School Committee: January 15, 2025

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

0:04 okay so I’m going to record it to the cloud and then I will get it posted to the website something happened with that live stream it might be because it’s well I usually use this laptop so I don’t apologize for that thank you thank you Kate thanks for reminding me there um and US said you’re all set okay appreciate it um Renee Keeny you see your hand up yes welcome yes thank you much uh yes Renee rire is Keeny to Beverly Avenue um I was here uh back in August 14th to offer comment on the proposed flag policy and I’m returning this morning in hopes uh that this committee who very patiently listened to the many comments that were made that day I’m hoping that um uh you know that

0:51 you have uh taken that uh feedback and reconsidered the draft policy I’m here uh not just for myself but also on behalf of the students who um would have been here had uh you’ve been able to schedule this meeting during the day uh of course there in class numerous students did speak up sharing their concerns and contributed constructive feedback in the fall of 2023 in the winter of 2024 and two of the students who spoke in August um um Marin Potter and Nina Johnson continue to survey students on this issue and I understand from them that there are many students who will be planning uh to speak at the next school committee meeting as well as others who

1:38 have written comments they’ll speak for themselves at that time and for now they have asked me to relay that the overwhelming majority of students believe that this the decision regarding the flying of flags or banners should rest not with the school committee but with professional administrators the principal and superintendent in consultation with students they feel strong that those in the school building have a right to voice how they choose to create Express and nurture their sense of community a restrictive or preemptive policy takes away a valuable earning opportunity for students to have a dialogue with classmates their teachers and administrators about why and when

2:24 any proposed flag should fly even though the final Arbiter might be the principal and superintendent students could have a chance to think critically critically and from an education lens it can be an important Developmental and and experiential learning opportunity I do of course agree with your wording that it’s important that any flag and Banners quote reflect the Mission Vision and values of the school district unquote students would also concur with that very appropriate wording and criteria it is the mission of our school department to Foster an environment of belonging and acceptance your words if students want to fly a pride flag or

3:10 junen flag those should not be Beyond consideration our vision of a 21st education should aspire to prepare our students for the extremely diverse world that they will live work and compete in as for values yes let’s do rally round our flags that signal and emphasize values which strengthen our common purpose as a school and the community we aspire to be whether it’s an Earth Day flag pride flag American flag Marblehead Festival of Arts magicians Spirit Head Festival of Arts magicians Spirit of 76 or black lives matter flag in a time of too much division meanness and conflict let’s demonstrate that marblehead’s not afraid to emphasize a little more Community common values

3:56 human rights compassion it’s okay to signal that our schools are a welcoming safe place for for any student to feel they can contribute and learn thank you thank you thanks um uh Nyla du du I’m gonna hi Nyla hi can you see me can you hear me yes we can yes hang on one second Nyla M your microphone

4:47 37 okay so there are a few things here um lost her I don’t know who just spoke but thank you for laying that out hearing uh a recap of what the student are think because a lot of us have missed a lot of these meetings n you’re going mention give us one second here here

5:27 okay sorry Nyla we’re just having a little technical difficulty hang on on

6:03 is it on my end or on your end maybe yeah you’re cutting in and out which is not we’re not really sure why it’s not coming through online either weird uh not coming through your

6:23 line it’s not coming through online either y we heard you yeah we’re we’re trying to work on that just give us a second yeah okay

6:36 headphones headphones help let’s let’s try that Nyla let’s try that

6:56 Nyla no we’re not trying headphones or oh there you go it’s just delayed but NE I just tried

7:06 headphones cuz I have a couple others but I just used that

7:16 um I’m Jo my phone can’t hear anything you’re going in and out is what the problem is I’m not sure um if the folks online can hear you sure um the folks online I mean I can try and log in from myone yeah why don’t you try that that might help let’s see yeah why don’t you try

7:44 um like I’m going to recess the meeting for one minute see if I support get support okay

8:16 progress hold progress hold on have to un

8:49 better okay hold on it

9:06 this oh there we go can you hear us anybody can you hear us yeah so can you hear and see me I can hear you okay we’re good yes can folks online here like can someone give us a thumbs up like I see your camera on can you let us know if you can hear and you can hear um Nyla as well okay

