Greenfield School Committee Meeting - July 12, 2023

001[Music] thank you good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday July 12 2023 at 6 PM we're at the Johns on Community Center at 35 Pleasant Street in Greenfield and gctv is recording this meeting we'll move right into our agenda and a roll call please secretary extra room here oh that's right thank you remember Denise here thank you thank you myself I am here remember Johnson Assad here Vice chair Martini here poyetti here remember wall here mayor weed Gardener and it's my impression that she will not be joining us this evening that's correct thank you we're good we're yeah we're called to order at uh 601 pm and how about a motion to approve the minutes from our meeting on June 14th so moved second any discussion of the

002minutes hearing none will move to a vote anyone abstaining any no votes that passes unanimously and public comment no one no one okay uh wow Mr Pickett so early in the meeting for you budget update good so I'm going to take about 45 minutes to just go over this monthly update for all of you no um we are wrapping up the year and we have uh the city has till they give all departments including ours till the 24th to do final cleanup of things so we are still going through looking through if you look and see there's still some funds that are encumbered I will I'm happy to report that the retroactive pays have been calculated and paid out so and those are all reflected in this budget update as you have in front of

003you you'll see that it is showing a quote-unquote negative balance but again as we're closing the year we're going to be doing our year-end reclasses to and from the various accounts to uh make that zero and so and all things are going according to plan I'll say excellent thank you that was a quick 45 minutes uh any questions or comments about the budget secretary extram please this is just more of a clarifying on the revolving and special Revenue accounts there is a the last two columns one is remaining balance right and the last is FY 22 prior year Revenue so what should we be paying attention to I guess is it so we had 3 million 72 remaining or we have that now I guess we we have the the difference with the you don't

004want to compare the remaining balance to the prior year Revenue column the prior your Revenue column you'd want to compare to the the second column in from the left the revenue so we're a prior year revenue of 3.56 million and 22 our current year revenue of all those is 3.4 million so slight decrease in compared to Prior year so what we want to be looking at is the column that says end balance yes uh remaining balance because the you have to take into consideration there are some encumbrances okay so you do want to take the remaining balance column to see you're welcome just want to make sure we were all looking at the same thing same thing and you'll notice like I said there's uh this is something just a minor thing where the athletic

005revolving account has a deficit of 1900 so we will be addressing that to bring that to zero but I'll remind you that's some of the reasons why when we went through our fy24 budget we had to increase our local appropriation because the fees that we generate from Athletics aren't covering what in total what it is that we'd need to offset so put in the grand scheme of things 1971 dollar quote unquote deficit is nothing thank you Andy any further questions or comments about the budget Vice chair martini not specifically about this budget spudge and correct me if me a state budget that was just finalized includes additional Chapter 70 funding and I wanted to know if we are anticipating any of that coming to Greenfield uh whatever the increase would be yes it would be

006coming uh the off the top of my head I don't know but the quote I'm going to say the issue is that Greenfield funds the public schools above the minimum required so even though we get an increase in Chapter 70 be technically they don't have to give it to us because they're already funding us above minimum thank you anything else thank you Andy and next on the agenda we kind of introduced the topic at the meeting in June of moving to a hybrid meeting format a couple of things and I know that Christine will interrupt me if I uh forget anything or get anything wrong here um so it's interesting that we're we're going at this on the heels of what I would consider kind of disastrous technology in June um and we weren't even

007trying to do anything fancy we were trying to be practically Amish and use just the screen um but that didn't go so well um so a few things the city already uses this technology in this room it's worth pointing out that this is the only room where we would really be able to hold a meeting and have access to hybrid technology there is genes look at me there is this technology in the city second floor meeting room but we can't I don't think that has the capacity to hold us but please the new library then tell me about what would be available in the new library are they going to have a screen like the one here they have a I mean I haven't seen it since but they have a huge meeting room that

008will hold I think around 100 people and then they have a smaller meeting room that you know for smaller meetings okay so we'll have to get some information about when they're going to be bringing that online and ready and and potentially an option because that's great because it is hard to only have this one room available really for our needs so that is is terrific to hear thank you um so the other things that we've learned Christine talk to Fernando who's the director of I.T for the city um we would probably be on a timeline I wanted to actually bring it online for August but based on their needs one of which is supporting bringing everything up in the new library Fernando feels like having our folks trained which is the second thing and then

009being able to support us in this endeavor that September as a move is a more realistic timeline for us so we would try to do it in September and I guess at this point before we have any further discussion I would ask for emotion that the Greenfield school committee adopt a hybrid meeting format for regular monthly meetings as soon as practicable and ideally for September 2023 meeting so moved in a second second thank you both and further discussion or questions nothing don't miss anything the only thing just to clarify is that it support is not available for regular generally for evening meetings so there is always as we well know the potential for a technical issue but generally it works fine thank you just to clarify that you know Fernando or other City I.T folks

010won't be at regular scheduled meetings sure thank you and then what I would ask is that if there are members of the committee that are interested in being trained I don't know if you've seen at city council they have a couple of folks who kind of sit at the end of the table and have some sort of I don't know contraption that they're using to manage the hybrid piece of it so we would need to be trained on that I would say just send me an email or talk to me tonight if you're interested in being one of the people that would be trained and anything else nobody's jumping so we'll move to a vote on this anyone abstaining any no votes okay so that passes unanimously and next on the agenda we have a

011process that we don't do very often but it is a deci process for reviewing and approving a private school operating in the city of Greenfield and my understanding is Mike it's Mike right you're the head of the school you're here would you mind just in case we have discussion or questions um and can you quickly just introduce yourself good evening I'm Mike placintar and I'm the chairman of Providence Christian Academy which is a Ministry of Providence moldovian Baptist Church on Federal Street in Greenfield great thank you and then I just ask if you hang out for a second in case folks have questions so I would direct the committee actually let's do a motion first and then we can have discussion I move the Greenfield school committee approved the operation in the city of Greenfield

012of Providence Christian Academy beginning in the 23-24 school year I'll make the motion is there a second second thank you um and so there's a few things I would point out and then I would open it up for discussion um everyone has in the materials this form which comes from Desi um and is filled out by the school and sent to us as this is a state required process I would also refer folks who may not have read it carefully to the piece at the very bottom of the Forum about that that instructs the school committee on our role and then you did also get some materials related to the curriculum as required as a part of this process and any questions or comments from the committee well I I spent quite a bit of

013time researching the abecca curriculum and I'd like to make a statement at some point in time now would be the time all right so what I have learned is that PCA Providence Christian Academy is not a Grassroots local school this is a franchise that teaches fundamentalist ideology throughout the world they use the abeka curriculum which I believe is in direct opposition to the values of GPS the curriculum is full of false information and students who learn from it have a harder time getting into four-year colleges and universities because they will believe a whole set of things that are erroneous and be historically illiterate which I think is a bad thing for our community and our country and ultimately this is going to be reflected in a real breakdown in the separation of church and state

