School Committee: June 5, 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 So I will call us to order. I don’t have a, um, Marblehead school committee. June 5th, 6:02 PM Called to order. Welcome everybody. Welcome. Hello everyone. Um, okay. Let’s start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian, would you lead us please?

0:22 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. Thank you, Brian. Great. Um, we next have, uh, uh, commendations. Are there any commendations? Have ccommodation after? Did you have one? Are you gonna say something? I don’t wanna go first. Well, now you have. Okay. Um, I wanted to, um, commend, uh, two, two commendations if I could. Uh, Jared Calovich, I like to commend for his, uh, uh, professionalism and work, uh, especially throughout the, um, senior, senior days and getting all the senior activities and everything up and running.

1:08 I know he is been working really hard. I know there’s a team of folks, but, uh, he’s taken the bull by the horns. I just wanna, uh, recognize that. And then the second, um, accommodation is, uh, we, um, uh, chair Schaffner received a letter from the A DL, and I thought it was worth, um, sharing that the A DL recognized, um, I was gonna read. You gonna read it into The record? No, you can, you can do it. I was gonna do it during correspondence. Okay. So I will just, um, I just wanted to commend the committee for, uh, their work on the antisemitism, um, uh, proclamation. And as you said, you’ll, you’ll talk about the a DL letter afterwards then. Thank you. That’s all I have. Okay. Welcome. I’m good. Oh, okay. Okay. I just wanted to, um, I did wanna make mention, um, of pa uh, the passing recently of a long time, uh,

1:56 teacher here in Marblehead, Mr. Dave Fleming. He had, um, served at Marblehead Junior High School, um, and, uh, as a social studies, uh, teacher, he had, uh, two children here in the district. I was a student of, of Mr. Fleming, um, many years ago. Um, beloved teacher, also, long time, um, ran a, he for many, many years, he and some other teachers ran an outdoor mini course and got this like, pampered child of Marblehead to go camping in the, uh, in Franconia notch up in New Hampshire. And it was a very, very, um, uh, popular for many, many years. Popular, uh, mini course, and really got kids, uh, students outside into a love of nature. And I know that he carried that with him, um, and his, his children did too. So I had seen that recently, um, that, um, announcement that he had passed.

2:42 And I just wanted to, that he was very, very beloved and our condolences to the family. Anybody else? Okay. Uh, let’s see. I’m gonna move on to public comment. I’m gonna grab the uh, sheet. Oh, thanks, Julia. If anyone online on Zoom would like to make a comment, can you please raise your hand? I’ll start with the folks here in the room and then move to online. Um, I have Kristen, is it Binder? Hi, Kristen. Welcome. Do you mind? Yeah, if you mind, wouldn’t mind coming up. Have a seat here, and we’ll see you and hear you here. And they will see you and hear you online, and you’ll be on the big screen. Welcome. Thank you. Uh, hello. Members of the school committee.

3:30 I’m here to express my deep gratitude to those of you who stood up against allowing anti-Semitic imagery to become part of our Marblehead school curriculum. Though I’m not Jewish, I was horrified to learn that images, such as a dollar bill, folded into the shape of a star of David, a poster reading Zionist F Off and a book aimed at small children describing Zionist as a group of bullies, who among the materials being considered for use in mass, sorry, in Massachusetts classrooms, these items are not educational tools. They’re divisive, offensive, harmful, and risk perpetuating dangerous stereotypes. I feel strongly that when something is so clearly wrong and targets members of our community in such a hurtful way,

4:16 we all have a responsibility to speak up, especially in defense of children in our classrooms who will feel marginalized by the use of such imagery. My children have attended Marblehead public schools since kindergarten and are just completing eighth grade. Over the years, I’ve been consistently impressed with the kindness, care, and compassion of their teachers. Let me be clear, this is not a question of whether our Marblehead teachers would have chosen to use such materials themselves, but rather an expression of gratitude that members of our school committee took decisive action to ensure that no students in our district would risk being exposed to them at all. We cannot expect students to fully understand the painful

5:03 and complex history behind these kinds of images when presented in a classroom without the necessary care and context. And more importantly, we should never put any student in a position where they feel targeted, isolated, or unsafe, especially not in a space that should be dedicated to their growth and wellbeing. Thank you to Jen Schaffner, Alison Taylor and Sarah Fox, for having the courage to say, no, this is not acceptable in our schools, your decision was one of safety, inclusivity, and mutual respect values that are essential to the kind of learning environment every child deserves. Thank you for what you did, and thank you for your time tonight. Thank you. That’s it. Thank you, Ms. Binder. Thank you. Thank you. Very warm in. Here it is. Thank you. We, we, we agree. Um, Karen, tell Melka Welcome Karen.

5:59 Dear school committee members, I would like to personally thank Jen Schaffner, Sarah Fox, and Allison Taylor for voting to pass the proclamation that will protect our district from the MTAs anti-Semitic curricular resources. In addition to other proactive steps you have taken to address the community’s concerns, including an investigation, you followed the Brookline School Committee’s lead and saw the benefit of having such a proclamation in Marblehead. Marblehead is now only the second district in the state to issue such a proclamation, and you and the Brookline School Committee are leading by example. This is what engaged school committee members should be doing to address antisemitism in their districts. Thank you for listening to your constituents. I have a letter that I’m submitting

6:45 that has over sign 60 signatures collected from community members during the vigil for Sarah Milgram and Y Lashky, the two murdered Israeli embassy staffers who were targeted at a Jewish event. I only wish the proclamation had passed 5.0 like in Brookline and not 3.2. It has become blatantly apparent that antisemitism is held to a different standard from other forms of hatred. Hatred school committee members, Brian Oda and Alan Alan Williams, will, would you have also voiced opposition to a proclamation condemning anti-black racism following the murder of George Floyd. Why in a post-OC October 7th world, when Jewish students are attacked on college campuses, Jews are being targeted and murdered In DC Jews are being set on fire in Boulder,

7:33 Colorado, that this proclamation would be challenged by board members and publicly condemned by the MEA. It makes no sense. I want to address the ME’S claim that this proclamation was unnecessary because they had already issued a statement. That statement posted in January, 2024, created a false moral equivalence by lumping antisemitism in with other forms of hatred, and failed to acknowledge that Jews are actively being targeted. Nowhere did the statement condemn the MTAs curriculum as anti-Semitic. By avoiding that language, the statement was sanitized, avoided calling out the MTAs curricular materials specifically for the antisemitic content. At the last school committee meeting, the MEA claimed the antisemitic materials had been removed from the MTA website that is false.

8:20 And there are still antisemitic resources on the website. So why make that claim? You’re right, there is a political agenda, but it’s coming from the MEA, not the school committee. Having a personal grievance with school committee over your contract negotiations and illegal strike does not give you the right to use the Jewish community’s fears for your political agenda. This is a clear case of projection onto the school committee from the MEA. When the MEA publicly shames elected officials for addressing the legitimate concerns of their constituents, it sends a chilling mess message to other leaders. Don’t speak up for Jews. That is not leadership and it is not behavior befitting. Those who claim to teach children to be upstanders. Jews in America are being targeted, murdered, and even set on fire. I will not accept efforts to silence

9:06 or shame those who stand in solidarity with the Jewish community to Jen, Allison, and Sarah, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your courage and moral clarity. You did what was right, and Marblehead is stronger and safer because of it. So thank you. Thank you, Karen. Um, Sarah Palladian, welcome.

9:32 This thing I’m gonna say, this thing says to restart, but I’ll just hit not now. Oh, you shouldn’t have to press anything. Yeah. Okay. Not now. Okay. Okay. Um, my name is Sarah Palladian, and I am the mother of two kids, one in our district and one at charter. A mother, an individual who has watched her kids, confronted with antisemitism in our schools and at our home in the past 20 months since, since October 7th. I am here tonight for a few reasons. On May 1st, Brookline school committee voted unanimously to approve the proclamation regarding the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s curricular resource materials on the Israel Ga Gaza conflict. On May 5th, the Marblehead School Committee voted,

10:19 or maybe it was May 11th, um, the Marblehead School Committee voted to approve the same proclamation. But surprisingly, or not surprisingly, only three of our members voted to approve this simple proclamation. As you know, Sarah Fox, Allison Taylor, and Jen Schaffner are the three members. For a moment I was happy, but when I drove home, I felt ill, knowing that two of our members did not feel compelled to approve this simple proclamation. A few days later, I wrote an email to the committee and asked for a meeting with Al Williams and Brian Oda. Al responded and met with me. Thank you, Al. I asked Al what his reasons were to not approve this proclamation, and he admitted that he was stuck on one line of the proclamation and felt that one line was interpreted

11:04 as the committee would have the right to change the curriculum. He did say that he should have looked at the whole picture and not gotten stuck on one line. So I reviewed the proclamation multiple times to see where that line could have possibly been and could not find it. My point here today is to say that this proclamation should have been a unanimous vote. Our Jewish students and parents should not have to worry that our classrooms are being filled with hateful anti-Semitic propaganda that the Massachusetts Teachers Association has provided. This is a no-brainer. I have heard others in our community state that this propaganda is only there to provide contexts and information on how to teach if they want to use it. Some called it art. How does one define these as art?

11:50 Would anyone in our community feel the same if the MTA showed an African American being lynched or an LGBTQ individual plus individual being thrown off a building, as it so happens in Gaza, the answer is simple. It would never have happened. It would’ve been condemned immediately, and it would for sure not be called art. I wanna make it very clear tonight that some of us, and all of you should know that the MTA is steering down the path of indoctrinating all of the communities. I wanna tell you that the Jewish community and our, our allies will not allow it. Do not come after our children or teachers. It is simple. This community and the MEA should condemn the MTA for their antisemitism

12:36 and their incitement of violence through their website and curriculum. I will finish by saying this. My family thinks the three committee members who have stood by the Jewish community without wavering, I feel seen. And it is comforting to know that they have the moral clarity that is needed to do the right thing by our community and educators to the other members. I really hope that you find your moral clarity and the strength to stand up for your Jewish community. And I hope that in the future, you can ed, educate yourself against antisemitism. Thank you again for passing this proclamation and for your support. We are forever grateful. Thank you, Sarah. Appreciate it. Um, I have one hand online and it’s, um, I believe it’s Mr. Goodman, uh, Carl Goodman.

13:24 So you should be able to speak now. If you unmute yourself, Mr. Goodman. My name’s Carl Goodman. I’ve only lived in Marblehead for Six. We can’t hear you, sir.

13:41 Do we have sound on our end?

13:45 I’m sorry. Oh, there we go. No, we can hear you now. Okay. So my name is Carl Goodman. I’ve only lived in Marblehead for 60 years. Um, I graduated from Marblehead High School. I served as an elected official in Marblehead for 25 years, serving as chairman of the Board of Health for most of that time. And two terms as selectmen.

14:12 Since, um,

14:16 June 7th, 2024, we’ve had an opportunity to see who our real friends were. And we’ve got to see the true colors of people, many of whom we thought were friends and people of moral clarity.

14:34 Some of us recognized the growing threat over a long period of time, locally, uh, nationally and internationally. But after October 7th, people were real clear about where they stood. Of course, there were those who just stood on the sidelines and didn’t want to be counted. But we know what that means. We mean, we know that that means if they were in Nazi Germany, they would’ve walked by the Z kylees. They wouldn’t have stopped. They wouldn’t have ever challenged it.

15:09 I was gratified by the votes of three members of the school committee in approving the resolution.

15:19 I have believed my whole life that in the battle of good and evil, one can only choose one side.

15:31 And so to those members who voted in favor of the resolution, thank you. Thank you for your votes, and thank you for your moral clarity. And to the members who voted against it, whatever your true intentions are, actual beliefs, uh, your votes are indelibly noted. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cummin. Um, and I have Jonathan Heller.

16:17 Jonathan Heller, 26 Ralph Road.

16:21 May was mental health awareness month, a time to focus on emotional wellbeing, especially for our students this year. That message feels especially urgent. About a month ago, a 14-year-old boy from Higgins Middle School in puberty died by suicide. His family has said that bullying played a major role. This is heartbreaking, and it should serve as a wake up call. We need to take a hard look at how we are supporting students’ mental health. This tragedy hits home for me in a very personal way. I grew up in puberty and spent the first 12 years of my career teaching the Peabody Public Schools I speak to tonight, not as a 19 year educator in the marble public schools, but also as a parent of two Marblehead students.

17:08 I care deeply about the students in our schools, and I know firsthand how important it is to invest in their emotional and mental health. The CDC reports that nearly one in five children struggles with a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. Yet only about 20% of those children receive care from a mental health provider. Rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts are rising among school aged kids. These are not distant statistics. We are seeing the impact right here in Marblehead and in our neighboring communities. Our guidance council is working incredibly hard, but their caseloads are overwhelming. The student accounts ratios in our schools are too high for counselors to do their jobs effectively, especially when they’re also being pulled

17:54 away from non-counseling duties like lunch duty, or classroom coverage. When we are short in substitutes, this means less time for one-on-one support in small groups that students desperately need. We also have school psychologists, but their time is mostly devoted to supporting special education students in responding to crisises. They’re not available to all students. What we are missing is a layer of support in between a trained professional who can provide day-to-day help with emotional and social challenges. What we need are, so school social workers prevention is key. With the addition of social workers, school counselors could play a larger role by co-teaching lessons with classroom teachers focused on building empathy, addressing bullying behaviors,

18:40 and teaching social emotional skills. These kinds of programs, in addition to our Wayfinder SEL program, can help reduce bullying before it starts and creates a safer, more supportive school environment. Social workers are equipped to work directly with students and families on issues like trauma, stress, and relationships. They help prevent problems before they escalate, and they make sure no student feels invisible. I respectfully ask the committee to make a formal proclamation in support of the mental health and wellbeing of our students. I urge you to make student mental health the top priority, and to work collaboratively with administrators, with educators, families, and community members to build a strong, sustainable system of support. Let Marblehead Public Schools set the standard for

19:26 what comprehensive mental health care in schools should look like. I also ask you to take the lead in reaching out to other school committees, both on the North Shore and across the Commonwealth, to build a unified voice and advocate together for the local and state resources our students urgently need and deserve. Let’s not wait for another tragedy to remind us all of what is at stake. Let us act now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Mr. Chair. Um, yeah. Um, can I just request that the superintendent, um, you won’t have this data for your report today, but that at some point give the committee a report on if we’re properly staffed, um, for, for the requests that were made, and if this was something that came to the safety committee. ‘cause we didn’t hear it last week during the presentation,

20:13 but just to update us. Certainly, you know, um, that’s all I had signed. I know y y’all came in. Did you wanna speak? Welcome. And then if there’s anybody else that I, I don’t have any other names on here, but we’ll be wrapping up. Go ahead. Yeah. Al, thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you So much. I just came from the tennis banquet, um, downstairs with my son. Um, congrats. I thank you. Um, as you know, I speak here a lot. Yeah. Elm, again from West Shore Drive. Um, I speak here a lot about the fight against antisemitism. Um, and I wanna express my deepest gratitude to the board, um, specifically to Jen and Sarah and Allison, um, for having

20:59 that proclamation and supporting it. Um, I think it was two weeks ago.

21:06 I’ve been watching what the MTA has been trying to bring into the schools. Um, it is horrific curriculum. It is anti-Semitic curriculum. It is inaccurate curriculum, and it will only bring more hate, um, more anti-Semitism. And it will not teach our students the right history or the right, the right way of viewing Israel, viewing the Jewish people or viewing the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I was saddened that it was a three to two vote and not a five zero vote. I think fi fighting antisemitism should be a bipartisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish or not Jewish.

21:51 It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. This is something that we all must come together and unite in order to fight it. We just saw in the past two weeks, two heinous violent terrorism attacks against Jewish people in the public space. I can tell you, as a Jewish person, I knew this day would come. I’m very saddened that this day came. And we might be expecting more days like these. We must fight together. We might, we must come united as a town. And having those types of proclamations are something that it’s not against the teachers. It is not against the union.

22:38 It is only for our children. It is to ensure that our children are taught the right historical information and are not taught to hate any minority in our country. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I don’t have any other hands up. I don’t have anyone else here in public comment. Great. So we’re gonna move on to our student representative Ella. And I was gonna give accommodation to Ella. Okay. But she wasn’t here when we did accommodations to, or accommodations. Would you mind if we pause for a second? I just wanted to commend Ella. She has been here, um, with us for a year now. She prepares ahead of time. She gives us very, um, thorough updates.

