School Committee: December 5, 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.

0:01 All right. Everybody ready? All right. I’m gonna call us to order at, um, 6:00 PM Welcome everyone. Um, Robert at school committee meeting. I just want to double check, see if we’ve got Allison Taylor. She was supposed to be coming in on Zoom, so can you get, can someone, if you see her, just let me know. Can search? I Don’t see her. I don’t see her either. Alright. Okay, great. And we are live streaming, so, um, awesome. Thanks everyone. Welcome, welcome everyone. Thanks. Good to see everyone. Um, before we get start, well, let’s do the Pledge of Allegiance and then I’ll get started.

0:42 Um, pledge Allegiance to the Flag. The flag. The United of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under, under God, indivisible, Liberty And Justice Graw. Justice spr. Thank you.

1:06 And we still have people coming in, so just gimme a second. I just wanna make sure folks get in. Trying to let ‘em in as fast as I can. Great. Um, okay, before we we’re gonna move on to commendations, I just wanted to make a quick comment. Um, you know, I thought about this, about, you know, what to say or what not to say tonight, coming back from the events of the last several weeks. Um, and I feel that if I don’t say anything, that’s probably not gonna be well received. And if I do say something, it’s not gonna be well received. It’s been a, you know, it’s been a difficult time here in the district. Um, I think that the important thing is that we focus on getting back to, um, all of our jobs,

1:51 which is to work with our students and to help all of us to do our job. To help our students get their education, maximize their achievement. Um, and that’s really what we all are all here for. So, um, I wanna thank everyone who’s here tonight, thank everyone who’s on line. Um, and appreciate that we’re all gonna be able to move on. I don’t know if anyone else wanted to make any comments.

2:17 No, I think we have a lot ahead in the year to come. Um, hopefully a lot of growth opportunities and for our district and for our town. Um, and I hope that people can come together to harness those growth opportunities for the betterment of our students. Thanks. Great. Um, I’m gonna move on to, um, commendations. Does anybody have any commendations? Um, I wanna commend our custodians. They got a lot done during the closure. Um, they were able to catch up on some work that often happens during periods of closure, like over the summer and all over the winter break, um, repair items and things like that. So, um, I know a lot of work was happening with that and we’re very grateful

3:02 for those projects we were able to get ahead of, If I may, um, uh, I’d like to commend, uh, John Constantino, our food services director, and, and his staff as well. Um, they work tirelessly throughout the, uh, the period of, um, right period, uh, to make sure that our, our community was fed, um, for breakfast and lunch every day, including our, our Boston based students. So, um, that was, uh, really great that he was able to do that. I appreciate and, um, acknowledge him for, for, for doing the right thing and making sure that those children get good food every day. Thank you John. Thank for saying that. Excuse me. Can you speak louder? We can’t hear you. We’ll do the best we can. Mary, Do you want me to repeat it? No, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s necessary. Let’s move on to public comment.

3:46 If you could just give us your name when you sit down. Thank you. My name is, uh, Daniel Rosen. I’m 31 E Street. I am the father of three Marblehead graduates and the husband of a Marblehead Middle School teacher. My comments tonight are really more related to my profession and pro program management. I’ve worked in project management for nearly 25 years in two large multinational corporations. Successful organizations of all sizes and all types practice continuous learning. They believe it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from the mistakes and we don’t repeat the mistakes clearly. The town of Marblehead has a history of making mistakes when it comes to hiring and retaining superintendents. Jen, last summer, in the same spirit of continuous learning, I asked you what the school committee could do differently to assure that the next superintendent is more successful than Dr.

4:32 Bucky. In the previous approximately five superintendents, I think everyone agrees that contract negotiations were painful for the whole town. I think everyone can agree that what, uh, that we want, what is best for the students. We want what is best for the town. We want what is best for the teachers and their families. So with these common goals in mind, I would ask the school committee, the union and the town, to undergo a process of lessons learned, ask what worked well in the process, ask what we didn’t, what didn’t work so well, but could be done differently and maybe what should not have been done at all. Thank You. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Okay. There’s spots in the front if you wanna have a seat.

5:18 Hi, my name is Mary McCarrison, Pinecliff Drive and Marblehead, first of all, I can’t remember which one said that, you know, we have to take care of our students and make them more acceptable within this town. Okay. Oh no, I’m sorry. I meant what you were saying that we had to take care of our kids. First of all, I have to thank everybody over here because without taking care of you and letting you end up being able to take, teach, have a livable wage benefits, and make schools safe for our kids. So I wanna say thank you to you all. Okay. Second, I’d like to say thank you to Al.

6:04 That was the question that I was gonna ask today earlier in the nine o’clock meeting. Sarah, I can’t believe it. You stood me up for a meeting and then you didn’t call on me today with my hand up for the whole meeting. Okay. So you, you need to be transparent. You have to work with this community and I know I’m a pain, but guess what? I’m gonna continue doing it until we get it right and I hate to think that we have to wait until June. Thank you.

6:38 Is there anybody on left? I’m just checking to see. I don’t see any hands raised.

6:46 Do you mind signing in to me? Did you sign in? Thank you. Appreciate it. Just so we have our record.

6:57 Oh, Don’t look at the screen. Samantha.

7:03 Don’t look at the screen. Ashley Sington keeps getting Kicked out. Samantha Rosado, Martin Terrace. And I know we all wanna move forward, but one thing I’m really having trouble with is the roof situation at Marette High School. Um, as we voted to approve our new contracts last week, there was a garbage can in the auditorium with water dripping into it next to the stage. And I wasn’t able to attend the meeting today ‘cause I was at work. But I heard that now after a town meeting approved in 2022, about 4 million, I think maybe it was, I could be wrong on that number for the high school roof. Now we have an $11 million amount and we need an override for it.

7:50 And I feel like that was not something that was communicated to anyone. And I feel like it was probably known for a little while. So I feel really frustrated by that. And my kids go to school here as well as some other people, um, on the school committee. And we need to work together to get this done. This can’t continue. The maintenance of our buildings is a major issue and it’s not just one building, it’s all of the buildings. So I really hope that this, the roof can be worked on over the summer. I heard that’s not gonna happen. And there’s mold and it’s going to continue to be one of my focuses as we move forward. And I will help in any way that I can to get that done because it shouldn’t ever have been left for all these years.

8:36 Thank you.

8:45 Do you mind signing in? Sure.

8:59 Hello everybody. Um, I’m Kate Thompson Booba Road. And last night, myself and many others sent an email to this school committee asking a few very basic questions. We asked why the facilities committee had not met in over a year. We asked whether they planned to meet again past today’s meeting at 9:00 AM we asked where’s the documentation from FY 25 budget requests, including some that went to town meeting. And we asked for Sarah Fox’s step down as chair of the facility subcommittee.

9:35 I attended this morning’s facilities meeting, and we did receive a few sufficient answers. I was pleased to see that the meeting was broadcast and also posted online for anybody else to watch. And I appreciate that. But we also received a lot of obfuscation and very confusing and around answers. This to me is very poor stewardship of a very important topic. In addition, this morning, I received what I can only describe as the most impolite, personally offensive email that I have received in my adult life from Sarah Fox. The last line of which was, you are a very smart, talented woman who I believe could affect positive change.

10:22 If you could stop your never ending quest for destruction,

10:28 this is conduct unbecoming.

10:32 I will reiterate, Sarah, please step down as chair of the facilities subcommittee or step down from the entire school committee.

10:51 I did not see.

10:55 Just double check pop up from the top. Yeah. Okay. Um, anyone else? Great. Thank you. Okay, moving on. We have, um, our student again. Welcome. Thank you. We are all very happy to be back together and in school. Quarter two began last Wednesday and classes are back in full swing. Quarter one. Report cards were sent out and senior transcripts were sent to colleges. Winter sports have also started. Most sports had tryouts this week and games and meets will start soon. Additionally, rehearsals for the school play, the Sleepwalker by Benji Boyd have started. The cast will be attending the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Drama Fest preliminary round on March 1st. And our co-head, our co-ed acapella group, the jewel tones,

11:40 got into the New England Voices competition, which is very competitive. And they will be attending that in the end of January. Thank you. Thank You. Thank you. Thanks very much. Um, okay, moving on. District updates. Superintendent? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairwoman. Um, can you guys hear me? I just wanna make sure I’m loud enough. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so the district updates, um, uh, it has been a tumultuous few weeks. Um, and I’m glad that agreements have been reached and that our students are back in school and our educators are back to doing the great work that they do. And I thank you. I recognize that emotions ran high throughout the strike and the returning to the classrooms and getting the teaching and learning back on track will take some time and some adjustments. I’m confident, however, that our educators will ensure that they will focus on the students while being in their success.

12:26 I know that they’re being attended to in a professional and caring way because as educators, student success is always our first priority. So I’m, I’m glad that we’re back in class and, and, and moving forward. I know, I know. I wanna recognize that there is some work that we need to do, um, starting to meet with the union, uh, leadership and talking about some ways that we can kind of move, move things forward. So I’m happy about that. Um, we will be making some adjustments to the calendars. We’ll account for the make days. We’re going to discuss that, um, in more detail in a few minutes. An adjustment of assessments, progress notes, report cards, et cetera, will also be made when and when needed. So, um, you know, given the 10 days that we need to make up, there’s some adjustments and we’ll, we’ll continue to make those adjustments, um, as needed at each school level. I wanna share some kudos to Julia Ferrera, um,

13:12 our Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning. Um, from Joanne Miller, um, from the Marblehead Mental Health Task Force, Julia presented our, uh, SEL curriculum to the task force and had an interview with the current online SEL programming that we have in place. And I have actually two, two emails that if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to read ‘cause I think it’s, uh, it’s good, positive, um, things that we need to share. Um, one is from, um, Joanne Miller, and the other is from Susan. Uh, Susan Stel. Uh, so the first one’s Joanne Miller. Dear M-M-H-C-F Marblehead, um, mental Mental Health Task Force. Good meeting. I hope that each of you enjoyed a very happy Thanksgiving. I just finished reading the article in the current entitled, learning More about the School’s New Social Emotional Curriculum, featuring Susan SELs interview with Julia Ferrera. Please accept my enthusiastic appreciation for this most timely piece.

13:58 We are grateful to have Julia introduce the program at our meeting in November, and it’s very hardening to have such a positive initiative to focus on with our marble Head Public Schools this week. The piece highlights this curriculum being implemented to ensure all students develop essential social emotional skills. I especially appreciate the lessons described. The lesson described that design, they’re designed to help students identify their passion as they start to identify their purpose so they can navigate their lives with purpose. It’s, it’s inspiring to imagine the impact that this effort can build for our students. And I’d like to recognize Julia’s hard work and passion, passionate commitment to engaging in this program in our schools. And a shout out to Susan whose interview is beautifully crafted and shared. Well done. Gratefully. Yours, Joanne, the back, the second, um, email that I got late this, uh, later on this afternoon.

14:44 Um, this is from Susan Stel. Uh, this is mutual admiration response. I learned so much from the collaboration with Julia and was especially impressed with how focused, enthusiastic, and calm Julia has been throughout the difficult time of the strike. She writes and speaks so clearly, and I would guess has been a wonderful influence on teachers and students. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to hear more in the coming months about the impact this initiative has had on the students and teachers. This is such perfect timing for this to be rolled out and such a vital lesson for students and teachers about the value of honest communication and caring and the pursuit of attainable goals. Kudos to the Marblehead schools for committing to the school-wide, Susan. So I thought that was important to share. It’s, um, it’s an initiative that we’ve been working on. We’ve shared at the school committee. Julie’s doing a really nice job, um, rolling that with her team.

15:30 Um, congratulations to the ma uh, magicians on their big win at Fenway Winter. Sports are underway and I’m sure that we will see continued success for our teams. Our fall season ended with the following records and achievements. Thanks to our ad Kent Wheeler for providing the recap. He’s really good about sending me, um, kind of the recap of the sports. So I’d like to share that with folks. If you, if you don’t mind. Varsity football, their overall record was eight and three. The NEC record was five and zero. The NEC done Division champions seated number six in the MIAA Division four power rankings, boys varsity soccer overall record. 11 three and six NEC record, seven, two and four. Seated number 10 in the M-I-A-A-D two power rankings. Girls varsity soccer overall record. Nine five and five NEC record of five, four, and four. Seated number 10 in the M-I-A-A-D two power rankings.