014which is really the agenda of these curricula in the abeka textbook America land I love Satan is blamed for the spread of the theory of evolution and modern psychology it is taught in the Civil War section that black slavery was just cheaper than indentured servitude and slaves were immigrants in the science textbook we learned that we must reject any scientific ideas that contradict the Bible and there was only one ice agent that it lasted a couple of hundred years after Noah's flood the History Section will teach us that the Great Depression was created by socialists to destabilize patriotic Americans and the lgbtq issues are listed under United States history Heritage of freedom and Christian perspectives cultural Decay section saying traditional American Family Values have dramatically declined when the traditional heterosexual family comes under attack all

015of society's suffers schools that use a Becca have come under scrutiny for expelling students who are lgbtq or the children of lgbtq parents a Becca is the founder of the Pensacola Christian College and has been fined 44 million dollars by the IRS for lying about being a non-profit they've had to apologize for their racist past because they didn't allow interracial relationships they outlawed dancing condoning this is Con is owning it and this is an example of educational malpractice that has been widely researched and studied and I could not say that I support the youth in our community I would not be an ally or a supporter of young people if I voted to allow the school into our community thank you any further discussion or questions I was just going to ask for more context

016about what our role is with this I don't know the context really okay so it is a requirement of the state that when a private school begins to operate in the the city the the town the whatever that we go through this process um and it's really I maybe I should read what's at the bottom of the Forum school committee shall approve a private school when satisfies the instruction and all the studies required by law equals in thoroughness and efficiency and the progress made therein then in the public schools in the same town but shall not withhold such approval on account of religious teaching we also did seek the advice of legal counsel and the advice that we received was very strongly that we should approve please the qualification was that it has the the

017attorney had never seen a rejection of a private school opening and that the committee needed to be very cognizant that we cannot reject a private school based on the religious teaching so I that was the clarification so that there needed to be a good basis for rejection of the school being approved I guess I mean well first of all I'm noting I'm noting that on the form it says it does not have special education program so I I just don't see how we could possibly say that a private school that doesn't offer special education you know equals in thoroughness and efficiency and the progress made they're in that in the public schools in the same town I mean that's just not possible right it is actually um if we were to like a city or

018a town that has a parochial Catholic school they don't have to offer special education services um what happens with private schools in any area we actually already participate with the charter schools they get what's called proportionate share of our federal grants so they get a proportion based on enrollment of our Title One Title II special education grants to use and in terms of the special education grants part of generally what that is used to do is provide special education services for the students at the private schools so it is absolutely actually fairly common for a private school to not and then see have you all reviewed the curriculum and would you agree with this statement that it would equal so it is one of the programs that is listed as being an approved homeschool curriculum

019so the district already does approve the program for students who are being homeschooled using this curriculum and on what basis do we do that I mean who who reviewed the curriculum and made that approval so the district does it's under Karen's office now but that's I mean that's been in practice it was in that was one of them that has been approved prior to even Karen being in that office um it I hear the concern um I I believe the argument could be made that that is a religious perspective that is being shared I'm not arguing to or Fro I'm sharing what I believe the perspective is that that piece of the instruction would be religious basis so it is a challenging um question to undertake you know literacy mathematics are a little bit different

020I appreciate the information Elizabeth shared about other elements of the curriculum there's math issues as well with that curriculum this was just the tip of the iceberg I'm sorry remember Johnson we said were you done uh so just I guess I'll just summarize what I've heard in the past we've approved this curriculum for homeschool use but if we were to take a fresh look at it now without that history I don't know what the recommendation would be from our Administration and from Karen about whether this meets the criteria that is laid out for us I will certainly tell you if that question is the Crux of the discussion tonight I will I believe it would be in our best interest to follow up with the legal opinion on what where this lands I think that

021would be the best place they're likely I won't be surprised to learn if there were past cases related to this and I would prefer to have a review of previous legal arguments before making a decision based on that okay all right I'll look forward to hearing what others have to say but I'll be hoping to make a motion at some point to defer this decision until we can get that legal review thank you sure Thank You by John martini thank you uh when I was reviewing the information provided and taking note of the item that SharePoint I just read from Mass general laws chapter 76. I felt that I couldn't tell from The Limited information that was provided whether or not the instruction that would be provided to students in this School equals in thoroughness

022and efficiency and what would be provided by Greenfield Public Schools there wasn't very much and from the limited amount that was provided just for example in regards to reading instruction it seems that it was mainly focused on one out of only five of what are known to be the essential components of reading instruction I would be concerned about that phonics is absolutely essential to students learning to read but as we well know especially through this District's efforts to align our reading instruction with cognitive science there is it's also crucial to provide phonemic awareness instruction fluency vocabulary background knowledge and comprehension instructions so I I felt that what was provided was lacking in those areas and had concerns about that uh and other than that it seemed like a very um big blank to me I

023didn't see any comparison or analysis as to how um the program of instruction would would equal what is provided by the district schools um and throwing us inefficiency I didn't see any um references to how the the curriculum is aligned to the Massachusetts curriculum standards the Frameworks which would help me understand whether or not it was adequate so uh I just felt that it was very um very limited and not not adequate as to the information provided and in terms of whether or not we can be satisfied with the progress made therein of those students there wasn't any information provided until it was not provided in the initial set of information as to how how students would even be evaluated in this school so I they're not going to be taking MCAS which is our

024you know big broad brush when it comes to student progress I saw in the second set of information that was provided a reference to one um one uh tool student assessment tool that I am not familiar with and there was no information provided about how it compares to um what is used by greenfield for a district-wide assessment so I have so many questions and and I wish that a great deal more information would have been provided so I can speak to Iowa testing is a it's a long used um has been used nationally sort of summative assessment regarding reading and math it's not an uncommon assessment that's been used so it's a okay don't have a ton of detail in my head about it but it is it is definitely a known um Common Assessment

025okay and how would the district um compare that to our own district-wide assessment like map there is a little bit of a different standard for a private school in that they are not held to the same requirements that a public school is in a variety of areas so um they have to monitor assess progress and monitor progress but it doesn't have to equate to our assessment so they don't have to have an assessment that equals MCAS they just have to show that they are monitoring the progress of their students really so that's that's not made clear to me by just reading chapter 76 section one and the law is there more information available about exactly how those standards are different um there there is actually and I'll find it um so what I I just

026want to clarify one piece thank you from you that you are looking to see a more detailed alignment between the curriculum resource that's outlined and Massachusetts standards that is something you are hoping to see did I did I hear you correctly it would be helpful to me in making a judgment about whether we can be satisfied that the instruction and all the studies required by law equals and thoroughness and efficiency that in the public schools in the same town I don't know how else I'm supposed to evaluate that so you know it's a it's a very interesting um process to ask a school committee to go through um but they're quite clear in guidance that um we don't get to send it up to Desi and Desi doesn't get to exempt us which would be

