001good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public School school committee meeting for Wednesday March 2024 secretary genive would you please call the role secretary genive I'm here Vice chair Martini here shair Johnson mad here mayor dorer member here member Childs here member ston here we are almost all present and have a quorum all right meeting is called to order at 6:02 pm. and this meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time I don't see anybody great um our first item is to enter into executive session pursuant to mgl chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparations for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel the committee will return to
002open session may have a motion to enter into executive session for that purpose so moved um motion from um member Martini is there a second second and the second from member ston um any discussion all right member uh secretary genive will you please uh call the vote um secretary genive yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes member P yes member seon yes member Charles yes all right uh the motion carries so we will go into executive session and we will return to this meeting um after a brief executive [Music] session [Music] to uh vote to approve the contract for the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning may I have a motion so moved motion for member Martini is there a second second second from Member seon discussion all right I'll just say we
003we're very pleased to be able to offer this contract and let's vote to uh accept it is there um let's see um why don't we do it by Roll Call Secretary den den yes Vice chair Martini yes ston yes Childs yes fre yes mayor toer yes all right passes unanimously and I'm a yes oh I'm so sorry that's okay I'm typing and talking this same time and assistant superintendent patad wanted to say a few words if I could ask Steven Sullivan to join us at the public comment table that would be great like to offer congratulations Steven Sullivan will be the next assistant superintendent of teaching and learning um we're very excited to have you in green field you come to us with many years of experience as an English teacher a principal a superintendent
004and you have a wealth of knowledge and curriculum and um instructional strategies and development so we're so excited to have you as part of our team and we really look forward to having you in Greenfield and working together so congratulations thank you so much I'm looking forward to the opportunity it's been great to work with Karen and Christine to this point and meet members of the interview and search committee um so looking forward to transitioning in in the next couple months and look forward to the work ahead and being part of I think Karen called it the Green Wave [Laughter] Nation wonderful would you say a few words just to introduce yourselves to the community who might be watching from home and just tear a little bit about your story and how you came to
005us sure um so my name is Step Sullivan um I've been in education now for about 20 years I started um as a teacher at Dean Technical High School in Holo um I was there for eight years I did take a year leave of absence I um taught abroad in Madrid Spain for a year and um when I returned from that I started to working on my administrative license um I earned that and was fortunate to get an assistant principal job at hoyo high school I was there for four years in that role transitioned into the principal role uh I was there for three years and um at that point I left hoyo where was hoyo is my alma moer as well I graduated from hoyo high school uh left hoyo to go to Granby
006as the principal uh of the Junior Senior High School I was in that role for three four years sorry um and our superintendent left in March well I think it was April of 2020 there was a lot happening at that time and um I I pursued the superintendency I've been in that role for the past three years um and I see this as an opportunity to get into a bigger district with uh focus on teaching and learning um and look forward to the opportunity to continue to grow and learn um about Greenfield and all the great work that's happening here and um like I said I'm just looking forward to the transition over the next few months and happy to answer questions if people have them thank you so much do members have questions well
007I'll just say we're very very happy that you you're joining us and um very excited about the opportunity to start working for you and we're all very very dedicated to our student outcomes and so I hope you know that we we've got your back and we're here for you for um what let us know what you need to do your job and make the you know and improve the student outcomes for Greenfield students and we everything we've heard has been so wonderful so we really look forward to working with you I appreciate that and share the sentiment all right thank you thank you have a good night and look forward to working with all of you and continuing to to get to know you superintendent did you want to should were you going to say
008something or no oh okay all right you're good Stephen thank you excellent all right um we'll move on to our report from the student representatives to the committee all right so as per usual we'll start with student council um last week we had 13 student Representatives attend the annual state leadership conference in hyanis um in total we raised $1,513 for the special Olympics of Massachusetts for the Polar Plunge fundraiser um as a council for our theme we dressed up as Care Bears um and jumped into the ocean alongside 900 other students from across the state um while attending the conference students heard from two keynote speakers attended four student L workshops and a banquet dinner seven of our students led a workshop um once again we retain the status of gold Council of Excellence by
009submitting our book of Excellence document documenting the activities and events we have held throughout the past year a special shout out to Quinn Mass who served over the past year on the State student board we also want to congratulate Carly Blanchard for receiving the unsung hero award for ghs in all of Western Massachusetts Key Club just received a generous donation of clothing for the secret layer keeping us busy organizing our food pantry is available to any student who would like to take non-p perishables in February we made Valentine for the entire school to share created and sent Valentines to St Jude's children hospital patients as well as helped to serve dinner at the Elks Club St Jude's fundraiser they helped the Greenfield Kanas serve a community meal on Tuesday March 12th winter sports have wrapped
