Greenfield School Committee Meeting June 12th, 2024

001[Music] good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday June 12th 2024 it's 6:03 with the secretary please call the Roll Call Secretary Den I'm here Vice chair Martini here ch May Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member Goodwin here member ston here member Childs here we're all here and there is a quorum thank you this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time doesn't look like anyone else's and do we have any public comment tonight we do come forward you have three minutes oh if you would um turn on your microphone how's that I think that's good all right thank you to the Greenfield school Comm committee for having me uh I come here as

002a former employee of the district and not here to put the district or any of its employees on blast but I'm here to ask what kind of dis District this committee wants to lead and to be here to tell briefly the story of the chicke school committee in the public schools for the time in which I was a school Committee Member down there we're a veteran school committee we're a veteran city government I'm the son of Chip is now retired 32ye State Rep I'm a city counselor two of our school committee members are daughter and father one school committee member has a son serving on the city council a city council president the son of the former city treasurer the city treasurer currently is the daughter of the former city treasurer we like doing things

003a certain way in chikae Massachusetts that's hurt us at times in my time just before I got on the school committee actually Su uh school committee was looking to hire new superintendent they had the perfect candidate hired right on the spot and I won't go into specifics but four years on or four months on the school committee all was Rosie and all of a sudden it wasn't if anybody wants to look into that there's plenty of news coverage afterwards we went out for a search for a new superintendent it was costly but we did it the district is running better better than ever staff morale is up everybody's happy the district has a district Improvement plan in the works budgets are goals oriented now there lots of improvement it's my point in saying all that

004things can appear Rosy from the outside but they can be chaotic or stagnant within I'm here to ask what sort of environment this committee is trying to cultivate for its staff and its students now offer some insight from one public official to another is to how you might be able to improve on set environment first and foremost I'm not sure if you get these reports sent in an email but a report on Personnel action that covers retirements resignations and new hires within the district might be beneficial now why is that important shows who's coming in and out of the district at regular intervals and in what departments and it has led one member to start asking for uh exit interview data if there is any in chape and if there's not any of that in

005Greenfield I suggest members start asking for that as well retention in Greenfield has only hit 80% two times in the last 5 years being as low as 70% in 2023 and in the last 10 years if I may ask the chair can I finish my statement sorry now 3 minutes excellent thank you any other public comment good evening all um Doug swin Greenfield um two different uh things I'd like to say briefly first I'd like to invite all members of the school committee and administration um to a funding Forum an education funding Forum that we're holding on June 18th so that's next Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. on zoom and um given that 2third of the schools across the state are losing students and struggling financially and that the distribution of funding from the state is

006not getting to the schools that puts all of us all of you in impossible positions um and despite extraordinary work done by uh teachers and and instructional assistants and administrators to do what they can with the resources they've got available um there's no real magic trick to making funds appear unless we push for them and so I'm hoping that uh you all will join us and members of the public will join us and having conversation about how we can do that and how we can build a Statewide Coalition uh to push for more funds so Tuesday June 18th 6 pm um the second thing is um I have a question about the redistricting effort the district I know it's been pushed back a year but I'm wondering where are we what decisions have been made

007what decisions haven't yet been made and in what ways can the public be involved in those conversations um I know there are a lot of people who have a lot of interest in it and I'm wondering how we will um be able to have that Community conversation we need to make this work for everybody thank you that's it thank you is there any other public comment okay thank you um we'll move on to the report of student representatives to the committee Shane all right um this is very brief it is finals week and so um going to keep it very concise to just a few clubs today so starting with student council um they held their summer banquet on Sunday May 26th um we celebrated our seven graduating seniors and all the accomplishments from the

008school year uh we had a few volunteer opportunities coming up this summer we'll be making luminaries for the Relay for Life tomorrow face paint at the summer eats kickoff and help at the0 5K and Triathlon over the summer the eboard will be holding our training over the summer to prepare for the fall and look forward to recruiting some new members and holding class officer elections for open positions at the start of the year uh the softball team won their third straight western Mass class seed title and received number one seed for the Mia tournament and the baseball team received a 15 seed and beat Boston International in the round of 32 the Mia tournament will continue through June 15th French Club had an exciting end of the year hosting exchange students from ntis France and

009putting it on another successful coffee house show um they're also holding their end of the year celebration or they did hold it last Thursday and look forward to another year that rocks um drama club had a wonderfully successful first year back and are excited to announce next year's show the somewhat true Tales of Robin Hood by Mary Lynn Dobson auditions are going to be held in the fall and they would like to thank members of the school committee the Greenfield Public Schools and the Greater Community for their support for the um program's Renaissance sorry if I look in weird places got like the sun right in my eyes so um the library club's end of year celebration was a picnic with lawn games to celebrate a fun and productive year they have elected Club officers

010for next year and have already started planning a year or a calendar of events spectrum is excited for their last meeting to celebrate our seniors and a collaboration with the Greenfield Public Library to make a display of books for pride month in the room they're also making final plans to march in the Franklin County Pride Parade on June 15th all high school students and their families are welcome and invited to march with them lineup is at 11:15 at GMS um if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer for you no question but just want to thank you and your colleague for your dedicated servic this here and coming to these meetings we really appreciate you and your representation of the the students do you want me to call I'm G do it in

011this way but I um y okay Andy can you make your report please yes good evening everyone you have the report for the June uh nothing new to report we're continuing to do our close out of purchase orders and we still have some yearend re classes to do uh we're going to be addressing the prek tuition uh projected deficit by both reviewing the encumbrances and potentially reclassing expenses um other than that uh the year end closing process is going according to plan I can answer any questions you might have any question questions for Andy Elizabeth hi Andy I just have a real quick question um and maybe this maybe I'm not understanding this but we have um I I see on the agenda that we're going to vote on divesting ourselves of the Green River

012School and um we have money in uh that's been originally appropriated to repair Green River school but it says that we haven't spent any of it does that mean mean that um that money then goes back to us or how does that work if we don't utilize that is this the report yes and I'm just looking for the uh the Green River yeah the amount that's there I mean it's it's nominal uh and so what ends up happening is we we end up having uh I'm looking it you're talking in the local budget right or no Andy there's a capital uh the capital report oh the capital report I apologize looking at the the local so yes that money would revert back to the the city yes okay I was just curious because we have

013that on the agenda thank you yeah oh yeah other questions for Andy okay thanks so much Andy I think he's going to hang around you going to hang around a little bit I am going to stay on for the p okay great all right now to the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and superintendent reports so um I don't know if you want to entertain moving the POS up because we're going to be long oh okay um let's see uh any objection to moving the POs to the next item rather than later I don't see any so let's go ahead with that okay so uh thank you in your packet you have the information from a quote solicitation that Greta had put together we're looking to get a new Pro point of sale system for

014the Food Service program uh there are have been upgrades to some of the systems out there on the back end that she's looking to get us to uh be able to use and have that helps out as far as a reporting side of things um the current system uh I believe some of the features are sun setting as far as their support so uh she put together I'll say a very detailed quote of scope of service if what it is that she's looking for and we'd like to move ahead with this uh uh program that's uh in your packet that the vendor that was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder she did uh look at uh did reference checks uh looked at the demo of the system uh and is very happy with what it

015is at this this program has to offer uh if you look at the revolving account there's no concern it's coming out of the Food Service revolving account and they've got uh the funds available to pay for that okay and so the motion would be to move forward with the proposal as presented in our electronic packets corre may hear a motion to that effect so moved motion by member Martini is there a second second second for member Goodwin discussion questions not seeing any let's move to a vote all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed any abstentions I'll abstain the motion carries thank you all thank you Andy is that it for you tonight is yes all right every see you next month bye okay so I did um mention to Glenn that Karen

016and and my report are combined this evening and um it's a little lengthy so bear with us but as you can see we're looking to highlight the work that has been done in the past 3 years and and um it's I think In fairness to tell you it's 89 slides so well all right so we'll we'll skim some but so first we'll talk about things that came out of somewhat my office and then the district as a whole work that was done so first some things you might remember we did strategic planning and these are a lot of the steps that had to take place so um that was a big that was a big chunk as you folks remember I think we started the whole redistricting conversation um with a few different parts you

017know my first year was started with a few different pieces we moveed forward with strategic planning because that was a piece that we talked about needing to be in place to help set superintendent goals and then um so we engaged with with that and we successfully got to a voted strategic plan and now there's a blank slide for some reason Oh weird okay then every year we do the budget and I'm identifying some of the pieces that go into moving through the budget process um attending subcommittee meetings Ways and Means meetings city council and then the day-to-day monitoring and um ongoing oversight of the budget process also um recommended um ways to make adjustments when there were reductions to the budget and honestly something that um I am proud of watching the districts around us

