this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers to our guests both in person and online just a reminder that this video is or this meeting is being recorded on by our partners at eastampton media um we're going to call in Ben hery Ben hery here uh Eric cette here Megan Harvey Megan Harvey here Laura Scott present uh Linda Marquee Linda Marquee here Sam Hunter Sam Hunter here U mayor L Chapelle here um we are going to begin this evening with secretary Harvey and our correspondents yes so we have um a couple of pieces of Correspondence to report we have an email from Elise ler with some questions and some follow-up um action requested related to an incident at Mountain View um last week and we received an email from uh Clare Bullock Boyd letting us know that the parents who sent uh the letter the uh letter from concerned parents that we mentioned last meeting um are checking in and hoping to see some specific responses um and we also received an email from Kira heninger also um about some of the in inent the incident that happened last week at Mountain View School okay do we that's all I got for you do we have any gifts I have no gifts to report you do I do um I have some gifts to report you have NRI gifts to report um I'd like to make a motion that we accept the donation of items from Pioneer Valley publishing company and we have a whole list it is a very long list that is public record if you are so interested um and we're so very grateful I'll second thought thank you uh all those in favor I I I opposed abstentions motion passes and I'll just add on that there a list of things like uh Dice and shapes and dry erasers and reusable highlighting strips and stuff lot of classroom supplies school supplies yeah awesome um and I'll additionally make a motion to accept the list of donations to the 2024 We the People team and we have five and a half pages um of donations to report we could not possibly read all of them unless you would like to have a very long meeting with me just listing names they're incredibly generous donations from members of our community um friends family it's um we're all very proud of our with the people team so it is reflected here and we are grateful for our gifts as well you the second second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed exension motion passes thank you so much uh we're going to move on to presentations and speak of the devil we have the We the People students and their illustrious teacher here this evening to share with us their experiences this past school year so we welcome you to the podium um we'd love to hear from you hi thank you for having us here um I just think that we the people itself it's like it was so important for us to have that ability because at least for me I went in not knowing anything about government not knowing anything about how even local level government and even like a school committee meeting would work I didn't know anything about how federal government worked and I wasn't really interested in that much either but having the opportunity to take the class because I thought it would look good for college I actually like fell in love with it and learned so much from it and not even just learned about government but I learned about how to be a better learner and how to learn things in a way where I can talk about it and share it with other people rather than just learning it for a test like I've done in every other class my whole life and it just felt so amazing and having that sense of accomplishment and having that sense of knowing that like I know something that's important and that will help me in the future it was just an amazing opportunity to have to be there at Nationals and to be able to feel confident about what I know when I answer a question that a judge asks me and I'm just incredibly grateful to have had that opportunity amazing awesome we should mention for the public that this team won the state championship in place first which sent them to the National Championship where they placed 10th nationally yes keep going um good evening I'm Sophie Saka and I agree with everything Addie said and I think like one thing that I feel like was personal to me I like dabbled in going to a Northampton high school or going to an eastampton high school and I think like among many things we the people was one of the things where I'm like I would have never gotten anything like this in any other school and I'm like so eternally grateful for it I think along with Addie I wasn't I was defin like interested in government but like I didn't know the ENT that I think it would have gone um we were both in the same unit like the institutions unit I think like At first I was like oh God this is so many like specifics it's kind of boring and now I'm like it's so fascinating to me and I think it's like educated me and now I'm going to become a better voter and now like educate other people and really know how the system works to like create change and like we have our three like work hard think deeply and then what's the last one prepar prep prepar the future so I think we can all attest that we've like learned how to do that and it's super special so and I would like to thank our lovely teacher Miss Brown and also miss dadman who's not here but yeah thank you you thank you um hi my name is Devon O'Brien um kind of unlike my colleagues I since I was 12 years old have known I wanted to do with the people um I remember in seventh grade watching the national hearings in 2020 in my bedroom um and I just I fell in love with the program and then being able to come in and do it was such a vital aspect of my high school career and I think that a lot of the things that I've learned in this class will really carry me throughout my adult life and like I never thought I would be so passionate about getting a national Civics bill passed but now like I've researched into you know reaching out to legislators and trying to get that um um you know moving and all that stuff so I think among that this class really shows education but also Community because you have all of these people around you who are equally as passionate which can be really hard to find in you know your average teenager and I think that you know that support is just really what got me through this class and what got me is getting me through high school so I want to piggy back off of Sophie and just say thank you to every teacher that supported us you know Miss dadmin Miss Brown and Mr Orin who all came in and every one of y'all who have come in and judged it's just it was so great so yeah thank you thank you thank you um okay hi my name is Caitlyn I'm a mentor which means I get a different color shirt from everyone else and it also means that last year when I did the program it ended and I said oh my God I got to do that again that was so much fun so basically what we do as mentors andas here as a mentors as well um basically we come back and our main job is to just help teach the new kids everything that we learn last year because Miss Brown can't be in six places at once even though we wish she could be um so that's we just basically extending our knowledge to the upand comers and then there gets to be a point in the year where like you realize they're teaching me now um so it's just it's really great to be able to come back to a program that we all really love so much and we learn so much from and then to be able to take even more from it um and just you know as a 12th grader who's leaving school in 10 days oh my god um like when I entered we the people I was like it seems interesting like I don't know what'll come out of it like if you would asked me in 11th grade what I wanted to do with my life I probably would have said I'll get an English degree and figure it out but now I'm going to college and I'm leaving with a masters in public policy in four years so I know a lot of my fellow mentors are also like going down the political Science pre-law tracks now because of this so I think it's just a really important class that I'm really grateful we've had the exper I've had the experience to being in for 2 years I know a lot of the the competing students are coming back as mentors so they'll be able to do it again and it's just it's a really important class that it's we're really lucky to have been able to have because you know we took civits in eth grade but this goes so much deeper and it's just formed like an incredible base of Civic knowledge for all of us so I'm just really glad that East Hampton has this class and that we're all here in front of you tonight so yeah thanks thank you so I'll just take a minute uh especially for folks who may be watching at home to explain a little bit about how the program works and uh if you haven't had a chance to see this so my name is Kelly Brown and I am the teacher of the We the People course at eastampton high school and now we also have Taylor dadman who's helping us which is amazing she also is a teacher now at the high school and she was one of my students in we the people and the first team that actually won the state competition and was able to come to DC with us in 2012 and so this program influenced her so much that she has come back and actually joined our staff which is phenomenal and we're very lucky to have her um but for folks who are watching at home uh the program is a congressional hearing style um assessment model where students have the opportunity to develop some level of expertise and certain aspects of the Constitution so we go through a course where they learn Constitution from philosophy to Modern application and then uh at the end of each unit they have the opportunity to testify about the things that they've learned in that unit by preparing a short statement with a small team and then answering questions and some of you have been a part of that and many of you at home have been a part of that and come in as guest judges and had the opportunity to hear the students to engage in an authentic conversation and I think what makes the program so special is it is authentic students are learning about something they're having to talk about it uh we from a place of knowledge they have to answer questions that they don't know what they're going to be asked and that is the the model that we use throughout the entire semester and so students prepare during the first semester to compete in the Massachusetts state competition and it it's exciting to say that we've won that for the last seven years straight with different students every time and so it's really amazing I think that we have such an incredibly strong program and I think what really feeds our program is exactly what Caitlyn was talking about is that each year students come back and they bring their their learning and what they've learned about the Constitution and they want to share that with other students and so we have 10 15 you know many teachers that are uh teaching the material to students and um it's really incredibly special and I know that it's impactful not just because students move on and go into these careers but students come back three four six years later and can just engage with students about this material because they learned it they didn't just memorize it they actually learned it and internalized it and came to understand it and came to be really passionate about it and so we had had the amazing opportunity again to go to Washington DC in April and these students uh competed on Saturday and Sunday so April 13th and April 14th and they had the opportunity to testify against 47 other schools from all across the country and in those two days they performed so well that they actually made it to the top 10 round and so they're competing against public and private schools from all across the country and I believe in the top 10 the the size that was closest to us was a was a school of 1,600 but many of the schools are thousands of students and so our small high school public high school was able to compete at an incredibly High Elite level and if folks would like to see those videos of the students competing they are available on our website which people can access through our