010up um congratulations to Amber berson for scoring 1,000 points she'll be heading to F Framingham State University next year um the girls basketball team ended their season uh 10 to 11 and boys basketball ended 15 to7 League champions ice hockey ended 11 to 8 to1 also League champions girls track 6 to7 and boys track 8 to7 League champions so we want to congratulations to all teams throughout the winter sports season uh spring Sports start March 18th so get out and watch a game um you can find the schedules on arbiterlive.com um last Friday March 8th uh ghs held the second annual College and Career Fair uh the event was attended by all grades 10 11 and 12 and there were over 25 employees uh employers colleges and trade schools on display the event enables students
011to bring resumés and share their interests with potential Employers in colleges thank you Mr bostom for hosting it um right now French and Spanish club are hosting the 28th Annual Taste of world cultures from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. um the event is free and open to the public and will feature music and dance performances and an international Feast donated by local restaurants French Club also looks forward to their trip that's coming up in France next month ghs is drama club play uh myth Adventures will be performed on March 22nd at 7 p.m. and March 23rd at 2 p.m. and 700 p.m. in the auditorium a five act play that covers some of mythology's greatest Stories the drama club after a 4-year Hiatus is full of talented performers who are working hard to present wonderful performances
012please come to the see this play the library hosted the annual Galileo trial with the advanced European history classes on February 29th they had 38 family members serve as the jury and the students did a wonderful job Jarett krasa bestselling author and illustrator will be visiting ghs on April 2nd he will give a presentation to the entire school on his 2018 National book award finalist graphic Memoir hey kiddo how I lost my mother found my father and dealt with family addiction some students will also be invited to a small reception after the assembly where they will receive a copy of one of the author's books and have it signed um krosa will also speak at Green field public library in the evening and we encourage families to attend if they are interested the program is
013gener generously funded by the friends of the Greenfield Public Library the opioid task force Massachusetts library Board of Library Commissioners and The Institute of Museum and and Library Services Library Club wrapped up the book to movie series for this year in February they showed It's Kind of a Funny Story and on March 1st they showed are you there God it's me Margaret both of which had a nice mix of ghs students and a community members and attendance they also had a lot of fun on game day and are looking forward to making creations at an upcoming meeting and last but not least our school's trivia club team um attended a show or a competition called as school's match wits and our episode will be filmed uh or was filmed in January and will be airing
014March 16th at 700 p.m. on NE PM it was an exciting game and the second year of gs's participation after not having a team for a number of years so we hope everybody watches to support um that concludes the report but if you have any questions we'd be more than happy to answer any questions for our student Representatives please Stacy member ston thanks uh first I just want to say that we are all so incredibly proud of you all not just the two of you but all of the students that you're representing uh through your report uh I did want to I just was wondering what was the nature what what was the workshop that's you mentioned that seven students did a workshop what was that about um so I one of them I can't
015speak to because I wasn't there and I didn't get a chance to attend as a ghs student um the other one I did help run um and so as a whole the State student council is called masc and we have a theme every year um this year was mcar so it was a little plan words but this uh Workshop that we ran was called assembling your pit crew so it was about finding people at the conference who you could work well with finding a good group of collaborative leaders and it was really about um solving manyi challenges like we had them um use like strings and rubber bands to make cup towers and all sorts of like little bonding um tasks to bring people together and develop communication strategies and develop their General leadership skills
016awesome thank you um just one more thing and this is uh like nothing too serious but I don't understand what a creation is and I do want to caution you that in certain C schol that word is actually a slur an ablest one so just be mindful in forward moving forward with your language and maybe pick a better word that tells us what exactly that actually is um could you highlight in what section that is just so under Library Club it's in the very last line gotcha I I appreciate that um yeah I did not know that and I didn't know that was included so I will definitely um keep that in mind in the future thank you yeah absolutely thank you other questions or comments for our student reps yes mayor dorer I probably
017should know this but what is um the schools match wits um what like I I just don't know anything about that yeah that's okay um so as school's match wits is a um trivia competition throughout um largely Western Massachusetts um high schools that choose to participate have teams of for students that go and play against each other um it's in it's hosted at Westfield State University so you go with your group you participate and then the top I believe it's eight scoring teams move on to the next rounds in advance um and it's televised down any PM it's so that's where we could find it if we want yeah um it's similar to like a Jeopardy structure and um yeah it's online if you miss the Airing you can always find it there okay thank
