School Committee: December 7, 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 Audio in my, so anybody that is up here with us up here, if you’re on the Zoom, if you just wanna shut, not just your mute off, but your audio, so nothing’s coming through your snee speakers. Mine’s off. Okay.

0:21 All right. We’ll keep trying, um, accommodation. I’ll open it up to accommodations. Does anybody have any accommodations? Um, I’m gonna go out and live and make one. I wanna actually commend our entire community right now. This would’ve been a difficult week to put it mildly. Um, and I think no matter what perspective anybody comes from, I do truly believe that everyone has come to the table hoping to make sure all of our students and staff have the supports they need. And I just, you know, wanna commend, um, everyone for that. So that brings us to public comment.

1:08 There is a sheet right there if people wanna put their name on it. Um, if you don’t mind handing me it when you’re done not to put you on the spot. Um, and then if you want, you can just take a seat and be the first public comment. Since I put you on the spot, I’m really gonna, I apologize. Nice to meet you for the first time here to put you on the spot.

1:29 Oh,

1:35 sorry. Thank you. Sorry. Um, all right. So we’re gonna start with Melanie Andrews. Um, just before we, before I actually officially kick off, I wanna remind everybody about our policy for public comment. First, you’re gonna just state your name and address for the record. We ask that everybody keep themselves to three minutes. Um, and at the time of 15 minutes, we will call public comment. We can always revisit it later in the meeting. But, um, we, we have the policy and we have been trying really hard and proceeding meetings to stick to that. Um, so if everyone can just keep themselves to three minutes and give everybody a, that gives more people a chance to talk. So, Melanie, if you wanna join us, Do you wanna sit Here?

2:21 Yep. And then just Yes, please. It. All the audio’s on, taken care of for you. Okay. Um, and I just have A copy of what my speaking comments are. Just, okay. This is Melanie. Try to keep it to three minutes And I, I read on the tone that You have. Okay. Okay. Um, so again, my name is Melanie Andrews. I live at 13 Tucker Street. I’m a parent of two children’s, two children in the district. Um, so I’ll, I’ll commence, um, a direct quote from the frequently challenged book website by the American Library Association States. When we banned books, we’re closing off readers to people, places, and perspectives. But when we stand up for stories, we unleash the power

3:08 that lies inside every book. My eighth grader came home and presented me with a permission slip. Here was the assignment with a partner. Pick a book from the challenged book, a LA website where you will discuss and debate the book. Get your book selection permission slip signed by a parent. My eighth grader presented me with the slip to sign, along with he and his partner’s book choice, which had a deadline to turn in. So I did what most parents would do and Google the title of the book. I found several references to incest, rape, and that the book was told from the perspective of a pedophile. This was my first red flag.

3:53 I emailed the teacher and was told the book was appropriate for ages 13 to 17, plus red flag for me. Number two, I asked the principal if the health curriculum discussed the topics of incest, rape, molestation, and was told no. Red flag Number three, I go to the Abbott Library’s teen room to check out the book. Can’t find it. I ask the librarian on duty who tells me, and I quote, oh no, that book wouldn’t be in the teen room and directs me to its location. Red flag number four, I go home and read from the book, the rape scene of the father to his daughter. Pages 1 62 to 1 63. A bolt of desire ran down his genitals

4:39 and softening the lips of his anus. He wanted to f her tenderly, but the tenderness would not hold. The tightness of her vagina was more than he could bear. The gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked The only sound she made. Removing himself from her was so painful. He cut it short and snatched his genitals out of the dry harbor of her vagina, she appeared to have fainted. Red flag number five. I could go on with many more passages, but I won’t. As a district, if we are going to have lesson plans with challenge book lists, we need to have school safeguards in place and not just put the onus on parents to do the jobs of our teachers. Here’s some recommended Do betters. In the case of this assignment.

5:26 One, provide these assignments in advance to parents not two days before the permission slip is due back. Another idea, why not distribute a teacher curated list from the land challenged book list at back to school night? Previewing the assignment. Two. Do not have students partner up to select a book. Imagine in this case the social stigma in middle school. When a parent refuses to sign the payer’s book choice, I can hear the teasing in my head. Three, consider how these assignments affect those on IEPs in the classroom. Four. Finally, partner with parents instead of excluding them. Inform parents if controversial topics come up during any class discussion so we can have age appropriate

6:12 discussions with our children. These assignments need to be well planned and executed, not carelessly included. So Marblehead can jump on the bandwagon with the latest national controversy of the day. There is power in books. And just as I don’t send my child to see a movie that is not rated to their age level, I argue that in school assignments, they read age appropriate materials that are from age appropriate reading lists provided by teachers. And respectfully, I ask for the school board’s response. And if you want time to consider that and respond at another time, I certainly grant you that. Thank you very much. Um, please do follow up with some contact information.

