School Committee: April 3, 2025

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

0:00 Awesome. Welcome everybody. I’m sorry. I apologize for the technical difficulties. I’m calling us to order at 5 42. Welcome everyone. Marette school Committee. Appreciate folks coming out and folks online. Um, we are going to take a couple things out. Actually. First, let’s start with the pledge and then we’ll move in there. Pledge of Allegiance, pledges in the back. Brian, do you mind leading us? Thank you. I pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. That would be, yeah. Um, so, um,

0:45 we have our student representative and then we, we were gonna take the, uh, veteran students. Do you want do that right now? Is that comfortable or do we wanna wait till six? What do you wanna do, Matt? Does that work now? Is everybody here? Everybody’s great. Okay. So, uh, uh, is it, uh, the will of the committee to take out of order? So we’ll let the students go Yes. In the, in just to their, they probably have homework last place They wanna be Welcome Matt. Thank You for having us. Welcome. So tonight, uh, we are going to present a couple of what we call cornerstone projects that we do, one in the seventh grade, uh, a science lab, and then, uh, one in the eighth grade, which is both a reading and writing assignment that we do with our eighth graders. So I’m pleased first to have come up, uh, our two science students, Annabelle Cassidy and Jordan London, uh, along with the teacher Tony Callahan.

1:32 They can come on up, take a seat in the campfire area here. As they’re coming up, I’ll explain the lab that we’re gonna talk to you a little bit about our gummy bear lab. Uh, this lab, and I’m gonna read this so I don’t get it wrong, is taught during the cell parts and organelles unit, students are investigating how materials move into and out of a cell using a passive transport process called diffusion. They compare what happens with a gummy bear to what happened in the cell. Students, uh, are also offered an extra credit option of conducting a follow-up lab at home, changing the liquid that the gummy bear soaks did. I’ll now turn it over to Ms. Callahan and her students.

2:11 So we had some slides, but, um, that’s okay. It’s all good. Do you need the slides Though? Are they, can we get them up? That would be awesome. Yeah, no, sorry that was a little informal, but that would be great. Did, Does Frank have Your documents? He does, yep. And if not, uh, please don’t worry. There students be Featured screen. Yep. Diffusion gum bear. Yep. Probably not too many gummy bear mentions here. You know, Frank, is there any way for us to be able to feature the students on camera or on screen? We’re just asking so much. I’m so sorry. Parents. There We go. There we go. Well, Frank’s getting this going. MH tv, what he’s done with our other showcases at Glover and Brown.

2:57 ‘cause they have really good cameras that will show you guys. Um, they’ve sent us links and we can send that on to, um, Mr. Fox and so he Can, it’s kind of cool to see yourself on tv, I think, so he can send it to you and it’s A much better feature in that one. Thank you, Brian. Perfect. Perfect. Okay.

3:21 Mm-hmm.

3:27 Okay. We can just start. Um, so I’ll give a quick background. Um, I think Mr. Fox, you gave some of the background, but, uh, one of, uh, the units in seventh grade is looking at cells. We look at cell parts, cell organelles, and then we move into cell processes. So how, how those things work. So one of them is how do things enter an exitus cell? So diffusion is one of the ways that things enter an exitus cell. So then I’m gonna pass it on to you. Jordan, are you ready? Yeah. You can sit or stand. It’s totally up to You. So I would like to introduce the gummy bear lab a little bit more. In the gummy bear lab, we took a Haribo gummy bear and placed it in water to soak overnight, highlighting how the gummy bear changed in mass alongside the concept

4:13 of diffusion and it finding a state of e equilibrium within the water. Um, the gummy bear started at 3.3 grams and the cup was measured at 6.6, getting a total of 9.4. Once it soaked overnight, the total mass was increased to 4.3 grams without the mass of the cup and the original mass, the gummy bear came out, came out to be 4.9 grams, and I would say my prediction was correct. The gummy bear started with a mass of 3.3, which increased to a larger mass of 8.2. Subtracting that original 3.3 grams. The gummy bear precisely increased by 4.9 water diffused through the gummy bear semial permeable

4:59 membrane through a process called osmosis. The maximum the gummy bear got was was to 8.2 grams, meaning it found a state of Librium.

5:11 So one of the things that they do, awesome. Um, one of the things that the students had to do is not only use the equipment in the lab to run the, so they learned how to use a triple beam balance. Um, they used, we had them use a ruler. Um, so we learned how to use, uh, the centimeter side of a ruler, um, and learned what, where zero was, and the zero and the edge of the ruler are not the same thing. Um, they did a fantastic job with that. And then, um, all students were asked for, uh, to do a lab writeup where they had a series of questions. That was one of the things. So if we have a chance, we’ll share the slides with you so you can see some of the questions that they answered. Um, and then, uh, we offered to some of the students, we used to do this in class, uh, for everybody. But then we sort of shifted some things around this year. So there was an offer to do an extension at home, um, for extra credit.

5:57 And then in a bill that’s you For the extra credit extension, we were asked to change a variable of the original gummy bear lab we did at school. I chose to change the liquid to diet Coke instead of changing the gummy. My hypothesis was if I change the liquid to a diet Coke, the gummy bear’s volume will increase after collecting data by finding the volume of the gummy bear before and after soaking it in Diet Coke. I found that after soaking it in Diet Coke, it grew 5.17 centimeters cubed, which was 2.17 centimeters cubed larger than when I first soaked it in water. This proved my hypothesis was true.

6:32 And then we have, we do have the slides. So this is where we start as a class. They actually, this is actually the experiment we do as a full class leading up to this. Um, we put just a drop of food coloring in a beaker and they watch what happens. And then we, that’s how we start talking about what diffusion actually is. Uh, molecules moving from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration where there’s space. We also have a nice conversation about the dye molecules and water molecules actually aren’t the same thing. Um, and then from here we move into the lab and then we talk about they move from here. There’s some of our equipment. Yeah, go back. That’s a good one. Sorry. I get excited about our lab equipment, um, because, uh, having taught, uh, in a previous school where we didn’t have access to some of this equipment, it’s really exciting for us to be able to use all of these pieces and having the kids use them as well.

7:19 So these two did a lovely job, I would say on the whole, the seventh grade did an incredible job on this lab, um, moving forward. So thank you to both of these lovely students for their work. Thank you.

7:35 Thank You. So you, you heard a little bit about we’re teaching ‘em science, but we’re also sneakily teaching them skills too. These are skills, uh, measurement skills, uh, how to design a lab, how to come to conclusion, how to make hypothesis. These are skills that will obviously carry ‘em through science classes all the way through the graduation here at Marblehead. The second, uh, project that we’re gonna talk about, I’d like to invite up our three readers from the eighth grade and one of their teachers. So, Melissa Bala, June Crawford, and Chloe Steiner. They can come on up along with one of their teachers, Carolyn Todd. So in the eighth grade and seventh grade, uh, students read independent books in addition to core novels and texts. In the eighth grade, the quarter and eighth grade, quarter two, our students selected and read a windows and mirrors book, uh, a mirror that

8:21 that phrase represents texts that reflect experiences and cultures similar to the reader, helping them to feel connected to the book they’re reading. While a window book represents texts that offer glimpses into lives, experiences, and cultures of people that are different from the reader, which fosters a broader perspective of the world. As a part of the eighth grade poetry unit, students write, write, uh, sonnets, which is, if we don’t remember, a 14 line poem written in Iic Pentamer with an A, BAC, d, C-E-F-E-F-A-G-G rhyme scheme. Additionally, students were asked to demonstrate their ability to use figurative language by adding one simile, one metaphor, and one alliteration. This year, students connected the windows and mirrors book to the poetry unit by writing sonnets

9:09 that reflected both window and mirror experience while reading. So I’m pleased to introduce our two sonnet greeters. June, uh, and Chloe and June will start with her sonnet entitled Labels and Truths. One second. Just can we take that off, Frank, that graphic off. Thank you. I You don’t have any No, we don’t have any slides. That Way we can see. We can see there. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. Labels and truths misrepresented. Steve is a hero, helpful and kind in his community. Labeling self below a zero, A hike is equal opportunity. I’m perfecting my lovely little life, always striving to do well in the field, positive never wanting to cause strife. Bring on the greatness and glory. I squealed a kind young man innocently detained

9:56 a bright young lady, free as a bird, and both viewing labels with strong disdain, hoping for a better life. Not unheard. You know when a person’s truth becomes told, you gaze upon a life to behold.

10:15 June, what, what Book did you read? Um, monster by Walter, Dean Myers. Great. And now Chloe read her sonnet. And what book Your sign titled The Other Side. And what book did you read? I read A Night Divided The Other Side, Gita’s Family Split by the Dark Walls. She stuck within the borders of Berlin. Gida sought freedom, but the danger calls yet she stays strong and risks it all to win. I live in Marblehead where I have rights. I go to school and spend time with my friends, like a school of fish that swims day to night. No walls that block us, no one to defend. While I have many rights, Gida has few. She stands and digs beneath the guarded gate.

11:01 Her freedom is a candle burning blue. While mine keeps glistening with greater faith, girdle lives in fear facing oppression, I live with my rights and my possession.

11:18 Now, students also have the option of writing their Windows book, writing about their Windows book for the Massachusetts Center for Books, letters, uh, their letters about literature program. Students write a letter to the author who’s writing has impact them. If the author is living, we also independently send the letters to the authors. In past years, we have receded, we have received excited personalized notes from Jacqueline Woodson, Hillary Clinton Slater, Julia Alvarez, and many other offers. The letters about literature program is also a judged contest. Students can earn recognitions that start at semi-finalist and finalist. This year, just little old Marblehead Veterans Middle School had 10 students recognized as semi-finalists and three recognized as finalists.

12:04 Then hold on. Then the top 10 essays in the Commonwealth go through additional adjudication. And seven are selected as honorable mention, and three are ranked as the top three essays, one, two, and three in the state. This year we had two of the top 10 essays in the state. One student, Sophia, she was awarded with an honorable mention. I’m pleased to announce our other student, Melissa Balla, who’s here tonight, was not only part of the top 10. Her letter to poet Naomi Shana earned her the first place in the entire state.

12:56 I was gonna say, please join me and congratulate, but I’m excited that as you all are to hear Melissa’s letter to her full. Would um, can we give her the mic? Because that’s the Mht mic and I wanna Make sure, do you just wanna slide your chair up next to that purple purse there and we’ll go from there. There we go.

13:24 Dear Naomi Shaha nai, do you ever look out the window of a car and think about how every car passing by has a person in it with their own life and their own struggles? After reading your poem, kindness, I know I do. I take the public bus to and from school every day. I used to walk on with my eyes fixated on my phone, not even looking up at the people around me. Now, even if someone so much has moves or bags, so I can sit, I pause and try to see the story behind each mark on their face and each hole in their jacket. So, so that I can understand the sorrows they have faced that may kindness follow them like a shadow or a friend. As you wrote, I had always thought

14:10 that once someone has lost or suffered, they become cold and trapped in their own grief. But your words made me realize that after dealing with the unmerciful sorrows of life, then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. Maybe that is why the loud old man we used to call crazy talked to everyone on the bus and wish those kids a good day at school. He wore nothing but the same worn out jeans, a sane t-shirt and beat up sneakers. However, he wore his smile, the widest and proudest of all he like a son breaking through the dark clouds surrounding him. Maybe every laugh he laughed and every joke he cracked was an exchange for every night he spent alone. Your impactful words inspired me

14:55 to start learning more about different backgrounds and perspectives so that I could deepen my empathy. Not only has your poem encouraged me to read way more books about people from different places, but distinct experiences, but you have also influenced me to begin asking questions. I started interviewing people over the summer with my friends from Parks to beaches. We would ask strangers simple questions like, what’s your favorite memory? And then we would get to know their complex life stories. We learned about their struggles and the pain they went through that we can never imagine living. But we got to learn about the good times in their life too. I remember this one young man wearing sunglasses and flip flops who told us that his favorite memory was when he was a child in Columbia

15:40 picking fruit off trees and playing with his best friend a dog. He then told us that his neighbors poisoned his dog because they cannot stand. Its sparking. I do not have a dog, but I could hear the sadness in his voice and saw the subtle droop of his face as he recalled the painful memory and I felt hurt for him. We also met a really confident woman in her twenties who shared that she had been bullied all throughout high school and was made fun of for her weight. Although she said she did not love herself, then I could clearly see how much she loved herself. Now, throughout our conversation, she even called herself beautiful, which showed that she overcame her unhappiness by being kind to herself. After connecting with these strangers, I realized that although it may seem like kindness is what brings us together, it is really sorrow

16:26 that makes us feel closer and understand. One another weeks ago, my grandma and I were walking around downtown Boston when it began to pour heavy rain. Unfortunately, the rain was paired with thunder and lightning. So in a hurry to find shelter, my grandma and I ran into McDonald’s. Of course, the small fast food restaurant was packed with people, so there was no place to sit. Then a middle-aged woman with pink glasses and a kind face invited us to sit with her. I noticed her accent and asked where she was from and learned among other details that she lived in South Africa and was only here for her sister’s funeral. You said before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things. That was when I understood why out of all the people in the restaurant, she showed us kindness By inviting us to sit with her from her loss came.

17:12 Empathy through the knowledge of your poem, experiences like these start and mean something more to me. I learned that it’s as if we are blind before feeling pain, but once we do, we begin seeing colors we have never seen before. So thank you for writing the poem Kindness. In this harsh and indifferent world, we can, we can find comfort in our shared humanity. No longer will I walk on the bus with my head down instead, my heart will be open and my eyes will be wide.

17:50 Outstanding job. We’d like to thank you for having us here. And just a reminder, this is the awesome things that are happening in our school on a daily basis. And so we’d like to thank our teachers and more importantly our students who work so hard, uh, in our school. Thank you very much for having us. Thank you.

18:13 Yes. So over here, can we take a picture of everyone over here? I just wanted to note when we, when we tie this together with things that we, we are seeing in different reports throughout the year, we see, you know, an eighth grade student who ranked in their letter writing number one in the state. And we also saw when each year, the last couple years that our, our eighth grade scores are ranking the top in, in the state too, when we might not have been seeing that. So something magicals happening over there at vets and, um, I just wanna acknowledge that, that we’re seeing it cross curricular and that’s really great. So thank you. Um, I wanna thank our team over there and, and thank everybody that’s working towards That. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for bringing them in. Awesome, John. We appreciate it.

18:59 Okay, I’m gonna move on to, um, I’m gonna do the student representative and public comment and then we’ll go to, right. Okay, so I’m gonna move the student representative. Hi, y’all. Welcome. Hi everyone. So at the high school right now, students are okay for their AP exams and just about a month. The exams are fully digital or hybrid This year, that’s quite a change, but we’ve been doing a lot of practice on AP classroom and preparing for those seniors are also getting ready to go on senior project after quarter three ends on the 15th, which is super exciting. We always do great. There’s always seniors doing great things for our community,

19:39 exciting all that they’re doing at the senior project there. In then of May, they have to get signatures from all their teachers to make sure they’re passing all the classes to get approved. Um, senior prompt permission slips are out and ticket sales will be starting the week April 28th. That’ll be at the state realm in Boston, which is super exciting. The National Art Honor Society has a Chipotle fundraiser next Tuesday from four to eight if you wanna support that. Tickets for Culture Feast, which is a super exciting event at our school with lots of music performances. They’re on sale now during lunches. Hades Town, the school musical is being performed April 11th through 13th. So not this weekend, but the next. That’s gonna be really good. I have friends who are in it and I know that everybody’s been working very hard for that. You can buy your tickets now.

20:24 You can and you can get them online. And the all bands and all choral concerts just happened the past two weeks and the All Strings concert is tonight at seven, so you could head over there after this. And also, um, spring sports have just started. All the seasons are kicking into gear. I know that some people have had their first games. Girls lacrosse had their first game last week, and a bunch of sporting events are coming up and everybody’s super excited for the warm weather and getting outside and getting active. Thank you. Thank you Ella. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I’m gonna go grab the sign sheet Commendations. Um, Brian, you’re welcome. Brian, go ahead. I’d like to, uh, give a commendation of Mary Maxfield for the science fair that they held.

21:12 I went to it, it was very, very interesting. They actually had kindergarten kids presenting, which I, as a principal of an elementary school would never have thought of doing, but she did it and it came off really well. The place was completely packed and I was astonished at some of the projects some of these kids were able to do. And I saw Sarah there, so I’m sure she wants a lend and a word here. Uh, it was great. I saw a first grader that made a, um, hydro lift of some sort that worked and it was pretty, it was pretty amazing to see what they come up with. So yes, that’s a great program and the PTO works really hard to help put that on as well. Cool. Definitely. Um, so I wanted to give two accommodations. Um, the first one is to our performing arts department,

22:01 Andrew Scalia, Ms. Mitchum in Julie Frees. As noted, we, we had the band and the CHO concerts already, and tonight is the orchestra concert. Um, Those are no small feat. And in watching what those kids can do, I, I’m really excited. I’ll be leaving to see part of the, um, orchestra concert to see fourth graders who have never touched a string instrument up there. Performing, performing in a way that really comes off very beautiful and very entertaining. It’s no small feat. So, um, I just wanted to commend all those teachers for what they do. And then my other accommodation was for the sports shop, um, in Marvel Head because they, they work tirelessly to get all of our kids, whether they’re on the field, um,

22:46 their co their, their costumes, their uniforms, the fine arts uniforms. Um, and I’m sure I can emphatically tell you that many families are in there the day of, um, read from that, what you will asking them to help get our students where they need to be. And they do, they show up and help our kids with the way they should. So I, I am very appreciative for their partnership. Okay, Great. Anything else? Okay, so I’m gonna move on to public comment. Um, I have a number of folks signed up. Um, I, I have a number of folks signed up. I’m going to, our public comment is scheduled to last 15 minutes. We ask each person to keep their comments to three minutes as part of our policy. So I’m gonna go for the 15, and if there are more folks, if it’s the will of the committee, we can move on or not,

23:33 or it’s, you know, I mean, we have a lot of things we need to get Done to. If we can go back to it at the end after we do do our first 15 minutes, I think that would be helpful for getting through, um, our agenda items that we’ve some timed elements on. Yep. Are you coming back after or No? How did the other members feel about that?

23:52 So that’s five individuals. Am I doing my math right? Well, not everybody has to speak if they Use their three minutes, right? So I don’t, but that doesn’t count how many people, folks online. How many people are on this side sheet? Uh, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 10, 11, 12, 13 People. And that doesn’t include folks online who haven’t solicited yet. So there may, I don’t see any hand raised, but if I solicit, when I solicited, there may be folks online I’m leaning towards, I want to hear everyone who has something to say. Okay. Oh, I think it’s important. I know in the past sometimes we’ve done the 15 minutes and then reopened after we’ve gotten through agenda. Yeah, I’m hoping, yeah, I’m open to that. If people are, as long as we get, you know, everyone who wants to speak, it’s a chance. I’m fine with that. Okay. Brian, your thoughts on that? I’m fine with it, provided that people try not to say the same thing somebody in front

24:39 of them just said, so, you know. Well, yeah, well we don’t have necessarily control over that. Yeah, it’s public comment. So, um, we appreciate that there are a lot of folks that wanna and have and have come and wanna continue to come. So understand that we can all Channel Gary Sp And Yeah. And we all, so why don’t we move forward anyway. And then I’ll take, uh, it under advisement from the committee as we move forward. 15 minutes. I’ve got, um, okay, so I’m gonna start with the folks on, um, not lines, folks in person. Um, I have Jeannie Lampkin.

25:18 Hello. And this is kind of daunting. Should I touch that or don’t Touch it? It’ll pick you up. It just doesn’t. Yeah. Me. Hi, I’m Jeannie Lampkin. I live on Devereaux Street. This is intimidating today. Um, so I have spoken out at a few of these meetings and in brief, what I’ve said before has been to my personal strong belief that we should not wrap our kids in bubble wrap and put blinders on the messages and symbols of the world that they need to see. I would rather see them see the flags, interpret the world, interrogate their sense of how to get on. So what I really wanted to say tonight, um, and, and endorse, um, I guess the, uh, the latest, uh, voice of the teacher’s union. I sort of took a step back and I tried to remember like, this has been going on

26:03 for a long time and I don’t even know if I have this right, but I think the precipitating incident happened in like October, 2023. And I know that you all have taken maybe some criticism for this being somewhat of a protracted process. And I actually caused myself to say, well, what if it’s not? And, and what if the process has not gone on too long? Um, and, and what if instead of thinking, boy, we should really hurry up and get this done so we could put this behind us and tell everyone, sorry, it took two years plus and some of the kids who were here when it started aren’t here anymore. What if you said, well, well maybe the twists and turns and maybe the developments and the the need to think of this, that, and the other thing are a sign that we should slow down what we’re doing. Um, and, and I read the recent, um,

26:51 article about the teachers expressing their views. That’s for them to debate with you, but it feels like another discussion that should be had. So what I would offer to you is when I look at the presence of flags, they are symbols and they are signs. And so they are communications. And in that, anyone will tell you, they also signify culture. And in the policy that you currently are planning to embrace, you are asserting that in elected body will become the gatekeepers of communications and cultures at the school. And I think that is a huge responsibility for a group that meets a couple of times a month who are in many ways doing a lot of work as volunteers to suddenly have to have your fingers on the pulse culture

27:37 lives 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in organizations. So I actually would say, as you think of that incredible responsibility, please don’t make this a bell. We choose and wish we could unring measure three or four times before you cut into the culture of these schools. So ask yourselves, do we actually know what the core stakeholders need from this? Do how, when you look at what the students have asked for, is there anything in the current policy that reflects what they’re looking for? When you think about the teachers who live in these buildings and try to raise our kids intellectually, does the policy reflect what they are asking for? And as you go out in further circles, sure there are members in the community who have differences

28:23 of opinion, but we’re not at the core. So I have my beliefs. I would like to see these kids be challenged to learn and not go out into a world where they say, gee, I’ve never seen that sign before. Gee, I don’t know what that is. I only saw that on the internet with no place in the real world to interrogate what I was discovering. But I only ask you tonight, think about the seriousness of becoming a gatekeeper of culture in these schools before you take the responsibility because we can’t give it back as easily as you could take it on

29:00 Mark Clark.

29:14 Good evening, Margaret Clark, uh, 29 Watford Street. Um, I will speak, uh, first for myself and then my son, uh, asked me to read a very brief, uh, statement from him as well. Um, in addition to my concerns raised in the last two meetings, I would like to address the more recent inclusion of symbolic displays in your latest policy draft. The broad language of symbolic display would include all logos on vehicles, bicycles, clothing, equipment, cell phones, laptops, et cetera. Those logos are all symbols on display. All letters are symbols. Math is taught with symbols. Musical notes are symbols. Lots of the state law and building code required. Signage within your schools are symbols. Young kids, artwork is full of symbols attempting

30:00 to represent real things. How does a student do civics projects? How do students do civics project and envo avoid symbolic displays? All of those items are on display in millions of ways in our schools. Our children cannot be educated if displayed symbols have to be reviewed by the school committee. It is simply impossible. And the broad language is either purposeful censorship or thoughtless. If it were, if it were attempted to be implemented, it would take so long for any approval, the child’s artwork would never get displayed. This expansive language of your policy broadly violates freedom of expression for students and staff. It’s not about, it’s all about suppression,

30:47 not about protection of anyone in the area of free speech. The Supreme Court has said that students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate. You can’t take that away from them.

31:04 Also, cross pendants, childish pendants and yamikas are symbolic displays when they’re born. Are you saying that the school committee has the right to take those away from the students and staff if they wear them to our schools? Do you intend this policy to give the school committee the power to regulate what religious symbols can be worn by a student that would violate First Amendment, both under free speech clause and the free exercise of religion clause. I’d also like to understand what is motivating you to implement such a restrictive policy? Are you acting out of fear or malice towards our children? Is someone directing you to do this? So, so specifically, why do you not trust our children and school administrators and staff? Are they perfect? No,

31:51 but they deserve the chance to express who they are. My daughter tells me that the principal at the high school already reviews documents to be displayed for, for any inappropriate content that might be lewd or disrupted to the education of students. There is no need to involve the roadblock of the school committee. In fact, I read your, uh, q and a section document online that describes the difference between your roles as school committee members and the role of the superintendent and the principals of our schools. Ms. Clark, That’s been three minutes. If you could Maybe Okay. Try to wrap up. Thank you. It says we are non-partisan, yet that would mean non-biased. And this is clearly biased. It also says the school committee does not operate the district on a day-to-day basis. That is the job of the superintendent.

32:38 The town did not elect you to change your positions to administrators yet that is what you are proposing to do. If you have to approve every flag, banner, and symbolic display, you have no right to overstep your bounds of the office to which you were elected. You’re supposed to be helping to develop the best education for our students, not trying to stop our children from becoming who they are, who they need to be to make a community and the government of our future. May I have just one moment to, to read my son’s? Yes. Um, we, uh, your sons. Oh, okay. It’s technically from your son, so Absolutely. Please. Um, hi. My name is Karen Clark, the son of the proud mother speaking. Right now, my thought on this whole policy is what do you think you’re going to accomplish? The mammoth spectrum of what a symbol is is insane.

