Worcester School Committee 5-19-2022

001okay we're going to welcome everybody to the list of school committee meeting and uh please stand for the uh pledges of allegiance to the national anthem i pledge allegiance and to the republic for which it stands one nation recording in progress [Music] he [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mercy [Music] still there oh [Applause] oh [Music] okay can you do the roll call yes remember clancy here remember clinton here okay we're gonna have a technology problem go ahead you want me to call in on my phone to you that won't help vice chair johnson here remember camaro here remember mailman here amber you want me to do the motions me petty yes yes for someone taking pursuant to action taking an executive session it was moved to approve a workers compensation settlement for a cafeteria worker in the

002amount of 25 000 remember clancy yes remember vice chair johnson yes yes remember camara yes remember mailman yes remember mccullough yes member o'connell novak yes yes pursuant to action taking an executive session it was moved to approve a workers compensation settlement in the amount of 45 000 for a teacher remember clancy yes uh vice chair johnson yes yes remember camara yes remember mailman yes yes and mayor petty yes go into action taking an executive session it was moved to to deny grievance 2122-23 remember clancy yes vice chair johnson yes yes member camara yes remember mailman yes remember mccullough yes yes member okanovic yes and mayor petty yes which question taken an executive session it was moved to deny grievance 21 22-24 remember clancy yes vice chair johnson yes remember come out yes member mailman yes

003yes remember mccullough yes remember oklahoma yes yes thank you are we good on that i guess okay okay okay we have two more contracts we just need to approve um first one being to vote to execute a contract for employment between the worcester school committee and dr rachel monres for the superintendent of schools for the period of july 1st 2022 through june 30th 2025. in terms of the contract summarized okay summary of contract the term again will be from okay helen can you hear us still that might be her how long can you hear us it's not please leave your message for joe well that's me [Laughter] i didn't know if it would help if i called him oh no hell we can hear we're up we're up we're up we're up live now we're

004good oh good okay thank you okay okay so we are uh i'm just going to give the terms of the contract it's a three-year contract from july 1st 2022 through june 3rd 2025 vote on before october 1st 2024 whether to enter intercessor contract negotiations the salary effect of july first 2022 will be 265 000 termination by the committee with good cause with no further uh financial liability can be also terminated by the committee without cause with 12 months of severance obligation uh termination by the superintendent with a 90-day notice and termination additional appeal for termination by the school committee with good cause that's an arbitration appeal i'm sorry then we have evaluations going to be done yearly like in the current contract and residency requirement throughout the contract subject to quarry fingerprinting satisfactory medical examination

005search certification from desi they'd be certified from desi relocation expenses based on the average of three bids vehicle allowance of six hundred dollars per month cellular telephone and repair in the required office technology equipment op contribution and same terms as uh of course the bargaining vacation will be 25 days per year sickly will be 15 days per year with a buyback at the end of the employment of at 40 days at 40 per day holidays those observed by the worcester public schools bereavement and funeral leave varies depending upon your relationship with decedent personal leave three days per year health and life insurance and the same basis of other full-time employees of the district an annuity comp uh contribution of four percent of the annual salary membership in the association in the district including association of

006latino administrators and superintendents reimbursement of job-related expenses provide mentoring [Music] mentoring and courage to to engage professional growth activities and joint professional development activities with the school with the school committee and the identification language is also included in the contract i think we're good on that so we'll take a roll call to approve the contract as outlined roll call remember cl remember clancy yes uh okay never mind go ahead i'm sorry my mistake go ahead by share johnson yes member camara yes member mailman yes member mccullough yes member of kananovic yes and mayor pitt yes no it's pies as part of the negotiation the committee has authorized me to sign a memorandum agreement uh to address the payments of associated associated with trans uh transition work here between now and july 1st roll call remember

007clancy yes vice chair johnson yes remember camara yes remember mailman yes remember mccullough yes remember okanovic yes in mayor pitt yes okay mr chair's motion to suspend the rules to reconsider the previous two okay the first motion is to suspend the rules in order to take the reconsideration vote so uh roll call remember clancy yes remember johnson yes number come out yes remember mailman yes remember mccullough yes member okanovic yes and mayor petty yes the next contract is actually a contract employment between the worcester school committee and kcl for the position we didn't have we have to have that oh i forgot that reconsideration obviously on the city council it's one vote okay reconsideration remember clancy no uh member johnson no remember camaro no never mail me no remember mccullough no remember o'connor novak no

008it may have been no okay next one up is uh execute a contract between the worcester school committee and k sale for the position of the manager of special education and intervention services for the period of july 1st 2022 and june 30th 2025 roll call member clancy yes vice chair johnson yes member camaro yes remember mailman yes member mccullough yes member okananovic yes and mayor petty yes okay next we have the proof of the minutes all those in favor opposed so ordered okay we have notification this is the uh consent agenda and we take those collectively right and uh roll call i know we only will call those on the consent agenda of those in favor also ordered okay the recommendation administration approved this consent agenda which we've done recognitions public comment some persons speak

009up to two minutes on any anime on the agenda so if you want to uh sp speak i just need your name item number and city residence so anybody wants this is the time to do it if you want to speak on anything is your name item number good evening my name is lisa goff and i've been a driver for the worcester public schools since november 5th of 2018. so i came on board at the beginning of the city of worcester deciding to take over some of the big buses there was 12 of us to start with i'm here this evening to express my disappointment and the disappointment of the other of all the other big bus drivers in your recent decision to not uphold our contract and the past practice of worcester public school

010drivers doing the extra work after school and weekends many of us applied for the job that we were told we would be doing all the athletics and we would be eligible to work extra hours we accepted these positions on that basis of being promised extra hours for athletic runs and other extracurricular activities for some of us most of us actually it's the difference between making ends meet or making hard choices for our family and with the economy as it is today we all know prices of food gas everything there's not one thing that any of us can really think of that has not gone up so we're all struggling by giving this work away to the aaa transportation contractor we have been let down and have lost pay while this has been going on meanwhile

011the transportation department is recruiting drivers and constantly trying to hire so we are fully staffed this summer as we stop contracting with durham transportation this does not show good faith or encourage recruitment or retention of the current drivers that you have we as the current drivers that you have are the foundation of you deciding to take on the full transportation we the drivers were at one point working up to 60 hours a week to accommodate and show you as a community that we could do this job the decision was made to take on the durham get rid of the durham contract because of the drivers that you chose to bring in to make this program work we just we deserve respect for that we ask that you reconsider and settle the situation fairly for the

012drivers who have been here steadily through the pandemic working hard exposing ourselves and our families all along the way and we are still currently beside you the city of worcester working faithfully and we ask you to give us a fair contract okay so that's what we're asking for and and and it's not just me it's all of us all of us in the transportation department we deserve respect for bringing your students our students our children we're the first people they see in the morning getting on the school bus and the last person we see they see getting off the school bus in the afternoon we are part of the community of worcester we are part of the education department the transportation department you cannot educate the children without having people transport them to and from

013school every day thank you thank you [Applause] okay so we are this your name into your residence and uh item number good evening my name is elaine irizarry klein i'm a school adjustment counselor daisy nevado school adjustment counselor i live in worcester massachusetts esteemed mayor petty and worcester school committee members we respectfully submit this letter which you will be receiving a copy of later this evening to expand the conversation about the social emotional needs of dis dysregulated students in worcester public schools following the presentation on may 5th to the full school committee we are a highly skilled compassionate and capable department of 23 school psychologists and 90 school adjustment counselors who dedicate every minute of our school day and many hours of our personal time to the mental and emotional well-being of our twenty four

