6-6-23 Open Meeting School Committee

001you fired up apparel or yeah that cost to order this meeting of the BB RSD school committee how's everybody doing all right would you mind uh please surprise me for the Pledge of Allegiance okay thanks everybody uh any public comments or Kyle yes I wasn't going to do public book that's all um which is that I learned so much how can I interrupt you just once it's your expert thing so you you got it you're good notes for minutes is always got it yeah sorry no sorry so I learned so much during the budget process and that and for first and foremost lesson was that you as a leadership team really embraced help and support and asked for and then took Enterprise the help and support of this community and I am just grateful to

002be a part of it I'm grateful to see that leadership and how it's playing out for our students the other piece of that is you shared not just status quo which is what we get but you share the vision for what could happen so I just want you to know you have my attention and you have the support of many of the ptos at Link's meeting this past week um one District became a rough theme of our room for what we could do um and then weirdly enough I had an email from Stacy from the future we want to work together let's figure this out so there's action happening um we look to you all for guidance and so just thank you for that second is the request and that is that link is partnering

003with Mrs Woodward our literacy specialist to support the summer reading program at BMS um so we are creating web page that will have lots of literacy resources for students um and then we're hosting two events this summer summer reading family and picnics uh Friday July 21st and Friday August 18th um we're going to ask families to talk and bring picnics and we're going to open the BMS Garden which will be blooming and encourage them to pick and eat from there as well and we're going to have story times at a few different stations so my request is that you consider being a community reader at any of those events so I'll be reaching out please but Mark the calendars that's my request and then the offer is actually later on your on your agenda item

004but link has the community of Lincoln all the parents BMS raised a lot of money to offer BMS some pretty cool playground Improvement stuff so just to let you know I'm here if you have complete you've got the letter we're able to review and that's what I wanted to make sure that's what it was your question so thank you thanks Kyle um the reason I wanted to hold you until after I will come up but that's fantastic I expect it to be a long meeting tonight so anybody has questions about the playground donation for Kyle could you ask them now so that when it's time to vote on it we are prepared yeah money maybe we should just even move the boat up to right now for that particular well does anybody have any questions

005for that uh we will we will but while Kyle's here she has kids to give back to him sure uh so under business items number five number five can I have a motion to improve the blank Fun Run playground donation money so Julie Jess all in favor against all right so that donation is accepted thank you very much um all right all right anybody else here no more public comment okay um Carol of the the kids here do they want to go now there should be two groups if they're not here yet if everybody's here we can do it if we're waiting on people it's just one for the events try to take care of yourself is all right come right up here everybody's class go right up if you're going right downstairs [Laughter] thank

006you so we've invited a couple of our fifth grade students from nature who attended Nature's Classroom this spring and they are teachers um [Music] there he is over there and here right over here and they had this wonderful experience that we could tell you about but what better than to listen to the students share the experience themselves so go ahead so did you say stuff about it and tell us what you did okay and what you loved about it every day there would be like two classes and someone costumes would be like dissecting stuff um and some like weird films [Music] and many different counselors our group and we did like there was tea time where we had a 30 minute break after we did for an hour after we did like a hike or

007something and one of the classes was you got to eat plants um so you can eat dandelion petals and there's these leaves that you can Crush that smell like peppermint and then there's this leaf that looks like a chair um you can also eat that I did a class that you learned how to hug a tree yes and we also got to dissect like Dogfish sharks and yeah what did you do in the evenings um well we had lunch yep yeah yeah and then we had like our filter and a lot of kids were like when they're staying in their bunks yeah when it was at the end of the day before dinner and one night we did a night walk and through the school you got to like learn like [Music] another call that

008I can't remember um you also got to to um these like shiver peppermints so you would like swim in your mouth and move two down on them and then a little bit of spark that was cool um and then there was waitress at every meal the wait time would go up and get the food and then um they would like serve the food but they got to get served first and then they would clean all of the like trays off and then you'd have to like wipe the tables and make sure everything was in the right place and one day uh we took a four hour hike how long yeah [Music] and we got top scores images and one of the days we had like waffles for breakfast and we had stuffed shells and pizza

009and stuff like for dinner [Music] what made this different from going to school well you had more freedom yeah like they trusted you more they didn't they said like come meet me back um in like 30 minutes come meet me back here in 30 minutes to come back yeah and the waitress had to come to 50 minutes early yeah the beef still had a guitar yeah um and their names were like okay it was Mothman there was beef stew there was PJ there was Jesus and then we played this game Freddie Burgers we started off as like an and then the other animals would chase you if they depending on what animal your Predator like there were pill bugs who like couldn't kill anything there were frogs and there were toads and then there was

010like snakes and dragons the top predator was the Hawks so they can kill anything at the end the Hawks had 40 or 39 or 39 and then they started off with the pill bugs at five yeah and it was like yeah yeah it was cool so two two more questions one is would you recommend other fifth graders going again could you tell us your names my name is Addison my name is Cora I'm Connor thank you so much for coming tonight thank you please to your teachers for coming along with you school committee do you have any questions or comments to make this fifth graders going to sixth grade we got to see the dog fish our spring it's kind of creepy yeah and sliver yeah um question did you think it was nice because

011you got to meet kids from the other school yeah I mean I already knew some kids yeah like softball and from my brother's baseball team um was like the top the one oh yeah so you would play on a volleyball and you would like it's not like true it's like you throw them okay and you have to try and catch it I don't most of the time there wasn't enough basketballs they weren't inflated [Music] for you guys so you guys went with the Berlin kids right yeah yeah all right so was that was that good to meet those guys that were you gonna be in school next year yeah you got new friends from that group now and everything yeah but I feel like on the last day of school everybody was like a half

012the last half day [Music] yeah yeah [Music] the first few days were like super fun but the last half day yeah I'm tired it's hard to sleep away that long Eastern [Music] um any other questions [Applause] thank you did I miss uh did I miss anyone else who wants to make a public comment s uh does anybody have any Communications to bring up all right none uh the consent agenda so the only thing we have on the consent agenda is the minutes from our May meetings they have not been prepared yet so we're gonna not do that we're gonna skip that we'll do that over the next video all right before I get into my report uh Caroline's here also congratulations to the class of 2023 graduated specific for you to report on but is

013there anything you want to bring up um I do one thing I'd like to bring up um I just want to say I'm so grateful to be here thank you for this opportunity um I would I have talked to a lot of other students and they would like it to be considered that there'd be an elected student representative on the actual like board with voting rights um like on the board of education um I personally know the member who is the student representative for the board of Elementary and secondary education for the state and um it definitely it I feel like it helps students feel like they have a lot more like power almost in their school system and um how because um a big thing that a lot of students have been saying is

014they feel like they're almost like powerless a little bit at school they feel like if they want change they have no like real averages for like like um you started to say like but um and just a lot of students have said that they would like if there was more opportunities for students to get involved in like decision making in their school um so that's just something I would like to bring up to think about um just having some sort of election process and you know maybe there'd be like new recommendations from teachers you need to get signatures from students have speech um so you can meet up with people who you know are doing for fun who would be responsible enough to do it that's just one suggestion I have but I would like

015to say thank you so much for this opportunity and I'm excited to see what happens here yeah I mean we'll take a look at that and see if we can do whatever we have to look at some rules laws documents but we'll definitely discuss it thanks uh all right the next item is the SRO discussion before we get into details on sro's school resource officers the point of tonight's discussion is not to say or decide what kind of school resource officer do what should they do what should they not do can they come into school not coming to school where will they be tonight's discussion is not about that it's a nice discussion is simply uh one thing does this District want to pursue having full-time school resource offices it's a yes or no decision

016if it's no that's it we don't bring it up anymore until whenever if it's a yes then we will have additional discussions meetings to figure out exactly what that will all right the reason this comes up tonight uh there's two things there was an mou between the schools and both police departments it was discussed and negotiated last summer I believe May 2022 it was noted on yeah from the school committee yeah and so that is uh I think in place Jeff I believe signed it I believe the Chiefs also agreed to in both towns so that is something that's in place anybody can look at that take a look at that and read it um but we know we don't have a dedicated officer in each building and I think that's what some people have

017said they want so that's what tonight's discussion would be um it was brought up during this last budget season uh the police department's I believe in Boylston were looking into it we're told no the money's not there the reason this is on tonight is because the select Board of Royal stem members have said the only reason we don't have them is because the schools have not asked for them so that's what tonight's discussion is if the schools want to ask for them we will go forward and ask them so that's open for discussion does anybody want to discuss um so there are some maths laws on the board talking about school resource officer training because I was curious what special training was leading into there being placed in there so so that's the kind of

018discussion that we're not going to do tonight there is training there are laws there are policies we have policies about what law enforcement can and can't do when they come into the school even not as a resource officer right if they're on school grounds for whatever reason you know things like they can't talk to a minor child with a informing someone things like that yeah so if we decide that we're going to go this route we will take care of all that make sure that is all in place before we do it the question is just this is a financial issue do we want to pursue it the details for it will get hashed out later yep I wasn't going to go into detail so I think the biggest concern a lot of people have

019is the safety in the schools that people of color and then also people with disabilities are arrested more often and it's not proportionate to the crime within the schools so I was reassured looking that there are school resource Officers Training that speaks to being within a school also the personality the character of a person is taking into a consideration because they're going to be with children educator so I think we are very blessed and Boyles and Berlin to have police officers that we trust and are well well loved within the community but I think there are on a more National level some concerns of what happens with sros so I was reassured to see that there is specifically laws about the training for those sros within Massachusetts also that yes the school committee has a

020policy klg regarding what their powers are within the school so I think a lot of my concerns were reassured by those laws and those policies that are in place um so to your point about coming in and arresting people of Colorado before we get any further Carol and John you've got a lot of experience with Sergeant goody being in the school what's the point what's the purpose of Vanessa of being in the building I I can speak to the Berlin experience because I'm not sure the sergeant Goulding would be the classic example of that sorrow right he's a presence there he's on duty when he's in the building but it's much more relationship building all the kids know him oh the kids trust him but he's not there in an enforcement capacity he's strictly there

021a to maintain those relationships he does the modified version of the Dare program um and he's there for safety you know when we have discussions around ALS training on about that we never worry in Berlin because we know that within two minutes of the phone call Goody's going to be there if he's there in his pajamas because that's just the level of commitment he has but that's an unusual relationship it's a tribute to the town of Berlin FanFest in that way in over school that's the Berlin experience so I think what we're looking for is not necessarily enforcement and discipline preparing in those people it's more likely exactly what he does in Burlington atato I don't know it's whatever it is it's not a Law and Order discipline type of function even though he is

022on duty so if anything happens he responds but more of like Community Building relationship building you know um data program any other type of program that they might be about into both your points the mou that was was looked at was red and blue and the school committee voted on would be worth revisiting again also a visit from from the two chiefs who could explain the training that they do and also our relationship with them um across the district to look at that again but going forward with this we have been finding we craft things according to our culture of our two towns and that's how we operate with in partnership with these police departments so I think that they can address some of the things that you've brought up also to us and the

023training that they've had as well I mean we had a DARE officer at bes in 1990s and you know there were he was a well-known officer and it was nice to have that relationship and see him around town and he would joke with us so it's it's really important to have that relationship and I was there when they spoke last name the two different shoes at that meeting at the school community meeting so I mean I I am very comforted with who our police officers are and the Chiefs and how they spoke and what their goals are and the mou that was signed but I think nationally there's our concern so I was reassured that those laws about those trainings exist and our policy exists and like you said it's you know you've are going

024to model it after our own community and there's many further talks on those but I think you know emotions run High when sros are discussed in school shootings and um I think we all want our children to be protected but I think there are some other things that need to be considered and I'm glad that there will be considered fix it the layering that on top of the work we've been doing with them the trainings the drilling the drills the kind of preparedness that we've had it has to go hand in hand I don't think you can have one without the other so we're always grateful to see their friendly faces when they show up at the door for any occasion so um and I love that we got our bcba the second one approved

025on a budget too because I know there's a lot of Behavioral issues and so I'm glad that we have that support anybody else want to say anything about this I'm curious are we looking at one SRO or three uh I think the ass to ask right now per building um yeah one per building I think is what I've heard people want not you know so it would be during school hours one in the building that's why it's a it's a pretty big Financial commitment through the police budgets because these officers outside of school time would be managed by the police department summer vacation School vacations they might do other police work right so that's a big commitment so that's why if we it's serious thing if we're going to ask for it um it might

026have to wait until next budget season I don't know but the point the feeling in the community is that the schools have never asked for it but the community wants it so why haven't the schools asked for it well so okay we're talking but I'm not sure what this is maybe some people at home might not know um this is like a security guard or is it like an orange officer in the buildings I just want to know like what exactly like the main purpose of this person is so the resource officers are in the buildings again as we talked about before Community build relationship building student relationship building working to just be a presence to to ensure the sense of Safety and Security for the students in the building that's really it they are

027uniforms [Music] and he said it's the sros are very important for that relationship piece the safety is there too and just so they have to come hand in the end but it's that relationship building with the kids and the staff and so that way when they go in the community like you said Jess you see them at you know Duncan's or Cabela's and where we have to see them and they know the kids and then it just becomes a real great positive experience in the community than the sort of wore eyes on so I would definitely say we should be exploring okay I think the community has been very clear that they want sros and I think we should honor that I agree and I was just wondering how do you think students would feel

028with an armed officer in there every day um I feel like it might be a little bit of a shock to students like they might feel like oh you don't trust us type of thing it's like the vibe after like I would get a book but the like feeling I feel like most students first reaction would be um I don't know I just feel like students might get a little scared at first with there being you know someone with a gun in the school even though it is an armed officer um so maybe just making sure that there is like some way to have the biggest end there starting to introduce them just to make sure that when students walk in they know who the person is not there it's just a random police officer

029roaming around yeah I think that's that's important too yeah I mean I think the Berlin kids might be able to help you know having grown up with Sergeant buddy in in the school a lot to help with that but it's it's definitely not a it is not a punishment thing it is not aware of looking here you know what kind of drugs are just going from Carolina yeah right that's not what it is right it's relationability so that when you're like he tells me stories all the time of kids that were there 10 15 20 years ago Commonwealth with a question or Hell or whatever because he has that relationship has that experience with the law right so it is definitely not a punishment or law enforcement hunting detective Gathering type of role it's more

030that relationship building and the reason it comes up every time is Safety and Security that's yeah I'm not saying this is the case but some people feel if there is an armed person in the school it wouldn't deter someone from doing something I'm not saying I believe in that or don't believe in that that is the that's why the request always comes to it yeah personality it's a good idea as long as the students are like known that it's not unconsciousness or relationship building yeah you know catch kids videos [Music] thank you and to your point maybe if it starts out in elementary school and you know I think if we agree to this and I'm also for having an SRO in all the buildings it's something that kids will learn in elementary school so

