001foreign and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting it's Wednesday August 9th 6 p.m we're at the Johns on Community Center 35 Pleasant Street per the open meeting law any member of the public may make an audio or video recording of this meeting and let's move right into the agenda secretary ekstrom can you do a roll call please remember to leave here I remember Johnson Assad here Vice chair Martini here chair poyetti here remember wall here mayor Woody Gardner here we are to order at 601 pm and let's do the approval of our minutes from both the July 12 and the July 31 meetings can I have a motion to approve both sets of meetings of minutes please so move in a second I'll second it any discussion of the minutes hearing no
002discussion are there any abstentions we're voting on them together so the mayor of sustaining any no votes that passes with one abstention mayor wiedergartner and we are going to do our executive session uh first thing this evening so uh I like a motion to um go into executive session for exemption reason two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel as well as exemption three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares and of course I do declare and exemption reason 7 which is just to approve previous minutes as we act under the authority
003of any general or special law or Federal grant and aid requirements have emotion so moved and a second second and we do have to do a roll call of this is there any discussion about going into a roll call vote please remember Denise yes myself yes remember Johnson yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Pro Eddie yes Amber wall yes mayor Woody Gardner yes we're an executive session and we will return to open session as our agenda suggests foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign really thank you to everyone for your patience we are back at it at 705 and we will move into item four on our agenda I would like a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement for bus drivers and monitors uh effective July 1 2023 to June 30 2026 as amended
004in the executive session can I get a Motion cell moved in a second second and uh are there any discussion just thank you to our negotiators Gene wall the superintendent askp for their work on this we appreciate it any other discussion I'll just say the amendment was substantive it was just a typo thank you thank you for that yes and we'll move to a vote any abstentions one abstention that's member denive any no votes so that passes with six yes votes thank you and we will move into public comment Susan Farber do we have public comment this evening you can have a seat to turn turn on the microphone you just need to hold the button and you'll see the collar will turn from red flashing red to Green just hold the button yep am
005I timing this or hello my name is Emily green a 76 year old lesbian resident of Greenfield and also a retired nurse who has given most of my life to helping others and making the world a better place for all I am addressing your decision on the Providence Christian School which I know is a done deal but I would still want to make a comment and do understand the state law mgl dot part one slash title 12 slash chapter 76 section one the fact that my tax dollars will go to support a religious school that considers my group The lgbtq plus group centers does not feel fair to me and I am asking each of you to write a letter to the State Department of Education here in Massachusetts for elementary and secondary education our
006state Senator Joe comfort and representatives to ask them to re-examine this in light of separation of church and state and to be a supporter of inclusion as a foundation for approving the curriculum of a school into a district I am also addressing this as a member of racial Justice Rising and the most important aspect of the history of our black brown and Indigenous communities in our history books which we don't know for sure if that is really going to be an included thing in their curriculum you're writing a letter to me is extremely important because I'm not a sinner and I want to be included and talk to you know accepted in this community especially in the state of Massachusetts where we have a lesbian Governor we have many lesbian senators and representatives so I'm
007that's my letter to you and I ask that you considered each of you writing a letter to make a change in this law that would allow a non-inclusive situation to be part of our school system thank you thank you do we have other public comment okay hearing none Mr Pickett how about a budget update please and thank you good evening everyone uh you have sent you the fy24 budget update as of August um It's All Quiet on the Western Front for fy24 but uh I can say as far as how FY 23 ended just as far as what it impact it has on 24 with all the dust settling with the closing out of purchase orders and the final uh unencumbering of potential Personnel things we're ending up fairly I'd say slightly better than we
008anticipated and it's I'll say it's unfortunate it's primarily under vacancy savings you know there's that's really no way to carry funds over based on the fact that we had positions but it's a reality so we're starting the year off in some of the accounts if you were to look back at our budget what we projected on using to what it is that we actually ended up using in FY 23 it was less solely based on primarily the vacancy savings or personnel I can answer any questions that you might have remember Denise go ahead I was just I'm sorry I was just curious um both of them what is the difference between these two documents nothing okay I I thought it was nothing but I mean I don't mean to be a glip his predecessors predecessors
009on the school previously it was requested that we provide you with a munis report and then a report exported into Excel in that format that you you get but it is it's the same okay thank you because I just wanted to make sure I wasn't losing my mind none at all can I help I'm sorry Glenn go ahead remember Johnson we said go ahead can I make a motion to direct our financial director not to have to produce two of the same report in two different formats also promotion for the business manager to provide us with one report I guess it would make sense from Eunice right because we're they're both they're both from munis but what it is that you can export the the information from munis into the other format of the report
010which is what Kristen does in the business office and you know so I mean it's it's not a heavy lift for us to do but you know and if it means you know to go through and you know walk you through reading a munis report but I think everybody because of the questions that you've asked me since I've been here you are very capable of reading a munis report and a bunch of things so you know I I would say if you do that then we would just do the munis report and not export it into the other format so a motion to provide the school committee with only the munis report moving forward from the business manager yeah yeah second and a second and is there discussion remember Genevie looked like you wanted to