16:18 Girls volleyball over all record was 12 and seven. NEC. Record was nine and three. Seated number 20 in MIAA division two power rankings. Gross field hockey. Overall record was three 14 and one. The NEC record was three 10 and one seated 36 in the M-I-A-A-D two power rankings. Varsity golf overall record 12 and four. NEC Record was 11 and two qualified for the M-I-A-A-D two State Tournament Boys Cross Country overall record was seven and oh NEC records seven and oh NEC Done Division Champions, M-I-A-A-D two State Championship. Second place Finish Girls Cross Country. Overall record was four and three NEC record, four and 3M IAAD two State championships. 20th place finish. The overall fall season record was 63, 39

17:06 and 16 with, which represents a 0.612 winning percentage. The NEC fall season record was 51, 24 and nine. Represent a 0.661 winning percentage. So kudos to all of our, um, athletics. Um, that’s great showing from Marblehead. Everyone should be really proud. Thank you. Um, the, um, the, the menstruation product plan has come to fruition at the high school, middle school in the village first period, provided their products and all stations have been installed. We talked about this at the school community, um, several, um, meetings ago. And I just wanted to give the update. And then this is a great program and one that I believe will eventually be mandated. So we’re actually ahead of the curve here on Marblehead. So kudos to first period for getting that, um, um, implemented and our school nurses for really, um, piloting, um, and, and, um, making sure those things were in place.

17:54 Um, today was our principal of the day. Avianna Paradise was our principal of the day at Glover. And Ava Stanfield was our principal of the day at Brown. I was able to welcome Principals Paradise at Glover this morning, and she was very excited about her role. Principal Stanfield came by to visit me at my office where I learned about her very busy schedule. I’m so glad the friends of Marblehead make this opportunity possible and we’re grateful for the efforts that focus on our students. I have more friends of the Marblehead kudos to share. Um, this, I was gonna share this at the last meeting. We ended up having to cancel it, but Maggie Dobin, our, our teacher at Glover applied for a grant from the Friends of Marblehead to purchase picture frames. And she and all of the K to eight art teachers worked on installing student artwork throughout the elementary schools, the middle school and central admin office during the PD in October. And it’s great if you come to the admin office,

18:40 all the walls are covered in student art. It had been before, but it seems like there’s a lot more. And it’s vibrant. It’s great. I love it. Um, I love that this is made possible and that student art is shared for all to enjoy. Thank you to all involved. A couple more things if you’d indulge me. Our METCO director, uh, CAIA Johnson has scheduled a free winter celebration event for our students at Roller World in Sau, August on December 12th, 2024 from five to seven. This event is sponsored by Boston Bridges Initiative and is a great opportunity for our students to enjoy some time together outside of school. And that’s all of our students. Transportation will be provided. Specifics have been shared, um, with the Families by Cages. There’s a flyer that’s, um, been circulated, um, but December 12th from five to seven at Roller World and SAU August, uh, which is very cool. Um, the ratifications of MOAs. For our contracts, there are two new

19:25 committees being established. One is the Joint Labor Relations Committee. Our management committee, I think we call it, to review and recommend changes to our educator evaluation system. And the other is the Joint Committee on School Safety created to review protocols, processes, resources, et cetera, required for student success. Uh, these were two, uh, big items during the, during the negotiations. I was glad we were able to come together and, and get these, uh, committees to, um, on board and moving forward. Um, I’ve met and I’ve identified, um, from the, um, admin sign who are all the, uh, people and know the MAs working on the same. So both committees are made up of, um, members from both MEA and the administration and will be charged with collaborating to identify areas of growth and recommend any changes that are identified. The first meetings, meetings are slated to be scheduled by the end of the month.

20:10 I look forward to the collaboration that both committees will provide. So, very exciting stuff. Um, that’s all I have for now, chairwoman. Anybody have any questions? Awesome. Okay, let’s move on to schedule bills. I have two schedule bills, um, that we’re gonna take, um, in order. I’m gonna do the big one first. Um, so I’m looking for a motion to approve the identified schedule of bills totaling $2,009,222 and 8 cents. Seconded. First, that was l Yes.

20:47 Okay. I’m gonna do a roll call. Al Williams In favor. Brian Oda in Favor? Sarah Fox in favor? Allison Taylor? I don’t think she’s on, she’s on hold’s here. I see. She, she was Ali Taylor. Is that Oh yeah. Is that, that should be her. Yeah. Okay. That’s fine. Allison, can you unmute? I can now. I won’t. Lemme do video either. Okay. Um, just so everybody knows, I, are you in favor? Uh, in favor? Yes. Okay, thanks. And Jen Schaffner in favor. Five to zero. Thank you very much. Okay, I have a second. Um, and that did seem a little high. I mean, but we have missed a meeting. So that’s sort of two meetings worth of approvals. We have a separate, um, schedule, bills, uh, schedule, schedule a bill to approve. Um, so I’m looking for a motion to approve the identified schedule

21:33 of bills totaling $135,776 and 96 cents. So moved. Um, moved by Al. Second. Second, Brian. Okay. And I think I have an abstention, so I’m gonna go through roll call Lal Williams In favor? Brian OTA in favor. Sarah Fox. See Allison Taylor, you want me? Just hang on, Alison, I’m gonna, I Yeah, in favor. Okay. Jen Schaffner in favor. That’s four to zero with one abstained. Okay. Thank you everyone. Um, the next is the approval of minutes. Um, I just wanna let the committee members know I had put in the agenda the minutes that I had had when I posted the agenda, which were September 19th and October 17th.

22:20 But we also did receive September 5th minutes as well. So I’m not sure if everyone has a chance to look at that and we can decide if we want to approve those minutes or if you’d like to hold off to the next meeting on the September 5th draft. Any comments on that? I’m okay discussing your, Okay. So I’m gonna ask for, um, approval of, I’m gonna do all three. I’m gonna ask for a motion to approve the minutes of September 19th, I’m sorry, September 5th, 2024. September 19th, 2024. And October 17th, 2024. I Have a concern about the September 19th. Okay. So why don’t, if I could ask for the motion and a second, then we can discuss it. Okay. Thanks. Hang on. Um, Sarah Fox and then Allison just said second

23:06 and Allison Taylor second. Okay. Um, comments? Discussion, Brian? Yes. On the 19th, it’s very bottom on their opening business public comment. They have Sally ch supporting, uh, to honor Catherine Martin for the dedication for her students. I believe Sally opposed it. Okay. Alright. So why don’t I, um, go back and have Allison relook at the, um, The whole exchange, the whole, I think it’s wrong. Yeah. Okay. So we, if we approve it, we’ll approve it pending that change. Okay. Okay. So we’ll we can approve this pending the review by Allison McMahon to go through that and change it, and then I can resubmit the final one to the committee. Okay. Okay. Okay, great.

23:52 Any other comments or questions on any of the other minutes or any of the September 5th? Other than that? The 19th. Other than that, okay. I’m gonna ask for a roll call. Um, Al Williams in favor. Brian Oda in favor? Sarah Fox In favor? Uh, Allison Taylor in favor. And Jen Schaffner in favor, approved five to zero. Okay. Um, we’re gonna move on to the school committee communication and discussion items. The first is the ME eight contract summary. Um, which is really, I guess I just wanted to take a moment. Sarah, you can jump in. Um, as member of the bargaining subcommittee, um, Thatcher Keer was supposed to be with us here tonight, but he’s in another meeting, so he may come later. Um, if he’s able to get away, um, or maybe join us online.

24:39 Um, but just wanted to let everyone know we did approve, um, all of the contracts, both one year contracts and three year contracts in the form of a memo of memorandum of agreement, which highlights the main, I guess, changes to the existing contract that will be reflected in the new contract that has all been ratified by both the Marble Education Association and the school committee, with the exception of the custodians contract, which is their one year and three year, which we will be doing tonight. They were unavailable last week when we did the ratification. So, uh, we’ll be doing that tonight. And following up, um, those memo, random of of agreement agreements are on our website. Um, so folks can take a look at those, the signed copies. Um, in speaking to, um, our attorney, she’s in the process

25:26 of drafting the full contract, which will be taking those changes and, and, and making it into the full document, which will need to be reviewed by the, um, Marland Education Association. But, but what I’ve been told by her is that we will not need to vote, that we will simply need to sign it once we receive it. Um, and it will take a few weeks. I don’t know, Anthony, you’re nodding your head. I don’t know if that’s the case or not. We are also working on the parallel track. Okay. Faster.

25:57 I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that last part. I think We can do it a little bit quicker than Just a few weeks. Okay. So we look Forward to working. I think we have have two done. Yeah. Okay. And then once that’s done, we, I, my indication is that we will sign it and then the, the union leadership will sign it. The changes Are, we just need to sign the integrated File and then once that’s done, all that will be loaded up onto our website as well. So I just wanted let folks know that, Just so people know too, we, um, I, I had asked that it go in two places on the website per the contract. All of our contracts need to be up on the con uh, up on the website. So we have those under unit, uh, a unit contracts tab. So we made sure the MOAs were there in accordance with any contractual obligations. But we, it’s kind of a clunky website right now to, to dig through. So we also put them on the landing page just

26:44 to make it easier for folks to get to that. But if they see that the documents are in two places, it’s the same document where you’re just trying to make it as easy for people to find as possible. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. One of the things among others that I learned in the last few weeks is there are a lot of school districts that don’t have their contracts on their website. So that’s one thing we, we did, but we wanna make sure that we have the agreements up there. We wanna make sure as soon as the contracts are finalized. Hang on. I’m just gonna let folks in, um, that they’re up there. So, you know, obviously, so the public and anyone else who wants to see it has the opportunity. So any other comments or questions? No. So is that just the summary? We don’t need to, we’re not revolting that, no. Okay. No, I just wanted to give an update on where everything is and Okay. All that. I think most of the folks in this room, I know

27:29 that and have seen it, but just obviously for the public to know, um, that they’re up there. And, uh, let’s see. Okay. So I’m gonna move on to, actually, I’m gonna ask for if the, if the, um, members of the committee are okay if I move the custodian’s approval to the later on in the meeting. So that Thatcher might be here by then. So the Thatcher may be here by then. Yes. He’s in a negotiation himself. So is that, um, yeah, I Mean, if we are, if we, as long as, but if that’s the last item left and he still isn’t here, we, we will move forward without him. Yeah. But I think it would be nice if, if everyone was here. Yeah. ‘cause we do have a, um, yeah, we do have a quorum, so, yes. Um, okay. So we’re gonna, um, move that. We, I apologize to the, if that’s what you guys are all here for the custodians, but, um,

28:16 moving through this kind of quickly. So, um, school calendar change was John, but he stepped out for just a moment. So I’m going to move on. We’ll come back to that. Move on to school committee goals, which were in your drive, um, to page document, uh, that was put together as a draft by the school committee or the goals, school committee goals subcommittee. So I’m not sure, Brian, did you wanna review this or Well, yes. Um, Allison.

28:47 Yep. You wanna do a goal one? Yeah, go ahead. You can go first.

28:55 Well, maybe she Hear you. Well, that’s the wrong one. That’s for the sub. That’s communication. There’s one in the Dropbox that we put in for the goals. I can share it off my screen if you let me.

29:07 Okay. Where is, uh, let’s let the folks in from the waiting room. I’m not sure we need to show it on the, because it’s just all, it’s just a page of just writing. So if you just wanna talk it, just talk me To it to describe it. All right. So, so goal one, it’s review and update all school committee. I, I mean, I think it would be good to show for the rest of the people in the room. Right? Okay. People on online? Sure. Let me make Brian co-host. All right. Brian, I’m making you co-host. Okay. So I can share. So you should be able to share your screen. John Dano, I know you have your hand raised. We had public comment. So, um, I will Hmm. Ask you to put your hand down. Thank you.

29:48 Brian. Brian, did you, did that come through Brian? I’m trying to find here we are about that. Okay. Can you read that? Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, we jumped over school calendar ‘cause you weren’t Oh, sorry. That’s okay. We’re zipping along. So we had school committee goals. We’ll, we’ll go back. Sorry about that. That’s alright. So goal one was to review and update all school committee policies and protocols. The goal is, One second. Brian, is there any way to make that bigger, Steven or no? Or can you, um, do you like a magnifying glass?

