001[Music] good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting for Wednesday January 10th 2024 it's 6 o'clock p.m. and we are meeting at the johnzon community center um uh let's do a roll call Secretary denev all right secretary genive I'm here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer here member petti here may uh member seon here and member CHS here we are all present and have a quorum thank you we will uh move on to the public comment is there any public comment tonight no one has signed up for public comment thank you we'll uh hear from our student representative Tristan hello as you can see my partner Shane's not here he's practicing his driving um student council is gearing up for three field trips on Friday January 26
002we are taking three teams the most we've had in 10 years to the special Olympic fix unified Bachi tournament at Oakmont High School we are excited to have so many teams and fans attending we will be bringing students to the regional round table on February 2nd in the state conference in March next week is midterm so we will once again host cookies Coco and crammen to encourage all students to study for their exams on Thursday January 25th we are running a music Bingo fundraiser to help offset the cost of the masc conference we hope to get a large turnout to this fun event it will be in the cafe from 6:00 to 7:30 and you all are invited Key Club is renaming the community closet to its old name the secret layer to celebrate this
003we will be restocking clothing for the cold weather Personal Care items as well as school items for the new semester additionally we'll be supporting the ghs food pantry open to all students located in the nurse's office we look forward to helping out at the Green Field Winter Carnival in February Key Key Club meetings are Thursday at 2:15 in the ghs gymnasium French Club echoing the French holiday tradition French Club hosted a and I'm sorry I might butcher this it's a little French galete D Roy or king cake party this week one slice contained a secret cherry and the lucky student was crowned King for the day we look forward to our February candy gram fundraiser taste the world cultures in March and our trip to France this April drama club continues to work hard rehearsing
004our spring play myth Adventures our performances will be March 22nd 23rd and 24th in the ghs auditorium NHS has been working hard to help out the community wherever needed with help from adopted family to the Greenfield Middle School spectrum is working on a bake sale for February to raise money for Club t-shirts thank you okay and uh Dr dbar has a comment so um the members have um an additional item on the student report but as Tristan and I talked prior to the meeting um the students have not spoken to Mr Morrison about the items of concern on the agenda and that would be the appropriate next step for them to address any concerns they have so he he agreed that they would do that and then um you know follow the protocol if Mr
005Morrison's not able to address the concerns it will come to me and then if they are not pleased with my response then certainly it can be a concern raised to the committee but um so that's why he very graciously agreed that he would follow that process and not raise the concern here so thank you just thank you any questions for Tristan thank you very much Tristan we'll move on to uh reports of the administration um what I would like is to hear the full reports from the assistant superintendent of teacher teaching and learning and the superintendent and then we can have a question and answer did I skip something budget update sorry we don't want to talk about money budget update my ego is not bruised chairman Mr Johnson W okay that's great uh you
006have your January reports uh in your packet uh both revolving special revenue and the local budget uh believe it or not as the it's even January we are starting our review process of encumbrances both salary and operating expenses um those on the revolving account as I've reported previously that are showing deficits if you look at the prior year revenues we haven't collected close to 50% of the revenues that we anticipate getting so so those will normally take care of themselves as the normal course of business occurs for the rest of the fiscal year uh things are trending uh according knock on wood to uh what it is that we feel uh things should be at this point in time with all the Personnel changes that we still continue to have throughout the year but uh
007I can answer any questions that you might have regarding either the local budget and the special Revenue fund report member NE um I've been wondering Mr pette for a little while if there's an an additional way that the budget could be presented visually I have a hard time understanding if I'm looking at things exactly the way that I should be and I'm wondering if there's a way to dumb it down into a py graph for example um I just uh find that I'm not sure that I know what to look for so maybe maybe we need need maybe I'm alone in this but I don't want to speak for anybody else but it would be great to maybe even have a little bit of assistance and how I should be looking at the budget properly
008I would I get I don't know as far as protocol would go as to whether or not that goes to the subcommittee for discussion first and or I have done this I think it was the second time that we were here uh in Greenfield of doing a little professional development regarding how to read these reports I'm not adverse to putting anything in a in a graphical representation I'm just you know want to be respectful of the protocol and also uh a better use of everyone's time not saying that I mean to put it in a pie chart is very easy to do but I just again would be willing to offer up either of those as an option for consideration do you have a link to was that recorded is there a link can we
009go back and watch the presentation um I would have to remember what year it was that we were here and it was a workshop so I don't even I don't think the workshop was recorded oh I would say at the time work yeah it was at the high it was at the high school we did it in the library I believe and yeah so yeah I think there are a number of ways we can pursue it but I think would be great to get you on our calendar to come and do a workshop like that and I would say remember the the the cliche of there really is no such thing as a stupid question is is true so please feel free if you're looking at something and and need a question answered I'm that's
010what I'm here for so I am at your service thank you I'm excited about a potential workshop and having uh availed myself of Mr Fett's uh time and asking questions that might be um some might be worried would be stupid but wasn't you did not treat me that way at all and we're very generous with your time with a one-on-one so I hope members will Avail themselves of that as well but I think looking at a graphical representation of some of the items might be useful both for us and for the public to get a better picture of the budget um thank you can um for clarification is that a discussion that when you just referen graphical representation of some items do you expect that to be just a clarification or do you want that
011to be a subcommittee item um I I think for let me put it in the think about it a little bit and we can I can talk to the superintendent and we can figure out uh the next steps but thank you so much for bringing up that issue are there any other questions on the budget mayor dorer hi thank you I'd like to say too I've spent a little time with the visit manager and he was great explaining everything um so I actually like the the the detail but I can understand both points of view I mean I definitely can see the advantages you know but I have a question on this how how many vacant do you have a lot of vacancies do you have a lot of vacant positions and how are they
012represented on the budget that was how are they how are they represented on on what we see that was my question I can speak to some vacancies and then I'll let we'll we'll tag team the answer for you if that's okay so we do have um some vacancies we have some instructional assistant positions open um we do have some professional positions open such as um speech pathologist position is not filled um our bcba's uh board certified Behavior analysts um are not filled and I I will let Andy go into more detail but for some of those positions rather than a an employee we have had to move to using contracted services so we've hired companies that can provide the service for us instead so um you know Andy can speak to how that's represented but
013some of the vacancies are truly continuing to be vacant and other vacancies um the funds have moved from one place to another to be spent as to how they're represented what we do as a matter of practice for budgetary controls and if you look and see on the second column third column in from the right if you count a percent used there's the encumbered re req column those are encumbrances so we encumber the salaries for all the Personnel from the beginning of the year so we know if there are 10 teachers that are getting paid $50,000 then there's $500,000 that would be encumbered if that one of those teachers leaves that encumbrance would be reduced and you would see an available balance and the available budget would increase so that's how it would be reflected