018deal with some substantial budget cuts right now um there were some difficult conversations last year but at this point we are reinstating positions you know the schools are able to add some critical positions and other districts are cutting um many positions um and then from a capital request every year submitted Capital requests to the city from that we got um $100,000 of desktop computers we have been given money to um repair the elevator at Federal Street and we also had worked with um the city finance department to reallocate the small balances that were left from previous year's capital projects to fund the phone upgrade so that wasn't much um local funding that was needed we used um available Capital so okay I am super proud to say that the school committee policy manual has been

019completely reviewed assuming a positive vote this evening that will be done that was quite the bear and I'm very pleased that that will be completed before I left redistricting so there were a lot of pieces that um Karen and I did together some things that were public um in dealing with public and having conversations at these meetings and other things were sort of the nuts and bolts so all of this I think you folks probably know we did the best use of educational facilities studies we did the public forums we had subcommittees where we talked about um all the questions and options there are documents on the website outlining all of the pieces of the redistricting Karen and I met with Union leadership multiple times to ensure that we were answering their questions we met

020with um grade five and grade eight teachers along with the Union president and vice president to ask them about factors they needed us to consider um we met with kismesis bus company to talk about the impacts of any of the options we were discussing as an administrative team we enroll we reviewed all of the enrollment data we created class siiz projections reviewed all the transportation options and the impact on the buildings we reviewed all the spaces in all the buildings to see if we could actually do the things that we were talking about I will give Karen and Mike Browning all the credit for the scheduling discussion Karen doesn't even want to talk about that anymore and then we also sat as an administrative team and reworked all of the factors anytime there was an

021alternative presented by members of the public I don't want to click too many times I got ahead of myself you did I remember these things probably will forever um presented the redistricting information in multiple school committee meetings we talked about pros and cons we answered a lot of questions that people had um and then um answered emails about qu um questions for all of the options from members of the community okay so I'm done with redistricting um the other piece I will say about that is the process got to the point where school committee did vote the process um the decisions were made how it would be implemented and now um Karen and her team going forward will do the implementation of all of those pieces um but it's I think that it's currently in

022a very good position and that the all of the policy and um committee level decisions to this point have been made okay open Architects is a company that's connected to desie a partner of desie that allows us to house and analyze data in a variety of different ways that are incredibly helpful for us to identify ways in which we can assist students who are struggling the most so we use that um most recently Karen and I and Stephen the incoming assistant super sat with our ssos folks to create the district prioritization plan that's something we do um with ssos annually to focus our um turnaround work we have exited desie support for rethinking discipline in 2021 and 22 we had been identified in needing assistance because we were we had outlier data meaning our incidence

023of externally removing some students um were more diverse than the state average and so our Middle School and High School administrators um and our director of Behavioral Services attended professional development in ways to reduce exclusionary discipline and in 2024 Greenfield is no longer identified as participating in the rethinking discipline cohort we have updated the the Greenfield Public Schools website I give Lauren all the credit in the world for the man hours um that went into updating this the site after all of the backend work that was done with the collaborative e team that's our administrative team we meet twice a month um we focus our e te on significant professional development those are some of the topics we do do um budget process procedure guidance we do um we review compliance for bullying prevention and

024investigations the Corey process fingerprint laws we have standardized the use of school spring which sounds like a silly thing but when you have a smooth coherent process for how interview applicants submit applications they are reviewed and how interviews are able to be scheduled all through through one program that reduces the number of people hours that are required and it reduces significantly the paper that is needed um we also have worked with the mass State Police the Greenfield Police Department the Greenfield fire department and now um Franklin County Sheriff's Department to reestablish the drill schedule for all of our safety drills you want us to hold questions till the end whenever people have a question can you say again and the E team is who the administrative team um one week it's all of the principal's

025um superintendent assistant superintendent and then the alternate week we include the non-academic department heads so our nurse uh director of nursing facilities manager food service director it Transportation thank you okay sorry yes catch me if I use wait there's acronyms in here as I'm sure you can imagine so just some additional information um I have provided weekly updates parent updates to staff and families um I participated in weekly meetings to support the families in Emergency Shelters here in Greenfield including state senator the representatives the mayor's office and community service agencies we formalized training room support for our athletic teams um so that they have support we are reducing injury reducing time out off the fields for our athletes and providing faster support if there are suspected injuries so that's a huge benefit for health um

026and safety for our students I collaborated well with Marlo Warner the director of DPW our transportation company and other stakeholders to make school day decisions about weather it takes more time than you would imagine to call us sow day we have successfully done collective bargaining on seven unions um units A and C some of you may remember that there was some discussion around finishing those up and then um transportation Food Service administ custodial and then um a newly formed um Union our instructional technology department has a brand new contract so some other things that and all of these this is not everything we've done day-to-day these are things that we believe over the course of time have or will have a positive impact on the function of the district so we've established and Implement district-wide

027attendance protocols including the times of the daily calls like hey your students not here do you know that timelines for families about phone calls and letters we have added home visits to the attendance protocol we standardize districtwide our student support team so um that is a way for General Ed teachers related service providers administrators to problem solve and put supports in place for students well before there is consideration of special education there is a formal manual and all of the administrators were trained um on how to implement the new protocols we I don't want to to say the covid word anymore but at the beginning of um Karen and my superintendent Administration we still were dealing with covid and protocols and the process of maintaining um ensuring they were followed and then divesting ourselves of

028those protocols we've standardized the field trip request documents in process in collaboration with the director of Behavioral Services director of pupil service is Karen and I we determined the social and emotional curriculum needs K to7 and then we facilitated curriculum writing committee with teachers to write seal lessons for K to7 following the castle competencies we also establish the process for archiving personnel and payroll records which is a huge um Savings of space and filing cabinets hate to waste a good filing cabinet mayor I was just curious on the absenteeism I'm that's wonderful you about the establish the program could you did the numbers improved you'll see they okay oh yeah you'll see them they're I think that's something that we are um exceptionally proud of yes um Statewide system of support we talked about that

029a little bit we are very fortunate um this year to have worked with a wonderful and last year mhm this year and last year to have worked with a wonderful team of people three folks from desie who helped to support our improvement work and um both years Karen and I have worked with them and done deep data analysis and created a required District prioritization plan um that is absolutely in line with the student Opportunity Act plan you'll see later with our strategic plan and with every other plan that the department of Ed has required of us um so Karen and I have worked to keep the initiatives and goals of that prioritization plan moving forward analyze data relative to the goals and they have also participated in all of our district learning Walks With Me

030Karen and the building principles so they've really been um important folks with us okay any questions before I get to the data okay all right we'll just hit some highlights because there's a lot but you you have this in your school committee um Google folder and I forgot which ones I was supposed to do all right you go ahead we're going to start with the high school the high school this year is uh currently one of the schools that was newly added to our turnaround status um but as you can see um if you just look at the June 2023 column and the June 2024 column for chronic absenteeism you can see that Greenfield High School this year has improved in all categories as well as the subcategories that are identified by um desie in

031our ssos plan so um our subcategories are English language Learners students with disabilities and our Hispanic and Latino population so moving forward our district prioritization plan also revolves around these three subgroups and moving um towards more data analysis and and really looking at data more continually to keep track of the Improvement we need to see in these three subgroups but as you can see um the high school did make vast improvements in chronic absenteeism so getting them to school is very positive and we look forward to um next year and improving that even more um we only map test through 8th grade so you'll see some Ela grade 8 literacy information here um the red boxes mean nothing we're they were put on there by ssos and we couldn't delete them so don't worry about

032why those are highlighted um for our next year's prioritization plan though after a meeting with the ssos team we have made literacy our continued Focus for next year and you'll see when we get into the math data that literacy is still where we need some improvements but some highlights here though you can see that the average meeting uh average percentage of students meeting their growth targets from fall to winter or fall to Spring um have improved from 2023 to 2024 so that is definitely positive and then um you will see the math data and um you remind me what the SE stands for which special education sorry um and you will see the highlights here um from 2023 to 2024 the majority of students doubled their growth percentage targets and then they've met them all

033even greater than that so I really think you know we we were talking about this earlier Christine and I these students have had three solid years of high quality instructional math materials in front of them and I think having that um access to uh standards-based instruction high quality instruction that's evidence-based has really shown that um our math goals are being met and highlighting that L line there where 100% of the students this year met their growth Target in eth grade is just phenomenal so um really proud of that too okay so I will speak to to middle school so the um Middle School we have made improvements in our chronic absentee rate you'll see for our English learner population um we did sorry I misspoke I apologize for all of our students we hit our

034Target made significant um improvements since last June our student with disabilities also had some nice Improvement we hit our Target those targets by the way are set by the Department of Education and our accountability those aren't our goals those are Desy goals um we still have some work to do in getting our English learner students and our students who are Hispanic Latino um some improvement in terms of their chronic absenteeism but we are moving um so we're you know we're we're happy where we've seen growth and know where we need to focus the ELA assessment data for the middle school again we look at that last column percent of students meeting their growth targets from Fall to Spring just so you know that first line where it says all is last year's score the next

