School Committee May 13, 2026

001think we have gotten the clear to get started. Uh thank you everyone for being here. Um this today is May 13th. It is 6:32 p.m. This is the full school committee meeting, regular school committee meeting for the Greenfield Public Schools. Um and we are calling to order this meeting. I'm also going to read the chair statement. This meeting is being recorded by Greenfield Community Television, GCTV. If any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify the chair now. Anybody else recording? I did note that I think our um recorder reporter is online, so just noting that they're probably taking notes. Um all right, so we are called to order at 6:33. Member Webb, will you please call the role? Vice Chair Childs >> here. >> Member Denive >> here. >> Mayor Disorger >>

002here. >> Member Dyman >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. >> Chair Ston >> here. >> Member Webb, I am here. >> All right, we are all present and accounted for. We have a full quorum. Um, at this time we're opening it up to public comment. Uh, members of the public may speak for up to three minutes. Um, and when you get up here, please just say your name, uh, and how like what your relationship is to the schools. If you're a parent, community member, staff member, etc. Nan, we got any community public comment. >> First up, we have Bill Gordon. >> Great. >> You good? Okay, great. There you go. Good evening. My name is William Gordon. I reside on Country Club Road here in Greenfield. My children went to school here. I'm a

003taxpayer in the city and a voter for the uh school committee elections. I'm here this evening to follow up on a formal complaint and request for investigation that I previously submitted in writing to committee committee member Childs regarding a potential procurement issue with within the school department. On March 30th this year, I observed the budget and finance subcommittee meeting where there was a detailed discussion about expenditures for landscaping services at the Greenfield High School. Following that meeting on April 1st, I submitted a public records request seeking all current and future contracts related to the landscaping services, including the specific contract discussed as well as any quotes obtained in connection with that contract. On April 14th, I received a response that included an unsigned document dated January 1st, 2025 for Snows and Suns covering services through

004June 30th, 2026 totaling $35,892. The scope of the work work included seasonal cleanups, mowing, trimming, fertilization, irrigation services, and other maintenance. In addition, I received invoices for various services across multiple school properties, bringing their parent total cost for fiscal year 2026 and private landscaping to approximately $42,627. See public records request 2608. However, the response did not include any of the requested competing quotes associated with this contract. I subse sub subsequently filed a follow-up complaint regarding the incomplete response and I was informed but by the city's I was informed that the city's procurement department may hold the records but after additional delays and multiple follow-ups I ultimately received a final response saying that there was no response of records existed within the city of Greenfield and that the request may be directed back to the Greenfield

005public schools. As of today, more than six weeks after my original request, I have not received any quotes. See public record 26243. I want to be clear that my concern is not with the vendor Snows and Suns as I respect our local business and their work. My concerns is with the process and compliance of procurement laws. Additionally, while I may question spending the the spending priorities of the school, particularly giving recent program reductions in the schools and other departments, those decisions all ultimately rest within the committee, the mayor, and the city council. I watched the B budget and finance committee that uh that occurred on May 5th where this topic was discussed where the superintendent blamed the city's procurement side once again claiming that the procurement was done three or four years ago even though

006this contract was mess was made less than 18 months ago. So here we sit the school is blaming the city and the city is blaming the school but no one is taking responsibility. Based on the information available, there appears to be two possibilities. I have two more two or three more paragraphs here. >> I'll allow it. >> Uh, based on the information, there appears to be two possibilities. Either the request records exist but have not been properly maintained or produced, raising concerns about compliance with public records laws, or the records do not exist, which would raise concerns about the compliance with Massachusetts procurement requirements. While I recognize this matter could be referred externally, including the attorney general's office, I believe it's appropriate to first request that this committee conduct a formal transparent investigation. Specifically, I

007asked the school committee to review whether the proper procurement policies were followed, determine where any breakdowns may have occurred, and evaluate whether similar issues may exist in other contractual procurements. Thank you very much for your time. Actually, this is important sentence. Thank you for your time, your attention to this matter, and your continued service to the city of Greenfield. And I I know how services in this town, and I really do appreciate all of your service. >> Thank you. All right. Um, there are no other members of the public in person, but are there any members of the public online who would like to give public comment at this time? Um, if so, you can put your name in the chat, you can raise your virtual hand or you can even come off mute and

008say your name. Okay, seeing none, uh I think we will go ahead and move forward with item number four, report from the student representatives. Hello everybody. So for the month of May, student council on Wednesday, April Oh, sorry. For the month of April, uh on Wednesday, April 29th, the student council hosted the Western Ma western Massachusetts Association of Student Council Spring Conference with 18 schools and over 300 students in attendance. The conference was a huge success. May brings planning for mental health week in collaboration with many organizations at GHS. Events will happen during lunch and after school. all all of which are free for students. During teacher appreciation week, May 4th to May 8th, staff were treated to mocktails and muffins at the high school. Lastly, this month, the council will hold their end of

009year banquet on Wednesday, May 20th from 6:00 to 7:30. Key Club. Before spring break, several Key Club students walked to AAL and spent a few hours reading and playing with students. The Kowanis Club and the United Way donated a book to each AAL student called The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright. Athletics. All of the teams and their records and upcoming games are on Arbiter Sports if you are looking for those. French Club. 18 GHS students, staff, and families went on a 10-day trip to France during April break. The group marveled at the Eiffel Tower and imperson artists at the These are a lot of French words. I take French, too, so this is embarrassing. Um, they had an amazing trip is basically what they're saying. Yeah. To just summarize a little bit, student spotlight.

010Our own GHS senior Ash Bigalow participated in participated in the Academy of Music Regional Youth Poetry Slam on Friday, April 3rd, and won third place with a cash prize. In performing her original poems, Ash showed great vulnerability, courage, and strength and was an inspiration for all that attended that evening. Library club. On May 6th, the library club had game night. And on May 20th, uh, high school teacher Miss Ool Miss Oolir will give a hands-on tutorial of how to create realistic scary stage makeup. Band. May is a busy month for the GHS band. On May 8th, the band participated in the annual performance at the Great East Museum Festival. On May 14th, they will have their combined GHS and GMS spring band concert at 7 PM in the GHS auditorium. The GHS concert in concert

011band and jazz band will be performing as well as all GM GMS concert bands and small groups and they will also be performing at the Memorial Day parade and graduation as well. Spectrum. On Saturday, April 18th, Spectrum went to Pride Prom hosted by Franklin County Pride. This event was one of the group's favorites from last year and provided fun new memories for the group. During the first week of May, Spectrum partnered with the student council for mental health week. Uh, trivia team. Our as school match wits episode aired on April 11th and we congratulate our our uh our seniors Zach Liry Ev and Zach Oarsski. Sorry that was a misprint. Evie F and April Rooney Adams. All three were strong in their trivia knowledge and fun to be with. We have Gabe L returning and

012two newer members, Henry A and Esther B. Mosaic Club. On April 11th, the April 10th, I believe, the club hosted a successful first annual dodgeball tournament uh fundraiser with four adult teams and six student teams participating. The club will continue to meet with Matt Allen uh monthly and have an endofear bonding activity/cookout. And that is all I have. Thank you so much. Any questions, comments from members? >> Great. >> No, really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right. And um at this time uh I'd like to invite up our our guest uh for a presentation about electric vehicle charging uh from Fulcrrim Energy Solutions >> if I may. >> Yes. Thank thank you chair u come on up Kendra. This is Kendra Rosa from Fulcrrim Energy Solutions and going to give us a quick

013overview on some an option for us maybe for our city and for our schools. There are grants that are available out there that um allow the potential to have, get this, um free, you know, isn't that always great, right? When you're in any type of municipal government, um charging stations at public facilities. She'll get into some of the details there. So, um you know, I had heard of this. Kendra and I been speaking since the winter. She came out with one of her I don't know if it's an engineer or somebody. Um visited all of our schools, looked at their electrical panels with our own facilities director. I stopped in at a couple of them as well too. Um we've sent you all the proposals that you see you have in the folder for May

01413th for electrical vehicle present presentations. And obviously if you have any questions, she's the pro um to answer that. So if you can give us a little overview on some of this, we'd appreciate it. Thank you, Kendra. There we go. Okay. So, um, yes, my name is Kendra Rosa. I'm with Folk Energy Solutions. We are a service disabled veteranowned small business out of South Coast, Massachusetts. And we are a, um, expert in turnkey design build energy efficiency projects. Oh, is it too far away? Sorry. Is that better? Even more. Okay. I'll talk a little bit louder maybe. Okay. Um, so yeah, so I met Roland actually through um he had been working somewhere else at the time and he remembered we were working um in that town as well and he reached out to us

015to come out and see some of the sites uh specifically uh the school district here. So we looked at six of the schools, the Academy Early Learning, the Discovery School, Federal Street Elementary, Middle School, High School, Newton Elementary. Um, and we discussed some of the viable options depending on what the power was available at each individual site. Um, some of them were a little bit more tricky than others. Uh, spec specifically trying to get, you know, the cost to be as low as possible. um you know trenching costs are uh typically what ends up being the most. So we were trying to keep the chargers as close to those power services as possible. Um there was the um the academy learning that one was one of the older buildings but we were able to find

016a solution there where we would do some trenching um right just across the the parking lot there into um the little turnkey. Um, sorry. I'm not sure if there's a specific location that you want to talk about. Uh, but I can start with the high school for instance where we actually proposed two of two separate locations where we were able to uh for the front parking lot and the athletic field since the athletic field already had the power in the that um shed. I suppose uh we were able to eliminate a lot of the trenching cost in that. And if we if you were up for it, we could actually do two stations at the high school lot and still keep that under the $50,000 cap for the mass evip grant. Uh so still at

017a zero out-of- pocket cost for uh you the customer, the school district. Um we're looking at at least 14 ports throughout the whole district. It would be uh two ports at each location. We do again other than the high school which would have two ports in the front and two ports in the back. Um I know you guys are also using that lot. There's a lot of a lot of stuff going on whether it's um events and you have the the field in the back. So um that could be uh a viable position. Um and I know that Greenfield is already a very strong uh reputation around sustainability. So it's it this feels like it could be an extension to that for the infrastructure and future proofing for um your school district. Um, so if

018you have any questions about the funding specifically, there's the Mass EVIP grant. Miss Melanie, >> Kendra, could you talk about Yeah. the grant itself, what it how much it is and obviously after the installation, what we would be responsible for. >> Sure. >> Would would it cost us money electric? Would we charge people that how somebody would use that? >> Sure. So for the Massachusetts EVIP grant for municipalityowned properties, it's 100% of the hardware and installation costs taken care of. So they they do they try to help as much as they can with that. Um if it was a non-government property, it would only be 80%. But since it's a government-owned property in the school district, you would get 100% of that. Now, there are some ineligible opportunities with that. Something like the software cost,

019the networking, um and ballards. Um because we were trying to keep this as a lowcost project for for the district, we decided to propose the Autel charger. Um which is a great charger. It's not charge point where uh charge point does have a significant software networking uh subscription cost where it would be an upfront cost per port to the customer for depending on the term of year that you would like. So you could do a one to fiveyear term. With Autel, they have a red e system where that software network cost is deferred to the driver itself. So the customer actually doesn't see that software cost at all. Um, but you can also they what ends up happening is that let's say you're charging 45 cents per kilowatt hour for a for a public to

020use the charger that they the oddel system would take maybe 5 cents of that and then you are remaining with the 40 uh the 40 cent revenue and that goes into an a account and you can distribute that revenue to paying off the additional electric bill uh electric bill that would be occurred from the demand on the the grid from the chargers themselves. Now, with that, there's utilization, right? So, the utilization of the chargers themselves, if they're not being utilized um as much as you would like, there is still a bit of an um an idle fee, but that could be as little as $5, a dollar a month, excuse me. Um up to $60 a month depending on the actual power of the charger. Where these are only 50 amp chargers, they're not really

021pulling as much power for them just to be sitting and being connected to the Wi-Fi. But um that would be a cost toward to to you guys. >> Is that 1 to 60 per port? >> Um correct. >> Okay. Per month. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. I've got Melon then Jenny. >> So I think of all the charging the stations like and I know nothing. to somehow maintain if somebody uses it the billing of it. Is that the way I'm understanding what you're saying? So, would we be technically charging somebody to use it? Um, or is there an app like a parking app that they they pay for or is that a choice? >> So, for the EV drivers, there there's apps that everybody has that they would be >> down. Mine's not blinking.