018you any other questions thank you very much I um inadvertently skipped over the public comment section is there anyone here um in person who has public comment I don't see any but there is someone online let me see um I see someone online are you interested in making public comment if so come off mute okay um I guess we have no public comment tonight and now we'll move on to reports of the administration and um the superintendent has the business manager's report as well as her own there you go I was just gonna steal Mrs Pat notes so um thank you I have a brief budget update at this point we have had meetings with the special education department to review tuition and contracted service expenses and in the upcoming months we will be doing
019budget transfers to address needs and we will close out um any purchase orders that no longer required some of the transfers because I'm sure those are coming that questions coming some of the transfers are from potentially staff lines into contracted services for psychological evaluations um that's one of the primary things that would um be relevant there we um Karen and I and Andy have also um been looking at the needs from the technology standpoint we've met with John gamaldi the tech director um to review the technology purchases that's primarily coming out of the last of the eer Grant I believe I've mentioned that previously so we'll be processing those um in the upcoming weeks the revolving accounts will have expenses charged at year end I and preschool tuition we still have close to 50% of
020revenues to be collected so we expect the deficit showing on that line to be addressed when we get those um revenues and then in Grants the special ed Grant was approved thankfully so those funds will begin to be released and the offsets addressed so we are at typical operations at this time of the year we're beginning to look at the open purchase orders we'll be following up with vendors whose invoices are slow to come we'll be estimating expenses in some of our yearlong purchase orders many times we do what's called um having an open po so things like our buildings and grounds if we will have purchases throughout the year for example with one of our local hardware stores that our maintenance folks might need we allocate a certain amount of money and we have
021an open purchase order and then any charges related to that are charged against that open po so we start to look at how much is remaining and the time left in the school year and start to um talk about releasing funds back into the available budget so the committee who's been on may remember at this point of the year the budget the account start start to fluctuate quite a bit it'll be negative and positive and negative and so that is all normal operations so please expect that as we go into the next couple of months and you want me to re explain the open po or you're good um no but okay so when we have an expense that we know will be across the year I'll use um special education tuitions that's the easiest
022um example I think we don't just charge we the school department works on um incumbrances so any expense even if it's 50 cents we require a requisition and then once the requisition is approved by all the layers of approval um we then generate a purchase order that encumbers funds so it takes it out of the available balance and sort of puts it in a to be used column you'll see that on your budget reports it's incumbrances so you can see of those lines what we're expecting to utilize out of those funds tuitions this is a a great example let's say for example we know a student's tuition for the year will be 50,000 I'm making up numbers we encumber the whole amount because we know we expect to spend that each month when the bud
023when the bill comes in we just reduce that it's like taking it out of of a savings account that we have put aside for that one expense if at some point that student were to move and we don't need that money held anymore we we would have to release it back to the available balance so the same holds for any other expense that we know we know across the course of the Year our maintenance folks will need a variety of small tools and nuts and bolts and other things that I don't know what to do with um so we do a purchase order for Home Depot or aishan Hardware or or Lowe's or whatever vendor we will use say for $100 they can go give us the bill we charge it against that money that
024we know was set aside for that expense at this time of year we start to look at did we overestimate how much we might use did we underestimate how much how much we might use and we look at how much of the year is left and then we make adjustments to what's encumbered and if we thought if we put a $1100 aside for hardware and we've only spent 20 to this point I would say to Mr budro you're holding too much money available for Nuts and Bolts Etc so let's reduce that PO and that money goes back into the column that shows remaining balance or available funds is that any better yes but I'm going to just Bel labor this for a minute because I'm getting to the end where I am and I had
025another question so we have a different procedure than you do and I just didn't have the time to pick up to call you pick about to call you but so when our budget ends at the end of the year we close it out with this the the state and then it anything that's left can't be moved to the next year we don't move things to the next year we just put it back into the available budget the local or the grant that it's coming from so we don't move between years we take money out of this budget so if there were $500,000 budgeted for special ed tuitions and we know the five places where students are going we say we know we're going to spend 50,000 for this one so we do a purchase order
02650,000 for this one we do a purchase order and so on and so on so we know how much of the money budgeted we have sort of spoken for if something changes and that money is is no longer spoken for it just goes back into the available budget for the current year okay I feel like I should take that offline with you so everyone else absolutely happy to give even specific examples that might help I don't want to take everybody I have a soup analogy if it's helpful but if you were like having some friends over for soup for for the night and that you knew someone was coming you wanted to set that a bowl of soup aside for that so you you so not everyone can eat that soup it's set aside that's