014in a sense that theoretically we would have the budgeted amount for the total salaries what's been expended encumbered be what what's be remaining for the remainder of the year and if a position leaves then that incumbrance would go away and then would increase the available balance in the far right column so can you show show me like specific may I sorry give you if you look at the first first P floor May or just order um the first if I I I'll say a I'm going to say a quote unquote simple one would be if you look at the first page under North Parish the par professional the the 109,000 you see that it's expending now so when we built this budget there were anticipated be $19,000 of salaries that would be charged to that
015line with the various changes and it could be a combination this might I think it might be a bad example but at the same time I'll say you know that whether it's not pair professionals we move to another building or not but if a pair pro professional at that position left then you look and see that encumbered the 43,000 170 and then the available balance of the 37,000 so that would be a an example of the possibility of a position being vacant and therefore we don't we don't encumber the position if it's a vacant you know because we we know then that would make those funds available potentially to use as Dr dbar is saying if we need to contract a service we could potentially do a budget transfer to a contracted service line so
016it's like throughout the report you would have to kind of look and see and do a deeper dive as to seeing what the the devil behind the details if you will regarding uh how it is but the the concept and what it is that you're getting at as far as reflecting the vacancies it would all be in that encumbered column as to once a position becomes vacant that salary becomes unencumbered and therefore the far right columnist the available balance would increase I pretty much get that but may I just last part so can we look at that specifically I don't even know what the initials were that you said I didn't and I pardon my I didn't know what that was bcba the board certified Behavior analysts their a professional position that works with students
017generally works with students with um more significant needs they do very um specific recommendations for changing learning or um Behavior patterns for students so uh I'm trying to think of so you have a followup about the bcbas if I may here's a the visual example using that in particular if everybody were to turn to page seven of the the munus report you will see Midway down there's a budget transfer of [Music] 12,539 mhm which is a combination of the we reduced the therapy specialist line because as she's saying we had a vacancy and those that's where those board certified Behavior analysts would be so we took 55,000 from that line added it to the contracted service where we're Contracting with a company down below and then the Delta between the 55 and the 120 would
018have been a another transfer somewhere through the report I just want knowing where the bcbas were so that's where that's the visual depiction of where it is that that bcba transfer had occurred It's a combination of moving 120 into that line taking 55 from the therapy specialist line and the balance from another line somewhere I just admittedly haven't gone through while we were talking actually I I it's up above the psychologist line so we did we took money from the psychologist line and the therapy specialist line and moved it into the contracted service line that's how the I'll say the mechanical and to some extent visual depiction of those transfers occur thank you very much member seon thank you um I was just curious about Capital Project funding like this is our our sort of
019annual this happens all the time we don't always I think have capital projects maybe we do but where would that show up and how would I get updates like as a as a project is progressing it is not on this report you're absolutely right um it is something that I'll say for whatever reason I don't think we've had that as part of a regular report it's it's very I can there is a section in the city's general ledger that is all the capital projects I don't think there's anything stopping us from including those going forward if the committee would like that it's fine it's easy enough to include it that'd be great thank you thanks any other questions on the budget update thank you we'll move on to the um superintendence update and the assistant
020superintendent update and what I would request is I'd like to hear the reports from both of you first and then members can have up to five minutes to ask questions of either of you if that's all right um thank you good evening everyone um an update first on professional development we have a January 26 full PD day coming up we started our second instructional strategy work on questioning at our recent January 3rd faculty meeting we will continue it throughout the faculty meetings in January but the teaching lab will be back on January 26 to develop integrate and fine-tune our skills with this instructional strategy the Middle School history teachers will still engage with educares on the 26 they're continuing the roll out of investigating history curriculum in grades 5 through 7 they've also been provided
021onetoone coaches to help them with un pacing planning and implementation and then our High School Math teachers are still in the midst of the first year of the illustrative math roll out for the math curriculum resource we adopted this year and they will receive teach and learn Parts three and four on that Friday um strategic plan updates for curriculum as you know we have four categories in our strategic plan and I just like to keep you up to date as to what's going on in the one that I oversee we um had the Statewide system of support team join us today for uh District Administrative walkthroughs we went to three of the six buildings today and we'll they're going to come back tomorrow and walk through the remainder of the buildings um it's really great
022professional development for our administrators we get to work together go through classrooms we have other building administrators join us in different buildings so they get to get out of their building and come view the instruction that's happening at buildings that they don't over every day and we get to calibrate instruction and student engagement throughout the district um just like to say we do use it in the aggregate it's non eval evaluative but we use the walkthroughs to continue to plan our ongoing professional development and really support our administrators across the district curriculum mapping um big shout out to margarite Rancor who's here tonight though she's on the curriculum mapping committee and has been working really hard to uh map all of the lessons for K through 4 we have four other members that have been
023working on the ELA and music curriculum mapping for this first year of the cycle and we hope to be uh finished soon so that we can meet as a group and review the curriculum for this first year and finish up by June of 2024 it'll be the first year of the fiveyear cycle that we have started in our strategic plan and then um we've had some really awesome things happening and I feel like I I know about them and I don't get to share or highlight them with the community and with folks watching and with all of you so I included some curriculum projects for um teachers will reach out to me and say hey can you come visit this is happening or we have this going on really would love you to be part
024of this or you never going to believe what our kids did so I really thought some of these highlighted a lot of the great work that's happening in our classrooms and I think that um paying attention to all of those good things really is a good reminder as we start the new year um Miss Valentine's fourth grade class at Federal Street they were working on uh knowledge CK unit on empires in the Middle Ages and they were doing unit three which was gloomy castles and jousting nights and part of their project was to create their own armor and shields so I share with you some of the finished products from our fourth graders at Federal Street um I had the chance to uh engage with Miss Creek's Advanced Euro class they created gingerbread structures based
025on famous European architecture um based on what the pictures illustrate if you I can't imagine trying to do this with materials that you make gingerbread houses with that they did a phenomenal job they worked collaboratively in small groups they had to research a structure deliver short presentations and then um really highlight the aspects of that structure so I included a couple photos from there they are on display at the Green Greenfield High School library cases so uh during her walkth through hopefully on the 26th they'll still be there so you can see many of the other ones that are there and then as you know Beacon um holds a special place in my heart and uh the beacon students at Greenfield Community College they had a popup holiday popup shop um before the holidays and
026one of our Beacon students created their own business called Beacon beads and were selling their wees at the pop-up shop so just wanted to really thank Max FIP for that work and highlighting all of the good things that are happening with them and then Miss Pollock always um has something up her sleeve she's our ghs librarian phenomenal person that just really tries to expand students opportunities and experiences and she has lyrical Faith who is a award-winning spoken word poet coming to the library on Wednesday January 24th and uh middle and high school students will be able to engage with this award-winning poet and engage in a poetry writing event with them and then Mr Martin and Miss Zimmerman um if you've never participated in the yellow conference um it's youth engaging in legislators and officials
