welcome to the Monday March 25th meeting of the hoyo public schools school committee sorry hoyo Public Schools hoo school committee it is 6:09 p.m. if we could all raise for the Pledge of Allegiance I will take roll call for attendance mayor Garcia here I myself Miss Brunell is here miss lefave present Mr Romero here Miss tensley Williams present Dr Jad elet Rivera cologne here Dr Gloria Cabo present uh Mr John willan here Mr Ronnie colore here and Miss Ellie Wilson here and we also have both of our student reps here Mr Evan Kennedy here and I never remember your name I'm oh sorry Nicholas Rodriguez is here as well thank you so much just some quick housekeeping so bear with me on March 29 2023 Governor hilly signed into law an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations which among other things extends the expiration of the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st 2025 specifically this extension extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings this act does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending those Provisions um also just a reminder that this uh meeting is being video and audio recorded also I would just like to note we do have translation services located in the hallway if anybody is requiring any all right moving right along we will jump right into it uh we're going to start this meeting with our student showcase we have our hyok High School North the the group director Mr Mark Todd and students here to discuss their upcoming production of My Fair Lady welcome please join [Applause] us thank you very much for that introduction um I'd like to um introduce our folks that came with me today which are starting from we'll start at the very end here this is Aiden fontz coraine and he is playing Henry Higgins and My Fair Lady this is Brena Phillips in the middle and she is our our stage manager we take all our orders from her completely she controls everything and then Eliza dittle is being played by Veronica cologne she's to my left I'm going to pass this over to them because they'd like to talk about the show themselves here we go okay so my fair lady is a show based in the 19 early 1900s where social classes were very um prominent and um in England so a professor professor Higgins meets Eliza who's A working class flower girl and she's very Cockney not proper and it's higgins's job to take her in and teach her how um this phonetics to give her that more like higher class um skills of speech to get higher jobs in higher social classes and the show follows Eliza's trials throughout um learning this new almost a new language to her um so Eliza she's a really big character to play she's really difficult um but Eliza you see in the beginning she starts us uh starts off as this like  negro who's very hostile but not because she was born hostile but more so her environment and how she has to adapt so we just see how when she comes across Higgins and um he learns she just learns about his teachings of phonetics she becomes like infatuated with becoming a lady so that leads to her stalking where she is and um taking the lessons after him and then throughout you just see the trials and tribulations that it comes with Eliza and adapting to how um I guess rough Henry Higgins is um and then basically just changing almost like her whole life and all she's known and then yeah it's she's amazing but she's very um she has a temper and she's not afraid to show it she's very very very Fierce yeah that's that's who Eliza is she's she's awesome so Professor Henry Higgins is a confirmed old Bachelor who um like they both explained is very skilled in phonetics he's gone he's taught people a whole lot of different uh accents and languages and when he comes across Eliza um well first he doesn't really like her but um when she becomes um infatuated with trying to learn how to become a proper lady um at first uh Henry Higgins thinks this is the perfect opportunity could get a little Buck off of this but he overcomes a trial of his own and teaching Eliza as she already explained um she is fierce she's not afraid to show her temper but not only does he have to go through that but he also um might feel something else for Eliza will we ever find that out I don't know we'll just have to wait and see for the show oh yes really good day to you all got one more I would it be lovely Lely Lely Lely love [Music] Lely so in order to hear this whole thing and see it all come to fruition with our new lights that we now have and a whole bunch of really cool things and we've been working on that set forever so we've got it's it's going to be quite spectacular we've got a 12-piece Orchestra um it's it's going to be a great a great event for you to attend and and very good learning experience it is 4th fifth 6th and 7th starting a week from this coming Thursday so we're we're almost there very close but hope to see you all there thank you so much and uh and we have QR codes floating around somewhere so you'll be able to get on to um click for ticks because they're the people who have our tickets for the show awesome thank you so much we do definitely have a couple questions coming around um but I just want to say kudos to you too and your efforts for all the work that's been done to the hoyo kai theater in the recent days you know the seats look phenomenal like you mentioned new lighting and so kudos to you and your efforts to support the the Arts in Holio uh Miss rosley tensy Williams I just want to say that that was [Laughter] loverly Miss Wilson um so as someone who um was a proud member of the choir all through hok high school um I'm really excited that um you know you're participating um and I know one of the wonderful people here and I love that you're involved not only in athletics but now as a stage manager um you have the skills and I I just want to share um if you do love singing and that something you're looking to do after