2025-03-11 School Committee Meeting

001e e e good evening everyone thank you for your patience we had an executive session prior to open session so we appreciate your patience this evening it's great to see so many of you here participating in the Democratic process so we are opening and reconvening Open Session and with that I'll turn this over to the superintendent good evening everyone oops here we go and welcome to um the school committee meeting on March 11th a per Ro Island federal code regulations require that we bring your attention to the fire exits for you to use in in un likely event of an emergency one at each exit door to your left I point back and forth and then also two in the back for your knowledge and two at the top of the rear balcony in the

002seating please remember that aisleways are to remain clear the entire time if you're going to speak and someone's at the microphone you must remain in your seat until that person leaves um the Fire Marshall is present so we just ask that you cooperate um to we keep everybody safe this evening thank you thank you now is the um oh y i Gina we already did itk I recommend closing and sealing the executive session minutes pertaining to discussion inter action pertaining to an individual's job performance or character review of the superintendent's goals progress and job performance discussion pertaining to collective bargaining discussion regarding the certified contract negotiations until such time as they are unsealed and discussion pertaining to matters which relate to the privacy of students and their records home approval executive session minutes for February

00311th 2025 and approval of home instruction requests and approval of additional home instruction requests second okay that was um Linda and Tyler any discussion all in favor it looks like it's unanimous thank you everyone disclosure of executive session votes will be read by our vice chairperson Laura Chapman good evening everybody there were two votes that were taken in executive session the first vote was in regards to who excuse me was in regards to the minutes for the previous month's executive session there were a total of 10 excuse me 11 votes taken two extensions and there is one member of the committee who is not here tonight and that's Donna Chambers the next vote that was taken was for the home instructions the home school instruction request and that vote was unanimous with of course the

004exception of Donna Chambers who is not here tonight thank you third vote third vote was to third vote taken to return to open session and that was unanimous thank you thank you Laura now for the recognition section of our agenda this evening we've got some students here in the audience um and we have um representative CER here that is going to be presenting some uh proclamations hi rep Cotter how are you so um are we starting Gina with um with the CH High School Arts right yeah I would just would right and then but we added so you oh okay all right we have students here tonight that are going to be playing a musical selection for us would you like to give us some context as to who these These are the amazing Middle

005School band and if you haven't already heard them and you want to hear them again after their amazing performance for this introduction you can come visit them at RSC April 4th and 5th but middle school will be on the 5th Saturday here at the middle school and tonight we have Caleb tiin filamina Curtis John cab at Asher women Mike McDonald Mrs mcard is getting old her glasses even Burman Dan link m Ian McKinnis Kellen Smith Conor galtney yachi har Harris we will perform they will be performing one song lasting about 5 minutes so enjoy close your eyes if you feel the need please let me know if you need any other information we are so excited to hear you tonight and again find them at the artisty on April 5th [Music] the [Music] w [Music]

006for [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you very much that was amazing you're welcome so item six on our agenda is recognition we have a couple of school committee members um acknowledging some awards tonight and I am going to turn this over to school Committee Member Karen Reynolds at this time thank you please join the high school art teachers in congratulating the following students on their accomplishments in the 2025 Rhode Island art anchor Awards Rhode Island art anchor Awards is a Statewide visual art competition for middle and high school students Brandon Thorp best in category drawing and anchor award for the return of the Kings Heralds Jacob sardelli and jacobe white best in category film video and anchor award for the amulet Fiona Smith anchor award in Ceramics for skin deep the anchor award show is available

007for viewing all month at Rhode Island College in the Alex and Anie Hall superintendent Bard will now uh read off some recognitions for sports and we do have some proclamations so if your name is called please come forward to accept your proclamations please I'd like to thank representative Carter for her proclamations she is an advocate for all of our Cho students so thank you for coming tonight for our wrestling state champions in Cho Middle School our Junior vity state champions are William kemell at 88 pounds and Preston Davis at [Applause] pounds nice job gentlemen good job Preston nicely done Preston's also on my student advisory panel he's given feedback for me for the last four years nicely done Preston next we have our Varsity state champions Donovan Peno at 75s and Michael Newton at 106

008[Applause] next up we have girl swim 2024 2025 division 2 Champions Westerly Cho Co-op grade 12 Elena Brennan Abigail Donado McKenzie Gabrielle and Felicity Kushner come on up [Applause] nicely done grade 11 we have Payton patasa Payton I didn't say that right you're going to have to help me t Payton how do you pronounce your last name Peta okay you try to over complicate it you ever see that skit on the comedy channel thank you very much next up grade 10 em mccardy and Sonia [Applause] Beasley is it Tesla hold on ol Olivia O'Neal they have you in grade nine what happened come on Olivia Olivia O'Neal grade 10 now if this was the pool she'd already be up here Ava Peach grade nine Tessa Perkins grade nine Alexia mccab and Copa Nicholas congratulations [Applause]

009that's just a photo thank you very much again representative Carter and congratulations girls okay now pay attention to This Acronym we do love our acronyms the scoop is our boy swim team what does scoop stand for South Kingstown Prout naragon Cho we took second in the boy State swim championships congratulations to our Cho Regional swimmers Jameson kolie and Ben Laban are either one of you here please please stand to be recognized thank [Applause] you and for girls track the 4x200 relay team consisting of Emily Brown Lydia Taber Alison Cole and Elanor short set a new school record with a time of 14923 at the New England Emily Brown reached a new school record clearing the 55 in the high jump to finish fifth at the new englands and also girls indoor track earn the 2025

010team sportsmanship award nicely [Applause] done this is good Diane teft will read our next recognition our next recognition is for the Roger Williams Law Ruth Bader Ginsburg essay artwork contest Richmond Elementary School winner Ren [Applause] Anderson in grade four at Richmond Elementary School submitted her entry with our work entitled inspiration which has won the rwu School of Law essay contest how has Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg inspired me Ren's teacher is Megan [Applause] recupero thank you Ken thank you Diane thank you Gina for that recognition and congratulations again to all of our exceptional students [Applause] item seven on the agenda is public forum so we do have some policies around public forum that I would like to read before we get started so we encourage me uh members of the public to come up and speak

011on any item that is not not on our agenda a citizen will be permitted to present your comments or questions to the school committee during this time it should be noted that the right or privilege of free speech is not absolute at all times and under all circumstances this is part of our public forum policy the exercise of a citizen's right carries with it commensurate responsibility each citizen who makes a public statement has a responsibility to be accurate present fact facts and not gossip or rumors present information based upon personal knowledge not hearsay be considerate and allow others to speak without interruption so again you could come forward if you'd like to speak about items that are not on the agenda I believe that there's a number of folks that signed up for public comment

012this evening regarding things like Title 9 policies um transparency so if you would like to speak on on specific items um I just want to make sure that you're coming up at the right time during the agenda so if you have a general comment on any of those topics you can come up and speak during public forum if you have a question as to the agenda item as written on our agenda then I'd advise you to hold your question until we get to that actual agenda item so if you have a general comment on a topic you you're welcome to come up at this time I hope that that's I've clarified that for everyone so we have a number of people that are signed up for public comment well over 10 so I'm going to

013ask you to keep your comments to under four minutes and we will keep time on that I'll give you as much latitude as possible but we have a lot of wood to chop tonight because we have a budget discussion and we have a number of other items on the agenda so with that being said Jake plan Blanchett is um down first Jake welcome can everyone hear me not really come right up thank you how about now better okay members of committee and Madam chairperson my name is Jake Blanchett a Shero alumnist of the class of 2007 I am also one of the original founding members of the gay straight Alliance I've lived in Connecticut for the last nine years but I still have ties to chero and still care that current students are treated with

014dignity and respect a phrase every morning announcement ended with while I was here you yourself Madam chairperson said when you took the position that you keep three sticky notes with you at meetings kindness respect and students while this public comment session is taking place before hearing what this body's intentions are with policies such as Title 9 anti-harassment and inclusion protections and the school's current policies for gender non-conforming and transgender students I want to make it abundantly clear where I a proud member of the lgbtq plus community and many other people in this community St excuse me stand on this while we again while we have not heard what the plans of this committee are yet um with the chairperson and other members of this committee signing on to the moms for Liberty pledge we can

015assume they aren't for the betterment of those they who protect now the moms for Li for Liberty political group has worked to ban books censor curriculum that covers lgbtq plus critical race Theory and women's rights Nationwide Madame chairperson and members of this committee who have also signed this pledge I speak directly to you now in March 4th health and wellness subcommittee meeting the goals were to expand community and school resources to support Mental Health as a side note lgbtq plus youth are four times more likely to commit suicide taking away protections for those who need it does not align with those goals taking away protections for those who need it is not kind it is not respectful and it is not in the best interest of all students you said their safety and well-being thank

016you you said their safety and well-being are at the Forefront of everything you do take this opportunity to stay true to that thank you for your time thank you thank you Jake next is uh Scott Bill Hurst hi Scott how are you Scott Bill Hur Cho class of 1971 well over 50 years ago uh and I will say that uh we all have to work together regardless of our politics but the reason I I spoke is the fact that we have uh on the federal level and the state level things that impact education and specifically the r State Constitution Article 12 Section 1 specifically charges the general assembly to promote education we can always debate how effective they are doing that uh what I ask the school committee is to maybe coordinate uh or better

017inform the public and the town councils of What legislation the school committee supports and to what uh the community at large obviously we're not going to agree on all bills and legislation but there are a lot of bills uh in the legislature and you don't know about them and then they suddenly have a hearing the next day and I don't know how effective your email list is but it's very important to keep people on top of legislation speaking on the federal level the uh excuse me the United States Constitution gives no role for the federal government in education that seemed to be missed by a lot of people what I'd be curious about is what's going on the federal level whether those uh I know some people want to abolish the Federal Department of Education

018a lot of people disagree with that certainly uh but whatever I would appreciate uh maybe some little more coordination uh or the people uh that sign up to know any legislation or any judicial acts the public should know uh and that's pretty uh nonpartisan or bipartisan uh because in in politics sometimes you agree on one issue another issue uh you could disagree agree all over the place to different uh sets of it's very important to work together and I thank you for your time thank you Spencer is it batan Spencer come on up thank you good evening good evening my name is Spencer welcome probably going to get a motion take your time I'm a 31-year-old transgender resident of Richmond and a former cherle student when I was a student here I didn't understand yet

019that I was transgender I just knew that being myself made me a Target I didn't have the words for what I was going through but I knew what I felt like to be different I'm here tonight because this committee might consider weakening Title 9 the non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy groups like moms for Liberty are targeting these protections under the gues of protecting students but who is truly being protected because it certainly isn't the students who need these policies the most at 12 years old I was Finly allowed to cut my hair short and dress how I felt comfortable that moment of Happiness was shortlived The Whispers and stares in the locker room turned into Relentless harassment in the hallways I was questioned about which bathroom I was using and eventually I stopped using it entirely

020dehydrating myself every day to avoid confrontation I skipped lunch to escape the cafeteria School became a place I dreaded one day in e8th grade I couldn't take it anymore so I ran I left the school building made it into the woods and called my mom hey mom I ran away from the school can you come get me a Turf Farm worker spotted me the police were called and soon my disabled mother and I actually I'm going to leave this part out um I don't remember what happened next I was probably suspended thank God I developed severe migraines Miss so many Miss so much school I ended up in truy court and ultimately transferred to the Met Providence for high school even in a more supportive environment my past haunted me my anxiety and panic attacks

021worsened and I eventually dropped out I got my GED but even as an adult the trauma I experienced in this district has made holding a job [Music] difficult some leave that one out too uh writing this speech writing this speech brought back anxiety I haven't felt in years but is it worth speaking out absolutely who are these protections hurting no one but if you take them away or consider to take them away kids like me will suffer what if your child is like me maybe they don't know it yet maybe they're watching you wondering if their school is a safe place to be themselves at the very least tonight has given me closure I didn't know I needed for 17 years I just hope sharing my story helps prevent another student from going through what

022I did and before I go and I'm not sure if one of these uh teachers is here I want to acknowledge the bright spots in my time here as a student Mr M and Miss Thompson they were the kindest people and gave me something to look forward to when I had so little of that their kindness mattered and it still does thank you thank you thank you everybody's comments are very important I just realized that we have three pages of people who signed up and we want to listen to all of you and your feedback with that being said I did not realize that there were three pages of public comment so I'm going to ask you to be succinct uh as much as possible and I think that we're going to have to unfortunately

023limit public comment to two minutes so I'm going to ask you to um please be succinct um and I'm going to call the next person and that is representative CER thank you members of the committee chair woman um this committee is going to do what they want to do so this message is for children like Spencer to all the trans non-binary kids kids who feel different kids who are bullied kids who eat lunch alone that are watching this at home right now you are seen you are valued and you are not alone no policy can erase who you are or take away your right to exist as your true authentic self no matter what happens in this room tonight there are so many of us that love you see you and are fighting for you

024standing for you and making sure you have a future where you are safe respected and free to be who you are keep being you we have your back thank you thank you Ed zof please Eda zasloff and then Janine Harrington and then Jackie Toro so the next three folks if you can come forward so thank you chair thank you and school committee um I'm going to change the subject not because I do not support everything that's been said but because I think this is something that we need to hear the first meeting of the new school committee was on December 17th and it resulted in four complaints of violation of the open meetings act the adjudication of these claims came out recently and I'm I know the community has not heard the results and many

025of you probably have but I doubt that you read through all seven pages of the response and got to the end so that's what I'm going to share with you tonight uh I think it would be instructive to read directly from the attorney general's response just in little piece pieces that are at the very end as a retired teacher I never miss an opportunity to teach a lesson so bear with me I doubt that readers got to that page seven and that's what spurred me to do this tonight I um made the OM complaint or the I and the other four people other three people who also complained um accused the committee members of collaboration in a quorum outside the meeting because there was so little discussion between voting members during the meeting itself the

026Attorney General's response States and I quote based on the record in these particular circumstances we do not find sufficient evidence that a quorum of the committee engaged in Collective discussion or took action outside the Public Public purview and if I were you and I read that would stop because you won but as such we find no violation of the M MOA or the OM we are nevertheless concerned by suggestions that at least some members communicated with each other non-publicly about matters pending before the committee pay attention even if Communications among less than a quorum do not violate the OM it can still degrade public confidence in the political process and detract from transparency the Oma finding continues we're also concerned about the divisiveness exhibited by these matters evidenced most obviously by the bifurcated manner in

027which the committee responded to these complaints and how quickly these complaints came about following a change in the committee's membership the latter part of that sentence means the committee changed members and then stopped talking about what they were trying to do publicly but what does the Attorney General mean by the bifurcated manner in which the committee responded he means that Hopkins teft Phelps pulot Champlain Chapman and kisante were represented by one attorney not by the chero lawyer these are the seven who also voted in Block on December 17th so it would seem that they weren't found to have conducted any will for or knowing violation of the OM they were and are comfortable working together to find Outside legal help end of quote and finally the attorney general finishes with we remind the committee of

028the universal underlying policy of the OM which is to ensure that the public good is served and that citizens be advised of and aware of the performance of public officials and the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy it is worth noting that violations of the open meetings act can include fines up to $5,000 and also cause actions to be rescinded thank you Eda we appreciate you okay thank you thank you Janine Harrington that's me Jackie Toro and then Chris Kona go ahead Janine good evening thank you for allowing me to speak my name is Janine Harrington I'm a lifelong Charo resident taxpayer and parent with a teen currently in the high school I am here to speak regarding member Hopkins request to review the policies relating to transgender and gender

029non-conforming students any changes made to these policies will impact only a handful of students in a very detrimental way which is discrimination in its most basic form the Cho school committee is charged with fostering an educational environment that is safe and free from discrimination for all students regardless of sex sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression and and to reduce the stigmatization of and improve the educational integration of transgender and gender non-conforming students this is the committee's duty regardless of personal political affiliations or agendas or personal ideology or opinion policy review policy review is unnecessary as there have never been any recorded instances of issues caused by tgnc children at Charo there's no evidence to suggest there ever will be however there is an abundance of evidence that these policies need to stay intact 42%

030of tgnc Youth report frequently being called at school are being excluded 64% encounter bullying and over half report that they do not participate in activities out of fear of discrimination approximately one in4 tgnc youth experience some form of sexual assault in restrooms at schools where restroom and locker room use is rest restricted compared to those without restrictions states that passed anti-transgender laws aimed at minors saw suicide attempts increase by 72% Danger restrictions being bullied by peers as well as adults and being singled out by school districts contributes to this percentage according to the NIH gender identity acceptance was associated with lower odds of past year suicide attempts Janine 20 seconds I have 20 it's 20 it's two minutes long a wise person once said love your neighbor as you love yourself that is acceptance I

031encourage each of you to get to know a gender non-conforming person let them educate you this is their own personal Journey not one that's up for public debate I urge this committee to tread lightly and act intentionally what you do next could very deeply impact those you are charged to protect thank you gender non-conforming people have always been with us they will not be erased to those listening tonight we see you and trans rights are human rights thank you thank you hi Jackie Hopkinson paully Hopkins called for multiple policies to be reviewed including protections for lgbtq students Title 9 and Library materials the intent behind these requests is deeply concerning Hopkins own social media posts leave no doubt about her priorities she publicly declared that her goal is to bankrupt these schools and sees no

032good reason to support these indoctrination studies with my tax dollars this is not the language of someone who believes in strengthening public education it's the language of someone actively working to dismantle it the school committee has already proven it cannot be trusted to prioritize transparency or Fair representation at the February 25th budget Workshop where the committee voted to close Hope Valley School Hopkins was noticebly absent leaving the families and students most affected without full representation this is the same committee that stalled electing a chair person because an unelected appointee hadn't been sworded in yet had no problem closing the town's Elementary School while two of hopkinson's four representatives were absent across the country we are seeing coordinated efforts to strip away rights eras marginalized communities and undermine public education the federal department of education is