022>> Oh, wait. Now this one's back on. >> This isn't blinking. >> This one This one's back on. Okay. Um, so for the EV for the EV drivers, they all have these apps and maps that will locate uh the individual chargers for them. And then they have specific accounts within those apps that allow them that sets their credit card up to it. So they would just, you know, swipe their card or, you know, hold their phone up to the the charger itself for them to activate the charger. And then what you do as the customer is that you set however much uh kilowatt hour you would like to charge them and then that would re uh that would create the the revenue. So it's sort of like going to the gas station. You know you're

023you're paying somebody for the gas >> but you're supplying the power. >> Okay. >> So this sounds wonderful. We get a lot of asks for where the chargers are. >> Sure. >> Um I have a question about the actual obtaining of the grant. Then does you your company will do all the paperwork that's associated >> with that. Okay. >> Yep. We will take care of all of that on behalf of the the district for you. So you wouldn't have to see any of that. you would be a part of that um email thread specifically or whoever will be the admin who will kind of be maintaining the the project throughout. So I don't know if that would be Roland or um somebody else within the district but we would have uh complete transparency between us,

024you and the mass department where we would just fill out the application for you. They will come back with questions. We answer them and then unfortunately that does take some time. it can take up to six months for the EVIP approval to go through. Uh but we are on top of that uh constantly. So, >> okay. Thank you very much. >> Remember to leave. >> Thank you for coming. I am an EV user, so I'm tooling around town and plugging in all over the place. And um I have a couple questions and also just a couple comments as an EV user in this town. I think it's a great idea. Um, I'd be really interested in us exploring. I don't know if it's within our purview as the committee, but I'd love to find out

025about the cost that we would charge the EV users because Greenfield charges more than any other cities around. I don't know if y'all know that, but it's like incredibly high comp. It's way cheaper to charge anywhere else. >> Um, and there aren't that many chargers around. Um, sometimes you got to check that app and you got to see if someone's on it and like there's like the secret one in GCC that everybody like hides out and waits for. So like I know where they all are. Um, so I guess my that's just my comment about that. Like I'd like to talk about like the possible revenue and how that would be calculated. >> But my question is what is the total upfront cost for the district? Like what even with the grant like what would

026we be putting out? And then also what happens to the charger if we sell the building? Let's say let's say we close a school. I'm not saying we are, but if we did and the building is no longer a municipal building and reverts to a private building, how does that work? Would that charger then revert to that owner? Would we have to remove it? Like what's the process of that? >> That's a great question. Excuse me. Um I will look into a little bit more of that because I've never actually had that question before. um that I don't think many people assume that their building is going to be sold. So um I will get back to you guys with that. Um I can imagine that because it's ti well for the grant purposes it's

027tied to the address itself. So then I would assume that it would stay with the building. Um so you yeah because there are different mass programs where there's the public versus the private. Um, and that really just defers to the um the incentive amount. So, if we if it's p if it's already public and the grant has already been approved and we've already installed it, then there's um there's not really a stipulation where it's like in three years from now, uh the building becomes a private building. Um so now that that charger remains public to the public. Yeah. Um, and then to your note on the pricing, a great way is to really just kind of look up what the local like what surrounding towns are charging. Um, right now we're finding in this specific

028area roughly about 45 cents a kilowatt as an average. Um, I've seen as high as a dollar in some places, which is really absurd. it it you kind of want to base it off of what like home uh kilowatt charges are being charged to homeowners and you know bumping it up a little bit. Um >> what's the I'm sorry. What's the name of the the charging app that we'd all be using? >> It would be Red E. >> Red E. >> Yeah. Autel with red E. >> Like re D. >> Yep. Red and then letter E. Correct. And that would be the name of the app. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just find it it's just something to to think about because like charge points are great, but we have a lot of chargers around

029here that aren't charge point and that there's like a mystery charger at Big W that no one even knows who it's connected to and like you can't there's like 50 like Tesla ones at the at the RMV that no one can access. Like there's a lot of chargers around here that are just not accessible. >> Interesting. >> Or not connected or you can't get the app for it. >> Okay. >> So, >> Yeah. I don't know if you all knew that, but it's >> Oh, the in uh the Gil. >> Oh, yeah. So, um Roland actually sent me an interesting article um from the town of Gil that >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. that they that they're decommissioning their chargers because they're not having enough utilization to create revenue to maintain and operate those chargers,

030but they're also those are charge point chargers that happen to be with that extra software network um which is part of what's killing the um that charger because they're not creating revenue to offset that subscription service. So with this Autel and Red E like I said before that that char that um charge gets deferred to the driver. So you wouldn't there would be no maintenance costs in the software program. >> That sounds great. Thank you. >> Great. I had a question from member child's and then I've got another question as well. >> Okay. Comment and question. First comment. Um in theory I'm definitely in favor of this especially if we are not paying for it. Um, I do wonder about how wise it would be to put in chargers at some of our schools where

031the parking is already really tight though because I'm thinking the preschool AEL's parking situation is so tight that if we have non-school community coming to park there then I mean that street is a mess at pickup anyways. So I think we'd need to possibly consider not putting at every building after taking the parking situation into account. But then my question is, so say EVs just continue to become more and more and more prevalent and we need to scale upwards, how uh hard would it be to add on? It would it be the same as starting from zero if we needed to add more chargers or would this be a foot in the door and help defay costs for adding more? >> Great question. That does that does kind of uh depend on each individual site.

032So something like the AAL where it is a little bit of an older building, there is not much power available. That would most likely be something that would you would probably have to start from scratch whether that's getting a new service involved or um you know a new pole. Um again that location is tight and with the mass evip grant uh requirement is an ADA compliant parking spot which we did um which is within the proposal we designed within that. Um, but for something like the high school where it does have a lot of power, that's the foot in the door. You already have the infrastructure built for the EV chargers um, as you go on. So, it would be a lot easier in some of the newer buildings, but um, having one charger is

033better than having no chargers to continue for future proofing. >> You're welcome. Um, in a a bit of a related but slightly different vein, um, I can imagine that there might be parents who watch this now or later who would be concerned about folks coming onto our school campuses. Yes. Are there ways that we could limit available hours for these machines so that they're not happening when when kids are there? Um, >> yes, that is that is correct. Yes, within the software program itself, um, whoever manages that will be able to, uh, kind of turn it on and off. It never really goes off, but it becomes, um, inaccessible toward to, uh, within those certain hours for specifically school hours. We get that a lot, specifically with school districts, which is a concern, I can

034imagine. Um, I wouldn't want that for my own children. So, um, but there those are manageable. They're all customizable within within the networking software. >> Yeah. Other questions? >> Question. >> Yes. >> I kind of want to just piggy back off what Ann said. Can we do some schools with the grant and not all of the schools and then later on down the road in five years we say, "Hey, this is really working out good for us. We'd now like to add a charging station at AEL. Can we reapply for that grant or is this like a one and done like?" >> Yeah. So, the good thing about um the grant itself, it's tied to each individual address. So, each so if we decided to do only four out of the the six locations, uh

035you can apply to those on its own and then if you do decide to go back, um you wouldn't have you would be able to start that application from scratch. >> Thank you. I guess my other question is kind of more for Jenny to look into that we don't technically own the school buildings. So we would probably need some city side stuff to go along with it. >> That's a good question about who actually gives final approval for these sorts of decisions. >> So I talked with our energy director Carol Collins about this today. Um you know we're definitely in favor of having more charges. This sounds like something she'd be happy to work together with you. I just had emailed Roland prior to the just about an hour before this meeting. So, I'm sure

036that he hasn't had time to see that, but um it came up late in the day for me, but we you know, I'd be more than happy to work with you. >> Sure. Yeah. Um we would need a W9. That's really what the uh the application would require from whoever owns the the building on the address. So, if it's a separate from the school district, that that's fine, too, because again, it's tied to the address, not specifically to the school district. The school district just happens to be the one that makes the decision on where it goes. >> Yes, remember that. Uh in the future, if uh one of our buildings were to install solar panels, would these be fairly universally compatible with local solar being able to charge directly instead of going to the

037grid or how does that work? Um I they should be as long as you're tying the chargers into that same electrical uh panel uh if you will or um it depends on I guess where the the solar panels are are being uh installed. Um but I I can get back to you on some more detail in that because that's a great question. Um I haven't had that one either. So >> yes. >> Yeah. And I I think we just wanted to bring it in front of you um tonight as an option in life, right? Um I think as Kendra mentioned to and we've talked about this, the city of Greenfield has done a lot with sustainability, right? Trying to cut down on waste and save energy in life. Um I'm not an expert. Thank go

038goodness we have member Deniv here who knows a lot about vehicles, but there there's no doubt I see electrical vehicles. They're coming. Um, you can turn them on and off. I think I' and we've heard that in other communities, too, about not having um non I'll say strangers, just strangers on school property, right? You could open it up to your staff during the day and then at blank o'clock certain time could be open and it doesn't have to be, as she mentioned, an all ornone. You, right, the committee or the city can pick and choose, but you have some pretty nice locations. You're really at the crossroads of Route Two, right in 91. Newton's pretty close, easy off the highway, right? Discovery, that upper lot we've talked about potentially, right? Would be really right off

039of Route Two. Some the middle school right on the main quarter, Federal Street. So, the high school just with the activity. So, there's some options. Um, I'm not saying I'm pro or con for it. I'm pro looking into it, right? And something that's free is is no doubt hard to pass up in that sense if it serves the community. >> Thank you. um long-term maintenance. Who's responsible if something breaks? >> So, there is a three-year m um manufacturer's warranty on the Autel chargers themselves. And then um Fulcrum offers a one-year um warranty on top of that as well for any um technical and maintenance on that aspect. But in the long run, it it does become it's it's owned by the school district. Thank you. Yes, member. And then I think Yeah. >> I mean,

040is there a way to talk to other school districts who've done this or do you have any names you could give to our superintendent? And does I'm curious about how much time and energy it takes an employee of the school district to manage um the whole or is it going to be an employee of the school district or is it going to be an employee of the city? I don't know. But still the time you know that you're going to pay somebody to do the management key piece. >> Yeah, we do offer uh training uh after install as well to to help with that. Um and it does depend on um who you decide is going to be the admin uh that takes care of that. But I can absolutely get you some references from

041uh similar situations and similar school committees and things. Absolutely. >> Great. Okay. Member Deniv, >> are these level two chargers or >> They are level two chargers. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Unfortunately, there is no DC fast charging incentives and it is thousands and thousands of dollars more to put those in. But um it also uh level two chargers compared to the DC fast I'm sure everybody knows the the DC fast they take minimal amount of time to charge where uh the level twos take maybe two to four hours depending on actual the type of EV ch car that you're driving. So it really kind of depends on the type of car that you're driving as well. >> Great. Okay. Unless there are no burning questions. It sounds like you've got some information that you're going

042to come back to us with. Um, we're not obviously not taking a vote on this right now. Um, we'll probably bring it up again next month. Um, if you have questions that come up between now and then, please send them to Roland so Roland can send them to Kendra. Um, and we can get some answers for folks. But thank you for having appreciated having you. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um, moving on to reports of the administration. Did folks have a chance to read through the reports? Do members have any questions? Comments, concerns, not a single one. It's okay if we don't, but if you got one, >> I can have one for Stephen. Um, I noticed that the April I guess it's more of a comment. The April vacation was lower than

043the February. Is this the first year doing the April and the February? >> We did both last year as well. And April was a little smaller last year as well. Yes, member Deniv. >> Mr. Joy, am I not seeing this correctly? We have the yonder cell phone report is just the policy. >> No. >> Oh, you're going to talk about it. Okay. Because I didn't see it in the thing. Okay, never mind. Erase. Erase. >> All right. Any other questions though specifically for uh Mr. Pette or Mr. Sullivan. >> All right, seeing none, Roland, do you have the floor? >> Thank you. >> There we go. Thank you. Uh, just a quick one on the U school enrollment. We have 1345 students. That is down four from the month before in April from 1349. On

044that, I would like to congratulate our bands. had a great showing last week at the Great East Festival. The Greenfield High School band earned a gold medal at the Great East Festival at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield on May 8th. And also our middle school band performed and earned a s silver medal at the festival. After the festival, all the students had went to the annual band trip at Six Flags New England. Like to thank all the teachers and chaperones who worked hard and the band directors for all their hard work. They've done a great program and as mentioned in our student report, there are many more concerts. Sometimes there are some there's big ones obviously at night and there are also some school ones coming up for the end of the school year.

