001good evening I would like to call this meeting of the Berlin Boon Regional school committee to order just to reminder that this meeting is being broad is being recorded your image and or voice may be broadcast please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America to the for stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all can we stand for one moment I'd like to do a moment of silence um honoring the shootings that happened last week thank you very much all right we're going to do public comment so one thing I wanted to say before we start public comment because it looks like there are many people here to make comment tonight so public comment must be on something if you're going to stand up
002and speak it must be related to something that's on the agenda there is a time limit of three minutes um and I believe that is it so we're gonna try what I'm going to try to do moving forward is I'm G to try to keep these meetings a little bit more in order and the goal is to keep them a little bit more reasonably timed because we tend to go on and on and on and I think we need to stay on track so we're going to start with public comment the other thing is if you would like to speak tonight I hate to do the raised hand thing but it really needs to go through the chair I I don't want the back and forth I don't want to be out of order I
003want everything to be in order we do have a hard stop at six o'clock I brought a timer um because we have an executive session that we have to start at 6 pm. all right so without further do public comment if you would like to speak to just raise your hand you can just go in order down this way so I'll start with back and when you stand make sure you state your name and um your where you live I live in barin um I went to yesterday's policy subcommittee meeting to listen to the discussion of policy I understand and appreciate what Mr V said in regards to the rule the SCH commit making broad policies to oversee the entire district and they should not be overly specific and and is the role of the
004individual schools to see how they can accomplish their own goals within the parameters that the school committee has set with the policy I don't disagree with this I think it's very clear that this policy would mainly cover activity that is almost exclusively happening at toono so it warrants a little more care in making sure it's workable specifically for Tanto I imagine that the policy involved and get edited if a member of the schools brings to the attention of the school committee that a current policy has become impossible or difficult to follow or implement or has become obsolete so the appropriate adjustments can be made to it in this case the policy has not been implemented and voted on and the committee has an opportunity to reive the feedback of very real concern being expressed by
005at least four members of The donda Faculty the concerns are multi-layer and has been noted that not only did this policy interfere with the state required Civic project be viting student rights yesterday Mr gam suggested forming a working group to come up with acceptable language after the apy vote today with amended language I'm asking the school committee instead conar not voting for the policy with any of the proposed amendments and put the policy in place exactly as written by Ms so that the working group can start with the same slate hopefully come up with an additional language that satisfies any concerns about how surveys are conducted in District without opposing any unnecessary constraints and taking care to protect vulnerable groups within our school dist great thank you okay all right perfect three minutes each by
006excellent the first um I'm speaking for Bill wheh oh yes y thank you um so de uh dear members of the Berlin W Regional school committee I'm sorry I cannot in attendance for tonight's meeting but appreciate my colleague reading my statement in place I I'm now writing on behalf of any group but simply as I'm not writing on behalf of any group but simply as Bill whad a high school English teacher at Danto since 2008 I have worked with past School committees countless administrators both at the building and central office level and have been part of numerous committees I can tell you what works and what doesn't work in our district from firsthand experience what Works having all stakeholders work collaborative to achieve a goal what doesn't work having one group fight to convince others
007that their view or solution is the best and only viable option in the end collaboration with all parties starting on equal footing will Garner much more desirable results than one group trying to convince another group to listen to them which only ends in resentment and a sense of unease making future endeavors much more difficult to tle yesterday the police uh policy subcommittee was gracious enough to open their meeting up to a discussion with some of our high school teachers regarding the survey policy language that will be voted on tonight it was in positive exchange with all parties offering their C putting forth questions identifying potential issues and listening to other perspectives I was happy with how our time was spent except at the very last minute where it was decided that the proposed language from
008the subcommittee was still going to be through and that teachers could form a a teacher group to meet discuss and bring their suggestions to amend or update the language to the school committee in the future when the school committee would listen to what they had to say and take it into consideration such a uh such a decision is disheartening as it seems a decision has already been made if the language as presented tonight is approved there will be no re real reason for the school committee to sincerely listen to any suggestions made by ad teachers or students I want to get this right we all want to get this right I do not want the district teachers administrators students or anyone else put into an unfair position I want to protect the rights of students
009and parents equally I know there is a solution I do not think it is necessary the language uh it is necessarily the language being put forth and is as it is overly burdensome my suggestion adopt the federal policy as written no additions or amendments so that there's at least a policy on the books then form a committee to fine-tune the language so it works for all parties involved I urge the members of the school committee to vote no on the language as presented by the subcommittee and vote to Institute the federal language as is allowing for more discussion and collaboration in the truest sense to uh to be had so that we can get this right the first time thank you for your time and consideration Bill Whitehead thank you do I have now very
010sure okay he pretty much said everything that I I just want to kind of address one thing the only thing I would like to add to Bill statement is that I would like first of all like to thank everybody for the time and effort to construct the policy but it's my belief that the original IDL addresses parental rights and it does so fairly well but does not address the potential impact on students who wish to do research with sensitive topics that are deeply important to them unfortunately the amendment do nothing to alleviate this now time and circumstances will naturally draw our energies towards other future topics if we can take the time to be patient and collaborative now we can strike fire now while the coals are hot and balance these two very important goals
011let's go back to the original uh Federal idel as our foundation and build the balance from there thank you thank you thanks okay anyone else hi my name is Danielle ler I am a teacher at um good evening members of the Berlin Boon school committee and um first off I would like to thank again the policy subcommittee uh for allowing myself and other teachers to meet with you yesterday it was an extremely valuable discussion but I would like to reiterate what my colleague the white had presented to all of you this is a discussion that needs to continue I strongly urge you to vote no on the amended language of policy IDE and instead adopt the federal policy as from there we can convene a committee that includes all parties perhaps even more importantly we