033already being reshaped by people who oppose equity and inclusion when these attacks reach the local level they often come disguised as policy reviews or parental rights initiatives but make no mistake their goal is control let's be clear attacks on lgbtqia plus students especially transgender and non-binary students are not just about them they're about controlling Society they are deliberate effort to force people into rigid oppressive gender roles and erase those who do not conform this is about power restriction and pushing an agenda that has no place in a school system meant to serve all students this should alarm every parent especially those of lgbtqia plus students in students with disabilities if policies that protect the most vulnerable are weakened or removed what comes next who will be the next Target schools should be places of safety

034learning and opportunity not Battlegrounds for political agendas that seek to erase and exclude we will not stand by while you roll back progress that ensures every student is valued and protected thank you Jackie Chris so Chris Kona is next then Justin Bentley and Chris Strait thank you madam chair of course I'm Chris Kona a Richmond resident and a chairo parent we've all heard these words we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America there's a lot being conveyed in those few words it starts with we the people not we the rulers or

035we the billionaires it there's no exclusion in We the People it's emphasized when they say in order to form a more perfect union it's about bringing different groups together it says to establish justice to create a system where people are treated fairly and if they're not there's a recourse to correct it to ensure domestic tranquility means to create a system where we know that the planes will land on time where the food and water safe to eat and to live without fear to promote the general welfare means a constitution is intended to make sure everyone is supported and to secure the blessings of blessings of liberty to ourselves that we the people can take advantage of free society and then the authors of the US Constitution added to secure the blessings for our posterity they

036knew that it was not just enough for them to enjoy the blessings of liberty they need to make sure that their kids would live in a just tranquil Society with a government that promoted general welfare and secured the blessings of liberty onto their children and that starts in our Public Schools public schools are how we provide Justice domestic tranquility general welfare and the blessings of liberty to our posterity we do that by giving them all of the students that are covered by We the People a place where the students can learn can eat can read can be safe and can grow up to be smarter stronger and more successful with each generation thank you thank you Justin thank you you're welcome I'll be very very brief I had a lot to say but I know

037the the window is small um I'm I know we're not allowed to talk about policy so I won't but I just wanted to State I had reached out to miss Hopkins um about a month ago once I knew that the policies were being pulled up for review and I ired as to why they were being pulled um and what were the new and exciting maybe maybe there were some solutions maybe there were some great ideas she finally got back to me and said that I I believe I quote some people had some issues with some of the policies um but I I really want to engage with the school committee I'm I'm dying to be involved so I I this may not be the proper forum and if it's not I'll contact you immediately via

038email and expect a response back but I just just inquiring who do I contact who were the committee members that felt the need that these policies that are listed tonight needed to be reviewed am I allowed to ask that or should I do that in an email um is it because if I do it in an email I want actual response yeah okay stand by thank you and again it's it's I'm not it's just in the interest of I want to begin the dialogue because let's be realistic we know why these are being pulled I just I I would like to be a part of it I know there's a I know there's a subcommittee I know there's a school Improvement team I'll be at both of those but I'd like to try to get

039out in front of it and and begin engaging committee members because you know transparency and accountability of course so our um legal council is here John Anderson typically he advises us not to engage in a dialogue during public forum um because there is a um there's rules around that I understand and I like um attorney Anderson to opine on that please everybody hear me my general advice to school committees is that this is the time in the meeting for you to listen to the public as opposed to speak I want to make it very clear that you have First Amendment rights as well if you wish to speak you may but I really want to encourage you that this is your time to listen thank you so Justin I'm sure if you email any one

040of us okay we we are as transparent as we could be and we would be happy to respond to your question excellent at the appropriate time I'm not trying to be disrespectful I understand we literally have three pages of people who want to speak your your opinion is important we have budget also tonight got and thank you for the work on the budget I know that's yes sir um so thank you I'll be emailing all of you and please if you could respectfully get back to me as soon as possible um that you were interested in that so I can begin the dialogue thank you Chris straight are you here Chris are you sure okay thank you Chris Christina Holden Shay Jordan Sereno I'm sorry Jordan I can't pronounce your hyphenated last name sorry and

041then Jonathan Hart so we have Christina and then Jonathan please come forward you have two minutes okay thank you yeah I'm going to make this as concise as possible uh I am here about the policy surrounding gender non-conforming and transgender students in the protections of Title Nine and I'm going to just try to run through this fast and it's called secrets and fear this is how I grew up we're a family that kept secrets and our family growing up we even kept secrets from family members and I'm going to jump to the chase my dad was transgender we called it transsexual back then okay and they separated so we lived with this fear of what people thought in the neighborhood because they didn't know so we were kind of like we didn't say things we

042were very evasive about this because we were afraid and the most afraid person was my mother she didn't know this when she married him in 1954 but four kids later and a Catholic priest telling her all these thoughts in his head will go away it didn't happen because it doesn't you can't brainwash these people into being something they're not I found out about Dad Barbara when I was 15 and actually you know I was quite intrigued by the whole thing because Phil Donna who had deved a show to it and everybody was it became water cooler talk which sent my mother spiraling down a rabbit hole of anxiety depression panic attacks agoraphobia she basically became a benzo dipene addict and those drugs basically ate her brain 2019 she died of Alzheimer's now I took care

043of Barbara throughout her ailing years too we lost her in 2021 fear and losing protections kills kids are killing themselves we find out the leading cause of death of transgender women is murder which brings me to my next point when we closed the lid on Barbara also my dad my daughter announced a few months later that her husband is now her wife she's transgender they're stationed in England in the Air Force my now daughter-in-law is about to be drummed out of the military just 6 months short of her retirement of 20 years and three deployments serving her country and there she's on edge about I know this says nothing to do with this school right now but you know about losing everything and this is why my blood boils when someone wants to remove protections

044I was so impressed when my kids became high school students and there was a SRI here I was like oh my goodness with a gay brother and also two more transsexual cousins it seems to be a thing on my dad's side of the family you know you know it's like it's okay with me um it's you know and this is the thing it's like people attitudes who don't know and like the lady said before me get to know somebody who is lgbtq Plus get to know these people thank you thank you thank you Jordan thank you welcome good evening Madame chairman committee my name is Jordan Sereno sincal uh say that one more time sen Sereno sinal thank you had to get very good at spelling to get I'm a 30y year long chero resident

045my entire academic career was spent in the chero school system from Hope Valley Elementary to the middle and high school campus we're on now my mother worked here for years both as a teacher's aid and as director of the high school trama Club I also had the fortune of working at summer camps in Charlestown for a decade and was lucky enough to help cultivate further generations of smart creative and compassionate Shero kids it is this local firsthand experience of this school system that brings me here today because the chero I grew up in one of Tolerance and compassion is being threatened by those who believe that our school policies of censorship discrimination and civil liberties are all rules that can be adjusted and not a codified right of every American the chero I know has

046one of the best education programs in the entire state with some of the best and most qualified teachers they provide an array of resources to teach children not only real world skills but the capacity to learn Think and Grow superintendent Barry Richie may he rest in peace I love y'all but I got to make sure I get through all of this made it a point to let students know that they were welcome regardless of race regardless of religious practice regardless of gender identity regardless of which stupid bathroom they wanted to use from the foundation up High School Principal Bob Mitchell reminded us every day to treat one anothers with what dignity and respect I was lucky enough to learn about all the things that made America incredible our culture our music our Sports Our Heroes

047of democracy our triumphs in science and human perseverance I also learned about history about cultures from every corner of the world the history of every major religion and the global impact we as humans have on our planet I was also fortunate to learn about the darker side of our country and of the world slavery the Civil Rights Movement the Holocaust the Trail of Tears Japanese internment camps while it stung and to this day constantly gives me dilemmas to reflect upon it was necessary to learn for perspective for understanding why these things happened and for preventing them from ever happening again ban books were a required part of our curriculum because the school committee knew that banning books was an integral step towards Fascism and the actions of someone not looking to protect students but to

048control them Jordan onep one more sentence the policies being challenged today are sacred they are instrumental to the preservation of our students and indeed our residents freedom I say in honor of the teachers who shaped Us in honor of the community who supports us and in honor of the legacy of Barry Richie if your intention is to undermine the rights and safety of our students you're going to have to get through all of us thank you Jonathan so we have Jonathan Bob Caro Lisa mayard man love Kristen Chambers so please come forward Jonathan please Jonathan yes uh hello my name hi my name is Jonathan Hart uh I stand here tonight as a concerned citizen I'm concerned for the state of our society and most all for the Youth I prepared this uh to speak

049tonight because I had heard there were folks who want to censor material relating to lgbtq issues yes this is a concern of mine but it goes far beyond that it's about giving youth the vocabulary and knowledge to understand themselves and the world around them but also to protect themselves when I was a teenager I was groomed and manipulated I thought because I wasn't assaulted that I wasn't abused but because of that I was unaware of how it affected me mentally it wasn't until recently that I realized the severity of the effects of those events I was reading a book by a therapist by the name of faith g Harper as she delved into the last effects of trauma I realized that applied to me once I was able to say I was abused everything became

050so clear and it helped to have the tools recognize that the books written by this author and similar ones aren't meant for children so I'm not suggesting books of this nature be shared in these schools but there are books with materials meant specifically for younger audiences particularly those ones with the onset of puberty uh who will need help during this transition so you may be asking why am I bringing up these topics what do it have to do with LGBT issues well the book I was reading and books met famill schoolers may not be centered on LGBT topics but are at the very least friendly to those topics as a result if we were to censor any kind of quer material that would extend to material that would help kids Pro protect themselves against those

051that would take advantage of them even teacher even teaching Elementary schoolers just list things like consent can help and we should allow middle schoolers to learn about puberty and how to care for their changing bodies and high schoolers should have access to safe sexual education which is something I never had if someone had taken the time to teach me about sex and what constitutes abuse I would I could have gotten helped sooner or avoid the situation I was put in entirely I know I identifi as queer but it took a long time to accept that while all my friends are going on dates and getting to their first relationships I was questioning why I felt so weird to ask out a girl of course there's no timeline for these things but being LGBT but LGBT

052topics being normalized would have saved me a lot of trouble I'm speaking tonight because I don't want any other kid to go through what I went through I want them to feel comfortable with living their life the bottom line is sexuality is a bodily function just as much as breathing and eating and we should be able to give pubescent youth the opportunity to learn about that and being LGBT is no choice and it's something that doesn't hurt to learn about as someone who was raised Catholic I was never told homosexuality was wrong and trans gesture issues were never brought up fol site Leviticus as to why homosexuality goes against God but the point of that book was cleansing the Israelites from what defiled the land they fled from and Jesus's sacrifice led to the eventual

053cleanse so there is no need to judge those who are queer and we can follow Jesus's Golden Rule that he holds Above All Else treat those as you would like to be treated thank you thank you for your time thank you Bob let's be respectful I'm we're not going to tolerate that okay M chair yes I'm not tolerating that go ahead Bob Madam thank you madam chair members of the committee uh Robert keredo Westerly congratulations to all of the District athletic Champions this evening uh who were honored at the beginning of the meeting I'm here to speak about the girls specifically tonight a federal judge a federal judge invalidated the Biden administration's attempted illegal hijacking of Title 9 on January 9th then president Trump signed two executive orders restoring Title 9 to its original intent

054which was to protect citizens especially girls against discrimination based on sex not gender identity these executive orders which are now federal law keep let him speak we let's be respectful of the speaker we gave everybody their time I I listen the rules an executive order is federal law that's a 100% true I'm going to call for a five minute recess if we can't get this under control okay let's be respectful continue please thank you madam chair these executive orders which are now federal law keep I'll call for a motion to adjourn I I will let's let's go let's relax okay let him speak let him speak motion to adjourn motion to adjourn do we have a second we need to pass a budget oh my God second Madam chair yes hey folks listen I know

055it's not comfortable for some of you it's not for me but let the man at least just speak you can disagree with him all you want you follow him out the door and disagree with him just let him speak so we can move on bus all right so we can move on to the business of our kids tonight all right thank you you had a second I wouldn't advise that by the way did we get a second we did yes sir OPP service to this community and you War I agree with you so I'm going to ask for my fellow I'm going to ask for my fellow committee men and women if they would withdraw their motion to adjourn and their second please we have business to discuss tonight I would like to discuss this

056business respectfully we have a lot to do this evening I understand everybody's point of view we've given folks the opportunity to speak this evening and I would like to move forward with this meeting so I'm going to ask my colleagues if they will withdraw their motion to adjourn and withdraw their second please I am now withdrawing my motion to adjourn okay second thank you okay we are going to move forward we did yes we did sir thank you Mr kedo will you continue you have two minutes everybody else has two minutes and when the alarm goes off we are going to move on so please be concise and we will listen to you respectfully thank you thank you madam chair these executive orders keep biological males out of female sports and private spaces and eliminate

057the Mandate mandated use of pronouns by teachers and staff you got your letter recently from the Rhode Island Center of freedom and prosperity which I won't go into because of time instead of heeding the bogus advice of the Attorney General this committee needs to do two things change your title 9 policy kids confused with their sexual identity will be protected under by other means just not Title 9 people need to understand that change your title 9 policy as Westerly North Kingstown barington and others have done to president Trump's 2020 ruling which protects all people against discrimination based on sex not gender identity that's Title Nine exactly the way it was intended in 1972 protect our girls you need to dump the r the ride transg guidance policy which also violates federal law and toss the

058rona's letter in the trash you cannot continue to place our girls in unsafe uncomfortable and unlawful situations oh my in spite of urgings from myself and others over the last few years I'm wrapping up you continued to sexualize charo's kids you continue to place let chost girls continue to place chost girls in unsafe unlawful and unfair situations all because of some sick agenda and the gutless lack of Courage by the leadership of this District now you have no choice comply now I'm calling for order in this Auditorium enough comply now and Bob wrap it up please thank you thank you comply now or face some very unpleasant consequences from the OCR loss of federal funds Etc your fascination with gender identity is over thank you thank you terrible Lisa Lisa Kristen and Lisa mccab hello

059members of the committee um hold on Lisa I just want to make sure everybody's paying attention and that they're affording you the respect you deserve my name's Lisa man I am a lifelong hopkington resident I'm a Cho graduate mom of three kids who have gone through the chaho system I am a family physician at Wood River Health and the physician of record for the school district the Char school mission has two sentences the second one is to create a safe and supportive environment where all students are treated with kindness and respect anti-trans discrimination in fact any discriminatory policy threatens this Mission being lgbtq is not a choice any more than I had a choice to be born with blue eyes it is not a choice we know that trans um students are bullied more than

060their cisgender students 38% of trans students are bullied in school and that's just in person 12% for cisgender students we know that bullying leads to decrease attendance decrease academic success and decrease overall health I can vouch that in 20 plus years of practicing in this community as a family physici I have seen directly the effects that this has on students especially our lgbtq students a sense of community and a sense of School connections respect and understanding helps all students achieve academic and social success our current climate of derogatory and discriminatory talk and actions will have a negative effect on all students not just lgbtq it is hard to learn in a negative environment it is hard to learn when your classmates or your yourself are in fear we as adults need to act as role

061models we need to put into practice treating all people with respect as stated in our mission statement we need to be the leaders in our community Thank you Lisa so we have Kristen Lisa mccab and Jim nap Kristen thank you I'm Kristen Chambers from Richmond book Banning and censorship is unconstitutional no one is forcing children to read books that their parents disapprove of parents have freedom of choice and there's a protocol in place if you do not wish your child to be exposed to ideas you are uncomfortable with please keep your hands off others freedom of reading choice trust the Librarians and information Specialists the trained professionals who know their job and know the Cho library media center policy I would love to hear student voices on the subject and I wish the kids had

062stayed um allow students of all ages to share their thoughts about adults telling them what they can and cannot read let them take inspiration from Mary Beth Tinker from Iowa who was a 13-year-old Junior High School student back when it was called Junior High not Middle School in December 1965 when she and a group of students decided to wear black arm bands to school to protest the war in Vietnam the school board got wind of the protest and passed a preemptive ban when Mary Beth arrived at school on December 16th she was asked to remove the armband 13-year-old Mary Beth and four other students including her brother John were suspended the students and their families filed a First Amendment lawsuit a 4-year Court battle ensued and culminated in the landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision Tinker

063versus De Moine which holds that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate Kristen Kristen 15 seconds please I urge students to follow in Mary Beth tinker's footsteps and stand up for their civil rights thank you thank [Applause] you Lisa is Lisa here okay we will move on Jim nap Elaine Richie Dana cabal can you come forward please Jim there's no jym nap okay Elaine Richie Dana cabraal Debbie me mey machell okay hi thank you my name is elen Richie I'm a resident of Charlestown I also um went to school here and graduated in 1995 and I also have a daughter who was a freshman and she has played four years at the Cho um system and I can tell you as a parent of a

064female athlete I fear no transgender person you and I just and I just want to thank the lawyer John Anderson for um having the um chair like chair committee um actively listening and I want to applaud Lord um almost all of you um thank you so much for paying attention the one person I thought that would be paying attention to everyone speaking before me is you poy Hopkins and it's very disheartening to see you not paying attention when this is your agenda but I also want to touch base on um the gentleman that spoke before me um about the executive order and I just want to remind and it seems like everyone here knows their rights and I just want to remind the school committee meeting that federal law and state law Trump's that's a

065funny word um um Trump's executive orders we're not we don't have a king we don't have a dictatorship and you can laugh you can respect me but federal and state laws are Title Nine and I re I read every single policy and I'm sorry I'm shaking this is really passionate for me um I read every single policy and um our school has done a great job because every single policy mimics what the Title Nine is and federal law we cannot change those policies we cannot change it and there's no bullying that's going to say an executive border is going to take away our funding because he can't do that it's not only the federal laws but our state laws our state laws even for um minor consent that is 16 and for gender it is