6:58 Sure. Thank you very much. Appreciate. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Appreciate It.

7:06 Um, Mary McCarton, 46 Pine Cliff Drive.

7:19 Mary McCarrison, 46 Pine Cliff Drive. You know, I was one of the only people at your workshop meeting last week, and it was pretty much like a clip out of the mean girls film. You want a us the community, the stakeholders to believe in you, but there’s no transparency. And one of you last, last week had mentioned to the facilitator, can our next meeting be enclosed? Session workshop can be enclosed session. There’s no transparency with you people. There’s none. There’s no accountability.

8:04 Look what’s been happening in the last couple of days. I’ve heard that there’s been other things and possibly a, a child has be, has been suspended at another school. We didn’t hear about it. Tonight’s meeting was for the Glover School parents. Why couldn’t that have been for the whole community? Because it affects all of us.

8:29 There’s no transparency. You want an override. Well, let me tell you, I’m in the category of a senior citizen and the senior citizens that I’ve been coming across, they don’t wanna give you the override. They don’t wanna give you the money. You’re seeing what’s going on and they’re not happy about it.

8:49 It goes from all the way to the neck, All the way to the borders of, you know, Salem and stuff like that. I get calls every day from other communities saying, what’s going on over there?

9:07 And one of these communities is Lynn. And you know what? You find out what goes on over in Lynn. The school committee over there is very transparent.

9:20 You want money from us taxpayers. You got to prove yourself to us. ‘cause last year, the month before the election, my taxes went up. $6,000. I still voted for the override last year. If it comes up again, I’m not voting.

9:42 Thank you, Ms. McCarten. Um,

9:49 Lynn, I see Lindsay Smith, but crossed out. No. Come on. Um, Kristen Horton,

10:06 Thank all of you for the volunteer work you’re doing on behalf of our kids. My name is Kristen Dube Horton. I live at 23 Orange Street, Welo, relocated here from Austin, Texas, fleeing the racism that my children faced in Austin schools On behalf of the Marblehead Racial Justice Task Force, which I am a member of, and which has been around Marblehead for more than 10 years. I’d like to read the letter that we submitted to you and you’ve all received already. It was also submitted to the local papers, and our thoughts and comments on it were published, but I wanted it to be part of the public record that folks could just see via YouTube or the internet. This letter was dated November 16th, 2023,

10:53 to the Marblehead School Committee. As a result of the recent situation with the Black Lives Matter F flag at the Marblehead High School, the members of the executive committee of the Marblehead Racial Justice Team are writing to respectfully request you create a policy that acknowledge and allows symbols of affirmation and acceptance, including the Black Lives Matter flag displaying the Black Lives Matter is a symbol is positively correlated to black student success as the pride flag is linked to both academic and SEL success for L-G-B-T-Q-I-A students. A quick search of how other districts in various states who have enacted policy to ban or severely restrict symbols reveals negative outcomes.

11:39 Districts that have attempted policies similar to the ones discussed by your policy subcommittee, were intended to avoid controversy. Instead, bans increased controversy. The A CLU has filed lawsuits claiming the breach of free speech when symbols have been, have been banned. Furthermore, it has been difficult to draw the line at flags without also including posters, pins, clothing, banners, mascots, chants, advertising, and the numerous other means that humans communicate symbolically, because no clear policy can be articulated about what kind of speech is categorically disallowed, confusion and unconstitutionality is particularly practically inevitable. The upshot has been recall elections

12:24 and disrupted school years. We do not wish to see this happen in Marblehead. Your task to determine a sensible policy that embraces ized members of your student body is surely difficult. We wish to see you successfully navigate a fair and equitable procedure to a sensible conclusion. The process may include harsh words and struggle. Already we have witnessed vandalism of the flag in question. Nevertheless, we trust that you have the skills to determine how we might fairly judge flags and other symbols for admission in the schools. That process could involve a public feedback mes mechanism, a committee deliberation and recommendation, and that it’s a superintendent’s final say.

