School Committee: October 17, 2024

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 Okay. All Set. Okay. I’m gonna call us to order at, um, 6 45.

0:07 Open session 6 45. Okay.

0:13 You mute everybody, or if you wanna make me co-host, I can do it.

0:20 All right. Here to go. How’s that? We okay on volume, Frank? Okay. He needs to Unmute the bar. It’s, It’s red.

0:33 Yes. Okay. Not tilt screen.

0:41 Okay. Thank you. Okay, great. Um, okay. Opening business. Oh, we’re gonna do Pledge of Allegiance.

0:50 There’s the flag Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States America To the Republic For which it stands. Nation, one Nation Under God with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Commendations.

1:14 Does anyone have any commendation? Okay. Um, public comment. Oh, I didn’t see, is there a signup sheet they created? Okay. Oh, I didn’t, I had it.

1:28 Why don’t we leave one there in case other folks decide to, okay. Great. Alright. How many folks Do we have? Great. Okay, I’m gonna go just in the order. I got these. Um, I have Jonathan Heller welcome. Hi, Jonathan.

1:52 Can you see your name and address please? Jonathan? Yeah. Jonathan Heller, 26 Ralph Road and Marblehead Education Association Co-President, uh, so Dear Marblehead School committee members, as dedicated educators and concern community members, we are writing to you to express our growing frustration and concern regarding the current state of Marblehead public schools. It has become increasingly evident that the problems facing our schools cannot continue to be ignored. The current path taken by the school committee has resulted in a historic turnover of 20%, over 20% within the teacher unit, leaving our educators feeling disrespected,

2:41 undervalued, and unsupported. We urge the school committee to confront these issues head on and listen to the voices of community members and frontline educators. It is essential to provide modern parental leave benefits and ensure competitive wages and salaries that align with neighboring districts, as well as end the practice of paying hourly workers below state minimum wage. Our educators deserve to feel valued for their hard work, and we need to attract and retain the best talent for our students. Additionally, we cannot overlook the safety concerns within our schools. Addressing these issues is paramount to creating a positive learning environment for both students and staff.

3:27 We are incredibly disappointed that you have refused to commit in any meaningful way to a solution that is inclusive of all stakeholders and creates transparency and accountability. With regard to trainings, practices and procedures, we call on you to take immediate action to support our educators and improve the conditions in Marblehead public schools. By settling a fair contract with education workers in Marblehead, it is time to stop avoiding the problems and start working together towards real solutions. Our students and school community deserve better. This letter was signed by over 700 people, of which 70% of them

4:13 are Marblehead residents and educators. So, I would like to submit this to each one of you for public record, please.

4:35 Thank you.

4:42 I have Panna part, part Partica? Yes. Did I pronounce that? Sorry.

4:55 I am Hannah Partica Glover School kindergarten teacher. By the end of this school year, I will have spent 1200 hours in my car commuting to Marblehead in Glover school. I wish I could say it was much less, but as our salary schedules currently stand, I can’t afford to move closer, nor will I ever be able to with a commute like that. It gives me plenty of time to think about my lesson plans about my students, but most importantly about why I became an educator. In October, 2020, when I first came to Glover School, Brian OTA interviewed me for the remote kindergarten position. He said that he saw this passion for teaching and energy that just jumped through the computer screen. It’s really hard for me to say this,

5:41 but I like so many of my colleagues, I’m struggling to continue to tap into that passion and energy, given the current conditions in our schools. And even saying this, I feel guilty educators, much like our nurses perform labor that is at its core, core caring for others. We care so much that we feel guilty when we advocate for ourselves. But I am a teacher and one of the most important things that I teach my students is to stand up for what’s right, for what they believe in, and to advocate for themselves and for others. After watching my colleagues ask for help and be ignored, it’s impossible to not feel defeated after watching our kindergarten para be pulled in a million different directions and still make less than some

6:28 of our high school students working in local businesses after school. It’s impossible to not feel defeated after sitting as a silent representative during our bargaining sessions and asking for commitments that would increase safety in our schools commitments that would have no budgetary impact whatsoever. And hearing time and time again, no, it is impossible to not feel defeated. Lately, in my almost hour long commute in the mornings, I’ve asked myself, how long can I and my colleagues continue to care for our students and meet their needs? If this is how we feel, how can we as a faculty and staff continue to pour from an empty cup for students who deserve us at our best, who need us at our best? Being with my students and seeing them learn is

7:14 what drives me and my colleagues to be our best each and every day, even when it takes everything inside of me to get in the car and spend those 1200 hours commuting to this community that I’ve given so much to our school committee needs to meaningfully negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that reflects the value that the educators in this town bring to the community without a contract that solves the very real problems in our school, in our schools. Excuse me. I can honestly say that I don’t know how much longer I can stay in Marblehead. Our community deserves better from its elected officials, and we are here tonight to ask you to do the right thing and commit to investing in our schools. Our students and staff deserve it.

8:07 Um, Laura Gellan, gellan. G Lan is that Sorry. Sorry.

8:24 Were you on the list too? Yeah, I’m gonna speak after her, but I’m Oh, okay. Alright. You’ll gimme a name afterwards. Okay. That’s

8:36 Before I begin reading what I wrote. I would like to address the fact that it is extremely disrespectful to be 43 minutes late if I showed up to my classroom 45 minutes late. Exactly. What I’m gonna speak about today is the safety of our schools and my classroom, So I appreciate that, Ms. Ga, I just wanna make it known that the agenda was that we would return to open session no sooner than 6:00 PM so it wasn’t a set start time. It’s a little bit different when we have executive session before We, I just feel like communication needs to be a little bit stronger. I understand, But we are in executive session, so we can’t leave until we’re done. But I, I appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.

9:14 I stand here today expressing my extreme concerns in regards to school safety and the lack thereof as a therapeutic teacher at the Village School. For the past eight plus years, I have seen my school in this district through various transitions, through it all, I have been hit, punched, kicked, spit on bit, and have suffered a broken nose Due to students who are in crisis and marblehead not having enough staff who are trained to support students and teachers, Marblehead public schools has hit an all time low. We do not have enough staff to meet the needs of the neediest of the student population, putting students at risk. We’re unable to hire qualified staff due to the current situation at which school committee has put their educators and your children who would take this job

10:00 with the prevention safety risks when McDonald’s and Starbucks pays more than tutors and paras. Tutors and paraprofessionals, by the way, are our backbone in special education. Since the end of last year, village itself has lost nine special ed staff, And she’s number 10.

10:20 These positions have been filled by staff who do not withhold the appropriate certifications, have not been trained or simply have not been filled at all. It affects the kids. Staff has left and will continue to leave. We cannot sit back and watch our district set students up for failure. Time and time again. No contract, lowest pay scale on the North Shore. This does not match the prestige in which Marblehead holds itself to great towns make great communities and Marblehead public schools are in crisis. The time for change is now. The town owes it to our students to make schools a safe place for everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

11:12 My name’s Jenny Wilkins. Um, 22 Edgewood Road. I, um, am a teacher along with Laura. Um, I’m also a parent. I have three children in the school. I have a fourth grader, a sixth grader, and an eighth grader. Um, I feel the same way Laura does. I have been hit, kicked spit at punched. I broke my knee cap. Um, when I signed up to be a teacher, I didn’t expect to make big bucks. I’m not here for the money. I did expect to be safe. I feel very strongly that right now we are short staffed everywhere. We don’t have, we’re in a crisis. We, we can’t even prevent a crisis from happening

11:58 because we’re, we’re having to leave students unsupported in classes. So when, when they then get into crisis, we have to leave other students who are then going into crisis. It’s just a domino effect because nobody wants to come work in Marblehead. They’re not getting paid enough. Thank you. Thank You.

12:26 Um, Alison Kerry.

12:38 Hi. Allison Carey, 2 89 West Shore Drive. Um, I am a social worker here at Marblehead High School, and I’m reading this statement tonight on behalf of my friend Kate Kelly, who is a Spanish teacher here at MHS. I’m 37 years old, and this is my third year teaching for Marblehead Public Schools. I was ecstatic to make the change from my previous district. It’s closer to home, and I was excited about Marble Head’s reputation for excellent education. Last year before my second year, I found out that I was pregnant. By the time my son was born in March, I had 21 paid days of leave to use for my maternity leave. Despite a supportive team at my school, doctors who tried their very hardest to schedule me

13:24 for late afternoon appointments and my determination to work through as much of the year as possible, I was unable to save any more days. I had a complicated pregnancy. My son was born with a cleft lip and required additional fetal monitoring. And I was later diagnosed with cholestasis, which has an elevated risk of stillbirth, which required me to call out or use half sick days at several points in the year. 21 days is not enough. I deserved to have dedicated parental leave. My son deserved to have me at home to bond with him. I still mourn the time I lost caring for my own son so that I could return to school to care for the marble head

14:10 for Marble Head’s children. Thank you for your time tonight.

14:25 Megan Kalpin. I just wanna keep in mind, folks, we usually have public meeting, public comment for 15 minutes. We do have a handful of other names. That’s fine, but much longer. I’ll have to take it to a vote for the, it’s gonna be extended. So, and this is Megan, right? Megan, Kelvin Kein. Yep. Welcome. Thanks. Megan. Kelvin seven Sapphire a, um, community member parent, um, an MEA educator. Um, good evening. I’m here to talk about school nurses. School nurses play a vital role in this district from caring for students with chronic episodic or emergent physical and often mental needs to developing and implementing district-wide policies. For those who don’t know, the current unit, a contract in the current unit, a contract school nurses face restrictions on

15:11 the, the salary schedule. School nurses are not eligible above an M column and are limited to steps one through nine. That last sentence is a direct quote from our current contract, meaning even if a nurse has a degree or credits beyond a master’s, MPS won’t recognize that even if a nurse has been here for more than nine years, MPS won’t recognize it. Even if for reference, all of the other professionals in Unit A teachers guidance SLPs are able to move freely through the salary schedule up to Lane M 75 and step 11. This is a, this is greater than, this is a greater than $13,000 difference, which, by the way, school nurses have the same DSI requirements as all the other Unit A members.

15:57 A proposal that the MEA shared with the bargaining subcommittee back in March was to eliminate this inequitable cap on the salary that the nurses face. If the bargaining subcommittee had done their homework, they would’ve, they would know that saying yes to this proposal would cost them very little. The amount that it would cost to move less than a handful of nurses from step nine to step 10 or absolutely nothing. If the school committee continues to maintain that this contract not be retroactive. The MEA has talked a lot to the bargaining committee about zero cost proposals. This proposal would cost the committee $0 to say yes to today. $0 to show respect to the small subset of educators that care for some of the most valuable children in this district.

16:43 Our current contract is not allowing MPS to attract and retain nurses, marblehead educators, including tutors, paraprofessionals, custodians, and teachers have endured lackluster contracts with the promise of next time. For far too long enough is enough.

17:17 Good evening. My name’s Bill Shaw 17 Brookhouse Drive. As a parent of Marble Public School students, community member teacher at Marblehead Veterans Middle School for the past 22 years, I am urging all of you to reflect on the lack of progress with the negotiations.

17:37 After close to four months of negotiating, I’m increasingly concerned and frustrated as I sit as a silent negotiator. The meetings are adversarial, they’re fraught with tactics, positioning, all at the expense of actually addressing the issues that face our schools. While I believe that both sides have counsel that are responsible for this unfortunate culture at these meetings, I do believe the Marblehead Education Association has at least been clear about their goals, the issues facing our schools. And maybe most importantly, the MEA has clearly stated what needs to be done to maintain the superior education that we all have become accustomed to.

18:22 Here in Marblehead, I do not feel as though our school committee representatives at the negotiations are actually able to respond to what the MEA is proposing. Instead of honestly considering what the people on the front lines have identified as critical weaknesses in our schools. They’re following, following an oppositional methodology and negotiating tactics from Marble Lake Public School’s. Attorney Elizabeth Valero. They’re following her playbook. I find this very troubling because everyone at the table except Attorney Valerio, shares the same goal of improving our schools. She’s being paid hundreds of dollars an hour by the town

19:09 and will continue to be paid by the town regardless of the outcome or how long this process takes.

19:17 As a school committee, your job’s very difficult. You’re required to fulfill state mandates and you’re bound to the townspeople that elected you. I would like to think that you took this volunteer job to improve Marblehead schools. I would like to think that all of the people in this room and the teachers in our buildings are constituents that you consider as you sit at the goat negotiating table to improve our schools. But I do wonder about that. I wonder where your priorities are. It feels as though the financial burden of the town is more important than the quality and lasting stability of our schools. I’m grateful for your efforts to be fiscally responsible, but neglecting the needs of our staff

20:02 and our schools in an effort to save taxpayers money is a bad plan. If we as a town do not address the wage disparity between Marblehead and the other North Shore communities. Not to mention the communities we like to compare ourselves to based on academic excellence, leave those out of it. Our schools are headed in a very worrisome direction. Let’s think about it. Our pay is the lowest. There is no affordable housing. The commute to get into this town is beyond challenging. We have decades of dysfunctional administration who would want to come and work here.

20:46 Even worse quality teachers are leaving this district as we speak, to get away from the dysfunction and to look for a living wage. I believe that stabilizing Marblehead public schools and creating an environment to retain and attract teachers must be your top priority. I truly believe the work of this contract is critical for the next 10 plus years of this town and this school system. If we want quality schools and we agree that it’s our moral obligation to create and maintain strong schools, it must start with supporting and paying the staff. Both parties. Both parties need to work together to effectively educate the community about the financial

21:34 needs of our schools, and ultimately present a united front that supports a fair and living wage. Thank you for taking time to listen to me tonight.

21:52 Listen,

22:00 And, um, Mr. Um, Mr. Fu, Michael Fu, Mr. Fu

22:08 Daughter, math teacher. I call Mr. ou.

22:13 Welcome. Thank you. All right. Good evening everybody. Um, Michael Fu 45th, 43 Smith Street. I’m a 20 year educator and a current Marblehead High school computer science and math teacher. For the past 10 years, I have a one 7-year-old and one 11-year-old. Uh, one at Brown, one at Village. I’m here today to speak on behalf of teachers, parents, and students, but specifically for my own kids, for my colleagues, and for family friends in town. I have a coworker whose grandfather, his name is William Fallon. He was a school committee member that worked rigorously with teachers to better their school system. She said she remembered him always talking and meeting with teachers to see what they needed. Always in phone calls, always just in the thick of it.

23:01 Now, there’s a school building named after him in Lynn. I don’t know what motivations you have, nor is it any of my business. However, I noticed that from public records school committee has paid $403,000 in legal fees in the past 18 months. I’ve sat in as a silent rep in many bargaining sessions and don’t understand why we continue to pay for their legal counsel. If what we have here is the result. I implore you to work with the teachers. You negotiate with us through your counsel, like factory workers. When we ask for fair wages, more isn’t always more. We’re not factory workers, right? You get them to work longer hours, you get more.

23:46 We are skilled creative professionals. Everything is a bargaining chip to you. If we ask for fair wages, you ask for more of our time and give us more hoops to jump through.