9:35 there you go all right we’re good yep okay cool um sorry about that it must have been my computer anyway so values okay so we we were just talking about values one of the things that’s really important to understand is that not everyone values or not everybody sees the same values in those particular symbols one the things I’ve taken issue with this entire time with the flag debate and even the one that’s on the sidewalk in the town outside of the information booth is that these symbols are what some people believe speaks for everybody and that’s

10:24 just not true um you can’t I mean that that would be like saying every blond haired blue-eyed German in 19 1942 was a Nazi like that’s just not true you can’t say that the um you know that I mean what you can’t say that the pride flag stands for every lesbian or transgender person and you can’t say that black lives matter whether it’s the organization or that symbol or that flag stands for every black person um that was printed actually in the Marblehead current and it really upset me because it’s I mean it’s just their that organization does not I do not share the same values and

11:09 so just from that premise we have to ask whether or not our school district or our local government but since the school district is part of the government should be in the business of mandating values and telling people what a good idea is or what a bad idea is I mean really we should be talk to kids about the marketplace of ideas how to you know fight for your idea right I mean I’m not saying that any kids should not have any um should not uh want to fight for what they believe in the question is whose voice is it right so when you put the pride flag in the lunchroom or the black

11:56 lives matter flag in the lunchroom is that area designated for the kids is that that does everybody have the same understanding that that is the students voice and not the school district’s voice um and I think that’s really the fundamental issue here because nobody’s trying to take away the students Free Speech but we also need to explain to them what that means and I know it’s not just in Marblehead but across the country we have a lack of uh education in Civics we have a lack of Education in liberalism and in Enlightenment ideas um which is what this country is founded on right I mean we’re founded on um you know equality for everyone now I know some

12:41 people you know take issue with that and say that they think that America is not an equal country but we also have to remember that without 1776 in the Declaration of Independence we would not have been able to end slavery okay so I mean these are really important Concepts and I think selling that to the public selling to the public the idea that we need to teach kids how to have these debates and how to appropriately and respectfully fight for what you believe in while also being able to accept that others may have ideas that you find quite frankly abhorent but in America that’s okay

13:27 that’s the whole point of the project and if you want to live in some place that where you know the government and the schools get to mandate what’s a good idea and what’s a bad idea then you know maybe America’s not the place for you I hate to say it but like that’s the bottom line here I don’t think the school or the district should be in the business of mandating what’s a good idea because at some at some point you know we’re going to have detransitioners coming into school right kids who were caught up in something like I mean I’m not saying that you know being transgender isn’t real but some someone’s going to come in and not want to see that flag and you have to be able to support that kid as

14:15 well yeah I can’t see I just need you to this up because it’s been a little over three minutes y okay wrap it up thank you I’m done you y

14:32 are over the 15 Allison spoke a little bit in there so I’m over bit no that’s okay um I’ve got one more hand with Chris Brule Chris are you there I am yep thank you Chris Brule 212 West Shore Drive uh I actually unlike Kate I will belabor the point that I think it’s uh this is not a this is not business um like the roof this is not business related to budget this is not business business related to other things that students are not intimately involved in yes they sit in schools with leaking roofs that affects them this is business that students have an a personal stake in whether or not we believe there should be Flags whether or not we believe there should not be Flags the

15:18 students need to be involved in this entire process holding meetings at 9:30 on a Wednesday when students cannot be here is inappropriate thank you

15:32 thank you apprciate the opinion okay that is all right great thanks everybody appreciate the public comment we’re gonna move on to school committee protocols now

16:13 okay all right do we have Reverb no we’re good okay all right can everybody out there hear us yes great thank you thank you okay thanks Jack um okay we’re moving on to school committee protocols so this Allison was one of the goals that we had for the school committee for this year um I print I took the opportunity to print out the current school committee Protocols of which we have I think seven pages of protocols um under various categories do were you part of this you weren’t part of this to to put this together so it seemed um so that’s so that’s one thing um and then I did also pull off best practices for protocols