13:12 What we need is clear to us transparency about the process protection for those who seek and deserve it conversation and deeper engagement and the empowerment of students to lead in cultivating and nurturing the values of their school community. Again, we thank you for your volunteer work for our community. Thank you. I don’t have any other names on the list here. If anybody would like to add their name, go ahead. Um, also, I don’t see any hands in the waiting room, but, um, not the waiting room. I apologize in the participant window, but if there’s someone online that would like to speak, um, now would be the time to raise your hand. All right, so, oh wait,

13:58 Um, I don’t have a hand. Well, I think she has her physical hand up. It’s um, oh, um, Virginia O’Brien. Virginia O’Brien. If you would like to unmute yourself and, um, state your name and address for the record, please.

14:18 I might be able to help you. Unmute. Yeah, I should. I. Okay. Okay. Hi. Um, yeah, I’m Jenny O’Brien. I live at Two Garden Road. I’m the person that wrote the letter suggesting that the, uh, group meet, uh, for individual, uh, leadership, coaching and team building. And I just wanna say that I was very glad to hear that you had a workshop, but I also would like to say from my, uh, extensive experience, you can’t expect to help a dysfunctional team perform at their best with only one workshop. So I don’t think you could have expected that you would’ve had the best outcomes after only one workshop. And I also would just like to say that I do think it’s really important for you to have that workshop in private. It’s not a matter of not being transparent. It’s a matter of having safety

15:04 for yourselves when you’re trying to figure out what you did wrong and what you need to do better. And you can’t do that. Um, you can’t do that effectively when you are totally ex exposed to the public. You need to really have some safety in order to work on your own issues. So that’s my experience that I just like to share with you. Thank you, Ms. O’Brien. I appreciate that. Um, so that brings us through the end of public comment. I am gonna take an item out of order, um, just due to where we are right now, um, on our agenda is school committee operating protocols. Before we move throughout the rest of the meeting, I think it, it’s good practice for us to take this opportunity to reaffirm those. We hadn’t gotten to do that yet.

15:50 So those have all been in your Dropbox. I’m assuming everyone’s had time to review them. So I will ask for a motion to approve the school committee protocols as presented, and then we can open that up for any discussion. So moved. Move by Jen Schaffner. Second, seconded by Allison Taylor. So, just to give a little bit of backstory on this, we had, we had had, um, pro we’ve, we’ve had protocols for years, um, over the last several years. They grew kind of from one page to six pages, um, which became cumbersome. And one of the pieces of feedback that came back through working with our, uh, contacts at Mass Association of School Committees is it’s really best practice to have, you know, one pager, maybe bleed a little bit onto the second page.

16:36 Six pages of protocols become so unruly that people kind of tend to forget them or not adhere to them. So we’ve gone back and after reviewing, um, them, I was able to see there’s a, as you know, our MASC rep said there was a lot of common themes. We talked about this, um, as part of our communications. And so we just boiled it back down to, to what we were, the meat of what we were trying to get at. And, um, so those, that is reflected in what is recommended, uh, or what was in our packet. So I will now open it up for discussion. Um, and after discussion, we can take a vote to approve or not. All right, no discussion. So I will ask for a roll call vote ‘cause we have a member joining us remotely today.

17:22 Megan Taylor. Yes. Allison Taylor approved. Brian OTA approved. Jen Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries five to zero. So that’s a great kickoff to, um, next we will be having our district update from Dr. Theresa McGinnis, who will also introduce to us, um, everybody else. Thank you, chair Fox. Uh, I’d like to take this moment To provide you with some updates, um, on some events at Glover School this week, um, to make sure. Excuse me. Oh. Um, so I’d like to begin by saying all of our students, whether they’re enrolling from California, from Portugal, or from Boston, are all a meaningful part

18:10 of the Marblehead School community once they’re enrolled in our district. And we are very fortunate to have all of them here. We respect and we teach and we care for each of our students equally. So I wanna provide you with a recap of recent events at Glover School. Firstly, Glover School principal, uh, hope Doran has taken a medical leave as of December 5th, and we really wish her well wishes. We are most fortunate to have Principal Matt Fox as our newly appointed acting principal at Glover School through winter break. He’s an outstanding principal and it was evident that the Glover team appreciates his

18:56 collaborative and supportive approach already today. He immediately jumped into all lunches, all recesses, and he even got into several classes to meet the students. He didn’t quite fit into the chairs, so we may have to include a little bit more. Um, we met with the Glover parents this afternoon after some technical difficulties ‘cause there are so many very engaged parents there. They only had a hundred spots, but we worked it out after a period of time, which was good. Um, and I was invited to in to join the PCO there, which was great timing. Um, so we continued to communicate with our Glover parents through this process with news updates and plan.

