001good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday February 12th 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 no one all right um secretary Jive would you call the role absolutely secretary Den I am here member Goodwin here member child here Vice chair seon here chair Johnson mad here member Martini I am here mayor dorer so we are all present despite uh mayor dorer who is not present at the moment so we have a quorum all right we have a quorum with six present and the mayor absent thank you the meeting is called to order at 6:31 p.m. public comment will start in the room if there are people on Zoom
002who would like to make public comment please type into the chat to call us our awareness to you not seeing any public comment in the room me check the chat there is no request for public comment on Zoom so we will move on to our recognition superintendent thank you I'd like to call Miss Rachel heg forward to the public comment seat so she can be seen on TV first [Applause] we're here tonight to congratulate Rachel heg who is this year's 20242 Greenfield Public Schools GM spoon Pioneer Valley excellence and teaching Award winner Rachel heg is a fourth grade teacher at Newton Elementary Rachel was nominated by two of her colleagues this year one nominees stated Miss hay holds her students accountable and sets a high bar for classroom expectations she also shows compassion towards her
003students and they know that they are cared for loved and accepted this combination of kindness and strong expectations creates an environment where any student can succeed another nominee stated she is an amazing colleague to work with and gives thoughtful and useful feed feedback we are so lucky to work alongside her and learn from her interim principal Miss Jacobs assistant superintendent Sullivan and myself congratulate you on this award and for all of your accomplishments we are very fortunate to have you in District and we look forward to celebrating with you and your family at the log cabin on April 30th congratulations [Applause] please turn your mic on you have to long press on the button until and then let go and it should turn green might have to hold it for a little bit there you
004go all right good evening thank you for having me um I'm very humbled to receive this award for excellence in teaching um I am thankful for the constant support and collaboration that I received from my colleagues superintendent Karen patod and principal Carol Jacobs both inspire me with their vision and their strong leadership and I see a positive and promising future unfolding for our students thank you very much for this honor I really really it means a lot to me [Applause] thank you and back to the superintendent for unanticipated recognition um before we get to the student reports I was made aware that uh one of our student reporters Mr Tumi here um received an award for um a scholarship of $1,000 from the National Association of student councils he was one of 75 nationally nominated
005students to win this award and this award recognizes him for student leadership amplifying student voice and service to community and we are happy to recognize that this evening congratulations [Applause] great we'll move on to the report of student representatives to the committee um all right so beginning with quite a bit from student council so I'm just gonna go through that first um January was a very busy month for the student council we hosted cookies Coco and cramon in preparation for midterms and we had a total of 45 students and 12 staff in attendance um to raise funds for our upcoming leadership conference we held a music Bingo fundraiser on the 25th we traveled with the Murdoch High School to compete in Massachusetts unified Special Olympics forbach um we brought five teams an additional 10 fans
006in the stands our teams performed well and our athletes proudly wore their medals on Monday to school our fans were the most spirited and could be heard singing the school song and offering to put glitter on everyone's faces in attendance um we ended the month with an event that took months to plan and included the entirety of the community the mobile Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics was a huge success in total over $113,000 were raised and this number is still increasing the link to or to donate remains open until April at ghs itself we had 149 students and staff take the plunge or stay in our chicken Coupe as towel holders during the public portion students from Mohawk Turners and Frontier joined additionally we had First Responders represented from the fire and police departments
007service organizations and local businesses it was truly amazing to see just how many people were willing to take the plunge for inclusion Miss mass and the student council would like to thank all who attended donated to the plunge it really was a huge undertaking and would not have been possible without the assistance of Miss patod Mr Browning the fire department the DPW our facilities manager and the subcommittee who not only plan on the event but we're willing to try something new on this large of a scale we are so lucky to have such a supportive Community um and such supportive community members to partner with for this project so thank you all for athletics western Mass playoffs are here as of February 11th the boys and girls teams are seven seed the boys will be
008going to Monument Mountain Regional and the girls look as though they will be going to Lennox final seatings will be coming Thursday boys basketball state seating is 25 in division 4 and the girls are number 26 in division 5 state tournament for basketball starts February 24th indoor track season came to a close last week the boys team won their league and the girls came in second great job by both teams Mason yl and Javon William Willam will be competing at the state tournament February 16th congrats ice hockey has clinched the Barry division first time in the league and our Champions they are number one seated for the western Mass tournament which starts February 19th hockey seed for the state is number 16th in division 4 state tournament also starts February 24th updated schedules will be
009posted on arbiterlive.com go wave um in January the library Club had a game day and did some bookmaking with franch the teen library from uh the Greenfield Public Library in February today actually they made Valentine buttons and they will have a book to movie event on Friday February 28th where they will show the wild robot this film is rated PG and all families and community members are welcome to attend the doors will open at 5:30 p.m. for pizza and popcorn and the film will begin at 6 French Club enjoyed a movie night this month and has begun preparations for Taste of world cultures happening on Tuesday March 11 this event is free and open to the public and will include a multicultural feast and performances from students as well as multiple new to taste local
010community performance groups um drama club continues their rehearsals and Technical preparation for their play the somewhat true Tales of Robin Hood we hope to see lots of community members supporting the talented and hardworking casting crew at our performances on Friday April 4th and Saturday April 5th um trivia Club on January 18th competed in the blender B at Pope Francis um it was one of the first times we'd competed in a tournament of that scale out of the 26 teams overall we placed fourth and are just incredibly proud of all the work that our team put in and what we are working towards in the future um our as schools match wits episode air is February 28th so make sure to tune in then um and then to close off the report we wanted to really
011add something new to all of this um and that is really to start accenting some of the more positive sides of student achievement that doesn't always get covered in the typical Club reports so in this um segment titled student life we want to really lead first by promoting and letting the students of Color Group come up and promote all the really positive work they've been doing at Greenfield High School so without further Ado Devon do you want to take the [Applause] stand um hello my name is Devon Brown I'm a senior at Greenfield High School and this past or the beginning of the school year I created along with Nate Woodard the students of Color Club group at our um at our high school and the main reason why I started this club is because
012I felt like there wasn't enough work being done to combat um racialized language and stereotype typing happening in our school building and I've always been interested into social justice work but I really got a head start when I was invited to a youth leadership Coalition by Naomi um my adviser who's sitting here and that gave me inspiration to really start and or start and really do work at our high school to try and combat and make a change so recently we've been moving to make we've been presenting to eighth graders um a presage a presentation about challenging stereotypes and we've almost finished through all the eth grade advisories and so soon I believe it's going to be February 25th is our first date we're going to be presenting our presentation to the Greenfield Middle School
013for the first time so let me try and share this on the screen it looks like the Zoom call is blocked on this Chromebook do you want me to sit here C the sides while you talk yeah sure because I tried to justed when you go to I could do it without the slides if sounds good to thank you always got your back so I'll give a um small rundown of what the presentation's about I'm not going to be giving the full presentation as we would to the eighth grade advisories but so we typically start off with our title slide here we'll address what the presentation is going to be about uh we'll give a fair disclaimer that it's going to be a touchy subject and we'll or me or whoever is presenting with me
014will give exence on Why We join the club why we're doing this work in the first place so immediately we like to start with this Icebreaker it's just a good way to open conversation and the we asked them to list three ways they describe themselves as a person so exam for an example if someone were to describe their nationality or their gender I would typically bounce off of that and say that's a great way um of how you would identify yourself and it fits into a lot of the categories that we're touching on in this slide because a lot of if people are targeting those aspects of your personal identity it's going to impact a lot of the ways that you view life um this slide is just expectations for discussions obviously we dive deeper
015into this when I'm explaining them I think the most important one that's here is that um is the final one that says assume best intentions uh since it's a very uh touch subject to talk about a lot of people might slip up in what they say or not really uh say something and it might not come off the way they meant it so really the whole time we're going to be assuming best intentions while hearing people answer and also while we're talking we expect people to assume that we're saying our best intentions I think we should be good now and so this slide is where we asked them to describe a slur we dive deeper into this in the next slide where we actually tell them how the real definition of what we're using as
016a slur but this is another way to engage with the students and see the knowledge that they already have in their head and how we can build upon it so this is where we describe it um again I'll bounce off the answers that they give if they give something that relates to this definition I'll be like that's a perfect example and then I'll continue on and develop on their ideas that they have already um so this along with the next slides after it after addressing what the what slurs actually are we're going to address why they're used and um really get to the point that sometimes it's just psychological reasons that people are going to be using slurs and stereotypes to categorize certain groups of people it's easier in a lot of people's heads it's
017not something that um comes up always off of ill intent so we really need to just get to the base of why they're used and so this is what I was saying before how stereotypes are used a lot of time to place people's into certain categories and so that's why it's so rewarding in your head to stereotype a group of people because automatically in your head it's like oh I can categorize this group of people that feels better for me I won't have to do the actual work of getting to know them or learning more about their subject um this is just a list of how slurs are going to or racialized language in general impacts all of us as a community especially the victims of it and so we go deeper into this as
