001[Music] good evening and welcome to the February 14th 2024 Greenfield Public School school committee meeting secretary Jive will you call the role yes um secretary denim I'm here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer member pretti here member ston here member Childs we have a quorum we have a quorum and anches has just arrived we are um starting the meeting at 6:01 p.m the meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons are present are also recording you must notify the chairperson of at this time I don't see anybody and we're on to the greenspoon award winner visit we are very pleased to announce that Jessica carau who is a teacher at Greenfield Middle School has been for 14 14 years um Karen and I and Michelle Fenimore were able to
002surprise her the other day in her classroom and um share with her that she was chosen for a Greenfield's award this year and Miss patod has begged to be able to read a paragraph of the nominating um entry I don't know how else to say that but the nominating narrative and I think that um all of you will enjoy it so um congratulations Jess I've worked with you for many years and I'm so happy and so proud of all the work that you do for Greenfield Public Schools um if many of you don't know the grinspoon award uh you are nominated by your fellow colleagues and they submit in writing why they think a teacher is deserving of the award and I just have to at least share the first paragraph um Miss win who
003is a team teacher of Miss Caro's nominated her and and she started her nomination with the following Paris has the Eiffel Tower New York has the Empire State Building at Greenfield Middle School we have Jessica CaRu Jess would crack up laughing at this comparison and you probably are too but hear me out every place needs that emblem of strength stability and inspiration where you can look and say that's where we want to be Jessica is that emblem to me and so many others in the district so I just thought that was very appropriate for what you stand for and how many people value uh what you do in that building but also districtwide so congratulations I think she deserves a acknowledgement and I would like to share that Karen and I and Michelle and Jessica's
004family um will be able to be with her when she is um recognized at the log cabin in April with all of the other area grinspoon winners and she gets some prizes uh along with that and we are putting out a press release so that everyone um in the area will be able to see that Jessica is our winner so we're super happy and proud to work with her so thank you do you want to say anything um sure do I have to push this spot you do yes a couple times if you want us to hear you yes I I guess I mean I just uh when I was hired in Greenfield many many years ago um I'm not I'm from the area but I'm not super close to Greenfield um and it's where
005I met my husband um it's where I've had my two kids since I've um you know worked here so I really feel like I've evolved a lot as a person but also as a teacher and so I'm just super thankful that you know even though I I don't live super close this is like my my little home away from home and my my other community that I really love and cherish so thank you again I really appreciate it thank you excellent um congratulations and thanks so much for all you do for the schools um so we're on to public comment the normal process is is that members uh sign up uh with Susan Farber who unfortunately is not with us tonight so we're going to be a little bit more on informal and I would
006just ask anyone who would like to speak uh for public com comment to raise your hand and I'll call you up please step forward to the table and say your name and where you live the town you live uh know you to push it until it turns green yeah there you go okay hi everybody uh my name is Kate br I live at 94 Meridian Street in Greenfield and I've been here since 2017 um I'm here primarily uh because I've got the buzz about the fact that the Green River School May well be decommissioned as a school and I'm excited I'm really excited about the possibilities because all the years that I the many years that I've lived here and walked by the school um and just the go most that's there you know um
007and I have talked to people who went to school there or they sent their children there and it just seems such a shame that such a lovely property would just be sitting there so I am very excited about the possibilities of it being decommissioned because of the many other ways that it could be put to use in our community for the greater good and to still remain a neighborhood um icon um my main questions right now um I'm totally curious about how this process is going to work um how um the decommissioning process works how long it takes um will this property go into um private ownership will it remain a town or city property and the most important thing for me is how will the decision making process take place um between between Petty
008plane top to bottom and Meridian Street top to bottom uh there are about 475 residents and there's a lot of of core in this neck of the woods and uh even though a lot of people don't know each other by name there's a lot of high neighbor head nodding and stuff like that and so we all kind of consider this little building to be sort of the Stonehenge of Meridian Street area and um I think I can always speak for myself but I do believe that most of those of us in this part of town at the crossroads of petty plane and Meridian really hope that we can be at the table have a place at the table during the visioning process and the implementation process of whatever it is so that's all I have
009to say but uh I'm looking forward to what more comes down the pike and thank you for your listen thank you anyone else wish thank you my name is Susan WTIC I live on Forest Avenue in Greenfield uh and I'm here representing housing Greenfield and I would just like to support Kate's comments um we very much are looking forward to a full discussion about what um can go into that space and how um how the decommissioning process happens and we're very willing to assist in any way we can um so we you know we don't understand the process and we'd like to learn more but however that process works if uh there is community that I just want you to know there's a large amount of community interest in seeing uh whatever is developed there
010to be really positive for the neighborhood thank you thank you any other public comment please hey Su SLA 88 Deerfield Street um my comments are going to be in the same vein they're about the Green River School and about learning more about the process what's going to happen um during the possible decommissioning of the school I would like to be um more direct and say that I'm hoping it can become affordable housing housing is obviously a pretty desperate need in the city um and specifically if that is the case it's my understanding and again I'm speaking a little bit out of ignorance here but um I was told that there might be some loan amount or debt um associated with the school um and so through the state and if there is a possibility to