19:42 Another opportunity before winter break to discuss our progress before then. Additionally, we are launching into an immediate search for an acting principle for the duration of principle hope do’s leave, which is undefined at this time. Furthermore, the assistant superintendent, Julia Ferrera, will return to Veterans Middle School as acting principal for the time being. While Matt is with our littles, we are very grateful for their dedication and their willingness to assist the district wherever and whenever it is needed. There was no reluctance for that change. They, uh, are, I really appreciate their work

20:29 and I know that Matt and I will work very closely to support the staff and the students at Glover School through this. Another update is that our Glover families were notified that we had a student medical emergency this week, which is now resolved. And as you likely all know, student and personnel information is legally confidential and we are not at liberty to share any more information regarding our staff and our students around this. Additionally, we are also expediting the investigation into our practices due to recent incidents involving a restraint of a general education student at the Glover School. As a district, we want

21:15 to review when student restraints should be used, the procedures that are used during those restraints. And we want to ensure that there’s an administrative review is thorough and unbiased. So we have secured the services of an outside third party evaluator, an attorney who specializes in education policy. And we’re making sure we’re expediting this process. We will be transparent and forthcoming in so far as the law allows. And this includes full transparency when making the administrative review documents available upon request when completed and only legally required redactions.

22:00 We will use these data from this report to create a prioritized action plan to make changes likely in policies, practices, training, professional development in myriad areas. I want you to know that my administrative team has spent the last two full days at the Glover School and we have felt, and we have observed the love and the care of the staff there and of the entire Glover team. We’ve met with the Glover faculty both yesterday and then again today. And I have to tell you today felt a lot better in terms of us moving through these challenges together.

22:48 I can assure you with confidence that Matt Fox and I will work closely together to support our teachers and all of our staff members in providing an excellent education for all of our students within a safe learning environment. And finally, as your new newly appointed interim superintendent who has been in Marblehead public schools for a month, I have not had the luxury of a quiet summer to get to know the lay of the land, all of the important leaders in the town. However, I have met with a lot of them in short time. I have needed to hit the ground running and believe I’ve done just that. While I am trying to gather the data

23:35 to create an entry plan, I have also been required to simultaneously implement a plan building the plane as it’s in the air, as you will. I have loved my first month here as your interim superintendent and I have also noted some areas that are clear we need to improve. In my short time here of one month, it has become clear to me that the district is lacking a number of procedures and protocols necessary for a district to run smoothly while continuing to run the district as efficiently and effectively as possible. I, along with my leadership team, will be working on revising and creating the necessary protocols and procedures to ensure that we are all on the same page,

24:23 that our teachers have all that they need for resources and support to ensure an excellent education for all of our students. I will continue to keep you updated as we identify and create new procedures. And I’ll ensure you that when we roll them out to the appropriate stakeholders, it will be efficient, effective, and in a timely manner. I thank you for supporting our educators as we work to keep each other well today and every day. And at this time, I would like to invite you to hear some words from Mrs. Jane Trembley, who is from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, and she’s gonna share a little bit about this process.

25:10 Okay, so my name is Jane Trembley and I am a little bit about me. First. I’m retired educator from Linfield. I served 36 years in the Linfield Public Schools as a teacher, as a principal, and as a superintendent in my retirement. I now work for Mass Association of School. Superintendents job for them is to be one of the facilitators for the new superintendent induction program. And I also get the joy of being a coach to brand new superintendents around the commonwealth. And so about a month ago, I got a call from the director of the program who said, Marblehead has named an interim.