031that when maybe this group of kids in high school that has never had that in their life but I also grew up with the DARE officer I still remember her um so and I can't remember if she moved up to high school but I never would have thought that way as a kid because I grew up with a DARE officer in the building so if we do this it should be something we're investing in for years to come not just oh let's slap a Band-Aid on it for like three years we'll have one and if you can't don't have the funds we're going to pull that's going to get cut from the budget it has to be a commitment to the schools so it's almost like a culture shift in the town um which I

032think is needed and and I support okay the the data I saw showed that um like the lowest salary is around 65 000 up to averages so I was at that Finance meeting where they said no to the three officers requested by the police in Wilson but I don't recall their their sheets something to think about especially when we couldn't pay for background Services I think last year I think they said it's somewhere around 100 will be the cost per yes it was going to be 300 for the three yeah yep you're right yeah so when they came in and met with us after well at the end of last year yeah [Music] and that includes like benefits and all that it would be like 100 300 All In yeah but that would be that's

033why that was that your channel yeah but that's what he's they came to a meeting uh mayor in June last year yeah it was last night but it would be like one for me yes 65 won't be yes one for BMS and then one for at the Hondo which would be split S I imagine because the hopos and boys that's those are the kinds of details that if we do go ahead and ask for this so Mike can you explain if we vote are we going forward and asking for them right now yeah so we're gonna start talks with so so here's the thing this is the trading part okay so it's on here it's business item number three I believe all right and we're gonna vote do we want to officially ask for one

034or not because again we thought the towns may have been working on this through the police department's turns out from what the select board has said they're not doing anything until the school task or the they're they're not there because the schools have been passed so this would be yeah there is an item in the drive there it's called a server request it's a draft that I put up if you wanna look at that discuss it um we don't necessarily need to decide on any particular language until we actually vote um that might be some summer work that we might do maybe all right but um that's there for you in business items we can vote on that when it comes time thank you any final words on this topic uh I do just want

035to say just for the public info record this year as far as our police officers go in both towns I don't know if this is an unusual year with the number of interactions we've had in events we've had in town or not but every time there was an event I think everybody can agree that they were incredibly helpful with everything that happened so multiple events I'm sure everybody's aware of them but thank you final chance all right uh next on the list then is the technology update good evening I'm gonna stay behind the camera predominantly to topics the web page and the e-collect forms because the other two items kind of really relate to um those two things um and for the timeline there for kind of like the past the timeline going forward is

036a little bit up in the air partially because we have such changes in admin and admin support so um for for both of those um we're kind of trying to be thoughtful and um stick to a timeline that we know we're going to be able to commit to and stay with as well as get the proper training for the people that are going to be in those positions um yeah does anybody have any questions for me about those two things so I think the online forms are the bigger so it's too late for this year's kindergarten registration that's already happened but at the beginning of the year I know parents get a ton of forms so last year there was supposed to be electronic but it was more downloadable website premium sign and sentiment so

037this year they should be I'm working on on some of them now I've got it start I don't want to be this old person because I'm not going to be the one managing them I really want to get the people like um principles so um one of the things I didn't mention at work with it so one-time training that we get from from PowerSchool on these and so it has to be when everybody's really all together so we'll pick a day in the summer hopefully fairly early so we have time to finish all those off and my goal is going to be to have as many if not all done so that we're not doing we're doing very little paper is that training there's some things that I think that like the nurses like to

038have an emergency card because they like to have it on file because they're not always able to do this right into a computer and worry about logging on and worry about they want to run to the Rolodex or whatever and just um so there's still going to be some things that maybe end up on paper but hopefully the majority of the stuff is is going to be you're going to log into PowerSchool um you'll be formed waiting for you um again the secretaries will be trained of how to check who hasn't hasn't returned forms so that they can make more directed instead of that General could you please do it they could be more directed in terms of they can set reminders to the email addresses that um the folks that have all that's internal

039and again the collection um is going to be so much easier because right now we have so many people with little check boxes of okay here's Johnny and he has this one this form this form this morning it's not only paper for parents to do but it's paper for us to keep track of so Paul as far as that training that four-hour training that you talked about the one-time training is that an in-person training is it them doing something over Zoom for you in a room it's it's Zoom yeah and they will allow us to record that and keep that for future um I can't say that publicly no but they uh they they basically have said like you know like what you do with you know so they must provide like user guides step-by-step

040processes things like that right that's that's why I mean I haven't had any real feelings really they gave me an hour's worth of technology training which basically was how do you make sure to create folders for the different forms and that kind of stuff but it wasn't so much of the actual use um that's in their their other training okay I have two things my I know this is a ton of work to do this but thank you for that um and it's needed um I think our web page needs a lot of work um but I know it's also a ton of work to do it yeah so thank you thank you um my questions are the communications committee is that going to be made up of staff in the building it'll be a

041little bit of everybody so we did it once before um when we did the last one page um again as I said and that report um this will be part of my goals for next year so Carol will be evaluating me on how well I do in performing that and running that committee and getting all that stuff done so it's not just a committee to have a committee yeah okay I think the the web page is only like a small piece of that and I think we know from like that's people when you when you look at what we did for or what was done for uh the budget people weren't running I mean they went to their web page to see what the budget was and get a number and see Nancy's presentation and

042see those slides but other than that it was social media so yeah um it's that that overall communication strategy that that we want to look at um again I'm not a huge social media proponent because I do think it causes a lot of damage at the same time um but we do have to recognize that we have to you know meet our constituency where they are so some of that is going to have to be through some kind of social media so again that committee will be making those recommendations if it doesn't fit within um the framework of what we have you know we'll make recommendations to do additional things and my other thank you and the other question was that online school calendar which I love because oftentimes it's you know you have three

043different schools and parents are wondering what is the chorus whatever and you go and you check and then there's nothing there um is the idea here sort of so that all the schools and I know you can't just you know I can't do on this day because someone's doing something what is that the idea sort of to keep yeah so so part of final site is they have a decent calendar so as a new web page comes online um they have that push so like when something's posted at at Berlin it's got to feed into the district-wide calendar when they come again we when we first started with with um Blackboard we were very good about that um and that was kind of what eight years ago now almost yeah and and people were very

044religious we kept that calendar up today it's from that first year down it became like it to the point now where we basically don't have a calendar looking calendar on our web pages anymore again hopefully again when when we say that the design is going to take 11 to 14 weeks um it's making sure those elements end up so that when we go live um it's called final site I hope it's my final site um this is already different one thing yeah um and again I think having that communication committee behind it and saying like Okay like we realized this stuff that needs to go on the web page um but this stuff that you know the last push was like let's get teaching pages on so eight years ago when we do Blackboard it

045was let's get teacher pages on how many you know there are some good stuff that teachers have online but partly a little of it is related to our webpage so again it's like let's try let's be realistic about that communication um yeah Jeff there's another platform that you want to use if there's something that parents want to see and it has nothing to do with our web page so be it but let's support that thank you and thanks for letting me go for everything uh have you ever thought about like a technology like intern because I know that a lot of our students they are very well versed in computer science um social media um website building I know some people are very well versed that um and I know a lot of students are

046looking to get involved are looking for stuff to build their resumes for college and I think that it'd be cool if we were to use some of you know our students resources because there's a lot of people going into computer science I know some people who have like 10 000 followers on Instagram even just their personal accounts and you know I don't think that they should be you know don't show their advantage [Music] a lot of talent that could help with something do you really have to go with Caroline because that's a great idea so if you really have to go because yeah that's a good idea yeah so so um historically um or um just before I transition into this position um I taught here and so we have fourth quality students as technology

047leaders and so that's kind of what it was they did repairs they did website work they did support for teachers um certainly it's something that I would love to see come back um yeah because I know that because of course offering yeah for colleges they are really looking to put out hands-on experience now and it's harder for students to come by and get that so I feel like it would both it'd be like a benefit for both boys we have you know students learning Hands-On like how to do real world stuff with you know the knowledge that they already have and that it would help them also get into college yeah that's yeah all right thank you Paul um next up is our principals reports we'll start with the cell phone survey results is that

048a good one to start with yeah it really says yes sure [Music] well you guys get that ready but uh we're gonna switch for a second sorry in the interest of time I just wanted to take some time to introduce Nancy feelgate and his trailer Wilson Historical Society some of you may have seen the front page is also here they're here tonight to just tell us about the project that they've worked on last spring we have worked on with the historical society and a little bit more about that what happened I I'd be happy to thank you I am Nancy fogay and Leia you probably know and this is Vicki um good evening and thank you for the opportunity um to share some exciting views this is quite exciting um when I tell you how

049it evolved we have a publication that was just came out in May and if initial research was gone by six Tonto students and this publication of has been expanding as you see and it is um it started back in 2018 with Carol and I was sitting in the deli um relaxing because I'm with my husband I was sitting there and I was leaving the next day to go to Ireland and um Carol came in and she was scouting for her lunch and she said to me do you happen to know how I can get a tour of that stone doe thing next door and I kind of smiled um because the stone building next door is on Central Street it's right behind the deli and it had served as our police station in town it

050was the first town hall it has served as it is a high school and a grammar school but at that moment it is the home of the Boylston Historical Society of which I was a period so she asked to figure out um unfortunately we kind of talked about our schedules when I came back from Ireland Carolyn got a tour the day of the tour um we we chatted a little bit because in the past we have done things with the school system we've done the third grade historic district tour um and we have a student intern by the way Caroline we and his wife were looking for a second one this summer um for uh for history and we have also um so we did Victoria Cal and I was sitting there and we said

051we need to collaborate more how can we expand it to include the high school more so we the first thing I think we did was um you had put me in touch with the Librarians and we met quarterly Faithfully for for the next period of time it was the Boylston school librarians Berlin school librarians as well as the town Librarians and hotels um and they were fantastic we did presentations for each other at the schools and it was great everything shuts down um so at that point the historical Commission in the town of Boylston approached the historical society is that is there a way that you can reach out to the community can we do anything so we sat and we said okay what can we do so we put a help wanted a sign

052no lies we we put it out there on Facebook that's social media and it said help wanted we want we'd like someone to help with some online research I don't think these ladies knew what they were getting thank you these were two of the original Seven and Seven researchers um that immediately responded because everyone was home doing nothing right yeah we could do that so would begin the journey I have to say we split into two she started with the early families photo album that we had at the Historical Society and Leah says no I want to work on the Civil War projects well five of them went with her and Harris was so long so Liz starts her journey with me we met every week she got vacation is everything she she Zoomed In

053from wherever she was and we met every week on Zoom I had never met her until two weeks ago physically and I thought all of this was done um and so the project quickly expanded though because we had this photo album which we started with and we were looking to depict what these the stories were behind the people in that photo album oh but she had no idea who they were but we were returning that and but we looked into these societies Collections and we have other veterans in uniform so well let's add them so when that came do researchers new Authors we um and then I'm here tonight because um Carol was instrumental in getting us new researchers and new offers and that was in March of 2021 we had been working for for

054a number of months and the project had expanded and we decided Well maybe we can pop this is coming out pretty good and uh so Cara I approached Carol and she said okay let me reach out she reached out to Steve Pacheco right um who is the advanced history um teacher here and um he announced it in his class and as a result we ended up with four more students in the meantime I think the lead said come on board so she was working with but she was so she was working with early families initially so come to March all the students decided that they were going to go and they were going to work on this publication and it was fantastic they did historical narratives on these and they they had to get trained

055yeah it was straight it was a training um because to genealogical research that isn't something they were trained in so and I I have to send probably a stickler with footnoting and you know authentic original documentation not just transcriptions yeah you go to the original Source even though we're on Zoom so um we ended up um with tarot doing this for us bringing us facilitating and encouraging these students and teacher to come forth and um as a result um these Leia their students so you know who they are as Aaliyah Withers Elise peretsky um Jillian Baldwin page money Jordan money and Isabella UVA they completed extensive research narratives on these veterans then they graduated okay so most at least but we were done because they had it done I looked at it it was 220

056pages of writing and we said okay so I met they they were done with the early families books there's and so they Vicki and Pat Bartram and myself but but kind of double teaming um just said okay we're gonna we're gonna finish this up for them through them so it went from 225 pages and as you please stay on board to 485 pages and it was published this this year um we are is well documented and Vicki how many footnotes we have over 349 it is and um we would like to present a copy to the more tonight um for your support um we have had a numerous organizations the historical Commission of course supported us the boils from Public Library providing access to their ancestry.com site um the Boston Historical Society of course supported

057us and the Royals and cultural Council and without um without Carol's help um we would not have had this project completed completed so we wish to thank you um yes we would also like to invite you to the annual meeting at the Boylston Historical Society is having um the researchers will be doing a more detailed uh presentation of their um project as well as a few of the individuals um well I wouldn't say I don't know if you want to say anything about the characters yeah so there were some really interesting guys here some very very outstanding people in fact John Partridge he was a teacher gay teachers and he realized it was a historic event and so he wrote all these letters back to his sister if you want to find out what happens

058to him thank you so much thank you [Applause] um and we were we were funded partially by the historical society and the historical commission so we're able to sell this for thirty dollars if you read none other read the first one at the Historical Society in person you are online contact me and um you can even yeah you can contact me online and say you would like to come in and get one and I will meet you there thank you for a presentation thank you I know one of them uh is currently in history um many of us are history minors um so it kind of became like a little [Music] Majors but um two history majors and let's say four history minors definitely a fun projects yeah Leah I wanted to ask you questions

059did you struggle reading the original documents because I guess a lot of them are written in cursive yes yes I used to send things all the time and you're like can you please read this for us um well we got there eventually yeah the documents just aren't preservable so it's cursive and like really old like poorly scanned documents we get there eventually teamwork I like that yeah yeah if she finally got to be Historic Society two weeks ago as well so a lot of her stuff was online when we had the originals that she could actually see them I mean is ever a case for including this recursive writing and studies so so this copy is what Carol says this puppy is going to go to the tejanto library for kids or anybody else [Music]

060or they can support the historical society and buy a copy for their jobs sorry cell phone um whether it's distractibility students not paying attention so I put together a cell phone survey that was given to all staff members at tajo and it Incorporated general education staff answering questions special education staff our parents and our counseling staff and I did it in a way that people could feel comfortable answering it so they were given the option to either answer what their email address attached to it or do it more candidly without their email address so as we go through the slides there's little pie charts and bar graphs on each of them and I'll go over each question and what kind of the findings from them and also at the end I'm going to go over

061some comments that staff had and you can kind of see the split um kind of opinion of what's going on we know right now there's a lot of news articles circulating from commissioner Riley Automotive is going to be a consideration by the Massachusetts Department of Education did you ban them or not so I think it's great timing because now you kind of you have a staff so without further Ado our current cell phone policy at school is middle schoolers are not allowed to use their school their phone during the school day and if you bring it it should be often in your locker at all times um for a high school students of Grade 9 through 12 are allowed to use their cell phone during lunch passing times such as transitions in the hallway before

