School Committee Open Meeting 12/12/23

001oh I've been here 12 hours now in this so thank you all right for those that are unfamiliar with me I am T Smith I am the new department chair of the science department so um and I have been told that you all have had um access to this uh particular slideshow so I am going to assume pretty much that you have been through it and you have read it including my speaker notes so um once again our school has done um amazingly well especially in light of the changing demographics of our school which is reflected in last year's mcast scores the eighth grade mcast is going to a new generation of mcast which will be fully in implemented in 2026 so we are going to uh we are fully aware of that and we

002will be implementing uh new strategies and um new questions uh in class uh amongst our uh six through eight uh teachers in order to get our kids ready for that uh you know in a couple years so um you see that you can see that we are well above average um well above State average for all but two of our um items um we've had a um we had an increase in our meeting expectation we did have an increase in not meeting expectations however talking to the middle school student uh teachers some of that had to do with a lot of pull outs um and of course uh students uh Miss class or Miss instruction when it's pulled out and our chora I mean our Quest program is not totally in line curriculum wise with

003um the mcast and what the teachers are doing in the um in the classroom so we're going to look into aligning that that better um biology once again Stellar um uh uh scores for this coming year or for last year um we did you can see that our exceeding expectations uh the number of students receiving that grade actually went up and you can also see that we did not score below any the state average on any one item and um let's see and this was our next steps so I'm just GNA open it up to questions I just noticed on the very first graph that like uh two years ago it was 4% and then this year it went up to 7% right and so that was actually three and then five this year that's

004right and that and that is because we had some very high need students that we are not always catching our uh students that should be on IEPs so and once again like I said this is kind of reflecting our change in demographics that these uh children that are coming up from elementary school and coming into our Middle School that have social emotional needs that are need to addressed etc etc we're having a much higher number of that in our school so that number um you know we're you know our goal is to not have that go up but to have that go down and so yes we are trying to implement do more alignment between um the quest and the quest program and classroom instruction as well as between we're going to look at alignment

005between vertical alignment between Elementary and Middle School to try to get that number lower and keep it low as our demographics change any other questions so yeah U What specifically like just said yeah we're all where science seems to be better than the math and the Ela that I see here a little bit but we're still about a third of the district not up to the meaning expectations so so you said social emotional between the elementary to you know we've seen this for the last few years I think so what specifically is being done is it working is it not working what's going to change so not if you look back at the um number so a partially meeting expectations is not failing okay so our not meeting expectations is really kind of where we're

006going to you know we really need to I mean not that we don't want to bring met partially met up however it's to be noted that it's not failing so not meeting expectations um we are once again that is a that is a group um what do I say that is like the whole school has to be involved in that especially with e8th grade you know we need Buy in from our special education we need to get the people that run that the uh people that do the quest we need them on in line or on board right so um we may have to start looking at um alternate test forms um for the students as time goes on so um we will like I said as far as 8th grade goes we will start

007incorporating more of the performance assessment tasks that are that that has provided us to get us ready for our the new Next Gen test that's coming up so basically it's we just go back we look at standards we look at questions we see where we are you know falling down or where we're not quite hitting the nail on the head as far as particular items so um but also remember we are way above State average so and and both are bio and our eth grade you mentioned partially meeting is not failing but so what does that mean partially meeting versus meeting I'm sure for you guys having the data being able to look at since June having all the additional data reports from the state you understand this parents sitting at home seeing that a

008third of our district isn't meeting expectations when I hear as a parent my kid is meeting my kids either meeting or not meeting there is no partially or exceeding like if they're not at least meeting the expectations that they're expected to meet it sounds like they're not doing well I understand you know it's not failing but for parents we have 30 to 40% of the district in any given class or subject that aren't at least at meeting I guess one way you could one cor one way you could look at that is great ABC c is partially meaning expectations like if I give a student a c he has not met all my expectations for that particular subject so a c is partially meeting expectations exceeding expectations is an a like he met every single

009expectation and probably did more so if you want to look at it in that way in terms of if you want to make that kind of uh connection between grades and um scores on the incast that would be a really good way to uh explain that that's helpful yes so you can look at it as f c b and a anybody else you mention you vertical alignment with the elementary school yes they're here what specifically are you guys doing well as I was looking through the items for uh grade five and um I noticed that one of the things that the elementary schools were weak in was in the areas of physics and chemistry which is not unusual uh generally because our elementary students or teachers I'm sorry do not have any direct training or

010coursework in physics and chemistry specifically so I believe that um either s or Carol a couple years ago had discussed having PD for our elementary teachers where uh Chris our chemistry teacher Chris Cino and I could lead a PD to have the teachers the elementary teachers who more comfortable um and have deeper not subject matter knowledge uh because we're kind of the Snee right uh in either chemistry and and physics and hopefully get that those two areas um reinforced to get the teachers more comfortable so they teach more of it they have a deeper knowledge of it and hopefully that would translate into not only higher mcast scores with the fifth grade but would then come up into the middle school and and um you know they'd have that more solid foundation for what our

011six through eight have to teach them to get them ready for the eighth grade mcast how's that thing goingon how's that thing going well actually we talked about it a couple years but we just never like this is before Co and all I can say is co happened and so you know now we're back to you know we looking at you know trying to maybe get that that alignment a little better and to you know uh reinforce those areas so what specifically is happening right now you guys got this data in June can I just I I did do professional development um with the elementary schools last year so very specifically uh it was a half day PD that I had gone in with this um the fifth fourth and fifth grade some of the

012third grade teachers um and we did specific science professional development which is excellent right and so we'd like to any of that this year so we just have to like make it happen and um to your point also um what specifically we're doing so um this was a transition year so I had um looked at a lot of this um um data so moving into role of administrator I um am piloting really a a schoolwide option for a goal um to really partner with the staff um in scaffolding learning um for our students um with disabilities in our Ells um that is the the largest learning Gap that we see so if and then targeting that as professional and student um goals we can also wrap around professional development so we have more people talking

013about the same thing trying the same type of supports um for students in multiple different areas that a group you refer to as HS yes yes was the 28% here that's not meeting are they all hings no not necessarily not necessarily okay so and I think it's a mischaracterization to say they're not meeting so they're not at the meeting expectations level and I believe that um about the schoolwide goals I believe that was in the document that had s s you know that you asked to be um that to have that give it access to you so um thereal when I to look at and I didn't get a chance to get back yeah there's a there's several Us in the science department that are participating in the schoolwide BS so we're hoping that that

014you know um helps and if I could add we also have a scheduling committee this year so we're looking at our schedule here to see if they we can develop more opportunities for supports for students for the biology of the science for for all so I did not I don't mean to monopolize this time there's just so many questions I noticed in Carol's newsletter this past week the enrichment programs at the elementary level BMS has a ton bees not so much there's been talk about certain parents trying to start up a stem committee or a stem Advisory Board I noticed there's a particular enrichment at BMS for stem are any of these enrichment programs being aligned with what's being done in the schools and is there a way to uh leverage that to get more

015oils in to sort of help this I mean the parent groups they're doing great with all these origal programs is there a way to align them with these and just have them as another tool so I can I I can address that if you and then you can talk about a little bit about the um what can be done but there are um science skills that have become the predominant feature in looking at so as um as content is being created and the Frameworks are being developed there has been a shift from being you know memorizing content to being able to apply and use skills so we have a focused um basically seven science practices those practices can be um performed by any student at any level so any of these enrichment opportunities are going

016to have students asking questions modeling um you know communicating um developing um you know questions and you know hypotheses they're going to be doing those those are the skills that are transferable with any of the um you know enrichment opportunities and so all of those enrichment opportunities are just being able to take an opportunity kind of leap and and not be afraid to investigate that's huge and I think those opportunities um really help students progress no matter which level of the curriculum and trying to yeah it's almost like a marketing plan kind of like get them excited so that they go on and they are more Curious in the classroom I know these after school programs with parents GRS abs and flows depending on which parents are involved I understand that but I mean EMS

017forgive me kicking app have this and every time that calendar comes up from Carol you look at the schedule I'm afraid the Boon Elementary students aren't just aren't getting the same Equity that BMS is it's I don't know if that's going to impact this I don't know but that's the state of our district right now with two separate schools this is not a personal comment on on Cindy at all and it's it's I don't even think it's within your control it's parent groups it's link that's runs the programs and historically speaking there used to be after school enrichment as well right it just doesn't seem to be there right now yeah yeah can I jump in here um I put out a survey to parents asking um because I talked to John about the link

018and what that looks like it's a tremendous program I've talked to our PTO about it a little bit I think we need to pump that up and get more people involved I put out a survey that families just saying is there any volunteers that would like to come in and I speak one that would like to do something now so that's something we can work on and try to build that up I will throw this in there um students are coming to me with many many different ideas um they want the Lego le they want these things it's just getting the adults in there yeah I remember when be had well be I was up fix good work uh yeah that's great yeah I mean it it would be great if some of the deficits

019and the questions that we didn't do well like at the middle school and the high school he shared with lay for maybe potential groups of bees so you know there specific skill science skills that maybe maybe not a monthly club or maybe could just be like you know whoever feels has those skills maybe can reach out yeah I can do that yeah I mean ideally that would be the idea so I just wonder if like the specifics of it like you know like oh please do something or like oh we have this need we didn't do well this questions is there anyone in the community that has these skills that would to come in and do something might get morees one of the other things we have clubs for the older kids we need the

020younger kids too it's because there's an interest we start there they go upon those SKS yeah the kindergarteners are always upset when they can't do the original programs usually a lot of them are first and second I that's great I mean just any information we can have about specifically what's going on between the two schools I know John last year you told us about how you working on the is it the literacy or the ELA right with the I school teacher I mean it's I'm sorry we need a new single building we need a new single building for our elementary out grow so we need a single philosophy at each Elementary School to prepare them for middle and high school and then the world you know I think what Lisa said earlier was so important

021it's the attitude around it's that willingness to take risk and think outside the box those experiences whether it's Lego or whatever the activity is if it promotes kids thinking more broadly that what they do inscience ory or is going to be enhanced you know you got fifth grade knowledge but if our fifth graders are thinkers rather than just like test takers they're going to do that part of it is you know to pretty well we're worried about some students some of whom we've had this conversation before some of whom this test is not appropriate for me you but I you know there's you know we're really really the school system will be constantly aspire to better that makes me think of another question you mentioned how we compare to the state and that's great we

022have to do that for Budget reasons and all that how do we compare to our competitors so either maybe competitors isn't the right word but schools that we lose kids to in ninth grade schools around us that are similar setup similar size similar resources how do we compare to those that data isn't always available for science no sence the best the easiest way part of my presentation if you saw my presentation I can put the slide up soon is the uh the growth and achievement plot yeah they don't that graph and so what I've done this year is I've put up every single District in the state and I specifically show you where we scored sixth 7th e8th and 10th compared to everybody else in the state so you want to take a look at

023that you can see our demographics as far as um income is concerned you know where we are and you can get to see the whole where everybody in the state is on that and typically speaking we you know as far as English is concerned um we do very well compared to our area schools in our area um specifically against I love to measure us up against cona Carlile Brownfield schools like that that have incredible amounts of resources to see how we do against them because we're not even close to being in the same ballpark as they are and we do pretty pretty well we actually do I'm being I'm being humble we do very well yeah kind slide I'd like to see that data is not my presentation it's in there with everything like you

024know a select you know like I use the term competitors but that there would be one on there it was part of my presentation last year I've Incorporated slides like that over the years to show again you know show again the U growth and as well as the achievement because it's imperative that we look at both you know uh and I heard you in the years past and again this year you know you're you're hammering the point about that not everybody is in the meeting and exceeding and therefore we're not doing our job or we're not Meeting those goals and I completely disagree with that that's it's not about you're not doing your job but that's how it comes across mik okay so it's you know no it's because it is a bon a contention

025of mine to hear you continuously say that and it's just not the way to read the data so part of this the slide that I'll show you is that you know that expectation that every single student's going to be there is completely unrealistic it's just not the way it works and when I'll show you like for sixth grade specifically you know the best districts in the school in the in the state don't even reach 90% of their students in the meeting in exceeding it's just not a realistic thing for this one particular type of test so it's it's imperative that we look at you know we have that in our mind that not everybody's going to reach there it's just it's just not a realistic thing for the types of students that we have to

