001all right so this meeting ofing Regional school committee order 5 o' today Tuesday September 26 uh we are streaming so your image and your voice may be recorded sent out uh but can we all stand please for the pledge allegiance the United States of America stands na Indy and justice for all uh several people I see here is there any public comments here make public comments yes could you please state your name and where you live yes hi my name is Lori Benson I'm um former teacher at Boyston Elementary and a citizen of the town of Boyston I just have something quick to share um I wrote it out so that I wouldn't forget it or mess it up okay I recently viewed a recording of a meeting of policy subcommittee of the Berlin Boon
002Tonto school committee that was posted on the bbrsd Facebook page Miss Hart Mr Topman and Miss costell were in attendance the recording has since been removed from the bbrsd Facebook page at this meeting members of the school committee were suggesting books in a school library that they'd like to review as to content I understand that there was a request for an entire book list from each School library in our district although I understand that there's a specific policy for the school committee to review a single book I don't see where an entire book list is within their jurisdiction could you please share with all of us the policy from your manual that supports such a practice honestly as an admin as a educator I'm distressed by the fact that the decisions of Educators who were
003trained in curriculum and age appropriate materials and who chose books to match curriculum standards are being questioned by committee members and others without such training I'm requesting for the towns a clear explanation that includes support from the policies of the masc thank you we normally don't do a question and answer with public comment but I will ask you a couple things okay you said the video was posted on the bbrsd Facebook page it was it was pardon me are you referring to a different Facebook page it was not posted on the school district's page and it certainly wasn't removed from a School District page removed it may have day after I saw it it may have been removed from a page that you looked at I'm not saying it wasn't but the bbrsd the Facebook
004page which I run with Mrs har did not post it and did not remove it are you possibly referring to the private page run by a local parent no I am not it was on the bbrsd page that's the only that I see it was the end of August that it was the bbrsd did not record that meeting the cable channel did the cable channel posted it was shared I know it was shared in the bbrsd community page which is a private page run by a private citizen parent so it was not this school committee it was not this District Who removed any video so I want to make sure that's clear okay all right Mrs Hart did ask for a list of school assets Library list she is a former teacher she is somewhat
005trained it's our responsibility to oversee the schools and that's what we were doing it policy M it was an asset list assets are Financial we're responsible for the budget so there are several reasons we might be interested in it nothing no action was suggested or taken other than asking for a list yes laor so I just wanted to bring up because I felt that unfortunately it was an anonymous poster who put it there and I was misrepresented I hope people actually went and watched what I said what I said was we were having people reaching out to us complaining about the new health curriculum so what I was trying to do is someone said does a parent have a right to request curriculum material so I put in parent curriculum and it generated a list
006of our policies so I was going through and reading each one and I stumbled upon policy ke which is public complaints about the curriculum or instructional materials and it was the first line that got me it says the school committee though it is ultimately responsible for all curriculum and instructional materials including library books recognizes the need and right of the students to free access to many different types of books and materials now and I also said given what's going on in our country I'm sure all of us have watched on social media parents going to school committees and just yelling at them and being upset about what they found in the library I'm not I'm not here to judge what's in our library and what's not I just used to always think they're yelling at
007the school committee the school committee doesn't pick out the books and then I saw this policy and so Carol and I had discussed she suggested she said what do you want do with the list and I said I don't know but my name is I'm responsible for it I don't know what's in there I don't have a I don't have a a point of view that I want to go one way or the other I just just found out that I'm responsible and parents could be upset with me and Carol had suggested an idea of possibly starting some sort of committee um with people to go over including the parents and people in the community and that's where it went it didn't go any further than that I just found out that we were responsible
008and I never knew that until I found this policy okay so it's not going to go any further than where it is so Miss Miss Benson thank you for making your comment we can't say where it will or won't go right now we don't know we haven't talked about it um I just wanted to make sure we cleared up a misrepresentation of facts that you stated which was that a video was posted by us posted by you by bbr bbrsd which is US collectively and it was removed by us which it was not so I want to cleare that up Lori mentioned the policy that was done under we're going to continue to look at policy and we're going to continue to look at a lot of things to make sure that what we're doing
009for the schools and for the students is in the best interest of everybody so I do appreciate you taking the time for a public comment we don't typically make it a practice to go back and forth so unless you want to make a further statement I think we'll move on from this point right now I just want I just wanted to get my feelings out there regarding what had happened or what the perception was of what happened thank you would anyone else like to make a comment um okay anybody have any Communications to bring up yeah I have a few so that wedes when the video was posted as in of clinic and I received several messages about that and so I did watch the whole video the following weekend um and so I looked
010up the KC policy that you mentioned um um and so the committee that was mentioned within the meeting that same policy said are these communications that you're bringing up or is this it Wasing Communications yeah is this your interpretation of the communications or do you want to read the communications with a did you forward them into the drive to the parent but I can read the email that Erica how sent today yes we have that email and the I think that was sent to all of us y shall I read it out loud since it was too late to put into the drives if you want um so Erica how is the director of the boil library and so around 12 today she sent an email to all of us um says hello school committee
011members and superintendent Costello as a director of the Boon Public Library I want to reach out regarding bbd's collection development and materials policy in their libraries I applaud the policy subcommittee for turning their attention to these important issues this June I attended the American Library Association annual conference in Chicago and the major theme of the conference was book fans and censorship according to the Ala between January 1st and August 31st 20123 libraries have experienced a 20% increase in book challenges from the same reporting period in 2022 this is the highest number of book challenges the US has experienced as medical professionals are trained to provide treatment regardless of patients religious cultural racial or social backgrounds Library professionals are similarly trained to provide Collections and services that are equally representative and available to anyone we also
012trained to audit our Collections and services regularly to ensure the standard in 2022 I worked with a Board of Trustees to develop detailed Collective development and reconsideration of materials policies for BPL that were aligned with the massachusett board of Library Commissioners requirements and best practices it's more important than ever that libraries have plans in place that outline the process for how materials are selected to purchase and how individuals within the community may question or oppose materials as families have a right de la treatments that work best for them in the medical year each family has their own unique view on content for their children this is a vital time for libraries and our small communities are not exempt from the current pressures on Sunday September 24th 2023 under the Massachusetts Public Records Law mgl chapter
01366 section 10 the organization Mass transparency requested all documentation from Boon's Library services and schools regarding challenges and complaints against our library collections their aim is to provide the public with information on our Municipal response to censorship if I can be of any service to the school committee and bbrsd Library staff I'll be happy to volunteer my services to help strengthen policies and create a clear process for review I'm also providing links to existing School library policies and other Massachusetts town that are excellent examples of carefully created and publicly accessible criteria as well as a process for establishing diverse review committees and she included a couple links Erica how director of the Bo and public liary thanks Jess that date come in about noon today uh just before two I responded to Erica you were
014all copied on it just thanking her for the information and letting her know that we'll take a look at it consider it further I was working today I didn't really have time to get it much more on that today so thank you all right uh do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so move Lori second Julie okay anybody have any questions discussion for this I do actually so the minutes on the September 6 um policy subcommittee meeting is missing that request for the library list of all the books and it's missing the policy that was referenced KC policy so I just wanted to amend those minutes to incl that is that a motion I make a motion to amend the minutes to include the discussed request for Library list of
015all schools within the district um per the KDC policy second I'll second okay discuss all right so we're going to all in favor of that Amendment sorry I'll ask again all in favor of that amendment I I sorry all right so that Amendment passes so we're going to add that a request was made for all library books under policy KDC all right so the amendment is passed any more discussion on this the origal amendment is to accept the consent agenda uh any other discussion all right uh I want to add one thing about policy since this came up tonight policy that Lori reference KC says exactly what Lori says uh I know the last so this is our first well it's going into our second now full year as a regional school committee um before
016this before 2019 there were multiple School committees from 2019 until 2022 it was a transitional committee now it is a full Regional committee committee has three areas that it can oversee hiring and evaluating superintendent budget and policy if anyone wants to be upset at policy we probably should be upset that previous committees between 2019 and now may not have been doing what this policy instructs them to do it instructs them to do exactly what Lori did so maybe that's my fault and I'll take responsibility that we aren't following our policies as close as you you should I think Carol this is going to become a theme tonight about responsibility and attention in detail and professionalism so maybe we'll we'll consider that going forward we'll have to change the way we operate but uh if anybody
017wants to be upset at Lori or this policy I would think we'd be more upset that the committee has not done this in the recent past more than the committee has actually figured figuring out that he need to do it going forward so um if you read the full K policy however under B it says that the committee is the KC policy is not on the agenda to debate and discuss my comment is more a comment of how the school committee needs to follow its policies all of them yes all of them correct I agree so there are some policies that will be discussing later tonight and we'll get into those later but uh that comment about policy in this particular one I think Lori took a little bit more heat than she necessarily should
018have so that's what I have to say about that uh so all in favor of the consent agenda as amended i i i i all right that passes all right so now we'll move on to reports uh Nancy do you have a report for us yeah I have a quick report all right so I wanted to update the committee that we are starting our budget process for fiscal year 25 and in your folders you'll find the budget timeline so the administrators have been sent their budget documents and they've be begun their budget process it's due back to me by October 15 at this time Carol and I will review what has been submitted particularly the above level service items so the above level service needs that we move forward will be reviewed with a meeting
019that we have lined up with the towns on October 24th all parties need to remember that this is a preliminary and things can change before the budg budget is brought forward to the subcommittee and the school committee in November and December time frame Carol and I will be meeting with the administration to go over the budgets and further detail the budget will be reviewed with the subcommittee in at the end of November time frame frame if not December and it will continue to be worked on until our public Hearing in February I also wanted to um briefly touch upon Transportation so at this point in time all of the concerns that have been brought forward in regards to bus stop safety have been resolved or addressed we currently have drivers for all of our runs
020and where is my kid app is up and running there's still some GL es glitches within the app that the company is working on and it still doesn't work if they're using a different bus for the run but even with its faults I feel like it still helps with the tracking of the buses more than it doesn't I've asked for updated routes also um I'm hoping to have those adjustments To Us by the end of the week and they'll be posted to the website and I also quickly just wanted to mention Mike our food service director will be speaking speaking tonight but I quickly wanted to mention for anyone that is listening to us at home that if you have any interest in working in our cafeteria we would be so delighted to have you
021join us we need staff in filston elementary and Tanto Mike has helped set a flyer um he's working on a flyer that we're going to be sending home already sent it out the principal is like an hour ago today um and we're going to send it home to our community it's a perfect job for a parent who has a child in school they can come after they drop their child off and be home by the time they get home so I just wanted to you know throw that out there for anybody who's listening who might have some interest and last thing I just wanted to mention is we're finalizing our closing figures for last school year and I hope to have that to here to present to the committee um at the next meeting anyone
022is any questions does anyone have any questions no that's the year ended June 30th 2023 yeah and one of the Auditors already come in or they when of the Auditors no they'll come in probably November between November so that makes sense so you have this amount of time okay thank you I two questions so I was going to update you guys as part of my report on this too but um at the end of October we have our second meeting and after that I've invited the chairs of both towns select boards Finance committees and the town administrators to have a conversation above budget I don't want to have that conversation with other groups until this committee has had a chance to have the conversation with you so I know Bas on your timeline here of
023October 16th that's after our October 10th meeting but before that meeting so I want to ask you to have some kind of an update for us on October 10th I don't know exactly what that can be yet but could be very rough yeah and just above level service if it's above level service that's easy okay I can definitely do just because I don't want to go into that meeting without the full school committee having discussed anything yet uh because it's not going to be a it's not going to be a full school committee meeting it's GNA be the budget subcommittee meeting with some uh some of the Town folks so I just don't want to have nothing on the table that's not fair y all right and then we talked at about classroom supply lists
024being part of the budg you guys made progress on that so when I sent out the budgets to the principles I asked them to include everything in okay their budget that the sorry that the teachers usually ask for I asked them to include it and I also asked them to include it with the dollar amount so then we when we do our presentation and I can explain to you why there's such a significant increase because it will be a decent amount EXC yeah all right thank you Nancy anybody else have any questions I have one question when you say classroom Supply L you mean for the teacher or that family's purchase is that the ones that the teachers require the purch so I asked all the principles to build that into the budget so those
