001[Music] good morning and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools committee meeting a policy and program um subcommittee it's 11:01 and I'll call the roll call um member Priti he remember Denise here and I'm here and we have a quorum so we get started um the only item on the agenda today is um reviewing section I and [Music] um uh the full committee approved this on a first reading um maybe December um and I think so yeah so this is our first chance to look at it as a um subcommittee and um hope is to bring something to the school committee for the February meeting for a second reading um I thought maybe we could start with General um I don't know if people had had questions or or changes that you'd like to see U
002maybe we could have a discussion about that um before we do a vote on um approving it I had a few questions great go ahead member Den mostly because section I is really IM mediate it's like 120 plus pages of of stuff and it's hard to get through but as I was reading I was wondering if there were a few places where we could be a little bit more um current but also I wanted to ask a few questions about it for example in IB academic freedom um we mention um I'm sorry I'm downloading it again here we go okay it mentions that we educate students in democratic tradition and uh respect for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and I was wondering if is this a section where we might want to include
003um that uh some sort of foundational point about educating students regardless of sexual or gender orientation um or is that something that would reside in another part of policy only I believe that um I'm thinking I believe there are policies in section A but I'd have to look that sort of speak to the fact that um policies are all inclusive regardless of race um religion I believe that to be the case but I will double check that I thought so too but I just wanted to ask because it seemed like that was the kind of the place to put it but if we have an umbrella policy then um I think so but I can certainly double check I had um noted one place where um sexual orientation is mentioned in this policy me um
004what happened to my little window but I will find [Music] it uh the instructional materials mentions it so I don't think it's exactly what you're talking about member Den but that's one place where it is sexual orientation is mentioned only bring it up because when we were at yo last week the students were specifically asking for stronger policies around um protection for our lgbtq Ias student and um so I was sort of looking when I was reading section I I had I had what they were asking me as a kind of a guide in my head so that's why I asked that I guess the to I guess I it would be helpful to know what aspects they felt needed to be addressed yeah I think so too I agree okay any other comments or
005questions on the policy from Members okay I had some um let me see back to my notes can I just share that I realized I had not um made graduation requirements current so I do have them revised to be current otherwise we'd have a bunch of very happy seniors leaving with much less credits than they expected to need and I don't think we want to do that okay that's part of I right yes yeah I think that that correction would be welcome by [Music] everyone I can review it if we get down to that section just so you know and I'll upload the new um the new version for the school committee meeting great um it looked to me like I there I have a few things that are more like typographical but it looked
006to me like h m a repeated ha a i a m a maybe it should be I I think it's I M A and it does look like it's it's repeated it did it does one of them is is will be deleted yeah okay great all right I had a question about in um special instructional programs and accommodations programs for children with special needs can you tell me what letters yeah I should have made note of that but I um we looked at that yesterday there was a little typo in that well there was a little typo in one um file ihb but that is stricken out for some reason I'm not sure why but it is I think it is ihb hold please what the heck is that somehow we enderr uping an e
007IB the joy of this being such a needy section we get to scroll a lot yeah I contr F to find things IB there are two of them so frequently there are the the whole section is generally made up of if there's a Greenfield version of a policy and then a more updated version from masc yeah um barring any substantive variation I generally went with the masc because they would have the most current review of policy so that's what this looks like that the Green Field version was deleted and then following it is the um masc version yeah and that's the case throughout and I think when we send this out to the full committee for their review we should let them know yes it is 120 pages but a lot of it is striking
008out but um although for a final vote I guess the question for you folks my intention would be to take out the strikeouts and just give the committee a clean version great yeah but I had a question about the first sentence of this um policy which is where it says and to return to the mainstream of social society as soon as possible I think in many cases we're trying to ensure that children never leave the mainstream or so could you talk a little bit about that in that choice of language um well sort of it's you know this was the language that was made maintained by masc I think um I think many references related to special education whether they're statutorily referenced are still pretty Antiquated um so I mean if the committee wants to
