School Committee: November 1, 2022

Transcript captured from YouTube auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:23 colleges but I believe we are now currently live streaming I will call us to order at 702 and we’ll open up two accommodations if anyone has commendations

0:42 um I’d like to commend Emily Barron um she was an asset to the school committee um she always conducted herself in highly gracious ways um in an upstanding Manner and she will leave big shoes to fill here um she truly cares about students in this district and and elsewhere um and that showed in her work on the school committee um she always has worked to build relationships um that would benefit the district and move it forward um so I just want to thank her for the work that she put in and the time that she spent over the past few years none of which have been easy and again she will be very missed thank you very much that lovely Commendation Sarah

1:27 Commendation Sarah Commendation Sarah is there there thank you for saying that thank you Emily um are there any other accommodations for the evening no all right without any more that will move us along to public comment if anybody has public comments please raise your hand I will as I call on you just state your name and address for the record

2:00 hi I do not see any hands raised Michelle Crest is coming back from round two it looks like um I do not see any hands raise that brings us to our presentation from the Marblehead Rotary Club on mindfulness I’d like to welcome I actually see multiple rotary members on the call here but we’re going to welcome Nancy Gwynn the current president of the Marblehead rotary as well as Lisa Cahill and I will kick it off to the both of you hi I’m Nancy and um thank you for allowing us to make this presentation to the school committee tonight the Rotary Club of Marblehead wanted to do something to help support the kids in Marblehead and we all know that you know life is sometimes stressful and we all

2:48 face challenges and we must help in supporting the mental health and well-being of our kids and it’s a responsibility that we all share so the Rotary Club gave to the Marblehead five Public Schools a mindfulness application it’s called inner Explorer and it’s um it teaches kids a set of life skills to deal with stress anxiety and depression seven thousand school districts use it in the country and it’s proven to be very successful let’s can you still see me I think I disappeared

3:28 I have your presentation up I thought you would want to share well you can tell I’m technically challenged okay okay the Rotary Club is we’re having a 5k on this Sunday November 6th at 12 o’clock noon at the Boston Yacht Club to raise money to support the program for the next years next year in the years to follow um and we would love everybody to come and join us to walk or run at The Rotary Club you can register on the home page of the Marblehead rotary club or you can come down at a little before 12 and register that day in person so please join us it’s going to be fun and now Lisa Cahill is going to tell us a lot more about inner Explorer thank you everybody thanks Nancy uh do you mind if I try to share my screen and see if it works

4:17 let’s say whoops yeah no problem we just wanted to be prepared okay yeah well that’s probably a good thing you’ll probably believe you should have capabilities okay let’s see can everybody see it um okay I’m gonna move this okay so what I’m going to do today is tell you a little bit about who we are what I what we do and what our impact has been in the school districts that we’re in we’re currently in

4:54 all right the first thing I’m trying to clear my screen here a little bit the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to show you a video that I showed in Boston a couple of weeks ago and it’s a video that’s going to show you what the program looks like in action but it’s also going to give you some comments from both teachers and and administrators on what the impact has been for them in their school districts so the particular School District that we video we did our footage in is in Mission it’s a Michigan Elementary School and we’re currently working uh with the state of Michigan for a full State rollout of inner Explorer so let’s see how this goes

5:46 let me know how the volume is I’ve seen some real changes in a lot of students being able to continue yeah that’s emotions I find that they’re more you can hear it there’s no video mindfulness there’s no video no how I have transformed so education all right five minutes we’re still seeing the PowerPoint oh shoot all right let me try it again I’m gonna try to stop sharing I’m gonna try one more time it may not work let’s see there you go the top looks like we’re seeing it now

6:29 two minutes can you hear it taking the time and change your life the Surgeon General issued a rare advisory saying that there’s a mental health crisis in the Youth of America depression is not 50 in adolescence suicides 57 increase in suicide 100 increase of parents driving their child into an emergency room what we’re doing now is waiting for a crisis we wait until the child can’t go everybody go to school we wait until a child thinks about suicide foreign

7:11 fulness was in my classroom I noticed a lot of difficult behaviors and there were a lot of times of the day where students coming back from Recess or students coming back from lunch was really challenging to settle the class Gap and so I just asked the class well raise your hands if you came to school angry today and hands went up all over the room and it just never occurred to me that so many of my students were coming to school angry and frustrated and upset and children would come in after school and they would just be all over the place now they know they come in we do mindfulness they relax they’re ready to do their their academic hour it