062and after school um cell phones are not allowed to be used in any class periods unless it's under the discretion of the teacher obviously we want to give them the autonomy to have that in the classroom and last but certainly not least this is something that comes up a lot in doing just behavioral conversations with students that if another student is using your cell phone you're still being technically held accountable for it because it's it's your property you use your item so it's just making sure we're being responsible for the use of it all together so in this um graph this was answered with email identification so you see that about 76 of the general education staff answered it special education makes up 12 power professionals eight and support staff is immigrating the following one

063is for those that chose to do about their email and this is about 60 general education so a little below than the previous chart of the 75 and those are the other staff members that answered we're going to ask you a quick question before we move on how many total staff were pulled I know how many responded responded so it was 17 without the email and 25 with so 42 if I do print that yep no I mean like how many total how many staffs did it go out to it went out to Austin so there were 42 that went out to and 42 that responded it was more than 42 reporting to responded so it was a majority of our staff yeah that's what I mean how many number and staff are there that

064this went to I guess yeah how many steps together yeah yeah yeah you can get back to the 60s yeah it's a high two yeah thank you and this slide gives an idea of the staff that did respond what students they actually work with whether it's middle school high school or both you'll notice that in this Slide the next one there is the area of both that's highlighted bowling and back because we have power professionals that travel amongst our Middle School in high school and we also have teachers that were also with our Middle School students students so the first question was do you have a cell phone collection system in your classroom a majority of our teachers indicated yes so a lot of times you walk in the classroom they either have a copy

065up in front some have those shoe those plastic shoe racks which kids can put the cell phones in each of their pockets and again this one's nearing 60 indicating that they also have some type of collection system in their classroom when it comes to students actually complying with the collection system I did it on a linear scale so number one denotes there's no compliance number two denoted seven and three denotes always so if you if you were to combine two and three you're looking at 80 of students are actually complying with the cell phone collection system in the classroom I thought that perhaps if we did that at the beginning of this school year it might be a little less than 80 because students are getting used to this routine and expectations set for in

066regards to the staff that answered it without their email again also very similar to the other slide this one rounded up to about 90 they found that students were being complained cell phone production system is there is there a difference between being compliant with the collection system versus the policy this is based on what's going on in the classroom so they're not complying with the collection system but that doesn't necessarily mean they're using their phone during class so this runs based on any e-comms or your apps are little or binders of you gotta pass it in so if you look at this one again on the linear scale of never sometimes and always if we're providing two and three to denote sometimes and always they need a prompt director after we're looking at about 75

067of leads or pops into your arms but the response rate shows that there also isn't a lot of issues when it comes to it going on to stuff that didn't answer with their email similar numbers to the one previously two and three sometimes always round up to about 80 85 on this one when it comes to actually collecting or confiscating the cell phone so if a teacher are a paraprofessional if someone covering the classroom just sees that maybe Caroline's not responding to the promissory redirects they might just say put it on my desk or send it down to the main office this one actually denotes that they don't have to do something like that so that means the students are in fact respecting the cell phone policy in the classroom they're passing in or they're

068just not it's out of sight out of mind this one's a little bit different in regards to the staff that answered without email identification this one indicates that they're giving more prompts you want to direct when it comes to making sure that they're arriving or actually passing it in if they're using it when it comes to level of distractibility this one indicates if we barely zero in on the red and yellow red is indicated of rare occurrences of distractibility and yellow is some issues so that's about almost half of the pie chart on that one so that was indicating that substancing that there is some distractibility going on in the classroom and then it would go back to other prompts and redirects being provided to put it back in the collection system and if we

069look at red and yellow again for those staff that answered without their emails similar number that comes up to about I believe almost 60 percent of seeing some issues of disruptability in their classroom and for this one I asked um a staff allowing students to use their cell phone in class for educational purposes in the upper left hand corner for 60 they're saying they are again it's coming down to that autonomy of teachers in the classroom and just being respectful and mindful that the students actually can utilize their cell phone device in the classroom and use it appropriately if they're looking into something amount of resources you know it's a lot quicker sometimes to do it on your cell phone um and then the bottom one is asking staff um do you allow students to

070use the cell phone in class for non-educational purposes so if there's downtime if there's a break or if they need to access something after they complete assignment in more than half that you just indicated no survey with email identification similar numbers almost 60 saying that they do allow in the classroom for educational purposes and um you know became 47 for using it for non-educational purpose um then there are also some really great talking points and comments from staff International students open-ended questions so I'm just going to go over some of those some of the standups that I saw where staff work just worried in general of contact with parents School Logistics what does it look like when a kid does not have their cell phone on their person um our cell phones being prohibited the

071staff members ahead of the time they kind of must have knew that there's going to be conversations coming up in the Commonwealth Mass Department of Education as a band um other people consider it can you just have a universal collection system so it would be the same from classroom to classroom other people looked at cell phones just need to be removed in general and then people also brought up what if there's an emergency situation we experienced some shelters in place this year we were able to get through those successfully and safely but also what does that look like in emergency if someone doesn't have their cell phone on them a pen or a gardener or family members trying to get them or in regards to if there's a bus issue we have also a lot

072of kids that stay after for extracurriculars or Sports if there is a cancellation or they can't get to someone they're used to going for that cell phone it's also a question too uh there's a phone in every classroom in every office in the building so if there was an emergency or if a student really needs to contact someone there is a landline from the classroom but then it's a question of how many students actually use a landline because they're probably so used to using their social I'm seeing a little bit I mean to be honest I don't really know that okay I'm going to use a landline when you're working have some other ones that came up or how do we enforce this Rule and needed again the school another question came up of sometimes

073it might be in an IEP so it's that that's a combination of an IEP and suddenly there's a band what does that look like is there going to be anything another area of concern and questions was what did they hand them over in the morning and they collect them at the end of the day but then school is responsible for set supervision of the Zone um so I just thought it was interesting that there were definitely some common themes you can see there's kind of a split when it comes to the overall opinions some of it's coming down to how is it used how is it monitored the need for emergencies came up a lot and also it's good to have them after school if you need to contact someone um also some staff brought

074up that if there is a shelter in place or a lockdown with the use of cell phones and devices worse in the situation depending on what's going on some people said if everyone has a school issued Chromebook or device did they even need their cell phone at all because they do have to do that all day long so I think it's just a consideration of helping the students understand that being in a moment in the classroom being attentive to the teacher you know working with one another whether it's partner worker in a group you'll always have that opportunity in front of you it's just being Mindful and present at the moment and any student that I've had to talk to if if it was confiscated or if it was passed in I just say you

075know that snap streak or that Instagram post or whatever you were checking on I swear we'll still be there at the end of the day but put a moment in person in front of you and that opportunity to Advocate learn and grow you might have been so thank you very much for doing this um and I don't I have little kids so this to me seems so far off um but I feel like I kind of have a strong opinion about it um one thing that's very troubling to me from this is that teachers actually allow children to use their cell phone for non-educational purposes that's almost like okay are we like allowed to play video games in class or do Snapchat like they can just in class they're allowed to do that or something

076like that so it's not a free reign like you can go on Facebook oh you're done your assignment go on Facebook it should be pull a book out and read time I mean I'm sorry um all right so it's regulated but how did they know that they're not that's that's right they are they're looking at what they're doing so that that speaks to slide 17 that you had here yeah and that bottle graph you permit non-education use that contradicts your actual policy though of not allowing phones during class I think during class isn't that the starting finish right right so that's something that will tweak a little bit yeah um I I guess I just find that troubling I feel that to your point when you're in class it's what 50 minutes an hour you

077should be focused on learning you know if you're not feeling well you need your parents you're still in school you go to the nurse you go to the office there's a process there's a policy you're a minor you don't need a phone to get in touch with your parents if you need to that should be going through the chain of command um and I know that's frustrating probably right Caroline I'd love to hear your opinion on this yeah seriously I would yeah so um but I just feel like people nowadays there's such an issue with attention span and um you know being able to stay in a conversation or you you meet kids in their 20s and it's just like you know and you're sitting at across a dinner table and you're like that's rude

078and if we're allowing it in school like during a lesson during a class well I mean why wouldn't they think it's okay to do it when you're on a date or having dinner or with friends almost to the point that do we even know how to socialize anymore uh so just to me this is just troubling and it's scary um and and I just feel like I don't want to spiral down a bad path of this so kind of to your point Megan and let me ask you guys what would be better an outright band of phones in school or some sort of etiquette orientation training life skill type of you know when ninth graders come in and they've got this Freedom now that they can't have a phone in school I'm sure you do

079orientation for all sorts of stuff this is where the rooms are this is where that is adding some sort of etiquette training or something like that I know we probably disagree on that but uh it's it's something that needs to be discussed because as soon as you graduate you don't have a teacher Banning your phone College professors I don't know what they do but in the office you know Banning phones that nobody would work there I would agree with you I think that you know on the one hand it's my right to have a phone and you have to learn what you're a job but you can use it when you can so it would be great for us to have something for the kids to learn how to use it properly to be a

080etiquette I think that even if we ban it unless they're like I mean there's always like even without rules sometimes kids still have to send down to the office right so we're going to Banning it you're going to have some problems but I agree I think that if we're realistic about Technologies in the world that you said it's part of some IEPs even if you did ban it there might be an IEP that might need to allow it one of the teachers with disabilities may have a requirement in their IEP to have um also like as a tool to help someone right it might be might be used as a tool um some simple examples are taking a photo of like an assignment that's written on the board but there's also different applications that allow

081different access to technology hearing aids oh yeah yeah but that could all be managed that would be in the plan right in iepr 504 they called you that would supersede correct policy yeah I think in the past you also brought about lunch and like socializing and I think I would be concerned in high school like and apparently maybe you can speak to this well like do people talk to each other are they all this on their phones I mean that's that's very concerning it's like a societal issue um yeah I mean I can talk about it I um I don't know I've talked to all students and they feel that you know we haven't even discuss the band but they feel even the idea of collecting like everyone's bone at the beginning of a class

082is almost it's degrading as a human it feels like you know you're like it's like you're a puppy your bag is spreading the water bottle like hey you can't handle it put your phone to the bed it feels like you know we're not real people I've had a lot of people say that it just it really hurts them and makes them feel like teachers don't see them as a real person who can you know learn how to handle having something um can I just answer that yeah I think it's students understood it's not your fault this fault falls on the adults we've created this little super machine and put in the hands of kids without boundaries and any etiquette and it's not that you're a puppy who looks pretty with water at all we want

083to help you be successful people in life um adults too we're all in the same boat um except you are in a learning environment and your goal there is to learn teachers into um so I think if we kind of flip that a little bit and help you understand that it's not it's not your fault and this is our fault right and we're going to help get on the other side of it but the thing is is that I don't really know if you can help it because phones aren't going to go away Technologies when you keep advancing technology is going to keep coming into the classrooms you know there's even like some studies where people are putting um computers in people's brains there's chips that go into your fingerprints you can pay online with

084your fingerprints but technology is going to keep coming in from a classroom and if we try to bet it out right then we're going to set I think kids up for a future where technology they won't understand it as well as people who do have constant assets technology and I think that you know taking phones away would be good like putting in a bucket and they're having trouble doing that you know the best way to learn is you know probably about like you know if you put your hand on the stove you know that you'll get burnt and you won't do it again um I think instead of just outright you know taking all clothes away from people who you know haven't done anything wrong know when to use their phone I think that that's

085not fair to those kids and I think that you know if a student doesn't know how to do it then yes it should be taken away because if they are having trouble you know focusing on school and they're focusing on their phone then that's a problem but I think for at least most kids I've seen um you know on their phone they're actually usually just like you know sometimes they'll talk to their parents and family most of the time instead of talking to their friends and it's not usually during like you know when a teacher is presenting because if you miss that then you go to all the test but um like I don't know people usually use their phones sorry I have so many thoughts um I guess I think that it's also good

086this might seem scary that like you know having your phone for non-traditional purposes but if you really think about it um we have 50-minute classes and they're all learning like it's all sit down you have to focus really hard on the chemistry calculus like you know trying to read the cursive writing from the old documents um your brain gets tired and I think having that little sometimes teachers allowed like at the end like five minutes right from the Bell range where people hack up they can go and they can you know play like a quick mobile game or that's when they do their Snapchats kind of like de-stress their brain and like kind of like be like so I guess that's the point Caroline do kids need Snapchat to de-stress their money they do I

087agree with you thank you and even like reading that's still like you know I don't know yeah you know what we used to do we used to just sit there and stare you talk to yourself [Music] sometimes people just need that kind of mindless distraction at the end of but that's just their research is showing that these mindless things are exactly that stimulating and a really negative way possibly that you kids don't we don't even understand them as adults you know yeah all right yeah one thing to respond to yourself right so I don't know why I'm feeling so strongly about this this is just like my only um context for high school is my own experience because like I said my kids are little so I can't even fathom even though my son's going

088into third grade next year so I know it's coming soon but I guess back in the day when I was in high school like yeah you did you walk uphill both ways in the snow uphill both ways all year long all year long even June um no like it's almost like I we have to be discipline is such a lost art right so yes is it tough to sit still for 50 minutes and be quiet and not have your cell phone it's so hard nowadays um but it's almost like running right you've got to get out there you got to tell yourself I can do it I can do it you got to keep doing it day after day it's like Julie said rewiring the brain and I just fear that we use these as

089a crutch right and I look at kids and even now I feel like oh if I don't have mine but bad is like all about are my kids okay are my kids okay but in a classroom you don't have that responsibility right you're you're an 18 or 17 or 16 year old kid so the teacher is supposed to be responsible for you the school is responsible for you for you you should just be focused on learning and emotional relationships with your peers and I just don't think a device a cell phone maybe a computer and I know you can probably do all that Snapchat and I know you can do Facebook and you can do all that stuff on a computer but I just feel like again to Julie's point I don't think that generation

090knows how bad this is for them that when you have down time that's how you decompress is by looking at this it should be hey what did you do this weekend Oh and then oh maybe we should do this this weekend Oh what do you have what do you bring for lunch today you know what I mean like actual conversation making connections with people um or just sitting quietly and with your own thoughts being bored we don't know how to be bored anymore we always have to have something to do every minute over every day um and it's just it's um it's scary that if that's the mentality in high school then what happens when life gets a little bit harder um you know I just think the sense of discipline sorry I'm gonna get

091off my sandbox I'm not happy we're certainly not going to solve the problem today I'm blown away I thought you weren't allowed white anymore why this album is more than just Julie sure it was it's two things you noticed when we were walking through to hunt yes we were on and we were on the catwalk up there we looked down the kids we're at lunch and so many kids were on their phone and upset Megan because they weren't talking to each other yes and then Caroline you said one day that at the end of class when you were talking going off to college and how you know like the social skills were having so many social emotional issues right now and how like covet kind of got us all used to Our advice adults as

