001oh I love you to call the meeting to order would you please join me in the pledge uh Pledge of the flag and then remain standing for a moment of silence please keep in your thoughts this evening of men and women protecting us around the world [Music] thank you very much okay could you call the role for the purpose of attendance please Mr Hayden yeah um [Music] that's so freaking awesome that's not here give me one second superintendent to uh sit back down we'll continue nice weather we're having huh 12 hours thank you superintendent okay Communications public participation of one name I show up here is Mr Tom Middleton Mr Middleton okay thank you thank you so much school committee members for letting us to share just a minute of our time so just we
002as teachers could share our thoughts my name is Tom Middleton and I have been a teacher at greater Lawrence technical school for 25 years as teachers we are with our students four to five hours a day 180 days a year more than anyone else in the building and we wanted our voices and experience about this grading policy to be here heard there was conflicting evidence about whether some of the elements in this policy will be effective and our feelings are teachers are that some of them are going to decrease student productivity our school's motto is expect more demand more achieve more our fear is that this grading policy does not support that at all a grading policy is often more than just numbers it is often about messaging the First Student Response I heard came
003from one of my students who asked me if I had heard about the new grading policy I explained to him that this was all brand new and nothing had been decided yet when questioned by other students his take on the policy was you get a 50 for doing nothing two of my other students laughed and said man I'm not doing anything next year we are all hard-working dedicated professionals and we will do whatever is decided upon and no one cares more about these kids than we do all we ask is that in your decision you consider our experience and our expertise as teachers thank you very much nobody else on the list okay okay this time's been brought to my attention by the superintendent that I'm going to ask for a motion to add executive
004session to this minute to this meeting have a motion please so move a second discussion all those in favor okay I'm gonna ask uh at this time to adjust the agenda down to Executive session for the purpose of uh Personnel reasons yeah yeah Personnel possible litigation confidential student uh information even about executive session for that into a second session now yes second discussion yes so are we going into executive session to address um two items yes so the grading policy is going to be left we are not voting at the greatest point in time yes right after we come back correct so we're gonna leave all these people here that are waiting we have to because some of your decisions depending on this executive session okay okay anything further yes um I have uh that
005was one of my comments why do we have to go into a secular session now because before we finish you know it's gonna it may affect the upcoming decision so um the out of curiosity just okay I can have an understanding as to what's going on here the the issue that we're going to discuss at executive session the two issues is tied to the grading policy correct one okay one of the issues is tied to the trading policy right the other issue with possible litigation has nothing to do with the greatest I just wanted to know what the correlation was as to why we were okay all those in favor I'm not anyone opposed I am you call the roll please you're coming back for regular order of business no to Haven yes yes Mama
006yes yes [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] all right guys we finished studying myself meetings back in the regular session um I'm gonna wait just for Mr Cirillo to return before we move on foreign this time the child accept a motion to uh remove from table mat as the equity grading policy have a motion to put it back into on the floor second discussion all those in favor anyone opposed what do you remind uh repeat the motion again be moving from tables matters okay it was in table matters okay that's I I could do that without Mr Cirillo I don't want to vote on it without Mr solo being here at this time she'll accept the motion from the superintendent on his recommendation about the equity grading policy I'd like to make a recommendation that the committee
007vote Yes in uh implementing a new Equity grading policy with the stipulation that uh this year that a implementation uh Team be put together to evaluate it to oversee it and make recommendations at any time that changes may need to be made with that policy based on some recommendations from that team throughout the year to determine what's working what isn't working I have a recommendation for the uh from the superintendent uh could uh could we start could you have any problem adding a monthly report on it sure that we're updated on it monthly and the school committee will be um a report given to the school committee on a monthly basis on that the both the administrative team and the equity Equity the committee the implementation committee will uh uh report to the committee its
008findings on how progress is going great thank you motion a recommendation has been made by the superintendo level motion so moved by a second discussion all those in favor anyone opposed I am hey can you call the roll please Mr Cirillo yes no Mr Hayden yes yes Mama no Mr Lemon Taylor yes motion carries okay moving on this time that she owes up the motion to remove from tabled matters out of state travel so moved you have a second [Music] [Applause] going once I got a second oh I'm sorry I didn't hear it I'm here all those in favor what the um yeah we take out of the table the greater for equity say that again yeah nature had called for you when we had done it so we've done it so we okay are