035line that says all is this year's score you can see the year difference so a increase in the number percentage of students who've hit their growth targets for all of our student students um our special education students are still struggling and um we are working on how uh an evaluation of our special education services and then our English learner population has 10% increase in the students who are meeting their growth goal and then our math data again seeing some pretty significant improvements percentage of students meeting growth Target tar gets um 36 to 67 for all students at the middle school our special education population went from 20% to 57% of students meeting their growth Target and our English learner students 20% to 77% in a year so those are um things that we're really pleased

036to see so Mrs Fenimore I think that is mostly the textbook that curriculum or we do believe that the continued exposure to high quality instructional material is a factor but we've also been doing the professional development that Karen has been highlighting over the course of the past few years we're focusing on a consistent set of instructional practices and um teacher oh and we now have a full-time elll teacher at the middle school which helps with um our our English learner population yes so there's I think we are starting to see um a very positive Collision of factors that are impacting our students so Mrs fenamore put these two this slide and then the next one together for Karen and I but we wanted to highlight them she looked at cohorts last year's fifth grade to

037this year's sixth grade and there was a 14% increase in students on grade level or Advanced on map and for the sixth graders moving into seventh grade this is Ela a 30% increase in the percentage of students on grade level and into advanced so um a wonderful increase in the numbers of students who have moved into that higher level of performance and math again fifth grade moving into six 37% increase and six grade into S A 40% increase so again wonderful data to be highlighting Newton um rocked it out of the park and improving their chronic absenteeism if you just look at that first row for all students last year we had 37.1% of our students at Newton who are chronically absent the state gave us a Target this year to decrease that to 34.9%

038and their current chronic absentee rate is 18.7% so that's just phenomenal so we're really excited to see that their assessment data for um Ela you can see that all of their RIT scores in every category from special ed to English language Learners all improved from Fall to spring so we are really excited to see that Improvement and then with math if you just look at the percentage of students meeting their growth Target from Fall to Spring each year they have almost all doubled if not um more than that increased overall and then to see that rate of our English language Learners all the way up to 87.5% is really impressive so we're excited for that and again you know that Ma our math seems to be our strength in the data um which is why

039we're really going to continue with that literacy Focus next year okay Federal Street school again um all of our students looking at the decrease in The Chronic absentee rate the des's target for us was 37 we're at 23.4 so um we've hit all of the targets given by desie and decrease the percentage of students um described as chronically absent for federal Street the English language arts again RIT scores improved from Fall to Spring in every group presented there and again you can see the significant Improvement for the percent of students meeting their growth Target from last year to this year um including our special education students who went from 10% meeting their growth Target to 40 we want more of course but a significant increase our El students 22 to 63 so some nice jumps

040there and then again math as Karen just said math is definitely our area of strength right now with um I think the lowest Improvement is a doubling in the percentage of students meeting their growth Target and finally the discovery school at Four Corners um they actually improve their chronic absentee rate as well and often when your chronic absentee rate is minimal to start it is harder to improve so I think there um really should be commended for that they had a 13.1% Target by the state and actually have an 11.5% chronic absentee rate right now so there was definite Improvement their Ela um again students meeting that growth Target from Fall to Spring is just a highlight for most of our schools including the discovery school if you look at all from 39% to 60.6

041you have our special ed students um almost doubling to 40.7 and then you do see an increase in the L's as well and then with math you see that jump um be exponentially higher so we're going from 57 to 76.9 and then that L um number really just you know makes your heartwarmin per to 85.7% of our L's meeting their growth Target so job well done there part of what um we did so all of this work you know we connect to um the work with ssos um the priority plan and then um they participate in all the professional development that Karen will speak to more and one of the things that we were able to do is is Dr shy Curry who's the desie associate commissioner for ssos which is Statewide system of support

042um she came to visit the district and Karen and I um helped worked with her to tour all of our buildings and then sat down with her to talk about the um Impressions that she had and one of the things that she noted that we were extremely pleased about is that she said every classroom they were utilized Iz in the curriculum materials every classroom there was consistency across the district in and that that's the goal you know so we were very pleased um and she was great to have on site with us why does this not love me okay now Karen's going to talk about the work she's done so I know um I've been involved in a lot of the work we've already talked about but there are some things that my office handles

043that I wanted to highlight tonight as well um the first is our mentor and mentee program um our unit a folks have had a very solid mentor and mentee program um but getting that actually funded and doing the oversight involves writing the title two grant that funds that the unit c members negotiated a Mentor mentee program into their contract this year so I have been training the new mentors and then uh overseeing those relationships and meetings and trainings and professional developments as well um we also do a by anual celebration because I like to highlight um these folks do it for a very minimal stipend and they give a lot of work time and effort in love to our incoming employees and it really is um just something that's so valuable in this District they

044have someone that they can rely on and these mentors are just phenomenal and then at the end of the year I feed we ask for their feedback and then we try to revamp and reorganize and really create a better program moving forward the title one Grant is a Federal grant um that my office oversees um we oversee all of the title one interventionists in every building which requires a lot of collection of data on their part students that they service the cycle of intervention uh data collection to show Improvement whether the student stays in intervention we have Ela and math interventionists so we have monthly meetings to review that documentation answer any questions um supervise that process and then we plan and support all of the family engagement um nights and we try to help

045out at every school from Bingo to books to math nights to meet and greet to Winter Carnival to hot diggity dog that was happening tonight at the middle school before we headed over here and then we also tried to make sure that we fill skill gaps and create um vacation challenges so students stay engaged in their learning then we also do some work with the community and um a lot of it is done on the winter carnival where we host uh book giveaways for folks and Adams Donuts is one of our highlights it's usually freezing though um but we have a good time we also run Run summer school programming and then we have to coordinate and comply with all of the audits by the federal grants management team and keep record of all of

046that we also publish document and distribute all the necessary Letters by desie and the federal government that go along with this Grant and really keep track of all of that in District the title for Grant is part of that Federal allocation um I highlighted just a photo from the Federal Street Library I'm really proud of the work that we've done over the last two years in getting um those libraries up to a quality that our students deserve with a diversified collection that represents our population and that is in this Century not from uh centuries ago so really thankful for all of that work we also worked with the IT department we do a technology audit because our tier one and tier 2 interventions um needed some Technology support and then you know worked with Christine's

047office on the social and emotional supplies needed for the second step program that's delivered K through 7 sorry flipped the wrong way um I also write all of the grants that do not fall under sped so if they are um uh such as our turnaround grant our Civics Grant to name a few are investigating history Grant which the middle school has taken on we've done a lot of the HQ grants that have supported the work that we've done in the adoption of our CK amplify along with Eureka and illustrative math and then um with the superintendent we've managed and amended eer 2 and eer 3 in our time that we were here and I think some of the things that folks don't know maybe about grant writing if you're not one is that there are

048specific requirements for all of the funding of course and you have to constantly meet and adhere to those requirements and keep of everyone who is working under those grants there's multiple cost centers usually in each that you have to navigate and at least keep documenting the implementation of all the grant funds um I have a couple highlights our Civics grant that we have had for the last few years we participated in the Civics project showcase at UMass and that is a group of our students that just attended last Friday and um the next two slides also has some photo the next one at least has a photo of our other two groups and um many of them took on the issue of homelessness in greenfields and I just wanted to highlight because the Desi Deputy

049Commissioner Regina Robinson that was there leading this showcase recognized only one school and that school was Greenfield High School for the work that they did in the Showcase work that they did so um shout out to miss Zimmerman Miss Degan and all of the other history folks um and just really giving them the opportunity to showcase their work um they were very proud of that achievement and I'm very proud to share that with you tonight um some of the other I like to highlight um I'm always excited when we can get students out of Greenfield and exploring the world and the Civics Grant also funded Luke Martin's trip to Ellis Island in the 911 Memorial in New York City a couple weeks ago and you can see he took a hefty bunch of Juniors and

050seniors with him to New York City and when I was talking with a few of them it always um makes me remember how important it is to get them to explore the world uh one of them was just describing the awe in which they were when they saw the Statue of Liberty when they were on the boat over to Ellis Island so if nothing else I think that's you know positive that we get our kids in these experiences and then Title One also supported the stem night at Greenfield Middle School this past year along with the GF my office also handles all of the professional development and um I know you've heard many of the things that I've reported in my reports every year but uh every week month anyways feels like every week um

051but we plann the district's PD for the whole school year which includes new teacher orientation convocation any of the adoptions of any of our highquality instructional curriculum material I also work with all of the other departments to see what their PD needs are and try to plan with our transportation nursing it Food Services custodial because every time we have a professional development day we want all of our departments to get the development that they deserve we manage all of the um resources for that and then try to um also oversee all of the district mandatory trainings that are required for every employee when they on board the biggest project has been the teaching lab profession development this year which has really focused on that K through 7 CA and amplify adoption however uh we utilized