012can reach out to other districts to better understand how such a policy is implemented and respected in regards to student generated surveys as a teacher this is always my most pressing concern what are the logistics what procedures need to be in place in order for both parental and student right to be protected how do I ensure as the Civic action guidelines put forth by the state outline that we continue to foster a classroom of trust and openness to ensure that all students feel supported while exploring real world issues having answers to these questions is crucial information to inform any amendments the committee times necessary I understand wholeheartedly the urgency of addressing the issues technology moves much faster than any of us into face and having a policy in place protects all of us however if
013we move too fast ourselves and put in place the amended policy which is problematic and will create inequalities it is my professional opinion that you will be creating more problems than we solve thank you all right goad Peter Dy English teacher at be very brief I completely concur with Danielle uh Steve and Bill's sentiments sentim I thought this's meeting was fantastic right up until the very end unfortun um I would just like to say that I that we should adopt the I as ferally instituted reject the Amendments um and I also want to offer to be here for the rest of the meeting as this discussion comes up um if any other school committee members like to ask questions be willing to thank you thank you very much does anyone else want to speak okay
014all right okay great uh Communications does anyone have any Communications um we did receive I'm sorry we did receive an email from a parent today um regarding IV oh yes um and basically the parent said that um the feeling was that surveys in general regardless should be um we should ask the parents for permission and the reasoning was that a survey is a research study and that generally accepted guidelines for human subjects and research studies require informed consent of the human subject and those that are under 18 cannot give their consent so the suggestion was to make it Equitable across and send all surveys for I also reached out to Tracy knowb from MC about this policy and I got some feedback so I can say it hour discuss uh sure go ahead um so
015I had sent her the edited version and so she had some concerns that it put um The District in a dangerous position um because it singles out a a single population um who in a vulnerable population and so you know it seems we have discriminatory intent um for a legally projected class um and she thought it was reactionary to a single incident um and that be handled carefully okay thank you okay more communication okay so we have the consent agenda next there are two items on the consent agenda um could I please have a motion to approve two items on the consent agenda second Lisa Lor any discussion on that I have something yes I read through the six 17 minutes I just I don't think they are complete enough I think there are some
016things from that meeting that we should get included in there so I would ask if you can vote on those tonight so we can go back and look at the recording once it's sorted out is it sorted out yet yeah so actually yeah so actually I watched the recording and did your phone run out of battery it did but then Lori recorded some and also sent so there was two recording oh there was only one recording she should have my recording was you it was there was only one I could not find it there were some things that during the meeting that we offered to the town of Berlin that they rejected that didn't get captured in a minutes i' like to make sure that's there yeah so it got cut off at 45 minutes
017in and I think we were there for like an hour and a half so I think to your point there was another recording that somehow never Nicole you never got that right yeah it was not on I looked through Theo whatever you call it site I could not find it Nicole and I worked on that this morning so she was going off of Sally's notes and yeah that's fair I just think it's important that these get captured I agree I didn't know there was another recording so if that is the case that would be wonderful if you have that and you can send that to Nico all right so then um side okay so that's just minutes from our last meeting that we'll be approving so we should amend this y so um can I
018amend it I move to amend the consent agenda motion to remove the June 17th 2024 minutes from the vote all right any discussion on the amendment all right all in favor I I'm an i as well now we need to vote on the original motion which is to approve the consent agenda this includes the amendment so we're just approving minutes from August 27th Nicole can work on the June 17th when you get stuff from julan we'll P approve that next meeting um all right so the motion's on the table of seconded any other discussion all right all in favor as well motion passes okay so we'll go through a few reports tonight so we have um Mr gam is GNA give a superintendent report we have our interim Director of Finance here Mr Daniel de
019um who has been working around the clock for us to try to get everything cleaned up um and it's greatly appreciated so thank you um so we're going to do that first and then what we're going to do is we have a um individual here who was interviewed uh last week um yes last week by an interview subcommittee I was not on the committee but we had um members from both select boards right we had members from the community we had two school committee members um I think we had some the principes were there we had our curriculum director as well as our director of people y so we had a huge Committee of people that um sat down there were two candidates that came in and interviewed and um the committee decided to move
020forward with um one candidate who we will be voting on tonight and if you would like I you can introduce himself Aaron sure you want to go with now yeah Aaron would you like to stand up introduce yourself to the committee and then um yeah hi Aaron Osborne uh I'm I guess the candidate for uh for uh direct finance and operations uh born and raised in Massachusetts Liv in California for 10 years uh started my career in uh Corporate Finance moved over to uh the public side uh started out working for a Housing Authority in California uh got the teaching bug moved back to Massachusetts and became a teacher uh about six years into teaching uh a principal who uh knew I had been in finance in the past I needed someone to sort out
021grants at the district she would moved to uh she called me similar to the way Alice called me um and asked me to consider coming there I went there uh I bounced around a little bit uh I did a short S as Superintendent at Hampshire Regional Schools um and am now the Director of Finance operation sh the assistant superintendent of Finance operations and human resources at handing overand Regional Schools that's great great thank you so much so I hire Aaron my Director of Finance operations and human resource H wam um so he wor worked together um and we had some Financial concerns when we when we we moved that district and Kon was great and helping us thought out that and um certainly uh successful the school district well now to with the finan and
022operations there so um we' be we very fortunate to have them move into our district and do this work with both that's great yeah thank you so much so the way this works is technically the superintendent makes the job offer and the school committee we kind of are just approving your um offer to for employment to Aaron sure um so since we're kind of right here I don't know if we'd like to if anyone wants to say anything about this or if we want to just I I'd move to take a vote unless there's any discussion get that business item out of the way all great great great okay so could I please have a motion to approve um the hiring of Aaron Osborne as our new Director of Finance and operations jie are there
023any discussion all in favor I'm an i as well welcome to the [Applause] I know we talked about maybe addressing the committee for a couple minutes just um sure by me I can put right on SP you know it's it's obvious to me that there are some Financial challenges within the district uh I think some of that stems from the assessment formula um and sort of the using the assessment formula uh as well as maybe some staff turnover that's led to some loss of maybe some institutional knowledge I know there's some payroll challenges I know there's some payables challenges I know Dan's working tirelessly to sort that out um I've been backing for be back and forth again now um I think the best thing I can do um you know leading up to my