7:56 was our daily practice I then realized I really need to never ever skip this [Music] it makes me a little more confident to get tested Ambassador very helpful when whenever I’m stressed angry and sad I think one of my favorite things that I I’ve noticed is when kids are able to connect in the present moment to their larger purpose Beyond Today I saw a Kindergarten kid ball his fists up and I’m about to punch this other little kid and he takes a mindful bubble breath and what Mr Butler I’m gonna choose that

8:42 to fight and I went Wise Choice once I started using index core in my classroom I’ve noticed that some students do it on their own I might notice a couple of students just in the corner going like this when we began really began um propelling forward I began to collect a little data on discipline just the referrals period dropped and happened the number I recall really is 365. [Music] and I remember thinking we’re on to something and there’s the research which I’ve seen in terms of math scores going up I mean who doesn’t want better math scores

9:32 yourself it helps you realize certain things about yourself that you wouldn’t really want to admit to yourself and technically you’re not really you don’t really have to say it out loud so you’re that you realize it on the inside

9:50 fulness is powerful and it is necessary I would hope to see it just be integrated to be a seamless integration into what we do across the district it’s not something that we do in addition to it’s what we need they learn a lot about their outside worlds but there’s no real curriculum about understanding themselves and why that’s important and how that makes a difference and how they feel how they learn and how they affect others

10:40 so we developed that for the national PTA which has been really supportive um around mindfulness they asked us to make some changes so this is why it was a little tricky sharing it with you today but these are breathing exercises they’re very simple but the science supports the efficacy of what they do they do reduce stress they do improve resilience they boost self-compassion and they improve engagement in school because ultimately what they what this is is it’s a built-in pause button and if a child pauses before they react that can often make all the difference in the world

11:26 I’m so done oops I’m gonna hold on I just lost us okay

11:39 I’m sorry about that keeps jumping okay this is what the science looks like um if these practices are done consistently and when we say consistently we like to see the classrooms doing them um between three and five times a week anyone who does these will benefit the teachers benefit as much as they the kids do because the goal is for the teachers to practice with the classrooms it models the behavior and honestly they need it as much as the kids need it teachers are leaving the field at the highest rate in history so what you see is you see approximately a 43 reduction in stress which means a lot

12:24 less teacher burnout better performance by the kids sixty percent Improvement in Behavior and the way behavior is met is measured is by teacher referrals and then a 15 Improvement in academics which if you do the math on that it’s almost a letter grade it’s huge [Music]

12:50 so as far as our program is concerned we’re the world leader in providing mindfulness program to schools there’s no one else who does this the way that we do it it’s very simple one of our biggest challenges is convincing the teachers that this isn’t any work in for them this is as much for them as it is for the kids it’s as simple as dimming the lights logging in and pressing play the practices take five to ten minutes per day and if they’re done daily it yields 30 hours of Mental Health Training per child per year and that per child is important because in this environment

13:36 often kids don’t ask for help because there’s a stigma associated with asking for help but often when they ask for help the resources just unavailable so this is something that impacts everybody

13:52 this is what the platform looks like so the teachers log in they come to this and they just press play we have four different age categories and within each age category we have a 180 practices so they log in they press play When the practice is over they go on with their day and the next day when they log in it’s sequenced to the next practice and they’re sequence by Design because we follow the mindfulness space stress reduction protocol and the importance behind that is that that’s the protocol that all the studies have been done on and at this point we’re at about 9 000 studies there’s also other practices for the counselors there’s an educator

14:39 well-being series there’s some shorter transition practices so we have classrooms that might do this for instance um The Daily practice at the beginning of the day in the morning meeting and then after recess where the kids tend to be a little bit more wound up they may do one of the shorter transition practices just to refocus the kids

15:08 this is I’m not going to move some things around this is a screenshot from a year-end report from the shop Family Foundation in Boston they sponsored a pilot that we did in nine Boston Public Schools over the last school year and these are the results that they got and you’ll see the thing that I find so fascinating with this is that the teacher impact was almost exactly the same as the student impact if you look at the increased emotional regulation it was 46 for the kids and 40 percent for the teachers it’s helping teachers be better teachers because it’s calming them down and settling their brains and