011have a conversation about loan forgiveness on that with State officials that if we're advocating for it to become housing the state right now is very interested in housing as a topic that's before the legis legislature is a major bill so roping our local legislators into discussions about loan forgiveness to potentially turn the property into housing that's positive for the neighborhood I think would be good and uh we would really um as people in the area like to know more about the process and be given the opportunity to be involved and advocate for a good outcome thank you any other public comment I'll just say for folks watching at home and others um the we're we're piloting tonight uh uh on the agenda there is a zoom link for people to participate in um public comment
012remotely so in the U I don't see anyone here on the zoom tonight but um for those watching at home for future reference will'll continue to do that so we would welcome your comments virtually as well as in person and our next item is report of student representatives to the committee um it's rather short tonight um this was a little last minute on my behalf but I guess that means it's a little more concise um so we're going to start with student Council as always we are gearing up for our annual trip to hyanis which occurs um in the beginning of March over over vacation we're going to have a trivia fundraiser to help offset that cost and if you're interested in attending you must be 21 or over um the cost is $10 per
013person and it is at the Moose Lodge in Greenfield on Saturday February 24th doors open at 600 and questions start at 6:30 you can RSVP with Miss mass at an Mass 1 at gpsk12.org uh teams are up to 10 people you can bring your own snacks and we thank everybody for supporting the trip by showing up um after attending a Bachi event out in Middleboro I believe several of our members wanted to continue our partnership with our special education students and have started a best buddies program at the school um they're currently meeting with them once a week for Just Dance and are extending our programming to crocheting and potentially cooking with the students in M Delio's life skills class um French Club had another successful annual candy grams fundraiser and hand delivered them to
014students and staff today on Valentine's Day um um we all look forward to taste of world cultures on March 13th and their trip to France that's coming in April drama club continues to work hard on their spring play myth adventures and they're adding light sound and set and costume elements to enhance the spectacular work of their actors um that they've been doing their performances will be on Friday March 22nd at 700 p.m. and Saturday March 23rd at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. tickets will be sold at the door um $5 per student and $10 for adults this show both comic and tragic is not to miss and we hope large enthusiastic crowd supporting drama club drama club's return after five long years of absence Library Club held a poetry workshop on January 24th with lyrical
015Faith a black American educator activist and spoken word poet from the Bronx students and teachers were inspired and began writing their own poems the library itself at ghs has kicked off a 2024 reading challenge encouraging students and staff to set a reading goal for the calendar year people will sign up to fill out a pledge card with either a goal number of books or pages per month get a book themed water bottle sticker and a monthly reading log bookmark participants who complete the reading logs went are into quarterly prize drawings spectrum is working on their own annual Valentine's Day bake sale this week with chocolate covered pretzels the goal of that fundraisers fundraiser is to raise money to buy Club t-shirts to march in the Franklin County pride parade in June and to close everything
016off we just on behalf of all of the students at ghs and all of the staff want extended congratulations to aiana KLU Zach oari and Nate Woodard for being accepted into the UMass honor band um that concludes everything but if there are any questions on what I mentioned I'd be happy to answer them I'll just add I had a opportunity to attend the honor band performance on Saturday and it was so exciting there's students coming from all over the Commonwealth and was creating like B bands or or orchestras really three different orchestras composed of people who had never met each other before learning mer music and performing it all in one day it was really cool any other questions or comments all thank you so much now we're on to reports of the administration and
017our business manager good evening everyone you have your monthly update uh for the budget we also as requested last time included Capital uh those are at the end of the report uh just to highlight uh we are beginning our year end closing or I should say continuing because we've started at the turn of the the calendar year um you'll see like uh some of the special education tuitions have been moved to circuit breaker so we'll be doing things as we've done normally of moving expenses to the revolving accounts and potentially moving things out of the local budget um or out of the revolving counts back into the local budget as we do our normal year and closing to see what we can do for maximizing funds available uh in all those funding sources uh no
018nothing knock on wood you know concerning as of this point in time so um if there are any questions I can answer them member Den um last month we had talked about um a request for training members how to read budget reports in a more easily accessible format and I was just wondering where you might be on that if you thought about admittedly I didn't know it was my responsibility to coordinate that I was thinking that would be a school committee discussion Andor setting up of a workshop and I would make myself available well fair enough I was not sure yep I think that's something we can have on our list for a future meeting but no progress has been made since the last time okay wonderful thank you okay any other questions for business
019manager all right assistant superintendent um I also have a very short report tonight but um some great photos that I wanted to include so folks could see what we have been up to uh with regard to our instructional strategy work uh The District Administrative team along with our desie ssos team and our teaching lab part Partners we have conducted learning walkthroughs one and two on questioning in all of the district buildings that aggregate data from uh the instructional strategy was shared with building principles and their instructional leadership teams who met reviewed the data and then uh we're building plans for future professional development which happens either dur during their plts which are professional learning teams during the day or faculty meeting time so that's been going well um curriculum updates we had an opportunity to