24:00 Let me pose a rhetorical question. This is what I want. We want our teachers to be patient, right? Empathetic, passionate. That’s what I want for my kids. I certainly want my kids to have the best versions of their teachers. Does having to worry about our sick days allow us to do this? Does having multiple jobs to make ends meet, make us better teachers does Having to pay for childcare to be at a meeting that could have been an email help improve the school system? We’ve asked for fair and equitable rights and benefits for all our colleagues. We’ve asked for modern humane parental leave and bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss, which you have rejected.

24:45 We’ve asked for common sense solutions to the problems that exist in our school systems. And yet you still say no. And I do understand there’s fiscal responsibility, but there’s also that legal counsel. You’re getting. I believe the school committee’s job is to help improve the school systems and by proxy, help support the wellbeing of our teachers. This includes our health and wellness. I want my kids to have the best versions of our teachers as possible. I’m being selfish. I really do mean that Everything about these negotiations seem contrary to that. Please reconsider your legal counseling and your position. Our school is not a factory. I implore you to work with the teachers and work with us. Thank you for your time. Thank You.

25:37 Thanks, Jim. Yeah. Alex Jimenez. Jimenez. Jimenez.

25:44 That’s it.

25:50 Good evening. Welcome. Alex Jimenez from, uh, six Legs Hill Road. Um, I’m a parent. Um, I was informed by the superintendent that these meetings will be at 6:00 PM I also have a scheduled, I know what meetings are, and I also know that when we have to stop a meeting, because we have another one that takes priority. So I urge you that, uh, the next time, if the meeting is at six, we respect the time at six. Please. Now, um,

26:32 I’d like to express my deep, uh, appreciation for the remarkable work our public schools have consistently done over the years. And to urge the school committee to take an important step toward ensuring the continuous success by supporting better salaries for our public school teachers. For many years, our public schools have been a beacon of excellence in education. The success is reflected in the high rankings. They have cons, uh, consistently achieved at the state and at the national levels.

27:06 Um, these are not merely numbers or statistics, but a statement, uh, to the de dedication and hard work of the talented teachers that we, that spend countless hours shaping the minds and futures of our students. As a community, we pride ourselves on having a school system that delivers high standards of education, preparing students for success in life, and contributing to a better society. However, this level of excellence cannot be sustained if we do not properly recognize and reward the educators who are the backbone. Providing better salaries for our teachers is not just a token of appreciation. It is an investment in our children’s future

27:53 and the continuous success of our school system. I’m aware, I’m aware that the town’s current fiscal status is strain and that there may not be enough funds to support the necessary salary increases at this moment. This financial shortfall is largely a result of past decisions made by the school committee.

28:20 It is only fair that the committee takes responsibility for this situation and proposes viable solutions to resolve it. It is your duty as a committee to, to ensure the school system functions efficiently and to remove any obstacles that hindered its progress.

28:44 That includes proposing alternative measures and strategies to improve the financial health of the schools. As a parent and a concerned community member, I am ready to step up and take active roles in any activities that could help address the financial liquidity of the schools, whether it is through fundraiser efforts, volunteering, or participating in initiatives that could help generate funds or find creative solutions. I am committed to doing my part to support our teachers and ensure the success of our schools. I am confident that working together we can overcome these challenges and secure the resources needed to keep our schools thriving at the, our teacher deserve

29:32 to be compensated fairly for the incredible work they do day in and day out. They’re not just instructors, they are mentors, role models, and source of stability for our students. And here I’m speaking about my children, particularly versa. Aires will ensure that they can focus on what they do best, educating and inspiring the next generation. I respectfully urge you to prioritize this matter and take action that reflects the value we place on education. By doing so, you’ll be ensuring that our schools continues to thrive and our community remains proud of the achievements of its public school system.

30:20 Thank you for your time and consideration of this topic.

30:34 Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Um, we don’t have the student representative here tonight where she texted. Yeah. So she’ll maybe be here next time. Um, we’re gonna move on to district updates. Superintendent du. Thank you. Tough fact to follow clearly. Um, but I will do my best. Um, so district updates, uh, the school year’s flying by. Um, and we’ll be in the holidays before we know it. Uh, firstly, I just wanna recognize that October’s National Principals Month, and I wanted to take a moment to thank and I acknow our awesome, uh, principals. Michelle Carlson at the High School, Matt Fox at Vets Mary Maxwell Brown, uh, Scott Williams at Village, and Frank Koski at Glover. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to Marblehead Public Schools. Um, sunflowers planted

31:20 by last year’s fifth graders at Village made it to the Tops Field Fair. One was 11.5 feet tall and came in fourth place being only two inches shorter of short of the first place flower, which I thought was pretty cool. Uh, the head on the flower was 13.5 inches across which, uh, landed them in third place. Uh, in addition, pumpkins, corn, purple beans, were all also set along kudos to the community partners, Barbara Burke and Javier Valdez for their work in the Garden. I’m sure there’s more. Um, those are the two folks that I was aware of into the students for the hard work. And so congratulations, uh, to the Village. Um, folks that, that went to the Topsfield Fair. Our day of service for the high school is on October 23rd. Uh, this promises to be a great day for all our students as they embark on many activities within our community. Um, they’re go into, I think, 10 different, um, 10

32:07 or 12 different areas in town. Uh, so that’s, that’s, I know, um, administration students are really excited about that. And hopefully, uh, that will come to fruition and, uh, be successful as it has been in the past. I wanted to share that Dan Richards, the assistant principal, um, here at the high school, is headed to Washington. Tomorrow, he’ll be representing National Association of Secondary School Principals Board of Directors. He’ll be meeting with the president’s top aides in education, who will be discussing a variety of topics, including school safety, funding for community violence interventions and partnerships, safe storage, which is the new tool for school leaders and community parent, uh, community slash parent discussions, uh, trauma related, um, to substance abuse and mental health, along with other pertinent topics. So, we look forward to hearing from Dan on how that trip went, and hopefully can bring back some really

32:54 cool stuff for us here in Marblehead. Uh, the bike walk and roll took place at Brown School on October 9th. Julie and I got to witness the excitement and the success, success of the program. Uh, thanks to Brown PTO and to the Safe Routes to School program. It was really good to see so many, um, students partaking in the day. And it was such a beautiful fall morning. It was really fun. They had their kiddos signing in on the, um, on the sidewalks, and they, uh, counted them up to see which door one. It was kind of, kind of neat. Little morning, um, start to the day. Uh, so thank you for that. Um, I wanted to recognize the great work that’s being done, um, um, with our administration team and the guidance from Dr. Esa Monte Jackson as we continue our deep initiative. The deep, um, stands for Disruptive Equity Education Project. This is, uh, it’s focuses on research based educational

33:41 practices to ensure that all students have a sense of belonging and a voice in their education in order to, uh, promote success. So these are, this is some professional development that started last year. We continued it into this year. Um, dice, uh, Dr. Dice mate Jackson, if you haven’t seen her speaker, you haven’t been a part of any of her, um, her education. Um, she’s well worth the time. Uh, if, if she’s at a, you know, conference or, you know, any kind of professional development. She’s really, um, she’s, uh, well known, uh, for her, her equity work. Um, it is professional development that is meaningful, relevant, and helps, um, the adminis administrators reflect on practice and ensure that we are looking at classroom level actions, school-wide actions, and district-wide actions that focus on helping students be a part of their learning community in meaningful and equitable ways.

34:27 This work incorporates MTSS, which is multi-tier system of supports, UDL, universal Design for Learning. Um, SEL, which is social emotional learning, and CRL culturally relevant teaching. We love our acronyms in education. Right? Um, tonight you’ll hear, um, so I’m looking forward to the continued work as it really has a trickle down effect. So, you know, a lot of the work we’re gonna do is, is work continue to do with the, uh, the teaching staff and educators in our schools, uh, to help, um, help, um, them be successful and as students be successful. Uh, tonight you’ll hear about our district’s overarching MCAS results and the data that helps to inform instruction, develop strategies, and inform teaching practices. School specific results will be presented subsequently by the principals so that they can focus on the data in relation

35:12 to their school’s priority, uh, their schools, their prior year results. And so they can convey data that celebrates the strengths, identifies areas of growth and outlines, interventions, their grade level specific. So, Julie’s gonna present an overarching, um, uh, results tonight and just kind of set the stage for that. And, uh, the elementary schools will come and present at our next meeting on, uh, November 14th and the secondary schools at the subsequent meeting on 1121. And again, they’ll, they’ll present and talk about all the good things that are happening, um, with the teachers and educators in the schools, and, um, how that’s how their students are doing. And really, uh, highlight some of the, some of the positives and some of the areas that we’ve identified as need. Some interventions, I think the committee and the community will see, um, areas across all the schools where we perform very well in areas where we need

35:59 to improve rigor, instruction, and participation. So when we, when we share results, um, we’re gonna share the good, the bad in the, and not so great. Um, because it’s important to look at all those pieces and really to determine ways to, um, to address deficits that we see and celebrate, uh, the positives that are happening because of, uh, a good, uh, teaching learner that’s happening. Uh, cagey Johnson, our, uh, METCO director, Julie and I, um, all attended the METCO conference on, uh, ten four at Gillette Stadium. It was an intense and impactful day where superintendents, assistant superintendents and Meco directors came together with the meco headquarters team and presenters to work on items geared towards bringing Meco districts together to focus on 13 commitments outlined for moving towards meco 2.0.

36:44 Um, this is a series of commitments that really speaks to school culture. Um, and, you know, obviously the support of educators and students. Uh, so some of the commitments include racial equity and integration, inclusive classroom pedagogy, uh, extracurricular opportunities, support for post-secondary success, equitable hiring practices, family connection to school and school community, just to name a few. Um, so when we look at metco, we look at where Metro District, so Metro METCO students are our students, and we we’re looking for ways to enhance their experience here in Marblehead and, and enhance experience for our, uh, students that live here in Marblehead. Um, so the, these are some of the things that are happening kind of, um, in conjunction with what, uh, what’s going on in the schools, uh, athletics. I asked, um, our Ad Kent, um, to gimme kind of an update.

37:31 So here’s, here’s, um, he gave me quite the update, so I’m gonna share that tonight. Um, which is great. Our boys cross country team remains undefeated, and he shared that this is a quote from our longtime coach and Biology, biology, biology teacher speak properly. John, uh, Brian Henan, his quote says, the Varsity boys traveled to the Cape Cod Fairgrounds to compete in the M-S-T-C-A Twilight Invitational as a team. They finished second in the Division two race leading the way for the team. Were Will Saru and Nate Asah. Hope I say both those. Okay. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. Uh, who finished first and second respectively, which is awesome. Covering the 5K course in 15, um, minutes, 21 seconds and 15 minutes 26 seconds. So that’s super fast. Um, they were in a pack

38:17 with two other runners for much of the race before surging ahead in the last mile. They ran one of the best races. I have seen marble head runners run in my 24 years of coaching, so that’s awesome. So congratulations to, uh, both Will and Nate and, uh, coach Brian for the, for the great work there. Boys Cross Country is seven and oh, girls Team is four. Uh, four and three. Both headed to the MIAA division two states on 11 nine. Uh, golf team finished 12 and three in the season. They recently competed in the MIAA Division two Sectionals on ten six with a seventh place finish. Congratulations to the golf team. Boys Soccer has gone, uh, sorry. It has four games remaining. They’re eight, two, and four in the season. MIA playoffs begin the week of 10 28. The volleyball team continues to do well. They’re nine and five with four matches remaining

39:03 before the MIAA playoffs, which begin the week of 10 28 girls soccer, seven, four, and four with three games remaining before the MIA playoffs begin the week of 10 28. The football team has won three in a row and is now three and two on the season. They have a game tomorrow night at Piper Field, the first of three regular season games remaining before MIA playoff begins on 11 eight. Our field hockey team is three 11 to one. They had a huge three to one upset over Swamp Squad last week. They have three games remaining. The first being this afternoon. Uh, they were playing when they came in earlier on Piper Field before MIAA playoffs begin the week of 10 28. So the overall fall records for athletics is 53, 30 and nine as a 10, 16, 24. So I like to go round of applause for all our student athletes and our coaches that make that happen.

39:50 And our parents for the commitments for getting the, the kids to where they need to go. Uh, I know that’s always challenging. Um, I have a few more things real quick. Uh, I was asked to reflect on the, uh, and report on attendance rates. This, this year so far, attendance rates are decent, but not great in my opinion. We’ve had only 30 days of school so far, and that, uh, attendance rates are as far as Glover is at 97.5%. Village at 96.6%. Brown is, excuse me, 96.8%. Vets is at 96.4%. High school is at 96%. I know that we can do better getting our students to school and to school on time and, um, beginning in school. I mean, being in school obviously makes a difference in student success. And I just wanna frame absenteeism and tardiness in a way that might help, um,

40:36 illustrate things in a poignant way. So one or two days may not seem like that much, but missing one day every two weeks equals 20 days a year, four weeks a year. And nearly 1.5 years of missed instruction over 13 years of schooling. That’s one or two days. Um, sorry. That’s one day missing. One day every two weeks equals, um, sorry, I already said that. Desi considers chronic absenteeism is missing 10% or 18 days of school, even being late to school adds up. Exponentially missing just 10 minutes per day is 50 minutes per week. Nearly 1.5 weeks per year. And almost half a year of missed instruction over 13 years of schooling. One hour per day equals roughly one day per week, eight weeks per year.

41:22 Over two and a half years of missed instruction over 13 years of schooling. So attendance matters. Um, I think collaboration, communication, partnering with, with families is very important. These kiddos need to be in school to be able to be their best them, um, to be in front of these, uh, wonderful educators and, and learning and um, being a part of their education. Um, and the great things happening in Marblehead. So that’s what have for updates tonight. Mr. Chairman. Madam Chairman. I do think too, we probably got update. I think the Thanksgiving football game is, isn’t it at Fenway? Yeah, It’s, it is. Yeah. So We probably ought to get maybe in the next meeting we’re getting close to that. We get some more details. Yeah, that was, that was the plan. Yeah. Community Probably wants to know what’s exciting. Yes. Thank you. Thanks For update. Sure thing. Not to talk about absenteeism and target is not being important ‘cause that is

42:08 No, no, absolutely. Football game’s not important than that. Um, At Fenway. So Have in response to what they heard tonight from All these educators. So, um, we have had public comment and we are going to move forward with our agenda under consent, we have no response. Action and agenda items. I’ve got schedule of bills to be approved. You don’t wanna respond to all the powerful Message. We have already had public comment and we are moving forward in our agenda, but that’s announced. So we have scheduled bills. Um, we’re what? They don’t want our agenda. No, I know. Um, so I’m looking, you should have had in your package, I’m looking for a motion to approve 1.42 $1,000,500 and 65 cents in bills as of October 10th. Do I have a first? So moved. And do I have a second? Second.

42:58 So Taylor, I’m gonna do a roll call. Allison Taylor in favor? Sarah Fox? Yes. Al Um, Al Williams can hear me. Um, I’ll move on to Brian Oda in favor. I’m gonna go forward with a four zero. I didn’t I see Al. I didn’t. Yeah. So I’m gonna go four to zero. Okay. I’m looking for approval of our minutes. You should have had in your package minutes for July 15th. Um, hang on just a second. I’m assuming, are they leaving? Yeah. Okay. Um, I’m looking for a motion to approve. Can we just Point out that there is a contract negotiations update coming as the next agenda item?