009you sure what you voted on yeah okay okay all loads to take tables are out of state travel off the table matters it was all those in favor I and he went opposed okay uh out of state travel for landscape teachers and two students and one female chaperone added to the travels uh to the National Federation of convention in Indianapolis Indiana on October 31st to November 4th 2023 this is people remember this is the one that we had rightfully had some concerns about a a female chaperone you have a motion on that please so moved discussion all those in favor aye anyone opposed okay easement proposal superintendent from the town of Andover this is going to require a vote ladies and gentlemen thank you [Music] I think you each have a drawing of uh yeah
010it's a draft drawing of the proposed project that the town of Andover is looking to do and in order to do this project they require the committee to approve giving them an easement of along the dirt road to the left of the school if you we've already voted to allow a new entrance way for coming off off the roadway into the dirt road and coming off the dirt road back on to onto the uh Road and um but now what they're looking to do is be able to use the river for recreation area at some point the town so they can have docks on the river and there's an old uh Boathouse down at the end of the uh of the roadway way to the right of the roadway which is to our right of
011the school on the river which they're going to renovate and utilize for putting crew boats in there and then they also need to have a parking lot in order for vehicles that go down there drop their boat off and then come back and drive up to the parking lot so what they're looking for for approval is for us to give them that easement in opportunity for basically forever so originally we had an agreement with them to if you look at this drawing on the right side of the drawing that section of the roadway which shows the Top's the river yeah so we don't see the rear band River in French oh yeah see that I'm trying to see the parking lot up going down just a little bit is fine nope down a little bit
012more right there you go yeah right there so the broken line there is a parking lot that's at the bottom of phase four of our fields that we're renovate redoing right now we need to have a part we were putting a parking lot in there for uh anyone that's using that field so they don't have to walk all the way from the school over to there which is going to be uh gravel wasn't going to be hot top so um they want to be able to utilize that parking lot so originally we had given them uh an easement from where that parking lot is all the way down for 25 years in exchange they were giving us a 25-year rights to the docks on the river in 25-year writes to four slips in the uh
013put crew boats in The Boathouse the new Boathouse in exchange we would give them 25 years on that easement which we agreed to already the committee voted on that a few years back now uh they want to do is widen the road a little bit because the fire department needs more width on the road for one thing to get down there and they wanted to be able to have cars past each other so they want us and that's on our property so they would like us to give them an evening easement for that and an easement on the parking lot and easement the 25-year easement all the way down to the river they want it to be forever not just 25 years and in exchange and forever to use the parking lot in exchange for
014they'll still only give us 25 years on the docks in 25 years on the on the boat house I asked them for the same consideration if we're giving you you know forever we want Forever on the docks and we want Forever on the boat house yes so a couple of courses it just brings up a couple of questions where they're going to be doing construction next to the river one is Andover conservation has even chimed in to the diagram is great but when I'm doing a diagram and having a conversation with or School based on easements that the city needs we have supporting documents with everything that goes along with it not just the diagram so this is nice and I understand what's going on but other people that don't deal with this on a
015day-to-day basis will not definitely should know what what the easements for where's the supporting documents and so forth and has conservation even chimed in where it's going all the way to the river it's his conservation asking for the the town in the letter that they're supposed to send a letter with it yeah and as well the town of and it was supposed to send a letter with this not just diagram saying hey this is what we want no it's important documentation that comes comes along with this which I've had to do it um we've lost Public Schools what I'm doing here yeah an easement from them to take something just to improve the sidewalks yeah um so if the committee is in favor of this there'll be a written agreement that you have to vote
016on so right now all they're looking for is are you in favor of such an easement to them if so the attorneys will get together and write up an agreement we want to get 25 years and they gave permanent yeah okay thank you so I'm back to what you you said they won for life but they want to keep the 25 year for us right that's not as change and it's changed it should be even yeah so well the argument is by that they uh they would have to we'd have to get a bill pass in order for the town to give us lifetime easement I mean lifetime rights to the to both the docs and the and that that probably and would have to be passed through town meeting and the town would have
017to say yes and so um that would be a long ordeal one of the uh agreements could be is that we agreed to 25 years while the town in Greece to pursue uh the rights to Greater Lawrence having access to the docks into the boat house forever we have a temporary evening with them now for 25 years but not for the whole Road only for the lower section now they want the whole Road the other half of the World Is Ours no no uh there's a we own part of the road the town owns part of the road but they want to widen the road on our property so they want a bigger easement they want more rights to our property in order to widen the road not anymore no no and it's the one