066there's no age limit on it so our policies are correct and we should stand strong with them and going forward in growth we don't want to we want to go forward for the better we don't want to regress thank you and our this is an education system and we had a doctor speaking we teach our kids about math and education to become a doctor but our action show them we don't respect them thank you thank you Dana hi Dana hello how are you goodness sorry for the slowness take your time my name is Dana cabal I'm here representing the um Rhode Island chapter of P flag which is parents and uh friends of gay and lesbian people uh I myself am a transgender woman I uh am a lifelong resident of the State of Rhode

067Island a product of the Rhode Island Public School System I served my country for 13 years in the Army thank you for your service and um I can tell you that being transgender being gay or being lesbian is not something somebody chooses because it is something that is very hard to be um I'm sorry okay so it's not it's not an easy thing I was bullied in Middle School junior high school um I um I I work with with kids in inner city who do not have places to sleep because their parents have thrown them out of their house uh I myself my I myself try to kill myself this is any any type this country we I've never heard of a democracy burning or Banning books I've heard fascist and Nazi countries do that

068we are not a fascist country we are not a Nazi country we are democracy and democracy will win out I ask you folks to protect each and every one of your students because they deserve your respect and your protection I walk down that long high the long um Corridor and I seen signs about no bullying treat people with kindness and removing protection from your LGBT students is not doing that so thank you very much for your time I really appreciate Debbie so we have Debbie John Clark Lynn tashiro and Donna casor Debbie thank you we have two minutes thank you okay I am Debbie melli I am a Richmond resident I went to this school I have taught in this district for 38 years I have hundreds of students that are my family and my

069classroom is a place of safety and this school and this district has always been a place of safety no child should be afraid to come to school no academics can ever be accomplished when children are afraid I celebrate those children who sat here today and played so beautifully all the children who received accommod uh recommendations for what they've done I think that's wonderful let's celebrate what they've done but let's also take into our hearts what we're doing to children when the message you are giving is that there is a population in our in our community that you don't feel is good enough and the teachers in this District don't feel that way they are their students and they will protect them and they know that what the statistics are for those kids that many of

070those children commit suicide that many of those children self-medicate with alcohol and drugs that so many of them have lives that are affected by The Bullying something that we know we know affects them their whole lives they carry inside of them that is not your job here to let this occur you cannot do anything to take those protections away please don't do that because it will be on you it really will our school is a Safe Harbor and that's what it should remain please consider what you're doing and please get to know some people because if they ever spoke to you and said how they felt inside I'm sure you'd realize you'd see them as a person and and how can you deny them the protection that every other child would get thank you John

071good evening welcome for your records my given name is John Clark Wicket resident I'm addressed as JoJo they them pronouns it's been said testimony is best personal I am transgender Poli IES and rights come personally fortunately I speak in unison with other voices of our state like Rhode Island atheus and the women project your school board is banded to Serve and Protect this County this state this nation's future generation you will remember this time by the decisions you make in this service When you crush words you crush imagination When you crush voices you crush freedom Freedom When you crush representation you crush expression and identity and when you crush protection you're crushing lives do not feel threatened of Change Change is growth and like each flower is unique each has a name respect starts first

072with a name disrespect ends in pain protect the whole garden and don't churn out cookie cut or GMO of a world let's accept ours sweet history and relish in our diversity instead of seeking Better Homes and Gardens the Trump Edition telling us what to build be the gentle Steward of the land and not a monoculture of commercial growth garden with your heart and you will know the difference of what you are asked and what you are called by love to do in the end you can look back and know you followed a path of love not today or tomorrow manufactured fears you will rest in past knowing you had not been used to help marginalize certain students like mice as our president sees us for future oppression and eraser please support the freedom of read

073initiatives the recognition of diversity equity and inclusion including lgbtq plus rights in the curriculum and classrooms and your library support rides policy for the the protection of trans and non-binary students help make Rhode Island stand as our namesake an anchor of Hope for all in these turbulent times thank you for letting me speak thank you ly uh is Lynn toshiro here hello Lynn so I have Lyn toshiro Donna Caster Sam Willcox and Andrew McCoy McCoy so if you could please make your way forward thank you hello Lynn my name is Lyn [Music] toshiro yes ma'am we've lived in Richmond since 1969 on my mother's side she was a fuller they came on the Mayflower on my father's side he was a Preston and they came in 1623 I want to tell you that the chero

074school right now does a wonderful job I'm hoping that you will continue to provide the money and the resources I my eldest daughter received her PhD in plant genetics congratulations my younger daughter received her Doctorate of Pharmacy okay but what I'm really here for is to make sure that you do not block the use of books for any reason and I'm now I'm going to tell tell you why my husband at 6 years old was incarcerated in a camp with his entire family because he was of Japanese descent he was born here in this country as well as his other siblings his parents owned a grocery store that had they had worked very hard for they had two weeks to pack up everything and leave and they were put in horse stalls until they were

075shipped to a camp in the middle of nowhere in Colorado I want your library to be able to put things in information like that in there my husband's sister as well as other women who incar were incarcerated at the camp wrote stories called among other things from our side of the fence these young children were put behind barb wire with armed guards pointing the guns at the families in spite of what the Government tried to say that they were there to protect the Japanese Americans they were not Len we're going to give you 20 more seconds what's that 20 more seconds please yeah thank you the men in the camps were asked if they would volunteer to be in the service if they said no they were sent to a real Detention Center if they

076said yes they got to join the 442nd which was the most decorated group of veterans in World War II my father was in World War II and he told me plain and clear they Ed them as fodder they in the Battle of the Bulge they put them in the most difficult places there was and they ended up the most decorated I wonder and I hope that you'd be willing to put this book in the library for the children their of the age thank you Lynn lastly I would say that on my father's side it's been documented that they have fought in every war since the frci and Indian War and in World War II Roosevelt was afraid they didn't know what they were fighting for and they were fighting for the essential human freedom freedom

077of expression freedom of religion freedom from W and Freedom From Fear and I would ask as you vote that you consider all those things thank you Lynn Donna Caster okay so we have Anna Samantha Andrew McCoy and El Eliza Spears okay okay hi everyone I'm Donna Caster um really wasn't I'm not comfortable talking in front of people I actually signed that um thinking it was just um a sign in but after after after know what you're getting yourself into after listening to some of the people and some of the things that they've said um it resonates with me uh one of the comments one of the gentlemen made was these policies um who are they hurting and you know I thought about it I don't think they're hurting anybody I wish what we knew coming

078here though that you know because this is this is long you guys have been working hard on the budget and everything long meeting I wish we knew like what we were here you know what we're looking at in these policies I know about one because it was of interest to me the photo one and I reached out and I emailed so and then others I can see you know maybe you know why we're here so I wish we knew that um I think it was Elaine brought up about her daughter not not being uncomfortable playing sports and it made me think about my own children who went here and same thing my daughter didn't maybe you know she didn't play sports but never once did she tell me she was uncomfortable my son you know

079neither one ever uncomfortable I teach at the high school I teach an elective I have seen many many students in my classroom they feel very comfortable talking to me about a lot of things you know having a boyfriend problem they're fighting with their parents things like that and I now thinking about it I've never had a student tell me they were uncomfortable in their sport in the bathroom anything like that so I just wanted to you know put that out here and say that I think you know you guys are all here I know some of you um personally I know some of you I've met and talk to I feel like I'm you're here and you're going to do what's best for the children and maybe you've heard things we haven't maybe you've had

080emails from parents or students themselves so I'm hopeful thank you Donna Samantha I hope it doesn't fall on me can you hear me okay yes good my name is Samantha Wilcox I'm a resident of Hope Valley and I'm the president of the Richmond Town Council but I'm speaking on my own behalf just feel like I always have to give that disclosure um I was going to say something else this evening and ask the school committee to refocus on the Aging Elementary School and the more not more I'm sorry the very important things that you have in front of you but after hearing all these stories they're so inspiring I've changed course I support the majority of the speakers tonight if you're angry or upset want to protect the people support freedom to read or truly

081look out for all children all the time I ask you to run for school committee in 2026 yes all of you there will be three seats up in hopkington two in Richmond and one in Charlestown you can do it we need you clearly three in Charlestown three in hton three in Charlestown two in Richmond two in hopkington and two in hop excuse me three in hopkington so than I thought one of them had one anyway we will figure that out and fact check it and get it back later so we don't make false statements um I just want to say you can do it we need you and clearly by the presence tonight you'll be supported thank you thank you Andrew hello my name is Andrew McCoy I'm a resident of Richmond I've had kids

082and now grandkid Andrew excuse me one second can you speak a little bit louder because I don't think people in the back can hear you and I can barely hear you okay thank you sir my name is Andrew McCoy I'm a resident of Richmond I've had kids and now grandkids going to the uh schools here the reason we live in this town is because we like the schools here but I'm concerned because there shouldn't be any reason for all of us to not to teach respect for all and lgbtq is part of all so we should respect them as well and going back to what somebody else said about pronouns pronouns are just part of respect you're going to call somebody what they would like to be called if your name is Robert and you

083want to be called Bob then you call him Bob but my my original concern was the the concept of of any kind of book Banning is something that is very repugnant to me we shouldn't have ideas hidden before even being considered by our children societies that ban books they wither and they rot and they die our community should resist that with everything that they can we need to respect our next generation and make sure they can see everything that we've done good or bad in the past thank you sir Eliza Spears is Eliza here okay oh that's right you said that earlier sorry about that um Katie is it cabina Katie yeah Okay so we've got Katie Joan Kent Sarah orstein and Jennifer Wood hi Katie so um so we've got probably about 10 more

084speakers so I I'm really going to hold you to two minutes and I'm going to ask you to be concise and I we welcome your applause and your participation but that just takes time away from the speakers so I'm just going to ask you if you can hold your applause until the very end when they're finished with their remarks I'd appreciate that go ahead thank you chairman and uh members of the school board uh thank you for your service um I am standing with the majority of my colleagues who have uh spoken here today um in support of upholding the strong protections that exist within Title 9 um I am a resident of Charlestown I have two boys in the high school and I have loved this District uh this district has raised my children

085as well as I have and the teachers and administrators have instilled in my kids uh the values that I hold dear the values that the mission uh claims to uphold of TR of respect and kindness and being open to difference um and so difference really wasn't ever an issue with with my children and when I told them that this uh the Title Nine was being threatened and I explained it to them um my older son who's a junior and he plays on the soccer team and stuff and has friends from every single Town said I don't understand the the students don't care that there are students that are that may be different um why why do they care why why why are they why are they messing with our policies and and uh and our

086protections and so he doesn't think about it very deeply but what I did gather from that is that this is not an issue our our our children don't feel threatened they very much feel like they're accepting their student body for whoever they may be and isn't that the most American thing you can do is to choose your own identity in this world um I think that is what Liberty and freedom is and so I think that that's something that we should we should consider um our teachers here they they I'm a 30 year in the education and Youth Development field and and what I will say is the teachers here they have to do something called differentiated instruction it's not easy they have to teach every kid as an individual and in that they're seeing

087every kid as an individual so to you and to the parents and to all the students thank God they've been seen every student should be seen for who they are and respected for who they are and and I hope you will carry that forward in your policies thank you very much Katie Joan Kent and then Sarah orsteen on deck and then Jennifer wood so if you can come forward Joan Kent from Richmond Joan right into the microphone you hear me thank you you hear me I just want to say that all children need protection a good education and we need to accept one another respect everyone if you respect people people will respect you back I believe that all children are God's children and they deserve a life and they sh bullying has been going

088on for years not just with the lbgt Comm Community with the gay community but just the average kid and those things need to stop everywhere God bless everyone God bless all our children and the people in this community I think we all want to reach a common goal to make life better and learning for our children we try to get it and go through different ways of doing that but respect is the most important thing that we can do for each other because all of you people work very hard to try to bring the best in this community for not just the children but everyone that's sitting here so I thank you for listening I thank all of you for listening to me I appreciate thank you Sarah orstein Jennifer Wood Chris Fe thank you

089you're welcome I am a chero graduate and I have never been so proud as I am tonight all these graduates speaking out so eloquently um I am also a resident of char Charles toown I chose to raise my own children here and I am um a librarian and I'm here tonight because I'm concerned about the proposed revision of the library media policy I'm concerned that it's about banning books I've been watching what has happened in other school districts in Rhode Island and around the country and where the scrutiny of what is in the library really comes down to censoring books especially those with lgbtq characters and that shouldn't not happen in this District we have excellent school media Specialists here we need to let them do their jobs they work closely with students to help

090them select appropriate books they purchase books that the students have asked for they purchase books that have won awards and that have been well reviewed and books that represent different viewpoints because we do live in a community with families that have different viewpoints when a book isn't right for your family you don't have to borrow it or read it but it is censorship to ask to have a book removed from the library so that no one else can read it please don't go down the road of infringing on our children's right to read or for their right to see themselves and their families represented in books thank [Applause] you Jennifer hi Jennifer good evening my name is Jennifer Wood I'm a a licensed attorney and have practiced education law in Rhode Island for over 40

091years including 10 years as Chief legal counsel at the State Department of Education there's been a lot of discussion lately about whether presidential executive orders issued since January 20th require or compel school districts to revise policies that protect students from discrimination and that require a safe and inclusive learning environment for all students I am here tonight to tell you that executive orders canot compel policy changes for your district and that federal and state laws and regulations that have not changed since January 20th prohibit you from reducing or eliminating anti-discrimination policies these Le these legally required policies support safe and inclusive schools or your students a presidential executive order is an instruction to federal agencies as to how to manage their operations executive orders cannot change statutes or regulations only Congress the general assembly or delegated

092agencies can do those things since the turn of this Century Rhode Island law has prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity second in the nation to do so and very proud of that the the United States Supreme Court has recognized that discrimination on these same bases also violates federal law you may hear that some federal courts have held that Title Nine does not protect transgender students from discrimination however these rulings were in other states it is the federal appeals court in Boston that interprets these laws for Rhode Island that court has ruled that transgender students are protected from unequal treatment and the federal court in New Hampshire which is in our appeals court district has ruled that title 9 does protect transgender students from discrimination these first circuit interpretations of law are binding

093in Rhode Island unless and until the US Supreme Court rules otherwise in summary federal and state law in 2025 protects transgender students and state department State Board of Education regulations which have the full of force and effect of law in Rhode Island today require that your policies reflect those protections please do not reconsider legally mandated policies that protect students from discrimination and harassment they provide all of your students with a safe and inclusive learning environment thank you thank you Chris fee Heidi fee Katherine juy Helen Shen please make your way down to the front is Chris fee here okay hi Chris Fe Charlestown um as far as a a an executive mandate goes it's clear that it won't fly it's not legal and I'm sure some people are going to still try to force it

094um what strikes me most about uh this attempt to deny the rights of people who were a little different than we are um it's disgraceful quite frankly um I'm 70 so when I grow up grew up hopefully there were no trans people I get a little freaked out no offense to anybody here if I see two guys kissing I'm not comfortable but that's my problem they're not hurting anybody leave them alone this this is essentially Church law this is based by religious people who think they know who God is and nobody else does all right this is not a church this is not your church this is a public school where everybody is welcome all faiths are welcome all ideas are welcome and to try to shut them off is about as unamerican as I

095can think of and I'm not that great a patriot all right thank you thank you Heidi fee are you here hi Heidi okay that's that's tough to follow um yes anyway I just I just wanted to say as a teacher I support all of my students including those who identify as transgender or however they identify I've had several transgender students in my class they were delightful and the kids did not care nobody felt traumatized nobody felt afraid the kids didn't care it's only the adults who cared um and our Rhode Island attorney general as someone more eloquently than me stated um we have guidance that we are not supposed to touch these Title 9 protections so it is my recommendation that you don't make any changes so I think I would like to end by

096Rec tapping something that Mr Richie used to say all the time it was this all kids all the time what's it what's the next part anyone no excuses we don't all know that let's try it again all kids all the time no excuses thank you thank you Catherine Helen and Kate Kelly Katherine you're next yes thank you hi everybody um as the former chair um who served right before Miss denmore I would like to thank you all for being here uh this is incredible and I hope we continue to see participation like this because this is the first step in this battle please know that this will not end tonight they will keep trying to get this rammed through um my mind has gone all over the place but what I would urge you is

097to pause you are going get the advice of your legal counsel who keeps winning for you you'd be going against the advice of the Attorney General you'd be going against the advice of the RH Island Department of Education and in case you're wondering if they get rid of the Federal Department of Education you will be bound by ride I don't think he want to poke the bear you've heard from people here tonight that your community does not want you to change these policies you have made children afraid I cannot believe that that is your goal but if that was your goal you have accomplished it um I talked to my student tonight and asked her are kids talking about this and she said' no Mom kids are talking about biology class and they're talking about

098the skills USA competition and they're talking about the Italian homework they're not worried about using the bathroom next to them this is an adult manufactured problem I filed several APPA requests which I'm happy to share with you to make sure that my own bias didn't cloud my judgment and let me be clear there have been no assaults perpetrated in a cherole bathroom by train gender students zero but there were by boys so maybe start the conversation with boys you can't erase transgender students you can't erase transgender people they exist whether you understand them or not all kids all the time means just that not the kids that you understand not the kids that you like it's all of them that's your sh your school committee members the fact that I've heard tonight that you're getting

099emails from constituents and not bothering to respond that's cowardly governance you owe them a response finally for those of you who are part of moms for Liberty I'm a mom too leave my kids alone Helen Helen hi I'm Helen Shen I'm from Richmond when I think about boys and girls playing in sports together I think it's fine up until 14 or 15 but after that the physical differences are real I don't believe it is safe for the girls after age 15 to be playing in sports with boys to me that is just keeping the children safe as they get older you see it more and more because the boys will win the competition by minutes or hours because of they have musculature and um just body structure that helps them so would like to save

100girl sports starting at 15 up to up to that they're about equal the other issue is I'm a licensed psychotherapist what I know is that when children have questions about their identity there are often many reasons why they have those questions and their actual gender identity often is at the end of the list when they have been sexually abused abandoned called called worthless stupid ugly when they have been um in homes where there was sexual violence of them or family members when they've been homeless there are lots of things that interfere with how people feel about themselves so it's I believe it's really important for the people working in the schools when a child says that to not just jump to okay we should get her into a you know a gender identity program they