026that have to take these tests as John said you know there are some kids who are made to take these tests that they're just not going to do well because of who they are what they're dealing with it the the state is almost set up for have those kids fail it's it is completely unfair so I want to respond to you I do not think that you're not doing your job that's I've never said that I don't think that's how it comes across if it comes across that way is because I'm trying to do my job where we're in charge of all the money that's going into into the district we put a huge increase in the budget last year we're looking for another huge increase in the budget this year we had the fincom

027and Berlin saying you know the schools already get too much money what results are they doing for it we should there's someone on that committee that want to pair it back and cut it so my question is when when we see these scores of 70% meaning or exceeding that's still a third of the district not now you can explain it by saying well you know these kids shouldn't be taking the test State set them up to fail nobody's going to argue that the state doesn't set you up to fail but the number I mean the numbers are the numbers I did look at it yes I think 89 was the top percentage of meeing it exceeding and the one that I looked at so that's 11% not doing it we're at anywhere from 35 to

02840 28 including science it's just what I see and it's I don't want I don't need to ask a bunch of questions about the superstars or the allst stars because I know they're doing well it's the high need students the lowincome students that might not have the opportunities so if we're going to have these huge budget increases what are we doing to help them and comparing to the state that's well and good but I don't care about what the other states are doing because I don't pay taxes in Boston or quiny or or anywhere else I pay taxes in Berlin everybody else here pays taxes in Bur Wiston so I want to know what we're doing specifically yes we are doing well and the Mary used that against the reasons for the budget last year

029that we're doing so well so I want to know when we we're here to look at this to help with our budget discussions when we have those discussions what do we need to do as far as budget and policy goes to get better because you I don't exist in a world where you can't get better you you can get better I can get better I I hopefully I have gotten better in some things but we don't live in a world where you don't have to get better we we need to continue to push and if I just sit here and say oh congratulations a great job nobody's pushing you just have to push it's not an indictment on you or your work no I have no problem with competition yeah Jess has had me as

030a teacher and as a coach not as a coach um you know so with the high need students and this is 10th grade or fifth in the state the four schools on top of this were all charter schools for 10th grade in our high need students our high need students killed it this year that's one of the reason this is English English okay so this is you know one of the reasons why we won the Blue Ribbon award this year is because of our work with our high population and it's it's going to get more challenging as as our highes population continues to exponentially grow like this year is going to be challenging there's no question about it Emily McCarthy is doing an incredible job she's totally overworked with the amount of work that she

031has to do with our population that has grown what Lisa like 300% in in a year and it's only going to continue to go in that route so what are we doing population of high need students specifically are like elll students but also our low-income students all kids who classify who were classified as that high needs and that's in Sally's presentation has grown 300% this year the elll population we went from what two students to 21 in two years and we have a student in eth grade right now who speaks absolutely no English who is who speaks a very rare dialect from is it pakist Pakistan and our eighth grade teacher has to get this kid to pass mcast I mean that's absurd thankfully thankfully we have you know there's some good AI that she's

032looking into that helps break down material like a novel she can put it in the M the novel will be spit out at like a second grade level in this kid specific Di but this is work that our eighth grade teacher has to do for this one student in addition to all the 95 other students that she has it is an incredibly difficult job as our individual students needs you know are the amount of students with in growing needs and we have one teacher in a classroom has to meet all these it's increasingly exponentially difficult tomor with them withy because this is exactly the story really what you're talking about is you're talking about budget allocation right how you allocate your budget and Peter I don't no disrespect but I don't remember anybody coming to

033the department chairs and saying what do you need how much money is it going to cost so the budget process right I mean nobody's asking us because we'll tell you right off the bat faculty we need faculty and in this high school and in the middle school to address exactly what Peter's talking about that's what we're trying to do we need as you like why don't you like Loop us all in why don't you have Peter and Steve and Francine and myself and all the other stakeholders Matt Hager whoever come in and say okay you got this big budget increase you know why don't we talk about allocating it where you know we feel that it needs to be allocated correct me if I'm wrong but I was told that was the process last year

034that's what that's how we um came you know identifi that we are um need a math teacher and that's how we identify we're I mean we keep identifying that and and nothing like well that's true I was not there yesterday I was taking care of M another matter this is true but we have I know Lisa and we have been advocating for you know new math teacher etc etc like we need a new Tech Teacher you know to meet District goals right and we've been talking about this for years so we've been talking about this since the last time the district goals were written so um you know and allow us yet to be M materialized so you know budget allocation that's great let's put it where we need it I mean if you want

035to try to see or have a chance of you know increasing mcast scores for those students then we need the resources well that's exactly sounds like some that's in the is in the budget the is all in the budget all right we got to get back to M Pas yeah I mean pet part of my veteran move was to have t go first basically just say ditto so I mean I I'm very pleased with the English scores this past year um again we use 10th grade as like The Benchmark because that's what we're getting to this is the um this is the year that school gets looked at Etc ET our students did very well this year you can see the stats here on how our students performed top 5% as far as our students

036exceeding and meeting and where we are in our scores um I'm pleased with the middle school scores again we'll just use these slides this is grade six this is the growth and achievement so this is the entire state every single District categorized by District percentage of low income you can see obviously um students that live in districts if I income they do well compared to stud districts that don't have high income that's just a tough reality a lot of people don't want to look at but that's always what it comes down to more so you know year after year after year um what I was able to do is basically just show where our district Falls compared to the rest of the state um this is sixth grade we had our student growth percentile of

03761 um preceding uh meeting and exceeding was at 63 where in that low income is the 21 to 30 % so you know traditionally over the years we've been up in here but we are now starting to fall into these categories as far as our students and our population um I'm pleased with that number and again you can see that you know there are a few outliers there's one District here who hit 92% as far as exceeding and meeting but the majority of the state you know is barely probably in this category just about 60% and this is just the reality of the test so I like this I think it's a really good visual to get a sense of where the state is on this test that's given once a year and we have

038to always remember this is not a greatest indicator of how our students are performing especially our students who do way better with performance um assessments rather than taking a test things like that okay so that's grade six grade seven are at 65% meeting and exceeding uh standard growth percentil is 51 that's where we are in relation to the rest of the state rate eight 62% meeting and exceeding St centel at 51 and this is grade 10 we're at 61% for standard growth percentile meeting and exceeding at 87% that's the district number the school number is actually 88% the difference between the district number and the school number is the district numbers include students who will take the test who don't actually come to Tonto though that we are still still counting our numbers so we

039can have students who don't attend to Hanto who actually count in our numbers so it's important to we look at that traditionally what I'll look at it's just the school numbers so you know we're looking at the students who were with us in front of us that we're respons responsible for even though the numbers still count there grade 10 is the graduation re correct and this what's happened here again is that I went over this year and a half ago um this current sophomore class the graduation standards get tougher and it's only going to get more difficult for the class of 2031 so this this is when I talk about the moving go posts yeah I I remember that as as graduation requirement where is this our number I it's what every single student has

040gradu has reached the graduation requirement and what what is how do they measure it versus the data they give us it's based on um I gave you that scale in my presentation last year it's based on like the where they fall on the scaled score and then they basically say the cut off is here even if they're partially meeting in or some cases even in the not meeting category they can still achieve the graduation requirements I think this year is the year where any student who is not meting category now will not be the graduation requirement they will have to retake the exam if they are imp partially meeting we have to put them on it's called an educational proficiency plan and what that is is we then monitor them more closely uh through their

041Junior and Senior year they do not necessarily have to take the mcast again but if they pass all of our requirements which are are courses um we usually say that they have reached graduation competency levels and therefore can achieve graduation now if there's a student um let's say who was in our life skills program who takes the alternative and and cast they almost guaranteed not to pass the state will never do not yeah they will not pass that's just the way it is so often times when you see like our not meeting category like when we look at something like this for grade 10 you know this year we happen to have nobody not in the not meeting expectations in the district there was again it was a student who does not attend here they

042were in the not meeting category but none of our students reached there we only had eight students in the partially meeting expectations but they were all in passing categories so they had passed high school that and you're saying the 24 test is when that starts um it'll be this year yep so the class of what are they the class of 26 yeah so there it it moves up so we're in the partially meeting category there are some numbers that are the graduation they've passed for the graduation requirement and others that are not they've now um made the window smaller so only a certain amount of numbers that are in the partial in category will be graduation requirement now and so the F in like two in five years I think they eliminate that completely you're

043the partially meeting you won't graduate which is that's GNA that'll be interesting to watch what happens in the state with that have you had I know it didn't happen this year have you had years in the past where students didn't meet the graduation requirement in this test not any Ma so the um is an alternative assessment um given to certain students and they can they can a achieve a passing score for that alternative assessment but in the state testing they're considered failures they're considered not meeting so one of the greatest achievements um for when I was teaching was one of the students did a beautiful portfolio and passed that portfolio and I was so proud of that student um but it appeared on on the data that um it was I'm not meeting a failure

044so that I think is it's disappointing because like how can that be I mean if they're on an IEP that just makes no sense to me right A lot of it it doesn't I agree with Jess is that why they're trying to do away with the test there's talking the state about I don't know who's pushing it but they want to do away with the test and last I heard there was some serious power behind that I've kind of resigned myself this is the way probably there's too much politics too much money invested too many stakeholders and you mentioned if they do fail in the 10th grade there are opportunities for them they have five total chances to take the ex and pass it so the following two years they but you also so if

045they don't pass any of those five you said there are still other if they pass your courses or if they are in the not meeting category and have not meet met the gradu uation requirement they do not get high school diploma they get a certificate attendance just a not meeting but even the partial meeting you said there's a group of them that might not might not achieve the graduation requirements so for those students they have to take the exam again until they meet the graduation requirement I believe I'll have to look at that again because again they've changed that recently so this is the only way to graduate by passing this test going forward starting in 24 right now oh we unless it's always been a graduation requirement you have you have it's like as

046mention there are other criteria yeah it's the educational proficiency plan if they are in the um partially meeting and not have met the graduation requirement we could put them on an EP and then if we designate that they have met the graduation requirement based on our standards then they can graduate I believe that's the case I'll have to read that again it's been a while since I okay you know U we had someone come talk to us that told us to have an elevator SPI for when we go to these Finance committees and the meetings and stuff and so it would like you know those those little tidbits of like our elll students from this to that like it would be really good to get some of those facts that are really like wow to

047to be part of that elevator fi 300% is that the number I I don't I'm just I'm not the math guy I have I have I think that was it is been I think it's legitimately 176% okay from one to 22 two went from that's the data that I I had been working with for a particular it's every year you have to work with like a very specific set of data and I have um I have that information that I can send yeah I that would be so something I want to talk to about like what we have done in the past last year John and I and Carol met quite a bit to talk about the high school C curriculum with the elementary school curriculum I know John worked really hard with his school

048the scores this year in Berlin were incredible I was blown away with the English scores in Berlin this year grades three four and five 20 30 points higher than the state average on every single question it was unbelievable so and you again it was like remember our conversations about what can we do to get the kids ready when they get up here to have these whatever you did the numbers in Burling this year I was like whoa it was great um and one of the things that I did as well uh last year is I started to build different databases to keep track of how a graduating class does historically from third grade through graduation the state does not keep track of that for us so I started building that ourselves so we can look

049at kids longitudinally it's a whole class how they do so we look at the graduation uh graduating class class we also look at each grade how is grade six done over the years again the state doesn't keep that oh they keep that for about four or five years but it really gives us a good look at how we're doing um against the curriculum another piece of data that they don't give us that we built was looking at every single standard that we get measured on and how we've done over on those particular questions we are now in year four of building that so after about five years we'll have a really good look at how are we doing curriculum wise on each of the major strands our areas of weakness areas we heading down areas

050we increasing so that is something we're doing outside of this stuff I don't want to bore you with any more of that but that's a Google Classroom page that I've set up and I've included everybody in the districts all the English teachers on that um so they can take a look and have that data available to them at any given time I think that's something we really or just you know know where it is we refer yeah so that's something that we're doing as well and I believe from our previous meeting they we're looking what's the difference between Boon and Berlin right I mean like why it's the same curriculum and the same structur so I believe C trying to it's an ongoing process yeah and it's a challenge they're different communities with different priorities

