School Committee: September 21, 2023

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

0:00 I will call us to order at, at,

0:05 it’ll call us to order at 7:00 PM

0:11 and open for accommodations if anybody has accommodation. Megan? Um, so last night the high school had their open house, and it was the first time I’ve attended the open house. So I just thought it was a great event for parents to get a glimpse into the day, a day in the life of a high schooler here in Marblehead. Um, and also I just want to thank the teachers and the staff because they’d already had a long day and then they had to also, you know, come with their energy for the parents. So just appreciate their efforts. Um, and I thought it was well attended by parents as well. Um, the other thing I had, and I don’t know if it fits here, but it’s probably the best place, is that it looks like October 2nd is going to be school

0:57 custodian day, thanks to Desi. Um, and we won’t have another meeting before then, so just get it on everyone’s kind of radar that, although I’m sure we’re appreciative of our school custodians every day, that’s now an official day to recognize their efforts on October 2nd. All right. Thank you. Did anybody else have Yes, I’d like to commend the, um, teachers, staff, principals, parents and students for the hard work they did to, uh, bring the M C A S scores back up. I think they did an excellent job. Thank you, Brian. Anybody else? Yeah, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Michelle Cresta for all of the work that she has done. Stepping up as our acting superintendent. We had a smooth opening of school. We’ve got a lot of, lot of stuff going on that we’re working on both, um,

1:42 educationally as well as financially. And she’s really, um, doing a great job juggling several balls in the air. So I just wanted to do a shout out to you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, anybody else? Nope. And so that brings us to public comment.

2:02 Don’t see any hands up. So I will move us along to our student representative KA Piper. All right. So it’s been the first two weeks at the school, two full weeks. Um, and so far we have a couple things coming up. So the freshman elections will be held on October 4th. Uh, the Spanish classes are taking part of the PUL project, which Sephora, Guatemalan, Nicaragua artists. They sell, um, handmade bracelets like friendship bracelets and handbags. October 14th is the Homecoming for Fun. The field senior seminars have been taking place now and in the upcoming weeks, and that walks through the college application process. Um, as you said before, open house was last night for the high school, and the parents were able to experience a modified schedule of the classes.

2:50 And they were assisted by National Honor Society Members Colleges have started their in-school visits to the high school this week continuing into October. Picture day will be on October 3rd. The Club Fair Club Fair is coming up to advertise the clubs and the League of Women Voters ran a voter registration table two days ago. Uh, during the lunches, athletics wise, there will be a football game tomorrow and the student section will be wearing camouflage apparel to show their school spirit. And the other teams have been participating in spirit days such as u s a theme and cowboy costumes. Oh, nice. Do you have any sense of, um, how many students did register? I know a lot of seniors might not have turned 18 yet, but did, did you get a sense some seeing what was at the table or did we have a lot of

3:36 kids Register? There was definitely a lot of action at the tables, really. And I know the history, um, the history classes in particular, like the teachers have been pushing for it. Um, and yeah, there’s definitely, yeah, a good amount of action. Oh, That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Um, do you know if they’ll be back? ‘cause I know we have. I’m not sure on that. Okay. Alright. Thank you. That was great. Thank you. Sorry, when Did you say the Club Fair is? Uh, it’s upcoming. I dunno the day exactly, but it will be upcoming. Alright, Thanks. Thank you so much. And if, um, you get that information and there’s anything we need to also put out, let us know. Oh, I’m gonna go backwards for two, two things. ‘cause I saw Chris Al’s hand go up after we moved past public comment, but I wanna recognize that. And also for accommodation, um, I wanna com, uh, commit offer accommodation to Tyler erp.

4:24 He reached his fundraising goal of $75,000, which was mm-hmm. When he first came to us, I was, you know, nervous. That was a big goal. Um, his dedication to this project, uh, the work he’s put into it is amazing. I very, unfortunately missed the groundbreaking, but I know, um, quite a few people did attend and it was wonderful. And I just, I’m, I’m so proud of what he’s done, and I just wanted to give that commendation for Tyler. Um, I no longer see the hand, so, oh, it’s back up. Sorry. We’re up or down. We’re up. And I put it down. I put it down because you had, you had mentioned it, so I apologize. Oh, no, I do. I do appreciate you, uh, you coming back to me. Yeah, I had, I,

5:09 I realize it’s not a back and forth, uh, between, um, the public and the committee, but I had a couple of questions that I wanted to just throw out there. Uh, I’m just Gonna tell you Upfront related to whether or not NASDAQ was specifically asked, um, whether or not CPAC and METCO members should be or mm-hmm. Um, possibly should be on the, uh, search committee. I know that you stated that we were follow, we, we you were following the recommendations in terms of the numbers of folks, but I was wondering if they were specifically asked whether or not CPAC and, and Meco should be represented on there. Um, and the second question is just related to, uh, a comment in the paper, which I know we shouldn’t, uh, you know, leave everything we read, but it said that you were a bit more reserved related to, uh,

5:57 M C A scores. And so I’m just wondering, um, if this is something that we just, we should be ignoring as a, a blip on the radar or as of, uh, an outlier in data, or, I, I guess I was just a bit, I didn’t understand where Reserve would come in terms of an increase in M C A scores. So I appreciate you, uh, coming back to me and, and letting me ask my questions. No problem. Thank you. Um, can I just make One quick Comment? We don’t generally go back and Forth. I am not going back and forth. I’m just gonna make a statement for the record. Um, ‘cause I was in and out of that last school committee meeting two weeks ago. I had a very bad connection to where I was, so I apologize. Um, so I went back actually and watched the meeting, um, and listened to it. And I just wanted, and I went actually and pulled my notes from 2019 and the Interim Superintendent

6:46 Search Committee, um, in 2019 did not have a C P A or a Medco, um, member. Um, I think that was said otherwise at the meeting. So I just wanted to make sure we corrected the record, um, for that. Okay. Um, and I have My notes here if anyone is interested. Okay. Thank you. Um, so that brings us up to the district updates from Michelle Krista. Great, Thank you. Yes. So we are getting Into the swing of things. We’ve had a couple weeks of school now. Students are settling in really nicely. Um, brown Glover veterans and the high school had well attended open houses over the past couple weeks. And Village will have their open houses this coming Thursday, um, on September 28th. School will be closed on Monday for Yam Kaur. Um,

7:36 earlier this week, our M C A scores were released. And, um, it really is an opportunity to celebrate our educators as well as our students. The scores were great. Next week at, or not next week, our next regularly scheduled school committee meeting, we’ll have an in-depth overview from, um, Julia Ferrera, and we’ll get into the nitty gritty on those. And just lastly, I also wanted to mention, um, Tyler and the Greenhouse Project. I did attend the groundbreaking ceremony last Thursday. Um, when he came back, came to me initially back in 2021, I thought his goal was extremely hefty

8:16 Comment. I never, ever said I was reserved. I made a comment to the effect that, um, we had not been, I had not seen the results at that point, and I was, and they would be on a future agenda. It will actually be on the, the next agenda, um, as was planned, you know, as typical. Um, and that I was, I, I was looking forward to hearing from our subject matter experts, which, um, are educators and particularly our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. Julia Ferrara, who works with this data, will, um, will present it to us, um, with, with all the levels. You know, when you go on the website, you can get on for pages and pages and pages and, and it’s her job. She’ll digest that and she’ll present it to us. I,

9:04 I did not say I was reserved. I said I was waiting to hear that presentation. So, um, I’m sorry if the community misinterpreted, um, the opinion of the reporter for that one. Um, all righty. That brings us to the consent action and agenda items. We all have an, uh, schedule of bills. I will ask for a motion to approve the identified schedule of bills totaling $503,649 and 65 cents. Moved by Jen Schaffner. Seconded. Seconded by Brian Oda. We’re gonna do a roll call, vote ‘cause we have a member online. Allison Taylor In favor? Megan Taylor. Yes. Brian Oda in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor,

9:51 Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries five to zero. That brings us to our school committee communication and discussion items. Um, we’ll have a very high level brief interim superintendent search update because that all does happen in executive session. And we’re bound by Mass General Law with a lot of privacy pieces to that. Um, we received 11 applicants. Um, we have met to review the applicants and develop, um, work on developing our questions. And we will move on to next stages of, of that for next week. Sorry, it’s really high level, but just to give you an idea of what we can and cannot share. Um, next is the ARPA discussion at our previous meeting,

10:36 um, several previous meetings. Allison Taylor had brought this up. It’s been, um, something that, that she has been brought up and addressed multiple times. Um, Allison and Michelle Cresta, were going to be setting up a time to meet. So if Allison, you can just give us an update on that.