024entry I have a copy of your Regional agreement my hope would be to develop um aort sort of proor assessment profile uh for the district um I can't payroll from home and you know easily until I start I can certainly help um but I think what I would look to do is when I came in um sit down with members of the committee as well as the community probably the fins of each Town um and go over that sort of performa uh assessment and take a look at it make sure we have something that the school community and the towns can both that and feel comfortable with and try to rebuild that trust I think we have a lot of trust rebuilding to do with both communities as well as probably some staff I mean
025knowing um there's been some payroll challenges and things like that I think collabora I think everyone in the district thank you that's great and actually that was one of the goals I think we had last year was um I don't know if you've had the chance to take a look at our regional agreement but yes I actually have a copy of super complicated and I think one of the things that every consultant that we've had or every you know every person that's kind of come across at least since I've been here has said wow your Regional agreement is really complicated any you know plans to to change it or so I think that's kind of been uh on the dock for a while and I think that's great that you want to tackle that because
026I think the assessment calculation kind of stems from that one of the things that and I did really really well and I can say that is we we Revis the Strategic plan in handon wolver that was about 20 years on the shelf right so we put together and so um it was a lengthy process but we're able to give a completed and updated strategic plan that's being now used in that and that's some of the work that we need to do here as well right yeah great well thank you yeah very excited to have you on board great okay so Al um so the only thing I have is we've kind of all broached the only thing I wanted to talk about quickly was we've all kind of approach the topic of payroll and again
027I said this two weeks ago I'm G to say it again please be patient if you are an employee of the district and you still have an issue with your paycheck please come see One of These Fine men tomorrow asap don't sit on it don't assume that you know we know or or people know um you need to make sure that you've emailed and and made yourself known and they will take care of fixing um whatever issue you have with your paycheck um and making call all right okay Al if you want to so so I'm going for my report the the majority I want to talk to you about soort would make it just said um so this is Dan and I have a running joke right day 11 for me um day four
028five for for the so we're really still learning the district and learning the process um but I want to start out by really addressing uh the room which is such an old expression but I I apologize for that but it's the payroll issue that Megan Megan spoke about um so as I'm sure you're aware and I certainly have done my best to keep Megan and the school Comm be informed that there has been some major payroll issues and some mistakes that have taken place um I I want to publicly acknowledge and let both our town communities know uh that it was nothing more than truly was human error it really was human error um I know I've been approached in question by many people about their ideas and why they believe this has taken place
029it truly has nothing to do with school committee has nothing to do with any other theories or practices it truly was human error and it's the lack of training and the professional development that needed to take place and I truly um the the work that Sally does in professional learning is it's not just as an educator but we need to do it in all areas right so one of the things that we lacked is that training that that the individuals should have um I've always I've always acknowledged the importance of that training in professional development so please know that we we got to rectify the issues and begin the process of making all the necessary corrections to the payroll uh of the many staff members that are off and and we're getting into a really
030good swap um I I do apologize as your superintendent for for this taking place and please just be patient as Megan said as we begin to fix and adjust these mistakes um as i' I've always said even in my first interview with the school committee when when there's uh something that happens in this District good or bad the stuff that hits the and that's me and and I'm responsible for that so even with this we're working to inove this and and making sure that we make this right um but be patient we'll take us some time um but we are getting there we' already started that process of doing it as well so um needs to say this has occupied many uh hours and days Dan and I were 8:30 9:30 last night trying to
031fix these errors we're still continue to do that um I'm appreciative of the work that Dan Dei and cyia Henderson at Treasure who you met um last week or two weeks ago she's been working I know her contract is seven or eight hours for the month but she's been working like every single day in that office trying to help out because she had that knowledge and expertise as well too um so I'm very appreciative of them and all the others that have actually pitched in and worked along with us so I also thank the union um in the staff of um Berlin bison Regional School District for their patients understanding we had a chance to meet with many people meeting with the Paris tomorrow afternoon as well too tomorrow Megan I mean Megan sorry ni
032tomorrow I'm meeting with them as well too um just to talk about their concerns that um so what else do you need to know about what I've done in the last few days um I had a great first admin Administration meeting with what our our principales and admin um we've been dealing with some bus issues I have a meeting with the bus company on Thursday um figure out some of those minor issues that and some of the issues in berland as well too so I'm happy that that's going to be doing that as well too um I've had the opportunity to reach out as well to Tracy noic um she has a date that I'd like to share with school community that she's available the training that she's trying to to give us she's giving
033to so many other school commes um her first open available date and we literally just texting each other trying to get that file date is October 22nd which is a Tuesday I try to keep the Tuesdays if that works for you guys um but that's the date that she is available so if you guys agree on that as the school I'll let her know so she can book that as well too um and then lastly with permission from the school Comm I'd like to honor this book um by Michael fulin for you guys so we can do our book study we're doing one as an admin um a great book it's called Spirit work and it talks about collaboration in an educational setting um and I got some some background knowledge of that book Michael
034Fen is is is um well known in the educational field and I think that would be a great stop book to stop with us as as a school kid um I think that's really important for the community to know and I I talked to Megan the school committee that we're doing a book study as well too we're continuing to learn as our admin team is doing as well too in book study so um I'd like to move forward and and that's only one book inone has another book certainly would take that in the recommendations but that would be um my recommendation now for our school as well um and the last thing I guess I need to apologize to my principales because I promised them I was going to be in classrooms and I have
035not gotten those classrooms yet and and I plan on getting there um I was able to get into a couple of the high schools today and get to meet some of the students and that's the real work I want to do and hopefully once we get all of this fixed um and with the hiring of Aaron and and with Dan working together in um will'll be able to move forward and get by doing the work that a superintendent should to and respectfully that's my that's great okay thank you Al does anyone have questions for Al please what is the training for the school committee I'm just the book the book study oh for oh I'm so sorry sorry yeah for Trac so there's a couple different things roles and responsibilities one um there's there's a