23:26 You’ve even come to meetings that you weren’t, didn’t have to come to, maybe Oh, they were off cycle or during a break or, or whatnot. And you’ve been done with school now for about a week or so. You’re in the middle of your senior week and you’re still here. So I just wanna commend, commend you for your service to, um, your fellow students and to our community as a whole. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you here. Um, and we, we just hope that you let us know how you’re doing. We, you know, I see Ya’s mom around town. I, I ask how he’s doing. So just keep us up, up to date and how you’re doing. And we wish you the best at. Yeah. Thanks Ella.

24:09 Thank you. I’ve loved, I’ve loved this job so much. It is just, I love taking active part in the community and it’s just been very rewarding for me. So thank you for giving me this opportunity and I’ll definitely keep you guys updated with my life. Thank you. So loved here. Um, and I just wanted to introduce our new student representative for next year, uh, will s Shank. Um, Dr. Carlson and I went through a process of applications and interviews and will came out on top. So congrats. Will and welcome. Thank you. Um, and now I’ll move on to the update. So this week’s senior week, so most of my update is senior related. Um, but graduation is tomorrow, hopefully on the field, but we’re not sure about the weather. So possibly in the field house at 6:00 PM um, acapella,

24:58 the choirs, the bands, um, the band, the orchestra, they’ll all be performing. Um, it’s gonna be great. Uh, senior prom was this past Tuesday. That was amazing. Jared really organized a great prom at the state room in Boston. Had a beautiful view. The tickets were super cheap and it was just everything was perfect. Um, signing day, I think was about a week and a half ago, 25. Athletes from Marblehead High School signed to continue their sport in college, which was super exciting, especially because only I think 6% of athletes continue their sport in college. So that was really cool. Um, cheerleading tryouts will be held June 9th, 11th, and 12th. They like to do tryouts before the fall season, so they can get started on that in the summer.

25:43 The scholarship awards night was last night. There were a bunch of great scholarships given out to very deserving seniors. We had a huge outcome. I think there were 60 listed scholarships, but each scholarship had sub scholarships. It was super amazing how much this community gives back to the senior class. It was super great to see. Bio MCAS were these past two days, I’m pretty sure, which was great. And hopefully the freshmen did well on that. Um, the culture feast was last, was May 30th. So I think like, not last Friday, but the Friday before that was great. I went and performed in that in luminescence. There are a bunch of different student groups performing some great food from different cultures. And it was just, it was a great event to really support bringing different cultures together. And then lastly,

26:29 the Underclassmen awards will be held June 12th at 6:00 PM in the field house. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Big night. Tomorrow. We’ll see you tomorrow. Yes. Hopefully it’s outside. Maybe John. I don’t think it’s gonna be outside. Will be up. I feel good. Oh, yes. Fingers crossed. Welcome Will. Thank you. And we’ll see you, um, in two weeks. Yeah. We have a meeting in two weeks. Can’t wait. Hand it off. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Um, okay. I am gonna move on to district update. Superintendent du Thank you. Chair Schachner. Uh, good evening. Let me start by saying happy pride month. Uh, the school year’s been winding down, but there’s still plenty going on. Uh, firstly, I wanna thank the school committee for putting their trust and confidence in me and providing me with a three

27:14 year contract as superintendent. I’m very excited to be here in a more permanent way. I look forward to continuing the great work that is taking place across our educational community. I feel blessed to be able to call Marblehead my home for the foreseeable future. Thank you to everyone who has expressed their support. Solid communication and collaboration is essential to being able to move forward. And I feel that this necessary component is in place. It will help guide our district’s overall success. I had the great pleasure of visiting the sixth graders well in Dale. Um, I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with our staff, the chaperones, the Dale staff, and especially our students. They were engaged in hands-on experiential learning in ways that made learning come alive. I can unequivocally say that despite the torrential rain and wind that I luckily missed

27:59 on Thursday, ‘cause I went on Wednesday. Um, but that it was a time that the students will not soon forget. Um, my fishing expedition was very successful and I landed a giant fish. Thank you. Um, um, student athletes signing day. I was, uh, as I would just mention, was on the 29th. I was able to witness the excitement and impressed with the, uh, support of the family. So thanks to Ken Wheeler and his staff for pulling that stayed together. Um, can I just, I just wanna read, I just wanna read the athletes and where they were going. If you’ll indulge me. Uh, Nate Assa, cross Country Track and Field. Gonna Purdue University Madeline Auerbach, swimming and diving at, uh, Clarkson University. Ella Benedetto, sailing at Yale University. Finn Bergquist, swimming at Babson College. Jacob Bob Bobowski, track and Field at Springfield College.

28:45 Luca Bohor, soft softball at Stonehill College. Brinley Callahan Swimming at Bentley University. William. So ti cross country and track, uh, the University of Tampa. Seamus Crowley, track and Field. Rome City Institute. Logan Duty Swimming. St. Lawrence University. Madison Forbes, lacrosse. Skidmore College. Drew Goldman Football, Wesleyan University. Justin Gonzalez. Football, Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Abby Goodwin, cross Country Union College. My daughter’s Alma Mater. Jane. Jane Cox. Sprint. Sprint Football. Uh, university of Pennsylvania. Ava Machado, track and Field. St. Lawrence University. Reese Moore. Lacrosse. Roger Williams University. Jonah Potta, Potta Cross Country at Endicott.

29:30 Uh, Nathaniel Rosen Swimming. Wesleyan University. Charlie Roswell. Roswell, sorry. Track and Field. University of Vermont. Bode Smith Football. Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Jacob Swick. Ah, sorry. Jacks, thanks. Mm-hmm. Track and Field. University of Massachusetts. Lowell, Sam Thompson Football, also at Union College. And Rory Amp. Zi Soccer. Skidmore College. So I was just wanted to read those out ‘cause I thought it was really cool. Brad Student athletes Yeah. Was awesome Without seeing New York. Yeah. That Yeah. And a couple of dance Maritimes. Nice. A little bit different. Winter. They need to brace Themselves. They do. They need to bundle up. That’s Wonderful. That’s great. Did we get that? Hopefully to the press and All that good stuff? Yeah. I, I think, um, Michelle Colton had already sent that. If you didn’t get it, I’ll get it to you. But I know Michelle sent. It’s really

30:16 Great. That’s very exciting. Congrats. I think she did. But I, I could say that do, uh, senior projects were shared on Friday, May 30th. I was an otherwise occupied, but I heard it was a great job by all involved. Um, saw the photos and heard the projects were really impressive. I witnessed a brown fun run last week. It was a beautiful day. And the students were so excited as it were. The team colors had ran around the building to cheering crowds. Um, sorry. I almost s knocked, um, Ms. Fox off the sidewalk. I was over there. What a great way to spend some energy and enjoy some time outside with peers. Uh, culture Feast, as Ella said, was a big success. I was able to swing by on Friday for a while, enjoy some of the dishes from different cultures. And I chatted with students, many community members, including representative of Armini, were there. Uh, great job by Meco Seniors and our Meco Director, cage Johnson for pulling the event together. It was well attended. I think there was plenty of food

31:02 and ice cream to go around while in joining the performing Arts. Um, I won’t do the other events. There’s too many, uh, and, uh, got All night, John. Yeah. No, it’s okay. Nope. Graduate. Um, I do wanna, okay. So graduation is tomorrow night. And I wanna express an early graduation. Uh, con early congratulations to our seniors and share my deadness and say, have fun. Remember who you are and be safe. I also want to share some of the colleges and universities are seniors will be attending and some other endeavors that they will be embarking upon. So I have another list. I’m gonna try to go through ‘em quickly, but I think it’s important absolutely. To recognize the universities and colleges in, in, in, um, endeavors. Uh, so we have Auburn University, Babson College, Bentley University, Boston College. Boston University, Bowden College, Bucknell University.

31:47 Um, we have people going into, uh, career education and trade schools. We have Chapman University, Clarkson University, coastal Carolina, Colgate University, Concordia University, Cornell Da Dhue University, a mouthful. Elon University, Embry Riddle, aeronautical University. Emerson College. Emanuel College. Um, Endicott College. Fairfield University. My son’s Alma Mater Fisher College, Florida Atlantic University. Fordham University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the main campus. Gordon College, high Point University, Indiana University in Bloomington. James Madison University, Kennebec Valley Community College. Kent School. Lehigh University. Loyola University in Maryland, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Mass Maritime Academy. McGill University, Merrimack College, Methodist University,

32:35 Michigan State University, new England College. New Hampton School. Sorry. Only one and a half more pages North. Score com. North Shore Community College. Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Palm Beach, Atlantic University. Pratt Uni, uh, Institute, Providence College. Go. Friars, Purdue University. Main Campus. Quinnipiac University. Roger Williams University. Rome City Institute, root North Shore, Inc. St. Anselm’s College. St. Joseph’s College of Maine, Salem State University. Sarah St. Sarah Lawrence. Sarah Lawrence College. Savannah College of Art and Design. Simmons University. Skidmore College. Springfield College. St. Lawrence University. Stanford University, Stonehill College. Stony Brook University. Suffolk University of Syracuse. The University of Tampa. University of Tennessee. Knoxville Trinity. Tufts Tulane University, union College,

33:24 United States Marine Corps, university of College, Dublin. Nice. University of California. Los Angeles. University of California. Santa Barbara, university of Colorado. Boulder. University of Connecticut. University of Maryland. UMass Amherst. UMass Boston. UMass Lowell, U Miami U Michigan. Ann Arbor, university of Pennsylvania. University of Rhode Island, university of Richmond, university of South Carolina. Columbia U of Utah, U of Vermont. Uh, u Wisconsin Madison, Vanderbilt University, Vassar College, Villanova, Virginia Tech. Wentworth Institute of Technology, Wesleyan University. William and Mary. And finally Yale University. So congratulations for our graduating seniors. Um, again, I thought that was important to go through and recognize that’s, uh, a very impressive list.

34:11 I have two more quick things I wanna recognize and welcome Will K Shan, who already left, but I had it on my list as a new student representative. And to thank Ella for all of her time as our Gradua graduating student representative and wish you’re well at Yale. Uh, lastly, the elections are on Tuesday. And I wanna say good luck to both Ms. Fox and Ms. Taylor. Um, and regardless of how the process goes, I wanna publicly thank you both for the support that you’ve provided me in my first year, Marblehead. It’s certainly been a busy one. And I’ve said many times without the support of the school committee, the superintendent job becomes that much more difficult. So thank you both. That’s all I have. Chair Schaffner. Thank you. Thank you. Us Marine Corps too. Brian, it’s a number five 80. Thank you. Um, thank you John. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, moving on. I have a schedule of bills.

34:57 I am looking for, um, a consent agenda and action item to approve that. I do not have meeting minutes. I know this has been a long, um, hall here. I do think over the summer we’re gonna need to work on, um, really sort of figuring this out. We’ve had some fits and starts and it’s been a challenge getting, um, this completed. So we need to Yeah, We’re working on that. We’re gonna try to go to plan B, I think. Yeah. Okay. Um, so I will commit to working on that. Um, some of this is, you know, budget oriented as well, so we have to be cognizant of that. But, so I am looking for a motion to approve the schedule bills, um, for a total of 709, 790 $6,263 and 30 cents. Moved. Moved by Sarah. Second.

35:44 Second by Brian. Uh, any questions, comments, deliberation? And I’ve got Al and Allison online.

35:54 Okay. I’m gonna ask for roll call. Vote. Uh, I’ll do, uh, Brian OTA in favor. Sarah Vox in favor. Um, Al Williams, are you able to in favor? Great. And Allison Taylor? Or did we No. Should say, oh, sorry. Allison. You should be able to unmute there. Yep. I, I’m not a panelist, so, um, I in favor. Sorry. I’m gonna promo I tried to promote you earlier, so now you should be able to, I just did it again. No worries. I had to, when I got outta the car, I had to

36:29 Yay. All right. Are you in favor?

36:36 We go. Are you in favor?

36:42 Yeah, I said I said in favor. Oh, sorry. I didn’t hear you. Okay, so it’s five to zero. Thanks Allison. Um, okay. We’re gonna move on to school committee communication and discussion items. First, we have a financial update from our assistant superintendent of, uh, finance and operations. Mike Ling. Welcome. Thank you Chair. Uh, good evening. Uh, this is the 11th. We have completed our 11th month of our fiscal year. We are in our final month as of, uh, May 31st. We have expended $36.8 million of our budget. We have an additional $8 million encumbered, which the majority of that is salaries. And, um, that represents about 96% of our budget has been committed through 11 months. The unexpected balance right now,

37:28 or as of May 31st was $1.87 million. And, uh, just to give you an idea, that is $580,000 less than what we had at the end of April. So, uh, trending in the right direction, but not trending too fast. So I feel very comfortable going through the end of the year. Uh, payroll, as you know, is this is our busiest month for payroll. Our, our teaching staff can elect to have a portion of their salary deferred to the summer months. So we have to, uh, that’s a big month for us. June is a big month for us for payroll. Uh, at this time, superintendent Roberto and I are going to, um, start our discussions around making recommendations for items that are not in the budget, um,

38:13 but certainly are needed for the district. Uh, one thing that we’ll we’ve already discussed is prepaying, some tuitions for next year special education tuitions to get a head start on that. And there are some other needs of the district that are not in the budget that we’d like to address before we get to the end of the year. Okay. Yep. Um, we had talked about during the budget process, ‘cause in the 11th hour, um, the town had come back and said, as we all know, they’re, they were 2 million off on their projections. And so they had asked us to pull out, um, our capital asks. We had talked about if we, as we got closer to the end of the year, if we were safe with the projections according to what you thought, that we make the schools whole again with those capital asks. Because legally there are one-time costs.

38:59 There, there’s a legal mechanism for doing that. Are we looking like we can fulfill all of our capital asks that we originally had planned? So I have had a conversation with the town’s chief financial officer and we provided, so we’ve gone out to bid. The, the three things that were removed from our budget was the, um, a portion of the reupholstering of the pack. Um, performing arts center seating a small portion, about $30,000 of about 140. Um, we kept about 110 in there. Um, so that’s, that’s about 30,000 there. The big one was the pack, the painting of the ceiling and the walls of the performing arts center. And, and again, I like to do things logically and I have a hard time replacing the seats mm-hmm.

39:45 If we don’t paint first. Mm-hmm. Um, so, uh, she has, and we have gone out to bid on that even though we knew that we didn’t have the funding. We’ve gone out to bid. We’re about to award the, uh, the painting contract and provided we get a paintbrush on the wall before June 30th, we can use this year’s funds if we have surplus funds. Uh, something that superintendent Roberto and I will be discussing and bringing back to the committee in the very near future. Okay. Do you, are, do you have a sense from the contractors? ‘cause it’s ha it’s also their time to be painting outside. So it’s sometimes really hard to secure them for indoor work. ‘cause this is The, the bid specified that it had to be done this summer. Okay. So anybody responding to the bid knows that this knows That. All right. So, Uh, and then the final thing was the Glover playground. And unfortunately, we’re not gonna be able to put a,

40:31 a shovel in the ground before June 30th. So there’s no way to carry that money forward. So that’s the one thing that we’re gonna need to go back to the town for next year for additional funding for the Glover playground. Is there a mechanism? ‘cause again, we’re, my goal was always to make everybody whole if possible. The answer may be no. But I, I have to ask the question. Is there a mechanism to prepay extra in the amount of that would offset the glover and then do a line item transfer to offset that in the, in the next budget? It’d be very transparent for it, but ultimately making sure everybody’s whole across the board and glover’s getting what they need to. Yeah. So there is, um, state legislation or state laws around what you can prepay. Yeah. You can prepay a year

41:17 of collaborative education mm-hmm. In three months of private education. Um, so I think we’re gonna be right up against that. So I’m not sure how much more we can prepay legally. Okay. So I’m gonna have to investigate, investigate that with Okay. Um, miss Dippolito and figure out what we, we, what we can stretch to. Okay. Uh, our target is at minimum 900,000 to keep pace what we did last year. But if there, if we can stretch that further, we certainly will. Okay. And again, I wanna make sure we’re staying in, in the con confines to the law, but where we had no runway to know that the town was kinda had done a miscalculation. I I want to, if we can make the schools whole, The Chair. Yep. Um, so I think just to piggyback on that, I, I agree

42:02 with you and Mike and I started those conversations. I think some of, like with the reduction of the funding from the town side for the Glover playground, we had a meet, you know, we had a meeting today again, just to talk about it with stakeholders, some of the stakeholders. And I think part of the issue that people need to understand is this, I mean, I know you guys understand, I’m saying it for the, uh, the general public is this procurement, um, laws. And there’s timelines that kind of really bump things out way longer than you think. Like, we can’t just go buy a piece of playground equipment and stick on the playground. So there’s processes and it was very difficult for us to take that next step without, with that reduction in funds and to try to get a bid out there and back before June 30th to be able to expend the funds and then not knowing exactly how much we were gonna have to kind of offset the funds that the town took back.

