001[Music] all right welcome to the Greenfield school committee subcommittee meeting of the school committee handbook it is the 9th of February 2024 at 6:10 p.m. let's do a roll call um to see who's all here Elizabeth Den I'm here uh Vice chair martini here member section here we are all present and we have a quorum and there's currently no member of the public um waiting to speak so let's begin um I put I put a little agenda together and honestly I thought it would be easy to just um start our brainstorming with an outline of the handbook I think that uh member ston you had mentioned that we could work on it uh asynchronously which makes sense uh but it would be really lovely if by the end of this meeting we have just an
002outline that we can bring to the large meeting next week so that we can invite the other members to email in what they would like to see in the handbook because I think that there's a lot of things to add to it and um I'm sure that we're going to miss things as we go and we'll probably need a few meetings where we're just brainstorming filling in the blanks and what knowledge that we have uh so how do you all feel about about that that sounds good okay so uh let's do a motion to uh create a timeline okay moved second oh it seems silly to have such a formal meaning just for these things but um that passes so let's create a timeline um let's start with discussing anyone have any immediate thoughts to
003share it feels to me like it's going to be easier to create the headers than it is some of the actual mechanism behind the headers and I feel like we need to op we have sort of need two different timelines one sort of completion of a discrete product and then one sort of an ongoing commitment to creating the Machinery behind all of the elements of our handbook so that we actually can enact the handbook does that make sense oh yeah cool so let's try to create some some some headings tonight then what do you think Kate does that resonate with you that sounds great um when you say timeline um do you want to set a goal date by which a handbook will be completed and then work backwards from that I was thinking about
004that do you guys think that um June is a is a wild idea uh because I can imagine that looking at what we already have on the website there's a lot of pieces that are already sort of in place but there are probably some um social and cultural things that we'd like to add that are specific to us and that's the stuff that I think might take a while uh to get everyone's input and have it approved so I was thinking that June might be attainable but do you do you think that that seems far away or too soon for me that feels too soon okay just because when I when I also think about the other things that I have in my life going on just like my personal ability to do the work
005of it you know um but I was also considering how much of this is even a public process being that we are elected officials and people have elected us and maybe they might have some input on our our list of things what they would like to see in a handbook that would that they would want to like have there um or if they had specific maybe contributions to a code of conduct in particular that element that we were thinking about you know so it's February now so if we brought an outline to the full Committee in um in February at the big meeting and then everyone gets back to us by March let's say I'm just sort of brainstorming because this could also be done in a working session as a group we don't necessarily
006have to I guess it's set up as a subcommittee but we could do this in a working session um so if people get back to us by March and then we have say um some headers and fill in in place by April which would mean we'd have another meeting in April let's say um then we would bring what we have to the full Committee in May and we'll probably have to have how many readings do you think we'd have to have okay at least two right I think I don't know in terms of readings how much this should align with something like policy adoption because um it's not a policy per se it's a handbook right so um I'm not sure about the number of readings I am thinking that um I'm going to feel
007probably pretty occupied between now and March because of the budget season um so my preference would would be not to meet in March on this so could we push that timeline back one one month okay yes all right tell me if this sounds right to you all because I wasn't sure if everyone was in the mood to just bang this out or if we need a lot of time so I'm guessing based on how busy everyone is time is is needed so tell if this sounds right to you we create our outline our general outline tonight bring it to the full meeting um next week have everybody take time to get back to us by March have a meeting then together again in April yeah early April would be good yeah and then and then
008give the committee bring whatever we come up with in April at our April meeting to the full committee and then people will have more time to weigh in and then the goal would be to then have a meeting together in June so we'd have a meeting every other month and then we and then in June we can see where we're at and whether we think we're closer if we're going to just finish it in the fall what do you think of that I think I it seems to me like a good idea to uh aim to get a handbook in place and uh aim for a final vote on that in July or August preferably August because the committee doesn't have that much to do at that point in the year usually um and we
