001Heat. Heat. Good evening and welcome. Welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools School Committee meeting for Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. This meeting is being recorded by Greenfield Community Television. If any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify the chairperson at this time. Not seeing any. Secretary Den, will you call the role? >> This might be >> Chair Johnson. Present. >> I am present. Vice Chair Ston >> here. >> Member Martini. >> Present. >> Member Goodwin. >> Is she online? >> Okay. Uh, member Childs >> present. >> Mayor Disorger >> here. >> We are all present except member Goodwin. And you have a quorum. >> Thank you. We'll move on to public comment. We'll start with people who are in the room with us here. Is there anyone who's signed up for public comment?
002>> Uh, yes. >> Please come forward. You have three minutes. Good evening. Thank you for letting me make a public comment. I I have to say I'm a little rattled because a 31-year-old was just assassinated and he was aful young man with now he's got tiny children and a wife and it just happened this afternoon on a college campus. Um, I don't know what to say except this may be the third time I'm guessing uh that people are trying to put forward something on the agenda that I know that member Goodwin has asked to be tabled. So, it keeps coming back and I've been attending city council of school school committee meetings and subcommittee meetings and I know I was told by clerk Scott that there's the city side and we have a charter to
003follow and I know that there are policies on the school committee side to be followed and I encourage the public to watch chairs where counselor bottom is talking to councelor Welowski about anouou and a joint committee and people are asking let's wait until an election that's very important and I don't think people are really willing to wait. I don't see that happening. Um and it bothers me because clerk Scott spoke with me personally. I've made my public comments and I see people just rushing forward with whatever agenda they want to have for whatever purpose it is. Ignoring a charter that we are to live by. Ignoring a website where certain policies are to be in place. And so I just caution people about personal agendas that seem to be like not paying attention to the
004rules, the regulations, and I am bothered by that. I am thrilled that we have a magnificent interim superintendent. I think he's been a true angel, a true find to be able to come back. And I see people kind of almost as an afterthought. What do you think? What do your years of experience tell you? And I don't think it should be an afterthought. We sought him out. He's been here before. I've seen meetings where he's not even on camera, but he gets to talk. I think that's rude. And it bothers me. And to me, it just seems disrespectful. And I'm just encouraging people. And I when people said, "Why are you taking out papers?" I want a good agenda. I want people to disagree with respect. I want people to move forward. I want people
005to listen carefully to each other and entertain the thought that we all can't possibly be thinking alike or we'd be robotic. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Do I have to state my address or is that city council? >> That's city. >> Okay. Um, hi Rose Skiroff. Um, I just wanted to uh come up to give some feedback around um I guess the educational materials uh as far as like what the school committee does and what their purview is. Um, I've been a resident for three and a half years now and I'm also a teacher and so I'm doing my my best to sort of follow local politics and with the election coming up, I think there's a a bit of a misunderstanding as far as what the school committee is responsible for
006versus what the city council is responsible for versus what the mayor is responsible for. And I was struggling to find good resources on the website as far as um the differences in power and who is really responsible for what. And in the meet the candidates um articles that were put out on the recorder, there were some questions that were answered in full and then there were by some candidates and then other candidates were sharing that they didn't believe it was under the school committee's purview. And so that to me says that there's even a misunderstanding among candidates too. perhaps. And so, um, I just wanted to give some feedback that, um, it's a little bit difficult to, uh, educate myself a little bit better by myself online. Um, and that more resources might help like
007sort of bridge that gap, uh, between the city council and school committee. And I also wanted to add that, um, I know the new start time for school committee meetings is 6:30. The website still says six o'clock. So if it's possible to change that um because I was almost uh here early which wouldn't be bad but you know just for other folks sake. So that's all. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other public comment in the room? Okay. Anyone online wish to make public comment? Not seeing any. Okay. We will move on to the next item. Report of student representatives to the committee. Welcome. Oh, uh, superintendent, please. Had a green there. Good evening. Um, we're fortunate tonight to have two of our Greenfield High School students here to give us a student report.
008And for the most part, we they'll be coming somewhat regularly here. I'd like to introduce Lauren Haley and Kaylee Lewis. They are both juniors at Greenfield High School and have some nice things to tell us about tonight. It's all yours. >> All right. So, for student council, homecoming is just around the corner on Saturday, September 20th. Tickets are on sale on Tuesday, September 2nd at all three lunches. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Guests are allowed. The guest form needs to be turned into the main office by Friday, September 12th for approval. All guests are $15. The dance is semiformal and we will open our formal wear closet for students to get what they need. We have dresses, shoes, pants, shirts, ties, jackets, and accessories. We are always accepting donations. Donations
009can be made at the front office during school hours or at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas nights and weekends. We will have spirit days this week. They are currently being finalized. Open class officer positions will be filled later this month and we will help with the annual Green River cleanup. New members are always welcomed and we meet every other Sunday from 6:00 to 7:00 in the lecture hall. For athletics, fall fall sports have started. First games were on September 2nd. You can check out the schedules at arbiterlive.com. Go greenwave. That's what they wrote on. All right. And for drama club, auditions happened last week for the play Nightfall with Edgar on Poe. And rehearsal will start September 16th twice weekly with performances happening on November 14th and 15th. We'll be performing in a blackbox setting on
010the stage to create an intimate dramatic experience for actors and the audience. We are looking for Victorian costumes, props, and sets. Please contact Madame Hartman or Deborah Poti at the high school. >> For the trivia team, formerly known as school match wits, we are meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays in the library fishbowl to begin to prepare for our upcoming matches. We hope to participate in the ASMW televised competition, the blender bowl, and maybe a local Frank Franklin County team event. We also we are also looking for new members to join us. >> And then lastly, we have students of color club and they meet weekly on Thursdays at 2:15 and are actively recruiting for new members. Events for the year include collaborations with library club on a movie night, a SOC food event, food raiser with
011sustainability club, and celebrations on black history and women's history months. Check out our bulletin board. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your announcements and appreciate you coming to talk to us. Thank you. >> Okay, we'll move on to reports of the administration. And I'm sorry. >> Oops. >> I can go run after them. >> Um I think the superintendent could answer. have any questions? >> Sorry, I forgot to >> No, it was my job to to uh to signal that the committee could ask questions and I forgot. So, member Martini, >> on that note, does anyone have any questions? >> Well done. Well played. >> I just have one. Um, and uh, and I don't want to keep you too long, and I'm sure the superintendent can answer too, but I um, and might
012need to answer because I don't know if you'll know, but um, I love hearing about things like homecoming, extracurriculars, things like that, because those things make a person feel like they belong and they're part of a community. Um I happen to uh have spent a long time in my career as a social worker uh working with children in foster care. So, I'm always thinking about them and I'm just wondering um you know, we have some students in the district who don't live in a permanent home or who are still going to school here but are placed at a distance and it can be really challenging for them to either um drum up the cash to go to homecoming or uh to find transportation to get access particularly to a regular extracurricular. This is something that
013came up for the committee previously and I feel like there wasn't really an answer. Um and I was just wondering what what is available to those particular students to enable them to participate in these things. >> Yes. Um should any of our students have any financial difficulties and they talk to somebody whether it be a class advisor, their principal, a counselor, a trusted adult that they have in the building, we have the means in order to let them attend. I wonder um is it possible to put in place um something more proactive where a student's advisor um inquires with them about whether they would like access to these sorts of things. Just knowing my kids u from having worked with them for so long, a lot of them are not likely to go to their
014adviser and say, "Hey, I want I would like to do this or ask for help." But they might say it if you ask them directly. Yeah, I I can look into the way that different people or different organizations do that and see if that make sure that that would be proper and not violating anything. >> That would be great to know. Thanks. >> Any other questions for our student representatives? >> Okay, now now you can go. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Did a great job. and we'll move on to the reports of the administration and to our business manager. Uh good evening. You have in your packet the financial for FY26 as of September 5th. Um it not much activity having uh just two months and the first payroll for teachers and school
015year employees being processed and ready for posting for this week. Um as I mentioned in the uh report the narrative about uh we'll be doing our formal incumbrances and now with the fact that all the salaries have been rolled over for new contractual uh amounts uh we'll be working on uh both the realignment of staff for movements and also uh aligning as far as if we need to do some budget transfers. Uh we'll be starting that process as well. Um, you also notice that some of the negatives that are throughout the budget are due to these personnel changes that have occurred. Uh, but also as the normal process, if we have grant expenditures and the grants have not come in yet in order for us to order the the materials, we would do a purchase
016order to a local line just to to hold it in reserve, if you will. And once the grant gets approved, we'll end up moving those expenses and purchase orders over to the grant. uh you have the notice in there as far as an special education tuition and uh instructional assistance of uh we had a student move in that with the IEP had the need for an instructional aid the timing of which occurred after the budget. So uh that is a new position that we will need to fund. Um, I say I'm not overly concerned as of right now because as with the constant changes that have occurred when we do this process described in number two, we'll see where the dust settles as far as a personnel changes as to how things go. And honestly,
017that's also the same with the tuition. As of right now though, there have been no changes. So, uh, we are looking at, if you remember from the budget process, it was over budget already by $38,586 and change. Um we are being assigned 50% fiscal responsibility to the tune of the 53,027. So we are already starting the year uh further behind the eightball to the tune of $91,613.76. To reiterate, when we do our realignment, we will see if we can cover that from within if there's any potential savings that we could end up adjusting accordingly or we might need to use more circuit breaker or sped tuition revolving account funds that we have available. And there is always uh the special education 240 grant which we use for tuitions as well. Before I move on to
018the any questions regarding those things before I go on to the second page of the report. >> Member Deniv. >> Hi Andy. I was wondering if you could give us an idea in really the plainest possible way that you can about what what the spendown plan is for the remaining funds that we're going into FY26 with because this is a question I get asked a lot by people like all the time because people are really asking about the remaining balance that we have and I understand it but I want to make sure that maybe we can explain to those that are watching. >> Are you talking in particular like the revolving accounts? Yeah, that's actually the second page. So, if either if we uh >> uh but wait, there's more. Uh you know, so I
019I hope to address that in what you're talking about. Uh but uh if not, obviously after I walk through it, we can have that discussion afterwards. >> Sounds wonderful. Thank you, >> Mayor. Well, I have a question that I think is on page one then on number three. >> The special education. >> Yes. >> Um, so when the budget was built um I think I remember um Mr. Messing saying that you actually built into it to have I forget what it was two people. We had three contingencies which we exhausted even before the >> before that before the budget came in those children had come. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there questions on page one? Okay. >> I think you're good to go. >> Okay. So uh the second part of the on
020on this of the memo talks about the four primary revolving accounts that we have that we use as offsets to our our operations. Now we do have more revolving accounts that are on that revolving account report that you see you know so if you take that in total there is about five million and change in there but if you start to I say peel away at those components of it just over a half a million dollars of it is school lunch that's devoted we can't use that for operations that goes towards school lunch related expenses then there's the athletic revolving account obviously goes for athletics uh that's kind of used for unanticipated things if we have a successful season and we exhausted our transportation, we would use the athletic revolving account for that. Um there's
021the the preschool tuitions which we do use part as an offset but again the so those are kind of I'm going to use the word sacro sanct and that they are specific uses. These four are the primary ones that we use as major offsets to our operating budget. This gets to what you're asking for member den as to what I started with is how the FY25 ended. So that first row, the 7125 beginning balances, those are what we have to start the year. And now it's going to be Andy Pocket broken record where we will charge those when you look at the first the second row is the projected revenue. That's what it is that we anticipate collecting in FY26. The third row is the projected expenses. Those are the expenses that if you look
022at the big budget with all the lines that we have, those are the expenses that we plan on using from those sources to offset what it is that we ask from the city. So let's take circuit breaker. As of right now, we starting the year with $1,273,411. We get reimbured circuit breaker monthly, you know, and so we will see that balance increase. We will see in the revolving account report that balance available balance going up up up and up. We do circuit breaker reclasses two times a year. Just because it hasn't been reclassed doesn't mean that we plan on using don't plan on using it. So come end of the year that third row on using circuit breaker as the example will be what it is that we plan on using that 1.273 million. If
023you go over to the school choice, we're starting the year with $657,17. Our budget is planning on using $663,000 and the cherry sheet amount for school choice revenue is $379,351. So we are starting the year in school choice with 657,000 and change. With the collection of the revenue we're getting in FY26 and what it is that we built the budget on for FY26, we're projecting to end the year with $373,468. So all is said and same with the sped tuition, same with the transportation. So when you look at the narrative that I added in that first sentence underneath the chart, we are reducing our available balance of those revolving accounts by 25.43. 43%. So, and I'm going to say this again to go back to some history here. When all these school districts received the
024ESER funding, one of the things that they were encouraging school districts to do was to use their ESER funding judiciously, which I always tip my hat to Greenfield for doing. They used it for some one-time operating expenses, some onetime capital expenses that allowed us to build up these reserves so that we could in fact use these as we are using it. We have the ability to use 25.43% of our reserves to fund our operations. And then if you take out I just did the second part there as far as removing circuit breaker because circuit breaker has different parameters. If you just take the three revolving accounts that are not circuit breaker but you know in a sense uh have even more flexibility than circuit breaker we are using 36.83% of those funds. So, I'm hoping