014thousand students in our care in response to the committee's inquiry as to the state of the disregulation among the city's children we can confidently report that they are significant alarming in some cases levels of social emotional needs in the worcester public school buildings and a lack of resources to meet those needs as presented by our administration there is in fact a process in place for assessing students risk of harm to themselves or others however which involves i'm sorry which involves a referral to the youth mobile crisis and or emh however what was not well defined is that those referrals to those programs only represent a small portion of the mental health services that we provide to our students with the most acute psychiatric needs a vast number of students well beyond the one or two

015students per building that was referenced by administration in the may 5th discussion experience lower levels of social emotional and behavioral dysregulation on a daily basis this type of issue represents the greater portion of our day-to-day mental health services that we provide at the elementary level there has been a steady increase in the number of disruptive unsafe and potentially dangerous behaviors occurring across all grade levels most recently due in large part to the pandemic we are seeing students who lack the basic school readiness skills necessary to handle the academic and social emotional demands of the earlier grades the lack of in-person experience due to remote learning has revealed deficits in social adaptability self-regulation and coping skills social and conflict resolution skills these areas of need along with increases in the prevalence of anxiety depression and trauma-related

016symptoms result in students who often withdraw as observed by work refusal become disruptive and or are at times unsafe counselors are often are most often the first responders to support these students and are regularly spread so thinly that it's nearly impossible for one person to meet the needs of a whole building of children increasing pressure on administrators to reduce emergency removals means counselors are spending significant amount of times helping to maintain students and buildings at the secondary level school adjustment counselors often have multiple students at a time waiting to check in with them for assistance with navigating any of the complex issues that they are facing issues ranging from basics needs such as food clothing and shelter as well as relationships peer and familial sexual and gender identity racial inequality and injustice home violence substance

017abuse and physical abuse and the widely reported increase in anxiety and depression most days counselors move from one crisis to the next often being pulled into a new crisis before fully resolving the prior one we live with a constant fear of missing something vital that might lead to a tragedy we have students attending school awaiting hospitalization as well as students who are returning from hospitals who are not ready to join their regular school day schedule it is not uncommon to have five or more students at any given time in a secondary school not able to attend classes due to their mental health struggles this year the secondary schools have called 9-1-1 and emh well over 40 times not four times as was reported current staffing and programming levels are insufficient to support these students we

018also support the students in our buildings there has been much in the national news about teacher burnout and stress across the country worcester is no exception counselors are often the right hand of administration and the bridge between students families and the community and schools psychologists have unmanned manageable testing cases which results in diminished ability to utilize the many other highly valuable skills they can provide we are passionate and we love our work our students and our colleagues your support in continuing to allocate resources for increased training staffing and programming is greatly appreciated and we must continue to engage the larger community in a comprehensive dialogue about how we can better serve the youth of our city their wellness depends on it and this is submitted on live in dudley and i am a psychologist with

019the district i wanted to follow up with what my colleagues were just speaking about in terms of the resources and allocations and not just present a problem but talk about what we think may be one solution that we can approach so when you look at recommendations for staffing patterns from the national professional organizations to which we belong you can see school counselors are recommended to have a staffing pattern of one to 250 students that would bring us to 96 adjustment counselors for the district of approximately 24 000 students attending we have an allocation of 90. great we're almost there that's fantastic it's been steadily improving when you look at the national association of school psychologists and what they recommend they've recently even reduced the recommended staffing to a smaller to a greater percentage in order

020to accommodate for some of the crisis of the mental health states of our students they're now saying that you should have one psychologist for every 500 general education students in the district that puts us at 48 and we have 23. so several months several weeks ago you received from a colleague a copy of a data report the psychologist put together kind of encapsulating the work that is done on a daily basis and the work that's done outside of school hours because we are passionate and dedicated and loved as children in the city that with whom we work they deserve better than what we're able to bring to them when we have half the staffing pattern that is recommended by national and professional standards we have the money we heard that we have the resources i

021implore you to please consider putting them where they will do the most good and get the staffing patterns up to what would be the greatest benefit for our students thank you is your name to your residence and item number hello i'm lisa andrianopolis i'm a resident of worcester and i am a school psychologist in the district um i just wanted to speak on the same social emotional agenda item i wanted to speak on a a situation or set of situations that has become increasingly alarming to me in my work as a school psychologist this year in particular i have evaluated many many students there was at least five this year alone of students with extremely significant mental health needs and i'm talking about children as young as 10 years old as my work is mostly

022in an elementary school several of them hospitalized when they come back to school they really need very intensive therapeutic supports and i sit in team meetings and i consult with teachers and i look at their heartbroken and frustrated faces and they ask me what can we do for my child and i have to look back at them and say i don't know because truthfully the district does not have the supports that these children need in order to be able to function and access curriculum and learn and it is become increasingly difficult for me to to look at the face of the people who work with these children every day their parents their teachers who truly truly want the best for them and the supports just aren't there to give it to them and so i

023just respectfully ask administration and the school committee to really think hard about the programs that we offer for these kids in the district and what are we going to do to change that so that we can give them the experience and the help that they need thank you thank you well said okay all set then i want to thank everybody for coming out we have an item on later on the agenda talking about maybe having dr castillo doing the valuation with us and the mayor's mental health task force i think my biggest fear is mayor is one of the big one of the issues that uh is the mental health of our students our faculty our administrators and and our adults in the community it's been my biggest concern and this is why we have

024a huge task force looking at this from the mayor's task force so more to come and thank you for coming out tonight and thank you for doing the work you're doing i understand what you've gone through and covet and now addressing the kids after covert and so it's nice to hear from you it's nice to we're going to try to address your issues the best we can so thank you thank you for being here mr chair point of order yep um the their petition um is recommended to be referred to governance could i instead recommend that it be referred to the budget yeah we can do it both thank you okay all those in favor opposed to what in favor oh i think do we have it okay thank you okay well thank you thank

025you so we'll refer that to governance and uh probably have a discussion on the budget regarding that too okay thank you and uh appreciate you coming out tonight okay we're gonna move on the agenda we are on public petitions to consider a communication from eaw to approve the donation of sick days to a system-wide teacher with him from a co-worker system-wide teacher anybody here for that no so we'll send that we'll do what we usually do we'll send it to governance and uh then we'll whatever we have um personnel our hr department to look to see pay until we have that to grant the sick time until we have that governance meeting those in favor opposed so ordered to consider wrote i communicate for me to provide a member feedback on a student this regulation

026issue so who wants to speak on that what's that this your name and say your residence hi dr kim mclaren um i live in holden and i have been a school uh school psychologist with the worcester public school for the past 16 years um i wanted to speak further to the um presentation that maura mahoney presented two weeks ago on student dysregulation in the worcester public schools we all don't know that emotional dysregulation we all know it as intense anger or outburst in students but emotional dysregulation is more than just the anger outbursts that we associate it with okay emotional disagree dysregulation in students and adults can also present as a wide range of other emotions including anxiety sadness depression frustration this these emotional reactions are often out of sync with the situation in which

027they occur our students who are chronically dysregulated in the schools have difficulty regulating their emotions on a day-to-day basis and over time those difficulty regulating their emotions whether that be anxiety or depression or anger often end up manifesting their themselves in in behaviors of some sort whether those behaviors end up being withdrawn behaviors or whether those behaviors end up being um acting out behaviors some of the um when we see some of the withdrawn behavior sometimes they result in unsafe behaviors when they're they're more acting out behavior sometimes they result in behaviors that um are disruptive in either sense sometimes the behaviors result in a need to remove the child from the general education setting um whether it's a referral to emh or youth mobile crisis because the child is become unsafe to themselves or