051um different challenges um you know I I will say a lot of the teachers in Berlin are just kind of at that professional sweet spot you know young they have a ton of energy experienced enough to really BR to Bear you know best practice so it's not to say that our good friends and po it was it was 10 15 years ago was you know and the population changes and tan talked about this the social emotional where some of our kids are you know to get them to sit down and take a test I mean come to sixth grade lunch sometime see what that's like no way no our Administration is doing an incredible job this year to try to get the kids have been out of control and so to try to get them

052under control acting civil sit in the classroom do their work there's a lot of work to be done on those things before the academics can even be and that's been that's been an issue if I'm going to be BL so these those are huge challenges these 10th graders they were they was it their first year of middle school during was that was that the year does that affect it at all or have you seen anything have you seen anything from that is or is that done by now six gr is co seventh would have been 20 and then they were in eth second grade I mean either way it's a second year in middle school is that is there still a hangover effect from that a little bit not necessarily I would say last year's

053graduating class was the one that was probably the most affected yeah um and they still did well onast um it's we tell them now it's like it's over guys enough we all have our issues time to get the work for the most part they're responsive to that per an interesting thing to look in the future is like Julie mentioned this the food but I wonder if it's also recess lose that I don't know after after lunch if there's like I know the sixth grade still was allowed to go outside still children we and that's part of the work that we're doing with the scheduling committee is looking at the schedule and seeing if there is an opportunity because that's a real thing we have scheduled as people of the movement time um I know 7

054you know as well just get progressively and I think as the state has um you kind of forced upon us more and more criteria for the kids to graduate you know you're you're borrowing beging for you know for time you know with the financial literacy and the you know there's so much that they have to get done and sometimes it um interferes with they need can you tell me like the the move at time because like I have a fifth grader and she was actually just like we want have recess next year you know but I don't know about it so it's during long BL so um they take they so long block is 10 minutes longer than the other periods they're really not so you know impacting you know the learning from the other

055classes so they use that extra time you know to go outside okay is there anything else on un pass questions for Mr Dy thank you very much I appreciate it my pleasure you are welcome to leave all right Jess I'm gonna start giving my update on the budget subcommittee while you get your presentation up well we'll going to roll into subcommittee updates we're g to spend 10 minutes on this and Carol's going to give us a brief update and then Julie has something she wants to discuss and then we'll roll with the votes all right so budget subcommittee me um Nancy pretty much gave an update two big things uh tomorrow and then second thing we talked about is what Julie's Been spe lator which is the chair us facilities policy um and just a

056brief background while Jess is setting up bar he's not here and she has the next two um the past the district has never enforced a policy about charging youth groups in Berlin to use the facility um on the weekends we do have a policy in place that says a custodian must be present on the weekends when the facility is in use by uh groups outside of the school um and in the policy it states that we are to pay the custodians time and a half so if a group group such as Berlin youth basketball needs to use the Berlin school gym um for let's say eight hours that become per weekend that becomes extremely postive um last year since that was not enforced and it was not built that cost is not built into the

057fees so right now kind of and again this is what we discussed at our meeting where we're kind of at this Crossroads where we either need to fix this policy or we need to keep it as is and and enforce it Men last year ever been never not to our not to myge never I know there's a different way of operating Community use of school and all that what they I mean they just never is it the town's right to use it I how does it work I don't know joh you more Yeah question is town right to use it I don't May that's not the right term I know what you mean um it's when the school was built and you can jump in with this because we just got the lease agreement from

058burand to kind to take over the school as the stewards of the school formally um so we're having that review by the attorney but historically when school was built was designed so that public the community would have access to the that could mean the games things like that town meeting would be held there any activities could be a lance Club activity so the building was opened in various ways as need right except somebody from the town requested it I think I can only speak to it's usually used for Town meetings could be Scouts something like that but there was never in those in those days there were like Keys we didn't even have swipe cards somebody was given a key key and could open the building was very free about how that several people had

059keys probably along the way and that's how it was used I don't I don't know if it was really used so much by the towns that in that way other than knowing they have probably the basketball programs yeah since I've been along it's just been used for basketball W uses a little bit for things like or something how long um uh several I mean I've been Affiliated basketball years even though the policy is in place so I mean it's just well the policy however this language presents was was approved in 2022 so it's so it's I if it was it was January 20122 and also keep in mind that it was it was separate districts too so did was it own thing because when the when the school was built it was pitched on Town

060floor that that space would be used as community space so much so that the school entrance is locked from the gym that's what told you right right how that language then was put in the lease well there a new lease anyways because region I did ask the Town Administrator to consider or have legal on the town and look into the shared use agreement we can discuss this if it's so do you wantan to do you wantan to all right so why don't we all right Jess you do that and then we'll have l a quick update on policy and um superintendent and then we'll go back to Julie no thank you no no no I that so they crossed over because we discussed it in the facility subcommittee meeting um but we're not going to

061solve this problem tonight and Carol's going to talk about to kind of links in the whole security issue and the lock doors and but we as a committee have some work to do on this facility stuff and I think we learned that during our uh our seminar where we we got to work on these leases it's our responsibility right so um we have some work to do it's not going be S tonight but at least I want to start delegating which subcommittees are going to do it what we're going to do and Julie does need to request the committee to wave some fees for the remainder of the season because they just they don't have the money to pay for the custodian um for the remainder of the Season all right just take it away

062okay I'm G to call Lisa up here because there's a one or two slides that maybe um so November 8th 9th and 10th um there was a conference down in Cap Cod that included the Mas which is uh school superintendence and then masc which is school committee um and so it was a fascinating conference there was a ton of different um lectures that you could go to I put everything like everything into the drive um so I hope no one had a heart attack but we're going to try to fly through it as quickly as possible I know it's a late night um but we had a meeting on Friday Lisa Carol and I and B Nicole for two hours and we talked about all the different talks that we went to um thank you

063Nicole and and so it was just a lot of exciting things for our district so we really tried to take quick little bites of the most exciting materials that were here um probably the one I'm most excited about U they had a group come and talk about Blackstone Valley collaborative and so we lose a lot of kids to as Valley because they want either the skills or that environment is you more Hands-On is is better for them and so this is able to do it outside of the curriculum as an extracurricular course it's 4.0 grades um it's 12 different schools that they had that came together they did have a three-year Grant from ASA who's American student assistant um and it was using resources that you currently had in the school asking other schools in

064the area I mean they had their collaborative to seeing what resources they had so like we have a robotics lab here we have an incredible art room you know with Ceramics so it's like looking at what resource you resources you had that you can maybe offer to other schools in the district and get to together and make us collaborative and we already belong to the aset collaborative um so that's something that could be looked into in that Avenue the classes happened uh 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and on Saturdays to try to serve you know athletes could still do them on Saturdays or even 6 to8 um depending on the season they offer three courses per semester it really engaged the kids on IEPs on autism spectrum um to get more Hands-On

065creative and creating things um and aside there was a job core table outside as well um and and they mentioned that job core is 120 different sites and it's a post-graduate program but they mentioned there's dual enrollment for senior year which is really intriguing I I wanted to try to look more into that um but you can graduate with a skill you live on campus they have social workers is an amazing supportive program for kids that college is not for them um so that is also I'll give this to you guys but it it was a really exciting program too sorry if I can't understand me oops oh it didn't bring it up all right sorry sorry I just wanted to fly through the pictures of their there sorry too many windows open uh so

066this was the presentation they gave they have a lot of support um you guys again can look at some of this information it's not oh um anyone that's text ABY know how to get out of here or I mean there is that is a link I don't know how I can open that with presentation I apologize guys oh I see you're gonna have to end the slideshow and then drag it over oh okay you can't bring anything over thank you um kind of a big statistic is that they had uh they had to do pre- survey that 30% were giving like minimum effort in school uh were engaging in school and then at the end of the survey up to 60% of the kids were engaging in class so not only were they engag Eng

067in this material after school but then they were more engaged to learn during the the school hours um sorry so just some of the pictures some of the schools and these weren't Tech schools but some had materials to do um welding and different science projects um they also had nursing tables uh culinary carpentry um they had virtual we building and and the mom was a school Committee Member was also speaking on this panel and this was her child really he was on on the Spectrum and just became really engaged and enthusiastic and really came out of the shell so to speak um so it's a really you know in terms of equity kids can feel more comfortable feel like they're excelling at something and then be more participating during the day in their regular classes

068um but it was just a really exciting program and there's grants available aailable um so it's just very exciting thing got say that more than once it was very moving the that Mom you know she had a tear and ey we all had a tear and ey just in the difference it made for those kids that felt so kind of limited in the academic classes so we talked at length of this on Friday so this is uh don't stay on your message strategic plan at the Forefront but there was a lot of great material on how to engage the public and get our message out like the three-year plan not even staff knows about that um so really trying to get the video of when you did your Spiel like not uh you know year

069ago fall right so this it was really about communication and they talked about the Strategic plan but it could be about anything and I don't really know how much we're communicating with our community but they they were were suggesting that we do it like we invest in it dollar Ford dooll with policy and it's not really like PR it's more like Community engagement and building pride in the school and getting parents excited and you know the the larger Community excited can probably help with budget the whole budget process if everybody's just really um psyched about what we're doing in the school and um this is you know it goes along with with Carol's District Improvement goal with the community engagement you know and I know you're going to a lot of events and things but

070this could be an extension of that even um they they just talked about some of our modes of communication like the website and how we can make it more interactive more visually appealing and more intuitive um has to be ADA Compliant mobile friendly and you know just having more interactions like you know the accordians with the FAQs and things like that just to make it more fun have really great pictures uh so social media they suggested that we're communicating throughout the year about our progress what we're working on initiatives shout outs to teachers and students of course having permission for all of that uh just news stories just all kinds of things that just make people like everybody can be informed if they want to be and excited about what what we're doing and they

071even suggested printes so if you have if you do have a strategic plan you might want to have a nice print out of that and give it to the different stakeholders in the community and you could even make bookmarks you know have a QR code on it I thought that was kind of a cool idea but but basically they were just emphasizing the need for communication and I was wondering if do we have like a Communications person on the school committee or or we don't so this is for school committee not the district it's kind of both um so it's really both well it's yeah very separate because the District maintains and controls their own web page and school committee has absolutely nothing to do with it right um yeah so we we mentioned like

072Carol's newsletter yeah we have a a page on their page but like John's controlling his school Sydney's controlling her school Lisa has tondo we don't have any control over what they're putting on their site the pictures they're posting like we don't have any access to that so yeah I mean it was talking like Carol's newsletter and the principal's newsletters that like are those going out to the general public and and sending them maybe to the town or posting them to the the Boon neighbors connect or whatever to engage and so like for the link there's a lot of parents but maybe the's parents are burned out and we can get wider community members to come and do nature or science or um if we Outreach to them and so that was some of the thinking

073good point yeah it was pretty exciting so we could do probably a lot with that if we want to um okay I think that was okay so this was another really great talk and it was about how to navigate polarizing debates and you know we're in a very polarized Society right now our schools are getting hit with all of these topics as well um one thing that really hit me in this talk was that the teachers are really affected by it and so much so that they s limit what they talk about with their students me that was just in the survey that was done through that organization but the Massachusetts law requires that multiple perspectives are taught and but teachers are afraid to say things that are controversial so they just don't know if

074they're going to have the support so so this in this uh Workshop they suggested that we do have training for teachers on what the topics are how to handle it what they can say maybe what they shouldn't say say just so everybody's on the same page and everybody feels supported and the teachers don't feel like they're out there alone and that they'll be attacked um they they also suggested and I love these ideas that we have a monthly Community conversation events scheduled throughout the school year where we can invite the community in have a certain topic maybe have it facilitated by somebody that's you know like a separate organization like maybe like braver Angels you know somebody like that and where the you know parents community members can interface with the school we can really

