor. All in favor? I. I. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Thank you Lieutenant. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next on our agenda we have the Quincy School Committee meeting dates for 2026-27. Do we have a discussion

066or any questions? Mrs. Hugley. I just want to say thank you to Laura Owens for putting this together very wonderfully. This is something that Mrs. Leebo and I had heard of being done by lots of school committees at Mass Association of School Committee meeting a while back and felt it would be extremely valuable for us to have this type of agenda for our framework and knowing what our meetings would be. I mean obviously there's going to be opportunity to add to our meetings if there's something that comes up but this way we have a general knowledge of what's going to happen. So I'm very thankful. So thank you so much. So motion to Motion to Motion to move to the main meeting first session. >> Bergoli. Sorry Bergoli Bergoli All in favor? I. I. Next

067on the agenda we have the 2026-27 QPS school I would like to ask Mrs. Owens if we've had any major changes to the calendar this year. Uh, nope, it's the same format as the previous years. Okay, same format. Um, so what we have here is our school calendar for next year. Um, the first day of school is September 8th. And the last day of school and I don't have my glasses on here, but um, is June What's the last day? Last day of school 23rd. June 23rd. Um, added 5 days for if we were to have snow days then it would push it out to June 30th if we were to have snow days next year. Um, on the calendar we have designated H for holidays or for contractual um, holidays and V for vacation

068and E is for election day. Um, other than that I think we are um, all set. Any questions? Mrs. Hubley. Thank you. I just have a few things that I would like to ask to be added um, just for clarification purposes. On the calendar it says on election day, um, it says professional staff PD. Um, I think it would be better for um, public to have it say staff um, professional development instead of PD just so it's clear as to what that day is for. Um, also um, on February 15th uh, it just says no school. Um, I believe it's President's Day so I believe we're having no school because of President's Day um, which is the holiday and the same thing for in April um, where it says the 19th is an H it's

069Patriot's Day so which is a state holiday. So we should put in Patriot's Day and no school since we're honoring the state holiday on that Okay, I'm welcome. Could I'm sorry, so to say it since both of those fall in the vacation week um, that's the format we have been using just referring to them as vacation days. So, if you want me to make that change, that's >> Just because it is a V is there a V and there's an H. So, I just feel like it should be clarified as to what the H is that we're that we have off, that it's a federal holiday and a state holiday, that we should list what it is. It's just my opinion if my colleagues disagree with me, happy to fine. Um, just for make it

070um uh and Mr. DeYoung had um asked us to look at putting an H on uh February 6th for the Lunar New Year and I I'm bringing that up for discussion because it was asked of us. Um, but my personal opinion is that I don't think it's equitable to do that since we're not doing that for all the other holidays that um we have down under major and religious cultural holidays. So, I would be in disagreement of doing that, but I am making sure I bring it up for conversation. Anyone? Um, and that's all I had. We we have um H is for federal, state, and municipal holidays. So, that's how I would leave it. Mr. Begoley, any questions, any concerns? No. All set. Um, can we have a motion to move the calendar to

071out of sub committee to the main meeting? Motion to move out of Mrs. Hugley, second. Mr. Begoley, all in favor? I. I. Next on our agenda, we have the proposed revision to school committee policy school day. Um, this policy basically has just been um customized from the MASC um school policy school day policy and we just customize it for our Quincy language. Um, there really isn't much change here. Is there any questions? I'm sorry. Clarification. So, all we're doing is move We're just changing it from that says Tuesday to now we're having Wednesday. >> Yes. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. No, that's all. Mr. Bogoli, any questions? No. No. Motion to move. Motion, Ms. Nadeau meeting. Second. Mr. Bogoli. All in favor? I. I. Okay, thank you. Policy meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. So, we

072have um All right, I got to call the um 6:00 p.m. It's actually a little later than that. 6:00 p.m. uh Athletics and Wellness Subcommittee to order. Um Dr. Garrett, this subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole subcommittee. Therefore, our Open Meeting Law, only subcommittee members can discuss deliberations. Yes, is that all? Sorry about that. All right, so we're going to do that all over again. So, I want to call to order these 6:00 uh Athletics and Wellness Subcommittee to order. Uh I'm just going to read this into the record. This subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole subcommittee, school committee. Therefore, per open meeting law, only subcommittee members may discuss, deliberate, and vote on matters before the subcommittee. The subcommittee members for the Athletics and Wellness subcommittee are myself, uh

073Mr. Paul Barolli, and Mrs. Tina Cahill. Um and first on the agenda tonight is uh Mr. Mahoney, and he is going to give us a high school athletics update for the fall, the winter, and a spring preview. So, take it away, Mr. Mahoney. Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Uh good evening, everyone. Um just as Ms. Perdue said, I'll just do a quick run-through from our fall, winter, and just give a spring preview. We're about 3 weeks into the spring season at this point, so teams are underway. Um So, looking back to our fall 2025 season, I'll start over at Quincy High School. Um we had a little close to 270 students participate um across our eight sports. Uh and the level levels that we offered uh were pretty standard from previous years. So, football had our

074three levels, um girls volleyball three, the both soccers had two levels, boys golf two levels, cheerleading, and the cross countries had one level. Um we were fortunate to have uh 13 Patriot League All-Stars named from Quincy High fall season. Um 11 of those fall athletes were recognized by the Patriot Ledger and the Enterprise as All-Scholastics uh for their achievements. Big season for our combined Q and Q girls cross country team. Um so, they in the dual meets in the regular season won every meet, so they were 4 and 0. Um so, they won the Fisher Division title. They advanced to um the Patriot League Championship meet uh with the rest of the entire Patriot League of all 12 schools, and our girls uh finished first in that in that meet. Um they advanced to the

075MIA Um all state meets where they finished fourth place and then the rest of the team advanced to the even um, all state meet of champions. Um, so terrific season. Uh, coach Hennessey does a great job with those girls. Um, so hats off to him and his staff. Moving on, we had two of our um, fall sports at Quincy High qualify for the state tournament. Um, so our girls volleyball team at Quincy High qualified. They earned the number 30 seed in division one, um, but then lost to the number three seed Shrewsbury three to one. Our football team at Quincy High had a great season. Um, they ended up hosting a playoff game for the first time in a while. So they were the number seven seed in division two, um, but unfortunately were defeated