15:55 their emotions and just their reactivity because the days can get frustrating with kids all day they both showed a decrease in stress of 38 and 33 percent and Improvement in focus a reduction in anxiety and they also measured how it improved the relationships between the kids and they showed an improvement there as well so what they found was they needed fewer tr3 interventions and that’s important because once again there’s just not enough counselors out there to support the need this is a screenshot that I actually found online of the Boston Public Schools MCAS scores and the thing that

16:40 we’re really happy about is that the schools that you see the stars on those are our schools and seven of the of the R9 schools showed an improvement of greater than five percent it went between five percent and 20 percent in their MCAS scores which is pretty incredible during a covid year okay let’s say

17:11 we’ve had some amazing results we have tons and tons of stories but this is one that just came about that is honestly my personal favorite and it’s um about a school in Florida called the Sullivan partnership school it’s located in Tampa Florida and it’s across the street from a gigantic homeless shelter so 80 of the kids who attend the school are homeless so we started working with them five years ago in 2017 and this is the only change that they made in their school but they committed to doing inner explora at the same time every day and the way that they do it is I think it’s

17:56 at nine o’clock the entire School practices and the administrators go to a class and practice with their kids and over a five-year period they went from an f rated school to an a rated school um and Forbes Magazine is actually writing an article on them now the other thing that’s interesting is when our founder talked to their principal recently she asked how Behavior was and he said we’ve had virtually no behavior problems in three years these are homeless kids there’s a lot of trauma it was during covet

18:40 so what we as far as best practices if you really want to make this successful in Marblehead we need the leadership team to support it we need the principles to support it and encourage the teachers to practice daily we ask them to pick a time each day and stick to it it honestly only takes about two weeks before you kind of create the Habit the kids get good at it and you start to see an impact just in the behavior in those two weeks and the kids like it so if a day goes by and the teacher skipped it the kids do ask for them to do it they’ll remind the teacher we always say the teachers should

19:25 practice with the kids and after a certain amount of time invite the families to join there’s different ways that the families can join one option is they can have full access to the program the high school program is essentially an adult program so anyone in the family can use this program the younger kids we have grandparents in nursing homes that are using that using the program but the main thing is to make it a habit like brushing your teeth we do so many things preventatively for ourselves between taking care of our skin and the way we eat and taking care of our teeth the this is taking care of your brain so it’s important and it’s impactful and

20:11 anyone who does the practices will benefit

20:17 okay I tried to leave a little bit of time for questions I don’t know exactly where I am on time anybody have any questions um I’ll open up to anybody in the committee that may have some questions for Lisa Megan I see your hands yeah Lisa thank you for the presentation I think as you kind of showed the data that supports this and I think you know there’s a number of research articles out there too that show how mindfulness can help behavior and outcomes within school so um definitely agree with you there I think this sounds like a great program and thank you to the rotary for you know bringing it to us I think that’s a great collaboration just a few questions on how we actually implement it within our school so can you talk a little bit

21:05 about the rollout in terms of timeline and training and then I’m not sure who this community who this question goes to probably John or Nan but how we um then communicated out to families

21:19 um so there’s different ways we can help onboard you the program is honestly very simple I think anyone in the audience who has played with it at this point you basically log on and press play after you choose your um age category but we do like to do to have the teachers Gap some type of an introduction and you actually have somebody in the community who’s a former teacher who would is willing to go around and actually do some training uh Nancy are you still here oh yeah there you are

22:03 well Nancy’s here um who’s the teacher Jen somebody here yeah it’s my neighbor Jen and she herself does mindfulness and so she was a former teacher retired last year from the brown school so she’d be willing to help out you know have teachers log on see how easy it is and just you know start them off so that would be a great a great resource and I do virtual trainings all the time

22:35 and it really it’s just showing them the platform how it’s used the actual registration is very simple we set up a Marblehead portal so the teachers basically go on they select their school they enter their name and their email address and they’re good to go they’ll get a five minute training video once they register and from there they can use it but we do I think if Jen went out and met at some of the schools however that works for them logistically that’s really a very good option to hear from a teacher who the teachers already know that mindfulness is important that this

23:22 is not any work in for them all they have to do is press play each day with their kids so I can I can just add quickly Megan um that that I’ve been talking with principals too about how do we give people time to kind of explore this new exciting opportunity so just um Lisa and I were were emailing back and forth just as recently as this morning about how we can help our teachers get on board but the usage is already starting to happen so we shared it with teachers a couple of weeks ago um and we’re already seeing usage um in the classrooms and personally and to answer your question about communicating it out to families it went home in a fall newsletter out of the