009will have finished with the budget season at that point in time having on our side and then going over to the city and then back to our side so um I think that's the timeline that I would my preference would be to aim for okay that's a really good point we do not have a lot to do in the summer so that would be kind of maybe the ideal time maybe people would have more time to focus on this and give it energy at that point what do you think Stacy does that sound right to you yeah that that was sort of aligned with where I was thinking as well because June was feeling a little tight wonderful it's like we already completed step one y y timeline and I also think in terms of
010a timeline it doesn't need to be too uh BR or pressured because a handbook is something that can be amended and changed when it needs to be so I think really the aim is to get one in [Music] place okay did um did any of you have a chance to look at the samples that Glenn shared with us there were quite a few of them and I really to be honest with you I didn't get a chance to read through all of them because they're quite thick yeah a lot of them had things in common and I was wondering what what thoughts you had about them and what you thought might be good to pull from them or not pull from them Kate it looked like you had something to say earlier I I was
011just gonna answer the question I've been through two and a half of them and there are seven so that is where I am I have skimmed the table of contents of all seven of them but have not gone deeply in any yeah but I did noticed that there were some elements that I was like curious about because I was like could we have one of those you know um and it could be good for us to maybe like scroll through them together right now and just pick out some elements that we that we like okay we could do that I have them all prepared so let me see if I can is there a particular one that you want to look at no no okay so just any all right let's see if I can
012let's go to belter town let's see can you all see yeah yes and I have it pulled up right okay hold on let me see if I can move the windows over so I can see a little bit more it's good I'm track padding it tonight okay here we go um all right so to the top hold on hold on one second guys thinking belur toown I'm kind of interested in this being an effective Committee Member section it's on page seven I'm just looking at the table of contents um hold on I'm gonna change this around I don't know if I that's better because I couldn't see the um the pages so you were saying oh you were saying it was on seven yeah and now that I'm looking at page seven more closely I
013think this whole kind of section where it spells out our professional development plan um the opportunities for being a representative to the broader like dat Community um you know where it sort of spells out not only the duties but the opportunities and like helps you align um do we know like Mass Mast on a hill that's on already on our calendar right it is and um Jason Frasier is prepared to come and teach us how to make that happen sweet so that's all sort of in the works um okay so I'm I'm taking some notes off to the side and headers we like is professional development and uh what else did you like uh that was we liked the belter town one that you liked representative opportunities yeah basically all of what's on page seven
014and I think there's like the what we like and what like you know um and what we absolutely must have yes you know so what are the core headers that we think we need and then what are the the other headers maybe well I think we have a lot of things already in place on the website um for example like new member materials um all of that is sort of in place it's just not in a handbook format but we have an so we'd have to take all of that and add it to the H to the hbook we're creating and take it out of that just website website format and make it part of the handbook but so that part is pretty easy and I know that they have the representative opportunities in that
015but it's sort of in our policy manual so there are things to take out of the policy manual and put in the handbook so they exist in both places I think but um I'm kind of also really interested in what we might want for us particularly our our vision and desire see we have all of these on our website in our policy manual in essence this is their policy man I mean is there anything I'm not scrolling too fast but through the 19 pages but is there anything that jumps out as a header that we're like o meeting law we got that maybe how to respond to constituent complaints oh yeah that one was down at the at the end right there's communicate they all had those page 17 Page 17 let's just go to
016page 17 how to respond to constituent complaints yeah we don't have anything like that I think I also feel like the acronyms one is actually really nice for the public to have and for us to have of like you know what these are all of the terms that you might hear come up aha page seven page 17 we were interested in um and acronyms yeah breakdown and if we could just like borrow from the list that Bel already has and then add the ones that we also find relevant to our context I love this useful resources I don't think we have anything like that I mean I'm sure we do like in different scattered places but not pulled together not pulled together which is kind of the main problem that we seem to have oh
017look they have an acronyms page I didn't even see that was that what you were referencing in general or yeah had you seen this no that that's what I was referencing yes okay all right you guys want to go on to another one okay see if I got another did you have other thoughts about that one Kate no I think it's it's nicely organized um in terms of the operating protocols I I think that's an important um piece that needs to be included but our protocols may not be their protocols so um I think that section needs to be there but it needs to be um gone over explicitly okay please just jump in Kate if you want to add something because this isn't just it feels weird to have this be like a really
