001good evening this is the Greenfield school committee subcommittee for the handbook meeting on March 25th at convening at 6:13 p.m. uh we'll do a roll call attendance uh secretary denim I'm here I'm the chair of the subcommittee and Kate Martini are you here she's absent Stacy seon I'm here member SE is present so we have two members and we have a quorum and we are in the Greenfield Middle School library there are no members of the public present all right we're suspending Robert's Rules of Order to do a working session which will involve brainstorming and we will not be adhering to normal Robert's Rules of orders so I have the let's open the document that we worked on in the past what do you think about that I think that sounds great okay because honestly
002I feel like it has more there um are you connected on the school's Wi-Fi is that something that we can do I am it I'm using CN guest okay and then asks you to do another little like I accept it'll like pop it up kind of let me do that c guest it's not I can take and it okay in the meantime while I'm waiting for that to happen I'm going to open it over here on my other device because why not we live in such a connected World such a connected World okay all right I have it open I just will not come up like just turn off the Wi-Fi and turn it back on that's always a good first step what I would tell you you have you turn off have you tried
003unplugging it exactly oh did do it because it is better to look at it on it's saying that it wants me to sign into the network but it's not working that it didn't pull up the leg nope not waitres NOP it's I need to sign in so I try to sign in it but it won't go to the sign in me you thank you for bringing chocolate Easter eggs you're [Music] welcome she it's not working no it just keeps the line across top that's okay I'm fully charged over here I was going to work in docks anyways it will just be a lot of my thumbs fact maybe I can move over there yeah we can better see thank you use my okay so we have two basic outlines for two related and complimentary but
004distinct documents one is a school Committee Member handbook right this handbook would be for new and existing school committee members right which would outline our sort of f ation principles there would be an FAQ section that would Orient new members to important documents and resources that are available to us um it would outline our public calendar um I think that you know these are all these are all sort of standard things that we've seen in some of the example handbooks that we've been looking through perhaps the one that we would want to refer to another subcommittee for drafting or might require more extensive drafting is this m code of conduct and articulated consequences that feels like a meteor section that deserves its own deliberation the rest of this feels like stuff we could pull from
005our samples and be pretty okay yep um the second document that we have listed is um a school committee resource handbook now this would be more of an outward facing document that's for the public right to help so I think you're absolutely right we can just sort of have those listed up front and then we can have a like Rua new me new or existing member skip to page whatever are you a community stay here and just keep scrolling um and then maybe have like an FAQ for community members how do I bring an issue to the Comm to the school committee how do I know when meetings are on anything that a Community member might be interested in knowing okay I'm going to start start taking notes yeah connecting to handbook ideas together um
006okay yeah ideas together member handbook and resource handbook maybe it should be called School Comm member handbook and Community member resource handbook School Committee Member in community resource handbook it's a mouthful but it is what it is it is what it is or School Committee Member and community resource handbook no I took words out and switched them to make it sound didn't notice the difference School Committee Member handbook and community resource handbook I said School Committee Member and community resource handbook that's what I it just sounds right it's good okay so I think if I have yeah talk I don't know if this ever does that to you but sometimes it just won't reload a yes that happens all the time so a section for so develop a section for members current and new yes
007and we can pull the stuff for the new members off of the website yeah we can pull a lot of the stuff there's a lot of stuff that's already been written and ready to go it just needs to be compiled exactly and I think that that also includes like this should be a resource that can live online as linked PDF um or yeah like a fully marked up pdf um and so I think that we can also link out like there are certain forms that you have to to the S different certifications that have in and like spelling out those instructions of like okay when you do masth you will get a little certificate or you will get something and you need to submit it I think a lot of is actually on there the
008section looks new and there's stuff that was not on there when I first started okay so I don't and I don't know the history of that I don't know like who went in and cleaned it up but somebody did because now there's a new member material section with more information good and there's links to the classes you have to take and everything so that feels pretty well fleshed out to me that that section on the website but we should read through it and make sure that it's current and see what could be missing yeah um I was just excited to see it so okay so develop a section for members current and new compile the current information already online and create a [Music] section for community members to gather um to get info about how