42:48 So it’s a lot of moving parts there. So, no, I know. I can appreciate. Yeah. So I appreciate the conversation because I, I, I feel the same way, like trying to make everybody as whole as possible. Um, and I know Mike’s working with, you know, with, uh, the town side to, to try to make sure everyone kind of, that needs get met. And I think at the end of the day, um, we’ll be in a good place. There’s just a couple things that we might have to kind of bump a little bit. Um, not, not because we want to, but because I think we’re kind of forced to through procurement and stuff. So, yes. Thank You. Um, okay. One more. Um, just kudos for financial. I know that we had approved the funding for the scoreboard and, um, from, I gotten a call from Park and Rec today, and I know you’ve, they commended Mike for working so well

43:33 with Shelly Bedrosian. And I know Shelly put in a lot of effort to also work with you get the cost down, um, on that scoreboard. And it’s just a really great example of two different departments in town really working together to make sure that every penny of, whether it’s private funding in town or taxpayer money is really getting the most value. So I appreciate the work you’ve done with, with Shelly. I appreciate her working with you. Um, to keep that cost of the scoreboard down. And it’s actually three, There’s a third. Yeah, there’s a third player. Oh yes. The light department Correct. Has agreed to to be our lift. Okay. Uh, to remove the old scoreboard and install the new one with us. Uh, we’ll use our electrician, but they will be doing the heavy lifting. Yeah. Great. Uh, with their equipment. So thank you to the MLD shout That noise department got that news this Morning. That’s great. It just shows,

44:19 you know, and this is not just town money. Well, it’s all, you know, it’s res it’s some private money from, um, various organizations in town, but it’s, it’s everyone working together to make sure we’re getting the most for our kids. Yep. And that saves Us money rec, youth sports in town, uh, the light department. Um, thank you all been very supportive and helpful in the process. So very appreciative to them. Thank you. And then our, our tech directors are also our arborist, so he’s gonna come and cut down some cheese. He likes his chainsaws, so. Oh no. Awesome. I may have to go watch that. All right. Thank Any other questions or for Mike? Thank you. And so I guess the next step will be at some point a year end closeout report in the fall or what have you Sometime over the summer fall.

45:05 Okay. Awesome. All right. Um, moving on. We have our youth risk survey summary from school counselor Gina Hart. Welcome Ms. Hart. How are you? Good. Thank you for having me. Can’t believe it’s been a year since we had this. Mm-hmm. It’s been a long, this report always makes me a little nervous. I’m just gonna tell you how to say. So I think we’re gonna see that there’s some really positive trends, which is great. Do you have a Yes, Frank. Awesome. Thank you. Oh, do I need to make her a panelist? What do I need to Cover? Oh, he’s got it. So I’m Gina Hart. I’m a clinical social worker and I work at the high school. And I’m going to speak to you today about our data collection. We have a schoolwide survey every year around substance use and mental health. And that is what we’re gonna talk about.

45:49 So before I dive in, um, this is our fourth year of data collection. And it’s so, so important that we have support around this data collection. ‘cause it tells us where our students are at. It gives us kind of an idea of the needs and strengths of our student community. And I just wanna thank, um, central for being so supportive. John and Julia and Lisa, Marie and Victoria, for taking the time to meet with me and talk with me about it. Um, even helping craft some questions as well as Dr. Carlson who’s there, um, from the start, kind of pushing through the logistics. Um, and so it, it’s really important, this data. Yeah. Um, it gives us a sense of where we’re at and it, it informs our health curriculums, our tiered interventions, our programming. Um, and so using this as a tool every year to kind of see where we’re at, we are definitely gonna see some positive trends in healthy directions.

46:35 It’s hard to know exactly the reason, but I, I would like to think that, um, you know, partly because of the great work that we’re doing and that we’re always trying to improve upon. Alright. So, um, if you can actually go back to the, the first slide. The very first slide? Yep. The very first slide. Thank you. So it’s the substance use and risk related factors survey. It’s administered by MGH and we do the logistics. And then we also have, um, supplemented questions through anonymous Google form that we are actually able to craft ourselves. Our leadership team meets and discusses kind of what’s missing from the, the, the bulk of the survey and what can we ask. So it’s all four grades, ages 14 to 18. We have a really high response rate. We have a 84.5% response rate,

47:22 which has increased over the last few years. We do a lot of work to try to, um, increase buy-in. Um, the parent and guardians always have the option to opt their students out. We have a really great process of making sure that, um, we do that with sound measures and we really obviously respect that parents may wanna opt their students out, but it’s really great for us to get a high response rate. And because we communicate so much about the importance of the survey, um, parent and guardian optout has actually decreased over the last few years. So we do this every fall, um, this year. It happened October 9th. And to increase student buy-in. ‘cause we want students to feel comfortable sharing. Um, sometimes it can be hard to share information about, um, yourself on a school survey, but it really is confidential and anonymous. It’s done through a HIPAA compliant red cap, um, link.

48:09 And we share the data with the students before they take it to show students are actually answering this. Um, and we have longitudinal data that you’re gonna see. You’re gonna see the data compared to, um, other schools in the state that took the exact survey as well as, um, the youth health survey. You’re only gonna see comparisons if the questions were exactly the same. And I just wanna note going into looking at the comparisons, it’s important for us to think about how Marblehead is unique and its def um, demographics and location. And so while we do wanna compare to other, um, cities and towns, it’s important to note that the, we are unique in those things. So you’ll hear me talk about risk and protective factors, which are things that make our student population, um, either protected from or more vulnerable toward mental health and substance use. And then the thing that people always ask is, you know,

48:54 are students actually honest on this survey? And I think it’s really important that I just talked about all the buy that we try to create and we have to look at relative, relative differences over time and trends and know that this is a jumping off point for us to start. And that’s the, the way it’s most useful. Alright. So demographics, just kind of leave it up for people to look at our, our, our student body is becoming more diverse. In the past we’ve had about 90% identify as white. Um, just a couple notes. Gender identity. Um, gender diverse is transgender, non-binary gender queer. Another gender sexually diverse as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer. Asexual, pansexual. Good. All right. So just some of the basics. Protective factors. Things that we’re really looking for, um,

49:39 that are helping our students. Many of our students are connected with their peers, a lot of our students, um, we always wanna make it higher, but it’s a good amount of our students are feeling connected to staff member at the school. We know that that increases academic and social emotional outcomes. Um, 40% of students feel they happy about the support they receive. We know extracurriculars are a protective factor. A huge majority of our students engaged in extracurriculars like music, sports and clubs. Um, one risk factor is not enough of our students are getting enough sleep, they’re recommended sleep for their age. Um, so that’s something to think about. Alright, so mental health. So the questions are trying to get to diagnostics above the risk threshold for anxiety, depression, and psychotic experiences. So you’ll see all the red or the last three years of marblehead and the blue as other schools,

50:25 we are seeing a positive trend downwards for anxiety. Um, we’re seeing 21% for depression, uh, 13% this year, and psychotic experience is 8% this year. And if you look at, um, other schools, some we’re a little lower and right, right around the same. And so we’re seeing a, a positive trend over the last few years, which is amazing. Um, and I think, you know, we wanna think about what are we doing to try to support this? And we’ll talk about that at the end. Um, I just wanna make a note about psychotic experiences. It’s something that’s not often talked about, but it’s so important to talk about because students are struggling with this. And if you look at the little box around state data, which shows kind of the comparison, um, we see that we’re, we’re kind of right, right on par with state data and early detection and treatment of psychotic experiences is so key

51:10 to treating this diagnosis. And so it is important that we are recognizing it and talking about it. That seems particularly high For Psychotic experiences. I mean Yep. I know that’s Not statistically in the population doesn’t have that high, a percentage of psychotic, I don’t Think. Yeah. And I think that’s, that’s why I note that it’s important. Can you go back? It’s important to talk about ‘cause I think it is really surprising to people. Um, about 8% of our students are experienced in that. But if you look at other schools, it’s, it’s even higher. And if you look at state data, it’s right around the same. And I think it’s sometimes it’s early emerging, sometimes it has to do with substance use, but it is something that our students are experiencing and if it it, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to turn into a full psychotic diagnosis with psychosis. However, it is something that could turn into it.

51:56 And so we wanna just keep an eye out for it and recommend early treatment. What definition were the students given for them to use to say whether they’ve had this experience? Yes. So it’s symptoms of psychosis. So seeing or hearing things that aren’t there. Think Yeah. Question. Yep. And I know that even If it’s induced spike drugs, So there is separately, when we get to substance use, you’ll see some questions specifically around that. And so it is important to note, I know it sounds like it’s a lot, but the, this is things that our students are experiencing and so More than one in 10 of our students is seeing and hearing something that’s not there. So it’s 8% of 700. I I don’t know the math off the top of my head, but, um, Oh, I’m looking at the 11 for other schools, but still like 8% is pretty close to one in 10

52:43 Of 700. And I’m, I’m not sure that the, off the top of my head, Well, one in 10 is 10 is 10%. Right. So, so yes. I mean I think it’s have this, has this ever happened to you? And it doesn’t mean that our, all of these students are going to develop a, a diagnosis of psychosis. But yes, these are things that our students are experiencing. And I think this conversation always happens when we, when we see the data. So In the general, what is the statistic in the general population, not just high schoolers? What would you, if you had to guess? Yeah, I, I think it’s, I think it’s probably to get an actual diagnosis as an adult, it’s probably a little bit lower because these things don’t always turn into a diagnosis. Okay. Yeah. But, so I think it’s an important conversation to have. Yeah. Okay. Thank You. Through the chair, Jen. Yeah. Can I ask a question? Uh, Gina, if for just to, to on the previous slide to

53:33 from Sarah’s question, is that question when it’s asked here versus, um, in the other section, the substance section, is it clear in this section that you’re asking if students have, is the question clear that you’re asking if students have had these types of experiences without any um, Yeah, assessor? Yeah, that’s a good question. So it doesn’t like clarify in the first question that like not related to substance use, but the substance use question does. So that’s a good point, but I, but I do think it, it, we still need to look at the fact that it is happening. Oh, uh, yeah, not, I’m not discounting at all. I was just curious how the Yeah, no, that’s a good question. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Suicidal thoughts and behavior. Um, so we’re looking at non, uh, suicidal self-injury.

54:22 So that would be like self-harm, suicidal thoughts. And then there’s plan and attempt. And so again, the red is 20 marblehead over the last three years. Um, and so obviously these are, these are concerning numbers. One of the things that we were really concerned about last year was that, uh, suicide attempts had been up to 3%. It has decreased to 1%. And again, I just wanna point out that we’re right around the same as other schools, but this is really important to look at because of the safety issue. And we have really great programming working at Lisa Marine Student Services around safety assessments that our mental health staff are doing, um, uh, suicide prevention in the health classes. And so it’s just always something that we need to keep working On. I mean, this is,

55:09 I’m just doing it again. Hold on. So it’s still so concerning. Yes. Like we, we have 72 students that have, uh, roughly 72 students in our high school that have gone as far as to make a plan to commit suicide. And then we have, well, eight point Yeah. Seven of 600. Well, I did only by 8%, so it’s a little higher than that of 677. Um, and we had two to three students who have, I mean, attempted. That’s, that’s a big number. Yeah. And I think it, it absolutely, and this is why we take this data and I think again, we just, you know, it’s not specific

55:55 to Marblehead and this is why it’s so important that we have not only in the school, but in the community resources available. Um, yeah, we have a lot of policies in place and that’s something I know that the safety committee reviewed and spoke about. Mm-hmm. Just so I know for the percentages is these percentages, I’m looking at them, this is the percentage of our student body or is this the percentage of respondents. Of Respondents. So what are, okay, so it is a small number. What about 85% of our students respond? It Is a little bit, it’s not much better, but it’s a little bit better. Mm-hmm. And the chair. So I think, you know, I’m very concerned and we’re all concerned about the numbers, right? So that’s not, you know, we’re concerned about the numbers. And I think the good thing about having this data is that we can have solid information to then create ways to address the issues.

56:41 And that’s, that’s why we’re doing this. Um, do these surveys and have these discussions. And Gina’s done a really nice job of kind of really sifting through this. Um, so whereas I look at the trends and the trends are looking better, obviously we want those trends to go even lower, trending better. We don’t want to have any attempts, you know, clearly. And, you know, and I think the more we talk about it, the more that we have the conversations, the more that we have these discussions, ask the questions, get the supports in place, the farther that trend is gonna go down. So I’m, I’m actually excited that we’re moving in the right direction. Um, and I’m not gonna talk about, you know, I’m not gonna talk about COVID and stuff, but, you know, we’re coming off of COVID. Obviously the numbers are a lot higher than, you know, than we really wanted. And now we’re kind of trending away from that. So I just, I just wanna throw it out There. Yeah. And I think it’s important to note, you know, I,

57:26 I think not every school does this data and analysis. And so it’s so great that we have the support to be able to do it, so we know where we’re at. Okay.

57:39 Okay. Some questions on body image and disordered eating. Um, again, a a little bit of a positive trend downward around, um, students that feel negatively about, um, their body image, but still about 37%. And a question a little bit more captured around disordered eating is, um, having trouble focusing, um, because they’re constantly thinking about weight or shape is about 20%. Go ahead. Experiences of discrimination based on race or ethnicity. So this is students who identified as other than non-Hispanic or white. Um, because we really wanna capture students of color, what their experiences are. Um, so there’s a few, a few things here. You know, one of the things I always look at is where you call racially insulting names. That’s the highest percentage. Um, we don’t have information about kind of where these

58:25 insults are happening or these experiences are happening, but we know that our students are saying that in their life that’s happening to them. So that’s important for us to look at

58:35 Experiences of discrimination based on personal identities. And so you can see here gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, socioeconomic status. These are all things, um, that students have felt, um, discriminated against. And so these are our vulnerable populations.

58:53 Couple other data points to point out. Um, 67% of, uh, students that identify as sexually diverse, as well as 50% of students who identify as gender diverse or above the risk threshold for anxiety, depression, similar to state and national data, uh, vulnerable populations for mental health. And then there’s a couple other data points here. Um, in particular, multiracial. And then seniors always have the highest rates of, um, anxiety and depression. It’s a little bit lower than last year. Um, and so that’s positive. But we have a lot of conversations about kind of the, what’s going on for them senior year and the pressure.

59:28 Um, this is so important. Another either protective or risk factor depending, but, um, who have you talked to about your mental health, access to mental health de-stigmatization about mental health? Um, being able to talk to somebody about it is such a protective factor. And so what’s great is a lot of students are talking to their parents or caregivers, um, their friends, although we, we really want them to be talking to adults, um, mental health person outside of school, school staff. Those numbers are a little bit lower. Whatever we can do to have conversations about increasing access. Um, and then no one that, that is obviously a risk factor. So about 15% of students saying that they’re not talking to anybody about it. And so that’s something we need to look at as well. Alright. So now we’re gonna move on to questions about substance use.

1:00:14 So lifetime use, the question is, have you ever had a sip of alcohol? Have you ever, uh, vaped a nicotine or a, um, marijuana product? And so this is marblehead over the last three years. We can see that the numbers are just around the same. And if we wanna look at state data, which is important, again, where do we, where do we stand? Um, this is the state YHS up in the corner. So we look, um, we look

1:00:41 a little bit right around the same for alcohol, a little bit lower for nicotine. Um, sorry, right around the same for nicotine. A little bit lower for cannabis. Go ahead. Do You break this down by, um, grade level? Yes. So I, what I, I should have said this. We have so much information to, to put it all in a slide and we’d be here all night. So I will say I don’t have it in here, but we do, we do have it, yes. If it’s, if it’s easy. Yeah. If it’s not, it’s not. Would you mind sharing this with the committee? I know I’d like to see it. I don’t know if the rest of the committee would, um, by grade level. ‘cause you know, you do hear that there’s pat and the patterns kind of show a little bit more that peer pressure, if you will, you know, how, how it ebbs and flows. What, what are the kids doing now?