011discuss no I was second you're ready to vote okay um no actually I do want to what so when this was happening um Andy heard me have some concerns multiple times um because they're just I there was just there's just risk introduced into something not matching and it's just ridiculous to introduce that and so thank you Glenn any further discussion seeing none any abstentions from this vote any no votes so that passes unanimously and Andy has can check something off his list permanently any further discussion for any questions about the budget update or further discussion we thank you sir for waiting for us and for being here I wasn't it I don't know we'll move into item seven and item eight I'd like a motion to combine the uh vote to declare the um phonak
012Roger touchscreen mic Surplus and a vote at the same time to accept the donation of phones from the hubson public school district can I get a motion to that effect so move in a second second okay and any discussion of either of those member ekstrom why is this happening which one both why are we why why would we need a phonak Roger touch screen and why would we accept donations of phones I mean combine the items now right was your motion to combine the items yeah it was so we can talk about them both at the same time maybe we should vote on whether we're confining them and then oh you want another motion to approve well we would need one if if you want to make a motion to combine it I did say
013a motion to approve the combine I did not okay Oh I thought your motion was just to combine them so if yeah that's fine so okay we've combined them right no because we haven't voted we didn't vote yet that's why I didn't know why you were doing it because I was about to combine and then another one let's just do them separate let's just do them separate okay how about a motion to declare the phonak Roger touch screen mic Surplus so much second and any discussion of this one I could actually give context uh we don't need it anymore and there's a student at GCC that really needs it and we're going to declare it Surplus in the district and it's going to go to the student at GCC that uh and and the nice
014trade-off is we're getting phones from the Hudson public schools that they declared as Surplus and we need right we're going to use the phones as replacement and for parts but yes they have they have value to us so the first one is the Roger touch screen further discussion on that one I'm seeing none so anyone abstaining from voting on that anyone voting no that passes unanimously and then a motion pleased to accept the donation of phones from the Hudson public schools with our gratitude so moved in a second second any further discussion of that there is a there's something in the materials uh memo to Christine about that um and any abstentions any no votes so that also passes unanimously and now we are on to a couple of policy items can't ever shake the
015policy on this committee and as per normal I'm going to pass it over to member Johnson who's the chair of the policy subcommittee to walk us through the emotions on these okay I'm looking for a motion to approve the first reading of amendments to policies KF and kf-r Community use of school facilities as presented oh second all right um and a superintendent sure so we have a lot of use of our facilities which is wonderful but across the course of the past two years Lauren my admin assistant and I have noted that there are some changes that need to be made to update the policy and regulation that's accompanying to reflect what our process and procedure has moved into and we also have a few changes in terms of the fee structure which I'll get
016to some of this is just clean up in terms of spelling addresses having the website be the location um you can see it's obviously it's a red line you have a markup version I did delete the reference it appears the committee in previous Renditions had kept notes that masc generally uses as educational information to committees so we've deleted that um the facilities usage fee schedule only the yellow highlighted section is modified when we made changes it highlighted the whole table but only the yellow is modified what we were finding is that the amount that we were charging was not covering the expense to the district this is for groups not connected to the Greenfield schools or the city so um to avoid needing to update this every contract year we included language as a suggestion
017that the custodian the neit staff or kitchen staff needed would be paid at the contractual rate of the person to whom the shift is assigned so if work is done during a time when a custodian is actually already working such as 2 to 10 30 during the school year often there is no additional custodial fee but if a group would like to use a building on a Saturday we need to have a custodian so what that charge would be would be specific to the custodian who takes the overtime there's a process we have for that Lauren and I have modified the forms so that each department had Eric John or Greta can assign staff who are interested in taking the shift and then Lauren always communicates with an outside agency with the estimated cost prior
018to finalizing the building use so they would have an idea prior to confirming of what their interest you know exactly what the cost would be but the policy does state that outside use of our facilities will not incur an additional expense to the district and right now it is because we're not covering the salaries of these folks so that's what that I will say kitchen staff I don't know if kitchen staff has been required more than maybe once since I've been here the regulation is a lot of language cleanup um I recommend changing and number two the school committee has final authority to determine whether something is for non-profit or profit non-profit they would have to provide a certificate so that would failure to provide that in my estimation would then make it a for-profit
019event but a lot of this is really just clean up um so we're hoping to be able to move forward with the new protocol and new rates before things get really wild with people requesting building use one thing I appreciated in the revisions was the superintendent assuming many duties that were assigned to the school committee which doesn't really meet often enough to administer these kinds of things so appreciate you taking that on I'm not sure it's actually feasible for you folks to be overseeing building use so I'm happy to take that over items yeah the superintendent did discuss the facility rental fees we will vote on those separately um it it right now we're just talking about KF and kf-r yeah but you have her uh info for the second one already and I I
020guess I have a question just uh member Johnson if you would refresh my memory the first reading we then go to the subcommittee and then it comes back here after the subcommittee's looked at it and any changes we would vote again is that that's right yes and we will meet in early September as a budget sub I mean as a policy subcommittee and then have this back at our first regular meeting in September which the superintendent is optimistic will be enough time thank you so Ola are we ready for it to vote I have a question um I don't see anything and maybe it doesn't matter but I don't see anything sort of weather permitting related to community use of school facilities as in if we get 20 feet of snow and they're supposed to
