001I'm a little nervous that He's Good evening everyone. I'm going to reconvene the meeting of the June 17th Cheroo School Committee meeting. Thank you for being here tonight. Um, Superintendent Bard, I recommend closing and sealing the minutes of the executive session as they pertain to the privacy of students and their records. Executive session minutes from May 13, 2025 and homeschooling requests. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. We're moving on to district recognitions. My apologies. Um item um item five, disclosure of executive session votes by U. Member Chapman. Good evening everybody. There were three votes taken in executive session. The first one was the approval of the executive session minutes. There was 10 yays and one abstension from Tyler Chambers. The
002second vote that was taken was for the approval of homeschool requests. That vote was unanimous. And the third vote that was taken was a return to open session and that was also unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Now, we're going to move on to item six, recognitions. 6A, district recognitions. I'm going to turn it over to Gina for the retiree recognitions. So, I'd like to congratulate and give our best wishes to our uh retirees, starting with um some of those in attendance. And if you're here, please just give um everybody a wave so we can send you away um with gratitude and best wishes. So we'll start with Diane Dero. Diane is a fiscal clerk at the administration building. She has worked in the district for 29 years. She has she has been a teacher
003assistant at Hope Valley PreK, Charo Middle School, and Charo High School. In 2006, Diane was selected as the Cheraho Educator Support Professional of the Year. In 2016, she was inducted into the Cherho Sports Boosters Athletic Hall of Fame. And Diane was selected as a distinguished educator in 2018, as well as being the May 2018 employee of the month. She will be greatly missed. Thank you, Diane. Now, we have Diane McKeen. Diane with one N, teacher assistant at Richmond Elementary School. Diane has worked in the district for 35 years. Diane has also been a teacher aid at the middle school and Ashway Elementary School. She received a commenation for helping with c a campaign to benefit citizens of the Gulf Coast states after Hurricane Katrina devastated that area. We wish her well. [Applause] Uh our next
004member in attendance I believe is Susan Allen. Uh Susan is grade five. She is grade five teacher at Charo Middle School. Susan has worked for the district for 32 years. She began her career at Charles Town Elementary and has also worked at Richmond and Ashway elementary schools. She was the high school wrestling cheerleader coach from 1991 to 2006. And she has been a class adviser from 2018 to 2025 as well as the high school travel club adviser. She has also been a member of many curriculum planning committees. Best wishes, Sue. [Applause] Next, I have Dan Pototts. Dan Pototts is the science science teacher at Charo Middle School. Dan has been a member of the district for 32 years. Dan was a middle school science club co-advisor from 1994 through 1997. He has created and nurtured
005the Kids Grow Garden. The article was in the Westerly Sun today for those that may have missed it. In 2001, Dan was selected to be the Cherokee Teacher of the Year. He has also received the Rhode Island Presidential Award for Secondary Science in 2002. Dan was the adviser for the school's recycling club and received recognition from Rhode Island. Dan was also the recipient of the Amgen Award for science teaching excellence in 2007. In 2015, Dan received Cherose employee of the month award. And in 2019, Dan won the 2019 Hope Valley Rally Graange and Community Service Award for his kids grow garden and Hope Valley rally graes teacher of the year. We will miss you Dan. We also have the following retirees who are unable to join us, but I would like to recognize them. Diane
006Bada, a teacher assistant at Ashway Elementary School, dedicating 24 years to our district. Sandra Cook, teacher assistant at Ashway Elementary School, working u for 34 years in the district. Susan Rice, teacher assistant at Charleston Elementary School. Susan has worked for the district for 36 years. Lori Vanesse, teacher assistant at Charleston Elementary School. Lori has worked for the district for 26 years. Elizabeth Shapier, world language teacher in Spanish. Elizabeth has worked for the district for 35 years. Lisa Jervini, special education teacher at Charo High School. She has worked in the district for 37 years. Jerinda Pizzone, kindergarten teacher at Richmond Elementary, has worked in the district for 29 years. Lorie Travis, guidance school counselor at Charo Middle School. Ly worked for the district for 20 years and Mary Beth Florence, our assistant principal who is now
007chaperoning the middle school dance. She has worked for the district for the last eight years. Uh began her career as a music teacher and then came to Chara. We will miss all of you greatly. Thank you for your service to our students. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you for your service. Best wishes in your retirement or on to better and brighter things, right? Um Karen um Reynolds is going to read our next section of recognition, please. The Teraho Scales Farm to School team would like to thank so many people for a successful year. As you can see, it truly takes a village. If anyone like would like to participate in year two with Cheros's USDA project scales grant, please contact Katie Keracosan or um Susie Scango. Thank you to our 19, yes 19 interns in year
008one. They were an integral part in our success with increasing locally grown foods in school meals, increasing nutrition security for students, and decreasing food waste in our cafeterias. Thank you to the Chartwell staff for supporting our students behind the scenes. Thank you to Rachel Axelson and Aaron Rooney for launching our hydroponic towers at CMS and CHS. Thank you to Stacy Peppard and Chris Heberak for their expertise and collaboration as well. Thank you to Chef Riley and her students for their support in using our new dehydrators to make healthy apple and carrot chips for Richmond Elementary School's field day last week. Thank you to our community partners including Farmfresh RARI, Gotham Greens, Johnson and Wales University, Pete's Grocery, Richmond Stop Ant Shop, Ryan Ride, Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition, Harmony Farm and Well-being Collaborative along with
009Rhode Island School Recycling Project, ROI Wild Sea Gardens, and the Tomquac Museum, URI. Oh, it's Wild Harmony Farm. I apologize. Thank you to the local farms that donated to our two popup shops, Quani Farms, Spring Hill Sugar House, and Farmer's Daughter. And thank you to the high school Earth Club, FBLA, and Richmond Greenhouse and Gardens for your amazing work. Thank you, Karen. We have recognition for Cheroo High School and um Charote Tech. Um acknowledged by member Chapman. An instructor and two students and two chaperones represented Cher on a field trip to Big Rapids, Michigan. The purpose of this trip was to participate in a national competition hosted by Project Manufacturing at Ferris State University on June 3rd, 2025 with awards with an awards ceremony on June 4th. Their itin their itinerary included a tour of
010the submarine museum and an attendance to the celebration of trades dinner. The competitors were Jared Minnik, Cooper Senle. Chaperones were Zachary Folsam, Ryan Senle, and Steven Minnik. [Applause] Bob Maine, Cher High School math teacher. Out of a highly impressive pool of candidates, Mr. was chosen to receive RIMTA's memorial AIO Dabio Award in honor of his outstanding lifetime contributions. This award is presented annually to one educator who demonstrates M. Dubio's spirit of enthusiasm for mathematics. Thank you, Bob. Superintendent Bquard, can you read the recognition for the middle school, please? Congratulations to Crystal Apple award winner Jennifer Mosner, the dean of students at Charo Middle School. This award is given to teachers, administrators, and support staff who demonstrate excellence in their profession, inspire students, and engage the community. Educators are recognized for their dedication, instructional and motivational
011skills, and ability to challenge and inspire students. Congratulations, Jen. Next up, we have a congratulations to our Cherokee Middle School Science Olympiad winners for 2025. Uh, Miss Whipple was our adviser. She wanted to share this was an incredible experience had at the state science olympiad competition held at Rhode Island College. Almost every single student on our team earned a medal, which was an achievement that has never been reached before at this level of the competition. The team brought home eight medals, six bronze, one silver, one gold, and a fourth place trophy overall. And what truly made this day unforgettable was the pride and heart of our students showed. After final placements were announced, they turned to their adviser, Miss Ripple, and said, "It's okay, Miss Ripple. We moved up from last year and we doubled
012our medal count. We didn't have to win. We're proud of what we did." It was one of the most meaningful moments of the entire season. So I would like to recognize some of them are at the dance but I will still say all of their names. There was they received a a variety of awards from first place to third place in a variety of competitions. I will start with Ava Betrant, Titus Castrado, Lewis Danos, Preston Davis, a lot of eighth graders, Ross Doer [Applause] has one, two, four awards. Congratulations, [Applause] Connor Waltney, Zachary Hedrickk, Harper McCall, Aubrey Parr, Ian McKinnus, Landon Perau, Sebastian Sherzer, Y congratulations Noah Vanderver. No Helen Valandler. Congratulations to all and U. Um, Member Hopkins is going to announce recognition for Richmond Elementary School and athletics. Richmond Elementary School Crystal Apple
013Award winner, Carrie Carrero. Principal Martin expressed that Miss Carrero goes above and beyond to teach as many students as possible with quality explicit instruction and connects with students by getting to know their strengths and individual needs on a deeper level. She was is always friendly and helpful to her colleagues, too. Congratulations, Carrie. The Cheraho Middle School boys track team won the middle school state championship for the first time since 1989. Head coach Erica Ball and assistant coach Rachel Lawrence. Congratulations, Thank you. We're going to move on to public forum. Um so I'm going to read the um policy for our public forum comments. I am going to um ask that uh Richmond, Charles Town, and Hopkin residents will speak first. It looks like there is one person from outside of our district, and I'll recognize
014you afterwards. Um each speaker is going to have two minutes. We're going to time everybody's remarks. If you go over the two minutes, um, you're going to be cut off at two minutes. So, I'm just going to ask if you if you have remarks, edit your remarks if you think it's it's going to go over two minutes because we have a a tight agenda tonight. I appreciate everybody's comments. Um, but we have it looks like 15 14 or 15 speakers and I'd like to keep public comment as close to 30 minutes as possible. So, with public comment, um, I'm going to ask, um, the members of the audience, please don't interrupt the speakers. Um, I'm asking you not to clap, boo, hiss, shout from the audience, we're going to maintain proper decorum tonight. If you
015shout from the audience and disrupt our public meeting, you're going to be given a a verbal warning. If you continue to shout from the audience and disrupt our meeting, I'm going to ask the officer to escort you out. um for the um public comments. We're going to ask you to be accurate, present facts, present information based on personal knowledge, and be considerate of others. Thank you so much. So, um point of order is what you said about people speaking out part of our policy? I don't believe that it is. No, but it's part of decorum, but I just you said we're going to read you're going to read from the policy and then you said something that wasn't in the policy. So, I just want to make that clear. That's why I called the point
016of order. So, I appreciate your point of order, but I want to keep decorum and I want to keep um I want to be mindful of agenda management. I've gotten a lot of feedback um from um folks that have come to our meetings that the meetings are going very very long. So, in the um the spirit of agenda management, I'm just going to ask everyone if they could be courteous of the speakers and if we're going to disrupt, you know, a meeting, I'm just asking everybody to be courteous and respectful. That's fine. and I just don't want you to misrepresent what the policy says. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Jess. All right. So, our first speaker is Goldie Williams from Richmond. Goldie Williams from Richmond. I'm talking about the uh the lawyer getting his contract renewed.