there is the Springfield Symphony chorus um that is something that um I had the pleasure of participating in for several years that I would you know strongly suggest um if you want to continue After High School that'd be lovely or loverly Dr Rivera clone I just want to say first of all thank you and second that I'm just in awe of you how you were really so into the story like I really felt like I could see the characters and see the development and the struggle and the conflict so I can't wait to see the play so thank you so much and for the stage manager know that I'm really excited that you're here CU usually they don't get to showcase the people who work behind the scenes but just if you've never been a stage manager I have um is really important because they're the ones who tell you where things go and where people are going to stand so that's really critical for the show to run well so thank you so much and thank you for highlighting everybody as well yeah we can't thank you guys enough for being here uh leading up to the musical I was pretty persistant with my efforts to get you here um unfortunately we weren't able to get the uh the plays in front of us before those happen but the entire theater and music program at ho Kai does such a wonderful job um both you and Miss Brunell and of course the students I've gone to every production in the last few years and you guys are phenomenal it's not to be under uh taken for granted the amount of work and effort that you all put in um and kudos to the costume designer as well who's doing a fabulous job I can't wait to see what they come up with and we look forward to seeing you all there please uh share the QR code with us digitally and we'll be sure to share it online thank you very much thank you thank youone we'll see you there sorry I was not on mic confirming there is no one signed up for a public comment okay and I did double check uh we did not get any emails um so moving right into our student reports we're going to go with hoai North Campus first Nick hi uh my name is Nicholas Rodriguez the representative for Holio kid um within the second half of the month of March we've had our curriculum planning teams which was teams of teachers in each of the core content areas being English History Math and Science have begun planning how to adjust their curriculums for the switch to block scheduling next school year uh school counselors LED their ninth and 10th grade teams through onrack data Dives for quarter three progress reports which is going over what they got for grades and methods to support students in fixing any unwanted grades before they close for quarter three um a group of staff from Holio High School North uh traveled to wesle Massachusetts to present High School redesign work to a group of nine other schools the purpose of the visit was to share Holio Kai School North's experience and Lessons Learned in transforming the high school experience the math mcast for our sophomore students will be taking place March 26th and 27th we hope that many of our students will pass their and finally as you heard in the student showcase the Holio Kai School theater company is putting on the performance of my fair lady from April 4th through the 7th we hope to see many of you there to watch the mesmerizing performance thank you thank you Nick do any members have any questions all right seeing none it's on you Evan all right uh my name is Evan Kenny the dean campus student rep and uh to continue with a common trend for our updates lately the dean counseling team this month presented at each lunch with anger management strategies we partnered up with local agencies who helped us understand nutritional facts and on Thursday we even played twister at lunchtime um yeah the dean counseling team always tries to find fun activities to get students interested next uh oh sorry thean counseling team they also honor the women at Dean for National Women's month by making a morning Announcement by uh each individual female in the building stating their facts and educational background next uh today the 10th grade had a town hall to prepare them for the logistics on the next two days of mcast and tomorrow March 26th Begins the 10th grade e mcast Ela testing 10th graders will arrive at their building as usual whereas 9th 11th and 12th graders will arrive at 10:27 this will continue as well on March 27th and lastly in case you missed the Hool Oak St Patrick's Day festivities 13 members of the wrestling team ran the road race along with their Brave coaches then on Sunday Dean Tech carpentry students had a little signage in the back of the polio Colleen float we hope to get more involved year by year any questions for student reps I just have one for you Mr Kennedy you mentioned that the besides the sophomores the other classman come to school late those days would you consider that a loss of learning due to mcass um I would say so that's that's 3 hours that students are not in their classroom um which yeah I'd say is a pretty loss of pretty big loss of learning if we're not in the classroom thank you all right moving right along uh Vice chair report so uh we're going to go into welcoming our is it interim acting sorry titles our acting Commissioner of Education uh to the table and he has with him um Lauren woo what's her oh God I'm so bad with titles Chief of Staff sorry um new titles for folks so welcome folks thank you for being with us um as members will see attached in your packet and handed out to you here is uh a capacity building memo that the commissioner shared with us um we also just had a our first local Control subcommittee meeting chaired by Dr Rivera cologne um so I'd like to begin this with allowing the commissioner and Miss woo to introduce themselves um say any welcoming statements that you'd like and then I'll turn it over to Dr Rivera cologne for a bit of a review of what happened in the local Control subcommittee