24:10 teach um out of my office last week and then it will go home in principles newsletters as well and to add something to that each teacher has the option to share the program with their own parents it’s right on um the main practice page and it’s in the toolkit and it just says share with families and then they just have to add their distribution and it goes to the families and it’s basically will bring the families right back to that Marblehead portal that has the registration information okay that sounds great I can’t wait to uh I can’t wait to try it out Indiana I have a quick question for you um do you will this will this just for

24:57 uniformity across the district will this be um I hate to use the word requirement but you know what we saw is it looks like you need to have it’s recommended that you have three to five sessions per week to really get the um results from this so is the directive that teachers implement this you know five to ten minutes in each of their daily schedules um is it to the discretion of each teacher is it a requirement so that all all classes get it um can you just speak to that a little bit I think at this point it’s just a encouragement that that the exposure is there for students and now that students and families have individual logons um I think it it even broadens that

25:43 opportunity even more for people that are really invested in it but for right now we’re just kind of strongly encouraging and you know giving teachers the opportunity at a staff meeting to kind of understand it and play with it will hopefully help even more but there is no directive it’s a gift to the district and we’re just using it where it fits in and makes the most sense for kids okay do you foresee this being um a piece of our uh social emotional curriculum absolutely definitely and a supportive material for that absolutely okay I think um I’m just looking at my other questions to me um and part of this will be to communicate and there will be some

26:30 education to the parents on um you know how they can access this at home how often it’s recommended they be accessing this because for you know for a student with school avoidance doing one of these before they go to school might be the thing that helps to get them in the door or so on and so forth

26:53 I’ll just um pipe up and say thank you um you know to the rotary and and to um Lisa and Nancy for all of the presentations that you’ve done this evening and filling Us in and getting this word out in another venue to the community um this is really important stuff um I’m a school counselor so I I get it when it’s on the ground um and this is you know it’s I’m I I you know have a background knowledge of of the usefulness of mindfulness and I was even Blown Away by those statistics so particularly the school in Tampa that’s incredible um so I look forward to how this rolls out in the Marblehead schools um you know I’ll definitely be a Nag on Dr Bucky to see how things are going and to establish data on it and everything

27:39 because it’s um you know what a great gift so you know Jack I know that this is something that’s really important um to you and that you do a lot of work to support mental health initiatives in the community so a really great grateful for this thank you everyone

27:56 thank you and then I’ll just add um Dr Bucky if we can have the link in the video somehow embedded by Stevens on the district website so that’s so that the parents or whether it’s under the school websites um so parents can can get on and play with this with their kids and utilize it because what we really see here is the more it’s utilize the better the outcomes are so I would just want to thank Nancy Lisa and the entire Marblehead rotary for you know their support with this initiative but their constant support with reoccurring initiatives in the schools and they’ve always been a great supporter and we appreciate that I see Megan stand up so who’s going to run the 5K with me this weekend all right all right awesome I can’t wait

28:43 thank you again all right any other questions for me um I think that wraps it up I think Jack had something quick he’s asking to say oh all right jack is that okay thank you um first of all I’d like to applaud Nancy as our president this year at Marblehead Rotary Club um this is a personal mission for Nancy and she’s leveraging her her year of her her second year of presidency in doing this um I I really think it’s worth emphasizing I I see Lisa and Nan Smiles because they were both at the presentation and I was from Lisa and it’s it’s just it’s absolutely an amazing program and I can Envision a day when kids students from Marblehead practice mindfulness from K

29:30 through 12. it’s an incredible life practice that um that I asked a question when when Lisa presented of you know once they get into the practice they apply the practice not just in their allotted time they find themselves in a situation whether it’s in school or out of school and they’re able to bring themselves into Center um it’s it’s amazing and the kids really want to you know there isn’t as much of a stigma around mental health as they used to be um I know uh Joanne with the mental health task force is on um and uh to the point where the high school has a mental health club um I’m gonna advisor at the interact Club we’ve introduced this out to our

30:15 club and I know that I’ve asked members of our club to share it with the mental health club as well and you know if if it was proven that we added five minutes to each block every day to get these results we’d do it in a minute and I I really implore you all to find space in our curriculum K-12 that we can apply this this really this life-changing life tool that our students can have so um thank you Lisa thank you Jack you’re hired yeah thank you everybody thanks everybody I’m here if anybody has any other questions I think most of you have my email somewhere in the distribution I’ll just add that Lisa Lisa said they don’t track

