e e e e e e e all right welcome to the Monday May 6 2024 meeting the denn CH the regional school committee please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance the flag has moved to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everybody we're going to start with our student Representatives reports please good evening everybody hope your week was great I know we just saw you so we don't have too much to talk about right now but we're getting there so to start off it is teacher appreciation week so we have a lot of events going on at Dy nothing that's been fully disclosed to students or teachers yet but I know admin Administration is planning and everybody's really excited we also started our AP exam week so this week and next week are going to be AP exams today was government and chemistry so I know Rosanna and I both had some exams today and we're going to have some more coming up so they're going good so far uh we also have our dolphin Dash on Saturday which is always an amazing Comm Community event and we have a lot of student volunteers and a lot of people running which I'm looking forward to and then also we have our Civic stay on Wednesday which I think some of you may be attending from what I've heard we have Miss Williams who's actually here tonight is running it and everybody's so excited we're having a lot of guests and it's going to go through the first three periods of the day so last week we mentioned that we had the nas um committee coming to the school so they came and it was a really good experience we had students um tour them around the school then we also had a student panel and they also spoke with teachers just trying to get an idea of what the school is like I know the students select did thought um it was a really good conversation they asked what could be better what do we think is done well like what changes could be made and I think the students really enjoyed that um we also had unified track sectionals today so so far their season has been completely undefeated which has been a trend so we expect nothing less from them um their shirts actually say you can't touch us so they're a really good team we don't know how they did yet but we're looking forward to hearing um um we also had our Esports teams both of them uh go to playoffs for Smash Brothers which is a really cool opportunity they played uh I think two weeks ago and then we also have prom coming up on May 18th which is exciting for juniors and seniors and um we also have just seniors wrapping up uh these two weeks I know most of our class is going to be taking AP exams then after that we just have one final week um of final exams and then Senior Week and graduation so we're almost done Rosanna when will your last meeting with us be I think my last meeting will be the next meeting the May 20th yes and oh May 20th is it on Monday or oh May 20th I do have a track meet that day um and then so we have a meeting on June 3 I think I could see myself there you pop by all right I can't bear to have this be my last meeting yet so I definitely myself St just to come by and um have you elected another student representative we are currently between about three people and we're going through that process right now wonderful thank you so much all right sounds like good stuff going on congratulations on ending the year strong um all right next um uh we have a field trip report on our trip to Japan uh Mr Hansen and some students it looks like make sure the little green light Kenichi everybody hello um I have two goals tonight one of which is to share our awesome experience um in Japan that we uh did over April break and secondly is for approval to do it all over again um I started out um with a slide that I that I presented last year to you guys um when I when I proposed the trip originally and um want to say I just want to highlight the opening the world through education because I really truly believe that's what we're doing by um by travel-based learning this is us I kind of changed the slide a little bit just to give a little sneak peek into um some things that we did we had some interactive art exhibits we went up two different levels of the observation decks in the SC uh Tokyo Sky Tree we're at the H H Huka Huka thank you Gardens and um robots of course um like to say uh Domo AR arato to all of you for trusting me to take 24 of our students uh 6,700 miles away and that's um going north and south as opposed to around again going back to the original proposal um not exactly knowing what to expect robotic engineering and innovation in Japan we saw pictures of of Tokyo um and then saw a map and coming in and out of Tokyo heading up to sucuba for a day day and a half uh science City down to yamachi prefecture where we went to a traditional um Japanese village with thatch thatch huts and everything um and then back in and out of Tokyo what we really did we um studied robotics engineering Innovation and so much more in Japan uh you can see on the left side was just a a a picture from the back seat in front of us as we're traveling some were sleeping some were anxious some were just watching the the plane as we went not um AC you know we went up to Toronto and then from Toronto we went North up over Alaska and um and then came down the Bearing Sea and over to Tokyo and uh the 6700 uh 67 um 100 miles is actually that route because the shortest distance between the straight um two points is a straight line and and going across the country would be a lot um a lot longer we um the picture on the right right side is our first morning in um in Tokyo uh after 28 hours of travel we met uh Tuma at the airport he's he's kneeling down he's our tour director um and he took us from being a group of 24 diverse really diverse group of 24 students mostly Juniors and seniors a couple of sophomores one freshman who had never flown before going to Tokyo as her first uh first time in an airplane and she was awesome did awesome um we uh went from a being a diverse group and I kind of went with this theme of and I'm going to mangle it Ur which and it sounds more Italian than Japanese I apologize but really it translate to a pot of dolphins and that's what the Japanese symbols are on the bottom I've been to some different places around the world and Japanese language is harder than anything I've experienced it's um there is not a symbol or word for every spoken word so they take from four different of their alphabets the two Japanese the Katakana and the kanji and then they have a Japanese and a Korean version and then if they don't have a word for something they take some from each and put them all together and that's kind of what we what we did um I went through learning benefits of student travel I'm going to leave some of this um to the kids and from the student Travelers they're going to come up and and share some of their thoughts uh then we'll have some um some time for uh some dialogue or questions um as we close out um the the uh the globe on the right side that was from the Miram Museum of emerging science and Innovation it's like their smithsonia Museum but it's Japan and Tokyo so it's uh even crazier the the globe was you could stare at it non-stop it looked like it was a thousands maybe of displays and the world turning around then um it might change to um to weather patterns then it might change to the number of uh phyto Plankton on the earth and how the climate change is changing the way that the oxygen is released in the ocean etc etc and here's uh just a little snippet of of our group in some different places um the maglev um bullet train uh training facility which was cool we and um they are developing these trains that are going to go up to 300 miles hour the mag Lev is magnetic and levitation so um they can go travel faster and accelerate faster than any trains and um we saw them through the window we also went outside on the overhang and you can feel them go by as they're screaming past us the rink uh disaster prevention Park where they learned to um live through a um through an earthquake uh the traditional tea ceremony uh they one of the dinners that we had was making the aaki amak Yami thank you okaki and then team lad planets I would assume they're GNA I I they're going to talk about that coming up which was one of the highlights one of the favorite highlights from the trip um after the trip I I asked uh The Travelers I asked parents I had chaperon for some feedback and one of the highlights that a parent told me was seeing my son become a confident traveler and taking the time to immers himself in a different culture little pad on my back I'm like okay I'm getting you know kids did learn something awesome another little um display here um we are at jaxa the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency we got to peek in ins side of of the control center where they're talking to the International Space Station and some other stuff they you know they bring up the curtain you watch for a little bit and then they close you can't take any pictures or anything I think this picture is funny because on the bottom left is um Zara and Bruna smiling I think they're smiling because there's nobody else in the train this was a time that we could get in there and