020uh Luke Martin and Rebecca Zimmerman history teachers at Greenfield High School organize the annual yellow conference which is youth engaged in uh leaders and um officials legislators and officials I think I apologize um the conference was on Thursday January 25th and it really was uh wonderful to be a part of I included some photos um Alana jjy from fog was there along with uh representative whips and bla which uh students got to do small group conversations and then break out into larger group conversations with a lot of officials uh representative um representative School Committee Member Jive was there along with school Committee Member seon so it was great to see kids just really engaging in uh Civic opportunities um We are continuing curriculum mapping it's been an ongoing year-long process in ela and music we
021have five committee members who are really working hard um after hours to finalize Unit maps so that we can review all of them by June um what I did not include but which will begin is we have a science curriculum group starting up in March to review science materials so that we can uh plug along and order new materials that are highquality standards based for future years because we are um really behind the eightball with some of our materials in the science department so that'll be for grade 6 through 12 coming up I'll keep you posted on that and then Title One is uh one of our federally funded grants and part of that really is to promote family and Community engagement so we always partner with the Greenfield Rec Department during the winter carnival
022and try to be a part of as many festivities as they provide so that we can also be there to give away books math games and really engage with the community so we had a lot of fun um we were there on Saturday at Sanderson Street and uh some of my title one interventionists as you see joined me and we're giving away books we had uh prizes for kids it was really a nice event and then we sponsored the Mad Science Show which happened at the middle school later that day it was a packed house and I got a lot of nice emails from families in the community just really appreciative of the show and having something uh free and available for folks to attend so um that was great and then on Sunday we
023froze outside with Olaf in front of Adam's Donuts um but we were able to give every child math games and a book when they picked up their specialty Donuts from Adam so really appreciate Christy Moore at the rec department always offering us the opportunity to engage in her festivities and um it was just really nice to see all the families and community and kids come together so thank you okay let's hear from the superintendent and then we can take questions for both of you after that so the first piece I was speaking about was the grinspoon award but that I think has been covered although always worth repeating um the budget the superintendent's budget has been posted it has been in the Greenfield Recorder it's on the website the budget hearing is scheduled for for
024February 28th at 6:30 here and um I believe that the superintendent's budget represents the priorities in the Strategic plan as well as some discussion with the budget subcommittee and we also uh really are seeking to preserve our staffing overall which is positive you know we're in a time when the eer 3 funds are running out they'll be done by the end of September and and I think when the committee sees my budget presentation um I hope that you will feel like we have maybe had a little budget slope and not a cliff um anyone who's interested in reviewing the budget can find it on the website or certainly folks can call my office we have hard copies available if anyone would like them so we have a few Staffing changes coming in the future um
025I shared last month that Merill melli our director of ear childhood was leaving she's going to concentrate on her doctoral studies which is wonderful for her and Jill taglia who is one of our special ed teachers at AE is um she's been appointed as the interim director which I'm very excited about Jill has over 20 years of teaching exper special ed teaching experience as well as having been a principal for a number of years in another state so she is an experienced administrator and we're happy to have her with us in her new role and then um Mr Morrison from the high school has shared that he will be moving on from Greenfield at the end of his contract which ends um in June so I would like to thank Derek for the work he's
026done at the high school and really appreciate the time that he's been here and then I will let the committee know um what the next steps are um for me in replacing his position and then um a commercial we need still instructional assistance at a number of schools across the district so if anyone's interested you can check School spring there is an employment link on the bottom of the homepage of our website or you can contact Lauren in my office if you have any questions um weather related decisions I really don't like talking about the weather in the winter and we dodged quite the um potential disaster the other day but I just want to remind folks that it is a complicated Endeavor to make decisions about WEA um the weather decisions get made at
027about 4:30 to 4:45 in the morning when there is an event and I assume people can appreciate the challenge of trying to predict what the weather will be um multiple hours ahead and thankfully I know there's often a desire from families for me to please call it early do it the night before but thankfully in this instance that did not occur because that would have been not a good use of snow day um I appreciate that parents may not agree with the decision I make if I have kept schools open and so I will remind them again that they have the ultimate choice to keep their kids home if I have opened school um we just ask that people call um the same challenge goes for having indoor recess versus outdoor recess all of our
028principles want the kids to go outside and breathe fresh air and run around um but times there are times when we make the decision to have students stay in because the weather temperatures and the wind chill make it um concerning for our students to be outside so I appreciate the um understanding when we make these decisions so um a positive note Karen and I were able to attend the building a strong stronger Commonwealth one person at a time Franklin County legislative breakfast on January 18th that was held at the Greenfield Public Library and um representative bla representative whips were in attendance along with Helena Cohen from Senator comerford's office and the speakers that were there provided a wealth of information about legislative proposals and budget proposals to support the public and school library system across