021use the building that night I think there was something in there I could be wrong contingencies I believe there's language that if I have closed schools due to inclement whether it cancels activities okay what I said off microphone is it might not be in this policy it is likely covered by another policy regarded to emergency closures is it in here okay thank you this is what the thank you my apologies any other discussion all right any abstentions any no votes that policy passes on first reading unanimously and we'll bring it back to you in September for the second reading thank you and now uh emotion please uh the Greenfield school committee accept the revised facility rental fees this is item 10. as presented in a second second and any further discussion you heard the superintendent's
022info about that already any further discussion I'm not seeing any uh so any abstentions from that any no votes again that passes unanimously okay superintendent evaluation uh that's item 11 and uh for folks who are following along the meeting in the materials for tonight's meeting there is a copy of the evaluation form that we use uh at this point we are in a two-year evaluation cycle for the superintendent and the form that we use now is called the mid-cycle formative assessment evaluation report for administrators it is provided to us by Desi um each of the committee members was just provided with one that is customized for them with their name as well as the actual details of the various goals and objectives provided in there oh it's state this one's stapled funny that's not yours
023doesn't look like this so if you look as a Committee Member on page two you will see that the superintendents goals I'm just getting mine out um progress towards goals has already been filled in based on the superintendent's um goals and indicators for the two-year cycle which is the final pay It's the final page of the packet that I gave you and then I've just filled in the items that you're evaluating to kind of make it easier to know what you're supposed to do so you can see on page two and also on page three I've taken the information from the superintendent goals and indicators that we have and I've plugged it into the form for you so hopefully it's as error free as possible when you actually fill it out so the last page
024is the key I just filled them all in for everyone so you don't have to do it yourself that was one of the big hiccups when we lasted the evaluation last year people didn't understand what they were actually evaluating and it's we've voted on these goals now at least twice for the superintendent and so I've just plugged them in and then the other thing that is provided to you as evaluators is I yesterday shared a Google drive folder with everyone of the member school committee members that has a blank copy of this form the goals and indicators sheet and then the deci 28-page rubric of the focus indicators and the Strategic objectives and strategic priorities that you can review to see how the superintendents specific goals are connected to the rubric that is provided to
025us I did not want to print out 27 pages of rubric for everyone because you can get it on the Google Drive and it's in the binder that we all have from the evaluation training that we did in 2020 whatever 2021 remember John Johnson we saw please uh two questions on page two um my copy shows empty check boxes for the first two rows for this second two rows I think it's applied that I'm supposed to kind of fill in a box like that but the boxes are yeah that's a Desi mess up actually and I just missed it but they should have boxes as well is that where you're asking check boxes yeah that's my question the final two rows on page two should have the same check boxes I just used their form
026and didn't notice that they didn't that's so that's a good catch and my second question is on page three um there are codes but I don't see that they're spelled out anywhere but I believe that you means it's spelled out on page two the top of each column okay but then you have you have U and I which doesn't line up with nuts I'm sorry oh look at that yeah so I think that here's what I think maybe they stand for maybe correct me if I'm wrong but you would be unstarted unsatisfactory unsatisfactory okay and what's ni then it needs improvements proficient needs Improvement the P would be proficient and the E would be for exceeded or excellent or exceeds yes and they are spelled out on the rubric I believe the 28-page rubric that
027I didn't print you'll see those on there as the evaluating okay I mean this is why we have trouble with the Forum right yes exactly yeah thank you very much thank you for asking part three of my I'm sorry I was talking to you I'm sorry I have multiple questions that's fine what why do we have this one and this one the one that's in the packet is provided as a part of the publicly materials for the meeting it's just an example so the public can follow along at home gotcha okay and the one that I gave you it's just a printed example but this is the one the one I gave you with your name on the front page is the one that we will use for the actual evaluation okay and then my
028other question is in this lovely novel are the um goals from the last one in here and the data from the last one so that we can look at that and make comparisons from evaluation to evaluation that we're going to do no and that I don't know if that's because it does say that's a really good question I don't know if it's beyond the scope or not well it says in here it asks us different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required so are we looking at ratings and comparing them to the Past so one of the prior summative evaluation one piece I would like to clarify this year is not a summative evaluation this year's formative meaning that you are giving feedback to see if we need to change course on any of the
029goals or if we're you know if I'm on track it's to give feedback the a very easy way to sort of distinguish formative to summative is formative as you're tasting the soup while you're cooking it and summative is how your guests feel when they eat it so at the end when the soup is done you will do a summative and you can compare it to last year's so next June will be a summative as well this year's just feedback and what was last year last year was a summative based on one year's evaluation okay so let's check in because it's got this box and I want to make sure that I understand all the aspects of this terrible report that we all hate okay remember Johnson go ahead so uh where it says on page
030three of three under formative evaluation only there's two different marks same ratings as prior or different ratings from prior does that mean we need to go back to what how we rated the superintendent last time and determine whether our marks this time are different from the word last time and then make comments if they have changed I think that's kind of what that was just what I asked oh sorry then what was the answer the answer was it's not no the answer was next year we do it but it says it's four formative that we have to check I can give you last year's although the goals aren't the same so I'm not you know I guess it would be the general area of performance you could look at am I doing about the same