33:25 I believe the school committee will say that because there are so many symbols, they’ll just never get around to it. You’re taking away people’s warmth of being accepted and stomping down into the dirt. The majority of the people say no to this policy. And when they say no, you made the policy more strict. This outrages me how you put the citizens of marblehead down like that. You didn’t even think about the effect of the student. Um, that is welcomed by the Black Lives Matter and L-G-B-T-Q flag every day. I know this as a student of the Village school and despise this policy. Thank you for my time. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Sharon

34:10 and Howard Rich, I had both names, so I don’t know, are you planning to speak? Okay, welcome. Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind just having a seat, Ms. Rich there and welcome. If you need a second chair. Um, do you want say anything? No. Okay. Um, never does. Um, my name is who Listen. No, seriously. Uh, my name is Sharon Rich and I live at 2 89 Ocean Avenue. Um, I’ve, I’ve listened thoughtfully to the discussion of the flags. And the reason that I have a problem is because there are only two flags that are up for grabs. I tend to think that if there was a, if there were

34:57 a completely open policy on any flag that speaks to a culture that speaks to students who feel marginalized, there might vary definitely at this moment in time, be a Jewish flag or some representation of the Jewish students in this, uh, community. And then by all means we’d have a Palestinian flag because there would be, there would be some pushback against the, uh, Jewish flag. Um, I think that we could go on and on and find that there are numbers and numbers of flags that would represent many points of view and many types of cultures

35:44 and many types of affiliations. And I doubt that there would be room for any students in the school once we got the flags all up where they would, uh, potentially belong. So I don’t think that it’s putting any anybody down. Uh, black Lives Matter. Uh, it’s origins, uh, it’s parent, uh, uh, parent, uh, group that started in California has antisemitism all over. Its, uh, uh, message, uh, mission statement. Um, I don’t, I don’t know, uh, what the gay flag does, but I certainly am sympathetic to gay and trans students.

36:32 I, I, I just don’t know where it all ends. And I, that’s why I think it would be fair if we just had the United States flag and the, uh, Massachusetts flag. And that would include everybody. And the real education and feeling of belonging should come from dialogue in the classrooms. Real dialogue that stresses the fact that hate only marginalizes, that hate causes violence. And I think, I think I’ve said what I have to say. Thank You Ms. Rich, thank you for coming. Thank you. Um,

37:20 I have Sarah Palladian.

37:31 Do I say my address or no? Street? Street? Oh Yeah. Just Hi Sarah P and Ida Road. Um, I am talking today because I know that you guys are gonna be giving a summary about the anti-Semite anti-Semitism, um, investigation. And, you know, I read the report. I definitely am not happy with the findings. Um, you know, I wanna make sure that no matter what the report has shown that, you know, with the history of Marblehead and my husband is the fourth generation Marblehead, um, that, you know, people really do realize that there has been antisemitism.

38:18 You know, there is antisemitism, it’s here. It’s against our teachers, it’s against our children. As you know, both of my children have had incidences at Vets and Charter. Um, we had an incident at our house on New Year’s Eve, where 10th and 11th graders of Marblehead decided to scream out and tell me and my children and their non-Jewish friends, um, that we were dirty Jews and that we should be hung. Um, so no one can tell me that it’s not here and that it’s not in the school because as most of you know, my children’s teachers are showing swastikas. My children’s teachers are pushing, you know, other people’s teachers are showing, you know, systematic racism

39:04 and showing all sorts of stuff that everybody here needs to look at and really open their eyes. And I know a lot of people are going to take this investigation and point fingers probably. Um, but I just want to tell you that the teachers that came forward, the Jewish teachers had a right to speak up. It definitely happened. ‘cause I can see it happening to my family. I can see it happening to many of my friends here. I’ve lost a lot of friends for speaking out in the past 18 months. And what I don’t wanna to see here is that I just don’t understand why. Yet again, we can’t just call a spade a spade.

39:51 There is antisemitism here. There are two Jewish teachers that had to resign and give up their pensions. There is one Jewish teacher who nobody talks to her in class or in school. Not class, but in school. She eats by herself. Nobody wants to be her friend. What is that? Teaching our kids? My daughter’s Jewish. She gets sad every day when she sees that teacher can’t talk to anybody else. So now we have an investigation that’s come out and actually just says, not enough proof. So, you know, when my child comes home and says they’ve had this happen to them, what are we gonna do? We’re gonna tell them. Not enough proof. I just don’t, I don’t understand that.

40:39 And then additionally, I’ve worked really hard six months to bring the movie October. Hate to Our Town. Told everybody here, the whole town knows. I emailed probably over 550 teachers and administrators between Marblehead Public School and Charter. And 10 got back to me, 10 people, 10 teachers, some administrators. And I’m thankful that, you know, even after hounding that people will take tickets and I actually have free tickets that I’ve bought myself in my pocketbook. So if people would like to go, um, but we can just see that that in itself shows that we have a problem here. So I’m hoping that people will realize that and stand up.

41:28 And I definitely think as my kids came to see the movie, that we should bring it in the schools. I’ll buy it for you. Um, because people need to see it and people need to stand up and people need to realize that it is here. Okay, that was four. I’m gonna go one more and then we’ll determine. Um, so I can’t, I apologize, I can’t read this. Is it an Andy Anya? It’s Te Lane, which is my neighborhood. So, oh, it’s, oh, Angus, I apologize ‘cause I’m like, it does not, I apologize. My handwriting is Notoriously, I, I shoulda have been a, a doctor. I’m like, I know him. I Didn’t learn it. I didn’t learn it in school well enough. Um, thank you very much to the committee

42:14 for the opportunity to be heard. First, I wanna commend the teachers of Marblehead for standing up for their own constitutional right to free expression and the right of students to free expression. Um, I think they’re taking an important stand, um, as a parent and a taxpayer. Um, uh, I wanna see schools that are inclusive and welcoming to, to all students and to the entirety of our community. So as you consider the me’s, uh, request, uh, to cease and desist in consideration of this policy, uh, which is exactly what I hope you will do, um, I wanna make sure that several facts are clear to all and on the table. Fact number one, there is no statutory requirement for us to have a policy about flags doesn’t exist. Fact number two, there is no case law that requires us

42:59 to have a policy around flags. No such requirement exists. So this is a discretionary decision on the part of the school committee to either adopt or not adopt a flag policy and what it would look like. But we are under no legal obligation whatsoever to pass a policy at all. This community has gone 250 years and more without such a policy with no litigation, not a single time around the presence of flags in our schools. But tonight I was hoping to really highlight the flaws in the current proposed policy that I saw just shortly before the meeting. There is a clause right at the very beginning, the first sentence that says no third party petitions will be heard.

43:44 I cannot think of a more arrogant policy, but I also can’t think of a more unconstitutional policy than to tell the taxpayers, homeowners, residents, students, parents of Marblehead that you cannot petition your school committee to do something or not do something. It will never survive constitutional scrutiny. I also note that the policy has written, and I’m not sure how it was written. I’ve, I’ve spent 11 years in the state senate, uh, as chief of staff for a senator writing public policy. I’m not sure I’ve seen a policy that is more poorly drafted than what is before you this evening. Um, if it is the intent that this only cover things that are affixed to the wall, and I’ve heard that stated at prior meetings, doesn’t say that it says symbolic, symbolic displays anywhere on school grounds. So that does cover all the things that Margaret mentioned, um, by not explicitly stating

44:30 that it focuses on things affixed to the wall. But what I really wanna focus on is to compare what you have in front of you to the policies that are already in place for the town of Marblehead and for the Marblehead Housing Authority. ‘cause we already have two government entities in Marblehead that have established policies. In the case of the town policy, there is no language restricting third party, um, petitions. In fact, in practice the town receives third party petitions from community groups. Ask the Board of Selectmen to make a resolution establishing recognition of Pride Day or Juneteenth or any other, uh, occasion. And the committee can consider those petitions. So if it is, I, I’m not sure where that language even came from or where the idea came from that that’s required in order for it to be considered government speech. It’s not in the town policy, which was developed

45:16 with a consult, uh, consultation of town council. So if it isn’t there, it doesn’t need to be here. That language also does not appear in the Marblehead Housing Authority policy that is in place. I will note that that policy draws a distinction between, um, the flagpoles and the rights of tenants to display flags in their units, which is effectively what the students and teachers are asking for here. That there be a distinction drawn. This is what’s in the student proposed policy between the flagpoles and symbols and flags that are inside the school building in the teacher’s classrooms in their workplace where they do have a constitutional right. Just So you know, if you could wrap It up. Um, and the last thing I wanna mention is, um, around the, the comparison of the policies. The Marble and Housing Authority policy explicitly has language saying that it does not apply in its applicability

46:03 to handheld flags, banners, et cetera, signs you’re gonna consider tonight using the Marblehead High School as a polling place. You cannot constitutionally say that people who are gonna hold signs within 150 feet of the door, which is on school grounds, have to have those signs approved by the school committee. We have town meeting. In a school building. You cannot tell people that they cannot stand outside of town meeting and hold a sign of their choice to express a message of their choosing without approval by the school committee. So what’s before you is still an unacceptable poorly drafted proposal. Uh, I would urge you to do what the teachers are asking, table it indefinitely and move on to matters that really do require the school committee’s attention. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be heard. Um, okay, so that’s been more than 15 minutes. So do we wanna move on?

46:49 We still have other people who wanna speak. So I do we do you need to make a motion? I would like to make a motion to continue with public comment after we get through the body of our meeting so all parties can still be heard from, but that we can get through our business. Um, meeting.

47:06 Is there a second?

47:11 Just keep doing that.

47:14 Okay, so we don’t have a second for that motion. So normally we move on. So I’d like to know what the committee would like to do. Well the motion died. There was no second. Okay, so we’re gonna, I’d like to make a motion to continue public comment now You don’t need a motion, just the chair Can do it. Oh, I thought she was asking. I am asking what the committee would like to do.

47:36 I would like to continue also. Oh, okay. Okay, then we will move on. Um, I have ya al again. Welcome ya.

47:50 Hi. Thank you for having, thank you for having us. My name is Yel again. Um, I am a mother to three children. My son is a sophomore in high school and my daughter is an eighth grade and vets and my younger one is at Epstein Hillel School. Um, there’s a joke that two Jews have three opinions. In fact, there’s a joke that if you put two Jews on an island, they’re gonna have three synagogues. One synagogue for Jew, number one, one synagogue for Jew number two and one synagogue for the Jews that they will never step in when we were here. In fact, Passover that’s coming up is all about Jewish rabbis sitting and discussing the meaning of exodus, the meaning of life, the meaning of Judaism, each with their own opinion. When we were here in June, 2024 discussing the anti-Semitic

48:39 incidences that happened to our teachers, there was one thing in common to all of the Jewish people that spoke. The Jewish students, the Jewish teachers, the Jewish parent, the Jewish parents, the Jewish residents, the Jewish leaders, and the rabbis. And the one thing was that any investigation firm that will come and investigate the anti-Semitic incidences that happen to our teachers will adopt the IRA definition. The IRA definition simply says that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic. Zionism is simply the right for self-determination of the Jewish people. Every people according to the UN has a right for self-determination.

49:24 You have dozens of countries that are Muslims, majority Muslims, and they go according to Islam government and their Islamic calendar, dozens of Christian countries that you have majority Christian. That goes according to the Christian calendar. You have one Jewish state that is governed by the Jews, one Jewish state that goes according to Jewish calendar, one Jew state that all the Jews will be protected by the government. That is the one thing that we asked for. I asked for John the first week that you came here, my son and I sophomore sat in your, in your, in your in your office. And we said the one thing that we, the Jewish residents are asking is for you to have an investigation that will adopt the IRA definition. Having an investigation firm that does not adopt the IRA definition is as if hiring a firm that does not believe

50:11 that a husband can rape his wife. That’s what we had in the 1980s. It’s as if hiring that, that Furman say, and when, when you have a complaint by a wife saying, my husband raped me. If the premise isn’t there, the conclusion will never be there. We saw, I read, I read today the report, I was appalled. It was a slap in the face to every single Jewish student, every single Jewish parent, every single Jewish teacher, and every single Jewish resident. We sat here and we said, the one thing that we want is the IRA definition. And it’s not because that is what we think needs to happen. It’s because that is the way Jews define antisemitism. Again, how dare you tell us how we define antisemitism

50:56 And even the, the the investigation person. She said that Massachusetts did not adopt the our definition that is wrong. And 2022, our governor, governor Baker adopted the IRA definition in Massachusetts and school committee superintendent. If you knew that that is what’s happening, if you knew that the investigation is not going to adopt the IRA definition, why was the public not told? She even stated that Marblehead did not adopt the IRA definition in its town like Sharon. Why wasn’t that brought up to the public? We could have brought up a motion that the IRA definition should be adopted in, in Marblehead. I’m sure either by you guys or by the public. I’m sure it would be passed by flying colors. Again, another slap in the face

51:43 to all Jewish people in this place. I have been supportive of this town of the school committee of the superintendent. In fact, you and I sat at Dasa organization. If you could wrap up at the Dasa organization that supports Zionism, supports Zionism. I was here after October, um, seventh in 2023 when a parent wanted to, um, to dismiss the superintendent because she supported, um, um, Israel. And she, she, she and she denounced what happened in Hamas. And I said, the only reason I sent my child to the school and felt safe on the day of victim, which basically was the day that they announced that they were gonna go and kill all Jews, was because of that, um, of that statement,

52:29 I do not feel safe now. I do not feel safe in a town that does not define antisemitism the right way. I was shocked when I read the report. I was saddened when I read the report and I don’t feel safe now in my town. And actually I wanna tell everybody I read this at 3 0 5. At three 10 I decided I’m running for school committee because something needs to be done. Somebody needs to protect the Jewish people in our town and to make sure that antisemitism in the curriculum in our households, students, teachers, parents, everybody will not suffer it by people in this town. Thank you so much. Thank you.

53:13 Um, uh, Mary McCarrison,

53:19 Mary McCarrison, 46 Pine Cliff Drive. Everybody knows in this room how I feel that the flag should be able to stay. And Mr. D Pano and I were going back and forth on Facebook today and he brought up that the Jewish flag is not back up. I just audit one. It’s gonna be delivered on Saturday and I will be bringing it up to the school administration building on Monday so it can go back. I think every flag in the world should be up there because when I was younger there was all flags that represented history, geography, and also current events. And I’m not gonna waste anybody else’s time ‘cause they know. But I did bring a gift to donate.

54:07 So if we Can’t have a flag, We can have a doormat.

54:16 And how you’ve sp that Number one teaches number two, Three is administration, and four is community. You are not putting the f the the students first, the teacher’s second, the administrative third, and the community fourth. You’re not doing that. You are just trying to seek power.

54:38 Okay. Um, Emily DeJoy.

54:47 Hi, Emily DeJoy Riverside Drive. First and foremost, I just wanna express my sincere appreciation for everyone here today. Taking the time to listen to one another’s perspectives with respect and open-mindedness. While we have differing opinions on this topic, I believe our primary responsibility is not to debate what is right or what is wrong to display, but rather to carefully consider what is truly in the best interest of all of our children because they are what matters most. I firmly believe that if we allow teachers and students to determine on a case by case basis, which flags are acceptable, it could lead to increased tension, added pressure on educators and feelings of exclusion among students who may not feel adequately represented.

55:32 Our focus must remain on creating an inclusive, distraction free learning environment that prioritizes education above all else. To achieve this, I advocate for displaying only the flags that represent every student, the United States, Massachusetts, and POW flag. If students wish to express their personal beliefs or affiliations, they should have the freedom to do so through their personal choices such as their clothing. However, we should not grant any particular group the authority to speak on behalf of all as this could introduce bias into our schools. By fostering an environment centered on unity, respect, and academic excellence, we can ensure that every student feels valued and supported on their educational journey. Thank you. Thank

56:18 You, Mr. Joy. Um, all right, so I’m gonna keep going through the folks in, in person, then I’ll move to online. Um, Karen, tell Malco, it’s Karen. Hi Karen.

56:43 So Karen MCL Traeger Road. So I’ve read the results of the antisemitism investigation that were posted online, and you know, I echo everything that Yale said. Um, so despite these findings, I know two things. One, the Israeli flags used to be on display in the high school cafeteria, and now it’s gone. And two, the teacher who was alleged to have removed the flag wrote an opinion piece in the local paper where she went on a conspiracy tirade. Speaking of Israeli aligned organizations and attacking the IRA definition of antisemitism, which is, is an internationally recognized framework for identifying examples of antisemitism that have already been adopted by over 30 countries.

57:28 So in my opinion, her letter only reinforced the accusations against her. Now, regarding the flag policy, I wanna express my full support for the proposed draft flag policy. I’ve heard numerous concerns about the removal of the BLM and pride flags, but I’ve also noticed that the Israeli flags removal is consistently omitted in articles about the policy. I’m here wearing the Israeli flag to remind everyone that an Israeli flag once hung in the high school alongside those flags and it was removed. Yet, I don’t hear any calls from those opposed to this flag policy to return the Israeli flag to the school. Why is that? Could it be that some groups feel more deserving than others to have their symbols on display? Well, I can’t speculate on their motivations.

58:14 I can share my perspective. I support a policy that promotes school neutrality as that is the only way to maintain a truly welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, not just the ones who feel comfortable speaking out on these issues. This doesn’t mean that students can’t express themselves. They’re free to wear clothing with political messages or discuss such topics as long as it doesn’t disrupt school classroom activities or infringe upon another student’s rights. Schools must base their policies on law, community input and the needs of the students. We’ve already had two unauthorized removals of flags from the high school, creating unnecessary drama and disruption. That’s precisely why it’s crucial for the school committee to adopt this flag policy.

59:00 Now, regarding the recent MA’s concern that this policy could restrict teachers’ freedom of speech and expression, I’d like to understand what teachers’ rights are in this context. Um, speaking from personal experience, I feel teachers lack clarity on this issue. When I was growing up, I didn’t know anything about my teacher’s personal life. I didn’t even know if they were married. Um, today, however, many teachers seem to view their role as more than just educators, of course subjects. And instead feel responsible for bringing about societal change through their influence on students. Now, I’m speaking from personal experience. When my child was seven years old here in Marblehead, a teacher introduced a class mascot, a crab, a stuffed animal, and told the students that it had no gender

59:45 and encouraging them to refer to it as they them. The teacher also read a book called The Red Crayon, which was an allegory for transgenderism, and suggested that how children look on the outside might not match how they feel on the inside. Um, additionally, the teacher recommended numerous L-G-B-T-Q books on, um, in her classroom, including one featuring a man in bondage. I’m not kidding When I, it’s been over three minutes, just so you know. So when I objected to this material, I was dismissed and accused of being against DEI. And when I asked if the picture of a man in bondage was appropriate for second graders, the teacher defended it as the picture of love. The administrators refused to allow my child to switch teachers. And when I kept my child home from school out of fear,

1:00:31 the school had the Department of Child Protective Services called my house. So my question is, do teachers have the right to teach whatever they want, even if it’s not age appropriate, or if parents object? Um, therefore, I’m not gonna get into the MTA and their antisemitic, um, symbols that they put as resources on their website for teachers to discuss the Israeli Palestinian conflict. But I think if we could clarify teachers’ rights and responsibility within the school environment, it would provide much needed guidance on what they can and cannot teach. While I understand that not all teachers mis misuse their influence over impressionable minds, it’s important to acknowledge that some do. These teachers must be educated on the appropriate boundaries of their role as educators. Thank you. Thank

1:01:16 You.

1:01:19 Um, Diane Gora.

1:01:39 Diane Gora, Nicholson Street. Um, you’re gonna have to excuse me. ‘cause I got very upset about, um, some of the comments that were just made, um, attacking teachers and, um, claiming that we are profess, uh, professing our, uh, everything that we believe in the classroom. Um, I, I’m, I just need to take a, a, a minute to compose myself. Do You want me to call someone else and then take Yeah, that would be no Problem. Thank you. Okay. Um, I’ll go back. Go back. Uh, John Dano,

1:02:24 Um, John Diano Trago Road. I, I didn’t really hear Ms. McCarrison, but, um, I wasn’t sure if she was complimentary or not, but I’ll apologize to her now for whatever it is I might say next to her on Facebook. Um, having said that, um, I’m here in support of the proposed flag policy. When we began this meeting, we took the pledge of Allegiance and everyone in this room stood up, turned to the American flag, and everyone was included in the pledge. That’s the flag where all Americans were all state citizens and we’re here speaking because of the veterans, including Mr. Oder, thank you for your service, who stepped up and sacrificed so that we could exercise our right to free speech. Now, unless I mistaken that policy was written

1:03:11 with the assistance of legal counsel, um, and I’ve seen it and it looks fine to me, um, but that’s not really what I’m here to say. What I’m here to say is that I’m troubled, I’m troubled by the parents who came up to me, a parent who came up to me after last meeting where I spoke, who thanked me for speaking because she was afraid to speak because she was afraid that her child would be suffer recrimination for her, exercising her right to free speech, because that’s what this does. This is what it does when you have some flags on the wall. It’s not inclusive, it’s exclusive to others. And the school committee is grappling

1:03:58 with the age old problem of where one person’s or one group’s rights end and another’s begin. So this is a difficult thing for everyone. No one here, no one on the pro policy side, is suggesting that the students don’t have the right to free speech. That the students don’t have the right to display on their person or on their vehicles that will have to drive. Um, there are shirts or hats or say what they would like to say or organize. So that last time, now, the people who come in and say that this is a policy that’s racist, or they use that charge inflammatory language claim to have the majority in this context where people are afraid to speak up,

1:04:48 the tyranny of the majority is not the standard for which we should be striving. And so, though there may not be a statute that requires this, uh, school committee to enact a policy, I would argue it’s not discretionary. It’s completely necessary.

1:05:15 Um, I am just, I, um, One minute. Um, I am gonna have to recess myself for a few minutes. Um, the, the areas we have input, could you, if possible, hold and, um, the, the presentation of Lisa Marie and Victoria, I can catch up and watch afterwards if that’s the will of the committee. Yeah, I’ll, my request, I’ll, I’ll talk to the will, I’ll talk to the committee. So, um, Kristen, I can’t, I don’t pronounce this. Ro is it Ros Roro? Say it again. IROs. IROs. I’m sorry. Thank you. Um, the keys are in my car, so just go, you know, But Kristen Zaro s Merrill Road, I wasn’t planning on speaking tonight, but as I sat and listened to the presentation from, um, the vet students,

1:06:03 I was actually staring at the autism awareness sign. I had a feeling of deep sadness as a kindergarten teacher. Will this new proposed policy soon become one, to not allow the hanging of posters that represent our students and their work and the population? Will it be the beginning of censorship through our classrooms? Will it dictate our teaching? I feel like my rights and my rights of my students will be diminished. Will our voices never be heard again?

1:06:39 I’m left with, is this just the beginning of what I feel like could be the stripping of the freedom of our speech?

1:06:52 Diane, did you wanna come back? You need Okay. You’re comfortable? Okay.

1:07:01 You were my friends. Thank you. Um, Diane Gora, Nicholson Street. Um, I wish to express my strong opposition to the proposed flag policy in Marblehead. While I appreciate the intention behind creating a unified standard for flag displays, I believe this policy poses a significant risk of undermining the very fabric of our community, uh, welcoming all our students and the freedom of expression. Um, I feel like this, uh, policy as proposed, um, undermines teacher’s rights to be free from censorship in their classrooms. Um, I’ve been a teacher, uh, over 30 years now in Marblehead

1:07:47 and can attest to how each school develops its own culture. Um, and I think that the, uh, voices of the school, including students, including administration, including teachers, is very important in the decision as to what to hang on the walls. Um, flags can play a vital role in the elementary curriculum. For example, students learn about national flags to understand history and geography, exploring the significant significance of flags as symbols of countries and cultures around the world. They study the importance of the American flag in relation to patriotism and civic responsibility.

1:08:34 And contrary to popular belief, um, we, the teachers and students of our classes say the Pledge of Allegiance every day. Um, additionally, flags can be utilized in projects focused on diversity, where students create and present flags that represent their own heritage and backgrounds, which they do in second grade at, at the Glover School, and fostering an appreciation for different cultures. Um, at Glover right now, um, there is a banner that says Glover together. There is a black History month banner that is hanging up. There are all of the flags in the gym, um, that Eric Fargo has. Um, really, um, done a lot of work, um, in fundraising

1:09:23 for the American Heart Association. That goes for every year that the children raise money through the Kids’ heart challenge and the jump rope for heart. Um, just last week we had a fundraiser, um, it at our school at Glover School, the Glow Run. And one of the things that we did was to create, uh, classroom flags for each classroom. So this is my flag from my classroom. The, uh, children were the ones that decided on what the name on the flag was going to be. Um, I have an example from third grade Mrs. Retis and another third grade from Mrs. Chrys class. And the drawing on this, the logo was drawn

1:10:11 by one of her students. Nice. Um, what happens if the school committee has to make decisions on what we can put up in the classroom or in the school? Um, it’s my understanding that, uh, the purview of the school committee is, um, hiring the superintendent, uh, budget and creating policy, but it’s up to administration to make sure that that policy is followed. Um, I would recommend that it continue to stay that way. Um, one last, um, thing that I wanted to say over few minutes, Diane, just so you know. Yep. Just very quickly. Thanks. Um, I know you’re gonna be talking about special education, and Jen, I know you wrote in the, uh, letter into the, um,

1:10:58 Marblehead current, um, that, um, that we’ve effectively resolved all the issues that have been identified. And as a classroom teacher, I can attest that all these issues have not been resolved yet. Um, so I hope you look, um, further into that. Thank you.