028others or whether it's a need to remove them from the general education setting um due to uh out-of-school suspension or worst case scenario you know uh emergency removal or a long-term suspension so the data that um ms mahoney collected are presented is definitely one piece of data that does measure um our emotional dysregulation in the schools but it's an extreme piece of data as was presented by my colleagues our referrals that we make for emergency mental health in our youth mobile crisis is one piece of what we do but that's only reflective of our kids that are the most acute that's not reflective of what we do on a day-to-day basis our skill set is so great in the worcester public schools that if that's what we were doing on a day-to-day basis we wouldn't

029be very good at our job so i collected some data to reflect better what is going on in a day-to-day school um and some of this data is based on a reflection of what's happening with the kids that are having more internalizing behaviors so anxiety and depression and some of the kids are having more disruptive behaviors some of the data was collected from our our own district's data analyst bob valentine and some of the data was collected internally from colleagues who have kept data um uh from their own within their own school so i'll start with some of the internalizing behaviors that we've seen so these would be more of the kids who are experiencing chronic sadness anxiety depression we'll give you a couple more minutes but this is going to go the committee for

030a full hearing but go ahead okay so quickly um referrals this year to the safety center 63 referrals just for two emh for forest grove middle school 43 hospitalizations for forest grove 15 emh referrals for burn coat middle school 30. um emh referrals for worcester technical high school 14 psychiatric hospitalizations worcester tech nine and again um two weeks ago miss mahoney said that there's only been fifth what did she say i'm sorry she said that there were a total of 15 for the whole district um i think i'm already at in my numbers for more disruptive behaviors we have emergency removals to date for the district 302 referrals to asp 83 within seven schools um referrals to some separate programs or alternative school settings 55 and what a day 165 i'm going to skip over

031this because i feel like i'm going to be a little time limited the other thing i wanted to address and i'll circle back to it if the mayor will allow me but i did want to touch briefly the recommendations for a lot more positions for next year is zero school psychologists um four school adjustment counselors and fourteen wraparound coordinators so wraparound coordinators main jobs what record coordinators first of all do have a role and they do have a place but a wrapper on coordinates main job is to provide outreach services so to reach out to the community members and to provide mental health services provide food banks for help provide housing to make connections in the community reach out to parents these are the job descriptions worcester public schools own job descriptions of what a

032school adjustment counselor and a school psychologist does what we're responsible for doing that is in our job descriptions that's what we're responsible for doing so school psychologist it says i am responsible for serving as a referral agent in our case manager to the student and parent to develop a network of social service supports with community agencies not sure why we need a wraparound coordinator if i'm responsible for doing that school adjustment counselor they are responsible for serving as a referral agent and case manager for the student and parent and developing a network of social services with community agencies we are responsible for doing this a wraparound coordinator minimum requirement bachelor's degree you know what they can't do that we can do clinical work we're master level and doctorate level clinicians they cannot go into the

033classrooms and provide crisis counseling therapy social groups they cannot meet with the parents and do therapy they cannot go and meet do behavioral plans they can't meet the teachers and do consultation they can't write behavioral plans they can't do psychological testing they can't write home assessments we need clinical work not somebody to pick up a phone and make a phone call to a mentor to a cl to an agent social agency who doesn't have any openings in the first place okay can you wrap up in my last um minute or two and i appreciate the mayor i just very briefly wanted to point out we do have a program program at woodland academy i know the superintendent had mentioned the bright program which is a grant funded program the bright program unfortunately has not is

034a great program unfortunately it has not been implemented with full fidelity um because there's been staffing issues so it's supposed to be staffed with a um nurse manager or with a case manager to help with making these community referrals it's supposed to have a full-time clinician and it's supposed to have a full-time teacher unfortunately there's not been a clinician and there's not been a teacher but we have had a full-time case manager who happens to be a nurse um so we have been able to do a little bit of extra you know support um in that we we've actually actually been able to um provide some proactive support services for an extra 37 students that she's been able to see throughout the year but even with that even with that extra support she has still

035had to respond to the classroom on an emergency basis she's referred to to the classroom for check-ins um to check in with students when they've been upset or they've needed a break 225 times um she's responded when a child has been needed to be rude from the classroom 151 times she's responded when a child was aggressive 35 times and despite even that we've still had in our in our school 397 office referrals we sent seven of our kids removed on an emergency basis we sent seven our of our kids to a step classroom we've had five of our kids sent to asp and we've had five of our kids sent to the state center safety center okay so even with that extra support it still wasn't enough it still wasn't enough we need help okay

036we need help thank you thank you for your presentation we're going to send that committee for [Applause] further okay can i just thank um mayor petty well thank you for allowing us to talk i really appreciate that and i just wanted to personally thank all the school committee members that were able to come in and meet with us um i really appreciate it thank you it was very helpful for everyone who was able to come out and talk to a group of school adjustment counselors and school psychologists just to help you understand what we do thank you and the in the schools um i appreciate your time thank you very much i appreciate your time thank you mayor [Applause] okay what committee is that going to map eddie that's going to governance for a hearing

037thank you and to budget on the budget i'm sorry into the budget yeah thank you those in favor post so ordered okay we have the report for the superintendent my glasses fog up here i can't read this okay ma'am superintendent okay through the through the cheer uh we really wanted to give you a report on the reggio amelia program that is happening in our preschool classrooms and also in head start so today laura kushka is going to be reporting to you this exciting work that's happening in our preschool who's with us laura hi everyone thank you so much so uh thank you for inviting us to share this exciting work head start has been working this past year with the worcester public school regular pilot and we are just so excited that you have supported

038this work in the past and we want to know how thankful we are for the support that we've received i know that this has been a discussion that started way back with john manfredo and we're just you know excited that we're now here able to speak to you about the pilot that happened this past year and look forward to the future i have two of my colleagues here who without them we would not have had a pilot i'd like to introduce karen waters the assistant um director for head start and carlene sherbourne our education manager they have taken this pilot spearheaded it from all the work that's been done in head start and i am just so proud to be part of a head start program that has these two individuals with us and reaching

039out into the worcester public schools and really you know helping to support the quality that we know can be uh a success in our preschools so carlene karen thank you lori and it appears that i i will i do have a presentation that i wanted to share but i have been disabled from participating or from sharing my screen actually so if i could just get access to share my screen that would be great can we do that or okay hang on one sec sure thank you go ahead try terrific thanks got it good thank you just pop over and so i wanted to also echo lori's words and thank you certainly for giving consideration to the incredible work being done at the head start program and for allowing us to come in and offer some

040support to the preschool programs of the worcester public schools um they are wonderful programs with eager teachers who are um you know they are excited to be partnering and and doing work in this way and they were a delight to work with so i want to start off by saying that and i should also introduce myself i am carlene sherbourne as laurie mentioned i'm the education manager for the head start program and i wanted to give you tonight just a very brief overview of what the reggio emilia approach is um a little bit about its history the the philosophy and the connection to children to teachers to families and to our community and then i'll share a bit about the pilot that we were part of and then um finish with the next steps so

041the history of reggio emilia it originated in northern italy in the city of reggio amelia at the end of world war ii when families got together and literally brick by brick built a school with a a commitment to a new progressive way of learning that really fostered critical thinking and collaboration among their children the the mastermind behind the reggio approach along with the families was loris malaguzzi he was a wonderful teacher and humanitarian that understood the the goals that the families had and were able was able to bring that goal to life in the work of the reggio municipal infant toddler centers and preschool and currently there are actually over 35 municipal infant toddler centers in the city of reggio amelia that continue to operate so the philosophy itself a big piece of it is