076in that game as well. Um, put on there the uh, the final records as well for reference um, from our regular season programs um, over at Quincy High. Continuing on to North Quincy High School in the fall season, uh, we had little over 300 students participating across those eight sports. Um, so the programming at North couple different uh, levels that were offered. So football typically had three levels. Uh, this year they they could only offer two based on the participation. Um, but our uh, boys soccer program ended up offering three levels. So there's a little bit of um, a comparison there between the two sports. Um, tra- traditionally girls volleyball stuck with three levels, girls soccer had two, boys golf two, um, cheerleading had two levels at North Quincy and then the the cross country

077programs were still one. So uh, 12 Patriot League All Stars were awarded from our athletes at North Quincy High School in the fall. Um, we had two of which were uh, named Patriot League MVPs of the Fisher division. So we had Jacqueline Manning, girl soccer player at North, and Maddie McGillicuddy, girls cross country. Um, these both were recognized as MVPs for the second consecutive year. So, they had that same honor last year as juniors. Um, Jackie also was recognized by the Boston Herald as an All-Scholastic for the second consecutive year, and also got honorable mention by the Boston Globe. Um, we had 12 fall athletes recognized by the Patriot Ledger and Enterprise for their achievements as All-Scholastics. Con- continuing with Maddie, she's had a tre- tremendous high school career. Um, in all of those races

078for cross country, she finished first in those races, including the Patriot League Championship Meet where she placed first. Uh, she's going to continue her cross country track running career at UMass Lowell next year, so hats off to her. Wish her luck. Um, girl soccer also had a terrific season. First time in a while, um, that they earned a playoff seed, and they were number 18 Division Two. They ended up winning their first round game against Canton. One goal game, I believe it was. Um, then they advanced to the round of 16, but lost to uh, Longmeadow, um, out in Longmeadow. Bo- uh, North Quincy football also qualified for the state tournament. They earned the 13th seed in Division Two, um, but then they were defeated by Winchester. Girls volleyball qualified for the state tournament. They

079were the 31st seed in Division Two. They won their first match against Essex North Shore, and then lost to Duxbury, the number two seed. Um, boys golf at North Quincy voted the Patriot League Fisher Division Team Sportsmanship Award. And our cheerleaders at North Quincy, um, qualified for the regional championships. Um, so very successful fall season for for both high schools. Um, a of a of good um, state tournament qualifiers and individual obviously individual runners too. So, um, and I once again threw the final records in there from the fall season. I'll continue into the winter. Um, we had 180 students at Quincy High School participating across our 12 sports that we offer at Quincy High. Um, those levels were basically the same traditionally. Um, boys basketball had three levels, girls basketball had two. Our boys

080hockey offered two levels and um, I'll highlight boys boys hockey just as an update um, last time we had met. Um, we were in the process of exploring the opportunity of co-opping our boys hockey programs. Um, that process went through for this past fall uh, past winter season. Uh, we the numbers that we discussed with using some of the data from our Quincy youth um, arena folks pretty much was standard to what we were expecting to get for participants. So, Quincy North Quincy High had 22 boys that that signed up and played and Quincy High had 11. So, Quincy High would definitely would have been in a really tough spot. Um, so I appreciate the support of um, the superintendent, his leadership team and the school committee for um, so their support during that process

081allowing us to move ahead with the co-op idea. Um, I think it was a really good season for them. The the games were extremely competitive. Um, you'll see their record might not be the best um, on paper, but they did qualify for the state tournament. Uh, the Quincy High students haven't experienced the tournament in in in a while and as I said that the games were much more competitive than previous season. So, um, and we we continued to do offering the two levels as well. So, we were able to give um, the JV a JV full schedule of about 15 15 or so games. Um So, I think it was a really beneficial um experience for those individuals that participate in boys hockey. So, thank you for the support on that. And um the co-op

082situation for that is typically you apply for those on a 2-year basis. Um so, we did apply as a 2-year basis. The MIA reviewed it, and they offered us for just a 1-year for the for this past season. So, the plan is to continue to um to move forward with the process and and and apply for that again um for the next hopefully two seasons and then continue to see where the numbers take us. So, um based on who we have graduating coming back and then our incoming eighth grade to ninth grade class, the numbers are going to be pretty consistent to what we had this year. So, um I don't hopefully foresee a an issue with the the approval of the co-op. So, we're we're going to move for and forge ahead with that.

083Um Backtracking a little bit, but so we had at Quincy High, we had eight Patriot League All-Stars from our winter season. Um Boys basketball qualified for the MIA state tournament first time since 2018-19. Terrific season for Coach Ramponi and the boys over there. They might have been the first winning season since that that year as well. So, hats off to him and his staff. Um they made the they made the state tournament. They hosted a prelim game They they ended up winning that and then advancing to the round of 32 before being defeated, but uh really positive outlook moving forward uh for that program. So, thank you to him. Girls basketball continued to to to strive. Um qualified for the state tournament again. They were high seed. They were the number 11 seed in Division

0841. They hosted a playoff game, defeated Durfee, um but then unfortunately lost to Natick, the sixth seed in the round of 16. Um as I mentioned, boys hockey did qualify for the state tournament. Um They're in division three, so they were the number 24 seed and we ended up losing in the first round in a in overtime game 4 to 3. They were also voted that team sportsmanship award within the Patriot League as well. Our girls hockey program also Q and Q. They qualified for the state tournament for the first time in a while and they earned the 21 seed, but unfortunately they lost as well to Canton in the first round. Few of our individual sports with track, swimming, and wrestling. We had a few of our athletes at Quincy High advance to the

085state from the all you know all state level. So two of our wrestlers at Quincy High, they both placed fifth in their respective weight classes at the South Sectionals at Weymouth High and then they were alternates at the All-State tournament at the end of the year. Also we had a few of our male and female swimmers that participated at MIT in the state championships and then a few of our female indoor track athletes compete at the MIAA Division Two championships which is held at New Balance. So and then through the final records on there as well for our winter programs at Quincy High. Moving on to North Quincy High, we had 265 students participating across our 12 sports. The levels that were offered were the same as what we've seen over the years. Three levels

086of boys basketball, two levels of girls basketball, Q and Q boys hockey and girls hockey, so two two levels of boys and one level of girls, wrestling, indoor track, swimming, and ski all offered one level. They on the other hand had 18 Patriot League All-Stars come out of North Quincy High School from the winter season. Our girls basketball program continued to have a great uh season. Last few years have been really fun to watch that group. They won the Patriot League Fisher division and then qualified for the state tournament earning the number nine seed. They won their first round game and then they lost to Norwood in the round of 16. Continuing more on our Q&Q swimming and track, we had a lot of individual athletes that strive in those sports. So a lot of