1:11:24 Um, okay. Um, Brent, is it speed? Is that correct? That’s, that’s correct. Okay. Great. Welcome. Alright, Good evening. Uh, thank you all for, uh, letting me provide some comments. So I’m not gonna dive into the, um, policy debate and considerations, um, from a policy perspective on the flag proposal. I think we’ve heard perspectives, obviously, from both sides, and there’s a lot of passion and strong views. Uh, one thing I would point out is that, um, there seems to be general consensus that at least the purpose or intent of the policy, uh, from both sides, is that the policy should not infringe upon the rights of, um,

1:12:10 students or others on school grounds to display their own personal, uh, expressions on clothing or handheld banners or flags. As long as obviously it doesn’t disrupt, um, the educational environment. I would strongly urge the committee, I know you have external counsel, but I would strongly urge the committee to continue to carefully consider and look at the language in the policy.

1:12:37 It’s very broadly drafted, right? It applies to flags, banners, and similar symbolic displays on school property. As an earlier commenter mentioned, it doesn’t state explicitly that that’s limited to flags or banners or displays affixed or attached to school property. And it doesn’t make any broad exceptions. So, as written, the policy on its face applies extraordinarily broadly and would on its face infringe on, on, on rights that a lot of folks have acknowledged individuals have under the First Amendment in the Constitution. I also would submit to the committee that, um, if you do wanna move forward with a policy to designate certain flags and banners as government speech to exercise control over

1:13:26 that speech, it’s important that the policy be drafted and tailored in appropriate and, uh, narrow manner. Because the committee and the school district could potentially open itself up to selective and enforcement, um, risks as well as risks that in the event it did seek to exert its authority over certain flags and banners under the policy that a court would determine that it was engaged in viewpoint discrimination, like in the Cahoon case, where policy wasn’t actually followed in one instance, and then in another instance it was in the eighth circuit held in initial stages of litigation that that created, um, issues for the, for, for, for the school district. And finally, I’d point out, and I’m not, don’t, I’m not gonna speak on behalf

1:14:12 of the union or the teachers per se, but I would point out that the collective bargaining agreement does contain explicit language that teachers retain the ability to, um, to the full extent, re relevant to their, uh, teaching and serving their educational purposes. They have certain, um, rights under the contract that the school committee entered into with the, the union to engage in certain expression for educational purposes. Um, and so I would also carefully review the policy as I’m sure you are given the letter from the union, to ensure that you’re not exposing the town or the school committee to unnecessary legal risk. So, thank you. Thank You, thank you. Okay. So now I’m gonna move online to

1:14:59 the Zoom attendees. Um, and if anyone is interested, um, online on Zoom, who would like to speak, please raise your hand. You should have a little icon at the bottom of your screen that says raise hand. And if you click on that, it will pop up on my screen and I can call on you. Now, Charin did have her hand up, but I think Charin may have popped off. Okay. Um, so I have Frank, Frank, are you there? Oh, I need to let you, we’ll ask if there’s anybody else in the, in the audience after. Actually, hang on. Frank. What? Can’t I let Frank?

1:15:47 No, I think that’s, that’s you, isn’t it Frank? No, Frank, I have a, a Frank in the attendees, but it’s not letting me make him a panelist can. Oh, there we go. Okay. Uh, well, I still can’t do it. He’s unmuted now. No, I think, I think you do. Okay. You’re good. Great. Welcome, Frank. Thank you. Uh, Frank Ner Pickwick Road. Uh, I just want to observe that, uh, my wife, uh, was a public school teacher in Lind for 32 years. And, uh, her experience was, uh, one of finding her ability to express herself through music

1:16:34 and art to her students was steadily constrained by Department of Education, uh, time on task kinds of strictures. And, uh, I hear this policy as a constricting expression, and I understand that if you allow expression, there will be conflict. And so my suggestion is to adopt a conflict resolution, um, strategy apparatus set of tools, because that is what students will face as they go out into the world. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh, so Frank,

1:17:22 can you turn Frank? ‘cause you’re the host now. Okay, great. Thank you. That’s why I couldn’t do it. Um, okay. So I am trying to see if there are other, any other hands up online? I do not see any at all. And that Charman Poer did have her hand up, but, uh, well, I shouldn’t say it was, I think it was Poer. Um, but that person has dropped off, so, okay. So I’m now going to move on. I think there is one more. I’m sorry. I apologize. Is there anybody else in the audience that wanted to speak? Yes. Okay. Oh, sure. Come on up.

1:17:57 Can we just have your name and address for the record? My name is Shauna King, And I live at Penn Carroll Road. Shauna. Um, hi, my name is Shauna King and I’m a Marblehead High School graduate from the class of 2018. Um, I wanted to thank you all today for doing such a thorough investigation, um, into the alleged incidents of antisemitism that occurred. Um, I had Ra slimy my sophomore year, and, um, then had her again my senior year when I took AP Spanish here at the high school. Um, I could never imagine her saying the words that she was accused of or maliciously tearing down a flag. She was always kind to all of her students

1:18:44 and passionate about teaching her students about different cultures and the histories of oppressed groups of people. I remember learning about the Mahal sisters who were, um, activists in the Dominican Republic in her class. Um, they were activists against the dictatorship of Raphael Trujillo, who kidnapped, tortured, and killed dissenters and massacred thousands of Haitians in a racist attempt to whiten the Dominican Republic. She chose to teach us about this topic because I know she’s really values anti-racism. She values inclusion, and, um, I, I can’t picture her ever saying anything anti-Semitic.

1:19:30 Marblehead High School has faced a truly great loss by losing Ra slime. She was one of my favorite teachers, um, because of her efforts to make learning fun and engaging, I now use Spanish every day in my work, um, at a legal aid organization that serves immigrant youth. Uh, and SUNY’s teaching was part of my learning of Spanish that really allows me to communicate with my clients. Um, thank you all.

1:20:05 Sorry, I’m gonna be really quick, if that’s Okay. Okay, no problem. I’ll write my hand down.

1:20:12 Um, Megan Kalpin Sapphire, have I wanna read, um, what I think is a really relevant, um, just a quick excerpt from a really relevant op, um, op-ed that, um, I read from the Marblehead Reporter in 2015, December of 2015. Um, okay. As Americans, we teach our children to accept and respect each other’s differences. The Declaration of Independent States, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The first amendment of these Bill of Rights, that’s the first amendment of the Bill of Rights that states Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment

1:20:59 of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or of the right, of the peaceful, the people peacefully to assemble and to petition the government a sorry, a redress of grievances. If Trump wants so badly to be president, then perhaps he needs to fir to read, to first read the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to understand what being an American means. That was written by Brian Oda, um, back in 2015, in December 11th, 2015 for the Marblehead Reporter. Thanks. Thank you.

1:21:40 Um, okay, so I am going to move on from public comment. Thank you. Um, we’re gonna move to district updates. Superintendent ou. Thank you, Chairwoman. Um, so I have a few things to share with, with, uh, the committee with, uh, our community. Uh, spring is definitely a busy time. MCAS testing, trimester report cards, spring sports concerts, and field trips are all plenty. We have Navi. We, as we navigate through the balance of the school year, I want to remind our community that April 23rd, 24th, 25th, our school days, uh, student absences are absolved with notification of parents. We had talked about that previously. Just wanted to share that. Uh, our last day of school, given the snow day at this point, is June 25th. As long as there’s no weather, weather, uh, related issues.

1:22:26 Um, and this is a half day for students and full day for staff. The, there’s been a lot of questions about the calendar, and we generally open the update the calendar around the April, uh, break. So in case there’s any late, um, weather, um, issues. So that will be coming out, uh, that will be updated. But I know there’s a lot of questions about the last day. Um, on Monday, Mike Pif, PP, sorry, Mike Ping and I presented, geez, there’s too many Fs in his name. Um, and I presented our FY 26 School committee approved budget to the finance committee. I’m happy to report that the meeting went really well. And based upon our ongoing communications and collaboration with the town, FinCon voted unanimously to recommend approval of our school budget. Thanks again to the school committee for their support and to the finance committee for the continued committal commitment to working together. I want to recognize that March 21st was World Down Syndrome

1:23:13 Awareness Day and April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day. These awareness days, and many others certainly helped to remind us of our, the importance of celebrating our differences and ensuring that everyone is included and has a sense of belonging. Kindergarten orientation is on April 10th, from six to seven. Six to seven, mm-hmm. Six to seven at Glover and Brown. Uh, this is an important event for our kindergarten families. So please mark your calendars. Our third grade parent night will be at Held at Village on April 15th at six o’clock, which is also an important and exciting as they transition from Glover and Brown to Village. The PTOs and PCOS have generously donated funds so that we can provide a timely professional development opportunity. It’s called Project Reboot Keys to building a tech healthy household to our students at the middle school and high school,

1:24:00 and to our parents and guardians. The students will have assemblies during the day, and the Parent Guardian Workshop is April 10th from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at Vets in at the Pack. We hope for a great turnout, and thanks again to the collaborative effort of Julia Ferrera and our PTOs and pcos, um, and being able to provide this opportunity. The Informational Flyers forthcoming. So please be on the lookout. I know we share with the comm committee tonight, but, uh, Judy’s gonna send it out to folks. I know it should be in our, uh, principal newsletters. Uh, Hades Town Teen Edition is being performed on April 11, 12th, and 13th at, uh, high School. Um, the times are seven, two and two respectively. The content is a little dark, so, uh, you may wanna keep that in mind when planning for our youngest students. I was asked to share that.

1:24:45 Um, it’s still a great show, but just be mindful. Um, I was also asked to share that the documentary, which explores experiences on and after April 7th, October eight, is showing at the work. Um, thanks Sarah Pian for, um, making sure that that important film is here in town. Um, as she mentioned when she was speaking earlier, there were show times on the first and the second. Um, and then again, there will be times on May 9th at 7:00 PM May 10th at 5:00 PM and May 11th at 2:45 PM And again, um, I think that’s a great opportunity for folks to, um, see the movie and to learn, um, and, and really, uh, experience. Um, a lot of what we’ve been talking about, um, over the last, you know, year and a half, um, Marblehead Mother’s co-op pop-up shop, that’s hard to say, so don’t try

1:25:31 to say it 10 times Fast is on April 4th from six to 10 and April 5th, from 10 to two, a hundred percent of the proceeds go to Friends of the Marblehead Public Schools. Please consider supporting our local artists and vendors and in turn, our students, I just want to take a moment that, um, if you saw the popup shop signs on school property over the last few weeks, and then all of a sudden they disappeared, that was absolutely my doing. Um, we’re not supposed to have, well, this is separate from the sign policy. We’re not supposed to have, um, private signs on public school property. So, um, we did take those off, but I got in touch with folks at the popup shop and, um, I was happy to send out the information, uh, to, in an email to everybody and speak about it tonight. ‘cause I think that’s, um, that’s really more appropriate way to do Send me flyers. I can approve ‘em, I can send ‘em out.

1:26:17 Um, that way we, we can monitor what’s kind of going on. Anyway, um, we have a couple of authors coming to town to meet with our students, which is very cool. On April 4th, um, that’s today, tomorrow, tomorrow, uh, James Riley will be at Village. And on April 28th, jar Lerner will be at Brown. So this is really exciting stuff. We love to have. We had a, we had a, um, author earlier on, um, the Sheriff Glover, and it was really cool. I went over, I saw the kids interacting. It was really neat. So I love, I love that we’re able to do that. Um, some of our athletics updates from our ad. Um, this is him kind of writing to me, so I’ll just read what he said. The spring season got going this week. Girls lacrosse team is doing well, um, going one in one against some tough competition. Excuse me, boys. Lacrosse starts, started, starts tomorrow, Friday, and Newbury Park Baseball started on Tuesday also at Newbury Park. Our first track meet at, uh,

1:27:02 was at Hopkins was on Wednesday. And our first softball game at, um, the middle school was also on Wednesday. Unified Track has a meet, um, today. Had a meet today at Salem while tennis begins our season on Friday. I don’t have updated scores, so I apologize. Um, we currently have two. He wanted to share that. We currently have two interns working in the athletic department. Megan Ham, a senior at Salem State, and Josh Savoy, a junior at Salem State. Megan is usually here during the day working on a number of projects, including equipment inventory and trophy banner spreadsheets to prep for a new banner package for the gym. Josh has helped us put up tennis net sweep courts, and we’re asking and working on a web site update. I share that just ‘cause I think it’s good that we, uh, we have interns giving back to the community, um, in ways that are, you know, helping our athletic department kind of grow. Um, I wanted to share that the old, old dilapidated shedded village was finally taken down.

1:27:47 Yay. And new ones installed, um, at Village this week and the much needed repairs. The track also at Village are scheduled for the week of April 21st, so I know there’s been some questions about that. There’s some, some divots and whatnot on the track that need to be repaired. Um, the company, I believe it’s Cape and Island Tennis, which is out of, uh, down the South Shore, um, southeastern mass, not the South Shore, southeastern mass. So, um, they schedule some time. They should be able to get in and out. Sometimes that week they have to, it’s weather dependent. So that’s when it’s scheduled on the week of April 21st. We did try to get it before track season started, but it’s, it’s weather dependent. When it’s too cold, they can’t set the, um, material to fix the holes. So anyway, so thanks to our facilities department and Mike Ping for coordinating both upgrades. Yes, I set it right that time. Um, on Friday, March 28th, I was able to, to attend the retirement sendoff

1:28:34 of Rick Lem U as he departed Village school after 23, after a 23 year career. He was a much beloved custodian at the school, as it was clear by the outpouring of emotions, by staff and students as they circled the school Carters with signs of congratulations, of well wishes. So, congrats and the best of luck to Rick. It was awesome to see the kids are excited. Yeah, I was. It was really cool. Um, and finally, I would like to share that I’ve offered Frank Kowalski full principalship at Glover School. Frank has been interim throughout the school year and has demonstrated professionalism, kindness, strong leadership, and a calm demeanor that will serve him well in the coming years as principal. So, congratulations to Frank. We are lucky to have you on board in a more permanent capacity. Thank you. That’s all I have touch. Thanks. Thank you, John. Thanks. That thing, when I tell you my son wanted to get up early to make sure he was there

1:29:20 and had, like, he made, they made signs for Rick and played music as he went around, right, bud? Oh, that’s nice. It was, They had, they had food. Incredibly emotional. Um, yeah, it was, it was really cool. It was really neat and well deserved. Mm-hmm. Do you not put you on the spot? You probably don’t. Um, I’m just curious how many kindergartners we have registered for the fall? Do we have any idea? I don’t. Um, Katie, Katie, our current registrar is working on that right now. Okay. So I, I I should have numbers, uh, for next time. Yeah. I’m just curious. Yeah, I mean, I know it can also go up, you know. Yeah. Some months go On. It’s, you know, they’re coming in. It just opened up on the 24th. 24th, so, uh, you know, it’ll, it’ll ramp up. Okay. Um, and we’ll, you know, obviously kindergarten orientation’s on the 10th, so we should have a pretty good idea who shows up then. But, um, yeah, I can get you those numbers. Okay. That’d be great. Yep. Can I, uh, Okay. Add one. I just

1:30:06 wanna add one other thing. The, the, I don’t wanna screw it up, miss Regan, if you’re watching, I’m sorry. Um, the Northeast Treble Chorus Festival is this weekend, um, Saturday at three at Woburn High School. Um, so it is a select course. So select people from a bunch of different high schools from all around. Um, the Northeast will be performing together. They have a big rehearsal. The the kids at Village have been rehearsing every Monday after school for the last few weeks. Um, they’re singing a number of beautiful songs and, oh, I’m crying because my son is in it. Sorry, it hasn’t even happened yet. Good lord. Um, and so Friday, they have a really big practice, um, their first practice altogether with all of the different schools, which should be interesting.

1:30:55 Uh, and then Saturday they have practice all day, and the concert is at three o’clock, um, at Uber Memorial High School. So good luck to them. I can’t wait. I know. It’s, it’s going to be so much fun. Thank you. Video. Thanks for that in, yeah. Um, great. Thank you. Thank you, Allison. Thank you, John. I’m gonna move on to the consent to action and agenda items. Now we have one schedule bills, which I’m gonna call for the vote. Um, the meeting minutes. I still don’t have, I apologize, the draft. So I did wanna let the committee members know I’m working on that and also, um, have a potential option for, um, an alternative, um, process for getting the minutes. So I, I think I will get that resolved before our next meeting. So I appreciate the patience of the committee. So I’m gonna ask for a vote for our, to approve our schedule of bills, which for this month is a total

1:31:40 of $196,632 and 61 cents. So moved, Uh, moved by Allison. And do I have a second? Second, Brian. Okay, I’m gonna call for a vote. Al Williams. Taylor. Brian Oda in favor. Alison Taylor in favor, judge. Schaffner in favor. Four to zero. Thank you.

1:32:00 Um, okay. So I’m gonna move on to the school committee communication and discussion items. The first item, um, uh, and I thank Fire Chief Gilland for his patience. Tonight, we have a request for use of the Marblehead High School Fieldhouse, I believe, for a polling station for, um, oh, at least I know for our June elections, local elections. I don’t know if you have a little more details, John. Yeah. So, uh, chief, chief had approached me a while ago and just said, is this something that we, we could consider, uh, utilizing the fieldhouse here at the high school for the town elections? Um, and then potentially, you know, talk about the, you know, all the elections. Um, and what I shared was in my, in my previous life, we allowed that to happen. And there’s ways to make it happen safely. So I know my first and foremost is can we do it while school is open safely?

1:32:46 So we don’t have community members that are kind of in our schools? And the answer to that is, yes. Um, we just need to be due. We have to have due diligence and probably some, um, police detail, making sure that when the, when the, uh, community’s in the field house voting, they’re, they’re not exiting the field house and going into the school that’s easily managed. I’m not worried about that. Um, so I think, I think it’s a great way to collaborate with the community. It’s something we all need to work with you, our ad and our, our PE teachers and Michelle Carlson, um, and her, her administrators, to make sure that we kind of, um, closed down the gym in enough time for the town to set up their polling things and enough time to break it back down so the students can use it. So when we do this, there is a, there is a break in the, in the ability to utilize that, that space.

1:33:32 Um, ‘cause we have to have set up and breakdown. So we’ll work through that if the committee approves it. And also, um, you know, we have to make sure the floor co covering so we’re not ruining the floor or anything like that. But I think it’s a great way to collaborate with the town. Uh, this clearly it’s hard to kind of, uh, the polling, it’s easier to do it at one spot. The one challenge I think we’ll have is, um, you know, parking, obviously. So in June, our, our student, most of our student drivers, unless we have, you know, juniors that are driving will not be here. So, um, you know, some spaces will be open that way. And I’ll work with Michelle Carlson, um, and her administrators to see about teacher parking committee, you know, consolidate ‘em on one side. So there’s, you know, a, a ample space for people to come in and vote. Those are the things that I think we’re gonna bump up against and that, that the committee has to consider.

1:34:18 And, and when thinking about this vote, um, Jason, do you have anything to add to that? That I Was just gonna say, I and Robin, I’m sorry I didn’t see you there. So we’ve got town clerk, Robin, um, mic show, fire Chief, Jason Gillen. I know. Do either one of you folks have anything you wanna add? Or We can, we can just call for the vote, but I don’t wanna put you on the spot. I didn’t just wanna miss anything, chief. So,

1:34:48 So what prompted this is Robin and I work closely on every election that we have to, and, and we have a good relationship. Um, but we’ve met many challenges over the last couple years that that could actually pose a huge problem for elections if we have to shut things down. We’ve had elevators overheat, we’ve had elevator stall, we’ve had lighting issues. And these are things that concern us. Um, we obviously like the idea of neighborhood polling places where it’s come to the point where we’re 4.4 square miles, and the field house is pretty much central, and it’d make life much easier for people with disabilities. The parking situation, it would just work out really well. So that’s why we’re coming before you to seek permission to use the field house for polling.

1:35:36 So we, I’m sorry. We did also, if you remember, we did use it during covid and it worked out very nicely. And this is for all precincts. Yes. Yep. I, and it’s totally up to, I mean, obviously if you vote for it, that’s up to the select board to make that decision. I can’t make that decision. Um, but also the way that we vote now is very different. So during the presidential election, we had 79% turnout, and we only had 46% of the people voted early by mail or in person. And only 33% went to the polling place on election day. So an average town election is only 25%. And that’s high. So the idea that if, if we vote for this tonight, in terms

1:36:22 of use of, so you still have to go before the select board, or do we have to go before the select board? No, We Would go, we would before Select. Yeah. And the only que uh, only other question I had, I’m sorry. May, may, um, so we talked about for the June election, um, and then I don’t know if we have to vote for all elections or do we do the June one first and let’s re maybe my suggestion would be do the June one, see how it goes. And then maybe we come back and talk about the other elections. ‘cause the other elections, you know, November elections, everything else is obviously during school time. And we have to look at, you know, what makes sense for that. That would be my suggestion. But Yes, there’s no election this September or November. So that’s, so the next one would be next June, a year from June as well. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, why don’t we consider, I’m gonna ask for motion a moment.

1:37:08 Consider approving this for this June, and then we have a year to figure out how we, if it, everything works. Okay. How do we make that sort of permanent? Um, and you’ll have to, you know, go before the select board and maybe once it’s eventually made permanent, then you don’t have, keep going to the select board. I Wouldn’t think so. And then the select board would vote to do just June. And then before that happens, the state has to come in and make sure it’s a DA compliant. Just they have to do their due diligence. So The only thing I wanted to is, is, um, even here, compared to say, well, I can’t speak for Abbott Hall, but for community center, our handicap spots are not that close to the door. That’s the only, you know, or some of, in other words, they still have a little bit of a walk from our parking lot to the door, to the field house.

1:37:54 Mm-hmm. So it’s just, so, but actually there are some spots down there. Yeah. And sometimes, if I may again, sorry. Yeah. Um, uh, sometimes during polling things we can, we can work with the town and like put up temporary, um, handicapped spots if we need to. If there’s an, I’d have to look at the layout. We can absolutely do that. We can do that. Just so, so that’s a couple that are closer and it’s just temporary. We can make sure there’s no traffic Because you know, I mean, it is a bit of a walk. Matter of fact, during Covid, we did do that around back. Yeah. Okay. All right. Then that’s, we’ve, you worked that out with the police, right? We’ve done that at the townhouse. Sorry, I didn’t mean to No, we’ve done that at the townhouse too, because there’s not anything there. So we’ve made, oh, wait, right. Forgot about the town. Yeah. Did not that. Okay. Um, does anyone have any questions? Any members of the committee? Oh, I like the idea Of looking at this one and then seeing how it goes and then making a decision for future ones.

1:38:39 I’m fine with that idea. Okay. Um, okay. So I’m going to ask for a motion to approve the request to use the Marblehead high school polling station. Marblehead High School Field House for a town wide polling station for the June elect. June, June elect, June 10th, uh, 2025 elections, um, with plans to discuss the permanency going forward. So moved. So moved by Allison, do I have a second? Seconded. Um, Al second, but a call for a vote. Williams in favor. Brian OTA in favor. Allison Taylor in favor? Jen Schaffner in favor. Four to zero. Thank you very much. So do you, if you need minutes or anything, or I can send an email to the, you, to the select board, whatever you need. You can just shoot me, shoot us an email. That’s fine. Be great. Just confirming the vote and then, okay. Great. Thank you

1:39:25 For having us. Thank you. Forward to it. All right, moving on. I have next on the agenda, the draft surveys for the superintendent evaluation, which was Fox and Otis. And maybe we should move, should do a, can we do it? No, probably not. Oh, yes. Um, I had a request for a break, so I’m gonna call a five minute reset. Uh, five minute recess.

1:39:52 Hey Johnnys, I’m gonna call us back to order. It’s 7 35. Really convenient. Oh, I’m stuck. Call to, I apologize. Anybody’s out. Everyone. Um, folks, can I just ask folks, we’re back in order. If you could move it outside if possible. Thank you. Okay. We’re moving on to the draft surveys for the superintendent evaluation. That’s Sarah and Brian Oda.