025lists will go away next year ends up getting improved think can be a bur in on some families anxiety activity issues so I don't like it so I like that I don't like disparities uh okay anybody else Final Call for Nancy I know Nancy you have to you have to leave at some point so yeah thank you for letting me go first yeah all right uh so that brings up the chair's report uh the first item there about appointments um so we need some people to help glory on the superintend evaluation committee um Megan and Jess you express some interest are you good with that yeah all right so superintendent evaluation subcommittee will be uh Megan and Jess and Lori Lori chair and Meg J helping out uh Lori when you guys do your meetings
026I know this is a very involved process there's a lot of a lot of boxes to check a lot of reports to write just make sure that we have a process documented and yeah and that right and that you know they come up to speed on it give them some good training I'll reach out to you for yeah for a meeting is that does that committee also handle uh negotiations I cannot remember we're not in a negotiation so that's SE group yes it's our self evaluation and then self and superintendent and then we'll have we have another group that handles negotiation in negotiation year okay thanks for clearing that up all right there's a list on the there's an item on the agenda about handbook formatting we're going to vote on the handbook later on
027um I think going forward a good practice might be to send that handbook to the success and Technology committee for a review and work through before it comes to full and that's going to probably require a change in the timeline um I don't think voting on that in October is probably the best thing because kids have probably already signed it yeah so that really is a good point um so I don't know if that has to happen in the spring or over the summer or when it has to happen but um I know it's the second time around on that that's one of these items I want to talk about professional and all that it looks much better now but there's still some things in it we'll talk about when it comes to the vote
028but um just want to have things tightened up if we're trying to teach kids correct way to write document and reports and everything we should probably be all on the same same outline so that's that uh the other item on the agenda there under mine is the tours uh I know you're probably going to speak to the tours a little bit maybe in your report I wasn't going to okay good take this so last Tuesday uh the schools had school committee and invited members from the town the select boards the finance committies and town administrators to come in and take tours of the buildings uh pretty eye opening I think um I don't know if anybody else had anything but um it's a lot of notes there I'm not going to go through every single
029one of them in detail I do want to thank when we walked up to bees the front of that building completely transformed um midan Landscaping uh Laura bradrick brck design and the Boon Education Foundation all pitched in did an awesome job cleaning up the front of the building there um I mean not only it looks great but they took care of a security issue because there were trees overgrowing the office Windows couldn't see that I was knocking at the door with my smiling face so now you can you can know not to let me in that's fine but yeah it looks great so thanks to those guys uh I think I also want to thank um Kristen Rubin the Town Administrator from Berlin she came to all three schools uh just check things out see
030how things were going that was awesome uh select board members from Boon Matt M from burlin Chris Keef and I believe Karen gei is that how I say the name I'm sorry if I don't say that correctly uh from the finance committee in Boon was there too to to take a look when we got to Berlin at BMS we also had uh Paul M from the Board of Health Rich Atkins from the building department correct um as well as Lieutenant Pino and Chief mcquillin from the fire department they to sort of show us around the exciting events from the summer to the building there what happened there uh and actually that was quite a quite a lesson from the fire department pointing out what they check for in their inspections for safety hazards fire hazards
031and everything through the building I had no idea that decorations for students on the wall were was a fire hazard but now I do so that was good um so thank you to everybody all those groups for coming out a lot of things did come out of those tours that I think we're going to address at least some of them this year through budget through uh maybe policy just talking to to like Ryan about the maintenance and upkeep the equipment that we need just the tools that we don't have to actually do the job right this kind of eye opening I would have thought schools kind of like a commercial building they might have the right tools to take care of them but we don't so we've got to figure that out uh to that
032end I mentioned the meeting that we're having in later in October with the towns select boards Finance committees administrators that's going to be basically for the schools to sort of lay out some major issues in the budget U but also there's an item in that discussion around facilities and it's not just the bees facility assessment that we got back that's got something like $13 million in changes or or repairs that are needed but anything having to do with facilities I know some people are upset about the condition of playgrounds the parking lots that the kids walk through at bees to get from the building to the playground is full of poles tripping hazards falling hazards lawsuit hazards whatever it might be broken toys metal poles just sharp edged metal poles just sticking out of the
033ground on the playground I mean that's not acceptable so uh an entire facilities discussion from doing things right now long-term maintenance whether that includes discussing building a new school not building a new school investing in renovations repairs expansions whatever it is nobody nobody knows what the final answer is yet but I think that conversation is going to start the conversation with the town perhaps even forming a a different group larger group that involves more people to start having those conversations because what's it take John to build a new school 10 years probably from the DAT side yep from let's do it to kids walking 10 years 10 years and it's gonna probably take at least an extra five years around here because some of the things that people are talking about would require changes to
034the regional agreement all sort of things that who knows which way it would go I don't know but if we don't start having that conversation now kids 10 years from now after all our kids are gone we're probably not around anymore we'll be having the same conversation why the hell didn't anybody think to renovate or fix or maintain these buildings 10 years ago and that's falls on us so um we're going to start the conversation where it goes is up to the towns but we're at least going to have it so uh that's what came out of that so that said I think that finishes my section my report unless anybody has questions for me you want to ask me questions I wasn't the was the H timeline metioned at all I don't think it
035was mentioned um talked we talked about the process but I don't think start final they got the green light they're beginning soon yeah they're going to go in after school so they they don't go in and they'll do like one classroom at a time yeah cool why does it take 10 years politics so you've got to get the town or towns involved and you've got to get the Buy in there you've got to get the state involved because the school building authority is going to give you the bulk of so you're line for that unless you've let your building completely F so there's to and there's an architecture and you can back to the towns on that and then there's all the building codes you back town that and then once all that's done then
036you start to think about site site prep and then building it's it's the the easiest part of a new school is building the school the rest of it it's all adult business it's all politics um they have some shortcuts I when I was in Douglas we built in a school and um one of the things they were just starting to do then was they were telling you that you know we'll support you at a higher rate if you use a school that's already been built um because then the architecture is kind of already done for you and what was nice about it was you go to that school and you could walk the school and that's what we did we walked the school said oh this is great but we hate this their school is
037kind of an angle so they were kind of like here at Tas some dead spaces where children might make poor choices but you can see that in real time so there's a lot of a lot to it but you got to you got to have community support you got to have political support and you got to have people a committee a building committee that will really dig in long term it's hard it's hard to do yeah so whether that happens or doesn't happen I don't know but we owe it to the towns and to the students to at least have a conversation so uh that'll be part of that conversation whether we make the repairs that are needed when we make repairs that we need what's the long-term maintenance plan that we can actually put
038down in writing every year do X Y and Z every quarter whatever it is so that'll start uh all right uh do we have an update from the budget and facility subcommittee um so a lot of stuff that we discussed at our meeting was already um brought up we had building tours Nancy gave a budget timeline um the district Improvement plan so we actually did did uh discuss the initial asks from the district um you know high level we're looking at a teacher at bees a math teacher at Tanto a float nurse for the district um various uh support staff um nothing too crazy so I think the bulk of as NY calls it the above level asks are going to be staff and then it's going to be some Capital items this year so
039anybody have questions on that um policy subcommittee uh we've had a bit of an update but we have another update yeah so we are voting on two policies tonight they were first reads last time um one is ecfa and that's for face coverings and the second is IH that's parental notification relative to sex education um and then we have three that are first reads um there's DJ which is procurement requirements and then Mass I see EF vending machine procurement and I'm G explain this a minute and then also imga animals and school first read but I believe did we get we get some updates from Janelle that we might need to talk about for that for next time for next time yeah so that might may be another first read in the future um but
040I just wanted to let you know for the first reads um the one that is um the Regional School procurement requirements um I added in in pink the masc suggestions and then yellow is Carol in ny's suggestions so as you go through that you'll know those and I put it right at the top so it was easy to to follow um and then another um a new policy that we have is policy EF and that's a first read tonight it's new it's as required by the usca food and nutrition services and so that's also a first read we've never had that before and because our other policy um our original policy EF was actually a different policy it was about vending machines we're changing the name of that we're not changing the policy but as
041you go through the drive you will see all of these in there and I tried to color code it and explain so that you don't have to go and compare and you have it right there this is good large does anybody know where that EF vending machine policy with a lot of these policies something happens somewhere at some school and then committees long to go write a policy about it so I I don't know anybody has information how this one came this isn't this isn't a policy that we find at NC it sounded like a custom right bbrd one started when the wellness committee was first established years ago I was principal Inland at the time and there were still vending machines and in the interest of getting rid stacks and opportunities for those they
042remove the vending okay from yeah so been a long time coming but now masc has suggested a new policy with the same title the same code e so we figured it's easier to change our custom policy name and keep the MSE ones in line so that in the future when we're trying to research these things they more aligned to so that's all that's there for and then just one more the imga which is the service animals in school that's a brand new policy as well so there's two brand new ones they stemmed off of other ones um so you'll notice like the whole it's I didn't highlight the whole thing obviously to as it's new so those are first reads for this week does anyone have any questions all right Jess do you have an
043update Student Success in technology subcommittee yeah we've talked about two different things um one was RF safety data regarding um which is RF radio frequenc yeah um and so Lisa had provided some information regarding the safety of that and had planned to reach out to Berlin I think and get a speaker to come talk um and to invite the school committee to listen to that [Music] um and then you know Bas was left at we'll see how the the wiring goes from the town and how that improves sell phone service go from there um the second issue was just the bees playground recesses very important for Student Success a lot of studies support that um and so it was just brought out that the two different structures were broken at thees and which was and
044I guess seen at thees well um and then future agenda items was just mentioned about um looking at time on learning uh add into the elementary school levels um and then also drafting a mission statement for the sub where did you land on adding the second recess I like that idea it was future agenda items oh oh sorry yeah yeah no but I think um there's a lot of studies in I think schools in Texas have like three recesses and the kids um especially with all the behavioral issues that are coming forth and still here I think it's something that should be looked at and when Ace was here he said he was going to look at it but you know um Changing of the Guard so I just wanted to bring that up for
045future thank you any questions suest other question could the principals weigh in really quickly on the second recess or no sure we to put us on the let's go challenge with a lot of we I I'm a real advocate for unstructured playtime at recess we try not to have any rules other than health and safety rules the problem with multiple recesses there there are several um one is there are only so many hours of the day and it becomes very difficult the boil and I I won't speak for you but it was before your time used to be a beginning of the day they called it recess that it was basically children knilling about before school was open um and it was nice but not really high quality recess experience not very well supervised either
046I think if if we're going to go down looking at that road at least in my opinion we've got to think about what is it we're going to give up you're going to take another 30 minutes out of my learning day what is it you want me to teach your trouble historically speaking back in the day there was a 15minute recess in the morning morning and snack was wrapped up into that recess and then there was a 30 minute after lunch so that was historically speaking and remember part of the challenge with recess especially when you get to winter again huge proponent we go out unless it's a blizzard we go outside but not stressing and undressing your 30 minute recess cost you 45 yeah or 15 I'm not sure I want to be the
047same boat of Texas indeed but in this this instance everything's bigger there everything is bigger including mind don't I I will I want to add in a little bit um when I first started I had some some families reach out to me inquiring about that first recess um because it helped their schedule to get their children there earlier what talking to the police department fire department what that blocked off was the back of the building so then all the car cars lined up down the road which was a safety hazard again not enough staff in the morning to really I wasn't here but looking at the schedule and trying to come up with that that schedule of who's out there um keeping everyone safe is a bit of a challenge and I agree with John
048what are we going to take away to have that I will say this for the teachers and I won't speak for your teachers um but there's a lot of it's not recess but they put a lot of movement breaks in there because we know children moving is very important gives them a little break I'm in there them if you're ever with school please jump in to have those movement breaks but they keep them movement moving not recess not that social piece but a little bit of social piece but a lot of movement there but it's it's challenging to put that in there good thank you can I just say one more thing what if so I get that you can't take away from the time on learning but what if instead of adding a recess
049we just strive to have more time outside and maybe have like a block a class that was taught outside not a whole class but um you know maybe a piece of class or something some learning going on outside and build that into the curriculum or part of the day I just I feel like not just the unstructured play but being outside is also really important does happen it does it does debus who retired last year but she uh did a whole weather unit and they were outside every science place oh I love that yeah yeah it was there are ways to build it in okay and you lose you lose a little bit in transition but it becomes more worth it more purposeful yes that's I thank you Carol I was goingon to ask you
050about this in your report but since it's on topic everybody read the MC email today they send us an email every day with a bunch of Articles rounded up for us a couple of them caught my attention today but there's one about some groups want to extend not only the school day with the school year so to your time on learning and recess maybe we should just go to school schol year round I don't know they do we'd have to get the ageback up cost a lot more yeah it might cost a lot more but we're gonna ask you for more academic reporting in the next couple months and looking at the mcast scores I mean they're talking about learning slide it's still not great so maybe we need to I mean what's the price
