001good morning and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools policy subcommittee meeting it's Thursday April 4th 2024 at 11:33 a.m. we'll start with the roll call um member deneve here and I Glenn Johnson mad I'm here so we have a quorum um do you need me to take notes today we're recording and I think that uh will have someone who will brilliantly make us notes probably by the end of wonderful wonderful he will take care of it oh nice awesome uh let's see doesn't appear to be anyone here for public comment um so we'll move on to approv minutes from the March 7th 20 oh I forgot to read my chair statement this meeting is being recorded for gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must not by the chairperson at this time
002okay I don't hear anything um let's see we got the minutes from March 7th is there a motion to approve the minutes so much I'm a second any discussion no discussion let's have a vote member Den Eve yes and I'm a yes Mo the minutes are approved unanimously um moving on to policy EAA Walkers and Riders which I'm happy to pull up on my screen if um that I think I will do that just that would be great together oops oh don't know what happened there let try [Music] reload all righty some technical difficulties here Bowers crashing stop the share and I will um have to find it another place let's see uh superintendent I don't oh too many things are crashing okay I'm gonna stop oh okay I can just talk about it I
003think there's only one sentence really up for discussion if that's okay yep okay so this is the policy that identifies the distance from school at which our students get busted so right now the policy says students grades K through seven who live more than a mile and a half from their school get busted and students grades 8 through 12 who live more than two miles from school get bused so the issue that came up a while ago was that we have students um in particularly two neighborhoods um the housing area of Leen Oak courts and Greenfield Gardens correct Karen okay um that are those two neighborhoods are less than a mile and a half away from their designated schools but the students in those housing developments get busted so we have a situation where students
004a mile and a quarter don't get the bus then we have Oak courts or Greenfield Garden students who get bused and then we have students past those housing areas who don't get bused so the question from Administration is if the school committee could please make an official determination about what you would like for the transportation policy so that we can Implement based on a school committee decision and not what appears to be a past administrative decision so Karen and I met with the bus company if we bus elementary students who live a mile or more the bus come company can accommodate that they cannot accommodate with our with our contracted number of buses they could not accommodate if we changed the secondary too many students would be added to the buses we would need multiple
005more buses to transport the secondary students who live a mile away so the requests would be either tell us to implement the policy as written or change the elementary designation to a mile or more away from school for transportation all right well with that I will make a motion um that we change the elementary um limit for bus transportation to from what it is currently to 1 MTH leaving it the same for middle and high school is that right did I if that's what you would like to do that is one of the two choices yes is there a second and we can discuss I'm I'm sorry to be the flying the ointment but Christine can you tell me the statement again if it's if we change it to yes I'm sorry say say the
006words again that's okay so so right now it says any Elementary student who lives more than a mile and a half away from their school gets a gets a bus so you can either leave it that way and we will implement it as written which does mean there are students who currently get bused who will not or if you change the mile and a half to a mile it means there are students closer to school who will get a bus at the elementary level but there Aren't Enough buses to do the one mile um for elementary there are if but not for the high school level or the Middle School level right um the change would affect grades K through seven oh okay that's great so you have enough space for K through seven but
007the high school maybe not um so a few things one Glenn to go back you can vote to just do it for up through grade four you don't have to change it for the middle school you can designate differently um if we were to bus the high school students a mile or further then the bus company would need um probably three additional buses based on the numbers there are about 130 students who would get added to the bus runs okay thank you I think the biggest issue that we've been dealing with administratively and our prior um transportation coordinator brought it up um to Karen and I is that our practice was inconsistent with the policy yeah so we just would like some tell us to do it the way it's written or change the way
008it's written and do it that [Music] way what was your motion Glenn um my motion was to change the um distance from a mile and a half to one mile for the elementary and now I I I'm also going to say the middle school elementary schools in the middle school I would second that okay um any further [Music] discussion I can I can speak on this because I no longer have a conflict of interest because I don't drive a route for Greenfield anymore drive for great because you're the only other person on this committee at this moment yeah great um I drive for the tech school so I don't drive for Greenfield anymore but I'm very familiar with that route because that was my route lien wood W so um if they if they say
009there are no more buses it's not like there's no there's no way it won't happen plus if you're including the more elementary kids it it will work but they're probably going to need bus monitors in order to handle that because it's already tenuous at best so this is just my opinion from having to drive these kids for several years now um so so I can say that the high school kids if they're a mile or less or or if they're within that mile a lot of them are going to walk um even the ones that I dropped off that were up to two miles would walk and I couldn't quite imagine how they would want to do all of that but they they do it all the time so I think that having a mile
010radius would probably be really helpful to a lot of parents and families and and I think that would be a really great addition to what we can offer you mean just for just for the the elementary and the middle because that's what we're talking about right uh busting anyone from K through seven yeah that's what the um policy currently speaks to at a mile and a half I want to ask Karen if she's if you have any different information I already told Glenn before the meeting started all my notes are at home I did not I mean are at work I did not expect to be at home for this meeting so I just want to clarify the Middle School piece if Karen's notes are close before we go further Elementary I'm absolutely positive I
