001this meeting is being recorded for the purposes of posting to gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chair at this time is anybody else recording great hearing and seeing none um moving on to the public comment portion of our agenda um Melissa you will have three minutes to to make your Spiel um I can set up a little timer when you are ready oh I was waiting for you to be ready um can I just State my name yes please state your name and where you're from um Melissa web I am a parent of Three Gps students all in different buildings so yeah am um I'm just here I feel like I've been part of the redistricting from a very early stage of development and I've watched a lot
002of things happen and I think for me one of the very disheartening things that I've seen happen and I'm not trying to like push back the Wheel of Time but we did hire an outside consulting firm to come in and tell us our best options and instead of as a committee a district um looking at it and saying oh thank you for this we tried to reinvent the wheel that somebody had already taken time and money and put into I I'm I feel I'm still here to advocate for the K1 two three four five platform I still think it could be done I think there's a lot of push back on it I'm very happy to see that like hard lines are being drawn in the sand because we're not the only District that does
003that um many major cities that you live in do have very hard lines with very few exceptions for people being able to stay in buildings after they move I also have a very strong concern for people who are moving and how we are tracking movement of people who are moving to different districts but somehow still remaining in the same school um I have a neighbor across the street who has lived there now for a year and a half almost two years and started the new school year at Federal Street school last year however her child should have been starting at Newton um there could have been an exception made and I just don't know about it but from my understanding they're like no we just went to school first day and no one said anything
004to us so I've always been like how are we handling that piece of um kids who are already attending schools and making that happen so I guess that's more summer forward thinking but again you know we hired someone to come in and give us options and I feel like instead of following through with one um we just made up our own and we're I know that both askp and Christine have done an amazing job trying to make it work but at the same time I'm over here like why did we do that if we weren't going to listen to them like I don't hire an electrician to come in and tell me how my Plumbing should be in my house I hire a plumber um you know I don't take the person who's like The
005Apprentice and say oh okay well I'm glad that you feel that way you know so I guess that's just where I am as to why we didn't take the outside advice from an outsider looking in who had no stake in the claim thank you that was perfectly three minutes and I feel like you've had a lot of practice to get to get to that level of doing perfectly three minutes thank you for your comment Melissa um are there any other members of the public present any other public comments to comment I don't see any I don't hear any so um thank you again and we will move on to our next agenda item which is approving the draft minutes from the last meeting that was April 9 UM can I get a motion to approve
006I move that we approve the meeting minutes from April 9th I second that and then I think that we technically do have to vote even though we both made and seconded the motion um so all in favor say I I I we have approved the minutes from the April 9th meeting um the next item we might not actually have much on and that is almost surely entirely related to my misunderstanding of the process that things were undertak definitely was um I put this agenda item on this is updating up the update on Transportation related to redrawing boundaries this was my understanding that we were going to have new bus routes to be able to understand the impact of of children moving but now I've um been informed that those bus routes probably won't be run
007until August or so we doesn't it's irrelevant we do not have the information to have the discussion at this time so um unless there's any other update that I am missing from our esteemed colleagues in the district is that can we move right there's no nothing on busing they told us they'll do whatever we need them to do so um all right moving right along then unless uh an do you have any questions or comments busing nope no new info no new questions perfect um all right next item is an update on on Green River School and so I did receive a letter which I'm not sure made it into the materials but that Dr dearu had sent me a letter um that was also signed by the mayor and the msba the Massachusetts school
008building authority so I mailed the summary to them of what they had requested so that we could finally close out take Green River out of service so they got that they have since acknowledge that they have it um that was it we have your letter um and um the chair of the school committee the mayor and the superintendent I'll have to sign it we did and we are starting to clean out Green River Mike Buro our facilities directors going over there with all the principls and department heads to see if there's anything that we need that's there otherwise we will start getting things on the school committee agenda to have declared Surplus maybe as soon as next week and then we can start cleaning it out and the intention is to um have an item
009on the regular school committee agenda to discuss turning Green River back over to the city excellent um based on your understanding do do you believe that there will be a vote to that effect next week or that that will likely take place in July I believe that there was um the potential for there to be a vote certainly if you know if committee members aren't aren't there yet I think Glenn would would move that but I think um I believe the agenda would reflect the potential for a vote okay so we were looking to do the handoff of the school around September 1st um that would allow us to have time to do cleaning out um and that would also allow us to work with the city um we have you know the the schools
010have we have our computer server there that is respons it needs to be there to run the things that are at Green River that continue to run such as cameras um so we need the opportunity to work with the city to switch over anything that needs to be switched over in that regard um to get our technology out of the building they're old but we still have phone you know handsets desktop phones that we might be able to salvage for parts and things like that so we're going to use that time to get everything out and then then it will be the city's potentially it will be the city's prerogative to do whatever they decide with the building indeed um I was hoping that the mayor would join us because I would like to be