10:56 Yeah, um, I think there, I wasn’t just bringing it up to, to bring it up for the last several meetings, just to be clear, there were specific reasons and updates for it last week. We were hoping, um, I was hoping to be able to review the public comment or a letter that the group could approve. Um, and then half hour before, not last week, two weeks ago, half hour before our meeting, we kind of got some new information. Um, that kind of has raised a whole bunch of additional concerns. Um, I am not, like I said before, I just wanna make sure I’m not, that everybody’s clear. Um, I’m going to meet with Michelle with, uh, Erin and Thatcher and Alicia, I believe, um, it’s been difficult finding a time that works for everybody. Um,

11:43 we all have jobs and I have an actual job too, so we have to do. Um, so that’s been difficult. We’re hoping that next week we’re going to be able to do that. I wanna be clear that whatever is discussed there will be brought back to this full committee and shared with the public. I think we have some pretty specific and distinct questions around, you know, this ARPA funding the numbers, how they have changed and why, uh, and how that affects the percentages that are shared to the public of what was given to the school, what given means versus other word choices. So, um, rest assured, I will continue to advocate, I believe is the proper word for, um, for the schools and for our students for this, for this money. Um, and determine, you know, where it’s actually gone.

12:28 We were hoping to get a list of what we’ve requested, what’s been denied, um, and so we can kind of look through that and provide high level detail back for the public as well, or provide any detail. I, I don’t want to keep any of it. I think it all should be out in the public and it should be far more transparent if I haven’t been clear about that already. Um, so, and that’s our hope of what Michelle and I are gonna do when we meet with them next week. Thank you for doing that work and, and being able to come report that all back to us. Did you get the information you’re looking for? No. Have you asked for? No, but it’s been requested. Um, They have said that we can come and meet with them, so that’s what Michelle and I are gonna do together. But they haven’t provided the information you asked for?

13:12 Um, I don’t, we have been told that we can come and meet with them.

13:20 Okay. Sorry, can I just ask a quick question? Sure. Um, Allison, when did you say you’re meeting with them? We’re hoping that, um, so it was maybe going to be tomorrow that

13:34 She froze. Yep. It was supposed to be tomorrow. And then not all, all Sometime this week until Friday morning, morning, Friday morning meeting I, I can’t change. So now we’re hoping it’s going to be the following week. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then, But I just break up for a minute there. I think same. Yeah, That’s, think we, we got it. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Alright. So it, um, I, I could see confusion like maybe you weren’t hearing me. It was hoping, we were hoping it was gonna be this Friday. They didn’t have any time this week until Friday morning. Um, and their only time available on Friday morning was when I have two unmovable meetings for my full-time job. So we have to look into next week. Um, and there are a few emails that just ‘cause of work today I haven’t been able to get to, um, noting different times next week. So it’s hopeful that it’ll be next week. Okay. And then, sorry, just one other question.

14:19 ‘cause when we talked about it last week, I thought there was like some type of list that you had received. Nope, we haven’t received. Oh, I thought there was something that you got last week and you were gonna send along to Us last week, a half an hour before. Yeah, I mean we, everybody I think received the updated information that said we not last week, two weeks ago. Sorry. Um, I feel like we’ve met so much. Um, we got $1.2 million, um, which we know is not the case. Um, and last week we talked about how two weeks ago we talked about how some of that was capital projects a change in the capital project amount, Michelle, correct? Mm-hmm. And then a portion of that was also that, um, they’re doing, uh, a new payroll system and they expect the schools to pay

15:08 for 60% of it because we are 60% of the budget, which I don’t disagree with. Um, but if we’re going to say that schools are 60% of the budget, then we should be using that theory for a lot of, in, in a lot of other places, not just when you need to take the money. Um, and I think we should also be very clear that that’s not money that was given to the schools. Yes. I understand. Conceptually having better payroll make things more effective and efficient and that affects the children certainly. Um, but it’s not a librarian. It’s not freshman sports, it’s not the science teacher. It’s not the language teacher who, whatever. Right. Whatever person we wanna wanna say. So, um, I think we need to be very clear about those buckets. Um, when we do talk about the money as well, because clearly saying that, you know,

15:55 we got a 1.2 million out of 6.5 or four, whatever it was, seems like a much large larger number, um, when it’s in fact not true because 200,000 is for the payroll and then 200,000 is for their mistake that they made at town meeting in their capital projects budget. Okay. So, so can I ask a question? So if there was a quote unquote mistake in the capital budget must have been the WARN article mm-hmm. That’s not ARPA funds. So then was so then they’ve tapped ARPA funds to make up for that? Is that what that is? Correct. Okay. Well, they, and I I just to be clear, it, it’s the tapping of ARPA funds and then saying that’s money they’re given to the school as not the same thing. Um, and it,

16:42 I understand you can say it’s a, you know, a hairline fracture of a distinction. That’s fine. It’s still different. It’s not, we went and asked for this, this, and this and you gave us this, this, and this. Um, and I think it’s, it’s important to have that transparency. I think it sends, you know, it, it sends a different message and it, but we can Always do a public records request if we need to. Yeah. I’m confident we’ll be able to at least get the information we want next week when we meet with you. Yeah, me too. And I appreciate Michelle, it’d be helpful To have it ahead Of time, um, to do that with me. Thank you. It Could be, I, Sorry, Allison, I interrupt you. I asked if it would be helpful that I’ve had that information before you go to the meeting. My accountant did ask for it. She’s on vacation this week,

17:28 so she might have received it. I’m not sure at this point. Okay. Thank you. Um, so that brings us along to school handbooks, which I will hand off to Michelle. Yes. So we have, um, three school handbooks for you today. One for the elementary, one for the middle school, and one for the high school. Um, there’s no major changes in them overall. A lot of the changes were either yearly updates or phone extension updates. Um, we did find some policy references that were outdated. Um, we updated those. And, um, and there is one change to the high school, which includes the diversion program for vaping, um, that we briefly talked about at the last meeting. So those three are here for you. Um, I think we did a pretty good job this year.

18:18 However, I do think we really need to take a deep dive and have these prepared for you next spring so that these are approved well before the end of the school year, so that we can spend the summer and get these off to families as soon as school opens next year. Um, discussion on or questions about handbooks? Excuse Me. Could you speak up? We can’t hear you. Oh, sorry. Questions or discussion about handbooks. When the school committee gets the draft of the handbook that you’ll want to give us in advance, is it possible to have the changes redlined so that we can spot those easily?

18:54 We could given an appropriate process with a little more time involved? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. So I just wanna make a comment. Can you hear me now? We can now we can, we haven’t been able to hear you. Great. Um, it’s a little tough because we’re tr we’re very far away from you. So, um, sorry about that. Well, do you have Microphones? We do not have microphones. No, these aren’t, these microphones pick up M H T V. They’re not for amplification. Oh, we couldn’t hear. We can’t hear. So, so, uh, we, I noticed that there were some policy discrepancies in the, um, in the veterans handbook. There were, particularly around homework was referencing the policy I K B, which was, which was um mm-hmm. Eliminated in 2018.

19:43 So I had some confusion about the whole homework policy. And so I have not, I, well, I didn’t get an update. I got a one page in the, in the Google Drive that did not show those changes. And then the high school I didn’t get a chance to look at ‘cause we just got it. So I am not necessarily in a position to approve these. I don’t know if that’s what we’re trying to do tonight. So I, when I looked at it yesterday, and I haven’t, when I, when I last looked at it yesterday, I, I had been emailing, um, with Michelle and Paula. Um, there were, I saw it at the high school and at, that’s the reference to I K B, which doesn’t exist anymore. And my question was, um, quick, I’ll be honest. Last year when we approved these, it came with a memo from legal saying that they had gone through everything,

20:31 made sure everything was up to code and this was the recommendation. And, um, it’s not, it’s not in me to, To then push back on legal and say, okay, did you do your, I just assumed that, you know, legal counsel and just for anybody who’s unsure or unclear, we use a different legal counsel to do our student services than we do to handle everything else. So it’s not the same attorney that we’ve worked with on other matters this year. Um, they, they, they do solely student services issues. Um, including the handbook. Including the handbook. I, I’m kind of, I would’ve thought they would’ve caught, caught this. My concern is if while going through this they didn’t see this is referencing a policy and then double check, I mean that’s on legal,

21:18 legal should have double checked that that policy matched. I I want to, you know, I wanna make sure I’m looking at this more clearly. We also need these handbooks approved. Yes. So, um, I understand that, given the time that what Yeah, Let me, let me just pop in. Um, we were made aware yesterday that the, that issue of the referencing legal policies that no longer existed was existent or, or existed within these, we revised them all yesterday Okay. To remove those references. Okay. So I personally went through every single legal reference in the high school and made sure it agreed to our policy manual. Okay. Um, someone else did that for the middle school and the elementary as well. Okay. So I feel like we’re in a, we’re in good good position there. Um,