meeting so you have the floor thank you Vice chair berell and really a pleasure to be here with the assembled school committee from Holio we really had such a productive meeting with the local control task force the local control subcommittee tonight and I'm just so excited about moving forward and taking these next steps with you and I think that we will develop a really solid plan that will help to pave the way for the future for hoolio and I think that that's just such an important thing to do this is my sixth day as acting commissioner and it's really important to me that during essentially my first week on this job that I'm here in hoolio with you this is a symbol of my priority of working with you of how seriously I take this uh task of developing this plan for the future and that we outlined um really important steps together tonight that we look forward to taking with you one final just really important point from our meeting earlier we talked about six areas for the task force to focus on what impressed me to no end was that the main topic the first topic that the subcommittee wants to focus on is continuing Improvement because that's about the children who we all have the privileged to serve here so I just felt the values of this school committee shining through by selecting that as the first topic that we really want to focus on together and that's my value as well and I think that's going to pave the way for a really robust collaboration between us as we go forward so thank you very much Lauren if you'd like to introduce yourself as well hi everyone Lauren woo um I am also on day six of this new role um but I'm acting Chief of Staff right now working with Russell but um have been involved with hoolio um since the beginning of your receivership Journey here um and just happy to be here as well thank you thank you guys so much uh Dr Rivera clone I'll turn it over to you thank you so much and thank you for both the commissioner and her shief of staff to for being here in person which I not it's is not always easy so we appreciate that I this was a really great meeting that was really productive I don't know how many IES are out there that in one meeting discuss something as difficult as a transition from the way that they have been doing things for the last nine years towards how we put a plan together and coming up with the timeline with dates that have been confirmed for our next meetings as well as topics for those meetings so just for a matter of record and for all of those of you at home who are watching I would like to reiterate what the dates are as well as the topics so the dates take out your calendars and pay attention are going to be April 8th April 23rd May 13th May 28th June 10th July 22nd and august 19 and those would be all at 5:00 p.m. the topics like the commissioner was just referring to we will start with how to focus on Improvement by taking a deep dive to our turnaround plan we will then move forward to budget policy hiring the superintendent and evaluation collaboration Improvement and bylaws so those are going to be the topics that we're going to be discussing in the subsequent meeting so I want to again thank the commissioner for being here and the members of the committee for taking the time on something that is really important for Holio uh thank you for that brief rundown uh Dr rera clone I want to give all the members of the committee uh an opportunity to just say anything that they'd like to say or have comments or uh points of discussion that they'd like to see us enter into uh before we dive in a little bit deeper so so far I saw miss lefave you went a bit too fast for me so I got up to so I got Focus Improvement and that's going to be B based off of the turnaround plan on the 8th yep then the 23rd is budget then the 13th is policy the 28th is the hiring of a superintendent also superintendent review superintendent review those are the topics okay from there I wasn't that quick because I don't know shorthand so we have collaboration collaboration Improvement which is kind of like coming back from that first meeting okay and then bylaws thank you you're welcome Mr um Mr Mayor yeah and I think I I forgive me Dr yadet Rivera cologne if I missed it but um the goal is to between now and August is to have draft some sort of plan by August deadline not some sort of plan our transition plan to local control so between now and August six meetings seven meetings six meetings um to uh finally in August have a finalized transition plan to local control yes Miss teny Williams right now I'm very excited um we have a pretty good team I I believe we are going to make some progress um together we stand divided we fall so we're we're tight and I believe that we're going to do our homework work we show up next time miss brell and we will be ready to take K's business and thank thank everybody for being here tonight Mr Kennedy um Dr a clone are students allowed to sit in on these meetings the meeting is open to the public okay also one more thing I'm sorry um I appreciate you coming here and working with us and I also appreciate you making this such a priority um I think that in to everyone in this room this is a very important topic and it's not only an important topic to everyone who is leading this District but it's an important topic to the students in this District um and you may not get no one in this room may get their recognition from the students because maybe some students aren't as up to dat but I do appreciate I do recognize and I do appreciate it on behalf of my students so thank you great to hear and I really appreciate the feedback um next I have Mr colore yes first of all welcome to oog again really appreciate what you done and brought to the table Mr Kore please talk into your microphone hun yes commissioner uh the first thing that came into my mind you speaking is working together that is the most important