School Committee: June 26, 2024

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2:51 muted how we doing good perfect I can hear you now yeah sorry I got stuck with the move I apologize for zooming welcome thanks for join thanks for for making it it’s a hot one out there um welcome El welcome uh we have a few folks here in the audience um so first thing is I don’t uh have public participation on here it was and then somehow dropped off and we amended it so I don’t know if it’s the will of the committee I’m going to ask if it’s the will of the committee to have public participation um does anyone here want to speak okay um there may be some folks online so is the committee interested in opening up to public comment yeah absolutely jennif if you want help I can let people in if you want to make me a co-host um sure although Frank is doing it too but I oh that’s fine then Frank

3:37 Frank’s got it under control are you okay Sarah with um public comment great okay no one in the audience here we have a couple folks are interested anyone online on Zoom interested if you’d like to raise your hand I don’t see anybody okay so I’m going to close public comment um I am I do not have scheduled bills so that is not necessary I thought there would be one but there’s not um the amended uh agenda included this next item which is um as many of you know the boosters had uh raised a significant amount of money to replace the turf field at Piper field at the high

4:26 school and apparently the bid for the turfield came in lower than was expected so there is a remaining balance that can be and is being requested to be used to replace and upgrade the lighting at Piper field that was part of excuse me the original plan and had been scaled back when they thought the um tur was going to be higher priced so they feel they have the the balance there to to do that to include the replacement and upgrade to the lighting in order to do that we have to accept the donation uh there is a little bit of a um time press here which is why they came to us um this week uh because they want to get the order in so they can get it procured and get it installed prior to fall sport

5:13 start so I’m going to ask for a motion to accept the donation of Marblehead boosters for replacement and upgrade to the lighting at Piper field up to an amount of

5:27 $200,000 by Brian second second by ad uh the only thing I do want to state is I had a conversation with a couple of outside sports groups that just had a few question oh Sarah let me just make a quick comment and then I’ll I’ll go to you um couple outside groups had questions uh regarding um accessibility of the um field particularly in the evening with the use of the lights so I obviously that’s not my purview um and couldn’t comment on that but I did say um that this would be referred to the superintendent um R next week and the athletic director so they will um be working with outside sports groups that are nons School related um to to determine a process around accessibility to the to the field um

6:16 Sarah um yes I just first of all I want to thank Mafi for her continued efforts she continues to surpass um what anybody can imagine as far as the fundraising and the support of our Athletics and our um facilities but one question that arose through this process when the scope was added for the lights because that was not part of the original scope um was whether or not this had to go out to bid separately originally it was requested to be a change order and I believe the last thing I saw was Mary Deli Thatcher and Alicia all came back and said it did need to go back out to bid separately it needed to become a separate contract um due to the state Frameworks for the bid bid process is

7:02 all of that still being um adhered to um yes as a matter of fact um there were a flurry of emails in the last two days as well that I saw um and what they did what thater was able to do because he is the procurement officer now and I spoke with him at length um yesterday is he we were able to procure this through a purchasing or procurement uh Co-op or Consortium so yes he has he has signed off on that completely so it’s all that’s that’s all said he confirmed that by email yesterday and that includes um the change order for the OPM um as well as the installer um that I don’t know I can find

7:50 out I don’t that I don’t know I just know when I spoke to him and he can he confirmed to me that um he was he was confirming that as procurement officer he was improving this

8:06 process okay it just I just want to make sure we’re following that as we go through we’ve had issues and concerns in the past regarding um just making sure we’re we’re doing everything financially transparently and making sure everything’s perfect so let’s just I just wanted to make sure that we were um following uh Mary dei’s advice okay so I I think we can uh ask for the vote and then I can certainly follow up um with well it’ll be Mike probably piffling at this point um and reconfirm with thater but I had a long conversation and Mary’s email Mary was on those emails as well when it was

8:46 confirmed no anyone else Allison any comments no no I’m I’m gonna I’m G to assume Thatcher is hopefully following all those rules so all right so I’m going to call for a vote if there’s no other discussion Brian Oda in favor Al Williams in favor uh Sarah Fox in favor Ellison Taylor in favor to zero great I don’t know if thank you to the boosters pass that on to I will let her know that okay I’m going to move on to um school committee communication and discussion items um which really was the Genesis of this meeting tonight which is the discussion of the independent investigation that we were

9:33 uh had on our agenda last week last Thursday we had you know we had a very robust um and um significant public comment and comments from the community and so I put this on the agenda tonight for us to have a discussion or deliberation on you know really on next steps on how we want to move forward um we had been asked to approve one of three investigative investigators that were provided to us or suggested to us from our Council and we did not move forward with that last week so we have this here tonight to deliberate on next steps and also on the nature of our comment we heard from the P comments we heard from the public last week so I’m going to