042the idea that children are the authors of their own learning and an important consideration for the reggio approach is this idea of social justice perspective and when we think about social justice we think about people having rights access opportunities that are equal for all and that was really an impetus for the work that started in that small city in northern italy and now has grown in this in the united states ironically enough when you think about you know an approach that was built out of the rebels rebel rubble of war um this approach has come into the united states and it's really something that has been encouraged and fostered with the socioeconomically advantaged families around the country so right now i can tell you that there is a school in boston that collaborates with the

043head start program quite a bit they've come to study our classrooms they've come to observe and meet with our teachers look at our documentation they their tuition for one school year one academic year is per child for preschool is thirty three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars for one year of one school year of preschool services and if you'd like to come to their summer camp program it's twelve hundred dollars per week so this is not something that is in reach of a lot of families throughout the certainly throughout the community of boston but all the city of boston but for a lot of communities at large and our program really believes that this is something that can come to life for children who are at risk not only can it but it should and

044has to so that's why we got started in the um head start programs and as i said we're thrilled to be expanding um this approach to the worcester public schools so the roots of the reggio philosophy or approach really are built um through the theories of dewey piaget vygotsky where they believe that learning is based on real-world active experiences with others and they all another important piece is this idea of the optimistic gaze it's the idea that children are born with many resources and extraordinary potentials there's something that's talked quite a bit about in the reggio approach which is the idea of the image of the child and we are to believe that children are capable and strong they're rich in potential and they're powerful and that they have a desire to connect with adults

045and with children so that's a that's a pretty powerful way to look at the children in our in our city and another piece to this is the idea that children have 100 languages to express what they know and understand this hundred languages i think is critical to think about when we consider the children that are coming to our schools who may not be english language speakers and are able to communicate and demonstrate all that they offer as potential through these these hundred languages and it's tied into howard gardner's theory of multiple intelligences that every person comes with an area or a strength that can be celebrated and highlighted another really critical piece uh is that children learn through meaningful and intentional play experiences and i was just so thrilled to read back in in march

046of 2021 there was a joint position statement that jesse and the mass massachusetts school administration's administrators association put out around the importance of play in preschools through grade three this i did put a link in the powerpoint that you know hopefully folks are either familiar with it or will take the time to glance at it but what's great about this position paper is it really speaks to the research of why play is critical to learning and you know it it seems to be something that's coming up again and again we realize that the importance so that's a a huge component of this approach and then there's also the idea that the environment is the third teacher so it plays a central role when you when you think about a classroom environment it should be a

047space where children have the opportunity to interact with their environment if they want to use materials they're able to find them take them explore with them in different ways they're able to have access to the materials they need without going to a teacher to ask for things over and over again and then there's a true partnership between children teachers families and the community and this is different than just including families in the work we do there's a partnership which means that families values their ideas their considerations regardless of where they come from they have value in our classrooms they have value to the teaching teachers and they have value to the community so it's a very strength based approach to consider and then we ask that community members like yourselves recognize the importance and value

048of the young children and families and teachers that are doing this critical work and then finally documentation is at the heart of the work that's done our documentation as educators is what helps to bring children's learning to life it makes it visible for the community for the children and for their families so now we'll think about the role of the children they are considered active constructors of knowledge they can decide on the direction they want to learn and i want to be very clear on this piece it does not mean that it's anarchy in the classroom and that children are are ruling the roots the teachers are in control of the topic of study and within that topic of study teachers are responsible to kind of sit back and observe and see what the children's

049play is telling them about their understanding and their knowledge within that topic of study and then approach that can approach and strengthen that topic of study through children's interests and by capturing children's interests there's great skill building that can happen standards are met children's understanding is deepened um and it's what i like to call sticky learning it's learning that stays with children for for more time than just rote memorization and and uh learning that is not attached to meaning so that's you know that's an exciting piece children are viewed as citizens of the community and as i was i was thinking about these incredible presenters that went before us sharing the the concerns they have about children's dysregulation and all of those pieces in our head start program we've actually seen a reduction in some

050of the behaviors that have been really challenging because what we are able to do is give children a voice they have a voice and an opinion and thoughts and those are recognized they're valued we ask children to slow down and reflect we've tried to slow the pace down so that there's time for children to just be in the moment in their learning so um but that's for a whole nother presentation we believe that children um with special rights are treated as equal in their school system and in their environments and that's a the way that they identify children with special needs um which is beautiful and then finally uh or first and foremost children every child has something incredible to offer as we look at the role of the teachers they are the key to

051spark and inspire children they're co-collaborators with children they're co-learners teachers one of the the exciting pieces of this reggio work is bringing the joy and the wonder back to a lot of teachers who may have lost that in some sense senses over the years so they get to wonder and collaborate and guide children as they are learning we consider really strongly how children are invited to to learn and what will provoke further thinking for them and teachers are are asked to consider what do they have to offer children what can they do to support children and their joy and wonder teachers play as i mentioned the role of researchers they're sitting back and observing children they're helping to understand what children are telling us and what more there is to learn on a particular topic

052and most importantly teachers are reflective practitioners they collaborate with the children they reflect with children on what their ideas or thoughts were on a study they resp reflect with families in meaningful ways and colleagues and community experts as well when you think of the role of families they're invited to be an authentic part of the children's journey through their education they're included in decision making they can share ideas knowledge i one of my favorite stories as a dad that came in to um work with a group of children he was a welder and a mechanic and shared his his work that he did with with his child's classroom of of children and after it was done he said i never thought i would matter in my child's education but now i feel like i can

053and to me that was a win um and then finally to help shape learning environments and then bring opportunities and experiences outside of the school experience to foster children's learning so they can bring that information in so that they're a part of uh certainly a part of the children's learning in a meaningful way and then we have the role of the community um we in with the reggie approach there's a an investment that we ask the community to have in their children and you know one example of this could be the collaboration that the worcester head start program has with the worcester art museum they see our children and their faces light up we we have field trips there we've had family events there and i love when one of our our children stated that

054she felt like it was her art museum and families feel like they belong there and that they have uh you know a special space there we ask that the community plays an active role in supporting children's schools and families and and just the act of inviting us to present on this topic shows that there is you know a willingness to support schools children and um families so we appreciate that and then we view children as current community members citizens of the community they have a say and a right to access whether it's a community of their classroom or a community at large and then considering ourselves how do we how do reggio inspired practitioners connect with their community so that's a very uh just a snapshot of an overview of the reggio approach which is

055it's just wildly exciting so we were able to come together and work with preschool teachers infant toddler teachers chapter 74 teachers early childhood administrators and our wonderful research evaluation specialist jane we were able to meet monthly to develop and introduce the prince principles of the reggio approach and these folks came both from worcester technical high school and south high school and for their experience one of the important pieces to reggio is that we provide experiences for children they're called lived experiences and these are critical because it means that by sharing an experience together all children enter into learning in an equal way so i we set up our our training session so that we share a lived experience as a group together first and then from that lived experience we can explore topics around the

056reggio principles so some of the topics that we explored over the past school year were considering their their own image of the child learning with children through reflective practice the idea of 100 languages and what that looks like in action um the environment as a the third teacher creating meaningful learning experiences documenting to make children's learning visible and then finally working together with families in the community i would say that the group that we worked with they had a lot of positive feedback to offer uh they were i said it before i'll say it again they were a terrific group to work with they came eager to learn and excited to share their own experiences and these are just some of the testimonials i know they're in the paperwork that you receive but one in

057particular that i wanted to read that i i felt really highlighted the learning that happened um was the third bullet which is i have always felt strongly that children need to be heard actually listen to and respected when we take the children's lead we are able to create more meaningful experiences not only for the children but for the teachers and the families and that's what it's all about meaningful learning we want children to want to be in school and families to feel like they are a valuable part of their child's education so with this work we have we are hopeful and and planning to continue this into a reggio cohort for the 2022-23 school year so this past um monday was the 16th monday may 16th we were able to meet with all of the