011am absolutely positive that we do not have the buses to accommodate the high school um I don't have my notes either so I apologize but I thought it was only Elementary I did not think it was any secondary that they could accommodate okay so um I think it but I also uh we had talked about what would happen the following year with the fifth grade move and I think that's how we got a little tongue tied in our grade levels because we were thinking not only this year but next following yeah so if I could thank you amend my my statement about um the second the first tier they can't accommodate so first tier is secondary second tier is Elementary so I apologize for that confusion um that I okay yeah I answered my own
012question then in my mind because the roots are separate the elementary kids never ride with the middle school and the high school kids so there's two separate RS so the elementary kids are the only ones we could accommodate anyways because we can't just take some middle school and some high school not other high school so um yeah so that motion about it being just the elementary would work great um all right well maybe I've gotten lost in my motion my own motion so I'm GNA try again I'm gonna actually try give me a minute I'm just GNA try writing it in the chat so can get this right um so [Music] motion [Music] change yeah lost all my windows oh my goodness do you want me to put something in a chat Glenn and you
013can dictate no I can I can type in the chat yeah just I lost my uh policy and everything my agenda [Music] um Elementary bus distance from [Music] Miles what's the policy that we're working on E EAA I believe okay so I'm just GNA it's not perfect but I'm just I think it says it it well enough I move that we change the Elementary bus distance from 1.5 miles to 1.0 miles in policy EAA 4K through four it says Elementary but I can be clear of a k through four if I could add a thought if you say Elementary then next year you don't have to redo this policy to change grade levels oh yeah so if you do elementary and then change the language for secondary um I need the um Middle School 1.5
014High School remain the same so we'd have three different distances but I think that's okay so you think the um motion is okay as has written oh I didn't put it in the chat but if if you could amend the motion to say 1.5 miles or more for Middle School okay that would that would do the language and then High School Remains the Same what is it the Middle School currently 1.5 so Middle School would remain at at 1.5 yes and and the high school would remain at know I think it's two but is Karen are you looking yeah she had that looking something up look on her face I see it frequently okay good enough I think the language is good I just want to um Karen will confirm the current High School distance
015okay can you find e so it says grades 8 through 12 over two miles so maybe we change that to high school since next year eight won't be included yes Glenn's language uh designate well you can't see it you're doing something else delegates the distances by Elementary Middle High so it would be 1 1.52 yeah perfect and what I'm thinking is if we vote for this then um Christine if you would you know actually do the revision of the policy with the red with the so the changes yes you'll be able to do the word smithing but this kind of gets the what we're trying to get at I'll put it in the bullets the way the policy is formatted but it would be this information yes yeah okay so let's see um I move
016to change the Elementary bus distance from 1.5 miles to 1. 1.0 miles in in policy EAA the Middle School Bus distance would remain at 1.5 and high school would remain at 2.0 miles is there a second second any further discussion let's vote member Den yes and I'm a yes so that passes thank you great okay and then next item I let the superintendent know and Karen want to share with you also if you want to leave for this part feel free this is just us talking about the way that the school committee functions um Elizabeth had brought forward an idea of of having a super majority required on the school committee for certain um votes so it's really up to you if you want to stay on or not but I'm gonna take the um
017offer and head out but thank you thank you take care have a good day by enjoy your day thank you you too all right car Karen also opted out great yep I should just say the superintendent and Karen left the meeting at 11:52 amm I'd like to just take a minute and make a note for myself um sure and my circle back folder because when this happens when we change if we vote to change the policy um one of the things that might be a really important Olive Branch to have on the table uh for our vendor and just in general is to make sure that we think about in the budget for that year to have money for bus monitors because they're going to need for 130 more elementary school kids they're going to
018need bus monitors in every one of the buses or they probably will not run that's the truth there's only one bus monitor I think in one of the seven buses Greenfield has seven um and they're going to need to have six more and that's like a part-time job and so it's hard to find people but it won't it like it won't function without it okay because they'll be full of 40 kids each bus will have about 40K through five kids and it will be intense but isn't this I mean changing it oh I guess it it does affect some young people who aren't already getting busing from the um from the low income developments there will be some additional but some of this is just to put into policy a practice that's already been taking
019place which is kids who are less less than 1.5 miles were already getting bus because of living in the developments right and they all need bus monitors they already need bus monitor they already need bus monitors so I'm just saying that we should maybe have in our minds when the when the budget issue comes up about this that we should just be mindful that we're probably going to want to put out uh position for bus monitors and be a little bit more aggressive about it or we might have difficulties because that's a lot of kids yeah you know yeah it is okay all right anything else on the buses no I just I you know throw my sense in the ring okay let's talk about super majority yay um I have a couple I guess