Facebook page are we the people Facebook page if people uh don't know that we have that we do have that and if they want to see what it actually looks like but they were absolutely phenomenal they competed on that final day we had a chance to compete in downtown Washington DC and I could not have been prouder of the work that they did it was it was stunning and I think the the thing that i' like to share with folks is it wasn't stunning because they knew so much everybody knew so much uh but what was stunning is is that they were in control of the space in the room and anybody who's ever been an athlete knows the difference between being in a game where the game controls you and you control the game and those that two hours that we sat in downtown Washington DC they laid everything out on the table and it I I could not have been prouder at that moment of the work that they did and how confident and poised and just excited they were about all of the energy and effort that they had put in and something that's incredibly special about this program is that I ask these students to give so much with absolutely no guarantee of any result and year after year they do it and you put your heart and your soul and and everything I mean we work tirelessly on this hours and hours and hours meeting after school meeting evenings um to really make this happen and I'm just forever grateful that I get to learn alongside them because every year it's brand new questions and brand new material and so for me as a teacher it's a dream because I get to learn right alongside them about new things and come back every single year and so really this team we did have the opportunity in 2020 to win the competition when it was during covid and there was one question but this is the best that we've ever performed in a a the Trad full three question competition and that's because of the hard work of the students it's because of the hard work of the mentors and just the incredible dedication and then never to be forgotten one of the best things about this program is the incredible support we get from the community it is unbelievable how much this community cares about this program and how many people I hear from uh with donations sometimes with just good luck cards people I see downtown uh everybody in East stampton loves this program and and We Know It And we feel it and we're just so incredibly grateful for the fact that every year these students are funded to go from you know five I think that was only half on top of that right so it's about 10 pages of donations hundreds of people donating to us in order for us to do that and I want everybody in the community to know that I can say for sure that students take that very seriously and they know that if their Community is going to pay for them to go to DC that they are going to represent this community and this state the absolute best that they can and so I just want to say that I'm incredibly grateful to my students uh not all of them could be here because they have jobs and they play sports and they're they're in many many places um but for you know a few months they really put their heart and soul into something and it was incredibly impressive and I'm just very grateful to the community to the students to everyone for this incredible program and I encourage folks to watch the videos it's it's impressive the work that they're able to do and the knowledge that they develop throughout this program and so thank you for giving us the opportunity to share just like a small nugget of that and I think for me uh giving students some faith in their institutions at this moment is incredibly important and for me it's not just about building smart students it's about building good people and so I think they know that in the end that's really what I'm about is that I want them to leave and everywhere we travel they are good people they're kind they take care of other students they meet other students they're respectful and uh we we have a lot of um just scrappiness to us so it's a lot of fun so thank you for having us here this evening and um you know we're just happy to represent this community and very grateful thank you so much you okay really this is I've already cried twice tonight so we're doing great um I want to say that we've um all of us have been longtime supporters I've been a longtime supporter of the program this was the first year I got to witness firsthand their performance at the state competition it was the Apex of what public education can produce it was the most incredible thing I've ever witnessed it wasn't just the knowledge and their comfort their Poise their confidence their support of one another this seamless collaboration with fellow students I I once taught social studies to a similar age group I've never seen anything like it it may sound a little boring to go in and look I promise you it is not a waste of your time find those videos and watch this it is incredible and what a moment to really be instilling I'm I'm so hearten to hear that there are kids doing pre-law and teaching but also there were some students who had talked about you know I'm going to study sports medicine but I'm also this incredibly engaged and informed Citizen and voter equally important just I can't say enough incredible job to the students in the faculty and to Miss Brown just so incredibly special we're so grateful anybody else yes oh yes um I just want to say that I was able to be you know part of the judging uh got to know your names and I was re I was so impressed by your thinking right the questions that came came to you and then you had to answer it and connect it to laws and evidence and Socrates and Plato I mean you really had to think about a massive amount of information and focus it on what the question was asking you and connect it to today's issues I mean it was amazing to to you know and I saw the difference from the first time that I went to judge and until until the end and it it was just amazing to me uh to think the commitment number one all the hours and the time that you that you showed up and worked together uh and you did that knowing that you were working together as a group and for me when I saw that video that your teacher sent when uh they were going through the list of number one number two and they got to number nine and they paused and then they said Massachusetts and that is a video that everybody should see because that's a culmination of how uh proud you were of yourself and how that hard work really worked out for you so I just want to say I think it's a wonderful program um I think forever you'll remember it I used to be high school principal and one of the things things that I really wanted in a teacher was uh for you know even decades later to present students with one experience that they will remember for the rest of their life and I have to say this is one of those experiences that all of you remember and I want to make sure to really thank your teacher uh because and your mentors because it certainly was a group effort and everybody is extremely proud of you and I'm so glad you presented tonight thank you big feelings big feelings at the table thank you you guys are incredible really an inspiration can I just so I T I taught social studies in fifth grade for years and they weren't as excited about it but I think that what your teacher talked about with your Poise and handling the high stress situations and someone had mentioned about studying for tests and then passing and then moving on really your accomplishments are phenomenal so congratulations but the fact that you went through a process where you had to deal with a difficult situation high stress I imagine in Washington DC all these huge schools pressure the pressure of you guys your reputation is very very large I mean it's back every time we hear it I feel like I just expect to hear every year oh they won again oh they won again but that's not really a fair expectation it's something that you work hard for every every day but I think the biggest part with what your teacher mentioned is once you leave school that's all of of Life all of life is just here's a problem here's a high stress situation and the fact that you have been in that Arena and been in that situation already at this age is huge whether it's going to college or getting a job or helping your family with something you have that that skill and that tool in your pocket now of oh I I did that already so I can deal with this okay my brother needs this I need to get here driving people places all the things that you're going to do in your futures that's all life is is just problem in and just dealing with situations that stress you out so kudos to you I I see I have a fifth grade daughter so I look at you I'm like maybe someday my son like it's wild so I'm not trying to make people cry but uh you are incredible you are put East Hampton on the map in a lot of positive ways but just know that that tool that you have now that's what you're going to use for the whole rest of your lives so congratulations on having that yeah I mean I uh I think as a my son is in fifth grade too public school and you know I'm I'm in this position and I teach at HCC which is a public school and I am constantly thinking about public education and when you said this is the Apex of what it can produce this that is factual like what you are talking about and what you've done for years and years this is like Pinnacle of what it should be not only here but everywhere and so I feel so like unbelievably excited that my child is coming in your Direction um and like I just love that this is happening here uh but there's a few things too that just popped out from the things that were just talked about um one of them like Kelly Brown you said students were in control of the space in the room which to me is should be like a that should be over every door in every classroom on earth like a student needs to be able to take control of the space and not just be told what to do constantly and they get to take control of their learning and I see what from HCC perspective I teach like you know freshman English and I see a lot of people come in and they've just been kind of brainwashed a lot they don't have that critical thinking faculty they don't have the ability to be autonomous to think for themselves to ask you know important questions and it's so exciting and thrilling that you guys have this skill set that you can now take with you going into college like you realize that education is something that you you do that is not done to you um and that's going to be an amazing thing um and I was just curious and I don't know if this is even a question that can be answered but there was a couple of people who spoke and you talked about how at first it wasn't they're like no this is not going to work and then it clicked in and I was just wondering if there was a moment or like something that was there a point where you were like oh this is it yeah um at States like I remember it it clicks and we up a new questions and then you got kind of like you have that ground with the second round of questions cuz you have that basis of okay this is what it's a hearing is supposed to look like going into Nationals you're like how do I make this better so kind of like you kind of can fall back into that like oh um I I need to get better and I really it the biggest moment that stands out to me it's not the first time it clicked but the biggest moment that it I remember it standing out was I was in my first Nationals hearing and I was terrified and I was praying to God to not get one of the questions cuz I was good on all of them but like I was like if I get that one I know I'm going to be nervous and we didn't and I just remember the first time after our statement I got a word right that I was messing up on and I it just like clicked I was like I got this I'm good I'm set and then they they asked a question and I like I could I it wasn't a question that I had been asked before but it a question that I could Loop an answer that I had formulated already into and once that happened I was like I'm good and I kind of rode off of