027and uh many of you I think have participated in the past or at least attended it's definitely worth uh just coming if you're not participating but just to see it is our students really taking those Civic standards and engaging in Civic engagement with adults and leading really deep conversations about matters that are important to them and then last but not least uh just wanted to highlight we have been in partnership with UMass for many years um and getting student teachers and interns with them but they cordially invited me to be part of an elpac partnership which is an educator lure partnership and really how to de develop student teachers so that the partnership between the university and local public schools expands and we really can foster the growth of student teachers in the program and
028have them stay in communities such as Greenfield as part of our employment and really fill the vacancies that we have so we had our first meeting last night it was phenomenal and I really look forward to the collaboration with them and seeing what can happen in um really supporting getting Greenfield Public schools vacancies filled and really having programs that meet the needs of public schools thank you thank you superintendent okay mine's not as fun as Karen's but um we are moving through the fy2 budget process uh we are doing budget meetings with building and District level administrators um this week and next we've already begun the Staffing review to ensure all of our positions including our vacancies are captured for next year's budget so um that's the first step in referencing the Strategic plan one
029of the pieces is that our um we would have a technology committee which we did and that they would administer an IT survey to all of our staff which they did and that information about technology that they want or currently use and need to have updated or replaced will be um a critical piece in looking at the budget for fy2 um especially around the use of the last of our eer grant funds Easter 3 is the funding period is zooming along very quickly so we need to make sure that that's utilized very effectively um unfortunately I'm sharing that Merl melli our director of Early Childhood will be leaving us um I'm moving forward to fill that position Merill has agreed to stay until we're able to fill the position thankfully I appreciate her flexibility with
030that and um I share because some of you may have known Joanne Wallace used to work in the superintendent's office prior to me being in the district and she has come back to the district as our accounting assistant so we're very happy to have her back um you will find the schedule for the January 26th building visit I will share it with City Council next next week um January 26th is so um members had talked about having the school visits in January after the new committee school committee members were here and the new city council members were on board January 26th is a professional development day as Karen referenced so there won't be students in the buildings but that will I think give a little bit of flexibility for us to give you tours so
031um we have the general time frame I'll ask the principles to identify a few spots they'd really like to highlight for you folks if any of you are planning to attend and there's some an interest that is specific to you please let me know ahead of time and if we can accommodate that around the PD schedule we'll definitely do that okay um weather the most hated Topic in any superintendent's job um I was hoping and hoping and hoping it would never snow and yet it did and it was quite the Humdinger so um I know um superintendents have to make very challenging decisions about weather and school schedules and um folks don't always agree with the decisions that get made and that is that is okay that is part of the superintendent's job but that
032is one of the things that I am charged with and basically is my sole responsibility so so I've shared this before but I'll I'll share again that when we make weather related decisions about closing early delaying or closing completely um I don't do that in a vacuum so the minute anybody starts talking about a storm on the forecast um superintendant begin collaborating with each other and I begin speaking with Mr Warner from the DPW um we track the weather very carefully I also consult with a meteorologist so that I have many perspectives on the weather and generally if it's a very large storm and we know well ahead of time everybody's favorite is I make a decision the night before so nobody's phone rings at 5 o'clock um that is not always the case and
033we don't want to unnecessarily impact school schedules so in this most recent case we did not necessarily anticipate the need to impact school but at 4 :0 that morning there was a determination that we did need to so um the primary factor any time I make a decision about changing the school schedule is 100% safety students and staff um that does not mean there are not other impacts anytime we change the school schedule for anything there are impacts and I appreciate that but I also need to just share with folks that um there are many factors that go into to the decisions we make about how to adjust to a chang school schedule and they may not be known until the morning we are changing the schedule and so sometimes we have to make difficult
034decisions um and there are with any decision there are impacts and some people are pleased with the outcome of that and others are not but um well I greatly appreciate that the decisions are not always um supported they're difficult to make but we make them with student safety as the priority so um so that and as I've shared with parents and I will remind them in the most in the upcoming update I always respect their decision to make a decision different than I have about School attendance if I open and they do not feel their children should come obviously students may not come to school if I have closed school but um I can't imagine they're clamoring get in if I've called a snow day but um you know parents are able to make that
035decision if I have opened school and they don't believe that is in their child's best interest I just ask that they call so that we know their children are home so thank you and then um finally member Martini had asked for a summary of our music program which was actually fabulous timing with the budget upcoming so um our elementary schools offer General music we have two music teachers split um across three build three Elementary buildings and we do support excuse me the district um funds half of the strings for kids programs as you know and then our music teachers are going to be integrating vocals into the elementary program because that is a change that is in the new music standards so they'll be um building that and then the middle school we have instrumental
036lessons as well as band and that um that structure the offerings have been consistent um Mrs fenmore thought all the way back to about 2017 that that's what has been offered at the middle school and then at the high school now we do offer band for grades 8 through 12 um just a reminder that I've shared that in the past we made a change to the music um Staffing because we had a music teacher at the middle school who changed positions of their own valtion um and when we were not able to hire we looked we were looking at the um student enrollment in music courses at the high school which some of them were extremely low so we made the decision to split the position um so that's why at this stage we have
037banned um at the high school as well but I do know that the music program is a priority for at least the remaining members you know the consistent members of the committee so as we launch into the fy2 budget that's certainly something that um we can build into the budget if that is what the committee would like so I think that's that's it thank you questions from the Committee Member Priti thank you I think that um askp this question is for you but I'm not even sure it comes out of discussion that happened at the uh wellness policy committee meeting this past week and I may not know exactly what I'm talking about but I and Christine may be able to help too um CK when there is a change like from the state that
038says hey now you need to work on putting nutrition into the curriculum does that go into the CK CK a framework or is there a different way that that gets into the curriculum when it's mandated do you understand what I'm asking about that and you're referring to the adopted Ela curriculum correct so if there's a change in health standards We Begin teaching Health in grade five so if it's a k through four change they would have to incorporate it into their science or social studies block okay it does not get adopted into their Ela block but if it were in the other grades that are covered by CK CK it would be worked in there is that what you're saying no they have a separate Health curriculum and they have a separate Health block got
039it okay okay I believe that answers the question that came up so I'll follow up with the nurse leader you're I just want to make sure that the committee cka is just the English language arts um re resource yes yeah and there was some discussion at the committee that perhaps when those new like mandates come down like you have to put financial literacy in or you have to put nutrition in that it would get woven into the language arts curriculum and was that true or not and I was the only nonk through 12 person in the room so I was doing my best to keep up with what they were asking like I could follow up pretty because we talk about CK and your report just about every time so thank you appreciate it mayor