058worcester public school preschool teachers and i shared some information with them similar to what i've just shared with you tonight about what the reggio approaches what it means to practice in the classroom and these teachers that we that i met with are able to make the choice to participate in the reggio cohort for next year and it's really important for choice to be an option here because when somebody chooses to work in this way then there there is a an investment that's made they're making that choice they're deciding for themselves that they want to work on looking at these principles more deeply so the group that does decide to participate they will be involved in monthly meetings where we'll delve more deeply and intentionally into the regio principles and will actually look at their application

059in their classrooms and something that is not on this next steps but will be happening is that i will be actually visiting the classrooms of the teachers that are part of this pilot so that i can individually work with them to understand what reggio will look like in their own classrooms there's no one-size-fits-all for reggio but it how i want to really see their perspectives and with their group of children how they can and families how this can can work successfully in their own classrooms we'll also look at identifying how families in the community can be a more integral part of children's learning and then our future plans are to branch out from the preschool teachers to kindergarten teachers and beyond because the the truth of the matter this is that this way of learning

060is the way that human beings learn best it's it's not just infants toddlers preschoolers and kindergarteners it's the way people as a whole learn best and i will end with a fabulous quote from laura meligouzi learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by instead they should embark together on a journey down the water through an active reciprocal exchange teaching can strengthen learning and how to learn so again i thank you so much for your time and your willingness to hear about the the work being done thank you thank you thank you carlene i i would just like if i may just to um highlight a couple of comments that carlene mentioned um one being the the community and the vital place that community has in our children's

061education and again testimony tonight with with you folks allowing us to have the opportunity to share a little bit about the reggio approach and the work both in head start and with worcester public schools i apologize for that that's our timer so i know i gotta end um but there's there's one one statement that i just think is critical around community and how we and they we should view children and that they are they are current citizens they're not citizens of the future they're citizens of of the here and now and and and need to be valued and respected um the staggering numbers um that were presented earlier um in the discussion around the mental health needs of our students it offers again even more urgency to focus um our energies in early childhood and

062to really support the social emotional well-being of our children when they're young um to help them to transition and and support better outcomes for them um and and just to mention and carlene did to um our work with jane and we're super excited about the idea of her um beginning a longitudinal study so we can really come back and share with the community and share with all of you um some real hard and and wonderful data about the outcomes that we have seen in head start and we expect to see as we roll this out into worcester public schools um just how impactful this approach can be on children's learning children's development and and certainly um the positive outcomes for children and families so again it's it's wonderful to have an opportunity to have early

063childhood be in a spotlight and we thank you all very much for this opportunity tonight thank you awesome absolutely any questions good presentation they do great work there and i keep it up thank you very much and uh the motion to be accepted into file those are in favor opposed so okay next up we have uh reports of the stand committee the first one being teaching learning and student supports thank you the standing committee on teaching learning and student supports met at 4 45 pm on tuesday may 10th in attendance were myself vice chair mailman and member kamara the first item that we took up was gb1-312 requests that the administration explore utilizing tutoring virtual tutoring services for the students of the worcester public schools on a roll call of three to zero this item

064was held for our june meeting the next two items were items that we had discussed at the prior meeting cnp 2-4 to consider communication from a citizen regarding the addition of elementary school librarians ngb 2-5-6 request that the administration provide an update on the library programs and the use of library librarians throughout the district dr o'neill discussed with us that there have not been elementary librarians for quite some time but that we do have bronco prep goddard tetnik magnet and roosevelt that have the wooster public library foundation one city one library locations and that we utilize the bookma bookmobile as well member mailman asked if administration is considering reinstating librarians and member camara asks that the item be held for additional information in a grid format regarding what schools have library spaces and indicate whether

065or not there are volunteers working in them the following motions were made to request that the item be held for additional information in a chart form on which schools have library spaces and indicate whether or not they are being utilized and to request that the administration explore budgetary options for the hiring of elementary school librarians for the fiscal year 2023 2024 budget on a roll call of three to zero the motions were approved and the item was held the next item is gb 2-4-2 to consider developing a framework in the western public schools to target mental health and social emotional health and provide an update on the implementation of the health curriculum we had members from the community including dr laurie ross dr keenan dr castille brendan keenan who's of the community health dr ross

066and brendan both provided information regarding data that they are utilizing to look at the student support services and we had a conversation around multi-tiered support system and the district's plan which is based on a deci plan and how it is being utilized in our district currently maura mahoney gave a presentation surrounding that and had a conversation regarding comprehensive school mental health systems and the shape program maura mahoney stated that the district's approach for the mental health support for students is looking at climate and culture as a foundation and use of the tiered intervention the superintendent also acknowledged improvements that had occurred in these areas over the years and that there are they are utilizing the programs for students in need member mailman requested that dr steele forward the powerpoint slides that were presented at the

067meeting and she asked if it was the opinion of the administration and dr castille that more wraparound coordinators are needed in the schools rather than school psychologists dr castille certainly recognized that wrap around services are important and that all of the services whether they be school psychologists the school adjustment counselors the wraparound services are needed member kamara requested that this item be held and she would also like to have an in-person visit with dr castille dr ross in the office of social emotional learning to better understand the comprehensive mental health services that are offered in the district the following motions were made requests that the item be held for additional information and data regarding the mental health issues in the district request that the school committee contact mrs mahoney from the office of social and

068emotional learning and dr castille from the department of public health in order to set up an in-person site visit to discuss the services they provide request that the administration provide a chart indicating the information provided by the worcester public schools in one column and the information from the department of public health and the other and member mailman made the following amendment to be added to the motion by requesting that a good assessment be provided for the worcester public schools on a roll call of three to zero the motions were approved the next item and final item was item gb 2-108 to consider nightlife updates regarding workforce and extra curricular classes numbers of in-person and remote classes partnerships and attendance data most popular programs current and future challenges and we had actually recently gotten a presentation

069at the full school committee meeting around this so miss seward provided an overview of the nightlife programs that were provided in the backup and member mailman requested that administration provide in a grid format the data of how many people are attending online versus in-person nightlife courses on a roll call of three to zero the item was filed and on a roll call of three to zero the meeting was adjourned at 603 pm okay good job good six minute countdown okay all those others in favor approved so okay uh we have also a uh report from the government's committee um member clancy thank you so through the chair the standing committee on governance and employee issues met virtually at 4 36 on thursday may 12th myself was present member johnson vice chair mccullough and representing administration

070was dr andrade superintendent beninda dr o'neill and dr friel the first item we took up were actually three items because they were all relative to the same the first one was cmp 2-5 which was to consider a communication from the eaw to consider approval of donation of sick days to nia at worcester technical high school the next one was cnp 2-6 which was to consider communication from the eaw to consider the approval of donated sick time to a teacher at burn court high school and be a system-wide teacher and the next was cmp 2-7 which was to consider communication from the eaw to consider the approval of donation of sick days to a system-wide teacher from a co-worker these items were taken were considered together and on a roll call of three to zero the

071items were approved and filed the next we took two items to get together which were ros 0-9 from administration which was the running center for the education research and policy report on the technology section from the strategic plan we also excuse me we also took up r071 ros 1-7 which was from the renee center progress on the strategic plan um dr andre discussed the strategic plans metrics that were put together in 2016-2017 and one of the goals for the just school district improvement plan was to have student growth percentiles in areas like ela and mathematics and they wanted to be higher than the state level but due to the pandemic some of the percentile dropped in a few areas member johnson did ask who set the benchmarks for the strategic plan and should we be