027lovely to ask them to do the process so here are some basic guidelines from Dusty keeping in mind the last guidance that was written from the Department was in 2007 I did confirm that is the most recent guidance around this process so from curriculum requirements there are no specific requirements for private school curriculum though the approval committee does look to see that students are making academic progress comparable to the public school I again I think that's an interesting requirement teacher certification and hiring no State policy exists regarding teacher certification in non-public schools Food Services and lunch school lunch requirements including funding for schools offering the national school lunch program are managed by the department of Ed so that would be a deci issue length of school year there is no state law regarding length of

028school year record keeping and reports schools must keep enrollment attendance academic and conduct records for all students and must file a report with the local school district each year health and safety all secondary schools this is not a secondary school at this point Transportation students who attend private schools are entitled to the same rights and privileges of transportation to and from school so we would be required to offer Transportation within the city of Greenfield to the students attending this school and testing testing isn't explicitly required in state law but approval committees have used standardized testing as a criteria to determine whether the schools are comparable to Public Schools I can't speak to whether or not it would answer your question but Iowa is a standardized test come copy of that please you absolutely when was

029the last time Greenfield approved a private school this school committee approved a private school in Greenfield I I don't know you don't have a policy about it um the guidance that we have is really related to what the department of Ed recommends a committee put in their policy which is what I shared with Mike which is why he provided the the information it's really around what Desi says we should ask but we do not have a policy around approving or or I would say I could not locate a policy regarding approval of private schools in our policy manual this this curriculum use school students how were those students being assessed as to whether they're making effective progress or not families are required or asked to provide an end-of-year portfolio to demonstrate progress the requirement basically

030self-reporting correct yep right um when was this given to us I mean when was this it doesn't there's no date on this form so when was this submitted this notification of private school was so it was originally submitted as a draft few months ago but the person who sent it to me sent it made an inquiry I shared that we needed their curriculum and then that person left and then Mike reached out to me I don't know a few weeks ago anyway to follow up on the process and to to get it moving so um this was the first meeting since he and I have communicated about the school and the documents required okay well I have to say I find it really difficult for this to be presented about six weeks before school is

031supposed to start and uh the school committee certainly should take a interest in making sure that the private school that we approve and certainly our homeschoolers and and um students in similar situations are are receiving an Effective Education I don't I don't feel that it's fair because we're not being given an opportunity to say we needed more information this is what we need and have time to have that brought back to us without putting whatever families are interested in this school in a really difficult position and I'm sure the the people who want to run their school at the same time um if we don't approve them right now you so that's I don't appreciate the timing well you don't have to approve it tonight um I'm quite happy to get whatever information Mike and

032I have communicated multiple times I think we've been working together easily we're required searching for up to provide information 30 days before the opening of the school and what we decided is to do ahead of time to provide you um at least a few more a few weeks before that to give you the proper information we followed every guideline to give you the full information and everything that's required by a lot more state um if there's information that you want me to get provide more basis for your thought I am quite happy to do that you just need to tell me the issue in terms of if the school is approved for the start of school or not from everything I have read basically is related to the issue of compulsory education so worst case

033as far as I know based on what I have read if the school is not approved by the first day of school it would appear that the consequence if that's the correct word would be that the students who are enrolled there could be considered tardy or truant by the Greenfield schools they're but we have a list of the students so you know we certainly are aware of who they are and that they would not just be not doing anything but we have we have another meeting before school starts how many students believe they're 31 I believe the students could be wrong 31 or 32. about that grades um K through four okay to four secretary Eckstrom um it will come as no surprise that I sort of look at this from a business standpoint because

034I've been sitting with a budget for so long and been here and looking at policies and all of those things um what I have big and and I get frustrated with but it is the way it is schools that are not Public Schools do not have to adhere to the same things I'm just backing up with superintendent do not have to adhere to the same laws rules almost anything that public schools do which is which is part of the reason that schools like is it four rivers um can sort of I don't want to say do their own curriculum but the way that they teach and their methodology is sort of up to themselves I say that very Loosely um you know I attended a private Catholic College I had to take Bible classes and

035bible study classes throughout my time there I I'm not Catholic I didn't really adhere to it um not didn't hear adhere to it but it wasn't something that I had a background in um and what I do know is yes there are lots of things that can be couched as this is a religious freedom thing and I don't I don't even want to touch that um but from a com Market competitiveness way if there is no one who will attend the school if for whatever reason people aren't happy with what's happening there the school won't exist and and and I know that's sort of a a you know sort of a loose thing but if they aren't able to do their jobs and the students aren't able to succeed by any standard they won't exist

036very long thank you explain Devil's Advocate that's all remember Johnson we sat and then Vice chair martini [Music] it just you know I think there's this aspirational sentence in here in chapter 76 section one and then there's the reality of what's actually happening and um I've been in um I used to work in HIV AIDS and we had these HIV AIDS Community planning things and it was all very aspirational but then sometimes the government would just say you have to vote Yes on this and so I really don't like it I don't like it at all to be honest I really believe that we should be following this aspirational part of the law and not the way it's actually being operationalized but I'll look forward to hearing from our attorney about whether we're mandated to

037do that or not sorry I I had said remember Johnson was out and then Vice chair matini and then oh okay remember well go ahead piece of the discussion from secretary Eckstrom in terms of whether or not people will stay with the school that is not doing well I don't think that's really accurate I mean New York has certainly contended with the problem of Orthodox Jewish Schools they're turning out students who lack very basic skills and I agree with member Johnson Assad about trying to comply with the spirit of the law and not something else so I I would worry about that I'm really not interested in the religious discussion about it I am interested in ensuring student outcomes and I don't really see I feel that I don't have enough information and to support

038it at this point remember well go ahead I would just like to know what happens if we voted no Holt there's there's information there is okay um [Music] so the school would not um be able to operate in terms of compulsory attendance meaning the students would not be considered to be enrolled in school if we don't approve and then um that that the students would be considered truant from our record keeping and then the private school um I'm just just looking there is no appeal to the Department of Education to the point a question that was asked about you know if we vote it we own it you you own it to a very limited just for the sake of responding to that you own it to a very limited extent that as long as

039the school committee acts reasonably and in good faith in carrying out its statutory approval function its potential liability is minimal um I do not see any other um element to this guidance that speaks to um what would happen if you do not approve other than students who go there would not be considered to be attending school for the and what what does that mean for the family and the student I mean so at the end of the day I mean the school district if we have students who are truant by the definition of the law then we have a process where we meet with families to talk about school attendance at the end of the day they could um we could file a chance for um you know students in need of services with the

040court we could file with DCF where the families could um share that they are homeschooling so there are options at that stage for the family so at this point I would like to move that we table this until next month so that we can hear what the attorney says second do we do a discussion on the tabling I think we do let's do it if everyone's all right we'll do a discussion on the tabling and we'll go from there remember Denise I just wanted to say really quickly that there are two test cases of this um that have happened recently one in Oklahoma and one in Somerville Massachusetts and that happened last year at this time so while it's potentially being tabled perhaps we could take some time to privately personally research those two test