045So, thanks for everybody who participated and did a great job on that. Um, you've asked for and I have a yonder pouch update. So, the cover page or the it's if you scroll down, you should see lots of pages on that PDF. So it's not just it starts with just giving you the cell phone policy and then after that there is a a memo from Miss Fenomore the principal at the middle school then the middle school policy and protocols for what they do and then a email from the high school principal Mr. Browning and cell phone pouch um procedures for that. So, we currently use Yonder. Those Yonder pouches, you may have seen them. Uh, they're a little bigger than a cell phone. They cost $30 each to buy those. They're closed with a magnet,

046a pretty strong magnet. The students would carry those pouches with them. At the middle school, they go in in the morning, they put their phones in the pouch, go by um it's on the wall if it happens to be at the wall of the middle school. at the high school, they put it on a rolling cart, lock it, pouch stays in there until the end of the day when they go uh the middle school, if you as you can see by Miss Fenomore's um memo, and I I worked there for a little while, so I can tell you that they religiously do that there at the middle school and every student has one at the beginning of the year. Do what I actually meant meant to you or mentioned to you. And if they don't

047have it, and obviously sometimes they get discovered by mistake most of the time, right? The phone goes off. Um, somebody drops one out of their backpack or something like that. You can see the protocols that the schools follow that are in the handbook there. First offenses, second offenses, third offenses. At the high school, I spoke with Mr. Brownie and he obviously has an email in there to you as well where they're doing that. They do have yonder pouches available for the students at the high school. They're generally an off and away policy. So they may I guess I would say to you they don't have every single person using the yonder pouch walking through the door. So we're not sitting here and trying to lie to you and tell you they're all using them because

048they're not. Uh but if this if they're off and away, they've they've gotten they've gotten to the same result of having phones away. If students bring their phones out again, you'll see their protocol for dealing with them, taking them, giving them back, sometimes having a parent come in, having students serve, different consequences for that. Um, there is there has been just and you may have seen this recently in the news. Um, I just sent it to our and want to acknowledge our incoming superintendent, Superintendent Cruiser, who is here uh checking this meeting out tonight, and I was trying to keep her away, telling her she's going to have plenty of these to come to, but she's a glutton there. in that sense. But I I have we have been including her in some emails and

049keeping her up to date on things. My point being there is some money available via the state wanting to keep phones off and away and from different yonder is obviously one way to do it. There's some different devices that can do it too. So we are looking in that. She and I talked about that earlier this evening. Um, I'm not sure. I I probably can answer some questions if you have any questions. And if I can't, I can get you answers from the schools. And if it wasn't enough, I can get more. >> Member Den, >> I I was here for when we adopted Yonder and the initial cost was $16,000 and then it was 12,000 a year. So, are we still doing are we still doing that? the the only pri purchase price for

050yonder is if you buy the materials. So there's no cost of like subscription or anything like that. It's if we need new pouches. So the middle school I was talking with Miss Fenomore this year they will collect try to collect the pouches from the students at the end of the school year hold them reissue them. Last year right they have over 300 students. Um if you right at $30 each you can do the math. They can be pretty expensive. You're not they're not buying and giving everybody everybody new ones every year in the future. >> I mean, I don't have like any horse in the race on this really. Like, I've already said my piece in the past about it. I guess I'm just That's wild because we've we were told that it was $12,000

051a year was the cost of the contract for the Yonder pouches. So, that's why I kind of wanted to have an update because I was like, well, we haven't heard for three years if we're still doing that. Are we still paying that? Like, how is that going? like just to check up on it. But then when we were at the Yellow conference, um all the high school students were like, "Oh yeah, no, there isn't even a the magnetic locks like aren't even out anymore." So like we're not even doing that. So I sort of just wanted like just touch base and just see like what's the overall picture look like? How is it going? Is it do we feel like what we're doing is effective? Do you guys like the direction that it's going? Do

052we pay $12,000 a year um or not? So, so we do not pay a subscription fee. Okay. >> At all for yonder. We do pay if we need new pouches. >> Yes. Right. $30 a pouch. >> Um the high school I was I called the other day to touch base and I couldn't get Mr. Browning the other day in the afternoon ended up talking to one of the secretaries to reaffirm that in the front hallway and at the back whether or not the students use them. I'm not disputing that, but that they do bring out the magnets every day for those who do use them. So some of the students may walk by and they may tell you we don't use it. Some others do use them. Not as whole scale as I would say

053the middle school. I would almost point blank say everybody is using it there almost. Right. I'm sure some and the students are getting sly right and slick. Sometimes they say they don't have a phone. Sometimes they'll put an old dead phone in there so that there's something in there. So there's there's ways around it, right? And yeah, we're not naive to what's going on either. >> I watched them open them on the bus. They There's ways. >> Oh, really? Okay. >> Oh, yeah. Easy pie. >> All right. Uh, member Dman and then member Webb. >> Is there a replacement fee for the students families if the pouch is lost or broken? >> No. >> Okay. Um that would be a possible consequence and that's what we do in the school where I teach. >> Okay.

054>> Um as member Deni points out there are ways of breaking these pouches. There are ways of hacking them so they don't really do what they're supposed to do. Um and we've seen several students at the school where I work. They just smash them u and then they stop because it's a way of getting it open. Okay. Right. and and then you can do that a few times and then eventually it just breaks and I can see a situation where without any consequence to that that could be pretty rampant. Um >> and then my other question is uh it sounds like you're saying that at the high school we're on an honor system. The the students what motivation is there for the students at the high school to lock up their phone? Is there any

055>> dealing with these consequences? Yeah. got member Webb and then member Goodwin. >> Um, I have a question. What did we spend last year on yonder pouches? And while you're looking, do you have that in front of you? >> I do. >> Okay, go for it. >> I would never anticipated that one, right? >> Never. Ever. >> In FY25, >> Yep. The district paid 18,120 that was for GHS and GMS paid for by ESSER money. >> Okay. >> And in I give you another one. In FY26, this current year, the district paid $9,993 for the middle school paid for from a fair share earmark. Um, I kind of am going to an answer member Dyman's question unintentionally. At the middle school, they give your child a yonder pouch whether or not they have a phone.

056My child does not have a phone. She has attempted to give back her yonder pouch and they refuse to take it even though I have two yonder pouches sitting upstairs in her bedroom unused. Um, I've also found yonder pouches and other places, you know, like member Den said, on the bus, and it does sound like the high school is using the honor system, which seems to be working for them, which I'm going to get go on a limb here and say it's working because at the younger level, we are using the honor pouches, so they're used to having to tuck them away. Um, but there are ways around >> improving the system. I'll check on that. >> Yeah. I mean, I'm just I'm just, you know, if we're we want to have a conversation about,

057well, we should charge families for these yonder pouches, then we shouldn't be giving them to families that don't need them. >> Yeah. Point well taken. >> All right. Got member Goodwin and then myself. With the current trend to outlaw cell phones in schools, are there grants to cover now um yonder pouches? And I guess I would want to know what those consequences are. I think families need to know. Um cell phones have become part of life. Um what are the current disciplinary So I have my cell phone out at the high school and I'm texting somebody somebody what happens? >> It's all in the report right in front of here. >> So at the high school, first offense is confiscation. Cell phone found in use or out. Admin will retrieve and contact home. Second time,

058confiscation, admin will retrieve and contact the home. Uh parent or guardian will have to come and pick up the phone. The student will receive an afterchool detention. Third offense taken away as well. Starts to become a major infraction. Parent or guardian must attend a parent meeting. Student will receive an afterchool detention. Fourth offenses, cell phone obviously taken away. Parent must attend a parent meeting. Student will receive after school detention. So those are listed up on the all the documents here that we have. >> Thank you. But I wanted it read out loud for the people listening. >> Okay. I apologize. because >> I think a lot of people in our community um their children have cell phones but they're not aware of what the consequences are when they get caught in school right for cell

059phones. And I think as somebody who's made a lot of phone calls to parents about your child has a cell phone today, even in kindergarten >> that yes, >> kindergarten >> um that they don't think it's a big deal um because it's just part of their lives. So I think the consequences should be very public about what's something that is important for our schools. >> Okay. I've got myself and then member Den. Um I have just some questions about like the more of the cultural impact of really trying to enforce keeping cell phones out of the classroom um on our kids and on the teaching and learning process. And do we have any either anecdotal data or even data when it comes to discipline or data when it comes to student scores or achievement um

060anything like that that says yes this is we're on the right track. We're doing the right stuff. We are making good headway with the goals that we had when we set this program up in the first place. Um and just sort of yeah curious what is the broader impact beyond are we implementing or not. Um, and then this this question I'm just going to have to put it out here. Um, when new legislation takes effect, what is the applicability of these policies to our staff in addition to our students? I have heard from some of our high school students that there is a sense of frustration when they see their their educators also on devices during class time. Um I'm not trying to attack any of our staff. They do wonderful work and wondering where

061where we can help our educators lead by example as well. >> Yeah. As for that last comment there, um I haven't read all the legislation, so I'm not sure if it pertains only to students or staff. So once that comes out, we would then know and deal with it appropriately, right? If it included everybody. Um but there's no doubt that the students raise those questions, right? They raise those questions all the time about a staff member having a cup of coffee, right, on their desk and they can't have something in their classroom. And and there are differences in life at times. Um but sometimes there is role modeling as well too right and modeling. So what depending on what the law said right we obviously would follow that and if it didn't say that there

062could be some discussions had about you know being a role model and doing those types of things but there are also discussions that we have with students saying there are differences in life too between students and adults and people who've already gone to college and done their time and learned in school while they're learning. I would hope a teacher doesn't have it out all the time. I say hope, right? Um, in that sense, um, in terms of the data, right? Um, I I haven't studied it, so I can't speak to about recent studies right now. Anecdotally, yes, teachers would tell you anecdotally that, yeah, when people when students don't have their phone underneath their desk like this looking at it or trying to text somebody or receive a text from their parent, um, they're paying

063more attention to school. It's pretty obvious in that sense, right? We understand the need for parents to get in touch with their students. Uh we have people at the phones all the time in their school. If there are ever any emergencies, parents can I'm telling you, they can never say they can't reach their student. Never. They somebody will always get a message to their child in that sense. Um, emergency responders will tell you should something happen, right? In our schools, they would rather have our students not be on their phones jamming the airwaves, right, and texting and sending false messages. Those are things that we practice when we do lockdown drills, which we're very for, we just did some recently. Great cooperation by emergency service providers, right? our local police department here in Greenfield, the

064Franklin County Sheriff's Department, the Mass State Police were in went through all of our schools just last week for drills. Uh they don't want 1300 phones binging this area. You'd never get through and get anything done in that sense. So there there's no doubt that there's ways to improve it and depending on how far of an edict and enforcement people want, right? Um discipline procedures, right? I read those for me remember good one right some people might say that's not enough detention parent has to come in well it's pretty big inconvenience for a parent to come in and and I will tell you that life has changed since I was a vice principal in the 90s when we handed out suspensions like candy and students were kept out of school for long periods of time

065for things right um and I do think that sometimes that's a frustration what we hear from our educators that there's not enough consequences, not just for phones here. I'm kind of broadening the scope for one second. Um, but there's a there's a give and take, too. I think maybe at times we had overdone it for some small things and kept students out for too long of times. So, we have to weigh all those laws that we have from the Department of Ed right now, Ian, that get passed through the legislature. So, I think our teachers are working hard to keep phones off and away and out of the classrooms because there's no doubt they're distraction. We're not denying none of us are naive enough to think that a student may not get a pass to

066the bathroom and stop by their locker for a second if it's not in the yonder pouch quickly look or something like that. But the key what you're really looking for and I think one of you mentioned the honor system is in the classrooms. We want them off and away and in out. So there's many ways to do it. Right. >> Right. I remember Den. >> I'm really thankful that we're even having the conversation about making adjustments because when when the honor pouch came about, it was basically like this is just what we're doing. The superintendent signed the contract without even bringing it forward to the school committee. It just happened. Um, and I am one of those people who do not believe that a ban is a plan. And so I'm always pushing for uh

067digital citizenship courses. Um, but historically here in the committee when this came about, we had or attempted to have a robust discussion about why can't we just put it in a bin or why can't people just drop their phones and shoe holders or whatever. Everybody had all these great ideas that other districts were using. >> Um, but that was a non-starter with our superintendent at the time. She did not want to have that conversation. Um, so confiscation, any kind of act of the district holding on to a student's phone was just never going to happen. And so here I'm seeing that like we can confiscate them, which is making me think that is the conversation really open? like are there other things we can do besides the honor pouch that maybe would be cheaper uh

068faster more effective? That's just >> my thought process because we couldn't even have this conversation before. >> And then of course I'm always going to continue to push for that digital citizenship teaching because they may know how to navigate social media, but they don't necessarily know how to use their phone as a tool. And so like for my teen girl scout troop, those kids learn to buy like train tickets on the phone to like figure out reservations, like read the maps, like figure out how all these things work. And that's something that you'd be surprised that they don't know. They just don't know that because they're used to just using it as like a fun chat tool or, you know, just surfing the net. So >> I sound old saying surfing the net, but truly

069like there's this whole you can run a business on your phone. like I don't want them to not be able to do those things because that's what they're going to have to do. And at the at Yellow, they all said like we want a digital citizenship course that's mandatory. Like we want to leave this school knowing how to properly use this technology to enrich our lives and have a balance so that we know when to put it down, when to not have it out, how to learn without it, but also how to harness it. So, I'm glad we're having the conversation and I hope we can move towards maybe not the pouch and more of an easier, cheaper alternative. >> Yep. >> Great. >> All right. All right, member David. >> I just wanted to

070make a comment as uh from the perspective of a teacher, a classroom teacher uh in a I work in a school that went with yonder pouches starting last year and the difference has been incredible. Um and my perspective is not very long. Last year was also my first year at the school, but looking at the difference in school culture and everything from the beginning of last year when students were still addicted to their phones and used to having them out all the time to now um the the difference has been huge. So, one way or another, um, the state's position on this is based on teachers experiences and no phones in schools is it we have to we we can't have students constantly distracted while they're supposed to be studying is too disruptive for everything.

071So, um, I I love the idea of teaching students how to be better digital citizens as well. Um, but I fully support the ban as a as a teacher and thank you for keeping up with this issue and um, you know, maintaining a commitment to keeping them off and away one way or another. >> All right, member. >> Is this something we should possibly also be looking into at an elementary level? Are we enforcing the no cell phone policies at that level? Uh I did not look into that for you because this was more yonder pouch type scenario but we can I have not heard so anecdotally right I have not heard that it's a problem at the elementary school levels but if it is and they tell me then we will have to start

072addressing it. >> Yeah I I just was you know like member Den said maybe at the elementary level we have a different maybe it's not the onaches it's the bin or the shoe rack holder put away type of thing. I can say I have seen cell phones fall out of kids pockets. >> Um, great. I actually just briefly had a question about the enrollment report. Um, do we know where those four kids went and why? >> Uh, I do not off the top of my head. I can find out where those four went for you. >> Thank you. I think that that's something in general as if if kids are going out of district, we want to know where and why. >> That'd be great. Thank you. >> I'll let you know, >> member Goodwin.