051of not doing it you know kids who have graduated already College professors saying they can't handle basic math so I mean maybe that's not as wild as an idea I think it is after you get through the initial shock we could do that here can you send that email to because I don't think we well I'm not on that list yeah let me yeah you can get on it though just contact I'm on one L but I'm not sure what that I can show you after MC I can show you too I think that was a local too I think it's absolutely just real quick I because principles aren't supposed to talk onless but John you're welcome to talk the superintendent will tell you let you there are parts of the country it's it's not
052many more days but they break up the school year differently so there never that gigantic summer Gap so they're on I think it's six weeks on two weeks off so that it's about the same cost in terms of building supplies and professionals and all of that stuff so you don't like have a huge hit but that lack of a big break seems to help they do it a lot I want to say in Washington state they started it a while back and it just they kind of maintains that continuity of learning so we're pondering options POS out there all right awesome inter do you think it's not it's not a New Concept and like John said it's going on in other other states it's new to us it's Mass I would be very new to
053Massachusetts and we would have to there's there's numerous obstacles to overcome I think of our contract right with our Union and how that would fly it involves alignment with dessie timelines that are typically 10 Monon timelines and other testing and so on that we would have to adhere to still it here too it would involve right holidays and and summer breaks and families who have other children in other schools or teachers who there's there's a lot to consider it feels like what came long years ago and we thought this is a great idea as a whole I think it was a changing holidays to March break that's what it was there was a conversation about having one right March most of us have been here a long time like even to move one thing like
054that impacted so many people because one other districts didn't have that there was Child Care issues all great ideas and and you know if we want to explore we just have to know that it's going to involve so many different pieces I think we couldn't do it unless we moved as a state yeah to do that as much it as much as it in ways it sense somebody mentioned HVAC I heard that go around I mean having HVAC in place that's why these other states are able to do something about this so those are considerations the only the other thing I would say is going through my mind because you mentioned earlier with the with um the other boards and sitting down looking at kind of where we're going with facilities and then the portrait
055of a graduate I would caution going out to so many different initiatives that we don't do certain things some things well because we spread ourselves so when we never get anything done because I really want to get this stuff like you we share that things done yeah that's all and I would worry that we we can't make movement with that though who knows I I've watch I watched Jesse go through like lots of changes and things that they're doing now that they didn't do before so it's may be an idea that's time will come I don't know in our time but it may happen you know so I love the idea I just don't know if it's feas I mean speaking of getting things done we are going to ask you to do more some
056academic reporting we've already talked about this the test scores and all that my main concern is what you know would it help the 50% of the fifth graders who aren't meeting mcast expectations when I saw those numbers yesterday 50% aren't even meeting we got you got to do something yeah so we'll get your reports on that later on um speaking of getting things done again uh I think we're on to you yeah and we do that's part of our meeting tomorrow brief meeting tomorrow as we get on board we have presentations coming for you from all different directions the October just say one thing before we move on from the Student Success in technology so I just wanted to just update you know based on what you just said that um I did reach out
057to 19 Carter to have our expert on radio frequency speak there and um you know we kind of went through it a little bit and they kind of would rather not do it there until like next year like later next year and I kind of feel like we should probably have that done sooner rather than later so I was going to look into having her speak at um like the 1870 um town hall and she's very willing to come and speak um and I did watch another presentation today from North Carolina and it was specifically regarding schools and Tech technology and they had a variety of experts on there they did a really nice comprehensive job and they even had a lawyer and the lawyer actually said that we have a Tor duty to be
058informed about this and they said um you know not only to be informed but also you know create a safe environment and even to inform parents about this you know because the science is overwhelmingly showing that it is actually harmful physically and mentally so it's something we need to get on top of um yeah so I just wanted to tell you so I'm going to work on that and then with that um second one that um that presentation that I watched today I would love to share with you guys when the recording comes out can I send it like should I put it in the drive or just email it email it to everybody okay yeah as long as nobody replies all and starts discussing it it's fine yeah okay thank you we can put
059on the we maybe if we feel like yeah yeah okay yeah that would be great cool thank you sorry okay let's start out first with introduction of new staff we obviously don't have all the new staff and we introduce them at the first meeting of the year but we do have several of our staff who did come tonight Lisa s is going toce her staff we did lose um two individuals um who um we thought the introductions were going to be a little earlier but um I I do want to commend Micah cash who's a PA professional and Jennifer thorburn a high school science teacher they were here but we do have Mary Sarah loore who is our Title One literacy tutor um this year um but has been um a member of the Tanta
060family for a very long time so we're thrilled to have her back nice absolutely and I do want to I don't because I don't know if he was ever officially mentioned um but we have talked and spoken with Michael Michael um onado but I wanted to officially welcome him because I've been able to work with him um you know closely here at Danto so the Food Services director is you know plays an important role you know food is important to middle school and high school students um so this is um so um it's um BR to have him aboard wonderful to work with himself thank you Lis I do want to mention Mary Sarah's role is does speak to what you're bringing up like well we can have folks like this in who are who
061are licensed who have experience and expertise in certain Fields they work with that population of students who who may not be the same ones addressed with disabilities and that the special needs population that we work with they're kind of those students who are kind of right on that line have some gaps that we can address and close those gaps and that's the work that Mary Sarah does some students and we have those those folks as well in an elementary school so thank you thank you for acknowledgement thank you and you we have one new staff member from be this is Brook deach did I spell did I pronounce that name correctly way too formal well I get to tell a little history she started out as a substitute teacher loved it so much that she
062applied for one of our pair of professional Physicians so she joins us as a pair of professionals thank you John one grou okay thank you for for inviting them my goals you have my goals went over briefly looking at last time for our first read I just wanted to make sure that you were comfortable with these goals um and I tried to go in detail about the standards and what particular standards were being addressed and what they meant rather than just numbers and letters which kind of makes me crazy and it keeps me on Target because I know what I need to do um so I looked at instructional leadership which is working with our admin team if you always keep in mind that this is a new admin team other than John and me
063right and Janelle who's been well and it's kind of a couple two years her position we are all starting together and restarting and starting so um but I think the we spent a lot of time this summer really talking about what was important to us with um instruction and who we were as a team so that that's what my focus was they're getting into the classrooms with them as well as working with them on data looking at our assessments and in general talking about instruction and what was important what's going on in the schools together as an administrative team and then also I I meet separately with Elementary and high school middle high school teams so I can really kind of focus in on what's important to them and use that dedicated time to do
064that and Janelle accompanies me on those so so that's what we're doing with instruction um professional culture that is um what is that one that's really looking at um meeting more meetings um getting together with sorry sorry whoops go to sorry community outreach apologize um that one is trying to get around to the town people to the communities I'm going tomorrow for example to 19 Carter um just to say hi just introduce myself at coffee time I'm going bring the C coffee cake and just hang out and find out what's new over there but also means trying to get to CPAC we're already with the admin team and everybody showed um the first CPAC meeting of the year and I said I'll come back when you know we'll plan other times for me to be
065there PTO meetings and so on and we certainly get around to the towns during the budget season so I just want to make myself visible and hear what's going on in the communities and then the third goal that I have this a professional practice so as a new superintendent um I have a mentor and she is in fact Sheila mure from Quin she has just retired as the superintendent of a regional school she's helping me she's now the executive assistant executive director of Mars we're going to talk about that in just a moment um Mass asso of Regional Schools and she is helping be kind of the conduit to getting workshops for us as well as working with me on understanding policy better budget better so I can be strong stronger leader in those areas
066I know that you may hear me making comments in our policy meetings with Mike and Lori is not a strength of mine I was not in those meetings prior to this position so I'm learning how to navigate the waters there in terms of what my role is what to W into and so they've been very helpful in guiding me with that and Sheila is also helping me with that as well so so three goals that that have a lot of time to them I didn't know if you had something else you wanted added any other those schools I just wanted to add one thing Carolyn I was looking at this for as much as you haven't you know your role is not as the superintendent you've clearly been paying attention to at the meetings to
067what we were suggesting in the past because when I was reading these goals they were extremely well written um and I think they lend themselves um much better to an evaluation you you were really clear in what you are going to do and you put in the the indicators as well which makes it extremely helpful and I can see how they related thank you so I wanted to say thank you for that I put a lot of time in thank you and we're all working together my goals are aligning with the goals of the principles they had these so they were building off this on in their goals so we're able to work together and then I some I spend time with each of them and Google over all of the the goals that they
068have and support them as well any other questions on the goals I have a thought um and I kind of was thinking about this before but you had mentioned about the Outreach you be one of your goals what do you think about school committee members being you know maybe at 19 harder once a month or once a week or you know Miss out in like public community area at a regular at regularly scheduled times like I would definitely volunteer to do that you just say hey we're going to be here if you have some concerns you know come talk to us you know just kind of so we can be here you know absolutely that a couple years ago that was something that the school committee had committed to in your goals and the school
069committee gos you get out into the public um attending PTO meetings and other meetings I know mik was has come with me during budget season to go out and even pre-budget season to go out to the PTO meeting and meet with them so I I think that's absolutely something if that's what the school committee's wishes are to go out but he will definitely be out and be invited to go out on budget season we travel but it's nice to just I like to get out to the public when it's not budget seasonal so I think it's important just with our relationship building with one another so happy to to participate in any meetings and Gatherings that you have as much as they can yeah it's a nice idea um my other next area one question
070Community have you started with the PTO groups yet have you met with them yet this year this my first one is October with October I said BMS link but on fantastic family dance last Friday already hit the ground I couldn't make it to the dance but I am going to shner farm yeah oh nice for the October 20th do you want me to get you tickets yeah I to bring my grandson so yeah so that I mean those kinds of things you know the link group the link group does a really good job BMS it's the one I personally have experience with I don't know about the other groups but um I know they're always volunteers too so if anybody wants to volunteer those are good groups uh yeah no thank you Carol can I
071ask on your parent Community engagement one I know there's a lot of friend listed there which I think are awesome could you add to that maybe a sporting event thing just because there's you know the parents on the sidelines would certainly love to just I started to do that at the end of last year and show up with some of the games I like oh yeah that's the boosters yeah yeah like that concerts you did all that last year too yeah just say school then want me to goes to a lot of stuff do you want me to add that formally I think that's a good idea because I feel like it's a whole different community that might not be represented in the other ones right sure yeah yeah or even maybe just one bullet
072say School event School event and sporting event well I would say supporting in a school the school would be like the music I know these this gonna be just to have documented so you get credit where credits do footballall it's looking good it'sing good all right I'll add I'll add that on too thank follow up um confirmation of dates for Mars Workshop that's in the drive I just put that in there today because I was on with Sheila mer this afternoon and I wanted to capture what we talked about so that you know so that was kind of late in coming but we are confirmed for um Tuesday October 24th as a workshop with Mars um at from 5: to 7 prior to the meeting we're having with the towns here and you know I
073talked with shil about the kinds of things we looking for um I don't know if those of you might remember Steve Hamond he's been here from Mars years ago um when UD was superintendent he came and worked on region regionalization with us um but he's going to present um uh who else is coming shill is going to come and um M Mar Marshall was a former superintendent in quaven and she's the executive director of Mars and they're going to offer all that they can in the two workshops that we have in October and November what I wrote down from our discussion today of some of the things that we were thinking of doing and if you have more I can talk to Sheila St is going to do an overview of just the budget process
074how it typically Works um stakeholder roles of the school committee and the towns you know what's the responsibility of us as a school committee what's a responsibility of each of the Town committees she was going to go over calculating our assessment in simple terms it's very complicated but we never had the how do they arrive at that assessment you know the town assessments that we work with and then time for question and answers that's about an hour and then with the other time we have I kind of named this navigating the turbulent Waters to building a trust building trusting relationships how to move through the budget process even when you disagree with other stakeholders what are their experiences um and how we can kind of work some of the things that we've dealt with in
075the past the second meeting in November 28th and Sheila suggested this I thought this was a great idea um what to do when plans start shifting gears and things don't go the way we think they're supposed to go where we want them to go and then she wants to bring some case scenarios for us to work with of experiences with other districts that are all regional districts have experienced so and then anything else that you may want to think about to add I can reach out to sh as well will that be 5 to S as well that other one will also be 5 to S that's on the set but we don't have one in November scheduled school committee meeting but October 24th is second school committee meeting time okay we don't have a