027like if you were to encumber it but then if you found out your friend wasn't coming after all you put the soup back in the pot so you can share it with whoever but it still has to be eaten by the end of the night but someone else can have the soup that was a really good analogy in my opinion that was a really good analogy well I don't know from the mayor's expression I'm not so sure but that was no no I feel like I take that offline because I'd be taking everyone else's time for that but it is a very different path that you have than what we do and and so I'm just wrapping my brain around that and I will not a problem you let me know but it is different
028than the city's process thank thank you I'll I'll be giving you a jingle okay so normal operations at this time of the year and I just want to reiterate you will see funds moving up and down in different budget lines don't be alarmed it is normal expected procedure at this stage okay any other questions about the business manager update all right Karen love to hear from you thank you uh first our update on professional development the administrative team spent um most of yesterday with members from the Des ssos team along with the teaching lab and we were given professional development on our next instructional strategy which is scaffolding and checking for understanding the administrative team uh principles in their buildings will deliver the professional development in two sessions to their staff March 27th and April
02910th next Friday uh we do have a half day and for the high school they have a half day of professional development they'll be engaging again with the teaching lab and our Math teachers will continue their ongoing professional development with illustrative math some curriculum updates um just really want to thank the high school history department for uh really taking on and expanding students opportunities to engage in Civic experiences this year um Rebecca Zimmerman our eighth grade history teacher has organized a field trip for eighth graders they'll be going to Old sturb Village on April 10th and they're going to attend the recreation of an 1830s town meeting and the kids will really get to engage in a town meeting from theast so they're looking forward to that uh Luke Martin in the fall uh organized
030a trip for US1 and aush students to Boston they went to Lexington and Concord they walked parts of the battle Road they took a tour of a Battleground at Northbridge they went to the Freedom Trail Old North Church Paul Rivier house faniel Hall and the old state house and I always love to include pictures for you all to just see uh the joy and excitement that our kids get from leaving campus and really experiencing life outside of Greenfield so I included a few photos from their Excursion last fall curriculum mapping um Ela um teachers at grades K and four are going to begin reviewing the draft Curriculum maps that we have uh completed thus far and they're going to tackle that they started today at a faculty meeting and are going to be working on
031that through collaboration I really want to thank um the curriculum mapping folks Margaret Rancourt heatherbell Missy art Brian Tucker um they've been really working hard on that so they've done a lot of good work and Matt cek has been working hard on the music Curriculum maps we also started a science curriculum group and we had our first meeting last week because we are going to begin the process of vetting highquality instructional materials for grades six through 8 as well as biology and physics so that was our opening session and we have a professional development meeting with opsed which are the free science resources from desie uh in two weeks so that's exciting um per the policy you need a yearly homeschool update so I wanted to provide you with some homeschool information we currently have
032116 active homeschool files um we had 147 this time last year so those have decreased um there are some that are inactive and incomplete and uh Miss Tower my admin assistant Works weekly on just trying to connect with families to see if they actually still live in Green Field or if their students have transferred and um we try to keep following up on that so that we know where these kids are four of those families re-enrolled in Greenfield Public Schools one in grade two one in grade six and two in grade8 and then you'll see five students actually aged out and 19 we have confirmation that they relocated to either a surrounding School area or another state and then last but not least um my February uh break our interventionist in title one always try
033to provide activities that engage students in reading and math challenges and they do lots of prizes and giveaways when they come back after the week of vacation when they've completed those challenges and the title one interventionists love to share their happy winners when they give away books and math games um so I included some photos from the Middle School Federal Street and Newton for you to just see all of the happy children winning their prizes because they did a lot of hard work over February break and that's it thank you uh superintendent and then we can get questions for both of you okay just a few updates I'm very pleased to share that Sarah Crawford has returned to Greenfield as an assistant director of pupil Services she was here with us prior and has returned
034already um a few hours a week as she transitions out of her current position in another district and she'll join us full-time after the April Break um I'm also pleased to welcome our new assistant superintendent but Karen appropriately shared her remarks and um I want to share just with the committee that staff turnover is a very typical expected part of operations in a school um compounded with the fact that there are Staffing challenges in all types of industry and employment at this point this time of year is not surprising to see turnover and it will continue all the way through the start of the next school year so I just want to encourage the committee to not get too um discouraged or to read anything other than it is normal for people to leave one