075get you know just work through some of these topics that are so divisive we could also have listening hours what they call and that could be at a local community center like at 19 Carter like we've talked about before um we could bring braver Angels into the school you know to have different talks as well and they also suggested things like surveys polls um and just being out in the community like Carol is definitely doing and also after or any events like this that we share what we learned with with the rest of the community so that everybody who spoke feels heard understood and then the rest of the community is informed as well and then they they touched upon when you are in a polarizing debate so like when somebody comes up to you

076starts yelling shouting this happens a lot on social media as we know they actually recommended that you don't engage on social media because once you reply to one comment you you're on the hook to reply to all of them and usually those conversations don't actually make any progress and that's why they emphasized more of these face-to-face opportunities and being out there making yourself available for face-to-face conversations um and they said you know if somebody comes up to you and you're out in public one of the best ways to start your response is just to refer back to core values and that what your core values are the school's core values are it's just a very centering positive way to start the discussion they also suggested and this is for everybody if anybody's watching in the

077community too that we focus on the issues and not the players so we're not attacking each other you know we're talking about the issues themselves also to not be dismissive of opposing viewpoints you know diversity in thought is important and um uh I think that was it yeah and just the social media that it's just not the best platform I'm sorry my notes are on so the next talk kind of um kind of continued topic from what Lisa went to uh it was uh an all conference presentation called transform of relationships uh and and she she had this I don't know if you can't see that very well huh scarf thread so c s c a RF um and so they do stand for certain things so the first one is status so so when

078there's change uh it's not the change they're afraid of it's it's being left behind and so with status it's your relative importance with others um and so you know it's make clear that it's not your status that's being changed it's belonging for everyone um my apologies and is it clear that these are these are people that might be questioning initiatives like for diversity equity and inclusion she was the speaker was talking about like these might be some of the concerns that people have yeah and and to take take it like this is maybe why they reacting the way they are right exactly like they have legitimate you know life experiences and concerns that make them you know scared and these are ways to communicate with them yeah so the status like we're not going to

079you know you're not going to get cancelled um no one's going to to get fired and and that they feel listened to um the certainty you know the ability to predict the future so knowing what the next move is that you crave data not being left out of what the plan is um because it is very frustrating not to know details certainly when I wasn't part of this committee I felt very frustrated that things were getting talked about and I felt details weren't being shared to follow along um and you know it's that fear of the unknown and then autonomy the sense control over events um again that all opinions matter no one's going to be discounted and that in disagreement that we grow um and that we all want to be heard and to

080do it with me not at me um then relatedness the sense of safety with others that sometimes people feel you know it's the smaller group being comfortable in the with and the bigger group but then also the bigger group being comfortable within the smaller group um and that it's about the the kids it's about Humanity it's not about certain groups or or identities and the last one's fairness so to manage expectations that we all need time to process change um and that it's it's important to recognize that change takes time but it it was really a fascinating talk um if you ever get a chance to hear Dr darnisa Amante Jackson talk she was a very dynamic speaker and I guess Carol had heard her at another venue as well so um one thing that

081came out of that talk as well is that when you start with diversity it takes like four to five years to see the belonging and the inclusion come out into mcast scores um so I thought that was a really interesting thing that even like the funding and the you know the the mcast scores it takes time to to see those things come to fruition and come out in the MC scores so and that that is data supported by a Harvard researcher as well so this next one is interest based bargaining um so we are going to be bargaining I think the summer of 2025 Carl was saying um and I guess bees had done this before Carl was saying when she was part of that committee um and the basic principles are separating the people

082from the problems Focus on the interests not positions um and your partner is coming to a solution rather than them versus us um it is a five to six hour training um but it sound like the people that go through with this training and the process it's a very satisfying and productive experience um when the bargaining happens we both went to this presentation um so it's culturally responsive social studies so it was Medway that piloted this program um and so I really liked it because it was a critical thinking so the piece of paper that they handed out was was this and it was an article about this person and she ended up running The Gazette and it looked it it talked about some of her background and her religion and then it said it

083made you look at and ask you these things and how would that frame her experience in life um and so I think it's really critical skill for our kids to assess a source of information um and to be able to you know go out and look at the internet like not all the internet sources are the same and um and so it was really an interesting um curriculum that desie has it's a pre curriculum and the goal is to live local think globally and E ethically it seem to really bring the history alive you know because you're looking at it Through The Eyes of these historical figures yeah and we were talking about um historical fiction and how that again brings it alive and and makes makes a different perspective real to to kids so

084this is a lunchtime talk um you know artificial intelligence teachers are starting to flip the curriculum read at home and then come write the essay in school um to prevent cheating to prevent cheating the G GPT detectors aren't really useful to detect when they're using you know the whatever gbot um and but to also make room for some experimentation like how could it benefit us this is something that is now going to be in our lives um so um software designers now are using AI alongside them to develop software so we have to kind of think about incorporating it as well there was a lot of slides for this one um kind of the big takeaways there's two different talks on legal um issues and different cases that are ongoing um and they were Mas

085masc legal advisers and actually a colleague of Kim's was there and so one of the takeaways is they really encourage us to have a written policy about f Facebook page um to be very clear about who controls it what's posted and and if responses are are done um and then there's different forms within the school and in the school that the school can limit your first amendment rights when it crosses a line of violating someone else's civil rights which I thought was interesting um and right now in the First Circuit Court Massachusetts um so far is upheld the schools required to teach certain sub subjects no matter what one of the last ones I went to was communication Styles and Jim Hardy I guess is retiring soon uh but he assessed you know a series

086of questions of what your communication styles are and he comes to school committees and tells you you know does a whole questionnaire and tells you what your communication style is and how they can work together and how they're important to have opposing Styles but that if everyone's kind of like on one side of the grid it was a you know X and Y if everyone's on one side of one of those lines that sometimes you can come across challenges um and so we had a bunch of different books working with difficult people dealing with people you can't stand coping with PE difficult people and I hate people which I thought was fun um but just so many resources there and like I said if you want more details there's a ton in the drive there's

087a two-hour meeting you can watch from Friday um but I really encourage you to think about going to the conference in the future it was really interesting to hear what else is going on in the state and different Desi and and other resources and obviously we can't do ad Justice with a 10 minute little great thank you guys so much I appreciate it that did remind me I did forget one thing speaking of the faceb page um usually the chair controls our Facebook page it's just how we've done things in the past I'm actually going to delegate that to our district secretary which is lii Hart um so if anyone has an issue with that please let me know but pretty much all L will be posting on our Facebook page it'll be agendas and

088factual information that we've already discussed at meetings so she's just taking it off my plate so it's one less thing I have to handle um and for that I'm greatly appreciative okay all right did anyone have questions for Jess and Lisa yeah the blackone collaborative that you mentioned yeah um can you say a little bit more about that like who's involved how is that something you're asking us to start or it's an idea right so we're thinking how do we keep the students that are finding they need to go to aset um and so it's a way to offer them um you know there's only so many minutes in the day it's a way to offer them kind of these different handson classes and that they can experience different things and maybe do I want

089to do that in the future no I don't really want to do that in the future but find out now before they go off to college or or whatever trade they might think of um so it's something to investigate um we belong to the aspect collaborative and so you know just trying to think of like what our resources are and then reach out to other schools to see if that's something they may be interested in I know there was a a parent who was interested in trying to restart the stem pack it's not quite the same as this but they might be interested in working on that with you I don't know that's a great project for your subcommittee um actually there was a lot of things in your presentation I was thinking that you

090guys maybe could pull and then what you can do is bring your ideas to the committee or bring them to Carol obviously first and how she feels about it if it's doable in the district but that's a great task you know for them to do the research and the leg work ahead of time at their subcommittee meeting and discuss and see um you know what needs to be done the cost obviously is going to be a huge thing and then it would have to be brought to the committee and yeah the grant yeah go ahead car two quick things one is the conversation on Friday that we want to put the my newsletters the newsletters should go to the towns and that's something and I start doing so even that is a simple way to

091communicate even the Facebook page and number two the Strategic plan all of these are great resources we don't have all we have to decide which ones are important to our district but they're great to know who we can contact when we need to one of the key ones I think you talked about is the Strategic plan I know I keep reading the drum on this but it ties into the work of graduate the collective Vis of the 21 stakeholders who are involved in that discussion putting that together the next step is to develop a strategic plan that's a piece Peter spoke about it earlier I I can't be responsible for what happened in the past but going forward involving these individuals all in the Strategic plan is our next steps today and I think we

092can pull a lot of these These are the direction we want to go in no sense going in a I'm trying to avoid is this is my idea that's your idea I'm weing all over the place what is our Collective vision for our children we have to decide we're to Crossroads right now about that we have new you heard a whole different profile coming into the high school all of the schools who are these children coming in what do they need to succeed we talked to alumni last time next time we're going to be talking to admissions counsels from the colleges you get feedback and I'm going to start to put this together The Next Step next year is starting to go on that strategic plan we're finishing up that the district Improvement plan with

093concrete plan a lot of things we needed and we did need them to that point the math teacher is among those right on there and there's each thing presents its own kind of separate issues we're finishing up that last year next year that ties in perfectly with the timing to launch that strategic going forward it just makes sense because it's systemic and it involves a collective body stakeholders all different types of so thank you to Jessica for for capturing all this I I am in awe of that I go to these conferences all the time um so I hear all of this and the body of me one communicating that but when we can sit and talk about them right and I you share that it's a tremendous it's good great it was a great

094confidence I'm sorry okay Lori you have two minutes to do your super so for policy there are two um policies that we're voting on those were in first reads last time there are seven ones that are the seven that are in the drive that are first reads this time we went over it Mike Carol and I and M MC suggested changes and we agreed with all of them so that's an easy reading you can see the differences I made sure that I put them in there so you can see the old policy the new policy where the changes are so those are in the drive for you for a superintendent evaluation update um in the drive you'll see we have the Jess and I updated the new um evaluation model as well as the rubric

095to reflect Carol's goals I'm not going to hand it out we're not going to go over it but it's in there if you want to take a look at it we we'll be presenting it in January um we had discussed originally having an masc come in do a workshop with us train us on superintendent evaluation there's too much going on with budget we found online at masc and I will send you a link there's a webinar if you want to watch it you can if you can watch it on your own time and there's also um Miss Costello has created a folder in the school committee Drive entitled superintendent gold FYI goals FYI school too evidence um unlike past years where we were given this all like at the update stage Carol's putting things in

096as she makes progress which I think is really helpful so please try to check in on that every now and then it'll make the evaluation at the end of the year a lot easier thank you that's awesome and side note to Piggy back off of that speaking of Carol's goals we actually a little business item we actually did not vote on them we discussed them she's been moving forward with them as a formality we never voted so tonight it's just a formality yep we didn't we went back in love we did we check yeah we agreed we just to the vote we agreed on it and I don't I think because we were supposed to vote the following meeting and then it just never made it on the agenda um but we did review the

097goals so we are going to vote on those tonight um and there's lovely little folders that Carol is tucking things in exactly we're already almost at the midyear point so um so we will vote on that but if if anyone has any questions on that now lri would or Jess might be the person because they've been working on that if there any questions on Carol's goals it will be colorcoded Carol was really great she put in each standard and how it related to it it's just it's just it's phenomenal and when I present it next time it won't be a very long presentation when Justus I present it um you'll be able to see that it's just it's going to be really she she's laid it all out for us that we can honestly just

098look at the work and then write it and not have to pull and go do our own investigation and thank you for the compliment that is what it's supposed to look like oh my goodness it is tremendous they know that they all do that we just haven't seen that in the all right Carol what do you need five 10 minutes well I don't know I'm I'm GNA start with the easy stuff first we do have the date for the school resource office forum for Boon that's going to be uh that's on Monday January 22nd from 5 to 7 Megan and I are meeting with B selectman and John Mada April stward I think that's it on Thursday to set up what we're going to be talking about so the Forum is obviously going to be

099publicized across the town in Boon and it's question and answer period for folks we just want to make sure we we have what we think folks will want to know about during that time so um that's the school first off forum for town of boy individuals was the burd invited today I I haven't invited anybody yet oh oh Julie you this is confusing because you didn't come to that attend that select Bo meeting in Boon they specifically asked to hold a town Forum to see if the town is vested that was a boon Board of select a select board ask in Berlin because so the srl would be based at it would be a boon police office officer for Tanto and no I know that but they work in Partnership that's just why I'm asking