073>> This is more a question of process. Do we have a policy that bans cell phones or can we move towards that? >> I mean, we have, you know, we bought the yonder couches. We've invested a lot of money in trying to keep the cell phones out. And as somebody who has subbed at a high school not too long ago, um you spend all day as a teacher saying, "Put your cell phone away." And it's not just a cell phone. It's the ear. They're talking, making a call in their ears or on their watch or wherever it is. And or they're do or they have to do a tick tock in the middle of class. So there's so much of that that you know at least six times a class you're going to say put

074your cell phone away. And that's one of the the pieces that this really addresses. Um and I'm wondering if we can have a policy about that. >> So if I I can jump in and help you >> if you would like to. But I I have a I also have a response but I would never cut the chair off. >> It's all good. Um, one, I'm not sure if we need a policy if we have a law because law supersedes our policy. Um, second, to member Den's point, a blanket ban is not like that doesn't actually do anything for the in-class enforcement of that ban. So, um I think that from what I'm hearing, we've got a system in place and it's a matter of like fine-tuning as needed the system that we've got, but

075I'm not sure that introducing new policy for the sake of having the policy is is useful to us. Um, superintendent, would you add? >> Yes. In the materials you have tonight, I believe you should have the policy itself, JICJ, cell phone policy. It's pretty quick. I'll read it to you. In order for students to learn, they must be able to concentrate on the content of their instruction. The school committee recognizes that cell phones increase student distraction and encourage behaviors that make learning more difficult. Our schools will therefore not allow students to access cell phones during the school day. The administration is directed to design programs to enforce this restriction. Programs to curb cell phone use, like all of our school programs, will be based on evidence of effectiveness and will be evaluated regularly. Approved by

076the Greenfield School Committee, May 10, 2023, April 10, 2024. >> Does that answer your question? Member Goodwin does. >> Great. Any other questions before we move on? Last call. Seeing none, uh, thank you so much for getting that report to us and and, uh, being willing to share. Thank you to the members for all your questions. Um, we will move on to item seven, our consent agenda. At this time, are there any items that any member would wish to have removed from the consent agenda? >> I I think May 25th. No minutes yet. >> March. March March 25th. >> Okay. So, please strike from item A, March 25th's minutes. >> Okay. Have a good >> like to remove D. >> Okay. Uh removing item D, approving the renewal of the contract for the director of

077people services from the consent agenda. Um are there any other items that members would wish to consider separately? >> March 25th. Okay. Um, all right. So, I would be I make a motion to approve the consent agenda uh with the exception of item D. >> Seconded. >> I'll take a second from Jenny. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Any >> you are opposed to the approval of the consent agenda with the exception of item D? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so I've got one opposition, one nay I think six yays, so it passes. >> All right. Um, now we have item D. >> Could we have a quick point of order because we did not have a discussion before voting and perhaps member has a reason that would make us vote

078differently. >> That's a good point. Thank you so much. We're going to strike that. Try again. Um, we've got a motion. We've got a second. Is there any discussion on the approval of the consent agenda? Yes, member Deniv. So, this contract is coming up in public session. So, I don't really feel comfortable. I guess I'm wondering does it have to be in public session? like this is somebody's personal contract and I feel weird about it being picked out and then and then what like I looked it over I'm I was one of the ones who did the original contract so I don't see anything different with it so like I'm ready to go forward but I also really don't feel comfortable with having it like having somebody's personal contract being picked over in a public

079meeting and I'm wondering why this maybe isn't an executive session this contract That was my question. >> Is there a reason why we're not doing this in executive session? >> Um, no. No particular reason. That would be I'll take the hit on that one. My fault. Um, it was a re, it's a renewal contract. The gentleman has been employed three years. It was a recommendation. The school committee has to act on it. You're probably aware of special education directors. So, yes, we could if you wanted to move it into executive do that as well. >> Okay. All right. We probably need a vote to move this item into our executive session. Would that be accurate? All right. >> The the removal just happens by some member saying they would like it removed. It is removed.

080Um, and so at this time it is already separate and so I think we can vote on the consent agenda with the exception of that item and then have a separate vote where we would move that item into our executive session. Sound good? All right. So that being with all of that laid out, um, I'm making a motion to approve the consent agenda items A, B, C, and E as presented. >> So moved. >> Great. Motion second. Uh any discussion? All right. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes unanimously. Now, um a vote to move item D, the approval of the renewal of the contract for the director of people services into our executive session for later tonight. >> So moved. >> Great. Perfect. Uh Nan, I'm assuming you've got that. Uh

081any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all in favor? >> Oh, question. >> Yes. >> Um would it be like um the other thing we're doing executive session where we'll come back and then have the public vote after it? So, the discussion executive and then I'm looking at items 11 and 12 on our agenda. So, yes. >> Would it be pushed? >> Presumably. >> Okay. Just wanted that clear. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yes. Okay, thank you for that. Any other questions? Any other discussion? Okay. Um, all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Seeing none, passes unanimously. Um, all right. So, now we are moved to our school committee reports. Um, starting with the chair's report. So, I had um updated you all couple of months ago that the city council community relations

082subcommittee had a topic on their agenda related to internships for our students. Um so to that effect they invited me to their meeting uh April 27th I believe it was um to hear more about what they were thinking um and for me to provide sort of my like here's some of the considerations you actually need to be thinking about before you just have a proposal related um because there were lots of like they hadn't thought about the fact that they would be dealing with under 18s and that adds a whole layer of regulation and that they would maybe need to have mentoring plans and that they would have to have some pertinance to our academic IC uh you know endeavor here that that it needs to it can't just be they get free labor. It

083actually has to be meaningful for our students as well. So with that um I think that they're going to go back to the drawing board and see if this is something they're still interested in. I'm not sure that our students would have fit that what they actually need. um what they need is a communications intern and I'm not sure that our students are it for them right now given the additional regulation that it would take for them to actually accomplish the task. That being said, the conversation still on the table. I am in general a fan of internships with municipal government um to the extent that it is a a safe and supportive endeavor, you know, uh activity or endeavor for our kids. Um but that's sort of where we stand on that. Um, it

084was a good good conversation. Um, and I'm glad I'm glad that I was there to help them think think it through a little bit. Um, then I also had a conversation with one of the parents from our special education parent advisory council. Um, and they had a request that they wanted me to to bring to you all just to discuss and see if we would be open to it. um they're aware that they have a standing invitation to come and uh report with us and to talk about their programming, but they were wondering if we would be willing to periodically, not every month, but maybe every other month or, you know, a few times a year, uh send one of us to go attend their meetings. Um this would be a great chance for us

085to hear directly from our CPAC parents what's going on, what's happening in our special education programs, how they're actually experiencing them. Um, and just I think a more low stakes way to get get in front of our community. Um, so I so I promised them that I would bring it here and ask you all. So here we are. I'm bringing this up. Um, our options we can choose, you know, they can sort of talk tell us the month prior, hey, we want someone next month. Um, and we can choose an individual at that time or we can name a person and say you're the person, you're going to go every time. Uh that's sort of up to us how we would like to handle it. Does anyone have thoughts about that? Yes. Den, >> I

086think it would be wonderful if we could rotate this >> this labor um not because it's labor but because each person should have an opportunity to hear from these parents and to learn more about the special special education services in our district. And um I've been sort of really cognizant over the years of how sometimes one person or another will end up getting stuck with like all of the information and we are we don't do a great job of like disseminating it and keeping it um in one place for everyone to to learn from. I mean, now we are now we got the handbook going. Like, it's great, but you know, so I I'd like to see everybody get a chance to go just like everyone should get a chance to go to Hyannas and

087everyone should get a chance to sit in with the um PTO's and like be the different liaison to the different things so that you can learn, you know, everybody gets a chance to learn as part of our professional development. And also my question is, is it virtual? The meeting is >> okay. >> I've attended before. >> Okay. I haven't attended yet, so I don't didn't know. Okay. >> Yes. >> Um, one thing I did bring up to Roland's attention, which he brought it up to messain is that they do meet on the third Wednesday of every month this year. Um hopefully with us trying not to have conflicts with city council maybe they might sh I'm not speaking for them they might shift right now I know that I have been to them they're held

088at community action they do have child care for our CPAC families I know that when you go into an IP meeting or a 504 um you're also given information I have a flyer that got mailed to me that hangs at home that has a QR code that you can scan, which I'm happy to share to log on to their um meetings virtually. But they do have pizza and salad and child care and great energy over at the family center. >> Member Child, >> so I think our next step is finding out how frequently they want us and the anticipated dates they want us. And then I I'm definitely in agreement with Denive that we should rotate rather than appointing a single person. So my question is a little bit of an open meeting law question

089because I know we can schedule things over email. Would it an email like this is the date? Do we have a volunteer for the date? I guess we'd have to do that in a meeting because that's not just scheduling, that's choosing a person. I'm just thinking in terms of the most efficient, fastest way to get it set up and going. Becky could send a doodle poll, but it's more of the like would we vote to choose who is available based on doodle poll? I'm I'm trying to think like what part of it >> I think that they have set meetings every month and from what from what I understood of the conversation that I had uh with Crystal Clever, they they would know when they want us and so we might even be able to

090get a list of the dates for the year in advance and then just kind of slot ourselves in as as we have availability um and even do it maybe a vote in one fell swoop. Just you're going to go then, you're going to go then, that kind of a thing. That is what I'm in favor of. >> Great. And and if for whatever reason that doesn't end up working out, if that's not how it actually plays out, I think that I can specifically request that they give us when they want us at least like a month in advance so we can try to time it around our meeting schedule so that we can have a vote to designate go off, please go do um that kind of work. But I really appreciate folks willingness and

091interest. Um I think this is great. I was very excited by the possibility of sending folks I believe that they have their final meeting of the year next Wednesday 5 to 6:30 at community action. There will be pizza. There will be our incoming superintendent. Um and I think they also just launched a CPAC website that they made. So folks should check that out. um they do good work and I want to just really give a deep gratitude and appreciation for community action for volunteering their space and I believe they provide the food >> so and the child care I mean they're really they're really um expending a lot of resources to support some of our folks um and it's that kind of partnership that that makes makes this community what it is um and we're

092deep deep deeply grateful to them for their service and for their uh for their resources Okay. Um, this next item, um, I want to acknowledge that there was a human rights commission discussion, I believe either late April or early earlier this month, um, where there was there was a significant portion of their agenda dedicated to talking about the schools and racism that's been experienced by many students for many years in our schools. Um, this is an issue that has preceded I think this particular sitting of the school committee. Um, and we're I I'm not going to bring a particular motion right now, but I wanted to not let that conversation go unagnowledged or unnoticed. Um and I do think that uh as folks of conscience we have a responsibility when we hear that sort of

093thing to say yes okay we are hearing you and then deliberately and thoughtfully moving forward figure out what we're going to do about that because even though we might not have started it we might not be right now the individual cause um we have a responsibility to act and to live up to the mission of our schools, which is that we are a place where every student is supported on their path to success. And we mean every student. Um, I do think that this is a conversation that goes beyond our schools. This is a communitywide conversation. This is a western masswide conversation. This is a United States conversation. Um, and so, you know, I don't think that we're going to come up with anything that is so novel or unique that, you know, I don't

094think we're experiencing anything that hasn't been experienced by people all over um all over this country. Um, but that doesn't mean that we don't have a responsibility to act and it doesn't mean that we can't have good conversations and that doesn't mean we can't actually do things as we know what the things to do are. Um, so That's sort of what I wanted to say about that. Um, and just give it the time and acknowledgement that I think it deserves. Are there any questions, comments, um, or ideas for actual for tangible action? Yes, Jenny. So I watched that meeting and then I attended just the beginning of last Monday's human rights commission meeting and suggested that the members be in touch with the school committee about concerns because it had gone a little further and

095was they were talking about curriculum design etc. And I said the school committee is the the place for this and we all have big ears. I left after that. Erin stayed as the liaison, but I think they'll be following up here. Great. Member child, >> I think we can start by gathering information on, you know, if there are race related disciplinary incidents happening at the school, what kind of numbers we're having there, as well as something that's less hard data and more just conversations with students. I think we need to know exactly what is going on to figure out what we can do about it. And I look forward to hearing more about what kind of curriculum we have and what kind of blind spots can be fixed. But first, we have to dig in

096and find out these basic starting points. member Goodwin. >> I guess as a citizen, I was disturbed by some comments about our our staff because I know that it is very hard to hire people and we have worked hard to um the school district has worked incredibly hard to recruit people to our district. And there are charts if you want information about the diversity of staff on the Department of Education website and that is reported. Um and so some statements were were not accurate about um the staff in our buildings and I think that disturbed me because it sort of misrepresented who who our staff was and I guess I just took some if you have questions about that I mean and you don't have time to come here those are actual required state reports

097that are public information on a website. Um you can access that. So that that disturbed me as a citizen that um somebody perceived our schools um staff as as one race. Um that was disturbing. So I think I would wish that um if they had questions they would contact the superintendent or the school committee um to get accurate information. Thank you. Um, all right. I appreciate uh members uh acknowledging this with me and thinking about how we proceed. Um, I know that everyone on this committee is committed to the well-being and success of our entire community. Um, so we're gonna we're going to do what we can do. Uh, all right. Thank you. Moving on to our budget and finance subcommittee. child. >> Okay, you've got the report in front. Um, it was the meeting