43:44 Yep. We do have it on the I agenda why we would agenda if anyone would to stay for that respect. Okay. Um, looking for first to approve the minutes of July 15th. So Moved. Sarah in a second. Second. Brian Oda. Okay, I’ll do a roll called Allison Taylor. So, um, nope. In favor. Sarah Fox. Sorry. In favor. Brian Oda in favor? Uh, Al Williams, that’s a plus. And Jen Schaffner in favor. So four to zero. Okay.

44:20 Um, looking, we have in our packet a memo discussing the disposition. Actually, I did have some question disposition of vehicles,

44:30 which was a memo from Todd. Um, and there were surplus property of plow trucks. The one thing I was wondering is like, there’s descriptions that Sir, Sir, we’re in a meeting and we had a chance for public comment. So I appreciate it. I understand we’re moving forward And that you have absolutely not helping at all. Your teacher just walked out. Do you have children at the school? Ma’am, Sir, I thank you for your input. I believe You guys have enough money to once our School system proud, I’m gonna call you out of order. You need to stop talking, sir, we’re moving on private School. We cannot afford that, man. You are not helping at all. You know what you

45:17 Guys are, you want take a recess? Is you’re the chair. I’m gonna ask for a motion for a recess. Do Anything. You, you disrespect Me By being 45 minutes. He’s not gonna stop talking, you know? Okay. And you just Don’t. Do I have a motion for recess? I’m sorry. Don’t need a motion. No respect. You’re not

45:38 Seriously. I’ll wait. All right. I’m gonna call us back into, there’s nobody here’s great. Session at 7 33. 7 34. Um, okay, thanks. We need to go green. We’re not green yet. Oh. Frank needs to be in, so then he can, oh, sorry, Frank. Um, okay. I don’t know. Over here. I think I, from here, there you’re okay. You have to make him a co-host. Okay. So there were some questions apparently about the disposition of the vehicles.

46:13 If you write in Frank here. Okay. If someone has questions, go ahead with the questions. While I’m working on that, I don’t have questions. I thought you said you had some, um, I thought you said other people had questions. I don’t. I thought you Oh, okay. No, I did. I thought, okay. Sorry. Um, no, I just, like, some of them are described as in bad shape, but we’re giving them away to the fire department, so I just Wasn’t sure about that. So the fire department looking it is for training purposes. Oh, they do? Yeah. Yeah. They do ‘em seriously? Yeah. Oh, okay. It’ss quite something to see. I driven. Yeah, when you see them by the fire station. Oh, no, I haven’t seen that. Okay. So What, what I will say is the Frames are rotted with holes in the bodies as well as the floor. What I’ll say is there’s, there’s some that needs to be replaced. So that’s not part of tonight’s discussion, but it will be. Okay. A lot of those are being disposed of, but we haven’t replaced them, so. Okay. Yeah. Okay, great.

46:59 Um, so I need a motion to approve the disposition of the vehicles moved, just described, moved by Sarah. Second. So moved, Allison. Okay. Any other discussion? Okay, I’m gonna call for a vote. Allison. Taylor in favor? Sarah Fox in favor? Brianda in favor? Jen. Schaffner in favor? Four to zero. That’s all set. Okay. Did we lose everybody online? No. This still a lot of people here? No. ‘cause you wrote in Frank. Oh, I was gonna say, oh, good. Good, good, good. Yeah. Okay. Um, thought We had a problem. Okay. Um, we’re gonna move on to school committee communication discussion. I think we’re gonna do the contract negotiation update. So feel free to jump out, John, if you want, if you need to run out. I know John Sat through this, I think twice, not today.

47:45 Yeah, he gets some good time. Frank, if you can share our screen or not share the screen, whichever. It’s

47:57 Okay.

48:01 Oh, Al Williams had a hand up. He was still on. I think he wants to vote. Yay. Oh or nay.

48:08 Hang on one second, folks. Al, you there? You just need to unmute Al Have to allow him to, Uh, yeah, I couldn’t unmute myself until you allowed it, until you made me call. Oh, I apologize. So you missed the votes. All right. I’ve been here the whole time and I was, you can make the 4 0 5. Oh, I was trying to give A thumbs up. Yeah, I know. I could see, I’m sorry. You know what? I’m gonna, why don’t I make you a co-host? Yes. How about that? I’m gonna make you a co-host and that way Yeah, you won’t be muted. I apologize. Yeah, I’m sorry. I, I was, because I can’t text you. I I, I was trying to be in my phone to you. I apologize. Uh, but I, But I know you’re paying attention to the meeting, but I’m sorry, I was, I was listening to everything. I Just couldn’t Good to you. No, I appreciate anything, Appreciate, uh, to avoid people coming in and start talking. So That’s why I, yeah,

48:54 no, no, no, no, we have to do that. We have to keep it you up. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay. Um, we just need one second to get the document up. And just, Lee, I know this is often a question we’ll be asking, um, Steven, our tech director, to put this up on the website right away. Sometimes he does it tonight, sometimes it won’t be till first thing tomorrow morning. Okay, great. I’m gonna move forward. So we’re gonna give an update on the school committee negotiations with the Massachusetts edu, Marblehead Education Association October 17th, 2024. Um, I think one thing, again, just to, um, reiterate, and I checked to make sure, uh, on the agenda, it does say not to return before, which, yeah,

49:41 while I fully understand the concern and, and the comment, and I, you know, I, I would feel the same way. Unfortunately, sometimes in executive session, things do end up taking longer because we are asking more questions. There’s only two people on the bargaining subcommittee, and so those executive sessions are the only time that the rest of the committee gets to, you know, find out, you know, what’s happening and get their updates. Um, I just, and I think the point is that it, it does say not before six o’clock, so it wasn’t a six o’clock start time. It’s not before six o’clock. So I know it’s, I I think for people semans who aren’t used to attending municipal or, or public meetings, they might not be used to the language. And, you know, you look at a zoning, uh, agenda, a planning agenda, and you’ll see three

50:26 People are scheduled for 7 45. That means you cannot see an item prior to that li that time, but it is allowable after. So you always overshoot in, in the air that, You know, early. I do think it’s important to note that it was not done out of any lack of, of respect. No. Um, all right. Okay. So, um, so, um, we’re here to do an update. We had presented this update, um, uh, at our last school committee meeting. And so we’re gonna use the same slides. Um, and we’re just going to update some of the slides. So we’re just, the idea is to have this be sort of a living document. So some of the, um, slides that don’t have much change, we’re going to kind of go through quickly. Um, and again, this will be up on the, the website

51:13 for the school committee negotiations, um, on the school website, hopefully by tomorrow. Uh, next slide. Frank, please.

51:26 Okay. So the same questions we had last month. We have this year, uh, this month, which is, what are the questions in the community? How did we get here? Why don’t we have new contracts yet? Where are we in negotiations and where do we go from here? Next slide, please.

51:48 Thank you. Um, negotiations began March 14th, 2024. Um, school committee had requested to bargain back in December, and the Marblehead Education Association declined and said they weren’t ready. Um, we requested to bargain more frequently. Um, early on in those early months, the Massachusetts Teachers Association representative wasn’t available. Um, and the, uh, ma the Marblehead Second, the Marblehead, um, educational Association presented its wage goals in June, but did not confirm their goal was their actual wage proposal until September 10th for the teacher’s union. So we’ve been negotiating specifically on the wage proposal since November 10th, September 10th, I’m sorry, September 10th. Thank you. Oops.

52:33 Other way.

52:38 You went the wrong direction. That’s okay. 1, 1, 1 more, one more. There. There we go. Okay. Um, it’s no problem. Why don’t we have a contract yet. So, the, the NEA or the Union’s wage proposals are unaffordable and unsustainable as we sit today and would result in layoffs of employees and negatively affecting our students. The current wage proposals from the union total $11.591 million of a budget increase over four years. I do think it’s important to note that we did have a proposal at our last, um, meeting where the union came forward with a request for a contract to span four years. We have been negotiating a three

53:25 year contract, which is typical. Um, while we don’t have allowable four year contracts in Massachusetts, what we can do is negotiate a one year contract, which is the year we’re in right now, and then have an immediate consecutive, uh, three year contracts so that it would be a span of four years over, uh, two contracts. And that is something that the, that we are the bargaining committee is, um, willing to look at. Um, so what their current proposal is over the four years for all five unit contracts is a little over $11.5 million. Um, factoring in revenue increases as we’re expected, um, by the town administrator, and have been estimated by the town Administrator and Finance Committee, um, of a little over a million or a million dollars a year, that would require

54:12 either $7.591 million of a tax override to meet that need over the four years, or layoffs of more than 75 staff members, which represents about 15% of our staff based on average current average salaries. Um, so it’s a pretty significant, um, hill to climb, if you will, based on what the current union proposal is. And just, and just to be clear, um, laying off the 75 staff members a, you know, estimates there is not because the people sitting at this table have, have anything to do with determining operationally who we need or who we don’t. Um, it is simply a matter of cost and obviously the administrators in at each

54:59 school would have to come up with that. But I think it’s important to note because there’s, there’s been some discussion about this, and I’ll probably be the one poking bears and asking the questions about things that I’ve heard, things that we see in the, um, in the community or on social media or in the paper. Um, it’s not this committee saying, we don’t need these people. We would have to do that in order to make the dollars work. Um, and I, I, I just wanna make sure that that’s clear Without, Without a tax revenue Yep. Increase or a revenue increase. Okay. Next slide. Next slide please. And I’ll take over. Um, so the cost of the current MEA proposals, then you’ll see our proposals following up to this. Um, right now their unit a over four years would be a 33.9% increase,

55:46 or roughly 9.7 million over those four years for just unit A. Um, for custodians it would be a 32% increase, or roughly 644,000 over the four years. Um, the tutors would be 27.8 or roughly a 735,000 over four years. And the paraprofessional request right now is for an 83% increase to the tune of 435.9 thou. Um, thousand, a hundred thousand and Thea’s proposal for permanent substitutes is looking for a 52% increase over the four years for a cost of $85,000 roughly.

56:31 It’s important to note that this includes, um, steps as well as the significant, um, yearly increases. I don’t, I think that some members in the community don’t understand that with the STEP program in our, for example, unit A, um, when you move through the steps, you come in at step one, ultimately the current contract ends at step 11. You’ll hear more about that to come. Um, those are each year you get a raise according to your step, anywhere between 4% and all the way up to 11% for that one year anniversary. Um, and then any additional COLA increases would be the percentages that on top of that. And I think it’s important to note too, that, um, you know, all of the units have what we call these step increases.

57:17 So every year for a period of years, depending on the contract, um, up to a certain number of years, the each employee, and in unit A, it’s the teachers are getting a raise. And that was true this year too, right? So everyone who is eligible for step increase received it. Um, next slide, Frank. So, uh, where are we in negotiations currently? We have ongoing negotiations with everyone. A a point of clarification for the custodians unit, we made a request for a state mediator. We had filed that the Department of Labor Relations has taken jurisdiction. They did not throw it out. They took jurisdiction and they’ve asked for an update by November 8th. So that, that is ongoing. Um, next slide.

58:06 Our current school committee proposals. So for unit A, currently we are, um, proposing a 10 and a half percent for steps one through 10 over four years, or 12% For step 11, it’s important to note that more than two thirds of our staff are at step 11. So this 12% over four years would affect more than two thirds of our staff staff. We’ve also added, um, proposed adding an additional step 12. So to further, um, growth up for our top step there. Um, tutors, we’ve proposed renaming as instructional assistance. We have a tentative agreement right now, um, which is a bargaining term. A glossary is gonna be posted on our website as well,

58:53 so people can, um, look up those. But the reason for that is our administrators have given us the feedback that as they post jobs that say tutors it, the term to the term tutor apparently is very unique to Marblehead in other municipalities and school districts. Tutors would actually fall as under a paraprofessional contract. Um, so when people are seeing a job hosting for tutor, what they’re envisioning is, you know, what we think about an old school tutor after school for math or science. And, um, by switching it to instructional assistance, it really speaks to more what the role is doing and, um, will be helpful in the recruiting process. So we have a tentative agreement on that. Um, we also proposed

59:39 removing the multi-year requirement prior to step advancement. Well, unit A gets a step every year. Some of our units you’ll hear about as we talk, um, in the current contract, you have to work multiple years in order to advance to the next step. What we’re proposing is doing away to that, that requirement of for multi-year between steps, and we’re proposing a quicker step advancement. So employees now advance one wage step per year up to the maximum. Um, so you’ll hear about that in a lot of our units. The custodians we have proposed reclassifying the wage groupings in year one. This would pro, uh, provide up to a 16% increase in the first year alone for our custodians. Um, and then an additional four and a half percent wage increase over

1:00:26 the following two years. We are proposing to increase their sick leave by 20%. We’re also proposing to increase their night differential by over 350% by the end of their contract for the paras. We’ve put a lot of work into this contract. We have been in agreement and we’ve, that the current wage scales needed to be looked at. Um, so one of the things we’re proposing is to reclassify our wage tables, bring our pre-K, kindergarten, and special ed Paris to the top pay level. It would be a new group, a group F, um, to increase up to 65% for the starting wages and 34% wage increase for our top scale. And as well as increase the rate

1:01:11 of stepping at a higher wage. I just wanna, you know, we will be putting up our wage, our wage table in the next day, day or so. But just for, you know, a frame of reference on that, on the current contract, pre-K kindergarten, special ed paras could start at, um, $13 in some odd cents. That’s step one. In the current contract, what we’re proposing is in year one, their starting wage would be seven. Um, no, they’re, they’re starting wage in year one would be $22. So we’re proposing a lot of movement. And, um, by the end of the contract, the starting wage for

1:02:00 that would be, um, 2289. So from 1385 to 2289 is what we’re proposing, um, for our Paris there. So I, I think that’s really, you know, important. And I just, I’m gonna take a slight detour to say, you know, this proposal was made on October 8th. It was handed to the union. They knew about that wage proposal, and we received, you know, the letter we received that went out after that, ignoring the fact that we’re offering over $22 an hour for starting wages. So, you know, it’s important to note the dates that they, that these proposals have been made.

1:02:47 Um, next slide. For our permanent substitutes, we’re doing an addition of steps in a reduction of the time between steps to allow for faster wage advancement as well. 23% wage increase for starting wages over three years, and 17% increase for top steps over three years. These are big numbers. Um, we have been, and continue to be agreeing to a safety committee, um, throughout the last several months we have been doing this. Um, it, we have heard tremendous feedback about the success of the Professional Development Advisory committee. I can see Julia smiling over there. So we’ve modeled the safety committee after the Professional Development Advisory Committee.

1:03:34 Um, we have proposed equal representation of administrators and unit members, and, um, all bargaining units may be represented. There’s enough seats for every bargaining unit to be represented that, of course, the representatives are at the discretion of the union. They’ll choose who represent them, but we made sure we allowed for enough seats that every bargaining unit could be represented. Um, we’re also proposing advances in parental leave. Previously we maxed out at eight weeks, and it all had to be used from the employee’s accrued time. We’re proposing that you can go up to 12 weeks, so that’s a 50% increase, and that we will provide 12 days paid by the employer. That will not be counted across, against any earned time.