kind of stretch our wings out and everything we um did a lot of traveling we were we crossed the busiest intersection in the world at the busiest time we got on to trains at um acara which is insane there you there's no room and yet they push people back and make room and nobody flinches everyone leans on each other and and and then there's some artwork there's um but the pot of dolphins there in the um elevator going down um the Tokyo Sky Tree it's um cherry blossom season so there's cherry blossoms blooming everywhere and on the bottom right there's Teddy with the um interacting with the the how technology wearable technology it's a um hybrid assist of limb when he he's wired up to it and as as he moves you can talk about that um as he moves as does the wearable robot some of the kids ask some the kids what was your favorite part of the trip um of course food tempor and ramen the team Labs that was the interactive Art Exhibit and again if you guys can highlight some of that um here it is again har Mark you I oh for like a hundred on that one um asak asaku um and of course robots all over the place here's some of the companion type robots two of the the two the one on the left and the top is from the um one of the museums and the one on the bottom that's pepper that we've studied in robotics class and um they had those at our restaurant so we got to kind of play with those a little bit as we're waiting for dinner um here's Hannah Hannah was um not feeling well and couldn't come um some of the other highlights the I'm not even going to attempt the first one because I mangle that but that's the the Japanese Village um early 1800s I think is where they where they had it which was super cool with a view of Mount Fuji um acara they loved shopping anytime there was free time and I will say anytime there's free time they had to travel in groups of three no less than three um and they had to be back at a certain time and um even our tour directors said you know we lost key you know we we had kids to lose room keys and some other stuff but our kids were back on time and responsible it was awesome that that was a little concerning at going into it and you know they they they proved responsibility was was there the whole time and the Pokemon Center was was a highlight um for a bunch of the kids uh one of the chapon um wrote back and said the kids knocked it out of the park I still cannot believe how fantastic they all were and um it's so awesome to be part of a group and the leader of a group and um you know kids are kids and and sometimes you know it's we get off the we right when we got off the the um the plane in Tokyo and kids are loud and you're not loud in Tokyo you know everybody's quiet you know there's the teacher voice is really quiet and they talk really quiet so of course I come over to the kids say guys slow down quiet and I'm like oh I'm you know do as I do not as I as I say so um they were the kids were awesome awesome awesome um here's a couple of that these guys here's um and Tuma in the back is is peeking in doing a little um little photo bomb um and you guys share what you've learned and and what you thought of the trip hello everyone uh I'm Teddy I'm a sophomore and I went on the trip um going to talk a little bit the cultural immersion and just Global awareness that we like we experience on this trip so first off just being in Japan obviously it's like huge like culture shock um things I noticed was like everyone was really welcoming um like language barrier was kind of tough but they really like were prepared sort of for us like they made it work um everyone was very kind they were all like well dressed it was really different from here um yeah but uh it was a very good experience um it really taught us a lot about like the different cultures uh and just getting out of obviously like the United States um it was big like uh even just like translating money like they have a whole different currency there so that was another thing that we learned to uh do um up here we have a picture from the Sky Tree um this was I think 1,600 ft that we went up and uh it was really cool to see the city and the city is just huge like didn't think it would be as big as it was um over there we have a temple that we uh went to we got to participate in some uh just like Japanese culture it was really cool to see um and uh yeah it's really I opening just to uh what there is in the world what next hi my name is Jacob Joy I'm a senior um at dii and one thing that kind of shocked me when I first came to Japan was the amount of people who were willing to help out like uh for example we it was me Zara and Hannah um and we were trying to find our way to just basically around this shopping district that we went to and we ended up meeting this one dude named Utah who um he was really nice he he spoke fluent English he was a very nice guy he showed us or he pointed Us in the direction of a couple shops uh and kind of just showed us not really showed us around but uh gave us a couple options to go shopping in and that's kind of a huge thing that was different um than America you know you kind of in Japan they are very much like oh you don't know where you're going we will help you we will take you to the place that uh you need to go we'll show you we'll put it in your phone we'll figure out a way to like help you out and that was that was kind of a huge thing that um ended up happening as well as even though the language was hard um we did learn some basic phrases Ohio is good morning konichiwa is good afternoon kaywa is good afternoon there's uh Kawai obviously that's cute and Kawai con which is cute dog there were a lot of dogs in Japan so I kind of had to learn that one um but on top of all that it it was a very difficult language to I guess even learn just basic phrases but everybody that we met basically like help helped us out and we really really kind about um trying to help us out these are just some pictures of the station uh and some of the stores that we passed by a lot of the signs are actually in English so even if you're going there and you're stranded in the middle of Tokyo a lot of the times there will be signs that'll say like it in Japanese and then below it will say like oh it's UB station or oh it's a huku uh station as well as the temple which they are very um open about kind of inviting foreigners to their culture they are they let a lot of people into like temples like we we went to this one Temple where we kind of cleansed oursel with smoke and washed our hands with like water that was coming out of this Fountain it was very cool um and this is also my section um technological innovation one thing that was very different as well from the United States is in the United States we kind of try to create a new thing that hasn't happened yet Japan is a lot more like building off of what has already begun so for example in the middle that's the maglo um train or the bullet train as it's more commonly known um they kind of just took the idea of a train and had it on magnets they said well magnets work we're going to put it on magnets there's going to be no friction we can have it go at like incredibly high speeds um another example of this is the Sky Tree they took what they knew about uh basically civil engineering um and built the tree out of combining concrete and steel which is kind of like in the United States you really see like either concrete or steel buildings They Don't Really mix the two they don't really try to um innovate off of it but also the cities itself were beautiful another thing that they do is they try to incorporate nature in side of every single one of their cities so unlike Boston which is like a lot of urbanization lost city but not many like trees you know you go to a park or somewhere around there like Time Square in New York um they kind of everywhere is basically a park there's trees everywhere there's flowers there's bushes it they just try to make it as nice as possible and they try to make it less of like an urban eyesore and more of like an enjoyable place to walk around um hi I'm Zara and I'm a sophomore um I'd like to talk about the Hands-On learning because it was really just such an incredible experience to be able to learn what we have or experience what we have learned in class in like a real world world context and I feel like an experience like that I've said experience so much um is really just irreplicable in a way so I'd like to talk about some of the things we learned so um first in the top left photo is some of our tickets to the Tokyo Sky Tree I believe and just navigating the different systems of whether it be Transportation or um buying things at stores or food it was just a totally new experience with like the language barrier and we definitely all learned a lot of how to like navigate with only using a few words or just trying to overcome the challenges I guess um in the to in like the left section the top right photo that was this um earthquake simulation thing and that might be me in the chair actually um it like simulated an earthquake and how it would be if you were actually like in the building like some of them were if you were in like a really really high like Skyscraper type building and it went