100just to least this is just to decide if how the town feels if they even if the select board will even approve it because we can't do anything until they approve it so once the town approves that then we need to Loop Berlin in so that that same select I believe Mike was there I believe Mary Porter from Berlin came and he expressed um she was not she said the schools took all the money last year so there's no money left over for she did not see a need for Berlin to have an SRO this would be something that would be funded through the police so that would be a Berlin thing if they want something specific for Berlin Memorial there's also a Tanto pce well the way it works is it would be a

101boon police officer that would build the district and then the district would have to allocate part of that expense to Berlin but the but so Berlin PD is not going to have any should be in collaboration but this is this employee would be working for John and nunia no yeah I understand that but seeing as he's an SRO I I'm just saying just to keep Berlin if it is a community for I would just say out of courtesy to the Berlin p p for or being asked to pay for it we can absolutely invite them to the Forum yeah unfortunately you know what I'm saying though about the decision making is John is hiring the person John is supervising the person because it's in the town of Boon so how would that work if Boon

102goes ahead with it and we have a Tanto you know that Berlin should be painful but you haven't asked burlin yet that's one of the conversations I think we well that's going to be in the budget it'll have to we'll have to decide it'll be an ask in the budget so it's going to end up going on Town floor whether it's approved or not but that is going to be something that would be in the budget so it's not really asking Berlin it's putting it in the budget T budget wouldn't be there it be cover town but the Berlin part T budget would say that again sorry you're saying it's different between the two yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out both go in the B they both this forum though is decid is

103determining if the town of boil [Music] I get what you're saying it's if the police if the police want to actually hire an SRO so it's for the police Saturday not the school Saturday this meeting that we're having and then the same thing for the for because the select board in Boon has to approve you were at that meeting right it was kind of confusing the select board has to approve the police to hire an SRO right has nothing to do with the school that's select board and police in the town of because T sits in the town of Boon yeah I'm a little bit my understanding was don't think the percentage breakout was it's definite say it's 6040 60 to the school 40 to the the time of boil Bo percent 60% will be

104split in our buget to yes and then on the police side you know there's other expenses benefits vehicle all that uniform police outside school time yeah exactly so that's why this is a boon thing for now and then yes Julie will absolutely we'll like invite them to the Forum but it's a boon select board PD decision yeah he might we'll invite her we'll see her tomorrow we'll invite him yeah the other the next thing community outreach I'm just as I'm out there in our community PTO meetings everyone tomorrow yeah tomorrow I finan I'm out there with our people but I want to get out more to the general population the general community members I wrote a list down of places that I want to get to um just me one that was great today I

105did I was at 19 Carter not to push the budget I just want to tell them what good things we're doing at the schools and hear what their concerns are hear their questions so I'm kicking up the coffee chats they send the date within the next couple of days um out of what what I'm planning as I set these up the the libraries and the different areas the other thing we talked about doing I wanted to maybe Megan you and I can work on it and making sure we hit the meetings the finance meeting select board kind of DIY it all up so everybody knows where they're going to be um on different nights or can be um because I think it's important based on our's presentation that we show to the table so we'll

106get those two that I can work on that yeah like a sign up sheet I think we had a sign up sheet last year yeah we STI something in the drive and if everyone can you know tackle so they we just wanted to bring everybody involved get everybody involved in that um so we need to beight um last thing so this is a bigger topic and I think it's going to roll into a lot that Julian Megan and I have talked about and speaks to that policy I let me just say a couple as we approve facilities use they come to me and I sign them in this case they came through first it was Tanto and I said well they have to have a custodian they've had custodians right too had boil so when

107I came time to sign Berlin might will be a custodian there that's what the policy said so I happened to be sitting with Megan I said I need to call Julie as the head of the W department and tell her this so she went okay and then she left and and I called Julie and that was that was a shock and it didn't go overwhel I am responsible for the policies of the school committee anyone were not following it's important you tell me about I need to look into we need to change and that's what our work is and I'm holding them now I'm caught between a rock and a hard place because as we talked about a few minutes ago it never was followed in burlin it just never was with everything it just

108S I don't know what happened it just never was now I'm sitting here and I'm like I need to follow the policy and then we went back and forth I'm like but it's your policy I'm know to tell you if I don't you can fire on me if I outwardly sit down to follow this policy you have the right to on me and I'm being in support and now following your poliy that's a little L thing so not only that and that's so pleas of what I worry about I think um I'm worried about the Safety and Security of our children I'm worried I'm I'm constantly on this this is my biggest initiative is why we have that crisis team from years ago I started that crisis team so we could come together as teams

109and protect those children children while they're in the school day I think we've done an excellent job with that they never want to turn around and say oh my God we did do something we chose not to for whatever reason and something happens I could not live with myself with that for not doing everything we possibly can and that's why we have had all these people involved in that conversation during the school day now we run into I think this the better part of it and I think it's a gift in a way is although it's been very unsettled I don't know how to describe it expensive expensive all kinds of extensive exensive and it does it raises all kinds of things of looking at the security of our buildings beyond the school day so

110we one thing the girl in peace brings up having a custodian there I do think it's important things happen during that time when when these games are kicking off or whatever it is it doesn't even have to be games there could be other reasons the building is rented we have that when other people from other places rent our space right in the facil especially my biggest concern because Boon and Berlin are very contained when they come in the rec programs that whole there's only a small section that they can be in um and and that can be controlled Tanto is my bigger concern look we're sitting here now the door's not Lo yeah who who's I don't mean to scare people I'm just trying to elevate how we can protect everybody who's involved it's a

111crazy that things are going on we get reports about things going on in the Commonwealth thank God not here but they're happening they're happening she we get phone calls you would get phone things right when you were a chair things happen and will happen happen you I don't know but but let's take care of things the best we can some of it may be an inconvenience as we go forward but then some of it will just become habit I don't want to make this decision and I'm backing I want input from people who who have a stake in the game that's why in my report basically I'm saying please let's form an ad hoc committee and look at the Safety and Security of each of our buildings what do we want to do going forward

112when do we want to lock the doors in the afternoon folks come in and out of here in the afternoon I I tried to start it and then I stopped the admin team and I said let's look at this after the holidays let's some we have to send out communication people can't show up at the door and then we've loock the door the next day otherwise everybody's why is the door locked it's not what we've done in the past but if that's what we collectively feel like we need to do my god let's do I mean let's let's take care of these things I I don't want to be by myself and making these decisions right now can uphold is your policy and I think we've worked out a reasonable decision around us for burlin

113for this year going forward I I I think I think we have I know Julie's G speak to that just gonna say it's a perfect set I don't know do do you want to comment on that Julie the which part that we've worked out a solution I've heard what Julie thinking the locked doors you want to talk about that first so what is the concern so what there was people found in a school they somehow got in they weren't supposed to be there the the concern is what they're they're going to hide out overnight until school come in the next day do something plant something C joint whatever it is yes that's what happened that came on the news that was one that's one incident but there are other things that have happened Through The

114Years in schools after hour I want to scare people but just I'm just trying to say let's be proactive anyone could get walk in right now and like go hide in one of the classrooms and be here or like plant something so we talked in the beginning it is to have the the key cards you know we did the additional cameras and the best rules for everything put those in we talked about the side door here that is kids are coming and going without any anyone sorry is anyone monitoring the cameras like overnight though or when people aren't in the building like is anyone actually monitoring those cameras monitor so having the doors open at night just sort of throws at all yeah that's exactly what she's saying how what do you mean how do

115they open that then having the doors open right now having these doors open or like on a weekend all that work you do during the day for extra security buzzing people in secondaries moving their desk they can see out the window cleaning up the trees and front of bees so they can actually see out the window again having an open for or any event was yeah kills all that effort unless and that's why I'm asking let's figure out what we can do better around this this is just this is why this wasn't like a specific agenda item I asked Carol to talk about her we haven't this just came up like a week ago so I think there's two separate things here Julie's going to talk about her piece about the cost for the custodian

116that's something different that we can vote on tonight and hopefully find some type of resolution for this thing I think we need to kids show up on it was a few weeks ago kids show up on Thanksgiving for basketball Ando a lot nobody knew what was going onake I was getting questions what that going idea I think it was a misunderstanding because Carol that's when she initially got some communication and she had communicated with some of the administrators and I think there was confusion amongst all of us um and that's when Dan who's here work with Julie and me and we we worked out schedule concerns and and fix that those schedules it's all new it's all new to us yeah so I guess my suggestion would be to have a group maybe another subcommittee

117that works with the police departments yeah I put a list of people my computer died it was in Carol's report but um I mean you got to work with the towns it' be interesting to know what other schools do yeah absolutely I think that that's part of our work so many schools the other thing Julie that the reality is like well this committee could put it out there we could go on the list ser and ask what other schools do we can see what other schools say they do and that's the other thing what you say you're going to do and what actually happens in real life sometimes they two different things right propped open three hours later I me we talked about that too because my my my position was that okay some District

118I go to superintendent meetings I ask what do you do they tell me things maybe it doesn't happen reality and some don't care end that they don't do it that's their problem some our problem I want to do what we want to do and what's best for us so ask other people so we can figure out strategies how'd you go about doing this how'd you get these people great to gather information from them but what they do what we do to do what they're doing do we I just think it's really crummy for the student I just think it's crummy for the students like this is their school they can't enter their school after hours because it's locked that creates a that's what this that's whats to get them in the door that tracks in

119school but that's that's a bigger a huge student IDs like students are they really responsible enough to be responsible for being able to open a building like no they're gonna like lose their ID on the side of Route 70 part of life you got to do it at work train valid have ID I guess if you lose your ID yeah right so I think that these are all good things that we need to talk about would driver Li these these are all ideas to bring to the we need it needs to be a bigger discussion though it's not we're definitely it's 8:30 we're not going to solve this so I think think maybe when Carol and I meet you guys think about like who's interested in being involved in this and and doing it I

120know Jessica you done so much so I don't want to put anything else on you because she just took off uh planning the master steering plan for me and she's on Port of graduate so you know I mean I don't know who's interested Lisa Mike or lii or Julie yeah so I mean like to Dan obviously yes absolutely like man and D that goes without saying yeah that's absolutely your realm um so I think car why don't we chat you guys think about who might be interested in sitting on this committee um you guys also have to have a say you know programming that goes on the weekends and it's your building so I just feel like this is a huge conversation and then the last part of this we want to kind of decide

121what we want to do then we kick it back to policy you guys have to take a stab at that and then it comes back to the committee I don't foresee this being done this school year I foresee this something that we would initiate for the next school year um hopefully you know being voted on by by May or June um so what's the security in interm with this FBI directive status quo status quo as it was we didn't make any changes because we haven't voted that would have to be a change of policy you don't have to vote or do a policy to put in security controls right that's why I said to my admin team I wanted to go forward and do a communication to to the public after the holidays that we

122need to sit down and work out how is this going to look but I don't know why you don't just reach out to the police Chiefs and get there into they I I have not yet well I talk to them all the time I'm sure I know what they would say you're right then we have to notify if we choose to do that and lock doors after hours more it's been really difficult even to consider that because there there's a there are there's significant public feedack huge that's G to create hug maybe instead of paying for Jor you just pay for security guard is what we talked about but a security guard so we had talked about that was something we talked about building a security guard into the budget but you would need that

123person to be here not every night and then weekend so you're T 40s so 40s hour tickets right or we can we can mon we caning for we strict access to different areas by ensuring that these door doors the corridors are locked that only one door is open there that it's monitored there that we have something going across and I have talked about something across the stairwell yeah the point is car it's the committee doesn't have to wait to plan a meeting to plan the next meeting to form a committee to have a meeting to plan the security protocol if it's a security and you've had it for three weeks now can you can make changes to security nobody's going to fault you for making security changes but what should she do you lock the

124door I don't know you you work with the crisis team and the police Chiefs all the time I start there but as far as long term we can do this what we're talking about but immediately if there's an issue a current threat assessment whatever you call it to the point where the FBI needs to send you an all superintendent a notice I don't know maybe that's just they send them one every day it's like candy I don't know but if it's rising to that level and now we're hearing about it we haven't heard about it in 3 years anything like this I would suspect you have authority to make security changes at the doors I would I would just add to that that It's Tricky Danto yes I mean these are least buildings right Danto