1:04:21 So again, these are new benefits. Um,

1:04:27 Can I just, I, I just, I wanna make sure that I’m clear. Next slide. And then you Oh, sorry. Because you No, no, no. You have your question on the next slide. No, It’s really just kind of a general time. Oh, okay. Uh, sorry, Frank, um, I just wanna be clear. So you’re saying, because I’m not on the bargaining subcommittee, and I didn’t ask this, uh, admittedly I asked a lot, but I didn’t ask this in executive session, so I apologize. I just wanna be clear on a point that you made there. This proposal was in, they had this proposal prior to the email that we received. Yes. 600 people. Yes. Okay. Yes.

1:05:07 Thank you. That’s all. You’re next. Uh, next slide. Next slide. So, uh, this slide hasn’t just has one quick update, um, which we had the last time. Some other issues. So, parental leave leave, um, we just wanted to note that the bargaining subcommittee has increased, uh, the offer by 20% to include up to 12 work days of paid leave. Um, and to allow the remainder of the, of the personal leave accrued, uh, by the employee to use up to 12 weeks of leave, um, going forward. So that is an increase as well. Um, the safety meetings, Sarah talked about, um, elementary students, um, lunch and recess. Recess, which has been a, um, uh, an issue for the union and that the school committee is obligated to ensure that we were, that we meet the 900 hours of required student learning time. And there’s also been discussion of athletic fees,

1:05:53 um, to be waived. Um, and, and we’ll talk about this in a, in a slide in a few moments, but the athletic fees, which are charged by many, um, school districts are an integral part of our ability to balance our budget. Um, One just additional note on that, regarding lunch and recess, 100% know and understand the 900 hours that we need for time on learning also agree, well, I don’t necessarily agree, but I understand lunch and recess do not count towards those 900 hours. I firmly disagree and will always firmly disagree. Um, and there is no bylaw or rule, um, because I’ve done extensive, have done extensive discussions with DESI on this.

1:06:39 Um, time on learning can include walking from class to class, changing from your snow pants out of your snow pants, et cetera. Um, the choice to not include that is an administrative choice. That’s not, I, I know you’ve been here for two minutes, but that was a choice. And it is something that it is still a hill that I will die on, uh, because I do firmly believe that an additional recess for our younger students is critical for success. And I think all of the numbers will show that. I just have that, just, you know, I understand, and I know we’ve talked, we, we are continuing to talk about on the policy subcommittee. Yep. But this, um, request was beyond even The minutes. I understand. I just wanna make sure that folks know, or for whatever’s being reported, that that hasn’t been forgotten either. Okay. Got it. Okay. Next slide, please, Frank.

1:07:38 The next slide, um, which we also showed last time is, has not changed. It’s the tax levy comparison between various towns. These towns are, um, school districts that are similar to Marblehead in terms of demographics, in terms of enrollment numbers, and specifically in terms of per pupil expenditures. Um, so what we looked at in these towns were the tax levy. In other words, how much, how many dollars in taxes are collected in that community per person, per capita. Um, and you can see that Wayland is at the top, and it’s an outlier at 66,000, $30 per person. Marble had the lowest at 34 point 94 swamps, guts even higher than us at 39 24. And these are community, these communities were selected because,

1:08:23 Just so that it’s clear, well, they’re part of the, um, state, what they call dart. So it’s the communities that they compare us to. And these aren’t all of them. There are other communities that they compare us to as well. But yes, No, I just, that was just another question that we’ve seen. Why are, you know, the seemingly random, um, allotment, which is not. Yep. And, and that’s also been out there in various media sources or social media sources that, um, you know, that we sort of chose these communities to compare ourselves to. But the state actually does it, and they do it for a reason statistically, um, because we are similar to, to, to many of these communities in terms of, again, you know, number of students per pupil expenditure, um, demographics. But the tax levy can vary by community.

1:09:08 As you can see, um, different communities have different sources of revenue, um, that that can vary.

1:09:18 So, next slide, please, Frank.

1:09:22 The next slide just again, hasn’t changed. It just talks about new growth. Um, so this is the area within our town that would provide new taxes or new tax revenue, which ostensibly could go towards, um, school budget or, you know, and or town budget. Um, and there’s a bit of an outlier with Andover ‘cause they have a very large commercial base. Um, and the other, the rest of us are, are similar in terms of our, uh, our potential new growth, marble hood being the lowest. And our town administrator has talked about that many times. Um, you know, um, in public, um, and offline has talked about how anemic our new growth is. I think it’s also important to note that the town of the town side of Marblehead has a structural deficit and been functioning with the structural deficit

1:10:08 for many years, and has been continually relying on free cash, um, which has been diminishing. That’s the sort of definition of the structural deficit. So the new growth, um, that we would hope to be able to participate in, um, as a revenue source for the, the school budget. And then to, um, help fund our salary contracts with our, with our, um, various units are, um, I don’t wanna say competing. There are other pressures within the town, um, on those new growth funds.

1:10:41 Next slide, please. Thank you. How do we balance the budget? Again, this slide, same as last time. And it really, what this is showing is, you know, there’s two sides to our, our, our budget, right? The one is the expense side. And our expenses fall into two categories. We have salaries and we have all other expenses. That’s it. So there’s been some, you know, I’ve seen some sort of graphics out there in the community, sort of throwing on other types of expenses on the expense side of this fulcrum. Um, and, you know, everything that we account for or accounted basically in these two categories, and there’s subcategories under them on the revenue side, um, that helps pay, is what is used to pay for these expenses. You can see in the pie chart, those are our funding sources for our budget. We have the town meeting appropriation,

1:11:27 which comes from the tax levy of the town. We have grants, which we apply to on the federal and state level. We have fees. We charge athletic fees and others, um, room rental fees that we charge for folks that rent our properties. Um, and very generous donations, which I, we’ve talked about before from the people of Marblehead. All of those add up to our budget. The lion’s share of our budget, without a doubt, comes from the appropriation at town meeting. Next slide please. And finally, the funding formula. This also has remained the same. The number of staff times our staff wages equals our salary budget. And our salaries account for 80% of our budget. And one of the other things we look at in some

1:12:12 of those other communities is the staffing levels. And we have the two ways to look at it. We have the highest staffing level compared to many of those other communities. And we have the lowest student teacher ratio, which is great, you know, which is great. We’re able to, you know, provide for our students. And we have, we have staff to do that. But we are having to allocate our per pupil expenditure across a greater number of staff, greater staff number, um, than many of our other comparable communities. So this brings us to the major, oh, go back one, Frank, go, go back. One, the major funding concern,

1:12:54 Thea’s wage proposal increases which range from 27 to 83% across all five units, require plus or minus a 10% tax override. In the absence of that passing, it would then trigger mandatory layoffs of more than 75 employees, or more than 15% of our staff. I say mandatory because we are obligated by state law to produce a balanced budget. There’s no credit card we’re running up here. We’re not running into an equity line. It has to be balanced. If we don’t get additional revenue, we have to lay off employees. We don’t wanna do that. That is why we are taking this process so seriously, we don’t want

1:13:40 to lay off the numbers you’re seeing here. The, the effects on our students would be catastrophic at, at 15% of our labor force. Um, this is really important to point out. Jen hit on it earlier. I’m gonna say it again. This is to fund this contract alone. This doesn’t include our other additional expenses such as special education or, or other expenses util expenses util utilities that grow every year. This is for the, the, the contract alone. And the big thing it doesn’t include is the structural deficit we continue to hear about at the town every year. We’re running outta money a little more and more. We’ve, we fin com and the select board for two years now have

1:14:26 continually told us we will need an override to fix the structural deficit. The last estimate was between four and $5 million to fix that structural deficit. This number you see here, does not include that four or 5 million instead. So we are facing the potential of a town meeting and a ballot where we’re looking at a four to $5 million override for structural deficit in addition to, uh, the, a multimillion do I think, what was it? Almost $8 million override for just the contract. What happens is the town, it goes on as a menu. You can vote for one, you can vote for none. You can vote for both.

1:15:13 The, the, the reality is we have continued to fail with overrides. This town has continually not passed them. So to wager 75 employees or 55% of our workforce on an override of this magnitude, is a really big risk that could really harm our students. So that is, that is the major funding concern. The next slide we wanna talk about what? Allison had a question. Oh yeah. No, no. Okay. We wanna talk about what is a proposition two and a half override process. ‘cause we hear, you know, I think the gentleman here was saying it too, you need to just get more money. There’s a process. It’s laid out by Mass General Law.

1:15:58 It starts with a warrant article for a proposition two and a half, which becomes sponsored and then placed on the warrant. Then it’s got a passed town meeting by a two thirds vote. After it passes, town meeting gets to the ballot. It must receive a simple majority at the ballot here. This last one is the big ticket item that very few people understand. The first year, that funding is guaranteed for the schools. The school sponsors the article. After the first year, that funding reverts back to the town wide general fund to be appropriated by town meeting. You hope the appropriation, they follow the will of the people and they say, you know, this was brought forward by the schools, for the schools. But there is no law, there’s no legal mandate that

1:16:46 that override that has passed, gets reappropriated to the schools. After that, it is a one year guarantee. That’s it. So again, year of G year, that money’s not guaranteed. And you’re back at the table. Okay. To that. So I, well, there’s nobody here, but I think there’s still some people online. Um, it’s unfortunate that the, the people left because that’s really A Critical piece. Um, if we went for an override, and I I, similar to all of the mass confusion around sell coffin, sell Ely, you’ll get all this money. That is not how the process works. The first year we would get the money that was agreed to at town meeting that was agreed to at the ballot when people voted for this.

1:17:34 We would not be guaranteed that the next year or the next year or the next year after that. And that is a critical piece, like more than a critical piece, which is, is, I personally have concerns I’ve spoken out against how money is allocated to the schools from the town time and time again. So this for me is another concern on that. Um, unfortunately, as Sarah noted, it’s this is the law. This is the process. We don’t, we can’t Change that. And it’s not to say town meeting won’t reallocate it to the schools. Yep. But anybody who’s attended town meeting has realized, let’s go onto that. Arose with can come with thorns sometimes. Next slide. So, demand, or can we go to the next slide?

1:18:19 Can, you’ll see in quotes here, demand and override. We keep being told demand and override. It’s not just we say, give it to us and it’s given to us. So there’s a process, as was laid out in the previous slide. And, you know, we talked about the warrant at town meeting. There’s multiple options here for a town meeting. We start with an option for a special town meeting. Now, the select board had special town meeting on two agendas in September. A very well organized group of over a hundred attended and spoke opposing and shutting down the idea. I wanna be clear, they were not speaking against funding the schools. That was not the intent of this group. It was on a separate warrant article. It was focused on that. And I don’t wanna imply for a single second that they were speaking on anything other than that. The point is, it was on an agenda. There was an easy path to, for, to a special town meeting.

1:19:07 Um, no members, not one member of the staff or public spoke in favor as using that special town meeting as a place to, for an override article. If they had, if this large group you had seen here today or the 700 signatures you’ve seen, had used those, those meetings and said, let’s have town meeting and put an override request on it. ‘cause once the, by the way, folks, once the warrant’s open, it’s open. We can have leaf blowers, we can have everything back on. It’s open. So there was not one member that showed up. And um, I was there, Jen was online. Um, and I spoke, I was online for half of it. Oh, I spoke. And, um, about the reality of staff reductions, if the will

1:19:54 of the town continued to turn down additional funding revenues. Um, so special town meeting, at least that one is off the plate. All it takes is 300 signatures, folks. So go for it. Um, a may. I wanna jump in there. I just wanna make one comment too, which I think I’m gonna keep going back to quoting our town administrator, key member of our bargaining team. And, you know, Thatcher Keys, our town administrator has made it clear, or he has spoken publicly that, um, that an override, while it need, would need to be placed on the warrant as an article by a board, really needs to come from the public if it’s going to be successful. And we would need, you know, it needs to be significant. Um, the, the source really does need to come in terms of support loud and clearly from, from the public

1:20:44 or from certain groups within the public. And, and I think also it’s not just the support to put that warrant on, it’s to pass, it’s then the additional support to pass the warrant at town meeting, getting enough people at town meeting to agree to it, and then getting enough people at the ballot. Yeah. So it’s, it, it’s not, it’s not just getting the warrant. It’s all of those pieces. And having, having been through it, having stunted for an override already, it is a lot. It’s a lot of work. Mm-Hmm. You Don’t say, um, you, yeah, I’m not preaching the party. So may, um, so the next regular scheduled town meeting is May in 2025. Um, the school committee again must legally put forth a balanced budget to town meeting. So when that, one of those first articles, when we vote the balanced budget, that’s,

1:21:29 that’s the balance number. That has to be what we have. Then the warrant for opens in January. The school committee has placed an article for an additional school funding override for the past six years. Every year, for the past six years, we’ve put a placeholder. There’s been some years we’ve been de definitely postponed it. We tried to push it through, um, two years. Two Well passed two years in, Uh, the past town meeting, two years. First year it failed the town ba the ballot by two thirds or two, or I’m sorry, a two to one margin and the second time by 400 votes. Um, so it’s important to to point that out because we keep putting it out there. The way town meeting works is if it’s on the,

1:22:14 if it’s an article, even if the recommendation is indefinite postponement, I mean, praise the tree, man. He showed us all, you can, you can, um, bring it back, bring it back on. You can amend the, the motion. We aren’t seeing voices doing that. There’s not one person standing up in these six years saying, no, give us that override. So we get back to how the budget starts. The superintendent recommends the initial budget, including staffing levels and expenses. They recommend the staffing levels. They recommend what expenses should be budgeted. The school committee then determines if additional funding is needed to balance the budget. Thus the Warren article. But, so this just kind of goes through what the process is. It’s really not as easy as us calling, you know, Abbott Hall

1:23:02 and saying, we demand more money. If it, it was, trust me, I would’ve either had money or been driven outta town years ago. Um, all right. So Next, Next Slide. I think that’s me. That’s you Anyway. Thank you. Um, so just in wrapping up, we’re asking the same question to ourselves. Um, and the full committee, um, going forward is how will any proposal that we have going forward our proposal or the union’s proposal, or, you know, hopefully what will be something in between, we agree to how will it impact the education of the students in the Marblehead schools, and is it affordable and sustainable? And last slide, come up to the last slide. Um, where do we go from here? Again, similar to how we were last month.

