001so remember back a couple years ago as to exactly why I joined politically in December of 2020. slow down for a minute and realize who the class of 23 is the class of 23 were a freshman in March of 2020. I've got two young kids one is in second grade at EMS I'm sure many of you have heard it as well I've always been told to be careful what you say and do around them they're always watching they'll you can bet the class of 23 was watching the previous committee back then too in addition to academics we think of our high school years as a sort of writing passage a series of unique life events that prepare us to enter the general Society we often make 13 to 14 year old kids to 18 year
002old young adults ready to Take On The World we do this through social activities like sports performances clubs prompts pancake breakfasts getting dinners fundraisers all sorts of other events so I'll ask again who is the class of well they were the blacks who were told that they can't finish their freshman year in high school they were the class we're told they can't start their sophomore year in the classroom they were going to pretend they were most schools of good enough education and they could use some kind of reformant that milky really understood they're the Juniors who were made to work through massimages majority of their youth had events canceled and now they're seniors who have had just about every normal variety of Passage that you and I take for granted stolen next email included the
003line we have made concessions for the greater good time for the administration and school committee to allow us to have this day without fear of retaliation again here they sure have made their fair share of the sessions for the greater good and they've yet to know what a normal year of high school is like remember we're not done with this year yet and if you look around at some of our neighboring communities you can probably see certain areas gearing up to ask Megan her classmates to make even more concessions all they ask for is the opportunity to salvage what's left of their high school years to come together with this incredible achievement and I think would be terrible not to listen to them where I hope is that we start to see this culture ship
004now this week I talked to superintendents Angie and future superintendent Costello constantly love the need to start operating in one District about three years ago we stopped being three individual schools and became one district and how important it is to unify our two elementary schools around this idea what better opportunity could there be to do that than this week how great would it be to see Team Pride at all schools this week if the administration and teachers can make it happen on such short notice wouldn't it be great if players could tour around the elementary schools talk to young kids about what it means to be part of a team and part of the community have a pep rally have the bands play where the team colors show how it will encourage the young kids
005to get involved and participate in school activities whether any sports or anything else all right so now we're going to hear from the community and the administrators administrations that share what they've come up with and then we're going to discuss and vote as a committee we're going to hear from the public about this and do the numbers I do want to ask that you limit your comments to about three minutes but I want the committee and the administration to hear exactly what this means to you and what you think we should do this week and in the future when situations like this arise so that's it we'll open up a public commenting session I have one request prior to coming up meeting um Mr Dave arkand and then there's some walk-ins um that I signed
006in on the cookbook um if you can speak loud enough well there's a microphone here I believe graduates as well as a parent of a current plate so I'm here tonight to make an appeal for the early release of schools on December 2nd so everybody can attend the game referring to but ask that you consider these couple points as you make your decision first of all this is special it's Unique maybe not once in a lifetime but it's close not the team historian but as far as I'm aware these two schools whether it's individual high schools or in the combined West Coast program they've never made it this far in the history of playing football in Massachusetts there's 275 football teams playing this year there's only 16 left so we're in the final six percent
007that's pretty amazing number um these kids in this entire Community will remember this experience for the rest of their lives I'd ask you please don't become part of that memory in the form of remember when to wouldn't release too early so everybody could go watch the game okay number two this is a Toronto team um so yeah they practice at West Boylston from the shirt says lines but there's a lot of tohonto kids on this team uh you know with all due respect to my friends over at WV to Honda students uh easily make up half the team roster all for the team captain so I think over here I think I saw them all here in the front row um are from Toronto um 18 of the 22 starting positions on the teams are
008Toronto kids the hotel members of this team want and need your support as they represent this entire community in this unique experience this is your team this is not just WB um I'll close by saying I can't pretend to know the entirety of your criteria you must consider when you're making a decision to modify the school calendar it's been you've cited several reasons that I wasn't aware of uh what I do know is students in the school district have the rest of their school years college and their careers focus on education and work they have a single opportunity to represent their team at a state championship football game please do the right thing here don't ever up on the wrong side of History is here okay we're both nervous okay my name is um I'm
009a 2003 graduate at Toronto my parents are graduate from Toronto my husband's teacher at Toronto my daughter's in preschool at Toronto I have a daughter in second grade at BBS so it's in our blood to be stag fan and against everything I know would be a lion's man and so for you guys know for me to support the scene it helps at the most of them okay I emailed Mr zany and Mrs Costello earlier this week when I first heard about the miaa's decision to play this game at the least opportune time for anyone that works or attends this field I was on the fence about coming to read it out loud because I've never done anything like this previously but after speaking to my nephew Bobby Humphrey last night I chose to come Bobby