that for the rest of the year so that that was my moment at leastly said I feel like there's a few moments for me I think like for one being able to talk about this information like outside of the class and like pair up with things that like my parents are talking about at the dinner table or that like I don't know random like person in another class is talking about I'm like I actually know a lot about this and then I think also like kind of on the community aspect side like it clicked a lot like we're such like a different like different people are in this group and I think like there are people that I never thought I would have talked to or like bonded with and I think like that was a moment where I kind of clicked like this a group that I'm going to like feel comfortable with for like the rest of my high school experience and like these are people that like I might not have anything in common with but I feel like it this like supporting like community that I'm going to have for the rest of my high school experience and that for me kind of clicked to be like the important factor of like even if we all do bad even like I've slipped up so many times like I don't know everyone slips up but it's like I think that's the other thing like the judges want to hear like what you have to say like even if you don't think it's like this amazing like well Strawn out like idea like you're a younger individual who's like interested in civic education interested in these things that like are maybe like obscure like for younger kids to be interested in and like that within itself is like really impressive older people and to people who like that's their job so I think those are and just to I have a couple moments similar to Sophie where it was just like we start with our questions that we've never heard anything about I mean me and Sophie we're in an institutions unit where we talk about different institutions and we had to learn about initiative referendum and recall and I barely knew what those were when we started so it starts with like how do we even begin to talk about these things like Miss Brown gives us so many things to read so many things to look at to learn about but putting it all together it's stressful it's like I don't fully understand this yet I have to answer question but I have like I don't know what I'm saying and then it comes to like memorizing things to say so you sound professional but then it for me it's those moments right before the competition when we're on our 2our 6h hour bus rides to get to our competitions where we're practicing and we're finally getting to the point where where it's not just practicing our memorized answers to questions anymore it's moving on to questions that we haven't looked at and we didn't like write out answers for it's the questions our mentors are asking us off the top of their head and us just being able to have a conversation we've talked about after Nationals about the thing that we think is what allowed us to perform so well and so differently from what other classes has done was that we make it so conversational because we want to be talking about it because we feel so engaged in what we've learned that we want to talk about it and we're not just saying things we memorize we're things saying things we understand and we're manipulating what we've learned to form a cohesive response that makes sense to us and it's those moments when Miss Brown explained something to me the morning of a competition that I was like wait now I could answer any question you asked me about this because no matter how hard those judges pushed on us that last day I understood what I was saying to them and I understood why it was hard to answer their questions because of how complicated our government is and it was those moments that really made me think like we went from n nothing to everything amazing yeah in the back we see you yeah um for me and I think for a couple other people I know it really first clicked when we get assigned to the unit that you're going to be in for the rest of the year because at the beginning we're floating around with a bunch of different different people and a bunch of different topics there's constantly new information or so many different things being thrown at you and then once you're finally able to settle in with the two or three people you're going to be with for the next rest of the school year and you know like okay this is what I'm going to be learning about and you really start to like take it in and get passionate about it is when you see so many people like start to like get really excited about it and when you start seeing these like crazy arguments and ideas you've never heard talk about H just the last thing I just you'll have to fast um thank you so much and like you're just reminding me of like sort of an important life lesson that I've just sort of begun to understand myself which is sometimes the journey is more important than the destination and like what you're describing about this adventure that you went on like this that is more important than Victory is amazing but like what you did together I I just want to say that some of you I do know personally and I'm very pleased that I do um when you are reiterating for me the reason that I decided to run for school committee because as I was thinking about that I thought what do I want our students in East Hampton to come out with and I want them to come out with the ability to critically think I want them to have the ability to communicate clearly and I want them to have a connection to our community or to community and this organization this group this class really exemplifies every one of those things and I am just extremely proud to be in this community with you Sam and I'll I will keep it short which is unusual for me I um I I did not realize like what a I mean I knew that this was like kind of a dynasty in our town to be honest this is like one of the things that this district and this High School is really well known for um when when you all were in DC I was following along um on the internet and uh I was reading the names of the schools that you were competing against out loud and I realized that East Hampton High was the only one that had the name of the town as the high school because it's such a small community we're the only High School in this town and that's huge like that you were really go it was really obvious that you were going up against like schools that had much larger student bodies and a lot more resour sources and a lot more um just just kind of just a lot more numbers and so I thought that I was like wow we really are like the best this is really cool you know um this is obviously an identity forming experience for a lot of you and I um and and if it's not it's okay you'll have another one um that's a really important part of of high school or just of young adulthood in general and I really hope that um you know that follows that follows with you and you kind of remember you can do the hard things cuz you did the hard things and um and here you are and um uh the other thing too is uh one of the things that Miss Brown said that I really liked was that you know it was it it feels really good to be able to help young people find confidence in our Civic in institutions at a time when you know confidence in Civic institutions are are really low and um you will really help me find confidence in the future of our Civic institutions as well which is a big deal because I'm not a very optimistic person in general so thank you very much it's been um very nice to hear from you all and like have this bright spot in the middle of um a lot of a lot of challenges you know mayor uh I actually um congratulations of of of course and um I I want to one I guess make a point of clarity um the material is the amazing thing the material is all always the same from the Constitution but the facts or what you have to address is so current I like the LA it was like what was on you know the front page of the the newspaper two weeks ago was a part of the the questions and I want to make that clear for for the public that this is not just memorization and putting it in the right order and two Congressman Neil came to the class and I I I think U Miss Brown was talking about there were some questions you guys were going to try to stump him or or and and I'm just wondering were you able to to stump we had a wonderful conversation he asked some great questions and he also uh the exciting thing about this program is we invite all these folks in uh from local to state to to our national government and students have an opportunity to not just ask them questions for fun but they're actually utilizing the material and so you know that week we had a chance to meet with representative Neil we had the opportunity to meet with Justice Brier uh and so students at the competition were saying things like well last Thursday we had the opportunity to down Supreme Court Justice Stephen rer and our representative in you know in Congress so it just um it it was really just a wonderful opportunity for us to learn firsthand about the work and then to be able to talk about it so that's my um diplomatic answer to that question he he was uh uh he was blown away by the the scope and the knowledge he knew about the program but just really blown away I'm not you appli the material um our esteemed Congressman Neil aside I'm sure there's a number of electeds that you could stump in or shame in the current yes I will try to keep it really Qui there's nothing else I could say aside from what my colleagues have said here you guys are incredibly impressive it's a privilege to be a part of the community with this group um the thing that I'm I I do have a reputation I think for a little bit of the tiers but the thing that you all said that really got is the um connection piece of it and the importance of the you know people who you maybe normally wouldn't have known and connected with um I think that might be all that really matters like in the whole scheme of life and it's just really amazing and the thing I really wanted to add on to it is uh Miss Brown I mean this is this dynasty is because you are here and you do this um that's incredibly impressive yeah we're grateful for you stop crying we could talk about this all night we love you all we're so grateful we're so proud thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules for sharing your thought with us we're really really grateful I don't know can't yes um so we are going to move on to um very quickly we have some um a presentation schedule from safe passage I'm going to quickly slide in our student Representatives um so that they um can move on to other things if they have other things this evening so I see that um Piper barell is in the audience do you want to start first Piper great how do you feel about We the People Piper do you want to make some connections I don't know how I'm supposed to top that to say you coming and doing this is incredibly impressive and we are incredibly to do truly Round of Applause for Piper all right get it Piper um so in science we're doing astronomy and mcast review because we have that Thursday and Friday in math we're doing mcast cuz we have that we had that today and then tomorrow in civics we're doing the legislative branch and cap and I will get to that later okay and then in ela we're doing our final essay on the Holocaust in art we're doing papier-mâché masks in music we're doing guitars gym we did the Pacer test which I hated it in Steam we're making tiny houses and in health we're uh creating anti-smoking and vaping posters and then cap is the eighth grade civics Action Project where we work in groups of 2 to four to find a problem in our community and we like research it and find ways to fix it or solve it and we can get feedback from other students about their opinions that's like basically this is going to be a Public Presentation correct um I think it's around our school library for the other like for the younger grades mhm I don't know it's really impressive work by the eighth graders we look forward to seeing it and then we had math mcast today