1:01:26 I sound like an 85-year-old woman right now when I say that, but I’d be interested to see if there is that ebb and flow and what it’s Yep. Yeah, we have, we have these answers by grade level, so I’m happy to share that and just let me know. I appreciate That. Thank you. Yep. And then we’ll see like, um, age of first use too. Um, okay, next slide. So, so then there’s the question about regularly use one to three days in the past 30 days. So for alcohol, we are a little bit higher than, um, other schools that took the survey. And I think that’s four Times higher. That’s not a little bit, Tina. It’s important. Yeah, it is absolutely important for us to note that, um, for nicotine and cannabis, we’re right around the same. And then if you look at the daily use, we’re again right around the same. But, but it is something. Um, and in a, in a couple slides we talk, we have a focus group where we talk to students about it.

1:02:12 And you’ll see one of the themes is that alcohol is, seems to be much more accepted than some of the other substances. Go. To piggyback on what John said in his opening, going into the weekends of graduation and celebrations and things like that, I just, for anybody listening, I’m reading in a newspaper or listening at home, it’s really, really important that people, when I look at we’re four times higher in alcohol use. You know, it’s, it’s hard to be the hard parent and, and to, and to say no at, you know, at things for, for parties and in graduations. But it’s, it’s really very, very important. And I just, we’ve had multiple tragedies in our,

1:02:58 in our history as a town. And it’s clear we’re higher than other towns. So let’s, as a town kind of be aware of that and do our part because you can’t just rely on the school to do this. Like, you can’t send your kids to school and think the message is gonna be embedded in them there. Like, we all have to practice what we preach. And this time of year, it’s parents and families in the community pay a really big role in getting that number down. Thank you. It’s Very important for my soapbox now. Sorry. Yep. Very important for communities and parents to be involved. Okay. Age of first use, this is the statistic I read every year, but the chances of developing an addiction are nearly seven times higher for teens who begin using before the age of 15 than for those

1:03:44 who delay use until 21 or older. And 96% of adults with a substance use disorder began before the age of 20. So it’s really important that we’re, we’re identifying when are our students using? And so this slide, there’s a lot here. A lot of our students are using alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis before the age of 15. And so we have a lot of conversations about kind of what are we doing at the lower levels. And it’s, it’s often at that developmental stage. It’s not always just about direct substance use education. It’s about identifying protective and risk factors, social emotional support. And I know, um, some of these conversations kind of helped lead to getting the, the health teacher at village. And so, um, it’s just important to note that this is happening early for some kids. Seven, just, can we put that back on again?

1:04:30 7% of our elementary school students, that’s their first time we used 12 or younger. That’s elementary school. 7% of our students started drinking in elementary school.

1:04:46 Like we as a community, we ha we just have to do better.

1:04:53 Alright. Impaired driving students said, had said, I have driven after drinking alcohol or driven after using marijuana. Um, more likely to do so when using marijuana. It’s a small percentage, but it’s still with the safety risk, it’s concerning. So always wanna look at that. Um, we revamped this question to kind of capture a little bit better. Somebody that’s in a car with somebody and they’re concerned. And so it, the data actually reduced this year, which is really positive to see. Um, but have you ever been in a car with someone else who was driving and had sub and used substances in a way that made you concerned? So education around, um, impaired driving is important. This is, um, we do a lot of consulting with Chief King about this question. I know Julia worked on this question last, and we modified it

1:05:38 because we didn’t feel like the data was so accurate last year. First we asked who has a license? And then we asked, um, how often do you text while driving? Um, so we have a lot of students that are saying they, they text while they drive. And so this is another thing that we wanna look at. Um, go ahead. Um, peer perceptions of substance use, social norms, theory states that if we feel like our peers are doing something, we’re gonna be more likely to engage in it. And so, um, 70% of students said that they think their peers are using alcohol at a higher level than the data indicates 66.2% for nicotine and 48.6% for marijuana. So that’s why it’s really important, like social norms, campaigns around, like sharing the data and having these conversations student to student is gonna help reduce, uh, use

1:06:24 Couple other things to note. Um, students are trying to quit, um, especially on nicotine. ‘cause they, it is really, it’s a difficult thing to do and it is so addictive. Um, students had used in the past 30 days, this number of them are, are attempting to quit, um, prescription drugs not used as prescribed, which is gonna encompass a lot of the high overdose risk. Things like opiates, benzodiazepines, that could be, um, mixed with fentanyl. It did actually increase about 1% from last year. Um, and so that’s, does That include Adderall? Um, Adderall would be under methamphetamine, but it, but yes, it could be. Yes. Um, and so again, a small percentage, but with the overdose risk, it’s, so, it’s so great that the school committee passed an Narcan policy a few years ago.

1:07:10 Um, our nurses carry it, or we have several people in the buildings that carry it. And so that’s important as well. Okay. Um, as you said, you know, parental attitudes towards substance use. And so, uh, you know, a protective factor is parents kind of having a boundary or a consequence around regular substance use. Um, a large percent said the yes. And then what’s also a protective factor is this question has gone down. Adults using substances in a way that, um, has made students concern has decreased to 8%. But obviously that is something too that, um, will affect our students.

1:07:44 Okay. John and Julia worked hard on this question. Um, we really wanted to capture, and, and again, this helped kind of inform the need for the social media programming that we did this year. Um, a lot of our students using social media daily, here are some of the platform. Snapchat, Instagram, the biggest ones. Um, it’s important that we ask about the positive aspects of social media connection, business marketing, spreading awareness, but then also the negative effects, um, students identifying cyber bullying, peer pressure, um, self comparison, negative mental health effects, et cetera. And so a lot of our students are recognizing that this is something that can affect them negatively. Um, and the Project Rebo reboot. That was great. Thanks. This one

1:08:30 and, um, data to realize that we did need bring in, um, Some resources to support. So we brought the, uh, project reboot for our family’s presentation as well as our middle school and high school presentation. Um, so all students grades seven through 12 had, um, a really impactful presentation this year. So again, this data is directly informing, um, how we’re supporting our students and the family presentation. And thank you Gina for that. I think the students were really surprised by actually what came out of that conversation. Yeah, I was there. That was, it was amazing. And the gentleman did a really great job, but I think the kids were like, oh my goodness, really? I’m on the phone that much. That kind of thing. So it’s good. Thanks John. We also wanna talk to students. Oh, can you go back? Instead of just collecting data, let’s have conversations.

1:09:16 So we have focus groups. We had one on, uh, May 7th. A couple of the things that came up. Alcohol is more accepted than other substances in our health classes. They really enjoy when we have speakers come in and share their experiences. Um, so their knowledge of why teens use. Um, we asked about mental health support in school and some of them talked about, they know where it is, but they may not access it, access it because of stigma. They reported about four to six hours of screen time. Um, and they basic some suggestions for parents to monitor cell phone use. So it’s always great to get kids in a room and have them chat. All right. There’s so much that we’re doing and I just, we always like to recognize that. And so we, we do present this data not only to the students and the school committee, um, and we work with, um, Andrew Petty

1:10:02 and Chief King as well in presenting the data. Um, but we present it to the faculty. It got presented to them in May. And so we just wanna recognize them for all the SEL work they’re doing. Here’s just like a couple snapshots of all the stuff that’s happening. Go ahead. Um, and this is our larger faculty. We also, we have a mental health department at the high school, uh, social workers adjustment counselors and psychologists that are working with students every day and with tiered interventions. And so we, we feel like that’s really helpful for students to access. Um, go ahead. I just wanted to point out the health curriculum. They, they really are covering so much, and I just wanna, like the great collaborative effort I heard from the health teacher today, Hey, can you send me those slides so I can work on updating my 11th grade, um, areas of focus.

1:10:47 And so that’s like another great reason why we take the data MBMS. They, this is what they’re doing for substance use. They’re doing a lot. Um, they, they named their specific evidence-based programming that they’re using. We also do the, um, both high school and middle school does the expert screening, which is screening and brief in screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment in seventh and ninth grades.

1:11:12 And this is Julia’s line. Yeah. Thanks Gina. Um, so we’re continuing to focus on multi-tiered systems of support, as Gina just mentioned, with our tiered interventions. Um, through our work with, um, student services department, um, we are continuing to focus on supporting students’ academic and social emotional needs. Um, we are looking at the data to reduce those at-risk measures and outcomes, especially for marginalized or at-risk students. We want all of our students to feel safe, supported and included in school. This year we adopted our new social emotional learning curriculum grades pre-K to 12. So it’s the first time in the district we’ve ever had an SEL curriculum. We are so proud of that work and we’re really proud of the educators who are implementing those lessons and activities. We’ve also done a lot of professional development and specifically with our, um, mental health team,

1:11:59 they also received, um, special professional development on how to, uh, embed those, uh, lessons for tier two and tier three supports. Um, we are also continuously working to support our educators through professional learning communities and to, to support all of our learners. We look at data all of the time, um, especially in their professional learning communities. Um, and also what can we bring in to support our educators professional development and their professional learning, um, and allow time for them to collaborate with one another and all the amazing mental health clinicians in the district as well. Thank you, Gina. Thank you. Okay. We’re just about at the end. Go ahead. I think there’s two. Yeah. Okay. So what are we doing? So, you know, recognizing how what we are doing is amazing, but looking at the early use issue, examining local specifics that make our community unique.

1:12:47 Harm reduction is, um, research tells us that’s a better way to approach, um, substance use with teens as opposed to like scare tactics or awareness campaigns. Obviously the SEL and mental health support L-G-B-T-Q-I-A and racial and social justice programming for our vulnerable populations, body image eating disorders, um, parent and community programming. We can’t just rely on the schools to be doing this. The same messaging needs to be coming from the community and the parents. And we work to all together so that students are getting that support in a three-prong approach. Social media and cell phone usage, continuing on with that and using the school-wide survey is an annual tool as we have been doing to kind of, you know, track the trends and the data over time. It’s a way to see if the programming is effective. Yep. And that’s it. So can I just ask you quick? Yeah.

1:13:32 One thing I didn’t see in here was anything around which we had talked about, I think a month or two ago about, um, you know, uh, you know, a physical abuse, sexual abuse, um, consent. Um, is that not part of the survey? Not part of our programming or, Yeah, so it definitely is. So it isn’t part of the survey, but we can definitely include that in, in some of the questions that we ask next year. Um, and what, we’ll, we meet in the fall to kind of do a consult on that. And I think it’s, you know, we talked about it Last night. Yes. We talked, we talked about it. Um, or April, you know Yeah. Several, several meetings going. Uh, you know, Julie and I are, are getting together on how can we, ‘cause we did this last week after, I think it was right after I came on, we looked at the surveys, we said, how can we enhance this? Um, in light of the conversation we had, I think that’s, that’s a, a piece that we really need to look at.

1:14:19 Um, and we will add that, certainly add that in moving forward so we can make it a little bit, um, more robust. Um, in terms of information gathering there. I think that, um, in October we’re going to, my sense is from the guess we had in April, I think it’s October is domestic violence awareness month. So there may be, um, some discussion around that, um, as well, um, in terms of a possible resolution or whatever. Just, you know, recognizing domestic violence. Yep. So, um, that would fall under this dating violence, you know. Yep. Relationship violence. Absolutely. And the good thing about it is we have the ability to kind of add questions. So if, if we can absolutely do that. And I there is in the health curriculum, they do, um, they do have what you domestic violence consent. Yeah, we had talked about that. Maybe being in an earlier grade.

1:15:05 We can talk about that offline. ‘cause I think it ended up being like senior year and it’s, I Do think, I don’t remember exactly, but I I do think it’s in like junior Year. It is in ninth grade too, as practicing healthy behaviors, building health relationships, team dating violence. Okay. Ninth grade. I think it’s scaffolded to, once you get to 12th grade, different conversations is, you Know, for age appropriate conversations and heading off into Quality when it starts. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s listed in that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it’d be good to get some worked On. One question I have and maybe a thought you guys can look into any medical facility you’re in. If you’re at a hospital, a doctor’s office, when you’re in the restroom, there’s a sign everywhere. Um, essentially do you feel safe? And if you don’t, this is the steps you can take. At least any medical facility I’ve ever been in it, I, I,

1:15:50 I think would be beneficial to our students to find some type of messaging that is similar to put in our restrooms as well. Um, because there are so many resources here at a school that they can utilize and this is where they are every day versus they may be at a medical facility only, you know, once a year or twice a year, but they’re here every day. So, um, something to that effect I think would be Helpful. So, so we, we had talked a little bit about, um, some of those things in regard to, um, to, you know, anti-discrimination things. So, so I was thinking when you were talking about it, I think, uh, some messaging around the schools maybe, uh, I think Casey Johnson brought it up, or like maybe doing QR codes for like pe kiddos that are being, feel like they’re being bullied or, you know, how can they kind of report it

1:16:35 and kind of anonymously or, and or in a way that they’re not, like, feel like they’re tattling, but they’re getting the message out. And I think something similar for that might be a way, a good way to do it. Like if you feel like you’ve been in this situation, or, you know. So I think with technology these days, I, you know, there’s so many ways we could do that. And in a way that we get better information quicker, um, from kids who, you know, ‘cause when I looked at the, when I looked at some of that data and it says like, nobody talked about, about their mental illness, like, what a great way to say, Hey, I could do this in a way, what’s, what’s some resources I can? And especially with, uh, with, uh, telecon telehealth conferencing now, you know, we can get kids hooked up to, you know, mass health, uh, stuff through, um, you know, mental health things and, and maybe in a different way. So yeah, I think it’s a great idea. Thank

1:17:22 You. Great. Um, any comments, Allison or Al? Did you guys have any comments? Okay. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Hart. Appreciate it. Okay. This is always appreciate it. A very important, very thorough report. It’s very hard. I, I know for myself and I’m sure for others to hear every year, especially when we see those statistics of how young start kids start. But I, I appreciate this. It’s good to see the trends. Um, a lot of good work is being done. I know, I think it was last year, maybe the year before, you identified the trend that we were higher than normal with some of the eating disorder and body image. And you guys were gonna target that. We see that that has come down. So the data collection, driving what we’re targeting, we’re seeing, you know, statistically that, that it’s improving and, and we’re getting somewhere.

1:18:09 So that’s really good. It’s still so scary, especially the age at which these kids are starting to use, um, substances. So thank you Mr. Hart. Thank you for Having me. And thank you for giving me the, the platform and the space and for engaging in the thoughtful conversation. I really appreciate That. Thank. Thanks, Gina. Nice job. Thanks Gina. Um, okay, so we’re moving on to, um, science curriculum, assistant superintendent, Ferrera. I Have some special Guests joining me, so I’m gonna move over. Great. If you guys want cushion chairs,

1:18:42 welcome. Oh, thank You. Alright, thanks. Alright. Thank you for the opportunity to present. So, I’m Julia Ferrera, assistant Superintendent of Teaching learning, and I’m here with Angie Graziano, our instructional coach, and Emily Perez, our instructional coach. Uh, I just wanted to, uh, start by saying thank you to Emily and Angie for being tremendous resources, um, and tremendous instructional leaders through our science curriculum review. Um, so we have some slides to share with you tonight, and we’re gonna walk you through, um, our Marblehead Public School Science curriculum review that we conducted this year. Um, I do believe you already received a memo. Um, and so here are the slides to accompany to kind of elaborate on what was shared with you in the memo.

1:19:32 Mm-hmm. Ready? If Anybody in the audience, we have a couple extra copies if anybody in the audience can’t see the screen and wants to see what’s on the slides, Steve.

1:19:48 So I just wanna start, um, with a, a look at how we do conduct a si of curriculum review in Marblehead Public Schools. Um, so we have a visual here. So what we really do is we, we learn, prepare, investigate, uh, excuse me, we launch year one, um, the review of the content area that we’re focusing on. So every content area gets examined every six years. Um, we then continue, uh, the process through years two through five. Um, and then we are back in that cycle again. So science, um, this was their review year. We’re very excited. This was the first time in many years, and we have some of the feedback to share from the science educators, um, about how they, um, really appreciated engaging in the process. Um, so we’ve linked a full document for the school committee to look at later. We really are thorough in our process.

1:20:35 Um, and there’s a lot more, this visual just kind of is a broad picture of the review process. Um, but there’s also a document for you to look at. We, we are very intentional. Um, we take this process very seriously. We align ourselves with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, um, the standards that are for content areas, um, and as well as expectations for time on learning, um, and high quality instructional materials.

1:21:01 I I left this one in here. Um, as we start to look at, um, what the heart of our work is focused on, the heart of our work is focused on equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students. Um, so through that we look at, um, what are our values as a community of, uh, Marblehead Public schools, what is our student data telling us? And then what is the current research showing us is what our best practices or best, uh, best ways to, um, help engage our students in that curricular learning.