thing the city could ever do is not working just with you but working together as a community to get this thing in process and get it working let's get back on the string of the students of hoo and throughout the community and congratulations once again sorry uh Dr Cabo thank you so much um Vice pres U Vice chair uh well why not well um it was sort of reiterating what all of my colleagues have um said here and uh and also understand that this is as Mr cmore said this is a community effort this is going to transcend that we're going to be gone but then the fact that our students and our families are going to just find a path you know towards um improving their lives the outcome of their education of of our students and and know that there's someone out there in Boston that is going to support you know of what we are going to be doing here in in jolio this is a collaboration it's cooperation and it's openness to a better path and future for our schools here in jolio thank you so much for being here yeah Mr Mayor Dr C Cava said it right it's going to be a community effort Mr Kennedy absolutely the meetings are going to be open to the public an important highlight note that I want to highlight for members of the public and everybody here is that one of the topics as you heard is collaboration and so the subcommittee together with the commissioner we're talking about eventually getting to a point where we can put together a stakeholder group so that those that um that that our stakeholders that are out there dependent on um the outcome of this process are engaged and so that we're all kind of moving forward in the same direction and also engaging stakeholders and soliciting their input whether they're Stu students faculty staff teachers parents uh there will be in this process process from what it sounds like to me some sort of um uh stakeholder task force that'll work together with the committee and a commissioner in this process Miss Wilson thank you so thank you so much for coming on your sixth day this is wonderful maybe you can rest on your seventh I don't know um but but thank you so much um you know I think for a long time all we've wanted um is to someone to sit in dialogue with us um we have been an active school committee um throughout receivership uh we have you know maintained our uh you know dialogue with our superintendent receiver um he's maintained dialogue back with us um we're you know receptive to each other's ideas and thoughts as we grow our district um through the transition and through um receivership um one thing I have to say is that that um you know I am beside myself with joy that there is something I can pinpoint now um I am give me give me the data let me look at something let's look through it but um in the absence of that we've kind of been lost along the way um I think you're going to see this body has um is functioning and not only that is our subcommittees are functioning um so that there is not going to be a significant amount of like getting back up to speed per se with procedural things it's just understanding more what we have not been able to do um and gaining that Insight so that we can act on behalf of our community in the role that we were voted in thank you Miss LEF hi just as everybody else says thank you commissioner Johnson for being here with us today um so I kind of want to understand how this process is going to work um so we're having the local subcommittee go through this process um each date their meeting is to focus on a specific area is there someone assigned that you're going to sign to work along with them that will be here as your designated representative that a yes sorry so member the I I'm coming to the meetings okay I will be here because this is the importance that this has for us and War and I together will do this if something were to come up and I couldn't attend certainly back me up as we always have along the way but we set these dates with the idea that I would be participating and I just want to it's all of us together it's superent Soto myself or and the subcommittee as well okay great thank you um from there um because I I just want to make sure that everybody else and my colleagues understand so we have created a subcomittee and the members have been appointed those are the ones that will be doing this work they will then come to us so we've got a remember because this cannot be deliberation because you are posing a risk for violating open meeting law um so we've got to make sure that we obviously if they were appointed it's because they've shown an interest and we have faith that they're going to do the right job and represent all of us well on the subcommittee because at the end of the day whose first our interest is our students okay and whatever decisions are made is because it's student focused so I just wanted to want to make sure that I throw that one out there um the other thing is now how does it get from there then because then the rest of the committee wants to hear what's going on are we going to have some sort of um Retreats kind of you know to get our feedback on how it's going or um is this just going to be pres you know we would be here to listen obviously we can't be asking questions because now you're you're posing that risk so how is it that we get the rest of the Committee involved and I did hear about local stakeholder groups and so this the only thing when I hear that my only hopes is that we don't end up going through the process that another District went through where we have an Lea who takes over um the school committee has been very involved since day one as you have been very well aware um and it's not just these members it's members that were here before so I want to make sure that we recognize them that's Mr and Mrs Burks you had um Irene Feliciano Devin shien John Brunell Niles kersen these members were here throughout this process process um previous to