018I explain each one um this one we usually these aren't really open-ended questions we're asking to the class but if somebody has an answer I'm glad to bounce off of that but these are just questions to think about as we go through the rest of the slides and how we um give tools to address these questions um this is where we start to lean into the tools we can actually use to address when we hear um slurs or stereotypes us in our school building so we're going to be teaching people to become active by standards rather than just standing there and letting um that language be used and again this is like the slur section we're going to ask them and engage them by asking them uh what is an active bystander seeing what they
019know and building upon what they already know and so this is just a definition it's kind of like a four-step plan to um to be an active bystander if you don't know what to do with situation it's like you can follow this four-step plan and it's pretty it's easier said than done obviously when you're in a situation like that but just giving them the tools to act on it if they were to hear it and so this is just a simple list sometimes we'll read off a couple but this is just for them to take back we'll ask them at the end of the slideshow to be like uh what's one thing that you learn from this um presentation and often the time they'll say one of these quotes or they'll maybe say something to
020how they're going to combat it the next time they hear in real life and so this one we do people who challenge Norms this is just a list of activists um I usually advise all the students to go and look up some of these when they get home like a quick Google search we'll do for one two or three of them and each person who's presenting always has their person off this list that they're going to talk more about I always talk about the Black Panther Party and how they've really impacted my life and wanted me to do this racial Justice work in the first place and yeah I always just advise them to go do a quick Google search when they get home of these people and then this is just um talking about
021our club we say our resources that we have I'll say that I'm always a friendly face in the hallway they can come talk to me about it if they'd like to they can email me I'll give them their emails and then after this point typically we thank them for attending the lesson and we hand out note cards to say one tool that they learned from this lesson one thing that they're going to apply to their everyday life so yeah it's a lot different um presenting to a group an older audience rather than a bunch of eighth graders but uh thank you for your time [Applause] thank you so much usually we give members a chance to ask the student reps and this case you question so are you open to that yeah I'm open to
022questions okay great questions from the committee first I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming and sharing with us the work that you're doing um it's incredible and we're really proud of you I appreciate um I was just curious how are the eighth graders sort of responding and engaging in the discussion so I've been really surprised actually I was expecting I was going into this expecting that I was going to have at least one bad encounter and I was mentally preparing myself for all sorts of ways that this could have gone but so far it's been nothing but uh really focused students they've been extremely attentive to the what we've been presenting and there's the just the amount of respect I've received for these slideshows and it feels like these students have
023been applying it into their everyday lives and actually picking up what I'm saying in the lessons so it's been a lot better than I expected awesome thank you other questions or comments well thank you so much for coming it's not easy to come and do this kind of presentation wow so good for you and we appreciate the trust you put in us oh looks like Kate has a question sorry back to Kate and um for the notes Sean looks like the mayor has joined us I just wondered if you have been able to feel a tangible difference in your school environment since starting this effort yeah I mean I feel like a lot of the reason why we um we started this club it's been very especially towards the beginning of this year it felt
024very hostile in the school building it felt like there was a lot of animosity going around and I definitely noticed a shift in eighth graders with a lot of the a lot more racialized language being used this year specifically and I've definitely noticed a change I've haven't heard it at all really in the hallway since we started these especially from um the the kids in the groups that we've presented to I definitely haven't heard it from any of them so for me it seems like there has been a tangible change um just in the atmosphere of the school building other questions or comments yeah so just to repeat thank you so much I know this is not easy wow good for you taking that leadership in your school and here with us it really makes
025a difference to us what you're doing I appreciate it and thanks to our student reps also okay we're now going to take a vote to enter into exe executive session um so I move that pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 subsection 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negoti ations with non-union Personnel to discuss the deployment of security Personnel or devices or strategies with respect thet and to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant in Aid requirements the committee will return to open session um is there a second second second okay secretary deneve will you call the vote yes hold on a second you made the motion and I did a
026second it was a simultaneous second I think but in the room I think it came in first as H was it member ston or was it SE okay no it was it was an was Ann okay we do a lot of those simultaneous seconds around here okay um member Goodwin yes member Childs yes Vice chair seon yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member Martini yes and IMA yes so that's unanimous that we enter into executive session at 6:54 okay and so people on Zoom we will uh call you on the telephone to uh get you into the meeting room for the executive session so stand by for that thank you thank you yes I can can you hear me loud and clear oh I'm so sorry it's okay I'll be quieter I'd rather
027e too loud than too soft one thing you could try is that little arrow next to the microphone button and if you go into audio options and you can select oops used to what do I usually do [Music] Sydney okay welcome back we are moving on to reports of the administration um is Andy here yes I am wonderful go ahead good even everyone you have in your packet the financial reports for February um and the narrative I included as well um I can go over uh the the the highlights if you will uh again normal process of charging everything to the local budget and as has been the practice of the district this time of year we've reclassed half of the expenses of special education tuition to the circuit breaker revolving account so you'll see
028that reflected summarized in the memo and then also in the revolving account report you'll see that charge to the circuit breaker line uh and then com into the year we'll do the second half of those charges so as we go through uh you'll see as far as the highlights go um with our projections as of right now uh we have a balance for to cover unanticipated year end expenses Andor expenses that have yet to be encumbered of $3,156 56 uh as I say that's means that 99.56% of the budget is committed uh and as expected as we go month to month to the end of the year uh this reduced the quote unquote Surplus projected from January so I can answer any questions you might have uh regarding this or anything uh in the other
029reports great let me start raise your hand on Zoom if you have any questions Jenny go ahead um well I have several questions um so um Andy do you mind if I start with the uh CIP the the you know capital capital can I okay so um Mr after was just about getting some other things done um I saw looking at this that there was a roof that leaked that there was $225,000 left over from and some asbest remediation $117,000 left over let me just see I have this pulled up my the computer that the Federal Street elevator that's the fy20 capital articles yes and I know we're going to use the elevator money I wondered um I saw we still have money money in the energy recovery units do you is there anything this
030is just a procedural question is there anything wrong with me um I know you're supposed to use them in the same building aren't you is you're supposed to you you can use them for like projects it doesn't necessarily have to be the same building okay but it is also dependent on how the funding was done whether it was from Capital stabilization or borrowing okay so I would just need to look at the how those funds uh like the the roof leaks and the Asus remediation what was the funding source for those from the city so I was just looking through this trying to get that other project done because we had 195,000 left for energy recovery units and I thought the roof leaking sounded close to energy recover units because it was on top of
031the roof but I I I know a little bit about how that works not not as much as you so I was just it just maybe you can let me know some at some point sure I remember seeing somewhere from Liz Gilman and I'll just have to search that out where she actually put together an entire listing of all the capital articles and Appropriations uh and how it was that they were funded I'll find that and I can share that with the superintendent we can share with the committee okay because it was just me trying to get some of those things I don't understand very much about what energy recovery units do exactly but I wanted to see if there was any way to turn some goes around to to get that done and um
032then I there was another question that I had on that um and you know on the high school I just you know for your you know Karen and I you weren't in this room and Mike buo we were all talking are taking some money out of the uh High School um building fund to fix those two boilers because we so okay I just wanted you to know I I wasn't sure if you knew that I didn't ever bring that up at a meeting yep no aware yet okay all right um and then I'll let somebody else go I had a a couple on the operating but I I'll let somebody else go first okay anyone else on Zoom okay and then in the room remember good one Andy on page one I I guess I'm
033just looking at it where it says um borrowing orders so is that money page one of page one of what page one of the um capital capital so the very first page um so it says total fy7 borrowing orders did we borrow money from the state for the windows or was that paid from the city that wouldn't I'm guessing that that the city issued a bond but again I would have to double check on so we ow somebody someone uh well we they went to the market to get a bond okay I think that's what I was trying to figure out like the Newton roof and the Newton modules like they show up as a capital outlay so that means mayor Martin just paid for them correct uh possibly I'm I would I'm going to
034Hazard a guess that that's the case and then borrowing would be as they say issuing of a note of sorts okay thank you any other questions in the room M six I member ston and then I'll go to you mayor yeah this is just Me Maybe being a little dense right now because it's the middle of the week it's been a week but I this is uh specifically in reference to the memo page I I don't understand how 103,000 is a reduction in the surplus of 92,000 the 90 sorry I I the 90 the Surplus last month was 195 and so since we're down to 103 it's a 92,000 reduction from the month prior I apologize for the I got it now my wording thank you mayor um so Andy now I my my questions
035are on the operating budget and um on the encumbrances so I'm going to go to uh page let's see what page this is the high school page eight I think it is I several questions on the encumbrances on different pages but I marked them down to be concise so on in the teachers on salaries uh we we've we year-to dat on the teacher salaries we've paid 1 million 29,7 2557 you see what I mean and then but we've encumbered 1,900 and I actually did the math on that and we've you know we're already over the midline here and so I see that on several different ones where where what we've spent at halim or less than halftime I I um you know if you go to teachers Middle School on page seven we've spent uh
