001all right we're ready okay we're calling to order this meeting of the policy subcommittee at uh 6 47 p.m um because we're remote i'm assuming we need to take roll roll attendance just um so uh uh carrie terry spitzer perry present uh debbie debbie present and allison mcdonald present and we have uh dorian joining us to discuss the the proposed um new policy so the only item on our agenda this evening is the policy um to look at um creating a new policy for um vendor selection that recognizes i think it was diversity of the of the proposed vendor so i will um turn it over to doreen to share her thoughts on on sort of what this policy could look like okay thank you for including me in this conversation so i noticed that
002the school committee has policy acb which talks about the um retention and promotion and on selection of staff diverse staff and as i looked at [Music] the policies that we had we didn't i didn't see anything that included our commitment to ensuring that our vendors are also following those kinds of commitment to the retention promotion and selection of diverse staff so if our district says that we are here to promote equity diversity etc steve is here in the green room oh i'm not oh there he is he's down lower there we go right so if we are saying that as a district we are um looking to promote these things then i would like us to consider having a policy where our contractors or anyone who is doing work with the district that we look
003at their mission and how um and their commitment to diversifying their staff their commitment maybe they should maybe they have a vision statement as to what their commitment is to diversity where their organization stands when it comes to staffing or having a diverse staff and um i just wanted us to look at our language and expand it to including our contractors i say that because sometimes we contract let's say with um staffing agencies or other places and the staff or the individuals that they send to us do not look like our students so if we're saying we have this commitment we have to go back and say how can we make sure that we are contracting with people who are also sending us diverse staff to interact with our students we have um contractors who
004let's say come in to do regular maintenance in the building on i don't know um pest control or something what does their staff look like what is their commitment they're interacting with our faculty and our staff and so sometimes they may not interact in a way that we would as a district or would appreciate as a district we want to just you know make sure that in everything that we're doing in everyone that we're allowing or given the opportunity to come and interact with us that there is a commitment with with them yeah can i just add one more thing i just thought no so we it says that um we're looking to have all contracts that we approve be reviewed with the lens of equity and diversity too so um are you and i
005didn't go look at the um the the model policy handbook from mac i don't know if um stephen or kerry or deb you were you you did that but um so you're thinking that during the it could be um a revision of policy acb to say that it also applies to vendors or or is it an entirely new policy do you think i'm thinking that it's a new policy because one we're looking at our vendors and their commitment right their lens their commitment and we're also looking at the contracts that they're offering or that the district should be reviewing with these vendors and policy acb doesn't include anything like that and to revise that policy i think the policy by itself acb um should stand alone when it comes to our commitment to our staffing
006and our commitment to diversifying our district and such and then we have the other one when it comes to our commitment to making sure our contractors and anyone that we interact with or who chooses um who we choose to interact with our district also has that commitment i just have a practical question doreen i know if we're working with educational agencies um and staffing agencies they're probably going to have a vision statement or a some sort of commitment statement will vendors like maintenance people and that sort of vendor have that is that something that businesses create um and if not how would you envision us um making a determination right so i think sometimes businesses have an executive summary that they put in their folio as they you know send their information especially llcs or
007such their article organization might have commitment statements or information that may show that but if they don't then we ask them to write us something so that we have it on file if this is what the vendor has said their commitment to what we are committed to looks like okay okay i need to go back and look at our policies but i know that like just thinking about when i worked for city government there were always policies preferences or maybe not preferences but taking into consideration whether or not a business was woman owned or you know owned by other underrepresented groups in in the um in the business world so do we currently have policies that consider those factors or do they i i guess i'm thinking about this in in terms of the rfp
008process and our request for proposal and how we would incorporate it and make sure it how it just fits in with what's existing that might might intersect a bit with us i don't know if anybody else has looked i could look at those policies but i haven't never i can just add that usually the rfp policy does not come through the hr department so we really have not had an opportunity to see who is com um who is submitting an rfp on anything that we have and so this would also give the hr department an opportunity to be able to um view these kind of um of written language that people are proposing when they're looking to work with us so i think it's it's important that these things come to hr so that we