092well and how after classmen the test is over that the teacher might say you guys can Talk Amongst yourself and you said you can hear a pin drop because everybody just goes on their phone so I think you're I think you're both right I think that the students would be really upset because they're useful and they want to be respected and and they want to be heard and they want their rights and I think you're right as well I think that we're concerned about how their experience is at school and that they have memories and they have interactions rather than like I think about what I did at lunch and just the conversations that I had and that's why the conversation I think started all right yeah I just wanted to add to the first

093of all thank you for the presentation together and doing the work um following up on that the second piece is obviously is a concern in the Commonwealth the commission of education for Massachusetts is going to be introducing a pilot Opportunity Grant funded regarding cell phone service and cell phone use in the buildings I'm coming up we don't have knowledge of what it entails but we'll certainly be taking organic for next year as a possibility for for our schools yeah and I think I think this is awesome that the schools conversation because it's a problem and if you don't say out loud it's a problem then we just keep grinding wheels so Bravo to everybody no Julia you're 100 right we definitely need to have the conversation yeah Megan you said discipline is a lost art

094right yeah yeah kids and teachers and staff employees and committee members everything yes it is my personal belief is we don't need to ban them and take them out of their hands but if your policy is not to use them during class and yeah you've got teachers saying yes I let them use them during class that's discipline is a lost art you're not disciplined enough to enforce your policy so that means either the policy needs to change or the enforcement of needs to change I'm not in favor of taking them out of kids hands because I think they are like Caroline said they are here I want to make sure the community doesn't let me make sure I say this correctly enforce your own personal bias from your generation onto this generation right when I

095was in school it was walk-ins and dispense everybody had them and they took them out and listened to music and whatever it was and that was the distraction all right as far as the brain stuff that's the parents I think maybe that's more parents issue to deal with if they want their kid on that or not they can put controls on the phones kids can probably get around them sure they're not perfect yeah right but that's more like should we be dictating what parents philosophy is with their children probably not well we don't get drugs in school but what happens when you ban drugs all kids not use drugs you're right yeah I don't know that this is going to be solved it's not gonna be salty no maybe we can look at do we

096know that commission commissioner yeah when he's doing something he hasn't enough he's speaking about it yeah and also if the state passes uh law or uh I don't know what it could be yeah it could be you might not have a choice yeah we might not have a choice but as long as we still have a choice my preference is an etiquette orientation at the beginning of the year and more enforcement hard reinforcement and if you're not enforcing it what do you do teachers who aren't following policy yeah I just think it's so hard I think it was so much easier for the teachers like now they have to teach and then watch phones and it was a phone yeah it's a learning opportunity for kids too how to interact in life you're trying to

097prepare them for life after school to be successful whether that's a college job this is an issue they've got to deal with out there in a remote working world where people work from the beach on their phone it's something not a 15. but they shouldn't be using [Music] the phone shouldn't be out in class though okay let's just survey is safe this is yes and if they want to have it at school with them and have it in their locker and do it on their breaks I don't personally I don't think should be used at lunch that's a different discussion but if the phone should be out in class the phone shouldn't be out in class because you know Snapchatting or Facebook or any of that in the 50-minute classes yeah yeah Caroline one last

098word I just want to say that it's not just a 50-minute class it's an eight-hour day where we get no breaks throughout the day we have our constantly having to go for chemistry countless there's no breaks the only break we get is that like you know maybe after two minutes at the end of class teachers are like okay pack up that's all you get like the three nights in between classes we are sprinting to get to our next class so that we don't get late slips to you know get detentions like there is no like even some teachers they ban bathroom breaks I've seen that because people like just go and they I don't know just there's some like things where we get no breaks like even the time is limited in the bathroom and

099I just think that if we talk about taking it away the only thing that you know is kind of stopping the students and also like hard drug use has gone down in a long time and that's when people use as distractions to take away from their everyday life how terrible is you know people talking to each other on Snapchat rather than them doing cocaine in the bathroom like there are some numerous studies that that is what people use as distractions years ago and I personally think that that you know most of the time is talking with friends and that's how they talk like I know at lunch maybe I won't speak out loud some of the only plain like you know who know on our phones um of course yes all right so um you

100see my report but I'll highlight some of the things around here so [Music] um here we started off the new year um internal Administration and Cara and myself we also started the kindness campaign uh in the fall it was very exciting actually it's December but um in our football athletes became state champions when they paid we had a lot of um activities during the year um homecoming we've got a winter ball back we had a great prom at still thinkers that was very well intended we did 150 kids that went to that fall festivals art shows I think I've included a link there to show you some of the art show work um academic Awards we had in there we had a National Honor Society and you didn't have Honor Society ceremonies concerts plays in

101fact they had our first musical in 10 years which was exciting um this year is our refresh day we held it for the whole school at once where it's used to bring it up between um high school and middle school so we decided differently this year um we had many drills this year we conducted a drill every month and worked with a various different situations inclement weather like in tornadoes low-level law threats we had a um we had the full evaluation drill on May 22nd which went really really well um and in fact this was not in the report but we just um got some donations from koopman's to get 75 buckets Alice training recommends having these build buckets which is basically like those buckets you see at Home Depot and there's various supplies in

102there so for some reason we had a shelter in place for many many hours and the kids couldn't leave the classrooms a button that can be used for as a reported as well as the valve test supplies and it's overworking and getting some donations to get all the supplies that go in those but we just got to the 7-Eleven um we have some other um activities coming up soon yeah Mr Richard Cameron he comes to us from Sunday mass collaborative he's a welcome experience and skills and we're currently in the process of contributing for the second principle those interviews will take and we're also working towards that because [Music] it was March Carol and I went with Lauren lawtube to Holy Cross where she was celebrated with a superintendent's award but she was also honored

103for that graduation and the principles of work went to Alexis German for academic highlights we had PSATs back in October um this may was just a chock full of AP testing 150 [Music] uh we had some academic Awards uh in May where there was 26 students um College book awards um we had some students represent our school as you know leadership seminar called the Massachusetts U of Brian youth leadership seminar um he also had some kids represent us at the American Legion auxiliaries girls and boys state programs ainsweb um testing takes place as you know in the fall the winter and the spring we already went over some results after the winter um the middle school is currently conducting their final testing right now actually so we haven't seen results yet um MCAS we're wrapping

104that up finally with our last session tomorrow with Maya empath um and then we just might have a couple makeups from that um this was not the report but Lori had asked me a great question so I'll add it in we have um we had five students apply to ask vet uh oh I'm sorry we had eight openings like we were allowed to like have eight applications of foreign students um five students applied uh one ended up declining but we have four students going to um going to investment and Greg is coming working right now to compile information about which students are going to provide the schools I don't have the two numbers quite yet um the counseling department gave us all sorts of statistics about the class of 23 that was in the report

105um but just to highlight a few things uh 85 of our graduates are headed out to college um with um 58 of them in state and 42 of them out of state 80 of those are two-year colleges and then we also had seven percent of graduates going off to Career Education or apprenticeships and training programs things like that and we had um seven percent go into the workforce and I believe there was I don't know I was supposed to hear that we had one going to be military um we also um this year had um panels for juniors about the College admission process and we had several College Representatives come to town to talk about there um from the counseling department they also um we added a new role this year so we had a

106new um we have Katie Schmidt who joined us who's um whether it was two people before um and so that's been very helpful they started offering something called lunch with a counselor this year which gives students an opportunity to come in and talk to them while they're having lunch uh therapy dog Hannah continues to come in a couple times a week we're not sure how many more years she'll do that because she's getting older but everybody loves Hannah you feel happy they started electronic check-in system in the counseling department which is nice because for a lot of reasons it allows us to keep accountability for kids to make sure we know where they are it also allows counselors to follow up with somebody if they're busy with somebody at the time and we can you

107know track data about how many kids go in there I believe they said they logged over 5 000 student visits this year but that that you know relates to a whole bunch of different um reason so some of its scheduling some of his academic course planning progress meetings post-secondary guidance college career military research scholarships are just tech support transcript requests Student Records registration daily check-ins checkouts psychological testing um you know some of it has to do with 504 I have a few combinations but also it was for students to talk about stressors and crisis management um they also updated their list of all the outside supports that are available to you which they share with you as far as analytics go as I already mentioned our football athletes who are the three championships our girls

108varsity soccer made the state semifinals and then we also had various varsity teams like field hugging always soccer girls and boys basketball baseball girls lacrosse we talk about the elevated to State tournaments um the student council provided us some information about all the different things that they do um in the beginning of the year they start a voluntary orientation before school starts they also have their kids help with the first day of school to welcome everybody um the spirit weeks they run dances they have all sorts of competitions like Deck the Halls um the haunted hallways and all those things are part of what they do uh the dances as I talked about they have a lot of food drives clothing drives um they attend many conferences throughout the year and um they had a

109lot to do with refresh today and as I said there was a clip to move from the art show which um I think some of these things are still out there it's amazing I think so anybody have any questions just curious what's the current student population with the middle and high school combined total if you don't have the preschool Legends it's about 10 visits per student-ish you know obviously some days never go and some kids go along so one of the things I heard a lot this year was how seniors or students in general have a lack of opportunities and so far because of our size like opportunities after schools right you list here that 50 College 50 different colleges you came to campus to present their school but almost all I mean 50 something

110of the applications were only to three schools [Music] yeah it's UMass right it's Facebook yeah qcc which is uh yeah it's a community college right UNH that's private right that is that private aggression yeah because you're out of state right yeah is very close to us for the majority of applications in 24 for UMass 17 and 14. does qcc have a four-year program sorry Mike I think it's just a two year so that's Community College that's what I thought like you can go there and then transfer yeah are pretty much guaranteeing yourself acceptance to state colleges okay I forgot what the grade point Act is so it's nice because it saves you some money in the beginning you know you've been transfer and still graduate from the four-year collection so still my question is you

111have 50 different schools come to campus and the majority of kids are focusing on three pretty local ones too but they they apply to multiple ones yeah okay yeah yeah a lot of times the question I feel like kids apply to a lot more colleges than they used to back in the day you know yeah that would be interesting data to collect I think what's also interesting is they don't look at it like we did if they look at it based on acceptance rate so like there were schools that I was like why are you and it was based on an acceptance rate I was you would think that a different school would have a higher I think you'd be like oh this would be excluded it would apply to and getting into UMass Amherst

112is really hard especially if you're in the biology program or back in my day was the safe school it was the party school and now it's you know it's to come it's come a long way it's honors and yeah it's very difficult to get in there it's not what we used to look at it as are you saying what we what we know and our experience in high school and our distractions in our yes may not necessarily be the same as these things but the banks are still things [Music] so it's an original question I think a lot of colleges now just have you know perfect GPA being involving volunteer you know being all AP is not enough like you can't even get into community colleges with that anymore um people the call just now

113so they need things called passion projects which is a completely something comes out of school something like you know a historical society like you need to be published um they they require you now to have things outside of school and I feel like talking might not do a great job of promoting things like that because you know we do focus a lot on grades here and for a lot of colleges great honestly aren't even the biggest thing they want to see that students are able to juggle things and that they have passions outside of just trying to get a perfect GPA um one must be bored in order to have a passion hey uh Jessica yeah it's more like like even having a job in school isn't enough like they want you to go out

114and find career experience they want you to be working with Pioneers in the field like a lot of them also requiring our social media presence like there's some schools like that um a big part of the admission process is being well connected online um really yes that's a big part because I just heard that's toxic to the brain yeah so like for an instance it's like some of the biggest tools they require you to have you know social media presence about the top you're interested in and be like constantly posting they want to see that you're dedicated um [Music] the college admissions officers come to our school they don't tell you this but when you go to their like websites or when you go to their Zoom meetings they'll tell you these things we have

115accepted and they all have this one thing and it's crazy that they they don't like to specifically tell you what they want they like to have you dig in and figure out what they want and it's things that need to be started from you know ninth grade they want to see four years to keep posting on Instagram about you know building computers if you want to go into computer science like they it's crazy what they expect students to have nowadays and I feel like sometimes our school doesn't promote that enough the outside opportunities that they require students to have to get into some colleges maybe one of the future meetings to talk about this yeah you guys have never heard about that I mean I'm not gonna save my age it's not like it's a

116requirement but it's something that they strongly suggest type of thing okay um I didn't realize my question was sorry that is interesting but it's good to know okay anybody else yeah at least another question so 85 of the graduates are off to college which is awesome how does that compare to just the average in Massachusetts [Music] something Lori I'm just making a note of the minutes that uh I asked Carol to look into that with the concepts curious I don't know if there was a policy about bus dismissal I know you had my cell phones and there was an Institute I was curious what the current policy is um oh um I believe because they're supposed to take their own benefits but I don't know if I can only bring a note if they have

117if they're going on a different bus is that where the bus itself at the elementary level yeah all right thanks Scott I always love the agenda here next up is I'm going to be Jonah's office Instagram read from this you've got my report yes um let me just highlight a couple of things quickly so that we get to go home and play sunrise [Music] um and it is not required for College admission very quickly you heard the kids talk about Nature's classrooms I'm not going to go there we had a connect challenge last week um which is something that we've really come to enjoy uh we hosted it at Berlin this year kids had a great time it was nice you can see the difference because they'd already met each other which was awesome um

118we've had a lot of I've gotten several comments on the golden spatula um in my report and it's pronounced with a golden special I'm just in case you wanted to do that there are just two things I really wanted to point out one is that we have two teachers retiring at the end of the year married four-year in Kentucky is a long time very highly valued teachers they're going to be in this we're trying to replace them we've discovered it's impossible um so we will get poor facsimiles of Mary and Deb um we will miss them when they're when they have moved on although I know they are both looking forward to defeating retirement the little aims one picture is there the good numbers went up the bad numbers went down which is what we

119want to see over the course of a year and I just have to acknowledge my favorite parent lately um late this year with Kyle has become such a dynamic force in my school she just revived not hello but with a lot of other parents she has revitalized um that level of involvement I sat through the dream session I was like I want to learn how to do that because that was a wildly productive unit um so I kudos to you yeah thank you for sitting through all the love that's a summary of my report well done good thank you any questions John it wouldn't be a complete School community meeting if I didn't ask you the reading scores that you put in there you approved from 65 60 to 75 percent are meeting the 60

120threshold yes that's the uh the composite scorpion yeah so that's good that's good but it's still 25 of kids not I'm you know my goal nine percent okay through five and the real goal third grade Carol I would like to chime in on this Caroline and three of her friends are there I don't know which one but they were paying attention um yes thanks John and then your golden spatula the no discipline what what you're saying that no behavioral concerns maybe behavioral is different definitions than discipline yeah I've got inside information now tell me if this is accurate because it is coming from a seven year old constantly trouble so to say at lunch or constantly being yelled at at lunch so well I I believe they're probably not being yelled at but what is