017I know a personal case where the parents and the student were put through had when they had due process and I didn't want my son and my husband to be put through that but a lot of parents don't put go through due process because of John Anderson the lawyer. Thank you. Thank you Mary Mason. from Richmond. So I came to just make a few observations. Um and it's been clear to that there is an us against them kind of mentality not only between committee members but also some committee members in the community. And I just wanted to say that you know every citizen is granted via our constitution the ability to be heard. We don't necessarily have to agree with each other on every point, but we do need to be open-minded enough in order
018to move toward common ground. And Louise, as chair, you have the responsibility to navigate all these all these interested parties toward that common ground. And if anyone cannot look at matters objectively, then compromise is unattainable. Communication in its many forms is a key element of achieving that. Looking away from speakers, facial expressions, laughing as people share, tone, that's all part of it. Building self-awareness of these kinds of communication behaviors is exactly what the school counseling curriculum addresses. It guides students to becoming cooperative, collaborative, and constructive members of their classroom, the school, and society. It prepares them to participate in situations just like this in productive and meaningful ways. Uh perhaps you've been getting some harsh criticism lately, but what have you taken from it? If people are spending time to come here and speak to
019you, please reflect on what is said like you, we come here for the educational welfare of the students. If that is not your intent or if you are easily hurt by public sentiment, then maybe this is not a good fit for you. And in closing, I would like you to please know that I do appreciate the members who bring institutional knowledge that I might not be aware of to the table and those who come to meetings prepared, as well as having studied the background of the agenda items ahead of time because it certainly allows for the meeting to move along smoothly and with direct discussion. Thank you, Mary. Bruce Olen, Bruce, are you here? Okay, Bruce, if you come, I'll recognize you at the end. Justin Bentley from Hopkin. Hello. Hi. Um, gave it to
020two minutes. Um, I came with what I thought was or I still think is really good news to share, but I'm I'm not sure if I'm happy or disappointed. I for the last four months I've been contacting uh members looking for data and information and several of you have gotten back and I appreciate that. We had respectful dialogue. So thank you to uh Miss Chapman and Miss Dinsmore. Um I've got no responses from many others which is disheartening but as a result of that I've tried to uh I've been pestering administration u my apologies um for more data to show uh to basically to investigate are the students of chaho K through eight particularly um are they successful are they growing um and I was given copious amounts of data so thank you Dr. Um,
021and I tried to put that together in a document. I tried to collate, simplify, annotate. Um, and I submitted it to be put potentially into the FYI. So, I don't know if that if everyone got that if that's in this FYI section, is it? It is. Great. Thank you. All right. Good. Thank you. So, so I just wanted to if you if you have questions on that, um, because it can be kind of overwhelming. It's overwhelming to me. There's a lot of data in there. Um, I actually will resend it out again. Um, but if you have any questions, it's it's too much success in my opinion to talk about in one minute or whatever I have left. Um, the biggest takeaway that really pleased me is that these assessments, whether or not RIDcasts, they
022are three times per year, uh, fall, winter, and spring, and they're individualized. You can track student data. You can put the brakes on when a when students and cohorts aren't as successful as you'd like to be. You can intervene through MTSS. It's just to me a wonderful data set. Um so I would really really really love to make sure that all members have a chance to look at it, digest it. Um and please I'm I'm love to talk about it. Thank you. Justin Heidi Fee Charles Town. Hello. Well, we've been at Nine all day. So um well so first I want to thank everyone who came to the policy subcommittee meeting about two weeks ago. It was a productive meeting where people are able to speak about policies that were important to them. That said
023I wanted to voice my opinion about our current library media policy which is I think up for review at the next meeting. Am I right on that? I think so. Um, at this time, most of Rhode Island supports the Freedom to Read Act, which does not allow for book bands and supports librarians and the responsibilities to choose materials in the best interests of all students. Having the freedom to read books that reflect the diversity of our culture and community is a key American value. It is a reaffirmation of our First Amendment, the idea that no single person or group should decide what the rest of us are allowed to read, think, or imagine. Our current library media policy doesn't force anyone to read anything. What it does is ensure that no one person or group
024has the power to remove stories from shelves just because they challenge their assumptions or depict realities that are different from their own. So I encourage the policy subcommittee to take this into consideration and leave the current policy alone. I also wanted to discuss an action that was taken a while ago and this makes me pretty uncomfortable to discuss. It's when Gina's contract was not was voted not to be extended. I really disagree with that decision and I find it at best irresponsible. I'll tell you why. Our district is undergoing so much change right now, particularly at the elementary level. I teach elementary school. I'm living it right now. I'm at work till 7 8:00 every single night trying to organize. We're in the midst of consolidating four schools into three, a major transition that involves
025shifting staff, reallocating resources, and reestablishing stability. At the same time, multiple schools are experiencing changes in leadership. In such a critical moment, what we need most is a steady, consistent leadership, not more disruption. By voting against the contract extension, members have knowingly created instability in our schools. Even more troubling is that we haven't been offered one single reason for this decision. That lack of transparency concerns me. If there are valid reasons, we deserve to hear them as the public. Miss V, please wrap up. Yep. Thank you. Um, I want to support express my support for Miss Bard and I hope you choose to weather this storm with us. Thank you. Kathy Gibson. Katherine Gibson. Carolina. According to the forgotten taxpayers website, their mission is to lead grassroots efforts to champion and promote fiscal responsibility, keeping
026the taxpayers at the forefront of all decisions relative to town and school spending. There is some reasoning there. No one here is arguing that money should be wasted. No one is standing up to say let's spend recklessly. Nobody is arguing for fiscal irresponsibility. We all want our tax dollars spent wisely. But here's a basic truth. Schools cost money and costs are constantly rising as is everything today. And we're watching daily that that this happening. When a budget is levelfunded, in actuality, it is a budget cut because rising prices in cost of living, ra wages and utilities and supplies means you get less. Not the same with level funding. I want to be clear, the school committee, although funded by taxes, is not a committee about taxes. It is a government body charged with providing educational
027opportunities for the students of this district to learn and to thrive. The first obligation every single time a school committee person sits in the seats you are now occupying is to the kids in the district. That includes students with disabilities. It includes students from struggling families. It includes LGBTQIA plus students who need to know their schools are safe. It includes every student who walks through a Cheraho school door. If students are not at the forefront of your decisions, then what is the point? I remember well the days of substandard funding and double sessions. I've been here a long time and I think we need to keep that perspective in mind because we know what happens when the when kids are the priority. When students come first, test scores rise. Teacher morale improves. Budgets are built
028around classrooms, not legal fights. Communities rally behind the schools. Our communities become proud of the schools that we have worked to improve. Mr. And yes, long term that is what protects taxpayers. Strong schools raise property values. They attract families. They strengthen the local economy. They are the best economic and human investment we can make. Thank you. So if this committee is serious about good being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and I believe you are, then the answer is not cutting and closing and silencing. The answer is simple. do the right things for the kids in our community. Thank you, Linda. I mean, so I had asked everybody to respect decorum and I gave guidelines, but you just throw those right out the window. I mean, that's disrespectful. Linda Avdian, please. Linda Abdesian is next. Good
029evening. Good evening. I want to speak tonight about the president the school committee set when it voted not to reduce the French teaching position to part-time despite extremely low enrollment. The mic, please. I'll be clear. No one wants to see educators lose their jobs. No one wants to see classes cut or opportunities for our students taken away. But this committee passed a budget so bare bones so low that it forces impossible decisions and the responsibility for those decisions falls squarely on this committee. It seems like the squeaky wheel gets the grease and this month that wheel was a high school elective with fewer than 10 incoming high school students projected to be enrolled. So what happens next? What happens when there are no more funds to shift around and every program has a vocal defender?
030Because let's be honest, this committee sent a clear message earlier this year that taxes matter more than education. So what happens now that you've drawn a line in the sand that says high school foreign language classes are untouchable even for five students while elementary schools are being closed and classrooms classroom teachers are being asked to do more with less. How is that fair? How is that sustainable? How do you explain to a first grade teacher managing a classroom of 23 students without support that her needs matter less than a high school elective with four? I'm not saying French isn't valuable. I'm saying hard choices come with a tight budget. And when this committee refuses to make those hard choices fairly and consistently, it erodess public trust. It creates division and it leaves us all worse
031off. The committee demanded a budget that stripped the district to the bone. You wanted this budget. Now you have to operate within it. You don't get to posture for popularity while asking others to bear the consequences. You made these choices. Now show the leadership to follow through on them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kona from Richmond. Chris. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm Chris Con of Richmond. Um I just want to express my gratitude quickly for Superintendent Bard and Miss Drake. Uh last school committee meeting, Jester Kona came in with a question about the Chinese langu langu language program um and about class enrollment. Uh Miss Drake had quickly circled back with Jester and the guidance council about the issue. They were able to look into it um and it ended up being resolved very smoothly
032um and Jester is actually now involved in Chinese language um which they're really excited about. So I just wanted to pass on my thanks to Miss Bard and to your team uh and you I'm glad that you dealt with this issue promptly and professionally and I'm grateful that we were able to provide some students with this opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Chris and Marie Luzan from Charles Town. Good evening. I'm here tonight to ask for public update on elementary school building study. Families and taxpayers across the district deserve to know where the process stands because our schools, especially Ashway, Richmond, and Charleston Elementary, are in visible and worsening disrepair. I understand the bond proposed to build new schools did not pass, but the outcome does not mean the conversation is over. A building study is
033the first step in understanding what needs to be fixed, how much it will cost, and how much the district can move forward with a responsible capital improvement plan. These buildings are where our youngest students spend their days. I've seen the signs of aging facilities, outdated infrastructure, and growing maintenance concerns. I'm not here to point fingers. I'm here because I care about our schools and want to support meaningful solutions. It is difficult to have a have confidence in the district's long-term planning when the public is left in the dark. If a study has been completed, the findings should be shared. If the process hasn't begun, I hope you will explain why. Open communication is how trust is built and trust is essential if we are going to make progress. I respectfully ask for an update. Where
034does the elementary school building study stand? When can the public expect results and how will those results guide the next steps? I also ask this committee to acknowledge that our schools, like everything else, are not immune to inflation. The reality is that the next budget cannot be flatfunded if we want our students learning safe in a safe and functional environment. In addition to the building study, what steps will the committee take to help the public understand the urgent need to invest more in the schools? Thank you for the time, for your time, and for your continued focus on doing what is best for our students. And Marie, can you just stay at the podium for a second because I would like to ask Superintendent Bard to answer some of those questions if you have a
035moment. Sure, sure. So, uh, for the elementary planning, our stage one application was basically it's the review of facilities. However, the state's report is not in our hands at this time, which is Bureau Veritoss. It's the new Jacob's report. So, um, but Riot understands that because they're the ones that commissioned the study. So, we're we were able to approve our stage one. It got approved in May. And now here we call it the necessity for school construction committee, not to be confused with the building committee. Um, and that committee is actually meeting Monday to review the bids on the architect. The school committee approved that last month to go out to bid. It went out to bid for three weeks and there have been two respondents from that um from that bid. The committee members
036are reviewing those bids and then they will they have a rubric that was in the RFQ and they score and then they discuss and then after that happens they will uh make a recommendation to the school committee with the anticipation of that being on the July agenda and from once we get the architect in place um that can officially begin our stage two even though we don't have the bureau of veritas report we do have facility studies and continuous uh facility reviews one called the site assessment and Um, in the July E update, I did have an update in June that basically um, started sort of a little bit of an update and then every month leading to February 2026 when the stage 2 application is due, I will be giving updates in our monthly
037newsletter. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Amory. Thank you for your question. Carol Clang Peterson from Hopkin, please. Hi there. Hi. When this committee made the decision to close Hope Valley School at the end of the year, it was suggested we honor and memorialize the school. Some people felt this meant celebrating the current students and staff. Others wish for a wider community celebration, and others would like it to include a more historical view. All are valid positions. We've had some school celebrations. I've been told the school is reaching out to families who have memorials on the school grounds. There are resolutions from town councils and school committees and Hopkin Town Council began the outreach to determine what the community's desires are at last night's meeting. As I've only lived in the district since the early 80s,
038the historical aspect sent me searching through decades of microfilm and reading through the archives of the historical association for the recorded history. I discovered a vast amount of information about Hope Valley and Cheroo as a whole. The most prominent discovery was how little has changed in the collaboration and cooperation between school committees, town councils, and the community. The animosity and sniping have been going on for many decades. The number of plans that have been rejected in various iterations only to be reluctantly accepted years later at a much higher cost is astounding. Perhaps the greatest way to honor our past is to appreciate and accept the lessons of our predecessors and not make the same blunders again. Each member of the public is entitled to their opinion and position on the issue. However, once you accept
039a seat at this or any table of oversight, your personal preferences, opinions, and positions must take a backseat to the public good. It is time to realize that collaboration and cooperation between committees, councils, and public is the best way forward for the public good. And it is vital to prevent us suffering the repetition of waste and backpedaling evident in our history. Thank you. Thank you, Carol. Lola Flechman from Charles Town, please. Hello. Hi. I think it's easy to assume that those of us in green shirts here uh have children who are always excelling in the Cherokee school district. Well, in my house, we have one more day left of sixth grade, and I'm not sure we're going to make it. Um, as a parent of a child with ADHD, every year is a matter of
040making it. ADHD is not just about focus. It's about emotional regulation and understanding social cues. My daughter spent the entire year trying to feel included, trying to feel normal, trying to feel understood. Her approach to this goal was sometimes misguided. Sometimes she trusted the wrong kids. Sometimes she told lies, trying to make a favorable reaction from her peers. She couldn't find her own self-worth. I'm deeply troubled by comments at this last school committee meeting suggesting that social emotional learning doesn't belong in the school and should be taught at home. Well, in my house, you don't need to wear a certain kind of clothing or have a certain water bottle in order to be included. And in my house, you don't need to worry about who you're going to sit with at lunch. And in my
041house, if someone asks you your birthday, it's not so that they can use that information to hack your Google account. Things are rough at the middle school right now. Middle school has always been a rough time, but our culture in our school seems to be particularly bad right now. I can hardly believe that the way to improve this culture is to wait for parents at home to teach inclusiveness and emotional regulation. If that worked, it would have worked already. Many members of this committee have spoken out about their desire for higher test scores. First of all, I promise you will not elevate these scores by ignoring students emotional learning. They cannot focus on Greek civilization when they are too stressed out about peer interactions. Secondly, test scores need to take a second place to the
042ability to talk to each other, to rece to resolve conflict on their own, to learn to forgive others, and to celebrate each other's success. We live in a world where we have all the information you can imagine at our fingertips and yet we have no ability to get along with each other. This school committee is a perfect representation of this. Social emotional learning is needed in schools. It's needed in the community and it is needed in our local leaders. Before I go, I would like to publicly thank Mrs. Llant at the middle school for helping my daughter with social with the social side of sixth grade. Your compassion and emotional intelligence has been the lifesaver my family clung to this year and I don't know what we would have done without you. Thank you, Lola.