040disorder I'm glad you said what that stood for and this is like my third meeting today I'm joining all of these new things and there's a lot of initials and I think I'm probably not the only person here maybe I am the only person here that doesn't know what all the initials stand for but that being said do you think that maybe for um tonight and like the next night because this was that was the second set of initials pardon my ignorance but I didn't know what they were and I'm I'm glad that you you said that it was in a meeting this morning I thought there were three of them and I thought I'm not going to ask because the senator was on now I thought I'll find out afterwards but we're amongst friends
041that I'm comfortable with here tonight and we're going to be working with and to say that there there's some things that I don't know and I imagine that there others are too well if you would like an acronym you are in the right place education is rif with them we we could just use letters all night long if we tried um so please I appreciate you're saying that and you're probably accurate that others are not as well-versed and thank you for um bringing it up because for us it's like a second language so um we will try to be cognizant of act the jargon Busters for the members of the committee so thank you for bringing that up I would just quickly add that I learned what CK was after hearing about it for two
042years just the other day so I asked too because I didn't know what it was so yeah you're good I saw member martini and then member Den in regards to acronyms that is something that um members of the committee uh here and there have asked to be spelled out and I think that's not just for us it's for the public uh we can't expect everyone to know um what lots of the acronyms that um that we hear here mean and um generally speaking they probably ought to be spelled out at least once for people um especially as members of the public don't tune in to every single meeting so uh if it's the first time that it's come up in a meeting I think we should spell it out um in general and uh I
043just wondered if um in addition to the um three items that um you had highlighted here whether there are any other um interesting pieces that will be included in the January 26th PD day in terms of offerings for the staff let me pull them my agenda but I need my phone sorry I didn't bring it I know we have um a Crisis Prevention and Intervention which is CPI training being offered I know Food Services is having a a special um culturally diverse Chef come in and work with our food service staff the K2 um teaching lab is spending four hours in the morning on foundational skills and the foundations of reading and then in the afternoon they'll be doing the questioning work um sorry my memory I've been working on it all day you think
044it would be right in the Forefront um Mr messing our director of pupil services will be spending the day with our special education teachers as well as our counselors and lcsws um social workers sorry so easy to do in education um and they'll be going over uh policy and procedures and new um IEP formats and regulations uh the nurses are the nurses are um also uh engaging but Melissa has yet to confirm what they actually will be participating in and well most of the day is just spent with with curriculum [Music] um we will have a power school training too for our admin assistance because uh Power School is upgrading so there's a lot that is new for them to learn [Music] and um Merill is running an inclusive practices um for inclusion strategies to
045support all students at the prek level for our a staff that's great thank you very much and IEP is individualized education plan right okay remember Den I had to Google ssos while you were talking Statewide system Statewide system of support yes which and then you mentioning abbreviations and and uh Vice chair Martini also made me think maybe in a future working session we can make a little cheat key for ourselves and and the public so that we can reference it in the future because it does get really complicated and sometimes I feel like whoa what was that just blew right past me frequent acronyms that's what we'll call it and just just so the committee since you brought up ssos those are the that's the group of people that the district works with um because
046we are in status so they are supports for us and help um provide resources they also help us um write and implement the strategies through the tag Grant I don't know if there's an acronym for tag it's targeted assistance grant that it's too easy forgot um through the targeted assistance grant so it's a team of three people and they've been participating with us in the building walkthroughs and creating the professional development related to um our instructional practices thank you no that's I wanted to know that anything else M Den oh no any other questions for yes member ston uh this is for askp um uh sorry that's an acronym our assistant superintendent Karen patod um I am really excited to hear about the partnership with the UMass licensure program and like hoping that that helps
047us fill a critical need that we have for educators but I was wondering who are some of the other um lure progr programs that we have existing Partnerships with do we know if there's a particular program or set of programs where we're getting the majority or if we have a fairly diverse you know um set of applicants who are coming from from various programs um we've worked with Smith college in the past in Mount Holio uh Mount Holio used to do a big launch in the spring when their grads were getting ready to uh step foot into their careers and and we used to be able to do an interview night they haven't done it since Co um but UMass is our primary connection now for our interns and we do have two Elementary joining
048us this spring so we're excited about that excellent thank you other questions thank you very much thanks everybody next we have the consent agenda the way a consent agenda works is items are listed there with a an action included so in this case approving minutes and acknowledging corresponden um any there so I will hear a motion to approve the consent agenda and a second um any member who wishes to may ask that one item be taken out of the consent agenda so it can be considered separately um so um thanks for playing along let's try it um I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved is there a second so Mo motion from Member martini and second from Member Den uh would anyone like to remove anything from
049the consent [Music] agenda any discussion let's move to a vote all those those in favor say I I all those against say nay anyone abstaining motion carries uh I'll abstain the motion otherwise carries um by all other members um next on the agenda is subcommittee assignments and I have a um handout for you with my proposed uh assignments I would take a motion to approve the committee and repres representative assignments as presented is there a motion to that effect so moved is there a second second motion from Member Martini second for member ston discussion yes member mayor dorer so um do we all how do we all call each other to decide when we're going to meet or how does that work yes scheduling Can Can Happen among the members yeah you can determine I
050would encourage people as much as possible to schedule your meetings for times when members of the public could participate if they could but I we know that schedules such as they are sometimes don't allow that but to the extent possible consider accessibility for the public otherwise it's on your your plan in the superintendent does like to attend um the committee meeting so please incorporate her into your planning and scheduling thanks any other questions or comments discussion about the motion to approve the uh assignments member Martini do we need to um have separate motions in relation to new subcommittees or uh to disband or otherwise reorganize existing ones um my understanding is that it's the chair's um ability to put forward the organization and assignments in the first meeting of the year um but if members
051would like to discuss those things separately um we can do that okay so um can you describe the school committee handbook ad hoc because I don't remember discussing it yes and uh we do have that on our agenda it's a bit of a chicken and the horse kind of Chicken and the Egg kind of thing but um the school committee handbook um you know basically um the school committee sets um Poli policy for the for the school district and then the superintendent works on um operationalizing that and creating procedures for this the school side however the school committee needs I believe its own handbook for how to operationalize certain things that are in our policies and the the way the way that things get organized the way the things actually happen isn't spelled out in
052the policy manual because it's policy it's not procedure so items that I would like this um handbook committee to be working on would be essentially there's a whole section of our policies which which are um policies about the way um the school school what the school committee will do um and I would like I would like this committee to figure out how to operationalize those things what are the what are the steps um and um for example the policy calls for the school committee to evaluate itself every year um but there isn't a procedure for how that will happen um who is responsible for it when does it happen um what is the first step you know so those are the types of items and they're um I was hoping to have Liz lefon here