025that I'm I'm getting to the point of that yes, if you look and see from these four accounts, there's $4 million that we are starting the year with. And when plan comes, come end of the year, if all things go according according to plan. That is always one of my mantras because a budget's a plan and plans change, we'll end FY26 with $3 million and then trends going according to what we normally do. If we're going to end up using what we used in FY26 for FY27, that's $ 1.9 million. So of the $3 million before we even take into consideration FY27 revenues, for all the intents and purposes, we're going to use about the same amount. So $2 million. So I could have continued on and done a further projection into FY27, which I
026did during the FY26 budget development to show that we are using our reserves. Yes, there's a balance in there now, but it's reducing by a million dollars in FY26 and it most likely will if we look in with the trends of what we're going to be collecting for the revenues and what it is that we're going to use for expenses in 27, it'd be another million dollars that we would use. I don't know if I answer your question along those lines. >> You really did. Thank you very much. I just feel like I've had a t-shirt on that says like ask me about the revolving accounts and I ended up just saying like remember when you have money in your account but you wrote checks like they have to be cashed and then you actually
027don't have any. >> Mr. Sullivan used that analogy in one of the meetings you had. And if you do have a shirt I'll take an extra large because I feel like I've been saying that as well. Well, I'd like to actually um try an analogy and to see if how I'm doing with my analogy and if it might help members of the public as well. So, there's these health savings accounts you can get. And every month, we contribute a little bit to a health savings account. Now, we want to spend that health savings account both on things that are happening this year, but we also want to save some money for the next year. And we don't want to be doing the sending in the um requests for that reimbursement for our health savings expenses
028from this year every time we get an expense because that's a lot of bookkeeping. So we save up our receipts for six months. Then we submit them all in a batch. Then that money comes out of the health savings account. But like you're saying, as soon as you make that purchase, it's basically encumbered. You're planning to take that money out of that reserve that you're trying to save. And I think one thing that makes this challenging for people is that $3 million looks like a lot of money to have left over. I mean, in a household account, you're not going to have anywhere near that. But for a school district, you know, like you're saying, we could have an expense one year that could be a million dollars and reduce that amount by, you know,
02925% like you're saying. So, how's that analogy? >> That works. Okay, thank you. Uh, member Ston and then the mayor. This is not a question that's related to a specific number here, but I believe that another one of our members in a prior meeting um asked about the possibility of basically doing an FY25 postmortem of trying to understand a little bit more of like in the places where we may have been over what we projected or under what we projected, why? And is that something that we can like work to true up a little bit more as we proceed into the future? So, I don't know if that may have been a feature of y'all's meeting last night and belongs there, but I was just wondering where are we on maybe doing that. >> So,
030if from last month's report, if you remember, I'd say the biggest postmortem was on the vacancy savings that we had. I mean, that was a huge amount. I figured I mean over a half a million, you know. So, I can go through and I'll go through and look at like the contracted services and stuff, you know. So, but you know, it was easy enough because I I I know in discussions with Superintendent Joy, we've been talking about the fact of the number of emails that we get as far as personnel changes that have occurred and even are still occurring now for this year. the ins and outs that occurred last year and even the prior year uh I would say is where we see the biggest you know I say the post-mortem as far as
031I'm going to use the word savings but we never want to have vacancy savings because we want to have the staff but that's in fact indeed what it is so there's things like that and then uh it's easy enough for me to go back and continue but I was focusing on the major areas of personnel and then uh looking at some of the major contracted service lines uh and So, it's something that it was an agenda item that we were discussing about having at the budget finance subcommittee. Uh, and it was it was just I'm going to say tabled so that we could focus on the more pressing thing which we'll be talking about later is the budget calendar. >> Mayor, >> um, so I have a question about this. um the projected expenses. Um
032but every year we projected expenses in circuit breaker and every year in circuit breaker we've used about a million two between a million and a million two. We've used that every year. Um, so but in a couple of the other accounts that we're talking about here, the school choice, um, this year you're anticipating using 379, no, 663,000, correct? Last year we predicted using about 300,000 of that. Did we use that last year? >> If you look and see on the revolving account report, we used 510,000. We used 450,000 and we had 61,000 encumbered. >> Okay. In in transportation, >> we used last year 15,000, >> right? And the plan was that we weren't going to because we had the credit from >> Okay. which is my six correct >> and sped tuition. >> We used
03330 3,340 but again we did not use what we planned on because we had that half a million dollars in vacancy savings. >> Do we still have a lot of vacancies in the transportation? Do we still have many? Um the the last I heard I think there were several bus drivers that we had not hired. Is that still the case? Do we know? >> Go ahead. If you >> Yes, I I'll touch on our openings somewhat down the line, but in terms of transportation, we can use a few. So, not a not a lot. They're not hurting. They're getting their buses out every day. A few spares that we'd like and a seat. We're going to have send a driver starting probably in another week for CDL training because a lot of our vans that
034we have are called 7D licenses. Some of you may be familiar with that. If you drive a yellow bus, whether it's one of the big ones you see out there, there's some medium-sized ones and small buses, but the yellow buses require a CDL, commercial driver's license with a bus driver endorsement. So, one of our employees is now going to I'm going to say up their 70D and do training for the CDL as we had a resignation >> because it looked to me like there was about 13 or 14 positions and I thought there were 19, but that's great as long as they're getting the job done. But >> if that being the case that we didn't have all of the positions filled, would you still be thinking that you would be leaning into the transportation
035revolving >> if you didn't fill all the you know you're going to use the you're going to use the operating budget first. Correct. >> That's what we always do. Correct. >> Right. >> Okay. Thank you. And just to clarify, uh, the FY25 vacancy savings was $652,15. >> Other questions for the business manager >> and we had planned on an FY25 for sped tuition using 73,000. So that's why we were able to use very little of the sped tuition revolving account. >> I have a question if no one else does. Mayor, Mayor, >> I have one other question that came up actually like today at the end of the day on the purchase order um the the purchase order process and um this actually came up because we it was because we were paying for the
036Franklin Technical School um which isn't under the school that comes out of under the city. But um when we looked at the the process that we use for signing off on per purchase orders um I sent something to everybody. It was about it was actually about 6:15 today with the purchase order process of how it was. We're not putting them in Munice first for the purchase orders things that are over $10,000. No, we we use the fully encumbrant system in Munis. We use it I would say I use Greenfield as a model for our other clients because of the fact that you use the requisition admittly admittedly requisitions are handwritten but then it's entered into the system. Every expenditure that we have is done via a purchase order that's not in salary. So, so, um,
037I was talking to Fernando with it about it and we can take this to another time, but about for anything that's like $10,000 or over, it's not just signed on in us for the city. We do it in Munice first. So, if there's any big expense, um, it's entered by the department head and then I have to sign off on it and I would have to know, okay, this was a big thing that we're paying for. So, that and it follows along with whatever the system was. So, until this thing came up, I didn't know or we didn't know at the business office that it wasn't going along with this the same system of purchase orders. And I think it might be something that we want to consider because I would have to sign off
038on it. I would think that the superintendent would need to sign off on the larger things and by going down and entering into Munice there were ways we never would have missed um you know a capital expense going over. So I think I can take this I I don't know if you want me to take this offline and talk to the two of you about it. I guess I can the superintendent signs off on on every expenditure regardless of dollar amount through the requisition process and then it goes into the system and so it's electronic signature through the process of the workflow it goes and then I end up going through and reviewing all the purchase orders for budgetary and also ensuring if there's any potential procurement related things and funding availability uh by cost
039center because we do allow lines to go over as long as The cost center does have it. But regardless of the dollar amount, as small as it is, it does get reviewed and signed off and approved on by building administrator. It starts at the building into the system to superintendent to me to ultimate batch approval of the purchase order. >> Mayor, would you be willing to talk to Andy and meet with him and if there's something that needs resolution, happy to put it on the agenda. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions for Andy? Um, I noticed in the the runup to the preliminary election that we just had, both in the in the paper and other places, it seems like both candidates and the public may be a little bit confused about um auditing.
040They there seems to be calls for this the school um finances to be audited and people pledging to do so in the future, but I thought we already are being audited. And if and I think we've talked about that here, but would you tell me whether we're being audited and what the process is and >> Sure. Uh we go through I mean there are several audits, educational audits and then there is an audit that is done by the accountability wing of department of ed where we just went through that was both had a financial component to it and also several indicators that uh the department of ed evaluate school districts on. Then we go through what's called an agreed upon procedures review which is the review of the end of the year people financial report
041which is an annual report that we submit regarding all our expenditures local appropriation grants revolving accounts city contribution etc that gets reviewed it's called an agreed upon procedures review because it's there are certain things that they desi ask auditors to review in addition to that but being a city department through the city's annual audit we are audited and they do ask us where they've come in and reviewed food service. Food service also would go through its own audit from the department of ed. Um so we are a city department and so part of the overall annual audit we would be audited and they do come in and look at our grants procedures, our financial management processes and procedures. I know this did come up at the end of last year and then I reached out
042to uh Mr. number because when auditors come in and audit things, one of the things that they issue is is called a management letter. And that management letter is from the auditor's point of view of areas of concern or areas that they would recommend the organization look at to improve its internal control policies and procedures. Uh when they are issued uh in districts and communities that get them, management is enabled a chance to respond as far as either agreeing or disagreeing with the finding. Uh since we have been here, there's been no management letter issued for the city of Greenfield in the entirety. So I say that's a testament to the city of Greenfield as far as from at least 23 and earlier. 24 isn't done yet. Um and 25 obviously just ending and stuff.
043So I asked Mr. Number I said so was there a management letter issued and or with any school related findings regarding its financial management? And his response to me was no. There was no management letter issued for the city in its entirety. >> So the city and by extension the schools are reaching a very high level of performance in terms of meeting the standards of the audit sounds >> from from the auditors. Correct. >> Okay. And so just to kind of summarize we have uh the the schools are under kind of special scrutiny from the department of education that also looks at many things including school finances. We have the city audit that includes the school department's finances or the school district's finances. Then we have the um process for purchases which require multiple signatures
044on purchase orders with every item being signed off on. and we have school committee members getting access to every everything that the school department is paying for, you know, twice twice a month where we sign off on on those finance on those expenses as well. So, I just kind of want to there's been a lot of kind of like allegations that there's some type of fraud or fishy business going on. We have we also have your reports every month at these school committee meetings where we get to see all the detail and ask you all the questions. And just wanted to also check with school committee members. Um, is there anyone who has reached out to Andy and not received a call back with a question you had about budget or finances? So, no hands.
045So, I just want to reassure the public that we're in very good hands in terms of our financial management and uh accountability to the public from my perspective. Thank you. >> Well, I thank you for that. But I also do want to reinforce the fact that and I mentioned it when we did that workshop and stuff that uh from in the world of my company and stuff. I do use the community of Greenfield as an example as to how as far as internal systems use of accounting systems. As the mayor knows, we have improvements that we need to make on the Munis system from the HR component to things that we are working on. And it seems to be sometimes between personnel changes on both sides of one step up, two steps back, but overall
046I do say and stuff that the overall operations from our times previously and stuff here. I do use Greenfield as an example and it's I don't take any credit for for that because we are using a system that was in place prior to us even coming here. >> Thank you. Okay, moving the assistant superintendent and superintendent reports. Good evening everybody. Um, tonight I have a grants update. I'm pleased to announce that we recently found out that um, Greenfield was a recipient of a partnership for reading success. They're at the state level calling it the Prism Grant. Um it's a prek. We're in phase prism 2. So um it's focused on prek through three. Uh the award was for $95,100. And this will allow us to go through a curriculum vetting process for the Academy of
047Early Learning since we already have literacy curriculum um highquality instructional materials for K to 12. So, we were just awarded this. This is connected very much to Desi's literacy launch um and aligns well with our district prioritization around focus on literacy, specifically early literacy. Um so, looking forward to partnering with Jill Taglia, the director at Academy of Early Learning and the staff there to work through that process. This week, we also submitted our FY26 ESSA um grant. This is title one, 2A, three, and four. Um, I just listed a little bit of information about the award amounts there and u what each grant can be used for. And we also found out that we have been preliminarily awarded 35,000 through Desi's hate crime prevention grant. This is something I mentioned previously. We had applied for
048$50,000, I believe. Uh but the preliminary award is 35,000 and um that will connect well with that public public school district opioid recovery trust grant that we talked about last month. Um as we continue our work there terms of the start of the school year, um it seems like eons ago that we started the school year. We kicked things off with a two-day new teacher orientation on the 20th and 21st of August to welcome all new teachers to Greenfield. We covered a lot. Um we take a tour of Greenfield to show new teachers the community. And then we kicked off the year with uh many of you present with convocation. Um, and the message focused on building relationships, fostering strong communication, and recognizing the value that each individual brings to our classrooms, schools, and district.
049And the program also featured um our twice as smart students doing a performance similar to what they did last year. So, always a good way to welcome back our students. And that was followed up by our principles leading professional development on Tuesday, August 26. I listed some of the um general topics that were covered. And then we also worked with our instructional assistants um with a company play company called Playworks to provide them with some support in providing structure to unstructured time, namely recess. And Playworks is a national organization that wrote a grant last year and Green Greenfield will be one of the primary recipients. They'll be coming and observing playtime, recess time, providing support to our recess um teams as they referred to them. So, looking forward to continuing that throughout the school year.