10:19 open it up to discussion by the committee so I I just want to make sure we are clear for anybody that’s tuning in this week that didn’t tune in last week or for you know anyone that will in the media we did all agree that we would be moving forward with an independent investigation we were just not comfortable voting on one of those three and I think we wanted to dive deeper I understand they were suggested by the lawyer and that’s wonderful and we’re grateful for that but I think um given the the brevity of the situation we wanted to make sure that we did a little bit deeper dive into them and and perhaps if possible have um have them come to discuss with us or give a

11:04 presentation or talk about what their findings will be and what their reporting out will be which I think is one of the most important things we mentioned last week also I just want to make sure that anyone listening is is clear on why it’s not that we didn’t vote it’s not that we don’t support doing

11:26 that I have I have concerns about how deep we investigate the investigators because I think the more we talk about them and look at them and maybe even get public comment I saw there was some correspondents at school be ask me if they could get people to look at I think that would be a mistake put a bias on the spin and so I think we should just look at the qualifications of the three we got and vote on their um professionals I mean I we could ask more questions like what exactly are we going to get because two of them didn’t give us that but I think any questions about how they’ve handled them in the past what their verdicts were or anything like that would be pushing us towards um

12:12 influencing investigators yeah that’s I wouldn’t suggest that either

12:19 y Sarah has her hand up oh Sarah sorry go ahead hi yes um so I just want to make sure I’m clear because I thought when we put this off till tonight the reason was we were going to have them here so that we could they could make a presentation each of them could make a presentation to us so has anything changed from the information we have last week to this week do we have more information are they here to talk to us is anything changed at all no they’re not here to talk to us um that was not my understanding at the end of the meeting last week my understanding what I took away and it was a long night um was that we were going to deliberate and discuss what we heard at the meeting last week and how do we want to move forward not necessarily with those three and therefore it was uh

13:05 not finalized that we would have them in attendance tonight okay um so I I want to make a motion then to award the contract to Kirker pagit um they from their presentation I felt were the most qualified they handled the largest scope of this it’s their area of expertise um is doing investigations into workplace um in proprieties and other such things they were the ones that gave us the conduct of the investigation what could be outlined in the investigation report um really outlined the scope and like I said the other ones had you know single digit one talked about a dozen these are hundreds um if you went to did a deeper dive into them and what they’ve done through um this you know in

13:50 Massachusetts alone this this is the firm that I think is by far the most qualified so I’m making a motion to award the contract to Kirk or pagit

14:06 a second for discussion continue to discuss um you can second it if you want to if you don’t want to Second it you don’t have to and we can still continue to discuss yeah is there a feeling that we are going to bring people in or is that do we feel that to me if we’re not going to do that I’m comfortable going ahead with the recommendation um I tried to do some you know just web investigation my own um and only one of the other firms I think it was DP law talked about over having over a hundred uh cases so you know I but uh Kevin o didn’t mention anything about that so I’m a little weary so I would kind of put that particular firm at the bottom um I tried to see if any of them mentioned

14:52 mentioned mentioned specifically anti-Semitism but I didn’t find any of that they did talk about religious harassment and discrimination um so um but if we’re not going to you know take you know if we don’t if we’d rather just bring someone in of the three that have been recommended to us I would go with the one that’s s recommended okay so there’s a motion on the table if we’re not going to Second it the motion dies then we shouldn’t be discussing the

15:24 motion well we that’s true we can discuss what we were discussing now if your motion doesn’t so is the dead to appoint I’d still like to bring them in I I don’t I’m not looking to over investigate the investigators Brian at all and I think that you’re right there are um certain lines we don’t want to cross when we’re interviewing but I think it’s okay to want to bring someone in and ask for for their report out these might be the three that the lawyer but there might be more um that the lawyer could provide that we could look at I think we know that one of them already mentioned and no experience with anti-Semitism I believe if I remember from last week um correctly again it was a long meeing um so I would still like

16:11 to bring um bring folks in not for an exhaustive presentation just 15 minutes each so we have a motion on the table I have not heard a second I’ll second okay okay so we have a second um okay so we can continue to discuss this um Elson did you have any other comments no just not more than what I said okay um so I agree with you um Allison um I what I heard last week was from a community of over 200 people that had very very strong feelings and concerns about the process of how we’re going to go forward with this investigation I do not feel that we are in a huge hurry to FastTrack this and what I heard what I

16:57 FastTrack this and what I heard is is a desire by the community to have this um a more robust procurement process if that’s the word for it or um review of who the investigators are what that looks like I don’t know and that’s what I wanted to talk about want to discuss tonight um I also you know want to state that we have a new superintendent coming in on Monday um this is going to be a very important part um uh of his you know initial work here in the district and I do feel that he should be part of this I know this you know that we are

17:43 the ones hiring you know technically these in this investigation we’re we’re starting this investigation it’s going to be reported to the school committee but I do think that John should be part of that and I don’t see a downside to waiting till he comes on board um and getting his thoughts on this and also trying to decide how we can involve the community in helping us determine what the right firm is I think if we go forward with it I’m not saying that the firm that is on the table um is not the right firm um I just don’t know um and there were some very very strong feelings by the community particularly the Jewish Community here in Marblehead but not not just the Jewish community that this be a very thorough and thoughtful process on how we go forward