036999,000 on their salary and yet we've encumbered a million 788 which does not make sense to me and I I actually checked these before asking on the you know on the mest thing that I can see and I thought it doesn't make sense to me that we would be encumbering let's just you let's just use the Middle School teachers that we would be encumbering almost twice what we have already paid because there's 26 you know pay Cycles I can I can tell you that uh first of all on some of them it's because again of the other funding sources when we do the all funds budget approach this goes to get a thing of charging everything to the local and then we'll reclass expenses to the other funding sources that we plan on using the
037school choice etc etc the other revolving accounts that we have uh if you know to look at a budget the second thing also is that this is an ongoing thing where I know every I want to say almost after every payroll ver and the payroll office will go through and review to ensure that the encumbrances are accurate or not the other thing I will say is that even though we're you know halfway through the year you do remember some of the teachers ask for their pay to be spread over the summer so there are there are pays that will go all the way through August July and August of the next year so um we'll get you know I can go into more we we're researching that we always do research the incumbrances uh I
038know you didn't want to hear anything regarding any potential issues with munice um but just I could tell you this week Vier and I we're going through and finding some encumbrances that need to be adjusted and we're working with Tyler Technologies regarding the the potential need for those changes so uh it is an ongoing process but one in which uh there are some I'll be honest with you there are some lines that were potentially over encumbered and some lines that were potentially not encumbered you know enough so fair enough I and I I totally was thinking thinking about that about how people might want it to be paid at the end and um and as you well know you know a lot of more than any of us about where the all those funding sources
039come from um but there was one more question that I had on that well I guess I'll wait if I have it I could put it in writing to you spefically okay I'm sorry to about it that but I actually was looking through it and and I I had a real question about what when come oh I know this is it this is my last question if we're making transfers I and I would like to thank my other committee members who are signing off on these warrants because I'm not doing it so thank you to the other people um who have signed off on the warrants but if we are making transfers Andy um you know and this is all I know about this on the city side if we're making a transfer from one
040fund to another we have to put out an order do you have to let us know every time we're making a transfer what's the rules on the school school the school the school committe the school committe policy on budget transfers are that if the transfer occurs within the desie function code then the the administration can do the transfer okay if it goes between function code so from say a 2,000 to a 4,000 or one of the other you know I'm using that as an example um that's altering the intent of the budget and therefore we would bring it to the school committee for approval so I was just on the mun side and I saw things where we be classified I thought well I didn't know that but then I thought maybe I don't need
041to know that so thank you for example like if you look on page eight we'll go back to page eight where top there's a a reduction of 65 686 but it right it's a positive 6566 that's going from the 2300 to the 2305 right I saw that in thee function code so the the intent of the original budget has not been altered and so it was done by Administration okay fine all things that you know more about than me so I will put anything else that I have in in writing thank you I'm good that's all my questions for tonight thank you mayor uh any other questions on Zoom any other questions or comments in the room thank you all for productive report and discussion thank you Andy you're welcome move on to the report
042from the assistant superintendent all right thank you good evening so tonight my report includes uh an update on our Title One events to start so um we were once again proud to be a part of the this year's Winter Carnival from January 31st through February 2nd um we had a great time connecting with families at the family FunFest on Saturday February 1st where we were able to provide books and activities and games that encouraged literacy and math engagement we also participated and greeted families at the cookie pickup with Olaf on Sunday um we were disappointed that the comedy science show had to be unexpectedly canceled Saturday um but all in all it was a great event and great to see everybody come out um and support the schools the city of Greenfield um additionally we
043had a math night event at our three elementary schools that was a great success that's where most of the photos in the report came from um our math interventionist did a great job of planning and leading this event uh and provided students and families with Hands-On math activities in a fun engaging setting and um the superintendent and I were able to stop at all three events and they were all very well attended and then finally nearly hundred um Greenfield Public School students completed the stick to it reading challenge that we partnered with the Thunderbirds for and were rewarded with the experience at the Thunderbirds games we did um spread it out between two games partially some on requests some out of need the game on the 25th that we had originally ended up selling out
044so good for the Thunderbirds and I'd like to say Greenfield certainly had something to do with that we had over 120 students families um and faculty attend the two games to celebrate the achievements and Greenfield was recognized at both um games scroll down past all these pictures uh grants update February acceleration academy uh we're excited to launch the first February vacation acceleration Academy next week um I will tell you probably from the first time I mentioned this acceleration Academy to now there were times where I was like I don't know that it's going to run it's definitely going to run it's not so we had some teachers step up in the past couple weeks and we're able to offer it we'll have approximately 25 students across the district um in grades one through four with
045a focus on their literacy skills um and what based on what I'm seeing from the teachers will be a fun and engaging week for students who attend uh another Innovation career Pathways update we submitted our part B application last Thursday I want to give a huge thank you to the the team Sarah Crawford Kyle Bostrom Kristen K kinsmith Josh ladyy andreasi uh Gia Westerman sioban Fitzgerald and Mike Browning uh for their dedication and the planning to commit both um complete both part A and B so the next step is we'll we're waiting to hear back from desie um um to schedule an interview with the Innovation career pathway team after that they take the application and um information from the interview and determine whether or not Greenfield would re receive a designation of an innovation
046career pathway um and if so we would be able to launch an advanced manufacturing pathway beginning in the 2526 school year uh desie district report cards were released last week um I did provide a link in here here there is a lot of information in these report cards um it's a comprehensive look at everything from student demographics to teacher qualifications to per pupil expenditures it's there in the link um in the coming weeks we'll be sending information home to families about district and individual school report cards um I highlighted it a couple of months ago but again I think if you look at some of the data you're going to recognize that there's a lot of work that's been done and you're also going to see there's a lot of work to do um but
047back to that accountability that is encourage that is included in this report and again want to tout that the Greenfield Public Schools met 53% of their Improvement targets last year which put us in actually as a district the third category from the top it goes School of recognition meeting or exceeding targets and then substantial progress toward targets so um a lot of great work being done in all of our schools so again just wanted to highlight that and then finally uh we're continuing our look at data this is an important time of year midyear progress monitoring so second Benchmark was complete in January and from teachers right all the way up to the superintendent we're looking at that data identifying places where we might be able to make some shifts in the next one to
048four weeks and also longer term um we feel like we have more data now than maybe we have in the past and we want to make sure that we're using it and targeting interventions shifting instruction and doing all the things that our students are showing us that they need based on these the data that we have superintendent thank you um if you recall in September as part of the new superintendent induction program and professional development group that I'm involved in um I started with the entry plan and how the first year was going to be broached as superintendent and the things that needed to be done in order to get a lay of the land a State of the State of the schools and then go from there and so what you have before you
049tonight are my entry plan findings from all of the work that's been going on since July one I'm certainly not going to read it verbatim to you so I'm just going to highlight um some of the steps but really wanted to recognize um not only what I took away from all of this as our strengths in District but really where those opportunities for growth and what we can do with those opportunities for growth in planning our strategic ways moving forward on uh the biggest impact for student growth and achievement so start there and just really want to go back to those core values that I highlighted in September and how everything that um I do and everything that we talk about and everything that we focus on really talks about students first and having that
050shared Vision with stakeholders uh supporting and engaging those who serve our schools and really building collaboration with our families and strengthening that the steps from that entry plan was just a lot of boots on the ground a lot of Le leg work had a lot of stakeholder interviews um you'll see um a sampling of folks that I met with to gather feedback from um numerous stakeholders such as students Administration pto's families Union uh Community uh organizations school committee members we've been doing our quarterly oneto ones the next quarter ones will be scheduled in March so be on the lookout for that and really just having conversations engaging with folks about um where they want to see our schools what they hope for our students and how we can make that happen based upon their ideas
051along with the entry plan there was also a materials review I listed numerous documents that um Not only was I familiar with as an assistant superintendent but there was much more to unveil in terms of things I wasn't previous involved in and now I'm looking at through the lens of a superintendent and then lastly it was really doing some observations you know being boots on the ground not only reading the documents reviewing data but being in schools talking with staff meeting with students engaging with building administrators just really trying to see the whole picture the daily operations that is happening in our buildings a pivotal piece to that has been these learning walkthroughs and using our our data from the learning walkthrough tool and Gathering that districtwide data and seeing globally really areas for growth
052areas for celebration and continued practice um the professional development that we started over a year and a half ago with those instructional strategies and those practices that we're really focusing on our classrooms has really been paying off and I wanted to celebrate that and you'll see with the data collection tool that we adopted this year it's much more sustain L and we're able to gather and analyze data so you'll see the growth from our September and October average to our December and January average and one of the things that is just districtwide that includes over 100 to 125 classrooms over the course of those months in each of those Cycles so um but it really is having a positive effect on what we're seeing in our classrooms um so after all of that was really