072looking at the 2023 benchmarks be revisited or kept the same um superintendent benedict stated that the benchmarks were done from individuals from wac the worcester research bureau running center and community members and she also stated that the benchmark should be revisited and that the metrics need to be more clearly defined because some can't be measured superintendent bender also did say that the federal government would be changing some of the state's metrics late in the summer and therefore the recommendation was that once those changes are made the strategic plan will be revamped and dr andre can provide a report next year on the analyze metric data i made the following motion that we request the item to be held in governance and on a roll call of three to zero the motion was approved the next

073item we took up was gb 2-2-1 which was to consider eliminating the test out option within the employee vaccination requirement superintendent did state that the city had dropped its mandate for employees to get weakly tested she also was concerned that if everybody did get required to get the vaccination that she was concerned there may not be enough teachers nurses or bus drivers to run the school district and the administration cannot require people to get vaccinated i also noted that since the city had changed the testing requirement policy then the the employees should not be mandated to get the vaccinations therefore that we recommend i recommended that the item be accepted in file and on a roll call of three to zero the item was accepted and filed the next item that we took up was

074gb 2-2-2 which is considered implementing a student vaccination requirement for participating in extracurricular activities mrs superintendent benedict state that there were only two weeks left in this school sports for this for spring sports for this year it didn't make sense to require students get vaccinated i did say that they you know the importance of having extracurricular activities and there are numerous reasons personal reasons why families did not want to get their children vaccinated at this point and would hate to see them have the extracurricular activities taken away at that point i made the recommendation that the item be accepted in file and on a roll call of three to zero the item was accepted and filed the next item we took up which was gb 2-3-0 which was to consider the approval of the proposed

0752022-2023 student handbook of the west public schools i made the following motion that we proposed the changes for pages 30 through 80 of the student handbook as contained in annex a of the backup but be approved as amended and that the student handbook be approved as amended on a roll call three to zero that motion was approved and on a roll call of three to zero the meeting adjourned at 504 pm thank you so much to approve those in favor oppose soul order okay we are on student advisors committee item you're up to be held oh yeah we're just going to have a report from the uh from the student representative teachers thank you mr chair this works okay over the weekend i was happy to represent worcester at the mass association of student representatives

076conference which was happening parallel with masks starting the course training it was an incredible event i had the opportunity to present about my role as a student representative and train other members on how to maximize their terms this is a great opportunity for student representatives to get involved in take part in workshops and meet student reps from all across the state and i hope that our district will continue to encourage future reps to be a part of it i also got to hear about a lot of new initiatives that other student reps are doing in their own districts some student reps said that they do go on school visits to their elementary and middle schools to hear more of those students perspectives some schools had qr codes for students to schedule meet scheduled meetings with

077their school adjustment counselors and then some schools had therapy dogs come visit students during the day there's plenty of more but i thought that those ideas were really great and maybe things that we can look into now that the weather is getting warmer it's important to remember that there are schools in our district that don't have ac in their buildings and that can make the learning environment very uncomfortable in the future we'd really like to see the committee look into installing ac units in schools that don't have them right now especially the ones that won't get reconstructed until years down the road in the meantime though we would think that it would help we think it would help schools uh we think it would help if schools could work on getting fans running in their

078classrooms providing water to students all throughout the day and not just during lunch time and then trying to keep windows open as much as possible it's also important to keep an extra eye on students who might be heat intolerant there have been a lot of students coming to us saying that they got dress coded for showing their shoulders that's not something that's in our new in our new dress code policy and there's no reason why students should be taken out of their classrooms to go change students should be able to wear what they feel comfortable wearing that's why this committee voted to change the policy in the first place if there could be a reminder that sent to all schools about the new dress code we'd really appreciate that and in the future to help

079prevent students from getting dress coded i think it would be beneficial to include photos of what's allowed and what's not allowed in the dress code especially if it has to do with tank tops because that seems to be a big issue the next part of the report is from our student representative from burnco rachel pong she unfortunately could not be here tonight but she did want me to address her concerns to the committee she said at burn code i have been working with my wonderful adjustment counselor since freshman year due to my struggle with mental health although i'm eternally grateful for this resource i do believe that we as students do not have enough adjustment counselors and psychologists in our schools some days i find myself sitting and waiting for almost an hour to speak

080to someone in times of an important crisis as i draw near the end of my high school career it is my hope that in future years students will be able to receive the support that they need as teenagers we watch our peers struggle with mental health often and in order to trust and rely on adults as we are told so as we are told to do so in school i think we need to fund and invest in these resources more she also said that she wanted to address the recent tragedy that happened in buffalo she said it is absolutely heartbreaking as a black student that the worcester public schools never addressed current situations that occur with with such a diverse body of students i believe it is vital to address systemic racism within our world

081in june of 2020 during the time period where black lives matter trended on many social media platforms many districts around us took the time to address the current events at the time and worcester public schools did not this is something that happens time and time and again racism has a long history in america and is still present in social economic and political institutions today the deaths of george floyd richard brooks and brianna taylor and thousands of others have sparked calls for racial justice across the country as well as deeper reflections on white privilege schools as organizations that often mirror the social structures of communities they serve are not immune to these national needs either that is all we have for the student report today i'd be happy to answer any questions or comments thank you

082thank you when's your graduation what day you graduating it's june 10th june 10th oh my god okay that's a that's a busy night oh tomorrow's the prom yeah [Laughter] well have fun and yep okay ma'am superintendent i'm through the cheer um i just wanted to say that when george floyd happened west public schools did send out curriculum to every school and suggestions for conversations and how to work with students and staff regarding that so i'm not sure if all students were aware of that but that did happen and we did address what happened in syracuse at the superintendent's advisory council last week and we gave the students an opportunity to talk about that and we did have a very good conversation regarding that also the staff were involved that worthy and by the advisers also

083so i just wanted to to to add that and i i think on the dress code uh the biggest problem that we're having are the half shirts because it does say in the in the um handbook that you can't have your uh it doesn't say stomach but you cannot that can't be it has to be covered it can't not be covered that's in the the student handbook and i think uh the next i just looked at the new styles and something called the shot mini skirt is now going to be in which is i'm sure going to be another concern i i think that we do have to think about clothing and not letting students decide whatever they want to wear we've had several the lieutenant governor came in several people that are very important

084in our state uh into our schools and made comments about some of the dress that we were allowing to happen so i do think that's an ongoing conversation that that needs to uh continue thank you thank you we can't address this because it's not on the agenda but to have this kind of commentary and not have us be able to talk back is a problem mr chair because the response to someone coming in and critiquing our students dress is effectively to tell them to mind their own business we've set standards and it intentionally doesn't include the length of skirt and students can actually crop tops have been in style since what 1980 something and what our student just told us is that students are getting pulled aside again which we intentionally change the code not

085to have happen and we need to make sure it doesn't happen that was the request if we could please abide by it do we have a we have a cult we have a policy in place what you should wear right not station you want to see some can i just add that the concern among students has been with mainly tank tops which it does allow in our policy it specifically says tanks but i think it's been kind of interpreted either with the two or the three finger rule for the straps or the spaghetti straps and i think in a lot of cases that students are getting dress coded for spaghetti straps and i don't think that the dress code is specific enough to what students can and cannot wear so i think as for right

086now students really shouldn't be getting dress coded and be getting punished for wearing clothing items that are not really specific to them in the policy especially if we're allowing it so that's why part of the recommendation was to ask if we can include photos of what is and what isn't allowed because we can't be dress coding students if they don't know specifically what they're what they can wear to school and what they cannot that's a good point thank you thank you okay so we are on response to uh request to update the community to the worcester public schools regarding covet ma'am superintendent today uh we met with um maya petty dr hirsch um dr castille uh dr o'neill uh dr mcgovin and people from deep ph uh the reason for the meeting is that our