1:21:32 So this is just a little, a little more in depth, um, information about our process. So the first thing that we do is we as a, as a whole committee build, um, background about whatever subject we were reviewing. In this case it was science. We look at research and we look at data from our, from our school of mcast. And, um, i-Ready, IXL all different data. Um, we review our current curriculum that we have in place and how it has served our students. We look at a survey that we send out to teachers to gather as much feedback as possible so that we hear as many voices as possible. Um, and then from that information, from the research, from the data, from the background information we build, we determine what our curriculum needs are going to be. Um, and we create a tool based on the values

1:22:20 that we share with each other based on the survey and based on high quality instructional material guidelines from the Department of Education. And then we review materials and make some decisions together. We test out the materials. We, um, compare their materials to what the high quality material guidelines are, and we share them. We talk about them with the staff, and we then make a decision and create a plan for their future instruction and needs. It doesn’t stop here. We have an implementation plan in place, and we will continue our work next year and the year after. So When we, when we do this. So we’ve kind of taken the process and now we’re getting a little more specific to this year science, uh, curriculum review. We, we formed a committee. Um, so we will acknowledge ‘em at the end, but it was, um, and also led by Emily and Angie, myself.

1:23:07 Hours, months of work really. Um, so this is the very kind of shortened version of the work. But, um, I think the thing that I am very proud of, that it was very thorough process and it wasn’t rushed. And all stakeholders, um, especially within the, um, science departments, uh, were involved. So very proud of that. So, um, I’m gonna talk us through our recommendations for K through four. We’re recommending to adopt mystery science as our primary science curriculum for students in grades K through four. The first year of implementation will include lessons from foss, our current science curriculum, while we develop an updated scope and sequence for our educators and provide professional development for our educators.

1:23:53 So it’ll be a, um, a rollout next year where we’re kind of mindful of, of what we’re using, but then looking towards mystery science and really kind of have those conversations. We felt like mystery science was very engaging, a lot of positive feedback from educators, very current. And kids were very excited, um, about the lessons and that. Mm-hmm. So we feel great about that recommendation. You’ll see an estimated cost on each slide. We have not gone to the full scope of getting final quotes for everything, because tonight was a big night for us. We wanted to present our work. Um, these are preliminary estimates, um, all totaling $200,000, which was already approved in the FY 26 budget. Um, we, that is the target to not exceed. Um, again, these are just estimates of what we’ve gathered so far. Julia. Yes, sir.

1:24:39 Does that include materials as well? I know when we rolled out FOSS it took us many, many years to get kits for everyone. Um, does this cost provide all the consumables, the books, the cons in addition to the consumables that we’ll need? Yes. And so what we also, they, you mentioned kits we’re, we’re examining that and what we wanna be mindful of what resources we already have because there is a kit option, but we don’t want to just buy it without really examining it. So FS May cover some of it. Say it again. The FOSS kits may cover some of, yeah, We might have some of the resources already, so we’re being mindful of that. There is an option for that and we’ll see about the, what the cost will be in terms of what we need. Um, the 5,100 though is the online access, um, for our educators.

1:25:24 And, um, with the materials linked, they’ll just print from there. There’s not a, um, Not a textbook for textbook. Yeah. Okay. But what I essentially was getting at is I can remember when not everybody had foster kids and multiple classrooms. Were sharing a kit and the consumables might not be replenished. I wanna make sure that we’re budgeting to make sure all of our classes have what they need and we’re not having educators, you know, run down the hallway to grab it from this teach. ‘cause also, back in the day, we could do schedules that this class might be doing science and this one would juggle their time. So we could all share the same kit. Now with the work you’ve done to align, to make sure everyone’s doing the same thing at the same time, we can’t share things. So I just wanna make sure that this gets you what you need.

1:26:12 Absolutely. We will definitely ensure that. And as I Emily mentioned, we’re doing, um, a, we’re an implementation that’s going, we’re gonna prioritize some units first, and those will make sure absolutely have the resources and then we’ll continue from there. So, Mm-hmm. Can I ask a question? Part of the plan? Part of the plan, Do we, hang on, hang on folks. Do we wanna do this as we go along or do we wanna get through the full presentation and go, except It’s fine. We’re, Yeah. Okay. Okay. Use of the FoST is just a stop gap, though. At some point in time it’s gonna be this mystery program you’re talking about for these younger grades, right? Correct. So this is just a, it’s not like we’re gonna be using it every year for the rest of the Correct. Thank you. Yeah. I just wanna make sure I understood that. Yeah.

1:26:55 Okay. So for grades five through eight, we’re very excited that we will have an aligned curriculum. So our students will start using McGraw Hills Inspire Science starting in fifth grade. Um, it is a curriculum that’s divided into content areas for each grade level. So it’ll be domain based. So sixth grade will be doing earth and space science. Seventh grade will be doing life science, and eighth grade will be doing physical science, where in the past it had been more integrated. Um, um, we looked at lots of different factors and decided this would be the best way to go for our students. Um, there also is a piece to McGraw Hill called Actively Learn, which is an online learning platform that will be used by our seventh and eighth graders. Um, and there’s also a textbook component to Inspire Science. So it’s got some online pieces, but also some textbooks, um, as well as hands-on, um,

1:27:43 materials through what they call a collaboration kit.

1:27:47 Additionally, for the, um, middle school for seventh and eighth grade engineering, we went with, um, where we’re recommending Go going with, um, no, Adam for the engineering piece only. Um, it, some, you might have heard of Noad before, it’s been in our district in the past, um, as a pilot at some point a long time ago. Mm-hmm. Um, but it’s, uh, the educators felt like that it was a good hands-on piece for that engineering. And That’s included in this cost. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Um, and Angie mentioned, just wanna further emphasize aligned curriculum five through eight, which is just tremendous for us. Um, I wish you could have seen, I, I should have taken a few more pictures of the work that we did together. The energy, the excitement, the excitement, um, the collaboration.

1:28:33 Uh, also the educators feeling so valued in terms of, you know, leveraging their content knowledge and science and, and seeing, um, a curriculum that would really they think engage and inspire our, our science Learners. Was it not aligned before? It was not. Okay. I don’t know what that means. Okay. So we’re gonna have one, um, product right in that, that we’ll be using in those grades. Before it was different products for each grade. So this has kinda that scope and sequence and progression. Okay. That’s all aligned, standards aligned. So instead of, uh, they do that, we do this, then the kids have to, you know, we’ll, we’ll match it up somehow. Now it’s completely, um, planned for those grades five through eight. So, And by using No Adam and McGraw Hill, it covers, Massachusetts has standards

1:29:18 that aren’t always covered in, in programs. Um, and so no Adam addresses those standards. So it’s very comprehensive. Is this a cross curricular program too? I know when you rolled out Wit and Wisdom, um, there’s a, there’s a lot of elements in the text that they may be using in wit and Wisdom where they’re actually learning about science elements through the Witten Wisdom curriculum. Um, is there any type of alignment so that when they’re learning about volcanoes through the Tex and Whitten wisdom, it’s lining up with this science program or Yes, it’s One of us can answer it. Yeah. Sometimes, Sometimes it does align. However, we found that the, um, most often the content topics within WIT

1:30:05 and wisdom, which are very great and fascinating, are not always the science standards for that particular grade level. Okay. So unfortunately it doesn’t always match up. There are a few cases where it does match up. Okay. But we it build knowledge. Yeah, exactly. So building that background knowledge in Witten Wisdom will help them with the science units and vice versa. Okay. Um, so yeah, Well said. Mm-hmm. Good question. Alright. Um, next looks like a lot and it does represent a lot of work. Uh, very collaborative work with our Marblehead High School, um, science educators. So, um, a couple things I wanna note. So we have, um, how it’s listed. These are recommendations for adoption based off the courses. Um, biology, extremely outdated. Um, that was a very much a priority for us to get that updated.

1:30:50 Um, we’re very excited about the selections there. I wanna know, as you go down, you’re gonna see, um, AP as well. Ap um, the college board now has a requirement that you have to teach curriculum that is, uh, produced or published within the last 10 years. We are out of date and out of compliance on some of that, so we’re very excited. Um, you’ll see AP Environmental, AP Biology, um, AP Chem and AP Physics. So we’re looking to update those, uh, curricula. Very excited that our teachers feel that these, uh, curricular selections really do support student learning and preparation for the AP exam. Um, while we have some more quotes to get, we are estimating about $82,000. Um, some of these are going to be digital. Um, so students will be able to go home and listen to the text.

1:31:36 Um, so a lot of built-in, um, accommodations and differentiation opportunities for all learners. Um, that, that the online component is just amazing. So something we did not, we do not have right now for our learners. So very excited about that. Um, and again, really a great collaborative effort. Um, many of our, our publishing, our, um, Pearson is represented mostly here, but we do have Savas, um, Ngage and Bedford Freeman Wir. Um, so some variety, but really what the educators felt were best for their course in their student learning. Will all of these have an associated textbook, whether it be digital or physical, that every student will have access to at both home and School? Yeah. So most are gonna be digital.

1:32:23 That’s the way that the high school’s, you know, operating mostly now. Um, so they will always have that digital component. We will be, um, there are some classes specifically that have requested some, so we can have additional copies for when students go to have extra learning time in an inclusion classroom or with a special educator where they might wanna have some more resources. So we’ve planned that as part of the purchase as well. We’ve actually secured some of the materials through the review process. So it’s been really nice that there have been looking at the hard copies. And then we did already a, um, like a pd uh, training for the high school teachers on how to use the platform. And we’re gonna do another one as well as soon as hopefully this gets approved. Um, we haven’t planned, it’s planned, but we haven’t, um, paid for it or anything yet. So, So is the idea that this, if this is approved,

1:33:08 it would roll out in fall of 26? Fall of 25. Oh, You would be, so you’d be doing PD over the summer? Absolutely. So we’ve already started a lot of the work through the review process. Um, as I said, we’ve secured some of the materials for the teachers. So for example, if we, um, if approved the Pearson, we have something lined up next week where we would get our science educators a training on the platform and they’d have access to that. So they could look at that over the summer if they’d like. And we do have some plans for when they return in August for professional development. That’s as well as, um, in October As well. Do you have it budgeted to stipend people to do the professional development? ‘cause what my concern is, is that we have students coming back that it takes runway for anybody to learn a curriculum and, but our, our students really can’t.

1:33:56 Well, I mean, it’s up to the Yeah, if you would, to go back, please, Frank, the admin, what we did as part of the, there’s a whole nother column that’s really not on here and that is, um, what are the professional development needs? So we asked that about two months ago from our educators, and we’ve identified what the professional development needs are. I’ll highlight biology, for example. Um, this, that curriculum is very similar. It’s just the updated Yeah. So they’ve, they’ve said they’re not gonna need a lot of pd. Yeah, they’re, they’re good. They just, it’s gonna be new page numbers or something, for example. Okay. Um, for AP Environmental, um, I spoke, actually I was meeting with the teacher this morning, um, and she’s already planned, she’s doing some work. Um, and it’s ready to go for that. So we’ve, we, we know what’s, what teachers want need, um, and we’re planning for that. Um, we are doing, um, we’ve already set aside funding through the PD line

1:34:41 and we are paying also, I just wanna highlight, um, some of our teachers who are gonna be working, um, to differentiate curriculum. So we’re gonna have some science educators with special educators working on doing that. And we’ve set aside some funding for that. So that’s really exciting because, um, as you get into high school, you have more leveled courses. But, um, in our lower grades, we don’t have level courses and we wanna support all Learners. But the K eight, it’s all new curriculum, right? Correct. For the Teachers. Yeah. And so that’s where A lot of the, So the teachers are, the educators are in the leadership, every, like there’s, they’re all on board. All on board. Okay. I just wanna make sure Specifically with K four, we planned a very, a slow rollout throughout the year. Okay. And we have that in our implementation plan so that the teachers have the time to learn the, learn the new curriculum and plan for it as, as we are able to make the time for the professional development.

1:35:27 Mm-hmm. I think, I think the, the other piece is, um, the three folks up here being very humble about the amount of work that the in time and effort that they put into this. Um, it’s been an extraordinary amount of work and planfulness in time and being very thoughtful about alignment of the curriculum, how we funding that, how, what, what, what can we pilot and make sure that, um, you know, teachers, educators are comfortable with the move. Um, because I do, I do, I do share the same same concern like, oh, it’s, it’s all the curriculum. How are we gonna start that? But it’s been kind of rolled out already in an anticipation of moving forward. So I, I mean, I feel pretty comfortable about it. Um, and I, and I know these Well, I assume you’ve had con you’d know if there were any concerns. Yeah, yeah. You would know. And I, I appreciate the work you both are doing with Julie and what the entire administration is doing.

1:36:13 ‘cause it, it really wasn’t that far in the rear view mirror that what we are hearing was a new initiative after new initiative was being thrown at our educators. And, and they were being asked to roll out multiple new things in a one to two year period. But it sounds like this has been very well thought out. Everybody’s on board and that is no longer happening. And so sometimes, sometimes people feel that way. ‘cause I know, you know, I mean, I’m, I’m kind of late to the game, but I know, uh, there’s still, you know, with wit and wisdom and like the wayfinder Yeah. It feels new and different. And that’s always, you know, a lot of educators kind of feel like, oh my God, it’s another new thing. So a hundred percent you’re, you’re right. But I think when you’re planful and discussing and meeting in teams and having the conversations and making sure that when and where the educators are feeling like it’s too much

1:37:00 or not enough or it’s not, we, we address those areas so that we can be as comfortable as you can. So the students are getting this Feels very thoughtful. Yeah. No, I, I’m, I’m very, I’ve been very impressed. That’s why I shared, thank you. And through the, through this process, I think uncovered holes and gaps that educators were wanting filled. So there’s been a lot of excitement, which is what we’re talk, so everyone. Perfectly Cute. Our next slide, I see Brian’s hand, so we’ll pause, but yes. So when we rolled out Foss years ago combined, we had, um, brown and Glover teachers meet because they were the only schools that had the same program, but different buildings. Are we gonna do the same thing here? Great. Thank you. Already on our, our plan. Have plan. So everyone’s bought in, which is great. Mike Ping, where are we with, from a budget standpoint? Approved?

1:37:47 Yeah. So, uh, in our budget for our FI 26 budget that was approved, we did make an infusion for curriculum, which we intend to keep in the budget so that every year we can refresh on a five or six or seven year cycle depending on the subject Matter. So this adds up to just about 200,000. So that doesn’t Include, that’s balance. The, um, whatever material, so that we are gonna, there possibly will be. So what happens, I think, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to drill, but like what happens is when we do the curriculum refresh, like some curriculums are more costly than others. So, you know, um, when there’s consumables and stuff, I mean, obviously that’s something we have to pay attention to and make sure that we have the funding in there. And I think we did a plan Planfully put that, those monies aside so that as we move forward, but we’ll have the funding there, um, in place already so

1:38:34 that as we, as we roll out new curricula, um, we have the funding already available. So that was the plan. And this is really important. ‘cause the last time I remember. Yeah. And that’s very well what happened last time. I wanna be clear. We’re asking these questions, not because we think you guys aren’t planning this, but to be perfectly honest, this hasn’t been planned out in the past. And we have bought a new curriculum that we can’t buy the consumables or we bought too many curriculums in the same year and not given our, our staff the time and to kind of get up on the runway and doing it. So we’re asking these questions, not ‘cause we don’t have faith, but just so the community knows this has been very intentional, this is well thought out, and we can actually fund all the elements of a new curriculum that we’re not running down the hallway

1:39:21 with a science kit anymore. And we heard that, we heard what you said, Sarah, in this process. I think we all heard it over the Yes. And um, I lived it and thank you. Thank you Angie. Lived Experience. I was stealing it from her. Yeah. Um, we’re very mindful of that. So, um, my responsibility when purchasing, um, securing curriculum is to get us the best price possible. That all those steps have not happened. These are very much estimates right now. Some of ‘em are just from even the website. We haven’t negotiated, haven’t done all of that. This was a big step in the process and we wanted to be respectful of that process. So we know the money that’s set aside. That will be, we will be within budget as we always are. And we will also be mindful of when, um, expire, when the online expires and,

1:40:07 and planning so that teachers don’t have those feelings. Um, those are very real things that happen and we are gonna be very mindful of that, which I just wanna say we already are doing. So for example, we had purchases, um, mini issue of math curriculum. And with wit and wisdom, that’s part of the teaching and learning budget cycle of budget where we are embedding those, um, updated purchases each year in our, in our budgets for teaching learning. So, um, so back to Sarah’s point before, um, you really queued this, um, oh, here, I’m gonna turn over to Emily. But there was that excitement and it is really exciting. So yeah. So, um, where we’re gonna end for today is, um, just to remind everyone, this was a K to 12, uh, curriculum review process. And we had representation of teachers, um, throughout all the grade levels or within all the schools.