053to derive what do I know now where do I see our strengths and then where do we need to go and we really have some strength so I really want to highlight that today first and foremost our faculty and staff they're dedicated professionals you know numerous stakeholder groups from all different areas continually remark to me that they have a deep respect in regard for the teaching and instructional assistant staff in our schools they truly believe they care about our students they truly believe they welcome them each and every day into their buildings and they really feel as if they are just topnotch people and I couldn't agree more of them I highlighted with some photos but I really wanted that to be the first strength that we identified because they truly are the most valuable
054influence in our students lives but additionally um really a lot of our other department heads got Kudos from numerous stakeholder interviews that I had they complemented our facilities our food service our transp Transportation folks and I think districtwide Greenfield Public Schools can be very proud about the people that work here and care about our students each and every day um next up really the strength was the expansion of academic programming at the high school level to meet the needs of our students people celebrate the advanced placement coursework that we offer that a lot of other communities have had to cut in these budgetary times they celebrate that we offer Advanced coursework um that many other high schools don't they celebrated that our schools offer these great electives like Ceramics or manufacturing or TV studio or
055culinary which a lot of other high schools do not offer and really they were celebrating some new additions to the program of studies there's a new sustainability course and a financial literacy course that have been very welcomed by um stakeholders the next strength that I wanted to recognize is really um the expansive and diverse extracurricular activities you know we've always had numerous athletic teams but the expansion of clubs and student groups student groups that are led by student initiatives such as you witnessed tonight with the students of color who started that group who were concerned about their culture in their community and wanted to be a voice as a leader in their in their buildings is just phenomenal Al and you know I celebrate Devon in his presentation but we really do have students that
056are taking charge and really becoming uh leaders and wanting to make change in our community and we are very celebratory of all of that and we offer a late bus for students so that we are Equitable in what students can access and I think that's really one of the highlights that families appreciated in many of my conversations that their students can engage in these after school extracurriculars because we offer an opportunity for them to be transported home and we are still a fee free school for athletics so that is not um in existence in many communities that surround us um so really you know just wanted to make sure that those were the things that people recognized and um celebrate and keep in the back of their mind that there are so many things that
057are going well in Greenfield and then there are things from this entry uh findings that really are opportunities for growth the first opportunity for growth is really looking at the increased focus on literacy um we've talked about at this committee we've talked about with families all students should be reading at grade level by grade three we've had this conversation over and over again we talk about it in the professional development that we've been doing for the last year and a half we've talked about strengthening our tier one classroom instruction and then also upping the ante and having tier 2 interventions that can make that happen and that comes from you know really uh honing in on what we need um a lot of the work that Stephen has been starting with the initial core pass
058diagnostic testing and giving teachers the data they need to address the skill gaps in their students and then how to serve them is really one of the opportunities that we need to expand on in the growth I shared some um just Benchmark Dibbles data that we've been doing with teaching lab in a chart there you can see that we are making some progress and that this core pass diagnostic would really help teachers identify the specific skill and how to you know attend to that skill so that we can close those skill gaps the second opportunity for growth really comes from uh improving attendance we can't make any positive student growth if they're not in front of us so that really has to remain something that we focus on every seat every day every child I
059say that in my parent updates um you know the des's Mantra is your presence is powerful but we need our kids in front of us so that really has to remain one of the areas in which we continue to address we have to work with our families to understand the obstacles and part of the feedback in a lot of my stakeholders interviews is how to build stronger School communities that students don't want to miss out on if they're so excited about school and what's happening in their school building they'll want to come to school as well we also want to work on strengthening our family Partnerships so that we can help on an individual um caseby case basis along with that though comes improving our social and emotional supports we know that school is not
060just only about academics but supporting the whole child and really building and strengthening our culture so that we address social and emotional needs of our students um you'll notice in my parent updates we celebrate each month a castle competency and we give advice to Families how to model and practice with students the competency of the month I gave an example that November was self-management month and we give tips on try it how do you how do you practice your self-management talk to your children about what you do modeling and practicing that so that we can teach them which is what they are young humans learning how to grow into themselves as adults and really capable of managing and processing these emotions so we've really been working on the social and emotional aspect we've really been
061recognizing students you'll see our be amazing Awards and really recognizing students who are showing kindness compassion empathy and really working to build a better culture each and every day and then the last opportunity for growth that um I really think is pivotal is improving our programming at the middle and high school level for College and Career Readiness um exploring future opportunities earlier years in the middle school is really something we have to take advantage of oftentimes when you're talking with guidance counselors at the high school kids who are in 10th or 11th grade um are past the point of understanding what they needed to do in order to get into the school that they wanted or go on the path of the career that they wanted and we really need to start that at the
062middle school level so that they know what the Avenue ahead of them is for the opportunity they want and then Al also how to access it and I think that's something that we really need to work on we also really need to diversify our Pathways not every student anymore wants to go to a four-year college and we celebrate those students that get into we have wonderful Shane's got accepted to Brown he's attending Brown in the fall and you know YooHoo we love that but we also have a population that do not want to go down a four-year College pathway so we want to provide them with a pathway where they will have a sustainable living wage and can have a life outside of high school so we really want to um think about alternative educational
063Pathways that can serve us all of our students and that you know really leads to my conclusion of our job is to meet all students needs all students so we not we need not to only have that belief but we have to have the programming and the Staffing in place so that all students can and will achieve and I think um all of these opportunities for growth you'll see reflected in the budget hearing on the 24th because we have to support these ini initiatives these opportunities so that our students get the education that they deserve in Greenfield and then I just quickly had an update because I know um there are always some enrollment questions and Staffing updates so I do just want to Pivot to that document um the district did acknowledge the retirement
064of network manager Mike venis and he will be retiring effective May 16th he has been with with us for over 17 years um going to miss him dearly but we wish him all the best in his next adventure appreciate all that he has done um you will note uh the job description for his position is in your packet this evening to approve so that we can post and try to get those shoes filled which will be very difficult to do um we also will be participating tomorrow at the GCC Mass higher job fair um so we are trying definite alternative Pathways and trying trying to fill the positions that we do have open so we will be there from 11: to 1 um and we also continue to encourage our parents and uh caregivers to
065volunteer I want to shout out to some parents who have been helping us out at the crosswalk at Federal Street because we have not had a crosswalk Monitor and they have joined and helped us do that every day so our children are safe crossing the street so thank you very much and then I just included the enrollment update the change from January to February um we actually increase by one student but you can see the grade level uh differentials um in doing some research uh majority of students actually have moved out of state we had uh one go to Vermont one go to Virginia Texas Connecticut Puerto Rico and then some transferred to ammer wer and AOL do do housing switches so um not overly surprising that if you're uh moving that far away you're
066not going to be able to remain in Greenfield so and that concludes my report so thank you thank you very much questions for the assistant superintendent and the superintendent anyone on [Music] Zoom Jenny Jenny go ahead um well I just wanted first to say thank you to both of you being at the um Winter Carnival um um and uh it was a cold and beautiful weekend and thank you for your town spirit for being there and secondly um to the superintendent Karen I I was listening hard to what you said and I think that's very good that you're making a plan for the future of all the students whatever whatever school or you know not school whatever their future was that they wanted to attend I just wanted to commend you on that so thank
067you that's so thank you other Zoom questions okay in the room anyone remember good one so I'm hanging out with a lot of high school kids these days and having one of the most honest conversations because I'm like their grandmother and they don't care I'm a sub but they know that I've devoted my career to education 40 years and the most important thing we have failed a lot of kids in is teaching them to read and they know it so that literacy goal put four stars next to it because it's the number one thing every child who goes to school deserves to learn how to read it's amazing how many 12th graders say the last book they read was in elementary school I just am so you know when I listen to them talk and
068and I listen to them you know their plans for the future we just built a brand new library in Greenfield I hope it's for children who can read so I I am concerned your dible scores gave me my heart just palpitated so um just as much if you said I need six positions for all reading Specialists I would be picketing on the streets because they need to learn to read is the best gift we can give them no matter what they want to do in the future they've got to be able to read and think critically and this generation is all about their cell phones I say you know they don't can't punctuate they can't write except in short sentences and then they forget it's a sentence because they think it's a text but they
069need to be able to read so that's the data I would love to know how many third graders in Greenfield are not at grade level because I you know am one of those people the map scores came out I okay how many so that's data I would be interested thank you other questions or comments M Childs I would like to comment on the hockey reading challenge it was a huge hit in our house and with my kids friends so I hope there are more reading challenges like that coming down the pipeline because even just that little bit of a goal uh even for the kids who didn't really care all that much about hockey it's just the fact that they could win something and so uh it was a good opportunity for me to put
070books in kids hands and get them to read books that I like so do more of that other questions or comments member ston I just wanted to thank you for the thoroughness of your report reading through that list of documents and the list of people that you read reached out to I think is really it was heartening to see how much work you put in just to what is the lay of the land um and I'm really looking forward to updates on all of these things because I think that they're all very important and I um this is not a direct question that I need you to answer right now but as we move forward just think about what other ways besides approving a budget can we as a school committee help you in achieving