043Eda Zazzlaw from Hopkin. Good evening. hardly know where to begin, but I'm going to start uh talking about what Miss Flechman just said um about how difficult it is to work in a middle school, be a middle school age child, be a school committee who has to deal with middle school issues. It is the most difficult period in a child's life. and the social emotional stuff that uh Lola referred to is just so vital. Um, and I speak from experience. I was a middle school guidance counselor for 13 years in West Virginia before I came here and became a sixth grade teacher and loved every minute of it in the middle school. So, it's a double-edged sword, but I just caution you about how serious that middle school age is. The other thing I wanted
044to talk about is the upheaval in the school system among teachers when they hear a school committee that is not cohesive and is causing um you know whatever it upsets them. It is bad for morale and it's very difficult to teach. So just keep that in mind as you carry out your duties as school committee members. I know it's a difficult job. I've never sat there. I don't intend to. I'm not running for office, but it is just hard. It's a hard job. So, keep up the work. Thank you, Eda. Um, Scott Dagel, please. Good evening. I uh came here to say that uh think you guys are doing a fabulous job. You did a great job ending the contract of Mrs. Pequard. I feel as if it was the right move. I congratulate those
045of you who did it. It was a long time coming. February of 2023, my special needs son was the victim of a student who took a picture of him in the bathroom and then posted that picture to a welding chat site uh at the the high school. So, uh, we had a meeting with the administration. Uh, there was a safety plan put in place guaranteed that student would never come in contact with my son again. 3 months later, same student typically developing is on my son's special needs bus. But, there is a punishment. They punish students by putting them on special needs buses. a student that has already proven to bully special needs kids, mostly mine. So, we have another meeting. This time, we're back in the school. Special ed directors there. Special ed director
046tells me along with the other administrators that yes, a phone call was made. Someone allowed this child to be put on the bus. It's not policy. We don't know how it happened. Right. Not good enough. Not enough answers. Everyone's claim ignorance. Move forward to late June 2023. Finally have a meeting uh with a follow-up meeting with Gina Bard a few week and uh transportation director, special ed director, assistant superintendent, and the bus manager all claimed ignorance to how this could have happened. Claiming that policy is there's never a phone call made. It's always written. No one knows what happened, but yet the kid ended up on the bus. No one has any answers. So during the meeting, I'm asking questions, get answers because nobody's forthcoming. I'm referred to as a bully by Miss Bard. Mr.
047Dagel, I have to ask you to wrap it up. We're moving forward. I'll move very quickly with this here. Central administration had an opportunity to do the right job. The bus manager proved proved uh the allegations that we had made that that the school department had made the wrong choice. They had an opportunity to do the right thing and they and to stop this from prevent this from happening again and that was not done. This was a campaign of obfuscation, misinformation. Thanks, Mr. Dagel. I'm sorry I have to limit you there. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. And I want to once again say nice job. You guys got it right. Thank you. Okay. Um Audrey Hill from Wakefield, are you here? Audrey? Audrey going once, going twice. Okay. And the last speaker is going
048to be myself. And as Donna Chambers did last month, she got uh some time in uh public comment. And I am going to ask for the same courtesy. My name is Louise Dinsmore from Richmond. In countless letters to the editor, comments on social media, and public statements made at our school committee meetings, I have been called a hypocrite, an extremist, vindictive, unfit to be the school committee chair, a wolf in sheep's clothing. The list goes on and on. Just last month at this meeting, one of my colleagues, Donna Chambers, said, quote, "She doesn't have the skills to do the job. Her performance has not demonstrated an ability to lead in a way to be kind and respectful." I respectfully disagree with my colleague, but Donna, you have the right to your opinion, and I respect
049your opinion. I believe in the right of free speech. You can say whatever you'd like to say about me. Have at it. But when but when is free speech somebody's words and actions examples of going too far. What I will not stand for is anyone from the charo community speaking ill of my family in particular my son. I will also not stand for people in this community approaching my professional clients trying to undermine my ability to earn a living that crosses a line. Let me elaborate. I was informed recently by a Hopkin friend that it was widely known in our community that the reason my son does not attend Charo is because he was kicked out. How completely absurd. Not only is this untrue, but extremely hurtful. My son is a high honor student with
050distinction, a member of the National Junior Honor Society, a member of the student council elected by his peers, and is widely known as a leader in his school, exhibiting core values of faith, leadership, kindness, and respect. This community has reached a new low when you decide to spread a vicious narrative about my son. If that isn't bad enough, an anonymous member of this charo community who didn't have the fortitude to identify themselves sent an email to one of my former clients, the Providence Public Library. This anonymous sender asked the library to consider the implications of being publicly associated with me because I took the Moms for Liberty pledge last year. And because I took this pledge, I am deemed a book banner. These two reprehensible acts, spreading lies about my my son and going after
051my business and potentially limiting my ability to earn a living is nothing short of despicable. Whomever is responsible for this should be ashamed of themselves. So I ask, is this community going to tolerate this kind of behavior? Is this school committee going to tolerate this behavior? I'm asking the various community groups including the friends of Cheraho, Richmond Community Alliance, the Beaver River Valley Community Association, the Richmond and Hopington Democrat and Republican town committees, and this school committee to issue a statement reinforcing that we must recommmit ourselves to treating each other with respect and kindness. We can agree to disagree, but there has to be an unwavering commitment to tolerance, acceptance, and civility. As I've said from the beginning of my tenure on this school committee, and Mrs. Chambers, as you said last month, you may
052not quite understand how I got here, but the fact of the matter is, friends, like it or not, I am here. I am the chair of this committee. I'm an equal member of this committee. The sooner you and the Cheraho community accept that, the sooner we can all move forward to act in the best interests of the students of this district. A thriving community is a community that promotes tolerance, acceptance, kindness, civility, and understanding. A community welcomes people. I'm not finished. I gave everybody the opportunity to express their views this month and last month. I don't I am going to finish my statement as Donna finished her statement last month. Don't be disrespectful. As I said, and I'm almost finished. Thank you for listening. A thriving community is a community that promotes tolerance, acceptance, kindness,
053civility, and understanding. A community welcomes people, even people who have different points of view. From time to time, I have represented a different point of view. I am not a yes person. I think critically, and I ask questions. I evaluate and make up my own mind. But the question remains, can Charo rise above the vitriol that has been displayed toward school committee members? Can the school committee as a body rise above and promote the values of tolerance, acceptance, and civility? Only time will tell. Successful organizations welcome individuals with varying skills and different points of view. Great leaders surround themselves with people who challenge them. Gina, you surround your great you surround yourself with with people who challenge you and I appreciate that. Will Chero only welcome those whose voices and opinions mirror their own. We
054as school committee members should be setting the highest standards of tolerance, acceptance, kindness, and civility and shouldn't center settle for anything less. Thank you. So, Audrey Hill, is Audrey Hill here from Wakefields? Because you're going once, going twice, and we're going to move on. Madam Chair. Yes. Since my name was mentioned, I did not do anything about your son. I have no no information on that and I certainly did not contact the Providence Public Library. You did. I know you didn't say I did, but clearly I did not do that. Okay. Thank you, Donna, for saying that. Yes, Mr. Luzon, Madam Chair, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said up there, but you know what? That's a two-way street, and it's been going on for quite some time. So, maybe it would be nice if
055the other side would also respect what you just said up there. I said it for everybody. And what? Let me finish. I will. You know, because I know on certain Facebook sites, you know, I was, what was it said about me? I give off groomer vibes. I really didn't appreciate that either. I would either. And that's from a school committee member. So, you know what? It's a two-way street. Maybe all of us should reflect, as I said, tolerance, acceptance, and civil. But you're not the only one that gets it. That's my point. I I hear you, Craig. Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to say anything before we move on? Don't laugh about it. Come on. Come on. No, please. No outburst from the audience. Come on, guys. Point of order. I'm
056not laughing about anything. No, I'm not. All right, we're moving on. Thank you for listening. And I know that I went over time, but I've listened to everybody for the last six months go overtime and I've I've I've accepted all of your feedback. So, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak. All right, we're moving on to policy. That is item eight, voluntary change of the elementary district requested by member Pcell. Jess, would you like to talk about this? And I'm sure Gina is going to give us input as well. Yes. So, this was on our May agenda and the school committee voted to send it to policy subcommittee. Um, my main goal with re revising this policy is to address concerns with the transition from four schools to three and the transition from
057enrollment in town of resident residents to district enrollment based on transportation line. This goal differs from the previous goal of promoting elementary school choice within the district which was the previous purpose of this policy. This draft has been vetted by the policy subcommittee uh who did not have any suggested edits and legal counsel has also vetted it. Um you have the redline version in front of you. Um there is one change I'm hoping to make which is is to add a introductory introduction sentence. Um, this was in a draft I had had that didn't make it into this redline draft, but that sentence would be, "This policy sets guidelines for students to attend a school of choice if possible while also addressing issues that may arise with the consolidation, transition, and adjustment of regional transportation
058lines. I'd like to make a motion to approve this policy with that line edited added as an introduction." Second. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Other discussion? Jess, can you just read that introductory line one more time, please? Sure. This policy sets guidelines for students to attend a school of choice if possible, while also addressing issues that may arise with the consolidation transition and adjustment of regional transportation lines. Okay, so we had a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay, so we have a motion to accept the voluntary change of elementary district guidelines with the changes made in our packets. All in favor? unanimous. Thank you. Purchasing policy updates requested by Mr. Zenyan. Mr. Zenyion, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm requesting that um after reviewing
059the memo that was put in with the policy, the um the red lines that you accept it. We have not had a change or increase in our policy in the 20 years I've been here. and I believe it's been even longer. Um, it has been vetted through our attorney and I also included the document that shows the um, index out of Boston which is the one we use and um, we could have gone even higher but I thought doubling everything would be a simple solution. Make a motion to approve the policy as provided. Okay, we have a motion and we have a second by Mr. Luzon. Oh, Karen beat you to it. Okay, Karen Karen beat me. Karen beat you to it. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Any more discussion on
060the changes to the purchasing policy? So, Greg, I just had a question. Um, in item four, uh, it says emergency purchases may be made when there exists a threat to public health, welfare, and safety. Emergency situations include but are not limited to, and then it goes into four emergency potential situations. Can you refresh my memory? Has that happened recently? emergency situations in any of the schools that um it happened boilers every week over winter with um boilers. Okay. It happened two days ago with the um ash away um boiler with the water um tank. We had an emergency replacement of that I believe. What's today? Tuesday. So yesterday. Um yes, it happens weekly. Okay. And you need the flexibility to make these changes if you want to keep your schools open. Okay. So I think