121happening well so what is happening is that so there are several basic rules you can only talk to the people at your table and you can't get up and wander around those types of things and part of the issue is it's a 30 minute lunch for seven-year-olds and they need like nine minutes but because the adult teachers need 30 minutes they're kind of there they get a little bored it was a whole point of having the golden special things be reminded what I do when I come in at the end of the week is I'll look it should have four tickets and they don't have four tickets then I make a big impression on that cheese second grade only two tickets this week and then it's a math lesson right do they have a better

122chance of winning the golden spatula or not as good of a chance and um I think we're we're dealing with the end of the summer scratchy pants that's a technical term yes we say 30 minutes is too long for lunch but I get a full lunch box that comes home so there's never enough time because some children he's been a request for a five minute recess bathroom break this is going to be a long meeting and already has been a long weekend so there's been a question so do what you need to do [Music] thank you very much [Music] research associations messages [Music] yes um this came out years ago degrees businesses [Music] on the TV foreign [Music] but bigger thank you everybody [Music] um [Music] do you want one more time clearance well if

123you want anymore they're delicious that's right yeah and now you know the secret with the butter that's right but it's actually good for you every day what's up oh Lisa yes yeah all right should be ready yeah would you pause it oh no oh okay yeah it's still going all right yeah we're just waiting on one person's return I'm having to start with you um really long meetings thank you uh thank you for the opportunity to come and share some highlights about Boylston Elementary this year as I sat and put together some thoughts for the report that I sent in I realized that there are so many things that I could talk about about Boylston Elementary that don't fit into a report and so really what I wanted to do was bring to you my

124perspective of the year I will highlight that there are lots of positives and things that are happening in the report I think John and Steph and Joey will continue to update you on the Eames web data that we are collecting we had some students who were not finished yet and so that is buttoning up as we speak this week but the other big thing that happened for Boylston Elementary I'll draw your attention to the second page is the social emotional information that I included in this report Boylston Elementary whether you are new there or not had not been a place where there were articulated expectations that was the first thing that I figured out when I set foot in the building on I believe August 6 team just a few weeks before school started I

125surveyed the staff and asked what are the things that you think we could work on here and very quickly the staff and the students said the cafeteria I was met with some resistance from some parents at the beginning of the year who were confused as to why we were restricting some um movement in the cafeteria but certainly I said we are modeling and showing kids how to behave for the real world and we don't stand on tables or chairs at 110 Grill certainly we're not going to do that in the cafeteria at Boylston Elementary School a place of learning and so what we've done this year with the support of the staff is we've articulated expectations which are important for kids and the reason it's important to articulate the expectations around the campus is because

126kids can't make decisions if you don't explain to them your expectations so we talked to kids we said what do you think would be safe in the hallway well Mrs Dales we probably shouldn't be running that's probably a good idea what who's on Mrs ales that's so so silly of course we shot our shoes on in the hallway that wouldn't be safe what if there was an emergency and so these are the kind of conversations we had all year at Boyleston Elementary and I'm proud to say that as I leave Boylston Elementary and my staff of this year we have definitely come together and the students have risen to the occasion they are are kids who refuse to come to school last year because it was too loud too chaotic too crazy and that is

127no longer the case we don't have kids refusing to come to school this year kids know what they're going to get every day at Boylston Elementary School and I think that's something that not only should be noted but a commendation to the teachers for saying thank you for listening thank you for helping us with this this is something that's important for us to do about six months ago I came to this meeting and my staff showed up and they gave me a report card they gave me a report card which I know to some people they didn't think it was that important but I do because I value the people I work with every day and I value the students who are with us every day and so I wanted to give my staff their

128own report card and I'm going to go through it quickly all 59 staff members who I am happy to list if if you do not know who they are they come every single day they show up and they get the hard work done and that is important empathy [Music] I started with compassion but really the empathy of the staff at Boylston elementary school is so profound they put themselves in other people's shoes they try to have an understanding of what's going on for each student that comes into the building this year I piloted a tape off of what police departments call Handle With Care we have Handle With Care at Bes that was something that the staff felt was important and we then used that to communicate to all staff members if something was happening

129with a student that was delicate and couldn't be discussed but that we wanted to handle them a little bit more gently that day so if I have a student who's never having any behavioral issues who's never yelling out in class and all of a sudden they are in an argument with a friend and there's a fist fight if I know that student was a Handle With Care that day and I know something else is happening at that student's home I now have empathy and a perspective and I now know to ask the question okay what's going on come on and talk to me and I think that Handle With Care is really important because students are interacting with probably about 20 adults a day not all those adults need to know everyone's personal information but

130they need to have a heads up because there are 309 students at Boylston Elementary School and 59 staff members and everyone's showing up and doing the best they can to support each other and it's really really a challenge to keep track of what everyone's baggage is right we all have an invisible backpack understanding A Plus in understanding um we had to talk this year about how we've always done it this way how come we can't continue that's what we were met with when we said well we're gonna have to practice how to get to a rally point and the staff said but we haven't done that before we're gonna have to practice and so there was a huge understanding shift of we've been doing it one way but that isn't the best way and so

131we had to sort of come around and think about all the different reasons why we had to shift our thinking flexibility I mean first of all we've changed a lot of stuff this year as some parents who communicated with me and it was wonderful to be able to get emails from people who took the time to reach out and we started off on a rocky road first day of school we had to change our drop-off time because it very quickly became a pertinent to the situation the fact that we had to be flexible there were no adults in the building before 8 20 am so students getting dropped off at 8 am didn't have supervision so we had to be really flexible and think how can we get everybody in the building how can we

132shift the parking which is huge all the parking ships and to be able to get everybody in safely and effectively and so these are the things that the staff just took right students are like we'll go with this we can see our teachers modeling that we can be flexible situations change we're going to go with it and that was so impressive to me to see a group of students and staff that were so willing to say yeah we could take a risk and try this and what's the worst thing that could happen it didn't work okay well that's learning right the effort of this team at Bes um I think that you see the names of the people and the names of the kids and it might just be that right everyone has their own

133students that they send to school every day certainly we have our staff that show up every day but the effort that goes in to each and every day is so immense and I want to take the opportunity to be able to say thank you to every single staff member who shows up every single day at Boylston Elementary I don't think we do enough of it I don't think we thank them enough and if I didn't worry about John Campbell being upset I would name them all right now what's to stop you would you like to start I'll stop in the name of them all again thank you the ability to laugh and the ability to show up is what makes the staff at Boylston Elementary stand out I decided that if I was going to

134be given a forum to come and talk to you I was going to tell you about them because at the beginning of the year my first report I went and reflected on it I listed 15 new staff members 15 new staff members was my first report to you that's unbelievable and many people had their own idea of why there were so many new staff members of them but it didn't matter what I said to the staff on the first day was this I don't care why people left I'm sure that you showed up and I will show up for you you will show up for the kids and we will get this year done and we are just a few ways a few days away from finishing out the 2022-2023 school year the Boylston Elementary

135staff has shown their ability to work as a team this team consistently encourages each other with kind words and actions they show up every day and do the hardest work with the smile on their face this dad works together to build the Educational Foundation for every student every day it has been an honor to work with each of them promoted to the 2324 school year thank you anybody was at the minute yeah if we could give a copy of that absolutely anybody any questions I mean I think this is great I mean the staff I mean you mentioned understanding flexibility and showing up that's I mean any job but that's what this job is about having an understanding to figure out know what rules to follow what policies to follow like cell phone policies or

136drop-off policies or getting on the right bus policies or whatever they are the flexibility the effort I mean without effort you've got nothing showing up every day I think we've said it before this this past spring going through the budgeting season I mean this committee went to the mat on the budget of these towns I mean this is like boards and they were not happy right at first when we started having these conversations this committee put in the effort and thus that and the the fight to go to the map for this budget or what to support the staff in every school including this school including that school including that school so I mean I think this is great that the staff responds this way the committee puts up what they're going to put out

137the leadership team puts out what they're going to put out and then it comes through in the staff putting in the effort putting in the time for the kids so I think this is great thank you um okay sure the first thing I want to mention in my report tonight the donations toward the site survey to tell you the service we had thought that this was a donation that had to be voted on previously but it is not that um we're actually I want to thank the Fuller foundation and Crest Technologies for Their donation to the Toronto PTO covering the cost of the cellular site survey in the amount of 3750 that enables us to go forward and do that continue to just I'm going to add um it is scheduled currently through the dog

138usually too yes yes oh we just gave her a compliment sorry Carolyn I mean to interrupt you no yeah it is currently scheduled for uh June 20th so they'll be on site um for about four to six hours um and then they will produce a um a full report for us as far as recommendations for work again soon um having the improved cell service thank you and the point of clarification as far as voting on that donations because the check went to the PTO the PTO is a target rebuilt the PTO and they they paid a bill for us so just so you understand the process the next topic is a little bit more um sobering kindergarten numbers at Boylston Elementary School we are watching those numbers carefully daily um we have I had 64

139in here Don Maria shared with new 63. in the classroom is currently registered from the interior actual regular classroom so the kindergarten team made me aware of this um last week they're getting concerned they're what with like what we're going to do if these numbers keep increasing so I wanted to put this on the table to everybody to make you aware of that Mike and I have talked about this a little bit um with with more students obviously comes more curriculum materials more space in the classroom you know filling those classrooms are pretty small thank goodness we I mean timing of things that we have these paraprofessionals coming into the classrooms now to help out blend extra hand so that could have come at a better time we can't install I I don't know where

140this is going right now how many more students will be getting this year one of the questions the kindergarten team asked me is what is enough what is the highest number one to take in I know we've clothed several years ago 20 kindergartners in the classroom I don't think that's a policy at this point I meant to look that up but we were looking into it it's not a current policy but you know we're a little bit above that right now I don't know how much more we're going to grow so I will keep you if I set the number um if it's substantially increasing and it's also something we have to think about for the future if these numbers are increasing over at the school in Boylston as well so can we talk about

141this for a minute yeah absolutely I wanted to be able to is this here on the novel or do you think this is going to be more than I I don't know I think that this right now this is the largest number we've had in the day right five by far yes like so my son is in second grade there's only 38 kids in his class so that's yeah I mean he's so he'll be going to Third and then the first grade I think is somewhere in the 50s and same thing for the current kindergarten class my daughters and I think it's like 56. um maybe a little bit lower 53 something like that she has 16 kids in her class is without a power John how many do you have incoming yeah 26. yeah

142so to answer if I can um to kind of expand on what Carol was saying there are naturally occurring peaks in Dallas um my incoming kids 26 right now it might get up to 30. um but that's below what we're used to the graduating class last weekend was a single Twin class all the way through the burden kit they were a Singleton class Halloween because they were only 26 of them all the way through part of it's just the ebb and flow of you know the cycle of things you know we didn't see a big coven baby boom yeah but I think that you you know you see there are some historical things that happen that will cause senses to Rise um probably one year is not enough I don't think we see in either

143Town census reports like three-year-olds and two-year-olds were still seeing those same numbers do we get those like are you able to look like after those and see what the trend is that's actually how we do our kindergarten invitations as we look at the kind of stuff systems how does all well so there's a lot of buildings downtown but a lot of those multi-family rentals are they necessarily counted in the census because if you buy a house if you have if you own a property your name your public record it can be matched up with census data and all that but if you're right there you may or may not even get the form to fill out who knows if it comes to your household when you get the whatever and how ambitious the towns are

144pursuing that yeah going along with rental is that I think what you're going to see more than just like bigger really big numbers like these shoes Okay incoming K and employment because you're going to see more churn renters coming and going yeah right they're here for a few months and then they're gone yeah I wanted to add to that so we'll definitely be keeping an eye on the kindergarten number I mean that that small piece on the heels of this this piece today I met with essential Mass Regional Planning Commission I requested from them that we can do some work that's funded through grants around long-range planning and they will help us with that we can do that and I'll we'll talk more about this I'm going to meet again with them in July and

145I might ask some folks from here or one or two to join me in that conversation we need to see where these talented towns are going to answer those kinds of questions from you they will help us plan around that in the combination of the schools as we really conventional district and also with the towns themselves so Boyleston town of Berlin they work very closely with those two towns and they're involved in some Grant work already with them but tying it all together I think is what we have to do it's part of what we've talked about like going forward with a lot of our discussions it's not just us and then them having their discussions is bringing us all together to have these and planning together in the way we have it so to

146to your local points I think that that's that's a direction you need to go in yeah I mean anomaly years aside if this does become a norm larger I don't know if 66 is going to be a one larger in one town on the smaller side in the other Town that's still 90 some odd kids in a single class between the two counts so the towns need to start thinking about we need to start thinking about it we're one District now we're regionalized all the way across do we mix the kids at elementary school do we separate the two buildings certain grades for both towns in one building or the grades are not I mean I I don't know what the answer is John Carroll I I don't know what it is but the towns

147need to understand that if these sizes get more consistent like this something does need to be I mean you can deal with the anomaly maybe you'll have some drop out or move or whatever maybe it is due to rental who knows but if this is going to be a consistent Trend we have to start thinking about this is going to take 10 years to make that happen this is an organization that has a pulse on these two communities and I think can can help bring us together and facilitate those kinds of conversations and find the last thing I want to do and why I'm putting is on the table tonight is I don't want us to be caught short in August and beginning of all the same we need another kindergarten and shocking all of

148us particularly Nancy who will is there space classrooms that can be they had to rearrange everything yeah this year and what's happened to Mike's Point right what's half what who we're going to be I'm looking at five ten years down the road for everybody yeah and parents that's where you need to understand that might be something we have to deal with who knows because your combined number is staying basically the same stadium when you're up a little high the next they're a little high so 90 kids five teachers that's pretty reasonable but what happens well what happens to these 90 kids okay we're talking about Kindergarten now you've got Tonto sixth grade comes around you got 60 kids from Boylston coming in and overpowering a class of 20 from Berlin I mean you've got a

14913 per kid per room classroom in Berlin 22 per room in Boylston what Equity issues do you have with that you've got 13 kids to one teacher that teacher could probably give them a lot of attention a lot of focus having to deal with 23 kids in the class I mean that's almost double it's virtually doubles but there's an a yeah okay there's an aid sure that's true well okay but okay yeah that class is gonna go all the way up so I mean yes and and at Bes Julie in certain grades we only have two teachers I mean it might make sense to start talking about taking 90 kids and spreading them over five teachers more equitably [Music] but that's good I'm sure I don't know what the rules and laws in DC probably

150has to get involved in the towns and transportation issues and uh also it's a all sorts of stuff to think about constantly do over the summer so we talked about the status remember Nancy scenes on the that limit boils you know the Berlin Sides Now they'd probably be thrilled to go over to BMS and that they would stay with that class and Nancy was just like there are so many because then Boylston would have to pay Berlin for the application of those kids so we'd have to figure all out but Carol in the event of an emergency if you can't like August comes let's say there's 70 at BDS and there's 30 at BMS we have a hundred could you send 10 could you do that could you even do that in August in the