018formal sort of thing because it really is kind of more of a brainstorming session do you know what I mean yeah I think I would like I how's this for a suggestion that we identify um important pieces or sections that need to be included and then uh we will have a motion to schedule a working session to flush them out because I agree with you that having a working session seems more appropriate yeah okay so do we want to go through this the Berlin Connecticut one do we have has anyone looked at that or uh just before we move away from beler town yeah I think uh each of these um sections in the table of contents makes sense to me to include in a handbook um but like I was saying some of them
019we need to be um we need to go over them for our our own purposes for example the um school committee evaluation pieace uh I think it's important and it should be there but in in my view the section that's in this handbook is not adequate because uh it says basically what we are doing which is that the committee will evaluate itself um but it doesn't say what we'll do with that and that seems to be something that our committee has been missing that we've talked about that as a committee um needing to take that information and use it so um I like the whole table of contents um I just think that we need to be nitty-gritty about hashing out things like that I agree we do have a um we do have sort
020of a routine where we'll pass things or decide to do something but then we don't follow up and so having followup guidelines for these things actions that we have to take once we complete them would be good things to write in to the handbook yeah okay now we can I'm done with that one oh yeah we could let's let's scroll down and just see if we see anything goal board goals okay yeah these are all core values for headings it doesn't make sense to me to include board goals in a handbook because I think the committee should be setting goals every year so it is I think it would be great to include a piece in the handbook about the setting of goals by the committee and when and how that is done but I
021don't think it makes sense to put what they are this year in there because then you're going to need to be updating your handbook every time so okay when and how we set goals so we have all this stuff we have all this resignation oh trackpad living man I hate trackpad living um exit interviews see like we don't have stuff like that because we've asked about that before in the past and it hasn't like you know am I the only one that's still seeing just the file structure and not the document itself I'm seeing the document yeah I see the document maybe close it and open it again when and doubt yeah okay let me do that hold on hold on a second thank you let me go back yeah of course all right uh
022here I go I'm going to open the Berlin Connecticut handbook do you see it yes now I do okay we're looking at conflict of interest all of that I think like we have that we have a lot of things oh man come on man the data not have batteries in my moue certain things like conflict of interest law open meeting law um I do not think those things need to be spelled out in detail in the handbook those are things that we are required to do training on anyway and that have their own volume of information on them so I think it's suffices to all right board member professional development something's Su synced about that board officers we already have that policies tell me if you want me to stop Board hearing search selection process
023evaluation a lot of these are are really um the same just with varying depth I like this um board members visiting schools that they have yeah paragraph okay and you like the the one from Berlin Connecticut that's page okay what I don't like about this one is that there is not a table of contents it's just sort of a list of different topics so we want a table of contents and I think that it should be uh linked like a clickable to for Access I think it should be a fully accessible document um and that includes putting links to each individual section although I think Kate could probably speak more to that perhaps sorry I feel like I I feel like I've been interrupting you all night I apologize you're not I feel the same
024I'm so sorry say nothing no I feel the same way I interrupted you at least once already Stacy we're all feeling the same great I mean this is all the same kind of stuff board quum so what I have down so far just to kind of reconnect because I don't want us to go past our time handbook um we want want to start with the Preamble Mission and table of contents and we definitely want to have useful resources and acronyms breakdown operating protocols when and how we set goals and then there's various pages that we like from different ones that I wrote down but in terms of having like a framework Kate you mentioned wanting it to be a list yeah I want to I want that table of content so I can say oh
025I have a question about I'm a new member and I want to know how do I get a an item on the agenda then I need to know what page are operating protocols on instead of just I'm scrolling through a 23 page document looking for this thing so so what do you think about maybe How about if next week we have a we just have a table of contents prepared and it doesn't necessarily have to be completely fleshed out we could be unsure of certain things because I'm sure that different members will have ideas that they want to impart but what if okay what if I created a Google doc with a table of contents and sort of roughly based on what we talk about here tonight and then we can all work on it