009delete it we can certainly delete it I think if you put a period after self-reliance that would represent the goal I mean we want all of our students to have the highest level of Independence and and positive function in society as they can so I or maybe even just said if it said return and and stay in the mainstream of school Society or return to it as soon as possible whatever you guys want I mean I it's some of this um I think to some degree um some of this policy is sort of broad Strokes for the function of a school district um but absolutely we can change this to whatever whatever you want we could say and to remain in or return to the mainstream of school society as soon as possible yeah I
010would propose that in is there any objection to that okay all right and two hold on let me edit now Y in or return to okay all set okay and then um I noted that the gifted and talented POS policy is completely stricken can you speak to that at all or unless I misunderstood we let me find it I don't know if you have letters oh gifted and talented um unless we're missing something um oh masc does not have this policy and we do not have program for gifted and talented and unless I've missed something which I'm open to have missed it is not required okay great I say striking it I was gonna ask about that because I've asked as a parent about those programs and they're not there so I was gonna ask
011a similar question yeah okay cool uh let's see the next one that I have um uh so the next ones were about the homeschooling policy um Karen has confirmed that the homeschool policy and I'm looking at her home School homeschool policy one is deleted and then the new one added Karen confirm for me that is the new version where the heck did it go I gbg IH BG G I know I saw it yesterday it down is it out of order um we don't have page numbers mine are mine is not here okay I have to put it back in for some reason my version that was used to provide your version doesn't have that policy but that is super weird but I'll put it back in and that wait and it also says at
012the bottom it's oh that's the alternative schools program goes ihb okay um okay so that's the new one that you folks voted okay maybe that's why it's not in your pack is because we already um prove that one I think it might be out of order because I swear I read it earlier this morning not crossed out and now I also can't find it I see crossed out version followed by a cross a non-cross out version with all all the words in red the the the two Crossed Out versions are exceptionally long and those are definitely not yeah there is one in here though that I have that's not crossed out follows the two Crossed Out versions good is in red it's not crossed out but it is in red as opposed to other policies
013then that is likely the edit that I inserted yeah great Okay so I guess part of this policy talks about a report from the an annual report from the superintendent to the school committee about um homeschooling instruction and I just wondered what that looks like um because I'm assuming there's privacy issues oh yeah the superintendent will prepare for the school committee an annual summary of the children who participate in home instruction Karen just said she usually includes that in an assistant superintendent report at some point during the year oh okay and what does that look like I don't remember literally just numbers yeah it's just data I remember it from last year only because it was around the same time that we reviewed and changed the policy great and how does is this um we
014also approved a policy about homeschoolers access to School District programs is that a different policy that was SP I believe right yes just Athletics that's in a different section of our policy um no it should be in this so it should be okay um I didn't see it but um is the version that you have the right one well why don't I share my screen so everyone can see what I'm looking at Great could you make me a co-host so I can share I can yes so the issue as soon as I find you yes you can hold on Glen there you are just so we can't hear Karen we can I know in the room um we get Echo so the issue is you didn't specifically add students who are homeschooled May participate in
015athletics you just took out that they may not okay I see so yes this is the current um there was a line that said students may not participate in yeah um and now that is gone okay and by default since it's not prohibited it's with the superintendent's discretion it's allowed yep okay great all right um let's see [Music] um yeah so under instructional materials um oh you guys are looking at my um looking at your notes yeah um let me find instructional materials I assume you're going in order Glenn so that makes it yeah I think so okay instr instructional materials policy i j um on item five it lists phical disabilities or sexual orientation I'm wondering if we can add gender identity to this list so my edit so you folks I think have
016pink anything that's pink yeah you see the edit but yes I can add in for gender identity no objection Amy and Elizabeth no Glenn can we continue this scroll down share screen experience for this whole policy because it's so media yeah of course I've got it open on three different screens over here and I'm gonna lose my mind that's fine yeah but remember question I kind of I kind of want to keep the focus just on the policy so rather than going back and forth to my notes so I'm going to change this share a little bit just a second [Music] okay and now you you all can see it okay um oh there just for some reason under academic achievement it's still using the his her thing but I think we we're using they