071these goals yeah other questions and comments all right I will comment I wanted to thank both of you for making it possible for me to attend the Hockey event um that was a really exciting uh thing to be a part of and just to feel the energy and connect with the the family so um it's nice to have something celebratory and positive uh in these somewhat dark days um superintendent I second the comment about the thoroughness of your report um how hard you've worked since July 1 I can't believe how much you have accomplished in a short amount of time I really really appreciate you and everything that you're doing um I was curious if you have a sense of the big the historical picture of administration visits to classrooms just it seemed to me
072that there's a trend an increasing Trend under yours and Christine's leadership of visiting classrooms and kind of gathering this data but I just don't know if you could share a little bit about our history in terms of administration visits to classrooms I guess I could from the perspective of being the high school principal and and I I would say in all of those years it was mostly just building Administration doing those visits and um um often it was either just to check in on staff every morning or to check in on students or to do Ed edal unfortunately um which is mandated by desie but I think that uh this succinct collaboration from District leadership to building leadership to then instructional leadership teams reviewing that data at each building has really um shown teachers that
073we support the work that they're doing that we want them to be successful in all of the professional development and all of the instructional strategy work that we've been doing but we also know that we have to learn as well and we have to be part of those conversations in order for change to happen so I think that that's been the most positive and I don't know if Stephen wants to add anything but it's just we just had an e team with the ssos uh desie Team this week and even just the change in conversations with those teams from seven years ago that I was part of were just more fulfilling because we are all in it to support the work so that our students are seeing success and growing and achieving so um I
074think we're all just of that mindset that that is what we need to do so there is no excuse you know we hold places in our calendars because you can get distracted by so many other tasks as you know but we want to commit to uh being a presence and being involved in that work because it's the most important thank you yeah I'll just Echo what the superintendent said I think um we've gotten some feedback from staff that talks about coming through and like it sounds maybe corny in a way like there's nowhere that we would probably rather be in the district than in a classroom I think that's what we're most most familiar with we're Educators we take on a lot that doesn't feel like education so when we go into the classro it
075feels like a sense of normaly in home and a place where like the teacher and the students are the ones that are really in the work but we feel like we can be some part of that um be it providing support or resources or giving feedback or just helping out a student who might be in need in that moment um so and I think that's really the culture that we're trying to build it's not like we're in classrooms for like to be watching teachers and so we want to be there to support to see what's happening because that's the best way for us to know is to see it firsthand thank you um superintendent the other thing that has happened since the last month was the wonderful tour of the buildings that you gave us
076um do you want to add sure um on Friday January 31st I believe that we had a professional development day in um the district so we had a schedule where city council and school committee members could meet and Tour all six of our school buildings um I appreciate the city councilors that joined us um on those tours as well as Vice chair and chair of the school committee and um I hope they got a lot of information and uh had a good time I also did get feed feedback that it's hard on a Friday so um I'm certainly open to uh doing another round either in the summer or in the fall I live in town so wouldn't mind doing it on a weekend if that makes it easier for folks um I do want
077to say though we did do it in the time slot that we allotted so we were able to get through the buildings during those half hour stints and travels so um I think it was a a good day overall and happy to continue those in the future thank you all right I can find my agenda someone want to tell me what's next loost ah yes okay great um so a question was raised essentially about how can um members of the public um contact us um and so uh there is on the if you go to gpsk12.org and you select school committee um you can find from there a link I think then it's another school committee um submenu uh it says current members if you go to that it lists the email address where you
078can reach all of us at one mon um for our distribution list and then our individual um gpsk12.org um emails um individual members can also choose to have their uh phone numbers listed thank you mayor dorer for volunteering your your phone number um so those can get added um to the page um if members want to have their phone numbers listed you can email them to the superintendent um there's no pressure on that it is uh understandable um given certain concerns at times that people don't necessarily want their phone numbers on a on a um website but the opportunity for you is there if you'd like to have members of the public be able to call you directly um and then um I have been somewhat inconsistent in terms of getting back to members of
079the public when they write to the full committee um but I will endeavor to be faster in my response time um appreciate your patience and so when I receive a email to that full school committee when I respond I will forward my response to the to the full committee so you all know what the communication has been um so any questions um about school committee Communications um I know that it has been past practice to sort of wait for you to respond to members of the public but is there any rule that says we cannot respond if we feel like we are able to respond sooner um there isn't um I myself um when I before I was chair would often respond to people um before that um the the thing that we ask this
080is true of all of our Communications whether it's email or um Telephone or running into someone in the store um we do have policies about our communication um a lot of times folks do reach us a little bit out of order of the process that we have in our policies about school Committee Member Authority and school committee staff Communications so those policies are there for you to review um uh let's see looking for the um looking for there's a particular sentence in here that might might be helpful for us to review um shoot I should have underlined it but essentially yeah we just need to be aware when people are raising issues that are essentially Personnel issues or complaints about Administration that there is a process for that and it is not our role to
081do that it's extremely important that we not both so that folks have the best experience they can have of our procedures for how these issues are handled and also for legal and liability concerns um we cannot really speak to um items related to Personnel in particular so just um I appeal to you to please be extremely thoughtful about that superintendent would you add anything to that um no in in Glenn's responses usually he will include me or forward to me after so if that is the case I would just appreciate to be looped in that way everyone's aware of what response was out there thank you okay um chair yeah uh thank you for bringing this up or I think it was Stacy that actually asked the question um I am only used to being
082a city counselor before being the mayor and we always just answered the question and didn't CC anybody on them I think it's important that everybody be very thoughtful about their responses I always was as a city councelor but I'm happy to hear that we can just answer those questions because that was something that I heard getting on the school committee and I'm happy to have you clarify that I just started writing back a little bit to people and I'm always thoughtful of the answer that I give but um it's good to know that there isn't a policy where we are not supposed to answer folks and when we we I just want to ask this again though to make sure that I have this because when I'm answering a person I'm just answering them I'm
083thinking about what I write and I am very cognizant of the fact that the whole thing could be you know for requested Etc so it's a thoughtful responsible answer but we don't have any obligation to CC anybody on that do we um there's a a request that you do um for the superintendent to be knowledgeable about um the school committee Communications to members of the public um that can be really helpful to her and her work because often times the issues that are coming to us um will work their way through the process and land on her desk so knowledge of our responses is useful to her she has made that request um as far as I know we don't have a policy on it there isn't a rule we can follow we we are
084elected officials people can write to us and we can respond um I think there have been times in the past when um people have inferred that there were some types of limitations on our ability to respond to emails to the full committee um uh I am not aware of it um in writing anywhere so I think that the concern may have been that um the exactly the the issues that I raised about liability that if we're sloppy at all um in our Communications about Personnel it can cause greater in our attempts to help I really honestly believe everyone on this committee and writing back to a member of the community would be um earnestly wanting to help them and we just need to be aware that sometimes um because of the environment we're in um
085that can actually work at Cross purposes to helping them to making sure every student and family has a consistent experience with with our policies and procedures um so that we we um we are free to write to people but we must be respons responsible well that it's very helpful thank you so we need to be responsible and thoughtful in the responses and I'm appreciating that thank you so much sure uh any other questions or comments about this great all right I'm gonna just oh we're we're past our time why don't uh we're past 8 p oh I guess it's 8 30 p.m okay right it's two hours into the meeting we get the five minute break right I'm just going to take a second and find my agenda I want my agenda there we go
086all right [Music] so um we're on to the consent agenda um are there any items that any member would wish to have removed from the consent agenda I will ask that we remove ambb the minutes from the consent agenda all right i' would hear a motion to approve the consent agenda um with the exception of items A and B a motion from member ston is there a second second second from M child's any discussion um secretary Den will you call the vote sure secretary Den RZ member Martini yes mayor dorer yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes member Charles yes member Goodwin yes it's unanimous okay thank you the motion carries we'll move on to um approved minutes of the full committee meeting from January 6 2025 may I hear a motion move
087um motion from Member Goodwin is there a second second second from Member SE um I just noted that um one of the the votes um on voting for me as chair seem to be missing I think member child's voted for me yes that is correct okay great so um uh any other changes to the um committee meeting committee special meeting minutes from January 6 2025 all right chair yeah um I want were they recorded the um this was the um both of those meetings are they're not up on gctv I was just asking that wasn't actually what you were asking for vote on though I realized that yeah um let me get Circle back to you on that after the meeting um mayor if you don't mind um so um okay so I guess it