18:32 so I I feel I am not ready to make this can I say something y I am concerned that the longer we delay this the longer it will take and look at the survey we asked to do for special education took a year before it was started we’re not going to get it for year I think we need to move around quickly on this this thing is Catching Fire I’ve seen so much correspondence for against or against it’s hard to figure out what the truth is and the long of the Wast the more it’s going to get Amplified as the time goes on so my cut is to move fast on this and I want to caution us as well I had had um asked the attorney to join us last week he was very very clear with me that when we were discussing this we

19:18 could discuss the firms he said do not discuss um you know anti-Semitism he was very clear about not discussing that um he said once we get into that we need to post um at to hear a complaint against an employee and we need to give them 48 Hours noticed and there was a lot um it’s they have a right for it to be an executive session so I just want to make sure that we’re not um bridging into playing playing the investigator or the jury on this um so I just that that is my concern I don’t want to further in it put ourselves in a position where

20:08 purview I don’t think wanting to interview um the people that we are hiring to do what I consider an extremely grave investigation um is writing an RFP is waiting a year um Brian and I would argue that last week’s meeting um I I understand you weren’t present um it was incredibly heavy as it should have been that the topic is very heavy um and I think whether whatever side people landed on on this topic the clear message was that they want an independent investigation

20:54 and they want it done properly they don’t want it rushed both you know I don’t want to say sides I think there’s probably 87 sides to every story but every single person that spoke regardless of what else they said their focus was this we need to have an independent investigation and it needs to be done properly and in my opinion I’ve never just hired somebody off of looking at their resume um that’s just not from a a business perspective um what sits well with me it would never we think a timeline would be so you know obviously there’s Merit on both sides of this but I think I’m starting to lean towards having to do this right uh just

21:40 given the gravity of the situation um and our meeting our last meeting that being said you know someone could tell me oh by the next school committee meeting we will make a vote then I’m okay with that but I’m not you know in the you we have to put together to me almost like a project planner right what happens next are we bring the people in when are they in by and we’re going to make a decision by this date I’d be more comfortable if we had that set out so that we don’t make you know we do this as quickly as possible but as you know as effectively as possible also Sarah yeah because I want to make sure that we um are set up for success for getting this accomplished and giving our leadership team to implement the recommendations that come out of it because the most important thing is

22:27 implementing the the um recommendations and making sure that all of our our students our staff and community members have a place that they can go to be educated and work that is um safe for them so I want to make sure that we we are cognizant of getting this done in a timely manner um we did have our um our Council they didn’t just you know take the top three in the phone book um they did go through and call multiple different firms not everybody was willing to engage in this um not everybody had the band so we’ve kind of these These are the three I and I apologize again I must have misunderstood I really thought we were utilizing today to do that second piece otherwise I’m not sure what’s different from right now versus NE last week um but I I will call for the vote

23:20 now I would um like it’s a priority motion yeah okay Sarah I someone can amend it if they don’t take vot no it can’t be

23:40 amended okay you can take the vote go ahead take the vote I mean I’m not yeah ran in favor T fox in favor Alison Taylor no do not what I don’t know what I’m supposed to say I’m forgetting because I haven’t voted no in a long time I guess no do not support it Al Williams no J chapter no so it does not pass to to Al’s point I would like to make a motion that we set a date I think that’s a strong um course of action to have you know whether it’s these three or whether there’s someone else added um to the list come in and just provide us with a brief presentation as well as

24:26 their output because I do think that’s important and um by our next by you know two weeks from today Al are you okay with that yes timeline you

24:45 know so Alison you have a motion yes but I’m probably not doing it right so that’s okay it’s my first ad hoc motion I’m making a motion to um to put um a t to time box our setting up these interviews with the um three groups if there ends up being more than three groups that’s okay and um to two weeks from today so two we within the next two weeks we will have a school committee meeting that will include the companies that will do the investigation um providing a short you know five 10 minute presentation ask a question or two and we will vote um to hire one of them at that meeting so that that brings us to the

25:32 week of July 8th so just before we move to a second I just want to make sure that that date’s going to work that week will work for every everyone no one’s on vacation or otherwise out of pocket I am out of town for um those two weeks but I’m happy to zoom in and make myself available okay so I have a motion on the um table to uh move this um hiring of an investigator to a school committee meeting the week of July 8th and that would be in the form of an interview process for firms to come in we would have them interview for a period of time and then we vote that evening that being a an important vacation week I just want to make sure that we’re not going to

26:18 exclude any firms that are unable to attend um can we give them availability the week prior as well because those are probably the two biggest vacation weeks of the summer being the fourth and the week following yeah but the week but well that’s next week um and that’s the week of the 4th we can I don’t know if folks are available unless we want to move it out to the week of the 15th I think any week in in July or August is going to be vacation for