017them right yes okay and go back through and check throughout the whole thing for that yeah okay great and then uh the final my final comment was about the graduation requirement it looked like it there's a blank space where we need to insert the name of our schools I did oh great okay yes all right and updated so let me tell you what the update is let me find graduation the other thing as I'm scrolling down to graduation that I want you folks to be aware of all of the acceptable use and digital policies are going to have to be re-reviewed um we will need to review those in great detail with our attorneys but the amount of time that it will take oh good Glen um the amount of time that it will take
018us to do that I think that in the interest of getting the policy manual as a whole updated on the masc website um it makes sense to just leave those as they have been fix everything else and then we can bring you these policies individually for review yeah otherwise it's going to be months more and I I know that the committee wants the manual on the masc site as a hosted policy manual nice okay great I'm getting here hold on anyone else yes I have it so in order to graduate from Greenfield High School student must have earned at least 120 credits not 95 okay then the breakdown is 20 credits of English 15 of math 15 of science 15 of social studies five of Health 10 Wellness 2.5 credits of tech 10 credits of
019Arts and Humanities and then 27 additional um so that's the current those are the current graduation requirements and again I'll resend this out with all of the with this modification in it excellent any other discussion of the or questions about section I um I had just a quick question um under IH AE physical education h i AE yeah okay it's not so much a change as just a clarification because I'm going back to the students were asking me about one last week at that conference um it says that uh may include but is not limited to recreational team sports fitness and daily activities such as walking running climbing and gardening Dance Yoga swimming and stretching and the students were asking if they can get um gym credits physical education credits for activities like like does
020Sports qualify and I said well yeah I'm pretty sure Sports qualifies because it's in our policy no but I want to check it doesn't and that if they were looking to clarify that I'm sorry they didn't go to their guidance counselors they could have clarified for them very quickly I'm still scrolling Elizabeth sorry oh it's okay I'm not seeing a revised a IH AE I'm seeing it stricken stricken yeah all right Ben there's um if I can find it I can speak intelligently about it I'm almost there um so a couple things there are first of all the oh I know why we cut this um masc does not have a policy on this anymore the topics cover under physical education are identified in the standards through the Department of Education we would follow those
021um and our graduation requirements identify how much and state statute identifies how much physical education students need to have so this is redundant on multiple fronts okay I knew I could say something intelligent if I saw my notes in front of me no that's that's great I really appreciate it I just was kind of trying to see like you were saying earlier having it having the policy manual up and current is like one step but then the next step is us going through and adjusting and changing and making things work for our district specifically so I kind of am still getting my mind around what we have in place versus what is best practice versus what we can change and so on and so forth y so thank you sure any other discussion of section
022I okay um so I we hear a motion to approve section I with the changes as discussed so moved second okay any further discussion okay let's vote um member Den yes member Priti yes and I'm a yes so it passes unanimously to be brought to the full committee for a second reading perfect one more down how many more do we have well I skipped P but that only has three policies so I can get that one in quick JK I they jkl is the last and are any of those big ones like this one oh they all are they all are okay reading specs folks they are they are all that long I I will finish them before I leave because Karen has my address so I'm finishing them before I leave how soon can
023we get this to the full committee to um have time to yeah I would assume this would be on the February meeting no but can we get it to them today so they have time to read it they have 13 days basically what if I commit to tomorrow because I have to accept all the deletions and all that sure that'd be great as soon as you can would be wonderful because I know we have some very thorough members who may want to read every word and I don't want them to I don't I don't want to put off the vote I want to pass this in February move on to I have started working on the next section and it is as um it is absolutely as long as this one is there a possibility
024we can do the one with only three items for first reading on um the 14th um I'm sure I can yes that be great okay terrific all right um well with that I guess would hear a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second okay any discussion no discussion vote um member Priti yes member denev yes and I'm a yes so we are adjourned at 11:28 am thank you very much superintendent for all your work on this thank you thank you everyone [Music]