061he made his point. All right. So, we have a motion and a second. Um, all those in favor of the changes to the purchasing policy, it is unanimous. Thank you. Thanks, Greg. Charo student representative and liaison proposal requested by member PCEL. Jess, would you like to talk about um this item and why you feel that you would like to have a chair student rep and liaison? Yep. Thank you. Um, so I proposed this policy at the March 2024 school committee meeting and at that meeting, uh, we voted for it to be reviewed by the policy subcommittee, which it has. Uh, the subcommittee voted for a legal review by Mr. Anderson, which has also been done. I've also presented this policy to the high school school improvement team. Um, I've added made a couple small changes
062since it was presented to the school committee and the policy subcommittee. um taking into account um a comment that was made about maybe making the role more flexible so two students could share the role because it's a lot sometimes um and also making the procedure taking out language about the procedure since that will be handled by the administration and school improvement team um for background I'm a big believer in multi-generational groups I appreciate the perspective of those older than me and those younger than me however as one of the youngest member younger younger members of this committee. I've also been targeted for my age. I've been called the cheerleader and a teenager who just wants what they want. The current president of the Richmond Town Council, who's younger than me, has been told to change
063the way she speaks because she sounds like a high schooler. These gener generational insults are a warning sign, a sign that some don't appreciate or understand the importance of student voices. Cherho does an excellent job at including student voices in many ways. School improvement teams, student council, the district curriculum team, strategic planning team, superintendent advisory panel are some of the ways that student voices are included. I'm supportive of these opportunities, but I want to ensure that this school committee also gets to hear directly from students who we serve on a regular basis. Several of us are parents of current chair host students, but it's equally important for us to hear from other students and realize that um our students are not the only ones in the school. So to read from the policy introduction um
064the the primary role of the student representative is to serve as a liaison between the school committee and the student body. The student representative and liaison is a role that seeks to build a bridge between the cherho school committee and cherho student population. This would facilitate a deeper understanding of the student perspective when the school committee is considering decisions that impact the educational experience of the students. Um, just a little background. This would be a representative that sits at the table but does not have a voting role and would also not partic participate in any executive session meetings. I believe this policy provides an opportunity for the kind of well-rounded multi-generational conversations that we need to truly move forward and I hope to have the support of this committee and the community in approving and
065adopting this policy. Thank you Jess for that overview. Um, so in order to have discussion, I I guess we need a motion for acceptance of the policy. So Jess, are you willing to put forward that motion? Yep. I make a motion to approve this policy. I'll second it. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Discussion. Karen. As someone who works with students on a daily basis, I truly appreciate listening to them 98% of the time. Um my only concern um is uh some of our late running meetings that I wouldn't want them to stay late. I mean, our last meeting went past midnight. Um so I'd like to uh if they're going to make a comment or an update, I would like it to be after the public forum on our agenda. And
066I would like them to have the opportunity to leave at a reasonable time. Okay. around 10ish, like when we we make our vote. Um, I don't want to be the response uh response the excuse for not having their homework done or being on time for school. Thanks, Karen. Any other feedback, Pat? Um, I'm not in favor of giving them a seat at the table. There's a lot of opportunities for them to speak out. As a matter of fact, they could come and speak at public forum anytime they want and leave at their own leisure and or they can they can I I think Gina has um students that she works with currently um that they could give her feedback as well as to bring it to the but to give them a seat at the
067table. I'm not in favor of that at all. Okay, Donna and Laura. Um I am in favor of this Jessica. Thank you for bringing it back to us. And the position I believe is a student liaison, which means it goes back and forth because not only will the student be here sitting with us capturing the sentiment of the school committee, but they will be give it gives that student an opportunity to talk to other students and let them be informed of what's happening here. Okay. So anyway, I am in favor of it. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. So, I um I think in in theory it's a it's a good idea, but my you know, and I supported this when it was first discussed at the um the policy subcommittee meeting in November. Um, but
068based on, you know, some of what the behaviors that I've seen that, you know, just being on the other side of this podium, um, and I just I just don't see how that's, you know, I wouldn't feel comfortable having a student sit behind here and, you know, have to kind of be on the other side of that. That's just my opinion on it. Thank you, Holly. And then Tyler. Um, I'm gonna stay with the same comments and be consistent that I I tried to collaborate a bit and give my opinion to Jessica on this and I think it's just the method it in which the student is selected by the staff, the administration and the SIT committees. I think that student should be um elected by their peers. And the we have a robust school
069committee uh sorry student body that has student reps at every grade level. And I mean it would just contribute to their elections and expand the democratic values that these you know everybody has a voice in it. So for that alone, I won't be voting for it because I just don't like the the system in which or the method in which the student comes about to be the school committee liaison. Can I respond after Tyler? Tyler, you can let her. Okay, Jess. Um, so I do I I think that's a good point that you had made in the meeting and the high school school improvement team has students on it. So that's why that's included there because I agree that students should have a say in who is going to represent them. Um but with the
070policy we have to it's guidelines and I I don't want to go too much into the procedure of how the district figures it out. Okay. Tyler, do we see this anywhere else in the state? There there are other so I I talked to folks in Bington in Westerly um and I there are other districts as well that have a student representative. I got positive feedback from those school committee members and what they do is they have someone come um that the student comes attends the meetings and gives a report at the beginning of a meeting and they listen in on conversations. They are part of conversations. um they take on varying degrees of interaction based on the student and it always differs but I got very positive feedback. Linda, I would like I I would
071support this p this policy and the reason is I spent I had an opportunity to spend two days in this specific um day. what was the original what was the uh I can't remember the whole the big the big title of it but I had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with um students from uh the high school and um I just think that they would add so much uh you know they would add so much to this committee as far as um what they think who they are and I don't think they Laura I don't think they would be afraid to sit on this other side they're very um very sure of themselves they're they're smart they're savvy I was just so impressed with the students I I think that having one
072of their voices on our committee would just add to to the um to us to our positive, you know, and and we're here for this kids. That's I think would be important to do that. Thanks, Linda. Larry, did you want to say something? Yeah, I I agree with what Paulie said that I think it should be a democratic process. the person should be picked by the peers not just because it could be to me you know somebody they like and not what we like or so on so forth. I think it should be a dem process person should be picked by their peers. Okay. I have a couple of questions and maybe Gina can or Jess. Um, do we have any opportunities now for student input uh in you know your goal setting or any
073presentations that come forward to the school committee at this point? Yes. Okay. And what what are when when does that happen? Um it happens throughout the year. You just you said um you all sat through the strategic planning update that happened in April. Typically you tend to see our kiddos more October, November and then like April May because we have the beginning of the year and then the wrapup. um they are involved in our strategic planning. They're involved in our school improvement teams. Uh Richmond Elementary does have students on their school improvement team, but it is a uh law that they're on the uh middle and high school teams. It's in that law, but I think it was great when when they um include them at elementary. That's their choice. Um you know, I'm a
074believer in student voice and I we definitely have activated their voices throughout the district in multiple ways. Um this is a the committee's meeting, so it's up it's up to the committee. So there my my question was there are many opportunities for student opinions voices to come forward during those various activities throughout the school year. Yes. All right. Thank you. Um and it says in this proposed policy that the student representative would be chosen by the administration not necessarily elected by their peers. Is that right? I know that other people made that point as well. So and the high school sit team. Okay. Which has students on it. So if there is one student representative, how do we know as a school committee though that that one student voice represents a collective voices or the
075or the majority? It says right in the policy that um the student representative is not expected to speak for the entirety of the student body, but can bring concerns to the school committee based on direct experience, direct observation, or communication with the student body. You're never going to have one person that represents the whole student body, especially with the size of the classes here. So, that's not the point. It it's it's to have a student voice. Give them a point. And I I understand there are a lot of opportunities for students to be involved, but unless we're at that meeting, we're not necessarily hearing their voices and their perspective. Okay. Thanks, Jess. Craig, I'm in favor of it. two to ease some some people's concerns. If if it doesn't work out, we can stop it.
076You know that we do have that power. Just because we make it happen doesn't mean it has to last for 10 years. So that's my opinion. So I'm I'm wondering if um Mr. Mr. Phelps and Miss Hopkins because they have a problem with one part of this if they'd like to make an amendment. They're welcome to make an amendment to the policy right in this meeting to address their concern which seems to be very specific. Okay. Laura, does does that mean it doesn't go back to the policy subcommittee though or is it not? It already did. But like if there is if there's an amendment Oh, we can amend it right here. So, I'll just express my opinion to Mr. Luzon's point. The optics of this, if a student comes on our committee and then
077we sort of, you know, give it a trial run and then we don't love it for whatever reason, I think, you know, sending that student sort of away from the process, I don't know that I love the optics of that and the message that that sends. That's just my opinion. It's just my thought, but I appreciate your I appreciate you bringing that forward. All right. So, we've had uh a good discussion on this. Um I am going to ask for a I guess a motion to approve as is. We did. So, yeah, I'm sorry. Not a not a motion. Uh a vote to approve the policy. I'm gonna um I'm gonna I am tempted to pull my motion because uh those who want to amend the policy have not um so I think that's a
078bad faith effort to stop this policy giving a reason that's clearly not the reason if you won't amend it. Paulie, um, fair is fair. We had an entire subcommittee meeting and and I gave you all those points and you came back with the same version. So, you know, I we tried to collaborate uh collaborate on it and I felt like I was honest. I gave you good feedback and you were kind of just like, "Nah, I'm going to do it this way." That's not what I said. Um, well, no, I said I think if you had followed up with me and given me, you know, You can give it to me right now. Give me the paragraph. Give me the sentence that you want to add. I'd be happy to do it. We had a
079whole meeting about it though. We did. Yep. And then a couple months passed and we went through the whole budget process and this came back around. Um you didn't follow up with me in writing. So I'm going to pull this motion. Okay. I'll pull my second. Okay. So we we pulled the motion, pulled the second. All right. We're moving on to uh business. Superintendent Bquard. Um I recommend the approval of the main campus bond resolution. This is the final step um per our attorney Karen Grandandy for the bond and in vetted by attorney Anderson as well. Mr. Zenian uh or uh Mr. Anderson can answer any of those questions. So move. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this item? Okay. All in favor? It's uni. It's unanimous. Thank you.