011able to communicate something with the public about where in the city does this decision live so that people know where they need to go um to to advocate for what they would like yeah that we didn't talk I have not talked to the mayor about that part so I can't even yeah I know from the building and construction committee green River School shockingly enough has been discussed and uh there were two views on the committee one would be in favor of entering some kind of a partnership with someone who would handle converting it into the sustainable housing which does have a campaign pushing for but there were also voices on the committee uh talking about the city's desperate need for offices and so that is one other potential future for the building yes I think
012there are any potential futures for the building and those are the two that were most heavily discussed yeah and that that at the exact moment that that moves from the school committee's responsibility to the city's responsibility they will decide what it is to do with that not to make a obviously I'm not weighing in on any decisions um that would be at the city but one of the um factors in the msba do documentation that was signed by mayor Martin many years ago almost um almost 10 actually might be 10 years ago now um there is language in there about the way that the facility gets used um and if if those conditions are not met that could have some impact on the status of Le payment of funds so that may also be a
013factor that the city considers when it makes a decision about future use indeed there the provisions around educational purposes yeah I wasn't remembering exactly what the language is but it's it's in that realm exactly what you just said so they may want to consider um I that yeah I I do wish that we had a little bit more clarity about just like what where is that line between an acceptable use that's going to not cost us money and and an unacceptable use that is going to cost us more money than it's already going to cost us to do something with this building and also who we could talk to in order to get stipulations waved well the I expect that um mba's response will help in some of that um in my letter that I
014did send to Stacy as the chair of this subcommittee um I did speak to one of the um options that has been being discussed um with the mayor um that we hope I think I made a pitch for potentially um if the city goes that way meeting the requirements for educational use um I don't know if that's the case but I think we would get some guidance when m SBA replies um so hopefully we will see um but the the lines for Capital expense which that is one um when you look at the chart of accounts those lines are on the city Side Of The Ledger um so I think at this stage the general thinking is that would be a city um scenario for addressing the repayment if there is any but yeah ultimately
015will not come out of the school district's budget per se only in the sense that the city overall is impacted we are part of them correct um that is the general thinking I certainly am not the final decision maker on any of that but when you talk about Capital all of those accounts do lie on the city side of the budget but you're right I mean we get soup out of the same pot to use Glenn's analogy from several weeks ago indeed okay um I don't necessarily see that we need to have that much more discussion on this topic um except for you know an it seems to be our prerogative right now as to whether or not we would like to you know recommend a vote happen next week and whether we would recommend
016the vote to relinquish the the school we obviously don't have to do that they can hold the vote without us recommending they do or not in the full committee meeting that is Glenn's prerogative um but we can sort of we can either choose to do that now or we can not and it my only question is when will we be hearing back from the MS I always forget the order of the letters don't know they had indicated to me when I originally spoke to them that um given the fact that there are no programs excuse me no students in the building no programs to be moved um that they didn't think it would take the six months that it says we're supposed to notify we are supposed to notify them six months prior to the
017building being taken out of service which clearly did not occur seven years ago um but that seemed to potentially have a positive impact on their timeline for a response but I mean I can try to check in with them um Monday and see if they have a thought but I think that would be good um I'm more inclined to say yeah let's go ahead and recommend the vote uh people have been waiting for this for so long let's keep momentum going great I'm I'm of a similar mind so do I need to make a motion for us to recommend that the committee vote on uh the Green River School decommissioning to satisfy Robert's Rules yes okay I hereby move that the subcommittee recommend to the full committee to take a vote on decommissioning the Green
018River school and I second that motion all in favor of that motion that we've both just motioned and seconded I am in favor shockingly hi great um okay so that seems to be that for the Green River School moving on to the next item is reviewing the subcommittee's purpose and scope of responsibility now I will just share that I um there seems to be multiple conversations happening with regard to this item and I'll just lay them out one is this committee is done its work is done and it is time for it to be decommissioned and move on to other work another version of that is actually the committee's scope is Shifting as opposed to being completely decommissioned and in particular I know that there is there is an you know discussions about other uses
019of school facilities and ways to collaborate with others using school facilities that some folks would argue falls under the scope of this subcommittee now the reason that I have this on the agenda is because I would like to hear I guess from you and what you think the purpose of the subcommittee is um and if you think the work that you've identified to me in the past that you might like to do is served through this committee or needs to necessarily have its own space that perhaps yet I think what we're looking at right now is the implementation of the plans that have been made and I do think it continues to fall under the scope of this committee because we have to make sure that the way things are implemented as various hiccups and