052um that Grant to also include AEL in the high school so that our instructional strategy work was K through 12 prek through 12 we certainly didn't want there to be bookends where they weren't getting this exploration and this PD and this in-depth instructional strategy work so you can see here um that included scheduling learning walkthroughs and that included not only teaching lab people flying in but desie ssos people along with building principles in every building six times during the year so it was uh quite the coordination to get every bit of that Grant and um checked off and made sure that we adhered to the grant needs but also to make it meaningful for our instructional um faculty so wanted to highlight that my office also handles homeschool coordination we process review and overse oversee

053100 to 150 homeschool applications every year which includes per school committee policy monitoring yearend summary progress reports and making sure that people adhere to the curriculum that they intended to teach their children we answer and address any questions that come out and we send out yearly approval letters along with follow-up letters if there are any missing components we also handle all of the interns and student teacher placements in the district I had the privilege of um these were two of our interns that were teaching in our history department at Greenfield High School their UMass 180-day program ceremony was the other night and I had the uh pleasure of going to Springfield and honoring both Emily and Kate they were wonderful um and we wish them the best in their next Adventures but we don't just

054do interns in our uh unit a department we do interns in technology we do nursing interns we have interns in our food service department we also have collaborated with GCC and HCC to do IIA interns so monitoring all of their placements making sure that they've done all the mandatory trainings making sure that they're on board with the GPS policies is also part of that process curriculum adoption implementation mapping and oversight so along with adopting all of these materials we have have to make sure that the pilots happen the adoption and implementation process goes well that teachers have the support that they need that we develop scope and sequence for these materials and have checkpoints along the way that if there are questions or coordinations that there's time during faculty meetings or collaboration times where people

055can have access to get their questions answered the ordering and Divi divvying up of all of the materials districtwide is a job in it of itself every year we also have decided to adopt a new science curriculum next year open CED so we're in the midst of doing that as well in grade six through 12 we have grades 5 through seven adopting investigating history so we're trying to align that PD which is um happening at the end of the month for them and then we've worked on actually having a five-year curriculum map cycle so we started this year with writing Ela and music curriculum we will move into math and hopefully Health next year under Steven's oversight and we also um adopted navian at grades 7 through 12 which is our College and Career Readiness

056program to try to give our students access to more opportunities to learn about things they may want to be or become my office also handles courses and conferences so if any teacher or uh uh employee in the district wants to enroll in a course and or take a conference all of the paperwork is processed through my office we monitor process oversee the approval track expenditures and work closely with the business office to M maintain those records this year we had um monthly Elementary pre principal meetings and then separate secondary meetings where I got to meet in two groups with folks talk about issues that were coming up at their grade levels oversee curriculum implementation create and collaborate building schedule so that they worked for principles and really just talking about um our power teacher use

057uh our prek through five piloted this year so we had a lot of questions and a lot of trainings on um from principles what that would look like in the future so that was a chunk of our time together instructional leadership teams are part of the ssos turnaround plan so that we have boots on the ground of strong instructional leaders from our unit a staff in each building they have been pivotal in the work that we have done with instructional strategies principles oversee those at each building and then the district Christina and I oversee with the principles to make sure that everyone's in line not only with the Strategic plan but the goals of our district prioritization plan with ssos so that we are meeting our goals and really keeping our focus on what we

058intend to do each and every day I also handle educator evaluation training and keeping track of uh professional development our admin need to be trained every year and then our admin become train the trainers and then they train our um staff members which is by timelines I believe before September 15th every year we also work with building principles to make sure that they meet all of the required timelines due to the contractual language that we have in agreement with the unit a folks and then I this year took over updating managing and cleaning up Vector Solutions which is the online component where we submit all of our edal documents you have to wait and I save the fun one for last um the grinspoon award which is um the Harold grinspoon teacher of the year

059award um I coordinate with their office every year so that we have a district process where applications are submitted from each building we vet those applications at e team and then vote as an administrative team and then collaborate with the grinspoon foundation on the coordination for the ceremony we go to the ceremony which is at the Log Cabin every year support the winners and this year's winner was Jess CaRu and that was from our evening supporting her so I just thought I'd share that photo okay now specific to our technology department um starting with that original capital request I think my first year when we got $1,000 for desktops um at this point with the exception of the high school teachers desktops which we are in the process of getting a quote to replace now

060all the desktops staff desktops in the district are less than 3 years old when I got here some of them were almost 15 years old so we are purchasing replacement projectors for the interactive whiteboards new um Chromebook carts so that we make sure every middle school and high school classroom has their own cart and the Chromebooks in them so that the teachers don't have to share um Elementary already has carts and the Chromebooks that they need for their instructional purposes Our IT department created an inventory a system for our technology assets and they created and distributed a tech survey for all of our staff they have as I said replaced or replacing all staff desktop computers we are purchasing 750 new Chromebooks 14 new servers districtwide not glamorous but that's what makes it go um

061other elements of the infrastructure to ensure Network sustainability have been purched purchased and maintained all the district Wireless has been updated we updated the phone system as I said previous to be compliant with the bomb act and Carries law um almost all of that work was done in Our IT department we provided emergency phones in each building for communication directly with dispatch we completed an audit of our phone lines and reduced District costs by at least $6,000 annually um Our IT director reworked The copier lease reducing our Fleet and replacing the remaining district copers for efficiency and saved and apparently I left myself a pregnant pause there um we believe it's about $20,000 a year we also submit for e- rate reimbursement annually we've established the help desk administrator pos position so that we respond

062more efficiently to help desk tickets um as Karen mentioned um we have an intern to the Greenfield Community College um we have established relationships with staffing agency to deal with Staffing shortages so we keep our it response um as robust as possible um we have done a ton of work declaring Surplus and recycling old and broken technology and apparently I'm very proud of those things that we've done and Technology sorry that's the cost you pay when you rework a PowerPoint right okay then under the director of pupil services and special education our director of pupil Services ad writes and administers all of these grants the um idea or special education ARP were American Rescue plan those have Sunset it at this point um special education impr the federal special education Improvement program was connected to

063the eer funding structures mckin vento is to support our students experiencing homelessness as is the 301302 um the first two years the comprehensive School Health Service Grant was written out of our um pupil service department now it's moved to our nurse leader and Dave also writes and administers title three which is to support our English learner program and Karen already talked about the requirements for Grant Administration so I won't review but he has the same types of um requirements that all of our grants do Dave has also in substantially increased the district information provided in translated versions we're providing information to families in at least six languages one of which is American Sign Language we provide GO bags to students under mckin vento with instructional and personal hygiene supplies he works with the transportation to

064Department Department to ensure our students who are experiencing homelessness receive the required Transportation updated procedures regarding recordkeeping for our English learner program updated parent notification for our English learner program Revitalize the special education parent advisory Council I've seen some of the folks coming in for meetings um and the participation has increased from none to I think they had six at the last meeting so that's actually um a pretty good increase proportionately I guess um developed an implementation plan so that next year there is also a parent advisory Council for our English Learners and facilitated an update of the English learner procedural manual he's also provided press profession development and materials in specialized reading to all district special education teachers provided professional development in these other topics um many of those topics that are bulleted um

065Dave or our current or prior assistant directors presented themselves we have provided um PD for staff in assistive and augmentative communication and additional reading approaches we are conducting an analysis of the strength and needs related to our inclusive programming where students with special needs receive support in um settings with typical peers as as they should that's the um preferred location as long as students are able to make progress and then um updated and implemented a special education procedure manual under the director of pupil Services we have our director Behavioral Services who kind of works with me and with Dave and the principls and with Karen um some of the things he's done in the past two years provided ongoing clinical support provided professional development Outreach to families and Community Counseling agencies conducted home visits um

066provided collaboration and problem solving about creation of behavior plans on-site support in crisis situation and worked with our counselors K to7 to implement the Second Step andal lessons that um were in line with the castle competencies want keep going yeah okay am I do you're doing Transportation um this is with regards to the Greenville Public Schools Transportation units so we provide transportation for students out of district and you can see the year delanation there this year we've provided 37 students out of District transportation 136 students inhouse they also um spend time providing Transportation our high school life skills class three to four times a week getting them out into the community where they learn life skills um provided transportation for our Beacon program which is 10 to 14 students and that Transportation um was to

067GCC this year because they were on site at that campus provided transportation for students receiving tutoring Sports trips they've also assisted in field trips they've provided a second chance bus to help us with improving chronic absenteeism where they do another round for us if a a parent calls and says my student missed a bus and I don't have a way to get them there we send the second chance bus to go and pick them up and they also support individualized requests for transportation by building administrators as needed and there's our lovely Food Service folks they were at a professional development they love when I come around with my camera if you can't tell um they are amazing this team they have done um a a wealth of things with our students to get them exposed