receivership and during receivership and they really left the mark and did a lot um and always were student focused and I I'm sure they wish that they could be part of this process right now but I have to say that whatever happens from here they were still part of the end result because the work that they did and their dedication cannot go unseen so before I go to the next comment I will answer two questions so as far as committee so um for example at the budget meeting we plan to invite the chair of budget subcommittee policy meeting we plan to invite the chair of policy subcommittee mind you at that meeting it might be Miss Wilson or Mr wahan that gets exception to the rules to discuss instead of Mayor Garcia understanding we can only have five member discussion so fully agree comprehend we it's one thing uh our wonderful Vice chair of that subcommittee and I discussed heavily in in in leading up to the meeting knowing other members would want to be discussed and then of course EV so in case you didn't notice these meetings were strategically placed ahead of the full school committee meeting on each date of the meeting except for August because we or sorry except for July because we typically don't meet in July as a full body so just like every other subcommittee we will have full reports on the agendas moving forward so our at our next committee meeting uh you know we will have approval of the minutes from today's subcommittee meeting uh Dr Rivera colone will give an update um one of the things we discussed is her and miss woo keeping a good email relationship with creating agendas and topic points and of course all that information will be shared with the full committee and some things might be requested for feedback so that way your voices are being heard while they can't be physically heard during the time so it's definitely the goal of mine and and and that with having Mr Johnson present right is to ensure that these meetings were not happening sub Quorum in a quiet office somewhere so that way everybody is aware of course they'll be broadcasted on Zoom um and you're welcome to attend as a meeting as a Committee Member even if you can't uh discuss during the meeting so we'll make sure everybody's points get talking um get brought back of course because like said it's it's the work of us all so uh Mr willan thank you for that yeah um thank you both for showing up in your first week of the job that speaks volumes of your commitment to the city thank you very much um just probably just a question for Mr stto um in terms of the uh sub meetings that that we're talking about is your staff going to be there to kind of guide us in um some of the uh items that need that need need to be uh addressed yeah certainly um I want to I want to support in every way that I can I know that you know I've Express expressed that to the community and expressed that to this body that like I really want to uh play a big role in helping support uh what a good transition plan could be like and if that if that means you know uh having you know if we're going to talk about budget of course you know I I'd love Shan Magano to be there who is our Executive Director of Finance um depending on what the agenda topics are I'll make I'll make sure that you know we have the right people at the table to have some rich rich discussion and then miss to your other point about stakeholder group um what we're looking at is local community stakeholders to offer advice and opinions like maybe it's um you know our other Community Partners that offer early Ed early childhood education um the YMCA the Boys and Girls Club teachers unions you know people like that all the people within the district and the community of hok as a whole so not necessarily you know a state entity but more and it could be a state entity let me not say that but to your point it's not an appointee that's going to come over and take over like you were suggest sorry go ahead so let me let me just clarify what I'm saying it's very important for us to work together and create Partnerships with organizations throughout our community that supports our students so you mentioned hoio Boys and Girls Club you the YMCA there's homework house there's there's Girls Inc I mean there's so many that I can name should also be including the Department of Mental Health especially since we're talking a lot about mental health um disabilities um when I said in Lea so when you're looking at local stakeholder groups that that could be a local oh um how did well you know what let me put it because I know that one's the Lawrence Educational Alliance but it's different stakeholders that then within your community that become sort of like like a a step from full control from one entity to a different entity and that's what I'm saying I'm hoping that we don't have that type of a transition that the transition goes obviously we have our receiver and it's um Mr SoDo um but then that the control comes back to the board that was elected by the community that it doesn't go to like what you would call like a step down before then it goes um because you do have dedicated people now I never said that we should not be partnering and collaborating that is the very first thing that you should be doing because we need all the help we can get commissioner I'd like to give you an opportunity to respond to that before I call on the next member to speak yeah absolutely and I want to just say unequivocably this is about building up this school committee right for us to transition to local control to this body and I I just I put my glasses on to relook at the title of the document about not not that I thought you had missed it but I thought I want to make sure we're that clear that we titled the document polio school committee capacity building because that's what this is about is about this plan that we would have by August for local control of this elected body so