018on the right not the one there used to be Phillips Academy had a Boathouse on the left that was sold to the insurance company over next door to us and they also had a Boathouse on the right that's just a metal frame right now and um where we would we said we would consider rebuilding that for them uh if in fact we're going to be the ones that get to use it and the docs and everything is one of our projects for our students when the time comes but right now it's really about an easement uh the uh attorney our attorney was at the meeting that we went to with the town on this felt as old um it was a reasonable request given that the town needs that to improve that road for us
019to agree to the 25 here's my here's what the biggest concerns I didn't mean to draw I don't think the problem is whether or not the town needs it I think it's it's apples for apples on and so oranges you know 25 years to 25 years fine whatever it was forever fine it's with the fact that the town seems to be making up better than great glts's at the moment that's right that's I think that's what I'm understanding is this Fitzgerald yes I've been working on this in one form or another for about 25 years long before I was on this committee and um we were trying to um actually we're trying to get use of the PA boat house by giving them certain things and then Phelps Academy went and bought that amazing facility
020across the river in Methuen and all bets were off they literally we had a signed sealed and delivered of a phenomenal package they pulled out of it at the last minute because they had acquired this other property they didn't need us any longer in terms of the giving the town the easement right of way whatever we want to call it in order to improve the road the bottom line is that is the access road for the end of a fire and police department to get emergency vehicles quickly down to the river so that pot I have no problem with I really believe that town meeting would approve us having the same deal that the town is asking for the hundred for 100 or 75 or whatever we come up with I agree that it should
021be an even for even thing and there's I have no problem with going um before town meeting we would have to come up with our attorneys of putting the article in or the town could do it for us but um I think it's unrealistic over the years we have given them every single thing they've asked for including what will soon be a new access off of the River Road onto our property so um I I think it's wonderful that they are going to have the conservation land used with the old Boathouse on the right not the one on the left um for the rest of the school committee driving not now with all the rain but drive your car down there someday and you'll see how this road truly needs to be improved and it's
022totally accessible for you to get down there on the other side of the pool so um that would be my um motion or whatever you want I guess you'd call it a motion that we go back into discussion with the town for a more Equitable agreement for the school discussion yes uh we're talking would you consider 75-year trade back and forth or 99 years instead of forever that might be doable yeah so we go to them and say we'll give you 75 years you give us 75 years yeah I think in 75 years nobody at this table will be worried about it yeah my concern is yeah always in favor aye any order pose it's time to chill except the motion to table this matter put this in the table matters have a motion please
023right but we're going to address it we're going to address it again but so report from the superintendent has done okay uh faculty dress code okay so I just want to inform the uh school committee we're looking at uh we're going to be reviewing the faculty dress code to make a recommendation um towards before school starts to look at a few minor in uh recommendations regarding the Improvement in the dress code for faculty and um as I think that they're some inappropriate way that faculty dress I think needs being looked at and so we'll have a presentation for you um after we put a committee together to take a look at this more closely but I wanted to give you a heads up on that okay so that's tabled you know we'll get to that
024in a moment student cell phone policy and then uh also we're looking at a student cell phone policy um because of all the difficulties and the issues even in uh looking and having meetings with staff about grading and challenges they have in the classroom uh cell phones are becoming more and more of a of an issue so looking at a more stringent cell phone policy to implement that's fair and sensible and reasonable moving forward for next school year so at our next school committee meeting in both those issues will bring some kind of recommendation to you and the dress code for faculty is very minor it's not aggressive or not looking to ins Implement something that is uh going to be difficult or a huge change to what we have now just a few tweaks
025that I think are important well when you uh when you get that uh put together can you send it out to us before the next meeting oh yeah absolutely yes yeah I was going to ask are we going to get that yeah beforehand so that we can review it before you come and ask for a pool right okay yeah okay um anything else John no okay I have one thing here that uh Sue left me a posting for English Department of this or yeah yeah I'm sorry yeah we're doing table both matters this time the jail accept promotion the table of A Faculty dress code and the student cell phone policy put into table matters second all those in favor aye anyone opposed thank you Frank okay um she wanted this was this uh information
026right okay yeah so uh it's a replacement position we were uh pulsing for up to eight staff members to revise Grade 9 and 10 vertical curriculum for English for English for English Just for information it doesn't have to be voted on there's no further business the chair will accept the motion to adjourn so I'm sorry before we return I wanted to address the committee um I'm a little bothered and baffled um when we go into executive session um because I feel like oftentimes you go into executive session um to discuss on things that oftentimes we are able to discuss it in Open Session and we went into executive session today and I was under the assumption that it was based on a personal matter which one of the items was however I don't see why