1:40:54 And, um, basically we, at first it was like, okay, here we go. We’re getting going with this. And then after about maybe four meetings or so, people looked forward to coming, people were excited to kind of, you kind of learn more about the topic that you’re passionate about, um, with colleagues. And it, it became something that people kind of like, you know, got excited and wanted to show their team, look what we might get to do. And they were very excited about it. So our ending meeting, we had some, uh, talking points that the committee came up with, and these were some of them. Um, so we felt like educators were excited about this. The future of science and Marblehead looks bright. We are enjoying the opportunity to explore comprehensive, engaging and standards line materials. We are finding materials that are accessible for all learners.

1:41:41 I appreciate the curriculum review team for our conversations and bringing it back to teams. And we are reinvigorating science in our district. So these were just, um, some quotes from our team members, which we were sure next. Perfect. And to conclude, uh, we wanna say thank you to David Anja, Tani Callahan, Caitlin Fields, Angie Graziano, Julia Ferrera, thank you, Brian, Danielle Mosher, Emily Perez re, Chris Sino and David ows. Um, that was our committee. Um, we’re just so grateful for the time and effort that they dedicated, um, and their expertise. And then also the work that they did as representatives to go back to their teams, their departments, uh, their grade levels. Um, and so we’re really grateful for that. Um, so just wanna say thank you again, Emily and Angie for their instructional leadership

1:42:26 and dedication to this process. And thank you for considering, um, adopting the new curriculum. Thank you. Thank you very much. I’ve said this before and nobody wants to hear it again, but I have a student who’s in grad school, um, getting a PhD in biochemistry, but for Mr. Zelinski, Mr. Henan and Ms. Frieda, who’s not here. I mean, there’s no question that we have an unbelievably talented group and it goes, you know, it goes back certainly to grade school, elementary school and middle school, but unbelievably talented, um, group of educators. And this is real stuff, you know, and it isn’t just science, it’s English and everything else, but you know, our teachers are launching the, you know, the future scientists and, and, and teachers and you know, doctor, whatever else.

1:43:12 And this is, you know, hopefully giving them the tools for all grades that they need to be able to do. ‘cause it’s, you know, it’s really, really important stuff. Can I ask you a question? At the high school level, is there a lab component? I know currently we don’t have lab blocks. I can’t say it enough times that I think it’s so important in the field of science to get to, for us to work towards getting the point where we have structured more structured lab blocks. Um, it’s, it’s just so important. That’s actually a very good point because, um, and if you can just know whether or not this curriculum has that and just high level, if there is a plan to implement that more. Because one concern with getting rid of those is

1:43:59 where we do have so many wonderful teachers in the field of science, getting our kids excited about that. But we’re sending them off to university with not, not equal with their peers, with their lab skills going into lab-based programs because we don’t have a lab block here. So we’ll let them answer. And then Elle’s got a question. So while lab block has changed, we do have labs. The students are engaging in labs and lab learning and hands-on learning. Um, all the curricula that we selected has that online component that students can also go home and review videos of the labs as well. Um, not every unit, but mostly, I mean, that’s that real world labs are important. No, it it, okay, there’s Two different components here. Okay. The lab is happening in the class. There are labs happening in high school.

1:44:45 Is that Al There are also when Students Yeah, Al I’ll get, you’ll let Julie finish, then I’ll get to al get to you When students need some more time to review something, or maybe they’re going home and completing the assignment that accompanies the lab, they can go back and review it again. Not every learner gets something on the first time through. So it’s, there’s an initial component to that. One thing that we heard from our high school science educators was that there was a shift a few years ago, um, perhaps due to budget, um, that they, they needed some more additional support with setting up labs. Mm-hmm. Um, ‘cause some of those labs are intensive. We listened. Uh, we’ve come up with a really, uh, effective plan to support them in that. Um, we’re working with Dr. Carlson to ensure that we have the support staff. Um, but they, we have a really great plan to make sure that the science educators have someone that will assist them, especially on those, those labs

1:45:32 that take some time with the chemicals and stuff to set up. So, um, that was one of the things that they were very vocal of. We want support and we got it going. So, and I know that’s one of the good Things that came outta this, the, the review process is hearing the teachers and them having a space to reflect on, on what they’re able to do or what their roadblocks are, was one Of the, okay. Al did you, uh, oh, John, did you have No, no. Can you hear I been waiting. Yep, we can hear you. Yeah. The, um, I know we’ve, we’ve had some challenges with high school graduation showing competencies without the NCA requirement anymore. Does the high school curriculum, or does any of the materials provided potentially help with that getting us in line with maybe the DSI guidelines going forward? So,

1:46:18 Am I hearing the question of like, how proficient are our students in science as they’re graduating from high school? Um, so Right. But Right. There’ll be certain that we need to show those Right. Those capacity Right. In order for them to graduate. Absolutely. So in Science, in this particular case, right? Yeah. So amongst Other subjects, Yes. Uh, that’s a great question. So our, our graduation requirements, um, expect a passing grade for our science classes. Um, we have vast majority of all of our students that are passing their science classes. Um, the curriculum is aligned to the Massachusetts State standards as well as there’s a, a crosswalk, so to speak, of the national, um, next generation science standards as well. So there’s a national alignment as well as Massachusetts.

1:47:04 Um, one thing that we identified was with biology. Um, they felt that the online component that we would be able to add by adding the, uh, by purchasing Pearson, um, would really help support learners that needed to read the material again or hear the material, uh, when they got home. You know, the tech, they just had the, the outdated textbook, to be honest, right. That this is gonna bring a whole nother level of support for all learners. Um, so students, um, were very excited to do that. And that was one of the values that we set forward, is that we wanted our curriculum that would support all of our learners. So very excited about that. Um, with the, um, competency, determination, making some shifts. We can talk more about that al as well, of how, um, we’ll be looking at, um, that and the fu we’ll be discussing that in a future meeting in terms of, um, bio biology and competency determin.

1:47:50 Thank you. Awesome. So the, I was just gonna, I was just gonna chime in about the lab. So I, I’ve been in the high school and we, um, witnessing how the, how the labs work out, and I know we don’t have the block, but, um, uh, when I was, we were here for, uh, Mr. S the wave one. Um, and we talked to the students specifically. We said, how, how do the labs go? We, we had those conversations and they said, you know, it’s like the, the 54 minutes or whatever, but if it’s a lab that you know, that they carry over so the next time they meet, so sometimes the lab goes, you know, two periods. Um, and they felt that that was actually good because it gave them the ability to say, okay, I can understand the material. Gives ‘em time to reflect on the material, come back and, and continue the lab. And, and quite frankly, the couple kids I talked to were like, yeah, it’s actually, you know, if it was a two hour or whatever the block

1:48:37 was whenever 90 minutes. Um, they told me sometimes that was like really long and they kind of lost track of what they were supposed to be doing. So I think the way they’ve addressed it without the lab block has been, has been helpful. So it’s, you know, it’s, it’s not the same. But I think we, um, So I, this is one thing I’m gonna push back on because, you know, sitting in, even the teacher presentation at parents night, the teachers are letting the parents know they’re not, they don’t have the time in their schedule to teach labs the way they used to and to the level that they feel is appropriate that they do, you know, biology, they might do four labs for the year or something like that, versus where we were this, and this predates all of you guys.

1:49:22 Where we were was where they really had a formalized lab lock before we did the schedule ship shift, where these kids were learning on a regular basis, not just how to write a lab, the process of, but, but it was a teaching lab. It, it was, it was very impactful. And we are hearing, you know, both from our students that go off into lab science degree programs, that they are not as prepared for that portion of it as their peers. And, and I will, I’ll tell you, I sat, I’ve sat through parents night where I’ve heard from the educators who have said, we wish we had the scheduling time to do more lives. Like they wanted to do it. So can we go, like, revisit, like, just,

1:50:08 So I was just gonna add in data collection’s really important for us. Yeah. And I talked about this several times. We use data to inform decisions, right? Um, what you’re bringing up is something that is a, a point that we will have to examine further. That was not a loud cry from our science educators when we were in this process. What I’d like to do is do some data collection on that. What it was, again, you mentioned it was before my time here in this role, what it was, what’s the difference? And then also now implementing a new curriculum, what are the impacts of that? So let’s do some, I would recommend doing some data collection on that, and I could come back and report to the committee, um, once we get a little bit into the school year and see how they’ve planned. Um, and I would be very happy to share. And I think, um, we know how important hands-on learning is, right? Those are the moments that sometimes really stick with our students that, um, being able to connect, um, and touch and, and experience, um, a lab.

1:50:55 So let me do some data collection with the team, and I’d be very happy to report back, um, after also consulting with the science teachers.

1:51:03 I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And know that, I understand schedules are extremely complex and they don’t, can’t be changed or amended on a dime. So this, it wasn’t a budget issue, just so you know. It was just good. No, the lab, just the lab Tech, the labs were Oh, the lab tech maybe, but the lab themselves, it was, they were not, it was not a budget issue. No, just the lab text. What we heard was about the lab Tech part. So I understand this is a long term issue, but since we’re talking about science curriculum, and we won’t be talking about it really again for six years. Great. It’s the appropriate time. I hope we Address, we’re talking about it a lot. I know, but we, I hope we, we address it before six years. Absolutely. Okay. So, um, any other comments? We need a motion to approve this, right? Yep. So I’m looking for a motion to approve the science curriculum as presented tonight for K through 12.

1:51:48 So moved. Sarah, do I have a second? Seconded. Second by Brian. Okay. Any questions? Deliberation, discussion? Okay. I’m gonna call for a vote. Brian OTA in favor. Sarah Fox.

1:52:01 Um, in, in favor. Does it have to be the motion that’s written? No. I, okay. No, I don’t, no. Okay. It listed the actual curriculum. No, I think it’s, um, Sarah, you in favor? In favor. Um, Allison Taylor in favor? Uh, Brian, um, Al Williams. In favor. Jen Schaffner in favor. Five zero. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you for all your work team. Please extend our thanks to the team that worked on this as well. And thank you for your support. Thank you so much. Thank You. Um, yay. I’m gonna call for a five minute recess. Alright. I’m gonna call us back into, hang on, I’m gonna start the recording in progress. Am I still live streaming? Okay. I’m gonna call us back into session at, we might have to re livestream it. 8 0 4. I’m gonna just double check the live stream. Hang on.

1:52:46 I don’t see it at the top. Nervous. Oh, YouTube. Oh no, I’m still live streaming. Okay, good. Good, good, good. You’re still there? Excellent. Were we live streaming the whole time? Yes. No, not during the break. Well, when you record pause the recording, you, I think you may still be on YouTube. Oh, that could be, could be. I had the camera off. Okay. So thank we got everybody back. We’ve got Al I’m sure Alan Allison, um, break. I’m China. Um, it’s 12 hours difference. Um, so he started early for us that al we appreciate it. Um, okay. School committee operating protocols. I put that back in the package. Um, I could not locate the other, I tried, I could not locate the other document, Sarah. So I’ve got this draft operating protocol in front of us again for discussion and hopefully adoption.

1:53:36 Um, my point would be, it’s still, I think, longer than it needs to be. However, a lot of work went into this. I would hope the committee would approve this. And then maybe something, you know, if people keep looking through the, the files at some point, find the old version. ‘cause that old version was just very concise. Um, maybe consider going to that. ‘cause I think, well, just so you know, too long people don’t read at all. I know. We tried. Um, it was back in 2017 and um, those files are not available. Okay. That’s all I can tell you. Okay. My research, that’s what I found out. And I didn’t have them. They were, they were minutes referencing it, but there’s no documentation.

1:54:22 Okay. Um, but I appreciate the work that went into it. I have no problem approving these. I just, like I said, if we can get ahold of the, the, the slim down version that kind of gets there a little bit quicker, then by all means I would support that. So I have some old hard drives that I can pull out and go through. Course I didn’t go that far. Of course you do. Maybe Meredith has that. She might, but the school doesn’t. The school department doesn’t have it. Yes. Brian, I just Had a clerical question though. Okay. Point number three. There’s line through. Does that mean you were deleting that Paragraph? No. No. That must be a typo. I will fix that. No, that’s definitely should be there.

1:55:00 Um, okay. So I’m gonna ask for a motion to approve the school committee protocol, operating protocols. So moved. Um, moved by Sarah. Do I have a second? Second. Second, Brian. Okay. I am gonna ask for a vote. Brian. OTA in favor. Sarah Fox in favor? Allison Taylor in favor? Al Williams. Did we lose Al? Hang on. Oh, Al,

1:55:30 Al. Can you hear us?

1:55:39 Needs to leave 23 minutes. Oh, okay. Alright. Well I’m going to Al I can’t hear you ‘cause you’re still muted. Why are you unmuted? Let’s try it now. Oh, there you go. Al, are you in favor?

1:55:58 No, Al to you. Al, are you in favor of the operating protocols? Uh, yes. In favor. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, five to zero. Thanks everybody. Um, okay. So now we’re moving on to the policy adoption. Um, I know this was a lot of information. Um, what you should have had in your package package was, um, a spreadsheet that showed the list of policies that we are looking to adopt. Um, there are two that we are looking to revise and one we’re looking to delete. Um, so you would’ve had, for the adopted ones, you would’ve had the MASC version as well as our current version in the packet. And we’re asking in the adoption, we’ll go one by one, um,

1:56:44 that we are gonna adopt the MASC recommended version and that will replace ours. And just so everyone knows, Allison and I worked on this policy subcommittee, multiple meetings with, um, superintendent DU and Assistant Superintendent Ferrera. Um, many of these, um, adopted policies, um, of MASC have slight wording changes. Um, there actually are some that are actually different than ours. Um, all of which are reflective of current statute. So NASC gives us recommendations for updated policies that pertain specifically usually to state statute that requires, um, that are reflective of the state law. And sometimes that has changed from what we have had in the past. So I’m thinking, uh, the best thing to do. Go one by one.

1:57:32 I’ll ask for a motion in a second and then we can discuss any questions anyone has. Yes, sir. So I, I just double checked that I didn’t mess up something earlier. I have a spreadsheet, but I don’t have the in any attached policies in the, in the packet in the Google. Yeah. I just opened it up a second time. There was a file. The file only has one page. Nope. The file has multi all the sort of had all of them. They were page one of one. We’ll go back to the Google Drive because I saw it in there. I saw the ball in there. Did you go back to the one Lisa shared? If you go back to your email Yeah, I just went through the one Lisa shared. That’s the drive. Yep. Right here. Lisa shared from today. Yep. Perfect. Okay. Policies.

1:58:17 See up there? Tab. Tab under policies. Oh, it’s a separate folder. Yeah. Okay. So I did, I I only saw the memo about which ones we were connecting with. I didn’t see that it was a separate Separate. Well, why don’t we go through if you’re comfortable, if you’re not, it’s okay. So what I did is I labeled each one the Marblehead one and then the MESC one. Okay. All right. So I’m going to ask Frank to pull up the first policy, which is policy IMG, which should say M-A-S-C-I-M-G under the document.

1:59:00 So this, okay. What’s going on here? Okay, so this is, I dunno if you can make that bigger or not. Right. But this is for the public to be able to see.

1:59:11 Thank you. Oh, sorry. It’s all way It was. That’s fine. Um, so this first one is policy IMG, which is entitled Animals in School. We have an IMG Animals in School, which is quite a bit, um, longer. That got, gets into discussions of all sorts of things like wild animals, fur bearing animals, bats, poisonous animals, et cetera. This one is, um, a little bit more concise and it just talks about, um, the rules around bringing animals into school, including, um, for educational programs and references, issues around students’ health. ‘cause some students could be allergic to an animal. Um, so there’s just discussion around how that needs to work if a student has a potential health or allergy issue.