087those those individuals participated at the state level division one meets. Um And we had a few of them advanced to the meet of champions in track specifically Maddie once again and then John Naku on the boy side. Our girls at North Quincy this 1600 sprint sprint medley relay team, they qualified and then they competed at the New Balance Nationals which is held in Boston at New in New Balance. So that was a great honor for them to go there and compete against basically teams and schools around around the whole US. So And then our boys basketball program at North was voted the Patriot League Fisher Sportsmanship Award. Um put the final records there as well for North Quincy High School from the winter season. Um and then looking at the spring preview, as I said,

088we're three weeks now into the season. Some of our programs have had their first games at this point. Just the games are pretty much starting up this week. First week dealt with some rain so we weren't necessarily on the on the fields right away, but we made it work in the gymnasium and the turf utilizing the turf fields at Veterans and Creedon. But the parks department has been great working with the fields and our kids were out there last week. Baseball played a game last Friday. So fields are ready and and the kids are out there. So, um and then looking at participation numbers for the spring, that those are the numbers there. So, Quincy High has um 271 students currently participating across the 11 sports and North Quincy is a little bit up higher

089at 338. Um I did want to highlight just a few achievements from over the course of the school year so far. Um at North Quincy High School with our learning center students, it was year two of the unified basketball program. Um it's been really fun to watch those kids, the the teachers that kind of run the whole the the whole thing and our other sports programs showing up and supporting those students um in the gym when we have a home home game is is pretty fun to watch. Um I know actually at Southwest, they just they just started unified basketball as well. So, and I think um there's a few teachers at Quincy High that have inquired with me about potentially the option of bringing unified to Quincy High. So, um really fun to watch,

090like I said, and and just the support is terrific. Um Some other highlights and events that we've that our teams and our programs have put together. Um at Quincy High, the Roll Hats weekend is a big success to kind of kick off the school year with the support of alumni. Um kind of center it around a full day at Veteran's Stadium. Um then our our North Quincy football program is does a salute to service game where they honor our veterans before um their game. They pick a pick a a home game and they wear special jerseys that are honoring service members from North Quincy High School. Uh just really fun and it's to see that appreciation. Um Quincy High School and the boys basketball program with both football and basketball did a first responders recognition,

091recognized our uh school resource officers, the uh police and fire in the city of Quincy, um EMTs, things of that nature. Um we've also a lot of our programs will do teacher and faculty and staff appreciation games where they'll recognize or our seniors typically will pick a a teacher or faculty member at the school that may have made a positive influence of them and they'll they'll come out with them and be recognized before their game. We've also had a few of our programs that volunteered at Wreaths Across America at the ceremony I mean at the cemetery. So it's good to see the the teams getting out in the community as well. And then as I mentioned briefly in the bullet points had two Patriot League MVPs, two Fisher Division titles and 10 of our programs

092qualified for the state tournament over the fall and the winter season. We're hoping for more of those during the spring season. So that's pretty rough idea of where we're at. And I did I did include participation numbers just to kind of see it on paper a little bit of a chart. I I mentioned the the the um those numbers through throughout the presentation but the the second piece is the number of unique participants. So that's like one student um so we if you if you're a student that plays three sports you're only counted once in that in that number. So Quincy High this school year between the three three seasons has 479 students that have participated at some point over the course of the school year and North Quincy has 576. The percent that's the

093rough percentage of of what that is percentage wise to school population. So we have have over a thousand students at some point during the school year across the district participating in an athletic program at at either high school. So That's great Mr. Mahoney. Thank you so much for that and congratulations to all the students and the coaches that are participating in all the fall and winter sports. And good luck to our spring spring sports students and coaches. So I have a couple questions, but I open it up to my colleagues if either of you guys have anything you want to say. Yep. Um One second. Yep. I've I've been concerned the last few years about the format for uh State tournament. >> tournament. Um I don't know where we can go with this or how

094we can uh change it back to where it was because it gives a false impression of uh how we're doing. Uh you qualify with a 6-11 and two record for a state tournament. Yep. >> Uh or 7-12 and one. I mean it they don't I don't think that's that's not deserving of a state tournament birth. Back in the day when I when I played 100 years ago it was 70% you had to win 70% of your games to qualify and that meant something. Uh and it was much more difficult obviously to do that. Yep. Of course the times were different too. My concern also is um numbers of different sports. And I noticed that the football team at North only had two levels this year. Yep. >> Which is a first. Yeah. Since since I've

095been around for sure. Yep. >> And um what was the freshman number? So, yeah. So, they they roughly had I have the number here. So, across the program was a little bit below 60 total. Um but they only brought in about like eight freshman total. So, Quincy was able to have a full freshman team. So, I'm not sure, you know, where um you know, how many at the United, you know, now that the the youth programs combined too. Before it was obviously the the five different neighborhoods. Um now that they're they're they're also just one program now. So, um once you get that team and you split them potentially losing a few to privates too. So, those numbers are definitely a a low, you know, especially as the season goes on in football. You're dealing

096with a lot of injuries. You know, potential for um And that's why the numbers are so important. Right. To get kids to participate. I know that we were discussing it before we started our first meeting about how parents are not too crazy about their kids playing football anymore. And which is unfortunate, but that's their choice. My concern is the incoming class for North Quincy. Has that been extrapolated or do you have any sense as to what the numbers are there? Cuz I'm looking at 2 years down the road. Yeah. For game on Thanksgiving. Yeah. And whether that's whether or not that's going to be possible or not. Yeah, it's certainly um certainly a thought that's been kind of circulating as well. Um But in terms of numbers like we we can probably certainly check in

097with the United folks that pretty well connected to both programs and see kind of where we what we're expecting. What we typically see too is they not everybody that plays United will come up either. Like we'll there there we do recruit certain kids that first time putting a helmet on, but there is some hesitation to your point of um potential injury, concussion, things of that nature. So, in the alternative, you know, their boys soccer program is heavy. So, it it maybe just the the type of the kid that what they play in youth right now and then when they're when they're coming up they're they're just sticking with that sport. So, um we can we can we can look at the the youth numbers for sure to to kind of see the outlook similar to