unequivocably that's what we're moving Miss tensley Williams this question is for you uh commissioner your mic love this question is for commissioner uh Johnson um after all this said and done um Mr Soto has done an excellent job now when we're through with all of this stuff can he become the re receiver so the the process is that the school committee what we'd be looking at to as we move towards local control is that the school committee would need to hire the superintendent and so it really be part of this plan will be how does that process occur and that will that will be defined through the development of this plan this summer Dr Rivera cologne I just want to thank Miss la for the word of caution because I think that's really important in terms of the history of what receivership has in our state and I mean me being a new member I don't know about all the things that have happened before and I also want to reassure you that the way that we started the meeting was by thanking the members who came before us because it's true like they we are sitting on their work and that's why we can't move forward and be at the position that we're at another thing and also for the people out there we want to hear from our community when we're putting these things together at the same time I want everybody to know that at the end of the day we are the body who makes the decisions we will listen to feedback and we will be able to incorporate as much as possible for as much resources allow and our purview allows for us to receive that feedback so we will be clear when we are gathering that feedback so that the public knows what is it that we're asking for and what's the input what we are going to do with the input once we get it so I really appreciate that thank you Miss Wilson so I was looking over um the capacity building mapping document and and one thing I I have to say I note that um talking about training resources um except for our newly elected member um we all have gone not just once but twice and maybe even more um gone through um the Massachusetts Association of school committees trainings which does go into all of these particular areas um so I guess my question is would you be looking we just did it this past year I was gon to say this past year like it was like a blink of an eye is that something that you'd be looking for us to repeat since we've done it so recently I'm just wondering it's a great question and I want to be clear that this we didn't change the date on this document because we felt like it was important to show it as a moment in time so Laur and I developed this in preparation for a pre- meeting that we were very fortunate to have with the mayor and the vice chair as sort laying out here the components that could involve training of these topics and it was in our first meeting very very affirming to hear just what you said that the school committee has already taken a lot of this on which I think really helps to escalate the work even further faster okay so there might still be things that we agree together that the school committee wants to develop further through professional learning but it's really helpful to hear that so much of this has already taken place all right I see no other hands for comments currently yes continue so I I guess my other question is um you know because we are talking about uh you know a subset of us working get you know working on a regular basis I am wondering if it is something that we should be looking at is developing um a retreat um date this upcoming spring um so that we as a group could maybe even after the second or the third meeting to really delve into it a little more as an entire body um rather than just getting the updates I'm just I'm just throwing that out there whether that might be premature now but I'm just thinking that at some point this bring I foresee personally a retreat before I'm going before June I would think that we would need to meet in order to ensure that we are all on the same page that we're going in the right direction um since we're all not able to participate in that subcommittee I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way um so I would say that considering we do only have one June meeting um and considering that the first four talking points are pretty substantial to the work of the committee um that I think that's actually a really good idea as well um so I'll look into a date that I'll propose to you guys um and we could do it like on a Saturday again or on a Sunday morning and bust out a few hours if necessary um and then I would Envision so if if we get through the work through the work in six meetings then the August 19th meeting date would potentially be the date that we announce the plan so then um I would say to the committee that we should probably have something between July 22nd and August 19th as well to ensure that we all are fully on board with what potentially may be coming to the table on the 19th um I know that summer but you know it is what it is and if you can't make it you can't make it um so that would be my suggestion so I will look in I will look at that moving forward yeah we also have the P yeah the budget hearing is in June as well um but that's typically a pretty quick process but yeah um okay thank you for that suggestion and I will definitely take that into consideration uh retreat June and possibly um July August August okay all right thank you any other comments you you can make a motion anytime you want and anything you want but it's not necessary because it's at my perview basically so yes Dr Rivera cologne and I just want to reiterate that through the whole process we will still have community communication offline where you will be receiving the information so that you have proper time to look at things and come up with questions so it's not like you're not going to be able to give your input and contribute it's just that it's not