026independently together and then submit that as a beginning does that seem like a beginning framework what do you guys think say that again I'm sorry I was thinking bled over at this point okay because it's six o'clock on a Friday and I yeah I no I totally understand I I don't want us to like go past seven or any anything like that right um so in terms of of when I was thinking of the agenda and having a framework to submit to the committee maybe that framework is just the table of content and maybe we don't know the full table of content but we could start creating one and we could just start a Google doc and work sort of independently on it and try to fill it in with the idea of this being
027the basic table of contents and then see what everybody thinks does that seem like like the appropriate framework that we might be searching for since we all would like an table fun contents is that where we start I like the table of contents I'm not sure that I want to have it verbatim from any one of these um can we can we schedule a working session and Define it for the purposes of identifying that table of contents and the operating protocols section it seems like okay hold on let me write this down so schedule work schedule a working session to create table of contents and operating procedure in addition to this before we bring anything to the full committee is that what you're thinking yeah okay so that would just mean that we'd be sort
028of moving the timeline by a month or so and we're all okay with that I'm okay but I respect it if you would rather bring it to next meeting um that being said I think uh let me just check I think the agenda is already set for next week oh it is we just received an email oh I have not checked my email agenda and materials for a 214 school committee meeting oh my okay I'm used to them happening on um Monday usually they are have been closer and I appreciate having them a bit more in advance um and I think technically it can be changed up until the 48 hours before the meeting but then again it's not exactly preferable do that if you don't need to it's not Mission critical or anything it's
029not that important um oh I see I got I got my uh my email too I just hadn't even checked it so then what we'll do is we'll just we'll just uh as the report portion we'll just talk about our intent then to have a working session to create the table of contents and the operational uh protocols can we schedule it right now let's do that that's perfect let us schedule it now okay I'm G to run away for one moment and um grab my planner I'll be right back okay perfect I appreciate that I'm not the only one who has a physical planner to run and go get all right I have mine open I almost wonder if this would be a good type of meeting to have in person might be easier you
030know if if you all are amenable to doing a working session in person it just might be easier here with all these documents I feel like we are definitely going to want to do some kind of comparative across the ones and find out what they have in common and what's unique and what we like and don't like and like have maybe come with a little bit more knowledge of what we've drawn from each of them yeah yeah for sure well Connecticut has a acronym page I'm sure there are very common features that we just had that are that are going to be standard US yep all right we'll see if I'm G to stop this Connecticut one and see if we want to look at another one or not or do you have your planner
031Kate I do okay I can say for me I'm pretty much wide open after March 18th okay I am available that week generally speaking except for Friday morning I will likely be headed to Portland o Maine or Oregon Oregon oh have a fabulous time oh my gosh will you be gone those whole two weeks uh no not not for the whole two weeks from from March 20th to the 23rd okay so how about um the week of March 25th could we um schedule something then and would you all like to do something in person and make it an inperson working session we'd only have to record audio do you think that would be easier for this task or would do you prefer virtual I would find it easier yeah that's what I all right so
032iners sometime in the week of March 25th yeah would you all like to do an evening time I think I need to do an evening time okay how about um how about Friday March 29th at 6m okay sure um can we put a Time limit on it just to make sure that we're not letting ourselves spend hours and hours yes let's do that how about um eight 6 to8 and um I'll let Lauren know and get it going um so let me just write this down in person where would you all like to meet should we try something at the new library or at a home or central office will be closed so do our working sessions need to be open to the public or do they just need to be recorded I think that
033they just need to be recorded I mean they need to be posted um but that's a that's a question that we should double check the answer we should double check um but I I don't think that they need well I mean the public would know so the public could come so yeah maybe we should try the new library and I could get an answer to those questions okay so let me put that on my notes uh we we might need to if there's a fee to use the new room the library closes at 5:00 pm on Thursday and Friday okay that also we could do Wednesday because Wednesday they are open until 8 o'clock you want to do Wednesday 6 to8 I could do Wednesday I can do Wednesday too okay so that's Wednesday March