31:00 who you know who you they’re not there are no police the track who uses it and I’m sure she’d be willing to share the app with anybody on the call Our Community has has um bought into this program and anybody that wants it just reach out to Lisa thank you just let me know I’m happy to put you on anyone who’s not a teacher or part of a school I put in Lisa K Hill Elementary School and you’re welcome to use it the more the merrier thank you very much against the rotary and to Lisa for coming and presenting to us great thanks everybody thanks Nancy thank you bye-bye that brings us along to the superintendent’s goals um John had originally presented these goals to us a bit ago and had come back

31:47 with red line revisions but we were awaiting a full committee vote um because I we all felt that it was very important um to have everybody vote on on these goals so I will open it up to anybody who has any further questions or comments I know everyone’s had ample time to talk about this with Dr Bucky but if anybody has anything to add or Dr foxy if you have anything to add nope I’m seeing head shaking now so then I will make a motion to approve the school committee goals for the superintendent as presented so moved moved by Sarah gold well second seconded by Megan Taylor I’ll do a roll call Boat um Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor yes

32:34 Megan Taylor yes Sarah Fox is yes motion carries four to zero um that brings us along to school committee membership discussion um as we know uh we had a school Committee Member resign which leaves us currently as a member of Committee of four after reviewing the policies speaking to uh legal counsel and speaking to our ever-present Dorothy presser our rep from the masc who’s always wonderful on giving us some guidance um the the protocol is that the first step would be um for the school committee to decide if they just if they wanted to take action to fill the seat now we would take a

33:19 vote to do so and next I would then coordinate with the selectman for a joint meeting we would put out a call to the community asking for letters of Interest we would take those letters of Interest as a joint committee the selectment and the school committee um we would review them and then hold public interviews after which we would take a public vote to to approve a member who would hold that seat to the next general election at which time anybody holding the seat whether it’s expired or on expired seat would need to rerun this happens to be what is called an expired seat in that

34:05 it was up for a new term anyway so that really wouldn’t change the length of the term of the sea per se um there is some precedence in the past um the last seat that was open was um Susie Pratt she resigned in November and at that time it was recommended by the school committee to send it to the public for the the public to vote on that um I believe Sarah that was your first seat um also in the slackman side the late Judy Jacoby passed away I believe about a month into her term and the select bin chose to to leave that seat open um to the following election it would be

34:52 my recommendation at this time to leave the seat open to be determined by the voters at the general election um papers would be available as is typical in March and that would run um we have Quorum we have four members so we would still meet the legal requirements of Quorum um so at this point my that is my recommendation is to let the voters decide who fills that seat um and to go on as a four-person committee but I am open to any questions or comments from the committee of course birthday

35:30 Sarah gold so um I think we should fill the seat to be totally honest um I’ve obviously had this kind of rolling around in my head since whenever it was last week that Emily resigned um and I think that we’ve got a lot going on and I think we you know I I think we clearly have some differing perspectives on this committee and I would be very much worried that we could see too many pieces of of the puzzle result in two two votes um that that it could really hamper moving forward on things

36:15 okay does anybody else have thoughts in that

36:27 I can see both perspectives for sure um but I will say Emily did a lot on this committee so she leaves a big gap in terms of our responsibilities right she’s Vice chair she was on the policy subcommittee she’s on the Dei committee she’s our metco liaison she did a lot and as well Wellness thank you Sarah I knew I was forgetting something um that leaves a big gap in terms of the work we need to do and I think we need that fifth person to help us with that work I think also because we’re talking about you know a potential budget ask again I do think that fifth perspective will be helpful

37:13 in both those conversations um with amongst ourselves and with the community I just think there’s a lot going on and we need that fifth person and like you said Sarah um you know the processes that come June um it’ll be up for an election and at that point you know obviously it’ll be up to the community but in the in the meantime I do think we need to follow our policy and fill that position okay um Allison did you have thoughts

37:45 uh I I mean I I guess I do understand both perspectives I think and certainly understand the Gap and the whole that Emily leaves and thank you Sarah gold for the Commendation at the beginning that was lovely well stated I though would err on the side of not feeling it and leaving it for the public to decide in gym

38:12 and that’s really where I come from on this we’re particularly it’s you know potentially