098that was mostly warrants. Um, aside from the clearing up clarifications, the big question of our meeting on May 5th had to do with contracts and bids. Both the landscaping contract, which you've been hearing about, and the HVAC. So, part of it was, "Wow, we have sticker shock. Why is it expensive? Here are the answers for why it's expensive." And then the other part of the discussion was about the bidding process. Um because uh those of us on the subcommittee, we really wanted to know like because sometimes the bids will go through our business office, sometimes they'll go through city procurement, but there weren't like hard and fast lines for this is where it is this way, this is where it is another way. So that is some information that our subcommittee is seeking. And of

099of course you've heard about the landscaping in the previous uh contract. the information I have, and correct me if I'm wrong because I am capable of being wrong, um, was that both uh, the HVAC and landscaping contracts, because the HVAC was a big discussion, are on extension and due to go out to bid and, uh, the administration will be looking into and reporting back to us about if this bidding will be handled by the district business office or through city procurement. So, as of May 5th, we did not have the answer to that question yet. Um, something that we're very interested in is a standardized procedure both for when it will be done this way, when it will be done another way, and where we will find the bids afterwards. So far, the last thing

100that we heard at the meeting was that when the landscaping bid was done and it which was a few years ago prior to the extension that the city office did that, but that the person who used to be the procurement officer is no longer there and so we were just trying to find the information. That was the last I believe we heard. So, we're waiting for answers as well. Um, so yes, if you have more questions about the contracts, I could go into why the landscaping cost, why what it does, why HVAC does. Um, but there was one other item brought up uh loose end from a previous discussion. Um the uh subcommittee would like to ask the full committee to charge us with creating a transportation replacement schedule. And aside from that, our next

101meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 18th at 11:30, uh remote and in person, and it will be a budget update meeting. >> I actually have a question about that. So, um, since I have been here, just one time did we work together with a business manager that was on a capital project or maybe twice. Um, so in general, I guess maybe for the superintendent. Um, if you're doing procurement of something, doesn't that happen under the school? Or maybe that's for Andy. We I know that we worked together um on the energy recovery units, but your general practice for ju just so we can say it out loud for like if you're hiring somebody for or you know I guess purchasing cars maybe that's off the bid list but what have we done in the past

102>> either one of you >> um I can tell you that uh when the first landscaping contract came up I I did find and I know the discussion that occurred And I apologize. I wasn't at the subcommittee meeting. Um, but it was conducted by the then city procurement officer. She did I actually have a copy and it was I'm imagining quite honestly that the contract because she did everything by docuign. So I'm imagining that in a docuine account somewhere is the signed contract that whether whether the city procurement office has either her access to the docuign because I found in my email from then her name was Laura Phelps a notification that you know the docuign contract for the landscaping you know please sign that and would go through the docuign process of superintendent signing

103it me signing as business manager and her signing it as the one that conducted the bid itself. So not that understanding when people change anything but it is it was done by procurement uh the city procurement officer the regarding energy recovery units you had contracted out with our firm because you didn't have a procurement officer. So since I'm MCPO certified you asked for me to act and do the request for qualifications for the engineer firm. So we did that but we did that because in a sense I'm acting on behalf of the city not the school and then when it came time that then seems to be the rule of thumb has been for capital related projects because capital is a responsibility of the city the city procurement officer would handle that even if it

104was a capital project for the school when we did I the when we came in here and even regarding the leasing of the vans uh at the time that the the when they procured the vans. Laura Phelps took over doing that. When we actually looked at when COVID started and we were looking at air purifiers, Laura Phelps took over the that for the the schools for seeking out the air purifying contracts. when we were going to do the federal street elevators. Uh I had put together specifications for request for qualification for an engineers firm and then city engineer George Vanderlander told me that is that I for all intents and purposes was out of my responsibility and that it was the city's responsibility. And then we had the meeting regarding those energy recovery units where

105it was Laura Phelps, then city finance director Schindler, myself, uh, Marlo, the DPW director, and it was all agreed that the city was going to handle, you know, that being since it was a capital project and capital is a responsibility of the city operational related procurement, by all means, I'm willing to and will do that. But it seemed to be capital and then for some reason the landscaping because I know then I found the email from Alan Schmidt, a former former former school uh facilities director where he tried to go out and seek and do the quote solicitation bid process for the landscaping and then again Laura Phelps took that over. >> So I'm just I just want to say thank you for saying that. My understanding has been since I took over that really

106was the capital projects and I sort of assumed that for all operational that if there was a contract for something operational within the schools that the you would you would be doing that. Okay. So I I think it was important to bring that up because you were sitting here wondering what the answer was and I actually did not know that we had done the procurement on that to begin with and it does sound like it's past due or due again. So do you have anything else? >> It was it was as it currently under an extension that was done under the original contract that Miss Phelps did on behalf of the schools. Quite honestly, I am not sure why for whatever reason the landscaping was ultimately then taken over by her. You know, we got,

107you know, then Alan Schmidt at the time, you know, had an idea of what it is that he felt was needed regarding the landscaping services for all the buildings, you know, but again, she said that that is something that the city would take over. My understanding was that the time and I I'll try and see if I can find it in there was that it was coinciding when the city needed landscaping services as well. So whether or not that contract was part of a bigger procurement that she did on behalf of the city as a whole, but I do know, like I said, I found in here that there was reference from Laura Phelps uh issuing the request for proposals for the landscaping services awarding it to Snows and Suns and then a docuign process

108in which indeed then Superintendent Barge would sign it as a superintendent, I signed it as a business manager, she signed it as a procurement officer overseeing and issuing the contract. So for the rest of this when we're going to do it again, who's who's going to do that? Will you be take care of that? >> If if I would not if I very easily could do it if that is the wish of the administration and the committee. I just wanted to I actually I wanted to speak a little bit about it because when somebody here asking about it, I looked to see, you know, what had been spent and the city does spend a small amount. I think it was like5 or $6,000 that goes to that particular business. So maybe that was the reason

109why it was went that way. But um I would appreciate it if if you were doing that, if that was the role of the group. Thank you. member Goodwin and then member Den. >> So I think this question is for Andy. So there are things we purchase like yonder pouches that are over $10,000. So are we putting those things out to bid? And >> there are existing state contracts for things like that whether it's through MEC uh combis andor some of those things would be considered exempt from 30B. So when we put things out to bid, the bids are supposed to be kept for seven years. Where are they kept? So that is like the question. We've got people at city hall looking for things and I and I know about docuign, but would you

110keep the bids in docuign? >> Uh again, we didn't conduct those bids. Okay. >> So you know that that's a thing where and not speaking of those gone before us. I don't know why. So I would like to think that somewhere in the city procurement office there is a file of existing contracts and existing bid documents. >> So in our schools, >> yes, we do have a file cabinet with all our bids, contracts for the contract and operations and contracts and bidding that we do. >> And it's the business office. This is I'm getting as logistical as I can for people because there's questions and you're actually of all the people in this room have dealt with our district the longest besides me. But what I'm saying is when it comes to us, you know,

111the state says we're supposed to be keeping these documents for seven years, the question is where are they? When somebody does a record request and we can't find the documents, it's it raises questions of transparency and everything else in our in our city. So um there's a file cabinet and okay I'm making >> yes there's and also we also file cabinet >> we also have I mean there you know if you were to ask >> a picture of it >> no I know there's a you know for the active contracts it's in the business office but then we do have and I'm going to say the archives there there's a bunch of filing cabinets where there would be potentially old contracts that we have quite honestly I'll say just no different than other schools we

112seem to keep them even longer longer than the seven years for the ones that we are required to do. So, >> but it has all the bids in >> it has absolutely all the bids and everything. Correct. >> Thank you so much. >> Member Denise. >> So, it sounds like going forward we need to have all of the doc all of the documents, the contracts and the bids digitized and put on the website probably in the same place that the warrants are at so that the public can look at them. And this would solve a problem that has plagued for many years when we all raise our hands and are like, "Do we have to go out to bid and what are the rules around that?" I'd love your idea of a standardized procedure. I

113think that maybe that should have happened a long time ago. Um, so I'd love to see that right next to the warrants, right next to all of that material so that we can be educated about that process. Um, I am a little I have feelings about y'all wanting to create a vehicle replacement schedule because you're not the transportation coordinator and that's a job for the transportation coordinator and I believe the superintendent and the business manager to work on. Like that's not the province of the budget and finance subcommittee. like you guys are just supposed to be oversight over budget strategy, not really picking line items apart. Like that's not actually what you all are supposed to be doing. Um so I really like would not support you guys creating that plan. Um unless it's something

114that the superintendent need the superintendent needs your help with. But that's something that the transportation coordinator would do. So, I would not want to support giving that to you. >> Okay. Thank you. Would you like to respond to that, Member Childs? >> Um, it's not my passion project. So, I think the thought was in terms of budgeting out and figuring out what we would need to have set up, ready to go, how to pay for it. So, >> that's the business manager. Like, he'll do that. >> All right. That's what you do. >> I I would Yes. >> Yes. That's what you do. So, wonderful. I just want to give the other subcommittee members a chance to respond to that in case they have opinions. >> I mean, I'm happy to respond to it. I

115think it's just after we had the meeting, we were like, "Okay, how do we move forward? We know our vans are old. How do we make sure um we're possibly not moving money out of the reevolving transportation account into other places and that it is being spent replenishing our transportation. And I know last week we had two buses down um two of our big yellow buses down and some other issues were occurring. So I think for me it's like helping them come up with a plan in place like a five-year plan that we are financially stable for. >> I mean I fully I fully like support this feel like of course you guys want to be on top of it. Like I I get it, but I guess like I would just say that the

116process would be that like you request the report from the transportation coordinator and that they pull it all together and they present it to you so that you know what's on the table. Not that you would make it. I guess is I'm just I because I find in subcommittee like I always have to tell myself like am I going off the the road here? like I always have to rein myself in like it's hard because we you know it's like a constant training that I have to retake. So >> yeah. So maybe it's more of just um asking them to do it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I look forward to seeing it. Thank you. >> Have a good one. I'm just asking for a point of clarification because I think we brought it up

117at more as do we need permission from the full committee to ask for like a a three-year plan so that we really can I mean I feel like financially we sort of see a crisis and we run towards it. We're not doing prevention versus um we're not planning ahead. And so the question was I mean because in my head it's like we're not allowed to to make that kind of decision. We take it back to the full committee to have that because I had no interest in talking about models of vans. I mean none of us did. It was more like we want to see a plan um that reflects the needs of what's coming down the road. I think that was really the it wasn't anybody wanting to make a plan. Um it was

118do we have to take this to the full committee to get permission to ask for the plan and I don't know the the answer to that. >> Thank you. Um mayor and then I actually just have a question to our administrators just real quick. But I just want to say I think this brings a little bit more discussion to where we are green community aiming for the climate leader. um we are, you know, initiating a state a city-wide policy on the purchase of vehicles and yet this falls under the city and we've had this discussion a little bit before um also on if you consider it a capital expenditure but um everything that that we buy um I check with the energy director some vehicles as we know are exempt but there's that piece of

119it too and then if it's falling under the transportation revolving etc. And if something's falling under a capital plan just to reiterate that capital expenditures most of the time the money for capital expenditures comes from turnbacks at the end of the year. So I think you have to keep that in mind. Um and that's how I usually and how we've done historically. Sometimes we have to borrow for things as this year but in general um that it's bears a little bit more discussion I think. >> Great. If there's one thing I love it's more discussion. Uh and that's true. That's just true. Um I have a question. Do we not already have a plan in place for the for the for transportation? the >> if if not like if not that that is what what

120it is but >> it's it's we've run them into the ground quite honestly that's the plan so the answer is we don't >> no different than quite honestly some other vehicles and other municipal departments I mean you know you see occasionally all kidding aside you know you there's usually a routine on police cruisers etc thing but um it has been pretty much run them until they can run no more >> yeah and I and I would agree um I know that Andy and I and Teresa have started talking that, you know, I was fortunate to have some time in transportation with 250 vehicles and a little surprised that we didn't have just a reoccurring rotation. Some of that may have been due for different factors, right? The questioning of whether or not we were going

121to continue these things, that type of scenario. It does seem to me that after the transportation study and some conversations that we are going to. So, I think that that is something we can do. But we've heard you loud and clear. We were thinking about this anyway as well a as a result of kind of having things now move along in that to have a plan in place to turn over about three a year every which would take a five or six year rotation to get through that in the miles that they do put on them. It seems like a short time. Sometimes we'll hear the public say, "Well, five-year-old car that's I'd buy a 5-y old car." Well, you might, but you might not buy one with 210,000 miles on it. Um or you

122might. You never know, right? But um the use factor in that sense. So yes, that is something that we will do. >> Great. And very much encouraging you to be in conversation with the energy folks at the city um in terms of making sure that we are following whatever green practices guidelines that we have in place that are to all other departments. >> We have like we have I know the the say some concerns regarding the last purchase goaround and stuff but uh Dr. departed at the time, you know, was in communications with Miss Collins regarding the fact that these are the vehicles. We we sent the stickers of what the vehicles we were looking at and she came back and said indeed that they were exempt from the the green initiative what it is

123as far as because of the the size the you know the the weight of the vehicle and stuff. So it is something that we always will. >> Great. All right. Right. I think we answered your question, budget and finance subcommittee and I think we're going to that's going to come forward and I think you all should feel empowered to have access to those things and get regular reports on the schedules for expenditures. >> Thanks team. Great. Um with that I think we are ready to move on to item C the report back from policy program and school committee handbook. >> Okay. It's a doozy. You guys really working us hard. We met on April 27th. In attendance was Mr. Edwards from IT and Assistant Superintendent Steven Sullivan. We discussed policy JNDB, the empowered digital use