050We kicked off our benchmark assessments um September 2nd the window open and this allows us to get data right away, baseline data about our students and where their strengths are, where they might have some gaps in learning and um our teachers have done great work. I talked to one teacher today, I think 198 assessments in the last eight days. Um, and that just provides teachers more information about specifically where gaps are. As we talked about last year, the next step from Dibbles, which is a general assessment, is the core and pass diagnostic assessments that digs down to some more specificity into where um, teachers might target instruction for students. And then we continue our work on building relationships and family and community engagement. That was a theme, like I said, at convocation and all of
051our schools have had meet and greets nights, playground nights for uh prek and kindergarten families and many staff, administrators, educators, school committee members joined us marching in the Franklin County parade last Thursday. So, that was a fun event. And finally, I just wanted to follow up. There was a question last month. I shared um the Mimmude versus Taylor Supreme Court ruling and I was asked to um check to see if it might require a policy change. I did go back to our attorneys and they felt strongly that no policy change was needed at this point. The inclusion in the handbook and the opt out pro process which I linked in um the agenda, it provides sufficient notice to make sure that we're compliant. Thank you so much, Superintendent. And we can get questions for both
052of you at the end. >> Good evening. And I'd like to give you a couple quick updates. Um, one nice bit of news I didn't throw on here, but the Federal Street School elevator is has been certified, done, certified, being used. So, so thank you to all those involved, the city for helping fund that. um all the workers all the time, whether it was cafeteria workers, custodians, teachers who had to lug many things up and down those stairs from uh breakfast, lunch, that type of scenario, materials, but we are rocking and rolling now. So, the elevator is is working. So, that's great news and thanks to all who who helped with that. Um, as Mr. Sullivan mentioned, just want to congratulate and thank everybody who participated in that parade. Obviously, well, maybe not obviously, my
053first time in the parade, right? Um, that was a big parade as in long. A lot of participants in it. The walk I didn't mind. That was good. Got some steps in that day, but to see all the people and we we went through about 90 pounds of candy throwing out to a lot of the young children and even young adults out there who wanted candy from us. And uh, so that was a nice night. Um, great weather obviously for that. and I can see how it really brings the county together for that and Greenfield being the heart of the county obviously some of our updates um talking about some open positions right now what we have still searching for as we've heard from some different conversations already we're looking for a BCBA um a
054math teacher in seventh grade a special education teacher at Newton a psychologist business manager music teacher at the elementary school adjustment counselor and a custodians. I will say though, just as an FYI for you, for the BCBA, the math teacher, the psychologist, and the business manager, as of this point, we have zero applicants. Some of that has to do with the timing. Obviously, it's the beginning of the school year. A lot of people are settled. Um, there are certain cycles, as many of you may know, in terms of looking for certain positions in life. They have natural cycles. Not that you can't grab somebody off of um at a sporadic time in that sense, but um we're doing our best. Our teachers are doing a nice job helping others and some long-term substitutes who are
055out there doing that and the principles are currently and along with Mr. Sullivan as well still doing interviews for a lot of these positions as we speak every single day. So looking to fill those jobs. Our jobs are posted on schoolpring.com and can also be seen outside when you walk into central office on a bulletin board there if anybody would like to see that or feel free to call central office and we can help you fill out applications or guide you for that. So, those are some of the open positions right now. I've also attached some ridership numbers for you, just as an FYI there. And you'll see like some of our buses, what we have, our numbers from one year to the other. We've gone up slightly in some ridership numbers. And just gives
056you a breakdown. We'll have more on transportation well in the upcoming months, but this is just kind of to keep you in the loop as to what's going on. And um we appreciate all the work that our our transportation department has done and even that our parents are giving us because at times we do listen the beginning of the year buses are late. We know that they run late. um through no fault of anybody. Traffic sometimes getting kids on a bus, holding a bus while somebody I was I watched dismissal today at the middle school and was out there with the vice principal while he was boarding kids on the bus and we had to hold the bus and I'll say all beit for about one more minute because some young ladies had to go
057up and grab their field hockey equipment from the office that I think sometimes might have been brought down to the gym but it wasn't there. So the bus was maybe 45 seconds, you know, behind, but things happen and we know that. But we appreciate every everybody's patience in doing that. We're still working out some wrership issues in the morning between bus 5 and bus two, working on that. So that's we're working with Kasmascus on that right now. In terms of enrollment numbers, I've given you where we stood as of the 8th a few days ago. there. Um, you can take that really the 1392 minus the home school of 31 is really 1361. So, our enrollment right now is 1,361 students at this point. Things are still flushing out. Students are coming in. We're making
058sure we're still getting a few enrollments here and there. Some students, if they haven't been here for attendance, we're trying to find out where they are. Sometimes people will move and not let us know. and then we can look online or I within the state realm and find them in another district and you know get our roles going in that sense. So we'll keep you up to date as to where we stand on enrollment but you can see the breakdown there for each grade. And then I've also included we have a new food service director and we'll get her in here at some point but literally she just started last week marched on her second day marched in the parade with us so it was really great. them. Obviously, everybody loved and food service gave
059out apples, which you they couldn't keep a hold of. Everybody loved those and they were very good apples. We gave out the candy, they gave out apples. Go figure, right? Um, in that sense, countering the dentist might be happy on that counter on that one. But our summer program set record numbers for us. And you have two sides of that paper. In terms of summer meals, over 75,000 75,773 total meals served. um almost an equal amount of breakfast and lunch, pretty close, and then less supper. The number of meal sites was 18. We had seven congregate, which are sitown sites, 11 non- congregate, which are grabband go sites for our meals. What was new this year was a weekend meal bundling. And I know that some of you were able to see the Friday distribution
060when the congressman and commissioner and secretary came and that was for weekends where people would were able to grab three days worth of meals in that sense. So that obviously helped and some of our staff down or some of the staff below shows you some of the statistics about 20 staff members helped out. We are a district eligible C area. So all of our students eat free breakfast and free lunch. And we encourage our parents out there right now who are watching to encourage your students to eat free breakfast and free lunch because I am always amazed to this day still that people students will walk by and not grab a free breakfast or free free lunch. You can encourage your students in some case if it's non-p perishable to put that in their backpack
061or put it in a bag and take it home for later. And a lot of our student athletes at the high school will do that. They may not want it then, but uh by the time they're done a practice, right, or a coral rehearsal or a drama club or a band at 4:00, 5:00, they may be looking for that extra piece of fruit or muffin or something that they can grab in that sense. So, a great program as I've mentioned to you many times, right? This is a shining star program. You really really doesn't get any better than that for our summer eats kickoff on that. So that is my quick update for some. >> Okay. Questions for Mr. Joy or Mr. Sullivan? Member Ston? >> Um, this is about the ISSA grant requests that
062were submitted. I was just curious about how the request amounts were arrived at because I saw, you know, for title three there's like $14,000 and that just seemed low given what at least I think I know and maybe I don't know as much as I think I do about our, you know, English language learner population and what their support needs are. >> Sure. >> I might need to rely on Andy a little bit for this, but it's all really formula based on enrollment and who your population is. And then as we fill out the grant, we also have to reach out to private schools within the district and if they're serving Greenfield residents and they want to consult, they get a percentage based on their numbers as well. So the numbers assigned through the formula
063that comes through my understanding is through the SIMS report that comes out throughout the year. >> That's correct. >> Yes. So we don't get to really choose what we put here. >> What's that? >> We don't get to really choose the the amount that we can ask for. >> No. So these are like these are entitlement grants. So based on the formula where the other grant like the hate crime prevention grant is like a competitive grant that you apply for a certain amount based on the parameters. Member Childs and the member Martini and the member Denive. >> So with the enrollment numbers, the grade 13, is that the extended special ed program? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. 18 to 22 year olds. >> Okay. I forgot the order. I said member Martini. Uh in regards to
064the hate crime prevention grant, you mentioned that um the district had applied for 50,000 and has this preliminary award for 35. And I'm just wondering is there planned or wished for programming for which there is going to be a need to make up that difference? And if so, how might we do that within our existing budget? >> So I don't anticipate having I want to be careful what I say publicly like we would be able to use the 15,000 if we got it but by not getting it it's not going to prohibit us from doing the work that we had planned to do. So for example some of the grant for that specific grant went towards stipens some of it was through contracted service. So we were able to reduce each line by a little
065bit and like for example instead of having six stipended positions we might only end up with four stipened positions and then this is where the other grant will work in conjunction with the PSD grant will work in conjunction with this because it's all going towards the restorative practices implementation plan that we started last here. So, we're moving things around. Um, and I'm still hopeful that we could get additional funding beyond that, but Desi was waiting for some information from the governor's office. >> Okay. Thanks, >> member Denive. I didn't have a question, but I had to thank you um Stephen Sullivan for the um bringing the new teachers around Greenfield and making them feel welcome. That's really in line with the community engagement that we're always talking about trying to foster and the retention that
066we're always talking about. And I just think that was really thoughtful and I wanted to thank you for that and I'm looking forward to hearing about all the new things you do with that. Thank you. I will be honest, that has existed for far before I started. I don't know how many years, but I had the pleasure of being on that tour last year. I did not anticipate having to be the tour guide this year. Um, but I think I did I think I did okay. >> So, I was on the bus this year as a newbie. >> More pressure. >> Yes. and he did a great job and everybody enjoyed a lot and learned about all about the different areas of town and the different hotspots and the different restaurants and the different places
067our students live and work and our families work. So, he did a great job. >> I think that's really special and those are things that we like to hear and you know are important for the public to hear that we do. So, I really appreciate you telling us about it because we had no idea that you did that. Yeah, it it was a lot of fun and I think it's good that our new staff know where their stu the students they're working with are coming from and the circumstances that they may or may not live for better or worse. So it I think it provides some perspective anyway. So thank you. Any other questions? Thank you all so much. We'll move on now to our superintendent search presentations. Um, and I believe we have people
068on Zoom who would probably need sharing privileges. Is that you, Judy? And and Eric, do you need to be able to show? Okay. So, as you get ready to um hire a new superintendent for next year, obviously you need to go through a search. So, you have a a search firm here. The first presenter is called you generally refer to as NASDAQ. You may hear that it's the New England School Development Council and they do run searches and they will give a presentation to you and you have a packet in front of you >> and uh you should be able to come uh come off mute and share your screen and speak to us. Hopefully I can try to give you a button to push to come off mute. Oh, there >> here it is.
069>> Wonderful. >> All set. Are you able to see my screen? >> Yes. Right now, we're seeing the kind of full layout, not the presentation layout, but we do see it. >> Terrific. Okay. Okay. Well, first thank you for having me uh come to talk about the um superintendent search services offered by NASDAQ. Um I will stop my presentation. Um so what I wanted to talk to you today is uh first to introduce myself uh talk about NASDAQ uh who is NE N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N D and what Nestec does and then talk spec specifically about the superintendent search process. So I'll go through the steps in the process as they are done by NASDAQ. So, first, um, I
070have over 35 years in education. I'm a former superintendent in Maine, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. I recently retired from Smithfield, Rhode Island. Um, and I've been working with NASDAQ for about three years and previously served on the board for NASDAQ. NASDAQ is a nonprofit that was established in 1946. Um they've been doing uh superintendent searches since 1962. Um they offer professional development, executive searches, facilities planning, executive coaching, strategic planning, and other services including an enrollment projection you might be getting each year. uh those services are provided to over 300 affiliate districts in the New England states. Uh NESD is governed by a board consisting of superintendent from all six New England states. And for the superintendent search process, NASDAQ is focused on assisting, supporting, and managing the search process for school committees. It's ultimately the
071role of the school committee to hire a new superintendent. So this is really your search but we are the support services for that search. Attracting a new superintendent a quality superintendent is contingent upon a professional search process with strong outreach efforts and NASDAQ ensures both. So, NASDAQ is here with you from the start of the process to the signing of the contract and sometimes beyond if you're also interested in um executive coaching to to um help that new superintendent get firmly established in your district. The process begins with a meeting uh with the school committee for planning and organization. And the goal of that meeting is to design the search process and develop a timeline for the search process. Um following that meeting um begin we begin with advertising and recruitment. I won't read this
072all for you. Um but um it includes national and regional publication of the vacancy um advertising in a variety of places uh along with electronic outreach. Um and so NASDAQ has a um um a process of emailing. We have a huge database of potential candidates. um they might be um former or present superintendent, assistant superintendent um and those go out all of these process goes goes out simultaneously and also overlapping on one another so that most people in the education community in Massachusetts and neighboring states will know about the opening in Greenfield. We also have active recruiting. There are people that know that NZDC it does do searches. They keep in touch with our executive director. Uh we know of people who are presently looking for positions and so uh and we reach out to
073them to let them know personally about the opening. Um we work with school committees to help determine the desired competencies. Now there's always the basics. People need to be certified and so on. However, each community is a little bit different. It has slightly different needs. So, we use a web-based questionnaire for the community. Uh we have found that this is now the preferred method for people in the community to um give input on what they want to see in the new candidate. Um we also have u focus groups will um come to or we'll do it electronically or do it in person. have focus groups with selected um groups of people. It might be the town council or it might be um the administrators in the district or teachers in the district or parents. Um
074and those focus groups uh can be done. We gather data from those focus groups and we compare it to the web-based questionnaire. It's often very very um in line with one another. Um we then develop a candidate profile. That profile is reviewed by the board um and it's eventually used to develop questions for interviews so that the um the screening committee can really focus in on the qualities of the people um that match what the community really wants to see in their new superintendent. Um we also assist with screening applicants. So applicants submit their materials through our online system. We monitor for complete applications. Um and um but the actual screening and the actual dis discussion about who should move forward for an interview happens with the selection committee that's developed um for Greenfield. We
075assist in initial interviews and with finalist interviews. Uh we support the work of the screening committee. Uh usually that involves two meetings. Uh we do inter um we also do additional reference checks. We work with candidates um that you select to move forward in the process with what we call an agreement in principle. uh we want to make sure that their expectations for uh pay and other things match what you are able to provide um and and that they are not moving forward with uh the process uh in a way that's that's not legitimate. Um we help schedule the interviews. We contact unsuccessful candidates for you. Uh we also then when we're in the final stage of interviews, we support the work of the final interview process. So what are some other aspects of the
076NASDAQ process? We we like to say that our communication um with the school committee is um is excellent. We work closely with the person you choose as the liaison to communicate how things are going. Uh what needs to be done next. A lot of things need to be coordinated together. Um we we do don't provide language translation services unfortunately, but we like to put that up up front in case you're interested in that. Uh we do offer a warranty within the first year of appointing a superintendent or executive director. We um offer a warranty where if it doesn't go well or doesn't finish the first year, we will repeat the process. We also have feebased options depending on um sometimes it's worked into the final uh amount, but we have a a number of focus
077groups that could be added to the process. entry planning, consultation with the new superintendent, uh governance team planning with the school committee and the superintendent or longer term executive coaching. Um if the uh community is interested, we can produce a personalized brochure as well. And um if if interested, education week uh also has a hard copy form and um that's build at cost. Now I know um I went through this rather quickly, but I wanted to make sure you had time to ask any questions. >> Questions from the committee. Member Marti and then member Denive. Could you explain in a bit more detail about the governance team planning? >> Sure. Um, so governance team planning involves working with the school committee together with the superintendent to discuss roles and responsibilities. Not only whose job is
078it anyway to do certain things, but also how do you work together in a way that best supports uh the district? And um often the there's not a not always a clear understanding of the difference between governance and administration or sometimes some things have a little bit of an overlap. So by working together and and having a facilitator work with you and a new superintendent uh we have found that to be a very successful way to start a relationship. >> Thank you. Member Denise, >> I was dry. I answered my question. >> Oh, okay. Any other questions? Member Childs, >> do you have any example districts that are comparable to Greenfield demographically or geographically close to us that you've worked with recently? >> I wouldn't be able to because I'm one of of several um
079search consultants. I wouldn't be able to pull them up. Um, I know that our office could easily pull them up and in fact when we're developing the candidate profile and uh the uh invitation to apply letter and we work with you on that. We um find like districts to use as examples so that you can um um look to see how it's been done in other places. But we certainly have um done a number of searches that are in Massachusetts. We're probably have uh the most of our searches and we also have done small to large district districts in all parts of the state. >> Thank you. >> Member Ston. >> Um thank you first for coming and giving us this presentation tonight. We really appreciate it. Um, as a as a community and as
080a school district, we're very interested in making sure that this is a participatory process that really gets uh gets the feedback and information from parents and other members of the community and I would also think students as well about what they're looking for. So, I was very interested in hearing more about um how you go about gathering feedback from all folks and making sure that the voices that you're hearing are representative of multiple perspectives within a given community. Um I would also appreciate if you could speak a little bit more about how you would want to collaborate with us um on that knowing that you know we're here and you are in your community. Um just yeah, if you could give us a little more detail about what that might look like. Sure. Sure. Um,