more slow I guess and then there were more erratic ones where it was just really powerful and just went all over the place um and in the left section the top left I mean the bottom left photo that was a photo of arti ceremony and that was a very hands-on experience so we had like traditional matcha tea um and how they did it was um you get your cup and the there's like a piece of artwork I guess on the outside of the cup and you have to turn it two times to get it to face towards yourself and you drink your tea and you know then you turn it again two two times back outwards it's like a sign of respect like oh I'm done with my drink I like want to show this artwork to you I guess um and there are more pictures of our tea and the Tea Ceremony on the left side as well I mean right side and um also on the right side we have pictures of the Buddhist temple in asakusa um I think the right side top right um it was this cleansing area before you went in the temple you could cleanse yourself with like smoke and it was supposed to I guess release the impurities um from you and also from the bottom left image it was this um like water cleansing area before you go in the temple you had to do it and what you did was you filled up this Ladle with water and you poured one hand mean one pour on your hand and then one pour on your other hand and then you had to make sure you poured one Ladle of water on the dragon's head as a sign of respect I think so yeah um hello I'm Max Smith Ross I'm a sophomore here uh I'll be talking about problem solving skills uh in Japan you really needed to be able to use your mind and figure figure out your way around the city and some problems that you could obviously be facing a lot were uh getting around you had to navigate for yourself like you'd have free time and you'd have to go off on your own and you'd have to figure out how to pay since the money's a lot different you need to figure out how much you're spending in US Dollars and you had to like think you need to be constantly thinking about what you're going to be doing uh there was a problem of getting back on curfew which was 9:30 there in Japan and we needed to like figure out the places we could be to get back in time uh there was a lot of crowds we needed to make sure that we were wearing our green coats so we could stay visible and stay with a group of three and that may sound easy but it was a big challenge with thousands of people uh just everywhere honestly we went through the busiest intersection in the world so I don't know yeah I don't know else to say there's there's a lot of problems you to get through you know you need to like there you had to be constantly thinking you couldn't you couldn't like be Idol at all yeah that's all I got to say hello so I think that our group did awesome with um just helping each other I guess in this Society where we didn't really know how to get around or how to talk to people and I know we learned a few words and phrases and stuff but us really being there for each other like oh we're in the group of three you know oh we have our like where's Michael oh where's Kaden you know just making sure that we're all together or not leaving each other alone it was just something really like respectable from everyone that we all just made sure that everyone was safe everyone was there and no one was being disincluded I guess um a few of the photos so the first photo on the left side is Tyrell he um wanted to photograph of this map I guess and he couldn't get the full view in his camera so kayen picked him up so we could get the full View and it's just examples like that like just working together to just achieve different things on this trip uh and this especially came in handy on the subway or trains and there would be just so many people packed and packed and packed and we really had to make sure that everyone was on it we really like knew where we were going we didn't especially at night there's just everyone's coming home from work so like you really just had to jam in there sometimes we just couldn't get in we had to like go to the next one but um I think that photo is from the air plane even the airport um it's just the level of Cooperative cooperativeness from our group that just it was I don't know it made everything work out really great and there's so many processes that you have to go through at the airport that you really just need everyone to just pay attention and everyone did really awesome so yeah um another thing I want to talk about is the shabuya crossing which was the it's the biggest biggest inter section in the world and we had to cross it at rush hour so everyone was getting out of work it was absolutely crazy but we made it through we just kind of all held on to each other we all had our Green Jackets on and yeah it's great hi again um so for personal growth it's kind of a random assortment of pictures but these were all things that I kind of I guess physically had to overcome uh for one of them matcha tea I don't like green tea um was not not exactly the best thing but I actually tried theirs and I I ended up loving it as well as the flower cake that's next to it that's actually a red bean paste cake that's typically served uh as a sweep before you drink green tea it wasn't into red bean paste beforehand but I actually like it now after going um in below it is actually what's called tomoaki it's actually fried octopus and I'm again I'm not into Seafood it's not exactly my uh my thing but I ended up trying it and that tomaki right there it was probably the best thing that I I had eaten on that entire trip um the Tokyo Sky Tree in both the top picture and the one where it's the glass floor I am terribly afraid of heights I cannot stand Heights but I ended up going up there and even though I was terrified out of my mind um it it was amazing to just see that view it just keeps like Teddy said it just keeps on going out and out and out like the picture doesn't do it justice um another thing I don't know why I picked all food that I had to overcome but I don't like uh Sesame or anything and that's black sesame ice cream right below uh Mount Fuji in the traditional traditional Village they have a lot of really interesting Foods there that actually tastes pretty good sushi of course you probably can guess what my stance on Sushi is but um I ended up really liking it uh but it's not just physical person personal growth it's also mental growth um everybody there was extremely respectful they always wanted to help out no matter what at any chance whether or not you asked them like can you just give me directions is there any chance that you could give me directions to that to this place that I'm looking for please or it could be like do you know how much this cost is there any way that I could uh purchase this for this amount of money like usually uh translating money actually when I got this jacket um it was from a local shop that uh kind of designed their own jackets and they they helped me out with like the pricing and everything cuz at first I I didn't know the correct amount of money that I needed or how much it was actually going to be up being a lot of money but uh they they were very helpful um at that local shop as well as everywhere else um but also they at least in Tokyo I mean especially Tokyo they're very accepting um especially in shabuya shabuya had a lot of Pride signs outside of it as well as um outside some of the malls you see that like Love Is Love uh sign and I just I guess that was really nice because it uh everybody there is just so helpful and kind and caring and they always want to make sure that not only you feel comfortable but you know you're good like they want to help you out at every Point um uh hey it's me Max again uh so I think this trip solidified some like friendships I had before and made new friends I had never even seen before um something I could really take away from this trip was if somebody's going to be late or someone's going to be left behind there's more than one person who's going to be left behind and they're going to be late with you and like that just goes to show you like you're not willing to leave somebody behind and it's like friendship that like keeps you there like I was running really late this one time I was having like the communication barrier obviously and my friend stayed CU we had to stay as a group and yeah it's like a lot of stuff just like that just people like that's my group bottom right there we stayed together I didn't I didn't really know any of them super well before that and we came out of it with an experience that I'm not going to be able to have with anybody else and I'm sure a lot of other people felt the same way bottom left picture there is uh our whole group right before the Tokyo Sky Tree right before we went up there and and like you can't experience that here like that group of people we all have a connection that we're not going to lose and we're going to have forever like the experiences are so unique to Japan and like there's no possible way you can forget the friendships you made and the experiences just don't change this one time uh we were in this Village right outside of Mount Fuji and we were in this Forest together and there's this