080Item B, I do need to table. We have a one thing to review that um will not have any impact of us using this, but it's just a matter of ensuring that our data sharing agreement is um accurate. Okay. So, I I'm assuming we need a motion to table this agenda item. Do we have a I'll make a motion to table. Okay. We have a motion. Do we have a second to table, Pat? All in favor of tableabling the say somethingou for approval. Unanimous. Thank you. Um I recommend approval of the student resource officer with Richmond. This is an annual umou which will be signed by the chair and the president of the town council once the school committee approves. There are no changes except for the date. So move. Okay. We have a motion
081and a second. Any discussion on the student resource officer for approval? Hearing no discussion. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you, Gina. Item D is the I recommend approval of these course requests for physical education as presented for grades seven and eight fitness. So move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I love it. Yeah. That sounds great. Great. I think if it's successful, I'm curious if you could extend it to fifth and sixth grade. Always. Okay. Any other comments or discussion? Hearing none. Uh motion to approve the curriculum for physical education grades seven and eight. Unanimous. Thank you. Okay. I recommend approval of the following threecurricular. Do I need to take them separately for anybody or is it fine that I have them together? I'm good. I recommend approval of the visual
082arts K through2 curriculum the music K- through2 curriculum world language 5 through 12 curriculum and I do see our department heads all English waiting if there's any questions and Dr. Camel is here as well, but I am recommending approval of all three. So moved. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. I think Karen beat Tyler to the second. Um, is there any discussion on this? Thank you. Can I just say thank you for providing the previous curriculum, the current curriculum? Like it it really helps somebody who's not that familiar with the entire curriculum to be able to toggle back and forth and see what the changes were. So it I know it's not easy. It's a bit more work. So it's appreciated, Tyler. It is a lot and I do appreciate that as
083well. The the one request I may have and I don't know how easy this is in in in curriculum. Um but I do love redline versions. Uh is that is that something we can do rather than having to flick back and forth between the two? I know sometimes there's huge changes that just don't make sense to redline. So the the changes we've been make so they weren't um changes to standards this time around right so the standards really remained the same the changes are largely in the formatting of this okay um which you know those of you are like familiar with the formatting is hard to right so the we've gone from like these vastund and 200page documents to something that we think is more manageable um for people to access like the general public
084or teachers to access those are really the changes in um the one that we're presenting to rents. Okay. All right. Just we do the red lines whenever possible. Typically that's our And so in school counseling, for example, you saw some red lining um because there was some slight changes. Um but generally like for especially the ones we're presenting tonight, it's largely the reformatting. Thank you, Dr. Camela. Aaron, I was just going to say I love the format and it was very easy to to read through and toggle through and I appreciated that and I definitely appreciated it getting it on Thursday of last week so that I could spend time looking through it um and spending quality time on it. So I appreciate that. Thank you. And I do want to take a moment to
085thank our team that is Oh, thank you so much. Greatly appreciate it. Gina, can you just recognize the um heads of the departments for visual arts, music, and world language, please? Stacy Wilbur, visual arts. Dana Hall is our humanities specialist at world language. Actually, we don't have anybody right now, but I think I believe everybody's pitching in. Thank you. Thank you very much. It was great. Thank you. Okay, so um all in favor of the revised curricula for approval, unanimous. Thank you so much. Thanks Dr. Camala for all that hard work. Item F is I I recommend approval of theou as both attorneys from the town of Huffington and the district have partnered to finalize this agreement. Mr. Anderson is here if there are any questions. John, did you want to comment on this before
086we vote? Hello John. Do we want to make a motion first? Yes. Okay. Um so John, one moment. So, do we have a motion to um approve the Hope Valley Elementary Schoolou? So, move second. Okay, we have a motion and a second discussion. Um we'll let John Sure. Good evening everyone. Um very briefly, this is the part product of some negotiations back and forth with through the town solicitor in Hopkin with the involvement of the town manager and the council president. I want to thank all three of them for their cooperation in the resolution of this matter. Um, we tried to be as clear as possible as to what will be coming with us and what we will be leaving behind. Most important to the town of Hopkin was that we leave the building clean
087and not a mess. And I want to assure everyone that not only are we good people and we would of course leave it clean, it is in thisou that we will leave it clean. So I urge you on behalf of um the Hopkintown Council has already approved this unanimously. So I would ask you to approve it as well. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Anderson. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving the Hope Valley Elementary Schoolou unanimous. Thank you. Ashway school lease for approval. Go forward, John. I recommend approval of the Ashway lease as both attorneys from Hopington and the district have partnered to finalize this lease. Some move second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? John, would you like to give us an overview
088on this? Sure. Um you will recall back in November um there was an issue with regard to the establishment of a monument or a plaque um with regard to the 1904 building that had been uh demolished. That was something that was very important to the people of the town of Hopington. And there were some questions as to, you know, who how this was going to work and who could say what and where was it going to go and parking and all sorts of other things. And there was a little bit of contentiousness at the November meeting last year. Um, Mr. the council president came uh the town manager was here. Um, I'm very pleased to report to you that once again, town manager, the council president have been extremely cooperative. um in terms of working
089out this agreement that we think protects everybody's interests and is very clear as to where the monument will be. Um um whose responsibility is for putting it up. Um it also um addresses the fact that the building, the 1904 building, it's no longer there. um our old lease made reference um that was the last time it was updated was shortly after it was closed and it was empty and so we did all the provisions about who would take care of an empty building and so forth all of that came out of the lease. This has been approved unanimously by the Hopkin Town Council. I want to again acknowledge the Hopkin Town Council town manager, the town solicitor, the town council president and I urge you to adopt it. Okay. Thank you, John. All right. We
090have a motion in a second. Is there any more discussion on behalf of the members or questions? Okay. All those in favor of the Ashway School East for approval. Unanimous. Thank you, John. Thank you, everyone. Item H, grants for approval. Champlain Foundation and School Shield Grant. Yep. I'll take them separately. So, I am recommending approval of the Champlain grant as submitted. It is for science classroom upgrades while the entire grant is included because as you can imagine Champlain is very competitive and with our intellectual property we're very careful that others can't steal our ideas. Um but I do recommend approval of the the Champlain grant. So moved. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, any discussion? I just want to say I know how labor intensive the Champlain grant application
091is as somebody who works in the space of grant writing. So Katie, if I don't know if you're here, but thank you very much for your diligence and hard work on this. Appreciate it. All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the Champlain Foundation grant for $99,71.17 for Char High School science classroom upgrades. It is unanimous, but Polly is not here. So please note that, madame um clerk. Thank you. Um all right, school shield grant. So this is a grant for school safety upgrades. I am recommending approval of the shield grant as submitted. So move. We have a motion. We have a second from Tyler. Discussion. Larry. Um with the closing of Hope Valley, uh is there any chance we could take some of the equipment from Hope Valley?
092Taking all of it. I mean, you got to take the security cameras, the badge readers, and move them to different schools where needed? Yes. Okay. Thanks, Larry. Any other items to discuss for this one? Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the school shield grant up to $25,000 for school st safety upgrades. All those in favor? Unanimous. And please note, Polly is not here. Okay. Next, approval of the Apple finance agreement vetted through attorney Anderson and technology. I am recommending approval of the Apple finance agreement as submitted. So move. Second. We have a motion. And Linda, did you second that one? Okay. Um, do we have any discussion or should we wait for attorney Anderson? Did you want to comment on this? Yeah, very briefly. Um, the school
093uh Charo Regional School District moved to Apple. I want to say it was about 2012. We have a master agreement with them. every time we buy a new trunch of computers of um uh lap um Chromebooks or laptops um we go through this process this we do this probably what every other year Greg pardon me there apples everyone okay so this is in the ordinary course of business so I ask for your approval thanks John right question, Gina. These the Apple agreement, these are for administrators and educators, right? Didn't we? Yep. It's the the high school, correct? And we because we moved to Chromebooks for all the students, right? Correct. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, we have Dr. Miller, you want to say something? Okay. We have a we have a motion and a second. Paulie's
094back. All those in favor of the approval of the Apple Finance Agreement, unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Update on the Cheraho Cowboys request for discussion purposes requested by member Chapman. Um we've had lots of meetings on this. I know Chris Strait is here. Wait, who has had lots of meetings? The administration. Okay. Um and there's been a lot of dialogue back and forth and this was requested by member Chapman. Um and Laura, did you want to say something about this before we turn this over to the administration? No, I just wanted to get an update on it. Okay. Thank you, Greg. Yes. Um, I would like to give a brief outline of what has taken place. Thank you. Yes. So, we don't say there's been a lot of meetings. You will see what has taken place.
095So, on February 24th, the Cowboys requested a meeting with district to discuss varsity field use. On March 3rd, district met with the Cowboys to further discuss the use of the varsity field. On March 7th, the director of building grounds, Jason Sullivan, and I did a walkthrough of the Cowboys field in Charles Town, get a better lay of the land of what they were discussing. On March 12th, the district and the Cowboys did a walkthrough of the two fields on our main campus that were offered as possible solutions. On March 31st, the superintendent sent an email to the Cowboys with possible next steps. On April 1st, the Cowboys sent an email stating two field options do not suit their needs. On May 9th, I sent a detailed email to Cowboys outlining what would need to be
096done and included in anou. On May 19th, I received an email from Chris Strait about possible saw donation. I replied that the assistant to the superintendent is setting up a meeting. On May 29th, the district meets with the trust and John Anderson. The trust is our insurance company. We met with their attorney and with our attorney, John Anderson to um discuss further um insurance needs that would be required if the Cowboys were to play on our field. On June 9th, the district met with the Cowboys. Um discussion was had. The um the requirements of additional assurance was given to Chris in an email from me um which I sent to him after that meeting. So he had exactly what was being requested of the trust to move forwards. Um today there was an email sent
097back to the superintendent. It does not resolve all the questions and um I have not had a chance to have our insurance company review to see if um what the Cowboys estate is acceptable. Um keep in mind the trust is our insurance. If they choose not to we will have to find a new insurer. Okay. where we stand. Thank you for that synopsis and update. Um Chris, did you want to say anything um relative to that outline or timeline? Please announce yourself and what town you're from. Uh Chris Strait Charlestone. And Madame Chair, I do have some documents that I want to add to the uh public record for today's meeting if you approve. So yes. Thank you. Okay. So, yeah, everything that Mr. Zenyan said was was accurate. Um, so on our end, since
098that meeting last week, we compiled a list um of the 31, you know, concessions that we've been talking about. We did put some of our um feedback Well, Mr. Straight, excuse me. There's just a little feedback coming from his microphone. maybe just take a step back. Thank you. Okay, so we did um we did put some comments in here based on some discussions that we've been having um amongst ourselves with our insurance provider uh Dave Woodmany. He's also on the board of uh the Cherokee Cowboys. Um so he looked at, you know, all all the concessions and kind of detailed um on the last sheet of what I just uh gave to Miss Brazil. um some of the items that we've been discussing, what our insurance already covers from the Cowboys, what it doesn't, um
099and some of his comments and some of his feedback. Um in the meantime, we also did discuss, I know I've expressed this before, there's 13 towns in our football organization and all of them except for Charo plays at their local high schools. Um so we're just asking to kind of get in alignment with the rest of our league. This is nothing special, you know, that that we're asking for. Um so we did use two high schools as comps um because they do have grass fields instead of artificial turf fields. So West Warwick and local to us is Exit West Greenidge. Um we talked to their youth football organization, their president and their athletic directors just to see what kind of things what kind of agreements they had in place with their high schools. um both
100of them got back to us and I did include that in two separate emails um in that uh document packet um that their high school doesn't charge them anything to use the field. They use the concessions, the bathrooms um and there's nothing special outside of insurance that they request from their youth organizations to use their fields. Um we have the same insurance as those towns because Dave also does the insurance for our football league. the Rhode Island Pre-Teen um league is where we all play under. Dave is also the insurance agent for the whole league. So, we all have the same insurance, you know, going and playing at each high school. Um, and then we did find out that uh that Cheroo Softball already uses fields here on property and um Dave is also on
101the board of directors for Cheroo Softball and he said that they've never had to go through any of these insurance questions um outside of what's on the normal facility use form to use any of the fields that they use actively today. So, thank you. Thank you for that update. China, did you want to say something? Actually, I'm going to have attorney Anderson because I I think there's a lot of confusion because as a regional school district, the main campus is not owned by the town, which is different than the other districts. So, I I think Mr. Anderson can explain some of the nuances. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Um the the big difference is that this campus is owned by this board. In other communities, and I'm not going to speak um specifically to
102the two communities that Mr. straight referred to because I don't we got this information as Mr. Strait indicated earlier this afternoon. I have no idea as to who is responsible for those fields. Um I can tell you that you mean fields in the other in the other in the other school districts for for example I can tell you right now that I'm from the city of Pucket city of the Pucket school department owns no athletic fields. They are not responsible. They don't take care of them. They just show up when they're on the schedule. The city parks and recreation department handles field reservations, handles all the requirements and so forth. What we're doing here and particularly with the issue of insurance is to protect the district. We have had two suits arising from athletic activities
103here on the campus. The school committee has the current school committee has been uh briefed on one of those suits in executive session. Some of the members who've been around longer, have some institutional memory, are aware of a second suit involving a um slip and fall of a cheerleader who um was injured while practicing in the middle school and the district was sued with regard to that. Interestingly, in that case, the town of Richmond was also sued because the lawyer didn't do his homework and thought that this was Richmond's high school in Richmond alone. Richmond had to spend money to get out of the suit and the town of Hopkin got brought into the soup because it was the Hopkin uh recreation program that was sponsoring a cheerleading activity. Um, and it ended up at