22:05 the issue of last year, is it legal? It they referenced a legal reference that existed in the M A S C general policies and they just assumed that we had adopted it. Oh, okay. So they didn’t go back and with it, it’s ING Because M A S C is the one that recommended we take that policy out. Yeah. That doesn’t make sense. ‘cause it was recommending a specific policy that we did have. We used to Yes. In the past. And it was eliminated. So it was eliminated 2018. So it may be four years that this has been going on, so. Right. It hasn’t been a general policy of M A S C since 2018. At least that was what was, you know, Mike Gilbert had told us, um, particularly around homework, that, that, interestingly enough, my notes, which I also pulled out from my 2018 notes, um, said that, um, the recommendation in 2018 for the I K B policy on homework was to remove them

22:53 and do not replace that policy because this should be in handbooks for each school. Mm-hmm. So, Yes. So then it’s sort of circuitous because the description of the, of the homework was sort of vague and referenced the policy. So not only does that have to be recommended, like the actual homework policy needs to be in there. Yes. Well, Do we know what the new policies are? Um, what is in the policy? Whatever’s in the handbook is, is the only thing that’s in writing at the time. Okay. I’m not sure specifically what the policy is. I am not personally familiar with It. Okay. What I would recommend, ‘cause we do, we need, we need to absolutely Need these. We need to, so what I would recommend be, because I know I haven’t gotten a chance to go back and look at any, any changes, is that we give

23:40 an approval that will carry us through, you know, say mid-December with the understanding that we will all go through and make those cross checks that we, we quite frankly should be doing anyway. Um, and That that will make things extremely difficult. Okay. So I’m hoping we can just approve them and if we find anything substantive, we can come back and revisit that. But it, it’s gonna make double the work for all of the schools. It’s not gonna be double the work. If we are reviewing, We’re The ones that need to double. No, but then we need to send new books out if we approve them again. Oh, you send physical aren’t they on books out? Not that. Well, we have to get the permissions all over again. And that makes a lot of work for the schools. Did it, I know parents already gave permissions, didn’t they? No,

24:28 I’ve Held off because We don’t have, they’re all waiting. Right. So we’ve been holding off. Okay. And so we have updated photos or anything like that. Okay. Because that’s all at once. Can I, I’m feel bad putting you on the spot. Can you guys speak to what the, because this was the homework one was the one that jumped out to us because it had that revision. Do we have homework policies or did would you, did we just remove them? They’re not in our Dropbox, the updated ones element wise, I can tell you it doesn’t say policy. It says Yeah, yours didn’t. So it Says average daily time requirements for all subjects combined shall be and it gives you per grade level. So it’s not referring to a policy at all. It’s just referring to An 11. Yeah. It wasn’t, it was the other two books. It wasn’t your book 11 Years ago. The,

25:14 the policy I think was rewritten to match what we had in our handbook, which Was about 25 Minutes per core subject. So then that was updated. So we added our per school committee policy because now it matched our handbook Committee Policy did, but then the policy was deleted. Can you, That concept to 25 minutes per, per core subject in our handbook. So to me it’s just an oversight. ‘cause that’s what we, Okay. So What is a core subject? ‘cause that was unclear. Is that four subjects? Six subjects? Four what? How many are what are considered as Socially science? So four. Yes. Okay, so they don’t get homework in the other ones? No, We say that that’s sort of the, the approach. Okay. All right. Um, because That’s not really clear. I mean just, I’m not trying to be nitpicky,

26:01 but I’m just as a sort of, um, you know, average citizen here. That just wasn’t clear to me. So if I were a parent, you know, maybe those core curriculum should be outlined. But that’s what those four are. Say that No, no, because I, that was one of my questions that I emailed back. What are the core, if we Put in only those subjects, you know, if we list out and say you’re only gonna get it in this four, then it precludes us from Well, Your policy does preclude that, right? Well, it’s Not, you know, this is what we reflected. It just says students will have typically 25 minutes of homework per, or subject per night teachers will use. I utilize master team schedule and so on and forth. So I think it should say, I mean you might wanna reword it, but those like, oh,

26:49 Allison, if you’re saying not just those core curriculum, then maybe it shouldn’t say cor, I don’t know. I mean it, it’s coming like this Quick delete and you can approve it that Way. But then it’s 25 minutes per what? Like that’s what I’m trying to understand. Let’s Take out the homework policy. Well then we don’t have a homework policy, Right? We assign homework. I guess. So wait one second. We do get outreach on this. And I like to be able to tell people go to the policy. There’s no policy. It’s in the handbook. Alison Policy. I wanna go to Allison real quick. I see your handbook mine about homework. Keep going. So one thing, Again, the recommendation from M A S C is that there shouldn’t be school committee policy. It should be in the handbooks for each school. So then maybe that’s a bigger discussion about what should be in the handbook.

27:36 I think. So this is what we’re here for. Talking about creating a policy or updating our handbooks. I guess that’s, um, I’m talking about it’s, so if it’s no longer a school committee policy per recommendation that it belong, that discussion around what parents and students should expect for homework in each building would be in the handbook. Right? Which is a school. So my question at least in regards to vets is it says 25 minutes per core curriculum, core curriculum. So what’s core? That’s all I’m asking. Like I think it should be transparent to a parent and a student as to what the expectation is. The, For me, I can only speak for me, this came from people at the high school reaching out. Michelle, I swear I’m not dumping this in you not la last spring,

28:23 during that period to say, you know, we’re asking these kids to be well-rounded for college applications. We want them to do sports, we want them to do extracurriculars, we want them to do all this stuff. And then they get home at five or six and then they have four or five hours of homework. And I was like, wait a second. And then it’s like, well, you need to refer to your handbook, your handbook. But I do think that, you know, especially when we, we had done these forums in the past, the number one thing we heard from students and parents was the stress and the stress of getting, being everything. And, and so I think it is important for ha to have it be clear to people what the expectation is. Because if they see a handbook, they can see,

29:09 my expectation is that my student will have three and a half, four hours of homework each night. So we need to dial back on maybe signing up for all these activities because we need to be able to, a, so I do think it’s important to have it outlined clearly so that families can work with their student to set up expectations that they’re not over committing themselves. And they can get to their stu they can, they can do all these things. So I do think it’s important to have it outlined there. I’m not telling you what it should be. I’m just saying it needs to be clear so that families can use those guidelines in the handbook to kind of make appropriate choices for their family. Does that make sense? So Are we just asking him to put in what the course subjects are for, For all homework? I’m looking for clear guidelines so someone can look at the handbook and walk

29:58 away with a clear understanding of this is what it should be. Also, I think it’s helpful for families if they’re emailing someone or calling someone saying, my student has five hours of homework each night. And you go back to the handbook and it’s like, well no, your student really should have two hour. I’m picking arbitrary numbers two hours. Then that’s another discussion of why is it this much for them? I think if we’re gonna send people to handbooks, we’re gonna have people sign off on handbooks that everyone needs to stick to them and understand what they are. And, and families need to use them as guidance for, as a reference. ‘cause that’s what they are. You know, what is the, what is the dress code handbook? What are policy, what is this discipline? What is discipline? What is that? And I think it, it lends to good school home communication.

30:45 So I guess I, I hear your point, but I think also we don’t wanna put teachers in a whole school in such a tight box that then they have no flexibility. So I think, you know, if we wanna say what the core subjects are, just to be clear. And then you can see, okay, there’s four core subjects, so that equals an hour, then okay, let’s just ask, ask for that. Um, ‘cause I think that’s a very minor change and it doesn’t actually, you know, it’s not a material change to the handbook. Um, but I think putting anything more strict on that then reduces the flexibility of what the teachers and the schools need to be able to do. This is, oh yeah. And this is just, this is typically, so typically 25 minutes per subject. Okay. And there may be days or times when it’s more or less,

31:31 but this is just a general guideline. So I think it’s clear if we wanna add in what the core subjects are, then I take that point. Yeah. And I just,

31:41 I think this is coming from over the last few months we’ve seen as we’ve dug in, a lot of things pop up. And I think, and I think it’s really good to have really strong documents like this to refer people back to because it, it, it is the, the communication tool between school and home. So whether it’s homework, whether it’s attendance, whether it’s this, whether it’s that, I think it really helps our administrators to be able to say, you know, for attendance per se, if, um, if people aren’t hitting the attendance where they’re supposed to be. Matt made a great presentation on this at, at parents night about how that homeschool partnership really is so important in getting attendance where it should be. And look, refer back to your handbook. Refer back to your handbook. So for me,

32:28 it’s just making sure everything is clear. And I think part of this is where we do wind up in this situation where we approve these in the fall, I think it’s gonna be much more functional trying to approve this in the spring. So if people need clarifications and moving forward, that’s what we can do. Um, so, you know, lesson learned, we’ll do this in the spring moving forward. Um, but I just want to, I just wanted to make my point that this is not all about homework, it’s just making sure that this is a clear communication tool between school and home. Allison? Yeah. So my question is, it’s about Homework. Um, but my question is about, uh, the bullying portion of the policy in, um,

33:15 in the elementary handbook. So I think this would be K through six. Um, and I just want to check, so it says, um, repeated use by one or more students, um,

33:31 What the word repeated means. My personal experience with this aside, um, I think it would, it would be nice to ensure that does repeated mean more than once? Um, I was told it means three or four times. Um, and can you then secondly, when this policy, just so that it can be clear for other parents as well, when the policy is not followed, when mandatory reporters do not report, um, or do not follow the policy of telling parents, you know, disciplinary action and what, whatever the case may be. Um, safety being the most important one really, I suppose, uh, is their next step would be to,

34:22 I just wanna make sure that that’s clear.