beautiful waterfall and we all decided that we were going to go walk up and stick our heads under it and it was it was really beautiful and it was just like true friendship you're not you're not going to get that anywhere else that's that's a big thing I took out of it and it may seem small at the time but years to come I'll never forget that you know that's all I got I will say too um really late I think was maybe three minutes and you had one kid come back um and actually like I said before with Max saying I'm really late I was on these guys to be back be back be back knowing that we had a little window that we wiggle room and we didn't normally need the little wiggle room um another um highlight feedback from one of the parents that um she wrote um quite a lot in the email and I want to highlight some of it um um she said I want to thank you for the support given to her son on the trip to Japan I confess that my heart was very heavy when he left to travel because this was his first time he traveled so far away and I was very worried about everything this kid the fur before this year the furthest he ever went um away was um on New Hampshire and um had had been on a plane once um earlier in the spring before coming to Japan she went on and um she said thank you all you wonderful team please keep doing this with other students so I want to do it all over again although um being there and me being me I always take experiences and try to make them better um and a little bit of change so what I'm um what I did this year is and you all have um a handout of of the next year's trip I stretched it out one day I to get out of Tokyo so um it's a 10day trip instead of nine going into um from Boston into Tokyo um spending four days in Tokyo really stem heavy um experience then going drive with a bus down to Mount Fuji down to the yamoni prefecture spending the day again at the Village near Mount Fuji spending the night at a um at a smaller um town outside of um that Village and then um taking a bullet train to um Kyoto spending two days uh two more days in Kyoto going with to Nara and then um the last day in Osaka flying out of Osaka um on the bottom right you can see a picture um Tuma took a little selfie with me at um acabara IID um I'm excited to work with him because I've requested that he be our tour guide again so he's really good with helping to um formulate the trip but also knowing him and I got to talk to him a couple weeks before the trip and we created a bond but definitely spending this this much time together it's awesome to know who I'm going to be um working with um the um we would be leaving the um uh April 16th which is Wednesday morning this year we left Thursday morning we left Dy high school at uh 1:00 a.m. we have to bump we the latest we can leave is the Wednesday because of Cherry Blossom Festival like they call it some I can't remember the festival name that they call it but so we would be leaving a day early and then coming back that same Saturday night of April Break um because when I came to you guys uh last year the second time I came to you last year or earlier in the school year I guess it was um to lock in the price um we got an extra day and a lot more travel and I got to customize it and it's and it's the price is just over $5,000 $ 5,169 um but before um I just want to kind of open it up to some dialogue if you have some questions for me questions for the kids kids um and then hopefully um ask I just ask for a thumbs up to continue and bring the next um pot of dolphins over to Japan again perfect why don't we just go right down the line and see if anyone has any questions yeah thank you Mr Hansen and and thank you all um not only for this presentation but you lay the groundwork for all the other groups that will go forward because if if you know there was an international incident we wouldn't be doing it next year but but you guys comported yourself well it's obvious um and you set the standard that makes it easier for future groups to to do it and um you know I I just want to thank you it looks like you had a a wonderful time and it was worth it for you um I remember when Mr Hansen came in and and was asking us to approve it and I was like who wouldn't want to do this um and so that's kind of the questions I have for you Mr Hansen is um next year are the numbers you think will still work um can we you think we could do more for fundraising opening it up to more students um the CF tours I don't know if it was the same tour group but there was an issue with a middle school said someone a a trip or something that got canceled I don't know if it was the same one but how your experience was with that tour group and obviously you you want to do it again with them so I I assume it's good but if you could be more specific um and then any of the you know fundraising things that we could help out with um because something's good and it's working and and it's obviously a great experience we we um we want to duplicate that but thank you all I'm glad you had a great time and uh I'm sure future groups will thank you when they when they go definitely um as far as working with the f um it was awesome for me to be in charge of the kids and um we had itinerary set up we had Transportation set up and my main goal was to make sure that um the kids have this awesome learning experience but most importantly that the 24 kids that that I brought over there they come home um you know with the with with great memories but not a lot of no scratches or anything like that um as far as fundraising goes uh this year we fundraised um our total was uh $1,659 66 um we had um car washes thank you very much um baked sales pancake breakfast Japanese snack sales we did a Dolphin robotic sponsorship where um some of the um local businesses got to um put their put their name in logo on the Dolphin robotic shirts for our team uh the the next level was they could put some of the um their names on on our jackets these are the jackets that we all had um walking around um and then also there's two that went with the gold level to have the their logo on the dolphin robotics um Arena so when I put on uh robotic competitions their logo is on there um we had a $300 um donation from somebody's um neighbor um student driven students um had gear guesses um they uh Payton made some keychains and lanyards couple kids did concession tables and that's just the fundraising the 10,000 10 10,000 uh almost 700 was the what we did together a lot of the kids did um some fundraising on their own there's EF has their own fundraising page that they give to family and friends Etc uh some of the kids and one of the students that was going to come today to talk about that um is fell sick today and didn't come to school but she did a bunch of her own bake sales where she would set up like I did as a kid and set up bake sales and um whether it was at they got permission at the hockey game or outside of local businesses and stuff um out of those out of that $10,000 um $10,600 bucks went right into their EF accounts and that helped pay for their trips um we paid about $1,500 for a bus Just sh I have a th000 for jackets $3,000 worth of tips for the for um and and it's funny because in in Japan you don't you don't tip it's you just don't tip except when they're Americans going through American company then we're um then we tip so that was a big thing and I wanted all that fundraised before going so when I talked to parents you know we and and some parents and families wanted to fund raise and some just wanted to pay for everything um 185 toward scholarship and then we were able to convert 20 $2,724 to Yen so all the kids had some physical cash going there um some obviously had more than others because it was based on how much they fundraised some kids had enough for all their lunches and all their spending money and then others just had a little bit um to get them started with but I just wanted to add to to you guys please extend to the rest of the group because not only did you reflect great credit upon yourselves in the way you comported but the staff the the chaperon but you represented us you represented the district you represented the United States and you know you don't know how many people in that country picked up on you guys and said wow these Americans you know they might have a bad image of a American kids and and you guys uh might it change their mind so thank you again I I mentioned that on the bus on the way to the airport the last day just how proud I am of of the group and each each kid on the group um and everybody really hand handled it they acted well beyond their years and and um yeah it was it was impressive every one of them thank you for that Mr Morris I would venture a guess that this has probably changed you tremendously as individuals in ways that could not have predicted but having done it do you seek out other opportunities like if you go to college there's frequently almost every college has a junior year abroad or other opportunities I know my two daughters who are DIY graduates certainly benefited from the field trips locally all the way up to uh the German my old youngest daughter had learned two different languages of Dy which helped her get into the competition