1:40:25 Um, oh, did you want to make the motion? Uh, we’re okay. Sorry. Um, are we unmuted, Frank? I see redneck, uh, green. There it is. There we go. Thanks Frank. Um, so Brian and I met as, um, we had decided as we had discussed, and we were supposed to meeting at a little workshop to go over, um, surveys. Brian had drafted the, uh, an initial draft. Um, we paired it down a little bit. We did some slight tweaks with wordsmithing and this is what we came back with. So we wanted some feedback from you guys, just to give a little bit of an explanation. There’s a separate one for administrators. ‘cause there are really separate questions that depending on your role in our community, we, we are looking to zero in on. So there’s one for the administrative team, um, one

1:41:12 for staff, which would include all staff and then one for community. Um, our intent is that the administrator and the staff surveys would be completely anonymous. The concern with the community one, what we’ve seen in the past is that there is a small portion of the community that tends to, um, do lots of repeating on the same survey. Um, so in order to do that, we had, we were gonna make the suggestion that, um, the community survey not be anonymous, even said there’s no other way to make it that only one in one person can make one input. Um, and we had kind of molded that over, and I think it was John himself that had a really good point. We have a very active community that does not appear shy at all about responding to things

1:42:00 and that we didn’t think that would damper community responses. Um, wanted to make sure it didn’t damper any administrative or staff responses who do answer to the administrator. Can I, can I just ask that? That was very clear. It’s not, it’s not the committee saying we don’t want to hear, like, we don’t want to limit, but in order for them to send the survey out to, in internally, we can do it. So it’s anonymous. And when it’s anonymous through our Google, it will limit it to one, one response, sending it out to the community. We can’t do that because everyone has different, you know, Gmail or whatever. So you can’t set the setting that way. So the only way to set it out to everybody is so it’s not anonymous. Yes. Yeah. So I just wanted to clarify. Yeah, so it’s just, we’re trying to make sure that one, one respondent gets one survey, um,

1:42:47 and we were directed by tech. This was really the only way to do that. So, um, we, I wanna make sure Brian gets any to say anything he wanted to add that I missed. Nope. No, I think that’s it. Each one is slightly different, but most of the questions is generically the same basically. But depending on the audience, we edited them up And we really worked with the wording quite a bit to make sure that the question was reflective of John’s role. Um, I’ll give the example of, do you feel that interim superintendent is appropriately involved with the curriculum plans for the school year or next? ‘cause we wanted to make sure it’s not an evaluation on Julia who does the curriculum development. It’s an evaluation on, there are roles that everybody plays in the district. A superintendent as you know, the CEO of, of the schools

1:43:32 for lack of a, um, better term should, should be evolve. We’ll use the word appropriately. There’s a role that they, they take with searing that ship, but also delegating it to the appropriate person. So we wanted to make sure we phrase things so that it’s reflective of the role we’re trying to evaluate and not of, you know, Julia or perhaps Mike in finance. So if we didn’t hit that mark, please let us know. No, I think it’s great. So do you wanna just go through each one of the three, all three of them and then one question at a time? Or if everybody, if everybody read it on their own, if people have specific concerns they can give us feedback on, but we might not need to Go through everyone. Yeah, I leave it to the committee.

1:44:19 We I’m fine. I’m fine with it. I am too. Allison, did you have any, Um, yeah, but I’m always gonna, so No, no, go ahead. I’m fine. If everybody else is fine, that’s fine. No, no, no. Absolutely. I, I like for the, on the community one for the first. I don’t think you need Mark only one oval. ‘cause I think when you set up the Google survey, you should be able to set the question up so that they can only, um, fill in one. Okay. Um, That’s easy enough to Change. I would, that’s for all of them. But I would suggest for the first question, um, I would maybe make it a span. So because is this for The Community? For the community? Yeah. Um, you know, on

1:45:06 from a scale of one to five, similar to how you did on the, on the second one, um, I don’t have a problem with that. Does anybody just change it instead of a yes no to a scale of one to five? Very communicative. We’ll figure out the ne the verbiage. But is this for Question one? Yeah. Is this on the administrative one? That’s in the community. One community. Okay. The question being, do you feel the interim superintendent provides consistent and timely communication with parents in the public? One being, I guess like, not at all and five being we’ll find the right words like, you know, the best ever. Um, Just at the, I’m sorry if you had anything else about the very top of that community one does say take this anonymous survey. ‘cause I know it says it on the, That Out. Thank you Julia, for pointing that out. Okay. Great feedback. Thank you.

1:45:51 Since we kind of opened the door a little bit. So question number four.

1:45:57 Under community. Under community, okay. You’re assuming it’s improved, which it has, but I, I guess you don’t, you shouldn’t be leading, it’s a leading question to me. Right? You’re assuming it’s improved and tell me how it’s improved. Okay. Versus someone could say, I don’t know if it’s improved or, I don’t have evidence of that. Do, do you, do we wanna make, Do you feel that support for students with disabilities have improved? And if so, how? Or changed and if so, how? That’s Yeah, that’s Better. I would, maybe not, I would maybe reword that. Not say student with students with disabilities.

1:46:34 Something like,

1:46:38 you know, do you feel,

1:46:42 I don’t know, how would you describe this? The current support for students with disabilities,

1:46:51 Students receiving services or something? I don’t know. I just, so I, I just don’t like how that’s, I know what you mean. Um, is your concern the word disabilities? I, yeah. I just don’t like how it’s written, but I understand what you’re asking. Yeah. Um, we were hoping to incorporate or encompass not just IEPs but five oh fours as well. Right. Um, Lisa, Mary, do have a suggestion on what better, you know, wording might be ‘cause that’s your area of expertise. Um, you could even say, uh, students who are differently able, Would you say students receiving services? Is that, well, because I guess maybe they’re not always forced. You’re encompassing. Yeah. Um, you’re including Right. Our, um, English language learners, then that’s not student services.

1:47:37 Right. Um, so I’m not, I’m just not, I don’t have in front of me, so I don’t, I just dunno if context. It really just so you know, where it stems from. It stems from, um, when we go back a year ago, we heard a tremendous outpouring of the community, both staff and parents discussing, um, which led to our special education audit concerns, specifically within our special education department. And it was, I I concur. It was leading. It’s obviously our very biased opinion that there has been improvements. Um, so I, that was good wording change, but we wanna make sure that we’re getting at this Was the concern you brought to us, are you seeing changes? If so, in what direction?

1:48:22 That’s why it’s an open, it’s a paragraph response. Response so that they can say my child on a 5 0 4 or child with physical disabilities mm-hmm. Was, and That’s why I’m thinking differently able is kind of positive connotation. But it’s all inclusive as well. Not necessarily just students on, Do you think everybody will get that though? Get that statement? Um, and maybe even parentheses you could put uh, 5 0 4 IEP English language learner, But you can have safety plans, bullying plans, things like that. All Yeah. That aren’t Students with specialized plans. Well needs, that Doesn’t, I mean, I really wanna get at the student. I mean, a lot, a lot was driven

1:49:08 by concerns in the student services department that that really transitioned a lot of the administration quite frequently. And, and we wanna know how that’s going. So yes, If you, if you go back to keeping it with students with disabilities, I mean that encompasses five oh fours ips. But you may want to, it’s not ELL though. Either add a section safety, ELA, um, ELL because, ‘cause if you’re gonna try and encompass everything, you Know what I mean? This was a very large concern last year. Safety. And so it was really special education. Yes. That was the focus. So that’s, that’s why was Worded this way about Do you feel students receiving student services? I’m sorry, say one More time. Do you feel students receiving student services, because that’s your department student

1:49:53 Services should, and should we ask the question first? Do you have a student receiving? Or How about if, if your student receives specialized services or special ed services, how do you, how, how do you feel the superintendent superintendent’s done whatever, Whatever through the lens of the superintendent. Do you feel

1:50:15 That, that if you, the issue with what we were hearing before is quite frankly, we were hearing from other par parents in the general education department that felt the lack of management in student services was impeding the entire school environment. So it w our, the information we were getting was not just from parents who students were receiving. Correct. It was, there was a concern in staff and parents, I would say. And, and quite frankly some students too, that

1:50:42 the way student services was being managed at that time was impeding the entire school culture. So then you can go. Do you feel that support for students with disabilities has improved the school culture? Mm-hmm. Under the improved under the direction of the superintendent? If so, how? If not why? Mm-hmm. How’s that?

1:51:03 If so, how? If not why? If not, why? Yeah. Well, why

1:51:10 I, I think it’s really important to get to the nuts and the bolts of it. Uh, or not nuts and bolts even. That’s maybe too granular, but the, the how and the why is the most important.

1:51:24 I mean also keeping in mind this is, this is the formative eval and the mid cycle and yeah. You know, seven months of school, yeah. There may may be not enough data for people to rely on, but I think that one, you’re gonna get some, I think you’re gonna, yeah. No, I think, no, I think it’s great. Do you feel that support for students with disabilities? Did we change that? ‘cause that’s what you just said. Yeah. I said how do you feel? Um, I forgot what I said. Has, I mean it really, Do you feel That’s the tape Roll the tape. What? I have to roll the tape. The tape Has improved. How has it, Do you feel that, Do you feel that support for students with disabilities has improved under the direction of the interim superintendent? If so, how? If not, why? Yes. Something along those lines.

1:52:09 Okay. I won’t be able to say the third part. Alright. What, um, sorry, go ahead. Lisa Marie. I was going to say maybe something of, uh, do you feel the impact, uh, of our new, uh, superintendent has positively changed, uh, student services Has had a positive impact on, right, because Yeah, I’m kind of taking off the words you were just saying, crossed Out so many things.

1:52:36 Why don’t you just go into the Word document? Or You could use like question three. It’s a similar thing, right? Has the interim superintendent improved and then you have a scale of little to vastly improved and then an explanation. So then you get an explanation of maybe positive, Well that’s how we came. How has it, if it is, how has, Yeah, that came from this before it, It came from the question. So instead Of saying three leads to question four. Oh, okay. I see what you’re saying. But we did. So you know what? I think we’ve reinvented the wheel 10 times. My suggestion is to get rid of improved and say changed. How has support for students with disabilities changed? I mean Yeah, just change That one word. It works. Okay. This improvement. Okay. Changed Could be,

1:53:22 What is the timing on this the Worst? So, um, yeah. Once we, we can, I go in and make these changes, um, early as tomorrow. Um, and then it’s Just giving it to Steven. He will then do, um, what he does to get them to the each party that’s appropriate. We had talked about not giving more than the most a week to respond. What we have found with surveys in the past is people tend to do it right when they get it. That’s when you see the big influx while there’s a few that trickle in a week later that all of a sudden are reminded by someone. Most people either open it and do it then, or will come back to it soon after. So I think leaving it out for, you know, two weeks,

1:54:07 three weeks is not gonna increase the response. So I would say we should, we could wanna send it out, get it returned in about a week. So I wanna give the school committee members at least a week to then have the responses prior to when we need to start working on our summative. That some I’m don’t Well, let’s not get caught up The time. No, no, don’t say the word. Don’t say it. Therefore, um, are we thinking of sending this out? Today’s April 3rd? Um, I was gonna say vacation week’s, the 21st, but um, are you thinking like, send it out the week of April 14th And then getting it, um, Back on the 21st? Those are Mondays. Yeah. Um, well we would get it back, you know, Monday

1:54:53 and Tuesday or holidays for us. So maybe we send it out, you know, the 14th returning it. We won’t, we won’t have, it can be closing on the 21st. We won’t have staff to, to really process it for us until the 23rd. Um, and then that gives us, we will try to get it then we’ll give Steven A. Day or two to do, ‘cause it’s a lot of data collection he has to do and then, then feed back out. I would ask that We put it out sooner. I mean, it sounds like, Well, what I wanna do is Changes fairly quickly. Yes. But I wanna be cognizant that we as a committee get the surveys and get to make our summative our evaluation from

1:55:38 that in a timely manner that, that we then present. If it’s, if it’s, if the survey results are sitting around for three weeks, it’s gonna be out there with it before we’ve even gotten to deliberate on it. Oh, okay. I don’t know that that’s necessarily, I mean, if we were send it out, say midweek this week, get it back the end of next week. Wait a minute. You’re talking about sending it out like on the eighth or the ninth. Mm-hmm. And then getting it back on what, Um, a week later, like maybe the 16th. The 16th. And then when would you expect to see the results? Um, I don’t know. I mean, Google Does all that for you. These are, these are gonna take a long time to analyze, especially with all the paragraphs we’re asking for.

1:56:24 You’re gonna find that you’re gonna get people that are talking about five different things in one question, and you have to split ‘em out and try to figure out How to capture. I can, I can commit to doing that analysis like I did with the last I survey Me. I will of the committee, after we hand this over to Steven, I want him to submit this data to all the school committee members, right. Him in, in whatever form he gives it to us. So that The raw data, The raw data, so that we are not doing anything as individuals with it. The next step for us is when we come to that evaluation, because what I’m, I don’t, I wanna make sure is not happening, is there’s no perception of, um, deliberation through the data, if you will. Like d Steven should just be sending it to us then.

1:57:10 Okay. What were you saying, Allison? I don’t, I don’t, I’m not worried about, I mean, I think there people are gonna perceive one thing or not. We could name them, but I, I am not worried about that. But I definitely want the raw data. I’m happy to put it into slides. You know what the answers are, like I did with the last Yeah. I’m just suggesting we started as soon as possible. I wasn’t thinking that there might be, we’re worried about the information getting out. I’m hoping that’s not a big concern. But if it’s, if it’s not a concern, then let’s get the data as quickly as possible. As long as we’re, you know, we’re doing it in a way that we, we don’t think we’re, you know, hampering our ability to get the data. Let’s, let’s get it as soon as we can, as soon as the survey is available. Okay. So you can maybe get it out this week.

1:57:55 Not This week. Not this week. It’s Thursday. Um, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The week of the seventh. The week of the seventh. I think that’s reasonable. Okay. And when is your next, when does your, I I think we should send the survey out strategically.

1:58:13 I give people different opinions. I think things that hit people’s inbox on Monday morning at 6:00 AM tend to get read. Yeah. Better than, than things that hit people’s inbox Friday at four. But maybe that’s just my take, Allison. I mean, we can make this, it shouldn’t have to take that long to actually get, get this done. This can be made into a, when I did our last one with Brian, um, I made, or I, I made it a Google survey myself and then sent it to John and John and Steven transferred it from my Gmail to the school one. And it was done, I mean, very quickly. Yeah. We’re not saying it won’t be. So if we shoot for Monday, let’s say we shoot for Monday, um, even, or Tuesday, and you get it back a week later, and then Steven can work on getting us the information, say

1:59:01 by the end of the week of the four. It’s just the raw, if it’s just the raw data there just comes right back in. It doesn’t even, there’s Nothing that has to done. And when we get the verbiage, and then we’ll just, and Then we just get the verbiage, you gets literally a big giant Excel file Okay. With all of the Fields to Us. Okay. All. So let’s do that. So G BT said, avoid Mondays. Tuesday’s early morning are the way to go. Tuesday’s early morning. There you go. So how about Tuesday the eighth? Perfect. And it’ll be due tax with Other BestFest of, it could be a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but sooner the better Tuesday. Okay. All Right. So you guys can shoot for that for next week? Yeah. We’ll to give that Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday of next Week. And you’re gonna give the, the respondents a week? Unless the committee feels different. Yep. I think that makes, um, for question six, can we ask how they feel he has improved? Which Surveys? Who’s Christian? I mean,

1:59:46 Question we asked, has the interim student superintendent improved district culture? I think it would be, that’s an i important one to know how, how all all of them have, I mean, they have mostly the same questions.

2:00:01 So how has the interim superintendent, If so, how? Yeah, like the question can be if they say, do you Wanna go to Alice’s point, switch it to changed instead of improved? Yeah. To be consistent. That’s, Yeah. I mean, Yes. Okay. And so it’s no longer scale rating. It has It know that it has improved. So I just Think it’s gonna, so it won’t be a scale? Or do you want an additional question in, in addition to the scale? Yeah, I wanted, like how, so they could provide details on how, okay. So we’ll add it, we’ll add another question in between there for that. And that’s for all three of ‘em. ‘cause I think it would be important to hear from, I don’t know that parents will know much about like internal district culture, but I think for

2:00:46 Sure. Sure. We want to hear they what their students are experienced. Absolutely. But I, we also, I don’t want it just for the community. I want it also for the administration and, um, staff, because I think that’s really key. So when we send, this is one question. When we send it out to the community, we can send it out to all parents. We can put it up on the district website. We can, um, push it out in other channels. Do we also wanna ask that it be said to the high school students?

2:01:15 What do you think, John? I think that would align with our goal of student voice really well, wouldn’t It? And I, and I don’t mean to just limit it to the high school students, but typically when we email students, we don’t have direct contact with students younger than that. But I’m Open Suggest suggestion. Yeah. In the, in the high school students, we can send stuff right. To their emails. I don’t Middle School, you’re gonna separate ‘em out so you know that they’re high school students And not, we should absolutely do that. Yeah. Parents. Well, it’s not, it’s not anonymous. So, Well, how you gonna, It’s just probably not anonymous survey. Hold on one second. We could, if I may, if you’re doing it Internal, You can, right. If you do it internal to their school emails, it’s Gmail. We could do it. So it’s, it is anonymous. We could do the same way we do the staff freshmen use the same community survey. Send it as a second, a different group to this high school students and,

2:02:00 and check the box where it’s, uh, anonymous. ‘cause it’s a Google, But once they share that link out, they can share it with anybody. It doesn’t limit to that address. Oh, that would be the same with the, Well, you can do it by their school email address. We Know how many staff we have. 900 Responses. The more the merrier. Okay. I don’t know, I just Well, She just is looking for them to be legit. That’s, Oh, no, I understand that. As long as well, is there Any way for either way, we need to identify who’s responding. It’s, you know, so if we have a whole nother version of the survey for students, if we want to keep it anonymous, that’s fine. Or it’s, it’s out in the community forums. And if a, if a student is so inclined, they can go and find it on the district website and do it for the students that want to, that’s Another option. If the community decide, I’m fine with,

2:02:49 Does the committee have any feelings one way The other that we, we just want an identify or that they are a student or a community member. Right. Because we’re still not to Brian’s point, so add a question. You wanna be, you wanna identify whether, Sorry, I think you just poten, sorry. Potentially just say, take the community survey and, and put student at the top and just Yep. And just do it That way. That’s right. Well, that’s what, yeah. Yeah. That was the other. So we don’t wanna place any changes between freshman and seniors in high school. They’re completely Different people. I think it’s split hairs at that point. There’s 700 people.

2:03:22 Again, it’s up to the committee. I’m just, Brian, do you not? You don’t. No. I just don’t understand how you’re gonna look at all this data. If we get several hundred from the parents, several hundred from the students, then you add in the staff. Well, are We not getting anything rolled up? Is that what you’re saying? We’re just getting raw. Like You are gonna gonna get all this raw data’s, but that’s what I’m saying. I data Roll it up. Okay. Well then Why don’t we have, yeah, why don’t we have at least have Allison roll it up. I mean the, the, in other words, how many answered this? How many answered this? How many, like, Everybody’s gonna have question access to the, the raw data. No one’s gonna, if someone doesn’t believe what I say. Do we want Question in the beginning that says click all that apply and then it says student, parent, community member. So we can aggregate? Sure. Yeah. I, I I think we should. Okay.

2:04:09 Oh, if we, for The community and they have to select one that’s like a half half required, we’ll add that Click that apply here Because they, so the information should be rolled out. We shouldn’t be, when you say raw data, I’m not gonna go counting. Someone needs, the system needs to roll that out. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then what is the raw then, then what? When someone’s typing care for move word, we’re to sit there and read that. Yeah. Yeah. We are. That’s what he’s saying. Yep. Yeah. We are, but I’m saying that I will look at that and roll it up for us. Okay. You’ll still have the raw data. If someone doesn’t believe that I’m telling the truth about it, then Well, how do you roll up the written step part? You just, well, whether it’s positive or negative. And you, we had a lot of comments. The last one, Brian and I did a lot of similar comments, you know, about the same things. I’m okay with that. I mean, but

2:04:55 what committee do the didn’t have improved. It’s, it’s more welcoming, more smiles on people’s faces. It’s not retaliatory. It’s, I think in a typical situation that, that would be great because of, we’re using this as a tool for the evaluation. I think it is our job as each individual to take those comments and decide what we feel they say as an evaluatory process. Whether it’s, this is positive reflection on growth in this area or not. I feel like that’s our, each of our As, as an evaluat, since this is an evaluatory tool from each of us, I think it has become incumbent on each of us to, you know, for instance, culture. How has, it’s my job to read that. How has, and then translate

2:05:41 that into a reflection in that evaluation. I just feel that that’s, that is, if our, one of our, the major arms for us is evaluating the superintendent, and we are saying we value community impact input. I think it’s our job to read that input and use that as an evaluatory.

2:06:06 Yeah. I mean, I, I, I like that someone will help. Right. Help us with the, but I mean, that’s why you, I think the best questions in this kind of scenario are ones that have a scale, right? And then you have an explanation. And then, to me, how I view that is that if the scale is extreme, you know, it helps me understand how much I have to delve into the explanation. But if it says that, Hey, things have been awesome, you know, I, yeah, I want to know the detail perhaps. But in terms of evaluating John, I, I, I think I could spend my time elsewhere on other questions where maybe the, you know, and it’s quantitative, right? If, if you have a scale and it helps you direct the emphasis of the comments, which, but I think we have a lot of that in, in here. So,

2:06:52 Well, why ahead? You look at the detail. I’ll do the roll. If someone wants to look at it. Look at it. Okay. If you don’t, don’t, that’s fine. Okay. All right. So that’s gonna go out next week. Okay. Thank you. So we will, um, ‘cause we have to post, ‘cause we have to meet, it’s a subcommittee to make, to produce this. We have to post I if I, the earliest I can post this for is Tuesday. Tuesday. Um, so I have to look at my calendar. So we will get this to Steven, our windows Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But because of posting, we have that to deal with. Yeah. So that will go out, um, this week. It will be backed by the 17th. Allison, I think you can get us the roll up if it’s going up the 17th. Can you get us the roll up by How many going up the 17th?

2:07:37 Yeah. Back by the 17th. No, no, no. We’ll have it, we’ll, we’ll have raw, we’ll all have access to roll raw data no later than the 17th. Yeah. Okay. Our next meeting is the 24th, right?

2:07:51 Uh, no. Um, our next meeting is the 20th, right? No, This is 17th. Oh, no, I’m sorry. 17th. 17th. Yeah. Sorry, I’m looking at March. Yeah. Um, yes, 17th, which you’re not gonna be here. So depending on which day it goes out, if you can get it out on the ninth and we get it back on the 16th, then I’ll, I’ll try and have something brought Data on the 17th for us. Yes. All right. Well we will make sure I, I get us posted ninth and you’ll have a roll up on the 16th.

2:08:19 Great. Or the 17th. But we’re not necessarily debating, deliberating on the 17th. No, no, no. That’s good. Okay. Alright. All right. So we’re, It just tells you where to look. The roll up will tell you like, oh, I wanna find more detail about this and, you know, drill down into It. Okay, great. Thank you for doing that. Um, alright, I’m gonna move on. So now moving on to the draft flag policy. Um, I am DB, um, which you should have in from your Google Drive. I’m actually going to read this into the record and then we can discuss this. So, just so everyone knows, based on the last school committee meeting and the deliberation we had for the previous policy that was submitted based on committee desire, I went back

2:09:04 to our attorney, explain what we were looking for, um, is the possibility, which he did say, um, we could do in terms of working with superintendent on a re on recommendations or taking recommendations, superintendent. And this was the policy that, um, our school council came back with a suggestion. So I am DB policy regarding display of flags, spanners and symbolic displays. The Marblehead school committee will not accept any third party requests. The Marblehead school Committee, as the governing and policymaking body of the Marblehead public schools, has the sole authority to determine the flag. Spanners and similar symbolic displays on school district property ref reflect the mission, vision, and values of the school district and constitute the school district’s government speech. The committee has therefore adopted this policy, which is subject to the following rules. Number one, flags that have official legal status.

2:09:50 The United States flag, the Massachusetts state flag, and the P-O-W-M-I-A flag shall be displayed on school district property. Two, in addition, flags, banners, and similar symbolic displays that reflect the school district’s mission. Vision and values shall be displayed at such times and locations on school district property as determined by the school committee, the superintendent acting in their sole discretion and pursuant to their responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the district. And its schools may recommend to the committee that it adopt a flag banner display as the school district’s government speech.

2:10:20 So what, how, what this means is if a third party isn’t coming to us, a third party would go to John and say, Hey, I’d really love the Juneteenth banner to show to, to fly in June. He would come to us and ask us, or are you saying we would have one, two times a year that John would come to us and say, these are the flags I’d like, you know, for the next six months. These are the flags that I would like to have flown. Here’s why I believe in each of them as the leader of the district. And we would decide on them. In addition to that, things like, happy you’re here and everybody belongs with all the hands, with the hearts on the inside.

2:11:07 And the hands are all of the different colors, things like that, that are, um, inclusive as well. And affirmations. Those, that’s not a banner or a flag that is associated with any type of political movement or affiliation. And that is completely separate in my opinion. I think that Matt is wonderful and I have absolutely no problem with it. And I don’t think that this stops that. I don’t think that this, and it’s not meant to. I do take into consideration the fact that maybe it is a little bit broad and especially when we’re talking about someone’s person, what’s on their car, what’s on their backpack, what’s on their folder, what they hold in their hand, what’s on their hat, what’s on their locker.