076meeting scheduled in November so our only meeting in November would be the 28th no no we I'm sorry we have one we we don't have we always sched two yeah except all right that's what I yeah oh I got you we didn't have a second one sched so those sound awesome yeah and then like I said if there's anything else you think of as we're talking about in the budget subc committies anything else we feel like we're stuck on and we're not sure how to work through we can add that on so that they can prepare um she said she'll send me a power presentation before me that the the next areas um I included the health Frameworks I wanted to just mention to you even though it's not um here um I use the
077same information basically I presented in the newsletters that came out very rapidly last last week um and I just will say the same thing I did in the newsletter to all of you these are new they there's some sensitive topics in there but there's and there's also some wonderful important formative meaningful topics around well-being um for our children that I don't want to lose sight of in the mix of the sensitive um topics I I have said already I do not want those rolled out at all this year I need time for our teachers to review that what's in all these units compare them to what they've been doing and are doing right now in the 1999 Frameworks and see where they need to build we need information around resources we might have to have
078to build into a budget for next year move forward we may decide we're only going to do portions of that that new framework next year and roll it out kind of the implementation the gradual implementation so there's a lot we still need to talk about that just came out and so I just want you to be aware of what we're thinking what we're talking about already so any any questions about that with new guidelines or or Frameworks like is that how how it works like over years the current is now adjusted to the Frameworks or yes yeah and and districts have some latitude around how they want this to unold and what they want included that's why I included the laws um in in the um newsletter I think I might have include them yeah
079in my report the state laws and guidance around what we what we do as a district I thought that was important for you to know so so that's what we'll work with kind of a long Justice Point Carol it's been 24 years since they've updated this is this typically how fast they it seems like it went lightning quick like we heard they were maybe working on something and something came out and they wanted feedback by August feedback came and now mid-september there is that a typical process or is that quick it I would say it varies but with with Frameworks that are that involve some of the controversial topics in here um it was I thought it was lightning fast I think I was really in shock and we we discussed it certainly around how
080they man how Des was looking at all of the survey results that were sent to them and then made that decision that quickly so I would say for this we were extremely surprised that I was talking about or we won't hear I mean the history in social science Frameworks took years in fact they they sent them out because of the political ramifications how do we interpret history how do so different political sides were weighing in and and Scholars but depending on where they stood were weighing in on those Frameworks they went out remember that 20045 then they got pulled back in again then we didn't see them for a couple more years so all kinds of things happen and usually when there's there's controversial topics or the way we present our instruction um they they
081can change so we may not see the end of this yet I don't know you know it but it's not our it's whatever desie is telling us to so yes it was so I have a couple of must anybody else have no based on what you said is controversial topics we got a lot of feedback from parents over the summer when they were coming in that's sort of what drove one of the policies that we're going to be looking at tonight it's lightning fast right so I was curious as to what you'll do what you and your team will do to come up with a curriculum to cover these and think about it's a health framework so I just went into the document gender is the controversial topic all right regardless of what you where
082you fall on it the word gender is in the text 52 times vers versus nutrition for health class nutrition is in there 34 times exercise in a health class you would think you talk about health class only appears 10 times in the document so I mean it some people who are maybe a little more controversial than me might wonder what are they doing with that you've got 52 times for the topic of gender which everybody if you're not living under a rock knows that is a controversial topic regardless of where you fall there this comes prek to 12 so that's 14 classes so four times per class on if you're doing averages versus less than once for exercise in a health class so which of our four grades aren't going to be told to exercise
083in their health class you know like I don't know it just seems weird so but I know when you guys come up with what you're going to come up with just like all the other other hot Buton topics that we cover it'll be with a focus on what this District wants right absolutely not necessarily what is happening in the outside world right absolutely and that's that's the lens that our teachers will look at with that and that's a lens our administrators will look at as well that's why I say there is no way that we will roll out any part of this curriculum this year we we can't we simply can't do it and we don't want to we have to look closely at it and I and and to what you're saying mik regardless
084of how many times gender is mentioned and I suspect it has to do with the fact that for Jesse this is a really important topic to bring forward um and it's new and so I think that probably there is so much emphasis on that in a way because it was never there before right in 1999 these were never topics that we talked about these were never um just never yeah topics that we addressed so it's so I think that that's probably why it's appearing so many times the introduction to it all but how we go about doing I don't think that negates in any way or lessens the value we should place on these other areas that you mentioned nutrition physical physical movement physical education um the mental state of children we talk about a
085social emotional envirment with children right all the mental health issues that we Face we have to focus on just as much so yeah we got so that's why I say a lot of stuff going on um but we'll be okay I'm confident I'm confident in our teachers confident in our researchers the last thing I just wanted to mention I've been putting out um invitations for the p graduate the administrators I invite I invited them if you like to join they are all on board um I'm thrilled that they are willing to give up their time to serve on this committee I would like you to have a representative two in the school committee to serve I've got several parents already that have been email to me and we serve on that I also think that
086this is really important work for us to do the vision of our future it ties into the things we talked about with budget with facilities with things Jessica's talking about right Health Wellness recess so what is important to us as a district I think it's time that we redefine who we are or Define it maybe for the first time um in a way we haven't done before we've been operating in a very traditional path pathway but I think it's time for us to break out of that and and explore some possibilities for different a different Vision but something that's more related to the children that are in our schools today so can I ask a question about that sure um would it be okay because I don't know I mean I I can only speak
087for myself it's really hard to commit to all of those meeting dates would it be okay if one of us came or maybe two or three of us represented the school committee and we each took terms coming to me or is that and then we could kind of like fill in like recap the meeting or do you want one person from the school committee to come to all of them it's kind kind of on the spot here because I you know I think that ideally I'd love to have one person or two people commit to that and I think that that would be helpful for you as well for the continuity but you're always welcome to come I think and listen to what we're talking about so if you if you wanted to do that
088as well there's no reason why you you wouldn't come to hear hear what we're discussing so I'll that up to you I just think that it's a better flow for you rather than trying to figure out if you come the first meeting and the third meeting what happened if the train and get it's we looked at we looked at dates and it it just seemed because John and I were actually talking about Tuesdays and so what I was trying to avoid is we have school committee on other Tuesdays we will be out and budget for the Monday night s and the finance and then the p on Thursday night and and so like I don't know when Friday was not gonna be no no I get it I get it John BR he goes why
089you have one meeting and see when everybody can meet maybe planed today can you imagine the group of people all trying to pick the next beting date we can't even you were all here tonight monkey thank you Carol uh any final comments Mo on okay next up uh technology coordinator an update good evening um I can take as long or as little time as you would like you have my report um just a couple of updates so um fiber brand um as you may or may not be aware the town of Boyston was um awarded a $335,000 um fiber Grant to which includes our ability to connect the buildings um it was warden in June um we had some kickoff meetings late August and early September um with the town and um Phoenix communication who
090has been contracted um to do most of the work um they did a site walk um the same day you folks did your s sidewalks on September 19th um to go over termination uh locations and basically get a a basic layout out of where things were going to go um once they get to the buildings um next steps include um Phoenix will have to submit uh pool drawings um that is required because they have to license space of the pools in Berlin um so um that that will happen again we've been told that this isn't going to hold things up um because again the town of Berlin has Municipal space on the PO so they'll be sharing that so it shouldn't be an issue um and again they expect because again Wilson um owns rights
091to the polls because of boilson light the section that's going from 140 um section of 140 through 70 um should be starting fairly soon Paul when this uh fiber project is done what will we exactly be able to do that we can't do now so right now uh most networking things like so anything between buildings has to go out to the cloud so if I want to communicate to um bees from here I have to go out to the cloud and from the cloud back to bees um things like our phone system we could potentially um consolidate that so like again for communication you might you might have four digigit dialing because it's all going to be on one phone system um potential cost savings with the phone system if you know if you're only
092running one system instead of replacing four all the time we're replacing one instead of um same thing true on the networking side so we currently run four servers um at each individual building because we can't um you know validate my login credentials here over to bees if I had to go through the cloud at Le every time I go to log and it would it would be too slow it would be noticeable um this is going to create one centralized Network for us um again I look at little things like our backups now run on site so if Tanto Burns um the backup for Tanto is at Tanto um so if for some reason we had a a disaster you know we take um snapshots now and again and move them so like but we
093might lose two months worth of data that's stored in our on our servers because the backup is we'll be able to do those overnight you know between buildings and um you know again not have to worry about speed and that the fact that you know it actually takes six hours it's only going to take an hour to do that backup um lot of lot of lot of things that that is going to benefit us again potentially on the um on the internet side instead of having again everybody has their own connection going out we may be able to consolidate some of that and probably improve bandwidth while cutting some costs too so kids will be able to access more social media really don't started again not to to pick up on that that comment we
094have firewalls at each building we potentially be able to have one firewall or two firewalls you know like doing that filtering so incre security that's and there's fiber going to the police station too that create like a hard connection to the police station and it's gonna potentially yeah um it it again part of this um the reason why why it's going to work is Wilson was already doing that and so some of the the cost that the 335 probably wouldn't have covered connecting all the buildings but because there's already because of the communication for the police department was already running from here um to 2115 million um we really only have to SP between downstairs and upstairs for that to work so again but potentially um I think that's going to really be more um
095done by like walkie-talkies and and being able to get on their their system more than necessarily using the fiber but it again 911 I mean it from a land yeah no it's still that that's its own system that answers my question thank you you're welcome um Capital um so there were a lot of Technology Capital items and we made you know good progress or finished many um Carol Nancy and Ice add again today so we'll probably have a further update you know later maybe November or January that um but anyway you know gave you a quick rundown um we had student devices that were purchased and configured over the summer um new copy machines um at all the buildings um we had you know some hiccups there which as of again that same date September
09619th was when we finished off um we had V I had vendors in that day um finishing off the two elementary schools um so that and they can use their um swipe cards to um access the the copy machines it's going to allow us to track better um in terms of individual teacher use as well as color copies versus black and white and hopefully reduce some cost there um we've been tracking some of this for a long time but not doing anything with it and so this is going to give it gives more direct reports to to Nancy and to the principal so um I hate to say it'll be in black and white but it'll be more in Black it'll be more in black and white uh as to what those copy costs are
097um 3D printer um has been ordered and actually I said in here waiting on install date install date has been um arrived at it's going to be on the PD day in October so that they can um also do some training so they'll utilize some of that PD time for Mr Ironman and some of the folks in the Ia department will be able to um get training on that new 3D printer that day um central office phone system is up and running and um security camera um here at Tanto um we have a a capital request in for doing that um this is the one thing that I'm again I put in my report being the most deliberate about um is inexpensive and I I want to get it right I don't want to have
098happen the last time um we did a project around cameras and um security fobs at um the two schools um we didn't get what we wanted uh uh licensing the ability for um many people to to access um and have ability there were just a lot of things that um when we wrote The Proposal we thought it was good when the delivery was done and the vendors went away and they had met all the requirements but um we were left with um things like the three buildings not being compatible and on the same cards and um the cameras at the elementary schools not being compatible with the same software as the cameras that existed here so um again I'm trying to be very deliberate um about this um working with a few schools that have
099done projects recently um and making progress but it's still in progress um Network upgrades um have some are tied to that fiber Grant um so we will have to um add some um networking equipment in each of our closets um that will basically accept the fiber um we've begun that um here at Tanto um a lot of that will progress again some of it will have have to happen as part of the fiber project um but some of the other pieces that um um like the wireless access points that are part of that um request um we're going to wait or pause until we get our e funding um that cycle begins we just got emails this week um from our e consultant um the purpose in that is the federal government will um reimburse
100us 40% for that equipment so instead of maybe being able to do 20 access points with the amount of money we have will probably be able to do 30 um so again we could rush and do it and get it done but it just seems more cost effective um knowing what we're trying to do um and in the meantime it's still um our network isn't broken or not functioning um so to be able to wait for E rate is is okay to do how about the electronic forms all they all so I had two other items um so the I'll go in order the website um again through some basic pictures of what um folks in the admin team um came up with um for the template um again I received an email yesterday or
101Friday basically saying it's in production um so that basically means they're actually working on it and expect probably still beginning of November to have the website um ready for us to see um I would expect that we're going to do some edits and changing and additions before we actually go live um and again the I noted the last sentence here that our existing site will stay live until we cut over to the other piece um and then on the electronic forms um Lisa and her team um had created a um a template for um again try to bring those in I don't think Lisa was aware that um we were I was trying to get this done through uh Power School and ecollect um so we we took that form which really was a combination