124policy. This policy has been revised recently by Mr. Edwards and Steven Sullivan based on discussions with our legal counsel. The updated policy can be found in your packet and contains tabs that outline how the policy may be carried out or shared through the district. The subcommittee recommends that this policy be reviewed by the full committee for a first reading. Other policies coming to the full committee in your packet are BEDH-E regarding public comment. The language changed is highlighted in your packet. KF-R regarding community use of school facilities. We reviewed the current rates and decided to keep them as is. A DDA- fingerprint-based Corey checks. We voted to keep the policy as is, but Superintendent Joy will create a more relaxed practice for volunteers in the schools. Policies that have been confirmed by our council is

125okay to change the language we voted on are DK, BBA, and I Ja. The changes to JIB, which is the student involvement policy, is still being discussed with council. I I need to have a few more back and forths with him so that I understand what he means. Okay. The handbook section of the subcommittee voted to adopt a resolution format and discussed how to file them, where to file them, and how the actions and labor associated with them are performed. And you can find that format in your packet. And if you vote upon it, you get to use it. Exciting. The administration will create a styled PDF that members can access for this work, and we'll have them filed on the website and accessible to the public. We voted to add additional descriptions of the

126duties of the chair and vice chair to the handbook based on an actual list of duties and responsibilities discussed at the March 2025 executive subcommittee meeting. And the proposed section is in your packet. All right. We seek the blessing of the full committee to pursue two items of new business in the policy subcom. We'd like to begin to create an academic integrity policy to align with our digital use policy and an updated vaping and tobacco policy based on the student feedback from the Yellow conference. And that is it open to questions that that digital use policy is quite large and has many tabs. So if everybody wants to like digest it and come back to it also like I'm kind of curious if people would like time with it what you all think I suppose

127that is my question. And is it appropriate to discuss it here or do we wait to no business where it's a separate item to discuss it? >> I don't know that. I think that would be up to the chair. >> I think that if it's already coming to us in new business, then we should take care of it then and focus on using this as a space to you've reviewed what you did. Awesome. The votes will come and then you're asking us to charge you with two new things, >> right? So that's what this time can be for, >> right? So >> does that make sense? >> Yes. So the two things, just to reiterate, is we'd like to start to create an academic integrity policy to align with our digital use policy and an

128updated vaping and tobacco policy based on the student feedback from the Yellow Conference. >> And both of those are motions for new business as well. >> Yes. Wait, wait. Hold please. >> G and H. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> Yes. >> So, it looks like we all will be taking care of all of that. >> Okay. So, we'll just scadaddle on a new business then. >> Are there any questions or or anything first? Remember >> questions for policy? >> All right. Wonderful. >> Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Doing great work. Um, all right. Items D and E, no topics reasonably anticipated. Um, moving on. So, we are now in item nine. Would members like a break now before we get into things? >> Great. All right. We've got >> We do not. Um, all

129right. It's five. It's 8:22 right now. Please. It's 8:23 right now. Please be back at 8:28. Go forth. >> Please and thank you. All right, thank you folks. We are back from our break. Uh, ready to tackle some new business. So, first item, item A, we have a motion from member Goodwin to direct the superintendent to conduct a literacy audit of the elementary schools before the end of the 2526 school year. The audit should include all components of literacy and be conducted by an experienced consultant who specializes in literacy and effective change. >> Is there any additional motivation that you would like to give? Please >> so much motivation behind this >> three minutes please. >> I I will be um I will foreshadow um at our next meeting we will also have a motion

130for an ad hoc literacy committee. Um I have been an educator for a long time and I believe learning to read is should be a civil right. Um our data um reflects that we need to do better and but um it's very hard um even as an educator who's in a system um to really understand what is going right and what is going wrong. So, by bringing in a professional um literacy expert to come into our elementary schools and audit, really get a handle on what's, you know, what is going on would help us um especially as um school committee members who um make budgets um and and make goals for our schools and give us information, our new superintendent information about what's happening in our K through um for elementary schools. There's people who

131are concerned and I think this is one way to get information that we need to move forward. Um and I think I learned a lot um with a transportation audit that sometimes you think one thing but having an audit gives you information that you maybe didn't. you're looking at it from a different perspective. So um that is um the reason the request um and other districts have done this with great success and turned out after they were five years being blue ribbon schools and I hope we can set goals to be those type of schools. >> Okay. So, we need the motion and the second. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. So, we've got a motion and a second. Discussion. >> All right. So, I think I think that we've said this is a priority

132that we've many of us have said. I just have a question. Is is this something that we think would be possible to do by the end of would this be by the end of June of this year? This this particular school year? That is a question. Obviously, if we're charged with this, we'd have to look into it. Uh we've gone through talked about bidding tonight, right? um could be possible bidding implications there where we'd have to put things out. So that adds to a timeline. Um timeline probably seems pretty tight. I don't want to say the word impossible, right? But with potentially a little over a month left of school, probably not going to get done then, but um obviously we would start on it if this was the will of the committee. Uh I

133support uh this idea. Uh and I want to point out that uh it is um that we we've heard from our our principles recently about the improvements in our schools on literacy. And uh I I think it's important for all of us to acknowledge that there is a nationwide literacy crisis that our district is not alone in having struggles with literacy and that there there are a lot of factors and uh so going forward I think it will be very useful for all of us to um have clearer information about precisely what is going on in our district on this question and then for all of us to be sharing information about what constitutes best practices in literacy. Um so uh this the the audit would uh be a starting place um for us to

134all have common information to work with going forward as we uh begin to take a systematic approach to addressing the situation. Okay, member Denny, >> I would be happy to support something like this if this was leading us into developing a new strategic plan. However, we are now in year four or five of our strategic plan and at the end of this we will have our post-mortem on our strategic plan and we will have all of the data that we require and we will see how things have changed. We have heard in the budget hearing that literacy rates have improved. We've heard from our principles as Diamond said, um there has been considerable improvement. So I think that spending money to have an audit at this time is not a wise choice at this moment.

135Not that I'm not for it. I just think that this is a useful tool that goes along with creating a new strategic plan where we have finished our five-year plan. We see where we are, how far we've come. We create the next set of goals with our new superintendent, right? She's going to look at our strategic plan or has already probably knows it by heart and we're going to move forward. And if we think that an audit is necessary at that time, we want to throw money at it, then that makes sense. but not now. Just like before school ends doesn't make a lot of sense to me and also kind of makes me cringe about the busy work that we would be asking um our interim superintendent to do right now at the end

136of the year. Um so that's like that's why I can't support it like for now, but I'd like to support it later. I'd like to come back later when it's time to do this work because when we go to to MASC and we talk to Massachusetts Association of Superintendent, they tell us that when you make a strategic plan and when a new superintendent comes on board, you have to allow, as uncomfortable as it is for the public to hear it. It takes like 3 to 5 years, sometimes 5 to seven years for a full complete change to happen when you start to implement these things. and everybody wants it right now, but that's not that's not reality. So, I'm really looking forward to the end of our strategic plan. I was excited to see it

137when it came on board. We've gotten maybe not quite as regular reports as I would like. We like all the details, but that's just me. So, like, you know, more reports if you guys want, but I'm looking forward to seeing all the data in the end where because I remember when we started it. So, where are we now? you know, and then I think it would be worthwhile to spend some money and find a consultant and really do all of this in-depth work if we identify that, hey, literacy is still a real big problem, you know, just specifically in our district. You know, also acknowledging that it is a nationwide problem, but these are goals we have yet to fully identify. >> Other comments? Yes, member. Do we have current data? I mean, I know

138we do map testing. We do other stuff like do we have data on our reading literacy stats now that we could I mean maybe we have access to it and I don't know, but I'm I'm per for per each building. Um, >> so yes, we were fortunate to um Stephen and I had met with member Goodwin regarding some of this and I'm going to turn it over to Stephen. He he's been very good on collecting the data. The teachers, right, have been doing it and they're doing all the hard work. We know the rubber hits the road there. Um, but that's where we're getting our improvements as mentioned by some of you, Stephen. Yeah, we have quite a bit of data, especially around early literacy. Um, for the past two years, I'll just speak since

139I've been here, we've had a district instructional prioritization plan that has been developed with a focus on literacy. Um, that's where the statewide system of support team through DESIE has come in and monitored us. Um they come in, they provide support, but they're also have some expectations about identifying certain goals and um plans as as it relates and ours has been specific to literacy and I said probably about this time last year that last year in 2520 I'm sorry in 2425 our plan was based around literally literacy. Generally speaking, this year we've dug in even deeper and said it's focused on early literacy and we've spent significant time at our elementary schools setting up systems and structures so that teachers know more about the gaps that students have are able to identify specific gaps and

140then have the tools and resources to address those gaps. We are working with a consultant um a literacy expert on this and that is supporting that work. Um and we are reporting to our DESIE team on June 15th um because our endofear benchmark window closes on June 12th if that's the Friday and the Monday I think. Um so the end of the year benchmark window where students will have their third round of map dibbles assessment. In addition we I've talked about how we've introduced core and pass which is that diagnostic that identifies the specific gaps that they have. Um that will be the end of the year data. So we do have middle of year from beginning of year to middle of year data right now. Um, but come May 13th, that data is starting

141to get stale. But we used it at the middle of the year to change intervention groups and make changes to our practice. We actually just had data team meetings today at all three elementaryaries which were just introduced or reintroduced um to the elementary schools in March for the first time and this was our second round of those. Um, so as I've said before, we're working to set up systems and structures to address this. I I'll be I am not opposed to a audit or anything like that. I do think we could learn something about it. Um, I'm pretty confident what the audit would tell us and I think we're taking steps to address those things in real time and always reflecting back on the places where we might have misststepped or where we've gotten more

142out of something than we initially expected and finding opportunities where we can double down um or not repeat mistakes. >> Yes. Should we be expecting a presentation from you on the literacy stuff you have collected after June 15th? >> I could I don't know when that presentation would be made, but I can certainly do one. And I believe I did one after the midyear progress in February. Yes, we can make that part of a future agenda. >> Other questions, comments? Member Don, >> um is uh that data publicly available right now that that midyear data so we could review it in more detail. >> I can check if it was in that report in February. Let me check on that. And if so, then it's publicly available. >> Okay. And I I I do mean

143in more detail. I would uh because I remember the report from February, but I would I would like to take a close look at things in writing. And so >> what kind of data would you be looking for that in that respect? Um >> growth trends, uh achievement, um achieve if possible, achievement per building breakdown. Um results uh I I know that we can all see uh the school report cards. Okay, those those are publicly available. Um but uh this this data doesn't cover anything regarding um teaching practices, right? Uh it it only is going to be covering results. >> Uh no, it would it I believe it included teaching practices because that's data that >> Yeah. When we do professional learning and we go in and do our learning walks, then we identify are

144we seeing the professional learning that we've provided being implemented in classes. So there is some data related to that as well. >> Yeah, you've got all that. Yeah. Okay. I'll take a look back at what what's there and see if uh see if I want to. >> Yeah. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Happy to respond offline or whatever is convenient for any of you all. Great. Thank you. >> I see a stack of hands, but I'm just going to make a quick note that we do need to be mindful when we're starting to drill down into specific classroom practices. That is not our job. That's not our role. We set the strategic goal. We've they've heard us loud and clear. They know we really care about literacy and we

145want our students to read um I would say even my goal is above grade level. Like I want our students to be reading challenging texts, not just um at what they have, you know, available to them. I want them to be seeking out and to really enjoy wrestling with stuff. Um, we set that goal and then you figure out how you can meet that meet that challenge. Um, and we leave it in their capable hands. >> Yeah. And member Goodwin mentioned it before, right? Oftent times these types of initiatives take two, three, five years to bear fruit. And I will say there are small indicators that it's right just small jumps and sometimes I'm looking for like jumping over that mountain and that may not be realistic but we are seeing in places some of

146that movement that seems stagnant a year ago is starting to shift in places and uh the hope is those are early indicators. >> Right. Thank you. I saw member Charles, member Goodwin, member Den. So, first some data that I would really like to see. So, we've got the breakdown of reading below grade level. I would like it to be a little bit more granular. Like, if someone is reading just a little bit below grade level, that's bad, but it's not nearly as bad as this person cannot read at all. And sometimes it seems like if you're below grade level, it's just all grouped in one. And that doesn't give you a clear enough picture. Um, so that is a data that I'm interested in in particular. um when we're not missing the mark, how far

147off are we? And then the other thing is if we're going to have a presentation on literacy data, does it make sense to move this motion to whatever meeting we have that presentation so that we'll be making an informed vote on the motion? >> Have a good one. understanding that the bidding process. Um, and one of the things that Massachusetts has struggled with when it comes to performance data with MCCAST as a principles, we always argued that we need to get the data before the end of the school year. So, we had all summer to work with it. Principles would have the summer to plan to make effective change at the beginning of the school year. So the idea was that um this could be accomplished and it's really I I can see the data

148for the children with MCCAST scores and all of that but what we can't see are um how people are feeling either. I mean having somebody come in, they look at curriculum materials, they look at everything. They give you a bigger lens. Um, and they're not just looking at the reading, they're looking at the writing, they're looking at the vocabulary, all the pieces that go together, which our state test doesn't even really do accurately anymore. Um, I think having that kind of data at the end of the school year is I know as a principal a dream because you have all summer to look at it and make meaning of it to help plan the next school year. So that was why. Um, so if we do it in the fall, again, everything's already been put

149together. all the classes have been put together. All everything's together. Nobody's going to undo something. Um, but maybe, you know, if that's the way it has to be, that's the way it has to be. But that was the idea that we have that fresh. Um, so people really had something hands-on and that, and I'm going to be honest, that's never really happened. Um and Greenfield has struggled with literacy um in one school or another for the last 15 years. It's not something and everybody has tried if there used to be a base a room in the in the basement of the middle school that had all this money that was spent on all these different initiatives that were supposed to fix things, but nobody ever brought in somebody to look at what was the thing.