020obstacles arise do stay consistent with the vision for the district that this committee well subcommittee is in charge of so I'm of the opinion that it's a slight shift but not even that radical of a shift as we work through the Kinks and get this done we've done a lot of planning but there's still like messaging alone there's so many questions from the public that it is good to have a smaller group to come up with the answers that the committee at large can give so that we don't have seven authors on one memo yes so I'm I'm hearing what you're saying and I would like to be mindful of the boundary line that occurs between setting policy and implementing policy and the two are related I I'm actually of the mind that the two
021are very much related um and at the same time one of them is our job the other is not um I would say where we are is we are in charge of making sure that uh the Implement not that implementing it but making sure that if the way it's being implemented is going counter or causing problems for the part that is our side that we can see that and offer guidance okay um thank you for sharing so I you the the role of the subcommittee accountability to the reenvisioning um the other element of this reviewing the purpose or scope of responsibility is I was reflecting on the fact that Bradley as a full committee we at one point had a a racial justice subcommittee but when um the new members came on such as myself
022and yourself and we were reassigning and re sort of reenvisioning the Committees that we did have um it was decided that that actually did not was no longer a standalone committee but actually the work of racial Justice or or other Equity focused um elements of our policy Infuse the rest of the Committees and so I was wondering if we could also take a moment or two to talk about how we see the equity Mission um that we all share being being held up by the work of this of this committee and can we articulate how we are trying to advance equity in the district with the work of this subcommittee well I I'd say the biggest way that this subcommittee is working towards Equity is making sure that there is a standard set of rules
023that apply equally to everyone and so that in itself is the biggest because we had a system set up where people who were in The know were able to get access to things that people who were not in the know are people who had the cars and could provide the alternate Transportation had access to far more choices of publicly funded schools uh so part of it is the even playing field which I think has been the major push of the work that we've done these past few months um and then I had another thought but I've lost it what was that other thought it was the other half of what I had to say sorry um yeah but you know and then also if you looked at the numbers for the way our schools were
024divided I mean I grew up in the Deep South and if my town had numbers like that there would be an intervention of some kind but that not Greenfield I mean I one one would argue that we we're intervening yes that is the work of this committee is the intervention and subsequent work of the district think that my talking was getting a little bit into uh dangerous territory there but I think Christine wanted to say something I just wanted to make reference I guess I was a little confused because I felt like we've done a lot of intervening to write some of those um inconsistencies so I just wanted to I guess yeah check in with you in case we were not thinking in a same way no we it sounds like we're on the
025same page I was saying that that has been the work of the committee that's how it related to racial Justice sorry I must not have been clear enough because I was trying to recapture a lost thought so my apologies for my lack of clarity yes so what I was trying to say is that that is the primary way in terms of racial Justice that this committee has functioned great I also think the the shift that sort of got wrapped into this discussion of redistricting around moving the grade levels back will will support equity in general by helping make sure that students are with the peers that that that best support them to to be their best selves academically and otherwise um so I'm looking forward to seeing the impacts of those shifts as well um
026for full transparency um it is unclear if this committee is destined to continue um in a formal capacity after after next week's full committee meeting so I just want to name that for folks um I think that we just articulated you know especially you and just articulated a solid reason why it could or potentially should and I would if if you feel called to do so to share that during the during that time that we discuss those things next week feel free to do so obviously not going to make you um um couldn't I'll come up with more eloquent phrasing before then um but otherwise that was sort of the reason that I wanted to have this is just to revisit what what are we doing here um and and how are we supporting the
027broader mission of what our district is all about um okay with that I do have we is there more on that agenda item before we move on don't think so okay I do have on here a call future agenda items but pending the outcome of whether or not we continue to be a subcommittee um it might not make sense and if if if you have a future agenda item that does come to mind you're always welcome to send me an email okay with that we I sorry I do have one question when uh the full committee votes on Green River school is there going to be anything else that would need to be done by this subcommittee on it or once that vote is done we wash our hands it's no longer our problem best
028of my knowledge it's the ladder that once we made the vote and it returns to the city then it becomes the city's process like I mentioned earlier what I love to have um a communication about what happens next that we could share with people yes um but we are not responsible for coming up with that next step um okay I guess I was more of wondering like would the city need someone to be communicating with or at that point is it just with superintendent so who would the city be talking to during that transition is the real question imagining it I'm imagining it becomes Karen okay who gets to who gets to take over that lovely role sorry if it's a really obvious question I just wanted to have it out there in plane no
029appreciate that all right any other items all right I'm looking for a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn I second that motion um all in favor I think we have to do a roll call member Childs I me chair seon also I um with that we have concluded the subcommittee meeting for redistricting on this the 5th of June [Music]