and then tomorrow condolences science yeah and then and a couple weeks ago we had a group of actors come in to present A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare it was really fun and they interacted with the kids they came up and gave high fives but when I wanted one the uh actor psyched me out of it in front of like the whole school so then everyone was laughing I the story moving forward Pipers you were in on that joke yeah um um oh and then there's 25 more school days left until we're out that's tick tick thank you Piper thank [Music] youer we have McKenzie with us oh that's that's a question for me no okay so McKenzie is not with us this evening probably because senior year etc etc um hopefully we'll be able to hear from her one more time before she puts us on her rear view um but we are then going to move on to a presentation um on safe passage you share his guides you have okay hi hello and I believe let us know if this looks right Megan is going to share SL we have we have slides share well while they figure that out um my name is Alysa bosinger I'm the prevention and Outreach manager at safe passage um and we run the say something youth initiative at East Hampton High School we do a um violence prevention program that all nth and 10th graders go through as part of um we come into classes and deliver this content um trying to encourage people and help them build the skills to have healthy relationships um Deanna here is is one of our facilitators and she's going to talk a little bit about our summer Leadership Academy yeah hi um like Alyssa said my name is Dianna I am the youth prevention and Outreach specialist at safe passage um and I am one of our two facilitators our other is Marl who could not be here today they are from Community Action youth programs and uh we do the say something labs in East Hampton High School for the classes and as well we're here to talk about our Summer Youth Academy so this is our summer program it is a three-week program one week for uh pure leaders and two weeks for the other students participating so the purpose of this program is to first of all give students opportunities to connect with each other it is not East Hampton High School um exclusive although we give priority to East Hampton students and our whole thing is that during the year we talk about healthy relationship skills and how to build those healthy relationships this is giving us more of time to explore things that students don't get in those couple hours in our lab programs so in those uh week we do a social emotional skill building based on we get as feedback of what students want to hear and so it's really what students want we have different programs every single year we try to be as student ran as possible so these workshops and skill buildings are based on what is best for them and also want me to Advance sorry what let me know if you want me to Advance I'm sorry okay yeah and um also it's a really great way to build a resume nothing looks better on a college resume or even a job resume then I went to a conference essentially for two weeks and got paid to do it it's awesome so yeah if you want to go to the next slide oh sorry yeah uh okay so sorry I forgot which order these were in so the details are they are um it is in uh East Hampton High School July 15th through the 19th and the 22nd through the 15th so the Monday through Thursday is the two weeks with all 10 Leadership Academy members and then the week before we have extra training with our two peer leaders who we select based on who has done our old other programming or interest it is also open to incoming ninth graders so we are also doing Outreach in the um the lower school if there's any interested eighth graders uh like I said preference is for EHS students but we also invite Northampton students Holy Oak students CU we want to get a large array of Youth and it's always awesome seeing uh kids come in and be like we're best friends but we just met this week and they go to a different school so it's awesome if you could go to the next slide please so peer leaders are two students that we select these are folks who usually go through our programming whether it be lab or our Advisory Group which is our group that advises all our programming in EHS and they get extra um training through safe passage and Community Action um staff we do things like domestic violence 101 teen Dating Violence 101 how to be a good peer leader because it can be really uncomfortable going through all of these workshops and only having adults be there for you so we like to have other students there who can navigate and be there in a way that we just can't as adults um and they do get paid for their extra time so peer leaders make $300 for the 3 weeks rather than the 200 next slide please so our daily schedule in incorporates a uh daily team building activity so we think it's really important to build community change can only happen through Community is our core belief so we want to make sure that we build relationships while we're learning so those things can be anything Goofy from doing hot takes to uh an art project to just getting outside cuz it's summer it's just things that we have fun while being able to create this community and at the end of the week we do a presentation in Open Mic we let the students choose what project they would like to do whether it be a uh we did a poster campaign before on something that they enjoy um students created um little magazines on things that they were passionate about anything that they feel is important based off the workshops um generally having to do with activism or interpersonal relationship skills next slide please so this is our general um schedule so you'll see that students will arrive at 11:00 a.m. we do welcome check-ins all those good things and then we do our team building we have a quick lunch break we do uh Leadership Academy 101 on the first day just letting them know what going to happen but usually they'll work on their projects we have a break and then we have our workshops so the workshops are different every single year but some of the ones that we have done in the past year has been relationship mapping talking about the different relationships we have how they interact with one one another we had our uh lgbtq plus Advocate um come in from safe passage and do something on being a good Ally in your community we also had one where it was about fat phobia in the community uh by our children's Advocate at safe passage so these are all either safe passage uh professionals or people working in the community with Community Action youth programs and they do great great workshops these are workshops we do all around the the community in general but we just cater them to the EHS students based on what we know about EHS culture throughout the school year and then we do a debrief and goodbye we make sure that everyone's feeling emotionally and physically safe after everything we talk about and we just prepare for our next day and next slide same thing with week two but at the end of the week we do a um open mic where we invite parents teachers see what we're working on and just be able to do a presentation of whatever they would like to do all right okay student stiens so you might be asking why student stiens uh because we believe that youth time is important they are giving us their time their energy wanting them to give reason to be there other than just having fun is money is a good way to spend your time we think that most ways to get adults to do things is to pay them for their time and effort and youth is no exception so we do $100 per week and the pure leaders get that extra $100 which is awesome and then okay how to sign up so students can sign up on our website at says something.org youth we have a bunch of posters around EHS um or in our diversity Center room 104 there's a bunch of things up there too uh we're very excited to have the applications open um and then we reach out in the next few weeks and we choose our folks based on the application and the peer leaders based on uh their experience in either our programs or general activism peer leader programs and does anyone have any questions for me about the program or our program in general I think this is one of our first times that safe passage has been to the school committee so if you have any questions about say something in general be happy to answer them I'm curious if they have selected the workshops for this year yet you said they kind of Base it they tailor it off a kind of current School climate yes so right now we have all of our applications we sent an interest form to all our partners uh with Community Action and safe passage and they're working with our youth um development Specialists from Community Action to create those workshops we have a few of them already picked out but we're still in the works of fully making sure our facilitators are ready uh because someone could be a great counselor Advocate but when it comes to facilitating that's a little different so we're making sure everyone's prepared um we will have a full list I think by next week is going to be our our final like this is who we're choosing and when should we tell people these are do like when would you want to have kids be responding when what's the kind of so we take applications up to the day of uh because things happen sometimes um rides fall through sometimes kids go on vacation last minute so we just accept them as they come and we kind of do it on a basis of if someone can only be there one week that's fine and yeah so up until the day we'll accept applications anyone else have questions you said n nth and 10th grade you said you talk to the eth how do the eighth graders find out is it like a form that goes out do you got do you actually go in and do a presentation for the eighth graders or yeah so it's all current and incoming um high schoolers so our diversity liaison vaniel Tate used to work at the lower school so I've reached out to him for who would be the best point of contact um we have just sent out our mass emails to um all the surrounding schools and the the middle school to see when we can come in I also emailed them some information so I'm still waiting on some replying back on the lower school about um Outreach material but we have plenty of it if you want us to put it anywhere awesome I just wanted to say as someone whose uh granddaughter took part of the program a couple of years ago that um it's an excellent program again we're very proud that this is something that's offered for students it was kind of a a changer for her in terms of the same way we the people you know that same type of coming in learning a lot of skill sets and feeling confident about being able to be in a program like this so it's an excellent program yes yes I I know we sing a lot of praise to We the People but I'll sing praise to any students I have come in contact that have been in We the People just the way they take on these social problems too I can see the way they build it in their mind they're unprompted sometimes they'll be like did you know that this was happening in the government in terms of what we're talking about and I was like I did not please tell me more so yeah uh I agree it's it's critical thinking skills are connected when it comes to building a community anybody yeah of course um I just want to say that um in the dver the other part of the of it besides the leadership academy is that um you are teaching in the health classes uh which is really great and it's a good collaboration between um safe passage and the high school uh but also uh you visit the diversity Center and establish relationships with kids so I have the you know very fortunate experience of being that diversity Center liaison for a couple of months this year I loved every second of it going in there being talked to the kids um so I still go back there and visit because the relationship established with kids you want to make sure you continue over time right once you establish that trust and relationship and you have come in too and uh speak to the kids at and um made a difference not just coming