031in instructional leadership Better or Worse am I doing about the same in management and operations better or worse it's that sort of comparison I believe if I guess I just want to I guess what I'm curious maybe the chair can answer if I were to submit this without check marks under either those items and without going back to my past evaluation would that be acceptable or do I need to try to okay what I was what I was about to say after hearing both of you is perhaps I sort of just checked different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required I could have done that and you could just yeah that's my question how would we know if it's not in the package I guess I'm misunderstanding the the um I think the superintendent might
032be able to provide more context two things one I'm happy to give you last year's summative ratings that that's completely fine however I would also like to make the point that this document is not the process okay the feedback is the process um there's there's some requirement for you to give me a grade so to speak but I you folks could write feedback to me on paper towels that is the piece that is important is feedback on how I'm doing moving the district so I would encourage you to not worry as much about the form as the process that's what we talk to I talked to my principals about and I hope they talk to the teachers about it's the conversation and the feedback that's really the important thing so I am quite happy to
033share last year's grades so to speak and you can give feedback if you think I'm doing better on communication and you know family engagement than I did last year that would be great for you to comment on if you think I'm doing worse it'd be great for you to comment on but I also feel like you could do that subjectively because you all have feelings about how how I'm doing in all of these areas so um but I'm quite happy to provide you last year's rating so if you would like to do objective comparisons you can do that but it's I don't want to I just want to be clear I don't want to do that fine don't and to that point like the the forms are stay internal to us so I'm not you
034know as long as your comments are appropriate to the scope of the evaluation and you've given some indication of providing feedback we'll leave it at that we can't get hung up on the details we learned that last time around that it's just it doesn't serve anyone well but they're not internal to us in the sense that our responses will be public of course but I I mean we're just you know sometimes on a form when you fill it out anywhere the person helping you fill it out will say you can just leave that part blank we don't use that anymore or we're not using that right now or something and we just we move on and we feel don't fill out that part of the form that's all please mayor uh on the page three
035I believe I just heard you say correct me if I'm wrong this is the question that what you really under formative evaluation only the one page with you the ni Etc you want us to follow the second box different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required we kind of just don't want to even worry about what the right answer is in that box just provide your feedback yeah just okay other questions is there a time if it was in an email I missed so there was not an email about it um I I would like to say if I could have it um I was going to say not this Friday uh give me a second to look at my calendar the 25th of August it gives you a little bit over two weeks to
036get it done the 25th of August it's a Friday I would be happy to provide a reminder earlier that week by email that you need to get it done Into Me by that day is it something that's on our calendar we can put it on the calendar um can you add that to your notes yeah how are we getting it to the Amish way is fine you can walk it to my house um you can send it if if you want to scan if you have the ability and you want to scan it and email it to me if you want to provide it to Lauren in the central office however you want to get it to me I am fine with that the Amish way is my favorite any other questions about this so
037the 25th um and I'll chase you down and I will do a reminder email at the beginning of that week okay and I should have also mentioned the the Bible please so we are going to get a tour of the of the documentation for the evaluation that the superintendent is providing the highlights I'll hit the highlights I'm not going to read to you you all are capable of reading this I would like to explain the format so that you know what you're looking at it begins with somewhat of a narrative by me you will see in boldface the goal identified so the goal for school is instructional leadership as an example I then go through identifying the evidence that is included in that section and I have included next to each piece of evidence what
038indicator I believe it supports you will see some notes for example in this packet our priority plan work that we did working with our Statewide system of support ssos folks is in here it is included as a copy in the instructional leadership section it is referenced in two sections but I didn't copy it a second time and put it in the second section so you will but you will have seen it by the time it's referenced for the second section there are e-team minutes you'll see in each section there is a document that says examples of e-team minutes right at the top and then it says goal a instructional leadership these are excerpts from our administrative team meetings that are relevant as points of evidence that I've included um so you will see that I
039put the date and in the narrative I reflect which indicator they represent I'm just um at the end so each section goes through that there are four goals as you can see I include evidence in each section and then the last several pages of the narrative document that's on the top includes additional accomplishments those are things that are not connected specifically to the goals but I felt were important for even if they do not relate to my goals that the committee should recall were accomplished during this past year such as the Strategic plan being completed all of the contracts being completed so some important benchmarks are also there so you will see each section there are two data tables I'm happy to explain those briefly if you would like okay in the packet you will
040see two tables that look like this the first one speaks to the percentage of chronically absent students there are two categories one the percent of students who are absent ten percent of the school year or more so if they miss more than 18 days in the school year that's the category that they're included in or the students that Miss more than 20 percent of the school day these statistics are on the state site they can be accessed by anyone and the comparison is from the last day of school for 2022 to March of 2023 because the state has not yet published our end of school data but I felt that it was important for everyone to see the substantial improvement in our chronic absentee rate make no mistake we are not yet pleased with what
041the numbers are but we are very happy to see the Improvement because our academic Improvement is not going to reflect what it could be if our students are not in front of us so that is one piece of data the other is illustrative of some of our data I expect in September or as soon as our MCAS scores are out you will get a more in-depth presentation of performance data what you will see is on the left all of our tested grades using Dibbles or the middle school version called Maze and then our usns which is the universal screener for number sense they are just two indicators they're not the be all end-all and you will see the percentage of students at or above the target from the fall of 2022 to Spring of 2023