34:26 We lost you your last like couple words. It’s not always followed. I not always followed. So would that be the chain of command to go up when it’s not? Or what, what should a parent do? Um, for something as serious as that? So Can you just, when you talk about repeated, repeated, It’s the word, the wording in the policy says repeated. Repeated what? Policy, I guess I’m trying to understand in The bullying, the bullying portion of the elementary handbook. Okay. And to be honest, this actually might be the bullying policy in all of them. Um, I was specifically looking at the elementary. It just says repeated use, um, Repeated use of what? Is this just a re or repeated behavior?

35:11 Um, yeah, written verbal, electronic or physical combination or a combination thereof directed to victim. Meaning if it only happened once, it doesn’t count. Um, so if a, a student was only,

35:28 Why does my mute keep going on? Sorry. Um, if they were, they would, it would have to happen more than one time for there to be really any policy followed or any precautions taken. I’m just looking to understand. For me, um, hopefully I won’t have to deal with this again. And then also for any other parent that would have to go through it, because I know that I’m not the only one. Um, what repeated means? And then when that repeated mark is met to three times whatever, um, ensuring that the parent knows what the next step is when the policy isn’t followed and when their child isn’t kept safe. Uh, Allison, are you referring to page 37 in the elementary handbook,

36:16 the actual policy? Or is which is the appendix or is it somewhere else that you’re looking? I’m looking at the actual policy. Yeah. Okay. So under definition, So What else would I be the Chain of command at all times with every policy, with everything is classroom teacher or if it’s whatever that that direct connection is, whether it’s a classroom teacher or

36:42 if it’s an extracurricular, whoever’s leading that, and then it’s principal. Or if it’s not a principal, it’s a director and then it’s superintendent and then it’s school committee. But that’s important that, that’s always the chain of command. You always, you can’t kind of jump the wrongs. You, that’s anybody needs to go through this. You’re muted. Why, why? I also am, I just wanna, you don’t wanna hear what I say. I’m not, I’m not looking for anybody to jump the wrongs. I’m not suggesting anybody does. Um, I simply am wanting it to be known what that chain of command would be. So people realize that they have a next step that they can take. Okay. Because it’s important. Paula, is this a question about, or that you wanna take?

37:32 ‘cause bullying falls under you, right?

37:37 Yeah. So Allison, just to answer your question regarding the language in the handbook. So the language in the handbook is the state law. Um, so I would imagine, you know, last year, attorney McAvoy in the real time crunch that he had to review everything, um, looked at what the state law is, and those are the definitions that are included in the handbook. Um, I think that, you know, as Sarah’s describing, you know, sort of hierarchy for any type of complaint, you know, that makes perfect logical sense. I’m not aware of another policy that, or procedure that outlines what happens if the procedure isn’t followed. So I think if you, like, I think for any parent or any community member,

38:22 if they were running into the challenge of getting an appropriate response from the initial contact, you work through what the standard chain of command is, but that wouldn’t be necessarily part of the policy. It would Sure. Because our expectation is that our staff and ourselves are all following the policy and not creating additional avenues for what happens if we don’t. Yeah, no, I, I I, that that’s exactly what I think. I was looking just to make that clear to the public, um, for my edification, but for everybody’s, um, because it is something that gets brought to my attention, uh, uh, quite a bit. And I, I understand that’s the policy that it’s not necessarily something we sat down

39:10 and wrote, but the use of that word repeated and how it’s interpreted, um, yeah, I, I I think more than once is a really fair interpretation of the regulation. I think that, you know, generally when, you know, and there may be someone in the audience that’s an attorney can speak to a lot of law is written. So there is, it is subject to interpretation to a certain degree, right? Um, I think what, you know, particularly at the younger grades, what a lot of times we find is that a peer conflict is a one-time thing that may strike people as, um, what would be typical of bullying. But if it is a one-time incident that is able to be rectified and addressed that, that doesn’t meet the criteria for bullying. Mm-hmm. Um,

39:59 obviously if something happens more than once, there needs to be a more thorough investigation that’s attached to that. And that is all outlined in the policy. Yep. I, I think that, I don’t like when there’s subject to interpretation because that’s, that’s what gets us as, you know, into the murky areas right. About this or, or anything. Um, and when it is your child who has come home with a cut or a bruise or emotional damage, which is just as worse, just as bad, um, you know, it, even if it was just one attack, it does matter. You It does, it does, it does certainly matter. And I would be, you know, if, and if something that results in a physical or emotional injury isn’t

40:48 addressed in a school, please let us know. That doesn’t mean that it meets that the incident that resulted in that meets the criteria for bullying. Absolutely. So, and I think that, you know, I, I don’t totally disagree that when things are open to interpretation, lets things get a little bit murky. But I, it is certainly beyond the scope of, you know, my authority or our authority to override what a state law says. Exactly. Um, Also fair. All right, Thank you. Um, any other questions? So we have this on here as a vote. So I will ask for a vote to approve school, or I’m sorry, I will ask for a motion to approve school handbooks. Um,

41:34 W With clarification on the homework policies, Looking At you guys. Does that sound good? Is that, does that work? Well, It’s whatever we want. I, Okay. Um,

41:54 so no one’s moved the motion. Oh, so moved.

42:01 Uh, moved by Megan Taylor,

42:07 Second. Second by Brian Oda discussion. So what does that mean by clarification? Like how will we know that? How will it be reported to us?

42:22 Um, I would expect that we will get, by the end of the day tomorrow, clarification on the wording of that policy.

42:33 Um, I just, I think we need, like, if we want to see a change, we have to be a little bit more please. Sorry. I think that if, if as a committee we are asking for a change, we have to be a little bit more clear about what we expect. Yes. So that when we get it back, it can meet that expectation. I think it’s just a, for me anyway, I’m not clear what we’re asking our administrators to do. So I, I thought I was clear with where, what I was looking for. I’m not, I’m not here to say what the homework policy should be. I’m saying a parent and a student should be able to open it and walk away with a clear idea of what it is. You know, I I, to the elementary, it’s pretty clear in, in yours, I don’t remember exactly what it is, but it says, you know, not less than,

43:21 not more than, I mean that’s, that’s pretty clear. Um, I think we’re, we have the ability to make the other two pretty clear, um, in that right now it’s 25 minutes per core subject. We can just define what core subjects are. Or if you’d rather go with a nut lesson, not more than that’s fine to, I’m not gonna tell you what it is. I just want it to be clear communication between the schools and home. ‘cause that’s what the point of this is. Me too. I agree. To me, it’s, it’s waiting into operations to tell them what the policy should be. I just need it to be clear. I mean, I don’t know. I think the definition of clear is maybe where it’s relative, right? So I, it might be clear to, it might not be clear to you,

44:07 but it might be clear to somebody else and we’re asking them to clarify, but we’re not telling them what we want them to clarify. So if I’m hearing it correctly, we just want to identify how many core subjects there are so that you can, I wanna Identify it’s not how many, ‘cause it says four. I want, I want just again, as an, you know, sort lay person here reading it. What are those four core subjects? And that count, that to me adds up to a hundred minutes of homework a night. Typically, according to Principal Fox, though, there may be some says core subject, four core subjects, just those core subjects or core subjects. I’m sorry. I, okay. So that would help, um, it would help as to what those core subjects are. Or if you are feeling that, that would be too boxed in,

44:53 then you can come back with another descriptor of what that is. Paul, I see your hand. Yeah. So yeah, sorry. So just a point of clarification that I hope may help. So it’s always been clear to us as administrators that only school committee can set policy. So if the ask is for us to clarify guidance around what the homework recommendations are, um, I think principals and administrators can set guidance or guidelines within the handbook. But we cannot come back to you with a different policy because only school committee can create a policy. Fair enough. I I, I Don’t know what that means. I was, we were calling it policy. They’re not, handbooks aren’t, their handbooks aren’t policy. Okay. They’re guidelines. They’re guidelines.