2:11:54 That, that, that can be called out as separate. This is, this is, and never was to my knowledge, meant to ever restrict that, in my opinion. And if that needs to be detailed out, that’s fine. Sorry, To that point. ‘cause I do think a lot of that has been Misconstrued, unfortunately. Yeah. And, and when reading this, you know, you kind of, people got to that point. What I would suggest is that when we look at this language, we strike the language that says similar symbolic displays. ‘cause that is very broad. And add the word affixed on school district property. Because what has come through clear, at least

2:12:42 in the legal pieces I’ve been privy to in the last few years, is that according to what we’ve been told from state ethics division and other parties, we’ve had to go through things with the walls. And like the, the a fixed two is, is, um, is school committee has care, custody and control of the buildings and the grounds and the way it was described to me by, for instance, the ethics department is

2:13:19 John Smith, just off the street, would not have the ability to come in the building and put something up ‘cause they don’t have access. So it’s not, so that’s where like free speech would come in like that we’re not restricting because people who have access to our buildings are restricted. Only certain people, our students, our teachers, if we’re having an event, community members. But anybody who’s been in a school in the last several decades, very thankfully, so understands that we just don’t let people come and walk through buildings they did when I was a kid. And there’s a reason for that. And it’s a very, very good reason. Um, and, and so the idea is that the, the, by adding the word affix, that does not preclude someone from wearing a shirt,

2:14:05 wearing a button, um, having it on their car bumper sticker, because that is, that’s not affixed to the property that is under the care custody and control of the school committee. So you can, so all these questions about could my student wear this? What if their car is this bumper sticker? Would they have to leave campus that nullifies all of that. I, I think, and so my, my request would be to strike similar symbolic displays, add the word affixed on school district property. And then I am making the request that any policy would not go into effect until June 30th. There’s been a lot of concerns of how will we do this mid stride in the school year, um, every year at the end of the school year, because our custodians do wonderful work. They do a ton of work over the, over the summer.

2:14:52 Our lobbies quite often have things come down. They paint, they do things like that. So I would say, you know, also ask that the superintendent comes to us each August with a suggestions for the following year. So we’re not dealing, so that we’re not hearing, um, at every different meeting. I, I would think if it speaks to the mission, which is what we’re saying, we want to, we wanna talk about things that speak to the mission and culture of our schools. That the superintendent should be able at that point to come and say, I’ll give the example of the Juneteenth flag. His request may be that the Juneteenth flag flies the week of Juneteenth for these reasons. I am, this is not my suggestion. I’m saying that would be the type of suggestion he may come with. And the reason why we’re asking him is he is the entity that is our agent.

2:15:38 Um, if we can use, we can designate him to bring recommendations to the school committee because that is the way mass general law is set up. He brings us recommendations on what curriculum to adopt. He brings us recommendations on what budget to adopt. Ultimately we adopt the budget. But as our agent, he brings the recommendation. And that’s why we would ask him to bring the recommendation. That does not in any way preclude people from going to him and asking him for, for things. But just like if you are someone who feels we need to increase funding for the band program, there’s nothing precluding you from going to the superintendent and lobbying for him to include that in his budget for the year. So that’s, I see this in the same way that people would go to the superintendent, he

2:16:25 and his subject matter expertise would then make an argument of why this is impactful or not. ‘cause you may be bringing us something that says, someone brought me a request for X, Y, Z. My recommendation is that you don’t adopt it. The point is, as our agent, you need to, I would think would need the way it’s written now to make a recommendation. The recommendation, but not the decision. ‘cause A recommendation. No, it’s only bylaw. It’s our decision. Because I think, and I’m Sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. Oh, And it doesn’t preclude John from involving students in that process. How he gets there is how he administrate. No, it’s, we’ve hired him to administer.

2:17:06 Yeah. And that’s what I was, thank you Al That’s what I was gonna mention is I, you know, if, if I’m bringing to the committee a recommendation, I mean, it would not be from my own personal recommendation, it would be from recommendation from administrators, staff, students, whoever’s gonna make a recommendation, then I would bring it to you As your recommendation. Yeah. As your recommendation. But in an unbiased way. Because I think Doesn’t work that way. No, you ring us recommendations. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. So, but I don’t want to get, here’s what I don’t want to happen is I don’t want to happen me come to the committee with a recommendation. And if my recommendation has to be,

2:17:48 I just, I don’t want it to be a situation where it ends up being my, my feelings about the subject matter, my, my way of thinking about a certain flag or banner that’s gonna influence my recommendation to the c to the committee. And then it’s gonna come back on me saying, well, the superintendent put forth my recommendation because he didn’t believe in that flag, or he didn’t believe it. Like, I want no part of that. I don’t think that’s, I don’t think that’s the way we, we should operate. So I just wanna be very clear. I’m happy to be, I’m happy to be the agent, but I wanna make sure that we have a clear path to that and what that means and what that looks like. What this says is that, and we can probably reword it, that the recommendations would be made based on the fact that they reflect the school district’s mis vision of values. Okay. And that is what should be.

2:18:34 So not you, it should be your Yeah. Basis For making recommendation. I just wanna make sure that as we’re going through this process that we have, it’s very clear that it’s my recommendation to the committee to make the decision so that as we move forward, it’s a very clear path. Because I’ve heard over and over and over again from folks that say, you know, you know when, when people say let’s, let’s hang a flag, it’s not hang a flag. It’s like, I, I believe this. I believe that. I think having, if we’re gonna have a policy that outlines it, I think it, the steps in the policy need to be very clear so that it’s not up for interpretation. Whatever those steps are. It has to be very clear. Like when you look at other policies that the school districts either develop or vised or revamped. Like if it’s a, a bullying policy, right?

2:19:20 Here’s what happened here, here’s all the clear steps articulated. So there’s not a question. So that’s, that’s, that’s kind of, I, I probably shouldn shouldn’t lead with that, but I just wanna make sure that we’re, there’s Also policies that are extremely vague, right? And so we policies run the gamut. And my experience being on the policy subcommittee and working for many years on policies is, and this is to one of the comments that we made. Um, our policies fall into two categories. Those that are statutorily required. Um, and those that are not, the ones that are statutorily required in my experience, are the ones that tend to be very detailed. Like the bullying policy, because the statute has determined said, you must have this policy and this is what this policy will say. Fair point. The ones that are not statutorily required tend

2:20:07 to be the ones that are sufficiently vague. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, but they tend to be vague because they’re policies, they’re not procedures. So my, again, experience has been that policies that are sort of, um,

2:20:22 cover a broad explanation of or description of what the policy is, are then implemented procedurally and operationally by the administration. And that’s where your detail is. Like the attendance policy. That’s an example too, right? Yep. Attendance says basically we support strong attendance, or I forget how the policy reads and all those details around attendance are in the handbook as a procedure. So I can see that point. No, I, no, that, and that’s a good point. I think, or you know, so maybe there’s a qualifier before the highlighted part that just says community, uh, members may, um, petition the superintendent. So the superintendent, I dunno, something. I don’t, so how are they gonna know to go to me, I guess is what I’m saying. Well, I think it’ll be out there. So I, I just, I just wanna make sure. I think that, um, again, in my experience with policies is we have policies

2:21:09 and then they are operationalized in the form of procedures, usually in the handbook or some other place. Okay. Right. So that’s where, this is what I would envision is if this is something, or something like this is, is drafted that then it would frankly be your responsibility with your administration to operationalize that. Which we would then approve in the form of the handbook, which is usually, which is probably, I would think where that may go or not, I don’t know. But it would need to be operationalized as to how that works. Because again, I guess to Sarah’s or whoever, whoever made the point about it being sort of an annual or there needs to be some methodology to it that would be on your, what you would decide, this is how, um, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna get recommendations once a year and we’ll roll it out once, whatever it is. That’s the operational side of this. That’s

2:21:56 Fine. Um, I, I have to say that I’m concerned because now we’re adding another layer to the process. In other words, John will have to hear the arguments of the discussion around why certain groups want to have a flag. Then it comes to the school committee and then we have to see, it’s putting another layer into the process. It’s taken us 18 months to get here because everybody wants a say in how the, it’s taken us To get here. ‘cause there’s been 8 million other very big top priorities that had to be done. So, oh No, I’m not saying that, but I’m saying it is taking us a long time because every time the flag policy comes up, it’s a long debate. So now if we add John into this mix where he’s the first step to get it to the school committee, it puts him in the firing seat while people present

2:22:44 their arguments to him. And then he has to weigh it, make his decision on whether it should be going to the school committee. If he says no, what happens? He’s gonna, that’s it. He’s going to get put on the hot seat, rather. I mean, now it comes to the school committee. ‘cause we make the policy. It’s my Understanding from the last meeting, we don’t have a Policy. So My understanding from the last meeting is folks were wanting to understand his take on this, and this is how we add that layer into this. I was at my son’s chorus concert, so I wasn’t here for that. But that was my understanding from it, you know, people were interested in what his take was. And, and I understand that as a leader of the district, obviously that’s, you know, it’s like the CEO of, of a company and that’s how we incorporate

2:23:33 that into this. And, And I, and I appreciate, I appreciate the dialogue here. So, you know, two things. One, yes. And I said this at the last meeting amongst, you know, my, my, some of my feelings. But the one thing I think that I wanna reiterate is that whatever the policy, um, is and has been determined is definitely my job to en enforce it and make sure that it’s in place. I, I take that responsibility very seriously. Um, and then Jen, I appreciate you kind of talking a little bit about the operat, you know, the word I’m trying to say of it. Um, because I can see that piece of it and how does that work. So I just want to, I just wanna make sure that once we get to a certain, whatever the policy is, that people are very clear as to what the steps are. So that’s just, that’s all I’m gonna say.

2:24:18 I think, I think when we get there, it’s my responsibility to make sure it’s enforced. I’ll figure out how to operationalize it. If that’s, if this is, we go with something like this and then we’ll move forward. I mean, if you think about for instance, the, ‘cause I’ve been, you know, we’ve looked at this recently policy ff which is on the naming of buildings, right? Which is, so that was another example where it said, if I’m paraphrasing that if someone’s interested in a particular school, they wanted name something, they would go to the principal and the principal should involve the PTOs. I mean, there’s sort of a convolute, but there’s no like, there’s no, like, here’s the form. Know, like it was operationalized somehow, you know, in the building. And that’s what I would sort of envision. Yeah. As, as long as, as long as when, when I, so you, you’re asking me to operationalize it and then bring it to the committee for approval

2:25:03 of operationalizing of it or No? No. Okay. I, well, I mean, it depends on how, again, to the point how often we wanna hear This. Just, I just wanna make sure I’m clear. I’m, I’m not trying to be contrary at all. I just, I just wanna make sure that I know what the steps are you’re looking For. Well, I also recall do it properly, if I’m not mistaken, several years ago there was, there always was a policy around, um, uh,

2:25:26 questioning library material, questioning materials. Mm-hmm. Curriculum or library. I forget the name of the, the name of the policy, which you’re correct, correct. Questioning a book or some kind of material, right? There was a policy, but there was never a procedure. I know this was a number of years ago. And then there was a procedure that was developed and that was by the form, I believe, by the superintendent and the administration. It was then presented to the committee that this is, this is what the procedures, how we’re gonna do it. Like that was it. Okay. I do think it would be smart to have there be time blocks there so you’re not every single day, you know, so that people know here’s, you know, I appreciate That, but that’s, it’s not gonna operationalize that way. ‘cause I, because if we do it, if I say I’m gonna do it in August, then what happens in September? Someone’s gonna, it just, I understand that and it’s fine. It’s, I mean, it’s part, I don’t wanna sit here every week.

2:26:12 No. Don flag. I honestly, I think once, once the, the dust settles, we figure out what policy makes the most sense for Marblehead and how we’re gonna operationalize it. Um, we’re gonna get, you know, the initial pushes for, okay, these are all the flags we want and banners we want up. And, and is this a flag or is this a banner? Is it a fix? Is it not a fix? Is that approved? Is that not approved? And I think once we kind of go through that exercise, then I think we’re gonna find, I think things will find this level. That’s my, that’s my gut feeling. So as you’re, as you’re doing this process, Right, operationalizing, thank you. I don’t even know if that’s natural part. It says, may recommend. What if there’s one that clearly you in this process would say no, does that still have to come to this committee? No,

2:26:57 Not the way I read. It’s a Recommendation. It’s a recommendation to not adopt. No, I don’t think so. Or it doesn’t come to us at all. No, it doesn’t say that. I, I would only expect him to bring stuff to us. He’s recommending that he believes fits with our mission and values. That’s how it’s written. So, okay. So I’m, can I read this? ‘cause I, I, I suggested a couple changes. Well, I also wanted to go back to your suggestion in that we need to run that by an attorney. I know, but, but can I, can I read what my suggestion is that would go to the attorney? Sure. Is that, And if that’s the will of the committee, A couple suggestions along the same. Okay. The Marblehead school committee will not accept any third party requests. The Marblehead School Committee as the governing a policymaking body of the Marblehead public schools is the sole authority to determine the flags and banners affixed to school property, uh,

2:27:47 reflect the mission, vision, and values of the school district in constitute the school district’s government speech. The committee has therefore adopted this policy, which is subject to the following rules. One, the flags, uh, that have official legal status. The United States flag, the Massachusetts flag, and the P-O-W-M-I-A flag shall be displayed on school district property Two, in addition to flags and banners that reflect the school district’s mission, vision, and value. Or, uh, in addition flags and banners that reflect the school district’s mission, vision, and values shall be displayed at such time and location on school district property as determined by the school committee, the superintendent acting in their sole discretion and pursuant to their responsibility for day-to-day operations of the district. And its schools may recommend to the committee that it adopt a flag

2:28:32 or banner at the school district’s as the school district’s government speech each August for the following school year. So it comes to us in August. He’ll give us a time land. Some may say, I want this to fly all the time. Some may say this is for this period of time, but it will be his recommendation. Again, the same way the budget comes to us as a recommendation. Hand books the same way curriculum comes to us because we hire him as our agent to make recommendations that we then have the authority to, to approve. And again, when I say recommendation, I use it in the same way that, listen, sometimes we all cast a vote that we know is in the best interest of our students and our district that we may not personally

2:29:18 think is in the best interest of ourselves. But that’s our job is to do. And that’s what we’re asking John to do. Not come here and tell us what his personal views is, but come here and tell us what he feel feels is appropriate given the mission and vision. Which by the way, we as a school committee write the mission statement. So we wrote this mission statement, so we’re now directing our agent to make recommendations that he feels are representative of the mission statement we’ve adopted. If we don’t agree with the mission statement, then that’s another job for us to do. That was fine to the last few words ‘cause it was a little too prescriptive, like John said, is August, August, what happens if something happens to September Then? No, but that the po that’s the policy we

2:30:04 Can always amend. We we’re always Free to Amend policies At any time. So because No, but I don’t wanna, that Feels reaction. I Don’t wanna amend the policy because we have a new request. Right. I just want to not be so prescriptive that it has to be done August. And it’s stated in a way that that’s the only time we’re gonna do it. So if it, what I Was looking for with that, just so you know, my reasoning of why I said August is so that we’re not looking for things that feel, um, reactionary to political climates going on. That if it’s something that’s our mission and vision, he should know for the, like a year in advance what is going on. Otherwise it starts to feel like a special interest in what we’re not getting into a special interest. Allison, what Was your view Say? In my opinion?

2:30:49 I, I understand what you’re saying on the flip side of that. Do you want every single meeting to have something new? That’s, that’s my fear and I don’t, I, there’s more stuff that we have to do here. So could there be once a quarter or something? Would you be more comfortable with that? Or are you truly, I agree. We wanna make sure we’re not consuming a lot of time, but I think we would manage that with John, right? That’s part of our management of John’s performance. This would be the formative, a true formative assessment. Hey John, you know, you’re bringing a lot of requests to us that we think could be batched up or you’re, you’re, you know, you’re not being efficient of our time. And then John changes operationally how he does that.

2:31:35 And that’s how I think you manage that. Not, it doesn’t have to be prescriptive in a policy. We’re not even saying how people submit requests in this policy yet. We wanna say how many times a year John is gonna come and recommend items to us. I guess I’m just No, we’re saying when, what times of year we, we will be updating what is displayed in the schools.

2:32:01 I Would think. ‘cause again, if it’s something that is part of our mission and values and vision, that’s clear. And again, like Sarah sign, like autism awareness, We also want to allow the students to be able to focus on topics that are very high interest to ‘em. Could be something comes up in current events and suddenly it sparks off a whole debate on what we do with this, that, and the other thing. And they want to display a banner or a flag to meet that new requirement. Putting it in once a year in August, that’s not gonna work. You need some more flexibility in the plan that allows the students as they progress. I feel like that’s an Be able recommend things based on what’s happening in the current world. I mean, no one could have predicted

2:32:46 what we’re gonna be in now last year. So, but We’re not, that’s Not talking about feel less like our mission and vision and more like political action, right. In this not this at no point should ever be political action. Oh, Allison isn’t Isn’t the request to hang a banner or a flag a political action? I’m sorry. No, we’re hanging something like that that says happy you’re here. That’s not political at all. That’s just saying We’re, you’re up somewhere. Hang on. Everybody’s we need, that’s not what we’re talking about Need. No, it’s not what we’re talking about. But we need To do this one at a time. Allison, go ahead. I’m just giving an example of things. Happy you’re here. Everyone is welcome here. Those aren’t tied to anything political. That is the concern. And I feel like what you said is the polar opposite of what Sarah had said before.

2:33:33 And just maybe we’re just opinion It’s no, I’m no, no, that’s no, I I I don’t, and I don’t mean that negative towards anyone. I’m just saying it’s not, how do we move this forward so that it’s not another 18 months? Can we give an Example? I’m okay. I’m okay with the I’m okay with the verbiage as long as we understand that we may have to make changes to it as we learn and go forward. I think we always have to be aware of that with everything we do because things do change.

2:34:07 Can I make a suggestion? Yes, go ahead John. Go ahead John. So I, I just wanna make, I, we have to remember this is updated policy. This is the first reading. So we still have to have two more readings. Yes, we do still have more conversations about this until We get to it. Yeah. I want to be, hopefully we’re narrowing it down a little bit. Can I, is it appropriate to put some type of language at the end that this excludes school achievements? If we’re Super Bowl champs, if we win the state hockey? That’s a, that’s a student achievement banner. Okay. So what I was gonna say again is that from an operational standpoint, that gets operationalized by the superintendent and he would be the one to make that determination that the flags that Ms. Gora had, for example, would not obviously be an issue. That the student’s artwork. Student’s artwork is not an issue. Um, and that would be operationalized either memorialized in the handbook or in some other way.

2:34:55 Um, that would be the responsibility of the administration. Mm-hmm. To, to determine that. Do We, Ryan, go ahead. Do we actually have to say, couldn’t you just say things like sports banners, uh, achievement awards, those are automatically acceptable because that’s a school-based deliverable. I mean, we we’re recognizing the team won the Super Bowl. When we get into so much detail in the policy, that’s one of the, the policies are, again, unless they’re statutory, they’re usually vague and then they’re operationalized by the administration. So that’s where, again, I go back to for instance, to the attendance policy. We have a very detailed attendance policy at the high school one that’s been subject for a lot of discussion that’s not in our attendance policy, it’s in our handbook.

2:35:40 The policy says, for all intents and purposes, we want be, we believe In strong attendance policy, You know, to attend school on a regular basis. So, because the problem with when you start doing it is you get a policy that’s just paid, again, pages and pages long and there’s all sorts of places where you can miss something. Whereas it’s up to the superintendent to operationalization knowing what our intent is with the policy. I will defer to that explanation. ‘cause I know going back, what was it six years ago? The, the last, and to my knowledge in the last 15 years, the only comprehensive policy evaluation that happened when MASC came in, it was like a two year process. Jen, you were the one of the people that ran that with Meredith. So if, if that’s the guidance MASC has given you in the past, I will defer to That. Well, just generally, yeah.

2:36:26 I mean in terms of the different types of policies, there’s So, so do we end up, so the other thing end of August, are we doing away with that or was that still No, and the reason I’m bringing it up again, you know, I’ve been beating the drum around student voice, right? There’s no students around in August. No, but they can do it now. Like they could appeal to him now. And I think, I think once we vote this, will he, that is when I was thinking the following weeks from that, John will hear his appeals. He will be able to, I picked August because then we’re looking at it for a whole school year. I would think if there’s anything that really gives him a lot of concern. They have a several day long administrative retreat in the summer. He, he would give, he would poll, use his, his staff. And the reason why I said August is then we start off the

2:37:14 school year with a plan the same way we know when MCA weeks are the same way we know when school vacation, like we, what we do in our buildings shouldn’t be ad hoc day to day. Like Julia knows now what her professional development is gonna be. These things don’t just happen. There’s a lot of intricate planning that happens. And I see this as nothing different than our superintendent should know if it speaks to a mission and vision.

2:37:43 Because otherwise, if all of a sudden comes out, something comes outta the blue in you, like you you use September, November and it’s not all of a sudden that we won the Super Bowl or something like that, then that speaks to me that it is, um, it, it, our mission and visions don’t change every two months, every three months, every four months we have set that. Either it speaks to it and he should know that now or we need to evaluate that as well if he doesn’t or, um, No, but yeah, the mission may not change but flags and banners may change. Right. Or a new one may surface that we didn’t know about or expect. So, but even to get to your point around do you wanna make it more of an annual thing? Why not June then,

2:38:25 Right? Does it matter to the following the end of August year? Well, I just did it ‘cause that’s when we’re getting our buildings ready. So, But I’d rather err on the side when it’s convenient for John to engage with students is is a better criteria than just arbitrarily picking August because that’s close to the beginning of the school year. Yeah, I mean there’s nothing stopping Soon. Brian, what are you, what are your thoughts doing it Brian? What it periodically, I think somebody had mentioned that quarterly or something I said every quarter or trim, Whatever. That sounds like a reasonable compromise. I do too. Um, I also don’t, I personally don’t think it needs to be in the policy. Again, I personally think that it’s something that’s operationalized. That’s his operational plan. Yes. But I’m saying that we would expect to see at least quarterly Could see it quarterly up To Alright, that’s fine.

2:39:14 So, okay. So Do we, it seems like we have a How do we move? This are unanimous but A consensus. So can I make one suggestion? ‘cause I’m trying to get, make sure everybody gets everyth. I do think it was to someone’s point about the opening line that will not accept third party requests. I I it’s A rule. That’s one of the things I wanted to suggest too. It it, it was a, it was bulleted in the last, uh, draft. I don’t know why it got moved to be the first sentence and I’ve never seen a policy start out. But what, what we don’t Do. Agreed. I just passed on what was given. So, so I agree. I Assume we need to have it in based on our legal counsel. So I would just, that should be the third rule or one of the rules. Sure. Yeah. And the and the, the first paragraph should start off with the second sentence. Yeah. Thank You. I’m sorry, I Didn’t mean to interrupt.

2:40:00 So do we have, so my question now is do we have to go back to the lawyer, have him draft another one and read it again? Or can we vote knowing the changes that we want? And this can be considered the first vote. This is, I read this into the record as the first reading. We have to do three readings. Okay. Vote no change before a vote. Before a vote. Before A vote, Correct. So, okay. So I thought we had to vote each time. Date can change the readings can change, needs to Change that by the third time. If that’s your final one, you can vote. If you’ve gotta change it again, then you’d have to do a fourth reading. But Perfect. You have to do at least three readings and they can change. Perfect. So if we could make that change with the bullet and if we could also make sure to carve out that this is what Sarah said about, I think this is Actually your second reading then. ‘cause we read it last Time too. I did not f put it in as a, I didn’t read it into the record as a first reading. So I, I don’t wanna count last time,

2:40:46 time I highlighted one wasn’t in the last one. Right. Okay. But it can change The yellow part Is a significant change. Correct. This is why I, so, Which I think if we, but sign again, the yellow part was asked for That’s, that’s why we have a new one. So that’s why it wasn’t me. I wasn’t here. But, and I Think this addresses the concerns that similar symbolic displays are gone on. It’s clearly that it’s a fixed, people can wear whatever they want. I wanna Make sure our Bumper stickers can say whatever they want. Right. People can appeal to the superintendent. That is his job in his administrative role. To hear those requests from, from students, from, from administrators, from staff members and then, and then act accordingly as we have asked him to in his capacity to bring things forward. Right. Okay.

2:41:33 And so we we are, yeah, We can reject his budget, We Can reject anything. It’s through a vote. So we’re not taking questions. The audience, sorry. Um, so I’m gonna make a couple have the, I’ll make these changes and have, I’m not gonna ask the attorney do it. I’m gonna do it, which will be cheaper and then have the Attorney review it. Do we need to make any other changes to make sure that anything on someone’s person, on their locker, on their notepad, on their, I will check with, I will check Holding a flag in their hand. Someone said, I’m just trying to think of all the different options, whether it’s a shirt, whether it’s on their car, or if people wanna organize and have a group that talks about that has nothing already in handbook to do with any of this. It’s Already in the handbook. Yeah, That’s already in handbook. And I think the word Affixed, I understand that’s already in the handbook, but it was clearly very misconstrued by people. And I don’t, I wanna do whatever we can.