for teach a class or just the summer this encompasses establishing a long-term relationship with kids in many different capacities of the school so I I think it's a great program and I'm looking forward actually we had a meeting Lista today about uh theou and the leadership program so I think it's a great program to have come from outside in uh with the w Community Action also I mean not wer I have w action and Worcester with that and that's why I remember the community action but the Community Action part of it is another component that uh works really closely with you also to make a difference for kids yes definitely I come with the prevention um the violence prevention aspects of our programming and then Community Action is great when it comes to local resources we've had students come with us being like I have this issue where do I go and Community Action has been a great partner in that um but Al building relationship skills building healthy relationships not even just romantic but platonic relationships is so important and the way that teach uh students have just embraced us has been really great I'm sneaking up behind di also to like one of the one of the primary goals of our program is to um we know that having even just one trusted adult um in a student's life leads to better outcomes on like mental health in terms of their scholarship just all around and so our facilitators particularly Li Maro Indiana who have so much contact with the students I think and I I I don't I think Devon has left but Devon could speak to this because Devon's been through a bunch of our programming um I think they're able to really be that for students is just another opportunity to have somebody in the building who's not a teacher who doesn't sort of have that uh same power Dynamic going on and and I think it really facilitates uh those those sort of trusted adult relationships um which is one of our goals of of our program as a whole uh and the summer uh program I think is particularly conducive to that so particularly postco particularly pesent forent kids excellent very much so so anybody else I just have one one thing to say I think one of the things that I'm I appreciated about hearing this presentation and then also kind of having it on the same night as the previous presentation is that this has been a very student- centered meeting for us which now that I'm reflecting on it it's not always doesn't always feel that way so one of the things that you were saying um was that the program is is kind of tailored based on what the students identify as being the most pressing or most topical issues for their community and so I just want to say if if if any of them are interested in addressing any of those issues with us at any particular time I'm I'm happy to speak with them we don't usually hear directly from students uh honestly so um i' I'd be really happy to um to talk with them if that would be helpful at any time yeah that's great that would be wonderful invite invite students back from your program this summer to present to us aort we would love that and we'll make sure that you all get the invitations too to the open like open house because yeah we we would love to have that would be great yeah we have our student Advisory Group that meets um once a week uh throughout the school year we do it each semester um we did have some trouble this year with the um new um diversity liaison um so we had a very small group which was good but we have so many hopes in the future um we had very passionate small groups but now that we have our new diversity liais on up and running and going we have so many ideas we want to get into the community we want to bring our Advisory Group um possibly to a meeting or um to speak to one of you at some point so that's definitely in the works in our brains to get them more integrated in the community and the aspects of it how many students get to do this get to do the summer program so it is a 10 student uh cap right now um we Haven no that's okay um but we haven't had an overflow yet um once we if we ever hit that point we might reassess how many people we have in the program we are working and I was working with Moren on this earlier today we're um there will be an EHS staff member likely uh vaniel Tate who is our uh diversity L on at East Hampton High School will be uh participating in sort of supervising the kids and facilitating the programming um so that does give us a little bit more capacity if we needed to expand um but we're we're still kind of hammering at all the details of that so cool great anyone else have lot of questions thank you thank you so much uh next up we have uh public comment which comes a bit late in the meeting this anybody not said their piece this evening that wants to H that microphone one more and anybody online you could raise your digital hand via Google meet we're that open for just a minute to give everybody a chance going once and all right we are going to close public comment for this evening move on to the superintendent update great uh we have a couple of updates the first one is an exciting program called the bright program uh it's actually based in Brookline at this program we um luckily that we have Julian L that uh also does a lot of grant writing for the district and uh she has applied for this program and we did receive it uh the bright program focuses on helping students uh that are uh having um emotional challenges uh during the day and it refocuses students so they can eventually get back into their their classroom with starting it at the high school cuz that's where the grant was available for our hope is that eventually will be able to drop it down also into Mountain View um and I asked J Julianne to come and uh just tell you a little bit more about it and then if you do take a vote on it we do have anou that we need to sign perfect so just to CL everybody Julian is presenting we have anou in the agenda packet that so we'll have an opportunity to vote if we have a motion tonight go ahead thank you Julian for joining us oh thank you for having me um I'm so humbled to share the stage with we the people and safe passage these these are all the best people um okay so this is this is just going to add to the amazing programming we have in East Hampton um is to introduce you to the bright model um the bright model is uh an intersection of what the programming the educational programming we already have and then skill building for Youth Development and mental health support and okay there we go um so this is a national model um which is how we were able to apply for grant funding the the important part about the bright model is that it fits into the current model that we've been talking about for a few meetings um called the multi-tiered system of supports so if you remember the multi-tiered system of supports this is a full whole child model around our academic our social emotional our behavioral um supports for how students are developing in our educational system this is a the bright model is a tier three support um but I just want to say quickly that the tier three h is often referred to as a special education model um bright is a general education tier three support and I think that that that what's important about that for us is that we have students that need intensive support and sometimes because special education is the only option for INT support students are found eligible for that support when we could be using a much more short-term flexible model to provide that intervention so that's what bright is bright is a general education intensive tier three support oops we go um so the way this looks is this is specific Ally for students who are on extended mental health related absences or um any other kind of medical treatment or medical injury absence so it could be a concussion it could be um something that is or is not uh documented in IEP but any student who has an absence from school or um School refusal for five or more days would be eligible for this program and it's a really a transition in and out of the regular school day program the bright room is um one of the main aspects of the program and so I'm excited to um work with the grant program and the um administrators and staff at EHS to design what this space could look like um I think it's a really exciting opportunity like space design um and then the support plan is the most important part which is this four-pronged plan between um the clinical support from the clinical coordinator that staffs the bright room the academic support from the academic coordinator the care coordination from the counseling services in the school and then the family support which like makes it all come together into this really um like a gentle Embrace of the whole family and student um when they're experiencing this kind of absence from school so so this is it this is the clinical coordinator academic coordinator counselors and teachers sort of all coming together to provide this Embrace support whole child support um for students who are experiencing absence from school for any number of reasons and that is um the summary of the bright program I'm going to stop sharing um so what's exciting about this is that we have an opportunity to fund this program through um grant funding and so what we're asking tonight is that um you support the memorandum of agreement with the bright program out of Brooklyn um to um implement this program at EHS next year and as superintendent said this is exactly the right kind of programming that we'd also like to have at Mountain View um and so the hope is that we put this pilot program at EHS and then we can expand in the future um so to clarify this is for one year the Moa that we would be entertaining tonight it's actually two years thank you for asking that uh it's a 2-year MOA because the first year it fully funds our staffing but in the second year it expects uh a commitment from The District in terms of funding so what we're really looking at is easing this into our operating budget so what sort of commitment would they in theory be looking for what would the minimum contribution be from The District in year two uh what I propose was just less than a 50% uh commitment so what does that mean in numbers is that like the equivalent of a 1.0 FTE or do we know do we have it would be a 0.5 FTE teacher and 05 FTE par educator okay that would be our 50% contribution for year two correct okay and then in Year sorry to jump in in year three would go up to one there is no year three this is just a 2-year MOA correct is the plan that we would try to incorporate this long term take it over ourselves yes and so that would be going to a one one or would be even more than a than two full fdes no it it would it's a 1.0 professional um licensed staff member and a 1.0 par educator as it goes okay um if there are no more questions for Julianne we could entertain a motion and a second and open discussion are there any other questions for Julian I just have a question about um Service delivery so are these all services that are taking place within the school or I'm sorry you're in two different places so I keep looking at your face and um are these yeah I mean my I'm also have two different faces of myself on the SC it's really disorienting yeah so are there so basically are there like are they receiving these um supports from these four different categories like only in school or are they receiving some of those at home as well so the um the clinical coordinator the academic coordinator and the teaching services are all in school okay um there could be coordination between outside Services as well depending on the students need but yes like the the idea is that students may be coming in from hospitalization and there needs to be transition planning oh my gosh I just became infinite that was I was trying to make it go you're always infinite to me Julian keep going I've always dreamt of being uh okay that was so this is so just a back up for a second so this is where so you're saying like in the event that like a student is hospitalized this would kick in after they return from that hospitalization who makes the