035employer and to join another and for staff who leaves us you know many positions we are filling with someone who we have gained from another District so um I just want to I guess reind everybody that it is normal operations for staff turnover um the other part of our normal operating procedure is that very shortly around the April break we will be posting for all the positions that are open such as perfect example our school psychologist positions have been open for several years we will post those we will post any position that has been filled by a substitute for the bulk of this year and then the other place that we do need to post as anticipated openings are any positions that are held by a staff person whose license is scheduled to expire prior
036to the start of next school year most of those positions will be maintained by the current employees in them I don't want that to be alarming to people and think we're losing you know 30 people um but I do need to go through the same process we've gone through for the past couple of years so please do not be alarmed should you see a number of postings um we we will be fine with our staffing as much as we're fine with our staffing at any other time so um I'll provide updates to this committee as we go in the next few months with regard to the Staffing piece we do however continue to need instructional assistance across all levels so if you know anybody who's interested in being an instructional assistant as well as substitute
037teachers and substitute IAS we would love for anyone interested to check out School spring check out the link on our our website for employment or contact my office and we'd be very happy to talk with you about um available spaces so the next thing kindergarten registration is happening we have done um building specific registration evenings at each of our three elementary schools our current registration numbers are higher than they were at this point last year so we don't know if that's going to mean a higher than anticipated enrollment or if we are just getting folks who want to enroll their students earlier but if you know anyone who will be five by September 1st please encourage them to call us early there is a screening date in April and we would love for all of
038our kindergarten students to be registered by then so they can get screened I will not rehash the college in career fair other than to thank Mr Bostrom again and also to mention that he shared that Tammy silk the administrative assistant the guidance Department was very helpful in coordinating all of the college fair so thank you to them both the Greenfield Middle School students participated in a penny wars fundraiser in collaboration with the PTO they raised $3,138 $62 cents which I thought was rather impressive and they donated it to um Shriner's Hospital Franklin County Sheriff's Sheriff's Office Regional dog shelter and Community Action and I had a typo I put communication I'll fix that repost my report um so we greatly appreciate the time and effort of everyone who contributed including Anna Marfa and Caitlyn Wilkins
039of our Middle School staff the budget at this point I have submitted the oneline budget request from the school committee to the mayor's office in an official memo and now we just wait for the next steps from the mayor's office and city council mobile dentists that's been in these um par updates weekly for a while and going out from buildings has unfortunately needed to be cancelled because of staffing issues at the dental practice that deals with that so if I get any updates I will share them the eclipse you may or may not have heard we're going to have an eclipse it's quite the topic it's on April 8th and unfortunately despite our greatest hopes that we could change the time of the eclipse it will be our dismissal will be during the eclipse so
040we have ordered eclipse glasses for all staff and students and sharing that because you may or may not know it is definitely contraindicated to look directly at an eclipse without the appropriate glasses so we will be sharing information I will share it with families through my updates it will be on the website we will have it sent out from the school news letters and we will do some education with our students in the days just prior and they will all be given eclipse glasses prior to departure on April 8th so that they can wear them for dismissal and hopefully wear them for dismissal so we would certainly ask parents to encourage the kids to participate in that um that's it thank you on the eclipse questions for the superintendent or the assistant superintendent not seeing
041any oh you do great I I know what it was I had a question for um uh assistant superintendent um on the The Homeschool updates um what is I just don't know this do we like watch over how they're progressing kids that are being schooled at home and I probably should know that but I don't they have to submit a year-end report at the end of the year and then we review that before their next year's H School application is approved thank you I just didn't know how that worked other questions Brady um regarding kindergarten registration there will be some Outreach to the um homeless families at the yeah I have a we have been um as a matter of fact I was in communication with them this morning um I participate in a weekly
042meeting with service net other community providers um our legislators regarding any change any programs or supports available and that has been something we're coordinating with them sending us they are um Gathering a list of students who will be kindergarten appropriate um age appropriate and then we will send staff to the days in to facilitate what we hope will be an organized kindergarten registration but yes we've been thank you you're welcome other questions seeing none thank you very much for your reports let's bring it back to my agenda here all right we are moving on to the consent agenda I believe see okay um we'll make a motion for the full consent agenda any member can take out an item one item I will take out is the approval of minutes for January 22nd as though