042the first section being the reading piece the second section being math what I noted is this is my interpretation without further analysis but it will be it will be done as we get more into our ilt work at the start of school you will notice the more significant Improvement in performance at the younger grades my hypothesis only at this stage is that the exposure to high quality instructional materials consistent across the district is having a positive impact that is my hypothesis we will continue to test that as we go but there is a rather significant change in performance as you get to the upper grades but we are confident that the steps outlined in the Strategic plan will help us to address those can I throw something in another hypothesis is that you can the
043interventions you do with younger students will have an impact over the years on the old as they grow older and that it may be more difficult to move numbers with older students than younger I very well could be and as you know across the past two years the intervention process has been refined and is much more consistent so we're doing a better job reviewing data and identifying students for intervention as well and you're right cumulative impact if we address learning gaps early on it is less likely to impact in the future so I think that's plus plus for our youngest students again hypothesis at this point but so barring any specific questions I again don't feel the need to read all of this to you um but certainly if something is not clear I'm happy
044to respond to that I only wish you provided us more information so sorry yeah give a couple more Bible entries I have many many more so don't tempt me it will be coming so I just because I'm sure that I would walk away and not be able to figure this out if I hadn't been or I'd be able to figure it out but I would be confused so goal a is the same as standard one goal B is the same as standard two c three D four correct I'm saying it out loud so we're on the same page because it's just okay I just know myself other questions for the superintendent or comments about the process questions about the process all right thank you Christine thank you committee we will move on item 12 is
045the request for new agenda items please remember Denise I was hoping to add to an agenda in the future discussing um break times for these meetings because they do go quite long and it would be nice to know that maybe we have a 10 minute break in the future sure other stuff secretary extra yeah um I just I've been thinking about um oh continuity and not being here anymore and and things like that and with a with an election year coming up and sort of I don't know there are things that happen in election years that I've watched I'm just which is not an implication of anything but I was just curious if if the policy committee could review file BCA which is the school Committee Member Ethics Committee or policy just to ensure that
046it's up to date so that when new people start at the beginning of next year that it's everyone's clear on it I guess I'm not I just it's no there there are pieces in here that that speak about politics and as we know I get a little angsty about politics that may or may not be going on and and that's my thing um but I just I think it would be wise for us to do a review of that I don't that's so that's my thought so you are asking about one specific policy or about the ones related to school committee roles in that section it could be so if we went back to the policy manual which is what I'm looking at everyone here it would be section B but there's an awful lot
047of things in there um so I you know well I mean I think one I think it's an excellent thing to bring up I think it's relevant for us to review occasionally our roles as school committee members which is what you're getting at um and I think we're competent enough as individuals and collectively that we could say let's talk about anything relevant to section B and folks can review ahead of time and bring the things that they would want to talk about whether they think it's important they point it out to everyone else or they have questions or something else is that what you're would that work for you is that what you're getting at something else entirely well I I so my goal is that yes I mean we can all use reminders but
048also so that when the next next terms begin that it's all accurate and when someone goes to it there isn't any question of it and and everyone who is still here is confident that what a new person would be reading um is accurate so let me interrupt you for a second we did review within the past year section B at the policies subcommittee level and we voted on the entire section here that said we approved it and then came back to the fact that a portion of it was blank that identified which committees were a part of the school committee right right which subcommittees so there's always you know and as we were as we review contracts we talk about that we often Overlook things even when 100 people look at them right so it's
049likely worth it to as a committee discuss but knowing that it's in pretty good shape already because the policy subcommittee has already reviewed it within the past year yeah you agree yeah remember Johnson um I guess I guess I'm not maybe I should know this but I don't actually know if all the policies on our current website are up to date superintendent that's funny I was actually sort of trying to get you to think the same thing one of the challenges is that this committee has paid for paid for previously hosting of our policy manual on the masc site but they will not host until the entire manual is finished so I think it would serve if we confirm tomorrow that the voted section is had actually manually been added to our website I think
050that's a good thing to double check so we were thinking similarly and then the other thing is I think you know the chairs right to point out that we did just consider the whole section and vote on it but that's different from as a committee taking a a policy out and just discussing it re-familiarizing ourselves with it and and having a discussion about it so if you think that there's one or two policies that you think are especially timely I think that would be a very appropriate thing to put on a full school committee agenda just for a review and discussion and so I don't know if you might want to think between now and the next meeting about which policies in particular you'd like to have us review together uh sorry um I can
051make suggestions or if people would prefer that I wait until the next for that we make wait until the next one so I can fully formalize my thoughts that's okay too I'm okay with yeah why don't we why don't you you know take that as a as a project to look at section B and which ones you'd like us to discuss and if it works for the chair and the superintendent we can have a discussion about it at the next meeting okay and and I can also confirm that the ones you're looking at online are in fact the most recently voted okay I'll do that tomorrow and send an email to them thank you so much and perhaps um member Johnson we said as uh chair of the subcommittee for policy you could entertain that