125yes I know you're the superintendent but B and BMS that school locks to these to the gym spaces so you say just lock the doors that is immensely disrupted to these youth programs so you're saying so I know I'm familiar with BMS you come in the side door you can only go into the atack room the bathrooms the gym in the gym you've got the office you've got the stage you can't the cafeteria automatically locked there's an entrance to the cafeteria that locks and then the double doors are locked bees has a similar setup anyway I don't understand we sweep room bathrooms the we do every time sweep the building that's we do after an open house Ry Ryan would do that I know at bees before he leaves so that for basketball at bees

126yeah it's 8 o'clock at night after he's gone no Mike's there 10 right 10 what time is no Mike what time does Mike stay night yeah we and I think same at burlin right you have custodian I mean so that sounds like problem solved then what are we worried about well it's the doors are still open so those two fine but he's the last one to leave that's when the door gets locked and then yes that's what we do at status even taking the the sports program out of it we have PTO meetings at night I think of Berlin there's a PTO that's going on in the library the link meeting but the do open all the way down the hall by the gym right that's how they're Coman is still in the building so

127Mike or whoever the burlin person is what part of their job is to make sure everyone is out and then sweep through no but even during that time period do we want the door locked that's what I'm saying and somebody has to be there to let people in then who would open it well you you move the PTO meeting to the cast that's exactly right but somebody has to run out and open the door not in not maybe building building no not at CL it's unlocked because then the after school kids are out and then the basketball program's in so you can still get from the gym into the cafeteria no uh no it's locked but if PTO was in there and they it is it locked or is it unlocked it's completely locked you

128cannot get in the school side of the building P wanted to have their meeting in there they would put someone at the door the C door and make sure nobody exits I mean these are not these are easy fixes I don't think the answer is no we just have to figure out what we're going to do at tont over the weekends T well no I I we have more than that but yes add too so yeah and same thing so yeah I think burlin and Boon but now you know if you don't have a custodian so in Boon um the gym is only open for three hours on Saturdays correct Cindy and then the building is locked and nobody's in there the rest of the weekend correct so fine Brian is there those 3 hours

129the custodian and Boon is there for those three hours on Saturday he's responsible for checking the school there's no issues at Boyston Elementary and there is no need for that gym any further than those three hours because Boyston has Hillside which their wreck basketball uses as another facility to practice but he also shouldn't even be on school who right well he's not it's fine I'm saying you said check the school is so you can get from the you cannot get from the BS gym to the school no there's a door that's locked that they keep locked um so it's a bathroom a very little hallway and then the gymnasium they also have a stage and all that there's closets and whatever but it's sounds like it's a solution for that the issue is Tanto okay

130so what do we do with Tanto do you keep the door like again it's a high school so on the weekends are people in here probably right Lisa um so I mean there's practices there's practices practices not only that you rent it out to multiple places I know we had a dance recital here I mean it was people were all over the place so I mean there needs to be a policy moving forward what is the policy are the doors always going to remain locked and when you do you need to purchase a security guard if you're going to have a recital here do you have to have the doors locked and have a security guard or are you allowed to have the doors unlocked and it's free roaming in the school you can get

131any and then or does somebody have to sweep the school after I don't know I don't know so here's my question what even with the security guard I'm coming here to watch the basketball game all right yeah and then I go in the gym and I come right out and I go up the stairs well if the door is locked and people are going to complain what I'm saying lock anything going St what's that front door so even at the security let somebody yeah they don't know exactly so we're trying to control Society here I don't know that I feel like maybe it's worth a meeting with the police Chiefs mik right the crisis team so maybe Carol you and I should talk to them maybe at the next Crisis meeting we can bring this

132up and just say what do you recommend and maybe we don't need to make this more into what but it needs to be a reasonable solution we can't just be okay we're just G to have the doors locked all weekend at too know the way is to have all these other doors all the way G always closed at weekend only you get through is key or badge do is there a Swip thing at every double door yeah oh there is they just to this area every yeah oh there oh I didn't know that Sol oh there it is thank you except for the up get upstairs this they as they can't get through they won't be upstairs no locked oh those backs locked so every door is locked you just have to be designed it

133that diligent about lock the spaces just have to be locked whose responsibility is that codian codian but we leave the door open to the access to the gym whatever it is to come gym in the bathrooms so then you so all is locked so this open area will be open and then the custodian needs to do a sweep before he leaves but then you absolutely need a custodian well then you would need a custodian to and be honest with you custodian is always been um for like if there was something on the weekends so we there never have to be a hired custodian during the week because that custodian is on staff until 11 but on the weekends because I used to do student council we always hire a custodian for anything if a custodian

134was not on staff we had a hire one so that's always been the case for Tahanto and I think it's because of the nature of the building all right so Carol let's do that let's do that we'll add that on to our agenda and then something and I'll bring it back next time um I done so I can only speak to what I have done yeah just like Saturday practice do I'm curious no because that's a employee of the school that's a team correct was that the employee of the school coach comes in no no janitor come in [Music] on should be talk after him all right Julie give your um quick thing vot on that so tell the committee what you're asking okay so currently the PO policy requires a janitor on staff for

135the entirety of the time that anyone is in these buildings now larger discussion is for our to maximize facility use I would propose that these schools go into share use agreements with the towns so that these gyms especially can be used by your community members whether it's your youth basketball programs it could be the seniors that do share volleyball or pickle ball or whatever it happens to be um that they're able to use these facilities right because in Berlin we have no rec center there is no senior center in Boon I know they have limited re space over there um yeah but it's just the gym it for the policey upstairs um so it's just the gym so is there a senior center there no no so we have to be able to or we

136should be the schools should be supporting Community Access to these to these sites right certainly for seniors and youth nonprofit organizations um so I I I'll definitely recluse myself from this vote but I I do want to make a motion to um in a current policy I want to which is file KF Community use those facilities I want to strike completely service fees and rental fees for um all youth groups that are registered 501c3's or nonprofit associations um for the rest of the year and to bring this policy back to policy subcommittee to to bring it back to the policy subcommittee with a better understanding that these nonprofit groups are just that they're nonprofit groups for the Youth in our community so you want the school district to pay for the custodian so here's the

137tricky thing right these these groups have been functioning for over 10 years without any custodian on site we've manage the floods in the BMS gym Berlin Recreation committee pays for the gym floor we pay for the basketball hoops we pay for the maintenance of that facility so with all due respect I get they you're trying to uphold a policy but that building is funded that gym space maintenance is funded through the Berlin Recreation committee not the school so to come to present this to us when we' already started our program to me seems like it's in it just it just doesn't show good measure or good faith with with that organization I understand your upholding policy I really do I I I get that um and and so because of that that I think we

138rewrite that policy but in the meantime right now I'd say for BMS and B that you strike this my motion is to strike the service fees and the rental fees for any organization that's registered Serv in terms of custodians correct so no custodians or or let me qualify that and it will be overseen then by The Parson rep committees but Boon and that's not the case why think Ryan on Sat Parkson no rental basketball does boon pays rental no they don't they I believe they just pay for they just pay the c c it's a CIA they just pay Ryan three hours yeah they just pay Ryan yeah it's over, okay Ian it wasn't that way last year I have all the bills okay I last year they paid a rental fee I mean I

139don't know if we're talking about the same program the Boon youth basketball program cmf basketball same different no that's okay Boon West bston basketball yeah yeah yeah I paid a Jim usage and custodian last year yeah Carol wave that fee this year waves the Fe for anything that involv our children yes it also pays for and they pay for the floor they pay for the boops yeah they do the same thing for the gym Boon pay I'm talking about hills Hillside oh yeah yeah yeah pays for Oiler right now as far as I'm I know that's not happening after and they're not paying for the Hoops because we're having some hoop issues the floor issues no that's all through the school I'm talking about the hillside sorry that's I just clarified with her yeah B

140no because yeah I understand ra isues over there and the floor and you know so I think we should keep bees as is and I think it's working no one's complaining Ryan is there for three hours you're comfortable with that that's always how it's been in Boon right and paying for Ryan as far as I know and the only thing that organization is paying for is for Ryan for three hours I can't speak to what they're paying for at Hillside I don't know the answer to that oh beside yeah Hillside because they have two so the thing is with boil they have two gyms so they just need the school facili gym for those three hours because they also have their recreational Hillside gym so they have two gyms in Bur we have one gym

141what w wave them for well that's what I would think I think it has would but then do you want to have custodian there is the question because I don't understand ever since I've been in this town I've been told when they built the School BMS it was intended to be shared community space the community can use it November or sorry January 11 2022 Susan was chair we're on this policy committee Jeff was here I remember having this conversation the town gets free use of building BMS so are we going to charge town meeting we've never charged town meeting for they use the building basketball whoever else we Charing I'm sorry that's the facilities use but they don't pay they do get it free we don't charge anything we they have a custodians on the

142duty during that time so that's not an issue it's really the weekends we holidays weekends holidays custodial fees so I guess the question is saying I it says custodial Fe it specifically says custodial Fe dur does it specify after must be present at all times yeah so they're already there as Dan said I think they have a custodian in every building Monday through Friday on business days from like 7 to 11 right so if the custodian is there for town meeting which is a week night Monday 7 to whatever right basketball's there on a week night 5 to whatever why are they treated differently no it's not we're just talking about weekends so so the the custodians there basketball do pay during the week for the week the weekends you pay so we pay you

143know you know you've been there 9:00 amm until 7 at night we use a BMS gym so that's at 3650 an hour that's pricey right okay no it's 10 on Saturday and then Sunday as well it's used to because that's the gym for the burlon news basketball program for Boon they use the hillside program but because they're such a large program yeah I don't think we should be separating schools it's right it's not Equity whatever we pay in one town other so but the difference in equity I'm sorry no you go the difference in equity is that Julie if I understand correctly you guys are maintaining that school JY with your money well I think that was part of the conversation with Jeff was we don't charge in BMS it's it's always different in BMS

144it's always different in Berlin yes because it's always been different that was part of the conversation so I don't I don't even know that this applies to them that policy well the way it's written it does yeah it's yeah so either so I guess here's the question the first question is how does the committee feel about first let's take Berlin Julie has proposed let's just let who has a key you yep I have a key so Julie would there would be no custodian on the weekends Julie Lee is in charge of opening the building and closing the building and sweeping doing stuff in the building done for 10 so there will be no custodians in the building that's yes it is Wick confusing trust me so I would like to add yeah she's not getting

145paid the question is is the committee comfortable I don't I don't want the award I've always said that let's be square here 10 years of that I thought left off discussing this for this year we burlin because the custodians are having a minimum of three hours in their contract for any kind of overtime which is is included Brian would be covered in Boon the earliest paid the three hours but in Berlin for we talk throughout this year going forward is bur would just pay that like that three hours even if they're there 10 hours the the Dan has custodians available to open up when everybody goes and set everything up for them and then come back walk up sweep the school make I say sweep sweep the area make sure everything's safe clean up the

146bathrooms because they get heavy usage make sure the floors are okay because we start school the next day a lot of times after that Sunday so that would be the the custodian fee would be the three hours that's where I thought we left off discussing I didn't think we we did jie is I had a change of heart I'm sorry Carol she just told me I not know before I'm sorry I had to go back to the so I guess my question is Julie's put her position on the table Carol has put her position on the table this is a difficult conversation I want to know how you as a Committee Member feel about allowing let's put Boon to the side because I think Boon is working I get that you said we have to

147be Equitable but then you're taking away like Ryan has depended on that income he's that's he's always done that so say no Ryan you don't get those three hours how much money did did the re pay for the floor and all the equipment so it might actually be exactly so I guess the question is let's put push Boon aside the question is to the committee how do you feel about allowing jewelie this waiver would just be for this season and then it we have to change the policy I agree the policy has the policy has to change um allowing Julie to not have have a custodian there and she's in charge of that building I just just the gym area not the building yes that that area the other option that Carol just put on