010would obviously love the support of the entire District but feels a little strange after that Court I told him that I would come and read my email and let everyone know that yes it would mean so much to him as a captain of this great team to have his classmates teachers and administration supporting them in the most important game of their career I'd also like to say that regardless if this is the decision made tonight my family including my husband the teacher I talked about my daughter at Thompson preschool and my daughter at EES will be taking time off school to attend we believe this is an important Community event that will create last few members for our family and we also believe that we'll show our kids that hard work does pay off sometimes
011in the form of getting to play at Gillette speaking this that wasn't money I'm sorry okay my email is I'm reaching out first and foremost as a supporter of the state finalists with oil to varsity football team secondly I'm reaching out as a parent of their biggest fan this is an unprecedented precedented time for our school district and one that I believe should be fully celebrated although the boys wear West Boylston on their shirts and helmets they are at the core of the hanco team they are packing stars from boys and Berlin and I believe their peers and teachers deserve the time to cheer them on as they play on the historic field at Gillette Stadium having grown up in Boylston and lived here my entire life I know moments like this could potentially be
012once in a lifetime if you could possibly find it in your heart to give kids and staff an early release to celebrate this momentous occasion I believe we could do more for the district morale and overall happiness in many three hours of schooling possibly could my daughter is a second grader at Bes and regardless of your decision she will be released early that day to watch your cousin the biggest Idol Bobby Humphrey in his final High School game of his career I know it means the world to him to have his teammates who have worked their entire lives from this moment to have their fans who have cheered for them at every game along the way be able to also cheer for them when it needs the most Sports have Toronto are doing so well
013recently I think showing support for our athletes who go a long way with your goal is to retain students in the district I know what spoilsson has already declared a half day for their Staffing students please follow their lead on this one and give the kids these kids the respect and fan fear Fair they have earned and truly deserve thanks for your thoughtful consideration on this matter foreign hello and thank you for allowing me to speak today I'm Meg Edwards my twin brother John has been on the team her has been on the team for the last three years and I've been watching him play since he was five I'm a student here in tohonto I'm a senior in the class of 2023. as you know our peers online team have had a once in
014a lifetime opportunity to play at Gillette is important to the students and faculty as well as a community to go and support the achievements of our football team they have worked tremendously hard this season and deserved as many people as they possibly can support the student body especially in the class of 2023 has missed out on a lot of opportunities for the in our past four years advice for three years in high school this is quite possibly the senior's last opportunity to be together outside the school we would appreciate the support of the amazing Administration and school community I submit a petition with over 80 signatures and I gathered her in just thank you hey guys thanks for letting me speak I didn't really prepare anything but what I can tell you is have any
015of you in your high school days have a team that played in the safe lives can anyone raise your hand you did I I did not fight oh no did you have a team that played yeah I don't remember but I know Coach Collins so it was ready I didn't have a team but when I was in seventh grade I went to Nashoba Regional and the boys soccer came in 1990 went to the city finals they played doxbury they won 3-2 right I didn't have any friends on the team I didn't have the brother sister it's part of the community and I went and supported those kids just like other policemen all right now here's the thing listen I'm so glad you read that email because if it was the Pantene at Symphony Hall I
016would be there if it was the drama team the drum club that made it to the stage I would be there and if you look around you can ask all these parents that are at the games I'm at the games I'm at the basketball games I don't have a dog in a place possible not the basketball games I know the son that plays basketball I'm not the field hockey teams I'm at the soccer boys soccer games I go into all the games why because I'm a part of this community and I want change what I've seen in the I have an 11th grader in an eighth grade what I've seen in the five years we've moved to town 17 years ago in the last five or six years we need change right and we have
017the opportunity to do that now right we have we have two we have open positions coming up we have rotating people onto school committee Let's Be the Change Change for good right we're a community we need to do it together and these kids deserve it if most people knew and I know the girls soccer team the boys soccer team they all put in a lot of work if you know what the day looks like for some of these kids it's weight room in the morning before school it's school and they all do really well at school right so take that off the table it's not listen to school they all do it really loud school right then it goes weight room at night after everything's done for team then you play a game right then
018you have three days to get your body ready for another day of practice right some of those days aren't pretty right you're not walking right you're not walking right you're banged up you're bruised you're cut right you you need help you need tubs right you need to get ready these kids deserve our support and they've put in the time and now it's our turn to support we need to put in the time thank you very much yeah thank you Alma paramedic I'm sorry hi um I'm Alma this is my twin brother um I'm speaking on behalf of the class of 2024 as a you a lot of you may know our grade is on a lot of our graders on the Lions football team we as a class want to support our friends that we