17:00 and effective School Comm meetings and these are sort of um norms for protocols and how we would set our protocols so my question to you and there’s a and just so everybody knows what she’s talking about with goals is we had our we always set school committee goals and one of our goals was to review all of our policies and protocols just in case you didn’t come that and know that um yeah thank you um so we have there’s a worksheet um that’s involved with this I supposedly it’s supposed to help us you know sort of um Whittle this down so my question to you is um how do we want to proceed with this we could work with masc we could work with Alicia um we could just sort of try to bang this out

17:47 ourselves I think the my understanding in terms of the goal is to try to stream this a bit and make it um um a little bit more um concise and focused now the categories do consist of you know who we represent how we govern how we treat each other how we communicate how we will improve what are the limits of our Authority and currently that’s what this is and what happens when things go

18:20 wrong a lot of things happens when things go wrong um items under those so I um don’t yeah I don’t that’s not part of the the recommended masc includes how we govern this is what I recall from the past too how we govern how we communicate and how we improve so there were a couple of other subjects that came in there and I think that there’s a couple of things probably from the how or what happens and things go wrong that can be incorporated into how we govern um because that that is part of governing is what happens with things not be its own section yeah I don’t know what the Genesis of that was so what are your thoughts um I didn’t think we’re g do this today this was just you know like what’s our sort of

19:06 plan I I think that you and I could do it and then we could um bring it you know not I mean it’s it’s long but it’s not 70 pages so I think that we could do that it’s always wonderful to work with Alicia I I just don’t know what timing what availability she has so maybe looking into the availability with alici uh Alicia is a representative from MC folks that don’t know um she’s wonderful and it would be great to work with her on this um and get her thoughts and experience on it I just don’t want that to delay progress okay and okay so why don’t we do this then um and maybe we could do both we could you know work on it while we wait to have a meeting with her and then we could show her our suggestions rather than showing her the

19:52 older version and saying what do you think maybe we work together to uh improve upon it and then ask her for her thoughts and then that would maybe give us a little time to do that okay you know assuming she you know she’s not going to be available you know tomorrow or next right okay so I will get in touch with her find out her availability I think that’s probably a good idea so maybe what we could do is what I’ll suggest is before our next meeting maybe we each of us go through this right come back to meeting that and maybe even take a stab yes there’s also a you know a million obviously million there’s 300 and some odd school districts that all have operating protocols most of I just did a quick look of search on you know a handful of of um districts around the

20:38 state and a lot of them I think almost all of them pull from this document um and there are suggestions from MC under each of these categories um and I think what they’re saying is you don’t necessarily need all of them because they have samples here but you can see when you go to different school districts that uh yeah school districts that they they have pulled you know f on these generally what I saw generally was anywhere from like three to four under each category you know so so really you’re looking at maybe a total of you know 10 to 12 yeah um versus you know we’ve got quite a lot um so I think that makes sense so why don’t we before the next meeting you and I just go at least go through this I’ll send you the link to this um we can come back you know

21:25 with it um and then I’ll find out her availability and if she if we can find a time soon that she can beet we could probably just have her come in and try to bang it out or we take an initial stab at it and then have her come in and help us fin it so and I think the process would be we would draft a set of protocols that we would present to the school committee yeah and then absolutely you know deliberate so it’s you know obviously it’s also possible that what we present to them could change yeah um for sure um you know what we have public comment at the beginning and then we do our and then at the end after we adour the meeting if we you know I I have to stay for the meeting so we can chat for a couple minutes afterwards thank you um okay so that’s

22:10 what I will um I will do you and I will finish that I’ll send you the link um we’ll take a stab at kind of whittling ours down and then we will um do a working session next time oh

22:26 I um okay planning for policy review all right so this is just got a bunch of stuff here so John sent us did you did you you got that email from him so just to have a little history here um for our policies the last full policy review that took place was in 2018 I was part of that um and prior to that it had been 10 years since the policies have been reviewed so we actually contracted with masc in 2018 to come in um with our then field representative and we reviewed it as a subcommittee it took like 16 months um because we went through every single one it was it was a huge huge project we had we had so many outdated policies it was it was crazy um