081so I've worked with a number of communities. I could I could probably most recently NATIC that I think did an excellent job of first identifying which groups um would be best to hold focus group meetings with. Um and and what they did is also very very well is got the word out well in advance to different groups so that these meetings were pretty well attended. Uh we had um for example um one group that consisted of the administrators in the district. uh we had groups that involved teachers and we we were very careful in where they would be held so that teachers from other schools would be able to attend. Um we had parent meetings um one at night, one during the day um and we also met with members of the town administration and
082governance. Um so we first of all um made sure we we worked together with the school committee to uh to determine who who who the group should be and and when they should be held and we had general community by the way to cover kind of everybody or everybody as well. Uh we did it in in a pretty efficient manner but we also did did a lot of communication to make sure that people knew about them. We heard from people that weren't able to come for whatever reason and they still showed appreciation that they were included um because they they felt like their voice was heard. But in addition to the meetings, we had our online um um survey that went out and that link also went out in a variety of ways. uh went
083out through the senior center, it went out through uh PTO's, it went out through the superintendent sending an email to everyone. So, we we had a a pretty large response from the community uh and were able to gather information from that survey, kind of compare it to what we learned from the focus groups. Um and then we write up a pretty detailed summary of what was learned. Um and then uh that um can be shared by the school committee in whatever way they choose uh to share that information out. But sometimes by getting that information back out to the community, they can see their voice in there and know that they've been heard. >> Other questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. You're welcome. Thank you. >> Okay. And Mr. Joy, you
084have a report from um mask. >> Yes. Um you have material in front of you from MASC, not only online, you have it in a folder, but you also have the print material in front of you. And um that search obviously we just heard from NASDAQ. There was a cost in there too. Um NZDIC in terms of their proposal to you. uh MAC, Mass Association, Massachusetts Association of School Committees does a lot of work obviously with school committees and they do a lot of searches. Your field director if you were to choose MASC would be Liz Lefond who has been out here. There's also other people who would be involved probably Tracy Novik and Glenn Coocher who worked with MASC. Um they write in here since joining in 2015, Miss Lefond has managed several searches
085including recent searches in Chabe, West Springfield, East Hampton, Lennox and Palmer. for herself. I'm going to kind of flip through. They do a lot of similar things. Both firms obviously do a lot. General consultation, you know, searching out people, doing committees, things like that. The announcement of the vacancy, uh, recruitment of superintendent, application processing, getting community and staff involvement. That's one of the big things that you'll see from probably both of the firms that they you obviously want to be h heard. Member Saxton mentioned that, right? Hearing everybody's voices from the teachers, from the students, from the parents, from the business people in town, from all the everybody um it's a it's a big position to fill. We all know that. And somebody who will be you doing a lot of work with, you know,
086our best I won't say our best assets, but some of our most valuable are children, right, in that sense. Not that they're they're better than anybody else, but they're very important in that sense. So, you'll get a lot of community and staff involvement. They'll take you through the screening process of semi- finalists, uh the final selection. In that sense, on the top of page seven, they do mention that it's generally expected and anticipated that the search consultant will attend all interviews and screening sessions, which is great because I've seen um different times where um different companies andor committees try to do it themselves and then sometimes you're you're not there during interviewing and there's always something that may or may not come up in terms of legality of what you can do. Then they'll guide
087you through the final selection. In terms of followup, at the bottom of page seven, should the individual retain a superintendent fail to complete two years of service, MASC will assume responsibilities of reinstating the search process at no additional charge. So, should your superintendent that you pick not stay for two years, they will do the next search for free or as a well, you've paid for it. Do you know what I mean? But that'll happen. So doing that um the search process that you can see on the start of page eight would cost $11,500. That includes all staff, labor, and consulting services because we are an MASC member. And any type of other expenses would be printing and postage uh NTE not to exceed $2,000. That would be the most. They would stop and cap it
088at that and they'll do advertising for that. They are in the building during every phase of it. And at the back of that initial handout on pages 12 and 13, it shows you some of the small bio bios of the people who work for MASC and who will do do some of your searches for that. So I am not employed by MASC. I am employed by you. I am just a reader. I can read and I was just reading it and speaking it. I have been on the process um on both ends of this with MASC and in NASDAQ as well too. Any questions about masks proposal? Okay. Um, with that, I I would like to hear a motion from a member um to approve one of the proposals to conduct the superintendent search and
089authorize the superintendent to enter into a contract with the provider that you put into your motion. And the approval would include the possibility of adding on optional services as the search pro progresses subject to committee approval and review and approval if necessary. So basically I'm looking for a motion from someone to choose one of the one of the presenters so we can get the process started. Mayor. >> Okay. I move that we choose news NASDAQ. Second. >> Okay. Um, discussion. Okay. So, that was a motion that the school committee approved the proposal from NASDAQ, New England School Development Council, to conduct the superintendent search and authorize the superintendent to enter into a contract with Nestec for these services. The approval includes the possibility of adding on optional services from NASDAQ as the search progresses subject
090to future committee review and approval as necessary. And so that was a motion from the mayor and a second from member Denive. Um Vice Chair Saxton, >> I was just wondering if either of those two people would like to give a motivation for why they put forward. >> Yeah, we'll have discussion so they can speak to it if Yeah, discussion. So, I just had read through what they had and talked to a couple of people. It sounds like um one is more Massachusetts and the other one does more in New England and I saw a thorough list from on the NASDAQ presentation of the different communities that they had found a superintendent for. So, I think it was just spreading a little bit wider um view was why I put that forward. Thank you. Any
091other discussion, Secretary Denive? >> Um, you know, I totally adore MASC and I try to do a lot of work with them. Um, but NASDAQ was here to give the presentation and to answer questions. And I think that that's really important. Um, and that's something that makes me think when we need them and we call them there, they will be there for us. Um, I think that MASC would do a fine job. I don't think that they wouldn't, but that's sort of part of it for me is be present for your presentation. >> Okay. Other discussion. Okay. Um, well, I think it's a big enough choice that we should do a roll call vote if you don't mind, Secretary Deniva. >> Uh, Mayor Disorger, >> yes. >> Member Childs, >> yes. >> Member Martini, >>
092yes. >> Vice Chair Ston, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Chair Johnson, >> and I'm a yes. >> So, it passes unanimously for uh NZDC. >> Wonderful. Um, >> thank you. We look forward to working with you. Um, >> as do I. >> It seems like it might also be very efficient for us to uh appoint an a liaison tonight if the committee feels ready to do so. I would hear a motion to appoint Vice Chair Ston as the liaison from the committee to to NASDAQ for the search process. >> Second or sorry, no motion. >> Oh, okay. Motion from member Martini. Is there a second? >> Second from member Childs. Any discussion? Uh, mayor. >> So, what did you what did we exactly mean by that? >> So, um, and I just wanted to
093to say when we did the this the last search where we actually used somebody, I think for Christine Debarge, what was the process because I didn't hear about that. Did we have a one person that was a liazison? Did you have a subcommittee? I don't know what it was. I wasn't here. I was trying to look up. So just for for discussion >> yeah um we didn't I think we may have had a sub uh ad hoc subcommittee who was were the search subcommittee with a chair who probably would have served as the liaison. Um I was kind of going from the presentation that they asked for a liaison and and so the process was very extensive. We we were in pandemic times for the search that resulted in Superintendent Dearge, but we had um
094virtual site visits with every place meeting with dozens of people from the superintendent's home school. Um yeah, there were interview processes and and uh meet and greets and other members may remember other parts of the process, but it was fairly extensive. And so it may be that um between now and the next meeting um the liaison that we appoint tonight would have a chance to meet with Miss Paluchi um and discuss kind of the the structure. But we kind of wanted to use their expert guidance in crafting our structure and it seems like having a liaison starting tonight would be helpful to get that process started. [Music] Okay. Um, Secretary Deniv, >> I guess my question is for you, Vice Chair. Do you feel like you will have the time to take this on with
095all the other things that you do on the committee? Because I think that there are other members who might have more time, but I I have no no desire to see any one member be the liaison over another. I'm just thinking about our time because we do like to be thoughtful about what we're all doing and what we're all involved in. I suppose luckily for me and for all of you, I have had a few um work projects in my life wrap up and I do have the time actually. I also just want to say like if you did choose to appoint me as the liaison tonight, it is my full intention that I'm not the only person making this call or being the only voice deciding what is needed. It is my intention to
096create a committee um that includes potentially another member from this body but also certainly members of the staff um or other administrators. So I I don't want to go this alone. I just want to make that very clear. >> Any other discussion? >> So could you just tell me again what did you do? What was the makeup of it the last time? Do you remember? Were you here? >> I believe we were three. It's a little vague and it was in the middle of the pandemic so I don't know if that contributes to my inability to remember. I just remember a lot of work a lot of there was a committee of us that was reading applications and doing these site visits. There were there were different stages that the committee went through with different
097decision points um where we I I don't remember like how we selected which were the finalists who came for meet and greets and where we did those extensive um site virtual site visits but maybe Miss Paluchcci maybe you could speak to a kind of a standard process and what kind of work is involved and how it how the decisions get made often. Yes. So I think you're um you're speaking too about a uh screening committee. So we will need to put together a committee consisting of usually it's um a two or three members of the school committee along with representatives from uh teachers, parents, perhaps the town um administrators. And that committee is the committee that reviews the applications, decide who gets pulled forward for interviews, what the questions will be for the interviews and
098so on. um that uh the liaison at least having a person initially sometimes I've also seen um a group of three people who serve as a a committee that kind of guides the process. uh and that that committee meets uh virtually with me every week to to you know talk about how many applications have come in, what are we uh when are we meeting next, who's on the screen at the uh screening committee h and have they uh who should be on the screening committee and so on. Um but having one person initially to kind of get the ball rolling is very very helpful. Any other questions, mayor, on that? >> Um, superintendent, what have you have you seen done in the past in other schools? >> Uh, what I've seen take place a lot
099of what she just mentioned would be that on your screening committee in that sense when you get there, but it'd also be a little search in the sense of outreach in that sense. So the initial work would obviously anybody would have the option to attend, but this little committee gets the ball rolling would end up having to do a little more leg work than just look at applications. They're going to end up having to put together possibly community forums um surveys with the help obviously of NASDAQ to do outreach to hear different things that you want in a superintendent in that scenario. Then leading up to the interviews that search committee with NASDAQ obviously would screen the applicants and you know that scenario and they generally would be involved in the first I'll call use
100the word first round interview. So the entire sometimes the your entire board committee will not be there during the entire in the end ultimately you decide and you do pick the superintendent generally the full committee would come in at the end with the finalists you may be presented x number of finalists in that scenario but for the screening committee um you'd work with the consultant to figure out how many people you wanted on there I would strongly recommend in my own opinion of seeing things in life that minimally two or three of you because you can't have four because you get a quorum in that sense. So you can't have four of you on that committee for that reason. But I would definitely push two to three to that limit because I've seen other places
101not put school committee members on screening committees and maybe regret the pool of candidates that had come through in that sense or somewhat wonder why certain things hadn't happened. Well, it hadn't happened because you weren't on the screening committee. So, this is one of the biggest things that you do as a school committee, right? But there's three main things that school committees do and hiring a superintendent is one of them. And hopefully in life, you don't have to do it often. So, when it happens, obviously, it's a big undertaking. >> And we have two kind of formats that the school committee has in policy about how we can do work between meetings. One is the uh subcommittee, an ad hoc subcommittee. The other is an advisory board. the advisory board kind of uh structure allows
102for more than just school committee members to be part of it. And both of those have um requirements in terms of being given a certain charge um you know a scope of of what you're to do and what you're not to do on behalf of the school committee. So I guess part of what we'd be looking for from the liaison and from NASDAQ between now and the next meeting would be kind of a proposal for how that structure would work and then the school committee would have a chance to discuss and debate and vote on what the structure is and what the um kind of process timeline might look like and so on. Any other questions? Um, Secretary Denive, >> I like the idea of having an advisory board for this because I want to
103also make sure that we have as many voices from the community involved as possible. So, I don't know the exact Robert's rules backpedaling, but um, do we need to resolve this motion first before someone makes a motion for that or could we amend? Uh we could we could one process would be tonight if you wanted to make that motion tonight we could vote on who will be the liaison and then we could charge them with um with proposing a structure for an advisory committee for this but I would I guess my my personal take and I could talk about this in discussion of your motion instead if you prefer but is that I think it's going to make sense for the liaison and for NASDAQ to look at both of these these structures and which
104one will serve the needs of the search because there may be things about the advisory committee structure as it's laid out in our policy. There may be other ways of gathering that same feedback. So I guess I would s I don't think well you maybe you can speak to this Miss Paluchcci but it seems like we have time to maybe have a a month to kind of come back with a proposal of how that work would be structured and vote on that at our October meeting with a strong recommendation to look seriously at the advisory board structure. I guess >> I think that's a great idea. I do think you have the time and always putting the time in at the beginning to do it right is always a good good idea. I also haven't
105read and I will read your policy right away so that I uh have an understanding of those two structures and then can have a good conversation about what would be best. >> Wonderful. So I mean one way we could do it would be to amend the motion and you know appoint um vice chair ston to be the liaison and to direct vice chair ston to look strongly at the um the advisory board structure as a way of um structuring the work of the search. So I forget who made the original motion. Would you accept that as a friendly amendment? Yes. >> And it was seconded by >> seconded by >> and I accept that. >> Okay. And I appreciate our recording secretary for hanging in with all of these surprise motions. Well done. Let us
106know if we need to go slower or if you need any clarification. Okay. All right. Any other discussion on now the now um amended motion? All right. Uh I think we could do this with an all in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Uh abstension. Okay. So um >> all in favor except for um Vice Chair Ston who abstained. And so the motion carries. Thank you very much for being willing to take that on Vice Chair Ston. All right. Anything else you need from us tonight, Miss Baluchcci? >> No, I will um be in touch within the next day. Um I know online I'll be able to find an email, I'm sure. Um and I am looking forward to working with you on this process. Thank you. >> Oh, one final question. How
107am I doing on pronouncing your last name? Well, if if you go to Italy, they say paluchi, but here they tend to say peluchi. >> Puchi. >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Okay, thanks. >> All righty. Uh uh we normally take our break if the meeting goes past 8:30, but we have a request for a break now. Any objection to taking our uh five minute break now? Okay. But I would like to say we have a lot still on our agenda and sometimes people are not observant of the five minutes. I would really like to start as the clock is turning from 8:10 to 8:11. So be here to watch the clock turn. And it's now 8:05 p.m. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Back down. [Music] Hey, hey, hey.
108[Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] We are getting started again. Welcome back. Thank you for your promptness. Deeply appreciated. We are moving on to the consent agenda. I'd like to hear a motion. Oh, let me see. Is there anyone who'd like to remove any items from the consent agenda? I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. >> Motion from the mayor. Second. >> Second from member child's with a close third from vice chair ston. Any discussion? >> I mayor. >> I just wanted to say I like this. The library reading log I thought was very clever. Um instead of reading log, a weeding log. Maybe that was just a coincidence, but it struck my funny bone. Anyways, >> nice. Vice Chair Ston. I just want to extend a heartfelt
109thank you to our PTO for always making sure that our students get really cool fun equipment to make their, you know, outdoor time awesome. So, appreciate them. >> Yes. Thank you, Federal Street School Parent Teacher Association organization for the uh sandbox. Wonderful. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? The motion carries unanimously. School committee reports. I would just like to um extend appreciation to everybody who ran in the recent school committee preliminary election. Um it's very I don't remember a time before that we had any committee or council have a preliminary besides the mayor's office. But at any rate, whether that's true or not, it definitely was exciting to have seven people interested in the three seats that will will come on well, three of the four seats that will
110come on board in January. Little complicated. One person's running unopposed for to serve out the remainder of someone else's term. Um but uh just big appreciation for everyone who ran and uh congratulations to those who remain on the ballot and hope everybody um stays engaged and involved uh with the with the schools. Um it's really wonderful to have uh people getting a chance to uh have a real debate and discussion about the direction of of the schools uh budget and finance report. member Martini. >> Hello. Uh so I will combine um from last month and this month since I wasn't able to be here in August. Uh so the uh budget and finance subcommittee has met twice recently including today. Uh and we uh worked on the revising of the uh annual budget development calendar
111which as you'll recall last year was our first annual. So this will be the second. And uh we also discussed uh potential rubrics for use in improving our annual budget document. And then uh what we have for you from today is here in your materials um a budget development calendar for fiscal year 2027. This looks similar to what you uh will recall from the previous fiscal year. So, uh, the first page will be, uh, filled in with current photos. Uh, we just don't have them yet and didn't want to leave the same ones on there. So, uh, the superintendent will be, uh, dutifully providing some, um, good photos, uh, current photos that we have permission to use of our students so we keep their faces, um, front and center when we're talking about the budget.