102of about six or seven different sign up forms um the reason we started with Tanto was um it it's through Power School and most of our parents or majority of the parents at Tanto um because of scheduling and because of grades being um online um have accounts and so it made sense to try to you know get it done and see work out some of the bugs which we've certainly found a few um to to do as a trial um I think it's going pretty well um I think some of it again is going to be education and again like what I said in the Russ the board getting um starting to get the elementary parents on board earlier um so we'll do some Outreach I'll send out a couple like little videos here's how
103you get your um Power School account up and running um followed by um we'll we'll do a trial at at the elementary schools as well so something simple like getting the school messenger um contacts into into Power School um every year we send that sheet home update your contact information you know we we can do that and um we'll get that going and then will that be this year will that be this year yes oh yeah I'm I plan to go to their open houses like their parent night I think that's no not the not your not open conference dat November it's like in November I'll be in the cafeteria whatever and we'll get people signed up and again I don't think we'll have 100% participation at first eventually you'll have to because we'll try
104to move all these two yeah I think that's the goal that we set right is it's not a choice it's that's how we're going forward Paul is there a way to put on the current website now that sort of we're under construction new website coming just so people when they go to search for things they don't they understand when they're frustrated why sure figure out something yeah all right thank you so you think so you said uh website should be available for the admin team to review and make edits in November yes so presumably like beginning of the year January 1 time frame that think so we might you know like again looking depending upon when we can get some training for like the key people you know like try to figure out date that
105makes the most sense to really go live so that again I think it's like anything else um that we do um if you keep up with it right away yeah yeah then then it stays maintained if you lose it right away we're back on to the same place we were okay any any questions I just have one yeah like we have this calendar it would be really great if we could have it populated with all the school events like right now it just has early release in labor day I mean we should Cy yeah we should at least have like school committee meetings but it would be great to have like open house yeah open house even the sporting events like oh concert here or bees open house uh Berlin open house um just so
106we can see what's going on in the district I mean I I know I acknowledge it'll be pretty full but I think that would be helpful can I I just want to add to you what you're talking about so we've talked about this in the ad meeting the principals are taking back their SCH calendars but they're also making an effort in this website to have a single calendar I think right to to put their input to to build single calendar yes I saw I just saw Lis okay so that makes sense so you have yourss so so someone clicks on Tanto they'll see all that stuff right so yeah so this one on is going to handle the district like she's going to coordinate that district and she'll be the point person she won't do
107what was happening in the past the principles weren't loading their own things they were sing it to a single person centr so yeah that's what that gotcha that's blank one is so that's why she's going to take over the main so then Nicole will be doing District wide and it will come from all three principles and then the principles are their own so if you want to see just what's going on at the es you can click on that one but if you want to see all the stuff in the district you'll be able to right okay I like it that's what we're working on so I know Berlin is looking at their towns website there's people are going around asking towns people what they want to change this calendar idea came up so I
108don't know if the schools uh they're you this an online thing they they're what should we do Pro it type of questions and some people are confused about the town calendar not sinking with a school calendar and school information not really being available on the town websites because they are separate the school district is you know a little different than other Town departments in the regional district at least where you have fire and library and police are all kind of the Town umbrella whereas the school is sort of a separate umbrella within the town so I know there's some confusion in the community about the calendars Town calendars and school calendars thinking of will when we're ready will this calendar be able to sync up with the two towns or can we at least do
109something to give the towns a way to send their people to the school directly link some a link something yeah add the link to the district calendar if it has everything so I know you know people people live in Berlin they want to find a Berlin school they go to the town Berlin site thinking you know that's a logical place to go to find school stuff and it's not there and then how do I get to it and there's confusion so four different sites for bbrsd the bbrd page for BMS for bees for Tanto for the district itself for the school committee itself there a whole bunch of different so this will all be Consolidated easy to see from this one homepage yeah I'm ring my head on that um so just basically the towns
110are looking to update theirs we're looking to update ours yeah it makes sense to talk to each other yeah so I know and again I think in the past you know they've offered to so I think if we want to have three or four different leagues so like one that goes to your school committee page one that goes to I think the towns are willing to do that so you know if nothing else like you know like so should say buror school to the regional Berlin bson school committee so they be be Three Links there and people would you know and if we want to throw in like a a link to the district calendar again in the past they've they put in what we have asked them to put in or they basically one
111single single link to right now right well right now go I think right now there is a I think if Le in Berlin and I think in Boon there is a link there that just says here's the Berlin Boon website page and it goes to our District page cool but I I'll follow up on thanks Paul I just have a question for the security cameras are you considering having them be hardwired or they will be most likely be hardwired so then one more thing on the website so then the idea is the building administrators will manage their page on the website that's probably more car question that's kind of what photos their schools and updates yeah and and I think the admins will have like so I have anage in the area has an area
112will still be responsible for that Nicole will kind maybe do more of the general stuff that doesn't fit under those umbrellas but is on the website great thank you thanks Paul um director of Food Services Mike do you have a report you want I have a few things I I could run over sure um uh as we all know or as you all know by now uh school lunches and breakfast are free for all students this year um that's that's a great relief it takes a lot of financial pressure off in meals programs and um it raise participation levels which which is just fantastic to have kids not hungry in school is always my goal and whenever we can accomplish that easier it's great um we're working on obviously as Nancy was saying uh getting
113some more staff members uh trying to hire on some more staff members um we did create a couple of different positions Nancy and I in conversation one being a floating position that could work at all at any of our three schools it's just something it's very good to have we don't always have substitutes which the principles are well aware of um for just about any position so to try to take as much pressure off as possible we come up with a couple of different um positions to try to hire for uh we received a f schol purchase uh Grant and of about $5,700 which is good because that means I get to finally meet um farmers and local produce and U in our in this area um we'll start to take advantage of that probably
114in Spring after we used up some of our tiid funds for uh fresh fruits and vegetables from the USDA um uh one thing that would try to uh look at here in the near future and talk with with the principles and other administrators is the the breakfast after the Bell program uh the breakfast after the Bell program has been pushed by desie to try to get into all school districts in in the Commonwealth over the last couple of years and in my last two districts that I was in I was able to Institute it and it was fantastic the just from behavioral issues plummeting to um children's attentiveness attendance even better it it was just fantastic but those are things I'm going to be ringing up with the principes and District administration on how we
115can and how we can implement it and best practice to do so um using School funds we've been able to repair at least six large pieces of commercial equipment this year um using school lunch funds only uh we purchased um uniforms for all the uh District meals Food Service staff and I I want to kind of point something out here when I say using only school lunch funds these are funds that uh this program is self-funded these these monies do not come out of General general fund these monies do not go you don't see those this on your property taxes not only do I work in education but I'm also a home worker and I also have children in the school district so I'm very cognizant of making sure that everyone understands where our funding
116comes from and that we are self-funded um working on calculating uh what I District my districtwide V participation is it's um for for me it's a indicator of uh the successful program with free meals for everyone I'd like to see that number about 70% we'll see where we are after the end of the month after September and I can have a better idea of what we need to do to improve um yeah that is about all I have I know that I'm new to the district so I'm sure that there could be a bunch of different questions that that I can Fields anyone does anybody have questions I have a small so my daughter gave me feedback um and she said there's no more two muffins in the morning again she's obsessed with the muffins
117and then you can't get a cheese stick with any of the meals and I was curious if you could purchase it on their own um in addition to the free lunch and I guess what what was behind the change I funny but so what I've noticed and um I'm a person to seek first to understand to be understood so over the first couple of weeks in school I'm watching what's being served what times are being served and trying to understand the training that my staff has had in the past um more training has to be done because for example when I look at um a lunch going out there is let's say it's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a yogurt and a cheese stick and I so I started doing the math in
118my head for my training like wow that's uh three proteins for a seveny old we can't get free proteins to a seven-year-old because we have nutritional guidelines that we have to follow so it's not only just about one day it's about what happens over the course of a week so we have to figure out how many calories are coming from those me meat Alternatives like cheese sticks and yogurts and it goes over the course of a week so there's specific guidelines that we have to follow and I try to let things operate as they should when I see some things like um for example giving two two grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch like why do we do that well it's because of what we've always done okay well we're also giving four grains we're only
119allowed to give two like I can understand maybe three but we can't do this because the Chlor going take us too high the sodium is too high it's just these are things that we can't do so when we see those little changes and that's where they're coming from we just haven't been following we haven't been in compliance so when I notice them kind of have to stop those so is that affect doubles kids or no if someone wants to purchase something extra a double a second meal um they're more than welcome to they can get an entire full lunch or they can just get the one ENT just the entree aspect let's say it's an Italian sub from the deli here at Tonto they can just add just that or they get the entire lunch
120again but that is not part of the school lunch program that is alart sales and so we don't have to track we have to make sure what we're serving for alart is healthy and it meets the it's conforms to the a list of smart snacks that's what we have to do for our the cart that doesn't um compute to with the U the daily servings for the uh school lunch program so hypothetically cheese stick would be available for purchase as well I don't know if we carry cheese sticks as an alart item right now we don't have a really good refrigerated section for for kids to choose something from but I can I can Envision a nice open air cooler right up there against the wall with pre-made salads and just grab and go we'll
121get there there thank you anybody else mik I just want to say since the school year started I've heard from different random parents that they're impressed with the changes changes in menu items uh menu groupings and something you just said there which is a pet peeve of mine when I do my training for our people at work why do you do it that way well that's the way we've always done it you you ke whatever you can change to make it better more efficient people happier better Manu choices uh it sounds like you know what to do so so go and do it that's when you said that you know that what we've always done that whole that concept of those seven words yeah that really fires me up at work I have to untrain
122what's been trained in my folks so that's good thank you yeah think about first of all I'm grateful that you're here on the team as one of the directors now we have not had a food service director in the past here so thank you for your willingness and desire to come the advocate he said I've always been on school committee school committee meeting okay um but Mike is going to be on is on the wellness committee that Sally is organizing now he has a lot of information a lot of changes that he knows from policies and so on right for for what for for our our wellness policy we're going we're starting the process and Sally is leading the group I've been through the food service director is always on the well committee so I
123had to do it a lot and as we get into it that I've already read through our wellness policy there will be revisions that will come to the committee to consider and I'm sure it'll go nice and smooth though we haven't touched that and I came even tell how long so this is a tremendous change thank you expertise thank you uh so that takes care of the report section of the agenda moving on to business items uh before we get started with the business items Carol we've talked about this Nicole and I have been working together on a sort of a drive a Google Drive policy procedures um we've gone over a timeline I just want to make sure you and your team understand where the committee is coming from when it comes to items
124that we're going to vote on we need or we want lots of information to make the decision some things are going to need more than others but the way we get that information is through documentation into the drive and having it organized which Nicole's really been helpful on getting that organized but the documents themselves being organized laid out formatted professionally uh to a level um there there's some stuff in here we'll talk about some specific things maybe as we go through these um just in general CL out um so we we talk about a couple specific things but um all right so first up is the handbook I have a motion to approve the student handbook for Toronto so second Lor and Julie second okay any uh discussion on this was this in this wasn't
125in the drive until like yesterday correct it was a late edition I think because they're still working through some of the format yeah it was in last meeting yes so we had it in the last meeting um two meetings ago yeah and they took a bunch of feedback from uh anyone who sent feedback in um and then it was out there again uh I I have some specific comments but does anybody have any specific comments yeah I I have one thought um the table of contents is kind of like a index instead of a table of contents usually you know it kind of has table content has things in order and this is like alphabetical I'm just wondering we want to change the main or possibly just reformat that to be a table of contents
126yeah that was one of the points we had last time around uh I think in sending this to the the success Committee in the future is going to help take care of those things um we have to vote you're saying we have to vote on this because school years started it includes some items that the kids need to follow they've already signed it probably um but yes that's something that need to be pretty quick to do it is it in word so part of what I think was going on is we were moving back and forth to word do right formatting and so when if Lisa changed something then it came to us and then it went to Google doc and then it got messed up then it went back again we were cleaning up