009the committee works and how about how to work with the committee right it's basically it's supposed to be a document that serves as a a smoothing and it makes it easier to interface with us yep so so so we need to develop a mission statement for yes so we need a statement of inclusion a mission statement which we we have in here possibly align with the district mission statement we need a school Committee Member code of conduct with articulated consequences we have a public calendar outline now this public calendar outline is not the same as the published academic calendar right this is a General this is our yearlong agenda this is not just a year Well we the yes yes minus anything that might be executive right yeah um we've which is coming up at
010the next meeting I believe Glen and I talked about the yearlong agenda and this school committee goals coming up at the executive session and then coming to the full committee at the next meeting so yeah um yes soals then we have our sort of like a suggested section is list of important Personnel people you might we need to put something in there we need to put school um subcommittee goals also CU that's a separate yes thing or you could even put committee SL you know we really were so amazing in our past three months ago past us we're on fire yeah um so yeah so this list of list of important Personnel so this is remember this yes ter we never figured it out remember but we're supposed to have one so we need to
011figure who out that figure out who who that is okay but it's like our legal council our superintendent our assistant superintendent cont and this is this is um specifically for new members but we also have list of important Personnel from the community's persp perspective which includes like us um our in our different committee assignments ET table live um you know but it could also include I think they should also include Glenn Franklin right because he is sort of the um family and Community relationship manager of the district we really should get a list from the superintendent of who she thinks is part of our part of the group of people that do community outreach and would would connect with the committee she's going to say no or she or maybe like maybe like those people
012aren't what I mean is like those people aren't part of our perview like we don't connect with them because they're specific to Student Services is what I'm saying so I'm wondering if there's some people that connect with the public and it's not a private student connection and that's those are the people that we should have a list of from her put on that does that make sense do we have people like that I'm wondering I mean Glenn Franklin yes but he does specifically student Outreach with family so that's why I would think that she might say no he's not in our I mean he AES student Outreach with families but he is also I me he's well connected with with organizations like Community Action and things like so I I just think that he has
013he's more for me he feels like more of a community facing presence in our schools than some other entities like a clash teacher right um but that could also include our sort of registar or enrollment people it could include the nurse um Wellness I would I would definitely want it to include our special education director those feel like outward facing but if they really want to find those people's names and numbers they exist on the district's website and you probably don't necessarily need to duplicate that yeah but it's always really great to have things in one place so that people don't have to go searching so maybe the the wording we're looking for is get a list of what you said was perfect of outward facing um members of the district right they are like
014District points of contact that apparent re L of outward facing members that are Point points of contact for families and community members so that's something that we could ask for because that's not intruding into any student privacy issues you know right which is what you know she rightfully yeah I don't want to be in the middle of that at all I am trying to be a of information and community members right and that really should be the theme of the handbook is being is creating a conduit of information so what are the things tonight do you want to tackle I had on the agenda that we create a list of Straight Up list of headers with the idea that if we just started writing things down we could fill them in but that was before
015I remembered past us and what we did on this document which we sort of already did so do you think that be should write a statement of inclusion tonight I mean I feel like if we start hitting these as we hit all of these individual Concepts that we have down more will come to light as we do it the list will get longer but we might be able to start filling in some blanks and we can potentially give this document to the full committee and just say like here's where we are so far because I really do like I understand not wanting like there's a lot of fear about um upsetting open meeting law with it but we have to find a way to get the rest of the committee to bring as much input
016from them into the document so that we can get other voices involved and they're going to think of things that we aren't going to think of right I don't think that it violates open meeting law for them to review a document and provide their feedback because that's literally all the our public meetings are is we reviewing submitted reports and providing feedback on them right and I don't think it violates open meeting law if they send an email saying hey I would like this section added to the handbook and there's no deliberation it's just a request to have it added but the deliberation would come if we if we do this in executive session true or even if we did it in public session right even if we didn't saying to us hey I would like