043you those were not included in your packet so but we'll start first with a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved a motion for member Martini a second second second from Member Den um is there any item that anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda besides those minutes okay uh any discussion on the consent agenda okay um all in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented with the exception of the January 22nd minutes say I I I I motion carries unanimously we'll move on to school committee reports I do not have a report um budget and finance do you have a report no okay um as chair of the policy and program subcommittee um I'll say that um so oh me yes did we oh um those were all
044included in the consent agenda I believe yeah um great so um yes so uh just a little overview um uh many members of this staff and the administration and um member PRI worked hard on uh developing a a wellness program uh program is separate from policy work it's basically uh the way this the superintendent and the administration decide to um implement the policies of the um committee and in alignment with laws and other best practices um so um you know normally when we have a policy we have a first and second reading um this is not a policy see this is essentially a a vote of to endorse the the program um as the superintendent has presented it to us um and so it's basically our way of saying uh we we really support the
045the work that you're doing and we see the thought and time that you and others put into creating this and um we've got your back so uh that's essentially what so may I have a motion to endorse the wellness program as presented so moved is there a second second all right a motion by member Charles and a second by member Martini uh superintendent anything you want to say no other than thank you and I will attach a link in the upcoming parent update so that the community can read the wellness program as a whole and then we'll um we will implement but but thank you any other questions uh or comments from the committee about the wellness program all right let's uh have a vote um all in favor of endorsing the wellness program I
046I I motion carries unanimously thank you you're welcome um there wasn't a meeting of the executive subcommittee um redistricting and reorganizing I'm glad we saved time on the others cuz this one might take a few minutes um we do have an update so we did meet the last time we met was February 21st um and just as a reminder for the community there are sort of two main matters right now under the consideration of the this uh subcommittee one of them is to do with Green River School which we have heard from some community members about which is great continue to send us your thoughts um and then the second is really to implement or continue to carry out and work through the sort of follow-on decisions that need to get made as a result
047of the vote that that occurred related to redistricting um so I'm going to give updates on both of those items first on the The Green River School Dr DeBarge is diligently working through all of the administrative hurdles that it takes to do anything with a school building and so we're sort of actively working to even get ourselves to the point of a process process where we can have a conversation about what we're going to do so we're getting ourselves set um but to the best of my knowledge there's like one more thing like you're like we're getting really close to being able to have a good Community oriented discussion about what to do with that building and understanding what that means um for for the town the second related to carrying out the vote we
048had um a discussion related to whether or not uh and this is um so you might remember um under redistricting there were also sort of two key issues that played there one was related to school choice which we handled that decision is done the other which still sort of remains on our plate is about redrawing the actual District boundaries and sort of shuffling students across the schools um and so the sort of decision that we were coming to and were asked to make a recommendation to the full committee about um was allowing students to age out of the school that they are in um when the when the lines are redrawn and I will just say this right now it was a um a unanimous yes recommendation to the full committee for a motion to
049to do this to allow the age out um mostly because it mirrors the way that we the the way that we set up the policy for school choice allowing students to currently age out of the the school that they are in um there is another um matter related to that uh about transportation for those students and we were actively awaiting information from our transportation people which we have gotten and we will discuss in a Tob scheduled uh next subcommittee meeting but that's sort of where we're at with that I would say the the main item uh for consideration tonight for the main body um is that we have made a motion in the subcommittee to recommend to the full committee to allow students to age out of their school of origin after redrawing the lines
050and that was unanimous so now I think we need to have a vote here in the full committee um assum you know barring discussion about that okay thank you for that um I am coordinating something with our our Council about our executive session item that's happening later and I need to get on the phone with him so I think we need to call a brief recess before we can take that up um um I don't know do we need a motion to have a recess or can can we just call a five minute recess yes mayor D I believe you can recall it and if if no one objects it's okay that's what we do five minute recess [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] he [Music] a [Music]
051okay we are back from our recess thank you very much um member ston sorry about that if you wouldn't mind um bringing us back to where we were yeah no worries um where we were was we at the subcommittee level had unanimously made a motion to recommend that the full committee make a motion to allow students to age out of their current School regardless of the school that they would go to when the lines when the district boundaries are redrawn okay thank you for that um and um let's see superintendent did you were you aware of that that motion at all or okay I'm sorry if I look surprised absolutely we were we were in agreement with um I was in agreement that that is in fact what came out of the redistricting meeting yes