029Massachusetts so we were very happy to be able to attend that event and registration is forthcoming kindergarten registration is on the horizon we have put an ad in the paper um we are sending information home it is on the website if you know anybody who has a child who will be 5 honor before September 1st please share this information with them uh um we are also taking pre-registration paperwork at the Academy of early learning please call the building to get information just a reminder to families that um at times spaces are limited at a it is an integrated program meaning that we serve the needs of students ages 3 through five with disabilities as well as students age three through five who are non-disabled and so we um utilize our spaces in our classrooms and
030follow um statutes around ratios when we fill seats at our preschool so um keep a look out for the pre for the preschool and excuse me kindergarten registration thank you questions for the superintendent and assistant [Music] superintendent none tonight excellent okay okay um we'll move on to the consent agenda and uh just a reminder so this would be a motion to approve all the items listed on the consent agenda um if there's any single member who would like an item on the consent agenda separated and considered separately um we can do that so is there any member who would like to um remove an item from the consent agenda member Den I'd like to remove C because I have to recuse myself from that vote excellent okay we will consider the vote on the contract
031for the school transportation services separately are there any other items members would like to consider separately otherwise it's just a vote and well we can discuss but um we' V vote up and now vote up and down or down on a b d and e all right um here a motion to approve the uh consent agenda as presented except for item C so moved uh motion by member Martini is there a second I'll second that a second from Member child's um any discussion okay um all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed and I'm abstaining so the motion carries um let's see now let's move on to the vote on the contract for school con School transportation services can I have a motion to approve that contract so moved so U
032motion by member Martini is there a second seconded second by member Childs any discussion it's still red I Oh I thought you were going to talk okay uh not seeing any discussion so let's uh have a vote on that all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay and those abstaining I'll abstain and member Den abstains but the motion carries so those were all approved um next we're moving on to the uh superintendent evaluation so um I had uh presented a committee structure last a meeting that did not include a subcommittee for superintendent evaluation because I wanted a chance to discuss it and think about it and learn some more and I wanted to kind of share my my thinking about about that process so I think that there's been some dis
033satisfaction with our superintendent evaluation process um I know I felt uh I didn't really like love the tool and I found it confusing and difficult um I think there's also been a concern that some of the the comments from school committee members haven't always been entirely in line with what our role is in the superintendent evaluation process um and so it's caused a little bit of tension and confusion difficulty so I think the um really appreciated the initiative of member den and others who wanted there to be a subcommittee to try to address some of those problems um and including um revamping the tool that we would use with the um superintendent evaluation um just as a reminder and for the benefit of people at home any changes that were made to an uh superintendent
034evaluation tool would need to be done in concert with the superintendent who is being evaluated um so it's not something we can just decide on our own the superintendent would need to uh agree to changes and we will not be doing a superintendent evaluation process this year because while we would love the opportunity to appreciate and be constructive with Christine about her work uh also it's not very valuable for someone who is not continuing in the role so we have some time which is which is also really good um so I guess what I'm saying is I see a need for professional development for the committee so that we can have a superintendent evaluation process that's uh constructive and that builds a stronger relationship between the committee and the superintendent um to support them in
035in their role and being even more effective on behalf of our students I'd like us to do that professional development together first as a full committee um so that we could fully understand the process and also fully understand our existing tool um then as out of that professional development process I'd like us to have a discussion about whether we still want to have a subcommittee to work on changing the tool or or some other item but I guess essentially what I'm saying is I'd like to start the work together with professional development as a full group and I'd love to hear um members comments about that and also would welcome feedback too from the superintendent and assistant superintendent so anyone who wishes to speak yeah member Martini when would you propose this to take place
036um I think it pretty much as soon as we could get started with um mask if you know what like mask to come and work with us and um to provide some professional development for us so getting on their calendar it could be as early as next month that we would begin remember Den I'm wondering if maybe a little bit later might be good considering that we have so much coming up and I'm Wonder wondering if that might be a good thing to do really work on in the summer especially since we don't have that much to do in the summer and we won't be evaluating for a little while but I'm really glad that you're looking towards professional development for this thank you other comments member ston so I I understand why we're not
037doing an evaluation this year I get that but would it inappropriate to maybe suggest we keep the Cadence and have a different type of meeting together maybe like talking about long-term goals and plans or some other way to sort of like keep up the rhythm of us doing an annual evaluation and and have it in the the agenda and timeline but also just could we do like the pre-work to an evaluation work of like understanding what where would you like to go and how do you propose we get there and what are some ways that you would find effective for collaborating you know and sort of laying the land like that um is that an inappropriate thing to suggest in this agenda item yeah I think so go ahead please share again yeah um I