104the end of the day that the town of Hopkin got tagged for it on the grounds they didn't supervise the cheerleading activity as opposed to us who didn't properly clean the floor. So, insurance is a real issue um that has to be resolved. In addition to that, the other responsibilities, we can't call up Richmond Parks and Recreation or Hopkin Public Works and say, "Can you fix the field in the next day or two because we have a foot, you know, our our football team is playing and can you do this for us and can you do that for us?" That's not the relationship that we have with the town of Hopkin, the town of Charle Town, and the town of Richmond. We're responsible for it. So, M Mr. Zenyan and myself um working um with
105Mr. Cahoun um the superintendent put together a list of questions and we appreciate very much that we've made some progress on getting answers to those questions but that dialogue needs to continue. Um we have gotten today we got their con um report on insurance. There is one area where there is a big discrepancy and that is umbrella insurance. For those of you who don't know, umbrella insurance is your backup insurance. When your first insurance gets used up, you have a backup. Um, and there is a difference between what the trust wants and what the um the cowboys have. We need to figure out how to do that. We need to figure out that if the field is damaged um during a Cowboys game, how does it get fixed in time for the Charaho High School
106um football team? I will tell you that I am extremely versed in football fields. Um I represent Situit. The Situit High School football field was closed for two years and they had to play every single game away for two years because of sinkholes in their astro turf in their artificial turf field. Um that's very expensive to put kids on buses and bust them off campus for practices and for games. If something goes wrong with our field, we want to know what's the plan because we will have parents of Charo High School students saying, "What are you going to do?" The last thing I want is Charo High School to have to play it homecoming at Westerly High School. Right. when the when the refs show up to the game and review the conditions of the
107field and it's never happened to my knowledge since I've been here. Um not sure if it happened in the past, but if they condemn the field for use, then it's we're required to transport for practices that happen every day. But it isn't just our football team that uses that field. We um it's our girls varsity soccer, boys varsity soccer. Um but we don't be because we only have a team of three. We're not DPW. We don't have a large um contingent. Uh we have two maintenance and then like Florida custodians if we have to pitch it out there. But um many years ago you had someone handling just fields that was cut uh before my time. But we don't like I said we don't allow the middle schools and what's going to happen um even
108if we get past the insurance is you're going to have a use a a usage issue. And I listen I'm I'm from a town that uses but the town is responsible for the field because they own the property which is different than the main campus which is why I think there's a lot of confusion around that. Um but the the char I mean I think we're all um trying to figure out a way to make it work but I think we were all a little bit you know new around the arena when the trust asked us for so many things definitely I mean you have the list it was an eye openener for all of us um and that's why I think Mr. Ian's um approach was to talk to the Cowboys to talk about
109insurance first and then we have the other list of things to sort of think through. Okay. And and and there have been enough questions and I know that you all got invited to a meeting during the middle of the day and that was simply so that no so the superintendent was concerned that nobody would feel left out which is why it's on the agenda tonight forformational purposes to so that you're all on a level level playing field. pardon the pun. Um, with regard to the information and where this process stands, does anybody from the committee have any other questions? Karen, Laura, Tyler, did you have your hand up? Okay, Karen, I don't have a question. I have some historic knowledge um in regards to Exit West Greenwich. Um, back in the 1900s, 1990 to be
110specific, uh, when the bond 1900 when the bond was taken out to build the junior senior high school, part of the selling point behind the bond was that the building and the facilities would be used as a community center. And therefore, none of the outside or the um town leagues pay to use the building for basketball or the football field. So just that's why exit west does not charge. Okay. Thank you. Laura is do we know what the condition of the field is now and how is it maintained andwise? I I I'm not I defer to Mr. Zenyan. So we do have um currently loom was delivered to um be put in it before um the track is in the process of being redone. So, we did put loom in it to um try to
111level to some of the holes and level off a little bit. It needs to be um receded. Um it is um our our sprinkler system has to have some upgrades to it that um and when you look in the transfer, you'll see that we are transferring some funds to pay for some of that. But, um the fields um we don't have the man, we don't have the staff to um keep up with our current fields right now. and we are constantly pulling our maintenance um staff to do custodial work because we are still down custodians. I'm hoping that changes um July 1, but it hasn't yet. Chair, can I just add to what he just said? Yes. Tyler, are you okay with that? Yeah, because you were next. Uh we got rid of that staff
112to level fund budgets in the past. So, I mean Okay. Thank you for that point, Tyler. The field condition I'm assuming during the school year in the fall because that's when it gets the most use, right? Football, both soccer and spring. The only time it doesn't get used those field conditions change rapidly, right? And and given weather, they can change probably minute by minute. uh you know, all it depends. Uh you know, I've actually spoken with uh some folks outside of our district who play in the same league that the Cowboys are in. Um and actually I had one of them today. He actually works he works up with me and he he said, you know, that that field if it rains when they play in that field behind the high school, he goes, nobody
113can get out of there because they can't get up the hill because they have to walk up it. So, I just all I want to say is I want to try and figure out a way to try and make this work. Um, I know as a community organization, uh, they're they do great for kids in this district. Um, you know, we let or we don't let or Hopkins and Recre uses, you know, our facilities for basketball and stuff. If we can continue this dialogue to try to make it work, that's what I want to work towards and I'm willing to help out anywhere that I can with that. So that's all. Laura, did Mr. Anderson did um the insurance company as far as the umbrella insurance, did they give the limits on it that they
114were looking for? Yeah, they're looking for five 5 million million the document that which is actually not that much, right? Um and they they uh the number that was given to us uh earlier this afternoon from um the Cowboys was a million, I believe. Okay. Okay. But their limits they're putting a 5 million on it, right? We have, in other words, there's 5 million on this property right now. For example, if you're injured as a spectator at a football game, right? And um if we don't have the same, then there's a hole and we would be respon we would potentially be responsible for the hole. That's what which is why it would need to go to the f. Gotcha. Thank you. Mr. Mafet, did you have something that you wanted to say? Please. Thank you.
115Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Of course. Um, at the end of the day, the elephant in a room, it's going to cost money. That's what it's going to take. It's going to take a lot of money because, you know, if you add up the games, the football home games are probably maybe five or six games a year. Soccer probably plays eight home games a year, the girls and the boys, so that's 16. Field hockey will play there, too. They'll they'll do a senior night. So, you know, I would love it. Like I said, in a perfect world, Turfield would be perfect. You know, come on in. But we have to think about the safety first and foremost of the kids that go here within our district, right? Um, I'm sure there's kids that
116probably from out of the Char area that may play on those teams. I don't know. But we need to think about Char first, but at the same time, it's going to cost money. And I would suggest that you, you know, hire someone who or not hire somebody, but like get a serious consultant in here who who's going to give you a better idea. Okay? I mean, it's money, money, money. It's grass. The weather's going to change. It's like Tyler said, I mean, it could rain, change, all kinds of things. Um, but to the point about the basketball courts and the baseball fields, it's not football, it's not soccer, it's that turf is not taking the abuse. basketball courts. They're basketball courts. You sweep them, you polish them, you wash them. It It's completely different. Grass
117is living, breathing. It depends on if you have a crappy spring, a wet spring, a crappy summer. Say it doesn't rain for the next two months, which I can show you pictures of dormant turf. It's it's it's a very it's hard to measure. So, you need money to to hedge all of that and you need manpower. So, thank you. It's it's a big thing. Thanks for that insight, Mr. Muffet. Uh, PY and then I think we'll we'll move on. I'm probably going to echo a little bit of what Mr. Mafet just said and I think we should come up with some kind of quote from a few people who do field repair and consistently that would be annual or whichever way they want to set it up whether it's quarterly or annual because I think
118this has been a problem that's been ongoing for a couple of years now where we need to get some of those potholes filled in get our field maintenance up And then once we look at how much that would be annually, then I think that would be another metric we could look at in this discussion. Okay. Well, thank you for the dialogue back and forth, Greg. Thanks for your leadership on this. Chris, um, thank you for, you know, trying to um, collaborate and partner. So, we'll have to take this under advisement and I appreciate the two of you continuing to talk this through and seeing what the potential budget implications are of this as well. So, we have to take that into consideration as well as the insurance. So, thank you. Okay. Um, so there's no
119motion on that because that was for discussion purposes only. Um, member teft is not here. So, I think can I make a motion to table it? Okay, we have a motion to table and we have a second. So, the motion to table is we are tableabling the review and discussion of chaho rules of conduct and Rhode Island code of basic management principles and ethical standards. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Oh, no. Should I should I ask for discussion first before we vote? I was going to ask we going to be able to get uh an hour of u time towards our what's required for us on that. An hour. I don't know. I don't know how long that agenda item is going to take. I'm just asking a question.
120It's a valid question, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're required what? Five hours a year, right? Yes. So, okay. Just throwing it in there. Thank you. Any other discussion, Jess? I'm just hoping we can get a little more context. You know, this wasn't requested in a public meeting. Um, and there was no context in the email, so I'm curious why um if possible. All right. Well, I will certainly circle back to uh Diane and she's here, talk to her about that. Thanks, Jess. All right. So, we have a motion and a second to table. All those in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Budget update and budget transfers per approval. Nope. No. Okay. So L was take it says I have an annotated agenda that this was not approved um to be on this agenda for school
121construction committee. Yeah, it there was an error. Um it wasn't myself and the chair did not discuss it, but um the district clerk found it in the folder. Thought it would be easier to um put it on if we missed it, but neither one of us was able to have that conversation. So, you know, uh Angela apologized. Um but it wasn't set for this agenda. So, but because it's on the agenda, we would need to table it, but it is officially on the agenda. U make a motion to table. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? No. Hold on. Um, I don't want to table it. The meeting is Monday. So, I can make a motion to add it to the agenda, right? Chair. Well, so there there's a
122motion to table and then there's a second. So, it's not at this time I resend my motion. Do you resend your second? No. Why make a motion to table it? Maybe I just and again my apologies for the error. I just want to um remind everybody that this is not the building committee. So the building committee is much more you know you have a bond and or you have capital dollars the necessity for school construction which is what this school building authority only requires one school committee member one. You currently have three and that was that's I mean if you're all going to be on it then you have to put it here but anyone can attend but this is a committee that is not binding or away from the school committee. So any everything
123that happens in the necessity for school construction has to come back to the school committee. It's not the same as the building committee. So people are welcome to join it. I just again just my apologies for um for um this getting on the agenda. Like I said, Angela and I um we restructured our wires to make sure it doesn't happen again, but that was an error on our side. Greg. So, um, over the course of the last 20 years, I have repeatedly heard that, um, bonds have been voted down because there's not enough time. People don't understand, we didn't communicate enough. Um, if you postpone this and you don't start getting this out there, um, your stage two for your elementary schools is due in February. And um if we don't get that approved again,
124we spent a half million dollars on our last stage two and it got us nowhere. This one may cost more towards a million dollars. And um I'm working on a report that will be submitted to the state next week and we spent approximately $5 million on maintaining buildings that are really starting to fall down. So, um, if you don't approve this, wait, wait, it's just it's we already have a committee. We have a committee, but we don't need that. So, the Jess is asking to remove a member to be added to the So, they this subcommittee was reviewed when we do all the subcommittees. So, the meeting is going to take place Monday regardless. Yes, I apologize. That's all I want. But I understand. So, just my apologies for you, you know, you thinking that
125there was going to be because it is on the agenda. We could not. Angela had asked if she could um remove it from the agenda. Attorney Anderson advised that it would be an OM issue. Um but it was not on my list with the chair on my discussion because school committee requests are reviewed by the chair and then those that determination based on the current agenda and because you had a couple of policies that wasn't on this that wasn't supposed to be on this agenda. We try to balance the numbers. It was on the public agenda. It was you're correct. It it is on the agenda. It is. Um, so I don't know what to tell you if it is on the agenda. You're saying it's not I'm saying it should have never been placed
126on the agenda because it didn't go through myself or the chair. But it is correct. It is. I'm just explaining that it was an error on our part. Um, so the reason I requested this is because last time around, um, and part of the reason I got involved in the school committee to begin with, because I really care about the capital improvement plan for the elementary schools, regardless of whether or not I get added this to this subcommittee, I'm going to go to all these meetings like I did last time. So, I thought I would ask to be added to this subcommittee. Um, it's on the public agenda. I don't want to table it. The meeting is Monday. Like I said, I'll be there regardless, but um it doesn't make sense to not it doesn't
127make sense to me to table it. So, yes, Mr. Lausan, here's a compromise. How about we here's a compromise. How about we table it tonight, you bring it up in another future school committee meeting where we're prepared for it. I requested it at the end of the last school committee meeting. An agenda request. I'm trying to find a compromise for both. I mean, it's So, let's just still opening the door, but um I make a motion to be added to the necessity for school construction subcommittee. I'll second that. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. The the discussion was never taken back from the first motion. That's that is correct. So that was never taken back. So I don't know how that overrules the motion because I pulled the motion. Mr. Anderson, that's
128a you question. Motion a second. And at the moment that only has a second. So the motion does not go forward. No. Um and the floor is open for any other motion. So then just and I and I want to reiterate what the superintendent has said. Um uh there was a very collaborative meeting between the superintendent, myself and the chair of the school committee on what Thursday Wednesday where we went through the agenda. This did not come up in our discussion. I'm sorry that that did not happen. It was not intentional on the part of anyone who that Angela was at that meeting too. It was not intentional on anybody's part. It was an oversight. When the oversight was brought to my attention, I was asked, could we change the agenda after Friday night? And
129the answer is no. We cannot change agendas after Friday. That would be an open meetings act violation. So, you can blame that one on me. Um, it is on the agenda now. Um if they're um Madame Chair, if somebody makes a motion, they have a right to make a motion. Um but attorney Anderson, Mr. Luzon made a motion. Polly seconded it. He rescended his motion. She didn't rescend her second. And the second the second does the second not what matters. It's I just want to make sure that procedurally we're right. It's the motion that matters. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, Madame Clerk, I'm sorry. Hold on one second. So, do we have a motion and a second? We had a motion. You had a second. The motion in itself was kind of automatically moves. Okay. Correct.