for the junior year abroad and they ended up being able to travel the world Beyond just their one country that they saw or their one city that they lived in so do you anticipate you're going to want to repeat this and help others do it as well um absolutely to that I I already actually it's so funny the college that I'm kind of leaning towards right now um I've already started like looking into they have a sophomore year trip to Valencia Spain for biomedical engineering and I am like dying to go on that like it's a semester abroad it's in Valencia which is like the main Art and Science Capital like I really want to do that um but also they offer other places to Italy to Germany um and honestly I I kind of see myself as expensive as it seems um I kind of want to see myself traveling at least sophomore year and on we to to a completely different country because this this experience really has led me to look at other cultures and like kind of go to other countries and learn as much as I can about them after this Japan trip it really has um opened up my eyes to you know all these different cultures and how they kind of interact with each other the only thing that I'm not looking forward to is the plane rides that's that's not going to be fun but other than that um absolutely I would that has inspired me to travel a lot more as a as a wrap up with my question is the fact that not just college but for example I'm a member of the Rotary Club in Yarmouth and we sponsor before the the world situation makes it more difficult to go abroad but there are so many people wanting to support the opportunity for your education so we sponsor local students for an entire year in living in the family of another country and host an incoming student as well and we' were doing that rotary and not just rotary but all sorts of community service organizations so you you might be preparing yourself to promote or look for opportunities to help aid this the enthusiasm that's needed and the quieting of Parental fears about watching their youngster travel away it's more it's more scary to a parent than just the first year of education so you have a role to play if you gained something for yourself to share it and I wish you I I'm not surprised that you will do it because you're a Dy student thank you Mr Morris Joe yes real quickly thank you um the only thing I can think of is dolphins travel well um and that's a that's a um that's a testament to the the this culture at the high school um that the teachers and the students bring on so um you know very very proud and very thankful to uh the students and the staff for for doing such a tremendous job in representing our district and the country like Joe said um it's you know it's been tremendous and and I think I probably said it before you know the educational Pete was Grace and I'm sure there was a lot of education and learning that went off but it seems like there was more personal growth and there was more friendship developments and more memories and things like that and as much as the education Peach is important I think that's just as important because you guys learned how to um get somewhere on time around a million people you know I I don't I don't know I would still be huddling in a little fetal position somewhere and I would never go up the the that tall tree thing it scared me just to look at it so um thank you for sharing what you did and I look forward to um you guys doing it again thanks Jo Tomas anything I just want to thank you for for representing us and you know I know we'll probably talk about town meeting tomorrow and town meeting last week but uh you know one of the people that spoke talked about bleeding green and it's all the things we talk about that we do for the district and you know all the stuff that we do to approve stuff is so that our our students have experiences and knowing how well you know rosanna's done and some of our top students in our class and you know you hear people say that you can't you know you know why would you go to DIY you can go all these other places but I don't think they understand how the opportunities that that are here and I feel if if you want the opportunities they're here and there's teachers like yourself and staff that are here that help create their activities and or those opportunities and you know we just get to say yes when we know that you're prepared for it right we're not always get to say yes but uh uh it it's it's amazing you know over the years that I've learned all the opportunities because you know I I don't bleed green I wasn't I'm a was aore but uh but to see the people the the people that graduate that their kids come here or the teachers I've met who graduated from the program and it's stuff like this um that really makes it you know makes me happy to have someone that's in the school district um and make you know it's just a great feeling and um you know I I apologize my car was so dirty there's a bird that Parks over my car so I appreciate the hard work you did when you washed my car but uh but also I hope you all got most importantly did did you guys get to go to a 7-Eleven I heard the the most the best food in the entire country is at 7-Eleven and uh I actually watched a video on it and it's amazing to see that people talk about 7-Eleven more than anything else so I hope you got to see it and it looks like we did thank you thanks toas Marilyn I just want to thank you for sharing your pure Joy of your experience and your pride it shows thank you yep uh ditto uh right I can't I guess I'll say it again thank you all for making this trip successful I think you know there were definitely concerns going into this you know taking a group of students so far away and for so long um and I'm really glad to hear that it all went so well and that you all had such a great experience um my only question for you Mr Hansen is are students already signed up for next year or I I have after after meeting with you last time I have six um students who are already um enrolled only as placeholders but I couldn't have them um be formal enrolled until it was approved after we get back and I bring them back and then asked for permission again so that would leave 18 spots oh okay available I think we approved it preliminar I think we approved it and as long as there were no issues we appr it and sound anybody awesome um I think that you're it sounds like you're good to go and so you've got six already signed up out of how many spots 24 24 okay and so I was waiting till coming here and then I'm going to do the official meeting after I just wanted to get as you because I had such that um you know by the first meeting when I had the waiting list when I got home and the kids missed out and that's when I said oh I got to do it all over again and so um that's why I started it last year but like I said this is not an annual thing I'm not trying to trying to go every year I'm trying to recover from this year but okay um but yeah so as long as there are there are 20 at least 20 students I'll I'll take them okay wonderful thank you all for being here tonight thank you I think we have another student presentation next uh Miss Williams grade 11 US history class about school start times please hello my name is Noah golden this is Mata Silva and we are going to be uh hold on one second we'll get you some help is that little green light on that microphone in front of you is there a little green light on there we are the Civics Action project is an Initiative for high school oal studies classes to make a change in their community our class chose a later school start time as our issue of choice uh the a later school start time has started to take effect in school districts across the state and the country and there has been a noticeable and notable Improvement in performance at school from the students in those districts Studies have also proven that high school students need more sleep than they are usually provided to function throughout the school day and be generally more productive high school high school students will get uh why uh did we choose school start time high school students will get better sleep um high school students will pay more attention in class because they got more sleep and high school students well-being will improve with more sleep you're going to feel better when you wake up not like some people might wake up they might be in a bad mood but if you have more time to sleep and like just get up in the morning with sunlight uh their well-being will improve just every a lot of stuff will improve um a teens and turtle clock shifts two hours once they transition into adolescence early school start times do not often correlate with this natural change in a teenager's need for Sleep uh consequences of early High School start time uh decreased productivity just tired in the morning lower academic performances and unable to unable to recul moods I'll gu stud um we uh surveyed um 100 parents and we asked in general would you support the high school starting at a later time 78% said said that they would support it which I think is um a pretty notable statistic you do I still don't know um and the same parents um about 50% have children in high school and 35% have children in