017you to add a section on I don't know whatever transportation to meetings or whatever comes up in their mind that doesn't violate open meeting law and we should know that that's something that they want put into the handbook yes that's I mean that would be one way for them to let us know changes that they are considering where where it would become a violation is if someone replied back no I don't think that's a good idea because which we wouldn't do which we wouldn't do because we don't do that because we don't do that um uh there will need to be a place though like just because someone suggests that it should be there doesn't mean it should right and there will become there will be the place where all of those those would I
018think need to be considered as like proposed amendments would have to like be discussed and voted out right but that's like all things not everything ends up on the agenda or ends up in the thing so do you feel like we should tackle a found a statement of inclusion as a foundational document we could um or do you want or how or do you feel like we should continue and outline and have it something we could give to the full committee to say this is the direction we're heading that's more of where I would like to go and make sure that the current outline we have is complete okay and if we do feel like it's complete then then perhaps we can move on to maybe doing some more of the loow hanging fruit and
019providing a heads up to the larger committee that there are a few sections that are going to require some more of our attention okay you know thought okay so um okay so sections sections that will require just as we get going some deeper discussion is our um statement of inclusion I'm just also taking notes like not just to take notes but also to sort of think about how we're going to report this um our statement of inclusion and mission statement really needs to be written like from the ground up aligned with dises um the code of conduct do we think that seems like a deeper discussion that's a deeper discussion it may also belong in the policies of or an ad hoc committee code of conduct um leads to the question yeah to the question
020of does it belong in the policy okay um condensing these so that they're shared outline in this yeah how do I in new member materials and how do I we can do all of that on our own without having to get the full committee into it important links we can do on our own new member materials already all that stuff we can do on our own guess we might like I'm curious to know if the questions we identify are the real e think like I just want to know how can we identify what the community e are okay Community okay Comm you know what that might even be that might even be a question to ask the community we could in fact just create some questions that we think and then run them by the
021superintendent and she might think of some other ones and then we could just put them out in some way and see if people have have thoughts and opinions on them because I would hate to create things and then have not be what they need I mean everything that we do this is going to be a living document that right that needs to get built in to our goal setting and the gender review process of just this FAQ uh can we can we offer can we source questions directly and this might be where we go back to our examples and see if any of them have right but it also might be really nice to put out like I imagine it would go something like know school committee is creating a new member handbook and handbook
022for the community we have a list if you're get ask questions please sign into this Google survey and let us know if these meet your requirements or if you have additional questions to add and we could like have it open for a period of like maybe the summer or whatever with the idea of because on our timeline we're thinking that we're going to be done with this project or at least in time for the next acemic right in time for the next academic year so we're going to have like a final outline ready in August so if we have these if we leave it open say for you know whole month of July or Jun or July we could have all of these ready to plug in you need using a survey to remain open
023through the summer okay um you I have some notes too from the last time um okay that we should maybe just check because it was based on some of the things that we saw um before I just need this okay oh oh I'm glad we l we need an acronymous breakdown page excellent our like acronyms we also have here's another one um when and how we set goals um budget calendar is part of that and a connection to some sort of academic dashboard which might be sort of like the superintendent um when she did the budget hearing for us the section on how we improved things like that something similar to that along with connections to curriculum items I don't know if that falls under committee things but Framingham had that an academic dashboard in
024their member handbook a dashboard is another one of those tasks like a code of conduct that will require its own Ark right for completion because we have to identify and agree on the metrics we all believe are important for judging the success of our district and then we have to figure out how to measure those metrics and display those right data it's a whole thing I know we might not be there yet but that could be a goal it can absolutely be a goal I I just want to name the things that we're going to be able to have ready for the fall and the things that we're probably not for well maybe that can go on our longterm school committee goal I I would love for for that to be something that we can