127formatting after formatting things I talked with Mike about with all of this and and I know L you had volunteered to take this over I'm just like we let's St but I don't know if that's something you would entertain it's if you have a particular format in mind like you want it to look like kind of what we did with the what do we work on the thank you the schol Improvement plan we did a certain way for years right and that's our kind of our knowledge base as Educators but number of you are business people and you know different formatting other than changing content formatting would be right formatting is and I think I think that that's a very difficult thing when you have we have a tool Google doc that allows people to
128work simultaneously on a document and but then there's there's limited formatting ability in Google Google so then it gets transferred to a dock but then once it's once it lives in the dock and people are trying to input then people lose track of okay so which version do you have where is that living did you have that version okay so what did you name the most recent version and so everybody's kind of scrambling to try to figure out who has the version I don't have whatever you guys have I don't have that I do not have I don't have the the actual document at this point all right if we do on it it's accepted Nicole this will be the document you can circulate to to them formatting issues we know need to be worked
129on that will be worked on uh it will come to the success committee um as far as content does anybody have questions I have some things okay um I don't know how we're going to votee on a handbook that the principal hasn't say well I mean content I just content just format re the content change no and I'll be honest with you Julie we didn't get it to Lisa because I didn't want her to change formatting over the weekend because I was doing the formatting okay on Friday afternoon and I said to Nicole I don't think this is where I need to be spending because I was changing asteris and and was making me crazy it needs heavy proof read and I mean that year right so we could probably find some I would gladly
130internship maybe one of the assistant principles at Tanto should own this I I don't know in the interest of it being 10 minutes formatting issues are gonna be taken care of content content okay so I've seen this handbook it's my fourth year I don't see much that's changed in the cour year I know you haven't been in position you haven't been in the superintendent position um so obvious things that I noticed was in the um athletic handbook and I know our athletic director is not here to speak to this but um we have we have to adhere to the MIAA rules and regulations and we can't be less restrictive than those so in the Mia handbook um students have to um they're Bound by what's called a academic eligibility standard naturally right it's in place
131for those athletes um to be eligible for the season that they're going to plan it's based on the marks from the previous season in our handbook it says that students must student must secure during the last marking period proceeding the contest um second quarter marks and not of semester grades determines the third quarter eligibility of passing grade in at least all but one of the major subjects that he or she is taking and the MIAA handbook requires a passing in all of the subjects that they are taking so this is they're allowed to fail one here they're not allowed to fail any with the Mia rules and R and I think maybe that was changed somewhere because these regulations are 2023 to 2025 so that may be that just was never updated R hours um
132but certainly that's of course important that we can't be as restricted in the Mia yeah I don't know why we would allow a failing student to play extracurriculars versus do extra homework anyway right I mean could we possibly suggest to strike those words that say fail class yeah and then it would match the M MH only have to say you can't fail you'd have to say you'd have to be have passed and receive full credits for the previous course I mean the language is right can you take the language directly from that to but if this was this might have just recently changed you know what I mean so that's probably why it hasn't yeah it might be why it's not in there but we still need to get it in there right that's what
133I'm saying yeah still certainly we're talking it's page 30 that jul correct Y and then also during the season they're also Bound by an academic eligibility standard as well and I'm sure Matt would have more details on this what that means that one um not to beat a dead horse about the cell phones but I think it's a tough argument kids can't play cards at lunch but they can use cell phones at lunch y I don't know that's in there too 100% agree with that one was that J me that I coulde with that wait so can Middle School use phones at lunch though all right and I get the idea it's gambling and right good no no know I like I do because I can remember many many many many years ago when I
134was substituting at toono and I thought it was I was a subtit Institute teacher and I thought that playing cards was okay because they were it was strategy and and it wasn't principal came in and advised me otherwise so you know I don't they're probably poker games going right but I don't know there are a lot of important card games that can be played like five other a yeah so I maybe it's a you know another discussion I don't I always was cards and cell phones I think are bigger conversation than tonight um a comment I had about another thing in here we're picking and choosing certain policies to put in here like on page 31 it does have the ecfa policy my question was why individual policies going into the handbook versus all policies
135going into the handbook or no policies going into the hand book but with some reference to policy manual that was one comment the other comment was the policy that's in here is not actually the current version of the policy and then we're also voting on that later tonight so it may or may not change from the current version the current version is not what's actually in here so I mean that the MIAA stuff if we have a a handbook that we approve this year and a kid is failing and he goes on to play in a basketball game or whatever are we in violation of Mia what does that do to the team what does that do to the rest of the the program can we approve this with those things not being correct or
136addressed couldn't you strike the words like and make an amendment to the vote to to approve this so we would first have to vote on the amendment of striking the words and replacing it with I think there's even some confusion as to what exactly right would it be replaced with you know well I guess specifically for for the failed class I mean the M the new Mia I would imagine um the athletic director would weigh in on what wording he would put in there yeah I don't know I mean it wouldn't be directly from I mean we're we're almost a month into school does another two weeks hurt like Megan said yeah we're meeting on October 10th so I mean I don't know are you is the Student Success committee meeting I mean I it
137seems like there's kind of a lot to just amend and then vote on yeah I I'm I think that the MIAA thing because if you get a kid that fails and then you're like you know nope you can't play sports by Ma and they're like oh no that's not tono policy right I mean that's going to create a huge I mean you almost have to have kids resign that the handb change say so I would say you're gonna have to send a new copy out so I I almost feel like not and same thing with the me the the face coverings policy if we're voting on a new policy tonight and then this is in the policy that that's a slippery slope right there I would just remove that policy anyway because it's unless there's
138a reason to have a specific individual policy in the handbook but then we we should be consistent with what we have exactly yeah so I think that's what you I mean I caught that one particular policy because it's up for vote again tonight I don't know if there other ones in there in different places I think you need to make a decision where either G to put all policies in this handbook and have them signed off or put no policies and refer to the actual policy manual yeah there's a another one on page 37 school and it's documented school committee policy klg law enforcement agencies coming into schools but yeah I think that's it's only picking and choosing and there might be more school committee policies that actually do apply to the high school kids
139and yeah I think I would probably just remove all school committee policies and have a little saying at the end that says you know you must follow all district policies unless there's a compelling reason to do something different yeah there's a lot of stuff that's like specific to the school makes sense but I mean I I would maybe argue for that the the C the police policy that you just mentioned like I to keep it any I yeah yeah I mean especially with the discussion of officers but it's still policy it's just I this is so cumbersome 131 pages I me are any kids actually reading this whole thing well no I read it yeah J cre I read yeah so I don't know there's a lot of so who who actually writes this this
140it's a team effort well it is it's been so I will say too there are a few like the sexual harassment policy there are a few things and Janelle maybe you can CH Chim in but there are a few that have to be in there so there are a few policies that I know again because they have to be presented every year to so yeah so that's what I mean reason to have don't ask Paul Mar what those are yeah is there a compelling reason to have individual policies in there and if so can they all be grouped into one acknowledgement section so many I would need to look into it a little bit I mean if I'm being asked I would need to look into that a little bit to see exactly which ones
141it's an excellent point Paul um yeah like civil rights I would exactly what needs to go into the student rights we know I mean we can tell you um in our sleep what needs to go to staff each year but what needs to go into the student handbook and that is probably the roots of why there are some policies in there and not others Wonder have to look at it the animal support if they so so here's my confusion with the with the handbook is that we have a document that is formatted to no fault of anybody's honestly because if it just keeps getting handed down then the can's getting K nobody's fault right we have a document that we have to approve for the community to follow sort of the protocol for the kids
142to follow but yet there's things in it we don't know what policy should be in there what policy shouldn't be listed in there some of the language is incorrect so from here I I I would make a motion to send it back to the team but I don't even know what team that is that's going to review it right that's I think that's the piece I mean right I think I was to ad they were all new so they at something that I heard what you said to your point was just handed down to us so it's been this way this act this one was actually forwarded even before July 1 so it was pres it was handed to toward school committee even before I you didn't yeah we we voted on this in years
143past and I hav just been like a rubber stand okay so where do we go from here I think you need I think we need to form an ad hoc committee to focus on this this handbook is going to be this handbook and then the other one is the staff handbook yeah that I was going to try to do for October but I feel like well we really need to spend more time on that one as well I think that's it Mike I think it just was rubber stamped and we these probably got through every year yes I'm sure that's all this is not new they didn't change no no I know I know I've seen it four years I've seen it well like Mike said the way it's always been done not the way
144so maybe we need to do that and pull an ad hoc committee to look at these areas one of the things I was going to propose but I'm trying to play it out in my mind that's why I was kind of quiet as thinking do we just do a stay in place with the handbook that we've had until we can get the right one in place I we have to have something worry about without having anything in place well they already signed all this one didn't they no they signed that off the last year's handbook is that the one that's current current students have they signed anything yes they signed one that we had to look at last meeting in early September well or was it August they've sided an acknowledgement of looking at the
145handbook so yeah yeah that's what they sign right a this one that they've read right on on the one that was presented previously not the version we're looking at right now which same content formatting issues but same content same cont so which some of that content probably not accurate yeah so right now we're in compliance because they've signed at least based on what they've looked at which is kind of like the stay in place like it's what they've acknowledged that one the way it is it's not go ahead so one of the reason one of the changes I believe in that handbook is the code of conduct yes yes yes um so there were changes um to those laws and regulations around student discipline last November and I believe that the code of conduct reflects
146what those changes are alternatives to to suspension in some cases um so we are eager to have an updated code of conduct in place so that it reflects um those most recent regulation changes but that exists in the one the students have already acknowledged yes our old superintendent's name is in that one the students have I don't think it does I don't think it does I don't the yeah hold on hold on quiet so if it's not in that one then it's not in this one right I believe it's in the proposed one the one that we're looking at right now is in the drive that so unfortunately I've lost access to that drive I I had it last year but so I'm sorry I can't see that um visually don't look at me um
147I can only see the agenda so I I can't put my eyes on it but can you confirm that the one that they're looking at has the new code of conduct that we worked out over the summer the one on the website right now is the 2022 23 because that was not vote because the 23 24 was not voted on so I couldn't repace it so it does not have the updated Cod so the one that the handbook that's on the website now was written and approved and posted prior to those regulation changes in November of 2022 correct therefore it doesn't include those um those changes so there is there is some need to update that because otherwise our code of conduct is not up to so this one you're saying that this one does
148have that so it is Conta CH but they the kids haven't gotten this one we hav right the kids haven't gotten one but this one hasn't correct someone point out where that is I I believe it's on page 59 it's policy I believe it's student discipline policy jic is that suspension page 59 and notice of suspension there there's also a chart right that talks about like if this conduct happens at school this is the potential consequence and that begins on page 52 thank you and what I'm wondering is if we can is it possible to to B for now or we sent this particular portion home and have people sign off on that is that too much could we right so could we just focus on just having the code of conduct discipline code discipline
149code thank you and on the other y I get what you're saying okay so we would amend this motion then to not approving it as presented but approving the discipline code to what we say to be sent home do they have to sign off on that Janel that they've seen it do you think probably I mean that's it's typically part of the signed off we can we can communicate we can find a different way too it's I think it's most important um right that we're communicating what those expectations are and then that we're implementing them it puts us in a strange place um to be following in updated handbook that doesn't um for discipline that doesn't necessarily align with those updates that came out last November could it be added as like an addendum to
150the 22 23 handbook like that's how I vote it and that way it is actually part of the handbook like we attach it to that one I'm wored that be so many errors to the 22 23 that I mean those are the ones you brought up do but well they've already acknowledged that one is what they're saying this year that's the one acknowled so that one needs the discipline code but they so they'd have to resign again just just the I see just the student discipline code um that has the the charts I believe it starts on page 52 and it continues on or you could just reset resent or you could just spend two weeks get someone to fix it we'll vote and then send the whole thing in its entirety out and say
151you need to sign this new one the school committee just approved it but somebody needs to own this in the district I don't know who what does the udent not the high school student council isn't there a community of council members aren't there student council school council school council so we we just met and we're doing the school Improvement plan and so we w't have another meeting in okay I don't let's um there's a motion on the table to approve this right now and we don't want to we're saying there's problems with this we can either amend the motion or vote on the motion let's vote should we amend to could amend to just approve the discipline policy yeah so would someone like to make a motion to amend the motion to not approving the
152handbook as is but to only approving the discipline code some Megan second uh Jess okay anyone want to discuss that amendment should we add into that amendment that there's parental consent involved that's you can amend the amendment once so if you amend the amendment you have to be steady on what you want to do because you're going only do it one more time yeah uh no this is what's going to we're approving this this parent acknowledgement or student acknowledgement is part of the process that they do we're y amending what they're do or voting on what they're do okay any other discussion on the amendment I would just say I don't know how we can add that amendment in and not take into consideration the MIAA rules and regulations and I think at that point