23:13 I’m not sure that we need we’re at that at that point right because I think we we did that and I think that there’s been you know some some ongoing review of it but masc does put out policy updates throughout the course of the year so um there have and I went back what they’ve got online goes back to 2020 and um so there’s a lot of and I printed this out um there’s a lot of policy that are that have changed and I don’t know whether we’ve updated ours or not um so that’s something that we need to be working on the ones most recently given to us yesterday was from John was the um updates from this year yes which include they generally not exclusively

23:59 but generally around the title number L um and civil rights um and and sexual harassment and discrimination so policies for all of these there’s a little bit of confusion on this because as John explained to me we have these policies most of them were done

24:21 in in minute uh this one’s 20 oh 2024 all right well that’s good we got that one updated um I think some are back from like 2020 2019 um they were there were changes initially when there were Federal Title 9 UM changes that were put through last year those are now on hold federally however so so those would not go forward however we also have state law that is similar to what the um Title 9 changes were that are now on hold federally so I I think there’s a bit of confusion yes so um I think what I should probably do is put a just send a quick email to Liz our attorney and just you know get her um view on what is the updated on because we

25:09 did um update a few to meet those new title title n um changes that now I’m not sure if those are accurate so um so I can take that on and just get it I sure she’ll send a quick thing back um and that if that’s the case then we would need to review the review them however they’re supposed to be updated and then we would take it um to the school committee for approval my understanding and I’ll get clarification on this that an updated policy is one reading okay and one approval and that a new policy is the three but I’ll confirm that okay um for sure so that includes just so everyone knows civil rights grievance procedure sexual and sex based harassment retaliation and retaliation non-discrimination on the basis of

25:57 sex non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation um which is an addendum and non-discrimination policy including harassment and retaliation um so that’s that policy and then there’s addendum to it so that looks like that’s one two three four policies okay so I’ll will take on that so then I printed out um the

26:28 23 of which there’s three and then the 2022 policy updates and what I found was and I haven’t gone through to look at ours to see if we’ve made these changes I will do that but for instance December of 23 policy updates were almost exclud they not almost were exclusively around Tech right so it’s here it’s like electronic messaging school committee members data records retention personal use all this stuff so I’m thinking and then there’s two I’m sorry that included School meal policies so I’m thinking that maybe we forward this to one case Steve quiek the other would be John Constantino have them look at that this and say does this make sense to you are we are we adhering

27:14 to this that’s the first question right and what do or do we need to change some you know we’re going to implement this and then we can come back um and we would go through it in a in a policy subcommittee meeting and get it prepared to present to the school right so that’s 23 of December same thing September included um various things like the nutrition program service animals in school um a homeschooling so these are things that I I’ll take this and then there’s a whole bunch of other ones that we should review I’m gonna send these out to John and just gone like the the policy I mean the um subject matter administrators need to be the ones to review this to

28:02 make sure okay same thing with March of 23 all the way back to 22 there needs to be a discussion and they correct exactly the um September of 22 update included a lot around budget so um that I will also get to um my mic okay so I can I can take that on so we’ve got some work to do this winter and spring okay that’s policy review um flag policy is our next item um I did print out the drafts we did have two drafts um that we did talk about before so I’ll PR this out for you so my question is um how do you want how do we

28:49 want to proceed in terms of going forward with potentially presenting a draft flag policy yeah so I think one of the things that we mentioned uh or that we discussed at our Workshop before kind of there was a pause in the world there for us for a few months um is having a forum to allow the community and our students to um to be part of the discussion they don’t get to make the decisions that’s you know not what how the process works but it is important that they are part of the discussion and that we hear directly from them um obviously

29:34 this there is an effect that this has on them I’m hopeful that we do more in in our schools and if we don’t then we should um to make sure that everybody feels you know included and welcome um but I do think it’s important that we number one keep that promise as someone noted I’m not sure if it was you or someone on um the call but I know there was a lot of confusion in um you know I saw a lot of comments on the article that was posted this was not a meeting for that discussion um and I Know It kind of it took on its own life and I’m not really interested in getting into that back and forth um but what Jen and I are here to talk about is what our process moving