038think I had two thoughts one um knowing that the evaluation doesn't begin at the end um for the superintendent the evaluation begins well before the start of the year when goals are set so I do agree there's some time but maybe not as much for the incoming superintendent as the committee might feel because whatever format the goals are structured in needs to be in line with the tool so just to keep that timeline in mind um I guess um what you're suggesting I always perceived as the goal setting beginning conversation of the evaluation so I think is really critical it has been for me as a superintendent um but I I guess the process currently is a lot of that work would happen at that goal setting when the committee um hears from the superintendent
039then you folks talk about the goals but it's important yeah to have that Stu no I I appreciate that uh and the reframe back into evaluation and maybe suggesting that we should keep in a a somewhat quicker timeline so that we can have the kind of disc discussion that we would like that we that is mutually satisfactory yeah no I think that the summer is maybe a little too late um just thinking ahead as to goals that we want to set together and continuing the Strategic plan work that we have in place and really uh hitting some Milestones that we want to see some successes and growth in together but um in order to do that the tool has to be decided on so it's kind of the chicken and egg theory right now as
040to um how we get to a agreeable tool and therefore go from there with the goal setting and I think part of it is that we don't fully I don't fully have a picture yet of how much time we will need for the professional development whether it's one meeting or a series of meetings um so whether we will have time to kind of fully do the professional development that we want to do and then also look at the tool in time for your first year on the job maybe if we do decide to look at the tool depending on where we are in the process it might have to be something that we look at for a future year um so but we may I guess you know one Speaking as someone who was really
041dissatisfied with that tool the first time I used it at all I was kind of won over by the argument that if we had a full training on the tool and fully understood why it is laid out the way it is and what the opportunities are for the school committee to give feedback that we may not actually need to change the tool I'm not sure about that because I still think it's not great but um but I think what what's most important is not the tool but our work work with each other our relationships with each other and how we use this process to unite as the leadership of the school system to help the superintendent to do better and better and so I feel like we can do we could probably do that with
042our existing tool so we'll see but that's my that's my dream remember Martini would you be scheduling this as a working session um I think it would well it I'm not entirely sure I guess I would ask Mass to give us some feedback on that I could imagine that the the first item would be a session that was part of a school committee meeting but we could um make a motion to you know uh not follow the normal rules of Robert's Rules of Order so that we can um we can learn in a more collaborative way than by making motions and whatever but um I imagine the the first session may be more of a general overall orientation because we do have several members who haven't I'm sure have had the opportunity or will soon
043to in the charting the course that's required of school committee members to get a brief overview of the superintendent evaluation process but I think a more in-depth overview would be useful for all of us so I'm not sure what the format would look like exactly yet yep I think my preference for professional development in general and especially on something that people are going to be unsure about uh in certain aspects is to have a working session so that it is less stilted and more open as a conversation uh so my preference would be to have a working session and aim for maybe April and to take place when you say working session you mean a separate Standalone meeting where we aren't kind of following the normal rule Roberts Rules of Order what correct okay thank
044you any other feedback on the superintendent evaluation professional development plan okay thank you very much for that feedback and I'll use that um as I'm we're planning this uh going forward thank you very much next uh the yellow followup um member den and member ston to either of you I'd love to hear a report from the conference and what you see is uh anything that came out of it that we could learn from as a school committee the yellow day is my favorite day I have so much fun there and it's wonderful to get to interact with the students so I just want to say that there were there were a lot of students and they're very engaged and they're just wonderful smart Plucky young people and it's great to hear what they would like
045to see in their schools so we were part of this school support Breakaway um group and um we got to meet small groups of students first and it was great to be able to tell them what the school committee does and um kind of clue them in on um on what our roles are and State were there and a few other people were there who did similar things and then when we moved to our school support group uh we pretty much just heard ideas from them and some of them are within our purview and some of them weren't but um we took some notes and there are some things that we can um I think that we can make some action and change on the a few of the things were um they'd like to
046see an increase in field trip amounts in the budget they'd also like to talk about about an increase in um the budget for the music program and um they certainly love Mr cek and they wanted us to know how much they liked him and they wanted to talk about having more of him so um one of the notes that we made was maybe if he was interested having a staff presentation about the music program and um yeah I think that items related to the budget are are great but they're perception of a personnel and things like that that gets into the superintendent's territory so right um but that definitely a best practice that we learned from Mas about having staff presentations come in for the committee so that's why I bring that up and then
047um they also had a lot of questions about the Athletics policy they're very keen on um working towards getting um athletic credits for things other than just PE a lot of them are playing sports and not getting athletic credits for that or marching band and um they would like to have these credits because then it frees them up to take additional classes that they would need uh for graduation credits so those are some of the top things um they also had a lot of questions about the bathroom situation and the very next day we went on the school tour with um with Karen patod and we did tour the bathroom so I'm just saying that uh we have seen them and they are in great shape and uh very nice and not in disrepair at