020questions about how it would work um I mean I guess one question that we've discussed is like how do you identify which items need the super majority um but separate from that I'm wondering how much of a difference it would make on a committee the size of ours because basically current the worst that we've had have been some very important votes happening with only four members present um a super majority is either going to be five or six right there's only seven of us so are we really do we really want to have a special super majority process that would involve getting one or two members more members involved in important decisions I feel like the need for this only came up one time and that was last December yeah and at that time I
021really wish that we had a policy for a super majority and I really wish that I had left the meeting and broke the Quorum and I regret that so I'm thinking about it like I do I think we're gonna run into this problem in the next year or two probably not but there could be a time in the future when we really wish that we had it so I'm sort of thinking like a like long-term leave the place better than you found it kind of thing yeah and it doesn't I don't think it has to be too fancy five people would make a big difference I mean obviously people get sick or busy and things happen and you can't control everyone but if you could say hey we need to vote on the budget and
022we don't have enough people but we could maybe push it to a zoom meeting next week with the possibility of having more eyes on this it might be worth it yeah well I guess the other argument though is that if there's someone I mean I guess you well you have four people [Music] there um there's kind of two situations that could come up the first is you have four people who are basically in agreement and they are going to push their concerns over the three people who aren't there which they're probably going to do anyway because they have the votes the other situation is the one you were in where you got three people who might have a strong opinion about something they want to push something through and the fourth person doesn't agree but
023like you're saying they could leave the meeting and break the Quorum if they felt that strongly about it it's true which is not great I mean that's requires more drama and more more basically of a of a throwing a bomb on the Democratic process basically right I understand but uh that's why it might be nice to have something sort of set I don't know like I feel like hiring the superintendent is something that we should have enough of us there for you know voting on the budget like the like we should have enough of us there for um the only other instance I could think of is like firing the superintendent like those big big Monumental moments you shouldn't try to push it through you know take advantage of a time when there aren't everybody
024there and and because I remember bringing up why don't we table this until more people can be here and it's like no but and I'm not saying that will get in that situation but somebody could in the future and we might be saving them some heartache it could be one of us are saving from heartache yeah four years down the line it does sound like we're thinking the super majority would be five um five votes um and I I mean can you think of any other thing that's really big that would really benef like would actually benefit from having more people there I can only think of those three items hiring superintendent firing superintendent and approving the budgets is it the superintendent's budget and then whatever the the one is that happens after the city
025council comes up at the final number yeah or even just the final budget maybe we feel like just yeah like the superintendent's budget would be okay with the four people present yeah because then it can advance and nobody's stopping the process yeah but then at the end at the the end having more people present so that we can be really clear on what our values are um like I'm not trying to stop up the works I just feel like it could easily be manipulated and that's something I'm just thinking of for the future yeah I hear you okay while we have the bandwidth and if we don't have the bandwidth to do it now maybe it's a future dream yeah well let's see um which of us gets it done quicker writing up a draft
026of the policy for us to to uh look at and bring forward that was a question that I had because I couldn't really find a policy about it in our policy manual I found information in the charter saying what a quorum would be but there was nothing saying that about a super Quorum so if we do something like this do we write something brand new and are there steps we have to take to do a brand new policy I don't I don't know how that works oh that's a good question whether um whether we can even do this if a quorum is defined as um by the charter do even have the power to create a a super majority policy um for C certain activities I think I should probably write to the DEA and
027ask because we may not we may not even have the authority to change this yeah that that was my first thought was that okay if we because when I called Boston they said you can do whatever works for you as a committee within within the guidelines of your policy in the charter so if we don't have a policy in our handbook that says what a quorum is for us but there is one in the charter could we then make a policy that says we will conform to the Quorum listed in the charter with the caveat that for these three things we will require a five member Quorum like could we do that I don't know that's definitely a legal question like you said but it's also like a lesson to learn because there are a
028lot of policies once we finish the the project and have the search and are part of the searchable database there are probably policies that we're going to want to potentially rewrite or bring up new ones and it would be great to know how do we do that well I mean I for things where it's clear that we have the authority we can we have a process for creating new policy for ourselves um we've done that um with like our cell phone policy for example right you know basically something gets written and approved at this committee level and it gets brought forward to the school committee for a first vote it comes back to us in between and then it goes back to the school committee for a second vote kind of thing so that's not
029a question but okay but yeah I think our next step is I'll um I'll see if I can get a legal determination on whether we can do this at all okay that would be great at least you know we'd be taking a little step forward and I'm happy to try my hand at writing a draft and sending it to you and great sounds good thank you Elizabeth no problem so I'll wait to hear back from you about what uh do press sounds good thank you so much let's move to adjournment all right you're a motion to adjourn uh so moved oh motion from Member denev and I second any discussion all right let's vote remember denie yes and I'm a yes so we're adjourned at 12:03 p.m.