087concern about the increase of of the virus in our schools and we will you know looking for thought partners to help us so that we can continue to keep everybody safe and what really came out of that meeting is that we're not going to require our staff or students to wear mass but we're going to strongly suggest that right now we're in a surge that if possible if students and staff would consider wearing masks uh the other part of the conversation was to really um bring up the point of vaccinations again we really need the facts really to show that the people that are vaccinated don't get as sick and so to you know try to recommend that uh staff and students consider getting vaccinated and boosted so that was that that was the result

088of what what we discussed today and just to have you know that campaign out there that if you go inside it is recommended that you you mask you don't have to but a strong recommendation that you do that so our positive cases from may 13 to may 19th for students we had uh 252 positives remember we were down to 20 right several weeks ago and and here we are at 252. uh we only have one uh quarantine that's a student however we have 449 students on testing's day for staff we had 84 staff positive this week and we have 45 staff that are on testing's day so you can see that our numbers are increasing we have been able to cover classes for our students it is getting increasingly more difficult as more staff seem

089to be getting the new strain of the virus you had asked before what is our up-to-date on vaccinations so i wanted to be able to give that to you so the total students that we have right now are 23 825. for first dose there are 1929 students which equals 8.1 for two doses there are 8469 which is 35.55 to have all three doses uh which would obviously be those people that um also got boosters it's 6.74 so we're increasingly trying to again uh provide vaccination uh dr castille has come to our schools with a team from umass to give to students that are signed permission to give the vaccination so we're still working on that so if we were talking about back on the vaccinations what they call totally compliant which means harmony have at

090least one dose that total number is 50.37 so that's still relatively low um and there is still a need for more vaccinations and we can continue to give you a weekly update of those numbers and if you'd like we could post that on the website also okay i think some of the emphasis that was taken away from that was reinforced the masks and even actually asked me to wear my mask when i'm inside and so and show an example because i think maths do make a difference i know some people don't agree with that and uh and i think they asked the superintendent to re-emphasize that with the lewiston public schools too in the city manager's office too so and also regarding um testing if possible and we're going to send out some more test

091kits i think the opportunity to mail us more test kits to the teachers and uh and also the vaccinations just keep it emphasizing get your boosters if you haven't got your boosters or your second shot because a lot of people have gotten there first but there's not some follow-up sometimes and and that's what matt castillo's been working so hard that she actually incrementally moves into a positive direction so so i think it really comes down to uh emphasizing the mass when you're indoors if you can do that okay so we are going to move on to hold that for the next meeting of those next all those in favor post so ordered and the tab is expecting the biggest surge i think in in the fall late fall so response to administration to request to

092update the school committee in the principal succession planning uh including parent and educator voice in the uh process so from the administration anybody we can accept and to file counselor counsel i'm sorry member novak thank you mr chair um thank you for the information could we just have which principles are are leaving and needing to be replaced please to the chair of administration madam superintendent i'm sure we can give you a list we have finished and uh the contracts assigned for the new principles we'll be getting that information to school committee this week so that then we can um announce that to their faculty and to their parent group okay uh thank you because i i've been feeling very out of the loop in terms of of who's leaving and who's acting and all of

093that and i know that in in past practice um the school committee has been a bit more kept a bit more appraised of such things could you talk a little bit more in terms of the back up here of the the role of the in particular parents and teachers at the school the um the language here which talks about first of all the current principle being part of selecting those who then serve on the interview panel is an interesting choice but then the committee consists of representatives of the school what is the balance of of of who's on there please through the chair and i'm superintendent sometimes it depends upon how many parents can actually come to the interviews um so there is a good balance of teachers from the school community members who are

094available so it isn't a percentage we ask the school to ask their school council how many would like to be involved in the interview process and then whoever wants to be involved is asked to join and then same thing for the community members uh staff members and yvonne perez as the chief diversity officer and the principal of the school the the i'm sorry through the chair of the superintendent the principal of the school serves on the interview committee for their replacement oh no i'm sorry for the principles i'm i'm thinking of the assistant principal right no no principal serve on that committee thank you um and the um to what degree then does the administration make an effort to schedule this in ways that are suitable for parents to be able to actually be part

095of the process so this is run through hr and uh they make every effort to make it uh the date and time available for parents to serve and we haven't had any difficulty with parents serving oh i'm perfect we haven't had any difficulty with uh parents serving on the committee or community members um since we started the superintendent's advisory committee we have also seen if they would be available to sit on that the interview committees also uh sometimes if we're putting two schools you know we're looking for two particular schools we might have parent groups from both of those schools on the committee so that they're able to the candidates are able to just come to one meeting instead of having to go to two separate uh so we have more parent input and they

096often discuss where they which ones want the best candidate but there's been absolutely uh no trouble with parents with community members with representation uh for any of the principal interviews okay miss boyd are you on the line i am just to maybe provide specifics to the superintendent's comments to the process we've gone through this spring the principal's primary role is actually to provide my office a connection to their school council so we don't really have the principles identified people actually we specifically say to the principal please give us the name of your school council co-chair or your pta president in some cases the pta is a better representation of the school than the school council is so their role is basically connecting me with someone who's not associated with administration and through that person that

097school council co-chair that the president that's who i directly work with to ask them to help us identify members from the community to be on the committee so there is a role for the principal but it's a role to introduce me to someone who then will identify or work with their respective organizations to bring in the parent and student and excuse me community representatives i just wanted to clarify the role of the principles and i also wanted to expand upon the superintendent's comments on when they're scheduled we typically like to minimize interruption to the instructional day so when you have teachers or school staff on the committees and potentially people who work for the worcester public schools also interviewing then we don't really want to be pulling people away from working with students in order

098to do interviews so our preference is to do them after school however we always are open to working with the principal of the school council about when is the best time for their community and for example this year we had half of them during the day the principals felt like they would rather provide release time to their committee members in order to accommodate the parents and other principals said that they reached out to the parents and that after school worked so we are flexible based on when people can attend the meetings while also being sensitive to the importance of having our teacher committee members and our applicants actually be working with students as much as possible thank you look forward to getting the update from the superintendent on um the list of those coming in

099then thank you mr chair thank you we'll get an update we can accept them to file that report those in favor also ordered okay next up is uh 2-144 request administration provide the rules from the human resources the primary guy inquiry background checks for school based volunteers including ptos remember mailman i just wanted to emphasize that um school-based volunteers probably come in multiple uh varieties those that are working with kids than those that aren't so whenever we get the report back i i hope that we can get both categories thank you okay are we going to refer to that the administration those in favor of postal order request administration provide a report from generate to present regarding teacher shortages and include teacher absences by school indicate the resources utilized to cover their classroom member mailing

100just pretty much as it reads although i this to me the biggest thing as i sit here for the past few months is workforce and how short we're going to be or have been in many different areas and i don't really recall a report on actual classroom teacher absences so to enlighten us new people or even maybe the ones that have been here it would be helpful to understand maybe some creative ways that we're covering classrooms thank you thank you so refer to the stand communion teaching learning in uh support all those in favor opposed so important okay consider a proposed resolution regarding sanctuary laws for the passage for formal consideration by the 2022 massachusetts association school committee delegate assembly remember novik thank you mr chair just briefly to explain process to my new colleagues

101because the worcester school committee is a member of masc we have the right to send a representative to the delegate assembly member clancy abele represented us last year and the year before as i recall and the delegate assembly of masc then sets the priorities of the organization for the year um which effectively means that um every school committee in massachusetts is together saying this is something that we think is important it becomes powerful for things like working with the state legislature if any single school committee passes a resolution it goes to the legislative body which then can decide whether or not to put it before the delegate assembly if five school committees in massachusetts in two regions pass the same language before the first of june it automatically goes to the delegate assembly this is