153if we're going to and I think that one is very important I think the Mia one's very important I think we have to do this the right way and I know time is of the essence and we have to get people to sign this because we're not in compliance at this point but would two weeks would two weeks make a difference well do they have someone that in two weeks can fix this I don't know we'll have to just we'll have to make that a that's barel yeah I I we well I guess if you're going to hand it off to the success committee then we'd have to have a meeting but then we the input of like what civil rights yeah we don't necessarily right now this we wouldn't necessarily do that because that
154was mostly for a final look for formatting flow and things like that it would be Carol's team to get it correct and it would just be to fix the MIAA make make sure that discipline thing is accurate and I would say go through and figure out what policies are what school committee policies are supposed to be included in the handbook and which ones don't have to be I me those would be the three action items for your team to take in the next two weeks to bring this back to us so we can vote on it so we would vote no then on or well you can vote you table the to yeah well no because we're in the middle of the motion we have to vote we could all vote no Jess opinion can
155also amend it or we could just take the discipline but I agree with Julie because if we're in a sport season so we're in football season right so one K on the football team gets an F or starts failing a class and our manual they've signed is well it would only affect if they had failed in the spring yeah so I just think it speaks to we we have to right stop just doing if things are handed and it says been handed to everybody in this room at some point it just has to stop we have to we have to have an appropriate handbook that has the right documentation in there from Soup To Nuts And my and my thought is I don't know if we can turn this around in two weeks that's I
156one thing I worry about we can make those we can make those three edits we can make those three changes I I'll be perfectly honest with you because I when I look at other District's handbooks I think looking pretty good no oh okay okay see that bring up again back to what Mike says okay the way it's always been done right and this is the grief I give John every time we talk about Ang GL and andcat scores I don't care what other districts did we're not responsible for other districts we're not responsible for the state we're responsible for our district so looking to those other districts for you know sort of inspiration or or maybe the way they do things but to look to those other districts as an example Well they suck too
157so we don't have to be so good she saying opposite she's saying the opposite yeah you're saying they don't look good right so she's saying they look oh they look good and then I I would prefer ours to look that way well yeah I would too so that's okay so I Mard what you said I'm sorry but still to the same point is comparing us to other groups versus what what are our kids need our kids don't need what I don't know pick other District they need what our kids need so so I think legally do we need that portion the discipline portion I think that is the most timely thing the Mia really it based on Spring to this that's already happen they're already playing so it's really not going to be until winter
158sports which is after Thanksgiving correct yep that's correct so so that is important but maybe not the most important thing that we need to Pro because just leg I don't know I don't know what I mean this is Mr pakar would know better but you you are not allowed by maiaa rules and regulations to have less restrictive guidelines than the MIAA and we do I mean I guess it is currently an issue is there someone that had failed you know yeah that's why I was going to ask well I don't I don't I don't I have no idea but I I know that there's this the language is such that we're less restrictive that's what I know in this um I don't know I think we can find people to help we and we'll do
159our best I just don't want to promise something that we may get into this into the weeds and find out that we need to update even more as we get into I just I promise that it's going to be ready because when we're talking two weeks it's not really two weeks because we have to load it in so everybody can review it right so now we're talking maybe a week and a half I just don't think we can do this well we're going to be having almost the same kind of conversation we're looking at content huge and then now we're getting into form too no we're not talking about format discipline code academic eligibility policy legally required policy yeah and I think one person needs to own it I I understand the collaborative effort but
160I think things something like this that's actual work work or I call it real work I mean like to sit and write a policy somebody needs to own this and then you go back to your group and say hey this is what I did can you help me with this or can you I don't know who that person is supposed to be if it's supposed to be Janelle or somebody at Danto or you know but there should be I'm try to put work on you but there should be somebody maybe it's one of again maybe I get the both assistant principles are new but maybe that's something that one of those people can own moving forward I think somebody needs to own this it needs to be their responsibility because I don't want to be
161a jerk but it's a little frustrating that this is what like the second or third time we're looking at it and this is not high quality work um so I mean sorry but you know some and if somebody is accountable for this then that might solve a problem yeah and I and I don't necessarily think it should be you Carol because I don't think it's your job to write the handbook for the high school you should be reviewing it but somebody else needs to own this update trying not to volunteer that yeah you not somebody else needs to don't know right but but when you're talking about high quality and so that's why I was tying the formatting it's how it looks but it's all more importantly it's the content and it's all has to
162be updated so if you're comfortable with the content changing we can I can't promise that in a week and a half we will do our best but I realistic J because I also want to add in right I think that we've been asked to to move forward forward some of our budgeting work um For an upcoming town meeting and that's in the same overlapping time frame to be realistic it's it we wouldn't be able to deliver on maybe drop drop the drop the policy portion and push that off because that seems like the yeah bigger piece but maybe these two glaring the code of conduct and then the Mia and we might if we can get together with if I can work with Lisa and the assistant principles and M Caro has to be involved
163in this as well Paul should be involved in the technology and making sure everything's accurate and there all those different elements and Janelle we can come together and and spend time looking at that working on that together but moving forward someone's job description should include Handle by the time we come to next August we'll have a completely updated yeah and accurate correct one right now we have a amended motion on the table to we approve only the discipline code and you want to change the MIAA eligibility as well can we add that to you can amend it you can amend the amendment once Amendment and add both in and then just yeah I just would want I just think Matt should speak to it Mr Mara should because this is his feel you know okay
164so so what about see I don't know so all right I agree with Julie he should speak through he's the expert yeah he's the expert he knows okay if anything we have in the district at any time needs to be amended updated for whatever reason change in law recognition that something's wrong it can always come back to the school committee to be done in the future yeah I think we should hear about the Mia rule next meeting we have an amended motion to approve the discipline code so that students can rege the discipline coding unless there's further discussion on that we should vote we already second right we already second so all in favor of the amended motion the amended motion the am all favor of the amended motion to approve the discipline code the
165updated dis code and have students knowledge that is the motion on the table that we're voting on all in favor hi post okay so new discipline code passes that can go to students to be acknowledged tomorrow at our next meeting Matt can come and speak to the Athletics portion and between now and then if any content is noticed that needs to be updated let's bring that to attention as soon as possible so we'll have time all right and uh okay so want to number two that was good but I um have motion to approve the middle school math curriculum second Jess and Julie this is one of those ones Carol where I was talking about earlier that we're going to need more information to update a curriculum so curriculum oversight by the committee seems to
166be a theme tonight okay so you're asking what exactly we being asked to do because what I see in the drive isn't very clear I thought the book was supposed to be at the meeting tonight it's right there but it's 20 P 7 and we on each read the book all right vote well we're here for discussion I think we need to get more information is are these already being used they're already being used she was going to say that looks familiar yeah okay so it was it was reviewed by by thee of math or right Department process so this this occurred when I was in the other position and this was two years in the making we had vendors come in we had presentations done the math department met reviewed all of that documentation
167then they did a year of piloting this program and um before they they said this is the one we wanted to go with so that was how it came about this should have been approved the end of last year really um to go forward this year but it was part of what we budgeted for as well to make sure that we had the right materials so and resources and I think that that speaks to this curriculum it's a proving curriculum versus approving resources that the students are using so in essence what you've been doing historically is approving the resources that we use not necessarily the curriculum so that's really so the way does it work on the agenda it says curriculum curricul right but that's the word that has been used for approving the material
168a new book whether it's foundations or it's like Invision or caring School Community or whatever it's been so it's a new book that goes and it would still be nice to get a little bit more information on the book but I don't know how you would do that or just even the name of the book and then we could go online and look it well you reviewed it because you were the curriculum oh so two years ago so you you looked at the book would you agree with recommendation yeah oh gosh yeah and and Sally put together information about why why it was approved by the why it met the needs of the math department when when they met just Frameworks practice opportunity scaffolding um just more updated to instruction our students essentially and I
169think that's what we're talking about is what we were provided to make this decision to vote on something was a little light in the information we might want in order to make that decision and I think looking at the Timeline like for doing this probably going forward again this was sort of you use the word before it's a rer stamp yeah on what we've done if if you want a more assertive aggressive way of looking at to curriculum way ahead of time and I think that the time to do that is before we move into pilot mode on these so that sounds fair I mean we've got a big curriculum coming up in the works yeah so yeah because I I think links before I think there was something we looked at last year that
170had links in it too to some I can recall over the last few years different changes to what's been called curriculum coming in front the school and again previous chairs I didn't see much detail then either right there was not yeah so if we're going to be putting the school is going to vote on something regardless whether it's culum or policy or a donation we need to get better at communicating and the the information that we have in order to make a decision because we don't want to be a rubber stand so all right um so there's a motion to approve this middle school math curriculum is anyone comfortable or you want more discussion anybody else have anything to say um looking at the KE policy that was brought up before um it does say
171that it's based on the superintendent's recommendations so um seeing that she reviewed it and was familiar with material um I think recommendation holds a lot I think it's it's not so much do you recommend it or not it's do we understand what you're recommending and why you're recommending is I think one would probably all right anybody else I I don't I don't want to hold anything up and I I kind of feel like we're between a device right now it's like you have to approve this but at the same time I don't know what I'm approving and my name is going on that for approving it and it just makes me nervous not that I don't trust you or anybody else I just I don't know what's in there other than five bullet points um
172which were helpful but I don't know anything I don't I don't know if they're I don't I don't know anything and so I just feel nervous saying I'm okay um and again I trust you implicitly it's just we're okaying it and we are the people that are going to people are going to be upset with if we don't know like I don't I don't know anything about that math curriculum at all you've seen it at home but I haven't I haven't seen it um I agree with you lii it's I trust Carol but at the same point in time our job is to be looking at the stuff oversight yeah and if we're just over here the book's already being used so why do we even need to vote on it just so we got
173the formality to check the box I mean mean that's so silly in my opinion I I would respectfully ask all of you to consider approving this we've already paid substantial amount we've gone through it to Jessica's point we reviewed I understand your point but I also feel like going forward we're happy to to meet the needs and the requirements I just feel like this was part of the again to say the way we did things but this is what we understood was expected of us as a school committee as well so we weren't asked by the school committee to do it in the way you're asking then this is what we have been doing so therefore I think it should be approved it's it's set to go it's been reviewed going forward we'll do curriculum
174differently so I'm just going to put that out there to you I don't know what to do yeah otherwise do we you know that's a that's a fair point you bring okay you also bring out the cost I mean if there's one thing we can actually have site over it's cost so when new curriculums do come down the road and cost is a factor yes we we'll get more information and that will give us time to do that if you're looking at it before even if we set money aside this year for for materials we might need to your point the health curriculum looking at that before we go forward and put it in the budget would be something that we should be doing and bringing it forward and we're happy to do that I
175just feel like to hold this I don't know what to do with that if you hold this up now you totally right though I remember when I joined the committee and that was how it was explained to me like a lot of stuff was just rubber stamping it and it wasn't until you know we've kind of formed kind of set some new norms and I think we're all learning together so I totally understand that and I appreciate it so yeah any other questions all right motions on the table so all in favor I against I'd like to obstain AB I just don't feel like I can make a decision based on what I have uh and I don't want to hurt the Four Eyes one abstain and I be an i as well so that's
176five and one abstain excellent thank you very much uh next up is can I have a motion for the approval of wion Lions Club donation for k k Road Race proceeds so moved really Jess this is a $500 donation uh addressed to the tono art department so there's a question real quick the art department does that include music is it simply graphic arts what does the art Department include we we reached out to the donors they in fact said for the art as in visual arts department for supplies for that part supplies for the visual arts so drawing painting okay uh so that's what that will be there anybody have any questions or discussion it's great no all right all in favor against all right that motion passes thank you uh approval of may I
177have a motion for the approval of stien positions for Tanto second Megan okay um s in positions anyone have any questions on these I just didn't understand the document okay yeah this is another one that I know what it says now I asked Nancy but okay no this is another one where we probably need something more more of an explainer my understanding is the total amounts are not changing but it's just being reallocated to different positions is that correct I just don't understand what club advisor to replace these're producer the school play the director the school play these are the new positions and the new amounts no exist so instead of Bravo it's gonna the producer yeah scho Global Studies exist it's not like they don't equal each other it's just confus it's they don't