150It's there's no magic bullet. It's hard work. there's new no new core and our new core is six years old. Um and there's no magic to it and people have spent a lot of money and our high school 94% of all high schools in Massachusetts are doing better than our high school. That piece of data should scare all of us and we need to do better. and having somebody come in from the outside makes sense because we're all looking at it through a lens of Greenfield and our kids. Um, so if it gets pushed off, it gets pushed off. But I think we've been waiting for a long time. Um, and the state comes in and the state does their thing. Um, but they also don't live here and know that the children could be

151doing a lot better. member Deniv and then I would really like to move this motion along. >> I really want to thank the chair for reminding us that we do not we're not in the classroom. That's not our job as school committee members. We do not do the dayto-day. We hire specifically people with expertise to hire more people with expertise to do this. Like this is not our purview at all. Um, but one thing we can do that is under our umbrella of governance is to maybe have all this mid um midcycle data put on the website and to maybe have a have a more organized way of looking at this because if you're saying that people are not getting the information that they want and I go to the website, yeah, it's not there.

152There's the strategic plan is there but it's kind of hard to find. It's under school committee. I don't know why. Like it really should be like on the front page, but it's under school committee. It's buried. Um none of this data is there. So really, maybe we need an achievement section for our website where families can log on and look cuz you know, not everybody knows how to look for the school report card. Like people are just going to Google. Like there's no reason why we can't have achievements on our website. And also that would give us an opportunity to crow a little bit about the great things that we're doing. Like here we are talking about literacy rates being terrible. But we had eight students last year that went to Ivy League schools and

153nobody talked about that. The recorder didn't put an article out about that. Like there are good things that are happening and it just burns me every time that I just hear about bad bad bad all the time. Like that's something we can do as a school committee is we can change that narrative. We can vote to put more um information on our website. That's a piece of oversight we could do that would be positive in this situation. So maybe I'll make a motion for that under new business for next time. >> I look forward to it. All right. We do have a motion on the table. There was a member who made a suggestion to move this motion to a future meeting. Um but that would actually require the mover of the motion to agree

154to that and to want that and to express that desire. elsewise, we will move to a vote. All right, I'm seeing that it looks like we want a vote and we want it now. So, we shall have it. Um, we have a motion and a second for member child. Uh, will you please do the voting? Member >> web hands. >> Let's raise hands. All in favor? I show of hands. >> All opposed. Any abstensions? >> It passes. All right. Three yays, two nos, two abstensions. All right. Yep. So, I do just want to comment on the vote we just did. So, just to be clear what happened, a literacy audit will be begun. I think that it is unreasonable to anticipate that the timeline that's in this motion is actually going to get met. Let's

155just be really clear about that. Well, if it's okay, then maybe we can work on the wording of motions if we know if we can anticipate that they're not actually achievable. >> Yeah. >> Um, and for clarity, I I believe I know where member Goodman's coming from, but I just want to clarify because I did hear a different kind of uh topic from somebody else. I believe you're looking for us to hire somebody. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I did I did hear it said that um maybe the superintendent would be doing it. No, but no, from other members just so we all on the same page, we'll be proceeding that way. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Uh, all right. So, we have another motion, item B. Um, hopefully we can get the through

156these a little more expeditiously. Um motion from member Goodwin to direct the superintendent to determine the amount of screen time that students in each grade are experiencing in the Greenfield public schools in the 2526 school year. The amount should be categorized as either instructional or assessment and reported in minutes per day. Is there a second? >> A second. >> All right. We have a motion from member Goodwin. We have a second from member web. Uh discussion. >> Yes, mayor. So I I have a question again. Is this something that is easily attainable um in the time that we have left? Is this a time consuming something to find out how long everybody spends in front of a screen? I don't know. I've never been a teacher. >> Um yeah, if we're if we were directed

157with this, we would have to figure out a way to collect data. Ask teachers, right? Um, could be something as quick as asking. Depending on how significant of a report somebody wanted. I'm getting a kind of a nod. It might be as quickly as saying, uh, each classroom teacher give us your assessment on this and we put that together. I think that's something that we could do. It's work obviously. But one more thing, right? Member Webb, >> I have a clarifying question that would be directed towards member Goodwin. Is this Are we talking screen times because we do use screens now to teach lessons on? Is it that screen we're talking about or are we more talking about computer screens, not timed learning screens? >> Smartboards are instructional tools. They're it's it's more of a

158projection. It's actually replace >> out the touch screens. >> We're talking about on a Chromebook. Um, >> correct. >> Got member childs and member Denine. >> Could the IT department be able to pull up some information on Chrome time screen hours turned on and what time is in programs? cuz I know like cell phones they'll show you you spent too much time on your phone, x amount of time on this app. I I wonder what kind of things are already in place. >> Um the same same discussion last time. This isn't our purview. This isn't our job. If it is identified by the superintendent as something that she wants to collect in the future as she prepares her strategic plan and goals, then great. This is not for us. We are not in the classroom.

159This is not governance. Um if we want to ask for a policy to be created or compel the administration to bring us a report, we do that through policy. We do not give the superintendent busy work at the end of the I'm just I cannot tell you how frustrating this is making me like really truly this is not what we do. It's not our job. So policy budget hiring the superintendent. So if this is a policy thought then send it to the policy subcommittee and we can figure out if we can write a policy to compel the administration to do this. But this is just not what we do. And it's frustrating because it's making the meetings extra long and it's not in our purview. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be mean, but this

160is not our job. >> And Brad, >> I think it's important to collect data so therefore we know if the superintendent would want us to make a policy based upon the data that's been collected. member Goodwin and then myself. >> So, some states are shutting down screens and some school committees are voting to shut down screens. So, I don't know if our children are on the screens too much. Um, and so one of the things I know is there's great concern um from parents and even teachers about the amount of screen time kids are on in schools and school committees are taking those votes. It's a conversation um you know being had at every level. So, um maybe I mean if you're thinking that's a polic to go to the policy committee, I don't know.

161Um but it needed to be brought up because it's something that right now health providers are are really recognizing the screens as um harming our children. So, I think one of the things that needs to be done is I mean, unless you ask, you don't know. Perhaps what I'm hearing is that this motion might be best served being part of a broader discussion about how we feel about screen time in schools generally. Uh because we do have the purview to make policy around that sort of thing. And it sort of is our job to have an opinion about that and to have what we think is, you know, the phrase too much is very subjective. It's our job to decide what we believe is too much with informed, you know, like like with the information

162that we need um with rigorous study with information, but maybe collecting this information app propo of no discussion is perhaps not the best way to move forward right now. Um, would you entertain withdrawing the motion? >> Yes, I'm fine with that. I think the discussion needs to happen. Um, and I'm not sure anybody knows what happens behind a closed classroom door. So, um, I think those discussions need to happen. It probably should become a policy. Okay. Um, would the seconder also be willing to withdraw the motion if the the motion the maker of the motion agreed? Okay. >> Yes. >> Do we need a vote to withdraw or is it or is if it's withdrawn by the people who made it then why would the rest of us vote? I think the motion is withdrawn

163and we are moving on. Um but we can expect that we will return to this topic in the future. All right. Item C, first read of policy JNDB, empowered digital use policy. >> Do we actually have to read these out loud? >> I don't know. This is really >> This is really long. >> It's really long. It's 11 pages. >> Yeah. >> I guess could could chair may I entertain a thought? Could we take now? Could we take I could we take this policy and like go digest it and maybe like everybody gets a chance to take their notes and whatever and we come back like ready to vote on it next month. Was that too long? It's a big one. It's not like the easy I'm I'm sorry Stephen is waving and I'm taking

164time. >> Yeah, >> just clear the policy is only page one, >> right? But the tabs >> background >> is extensive. >> But the policy is only that page and the only changes are what's highlighted in yellow. But great to member Denise's point >> the procedures in which we're proposing to implement said policy we provided to the subcommittee because there were questions so we wanted to provide as much clarification as we could but the policy is only that first page. >> Really appreciate that. Um I am remembering having attended several city council meetings where they have done these first reads and I'm remembering that it basically is they just first read and move on. Oh, okay. >> So, we're going to first read. >> It's in there. We can read it. Move on. We will

165come back again. >> Okay. So, we're going to come back for a second read with this. Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Uh, all right. Moving on now to item D, first read of pol read of policy BEDH, guidelines for public comment. Uh, similar to the above item. It's a first read. It's in there. You have a chance to look at it. We'll come back again next uh next time for a second read. Uh, moving on to item E, review and vote to accept of the resolution template as drafted by the policy program and school committee handbook subcommittee. Um, so I make a motion that we accept the resolution template as drafted. >> Second. All right. Motion from me, second for member child's. Discussion folks will get it. Great. I thought it was great and I really

166appreciate you bringing it. >> No problem. It turns out you can't find one online. We may be like the only one to ever make one >> for reals. Like the American Library Association had one and so I chopped it all up. There's literally no others. >> Uh I bet that deserves an MASC session. >> I bet it does. Helpful panel. >> All right. Um any other comments, discussion, questions? Hearing none, let's vote. All in favor? >> I uh any abstens or any nos? Any abstensions? >> Your abstension. >> All right, it passes with one abstension. >> Got it. >> At least you're honest. >> Really appreciate most of the time. >> Oh boy. >> Okay. Um item F. review and vote to accept the amended executive duties as drafted by policy program and school committee

167handbook subcommittee. I'm motioning. >> Do I have a second? >> Second by member niv discussion >> comments of yesterday. I just say really quick that that the list that we made like there's the list of what y'all do in the policy manual that's like set but then there's all these other little things that no one knows like who keeps the keys to the john's on who runs the zoom like and it doesn't have to be that only one person keeps the keys to the johnson like in the future somebody else could do that but these are just ideas for like the extra things that could be delegated amongst new members when they receat themselves and decide what they want to do. So, these are just floating items that we're adding so that when you wonder

168who who keeps the iPad for the Zoom, you'll have like a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. >> For the record, the iPad lives here. It stays at the John's. We do not take it home. I do not want to take it home. >> Okay. See, that's info you could put in the handbook so that someone will know. Like, this is just clean. This is house cleaning. >> Great. Um, so I I made the motion to to be able to bring it in onto the table, but I do have one sort of like comment or question about the language related to the um mentorship of the vice chair and the expectation that the vice chair sort of has a desire to be chair. I think in my case that was true. Uh, and I was pretty

169open about that. But I don't know if I believe that that is I know it's I know it's not our current vice chair's goal to become the chair. she has made that very clear. Um, and I don't know if I think that it should be an explicit expectation because I worry that that's going to restrict people from running for the role if they think that it means they have to serve in the other role in the following year. You know, >> that's true. It's just something that we voted on like to create a a sha it was like an informal shadowy thing. So, >> yeah. I just hate I always hate to have votes that we take then get like disappeared into the ether because no one remembered or wrote them down. So when we

170recalled that at our executive subcommittee meeting, I was like, "Okay, well, let's put that to paper so at least we have remembrance that we voted on that." What we do with it. >> And I >> I care not. But in the future, someone might come and be like, "Hey, there's this thing that they did." >> Yeah. And and I really appreciate what you're saying able to bring to make sure that we're closing loop on stuff. >> Yeah. It's a loop closer. >> We love closing loops. Um >> but you're saying you want to change that language. >> I'm saying that I think that it would be good to change that language. And I do want to make sure that there is a provision for if a vice chair does want the chair and they acknowledge

171that they're open that there is a plan for mentoring and I don't want there to be the expectation that if you become the vice chair you have to be wanting to be chair. >> Ah yes I see what you're saying. >> Do you have a um proposal for how to change that language to what you just said? >> Can we change language to what I just said? >> Nan, can we change the language? Can Can I look at it in your beautiful minutes later and add it? Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other items? Yes. Member Web. >> Um my concern is with runs the Zoom aspect of the meeting as the chair does run the meeting and the Zoom is part of the meeting. So, I would just ask that that be put

172under the chair's responsibility. >> The mayor's raising her hand. I don't know. >> Yes, mayor. >> Um, this sounds like it needs a little bit more discussion. I'm going to move to table. Uh, move to table or postpone? If you table it and we end the meeting, it's wiped. I'll move to postpone it. >> Great. Um, so now we have two motions on the table at the same time, but the motion to postpone, I believe, supersedes the motion that's already on the table and that we have to resolve that >> before we can move on to the motion. And if it gets resolved and postponed, then it will be postponed. And if not, we will return to the main motion. for those following along at home. Um, is there a second for postponing? >> I'll