053to talk about this she is our representative from the Massachusetts of uh Association of school committees or mask um she has gone through this process with many different School committees and who have found it very helpful and has shared with me a bunch of different um sample handbooks um so uh those can serve as models and I believe that um that Miss lefon can work with the with the committee on um on establishing our our first handbook and then a can be a useful tool for orientation of new members and um just kind of create some clarity how for example um how do how do folks get an item on the agenda for the school committee um how do how does that process work so those are the types of questions that the handbooker would
054address thank you um I agree with the need for that I have been on the committee for a little while now but um I still have questions that I don't know the answers to from time to time about what the expected um procedure is for things so I think that's a great idea could you also speak to the ad hoc committee that was formed last year in relation to superintendent evaluation which is not listed here yes um so I've been I'm I was talking to the superintendent about the possibility of setting that up as an advisory committee the advantage of an advisory committee would be that it would allow not just school committee members to serve on that but uh other people um then the group would basically make work on making a recommendation about
055the process and the tool that's used for the superintendent um evaluation but I haven't quite gotten there yet in terms of um fleshing out what that might look like and having all the conversations with the superintendent that I want to have before that happens so that's why that uh committee is not yet here and so I you know there is precedent also for school committee chairs to bring back these assignments to the committee to add new things um or change things as needed so um I I hope to be um addressing that in the future okay so that's a TBD be determined yes thank you any other questions yes member ston so if you look on the web page for the school committee um there's listed an additional subcommittee the racial Justice advisory committee but
056to BU knowledge um for the past several years that committee has been unstaffed and I just want to know what was the history why did we have that to be begin with why is it currently unstaffed do we still need it um and then if if not could we get it removed from the thing because I want the public to be I want the public to have the most accurate understanding of the infrastructure that is available to school committee members and that is also available to them um to ask questions or to probe things thank you for that um yeah I think that it the committee was formed um in the wake of George Floyd Floyd's murder and it was at a time when many school committees were quickly putting together um statements basically that
057they were putting out and I think that the interest from chair pretti at the time in the committee was to do some more substantive work on that I think we um I think first of all I would like all um of these committees to keep equity and racial Equity at the of your work and to think about the equity implications of everything that we do um so I think our commitment to that is um still there um and that I think that we as basically found that the the biggest racial and class Equity project that the committee was taking on was the redistricting and reorganizing of the schools and so our Focus kind of shifted to that um and so I think um the superintendent will work to get the um the website to both
058reflect what our current structure is but also somehow to give people access to Prior information and that's the the trick of organizing the website but I'll leave that to to other folks um to figure out so does that help yes thank you thank you other questions or comments about the assignments hearing none we will vote um all those in favor of approving the assignments as presented oh I'm sorry we need a we did have a motion in a second okay so now all in favor say I I I I I all those against say nay and those abstaining I'll abstain thank you very much um we move on to the school committee handbook um and I think we have covered that with our discussion of the subcommittee assignments um is there any are there any
059other questions or discussion about the handbook that folks would like to have tonight okay thank you um and let's see the next two items review school committee calendar of topics you don't have a school committee calendar of topics in your in your packets and um there's also the item school committee 2024 goals um so discussing the school committee calendar of topics uh essentially we would like to have um a month-by-month list of the kind of recurring items that school committee must addressed at various times of the year um secretary Geneva has already started some work on um this calendar um and I would um one of the one of us um standing committees that you all just approved is the executive com subcommittee I'd like the executive subcommittee to meet sometime between now and next
060month and um go over that and bring you something but I would like the um school committee to have a calendar of topics that um can be a tool for us and others in the community to know about the flow of our work over the course of a standard year remember geneve would you like to add anything to this um well Vice chair martini and I discovered when we went to hyenas that one of the number one things to implement in order to be functional is to create a year-long agenda and to align it with um all kinds of benchmarks and we didn't have one and we didn't know exactly how to start so we took some good classes and learned quite a bit about that and um spent some long lunches writing all of
061these ideas and thoughts down and then brought them back and um I had some conversations about them and member ston and I have been working on a little draft and just beginning the Journey of this that hopefully all of you will work on with us and be a part of so that we can create something that in essence would be something that the public could View and know what to expect how to hold us to account and to get an idea of where they fit into the timeline and how they can best support us and how we can best support them so hopefully we can move that along and share it with all of you shortly thank you member RTI I'm sorry it's just kind of a point of order I don't have the calendar
062of topics we supposed to have that in our materials no I as I mentioned I had I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach in terms of what I could sorry I misunder what you said okay I'm looking for it and I no thank you remember NE has started work on something but we will take it up in executive um thank you I'm sorry I just misunderstood great thank you any other questions or comments about that all right thank you um similarly with the 2024 goals we don't have a draft for you to consider tonight but I would like to open it up for discussion tonight we would like uh your feedback as committee members of what you would like to to see us do this year if you have any um and then
063again we can bring that to executive committee and bring something back to you next month so I would just open it to members who um anyone who has any feedback for us as we're putting that together member priet you're you're asking for a discussion now yes discussion yes we'd welcome people to share their ideas of what what would be goals for 2024 um I'm so I think I I think this is an interesting idea um I think it helps organize the work and I appreciate you putting effort into it um I would very much like the committee to have a discussion or perhaps an ongoing discussion about how we look at uh what I think is inevitable and that is uh working towards a brand new elementary school that would be one elementary school for
064the whole uh district and um I've talked about this at planning and construction and I've talked about this with the capital pieces that the school committee has a seat on and um I think that um the idea of bringing the capital uh budget to the table to improve transparency is also really good idea that we'll tie into this because I do believe we as a committee are kind of in the dark about um how much some old things cost to repair in buildings and that money we're spending on things like elevators could if we have to do it two or three times quickly get us half of a new brand new elementary school that's 21st century and I think a goal is to work with the city to put together a 10 or so year
065plan uh to make that happen for Greenfield thank you other comments um I would love to see us have some targeted professional development ideas so we've already just discussed one about having PD on the budget to make sure we understand what we're even looking at but I think that there might be other professional development opportunities that we as a as a committee could do together and so I'd love to set aside time for us to discuss what those are and come to some agreement about maybe like once a quarter like we can't we can't be doing it all the time but to have a few that we think are really key for us to do um sooner rather than later thank you other comments mayor disorder um I I have two great um and I