088would be uh to um a vote to um pass the January 6 minutes as amended um secretary D would you call the vote okay um member Goodwin yes member Childs yes Vice chair seon yes chair Johnson Massad yes member Martini yes mayor dorer yes and I'm a yes so it's unanimous all right thank you um moving on to the minutes from February 12th um how am I doing in terms of the process with amending minutes is it okay to have a motion and a second and then talk about discussions and then pass as amended okay Susan far is nodding so thank you um so is there a motion to approve the minutes from February 12th 2025 January oh January 8th sorry we will not pass the minutes from February 8 it is uh hold on
089let me find those yeah I'll make that motion to approve of the it's from January 8th thank you a motion for member Charles is there second second second from member suton um the item was that we actually did um well I guess there's kind of two items one is we've referred in the minutes to First readings and second readings of um policies but our policy actually on reviewing policies hasang changed it's kind of removed the first reading second reading language um it talks about a three-stage process first where it's presented to us in our packets for reading second where we have a discussion which I guess would correlate with the first reading and then um the at a following meeting where we vote um we vote on the final they do the final vote on
090the policy which would correlate with what we used to call the second reading so I guess my um suggest question for the minutes would be to remove the language of first and second readings and also that um we did I made a note of where that was oh sure okay yeah yeah all right so in the meeting minutes from January 8th um second reading is referred to on page three uh that's right you wanted the numbers yep um v c yep and in the discussion below and then also on item um B2 which is on page four um I guess that's six section six item B2 um it refers to the first reading and also bde and BDF were passed over so we will have our discussion time for those items tonight any objection to
091those changes um you could say policies presented for discussion um khc flags and Banners a hbg and then note bde and BDF were pass over passed over anything else you need Susan okay thanks everyone for your patience and thanks Susan for your forbearance I could have done more to prep you for this but I um didn't so I'll try to be prep you more in the future um great uh so then um any other changes to these minutes uh Elizabeth would you call the vote to accept them as amended sure member D yes member chars yes Vice chair seon yes chair Johnson Massad yes member Martini yes mayor dorer no and I'm a yes motion carries thank you um moving on to discussion and vote on the Greenfield Public School competency determination assistant superintendent so
092um with the change in the law around mcap um there was a bit of a shift in the goalposts that maybe not everybody foresaw so um we started the school year like any regular school year where the state was determining the state assessment mcast was determining a student's competence enabled to and so that they could graduate right so the state determined the competency while local districts were able to identify whatever local graduation requirements were required in order to get a diploma with the vote in November changing that the mcast is no longer a requirement as graduation so you need we needed to develop a measure to determine whether a student was competent based on te based on subject matter that was tested in the 202 23 mcast which included Ela math and science so we've
093worked with Council to come up with this competency determination um and we are really trying to hold harmless any students who up until November were banking on the mcast as the determining Factor whether or not they might graduate in addition to local requirements so um so that is what led us to this document um it does require a vote it will be published um so that all families and students are aware of that but we need a measure um for the competency determination and it's no longer us being able to say the state it has to be different than your local requirements thank you ask you why don't well let's see um yeah let's have a discussion first then we can have a vote member Goodwin has this state in its Infinite Wisdom given any
094guidance on whether local school committees or superintendents can recommend an either or situation so instead of in the past you had to pass the MKS in 10th Grade you got multiple tries and we had to pay tutors if you didn't pass and all the drama around that to get them to that point but now the pressure is on local people to come up with that we still have to give the test because there's a lot of people who think we're not giving the test anymore just so I am clear we still correct me if I'm wrong we still have to give it and there's a lot of money spent on that puppy so can it be that a local District can make a you know whatever your superintendent recommends for this is how you're going
095to determine whether a child is going to graduate or the mcast test I mean are they just saying you can't use the mcast say anymore you still have to give it all the kids can bomb it because that's their plan we're going to spend all this money on giving it and it's really not going to give you the data you want which is competency has there been any guidance or it's just like we're not doing it anymore so before I answer your question I'm not going to correct you I'm going to stamp your point that we are still giving the mcass and mcass will still be used as an accountability measure so the presentation that I gave in I forget it in October and that I mentioned earlier tonight about meeting 550 53% of our
096targets a lot of that and when I talk about elementary school almost all of that is dependent still on mcast because it comes down to achievement and growth so you are correct in that um that the mcast will still be given and while it is no longer a graduation requirement it is still fairly high stakes especially for a district because those numbers will get used in your district and school report cards in your accountability ratings so the impact is still very real so I appreciate you making that point and I wanted to stamp it not correct it um in terms of the competency determination I have heard from some other districts who have considered mcast um most have gone away from that direction because of some of the confusion that you've mentioned um and like
097I said this document we worked with Council on um to make sure that we were including everything in it that needed to be included sorry are you still being held to if somebody doesn't pass it that we have to provide all this remediation no good okay at that point it still goes back to your competency determination an email actually came out during this meeting to clarify some of those points because I think those are questions that are coming up everywhere and when the superintendent and I talked about it a hundred times in the past couple of months but again today we said students walked into school in August with this as the goal and then that got got shifted regardless of where anybody stood on it in November and then the past two months has
098been figuring out okay what does that mean now for districts in that compeny determination because that piece is required by law other questions or comments member ston I am curious as to where how did we arrive at D minus being the like minimum passing and if that were to be see how many students would that affect as in they wouldn't actually graduate because they don't meet that level that competency it's a good question and we explored that and we arrived at T minus in large part because of what I had said before that the goal post got shifted and a number of students in the class of 2025 who are due to graduate months from now who may have passed the Mast so they had everything they needed at that time that maybe didn't pass
099a class with a c they might have passed the class with a D minus so shifting that on them now would mean they no longer would have the competency determination and well I won't give you a specific number it's over 50% is it just they don't turn in homework is like is is there a mismatch between what's happening in the class and what's being tested because that's that seems Bonkers to me I don't need you to answer that right now but that seems Bonkers to me um but is this is this the kind of thing where we pass something now and we can revisit it in the future and decide that at some point we actually want to raise our own standard when we feel like we are able to get our kids to that
100point and they yeah I'm under no expectation or Illusion that this will be our last conversation about competency determination excellent great I think we struggled with some of the same things that you're struggling with yeah remember CHS well so trying to find the sunnier view of it so I'm hearing that our classes are more rigorous and harder to pass than the mcass yes mayor d uh I just want to thank Stephen for answering All Those Questions very hard questions in lifetime uh as the answers were coming in good for you having the courage to answer that while the information was coming in at you sounds like it's a little bit of a tough spot that we're in thanks thank you what is um our picture of what the state is doing it seemed like in
101some ways the state may be moving to find other Statewide standards or mechanisms for measuring this kind of thing it does appear that way I know the governor is working to put together a committee or a work group to look at what could come next um I think the information around that is vague at this point um but we know that there is a formation of a committee that's happening right now okay so I guess stay tuned there a lot of what we're talking about here uh are we ready to why don't we hear a motion to approve the um that's what you need from us right a motion to approve the draft I guess the the Greenfield Public School competency determination proposal as presented so moved motion for member Charles is there a second
102I'll second that's Johnson mad for a second I think that's in Jenny um mayor if I keep calling you by your first name only because that's what is on the screen oh thank you you I see your hand went down okay I'm assuming that was an old hand um you're an old hand at this any other discussion or questions all right uh secretary Den will you call the vote sure um member Goodwin yes member Chads yes Vice chair ston yes chair Johnson mad yes member martini no mayor disor you're on mute mayor yes and thank you Glenn and secretary to yes so that passes with one nay thank you thanks so much for the presentation we appreciate it um we can yes we will take a um 5 minute break um it's 8:39 at 8:45
103I will begin if there is a quum in the room thank you [Music] n [Music] a [Music] he [Music] n [Music] n [Music] he [Music] uh welcome back um we're on to um the um budget and finance subcommittee um Report with the discussion of school committee City Council budget collaboration and discussion of fiscal year 2026 budget forecast member Martini um you're on mute member Martini if you're there all right we were going to reorganize the order of the agenda and I'll just continue on to the policy and program and hopefully member Martini can join us soon so these are the um the policies I was talking about earlier that we didn't have a chance to um discuss at the last meeting um essentially um you can see that um my big my greatest concern was
104in um establishing the function and duties for the subcommittees which is a a practice that we as a committee have taken on and trying to implement more it was just listed in the passive tense the scho subcommittee will be provided with a list of its functions and duties but there was no process described for how those would appear um so I've proposed essentially um that the um process be that the committee chair present a proposed description of the subcommittee's functions and duties for school committee approval and the school committee either approved the description as presented or if changes are needed refer to the policy and program subcommittee for further Revision in the case of an ad hoc committee the proposed description would include a dis specific desired outcome or an end date ensuring all parties
105understand when the ad hoc sub committee will be disbanded so that was the other issue that has come up in the past is okay we established an ad Hut committee but how do we know when their work is done I think if it's included in the um description of their work that would lead to Greater Clarity among um members so any um discussion about bde member Goodwin sure I mean and I admited this is the first time I've read it but I'm reading the language and I liked the way we handled it where we got the proposed um duties and functions and then the subcommittee read them and talked about them and we ended up agreeing with them but I'm just questioning why if that it would go to the policy and program subcommittee I