036couple different ones I'm going to talk to Mega about and see what type of training that we want there's a couple one but there's one that she does basically at the very beginning of all new school committees is basically roles and responsibilities of we have not had as the committee yeah had it when I rolled on Mike la Julie there yes October 22nd but it might be waiting October 20 if you have it October 22nd that would be the last meeting that all of us will be together Julie's term ends and I am in the seat that someone is running against me so there could be two people so the only thing I do about October won't include every yeah you could do it in the November meeting only if she's available right she's available
037so the only thing I can say through the chair uh is Mike one of the things that happens on the October 22nd it's an open meeting so that everyone can invite it so people that are running for school committee anyone it's important for all of us to know all that so just the only I'm not sure what her her bookings out that's the first one I could get right now is that 22nd date yeah that's a great point to make all right so we'll talk about that we could we have that on the calendar as our ads needed meeting November 26 so we can talk about Al and I haven't really even opportunity to catch up on Stu so all right great thank you anything else all right we're gonna move on to Dan thank
038you so much Dan thank you madam chair um I'm standing before you in front of my imaginary Podium here so improvise for a little bit so just by way of quick introduction I I believe I've met most of members and most mostly on the table here but for those that haven't meant DD your interim uh School Bas administrator so who is the ndd or interm scho administrator so in 30 seconds or less um a retired scho official um I some Ease on on some um in public education um for the first 25 years I worked with two educational collaboratives the eal collaborative in Boston and and the great collaborative um and in um Lawrence great Lawrence education CL in Lawrence probably sometime in the early 80s Dr Phil deer one day when I was at
039the G school at wam said to me Dan someday I see you as a school business official I don't know where but I but I see that and he was prophetic he was prophetic um in 2005 I began my career as a school business official and the are public schools I spent about 20 plus years plus if you will as a school business official at several districts in in Central Mass primarily um I've had the the privilege the privilege of working in small bicio districts um and working in Regional districts and also in large urban districts from 19 um yeah 19 uh 2013 to 2016 I served on the board of of the m board and uh one of my uh opportunities if you will uh was to uh cheer um a conference in 2014
040um on the whole federal grants um um oversight of Federal grant manual in in the structure I'll get straight the structure probably script be better of of Grant's management that being said um I retired in 2022 um shortly after retirement I thought that I could probably share my my 40 plus years experience um I was appointed as an Adjunct professor um at w State University riveting class riveting class managing the politics in the public sector RI class and for some reason for some reason no one enrolled in my class no one so for the 12 semester of 2022 for the spring semester of 2023 I had I was overwhelmed with with students uh uh zero and I said I think I better reink this at about the same time I did receive a call from
041a superintendent um up at appal royalston um ask me if I could assist him um for a couple of months being interim school be official I said be happy have a conversation and happy help you out uh what was supposed to be three months ended up being about 12 months thereabouts I gave new meaning uh to the term interim for sure um I wrapped up uh this past July so that's me in probably two minutes I apologize ch um and that's who I am here before you this evening um as I would say last year to to school committee um and with finance a little bit different is I'd like to give you this evening a very brief overview and I'm going to say 30,000 foot overview of just my impressions of of what's Happening
042Here in the district particularly in the business office over the past several days number one fy2 24 this is probably my first meeting as scoop is official where I did not share a budget report on the general fund with with the committee we still have some work to do uh we have some work to do in FY 24 and and we're working on that those those tasks until those task get done we can't complete and for those who may know we can't complete our end of the year reports that's on my radar as well and we also won't be able to to process our end however however end is not due until the end of November so we have several months there so the point is is that we need to still wrap up some
043work for FY 24 fy2 I saw in the report that was shared with you at the last uh committee meeting that one of the challenges that there many of the lines I'm just going to speak for the time being the general fund if you will is that there were many lines that were not encumbered okay so the numbers that you saw in that report fy2 they're they're not accurate but I don't mean that bad way it's just that it it it doesn't express your bottom line in in the general fun at this point in time primarily because because there are many lines in the general fund there were some but not many um that uh that have not been covered so we're tackling that as well payroll I I think the superintendent um spoke to
044to many of the issues but I but I stand before you as your school business official interim School business official but I also assume responsibility for that work I I do I take that role quite seriously I I I do so I I stand before you to the folks in the audience and to the folks who maybe watching on TV is that you know I I'm I'm not happy about what happened um and we need to move forward we need to move forward and we will um if it's not going to get fixed overnight and I'm not going to say to that it will get fixed overnight it's it's going to take some time but but there is an urgc I I I I I I'm flattered that in my 20 plus years as a
045school dist official I've had the opportunity dare I say the privilege of working with some really really quality people and when I make a phone call and I have made phone calls I've made several phone calls they' said to me I'm there for you Dan tell me when I'll come in because because at the end of the day this it will take a village I it will take a village to to to write the ship if I may I see this as an opportunity an opportunity to reset the business office and to reset some other things relative to school Finance I I see it's a great opportunity to aon's point earlier we were also looking at the regional agreements uh we're looking at the assessments calculations and and we'll get it done we'll get it
046done I stand before you is that we'll get it done what happened overnight you know I don't want to say to me hey uh Dian you said uh three weeks ago that this was going to be done it it's going to take some time it's going to take some time busing um yes I am your busing Guy full disclosure with with all the activity that I've been about over the past several days um I I haven't had the chance to really tackle any busing issues um superintendent and I uh last week U had the opportunity to meet with a public citizen from one of the towns and gave us a great presentation and some bus busing issues and so we're going to tackle that we're to tackle that a months going to tackle um probably
047the the 20 emails to my colleagues the principals were here uh probably the 20 emails on busing that uh I I haven't tackled yet but I will get there I I I will get there um again I mentioned uh we'll be working on the end of the year report um as the committee knows that's typically due to September 30 or October one we might be a couple of days late but we have a game plan to get it done it's going to get done um for for end um exent deficiency your cash certification if you will again as I mentioned earlier that's due the the end of November there's still some things from FY 24 um you know that we need to do before we can file that and you know as as one of