052policy subcommittee members could bring to our next meeting any that we would want to highlight as a part of that type of discussion um because we've probably looked at the policy manual more than other folks um that's just we can do it as an agenda item sure thank you and do we have other requests for new agenda items okay and we've got reports from the administration starting with askp thank you a couple of Grant updates they're slowly getting approvals as the governor's budget starts to get ironed out in the state we did receive notification that our Civics grant for fy24 was approved in the amount of thirty one thousand dollars I'm very excited about that the focus with this grant opportunity this year is to really engage students in more Civic experiences so we're going
053to be meeting as a history Department in grades 8 through 12 and just talk about some experience we could provide kids through field trips either locally or at the state level some of the ideas that were tossed around were trips to the State House the Freedom Trail in Boston the JFK Museum so taking our students and getting them out into the world and exploring areas outside of Greenfield so we're looking forward to that the Middle School will be reaping the benefits of the investigating history Grant we will be partnering with edu curious which is our professional development provider and Jen richelli the associate principal at the middle school will be helping lead this charge the grant covers not only the professional development partnership but allows the teachers that are participating along with the administrator to
054be part of Statewide professional learning communities with others who are also piloting these materials so they'll get to collaborate with teachers across the state who are also teaching in these grade levels with these materials and then use edu curious as the the backup partner to help them iron out any of the Kinks as it unfolds this year summer school Title 1 sponsors summer school and our program was very successful it ended on Tuesday August 1st we serviced over 150 students in grades K through seven but I forgot to add to those we also provide a credit recovery for high school students and approximately 25 students earned between 2.5 and 7.5 credits towards graduation so those students who found themselves credit behind due to whatever circumstance had the opportunity to come in over those four weeks
055and earn credits back towards graduation so that was really successful that program as well and then we are involved in our strategic plan and the curriculum department has been very busy we have met with uh Desi ilt in our ssos team and we will be starting um the big reveal of uh three high impact evidence-based instructional strategies that are going to unfold throughout the course of the year at all six of our schools so we'll be doing professional development with all of our faculty we're waiting to hear on a grant and might have a professional development partner that will be assisting us as well but we've started that work part of the Strategic plan was for me to meet with all department heads and really look at their professional development we tend to focus a
056lot on teachers and instructional assistants and we really want and everyone that works for Greenfield Public Schools to have time to experience professional growth and learning opportunities so I met with transportation and food services and I.T and the nurse leader and really just talking about the needs of their staff and planning out what they need to have time for this year so that all members of their communities can have learning opportunities we are also uh partnering with the teaching lab and uh working with them in ssos but also really trying to map out the year and how that's going to unfold so that Christine myself so ssos members can have time to do walk-throughs observe the instructional strategies that are happening in classrooms really see where that impact is uh directly affecting student growth and
057achievement so we're looking forward to that these links that are in blue and underline are all live that you can get to if you don't have copies in your packet I apologize and then lastly we have posted for curriculum committees we are doing a five-year curriculum review cycle we're going to start with Ela and foreign language this year so committee members can apply and we are going to meet two times per month from now until June and hopefully tackle curriculum mapping for ELA Pre-K to 12 and foreign language at the high school Grand goals but we have a good ambition and hopefully we'll get some of that work done with the help of our curriculum committee members and that's it thank you Karen questions or comments for askp really all right happy vacation that is
058about the most I ever get of a vacation so thank you I appreciate that um how about a report from the superintendent Christine go ahead well I've I've given the committee quite a packet there so I'm not going to add to it um but I did want to share something with all of you at this point communication has gone out to the staff about this but as I begin the third year of my three-year contract um I have made the decision to retire from public education effective June 30th so this will be my last year with not just with Greenfield but as a public school administrator and I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity certainly I'm not leaving tomorrow to the good or to the bad I'm not leaving tomorrow but this has
059been an extraordinary place to work it continues to be I'm very much looking forward to this year there is so much to do and I'm very excited about what's going to happen I know Karen whizzed through her strategic Plan update but she represented about a thousand hours of work that has been done and that will be done another thousand so um we have a lot to do and I'm very excited to do it so I'd like to thank all of you um but I've I've made the decision with my family to take a step back and be able to spend more time with them so I am not leaving Greenfield I've just decided to give myself back to my family of course after a few months they may be sending me back to Greenfield but
060so that's that's the last um I have no further update I think that's quite enough for tonight how ironic that that update is not on paper for member Martini to ask questions about um all jokes aside we appreciate everything that you've done for Greenfield I I'm speaking um as as chair in in seeing um where we've come from it was basically this week two years ago that we knew you had been hired and you joined us for uh training on again ironically the superintendent evaluation process with our interim Superintendent at the time Dr Houle um and How Far We've Come is is evident in any number of ways whether you're talking to a student or a staff member or a member of the leadership team or a member of the school committee we've made huge