38:21 a dynamic year budget wise I feel that unless the public is voting on that we should not be voting on The anybody holding that seat um I I do feel like a public vote on that would be important I I was able to ascertain that um and this was actually an idea that Dr Bucky had put out um and it was a great point that Colby was able to reinforce um as far as policy goes because all of that has to be read you know the three times and everything we could run those policies through the general committee that you know there’s some bookkeeping and things like that going on right now masc is doing a complete overhaul currently of their policies and doing

39:07 some recommendations so whether we have that or not it would be advisable to kind of let misc in their professional capacity with their attorneys that specialize in this kind of bet some things and make recommendations and as things come down through the state or through um masc our protocols really have been to defer to Council on if we need to implement things and then we would just we could run that through the full committee um so it’s if there is emotion um I’m happy obviously the protocol would be that we would take a vote on that so if you want to make a motion we can do that

39:51 I guess I would look at it a little bit differently because we’ve got the policy I think we either follow the policy or you make a motion not to follow the policy so the the after going through all of this the actual policy the first step of the policy is that we would decide and also re after reviewing past minutes and past historical data we would just if there is a will to fill the seat that we make we need to actually take a vote to do that because then the next step is from that that vote enables us to then reach out to the Selectmen without a vote we cannot start the procedure to to put it into place so the first part of that policy is actually that we would vote to fill the seat

40:40 so I’ll make a motion to um to fill the unexpired term okay motions moved by Sarah gold all seconds up seconded by Megan Taylor any further discussion on the topic I guess I just have one more piece I think the voters are going to decide you know it’s not again this is this one would be decided by the voters anyways so you know it’s a it kind of starts and stops there but it’s not as though we’re filling a seat to you know to for another three-year term um and it isn’t just us filling it it’s the board of Selectmen as well so there’s I think you know the policy and I I actually had looked around in a couple of other policies you know as kind of just took the process that we use when we’re reviewing policies um at

41:26 the policy subcommittee and just pulled up a handful of other districts and they’re all this is mases and all of them are pretty um pretty boilerplate along with masc I do think actually in light of this there’s there could be a few little tweaks to this one um so I may bring that forward at some point um but obviously not now while we’re looking at it um so I think we’re I think it’s there for a reason and the ability to do that is there and again there’s checks and balances out of two boards and you know I think we’ve got a lot going on and so we should really put someone into that place until until the June election but one one thing just to add to that to Sarah is that I take your point on letting the

42:13 voters fill the spot and they will in June but the voters are have also elected the four of us to to use our leadership role to make the decisions in the best interest of the district so that’s our job and I I think we should fill the spot and make sure that we’ve got a full committee who’s all working towards the goals that you know we’ve set forward okay any more discussion before I call for roll call

42:44 um Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor uh no Megan Taylor yes Sarah Fox no the motion does not pass 2-2 so that brings us on to our schedule up I’m gonna go back to this I hit a button there we go sorry Sarah Sarah yes what about the vice chair rule um so we don’t actually need like as you see on the selectman the by um the Selectmen don’t have a vice chair we don’t need a vice chair we in the event that I’m not here it automatically defers to the secretary to run the meeting but I would again we I would work exceedingly hard to make sure that

43:30 we um are all at meetings just because there it will be a four-person committee um and then I will if anybody has interests in those other committees if you can just let me know and I can make appointments for um to fill those other spots I’d already right away reached out to Nan about um the Matco piece because I wanted I wanted that Community to feel like they had a connection Point Indiana shared me that there was nothing um at the moment that required a school committee um liaison in that position and that she has been communicating with Keisha um so I will I will if if there’s someone that automatically knows that they they want to do that if you can just reach out or even reach out to Nan and I’ll work with Nan to kind of assign

44:17 someone to that role um as and I’ll work with John for health and wellness and I’ll make sure all that’s taken care of before everyone’s next meetings okay um so before before we move on sorry can I just say one other thing um I just I kind of just type in really quickly before you kind of move on Megan said are you are you moving on from the vice chair piece go go ahead okay I I just want to experts I think we should have a vice chair as well I think if if anybody wants to make a motion to nominate someone they can they can do so um well I would make a motion to nominate Megan Taylor as Vice chair I think she did a great job the past few years um you know she the the role the vice