041cases that have happened because it does detail what it ended up occurring when the school committee did vote no in Somerville other discussion about tabling I I would just say um give me a second to phrase it right uh we we run into situations all the time where it's obvious Dusty paints us into a corner the state paints us into a corner um I I struggle I I hear everyone's point of view on this including the folks who want their children to attend the school and I I want to remind our committee that these are our neighbors and their children and like all of us are trying to do the best for their families and uh for me that piece is front and center and I don't think tabling this for another month is going

042to put us in any different position on how to move forward but I would of course go with the will of the committee secretary extra um I know that we do spend some time talking about curriculum and and what it is that should be chosen or not chosen but the reality is we are not curriculum experts and and I guess when I'm hearing and I hear Kate I hear you talking about a lot and I don't doubt whatever's coming out of your mouth to be honest with you however I'm not an expert and so I don't know make sure you're relating your comments to tabling to tabling right now oh that's what we're talking about sorry that's okay that's the motion on the table pun intended um any further questions about tabling should we just

043vote on whether or not to table it yeah any abstentions from voting uh who would vote no on tabling that's two so the motion to table carries so it will be taken up at our August meeting I appreciate you being here tonight and I'm sure we'll have some follow-up sure thank you if there's any questions you may have please please do ask just to just to um let you know that Providence Christian Academy really started um with our congregation seeing a lot of children being homeschooled and we wanted to provide an opportunity for these children [Music] um future opportunities and we believe that in person having a facility or in-person schooling is a better alternative that than homeschooling and we don't want them to miss out on opportunities for the future and this is how

044this has started then we saw an interest from other communities and we said why don't we open this to others who may have interest interest in in a such School such Academy it did exist in Greenfield before there are a few of them that have closed in the past um there was even a Catholic school here too was Cornerstone is that the one that was here previously thank you and our teachers the great teachers a lot of them have been teaching in public schools they're knowledgeable and I I can't comment much on the curriculum since I'm not an expert here either but a Becca is probably one of the top used Nationwide in Christian private schools it is a very rigorous it is a very great curriculum for children especially if you have great teachers

045to teach and write and and so that's all I want to add and let you know we're not a religious cult here okay we're here to provide opportunities especially for those who are home school um at the same time we're opening these without for others to be part of it if they desire so thank you I appreciate your perspective thank you for being here tonight okay we'll move into item seven on the agenda which is a vote to declare library books at Greenfield Middle School Surplus we would start with uh emotion a move to declare the library books at Greenfield Middle School Surplus as inventoried and presented to the school committee do I have a motion so moved and the second second and any discussion okay seeing none anyone abstaining from voting on this anyone

046voting no so that passes unanimously and we'll move into we have uh two policy items that as we've done in previous meetings uh member Johnson the chair of the subcommittee for policy will move us through those motions okay I'll make the motion ask for a second and then I can give a little spiel about each of these a move that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy bde subcommittees of the school committee as presented still moved and it's second oh second okay so um there was uh basically a typo in this uh policy that made us want to consider it which was it said the school committee will have the following standing committees and that it did not list the Committees and so then it got the attention of our of our subcommittee

047and of our attorney who also found problems with the idea of having um the chair and or the superintendent being ad hoc members of each of the subcommittees So based on those changes that needed to happen we looked at the mask model policy which is word for word basically what we have presented to you and it was voted unanimously from the um policy subcommittee thank you so my question is are you asking for us to just approve this and then you'll go look at it and with make changes as you not as you see fit but make changes as necessary and then bring it back to us and then we talk about it or yeah so the the process is we bring it to you for a first reading then we'll bring it back to

048the subcommittee so between now and then of members of the public or school committee members like you right now want to give us feedback we can incorporate that at our committee and then bring you back something so um so that's the process it would come back to us for a second reading likely at the um August meeting can I ask something yes please for the first line it says it's a school committee shallow Point members to subcommittees at their annual organizational meeting for a period of one year I don't know that that is possible given that it further says the committee number two the committee chair subject to approval by the committee will appoint the subcommittee chair and its members the organizational meeting is where the committee chair is designated elected whatever it is and

049if that person hasn't been doing the thing they aren't going to know who's the who or what or yep that was the only thing that stood out to me yeah so maybe the change would be something like um the next consecutive meeting or something yeah this this the committee chair will present um uh school committee assignments for I mean subcommittee assignments at something like that yeah I see that revision it in if I may in practice the subcommittee assignments are done at the second school committee meeting of the year yeah um and we've carried forward you know in in January with the subcommittees from previous but generally there's not a lot of subcommittee work happening at that point well actually I mean so I think that this is why in the past I don't know

050I mean I think what we've seen is a lot of variety in the way that the um organizational meeting is done but one argument for having an organizational meeting separate from and um in advance of the first meeting of the year is that you could appoint your chair and then at the first meeting of the year they could bring their subcommittee assignments which would be useful because usually you have to immediately begin working on the budget so at least having the budget subcommittee in place would be helpful so you can kind of see how this kind of relates as well to other policies that we have um so I guess I would um not sure exactly what to do we could take the feedback as a subcommittee and work on it bring it back yep

051um I would say for for efficiency it might be useful to um to um approve it on first reading with the feedback to be directed to the policy subcut and we have precedent for that that's totally [Music] okay any other discussion yes just one small thing um in regards to bde the subcommittee's policy um it says that members to subcommittees would be appointed at the annual organizational meeting for a period of one year but it doesn't say anything about uh what if we want to form a subcommittee mid-year which we just did last month so I was wondering if that should be accounted for do we have another policy we're just going to have another policy about ad hoc committees we do covered by that I can try to pull that up if you want

052yeah I do believe it's addressed in I'm not going to know which policy it is but we do have one on on um creation of ad hoc committees and the ones that we have done mid-year at least in my time on the school committee have all been ad hoc I mean in a way it's kind of the way this policy is written it's it's it would be the chairs discretion whether to continue committees from the prior year but I guess it would be wanting the uh chair to be clear about whether they're creating an ad hoc or a standing committee would be a different process to just kind of disband a something that's established as a permanent committee so I'll see what it says here um oh yes season forever I think those are considered

053different so I'm looking at that yeah I think probably can I make a suggestion yeah please um that we take back to the policy subcommittee the question of um the creation of the subcommittee assignments and the wording of that piece and also that we ensure as a policy subcommittee that any advisory or ad hoc committees are addressed elsewhere in policy because I think if we try to put that into this it will be a little bit more convoluted than we normally have in a policy yeah we can seek some guidance too about how to handle it remember well I'd just like to suggest that we also have an organizational meeting before the first school committee meeting I think that that would save a huge nightmare at our first school committee meeting and that could be