03427th 6 to 8 March 27 at the library at the library okay so I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Lauren um if we can do that and how to do that and great we'll be guinea pigs for new library meeting and uh we'll meet in person Wednesday 6:00 to 800 PM March 27th hopefully at the library does this need to be a motion because this is a yes let's make a motion I think I don't know but it seems like it probably does because I actually don't know if it has to be a motion to do a um a meeting schedule but because I don't think we do that in Poli well let's do it anyways could I have a motion for um well I'll make the motion that we meet on Wednesday from 6:00 to
0358:00 pm March 27th at the library do I have a second second all right friendly Amendment yes meeting is scheduled as a working session pending subcommittee chair genive verifying the procedures for doing that and availability of space at the library all right I accept your friendly Amendment although technically it just is so great I all right so I think we've we've poked the bear a little bit on this large project that we shouldn't let get too large and should try to complete sometime this year I know you talked about um asking members to put um forward their ideas um do you want to ask um for me members to email suggestions um for items in Contents and for operating procedures or protocols I do but I'd love to have something sort of set up first
036okay um I don't want to quite open the floodgates yet until we have a place to put all of it does that make sense because some of it is already is already done and in our policy manuals and we just need to go through it and take it all out and then we'll see what spots we're missing do you know what I mean I don't think we we we know what we're missing at you are right yes what we need to develop but yes like let's get as much input from everyone as possible and we'll probably have to delve into some institutional knowledge that uh members who have been here longer have because there are certainly things that we don't know about that have just been how they are because one person remembers it so
037that might need to be written down we could try to interview past members that's a great idea that's a great idea I was thinking of uh asking members of other committees who participated in the creation of a handbook how did you go a good idea that's a great [Music] idea okay so I think our homework is to when we have the bandwidth maybe read through these handbooks more thoroughly or at least get scrolling through them and pi taking out the things that we have interest in um and then creating um the table of contents and the protocols at our working session and then figuring out what we don't know and what we might need to know and then getting the members involved does that seem like a road map that we've agreed to I think
038so okay all right um while we have a few more minutes do you do either of you want to scroll through any of the other handbooks together or should we just call it a night since we've kind of got a little bit of an idea what do you think I'm open to either open to either we look through another one what do you think Kate uh we can take a quick peruse through and uh see if there is anything else that seems important or jumps out at you okay so we looked at we looked at belr toown Berlin let's let's see what uh ringham says no here's their table of contents I love this what happens when things go wrong and school committee Partnerships wonder what that's about [Music] organization the clerk they have a
039clerk not a secretary here's all their subcommittees that's very interesting bilingual parent advisory Council on academic data dashboard was curious about that lot of communication characteristics of high performing School committees okay introduction statement ofing goals guting I seem to have lost whatever you are do you not see do you not see it am I scrolling too fast I just see the the folder oh my goodness okay let's do you see it Stacy no I also only see the folder but oh my goodness last time I was the only one to see the folder I didn't think anything of it because I had it pulled up on another screen okay I'm just I'm pulling it up on my own yeah okay well let me try again Zoom let me try again tell me if you see
040it h I'm just I'm opening this in a different window for myself so you don't need to do that for me can you see it Stacy yes okay would you like me to go back up to page one I also have it open so I'm mostly referring to to that okay so if we all meet on page five after some scrolling time I am on page five scope of authority that's how we looking yeah so it all seems pretty much the same it has all of the uh Roberts rules and the agendas and the protocols um the school committee partnership section on page seven isn't what I thought it would be I kind of thought that the partnership would be about interacting with different community members but it's about we'll work collegially and collaboratively with
041everyone I mean we can borrow the header and then make it what we think reflects our community's desire in terms of partnering with schools yeah okay I'm just gonna write it down because there's so much here as we know if I don't write it down I'm going to lose whatever little tidbits we all pull out if anybody else sees anything um what happens when things go wrong isn't as interesting as I thought it would be either but I wonder if the policies that it references are sorry Kate no you're on the right track there Stacy with the policies I mean that's they are what the committee should go back to when there is a question so M orientation we also have that I'm scrolling down at my mom page AG seven I think they're all