048all so I guess um turn it over to member seon I'm sure that they might remember a few other nuggets I think so I got my notes so awesome they they will help me um yeah so uh another thing that the that the students mentioned was how much they really appreciate their instructional staff um they really value their their teachers and wanted to to communicate to us knowing that we help fund their that we fund their teachers they wanted to communicate that that their instructors are really important and that they um support whatever we can do to to support their instructors um so I appreciated their concern um I think one of our other responsibilities as a school committee is to um advocate for youth especially we have our mayor sitting as part you know
049as part of the body and they did talk about wanting more spaces for teens to hang out um that don't necessarily cost money um but where they can study they can hang out maybe they've got games um either board games or like pool or something um as well as other sort of teen attractions so they don't have to go out elsewhere out of town to like have a decent amount of fun like actually have real fun um but you know anything that we can do in the community to make this an attractive place to be a high school kid would be um would be much appreciated um let's see what else did they talk about um I think there were there were a number of other things that are not necessarily within the school committee's
050purview um to really talk about but I I also want to Echo what Elizabeth was saying that that was probably my favorite day and probably will be my favorite day all year um and I can't wait till the next one excellent thank you both um let's see let's move on to reports of the school committee um report of the chair um I wanted to just take a few minutes to talk about um the importance of academics in our schools and uh I think that we we love our teachers and everything they bring to our students and and how hard everyone's working to improve student outcomes but I wanted to talk about something that goes on behind the scenes that isn't just about the number of teachers we have but H how those teachers can with
051leadership with with curriculum leadership can actually create a a more holistic syst system of learning uh throughout the whole schools and that is really the role of our assistant superintendent for curriculum and I just think that you know when I've been out campaigning and everything for school committee what people are really asking for is just great instruction in the schools and there's a lot that goes into that it's not just about the number of teachers that we have it's also about whether there's somebody who's looking at the big picture and making sure we're getting the new materials and in vetting the curriculum when I um first um came on to the school committee it was a an appointment to fill a vacancy which I had to apply for so I came to a school committee
052meeting to interview and out in the lobby there were a group of teachers who were coming and to present to the school committee about the Civics curriculum that they had had to because there wasn't at the time an assistant superintendent for curriculum there was uh a conference that they all had to go and attend and try to revamp the curriculum together as a team in their free time and I'm just so grateful that we now have an assistant superintendent who can when the state is requiring like an overhaul of a curriculum can attend those meetings and bring things back and work with the teachers and get the materials and all of that so I just just wanted to call that call that out as we're heading into budget season and and people are looking at
053the budget and they may see a salary and think well how many teachers could we get with that salary but you have to think about more than just the number of of bodies but also the leadership around curriculum that's so vital for our students so I just wanted to use my soap box to say that tonight and would' love to hear a report from the budget and finance subcommittee we had a meeting on January 22nd the only item was fy2 budget development and as you know the superintendent budget has since been posted in the newspaper and on the website specific topics within that discussion included new positions including the float custodian that we discussed as a committee in December instructional AIDS necessary for specialed education and an elementary instrumental music teacher in regards to the
054latter we discussed the music program uh quite a bit and possibilities for expanding it which has been a consistent interest discussed by the full committee and something that we have received much constituent communication about we uh took a vote in support of the superintendent uh posting an anticipated opening for an elementary instrumental position uh I noted that this and other aspects of Arts programming uh will need to be part of future discussions by the full Committee in regards to Future budgets as well uh we discussed transportation in regards to the new five-year bus contract that was recently approved by city council and that was on the agenda tonight um we discussed the intended shift to full year science and social studies at the middle school that will necessitate about seven new positions in future this
055was delayed when the committee uh voted to delay redistricting uh however this is an anticipated change that will affect future budget development and involve staff and program movement when 8th grade shifts to the middle school and fifth to Elementary uh likewise the committee has discussed Spanish language instruction at the middle school that was cut last year and may wish to bring it back uh and essentially in our discussion um this would be sensible to um to consider when those changes come about um also related to redistricting support in the budget for transitional social activities for students was discussed and more information is needed um from that subcommittee and uh related decision- making in order to move forward specifically with that uh Andy shared a summ of the state budget process as it pertains to our
056local process in which at the time of our meeting Governor Healey's proposed budget was anticipated shortly and it since was put out a couple of days later um in which is included the Chapter 70 amounts and required local contributions um noting that Greenfield is an above minimum funding Community um which then leads into deliberations in the legislature and he also touched on chapter 766 schools which are specialized special special education schools uh tuition costs which are affected when students move at certain points in the year and uh which also had a substantial increase increase in rates approved last year unfortunately Greenfield did not meet the threshold for assistance with this in the supplemental budget that was passed by the legislature in December and uh let me know if I have gotten anything wrong or missed