the elementary school while the others have from range in the intermediate school or don't have any in the district if you have uh children District uh how' they get the school about um 60% get driven and 56% go on the bus and the 18% are Juniors and seniors um the impact that the change would have um about 70 4% would have a positive or no impact towards their daytoday like their morning and 21% would have a negative impact on their like morning uh here's some of the comments from the survey um one uh if if school started they are they're it's a Elementary parent and school starting earlier for them they'd be their mornings would be more rushed but for high school um one of the parents said that their kid would be able to sleep in more and getting um elementary school kids the school at 9: was disruptive to uh to their workday so it would be a positive change for them if it was earlier and they got their kid to school earlier the students among the students of which we got 186 responses to the survey uh around 80% of them would in general support a later school start time which was less of a majority than I was expecting over the parents uh and if the high school were to start later it would generally have again a positive impact or no impact at all with only 14% saying it would have a negative impact on them um and for those students who have jobs 50 uh 55% said they would they don't have an after school job 21 % said it would not impact their job and 23% said it would have a negative impact on their job I think that statistic is pretty notable because even though the majority is not significant there is a majority that are saying that the later start time would affect their jobs um there were the comments from the students were generally pretty similar to those of the parents even just an hour would significantly change the health of students there's again the Circadian rhythm issue Sports practices would get out later so people wouldn't have a lot of extra time in the back half of the day which would also likely impact sleep schedules because Sports would be ending later but studies also show that the brain isn't fully awake till 10:00 a.m. which would impact our learning because we are getting to school at around 7 3 hours beforehand and having less and just having left less time after school would negatively impact some people as well um School other schools on the cape like monoy and and NASA have already altered their school start time and we talked to Miss kimick um about like some of the issues that like naset faced and she said that one of the biggest issues was with the with the sports but over time it kind of sorted itself out and I think as more and more schools start to uh think about Shifting the start time I think it'll become less of a an issue overall the benefits of school starting later outweigh the negatives that come with it there are some definite and difficult issues with implementation but other schools have managed to overcome these rles this the science and the statistics among both the students and the parents enact support the enactments of a later school start time for the high school thank you very much for your presentation does anyone have questions Phil this is this type of a survey entails a lot of pre-planning a lot of work and your graphics really enhance your message what type of response you get responses of liking or disliking or what the reasons are but what was the response you got for the idea of to of students proposing change did you get polite indifferent or hostile um generally they were in support but a good chunk of the comments just did not realize that you could not put a response at all so they were just things like non-applicable no but a lot of them there were it was weird because I found more negative responses from the students than the parents but in general there was a majority from both ends thank you so much anyone else on the committee any questions comments thank you so much this is really interesting and something that you know has been discussed on in off over the years and I'm um we appreciate the research and all the effort you put into this so and thank you Miss Williams for bringing your class in and all the students who participated in this thank you very much um next on the agenda are the leaon to the select boards um and Dennis I'll just say we have a town meeting tomorrow night so here yeah denst toown meeting here tomorrow night um and anyone want to report out briefly on the Yarmouth Town Meeting Tomas no we had uh we had an amazing turnout thanks to our partners in our Educators Association and our teams for doing a great job offering daycare and um getting the word out thank you to all the residents that came to the meeting it was a very packed uh Auditorium um you know we had some great comments and you know people brought up their concerns but at the end of the day I don't think I've seen so many yellow cards go up so quickly so we we thank the the town of Yarmouth for doing the first part uh the next part will be at town meeting at at election day um you know the low turnout is something that we consistently see and it it's great to see everyone at the the town meeting but it's important for everyone to get out to vote um so we hope people get out there and can help us do the next step and we continue to educate our our students and allow them to have opportunities like so many students talked about today so thank you very much um Joe any building committee report I don't have anything of substance I don't know if bark or Dave have anything thank you superintendent report please all right thank you uh uh start with some recognitions and acknowledgements uh the students stole a couple of mine so I'll skip over those but so first uh just a couple again continued donations from the community there will be in your um consent agenda to approve but a $3,000 donation from Copeland Subaru of hyanis to the EM small school that those will be used to support uh academic programming at the school and then a $1,000 uh donation from Frank seaz to the Ezra Baker School P specifically to their PTAC uh again we'll just continue to support uh some of the great programming that the PTAC does over at e at Ezra Baker and I know I say it all the time but it just continues to amaze me the way the community supports our schools in a variety of ways uh Isabella mentioned that this week kicks off uh teacher appreciation week I mentioned in a message to the staff this week one of the key findings from my uh entry or report entry findings that I shared with the committee about a month ago and that finding was really that families identified the staff as one of our greatest strengths here as a district and I also mentioned in that message you know there's a lot of tends to especially recently there tends to be a lot of negative noise out there in the news media and social media around public education but I really wanted to reiterate with the staff today that locally um with the people who are entrusting us as a school Community with their most precious commodity right with their children um those people uh Pro overwhelmingly uh trust and support and and identify our te our staff as uh one of the greatest strengths inside the Dy and it's also important to note that while it's a teacher appreciation week you know there's a whole variety of roles that support students uh and so it's you know whether it's those professionals who work to educate and or support all the other variety of needs of students or those that provide professional learning to our teachers or whether it's our par Educators or the folks who feed our students transport our students do all the administrative work that makes our district function the our Tech staff who make all the infrastructure work our buildings and ground staff or the leaders who make our district work you know everybody is is really unbelievably dedicated again I've talked about it uh in some of my other reports here um and and I just know a superintendent here I'm super appreciative of of all the staff that make our district home uh every day uh moving on to the next topic the just brief shelter on or brief update on the emergency uh access shelter so as of last week uh the shelter that had been opened here in Yarmouth uh is officially closed all the families have moved been moved out of the that particular shelter and relocated to other shelters in this within the state uh so the families are relocated to locations you know a variety of locations across the state and a variety of other towns across the state and um the students who are in locations that are close enough to Dennis Yarmouth still uh and whose families desire to have the students still attend Dy we are transporting those students back uh as is our um our requirement under mcken vento and for those that are not whose whose families have either chosen to have a new school of origin or I guess it's not really a school of origin but a new school to register the children in the in the new school district or there is sort of a limit um within sort of mckin vento about how far the child can uh travel um so some of these places are beyond that right um and so for those families uh unfortunately we had