173second it. >> All right, we have a motion and a second for postponing. I don't believe that that is discussable. Um, so please Yes. All in favor of postponing to next month. >> I All right. It's a unanimous I. >> Very good. Moving on. Thank you. Uh item G, motion to direct the policy program and school committee handbook subcommittee to create an academic integrity policy which should align with the school department's digital use policy. >> That was as second. >> Very good. We have a motion from me, a second from member Goodwin. Um any discussion? >> Yes. maybe that we don't need to have an exhaustive discussion about this. Like we'll just go and see what everybody else is doing and talk to the council and then like put something together and then we'll bring

174it back and you guys can like pick it apart. You guys could New York Times editor the whole thing. >> Fantastic. >> Like not now. >> Yes, I support this. >> Great. >> Yes, superintendent. Also, just for your information, under the um additional policy with the AI that is there, the background material on that includes a tab of an this policy or of a procedure for this. >> Okay. Thank you. Um All right. We have a motion, a second. All in favor? >> I It's unanimous. Please do the work. Uh item H, motion to direct the policy program and school committee handbook subcommittee to update the school department's vaping and tobacco policy based on the student feedback from the youth engaged legislators and officials conference. Motion >> second from member child's discussion. >> Yes, member

175Den. Sorry, just to create something more robust. When we talk to the students, the only thing in the policy is just that you can't smoke on school grounds and somebody will talk to you at some point in time to gather information about whether you smoke. And a lot of them felt like that wasn't enough, that they wanted vaping specifically to be in the language. Um, and they wanted like consequences, like they just wanted something broader. And when we read it together at the conference, like we all looked it up. Um, which was fun because I got to teach them how to find the policy manual. Um, it was just I couldn't even find the word vaping. Like you could only find it under tobacco. So we were like, "Hey, this is really thin. Like can

176we look at what other schools are doing?" Great. All right, let's move to a vote. All in favor? I. That's unanimous. Please do that work as well. Next we have two items that are updates from the superintendent. Uh one first one about the policy program handbook subcommittee request to create a revised practice for volunteers. >> Yes, we discussed this in the subcommittee meeting and I'm in the process of we are loosening our regulations. Um I can start by telling you you may recall last month uh one of our speakers at public speakout made some comments that it didn't seem like we wanted volunteers in our schools. Um, I did call that individual after the meeting and ask what was wrong and what could we do. Um, we were doing nothing wrong. The only thing that

177was wrong was they didn't want to drive to Athel to get fingerprinted. So, it wasn't our procedures. It wasn't our greeting at the door, the paperwork that had to be filled out, the Corey. We do the Corey's, not fingerprinting. Um obviously we've we all have acknowledged right the closing closing of the Staples fingerprinting not the closing of Staples but fingerprinting um has sent people to either Westfield, Springfield or Athl and Athal just closed. they were supposed to close in July and they sent us an email last Thursday that they were closing that afternoon and that but they did follow through the next day saying they were looking for the greater Greenfield area here to reinstitute something like that. That being said, uh I do think that we've talked about this. We have maybe too stringent

178of a policy on some of the things that we're doing for people coming into our schools on quick basis maybe a day volunteer reading to a class working at the book fair where the people are chaperoned which are completely different I believe it from field trips and overnight trips that type of scenario where you have the potential to be alone the state requires that we obtain Corey background checks and fingerprints from those people who may have direct and unmonitored contact with children. So that's the fingerprint thing. The Corey for everybody, right? But the fingerprint is direct and unmonitored contact. Direct and unmonitored contact with children is defined in the Desi regulations as contact with a student when no other employee who has received a suitability determination by the school or district is present. Contact refers

179to any contact with a student that provides the individual with an opportunity for physical touch or personal communication. So, we'll work to define some of those being at field trips where you potentially might have a group of um five, six, eight students that you might be responsible for walking around a museum, could potentially, right, go into a bathroom with somebody, etc. or be around a corner. Those are the scenarios. We also have a a requirement that people do quite a bit of trainings, online trainings that we've heard is very tedious and laborous and probably non uh apppropo to being a volunteer in that sense. So we'll be eliminating those as well. So we are I will have for you we are doing it right now acting on some of these with our current people coming

180in. But for people who are doing field trips, they still will be required to do fingerprinting. And and I do not believe we should be loosening that regulation at all because we can sit here and talk about we don't want people in. We want people in, but when and if something happens, you'll then come back to me and or anybody, right? And you'll say, "Hey, superintendent, you're supposed to be a smart person. Why would you have allowed this?" Right? Um, so we do things for reasons, right? Um, unfortunately it's 2026 and we have to be protective of our children, right? They're our most valuable resource and asset that we have. So, uh, we are eliminating the online trainings which weren't apppropo to any of this. And we'll be directing our principles to allow people in

181for um, supervised access. if I was coming in to read a book for 15 minutes and then walking back out the door, those types of scenarios. So, that is the quick version of that update. Yes. >> Are we still requiring the online trainings for field trips or only fingerprinting? >> Fingerprinting. >> Thank you very much for that update. Are there any comments, questions? member web. >> Um I do think that some of the trainings are valuable and some of the trainings are not valuable. You know, like we would like to have volunteers trained to know confidentiality stuff. Um but there are some things in there like knowing what a kid's allergic to that volunteers wouldn't know anyways. >> Yeah. If you have some suggestions which which of that list of eight or nine or something

182like that um you think might be appropriate, I'll definitely consider those. >> Great. Thanks much, member Goodwin. >> Just a heartfelt thank you because it really did sort of feel like people weren't welcome. Um, when you see that list and you know, everybody's used to doing a Corey and a story and all of that, but that list was as somebody who did that list, it is >> exhaustive, right? >> Five or six hours um of just again on a screen. So there you go. But thank you. >> You're welcome. And we've still had some people concerned, right? Because >> if they find out late, last minute they have to get fingerprints, they take, you know, they take a little while. Corey checks. we can do pretty quick like within a day or two. Generally the

183fingerprints right out of our hands and somebody has to drive for that. So there's a little planning and field trips generally also are planned. They don't pop up just tomorrow. So there's some stuff on everybody but we are going to make it easier but not um any more dangerous if that makes sense. >> Y >> great. Yes, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Um, let's move on to item J. An update from the superintendent on the sculpture by Homer John. >> Yes, this is a kind of a little fun whimsical thing. I've attached some pictures in your uh online materials and an article from 2016. So, I received the phone call. I'll give you the quick version maybe midwinter. We received an email first. Then I called the gentleman uh James Ftopolis. I don't

184want to say it the wrong way, but um and to look for a sculpture. He's Greenfield he James Greenfield High class of 1954 and um he had talked about a sculpture that had been donated to Greenfield High in the 70s and was wondering where it was. Um described it to me, you know, I took a lot of notes. He and I talked for quite a while, had a good conversation. Um told our talked to our director of maintenance. Um, long story short, we have found the sculpture. I don't know if it was ever really lost, right? But we have found it in a warehouse, uh, owned by the city and there's some pictures you can see. It's pretty big. He describes it. It's good, could be six feet tall by six feet wide type of

185scenario. uh he he regailed me in some many stories in the days where the students would pick it up and move it around the school and almost like kidnapped the sculpture and it was sometimes it was inside a lot of times it was outside um that type of scenario. Um Homer Gun is the artist an American sculpture born in I got all that I think I gave all to you born in 1921 to 2001. Um, this sculpture is titled Birth of an Idea. And he also had there's also other sculptures in Greenfield right now at the corner of Federal and Maine on the property of the bank, right? I I don't know. I don't want to say it's not the banks. I think it might be the city's sculpture, but I don't know. That um

186that looks like a whale tail type scenario there. F with a fountain. Also, the memorial of the war or veterans memorial. I don't want to call it the wrong um the wrong name. And then there are others located in other places. Um what the parties are looking for potentially is to put that back to the high school to some extent. That's James' thought and idea. So we we're presenting that to you. Uh he did have two sons, Peter and Steven, who did graduate from Greenfield High School and his wife taught in Greenfield for many years on that. So, we do have the sculpture found um and kind of just throwing it out there, there's the potential, right, always to apply for whether it be community preservation funds for a I'll use the word base without

187my lack of art artistry for understanding on that and obviously finding a location for it to honor, you know, a great artwork and a gift to the school. So, I present that to you. >> Is that a motion to direct you to seek community preservation funds or some other funds for PLT? I think that's is that what's needed right now. >> Is that in your purview? >> No. >> Expenditures of money. Yes. >> Ben, no. I'm joking. >> This is so in our purview. >> Yes. But obviously we'd like to do anything we can to help. >> Great. Uh, member child. >> Well, do we need to have that base? Because if that interferes with the students picking it up and moving it, >> I do not want the students picking it up and moving

188it. >> That's a tradition. >> Time has passed. >> Sounded like a good senior prank. If I just >> Yeah, it did seem like it was that. Yes. >> Um, >> so we'll look into it. >> Great >> for you. the next steps and I know there's cycles for that and I know they just awarded some so it might be the next year cycle etc. Just so you know, you can see it. We have it. In the meantime, should before that anybody want to do anything with it, um or find a spot in life. Oh, no. It's secure right now. >> Yes. >> Uh the the plan is right up to >> possibly if that's >> up to you, right? >> Where our community wants it. >> Mhm. >> So, you have you have some

189information. So, there we go. We will get you some more on that as well. >> Appreciate you. All right. We are moving into old business. Fantastic. Um, item A, set meeting dates for the fiscal year 2027 budget. I think this was communications that have been happening back and forth with the city, but we might not need this item because uh, the superintendent and I will be going before Ways and Means on the 19th and delivering a presentation about our budget. >> So, the 19th. >> Um, >> yeah, we have a subcommittee on the 18th. on the 18th. Yes. And then it will be in city council's capable hands. Um all right. I think that takes care of that. Um we had these items slated for last time. We had a motion from member Den to

190have the school committee support the um bill H1399 to modernize retirey Medicare healthcare for municipalities. Was that something you wanted us to bring back? Yes. I think that Yes. Yeah. Do you want me to make a It's getting very late. Do I need to make a motion? >> If you want it voted on Yes. >> Yes. I make a motion that uh that we do this because it's part of our um it's part of our purview. I know we love that word tonight, purview, but that's what we do. We're this Franklin County seat. The cost of health insurance is crippling us. We could do other things. There's other options. There is this bill that says that it allows municipalities if they have eligible workers to move on to HASS. That's for senior workers. So, um

191or retirees rather who have worked for the city. And so anything that we could do that we could put our name to to help the mayor and the city in this time of health insurance crisis, I think we should do because it impacts us. Like we have to pay this is we're paying a lot of money for health insurance this year. What is it like? What did it go up mayor? like 19% you said >> 19% >> Asia Health England was going up 19% but I'm pretty sure we have an agreement for the second half of the year to switch over to the GIC. >> Okay. So if so a resolution like this would not help you at this time or would it >> this is what um uh Tara um >> Tara wanted as

192well. So no I think it's a good idea. >> Okay. >> I support it. >> Great. >> Okay. Well, we need we need a second before we continue the discussion. All right, we've got a second from member Webb. Any further discussion on this? There was some last time. Did folks have a chance to like look through it? >> I I think last time um we struggled with voting because the mayor wasn't here. We wanted to make sure we were supporting the city >> in this. Great. It seems like we are. Um, seeing no further discussion, I will let's move us to a vote. Uh, all in favor? >> I, >> any opposed? Any abstensions? I have one abstension. Fantastic. Uh, it passes. >> I will use the resolution format and send it in. >> Great.

193Love to see it. Okay. Uh, next and final item of old business. Motion from member Den to support the Mass Foundation Budget Review Commission. Did we not already vote yes on this? >> I thought we voted yes on this. >> Pretty sure we I'm pretty sure that item C we actually already voted yes on. So we're going to >> see in our >> Yeah. So I think it was just a hold over didn't get erased from the draft of the >> But I will use the resolution format and send it in. I really >> go through all of my old resolutions, format them now appropriately, and send them into you to sign. >> Thank you very much. >> All right, moving on. We are on item 11. Vote to enter into executive session pursuant to

194Mass General Law, Chapter 3A, subsection 21A2, to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-UN personnel. and three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair. So declares I do declare the committee will return to open session. Um second >> great motion second. I think this we have a roll call for executive session. >> Vice Chair Childs. >> Yes. >> Member Deniv. >> Yes. >> Mayor Disorder. Yes. >> Member Dyman. >> Yes. >> Member Goodwin. >> Yes. >> Chair Ston. >> Yep. >> Member Webb. Yes. >> Great. We're all doing that. We are uh going to adjourn to

195executive session. We will return when that's through. >> Um we are returning from executive session. Can we do another roll call just to make sure we're all here? >> Vice Chair Childs >> here. >> Member Denive >> here. >> Mayor Disorder >> here. >> Member Dyman >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. Chair Saxton >> here. >> Member Webb here. >> All right, we are all here, all seven of us, and we are reconvening at 9:56. Um motion to approve the contract with the director of people services as presented. Motion from Chair Ston, second from member Goodwin. Uh all in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Passes unanimously. Um motion to direct chair ston to sign the memor memorandum of agreement with the greenfield education association. >> Second. >> I'm going to call

196it member web just for fun. Uh so I motion member web seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Any abstensions? Any oppositions? Seeing none, it passes unanimously. Um I will do that motion to adjurnn. >> Second. Great >> motion. We've seconded. All in favor? >> All right. We are adjourned at 9:57 p.m.