101should really be talking to someone who can listen to what is the real story thank you Helen okay Kate Kelly uh Ronald's AR arlano y um okay Justin Bales Carol haml and Carrie karco and I think that is it for public comment so Kate you are next good evening good evening Kate just speak right into that microphone please my name is Kate Kelly I'm A Richman resident for over 20 years in a retired library media speci specialist who worked for the Charo middle school for approximately 20 years I came tonight to support lgbtq students and their families and to advocate for library media center policies that continue to support having a collection that meets the needs of all Cho students and in particular tonight LGB btq students I am very concerned given the record of

102the moms for Liberty organization on Banning books particularly on topics pertaining to lgbtq students given the composition of the current school committee the needs of those students may not be addressed I speak the truth as I read it off the website today I know nothing I knew nothing about moms for Liberty we're going to let her finish please hold your alpers sorry we're going to hold our outbursts for the we have five more people let's get through this I knew nothing about moms for Liberty last week so I went to a primary source the national site for the organization to try to learn more about what they stood for I have to say I was somewhat horrified to read their whole section about critical race Theory racism should not be whitewashed or minimized the teaching

103of History should be based on actual fact racism and institutionalized racism have been part of the American history and it is only by teaching our students the truth that we will have a more compassionate future again given the composition of the school committee I fear for any curriculum related to history and race that they may be required to approve tonight I stand for lgbtq rights I stand for diversity I stand for inclusion and providing an education that respects all students who attend chaho schools thank you thank you Kate Ronalds is Ronald here hello Ronald come on right up you look you have a Robert Craft as your twin I always tell him that hi my name is Ron aragato I live in Charlestown and I was once a member of The Cho school committee six

104years thank you I commend you for the hard work it is not an easy job I don't think people realize the hours and the amount of time you have to spend in getting through very very comprehensive and sometimes very very troubling issues um I just want to personally thank uh attorney wood for giving an eloquent dissertation on the issue of federal law versus a an executive order article two of the Constitution very clearly gives the president the authority to assure the faithful execution of laws an executive order is a directive to the administration and the agencies to carry out Faithfully the laws Title 9 is a law it does not is not superseded by an executive order what troubled me was this person that spoke threatened you with lawsuits they are frivolous and attorney Woods

105Express that do not be clouded by the rhetoric of people who are providing you with alternative facts I want to be clear about something else within the Constitution the co-founder of the independence the Declaration of Independence in that document there are four inali rights two of which are the right to freedom of speech in the right of Education John Adams as part of the mission statement of moms of Liberty said children should be educated and instructed in the principles of learning I have 50 years in the business of Education I've seen it at the local the state and the national level I traveled this country and I saw many many schools Urban suburban and Rural providing quality education public education to students across this country as a member of this school committee I had the

106pleasure of working with the late Barry Richie and like many of the people here stated all the kids all the time no excuses is a mantra that took hold and made Cho an extraordinary School District devoid of any of this distractions of what should be children should be reading and what children should not be reading that is the right of the parent I look around this audience and I see people who are at least 18 years old or older who went to school in schools across this country a lot of them here I think it did okay we didn't have ban books because part of learning is to develop critical skills to discern right from wrong what is something that is acceptable to you that is not acceptable to me the gentleman that said I

107may have a problem with two guys kissing it's my problem so he said I think that we have to not get embroiled in this what we think this is a conversation that is going to enhance learning it's a distraction and it is a disservice to you the children of this community and the parents of this community I strongly urge you to as they say if it ain't broke don't fix it Title 9 is a law and I would be one of the first to sign any petition that threatens that sanctity of the law in support of what's going on in [Applause] District Justin is Justin here Justin thank you I appreciate everybody's time I know it's late and I can't believe I got to follow up Ronald so I got a C minus in public

108speaking when I was in school you know I guess what I would just like to say is that the idea of choice has always been incredibly important to me and it's certainly something that I've have taught my children and to the point in which I chose our family chose to send our daughter to chero through the CTE program because we toured to school we met the faculty and everybody was wonderful and I just want to thank everybody for all the work that they do that actually work in the school and and all so I I don't understand why people think and feel what they do and and I try not to because that's up to them that's their choice and what I'm asking of everybody that's on the school board is to respect my child's

109choice to be able to access information to be able to contemplate ideas and to be able to figure out who she is in this world and that's her choice and by limiting the access to information right by by adults choosing what is relevant information in the library or in a classroom it completely inhibits my kid's ability to learn and become her best self and and I do not think that if it ain't broke don't fix it is a is a great terminology that Donald used this is a wonderful School you got great people that work here and I would encourage you to just stay on track and the fact that we're here at 9:00 at night and we're not even through public comments you haven't even been able to vote on your budget when I

110went to go picked my kid up from work and had to leave there was 12 police officers in the bus school bus parking lot because that's what our discourse has become and this is what we're teaching our kids regardless of what side of the fence you're on and this is not a political place this is a place to do right by the kids and the faculty that work here and that's your job that's your goal and I'm not asking anybody to to believe what I believe but I am just asking you don't infringe my kids's right to inform to education and to be the person that she wants to be and to use whatever freaking bathroom she wants because if that's where we're at and we can't vote on a budget because we're talking about

111bathrooms like come on thank you Carol is Carol here Carol Hamill okay um so Carol is not here and our last speaker is um Carrie karco you're up Carrie thank you good evening and thank you for being here um I have been a public librarian a academic librarian and a school librarian um I had to get a master's degree actually to become a librarian and we have some rules that Librarians use to choose books and the first thing we do is we take a look at our community and we then I'm going to read you the five rules that are the foundation we believe that books should be used we believe that every reader has their book and every book has their reader we also want to save the time of the reader and that

112the library is a growing organism and that part I think is really important because as the woman that came before me that put me in tears um that wants to donate the books to the library that just speaks to the fact that information should we should have access to that and when my kids were in this school I learned more from them because of the books that they brought home and I think that that you if you take that away from the kids you're also taking it away from their families their parents and their community so we are professionals and we make decisions based on the foundations that we were taught as educated professionals so thank you for your time thank you okay that conclud that concludes public forum yes no that's not work not

113in public she can if there's an agenda item she can discuss it if it relates back to the agend so would you be able to um direct your comment to a spe specific policy when we get to the policy section of the agenda do everyone you got let everybody do it come on guys so can I just ask um was the um material not available for you to sign up so I'm I'm GNA I'm going to ask if you can can um sit tight until we get to that part of the agenda and then I'd be happy to recognize you thank you okay how are we doing good are we ready to move on yes okay so um next policies 8 a school lunch program Mr zenan would you like to give us some context

114on this or or the superintendent please U I'm just telling you Mr denan can hold on Madam chair can we thank you we do have more business to discuss so we're just going to ask you to um if you are exiting if you can do so quietly so we can move forward we have a lot to to do over the next several agenda items thank you I am recommending approval of the school lunch program policy based on the revision uh for State compliance legal legal has reviewed Mr Zan's here for any questions so we have a motion do we have a second second okay that is Tyler any discussion seeing no discussion all in favor thank you Mr any anyone opposed no exensions okay thank you review school committee rules of conduct regarding agenda setting

115this was requested by member Chapman Laura so I believe that everybody was provided with a copy of the chair Point let's keep it respectful please everyone let's move on we have a lot to do Laura thanks so I believe everybody on the committee was provided at the in our packet documents with a copy of the rules of conduct and the only change that I was recommending that we make um had to do with when a Committee Member does make a request for a specific agenda item that we that if it cannot go onto the next agenda that the Committee Member essentially provides a date you know if they don't want it to go on there for for example if there's a substantial amount of agenda items on one of those it would be communicated from

116the chair and I just thought that it would make sense to have something in there that if the Committee Member requests a later date then that's how that process should work so so Gina would we have to um ask member Chapman to work with you to put together language to potentially bring to the school committee to make a revision to that policy so um yep the the Miss Chapman could work with myself legal counsel um I I would I think I know Mr Lan and Miss Lyle have been chairs and I think they have always worked as Miss Juicy's in the audience as well um and before that Ryan Callahan they worked with me uh to work on the agenda as you have as uh as the chair what I can say is um my

117recommendation and you all can determine it yourself is that you you allow myself in the chair to coordinate the agenda um to ensure that we can think about the constituency and really about the appropriateness because it's not about quieting school committee members so please understand I am a school committee member um and this is my advice that um again this is my trust in leadership sometimes you know I understand everybody wants to say but there has to be a time where you can trust in us to provide guidance and advice so that we can ensure that the focus remains on all our kids all the time and the priorities that are most important which right now will be our district transition so I just ask committees um when you're thinking about this item really think

118about how this impacts our priorities how we uh invest our Educators and how we share with them the way we organize our agenda tells them what we're focused on and what we prioritize so it says a lot I think we heard that tonight so I just ask that you all think about that when you make decisions about how we create the agendas and I'm more than happy to listen and and be transparent I just ask for your trust thank you Jess um I'm not in uh agreement about changing this to say that all request shall be placed on the agenda for said meeting for some of the reasons that Gina had mentioned I know it's clearly delineated in this rules of conduct that it's the chair in conjunction with the superintendent that decides what goes

119on the agenda at what time and I'd like to point out the at the start the the inro paragraph to the rules of conduct says that um they're adopted to ensure that meetings are efficient and effective and I I think when you um put everything that wants to go on the agenda on the agenda we lose sight of efficiency and Effectiveness and also um number three in that paragraph is the focus of the school committee is on improving educational opportunities for students so I think keeping the agenda setting um as it is is in the best interest thank you Laura did you have any more comments on that this agenda topic no I just I um I was trying to cuz I I thought that I had provided that already the just the language that

120I was recommending you couldn't find it either it might be in your it's in the an uh it's in the annotated piece of the agenda it says all requests shall be placed on the agenda for said meeting unless otherwise agreed to by the by the requester right that was the language that I was looking to change because the in in um for the Charlestown Town Council there's similar language um and it just again it really just had to do with if there's an agenda item that wants to be that you know somebody on the committee would like to have put onto the agenda that it goes onto the agenda unless the Committee Member says otherwise so I'll tell you um since I've become the chair I have sat down with the superintendent an Angela to

121try to um put forward the agenda items as presented by the members of the committee on a whole host of topics and I want the committee to understand that I'm hearing them and that I'm um doing my best to bring your agenda items forward um you know Gina and I have gone back and forth on some of the agenda items and um you know we're trying to do our best to make sure that the agendas are efficient that they're moving forward um I know um member purcel um emailed me about the discussion last month about or maybe it was January or or last month I don't know we've been through 30 public comments so I'm forgetting what month it is right now but um uh about the Hope Valley play which was a request made

122by U member teft so I'm we're doing the best we can to make sure that all the committee members are heard that they're respected and that we are um doing the best doing what we can to um act in the best interests of the students and staff yes Linda um just just from my own experience being chair a while back um I agree with Jessica I think it really should be in the hands of the the chair and um the superintendent only because you have the bigger picture of what needs to be done each month and so there are there are definitely deadlines that need to be that take place and sometimes if you can push something offer request to the next month or and I know it's hard because we're only meeting once a

123month now so that makes it a little bit more difficult but I think um a call to the person for you know an explanation why because that's what I used to do is I would call the person and say hey I you know I I I hear you I think this is a great agenda item however it might go it might be better to go like because we're going to be talking about this in November so let's like put it on this agenda because it kind of goes but I think just out of respect it's probably worth a phone call to the requestor um to to explain why it may be not on the very next might be on the second agenda item so that was just a a suggestion for my part thank you

124Linda thank you Linda that was very that was really helpful thank you than okay so can we move forward yes okay so item Nine Business fiscal year 26 M chair Madam chair if I may before we move um we in light of the time with it already being 9:30 and we have a very important topic that has to get finalized tonight I would like to make to make a motion right now to table Item B and E on the agenda to our next meeting with the with the need for us to have to adopt a budget tonight for the chero ACT I would like to table Item B and item e to a following meeting so I will say that item e is something that member pcel I believe was going to table until the

125next agenda so it would just making the request okay so we have a motion to I'm sorry who seconded that Karen thank you um is there a discussion on that I'm sorry the for B is that are you I'm sorry did you say D or B B B is in Boy Yes B is in boy okay are you table or they going into subcommittee is that what you're table the motion right we table the entire item table the item so we have a motion in a second my only question is Jess Karen and then Jess Jess is this okay yeah it was it was a misunderstanding so it's not actually a complete agenda item um so I need to we that will need to be revised um do you have more Karen Karen did you

126have any more no that's it thank you so much okay okay um thank you yes so Tyler is asking for us to table to a the next agenda referral of the following policies to the policy subcommittee and the school Improvement teams for review within 30 days which was um seven items seven policy items okay so the policy items are Transportation policy policy for face masks and face coverings dasco 19 automated call out system videography photography and audio recording policy library media policy Title 9 non-discrimination anti-harassment policy and grievance procedure gender non-conforming and transgender students is there any discussion on that by the other members don't here yes so Jess and Linda I I agree that it'd be okay to table some items but I wouldn't table B um I would more think c and d

127and e which is reconsideration of the RFQ for Legal Services which is something that we voted on at the last meeting um resolutions in support of field usage by chero Cowboys and um the Rewritten Transportation resolution as we discussed well we have a motion on the floor for Item B okay I would ask let's deal with that motion first before we move forward okay I'll withdraw my motion I'll withdraw my second sure okay all right we're gonna move forward item a yes yes sir well I was going to uh address Tyler's um uh motion but I I if if I I would make the suggestion rather than table it especially given all the input you received from the community that you just not present these uh these items to the subcommittees for review seems like

128based on what I'm hearing there's nothing wrong with them the way they are and the the other issue that I would I'd like to raise is that if you're having a problem uh uh putting uh the items on the agenda um to the point where you have to push them then I seems to me that you're not meeting enough I was on the school committee for a couple years myself and we met twice a month and if we had to we met more frequently uh you know I think you you are bridging on being deric in your duties to to to what you owe to the students of the district thank you okay so did you withdraw your motion and we withdrew the second right did Karen yes I did okay all right so we're

129going to move forward with the fiscal year 26 budget adoption they withdrew their motions both no we are going to go we're moving forward with the fiscal year 26 budget adoption oh Gina or Greg so at this point I would make a recommendation um based on your last meeting it seems like the committee is um in favor of cting $875,000 from the budget with the closing the Hope Valley um I would Rec that you instruct us to do that if you start going through line items we we're never going to get out of here and um you're not going to find everything if you do that if you remove the $875,000 um from line items that would be done for closing Hope Valley your overall budget increase would be a 68% I remind you that

130National ual inflation is at 2 2.9% and New England inflation is at 3.3% um Charles Town's increase would be a negative 1.01% Richmond's increase would be a 1.62% and Hawking's increase would be a 1.08% thank you so at this time because there was discussion at the February 25th um budget Workshop to to remove or to close Hope Valley Elementary School which would would result in a savings of 875,000 at this point if you could advise us do we have to make a collective motion reading off um the items that accounted for the $875,000 Greg so I I just want to um you could do a m multitude of things so just to be clear so um what we advise is that we don't go line item because you allow the the district and the leadership

131to reallocate resources and and I do want to thank our Educators who work very tiously with us and our administrators and all of you for the work that you've done on our school Improvement teams and in our and to come here tonight but one of the things you've heard me mentioned was trust and and you've put your trust in this committee you put your trust in myself with your students and your children and you put yourself um we trust our Educators every day so I I want to do two things one I want to make sure that the committee doesn't feel rushed because you have some new members and this is a really important topic this is how we educate our kids these are the resources that we we're telling you we need to make

132sure we keep Cho on the Journey of success and I hope you'll come back in April when I discuss that success because I think um we all should be really proud so this budget is something I stand behind um I won't speak for my team I'll only speak for myself that um I do believe we are being fiscally responsible in a time where we are in the quad Quant of success and we can find that data on the RH Island League of cities and towns so um the biggest trust you could you could give to our leadership and to our teachers is to say there's $875,000 we'd like you to reduce the budget and allow us to make those changes and let me just explain why because it I want to make sure that this

133is transparent for example in the overall request those requests were given uh to the school committee based on requests that they asked us to provide with that being said there are some conversations about transportation for example if things change in the transportation policy they impact the budget so if you say to us $875,000 we won't know where our teachers are going yet because we still have to wait for the budget vote we have to then reassign all of the funding to the correct you COA code and I don't want everyone to become Finance directors unless you want to because they're going to be limited in few and far between for in the next few years but what I want to say is the the biggest uh step I think towards showing our our community that

134there's trust in our teachers and in our leadership at the district is that you say we recognize this is the percentage we want to get to this is the dollar amount and we recognize we've already voted to close Hope Valley so we have that charge already and that we can move forward just give us so if it's not 875 and somebody wants to keep a bus or things like that that you consult on the overall dollar amount and allow us that trust and and again that's my recommendation and I I would appreciate um you to please feel free to push back or ask me questions but I I do feel strongly that you've you've done a lot of due diligence to credit to Tyler Champlain he had a budget subcommittee and while there was a

135lot of change in school committee that work wasn't put aside we used that feedback that we were was given last year Mr zanan has done an amazing job as our new Finance director in consultation with Sue Rogers and Ned Draper and our whole Charo team and um we had a long night but I think this was wonderful and I want to thank all of you for coming out because I do believe that everyone has a voice and while I may not agree with everybody in the room I think what I heard here is we're all focused on our kids and that's what I ask our committee to do tonight thank you Tyler is there anyone else Tyler then Laura so I have a question there Gina so if if we I mean what was talked