30:20 If not, it’ll be good. Just my old eyes. That Better keep going? Yeah. Maybe a little bit more. Can folks see that it’s better? Yeah, that’s good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you Brian. So goal one. The policies and protocols are critical to areas that the school committee must remain current. The policies must be kept current yearly with Massachusetts General laws that pertain to schools and with any regulations from Massachusetts Department of Education, elementary and Secondary Education, dsi, the policy subcommittee will review all sub school co committee policies and procedures to ensure that they align with legal MESC and or DS e requirements, suggest updates to any of the out of date policies and procedures,

31:05 and to request assistance from legal or MASC as needed, organize the policy folder on the school committee website for an easy identified process for the community. It is kind of hard to figure out where they are when you go into the policies page. So the checkpoints, the measurable checkpoints will be expected to provide to the full school committee following each policy subcommittee meeting. And the expected date of completion for all of the policies and procedures will be June, 2025. Any questions? Yeah, I just had a couple questions. So you, you said policy procedures, do you I think do you mean protocols? Protocols? I’m sorry. Okay. All right. So I’m, I’m just gonna do that. ‘cause the, yeah. Okay. So that’s protocols. Okay. Uh, That’s what it says in the document though, right? So I, the document says procedures in the,

31:52 in the body of the document, Allison. Oh, it does. I thought it, I see goal. I see protocols. Maybe it’s just not changed. We can, yeah, If you go down to the two bullet points, policy seven Oh it jumps Back and forth. I do see that, yeah. Up above in the main goal it does say protocols. So I’ll, I’ll change that. We’ll push that back. Okay. Just to make sure. Um, yep, absolutely. Yeah. ‘cause we don’t necessarily do procedures. And the only other question or the comment I’d wanna make, I mean we can do this as we meet, Alison, you and I, and then we, we bring up dates. But I was involved in the past in 2018, I think it was, where we did a full review of the school policies with MAOC. There was a, there was a significant charge for that. ‘cause it hadn’t been done in something like 15 years

32:38 and it took 18 months. Um, so I’m not sure, um, if that’s what we’re looking for and we can talk about this or whether we’re looking for, you know, maybe we’re going through this. We can work with our MASC rep. I, ‘cause I think we’re in pretty good shape. I think there’s a few things that we need to go through and we can do that with Alicia. Um, but I just wanted to get some clarification that we’re not, ‘cause there’s a full review that you can hire MASC to do. Yes. And if you wanna do that, we can do that. I just wanna understand what the, that’s Not a five month process. No, it is not. Yeah. I don’t think that was our, our intent with this. However, that it, it certainly can become that if that’s what Okay. The will of the committee is, or If that’s what we decide discover we really need. And I think even just getting them all in one landing place for Right. As it as it stands right now, if you, not all

33:25 of our policies are in the policy book. For instance, if you go to the technology page, the policies that were voted at the start of COVID as it pertained to technology, they’ve been assigned policy numbers and everything. And they were, they came through the policy subcommittee that was in place then they weren’t ever added to the policy tab for some reason. Where are they? They’re, they’re, Okay. That’s great question. Um, they’re on the technology website. Uh, the tech, when you go to the technology page, they’re there. Okay. And those really came out of, once we transitioned to digital learning, we were required right away to have multiple policies that spoke to that. And so we, the policy committee was able to convene and get those up. Okay. Up and running quickly. They just never got put physically where they needed to go. Okay. May, may I just, yeah. Um, so the other thing

34:12 with a full review, I don’t think that that’s necessary. We’ve done that in the last several years because MASC sends out updates around the specific policies that they feel need to be updated. So I think as long as we kind of, if the subcommittee focuses on those and then we keep up with those going forward, you, it’s a cyclical thing. So. Yeah. No, I know. I think, I think it had to do it before. ‘cause it hadn’t been done in a while. TA way to do it. It hadn’t kept up with it. And it does happen where stuff falls through the cracks. But I think we can definitely do that. Alison, I don’t think there’s been that Much. If, if I can make a request, it would be embedded in this goal here. If you can go back to when that policy review was done in 2018 and, and look through each agenda, which are still up on the town website, I believe we list what policies were revolting or amending by their policy team.

34:57 I I, there was a period of several years where the policies just, they were getting voted, but they just, no one was then doing the downstream of updating them where they needed to go. So if you can kind of go through those, those via agendas so you’ll know where you were in 2018 and that, all that work that was happening since then. I, I, I, I, I sure I know. I know, I know. No problem. If that, maybe that’s something I, I can sit with the agendas and No, just list. But, um, until we needed some Blizzard we have in January, I can spend, I know until I was asked for legal reasons last spring to find the technology, it, I was not aware. I’ve never served on the policy subcommittee. I was not aware that they had not been being put where they needed to be. Okay. Yep. Um, and that’s how it came to my attention.

35:43 I do think also working with Alicia at MASC will be very helpful too. Okay. So we’ll, we’ll, we’ll loop her into it. Okay. That, that, that’s great that it Mission accepted. Okay. Goal two. I don’t Know what happened. Allison, do you wanna do the second one? Yeah, I, you can do goal two if you want. Brian, since you’re on the, I probably should have done one since I’m on the policy. You can do two since you’re on the, the communication subcommittee. And I’ll just do three. That’s no problem. Okay. So the goal of the, uh, the goal two is to enhance and improve school committee communications. One Second. Brian. Did we lose the, um, on the screen still? I Don’t know what happened. I lost Are you sharing screen still?

36:23 Hmm.

36:29 There we go. I can share mine if needed. Okay. We got it. We got it. Perfect. Yay. Thank you. Right. The goal is the Marblehead school committee will develop a detailed plan on ways and opportunities to improve and enhance the communications provided to the community. These communications will work towards developing further transparency while also greater, uh, reach of communications. So the bullets are create a communication subcommittee, which was done. It’s al and I, uh, developed a template for the school committee, monthly newsletters. And we’ll show that, um, when we meet at the next school committee meeting, uh, improve the school committee website, which we started working on, provide the school committee meeting minutes within a

37:15 month of the meeting date. And I’m working to figure out how we can get caught up. So this will be attainable. I draft a proposal for the meet management of public comment response, and Al and I will talk about that when we do the subcommittee update.

37:33 Identify potential improvements to school committee meetings, schedule an additional teamwork and communications with the MASC workshop. Create short surveys on a quarterly basis to ensure and gather updated community feedback. Develop a plan to improve relationships with the local media contact. For example, Marvel Head, current weekly, and Marvel head cable television. So this will be done at, uh, every subcommittee report. That’s how we’ll measure our progress. Any questions, thoughts? This? And that’s you and Al? Yes. Okay. I just noticed, um, maybe just sort of a simple omission, but there’s no expected date of completion. Well, as for that Particular goal.

38:19 Okay. Well, I put down there that we would report out every quarter, every, uh, school committee meeting, any communications thing. So I suppose we can do a summary at the end of the year, if that’s what you’re looking for. Yeah, it, to me it’s similar to how we did with goal one and goal three. Yeah. We’ll Do that. Probably have similar, I think that this, this goal is a little bit more kind of dynamic also, which I, so I think we were looking for just some input from the rest of the committee as well in regards to, you know, their ideas on, you know, even more discussion on how we could do these things. Um, Yeah, maybe that’s a better time. You know, once we’re talking more about the how, then we could, it’ll be more obvious as to what the a, a better win might be. Mm-hmm.

39:05 Yes. Okay. Um, that’s, that’s fine. I thought just, you know, reporting out during meetings on what had been done, I changed those two, um, words at the top for you too, Jen. Um, you know, but, but definitely al open to, to feedback, right? We wanna make sure that everybody is, um, is is on the same page and kind of understanding. ‘cause I think on some of these, the how is gonna be really hard. Well, we had their quarterly surveys where we just, you know, do limited surveys to find out how people feel like, for example, on the newsletter, if it’s, uh, informative enough, clear enough that it’s satisfying their need. So those kind of, it’d be like short quarterly surveys. And then that would actually fit into your

39:51 request for the end of the year. We’d roll up the three, the four, um, quarters that we would do the survey and then report out the answer at the end of the year how we did on the final one. Perfect. Now Wouldn’t it just be that we have two quarters left? If, if we’re measuring this by through June? Yes, that would be a normal year would be a four. Okay. Was there any discussion of doing any more kind of open forums, town hall, public, uh, some, however you Wanna call it? Well, we’ll get to that. I think the question you’re asking, we’ll get to that when we do our subcommittee report out. Okay. So that wouldn’t be part of the goal necessarily. I definitely wanted that to be part of it. I, I think that we were waiting on, um, Alan, Brian, you know, there’s a little bit of overlap here, right?

40:36 With these, some of these goals and another subcommittee. Um, I think you will find there’s repetitive nature here, but I, I, I think that’s a great idea to add it to this because I would love for us all to be held responsible for having open forums because I think the forums can be about a lot of different things and we all wanna be there and be a part of them. So I would be in favor of adding that here. I would, if you’re okay with that, Brian, I Would like to see, um, the addition of one to two town hall style meetings before, um, June, 2020. Yeah, I agree. Five.

41:18 I agree. And those topics can be determined. ‘cause I think what we’ve learned in the past is having a, it it dictated kind of different, different topics for different meetings is much more productive rather than it just being kind of Yeah. A free for all. Yeah. Okay. Did you want two typically annually, or you’re saying two from now Until end June? I think the ideal three annually, but we’re in a weird timeframe. So I, I think if we said, you know, one to two, that that gives one to us an opportunity to strive for two. But I’m Fine with that one to, But one I maybe what we can achieve with what we have to undertake over the next few months. That’d be great. Do and do you I’d like to see the goal, oh, go ahead Allison. No, go ahead. It’s okay. No, I was just gonna say, I agree with Allison. I’d like to see it in the goal. I know she put it in there. Oh, as we spoke

42:04 I did. I added it as we were going. Yep. Um, thank you As long. I mean, I just, we’re in an open meeting so it’s okay for me to update this in front of everybody. Yeah. Before that gets, becomes a problem. Um, I also feel like maybe Sarah, I know you said before June, I think it would be great also if we could have at least I, I would like to have one before May. Also, I’d love to have both before May, um, before town meeting because I feel slash sense slash think that there are going to be a lot of things at town meeting in order to be critical to success. And that will require people to be fully informed. Um, so I, you know, I think we have,

42:50 we have four months to figure out two town hall meeting dates. I feel like we should be able to meet that. Uh, just so that people have enough time to vote A town meeting, voting at town meeting is then, you know, what propagates what will be on the ballot or not. Um, sorry. Um, it’s just, we should be cognizant that March or April brings us the budget hearing as well. So Yeah, what we’re looking at is really January, February, March, April, roughly every six weeks. Finding a time to have a, a town hall style meeting. That, that would be wonderful if we could do it. I don’t know that if our goal, if we’re trying to start with realistic goals, having one town hall every six weeks

43:38 is a realistic goal. But, but I think we, I think the one to two frame is helpful. ‘cause that gives us some, some availability. ‘cause the budget hearing really, it’s more than just a town hall. I mean, but it’s, it’s that, you know, plus more. Um, but it’s another opportunity to have a conversation with the public. Okay. So I’m just wondering, I’m looking at the third one, which I know we haven’t gotten to, but I’m wondering if a general one should be under the communication subcommittee and one around the budget should be under the goal number three, which addresses the budget? Well, We’re required by law to have a budget hearing. Okay. Yeah. Um, that’s, that’s of it. Own Wouldn’t count as the one to two then? No. Okay. No, the budget hearing’s very specific.

44:24 There’s, it’s very specific where and how we have to Okay. Um, publicize it. So that one is, Is in and of itself. Alright. Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t, um, it’s actually not listed. Uh, I’m just looking at goal three. It’s not listed in goal three, but are, are there any other questions before I move on to that? That’s a great point though, Al. Um, before I move on to goal three, Nope. Are there any other comments, questions, additions, subtractions? No, it looks good. Okay. Just with the addition of the town hall, it’d be great. Yeah. Agreed. Um, goal three is to improve the documentation and communication of the Marblehead public school budget process in order to provide additional opportunities for transparency and understanding among the community.

45:12 That’s a big one. Um, a clear understanding of the budget process, budgeting process is needed. I think there are a lot of processes, um, that we probably need to do this same thing on. And if we had created, I mean, we could create a goal for, to understand the process of, um, what bargaining is as well. But the budget books, uh, are available online, providing line on level detail to the community. This was a huge, gigantic, enormous improvement. Um, and I think everybody should be really proud of that effort. I know how much work it took, um, from Michelle previously. And then of course this year it will be the same. In an effort to further partner with the community, we’d like to work to improve communications and understanding around the NPS budgeting process.

45:59 I think having it clearly outlined and defined will help people feel like they have more information and help them to be able to, um, you know, translate that to more informed questions and or concerns. Um, because I think when people, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of fear that happens when people don’t know things. And so the more we can share about that budgeting process, which is not something that, it’s not what this school committee did. I mean, there’s, there are rules and laws that we have to abide by. So develop an outline of that budgeting process and present that outline at the beginning of each budgeting season. We’d like to have that done relatively quickly. Um, and I think presenting that at what Brian and I discussed is presenting that at the beginning of each budgeting season. Because there could be different committees each time.