25:57 And I said, who is the interim? And they said, Theresa McGinnis. I had two first thoughts. One, I am so happy for Marblehead. Theresa and I have known each other for a long time as colleagues when she was an assistant superintendent and I was a superintendent. And the next thing that I thought was, oh my gosh, I hope they asked me to coach her, which they did. And so my job working with Theresa is really to be her sounding board and to be the person that she can ask questions to, to bounce ideas off of. In the other job that I have is, as Theresa begins to know your community, I know she was here a while ago, but know your community through the lens of a superintendent

26:43 is to really help her to continue to think and act strategically. Mm-Hmm. Even as an interim superintendent, it is super important for her to gather data in these next few months so that she can help all of you and all of you have the very best education for the students in Marblehead because that’s what they deserve, right? So she’s gathering all this information and during her entry findings, she will do a formal report of entry findings. Most superintendents in the program do it around February, March. Theresa’s will probably more be closer to April, may, or June given the fact that she just started.

27:29 Um, and that report will, will highlight some of the great things that everybody’s doing here in Marblehead. And it’ll also highlight some of the things, some of the challenges that you face as a community, as you continue to work for the students as you continue to serve the students. So it is my pleasure and it’s really an honor to be here and to, um, work in this community, work with Theresa, get to know her administrative leadership team. So thank you for the opportunity for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. I have to tell you, one little adjunct to that is, um, Jane was here for about four hours one day this week and we were huddled together with my admin team and after she left, they said, you hit the jackpot.

28:17 I’m like, Uhhuh, uhhuh. So thank you Jane. You’re welcome.

28:23 Um, so can I just ask you a quick question? Yes, absolutely. We had spoken last week when we were talking about the goals. We had some questions that we thought maybe Dr. Trembley could help us with. So I don’t know, maybe you’re doing that online and we’ll talk about it. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure. Absolutely. We’ll follow up. This one, this wasn’t even, It was more, I’m Sorry, I wanna Make sure It was more of an eval question that you might be able to answer. What all of us were asking is, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that we don’t love the DEI rubric. I don’t think anybody loves the, it’s a really bad, um, is there a requirement of this program that that rubric is used? Like, because we wanna do whatever supports meeting the needs of the program, but if we don’t need

29:09 to use this DEI rubric this year, I it not being a a, a rubric that really functions at a high level, I, I think we would like not to. So is it a requirement of the new superintendent’s program for you on your end? So the new superintendent’s program really has nothing to do with the evaluation of the superintendent. Okay. Our job is really to help superintendents hit the ground running. Okay. Have a successful entry to help them to get to know the districts that they’re going to. Okay. Perfect. And even though the rubric just a little ad like a little ad lib here, because I have Dorothy in my ear telling you this as well. I know she, yeah. Um, even though the rubric is not easy to work with, it actually, um,

29:56 it’s helpful in terms of it’s consistent. It’s consistent, it’s objective, it’s, there’s no biases in it. Okay. And so if people start to make up their own rubric, sometimes they make up a rubric that of things that they want to see or they want hear. Okay. So it keeps all of our superintendents on level people. Okay. That’s quite, that’s definitely a good lens to look at it through and that will be a bigger discussion as we get more through the process. Mm-Hmm. But from the get go, we knew you would have the answer of if it was a requirement. So we wanted to put you on the spot and do that. So I thank you. Um, does anybody else have any further questions? Alright. All right. Um, so that will bring us to, um, we gonna do a budget update. Oh yes. Yes.

30:43 Um, Michelle, way down there. Yes. So good to see you. We have a special guest tonight, so I’m sorry you’re down there, but you’re valuable report. Um, we’d love you to give us a budget update. Thank you. Sure. Yes. Earlier this week we started, um, well, well before that we actually started our fiscal 2025 budget process. Um, earlier this week the admin council met to begin the budget discussions. Um, our budget workbooks were distributed two principals on November 21st and are due back on Monday, December 18th. Um, the budget books are planned to be distributed to the school committee and town officials on January 12th. Um, the budget will consist of two requests, one for a level services budget with additional information

31:29 regarding costs for continuous school improvement. And a second budget will be a level services budget, I mean a level services and a level funded budget. Um, as part of the budget process, we are taking on a labor accountability project, which it reviews our staffing and enrollment levels, um, which will be part of the whole process available to everyone. Um, we have also looked at building a methodology with our approach on how we will arrive at a level funded budget if we are not able to secure an override this year. Um, so we will continue to work as a team and move forward and tweak this no override budget process and, um, hopefully have some

32:15 figures for you in the coming weeks. Um, does anybody have any questions for Michelle? Michelle, I, if I can just ask you to, if like a lot of the acronyms we use, although they’re not acronyms Mm-Hmm. If you can just give a brief description of Mm-Hmm. You know, level funded versus level service. ‘cause I think to a lot of people they don’t really understand their, where there might be a difference. If you could just walk everybody through that briefly. Yep. So our, the level funded budget, which means, Um, Currently our budget is roughly $44 million. So a level funded budget, which would mean that our next year budget would remain at $44 million.