45:39 Okay. Fair enough. That’s a good point. That’s fine. Thank you. Um, I just want, I just want, when, when parents say I, I have all these questions, I wanna be able to just be like, go to your handbook. And it’s clear. Clear. And I don’t them to come back and be like, well, it’s not clear. I don’t how anyone would find this anything other than what, simple question. What is core curriculum? That’s all. That’s all I, that’s all that jumped out at me. Period. I Guess, I guess the next question is, how many times do we deal with questions about that? I don’t know, but I we’re asked to approve this handbook and it’s not clear. I, I don’t know what else I can say. I, you know what? Go ahead. Move the vote. Oh, abstain. All right. We have a call for the vote. Um, we will do a roll call vote. Allison Taylor.

46:29 So moved.

46:32 Um, no, In favor. In favor. Okay. Thank you. I said Moved. So moved. Um, Megan? Yes. Uh, Brian ota? Yes. Jen, Sarah Fox. Yes. So the motion carries four to zero with one abstention. Can I, sorry, can I just, um, ask a follow on question of Michelle, is that okay? Yeah. Michelle, um, one of the things that’s in the handbook specifically is a cell phone. I dunno if, I don’t want to use the word policy, but you know, there’s information about cell phone usage in all the schools and it looks pretty consistent in the handbooks. But I’m wondering if it would be possible for, um,

47:17 to get a presentation on how the cell phone policy is actually implemented in each one of the buildings. ‘cause that is something I have had a lot of feedback from parents and students on is the implementation maybe not being consistent across buildings or even across classrooms. So maybe we could just have a discussion and maybe a presentation on, on how that works in each school. But I’d also like to have one for that matter on the, um, management of the vaping. ‘cause that’s another thing I hear time and time and time again in both of the upper two schools is that there’s, you know, I keep hearing parents saying like, their students are afraid to go to the, or not afraid, don’t wanna go to the ba, use the restrooms because of the vaping. Now I know we have, I won’t use policies, we have handbooks that mm-hmm. Address the issue of vaping. But that would also be something I would be interested in hearing about, um,

48:05 from the, probably hopefully just the two upper school, um, principals, um, as to, you know, what, you know, what the reality is and how that’s managed. Absolutely. So, yes. So this year we’re, we’re trying something a little different at the high school. Um, a little more stringent guidelines in terms of cell phone policy use. And I, I do think it would be great to bring Michelle back and some other, um, administrators and, and chat about that with the school committee that is actually coming from dsi. It’s really the Dssi commissioners. Um, it’s his big ticket item this year. There, there’s a grant that gives funds to certain districts that are putting in certain safeguards to restrict cell phone policy within the school day. The use cell phone use, yes. Yep. Use within the school day. Um, so we’re trying to, we’re we’re trying new avenues. So yes,

48:52 we could certainly bring that to a future agenda. And I think the vaping, we can also Yeah. Bring you up to speed on that as well. Okay. Yeah, I think if we’re gonna talk about cell phone policy, having more information about kind of what’s coming down from DESI would be helpful to frame It. Well, again, it’s not policy, right? Right. Guidelines, it’s procedures, Protocols, policy. ‘cause we don’t have a cell phone policy, correct? I don’t think. No, I don’t think. No, we don’t. We don’t. No.

49:18 Okay. So that brings us to retreat workshop discussion. Um,

49:25 This was an item that Brian had requested to be on the agenda. It’s been my recommendation and, and will continue to be my recommendation that we should have, we are expecting in our timeline to have in our interim superintendent in, you know, the next six weeks. And I think at that time when they come on board that this retreat and workshop on our communication and, um,

49:57 how we’re able to work together will be really, really important. Then. Um, I think that I would, I would like whoever that individual’s going to be to be in place. Brian asked for this on the agenda, right? Yeah. So maybe Brian should speak to it, please. Well, I mean, I really believe that we would benefit immensely if we started a communication workshop soon. I mean, there’s been a lot of things in said in meetings and in the press and in public opinion that we’re not working effectively. And I think we, the sooner we address that by having a seminar, a workshop, whatever you want to call it, I think it would be beneficial to everybody, public included. Would you like to try to get that in before the new superintendent starts, or, Well, the superintendent, we don’t know.

50:42 I think this is a workshop for us on the school committee. Mm-hmm. And yes, the superintendent is part of the school committee in some senses that it, but I think it really is something we need to work on mm-hmm. The five of us to get a consistent approach to how we address issues and how we respond to public and how we get this information out to the public. And I think a workshop would be very beneficial to us. Okay. Um, the next two weeks are, I just have a comment on that. I don’t disagree that it would be great for us to work better together. I’m, I don’t know that the, the same five people that aren’t working well together,

51:28 sitting in a room is gonna just magically get better. I think we need to, if I’m not against doing this, I wanna be clear on that before I’m ravaged. I just think we need to have a think very critically and strategically about what we will do in a room together, or who else will we have come speak to us to help facilitate hopefully some of that mending and improvement. Well, I think Right. If That makes like the, you know, five people, if, if the five people are working disjointedly per your comment, Brian, having them sit in a room, I just wanna make sure that time in the room is well spent with a strategic plan of what exercises we’re gonna do, what we’re going to run through,

52:17 talk about what topics we’re going to cover to ensure the outcome that you’re looking for. Right.

52:27 And I think that, um, your points are, I your points are well taken, Allison, for sure. I mean, what I, one of the things I heard Brian say too was, um, to work together on how we are gonna communicate with the public as well. So I think that to me, so it’s also in it’s intra committee and also inter inter committee or inter community with, with the, our stakeholders, whether it’s the parents, the students, the staff, the community, greater community, marette, um, and so, you know, that’s not a bad idea. That’s a good idea. Uh, we probably could use some help with that. I don’t, and obviously we’re gonna need someone, um, to come in and help with that. And that maybe what happens, Allison, is perhaps we agree to,

53:14 you know, rules of the road or, you know, a process or a, a protocol on how, you know, how we will do that communication and um, and execute that communication. So I think the other issue too, from a scheduling standpoint is we don’t know when the interim superintendent, the permanent interim superintendent will be starting. Right? Like we, it’s, that’s, you know, that we don’t know. So We had to put out publicly through nasdaq. It was for, I mean, yes, it may move from there, but what we advertised was the start date of, um, November 1st. No, that may, that may move, but that was what we put out as a public advertisement that it was for a start date of November 1st. So, you know, I support, I support Brian’s idea. I, I mean,

54:02 I think it is a good idea. I think I, it’s not gonna hurt. It can only help. And then, um, if we need to do another round or something when the new interim superintendent starts, we we can certainly do that. I will let the committee members know. I had spoken to, um, Glen from M A S C earlier in the summer, um, when I was tasked with trying to plan these dates around the retreat. Um, and they do have the ability to help with this. So there, that is an option. It is a, a resource that we could avail ourselves of. Um, we can certainly look at, you know, other ones. I’m happy to take that on if you wanna task me with that. I could work with Michelle. Um, but I think that would be the first place I would think we would talk to would be M A S C. Um, the price is probably right too, actually with that. So,

54:48 um, So if, if, and if It’s set limited, you know, we’re not talking about doing our full retreat, which we still probably need to do, but we Need to sell set goals. We need to, we need to do those things. But I think to set goals in a meaningful way, I think we need to have gotten through this next step. Yeah. Yeah. I, I do agree with Brian that it, it, it could help us, um, and help our community if we were to work with someone on a communication plan, in a communication methodology. Okay. Um, the next two weeks, given, you know, the extra meetings due to the search are pretty impossible. I would venture to say, well, you Also, it’s unlikely we’d be know, we’d probably be looking,

55:34 my guess is you’ve gotta give someone like a month, you know? Yeah. So we’re looking at, um, the end of October. Um, and if at that point we should have someone identified, maybe they can, they can still join us, even though they’re not, you know, officially on board yet. Um, so if people can get their schedule dates for the last two weeks of October to um, Jen, I’m gonna task you with that. That’s fine. By Sunday evening, We don’t, again, look into getting, I, I, I feel like we’re not really, I feel like we need to be more honest about this and I’m fine to be the bad guy and be the honest one. Like, I feel like we need someone else. And if Jen is gonna look into that, does Jen wanna look into what availability someone,

56:22 whether it’s Glen or someone else who Nasdaq might have? Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s what I would do. Yeah, absolutely. A Team I have, sorry. Um, get those dates or availability from them as well? I, yes, they’re pretty flexible. They’re pretty flexible, has been my experience. So I shouldn’t speak, I mean, I shouldn’t speak for Glen, but when I, and that was summertime when I spoke to him, he was like, basically give me, I just don’t wanna put the cart before the horse. Well, yeah. Well, why? I mean, ‘cause we’re not, we, you know, we only meet every two weeks so that we can, um, do scheduling, um, offline. Um, but why don’t you folks get me your dates that work for you, let’s say the week of October 23rd. I hate to dare say the week of October 30th. That’s probably a little busy. Um, or November 1st. So, or what about October? The week of October 16th, or the week of the October 23rd?