068to different foods and different Avenues they had the ale Blazer by mass Farm school they became a fully C District bringing Four Corners into the group they do healthy kids healthy program Su Summit they have a mass Farm Fresh School Grant where they get to taste test things and just Roots works with them and they restarted the staff lunch program um which uh so many of our staff compliment them on that they have access to question um what is a c District you're I'm going to blank because you asked me the question it's um eligibility it we are able to all get free meals um breakfast and lunch and actually I believe Greta has worked so that for the summer at least um a Supper meal is part of that so I will get back

069to you because I have just lost the actual word c but I will get back to important than the words anyway that's eligibility for the um state and federal sponsored meals um the food service department is really great about doing culturally relevant meals they've brought in uh training for staff on Puerto Rican and Salvadorian Cuisine um they visited the New England dairy farm um and then they did smoothie program they expanded summer eats where it is including an added Supper meal and and they are hosting the annual kickoff which is coming up next week so hopefully everyone can join they also received the food security infrastructure Grant so they got the food truck going which was in service tonight at Hot Diggity Dog and then as you heard earlier they are working on a new

070POS system which is the point of sale and um Greta does a great job managing her budget and Staffing and they are a self- sustaining Food Service program okay nursing last but not least so the wellness committee was chaired by our nurse leader Melissa that included working with a Desi provided consultant having the administrators review multiple times um you folks probably remember you voted to endorse that wellness program um we have been recognized as a Massachusetts school Wellness champion um and part of that is that Greta food service director and Melissa attended the healthy kids healthy program Summit and were recognized for that work thank you I can read it there oh U Melissa and her nursing team established Mertz Medical Emergency Response teams and um that is documented very clearly established about roles and

071responsibilities we have recognized menstrual equity and um we have applied to participate in programs that provide free menstrual products and dispensers to our schools the Greenfield nursing program as Karen mentioned has nursing students in our health offices and we have bleeding control kits purchased through grant funding and are located in each AED cabinet throughout the district so that is leading kits like AIT and and such thank you and then um they take care of calibrating our audiometers used for hearing tests that are required we have two new audiometers purchased with the comprehensive school health services Grant and U Melissa oversees the AED contracts and we are pleased to say we have at least 13 aeds across the district facilities oh I was I lied I said nursing was last but not at least this is

072really this is really the last department so they have updated the asbest program in compliance with state requirements we have updated books on safety data sheets everything that is even remotely considered to be a chemical has to have what's called an SDS sheet so that is a very significant piece to keep on top of our facilities department has done replacement at Newton and a for doors Four Corners roof drain Federal Street main office carpet Greenfield Middle School student services the um Federal Street rubber floor and stair treads as well as at the Middle School Newton School fencing Mike is also working on replacing fencing at Four Corners and at the high school where there was some damaged fencing and around the little playground at AEL that's in process now and then across the district water

073fountain mountain with water bottle filling stations were installed in all of the buildings that was no small feat so that's just some of what we've done in the past three years um but I need to just make sure and very clear that this reflects time effort dedication and the love of what they do of all the staff in Greenfield every staff person they work so hard all the time and um we would not do any of what we are doing and have nothing on these slides if it weren't for the collective effort so please join us in saying thank you for the fabulous work I would say I'm sorry that it was long but I'm not thank you so much thank you um any questions or comments from the committee member ston this is an

074easy one um you said that the kickoff to the summer eats program was next week 20th Thursday Thursday the 20th like during the day or during no it's it's after school okay Karen's looking right now it's going to be at the rec department um swim area there are Community agencies there the recck department um Works in collaboration and the food truck will be there great thank you any other questions or comments um let's see I have a few things I I don't remember seeing in the presentation about the um the cell phone um policy and the the the um pouches that was a major achievement as well I don't remember seeing that one but maybe you did we might have skipped that one um I'm sure there were a lot of things that we didn't

075just want to give you kudos for that because um you you listen to the teachers you brought it to us you pushed you know we we had some tough conversations on the school committee about that um and I think the research that's coming in from districts around the country that are trying this are seeing good results so I just think that should be noted and celebrated as well and and I also wanted to say um another piece of your responsibilities um that I've really appreciated has been your support of the the school committee um it's a lot of work to get these meetings organized for you and your team and um you've provided a lot of support to me as a new um school committee chair this year and I really appreciate it thank you

076very much for saying that and I'll share that with Lauren and everybody else in the office that helps get everything everything together but thank you I'm sure there's there's a number of things that are great that we've done in the past three years that didn't quite come to mind as we were trying to capture everything but um you know there's there's been a lot I think that's why we're you know why we're so tired um but it's all been really good and I'm very pleased that we're able to show um data that's showing the results of that of that work so thank you I I'll just add that during this last budget season it was kind of raised a lot this concept that we um topheavy on Administration and I would say based on the

077output that this Administration has led we're more like lean and mean ter of what you were able to accomplish so um this seems like an appropriate time to um appreciate you superintendent uh your very last meeting with us tonight uh uh before your retirement we have a small token for you of our appreciation for your work with us oh je Richard Richardson candies on a card from the school committee absolutely you folks knew your way to my heart with chocolate absolutely thank you so very much and I said this morning um I was able to have a gathering with the central office folks and the administrators and um so you know when I applied to come to Greenfield people said people who I knew who worked in education said I don't know if you want

078to go to Greenfield they said some other things but that was the General theme and now I am so proud to say I'm the superintendent in Greenfield it is a wonderful district and everybody is working so hard with a collective goal and everybody is so nice and I am I am very pleased to say that I am retiring from Greenfield um so thank you very much I appreciate it thank you oh I guess I want to say one more thing which is like with the covid I feel like one of the ways we deal with trauma as a species is just to put things behind us and we kind of forget what an incredibly difficult situation you walked into the students transitioning back and there were a lot of behavioral problems and you um you

079just have such a steady Keel and just kind of kept uh marching forward so uh that that steady leadership at that particular time was uh very appreciated thank you I laugh because I don't know if Karen would use the word steady Keel but we'll let that go thank you thank you um we had the pleasure of having a small gathering with the administrative and central office staff today to honor Christine but I do think it's um noteworthy to say a few words tonight so I just want to thank you again for your service um like I said this morning I can't believe three years have gone by it it's been a blink um I'm honored to have been a part of the progress and Improvement in the Greenfield school system that have happened under your

080leadership and really I think um tonight really showcased all that you have done and thank you for all of your hard work you leave us better off than when you arrived and I'm truly thankful to have worked beside you so on behalf of the Greenfield Public School administration faculty and staff we wish you all the best in the next chapter congratulations don't cry I'll go ahead and cry why not no I'm not gonna do it thank you so nice thank you thank you very much thank you very much back to business okay our work does carry forward um from the celebratory to the consent agenda um are there any items on the consent agenda that any member would like to have removed and considered separately well I think we should remove F because didn't we

081already consider it okay yep good point we are uh we moved that one out already so our consent agenda is the items a through e are there any other items there that people would like to consider separately with that I would have a motion to um to approve the consent agenda as presented items a through e so moved motion from Member seon seconded second from Member Childs any discussion all those in favor I all those opposed I'll abstain the motion carries great chair I'm sorry I abstain oh and and an abstention from Member Martini okay um next we have um vote to approve the field behind Greenfield High School to be named Donna Woodcock field um um I guess we um as a reminder we kind of opened a public comment period um there was

082public comment tonight as a hearing as well on this item um I haven't heard any opposition there's many member many members of the community deeply appreciative of Donna woodcock's um uh leadership on the fields there and so I would hear a motion to approve the field behind Greenfield High School being named B Donna Woodcock field motion from the mayor is there a second second second second from Vice chair Martini uh any [Music] discussion all those in favor I I I I'll say I too any abstentions anyone against motion carries unanimously thanks to everyone who's been in touch with us about this and who proposed the idea um I think that's very special recognition for very special leader um next why don't we have the superintendent kind of give us an intro to this and then

083we'll have a motion discussion and a vote okay so um as we've been talking about for a while um what what the situation would be for the public schools in terms terms of um the use of Green River School um in your packet is a copy of the letter that I sent to the mass School building authority um they're behind on the other side I'm looking for me okay um about the history there's a required process to take a school out of service through um msba and um some of the factors that they primarily concern elves with are involving students who may be in the school when we consider closing it and as we know Green River has been closed for students for a number of years I believe seven um I did a summary

084of documentation I will say there's some inconsistencies in the documentation I was able to locate however Green River has been open and closed multiple times since its um Inception but the most recent um seems to have been closed um with the um statement on the document provided to desie saying that Green River was being closed because of issues with the heating system and that it would reopen upon repair um the general understanding that I have is at that stage there were questions about what would we use Green River for there was no immediate need so then the discussion of do we repair the heat if there's no need for the use of the school and so on and so on and now we know that at this point the heating system has not been repaired