048my DOI reps uh said several years ago she said I'm gonna tell you right now and this is Gospel truth I'm gonna tell you right now that if you were to submit that on November 30 that um you probably won't hear from me sometime in December there about this is this one rep only one rep and she said because I'm too busy um getting uh the the free cash certified for all the cities and towns that can get the tax rate set I get that I get that uh but that is very much on our radar screen and if I am here um certainly I'll be I'll be working with with Aaron and the superintendent to get that done because that's an important piece uh it's an important piece of your budget I haven't checked
049my cheek sheet yet to see if I covered everything um we we are also working and and to the point that the superintendent said earlier um you know I I sincerely believe uh in in training and you know there there are some folks within the business office who who who needed some need some some good training and and so we're we're going to work on that and we're going to make that happen um and I know that you have a h stop at about six o'clock uh uh typically my superintendent would like wake at me and it's say okay you're done so uh this is my this is my 30,000 foot overview and in approximately five days there about being through interim School business official um I I want to thank the superintendent publicly uh
050for extending the offer to me and and the privilege to to work with you and assist and support you and at the end of the day at the end of the day what we do is about the students in the classro and the teachers and staff that enable them to be 21st century students and adults um mam chair that concludes my um my brevity report um if you will in front of my makeshift I'd be happy answer any questions from members of the committee if we have any does anyone have questions or Dan we're very lucky to have him on board and we'll have Aaron starting couple weeks whatever he has to figure that out but we I feel like we've got a great team so I'm I'm really hopeful of the future yeah all
051right thank you so much thanks thank you all right we are going to move into business items um so we already voted on the Director of Finance and operations um we're gonna skip over I because we're going to vote on the last two things and then we'll do I last um so Mike did you want to give a quick update we need to remove policy JH because it's not yeah we're gonna table attendance policies because there was some that's right that's right JH and J there was some confusion as to which one administrator want to work with there's apparently a third one in development so we're gonna hold off on that that's right sorry we talked about that yep all right and we need to work so just through the chair we're gonna work with
052all principles for next I'm doing one day at time next Wednesday right after our admin meeting that we're goingon to be sitting at this so we're hoping that we can bring to the next subcommittee meeting um a document that this way then we can bring to the full School commit after that as well okay great all right so the LA uh the next thing should be pretty easy um a resident from Boon Dan did you want to speak to this lawn mower elementary school so gentlemen search for into the exe dual deck 34 walk behind zero turn it's cool would benefit from it definitely so it's uh gathered at $1599 and all right so he he just gave it straight up to the school straight up to school all right that's great so thank you
053whoever you are s that is amazing um so can I please have a motion to approve the donation of the arens WW 34 walk behind zero turn lawn mower to Boon Elementary School Le yes is there any discussion on that Megan just theair send a thank you card we absolutely do I think Cindy I don't know we we can do that yeah we yeah that's a great idea yep perfect awesome thank you all right anything else great idea thank you all in favor I'm as well that motion passes thank you so much again that's amazing is all right so now we have I we have 17 minutes to discuss it this is great so I'm going to set the time for 20 minutes so I'm gonna allow discussion on the topic so we have this
054policy I'm gonna ask for a motion it needs to be seconded and then we'll do the discussion in there okay if we want to amend the policy that can happen after we make the original motion all right so please have a motion to approve policy I student submission to educational surveys and research Mike all right Lisa any discussion Megan may I do a little brief overview yes I'm gonna start take that right out of your stove literally bought it today got one my stove 20 minutes guys okay so you have in the drive the document it's got a lot of information a lot of history on the Genesis of this whole uh policy uh we started talking about this in the spring I don't remember if it was March April May but it was other
055spring we decided to revisit it because there was some language that some folks didn't like uh when we met yesterday with the policy subcommittee meeting and the group of teachers who were there were still here tonight uh I thought it was a pretty good conversation as well my understanding of that conversation was that there were two main issues with the policy one being the original language of opt in uh everyone seemed to have an issue with that so we immediately took that out that's already been out that's no longer there uh the other issue was around the logistics of how would you actually implement this um the original policy from masc uh allows parents the right to inspect any materials that might go along with the set survey and that doesn't give any information about
056when they can expect it inspect it how long they have to inspect it when a survey does come out so we made a change to that language um to say uh they will be sent the materials when the request for permission goes out how exactly was worried in there so that seems to be a bit of an issue as well I don't really have strong feelings either way the reason we put that part in there is uh felt it might just make it easier that if you're sending it out for a permission anyway why not just send all the materials the survey questions at one time uh if you're sending a survey to 500 students and every parent has the right to look at that material maybe a parent calls in and says says well
057I can't give my permission until you know I come in next Tuesday and then another parent says well I don't have time to come in and look at it until Thursday or Friday or two weeks from now whatever the case may be so it seems like that would delay it and one of the issues uh in the Civics course was timing you how long've got a limited amount of time to complete these and that would just delay things so if we want to go back to the original language on that I I don't think that would be an issue it just seems like it would be easier to send it all at once uh as far far as any other changes that we made they're in there for you there's a detailed explanation and reasoning
058as to why specific changes were made and if anybody has any questions on them from the committee Lor and I are happy to discuss it there's um one other thing so in that package of information too there's a I took a look around other districts to see what they might do for this policy uh I put two in there one from Lexington public schools and one from Welsley Public Schools uh just show showing their versions of the policy there was some discussion both yesterday during the meeting and then some people reached out afterwards suggesting maybe to get around all this just make it easier we just sort of copy what Lexington has on their website uh so if we want to make an amendment to do that tonight too that might be something we can
059discuss so that's that Jak I just had something I'm not sure if people are and I don't mean to speak for Sally but she's done some good work and I'm not sure aware that she surveyed um other school districts in asking um how they handle situations like this um and again I don't want to speak for your do you mind ifed people in different it was a big list I only heard back from about 12 people but um in all their districts they have an opt out which was was interesting to see that um and when I reached up to my col wees and that was just by phone calls over these last couple days after we had meeting the majority of are using the the verbiage that Lexington public school uses which is an