going to happen at the meeting okay great um did you have anything else that you wanted to dive into from your letter or anything before I give thoughts if I could just one quick thing that we talked about that we just haven't hit upon just yet in this open uh discussion here this evening is that there are some things that we can begin to do now that we don't have to wait to have a full plan for and I think it's just an important topic that we made earlier that I want all of us to have the mindset of so we talked about some things like the budget that start to have you know there there's a timeliness to it there's a Time limitation in some ways because some things only happen in the spring for example that we just want to make sure that we begin to even practice now and start to build up more of take the yeah capacity during the timing when it will matter um so that it's not just an exercise but an applied exercise so that I just wanted to reiterate something that we talked about during the me right so for example you know we'll discuss you know Mr willan and I can discuss offline and then discuss with the with the current receiver you know moving forward to to his next Finance meeting going into a little bit deeper and then ensuring that we're having a little bit more not say in the process but involvement in the current process and things like that I saw Mr cmore and then Miss Wilson microphone first an I'd like very much to get the dates of all these things that you've mentioned here this evening so that even though I'm not on the committee I want to be there to listen and make any suggestions I can to the of course so we did go over the dates once already I think Ellie is writing them down for you now and like I said they're except for July they're all prior the hour prior to our regularly scheduled school committee meeting so we will make it very convenient to attend time and location here 5:00 pm every meeting you no problem Miss Wilson I just saw your brain go so I would think another topic that's kind of timely right now um that's really relevant is negotiations um we're in a contract uh discussion right now with our par Educators and I'm wondering how we can get more more involved with that that's something I asked about um my previous career was Human Resources oh now I'm an educator um you know and so I'm thinking that's something that it would be a wonderful opportunity to learn about that process um and so I'm wondering um if there's an opportunity um to get more involved um within that negotiations or um not at the table but understanding the uh yeah you know from our perspective rather rather we get timely updates I'm not saying that we don't but more of that um behind the scenes kind of you know planning and things of that sort I'm just thinking of how best to potentially address that um so obviously it's a very different process out of receivership collective bargaining um so maybe um something we can discuss at the first meeting or even just finalize in discussion now is maybe one of us can be like a aaon of the school committee to on whatever calendar you deem necessary just to have like a weekly or breakdown phone call Zoom with you and Beth and whomever else is at the table to kind of say like this is what we worked on this is how we got there this is what we're working on now um to kind of start getting more involved and then giving us updates now keep in mind official like anything you talk about Rel relative to a contract can needs to be talked about offline um but maybe that's a good a good start obviously collective bargaining as a whole will is a topic that we'll go over and certainly something we'll need more training on as we progress um but maybe just having a Lea on sounds like a good bring us an executive session maybe well I think she's talking about one of us being slightly more involved to be learning how they're going through the process right Ellie yes I just remember when we were in local control there were just regular updates to the school board and executive session with the um with our attorneys none of us sat at the table during those deliberations but I guess anything's possible no and I think Miss Wilson isn't asking to sit at the table she's asking for those more regular updates on the process right if you care to clarify by all means jump in but um you know you're right we hired the attorneys to do the bulk of the work um and then we would have consistent executive sessions for updates Mr Johnston I was actually and I appreciate you calling this out uh I was thinking that it would be part of the focus on collaboration okay that that that section of our work would be about how we delve into negotiations more and how the school committee will involve itself and develop its capacity and so I think it would be a worthy topic for that discussion and part of the plan thank keeping in mind too we'll be relying on our partners through the masc uh to ensure that we're up to Snuff when necessary but you know keeping in mind you know like we said Mr stto has very good open communication so you can call him any time and request information um okay anybody else I didn't see any other hands Mr willan just wanna uh now that Glenn is here yes I will Rec yeah recognize that the executive director I believe is his title right executive director yeah or the executive director for Massachusetts Association of school committees has been sitting in on these meetings um we look forward to our collaboration with him as well and uring that we're ready to go so okay so um we will let you guys get back to B but if I may just put you on the record are you saying that you are officially recognizing that we're entering the transition process to exit receivership we are officially entering the transition process to return to local control I don't have any other words right now I really don't um thank you so much um I know we've expressed the