46:47 There could be different people showing up in the public each time and just reworking that and rediscussing it, not reworking, rediscussing it each time I think is important. Creating a budget primer to include what the process is to develop the budget where the numbers are derived. So where do they start from? This isn’t a school committee that just decides we want a hundred million dollars. We are given a number, um, and we are required to, to meet that number. Um, and, and part of the reason why we are financially in the position that we are in is because those, those rules have not been abided by in the past. So we wanna make sure that we have, um, the required timetable, it’s set by the superintendent. Um, explain to folks what the purpose of meeting with the finance committee is and, and what they actually, what FinCon actually does

47:34 and brings to the table for us and what role they provide. ‘cause I think sometimes people don’t understand that, um, a definition of terms. So there are a lot of terms that people don’t understand, whether it’s free cash or anything else. Um, explanation of the budget subcommittee roles and responsibilities as well versus the entire committee. Have that one page cheat sheet. Uh, identify as a committee any gaps or additional available data points that we should be sharing. Um, or, you know, and as the public comments on these things, making sure we go back to that and improve it, um, and increase the, the level of detail, but hoping to keep it to one page. Because after one page people tend to stop reading. Um, identify opportunities to update and, and improve any budget process related policies.

48:20 Um, as, as needed. Not really sure that I remember what we meant there because I think our policy is pretty set. But if there are ways to, to improve that, um, even if it’s just improving the communication or when we communicate at what point we start communicating and start the process. I know we try to do earlier and earlier each year. Um, we think that that would be helpful. Um, checkpoints would be expected on this at the full school committee meeting once a month. So once a month we’d like to have. And you know, we’re getting into budget season anyway, so we’ll be talking about that a lot. Um, we would like to have an update on the progress of this particular goal. This is very, very aggressive. Obviously we wanted to try and have that be done simultaneously with, you know, when,

49:08 when we really start looking at numbers. Um, but that’s the point of number three.

49:17 Um, I, I think this is all, you know, good, good goals to have. Um, we may be further along than you, than you think on some of these. The budget primer last year, Michelle Cresta partnered with, um, Alicia Benjamin on the townside to do a budget tutorial, um, that was open to the public to come to, um, kind of walking through a lot of these items. Um, there were some people that attended it wasn’t as well attended, I think as, as people would, as I would’ve hoped, considering, um, the fiscal reality that we’re in, in this town. I, I would’ve hoped more people kind of had dialed into that. But they really kind of went through the process, what all these things are, what is the role of income. A lot of people don’t realize it’s advisory only.

50:04 Um, various things like that. So we, I can reach out to both those individuals and get their, their slide decks on that. And that may give us, uh, you know, a starting point to giving this information to folks. I didn’t mean to, um, imply that there, there wasn’t already progress. Oh, No, no, no. I didn’t get that at all. I just, I just, okay. You know, I, I was just, I I was giving us a leg up and saying, I think we’re further along than, than we thought. And I like this, you know, identify opportunities to update. ‘cause when we look back several years, um, we didn’t have a budget book online. We didn’t have the line item breakdowns building by building. Um, you know, we didn’t Absolutely. We’ve, as we’ve gone through the process, we’ve heard from the town, we’ve heard from people at town meeting

50:50 and we’ve heard from FinCon. And each year we’ve made it tighter and better. For instance, the new iteration last year was, um, some select board members and FinCon had said, you know, they wanted to see what was going on with our revolving funds and our grants. And so we were able last year to take that information, add a tab to the budget book. Um, here’s actually can come right up here if you like. Um, add a tab to the budget book that just gave that, that extra deep layer of, um, information so people can see that although our, our budget may be $46 million from the town, what it costs to run our schools is really closer to 70 or above. Um, and that, that’s largely dependent, a lot of that’s dependent on revolving funds and grants and other things like that.

51:35 Um, I think particularly as we go into the next year that we’re going into and you know, there’s concerns on the national level, will, will, some of those federal grants that we rely on so heavily change, um, and will our access to those change. I think having that, that that detail level of detail available will be really helpful. So, Uh, one thing, um, I do this, this is great. It’s great. Well, it does look like there’s some work to be done here, so I’m just not sure. Is this sort of being tasked to the budget subcommittee or? I think that’s what it read, like, Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to double check.

52:21 I think we also need to be, um, I, I mean I, I think we, it would start with the budget subcommittee, but we would want the whole committee’s involvement in and approval of, you know, primers that we publish or, or in communicate out or whatever. Yeah. And I also think that we will need some, probably some at least eyes on it from the administration. I, yes. I’m a little, I getting a little concerned about are we, are we putting this on the administration? So I don’t, I think, I think, I Think it’s, I think it’s a collaborative effort there. Yeah. But yeah, definitely I think that needs to be the preponderance from the school committee. And then we, we plug in what needs to get Plugged in and just review, you know, some of this reviewed by our subject matter experts, whether it is Mike Ping or Alicia, perhaps on from the town side. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I mean, this, this is Great. This budget cycle is, is going to be a very heavy lift.

53:07 Um, we are behind the eight ball in our timing. We had hope, you know, typically in the, a typical budget cycle, the, the month we’ve just been through, there would’ve been a lot of budget development going on. Um, our, our Director Of finance would’ve been able to do a lot of meetings with our principals and our directors to really tease out and, and develop their budget so then he could bring it to the next level. And he was fully committed to getting us through the, the last three weeks with those periods. So the budget calendar has been pushed back because of that. So we We do have a lot of catch up to play here also on the Townside, ‘cause Thatcher was fully committed here for three weeks as well.

53:54 So I, I, I just want us to be cognizant that our primary goal needs to be getting out a budget, um, that we can bring to town meeting and, and we have a lot of catch up because of, um, this, the last month. Got it. Okay. Great. This is great. Um, so thanks. Um, the folks for the school committee goals subcommittee for doing that work. Do we think we need to vote this or do we just feel we are comfortable accepting that I I’ll defer to the committee. Well, I would think you’d need a vote if this is gonna become our Goals for the year if we were kind of assuming a vote, but, okay. Yeah. Well, I apologize. I didn’t put that in agenda. Any Motion to approve the goals as presented by the subcommittee? Sarah Fox first? Do I have a second? Seconded.

54:39 Well, um, any other deliberation or discussion? Great. Thanks. This is great. Great, great work. I’m gonna go do, I’m gonna do a roll call L Williams. In favor? Brian Oda in favor? Sarah Fox In favor? Uh, Allison Taylor in favor, and Jen Schaffner in favor, five to zero school committee goals are approved. Thank you. Um, all right, we’re jumping around here, folks. I apologize. I’m going to if Thatcher here, so thanks for making it over Thatcher. We’re gonna jump back to the custodian’s contract. Um, so Anthony, we’re gonna jump to that. Okay? I don’t know if you heard me or not. Can you hear me? Anthony, I just wanna let you know we’re jumping to the custodians contract, just so you know. I just wanna Be clear, um, I sent you guys a message at 4 22 or so, is that, I just wanna be clear,

55:25 we have the right understanding as long as you receive that. And Should we be holding on ratification? I don’t, I, uh, I don’t, I don’t. What Everyone of you on the committee?

55:43 Um, I can look at My email now. Okay.

55:52 Yes. So my understanding is that you have consulted spoken to the unit, um, president representative, and that the agreement that I had sent over yesterday, will, is the one that we are, is planning to be ratified. That’s what we communicated to the committee, but we response. So that’s all I wanted to clarify. Okay. Got it. I’m sorry. ‘cause I, I was over here at like quarter five. Sorry. Okay. So I just wanna be clear, we’re asking to be ratified with the contracts that were in our box Dropbox? That’s correct. Okay. They were in the ones that were in the Dropbox. I also wanna clarify that what was in the Dropbox was the one year custodian contract and the co bonding three year custodian contract. Um, the ones in the Dropbox were dated November 26th,

56:37 because that was when we ratified all the other, uh, contracts last week. Again, the custodians were not available to ratify it. So the updated one just has today’s date. That’s the one that, um, we’re gonna be asked to sign today, December 4th. Um, everything else remains the same. Um, Clarify, there were other changes. Um, there was the payroll deductions language that was added into the document that you did share earlier today. And there was a proposal that we have in our bargaining notes that had been withdrawn by the committee after the fact. There seems to be disagreement as to whether or not the committee actually withdrew this proposal. There was a verbal withdrawal despite the regressive nature of How things I, I’m gonna pause everyone ‘cause I feel like we’re now bargaining in public. I’m trying to Tell you That as long as, and I don’t know if I’m ready to ratify this now,

57:24 I’m trying to explain that as long as the understanding that I communicated to you on behalf of the unit at 4 22 this afternoon is the correct understanding. Yep. Which is that the language of the payroll deductions is included, which was not in the November 26th version. The sick leave bank, which is included, which was not in the November 26th version, but is in the December 5th version fourth. And the version we last sent to you did not have the 96 hours for personal day requests, which had been withdrawn by the committee previously. We are now, in order to get this agreement done tonight, the c custodians are willing to make one other concession, even though the committee withdrew its proposal over the summer. Okay. So as long as that understanding is in writing, This is as simple yes or no Document that you’re voting on, then there is a tentative agreement for you to ratify. If that

58:09 Understanding simple, It’s not in writing. Okay. Then we Don’t have a tentative agreement. It’s that simple. I, I I need to know what document I’m looking at. Okay. So I guess if you’re not comfortable, we can hold off and we Can do this. I was gonna ask if that’s fine, what is the last document Jen sent out today? The one you are bringing forward to be ratified by James’s unit? The Document? Well, yes or no Without having it in front of me because we sent you a response at four 20 that you did not answer. I don’t know. All right. So, so as long As the understanding is correct. Okay. Thank you for your time, Anthony. So we’re going off the top. I just wanna let the, the committee know that, um, the memorandum of agreement that I submitted to the committee for consideration was prepared by our attorney as were all

58:55 of the other memorandums of agreement. We, we have ratified our document. And that is the document that I have. Yes, yes. Is What we’ve done all Along. Yes. And that’s what we are, I’m asking everyone to ratify tonight, which was in the drop, which was in the Google Drive. Okay. So I have the email at 5:32 PM from you. Is that the same Yes. Document? Yes. Okay. That one. I’m gonna, That’s our understanding that I communicated to you. Then we’re good to go. Can I just, can I add in last, at 11 46 45 this morning? Um, it was, it’s been, okay. I sent one, I just, just re clarified it. That had just the updated date and I sent it this af before the meeting, so maybe you didn’t get it. He’s Not, the way I, the way I understood the conversation was that what was sent out by you that went to Mike Yarding back and forth is what Anthony is now saying

59:41 that they are in agreement with. I just, we didn’t get a response if to our last communication about three hours ago, two and a half hours ago prior to the meeting beginning. So I just, that’s all I Wanna clarify. I left my house at four, so I believe we’re Me too. We’re all very busy, but I just wanna make sure we’re on the same page before We I am prepared. So can we just, should we just wait then? Is that Sure? Is that what would make everybody comfortable? I, I don’t, I don’t need to hear about the 4 32 Email. Quite frankly, custodians have been held hostage for a very long time, and I’m, I agree. Yes, they sure have. I am not prepared to, I, you, I, I think, let me just, I will say this. If we ratify the documents that I had put into the Google Drive that we were prepared to vote tonight, we’ve ratified it. The unit still has to ratify it. Yeah. So that also can be clarified that we would send these documents over

1:00:27 and just ensure that, and if they’re not, and then they don’t ratify it, and it’s not ratified until they ratified it. So I don’t think there’s Okay, That’s fine. Can, and speaking to Liz, there’s no harm in doing This, so I’ll make a motion And that way it’s done. We can, The enclosed document provided by our attorney dated December 4th for both the one year and the three year consecutive custodian contracts. Okay. Um, motion by Sarah. Do I have a second? I’ll second that. Is that l Yeah. Or Thatcher. Thatcher. Sorry. Okay. Um, any discussion or deliberation? Do you have a clean copy? I do. Okay. Um, My bad printer, I your fifth. I have a clean copy. Um, um, any discussion? Deliberation? Okay, great.

1:01:12 I’m gonna go a roll call. Uh, Thatcher Keer. I vote yes. Uh, Al Williams In favor. Brian OTA in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor In favor. And Jen Schaffner in favor. So, six to zero for the custodian contract. Um, I also have, uh, hard properties that we need to sign. So we have the three of us. We have the one in the three. Mm-hmm. Yes. Is that both? That was in one that was in one motion. Just The one Oh, for Both? No, we did one motion. We did motion. The motion covered both. Okay. Yes, That’s fine. Okay, great. All right. Thank you everyone. Um, let’s go back. Do we wanna go back to the school calendar? We’re jumping around folks. I

1:01:57 Apologize. I I apologize for stepping out at the, at a bad time, so I apologize for that. It’s okay. We good, coach, What do you Have there? Yeah. Yes, go ahead. With the school Calendar. Um, so, so I just wanna share with the, with the community and the folks here in the room that, um, just to make sure that everyone understands that Desi, the Department of Education requires 180 instructional days for students every school year. Um, so with those 180 instructional days, if there’s snow days or there’s any reason to make up days, we have to figure out how to fit them into the calendar prior to June 30th, we can’t go past June 30th. Gotcha. So we have to work within that timeframe to be able to make up those, to make sure that we reach those 180 days.