060opt out version as well to and I think is that part of the yeah so the current uh if I may the current version out there it is essentially opt out um we can't write a policy to get around any legal issues or any laws so where it says um I believe the language is uh requires prior written parent consent in the case of minors when asking them certain things uh so that uh call it opt out call it opt in I don't know what you want to call it but it is required it's not something that we can actually policy ourselves out of uh but that's that's that yeah J yeah so um I actually reached out to Lexington public schools last night via email and again today for a phone um and so
061I did a reply back from Marine Dr Marine C who's the director of data and strategy from the Lexington publico schools um and so that I policy is generally conducted on um for external organizations and I'm happy to send this to the committee she just sent it to me right before the I didn't see it till like literally right now um and so they actually have a different process for um research partnership within the Lexington public schools and she sent me the link for that so kind of you know to address Adan Wilbur's email or he said there's a process where where board um approves it you know ethics board approves the survey um they actually have a similar process for internal surveys um so that might be interesting to look at but I think
062adopting the verbage of the I from Lexington um public schools in their District it is actually for external surveys not internal surveys um Meg yeah so I think it's it's um I know we've all read these policies compared to policies I think it's difficult to really have the discussion when we're just using um clips of we don't really know what policy people are referring to so what I would like to do let me explain first because um and a little of this information too um if we can't see the policies and say that verbage there compared to this verbage here makes it hard to vote on that right um I I'm going to be completely honest and not in support of the Amendments that the subcommittee is proposing um especially hearing we have three four
063SE High School teachers here saying why um and if I can just summarize that Bill whad said he knows it's somewhere in between he's not sure the amended language but fourth is the answer Mr Cho says keeping the original ideal as the foundation and building from there um Danielle had said possibly reaching out to other districts to see how they keep both um parental and student rights protected which was done we found that the op up version was there um and and then of course um Mr um Dory as well these are esteemed teacherss in our district advocating for their students saying that the language that we're adding into the amendment just just goes beyond what the original policies and I agree with you I watch the policy sub community meeting also we can't change
064what's coming from the federal guidelines right we can't change that but we we have that so I I I don't understand why we're adding all this language in after hearing what other districts are doing and what our teachers are recommending to do so what I would like to do is to make an amendment to the policy or to the amendment on the floor I'd like to make a motion for an amend to the main motion which stated and strike the edits by the subcommittee and replace with the original words of an ASC policy updated in 202 and perhaps then do what's being suggested find that we collaborate with the teachers and IND I ask me questions on this discussion all right so yeah there is a motion there's a second and now we have some
065discussion Julie two things you said the opt out language that's there so that exists so everybody can press easy um the you said it's hard to look at these when we can't see the policies you have them both in a document right on your your screen you may even have it printed out is there a specific question or specific from what you can see that you would like to discuss um yeah when you made the comment about the time frame you said I don't really remember what it is so I think if we're voting on something we have to be very clear with the language where are you which one of you live yet no that's what you said uh I think so I I think it's the instructional materials yeah that paragraph So the
066Highlight is sent parents of the event at the end it's doesn't it say that 10 days ahead time uh is that the form at the end of the yeah yeah yep yep sorry further down okay so be clear parents must be given the opportunity to off their children out within a reasonable time frame before any survey is sent to students a reasonable time frame would be no less than at least 10 gor duties in advance of sending such survey perhaps longer as the situation may be I'm curious I know we just signed it but for the current opt out for like photos is there I agree to or do not agree to or is there just a do not like opt out right there's a we've transition to a form you know but I'm curious
067does it have both an optin and an opt out option on those forms I don't or was it just an OP out just an OP out just op out so that would be different from you mean for like School photos no I think school photos or health curriculum I don't know about health curriculum but the one that I did yeah you have to sign because I remember like you got to sign your kids name and my kids are like seven and nine to to agree to it and if you don't then you don't you opt out at least that's the one that I signed for boyon elementary school I have no idea how they are are you referring to the third paragraph no she's referring she wants to know what we how we make people
068often in and out in our district currently because this is this is opting in and out so if they fill out nothing it should be then they opted in but if they click oh you're talking about are you talking about the form that we put in there at the end yeah the end of the okay um it says that uh yeah I mean if you want to change that to opt out I just you know you know Meg yeah um you know I think a lot of the procedures had changed after you know the the survey that out there was some concerns and valid concerns and so it seems like the procedures had changed significantly so I don't know if I know I've not seen the verbage that now is supposed to go on the
069top of a survey um are are we able to hear what that that is down so can I through the chair yeah I I I appreciate the teachers I appreciate but the leg work is going to be right here with these three people sitting right here so can I can I hear from the principles if you're okay with that like how's this going to work for you guys as well too that are the instruction leaders of the building in terms of overseeing so any survey that even goes out for teachers F us to go through this to this there's a procedure now after that survey went out Lea sat down with bunch of people and and now so I'm just asking what is a procedure that now with survey so for anything in terms of
070any surveys right or any anything that goes up off out so my um so my understanding is that this policy is around the eight topics correct okay surveys with this right surveys so um right now um any survey that's a student generated survey has to have an indication of what the survey is for how the information is being used and identifying that the survey is and that it is optional and those are all requirements that we've sent out to the entire staff for any survey and so we sent that out as a a you know a procedure that must be done for all surveys so a survey has to have all of that information prior to it all surveys um have to be approved by the teacher um and it it is concerning a potential
071Ally sensitive to topic as deemed by the teacher um then we would identify whether it's going to high school or middle school or both depending on that um and there was a question on the floor um for the T for the photo and video commissions we've trans transferred our forms online um and so it's kind of a we do a yes or a no a yes or a no and that is automated so we don't have to manually record everything so it's I don't know how that would that's another issue in itself because it's totally inconsistent for the elementary school nothing's online we do everything in paper forms and you know obviously for elementary children to justice points like one form and you either sign if you agree or if you don't I think there's