30:20 forward is going to be for this I think we certainly want to honor what we wanted to do and what we discussed doing um at our workshop and making sure it’s a time that works for folks but I also know that it is something that was important to John as well um and I do think that we should do our best to try and schedule that now it’s not the time is not going to work for everybody we’re not going to do it at 9:30 in the morning is for hour working sessions those will continue to be um but for discussions with the public especially when we want them to be discussions and interactions versus just make a comment it’s it’s we’re not talking and and I think um on a number of different topics not just this flag

31:05 policy that’s often one of the biggest problems that we have as you know the not the not talking I’ve been a big proponent of Forums on everything whether it’s Flag or um or recess or budget and so I I think we should look to do that and look to get that set up you know as quickly as possible um and we will have to pick a night and and we understand that students have sports and extracurricular activities and theater and music and and arts and all of those things that they may be busy on that night um and I I just want to be clear that we’re aware of that we’re not going to be able to accommodate everybody but I do think it would be um a really great gesture of increase just continuing to

31:51 increase our transparency with the community to have that discussion with them um and and allow for that discussion it’s important to note that just like with our surveys that we sent out um we were asking or the survey that I wrote when we were questioning what people’s preferences were for um returning to school and and making up those days um it’s not necessarily true that we’re always going to be able to do what folks want um but it is important that we hear that feedback so that is my hope for the go forward I’m I’m still okay with this this being our draft to to start with but I do think that it’s important that

32:36 we hear that feedback and I think that’s what we heard loud and clear obviously folks are here today and we greatly appreciate it um but I think it was our Workshop where we had a lot of people and and again the workshop was not meant to exclude anybody but a workshop by nature is a workshop for the people involved it was a workshop for our school committee um I and I think hopefully we have our FAQ section coming out on our website hopefully some of these things you know understanding why things happen in the morning or what a workshop is ETC will be clarified in there that’ll be good that’s just maybe thought of the work adding a workshop question going through a good idea um

33:22 just so that people understand because it it’s I think often times whether you know people jump the gun I know people always come into things everybody comes into things with predetermined you know results or conditions or thoughts on whether it’s the people the subject matter the situation um and I think what we would really oh um I think what we want to make sure that we are doing is just kind of staying the course incre continuing to increase the transparency into what we’re doing and why um and in you know involving the community whenever we can okay okay great um appreciate all that I agree with all that no that was great um so I

34:15 think um I so a couple things um we did have I believe two or three listening sessions I think you did three um and those were scheduled with in uh in not input with Direction from from the um the principal Dr Carlson um as to the best way to do that so I believe we did uh we did two during magic block which was during the school day and then we did one right after school is my recollection I could be wrong um and we did get um you know sort of a group of maybe anywhere from seven to nine or 10 students who attended and I I was working so I just so that folks know I was not well I think we also yeah we

35:01 also did it so it was not a posted meeting we can’t be together as a forum because we were trying to give um which I think was important was um some um privacy um just given at that point with the recommendation from Dr Carlson so I think maybe what we should do is go back to the administration John and Michelle and just say okay what would be their recommendation for the best way to um to to set this sort of forum up where we will try to maximize the number of students who are um right going to attend that want to attend um you know I’m even thinking about you know during somehow during the school day that whatever that’s up to the administrators to give us the recommendation

35:47 recommendation recommendation but it’s either during the school day or probably in the evening right because after school you know all sorts of stuff is going on so even the evening sometimes the kids are traveling home from Sports you know often times I have to play practice at night so yeah so let me we’ll we’ll that that’s up to the administration I think to really they the and board I remember I don’t want to speak for him I know if he comes he can he can weigh in but um he was on board so he may have some thoughts and that probably should be open I think at that point like I think it should be you know I mean like I think you know the listening sessions ended up being a self- selected sort of small group and got into some you know stuff that um want it needed to remain private but I think this therefore we can do it as