26:49 somebody I would prefer not to do it the week of the 4th um but I can make myself available if needed and we can ask them I mean it doesn’t have to be two weeks from today exactly whatever that date it works out on the calendar I just meant within the next two weeks um that they’re available I would imagine within the next two weeks there has to be some availability do I have a motion on the table anyone want to second that second it okay any further discussion well I’d like more information about what we mean by interview because again my concern is interviewing questions will start leading the

27:37 direction of the investigation I say I’m okay with it if we’re just going to have present what they’re going to give us for our dollar and then vote on three but to ask questions even the word interview indicates that we’re going to start questioning what they’re going to do so I I am very concerned about biasing the investigators well we’re hiring somebody so an interview is is what you call it could we um we’re procuring them so could we ask them to give a could we um ask them to provide the scope and timeline um rather than an interview ask for scope timeline and a scope of

28:23 deliverables process and um timeline so that would take away any any concern about um the US overstepping and taking away the independent nature of this my only concern with that is it was very clear last week that we are being asked to ensure that the firm that comes forward has had either experience or had some kind of expertise in anti-Semitism that there was a very large request that these this be the um you know International Holocaust remembrance alliance definition of anti-semitism I don’t want to get into that level of detail um but I’m afraid

29:09 that scope and timeline is not going to necessarily give us that information yeah I mean I I would expect them to give us a presentation on their firm on their firm’s experience and talk about exactly what they would do for Marblehead Public Schools including a timeline including what their process is and including reporting out um and does their report out include recommendations um as

29:42 well we we talked about this with with the booster the booster uh donation but depending on how much this is does that affect how we have to procure it now I know that probably have to be a big estimate right but you know we we talked about RF Fe or not our fee but there are are there certain procurement procedures that we have to follow given the amount that this may be there may be and that would be something that might your and that would be good to and that might be the framework I think Sarah that you’re suggesting right would would be you know um this the this guidelines are 50,000 um and if it’s going Beyond 50,000 quite frankly we don’t I don’t know that we have a funding source and we would have to then find what the funding what we’re cutting to get to

30:28 here the other thing we could since we have Mike um and John rolling on as well as we have to remember Lisa Marie because if a student service is not is not just special education it really truly is all student services so this is something she would have a hand in as well um we could approve up to a certain threshold and enable our administrators to go through the procurement process and and um that’s typically how this would be done I mean where we are right now is a pretty big overstep to where we normally would be to to procuring an independent investigator the only reason were this involved if is it was at at the end of

31:14 the term of the last superintendent and we the thought was we would take this on because it would be done before the new superintendent came on and if we’re saying we’re rolling into when he’s going to come come on we may want to talk about um allocating or enabling him to spend up to a certain threshold and handing this off to our Central admin I mean Teresa was still here she if it if that was I’m not sure her last official day was last Friday yeah but there was no this wasn’t going to be done before this is going to take a period of time we knew that this wasn’t going to be done before the superintendent I I agree but if if we’re saying it was a superintendant role I thought the expectation last week from the agenda was that it would be voted on and done if we were voting last week

32:01 Teresa could have done it last so no she couldn’t because it was because she was part of um the complaints lodged none of our administrators could run the investigation normally it would have been done in-house but everybody in our Administration right for theing for the procur had someone um not even the procurement they would have run the investigation originally it start it was going to be run in house but so many different emails came back and forth that it um took away any conf uh it it brought a conflict of interest to every single one of our members of our Administration but if we’re bringing on a new Administration they do not have that same conflict I’m perfectly comfortable giving them the bandwith to

32:47 to manage this I do still think it needs to be time blocked to Al’s Point yeah and I feel like we’ve kind of come full circle because I was hoping that we would have been able to bring in John robo into this um is what I said I think yeah I I and Lisa Marie to Sarah’s Point absolutely should be part of it so do we have a motion on the table to set a date for a presentation to us for the for uh the week of July 8th but if we aren’t going to be from the discussion that we just had it sounds like the better motion would be to um you would have to withdraw your

33:34 motion I think okay it’s withdrawn I withdraw my motion then and the better motion would be um to Sarah’s point to vote to procure or provide them with the ability to procure with a specific amount of funding is that what you’re suggest instead yeah I would um I make a motion to allocate up to to $25,000 for the use of an independent investigation into all allegations made procurement of said independent investigation to be determined and reported out by um John

34:24 second second okay now I want to be clear as I don’t want this to look like this is us trying to pass the B I fear that that’s what will what what may come out of this um I think Sarah explained it quite well that the reason it couldn’t be done by anyone in the original Administration is because they number one they were all leaving but number two they were part of the complaint right and so now we’re just because it’s a new Administration we’re able to follow the standard process and let them do the procurement and we provide the I want to amend it to add um procurement no later than July