1:02:46 With the strike that happened, um, we have 10 school days to make up. It was 11 days. However, we moved the pd, one of the PD days, the first day of the strike. So instead of 11 days to make up, we have 10 days to make up. Um, so I just wanna make sure that folks understand that we moved the January 31st PD day to the 1112, the first day of the strike. Um, I have two proposals that I’m gonna, I’m gonna throw out there. This is not by any means the only, um, necessarily the only, um, things we could think about. But I just wanna share the two proposals and some of the, um, the ramifications of them, and then maybe some, some other possibilities. What I will start also by saying is that I called Department of Education, I spoke to Rob Curin, who’s the one

1:03:31 that’s kind of in charge of, uh, school calendars in the 180 days and making sure that we’re following the regulations. Um, my question to him was, do we have to make up all, um, the days that are missed due to the strike? And he said, yes. Um, I said, can we make up any of those virtually? He said, no. Um, is there any way that the commissioner will waive any of the days that we need to make up due to the strike? He said, no. And the reason being is that if he is to, if he is to waive any of the days, it, um, incentivizes, um, unions to strike, because then there’s no repercussions. That was his words, not mine. So I just wanna share that with you. Um, so that’s, that’s important. The other piece is, you know, there’s days, instructional days is 180.

1:04:17 There’s also instructional minutes, um, hours that we need to meet. So for secondary, it’s 990 and elementary it’s nine, 900. Um, so when we look at our instructional hours and all the buildings and all the schools, we meet those instructional hours, um, or over both of them, um, you know, in the secondary level and the elementary level by a little bit. But we, but we meet the, um, um, the regulations there. So there’s been questions by the, uh, community and by, I think staff. Well, what if we did some longer days? Would that count if we, you know, did an extra hour a day and a couple days? Would those extra hours count towards making up the 180 days? The answer, once again, is no. So I wanna, I start this conversation by saying that I, I

1:05:03 explored pretty much every option that I think is out there. Um, I tried to get my colleagues in Gloucester, and, sorry, Gloucester, I sound like I’m English now, Gloucester, sorry, I’m southeastern Mass, um, Glosser and, um, Beverly to see if they would conjoin me in, in pleading to the commissioner. Um, and it, it’s, it’s just, there’s no, there’s no wiggle room. So I just wanna be very, very clear that I, I, I went after that avenue. I tried to pursue that avenue first and foremost before, before anything else. I think that’s important for me to share. So, 10 school days, um, one proposal. And, and so when I make the proposals, uh, there’s gonna be some discussion about the school committee. Ultimately, the school committee, um, determines the calendar. And there’s some, there’s some decisions we can make tonight.

1:05:48 We don’t have to necessarily make all the decisions tonight. We can make some of the decisions, we can hold on some of the decisions. We can have further discussions about some of the, some of the decisions. So how I outlined it was proposal A and proposal B. And then I’m gonna talk a little bit about an alternate possibility. Uh, proposal A would be, um, utilizing Monday, December 23rd, which is the first day of our winter break as a school day, uh, February vacation. There are four days that are, that, um, are not holidays as a holiday day in, in over February break. So we would look to, um, have school on the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21. That, so the 23rd of December, February 18th, February 19th, February 20, and February 21 would be five days. Um, April, again, there’s a, there’s a holiday there.

1:06:34 So we have four days. We can grab, uh, the 22nd, the 23rd, the 24th, and the 25th. And then that would, um, allow us to, to take a day at the end of the school year, the 23rd. Um, before I go into the proposal, be the way the calendars are set up, we, we hold five days at the end of the school for snow days. So a lot of, a lot of the input that I’ve received is, why don’t we just add all the school days at the end, um, and not take away the holiday, uh, the, the vacation periods. Um, what we need to remember is that if we steal all the snow days for makeup days due to the strike, and then we have snow days, I have to back the snow days somewhere. And those will then go into the, uh, likely the April vacation too. So regardless of, you know, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul to make up the 10 days.

1:07:20 So I just wanna be very clear about that. So, proposal, I’m calling proposal B would be the same Monday, the December 23rd, the same February days, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21. And then this would be the scenario where I would do the five days at the end, the 23rd of June, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th of June. Uh, the, the caveat to that proposal is if, like I just mentioned, if there are any snow days that need to be made up, we’d have to bump ‘em back into the April vacation. So we could potentially preserve the April vacation. But if we have snow days before April, if we’ve already moved our extra days that we have to make up to the end, we’re gonna have to bump the, those snow days into April. So either way, we’d have to pick up the April vacation. Can we Share this on the screen for people? I don’t have it on the screen. I’m sorry. I didn’t, I didn’t set it up that way. I’m sorry. Um,

1:08:06 It’s on the drive. Can we I did, I dunno if she, did she put it in the drive? I can sh I mean, I, it is, I’m, I If you could pull it up. That’s fine. I’m sorry I didn’t Yeah, if you can Pull it up, Allison. Sure. That’s Actually, um, yeah, then This sharing is not turned on. Um, I think I made you co Oh, I’m gonna make you co-host. You should be able to share your screen, Allison. Okay. Um, and then this scenario would also include moving graduation dates. So if, if we steal all the days at the end of the school year as, as makeup days for the 180 days, um, by statute, we would have to move the graduation days because by statute and law, which the commissioner cannot waive, even if we say, mother may, I, we have to have 168 days of instruction prior to the graduation. And the other way to look at that is you can’t have the

1:08:52 graduation earlier than 12 days from the last day of school. So right now, graduation is slated as June 6th. Oh. So if we did the proposal a, some combination of that, we would still be fine. If we did proposal B where we’re bumping those days at the end of the school year, we would have to move the graduation. We can. That’s, that’s a non-negotiable. We would have to move it. So I want people to understand that piece. Um, so those are the two proposals. The alternative to those proposals would be potentially looking at some Saturdays. Um, I didn’t put it on the proposal. Um, I wanna be cognizant of our Jewish community. Um, and obviously we can have that, we can have that conversation a little bit more. But I, I, you know, I personally didn’t think that that was a great, great, um, place to look to grab some of these, although it could be.

1:09:38 So I just, um, I think that’s open as an alternative. But I, I, I just, I wanna be mindful of, of that. Um, when I talk to other communities that look at that very similar, um, ways to make up today, we, we just have a limited time we can do it. Um, and I know, I know there’s families, I know there’s staff that have vacations, et cetera, already planned. Um, again, this is, this is a consequence of, of, of the strike that we all have to live with. And, um, you know, once we get through this school year, we’ll get back on track with a a, a typical, um, a typical school year. Uh, someone also asks about the PD days. We already stole the one PD day. There is a PD day at the end of the school year after the school that, um, um, the, the, the, the union, um, utilizes as, uh, you know, it’s supposed

1:10:24 to land the last day after last day of school. Um, so, you know, we could potentially talk about that. But, um, that’s one of those things where contractually, at this point, I don’t think it, I think we’re still working off the old contract where, where we don’t have the, I don’t have the control over that day yet. Um, but I’m willing to have that conversation if people want to have that. Um, Allison, Can you just blow that up a little bit on your screen? Sure. Sorry, Please. That’s okay.

1:10:51 Doing okay, chief,

1:10:54 Does that help? Yep, that’s great. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. Okay. So I appreciate that, Allison. So that, so those are the two proposals. And then I talked about the alternative of possibly grabbing some Saturdays now to the school committee. I think, um, the discussion decision is do we vote one of the two proposals? Do we vote one of the proposals? Do we vote part of a proposal? We could potentially do the December 23rd in February and hold on the other five days that we need to make up. I, I would leave that up to the committee to have a discussion and decide. I have had a lot of input from staff and community members, uh, via email and phone calls. Um, if the question is did I do a survey? I did not. I have not had a chance to, to, to do that, um, based upon, you know, kind of catching up after the couple last couple weeks.

1:11:41 Um, but I have had a lot of input and I, I take that input to heart. There’s a lot of conversations about can we use the minutes to make up? And that’s why I talked a little bit about that at the beginning of the answer to, that’s no. So, yes. So we’ll open it up for discussion, Sarah. So I thank you for making that phone call. ‘cause I had called, I know I had called and asked you to do, or we talked about that earlier in the week, and could we possibly get a combination of days and minutes? And unfortunately we can’t. Um, several factors are factoring into the this and the bottom. The bottom line is there is no good path through this. Like, those vacations are meaningful, they’re good, they’re, they’re breaks that are needed for our community, for our students, for our staff. There is no path through this that is not further harming students.

1:12:26 So I, I, that’s just the reality as far as utilizing Saturdays. We have heard very strongly from our community for many, many years about how strong, um, the Jewish community is in our, is in Marblehead. Um, and how important it is for us to respect that. And I think by, by having, um, my holidays is different, ask them, this is not a meeting with the public, it is a meeting in the public with public. Ask them, Sarah, just keep, keep going. So we could ask them. Jonathan gonna ask you to please, we have heard we we’re deliberating we discussing this, we have heard from many members of the Jewish community who have asked us to keep their Sabbath day free from classes.

1:13:13 We have heard that. So that is weighing on me. Um, also, it is not lost on me the idea of moving graduation. Um, and which would mean they booked the prom, that that normally is a very ceremonial week where they have the prom and the different events that lead up to graduation. And that would be chopping a lot up for those students who have already lived through covid, I I believe, their freshman year. And, and I think they’ve had enough harm done to their high school experience. So what I will say is another big factor for me is the, the testing these kids have to do, um, whether it’s the MCA or the AP test, because of when we start in the school year here in Marblehead, we’ve heard the last two years from parents, um,

1:13:58 once we’ve released our calendars, that it’s putting their students who are taking AP testing at a disadvantage from the peers nationwide. Some schools start in August, um, other districts even locally start before us. So those kids are getting fewer days of instruction prior to sitting for those tests. Um, and if we were to not meet those days till the end of the year, that would be five fewer days of instruction these students get then everything else. So because of that, um, I, I would recommend that we go as horrible as it is with proposal A. Can I, um, I have my hand raised. Can I Yep, Go ahead Allison. A question that may not be popular opinion. That’s okay.

1:14:44 Um, I’m used to that. Can we, can I, I like the enormity of this whole thing is, is bigger than I think anybody probably watching or in the room or whatever could have ever dreamt of anybody living in this town could have ever dreamt of. Um, it, what is the requirement for us voting and making this decision today or in a week or next meeting or what have you? Or could we put together literally a one question survey? Sure. We can keep, give comments if people wanna make comments to, um, you know, proposal A or proposal B for, for the parents, not the community,

1:15:30 but for parents, um, and teachers. Sure. Um, to, to vote on or to provide input on, because this is a, this is 9000% a lose lose situation. There’s no winning proposal here. There’s no winning option here for literally anybody. So I’m thinking from the perspective of, you know, being transparent in communication and valuing the input of our parents. Okay. We put together a quick survey, put it out there, one question proposal layer proposal, be sure give a comment section if we want, although, you know, can’t necessarily be included in the data results and, or, or we do include it. And I’m happy to do all of the work behind the scenes to gather that data and put together the analysis because I think it’s that important before we vote.

1:16:19 So can, can I just, can I just respond? Um, I don’t think that that’s a bad idea. And I’m hearing, I’m hearing that people, you know, would probably prefer to have some, in, some more input than, than we’ve gotten, um, just unsolicited. Um, I was trying to make proposals because people are getting really anxious about what that, what the year’s gonna look like. I get it. Um, so I didn’t, you know, I don’t wanna kick the can too far down the road, so I’m Not No, and I’m not, I don’t, I don’t wanna give him weeks. I want, you know. No, no, no. You have three Days. Yeah, no, and that’s, and that’s fine. But I think then perhaps if the, if the committee wants to go that route, which that’s, that’s up to the committee and find, you know, do whatever we want, um, I think that the very least we need to vote the, the December 23rd because that’s right around the corner. Um, and, and, and, and discuss it.

1:17:06 Um, you know, there’s a lot of conversations about skipping the February vacation and starting with the April and then the five days at the end, and that’s not gonna give us any ability to back up the snow days. So, um, that as a proposal was not on the table. So I just wanna make clear that clear as well. It won’t give us any, any ability to do snow days, but Yep. Uh, hearing from the community that, you know, asking about the Saturdays might not be a bad idea and maybe asking for input on the proposals. Um, but again, it’s up to the full committee to decide whether or not we wanna, um, you know, wait, and then we, we’d have to vote at the next meeting on the 19th, but Wait, wait, hang on. Um, Brian Al

1:17:48 right, I’m not really sure if we run a survey, how that’s going to represent what’s needed for the district in order to be able to make up these days. If B says that we’re banking on no snow days, then it’s really a non option. So there’s only one option on the table, which is proposal A. So I’m not sure why we want to do a survey on top of that, because really, Well, I think the one about B is that parental Input because parental input matters. That’s why. Yeah. But also, Brian, sorry, go ahead Allison. Sorry. No, I mean, we either wanna be, we, we either want more communication and interaction with our parents or we don’t. And, and if this is an opportunity, I understand totally on

1:18:34 December right now, John and I understand the enormity of this and needing, you know, to, to, for people to be able to plan. Um, and I understand the proposal B means if we have a snow day, we do have to bump back and take one in April. I think we can make that abundantly clear and still get the answer from the community. That doesn’t mean we will necessarily go for it, but we will have their feedback, which has been one thing that they have just requested time and time and time again. Yeah. And just so you know, I think proposal B says we, yes, there are schools on December 23rd school on the four days in February. And then by April we will know the end of March what our snow day situation is.