referral like does it somebody at the school district who refers them for the program or there's a we call the SST it's the student support team okay and that consists of the counselors the administrators um and then this uh clinical coordinator for brigh would also be on that team okay um and so collectively they're look they meet every week to look at students who for whatever reason are not quite you know on track right so these so I'm so can I ask another question yes um so these students are like I'm imagining like they're returning home from a psychiatric hospitalization they have been cleared to return to school essentially this starts once they return to school this is not like what they're receiving while they're in the hospital or corre or anything okay that's right this is the transition program back to school um and it really looks like at the beginning it may be that they start five minutes back in classes right um and then you're You're Building stamina um so yeah there's there mental health hospitalization absolutely Ely but Al it could also be someone who's coming back from a concussion right like there are a lot of reasons students can't get to school and what do what's our current approach in those situations without this program um a lot of it falls on the counselors okay or a safety plan safety plan safety plan yeah like a safety plan that involves usually our adjustment counselors our administrators um School adjustment do you have go ahead I I have a question when you're done no no I'm good I'm good for now Okay jump in when you have more you will um Julian I'm curious uh what do you foresee can you talk me through your vision of getting this to Mountain View I think this is wonderful to bring to the high school it's breaking my heart a little bit that I think the need is arguably even greater down there so I'm curious how you envision the timeline of being able to bring something like this to Mountain View yeah um you are speaking the truth of all of us um so the reason that we are bringing this to EHS is because um a couple years ago we saw the need at EHS and so we had preliminarily um made contact with the bright program in Brooklyn and said like we think this is a great match for stampton can we do this um and at the time we couldn't so they reached back out and said we have this grant funding we think your high school would be a great mat um and so we applied and they accepted us and it's amazing so what I would love to see um is that when we go to that 50% model next year at the high school we go into a pilot year at Mountain View um I think all of us have said the the Mountain View Middle School would be such an extraordinary place to be able to offer this kind of service um so I I would love to see see it move sort of faster in terms of of going into next year having Mountain View be a pilot year um after we see whether it's successful at at EHS I mean we need to to gather the data and make sure that this is the right model for our community but um I'm really optimistic about that and and I think that we can show you that this is um something that students really need I'm going to ask you to stretch that a little bit further what is that P program look like like one one faculty one parent educator serving what 6 through eight initially correct yep okay yep can I yeah can I just say add so it would be like a possible addition to the budget next year but still right uh some kids may never be able to come back from hospitalizations and we look at alternative placements outside the district so it's it's a very good investment to have the bright and they have a very long history the bright program and they're very exact on um what the interventions are and some students may have to stay in the bright room maybe for a month right uh until they're able to go out and be in into you know maybe one or two classes but the goal is always for them to have that support wrap interventions around them and then let them go back up out to the regular curriculum so somebody might have a not even be identified and for some reason something happened and they come in they extremely upset and it can be used also for situational um issues that arise also but the the biggest idea is that it's for tier three so you know tier one is the skills that all teachers have to learn to deal with kids and then tier two might be our school adjustment counselor now tier three it's a much more intensive program but it's right there in your school and uh not sending kids elsewhere to get those Services otherwise would be absent well it's it sounds like otherwise it's either tier two it's the counselors kind of doing the best they can or they're going out of District or they're not coming to school yeah they're not going to school so right um any other questions for Julian yes I've got some questions yeah yeah get it okay um my first question is if there's urgency on the vote like do we need to get a question approval of the Moa tonight or my because I'm putting my sub commit my finance subcommittee had on and thinking I would love to see and talk to Nick about this and the business the Director of Business Services take on it yeah so we've already we before we initiated this we already included uh the Director of Business Services and um he's okay with the signing of it now and we'll have to see you know where the funding will come but it's really only two people and during the course of time people come and go for different reasons so he was okay uh us signing at this point because it's only talking about uh two people uh for not next year but the year after we had dog GE additional tier two and three supports too and we're saying we're we're if we agree to this we're saying that next year it's funded by the Grant in year one is going and year two we would have to supplement 50% but if that's something that was not feasible we we're not you're not tied into it per se it's not going to I mean we'd hate to see this fizzle out but CU in my thinking is that yes when these kids come back from these types of scenarios and they're in the classroom and an adjustment counselor checks in on them and then goes off to the other groups of kids all over the building and the classroom teacher is trying to juggle the whole entire group that can get lost in the shuffle where it seems like this program is very communitive with the home environment also and kind of getting into the root of what's going on how can we support you and giving the families this support that they can maybe hold on to and say oh and maybe have a much broader effect than just the classroom teachers and adjustments counselors just trying to keep things even Keel so I mean I'd be I I can't see not voting for it but I just wanted to make sure you know we're voting for this 2-year process with hopes that we can fund it but at least get it on the ground running for year one being funded by the grant is that accurate so to clarify if we can't afford year two we would just junk the whole thing that's right okay so just clarifying first I guess maybe backing up first of all this is incredibly important and I I'm 100% like we need to be doing this I need to see it at Mountain View like this is where we need to be spending our money I'm only putting on the finance hat because we are in the midst of all sorts of stuff and I took on that responsibility when I became chair of that subcommittee um so just to make sure I understand is there urg like do we need to vote tonight there or this doesn't happen or I just want to make sure that we are our next our next meeting is in a week is that right I see a meeting this ISS 528 I thought it was June 11 we are either meeting May 28th or June 11 so I would be interested to hear what happens if we don't approve this until June 11 Julia and IIA I believe that uh there was a deadline on us signing this that kind of already came and went and we just asked told them that you know we really we didn't have a school committee meeting scheduled and that we were going to submit it okay after this meeting so yes the deadline is yes but the financial thought is is is fair and I think that if we're helpful to know that we're not we're not signed up for something that we have to now yeah find the money for if we can we'd love to find the money for it and just so you know I think it's good that we get that all on the public record so that folks who are watching this may be thinking about like what about is going on with negotiate like we're not committing to something you know we're not overextending ourselves but we do need to to vote on this tonight that makes sense to me I think that and there nothing in this coming it cost it costs nothing and it does have the potential to save us some money which is actually worth and so that was another question I had is and I don't know if this is a question again I don't know which way I'm looking for you Julian or for somebody else is there like um what's the data collection look like in that first year of or that first two years even how do we know when it's working or what it's doing you're one for sure yeah yeah and that and that's actually part of what the grant pays for is the bright program um which is the the national program collects the data on student entrance and exit criteria how many days students um spend in bright uh what it looks like to uh transition them back into the general education classrooms um so so it's that's what that's that's kind of what we're getting um as their oversight is that they want to do the data collection honestly because they want to prove their models working on a national level so that they continue to spread the model um but yeah so we we will absolutely be getting a ton of data um in terms of whether it's working or not so we got a free program and free data collection yes CU I'm even looking at their website right now they have data on yeah Effectiveness correct yeah so for one that's that's what oh sorry no that's okay go ahead Julian finish your thought and then the mayor has a question oh yeah so that that's what they're looking for is they're looking for an effective model effective interventions that they're collecting data on but then they want to say like after the first year you know we've provided this support um they provide uh multi-tier system support mapping professional development um that's what comes with it for the first year and then what they want is for us to take on the Staffing mayor uh yeah so um one data collection that the agreement does it actually allow us to get our raw data and does it allow us the raw data as it connects to the school's kpis yeah yeah um will this program fill the Gap around the new attendance regulations oh juli question for you I don't have the answer um wait so the first part um around so sorry well the first part was it seems like it was around maybe information sharing yeah okay yeah so we we did have Russ um our the school district attorney look at the Moa and so I'm confident that um we get our raw data and then we share um disaggregated data that's confidential uh the bre program excellent and then and then the kpis the key performance indicators my question is do they align to our district plan and do they align to um Mass standards and and I'll kind of have yet that or or the question is one I want to know uh two um when we talked about different interventions and budget it was tier two as a Target not tier three um and so looking for a little teasing and I am one to sign on to a gr I mean I'm not I yeah I I'm just wondering um the connection or the thought or the hope around the opportunity for a tier three yeah um that's that's such a great question because I um I have been talking Non-Stop about tier 2 and so it does it does beg the question why am I here talking about tier three um so uh what I am hoping with this program is so we don't have any general education tier three and I think that in my understanding of the multi-tiered system of supports like I've come a long way in understanding the tier three doesn't mean special education and so I think that there are um these tier three supports for general education