052great okay I'm sorry if I looked surprised no no no that's okay I'm just checking um so um so why don't we have a motion and then we can discuss so um can you state the motion for us yes uh I would motion that we allow students to age out of the school that they are currently in regardless of the school that they would be assigned after the redrawing of B School boundaries within the district thank you is there a second seconded okay so the motion is from Member seon the second is from Member child's and Susan were you able to get that can you read me what you've got when School boundary lines are redrawn maybe we should be specific with this in in Fall 2024 five 25 right yes and actually would it
053be okay if we said the school they are in at the time yes is that okay yeah okay such uh sorry yeah okay so let's that they are in at no at the at yes that they will be in at the time that District boundaries are redrawn I think we did it and thank you for bearing with us uh Susan I really appreciate it um all right so we have the motion in the second um I guess superintendent can you talk about what the implications of that motion would be for us the um the students who are in the schools where they they're already in the schools so they're remaining in those schools we don't anticipate would have any impact on class sizes because that's who's being factored into that's who's in the schools currently
054um the piece that would be um that would need to be addressed by families is no different for students in that situation than are in the intradistrict situation where incoming students would be enrolled in the student applicable to their boundary location so for example if a third grade student is in Federal Street and when the lines are redrawn their address would then go to Newton I don't know this is just an example um they could choose their family could choose for that third grader to stay in age out of Federal Street but if there is a younger sibling that younger sibling would need to enroll in Newton so families could have students in two different schools but that is no different than the situation with students who are um at schools through intradistrict Choice their
055siblings who may be looking to enroll in kindergarten currently are not allowed or not able to enroll in a school other than the one that they would enroll into because of their address so we already have families who may be split so this is a consistent consequence of that decision um it would address the concerns that families certainly could have about changes needing to take effect it could impact students who have only been in a building for one year and then having to change so quickly or students who've been in a school for multiple four or five years and then having to change with just that one year left so this does in fact give families some Choice um certainly if a family has older siblings in one school and the younger sibling is needing
056to enroll in a different School the older students could certainly be brought over to the school where younger sibling is now enrolling so that there is flexibility but um that I think that was just a decision that the school committee needs to make in terms of do you sort of have the same structures in place for intradistrict and for those who would be moving because of geographic changes in the district the piece that we need to still follow up on is the um busing the one piece that um the bus company did say is that and I'm GNA look at Karen they could do this yes yes I know I'm checking I'm checking um working we have to double check before we say thanks um because mcus did indicate that we could continue to bus
057students even if they have even if they are remaining in their school that of origin I will say rather than electing to move into the school that is their new school by redrawn lines um so that was an option discussed at the subcommittee because um they were those students get busted and we the district would be making a choice that required a change so therefore um this discussion was would that be something the committee would want to do in continuing to offer Transportation until they aged out unless they were within the walking range and then certainly they would continue to be within walking you know if they were still if they were a walker they may still be a walker depending on the address that wasn't very articulate but I can answer questions questions for
058the superintendent about implications yes mayor dor I just have a comment I I I think that sounds I think this sounds very wise because you're actually giving some leeway to to the families um you know and then they'd have the opportunity if they had a little one coming up whoops and it was redrawn that the parent could make a choice one way or another and we're still accomplishing what it sounds like we're still accomplishing what the community wanted um and the it's all going to happen happen in we're redrawing them for fiscal year for the school year that next school year no the year after but what were we telling when are we telling people when do we when will people know that there's going to be a line change you know like how far
059ahead of time would the people know because they What specifically the line change is you mean what I at some point I would think fairly early in the next academic year so they would have pretty close to a year to be aware of that there are proposed changes already that were done as part of the redistricting process and those are on the website they have been there in the same section toward the bottom of the website with all of the other redistricting information I can't guarantee that's exactly what will end up happening but that was a a draft of what streets might change schools um at some point in the process well I think it was a thoughtful approach that's that was my comment thank you other comments or questions yes member Childs uh just
060a quick comment supporting the motion I think it is so important that we have a set of rules that applies equally to everyone and so we need to make sure that even the kids who are not in TR District choicing but are being moved have that same option to stay where they are the committee voted uh last fall winter that it was important not to disrupt kids without the family's input to allow them to finish where they had started and with that vote really to be consistent have to give that same option to the other kids who are being moved without their families say so thank you other comments or questions M deneve just want to Echo what member child said considering that we made the vote choice that we did in the winter time