45:03 chair is to support the chair um and she always did a fantastic job with that when when I was chair um so I think that um you know I know she’s busy but I think that she would do a great job uh picking up and and you know kind of seamlessly entering back into that role okay is there a second for that well second since I was nominated I can’t not second it um all right and I’d be happy to do the role I mean I did do it for a number of years and I know it well so happy to do it okay um any discussion

45:43 okay Sarah gold no I’m sorry I’m gonna take a roll call vote Sarah gold yes uh Allison Taylor

45:54 um yeah I I I’m fine with that Megan Taylor okay I’m sorry what was that Allison no go ahead we’re past discussion that’s fine no we I we can have discussion that’s fine no no that’s fine I just I guess I don’t I want to make sure I understand

46:15 on either side I should say um the implications like what what are the implications on either side of that so the role of the vice chair is simply in the event that the chair cannot um share a meeting that it would defer to the vice chair um in the absence of a vice chair as in what we see on the Selectmen who don’t have that role um it in the event that uh the chair cannot chair the meeting then the secretary would okay

46:52 I wasn’t even thinking I feel like I should say no in order to boost my my own confidence because I think that I could handle it so I’ll just say no okay Megan Taylor yes and Sarah Fox no Sarah gold you had and was I lost track someone you Sarah gold is jumping in Megan was jumping in was there something else yeah I do want to um I think this is the best place for it but I I just think you know we’re always gonna have differences of opinions different perspectives and I think you know especially this group we all sometimes feel very passionately about our views um

47:37 I think the ability to share those and talk through them as a community is something that really makes marbleheads special um I think town meeting is probably the best example of that process um you know and typically that dialogue kind of gets us to a better end result at least that’s been my experience in this community and and on this committee um however I do think it goes too far once it becomes a public attack on someone’s character their reputation profession their livelihood and unfortunately I think this attack culture has become a pattern of behavior over time and we’ve kind of seen that culminate with the recent resignation um first and foremost I think that behavior sets a really bad example for our children

48:24 I don’t I don’t think it incentivizes qualified candidates to put themselves out there and to run for our town committees and with this committee specifically it interferes with our ability to effectively engage in the important work of more moving this District forward that we were all elected to do as a school committee we set the tone for the working in the learning environment in our schools and we are supposed to be role models for our students so as such I would like this committee to take a stand and state that we will not tolerate anymore this growing culture of intimidation and attack which has become evident recently um and therefore I asked this committee

49:11 to support a motion that I’m making to condemn the current culture of intimidation and attack which is culminated in the recent resignation of a very vital member of this committee and to recommit to working together in a positive and productive manner so that we can effectively lead this district and represent the community that we elected us so that’s my motion if there’s anyone who wants to Second it I will second that motion okay and I just I just want to say um Megan that this is something that Dr Bucky and I had been talking about and working on for weeks actually we’ve been having these discussions prior to any of this and we’ve talked about getting an outside facilitator to come in to work

49:57 on some more team building we had done an exercise at one point with masc but we’ve reached out and gotten um some names of people that kind of specialize in this and we’re very fortunate that the masc conference this weekend has some seminars on these very topics which you know I’m I’m definitely sitting in on um I’m not sure I I know Dr pucky was going to send in on some of these Allison’s also attending the conference um I you know can’t speak for her but they’re they’re definitely great seminars and you know I as chairs fully commit to um trying trying to get us to a point where

50:42 we can function as a really strong committee and what you know Glenn Glenn from MUSC the president of mist um does a really great job in in his um charting the course when he talks about the highest functioning committees don’t all agree but there’s civil discourse and there’s an ability to really vet ideas and disagree and and share other people’s perspectives and then you know take votes and they they split different ways and then you move on to the next topic and that would be our my goal for all of us to be able to do um I I think that Sarah’s Commendation of Emily at the start of the meeting was excellent um I

51:27 um I um I I do worry that if you’re asking us to vote essentially on on someone’s resignation I I don’t know how we could do that I mean that was a yeah let me clarify Sarah because that wasn’t my motion my motion was to take a stand and say that this culture that has been created of intimidation and attack and personal attacks on whether it’s a candidate or an incumbent or their children no I want I 100 agree I want us to take a stand and say that we will not tolerate it that’s what I want this company to do 100 as someone whose children have been

52:14 you know suffered from this for for quite some time now um to the point where they self-advocated to their to their Educators um I 100 agree with that and I would expect that we all would agree with that so I’m happily going to take a vote on that Sarah gold