2:42:18 I know, I understand. To make that more clear, may Me misconstrued and we can work together with the superintendent, but misconstruing or understanding doesn’t belong in our policy. Our policy needs to say what our policy is. All right. And stuff can be explained either in the handbook or, or otherwise. ‘cause otherwise you’re just, you’re gonna keep writing and writing and writing, trying to address, um, you know, all sorts of things. At least that’s what Okay. The attorney tells me. But I Can we say affixed to school like Sarah said. Can we Put that word? I was gonna put the affixed in. I was gonna ask to add that. Yes. Yep. Yep. I was gonna Add that. At least that’s Something, um, I’ll change the bullet point on the third party request. And I actually may try to wordsmith that a little better. It seems, I don’t know. Seems Actually as, as a piece of this too, um,

2:43:04 before I forget, I want wanna make a motion to ask the chair to work with legal counsel to draft a response to the, um, demand for, um, the cease to dismiss demand received by the MEA. Um, and you should draft, so The motion Is to enable our chair to work with legal counsel to draft a reply to the MEA demand letter for a cease and desist. Um, that’s the actual motion. And then I would just ask you that you make sure you address it. It, it looks like on the letter head it came from the e-board. They list as Jonathan Heller, Meg Burn, Sally Shey, Hannah, uh, pr, uh, Robin, fine, Shelly Burns, Colby Carucci,

2:43:51 Marissa Hunt, Pomeroy, Mary Miles, Allie Carey, Samantha Rosado, and James. So, bless you. So, Um, just make sure that we’re Addressing who sent it to us. Okay. Board. Um, okay. So I have a motion on the table. Um, so Sarah made the motion. Second, second, second. Second by Allison. Um, any question or debate? Okay. L Williams in favor? Brian. Oda in favor? Sarah Fox In favor? Allison Taylor in favor? Jen Schaffner in favor. Okay, so I will do that. Um, okay, so before we move on, I’m going to go back, make the changes. Um, I will come back to the next meeting, which will extensively be the second reading out of three readings before it’s approved. Um, if anyone has any questions offline, feel free to let me know direct

2:44:36 and I can direct them to the attorney or whatever. Just don’t do a, a reply all, just get in touch with me or Allison either. Well, could be you. Yeah, do yeah. Just ‘cause I don’t, that’s, I don’t want a policy open meeting violation. So, um, yeah, just direct them to me and I can get them to the attorney And just let you know. I still still am not thoroughly convinced we need a flag policy based on some of the input that we’ve heard from the community. Okay. But I do think that if we are going to have one, this is compromise. I don’t like that word, but I do like that we’ve moved the po the draft that we have to allow students voice and work, you know, have the administration and faculty be involved in, in this process. So, okay. But I’m just stating that just ‘cause I don’t want anybody be surprised

2:45:21 after we read this three times. I still don’t vote for It. Yeah, understood. You don’t have to tell us about editing. Yeah, that’s fine. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, okay, anything else on that? So I’m gonna come back for the second reading. Okay, great. Um, school choice for school year 25, 26. Um, actually I put this on the agenda, John and I didn’t get a chance to speak. I apol I take responsibility. I was away. It’s totally my my fault. Um, this really, not really, this is required to be an actual hearing, so it needs to be posted properly as a hearing. I think it’s a two week, um, notice or whatever. It’s, so can work with that. Lisa, I’m gonna table that, ask to table that for this one and we’ll get that to a, a future meeting. Probably if it’s two weeks, it won’t be the next meeting.

2:46:06 We’ll figure it out. I think it has to be before June, but before June. So it’ll be sometime in April or May. So we’ll get back to you on that. So I apologize that’s being tabled. Okay. Superintendent presentation or an assistant superintendent presentation on the academic Discovery Special Education review. Thank you Madam Chairwoman. I’m gonna turn this over to Lisa Maria Polito and Victoria Ryan, um, our assistant superintendent of student services and assistant Director of student services, who are going to share their, uh, review in their, um, of the overarching, uh, report that came in through academic discovery. So I’ll just turn it over to you. Oh,

2:46:51 We here. And we’ll just wait for the slides working on that. But thank you, superintendent and thank you school committee for having us, uh, here this evening. Um, we also wanna recognize, um, that it is Autism Acceptance month and, um, we’re gathering some information of what’s happening in the schools. And, um, my parent and staff newsletter will be going out next week with some, um, information, uh, to be shared with, um, everyone around, uh, what is autism and, um, amazing things that people who have autism have, um, done in this world.

2:47:32 Okay. So, yeah.

2:47:39 That’s okay. I’ll just, I’m just gonna keep on going. Okay. So, um, this report was done by, um, academic Discoveries. Um, um, it is a, a, a vendor, um, who supports districts in doing an unbiased, um, view of, uh, a school district in, uh, marble Head’s case. Um, it’s about the special ed, uh, special education department and policies and procedures, compliance. Um, and this was, um, the undertaking of, um, this school committee as well as the previous, um, administration. Um, and so the goal of this, uh,

2:48:27 document, and this is, uh, an abbreviated version thereof, um, was to ensure that we’re providing students with the proper supports that we are communicating, uh, with our, all of our stakeholders, um, that we are assuring a least restrictive environment that’s good right there, um, for our students, and that we are effectively using best practices. Um, these slides contain, I’m just gonna put it out there. These, we’re not gonna read everything on the slides ‘cause we would literally be here for like three hours. Um, but it is chockfull of information. So what, um, Victoria and I are gonna do this evenings. We’re gonna just kind of give an overview in the highlights, um, but there is lots of, um,

2:49:13 additional information in there.

2:49:17 Okay. So how did academic discoveries, um, gather all of this information? Um, they use both qualitative and quantitative data. So the method used to collect data was that, um, they had regular meetings with myself and then Victoria. Um, they did records reviews, um, asking for significant amount of documentation from the past three years. Um, I just wanna be clear that due, and it’s mentioned a lot throughout the extensive report about the, um, turnover, the large administrative turnover. So all the documents were not always readily available for us to find, um,

2:50:04 because then I would not be able to do my day job. Um, quite honestly, Just To take a step back, this is something that the, the committee had asked To, um, to have done, um, because of everything that came to light in that era of pre obviously, um, because of everything that had come to light, because of all the teachers that had come forward, we had that meeting here where people poured their hearts out and it was heart wrenching. And so one of the things that we asked was explicitly for this to be done, this is before the Queen came, but we specifically asked for this to be done, um, in, in order to uncover and find other things that we could improve and work on.

2:50:49 Um, obviously a ton of stuff, as you’ve seen in her presentations thus far in the last six months, a lot of stuff has been identified by her and improved. And this is just kind of compounding on top of that. Right. Thank you. That I just wanna give that Yes. A little bit of that backstory to kind understand. We Have a lot more information about the past than I actually do. Of course, of course. So yeah, I really appreciate you framing that out. Yeah, this was Absolutely a school committee request request. Okay. For This. Great, great, thank you. Um, and so they had focus groups that include all stakeholders and who do the stakeholders include? Um, our staff, our community, um, they went into an individualized level of, okay, special education teachers, general education teachers, BBAs, SLPs, which is speech language pathologists. I’m gonna try not to use too many acronyms to this, so I apologize.

2:51:35 Um, they did some classroom observations, um, surveys, and, um, we were very fortunate that we have such a strong administrative team. Um, now they were able to, you know, I have to thank Assistant Superintendent Ferrera, you know, she’s got that strong background in the district. Um, just basic knowledge, but as well too, you know, um, around professional development, which was a huge theme throughout as well as mentoring and, um, MTSS. So, uh, we’re thankful for that as well as our business department, which essentially is all new employees, but they were able to kind of dig in as well, um, to support this, um, find these findings. Um, let’s see. I’m trying to see.

2:52:24 So they basically, there’s more like, into exact details in this presentation. So for example, like observations, 11, uh, classrooms were observed, uh, during their time here. They began the process.

2:52:41 I think the first time that I personally spoke with them was in July. And that was us setting up for, I would say, a solid two months, um, before the staff and students returned. Um, they provided an executive summary and, um, this committee tasked them with six areas, um, to be looked at. So I will read those out. Uh, area number one was program, organization and management. Two was student identification and placement three was program service delivery. Four was instructional practice, five was staff support and development compliance. And six was stakeholder perspective and engagement. Um, and so they went through, um, quite thoroughly,

2:53:30 um, all of those areas. And as you’ll see, as we go through this presentation, we actually tackle each of those six areas in, in detail with key strengths, um, um, areas of improvement and what is currently being done, um, this school year. So we’re gonna kind of tag team back and forth. Um, so some of the big buckets that we, when we summarized this was the highlighted on the next screen, which would be professional development staff training on data management systems, training on providing accommodations, um, the special education, staffing, the policies, and the co-teaching models. So we’re gonna delve really deeply into those when they come up in the focus areas.

2:54:15 Um, but those are some, um, big overarching themes that came out throughout this, this presentation in the, um, the report.

2:54:27 Uh, the next slide speaks to, um, feedback received from stakeholders. Um, and it was titled Increased Administrative Involvement. Um, it, it talked about how the staff really appreciate when the administration comes into their classrooms and has conversations. Um, the report, uh, demonstrated a need for more, uh, feedback as well as from central office, uh, student services, um, too. Um, there, we currently have the practice where our principals are doing learning, learning walks with a colleague, um, throughout all of the classrooms, which is amazing. Um, and I think in the future, you know, we’re looking to, to grow that.

2:55:13 Is that you John? Yeah, John This, yeah, John brought that, I’m sorry, superintendent Robo, uh, brought that in. It’s late. Sorry. Um, and then also, you know, talking with administration that have that expertise around special education, supporting not just our special education staff, but our general education staff, um, as well too. And we’ll talk about that a little bit more. They talked about, um, the mentoring program and how very important and vital it is to success when you begin in a new school district. Um, and then they also noted how, um, this current administration, we do have office hours every month for staff and community members.

2:55:59 It’s been pretty successful. Um, we’ve had, um, quite a few people come and, uh, take a block and just have a conversation with us. And it’s very informative for us, um, to get different perspectives and, and, um, speak the truth of what’s, what’s been going on and hear the truth as well. Okay. Next slide. So, the report did break out some important demographics of the, what we are seeing within the district. Um, and there is a couple different comparative measures. So sometimes we’re going to be seeing comparative measures to the state average. Some of it’s, um, to our, um, comparable districts. Um, so as we walk through this, there are different things that they pulled out. So these are are things that they found.

2:56:45 Um, so the first one would be student demographics. The 28.5% of Marblehead public school students K to 12 have disabilities slightly higher than the Massachusetts state average of 20.2. Marblehead has a lower percentage of high needs English language learners, low income and first language, not English students compared to the state average. Um, then they broke out the educational environment. Um, as far as the full inclusion, our rate is lower than the state average. Our partial inclusion is higher than the state average. Um, they did pull out residential, um, significantly higher than the state average target, but did not break out public day or private day. Um, and then they talked about the substantial programs within the district being lower than the state average,

2:57:31 than the, um, lower than the state average. And target, uh, early childhood education. So full inclusion from ages three to five, which is typically our integrated preschool, uh, 41.4% lower than the state average of the target 50.2, or excuse me, the average of 50.2 in the target of 52.31 partial inclusion is 55.2 significantly higher than the state average. And then other categories substantially separate and other pieces that, um, aren’t as more common were lower than the state average in targets. Can I just add, can I just jump in there for a second? Sure. Sorry to interrupt. So when we look at the early childhood, that that number for partial inclusion seems really outta whack. And we, I think we think that that was some, um, um,

2:58:16 reporting errors on our end, like how we reported the students, uh, increased those numbers. We’re looking into that as well. Well, it Seemed To me that because it’s ‘cause it not, doesn’t resolve, That seems like our, our pre-K, this is pre-K is an inclusion model generally, right? It’s, I mean, there are other districts that have more universal pre-K, which we do not have. We have an integrated model and we also at the Glover School have a sub-separate a BA program. Um, but generally those students, you know, are, are generally integrated into the c every day. So some trends that we just have noticed it’s not in this report, um, is that when we do our reporting to the state, um,

2:59:02 how do I wanna say this tactfully, uh, the accuracy might not be as in tuned as we would like. So that is something that, or Hasn’t been. It hasn’t, hasn’t been. Yes. So that is something, um, we’re looking, ‘cause it’s really important when we’re asked out here, whether it’s assistant superintendent, Ferre or myself to present numbers. And we, we, we know kind of the numbers on, in the, in the back of our minds. Um, so, um, we’re looking at that together,

2:59:33 Says residential home bound Placements are significantly higher. I mean, what does that mean? It mean like 10 times higher than other schools? 5% or? Well, um, Uh, we don’t have the exact number, but they also put in home bound there as well. So that number would skew, because when we think about residential programming, we have that, our district piece, but then we also have, you know, other measures in the district such as like a home hospital form that some students might need to fill out if there’s a special circumstance and things like that. And we are seeing that to be on the rise. So we would really need to seek some clarity depending on parsing maybe those two things out. Okay. Um, our residential programming out of district is a, is slightly higher than the state average, but I think they’re combining two things here. So, and it was also, um, Quite honestly, the two things really have nothing

3:00:18 With each other. Are day programs included in that? No. So that’s what we’re, that was part of it is that public day placements and private day placements were not included in the data that they gave to us, interestingly. So, right. And we did talk about, ‘cause we did, um, review this information with our administrative team and, um, we were asked like that to be put in here, but we decided, ‘cause we are presenting authentically what was in the report, we decided we didn’t want to then confuse the situation with us putting our our numbers in here too. Can you, um, Can you get us, um, either through John, just to, in a not, I don’t know, know that it needs to be a full report, but I, I would like to at least see where are our out of districts, both private and public day placements compared to the state area.

3:01:06 Yeah, I think, I think, um, so I think, yeah, we, I’m sorry we talked about that already. Yes. So I, I think I can get the data share with the committee, you know, and, and we can, we can go that way. And then at some, you know, if there’s another time when that’s pretty easy for us, we reporting out that make sense? We can add it in. I’m sorry, Jen. I was the tag. I probably tell you off the top Of my head, but I just, I don’t feel the need to have a response to this report. I think this report is just what it is. Yeah. We’re gonna go over tonight and that, that’s my feeling. But that data point is important. Yeah. Because realistically, More so when we build budgets, it’s a really, Well, here’s the important piece of that. I don’t know why they didn’t find that, because I would hazard a guess in a lot of our, the tuition for the private day and the public day, which is the collaborative is a big part of that Overarching Yeah. Out of district tuition number. Yeah. And it’s not in this report. So I appreciate Lisa Marie saying she’s reporting authentically what they reported.

3:01:54 What, uh, Lisa Marie and Victoria can report from their own audits of their, of their, uh, program. They can, they can give us much better data. So more, more accurate. Yeah. So I think, I think we can go forward for that. Okay. Yeah. Um, so some of the other important pieces that we look at are the student achievement piece, and then how some of the things that they parsed out here could be impacting to that. So our absenteeism, um, students with disabilities are absent more frequently than all students. So we’re comparing it to the, um, Marblehead student body there. Um, drop art rates are hard, higher for students with disabilities compared to all students. And advanced course completion is lower for students with disabilities. MCAS performance. Students with disabilities perform better than the state average, but lag behind, um, student peers.

3:02:39 In marblehead, uh, discipline suspension rates are higher for students with disabilities compared to all students, both in and out of school. And then, um, comparing similar districts to us, um, Marblehead students with disabilities generally perform better than those in similar districts, with the exception of Wayland Ashland in certain areas, which we did talk about in that presentation as well.

3:03:03 Uh, this next section, we’re going to actually get into the focus areas, those six focus areas we originally started with. And, um, upon taking this contract, they were overarching research questions that the school committee, um, would have liked, have answered. Um, and so focus area one was around program, organization and management. And so the overarching question is, is the Marblehead public school special education Department organized and staffed appropriately to ensure compliance with legal mandates, monitoring of student data, efficient use of financial resources and development and support of effective programming to ensure, uh, students’ success.

3:03:50 So what we did, um, is we broke it down into three sections. And so we used areas of promise, which came directly from, um, their report. And so areas of promise, uh, came around staffing, um, pedagogical practices and curriculum. So they, um, clearly expressed that our staff are, um, a very tight knit group, very collaborative with one another, um, and that they could clearly see a comradery among those teams. And that information came to them through, um, feedback through surveys, interviews, and the focus groups, um, that they did. They, um, also noticed a res, a great responsiveness from both educators

3:04:35 and administration, um, addressing concerns from staff and parents. Um, the school system staff, um, was widely recognized of having, um, some very high quality skills in their instruction, um, and take their job responsibilities extremely seriously. And the use of data to inform instruction, um, was seen as also a highlight pro uh, procedures and protocols. So in this section here, and this, I just wanna make note of this sometimes throughout this report, what was, uh, a promise then was something we need to work on. And so we were kind of like vacillating between those two things. Um, and then sometimes the report was talking about present,

3:05:22 and then sometimes it was talking about the past. So I just want to, you know, give that context of this. So we tried to mark the spots that did those different things. So preachers, as you know, prefer procedures and protocols. Our district was in corrective action, um, when Victoria and I both, uh, came into the district. And, um, there were, it was mostly around compliance of the special education timeline, um, and due process. And so, uh, we did a lot of work with our amazing staff and our team chairs. And, um, so it’s noted within the report that, um, we are in the right direction. Um, they did not necessarily note that we are out

3:06:08 of corrective action right now. Um, and we would be the first to say ourselves. There’s still some work, um, to be done there as well too. If I can just interject that for anyone that isn’t aware, and I, hopefully we all remember this at the table. We were, the state released us from corrective action several months ahead of schedule because so much work had been done in the time since Lisa Marie and Victoria started. So we not only were ahead of schedule and that corrective action, they released us, which, which is a huge accomplishment. So, thank you.

3:06:46 Um, and so, uh, the, the next section, this slide basically restates the question. Um, and so it’s talking about areas of growth. So of course, uh, compliance with the legal mandates, which we are continuing, uh, to work on. We’ll talk about things that are going on, um, monitoring, uh, student data, making sure that everything that we’re doing is data driven. And, um, as it was verbally said, not like on a hunch of why we’re, um, using the instruction and identifying students who may need additional services, efficient use of financial resources. Um, basically, um, they’re talking about staffing, staffing shortages in this line here in the strain financially

3:07:33 that has, um, while we posted just like every other district for our various openings, oftentimes we would have applicants, but they weren’t properly licensed, or they didn’t necessarily understand the scope and sequence of the actual role, um, that we were hiring for. So we did need to contract, um, outside, with outside vendors. And they have been able to provide us, um, very high caliber, um, licensed professionals to support. But that is not a practice that we are looking to continue, um, into the future. Knock on wood, we did add The ABAs though, right? Or BCBAs? Um, the BCBAs HA had already been here, but two of them, um, are under contract.

3:08:21 Okay. But, um, we are working to, um, take them out of that contract. Okay. So we have developed a great relationship with one of our vendors. Um, and so they’re doing it, it cost neutral for us. Okay. Great. Very happy about. Great. Um, so then, uh, maintaining staff and continued professional development through the different focus groups and surveys, uh, staff are requesting more, uh, professional development. So we’re going to talk about that a little bit more in a few minutes. And then continuing to develop communication with all, uh, stakeholders. So what actions have been taken so far this school year? Um, and through all these action steps, we wanna make sure we’re saying, um, huge kudos

3:09:06 to our team chairs who are also administrators, um, in the district, as well as our building based teams, as well as our staff, uh, the entire, uh, student service department, and of course the rest of our, our cult team. Um, so to help with compliance around legal mandates, we, and we’ve talked about some of these things a lot, so I’m just gonna kind of go over, if you have a question, I can go back. But we’ve implemented what we call a master tracker. And, uh, Victoria and I pre-populated that over the summer so that when staff came back, it wasn’t such a big learning curve. And basically the master tracker tracks compliance. What are the date, what is, uh, the 30 day deadline? What is the 45 day deadline? If a student is going for a three year re-eval, who are the evaluators?

3:09:53 Was a referral referral for an initial evaluation done through our CAT process or through a parent. Uh, ‘cause that is other data that we’ll be vetting at the end of the year to see the percentage of, of those, um, referrals. And did it result in, um, a special education or on an individualized, um, education plan. Uh, we also have developed a special education procedure model for, uh, procedural model. And so basically what we did was we took the actual law, the regulation or policy, and we spelled it out. And then underneath we talked about, well, this is how we do business in Marblehead public schools. And we spelled it out and we hyperlinked all the documents, um, needed for, uh, that compliance within, um,

3:10:41 this procedure manual. And it’s also great too, in working with this superintendent Ferrera and talking about like, special ed staff when they’re new and they come into the district, there’s a lot to learn, but not that this procedure manual is going to take the place of a person, but it’s so comprehensive that we made sure it was in their hands to start the school year. So it wasn’t like they needed to wait to start. Um, um, This is all stuff that didn’t exist prior to you two coming. Correct. This, this whole slide is, um Right. Things that we’ve developed together. So we think that’s very important for everyone to know, including, it’s like critical the press out there. Yeah. Um, that these are the action steps taken. That’s the headline. It’s 23 mm-hmm. Since July one. Uh, we Oh, since July one, right?

3:11:29 Yeah. A lot. A lot’s happen in a short period of time. Yeah. Um, we have great teams. So, um, we have weekly meetings with our team chairs and through those, those weekly meetings are an hour and a half, if not longer. ‘cause we get going and, uh, then we realize it’s the sun’s going down. Um, but they stay and they hang in because we’re so invested in getting this right, um, for our students and our families. So during those meetings, sometimes we are doing professional development with our team chairs. And then they take that professional development, um, into the schools, to their teams within the schools. And during PLC time, um, we also have biweekly meetings with our school-based administration.

3:12:15 We’ve just shifted those a little bit to include the team chairs. Before it was myself and the building principal, but what we found, um, would be a better model would be, um, Victoria and I, as well as the principals and assistant principals and the team chair. So we’re doing case studies on children to make sure that we’re providing them, um, the best practices and making sure all the policies and procedures, um, around that student’s journey through special education, um, is a great one. Monitoring student data. So, uh, we had done professional development, and I know there was some implemented last year. They had Alan Bloom in last spring, and he did a lot of work with the staff this year. Uh, staff requested Alan’s books

3:13:02 to help support them in writing the new IEP. And so we did purchase those, um, for each building also. Um, we, uh, took pieces of the new IEP and presented it to our team chairs. And then they took our actual presentation and brought it to the building level around the goals and, um, monitoring progress. Uh, most recently we had, um, not a professional development, but we are bringing in this program. Um, I had written a grant through the state for a new IEP and we received that grant. And so we’ll be purchasing a program called Goal Book. And so what we did was we had goal book, do a presentation for our entire special they services, I mean our whole team.

3:13:49 Um, it was done virtually and they demoed the program. And so basically the program is that you take a, a individual student’s profile and you embed it into the program. And you, um, the, this program aligns with the Massachusetts curriculum framework. So it’s not just like these general standards, it’s the actual standards, um, for that student. And then it generates a goal, a very comprehensive smarty goal that meets all the measures of a, a, uh, goal. But it doesn’t just stop there. The case manager can then manipulate the goal, how they see fit to make sure it’s individualized to that child. Um, and then along with that, it develops the objectives underneath that are measurable

3:14:35 and tied directly to the goal. And then our feature as we’re working towards collecting student data and using that to, uh, guide our instruction and our best practices, um, it has a progress monitoring piece built in where it generates progress monitoring for a six to eight week period of time already created for our teachers so that they administer it, collect that data, and it’s able to report back to our families on the growth. ‘cause that was another big piece that our families were asking for. Like, we don’t wanna wait to our annual reviews. We don’t wanna wait to a three year, year eval to know, um, like number wise, how our students are doing. And so that will provide us, um, that opportunity. And then efficient use of financial resources.

3:15:20 You know, we, we only hire high quality staff and with the proper certifications, um, and we’re working on that, uh, more and more, let’s see, um, keep going, uh, effective programming. And so, uh, we are currently under review for our language based and therapeutic programs. We’ve been working with Landmark Outreach for most of the school year. Um, they’ve come in and done observations and some professional development. And our goal by the end of this school year is that we will have, um, a very well-rounded, vertically aligned language-based program, um, that meets all the gold standards for that environment, as well as, um, um, entrance and exit criteria.