009can look at what's being stated and if the rfp does include it then i need the policy that we write to say something like rfps will also be submitted to the hr department the office of equity diversity etc so that we can also have our lens in choosing and selecting an organization that will come in and work with us debbie um i'm pretty certain that our rfps i think what you're thinking of kerry they do include language about our commitment to equity and diversity um i think rfps are written on an individual basis for each thing that we need so doreen's idea of having a policy that we could refer to in every rfp is a good one because that way we would make sure it's in there and as doreen said it would make
010sure that the office of diversity and equity would get to have their lens on all of the language that goes out um so i i think that um having even if we are doing it right now i think having a policy that defines it would only make it stronger i'm wondering um stephen i don't and i haven't heard you speak up but um it seems like we're all on board with the idea that we want to create this policy to take to the full committee for consideration um so i'm wondering if our next steps are to do some you know do some of that research of finding other policies or model policy language that we can sort of um build on and then come back to sort of noodle um and work on a draft
011of a proposed policy there's a we have a policy dj that's purchasing and i don't know if it might be sort of either a dj something after that or a modification to that that purchasing policy um but does that sound like um appropriate next steps that does to me so i hear you on policy dj which is on purchasing and i have not looked at that policy but i'm also looking at the same policy acb which talks about individuals if we're working with staffing agencies i don't know how much they would be included in policy the policy you mentioned right dj so i'm wondering if there's a way that we also have some kind of um addition to policy acb or some some way to have both policies cover the staffing and our purchasing right
012so yeah so it's two things the contracting of of individual staff as well as vendors for purchasing right yeah thank you for that clarification um carrie i'm just thinking um i work really well when i have like something in front of me that i can look at i'm having a hard time kind of laying out um so i i fully i think we should get the policy examples um as much as they exist already to to start noodling through it um as you said the other thing i'm wondering about is so we so could you walk us through doreen a little bit about who so i'm thinking sorry there's a i'm such a um thinking about do we need for stopping is it the staff all right i just if you could explain the situations
013in which we see this coming because i'm thinking about that there are like is it bus companies that we're thinking of like with isaac is it this isn't going to work right now i'm sorry um i'm going to try to answer what i think i'm hearing and so we have contracts with staffing agencies that may supply um maybe i i don't want to say i don't know if i'm if i say the positions if that'll be more recognizable for a particular company but we have um specialized positions i'll say that some agencies staff with our district and i would like that i would like to make sure that their commitment to diversity is their one and that they are also hiring diverse staff to work with our students so let's say let's say we're we're
014contracting out for uh an assistant superintendent we we contract with company abc i want to we need five other assistant superintendents let's say i need to know that they are committed to finding diverse assistant superintendents in their organization and that the people that they're sending to work with our students or with our faculty as assistant superintendents may also reflect the diversity of our staff does that answer your question or make any sense that makes total sense i guess what i'm thinking is is are we also talking about like i know we're contracting out certain maintenance positions and so those i'm thinking of might be more single like owner options right so if i'm a trades person who is only employed you know only work for myself and i don't would that also then apply to
015such i'm wondering if we might want to consider whether or not you need to be of a certain size or of a certain money like an amount like should we consider having this policy potentially apply at different levels or do we want to have it be across the board because i'm just thinking of the administrative burden of potential i don't know i mean maybe there is no administrative burden here but i'm just trying to think through some of the things that we'd consider and make sure that we um another thought i have is also would we want to consider having you know maybe if you are small instead you could like if you're a single owner you know own your own business and it's just you would we want to maybe consider them going through
016like some sort of training a documentation that they have had some sort of um i don't i don't know i'm just this is the first time i've thought about it so oh let's go ahead sorry maybe no i was just gonna i was thinking of an example of what kerry's saying [Music] for example and i assume it's still happening but i know it was happening when um sasha was here running the food services program we had local family farms who were providing some of our vegetables so if you're a family farm that is run by you know just truly just a family you may not have you're going to be at a disadvantage if you're absolutely required to have a commitment to diversity if you literally are not hiring other people it's just your family