33:01 So due to costs of items, increasing staff costs, utility costs, um, tuition costs, those increase. So therefore we would have to make cuts to our budget to maintain it at the $44 million level. Um, a level services budget, which would be

33:21 taking the $44 million and transporting it to the same level of services, but what it would cost next year. So whether that be $46 million, um, that is what we term a level services budget. So services would not be impacted, they would remain the same, but the cost of doing business would increase. So we have a level services budget and a level funding budget. So level funding means our funding stays the same level services mean our services stay the same, but our budget does increase. Okay. Thank you for that, that description. ‘cause I think it’s really helpful as we go through this process to keep re remove reminding everybody what those definitions are because if you’re not familiar, I would think they were the same thing. All righty. Yes, no, No problem. Thank you. Um, next in the agenda,

34:08 school community communication discussion items, we have village scoreboard, donation requests, consent. Yep. So I’m skipping around a lot today, people, sorry. Um, I do apologize. I skipped consent, action and agenda items, the schedule of bills, which was ever in everyone’s packet. I’ll ask for a motion to approve the identified schedule of bills totaling $345,245 and 8 cents. So move second. Moved by Jen Schaffner and seconded by Allison Taylor. Discussion that brings me to a roll call vote. Megan Taylor.

34:45 Yes. Allison Taylor approved. Brian Oda approved. Jen Schaffner in favor, Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries five to zero. Next we have the approval of minutes. I’ll ask for a motion to approve the minutes as presented for 8 18 23. That was in ev, everyone’s packet. So moved. Second. Moved by Jen Schaffner, seconded by Allison Taylor. Discussion

35:11 Sarah, I’m gonna understand because I don’t believe I was at the meeting. Okay. Um, there is one, um, spelling error in a name from public comment. So we will just relay that out. And with the exception of the spelling error, I am ready to approve those. So I’ll ask, um, we’ll still do a roll call. Vote. Megan. She was abstaining. She needs to say, um, Brian Oda. She saying both, um, approved. Allison Taylor. Jen Schaffner in favor. Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries 4 2 0 with one abstention, um, for the school committee communication discussion items, the village scoreboard donation request.

35:57 This was presented to us by Marblehead Youth Football. The per the point contact person on this was Jason Glass. I’d been, um, playing a little bit of phone tag. Finally was able to connect midday today. Mr. Glass, um, hard agreed. He wanted to postpone this and he asked till after the first of the year, um, when they can, he wants, he would like to join us in person to present some information and, um, given a few other factors that they just want a clarification on, he had thought that that was best, um, to do that. So we will put this on an agenda that I can make sure he can be here in person after the first of the year. Um, this brings us to subcommittee in liaison updates.

36:42 We did have a finance liaisons meeting, I think was covered very well by what Michelle brought us through. Um, and I don’t believe policy has met since then. Um, we met prior to the last meeting, correct? Yes. Okay. Um, Megan, do you have any updates from CPAC or meco? I believe CPAC has an event tomorrow. Yep. CPAC has an event tomorrow at noon via Zoom. Okay. Um, so that brings us through that. Um, does anybody have any new business school committee announcements and requests?

37:22 No. Um, all right. I do not have correspondence to enter right now, and so I will ask for a motion and a vote pursuant to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30 a Section 12 A for the purpose. Three, to conduct strategy sessions with respect to collective bargaining requested and litigation threatened in the MEA letter dated 12 6 20 23 with the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect in the position of the committee with the intent not to return to open session. So moved. Second. Moved by Jen Schaffner, seconded by Allison Taylor. Uh, roll call vote. Megan Taylor? Yes. Allison Taylor approved. Brian OTA in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor,

38:08 Sarah Fox in favor. Motion carries five two. I’ll ask everybody, um, to leave the zoom. I’ll give you a minute or two and then I’ll do my end of removing people and everybody in the room to remove themself. I’m gonna give us a five minute recess. Um, our attorney will be joining us and I’m just gonna let her know to, to log in now and if anybody has to use the restroom really quick. So I’ll give us a five minute.