136about at the budget Workshop was closing Home Valley and an $875,000 reduction okay and that $75,000 reduction was a 2 four 68 nine items roughly um I don't know which one is which but 85 Grand 195 Grand 200 Grand 100 Grand 100 Grand 60 Grand 40 Grand 95 Grand adds up to 875 whatever that is I'm sure that's teacher know there's a nurse in there somewhere yeah and I can if anybody wants it please come up and let us know we can we can share that again those what you're to me it sounds like what you're asking right now is for us to say Gina cut 875,000 we don't care where you do it no because you already you already charged us so thank you for that clarification that's a good point at the last

137meeting you voted to closo Valley so that has to be first and foremost so right now we have shared with all of you where we believe those recommendations come in what I'm saying to you is that's the charge but if we come back to the table next month and there's a change of the transportation policy the flexibility that that we have to understand that we may need to say to you all okay so that shifts other resources if that's the request of the committee we we know it's 875 we know you've already voted at close Valley our recommendations um were based on requests from school committee members because the original budget was was well was approved by you this is what you're going to adopt so it's in your hands so my suggestion is that

138you all agree that one we focus on the prioritizing of closing Valley with the funding that we've shared and if there's any change to that we would come back to discuss that with you so that there's transparency so where so what we're saying is and you don't have to do it that way Tyler you can say I want to cut for example um the the ftes which is our full-time uh Educators and staff so you can say um the two buckets and I can exp the capital is another example if we cut the $95,000 and someone says I walk to Charlestown and the faculty bathroom in the gym is a concern let's just say I'm hypothetically that means that we have to understand where that Capital dollar comes from so I just want to make

139sure that when we're making decisions if it's is it the 875 and if not this is the I think this is the most important conversation what do you all agree on so we can come to a final number because we have the guidance so not just to say hey 875 but what out of that number are you all anchored to and you all agree because I did receive conflicting information of requests from members and I want to make sure that you're all on the same page because those were just hypothetical requests from school committees you all requested to close Hope Valley you didn't provide the cuts yet so may that inject Tyler if you don't mind so at our budget Workshop there were $75,000 worth of reductions under these areas $85,000 for busing $195,000 for

140maintenance and utilities this is all reflective for Hope Valley Elementary School two cuts to grade one teachers so two FTE for grade one representing $200,000 one grade two HTE FTE I'm I'm sorry FTE for Hope Valley one nurse one custodian this is what the nurse was um $100,000 the custodian $60,000 one ta for $40,000 correct and uh Capital Hope Valley Capital 95,000 all of those items amounted to 875 correct so you could list and say we want these items and I I mean just an inform will just kind of and and anybody up here sitting up here correct me if I'm wrong I I I was under the impression we were voting this is what we were cutting when we closed so Valley school and if if anybody else disagrees with that please let me

141know um but that's that's what my at least my thought process was did we all do we all agree with that Craig and then Laura Madam CH we are having the hardest time down at this end hear it okay thank you I mean I can't hear so go right into your everything everything gobble yeah go right into your microphone did you not hear what I said of all those line items would you mind if I sit in the front so I can hear the PA system I mean so Jess okay so Jess has a question so Craig would you I will be happy to repeat those line items is can you hear me never mind I I've got it thank you they're just gone yeah I know I know we I can't hear it I

142think Laura had a question first okay Laura so I think from from my position on the committee I've deal i' I've dived into the I dove into this excuse me um into this budget pretty deeply now we can't hear you um and I I don't I want to be clear there's not a lack of trust Gina just so you're aware because I I hear that very frequently that there's a lack of trust and I want to be clear that there that is not what this is at all um my my personal you know feeling on this is that closing an elementary school was you know it was a really difficult decision for us to do and I think that even though I'm from Charlestown um I felt how difficult that that decision was I felt

143the weight of that so it's important to me that the that the money that is being taken away from the budget the 875,000 that that is spelled out based on the way that the yukco systems are set up in the way that ride Pro provides that information so my what I would like from the from the district is and I know that there's there's incidentals and there's changes that can happen but I think that you know for for transparency purposes we have to have a a starting point of okay we're if you know with the the school closing these are the line items that are part of that 875,000 because the way that the budgets are set up is that every location within the district has its own code Hope Valley Elementary School is 03106

144and everything that is attached to that Uka code is in the budget and is you know it's public information um so I went through and I pulled all of the uko codes that are applicable to Hope Valley Elementary School and I came up with a different you know a different number um and I'd be happy to share this with people with anybody on the committee who would like to to see the spreadsheet um and when you take away the when you when you take all of those yoa codes and you put them into one spreadsheet and you get the location and this is minus the benefits I just want to point that out um that you come up with a a an operating budget essentially of 2.8 million roughly Greg i'm I hope that sounds

145correct um and if you take away the 875 then obviously you have a little bit over 2 million left in that in that total so what I'm asking for is a breakdown of which things are coming out of that 875 with the with the school and all of the takeaways as is no no adjustments to the transportation policy none of those things just what was presented to us because the district you guys are the ones who understand what is involved in that process and I think that it would just be helpful for again for transparency nothing to do with trust that those items are identified and that they can be called upon in fut you know if anybody ever a question they would know oh yeah that's right we got rid of this or we

146got rid of that um and I also think that it's important to know that information as well so that when other schools you know because there's going to be repairs that are going to be needed in different places so if you have two million two million million dollars going back into a budget then you know knowing where that would happen is would be helpful so maybe I picture when only because with your number isn't accurate I'm going to let Mr zenan take this so um before you were on the committee and actually before I was even hired for this position I was still the principal of the middle school I was given the charge to go through every UK Cola account and figure out how much money we would save um if we were a

147close Hope Valley um I was not charged with staff because the superintendent said very clearly she would make that decision um the decision I believe is to cut two first grade teachers one second grade teacher a school nurse a custodian which we don't have because we're short and then a TA every other the cola account that you are referencing are staff members that we need to educate our children in other buildings they're just being transferred we still have to pay them with their benefits I'm not um I am not in the business of doing additional work that I don't need to do why would I run all those numbers for employees that we're going to employ no I'm not asking for the ones that you're employing I'm asking those are the numbers you're giving hold

148on I'm asking for the ones that are being cut I'm just asking for the specific numbers of the ones that are being cut okay so if we go back to the the list the numbers are so if you don't mind I would like to just so in the presentation if you're interested it is online it's under the headlines as well as the budget document so it was the teach the nurse we have a nurse that's resigning at the end of the year so that's $100,000 so let's let's take the nurse first I make a I would like I make a recommendation that um the committee consider the nurse as $100,000 cut so moved okay do we have a second second okay so we have a we have a motion and a second discussion but before

149we move forward with discussion um John do you have comments I just would like to remind the committee that if you go below the maintenance of effort number I can't hear you if we go below the maintenance of effort number you must seek the approval of the commissioner of education so what is going go below the main it is not the 875 we're good if you are going to go Bel maintenance number then you need to direct the administration to file a request with the commissioner of Education okay did everybody hear John no okay so he said if we go beyond below the maintenance of effort number Mr Anderson just make sure that they didn't turn off the mic please I want to John said that if we go below the maintenance of effort number

150and we don't know what that number is so hopefully we can find that out that we will need to get permission from the commissioner of Education to go below that number so correct the numbers that were put forward hold on M I'm sorry the chair has correctly stated what I stated thank you and that is if the committee wishes to go below the maintenance of effort number which was the amount that was raised from the towns in the current fiscal year budget that the committee needs to get the approval of the commissioner of Education if the position of the committee is that this is a nonrecurring expense so if I may just qualify that at the um Financial meeting last week on March 4th these were the numbers that I read out loud that were

151prepared by the administration and this included the $875,000 worth of cuts potential cuts to Hope Valley Elementary School Okay so member Town contributions with Debt Service Debt Service would equal an increase of 68% overall but the impact to the member towns Charlestown would be a decrease of 1.01% Richmond an increase of 1.62% and hopkington an increase of 1.08% so that was inclusive of $875,000 worth of cuts that we agreed to as a committee Bas in in in uh in spirit on the at during the February 25th work budget Workshop so we inherently voted to close Hope Valley Elementary School during our budget workshop on February 25th because the superintendent presented numbers to the school committee line item by line item what would be representative of the 875,000 Linda did you have a comment well I

152just I guess first off we have a motion in a second so I don't want to lose that on the 100,000 um sorry I'll one of the things maybe that I'm was going to try to explain is that even though we're cutting those pieces of Hope Valley um because we closed it there's still kids that are going to be going to other schools so there's there's a cost for that and I think that's what Mr zenu was trying to say we still need those teachers to instruct those kids where they land there's still going to be an expense of uh materials paper help me what else there's like emed lunch I mean there's embedded right costs well an easy example is we have hope rally staff assigned to Hope Val we we don't know where

153that staff's going to be placed until the budget has to be voted on and then the the teachers have to do what contractually they're allowed to do is take different jobs and then that has to be reallocated back to the school that they're assigned to right so that shifts everybody's line not just hope Valley so we just can't pull Hope Valley because we don't know where it's going yet okay so the only money we're cutting is the 875 the the the figure that uh and not I I can't confirm or deny that it's a little I know the overall cost of Valley is over 3 million so I know that I can't get say it's 2.8 but I know that we don't have $2.8 million that we're giving back it's the 875 that was the

154cut and just like the chair said it was these overall Yuka codes which is why I think at this point you do take it one at a time Mr Champlin and and just say that's why I made the recommendation for the nurse because that everyone is clear about what that cut is and how much that cut costs my only pause was that there have been concerns around capital for example we were notified today about the Richmond Elementary playground some members were concerned so if the while I agree there was sort of a understanding that this is how much but we need the committee to give us the charge that it it yes it's finalized so again I I would take it just as a line items that we saw on the website under the LA

155it's the last uh item in the budget section of the FY 26 we're going to take what so we we got Motion in a second to cut the nurse for $100,000 wait we need the motion so um Madam clerk who made the motion please to Second yes the motion oh to cut the nurse the the nurse position okay she wants to the motion is the motion is to remove $100,000 from the budget that was representative of the nursing position from Hope Valley Elementary School it it was the motion was made and it was seconded is there any more discussion on cutting the nurse for $100,000 Laura can you clarify if the if health and if the benefits are included in that $100,000 please no I I we gave you an overall because it's it's representative

156of the teacher that's currently present at that building and I won't know basically so it's $100,000 out of salary and Fringe it does cover salary benefits and Fring but again the exactly if it's 100,000 or nine you know it's just I'm gonna be honest we've been held you know numbers here not decimal here it may not me seem like a big deal right now but Mr zeni and I have been held accountable and I'm not willing to just say that's exactly correct because the $100,000 will come out it may have to be a little bit shaved off our retirement based on but overall based on the information we have and the current assignments these people do change they could be retiring they could be resigning they could be shifting I it's $100,000 out of the

157salary you C that's representative of a nurse so I I mean I I don't know how else to say again I do feel it's a trust issue sometimes and I but and and you can uh say that that's but this is where I need some flexibility to do the job that you've asked me to do so when we reallocate resources the dollar amount will come out of salary but if you're going to hold me to a complete dollar sign I I I just can't I can't promise at a complete dollar sign but it's $1 ,000 on overall salary and benefits okay that you co code so but there's multiple ycoa codes that include the salary you have professional development you also have you have professional devel that's accurate that's a different bucket I know but

158they all fall under the same object this is budget so that's what I'm confused about so I think the question that member Chapman is asking is I'm sorry I know but I'm we're all trying to get clarification here we're you know I know it's late um so is it is it salary and and benefits that's the question the answer is yes okay so the answer is yes that's it okay so the $100,000 is representative of salary and benefits okay so is there any more discussion on this okay so we have a motion on the floor we have a second Katherine did you have any comment that you wanted to come up and talk about before we vote mam chair before we go much further you have to be concious of the time and we need

159to make a motion to go past 10 o'clock because it's two minutes to 10 okay thank you yes I'm going to be very quick I think you guys need to make a decision how much you overall want to cut you can't go a whole lot lower than what you've cut already or you're going to go below the maintenance of effort I appreciate the fact that you want to be Hands-On with this but I think you really need to listen to what Gan is saying because if you tie her hands and make specific cuts for specific line items you may not be able to achieve what you're what your goal is so again I'm going to ask you to reconsider what is the number you want to cut what is the overall if it's higher than

160875 make it higher than 875 but you've got to be careful you should ask the director how much you can cut and decide where Gina can go with that I appreciate you're all trying to figure it out Yuka is a beast it's a horrible system to work in and I'm just afraid you're going to step in it later and tie your own hands in terms of changing policies and busing if you tie G's hands now thank you all right so we have a motion in a second so all those in favor of removing the $100,000 for the nurse say say I I raise your hand okay um anyone opposed any extensions oh Polly wasn't I so I I think we're are we unanimous did you obain did you you said yes okay so with that

161being said we're up against the clock mad chair make a motion that we past 10 o'clock so Tyler made the motion do we have a second Jess seconded I please tell me there's no discussion on this all in favor don't want to Madam chair I'd like to be opposed by I I feel obligated for thank you Craig all right so I think that that's unanimous that we're extending the time Beyond 10 o'clock okay thank you you are opposed opposed all right so ply ply opposed pie is opposed yeah she did yes she did Madam chair can I um I believe um Lyn can you run this number for me but um with the $875,000 in cuts for the close Hope Valley if you would have cut another 295,000 that would give you just above a

1620% increase that's would be great well because that's those are your numbers if that's what you want to work with but those are um that that is um you are not going to get a maintenance of effort I already um asked ride we do not have decline in enrollment at a number that they would even consider it so that those are your bottom lines your bottom line is 1,100 $70,000 that that was a question that member uh Phelps asked I think two budget workshops ago what was the number for level funding budget and it was 1.16 million so now we're just hearing from Greg um Greg again that it's about 1.17 million so I I just want to caution the committee that um it is not my recommendation to go lower than the 875 that

163we recommended like I said things are going to come up and the the the tighter you get this budget we I just want to remind you the December meeting in 2024 the auditor said we have one catastrophy away from having to use the entire fund balance which means that's it we would have to go back to the state contact the auditor General's office to tell them that we were we were going to be running a deficit we have to understand that you know decisions have consequences I my budget was a 2.5 increase um overall and that was too high for the committee and I appreciate but I I wouldn't recommend you go lower than the 875 but that's just my advice Tyler we need we need to get to that 875 first so can I

164entertain a motion for the rest of the line items yes I make a motion to cut the remaining 775,000 from The Hope Valley costs thank you second okay we have a motion and a second and if I can just clarify what the the 775 is for the members of the public it is busing at 85,000 maintenance and utilities 195,000 two FTE for grade one 200,000 one FTE for grade two 100,000 custodial 60,000 1 ta 40,000 and Hope Valley Capital 95,000 that should total the remainder of the 775,000 we have a motion and a second on that any discussion Jess Jess my question um is about the possibility of keeping that bus um that's something that we've heard a lot of concerns with over the past couple years and also with this Transportation resol resolution I

165would feel comfortable going through the transition knowing that we could keep a bus to help us with flexibility to meet fam's needs and to meet the redistricting and uh the transition of consolidation okay if you put the $85,000 back in for the bus um your overall increase would be a0 87% with hold on with a negative. 85% increase for Charlestown a 1.82% increase for Richmond and a 1.29% increase for hopkington can you read Richmond's number one more time Craig Richman would be a 1.82% increase thank you well we have a motion in a second on the entire package so what is our flexibility of putting a bus back in at a later date do we have flexibility on that that's up to the committee based on the number you want to cut all right well

166we have a motion in a second is there any more discussion I would I would request um someone to amend the motion so I don't have to make a motion to add a bus after we vote on this hearing no one we have a motion in a second so all those in favor of cutting the remainder of 775,000 from the budget representing Hope Valley Elementary Cuts please raise your hands so we have everyone except member purcel so Jess are you voting no on that I'm voting no okay so the eyes have it I know are there any more uh is there any more discussion on the budget regarding other additions reductions Laura I'd like to make a motion to cut the the Mandarin uh language teacher I Gina had provided us with some information that

167shows that the level of Interest I think it was or not the level of interest but that that class in particular um would that there was I think what was it 10 students um was the average class size but it seems to be that the majority of the interest with our foreign languages you know at this time is with the other languages I know that we have a French teacher we have an Italian teacher um and those are all I think it's excellent that we have those but if the interest is not there for a manderin teacher then I would like to make a motion to cut that specifically um and I think that that would help Jess to add the transportation back in I'm going to caution the committee when you start to specifically

168call out faculty it's very concerning because what you're doing is stripping away the power of your school princi princi your department heads and your your data is incorrect that actually the Mandarin is also utilized at the middle school and it is it has um gaining traction because it was our newest language and I can guarantee if Miss Drake was here and I don't want to speak for her that is not the recommendation she would provide because obviously we've had conversations about course requests and we're well-versed so I advise the committee and my recommendation is if you want to cut a World Language teacher that you that you advise me work with the school principal to determine that based on course request so please be careful when we talk about enrollment of class sizes because we

169also have what's called virtual high school that means that there is credits that happen for students who may not have the instructor in front of them because they're taking the class virtually but that teacher is assigned that support for the student who's taking the VHS class so I just want to be mindful that if you're going to specifically cut and and really be specific like that um that you avoid that and that you ask us to work with the high school principal to C A World Language teacher and simply end it at that or you say to me we'd like $100,000 but when you start to pick schools away you you take away your Administration rights you take away your school Improvement conversations and you take away School governance as a whole so Gina I

170apologize I thought that that was something that was provided to the committee previously the I never gave the uh recommendation of which World Language I simply said if you want to cut a World Language teacher that I was I that I would ask that we work with because that has repercussions so if I have 21 students in Chinese one and 20 students in French there are 20 or 21 families that are impacted when we cut french five that was a ripple effect that impacted three people and we were very concerned about that so I just want to make sure decisions have consequences when you strip away the rights of your administrators and your school Improvement teams um we start to Fumble the ball a little Linda I I stated this at the last meeting too