57:08 So if we can just get your dates between October 15th, 16th, 16th and October 30th to, um, Jen. And I’ll Work through and, and, and be clear if there’s blackout periods day or evening. ‘cause getting dates from people has been hard. Can I just put a date out there? Um, and just see, because we’ve got Thur, I mean, we have Thursdays at 7:00 PM that we wanted to try to stick to that. So maybe we could just see if we use that as a starting point. Can we do the, our Thur, you know, the off Thursday, whatever that day is, Brian. So not You’ve got your calendar out. You, it’s Have 12th. The, I have to check my husband’s when I get home, so I can’t give you a definitive, The 26th or whatever that date is that, um,

57:55 So we’re all gonna try to just shoot. Should, Should, we can kind of keep to the Thursday at 7:00 PM and it might make kind of finding a date a little bit easier. Okay. Um,

58:06 Or the night, oh no, the 19th have a meeting. Right. Okay. Mm-hmm.

58:13 That’s all right. So we’ll find out if that works. I, again, I have to double check this with my absolutely. My life. And also whether evening Work, I mean, unless it’s by a zoom, you know, an evening might not work. You know, we’re out geographically undesirable, so, you know, that would be other thing. Yeah. We could always do an earlier start time too. Yeah. We did a five or six start or something like that. Workshops usually do tend to start earlier. Mm-hmm. Anyway. So we can look at, you know, possibly like a 5:00 PM start time for that. Um, so I, I will, I will get you that, that information. And if you can check, I’ll share it With you and you’ll let the, Can you work with Glen to find out if that works? Yep. Okay. Um, all right. So that brings us to subcommittee and liaison updates and discussion.

59:00 Um, we had finance meeting last week where we got, um, a high level update on that. Michelle, do you wanna reshare with everyone? You know, kind of where we were, you had, you had talked about, um, where the different funding sources were gonna come for different things. Um, I actually don’t have those notes in front of me, but we did talk about, um, that we have just finally wrapped up fiscal 2322. I have some notes in front of me if it’s helpful. That’s even Better. I did Not bring my notes. Okay. Emma joined us because Emma’s been covering, um, and helping cover some of Michelle’s duties since she’s doing double duty.

59:47 Um, we had, uh, a much higher savings in our unemployment than we had thought because, um, much due to be, as we, as we told people that, um, they, they, we identified positions that would be cut if the override did not pass. People started seeking employment elsewhere right away. So we were required to carry a number of what we would’ve had to pay in unemployment for those positions. If they did not obtain employment elsewhere, they were able to. So we had a, a very significant savings, and I didn’t write down that exact number, but that came in much higher than we had thought. Um, our outta district placements, um, we have had a goal over multiple years now of being able to max out that circuit

1:00:36 breaker rollover. That’s always, that’s, that is the gold standard. That’s what every district should be doing. Um, Michelle’s been working on getting us to that number through the years, and this was the year we hit that. So we’ve been able to do that max rollover, and that’s something we’re gonna wanna maintain ‘cause that is best practice. Um, so we’re in a safe place for that. Um,

1:00:57 and we have, we are starting the timeline for f y 25 planning. Michelle and I will sit down tomorrow with the chair of the select board, their finance director and their town administrator. This is something that happens every fall, um, where the, the, the, the two, um, chairs and administrators get together and we go over just high level rough timelines when the town thinks they’ll be able to close their books to get us the numbers. Because until we have their numbers, we can’t really move on to establishing our goal targets. So, um, that meeting will take place tomorrow. And from there, once we get some finite dates from the town, um,

1:01:43 what I’ve heard so far is they’re, they were aiming for mid-October, but we’ll hear some definitive answers tomorrow if they think they’ll be able to hit that mid-October, um, date with letting us know where, where they’re gonna project their revenues to be. Um, ‘cause at the end of the day, we are legally required to bring forward a balanced budget that the revenue, the, the known revenues match the known expenditures. Um, and where we had the, a shortfall due to the structural deficit last year, and the oversight did not pass. Mathematically speaking, there will be another structural deficit this year. How that money,

1:02:29 what, how big that deficit is and how that money and deficit is allocated throughout the town is still to be determined. So we can’t speak to that, but we do know there. How do we, I mean, I guess I’m not gonna, whatever. I mean, I’m not sure how we actually know that. I mean, we balanced ‘cause we Didn’t fix the structural deficit last year. So without, but We had, we eliminated positions to balance us. Unless that didn’t balance us. No, it did for the time being. We knew it was a one year balance. ‘cause we, We don’t know what the projected revenues are. Correct. Yes. Yes. So we have to wait till we get that before we know. Yeah, Yeah. But we were not rolling over the same amount of free cash every year. We’re, we’re to basically no rollover. Whereas two, three years ago we were rolling over a larger amount, which was helping with that gap. So, um, we’ll know more later on.

1:03:18 But we, and this is not a, a school, there’s two pieces here. The school finance piece, which we’re kind of in a holding pattern till we know the town finance piece and the town finance piece. Um, so that’s where we’re at with that. We had our facilities meeting today. Um, we had an update on all the item, the work that’s been happening over the summer. Um, village security cameras were updated. The card access was updated with the high school elevators. Um, there was, I’m gonna, um, new fire alarm system at the high school. We’re continuing to computerize the H V A C system. We’ve updated our security cameras and that’s about 95% complete. Um,

1:04:07 there was an issue at the veteran school in the dw. It was thought at first to be an access panel. It turns out it is, was a structural issue immediately. Um, Michelle and Todd through operations, engaged, um, structural engineers, the building department has been out. Um, chief Gilland has been out to verify safety and, um, emergency egress and things like that. And they are working to expedite any repairs because during the time period we had some classrooms, students cannot be in principal. Fox was able to relocate those students without a disruption to education. But this need, the structural integrity needs to be addressed and they’re working on that.

1:04:53 Um, we, Joe, Joe, um, koala also joined us at our meeting today. We talked about the PV and next steps for that. Michelle is in the stage right now of starting the high school roof process, um, through the bid process. So we know where we are with that. They can’t put PV on a roof until it’s fixed. Um, so Is that the only one in the part is the high school is the only one in the capital project? Uh, uh, high school and then one wing of the veterans middle school. Is it the D winging? Yes, It’s the D winging. So, um, we also have, the roof is leaking and has been actively leaking at the Brown school, um, which is a significant problem ‘cause it’s a brand new school. Mm-hmm. Um,

1:05:41 Todd has been trying to work with the roofers and Gil Bain in left field. Um, he’s, it sounds like he’s getting a bit of a run around. It’s far as it’s not us, it’s them. It’s not us, it’s them. The bottom line is water is actively coming through and it needs to be addressed. Um, is the building committee Still The building committee is still active. Not meeting, but we’re still intact. It’s still a legal entity. Yes. It’s just not, hasn’t been. So would that be the responsibility of the, well, I guess of the pmm? Yes. The O p M needs Address. I reached out to the O P M. Todd also reached out to the O P M and the, um, general contractor today as well. Um, we do have our own, um, roofing contractor coming to look at it tomorrow to determine what the issue is

1:06:26 so that at least we can get some professional guidance. Is there a warranty? There’s a warranty. Um, and this is, this did not just start leaking. No, this has been leaking For about a year. For a year. Which would’ve been within the first year of it being open and started leaking. Yes. So, but every Time we’re told it’s resolved. It’s not. And it’s proven To be. So have they been trying not resolved again? They’ve been trying To, they had been, yes. Remedy it. Yep. So maybe It’s worth an update to the, I mean, I guess to the facilities committee or to the school committee by the next meeting as to what, you know, what the plan is. Yes. And I would particularly, as We’re getting into the winter Months, we talked about the possibility of the opm. ‘cause the OPMs purpose is really to advocate and work in our interests. So it really is on the O P M to be Is he still Still under contract? Um,

1:07:12 No, technically no. But he was at contract the point when this started leaking. So it’s Michelle’s continuing to reach out to him. Does Anyone talk to the chair? I have not. Michelle, have you? No, I haven’t. But that’s the next step. I would Do that. Okay. You reach out to each chair. Um, I mean, you Know, it’s been, So Michelle’s gonna take care of that. Um, once that roof is fixed, um, we’re ready to go with PV there as well. Again, you can’t, you cannot, it does not make sense to put this expensive equipment on a roof that is not functioning because then you’d have to be taking this equipment off to, for the repairs. So we need all these roofs up to speed. Um, who’s paying