098what we did with hockey. All right. And that was a a great move. You should do that. Because it afforded kids an opportunity to play Yeah. that otherwise wouldn't have been able to play if they had if we had stayed the course Yeah. with having two teams and um again, injuries like you said take a toll during the season. Yep. Um and hockey and football particularly. Yep. So um and I'm looking at our combined teams. We have five combined teams at North and five combined teams at Quincy. Um that's a lot. Yeah. Um and I'm wondering if that's if that's going to that trend is going to continue. Um I mean, it's great that kids are playing. Yep. I think that's the important thing. But if you're trying to establish a program at that particular

099high school is is discouraging when for example, what happened at North last year. They had two terrific freshman players basketball and they were lured by the ISL. Yeah. They're gone. Um and that decimates a program. They went from a terrific record last year to five wins this year. Yeah. So I mean, just losing a couple of kids in a in a program makes a huge difference. Uh particularly when you have only five kids on the court at a time or um I don't know. I'm just concerned about um our numbers uh overall and uh where we're going with certain sports. So Yeah. I think >> a downer, but I'm just being a realist. Sure. Yeah, I think the the recent trend too is, you know, I think the prep school piece is a huge um

100issue. For years it was like, you know, we might lose some students to privates, unfortunately. Maybe PCI? Yeah. But, um but they that's that is the the issue is the prep schools are coming in uh you know, in in their sophomore year and and really looking at our athletes that are thriving a little bit, so. Um if we can try to prevent that the best we can, um we certainly will. We want them to stay stay with us, so. Um So, um to speak on the the All State Tournament, Mr. Rigoli, um yeah, in years past it was the 50% you know, for sectionals at this you know, um and and now now it goes to the power rankings system. Um so, it's forcing a little bit of different stuff too with the from a

101coaching standpoint. Um our coaches are now basically scheduling based on the power rankings, too. Um so, it puts them in a little bit of a a dilemma. Um we in the Patriot League as athletic directors um have voiced our opinions to MIAA. Obviously, it's a it's the full MIAA decision, but within the Patriot League we have a pretty unanimous uh stance on specifically to the point of the margin of victory part of it. Um where let's just pick basketball. Um you can >> that to Sure. Yeah, so um the way the power ranking system works for the the tournaments is well, you can still qualify by getting 50%, so we strive for 10 wins to go 10 and 10, make the tournament. Great experience for a program that um hasn't made it in a while.

102Um then look at like girls basketball programs who have done really well the last few years. I think their goal is probably a little bit higher to to strive make the tournament they and then continue to advance as far as they can as North Quincy, you know, went to the final four last year and stuff. So, now when in the in the off season they're scheduling harder because you get points for your opponent rate ranking as well. Um, so some of our programs that might struggle, I I usually work with the coaches in the off season with opponents that might make the most sense competitively rather than looking necessarily at the strength of the schedule. So I think we kind of base it on where the program stands. Um, but so you get you get

103points from your opponent rating and then within the game itself, um, you get more points for winning the game by a certain number. So Certain number of points. Certain number of points. So in basketball that number is 10. Um, so if you win the game by eight, you should be happy you won by the game in general. Um, but the fact that you didn't win by 10, there is that lingering thought in your mind um, as you're driving home as a coach like we could have got one more point. So um, is a dis- topic amongst the ADs because we feel like, you know, you shouldn't have to change the style the way you coach at the end of the game and and make sure you win hockey by three goals instead of two. So

104it it takes away high school uh, educational athletics out of it and focuses more on wins and the number of wins. So we within the Patriot League are are very adamant against that um, and within some sports they've dropped that number. Um, I think lacrosse might have been maybe six or seven like last year. Yeah, and now it's down to three. So in hockey was like three, I think they've talked about bringing it down to two. Um, so there's definitely topics within each sport. Um, but on the grander scheme, um, yeah, the I don't I'm not sure if the the switch to going back to sectional tournaments for goal Mr. goalie is is has been talked about, but I know within like the power rating system and stuff there's definitely conversations being had. Just two

105other things. What what that also does when you have the uh, pressure to win by x amount of points. It doesn't allow the kids like At the end of the You carry 15 kids on a team. So, maybe you're going to get seven or eight kids in the game. Yeah. What about the other seven kids? They have to sit there because we have to win by a certain amount of points. That's The MIAA should be ashamed of themselves for putting that on us. Um and our and our kids and our coaches. Yeah. Because it's just it's not fair to kids. It's just And that's what it's supposed to be about. Yep. Right? Yep. It's what I coach, that's what it was about. Um and I forgot Oh, the venues. Yep. I mean, girls basketball had

106to go to Longmeadow. Oh, that's the travel, yeah. That, yeah. The travel has been There's been certain games where we've had to travel distances, for sure. Yep. Do you know where Longmeadow is? I do cuz I went to UMass. But It's about 2 hours, yeah. >> It's it's 2 plus. And, uh, if that's on a school day, school night, you're getting home at what time? And then having to perform in class the next day and do your homework and I I just I'm just I don't know. Send them MIAA questions. Call them. The MIAA, frankly, is a is a is a money-making organization, in my opinion. And they're run by private school guys who came out of private school. Mhm. You very see very few public school administrators in that organization. And that's that's where

107it lies, in my opinion. That's my opinion. Now, someone else may have a different opinion, and I respect that, but having been, uh, doing this for over 40 years, I've just seen when the Eastern Mass Principals Association ran the tournament, it was a much better product. It was much better for kids um academically and scholastically. Um and we've gone we've gone the college model. Yeah. And we've forgotten that we're we're in high school. So. Thank you, Mr. Begolly. This is K Altiery. Do you have any questions? I would say that you should probably call the MIAA. Give them your your opinion. Um I I think to your point, right? So, what you're doing is changing it from being just a an educational sports system to being like a college level system, which, you know, um

108I had girls that played club sports when they were growing up and in high school and everything. And and then they played high school sports, so they were on club and played high school. And sometimes they'd get a little frustrated cuz they'd be playing with kids who maybe never, you know, kicked a soccer ball or something. And we'd have the discussion that, you know, they were fortunate enough to have that, but for kids in high school or middle school and high school, it's an opportunity for these kids who never had an opportunity to play a sport cuz they maybe were interested and gives them a chance to play. Yeah. But if you're going to be putting this kind of pressure on kids that they have to again be get, you know, making all these extra