171I think that we have to be careful because um the world language is now going to be a graduation requirement and we need to keep these teachers we need to keep them as you know because if we lose one we'll never get them back because they're going to be at a premium so I think we don't want to be shortsighted you know we want to be able able to to prepare ahead so that's my comment thank you member Lyle I I just want to add Linda's correct um when we I it was unfortunate we had to cut the World Language out of elementary school that was something we didn't see that was coming and it happened um at meeting like this what I can say is when we do that we cause a concern in

172faculty and staff because then they feel like their job is not secure they begin and remember lla is correct they begin to say well if I'm going to be cut next year that I'm leaving and to get those instructors back will be almost nearly impossible okay so one of the other potential reductions that uh the superintendent put forward was neas accreditation is being postponed is that right um superintendent Bard for the high for the high school that is correct they postponed it out the following year and that there was 4 $4,700 proposed for the fiscal year 26 budget so technically we we really don't need that 4700 for next year I would to say we don't need it because there's opportunities we we already for the accreditation you could ask us to remove that dollar

173amount for that purpose correct all right so can I entertain a motion to reduce um the budget by $4,700 which would account for the postponement of the neas accreditation so so we so I have a um Craig and do I have a second and Diane so we have a motion in a second any discussion on this no discussion so all in favor uh it looks like it's unanimous Karen is your hand raised yes thank you okay so um so it's not unanimous is there anybody opposed and any extensions that is Laura is abstaining okay any other budget related to discussion items now is the time Jess I'd like to make a motion to add a bus at the cost of $85,000 okay so we have a motion do we have a second okay so we

174have a motion in a second discussion all those in favor of go ahead Craig did you repeat your rationale why we adding a bus back yeah um I guess it's not removing the ex the bus at Hope Valley so that we can ensure we have enough buses to transport all all the children across the district especially in a time of high need and transition okay so we have a mo Craig good Laura Craig you're on the transportation subcommittee is that right what's the what's your recommendation on that is that do we I'm just wondering what the I I really don't have enough information to give you a an answer to that okay I mean specifically for to make up for one school I mean I we we did see problems this past year by cutting

175a bus MH um but I don't think that bus was put back in so we're still sure oh I can hear [Laughter] myself okay so nonetheless I I right now I don't have enough information to justify that to justify adding it back in as I said it's a cost if if you have a comment you have to come up to the you have to come up to the microphone I we can't have people shouting from the from the audience and to to be clear that's not so far we haven't cut all the buses from H Valley there's three buses at H Valley only one was in the list of cuts and I'm asking to add it back to help have flexibility to help ensure that we have enough buses to to really make sure that

176we can meet the need okay so yeah Eliza Spears Hope Valley Parent a second grader going into third grade to Richmond next year um yeah so am I concerned about his busing and the length of his trip Sure Hope Valley to Richmond it's not that far but when you consider the number of students that are being diverted is specifically to Richmond which is a huge portion of the school I mean I don't want my child getting home at 4:15 4:30 in the afternoon he already gets home at 3:45 that's late enough um so I I don't want to see him sitting on the bus for an hour after school I'd like to see buses in the budget thank you um superintendent Bard can you weigh in on this because we want to make sure that

177there's obviously adequate transportation for all the students um Mrs Zen and I have met with um miss pelchat when we were coordinating the budget and when we with then the decision of of the committee was to finalize we had we had considered all of the current assignments based on addresses with that being said again if if we look and we say well um that wasn't their currently assigned school but they wanted a voluntary transfer and we don't want to ask them to wave the committee is going to change that then yes but um the parent is correct that sometimes the the bus rides are going to be longer because Hope Valley only has about a 100 students then they don't all ride the bus and pre has a different time so obviously the times when

178your have bus is Fuller is it's longer than when your bus is half empty but we've we've got that through however the buses have to run people move in and out requests change sometimes a parent who was driving doesn't want to do that anymore I I can't to the Future wish I could with my crystal ball but based on what we know right now in the current assignments we've accommodated that but yes the buses may be at capacity or or close to full so yes I will recognize you in one moment thank you so we heard a lot tonight about trust and Leadership and the boss was a recommendation by the superintendent and her team well it says here right here Valley busing but read the top of the sheet requested by school committee members

179so I was asked to bring those numbers for I just want to be clear I put the numbers together absolutely but these came from school Committee Member requests all right thank you for that clarification I stand corrected yes ma'am Betsy Alvarez hopkington I just want to be clear I'm speaking as a parent not as a teacher because I do teach here um I just want to be clear that I have I've had four kids in the district and I live on the edge of ashway and hope valy okay and my kids in ashway had a 45 to hour bus ride and I'm going back 20165 my son went to ashway um myself I'm a graduate of Cho my elementary ride in the '90s 80s was an hour I fell asleep every day on the bus

180okay so this is something that has been ongoing do we need buses I could advate a lot more for buses than just the one but end of the day you have to make the decision at what your bottom line is going to be people are on the bus a long time my kids are on the bus very long because where I live okay if you don't want your kid to be on the bus that long pick them up they're lining up outside the middle school high school every day and the elementary school I chose not to pick up my kids because I thought it was a hindrance it was just too much but you have to make it your decision but bus rides are longer and some years it's some kids some years it's the

181other my kids it was every year so it's my two cents thank you yes sir your name and where you're from is Abel I'm from Wakefield 23 years ago when I was born My Town had 3,000 people in it it's had a 10% increase in population since I was born it has 30,000 people in it if you take away buses anytime when population is growing south of the Kent line everything's growing so you take away a bus you're setting yourself up for another meeting in the future where you have to talk about adding buses thank you thank you okay so we have a motion and a second to add a bus back in so I'm going to call for a vote all in favor of adding a bus back in for $85,000 please raise your

182hands so we have three eyes anyone opposed thanks are there um Madam clerk do you have all the names that are opposed yes the eyes were Linda lall Jess and Polly okay so we and then um anybody anyone abstaining that would be Laura and everybody else was opposed okay okay any other discussion on the budget Tyler slowly grab your microphone you do it Ty what you do it I know this will be wildly unpopular uh but I'd like to reconsider possibly cutting the middle school dean that was added through erer funding um and possibly sharing a Dean between the high school and middle school um listen I give mey give me a minute I I listened to the meeting that I was sick and wasn't able to attend I would like to hear from Gina

183and Greg I value your perspective here because you came out of that middle school so um you actually did this seven or eight years ago you went from two deans at the middle school to 1.2 that was yes yes Mr Richie's math and I don't know what a point2 Dean did but that's what you guys agreed to and then you went down to a 1.0 Dean you had one Dean in the Middle School it it does not work your principal who was myself at the time became the second Dean I had to handle every single bullying case I had to do all the bullying reports um you literally probably took 15 to 20 hours a week away from me being able to be the principal of the building and do teaching and learning furthermore you

184are so at that point you have a decision to make when the principal makes a decision as a dean and the parent doesn't agree um most parents don't want their assistant principal to hear their appeal because they're below the principal so now your superintendent is going to get Stu hearing appeals and um if you don't think there's a good amount of appeals in the Middle School um On Any Given month you can have 10 to 15 appeals they take 4 to8 hours each to do properly so you will cut into your superintendent time of doing her job because she would be doing the principal's job of the middle school here on appeals um it's a trickle effect you also will not have a Dean in each lunchroom because we have two lunchrooms at the middle

185school one Dean cannot be in two places at once um I don't think it's ideal I think um when we did it eight years ago um the data showed that our um our write ups and our dis referrals were down um so they thought okay one Dean but what it what doesn't show with two deans is all the param of work that's being done they're in the hallways they're in lunchrooms they're dealing with kids they're actually you know giving kids um that are on that Cur for being a behavior problem rewards such as you know our Deans will do um a 10-minute basketball time with a kid um none of that will take place with one Dean and um and then you will rotate through Deans cuz anyone in their right mind will do it

186for one or two years realize they not only are drowned in it is is an impossible task that cannot be done and they take the first opening they can to get out of it so um I I I would recommend you look in multiple other places before you consider cuton a d at the middle school and I can also tell you um the middle school and high school does not share staff well because I turn see this is what happens when we all get up at 4:00 A.M and it's a little bit late but um what I would say Tyler I'm going to ask you for the same um Trust around the the the naming the position right because now um those positions look different than maybe some even people that went to school now

187we're really our Wellness initiative our staff Wellness our student wellness it has to be more than just you know words on a piece of paper and the Deans have been integral so that I mean our discipline referrals are down across the district that doesn't mean so again if you have trust in your leadership team and your administrators and your teachers I would ask that you speak to the teacher though anyone wants to talk about you know the impact that the dean has because I I understand that you don't see the day-to-day but when we're holding everybody accountable as you should for academic Excellence I need you to think about the return on investment that is your Administration that is your dean and how those impact teachers doing their jobs to focus on instruction and your

188principles focusing on supporting their Educators that's all I ask so we had Karen's hand was raised Laura's hand was raised and then we have some folks from the from the community so Karen so so as a parent of a middle school student I value those Deans on a daily basis I've talk to Middle School teachers I understand from those teachers that the Deans are everywhere and meeting with kids who don't even know they're being met with um that is the ultimate in being proactive and keeping kids in classrooms where they are being educated as a middle school teacher if you remove those Deans you're just adding that burden to everybody else including every single classroom teacher thank you Karen Laura um I just want to Echo what was said already but the um you know

189having also a child in the district and them being in middle school and now High School I can assure you that having at this point in time with having fifth sixth seventh and eighth grade in the middle school getting rid of a Dean is something that will it ends up hurting the students more than it more than anything it's the students that want to be there and are there learning and if you don't have somebody kind of doing that proactive type of um that work then it makes it really really hard for the other kids so chair if I may before we go before we go any further I appreciate everyone 's feedback I really do Greg your perspective is wonderful um I've already made one wildly unpopular decision this year I'm going to take

190this off the table and and pull it off I'm good did you still have a comment Sir Mr C I see you that's why you pulled I see you Bobby I see you okay so I have a comment um which may be wildly unpopular considering wildly unpopular comments Tyler so um we we just agreed to cut $875,000 from the budget um we all did that we all agreed on that the majority ruled with with that being said my question is with cutting the 875 that was9 879 879 700 oh that's right with neas okay I stand corrected thank you so much um so what that says to me is that besides that and neas there is no other fat in the budget if you will and I don't I I want to understand that premise

191um we we are closing a school there are reductions associated with closing a school and um so I mean do we have a line item for fuel I know that that was talked about last week about is that too inflated I I mean come on I'm not I'm not finished yet I gave you your time so just let me finish okay so we're not we're not finished with the discussion and we this is the time of the agenda item where we're talking about the budget so we're doing our best to get through everything I listen to everybody speak on their agenda items so I'd like to speak on my agenda item or the agenda item at hand right now thank you so with that being said I I'm just wondering if is there I'm trusting

192the leadership that you have put forward a budget that promotes academic excellence and fiscal responsibility and I wanted I just want to know and I want to be transparent with all of the members to ensure that this is what you need to move the district forward and and that's my point so yes I mean I I I I take the budget and the fiscal responsibility of the district very seriously as I know Mr zenan does and the entire Charo team um so uh you know this is my integrity and this is my reputation as well um I don't love the word fat because I don't think there's any fat in this budget I think this that's okay I mean sometimes I just want to make sure because increases there um the increases are really due

193to inflation and we're still under inflation so I I really feel strongly that even the beginning of the budget came back um I thought really well with that being said we're trying very hard to plan future forward 5 years 10 years so we we've been able to avoid times like cry has with layoffs because we we're really thoughtful about attrition and where the retirements come up and we really do have good good people working for us to help us do that work so yes I believe that while it closing a school is not going to be easy and we have a joint sit meeting on Thursday to begin some of those conversations um there's a lot of motional toll I would recommend to the school committee that we not go any further because you have

194a large District transition on your hands and that needs to be our priority and focus and I believe my stand behind this budget I I'm putting uh if you put your faith in me I'm telling you this is a budget that we can continue our work and continue the academic Excellence that chyo deserves and is accustomed to thank you is there any more discussion on the budget yes sir hello my name is Andrew McCoy my concern is that the 875 might not be taking into account that you can't just abandon the school and leave it there's actual closure cost security things of that nature and is that being taken into account when you're saying we're going to cut 875 879 whatever the final number is um so are we cutting too much because we're going

195to need $50,000 to lock up all the doors and windows and board everything up properly or whatever the numbers are superintendent Bard would you like to answer that question I I would like to see based on the auditor's report I would have liked to seen our fund balance stronger um because they have told us that while we're at our policy is a 2 to 4% they would they recommend that we move more towards a 5 to 10% and Miss Davis don't get up I'm not promis that that's not my recommendation I'm just sharing what the auditor um what they had sh with us for the December meeting but I also recognize that this is a difficult time I mean I'm a a state taxpayer I I'm I'm a resident in the town of Providence and

196nobody wants to see taxes go up and anytime I put forward a budget I'm very conscious of the fact that impacts everybody in whatever way but it impacts so when I put the budget forward my responsibility to the community is that I'm fiscally responsible but first and foremost my charge as legislated by law is to put for students education first so I believe that this budget will allow me to continue the work with the team in Charo that you that you have put Faith in to have academic Excellence fiscal responsibility and continue growing our community and building those bridges so that we do right by our families and our students thank you Katherine is there any did anyone have their hands up okay so uh pat first Pat um I have a question in regards

197and I don't know if we have any but how many if we do have any how many seal positions do we currently have the question is how many how many seal positions do we currently have so Pat when you say you talk social emotional learning so we don't have any uh specified so for example in the wellness initiatives nurses are considered staff social workers are considered so but they that's not their only responsibility so I just need to be clear I like we don't have specifical positions that's that was my question oh okay Diane um while she was asking regarding the seal positions um how many uh differentiated instructional coaches do we currently employ so we don't have any differentiated instructional coaches we have none oh hold on not coaching are we talking about the

198reading Specialists the coaching the the the the differentiated coaches we don't we don't I don't we don't don't have that position well I read them in the in in the the budget papers and such if do you have a line item to reference Diane I don't okay we have reading Specialists we have math specialist it should be continued because there are items that clearly we're confused on so we have math Specialists reading Specialists we we have an academic fellow who's focused uh that's a contra contractual position that right now is working on our um literacy across our curriculum and then for next year it is multi- systems of support fellow but differentiated instructional coaches I I'm I'm wondering if that was the go ahead High School just uh we had extra money from our xq

199funds from work done I think in 2019 Lynn is that correct 2019 it's a grant from ride um and the high school stiped it three current teachers to work as differentiated coaches I'm not sure if that's what Miss teft is referring to yeah that's on top of the teacher they're not full-time positions they just work outside of the school day and that's Grant funded and it is grant money yes thank you any other discussion by the members of the committee Katherine thank you so now this is your budget and I hope we all going to move forward because you have had the power to make changes to this budget amendments to this budget lower this budget I hope you all come come together and now support this budget because this is the budget that you're

200passing out to the public so I hope we see the support from this committee because you made this budget you own it and hopefully now you support it thank you thank you so Craig are we at the point where you're going to read off the numbers and the final budget um before we vote as a committee Linda I'm sorry did you have something Linda did you have something no usually what happens is someone makes a motion but uses the yes we need the we need the numbers okay thank you I'm getting tired so so you want their numbers with each person share after state aid yes and what's the what's the bottom line number the budget number that we are going to be presenting to the voters I think we should we should know that

201and and the audience as well I'm going to probably need a five minute recess to put that together but I can give you what the breakdown is with the percentages with your $4,700 drawn um so overall all with the $875,000 reduction today and the $4,700 reduction um your overall spending after state aid for the district would be $ 44,7 to35 for a 67% increase Charlestown shares 12 m, 445,000 yeah please you say that one again child some was what is 12, 97 or a negative 1.02% increase Richmond is 16,700 , 696 for a 1.61% increase and hopkington is 15, 89,1 123 with a 1.07% increase okay yes so are we going to move the question to adopt the the but the budget okay so we have a motion to move forward with the budget as

202read by Mr zenan do we have a second second Tyler seconded so we have somebody from the back that seconded it too thanks um all those in favor unanimous right unanimous okay um this might be unpopular but can we request a 5 minute bathroom break a 5 minute recess no so moved second second all in favor thank you e e e I'd like to call the meeting back to order Craig yes this one does work Madam chair at this time uh before I do uh B is just a review so my motion is to permanently table B and table c d and e do I have a second second I am discussion all in favor do we all know what the motion is on the table Craig can you read that again please excuse me

203can you can you say that again please if you don't mind under business yes items b c e and e yes cable B permanently c d and e just table okay so Diane wait a minute did you did you second that knowing that he wanted to table one item permanently no I I withdraw my second Mo second on that who seconded that okay discussion Madam chair can I ask a question please yes why did you just request of a school Committee Member why did you second it I I was very clear the first time but you were you were you did not say for item uh under business B you did not say you did not say permanently remov yes he did I I did guys my goodness I'm sorry I did not I must

204have not heard you correctly it is now 10 of 11 I made a mistake forgive me enough okay so Diane would you like to withdraw your second yes I would like to withdraw my second thank you thank you Karen Karen seconded it okay so we have a motion we have a second all in favor of permanently tabling item 9B not permanently tabling 9 C 9d and 9 e this 9B is referral of the following policies to the policy subcommittee and the school Improvement teams for review within 30 days Transportation policy policy for face masks and face coverings dasco 19 automated callout system videography photography and audio Rec recording policy Library media policy Title 9 non-discrimination anti-harassment policy and grievance procedure gender non-conforming and transgender students 9 C is the reconsideration of the RFQ for Legal

205Services 9d was resolution in support of field usage by the Charo Cowboys 9e was Rewritten Rewritten Transportation resolution which member percel already was going to discuss um pulling tonight and putting it on another agenda is there any discussion Tyler and Linda Madam chair I have two I have two questions if Linda will um the first one's for John Anderson um John if if we permanently table B can we not bring the transportation policy back to to discuss it at any point table can we not bring that up in a future meeting to discuss if we permanently table this agenda item which is a review of the transportation policy can we not bring that back say in like two months and look at it again can bring it back or can't change my term to table