106guess I don't like one kind of trumping another I mean I guess part of the challenges that you may not have a it might be better before a subcommittee starts to meet um that they know what their functions and Duties are rather than creating a subcommittee without a charter essentially and then asking them to give feedback on their Charter um so oh it says we're muted oh no oh that's sorry gang the folks online haven't been able to hear us because I forgot to unmute the zoom um so to catch you up with many apologies um because I I thought I didn't hear from M Martini because she couldn't hear me asking um uh we passed over the budget subcommittee report and we're on to the policy and program we're discussing the process for um
107subcommittees to receive their um functions and duties um so anyway that was my thinking um certainly the committee can um make a recommendation you know to the policy subcommittee to um talk about it as a this policy bde subcommittees of the school committee as a group and come up with different solutions um it was just my proposal has it starting Place remember good one I guess I just feel strongly that that one phrase refer it to the policy and program subcommittee for further revision I think if there's a lack of clarity or understanding about the mission of a subcommittee the chair should straighten us out the chair of the subcommittee or the chair of the committee as a whole both if you've been made chair of a subcommittee you should be working with the chair
108of the school committee to make sure that we're all aligned I'm used to chain of command I think adding another committee to it is like I see the mayor's um mayor's hand yeah what did so I was sitting here but I feel like I missed something I'll put my hand down but what did we miss soorry I I can go over it again um so we're looking at bde subcommittees of the school committee and I wanted to address a problem in that item that the biggest problem with this um policy that I saw is item three just said the subcommittee will be provided with a list of its functions and duties but there was no process described for how that list would be created um or how the subcommittee would have it provided to them
109so I've proposed a process where the committee chair would come up with a draft the school committee could adopt it if they had problems with it they could refer to it to policy and program um for revision and then have it come back to the full committee um you could also um you know refer it to the policy um this the committee could vote to refer it to the policy committee um and again this is kind of like a play within a play the committee could vote not to approve this as presented but to refer it to the policy um subcommittee with instructions so you could say please revise this and um make it more top down make it so the committee chair just provides the list of functions and duties and there isn't um
110any opportunity for feedback or you could say you know that the committee as a whole will um amend and adopt functions and duties documents I personally don't like the idea of referring it to the subcommittee that's being created I think that from the very first meeting the subcommittee should know what their Charter is um so that's my personal opinion but I certainly am open to other um motions from people um chair c can I continue for a second sure okay so I don't even know if I watched that meeting in live time or if I watched it afterwards I'm just talking about the finance committee now in particular but um and this is probably a procedural thing but they had a a budget in front of them without like all the information I think it's
111kind of important that we sort of clarify that as a committee like we should have I wasn't on that committee thank God but that we wouldn't be asked to vote on something if we didn't have all the particulars and I think that's while we're setting up some rules apologize for inter interrupting by all means go right ahead would you mind bringing that um to the uh when we get to the item about the it sounds like you're talking about the budget and finan I'm I'm sorry sorry if I was out of you I missed a little bit in this I I was on the meeting but I missed a little bit so yeah know apiz I'm sorry all right yeah if you I mean um yeah I'll say this just tell me when I should
112speak on this okay Glenn a chair yes I think uh I think during the budget and finance subcommittee report would be an appropriate time to share that feedback right now we're cons we're considering item 10 B policy program subcommittee we're on policy bde subcommittees of the school committee um so any other I guess go ahead member Childs super super nitpicky um second sentence after annual organizational meeting that period should probably be a comma and there's a space after it that is one too many that should be deleted sorry copy edits thank you we appreciate copy edits very much also happy to receive them anytime whether at the full committee meeting or in between or before remember D did you make a motion to so we had a motion to accept this with your revisions no
113we haven't had a motion on this yet it was just been uh set up in discussion okay so we're did we're in the discussion phase well yeah we haven't had a we should we should have a motion but I I wanted to kind of give people some context before they made their motions so um maybe we um we could hear a motion I don't I will leave it open if members want to um uh approve it as um presented or if you want to um refer it to the policy uh subcommittee with certain instructions I just think I just think in a in a in an ideal world and maybe we are in an Ideal World at the moment with how the committee is it it's not a problem to have the chair tell us
114our roles and duties as a sub committee and our subcommittee roles if we're in a positive space but if we have a committee where things don't rub along as easily as they are now I feel that we might have problems with that so I'd like to find a way to keep the door open open for subcommittees to uh discuss their own roles and duties and bring that forward to the full committee and not be so constrained in case um I'm just sort of thinking of in the future in case things are not as copasetic as they are in the moment I'm sorry M CH I I definitely see the value in that especially because a subcommittee could be laid out with a specific goal and uh in the process of doing work they could discover
115something that had not been foreseen that would easily slide in and so there should be some mechanism for flexibility in order to be able to Pivot as needed um one option would be for someone to make a um a motion to refer this to policy subcommittee and to incorporate the thoughts shared tonight into a new proposal for the committee next month I'm happy to make I make that motion all right I'm gonna say a motion for member child's and then a second for member Den because you're both sounds great sure the motion is to um refer policy bde subcommittees of the school committee to the policy subc commmittee for um revision based on the discussion we've had tonight okay um and so we have a motion and a second um any other discussion M ston
116just that if as as the polic and program subcommittee discusses and revises a compromise that I see a ailable is that instead of because I'm hearing the resistance to referring it back to another totally different committee but instead you could say refers it back to the chair of the full school committee as well as the chair of that subcomittee that is being proposed and you all can work it out together thank you for that feedback we'll keep that in mind when we're working on it um I have a I did have a question about this other striketh through though um and just does that take away necessarily the right of a school Committee Member to do that are we saying that that is no longer something that is allowed if that is struck through um
117it struck through because I mean I'm not sure exactly what is meant by participate as members of the public at the discretion of the chair um but certainly you cannot have any deliberation with more than three members of this um of the subcommittee without it becoming a full school committee then you have a quorum of the of the committee if if you have a three- member body and a fourth member participates you violated open meeting law because it was really a full school committee meeting that was not posted appropriately um so for that reason I think school committee members can attend um subcommittee meetings and listen but cannot participate in deliberations um and I think public comment would be probably advised against as well mayor so I think that's a very very important topic for
118you to be bringing up and then everybody should be thinking about that once or twice before they're voting on it thanks sure um any other um discussion secretary Janie will you call the vote on um that we on the motion that we made about bde could you could you read that motion again please should I try to do it or do you have it uh Susan's I'm moving to the uh the microphone just one second thank you the current motion is to refer policy bde subcommittees of the school committee to the policy subcommittee for revision based on the discussion we've had tonight uh any other discussion secretary Den will you call the vote uh yes secretary Den I'm yes member Martini yes mayor dorer no chair Johnson Massad yes Vice chair seon yes member Charles
119yes member Goodwin no passes un uh passes with two thank you we will move on to um BDF advisory committees to the school committee um uh let's see so I it's it's very similar it's essentially saying rather than um they will be instructed um it defines that it's the committee chair presents the proposal and then um the school committee can approve or refer to the policy program subcommittee so I think based on the discussion we had on the last policy I would like to hear a motion to refer uh policy BDF advisory committees to the school committee to the policy subcommittee for revision based on our discussions of the uh ear policy bde so moved motion from Member Charles is there a second second all right any discussion yeah I have a question who's on
120that committee again chair uh it is myself as chair it's uh secretary genive and uh Vice chair seon okay uh any other discussion or questions secret uh do you have what you need Susan Farber secretary Den will you please call the vote Yes Jive I'm a yes member Martini yes mayor dorer no chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair sexon yes member Charles yes member Goodwin no okay it passes with two n thank you uh we'll move back to item 10A budget and finance subcommittee discussion of school committee City Council budget collaboration and discussion of fiscal year 2026 budget forecast M Mar yes uh the budget and finance sub committee met on February 3rd first we held an opening General discussion about budget related collaboration between school committee and city council I'd like to thank City
121Council Members Garrett and Tano for their time respectful communication and candidate participation we agreed we will revisit this topic further and look forward to that um next we discussed the forecasted FY 26 operating budget and received a preliminary summary from the superintendent as you know the subcommittee conducted Outreach over the course of the fall and stakeholder feedback from those listening sessions as well as other constituent Communications received by the committee last year were used to establish the budget priorities that the school committee approved last month the superintendent outlined for us how the school committee's approved budget priorities are incorporated into the forecasted budget and and Andy provided useful context information for us about outside factors including the governor's recently proposed state budget chapter 78 and how tuition increases for state approved special education schools are
122set we heard and discussed questions from Members I know I came prepared with a long list of questions and we also welcomed questions from City councilors torono and Garrett so I just want to thank everyone for working late into the evening in order to provide ample time for every question to be heard answered and discussed um and as part of that discussion I was personally very gratified to hear the commitment in the room that I know I share with the superintendent and remember Goodwin to raising literacy achievement including third grade reading proficiency and as you all know the superintendent proposed budget was uh published in the paper this Monday and we will all have plenty of time to forward questions between now and the annual public budget hearing on the 24th in short this proposed