1:59:57 So, um, this was something I had looked into quite a bit. Um, there was a great seminar at MASC, um, the year prior. It probably was there this year as well about, um, service animals, particularly therapy dogs. Um, and the positive impact it has on students and staff. So I’m gonna interrupt you there. We have a policy IMGA, which we’re gonna talk about right after this. Okay. Which is for service animals in school. Okay. So there’s a separate policy for that. All right. So I just wanted, I will bring that up there. Okay. Um, chair. Yes. So, um, I just want to, not, not to correct you, but this, this is the one that speaks to service animals. ‘cause that first line is where We talked about that. Yeah. See service animals right Here. No animal. Oh. Um, Alright. Well, we’re also

2:00:43 doing I MGA A Yeah, the other one. The other one’s about all the other stuff. The large section on page two of service animals. Yep. Um, so at the time of this, they had talked about, um, encouraging school committees to have a policy. And this may be in the one we’re talking about in a second that encourages and talks, uh, the use of these therapy animals. Um, so I would just, I know they’re in use in some of our schools. I know some of our schools, um, are, are a little con, you know, concerned about that. But, um, it is science based. And I know that in times of crisis we have relied mla, is it MLA has brought them in.

2:01:30 Um, and it, during those periods of crisis, the feedback we received from our administration was quite honestly, the service animals we’re bringing comfort to the students and staff more than anything else. So I just wanna make sure our policy encourages and enables that. So I think the PO if I may. Yep. I think the policy where it says no animal should be brought in school without prior permission to the building principal is kind of where that, where that lives a little bit. Okay. I think, um, so without, without painting us in a corner that allows, that allows the building principal to work with those agencies and, and making sure that all the other things are followed as far as health and students. So typically what happens is when, um, service an, you know, uh, therapy animals, not service analysts, therapy animals are brought in,

2:02:15 they’re brought into a common area. There’s a choice by the student. So we, so we avoid all that stuff. So, um, that’s why we, with the MASC policy, it was, uh, it was a lot more succinct, but it allows for all the, for all those, um, areas. So that’s why we, we thought that, um, adopting this one made more sense. And then when we go to the other, um, policy that has talks about s service animals, et cetera, that’s a little bit different. Okay. Yeah. It’s different. So yeah. So I feel very comfortable that, and then operationalizing it. That’s, you know, conversations that, you know, we’ll have with the administrators around how does that look? What does it look like? What’s the process? And Then from an operational standpoint, I would encourage too, we’ve worked so hard as a district to have alignment and, um, equitable experiences at all of our schools that I, I believe almost all

2:03:03 of our schools are, are taking advantage of this, um, from an equitable experience point of view. Um, you know, I would encourage you guys to encourage this to be happening every Everywhere. Yes. And if, if you experience that non equitability, just let us know so we can take your follow up. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay. Umbel, any other questions? Anybody online? Okay. So I’m asking for a motion to approve, um, the adoption of MSCs. Um, updated 2023 policy IMG animals in school. Do we need to waive the three readings? There are no three readings for a new per updated policy. It’s only read the new policy. Only new ones. So do I have a motion from Sarah? A second? Move Second by Al. Okay. I’m gonna call for vote. Brian ODA in favor. Sarah Fox. Yes.

2:03:51 L Williams in favor. And Allison Taylor in favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. Five to zero. Thank you. Um, so the next policy is, um, IMGA Frank, which is service animals in school, which that actually is to Superintendent Robert’s point. Um, this actually is not, this is specifically service animals, not therapy animals. Um, so this one also is an updated, um, policy that talks about, um, service animals that are necessary for, um, students that have students. And I perhaps staff, I guess, right? I’m gonna assume anybody that would need a service animal. Yeah. It would include that. Yes. Yeah.

2:04:37 So this include, I mean, I’ve just, I’ve heard and, and seen some wild things with, um, as far as what can be considered an emotional support animal. I think we’ve all seen the Turkey on the plane. Um, if, oh no, you haven’t. Yeah. Let see that one. It’s a real thing. I’ll tell you about it later. I missed the Turkey. So if, if some, and if an individual presents with the documentation for an emotional support animal, does it fall underneath here? And how, and are there additional provisions we need? Yes, It does. It Does. Yes. Um, and yeah, I mean, if you, I don’t, there’s a lot of animals that kind of pop up in there. And, you know, I think it’s, it’s, I don’t remember the law, but there was a law a while ago that got passed around how, you know, allowing allowance for,

2:05:23 and, um, you know, in regard to, uh, students that re require students, the staff to require service animals and what that looks like. Um, so yeah, it would fall into here. Um, And it does say in the opening paragraph, the school committee does not permit discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including those who require the assistance of a service animal. The district will comply with Massachusetts law concerning the rights of persons with guide or assistance dogs. Yes. And with federal law and will permit such animals on school premises and on school transportation. So this really, again, which is typical of our policies, is, um, recognizing that there are state statutes and federal statutes, and that’s what we’re complying with. Exactly. Okay. So I’m asking for a motion to approve, um, the, uh, MASC, um, policy, IMGA adoption of service animals in school.

2:06:11 So moved. Sarah Fox, second Allison Taylor. And I’m gonna call for a vote. Brian OTA in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor, Allison Taylor. In favor. L Williams In favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. Thank you. Okay. The next one, uh, Frank is CHHA slash chc. Oh, no, I, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. IHBG homeschooling. Do you see that, Frank? Thank you. Um, so yes. So the next, um, policy that we’re asking to the committee to consider, uh, a upgrade, um, adopting the MASC version is around homeschooling. Most of the items, I believe are the same, John,

2:06:58 if I’m not mistaken, with the exception of, um, our existing policy says that we may award a high school diploma to homeschooled student, and that is not actually the case. So that’s, that’s the, that’s the main difference. Yes. That’s The main difference. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So the MESC version, which is in line with state statute is, does not recognize or speak to anything to do with the diploma. Yep. So these are just the rules around homeschooling, uh, which are state laws, And just if someone asks that question, homeschooling, they can access our extracurricular activities, et cetera. But the diploma thing, we can’t, we can’t align with what our curriculum is, right. Or what our standards are, et cetera.

2:07:35 And there are some, uh, in this, which are the same as our existing policy, um, which I think are not, I think I know our state statute, um, there are some steps that, uh, that parents or guardians have to take. Yes. Um, with, in conjunction with the school district to get approved for homeschooling. Um, so I’m looking for a motion to, uh, approve the adoption of the MASC policy. IHBG homeschooling. So moved. So moved by Sarah. Second. Second. Allison Taylor. Okay. I’m gonna take a roll call. Vote. Brian. Oda in favor. Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor In favor. L Williams. L in favor In Jen. Chapter in favor. Five to zero. Thank you to the chair. Yep. If, is it possible to do a motion for all of these and,

2:08:21 and to do yell hold the way we do at town meeting to break certain ones out if we want? Don’t think so. So, I, I think the only way we can, I mean, you could list every single one of ‘em separately and then, but Well, Yeah. And the motion read each individual one. It’s, It’s, it’s, I don’t, it’s Better to go individually. We need to do ‘em one by one. It’s fine. We, that’s how this works. Um, okay. So the next one we are doing, um, uh, Frank is, um, C-H-A-C-H-C,

2:08:50 which is the development and dissemination of Procedures.

2:09:08 So this really talks about, oh, thank you. Thank you, Frank. Um, so this talks about, um, procedures, uh, that will, that, you know, take place within the, um, within the school district. Um, it doesn’t reference handbooks, but I’m assuming it’s around issues, around things that would go in the handbooks. Um, I think the diff the only difference I see versus one we have is that, um, there’s a paragraph that’s being struck in the new version that did say it will be the responsibility of the superintendent to see that the procedures developed to implement committee policies and administer the school district are appropriately coded and included as procedures in the school committee’s policy manual. So that is being deleted. Um, and we are adopting this current version that’s up here. Um, so do I have an approve, uh, motion to approve C-H-A-C-H-E development

2:09:54 and dissemination procedures. Sarah. And a second. So moved. Second. Second by Al. Okay. Brian Oda in favor? Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor Favor L Williams In Favor in gen chapter in favor. Thank you. Five to zero. Okay, we’re gonna move on to Frank to IHBD, which is compensatory education. With, with which references? Um, title One. Title one funds that we have, as it were. And the only difference, um, with the MASC version versus ours is it references a cross. It has a cross update. So, okay. Um, in the cross-reference links, because we’ve had those

2:10:40 before where they don’t link. No. Um, they didn’t, they didn’t provide a link. No. Now I don’t mean like a digital link. I, I just know in some of our policies, we’ve referenced another policy that doesn’t even exist. Oh, well, actually that’s a good point. Check, check that. Do we wanna make sure that cross-reference exists? Why don’t we approve this? And I’ll go back afterwards and make sure it exists. Okay. Um, so I’m asking for approval to, uh, adopt MASC policy, IHBD compensatory education. So moved. Sarah? Do have a second? Second. L. Okay. Brian Oda in favor. Fair Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor in favor. And l Williams In favor. Jen Schaffner in favor. Five to zero. The next one, um, Frank is IHBF,

2:11:27 which is Home bound instruction.

2:11:34 Hang on a second here. Um, and the home bound instruction is the updated version, um, for MASC, um, speaks to the length of time, right? So it’s, it’s when home bound instruction would kick would be the student would be eligible for this, which is not less than 14 days out of school. Does this cross reference with the law? ‘cause I thought the law is less days than this. It’s cumulative. 14 days. And we call, we don’t call it home bound instruction. We call it, um, home hospital. Home Hospital. Yeah. Okay. So this, this aligns with the law. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yep. Okay. So I’m looking for a motion to approve policy. IHBF home bound instruction. So moved. And a second.

2:12:23 A again, Brian. Okay. Uh, Brian Oda in favor, sheriff Fox. In favor Al Williams. In favor, Uh, Allison Taylor in favor in Jen. Chapter in favor. Five to zero. The next one, uh, Frank, is I Madam chairperson? Sure. Yes. Al, I just need you to know I need to leave Okay. For work Related items. So thank you. Just wanted You to know, have a great day. We miss you Al. Um, okay. The next one, Frank, is IHBH Alternative School Programs

2:12:59 and the MASC version of this versus Marblehead. Um, our current policy, which this is being struck, um, says that the school committee will provide alternative education programs where these needs have been identified, where establishment of such programs is feasible and where the proposed programs fall within the function normally associated with the public school system. So that is no longer here. Um, so that’s the difference. So do I have a motion to approve IHBH? Sarah second. Hello? Or second. Okay. Um, Brian Oda in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor In favor? Uh, Jen Schaffner in favor. Four to zero L, by the way, left at what time? 8 24. Okay.

2:13:45 Um, the next one, uh, Frank is IJ instructional materials

2:13:54 to Sarah’s point, this is a cross reference, um, update. Everything else remains the same. And the cross reference is ke, which I know we have. And I-G-A-I-J-D-I-G-D, which I also know we have. Um, so those are the cross references. Um, looking for approval to, uh, motion to approve MASC, updated policy IJ for instructional materials. So, moved a second, second, second by Brian. Okay. Uh, Allison Taylor. A Taylor Brian Oda in favor, sir. Fox. In favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. 40 zero. The next one, Frank, is IKAB Student progress report to Parents and Guardians.

2:14:44 Lemme Pull that up there. And the difference with this one, I believe, John, correct me if I’m wrong, is we were talking about issuing a periodic evaluation And we’re not. Yeah, so, so basically this just, this just says, um, I think the intent of the previous one was that we would send progress note progress reports home for every student, um, to, honestly, with kids on IEPs, they get the progress notes. Um, the progress reporting is actually the, um, the report cards. So this clarifies that from, if we doubt the MAC when it clarifies that. So it’s not both things. Okay. So I’m looking for an motion to approve policy. IKAB. So, moved a second. Second. Brian? Uh, Alison Taylor Favor? Brian. Oda in favor, sir.

2:15:31 Fox in favor, Jenner in favor four to zero. The next one is policy IMB teaching about controversial issues and controversial speakers.

2:15:43 Where Are we on this one?

2:15:48 This, uh, what was the difference on this one? Hang on. It might be a cross reference. Let’s see.

2:15:59 Yeah, this is just adding a cross re uh, re cross reference IJOB, community resource persons, which we do have. Um, so it’s just adding that cross reference. So I’m, as I’m looking for a motion to approve policy IMB. So motion. Sarah? Second. Second Allison discussion. Oh, sure. Um, so my question just for a point of clarification for the community is who is the determining factor on what is a controversial issue? Because what we have kind of experienced over the last year to two years is some people feel that a issue a may not be controversial at all. Well, other people may feel that same issue is controversial. So who is the determining factor on what is a controversial issue? So generally, that would be a, uh, a,

2:16:46 a collaborative discussion at the school level with the teacher leaders and the, and the principals. Um, and if they couldn’t come to a decision at that point, um, we would, we would have that con, we would’ve that follow up conversation. Okay. To determine some in, in all transparency. Sometimes it’s more reactive than proactive. So those are things we’re working on so that less, less of that happens. Thank you for your honesty in that, John. I appreciate that. And I, I do call attention, I know it’s eight 30 at night for, but the folks out there, um, to, you know, at some point read through this. ‘cause it is, you know, I think it’s a pretty well written and comprehensive policy. It talks about, you know, um, for teacher plans, discussions that controversial issues selected by teachers, uh, for classroom discussion must relate directly to the objectives and content of courses approved by the school committee for inclusion in the curriculum.

2:17:32 And the teacher’s right. To introduce controversial issues in classroom presentations does not include the right of advocacy. Teachers must refrain from using their positions to express partisan points of view. So there is some, you know, So there, so, so there’s some meat and potatoes to that policy. And that’s why we wanted to make sure that, um, you know, the way it’s written so that we have something to kind of refer back to when and if there’s a situation that gets called into question. And what that really does is it memorializes in our policy mirroring state ethics. Yes. Because state ethics are very clear that if you have access to something because of your position, an example would be your teacher. You have access to these students because of your position that you cannot use that position to influence.

2:18:19 Um, and, and I’ve always said state ethics carry more weight than many of the other rules that we operate under, that they’re very strict and there’s serious consequences. So I I, I appreciate that this policy really just solidifies what has already exists in state ethics.

2:18:39 Um, thanks. Okay. So I have a first or second, I’m gonna do a roll call vote. Um, uh, Allison Taylor in favor? Brianda in favor. Sarah Fox in favor. And Jen Schaffner in favor, four to zero. Um, okay. Just a couple more. Um, policy il, we actually are not voting on that. I apologize. I, that was, uh, um, uh, a typo, but I did just want to, for a rever for sort of a recap. Um, ‘cause this is a policy review. Um, policy il, which is entitled Evaluation of Instructional Programs, is a policy that we have here in Marblehead. Um, the MASE no longer has this as a policy, so it’s no longer a policy. But in discussion with superintendent, assistant superintendent, um, the determination was that we would like to actually keep this.

2:19:24 Um, so it talks about, it says the school committee considers comprehensive and objective evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum to be of primary importance. The superintendent will provide for the translation of the stated instructional goals into objectives and for appraisal of their implementation in order to, and there’s a listing of, you know, how this evaluation would work. And so we, with the recommendation of the administration, wanna keep this in here. So the, the reason that we, and, um, and the reason that we didn’t have the full discussion is ‘cause we had indicated there was some minor changes. Right. And I didn’t get to make the minor changes in time for the meeting. So, um, we’re gonna hopefully roll that to the next meeting. So We’ll keep IL and then the, the few wording changes. Yeah. It’s, it was minor, but yes. Okay. Um, same thing with IGB, right? Which is the student services program. I think there were a couple minor changes. Yeah.

2:20:10 IGB And we’ll do that next time. Other one? Yes. We Didn’t get those. Mm-hmm. Um, the following two following items I did put in, but we did not actually get them updated, which we will do, um, at a future meeting. Are there were two parent, uh, two, um, no, there’s a parent consent form for technology and then, um, a student email and internet posting guidelines, two items that we need to speak via check to review. Yeah. And again, I’ll take the ownership of that. That’s fine. Um, we, we, we didn’t get a chance to sit down and really go through it to, to my level of satisfaction to bring it to the committee. So I, I, if, if we can bring that on the 18th as well, that would make me feel better. Yep, that’s fine. And then the only other one that we are asking to delete is IHBG dash R, which was an additional homeschooling, um,

2:20:59 I don’t remember what, hang on. I don’t think I have It in here. It was, it was, it was related to our homeschooling. Right. And it, and so it was revision to our homeschooling. It was in addition to our homeschooling, we adopted the MASC one, so it’s no longer applicable. So actually I probably don’t have to delete it if we’re, Well, it’s just not, it’s not applicable to the SC. Okay. So I’m asking, asking for that to be deleted. Yep. Because we’ve adopted the MSC version, which doesn’t include this. Yes. Okay. So I’m asking for a motion to delete policy IH BG SR so much and a second. Second. Okay. Allison Taylor in favor? Brian Oda in favor? Sarah Fox In favor? Jen Schaffer in favor. 40 zero. Yay. Thank you everybody. A round one. I was, that was good. That was marathon. You got the, i’s now we gotta do the js. Um, okay. Next on the agenda, we have the, hang on,

2:21:47 bear with me a minute here, folks. The maritime, The donations. So where is that? Right after policy dilution? Yeah. Hang on. Where is this? Okay, I have two items to be, um, approved for donation. I suppose I have to take them one at a time, right, John? Yes. Okay. So I’m looking for a vote to accept. We’re requesting, uh, looking for a motion to vote to accept, um, a cash donation in the amount of $6,000 from the Massachusetts MA Marine Trades Association. So moved. Um, so moved by Sarah. Do I have a second? Second. Alison and Taylor.