057any of the Salient points that questions for member martini thank you let's see next is my committee the policy and program uh subcommittee um so um we're continuing our overhaul of the policies and trying to update them with best practices and model policies um and also customize them for Green Field um I do have have a motion for us tonight related to that um related to section I which was in your packet um so I'd like to hear a motion that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy I um as presented oh second reading sorry I move that we adopt the policy I um uh in instruction uh as presented on second reading is there a motion to that effect so moved moved by member ston is there a second I'll second it
058second by member forti thank you maybe we should have like an official seconder um great discussion about section I yes member Martini I had just two questions um I noticed that IG and igd are partially redundant and in the masc Guide online they are one and the same can you repeat the IGA and igd it's curriculum development and adoption IG hold please oh for goodness sake curriculum development so yes they are somewhat redundant what I can tell you is that um the process that um I've engaged in to this point is to taking the section going through editing making comments posing questions and then Liz leant from masc goes through answers um comments back and um based on that review the both of these policies were left in that section but if the committee wants
059to delete one you know certainly whatever whatever your preference is many I find that there are a fair number of policies throughout the policy manuals mascs and ours that are fairly redundant but so whatever whatever the committee's pleasure I guess what I would recommend is that we vote up or down on the policies as presented tonight and then we can refer items back to the policy committee to take a look and make changes in the future if needed that okay um I think it would be worth uh the subcommittee looking at just consolidating those two policies to one the way they are in the guide uh and my other question and I apologize I don't know the wait a minute yes I do ihba AA about observations AA yes I just noticed it's around the
060middle of that page there's a line that says something along the lines of the people Services director will ask the permission of the special education director and the building administrator to schedule an observation which doesn't really make sense for it doesn't and I actually have the phrase special education director crossed off so that should be it should have been deleted in the final okay I thought in the edits it ended up saying that the pupil Services director would ask the permission of the pupil Services director and the building administrator want to make sure he's very very sure no that should have my copy with the um changes doesn't say that so I will double check it but it should read the pupil the director of pupil services or design um I just saw what you
061I'm sure it is not terribly difficult for Mr messing to ask permission of himself to schedule something but I just he rarely argues with himself about those things so I will double check to make sure that's cleaned up thank you that was all thank you member Martini any other oh yes member Priti just in relation to ig igd I don't have any context other than they do they do reference at the bottom different mgl so it might be worth the policy subcommittee checking to see if maybe what mask has put forward we might word differently in one or the other to make them less redundant good idea yeah we can definitely take a look at that at a future meeting any other questions or comments about section I all right so I think we are
062voting um to approve it with with the kind of typo um changes that member Martini mentioned and Al sorry that was other thing the one we have online doesn't is fixed it says we'll work with the principal will work with the classroom teacher and the Observer and the director of people services so I think it's fixed in the online one that we got from Lauren today there have definitely been some issues with Version Control so depending on when you're looking at it or you know um so we'll make sure that that's cleaned up but I I guess we because it is pretty much a typo I don't think we even need to amend the motion um to to address that um but we will um take under we will definitely take up that those uh
063two that look so similar and find out if there's a reason why or if we can consolidate and get some help with from mask on that so thank you so much for your thorough reading of that and your feedback um I want to appreciate the uh policy subcommittee and the superintendent and mask for their their work on getting through this pretty long section and we have some other big mountains to climb with other big sections coming up uh so I appreciate the entire committee's uh resolve to finish this process especially before the new superintendent comes on board um great so let's see let us vote um all those in favor of um of the motion to approve section I say I I I I any opposed I'll abstain the motion carries thank you very much
064everybody uh the executive subcommittee did not meet this month uh did the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee meet we have not met but we do have a scheduled meeting on the 21st at 4M virtually EX excellent I I will repeat that the 21st 400 p.m. virtually you can find the committee meeting um we're going to be uh making some decisions related to the implementation of the vote which was taken around redistricting and drawing the lines and have some discussion about the necessary next like what the implications were of making that decision um and we will also be discussing what's next or what is needed to move the Green River School along so great thank you um next let's hear from the school committee handbook ad hoc committee we met on February 9th and we
065met virtually and discovered quite quickly that this is a large collection of materials to go through there were seven handbooks from masc as templates that you gave us and we looked through threw them together and identified uh things that we thought were important and looked at things that were policy for us but could also be in the handbook and decided that we are going to do a working session on March 27th at the library um from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and that'll give us a chance to be sort of informal um Robert's Rules don't really benefit us when we're trying to pour through documents and brainstorms so we're going to make it an informal working session and we'll make an audio recording of that working session and the goal is to have an outline of