123budget represents an increase of 5.61% in all funds and 7.97% in the local appropriation and includes seven uh additional positions the majority of which are needed in order to actualize the redistricting plan developed by the committee over the past two years and that is going into effect in the fall and uh one of these positions is also needed in order to provide Beacon program Services recently discontinued by the collaborative which have helped 30 of our atrisk students to graduate with a high school diploma in recent years so continuing this program is aligned with what the superintendent explained for us this evening about the importance of providing alternative Pathways so that every one of our students can find success um in in order to make clear the necessity of this increase the subcommittee voted unanimously to
124request the superintendent Advance this budget as forecasted including a level Staffing comparison to the full school committee on February 24th the superintendent will provide a fully detailed presentation at our annual public budget hearing the school committee will then meet on March 3rd to approve our budget proposal for this year uh which will then be forwarded to to the mayor and in the meantime I would like to encourage all stakeholders to take some time to consider and share their feedback as we work to carry out our policy uh which is that we develop an annual budget with Community involvement that establishes levels of funding that will provide high quality education for all our students and we very much look forward to seeing everyone on the 24th thank you questions and comments M goodwi so I guess
125I'm concerned we we had a vote and you described it accurately because the wanting to see that number where nobody lost their job where weren't adding anything new was important to know um and that number I didn't see it in the newspaper and I don't see it online I downloaded um the proposed budget that appeared on the website to look that to really know um and I appreciate the detail because it was the first time I really could figure out I don't know still don't know how many first grade teachers we have or how many third grade teachers we have but I know how many teachers we have which made me happy um but to try to really understand what we're paying for is important to me and I think it's important to the taxpayers
126of Greenfield everybody is feeling um the economy in different ways 80% of the people who live in Greenfield are over 60 and a lot of them are on fixed incomes we're standing in front of eggs in the grocery store wondering if we should go buy chickens and so with our taxes as high as they are um we want to know what our tax is paying for um and it's everything from if the roads aren't cleaned right we get mad because we just paid a tax bill and it snowed and you know come on um and so right now our schools are underperforming we have declining enrollment um and we're looking at this year we paid $2,000 more per student than the year before um we have less money coming in from the state because we
127have less students so I think there's a lot of hard questions that are going to have to be asked and without dat dat we don't have that so that number is important because it's important for everybody in the school district to know this is the amount of money um if everybody stays and everybody gets their raise and everybody you know I don't know if it's 3% I hung out with a lot of superintendents and in their head they have 3% um but I think that's an important number to get out into the public may just arer hi um yeah that was that meeting that I watched and I want to thank all that committee for serving on this and I hope everybody will watch that meeting before we're voting on this the next time so
128it was a a good meeting and you saw what information you had and um it was got it was sort of why I voted questionably on the um you know the roles of subcommittees had I think it's you know what what other members could ask at those meetings is a kind of an important thing but that was a great meeting and I want to really thank that subcommittee for serving on this and you know going forward we we really have to have all the information that we have in front of us to make good decisions so thank you martini thank you uh just to answer um the mayor's question uh from earlier this um meeting that budget and finance um held is not our annual public budget hearing which will be a fully detailed lengthy
129presentation which will take place on the 24th uh and I just want to U draw everyone attention and encourage everyone to please put that date on their calendar um and uh and to come prepared with questions and also please um if you know that you have a question ahead of time please forward it ahead of time because sometimes it takes time to um gather information in order to answer questions so uh the more lead time you can give um on that the better uh and the more high quality of um information you'll be able to get so uh that's all thank [Music] you thank you other questions or comments um I also had the opportunity to um watch the meeting I haven't watched all of it yet um but getting there um and I guess
130first of all a member Martin I wanted to really thank you for your leadership on the budget subcommittee um you're really taking a upping our game um in terms of our process our community engagement um we were have been able to respond to um uh president uh wallowski's uh requests that there be more engagement with the city council earlier in the process um and that's thanks to you member martini for really making that happen I think um I guess I would you know I think that uh as member Goodwin rightly points out um people are pretty tense about Finance these days um it is a very tough time economically for everybody um or for many most people in Greenfield um and I think sometimes around issues of finances um we can sometimes um lose track
131of our kind of commitment to I think you know Civility and respect with each other and there were times when in the discussion when I felt that um members were um saying using language that I think was less than 100% respectful um there were kind of a insinuations that someone was hiding something there were times when people said I've been told never to ask questions it just it didn't really strike me as accurate or really um fully respectful I I you know I don't think like just my personal perspective is I don't believe that um anyone's trying to pull a fast one I don't think anyone is hiding a budget information from us I think our business manager and our um superintendent been extremely um open to questions from Members um I know I've referred
132members to them for uh questions many many times so um so I just would ask that we as a committee um uh strive for um respectful conversations even when we have disagreements both about the content and also about the process any other questions or comments all right thank you very much M Martini um move on to the community engagement subcommittee hello that would be me great all right this is the report of the community engagement subcommittee we met in January at the ghs library we discussed our December goals and distilled one of our plans to increase attendance at school events and functions Vice chair ston has made a signup sheet which you will find in your materials it's a link that you click on and is not something that's printed out because it is going
133to be added to regularly we're bringing this sheet to the full committee asking for its adoption and although we are not required to attend events as school committee members this is one way we've identified to increase our invol our our involvement in the GPS community and to show that we are available and listening we intend for the sheet to be updated by the subcommittee regularly uh we will be meeting again on Tuesday February 18th and it will be fully remote um I'm wondering Glenn would you like a motion to adopt this document as something we can use as a full committee yes would a motion to adopt the school event signup sheet uh as presented so moved a motion mayor and a second from um secretary genev thank you any other discussion M member Childs
134I have a quick question is this uh document going to be publicly accessible or is it just an internal organizational piece it absolutely could be public publicly available but um it doesn't have to be it's mostly just a it's mostly just that a housekeeping document for the committee to log on when you can and take a look at the events that are upcoming in the district and see if there are any that you are able to attend um we were thinking that making it sort of open to everyone you'd be able to see who's signing up for what and plan you know so that we don't have a unintended Quorum or anything like that and get an idea of what's upcoming so that you can you know really get your schedule in order and not
135feel um too overc committed that was one thing that we really wanted to make sure uh was that nobody felt like they were being asked to do more than they could handle so that's really the function of the document and um right now if you look at the document there's no events upcoming um I believe Vice chair seon said that there weren't any that they could find but perhaps that has changed I'll let them speak on that yeah but you will see um you will see events from January um and it will just be constantly updated so check in you know to see if if you can add you know your presence to any of them in the future thank you um and we did get a note from member ston that there have been
136some items added there I did see some so thank you for your work on that mayor uh just another thank you I think that committee is doing a fabulous job making sure that you know there is more public involvement thank you for putting that uh list together and I'll be putting my name down where I can and thank you so much all the members you are very welcome um the the last little bit of it is that um on Tuesday February 18th at our next meeting if any member of the public would like to join us remotely and chime in the main function of it is to get um feedback from the public that would be great you you are very welcome we'd love to hear your thoughts and we'll be um discussing how we
137can get the information about our subcommittee out into the public so that people know that we are working on the issues that they're bringing to us so thank you very much one um item we need to be aware of um in subcommittee work these days is that if we have a public comment component of our agenda there needs to be an in-person place where people can come and make comment for an recent ordinance that was passed by the city council um oh so that changed very quickly on us it's not like they came and provided a training or S our feedback or anything but uh that is something that we have to start to incorporate immediately so okay can I ask a question Glenn yeah because normally we would meet at the library so that
138we would have that inperson component but for example we're meeting the uh third Tuesday of every month and the third Tuesday at ghs means the library was to be closed for winter break so we didn't have the option for an inperson component so if that happens do we not accept public comment at that time or do we have to find another venue unfortunately the way the ordinance is written from my understanding it almost discourages a public comment in those cases because if you do meet only on Zoom you cannot have a public comment section like if there's going to be public comment on an agenda there has to be the ability of members to attend someplace in person so we could work with you on trying to um you know find another solution um but
139that's the uh current state of affairs okay well thank you for letting us all know about that yeah I I don't I guess I don't know did everyone receive the m sometimes I think that everyone is seeing something maybe it just came to me as a chair I'll I'll forward that to you I apologize I kind of thought they had sent it to all of us but um make sure you get that uh and sorry for the surprise so any other um comments or questions about the [Music] motion all right secretary J will you call the vote sure uh Jive I'm a yes member Martini yes mayor serer yes chair Johnson M yes Vice chair seon yes member Childs yes member Goodwin yes motion passes unanimously wonderful thank you um we're on I don't have
140anything for old business for new business I think we could um hear from people if they have uh uh recommended agenda items for future meetings hearing none I would hear a motion to adjin so moved a motion from the mayor is there a second second second from Member Childs any discussion secretary will you call the vote Yes secretary Jive yes um member Martini yes mayor disorder yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair SE yes member Charles yes member Goodwin that was a yes okay we are unanimously adjourned at 9:23 p.m. [Music]