102not an option that often is used but it is obviously the more democratic one uh i've worked with some of our colleagues from other committees um to put together the attached language um like i know many i've been concerned um deeply concerned by the kind of bias and hate frankly that's being put into laws for our for students who are transgender across the country it is frankly dangerous in a number of states to be someone particularly a young person who is trans i can't fix the laws in other states um i can though advocate for better laws in my own and mr chair i'm particularly thoughtful this evening of the way that worcester's history was when there were federal and laws in other states that we saw to be unjust um we of course made

103national history by actually taking someone who was trying to capture those who had escaped slavery and locking him in the bathroom at union station until he could catch the next train back to boston um what i've done here is i've hearkened back to massachusetts history in advocating for massachusetts to pass sanctuary laws connecticut california some other 17 states across the country have proposed sanctuary laws before them effectively what this does is create a safe haven for students who live in other who for young people who live in other states the particular concern is that um parents who take their children out of a state that has a law that is particularly harsh could face prosecution in their own home state and the state might actually have to be put in the position of having to

104consider extradition for the child actually receiving medical treatment again these are being considered in multiple states what i'm attempting to do though is make sure that massachusetts creates um is is honestly faithful to its own history um and so i will briefly read this mr chair just so that everybody knows what it is worth considering the language is as follows whereas the commonwealth of massachusetts has a long history of standing for civil rights including advocacy for a bill of rights in the united states constitution and whereas massachusetts codified gender identity as a protected class in the 2011 act relative to gender identity and whereas all children deserve a safe environment in which to grow up and whereas some state governments are now criminalizing supportive medical care for trans individuals moving to bar families from traveling

105to access such care and otherwise violating the civil rights of trans children and their families and whereas the defense of the civil rights of historically marginalized is contained in the first article of the massachusetts constitution right of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness therefore the massachusetts association of school committees call on the great and general court to join with other states in the passage of so-called sanctuary laws to ensure such children and their families have quote the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights and the blessings of life as guaranteed by the constitution of the commonwealth and so i would move passage mr chair some motions to approve roll call remember clancy yes vice chair johnson yes remember camaro um can i understand okay i'll give you a break here what

106do you want to read it do you want to read one more time well do you want me to read the passage again or what would you like to know um like more understanding in terms of i know member mccall just um explained but i want to understand much more about like what it is that we're actually voting so effectively what we would through the chair if i could if i can clarify um effectively what would be doing is we would be saying to um the masc delegate assembly which would be representative from every school committee in the state um that we would want this to be one of the priorities for what they advocate for at the state house in the coming year and effectively then in our passing it in other school committees

107passing it we're saying that we think that the protection of children who happen to be transgender is so important that we think that the state ought to be putting that forward as a priority so protecting those children who are transgender what's that can i do a revolt on this yeah there's a resolution support of and we'll go to the organization that ms novak has mentioned okay and as a to the delegates who will take this if there's so many districts that vote this i think probably 10 i think it was the uh five in each section so uh they'll take it up as a item in their in their in their whatever that mean they have their committee so okay cool nice remember camara yeah remember mailman yes uh remember mcculloch yes member of kananovic

108yes and mayor petty yes it's thankful that we live in massachusetts okay we are on of down up 2-147 to review the district policy was at acap to ensure the alignment of the united states department of education august 2020 where the students educators and stakeholders victim rights law center regarding the sexual harassment and proposed rulemaking as released by the united states department of education never remember novik thank you mr chair very briefly um i did just i wanted to acknowledge that the superintendent gave us a proposed um amendment to our current policy acab around sexual harassment as well as um something to consider in terms of a a backup for a grievance procedure for sexual harassment um if i could ask that we get that electronically as well and then send both what we just

109got and the item um to governance for consideration please send the governance yes please okay we'll send out the governance along with the item that the superintendent has provided all those in favor opposed to of order set the miniature review and report promptly back to the committee before the close of the fifth year district fiscal year district adherence to massachusetts law 32 section 90 and 91 as operational under the waiver passed during the fiscal year 22 budget process as it reads we'll refer that to the administration those in favor opposed so ordered request that the superintendent superintendent's office and all employees of the district fall district policy uh the state ethical laws regarding fundraising member novick thank you mr chair um as noted in the backup which has been the policy of the worcester public

110schools for a number of years now and in adherence with the state ethics laws in chapter 268 we can't use school time and resources for fundraising regardless of how good the cause is regardless of fires people getting hit by cars medical emergencies we can't um it is an ethics violation that is literally against the law and it's also against western public school policy um i did try to quietly bring this to the attention of those involved to not get a response so i brought it to the school committee floor we can't do it it's against the law it like there's no exception there's no we can feel bad about it but we can't do it a 5 000 employee email list um is a public resource it cannot be used for private gain even if

111that private gain is for all of the best reasons um so i am requesting that administration actually adhere to both our policy and the massachusetts general law regarding this thank you mr chair okay for the administration all those in favor of postal order request administration via report in the form of a chart in all necessary schools specialized programs occurring in each quadrant remember kamara all right okey-dokey um so my item is as it is requested administration provide a report in a clear pictorial format chart on all secondary schools specialized programs according as it is in each quadrant and so this my item was came to life because of our tlss meeting we had um that we've been having on the topic of um specialized programs in our district uh it will be a great thing

112for us to get a chart to understand what are all of the different specialized programs that we have in each quadrant per se and then following my second item which goes to the same point request that administration provide a report again informed of a chart on the relative ability of a child to get into a specialized program that is in a secondary school that is outside their home quadrant so it falls back to the my first item for us to get a better understanding of programs um to ensure that there are equitable programs and to ensure that students who that are in quadrant north quadrant um have you know equitable programs that as students that are in the um let's say west east quadrants or so in our district and to understand um how these

113specialized programs can better um that are in place especially in the secondary school schools that give students access to certain you know skills like robotics if we're moving them into one district and if we're saying that one district does have like let's say one high school district has um a follow-up program to make it equitable for parents in all of our quadrants to be able to um you know provide you know such good programs for for their children so i just want to get that report um to get a better understanding of how things are mapped that would be a big chart i will send both of those to the administration okay okay so next up is some we'll send those to the administration those in favor of post so ordered next to set up

114a meeting with the adjustment council school around psychologist names dr castillo department of public health and certain members of the mia's mental task force to discuss mental health issues facing students towards the public schools you know we've heard from people tonight and dr castille has the respect i think of the superintendent who have a great relationship during colvin and built that up have an outside set of eyes maybe take a look at it and uh and just go and meet with uh some of our people here and also i think also we can include there's a mental health task force we do have a lot of school members in that task so we had school uh leaderships in the particular school i mean this could we could figure out a strategy we'll send that to

115committee and uh figure out which schools how we go about doing that so we can work it and we only have a month to school less than the month of school left but if we can we meet a couple schools and get it going then and maybe over the summer if people want to meet that'd be even great and we sound very very dedicated people were here tonight and uh they work hard and i think they want to be listened to and and i think just listening sometimes because ideas and how to make the kids make sure the kids and the teachers getting the services that they need no administrators all the educators in the western public schools so send that to the state committee on teaching learning and student supports all those in favor

116opposed so ordered okay that brings us to the end of the meeting it uh meaning is motion to adjourn and yes 153 and 154. we voted oh yeah we uh that was rachel i'm sorry that was doctor oh you did the trap if you're right yep okay and the other thing yeah i skipped it i should have said that yep okay yeah i should have told you that okay okay so uh motion to adjourn okay i was in favor of posts awarded