054feedback for the next policy that we're going to be considering which is about that school committee organizational meeting so so I'm really welcome your feedback on that as well any other comments so I think the idea is to vote to um to move it through its first reading to the to the subcommittee to incorporate people's feedback so any other comments or questions all right let's vote any no votes any abstentions that motion passes unanimously okidoki um the next policy I will um ask for a motion that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy BDA school committee organizational meeting on a first reading I guess I already said that first Reading part so moved okay in a second second okay um this came out of a discussion that we had at the um at

055this organizational meeting in 2023 um there was a lot of the way that the agenda was organized at that time um uh the public comment period came after the votes of the uh for for the officers um some of us felt that if you're going to be making um large choices uh that are very influential on the functioning of the school committee that the public should have the opportunity to comment first and so that is what the changes here it's basically that highlighted item that says a public comment will precede the election of officers that's the only change that we were recommending and I'll just say first that the recommendation was not unanimous um two of us voted for chair poor Eddie voted against in chair parade they wanted to give you a chance to

056um to speak to that if you want thank you yeah um just a couple of things um the first thing I would point out to the committee as a whole is that the policy has presented is not a An masc approved policy um if there are any in our policy manual that are not masc approved or that we're not moving to that are masc approved as a part of our realignment of our policies I'd be hard-pressed to find them um I also did some research there is no precedent for this with either our city council they do not take public comment uh for uh before their their reorganization nor do any of the other school districts in our region take public comment I think a big part of that is as I've said in other

057discussions at the school committee public comment is school committee business and it's hard to run the business of the committee without the leadership elected and the the final thing I would say is that you know there's there's this um been this feedback that the public should have a say in who our leadership is and I would remind folks that the public is voting us to be their elected representatives in this body and that is their feedback and members should be looking to see uh who they feel would best lead the body and vote accordingly that's my comment well I am I serve on several other committees besides the school committee and we don't take public comment before we elect a chair of those committees and I also don't think that it's right when we are

058the people that are elected by the community to serve on the school committee to then have people come and comment to us they can come in come into US throughout the year on anything that they think is wrong with the leadership of the committee they have they can come in December and tell us who they they think should be the chair going forward because we will know who the newly elected people are but I think that that is one of the jobs of a member of the school committee to elect the officers for the next year and should not be the the public should not become part of it if the council doesn't have public comment nor do does any other committee I've ever heard of have public comment thanks chair ekstrom or secretary um

059I do because when I was looking at this I um was thinking to myself you know what is it because we've worked together for so long I've learned how you think and and I've been listening to Elizabeth and and all the research that she does so I sort of thought okay there's a rationale behind this and I want to sit down and find out what it is and like you know aside from just having it on paper wanting a public comment um there was a time and Glenn you got so exasperated with me saying where is the policy that you finally said Susan we're trying to clean these up and I went oh okay now I get it so when I look at this this isn't a cleaning up this is adding an additional layer

060of complexity was my thought um and see and I do want to Echo chair poyetti as as there isn't anything with Massey and I so I didn't see a precedent there and then I went online and just put in the put in the question what happens at organizations and and I intentionally went and looked at different policies at different School committees not necessarily close to us just to see what's it like somewhere else and so at Wrentham Cohasset Agawam Mahar and Springfield they don't have anything like that it's just the regular standard school committee designation so those are my two thoughts and following up on what Gene had said that we should that she thought felt like we should have an organizational meeting I we used to have it the only reason that we didn't

061have it the in 21 when superintendent DeBarge took over is because we were and it was all my decision because I was the ranking person it was because I was I personally was so concerned because we were coming back from covid and it hadn't gone all that well and I thought you know what we just need to worry about this right now and when they get back to school it'll keep for a couple weeks now I it's continued on since then but that was really the whole rationale behind him kind of like she has got way too much on her plate so um those were my thoughts as I had it I I you know I didn't see anywhere else that it was being done and and we're making a policy more complicated I guess

062which sort of flies in the face of the things that you that you guys have tried to instill I don't know that's right one more thing uh sure briefly remember while and then remember Denise I I just want to say that there are three openings on the school committee this time there will be three openings next time if people don't agree with how the leadership goes they should run for school committee remember Denise um I think having a separate organizational meeting is incredibly important we do not do working sessions we have not done professional development as a group we are dysfunctional as a group and I don't think that adding another layer is complicated I think that we're smart people who can walk and chew gum at the same time I don't think it's a

063big deal to have public comment before the election of officers we cannot in one breath say that we care about what the public thinks but then in another breath say that they are not allowed to influence the election of officers we either care what they think or we don't care what they think public comment is an essential part of our meetings it's in our policy they provide invaluable input which we have to take into consideration when making our decisions so maintaining a connection between the public and the committee is incredibly important and excluding their input on the election of officers is not just undemocratic but it's potentially a tactic used to gatekeep power so yeah maybe the city council doesn't do it and maybe all the other school communities don't do it but that doesn't

064mean that that's right and mask has told us in subcommittee meetings that we should explore tailoring our policies to our beliefs and our feelings and the culture of our district they've told us to deviate if we choose if it works better for us so I don't see a problem with changing anything and I think that it would help the public trust us and care about this process more if we are more transparent in the very beginning by having a separate meeting and allowing their input it really cannot hurt anything but could in fact really help us in the long term secretary extra so then why in the past has it has have things been brought to us that were being voted on and there was some discussion here the part of the rationale was I'll

065paraphrase all the other school committees are doing it and that was part of the argument to do something so I don't know that you can use the just because someone else isn't doing it doesn't mean that wood should I get I understand the cultural piece and understanding culture of our community and and our school committee and all those things but I sort of discount that because of previous well I think different School committees function differently some of them function very healthy ways and some of them do not so I think that it might impact them differently this might not be an issue for some school committees at all I'll speak um and then um member Martini um I just wanted to to say that um a lot of the work that we have been doing

066as a policy subcommittee has been bringing our our policies in line with the mask uh revisions because mask has in many cases it's bringing them up to to date with the law um and and they all have been kind of vetted so but that does not stop us from being able to put our own imprint on our own policies we're not just rubber stamping every single thing that mask sends our way in general we would want to make changes to it if we had a good reason to and if we thought that it was important for our community so Vice chair martini uh I've been sitting here trying to think back to more details from a previous discussion we had as to whether or not to move public comment up in our agenda before a

067voting item because I remember at the time presenting some information about various other entities and what I had discovered through looking at their minutes and what have you um and that many of them always hold a public comment before a voting item so I'm having a little bit of a hard times like swallowing that nobody offers public comment before their selection of officers but I also remember hearing some feedback at the time that from other members that it shouldn't matter what other people do on their committees so really it's about I guess what we think is important personally I don't think that there is anything we vote on except for that which is an executive session that the public should not be involved in so I don't see any good reasoning why there shouldn't be