112And uh second page includes uh the dates which have just been uh updated uh for whatever slight changes may um have occurred year-over-year for when things will occur. Uh we just will have one question for the mayor um about when um our capital improvement program is due to city council because we weren't sure. Um and I'll let u member child get to that. um if you don't mind speaking to the the second document here. So um but everything is pretty much um similar just with updated dates so people can see when the school committee um is taking certain actions in relation to the budget development. Those things are highlighted in orange. The city actions are highlighted in yellow. The uh school administration actions are highlighted in blue. And uh lastly, the state actions that pertain
113to our budget are in purple. And this way everyone can see uh sort of the orchestra that goes on when it comes to um the development of an actual budget. And then the last page is frequently asked questions. Um it includes a copy of the school committee's budget planning policy so that people don't have to go digging or looking through the um policy manual to see it. and then also uh answers to questions for folks about how they can have input in multiple different ways um at all the levels that are involved in the development of the budget. And then um this year we have this uh beautiful second document which is a reference guide for uh future members of the budget and finance subcommittee on updating this. Um, uh, member Charles, I will let
114you, uh, do that because you developed this and, uh, and I think it's great. >> So, basically, this is so that whoever is putting together the calendar in the future isn't going to be reinventing the wheel and reooking up all of the dates and deadlines. So, the first part of it is literally just the dates that things happen. And, uh, then it's got the references, the Greenfield City Charter, relevant section 52. um the reference to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for when the governor's budget gets released uh before the fourth Wednesday in January. Um the one question we did have um let me see which one that was the uh March 1st mayor sends capital improvement program to city council 120 days before start of the fiscal year. Start of fiscal year being
115July 1st. Um, for 20 for FY25, it was listed as March 1st because that was the date on a memo from the mayor last year. Um, but I think the 120 days would be more like what? March 3rd, >> I think. Was that >> I'm not sure. Well, 120 days would that would be closer to the start of the year. So, I wanted to just u make sure that we have the correct date on here for um 2026. So, this is a great question. Um, and tomorrow I'm talking with our delegation. There's a um an amend like an amendment that's I think is going to be voted on very shortly that was put forward by city council um last year. It takes a long time to get that finished. So, I just was pulling that
116up. And if this passes in time, which I'm hoping it will for next year's budget, it's all going to be a little bit later so that we'll be doing more what most other communities do. Um it moves us up a month. We used to have to have our budget in by April 1st. Now it's going to be um this is the operating budget by April 22nd and the capital plan by March 1st. So, um, that's when it goes to city council, but requests actually will be in earlier than that. I am going to take a look at I haven't actually look at the calendar for this for this year and I'm going to talk to Stephen and I think I'm going to have to get back to you about that. But what the plan is
117that the whole capital plan to be with you by March 1st. That's what's up for vote in front of the delegation. Okay. So, it seems advisable to leave that date on March 1st as is then. >> Okay. Great. >> Yep. >> And so, the um only other thing on this side is the budget hearing from the May from May City Council. Uh budget hearings required within 60 days of receiving the proposed budget. It's been at the regularly scheduled May meeting. So, I just assumed that that is how it will continue to be done or is that not a correct assumption? >> I think it might I'm hoping that the whole thing will be a month later. Um because people will have a better idea of where they are in the fiscal year. By putting it
118in later, you'll be able to see where you are practically at the three quarter mark. So, I was anticipated that they might be voting at the June meeting, which is what most other municipalities do. They vote on their operating budgets. I think 95% of um m municipalities are voting in their June meeting on the budget. >> So it sounds like the answer here should be after city council does their vote, I work with the mayor to get the new deadlines, update both documents. That sound right? Um, and then the back side of uh your little reference guide is just the color standardization um with your RGB values so that your highlighting will be the same from one year to the next. >> Superintendent, >> um I'd like to thank member Martini and Childs for the
119hard work that they've done on this. It's a great um blueprint really and as as assistant superintendent Sullivan tells me a lot of times right it's great guard rails to keep us in bounds and going in the right direction and I would agree with what you mentioned member Charles I was going to say I I think in my opinion you could vote this tonight and then just revise it as needed similar to what we do with a school calendar if things come up you revise it but to not put it off in that sense because it does give a nice timeline of moving forward >> that's just what I is I'm going to say so um unless there's other discussion I would like to make a motion to approve this >> is there a second
120kind discussion thank you for the work on it oh sorry I didn't raise my hand go ahead and then I think member Martini has something to say >> I just want to say thank you for the work on it I love the color coding thank you both everybody who worked on it >> who made the second Oh. Uh, the mayor member mayor. Yeah. Okay. >> Member Martini. >> Uh, so I just didn't know if the wording needed clarification for the motion. Um, >> okay. Uh, let's see. So, I uh I'll move that the school committee uh approve the budget development calendar for FY27 as proposed. Uh and in anticipation of amendment with current photos. >> Okay. And that phrasing is okay, mayor. Okay. >> Okay. Great. >> Great. Okay. Any other >> members understand that
121we will come back if needed with an amendment to this calendar should there need to be changes in any dates. >> Yep. Great. That's not part of the motion. >> Thank you for the clarification. Any other discussion? Member Den, >> I just want to thank you so very much for doing this. And that frequently asked questions page is so important. That really sets people up in the future to be able to do good work. And if anyone is watching, this is how you engage with the budget on the school side. So, please look it up. It should be on our website, right? >> Yes. And actually the FAQ lines outlines for folks how they can be engaged um at the school side and also with the city and with the state at all levels and
122includes links and um just it's a good sort of uh springboard for um sharing your input with uh everybody who h touches on the school budget whether very directly or rather indirectly. >> Bravo. Thank you so much. I will add a major bravo. Um I think it both you and um Secretary Deniv have and um me and Vice Chair Ston have shown an interest and willingness to go for some of the professional development opportunities that mask offers and I know that is you know your initiative and going to learn and then bringing back things and taking initiative to improve our processes and you're really you're really setting a standard and leaving us with tools to serve the school committee in years to come. So thank you. Can I just voice one one more appreciation for
123member child's because um this uh calendar document uh was created last year and um this was created by someone who myself uh who doesn't uh have a great deal um in terms of technical skill and so uh I had um asked member child if she would be willing to uh take the uh updates that we talked talked about at our previous meeting and um actually lay them out into this document which was not that easy to do because uh the formatting was challenging I think to say the least. I know that she did a lot of work to make it actually um workable, easily updatable and also this reference guide is just um she totally took that one step above and and beyond and I'm deeply appreciative of that. Thank you. All right. Um all
124those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? The motion carries unanimously. >> Uh so just to wrap up my report, um the the budget and finance subcommittee will meet again. Um I anticipate in uh later in the month and uh topics that I uh anticipate covering will include uh policy DBD implementation that is the school committee's policy on um public engagement in the uh budget development process. So you recall last year uh for the first time the committee engaged in public outreach in regards to listening about the budget development and uh we did that through um direct outreach to our PTOs as well as the GHS school council, the CPAC and the ELPAC. Uh and I'm not sure what that might look like uh this year, but that will be the next now that
125we have this calendar in place, we will now be um taking that on to develop for this year. And I expect to be able to tell you about that at next month's meeting and ask for the committee's approval on uh that plan that we develop. And if anybody has any suggestions right now, you're welcome to offer them. Uh and I also anticipate going over uh what we may be looking at in terms of capital improvement requests, which the committee will need to uh hear about from the superintendent as a whole in October as well. And uh and lastly we will carry on with our discussion about uh improvement of our annual budget document. >> Thank you. >> Any questions, comments? >> Yeah. Any questions for >> Thanks everyone. >> Okay, great. Any report from um
126community engagement? No report. Okay, great. Um we'll move on to um old business. We have a review of yearlong agenda um on the agenda. So, any uh discussion or questions about our year-long agenda? Um, Secretary Denive, what about things that we haven't done that we need to catch up on? We haven't had our um we haven't had a goals meeting. So, we're that was supposed to be last month. >> Like how do we how do we solve problems where we're sli sliding? >> Well, backsliding. >> Um I guess it's up to I mean I guess that would be one item for the committee if there are any items that you see that are are missing. if you wish to make a proposal for how we can address them or what the next steps are, um
127we can certainly talk about that now under this item. So, I guess one question about goals is I it's kind of a um I know this is our kind of first time using the year-long agenda, but one question is does it make sense for the current school committee to be setting goals when you're going to have new members joining in January? So, does he want to defer that or >> Well, it's already been deferred because it was supposed to be planned for August. So, I guess I think there are two sets of goals, right? There's committee goals of things that we want to uh develop within the committee. uh ways that we want to work together and plan things and behave. I don't know how whatever we see as a result of our um our
128self-evaluation results. So they those those goals should come from our self-evaluation results and those ones maybe I would see um putting off until next year because we will have new members. But the the like district goals with the superintendent and the goals that we bring forward that we've heard from our constituents the goals I mean you don't have your goals yet for budget but the sort of larger goals I think that we have to have a meeting about that I think >> so because they involve our budget and they involve the next year so we don't want to keep putting them off and putting them off and it doesn't really matter who is on the committee new or old at that point because it's a it's an umbrella experience if that makes sense. >> Member
129Martini, >> I think the committee's made a lot of good forward progress on an organizational level in multiple different ways. um such as in our um state legislative advocacy, thanks largely to member Geneive, um in our the organization of the budget development process and um in in establishing more uh community engagement. I think one of the areas that we have talked about as a need that we haven't gotten to focusing on or I feel like we haven't um yet effectively dealt with or made progress on is the self-evaluation and the goals to come out of it. So, uh we have done self-evaluations before. It feels like it's been kind of bumpy. Um and I think that the um development of the school committee's goals should stay close to the self-evaluation results because it should grow
130out of them. And the committee should establish goals that are going to carry forward regardless of who the membership is. >> Great. So would you all like to have go uh school committee goals on the agenda for the October meeting and ask subcommittees to come with um proposed goals for their um their own work for the October meeting? No, I think that um rather than it being coming from subcommittees, I think it should be coming directly out of our self-evaluation. >> So you mean when we do our self well we have self-evaluation on the agenda for tonight so we can discuss that? Um so uh so you think it should come out of self-evaluation? You mean after we gather the next round of self-evaluation data or setting goals based on the data that we we
131acrewed on in December of 24? >> Maybe for now we should just move the school committee goals item from August to October since we are discussing self-evaluation this evening. >> Okay. Does that work for you member J? >> I still think there's two sets of goals. There's then they're different. One is the goals that we have as a committee, as a body, just us, right? And then there's the goals that we have for the district. So those are two separate goals and concepts. So, I guess I'm not as worried about the goals for the committee because we have new people coming in next year, but I want to make sure that we have our district goals set alongside the superintendent. So that I would love to see in October if you are ready to present
132them and if we have goals, things that we've heard that we want to bring forward that are important to our constituents like do we need to say those things before the budget gets further along is the point of the district goals. >> Uh can you speak to that superintendent? >> Yes, we can definitely bring district goals to you for October. >> Okay. and we have a strategic plan that we're still working through. So in that way we do have but good to get an update and and see if any new goals need to be set. >> So maybe we just move both of those items from August to October then. >> Okay. Uh, Vice Chair Son, >> I do think it would be worth us having a conversation about what our goals are as a
133committee. If we're if we're going to bother to discuss the evaluation results tonight, then we should do something with them. Otherwise, what's the point of having the discussion tonight if we're not going to do anything with them? Um, we can save ourselves the time and trouble. But I also just want to point out that like these evaluation results as you pointed out are from nine months ago and so I think it is like >> just to clarify this isn't the first time the committee has seen them or had them on the agenda. >> Yeah. >> So this is was at your request to check in on our on our self-evaluation. >> Yeah. And I'm I'm not criticizing, but I'm I'm just >> saying that like >> whatever goals we have can be based on kind
134of we have to do an interim evaluation of how much progress we think we've made in nine months on where this stands because this is no longer reflective of exactly where we're at, which is fine. I just want to make sure that we're taking that into account as we're having our discussion. So for October um on the agenda um school committee members would be asked to re review the self-evaluation data from December and come prepared if you wish to set goals for the committee. Um probably would be helpful to get those in advance if you have them. Um and then also the superintendents agree to share district goals as well as a status update on the um progress on the strategic plan. Does that sound good? Okay. It's okay if we leave that as an
135agreement and not make a formal motion on it or people like be more comfortable with the motion. Okay. Great. Thank you everybody. Wonderful discussion. Um let's see. Um school committee city council relations. Okay. >> No, I'm sorry. >> Did I skip something? >> No, no, no, you didn't. >> Okay. Great. Yeah. Okay. Um so the we had a um motion that wasn't on our agenda but that came up at the last meeting that we postponed to today. Um and that we also had a proposal from um Secretary Deniv on this topic. I thought it would be useful if I kind of set the stage by um sharing um my experience uh representing the committee at city council meetings and uh why I decided to withdraw from that and and uh and talk a little bit
136more to so that members have more context for both discussions. Um, first of all, I I guess I'll start just by acknowledging that I did act somewhat uh unilaterally and somewhat out of frustration uh at the end of a a long uh process of engagement with the city council. And um uh that I I I don't aspire to uh make decisions or act unilaterally out of frustration. That's not that's not my uh my aspirational leadership style. Um but I think it might be helpful for folks to have more context about that because I think to some extent um the uh representation of the school committee by the superintendent and by the school committee chair has been essentially something that's operated out there on its own without the school committee uh having much um input into
137what our goals are in attending those meetings and how they're going and what the school committee would like to see happen there in order to meet the school committee's goals in order to uh improve student outcomes in the district. So, um I I see um the kind of there's two ways to view uh the what has been happening with school committee at city council. One is that we have kind of a standing invitation uh to have a platform once a month to go to city council meetings and make presentations to people who may not be following school committee meetings as closely and where they could get some sense of what's happening in the district and get updates uh which could be very positive for some people and a good platform for community engagement. Um, there's
138another way that it has somewhat worked, which is that the city council wrote into its I don't know if it's rules of procedure, but there's a certain there's a certain document that the city council voted on that basically says the school committee will be at the city council meeting. And that often in my conversations with the city council about our relationship with them was kind of brought up almost as though we were under some type of legal directive to attend and participate. And that's not true. You know, we are really co-equal bodies in a sense. We have separate roles and responsibilities and the city council cannot sort of legally compel us to attend their meetings once a month. Um the the process has been that they request us to provide the agenda items. Um so
139oftentimes the agenda items are uh similar to the student report, you know, positive things that are happening in the district and announcements. Um and then historically the the process after that has been that uh the um superintendent and school committee chair and and sometimes the business manager uh receive questions from the city council and those questions um are not something that we know about in advance. They are often detailed and very difficult uh questions and hard issues that those city councilors ask to address. Um my experience of certain city council certain city councilors has been a lack of civility, a lack of respect and a lack of basic um knowledge of the items that they were asking about. and I saw um in my time working there, both myself personally and other members of our
140staff um not being treated with the civility and respect that I think public officials deserve. And I know that for myself uh being on the school committee, we all know we're kind of entering the fray in a certain way and we we have to kind of take those hits and blows being in the public eye. But I don't think it's right that member that people that we employ in the district uh shouldn't have should be in a position of repeatedly receiving um uh sometimes lack of civility would be um a very tame way of of putting it. And not just because every person deserves respect, but the other aspect that I see is that um I think it may be having an impact on our ability to recruit uh qualified applicants for important um visible
141roles such as the business manager role where the committee has really said we would like to have that be a staff position. We were having situation where many where we had applicants and then they would withdraw. And um I I I honestly think that the um type of questioning that they were seeing people receive sometimes at school committee meetings but also at city council meetings uh made people think this is a hostile place to work and I don't want I want to withdraw my application. and we're continuing to not see any applications for these positions despite them being desirable in many ways in terms of compensation and responsibility that many people aspire to. Um, so for those practical reasons, I thought that um, withdrawing from a situation where it seemed that city councilors felt they
142could ask any question at any time for any reason in any way was not really serving the the needs and goals of the district. And then the other aspect of it is that I I felt that the certain way that it's presented or portrayed created a false impression for the community that the city council had a major oversight role of the schools in as part of their role as city counselors. This is not true. That is our role. We oversee the school district, the budget. We supervise the superintendent. So the the kind of optics of us going and sitting there and being submitted to these kind of harsh questioning and and also you know at a time when many people are concerned about us being overinvested in administration and then consuming administration time not in
143advancing student outcomes but in answering questions from a body that does not have a formal oversight role over the school district. I just I just increasingly found it very difficult to uh support continuing to to do that when we hadn't ever as a that to my memory and I don't know if this happened a long time ago but that I don't remember the committee ever voting that this is that this is something that we want to direct the chair and the superintendent to do and I don't remember anything about any discussion or memorandum of understanding between the the school committee and the city council about how we want to work together. Um and so uh yeah, and so I I do apologize for not bringing you all along and keeping you up to date. It
144was sort of a separate track where I just kind of got really frustrated and felt like this really has to stop. But it also to you know to speak in my favor also that the committee had never ever given any guidance or anything about what the chair's role was there and how and that that the chair was really there to represent the committee. Um so uh so so I did have a long discussion with the um president and vice president of the city council about all this. Um, I did voice my concerns about the lack of civility and you know I and I would like to say that I stressed to them and I will stress again now if the city council has something they would like to meet with the school superintendent about or
145with myself about more than happy to, you know, put it on the agenda just as just as we would with someone where we had some business with them and we would invite them to our meeting. We'd put it on an agenda. We would give them time to prepare. we would let them know what the agenda items were. Um uh so um I just felt like we needed to with withdraw and reset, but I have again stressed to them that if they have something they would like to meet with us about, of course, we'd be happy to go. So I put the the uh new interim superintendent in the awkward position of telling him uh we weren't going to the city council meetings anymore. uh the mayors made personal invitations to the the superintendent to attend
146the city council and of course he agreed with that. Who's who's going to say no to to the mayor asking you to go to a city council meeting? Um but I think it's time for us to uh think about what our goals are. Uh how these city council meetings might serve us in um reaching student outcomes. Uh, I do think we need to think about um the superintendent's time and you know going and making some anodine comments at a city council meeting and sometimes not even being asked anything just doesn't seem like a great use of a of a superintendent's time. Um, and I think is outside the experience of most superintendents. I mean, I think most superintendents uh see themselves as reporting to the school committee and they attend these meetings once a month.