072no we check the box you have to sign so um oh not I'm sorry oh does anybody have any questions about the procedure have I missed anything that I sent out M Mike has a question I think the thing to remember here in this particular case is it is the eight items that you mentioned the right maybe this is a lesson pafic class I don't know people have rights students have rights this talks about a student's right that right shouldn't disappear depending on who's sending a survey so you mentioned if a student is sending a survey or the school is sending a surve the whole point of this is transparency to let parents know what we're asking their kids in school that's what it comes down to however you want to have that happen whether
073it's through this or or something else the point is if you're going to ask kids to become a data subject a research subject you have to have their per their their permission that's it and so in order to get that permission from a minor child you have to go to their parents and as it says here in in the law receive written consent from parents so to to the chair required school's not I'm I'm I'm speaking so the whole thing is about transparency and letting parents know what is being asked of their their kids so if we can go through this and if you have questions about certain changes the changes were all made in an attempt to provide transparency so the first one uh the first change highlighted any other part of bbrsd included
074in will be sent that's just clarifying that this isn't just for a Civics course isn't just for a a school photo survey or whatever it might be it's any survey uh in the district if you're asking about these eight topics eight eight subject areas it says right there prior the masc policy itself starts off un that's not highlighted there without prior written consent of the students's parent guardian or the student in thir least 18 right we then made a change to number three because number three was fairly short and we want to be crystal clear that this is an additional protection for students right uh the survey in question again this is not about the Civics course survey that's simp the tool that is was or the survey that was used to bring this to
075the school committee's attention nobody went looking for this nobody went searching for this this was brought to the attention of the committee we realized we don't have this policy in place MC suggests we have it in place the minimum requirement is what masc gives us we felt that it was important to add additional uh Protections in there uh regarding orientation gender etc those are additional protections not um not attacks or not uh singling out certain groups or anything uh and I'm happy to explain why those are and not anything else the next change was excuse me could you please do that yep okay so let's assume hypothetically you're a student you're 11 years old and you get the survey that says are you a member of the LGBT community now this is an 11-year-old kid
076maybe they're Advanced and they know what that means maybe they don't maybe they're not sure they're not sure of themselves they're not sure what they are maybe I am maybe I'm I've had some feelings whatever it is they're not sure but now you're sending them a survey and at the top it's marked in red this is a required question to answer it's not though not anymore but it was so these protections would help that and the the student says you know if I I don't really know but if I answer yes and I you know I'm not ready to tell my parents this I'm not ready to tell my friends this uh if I answer no uh maybe I'm not being true to myself I don't really know can you just imagine the turmoil going
077on in that student's head so this is an additional protection that we thought we would put it in uh it doesn't change the fact that if we leave this out you still have to follow this because this is federal guidelines so these sorry Mike so these seven topics are in the masc policy yes only addition is the clarification of what sex Behavior or attitudes is and you define it correct so so the original I policy refers to local Education Agency so external agencies coming in doing research within the schools um which is not what's happening I I'm not arguing that there needs to be an opt out or not I feel that there should be but I do not feel that we should go outside of the Nic I policy as Al said yesterday they
078have a room full of lawyers developing these policies and the closer we stick to Mac policy the better you know what Tracy Novak said today that it's a dangerous position to what the district in and I I I really feel that we need to stick to the masc policy just one quick thing uh our attorney M McConnell did review the policy and said it is legally sound so that that email is also in backage so is the only piece that is uh causing strife between people the the part that's highlighted to be clear parents must be given the opportunity to off their children out within a reasonable time frame for any survey sent to students a reasonable time frame would be no less than at least 10 calendar days in advance of sending such survey
079perhaps longer is it the part that we have number or that the number of days is in there or is it something else because these other changes I'm seeing seem and again maybe I'm missing something they seem minor to me uh it's the addition for number three I believe it's defining what sex Behavior it's singling out certain population within the school which does not Foster a sense of belonging um and also just to go back to the lawyer's email several through the please okay yes I am keep it in order J yeah so the lawyer's email also went on to say there was several logistical concerns with the policy and so I think yes he said legally you might be okay but he said there's several logistic concerns can't find his email but it's in
080there and there were several concerns that he had yeah if I may address the logistical concerns that was the language change for um requiring parents to review material at any time so the question was like you know can they come at 8 o'clock at night someone has to be here to show them uh we did change that and we could change that again I am with Megan very confused as to why defining what sex attitudes or behaviors are is singling out a particular group in this context I think it it seems to add protections to students who might not want to give that information up so Meg through the chair being respectful you've given so if if scoop agrees and you agree as the chair it seems like there still conversation needs to be taking
081place with this so Mike as the chair of that the policy maybe we could push it back into policy again I think it needs to have I know that I'm coming late to the game with this right so but maybe we need to go back to policy again and it seems like we're not ready to bring it in front the full school committee and hav a vote on it yet because I see I think there's still some conversations that need to take place with this as well we have a motion on the table for the amendment so we should probably V on that oh wait what was the amendment so sorry Nicole can you read did you no okay to amend it it was amended to be the just masc policy strike it's correct to
082strike all edits and to adopt the because currently we do not have I in place that's correct and okay all right so the amendment on the table is to just adopt I as is to have something on the table I make a motion to table the top okay but we have an amendment on the table we have to vote on first that Julie made right and then you yeah and then and then you can make amend another amendment y all right so the motion on the table is to adopt the masc policy without any of the edits put forth by the policy subcommittee there was a second right y all right so is there discussion on that or do we want to vote on that have discussion what yeah we just have all right you