130But then we had a new motion to really wasn't well she said it never stopped. So yes, she said it and I had a second. So So there is a motion on the floor. Okay. So there is a motion on the floor. Discussion Laura. So if there's if the if this motion passes, does that mean that other subcommittees that people can get added to them mid year too? Uh this committee this committee decides who's on subcommittees. The answer to that is yes. Well, if we do it at the beginning if it's done in December usually or January, but for example, people people come and go. For example, I just got a new job and I was on three subcommittees and I can't do all three of them. I'd like to stay on one but get
131off to somebody else wants to trade with me. That's up to the committee as a whole. In other words, you make the rules with regard to um subcommittees. Yeah. As long as it makes the agenda, right? As long as it makes the agenda has to be done in public. Yeah. On an agenda. Thank you. Other discussion. Okay. Tyler and then did some what's the composition of the necessity for school construction subcommittee and what is its charge? Okay. So, um, just school committee members or the entire committee? The entire committee. Okay. Give me one second. Um, I know. I know it is. So, this is the one that when you go on RI's website, it lists all the required participants. Superintendent must be on it. The finance director must be on it. The um the principles
132of every school you're discussing must be on it. You must have um a community member that has construction background, which um is John Deo. We have um three school committee members. It is Craig Lazison. It is Pat Kulot. And it is Karen Reynolds. Um, and I think I covered everybody, but I want to double check. It has to have a It has to have a principal on it. Yep. I just said this if I remember. We actually just had to Kathy just sent an email. One second. Okay, let's see how well I did. Uh, superintendent, members of one member of the school committee, we have three, the three that I just said, Karen Reynolds, Craig Lausan, Patricia Pulot, our building's grounds director is required, which is uh the person required for building maintenance is Jason
133Sullivan. Then we have the school principles and at this point because it's elementary it's Amanda, Jennifer Poor, Sharon Martin, the budget official Greg Zenian and the member of the community with architectural engineering or construction experience is John Deere and the charge is to um make recommendations for the school committee. So this is the one where we um follow the state law. You have to do we have the kiosa OPM and then the charge is to complete the stage 2 application in preparation. So that's this is the one where you all get the updates every month leading up to the final February 15th deadline. But the charge is to continue one their first charge is architect. Their second charge is um they have to meet with Ride. Ride reviews the stage one process and the stage
134two with what their charge is for stage two. So everybody's clear in case cuz the session's still in. So you never know if a change happens within a couple of days. So ride comes and um does a onboarding of sorts to make sure that everyone has a clear picture of the stage two. And then typically we do meet um depending on the needs, but this is a larger charge than last time because new construction is form formula based and um the the ask of this committee was renovations and new construction to see the comparison. So the the majority of this work is really going to be about um the architects and and the renovation comparison to the new buildings and then providing you all with a recommendation a final recommendation for the application. So as
135they go along and and make the um you know the updates you get the presentations and ask questions throughout the can I follow on here with a question say this committee meets and you know robust discussion I'm sure occurs um it what's that recommendation look like? Are they the ones who were saying, "Okay, we're going to go forward with please don't shoot me, building the factory in the field." Um or or is that they make the recommendation to us or or do we get two proposals and then we get to My understanding understand how that works. Yeah, this will happen um based on the charge already that the school committee had said it was um the even in the community they wanted a clear review of new compared to renovations. So the charge is to
136have that comparison available to the school committee for you all to make the final decision. So typically what happens we do that road show you you go to the town councils and you explain why that um you know they'll give you the amount and if sure this is one another and other we make a recommendation. So in this in the spirit of transparency I I have to weigh in here because um I think that's just the right thing to do. So, uh, Miss Purcell asked for this agenda item. We did not discuss it in our meeting of 90 minutes on Wednesday and then I saw that the agenda item was on the agenda and we didn't discuss it. So, I didn't think it should be on the agenda. That's number one. Number two, Jess and
137I had some I think email exchanges about this request and what I said I believe what I said to her and I don't have the email in front of me so I'm going to paraphrase. I said, "Jess, I appreciate you're wanting to be involved on the necessity for school construction subcommittee, but at this point, I'm not inclined to approve the agenda item because there's already two people from Richmond on the the subcommittee, and I thought that that there should be balance on the subcommittee. There is somebody from Charles Town and two people from Richmond. That would mean that there would be three people from Richmond." That was number one. Number two, you know, Laura disclosed that she had expertise in negotiating contracts with private health insurers um when we were talking about another subcommittee. And
138I said to Laura, "Oh, you should get on that subcommittee." And you know, I thought to myself, well, we already had that process of appointing people to subcommittees at the January meeting, which was probably like an hour process that we went through every single committee about who wanted to be on and who wanted to come off, if if you remember that in January. So, I thought that there would be a significant imbalance on the necessity for school construction subcommittee with three people from Richmond. If anything, gonna have 500 kids. I get it. What does balance mean? I Well, I understand, but there's but there's nobody from Hopington on that subcommittee and um there's already two people from Richmond. Then I think that you had asked if maybe voluntarily somebody would maybe remove themselves from the
139subcommittee if I remember correctly at our last meeting when we talked about future agenda items. So, that's just my opinion on it. I think if anybody wanted to get on a committee um that they should have expressed that in January and then you know I'm constantly being you know um given direction about how we need to be mindful of agenda time management and we already talked about this for over an hour about subcommittees in January. So that's just my two cents on it. So and and I just wanted to express that. Would that make you vote against me being on this subcommittee? Because that doesn't really speak to what the motion is. That speaks to your general feelings on the agenda item, but it doesn't speak to your feelings on this motion. I'm asking to
140be added to this. I've done it in good faith. I've asked during a public meeting. I emailed you. We had a discussion. We're here in this meeting. I I feel like we're getting hung up on what's called transparency, but it's really just not the topic at hand. So, the topic at hand is you want to be added to a subcommittee. That's the topic at hand. Y So if if you want to have this discussion, which we already have a motion in a second because it's on the agenda as Mr. Anderson said, so we will have a vote on it. So it's an up or down vote. Is there any other discussion? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Abdesian. Um I had just I I think of question and kind of a comment. So um other than as
141the superintendent specified, those are the only requirements uh for the constitution of the committee um needs to have what a school committee member uh uh someone from the public. Um so I guess first of all um if we're talking about balance, why why isn't there a member of Hopington on it? Um seeing as we have two from Richmond and uh so um there was two openings. Let the superintendent there were two openings. Katherine Juicy used to be on it and when they did the subcommittees it it there's no charge that says it has to be from each member town because we're one district. Correct. Um and while there's more kids going to Richmond Elementary, there's students from Hopkin going to Richmond Elementary and Charles Town. So they're all the same. But um it wrially there
142were one from every town but again when they when the committee asked for the subcommittee meeting my response was you're only required to have one. So my my next my next question is given for the sake of balance um there's only one person from the public who is required to have a construction background given that we're a a multi-town district. um why wouldn't they why wouldn't it make sense to have one from each town from the public? Um and then so that's that. But my I think in light of what Mr. Zenyan has said um uh about the overall condition of the buildings. Um the fact that going back probably 50 years, I honestly can't remember the last time there was a major capital improvement to the elementary schools. 50 years ago. 50 years ago.
143So um And given the fact that that I mean at least two of them have have had water leaks. Um there's problems with roofs. Um there's a certain amount of urgency with wi with with this committee. Right. But we're getting off topic a little bit because the agenda item is voting somebody on the to the committee. So I I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I just don't want to have anybody say that I'm going outside the frame of the agenda item. My my my final point is is that or I guess maybe it's a question and and a final point is is is this the first time that this committee has met since the bond failed a year ago last May? Yes. Yes. Because the charge is only you only start again once you have
144an approved stage one. So that we got the approval last month. I I just my final comment and and I I'll sit down is what is taking so long? I I I mean listen listening to Mr. Zinyan's comments it seems like it's really urgent. Thank you. Absolutely. I just want to just clarify and the chair said that I could um the process happens. We've been doing this process every year so trust me. Um I feel like sometimes it's Groundhog Day. That's a 1900 reference probably. Right. Okay. So um the timeline for the state is February. So last year in February, we did this stage one, stage two, and then we went all the way through to the 2024 bond. It did not pass. When we didn't get a lot of feedback around um or concerns
145around the main campus, we removed the main campus and had to redo our stage one. So this committee immediately started the stage one process again, which is working with the project manager to reubmit our facilities plan, update our work based on RISE requirements. that started when the as soon as the bond failed that started right away where and if you go back to school committee agendas you'll see some of that process of of the updates so we submitted the stage one application which started in June of last year up until February we had um meetings here and then when that was submitted we wait for the school building authority to let us know when it's on the agenda that happened in May for stage one and then for the resubmission of stage two for the
146main campus bond and now based we then this committee the last month put together the architect bid so they have actually I mean all the timelines have been absolutely very efficient and quick um it may not feel that way but it's in we have to have certain approvals the process definitely is that's why if you notice in my e update last month I had noted that the process again and and then moving forward just like you remember I did like a timeline line. I will continue to provide the public, the community uh with updates. Typically my eupdate the towns can determine usually something like that over the especially over the summer. They help me with communication because of my reaches only families. Um but I trust me I understand the frustration. Um but please know
147the timelines have been very much efficient and moved moving along. Appreciate that context. Sure. So given given the requirements by ride, as long as you've met those, this committee can do anything it wants with that committee, right? You can constitute it however you want as long as you meet the requirements, right? Correct. Yes. You have to at minimum meet the requirements. I I mean to be honest, I honestly I don't see any reason why you couldn't appoint uh Jess. I don't see why you couldn't couldn't at some point appoint somebody from Hawkington. Um I just Thank you, Jess. So, um this this doesn't say just adding me to this the school committee. That's the motion that's on the floor. I agree time is of the essence. The meeting is Monday. So, this is actually the
148perfect timing if we're going to change to do it now. So, I call for um a vote on my addition to this this subcommittee. There there was already a motion for so I'm saying let's vote Karen I just want to say you know if just wants to be on the committee but subcommittee let's why not like the more the marrier like another set of eyes we're not asking anybody to hop off right we're not no but it was a little it was implied a little bit last month that somebody could drop off to make room for another person but there's no need for that Gina we could we could have six if you want. But then you can't talk to each other until the meeting. Yeah. There there were meetings I went to that not
149all school committee members were there. Right. You made that point. Um Greg and as the office that handles the building committee meetings, um we scramble to make sure we have a quorum and we have work that needs to get done. Bills that have to get paid that cannot happen. That's different than I understand that. But if you keep adding members and then members don't come, you're you're increasing your quorum. We're not. So just be aware of that. We're not adding members to the building committee. We're adding a member to the necessity for construction which is which also has to have a quorum in order to hold 15 people now in that committee. It'll be sick. Show up. You don't have a quorum. One at a time. One at a time. Karen has the floor. Karen
150has the floor. I haven't missed a meeting. I don't intend on missing any meetings. I mean, I think I'm just saying that publicly with all the members here. Chris, you're right. I need them to come to those meetings. I know you do. I was there. We We've been waiting. Craig, did you have another comment? You know what? It's It's already been discussed. No. Okay. Tyler, did you have another comment? I'm good. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. The motion is to Madame Clerk. Okay. All in favor? Okay. Did you get those folks? All opposed. Okay. So, the motion carries. Now, this item says necessity for school construction committee school committee membership. Are there any other motions for any other members to come onto this committee or leave or is that is anyone
151interested to have a balance on this committee? Holly, I will stick my hand up for the Hopkin rep or so are you nominating yourself or would you like a nomination? Do you want to be on that committee? Sure. Sure. I nominate Paulie Hopkins for membership to the necessity for school construction committee. Okay. Okay, we have a motion and a second discussion. Let me just say I went through the charo drafting program, so I do have somewhat knowledge of architecture. Thank you, Polly, for those skills. I worked with an architect. All in favor? What's that, Louise? I said all in favor of adding Polly to the subcommittee. Okay. All opposed? Okay. Madame clerk, did you note that? Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that budget update and budget transfers for approval. I get your point.