to say goodbye to those students and say goodbye to those families which I know for our faculty it's been difficult because the families and the students really became well integrated parts of our school communities you know specifically I just wanted to note you know I'd received an email from Jay Garner our Gardner who's the public or the health director for the town of Yarmouth and was played a role in helping with the transition and played a role in other parts as well but specifically related to the transition he sent me an email um to note that uh our many of our staff had showed up uh to say goodbye to the families not only to the students but also to show up to say goodbye to the families and he just wanted to note you know this I just quote him here this gesture speaks volumes to your dedicated and compassionate teachers uh and you know again just sort of messaging back to my uh teacher appreciation note just a moment ago it's just really sends loud signals to the people who work here in the district um so that that bit then uh on the transportation so sort of queuing back to uh our student presentation that just ended a moment ago as I've been talking on and off in previous meetings we do have a little um where we can continue to look into um the transportation challenge that's associated with extending the school day uh so we've done the 4 to7 extension and next year we have to do the K 3 extension and as I've mentioned we've gone from the figuring out can we do a two-tier system from a three-tier system to the phase now in the decision-making process of should we do a two two-tier system and that's where we currently find ourselves so we know we can do it uh we had a actually had a meeting today with the transportation company and really dug in started to dig into it a little bit more to see exactly what it might look like if we did and what we're also doing at the same time the students share some some nice survey data as well but we also have a survey out uh in the community went out Thursday last week I believe uh and we're collecting some of that survey data to look at some of the similar issues actually that the students did you know essentially what's the impact and the way things that we've talked about is there's an impact either way either we're talking about an impact to the budget which has consequences or we're talking to an impact to changing start times uh and we want the community to weigh in on that and use that as part of our decision making we're not deciding by survey but we want to make sure we're getting and collecting input to use in the decision-making process um and oh and then sort of the other piece to that is you know we're going to regardless of where we land whether we stay with a two-tier system or whether we uh I excuse me stay with a three-tier system or transition to a two-tier system one of the things that came up with the transportation company today is we we and I I know I share with the committee was probably three meetings ago at this point some potential policy things that we had taken from some other school districts we are going to have to look at whether it's policy or whether the way it's the way we operate internally like regulation wise at H how our transportation system works like looking at things like cluster stops you know the walking distance just some things we're not really running very efficiently uh and we need to find what's that balance between uh providing a a service and and not being an Uber um there's there's a space somewhere in between um we don't we don't need to be overly effic overly efficient to where you know we're not providing a good service but we also don't need to necessarily provide door to-door service at every single home I think there's a space somewhere in between where we need to get just for efficiency sake as far as also being fiscally prudent um in future contracts because if anybody's paying attention to the way transportation costs are escalating we need to be thinking about that in future fiscal budgets as well um and then you know and and I think oh and also just sort of another layer to that is how we're capturing who's riding so we you know we currently uh uh what's the word I'm looking for we currently route route route route route uh for everybody and as that one survey piece had right I wrote it down 50% of you know again it was a small sample size but 50% of people are reporting that they they ride the bus they have their kids ride the bus and that we know our data or internal data is in and around that number uh so how do we have an internal policy around people identifying that they need the bus and then if they need to change that sort of what's the timeline expectancy internally for okay we're we're going to change you know I need a new stop or I'm going to add a stop or you I'm going to go from transporting my own child to wanting a bus like what's the EXP expectation from our side on how long that you know what's the reasonable amount of time from okay I didn't need to stop to now I need to stop so that we can have a a reasonable system it's not that you have to make that decision for an entire school year but there's got to be some space between you know saying I don't want to stop to now all of a sudden I want to stop tomorrow we I think there's a space somewhere in between we can find uh and let's see uh FY 25 budget we actually really already covered a lot of things that I was going to mention but we were fortunate enough that the town meeting carried the override uh on town meeting floor and as Tomas said the support was really after there were some thoughtful questions um but once it came to the time for the vote the the vote was overwhelming and then the um the the ballot is on the 21st and we have Dennis toown meeting tomorrow night and then the last thing which isn't actually on the agenda but and because just because I forgot to have e put it on there but it's important I wanted to Circle back the committee we' had a discussion at the last meeting around reorganization uh because we do have speaking of Elections we have I'm going to screw this up I think it's Dennis town meeting school committee and then Yarmouth Town Meeting election sorry screwed those up thank you so yeah uh Dennis election uh uh school committee meeting and then Yarmouth election so I had reached out to masc and actually in hindsight or actually after doing some further digging probably didn't need to um reach out to MC because ended up reading just reading the regional agreement language very carefully and here's what it says under the section organization it's a little bit of a preamble but then it says at the first regular meeting of the committee following the latter of the annual Town elections of the member towns in each year the committee shall organize and then blah BL blah blah blah blah so it's after the second one so we don't need to reorganize until June 3rd or whatever that meeting is the first the first meeting in June is when the committee will need to do its reorganization after both new members our Dennis member and our Yarmouth member have been elected and sworn in and will be at that first meeting and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you very much Madam chair could I I just wanted to ask a couple questions on um those things the um on the EA shelter um program the federal mckin vento money is that somehow pro-rated when the the children move uh or like the I I have in my mind that like the state funding is up as per the enrollment in October what happens when a student leaves normally for State funds but what happens to the federal funds in in this instance so there's a couple of layers to that to answer that question so for the students who are so there's the funding that's associated with the shelter the students um Coming who are living in the shelter so the students who are still attending our district we still had that same um funding mechanism because they're still coming to our district and and that continues for while they're still attending our district but for the students who are no longer attending our district whose families chose or who are too far away uh that no longer comes with us or stays with us then there's the SE second piece which is around the transportation so typically mckenny vento reimbursement is done in the following fiscal year however understanding sort of what's going on across the state there's a and I'm not going to have all the details because we're it's also kind of coming at us a little fast and furious but there is a special funding stream and a they've opened up a special essentially we can get it the reimbursement in this fiscal year for this specific purpose for these spe the specific subset of students but but all of our other mcken vento Transportation reimbursement is next year but for this specific subset of um students uh it's this year reimbursement great thanks and on the U bus thing I know that we can't charge the students or would we want to um because we're a regional district I some districts do charge their students correct but I'm wondering if we somehow can incentivize them and I know like we're talking about the dolphin Dash the you know we we kind of help with with