148the table was to agree to have burlin pay for the three hours just like Boon does and have the custodian come in and open the building on Saturday and Sunday morning and then come back and clean up clean the bathrooms and close on Saturday evening and Sunday evening and so be six hours it would be six hours exactly right concern is also if nobody is in these buildings and if we do this blanket across the schools no we can't do this for I don't well but then that's kind of what Mike I think is saying cross we have to do the same all now we have something happens and I'm not talking about security issues I'm talking about the bathroom time we can't do that something happens in the buildings and nobody even knows about

149it the the heat went out what other time if something happens the person that contact is going to be Dan and then he's going to be called on the weekends it Carol if something happens in these buildings on the weekends nobody's here and that happens what do you do I mean it's a gift that people are here nobody's here for example I got water Al a flood that's I mean that's extraordinary fire goes off I get the alert yeah like I know when you go Jung what about like you know the end of an event like maybe an hour worth of can three hour minimum minimum three hour for custodians per day which is as you can see we've exhausted this topic Julie and I right so what do you guys think those are the

150options really like I we've kind of gone through every Avenue so the option is to wave B fees no custodian Berlin only I don't think we need to change Boyston or Tanto and the equity pieces because like you said Berlin rack is paying for the floor they're paying for the Hoops in that facility Boon doesn't do that no one does that for Tanto so that's option one option two Carol's put it on the table three hours on Saturday three hours on Sunday the program is responsible for can I or the other option is go pounce Ang got have these students already paid for basketball because whose pocket is this money coming out of yes ma'am they have the the fees are already there so I don't know if the program probably doesn't have the cash

151to cover have you yeah do you guys even have the cash to cover this and how be impactful for sure yeah exactly have to go back to families and or yeah they'll have to get donations or whatever that would be the programs we have to look at it from the school committee but yes that would be the program's issue yeah no I'm just curious yes yep you're exactly right LA and that was the issue that Julie was trying to present is that if she had known about this last Summer she could have changed her fee schedule and actually we looked at it Berlin youth basketball pays significantly less than Boyston youth basketball because Boon has those fees built in because we didn't know this for some reason they were getting charged a rental fee and

152a custodian fee in Berlin wasn't um last year so and but we we we there's that too I mean they pay $1,000 and they have the usage fee I don't know I don't know what the usage fee is Bo for last year it doesn't matter whatever happens to be but the idea with W programs is it's affordable for families this is programs are not trying to make profit here we're just trying to give these kids an opportunity to have something right these towns do not have thriving Recreation departments they're volunteer run what do you what do you guys want to do starting with you like I mean if I vote on this it's voting in my favor because I'm a member of this my kid plays here too of them so maybe I should vot

153I mean so does mine actually ironically enough well your kid doesn't play for burlin do yeah both kids well then we don't have we're not going to have a COR I mean I'll vote in my self-interest and not pay more if you want but that's what it will be but I'm asking you do you want no custodian in the building or do you want to pay parents to get one no what you would have to ask the participants to not to pay for the three yeah I think it's hard to ask you know a kindergarten parent who's showing up one hour a day for eight weeks to pay another $40 I think that's absolutely I mean could it just be a janitor for Sunday to make sure everything's clean for Monday I is that the

154biggest concerns are not problem on Monday morning never that's I'm Italian I mean I would guess not many if they're in for an hour and how many kids are actually going to the bathroom Carol how do you [Music] feel all so we know so we have this is the vote then we have to wave this policy because we're out of compliance with policy if we do that we just have to strike parts of it we can keep the top all right so Julie put your so that means we Dan listen this that mean there would be no custodian John you're comfortable with this I think it gives us time to think through a more realistic plan that's gooda yeah if we strike through now or just do a waiver oh no this is just GNA

155be a waiver Berlin youth basketball only or any Berlin youth basketball only through the season which ends February 12th Julie but it's I would say yes this well not on the weekends yeah I would say this is for any any youth group or any fiber1 C3 or what happens now we get a bunch of applications from other groups hey your space is free can I use it no but they would be no that's people fees yeah these are res groups Julie no you just said any those no resident resident Julie then we have to change the policy yeah the whole thing the waiver we're gonna vote on right now the waiver we're voting on right now is specific to burlin youth basketball right now all we're going to do so regardless this policy is getting

156kicked back to LA and Mike okay sure regardless you guys can R it but you have to remember keep that in mind it it's for everybody yeah right now I'm so mad I got free lunch baby wait a second I want free lunch [Music] okay Julie the motion is gonna be specific to Berlin youth basketball for basketball season we're not giving any more free passes to any other groups right now actually question so time meeting is during the business hour there's nothing else so if there's another group that wants to come in on the weekends when Julie Julie's already using the space for this so like let's say in March somebody's like oh I heard it's free we're just going to come in use the space no that's this this vote well no this vote

157specifically no the the motion is just for burlin youth basketball to wave all this for the remainder of the basketball season in the for Berlin well because the the director of re will maintain the security and the cleanliness yes because the president of Youth Basketball will for the next three weeks February 12th no February the week February 12th we going to play I would like to go on record of saying I I think this should be done for Boon as well how do you feel about that I think we need time to talk about it but I think there's a little discrepancy there because you're saying the rep is paying for that we at well they're not yeah and Ryan has been doing this for years I don't know how many years and if we're

158talking about it's not losing his job it's taking something away taking away from something he's planned through he's already set his good point can I add you that just good point another just to throw out there the fees that are collected are used for the gym floor for the for different things right so those would go lower that's all just I think we keep as this I get that you're looking for the equity Berlin they do it R isn't paying for anything for the school burlin rack is paying foro so I think the motion on the table should be specific to Berlin youth basketball for the remainder of the Berlin youth basketball season there's nothing no other progr go a policy and this policy and then you guys have to you guys can take this

159to policy and as long as it's done before you know the next season well no because then that space could get used for like we run basketball camps that's not for youth basketball that's through the W Department right so hopefully by March or April yeah I don't mean like next basketball season the next season spring season knowing this now you adjust your fees for right right right right well she's gonna adjust the fees but do you want in that policy do you want to put a maximum on there what if a program needs we we'll hash through that you got to Hash through that that's what I'm saying all right so Julie make your motion please not to be rude can I suggest somebody so given given the money put in by the rec department

160for the floors and other gym equipment the fees I don't know hopefully service fees and I move to wave all fees for Berlin youth basketball for remainder of their season through at least February 28 2024 is there a second is there a second ni have I'm watching second any discussion all in favor I I'm an i as well uh any opposed have to yes you can Y and Julie recuse your as she is the president of Berlin youth basketball all right motion passes can I just I do appreciate Mike made a point to Carol that we need to start following policy and that's what Carol was doing I 100% agree y so yeah so the obvious question Poli for another meeting okay okay I'd like to make a motion to approve the Tahanto Mark fidr

161Foundation donation all in fuss okay go ahead so we' had issues with uh other local companies and their donations and asking for the money back when it wasn't applied how they thought it was going to apply I was confused in what was provided in the drive with this specifically mentioning the Unified sports program what best buddies information being included in and I I can get clarification because best buddies um is part of the um Special Olympics part of the Unified sports it's it's all it's all kind of combined they're the same legal entity the same program that we have here same particip the same particip the same I and I I asked I reached out to the Fedrick um to to get more clarification on that and she didn't respond because the other thing speaking

162of a policy is that the donation policy specifically says the committee will spend the money as they see fit so but we do work to honor the wishes of the donor which specifically says we have a unified sports program right we don't have best buddies I know that's a separate vote coming up later so it's a little this missing information like if we vote on this and I and I didn't reach out yeah I know you did I don't know if we vote on this and there's leftover money technically we can use the money however we see fit it doesn't have to be leftover money it's whatever money we could use any of the money so maybe when we do these votes we should say to be used for well that's that's the the thing

163so to be used for you un ified sports but then it looks like there's a best buddies program to be run separately from this because I see the the financial breakdown of that program there which it looks like you're intending to use money it's all the same participants it is all the same all right so we but is it the same program because we already voted for the Unified sports program we have that going that's ongoing that's I think it was specific to what weightlifting or something weightlifting but they want to expand that um through the that's funny if they want to expand it to bot and and and and track okay I mean that's the confusing part because that information wasn't in there so the donor is saying the donor I don't know it's

164confusing to me because I'm not as familiar with these programs it sounds like two separate programs I tried to search Unified sports and Des ples together I didn't get anything that said they were together so I don't know I just we're we're into the weeds and the details of policy here so I think maybe we modify the motion to say to be used for Unified sports um sure and then if there's money left over you'd have to take it back to the committee and and we' have to revote on how to use those funds no just go to the next or go yeah it would be in a rare situation if the program somehow like like this is enough funding for one Whatever wants to be done are those other sports only through best buddies

165or are they under the do we have best buddies and Unified sports that's not what the donor's letter says the donor's letter it's so so the donation came because we were um I was at school councel and a member of school council a Community member who has um knows the mark FID Foundation okay there's that connection and so we were discussing that we were going to do best buddies and then through Best Buddies we hopefully increase the Unified sports and programming for um that group of students and this person at the school council said I can get you money to help you start that and I'm like great so this is for you know best buddies and un you know and ex extended unified because we need um nursing and also Care Professionals um and

166staff when those programs are running she's like absolutely you know I'll get you some money she came in the next day with $3,500 and said get these programs going that's that's awesome I'm totally in support of Ito local right asked I've asked for I wrote the people and I said can you please we need this specifically outlin and they just they didn't reply they just want it to go to this really this group of students for encouraging them all right I think we say to be used for Unified sports in the vote I think we're covered so the the motion has to be amended no I feel like it's best buddy who's the that's not how I interpret SOI Sports now we have the best buddies they might be under this kind of the same

167umbrella but if you improve it as Unified sports I think then we can't like we can't should prove it as best no we still have uni best buddies I think you got it the letter I have it right here in black and white it specifically says two separate programs I don't want to get into a situation like a few months ago L A Local Company want their money back um I mean I think they they're trying to pull together best buddies like as we speak you know they've been waiting we've been waiting explain how it's best buddies rather than Unified sports Olympics is defin best buddies are all supporting aspects of the same overall yeah I think we're getting caught up on DET yeah great they want to donate to Youth and sports best buddies

168I think I think out this is a good proposal of course you explain so all right all right we're GNA take the vote as is so the motion on the table was to approve the donation um of $3,500 to Toano from the mark sorry FID FID Foundation that was the motion on the table she did it nicely second you said so L and then Julie all right any more discussion we're g to vote is this so this is not to be specifically used just to use how this is just accept the donation and let the school use it potentially be used for something children of can [Music] weiling to the donor so to say used to be used according to the letter en thees of children disabili through focus on Sports and sports education the

169last paragraph of the letter says please direct These funds toward the Unified sports and fitness program signed warmer guards and Jessica F all right so so I to apply this money to the unified supports program as the donor was say sports and fitness programs would that kind of expand that's that's them describing their mission right towards univ Sports and fitness programs so fitness programs could so if we approve this and then we approve best buddies could this then just go to best buddies because best buddies is part of Unified sports that was a question I asked but nobody could answer it she said yes I'm thinking yes because that's what the letter does say so y okay okay so the motion about best bu but it says Unified sports so if they want Unified sports

170best buddies they're not the same and why we need to vote to create the best buddies if it's the same thing why so we should have voted for Best Buddies first Branch Sports yesan of it where do I see that so in the last sentence if you said if you would vote for Unified sports and fitness programs that should include anything that we might later vote under that including best best buddies a fitness I don't know what it is on the Mas a yeah yeah oh oh oh sorry Oh I thought you were no best buddies is like when yeah they go I know I used to do it when I was in like I I volunteered you goor that right you go yeah you got like there's kids that work with kids with special

171needs and they play sports they play games moved to motion to spend the money as the donor asked in their letter that should be blank enough y someone want to second that motion second okay all in favor of the amendment I'm an i as well that the amendment passes um anyone opposed no all right so um so now I'd like to make a motion to approve the donation of $3,500 to toono from The Mark fit Foundation as amended right the amended motion or specifically say to be used for as the droner wishes y that second all in favor motion passes all right um could I have a motion to approve the creation of the best buddies Club at Tanto second any discussion all in favor I'm an i as well before the ey is fine