066like what the other people said those were good ideas um one I was wondering if it was I don't know if this is a goal or not but I'm just going to say it right now because it might be into goals that um we have all our meetings in part person and um that's a goal in the city which this is part of the city like I don't um to have our meetings be hybrid so that there can be some remote participation it's kind of that's an equity issue and an and an access issue there's a lot of parents I imagine with young children that we don't want them leaving those kids at home alone so they can come to the school committee meeting so that was a a goal I'm thinking it falls under
067that just a I don't know that I'm we're going to try to Institute that for the rest of the you know for other boards and commissions and I know that we meet here and I know that when I've done this here I needed a little extra help that we have the things here and you know maybe somebody can help us a little bit to get started I took a video of Kathy Scott doing it the first time I don't know that I'd remember how to do it by myself but you know at anyway that's one goal and the other thing is as you were talking about this it reminded me of as you were talking about another ele Elementary School when I was going around knocking on doors there was a couple of people that
068asked me and I see that other school districts are doing this just be kind after I say that would we be looking at by any chance at the future uh a with high school like high school or middle schools schools joining together in our in the neighborhood is that anything if anyone has an appetite for that um that was something that was asked of me for I think that Gil and there are some high schools and everything that are joining together because there's less students and if we're looking at one thing in a long range plan like an elementary school um you know I think we graduated 71 it was just a thought of something to look at in the future you're talking about looking at regionalizing of schools yeah okay thank you m Childs
069I'd like to piggy back on to that because I saw that article too about a whole bunch of our neighboring towns that are all banding together I think even if we aren't ready to regionalize yet or if we're not in the right position to yet we definitely should be exploring areas where we can combine resources I believe we already do in some sports and certainly there are more programs and then as a second thing I would really like to see the committee work on our Outreach to the public and communication so that we're really welcoming and hearing people in the town and I want that value to be something that we keep in mind when working with the school district so that the school district also will be communicative with the public it's hard right
070now I mean used to be in the good old days you could put your ad in the paper and on the radio and everyone in town would hear it but now there's not a good central place to communicate from so it's going to take effort and creativity in order to reach everyone thank you I'm learning I need to learn how to turn my head just make sure I see everybody any other um feedback for us on the goals for the school committee member Martini uh I appreciate all of the comments uh and they certainly uh many of them are in line with uh priorities the committee has talked about or they seem to be priorities to me because of the frequency with which we have talked about them such as improving our communication uh improving
071our own functionality uh when speaking about PD uh and about long range planning um I would also like to add um my hope that the committee will uh prioritize the organization and focus that the committee holds on student outcomes um we have here to for certainly talked about student outcomes in committee meetings um however it tends to uh happen in my View kind of randomly and and um not in an organized way and and I would like the committee to um Center that as a priority when it comes to things like our annual calendar that will be forthcoming um and and things like that that uh said for my own um my own views on the goals I think it would be helpful if members would if they have additional ideas in terms of school
072committee goals um to please send them um and I don't know uh what would be the appropriate um or best Avenue to do that perhaps to the chair so that they can be distilled uh into something more concrete when we talk about our goals the next time thank you remember deneve um I've thought a lot about goals especially in working on the draft list that I sent you um but one of the things that kept coming up is that our year ends in June it doesn't end in December so when June rolls around we I'm hoping that we can take a look at the goals and of course we will not have accomplished very many of them this year but part of it is that in June we look at it and we say oh
073this is what but we've completed and we cross those things off and then it's not such a heavy lift come July because we've already created our goal list and our strategy and our yearlong agenda we can go back and say well we're going to carry these things over and add onto it so it's sort of as a self-perpetuating experience and it won't feel so difficult it's difficult now because this is the first time we're doing it but it's going to just be smooth running once we get into it but I feel like one of the most important goals especially to piggyback on the student outcomes comment is that June is the end so we have to stop and take a look and see what we've done and what we've accomplished and have we reached some
074of these goals how are the student outcomes compared to when we started so that our plans for the year starting in July are more targeted so that we're really ready to go with a new yearlong agenda come time students are back in the schools thank you thank you any other comments member pretti thank you I'm just curious if you could speak to how you plan to organize the goals the work um uh towards them and what you think um how how you think we will uh dole it out so to speak and and then measure thank you yeah I think that the when the executive committee meets and um discusses goals um we want to take into account our capacity as a school committee certainly there's we can't won't be able to do everything um
075and then I think that there W once the kind of go the school committee as a whole has kind of signed off on the goals we can work out an operations plan for how we're going to make it happen which which committees are going to take on which parts of the work do we need new ad hoc committees or advisory committees to accomplish things so thank you for that member Martini can we uh set a date by for members to please communicate their additional ideas in terms of goals to yourself prior to the executive committee meeting I think you said you wanted to do that prior to the next regular school committee meeting so yeah um superintendent could I ask people to send their thoughts to you um just because I'm just aware that we
076are a uh you know I just I don't want to I don't want to get into where we're deliberate that's part of why we're having this discussion now I don't want to get into too much deliberation by email but I think that would be an appropriate way for people to share um their feedback and maybe we ask if you do have things you didn't you think of you know tomorrow and you realize oh I should have said that because you didn't have much time to prepare your thoughts um please please um share those with the superintendent by a week from today just to the superintendent yeah any other questions or comments all right thank you very much the uh the executive committee will meet and work on that thank you so much for very thoughtful
077discussion I think it's going to be very useful tool um the next item is um um requests for new agenda items and I'd like to to speak to this for a second before we talk about it going forward I'd like the process for people um to get agenda items on the school committee agenda to be to ask me to put them on and um if I um if I respond that I don't want to or or you disagree with uh with my decision about the timing of it we can certainly add an agenda item to a school committee agenda such as this one um where a school committee could vote to put something on an agenda um uh even if it was something that I didn't agree with but I just think it would be
078easier going forward since I am responsible for building the agenda for folks just to ask me if you'd like an item on there and if you feel like you're um you're not getting a response or you're not getting the response you want we can certainly add it to the agenda for this full committee to consider whether to add your item to a to an agenda so that's I don't know how clear that is but that's and obviously we don't have a handbook for this but that's basically what I'm proposing at least for the time being and maybe the handbook committee will find other models for for how this should be done um but uh but it is on the agenda tonight so are there any agenda items that folks would like to see on future
079meetings member Den I'd like to add two things in the future um one hybrid meetings um having our meetings be hybrid and see where we are with that uh we talked about it back last September I believe we voted on it um and I'd like to talk about meeting times and potentially changing that great thank you any other agenda items that folks would like to see okay hearing none can move on to the um school committee reports um report of the chair um I'll just say um it really was an honor to be voted your chair and uh it's been a bit of a a scrambly time as we get a new government and a new committee uh going and and I've had uh I was away and so um appreciate everybody's um accommodation of