uh athletic fees and and us music fees and stuff like that but I'm wondering if there's a way to incentivize parents not to take the bus that if we said okay if we had students that families had to pay whatever the maximum student fee is for athletics say if we could incentivize them to say hey you don't have to if you don't take the bus for the whole year then you don't have to pay an Athletics fig and that's just one example but I'm wondering if we would be able to do that I I I we've talked about this a lot internally I think if we just honestly ask people to indicate are you going to be using the bus this year we're going to capture even if we even if 20% say nope and we still have 30% we going to say maybe and we and but they're really not going to ride it's going to be 20% of the stops that we're not going to have to fill that we're sending currently sending out to right you know I I use my own family different District but I have a high school senior who drives my freshman right we're not using the bus stop um that combined with if we start we adjust some of our policies where we send some buses especially you know and we think about how we do this and at what levels but we send some buses like into neighborhoods where we really probably should have those neighborhoods come out to the main road you know and we have to think again about which roads and where but um instead of sending the bus all the way in to pick up in every single house in in that you know should the should every neighborhood sort of come out onto you know like Wood Road and Long Pond and the smaller neighborhoods come out and have the the stops at the ends of all those roads the and the bus just travels down Long Pond and travels down Wood Road um that would really a cut down on the number of stops and be speed up a lot of our bus routes um cuz we're still we then we have another challenge even if we didn't have to deal with this like our buses get to school late and that has an impact you know Rippling effect through our educational program so like I said whether we are doing this or not we'd have to be thinking about this as well no I knew you were thinking about all those things but you got to ask just to see because if you don't make if you don't ask and someone says oh that's a good idea but I had a feeling that you guys were all over it so thank you for doing that I just had a quick question on the Dennis um Tom meeting it it's not an override ballot question is it they're going to cover that cost no overriding Dennis okay thank you y all right um consent agenda has three items the $3,000 donation from Copeland Subaru to Emy small and the $11,000 donation to The Ezra Baker Pac and the minutes of April 29th anyone move the consent agenda move the consent agenda moved in second in discussion all in favor I I I I'm not sure if I abstain or not what was April 29th was that the oh that was us okay was the when I was here yeah you can vote on that one all right um Bills requisitions payroll the calendar is [Music] enclosed um a comment on the calendar and I know this is you know who knows what you have on in snow days or not and you know I know it's very complicated to build in um to build these calendars especially with professional development and half days and all these things but you know we're in a situation now where there's no school on the 19th and then they have a everybody has a half day on the 20th and that seems pretty inefficient and I looked at the calendar and there's a good chance that could happen again next year so I don't know if there are any adaptations to be made at this point to next year's calendar in an attempt to try to avoid that Happ listen we could end up with five snow days next year and then it's a non-issue because we'd be go I know sorry I mean there's no way we're but um just thinking ahead on the school calendars to try to I mean I'm a big proponent of starting after Labor Day and I know that drives you know these ending but just a thought on that um to close up and then reopen like that is um you know I'm sure the kids will love having that half day the 20th because they're you know but um calendars all right public comment our policy on public participation at meetings can be found on the table with the agenda the public is reminded that a school committee meeting is a meeting of a governmental body at which members of the body deliberate over public business we welcome your attendance and appreciate your interest in viewing your school committee as we conduct our regular business meeting the school committee believes that the school district Community should have an opportunity to comment to the committee on issues that affect the school district and are within the scope of the committee's responsibilities it is not a question and answer period some questions you may have may not be within the scope of the committee's responsibilities in that case I will suggest you send or give your question in writing to the appropriate person so that your concern may be given proper consideration individuals may address topics on the agenda items specified for public comment or items within the scope of responsibility of the school committee this is an opportunity for individuals to address topics on the agenda each citizen will be allowed to speak for No More Than 3 minutes if you'd like to address the committee please raise your hand I'll recognize you and you can step up to the microphone when you step up please give us your name please thank you just make sure the green light is on there press push and then tell us your you hear me great hi good evening my name is Katherine Jones um um we are lifelong residents of Yarmouth and our son is a senior here at Dy and um we are having a concern regarding prom and um I'm just looking for a little help um he couldn't be here tonight because he has a work commitment um and I just want to say what a nice presentation about the Japanese trip who our son was one of the lucky 24 students who was able to attend and um just learned a lot and said how kind and welcoming the Japanese Community was and he had a great opportunity U well I've spoken with some of you who are present here tonight I felt it important to come here to continue this discussion um our son went to purchase some prom tickets from Miss endich last week but then was later notified by email that his prom day was unable to attend while his prom day lives in Yarmouth and would be attending Dy school if she were an in-person learner she is a homeschooled student at the greater Commonwealth virtual school which an accredited school with the necessary policies and procedures that a brick and mortar school would have in place I've been informed that it was posted on April 23rd with the prom permission slips that there had been a change in guests allowed to attend prom um principal Bennett together with the advisory committee made a decision to prohibit guests who are homeschooled from attending prom I was informed by the modification of this original policy was created due due to homeschooled students causing A disruption at a previous prom my husband and I are irritated and frustrated for a few reasons I'll start with the incredibly poor timing of the release of this if you read the original policy and the student handbook for the 2324 school year it clearly states that guests will be reviewed on an individual basis anyone who's attended prom is fully aware that planning wardrobe Transportation pictures Etc starts well before April um prom being May 18th this was only released approximately 3 weeks before prom incurred expenses but more importantly excitement for this event started well before that April date what I consider to be Paramount for the discussion are two things um School leadership making assumptions that students who are homeschooled have behavioral issues and that the discriminatory lens through which this policy was created I have been corrected by some of you in leadership that I'm using the word discrimination incorrectly but discrimination in its simplest form means treating some people differently than others and for those of you who are telling me that I'm incorrect I kindly disagree in my opinion you've created a policy penalizing many for the behavior of a few this policy is wrong it's discriminatory exclusionary and unfairly penalizes students of our high school and their guests to make the decision to be homeschooled your decision does not allow students to attend prom merely based on how they choose to attend school but rather on the students individual character and who they are as an individual in the climate where we should be cultivating belonging inclusiveness and diversity I'm shocked and I'm disappointed that we even have to have this discussion as a school system you should be doing better I feel that leadership should honor the original policy outlined in the student handbook with applications being reviewed on an indiv ual basis and being signed off by an administrator thank you for your time thank you very much would anyone else like to address the committee tonight seeing none I will close the public comment period and that was the last item on our agenda motion to adjourn second any discussion all in favor