1:19:19 And if we’ve had snow days, we will then need to vote to have school during April vacation. So it’ll be sort of a last minute, am I right? Right. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. So it doesn’t mean it is an option, it just means it’s gonna be a last minute determination by the end of March. We Said parents need to be aware of that. Obviously we’re, we’re giving them all this information and when we write out the survey, again, I’m happy to do all the work on this to get it done because I feel it’s that important. And when we write it out, it will be very clear. Please note there, there could be the possibility of a last minute decision if we have snow on April Fool’s day. I mean, I, there’s, you can’t get around that.

1:20:06 I Think. Yeah, I think voting on December 23rd makes sense as John suggested. And then, yeah, let’s, let’s get some input, more input around the rest of the, the, uh, the, the two proposals. So what I think I heard John’s suggestion or possible suggestion at the beginning was December 23rd and ‘cause everything includes all of February break as well. What’s up for grabs here potentially is April great break. Mm-hmm. Um, so, so what John had suggested at the start of this was that we vote potentially to approve the change of dates of December 23rd, February 18th, 19th, 2020 first, because those, those don’t seem to be a variable here whatsoever. And then those final, um, five days we can look at following that,

1:20:52 Which could be a combination of Saturdays, if that’s, if folks will choose that or, and or part of April break or, and or at the end of the school year. So it would leave us a little latitude if we did the five days that we know that we really don’t have a lot of wiggle room on. Um, and I think that gives our parents understanding that February break is school and our staff that February February’s break is school. And, um, you know, they can plan accordingly. One, one factor for the Saturdays as well is we have staff members who, if we were to say Saturdays legally can put in for religious observance, whether they say ahead of time or not, they will not, they can. And we could be left with no substitute teachers on these

1:21:37 Saturdays because we have a significant, uh, number of teachers that could take a res religious observance On Saturday. And the, the other thing I think, you know, aside from the religious observance, I have to, I have to get with Kent Wheel and look at our athletics, um, you know, our athletics, uh, calendar too because, you know, clearly there’s a lot of games and stuff that fall on Saturdays, you know, practices, games, possible tournaments. I’d have to look at that. I don’t know how far I already has stuff scheduled, but you know, kids are certainly be, if they’re gonna chose choose between basketball or coming to school and we know what they’re gonna choose. So I think, you know, we have to look at that as well. So there is well we also have coaches. And coaches. Yeah. Yeah. So, So can do we, what I’m hearing is the five days, so December 23rd, which I fought so hard for to not have to work.

1:22:26 That’s frustrating. December 23rd and February break, can we vote on that tonight? And then can we do a survey that asks about the two options and also asks the question about how people feel about Saturdays. Just again, so people feel and understand that their input is valued. And then in, in two weeks at our next meet on the 14th or whatever our next meeting is, I don’t even know the date right now, 19th. Um, we can present the data. I can present the data and, you know, that Makes Sense. We can discuss it even further and, and have that, Yeah, we might also wanna, um, It also, it will also provide people the ability to kind of take in this information and, um, provide their, their public comment, which I’m sure they’ll do anyway.

1:23:13 Um, One thing that I think feel, felt obvious to all of us, ‘cause we’ve all had this conversation, I think with John, but may not feel obvious to the community right now, is, um, there is a full intent, I don’t know if we’ll be begin at this meeting or at a later meeting, to suspend the attendance policies for students during these periods so that students and families can travel without any damage to the students’ grades or anything like that. Any work that would be done during those periods would be asked, um, through the administration to be made available for students easily through our various platforms, whether it’s Google Classroom or other platforms that are already in use so that students and families who have pre-existing travel plans or engagements can do those, um,

1:24:00 with an excused absence while still having access to, to the, to the, that material if, if it’s during the Breaks. And, and I think, I think, um, we didn’t have the full breadth of the conversation. So I think part of that is we need to balance, balance that conversation with making sure we’re not just giving car blanche to say, don’t bother sending your kid to school. ‘cause these instructional days are important. So, you know, when I look at attendance stuff, it’s, uh, it’s not that it’s not important for everybody, but high school, when you’re looking at, you know, um, credits and you’re looking at, uh, eligibility for sports, if they’re not missing certain days, I think we really look hard at, at that piece and then see how it makes sense for the other district at the other schools. Um, I am definitely willing to, to, to look at what that might look like. Um, because I think you’re right, Sarah. I think there’s some, we have to give some sort of, um, you know, some sort of flexibility there.

1:24:47 Um, and it may be just a combination of, of what that looks like, um, what our policy looks like and what it could look like or something in the middle. So I should say that, say I, I am prepared to suspend the policy during that period. I, the other four, I would agree to what they want, but I’m not, I am not going to penalize students for this. Um, Agreed. Okay. Um, so I mean, I, the survey makes sense. I would like, I would hope that we could make some of the explanations, and again, we don’t wanna make this too unwieldy, but you know, John, why we didn’t, you know, why we have to take the February week. ‘cause I know a lot of parents are probably thinking, well, that’s the one I may have had plans for before the April, but there’s reasons that, so I think that has

1:25:33 to be a part of the survey. Right. And again, just a couple of quick sentences around why it’s not a proposal. Yeah, I think I, I’ve heard Allison say that she’s willing to, um, to formulate the survey so she and I can speak, um, to each other and just kind of, um, craft that. I think you, you’d be willing to do that. Yes, Allison? Absolutely. Yep. We Could do that. It could Be like a narrative or an explanation. Yeah. And if that’s will the committee, you know, Allison, I can touch base tomorrow, early next week and get that out to folks, and then we can go from there. Then the, the only other thing about around the Saturday question is how do we process those answers, right? ‘cause you know, it’s not going to be a majority perhaps, or, you know, does, I mean, it’s a religious observation. I, I feel that we shouldn’t, we should honor that. Mm-hmm. Well, you have to Versus, so I don’t know if I’d make

1:26:20 that part of the survey if we’re uncomfortable having school on Saturday that puts specific people, you know, in, in a position where they can’t attend And we won’t have staff on those days either. Yeah. Some staff who will, who Will, I wasn’t trying to make those uncomfortable or, or force anything. Same thing. I I am a religious person myself, so I, I wouldn’t, that wouldn’t, would never be the intent. Al I’m just looking. Yeah, I understand. I’m, I’m didn’t mean to intend that, so Yeah, no, I didn’t think so, but I just wanna make sure that I make that clear, um, for people that would be writing about this. So I, I think it’s, I just was trying to make sure that we, and we can explain, um, also in, in the narrative for it. Um, I just wanna give, make sure that our parents,

1:27:06 and this would, would be for parents, not community at large to ensure that they feel heard and it may not be a majority. And who I, I we don’t know what the feedback that we will get. We don’t know what people will select, but we are at least giving them the option and at least hearing them, listening to them and able to present. Um, I’ll do the Excel analysis and present it back. Um, I, I just feel it’s that important. Yeah, I think we have, we have, I think the 19th is the next meeting, so we have time to get that turned around. I didn’t have time to get a turned around for this meeting in any way, shape, or form, so, great. No, no, no. Yeah, not, not expected at at all. I hadn’t even talked about it with you. So sorry for bringing it. So I, but I, I, I’m happy to do as much of the work to take it off of other people because I understand what it’s like right now.

1:27:53 Thank you. Thank you, Alison. So I will make the motion to make Monday, December 23rd, February 18th, February 19th, February 20th, and February 21st, school days.

1:28:09 Just gimme one second. Do I have a second?

1:28:14 Second by Brian. So motion by Sarah, second by Brian. 1223 to 18 to 19 to 20 to 21 of 2025 to be school days. Um, any other deliberation or discussion? Okay, I’m gonna call for roll call Al Williams. In favor. Brian OTA in favor, Sarah Fox in Favor. Allison Taylor Is gut wrenching in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. So five to zero And we have five more days to still make Up, and so we will plan to, um, go forward with the survey, hopefully get those results back by the 19th because we, you know, we wanna get that in before we break for the winter break. So folks have an idea of what we’re talking about. Nope. The expectation will be that there, you know, maybe can have a five day turnaround time

1:28:59 or I, you know, we’re not, not, it’s, it’s just gonna be one question it’ll take people 30 seconds to, And it’s for parents, obviously it’s not general community and staff. Yeah. Um, parents and staff. I’m sorry. Yes. And staff. So I think, uh, Allison, is Tuesday, uh, Tuesday a reasonable turnaround to get that out? Yep. Okay. I’m actually not sure it should be for staff. This, we really need to make this about the students and the students get, didn’t get to vote to put themselves in this situation, I think, and neither did their families. So I actually feel strongly that this should be students and families that vote how they pay the price. It’s never Been about the staff, Sarah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, great. Um, okay, so we’ll move forward with that and we’ll have that on the 19th. Are you all set

1:29:45 Since I met my obligations under chapter one 50 E. You, I would like to be rejecting be excused to allow the school committee to thank you. Conduct its business. Thank You. Appreciate it. Thank you. Have a good night. Pleasure. Thank you. Um, okay, we’re now moving on to the contract approval. Uh, this is for, uh, the approval for the Marblehead High School, uh, roof, um, for the, um, design portion, specifically for the design portion, um, with Raymond Design Associates, um, as part of the high school, um, roof but not repair, roof replacement, project replacement. Um, this contract would be with the school department, I guess, which is why we are approving it. Um, so any contract that we have, we need to approve.

1:30:31 So I put it in the Dropbox. Um, sir, I don’t know if you discussed it at your facilities Subcommittee meeting, did Mike, um, shared a proposal with us and he actually has reached out to us since the meeting today to ask if he can schedule, um, gene Raymond design as well as left field to come in and do a presentation on the process. Um, more than meat of that discussion will come under the subcommittee and liaison updates. Um, but There Is a full proposal, um, up under the tab, I believe for today’s facilities meeting from, from Jean Raymond Design, um, showing, you know, the scope of the project in various success. So, so can I just, yeah, can I speak to it a little bit too? Um, so this is just for the contract, for the design of the, of the things not the whole roof. And I think, um, what’s important to know is, uh,

1:31:18 MI Mike Ping had already presented this to the select board as well. So they’ve already, they’ve already heard, um, and they, they agreed as well. So today it’s just really to, to vote to accept the contract design and, um, like Sarah said, the, the, the information’s up on the website so you can look at it, um, kind of what the full scope will be, but this is just for the design portion of the, of the project. Okay. I just wanna make sure People understand it. So I just want also want folks to know that the, um, contract for the design portion of the roof, um, includes basic services, which is a total of $400,000. And there are two reimbursable expense items that are an allowance. So I believe that usually means if it’s needed, it, it is over and above the 400,000, which would be $10,000 for a moisture scan of the roof

1:32:03 and $15,000 for an HVAC review of the existing equipment. So that is the, um, scope of this, of this contract that we’re being asked to approve. So I’m gonna ask for a motion and a second and then we can discuss or deliberate if anyone has questions or comments. So, can I get a motion to approve the contract with, um, Raymond Design Associates for the Marblehead High School roof replacement? So moved, moved by Al Do I have a second?