1:23:47 We’ll continue to bargain in good faith with each of the units of the union. Um, Sarah explained the department of labor took jurisdiction of the custodians unit. So we will continue to bargain and report back the results of our bargaining by November 8th. And we’ll then likely, um, if we haven’t reached an agreement, the Department of Labor will likely assign a mediator to us. Um, and we’re committed to bargaining a contract that meets the needs of our students, our staff, and the community. And, you know, I will close with this by saying that you, we have made, we have made progress. We absolutely have. We were far apart. We’ve come a little bit closer together. We’re meeting again on Monday. We’re meeting again the following Monday. So, um, that’s the good news. And we hope that we will continue to be able to make

1:24:33 that progress soon or sooner rather than later. And be able to come to a contract that everyone, um, can Agree on. I do think it’s important. ‘cause I, I unfortunately witnessed some of our words getting a little okay, massaged, um, to, to clearly state as far as wages as you’ve seen in these tables, we’re still far, far apart. Um, it’s still a gap that seems insurmountable from a funding standpoint. Um, and quite frankly, it’s, it’s a wager on, um, the services to our students that would be irresponsible at that level to make. Um, I think if we can get to more reasonable, that’s a different discussion. But, you know, the idea of laying off 15% of our,

1:25:21 our workforce is, um, not a responsible wager, I think. And, uh, you know, I’m just gonna say, I do think that

1:25:33 in regards to the 600 emails, I don’t, I, I think you ha I think we are facing the problems. I don’t, I don’t know that anybody is avoiding the problems. I would, I have a kid in this school system too, and I, I would suggest that people review this and, and maybe understand that there is only so much that we, as these five people can do. It is so hard day after day to read post, after post, you would think that these five people here are the devil. Al’s not here. So he’s online. It’s online, four people at the table. Obviously you guys don’t count. Um, four people at the table al’s online to hear the names that were called, the assumptions

1:26:19 that get placed on us. I have a child here too. I want the best for my child too. I grew up here when we had exemplary schools and we were, you know, we had a much more, you know, robust offering. Obviously it was 400 years ago, so things didn’t cost quite as much. However, I want that for my kid. I want that for all of our students. I want our teachers to feel valued. I want, and I’m not on the bargaining subcommittee, so I don’t know the intricacies of what happens there, but I just want people to be mindful of how that, I, I think people, we aren’t avoiding problems. I think we’re trying to work towards solutions. I understand. And in a perfect world,

1:27:05 I think we all would agree. You want 40%, here’s 40%. But there is an element of reality that we have to live in. And it is so, so hard. But I, I really do believe that Jen and Sarah and, and everybody on the full committee, whether you’re on, we’re on bargaining or not,

1:27:27 we want the best for you as well. And I, I just, I don’t know, I I hope after this presentation with the, there’s a lot more detail in this version of the presentation than the first one. And I’m very grateful for this, and thank you. It’s incredibly time consuming. Um, I, I, I hope that people can see that no one is avoiding the problems. There’s no one up here that doesn’t see that this is a problem. Um, there’s no one up here that doesn’t wanna work towards a real solution. There’s the safety. I I think you’re almost there on the safety, right? So that’s, you know, from the safety perspective, the safety committee perspective, and I think that there has been some really great progress. You’re not there yet. And I know that,

1:28:13 and I, I know just looking at the numbers, it seems insurmountable, but I do think that, you know, I don’t know. I don’t really know what the point of all that was. Just that, um, I just urge people to read through this. I wish more people had stayed, um, to hear it. Me too. I don’t know how we have, it’s really hard to not get emotional number one, when people are, are, are talking about, you know, it hearkens me back to when we had the 94% non voted non-confidence and people told stories. It’s very difficult listening to these stories. And I the assumption though,

1:29:01 that because we can’t do 40% means we must not care. We don’t respect people. I I think that those two things are far apart as well. Um, and I, I think both things can be true. I know it’s true for me. I don’t wanna speak for anybody else, but I, I feel like for my fellow committee members, it’s also true. And I just, I hope that this helps people in the community understand. I hope that we have more of an opportunity to talk about the, not misinformation, but maybe misunderstood, um, information. I hope Jen and Sarah have the opportunity. Again, I’m not on the bargaining subcommittee, so I don’t know all of the details that happened in those meetings. Um, and thank you for the, the time. I know how long these things take. And thank you for the time. Thank you to Mike, who does, has to go

1:29:49 and, you know, crunch back all of these numbers. When, when, I think one thing that we didn’t talk about is when something is presented, when they pre pre present something back to you, the team and, and Mike has to go back and, and in their private caucus and run all the numbers and crunch all the numbers into the school system of the size. This does take time. Um, I understand how much time and effort is put into this, and I just, um, I’m appreciative of that. Thank you. Yeah. Um, and then we’re gonna wrap this up. So, yeah, I, I just wanna remind everybody, um, we will continue to update the website. Um, Jen did a lot of work to, um, line out. So glossary of terms, because we, you know, we are used to a lot of these terms and what they all refer to,

1:30:35 but it’s, it’s not necessarily native to everybody else. So those will be up on the website. We’re putting all of our salary wage tables that we’re proposing up at the website. So you can just see, you know, someone starting at this level. Uh, a bachelor’s with no additional credits. Unit A will come in, and then by year four, at the end of the contract, we’ll have realized a 15% wage increase through, through advancement of the steps and everything. So please take a chance to look at that. Um, And also part of the reason why we’re doing this too, is that we have been inundated with communications from the public, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of communications from the public, which, um, we’re, you know, there’s only two of us, five

1:31:22 of us, you know, there’s a subcommittee, communication subcommittee, two of us. Some of us have day jobs, um, and other things. So we’re trying our best to get the communication out, um, with, with, with the resources we have. So, yes, so please go to the website. And, um, it isn’t lost on me that this is our second update. Both have been clearly noted on agendas in both times. We’ve had the entire audience get up and walk out right before the update, so as not to have to see it. Um, so I, I, I think that hopefully we get to a point where we can continue to have these conversations and be open to solutions

1:32:08 Productive. I don’t know how it happens so that it is more of a conversation. I understand they want answer. Anybody would want answers in their position. Um, I I, I don’t know what at all, if anything is even possible to have it be more of a conversation Than, Than that. And I, I’m not, this isn’t, I’m not saying Meetings hard to do. I mean, it’s hard ‘cause we have public comment. I get it. It’s not a dialogue. We have, we have Policies for people who don’t come. Often you realize you think it’s a meeting with the public. It is a meeting in public, not in with the public. So a lot of times what is said in public comment, if you stay for the rest of our agenda, your questions and concerns are answered throughout the meeting according to the agenda items.

1:32:53 All of the co concerns in that letter were addressed in our update. So we did address everything in this letter through our update. So we just wanna be clear about that as well. It Might not be the update. PII think it’s important to note, though, it might not be the update people want. Right. Uh, you know, that’s, that’s fair. You know, but we Didn’t not respond. We, we did an entire presentation responding. Okay. So I’m gonna move on in the interest of time. Yes. We we’re getting late here. Thank you. Um, so we also now have, so thanks and we will continue to do the updates, um, as we go forward in this process. Um, we’re moving on to superintendent goals. We are superintendent goals subcommittee In the Dropbox as a superintendent file. That’s where the three documents are. Can you pull that up?

1:33:38 I do you want me to share my screen? Yes, Please. Okay. Oh, do I need to make you, I have for copies Too, if you guys wanna look at ‘em. Yeah, I think, yeah. Do you want hard copies? I don’t Need copy. I have a hard copy. I think if we pull it up, it should be, I Can pull it up. I need to make you, who Are you? No Problem. Allison, where are you? Oh, yeah, yeah. I haven’t seen those yet. Now. Um, okay. Why the new band?

1:34:09 Oh, that’s weird. Thanks Lee. See ya. Okay. Oh, okay. You’re an now co-host too. Okay. Sorry. All right. Share. I’ve never Shared my screen in a big meeting. Lemme see. I only have one share the wrong screen. Sadly, there’s nothing, there’s nothing good in there. Um, okay. So do you, do you have an order you want? That’s Fine. Professional practice is number one. Thank You. I appreciate that. Yeah, Of course. I’m not getting that. We good? Alright, we good? Yes, go ahead. Yeah, I know what’s going to do. I’m gonna, I’m gonna help you, Brian, You, it might be your View. I’ll, I’ll do it here. Go ahead, Brian. John, go ahead. Okay, so, um, I’m sharing my,

1:34:57 Um, my edu administrative evaluation goals tonight. Sorry. Uh, and there’s three of them. So there’s a professional practice goal, a district improvement goal, and then a student learning goal. So I’ll go through each goal. Um, so we had a, we had a, a goals subcommittee, um, with Allison and Brian and myself. Uh, we, I proposed goals. The subcommittee gave me some feedback. I tweaked the goals based upon the feedback that we met. Again, I did the same thing, um, again. And so these are the goals here tonight for the committee’s review. Um, clearly if there’s other, you know, more, um, feedback or anything that you have on the goals, we can certainly, um, tweak anything else and, and, and move forward. So I will go through the goals, professional practice goal. Um, first goal is establishment

1:35:43 of a consistent district-wide culture and development of appropriate staffing patterns to meet the needs of our needs of our students. This is a little bit of a needs nebulous goal, but I think it’s important to look at, um, you know, the culture and the staffing patterns. Um, I will work, the summary of the goal is I will work to determine clear avenues of communication with staff, parents, caregivers, and community partners so that pertinent stakeholders have a venue to provide meaningful, appropriate, and pertinent feedback and input as we determine the current needs of the district. The first step is working, when working towards this goal is to do an in-depth staff student analysis that will help inform the next steps required in order to determine how to meet all students where they are academically and socially, emotionally. So, um, the first step on that is, you know, where we’re literally going, teacher by teacher, classroom by classroom, school by school, um, name of the teacher,

1:36:31 how many students they have, what school they’re in, what grade they’re in. Um, what, you know, step they’re on in their contracts really is to give a good overall picture so we can look at staffing patterns in a meaningful way. And I, yes, I just wanna note that that’s something that, that as a committee, um, we’ve asked for, you know, in the past Mm-Hmm. Um, I think it’s important to note we have come leaps and bounds from a budget perspective in what we provide to the public in the line item level detail we provide. Now this in, in my opinion, was one of the last pieces almost that we needed to feel like we have now shared absolutely everything possible we can with the public. And we have, you know, ma then obviously making decisions off of what he finds, um, operationally.

1:37:17 And, um, I’m just super excited about that. Yeah, I just, it’s really great to see. Thank You. And I, um, you know, I, I would be remiss, but I didn’t thank Julia for, um, doing the yeoman’s work on getting this started. And she’s gonna continue to fill, fill in the charts. We’re gonna sit down, look, go through it, sit down like ling and just work through some, um, some different, uh, scenarios. So it’s A tremendous amount of work. It Is it’ss a lot. That’s a lot. Lot. So we’re, we’re, we’re getting there. Um, I know it’s, I know it, I know wouldn’t have request is made. It’s kinda like, oh, let’s have the numbers, let’s have the, it’s not as easy set as done. So I just wanna let you, you know, that we are working on those Mm-Hmm. Um, why did I choose the goal? I felt it prudent to develop a goal that focuses on staffing patterns, but that also helps create, uh, venues for establishment of holistic school culture. Promoting buy-in from all stakeholders. We are currently in a state of flux in Marblehead,

1:38:02 and I’m hoping to provide consistency and stability while determining the best ways to serve all of our student populations in the most appropriate and effective manner to ensure success. How will I measure this goal? I, I’ll survey parents, caregivers, staff, students and community partners to garner feedback while working to establish staffing patterns and promote positive school culture. The feedback will help inform how we look at staffing, while identifying programming that may need adjusting while garnering input is important, it is also necessary to ensure that stakeholder, stakeholders understand that not all feedback and input will necessarily be integrated into the plans, procedures and protocols. Um, surveys will be conducted in the fall, um, planning in November, winter, somewhere around January and spring, um, April. Those are, you know, tentative times, whether that’s, that’s by target.

1:38:49 Anyway, I’ll work with the school administrators and assistant superintendents to create accountability reports and determine what supports are necessary within the different educational environments while ensuring fiscal responsibility, feedback, and input from school committee will help measure the progress of this goal, as will the budgetary process and establishment of overall school budget. Um, the evidence will be for enhancement. Uh, the evidence for enhancement of school culture will be provided based on the survey results and discussions with administrative teams, PTOs, pcos and ongoing feedback from community partners. Actual staffing counts and student programming will be evidenced by administrative stakeholder feedback, but primarily through this, primarily through the establishment of fiscal responsible budget, where appropriate staffing patterns are clearly outlined to meet student needs.

1:39:34 School culture shifts will take time and will be evidenced by relationship building, collaboration and ongoing discussions with stakeholders. The timeline for the goal, this goal has already begun. Um, as soon as I step foot in Marblehead has started. Um, but we will be ongoing. I will be ongoing and made more apparent throughout the year as I garner input from stakeholders, including the students, school committee, parents, caregivers, staff, and community partners. My hope is to have solid staffing information delineated by the onset of the new year throughout the remainder of this school year. The establishment school culture is slightly more nebulous, and therefore by the end of the school year, the groundwork should have, should be in place by which to build upon next school year. So this goal, this goal is kind of two, two part. Um, and a lot of it’s gonna depend on conversations and, uh, you know, our admin teams and, um, PE that we do.

1:40:19 And it’s, it’s gonna incorporate a lot of those pieces. School culture, district culture is, um, something that takes time. And this is kind of really just getting things kind of implemented in, at the, at the base level so we can start moving in that direction. Can I ask a question? This question? Yeah. Do you wanna you wanna ask questions per goal? Sure. Yeah. Um, so I love the goal, um, when you talk, you talked a little bit about going through classroom by classroom and who, who they’re servicing. Um, I, I like the granular level of that for our special education department and, and providers because that’s so much more nuanced. Um, can you just give us a brief idea of how you’ll present that? Will it say, you know, this person is servicing this number of students for this number of B and c gridded hours per,

1:41:05 So I don’t know that it’ll get to that granular level ‘cause that, that gets a little tricky. But what I’m looking at right now, most of the special ed blocks that we’ve created are blank because, um, a teacher may be, um, in charge of, say, 10 students that have special needs. Um, but, you know, those students may be, they may six in a classroom and then some of those kids go out for, you know, inclusion for parts of the day back and forth. So it’s not a typical classroom setting. Like you would, you know, an English class at the high school might have 17 students in it, where a special ed classroom in any one of the schools could have a different number of students per, you know, in the, in, in the, at any given time. Okay. So we’re gonna get as granular as we can without one identifying students. ‘cause that’s huge for me. Yeah. Um, and two, just to get, I think it’s more to give the, um, the committee an idea of where we stand, uh,

1:41:53 in special ed programming and more importantly how I work with Lisa Marie and Victoria around programming in general across the district. So we can, um, um, realize efficiencies and programming that’s solid and safe for kids and it has proper resources in place. Okay. And I won’t go into the rest of my special ed, um, stuff right now. Okay. But with my background in special ed, I really, um, I’m passionate about how we provide services to students and I’m very well aware of how much, um, work needs to be done in special education here in Marblehead. So it’s a, it’s a huge priority for me. Yeah. ‘cause right now we get our Monday, um, our Monday numbers, which already show us, you know, Ms. Smith has 26 kids in her class.