206so you'd have to wh I'm sorry Lind motion okay Karen do you withdraw your second yes Madam chair at this time I make a motion to table b c d and e second so we have a motion and a second discussion Jess time that we've been discussing table tbling these motions we could be voting on these motions correct I do not want to consider tbling anything we are here let's work Laura is it so the the agenda item is to put them on so that they could be discussed at the policy subcommittee correct that's what the that's what the entire agenda item is about so so if if there was additional conversations that needed to take place from the public then they would attend the policy subcommittee meetings when those are being discussed is that

207right that's my understanding Linda Oh I obviously I wish I could table those permanently to the uh policy those all those policies first first and foremost none of those policies really need to be reviewed they're they're perfectly fine they're perfectly written they're legal um and maybe we want maybe other than the transportation policy maybe we could pull that because we do have to address that also um I think we have a lot other more more uh more important work to be done we have a transition that we need to do we have Hope Valley that closed we have to think about about our children our parents um to spend time on these policies that don't need to be spent is just a waste of our time I'm also very concerned and I've been on the

208policy subcommittee I've been very concerned about the the 30 days I don't know who is going to get all those policies done in 30 days um that just seems to be uh not uh feasible and uh superintendent card um do you have more important things to do than review policies that don't need to be reviewed I'm sorry just um I I did speak to attorney Anderson about this I I believe you know and and I heard from the chair and I understand that you know committee members want to make sure that their agenda items are getting on the agenda and like I mentioned before and I won't belabor the point it's just a it's a it's a balance right that's my responsibility as well with the chair to really think about the community as a

209whole and the priorities and yes the district transition is definitely is the most important work that we're doing right now we're getting prepared for our certified negotiations with our teachers union and we have to ensure I mean that we put forward something that the committee feels good about and that our families feel good about not that any cuts are good because anything time we cut from a school budget impacts kids in some shape way or form but overall my thinking is um when I talked to attorney Anderson I asked the same question about the 30 days and I think it was his intent to make sure that member Hopkins felt like you know we weren't stalling anything if she felt that it was it was super important um I do know that member Hopkins actually

210reached out to myself and Angela uh this week to be able to like maybe rethink what was prioritized which we greatly appreciate um so my thinking is the 30 days I agree I I would um ask the committee that you give our school Improvement teams the time to really focus on their school Improvement plans that you're going to be seeing for their metrics and how we're moving forward for next year as well as this the district transition because it impacts their teams and we need them to really be focused and so I ask that you know we consider that and just work together to prioritize you know what's going to be impactful and then bring back topics I sh with member Hopkins and she knows correct our ttle line policy was actually developed when Trump

211was President we never changed it so it's still part of the Trump Administration we never U made any changes to our tit line policy and the gender non-conforming as you heard and I don't need to belab that point right now we're legally all set so if we are not absolutely hold me accountable to make sure that we talk about those but right now uh I agree that the transportation is probably the most important and it already came to the committee you just wanted one more conversation with Mr Anderson was my recollection right paully did you have a comment um all of that what Gina just said um and I wanted to bring these to the policy subcommittee but I also wanted to call attention to the video videography photography and audio recording policy because it

212does cause a problem for me as a parent and I Know It causes problems for teachers um we all want our kids to be in all the school photos some parents just don't want the school to publish them on the Internet that's all and our opt-in opt out policy is is All or nothing and it's caused a lot of problems and I'd like to take that off the teacher's plate got it I think um now that I understand I think attorney Anderson and I can probably give some background because I think there's a balance between the furpa and the PPR so um that's something that we can uh look for I'll ask we could um may I ask Miss C uh Donna can you do me a favor uh if if that change happened does

213that would would you need that to take place before the end of the year or is that something that can't happen this year we would have to do for next year based on next year y I thought so yeah okay so so then I would ask that we do that like a June or July meeting if that's okay great and just just so I can clarify this was a this was a list that I wanted to put together for the policy subcommittee and Gina was really good about when I asked her are we current with Title 9 yes we are good does does it cover the gender non-conforming kids or like what's the situation and I said given all of the stuff at the federal level and the local ACLU let's not get involved I

214think our kids are well protected and we have Advocates on both sides let them work it out so the rest of the policies I think we can with the exception of transportation we could discuss at our con venience in the subcommittee and that's that's all those were in the notes I conveyed as well so yes I chly going I think what you need to do you need to recall your table motion clearly you're not taing it no evidently not so pull that back you're compant with the table second P that back and then go to B you just have a discussion about B move on and then decide you want to table the rest so Madam chair I withdraw my second I withdraw my motion okay now move on so I I I appreciate that

215feedback Catherine thank you okay so are we going to be now well given the discussion yes that and the synopsis I just gave could we agree to send all of these policies to the subcommittee except just can can she finish my goodness with the exception you don't I just ticked off several that were already answered in the time before that this agenda was created so the subcommittee can discuss them as per the function that we have to do that's the only request just send them to the subcommittee and transport I think so is are you making a motion to send the all of the subcommittee recommend all of these to the subcommittee for review discussion what is the motion is there a motion can I make one hold on hold let's just let Polly finish

216and then I've got Karen as per what we've done before please my motion is to send them to the subcommittee for discussion no some of these might are already ticked off the list um that we don't we don't need to send Title Nine we don't need to send gender non-conform at least take them off the motion okay fine we'll send to the policy subcommittee the library media policy videography policy automated callout system policy for face masks and I think we need to have a a quick discussion about what we want to see in the transportation policy but convey that to the subcommittee okay so oh do I have do I have a second on that sending to the policy subcommittee for review uh B one two three four and five Karen I think we heard

217from a lot of people this evening that our library media policy is fine the way it is and shouldn't be touched so do I have thank you Karen so do we have a second on the motion I'll second okay so we have a motion and a second discussion agree with I agree with Karen need to touch the library media policy I agree I would agree to one two three and four okay but that's not the motion I mean what is it right oh sorry whatever thank you okay so we have a motion and a second to send the transportation policy policy for face masks masks and face coverings automated call out system videography photography and audio recording policy and the library media policy to the policy subcommittee and the school improve movement teams for review

218all those in favor so that's ply D Louise Laura Diane Larry and Pat all those opposed Tyler Linda Jess I can't see Karen and Craig any abstentions so does that does that motion carry tie seven how many is it a tie it was a tie ask six six in favor okay six in favor five opposed okay so that motion carries okay moving on chair just want to make a yes uh uh people thank you all for staying and and supporting and giving us your the uh policy subcommittee is a public meeting so you're all welcome to come back and I will personally let people know when the meeting is it will be publicized thank you yes ma'am so are you coming up to speak on what we just voted on or the next item no

219what you just voted on all right John am I allowed to do that considering that we already consider have like a public discussion and you didn't answer anybody's questions you just voted without AC in the public okay please proceed Samantha posano special educator at the middle school also on the sit committee for the middle school if is this still a 30-day thing we're reviewing homework policy right now we're planning our sit like the next plan we're working on that for the next year and now you're adding more we just met for this month we're talking about the homework policy next month if you're giving us a 30-day yeah time frame because that's what it says on the agenda that's not fair to the sit team we have a lot on our plate and we still

220meet for about three hour two to three hours after school it's too much thank you for your thank you for your input thank you Sam John may I ask you um because it was written as as 30 days can we um make a motion to amend that and give some flexibility to the time frame please it the 30 days wasn't in the motion oh okay the 30 days was not in the motion convience as well okay so John the 30 days wasn't in the motion so are we good it on the okay thank you okay so we will give you some flexibility on that I don't know where that young lady went to but we'll give you you're welcome thank you thank you Sam okay so reconsideration of the RFQ for legal services this was

221requested by um Larry Phelps Larry yes still awake I think I it back up cuz I a little confusing a little a lot to absorb and wanted to bring it back up and having in a shortened and version and I was read it today and I was fine with a shorten version and it go out make sure that the people that do bid on it bid on it to basically the same prices that we got now that's the synapse of it going to it more with my head is pounding I'm sorry Larry it was really hard to hear you but what I think I heard you say was that when this came up the last time it was confusing there was on the agenda a couple of times in different places and you would like

222to have a shorter RFQ uh which would simplify the process am I am I um giving you that um was I accurate in my description yes was that from you chair or was that from Larry I I just repeated what I attempted to repeat what he said okay so can you repeat that again please that's not what he said that's not what I heard Larry say what I heard Larry say was that he was confused the last time it was on the agenda is that right Larry yeah I said I said confused I was confusing and I just wanted to see a shorter version and something that was more easy to understand and but you voted in favor I can bring we're getting there make a decision lost inor yes but it's my right I

223can bring it back up yeah um John excuse me attorney Anderson there was a point of order so do I have to rule on the point of order at this time what the first thing that I have to do is I'm sorry I couldn't hear you move to reconsider motion to reconsider okay right so I was getting to the moot I was going to ask for a motion to reconsider because that's the agenda item okay so um do I have a motion to reconsider the RFQ for Legal Services yes so I have a motion do I have a second second I have a motion and a second discussion we've heard a lot about transparency and we've heard a lot from the taxpayers I don't know why this was brought back after it was was voted

224down at the last meeting so if somebody could explain that to me I'd greatly appreciate it so this was requested by by Larry and I think Larry Larry just want shorter version of it where it but the discussions that we had and the comments that we heard from the from the from the taxpayers and from the committee me from the from the community was that we have excellent legal representation Mr Anderson has not lost as far as I know sorry John don't want to jinx you a a single special ed um case he is highly regarded in the field of Education law we get a huge bang for our buck because nobody fears making a phone call to make sure that they are acting within our legal rights if we go to another Law Firm

225chances are we will pay by the minute and it will be far more costly so I still even with a simplified RFQ I don't understand why this was brought back to the committee Laura I think does it does it say I thought there was language in there that said that the um that it wouldn't you had to it had to be the same cost as what we're currently paying or something is that correct I don't know so in in the annotated agenda I had some comments in the annotated agenda uh and my comments were going to be that um there was a lot of discussion the last time about um incurring an increased cost I know Mr zenan said that if this um if we do go out to bid this could potentially mean a

226l line item increase of six figures so what my thought was was that um if this if this committee approves this reconsideration that we would put forward a two-page agenda we do have a sample in our packets of an RFQ from exitor West Greenwich um and it does say fee structure here for criteria for selection and my thought was was to to um um to make the fee structure comparable to the fee structure we currently have in place it was not my agenda item no but it was put forward can I can I finish it was put forward on the agenda Gina and I meet and we discuss all of the agenda items that Mo are mve forward and what I said was after I saw that this agenda item was was put back on

227for reconsideration what I did was I heard all of the feedback from the last time and one of the um points that was made was that if we went out to bid this would cost a considerable amount um and there would be an increased fee so my suggestion was and it was put into the annotated agenda was that part of the two-page RFQ from another Regional School District says CR criteria for selection fee structure and my amendment to that would be for the committee's consideration to put this as a fee structure comparable to the fee structure that we currently have in place so that there would not be a huge increase in cost because we were we we obviously just approved the budget so that that is my point uh Craig so Madam chair I

228heard you say your thoughts several times this request was put forward by Mr Phils so why are your thoughts correlating with with his request it was my original line it was my original um agenda item last month but you you yours lost your motion that which you requested somebody to say which paully spoke it for you lost so you should not be participating in any of this well he brought it up for reconsideration the item was brought forward during the agenda meeting this agenda item was put forward by um put forward to the attorney for review yes Mr Cardoza I the question why Larry um we you you still you have not said anything about um the quality of the legal services that you you get from uh Mr Anderson um and and and if

229I understood correctly what I heard was a conversation between the two of you there for for him to put it on the agenda you're making an assumption and I don't I don't appreciate that those are your words I don't appreciate that well I'm telling you that's that's what I heard Mr aadan I don't appreciate it so let me explain let me explain to you how the agenda is processed it's not the agenda what what I heard was what I heard was that you you you had a misunderstanding of what was what was presented the I did not and and and and then uh Larry said well um we're going to uh I I wasn't really I wasn't really sure um I I I I I thought it was that's not appropriate I thought if that

230Tone's not appropriate I thought if if if we put it Forward um for the same amount or or for uh equal uh uh formula fee formula um I don't you came up with that and and then he made the he put it on the agenda for it to be there's it seems like there's discussion here that's that's not happening in the in the public Space Chair we we yes we have more important things to deal with at this point in time this is not important we have we have a transition we have a closing of a Hope Valley Elementary School I mean I I feel like we're not focusing on the right things I I I don't appr this is not important right now I appreciate that prioritize I I mean this is not important

231I we've had a constituents here they're telling us what's important and we're still dealing it to me this seems so political and not kid Focus I'm sorry Tyler and and then Bob chair I have a couple questions and a couple points that I'd like to make um first question I have is well it's kind of a it's kind of a statement that leads into a question um the quality of the work that we've gotten out of out of Mr Anderson and and his firm um I can't complain about to be 110% honest um you know when over the summer when we or two summers ago when we decided to change Auditors we had a discussion about the contract for Mr Anderson and and and at the time I talked with a few folks and it

232said well maybe it's time to review that contract well there's something called institutional knowledge that John has with our district that I value highly um my problem right now as as this stands is what happens if we put out an RFQ Mr Anderson's firm doesn't respond and we don't get anything that looks like it would be of interest or even at the or even at the same level so now we're now now the the chances are we we sit up here and and we talk about cutting the budget and being as fiscally responsible now we could be paying another 150 200 300 grand for Legal Services um listen I understand that there's a perception that Mr Anderson may not fully work for this committee and might work for other folks within the district I get

233that but I I don't I can't justify moving on from him at this point based on that and and I know that's going to I know that's going to hurt some people's feelings up here by me saying that and and I apologize for that and and the quality of work speaks for itself I had this discussion not more than 12 minutes ago with a respected member that I I've come to respect very highly out in that audience um and he made some very valid points to me that really made me stop and think um so that's that's what I have to say right now now and that's all I have to say thank you Bob I'll get you I believe his name was Robert this is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen on an

234agenda ever I've been on that committee and this is disgusting Mr Anderson has served this committee has served our district for over 25 years he has provided input that has saved this distri District millions of dollars do you think for a minute you can get his quality work from anyone else at the price that he's paying for us if you do you're idiots complete idiots now okay thank you whoever put this in may may have the grace to withdraw it en richment can you hear me no am I close am I close enough okay yes ma'am I guess my only question is and I'm not fully well vered on Robert's Rules and if somebody who voted in the affirmative could put this back up for reconsideration but um quite to some other people's points you

235kept saying my thoughts and so my concern is I didn't hear you speak on what homework you did on Paulie's policy reviews that she wanted to look like look at much like you did your homework on um Larry's reconsideration of the RFQ so it's concerning to me that this is an open meeting violation act that there was definitely um communication before this meeting that you did your homework on Larry clearly did not and that's a concern to me thank you you have such huge things happening in this District right now you are closing an entire Elementary School at the end of this year 3 years faster than you originally we originally told people that we were going to close it um I will be very honest with you this feels like somebody wanted a second

236bite at the Apple to put up an RFQ to get rid of John Anderson um maybe that's not how you intended it to be but that's how this reads and I think you can read the room that's how it's reading to the room is it was a second chance to try to get the RFQ through um I already gave you my opinion on John many of us have the same opinion you don't have to like John to recognize the work that JN does for you and as you move towards a budget cycle and cleaning that up and closing an elementary school and all the ramifications all of the legal things that we heard about earlier the very last thing you should want to do is try to open up this District to legal problems so

237I hope you do retract this thank [Music] you a motion second yes right I believe so is there Chris hi Chris conar Richmond um we spent like 20 30 minutes before talking about how we're going to cut fat out of the budget and the last meeting when we talked about this the estimate was it's going to be $200,000 to try to replace John Anderson and there's going to be no one out there who's going to try to go for whatever price that we want to offer and so what we're going to end up stuck with is another $200,000 in the budget and we just spent maybe 10 15 minutes talking about taking $4,700 out and now we're going to add something that's an order of magnitude larger onto something that we already think uh is

238going to be a tough time so I think for the matter of the budget itself we need to keep John Anderson thank you thank you okay so we have a motion in a second are we ready to vote on this item yes Angel motion relative to the agenda item is reconsideration of a Rewritten RFQ for Legal Services that's exactly how it reads okay so all those in favor all those opposed okay so motion carries oh I'm sorry what's the matter I thought I was wondering go poly abstained okay thank you all right do you have to clarify so uh budget next item is budget transfers update what's the matter I don't know something we're just confused because you said motion carries I'm sorry the the the nose have it the nose have it my bad

239thank you sorry yes it's 11 o'clock 11:30 I'm sorry d d was D was part wasn't D part of the um things that were tabled we never we never voted we didn't table anything we only Ted the one the hold on I'm just listening to the clerk you only taed the items in B you didn't you didn't do anything okay so we're okay so we're on item D resolutions in support of field usage by the Charo Cowboys this was requested by me thanks Chris for for waiting all this time um so there were a number of resolutions and things that the committee was in receipt of from the Town Council of CH Charlestown the Town Council of Hopkinton the Town Council of Richmond um so uh that the Cho Cowboys were asking for consideration of

240using uh one of the fields at Cho high school for five of their home games so superintendent Bard I know that you have had a meeting with this group of parents representatives and um so Gina can you just give us some background on this please oh Greg please I'm going to give the background because I signed in on the meeting and I'm um going to be meeting with the chro Cowboys tomorrow with our director of building and grounds um the request was for five to six home days not games um I believe there's five games per home day four to five four to five correct or tackle one flag so that's five times um I want to remind everyone we play on grass um I also want to remind everyone that um our middle schools

241do not use the fields those fields um and our JV only uses those fields when schedule and doesn't allow them to play on a different field um we are going to meet with the Char Cowboys tomorrow and walk um a field in our Bowl it's our practice field for our high where our high school play place um the director of building and grounds and myself did walk to charl town where they are set up currently we saw their bleacher set up we saw where they have their um their container and their supplies and everything and um we're not postive that the space we want to offer them is um meets their needs so they want to walk it with us tomorrow and um I do know that our director um our ad has made the