1:32:37 Second. Okay. Um, questions, comments, deliberation. So, gene Raymond, for those who did do not know Gene Raymond designed, designed the Brown school and worked on that project left field, who the OPM was also the OPM on that project. Um, I will say left field does a very good job of running a Titan ship, keeping costs tight. Um, we came in 1.4 million under, um, our estimates on that project and they did a very good job. Um, and they, they have a history of working with Jean Raymond and, um, no. Any, any areas of concern that they, they can stay on top of

1:33:22 Ryan, Al, Allison, any, I mean, I don’t, I don’t see in the Dropbox, but I, um, I guess I’m sure they did a great job, but the fact that we’ve had a plethora of problems at Brown too, um, including like second week after the kids moved in there. I just am. So that would give me a little bit of pause. Uh, that’s all. Do you Wanna want me to speak to the RFP process? Yeah, go ahead. So the, this is, this, this process is an RFP process. So when we went out request for a proposal, um, it’s the, the company’s chosen by their, you know, their standards and what they, what they bring to the table. So it’s not, it’s not like a low, uh, it’s not lowest bid with an RFP. So they, they, um, were chosen based upon their ability

1:34:10 to provide the services. I know that there’s some concern with, uh, what, what took place at the Brown. Uh, we’ve already had those conversations. I was actually in the meeting with Mike and the, um, RDA in, um, left field when we talked about the roof. And, uh, we shared all those concerns right up front. Um, I am a hundred percent confident that, uh, Mike Ping, our finance, um, assistant superintendent, finance and operations will be right on top of, um, our facilities manager and the two companies as we move through the process, um, to make sure that everything is what it should be moving forward. Um, so I, I’m very confident that we’ll be able to move forward with the high school roof. Um, and when we get to that conversation, um, you know, we, we, we have, there’s a lot of different parts

1:34:55 of the roof conversation that we’ll have, have to have, um, while we get there. So, And Allison, I, I brought up some concerns. I had, um, what I am confident is any pitfalls that occurred on the previous project were supervision issues. And I am very confident that, um, Mike Ping can, can oversee this project, um, completely and he knows of any concerns and, and I think is, is equipped to handle it.

1:35:31 Um, I, yeah, this, I mean, my concerns aren’t against, um, Mike, and it certainly wasn’t against Michelle from the prior administration. No, that Wasn’t the supervision issue. The issues that we had committee, the Mike Plink isn’t gonna be able to know whether the field is built. Right. They couldn’t use the field for the first year they were there, so. Yep. Um, yeah. Uh, Sorry, I just have a question around the full scope around what this may include is still a little bit in, in flux, right? It is. And we’ll get more into that into the subcommittee, but his design, so this is for his design work. His design work will be the same no matter what, no matter. Okay. That’s my, so regardless of the proposal, this would not change. Yeah. Okay, Good. His design work is his design work. Okay.

1:36:16 Um, this, the, I think that’s where there’s a lot of misunderstanding in the community when they think of a, a roof project. This isn’t, you know, calling Rehan Roofing and just getting a new roof. The square footage and the cost of this triggers many, many hurdles that need to be jumped through, through both mass general law and just replacing a, a roof on a square footage such as this. Um, we needed to have an OPM because of the, the value of it and so on and so forth. Um, and we’re required on a scale this large to have a full scale set of drawings, um, by an architect. So that, that won’t change no matter what avenue we go. Okay. Thank You. And, and the good thing, and Mike Lin’s, an M-C-P-P-O, I’m an M-C-P-P-O,

1:37:03 I believe Steve’s an CPPO. We have, um, mass, um, procurement officer mess, We many in the district. Yes, we have, we have a lot of eyeballs on it. So, you know, talking about how we go through the process and all the checkpoints, um, I know Mike’s been involved with different, um, projects. I’ve been involved with roof projects, window projects, um, in the past. So I, I’m pretty confident between all of us, um, there’s gonna be a lot of eyeballs on the project ‘cause we know, you know, uh, some of the issues that have been had already in this district. So we wanna make sure we’re spending the money, we’re doing it properly and everything’s done right. I just wanted to share that. Alright. I don’t, I don’t, is it in the Dropbox because I don’t see it here. It Is, it’s, it’s, uh, I forget its title. It Should say 12 five Contract. It should,

1:37:49 I think It starts with, uh, N-P-S-S-C 12, you Know, and then the date. Oh, that’s it. Okay. Yeah, it didn’t lend itself to that at all. Sorry, that was Fault. I, sorry, that Was financially I’m not worried about it. Oh, there it is. I’m not financially is the financial part of it obviously is a concern. Please don’t take this out of context, but just operationally knowing if things were done properly, sorry, it’s my mom again. Um, knowing if things were done right o operationally, like, you know, Mike and John aren’t gonna know if a field had was, was level and had the right amount of fill and, and all of that. So that is, Well, I mean, Allison, that was a clear,

1:38:36 someone signed off on it without walking it, that that’s what the field was. And and this is just design right now. This isn’t even construction conversation. So those construction conversations will happen down the line. This is just the design piece. So I just wanna make sure we’re keeping it separate. Yeah, I Mean, I mean away. It’s the will of the committee. It’s fine. I’m all, but this, this is my opinion on my concerns. That’s all. All right. So I’m gonna call for a roll call vote Al Williams. In favor. Brian OTA in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor, Alison Taylor In favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. So that’s five to zero for the approval, so I’m gonna go ahead and sign that. I can do that tonight or tomorrow on, um, electronically. Um, okay, I’m gonna move on quickly to, um, I just had an item in regards to the charter committee meeting. There is, um, a committee,

1:39:23 actually Thatcher probably could have stayed and explained this, but there is a committee, um, that was formed. I believe it’s a subcommittee of the select board, um, that is pursuing the, um, idea of, of a charter for the town of Marblehead, which would be something that would go before town meeting to be approved. Am I understanding I’m not by, I am a complete neophyte in this, is that it’s, um, it is uh, basically a descriptor, um, if we adopt it of the, of, uh, the bylaws and the rules of how sort of things work in Marblehead, including elected and appointed boards. Yes. And, and their role. Yeah. Um, and that a charter, if a charter were to be adopted, but that would be the sort of go-to playbook for how we function, um, amongst our,

1:40:11 our boards elected and appointed. So the charter commission, um, the charter, the town charter committee has been asking, um, each of the elected and appointed boards to come before them and answer some questions, um, as they determine what will be presented at town meeting. So they asked the school committee, uh, they asked me and the entire committee if we, um, are able to attend, which, um, every meeting they had was on the night of school committee meeting except December, um, 12th, which is next week. So I agreed to go December 12th. Um, and any of the members of the committee that would like to go and attend with me are welcome. I just need to know if we have a quorum. I need to post it as a meeting, um, Time with you So you will, okay. Mm-hmm. Um, so just

1:40:57 before anyone decides the, the que, so what I wanna say though is in my conversation with Amy Drinker, who’s chair of this committee, some folks might know Amy. She was previously served as chair of the Blate school committee. The school committee. Really our board and pretty much everything we do is governed by state statute. So a charter committee, a charter’s not really gonna have much effect on the school committee. Um, you know, there’s some things that they, you know, boards might under a charter, potentially change a board that is currently elected might become appointed. Things like that. None of that really pertains to the school committee. ‘cause we have, um, we are governed by, exclusively by STA state statute, but she still thought it makes sense, would make sense for us to come before us. So the questions that they’re asking, just so the public knows and the committee knows, um, does the current structure

1:41:45 of your department allow you to effectively deliver services to the community? Does the current budgeting process effectively meet the needs of your department? We could probably spend a couple hours talking about that. Would you suggest any restructuring or realigning of your department? Any other suggestions? So we don’t have a ton of wiggle room in there, but I, I think it is, we have an obligation to go before them and, and have this conversation. So I’m asking the committee if you would like to join. Um, Sarah said she would, you don’t have to decide tonight. Just if you could let me know, um, hopefully by tomorrow. So then if I need to post, I can, I can post for that. Okay. Thank you. Um, and I can report back or we can report back. Um, I think it’s probably a one-way conversation. We’re gonna answer their questions and 15 minutes. It’s more, it’s my understanding too, ‘cause I was in on one

1:42:31 of the conversations, the charter committee. It’s, it’s just really to kind of describe each, each, um, department and how it dovetails with the things. So it’s probably more how does the school committee operate? How many members are there, what’s the voting process? How, how long are the terms? So that, that could be part of the, the charter. Okay. Less, less, less. So like Yeah, which Amy probably could Yeah. Come onto the other side of the table. That’s My understanding anyway, Based on her experience. But, um, anyway, so I just wanted to let you folks know that. Um, so let’s move on to subcommittee and liaison updates. Um, who would like to go first? Do you wanna do facilities? Sure. So we had a FA facilities meeting this morning and it was live streamed. It’s available on the, um, on the YouTube channel. Um, we were given a, the district-wide facilities update. Mike Ping went through a list.

1:43:16 Um, there was 32 items that were to be accomplished in this fiscal year. As of today, he had checked off 15, which was 47%. And Todd actually informed us that one of them is, uh, the wind window replacements over at the brown school from the two shattered windows is happening tomorrow. Oh, good. So as of tomorrow we’ll be exactly 50% through the list. And I think we calculated we were at 43% through the fiscal year. So that was, that was good. Um, we talked about the roof project. Um, left field, as I said, left field and, um, genere designs would like, has asked to come do a presentation to the facility subcommittee, which we’re trying to book. Um, that will be a public meeting as well.

1:44:02 That will also be YouTube livestream. Um, so that’s to the subcommittee, not to the school committee. He had asked Subc to start with the subcommittee and then, um, potentially we’ll bring it for forward further. Okay. Um, we talked and explained to the public a little bit about the process of the, the roof. How it’s not just calling Tray on roofing and getting a new roof. How there’s a pro a a rather drawn out, um, process with the, the request for proposals for the OPM, then the request for the proposals, bringing on the architect, so on and so forth. Um, what really has come back is through the process of going up there and getting on the roof and quoting. It has come up that our HVAC units are at the end of their life expectancy. And it’s expected that in the next six months

1:44:47 to three years, all those units will need to be replaced. Um, apparently the, the salt air, our proximity to the ocean has, is causing rapid deterioration of the units more quickly. Um, and there was some discussion about how the new units would need to have special coating on them to kind of help with that. That salt air. Um, the, there’s multiple options that during the presentation they’ll get more into and explain the, the pros and cons of, but essentially, um, if we did the roof project without doing the HVAC units in the next six months to three years, they would then be breaking through the membrane, therefore avoiding the warranty of the new roof to as

1:45:35 to replace units as units need to be replaced. However, if we replace all the units now that was not part of the roof project, that would be additional monies that would be needed through probably some type of debt exclusion. We did talk about, it’s not guaranteed it would be needed through that. We don’t know where we are in the budget process. We don’t know where the town is in a town wide override. If there’s multiple options that I’m not gonna get into all of right now, but, but they range from pyramid override potential. You know, no override is always a potential depending on the will of the voters, um, bond or doing an override now for the amount we know

1:46:20 that we need in year four so that we don’t have to do consecutive yearly ones. And, and all of these have complex, you know, downstream effects. Um, but one thought is it, it there is the potential if it’s, if we do the override now and we, and not all of those monies are needed in year one because it’s incremental increases that that amount could be used towards this project in year one. Therefore, you’re not paying interest fees and bonding. You’re paying as you go. But, but there, there’s, that’s so far down the line. The first step is really deciding if we’re going to do just the roof now or if we’re gonna do the roof and the units. So that, you know, that will be reported out, um,

1:47:07 with some information at the next meeting with recommendations. Um, the, we, we were able to get some updates on the high school greenhouse project that Tyler erp, um, provided through his Eagle Scout project. Um, the final pieces of that, the electrical and the plumbing and things are happening now. I believe there, they’ve worked with, um, the fire department to get an okay on some propane, um, going in there to be able to heat as well. Um, and that project should be a full closeout and full up and running, um, by the first of the year. They’re trying to align it with when Tyler ERP is home from college so that he can be here for the opening of that. Um, as well as I believe his Eagle Court of honor. Um, the, uh, capital planning projects,

1:47:54 we’re gonna be talking about our next meeting, um, the school owned properties. It is the recommendation of the facility subcommittee that we, um, sponsor an article to give coffin school back to the town. And then it is the town’s decision what the next steps are for people who kind of don’t, what would like some information on how that works. We’ve heard a lot of sell coffin school and use the money to fund the contracts. That’s not how this works. We don’t have the authority to sell buildings. We have the authority to give it back to the town. The town then has the authority through town meeting to decide if it will sell it, repurpose it, or what next steps will be at that point. The town sells the property, the money goes back into the general fund.