35:18 10th that gives him is there a second on the amendment yeah second I second that so what’s the whole U proposal Sarah the whole proposal would be I made a motion to allocate 20 up to $25,000 to investigate the multiple allegations that have come in regarding this

35:46 matter procurement to be determined by John Ro superintendent John robodo and awarded no later than July 10th and Alison

35:59 second so um I I’m going to make one comment about that um and that is first of all John I spoke and he did attend last week’s meeting so he did hear the comment um and you which is important um otherwise I would have strongly encouraged them to go back and watch the meeting um I have a little concern about Jan July 10th just because he’s starting July 1 and has an awful lot that he’s got to get through and I want to ensure that he has the opportunity to hear from members of the public with their um what their recommendations are and how the input that they want to give um in regards to any perhaps any other firms um and I’m I’m afraid that jul you know

36:44 July 10th is um is is a very fast again I’m not looking to slow roll this but I’m also not looking to Fast Track it personally that’s just me I’m one person um I don’t know that we need to necessarily give him a date um I think we can make it very clear this is important it’s a priority and that he can come back to us with his recommendation and I trust him to do that in a um efficient and timely

37:16 manner so can we amend the motion for that instead of giving him look I’m just looking at the calendar on my phone with the July 4th holiday that does give him only a week um

37:39 if he it seems it sounds like he’s watched the meetings and I would assume we’ll confer with Council on the guidelines on this um he is very well-versed he’s been a superintendent for six years um I’m very confident he’ll be able to do this with no problem um with that with that the opportunity for members of the community um to provide they there were some very strong feelings about about the nature of what the firms um need to have as expertise and definitions of anti-Semitism Etc um and I think that he needs to hear that I mean I know he heard it but he needs to process that and have you know some time to think

38:25 about maybe other firms that could be looked at and considered and I’m not thinking that do but there may be a few other firms that have specific experience in this area that could be considered and I feel like July 10th is just too quick one

38:45 more so the 19th is there a presentation before this July 10th or whatever the date is that well I don’t think we’d be having a presentation do any we’re taking ourselves out of it and giving it to the admin administrators under their purview oh so it just goes right back over to the superintendent we have nothing to do with that the report will come to us um but but they will they will handle um the procurement process they will handle the interview they will handle the scope um I have absolute faith that John will be able to do that um he has vast experience um I have no concerns I I don’t agree that we need to have a timeline because what happened

39:31 last time with the special ed one it went out a year before we finally got the thing out so we should give John a deadline to have this thing done by I don’t care if it’s the 10th or the 20th that’s irrelevant to me I want a firm date though so we can be able to tell the public that the boyes have been hired they’re going to start X date and off we go can we amend it to be the 19th to just give him that extra week yeah we should you can amend your own it’s not my motion though sorry it was my emotion I made it there’s been an amendment I don’t think you can amend the amendment

40:16 yep I’m sorry what did you say sorry I missed I’m sorry it’s an amended motion I don’t believe you can amend an amendment um we can vote it down and then start over do you want to withdraw your motion or we consider it for 719 um I don’t want to withdraw it no all right yeah go ahead Alison I was to say let’s just we can vote it down then and and say the same thing for the 19th sure all right well we’ll see Brian Oda in favor oh no to voted down for 710 yeah okay L Williams against Alison Taylor against Sarah in favor J chaper no against okay

41:03 so that motion and the amendment did not pass does anyone else want to make a motion which could be the original motion that Sarah correct me if I’m wrong about this Sarah you your original motion was to allocate up to $25,000 to investigate and Report out by superintendent John Robo yes I added had added the timeline because it was very important to me that we get this data back so we’re starting our school year fresh and that we’re able to implement the findings and make sure that everyone um that that our curriculum’s reflected of it that all recommendations are put into place and I want I do so much work happens over the summer I just want to make sure that that um we have this back in a timely manner and we’re

41:50 really really addressing anything that needs to be addressed okay so that I’m just reminding the committee that that was the original motion Sarah amended to add 710 is the deadline if someone would like to make that same motion and change the date to another date I yep so make a motion to um allow John Robo to um procure and select a an independent investigator by 719 you want to put a a dollar limit on it 25,000 all right second second and by Al um and any comments

42:36 deliberations so before I call the vote I just I want to make one comment because well we’re still on the subject because we’ll be moving on um I am in favor of this this motion I am going to vote in favor of it um that being said what I heard last week um from our community was um certainly an importance around this particular investigation and what this is really in reality a Personnel matter um and I’m um thankful that we’re going to move forward with this and that we’re going to have our superintendent um be leading this but what I also heard was a uh very serious concerns around issues of anti-Semitism without within our

43:21 district issues around curriculum um and other uh concerns very serious serous concerns and so I feel that there is more work to do here besides just this investigation and that we consider I’m not going to be making any motion or anything like that but we consider in our conversations with the incoming superintendent and his team some either a task force or some sort task force basically is what I’m going to ask for either on the school committee level or superintendent committee subcommittee to um to embrace the members of the Community the Jewish community and the entire community in Marblehead that is affected by this and that we think about a lot of the