085and um given the 10-year enrollment projections and the space um that we're using even next year I apologize to the year after for redistricting um the Greenfield schools do not require it um so I have a history of the heating system which thank you to Carol Collins on the city Side for some explanation of that and um so I sent this um there are there is language in the paperwork from the mass School building authority that was signed by mayor Martin at the time that speaks to the requirements for use of the building um um it is supposed to be used for educational purposes for 50 years following the um receipt of the funds we clearly have not hit the 50-year mark um msba has this letter they have acknowledged receip of the letter um

086they will let the district know the next steps primarily I understand the question is what about the loan um really what I wanted to highlight is is that we have had some conversation with a community organization that does provide what um think we can speak to as an educational service so hopefully um they will consider that if that is the way we go with the use of Green River School in the future they will consider that in making decisions about repayment of the loan or the funding so um at this point I think it makes sense we've talked about it at the subcommittee meeting um the mayor and and the chair and I have talked about it it seems prudent at this point to hand the building back to the city the school department still

087does pay for some things the servers the um Security in that building we are in the process of taking things out of it finally it has been used as storage so we're going through it um you will see some Surplus being declared or you just did see some Surplus being declared that will help us begin clearing out Green River um but the at this point it's not being used at all never mind by us in any productive way so if this school committee would consider um handing it back to the city then decisions can be made about its use going forward thank you any questions before we start uh take a motion and a okay hear a motion for the school committee to relinquish possession of Green River School effective September 1 2024 so moved

088a motion from um member Goodwin is there a second second second for member Martini discussion member ston um I wanted to share that at the most most recent ad commit subcommittee meeting for the ad hoc redistricting committee we did take a vote um to endorse the this action um on the basis that that really there's um this is this this is the direction that it is headed um I I will share though that this isn't this isn't a school committee matter that I'm about to speak to necessarily but just so that the mayor in particular is aware that when this happens if it happens should we you know pass uh this motion right tonight um the community is very interested in having a role in in deciding what happens with this building and I have

089wanted to be able to provide some um communication to the community about what you know if if this action happens who do they go to next if they don't come to this subcommittee if it's no longer in our our purview there needs to be some communication out about how people can make their preferences or their desires or their ideas known and who is the The Entity on the city side that will be taking this over um so that they can be the ones who are hearing from the community um I just need to make it very clear that that that decision shouldn't really happen behind closed door that that is not going to go over really well um and that that we should be able to communicate what what is next after this motion but

090I will I do just want to reiterate that we did take a vote and we do endorse the action from the subcommittee thank you any other comments or questions before we vote mayor may I answer answer that sure so um I just wanted to for full disclosure I had another um uh entity come forward for an educational purpose that had to do with music um and one of the and certainly to answer your question this probably is a decision that's going to be made by the mayor's office I think all of you know me and I do listen to other people's input um people can write to Mayor at if they have some things that they would like to say about that one of the concerns that we've had as we're going along with this

091is the Grant and I just wanted wanted to say that openly in a public setting that that will be in my mindset one of the things that I will be considering because there's a little bit of unknown with that and so uh if it's for it's for an educationally you use that involves children that may very well suffice from it's not sure we're opening a door going to the other side we don't know what's on the other side but there are two decisions here whether that building remains f vac or not and an educational use is um something that I just wanted to that may very well be the uh the deal breaker I guess I would say for lack of a better word I guess I would just say it's it's yeah when you

092talk about opening the and you don't know what's on the other side we can't get a determination from them in advance that of whether they're going to accept a particular use as satisfying the needs of the grant so do appreciate the mayor taking this risk to accept this property and hope that um that that can be resolved so any other question oh yes remember child's just a quick comment yes there is that risk there but realistically this building has not been a school in many years and it is not going to be a Greenfield Public School at any point in the future uh the classroom sizes and availability it just can't work with what we have set up now and it doesn't fit into our long-term plans from where I'm sitting it only makes sense

093to give control of the city-owned building back to the city so that it can find another future so that's my yes vote for its speech thank you any other comments or questions before we vote all right all those in favor say I I all those opposed any abstentions I'll abstain the motion carries congratulations superintendent another item checked off your list oh that was a big one um I was looking around for my phone which is what I use as my crib sheet for the uh motions related to the um policy items so um Susan Farber by any chance do you have a motion handy for a second read and vote on these sections what did you do with your phone had it [Music] earlier all right great um let's see um is there anyone who

094would like to take each of these sections separately or can we just do um H through HK and L as one motion all right so as put forward by um Susan Farber um that is the motion um for uh sections HK andl would someone like to make that motion so move all right a motion by member Goodwin is there a second second second by member seon uh any discussion hearing none all those in favor I all opposed I'll abstain any other abstentions member Martini motion carries congratulations superintendent we did it thank you that's a good one that was from um when I first came on the committee almost five years ago we were in they were in the middle of that work uh few well and the work of um reviewing our policies continues and

095we immediately have an amendment to one we recently approved uh superintendent will you set this up for us well it's a it's a minor adjustment but um the issue of um international travel is one um that would create a little bit of a challenge with the wording of the policy as was voted this evening so I have a proposal for you the only section modified is this section in yellow so what happens with our International trips is that the teachers who facilitate them use a travel company and so they present to to the superintendent what their intended plans are it comes to the school committee for review and approval and basically at that point it gets advertised to the students and the travel company begins to collect money right then it can be a year

096or more out and unless a family voluntarily purchases trip insurance if at a later date which the policy says has to come back to the school committee with details no more than 30 days out if for some reason the school committee would vote no at that point all the families would lose all their money um there are no refunds with the travel companies so that process really isn't functional so if the committee would like to continue to to support International trips um really the committee would have to give the final approval at the initial point or certainly you could have the the teacher come back a second month but um they would not be able to advertise or start taking money until the committee votes to approve um given that it's far out um we

097did add in that we felt that for a student to participate in the trip they did at the time of the trip need to be a Greenfield res a Greenfield Public Schools student um not necessarily a resident as we know we have non-resident students but um that if they were to move out of the Greenfield Public Schools that they would no longer be eligible for the trip so that is the proposed modification okay I'd like to hear a motion to approve on first reading um amendment to jjh student late night or overnight travel policy so moved motion from Member Martini is there a second second second for member Childs any discussion or questions please just so that I have it clear in my head um let's say there's a trip we've approved it it's happening

098they're collecting money a student puts money in or their family does and then they move and we're still saying they're out of it they're they so that's the suggestion you I mean I think the challenge is that the liability is on the Green Field schools um you know around transporting and supervising the student who's really not under our purview at that point but that again that's that's up to the committee that was a l that Karen and I thought would be um important because it could be two years you know one or two years I know that one of our um teachers at the high school is very anxious to come to the committee to start talking about a trip for um 26 for 26 so um okay thank you okay any other questions or

099comments okay um all those in favor say I I I all those opposed any extensions I'll abstain abstentions extensions from member seon member den and I will abstain the motion carries great and I'll just say um the policy committee I think you know we have the second reading um which will be next month in we had been meeting very regularly um because of the policy review process but I don't think it's there's a need for us to meet if there aren't any if the committee isn't directing us to oh take a look at this or just that you know so um unless unless the committee really is directing the policy committee to meet and like discuss a policy at greater length and bring something different back for the second reading um we will not plan

100to meet to discuss it between this meeting and the next just to um or unless we hear significant public you know interest in in us uh having a discussion on it um great uh next we're on to the school committee year-long agenda um so member Den has been advocating for the committee to have a year-long agenda and I was becoming a bottleneck and I thought rather than being a bottleneck um off on my own I just bring it to us as a committee to work on and discuss um so maybe member deneve if we could start with um just kind of a description of what the desired outcome here is and what it would look like so based on my how to school committee classes that I have gone to um the year-long agenda is

101actually something that you and Karen will formulate together and something that you would bring to us to vote on because and Kate please correct me if I'm wrong because you were also in said class um it's the goals the school committee goals that we develop together as a group because the idea is that we create our goals as a school committee we vote on them and we bring them to you and you and Karen develop the year-long agenda and try to connect our goals to the points in the agenda where they would be heard or worked upon and also bring into that agenda the budget subcommittee calendar and also the Strategic plan so that when we look at the year that's coming up and also when the public looks at the year we can chart

102the flow of the work so we understand when things are coming up so we can prepare um when to expect things um so that we understand when things come up that aren't scheduled because things happen and have to be slotted in and so that we can sort of all be on this journey together and know what is upcoming so that we are all on the same page if that makes sense and that way we're able to see they said these words specifically each member's desires and goals goals should be seen within the year-long agenda so that is what we were taught needs to be is am I right um Vice chair Martini well you might be taxing my memory a little bit too much it's been a while since I was at my last uh

103masc Workshop but um my understanding is that the committee should provide an annual agenda so that members of the public understand approxim Ely when during the year certain things will be covered by the school committee so that they can anticipate when they might like to show up uh or pay extra attention that also is supposed to help you as the chair to facilitate the different members needs so in case anyone might for example in the class they said maybe someone's bugging the chair they really want to have something handled the chair can look at the yearlong agenda and say oh your issue takes place in October when we discuss x y andz so that's part of keeping everybody on the same playing playing field and working together as one okay um so it sounds like