1:48:40 And as has been our practice here and is quite frankly the practice in the majority of municipalities that I know of one time funding through the sale of properties goes back then to fund capital projects because you cannot, or you should not use one time funding or one time revenue to balance reoccurring costs. That’s kind of what got us into this pickle financially as far as using over-reliance on one-time funding IE free cash to balance reoccurring funds. Um, so that would not be the idea that we’re gonna sell that and it’s gonna go back to fund contracts that, that just simply is not how town, uh, any municipal finance works. Um, so that’s our recommendation. Um, we’ll ask Jen that you work with Thatcher Alicia to see, um, if they need us to vote a warrant article

1:49:29 or to place a warrant article if the select board will do that. I know in the past when we gave Gary back, the school committee itself, um, sponsored a warrant article, but that mechanism is easy enough to figure out and, and we can take that vote. Sarah do. Should we make a mo do we need to make a motion here around starting that process? It, It’s, it’s not really, it’s actually not a very big process. What it would be is when Jen finds out if we’re sponsoring an article or not, we would take a vote and if we’re not, then we would take a vote to at least have Jen notify. But yeah, my understanding is that the vote that we would take initially is to, is to, to take the property to no longer, we don’t, we don’t need it. It’s surplus property and we don’t need it. But that vote does, will need to be taken And that should be listed on an agenda rather than tonight. Yeah, We would want to have that on agenda

1:50:16 and, um, there may be public comment Yeah. As well. So that gives an opportunity for, I just, I want, we need to keep an eye on the, um, calendar just because if it is a school committee warrant that we need to have that done by the end of January. But I already spoke, I’ve spoken to Thatcher And can you find out the timing from him because ideally we could have it at the next meeting, the next meeting’s on December 19th. I think in fairness to the public wanting to possibly make comment on this, we might wanna, if, if time allows, have it at the first meeting in January so that people getting ready for the holidays and stuff do have time to access that information and comment on it. Yep. Um, and then as far as Eli goes, we talked about, this came up in the facilities subcommittee about two years

1:51:01 ago actually, the idea of doing some research on an early childhood learning center. Um, we, we have great early education programs here in Marblehead. Um, there’s always wait lists for them. It is one of our largest revenue streams. And as I said earlier today, public education should not, You know, be a business. However, given our current fiscal climate, we have to expand on every revenue stream we possibly can. Um, and so if we could expand that program, it would help stabilize our budget. And more importantly, um, early childhood education really is the building blocks and the foundation for our, for our students.

1:51:48 And research has shown access to that benefits kids a lot. Um, John spoke about how many, many districts do this. Um, there’s been some talk to about whether or not Universal pre-K will become a mandate, at which point we would be required to do it, whether we have the capacity or not. Um, so the committee has asked John to work with Lisa Marie to talk about, um, to get some more information on programming that she feels is appropriate for our district. Um, and then also to look into possible grants out there for a feasibility study for this. And, um, we’ll have some more information back on that. Um, did I cover it? I think in the meantime, Eli has got that is has a couple

1:52:34 Years. Oh, so Eli is actually still currently in use. The, the library still has some items in Eli. Um, quite, quite a few items unfortunately in Eli. So John’s been working with the library administration to get their items out. Um, the Town Archives is, has, um, partnered with the schools and has been storing some of their, um, things there. And then under the MOU with Park and Rec, um, they have requested to have access to the open gym space as overflow space as well. Um, and John is in the summer. In, in the summer and John’s working with them to, to for that to work during times that work for us as well. Um, and be a good partner with them. Yeah. Sorry, I think the only other thing was

1:53:19 in case there’s a need for meetings in December. Oh yeah. Maybe having someone re you know, temporarily replace me during that time. ‘cause I will be out of, out of the country for several weeks. Okay. Um, this is for Facilities? For facilities. I think Just for the facility subcommittee. I, I, it definitely should not be permanently, but I think where we do have these, this work to continue, um, I would ask for a motion to, um, temporarily reassign or I’ll make a motion to temporarily reassign

1:53:50 Who, who wants to do it. Well, I was Gonna volunteer was gonna volunteer because it’s, you have served on that committee prior. Yeah. Um, and it’s very, it’s, it’s very temporary till you’re back in mid-January. Early or mid-January, January maybe just a couple meetings. Okay. Um, And I’ll try to attend as many as I can, but I, I’d rather put this in place just in case. Okay. I’m not able to to attend. Okay. All right. Um, so Do We need to, there’s a motion Seconded. Okay. Any questions? Any deliberations? Right. I’ll call for a vote. Al Williams in favor? Brian Oda in favor? Sarah Fox in favor? Allison Taylor in favor? Jen Schaffner in favor. So hang on. Vote. Um, five to zero facilities

1:54:40 adding gen chef. No, temporarily. And what we’ll do is we can just converse if you’re, because we would not be able to have three of us. That would be a school committee quorum. Right. So we’ll just make sure. So yeah, We’ll make sure there’s All, either one of us are there as a quorum with Sarah. Okay. Got it. Yeah. And I think Jen will just, the default is you. Yep. Unless, yep. I can and I’ll let you know. Got It. No problem. Okay. Um, okay. Um, other subcommittees, Brian? Well the communication subcommittee’s gonna pass tonight because it’s getting late. Okay. We have a bunch of questions. So, uh, and the, we’d prefer to do it on the 19th, the next. Okay. Alright. Now That’ll be a full Al’s not gonna be here though, right? Yeah, but I’ll be, I you okay. I’ll try, but if not, I’m fine with Brian. You’re okay With it representing the committee? Yeah. It Okay. So we’ll do that on 1219. Okay.

1:55:25 Um, policy subcommittee hasn’t met, although Allison, hopefully we’ll have an update. Hopefully by the 19th we’ll meet on this. ‘cause we’ve got the school committee goal we gotta work on. Yep. Um, what else? Any other sub safety? Did safety meet? Uh, Not since last. We, we report out last time. I, uh, we didn’t hold the last meeting. We have another meeting scheduled in a week or so. I can’t remember, but it’s coming up. Okay. mid-December. Um, the goals subcommittee, you guys did a great job. Um, is that gonna be an ongoing, probably subcommittee, just as we talk about how we report on both superintendent goals and school committee goals, are you gonna continue to meet, do you think? You mean are we gonna update? Yeah, I mean, but as the subcommittee, is the subcommittee gonna meet to do that or? I don’t think, I mean, I’m happy to, but I don’t know that we intended to.

1:56:11 I thought it was just a, I think, I think from my goals, I’m gonna report out midway through and then we’ll do a summative at the end. Okay. And I’ll do, I’ll do some updates in between somewhere when I get there. Alright. Did I miss anything? And you’ll report out to the whole committee John, like during, Correct. Yeah, I’ll do, I’ll do, I’ll do updates at some point coming up and then we’ll do a, a midway, like a sum, a formative, and then a summative. So let’s keep that subcommittee in existence. At least the goal subcommittee for some reason something needs to come up. Yeah, we just leave it in the Okay. In abeyance. Got it. How Put that big word for eight o’clock. Okay. Um, any, did I miss anything? Did I miss any? Um, Cpac. Cpac I was traveling when the CPA meeting was on, so I didn’t attend it. Okay. Are they monthly? Yes. Monthly. Okay. They’re monthly. Okay. And Medco did, has

1:56:57 Anyone Al, Al, Al Cage and I met, um, and we had, we had a, a preliminary discussion and uh, you know, trying to talk about some, some of the upcoming, um, you know, opportunities maybe. Yeah. So I meet with Kaia weekly. Okay. So I, I’m gonna chat with Al a little bit and have to do some of that by proxy. I think just kinda having conversations just to see what’s going on with metco. Um, Not to put you on the spot, I’m sorry. With for information I didn’t tell you I was gonna ask for ahead of time, but can you tell us a little bit about how we were making sure we were meeting the needs of our, our METCO students as well during the past month? ‘cause I know, you know, you talked about food services was available I know at three locations in town, but drove how making sure that our Boston Students were, we had a driver. I, I want to say, um, we had two, at least one if not two different drivers driving in every

1:57:43 single day, um, to Boston to deliver the food. And we did it at Meco headquarters. ‘cause we thought that would be the best way for them to get there. Um, and then towards the end, like, um, we did like a, like right before the holidays we did like a, a bigger drop off. Um, and it was, it was really well received. The first, first we first couple days was a little bit slow and then they, you know, got the word and we were dropping off, uh, a ton of food there. So it worked out really well. The families came and accessed the food at METCO headquarters. It was great. They, they, um, they, they were appreciative of it. Uh, CAIA was a part of that as well. And then Millie, the head of metco, that Was nice of them to allow us to use their Yeah. Worked. That worked out really well. It’s, and it’s essentially located, you know, the, the, the, the me you, the families can get there fairly readily by, um, t and stuff if they need to. Okay.

1:58:29 Thank you for that. Sure. Um, okay. New business, any announcements, requests, anything? Anyone have anything in new business? Okay, great. And there’s no correspondence to report on, so I’m going to ask for a motion to adjourn. So moved. Hey, Sarah. Second, second, second. Uh, uh, let say Allison. Okay, Brian, uh, um, uh, l Williams in favor. Brian Oona in favor. Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor in favor in Jen Schaffner in favor. Five to zero. We adjourn at 8 0 1. John dpi, I apologize. And I think a l or, and there were two people, um, sorry I just adjourned us, but I’m gonna read adjourn, reconvene us. Um, we had two people had hands up who I think I missed during open con public comment, so I’m wondering if the committee is, is the desire

1:59:15 of the committee to allow folks who I missed to speak? I’m okay. I’m so, I know there’s John dpi. I thought it was, is it? I Yeah, there was. Yeah, it was, yeah. I don’t know if he still let me go look for him. But John, why don’t you go ahead. I’m gonna ask you John to unmute John dpi. Okay. Lemme just get, let’s see if I can get my camera. I’m sorry guys. Oh, You don’t, we’d love to see you, but you don’t have to. Alright, Lemme, I’ll just leave my photo up. Um, I be, uh, so I, I, I did want to make this comment at your opening statement and, uh, I apologize. I was fumbling a little bit with my hand and it was going up and down. Um, I just wanted to make a comment with respect to, uh, the, the, the events that you referenced over the last few weeks.

2:00:02 Uh, first of all, I will take issue a little bit with the committee language in describing the events as a strike. And I understand as a group, um, we’re trying to move past all of the vitriol and I think it’s responsible of the committee to try to downplay the fact that this was an illegal strike. Uh, I’m a, I’m from a family of team of, of teamsters. I, I’m not, I’m pro collective bargaining, but when civil servants, like our first responders and our teachers take a job on the condition that they do not disrupt the community and engage in an illegal strike, they, they, they need to take that seriously because of the disruption it causes.

2:00:47 We just spent what, 20, 25 minutes talking about whether or not you were going to be canceling, um, vacations, how you’re going to juggle snow days to make up the time, uh, that, uh, was missed in school because of the illegal struck. The MEA, the MTA in concert with the BTA in Beverly and the Gloucester Teachers Union made a coordinated and concerted effort to use the children of those communities. And as of our community, as bargaining chips,

2:01:26 It was that behavior that led my family to decide to move our child out of the Marblehead High School and into private school. Okay. That’s not, I believe there will be other families following. I know there are other families following that I know for a fact because a friend of mine whose, whose child is transferring also just transferred yesterday, uh, at a public school, was told by their admissions department there, there are 77 0 marble head families now moving away from the public school system to private school. The behavior of the MEA as a citizen of this community, in my opinion, was not advocacy for its members. It was agitating the community

2:02:12 and the rhetoric that the MEA disseminated was dangerous. And it culminated in that scene on the evening that you, Ms. Schaffner and you, Ms. Fox had to be escorted to your vehicles by a, by two police officers. It was that evening that another police officer went to go check, as I understand it, on another school committee member’s home to make sure that that school committee member was safe. The rhetoric was dangerous and the vitriol and agitation was unforgivable.

2:02:49 Not only, uh, is that, uh, is that behavior unforgivable, however, it’s going to be something that people remember. We discussed at the very beginning the fact that there’s going to need to be an override discussed and voted on a town meeting. And then on the ballot, I speak only for myself, but I can tell you that I’ve heard from a large contingency of people independently who feel exactly the same way that I do. I will be very hard pressed to reward that behavior.

2:03:23 I believe that if there’s any chance of of, of any additional tax funds coming to the school department, it will only come, it will only have a meager chance, a meager chance of pa of passing. If the MEA officers, John Van Sally, Hannah Hood, and Allison Carey, who was on the Zoom, and I hope she still is, issue a issue, a sincere issue, issue, a sincere In life Issue Schools And, and, and this is the behavior I’m, I’m addressing right now. This is the behavior I’m addressing right now. People cannot conduct themselves.

2:04:10 They owe this community a public apology.

2:04:16 You guys cut him off. You cut me off. John, if you could just wrap it up in the next seconds, wrap it up. The individuals who cannot contain themselves now Comment. So,

2:04:29 Okay, go ahead John. This is exactly, No, my hand was up all this morning during the nine o’clock. John, You could just wrap this up And you’ll Him back in. That’s not right. Juror wrap this maybe. Go ahead, John. Unbelievable. Just wrap it up final. I am, I am, I am wrapping it up. But I will wait until the people who wish to shout me down, I don’t can behave themselves. You’re Already adjourned. Did you not? You already adjourned, John. Long enough. John, shut up. Thank you. A Thank you. This Is not, she Called it back. I called it back into order. You wanna your own rules and policy. John, thank you for your, uh, thank you for your comments.

2:05:14 Thank you very much. Thank you for all of your service. Thank you’re at human meetings and you were not. Treat it as such. The committee to listen to. There’s one of the person’s cancel this. Call the meeting. Okay, I’m gonna go adjourn us at 8 0 8. Adjourned. You already adjourned.