44:09 messages that we heard last week that steps that we can take within our district to focus on um this particular issue and a lot of The Strife that I think we we felt and seen this year within our schools so again I’m not asking for a motion I’m asking the committee to just think about this um and that when we start doing our work over the summer particularly with John I’m going to be asking for um that some some form of a task force to move forward with this so we’ll leave it at that um does anyone have any other coms I’m just wondering Jen as as John is going to manage this if we can just work with him to let him know like one thing I would like to expect from the investigation is just not the investigation of what happened right I’m

44:55 hoping that we can also get recommendations on right right but on a path forward but then also a recommendation on ensuring that you know we lessen the likelihood of this happening in the future and I think that’s what you’re talking to I don’t know what the answer is but maybe that part of the investigation could be a recommendation around that and helping us not only help kind of uh address what’s happening right now but also uh know addressing that you know we we try to make sure that it doesn’t happen again as much as we can and that was y Alison yeah I I agree alen that was part of why the readout of what they were going to provide to me the readout was so important of what they were going to provide

45:42 us you know from that perspective not just this particular thing but moving forward how do we stop it before it it happens again or before it gets to this point how do we identify you know those types of things absolutely yeah and I agree with that I think that will be an important part of the report but that’s to me um a um a tool for us but I do believe that we need to be embracing our community and working together with our staff our Administration our committee um and our and our community members parents and non-parents Finly um clergy Etc in our community to uh we have an opportunity here is what I feel we have

46:30 an opportunity to make change in our district in our town in our community and to model for other districts that are going through similar situations across the country let alone across the state um I you know it’s kind of a lofty goal and I can set the expectation of the bar very high but I think we do have that opportunity if we embrace it that’s what I saw last week and heard last week a cry from our community to ask us to do that as leaders and I feel strong

47:02 I just have one question Sarah had spoken about trying to get all this in place by the time school starts so we have things in place this investigation is not going to happen by then I mean it’s vacation all the students that want to testify the parents that are available it’s going to take them a long time to put all this together I be surprised we get mid year if we’re really pushing it my understanding is Council thought it would take uh well our teachers are not under contract right now this investigation is an investigation into complaints from Personnel among Personnel that’s what this investigation is

47:48 and um our our staff is not under contract um until two or I have to look at the contract three days prior to the first day of school school now they can choose to um speak to someone sooner than that and that is their choice but they cannot be compelled until their contractual days um that being said my understanding is the actual interviews themselves um were not expect expected to go on you know you heard someone say a year that was not my understanding um it really comes down to if the Personnel are available and willing to talk prior to their

48:33 contractual dates and if not then that will commence on their contractual deeds and we’ll get that timeline from the superintendent um when he and I think that’s one of the things that hopefully they would present to him and that he would consider um is a time a potential timeline okay so we have a motion on the table um to have the superintendent robodo um take on this um investigation and that he has a upper limit of 25,000 um and that it be secured by July the contract be secured by July 19th is that correct Allison that’s yep okay Al second it I’m G to call for a vote if no one has any other comments

49:21 Brian Oda in favor Al Williams in favor Al Sarah Fox in favor Allison Taylor in favor shaver and so 5 to Z thank you everyone I really appreciate um the effort got into this I know everyone feels strongly and took took this very seriously so I’m confident we’re gonna gonna be able to move forward so thank you um okay um that was the last item on school committee communication and discussion um I have closing business uh new business treat okay so one uh thing we wanted to do I guess Brian is talk about uh dates for our summer school committee Retreat um which usually takes place every year in the summer and it gives us

50:07 an opportunity to do some workshops and work on um with our super new superintendent um and work on uh goals and actions for this coming year um thoughts on timing for that um we’ll get into agenda items to but first just from a timing standpoint you want to kind of open up calendars and just so I will tell uh the committee that I did speak to John he has already scheduled a retreat for he and his administrators on July 29th no I’m sorry July 30th 31st and August 1 um three days so then I don’t think they’re full days but

50:49 they’re um so keeping that in mind um you know do we mind try to be before that after that

50:57 thoughts well one thought I would have is his August 1st is the last day of his team meetings John if we can tie into them as the beginning of ours so that we can look at the goals and objectives they’re setting forth to their admin team so we can start looking at those goals and objectives as the school committee

51:24 goals I actually was thinking we may want to set our goals prior because would give the direction to the district our goals are kind of like a min mini one-year strategic plan and would set kind of the direction for the district and I would think that they would use that for the steering for instance if we had financial goals or if we had a goal regarding developing further um strategic plan or teasing out the plan for Success they would need to know that to set their path in their Frameworks so I thought we should try prior because our goals are I think are much more high level than theirs and then they kind of dig in um my experience is kind of we