1:07:58 For that? The TVs? Um, The, the light department. So, and can We get, maybe ‘cause are we selling back? I mean, how is that? Are we Are That’s my next part. You gotta let me talk. Alright. Um, so Joe was shared with us that the light department would like to set up a joint meeting with the school department to talk about how that relationship will work. What are the benefits for both parties and to work out an m o u if that’s the direction we choose to take. Um, he is going to get us some dates from his committee and a draft agenda that we would then, um, ‘cause we would just post the same agenda. Since they’re their questions. I, I’ve asked him to establish what their questions are so we know what the agenda

1:08:44 are is. ‘cause PV is not my Well is that More of a operational, is that You mean a joint meeting with us? They need a member. He wants a joint meeting with our, his board wants a joint meeting with our board because they need, before they can go to the next step to go out to bid and all this stuff, they need a memorandum of understanding. We’re not here to, to work out when it goes up or how it goes up. But what is there, is there some type of compensation? What is the compensation? Um, we talked about how the schools are the largest consumer of energy and marblehead. We would love to use green energy. However, green energy and marblehead is a higher rate and we can’t pay a higher rate and take education money away from education

1:09:31 no matter how much we wanna be green. So is there a mechanism? Mass General law says you can’t charge different rates to different people. And it’s very, it’s highly governed by mass general law. But is there a mechanism where, say the different, the delta is this amount of dollars for us to use green energy and they’re putting on our roof. Could we then lease the roof roof space for that delta, the price of that delta? So it’s a, a net difference of zero to us and we’re able to use green energy. Can I say if they put solar panels on our roof, we’re generating energy, not paying for energy. So It’s be, it’s, um, he’s gotta ex I’ll have him explain this the way the law states, because we own a private power plant. It’s be, it’s, correct me if I’m wrong, if, if I’m saying this wrong, think it,

1:10:17 but it’s before the, if whether it comes in before the box or after the box, it makes a difference. Mm-hmm. And the way this would be coming in, it would be coming in outside the box. So like, if you put it on your house, it comes in before your box. What you use it ‘cause you contracted a private company. You use it in what is surplus. You then can sell back to the grid. Since the light department would be putting this on. We would not be taking the cost of putting these on. They own the electricity and therefore it’s outside or after the box. Does this make sense? Mm-hmm. So, you know, that’s a difference discussion. Like if you’re saying we wanna own it before the box. I’m Not saying that I’m just, it doesn’t, it doesn’t make any sense to me that what are we buying? We’re generating energy.

1:11:04 We Yeah, we are, we are giving them our roof space. We are not the generators. Uh, they, they will own the PV machines, but we Are gen it’s being generated on our roof. So normally you use that or you store it In batteries. Right. That’s not how it has been explained to us. It was a community program. Must Be. It’s just going back to Marblehead light. So we would probably need To look, we just giving them the space. We need to look at options And see, We may even need to put that out to bid because it would be a revenue generating thing stream for us. Yeah. So that’s where we need to have this conversation because this is municipal energy is so heavily, um, very regulated. Regulated. I’m gonna leave that to the subject matter experts to explain this to us. I’m happy to have this joint meeting. I think it, it, we all are happy to try to be partners with them.

1:11:52 It just cannot cost our students money towards that would other be put towards education. So we’re gonna have a joint meeting with them. We’re gonna have a joint meeting. Um, he’s getting me dates. Okay. We just met with him earlier today. He’ll be coming back to me with some dates. Okay. Would That be a like at a regular school committee meeting or it might be a different, It would be, um, ‘cause he said, because it’s talking about rates, that’s actually a reason for executive session. He said, which I, I I did not know because I don’t know the energy. Right. Executive session pieces. So that’s why I asked him to get me the wording. I will run it by our attorney and make sure it’s appropriate. Mm-hmm. I am making us available. I’m not creating this. Okay. Um, so that’s okay. That’s where we are with that. Can I ask a question? Of course. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the buildings,

1:12:40 but what are the security cameras in the older buildings? Like, you know, the one said Glover in the playground. They were so high, you couldn’t, they were useless. They Were updated last year. I believe They were. I mean, can we get a list of what upgrades have been made to the camera systems in the district? Is that possible? Or is Sure. We could certainly do that. All of our cameras have been updated within the past year. Okay. Yeah. Because that always a critical problem for us. Glover. Yeah. Um, yeah, Stevens done a really good job about getting the tech piece up to speed. Um, and where he said, Well, I can ask Steve on the side Where the report was that we’re up to 95%. It’s, we’re not forgetting that last 5%. It’s just the work is being done right now and then we’ll, everything will be up to speed. Um,

1:13:26 so that was, oh, and the other piece, uh, to facilities we talked about is we’re trying to bring composting now to all of our buildings. It’s been so successful. Um, the issue is Black Earth has not been, um, coming at a regular interval. So then we’re left with de you know, composting food that’s attracting nuisance rodents. And, you know, that creates another issue. So, um, Michelle and Todd were, I think working with Andrew Petty. They have the name of another, um, composting company that actually was doing some pretty amazing stuff. And they’re gonna, they’re gonna work between those two departments to see if we can make that happen. Um, long story short,

1:14:13 we are going to be expanding our composting program to all of our schools once this is in place. I Have a question on facilities. Um, In the spring, oh, there was one more piece. Yeah. Oh, go Ahead. The, we talked about also, um, coffin in particular,

1:14:32 the building at coffin, as we all know is needs to be addressed. Um, Michelle talked to Alicia, and I’ll kick this to her for her to speak to that. Um, what, when whether we decide to keep coffin for educational purposes, and I wanna be clear, that is not the conversation we’re having right now. Or if we decide that it’s surplus and we’re giving it back to the town, either way that building needs to go. It’s a nuisance whether the town, whether we’re keeping it or whether the town is turning it over to a developer or selling it, the cost, the, the building on the property is not only a nuisance when they, if they were to go to sell it, it will cost the town like it, it will devalue the property that, that being on there, you know,

1:15:19 say I’m making round numbers, say it costs 300,000 to level the building. You’re, and it’s still standing there. That’s gonna bring your property value down even higher than that. Because, you know, when you have a fixer upper, it’s not just the cost of fixing it up. It’s, it’s all those things. But, so I’m gonna kick it to Michelle for her to explain the next piece of this. Yeah. So I briefly talked to Alicia, um, Benjamin last month or maybe the month before about this to see if there were any available funds and what our options were. Um, the only available funds that could possibly be used would be surplus funds left over from the, um, brown School Project or Gary School project, as initially was called. And if we did use some of those funds,

1:16:08 they need to go to town meeting because it needs to be repurposed. It was voted as a debt exclusion. Um, so town meeting would have to reauthorize those funds that are, that are currently authorized but not yet borrowed for the project. So basically we’re waiting for Is that Because it wasn’t originally part of the Project? It was part, yes. The Kauffman School was originally part of the scope of the project. So it, it fits into the scope at why Would you have to revote it Because it did not specifically include demolition of an alternative site because it wasn’t on the Brown School or, or Bell School site. So that was an oversight Probably. But was, um, did Alicia feel this was a good idea to pursue? She, in our conversation, she thought it was a good idea to pursue and she thought, um, that it,

1:16:54 it should be a simple process of repurposing those funds. But obviously that is ultimately up to the voters. Okay. But Yes. All right. Um, so that would be next. Kara, are we recording? I just hold No, we record. Who’s jl?

1:17:13 It’s me. Allison was asking Are we recording Or, um, it’s on, it’s on Zoom or I’m sorry. It’s on livestream. Okay. So it’ll be there, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yes, it will be. Um,

1:17:31 so that was my update. Do you have, did you have another question? I think it’s just following on from that. I think as a committee we really do need to decide what we want to do, not just with the coffin school. Obviously that’s the biggest site, but we got a list of properties, um, last spring and we kind of, you know, said we were gonna hold off on deciding on what we were gonna do with all those properties. So I, I guess my request is really to the facility subcommittee to present back to the committee. Mm-hmm. A recommendation for what we should do with each one of those properties that we’re not actively using. Um, and I do think we should talk about that relatively soon because it will feed into, you know, I’m sure budget, conversations, capital plan, you know, capital requests. Mm-hmm. And if we do wanna turn something over,

1:18:17 and I know that’s an if we also wanna make sure that we’re working collaboratively, you know, in partnership with the town so that they have the time to make any plans or recommendations for that at town meeting too. Okay. I will have, I I’m not so sure it would be a subcommittee facility subcommittee job. So, because that mean this is surplus property to me, I think it’s more of a school committee superintendent kind of planning Versus I I agree. But the facility subcommittee, just like the other subcommittees are meant to do kind of like the, the background work. Mm-hmm. And I would like, you know, they’ve got other members on that committee, but what, what is the other one to bring forward some recommendations. What would the recommendations to them talk about? Like, it Would be recommendations of do we need this, you know, future. I mean it’s,

1:19:02 it’s beyond facilities. So we actually, I just wanna, ‘cause this may clarify this. The facility subcommittee did take a vote on recommendations for our land use last spring. And, um, at that time, the recommendation that was voted from our facility subcommittee unanimously, um, and at the time Dr. Bucky voted on this as well, and it was a unanimous vote, was to retain all of these properties be in the reasoning that went behind it. And again, I I

1:19:33 I’m going to pause let’s after this, ‘cause we’re starting to get into a discussion on coffin and that is not what we’re doing here tonight. But since this is reiterating something that happened in a previous meeting, I feel safe doing that. Um, the reasoning behind that was our new school, The day it opened its doors was already beyond capacity for what it was built for. And the trajectory that, that we saw was a declining enrollment, which we saw saw, but then we’ve seen the last two or three years in a row, a slight pickup on that. To my point of land is King Marblehead has no extra land and we took a school offline in the north end of town.