080me and your your help with with the work um I wanted to just say something about um the importance of Institutions like the school committee um it really is important and special that we have a system for educating children um for for preparing them giving them information and insights it really makes a huge difference in people's lives to get a really good education and the concept of um a Democratic Society creating um bodies like school districts school boards School committees to have the public input into that that these are public dollars and the public should have a say and how things go uh and how their children are educated and so on is very important and um we're at a time when many uh institutions in our world are under under attack and things are
081are tough and um you know um member Priti and I went through the pandemic uh you led us through that pandemic that was not easy that was it's tough there's a lot of strains um and we're seeing uh across the country um School committees coming under attack uh School committees being the target of um of forces that are really trying to limit what young people have access to limit what they uh can learn about and so I just wanted to say that our work is important and defending and protecting this institution of a school committee is important and each one of you plays a role in that um and I don't underestimate the um responsibility you placed in me as chair to play that role and um uh so I I just want you to
082I know there will be times as school committee members when it gets tough there's a lot of work uh there's a lot of feelings from the community in particular about the way children are educated you may be the target of attacks um but what you're doing is really important and I really appreciate it so that's my report for tonight um so subcommittee reports um obviously we have not had um reports of the new committees um but I thought it might be useful to just kind of get a picture of each of these content areas and kind of where we are and where we're going in the next few months um I did not ask the superintendent for help preparing for this but we did vote last time on a redistricting and reorganization of the of
083the schools what do you see um superintendent in terms of that work and what the the school committee um will be asked to do around it so at this point um there are a few logistical issues that um we need guidance or decision-making from the committee about the timing of the students so we're going to redraw the lines as was voted but there's been discussion about do all the students move into the new school at one time do we do it um basically allowing students already in a school to age out and then just have incoming kindergarteners each year do we just pick a hard date and everybody moves to the new school so we're getting numbers um around that which is challenging Karen and I met with Jake we're not letting him Escape unscathed
084so we're working with him we're going to really need to do a lot of work with kismesis to identify numbers and what rerouted bus um routes look like and numbers of buses so that we can give the committee all the information they need to consider those choices um we will also need some conversations I expect um we'll need to negotiate some items with multiple of our unions regarding um the steps that will need to be taken um around the redistricting so the Committees will need to the committee will need to be involved in that and then um as we get into next year or as Karen gets into next year I expect there will be some Financial impacts that the committee will need to consider but we're trying to get all of the nuts and
085bolts so to speak done um as much as possible while Karen and I are working together and we both have the background of the work that's happened so that we can get all the logistics so a few um challenging choices we'd like to bring to the committee I hope by March we hope by March thank you any questions from the committee about the redistricting I I just have a comment I was watching that um with baited breath and I wanted to thank the members of this committee that you know were here and the superintendent and the assistant superintendent you know you were all familiar with it that you actually made your you know that you you made that decision in in December um before the you know before it was a new turnover I thought
086it was difficult I was following it and some of it you had to be have the wisdom of Solomon but you you proceeded and and made a decision and as a new person coming in I'd just like to say I was grateful for that that you you know made your decisions thank you other comments or questions seon as the person who will be coming on to help chair that committee um I was curious if you would welcome any support in terms of um helping to plan the communications and and working with the community at large to just like message this so um the short answers absolutely I see that as the work of the subcommittee so I expect you and I will be touching base very shortly to talk about how to move that and
087um the first items of discussion so I assume but absolutely I think that the this is the committee's decision you know Karen and I bring Logistics and pros and cons to the committee to make decisions but I think you folks will really need to kind of make the decisions about how you want that dealt with sure right thank you other comments or questions okay moving on to policy um I will continue to chair that committee it's the same committee as we had before with member Dena and member pretti um where we are um as you know we've been in this arduous multi-year multi- superintendent process to revise the uh redistricting I mean the policy the policy manual and um this superintendent is determined not to pass it on to the next so we are going
088to finish fully revising our policies and where we are now the policy committee is in the middle because um the full committee um approved the first reading of section I and so our first meeting will be to take up section I as a subcommittee and come back with any recommended changes to the full committee um and so that work will continue and we only have a few more letters of the alphabet left to go I believe L is the last but J and K are pretty meaty J and K are big so we'll get there we will get there um I wanted to bring people's attention to the fact that um we will be refreshing the way the website uh posts the policies I mean essentially we're kind of in this limbo state where the
089um Massachusetts Association of school committees will be hosting our policies on a separate searchable website that will be um much more user friendly and they will be updating it going forward um and so we've been updating policies but they haven't all made it onto our current website um but we also can't wait um to have our new policies available on the website but for now I think the plan is going to be and we'll see but the current possible plan is to have links to Google folders where you will be able to find all the the most upto-date documents but it won't be in the same format where it is now where it lists every single one with a link to each one as a separate PDF so um we're going to try that as
090a way of keeping it up to date until um mask uh is able to create that special website for us so but you should know especially new members that you know you unfortunately you can't just go to the website right now and get the most upto-date um policies but we will get there so any any questions about the policy process or anything okay um the budget subcommittee has not met but they must meet very soon Christine if the budget subcommittee would like to weigh in on priorities before the budget I would beg of you to please schedule next week because a reminder the superintendent's budget has to be ready to be put into the Greenfield Recorder by February 7 second and that is flying along so um I'm sorry I don't I know that you
091folks just voted policy uh budget is VI Sher Martini so if there is um a desire to um meet prior to the superintendent's budget if we could coordinate fairly quickly that would be very helpful I will be sending you an email immediately after this meeting to wonder thank you and uh I think that not right now obviously but uh going forward into the future it will be helpful to have a uh budget calendar where uh dates are spread out earlier uh so that the committee has time to think and identify priorities um going into the budget season I um have heard a little bit about that through uh professional development with masc already and we'll happily look um into that more that being said if anyone would like to speak to any um priorities that
092they would like to um have the committee entertain in terms of the budget then please speak to it now yes any uh feedback from the Comm for the budget subcommittee to uh on a on priorities for the superintendent's budget member Priti I think I would be interested in the committee discussing um the information we got tonight from the superintendent about the music program and um in combination with the discussion about the funding that we give to the third party that's name I'm forgetting right now is the Art Space Str strings for kids I'm sorry strings for kids um and whether or not in our fiduciary responsibility say that eight times fast um it it's the best way to approach funding music education in the district thank you other feedback for the budget subcommittee member ston