068a public comment before the selection of officers I agree that it should take place at an organizational meeting before the first regular meeting of the year and and in terms of our policy and um cleaning it up or making it more aligned to masc policy um I appreciate trying to make things more streamlined or comparable across school districts but I also don't think that masc should Define what the whole policy book is for every District in the Commonwealth we should be making our own decisions according to our our own values so um so I you know I don't see any reason not to have a policy that is of our own crafting on that remember well obviously this will not pertain to me since I will be going off the school committee but less time

069uh I I did not vote to allow the public to speak because I think it's not good to have to sit as a member of the school committee it would not be helpful to me to sit through a people from the public telling me what an awful person I am and how much they hope I'm not re-elected to a a position of authority on the school committee I don't see why we want to invite the public to tell the members of the school committee that they are not good enough to be uh an officer on the school committee I just don't see how that's helpful at all and I don't I if you don't like the person who is running for school committee don't vote for them but if you did vote for them they

070have just as much of a right to be an officer and to lead the school committee as anybody else and if you as a member of the school committee want to be an officer it's up to you to go to the other school committee members and convince them that you should be an officer you will have months after the election you'll have November and December to do your campaigning to become an officer thank you any other comments I guess I would just say that based on what I'm hearing um this policy doesn't really address at all what we want our organizational meeting to be starting with it's it says in bold at its first meeting in January of each year will elect from its membership the officers um and we're hearing pretty consistently that that's

071not what we want to do we want to have a separate meeting so um aside from the highlighted piece about a public comment it seems like we have some revision to do so I would ask that we do something similar to what we did with the first reading for bde in terms of taking this back to the subcommittee for some more work thank you a couple comments first I want to say school committee members should absolutely not be having conversations in advance of the organizational meeting with more than a with a quorum or more of the school committee to line up votes that would be a violation of open meeting law second I'm very glad to hear there's a growing consensus on the school committee that we want to have a separate organizational meeting in

072advance because when I was asking for that in Prior years I was treated like I was crazy and like it had never happened before so I'm really glad to hear that so we can certainly as a school committee as a policy subcommittee bring that feedback back but I think we do need a vote yes or no on that changes as presented to find out whether it's the well of the school committee to have a public comment period preceding the election of officers so that this the policy subcommittee knows what to do with this policy going forward so is there any other discussion before we vote on that I'm just wondering can we have the motion read back to us again [Music] thank you any other questions or comments before vote all right uh all those

073in favor of oh I'm sorry yes Vice chair martini I just wanted to um follow up on the piece of discussion from Member wall about um not wanting to be um subjected to somebody showing up to public comment and lambasting one of us about how terrible we are um I don't I don't want to experience that either and nobody would want to um I'm it just called to mind a public comment that I heard once from a venerable lady in our community um who got up to inform us that the public doesn't have to be nice to us and they can they can stand up and call us whatever they would like and that's that and I recall thinking at the time well that is true and I certainly you know support everyone uh having

074having their opinion that has not been my experience so far in the past year and a half on this committee almost every single person who has turned up to make public comment has been thoughtful and respectful and those are the people that personally that I listen to when they are here to talk to us and the only time I recall people turning up and being disruptive or disrespectful is when we were discussing ending our The Mask mandate and and that oddly enough was people being disruptive over something that we were going to vote to approve anyway so I I guess I'm saying I have faith in most of the public when they turn up here to show up and be respectful and explain from an intellectual point of view why they why they support one

075vote or another about something and also that people have the right to free speech and there is a person designated to run that meeting um who's whose role it would be to uh to enforce the rules that people do need to show a basic level of decorum when they turn up here that's all thank you any other comments or questions before we vote all those in favor three eyes Elizabeth Glenn and Kate and all those against three no's Gene Susan and Amy so we are a hung jury um I think Robert's Rules were asks us to bang our heads up against a wall continuing to vote until we have a decision but I don't think we'll do that tonight um let's see I guess so I guess what I'll I'll say is I'll withdraw the

076motion for right now um but I think it would be good to have a um a motion from someone um directing the policy subcommittee to um to revise the school committee organizational meeting policy to include an organizational meeting that precedes the first meeting the first regular meeting of the school committee I'll move that and a second second any discussion on that okay all those in favor unanimous thank you member Johnson said for moving us through that um item 10 on the agenda is a school committee calendar update I'm going to pass it over to secretary X room sorry so we have we had discussed some time ago that we would have a committee or a committee calendar that included dates for that all the committee meetings were taking place full committee meetings subcommittee meetings and

077also anything that pertained directly to what goes on in the school committee for example Massey conferences things like that um due to my own health that hasn't happened for some time and but I have been able to recently see again so I have put something out there you were all invited to it today if you haven't seen it just check your email it is set because when we talked about this previously we had said the secretary would be the person who would um add or detract things on there so um thinking about that and I probably shouldn't made this an executive decision on my own but thinking about that um when I did invitations or extended invitations to everyone I made it so that the chair or the vice chair and the secretary can edit

078or ADD and everyone else is viewing and the only reason I did that is because if the secretary is unable to fulfill their duties then there are people who are already able to to make those changes but if not we don't want that that's fine too I don't really matter so periodically things will be added and if anyone has any questions please feel free your thoughts what I have questions I'm so excited I love the calendar thank you um would it be possible to add because what I was looking for mostly from the calendar in addition to all of the events and the wonderful things that you added were benchmarks is that something that we can add so that we know I know it sounds it sounds like we should all just know this but

079I would love to have something highlighted budget season so is now yes evaluations are due by this time do you know what I'm where I'm going I know exactly what you're saying and I did actually do that for Budget season if for if you look on December of last year okay it is a there's just at the first like December 1st I put it put superintendent begins budget work here what ever was or officially begins I'm sure the superintendent is thinking about it much further than that but yes that is absolutely something that is a wonderful tool for everyone okay so we can so if we want to add a benchmark or if we see one that is missing we would just send you a message and you would add it okay anything else about

080the calendar thank you secretary Eckstrom for putting that together it as far as I'm concerned it's a constant work in progress we add things um and uh yeah keep it going and keep improving it as we go along but thank you it's a great start and that isn't something that is going to live with when I before I leave my tenure I will pass it along to whoever it is that that is going to be here the next time probably I'm going to guess most definitely Vice chair Martina will be here as of January 1st so she'll probably have the responsibility to give it to the secretary be my guest and just so we know how it's getting past on great thank you uh how about requests for new agenda items um I have been

081recently talking to Senator comfort and rep blay and they would like to come and talk to us at some point in time about the rural schools bill and they are open to doing that in the fall and so I said that I would bring that up at the uh committee meeting and see if we could make that happen um I understand that we are not technically a rural school but in that bill there are Provisions to help schools regardless so it would be worthwhile for us to hear that and then I have two other things go ahead okay I would like to attend the mass Hyannis conference in November 8th through 10th I believe there's some sort of early bird discount business happening this week um so I would like to discuss that that's obviously