151event of an emergency what would you do what you just said I didn't need to find that out that's where I'm going out we got to figure that out do we even have the funds to hire a teacher I don't yeah you have to read the regional agreement yeah and we said yeah so we there's a lot of pretty sure that's not to discuss this further if if this is a directional going in or for us to be able to report back on what we've learned about this so that you're informed right before yeah because they need your input get a piece of this too you know I hear people say all the time to well it's 20 in the classroom it's 21 that's you know other districts have a lot more than that this

152that's not what these towns are looking for yeah that's the difference we've always maintained that we want small class sizes it's what attracts people here okay people like that and come into these these accounts for that reason so I think collectively we have to make some decisions about class size what what is enough before we start to move so it's also one of those things that we started talking about earlier this year that got put on the back burner but we were talking about uh I think 20 being Max but we were talking about it yeah we I think or you reached out to MSC lists to ask about other districts what they do right maybe that's policy to come back the next year uh I mean if we had a policy no more than

15320 kids in a class what are you going to do with boys you know we have to probably put that in place before we do the budget right yeah [Music] you could do all three of them I'll just I'll just go volunteer no but like seriously what would you do like that's or we still we don't know I don't know yeah I mean that's why I'm bringing it forward journey together yeah yeah I know we will let you know yeah so we should definitely collaborate and figure that out yeah I would think the easiest and cheapest option would be to send 10 kids to the other school because there's space there but again legalities I know the accountant is hard but the cheapest for sure that's a long ride for kids [Music] like there's just

154so many examples there's you have to look at the map because there's people that live so close [Music] but you have buses specific Boys Town those kids yeah the information is now out there you might have to look at it again the towns three four five years down the road might need to look into this about rearranging the two elementary schools in some way but we're not going to solve it tonight [Music] um okay save the rest of the business yes okay sure um I have a couple of reports that are in the drive with some good who could talk about and revisit the items to revisit are the um fsp services and one success partnership those are the wrap around services that we've had in the district for a couple of years and been

155able to offer to families this is a service that's still represented in our district Improvement plan and it was not one of the items that made it into the FY 24 budget at this time as we're closing out the year and it's that program is about to close out because the grant funds end at the end of this month we are using 100 of our slots um meaning we are in full capacity in that program so we're not able to continue with that program which is the current plan that means that we will need to cut that program or that service to the families that are using it so we would like to revisit that from a financial standpoint and see if it's feasible to keep that going into the next school year and Nancy

156will speak to that in terms of the finance right yeah um also in that same report is the float nurse same sort of background it's also in the district Improvement plan to keep the flow nerves we've had a flow nurse in the district for a couple of years now and we have learned even more about our really strong ongoing need for that float nurse um even since we did all of the budget work earlier and I know that that was a last minute consideration just the floaters go into the FY 24 budget or not and we were all on the fence that Saturday around that one decision we're finding now that field trips are really back up and running float nurse is really significant in being able to cover field trips and that's really just

157one of the very many details that the float nurse is able to help us within the district in terms of our student population there's a lot of medical Acuity that's happening in all of the offices all of the medical offices students with diabetes with the baby are on insulin pumps and need to check in with nurses on a regular basis that takes a big chunk of the nurse's time students with seizure plans with feeding tubes in now two of our three buildings is you know increased administrative demands on our nurses there's it's all of these things that are really adding up and we would really like to be able to continue the float nurse in the district I know that our lead nurse Lisa was actually here for a while she did need to go

158a little bit ago I think she was maybe hoping to you know make a comment or so if possible on it if we have the opportunity to keep the floaters on for two days we feel as though that would make a big difference that just so happens to work out in terms of the Personnel the floaters that we've had in the district for these two two years it happens to have been a consistent person and she knows all of our buildings she knows all of the students she knows all of the staff she's familiar with the families the students are comfortable with her and it seems as though if we could figure out the financial piece it would be a really nice opportunity to keep her on and have that additional resource in the building

159not to say that two days gives us back all of the floaters for five days but it would be it would be something that we'd like to hold on to so it's a full nurse okay the other keys that I have in a separate report um talks about the bridges program I gave a little bit of background on the bridges program this is in special education known as a substantially separate program for students with more significant needs with the requirements to have a teacher um of students with severe disabilities these students need more than accommodations and modifications they truly needed individualized curriculum we've had that program at Boylston since 2018. been very successful in keeping students in their home District being able to attend specials and lunch and general education opportunities as appropriate for them

160at an individual basis it so happens that Berlin has three students that will be in kindergarten next year that need that level of programming and it makes a lot of sense for those students to be able to stay in their home District of course um again have access to their friends and their neighbors and their teachers all of that same access that the students in Boylston have enjoyed so we would like to take a look at the feasibility of adding a Bridges teacher that's the name of the program is Bridges we'd like to take a look at keeping adding a Bridges program to Berlin and you have the space in Berlin because I thought Berlin was like jam-packed it it does revolve it does involve some rearranging our rooms but we can make it work

161okay it will the other thing is we consider this it will expansion to teach her some additional Staffing and then there'll be a furniture and a lot of equipment it'll be expensive but clearly not nearly as expensive as having kids out right one of the things to add also if that's okay yeah at the end of the budget season we got we were told about some additional students that we got for that are potentially out of District in Berlin this is in relation to that so the funds are there so this goes with that whole plan got it so this would keep them in three of them well known not three of them um not three of that four yeah we can't really go I sit down and talk about two specifically because we could

162do that like an executive session all right um but just so you know that is part of that yeah the funds that we receive that's part of that plan yeah makes sense that helps so okay yeah I think it makes sense the goals to keep in absolutely and this really would provide us with an opportunity to expand our programming this proposal and this recommendation is based on three students individually there are there are indications that there are other young students perhaps a preschool or or even first grade right in that developmental range that may need access to this type of program as well so developing that capacity helps us to keep students in their hand District which is I think all of our shared goal in these positions these are for vocal tonight yeah so

163it would be three positions one is one book's the first time so fsp is into a position but it's uh it's a program to touch base on the float nurse and the fsp financially oh yeah because um other piece is that since early 2022 tejanto has had a bright program which is a resiliency program for students it has been a successful program that was presented to school committee a couple of years ago what we're here to ask for tonight is to approve a job description for the academic coordinator and the outset or the start of this program we didn't necessarily recognize the need to have such a distinct job description we've learned a lot in the in the couple of years that this is very much a distinct role this job description describes what the

164academic coordinator does and so we'd like to be able to approve that in this current school year so we have it in place and that were those were the pieces thank you John Nancy okay so the financial aspect of adding the 0.40 float nurse for two days in the family success partnership um so that would come to a total of 77 964 dollars and we would be adding that statistical year 24 budget to cover the expense what we would do is we would increase our allocation from circuit breaker for that amount to cover an Audi District tuition and then the budget and then the funds that were budgeted for the audit District tuition would cover those items so it's just a yeah you're just moving it or just moving yeah we're just moving funds around

165so I also um moving funds around but using more of circuit breaker so and I'm going to cover this in a few minutes but part of this is we've received our extraordinary funds from circuit breaker and we were wonderfully received 169 000 so that was great so that kind of helped with this so that's more than we a little bit more than we forecasted and that's where we started the discussion so we got a little bit of extra funds we have some special end needs let's try to get creative um so in your packet you'll see where how we originally forecasted out circuit breaker and where we will be now with this plan if we if it's approved by you where we'll be with circuit breaker so when you approve the fiscal year 24 budget

166we're forecasted to close circuit breaker out at 305 616 if you could make this approval we'll close circuit breaker out with 227 652 dollars that's with using the extraordinary relief funds in fiscal year 23. Yep they're in they're in your packet it says financial aspect floating nurse and FSB and just what I also did and if you go to the agenda There's the link there's only just for you guys I did that so maybe you can pull it up that way and then does anyone have any questions on that um a couple of things I just kind of wanted to touch base on um as you know our elevator broke at Berlin Elementary um a little more than a month ago so we decided to submit a claim to our insurance company and we did

167get rainbows for that claim for eleven thousand dollars Habib and Associates has finished their work at Boylston Elementary the goal is to have the facility assessment given to us by the end of the summer and some good news that our facility director Dan notified me of is that the Boy Scouts have contacted him and they're building a shed for Boylston Elementary so he's really excited because was that for like the toys or stuff for after school I'm not really sure but whatever it is very very excited to store stuff there's yes that's awesome yeah so that's great so that's been built by August so a couple things you'll see for approval you have the three classes for the year the fiscal three fiscal 23 budget that's something that you approve here when all the three

168classes that I make all year long um you have a list of the Student Activity accounts and their balances that's all the clubs and activities that occurred in fiscal year 23 that your need approval yeah also done every fiscal year yes okay yeah yeah we have been very busy reorganizing the central office and we as I reported in a prior meeting that we kind of got a lot of updated furniture and stuff so now we have some Surplus so um there's a list of surplus items with the central office that we are asking me to please recruit Nick can you explain what that means like are you selling them are you giving up Jessica and I were trying to figure it out giving them away okay I see this they're just actually the stuff that

169it is yep most of it's yeah yeah it was at the opportunity thank you yeah I think our plan was if I remember right was to kind of gather some stuff this summer put out a posting if you want to come look at it yeah and you can't sell it like do it with it but these aren't items I mean they're like binders and you can manage the eBay listings you might be a possibility selling there's another school district it's really funny that just sent out an email and it was right before I came here and they're they're doing an addition and they said where have you where did you guys buy tents because we need them for our kids for next school year and I replied to her I'm like I have a couple

170so she's like oh my God it would be so be interested so we're kind of talking so we'll see where at least so we don't need those tents for like field days or the ancestors yeah yeah they're massive they're nice like I think it's 60 by 40 years yeah the guys could even so we'll see where that goes with that yeah yeah uh I put the rates on there from Acid Valley that's a yearly thing that you approve one of the things another thing that I've done this year um you'll see there's an approval of a coffee paper bid for some reason and that's through French River we um this district has always done that with supplies but they've never done it with paper um and the facility director and I were talking about that

171and I guess the reason was always the storage issue but cost wise it makes sense so a case of paper we're paying right now is 49 in case I went out to bed through WB Mason we can get 33.87 for case next so it's really worth doing this and Dan found room for storage maybe it's because of the shed I'm not sure but um schools we're going to pre-buy the paper and then when the schools need paper we'll take his new facility truck until yeah so that that's in there for Europe um and we are going to be at we are asking the committee to add a 1.0 FTE health teacher to the Berlin Elementary and Boylston schools it will be a position that's .60 for Boylston and 0.4 over Berlin this is also one

172of those positions that is that our strategic plan and it's book a lot over the budget process so this is being funded why we're eliminating the librarian position in both of the elementary schools that's a total of the one point all FTE has the same split so the library and doodle Doodles duties will be incorporated within the responsibility of the multimedia specialist the multimedia specialist was approved in the fiscal year 24 budget so we included in your packet you have the job description for the multimedia specialist and the health teacher can you so yeah just so I can rephrase so we're getting rid of the librarian position and making it joint with the multimedia position yep so currently in our in in our current budget we have a multimedia specialist position that's been approved you

173guys approved it in fiscal year 24 budget we also currently have a 0.60 and 0.4 librarian we have eliminated those positions with the funds of those duties we'll go to the multimedia specialist position with the funds of the librarian we would like to hire a health teacher with the same split to the schools did I say it right sure it's the library media specialist the library media specialist isn't a librarian and then some it's somebody who also does Tech attempt Porsche absolutely a tent portion but in a way that teaches digital literacy it's I think Nancy's referring to multimed because they're taking that these people are taking a lot of different pieces to educate the students have classes project-based learning opportunities it ties in with what we already have up at tohonto which is we

174do have already the library media Specialists we changed that several years ago and given circumstances with us right now this that supported us that opportunity to be in sync with that position and offer our students more opportunity so will the students be able to take out books from the library absolutely will they still have reading done absolutely it's just it's that position and more that position also also offers PD trainings to the teachers and helping them be able to prepare the students in the classroom working on research projects from the youngest ages so that they have a skill set that they come up with in into Middle High School I think it ties in really well with the work we keep talking about portrait of a graduate moving our children forward and moving them getting

175them ready for the world that they're moving into by expanding this position to make it more while still appreciating the role of the librarian and and appreciating books so that's the role of a lot it's a library media specialist I just wanted to clearly that term sounds more reassuring right I understand but then the other piece is actually if you go back to our three-year plan the health teacher was something we were looking for with this year yes we had to cut that out and when we were making choices about what but now if we can we have this opportunity to have the health teacher I put the job description in there we have needed this help health teacher who probably well definitely as long as I've been here in the elementary level we have

176looked at social emotional issues somebody trained in this field will work on that as well as physical health nutrition at a young age um and and do that work that was so desperately I need it I feel like you want to add no I just you know and I think it's important to kind of Flesh that out just because when I went to your girl talk about the health teacher I'm Baba health class and the biology of health class and we're deodorant and the other things we all went in the health class mental act as a Blog in elementary school but it's become so much more it really is much more about the social emotional figure it's how to make pregnancy how to deal with conflict it's all of that stuff it's I think it's

177a huge step forward for us maybe we can add nutrition it is yes [Music] those are the types it's usually on top of it at the Forefront of education yeah for some reason the standards or the Frameworks have remain the same since 1999. they have a move but they're a national health standards that a lot of times these Health teachers will follow and incorporate into their into their teaching so um you know I just more than ever I think it's been impaired yeah that position I would love for someone to live on the time on learning versus additional research level because I know there's a lot of studies that support additional recess Focus the kids so yeah well they only need seven minutes to eat yeah working on social emotional piece the library media specialist

178working on the tech piece so we can now get the cell phone use etiquette into the elementary schools right yeah it just I this is the moment we have and I think this is we're going to talk so much about moving us forward this is well it goes back to the staff and the teachers I wish Don Murray was still here because she had flexibility up on her report card and changed you said change yeah you have to be understanding and flexible to adapt with these changes as the current time one through the budget process day by day things are changing right the extra kids that came into town after the budget process things changed and now you have different opportunities so it changes every day so a plus plus plus plus to you for

179being flexible and able to understand and have the empathy to make these changes but it really is the whole thing I mean we sat these decisions don't come without many many conversations through the weekdays and weeknights and begins to kind of talk you know we didn't realize it changes hard and getting out of the box but one of the things I wrote down earlier when Caroline was here it feels like we need to have a group of student like sometime for students in the schools all of them to talk to you about what life is what they're like here now you know because I I hear us and God knows I can't even get into the arena when discussing what life was like when I was in elementary school or high school but here in