017um so i think that that would be something that we could address within the policy it seems to me but that's just an example i thought of we so most of the individuals who apply to work in our district respond to two diversity statements on our school spring platform and i don't see why we wouldn't have our contractors or vendors also respond to some kind of diversity statement because regardless of the size or whether it's family owned they should be able to enter a statement or tell us their commitment even though i'm asking for us to have a policy on it i'm not saying that we're only hiring diverse vendors i'm saying i'd like to see what their commitment is to diversity i understand that some people only have one one person in their organization
018i can understand that but i want to know where they stand when it comes to diversity and equity yeah i i think um this uh this this meeting this conversation is really helpful for like thinking through all the different possibilities and um teeing up our homework for for the next conversation i think in terms of um looking for other other policies um samples um i believe my employer is working on some similar so and maybe others other folks have because it doesn't necessarily need to be just a school district policy i bet that there's other examples that we can look to beyond you know from from other sources on sort of how how we could how we could write and draft our policy any yeah go ahead i just wanted to say i appreciate the
019clarification that doreen just gave because you're right doreen we're spending taxpayer dollars and we don't want to spend taxpayer dollars with companies who may not support diversity and equity as you said even if it's a single owned company or a family-owned company we want to make sure that they do support those concepts so i appreciate that clarification thank you yeah agree other any other questions um i guess the next best the next question would be sort of when do we want to come back together with some examples that we can sort of um pull from or or at least start from a draft um there the um and just like thinking of timing the regional school committee's um meeting on the 15th of june [Music] um that's i have to turn off my oven but
020um i'll finish this thought um the 15th of june and then again on the 29th of june um so uh we don't have to necessarily um i just bring that up in case we want to get a first read um in before the summer break um and if that's important to us to get that done in time um i mean to get that first read done before the summer break so then coming back in the fall we're doing the second read and voting on something at the regional um committees so knowing that what might be a good time to work forward um for um amherst folks um there's going to be another we are going to be scheduling an amherst meeting on the 8th in case that impacts sort of how we're looking at our
021calendars do we want to come back in a week on the 10th is that enough time it seems to me that would give time to find some samples is the tenth graduation yeah yes it is i was looking at the wrong wrong date do we want to come back on the third which is a week from tonight or do we want to go to another day the um like this that then i i'm not even looking at my calendar honestly sorry um the 17th would be the next thursday other than the 10th yeah is is a week enough time for like between now and next thursday where do we want to look to the 17th debbie i can certainly commit to looking um for existing policies between now and the third i'd be happy to
022do that and i could send out anything i find in advance so that we could really dig into them and look at them more closely on the third that would be great thank you um do we want to does this time work or do we want to meet earlier um it doesn't i don't have an opinion so pixar later works for me during what works for you oh this time is fine this time okay so 6 45 on thursday the third sounds good all right and so we'll be looking at both um acb as well as uh either an additional policy in that d or the or a modification of d dv i think is what it was okay um i had a question i would love to have doreen at the meeting but the
023question is if we're gonna be doing drafting do we need to make doreen stick around till 6 45 or could we do a draft and then share it with doreen for her feedback that durian what's your preference that's a great question so i would prefer the way deb said it um whatever is needed yeah i think that that works we'll we'll do we'll um we'll meet just the committee the subcommittee on the third um and then um if we if we need to have another conversation otherwise we'll get your feedback um uh offline perfect great okay great anything more no okay um the i don't think that there will be another policy that we'll need to review on the third um there's a policy that we'll be doing a first read of at the regional
024school committee next week that um mike and um mark terry drafted modifications so we if we if we want to if there's need coming out of that meeting next week then we we now that will be too late um so maybe we put in we could put in a placeholder to if there's anything that the regional school committee wants to send back to the policy subcommittee that we include that um i think it's cfa that's a yeah and you could even make it more general and just say if um an agenda item for any policies returned for discussion by the regional school committee okay that way if some other topic arises for some reason we'd be able to address it yep okay very good okay anything else okay then i will move to adjourn is
025there a second second um move by um allison seconded by debbie um uh we'll take a vote carrie carrie eye shannon and dad i'm just reading your name debbie westmoreland i and mcdonald i so we're adjourned thank you