082not a next month agenda item it's kind of like a now thing but should I email you about that and we can okay if you actually email me and Lauren both about it and if you have a link that speaks to the early bird that would be very helpful if you forward all that okay I will do so I'll put that on my notes and then I wanted to ask you Dr barge about um last August we had a school tour for um city council members and committee members and I was wondering if there are plans in the works do you have a second annual tour of the schools we are in the midst of our administrative Retreat and so planning next year is in process so quite happy to share that out as soon

083as we button up all the details okay so that's something that we could expect this year is that what that means or you're thinking yes okay too hi folks sir we are quite happy to show off our schools I wonder if it was so helpful last time and I really learned a lot thank you for making the time any other agenda items okay thank you and we've got our reports ASAP take it away thank you curriculum updates when I was rereading this I thought maybe I should have done Grant updates first but you'll see a pattern after you hear about curriculum updates and how it aligns with a lot of the grant funding that we are seeking at ghs we did come to a consensus and they will be fully implementing illustrative math in math

0848 Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and geometry in the fall the implementation for the year also includes professional development so that staff are supported throughout the year in this implementation first year process our history Department we continue to really try to actively engage our students in the Civic process they do have to complete a project in eighth grade as well as sometime during their 9th through 12th grade years we will be reapplying for a Civics Grant as well to continue that support at the middle school because we haven't adopted enough and we're looking always for more we are going to roll out investigating history modules grades five through seven deci has sent out they are all free curriculum accessible to districts in the state but you partner with a company that actually provides high quality professional

085development on all of those modules there are units that really focus on Guiding students in Civic choices identifying their roles in citizenship and what they can do to make this a more equal just in a labor Liberty in the world so we're looking forward to that the fifth sixth and seventh grade will be rolling that out one of the associate principals at Greenfield Middle School is going to be the instructional leader on that with edu curious so we're excited about that uh the elementary schools had adopted Eureka Math a few years ago and Eureka Math has come out with a new and improved version called Eureka math squared so we will be adopting that it's just kind of buying a new car for a car that you've driven so they're excited because a lot of

086the glitches that really weren't student or teacher friendly in the original model they've kind of ironed The Kinks out so they'll be getting a little professional development on the new model and district-wide a lot of our work with the Desi ssos team has really been around data Dives and seeing where our students need additional support we looked into adopting imagine math and we'll be doing so in K-12 for next year it's not only an intervention math program it's also an acceleration one so I think that's exciting for teachers when students need a little extra because they're advanced in their classes it's something that will challenge them as well and the the best part I think for us is that it also aligns with Eureka and illustrative which are two math programs in District so we

087won't have to kind of piecemeal the intervention piece for one curriculum versus another you will see the grant update kind of aligns with all of the curriculum updates we applied for the following four grants there is a Civics grant that we have successfully gotten for the last four years I believe and this will be our fifth year applying for it so hopefully we'll hear soon I know the high school is really looking to expand Civic experiences for our students so they're really hoping if the grant comes through this year to take our kids either to the State House the Freedom Trail in Boston or other potential field trips to really get them engaged in other opportunities outside of Greenfield we did work on the investigating history Grant which will support the work at the middle

088school with edu curious it not only provides professional development but it links our teachers and our administrative team with learning communities in the state who are also adopting investigating history so teachers will be able to you know talk shop with other teachers about implementing the curriculum as well as our associate principal who's leading that um We are continuing uh getting support from Desi which is nice when we adopt high quality instructional materials they have um been rolling out additional funds the following year to make sure that our professional development and the support for teachers implementing is there so we also applied for additional support for illustrative math for our high school and then we also applied for fc185 which will continue with professional development on high impact instructional strategies that directly align with ckla and

089amplify it are k-7 so all of those are submitted we're just holding our fingers and saying please pick us and give us your money Desi so and then lastly we do have summer school that is happening right now we have a title one in special education integrated inclusionary model happening I started on July 5th and I am happy to report after looking at numbers and really checking attendance we're servicing over 150 students so far and we're only in day four so it's really exciting that we have kids that are engaged in summer learning opportunities and really taking advantage of filling those skill gaps and supporting them in becoming grade level for September so and that's it thank you [Applause] thank you do we have questions for askb secretary I don't have a question so much

090as a comment Cameron is having so much fun at summer school that she chose to attend summer school this year as opposed to go away to overnight camp for three weeks yeah that smile is you see what I'm saying though did she also tell you I let her in when it was raining because she didn't want to get wet and I had my umbrella for her I'm not discrediting how fabulous you are I'm just saying she was very happy to go to summer yes other questions or comments for this is since your internet Vice chair martini you know I swear it's just one quick thing um [Laughter] um you've already previously shared such a great deal about ckla and illustrative map when the district was in the process of selecting those and parents had the

091opportunity to um get more information in terms of um that was presented and available to them at school council meetings and I just wondered is that also going to take place for um investigating history Eureka math squared and the imagine I mean I know that things like imagine math is its Sun it is not the instructional resources just one piece because it's an acceleration and Intervention Program but still I think it would be great if we could have more direct information just available to parents if they would like to get it bye offering it in a context like that sure um absolutely the elementary schools in the middle school could do something at their first school council meetings we also could put links on our website imagine math as you indicated is not something that

092you you know you really would weigh in on it's just an intervention online program but in Eureka squared is like I said kind of buying a new car from a model you already Drive there's not really a lot of differences except for what they fine-tuned on the accessibility but certainly can share links so people can explore it or look at it investigating history is supplemental units which is really adding to the curriculum that folks are already teaching to really bring in the Civic component at a lower grade level so it's pretty exciting that they'll have that opportunity but they're all online on Jessie's website and I can certainly post the links on our website that is exciting and it would be great if and I also just wanted to ask I have noticed that there

093are still various places on the school website where school council meetings are not being posted accurately it'll say in one place that it's to be determined in another place there's a date and a time and things like that and I was really really hoping that for this school year we could get a grip on that so speaking of getting a grip on the website we are in the middle of updating it and so there's behind the scenes stuff that's happening now we have gone through literally every item I don't know you know I'm not a website person so I don't know all the how to frame it but basically every single item every single page on the website has been reviewed to see if it is even current so I will be frank about 90

094of what was available or living on that site was exceptionally outdated like multiple years outdated so those have been disabled already and now we are finalizing two different pieces simultaneously in the background we're looking at a format for the new website and ensuring that the pages that will go back live are accurate one of like the we have the right names on the right pages one of the things that we are very much looking to do is not have um discrete entries of the same information in multiple places like if you enter it in one place and it's linked to others that's fine but I'm not sure that's been the process which is why you have things like you just described so we're hoping for a launch to some degree at in August at some