109points to be able to participate, you know, it changes the whole fabric of how the games are played. Um which to Mr. Begolly's point is is unfortunate for, you know, because if you have kids who don't have the access to a different level of um sports, Yeah. this is where we're supposed to be giving them an an opportunity to get a skill set in a sport and be on a team and all that. So, Right. it's it's disappointing to see that. Um my question to you and I think we had the discussion before is one, um, have we had any opportunity to ask parents? Remember I think last year we talked about having some kind of an assessment at the end of the season. Did we do any of that? So we're we're we're looking

110at developing a a survey. We were going to do it at the end of the school year, um, but if if we if we want to shift to kind of doing by season, we can certainly do that. Um, kind of talk about like experience in general, um, ask for some comments about how we can improve the programming moving forward. So, um, kind of more looking at like a Google form doc type of situation. So, we're looking at that for I think that would be good. I I think it gives parents a an opportunity to just kind of give you a little bit of reflection of what they think for the season. Sure. Um, not necessarily about the coaches, but just maybe about just in general, you know, the experience. And um, are we doing anything

111Do Do most of our coaches do something off season in terms of skill training and fitness and, you know, anything like that? >> Yeah. Yes, we I know that a lot of the coaches are try to get them involved as much as they can in the off season. Um, obviously without trying to interfere as much with maybe their current season. So, um, a lot of the lot of the programs will do a lot of summer leagues that are pretty popular. Um, weightlifting in the summer as well. And then as they advance during the school year, um, our programs will like to, you know, use the weight room at both high schools. Um, there's also some other programs too that will maybe go off site for certain, you know, potential strength and conditioning um, that they'll

112use. Um, but yeah, we we certainly encourage them to to keep in touch with our student athletes and keep their skill work going. Um, another popular thing too is is just like if the gyms are open after school, like the kids if they want to come down shoot hoops or get in the weight room or whatever, like we're happy to do that. Um, you know, keep it open for them rather than, you know, you shooting hoops outside or something like that. So, yeah. So the gyms are Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, as long as like, you know, if if volleyball's on the road and and we don't have to have softball baseball come inside for the rain or whatever, there these kids >> But, even in the summer, like in the summer. And and would the

113coaches be given like maybe a workout or have a have the have the captains running running practices or games and stuff during the summer? Yeah, so the Keep the kids engaged. >> Yeah, that that's typically what we'll we'll have them the coaches do. There's only so much within MIA standards that they can do sports specific They can't do sports specific stuff, but when it comes to strength and conditioning, they're totally um in in within rules. So, uh we definitely encourage them in the in the summer months for sure to get to get in the weight room or even just, you know, if it's soccer, get to the field and do put them through a conditioning workout and whatnot. So, um that's that's yeah, that's the hope. That's good for me. The And the the other

114question the other thing that I thought was great was you had a 1,055 unique participants in sports in the high school. So, that our high school population is about 3,000 kids do we have? So, it's about a third of the kids. Okay. And I compared it to last year, I think North North Quincy was up uh from unique participants by about 2%, but Quincy stayed pretty consistent to where we were at last year. So, we kind of look at that number as a whole, but and then look at each individual program to see kind of where they're at. So, Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Forgione. All right, back to me. Um Back when I first started coaching soccer uh back in the '70s, Mhm. um we were in the Suburban League and we were

115getting heads-in to us. And Jim Maguire was the coach over at Quincy High School when I was the coach at North. And we decided to uh come together with Bill Flynn from the Patriot Ledger uh and we formed Quincy Youth Soccer. And that's how that was initiated because our programs were getting absolutely destroyed. Um both on the field and then mentally for the kids. I mean, when you go into a game and you know you're going to lose to Brockton 9-0, you know, there's no fun in that. So, that's that's what we did back then. Um And you talked about the weight room. This there's a different different standard for each high school regarding the weight room. Um I know it's been discussed many times. And George Burke was uh a great philanthropist and he

116took care of Quincy High School and that weight room at Quincy High School is second to none. You go to North Quincy High School, it's like we're back in the dark ages. Um and I don't think that's um I think we need to look at that at some point. Um to help bring it up to a standard that's legit. So, the kids can really use it and and compete. And not have to go to the Y or Planet Fitness to work out. Yeah. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. All right. Um so, echoing some of my colleagues' comments, um definitely the uh having the parent survey kind of after the uh after each sport, I think that would be great. I mean, I was thinking about it kind of specifically for the combined boys hockey

117team just to really get their feedback. Parents were really uh involved in that process. They were very communicative to us when you were considering combining. So, hearing from them how that went is would be really really helpful to um to understand how they feel about the season. And um but also all the all the um sports would be really great to hear from. So, I think that would be excellent. Um the uh open gym when you kind of said kids could go in and shoot hoops. Is that does that have to be coordinated by like a captain or can kids go in anytime sort of and do that? >> Yeah, usually the captains will come pop in, but we we we we ask that there be supervision, too. So we there's just an adult there

118so the custodians aren't like worrying about who's who's in where or what not, but um yeah, typically it's on like kind of a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. Um like right now we have the basketball coaches very uh you know, respectable about we have boys volleyball in season, but when the opportunity is there, can we get our kids in there to to get get some opportunities um to keep them going, you know, cuz if we have I think there's a there's a handful of strictly just basketball kids and they they want to keep playing um instead, you know, to Mr. Burrows' point, instead of going to the Y or, you know, where it might be jam-packed and they can't do as much. So, Right. I just wanted to clarify that it wasn't just >> Yeah, no, just

119yeah. Right. So, it's more of a coordinated effort. >> Yes. Correct. And uh having unified basketball at Quincy High, I think that would be fantastic if we can if we have the bandwidth to expand that program, that would be really great. I'd love to see that. Um can you talk a little bit about I know for the spring preview you listed the sports that are that are coming up, but um can you talk a little bit about the sailing program because I don't think that one's quite off the ground and maybe just a an update to um families who may be wanting to participate participate in that. Sure. Um yes, we had we're still looking for a coach. Um we had a we had a meeting with a prospective candidate uh this week. So, um

120we the coach from last year just moved on for um personal reasons and prefer to to go to their profession. Um so unique sport is sailing, so there's not many folks that you can kind of convince to potentially take it on. Um and then there's certain certifications that they need as well. Um where we will sail out of um community boating in Boston where the races are and things of that nature. So, there there folks within community boating require certain certificates specifically for sailing. Um so, we're we're still hopeful like in the off-season and what not leading up to the season, all registrations and paperwork and due league dues and all that would taken care of. So, um we're hopeful that we can kind of get the ground, you know, get the get the ball