104I mean I guess the way from what you're describing it sort of sounds like the committee agrees on goals and then there's kind of an implementation plan with a timeline on it um and uh I guess I can say um a little bit of work is being done on a yearlong work plan if that's the case in that I know that the budget committee has been working on kind of a um calendar for when different discussions and things will take place um that seemed to be one of the goals of the committee was to um have a more meaningful engagement of the committee in the budget development process so that's happening and I know that the um Now assistant superintendent is has begun work on drafting a timeline for the um superintendent evaluation process so

105that certainly gets kind of I guess siloed but certainly we could put some of these things together into into one document um I don't think that I I don't think that we have former formally voted on goals of the committee yet is if unless I'm wrong I think no we haven't we brainstormed kind of a list of possible goals for the committee but we haven't done anything as a group with that right but I think it's just us creating a main quest line but Liz lefon was saying that it's very hard to do it the first time yeah and that subsequent years we'll look back on it and be able to adjust what we already have and Slot things in quicker and easier but that this first one is really hard because we haven't done

106this before we don't have a foundation the and um for example when we're working on the handbook we got really involved in um Lincoln Massachusetts um school committee and they have their year-long agenda really clearly mapped out and every year they just build on it and you can click on it and it's just it's just all there so um we took a lot of inspiration from that member suon um so I I I want to recognize and respect that you put this on you on on the agenda and um you know you started the Preamble by saying that you felt like you were being a bottleneck to this issue and clearly I don't think that you're necessarily the only bottleneck because there are steps that we haven't even taken to get to the point where

107member Den was saying is your responsibility but I also want to name that just because masc says oh that's the chair's job doesn't mean that that's how we have to do and if you don't feel like you would like to take on all of that work yourself which is understandable and reasonable um then we can do it as a group I might recommend that we don't have it as a an item tucked in and that we might actually schedule a special working session for just that and spend a couple of real hours together digging into this because the other goal that I might say is that it's not just about understanding but it's actually about building Synergy between the district's goals and our goals as a committee which are distinct but related um and the

108budgeting calendar which is distinct but related to all of those as well and it's really about finding a way to make all of our goals work together so that we're spinning up rather than spinning down or out um so I I I just wanted to to name that that you don't actually have to do it alone if you don't want to um but maybe it doesn't maybe it requires more attention than than this bullet item here as buried among a longer list of items you know what I mean yeah that a dedicated uh working session um yeah I think it would take some time to to plan that and make it a good use of every everyone's time and um might be useful to bring in some expertise um with people who have worked with

109school committees before on um designing this kind of document I mean it sounds like though we could do some kind of some we could start with something relatively basic um in that we have these kind of emerging calendars for Budget committee for superintendent evaluation um we certainly have recurring items on the calendar that have been around the same time every year um so that could be a a start of a of a kind of a skeleton for a um a yearl work plan um [Music] so um great um so I guess the other piece for me is the if it is about I mean I guess there's in my mind I guess there's two different types of yearlong work plans I mean there's kind of a year long work plan that is going to be

110basically the same every year after a certain point like the things that happen with the budget things that happened with the the superintendent evaluation um and then there would be the unique things that we the special projects that we take on for example maybe we would incorporate the the school committee handbook and have certain Milestones built into that calendar for um certain deliverables that the the um the handbook committee would work on and stuff so um anyway great all right well um is there any any any other thoughts or questions people have about the the yearlong agenda development process yeah member ston um recognizing that the first one of the first steps that I'm seeing is for us to refresh our memories of the goals that we said we were interested in and then maybe

111formalizing those in some kind of way I don't know if that if there's space for that next month or the month after after but yeah I think so we could certainly bring back the notes from that goal generation process and try to um have some um make some uh decisions as a group together about what which goals those are member Martini I think there's a little bit of a chicken in the egg uh problem when it comes to uh relating committee goals to an annual calendar since we have yet to establish committee goals uh and I think it would make sense uh perhaps as a starting off point for this annual calendar for the committee to um place a time frame on when the committee will set annual goals it makes sense to me to

112do that prior to the beginning of the school year so approximately August I think would be a good time for the committee to discuss uh committee goals and adopt them and uh I also think it would make sense to relate that to school committee self- evaluation which is another item I think should take place at approximately the same time every year on an annual calendar uh and our goals should come out of our self- evaluation so uh perhaps one and then the other and that will help to then illuminate more yeah um well in my facilitation days of training nonprofits and um governmental entities and facilitation skills one of the Frameworks we used was this concept of open narrow close which is kind of like you have your kind of brainstorming session like I think

113we've already had but maybe we want to revisit that and add any new ideas people have had and then kind of a narrowing thing and then um where we kind of narrow our options we can review and explore and then a meeting where we um decide together on what those goals are and so maybe the um I guess if we want to incorporate the school committee self- evaluation into that process um it' probably be useful to use our current tool that we've had in the past um it's a survey I think it was administered or at least designed by the collaborative for Educational Services one of our policies just for folks who don't know is is that the school committee is supposed to not just evaluate the superintendent but also evaluate ourselves and so um

114there was a um a tool I think designed for us by collaborative for Educational Services that we could all um perhaps participate in between now and the next meeting um hopefully and either have our results compiled by the July meeting or the August meeting and use that to inform our um our strategic planning process I guess is basically what what um a year-long strategic planning process that I'm hearing about so yeah any other thoughts about that as a possible timeline do the the superint the school committee's self-estimation or self- evaluation um do some work on narrowing and determining our goals and then um set our hope to set our year-long agenda by the August at the August meeting I think it's ious but we might be able to pull it off in two months okay

115I'll say I wholeheartedly support diving into that self- evaluation again uh it's not nearly as bad of a tool as a superintendent evaluation I did not mind doing it um before I and the only U disappointment I really had about it was that the committee then did not do anything with it uh afterwards so I would love to do that again and really look forward to your leadership in turning that into something yes I think that would be really wonderful if we're going to take the time I I think I honestly owe it to you as the chair to do something with with it if I ask you to to take the time to fill it out so I will promise to do that um great anything else on the yearlong agenda okay thank you

116this was a very helpful conversation for me all right um let's see uh school committee reports report of the chair I have um subcommittee functions and duties it was um part of um the packet um so one of the items that the um that our policy says is that each uh committee and ad hoc committee will be given kind of a description of what your um function and Duties are and so it just says that they will be presented to you um I would prefer not just to present it to you but actually hear back from you on um on whether you think we I've gotten I've got a draft for you if there with the tremendous help of the superintendent and assistant superintendent I I'd say this is a very useful process and it

117was for me um I I think that one of the our challenges as a school committee is both sometimes I think it's where we need to learn more about what our role is and what the limits of our role are and where we're supposed which lane we're supposed to stay in and sometimes we actually have disagreements with the administration about what that role is um so sometimes it's an educational function sometimes I think it's a ideological or philosophical dis disagreement but um but the conversation with the assistant superintendent and the superintendent were very useful and clarifying to me and so um just wanted to be transparent that I did share drafts of this and went back and forth with them quite a bit before presenting it to you I stand by what I put forward

118to you is something that I believe in but it certainly does incorporate feedback um from the two of you and I really appreciate your work on that what I put forward was very drafty and need a lot of work and you're very patient with me so thank you um so I guess I would um I guess there's a couple ways we can go here we can have a discussion now if people have initial Impressions um of what I've put forward to you the other two other things one thing is you could bring this back to your subcommittee review and come back to the full committee with any any changes that you recommend the other piece is that um member seon suggested that the um each subcommittee look at including some language or adding some language

119to these descriptions about um Equity diversity equity and inclusion I think I don't know if I'm capturing your thought correctly specifically how the work of the committee is furthering our District's goals around diversity equity and inclusion and how that is a part of the mission of the subcommittee so um that those statements are not included in what's in front of you I think that would be one thing I think is important with issues of Tei is that um people are engaged in the process so maybe that would be a useful conversation to have at the um subcommittee level um to discuss how your work on that committee affects Tei issues um so with that I'd open it for any um feedback or questions or comments people have about um either the process of um drafting

120this or feedback on the content M Den Eve I really like the idea of bringing these to our subcommittees and working on them and then coming back um that's all I really wanted to say I think that's that would be the best way forward great thanks thanks for taking this on sure any further member Martini I'm just curious um if you at some point will uh go ahead and provide similar um guidelines or definitions to the representative positions as well as the subcommittees um I mean it's not part of our um policy that the chair is to do that um but I certainly think it might be a useful tool for people um maybe we could start with people who are assigned as those members who may have the most information about what's involved in