093um I know that this has been something that you all have been working on for some time around social emotional learning um and in particular like restorative practices I'm just wondering if there could be um additional emphasis put there both as a reactive when when conflict or when behaviors do happen but also as a proactive of trying to stop them before they before they get started um and and giving our students and our staff tools to work together um a little bit better you know what I mean so I'm just wondering if we could um find ways to have some more resources dedicated to those but also to weave that into and throughout programming thank you mayor dorer and then member Den I just wanted to to say one thing for transparency that I believe
094coming up on city council not for this year but um especially for um C assistant superintendent Pat note um that we will be looking at perhaps changing the calendar a little bit to be more in line with the other municipalities in the state um 95% of cities and towns vote on the the final piece in actually in May um and do the capital after which as you saw last year we were you know um how will I say fudging a little bit with capital to make sure that we could cover enough operating in the operating budget all around and most cities and and towns throughout I think 95% do capital in the fall and 90 to 95% do um you know vote on the final budget that's a charter change it won't come for a
095little bit but I just in transparency I thought I am sitting here with a little bit of knowledge and you're my friends and people my co-workers and I thought you don't want to rereading something in the paper and the other thing on budget um was it's always very helpful for me to have the numbers of remember is it October 1 the children in the seats is that what they call it kids in seats on what officially it's the October oober 1 Sims data but yes it's children in in that helps me to look at the budget you know for like last year and this year that's all thank you other questions or comments yes member Den I'm hoping that one of the things that we can work on in the subcommittee is really wrapping our
096heads around um knowing what capital improvements need to be made what we've already done or haven't finished what is left over and where we are with different projects and have sort of a master list for these things so that we can start thinking about it long term because some of these things um we could maybe find funding for in other places and we can work with legislators on it um so I'd like to have sort of a master list of the capital needs and maybe even maybe we even look at that when we go on our school tour I'm assuming you would prefer to not climb on the roof I don't want to climb on the roof but I'd love for you to tell me all about the roof I will do the best I
097can there are um I think the biggest issue for the committee well one of the biggest issues for the committee to be mind aware of is projects that were approved in the past that aren't finished yet projects that were funded and due to the time has passed the cost is the the amount funded no longer covers the cost of the projects and um you know I would like um Mr Bud our new facilities director to weigh in we have a list of projects that Mr hee had started and then um you know fresh eyes always brings A New Perspective so adding both but um you know the the capital projects that just works with the request to have the capital finances in in the budget report so that's pretty easy to take care of thank
098you other questions or comments for the budget subcommittee okay thank you um planning and construction member Priti did did you attended a meeting recently of that I don't know the January meeting was supposed to be yesterday and it was cancelled um there I think that out of respect for the change in administration it was felt that um it was not conducive to having the meeting that yesterday there's just so much going on with the transition that um to push any to even discuss work moving forward from planning and construction felt kind of unfair to Mayor to orer and her team um and I believe that's why not to put cuz Gan wall is the chair of planning and construction not to put words into her mouth but that was you know kind of the discussion
099that she had had briefly with me when she decided to cancel the meeting um but I would be happy to talk with um member child's right you're yeah about planning and construction um and we can go from there uh it is I would a more big picture than any of the other work that I've done um as a part of the school committee it's very different than the work that I see city council doing or the work that I see us doing in terms of the scope and the application of what they do like for example we um spent three or four meetings touring uh all of the city-owned properties that weren't schools to see how space is used and we learned a great deal um and those questions now kind you know the questions
100that we got from that investigation now kind of need to be addressed with how the city moves forward with use of space and things like that so that's where that committee is at in terms of their work um and it's it oftentimes feels very overwhelming but it's also really neat because it's people that the folks on the committee are not folks you'd normally come and be working with with school committee work so it's a nice diversity of um voices and um I think you'll I think you'll like it and they meet at 4:30 on the first Tuesday is that right the first Tuesday of the month the second Tuesday of the month whatever yesterday was yeah um but I'd be happy to talk to you about it thank you any questions or comments about planning
101and construction okay uh CES that collaborative for Educational Services remember any have there been any meetings since the last time there was one and I could not attend okay I am sorry no problem but nothing very substantive went down okay thank you and the district Wellness Committee Member PR thank you so we met yeah Monday or yesterday Monday we met Monday as a committee um with the person from I don't know she's from Dy she's from somewhere and she's helping us to assess uh how the district's operations fit into the Wellness Plan or our Wellness Plan needs to be um adjusted and it's a lot of stuff that is very operational and I just kind of listen to most of it um but my my understanding of what we need to do as a school
102committee and um I think between myself and nurse leader bednarski um and whatever the superintendent wants we can um I think the best approach is for the S the policy subcommittee of the school committee to put a policy in place that says because we um support the wellness policy of the district with uh whatever we're empowered with I'm not quite sure how to word it but we need something very simple that says operationally um we support what the wellness committee work H is is implementing in the district sorry I'm not very wor Smithy about it tonight um and we can get that done I think pretty simply and hopefully have it at a February or March meeting for us to approve and it seems like that's the last piece like the com the the wellness
103policy for the District Operations is in place and they're now kind of implementing it I guess uh growing it I don't I don't exactly know what the right words are um so that's what we would need to do as a Next Step here and then we continue with rep repres presentation as long as that committee continues and it is a mandate of the state that we have it so we just have a seat on it thank you all right um member ston this is unrelated to specifically the wellness committee but it occurred to me when member Den mentioned that she was unable to make the CES meeting would it be useful to us to have alternates identified for some of these where it's just one person to make sure that we're not missing some meetings
104just in case something happens something for us to consider we don't obviously need to make a decision right now thank you I will take that under advisement appreciate it any other comments or questions about the district Wellness committee all right then um I'd like to hear a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 30A section 21 A4 to discuss the deployment of security Personnel or devices or strategies with respect theto seven to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal grant and aid requirements approval of executive session minutes from December 13 2023 meeting the committee will not return to Open Session may hear a motion so moved member Martini made the motion is there a second second member Pro Yeti seconded secretary denie
105will you call the roll call yes secretary genive I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes member pretti yes member seon yes member CH yes and unanimous thank you and do I need to do a separate motion to adjourn this meeting the public meeting okay thank you all right I'd like to hear a motion to adjourn the public session of the Greenfield Public School school committee meeting so moved PR member Priti um made the motion and member ston seconded um and do we need to do that by roll call let's we'll do it by roll call just for fun secretary Jive will you please call the Roll Roll Call Secretary Jive I'm a yes Vice chair Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes mayor dorer yes may member pretti yes
106member seon yes member CHS yes okay the motion passes unanimously we are adjourned from the public session at uh 7:38