027when it came to the grading policy um we weren't able to discuss that in Open Session because when it was put up even though there weren't names we could have redacted that since we love using that word um it was redacted but I believe sue you had mentioned that it was possible to if people that have are commonly known know that uh that chat would be able to tell right not not myself we could have adopted what what subject what classroom who the professor was but we did because that wasn't honestly the the track that I saw that wasn't even a vital uh whoever the teacher was wasn't a vital that wasn't Vital Information and whatever the the assignments were that wasn't vital either it was degrading which was the the subject at hand um
028so what I want to finalize in saying is that there was a lot of the meats and Bounds there was a lot of things that were discussed in executive session that I felt like it's a slap in the face to the teachers who were here waiting an hour to you know what's the point of people coming in to discuss what is going on in the school the changes what are I what are our opinions are when we're hiding behind executive session to make those discussions and I find it very cowardly I'm not pointing fingers being very specific I I could speak for myself at times it's very easy to for myself to to speak on something behind executive session because I know that I'm not saying it in front of a a crowd who who
029I have to you know potentially have to defend what I'm approving or not approving when we have people that are potentially seeing us through live stream so I just wanted to I I just felt a little um I don't know why I just I feel super bothered by the fact the fact that it's not the first time I feel like we need to be a little more conscious when we go into executive session and stop hiding behind uh you know oh we're going executive session because it's personal when in reality there's certain things that we could discuss at an open session and we should at least give people who are listening in and who want to be part of the decisions that we're making they want to have an understanding and there's a lack of
030transparency by us just going straight into executive session we literally made a vote and it just it it seemed it just I I don't I don't I don't even know how to finalize my thought right now it just I I just I felt like it was a slap in the face so people who are concerned and have a right to hear what our opinions are well first of all it would have been inappropriate for us to put on that screen what we showed you 50 years I'm telling you what was it appropriate about grades first of all you don't discuss what happened in executive session out in Open Session yes you are you're talking about issues that we talked about an executive session an open session now and that's inappropriate then you as you will
031with the information that you have State it's your opinion Julie noted your opinion is duly noted I am and I agree with her we do this all the time most of the time we're going to a second session to discuss things that we're supposed to be discussing in Open Session I disagree I disagree with you that is that is true you decide I disagree with you okay you disagree because you are driving you're driving that and you want that to be in a second you're driving that that's why you disagree with us but it's true if we're saying it it's true no not necessarily it's your opinion it's my my opinion is true okay all right so very good Vivian no no I just wanted to go back to when I had what I hadn't
032initially asked um the reasoning why we were going into executive session you explained that one of the items because it was two items that were discussed one of the items were correlated with the grading policy and that is not true one of the items that we were just that had nothing to do with the grading policy right I said that one Russian litigation the grading policy no I have no idea the executive session yes we yes we did because there was information it was shared that should not have been shared out in Open Session now it's your opinion that it should have been but it's our opinion the superintendent's opinion that it shouldn't have been that's that's that was the difference I've never said grading policy and litigation together as far as they would they
033were lumped together there was two separate items you said before we went into executive session right that we had two items right and one of the items correlated with the grading policy which is why both of those items are were taken into executive session and what I'm saying is that is a lie one item had nothing to do with the other item that's what I'm just saying don't ever said they did right but so then why were they they were lost no there was two reasons there was two reasons either that or we could do it I could have gone to Executive session for one come back out and go on reacted to Executive session video I mean that's a possibility but it just didn't seem to be uh maybe a misunderstanding I thought that
034one item correlated with the other no not at all not at all they had nothing at all to do and when we go into executive session you have to give an explanation as to why and you said personal personal so that explains to one Personnel Personnel okay that explains one item so what was the explanation for executive session on the on the grading policy information that shouldn't be shared that is so vague that is so vague well I mean information that cannot be shared but that is sorry that is fake with student information and teacher information that could not be shared you could have adopted no you couldn't no okay no you couldn't you couldn't get clarity just for a little Clarity yeah you could look that up very quickly you have to give and
035you'll give hold on a second you have to give an explanation does that mean that anything that's disgusting in the secular session after a certain limit of time that's all make public record as well with that very long oh hey what can I say okay um finish please no again we are doing that wrong and I know that is your opinion okay at this time the jail accept a motion to adjourn thank you [Music]