students that I'm just learning about and in in learning about the bright program I'm like oh I wonder if this is what we were hoping for tier two but we were calling it tier two because we were talking about students who aren't on IEPs or 504s and so that that's I think you know learning that we're we're all doing right now around implementing the multi-tier system of sports and I think we're in year one really of doing that um and I I'm and I I guess I'm curious to see what implementing this program does for our tier 2 numbers when we're able to build stamina and I think that that's a I I want to just emphasize that as the the point of the program is this like it takes stamina to go to school every day and sit in 84 minute classes um or or to be here at the school committee meeting like the stamina that you are um exhibiting right now all of you is really important and it's it's a skill that you have and it's a skill that when you um maybe don't do school or don't do your job for some period of time because there's some disruption in your life um that you really need support in rebuilding um so I I'm not sure I would have called this tier three um my last my last question um and then a suggestion or um so with the the bright room and and how it interacts with the curriculum and that tier support are there very specific guidelines of time in the bright room how that correlates to our time in learning our time out of class disciplinary um I am very interested I am concerned though there could be kids who are using this appropriately for less than a medical emergency that don't have a 504 in IEP that will you can do a plan around um that they're going to be penalized great Point yeah it really is um and that's so the um amaris Regional um school has a bright program and when we went to visit uh their program I went with um Antony lley the director special ed and and Bill Evans the principal of the high school um and that was our number one question was you know in the past we've had alternative spaces for students and they don't do this skill building the stamina building um or the therapeutic interventions or the um wraparound care of involving the family and the you know potentially the hospital um and and we were wondering like how do you do that and and the truth is that yes Bri provides as part of model um consultation around entrance and exit criteria and really like if you don't meet those criteria um that you know that's a conversation for the SST um it's not it doesn't mean that you get to stay in the bright room so I think that what's great about this program is that we're not just relying on um like we're going to know who needs to be here and who doesn't what we're saying is we're signing on to a a nationally recognized program that's used entrance exit criteria um in a way that has been you know research proven um and so we're not just making this up we're not just saying this kid gets to go in and this kid doesn't um we're saying this this is the program oh can I just say can can I just um add to is that we do have kids at the high school that do need uh tier3 interventions but we don't have them so uh you know I can think of four or five students that would really Pro would have profited if we had had this program so instead uh they get you know intensive time with counselors School adjustment counselors which then that the other kids that might just need tier two interventions um don't get get to see because we're tying everybody up UMC because we want to make sure that those students are all right this would allow uh those students to get the interventions they need and then the school adjustment counselors and guidance counselors and the staff uh would be able to more effectively deal with the kids that are need tier two interventions so in the end it's a much more effective intervention plan and then also uh also we're still uh going to do training for all staff on tier one and that's needs to happen so that everybody gets the interventions they need at their level with the staff that we currently have so this is an opportunity for those kids that you know really do need that intervention that we're we're not providing um as intensive as we sh should because we just don't have the staff and they need that level three and we don't want them to be go out of District placements so I think it's a great opportunity again you know we would have chosen we tried to talk to the people and say no no we want it for the Middle School um right just let us do a pilot at the middle school but uh it was clear that their funding source at high school so we're starting there and we'll build a good program there and then once that's built move it down uh to the middle school I think it's seems very valuable to staff also only in that we are always adopting especially programs and the classroom teachers get dealt the hand of learn this teach this but also teach literacy teach math but also teach this and can sometimes feel like you're just trying to stay afloat so I think by adding a support system to the building where General Ed staff special ed staff know oh this is to help me too because now this student is going to get the support that they need but I will be involved but I'm not going to be having the burden of adding all this extra onto my plate so I think that's what sounds really intriguing for the staff to think about the teachers to go hey we have something for the kids but really it's also for you good point mhm anyone else van Megan I feel like I've heard enough like I I feel pretty satisfied I worry a little bit about that second year but yet um can I just one more so it's for General Ed is it exclusive to General Ed I mean if you have a kid on a 504 who's ex and okay so it's just it's just it's just like regardless of special ed wherever you're at you don't need wherever you're at great good good um Sam I was I was going to do a a motion if you want one motion any other questions I'm I've heard enough I'm they've heard enough Julian is what I'm hearing I'll entertain a motion um I I so you can correct me on the wording but I'm going to say I move to um to approve theou between MOA y between East Hampton public schools and the Brooklyn Center for the bright program I second thank you Sam Linda was our second do we have any discussion I had a question I have some ideas for the room but we can talk later yeah um I it's I don't I think it was minimal and unimportant any other discussion or questions before we take a vote okay we're going to roll call vote Ben Ben hery I Eric Eric I Megan Megan Harvey I uh Linda Linda Marquee I Sam Sam Hunter I mayor mayor l i Laura Scott I uh motion classes thank you very much Julian for your time oh I remember what I was going to ask is it possible in this year one idea were you and maybe we discuss this at a later date but can we kind of start that integration and familiarity with maybe the Mountain View School adjustment counselors and guidance counselors maybe bring start like midyear year one just kind of start that introduction and conversation and how you like what was your timeline thinking about how to when to start that draw down no that's that's a oh I'm sorry my dog um I think that's a great idea I think you know we're always looking for opportunities for um folks from Mountain View to come and be at EHS and folks from EHS to go and be at Mountain View so I think coming and observing the room super excited to hear what Sam has uh in mind for the room because we have to do that I'm so sorry I have a beagle not much Decora yeah um yes no decorating but also I think you know we're thinking about what are you know the refrigerator the microwave like what do you need in a room like that um but I do think that having the the Mountain View folks come and observe in the room like that's what we got to do going to the ammer program and I will say like I was a little bit like I don't know what this is going to look like and then I went to the Amber program and I was like well now I know exactly what it's supposed to look like so I feel like the Mountain View folks will have that as well um when when they experience this programming um so yeah I'm I'm happy to have that start up right away in in year one the observation and and really then the transition of students between 8th grade and nth grade who may you know need to access that kind of programming so um any other thoughts on this topic I I applaud public education when I was in high school the only opportunity made available to us was a smoking Lounge so we really talk about that it's just I think this is exactly what parents in our community have been asking for and just yes noing kind of support for stud don't smoke our students are are dealing with a lot right now and this is exactly what parents have been writing to us and telling us that they are asking for for their kids and so thank you for fighting this Grant and my questions were not at all that I didn't want this there it was just I was being right you gota you know is gonna be so happy that you asked Megan I'm gonna make sure that he that you um wanted to know on whose behalf yeah I just wanted to make him proud comment that I feel that um our education model has been dealt with something that's pretty old yeah and that I have been very questioning how we were going to start moving forward and this looks like a start moving forward step for me yeah agreed yeah well said Thank You Julian thank you Julian okay we are going to move on to our business update which is going to look and feel weird for all of us tonight because Bernier is at conference whoa berer we let him out of this building I know temporarily temporarily so Megan do you feel comfortable maybe giving us a brief summary of our finance and Personnel updates or or Mor anybody anybody but me like to try to translate this for the public sure sure I might let morine do it all right great do you have do you have those I have them right here perfect okay so so uh this is uh Nick's report uh for the local appro appropriation report so at this time 87. 36% of the appropriation has either been spent or is incumbered so non-essential purch purchasing has been closed for the year so uh all schools were notified that uh purchasing was closed so that we can uh start to work on the end ofe report um still we do have areas of concern which probably everybody has is for example the utility bills are are still a issue of concern for us uh the out of District tuition and again special ed Transportation so uh he started reclassifying some of the special ed tuition expenses uh we did apply for the circuit breaker and uh the extraordinary extraordinary yes and so both of those so we'll be finding out the extraordinary relief payments um we'll be finding out more about those as and we won't know that till we get closer to the year end close um end of June you think the probably in June the circuit breaker extraordinary relief um amounts were posted last week and eastampton Public Schools is eligible for both categories of relief so the total amount we'll be receiving is a great total of 629 228 so this total 376,162 has to be spent by this junee 30th so some of that will be will be used for we were already because we already know we're going to be in a deficit so some of that will be used for that uh the remainder can be carried forward for one year uh this is extremely helpful again for closing the deficit for the end of this year uh the goal though is to carry forward as much as possible to help with next year's special expenses Cu uh they never really go down uh they continue to go up uh the exact amount that'll be carried over will be determined during the year end close and at that point we'll share it with the school committee okay our summer food service program y this summer we'll be continuing to run our summer food service program for all interested families uh this year the program will run out of Mountain View school and out of the Nery School me m will be available 5 days per week and must be consumed on the site uh that's the the rule on that uh we received a grant in the amount of 1,500 from Project Brad to help us run