019have spent so much time with these past years at dejanto while we know it is academics are important this is pretty much like once in a lifetime experience our own players are playing at the Gillette at Gillette Stadium the same field that the Patriots play on that's that's pretty cool um so what we ask for is your support whether it's a fan bus or a half day or just no penalization for whoever leaves turns during during the day to go to the game um I went to a student council conference a couple weeks ago and a lot most of the most of it was about um bringing more Spirit into our schools after life we lost two years um it's a we need more spirit and I think whether whether it's a concert or a
020field hockey game this is a great start to shift back into a normal preppy peppy school um it's not just it's I mean obviously it's about football but it's bigger than that too it's um other kids looking up to these people it's yeah um thank you [Applause] see some discussion going on oh yeah sorry not a lot of starters from a school Wilson anyways but I'm sorry um we got a lot of support from West Boylston already a lot of our fans and our students coming to the game and that's because the half day if we didn't have that day we wouldn't have as many people coming as I know that there are and to have double that amount with to octo support that's even better but we small schools both ways that's why we're
021Co-op so the more fans the better the sport really does help I know I play on the team so I know what it's like to have fans cheering you on you make big play and when you make it this far to a stage like this at Gillette Stadium it's it's amazing so having fans there to support you more than they're here thank you [Applause] anybody else buying the last part all right uh we'll then move on to our discussion uh if you have anything yeah um so when we look at these kind of decisions safety percent all of my 30 years to teach you that's a teaching at the high school and so the last thing we want is students rushing to an event and getting hurt because you know trying to get try the
022two hour drive 30 minutes so that's one of the things you can say the other thing is whether we're doing something that's a question here whether you're gonna release fairly through the elementary school and I think to get some kind of reason why we need them as a businessman touched on it also definitely realized that there's been a lot of families left students at the elementary school some mentioned at the high school so and also whether we're under people business so teachers get attached to these kids they work with them for a long time and so they want to they want to participate there are really three options those are logistical problems with that the things that are probably more concerned with like how many bunches how many notes come in but really on you'll
023know is that we have to track down it just because the other is the half day keep quiet by the school committees and the reason it requires a vote by the school committee because it's a half day and it would have to be data and then the third option is which doesn't require a book by the school community and in that case foreign um so many high school Industries have some flexibility of solving some extra time so that's because the most amount of time in school and still gives the flexibility of getting to the event without connection too much the elementary school Monday after school programs so most of the families who use that utilize the accessible program um Jack sorry I didn't realize half days had to be made up so would you have
024to make up a half day would you add half day on your calendar if we did vote okay performance so we have to schedule a full day so as a day off the school year for teachers and students and that we have to vote if we if we think that a half day as well or uh yeah okay and what's yeah and what's the what's the time difference on it early so a half day after Elementary so you're talking to 1056 and early release you said the earliest you can do without having to make it up will be well we decided when we talked to the high school administration to upstairs because we're going to have lunch expense so they can get all the functions that they could plan for that so you don't have
025to worry about that Elementary School and again if somebody you know somebody who puts the defensible and said you know you're only need some extra time that's fine I'll show you they have the flexibility to do their companies yeah so um first of all I just want to reiterate what Mr Topman said football congratulations really no matter how the game turns out on Friday you should be very proud of yourselves but we're looking forward to celebrating Adventure Friday um I also want to say congratulations to the students and the community in this group uh as the many emails came in honestly I felt proud of you all for pulling together rallying about something that was important to you 'd be really nice to see we've got brothers and sisters getting along that's great um I
026want you to know that I think I can probably speak for everybody here that you have our unanimous support as team and with their accomplishments and I think the discussion really is uh how do we how do we facilitate this among the logistics you know any discussions I've had with the other committee members that's not the question it's just in that group navigating the details and making this uh something that works out yeah I'm hoping that we can we can shut down a concern that I I have also heard through contact with committee from elementary school parents specifically is that you know there are some that are more removed from from the Athletics engaged we're not there yet and some of those parents do depend on their kids being in school they're having jobs so
027my question was just angry if you were to apply the after school programs or something to coverage with parents families to take part in everything you know because there's a lot of paperwork and responsibilities because I said mostly most of the families who utilize that program they do because they have issues can I ask the question so is the points are moving in several times at 12 30 to be able to facilitate three lunches and not to have to make another day so yeah anyways so for the lunches we just passed earlier but just to be to be clear the elementary school children that are already enrolled have coverage but those that aren't interested only if we do an early release my understanding is that if we if we go about a half a day