147they get a thorough uh examination by the school committee and so then doing it again a week later with a body that you're not even officially reporting to. I I'm concerned about that as a as a use of the superintendent's time. Um so I guess before we move on to the other items, I just like to see if members have questions for me about all of this. Member Childs and then Mayor. So, I'm going to our policy manual section B DBD um number eight um that in rep that has the chair represent or ensure school committee representation at city council and other meetings where representation is required or deemed necessary. Um that passive voice construction does not actually say who is doing the deeming necessary. We don't actually have it in that language there. Is
148it the city council that is deeming it necessary via invite or do we as a body deem it necessary? >> Well, my personal perspective is the city council does not direct the the chair to do anything. And so I really think it's the committee that needs to deem it necessary or important. I certainly think if the city council came and said they had an item substantive item, uh if there wasn't time between when the request came in and a school committee meeting, the chair might use their own judgment and deem it necessary to attend. But otherwise, the school committee should really be directing the the chair and the superintendent about what meetings they go to and what they do and what they're doing on behalf of the committee. section B and that's B as in
149boy and then B DB. So that'd be boy David boy and it's number eight. Yeah. And let me think because I had one other thought. Um I strongly believe that if we're invited we should have representation there. I think otherwise we risk the optics of we didn't get our way so we're taking our ball and going home. Um even though I do fully understand and respect your personal decision. Um and oh I had one more thought but now I've lost it. Oh no. Oh yes. Regarding the relationship between the two of us, we may be co-equal but something we have to keep in mind is we request a budget. We can't make money appear. We have to be on good terms with the people who write the checks for the department itself, which would be
150the mayor's office and the city council. And so that is part of why I think we do need to stay on very good terms. >> Mayor, thank you, Glenn. And I appreciate your expressing h how you felt and where we got with that. Very good. I did actually invite the superintendent because it's in the rules of procedure for city council operation of their meetings and I didn't want like the school committee as a whole to be embarrassed or you know not well represented um be because that's been historically I've been going to meetings for 14 years but it is I couldn't find it but I found it the other day. in the rules of procedure that the the superintendent and I don't have the language or and or a member of the school committee would
151you know be at the meeting and give an update and answer questions. Um I I can find it for you and send you the language but I bet you've seen it. So because they had voted on it and it was their rules of procedure I thought and it has gone very well I would say the past couple months I feel like they were you know it was very the the meetings went fine. I guess that's how I would say that. So I understand what you're saying though. You're saying, "Well, this is a body that we didn't vote on this. Another body voted on that." That's a valid valid point. I was listening to you saying that, but it has been something that has happened for probably 20 years. Um and um you know if somebody
152asks me a question which they're entitled to ask at any time if I don't know the answers to it I just say I'll get back to it because I only know the things that somebody would ask me if they told me ahead of time I'm prepared to answer it and other things I would just say well I'll get back to you but it's an update that that I just give an update on things that are happening because I'm asked to do that because The city council asks the same of me. That's in their rules of procedure that I would go after the the superintendent of schools. So, um trying to think if I want to respond first. I guess one thing I would be so this whole thing of rules of procedure that comes up
153uh to admit when I hear it it irritates me in a sense because I I don't think we as a school committee could write into our rules of procedure that the city council has to come and speak to us once a month at our meetings. And so I think that there's a way that they've maybe uh I I feel like if we are to attend it shouldn't because be because a group of city councilors got together and voted that the schools would be represented at their meetings once a month. It should be because we choose to attend because it meets the needs of improving student outcomes. And I feel like there's a sense in which this rules of procedure thing starts to sound somewhat legalistic, but when you get down under it, there isn't any
154real law that the city council can just write in the rules of procedure that we will attend and therefore we will attend. >> Mayor, do you want to respond? >> I and I don't know the legality of all of that, but it has things in there for me to do as well. I have to appoint so many people to this or the other thing. there rules that weren't it's in the it's in the code. They were voted on and I couldn't tell you all the legal parts of it. But if it if the clerk gives me a call and says, "Mayor, you're supposed to appoint this many people to this thing and I see that it has been voted on and adopted in the city code, I follow it." I guess that's a good question
155to have, but um the the code and the charter are the guidelines for for operations and um you know, by all means consult the attorney if you'd like to. >> Thank you, Secretary, and then vice chair. I think we should look at the charter and consult legal if we have to, but it it doesn't really matter whether we want to or not. I think we have to figure out how much we're going to because it is a known fact that when city councils and school committees work together or at least from their separate lanes find a spot to merge in that there are better student outcomes, better relationships, more services for constituents across the board. It is absolutely the best possible practice. There is a class in Hyannis we're supposed to take in November about
156this highlighted about these relationships and there are all kinds of cases around the country where we can point to where good relationships have created better outcomes for students and families. So I think it behooves us to figure out how we want to have this relationship which is why I brought forward this very rough sketch of an idea. Um, I hear you and I don't think that anyone should be abused or disrespected in any meeting ever. And I'm very sorry that you had to experience that. I really truly am. Um, but we got to find some sort of way. And in my mind, I imagine us finding I mean, you don't have to go if you don't want to. You shouldn't have that burden placed upon you. Any one of us can go. It can be
157anybody. And it can even rotate. we should all have the ability to go and do these things because you never know when you might need to chair a meeting. You never know when you might have to go somewhere and represent all of us. So, I would feel comfortable with any one of us going and doing it and rotating it. But I don't think we should go unless they have questions. And I think that we could eliminate some of that backlog by sending them our minutes and giving them a certain amount of time to digest our reports. And if they have substantive questions, then they need to get them to us by a certain amount of time so that we can be prepared to go. And if not, then the report should suffice. >> Great. And
158we'll have a chance to get to the specific proposals of what to do next. But first, we're still on kind of questions and answers in regard to the chair's report. So, Vice Chair Ston, >> um, well, one, I just had a very specific question about are the city council rules and procedures the same thing as the city code, which I know is different than the city charter. So, I just want to make sure are those three separate or is the code also >> that's in the code. It's it's not in the charter. It's in the code. I couldn't find it while I was sitting here, but I saw it a couple weeks ago. It's def it's in the city code. I'll find it, send it to you. Um yeah, I think it is important just
159to clarify like the lanes of authority, if you will. Um because that seems to be a bit of a question that has come up of just like actually who who has some some amount of authority to direct certain folks to do something or to not do something. Um, and I I definitely want to just, you know, agree with what member Den was just saying that you should not have had to experience some of the language and some of the behaviors that you were subjected to. Um, and our policy does allow for you to appoint a lea like somebody else to go in yourstead and um, you know, we can't can't turn back time unlike sher. We are not share. Um, but you know, I'm just saying in in those moments I it's almost a little
160a moot point at this point, but I would hope that anybody else on this council, if you are in a position where you are feeling like you just can't handle it, tag somebody else in. We are supposed to be working as a team and to the extent that we actually can be supportive of one another, like let's use ourselves as that because there's no point in one of us getting burnt out, then we're we all suffer for it. Um, so I just think that there is there is um, you know, benefit to there being multiple of us who have the ability to step in and do stuff. I um, I do want to just also second again what member childs was saying that I think there is an importance to having a good working relationship
161with that other body. Um, and I also think that those meetings can act as a really good platform because we don't actually have strongly overlapping audiences. And so, city council is just another venue to talk about and promote some of the things that are happening in our schools that otherwise wouldn't get out there. And from my perspective, one of our biggest stumbling blocks as a district is actually a messaging and communications problem, not a performance problem. It's actually telling people about how cool we are and how cool our kids are. Um, so, you know, and for me it's like anything that we can do to get a get, you know, over that hurdle um is is good. That being said, I I don't think that we should be subjected to questioning that seems out of
162line >> or seems totally irrelevant of anything that that we could have anticipated. So, thank you for sharing your sharing your experience. >> Sure. Any member Martini? I don't know if anyone else at the table has um the experiences representing the school committee um to city council. Um I have done that one time and uh I have to say that my experience was much in line with Chair Johnson Mousad's experience. So for what it's worth, uh I think it's very important that the school committee develop a set of requests, expectations for general engagement or something like that at least with city council. uh at that time the well in general I feel like much of the strife between city council and school committee has been about the budget. I don't really recall too many other
163issues being a point of contention. Uh at the time that I stepped in um chair Johnson Mousad was away on vacation. I happened to be the vice chair at the time as part of the vice chair's duties. I went uh city council had recently um contacted the newspaper to complain about not being able to get questions answered regarding the budget which was mysterious to me because I have been on the school committee for almost four years. I have sat on the budget and finance subcommittee that entire time and I have been chairing it since last year and only once has any city councelor ever contacted me with a question about the budget and actually it wasn't really a question it was more just an opinion. Um and that was years ago. So, um, that was
164that was concerning. Um, that that was the way things went down, but I expected having the chair of budget and finance before them representing the school committee would be a very good opportunity for city councilors to ask any questions they might have about the budget. U, but when I went there, I was not asked any questions about the budget whatsoever. I was peppered with questions about the SRO uh, controversy that had happened uh, just prior to that. And uh it was a very uncomfortable experience because when you go in prepared to represent the uh school committee on certain um things and then you're um asked random questions that you're not prepared for. It does leave you um in a in a very challenging place. uh I did my best to represent a balanced view uh
165from the whole committee and from our constituents or students and uh and what have you in that but it was it was very difficult and um I would also like to uh underscore Cher Johnson Mousad's comments about the impact of these um insults and evidence-free accusations and uh insinuations about waste, fraud, and abuse um in the school department's budget. Uh those things need to stop because they are having an impact on our ability to attract highly qualified candidates to do very important things. Um so, uh as people know, we're attempting to attract a staff business manager and uh nobody is going to stake their career on that type of environment. Um and uh of course we are also now attempting to attract a superintendent. So we need to be a city where when the superintendent
166is at a city council meeting they are not um being insulted and when they are there prepared to answer questions from one counselor who did ask their questions in advance. Uh then they're not being prevented from answering by another counselor who seems unwilling to hear it or perhaps embarrassed about not being prepared with questions in advance or or something like that. Uh I would I would really welcome uh good codification of our mutual um expectations for how we treat each other and how we operate together and that needs to be mutual not just a directive coming from somewhere else. I'd like to try to summarize um what I think I I'm hearing the committee say and uh please let me know if you think I'm getting something wrong. Um it sounds like the committee is
167interested in um taking advantage of the opportunity of the platform with the city council in order to share our message with um people who would come to school committee meetings. the committee is interested in having a good relationship with the city council, especially since they're the body that give us the number in terms of our budget. Um, it sounds like people want to ensure that that relationship and that opportunity is one that's respectful and also one where um anyone who's attending has a chance to prepare and uh have the ability to um respond to uh questions and be prepared for to answer those questions. Um, it also sounds like the committee would like more clarification about exactly what is the legal framework in terms of the charter, the rules of procedure, the codes, um, in
168terms of what are our obligations and um, but separate from all of that, even if there was no obligation to attend, it sounds like the city the committee would like to take advantage of the opportunity. Um I guess um what I would I guess I well first of all is that have I basically reflected back what the committee is saying? It sounds like the committee's also interested in in caring about my my personal uh burnout and I appreciate that that that's really not necessary. Um, but uh uh was there anything else that I missed that the committee said or did I get anything wrong? >> Yeah, >> nothing wrong. But I think there is an interest when we get to item C. I think there's an interest in that. Item C is the discussion and
169possible vote whether and how to share school committee reports with the city council and considerations of whether establishing a process for transmitting school committee reports to the city council is advisable and if so what the process should look like. >> That's the one. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. Uh member childs. So, regarding uh letter B, the motion, >> um it seems like appointing someone when we're about to work on this format, it it doesn't quite go together because it's going to take us time to come up with the format and we don't want to lock into this appointee if the format may require revolving. Um, but that said, I do think it is a courtesy and it's a privilege that other city departments who of course are different because school department is bigger and separate in
170certain ways. I I don't think we should give up the privilege of having that representation there. I this is my opinion. I think it is important. So, I would like to amend that motion to specify appointing someone uh vice chair section if they agree to represent us at the September meeting while we get our ducks in a row. >> Okay. So, your motion is to um appoint a school committee representative to the September to represent the school committee at the September meeting. Yes. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second from member Deniv. Uh discussion. >> I think that's fine. I think we could alternate, but I would love to have member Ston or Vice President Ston do this on September. I think that's great. >> Good. Thank you. >> Any other discussion? I guess
171I would say um I I would prefer if we were more specific about what we were asking the representative to do. Um, and I feel like one item would be to direct the representative not to answer questions that aren't provided with sufficient notice from their um, perspective. So that we're not sending someone into the September meeting and expecting them to um, respond to any question the city council might ask. um especially given that we're having this discussion tonight, I imagine there might be follow-up questions from them. So um but so then we would just need to I I feel like we'd need to kind of really direct the the representative on what we want them to use the platform to do, not just send them. Any other discussion? Member Martini, >> I do think that
172um piece is important um because this has been a murky area even within the school committee. Um this is something that I learned through training with MASC having participated in the conferences, summer institute trainings um that sometimes is is lost or people don't know or understand when they um begin which is that an individual school committee member may not ask the superintendent to go and track down any little piece of information they We act as a committee. It's a group. So if there's something that you would like to know or that you think is important for the committee to know the the procedure that conserves our administrators time and therefore our ability to attract and retain highly qualified people. Um in part is to ask for an item to be on an agenda. If the
173chair agrees it will be on an agenda the member can discuss with the committee whether this is information that we wish to ask the superintendent to coalate for us u or not and even if the chair doesn't agree then it still goes on an agenda so that the committee can decide whether or not to take that topic up. It's very democratic. Um we have had this situation, however, uh with city council where um not only do we have have we had individual um school committee members wanting lots of various random bits of information, but then we have an entire city council u full of folks who also have uh lots and lots of uh various questions which the commit the school committee may or may not want our um school administrator taking their time up
174should to should to should to should to should to should to should to should to should to should to should to do. We have to decide whether it's valuable, whether that is something that um this individual that we are supervising should be should be doing. Uh I think that is part of uh the problem that occurred last year. I think the school committee has really bent over backwards trying to be as transparent as possible and answer any question that came up and I know that our uh previous superintendent did as well this past year. Um, as part of this guidance that we may be developing here, um, I would like to ask that there be specifically guidance for budget and finance. Um, because I was asked to uh, spearhead some cooperation uh, collaboration with ways
175and means and was happy to do that. I reached out to the chair of ways and means, invited him to our next meeting as a subcommittee as well as a a second city council member, gave them the floor as our first item to say anything that they wanted. they were uh generally treated as members of the subcommittee which uh probably was not really within our policy or necessarily appropriate but uh we really wanted to give them the opportunity to ask any question you know whereas if they were just a member of the public they wouldn't have been able to do that now I know I came prepared to that meeting with a long list of questions for the superintendent um and I don't uh neither city councelor uh questions prepared in advance for that meeting.