3:16:07 And, um, we plan on having a lot of family involvement where we’re going to have an open house, we’re inviting families in to meet the teachers, talk about what a language based classroom entails, what support, um, can be given at home, a school like that partnership together. Um, and the same thing is happening with our therapeutic program. Our favorite thing about the therapeutic program is originally we were going to contract with an outside vendor, but once we talked about, you know, this happening to our staff, several members stepped forward and said, you know, this is my wheelhouse and this is something we’d really like to lead and do. And so we have, um, five different staff members. I could probably name four of them right now, but I don’t want to, because if I leave up the fifth then

3:16:54 I’ll feel really bad all night long. Um, but they have pulled together this core group who are, um, um, excellent educators who will be training the rest of the therapeutic team throughout the district. Um, and developing those, the same kind of like pathway that we’re doing with the language-based, uh, classroom. Um, the superintendent keeps reminding us like, you can’t do everything in a year. We know that there are other, uh, spaces that need, um, for us to continue to look at. So next year’s goal will be through our A BA classrooms and looking at a life skills slash academic skills, um, programming for our students. Um, we talked about professional development, I won’t go there again. And then, um, to talk about the point to continue

3:17:43 to develop communication with all stakeholders, so all central office staff as well as the school committee send out newsletters to our families, um, to keep them informed. Um, we hold office hours and, um, our beginning of the year letter, we got a lot of positive feedback. That was the letter that goes out to each individual family that says, these are your act. This is your case manager and these are the names of your actual providers of the services for your child per their IEP. Here’s their contact information, um, et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah. So that was great. Alright. So focus area two was student identification and placement. The overarching question was are students, um,

3:18:28 identification and placement procedures and marblehead public schools compliant with current regulations and effective in identifying and placing students with disabilities in appropriate educational settings? So one of the main, uh, themes throughout this was we had some really great spots in our referral process, but then it’s also a part of area growth. Um, so the collaboration in the referral process was the highlight in the promise, um, that there’s a strong team approach involving multiple staff members with different various, um, uh, backgrounds so that they have a lot to input if a student is struggling in finding those proper interventions. So teachers, counselors, therapists and such. Um, and parents to identify students’ needs to, uh, determine the appropriate interventions,

3:19:14 a data-driven approach. This time they’re talking more towards the, um, referral process. And if a student is going through the teacher assistant team, what is that process as far as collecting that data surrounding those interventions to them? Inform if we’re going to move forward with a special education referral, or if those interventions are adequately meeting that student’s needs. And then how do we collect that data? Early intervention is another piece where preschool teachers and some of the general education staff emphasize the early identification and intervention and how important that is, including the collaborations with the local daycares. Um, and early childhood assessments. And early intervention is in full collab, uh, in collaboration with us as far as who we may need to eval, um, who’s coming through that is gonna be identified. Um, and then also all the local preschools, um, making sure

3:19:59 that they know when our screening times are, if they wanna access those. And all of those things have been posted throughout the year. So we’ve developed really nice partnerships, I think, um, and especially with our team chairs and our special ed, special education secretary, Leah, has been an integral part in co collaborating with the local community places as well. Thank You. That’s something that going back multiple, um, directors of student services that has been asked, and we’ve been asking to collaborate with the early intervention. ‘cause those children who need much higher level of services, a lot of times early intervention gets those children right from birth, so they can give you a runway for staffing years in advance mm-hmm. Um, for those kids. So thank you so much for making that connection that will really help stabilize that staffing at the lower levels.

3:20:48 Um, so compliance with regulations was an area of promise, but things that we are obviously still working towards as well. So MPS falls, state and federal special education laws regarding student identification and placement. Um, and the district has established procedural protocols to main compliance with the legal mandates, which ties to our meeting trackers and making sure we’re sending out consent in enough time. And all of those pieces around that referral process are areas of growth. Um, the referral process and the continued training. So really making sure that our internal process, um, is, is response to interventions throughout the district. And one of the main pieces that came through this is having some consistencies in our teams within the buildings. Um, and then also the effectiveness of the identification process.

3:21:34 Um, we are seeing that we do have a higher, um, a slightly higher than average rate of students on IEP. So really making sure that we’re using multiple data points, um, meaningful assessment data points as well to really then inform based off suspected disability types. Um, and then if they are identified, are we placing them in the least restrictive program programming or, um, and also giving the most inclusive opportunities for that student’s needs. Um, and then some inconsistencies were noted as far as once students were, um, were identified, um, making sure that the accommodations were effectively implemented and understood, um, by all teaching staff to be implemented effectively for those students’ needs. And then they jump again to intervention process prior

3:22:19 to special education. Um, so furthering the staff’s knowledge about the actual teacher assistant process and what steps you might take to refer a student, um, what forms you might have to fill out and such is a point of growth as well.

3:22:34 Um, so the action steps that were taken this year, uh, the district has been starting to work with administrators on aligning. The naming of the teacher assistant team is, is consistent throughout the district. Um, the forms and the process are all being vertically aligned, building to building, so it’s easier accessible for, for staff to know what that process is. Um, effectiveness of the identification process. Um, staff have been delivered professional development surrounding specific assessments and data to support suspected disabilities. Um, so a great example of this is if a student had a specific learning disability, um, especially in the area of reading, what are those assessment points that we’re gonna use to see if that in fact is something that we need to support the student on. Um, going through that, uh,

3:23:20 special education referral process, um, new compliance policies and pro procedures support. Our timelines are met during the testing process. And then if a student is, does qualify, professional development of, of staff was done in the difference between the accommodations and modifications, because that was one of those big themes this year in our special education, um, to our special education staff, I should say. We haven’t done it with the general education staff yet. Um, the district plans on delivering that similar training, um, for the gen ed staff as well, since they’re really the ones implementing the accommodations. They’re also the ones giving the feedback in team meetings of what accommodations are working for students and how effective it is if they’re giving it to them during a certain time possibly, or even adding an accommodation that might be extremely necessary, um, in that process

3:24:08 intervention process prior to the special education referral. So the DCAP and knowledge around the DCAP was another point, um, that what is being discussed through this, and that is something that was talked about at the beginning of the year with the district administrators and with the intention to align it vertically so that everybody knows where to access that. Um, because that’s typically something that can give, be given to all students and how we can use that effectively, um, is something that we are aligning on utilizing wind blocks and magic blocks to support those interventions if they’re in the process of collecting data to potentially make a special education referral. And then max maximizing the knowledge of the teacher assistant team members and their individual expertise to generate interventions, um, to really show student progress or area of need.

3:24:55 Great. So onto focus area number three, program service delivery and instructional practice. The overarching question on this, uh, focus area was do does Marblehead Public Schools offer a comprehensive continuum of services for students with disabilities? Is the placement of students and the delivery of effective specialized instruction in the least restrictive environment prioritized in marblehead public schools? So, um, they commented on the strong commitment of our staff, our, um, educators and our instructional assistants, um, and we see that daily, um, they, they referred to, um, the great, um, tier

3:25:41 one assessments brought into the district, um, from our teaching and learning, uh, department. So we have gold standard, um, assessments that we give that then inform our tat teams of student progress and whether we should be moving forward, um, uh, in a special ed special education lens, um, that, um, in some spaces, um, it was discussed and talked about the data-driven, um, instruction, um, pieces to specialize instruction. It’s not one size fits all. Um, the MTSS effectiveness. So that’s, um, multi-tiered systems of support, um, that has been talked about several times in this form. Um, it, um, includes, um,

3:26:28 data tracking, um, are there targeted instructions again, uh, um, into the process. And then, you know, once the interventions are done, um, progress morning out of the process, they talked about specialized programs in the special education realm, um, that many of our staff are certified in Orton-Gillingham. I’m actually part of a cohort that I’m actually missing right now, uh, and have missed ‘cause of meetings last couple weeks. Um, being trained in Orton-Gillingham, um, we have, uh, staff who are trained in the LIPS program as well as Project Reed. Um, Victoria herself trained the staff, um, in several buildings on the program called ravo, which is an essential program, um,

3:27:14 in our language based environment. Um, and so we are really looking, um, to continue, uh, training our staff so that we have, um, these effective specialized programs where we need them to be

3:27:30 Areas of growth. Um, so it said, it talked about caseload versus workload, and so we, we need to really like get, sit into that and think about that. So when looking at a staff member’s caseload, it might say that they have, um, 10 students on their caseload, but what’s behind the 10 students? Like what does the IEP actually say that they need in order to access, um, their education? And so that is work that we’ve been actually doing all year. We’ll, we’ll talk about that in a minute. Um, it was recommended that in certain spaces that we do have, um, some areas we have an overabundance of staff and other areas, they commented that, um,

3:28:18 right now we’re right on the money. But again, looking at what are the actual students’ needs, um, um, in that model, they talked about the co-teaching model. They saw some great examples of co-teaching, but did, um, surmise that we could use some more professional development on what a true coaching, uh, uh, co-teaching model looks like. There’s actually six different models of, uh, co-teaching. And I know that some staff in the district previously, um, had some training using, um, Maryland friends, um, uh, thoughts around co-teaching. So we’re looking to reinvest, um, in co-teaching in the near future, uh, staff training. Uh, staff are still feeling a little, um,

3:29:07 not as confident as they’d like to be around the new IEP and, uh, how to, you know, uh, write it properly. Um, so we’re gonna be working on that, looking for more inclusion opportunities for our students. Um, and then further discussing has been, as it’s been said before, that, um, our students identified as special education. We really need to be taking a look at that. And, and is, is it really, um, more 5 0 4 related? Is it more we need to spend some more time in our MTSS process, um, et cetera? So what step action steps have been taken? Um, we’ve examined the number of caseloads, um, the amount of service delivery. There are recommendations that have been given, uh, to us,

3:29:53 which we basically already knew, but it’s great to have that confirmation from a, from a third party around, for example. Uh, what are the re regulations around, um, the different, like related services, for example, um, collaboration between building administrators and special education administrators. They work very closely together along with our special education secretaries. So they make up these great teams, um, at the building level. Um, again, our co-teach teaching models, they have, um, some great models that other staff can visit, um, in the near future to see, um, that at work, our mentoring program, um, has a clear structure for collaboration and continued learning for our mentees

3:30:41 and our special education staff has weekly PLCs, um, again, to, um, be provided that, um, professional development. It was noted that, um, in the viewing of some of the PLCs, um, some groups were very focused and driven and other groups it was a little bit, uh, more waning. And so that’s just professional development that we need to do with the team chairs to make sure the message is being delivered clearly across all schools. Um, another action step is the consistency and time for MTSS implementation. And so, uh, assistant super ferrera, um, is, you know, really implementing those wind blocks and, and looking at, um, the different grade blocks

3:31:29 and grade spans and, and, um, how those are being utilized. We’re also talking about more inclusive opportunities across not just our general ed classrooms, but across our, um, our electives and like art and, uh, foreign language. Um, let’s see more of course, um, to create a least restrictive environment, um, including those students who are in a sub-separate program. We need to be looking at ways and areas where they can be integrated into the general education setting. And then, um, as was discussed a little bit before, the high percent, um, what are we going to do to identify those high percentage, um, of identified students?

3:32:14 Well, we use, um, a reading graphic organizer that really targets students and what are the exact areas of need, um, in reading, it’s not everything in reading, but, um, the specialized tests that we’re using and then communicating that to parents clearly about what the needs actually are. And then, uh, we had recently done a training, Victoria led it for our general education staff about what makes a great, um, uh, ed A and ed b, it’s called, it’s like, how does students function in the general education space? Um, how is their attention? What do you notice about their memory? And so we walk through all of those steps to give a little bit more consistency in formatting vertically, um, across the district.

3:33:01 And we, um, we are going to continue to do more, um, of that professional development working with, uh, Julia Focus area four is staff support and development. The overarching question was, does Marblehead Public Schools ensure that staff are qualified to deliver highly effective specialized instruction in the least restrictive environment? Um, our areas of promise was the commitment to collecting data. Again, collaboration across teams are two big threads coming across. Again, desire for special education training for the staff through the professional development specif specifically. Um, some of the highlights were the commitment on the part to the staff to engage in specialized training, particularly in the areas of restraint training, deescalation practices in the new IEP, um, support from the administration being actively involved in

3:33:48 facilitating the collaboration of time for educators. Um, while that still is an area of growth, but was also still recognized that there is a commitment to getting that time for educators, um, and addressing student needs, some of our areas of growth. Um, the professional development for all staff, um, including instructional assistants, um, that would like more, uh, PD role specific to them, professional development including topics, topics of co-teaching, inclusion strategies, MTSS improving understanding of the referral process, deescalation social skills, language based strategies, working with students with autism. And differentiated instructions were areas that were highlighted, um, through the questions. Um, in the surveys and the focus groups, um, the district strives

3:34:37 to place students in the, in the inclusion inclusion setting. But challenges exist, providing adequate, adequate support for students with complex needs. Um, therefore continued professional development in those areas should be addressed. Um, equity among the team chairs, caseloads and responsibilities, um, was one thing that did come out as well to make sure that, um, it’s not only, again, that caseload, but also what’s happening behind the scenes. How many grade levels, how, what’s the level of need, how many programs are in a certain building and such. Um, and then feedback me mechanisms. Um, so educators reported a desire for more consistent feedback on practices, especially with regard to writing the new IEP.

3:35:26 Um, so action steps of what’s happening. Um, this was all collected as data in the fall. So things that have happened since the fall when some of these things had, um, been collected as data points, um, for professional development. Um, we talked a lot about that tonight. But, um, although the district’s providing that on, although the district providing ongoing professional development, we understand that staff has identified those focus areas, um, in that we would like to continue to address those needs. Um, professional development and four instructional assistants have started, especially in small groups such as the therapeutic instructional assistants at the upper elementary, paid opportunities for certain, um, for certain professional developments outside of the contracted hours for the instructional assistants have been provided. And we also have a plan to, um,

3:36:11 hold a few more this year already that are already planned ahead of time. Um, and then collaboration of special education staff and general education staff members to understand the complex disabilities to best provide, um, that support in a meaningful inclusion way. Uh, the equity of the team chairs, so caseloads have been examined as well as the role responsibility as being part of the, as being a part of a special education administrator. All team chairs are currently working on professional development through a job alike. That’s facilitated through Athena K 12 learning. And then through our weekly team chair meetings as well. Um, we’re calibrating and aligning on district policies, procedures, professional develop, delivered to staff compliance and learning through situational experiences, which is allowing them to streamline any pieces of their job so that they’re feeling more confident in the tasks

3:36:58 that they’re delivering every day. And then also for them to feel confident delivering professional development to our special education staff. Um, feedback mechanisms. Uh, feedback is done through the consultation with team chairs, often special education teams, um, work together if there is maybe, uh, questions running, how, how do I write this section of the IEP and such? Um, more formal feedback is given through the education evaluation process as well as a coaching model. And then PLC meetings are held weekly with special education staff facilitated by their team chairs for open conversations, questions to be answered as well, um, in those forums. Okay. Focus area number five is around compliance. We’ve talked a lot about compliance all year. The overarching question is our substantially separate programs in compliance with current regulations, including

3:37:46 but not limited to staffing ratios, data collection procedures and restraint protocols. So areas of promises around restraint protocols. So we’re very happy to say that, um, all three of our BCBAs are new to the district this year, and that two out of the three are currently trained as trainers for safety care or QBS, how it’s otherwise known. Um, but we’ve actually taken the extra step. The third, um, BCBA is being, will be trained as a trainer, and we’ve also trained Laura Skel, Lauren Skelton, who’s a team chair, and she will be, um, working as a trainer to train our administration. So our principals and assistant principals by the start of next school year, will also be trained not to be trainers,

3:38:32 but they will be trained, again, some of them, um, so that they can identify, because one of the regulations states that if a child is in a restraint for more than 20 minutes, uh, the principal needs to be called and present and needs to sign off to say that the restraint is being done properly. Um, and areas of promise that we have put into place, um, which is kind of like a jumping off point of where last school year ended, was around the communication after a restraint happens, um, communicating to families within 24 hours, um, data collection and monitoring systems. Um, they noted that there were some inconsistencies, but there are systems in place for, uh, data tracking,

3:39:19 which we are still working on. Uh, areas of growth staffing ratios. Uh, we, the district does meet state mandated staffing ratios for sub substantially separate programs. However, staffing shortages in specialized areas impact individualized, individualized student shortages. So that speaks to just being transparent and clear. Um, our therapeutic programs just not here in Marblehead, but across America, are, um, it takes a special kind of person to, um, working that environment and give the love that is needed and required, uh, to support students with those needs. Um, again, they talk about data collection being somewhat inconsistent and that we need to do more professional development

3:40:04 around progress monitoring. Um, let’s see, continued safety care training. Um, and so I’m, I’m really proud of our staff ‘cause I, you know, last year we talked about it all the time, there was a sense of fear. It was articulated to us when we started here in the district about, around so many different aspects. I’m not gonna get in the weeds of that. Um, but once we sat down with many, many, many staff and we explained the need for, um, this compliance piece, especially if it related to a staff member’s role within the district, um, staff, you know, they talked with each other and I’ve supported each other. And so we’ve had a, a huge uptick of our staff

3:40:50 who are safety care trained. Um, I would say it’s a stark difference from what we saw in the fall. Each and every month, um, our BCBAs are providing training to staff and then we’re working with assistant superintendent Ferrera that this may all staff will, uh, once again be trained on the deescalation piece of safety care. And so I’m not gonna, it’s late, but there are are three moves that you’re supposed to make with children. You identify when they’re escalated, that helps deescalate them. And it’s not hands on at all it’s words, it’s actions, it’s move moves and it’s love and care for kids who are in, uh, crisis that moment of time. Um, I have been asked

3:41:36 to speak a little bit about restraints this evening. Um, and so we did a data dive ‘cause I love data and, and looking at it. And so, um, I also wanna make it clear to the community that this, so far this school year, we have had five restraints that have been reported to the state. Um, and we’ve created additional systems within the district of our, uh, actual reporting form to us. Um, as well as the forms that we use when unfortunately illustrate needs to happen. But it is an absolute last resort. It isn’t something that we’re doing every day. Um, pre previous data shows that, um, now correct me if I’m wrong here ‘cause my post-it must have fallen off. Uh, last year there was a total of 49 restraints within this district and the year

3:42:24 before it was 72. So when you said five, is that because they went over the time limit Of restraint? No. So anytime you do, um, certain moves and you put hands on, okay, um, it qualifies as a restraint. So most of our restraints, to be clear out of the five four of them are called stand holds. Right. Um, so that isn’t a child on the ground and wailing all this. Um, and then there was, uh, one floor and that’s, you know, you support the child to the ground and you just hold them. There isn’t. So I think that bears repeating again. Yeah. Just so the press gets that, that last year it was in the high forties, the year behind before in the seventies, over 70. We are three quarters the way through the school year

3:43:11 and we’ve hit five Five. That that is, that is better for students. That is thinking. Our Staff has had like this great training, you know, we’re invested in, in working through deescalation first and foremost. Um, clearly What It’s working, It’s working. Yeah, Definitely. So kudos to the staff is what absolutely is my party line. There is like absolutely We’re working together and the practices and the classroom management and the PBIS within the district, like all of those things are, seems separate to each other, but they’re not. They work hand in hand. And when students have clean, consistent expectations, um, they deescalate better. They know what the expectation is of them.

3:43:56 It isn’t that this adult is going to treat me and say something this way and this adult’s gonna do something different for that same action. When we can develop consistency, and I believe this with curriculum too, ‘cause I always wear my little curriculum hat. Um, then students aren’t left. Guess like what’s today gonna be about? When there’s a system and a pattern, kids are able to relax in their own skin and be able to like accept, you know, whether it’s it are words around deescalation or curriculum itself. So when they truly, like we talk about all the time, the two sides of the triangle and how they come together, the SEL part and the academic part. It is so true. It’s not just words. It’s actually, um, very, very important. Um, And we’ve got what, one more that’s just getting a little late. I want to just getting Sure. We get through this and

3:44:41 Okay. Focus area six is the last one. Thanks. Yeah, six Six is the last one. Okay, great. So let’s see. Anything we haven’t mentioned before? It’s all in detail there. Um, and again, the safety care training. Um, yeah, I said all that. Look at me. Look at we’re on six. We’re on six. All right. So stakeholders perspective and engagement. So what are the stakeholders perspectives on effectiveness of programs for students with disabilities? This, um, data here was drawn from strictly the feedback from all the different surveys. So this is perspective of the community of staff members. Um, the administration kind of all compiled into one. Um, and they’re reporting just based off the facts

3:45:29 from those surveys. So summative evaluation feedback was an area of promise, um, that they indicated that most staff members with had formal summative evaluations and feedback annually as required by dsi. Generally the positively, generally positively perceived by the staff who receive it, central office leadership efforts to improve communication support and clarity. Um, although there’s still room to grow, always with that responds positively perceive the efforts of the new central admin team, um, and address some of those concerns. Um, positive parent and guardian staff per perceptions of special education services, parents and guardians, 59% and staff 78% report perceiving that special education services are moderately to extremely effective positive staff perception

3:46:14 of special education, administrative support. 85% of staff perceive that they are sometimes to always supported by the special ed administrators and parent and staff perception of inclusion. Um, parents and guardians in generally feel that their children’s are, their children are not pulled out of the general education classroom more than necessary. And that inclusion opportunities are effective. So, Jen, I, I know in the spirit of time we wanna keep moving, but we do 98%, I think we vote no competence in our special education department. A year ago, I think 98% voted no confidence. If I, if I recall. And you guys have been on the job for 7, 8, 8 months. Seven, eight months, and 85% are feeling supported. That that is, that’s so important. That is a massive turnaround in, in I think also a headline.

3:47:02 It’s important that they, that they have the support that Yeah. Okay. Cry Also a headline. I have just a simple question. Speech and language and OTPT were not mentioned at all in this report is that, Um, no, they, um, they were, but I wanna also be very, um, cognizant of the fact that just like with children, I don’t want to make it so targeted that anyone feels any sort of, any sort of way. Okay, So it’s a higher level. Yes. Mm-hmm. ‘cause all said and done, this report was 359 pages that we had to read every single page and, and does sit down to this and present and be our merry way. Well, nice job. This is the eighth iteration of this.

3:47:50 Lemme tell you. Thank God for this one over here. Areas of growth. Um, so inconsistency in the service delivery. So there is still work. Um, parents and teachers report that the variation in how special education services are provided across different schools, um, in classrooms, professional development, development needs around co-teaching, um, executive functioning strategies, behavior management techniques still need to, you know, continue to happen as well. Um, general education teachers require additional guidance on effectively implementing the IEP and accommodations in the inclusive setting. Um, going to look at that staffing shortage and the high caseloads and that, um, caseload versus workload component that we’ve spoken to, spoken about. And then also those very specialized positions, um, that our, our behavior specialists,

3:48:36 our our instructional assistants, and any other related service providers can create challenges and service delivery of times. Um, communication and collaboration. So some parents still feel uninformed about their child’s progress and their services needs for stronger transition. Planning concerns were raised about transitions from grade levels from high school and then also post-secondary, um, opportunities improve improved clarity and expectations. Staff recognized the efforts, um, of the improved clarity and expectations. However, they note that they need additional clarity and support for implementing new expectations from the essential administration office. Um, a lot of that we highlighted. So in the action steps, we kind of did a truncated version here on the last page. Um, so in terms of the inconsistencies in service delivery,

3:49:22 um, we did note that service delivery may look different due to a student need. Programs that are in certain schools and servicing at different grade levels all comes into play, um, while we’re still trying to give that high quality instruction. Um, and what level of service really is detailed and should be d differentiated based off that student need, um, need for stronger transition planning. Um, so we actually just talked about this in our team chair meeting today. Uh, so transition planning should be discussed during IEP meetings for students 13, turning 14 during that IEP period. And then all the way through, um, transition from building to building will be discussed at IEP team meetings. Um, so transition meetings, if they aren’t done in the annual meeting on the latter half of the year here are gonna be scheduled very shortly. So stay tuned. Um,

3:50:07 transition forms will be utilized from grade to grade, so case managers being able to communicate about those really relevant, um, pieces that are captured in the IEP, but also just them as a, as a student and really identifying those strengths, which the new IEP process is working towards. Um, but really having great communication between case managers from grade level to grade level. And then transition planning for post-secondary, um, is worked on age 14 and beyond, like we talked about, supported in the student’s vision. The team at the high school works in collaboration with the special educa education team as well as the guidance department, depending on what that post-secondary view looks like. And then also other post-secondary views, um, beyond 18 to 22 are also areas of, um, need that we’re looking at in the district. We don’t have our own 18 to 22-year-old program here. Yeah.

3:50:53 But they’re, yep. Um, but there are a lot of opportunities and development for those students that ne that might need that programming that we’ve committed to working. We actually went to, um, an open house at Salem State. Mm-hmm. And they were talking about what used to be called the MACI program. It’s now called the MAP C. Um, and that actually has programs not only at Salem State, but also throughout Massachusetts. Um, and we were, they were giving us education around what it looks like, particularly at Saleem State as an opportunity, um, as a potential continuation of programming for those student needs. So we always had that program. And I know emphatically as a prior to two years ago in the recent administration, it existed. Yep. Um, and actually we tuitioned in, so if the previous administration dissolved that program

3:51:40 that did not go through the school committee, nor were we notified. Yeah. I had no idea What we weren doing, that it had a dedicated space during the transition. The building was school heard, it was fantastic. It was a tuition in opportunity. Yes. Um, It’s on the docket, But, but more, this is not on you, but that is a decision to dissolve a program that I believe only can be made by a school committee in the previous administration did not notify us that program was dissolved. I, I don’t, I Don’t know that that’s another discussion. I Don’t know that, but that’s, um, yeah. Yeah. We, we’ve talked a little bit about that. Where Are those students being? So we have a variety of different, um, depending on student need. Okay. Um, right now, without identifying, we have some, uh, that are at a res, more residential setting. Some are in local, um, tuition shared district. Yep.