061strides under your leadership and I thank you for that and I thank you I think the most for giving us another year with your expertise and guidance and I'm grateful for having had you here and I am very jealous because my only goal in life is to retire so I wish you so so much luck in that and um when Steve's ready to send you back you just you know how to find us um and thank you any other comments or uh discussion from the school committee regarding the superintendent's announcement really no one okay we don't need to be all mushy without this that's fine just so the public knows we all set our wonderful thank yous and we're so happy for you in our during our executive session not that we're all sitting here
062going yeah she's out so anyway oh and I would add how nice to go out on a good note it's always nice to be a leader that can leave um on a positive note um you know kind of at the top of their game so I think that's that's it speaks to your commitment to professionalism um in in the um in your profession yeah so much profession right there professional profession yes thank you no other comments okay so oh Gene that would oh please remember well I would just like to say thank you for coming to Greenfield and teaching us how school system should be run it it you have done an excellent job and thank you there are amazing people here amazing people every every Department in this district has fabulous staff members in
063it who are so committed to this District so that that is a gift to the community and you know everyone should know that so I I very much enjoy being here thank you member wall anything else we'll do a chairs report I have a few things tonight um so regarding the move to hybrid meetings we talked about that for a September timeline my indication is that the it folks for the city are quite at capacity with the new library we may or may not be able to come online for September the goal at this point would be for October I've heard from only one school committee member that they're interested in being trained on being someone who would run the system for hybrid so if anyone has forgotten that they wanted to volunteer for that
064you can certainly remind me at any point I will volunteer I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you that oh that's great thank you member Denise so thank you we will I'm sorry I meant to all the time no worries um and yeah okay so great that's wonderful um and I will work with Fernando to get a timeline for when it's possible for us to get trained and we'll go from there and I will also acknowledge that city clerk Kathy Scott has provided me with some excellent written documentation of how that will work and hopefully that will kind of support us as we move to the hybrid format and again I think the timeline is more realistic for October than it is for September um we want uh we don't need to put Fernando over
065capacity is how I would put it um and then I had a note to discuss um attendance at the masc annual conference in November um I think it's November and uh I I'm not sure exactly how to approach that like it's not something that um I am interested in going to but I guess we could start with are there folks who are interested in going I'm going I just got very busy and haven't booked it but it's on my list to do it tomorrow okay book it okay um and remember Denise remember Martini anyone else so we will work on the logistics and cost of that I wonder if that is appropriate for like budget subcommittee to talk about or I think we already have we have funding for it we already have we discussed
066it we've had Warren said it's set and all we have to do is send in our hotel accommodations I love it when it happens and I don't have to get involved okay um all right anyone no one else is interested in going so the two of you will move forward with that okay great um I wanted to make a note so the governor signed the fy24 budget today and something that is very important to me in our schools is the continuation of the universal School meals program and that was in that budget so we are now one of just a handful of states in the U.S that has decided to continue free breakfast and lunch for all students that was signed into law today and that's just that's awesome for our students so I wanted
067to put that out there and then the only other thing that I had in terms of my report is uh I had a note about rural schools bill and I really am terrible at taking notes so I can't entirely remember a context except there's something in it that we might want to talk about and I think it was member geneve that you brought this up can you enlighten me yes representative blay would love to come and talk to us about the rural schools bill they would like an invitation and Senator comerford's office would also like to do same if we are interested so we could reach out to them see if they're available for September or October they are 100 expecting us to do so wonderful thank you for that and I did look at
068the bill and there's a couple of pieces relating to some interesting funding for all districts um in there so yeah we'll have them come and chat with us for sure thank you for that reminder that I believe is all I have for a chairs report um we will move into subcommittee reports and I do believe we have one from redistricting this month is that correct are you going to fight over it we I'm gonna let Gene start we met last month and reported that uh we would have a vote in October right and is there something I'm forgetting that I was supposed to that's okay it's been a little bit what we did what I shared with the subcommittee members is that the administrators and Karen and I met and we were able to look
069at how we would assign rooms in each of the buildings working under the preferred structure of three schools that held grades K through five and we are able to do that so we're able to with the redrawing of lines for school areas so Jake wild Smith our transportation coordinator was instrumental in doing that so it does look like that model so far is working has the least impact on Transportation costs there is some potential that we would need to work on there's some potential we might have to talk to our bus contractor about maybe another bus but that's not definite we're still configuring that but um I did do a survey of the staff not just the teachers all the staff were invited to take it 85 percent of them preferred our option 2B which
070it's lovingly referred to now which is the redistricting of the school areas and then having three k to five schools so the next step that we will do after school starts because there's a lot of people involved in the next steps and they're involved in getting school open so we can't do it at the same time there are two pieces and they're related to Staffing one um our elementary specials art music and physical education special will be affected if we go to a k to five because it adds classes so Karen and Mike Browning from Four Corners have taken the lead on drafting what that could look like and then I will work with the high school and the middle school to see what scheduling would look like if we remove eighth grade from the
071high school I say that because some of our high school teachers especially our elective courses do teach some sections of eighth grade so we need to look at what that does to the high school schedule and the Middle School impact if any in that regard so those will be done after the year flips and the schedules for students are out and things are moving we will then engage in a mock schedule for the 24-25 school year I have met with the president of Gea to talk about the fact that we will need to meet to talk about any impact to staff even if it's just moving buildings so um she's aware that that conversation will need to happen in the very near future but at this point right it's looking very promising and I will