121rolling to have something. Um the kids have been great. They've had a couple uh kind of captains meetings to see how many kids are still interested and um it's it's a handful, but we still want to uh offer that if we can. Um but, you know, like I said, we're at the I guess we we obviously we need a coach that's qualified to have the certificates. Um you know, we can certainly ask like teachers in the sport of like tennis, let's say, that so we if we ever needed one, we can convince them to maybe coach it. Um but, with the certificates, it kind of becomes a little bit harder for us. So, and as I said, it's a unique unique sport. So, um finding the the right coach, I guess, is can be difficult,

122too. So. Right. Thank you for that. Um so, are the kiddos that did sign up, are they getting any kind of um are there is there a conditioning? Is there any anything that they're that they're doing right now? Are they just kind of in a holding pattern? >> Yeah, they're kind of in a holding at this point, but as I said, there's two meetings within the last couple weeks just to kind of get get, you know, idea of where we're at. Um give them an update on on the season. Um and then within their own sailing communities, cuz some of them are are really really into it. Um trying to push those networks and see if there's is anybody out there that that might want to take us on like help us out, basically. And

123if we don't find end up finding a coach, those uh fees and stuff will be returned to parents? Okay, that's great. Um and then I think um I wanted to address Mr. Pergoli's concern about MAA. I totally agree. Um I think that the kiddos that winning by a certain number, it really does promote having those kiddos that sit on the bench, and that doesn't help. Um it doesn't help them get any better. It's a waste of time of them sitting on the bus, sitting on the bench, and their confidence uh just plummets when they're not good enough to go on there game after game after game. And they've paid the user fee, and they're there for practices, and it's um things that time away from other things that they could be doing and exploring other

124opportunities. So, definitely I would love to you know, encourage the MIAA to go back to something that doesn't use that uh The model. >> broad spectrum of how many goals or how many points you need to have to win. Sure. Um and then my last question was um batting cages at Pond Street. Um and I know I asked um uh Mr. Dave Murphy about this. Uh so, it might be more his arena than yours, but um do you have any update on when those may be replaced because those are in really, really poor shape and I know the baseball team's using those and it's they were supposed to be replaced and uh leading up to the season and they still haven't been. Um I didn't know if you had any information about that or any

125way to I don't have an update, but it's certainly been mentioned to the parks as well. So, um typically, you know, obviously Commissioner Murphy and uh Paul Doherty is who we work with through the parks department. Um so, any whenever coaches give us some stuff to report back, we certainly do that. Um but yeah, I was over there as well. There's a lot of holes in there and stuff. >> Yeah, it would be great if we could push that a little bit more to kind of get those updated for those kiddos on that team. So, um I think that's it for me. Anyone else? Okay. >> you talked about that last year. I did. I did talk about that. Yes. Yep. I understand there was a tree Uh in the batting cage. There was a

126tree in the batting cage that I guess got moved. Oh, it's moved. Yes. >> I don't know if it got moved or not, but >> It's moved. But, the It was in the like the bullpen. Yes, exactly. You would have to throw through the tree. Mr. Buglione, what? It works on your curveball. Yep. All right. Um yep, Mrs. Kelly. Um you know, talking about the football and and what we had to go through for the hockey um season, we kind of were on a time crunch, weren't we? Had to vote for the hockey. Um should we be kind of being proactive in terms of looking at our numbers and seeing if it's a process that we maybe have to start doing so in time for a season. Like it which obviously not going to be

127next year, right? >> Right. >> But maybe the year after. Yeah. During the after the fall we maybe have to start thinking about it. >> Yeah, that would probably be a good timeline. Um Uh yeah, those those obviously if it's a new co-op then we would have to go through the same process with approval from the league and then from the district MIA level. Um I think that number might be is the minimum number for a football team which at that point you're literally only looking at a varsity one level. Yeah. Um I'm I mean I'm not a proponent North Quincy Quincy people out there. Um I want everyone to know we want to continue we'll just have to have the alumni come and play each other but um but but um just in case

128you know I think we have to kind of keep it in the forefront so we're not in a place where we're at the last minute trying to push it through and not you know in time for another season, right? >> Okay, that's good. >> Right. All right, good. All right, so with that I think thank you Mr. Mahoney and we'll adjourn the athletic subcommittee meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you all. All right. Welcome to the uh special education subcommittee. Um members of the public can wait, where is that? What am I reading? Sorry. Bear with me today. First time. Um this subcommittee meeting is not a meeting of the whole school committee. Therefore, per open meeting law only subcommittee members may discuss deliberate and vote on matters before the subcommittee. The subcommittee

129members are myself, Tom Leung, and Courtney Perreault. Um on the agenda tonight I'm excited to hear about this the special education rights and responsibility presentation by Ms. Graham and Ms. Leary. >> Thank you, Mrs. Campbell, and thank you for having us here this evening. Um we are here to present our annual uh parents' rights and school responsiveness presentation. Um presenting with me this evening uh are Jennifer Leary, special education coordinator, Karin Matthew, special education team administrator, Katie Carey, special education team administrator, and Lisa Chan Iannetta, uh special education team administrator. So, every year parents of students with disabilities are provided with their procedural safeguards. This is a document that outlines the legal protections offered to students with disabilities and their families under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. This presentation is our annual

130overview of what those protections are. The goal of this presentation is to provide information so that parents can understand their child's rights and the special education process. Collaboration between family and school personnel will be enhanced and parents and school personnel will participate in the special education matters as knowledgeable partners. That is definitely one thing that we have spoken about quite often recently um as the new IEP format rolled out that it is truly imperative that parents are knowledgeable partners in the special education process with us. I am now going to turn this over to Lisa. Hi, we're going to talk a little bit about special education law. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is also known as IDEA. It has six principles. Number one, first, is parent and student participation. The second is FAPE, free

131and appropriate public education. The third is appropriate evaluation. The fourth, individualized education programs, IEPs. The fifth is least restrictive environment. And the fifth is the procedural safeguards. Karen and Jen will talk about this in further detail um towards the end of the presentation. In Massachusetts, special education law was also previously known as Chapter 766. It is under the authority of the Department of Education, Elementary and Secondary Education, otherwise known as DESE. These laws govern much of what we do in special education. The purpose is to ensure that students who are eligible for special education services are supported by their individual educational needs in the least restrictive environment. These laws also help protect students with disabilities on IEPs. When is a student eligible for special education? A student is eligible for special education if the following