180love with their world is like from their world and from their perspective you know so we're just trying to meet their needs and think about people and poor thinking for them I think it's important for the committee to be prepared for even though we're all very flexible some blowback especially around the libraries I can't speak to Boylston but I can tell you the librarian in Berlin's beloved she's a Community member she's a parent people will take that heart it'll it calls on us to be flexible and it's the right decision but you'll hear from I'm sure you'll hear from parents why can't we do this why can't we keep it the way it wants um and then we resume we can't keep it the way it wants is because we're moving forward this is yeah

181back then what we had before what's happening at the yes because I heard from my children the tech teachers not so is that is it happening differently at Bes yeah this changes but we can't some of we can talk Personnel issue so I would yet I have to decline to respond to that but just because of that reason and when you tell these teachers this they're given assurances that yes you're beloved taken care of it below they're not taken care of yeah they don't have a license okay that's the issue yes she's beloved in Berlin and down the road doors are always open and things like that right what licenses yeah right um Nancy is there any more financial updates no what was the auditorium management position so yeah so if you remember quite a

182when we were on the stage for the uh parent Forum yeah the the person from the Christianity the personal problem the cabled access was there yes yes yes yes I couldn't use the speaker nobody had knew how to turn on the up sound system and anyway that led to getting a teacher who knows how to do these systems to help out and to do some training which led to the idea of bringing kind of back someone to manage the equipment in that in the auditorium who knows how to use it who can train students how to use it so that students can go out we can utilize those students and that particular person if we have events there and not only our events town events and also people who want to rent the facility rent

183like the auditorium who need somebody to use the equipment right so they're not touching at all so it's so that's so this person will also make sure that this Auditorium is kept clean and organized who does inventory on what's up there um and just overall takes care of scheduling so that we can make sure that there's no conflicts and scheduling for the auditorium it just basically oversees what we haven't in the past so that's the position it's a statement position I was just going to say it's a statement and it's not a full yeah it's just a stipend position right absolutely I just want to clarify with a stipend yeah [Music] and the staff applies for that position we have some people in that it's it's like because it's not part of their annual salary

184it's a it's like on the side and it's posted and anybody it's welcome to any you don't need a license to do it it's just and that's going to be able to be made up with a little bit of positions we had someone retire at tohonto and we were able to replace that position and a less of a salary so we're able to afford it that way we didn't have a bright coordinator in previous years okay okay I remember the people that came and spoke in them yeah and now she was paid to study through a grant it was through a grand okay okay all right sounds good all right uh any other Financial offices okay so we can move on to what can I myself but the bottom line is like with all these

185scriptures changes like you mentioned from circuit breakers so the fiscal year 24 budget is stays the same you know you've had because of the circuit breaker so the funds came from circuit breaker so okay so that bucket is the same level the bucket and circuit breaker dropped by said about 77 000 wow like everything's we're not voting to spend more money I think is what Jess is asking somebody came in is what you're saying I'm not more human than we anticipated right you but you are voting to spend another 77 000 out of service but we've got more money for the circuit we got more Revenue right yeah so I'm curious like we were when discussing the budget we were concerned and a lot of those buckets were low yes and so I'm kind of

186I just don't know how low that yeah so let's go it's more favorable she gave us the difference right you said two something yeah so yeah to improve the budget it was we would be at circuit breaker and about 305 000 um with disapproval float nurse and the fsp it would be about 228 000. so it's a 77 000 difference and so but that 227 000 that's the bucket that we have for whatever might hit us in the coming months yes that is correct if there's anything yeah right who knows but I guess what like our incidentals this year what was how much was that adjustment just in person Financial uh it changes so often like that it takes some research to do so additional unexpected money came in we're spending more in one account

187net overall the budget for next year stays the same yeah we received about 30 35 000 more than what we anticipated um so you'll be using an additional seventy seven thousand to cover these positions so the difference 32 or whatever it is um well is unaccounted for I'm a circle breaker from what was presented to you yeah I mean we drained the school choice buckets um how is school choice going we approved 30 more positions a weekend anymore actually we just recently got it we had some openings still but we just recently had some more applications do you think I hope so because they're not yet but they can still affect is there a deadline that you let the students know by a certain date that they've been accepted or in um they're yeah like

188from the original batch of applications yes but now that we can still accept more because oh that's great all right first item on a business item number one is policy kcda this is a community fundraising for school this is a first read this was changed because of some issues that happened uh basically some the fundraiser was done and for Nature's Classroom oh yeah Nature's Classroom was canceled during coven correct me if I'm wrong but the money that was raised for that particular year was then given to the schools approved by the school committee at a school committee meeting to be put into that particular was it eighth grade at the time fast forward three years later there was some apparent confusion as to whether that money was to go to this year's Nature's Classroom or

189was to stay with who are currently 8th graders correct scholarship fund just a question yeah some parents business owners they were concerned because they had donated money to that event and they thought that it was not going to be they thought it was going to be statements then there were some questions so they thought it was going to be taken away from that class they threatened to take their donations back all sorts of craziness happened you guys have meetings attorneys were involved it got sorted out but now we're here because policies come from real life right so we've updated this policy we added um if you see down there at the bottom it starts with before submitting the gift to the school committee for acceptance we're asking people now to provide a lot more documentation

190as to how the money was raised why it was raised what was the intent of the raise whoever is giving this money to the school committee are you legally allowed to give that money away things like that um in finance it's called know your client anti-money laundering all these types of documentation rules so that's what we're adding to this policy uh this policy is Cash donations need to get approved by the school committee so if these are cash donations it goes on to talk about the group's fundraising you know fundraising for schools has to be approved by the committee if it's an approved group like a parent group like a PTO link or something like that they're on their own they have their own rules on how they do things but if it's a parent

191group that's formed for a specific thing they if they want to say we're fundraising in the name of bbrsd or something they're going to come to the community that's not that already happens you brought them in Nature's Classroom this year with John that goes through the principles the Improvement super uh super superintendent it's when the money actually comes to the bank account that the school Community gets involved so if that money is coming from somewhere else into our account we're going to ask for a lot more documentation so we avoid business owners coming to us three years later and asking for their donations back is that I don't know how you do that but so this is the first read we'll vote on it at the beginning of the year next year all right uh

192the next one is uh also uh we put this on here for first read this is the auditorium manager job description okay to be a first reading oh yeah um or do we need I'm just thinking completely yes like stipended positions is that for is this the first read for this or do we need to vote to make it happen for next year foreign all right we'll have our meeting on our first meeting is in August I think so we'll we'll put on it then okay uh all right next number three is the SRO request remember this is uh simply a request or a vote to Simply ask the towns if they would provide Essentials this isn't to say how it would happen or anything if we vote Yes on this we'll then go ahead

193and ask the towns and then depending on what the town say there will be some sort of agreement um so I have a motion to uh for the school committee chair to ask the talent to provide school resource officers in school buildings during school hours Laurie sorry Julie any discussion against [Music] all right motion passes six zero the next item policy ebcfa so this is the infamous Mass policy okay we made some proposed changes here to this policy not many uh when's policy is written this policy covers is from covet it covers masking when do you mask how do you mask it simply says the school district is going to follow federal and state guidelines so when the state and the federal on different days declared coven over we should have adopted that as well

194it seems there's some confusion in the health offices so I believe the nurses sent us a letter yeah the nurses wrote us a letter asking if they could remove masks in the health offices they should have been able to on at least May 11th but anyway what has changed in this policy is the beginning there it simply says that uh the coven state of emergency ended on May 11 2023 according to the governor or per the governor of Massachusetts there's a link there to the website where that Declaration was made and the rest of that is from the original policy the other thing that was removed was there was a line there between the second and third paragraph that said masks are required in health offices that was removed so this is uh the updated

195draft here is what the updated policy will be going forward can I have a motion to approve the draft policy EDC fa so moved Megan seven Julie any discussion I could throw a letter from the nurses player quickly uh yeah I think it's in here yes let's get to it I'll read it I want to make it bigger I have that are you looking for the word for Lisa you got it right uh it starts off May 17th is dated uh good afternoon we'd like to begin by saying thank you for taking the time to review discuss and consider our proposal the district nurses are reaching out to all School community members regarding the recent May 11 2023 announcement from the state and federal government and in the public health emergency Braun Boylston School nurses

196are all in agreement and would appreciate your support in favor of lifting the mass policy in The District Health offices Mass Healthcare Massachusetts Healthcare facilities including hospitals have lifted the mass mandate and we would like to be in alignment with that decision we'll use our best nursing judgment when assessing and monitoring symptomatic individuals if and when a concern presents itself individuals will be kept in the health office away from others until they're dismissal again we appreciate your consideration of this matter thank you Lisa Lamar RN MSN District nurse leader that's the letter they sent us I'm curious are the funds there to still support Mass to be supplied to them we have needed so many masks and of course if anybody wants to wear masks they're welcome to wear a mask fully supported any other

197discussion a motion is on the table Lisa um I'm wondering about if there should be anything about exemptions in there you know for like kids who are hard of hearing or who like have anxiety from wearing a mask or um you know on the Spectrum like some kids just can't wear a mask so I just don't remember seeing anything about that yeah the policy kind of builds that in it says uh parents are the ones to make the right decision from asking their kids it says we will follow federal or state guidelines so if ever federal estate makes a law saying you've got to wear a mask again whatever exemptions they have in there will follow um It also says that if any decision in this district is made to wear a mask again in

198the future a written plan must be made as to when how exceptions when it can be removed things like that it's in the um under future mask parameters and the policy so it is covered and I actually like I'd like to add on you use the word guidelines they would be mandates that we would follow when they suggest what we should do we we take that as a if it's a suggestion then it's a parental Choice yes only if we're mandated by law would we do that and then if am I saying if we did do the policy then we would think about things like that yeah the prior statement it's had those little allowances for people with mental disabilities or mental physical disability and do we as a school just a district have any

199ability to demand like the highest form of um like medical evidence for something that's going to be mandated to us like that um control trials meta-analyzes last year during this or not last year with the uniform yes believe it or not it was 2022. you're right we were we had a letter drafted we did we did request that um to DC directly did we actually send the letter I thought yep I think we did did we yeah this also says um this also says that unless the unless there's anything like that presented unless what it says is We're Not Gonna put any burden on any student that isn't being shared publicly by other elected leaders so Governors senators PC directors and presidents and anything like that if they're not doing it in public then we're

200not going to force the kids like all those pictures of like adult standings so if that yeah so it covers it yeah well I guess I'm just concerned about um I don't think the CDC was actually following the science when they were mandating masks I don't think the state was now all the research is showing that the cloth masks and the surgical masks didn't make a difference it's not going to make a difference unless there's a Tight Seal you know like to the face and so the n95 mask could potentially make a difference but they have to be fit tested people have to be clear for use so it's like a huge Camp worms and I just don't think that we should like I feel like we should learn our lessons from what happened before

201and not just go jumping into just going like okay whatever the state says when they weren't you know if they just try and do that again like I think that we should demand I agree with you yeah what is it it's uh so surgical messages the third paragraph kind of covers what you're looking for this has any decision to require coverings in the school buildings or on buses requires a vote by this movement so at that time is when all of that so this isn't saying that we just automatically follow the guidance then no only if it's a walk if it's a law we have to manually everything nobody wants to release it but if we if they're going to say they're in a car for funding because we're not following their policy we're probably

202not gonna do that you know that would be suicide I can't believe that and something like that's ever going to happen again no no at least in our lifetime I mean they're demanding tasks in different places around the world oh they are yeah so the the motion on the table right now is to approve this one as written um any other Jesse I do cut you off Justin I'm sorry so go ahead and say what you want to say as a nurse a nurse practitioner who was a provider from this you know I find other data and I know other people find other data um but I the data that I'm seeing surgical mass and to make a difference I agree that cough masks did not um so I just wanted to stick around I

203would love to meet with you at some point to go over all of that yeah like line by line sure because I did that I went through all the studies and all the references and all the studies and I have patients six year old who have parents that are dead yeah you know they were trying to control so all in favor of the motion to accept the policy evcfa I guess uh five eyes uh zero against one abstain okay thank you um we did number five we approved number five with Kyle uh so next is the budgetary classes I have a motion to approve the fiscal 23 budget free classes some moved second uh Julie Megan any discussion on these are we on number five um any questions discussion yeah so I'm I'm concerned because

204like when we decided to add the three additional positions this is on number six on the three classes this is all the money she moved for fiscal year 23. it's just like did you see that huge spreadsheet with all the requests against all right passes six two nothing um can I have a motion to approve the annual Student Activity accounts Laurie Jess any questions on the Student Activity accounts for approval I have questions I mean I have so many so I don't know if it's worth doing this now or do this has to be voted on tonight and save that right when do we meet again August we we need to have a subcommitting of anything though let me just say this about Student Activities yeah it is very high on my list yeah I

205know I am going to be reviewing it this summer I'm going to be having some trainings with the principals I I need to get a much better read yeah on Student Activities I'm kind of been here a year and I gotta delay of the land [Music] um yeah I'd love that want to do it that way perfect as long as you don't need a vote tonight yeah okay okay this is just really this is just give informational yeah saying this is what we did this year um okay what are we gonna do that that's the that's the balance I mean I'm concerned what happens with all that money right that's been left in these accounts a lot of them just get rolled over to the to the reunion funds for next year no I mean

206let's hit The Graduate they're still here okay they have I forgot the time next three years yeah so they have three years to transfer it over to the president and the treasurer yeah and they put it into their own if there's funding remaining they put it into their own account and they can use it for class reunions yeah yeah okay so I mean there's things that need to be cleaned up on here yeah I know I know we can do so much yeah okay we'll do can I just ask John what are it's you know in every school what is civics activity that is money that you know the balance is out in front where clothes are donated oh yeah then every month we get a check and dance with that checkup all right the

207original purpose when Jeff was here you know he made it you know we're going to take this money we're going to do Civics things with that that was about as specific as we got okay so this money's just kind of growing it's one and we'll go through because we've got to do better than us today and then my second question and this will be it because I know this is a lot and it was a lot to compile and all that I don't want to spend forever on this um we can discuss those specifics later but the undesignated funds in these schools where where's that with that that's a huge Okay so come on all right I love it let's talk about it I mean the amount of money in there you could yeah it's

208great it is great but I just hope it's being um the majority of it is majority of it is fine yeah and it's not that none of it's not being spent correctly because it is right now yeah forgotten like we have this let's do something with it like it's just sitting here also it's being invested properly like so it's earning money I'll say this um because I have a few kids here at tejanto that I will say um there are parents community members that are going to be excited that you're going to do this and that's what everyone's going to be on the same page with Student Activity accounts because there's you know on the sidelines conversation about how much money is in the class I don't know for all these I mean there's a

209lot of awesome clubs here that have money in their accounts and that's so great um so I think this is awesome that you know people are going to all be on the same page with the process so thank you and one more thing before you improve keep in mind that these balances are not year end though right so you you'll see here like the the class of this year has almost eleven thousand dollars in it but we had prom and I mean they had all the senior activities so that's dwindled way down yeah so a lot of you know this will be different in a month or two oh it has May 31 I didn't see that okay so you haven't applied June expenses so generally and this will change next year this is something