042pretty similar um I'm not seeing anything like massively different about any of these they also have they have almost the same one as belur toown it almost looks it almost looks like they copied it I'm sure there's a template available or a few templates available out there for us you know that we could that we could adopt but I do think that it is worth I think you know to one of Kate's earlier points it's worth us taking a little bit of extra time to make sure it act accurately reflects our circumstance and what our people would like on page 11 there's something interesting they've included a sample budget calendar and it has a budget workshop and presentation [Music] and it's kind of nice to see it in a in a form like this and
043I know that this is something that people ask all of the time I really like that um all right I'm writing that down too page Framingham page 11 that one I haven't seen in any of the other handbooks been a long I have SE yeah I have seen um budget calendars from other school committies but not in a handbook and it's nice to have a sample especially because when you're new well even when you've been there for a little while like I often forget what the timeline is and what I have to keep in mind as it goes it's it's a lot they have uh they have their superintendent evaluation I'm scrolling down to page 13 I have their negotiations they reference are policy manual they also have self- evaluation it's almost exactly like belra
044Town yeah it doesn't belr Town say it was based on hands oh did it think it did I could be wrong um I I'm sorry I'm skipping ahead just being mindful of time yeah we should get on going sandwich has a section specifically about MC and personally I think that would be helpful um because as a new member I had no information about how masc operates and how um how the committee ought to be um participating in it and I think it would be helpful to have um a section explaining the basics of that what page is that in the sandwich handbook 18 18 all right I'm writing it down there's also a page uh 11 on Framingham that's has an academic dashboard showing test results and how we measure success and such Su as
045are you sure it's Framingham 11 yeah no yeah wait hold on it [Music] 14 I think we might receive a fair amount of community push back around uh grades as being the only academic indicator right I there are other measures of success that we might also consider um yeah I'm sorry it's page 16 thank you thank you here we go academic data dashboard okay many well they have members on an academic data dashboard I wonder if that's similar to our um curriculum subcommittee that we're going to have what is that called again I'm sorry well to be clear that is not something that's been decided on by the okay okay or even or even brought up uh as a motion so I don't know but uh I'm just scrolling through finishing up Framingham I that's
046okay they have a sample agenda format sorry Elizabeth I'm still I'm still on this academic data dashboard thing it sounds very interesting but I've never heard of it before and so I would want to see it I bet if we asked them nicely they would give us a virtual tour well it's weird because it says currently the academic data dashboard is comprised of three members that sounds like a subcommittee that's what I was thinking a subcommittee with an unusual name which I am totally fine with but I yeah I would need to understand what does that mean um exactly on page 20 in the Framingham they have a sample agenda format and then they have a whole description of the types of meetings that they have on page 21 I'm sure we have pieces of
047this and all kinds of other places but as a new member it would have been really helpful to me to see that and to and to have that list of different types of meetings to sort of familiarize myself with what I was getting into because I think essentially what we're doing here is trying to make everything better for the people that come after us right we're sort of leaving this Campsite in a better State than we found it so these are the kind of operational procedures I think that Glen was hoping we'd yes pull out so I'm gonna write that down too I I'm sorry I did not expect um seven handbooks from masc but it's a lot so I'm just scrolling down finishing up here I appreciate that randols includes an organizational chart of
048the district oh and that's Randolph yeah page 17 Rand page 177 okay okay and also on the same page have uh piece well they also have a section about types of meetings and they specifically address Workshop meetings on the same that same page 17 okay all right well it is 7 pm and uh We've scrolled through three handbooks and have a sort of rough idea of how we're going to start this work um what do you all think do you have anything else to add or thoughts that have come up I think you can even say we scrolled through seven handbooks because I went through got a l done in an hour how about that well you know we got to respect our time at these unpaid volunteer jobs so all right well I'm pretty
049happy with that yep and we have a clear Next Step what we're doing so wonderful all right I will um I will type up all of these notes um maybe not so much as minutes but as a record of what we're doing and where we are going and I'll make a uh I'll make a document and uh add everybody to that and we can uh have a place to add some additional thoughts and um I'll Lea is on with Lauren and make sure that we have our working session scheduled and we'll just go from there okay EXC so a motion to adjourn our meeting second all right so the meeting is adjourned it's 7 o'clock exactly and um I will see you all on [Music] Wednesday