172but it doesn't say anything in here about who's going to run the program who's the funding looks like it's only for one year what happens next year does this become part of the bu so that would be up to you it's Michelle Peterson she runs our program for the tools for living um program and the um tools for Living Program and um those students with special needs so she was wanting to you know start this program to see if you know it would you know benefit the students the whole school year and she was she was she was willing um to come speak today um but that would be a difficult ask to have somebody sit through four hours of meeting to come for right a moment so yeah all we need is the information

173of the drive above moving forward yeah moving forward I think we said for approval of clubs we need to know the cost to the district who's going to run it and any other perent information so I guess after this year we'll be part of the budget is my question so my take on it is that it's funded from the donation that you just approved the budget is in the drive it doesn't say the name of the person who's the advisor but but there is a right and it is not in next year's budget because it's funded by the donation that you approved so this doesn't start until next year or is it starting it start start it's gonna start as soon as it gets approved because it was it was on the agenda for last

174I think it's like uh was like 3,200 or something to run it and the donation is 35 so that's one year right or is that one one year no we discussed this this is for this year only so maybe that'll be a reiring donation so yeah that's right so the budget was going to be adjusted like there was additional exp year so we up the expenses it'll be used yes so that was my question so it's a one year it's a one year yeah try it out and see if it's successful maybe we'll be lucky to get a donation again next year or maybe get a I I think there's a very good lik to Contin to be supported could I have a motion for the approval of the sports card Club at Tanto sove

175oh any discussion yeah I understand that you're upset that we're here for four hours but I mean there's things that need to be discussed um so the sports car club this is good it says who's going to advise and all that there's no cost so that's great but mentions specifically uh buying and selling and trading cards so i t i t because that was written up by one of the students and I told them specifically that they couldn't do the buying and the selling good because that was my we get into IRS issues and all that I I we're gonna have to make that clear so amend the motion have to make that clear they're they can trade yeah the other thing about trading so here's I thing about trading right I just went through

176this kids trade and sometimes they get pressured into trading things they might not want to trade and that's fine if it's at lunch or on the bus or outside of school we're actively endorsing this now right what kind of safeguards are they going to be so that you know kid doesn't come in the next day and say I feel like I got traded out of something I didn't want to then you got parents calling the schools sayy why are you taking my kids think I bought him that for Christmas or whatever are there plans to deal with that um permission slip in the beginning permission let's make sure we include that that's a very good idea yeah you're agreeing yeah let's make sure we includ that [Music] drama so you're need to sign some sort

177of waiver that you're not gonna be upset if you decide you're free to choose and trade what you want but once you do that's final there need to be some well parents need to be involved in signing that maybe I don't know depends let make sure we specify and have to amend we just make a motion to specifically approve this minus these buying and selling and uh making sure there's a permission for the training m we have to four hours so we have to amend it because motion the floor yeah so amend the motion to specific to specify there will be no buying or selling and that a permission slip will be needed to join the club as a waiver on the trading of cards all trades are final second all in favor of the

178Amendment I'm an i as well I it's a monster agenda it is it is a monster okay um so could I have a motion to approve the sports card Club as amended second all in favor m& as well motion passes before I make a motion is there any other questions about the Nature's Classroom trip fundraising or the donation from from AP bu guard for the donor's choice for theou Club stien have no questions on they classroom by have some other all right go which one M um let's see well overgard uh again it doesn't say um it specifically says for music right instruments course music so let's make sure we have that in the amendment what was it I mean in the motion I had no idea what that was and so it says specifically

179for Cindy did you want to just go into a little detail yes John and I met with um the music team there was funding needed we put out for donations it's very nice B stepped up and it's still the music program he didn't give us a letter he just would you wrot a description awesome and he goes to the music program for so generous yeah okay what about donor's Choice did you have a question on that uh I thought this looked like a cash donation but earlier tonight someone said something was it's actually materials so donor's choice is a one of those websites where you uh post and you need things it's a a lot of teachers do it um this individual situation is a new teach you who didn't know that fundraising has to

180be approved Ahad a time um because she did an ear job and did it all the time it was fun so um what I like about because n talked about the some of these online fundraising set you're kind of funky uh in donor's choice you they list what you're going to get and for her it was um sensory materials is the for our program our purchese program for some special needs so it's fundraising not donation well yeah it's a donation that comes from a fundraising grp that's a completely different policy I know it yeah that's the first thing I said teacher didn't understand that she didn't get so that policy needs to be Revisited for such websites like that I think it cover I think would cover that if it was follow I don't really

181think it's a big deal I don't think there will be much to do there some there's not a low of control there's a yeah there's an issue about using the school's name like what does that website will thatle data or how responsible is you know you I put my thing up on whatever chines money.com and I got all this money do I have to really spend it on yeah this is kind of what we ran into last year with that one group and it was it was a similar website the key to this is that how it is like here we have the link we see how it was posted we see what this particular teacher asked for it is our job when well when this is accepted that's accepted with the use that it

182was posted for and I think with that other situation there was a lot of confusion with that my opinion if you follow that okay what about thee Club s do you have a question on that one yeah I got aot question okay who's that for Lisa well it's an mlu first of all should we be discussing that in Open session or executive session well it's just a club stifen but it's an M can you say again what your it's anou which specifically in the mou says it's going to be attached to the collectively bargained agreement should should that be discussed in Open session or executive session it's [Music] reallocating existing fund is just reallocating it well that's another question I have about it but oh yeah this just you guys already voted on this we

183did yeah why is it in here yeah I thought we did too it's funny you say that we you already voted on this all the different CL right yes so what's theou well so that being what it might be number four says this agreement shall be attached to the party's Collective barting agement and shall be made a part thereof so that is what brings up my question should this be discussed in an open session or executive session since it looks like without knowing this information it's possibly a type of negotiation I'm not sure that's my question the other issue I have with it is um number three well I guess we should answer that question before we get into anything else wait a minute this is from the bbea this isn't from you Lisa right

184no this is already voted we have a we have an agreement with the CBA what is it I'm very tired thank you so we have an agreement with them you both parties have agreed to change some clubs just transferring over to different clubs the same funds but the contract that you all signed says differently this is just going to something that you need to approve and sign and everybody's good so now right there is a whole C in the teachers contract that stipulates club stiens because there's Mount that we stipulated the contract contract totally right yes so that's why I'm Sugg it's already approved in the contract we can't appr in the contract that we don't need because we voted in the meeting on the other amounts we never caught it when we voted before

185amounts when you approved it before the pro the M probably should have went with it but it didn't so now it's going later all right well then my next question is number three it says funds will be transferred from two nonfunctioning positions to newly funded sty positions what are the two nonfunctioning because I see money going out of five and into five so is this written incorrectly does it need to be revised say five to five are you on the so should say five nonfunctioning to five if you total but it's confusing because it's saying it's being transferred from two I don't know what two is being transferred from that are nonfunctioning but then ABC and that's the question is it I row is nonfunctioning so the first part is nonfunctioning the word two is

186should not be there the word should not for the following or whatever I think should just be out it was those five we voted on those they contradict what it says in the contract so now n's trying to fix it I'm just trying to get the contract from these Carol you put the word the two should be took the word two out me she meant the word these which is the following so a but now you okay as long as we're specific about what's on here not if you're not specific about it I agree okay that you can have six more that you want to do something okay anything else on that one uh um I was just curious what matters oh John can explain that mind matters I was just curious like real quick

187didn't your son do mind matter so mind mind matters is um to you support social emotional health among the middle and high school students they support um refresh day um and they're supporting you know speakers to come in so that's that's what they do you know just supporting any other questions all right could I have a motion to approve the bees and BMS Nature's Classroom trip fundraising efforts did we what we didn't vote on that did not no I just talked about all of them and now I'm going to bang all the second all in favor I I I'm an i as well motion passes but I have a motion to approve the $ thousand donation from AP buard hardwood and TI company to Boon Elementary and Berlin memorial for instrument purchases and music program

188so second any discussion on that all in favor I I'm an i as well motion passes um could I have a motion to approve the donation of $477 from donor's choice to Berlin Memorial School second all in favor I I'm an i as well that motion passes okay we've already approved witson we've already approved the facility waiver for Julie but I have a motion to approve theou Club stien at Tanto as currently written Carol made the changes wait that's currently WR Carol just made the changes there's a PDF in there too that you won't be able to change so there'll be two different versions in there so we should probably the word version so yeah make sure Nicole that you get the word version delete the PDF in there for thatou is she already or

189just delete the PDF Carol already fix the word document yeah delete the PDF you can turn that word document to a PDF when you put it when you zip it to put it out to the all right so the motion is on the table did we get a second second all right all in favor I I'm I as well that motion passes all right I have a motion to approve superintendent costell's goals so any discussion fantastic all in favor am as well motion passes okay we have three policies we need to vote on do anyone have any discussion on policy CH CHC or gbaa okay could I have a motion to approve policy cha development of procedures policy CHC procedures dissemination and policy gbaa which is a policy against harassment and discrimination of employees and

190adult volunteers so hold on one second I I think the motion is wrong I I believe CHC has been combined with cha oh okay oh they're combin so com yeah so it's we're only approv C and GBA I'm sorry it's okay no confusing so that motion is going to die nobody yeah all right so could I have a motion to approve policy chha which is the development of procedures which replaces policy CHC correct well now includes includes policy CHC procedures dis procedures dissemination and policy gbaa which is the policy against harassment and discrimination of employees adult volunteers so all any discussion right all in favor I'm and I as well that motion passes all right I miss any we have a bunch of first reads so you guys can take a look at those did

191I miss any votes we jumped around okay all right so future agenda items one thing Jess and I talked about was the survey so Jess is that something that you and Lisa want to tackle at your next um Student Success meeting or so it was something that came up in our super school committee self assessment that the self assessment well no our our school committee self assessment it came up as an item that we were not addressing and so it was reaching out to the community I can get the specific item so the superintendent evaluation subcommittee also does our self evaluation for the school committee and one of the items is do we seek The public's input so justess suggestion was to perhaps do some sort of survey but I'm not sure that falls under

192our per because we we were talking about how how would we get the results what would the questions be who would who would go through all of those in the past it was the parent advisory committee to the superintendent no longer exist but they we're doing portra graduate instead yeah so so that was the former entity that came up with the survey so was the survey to survey was the the question it would be in general to pull the community to see get a pulse on how things are going things we doing well things we're not doing so to me that fall I feel like it could go either way um but I feel like given how much lry has on her plate from policy and chairing the super oh yeah so I mean I

193I think it's a great idea and I know you have a on on your plate too so I don't know if you know if that's something you want to talk about Lisa if that's something Lisa want I I think it's a great idea it's just who's gonna actually tle success so if you want to talk about it I'd like to come to your um meeting because I missed it last Friday so let me know next time you're meeting and I'll I'll com the handbooks the handbooks were the other thing oh yeah the handbook is gonna be in January you push that out yeah yeah yeah no but just longterm looking at them oh Student Success sub committee excellent that's great yeah get that on there yeah anyone have anything else for next meeting they want

194to just a meeting sometime in the future the Y coaches oh yeah Julie and um I believe at the next meeting in January Carol are you gonna do your mid mid year report I think that's when it is I'll double check it's either then or February but I'm going to do a very brief presentation on the evaluation model in the rubric which should hopefully be very self-explanatory um so it shouldn't need a lot of explanation but again those are in the drive people can look at them Ahad a time but I'll give you a hard copy at that time so you can take a look at it and ask any questions or give any feedback okay and the Yonder um they i' I've already reached out to them they're willing to come speak to the

195committee I think it should go to the whole committee not just the subcommittee so people can ask questions and have the conversation with them there are grants available schools are being funded through grants for this all right let me talk to Carol and see how she feels then we'll see if we can cell phone pouches corre yeah yes I'll talk to Carol I don't think there's any harm in getting them on it's just which meeting yeah of course right because the outside vendors like to have long PowerPoints all right okay can we make sure not to lose track of the uh mascot discussion either oh the mascot that's right I forgot you did bring that up to the okay I can talk to Carol all right anything else our next meeting will be Tuesday January

1969th at 5:00 pm in person can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting move second all in favor thank you so much that our meeting