132three things are true. First, the student has one or more disabilities. The student is not making effective progress in school as a result of their disability or disabilities. And lastly, the student requires specially designed instruction in order to make effective progress in school. Next, Katie's going to talk about the 13 different types of disabilities that may adversely affect educational progress that are defined by state and federal regulations. Good evening, and thank you, Lisa. This slide provides the 13 disabilities that affect a student's educational progress. The first one is autism. It's a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication as well as social interactions. Students identified with this disability are taught both in and out of our district. They can vary in special education service needs from full inclusion to resource room, pull-in, push-out

133therapies, substantially separate programming. Additionally, these students are out of district at a collaborative or also a private setting. Our RDLC and CARES program staff specialize in this disability and track progress with work samples, progress reports, and data collection collected daily. Next is the developmental delay that identifies students that are 3 to 9 years old whose learning capacity is limited, impaired, or delayed in the areas of expressive and receptive language, cognitive abilities, physical functioning, social and emotional, or self-help skills. The next one is the intellectual impairment. And these students have difficulty performing cognitive tasks, functions, and problem-solving skills. They're significantly limited or impaired. These students demonstrate a slower rate of learning, a little bit disorganized patterns of learning, and difficulty with adaptive behavior, and or difficulty understanding abstract concepts. These student The students with these disabilities

134require a slower rate of learning. Our newly opened RDLC and special needs learning center teachers and paraprofessionals and professionals demonstrate um this through a multi-sensory, concrete, real-life educational opportunities for our students. The next three disabilities were all sensory impairments. They include hearing impairments, visual impairments, and deaf-blindness. These disabilities can affect a student's communication, development, and educational progress. These students' special education services are provided with the assistance of a teacher of the deaf, educational audiologist, an orientation and mobility specialist, or a teacher of the visually impaired. These specialists work with the general education and special education staff to provide curriculum both auditorily and visually so that the students can access curriculum with their grade-level peers. Multiple disabilities can also be added here. These students have been diagnosed with one or more of the Massachusetts defined disabilities.

135Next is the neurological impairment. It's defined as the limited or impaired nervous system. This affects the use of memory, cognitive functioning, sensory and motor skills, speech and language, organization skills, or basic life functions. One example of this disability is traumatic brain injury. Next is the emotional impairment. It's the inability to learn that cannot be explained by an intellectual, sensory, or health factors, and the inability to maintain satisfactory satisfactory relationships with either peers or teachers. These uh this includes students that have a pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression and is demonstrated over a long period of time and it adversely affects their learning. The Quincy Public Schools counselors and teachers in the district use best practice strategies such as a Circles curriculum to address these emotional needs to further develop strategies to regulate these emotions. A

136communication impairment includes students who have limited, impaired, or develop uh de- delayed ability to express or um and or receptive language in areas of speech, articulation, and or voice. Also, conveying or understanding the spoken, written, or symbolic languages. An example of this disability is either stuttering or impaired articulation, and again, this impedes their educational performance. Um next is your physical impairment, and they are physical that affects their physical capacity to move, coordinate actions, and perform physical activities. One example of this disability is cerebral palsy or impairment that adversely affects any um performance in school. Next is your health disability, and a health dis- a health impairment includes chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, health um heart conditions, or anything that will affect their learning. The final disability is

137the specific learning disability or also known as SLD. It is a term used for a disorder or for one or more of the basic understanding of language, spoken, written, and may manifest an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or do math calculations. Um examples of this would be brain brain injury or dis- uh dyslexia. Students with this disability struggle with classes that have heavy reading requirements and benefit from support in all academic areas and special education services provided on their service delivery on their IEP. Thank you, and now Karen will present what is special education. Okay, what is special education? Special education is uh specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs of students who are found eligible and or related services that are necessary to access and make progress in the general

138curriculum. Okay, now we'll talk about the timeline for evaluation. Um the first step is that a consent to test would be sent to the parents or guardians to sign um to give us permission to evaluate. Once that is signed, um we have 30 school days to administer the evaluations. Once those are complete, a team meeting would be held to determine if a student is found eligible for special education services. Um if they are found eligible, uh the team will uh create an IEP, and the IEP would be sent home within five school days from that meeting. So overall, there are 45 school days to evaluate, have the meeting, and send out the IEP to the parent to be uh reviewed and signed. Okay, now we're going to talk about the six principles of special education.

139Principle number one is parent and student participation. Um parents have the right to participate in the special ed planning and decision making. Um special education is student focused. So, students are expected and encouraged to participate once they turn 14 years old. The district is obligated to make the effort to ensure that parents and students participate. We do our best to remove barriers such as um offering virtual meetings and rescheduling if um a time doesn't work. Okay, principle number two is free and appropriate uh public education, also known as FAPE. Um, free means that the district provides an appropriate education at no cost to the parent or family. Um, appropriate means that the services and placement are sufficient to enable the student to make progress in education in meeting um IEP goals and benchmarks. Public means

140that it's provided by the school district or under the direction of a school district. And education means that students with special uh who are eligible for special education receive education from preschool to grade 12 or age 22 if needed. And this includes extracurricular activities such as sports or clubs. Um, principle three is appropriate evaluation. So, this includes initial evaluations to determine eligibility for special education as well as three-year reevaluations once they are found eligible. Um, we use individualized assessments as well as well as non-discriminatory assessments. Um, the evaluations include many tools and strategies including information from parents. Um, and Jen will continue to talk about these principles. Okay, thank you. Principle number four is the individualized education program. This is a written document that outlines student needs, the student and parent concerns and vision for

141the future are truly emphasized in the new IEP and are the very first thing that we talk about. The The itself also explains students' strengths and how their disability impacts their access to the general education curriculum. The IEP also includes smart goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. They identify specific specific objectives to achieve the goal and who is responsible for assisting the student in in achieving those objectives. The IEP also provides a list of services provided, location of those services, amount of time the student will receive them, and who is responsible for providing those services. There's also a separate listing for extended school year services when appropriate. Principle number five is the least restrictive environment. Our goal in the special education department is always to provide access to the general education as