1:42:38 And, and we, so we have a little bit of, and I love that you’re going to the next LE level ‘cause we have a clear view of K through six mm-Hmm. We don’t, it’s kind of a mystery what happens above that because of the way we report it. So it will be good to see those numbers above it. But I do think we’ll need somewhat more of a granular level, especially since the number of tutors we have is so high compared to our student body. I mean, really it comes down to our students to staff ratio is 10.3. The state, uh, average is 11.9. We need a lot of data to show the public Mm-Hmm. Why we need that. Yeah. And I think, you know, obviously as superintendent, I wanna work with our administrative team to look at staffing. I mean, we would always do that regardless

1:43:24 of where things are right now. We would do that year to year to year anyway. Um, look at where the efficiencies can be made. Look at where we need to shore up certain programming where we need to, you know, tutors, parents may need to go this school from that school, depending upon kids transitioning from to different, all that stuff is in the special ed realm because really that’s where a lot of the movement happens. Right. And then also caseload. So you look at, you know, uh, specialists and, uh, you know, that may provide, you know, speech or OT or pt, like how many students do they have on a caseload? How is that caseload broken down? How, uh, do they, they go back and forth between multiple schools. Do they, are they in just in one school? Does the, you know, someone have a caseload of 10 kids, someone else have a caseload of 30 kids. And that’s not equitable, you know, but also That’s where a narrative would be important,

1:44:10 not just numbers on the spreadsheet. Right. But then the other piece to that, which is very difficult, um, and again, I don’t wanna go too far down the rabbit hole, but like speaking about speech and language, right? So for instance, if you have 10 students on your case, I’m just making up numbers, 10 students on your caseload, and someone else might have 2020, those 20 students may be a lot less needy than those other 10. So that 10 could like really feel like a caseload of 25 or 30 where the 20, you know what I mean? Mm-Hmm. So, and that’s happens everywhere in special ed, right? Mm-Hmm. So those are the things that are really hard to kind of put on paper and say, here look, you know, um, so it’s really about those deeper dive conversations with staff, with principals, with, um, just to see where the actual needs are. Um, and again, you know, we’re walking into a lot of stuff that needs some, some attention

1:44:56 and, um, you know, we’re working on that as best we can. But that will come out through some of this. You’ll see some of that. And then you’ll see as we go through the year, ‘cause we’re gonna start looking at programming a lot differently than we, We, I just wanna make sure as we set a goal that we’re being from the measurability, that’s where we’ve always tripped up in the past, is the measurability piece. Right. That we’re being clear about our expectation of what measurability is, and that we don’t run into that. Yeah. And I think, so I should have said this at the beginning. So typically when I do my goals, um, you know, I will bring updates to the committee in an ongoing way. I’m not gonna wait till the end of the year and say, here’s all the stuff I did. Right? Mm-Hmm. So you will know as we’re going through the year where I stand with all my goals and I’m all about giving me feedback and saying, and, and giving you, you know, giving you information about say

1:45:41 like, I set this goal, I thought it was really attainable Holy Mac, I’m not even gonna make it close. And I want to have those conversations. That’s important. Um, the school committee superintendent relationship is hugely important to me. And we have to have that dialogue. And, you know, I don’t take things, I don’t take offense to things. If you say like, this isn’t measurable at all. I seem pretty thick skin. Yeah. Right. So yeah. It’s not fat, it’s thick skin. Um, so I think, you know, I think those are things that I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m hoping that we have as that dialogue, So, okay. And I think that’s exactly the point. Uh, one of my points that you touched on, Sarah, is when in our subcommittee, when we talked about this is ensuring, number one, that it’s measurable, but also ensuring that this is going to give the public that next level. Yeah. It’s really, it’s really about getting across the

1:46:27 finish line with the hide cr previous slides. Correct. The, one of the main more funding. Right. The last, you know, the biggest issue now is the contract. The biggest issue now in order to meet for the contract is potentially an override. Yeah. And I think the next step of what we need, again, I’m not discounting at all the absolutely tremendous amount of work that has been done in the last two years to improve what we provide to the public, um, and how we provide it. I think this will be that next level layer of providing more information to the public so that they understand the numbers. Yeah. So that we’re not constantly hearing back your enrollment’s down your levels of data. Same. How is this happening? But, you know, and that’s, and that’s, you know, part and parcel of what happens, right?

1:47:13 So, so here’s, here’s the meta stuff, right? So you have X amount of students in the district, X amount of staff in the district, the student numbers go down. No wants to say, oh, we need to like, change the staff from, to meet the needs, you know, to meet the number of students, you know, principals, and no offense Brian, but principals have a way of saying, I have these staff in my building. I don’t want them to leave to go, even though that staff might serve those, those students over there a little bit better if I, if they leave my building, I’ll ne never gonna get ‘em back. So it’s, there’s some, some of that that happens naturally. Um, yeah. So I also wanna make the point that the staffing levels in this discussion, isn’t it? It’s to, it’s to figure out programming in the district. It’s to figure out where we need to be. It’s not, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s not to Say punitive or Yeah.

1:47:58 Yeah. But having worked with Lisa Marie, only a short while. Yeah. I think she’s straining out the mess she was left with first, and now she’s beginning to really clear up all of these processes. Well, she’s Amazing, Right? She is. I mean, I sat through a, met a CPA meeting with her and she was explaining all things. She’s already done direct problems. Oh yeah. No, she’s, she’s nothing short of amazing. And I just wanna say this out loud ‘cause I think, you know, Felicia Marie is listening or gonna watch it later. I mean, what she needs to understand is, I think there’s been my opinion in the short time I’ve been here, there’s a, there’s been a lack of expectations setting for staff, um, around special ed stuff. And I think that’s led to some of the conversations about we’re unsafe ‘cause we don’t have staffing. I think some of the safety concerns that are born outta

1:48:43 that is because we don’t have, we haven’t established and maintained, uh, programming appropriately, which includes staff, but also includes how do we run a program? How do we make sure that other programs staffed properly with the right people and the right resources? That’s not always a numbers game. It’s not, let’s throw more bodies at it. It’s, let’s look at the actual program. And I know Lisa Maria has the same philosophy as I do at Robin. That’s what those bodies do. We went from four or five BCBAs down to one for the whole district. And now we’re coming back to having BCBAs in each building, which are the people who actually put these programs together for some of the more difficult children that, uh, have problems in managing their behaviors. So I think by having Lisa Maria looking at these things, we’re gonna start to straighten out.

1:49:29 So we know how to improve safety by providing the right support staff to make sure that programs are set up correctly. So that, so that piece is interwoven into, into this goal of mine. Right. So, and then the a second part to that is it doesn’t happen overnight. So it’s, it takes time to create programmings. Oh yeah. And get them up and running properly. ‘cause realistic, I, I’ll share, I had a meeting with a parent this some day this week. I can’t, they’re all blending together. Um, child’s in an out district placement, talked about like, what did that look like? How did that, how did we get to this point? What, you know, what would, what would have to happen for that child to come back in district? And my my answer was, we need to make sure that we’re going through all the stuff we just talked about, establishing programs. I would never, ever, never recommend if I were special ed

1:50:15 director or overseeing that I would never recommend someone come back in the district until I knew the programming is solid in the district. Right. So that kid isn’t being set up for failure. Mm-Hmm. And I’ve done it in other, in my previous district. It takes a long time. It takes the right people, but it’s doable. And I’m really excited about the work that’s already getting done here in Marblehead. Yeah. No, it’s amazing. Um, my last quick, this one’s a quick one. Yep. Um, on five Measurability, you talk about, um, evidence-based by surveying results, administrator teams, pcos, and ongoing feedback. I would just give the feedback that it’s important to give an opportunity to our parent community beyond just the PCOS and PTOs. Um, we have a very active community. Some people, you know, maybe in different, you know, whether it’s boosters or other groups.

1:51:01 So I would, I would offer it up if you can, to the parent body as a whole in some way. Oh yeah. Rather than just, It says on community partners, Number four says, how will you Measure this goal? Okay. Alright. I just wanted to make sure it was just, it wasn’t just those parent Leaders. I, I was, I already felt like I was repeating parents, two staff parents. Yeah. But I also, I also think it’s important to note Sarah, because I know something we’ve talked about before is having, you know, intermittent checkpoints about it. Right? Yeah. And so he’s, he wants to do that with kind of, we talked about the November, January, April, Tentative. It’s very well thought out. Um, presentation of goal one. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, I think the go, the goal subcommittee was, was, uh, helpful there. What I think is a really small thing up in, I believe it’s number three. Why Go ahead. Gold

1:51:47 Start this wife. Oh, Sorry. Let me get back to it. I Apologize, Al. Yeah, no worries. Al I had mute you before just ‘cause there was some background noise, so thank you for coming. Go ahead, Al. No, that’s fine. I, I’m just, uh, you know, is it that second sentence, we are currently in a state of flux in Marblehead one. I I’m not sure that even needs to be stated. Right? This is a forward looking goal or two is what do you mean by that? Right. You know, and you’ve just mentioned some examples, but I’m not sure it needs to be a part, it’s being additive here. Know, I would just say like, Hey, we’re, we will, uh, continue to provide consistent instability, I think is a better way to start that sentence. Sure. I I, I, I appreciate that feedback. I, you know, I think, I think I won’t make excuse why I just, I just think I wanted to recognize

1:52:33 that we are in the state of Fox, but I’m certainly, I can certainly make that change. Well, I, hold on. Like, I, I mean, I defer to the subcommittee in one case. Um, and I think, I mean all I understand your point, but I don’t, you know, I don’t think it helps to not state, you know, sort of where we are. We are in a state of flux. Yeah. I mean, maybe that could be wordsmithed a little differently. Um, uh, but well, You’re, to me, you’re assuming a, a baseline and I’m, I think that goal here is more to help understand what that baseline it is and, and where we need to improve. Again, I just didn’t think it was additive. I, I think this is an awesome goal and I agree with everything everyone said, but just I have no problem. Just if the subcommittee wants to take that under advisement and I’ll support whatever they decide. I’m fine with that.

1:53:20 I mean, to the extent that I, I know we revamped our goal writing for IEPs, and I think one of the provisions is that we make them, um, forward facing and that they’re supposed to be written in a growth mindset versus like a,

1:53:35 you know, so I, I, I hear that, but I did actually didn’t pick up on that at all and jump out. Certainly. I agree. I agree that we defer to the subcommittee. Yeah. We’re, we’re meeting again. Whenever we’re meeting again. We’ll, we’ll, we’ll talk about that. I’m not hold withholding approval On this. No, no. I think, I think if we do a vote on it, my, my if it’s minor stuff like that we just say with Yes. Recommended adjustments. Um, do you want him go to number two? Yes. Yes, Yes. Sorry, I’m getting there. School improvement, Is that No, you, uh, school improvement goal? Yes. Uh, so Marblehead school district improvement plan, um, in parentheses, DIP dip, uh, 25 20 25 to 2028. So that’s the, that’s the overarching goal. Um, what I’ll say is that currently at Marblehead, we have a student, uh, plan for success, um, in place in, in the district.

1:54:20 It’s supposed to go to as written, this goes to 2026. Um, I think there was a lot of work done on that. I don’t want, I don’t wanna be smart to anyone that worked on the goal, but what I look at is, um, my understanding of district improvement goals is it’s much more robust than that. So, um, I, uh, I felt it was prudent, especially coming as a new administrator and having a new administrative team, um, to start working on the district improvement plan. Now going into next year, hopefully we can get in place for next year, um, and not, you know, wait a whole nother year. Um, so Massachusetts requires the establishment implementation of a district improvement plan or a dip, um, for the public schools in three year increments. Actually, we have a five year, I’m not sure why, but it’s supposed to be every three years. Uh, the dip is sometimes referred to as strategic plan. So we use those. Um, can we somewhere in this, use that term,

1:55:07 because that’s the term we continually get asked and hammered about. So strategic plan, Um, if it’s called a district, I mean, it’s a dei, It’d be interchangeable. So, I mean, you know, um, I, I can even if It’s just to say also known as, yeah. Okay. Well I did that there, but I put it at the top if you want. Okay. Referred to as, yeah. Um, that’s why I put it there. ‘cause I, I, yeah. Anyway. Um, and the other reason I just, just share that there are other reason I like it as district improvement plan because we have school improvement plans, and as you’ll, as you’ll hear, we, we like to dovetail those together. So it kind of sounds, sounds the same too. Um, why did I choose this goal. I, I just mentioned the plan for success. It’s due to be revamped. Um, it’s important the new plan is created and the plan ensures the input and feedback from all stakeholders. Each school improvement plan is supposed to align

1:55:52 with the district improvement plan, and that will be, uh, be the focus as we develop the updated plan for the district. So right now, when our, when, when our, um, principals come and do their school improvement plans this year, it won’t be aligned to this, this dip yet because it won’t be finished in time. So anytime you update your district improvement plan, there’s always that kinda lag time. So we’ll be like six months off of one another, but next year will be fully implemented. So all the conversations that we have going into next year will be in regard to how, um, the school improvement plans and our evaluation goals are aligned to the district improvement plan. So you’ll see some of that right away, but most of it will be kind of fully implementa, fully implemented. Um, Can I ask you a question about the school improvement plans, John? Yes. Um,

1:56:37 a previous superintendent wanted lower elementary schools to be identical in their school improvement plans, which never made sense for me because school improvement plans mean it’s for your school, and each school has different needs. So making ‘em one for both schools sort of makes school improvement plans not quite accurate. So, so how I would answer that is there, there’s certain things that I think make sense where you do that overlapping, like for instance, handbooks. Like you could do a, I don’t know how we do ‘em here ‘cause haven’t, I haven’t seen how we present yet. That’s correct. So you do like a K six handbook or arc, you know, K three and whatever. Um, because most of the things you do are, are similar and you wanna make sure there’s consistency. Now, um, school improvement plans, there’s some things that obviously carry across the same, both schools.

1:57:25 The, because you know, if just say it’s glover and brown, you’re gonna see a lot of similarities ‘cause you’re gonna have that, uh, horizontal alignment, right? And then there’s gonna be similarities with village and the junior high and high school. ‘cause you gotta see that vertical limit. Um, I, I agree with you, Brian, that they should be separate. ‘cause they’re individual school improvement plans. There will be, when we get to that point, when you see glover’s school improvement plan in Browns, there’s gonna be a lot of similarities. But there are gonna be specific differences because different schools have different needs. So I think, I think when we get to that point, you’ll see, um, how they’ll differ. And I, and I would agree, but again, as we move forward into next year, those school improvement plans will dovetail with the district improvement plan, or they’re intended to. Um, how will I measure this goal? This goal will be measured by steps outlined to complete the plan and the completion, approval

1:58:10 and dissemination of the plan itself. Um, in the early fall, we’ll take the current plan for success. I, I just gotta talk about it instead of reading it. It’s just easier. Yeah. So, um, the plan for success exists. I’m gonna use that as a framework, right? And then, so I take that as a framework. I put it into the template. That’s, uh, you know, DESI has a template for, um, school improvement plans where outlines different, um, different areas of, uh, outlines, different areas that you’re supposed to fo uh, follow. So there’s finance, there’s, um, professional development, all those kind of things. So I’ll take the things that are the school improvement, uh, plan for success, put them into the, the template. Then my plan is to go through those, go through what’s in the, uh, plan for success, see what is still relevant and needs to be a part of the new plan.

1:58:57 See what either we’ve completed outta that plan or it’s not relevant anymore. Sift those things out. That’ll be done with conjunction with, uh, with Julia and with, uh, Mike Ling and, and Lisa Marie. And then once we go through that, um, we’ll add things in that we think need to be in there from, from the, um, admin level. We’ll shoot that out to the principals. We’ll get their feedback. We’ll add in their input, redo the chart again. Um, send that out to, uh, staff and like upper level students, get their input. I, I’m sorry. Send out the staff, get their input and send out the parents and caregivers and students, get their input, bring that back, and then bring it to the school committee for, um, for oversight.