2:22:32 Um, what is just, do we have know what this is Or, I don’t have a lot of information, uh, to be honest with you. Okay. Um, it was, it was earmarked through the business office. Okay. And they asked for on the thing. So I can try to come back with some, if it was specifically your mattress, I Wonder if it was specific for like the Marine. I’ll find out and make sure that, you know, if it’s earmark for something specific, we’ll make sure that that gets Awesome used for that. Um, okay. I’ll do a roll called Brian ota Sarah Fox. Still move it yet? Uh, we’ve moved by Sarah and seconded by Allison. Yes. Um, Allison Taylor in favor, judge. Chapter in favor. Four to zero. Thank you. And then the next one I have is I’m asking for a motion to accept a cash donation in the amount of 1080 $7 84 cents from the Friends of the Marblehead Public Schools. So moved. Sarah And a second. Very Brian. Okay.

2:23:21 Brian OTA in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor, Allison Taylor. In favor, Jen Schaffner. Four to zero. Thank you. Um, the next, um, item on the agenda is I’m looking for a motion to allow the town of Marble Hood to use the Marblehead High School Field House as a polling location on election day Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 for a special election. So moved. It’s oh, July 8th. Yep. Yep. So moved by Sarah, do I have a second? Second, second. Brian, any questions on this? This is the special election for, uh, a referendum town wide referendum in July 8th. We’ll, all polling places be here. That I don’t know. Um, I know the 10th is Abbott, Holland here. This one I believe is all here, but, okay. It may not be. I think they’re waiting for our approval,

2:24:07 which I, in that motion, I’m gonna assume it is town wide. Okay. And then I think select board, once we vote, they’ll decide if they’re gonna, If, if they make another one. I was just asking For information purposes. That’s fine. Sorry to sidetrack us. Okay. That’s fine. Brian OTA favor, uh, Sarah Fox. In favor. Allison Taylor. Jen Sha Schaffner in favor, four to zero. Um, next item is the, um, request by, um, member Sarah Fox to rename the, um, Catherine Ara Martin Organic Garden at Brown School. So I’m just gonna, I’m gonna read my memo that I wrote to everybody, um, but before I, uh, I’ll start with the memo. Um, I’m deeply, deeply grateful for the unanimous support of naming the Organic Garden at the Brown School. After Catherine Katie Martin last fall on September 19th,

2:24:56 as you know, um, her husband, Jeff St. George tragically passed away this past January, less than eight months after Katie. Jeff, like Katie, was a constant volunteer in our schools. He served on our facilities subcommittee longer than any other member I could, uh, rem that I, that comes to memory, bringing his subject matter expertise in the area of facilities management. Often Todd would pick up the phone and call Jeff and ask him for help. Um, Jeff wrote the letter of interest to get that the then Gary Building Project approved by the MSBA. I remember it coming up several times at our, uh, building committee meetings that he, that that letter of interest was noted by the board, uh, at the MSBA to have been one of the best letters of

2:25:42 and submittals that they had seen. The most thorough ones they had seen. While the original Bell School Organic Garden was the brainchild of Katie Martin, his wife, and Jean s Scona, Jeff was at the forefront of performing the work to make the garden a reality from driving the bobcat, which cleared the Earth to helping transport the garden to Eli one very late summer evening. So we could make sure that when the kids came to Eli to start the transition for the building of the program, they had a garden. Um, Jeff worked tirelessly. I’m asking the committee to amend the name of the Catherine R. Martin Organic Garden to now be the Catherine R. Martin and Jeffrey St. George Organic Garden to honor them both. Um, Katie and Jeff were a family of volunteers.

2:26:29 They took their subject matter expertise, which was in landscape architecture and facilities management, and they volunteered hundreds, if not thousands of hour hours over many, many years to the benefit of the students of Marblehead. This is a way to honor them and to show that, bring their legacy in a solid way forward so that their girls who are our students have, um, a can, can see how much their parents were appreciated, how much their parents did for our community, um, and how they, their memory is alive. And I, and I’m gonna use a quote here. Katie used to use this all the time. Um, the original quote was from Audrey Hepburn, and I really think it emphasizes why Katie

2:27:17 and Jeff volunteered in our district, and it was to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. She used to say it all that all the time, and they truly, truly believed in tomorrow for our Marblehead students and for our schools. They put their money where their mouth is. They, they spent countless hours to do so. Um, we did receive a letter of support through the chair, if you mind if I read this. Yep. Um, this is from Kristen Salby Pratt. She sent this to the committee. I am writing in full support of the proposal to rename the Catherine R. Martin Organic Garden to the Catherine R. Martin and Jeffrey St. George Organic Garden. She did let me know there’s an a in there. Um, my initial involvement with the project began in 2013, helping to fundraise for the original garden, led

2:28:04 with Biner Vision and energy by Katie Martin and Jean s Scona later the PTO board. Uh, i I I was on the PTO board and chaired the Organic Garden Committee throughout. Jeff was a steady, quiet presence behind the scenes, building the original garden bends by hand, leveraging his facilities management expertise to secure equipment and services at no cost to the town beyond the garden. Jeff served for years in the facility subcommittee and was the author of the request to the MSBA that ultimately became the Gary Building Project. His attention to detail and commitment to quality were evident throughout. Katie and Jeff were partners in life and in service,

2:28:49 and in their deep commitment to Marblehead schools.

2:28:54 Renaming the garden in both their names would be a thoughtful legacy they built together. Thank you for considering. Um, I did include, oh, she just so p**d at me, but I’m crying. Um, I did include a picture, the original artwork that, um, was at the original then Bell Organic Garden, um, was very collaborative with our students of, uh, a local artist who was a parent in the school at the time. Um, she owns the Clay school. Kirsten had worked and there’s, I I can share some images. She had students in to help sculpt the sign. And you see, it’s, it’s very much so, um, age appropriate to, to the age range that we’re serving. Um, I had reached out to Kirsten Von, uh, this artist

2:29:40 and told her what the plan was and if she would again, um, be able to provide the service of producing the sign. Um, I realize it’s not as formalized as the sign as sometimes we see in a plaque, but I think it very much fits the spirit of the garden and of the youth and of Katie and Jeff. Um, and Kirsten had, and I, I had asked if she could work with, um, their girls, if the girls wanted to, to, um, help make the sign. And actually, I got to talk to Emma last night, um, their oldest daughter. And, and she was excited about that idea. She had said she had wanted to come, but she had some dental work done. So she’s not here tonight. But, um, very touched by this idea and wanted to be part of it.

2:30:26 Awesome. Thank you. Beautiful. Any questions or discussions? Allison? Any comment? Oh, she’s on mute. Okay. All right. So I’m gonna look for a motion to approve the renaming or mending the name of the Catherine R. Martin Organic Garden. Two. The Catherine R. Martin and Jeffrey a st. Uh, St. George Jeffrey St. George Organic Garden. So moved. Moved by Sarah. Second. Second. Second by Allison. Okay. Brian Oda in favor, Sarah Fox. In favor? Allison Taylor In favor, Jen Schaffner in favor. Yay. Passes forward. Zero. Thank you. Thanks for bringing that forward, Sarah. That’s great. And you’ll let the family know. You’ll let the girls know. Absolutely. I thank you. Thank you. That’s great. Um, okay.

2:31:13 Um, p uh, subcommittee and liaison updates.

2:31:18 Any updates on anything? Not since the last meeting. All right. I’m gonna give a quick update. Policy subcommittee met on May 30th. Um, we reviewed the policies that we took that we, um, voted tonight. Um, we also discussed the recess policy with Superintendent Du and Assistant Superintendent Ferrera. Um, superintendent, uh, assistant superintendent per had sent a survey out to the elementary educators K through six, correct? Yeah. Correct. Um, and in our discussion, um, at this point, the recommendation which will be forthcoming in, in mm-hmm. In written form from the 18th. Yes. Um, is that K three will go to two recesses and fourth grade is a to be determined or that will be in the recommendation? No, we Doing, we, we just add on the one. We recommend one. Okay. We would recommend the one.

2:32:04 So fourth through six is gonna be one recess. I’m sorry, my note, I didn’t get my notes right, but a longer recess, so adding time onto the single recess. Okay. Um, the joint labor management, JLMC still has to meet to review this or did meet it met today? Mm-hmm. Okay. All, um, so that we expect a recommendation before the end of the school year. Yes. For the upper, upper operationalizing of operationalizing the two recesses. And then we would be memorializing that in a policy, which would be at the next presumably, sorry, go ahead. I’m sorry, Alison, go ahead. Um, It’s only, it’s only gonna be, you’re only suggesting to extend it for five minutes. Right. I just wanna make sure that’s clear to folks as well for four to six.

2:32:49 And Julie, you were gonna share the data from the survey? I haven’t seen that yet. I, I’m very sorry, Allison. I will get you that. No worries. Um, thank you for reminding me. Survey to Allison. Yeah. Um, the, we are looking at, for village, um, it could be potentially more than five minutes. ‘cause we’re looking at, um, not embedding the transition time, but giving the students the full amount of time. So increasing the time. And then what would that mean for transition time? Um, because sometimes they come from lunch, sometimes they’re too. So we have to look at that as well. So, So right now is it a 30, it’s a 30 minute recess. It’s 20 minutes. 20 minutes. And you’re recommending we, So we’re looking at if we can get 30 minutes. Okay. So, and, and how that would work with the schedule. Um, no matter what, it will be an increase Yeah.

2:33:35 In 20 minutes. But what does that look like in terms of transition time? Some grades in the transition time? Mm-hmm. And then I also think, Allison, if you agree that we, the survey results, we’ll put those in the packet for today. Um, or we’ll get ‘em posted online if the survey results I would be, I Share, I already asked them for, I had just asked them for the, the policy subcommittee meeting. Not, I wasn’t, whether they can be shared for everyone that’s, um, Well, you know, we could put it in the minutes for the policy subcommittee, so we’ll do that. I’d Be happy to share. I think, um, there’s kind of two levels of the one that I shared publicly with the slideshow. I’d be very happy to share that with you. Um, and then as well, um, I think this is, Allison was looking for a little bit more of the Breakdown of the raw of the raw data. Of the raw data, which I’d be happy to share just as a collaborator on the form and Okay, Great. Do that as well.

2:34:21 Um, I just, my concern continues to be the contract because our contract does hold us to a second morning recess at the elementary level. And elementary level is just defined as K through six. I wanna be cautious that we’re creating a policy that memorializes not complying with the contract. So if we, if I just wanna finish. Yeah. So if we need to amend the contract, that is something I just wanna make sure we’re, we are not memorializing something that can become quite honestly, an open and check grievance if someone so wished it to be. Um, that if there’s any, if, if, if, ‘cause we did ask

2:35:07 multiple times if there was anything we needed to amend in the contract from our provision. And recess was a constant talking point with the contract. So if we need to amend the contract to reflect this, we need to have that talking point because it is a concern that we’re memorializing a policy that directly contradicts and puts us in violation of the contract. And may in the MOA that was signed in November, it does state to, um, to allow for a recess in the early elementary. Um, so there’s the some language there. Um, and then, and what you’re referencing does say elementary. It doesn’t define, it doesn’t define those. So, um, I hear what you’re saying on that. I just want, we’ve been working off of what the MOA as the most recent document, um,

2:35:52 Discussing. So the signed contract supersedes the MOA and the signed contract embed embeds the language of this, the, the morning recess, the MOA is just to carry you until the contract is memorial is ratified and signed. So then it kind of disappears. So our current ratified contract does provide for a second morning recess at elementary, which again is defined as K through six. Well, the attorneys have been involved in this. Okay. I just, Yeah, we we’re trying, we’re trying to, we’re trying to mesh those two things and I think, you know, when, when Julie talks about the mo, the MOA that’s in place, that speaks to the five minute piece and how we’re gonna operationalize that. Yeah. Um, I’ve had further conversations as early as to as late as today. So I’ll have further conversations about that part of the contract just to make sure. Okay. It all dovetails nicely.

2:36:38 And maybe that they can sign an MOA sign saying that they’re relinquishing and their contractual right to a morning recess for four through six. It may be that easy. I don’t know. I just wanna make sure from a legal standpoint we’re covered. I’ll, I’ll have the lawyers look at that again. Thank you for pointing that out though. ‘cause that’s a, okay. So that was, did I miss anything else? Anything? I think that was it for policy. I think that was it. Okay. Um, any other updates by anybody? Okay. Um, any new business. All right. Um, we have two items of correspondence I wanna read into the record. Um, these were two letters that were sent to the Marwood school committee. The first was from the, um, Anti-Defamation League of New England, which was dated May 20th. Um, this came to individual members,

2:37:24 so I’m gonna read this one came to me, but there were two other members that received it. I hope this message finds you well. I write to you on behalf of the Anti-Defamation League of New England. Since our founding in 1913, A DL has been dedicated to stopping the defamation of the Jewish people and securing justice and fair treatment for all. Today we remain one of the world’s leading anti hate organizations, steadfast in our mission to combat antisemitism in all forms of bias while striving for a just and inclusive society. We are deeply grateful for your recent vote to support, uh, in support of the resolution condemning the anti-Semitic teaching materials promoted by the Massachusetts Teacher Association. Since their publication a DL is consistently advocated for the removal of these harmful resources, your vote is a powerful affirmation of your commitment to keeping educational environments free from hate and discrimination, and to ensuring that Jewish students feel safe and welcomed in their classrooms.

2:38:10 As you may know, the recent shooting at the Capitol Jewish Museum has once again shaken the sense of security for Jewish communities nationwide. The assailant was known to espouse extreme anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views. We are gravely concerned about the dangerous rhetoric emanating from various ideological ideological corners, rhetoric that can and often does, incite real world violence. When educational institutions disseminate materials that dehumanize or demonize Jewish or Israeli communities, it does more than spark debate. It poses a real threat to our physical safety. In this challenging time when antisemitism is rising in our community’s sense of security feels particularly fragile. Your leadership provides a much needed source of hope. By taking a stand, you help combat the spread of information and demonstrate what true allyship looks like. Thank you for your continued continuing leadership to protect our classrooms sincerely, A DL New England.

2:38:57 Uh, we also received to the, to the members of the Marblehead School Committee, uh, um, yesterday, June 4th, uh, letter from, uh, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis known as camera. On behalf of camera, I want to express our deep gratitude for your recent vote. Condemning antisemitic teaching materials. Your leadership reflects a rare and admirable moral clarity that is sorely needed in today’s educational and civil discourse, civic discourse. At a time when antisemitism is rising at alarming rates, your resolution sends a vital message that our schools must remain places of respect, integrity, and truth. The attack in Washington DC where Israeli embassy staffers were murdered at the Capital Jewish Museum and the recent assault in Boulder, Colorado, where Jews marching for the release of Israeli hostages were set on fire,

2:39:42 are horrifying reminders of where unchecked hatred and inflammatory ideologies can lead. By standing up against efforts to insert such, insert such hatred, often disguised as education into classrooms. You are helping to protect students, promote critical thinking, and preserve the values that make our communities strong. Camera has long worked to expose these dangerous trends and support communities like yours. In confronting them, we applaud your courage and clarity, and we understand that doing the right thing often invites pushback. Please know you’re not alone. Your leadership is inspiring and has already made a difference. If we can be of any support as you continue addressing these issues, we would be honored to assist with sincere appreciation. Kurt Schwartz, camera, CEO. Um, and I did just wanna state also for the record that I know this has been a point discussion, but, um, we did vote this proclamation,

2:40:27 but all five members of the Marlin School Committee have signed the resolution and proclamation. I think that’s important to note for the record. Um, so that’s it for correspondence. Um, so I am going to adjourn us at eight 50.