121those jobs to um share something with me um to present back to the committee at some point but I I do think it's a useful part of our functioning to have these delineated yeah and I guess the other thing is a recommendation to the handbook committee I think that the um again one of the roles I think that the handbook committee can really play is like making it clear items that are in our policy in our policies how are they implemented and handed out I mean I maybe I think the policy probably does need some change to the language because it says you will be presented with this but it doesn't say who presents it and it seems like the chair is the most obvious person but um there could be other ways to go

122about um developing these as well so um but uh so I just wondering if maybe the handbook committee could take a look at that at some point so a a section on let me see if I've got this wording right so we're make creating our content we're building the content and one of the contents would be who creates these assignments and how they're disseminated yeah okay yeah what's the that makes sense you know um I mean I I think there could be language in there about you know um encouraging the chair to accept feedback from the Committees on their descriptions and so on I mean I I think it does it does seem like the intent of the policy is to empower the chair to be the decision maker um and I think I like

123that but I'm the one who gets currently gets that power so you might not like it you might want to change that I don't know um but I think it I think it's it's useful to have a have a way of determining that of the committee making a final decision or the the chair making the final decision so anything else on um on the uh where are we the subcommittee functions and duties member ston um when would you like the subcommittees to have done their work of looking at this discussing it and bringing it back at what at which meeting would you like us to do report backs about our discussions um um maybe the next meeting if you can meet between now and the next meeting regular meeting that would be great um um

124yeah I I think it would be good for committees to um kind of use these draft um descriptions as your current operating um description just because might be useful to have something for the time being um so member Martini can I ask for a little bit more time than that only because I would like to have the next budget and finance subcommittee meeting scheduled after I attend an masc training about FY 26 budget strategies and I think that takes place after the next school committee meeting July 12th and 13th yeah isn't that isn't that like two days after the next meeting yes yeah so maybe two meetings from now yeah well why don't people get them to me as soon as you can and if it's I'm not going to be upset if I have

125to wait till August so but if people can get them um before the next meeting that would be great anything else on subcommittee functions and duties all right let's move into our reports budget and finance I think I just said it right I I would anticipate that the budget and finance uh committee will have a meeting later in July um I would like to be able able to attend a training that is being offered at the masc summer Institute about FY 26 budget strategies like I just said and um share that information uh with the subcommittee just to bring it back to everyone at that point and combine that with the next update on the budget so I have nothing to report since our last meeting great and let's talk more about um The Mask

126Summit when we get to the mask division representative item can uh see if there's other interest in attending that conference uh policy and program I think that you've seen our work we did it so hopefully I don't know what the timeline is from Liz about getting up what we've completed the overhaul of all of our policies they can go up on a special website designed by mask which will be searchable and much more user friendly than our current um situation so I will email her tomorrow yes and many she's not here but many thanks to Liz leond who's been and a tremendous um inflexible Ally to us because they had every right to say most committees get this done within a year I think that was our original contract and they just kindly waited for

127us and worked with us and Co was an excuse but it wasn't our entire excuse um so great right um executive subcommittee didn't meet um redistricting and reorganizing uh we met last week and the biggest item of substance was related to our vote to endorse the vote around Green River schools so that was the biggest item um we did also uh perhaps anticipatory of your your item as chair um did begin discussing what what we thought our our mission was and specifically um trying to call out the equity components of what we thought we were trying to do um and uh I think that was we we had a couple of other updates um but nothing of real substance those were the core great thanks and people will see um in my description of the

128um functions and duties for that subcommittee I sort of think it looks like Mission has been accomplished uh based on the just description um that I have there I think it might be time for that ad hoc committee to um disband and for members to um May for the school committee to explore other projects um from my view um our job was basically to make the decisions and set the policies and those seem to be in place and the administration is now in implementation phase they're certainly bringing things to the full committee as needed but I'm not sure the the ad hoc committee is uh as needed as it once was um so um unless I hear back from the ad hoc committee uh strong um opposition to that I I anticipate that at the

129next meeting I'll present the vote for the school committee to disband that ad hoc committee um school committee handbook I will be pulling for a meeting sometime between now and July and hopefully we will meet and have many more things to report upon at our July meeting excellent uh collaborative for Educational Services representative there hasn't been a meeting okay have you made contact with the collaborative just so they know that you exist and you are rep now I think I got an email from them but I'll okay I'll double check all right if not any you need an introduction let me know and I can help to make that happen great uh R just uh let's see where are we City Planning and construction we already covered it when we talked Green River School earlier

130tonight okay did you get to see the new Fire Department yes we uh it's not quite as related to the school but we have been doing tours of all the city owned uh buildings to triage what is most dramatically need of things and what the city's greatest needs are it's a really cool subcommittee very nice glad you like it um legislative representative well I have some updates from Senator cord's office and if you're not on her mailing list you should get on it because she sends all of these things in wonderful bulletins so some of you may already know this um she writes that they have successfully increased the minimum Aid to $110 per student um that they approved an additional 2.5 million for Rural school aid bringing the total to 17.5 million in the

131Senate budget and that they established a commission to begin cracking open the Chapter 70 school funding formula to make recommendations for updating the calculation of required local contribution very nice thank you very much uh District Wellness committee representative uh we met on the 20th of May okay and the agenda was sharing and celebrating successes in programs which Christine did in great style in her her show um but really amazing work that they've done they have a amazing action plan um working on vaping working on nutrition education and everybody pulling together um across um you know Mike kesy was there it it was an impressive group of people who deserve all the recognition that they they they have received thank you very much oh I have a I have division five too I don't know oh

132division five sorry sorry yes please um you all probably got this in the mail so the hyas trip is has been planned and it is November 6th through 9th and it's at the same place the emerald Resort Cape cot Irish village in hyenas so the early bird is coming up July ju 15th so if you're thinking about going you should do it because it's a significant savings to the district if we do it early and um we can organize and plan and strategize and uh this is also a superintendence event Karen I don't know if you will be joining us this year but if you want to meet all your new cohorts they will all be there and um there's also the summer Institute that Kate was mentioning um Friday July 12th and 13th and

133that is in marbor and that is four sessions on collective bargaining what you need to know to prepare goal setting strategic budgeting for FY 26 Rules of Engagement and collective bargaining and update on Title 9 so if anyone wants to go to that that is also Upon Us great I don't remember the process do we need to vote to send members to these or can we just make it a standing thing that if people want to go they can go should the I think the district's perspective is that committee members can can go that we would fund it I would just ask um I'm asking proactively if you're going to go please tell us so that we can encumber funds and um after you go you would need to send proof of attendance and proof

134of payment so just if we can it's super helpful if we can encumber the funds on the front end so letting um myself or Karen depending what date you do it know um what the costs are for the hotel and and everything do we have um if I remember right in our policy we have $22,000 per member already encumbered for professional development is that not the case you may be right I don't remember off the top of my head but I can check I think it's per member okay we'll have to look okay all right um I have a question yes member of my team development uh when when would we anticipate the next round of contract negotiations beginning starting happening in a couple of months so probably the the Unit A and C I

135believe are up in June of 25 so at some point in the fall okay um I think previously the committee had designated an individual member so I thought that the training being offered at the summer Institute sounds particularly relevant to that member and I just wanted to bring that up and see if we would have some someone who would attend that I personally I am strongly intending on attending the Friday session because of the budget content not sure I can attend the Saturday session and it wouldn't be so relevant for me anyway um not being the person designated to do that so yeah and I have not um designated anyone for that role yet um certainly if there's anybody who's interested did did my term expire after that last contract was settled you were assigned

136to be the it I think it was specific I thought that was just the collective bargaining rep generally I I it's in the packet um let's see the the rolls and the way that it's described do you have that let's see this I don't see it listed in your it's not listed H um I have to go back and see what the committee voted on if you certainly it was me because I was there for no I know it was you I just don't know whether I listed it as it I think it was I think I removed it because the IT contract ended so I think it was listed as it rep but if you want to be you know the school committee's rep to all of the different unions it just was that

137um there are different ways to organize it we did have member wall formerly was assigned to kind of be the rep to every single Union prior to that though we would split up the work a little bit more because sometimes you get into a period where you're negotiating two contracts at once and it's a lot of meetings so okay but are you interested in continuing a unit a I I never thought that I had an option well I shouldn't have clearly I made a mistake in the way that I organized this um so [Music] uh but but do you have interest I guess now that you realize you have an out if you want one um I I have the interest but I also don't want to monopolize that if there are others who also

138have an interest in doing that and I also don't need to be the only person doing two contracts backup St I would love to have backup yes I think it's important for us to have all alnet so let me know if you're interested in that role and I will um make a determination and put it forward to the committee for for the vote okay um great uh any other questions or comments about any of the um committee reports or or role reports with that I would hear a motion to adjourn so moved a motion from member second oh a second from Member goodwi uh any discussion all those in favor I I I motion passes unanimously congratulations superintendent on your last school committee meeting as a superintendent [Music]