52:09 you know give our goals um of where we’re hoping the district will be next year and then they really as the boots on the ground figure out how to implement those in the best way possible um I was hoping that we could possibly meet um very soon to do our at least our first day of our Retreat um I think we have a lot of work to do I think we kept promising that we would start with the budget really early in July I worry if we let um assignments of subcommittees and other things go too far we’re losing some valuable time I think it’s really impressive the select board has committed to starting their work right away on July one um VC coms done the same I would hope that we being

52:56 such a large portion of the budget can um commit to that as well I was actually hoping we could figure out a time next week to do our Retreat I was even looking at the 5th um I for us to take that Friday I can’t do next week and that’s that’s my son’s birthday so I’m not um I’m not willing to give that up okay Sarah were you thinking about um you know some of the traditional things we do or the school committee has done in terms of having you know the council come in and kind of do some some basic legal stuff um you know masc doing um their version of a workshop or do you were you I think ultimately it would be ideal if we could break this

53:43 into two days um one of those days I think should have Council doing their presentation um as well as masc I think we have a lot of work to do as a committee um we have some team not just team building to do um um but we really need to lay out our goals for this year um we didn’t really get to that last year um I felt like we were Treading Water all year rather and being reactive rather than proactive and I’m really hoping that we can change that um and have some goals and S set some time frames for

54:19 ourselves and the the budget is a big one I mean the rest of the Town we’ve been asked to really not punt this and start in the fall we found in the past when we do that we kind of chasing our tail I think the sooner we can start the better and we have bargaining going on this summer we have staff that have given up their time over the summer to commit to bargaining and the sooner we can start um really digging into our budget it will give us a better idea of how we can Implement um any any bargaining that we can that we we come to a decision on yep so can I can’t do it on the fifth um so you can either move forward without me um which is fine that’s the will of the committee or we can look to the next week can we look at the

55:05 third I am off the third the fourth and the fifth so I’m not GNA do that around the holiday and my son’s birthday again the committee is more than welcome to move forward without me well that sort of defeats the purpose yeah no I think it’s important are you available the second I could not get a whole day off from work I mean I worked full time so I can’t get a whole day off from work talk speaking Alison can you go and then I’ll go ahead Alison oh no go ahead Brian no I’m just saying we shouldn’t do anything the week of fourth July it’s just going to be a mess for everybody fam’s traveling we travel and let’s go the following week the week of the

55:49 a um I’m out of town those two weeks but perfectly happy to commit to zooming in um be present when we do this or can do we wantate Zoom meeting that’s up to the committee Sarah when are you back or um we have that one day that we’re bargaining I believe we’re starting bargaining at two um we could start we could we could I’m willing to go in a really really long day and um start earlier with us and then go right from that into bargaining that’s the 16 I have the 16 okay is that what you have

56:35 um trying to look up on my phone I believe I believe we were earmarked for the 16th yeah um I do think that would well I think that’s kind of tough but I you know I’m open to it Al you’re your your comment yeah I was going to say my experience with strategic planning has been typically you know Sarah talked about a little bit where it’s you know if my team is going to set goals I kind of want to know what you know the management above me is what their goals are just to make sure that we’re aligned right it ensures alignment so I guess but but also I think what people forget is that it should be you know kind of a 360 degree thing too so that you know if

57:22 we set goals that may help Central Administration set pair goals but then we should kind of reconvene to make sure plans that all make sense right because they may bring something up that we should have and didn’t or vice versa so I feel strongly that we should I’d like to do at least some strategic planning so that Central Administration can have that input for their meeting at the end of July that doesn’t mean we have to do you know if we wanted to do two or three days they all don’t have to be to me consecutive but I do think think it’s important that we at least try to address strategic planning before Central adue meets at the end of July okay uh you the other question I would have for the committee is what are you what are we looking for both either on that date and future dates in terms of um

58:10 outside expertise to come in and help us um because one of the other things I want to talk about is the agenda for the retreat um if we’re looking at the week of even the 8th I mean it may be hard to try to start scheduling folks um and when it comes Sarah for instance to the budget you know do you foresee kind of you know General discussions with as as a school committee or do we would we want to have Mike at the table to really I I just don’t know whether he’s going to be prepared to you know be sitting there with a I don’t think we would be digging into numbers I think it would be more I know for for example you had very specific requests on the information brought to us in the budget development process and if we’re going

58:57 to be pursuing that I think it’s really important to give a really clear framework to the central admin so that when they make their have their retreat they really can go over what they’ll need TimeWise and support-wise to be able to deliver what you’re asking for but you don’t think you’re not looking necessarily yeah for outside expertise this is something really more on the sort of conceptual level it’s much more conceptual and we have to keep in mind um John robodo is out of District that week of the

59:34 22nd was unaware of that okay P sent an email to all of us earlier this week oh um okay so that yeah so that would be either the week of the 8th or the week of the