210that you would approve at the beginning of the year yeah not at the end of the year gotcha I wasn't unaware that the prior yeah Director of Finance didn't have this approved so it kind of came to my attention like a couple months ago and gotcha no one you think it's in because it has to be approved this year so yeah for the year you will be finished looking at this again next and do we approve again at the end of the year too no no okay no it's really just the beginning it's kind of like this is what we're going to be offering for clubs this year and these are the clubs that we're going to be closing out and this is what we're going to be doing I'm so glad you're doing this

211that's really how the process should go yeah yeah motion is on the table to approve the activity counts uh uh all in favor aye I guess um next item on the list is the school community calendar for next year and the link is done for the school calendar yeah it's in the if you go in this business there's the school committee meetings calendars for the school committee members if you're going to the business hours [Laughter] underneath two of the months there was a little error and it said earlier at least but it was really you gotta make it a full PD day but that language wasn't so do we need to vote on that one too yeah that's right I just want to make sure you were aware of that and so we changed it

212I changed up on the top of six six if you could do that all right let's uh all right so first we'll do we'll do that one first okay all right so let's go down so okay I have a motion to improve the edited school year calendar presented by Carol Glory was that Laurie Jess second Megan what was changed so if you just look at January for example right we had to take out we had in there for two things we know school systems and we had early release all schools but it's not early release law school that was before we made that approach we had to change because of the number of days Good Friday absences this year didn't land the Friday before vacation I did I didn't look that but I can follow

213along any other questions all in favor um uh calendar I'm just in the business it is in the business items folder it is a file called copy of copies so to move it to five uh so they have a motion to approve the school committee meeting calendar all right now is there any discussion yeah I really feel strong in the 5 PM is not not recognizing that there's working parents in the district and future school committee members maybe working full-time people as well and so you know most soccer practices and sports practices and things start at 5 30 recognizing that people need time to get home and get kids or have a spouse to come home to watch the kids to you know to then leave to the meeting so I I recognize it's a

214long night for everyone especially you guys start your days earlier um but I think five is just not recognizing that there's working people that may in the future and currently are on the committee should just be once a month though I hear you well like a month one late night I mean it's 30 minutes later I know but I just feel like um we used to have a lot of late nights last year and you just are not no I know seriously you are not productive at this hour like literally I have so many thoughts in my head but I'm just like I don't care because like I fall asleep at 10 30 every night so it's just I feel like we're not productive at this hour so to add an hour instead of it

215being 10 it would be nine o'clock now like I just feel like I don't know I hear you is it does it create a huge issue for you I I think it's not Equitable I mean you know I talked to a few friends who were parents and it's like at five o'clock you're trying to wrap up work and you know grab the kids like even I would have to ship my kids out to my husband's office to say all right watch them for a few minutes I gotta run up to school and like that that just brings up covered memories of working at night and I just and it doesn't it doesn't recognize that people work and if you're going to come and do a public comment like it's unrelated to think that anyone could

216get together for five o'clock and I know we talked about moving it to 5 30 but I still it's people even watching remotely I think it would be so here's something I was thinking about the public comment Jess um we talked about moving the public comment too later most public comments are what on the business Cycles right the boats yeah would it make sense a couple public comment before the business items which would make it probably like 6 30 7 o'clock something like that that would definitely help the public don't want to come and speak for sure yeah because you can always stream it on your phone while you're doing whatever pay attention to what's going on meeting come here we can you know like we had our five-minute reasons right we can do that

217and then have public comments um you bring up equity which is nice equity for everyone else here too though working the day that starts at seven o'clock in the building probably earlier maybe earlier getting out at three four o'clock stick around for two and a half hours then being here for another four hours that's what like an 18-hour day or something but it should only be once a month and I know it has not been for yeah budget stuff and hopefully that would not be as Grand as next year but you know I understand for the stuff it is a lot in a very long day but how many hundreds of parents do we have within the district that should have us be able to have a say within the school can you be able

218to that's a very fair point how many have shown up this year but how many are watching online I mean what's the data well we're not going we're not talking about not having it online though anybody can still we'll still be streaming it we'll still be recording it and are they at 10 30 at night I don't think yeah yeah but so if you randomly because you have an interview like that so if you put the parent comment buried within the meeting I mean then people are gonna have to stick around if they don't want to listen to so I I just think five is not realistic like if my schedule if my course have changed my schedule there is no way at all that I'd be able to be here if I so I

219you know and and if someone we've already had someone have to resign on the committee because of scheduling conflicts and that was more to just uh the day but but I I we have to recognize that people do have kids and do work and usually normal jobs get out at 5 PM so to start a meeting at 5 00 PM you know we're not in Star Trek we can't transport ourselves I wish it would be fun but you know I well one of the reasons we do this whole calendar for the whole year here in 13 months before the unit is to add that advanced plan uh we can put it to a vote if you want to put it to a vote just you work every day till five I I am privileged enough

220that I do not now but all right that's good but I'm saying that you know elections come and you know it's just yeah every two years so if people here can do this year we can vote again next year but if everybody here can do five we have to do what this committee can do for this year 5 30 is still moving up an hour but if the people here don't need 5 30 including yourself because you said you're flexible this year I mean I would still my husband works till five and I do have two kids yeah one of which still is very accident from so you know I can't just leave them in the house days coming though Jess it's coming it's a nice day but anyways I'm just saying if you're you

221could do it if you I see what you're saying I know but it's not just the you know whatever 6 10 12 of us you know there's a whole District of parents and other people invited in the meeting right but we're suggesting moving it back a little bit for those people we need the committee members to commit to five everybody else I mean yeah you can you can you know there's select board meetings that start at 7 30. you know people want to get to those they have to get to them I'm not trying to sound insensitive at all right you know the administrators that are here I mean it's not I know it's just too late but it is part of the job description too once a month school committee meetings and so you

222know I think you're recognizing that they're staying late by trying to move it out from 6 30 but I think five is too early and I think really five is the earliest that should be considered so as someone who's been on this Pokemon for three years I can say that we never it's rare that we ever do one meeting a month and that's really an unfortunate reality is that when budget season comes and we didn't this year we had a really important budget season but the year before we had double meetings it just seems like there's a lot of time and I I recognize and I appreciate that you're speaking out for those those parents the reports are not what the parents show up to talk about so if we were to move the reports

223to the beginning and then move the public comment followed by the business items that we go on that's what usually people feel really passionate about I think that would be a nice compromise that's just my opinion um because I I know you know after having worked a full day especially where you guys are here so early it's just a lot to ask you to stay that late and I feel like they I know they can't watch it but with the with the fact that it's recorded you can always watch it later which is usually what I do yeah I mean the subcommittee meetings already take place during the day I don't know it's hard to to cater to those daytime schedules but that again like from the perspective of a parent that was trying to

224stay up to date on what was happening it was really challenging you know I couldn't go to a subcommitting meeting I you know I'd have to watch it recorded if it was recorded and then post it in a timely manner so it you know those upcoming meetings also happen more than once a month or so certainly in the budget season having a lot you know so I think that recognizes and and caters to those daytime schools we've heard from Jess any other comments All right so I'll we'll call for a moment so all in favor of the yeah I would like to amend the current calendar to 5 PM to 5 30. is that a motion it is a motion to make an amendment okay are there any seconds I hear no seconds so we'll

225vote on the original motion uh all in favor aye against um can I just point to the clarification or something one of those lines we didn't discuss any of the dates we just had a whole long lengthy discussion if anybody wanted to discuss a date they were free to do so we have all in favor yes no here against okay motion passes uh next up is the Garland scholarship vote um [Music] we need the motion first um have a motion to approve the Moses Reed Tyler scholarship someone second Megan all right we'll do them one at a time okay specific scholarships the first one is the Moses read Tyler scholarship the scholarship was given in the Berlin student or resident who wishes to further their educational studies post High School graduation Rich Mariani and Carol

226Young again this year made up the scholarship committee nine applicants were received in nine Awards will determine subcommittee recommended awarding twenty thousand five hundred fifty one dollars and ninety one cents to nine eligible applicants from a designated trust fund each receiving a total of two thousand two hundred eighty three dollars and fifty cents I'd like to recommend we vote to approve the subcommittee's certification anybody any questions discussion all in favor all right that promotion of passes that's for most Street Tyler can we get a second one uh can you make the we need a motion to approve the Marion Hoffman award that's right yes all right because someone could have a motion for the Marion Hoffman Awards second Lori the scholarship is awarded to one to two Berlin Memorial School fifth grade students to be

227presented at the fifth grade recognition night this award is given to a student or two who displays volunteerism and or as an Avid Reader I would like to recommend two thirty dollar amounts to reward to two chosen students chosen by the teachers and requests that we vote to approve this recommendation any questions or discussion all in favor aye okay motion passes uh number 10. busy uh Capital motion to accept the copy paper a bit similar blurry second one Julie any questions or discussion for Nancy is that a 15 for case savings or something like that um against uh can I have a uh that motion passes can I have a motion to approve the Surplus once any questions or discussion all favorite all right that motion passes if I have a motion to approve the

228absolute Valley collaborative rates Laurie Julie questions or discussion Carol do you need to give us an update on this or summary or getting done the healthcare yeah no this is just submitted from them it was in the drive yeah any questions all in favor aye aye yes all right that motion passes you have a motion to approve the health teacher position this is uh the position not the job description first approved the job description do that first should we do that one first okay can I have a motion to approve the health teacher job description Julie any questions or discussion here this is just the description correct yeah questions discussion all in favor aye against all right that motion passes so now can I have a motion to approve the health teacher position the second

229Megan what's called you Julie questions or comments on this one discussion so where was the finance because the library library okay so that's I just love it I'm glad you advocated I mean it happened it's so needed all right yes okay that motion passes I've had a motion to approve the food the floating nurse for two days per week sorry Julie any questions on discussion so where are the so this is one of the positions that will turn into the 77 000 right yes from the bucket that's correct um when we approve those three additional positions though I think we were in the whole 100 000 and that's what got approved right the additional 109 that I can put approved in the budget but then we're not in the hole we weren't in the hole

230it was just that we were taking money out of this record breaker fund yeah I guess well not sustainable right are you talking about the Berlin Elementary no she's talking about the budget how we voted um she's talking about the additional positions that we added and how we are using school choice and circuit breaker funds to fund the Paras or the AIDS at bes we're using 100 000 from circuit breaker and 50 from school choice could be AIDS I think that should be voted is that what you're asking us is that what you're talking about yeah like you know I know the finance committees were concerned because we were draining buckets and now we're looking to use another 77 000 so I'm just concerned how sustainable it is because like if we drain the school

231choice that was a buffer are we going to be able to do this next year too what is this floating nurse just for the year or is this a permanent thing Janelle um you know it's in the district Improvement plan would like to be able to keep a float nurse yeah actually five days perhaps it's a situation we have to take it year by year yeah yeah I think that would be probably be the best approach um I mean the high school is large enough for my warrant ooh so this is kind of kind of Paving that pathway and this year the expression yes grows too maybe you know a whole field trip thing too I mean yeah there's so many lit there's so many there's so many reasons um that that's important I mean

232I was thinking generally you were to talk and there's um a student over in the high school I can't go into medical conditions student has a medical condition and with all the bus issues last year and someone had to stay um with the student after school a nurse you know so it's you run into stuff like that it is tough it's nice to have an extra person especially just because in today's day and age it's not like Subs are ample like right we have a decent simple nurse um pool of some nurses um but you know they're either retired or they have full-time jobs they're not just on standby you know ready on any given yeah [Music] and not everybody's up for a field trip too you know Six Flags until seven eight o'clock at

233night so you need flexibility it's always such a hard question to answer is it sustainable because you don't know where we're going to be a year right if you have five teachers retire and you bring new teachers in yeah it's going to be very succinct yeah School budget's hard you just it's just all and here's the thing with budgeting too especially for not graphics with the last thing you say because I'm so tired the goal is to just maintain we're not trying to make money here or have a huge surface at the end of the year we're spending everything we're getting right so I mean obviously we want to have reserves in case of an emergency situation but we don't want to be in the position where we want to make sure we're giving the

234district what we need so I just I don't know I I totally get what you're saying I mean holy holy support these positions I just you know financially I do anticipate having some savings I feel low there won't be tons [Music] you know any other questions all right that motion passes uh number motion to approve the family success partnership program Julie questions and discussion those are the wrap around Services 10 different families or students assessment out there hi hi [Music] all right that motion passes number 17 I have a motion to approve Bridges teacher Berlin at Burlington Laurie Julie anybody else want to talk tonight any questions or discussion is this just the program or is what's the associated cost 3 500 per second Bridges of the year what's up right I mean yeah um

235hold on I'm sorry it's a para right it would be a one butter and then it's a teacher it's a teaching position but there's a one-to-one parent so if you need three pairs so so students if students in that program need a one-to-one Peril we need to be able to assign them that wouldn't be something necessarily that we would ask for your approval for like is that stuck through special education chances are in that situation the student would need a one-to-one regardless if they were in the district or or out of the district so um any other questions this is uh is this the item that will potentially save it out of District placement which would be double triple yeah I mean those numbers could um it could be exponential pretty pretty quickly yeah but

236this is going to be a savings for us yeah yeah compared to what it could be especially as we develop capacity it's hard to always know exactly how much but we can see that there's some immediate savings there and then long term as we have capacity to be able to service students in their home District that's a savings all right yeah the questions all in favor aye aye yes okay that motion passes and man oh thank you very much yes you're welcome all right and uh hey team I had a uh motion to approve a stipend and job description for the bright program academic coordinator so that's the 3500. all right any questions or discussion all right all in favor aye aye against all right that closes business items Carol do we have the animals

237okay so the executive session does not need to happen all right um that was that was going to be to discusses there's one other item that everybody wanted to be on here uh an open discussion for priorities next year basically is there anything do you want to talk about this now or actually after last night I had my conversation with Tony this might be something that we can discuss during that meeting tomorrow we have this to the end at the end of every uh meeting yeah this one was intended to be a little bit longer because I wanted to go through the district recruitment plan Oh yeah talk about now that the PTO groups are on board how should we work with them next year but uh I'm holding forward and looking online Dr Ben

238that you'll be speaking with actually I mean this could be part of that yeah so if we want to skip it does anybody want to do it if you want to skip it well just don't feel productive at this time because I do have ideas do you have stuff to what he's going to be talking to us about and doesn't it I mean so I think it makes sense to kind of for him to gather our separate ideas and then pull us all together it would fit yeah and to also be able to look up in the district plan again yes um the 28th it's a Tuesday July 26th okay is it Tuesday July it's 22nd yeah you know all right uh any discussion on the journey thank you for your support as always okay

239thank you very much thank you