083guys ready to vote on that Amendment all right all in favor adopting the masc policy I as is without any of that is hi all right any opposed all right I'm a nay as well all right so now we're at the regular this policy that we have on the table that has come forth with the with the edits okay so I now make a motion to table the topic as suggested we've not had Sally's okay I don't think you can make a motion on top of a motion correct we got to we got to clear up the first motion I believe and then you can make a motion okay so Mike what what did you want to clarify I just lost my train of thought but um the clarification is regardless of what vote we
084take we left the meeting yesterday Al when everyone was still in the room we would revisit this but this like Megan said is not currently in there so I would move if we vote on the original but I'm sorry but you're not um I and I watch that meeting you want to get together a team of thinkers right got the idea it's called a working group I love it working group right but the working group is not the masd policy we're not working on that policy we're working on the policy that the subcommittee voted and maybe this committee would vote in essence right isn't that aren't we voting on aren't we voting on the edited we're voting on The edit but I think my understanding of this working group is that they would make proposed
085changes to the entire school committee or would it go back to the policy subcommittee so I guess that's what you're trying to say right Julie um we're voting on the amended masc Poli that's the current motion correct okay the what I was trying to clarify was that regardless of what we I'm gonna finish my train thought thank you Michael to so we are voting on that then what is the point of having this working group that's what I was trying to if these folks here are saying we we we want to do this we this is not the language this is not the answer they're all saying that but yet we could potenti we could potentially be saying we hear you sort of we're still going to put this policy for that's not what they're
086so through the if I can just add one piece to a working group I I respect the gentlemen ladies are are sitting behind you and giving us information and I'm new to this whole thing but that that's one sliver I'm hearing right now we have a lot of Staff a lot of Administrators a lot of my people my directly here that we need input from this wel so I I appreciate this sver I'm getting of information here but I I don't I want to know how this is going to impact the Elementry as well too I just need to get a a perspective of everybody so I that's what a working group does let's bring some people together so why don't we start them with the foundation that masc designates as the foundation why why
087are we creating a foundation saying Al do you want us to not vote on this policy tonight and say we're going to vote on it on October 8th is that I'm trying to catch up I'm trying to catch up what everything's going on I I I think we need to have some policy in place we have nothing right now we have nothing and I think this is going to hold up the work that teachers wanted to do with trans but I think there's a lot of conversation that still needs to play take place and I want to get some other stakeholders involved which is what we should be doing and and only because these people came which is great but there's a lot of other people that I need to get input from and so
088that's what I'm asking let's get some groups of people together and get some knowledge so whatever you guys as a school be want to do in terms of whether you you table it for the time being are you vote on what's Happening where either in place right now are the amendments that take place that's your work as a school P my work our work is to bring it look at it bring it back to you guys no different than the attendance policy that we talked about today we should be coming to you with a clean policy that we're bring in place and saying this is what works for us and then have you guys vote on it I think what's happening it's the opposite we're voting on it up here and then trying to get
089it down here to the to the to the teachers and the administrators it should be the other way we should be working on stuff bringing it to you guys as a Schoop and say this is what works for us we're the boots on the ground doing the work and does this work for you guys as a Schoop so what we do it now isn't that what they're saying I'm confused yeah isn't that what put I it's 611 and I move the question okay that needs a second please he wants to go he wants vote all right we're going to vote all right so so the motion on the table is to to vote on this as is and the only part I'm hung up on is the 10day thing which you said maybe we don't
090put 10 days we just maybe we delete that last a reasonable time frame will be no less than 10 days and that gives is that what you were saying before you're indifferent on that and what's a reasonable time well that's that's what Al that's I'm if we want to remove that that's fine I put 10 days because it's a five day or four and a half days sometimes four days five days school week giving time for a week vacation if something comes around that'll be 10 days but that would make it easier I think for the staff to figure out what they need to do to send if it's not just a survey that's going on if it's something else might be more difficult to get the information to parents that's the only am I
091going to point a harer inquiry please yes yeah so I just clarifying Robert's wolves so a motion to lay an item on the table does take precedence over all other motions at the time that is made okay so you wanted to make a motion to lay lay the topic on the table to table the topic table the topic table the topic yall second okay all right does it all right we want to vote on tbling topic all right all in favor I recommendation Al you think we should able to talk to I I think I need to do some more work on this soever you guys want to vote to but we don't have anything in place have in place we just don't send any surveys until so there there's a vote currently taking place
092all right opposed y yeah May again I move the question two votes the original question it needs a second and then we can vote oh so we're voting on this vote on the current policy as it it is 6:14 we had our stop at six yep all right he needs a second for his motion to move vote okay all right all in favor of keeping the policy with the current amendments I I'm an i as well all right oppose can start through the chair just one cab about before we vote with the understanding that we'll have a working group yes that I think that's an important part that's an important part I so that doesn't that doesn't need a vote we agreed yesterday in the r that doesn't need a vote we can this next
093month I mean we have it's on their radar so we've agreed we have to have something in place only language I think is kind of iffy is this stuff that's highlighted in yellow other than that I don't see any issues with this all the edits yeah she's talking about I can sense the frustration for some people in the back so let's get the working group together let's get let's get the working group together so we can start this okay all right SOA sorry did you want to say something I just want clarification because as the student ccil moves forward they will always put surveys out for like spirit days this is only on the eight topics seven topics yes seven top okay I or is it all surveys or it's the eight topics that list
094there all about the eight okay I just want to I just want to make sure this is no you're not no you're so the answer question other surveys that don't involve this topic can go on thank you so I'm curious sometimes they have like lgbtq Ally would that not Beed it appears as though that wouldn't be able to part of the survey I missed your question just in the past some of the spirit weeks have been lgbtq Ally days and so that would be affected by this policy but there's a Ser that goes along with that you can still have events you can still have those days just only if you're surveying just if you're surveying the students that's it that's the only we got to remember that's not going to stop list it doesn't
095say you can't do it all it says is you have to talk to the parents first yeah you can still send it it's making much more and it's making a certain population feel very unw and unsafe just it's also making criminals feel unsafe andal all right but I have a motion to adjourn the meeting and move into executive session Mike all right all right all in favor all right thank you