59:47 15 15 um we could do the 16 if you’re because you’re saying you’re in town I mean we could do that well I’m I’m driving there from New York to accommodate this meeting I’ll leave very early if I need to and put in a long day I mean this is very important work and I’m willing to commit any way I need to to make it happen you you were planning to come in for the bargaining or were you going to do that by I was going to drive in the afternoon from New York um to be there for the two o’clock bargaining but if I have to leave really early in the morning to make this happen I will

1:00:31 I mean we can do scheduling offline yeah we can we can definitely do that I can and it can be any day in that week we’re not doesn’t have to be well I’m not gonna commute back and forth from New York to be in person two days but I’m s you’re going back I didn’t realize that part yeah no my kids will be here still if I don’t retrieve them I’ll get in trouble um so I’m I’m perfectly happy to zoom in as well I have no problem I did Zoom for a year and a half and it worked very functionally I have no concerns whatsoever yeah I don’t I don’t frankly either so all right do we want to table the scheduling and I can send out an email and folks can perfect okay um and the goal of that first that particular day is you know school committee John will be there um

1:01:17 perhaps there’ll be some folks from Central admin um and we’ll really be talking more conceptually about goals for this year speciic specifically budget and maybe some other things then he will also I think have another day this summer where we’ll have maybe some workshops and some outside folks coming in to do some um work with us does that sound right and then can we I mean if people are in town next week and not traveling can we all just really dig into our calendars day or night and see if there’s any commonality even for two or three hours so we can at least set our goals and give those to John so he has time to do prep work prior to his retreat with our goals next

1:02:05 week I thought four available days if if we can find a commonality of two hours maybe we don’t get everything done but maybe we can get our goal setting done I thought that’s what we were taking offline to do no I’m just I’m just asking if everybody can just look really Diggy yeah I mean I I work full-time it’s Wednesday it will be hard for me to get a 4our chunk of work off on a Monday or on Monday or Tuesday but um we can look at evenings too and then just let you

1:02:39 know all right well why don’t I send out an email and people can respond how’s that okay great um the other thing I would to and I can do this also in email is ask um for specific ideas or requests that you would like for an agenda for workshops um for for the second day that we’ll have at some point and that even may go into August for for all I know um unless anybody want we want to talk about it now it’s up to youe but know I think the biggest thing for our districtwide whether it’s you know school committee or Personnel what we’ve heard throughout the last year is conflict resolution so um it actually had come through um as a recommendation

1:03:25 in the last two weeks from PR and legal that all factions be working on conflict resolution this summer so I would like to do something with that and what do you think that would be Sarah just do you have any thoughts on um you know how we can hear and um you know work on through the steps of of getting uh of resolving things that come to us within our purview um and making sure we’re reporting that out in a timely and appropriate manner to the

1:04:10 community tell me where our current school committee goals and objectives are locate I can’t find them anywhere I’m unaware of it we don’t have we didn’t have a retreat last year with with everything like Sarah said it was more like trial by fire just we had our first day of Retreat and then from there um we you know were were swimming Upstream on a lot of stuff um that we did our first day of the retreat when we brought in masc and Mas to do our professional development and that’s how we spent our first day of the retreat um we did have in the fall one on team building or I’m sorry maybe that was right after the first of the year we did

1:04:55 have ma SC and our attorney come in um to talk about some stuff as well it was sort of also more communication too sort of yeah um and I don’t know whether there were goals by the school committee the previous year I know Sarah Allison if you yeah there were they were um unfortunately only one of them was Matt um it the the last time we had goals it was um to to set a strategic plan for the district we have a plan for success but we never took it to the next step which would have been the Strategic plan um it was to um achieve more funding through an override we weren’t able to do that and it was to get a more detailed facilities strategic plan which we do have and is up

1:05:45 online all right so I’ll will send out an email and ask folks um to weigh in on dates um and I just and and as soon as we get those if I’m going to be securing folks to come in I want to try and do that in the next you get on people’s calendars okay um before I adjourn and move us into executive session does anyone have anything else okay and I don’t have any correspondence to um we have had correspondence you’ve seen emails coming in but nothing that I need to report out of um okay so I am going to ask for a motion to vote to meet an executive session pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 21 a purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to and in

1:06:30 preparation for colle bargaining with the maret Education Association unit a unit permanent substitutes unit tutors unit par professionals and unit custodians because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on bargaining position of the committee with the intent not to return to open session Williams and second Brian call vote Brian Oda favor Al Williams in favor Alison Taylor in favor fox in favor chaer in favor five to zero so the committee will now be meeting an executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general laws section 30A SE chapter 30A section 21A for purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to and in preparation collective bargaining

1:07:15 with the marble Education Association unit a unit permit substitutes unit tutors unit Care Professionals and unit custodians because an open discussion may have a detrimental effect on bargaining position of committee with the inent not to return to open session so we are now in executive session I’m going to you want us to log out and we can log back in and I’m gonna close this outon appreciate it thank you