152I recommend approval of the budget transfers as submitted. So, so move. We have a motion and I think Tyler beat you to the punch there, Karen. Um, do we have any questions or discussion about budget updates and budget transfers? Seeing no hands raised or nobody saying anything about that all those in favor unanimous. So for the consent agenda before anybody pulls anything the minutes from the health and wellness were inadvertently added to consent it should be part of my reports because they are approved by that subcommittee. So only one and two. So Angela I'm going to ask you so for three do we have to have officially somebody move it? I'm thinking John. Is John still here? John. Um, thank you. Minutes from Health and Wellness Subcommittee. Do uh Chair, I make a motion to
153table number three. Minutes from the Health and Wellness Subcommittee meeting from May 27th, 2025. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of tableabling the minutes from the Health and Wellness Subcommittee meeting from May 27th. Can we put your put your hands up, please? Thank you. Sorry. All okay, that was unanimous. Hey, now it's all all tableing. Okay, consent agenda items. Do we have Can we take these all in a group or is anything I got to pull a one and two? You're pulling one and two. Is that it? Is that it? So, pulling one and two. So, madam chair. Yes, sir. Seeing that no one has pulled anything else, I make a motion to approve the remainder. But before I do, and I will do all 12 because it's
154never been 12 before. So, of the donations from one, the Spring Hill Sugar House Farm donated two half two half gallons of syrup for our Richmond Elementary School fourth grade Rhode Island celebration day on June 6th. Two, Sandra Budro donated women's golf clubs and golf balls to our Charger golf team. Three, Arthur Haskins donated two boxes of pickle balls, Yahoo pickle ball with 12 dozen each box for the Cher High School and Middle School PE classes. Four, anonymous donation of $500 to our Love Our Music scholarship. Five, Vanessa and Patrick Fre love recently planted several small trees at Charlesson Elementary School. We also thank them for adding plants to the large planters in front of the school. Their time and expertise have helped to further beautify the outside of our school. Six, Mr. Richard Lyall
155donated a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid vehicle to our Cheryl Carer Tech Center automotive department. Seven, Pamela Brennan donated books to the Richmond Elementary School library from the Hardy Boys Mystery Collection. Eight, anonymous donation of $250 to defay the cost of school lunch lunch debts at Charlestown Elementary School. That's been going on for a while. I just wanted to add that to it. Number nine, Larry Phelps. Lawrence Phelps generously donated a sub pump, a garden hose, a generator, garden hoe to the Dan Pots chair ho community grow. Donate items updated per Mr. Phelps on 6:13 at 3:35 p.m. Okay. Yeah, we we got that. Number 10, Thompson Sawmill donated two solid oak 12 foot boards for Richmond Elementary School to create a raised garden bed. Number 11. 11. Sorry. Gotham Greens donated four flats of ceilings
156for our hydroponic unit. 12. Richmond Stop and Shop donated carrots and apples to support a dehydrated healthy snack for the Richmond Elementary School Field Day led by Melissa Richard. The dehydrators and supplies were purchased with the USDA scales grant. Thank you also to Chef Raleigh and her students for their support. Can I add a Thank you, Craig. Jess, sorry. Can I add a 13? Um, when I was looking through the materials, there was another one in an email from Kim Dagel at Richmond. Are you okay if I read it? Okay. Um, please recognize Barbara Monty for her contribution and donation of one 8x6 garden mural for our greenhouse that she hand painted for us to match our garden club t-shirts and logo perfectly. It's the first thing you see when you walk into the greenhouse
157and it sets the mood for kindness and learning. So, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Motion. I'm sorry. I second his motion. Okay, great. So, we have a motion and a second to um move the remainder. All in favor? Unanimous. Madame Chair. Yes, sir. At this time, I make a motion to approve a one of the minutes from regular session of the general school committee from May 13th, 2025. Second. We have a motion and a second. All those Oh, any discussion? Jess, did you have something? No, sorry. Okay. All those in favor? All those opposed. All those abstaining. I would Madam Chair, I make a motion to to approve a two minutes from the special meeting of the chair of school committee for May 20th, 2025. Do we have a second? Second.
158I think Karen got you. All those in favor? All those opposed? All those abstaining. Um, superintendence report item 11. Okay. So, we have a graduation update. We were thrilled to share that our Teraho class of 2025 graduation ceremony was a truly unforgettable celebration of an extraordinary group of students. The evening was filled with pride, joy, and heartfelt moments as we honored our class that has demonstrated resilience, leadership, and an unwaving commitment to excellence and service. From the powerful student speeches to the cheers of families and the proud smiles of faculty and staff, the event reflected everything our community values: academic achievement, community spirit, and personal growth. Under the leadership of principal Andrea Drake and the outstanding high school team, the ceremony ran seamlessly and beautifully highlighted the individuality and accomplishments of every graduate. We are
159proud of the class of 2025 and the many ways they have left their mark on Cheroo. As they move on to careers, colleges, service or trade programs, we know they will carry with them the skills, character, and determination to succeed and lead. Thank you to everyone who made this event possible and who was able to attend. From our staff, administration to our school committee, families, and community partners. It was a night that brought our vision of a graduate to life and reminded us why we do this important work every day. Congratulations again to the class of 2025. [Applause] Can I just make a comment? Graduation was exceptionally well done at the Ryan Center and I ran into the co-president last night. I forgot his first name. Ethan. Ethan. And I congratulated him. He was great
160at we ran into each other at Lickety Splits and I He's going to the University of Tampa. So, um I mean he along with all of the speakers were absolutely outstanding and I know how hard it is to put on an event like that. So, congratulations to the entire administration and to Mrs. Drake. Thank you're welcome. Okay, summer updates. The last day of school is tomorrow, June 18th. Nobody's counting. Parents who require bus transportation for their children must submit their registration by July 1st. If they want to ensure they have a bus for the first day of school. I have to say Ocean State always tries their best, but it always makes it a little easier to route if they're not rerouting over and over again. So, please tell your friends. It's been in the
161e update. It will be in July um e update, which I will send out a couple of days early probably just to make sure. We also um want to make sure that everyone u takes a look while they're on the beach relaxing our monthly newsletter. will continue in July and August. It will have necessity for school construction updates regarding our our stage two process with our elementary schools and important information including our school calendar. While it's on the website, we'll start to put things in our eupdate for easy access. Our extended school year programs for students who receive this service begin after the week of July 4th and continue into August. Typically, these programs happen on the main campus, Richmond Elementary School, as well as uh Hope Valley Elementary for prek. So that Hope Valley
162will still be open for our prek program. It will be the last program to move. We wanted to ensure that our youngest learners didn't have to do transitions twice and that their materials were not in boxes as we were trying to get them closed out for the year. So they will remain at Hope Valley until um their prek ends in the beginning of August. The first day of school for students, I know I just said the last day of school, but the first day of school is scheduled on Wednesday, August 27th. So thank you everyone. So before we move on to um coming events, um I just want to say this. I think this is this is the last school committee meeting where Hope Valley Elementary is part of our district. And thank you to
163Jess and Karen for putting forward that resolution and recognition to the staff, the parents, the students, and the community. I know it was with a heavy heart that we made that decision and um yeah, so I'm sorry that that had to happen, but um thank you for that recognition for um everybody within that community. Will our police will be giving a um Hopkins police will be giving them an escort as they leave tomorrow for and their they do um every school we have one here on the main campus. We do a farewell to the students at the last day of school and um there will be families lining the streets by Main Street um to be able to say goodbye to our Hope Valley students in a hopefully a way that they'll remember. So is
164that in the morning or in the afternoon? In the afternoon. Okay. That's at the last that's at the when the after the buses pick up and they head out, the police escort will leave and then I I believe the parents are lining to sort of join and wave and um I would say buses leave around 3:30 3:35. It's a full day of school. It's a full day of school. Last day of school used to be a half day. Oh, elementary school. Welcome to the 2000s back in the 1900s. Okay. Um the best day of school. I'm good. Um, all right. Uh, item one more item before we adjourn. School committee requests for future agenda items or legal opinions. Tyler Karen, you want to go first? Carol, I'm sorry. I didn't I I didn't see. I
165have two. So, if you want to go first. Um, okay. Um, I would like an update on the Bureau of Veritas report. Like, when is that coming and is I know. And when's the date of the ride meeting? Is that June June 26th? 26th. And we're still waiting for a quorum for that from Ride. Yes. For Okay. Yeah. Speaking. Okay. Thank you, Karen. Um Tyler, um Madam Chair, the first one, uh I would like to propose the discussion again, and I know our meeting schedule is already set, but our meetings have tended to go pretty long as of late, and and I think there might be a need to possibly having two meetings a month again versus just one. I don't know if that's something we can change in the middle of a cycle or
166not, but I think we should have a discussion on that. Yeah, we definitely So, we we do post, but you can amend as long as we give notice. You can always do that. I'd like to have a discussion on that with the with the committee as a whole because I don't think it should be a unilateral decision. I think we should all have input on that. Um whether or not we do want to sit here till 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night or or you know, maybe split it up and manage our agendas a little bit better. Okay. Was there anything else? Yeah. And my my second one is I would like to also have a discussion on a more formalized review process for the superintendent or for any superintendent. I know in the past
167there used to be a subcommittee when Barry was here that that was sort of a review subcommittee and there was more of a formalized review process. I know me in the corporate world I have a performance review every year. It actually happens twice a year actually. Um I would like to see something more along those lines. I think we do it every what three years for our teachers. They have formal evals or is it every year? I don't know. Non- tenure it's every year and then tenure every three to four years depending on their score for really for all administration. Um if there isn't something in place so I'd like to have that discussion as well. I can follow up via email chair. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Laura. Um, I just wanted to the
168continue the discussions with the Cherho Cowboys because I think that they're, you know, a very important part of our community. A lot of our kids play on their team on the team and in that league. So, you know, just keeping that dialogue open and having those updates, you know, with John Anderson here, that was very helpful, too. And on top of that, should we uh could we discuss putting out bids or for bids to repair the field on a consistent basis, keep it up, you know, I'm sure you guys have better terms, but yeah, it would be it would be helpful to have pricing some kind of idea what we're looking at. Okay. Um, so I have a couple that I wanted to propose um when I have everybody's attention. Okay. So, um the is
169there any data or um any um yeah any data about I know that cell phones were there was a new cell phone policy fairly recently. if there's any data that the school committee could be um made aware of about any correlation between the removal of cell phones and any improvement to class participation or um you know academic performance. I don't know if there's anything like that, Dr. Camela or Gina, but I would I know that it there was a lot of feedback from the community on this um pro and con. So I would just love to see if there's could be some sort of an update on that in the future. It doesn't have to be July, but and it's in the general assembly as well. Okay. So, they they they um they haven't finished.
170Rumor has it they're finishing Friday. Um but they also have a bill to discuss to require no cell phones. Schools have policy. Well, and that would be a policy. Okay. And then just piggybacking on Tyler's um agenda item about the the schedule and the meetings. So, I don't and this is really about I think agenda management and I'm trying to be, you know, more self-conscious of agenda management. And um with that being said, I'm wondering if we could um take a look at what the schedule is for the fall. And I know Gina, you've said in the past that there are um meetings that come forward um maybe uh presentations to the school committee that are involved and take a long time to present to the school committee. So, if there's anything coming up in
171the fall about any special presentations for curriculum or anything like that, should the school committee potentially um evaluate whether or not we should have a special meeting for just lengthier presentations where we can get those presentations in advance. We can review those presentations in advance and have a more of a meaningful dialogue about those types of things. the general law just is if it's if it's part of a requirement of the law, we have to do it in a regular meeting. So the usually but the presentations we give I we usually try to keep it no more than 20 minutes. Um obviously without any conversation but that's typically like even I usually go through them sometimes because like the strategic plan there's a multitude of stakeholders involved in that. Um we we can always give
172like a draft of like the big picture. Sometimes little tweaks happen, but we always try very hard to give the presentations ahead of time when possible. It just when the more people that are involved and students, then we have to make sure um you know we don't compete with homework time. Okay. All right. So, those were mine. Was is there anything else? Craig, did you have something? Madam Chair, I make a motion to adjurnn. Okay. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. Oh, you're a little slower.