061and the fact that we are trying to pursue Equity across the district this is a really reasonable Choice thank you other comments or questions all right let's have a vote all those in favor say [Music] I uh all those against and I'll abstain so it passes with five votes thank you very much for your for your work uh handbook committee yes hold on second I'm just writing down what we just did the handbook subcommittee will be meeting on March 25th 5th at 6: p.m. and I believe it will be at the middle school library but that's not definite yet but when that happens the public will know and they can come and make public comment but it will be in person great thank you very much um let's see do we have anything no okay
062great um uh Amy can you give us report from the collaborative sure there's a summary report from FY or uh I guess calendar year 23 that's included in tonight's materials of all the collaborative um initiatives um it's gives a good overview of of what they're doing and I think our next meeting is in at the end of the month in a couple weeks that's it thank [Music] you an you're uh City Planning so we did not have a regular meeting with discussion deliberation what we had was a tour of the new fire station before everything is moved in it was a lot of fun and our elementary kids are going to Love Field Trips there it it's nice we're definitely getting something special uh the next meeting uh I believe will be at the regular
063second Tuesday of the month 4:00 on zoom and that'll be posted on the city web page thank you um secretary genive our legislative representative okay um so we have two things upcoming we have the um dat on the hill which is happening in Boston Beacon Hill at the State House on May 6th I originally said May 4th because they hadn't actually set the date yet and that was what it was last year but a few weeks ago they officially set the date and it is May 6th so I'm still not sure um if we'll be going with any of our local committees together but that's something that's in the works and um on March 27th at 6:30 p.m. in the library we will be having the um the uh legislative day preparation event which is
064being hosted by us and um I originally thought that I would need to work very hard to invite all of the local school committees but they are really on top of it and masc has created an invitation RSVP link and have sent it out to everybody in our division 5 group um which sort of leads into the division five thing next uh the chair of the division five is Humera fasah hudin and she sent a transcript of the March 1st joint committee on ways and me means hearing on fy2 local education Aid if anybody would like to listen to that transcript I'm not sure if I got emailed to everyone but I can forward it to you it's just a chance to listen to it and get an idea of what bills are coming up
065what kind of Aid we can start asking for and to uh prepare for some of the resolutions that we will bring here after the day on the hill thank you you're welcome all right and uh is the district Wellness committee continuing to meet or are you all yep we meet quarterly we just met on Monday um it is it's a group that's comprised of um folks from uh there's a furog representative there's a school committee representative there's I think two or three parent Representatives um couple of teachers the athletic director um and we do have someone from desie that joins us at most meetings and um at this point we are um looking at you know the top level uh pieces of the program um uh athletic director keski brought up Mike keski brought up
066um wanting to look at initiatives we could do within the middle and high schools around vaping and so we did some discussion around that um and that's kind of how it works is is we look at at what is in the program and how we can um generate uh priorities around the work um that then gets taken back to the nurse leader which is Melissa benari um and hopefully the operationally things will begin to happen that are uh from that plan um and like I said we meet quarterly so the next meeting is in three months thank you all right um so our next item will be to go into another executive session the superintendent and assistant superintendent are going to say farewell now thank you so much for everything um I just want to
067say we'll do the motion now but um we do need Town Council with us tonight and they will be here uh around 7:40 7:45 so we will have an extended recess after the vote to go into executive session yes member ston can I do something totally unrelated for two seconds real quick unrelated if it's not on the agenda I don't think so okay never mind but we can have a offline discussion um so um let's see so I'll I'll read the uh executive session um motion um vote to enter into executive session pursuant to mgl chapter 30A section 21 A1 to discuss the reputation character physical condition or mental health rather than professional competence of an individual or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of or complaints or charges brought against a public officer employee
068staff member or individual the individual to be discussed in such executive session has been notified in writing by the public body at least 48 hours prior to the proposed executive session provided however that notification may be waved upon written agreement of the parties on I don't have that so we will be in executive session to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal grant and aid requirements approval of executive session minutes from January 10th 2024 meeting the committee will not return to open session we have a motion to enter into that executive session moved is there a second second member Den will you call the roll call Y oh hold on I'm sorry was that member child was that okay yep sorry okay Den I'm a yes Vice
069chair Martini is no longer present chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes um member PR yes member ston yes and member child's yes all right the motion carries do we adjourn that open session okay um may have motion to adjourn the Open session so moved is there a second second okay um we do U all those in favor I I uh so that passes unanimously so the Open session is resumed and we'll do our executive session at 7:40 or 7:45 or so