028then no after school right yeah we didn't check for the afternoon because we could work on that we could do that because I guess that's a long time right right because it would be we did but again appreciate from examples Nursery Church we're talking about two hours in one day so foreign people at the time yeah I wanted to ask a question too so there's a lot of criminalization and I understand like in the high school level there's certain classes for that um at the elementary school said I have a lot of communication concern about working parents trying to figure that out and probably many of you do take care of you know use the absolute program but and you don't so I guess at the elementary school level I didn't think or even at
029high school like a dismissal was not trapped like a party or a Thompsons or penalizes so I guess if if we were to separate the condo in the Middle School from the elementary schools for an early release would I don't understand that there would be any penalization for someone to dismiss their child in the road Philippines foreign okay another month but they won't do that for mornings I guess you're right after school you did have to register and you had a picture day yep yep right okay um let me ask this question kind of going along what Jess was saying about credit and like so for these high school kids if you do an early release like the players I would assume they're gonna have to leave I don't know at 10 o'clock in the
030morning I would get what time does the game start two three sorry we do an early release is that what is that going to do with these kids are they going to be penalized because it doesn't affect that I mean they play sports so what if a student wants to leave they they all get out of school yeah like no uh High School what time did you say high school gets out at noon yeah no for early release release I want like I get the point of not want to do the half day right because then everybody has to make it up to the teacher so it's in a way better to work with some teachers um 12 30 will be enough time from high school yeah visit yes I mean the football team's going
031to be up whenever we have to get a popular that's 10 10 30 11. we've had games we've had State Games already that we had two o'clock that but the reason this was an early game is because we get all the games because of daylight savings with the soccer teams you can feel about you can we've had to go an hour and a half away and we had a two or two o'clock game and we had to get them outside 12 o'clock or whatever they're going to be this message for the fans anyone going for this game yes we're going to have buses here for the fans that want to be there for one o'clock yeah opportunity I do not realize half days have been made up I thought that we put a half day
032on the calendar it counted as a full day in the 186 or whatever the town is foreign yeah obviously I know you don't make the rules I get it no it's made much yeah no I get it down here as well sorry I just wanted to ask so I know as a senior we have something called like senior privilege where at the end of the day of the study we're allowed to um you know leave early and I was wondering if maybe that would be possible to do during The Lunchbox so if people have already had plans for lunch with their families need to go like together um and they had relatively today wanting to go to the game there would be a way that doesn't happen bringing like permission notes beforehand being like I
033wouldn't be that my child at that time and then with the penalize for it and they will be able to dismiss that launch foreign you know what it means in the front office has to be prepared for the house so with an effort to fix on one end ocratulations for the day um [Music] so here's the other thing if we make if we made it a half day and you have to make a full day why won't you just cancel school that day um we're talking about hours here it's like what if you just canceled school that day like a snow day and you made it up well I'm just saying if you have to wake up all day to get it back that you have to get then you have to make it before
034that you know why would we go for them the recommendation is the early release 130 covers all those questions covers all everything lunches get the kids home get the kids to after school that need it so I think the recommendation is an early release don't have to make it up in the future go have fun at the game go win the game he wants to fill up for the game you get the proper load so we could have called right now uh just to approve an early release or something like um earlier release but it was either an early release which we would have to make up again yesterday so do I have a motion to approve the calendar change from early release um to make it to really exploring if you can create that
035as well not sure numbers because I know the Ohio foreign Elementary School then it should be one way back it is foreign little dismissals I'm I don't I don't know I don't know but I need to have one discussion about this music no I think the elementary school will be fine unless there's kids that have siblings yeah I think you know we're having this discussion but we need to consider what is development school which if we can't provide enough care and we have to you know pivot stinks again right I I don't think it's enough to say we have to get lunches on here but there's something close to 20 percent I think they can take their lunches what Jeff what happens on what happens on that day yes you can opt in on a
036half day lunch yeah at any school you would just miss your last period and you go eat your lunch so regardless if it's a half day or a roller lease if you need lunch you get one I think the difference so I think you know the early release considers that at least if you want to make sure yeah I make a motion that we just keep it as a regular okay the district wide happened uh yes I I think yes correct thank you yeah so yeah yeah let's do it again the difference here is uh Schools get out in elementary reserves it's 10 56 here at times uh we think this will alleviate potentially some front office Dynamics with dismissals you just you pull the Band-Aid off the whole District let everybody go do what
037they want to do and support the team right he's after school care is still open Play I said I'm sure right just in general that's not confirmed to see you guys I'm still trying to understand why half day on school calendar if we turn a day into a half day it happens like I just I don't want it so why why would there be a difference between the ability to provide after school care according to the newspapers yeah it's an hour and a half we're talking an hour I mean we've just been checked I'm not saying check that out about that um so emotions on Behavior give them well because we went to the early release are you ready for vote of the motion it's all baby clothes yes all right thank you [Applause]