36:33 we would post it as we can post it as an meeting and other school committee members may want to go too right you know so that’s that’s um good point so um all right so I can work on that um and maybe that’s the plan would be to do whatever we want to call that a forum a I don’t want to call a listening session a forum because there may be some dialogue right um and then we and let’s you know from a timing standpoint well let’s talk to Dr Carlson fig but maybe you know by I was going to say before the February break um before the February long weekend um we have yeah we can we can have that done and then we can report you back to school committee what our next steps will be um but we also need to have the you know the

37:19 community needs to be able I think this needs to be sort of a community for too which night yeah yeah to the point of not even 5 o’ would be hard for people that even if it’s Zoom it’s still hard for people that are trying to get home feed their kids or yeah or whatever y um so probably like a six or seven o’clock okay just two you know I am not looking to exclude people but we do have to have the time block around it yep you know um yep so you know a couple hours I I think um would be important and also just to clarify probably said this 87 times if I’ve said it once but I will say it again um the

38:04 reason that we are because there’s again seems to be a lot of misinformation the reason that we are having to look at this and having to draft this new policy is not because Jen and I woke up and decided we wanted to have this difficult discussion um it it is because we were asked by the last Administration um well well no it was this it was um well it was Dr Carlson it was it was yeah and it was Michelle Presta pra as well that you know um that inquired what our flag policy was because they couldn’t find one because we didn’t have one and the the process is when Administration asks about asks about a

38:51 policy if we don’t have one it is the school committee’s responsibility um to in Massachusetts to actually develop that policy so that’s kind of the the Genesis of all of this yep so okay all right so um so we may end up doing two I’m thinking we may end up doing two forums sure yeah one for students y not exclusively but focus on students and then one for the public okay so let’s and that goal should be within the ne you know couple weeks well yeah or may take a little more than that um to get that scheduled so let’s talk to John about that I’m I’m just trying to think about do we do a um the student one we need to talk to um the principal but for a public

39:39 one do we do it like around a school committee meeting or because people are used to the nights of our school committee meetings but then that you know that’s a big chunk of time we could pick a Thursday in between school committee meetings I don’t think it should be with the school committee meeting because yeah those tend to be long anyways I just actually you know when we could do it is if my recollection is my notes Here we originally had scheduled in February February 6th and February 27th because we of the February break now we don’t have the February break so we could and I don’t and we didn’t move a meeting to the 20th we kept it on the

40:22 27th I think that that would be poorly received because oh people will be away um the 13th uh we could uh do the 13th I’m not that it’s end of the world but

40:41 I may not be able to be there I’m arriving back on oh okay the 12 and I think I arrived the morning of 13th so I can’t guarantee how okay we could do it though and um I can just make sure I’m back I just have to check my schedule if I’m back if I haven’t slept in 24 hours that’s all right it’s all right um do you want to set it that tentatively yeah okay let’s do that I feel bad doing that though I it’s fine it’s it’s fine business goes on um School comme Forum okay and that would definitely be a posted open Mee well yeah then I would have to be there yeah that’s fine um as a subcommittee and then if other school well we’ll find out if other school committee members want to go we’ll post it as a school committee yeah because

41:27 they may they may want honestly I think it would be nice to have yeah if I’m being honest I think it would be great to have everybody there because I feel like the community probably wants to hear more than just from you and I um because ultimately we are a group of five and each person will be voting so y That’s good okay so that would be 21325 okay so I’m thinking evening right like s or six probably we changed our meeting to I would say six and I’ll just clarify I got to clarify that with um with the you know the superintendent because I think he should be there um I think the principles may want to be there at least they may want to you know tune in it’s G to obviously affect them so okay all right so that’s good and then we and

42:14 after that we can then go back and we’ll formulate what policy we may or may not go ahead with okay sounds like a plan all right great um student recess policy I mean so me again yeah I’m going to be verose again I’m gonna think of all the different big words I can use um so yeah that’s what I said last I I wouldn’t even know how to spell it but that’s okay um the recess policy has been something that has been important to me from when I ran um I think it is literal crying shame that our