025work toward before the end of my fouryear term before the end of your two years I do love the idea of an academic dashboard that's a lot it is a long-term dream plan it's a long-term dream but we need to embrace our long-term dreams yes um um okay here's a low hanging fruit we should have a section on how when board members um visit schools like we should have a section that says that we're going to visit schools once a year to assess maintenance and building just to assess the buildings and the how do we want to word that I'm putting it under calendar calendar school visit annual School visit so we have to say annual a lot it's very important for that particular thing very good okay um oh here's a good one school
026committee Partnerships and I would think that that would be sort of under community links for example strings for kids or musical Franklin or all of the the after school programs that we work with things like that that might be a really good section for the community what was the last thing you just said after music of Franklin oh um The Learning null the YMCA uh I think those are the only two after book that we work with there might be more um streams for kids all those little things those little school Partnerships that's all we have on our list and then we have sections that we like from different um handbooks different districts that we liked like how it was laid out or okay but there are sections that we already have the head yes
027yes it was more like we like how this school lays out their budget calendar we like how that school lays out their acronyms that they weren't additional headers great I feel confident and comfortable then that this group of headers and subheaders is a is a good preliminary list to bring mhm for you know review additional flushing out Etc because it it at least showcases sort of where we're trying to go and I think it's a good thing to ask the committee maybe like how does everybody feel do how into this do other members want to be because some members might just want to trust us to just start writing these things and bring it to them and some might want to be really involved so we should probably have that question how involved do the
028other members want to be because we can go ahead and steam right through and write things and bring them but do you know what I mean and sometimes I've noticed sometimes as a committee we we uh trip ourselves up because we get worried about making sure that everybody input is in there but there are sometimes when it just it's like you just need to trust a subcommittee to go get their stuff done so I'm just wondering what the temperature on that is I think that's a question to ask at the end of the that's that's one will put it in there okay to move forward so that's okay so that's my report and my thoughts for that great you to read it back to you do you feel comfortable would you pleas please read it
029to yeah so so far tonight in our time we've we've discussed connecting the two handbook ideas together to create a school Committee Member and community resource handbook to develop a section for members current and new to compile the current information already online to create a section for community members to get information about how to work with the committee to get a list of outward facing members that are points of contact for families and community members there are several sections that will require some deeper discussion statements of inclusion and emission statement that aligns with our district code of conduct which then leads to a question of does it belong in the policy subcommittee or should we write it as the H of subcommittee a community FAQ and can we Source these questions directly from the community
030using a survey to remain open through the summer and how involved would the other members like to be would it be preferable for the subcommittee to move forward on some of the deeper sections on their own and bring them back for a review great I think that is fairly comprehensive and in that same time I have added uh I've formatted headers onto these headers that we said and added a table of contents I'm not worthy I'm not worthy I'm in I'm in the love of the greatness here um oh see you're so good at this it's really quick it's wonderful how good you are at these days um I think that this will help sort of add a glance are these the right sections are they expecting to see anything else and the details we
031can right details we can work out really for the next meeting all we need to know is are these the right sections knowing full well that we can always add more we can always take some away yeah we can always edit adjust Etc and we can edit adjust and add more and take things away later on too being the living document that it is yes so how do you feel do you want to go deeper do you I I mean we sort of just completed the agenda mostly because past us we're so amazing then I Feel Complete we did what we said we would do this we said we would do I also feel complete wow wow um would you I just want to for the record because the for the recording no other members
032of the public have shown up during the course of this conversation um neither did member martini and so it's 651 it is 651 we feel like we've completed the agenda and we're ready to present our beginning draft to the remainder to the remainder of the committee Comm that mhm this is just headers tables of contents mhm this is outlining the general sections that we might want to have for such a document and getting General consent to proceed in drafting all right so shall we adjourn I believe we should all we're adjourning at 651 6:51 p.m. [Music]