1:20:21 If there is an thought that at any point in the future we could possibly have to put a school back online or at a school online, what I would argue and was argued then, and why we voted unanimously is we owe it to the north end of town, if ever to we’re putting a school back online that we do it in their neighborhood, that that serves equity. That in that neighborhood versus getting all those kids on buses and sending them to the other end of the town. It is what is appropriate if, if we’re adding a school, I’m not saying we’re adding a school, so I don’t wanna be mised on that. If we at some point are adding a school in the future at any point, we owe it to the north end of town to put it in their neighborhood because

1:21:09 that we can’t strip an entire side of town of any ne uh, of any school. All due Respect. But that’s discussion for the school committee. Yeah. I think to discuss. And, and that is coffee school. So maybe we ought to, you know, if you don’t wanna talk about it tonight, we’re not gonna talk or we talk about it tonight. No, I’m just, I’m just telling you this is, this was what was the recommendation and this was the reason for the recommendation. I was reminding Megan, this conversation happened in the spring once. Okay. I will put it on a future agenda. Our next agenda has gotten already exceptionally full, so it won’t be the next agenda, but I will try to get it on the second agenda in October, if not the first agenda in November. I will, I will try to do that. I just have to, I have to make sure our agendas are balanced. I think

1:21:55 That’s fine. And I think coffin, you know, is like we said, the biggest property, but there are some other kind of little parcels dotted around. Yeah, we Was only been explained all of those are adjacent. And Michelle made a spreadsheet that she shared with us at the time are adjacent, they are adjacent to our, our, they give access, they’re required for egress. We, if we sold them, we, we wouldn’t have our set, but like we need to, we, we don’t have the ability to get rid of those pieces. I think it’d just be good to get it all out on the table. We have a new committee here. Yeah. Um, we, We’ll resend that document. So let’s just get it all outlined, mapped out and so we’re all in agreement with what, what we’re doing. We have that. We’ll resend it. Great. It exists. Um, are there other subcommittee and liaison updates?

1:22:42 Well, the superintendent safety committee meeting is going to occur on September 27th. Okay, thank you. Um, I just have for the cpac, they’re gonna be having their board meeting next Wednesday, which is September 27th at 7:00 PM Uh, and just, you know, I had sent, actually again, rewatching the meeting from two weeks ago. Um, I actually had some questions on the, there was a statement that was read into the record by C A A C A MEM member or c a board. I’m not, I’m, I’m not One of the co-presidents of cpac. Um, so I actually had, so I had emailed the two presidents just trying to under, you know, whether I was unsure whether, and again, I was in and out because I was dropping off the meeting. Whether it was the statement regarding, um, the request to be on the committee.

1:23:28 Was it the screening committee? Was that from the board? Was that a board vote? Was it from the board? Was it from the individual or was it from the membership? It was just wasn’t clear to me. So just so do you know that? I’m just letting you know, I sent that out, out to them. I haven’t heard back. I’m sure this Is the first I’m hearing about the request and Yeah, I I don’t know if, I mean, if you’ve asked them, I’m sure they’ll respond to you. Yeah. Yeah. I, it was a couple days ago. I’m sure I’ll hear from them. Um, yeah, You attend all their meetings though, right? Their board meetings? I don’t always attend their board meetings. They have a district meeting also, which I announced last, um, in our last meeting that Paula and I attend. Were you at their last board meeting prior to our previous meeting? No, I was not. Okay. I typically attend the district meeting with Paula and myself. Do you, do you know where we find their minutes? You could ask them. I, we have, we just haven’t heard back. Um, okay.

1:24:15 Um, I, one other question I think I had, ‘cause I had seen something somewhere that there was a, a central p t o council I think was met today or something this morning. Yep. This morning. So I just wanted to, um, so in the past, I don’t, maybe it’s changed in the recent past, there used to be a school committee liaison to central council. So it used to be, it would be the superintendent. At least that was my experience. I, ‘cause I was a rep, it was superintendent and school committee member would attend and participate for a portion of, I think a portion of that meeting. I think they might’ve had their own sort of, so I don’t know whether that has been a practice recent in the recent past or It hasn’t the last couple years when I started. It always was. And when I, when I, and when I went to those, when I have attended those meetings on a, on a, um, from a P T O side, there always was.

1:25:03 So do we wanna be, do, do we want to? I think we, I think it would be helpful, especially as we’re trying to come together as a cohesive community. Um, you know, if, if that’s something you’d like to take on, I would, I would make the recommendation that you take that on. Uh, well I, okay. I don’t know if anybody else wants to do it. Well, should We ask them first if that’s something that they would find helpful? Well, we always did It in the past. It’s always been the practice. Yeah. I’m just suggesting that maybe we chat with ‘em first. I’m not sure what the practice was. I mean, I’m sure it was a few years ago, but today was my first meeting ever. So I’m sure, I think, think if the superintendent’s there, in my experience that it, it’s helpful to have a school committee member there. If it, that’s something that, that the central council’s not interested in that, that’s fine. But I, I think it should be, you know, sort of all in on like,

1:25:52 then the maybe superintendent would not participate. I think the school could, and that’s how it had been done in the past and it was quite effective. So I don’t know what the, you know, maybe with covid, I don’t know. I don’t know what Happened. Lemme look into it a little bit. Okay. I’ll come back to you on That one. Yeah. Yeah. And if they don’t want a district level involvement that’s, that’s, you know, absolute they wanna do their own thing, then that, that’s absolutely fine too. Um, Yep, That’s fine. Alright, so that brings us to, do you have any METCO announcements? Okay. Um, I did receive an email. I saw it in my inbox right as we were signing in about, um, uh, METCO leadership training. I haven’t gotten a chance to read the email yet, but I, but I will. Yeah. It’s not, it, it’s not a lot of information. So if you want more information about the actual event, I’d reach out to Kaia.

1:26:40 Okay. Um, but the event is October 27th at Gillette Stadium. It’s an all day affair and it’s a Friday. Um, and Kaia will be registering anyone, you know, any, um, it’s only open to superintendents, assistant superintendents met co-directors and school committee members. So if any of you’re interested, just let me or occasion know and we can get you Signed up. Do um, I can, I can reach out to her to ask her, but I’m just interested if she went last year and if she can tell me a little bit about it. I believe she did. Okay. But I’ll, yes, I definitely, As long as that’s okay with you, I’ll reach out to her and ask her. So when they say Gillette, is it indoors somewhere at Gillette or is it, I’m assuming so. Okay. Interesting. There’s lots of spaces there. Yeah. Yeah. They must have. I haven’t been there in years. Um, all right. So that brings us to closing business, new business school committee announcements and requests. Um,

1:27:27 anybody have any, if not, I, so one thing I will just talk about is, um,

1:27:35 We do have operating protocols and procedures that, you know, communication with certain communication goes through the chair. Communication with our attorney for one goes through the chair. Um, that in order to streamline, so we don’t have four or five different people asking the same questions of, of employees that, you know, that we try to streamline it. I, I don’t like to use the term through the chair, but that I’m aware so that if for instance, Brian has a question that I know Allison asked someone two days ago, we can get you that answer. And also, if I know you’re asking question a, I can get that answer that you’re getting an answer to, to everybody. Um, because it helps if one person knows something that everybody can know it.

1:28:21 So I would just ask moving forward that, that everybody kind of have the same information and where it pertains also to the attorney that, that if you have a question for our attorney, let me know. I can bring it to them. But individual members should not be calling our attorney on their own. It, it’s not appropriate. Um, correspondence, um, nothing.

1:28:50 Let’s mute. How do we mute? Yeah, it muted. Yeah. Um, correspondence. I have nothing to share at this point. So that will bring me to adjournment at 8 30, 30.