066what we think the handbook should be how we think it should be organized and hopefully we can bring that to the full Committee in April but if anybody has some ideas percolating on what they would like to have in the handbook or operational procedures that they have thought about that they think should be considered please email that to us so that we can start compiling this list because there's quite a lot of information to collect and um a design outline to create so but um please don't email the committee because I think if more than a quorum of us are uh discussing something then it kind of goes into OB meeting law so I think it'd be great if people have feedback on that now um and we also have another meeting before your next
067meeting so we could put that on the agenda if you wanted to get feedback from people that way but members of the community can certainly email you so we could so if somebody had an idea on the committee about they wanted something potentially added to it they couldn't email me I mean I'm not I'm not I mean not to create deliberation but I think I think yeah we can't really deliberate by by relay so there's three of you on the committee if one of them talks to you and then you talk to the committee that's a quum understand yeah so that's the issue but we do have now and we have um four weeks from now and certainly members of the community can email you at any time with their feedback on it okay so
068for soliciting information for it now does anyone have any thoughts on it or has anyone thought about it I would love to see a code of conduct included for sure okay and and I think uh also it might be helpful to have some um operational guidelines for how to the um organizational meeting gets organized and and all that anybody else okay well if you can remind me we'll put it on the agenda for next time so people have more time to think about it and give you some feedback uh anything else okay um and collaborative for Educational Services representative member par yeah uh went to the my first meeting was January 31 it was uh remote there was a lot to digest so um I thought I'd put something together put some of the materials
069together to put together and to distribute to the full Committee in March it's nothing time sensitive they're getting started on um um some moving some work forward that the executive director is working on that I have barely read about yet um and yeah I'll put something together for the committee for March and yeah that's that's all I have thank you um City Planning and construction representative has there been any meetings as far as I know based on the town website they did not meet in February and so I did not meet them okay great thank you I don't know I don't know if it it is that's I don't know if the mayor knows is that is that something that happens on a particular timeline or okay we'll find it the website says that it's
070generally the second Tuesday of the month I believe at 4 oh okay 4 4:30 monting it did not show up on the town calendar so okay great excellent and our legislative represent resentative member deneve uh yes so we have the day on the hill coming up May 4th and in preparation for that I have contacted Jason Frasier who is the vice president of masc and he teaches workshops and does professional development on preparing uh School committees and other people to approach legislators and um get everything together in order to ask for for money from the state so he is going to come out on March 27th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the library and in attendance will be division five members which is our collection of local school committees and we will also be
071inviting um all of the members from the local um committees closest to us hallmont um Gil managu and so on and so forth and masu would like to have us cater this in some fashion and reimburse us for that so this is an opportunity to do some professional development um if you'd like to attend the day on the hill he will help you get ready to do that and hopefully we can go together um as a show of strength for western Massachusetts and advocate for some education funding thank you uh what about the assistant superintendent search committee uh okay so there was a nice pool of applicants for this position and I would like to think that this speaks to the serious efforts that the district has been making to improve student outcomes by the
072curriculum work being done um investing in high quality instructional materials and practices and investing in our staff by improving compensation um all of which is underscored by the city's uh commitment to the school department as demonstrated in the last budget season and election uh five candidates were interviewed and I appreciated hearing from all of them uh about why they want to work in Greenfield and what they believe they can contribute here uh I will definitely remember perspectives that were shared about how to meaningfully evaluate the effectiveness of programming and how implementation of needed changes realistically plays out and holding fast to responsibility for student learning while genuinely facilitating personal growth and professional growth for people uh the school committee's consistently identifi some priorities that I think are related to this position including maintaining a regular
073focus on student achievement investing in those high quality high impact uh evidence-based instructional materials and practices and centering diversity Equity inclusion and belonging with special attention to disabled students uh so I discussed these priorities as part of the firstr interview feedback and there will be be two candidates called back for second interviews which from which we can expect a recommendation for an individual whose expertise and priorities best match what we are trying to achieve and who will contribute to the success of the district's strategic plan the goal is to have this transition occur in a timely manner so that uh Karen can train them planul before July and there for devote her full attention to taking the step up into the superintendent's office thank you any questions appreciate everyone's work on that and finally our
074district Wellness committee representative member Priti I don't have a report just thank you for passing the uh wellness policy thank you for we meet again in March thank you for all your hard work on it yep sorry just as an added um note to that I will put the draft of the wellness policy out to parents in my update this week just so that folks can see it and what Melissa bednarski shared um if all right that primarily the work was reviewing and um like reframing any of the information with new guidelines and new statutes but that there are not huge changes that are from our current policy so but I will share that out so that folks can see it prior to a second read great thank you with that we are moving to
075adjournment like to hear a motion to adjourn so moved motion from Member Martini a second from Member Priti any discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed any abstained we are adjourned at 7:13 p.m.