178they don't exist and so people people are doing work right you know and not there's not a proper name for it so we're just trying to be specific in terms of you know who's doing what and what are they getting paid for yeah I just about the auditorium manager why is that on here because we voted on that in our last meeting right oh that was a note to that was a note to Nancy to put it into so we have a document that between all of the schools of our stien positions because those are contracted so I just made a note for her to put it in that because it's not there and so I can't you know I can assign it to anybody so the amount listed there is different from the amount
179that we voted on last time oh so yeah because she didn't update the amount of the siphons with the increase this year so the amount we voted on is an incorrect amount was it 696 I think yeah was an incorrect amount believe was 717 so is this vote approving that new amount as well or is that going to be a separate vote in the future is a vote for that as well this do okay does everybody everybody understand yeah we voted the wrong amount last time yeah correct by like 20 bucks yeah or something like that yeah can you just speak to the mentors program I see that is no longer being r no um it's it is not um I mean we want to have it run but there are no um individuals that
180have stepped forward to be mentors because it's a pretty hefty time commitment so um I had just you know added you know I didn't understand some of that money for the mentors is a grant funded through mentors program and then from my understanding there's a small amount that is part of our the stien budget and I was just trying to get some clarification so I knew the money I was working with you understand so it ended up being 7117 that the like the Tonda budget was adding to an acquisition I think is maybe so that's that's where I've been spending my a lot of my time with the budget stuff so there's no change in the total amount is just reallocating to different positions anybody have any final questions thoughts well there would be a
181change in the total because we're adding on to uh yeah there is a change in the auditorium total of it is that $21 yeah so offering to 21 bucks can do that all right all in favor all right that motion passes thank you uh on to policy votes uh so policy e may I have a motion to approve policy evcf facee coverings the draft version is in the drive the title of the version that we will discuss is draft of revised bcfa June 2023 face CS some second Julia La all right any questions on this I was curious um when the desie Mandate ended um prior to that the school committee didn't really have any power to end that mandate so I'm I'm curious by striking out local mandates the legality of it like has
182the lawyer been talked with with that um because you know prior to the desate being lifted the school committee could not end it so the school committee actually me to discuss ending it not too but we were because the council said you couldn't no to my memory and no no we made the decision not to go forward with it uh but we didn't mean to discuss anything yeah I remember that but so it was that that was also was that face coverings and return to school or was that just face coverings February 202 was it yeah uh which one there are so many discussions on this point remember either I think when we were talking local mandates um we were speaking I at least I know I was thinking Board of Health and things like
183that it's something that we would have to it's not that we wouldn't approve it is that the school committee would meet to discuss whether they wanted to burin held on to their face masks in municipal buildings longer than the February 28th um and that's kind of what drove this so I guess with the phrasing it should all federal and state mandates and local law no we took out mandates and we're going to do what the law or we're proposing we're going to do what the law requires yeah I guess I just I don't see the difference between like if you had decided to you know not go along with the Desy mandate then it was then putting in danger of the Desy funding or the state funding so I just not seeing the difference of
184taking out the local you know the federal state State mandate versus local mandate I mean it's the placement of the Mandate rather than the actual local if that's what you're referring to if it's the local dph I just didn't I've lost track of the name of our legal councel but I don't know if she Kim Kim thank you sorry names are not my special um so I didn't know if that has [Music] been I don't put in front of her so I think Jessica when we were talking about this um the way it used to be read is if the CDC decided tomorrow that everybody should wear a mask automatically everybody in the school will be wearing a mask and I think what we wanted to do is be able to have a conversation um
185before we were to just agreed to a mandate um and that's why we did local law and took out the Mandate portion of it it doesn't mean that we're not going to follow it it means that we would have a discussion to discuss if that would be we've talked about how you know in our we want to represent our schools accurately and how we're different from other schools I think it's it's an important conversation to have because we're a smaller District before we just go based on what a big entity would be saying that's at least my feeling on it true any other questions comments I I would like to suggest that we include in this policy um the requirement that we have those um those pulse oximeters in the nurses offic you do have
186all the connection have yes oh that's great have um I don't know if we should include that in here that people can go down if they're not feeling well wearing a mask can they go they can go down and have the nurse check their oxygen lels because there's so much pressure you know from you know people who believe in masks and you know to pressure to wear the mask and if they really feel terrible and they can't focus and they can't think then I think that they should at least have some data from the nurse you know to justify if they don't want to wear the mask because they can't like they literally can't function I think that's procedure for the policy I'm looking at Janelle because we just there there are things that are
187happening and not happening now in the nurses office it had been happening in the past yeah and I do think that I do think that you know any student or staff there really you know for any need regardless of mask can go down and and see the nurse I um I don't in my opinion I don't think that it needs to to go into a policy that they could have that checked um if I could offer that opinion but because that's just part of the standard practice um and I am you know I'm not a nurse but I do that's one of the first things um right that a medical professional looks at when someone's not feeling well um is that that's part of those initial I mean then if you include that then you're
188going to get into the numbers like what is what is you know dangerous and what's not yeah you have to be a policy on what you yeah I passing and failing at the bottom of the violation of this policy it kind of addresses your concern that no one's going to be uh no disciplinary action will be taken so I guess I was just thinking you know if we're going to enforce masks in any way or have you know have to wear them in the community that people should know but that they have the option to have the nurse CH you know and how would they even makebe think to do that because a lot of people just don't even know I think in schools though in any case regardless of his mask Co or anything
189else if someone's not feeling well like Janelle said nurses are very absolutely go down to the Nur they'll take care of you but it's a difference but it's a difference on what Carol said procedure versus policy this policy is strictly looking at when will masks be required if they will be required that gets more into healthare which the committee has said in the past the committee is not a healthcare body it's not going to make recommendations on healthare that's up to the individual parent to choose they have child or the adult staff memb CH I understand what you're saying um yeah the oxygen levels are a big thing putting it in a policy to Jess's point we would have to then say okay in our policy it has to say when it is this level
190do this that level do that that's more procedural healthare thing that the nurses probably should take care of yeah I mean under that instance like the CTC guines that if you cannot mask if you're under two or certain disabilities you can just stay home for 10 days on so so I mean there's that as well if if if you were sick if you're positive for Co specifically yeah I mean but this refers to just like asymptomatic spread probably also right I mean that's concern it would just be like everybody has to wear just in case yeah I don't know this we're just looking at the policy of what are we doing in our district regarding uh masking to be honest I think this is even a little bit dated for us even right now this
191I think this update's been like three months in the making because back then they were talking about possibly doing it I think that's kind of died down so good points I think like Carol said the nurses do have those tools they will they will do that for kids as J said the policy does address if someone's not feeling comfortable they're not going to be disciplined for not doing anything um one thing in your proposed policy you mentioned ventilation and so I agree with you on that account um and so there was some concerns that after the wildfires um filters should be changed um and so not necessarily relevant to this in this policy that we're talking about no but proposed addition a polarizing topic so let's keep it to I'm just talking the air fers
192and the buildings that they should be changed after Wildfire I think to Lisa's I think to Lisa's Point as well if if we were to change this so that people if there was a law that required that they had to wear masking that's when I think that would be something that we would want to put in there for health reason so that we're protecting everyone's [Music] Health would that be part of policy uh it already kind of is because if we are going to go down this route then the administration is required to a plan as to what we're going to be watching and doing so anybody have anything else uh okay so all in favor I opposed I'm gonna abstain okay one two abstains okay I'm an i as well so that is four
193eyes and two ABS thank you um c a motion to accept policy IH the proposed policy IH ma parental notification relative to sex education second Julian Lori iard any discussion on this one questions all right uh all in favor I all right all opposed all right so this policy passes as well uh that's it for uh votes uh any questions on the first readings glor kind of went over on her update no questions all right uh future agenda item proposals so uh on here is a future town hall meeting regarding the BS building that's something that we're discussing I think that October 24th meeting with the towns might cover least the initial part of this we're going to probably propose a larger group to take a bigger look into all the buildings um October the
194school concer still want to come in so I think a bre I can't remember right now if I've reached out to the school counselors at this point or talked to Lisa about it but Lisa L was going to come in um she did want to talk about the Epic pen the portion of the med delegation that we can get High School commission to come and talk about that um so that that opens up the doorway for field trips or day field trips and who has who's able to ad we've had that we have a policy on it already she just wants to make sure that we're all comt so comfortable with that so so that we know when we speak to the staff about so so anyway the counselors I think I reached out so
195we can definitely I'll check on that one and then be in I have I have a list of people coming already I just want to make sure we have the nurse medic Carl the principles are reading the reports John's doing his report on the accountability no on mcast a point on the John you probably say right but I know you love point out the highlights of the the scores which we should definitely celebrate the highlights of the scores I don't I just don't want to gloss over the low points in the scores where I think we'd really be interested in hearing what the plan is to address the low points is probably more important right so I we come in here I don't want to bombard you with surprise questions or anything but we really
196want to know what the plan is to fix the low points but we also would like to celebrate the high points as well me we kind of started to do that last you can recall that it was not Universal endorsement that approach um that is City talked about you know if we're not honest with ourselves then how can we grw neither of the schools are bad schools which just there are areas where we could get better no I know and uh there are some awards obv right like high rankings that the schools receed right so there good things but I think to the rubber stamp Point sure we rubber stamp the highlights like but it's what for needs to improve is what we're focused on because if you need budget items if you need policies
197if you need whatever if car's not doing a good job and you need to evaluate her we can address that there's nothing for us to do if everybody's achieving 90% you will the a kind of be compared because it's like two different days of testing and there two different types of test yeah you know so there's MPS which is it's a nice one day measure of work it's AR one day um and you take it with kind of a grand Sal you look for patterns over time right that was kind of where I got not into trouble but you know has had some success over the past several years well it's been not quite as much success successful but we want to keep looking at that I talked a lot about bringing the two schools
198into more of a alignment in terms of curriculum approach expectations I I want to just go through go ahead you go first obviously sorry it just popped into my head when you said alignment between the schools because something came to my attention speaking of the old curse of writing I have it on here oh so that's what I want to to me this is an equity issue and I don't know that you think I would think this is an equity issue but it is an equity issue if one school's getting it one school's not okay they're getting it that's great but the other school's getting something else that the curse of school's not getting so there's not Equity there do you want to have that conversation at 10 to no I don't but I she
199said she's got it on there so that's good I just wanted to um also I want to ask you there's a lot of talk about getting away from mcast in the state there's a lot of there's a push to do away with that cast right there's grps so if you might have something to share with us then on that too okay yeah great I just want to go over I just want to make sure we're all on board for what to anticipate for the October meeting everything another three hour meeting you got little 17 minutes and like 60 minutes so you could deal I Sally was going to do a presentation understanding Dei okay we have John and Cindy working on we're gonna talk about this tomorrow everybody but you kind of know curse of
200writing John and Cindy we're going to address um financial literacy and where we are with getting the new math person to teach financialy because of the requirements from the state for graduation moving forward um in the mcast report Elementary and accountability report we have John and Cindy on Mi we have M Carl the school nurse is going to be coming in to discuss we get the councel Department to as sounds good for the record I'm in favor of the cursive right I want the curs right I know I know we have Cur of writing to read historical documents you need curse of writing to read the Constitution you need writing well you know the Bible need to read Greek are we to teach the children Greek to come on you guys like some country and
201anybody have any other future agenda proposals to Me Maybe cell phone use in scho yeah meeting hold on that's that's a fair point last year we talked about cell phone use of schools and the principles at the time gave us a bit of an update on how they're used at the high school level is there anything we can follow up from the STA I mean I don't care you want get rid of some folks make motion care we need I I would like to go ahead Carol I was just going to say so last year at the end of the year I know that other than assistant principal had done a survey presented the survey and we discussed the survey and the results of that I think going forward my my suggestion to this would
202be you know we are doing what we're doing right now at Tanto I think it becomes more of a policy I see this as a policy discussion so if this is the policy that the school committee wants to create then then that's the direction we going because I think it we could go back and forth a million more surveys propose something to Lori for the polies up and also this ties in with the radio frequency stuff they talked about that in the presentation that I mentioned earlier that I'll sent to everybody um they talk about how that really amplifies all of the radiation the world all being to everybody has a cell phone and they have um some really good ideas for taking them to the classroom yeah so hopefully all right anything else oh
203maybe one more thing this will be really quick I just feel like this is last thing where do our kids go after they graduate I feel like we don't ever get that information like are we are we are they going to I League Schools are they going off of the job force can we get sort of I think we had stats on graduation time last year right would be I just think we had the colleges they did a thing on Facebook like Lai showed up yeah I don't know it wasn't presented to us but had the that would be nice that's all I got M all right I have toj this meeting so favor