072have some discussion for the full committee at the next meeting around how we how you would like to handle the previously available intra-district Choice scenario we'll need to talk about options for how that is addressed going forward but right now we are on track for I believe you folks to be able to make a decision about the model by the October meeting and then it's all up to Logistics packing and unpacking and etc etc but but thank you did I cover it Gene perfect and the redistricting committee was a member wall member geneve and member Johnson we saw is that right yeah and thank you all for your work on that and of course the superintendent and your team on that and to reiterate for folks at home because I did actually get a question
073last week from a panicked parent who thought maybe their eighth grader was staying at the middle school this year this is a future plan this is not for fall of 2023 just so that's absolutely clear and then as the superintendent outlined we would have some steps that we would take as a school committee to reinforce how this logistically would move forward based on our policies as our school committee policies uh sure secretary extra [Music] um so what kind of would there be changes to special education because I know that my daughter because her teacher was at a school that wasn't our neighborhood school had to leave our neighborhood school school and go to a different one which was fine but it's something to think about or that would still need to be the case um
074I believe based on our current work that the specialized programming would be able to remain in the buildings where they are um but there is some impact on the choice decision because as you can imagine some buildings have higher enrollments based on the fact that some students have done intra-district Choice into those schools but in a general sense I believe all of our special education programs would be able to stay in the buildings where they're currently located the other benefit of the plan is that low-income students would be more evenly distributed throughout the different schools so it does address not just the concern about the grade levels but also some of the the equity issues that that were vital to this committee thank you other comments great thank you for that redistricting update policy update
075we did not meet and your minutes from the last meeting you can see you gave us some homework so we'll be doing that in early September plus the items that came to us tonight thank you budget subcommittee tomorrow thank you and the I think actually I had asked remember deneve she'd contacted me about a new agenda item and I'd asked for that to be brought up as part of the discussion for the budget subcommittee please go ahead um thank you last month I visited uh representative Blaze open Office hours here she's here every second Monday of the month and they asked me a very interesting question and I thought I had better bring it to all of you um the question that was asked was what list do we have to submit to them for
076earmark funding for the next year and I really didn't understand what they meant so they spent some really quality time with me walking me through line items on the state budget and they said specifically that they've started a project within the last year while this is still an available option and they would like to know if we've identified a list of things that we would like to have funded not annual or recurring things but big Capital expenses and if we could go through the state budget and identify the line items that correspond to these needs that we have and get a rough estimate of what we would like to have funded and then submit it to them and then they would basically go to bat for us and I asked them if they had examples
077of what they had done recently in regards to that and they said well Mohawk came to them and got a new HVAC system so these are things that they're actually able to work for us but they need us to come to them and wanted to know if we were prepared to do that and I said I had no idea I had to bring it to you all so I'm bringing you this information that they would like a list of capital expenses that and corresponding line items and they could address it for us and perhaps fund them that's it I would kick that to the budget subcommittee unless anyone else feels like it should go somewhere else to start obviously anything that goes to the budget subcommittee would eventually come to the full committee for further
078discussion and action if the budget subcommittee's meeting tomorrow there won't be time to put it on the agenda so I just wonder if it might be something that I don't know if the budget subcommittee will meet again before the the September meeting but if they aren't able to meet before September maybe we could discuss it as a full committee at the September meeting and I'm on this budget subcommittee and I should be saying we thank you did they give you a deadline enough they did not they explained that obviously this year it's already set and it's done and she said I mean clearly they just signed it it's done but we'd have to think about it long term so next year would be when we would get the funding if it went through so we
079need to prepare and you know shortly in the next few months and have the items identified and ready to present wouldn't it be items that have come before Capital Improvements like elevators and things like that uh that that we might have go back and look through Lee I mean you probably already know the items but I would think if we could get two elevators that would be what are you looking at Gordy knows is it me or Christine Christine um I think they well certainly elevators come quickly to mind as I was listening to the conversation I think the task will be to comb through the state budget so can't wait to get on that yeah really fun they they went through the control F function with me and told me to look specifically for
080Greenfield and I was like yes okay but I believe Mr Puckett they didn't leave me hanging they gave some instructions I get Andy on that for us so we'll leave it as um it can't be discussed at the budget soap committee tomorrow because it's not already on the agenda and it needs to be posted 48 hours in advance if budget subcommittee has a meeting before the next the regular school committee meeting in September so be it we can have them discuss it there otherwise we will put it on the September agenda for the full committee to discuss um and I'm not going to dual out homework to anyone but uh it sounds like I'm well I'm guessing the mayor has some experience with some of this and um Diana on the city Side as well
081as Andy on our side may be helpful in context saving that it's really hard for me and I'm just going to save my thoughts on earmarks well when we talk as a full committee when we talk as a full committee we'll talk about it yeah yeah anything else about that thank you for remember for bringing that forward you're welcome and did you have a report from the collaborative nope so we would look for a motion to adjourn the mayor has made that in a second and we do need a roll call vote for that yes we're adjourned at 8 20. thank you everyone