43:00 children do not have two recesses because anybody that is a parent or has Babys sat at child or is an aunt or uncle whatever you might be uh has knows that when a children when a child is able to get the Wiggles out they certainly are able to focus more um you know we have a lot of rigorous work that our students do even at younger ages you know my son’s in fifth grade he had a math test and a vocabulary test last Friday on the same day so there’s a lot that these kids have and those extra 15 minutes outside to say that it has an extraordinary impact I think is an understatement um I I can’t put enough emphasis onto

43:49 it um two years ago I worked with masc um and desie and I asked about the decision so um pre me being on the school committee uh There Was You Know originally it was just removed the second recess was removed for K six our that was before you were on the committee before

44:13 okay um and um then there was understandably um a huge upheaval of frustration and complaints from parents they brought back the second recess for everybody and said they were going to put a committee together and that committee was going to um consist of you know parents community members Educators administrators Etc to determine what the best course of action was I was not on that committee my understanding from people on that committee was that they were very much proe keeping the second recess um it was removed again anyways um stating time on learning was an issue so um obviously I would never want and it is not my place as a school Committee Member to operate ation Ally

45:00 interject around time on learning um and how that is done however I did speak with both masc and desie on time on learning and what Glen um in an exhaustive conversation with him at MFC he shared that there is no policy there is no anything that states waiting in line to go out to recess being able to stand in line quietly not poking the person in front of you being able to change in and out of your snow pants or snow boots for K through three there’s nothing that states those pieces aren’t also considered time on learning um there’s nothing that states you know changing and and obviously as as a high schooler it’s a different situation we’re talking

45:45 about our leads um and I I think even if you look back at at testing scores they were better than we had um and we’re just not there yet and I think that is a big part of it we had kids that lost a whole year and a half um in crucial time periods of their educational and their growth maybe some kids don’t have six friends at home that they learn how to stand in a line and not poke and bother maybe they don’t have that ability um and I think anything that we can do you know the focus is on the students and anything we can do to set our students up better for success is the entire goal of me spending hours and hours and hours away from my child being a school committee member at um for the last

46:31 three years so I know that there were some changes so kind of the Cav here is I know there were some changes with the um the contract now and so to be honest I’m not sure what how that is going to be implemented again it’s not my place to do the operational implementation but I want to make sure that we’re going to have that second recess and I personally am only one of five um one of two here one of five entirely would like to make it a Marblehead Public School System policy that K through six have two recesses permanently um my understanding is with the additional five minutes of starting school five minutes earlier that we will potentially be able to do that um

47:20 without a fight um but that is where I stand Good Very firmly probably in movable okay so um all right so first of all K through I thought we were talking K3 and then 456 would have a recess so you’re looking for two Rec okay um so I think if you look at our testing scores from four through six that is did they always have two recesses four through six I think they did I’ll look back on that I don’t I just I’m gonna I will say I don’t think so I think they always had one but I we can go back and check I think it was K3 that had the two recesses um a short one in the morning and then um you know lunch um and my

48:05 understanding is four five and six had one at lunch and whether they still do or not I think is a they have they have one at lunch okay um but we can we can look look into that um I thought John was gonna join us which he hasn’t he must have got WRA wrapped up in something so I’ll I’ll follow up with him so yes we have in the contract um a provision um that is the way it was written the into the contract that we have signed or we have the memo of understand agreement on is that there’s going to be a committee set up with Ed teachers unit members and administrators to determine the implementation of this

48:51 five minutes starting five minutes early um so it’s not changing the time that the teachers have to be there it’s it’s right now and I could not I may be misremembering this but right now the contract says the teachers must be in their classrooms 15 minutes before the bell rings and class starts so that’s not going to change it’s just that it that um School school’s going to start five minutes earlier so they’ll be 10 minutes they they’ll be there 15 minutes before they have 10 minutes where they’re in the classroom and then the class will start that five minutes can then be operationalized to pick up another five minutes um or 10 minutes throughout the morning that will give them that that morning recess so that committee is um going to be meeting this the remainder of this school year to determine the