142much as possible. We think long and hard about why we would remove a student from the general education environment. We do not remove students from the general education classroom solely because of a need for modifications and accommodations. Sometimes this means interventionists may push into the general education classroom to help support students there. Removal from the general education only occurs when the nature and severity of the disability require specialized instruction that cannot be provided in a general education classroom. A move to a more restrictive classroom will only occur when we have exhausted all other options. Special education students are first general education students um and then we support them in the areas where they require it. And principle number six is the procedural safeguards. As Julie mentioned earlier, this is a document that's sent home to

143all families once per school year. Families are required to receive written notice regarding all IEP activities. So, this includes meeting invitations, evaluation consent forms, um and then after the meeting we write letters home about what was discussed. Parents have the right to consent to or reject all or part of what is being proposed. This includes evaluations, services, and placements. And it applies to both initial services or any changes that happen over time. The school cannot evaluate or provide services for a child without written parent consent. And parents can revoke their consent to any portion of services at any time. When team members disagree on any proposed changes, then the term is that we stay put to the last accepted IEP and continue those services while we work through the process. Obviously, we don't want to

144have disagreements with families and we work really hard to try to make accommodations and changes um to best support our students and ensure that both the school staff and the families agree to what's being provided. But occasionally, there will be times when parents and school are not able to reach an agreement. In these cases, for the protections of the parents and the students, the problem resolution system, mediation, and due process procedures are used. This includes contacting the Office of Quality Assurance and the Board of Special Education Appeals. Going through this process is always a last resort. We want to try everything possible not to reach this point, but this process is in place to assist in solving problems by a neutral party. The timelines that we referenced earlier are in place to ensure that the

145school completes all their tasks and the parents receive information in a timely manner. All student records are confidential and staff receives training on this every year. Information on a student is only shared with staff members who need to know that information and the information is only shared with outside providers, such as doctors or therapists with written parental consent. And finally, parents have the right to request copies of evaluation reports 2 days prior to them to them IEP meeting upon request and on the evaluation consent form is a spot for parents to check off that they would like those reports in advance. And that's the end of our presentation. Do we have any questions? Uh that presentation uh it's always good to get a refresher on on this information. Um my first question is um can

146you highlight or draw attention to um any big changes from the information that you provided last year and uh if you see anything uh kind of on the horizon related to perhaps uh state or federal um changes that might that might affect you. Sure, I can speak to those. So, one of the big changes um it was actually a pretty significant change was a change to the timelines. Um previously it was that uh school districts had the full 45 days and then time to send out the IEP. Um where now the sending out of the IEP is included in that time frame. Um so now the school district needs to convene a team within 40 days and then they have five school days to get out that IEP. So, that was a pretty significant change

147for us. Um just a little shift in thinking. It's it's absolutely fine. It was just a little shift especially to those of us that have been at this for a really long time. Um coming up on the horizon, we do anticipate that there's going to be some changes um in what is referred to as time out spaces, which is where students are removed from their classroom. It is something that is kind of new and evolving and I feel like every time I talk to the Department of Ed, things are changing, but we do anticipate that they'll have final guidance for us in August. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Um one other question, um can you tell us um more about, I guess, principles related to access. Um so, um how does the team think about

148um improving access to special education um to, let's say, um underserved communities or maybe historically disadvantaged ones? Sure. So, that is actually part of the principles is we do not discriminate based on any of those things that we truly look at all factors that go into what our students needs, um especially when we're looking at our assessment tools and the information that we're gathering, um where we do look at all factors of who a student is and their background, um and ensure that we are approaching all of our students as equitably as possible. Okay. Thank you. >> jump in a little, Julie, too. The eligibility form, so after you test a student, there's a flow chart that you go through with questions to determine whether a student's eligible for special education, and the specific learning

149disability form says right on it that there it delays in whatever area you're looking at are not due to economic disadvantage, speaking another language in the home environment. It very specifically lists out those kinds of areas that may be discriminated against, um so that you're not calling a student who has had limited access, labeling them with a disability, when maybe their struggles in school are more due to limited access. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Good job, Kate. Um Quick question on um you guys do a great job every this this presentation is great. It's great that we do it every year. How do families um if we just remind everyone do families get this when uh their child's determined to be eligible for services? Do they receive this or a packet of this information? They

150don't have to look on a website somewhere and find it. It's given to them. So they don't necessarily get this presentation, but they do get the Department of Education has um an actual document that we send out that is called um procedural and parental safeguards. Um every school distributed distributes it a little bit differently. Um but it is a mandate that the families have to get it at least one time per year. So some fam some schools send it out at the beginning of the school year just to ensure that everyone's gotten it. And then if a student is found um eligible at the initial process, they would then send it out then. Um some schools send it out when they are reviewing the IEPs every year and sending out the IEPs. Um and every

151school does it a little bit differently. And one thing that is as speaking of equity is that Department of Education does offer us the document translated in every possible language that we could need. So we simply go on the DEASY website, click the translated version, and that's able to be shared with families. That's great. And do you find that to be um kind of easily digestible? I know when things go from our district, I think that they're very understandable by families. I think it's worded in a way that's very um supportive and very Quincy specific. But um do you find that document to be sufficient or do you think um that's basically my my concern is just that that families know that they have the right to participate, they have the right to refuse, they

152have the right to question, they have the right to ask for things. Um and just and just making sure that the language around that is understandable enough and it's not kind of legalese that um they they might have to not that they might miss. Sure. And that is that kind of Do you feel that the document we give them is I think the DESE document can be a little bit dense. Um but we do ensure that at the IEP meeting when they are talking about what are the families' options that we do break it down in language that is more um easily understood. We have also done this presentation for the SEPAC so that if families do have questions they can certainly reach out to them as well. Okay, that's great. Yeah, thank you so

153much. Um I will just say that I I so appreciate the whole like the field of special ed all that you do. The work is it's a lot, right? And from the rights perspective I feel having um that in my experience in this system um I've been given it so many times that I'm almost like okay. And I also would say um that I I I think that people generally take the time to make sure that I'm understanding. Um uh with no deference to my own professional background I think people generally make the assumption that this is the first time you're seeing this. So um I at least that has been my anecdotally my experience. Um and I thank you for this presentation and I'm always so grateful for the work that you all do

154and um it's just such a critical work for all the children and families. So thank you. Thank you for your support. We have Do you want to ask if they're here? Next on the agenda is SEPAC. Are they So in speaking to Mrs. Wood earlier she was not sure if they were going to be able to attend this evening and it would appear that they were not able to attend. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. So, then I guess uh the meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, everybody. Thank you.