52:31 um hold on is there further comment it’s two of them so live fully am I I couldn’t agree with you more oh I’m sorry I did I thought you were dishing to me to comment oh no I’m sorry I thought she was too I apologize didn’t mean to jump the gun oh no no I was calling for um to me this seems like a new brand no-brainer um Sarah gold um can I just say a couple of things first too um before we go to the roll call um because I think you know I do think that this is an important thing um and you know I appreciate Megan’s words around it um because I think I think there is a it you know I think that that lines have been crossed you know I I’ve lived ever

53:17 since getting elected I’ve lived by the rule that all politics is local and so I think you know I am consistently able to draw parallels to you know going on in the larger culture um you know as I am doing dishes and thinking things through and going on a run and thinking things through and you know I kind of never never can shut my brain off on this type of stuff um so I think you know Megan your your words are well taken that enough is enough um you know we we need people to step up in this community and lead and you know the four of us can can only lead for so long you know there’s a lot of work involved in this committee and

54:03 we want qualified candidates to step forward and some of the things that we’ve seen over the past six months or so are really concerning and I don’t know who would put themselves up for this um I mean you know I can broaden that out to the last few years um and you know I think I think we all know that we’re going to be criticized when we when we do this work and you know that’s okay I think there’s a lot of growth within that that can happen um personal growth but as well as growth with the committee but I think you know it has it has crossed the line and you know I found myself wondering over the past week or two um you know who who’s next you know

54:49 who’s going to be targeted next um and you know I it if you know if you speak very personally I make my living in this community and you know very similarly to Emily and it is a very big concern for me you know there’s there’s a lot that rides on reputations and it’s you know when when someone has not done something that it you know willfully wrong um there has to be room for for consideration within that you know I had a very similar situation to Emily when I first got on this committee is that I was doing I was do I was teaching Health classes through the counseling center in the high school to freshmen and Senior

55:36 classes and a few times a year I would go in and talk about mindfulness and depression and anxiety and it was a really great way in which to talk with our students about the very real mental health issues that they are all facing and you know the the teachers certainly are capable of doing that but to put a face from the community in there as to someone who if you are as a student if you are feeling any of these things and you want to reach out for help and and ask your parents that that you know I was someone who maybe you know that they might walk in and see a face just like me and so I have to give that up I don’t want to interrupt you but I know that you have to hop in two minutes and I want to make

56:22 sure we vote on this as well as the schedule of bills um I am gonna call for a roll call vote now because I want to make sure we get the schedule of bills in as well so if I can call for a roll call vote Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor yes Megan Taylor yes and Sarah Fox yes the motion carries four to zero that brings us to the schedule of bills um I’d ask for a motion to approve the identified schedule bills totaling 300 396 904.30 um um

57:08 motion moved by Allison Taylor yep seconded seconded by Sarah gold well any discussion on the bills I’ll call for a roll call vote Sarah gold yes Allison Taylor yes Megan Taylor yes and Sarah Fox the motion carries four two zero um and you have one minute to spare Sarah um that brings us to new business I don’t know if there’s any new business the only thing I will point out to the community is we are having our public forum on budget next Thursday I deeply apologize for the issue last week with the posting um our

57:54 Administrative Assistant had sent that off with the zoom link and um when the clerk posted it it just it had the wrong link attached to it so as we all know mistakes happen and I apologize for any inconvenience and and greatly appreciate everyone’s understanding but I encourage you all to come and have a two-way conversation next Thursday with the school committee about the budget what you want to see any questions concerns even if you want to know a little bit more about the process you don’t understand it we’re here to have a two-way conversation because every one of us um including you know all of our members Dr Bucky our administrators we really want to have the public engaged this year right from the get-go feel heard um

58:41 and know that you know this is a two-way dialogue with us so please join us next Thursday via Zoom the link will be posted on the town website also your principals will be sharing it with you I’m sure um that will be 7pm and that’s Zoom only also right Zoom only yeah so people know um correspondence was um we received some correspondence from Kristen Jellison was uh inquiring about the process of rehabbing some of our Fields um I I followed up with her and just encouraged her to kind of reach out to boosters and and to follow through with them um that might be I suggested that might be the best venue for that um and I’ll follow up with Dr Bucky kind of to see what the protocols are for

59:27 having those conversations but we as always we appreciate the support of all of our non-for-profits um and everything they do for us in town um that brings us to adjournment at e01 I hope to see everyone plus some more next Thursday at our budget form