3:52:25 Shared districts. So We are tuitioning out students. Correct. Yes. Yep. Meanwhile, the last time I was asked by asked the last administration, I was told they were over at they, because I wanted to make sure they a dedicated space. I was told they were at the veteran school, but a space was being looked at for them. So not speaking, this is not on you guys, but it’s yet one. No, No. It’s no reflection of you at All. One More. Yeah. So I think like, what does all this mean? Um, that, you know, a lot of information was gleaned. I don’t think anything is surprised to anybody. Awesome. We have an incredible team, uh, working together. Um, we appreciate all the kudos that you guys give to Victoria and I, however, you know, I always like to bring it back to like, it has to be a team approach because nothing’s going to happen if we don’t have, um,

3:53:12 all our ORs in the water. And, um, my question, and I’ll end with this is always is the, are these actions that we’re taking best Buy kids? Because if they aren’t, they’re not happening here. Thank You. You absolutely. Thank, thank you very much. Thank you guys. Very Work your time. We really appreciate this and thank you to the administration for following up through with this and getting this. ‘cause this is the report we’ve been asking for, for, for quite some time. So I think for the whole staff, for doing it as well, for participating and having faith in you guys, um, as we did to kinda write the ship. And by no means do we think that this is completely fixed. I think to the comment made earlier, no one, that was not my intention to state that. But it’s, it’s always gonna be a work moving forward and Right, right. And, and to think that

3:53:59 it’ll be solved, everyone will be solved. That’s not something that’s special Ed is always changing. Yeah. John, you Had a question? Yeah, so I just, um, I just wanna say I live that world for many years. Um, I know the challenges that everyone’s up against, especially coming into, into Marblehead where we know there’s a lot of things that need to be looked at. So I just want to thank the two of you personally. I wanna thank the chairs and all the special ed staff, the service providers, um, and everybody that’s kind of come together because we’ve clearly done a lot of work in a short amount of time. And I know I say it a lot, again, it takes small bites of the apple to get there, but we’re getting there and I’m really proud of, of what has been accomplished so far. Um, and, and that’s thanks to, to you and the collaboration with, with, um, Julia and, and the rest of the team. So I just wanna share that. Thank you.

3:54:45 Thanks. Thank you, John. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Thanks for, I know it’s late, the late hours, so we appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you. Um, I was gonna move on if that’s to the next item. We’re almost done here. Um, what, so the next item on the agenda was the superintendent’s presentation on the Cooker Paget report. Okay. So thank you. Um, I don’t have a presentation, so to speak, because you guys had the, uh, the executive summary of the findings that was shared. Um, so, but I will do a little overview and I promise I will be relatively brief. Um, so just as a backdrop, the school committee asked for an independent investigation into, um, allegations of antisemitism, anti-discrimination, I mean in discrimination and harassment. Um, and agre, uh, unprofessional conduct of personnel.

3:55:32 So this was done. I came into the district. I was asked to find, uh, you know, investigator to kind of look into some of the allegations, which I did. Um, I know we heard from folks earlier this morning, they weren’t overly happy with the results, which, um, I think the unhappiness with the results isn’t, doesn’t necessarily mean that the report, the investigation wasn’t done properly. It’s just the findings were the findings. And it was, um, done in a way that was very comprehensive. So I’m just gonna kinda go through, um, some of, some of the background in, in the process and, and share my summary of the executive summary. ‘cause I think it’s important. So the independent investigation was conducted, uh, information by the school committee. Um, it was never intended to be an investigation of as to whether all of Marblehead public schools was anti-Semitic, was really looking at specific allegations of personnel.

3:56:18 So realistically, this whole report is a personnel investigation. So I know that’s why people are frustrated ‘cause they don’t have all the information. They can’t have all the information ‘cause it’s personnel. So that’s, that’s wherein lies, uh, wherein lies some of the issues. But the allegations include complaints included complaints of personnel and district administrators violated the district’s non-discrimination harassment policy, um, and the civil rights grievance procedure and staff conduct policy. There were also allegations that district administrators violated, um, folks right to free expression, which is the first amendment. So that was where the, um, uh, the allegations were. The investigation in its entirety is focused upon the personnel, which I just mentioned. And the executive summary that has been shared has created to outline the steps that were taken to outline the scope of the investigation. And along with the overarching findings.

3:57:04 So the process was that there was 26 individuals that were interviewed, including current and former staff, parents, friends, family members. Three other individuals were contacted based upon purportedly having relevant information, but they declined to participate, so intended to be at least 29 inter individuals. There was a review and an analysis of 450 pages of documents that included business records related to district investigations, letters of support on behalf of, uh, one of the parties, correspondence between parties and the district personnel PowerPoint slides from, uh, antisemitism webinar, a forensic article of it, of it records and numerous newspaper articles. There was a lot of information that was looked at in addition to the, the people that were interviewed. And some of ‘em were interviewed multiple times. Um, so this is some of the, some

3:57:51 of the issue that some people have. And I, I can understand why. But, um, there was no specific definition of antisemitism that’s been adopted. The investigator used utilized federal Title VII and state law MGL chapter, um, uh, 11 b, I’m sorry. Anyway, um, prohibit prohibition of workplace harassment, including anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. As a backdrop, the investigator also recognized, but did not specifically and solely rely upon the ira, um, international Holocaust Commandment Alliance definition as one that several parties had encouraged her to use. So she utilized, she used that as a backdrop. She also utilized MGL and, um, other definitions to kind of get a whole holistic picture. So I know there’s some criticism about the IRA definition.

3:58:37 It’s not a definition that’s been, um, adopted by the town or by the school district. And so she, I’m paraphrasing, she didn’t feel that it was, uh, appropriate to utilize only that definition. So I just wanna be clear that it was part of the conversation. It wasn’t the only part, uh, when trying to determine whether anti-Semitic action, speech, and behavior occurred, the investigator employed the preponderance of evidence standard and credibility as they explain, and I just quote here, the fact finder must determine whether it is more likely than not that the person against whom the complaint was made called the respondent violated a district policy. One can only conclude that a violation occurred if the greater weight of evidence tends to show this. If, however, the weight of evidence is equally balanced on both sides,

3:59:24 then one cannot conclude by the preponderance that the respondent violated a rule of policy. So some of the allegation, mo most of the allegations did not rise to the level of reach and the preponderance of, of, of evidence standard. Um, if there’s conflicting versions of relevant events, the investigator must assess each witness credibility. And there’s standards that they go by to assess credibility. Inherent plausibility demeanor, order to falsify corroboration pass record. I won’t go into that, um, based upon time. But those are some of the things that she also looked at. There were 39 separate allegations of anti-Semitic discrimination and Ag. Ag, I can’t say the word Yes, that one. Um, unprofessional. Sorry. It’s like 16 hours in here. Um, unprofessionalism and potential violation of the, um, the harassment policy

4:00:10 and the staff conduct policy. So there was all, there was 39 different issues that she and, um, she looked into. So the findings and analysis and conclusion. I’m just gonna read this and it’ll be quick, but I’ll read through it ‘cause I think it’s important. So, most allegations cannot be corroborated. It bears repeating. I’m gonna say this a couple times, that it does not necessarily mean that a party is not being deceptive or asserting the claim, but it does mean that the allegation cannot be substantiated when employing the preponderance of e evidence standard. It also doesn’t mean that there’s, there’s no anti that there’s not anti-Semitism present. It’s just that in these specific personnel issues and allegations that were reported, they didn’t rise to the level of, um, of, uh, meeting the preponderance of evidence standard. So some of the reasons the standard cannot be established in

4:00:56 include the allegation was not corroborated by witnesses who allegedly observed the report of conduct. The allegation was not corroborated by witnesses who allegedly were told about the reported of conduct. The party contradicted themself by making material materially inconsistent statements In the interviews, the allegation was belied by credible documentary evidence, including emails and forensic evidence. The district business records were material in materially inconsistent. The allegation was not plausible based on the presented facts. Allegations related to a district’s personnel’s. Motivations were speculative, allegations were corroborated, but they did not rise to the level of a violation of the NDHP, the harassment policy staff conduct policy or the grievance policy.

4:01:42 The two allegations that were corroborated written evidence corroborated that a party knowingly or neglect neglectfully mis, I’m so sorry, misrepresented facts. In violation of the staff conduct policy, the district violated the grievance policy in the, in the conduct of an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the fall of 2023, where the investigation was not conducted in an adequate, fair or neutral manner. So those are the two, um, findings that were corroborating. So conclusion, there’s insufficient information defined by a preponderance of evidence that any party was subjected to discrimination or harassment, including antisemitism, district personnel retaliate. This is, there was no evidence, insufficient evidence that district personnel retaliated against parties who raised concerns about antisemitism or unprofessionalism.

4:02:30 The district administrators ignored or were indifferent to claims of antisemitism. The district administrators favored Israel over other nations. The district personnel held parties responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. The district administrators interfere with the party’s right to free expression regarding allegations that the district personnel engaged in unprofessional conduct. I found that one, only one party con party’s conduct violated the state con staff conduct policy. I also found sufficient information to conclude that the district violated the grievance procedure and staff conduct policy by conducting an investigation 2023 that falls short of being neutral, thorough, fair, and adequate. As noted earlier, the findings may in Section seven are not intended to suggest that Marblehead is free of antisemitism, but rather that the specific incidents

4:03:16 and events that I was asked to investigate did not return sufficient information to support inference of a violation of the non-discrimination non-discrimination harassment policy. Um, so that’s, that’s right outta the report. So that’s, that’s where the, that’s where the conclusion is as far. I just wanna wrap up by sharing that our new administrative team has recognized the need to be focused on the school and district culture, managing personnel issues in a more pointed, timely and appropriate manner, and identifying ways to enhance professional development, communication, and collaboration in all areas. Um, I had already established an anti-discrimination committee prior to the investigation, concluding as was something that was identified as needing to be established based upon past and ongoing social issues. The committee will continue to work on identifying incidents

4:04:04 of discrimination, racism, antisemitism, and any other issues that are identified where our community members are targeted. We have made necessary changes to our human resources department with an HR manager coming on board in May. We have also decided that a district, as a district, we need a different way of welcoming families and new staff. So we have combined the registrar position with the HR assistant position and will be welcoming a new executive assistant registrar in May as well, who will help streamline communications, support family and staff, and provide a welcoming presence presence at the central admin office. All these items were in motion well before the report was finished, as it was evident that many things needed to be addressed in different manner, in a different manner, and viewed with a new lens so that we can move forward together as an educational community where we celebrate diversity,

4:04:49 ensure that everyone has a voice, and that there’s a culture of acceptance and belonging for all. That’s my report of the report of the larger report. I’m happy to answer any questions. I’m just reporting on the report, so don’t shoot any of the messenger over here. But I’m happy to go through anything you guys would like.

4:05:12 One thing that in the, there’s a lot, you know, that made me think of different ways in the report, but when I read who was interviewed, I just wanna note it says they interviewed a former school committee member. Yes, It did. I actually have a, We don’t, we’re not, what we saw is with the public saw, we don’t know who they interviewed, OO other than it said former not sitting. Um, it is really important, I feel, as a school committee member to reaffirm and to state school committee by mass general law does not get involved in personnel manners. So any former school committee member that spoke in the capacity as a school committee member, They, in our capacity as school committee members, we should have no knowledge and or weigh in on personnel matters.

4:05:59 So I just, that, that was important for me to note that, that we don’t weigh in on personnel matters. We’re not legally allowed to. Um, there have been very rare situations like previous December when something was followed in accordance with policy ke, which is our policy on chain of command. And only after following through in that policy does something come through to the, uh, school committee. And all my time here, I’ve only ever seen it happen that one time, um, if there is a personnel matter, people should be going through their administration, not directly to the school committee. Yeah. And I think that’s why that Didn’t make any sense to me why a school committee member, former school committee would’ve been interviewed. Anything to do with it. Yeah. So it didn’t, it didn’t name who it was. I have no idea who it was. It just said

4:06:45 a, it was just listed that way. Teachers, I former, so the only thing I can say think of is, um, in the times that I spoke to Alison Kirk who did the thing throughout, um, she was interviewing people and those people were saying, well, this person has information too. You might wanna reach out to that person. And, you know, there was some attorneys involved and everything else, I don’t know how the school could remember, kind of got mixed into the mix. I don’t know who it was. I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know what information they had to share. It was just one of the people that she said ended up getting interviewed based upon, based upon, you know, someone that she interviewed, um, said that, that this person also has information that you may want to reach into. So what I found was like a lot of the people, ‘cause there’s a lot of staff members that were involved in this, and a lot of those staff members said, well, yeah, I know you’re asking me the question,

4:07:30 but you should probably ask this staff member or this person or this friend, or this or whatever. And I, I just assume that that’s how that came about. I have no idea why, how or who it was. It’s not even in the full report. So, ‘cause list anybody. Alright. Um, I think the other other quick question I would have is, I know, ‘cause I know there were some members, and I’ve also spoken to some folks, um, separately that, um, um, had some questions on this report. Um, one thing that has come up in past discussion around curriculum, um, which it was not obviously not addressed in the report, no. ‘cause that’s not what this report was about. But is that something that you task force or your committees working on? Or With Julia? So, so the committee, um, so the committee, part of what the committee is looking at is, um, we’re finding, you know, we’re looking at what in incidents have been reported, you know, what kind of incidents have been

4:08:16 reported, how have they been reported, what, you know, what, what it is, uh, we need, how would, how we might need to address it, are there professional development opportunities? Um, and we’re just, we’re just really starting to delve into that stuff. So part of that is, um, you know, one of the first meetings we had was, um, uh, there was some conversation about, you know, is there, are there some expertise ex experts in areas who can lend their expertise to say, Hey, if we’re not sure, is this, is this, um, document anti-Semitic or not, can we reach out and get some resources? So for instance, there was a, there was a rabbi who, who I spoke with and you know, then there’s questions, well, oh, you have, you know, spiritual leaders coming into the school and that that’s not the intention. So the intention is to have our curriculum teams who are reviewing our curriculum, uh, in, in an ongoing way.

4:09:02 They do that with a, with a non-biased lens. They have to go and they have to look for biases in the curriculum. They have to look for antisemitism, they have to look for racist. All that stuff happens. And then if there’s places that we still have questions about, we’re always gonna reach out to, you know, an expert. An expert. If we’re saying, Hmm, is this, um, because a lot of the conversations we’ve had in that committee and elsewhere is sometimes the antisemitic language is not, um, overly evident and, or it’s, it’s, or it’s purposefully buried. So, you know, in there. So, you know, sometimes if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you don’t really see it or understand it. So, so yes, a long story short is yes, that community’s doing some of that work, um, or going to be doing some of that work. And then, um, you know, and then working on different ways we can support folks

4:09:47 and how we can, uh, look at when incidents happen, what do, what do we do? How do we do some preventative maintenance So incidents don’t happen. Um, and a lot of that speaks to the culture. Like we’ve talked a lot about culture, um, in the school. So building that culture of acceptance and, and belonging and making sure that people are kind and everything else is, is all part and parcel of doing this. There’s no one magic wand that says bpi, bpi, Booo, we have no antisemitism. We have no racism. We have to work on that culture from the ground up. Um, and that’s the work that’s being done. Unfortunately, it’s not an overnight fix, but we’re, we’re, that’s what We’re doing. Does the committee feel, I know we’re gonna brought this up that, um, and admit, or I wanna know what the committee thinks. I, I would like to see at some point will that committee or that task force be making a presentation to us or recommendation or I something to

4:10:34 Us? I don’t, it’s too, it’s too early for me to tell like how that, you know, I think if it, if and when it makes sense, yeah. If we, if we come up with like, you know, we’re still just kind of really seeing what the next steps are. So we’re meeting again, I wanna say Oh yes. ‘cause I was not really thinking and I, I, uh, I scheduled a meeting in the middle of Passover, so, um, that was very idiotic of me. But then I reached out to members and they were fine with it. But, um, so anyway, we’re meeting on the 17th and then we’re gonna start talking about, you know, I think some of the things on the agenda are, you know, we’re gonna talk about the October heat. Is that a good, is that a good resource for us to look at and consider in schools and support? Um, we’re gonna look at, are there any other professional development opportunities that make sense? And, uh, I, I’m gonna float out there. Maybe doing some climate surveys I think would be important. You know, I kind of started to mute the students, but it’s hard to get it that off the ground with timing.

4:11:21 Um, so I’m probably do climate surveys with the staff, uh, students first and then see, see where we go from there. But that’s some of the, some of the next steps. I know I just say personally at some point I would, at some point I would like to hear of from that committee. Yeah. That’s all. ‘cause I think it’s important part piece to our puzzle of what, of what we’re trying to do here. Yeah. And, and the thing is, it’s, you know, it’s ongoing, right? So that, so that committee is the anti-discrimination committee with, you know, focus right now on anti-Semitism. But you know, they’ve got, we have to address like, all sorts of things that come to us. So, you know, it’s gonna, it’s gonna be a standing committee that’s also gonna kind of rotate a little bit as people coming and outta the district. Or we need to pull people and have expertise in certain areas. Um, that’s, that’s kind of the thought process. So it’s a, it’s a committee of nine right now at any given time.

4:12:07 It could be 12, it could be six, you know, depending. So, you know, we’re still working that all out. But I’m really excited about the work we started to do. Um, but you know, I don’t think people are over happy about the, the, this, this the way this report came out. So I’d probably have to do a little healing there. Um, to be honest with you, Um, I didn’t have this subcommittee liaison, um, update, so, and it’s late. So I, do we wanna do it or do we wanna move ahead? Adjourn. We stockdale. Oh, I’m sorry. Oh my God. We have Still waiting. Um, final item or request for the over approval for the overnight trip for the sixth grade to go to Bourne Dale? Um, you should have had information in your packet on the, it was a brief update, uh, update of the Dale program,

4:12:53 which is the sixth grade program. And then the forms, um, that gave a little more detail to us, um, that went out to parents. So why don’t I take a motion then we can in a second and then we can deliberate if necessary. Do we have a, Do You wanna have previously when we um, approve overnight in out-of-state field trips, some like deca presented last week, we have something. Yeah, John, you can present if you want him to. Um, it’s fine. I didn’t know, was that Yeah, that’s fine. That’s fine. No problem. Jonathan, you wanna wanna step up and just kinda do your overview so we can do it properly? He doesn’t have to. We do it for every filter we approved. We’ve never approved him without a presentation. He doesn’t usually present What he doesn’t usually present.

4:13:39 Yeah, that should you Mandy. He did. I mean, it should be pretty quick. That writeup was like a P paragraph, right? So it shouldn’t take it long. I’m not gonna read the Paragraph. Yeah, no, no. Just verbatim. I think, I think just sharing with the committee, I know we’ve done it before, but, well It is typical of most of the overnight trips that Yeah, that is, that’s Get a presentation. So as you’re aware, you know, sixth grade for decades has been going to Camp Boyle and Plymouth. Um, we thought last year was gonna be the last year because it was up for sale. It did sell, it did sell. Uh, but they’re keeping in a camp, uh, so they’re selling off some of the property. Uh, but that doesn’t impact our ability to go the trip. They’re keeping most of the staff on with the program itself. That may change. ‘cause anytime you have a transition, they may keep the staff on and then transition into a new staff.

4:14:26 But the director that was there for the last, um, well, was there for the last two or three years. It was there previously as well as the same director. Uh, same program. It’s an interdisciplinary program. Uh, we have two programs, one at Camp Dale, one here at Village School. Uh, we call it the village experience because it is an experience for all of our students and a culmination of their first six years here in Marlo Public Schools. Uh, we go down as well four teams this year and leave as one class. Uh, that to me is the most amazing thing about the strip. Uh, we actually do a color War day at the end of it, of Spirit Day. They’re all wearing different colored shirts. But then we take a picture of them all, mix ‘em all up

4:15:11 so they can see that they’re one class. And I do think that when they go from village to vets, you can see that they’re ready for that next step. It’s a sense of independence when they’re down there. Um, they get from class to class. We have supervision. It is the largest trip that we do in the district. We’re bringing down probably close to 60, 70 plus chaperones. Uh, some are there just for the day. Uh, we have chaperones there overnight as well. Uh, teachers are down there as well. Um, so we do have sixth grade teachers going. But there are some teachers that because of their family, they have young children, they can’t go. And that’s again why we call it the VS experience. ‘cause we will take a sixth grade teacher and they’ll go down to a fifth grade class or a fourth grade class, and we’ll take a fourth grade or fifth grade teacher with us. And it’s nice because now those fourth

4:15:57 and fifth grades get a chance to have a sixth grade teacher. And some of those fourth and fifth grade teachers that had a role in their education get a chance to see them as six years down in that environment as well. There are six core classes that they all take at bourneville itself, uh, adventure, which is team building. And we wanna build up that, that camaraderie, that sense of respect. Everything we do with their SLL curriculum is embedded in that adventure program and throughout the entire trip as well. Uh, they have, uh, some marine science when they’re done. They, they do a dissection of a, a dogfish when they’re there. Uh, we do an engineering design project when they’re building a rocket. Two different types of rockets. One that is done with air compression. The other one is done with a, a rocket kit where it’s a combustible engine as well.

4:16:42 So that testing the, their design, uh, they’re seeing how far they can go. They’re testing it for, um, height and distance as well. Go back, redesign, try again. Um, they have pond studies where they’re looking at a fresh water marine ecosystem. We have, um, afternoon programs. One will be on a reptiles presentation, one on lobsters. Um, they have some Reese time when they’re down the rec time. Uh, Mr. Volpe comes down and does fishing on the dock with them, um, which is awesome. Somehow, I don’t know how he does it, but he’s the fish whisperer because I’ve seen kids that have never caught a fish before first time and they somehow catch a fish with him. Um, so it’s pretty, pretty awesome. Um, you know, we do meals together, it’s family style. They bring a tray of food there

4:17:29 and they have to learn to work together, make sure that if the food comes to me, then if, you know, Julia’s sitting down, I’m gonna help. And they say, you know, Julie, would you like some food? And they pass it around, they’ll learn to work together. Um, if they want more, they hold the tray up. We’ve told the parents when they come home, if they hold the plate up afterwards to get more food, will they know why? Because that’s what they do when they’re down at Dale. Um, it, it really is a tremendous experience. And then we have something comparable here at Village School. Uh, so we have some staff that will be staying back with the Village program and we have two field trips that they’ll take. Uh, they’re going to, uh, the Crane Beach in the crane of state, do a program with them. Uh, we’re going to do something

4:18:15 with Spur when we tie into all the work they’re doing with the gardens. And then we’re looking to go to Taste Buds Kitchen, where they’ll go through some of the same produce that we use in our gardens and prepare Mel together. Um, we had Boston Bounce come in where they do, uh, Mrs. Lac does, uh, a program called Boston Bounce, and they come in with special shoes and they looked at the moon boots with, um, uh, they have some type of balance on the bottom and the kids did Atlassian. It was awesome. Um, and we’re still, we have a couple more details to plan for that, but we want to do something comparable. So whatever experience we have at Dale, we’re doing something comparable for them here at Village School. Only difference is they’re not sleeping over. Um, but it, it is a phenomenal trip and a lot of the parents that come down the chaperone will also down there.

4:19:02 Students themselves when they came through Marblehead. Um, I know Julie came down last year. We’ve invited John this year and he’s already put it into his calendar. Um, and it’s nice when they come down and see it, interact with the parents and interact with students as well. Hopefully John is down there for our idle night. Try. That’s, that’s what I put in my calendar, so. Yep. Don’t work on it. We did. I said save that date so you might see him, you know, be one of Idol judges. So you guys start watching Idol in Practice. Oh, there you go. Okay. As long as I don’t have to sing, I’m good. No, you’re good. You don’t have to sing. Um, but it is a phenomenal trip, so it’s something that we’re excited to continue, um, and hopefully it’s something we can continue for years to come. Do you have a sense, because I know all your paperwork and everything, all the kids have already committed to what they’re doing.

4:19:47 A sense of how many are staying here versus how many are going just roughly like, Uh, so about 12 students are staying here at Village and the rest are going down to Bodo. So probably about 152 going to Dale and about 12 staying back. Okay. Thank you. All right. I’m gonna take a motion to approve the overnight trip to Dale. So moved. Um, hang on. Moved by Brian. And second. Second By Sarah. I’m gonna do a roll call or any discussion. I’ll do a roll call, vote at program. It’s l Williams. In favor. Brianda in favor. Sarah Fox. In favor. Allison Taylor in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. Five to zero. Great, thanks. Thanks for hanging in there, Jonathan. Appreciate it.

4:20:33 Late night right now. Um, okay. I am going to make a motion, take a motion for adjournment or no, I could just a address. You can just ajour I’m gonna adjourn us at 10 for the love of PS.