1:59:43 That’s a lot of steps. It’s a lot of work, um, in how I do it, which is vastly different than probably what you’ve seen in the past, or what I’ve experienced in the past is instead of having, uh, a committee of like 25 people, 30 people sit in a room like this and trying to hammer it out, I do it like I just said it. And I do that electronically. So I put it in the chart, I send it out, I get input from all the administrators, and then I go through and I add it in. I put out to all the staff. So it won’t be just a smattering of teachers or educators or para. Everyone will have a chance to put their input into the plan. I’ll sift through it. Things that are pertinent. You’ll see a lot of overlap. ‘cause a lot of the same p same things will be in there. And then when you send out the caregivers and parents, we’ll get that input as well. So at the end of the day, we’ll have input from probably,

2:00:31 well, in this, in this community, probably thousands of people, right? Which is a good thing. Um, and then, you know, so we’ll have that input. And you, you know, it’s one of those things where you can’t put every single thing that someone writes down into a plan. But what I, what I generally do is I, I go through and I look at all the commonalities. I put that language in. The things are kind of high level that maybe we didn’t think of as administrators, where put that in. There’s things that probably don’t make sense in a district improvement plan, but I don’t toss the, that the baby out with the bath water. I put that to the side and then we, if we have to have discussions about it that maybe are separate from this. Um, so at the end of the day, uh, it’ll be a comprehensive plan with input from all stakeholders, um, at, at different levels, um, for the committee, for me to bring to the committee for Approval. And I think one of the things that stood out to me here,

2:01:16 which I know hearkens back again, Sarah, to something that you and I had, had mentioned numerous times, is having a plan that has intermittent steps. It’s not seeing, seeing a few years and hope we’re there. Um, so that we can make sure, because life does happen and we have to be open to life happening. So there may be things that have to shift or get delayed or move things around, or we may be able to do things faster. Um, one never knows. So I, I think that’s one of the p pieces that was really important to me when we were walking through this on the subcommittee level. And, and I think you’re, and you’re right. So there may be things that are in the plan that, you know, will be done in the first year of a three year plan. And maybe things are, are meant to carry across all three years. There may be things that we think we’re gonna get to in three years and they won’t.

2:02:02 And then we, they carry over to new plan. So my thing is, it’s always, it’s a document, but it’s a live document. It’s not what we put it on the binder and stick it on the shelf and bring it out three years later and do it again. It’s, we’ll always be referring to it from the school improvement plan. We’ll look back and Right. You know, I’m sure that you guys will hold me accountable to what’s in there, which is great. So we, we go through that and we just kind of make sure that we’re following what we’ve written. Yes. Sarah, Always. Sarah has a question. Um, thank you. First of all, um, you’ve, in the first two pages, you’ve hit on two things that we’ve all been asking for, for quite some time. So I appreciate that. Um, basically if this strategic plan or district improvement plan can tell us who is doing what, when it with what money and what the result that we’re gonna measure is like,

2:02:50 that will be everything our community has been asking for. Um, what I will ask if we can maybe do, is where we talk about that you hope to present it in April or May, if it’s possible. You explained very robust. I understand that. If we could possibly have that mid-April, I say that because that, this plan will be very good to answer a lot of the questions that come to us through the process of, um, our budget hearing and town meeting and things like that. Because we’ll be able to say everything in our budget tracks back to this plan. They were being built simultaneously. This is what, what our vision is. So if we could have that, it’s, it’s gonna be such a powerful document.

2:03:35 I think that it would be a shame for it to get produced a couple days after, you know, a town meeting. Sure. If we can bring that ahead like by three weeks, that would be amazing. And I think, so I just, I pulled out a, a template like this is a, a previous one that I had done that I, that I had, I told. So just to give you an idea. So it’s like the goal ones curriculum, instruction, evaluation, and then to your point, improvement strategies. You list all the strategies, who’s responsible for you, list that the resources needed, you list all that. May not have like actual dollars, you know, necessarily all dollar amounts, but you can tell where it’s getting funded from. And then how do you assess that? So there’s all those, all those areas. So each, there’d be a goal, uh, core values and then objectives under each goal that will clearly identify all the different, um,

2:04:21 areas, um, that we need to address. That’s wonderful. If there’s an area that’s a big number, like a new curriculum, you don’t need to put the number in, but maybe just note there will be a significant financial drop. Yeah. And I think, you know, and I think, again, you’re looking at this as a three year plan. So there’s some things that’ll be very evident maybe in the first year and stuff that we have to plan for down the line. Okay. Thank you. Should it should all dovetail together. Um, go. So that’s, that’s really, that’s really the plan. Um, the plan for the plan, that’s Me. Sounds great. I’s going to number three. I’m going, I’m getting there. Student learning goal. Thank You. Student learning goal. Um, ensuring that students have a voice in their teaching and learning. I think I mentioned this before. So, um, one of the shared administrator goals that I have with the principals is, is around student voice.

2:05:07 I think that’s very important. Um, my goal around student voice and teaching is really kind of the oversight of them. Making sure that, uh, they’re doing what they need to do in their schools and then helping, um, uh, make sure they have the right resources and make sure they have the avenues to, to, to do that. So I’ll work with administrators to establish vehicles for student voice. That’s appropriate for K 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and nine 12. And district where we wanna ensure students are our first priority. We need to establish specific ways that students can share their opinions and put feedback in meaningful ways. Um, again, there’ll be, there’ll be, um, surveys that’ll go out. They’ll also be, uh, the principals have already started working with the students in their buildings and they’re coming up with different ways to garner student voice. And I think I share this in one meeting somewhere was, uh,

2:05:53 like Mary Maxwell at Brown, created a student, um, learning, uh, student leadership team. Mm-Hmm. And, uh, it’s awesome. ‘cause they’re, I, I, I see, I think I see a proud mom over bit. So, you know, the kids are coming in, they’re meeting and, and realistically what I’ve seen in the past when I’ve done this in, in previous district is you’re, we’re gonna get really cool information from the students. Mm-Hmm. And it’s really important to me to make sure that they have a voice in their learning. It’s not just teachers saying, this is what you’re gonna learn. We have to hear from kids. And kids at the younger level will tell you what they need. We just don’t ever ask them. So we’re gonna ask them and we’re gonna look at, uh, all the levels and things that are already in place at the junior high high school. We’re gonna look at how we enhance that and how we get to a different level. I’m gonna start working with the different schools to try

2:06:38 to get in and meeting with groups of kids and things like that as part of this goal. So, great. Um, that’s the overarching goal. I mean, we can go into more specifics, but it, it’s really a matter of this, this initial goal is for me to make sure that this district wide initiative is getting off the ground and, and that, that I’m holding folks accountable to it, but also to start integrating my, my, um, my administrative, um, piece into the student voice. Awesome. Happy to answer any questions. Bless. One of the best things I think about all of these goals is how important it clearly is to John to have that feedback from students, teachers, administrators, community members. And I, I just wanna call that out because I think it’s just a theme that you, you see throughout these.

2:07:24 And I think that’s just a wonderful addition and I’m excited for that. And it’s, I mean, I think we can be sure it’s not all going to be positive, right? Mm-Hmm. Um, but that’s the only way that you can improve and that you can start to garner, um, you know, more, more positive interactions is by allowing people the opportunity to have, you know, those have those moments where they can share their thoughts and their feelings and we can, you know, analyze it and see, sometimes you can share your feedback and we may not be able to do anything about it. That’s a, a truth as well. Um, but even just having that, that opportunity I think is really great. And I just wanna thank you for that. No, thank you. I appreciate that feedback. Um, So on this one, I love that you are saying you’re gonna invite them to

2:08:12 have them present to us at meetings. Oh, yes. Not because, just because I have a special interest in some, um, but I think it’s really important to have a return continually to return the focus back to, we’re here to educate students. I know last year we had some kids, um, students come to perform twice during the year from the orchestra and things like that. You know, it was just a five minute per performance, but it really, it, it highlighted the work we’re doing with the kids. I think a lot of times it’s easy, what we saw at the beginning of this meeting to kind of make it about the adults. It’s, it’s to show that work with the kids. So I really appreciate how you’re going to do that. And the six o’clock meeting time will allow that more easily. I was opposed to the six

2:08:59 O’clock meeting time. That was plan that was planful. But it will allow that more easily for those students, particularly those younger ones, um, to come. So I, I appreciate that. Yeah. And I’m working, you know, we’ll start working. I, you know, we, we met with them. We’re meeting with the, uh, principals about the upcoming mc a da, you know, MCAS stuff. When we meet next, you know, we’ll start talking about when they can bring their student spotlights in and stuff and what those look like. And, um, you know, when they can happen. And I wanna be mindful ‘cause we’re gonna have ‘em come in for the sips and their handbooks and spotlight and mc a mm-Hmm. So, um, I’m gonna try to Work that out. Brian, did you have any other comments? Well, just very interesting. I mean, I, I had asked this when we were having a subcommittee meeting is how do you get the younger kids to be able to express, I mean, third grade and up? I can see them easily handling questions about, oh,

2:09:45 They express themselves loud and clear, Brian. Well, yeah. No, I’m saying third and up, but I, I’m not so sure about kindergarten, first and second grade. I mean, they’re kind of young. You’d Be surprised. Well, I’m looking forward to seeing it. Mine make their wishes known. So, Al did you have any questions or comments?

2:10:07 Uh, no. Okay. No. Thanks Jen. I wanna make sure. Thanks for asking. Just wanna make sure. Um, um, okay. So I think we are expected to vote on this. Yes. Um, so is there any other Do, um, I, I wanna thank Al, um, Brian for suggesting this subcommittee. At first, I didn’t really grasp it. This was very successful process, so thank you for presenting this to us. And, um, I’d be honored to make a motion to approve The goals as presented. Thank you. So moved. Allison. What mean, do we have a second? She was the second. Oh, I’m sorry. First was and not the chair. Yeah. Allison’s second. Okay. I’m gonna, oh, did you wanna make comment? No, No. I, I just wanted to say, I, I, I’m just very grateful, um,

2:10:53 you know, for our superintendent for, for make, putting the time in to write these detailed, um, goals and really taking in Brian and, and my feedback. And I think we’ve met for like six hours together. You guys pull out time. Thank you. Um, since our, since our workshop meeting. Um, and it was incredibly valuable time. And I just wanna thank you both for that as well. Thank you. Okay. So I’m gonna call for a vote. Uh, Allison. Taylor in Favor? Sarah Fox. In favor. Brian OTA in favor, Al Williams In favor. And Jen Schaffner in favor five to zero. Thank you, Brian and Allison. Thank you guys. Very appreciate that. Looking forward to seeing that as we move forward. Yes. Um, hey, go ahead Al. I just have a kind of a point of order, I guess question. Um, I need to leave soon, unfortunately. Okay.

2:11:39 Um, but I, I wanted to know if we wanted to continue to talk about open negotiations. We’ve talked about that at previous meetings. And I know we’re not meeting for a little while after this. Al that was al al that was something that was in executive session and needs to stay in executive session. I could talk to you offline about that.

2:12:03 Okay. If that’s okay. Just Yeah. That he, has he call a vote? Uh, well that has been a subject that was in executive session that hasn’t been brought out of executive session. So I can speak to you about that offline. I, oh, I thought he could call a vote at any time. Okay. Okay. Well, you can’t accept, not if it’s something that’s been discussed in executive session. It has to be released from executive, it has to be released from executive session.

2:12:29 So we can never have a public vote on, is that what it means? Unless it’s approved in executive session. Okay. All right. Okay. Now, so all I can talk to you about that offline. Okay. Thank You. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. I’m sorry. I Think we probably wanna, um, I would like more information on that and I think it would be good for the public to understand that as well. Um, yeah, so what I can say is that anything that is discussed in executive session remains in executive session until there is a vote to release that in there executive session or to take it out and

2:13:06 Understood. Okay. That’s unfor. But, um, well no. So the, did you say we were tabling The school committee goals For this week? Well, no, I wanted to get an update from Alison and Brian. We de Definitely, we have a draft, I think in the interest of time. It’s nine o’clock. We have a lot That’s right. Left still. So I think just table it table for now, for next time. And then we can have, we Didn’t have a draft in the box though, did we? Or did I Not missed it? Oh, it may not have been in the box. We, we, we were supposed to meet a final time and then there was just a little scheduling, um, kerfuffle. So I don’t think the draft was in the box. We were just going to show it to you and share it to you. I had it up to Rich to share on my screen as well. But I think in the interest of time, if everybody, I’m just one person, but if everybody’s okay with that, it’s already nine o’clock. We have a Lot. I think we have a few more things to go through. So we’ll just put it on the agenda for next meeting. Awesome. Thank you guys.

2:13:51 Appreciate the work you’ve been doing. There’s these, um, so we have, um, the, uh, athletic handbook, um, which is our next vote. Um, you should have seen a two versions in your Dropbox. One was a red line version that showed the changes from the current athletic handbook. These are for our student athletes and the proposed changes and then a clean copy of the new changes. Um, so did anyone have any questions on that or anything? No, I just wanted to say I read through it and I had sent an email to, um, athletic director, Kent Wheeler, and I mentioned to John and copied him as well, that I just really appreciated the hard work and the effort that, um, Kent Wheeler and Mr. Wheeler went in, put into that handbook.

2:14:37 I really felt that hopefully folks, if, if this gets passed, um, will get a chance to read it between the mission statement discussion around sportsmanship, discussions around, um, conflict resolution expectations on team captains. I mean, it really, to me, I like that part. Talked about the holistic student athlete and how, I mean, we all know how important that’s been and it is to the town of Marblehead, particularly Marble High School. But I think he just really made the effort to put it in and codify it A any, any, if I may, I met with him at the beginning of the school year. He told me about all these things, you know, that, how he’s gonna meet with the coaches and the students and, and all that stuff. So he made it all happen already. Um, ‘cause it’s good practice and I think that’s great. So I appreciated the work he did on the handbook as well.

2:15:24 Um, so hopefully, you know, that’d be something we can vote on tonight and Yep. And make sure it’s in place, but Yep, definitely, definitely. Is there my There table. Uh, well lemme just take this vote. Sorry. Um, so can I ask for a motion to approve the athletic handbook? So moved. Allison Taylor a second. Second. Sarah Fox. I’m gonna go do a roll call. Um, Allison Taylor In favor? Sarah Fox In favor. Brian OTA in favor. And Al is Al Al’s gone, jumped off. Okay. Jen Schaffner in favor. So four to zero, Al jumped and now that he’s off, we don’t have to do roll calls anymore. Okay. Nine. Is she off a minute or two? Oh 4:00 PM Okay. Uh, we do have an MCAS update. Um, I know it’s late, so I think we should go forward.