242um offer that they do make a playoff game then we would allow them to use our um vsy field just like we allow our eighth graders for um their their last game eighth grade night to use their varsity field but if we have um requests from one group to use that varsity field and then we're going to start to get requests from other um organizations you're going to get requests from your Middle School soccer boys and girls to use it um the the Turf cannot handle that it's grass it it cannot handle the wear and tear of all that even if it can be scheduled um so even if scheduling is not an issue the the turf it will become an issue because the grass it just you're going to have a mud pit but

243um I would recommend at this point that you let us walk our the practice field that we're willing to um have them use if it fits their needs but we won't know that until we walk it tomorrow and and Chris did did you have any comments as well not familiar with the Cowboys um but I did recently and I was really um surprised um because the Char Cowboys are an amazing football Youth Organization and when they play every other and I could be wrong so please if you fact check me I might be wrong but um they all play at their High School School's stadium which is very impressive and Cho is very impressive and I understand with budget concerns and and that you know and I my kids play sport and I understand middle

244school but if there's a way we can make a compromise I'm glad that we're talking about it because it's a level of Pride and they're such a great organization that um I would love to see that for the for the boys I think that would be a great thing so thank you for considering it and I just want to say I just want to I'm very I'm very pleased by um the school committee meeting and um how they really listened and are making positive changes um and are listening to their Comm community so thank you so much thank you Chris oh I'm sorry I was just going to say that um we we were talking with the Cowboys our our goal is to have Mr zenan and the team walk the field and to come

245to a compromise I would ask that if we don't come to compromise we'll come back in April and ask the committee for some feedback but again our our goal is to try to uh work with the Cowboys to see what we can accommodate and then if it has any Financial impact um they have offered and they're very thoughtful about what maybe we could so it's all like right now it's theoretical we haven't nobody's finalized anything obviously that would come back here but um my recommendation is that you let us work with the Cowboys to see if we can come up with an agreement and then if we can't we come back to this table Chris yeah thank you uh so Chris straight town of childtown I'm also on the chairl Cowboys board of directors um

246so also thank you for waiting patiently appreciate thank you yeah um unfortunately we did have a great meeting last week with uh Mr zenan and uh superintendent Bard and athletic director Justin cahun um we we did not come to an agreement still um we also have walked the field the practice field also since that meeting um and you know other than the increased parking um it's just not we don't think it's going to do for us what what we're looking for out of the varsity football field um and Elaine was right you know there's 14 teams throughout the state of Rhode Island that we play um and every team does play at their high school facility except for two and Cho is one of those two teams there's two teams that do play at their

247high school that do have grass surface Fields exitor West greenidge and the West Warwick Steelers um and we're not looking for any handouts or anything for free we're offering to uh you know offer some money towards field maintenance increase field maintenance um to try to make that surface better so um you know we're just looking for a partnership we're looking to grow the football and cheerleading um programs you know with the school we we notice the decline in the football numbers the last few years the lack of a cheerleading team for football the last year um and you know our numbers we have just about 200 participants um with the Cowboys over 70% are from the chero area um so we're just looking to do what we see other communities doing and we're looking to

248partner with the high school um and and really grow you know the the football and cheerleading programs uh in the community so all kids all the time no excuses that's all we're looking for L of you guys so thank you thank you Chris thanks for [Applause] waiting good evening de Carney I'm speaking because I stayed here till 11:30 at night I'm here to support the Cowboys um as you all know they currently practice in the field behind the Charlestown Town Hall which is great for practices they now have lights so they can get that done but on game days it's a nightmare out there with the parking they do the best they can with what they have but I support this 100% as you know we did a resolution from the town of Charlestown Hopkinton

249uh did the same resolution and Richmond did a modified version so I hope you look favorably upon their request thank you thank you Deb one more yes hi uh my name is Steve Moffett um former Hopkin Town council member but I'm also a professional Turf crass manager I have managed Turf crass man I I'm a golf course superintendent I've been a golf course superintend for 20 years I'm also the Middle School soccer coach here director of fields for the chu Soccer Association um I I think it's a great idea but it's natural grass as uh Mr zenan said um the fields currently um the practice fields are not in good shape okay it they're all crab grass absolutely no grass dry my biggest concern is injury to athletes okay because it's this this this isn't

2501985 anymore okay it's a lot of people are taking their Sports seriously okay um my middle school team does play at that field both my I have a nth a ninth grader and a 10th grader who plays soccer the field is not in good shape okay it might look great from like 60 feet away but it is it it's not maybe it is not because it's had some rest but in the season it's going to get beat up okay and the one thing we can't predict is weather I'm sure they're probably going to want to play in rain right I would assume you guys play your games in the rain too yeah we have no problem where we right now R yeah um I love the idea I I think it's a fantastic idea if

251we had Turf you know I'm sure if we had a turfield it would be no problem but I field prep is important for obviously for safety but it's expensive you know the football field just beats the middle of the field down I mean they're playing a sport um my biggest concern is injury you know in the cost and the fact that our other fields aren't up to par and yet we're going to allow our Varsity Field which hosts all of our Rhode Island in Scholastic sports teams to play out there you know um ex West granes Field is terrible too we've played soccer on that field too it is it it's garbage it has sprinkler heads sticking out of the ground I mean so I would hope you know um I've kind of wanted to

252come to previous meetings and kind of speak up about the conditions of the field but we're always here talking about cut and budgets cutting budgets cutting budgets cutting budgets and I'm always afraid that the sports would just kind of you know go by the wayside so um I think next year's budget there should be some consideration um if the field was maintained and I mean nothing against the people that take care of the fields they just don't have the Manpower it requires you know many people to Main Ain a field to play in condition so that's that's my concern but I hope maybe you can work something out with that practice field up on the top if if that's what you're talking about um so that's it thank you thank you Sam thank you thank

253you Samantha Wilcox um I just wanted to touch on what Miss carne had said about um Richmond's modified resolution we had a discussion on it and our modification was only that we wanted to see the discussion happen because we were under the depression that the discussion was not happening between the Cho Cowboys and the district don't know if that's true or not but that's what we were told um I didn't see our resolution within your agenda material so for the public who waited here till 11: I want to let them know that was our modification just to open up the discussion so I fully support your recommendation Miss Bard to continue with those conversations and see if we can find compromise that's all thanks thank you yeah just in the spirit of how this got

254to be on the agenda saw the resolutions that came forward um from the other towns um and I thought it was important to put this on the agenda just to make sure that the community underst understood that I you know I that I heard them Chris is my former neighbor in my neighborhood and he reached out to me via email asking if um he could talk to me about uh they're wanting to use the um High School Fields so I suggested to Chris that the Cowboys reach out to the superintendent and uh to her team and I'm uh happy to hear that that you met so we'll see what we can do moving forward thank you yes Laura how soon would do you guys need to utilize these fields like how what's the um urgency

255here yeah so our season starts right around Labor Day and then uh we finish up right around uh Thanksgiving and your season is how long um well from Labor Day to Thanksgiving but we play away games and playoff games that we're not at home so the most it would be is like five to six Sundays in the fall is is when we play and what are the the age uh yep so the ages are ages four all the way up to 14 um so our our flag level is four five and six year olds you know so we're we're not talking about 300 lb NFL you know lineman or college football players that are tearing up this field you know um and you know we do hear a lot about keeping it in shapee for

256soccer I just want to remind everyone that is not just a soccer field you know that that is an athletic field that football has played on for a long time also and we're offering resources and monetary you know assistance towards the field maintenance um and and we've been very clear about that too so we're not asking anyone to go do our work for us you know we're just looking for the space with the bathrooms the concession stands the larger space to accommodate our growing organization in the towns that are coming into us too and we want to have something that we're proud of and that we can show off you know to other towns so okay thank you thank you thank you Chris any other discussion on this item okay oh yes okay hi Scott

257sundell and Hopton I've been I've been mowing the fields here since 1999 we've turfed the lower bowl with with uh Kingston Turf uh did donations for it we've done a lot of stuff but it's the it's the program to maintain we can cut it crab grass this we can cut everything but it comes down to maintaining the field when you set forth a program to maintain your fertilization your lime your grub control airation slice seating and you put that program out everybody says oh great then when it comes time to do it and pay for it it doesn't get done that's why these fields are atrocious you want to spend money on tennis courts and St like that great these fields get played on baseball field hockey football lacrosse soccer over and over again and

258they're not maintained they're not they're not irated like they're supposed to be there's a lot of stuff that goes into it that isn't getting done and the and you go around the state I'm I go around with the baseball team and soccer teams our fields are probably the worst in the state for these kids to play on I'm surpris that you haven't had broken legs and stuff out there with field hockey with the rolls and stuff in the holes in the field money has to be put in the budget for this we we've given we've given schedules to do stuff and it goes on deaf ears sometimes this stuff has to be done in order for these kids to go out and play in a on a a safe field what Steve said was exactly

259right I mean he knows what he's talking about I've been here a long time kind of listen to the people that know what they're talking about not going on the computer and saying oh we can do this we can do that listen to the people that actually do the work thank you Mr Sunderland any other comment on this okay oh yes I've been here waiting this whole time okay so um I'm got two kids playing in the chero Cowboys uh program but I want to make it clear to Justin uh Mr I'm not speaking on behalf of RB um my husband Ron Spears is um the assistant coach for the high school football team I am not here in any way shape or form representing him these are my thoughts and opinions only okay keep

260that in mind so that being said I'm here to represent the kids um so as Chris said there's almost 200 kids in the Cowboys program of those 200 kids about 150 of them are from the chero school district the rest of them come from like SK and some nearby districts um that being said at one point in time my husband was one of those kids he was on the first chero Cowboys football team and then following uh his graduation from that program he came to the high school where he started the high school football team he was on Cho's first high school football team as well and he also has coached for the chaho Cowboys and he now coaches for the chero high school football team he loves both of these organizations dearly and nothing

261would make me happier as his wife than to see the two things he loves the most come together and in one place and he tried to start bridging that Gap this year by inviting the varsity football team from Cowboys to come watch the high school games part of the reason behind that was that the chero high school football team has lost a lot of enrollment when you do the math there's about 35 kids on the varsity football team for chero and there were 12 junior varsity High School football players I think this year 28 of those kids from The Varsity Cowboys team should have been coming to the high school team but they're not they're going to other Schools they're going to private schools they're going out of District they're going to other schools that

262have tech programs they're not coming to chero to play football anymore and that is heartbreaking but what better way to make them want to play and improve the chero football program at the high school level than to get them playing there from the time they are four years old playing flag make it their home field make them want to be here thank you that's my thought thank you very much Craig I wholeheartly agree with these two gentleman down there um I I did this work for 41 years for the state URI has approximately 20 to 25 guys main campus that's not just Athletics doing all the grounds the Athletics alone there's six guys six now that's for every vity field they have there but it comes to what is Sho want to do in the

263future we've neglected this for years because it saved money so what do we want to do do we want to in the future because we're not going to do it tonight do we in the future want to put money in our property okay that's no different that football field or that field over there is no different than an elementary school it's our property and we got to maintain it but I do have a a question for Chris Chris couldn't we possibly and by the way I remember Chris when he was that big so couldn't is the practice field there's no chance of resurrecting and making something DEC I thought the main premise was parking yeah so that's only one of the challenges that we have the other one is we don't have bathrooms so we

264use portons and then our concession stand we don't have electricity so we have to run multiple generators down there too um so we do have multiple challenges that we're trying to face we don't have a way of watering our field right now either so our playing surface just take takes a beating too so we'd still use it for practice which I understand all that but this at least solves your parking problem but the field isn't worthwhile yeah so some of the challenges to that is the field would need some work leveling the JV field we'd need another um we'd have to probably bring in another uh field goal post cuz there's only one over there right now uh scoreboard you know there's no scoreboard there um bathrooms we'd still have to bring in portons to

265that end of the campus um and concessions too we wouldn't have any concessions so you're already doing some of that you just need power um no there there's a couple other things that we would need power is one of them but we would also need space for parking and you know we would still we we'd need a few other things and we're going to be putting power at the tennis courts yes I just threw it out there that's thank you thank you okay yes sir hello Justin goon athletic director how's everyone doing tonight early morning um yeah I just like to clarify a couple things I'm not anti- any member of the community especially the Cho Cowboys we let many of our uh community members including you know girls softball uh youth basketball use soccer

266use our Fields uh but none of them use the main field and there's many reasons for that um couple things to point out for clarification I can't speak to what happened before I got here I know that Cho Cowboys weren't playing on this field before I got here and I know Chris reached out when I did get here terms of the numbers for our football team we didn't have a JV team before I got here my first year we had a JV team we were able to play about four out of a total of eight games since then our numbers have increased in football so that's a credit to the charal Cowboys okay first and foremost the people we're losing correct me if I'm wrong we're losing them to North Kingstown right division one play

267on Turf South Kingstown who just won a State title and D2 no offense I might be considering going there as well so Steve hit it right in the head in terms of the field I'm all about the kids but first and foremost my job priority is the kids on this campus and for us not to even allow our middle school kids to use our field only on their eighth grade nights or if they get a playoff game why should we allow other outside organizations to use our field I think you'll open up a pendo box because what's going to stop you soccer from ask going to use it on Saturdays last year I had to move our girls varsity division one soccer team who had a game schedule for a Saturday morning to Wesley to

268play on Turf because we had a football game on Friday night okay the answer is Turf I understand that's like a whole another topic for a whole different day but you know you look around our state and we're one of the few schools that actually has graph grass fields everyone else is transition over the turf that's Wesley that's you know uh North Kingstown that's narag that's proud it's e that's Cumberland that's Lincoln you name it Pucket North Province can't forget them and South Kingstown building a brand new school chances are they going to have turf as well you go over to Connecticut starington Waterford Fitch we play all the time they all have turf thank so would I love to have them come here yes if we have turf open up to the whole Community

269everyone can play whenever they want thank you okay we're going thank you for your input we're going to move on um e is Rewritten Rewritten Transportation resolution Jess do you want to talk about this for a moment um yeah I'd like to table this this was a misunderstanding um Mr Anderson rewrote a resolution we had already approved um but I had submitted a new one it is in the FYI um but we're going to work on getting on the next agenda next agenda thank you make a motion I make a motion to table okay motion to table item e we have a motion and a second from Jess and Tyler any discussion on this all those in favor to table just unanimous right yes okay thank you okay budget transfers item F Greg or Gina

270any questions on the transfers that we listed for you so was this in our um file folders that Angela gave us tonight goodness okay addition page and then the Run told did not make it in so we had okay so do we have a motion to approve the budget trans approve the transfers as presented okay we have a motion by Tyler a second by Polly any discussion on this oh I'm sorry we have a double second um with Karen um any discussion on this thank you Mr no thank you um so seeing no discussion motion to approve the budget transfers uh looks like it's unanimous thank you okay consent agenda items Gina I recommend oh no that's okay do I don't usually do this says your name it does I recommend approval of the content

271agenda as a whole someone what I recommend to approve the consent agenda as a whole hold on hold on but before I do Mr L would like to share the donation I think no did did you ask to pull it anybody pull it don't have to do that you guys just like to do that are we I mean technically I'd like to pull A1 I know I don't have to but on I'm trying I pull A1 and can Gina make the motion she never no I recommend she recom someone else has to make the motion correct I only recommend that you approve so so you pull A1 I'm going to pull A1 Craig no anybody else I mean so Madam chair motion to move the remainder but before I do I would like to acknowledge

272the donations uh one we are the re we are a receipt of the following donation from toward the Hope Valley play fund funding to date $22,000 from chenia excavation $50 from Joan Kent and $50 from Louise Densmore thank you chair welcome two Richmond Elementary School parent Daryl chka who works for ryzen Wireless in Wesley RH Island together with grant funding was able to gather supplies for M paz's classroom 24 on Wednesday 22625 with an appro approximate value of $75 uh three ashway Elementary School received donation of 360 seedling from Gotham green in Providence with an approximate value of $1,080 and for Mr Michael leage Manor at CVS Hope Valley donated 70 to 90 packs of three hole punch paper 150 sheets each on February 25th 2025 to the Hope Valley Elementary School second second thank

273you okay so motion to approve all those consent agenda items except for A1 unanimous thank you madam chair make a motion to approve A1 minutes of the regular session uh of chero school committee February 11th 2025 no move second so we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor okay so anybody opposed any extensions so we have an abstention for Tyler thank you madam chair the rest is yours so for superintendent report we are proud to announce we're getting prepared for Arsy on April 4th and 5th we will kick off the weekend at the uh here in this Auditorium with our High School chorus and then we will open our doors at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday April 5th to uh one of our fabulous community events to celebrate all of our

274Arts industry arts for career and Tech as well as Performing Arts as well as our bands our choruses across the district prek through oh K through 12 as well as our um our Museum that's in the gymnasium so we hope we'll join us for artisty as we celebrate our artists um in Cho as they are amazing as you heard earlier this evening survey works is open um this is a really important time for our parents to give feedback one of the things if you can't come to a school Improvement team meeting or PTA meeting these are the metrics we utilize to be able to get surveys from Educators from our families to make sure we know what you're feeling about how we're doing as a district so please take your opportunity to take check out

275my March e upate date to be able to complete that survey for the school that your student attends and last but not least we have our final virtual parent Workshop of the year I believe Dr carella correct me if I'm wrong it is this thir it is this Thursday and it was um this is one of the things our parents requested to be able to support the wellness initiatives and our students mental health needs and um so that families have additional um touch points to get strategies so uh thank you thank you next item 12 school committee requests for future agenda items or legal opinions anyone seeing none I will move can I can I get a motion to adjourn do do I have a motion in a second who who motioned I need a

276motion to adjourn motion to adjourn okay Jess and seconded by Diane all in favor anybody opposed okay good night thank you everyone