176So clearly that did not result in any uh improvement in the relations between school committee and city council and I apologize to everyone. Obviously, that was a flop. Uh, and I wish it had been more successful, but uh I would I would really appreciate it if um this guidance can cover specifically um the roles and responsibilities and what um the this particular subcommittee with regard to budget and finance should and should not do. Um, so that because I think that's probably going to be the main point, the main issue of communication between the two bodies realistically, if that makes sense. I'm I that probably digressed a fair bit. I'm sorry. >> No, I appreciate it. Um, any other Oh, uh, Secretary Denive, >> I guess I just want to say that the community engagement subcommittee
177is on the cusp of having a joint meeting with the city council community relations subcommittee, which sounds like a tongue twister. Um, exactly tongue twister. So, the community engagement subcommittee of the school committee is about to have a joint meeting with the city council community relations subcommittee next Monday. And this was a baby step to try some of this just really meet and greet kind of vibe to create a relationship. But that came about because of this general feeling that we're not all getting along. But just bringing up the concept of it brought people to complain that we shouldn't do it. So people want it and they don't want it. So, I can't make a anyone happy, which is fine, but I'd like to have something really set in stone about how we do this
178so that we can do this work and have everybody understand what their lanes are and what is allowed and not allowed so that good things can happen and there's some guardrails in place so that it doesn't go strange. Well, I mean, speaking of guard rails and guidance, our one of our policies really says that subcommittees are to do work that's directed by the committee as a as a full committee. And so I don't think it makes sense for the community engagement subcommittee to be initiating a joint meeting with the city council uh subcommittee without bringing it to us first and getting our getting us to to vote on whether we're directing the the subcommittee to do that or not. Um, so I guess that's a whole other kettle of fish, but um, uh, so anyway,
179that's where my mind went when you when you said that. Um, >> it was in last month's report. So I guess that sort of also speaks to we should have it like really >> known and decided so that we don't you know I mean that's why we made such an effort to make sure that it was in the report and we spoke about it as early as possible you know to like give space for those comments and thoughts because this is like we're waiting into new territory >> but it's territory territory we must explore. >> Yeah, I I personally missed that. So, I really apologize for um not noting that last month. Um great. So, where we are at discussion of An's motion that we appoint someone to represent the school committee at the September
180meeting. Um I guess um I could see two options. Um I don't know if we we can vote on your motion clearly, but um I wonder if given the discussion if we might want to just wait another month and go in October or what direction if you would be open to amending your motion and giving the representative some specific direction about what to talk about and how to handle uh questions from the city council. I could easily amend it to being just a recap of the highest points of this meeting with the direction being if asked an inappropriate question to say that I do not have that in front of me right now. >> Okay. So, you're um amending your motion to say um a motion to appoint an individual to represent the school committee
181at the uh September city council meeting with the direction to share a summary of what took place at this meeting and to not respond to questions that are outside of the scope of that person's comfort or knowledge. Okay. And who seconded the motion? Do you accept that? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, and did your motion include a particular person or or was it open at that point? >> Well, I moved for Ston because Ston seemed like they have the resources and are willing and I'm not going to step in between someone else and city council if they're willing to take that. Do you want do you would you accept the nomination from the committee to do that in September? >> Sure. >> Okay. All right. Um any other discussion? Okay. Uh let's um let's vote.
182Secretary Dene, can we do it as a roll call vote? >> Chair Johnson Msad. >> Abstain. >> I'm a yes. Vice Chair Son, >> I think I have to abstain. >> Okay. Member Martini, >> yes. Member Childs, >> yes. >> Mayor Disorger, >> yes. >> Motion carries with two abstensions. >> Okay. And thank you for the motion and thank you member Ston for being willing to represent. Um, I guess before we move into item C, I feel like there is an item hovering. Um, or maybe it doesn't have to be a formal motion, but I think it would be good to ask the superintendent to work with council to have a presentation at the October meeting just giving us a picture of the legal framework of all of this with regards to the charter, the
183um rules of order, and the uh code that the ma mayor referenced. Mayor, >> I I think I just emailed that to everybody with Ian's help from the code. I just emailed that. >> Thank you for providing that resource. So, what do people think? Would that be um an okay would that be helpful to the committee to have a presentation on that? Any objection to having that happen? Okay, great. All right. Um so, we'll move on to this item. And there's um a handout from member Deniv on your um proposal. So do you want to speak to this? >> Hey, no. >> Okay, maybe it didn't make it into the packet somehow. >> I can I can speak to it though. >> I can pull it up. It's pretty short. Um see if I can
184grab it. But if you want to if you want to start speaking to the intent of it, I can. >> Um, I made this very rough and loose because I wanted and hoped that we would have discussion about it because I think that this is something that we have to start and I know it's uncomfortable and we haven't done it before, but baby steps. So, I apologize if it's not polished in any way, shape, or form. But the idea that I had was that we find a way to get our reports to the city council in a really mindful way that is the same every time. And in my mind, I had well their meeting is a week after hours. So after our meeting, say like this evening when we're done tomorrow, the when the
185minutes are ready from NAN, we send those off to the city council with the concept that they have the entire weekend really and Monday to think about their questions and send them in. And then that would give the whoever's attending the meeting and the superintendent 24 to potentially 48 hours to get answers to things. And then to know that those are the questions that they're answering. And if there are further questions, those will have to wait until the next meeting or a future date when the superintendent has time to answer them if they are appropriate. And then the idea with that is that that also gives the city council president a little bit of leeway so that they know that there isn't going to be space for gotcha questions or ways to um cause anyone
186in discomfort um so that the lane is really clear so they can get their questions answered in a timely fashion. You have time to think of answers ahead of time. Everyone comes gets their report and it's done. And no one should expect our superintendent or a chair to stay for an endless long meeting and it's not in bad form for them to leave after they make their reports. Same as any other department ahead. So that was in my mind and I tried to write something down about it hoping that you would all bring your excellent minds to it and craft it into something that we could really adhere to so that everyone's experience is smoother. I guess I'd share some feedback on it, I guess. Um, well, what what I like about it is having
187clear timelines about when questions will be submitted and giving sufficient time for preparation. Um, I think that the I think that the assumption that what they are asking about are the are the goings on at school committee meetings is has been in my experience pretty incorrect. like they generally are not that interested in what we're doing. Their questions have generally been yes about budget as um member Martini mentioned at times they've been going over uh really operational level things like what's happening at the high school in terms of the monitoring of the building a HVAC systems and things like that. Um, so I think untying it from our school committee members might meeting our school committee meetings and minutes might make it stronger because I do think it's probably unrealistic for Nan to get us
188draft minutes and for us to get a chance to at least review them before sending them out to the city council and so on. And I don't know how much that would really add to the process. Presumably their questions should be high level enough um that they would know about them hopefully farther in in in advance than um than the Monday before this the city council meeting. Um member Charles and then member Martini. Well, what if instead of sending minutes, we sent them the agenda and then the member of the school committee representing is the effective minutes to answer the questions about those discussions because the agenda is done. >> Again, I mean, maybe their maybe their interest in asking questions has to do with our meetings and our agenda items. That hasn't been my
189experience. But u member Martini, >> I would uh like to suggest instead that a request for questions go out uh to be sent in to the school committee chair at least a week before the school committee meeting so that we can discuss the questions that have been brought up and decide as a group. uh how we would like to respond or whether we would like the superintendent to track down some uh group of information or what have you. Uh that would that would I think help to keep those questions at that governance level that you were just saying. uh and also uh give the school committee the opportunity to conserve the superintendent's time. Uh I really feel that uh frankly everyone ran our previous superintendent absolutely ragged last year and we cannot do that. We
190have to establish a more humane um procedure and we as a school committee need to be doing our role um in oversight there. >> Member Childs, >> I really like that idea that member Martini just brought up, but also this is a partnership, so we need to make sure we're not unilaterally telling the city council how it's going to be. I I think to make these guidelines, we probably do need to have some kind of city council side saying, "Oh, yes, this is feasible. Oh, no, this isn't feasible." Just like how you didn't want the command performance uh orders coming from them. Uh they they definitely don't want us to tell them how they're going to do things. So I think as part of building these guidelines, we need to find a way that we
191can respectfully collaborate with the city council to come to a plan that both parties are happy with or at least not unhappy with. >> Member Martini and then member Ston. >> I just want to briefly respond. I think the word invite is critical there um that the school committee is inviting questions for a week before our meeting. Mhm. Okay. Vice Chair Ston. >> Um I think that what member Charles was just really getting to is sort of a sort of a key I've been trying to untangle like having a specific you'll get we'll get things to you by this date, you'll get things to us by this time or however many days before such and such. separating that from the other question which seems to really be the sticking point on the table is what
192is like actually theirs to ask and what's our job to be asking and what's not their job to ask city councilors anyone as a public a member of the public free to ask any question they want in the public comment section or over email but in their function as a city councelor there are certain things that are just not theirs to to question our our staff member about. Um, so I think that for me like getting that understanding is almost more important than getting the procedure down. And I really would love to see some sort of um conversation being had between us and the city councilors about like what is their understanding of their role visa v the schools um and like can we can we work on that a little bit? Um, so I'm
193not sure if that is like an another advisory board situation or if we have a policy for creating a joint committee across two bodies. I don't even know if we have rules for that. I think if there I think I'd like to hear a motion to uh refer these questions to the executive committee to um have a conversation about about plans for achieving the school committee's goals with regard to the city council relations as we've discussed at this meeting. Um >> so moved. >> Is there a second? Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any objection? Any opposed? Any abstaining? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. We'll we'll bring all those questions to the executive committee and try to help uh chart a path forward. Um great. Um on to new business. Composting of
194food and paper waste discussion. Superintendent. >> Yes. Good evening. I in front of you. Excuse me. I've given you some information. I did have a meeting. I along with many others. I have some notes there. Myself, facilities director, Budro, our past food service director, and Peg Hall, Nancy Hazard, Amy Donovan about composting. We did this in August, and we have some follow-up information for you here about the cost. um this group would gladly offer knowledge about it, come speak to our students about composting and teach people how to do it. Um they do not have any funds to help us with that though. So what it would cost and we did do we being Greenfield did do composting prior to COVID and then obviously a lot of things changed at that time. But I can
195give you here's a cost of what it would cost an estimated cost per year to do composting in all of our schools. As you can see with dumpsters being picked up one time a week, a smaller dumpster at five of the schools, a bigger one at the high school, you have to buy uh barrels. Obviously, that would just differentiate. These would yellow versus a traditional barrel. So, students would do that. And then compostable bags. There's quite a bit of an expense on that for there. Um, as mentioned before school, everybody before COVID, I mean, everybody did it. It started Greenfield High has some interest in it last year. food services and Mr. Bostonramm had some students involved to determine it. There is a slight question right now as to the hauling away and where it
196would go. These are costs from Cassella who is a waste removal firm but many of our things I think all of it in the past and many of our local communities who are doing this participating in composting dump at Martins's farm if I'm correct in saying that the proper way Martins um learning all my geographic and farms around here but it's up for I'm being I'm hearing it's up for sale in the process of being sold and will they continue to accept waste if that doesn't happen they do accept it now so they uh should that change the cost could be considerably higher depending on where waste had to go and that type of scenario in that sense um we've heard a lot of great things as I mentioned to you last month right it's
197obviously hard to argue with composting right and recycling and saving the environment right it's it's a tough side to say no to some of the cons I've heard about this obviously cost in that sense there is a dollar figure and you had a tight budget last year right and type budget. You eliminated several jobs, right? Whether it would be a vice principal, individual aids, teachers at various positions. Um, in some way might question, okay, do we spend money on trash or human beings in that sense? And I'm not trying to sway you. Just some of the things that I've heard in that sense. The other would be it's messy. It's a labor intensive job with custodians, cafeteria workers. I mean, yes, the students are dumping it, but the custodians are moving it. Uh we've heard
198things about pest control, you know, the dumpsters being too close to the building, um maggots, etc., things like that. Obviously, you know, fire, rodents going in there. So, all those have to be considered in doing that. Um definitely a worthy cause, right? There's no doubt about it. Um, if you were to choose to go forward with this, one of the things that facilities director Budro has mentioned, you talked to me with obviously we're kind of midyear right now and these are yearly costs for you. This is what it would cost for an entire year in that sense would be possibly maybe starting just at the high school at that sense for this year and seeing what happens there with the one dumpster, the bags there, the barrels there, how it goes, what happens with the
199the disposal in terms of the farm in that scenario. and that gives us time to incorporate into a budget if you so choose to do that for the following year as well. So, those are just some of the quick tidbits. I know I'm trying to keep it moving along, but I'd welcome any questions. Mary. >> Um, so I was talking with um Athena today and if indeed we do go forward with that um she has a she's a grant writer but she's extensive background in composting and um I'm glad if you're thinking about it that it would start in one place. Um, I think it's a great idea and um, the rodent control has really been a that's been my specialty for the past two weeks, like out of control. Um, and you know what
200we're going to try is every day putting carbon on top of whatever waste is put there. every time, you know, we're we're going to have up in DPW, every time stuff is put in that we put a layer of sawdust on top. It sounds like that should be done daily. That's actually a problem at the transfer station that I'll be talking about at city council and um but also at um it's it is through the city that it's a big it's a big problem through the city. So, I think we are going to start it starting at one place and if we do indeed, Athena said she would be happy to work with the school if you were interested in in hearing what she had to say. We're we're going to start that up at
201the transfer station with buckets of sawdust. >> Yeah. No, we'd be absolutely obviously willing to listen to everybody. We we listen to the the commission here and um I did give you the breakdown for all I did do my quick math here. For the high school only, it would be the 2,700 for the dumpster. About 100 I might be off on the bags there. I'm 108 units of bags. So few thousand on the bags. Probably around 5,000ish in that sense. 300 for the barrel. So somewhere in the range of about five if we were to do it for the high school. Does someone wish to make a motion to either direct the superintendent not to pursue this to pursue one school or to pursue all five schools? >> Sure. Yeah. Vice Chair Son, >> I
202was just curious if if this is a practice that we've already done, presumably we had some of these equipment pieces before. Where did they go? >> Did we dump? Yes. Sorry, I'm interrupting you. The dumpsters we do not have. Those are special dumpsters. So, those were here and then they the company is taking them back because you're not paying for them anymore. So, those dumpsters are gone. The bags are gone. They're not being used. And there are a few yellow barrels still floating around, but not enough >> for every like if every school needed two or something. >> Okay, great. I move to direct the superintendent to uh work with the mayor's office. Is who is it in the mayor's office? >> Athena is in economic development. But >> oh well, how about I'll just
203put like this. I move to direct the superintendent to uh proceed with a plan to reinstate composting starting at the high school. So that's starting with that one school second. >> Is there any change you'd need from the motion or whatever? Is it clear enough or does it work? >> I mean I think from the motion I'm thinking starting to work. We're pretty close to having a lot of information obviously unless the new information from the city hall side of it would be are you committing I'm making this up $5,000 to this to then say go for it if there are no grants in that sense and I'm not trying to put you in a bind right but I can come back next month and just give you a little more information but that doesn't
204have a starting it >> so maybe the motion would be to direct the superintendent to come to the school committee with a proposal for um what it would look like to do composting in one school for this fiscal year. >> We can do that. >> Sounds good. >> Okay. So, you made that motion. And who seconded? >> I did. And yeah, I accept that shift. >> Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much for that research. >> Thank you. >> Uh The next item is review and analysis of the current regular and special ed transportation operations and discussion of consultant work. Superintendent. >> Yes. You have a packet in front of you that is a bid from a consultant to do some