the program and uh we'll give more information at the next meeting and uh the Personnel report now all right is everybody else set with the yeah that part of the report Finance thank you m no questions okay Personnel uh we hired uh four uh new substitutes and um most of them were hired uh during the month of April and we also hired uh one par educator from Mountain View uh we have uh speech language Pathologists uh who decided uh not to return from maternity leave and we had a parent educator uh who also resigned so we still have some vacancies uh we're not going to uh fill some of these this year of course uh we have a middle school librarian which we have found a middle school librarian we're waiting for certification on license from the state again that will not start till the next school year a parent educator from Mountain View uh we're looking for a lunch supervisor at Mountain View but there only 25 days left so things seems to be going okay so it won't be H won't be looking for that person for this year Knight custodian for Mountain View uh speech language pathologist for Mountain View and then we did advertise uh for a network technician uh for the district uh as of Friday uh we also uh EA here uh who does all our data for the district uh has resigned as of the 24th so uh we are going to be advertising that that position because all your state and federal reporting is due and it's really a key time uh not to have a person in that area so we did advertise for that okay great thank you so much for you did Nick beautiful Justice I appreciate it um any other questions on finance or personnel and then we are going to move on to the school committee discussion um a policy subcommittee update yeah so there's um there's been a lot of activity in policy subcommittee we had a uh a meeting on Friday which I referred to as policy paloa um which was we met for 3 hours we went through masc has um basically put out up they put out updates in 2021 and 2022 to a number of their policies it's not there's nothing that East Hampton has done wrong it's just that there were a lot of updates kind of released at the same time and then I don't know if you guys have been paying attention but a lot has happened since uh 2022 uh in our district in particular so um I've just been going I've going through kind of every policy and sort of seeing what needs to be changed and then kind of bringing it to uh policy so we went through I think we did about 60 of them we got through um which was good so what I'm going to do now is I've got a whole bunch to organize and um I'm going to sort of prioritize them and try to sort of put them together and then I'm going to be bringing them forward to the regular committee to uh to vote on and I'm going to be preparing like a presentation for those just so that the public has a better understanding of what we're actually talking about some of them are like really simple changes it's honestly just like changing his and her to their in a in a um thing and then some of them are more significant changes or those new new policies that we just didn't have in the books so um so it's all been um great fun and I mean that sincerely I really I really enjoy this kind of work so um I will be uh working on that more uh over the summer and thank you and the number that deficit that was around a hundred policies there were about like there is still a number that we haven't gotten to yet but there were about like a 100ish that needed to updated or needed to be added um and then there's you know I mean and this is just these are just the policies that masc like has written and recommend that we have so um there may be other things and some to some of them we do want to make more specific um changes to that are more specific to our community there's one in particular that came up was the anti-idling policy which was passed in uh 2011 in East Hampton masc has finally come up with their own anti-idling policy in 2022 uh that they would like for us to make sure we include the same language but we were probably the we might have been the First Community in the state to have one this was like a really really big deal as anybody who lived in East Hampton at the time can remember this was a huge Community effort to get that anti-idling policy in place so I would really like to hear from anybody who was involved in that Jud yes I I have heard that name a couple of times so I would just love to um make sure that like we're not just I don't want to just like replace the old policy with the new policy I want to kind of ADD and I know um Paula Garcia was really involved in that effort I'd really like to I would really like to include her name in it maybe or include some kind of I I don't know I might be the only person who likes to do memorials through policy but like I think that would be nice it's a cool thing that we did and that we were known for and so I would like to keep some of that old language um in there and kind of that spirit that Community spirit so anybody from the community who's interested on that one in particular or wants to give me some history um I'm very interested in that try Meredith police she might be able to put you in with Judith okay cool and who could sounds good any other questions about the policy update Finance Meg I don't have any updates that lovely excellent um I don't believe we have a CES update do we see them you have not no there is a CES meeting um in in two weeks or one week I guess this is it is one week from this week so it is one week um and Megan would you like to spearhead the American eels update everybody so gladly I'm so excited we have heard back we did receive this grant to bring American eels into our classroom my eternal thanks for Brian sokowski um who did all of this work I'm saying something about it like I did any part of it it was all Brian so um so we have the grant um I believe it's going to start for next year he has reached out we're going to set up a meeting with finance and with our director of business services and and start getting some tanks and some eels in Mountain View eels are happening eels are happening apparently they're an integral part of our biome everybody so welcome so are we getting do we know if it's like one eel per classroom or you don't know we so this you might be surprised to learn I was surprised to learn that American eels are incredibly popular so our hope originally was maybe we can apply for this Grant and we'll get one eel in every classroom that might not happen we might be talking more about some representative classroom the American eel um and so you know how that exactly will get dispersed in which grades and in which particular classrooms there's a shortage of eels saying there's a shortage of money it's a good thing it's a good thing you didn't run on an eel in every class but I am sure that Brian and his colleagues would be thrilled to build this program to the point where we have an eel in every class can I can tell you Bri lives nearby my daughter and his daughter are friends he works at Fish and Wildlife he works on fish passage particularly which is removing repairing dams making the fish passage available um all about the ecosystem how the fish and the eels are a part of the ecosystem they they're very passionate about it and I think it would really be a listening to the we the people I think it would be a really cool all I kept thinking for the we the people was can we get some type of a Civic program in the Middle School get kids we'll talk about it yes to get kids as fired up but this would be a starting point of just yeah okay our community someone in our community who who works with governments all over New England on trying to figure out how can we best serve the the rivers and the the wildlife in the rivers and I'm sure that would spark interest in other kids that might go okay um and who knows maybe something down the line of kids even presenting something at a small level or in Boston or just the things that they learned we can get big but I think that this is a really really cool starting point my son's excited too American eels it's going to be great they're coming they're coming we're known for so many things I'm really excited I think it's going to be great that's what I love about this town it's going to be thank you Brian thank you yes really took the initiative hats off really incredible okay moving on to action items Megan do you want you you don't need this you have that go right ahead yes okay uh motion to approve the school payroll dated 418 2024 in the amount of $593,000 48 second thank you Sam uh all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 418 2024 in the amount of 69300 and $400 and no second second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the school payroll dated 52 2024 in the amount of 585,000 second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes I think this is when um we the people were saying that they were like loving oh yeah the heartbeat of America defitely the war definely warrant this is what sealed the deal when they won motion to approve the account's payable authorization for payment dated 52 2024 in the amount of $325,100 all those in any discussion no all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the public hearing fiscal year 25 budget and regular session minutes of March 26 2024 with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved viewed and released by the chair and again those minutes are in the packet can I get a second thank you uh all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the regular session minutes of April 9th 2024 with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair your back yes uh a second oh second sorry thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes and another fun one uh motion to approve the out ofate field trip request for East Hampton High School to Manchester Connecticut on May 13th 2024 Mar already approved this yes I mean let's approve it again just in case they changed something maybe and that was why still cool we didn't we didn't approve it but oh it was the High Meadow anyway senior trip yes this is different okay uh so do we have a second second thank you Sam any discussion or questions says this is a final concert I think that's the concert all songs and poems are performed by East Hampton in great path students concert time is 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 the day begins at 9:00 with icebreaking team building activities and this is for uh high school students at no cost to the students that's great is it a particular class doesn't say do you know if this is like a well it says teachers Demento and paus so any paus is drama oh cool my yes and M is that the New York one Manchester Connecticut to that's Manchester uhhuh Mr thank you so much do you know about this trip this is my son everybody thank you well I we don't know but that sounds great two classes are going yes they already wenton so they already win and and let's vote uh all those in favor I post exensions great be pretty awkward if we didn't that one I got for you uh our next meeting dates uh the next meeting will in fact be May 28th which I don't know I didn't remember earlier this evening then June 11th July 23rd August 13th and September 10th the high school graduation is coming up on June 7th on Friday evening with a rain date of Saturday the 8th all school committee members were invited to attend if you would like to there's also uh on our schedule a June 4th work session yeah I believe it's not posted yet but correct we don't have the agenda but we have a tenative work session for June 4th um we are waiting to hear from an outside Source who may be there to um lend some expertise um before we set the agenda for that work session on June 4th um entertain a motion to adjourn motion toour second second second thank you Ben uh we have a separate agenda for that so we I can call a public hearing when I'm in there because it was a separate agenda uh all those in favor iOS exensions no we're just done we're done good evening everybody thank you so much thank you for for staying and watching I'm sure it was on your own