49:36 implementation of that to be effective September I don’t want to say September 1 but effective next school started next school year so probably need to loop back with um John and just get a you know just make sure that that that’s happening which I’m pretty sure it is but I don’t know if he I don’t think he gave us that in the update um so I agree with you I’d like to go forward with the policy um and maybe it makes sense for the possibly for the policy to start at the next school year but that or not I mean that’s something I absolutely think it should start at the next school year and I I’m not versus now I think it’ll be harder to start now listen I want to try and be mindful of the amount of work that’s required from a schedule changing perspective but we

50:22 have and even four five and six I would say for different reasons than K through three and I know our K I think K still has to um yeah I think they do sitting on the floor in this this is what we were told by previous administrations well they get to move from their desk and you know your your eight-year-old they get to move from their desk and sit on the floor and I’m like you and I’m not even just about my kid like any child sitting on the floor you’re telling them don’t sit in your chair sit on the floor for 15 minutes versus go run your face off and get the wiggles out for 15 minutes outside get some fresh air and the value of fresh air when you’re in these rooms for so long that have all this returned air and

51:09 I just I think that the benefits are countless and I think we do have students that need to we need to be able to assist our students in learning how to wait in line in learning how to be responsible and hang their coat up and get their coat back and put their boots away and change it to their sneakers those are things that they need to learn as well not that parents aren’t already teaching them of course they are but not everybody has a big huge class of people at home where they have to wait like oh mom has to change my four kids my four siblings shoes before she does mine that that is part of learning and to say that and and I would say it’s a crucial part of learning learning how to wait and if if I think if we can we should be doing what we can to to help again set these

51:57 students up for Success okay yeah no I agree I totally agree um okay so I think that that is the goal is to um get this policy in place before the start of next school year um I will also note for the record that the current teachers contract unit a contract does um it doesn’t mandate but it right it doesn’t even allow I I forget the wording on I have to get the wording it basically says teachers at their discretion can have a have a morning Rec it’s not called recess it has a you know take their students out for an outside break right and that’s what we were told by previous administration as well would be happening routinely when the kids needed it and I’m here to tell you that it

52:43 didn’t doesn’t yeah okay so that this policy would um would in obviously enforce that there’s there’s the two resources okay so I think honestly it will make a difference in their ability to pay attention which is only going to then make you know teachers able to do their job yeah I mean I think and we don’t have Julia here either I think it’s between Julia and and John or the two you know our superintendent and our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning are the ones who are going to have to you know work to help to to implement this um so we will need to to bring them out I do think what their concern is is you know making sure that they’re able to get through all their lesson plans every day but I I think the five minutes I mean John felt confident when we were going through bargaining that the starting five minutes early can

53:29 help will allow for this it’ll be a short break but it will be allowed for a break in the morning for for elementary school students and still maintain um what they need um in terms of of um ability not I don’t mean I’m not saying time on learning but ability to get through all the lessons um I mean I would Advocate that they will be able to get through the lessons faster because the Wiggles are out they won’t spend so much time saying stop please stop okay so why don’t we uh will report this back to John and Julia and just say um you know at our next and we don’t even have a draft I don’t believe so but I can look into that I can look into want that just see if there’s any out there um just in terms of wording I mean again we can we can certainly you know run it by

54:14 the attorney but I don’t think we need her drafting a second re I mean she’ll look at it before we you know look for approval from the school committee and make sure it’s legal but um I think we can probably draft this um so yeah see if there’s any out there and and um at our next meeting why don’t we make sure we have a John and Julia here will present a draft Yeah and um you know the next steps would be to do it would be new policy so we would do three readings um so we would do three readings the first one if we decide to go forward with the draft could be considered the first reading and then we would do two more um and over a period of whatever time I think that we can um however I think again we can run this by

55:02 Liz but our attorney but it’s reasonable for there to be a commencement time of you know fall of 25 school year yeah okay all right good so we’ll plan for that all right new business did you have anything else no was a lot a lot of work to do all right um okay great I am going to adjourn us at 10 I’m sorry 10 38 38 thank you everyone thanks

55:35 everybody sure how long are the recesses currently and how long and do you want them to stay the same length um let me just hang on let me just finish this one