205work. I've heard from many members about transportation. As you know, we bid out our large school buses, large yellow buses to Kazcus. they have won the bid and we transport in minivans and a few small smaller yellow school buses in that sense and we hear a lot about and we do some work for other cities towns around us transporting some of their students so that we can receive some money back and cut down on our operating expenses in that scenario over and over again similar to what uh business director Pockquette mentioned earlier today and I think member Den mentioned you know you hear a lot of questions from people about whether or not are we making money, are we losing money doing our own thing? Was it good to bring it in house? Was it
206not good to bring it in house? Some of that would be really tough to do because there's different scenarios here. This is a educ not an educational it's a transportation consultant and uh hopefully you had time to read prior to this a bid and what they would do is if you so choose to do this would be for the services costing $9,995 do a scope of work that you'd see on the back of page two there and give you a review and analysis and it take approximately two months seems like at the most and you might have some information for you by December at that point if that was somewhat what I'm hearing if you wanted something inhouse we'll get some definitely can get some basic information to you but probably not as extensive obviously
207as this could be this money tell me if I speak wrong would come from the transportation operating expense yes revolving revolving account thank you that's why I went to Okay. So, I guess the question before the committee is whether we um would like just basic information that could be gathered um from within the district or whether we would like to uh spend about $10,000 um to have a consultant give us a more thorough analysis. And if I may just jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not something that I just um I don't say dreamed of or worked on. This had been something that had been going on since the late spring with the former superintendent as well and the business director for reaching out to this company. >> I think
208that's a great idea. So, I'd hear a motion to approve the um proposal put forward by Alliance for Education Associates in the amount of $9,995 um as presented. >> So, that's the motion from the mayor. >> Second, >> and there's a second from member Martini. Any discussion? Uh, Secretary Denive, >> having been slightly involved with transportation in this area, being the driver of the big yellow bus, I know that there are not many options. So, I do not think that spending $10,000 to find out that we could save like $500 maybe, I don't know, is not a good use of our money. That's that's what I think. I think that uh we know who our our vendors are, what's possible. There is a vendor that we haven't talked about that I have some questions about
209that I'd like to bring up in the future meeting. Um, but I just don't see this being a a worthy expense. And Andy is like his fingers going crazy. >> Oh, >> if I just for clarification, uh, this is only the special education. I know the title says regular and special education. This is specifically this the discussion had been are we making money? Was it that the decision made x number of years ago by the former business manager and spe uh transportation director to bring some of the transportation for sped transportation inhouse? Uh is that is it is that the cons is that model which we're currently doing now uh the best approach to doing it or do we look to see the possibility of going back to a contracted service. So that level of
210detail uh we have provided when various city councilors have asked questions regarding a transportation what we've been generating for revenue what we've done for transportation the mayor's asked some questions regarding who we transport what towns etc etc um so this would this would be solely looking at the special education to do an analysis of and discussions we've had with the the contractor has been now that we know our special education needs needs for transportation. This firm will go and do the research to see the analysis of the cost for potentially I'm going to say outsourcing that versus what it is that we're currently with our current staff. So that it'll be that deeper level of analysis, but primarily looking at the special education side, not the big yellow bus, especially because of the fact that
211we're in with the whole Franklin County regional bus collaborative bid that was done. So, >> okay, that changes things. I'm glad that you told me, but I still don't want to spend the money on that. >> Any other discussion, Mayor? >> So, it is one of the things that receives the most questions when we just spent an hour discussing relations. Um, this and I think it's they're very valid points of whether or not this is, you know, how we're spending our money here. Um, and I think that it would be very difficult to look at in-house because I think it's that's about a $990,000 [Music] um that we spend on staff. It's done in-house. So, to be looking at it ourselves, I think I just think that would be very difficult. So, I'm going to
212vote in favor of it. >> Member Childs and then Secretary Denive. >> So, my question is both for Andy and Superintendent Joyel. What are your professional opinions on if this is a good use of our limited funds? Like is it something that you personally would do? What what direction are you leaning? Well, I can say that based on the number of questions that we've received, I've already done the internal analysis looking at the total cost, what it is that we've generated for revenue, what it is as far as, you know, I'll say from when this was first engaged, prior to us being here and stuff, my understanding, I'm going to say without speaking of those going before, is that they made I'm going to say either promises that this was going to be a self-supporting
213operation. I would have never made that promise quite honestly. what it is it's reducing our expenses and the analysis that I have done and it is part of the strategic plan is looking at and using the dart those are the communities that we compare to and and the desi combines both out of district and indistrict transportation yellow bus and sped bus to look at the total transportation costs for green field and I compared it to in addition to I did win and beyond I I did it to the dart communities and I did it to the communities that we are contiguous ous with in the area and the total cost for green field transportation when you take into consideration regular and special education transportation because that was the only way with the data that we
214had available to us to compare apples to apples. Greenfield fell right in the middle as far as the costwise goes. So, you know, to say that it was not a worthwhile investment, I would say I don't agree with. To say that it was going to be 100% self-supporting, I would have also not agreed with. But to say that it is outlandishly expensive and that we're there's a better way to do it. I don't know that where especially on a special education side of things to have them come in and then because the vendor will go in and be able to then go and look at let's look at Van Pool's rates, let's look at Sweets rate, let's look at all these other rates and just compile all that data for us and then to be
215able to come back and so that way they're in addition to and I'm not saying it's like my emotions or you know feelings are hurt or anything if they don't trust me then trust somebody else. >> Um, >> uh, go ahead. >> Yeah, it seems I think you'd asked a little I'll just concur with many of the things that Andy had said and also I I do agree with member Den in the sense of not wanting to throw money away in that sense. Um, we wouldn't I wouldn't have brought this forward. I'm bringing this forward I think at the request of many members saying hey what else can we do because people haven't been you know either satisfied or think there's more answers out there right you hear from the public a lot and as
216as Andy mentioned right they did they prior to me being here right and other people did present some materials for it and yet we still hear that and you heard that and had us had me look into it so given the fact of maybe hearing from somebody else and that you're still hearing it from the public or other people that this is a topic over and over again. I'm not saying it would put it to bed in that sense, but it'll get the information and then people can decide whether it's something to keep talking about or okay, now we're we're done and we can go on to other things like student engagement or student achievement, right? In that scenario. So, >> Secretary Deniva, >> if we're talking about that relationship again, the people who have
217been asking me about this have said to me, city councilors have said, "You need to get your sped transportation under control." And I said, "Well, we're required by law to transport these students. We have to do this." And Andy, you explained to us the federal minimum effort. So we know that we have to spend what was it? $9.268 million per year. Did I get that right? Last year. So I don't see why we have to spend $10,000 just so somebody can feel comfortable about this when they could have just googled special ed transportation. Like that bothers me because if we're talking about staying in our lane and having a good relationship, that's part of it. cornering a school committee member and being really insulting to them and saying they need to figure out transportation when
218they could have just learned what this was bothers me. I don't like that. I don't like that part of the relationship and that kind of stuff needs to stop. So, I don't see why we should spend $10,000 to satisfy somebody's question when this is already answered. Um, I could see spending it if we really thought that we could improve it. If we really felt like there were other avenues that would save us a tremendous amount of money, then yes. But this is just to just to jump through someone else's hoop. And that that speaks to all of the things that you were talking about earlier. [Music] member Martini. So the long and the short of this situation is that based on the available data from our surrounding area as well as school districts that are
219similar to Greenfield that we're not likely to save much money or might spend more uh to farm out these services than to keep them in house. And the real reason why we would be spending this money would be to allay hopefully allay um questions or concerns from folks who haven't followed school committee meetings very closely or who uh don't have much faith in what they hear from the representatives of the school committee who go to them. uh is that am I off base in any way in summarizing it that way? I'm going to say quite honestly that I don't know because you know the the analysis that I did admittedly was straight cost >> you know so when when we're talking about the level of detail that they would be looking at they could potentially
220be looking to things that go I'm going to say much deeper into that where I'm looking at you know a combination of things I'm looking at self-reported data that is reported from these other districts you to to Desi through the various you know the end of the year report in particular that they have to report to I'm looking at you know uh and mainly also because it's only it's already a year be year old in a sense you know as far as the data that is reported and and posted on a desi website these this organization and would would be able to look more specifically at Greenfield is transporting five students from here to a private school in Springfield. They're using this type of van and then you know Vanpool does a similar run for
221that from here to there and you know what are their rates versus what it is that our costs are associated with they can get to that granular level. We could get to that granular level, but that would call require Teresa and transportation, myself, calling vendors to ask them to get us their information, calling corresponding school districts just to verify indeed that what you know because I know, for example, Vampool, even though they have, you know, they they charge different schools, different rates because if you've been a long-standing client of theirs, they they will end up maybe increasing their rates only 2% where if you're a newer client, you might get a 3% increase or what have you, you know? So there's all several variables where the the hiring of a firm would would be able
222to get down deeper where the analysis that I did again repeating myself was straight total cost reported to Desi for all the contiguous and dark communities combining both regular and sped because that was the only way you can do apples to apples because when you look at the reporting at Desi it is they classified as out of district transport. transportation. So some districts between whether it's the charter schools that they might transport, some districts have agreements where they will allow for transportation through school choice, vogue transportation. So it's things like that where this being focused solely on sped transportation would be the focus of what this organization would do. superintendent. >> And just to uh kind of say that if you look at their scope of op scope of work operations starting on page two
223going to page three, some of it would probably mimic some of the information that they had done in the past. But I do think there are some new things on there such as reviewing the current and future district requirements, looking at different things, assistance in implementation of recommendations and or contract negotiations, assessment of the transportation department, communications with contractors as needed, technical assistance and mentoring throughout the year. So I do think they would bring some newer information that wasn't there and that may or may not be of some value. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Ston. It was just seeming to me like there's two different questions on the table that I'm hearing. One is, is this even a worthwhile set of questions to ask? And the second is if yes, how do we want to
224do that in-house or outsourcing? Um, and so I'm I'm curious if we could actually just before we get bogged down into this folk or have them do it in house, can we have a quick like do we even think that this is worthwhile to ask because it seems like that is there's a disagreement there. Yeah, I think that's what we're discussing. But just to go back to the ind district thing, I think what u Mr. Pette is saying is that has been done and presented. So the the the extent of the in-house work that is going to be done has been done and the school committee and the city council have received that. >> What I heard is that they could do more in depth, but it would take roughly $10,000 worth of their time
225to do it, which they could be doing other things while this guy spends $10,000 of his time doing it. Well, >> okay. I guess I'll share a personal view, which is if we're going to spend $10,000 of someone, it's time to do this. I think it might be useful to have it be an outside person, there's an advantage of that since there, as we've mentioned, has been some a lack of trust, shall we say, between certain members of the community and the financial information that's being shared with them. So maybe having a outside consult would be an advantage in that regard and also allow Mr. advocate to focus on other more strategic initiatives of the school system. Mayor. So, I'm just going to say I got this the material yesterday and I read up to
226about here, but not thoroughly all of this this whole proposal, but the the questions that I have I I don't feel like we've asked and sufficiently and you know to to respond to what member Den said we transport during using our own system We transport like 19 children and we from our community and 12 children say from a different municipality and some children we are paying services for. So, these are the questions that I would have. If we had all of those slots filled, you know, all of the busing slots filled, were we able to transport everyone ourselves? Because right now, what we're doing is some of each. We transport we we pay our own drivers, which is wonderful, and but we still need things like van poolool services. So, we're not able to do
227the whole thing. And I also think that looked into it should be the the included in it should be the long-term cost because that is something that is part of the whole city budget. Um, you know, full-time employees plus benefits and and I've also heard from diff, you know, I actually was contacted by a union member after one of these meetings and I think you know the service that we provide is a very good service. So, are we able to do the whole job? Are we able to do the whole job if we had every slot filled? Um, what we're charging other municipalities, has that number changed? Um, so those are things that I would think that we would need to look at. And the cost of the buses and continuing, you know, buying the
228buses, it might be the best thing. Everybody needs to get where they get. they have to have a good safe ride with somebody with them if they need somebody with them, which many times that's the case. Um, so anyways, even as a member of this body, I, you know, when we're talking about it for somebody else, my questions weren't answered, so I still have more questions about it. Other discussion, member childs, then member Vice Chair Ston, >> would it make sense to table this for the next meetings so that we're not making a snap judgment about $10,000? >> You uh certainly could make a motion to postpone the motion to the uh uh October meeting. >> I move we postpone this to the October meeting. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Uh we'll say
229a second for mayor disorgans. Uh and uh all in favor >> I Okay, motions. I guess we should maybe we should any negative consequences for delaying this for a month? >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, so the next item was um came out of a request from member Goodwin and um uh our attorney had some concerns and guidance for us with regards to this. So I guess in light of both of those things, I would move uh that we um pass over uh the overview of the process for addressing IIA compensation and future contracts. >> So are we moving to skip it or to table it for next month when Goodw member Goodwin will be here? Well, I guess I was I was saying to pass over. I don't know if that's a
230Robert's roles thing, but I I feel like between the attorney's concerns and the ability of member Goodwin to have a discussion with the superintendent between now and next month, I'm not sure if we'll necessarily need it on the agenda. I'll certainly respect her request if she would like it um to remain on the agenda. So, I guess my request at this point is just to pass over it. So, is there a second for my motion? Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. Any abstensions? Any um nays? The motion carries with the mayor as standing. Um the next item was the school committee self-evaluation review and discussion and next steps. Um, I think that we covered this earlier in our discussion of the year-long agenda. Any other items on that, Vice Chair Son?
231>> Just as a reminder, since it was a while and, you know, several brain cells ago, don't forget to come to October with your goals for our for our committee. >> Excellent. Um, yes, Secretary Deniv, >> I have an item of new business, but it is in no way urgent. Can I email it to you? >> Of course. >> Okay, great. >> Certainly. Um, okay. Uh, moving on. I'd like to hear a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 3A subsection 21A. Item 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 the committee will not return to open session. >> So moved. >> Motion
232from member child, second from vice chair ston. Um any discussion? All in favor? I. Any abstensions? Any um naysay the motion carries unanimously. So with that I would hear a motion to >> point of order. I think we have to do a roll call vote for that. >> Oh that's right. Thank you so much. Secretary Den, will you call the roll call for that one? >> Chair Johnson Assad? >> Yes. >> I'm a yes. Vice Son, >> yes. >> Mayor Member Martini, >> yes. >> Member Child, >> yes. >> Mayor Disorger, >> yes. >> Okay, we're all unanimous. >> Excellent. And the motion carries unanimously by roll call vote. Um I'd like to hear a motion to adjourn. >> So second >> motion from member Den and a second from member Martini. Any discussion? Uh
233all in favor? >> I. Any abstensions? Any nays? We are adjourned from the uh regular meeting and uh we'll take a um we'll reconvene the executive session in at 10:15. >> Wait, we're reconvening. >> Right. No, sorry. Not reconvene. We're not coming back. Um my proposal is that we have the executive session happen at 10:15 so people have a break. >> Does that work? Okay. Executive sessions starting at 10:15.