095point um we're trying to move it along to get that done but I'll make a you know Royal Proclamation when we do the new website and but it's um it is a ton of work to review all of that content given the bulk that was there to be reviewed so thank you for that feedback but no this is a priority to get it well in Hand by the start of school is the goal yeah it's not completely and totally tedious so thank you for yes tedious very exciting word for that work but it's important for Access but it's um it's quite the thing but we are you know we realize it's it's critical to do so thank you for making sure we'll I'll make note of that element for sure thank you other questions for

096the assistant superintendent I have one quick thing on the website just just before I forget okay but in our policy meeting we discussed the page for the policy and program subcommittee and we would love if the format could match what we have for this for this full school committee where you have agenda materials linked to the YouTube so we can easily see where we are in terms of minutes and things like that anything else okay we'll do the superintendents update please finish the note from Glenn before I forget to check that it's just organized differently the subcommittee's area to the yeah but I want to make sure that I write a sentence otherwise tomorrow when I sit and look at this I will have no clue what it was well and I'll say another I

097mean maybe we want to know if we want to discuss this as a full committee but we could conceivably just have one page for school committee meetings with subcommittees and full committees and then you just list what the meeting is agenda minutes YouTube link without having people having to go at all these different things to find absolutely one of the positives from our um the we work with CES for the website updates and the I guess webmaster for any lack of any other word that I have for that um is he and John RIT director have looked at other models of of websites and so we can look at you know I can look at some different models I I personally would find it much more helpful to see all the meetings just running order

098regardless but that okay I'll do my very brief update um as Andy has said we're ending one year and simultaneously planning the next so it's very busy summer is not rest for administrators full-year admin assistants and certainly not for custodians they are rocking and rolling starting the summer cleaning and having to work around summer school into buildings so it's it's a logistical exercise for Eric in the custodial staff in our maintenance staff but they're well underway doing that work I won't speak again about our summer school program Staffing we do have some district-wide positions that we're still looking for we have hired a school psych we've hired a speech pathologist we're still looking for some additional but to the positive at this point almost all of the open positions that we have we have applicants

099and are in the process of scheduling interviews so we're you know we're pleased that we have response for most of the positions um I want to again just welcome Dave messing as our director of pupil Services who officially started July 3rd and then Meryl Miceli is now our full-time director at AEL and they're both um moving along with the work in the new year we are starting we have started today was the first day of our administrative Retreat who's not as glamorous as that sounds um I as I said today the massage will be so light and you would not even think you'd had one which they are not having them it's it is an oxymoron for sure um so we are doing all the planning of our professional development our convocation doing the logistics

100of operations that need to be updated things that are seemingly um mindless but have an impact on the function day-to-day in the district we will be working with our ssos folks tomorrow and looking at more detail of the Strategic plan and ensuring we have cohesive plans and how that is wrapped into our staff meetings professional development for all of the plans that we have to submit for all of the work that we are doing because we're a prior district with two schools in status we have to submit a priority plan and then because of one of the grants that we applied for we had to participate in what's called a landscape analysis which is basically a program evaluation but the outcomes of that the priority plan the landscape analysis and resulting plan and the Strategic

101plan are all the same work and that was not accidental that's very um that is a very expected outcome given the intense Focus we have had on the particular areas that we have identified that we need to improve so we are not working in a million different directions what we are but they're intentional and they're all the same so that's that's a really um it's a difficult task to accomplish when you are trying to respond to requirements from a variety of different places but we are absolutely committed to ensuring our efforts Main are maintained on the priority areas and that we don't get splintered and do a little bit of work in in so many areas that we're not seeing any impact so that takes a lot of intentional planning and then um the re-envisioning

102our schools I will let member wall I guess give the update under the the subcommittee reports but there has been movement in that regard um so that's there's no it doesn't seem like a lot but we're very busy so I kept my update brief the surveys did go out to the teachers and and we will be reporting on the results of them at our meeting next week is that Wednesday is the 17th it's next 17th at 3 30. in the superintendent's office correct in person and so uh you know Gene do you just you want to do your uh redistricting subcommittee report right now yeah go ahead I'm sorry uh so anyway uh we will get everybody on the committee up to date and and discuss when to bring the report forward to the uh

103Community that's it thank you okay uh other questions or comments for the superintendent about her report okay you sure it might be a first I'll take it all right um my report is is fairly quick uh update on the school committee self-evaluation uh masc uh Liz lafon specifically has said that they can support the self-evaluation again this year um and I I kind of got a commitment from her that she would push out the link for the self-evaluation to us in the month of July although I have not had the same easy back and forth with Liz she's got a lot of personal stuff going on right now that I know of but she said they will do it for us like last year so I imagine I'll get an update soon and we can

104expect that we will get the self-evaluation this month um my other two things typically the superintendent and I go in person to city council meeting which is the Wednesday after our monthly regular meeting and give a report and answer their questions and we have informed them that in July and in August we will give them written and written reports which is not unprecedented and I got zero response from them when I told them that we were doing this so I don't think they care and then I just want to acknowledge uh the hard work of our food service department and they had this great summer eats this is the free breakfast and lunch and sometimes dinner uh program for uh children 18 and under um that happens over the summer the kickoff event we had

105great weather at the pool and it was very very well attended and there were a lot of Community Resources there and they are just doing a great job my son and I have visited a number of different sites including the food truck at Fosters the food truck at the skate park which is kind of cool and so I just want to acknowledge that they're doing a great job and then my only other thing which didn't make it on the agenda I can't remember if we acknowledged the uh softball team being state champs it's two years in a row Class C I don't think it was over before our last meeting right it did get put on the website yeah I saw it there you're right yeah so congratulations to them two years in a row

106Class C Champs so that's that's pretty awesome and they beat Turner's this year not that we care we did acknowledge it at city council city council because it had just happened yeah okay and that is my report um and let's do subcommittees Gene had her Limelight um Glenn anything else from policy oh I'm sorry I just had a question um will we be getting the old self-evaluation back will we be doing a postmortem where we compare old versus new after we do the new one or how will we be collating that data and comparing them so I I don't know but I can ask Liz and last year um they did the collating for us it was our first year in a long time at least my time on school committee so I can ask

107that question and see where we get it's it's a good thing to bring up I honestly don't know that the eventual data and improve using it thank you um Glenn did you have anything else for policy no okay great and budget nothing you're not gonna have a meeting perhaps we should have a meeting you should have a meeting yes um yeah and what that means is superintendent and I will chit chat about times and what will be the topics my guess is reviewing the funds that have been dedicated for the school district and how they are ultimately going to be applied yeah there you go so that's that thank you and um member genev do you have a report from the collaborative they had a budget meeting it was voted on that that's it they're

108done with their budgets okay nothing else to report okay um and then we do have some correspondence that is in the online materials but I don't think in the packet um and then executive session is only for minutes from previous uh executive sessions and um I would entertain a motion to adjourn rather than actually do just minutes for an executive session so moved and uh any anyone abstaining from adjourning anyone opposed we are unanimously adjourned at 7 45 pm thank you all hooray