2:16:09 Proceed. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. It’s just gonna take a, I just wanna get the consent of the committee. Do you wanna go ahead with that or do you feel that? I don’t know. I mean, I, we wait, it’s a long night, but can We, can, can I make a suggestion? Um, maybe Julia can go through the, um, thing tonight and then if we’re gonna come back next week for some more MCA maybe we can hold Our next meeting isn’t until, Well, two more weeks, but Yeah. Yeah. I’m just, I was just thinking It Started to panic. I was gonna say if she could do the, do the presentation and we can do like, the follow discussion of follow up next meeting. Oh. So we’ll do the presentation and hold questions or comments. That would be my suggestion. But I Would you like us to email you, you any questions or comments so that when you come back you’re prepared to answer them? Uh, Anything? I will, yes. If that is What you want to do, I can, I think that we should just table it

2:16:55 and have the presentation and the discussion, um, at the next, I I’m not comfortable with having a presentation and not being able to ask questions. Okay. Brian, your thoughts? Well, I’m, I’m fine with holding it to the next meeting and then being able to ask the questions at the same time. I’m okay with that. Can I just, I just hate I sorry that you had to say suggest. I know this whole night, I’m, I’m Sorry it’s done. I’m here anyways. It’s okay. I’m, I’m, can I ask a question? The answer may be that it doesn’t work. ‘cause I know that the goal here is that you’ll present kind of an umbrella and then the individual schools. Would it make sense for us to have a, a meeting dedicated entirely to MCATs? Yes. Where everybody comes and presents

2:17:40 or No, I, I Don’t know what the answer to that is. I, I don’t think, I don’t think the, I don’t think the principles of mine either way because we just split ‘em up. Just ‘cause I didn’t want have sitting here for like seven hours. But it Was a conference conflict With Oh, it was a conference conflict. Yeah, you’re right. Why don’t I work with the, with the superintendent offline and we will figure that out. Okay. Okay. Okay. I, I agree. I think in the I could do that, but I’m sorry. We can do that. But there was a con a conflict, so I just have to figure out what day the conflict was. Okay. So I feel terrible that you We can do this in November. We could, I mean, it’s not a this it’s not a network. Yeah. I just, I again, I, I wanted to do, I asked Julia to do the overarching one just because there was questions and there was an article in the paper about them, because I just wanna at least get some of the information out so then we could give the principals a little bit more time to go through their data. But what, whatever the will of the committee is, I’m okay.

2:18:25 I’m sure. I mean, Julie’s here anyway. I mean, she, she can, It sounds like, um, it’s the, well it sounds like the will of the committee is to move this table this to the next, to another meeting. Okay. Um, so we will do that and I’ll work with John on that and Don’t, it’s totally fine. And I will still welcome any feedback or comments. So I can, even if you, ‘cause you’ve had it, you know, for a couple days, let me know and I’d be happy to, You know, I always have questions too. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very happy. Let’s move on to subcommittee and liaison updates. I am honestly going, do you wanna take a quick break? No, I, I can go. Okay. I’m fine with or I can, I have, I wanna give my SA village SAC Why Don’t we take a five minute recess, uh, Update. Okay. Five. Taking a break. Use the restroom.

2:19:40 Okay. We’re gonna move on to subcommittee updates. I don’t really have a choice. Anyone have an update? I think They’re, so the, um, finance committee or finance liaisons will be meeting next week for a joint meeting with fin com. Um, to lay out the budget calendar, um, talk about the year end close projections currently for FY 25 and, you know, talk about what our goals are for the FY 26 budget building process. So, um, that meeting will be next Thursday, fourth, I Think Thursday. Thursday at 11. That 24th. Yeah. Okay. 10 I Think. Yeah. Or 10. So, um, I’ll get that meeting posted for Monday. Um, or by tomorrow. Oh, tomorrow or Monday.

2:20:26 Um, and that will be our kickoff meeting. Um, I don’t think I’ve had another, oh, we, we’ve given our big up update for bargaining. Yeah. We have the bargaining subcommittee, fingers crossed. Goals subcommittee. You guys pretty much gave us an update. Yeah. Yeah. That was it. So we’re gonna meet Working on the school committee goals. Yep. Ready? Do you think they’ll have that for the next meeting? That’ll be the next meeting. We’ll be ready To present. We do have a full draft. It’s not that difficult. The school committee calls. We Do have a full draft though, and, and a hundred percent would’ve just presented it for a discussion tonight. But in the interest of time, because I think that’ll be a, a detailed discussion. Yeah. And we want feedback. Okay. Um, the village, um, school advisory committee. Council. Council. Yeah. Met, um,

2:21:11 and I, I joined just as a, as a participant. Uh, there was a really great group there. Julia gave us a wonderful presentation on Title one. Um, and Title one is the, the federal program that determines, you know, how much financial support to go to schools, uh, depending on their percentage of low income students. Um, and Marblehead, of course, we, we don’t get that much, but we do get some. Um, and she talked about how that was used and the role, I’m forgetting the specific title, the instructional math instructional coach. Yep. An instructional coach. Um, that, that those funds are used for an instructional coach and they have seen, you know, fantastic results from that. So that was really exciting to hear.

2:21:56 Um, their Stephanie trainer and Kate Freegan in particular were, were there. And they, it was just a very wonderful meeting from the perspective of people providing feedback. Um, there were parents there too, and I’m, I don’t know all of all of their names, um, yet unfortunately. Um, but obviously those two teachers I’m familiar with and they provided some really great anecdotes about how they, what they’re working on from a professional development or, um, just working with other teachers and making sure that curriculums span across. I think what, what they’ve done a lot of work on is ensuring that there’s kind of a continuation of learning across ages and groups. Um, not only just at Village, but from village to vets as well. Um, but I, I just loved

2:22:43 how much information they were willing to share. Um, and some funny anecdote stories as well. And then of course, principal Williams went through, um, a little bit of the school improvement plan and how that ties back to the plan for success. And I added that, you know, John would be presenting his goals and that one of his goals is to also, um, really dig in to the plan for success and, and determine, um, how it can be more, more detailed with benchmarks and really ensure that we are working, we’re all working towards that goal, but without a specific plan and dates attached to it and expectations, um, set properly, which you heard a lot of him speak about in our goals. Um, that’s going to help kind of shift and, and provide a much more detailed, rigorous document for

2:23:29 next year’s school improvement plan to, um, to be built off of. Because of course, he was not here last year. Um, he didn’t create that one. So That’s wonderful. When was your meeting recent? Like last week. Oh, awesome. Last Thursday. Mm-Hmm. Was it Okay. Sometimes they blend together. Uh, and our next meeting is November 14th at three o’clock at village in the library. I went to the Glover SAC meeting today. It, uh, was very lively there. He’s got a heck of a crew. The between the teachers and the, the parents, they were all excited. I mean, it was nice to see the enthusiasm at the SAC meeting and they’re planning out all sorts of stuff. They started looking at the sit actually, and they were determined already. They didn’t want to have the same one as brown.

2:24:16 So they’re, they’re moving ahead in the right direction. And I think that’s really important to give these, um, sacs true autonomy because they’re supposed to be dev developing the, um, school improvement plan. And to say they have to match is really to say we’re not really taking your individual input. So I love that. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. I attended the, uh, superintendent’s safety committee and that was moving forward. All of the schools are doing all the drills. They’re focused on safety. They have a lot of questions about even traffic patterns. They still talk about that and asking for crosswalks, more crossing guards. So I think that’s moving ahead very positively. And then the communications subcommittee, I want to thank,

2:25:02 um, Al for joining in on his crew. I mean, he’s the only guy I know that would sit in his room while his wife is out there walking around the ship talking to me about, uh, communications subcommittee. And we’re moving ahead. Um, I had hoped to be able to present the, some more just a draft of what is some more head, um, newsletter would look like. But as I’ve been talking to Julia, just keep running. There’s so many prompts I couldn’t show it. ‘cause when you really look at the format that we’re proposing, I think you’ll like it and then you can, but I made a, a mock one up just so you get an idea of what could go in it. It’s not the actual proposal. ‘cause that’s up to, um, you, because you are going to be the one that writes the weekly newsletter, uh, monthly newsletter. Correct. Or

2:25:49 I’m not sure about that. Or, or you can ask the communications subcommittee to write ideas and then you can just take ‘em and plug them into this form. I think that’s the easiest way rather than ask you to write the whole thing. Yeah. Can I, um, ask a question about the safety subcommittee? Yep. Now I know that a lot of what happens in there is confidential for very good reasons. ‘cause we wanna protect the safety. Um, was it touched on the crossing guard situation? I know that police have been trying to staff the crossing guard situation, or I keep calling it this situation. Um, Keep put in a plug right there. Yeah. So it’s, it’s been really Hard. If you know anyone who wants To be crossing guard really hard, call me just from seeing it happen un unfold every morning and afternoon. Yeah. So, uh, chief Chief spoke at

2:26:34 length through the crossing guard. Um, okay. Situation. Um, uh, it’s my understanding that he had sent, he, he had sent me like the information flyer or whatever I had it sent out through Okay. Through other principals and stuff to say, Hey, if you wanna be a crossing guard. Um, so yeah, there’s definitely, they’re having a little bit of trouble staffing. Okay. Some of those, um, some of those spots and, um, but yeah, they, they’re working on it. I said I’d be more than happy to push the information out, hopefully get some, some bites on that. Okay. Um, you know, he’s gonna continue to look at that and, uh, try to staff it accordingly. So, okay. I, I’ll tell you this much. Driving down the street around school time, there are police officers. Well acting as crossing guards. I know. Not because they don’t have enough. I know It’s not cost effecti. I actually have an idea on that. I’ll talk to you about offline. Yeah. So I think, you know, it’s just one of those things.

2:27:20 We have a lot, we just have a lot of intersections. It’s, it’s, its Not so I Know. I know. You know, it’s, it’s, We’re not the only department that is Up against Like us. Thank, so, thank Any other, um, subcommittees. Okay. Uh, moving on to closing business, new business school committee announcements and requests. Um, one thing I wanted, um, to put before the committee to consider, um, that we would talk about either night, we could talk about at the next meeting is I have a, um, contract proposal for the committee from the firm of s Slowey McManus, which is a communications company. This would be a contract, um, to work with us, um, during the, um, process of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with our units. Um, we talked about our challenges in being able to get, um,

2:28:08 communications out in a timely manner. So I had gone forward, um, and had spoken to a couple of different organizations. This was one that I had a great conversation with. Um, they have put forth a proposal specifically for this purpose, um, to help us during this time, um, with an upper limit, which I will have in here in the contract. So I ask the committee to consider taking a look at it and we can discuss this, which you would need to do in an open meeting, um, and potentially vote it in an open meeting. I think it’s important to note, um, we’ve talked about this, how important it is to be getting information out in a timely manner, um, dealing with the media. I am getting media contacts. I am getting to the point where I can’t do all of this.

2:28:53 So I’m just putting it out there that, um, certainly not looking to bring on any additional costs. Um, this is a necessity, I believe, um, that was, that is necessary. So I’m just asking the committee to consider it. We’ll discuss it at the next meeting. Should we discuss it now so that if, if it’s the will that you know, you to move ahead before two weeks? Or do you want to put this off for two weeks? I think we have to put it on an agenda to have the discussion part of it on it. Oh, I thought we could discuss it, but we can’t vote. Well, I think Okay. You know, well, I Think also the interest, I think part of the appeal to this is that the other North Shore school districts are

2:29:40 using these consultants for the same purpose. Mm-Hmm. So we’re not the only one saying we need communications help. Okay. For this purpose. For this purpose. The purpose Even negotiation. I, we can discuss it further. I have very strong reservations about this, but I think we all do. I Yeah, I do too. I don’t, we’re going to, we’re gonna just start doing it if we don’t say we’re table. Right. So I’m just asking. It’s new business asking. Um, I’m putting it before the committee for consideration. I will put it out in a Dropbox for people to consider it. Al’s not here either, so I’ll make sure I, you know, he needs to see it too. Um, any other, can I make a, can Make a suggestion? Yeah. Since I’ve been in the district, this problem with the budget and shortfalls every year has been

2:30:25 chronic since I’ve been here. And I think it’s time we have a joint meeting with the select board talking about long-term plans to remedy this problem. It’s not just us, the police department, fire department, public works, all of them come at the same time with, I need money in your trucks. I need cops, I need this, I need that. And it gets to be a trade off. So the school committee is asking for this, we’re gonna have to take this from you. Shouldn’t be that way. We should be working together with the select board to stop addressing long-term plans. I mean, I’m not saying this year’s problem that we’re in, but we really need to start putting the focus on the people who control the taxes because that’s where the revenue comes from. So I, I really would like us consider it to ask

2:31:10 for an open meeting with the select board, the school committee and FinCon so that we can sit down and really look long term in how we’re gonna fix this problem over years. It can’t be done tonight, but you know what I’m saying. Mm-Hmm. I think we, we’ve been pushing this problem off since I’ve been in the district every year. No increase in your budget. Just get the 2% in there and no increase in your operating costs. So we can’t keep operating like this. That’s why this thing is broken. Think it’s gone so Long. Yeah. I think, okay. I think, go ahead Allison. No, go ahead. I was gonna say real quickly, just one little correction is that the select board does not control the taxes. Right. That’s town, true town meeting that does that. Um, but, um, what I can do is I can, I will reach out to the chair of income, I’ll reach out to the chair of the select board and just, you know, pass on this message. I think, um, that we also should, depending on the response

2:31:59 to that, whether we will need to take a vote on that at some point or not. Yes. Um, I don’t know. Um, let’s just See how that’s, um, I’m happy to make a motion to enable the chair to request a joint meeting. We, what We don’t need to take, I mean, we don’t need to vote to schedule a joint meeting. What would be the agenda?

2:32:24 Yeah. That, that’s really what I meant. What I meant was, yeah, let me just have a conversation and then we may need to make a formal request. That’s what I’m saying. And that we might need to want, we may, and I don’t think now’s time to it. There, there may, I’m just anticipating there may be a question as to what exactly do you want that to look like? Mm-Hmm. And we may need to deliberate that. Yes. Make a motion about, and then bring it To the, I just brought it up to the discussion point. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Can we put that on the next agenda? Yep. Yeah. I wrote Time. Yep. I don’t disagree with, with doing that. I’ve been the biggest proponent of fighting for more money on all levels from the town, or I’ve been the most vocal about it. Um, so I fully, um, fully support that. I just wanna make sure we’re clear on what the agenda is because I know that they will want

2:33:10 to know the agenda is too, and, you know, we just want it to be clear, which Fair enough. Everybody fair. So we’ll put it on an agenda for the next meeting. Fair enough. There is one person. Well, we’re not planning on the ambush, that’s for sure. Okay. Well actually, all right. So before we go, we have one person has a raised hand. Um, I just wanna note that we don’t have a public comment has ended. Um, so I’m not sure if you have a question. Um, You can e you can certainly email it in it’s school committee@marbleheadschools.org. Yeah. Or you can call, um, uh, any, anyone? Well, any one of us phone numbers. I have my phone number listed, I believe on the website. So that is too. Um, yes, my phone number is limited, so please feel free to call me directly and I’ll probably be up for a while. So you can call me tonight for another hour or so.

2:33:57 Um, let’s see. Anything else?

2:34:03 Okay. I am asking from, oh No, I just was gonna say, I do wanna thank all of, um, our teachers and staff that came, um, tonight. I, I do understand on, I sit on this side of the table, um, and you, you can say things like elections matter and you’re here for the people. Hopefully I’ve, um, proven myself to the best of, of my ability. And if not, that’s okay too. I’m always here to have those discussions. Um, but I just wanna thank you all for coming. Um, I understand you all have lives and some of you’re driving quite far. Um, and I understand that too. And so thank you for, you know, um, caring about our students the way you do. I know that this is not an easy, I’m venturing to guess.

2:34:49 It’s not an easy situation for anybody. Um, and I, I just wanted to express that. Thank you. Um, and I’ll say, Mr. M, if you wanna stay on after we adjourn and everyone’s off, I’ll, I’ll open it up. You and I can have a conversation if that will help. And then maybe we can have you at a future meeting for public comment. Um, motion to adjourn request. Move Allison. Second. Second. Brian. And all in favor? Or do I need to be call? No, no. Do we adjourn? All in favor? Yeah. You don’t need a motion? We’re to 0 9 20 6:00 PM We’d adjourned. Okay.