frustrations just with um not getting this opportunity to just sit and go over and discuss and plan and um we're up for it so we look forward to it you know um collaboration is everything and no one hand should be too Mighty when it's filled with so many voices that are affected so thank you both so much for your time we greatly appreciate you um thank you for your commitment to the time frame to the process and we just look forward to moving forward thank you so much oh miss Hensley Williams microphone before you go I wrote a poem I want you to hear it oh it's on okay talk loud a book can save the day December 27th 2013 at 10:00 a.m. whenever we have books in our hands they can take us to other lands it doesn't matter which book you pick they are almost always do the trick there are times when you need a book to help you with a meal to cook sometimes you need a book to view to help you choose a new menu when bedtime comes you play hide and seek mom or dad reads a book you fall asleep when you're feeling low and don't know where to turn just grab a book and you will learn that things are not as bad as they seem a book can lift your self-esteem when school is out without a doubt you miss your friends and you want to pout go to your shelf and grab a book and before you know it you will be hooked soon you will be on your way there's not much more for me to say because reading a book can save the day thank you so much that's how I spend my SP time thank you thank you so much and thank you both again and uh have a safe drive home thank you all right folks moving right along under new business um so I brought this onto the agenda this evening because it's up against a time frame um so I emailed you all all of this information in advance of tonight and hopes that you could review it and be prepared to potentially take action tonight I certainly didn't want you to feel like I was bringing something to you on the floor and asking you to take action so I hope you've all had a chance to review um but basically I was reached out to a me by a member of the hail school committee and they're looking to take action on asking the state um basically to increase Chapter 70 Aid funding to account for inflation um so they're looking for other school committees to potentially Make Some Noise as well and um do one of the few following actions whether you want to sign on to a resolution with their language um or just you know we could do it as a body if not you can do it as individuals um but just to see how best we could support the efforts there so um like I said I sent over a bunch of information to you guys I'll turn it over for comments if anybody has any suggestions or motions they'd like to make Miss Wilson so I think that um you know adjusting the Chapter 70 um to be fully funded is an important uh measure that we should be seeking support um and we should be signing on to this um in support because um any financing that impacts our school is significant here in Hol yoke um you know because of the percentage that our city puts in compared to the state um and being fully funded could make a a big difference in our students lives um so I would be asking that we um you know sign on to this that we sign and um move it forward so for clarity if you'd like to make a motion I would like to make a formal motion and is that motion that we just sign on to their current resolution in support or did you have a draft res resolution you'd like to make for us I do not have a draft resolution so I would be um signing on to their resolution in support in support that would be wonderful um so that was Miss Wilson on the motion Miss tensley Williams as the second we are not on Zoom at all this evening so we do not need a roll call um so any further discussion on the motion Dr Cabo um I fully understand and support the whole you know proposition we're talking about sustainability and uh if we're not sustainable then there's nothing else we can do for our students and the families so please let us support that group Let Us Go full ahead because we will need more people to support you know in the future uh our endeavors you know yeah thanks thank you while on discussion too I will mention I did send you all a webinar that happened this past Wednesday um the link it it's recorded and so you can have access to it at any point that you can just sit and watch um with a lot of great information about Chapter 70 funding so thank you Mr willan for bringing that to us um all right so on the motion all those in favor I any opposed hearing none I will um I will get that formalized and circulated for Signature um most of us can sign electronically if you prefer to sign an ink just let me know I'll take note later I know at least three of you uh Mr Romero can I make a mo to sign as a board you want me to sign on behalf of everyone I second that sure that's absolutely fine that's fine okay um so the motion was that I sign on behalf of the board seconded by Mr willan any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I I any oppose hearing none thank you for making life easy I will do that um I will share it with you all one more time with my signature before I email it to confirm that you're aware it's going out okay great other than that uh also on new business uh it's more an FYI but if you have any questions feel free you are welcome too um again this was sent out to you guys in advance um but it has a deadline attached as well which is why we're discussing it this evening uh Mr sto did you have anything you wanted to add on your memo with the student Opportunity Act no I I mean I provided it in the packet I think so this is part of what we have to do as part of the student Opportunity Act is we got to submit a three-year plan uh the three-year plan that we had is is um up and we have to submit it by April 1st we've gone part of the process is we have to go through some stakeholder engagement so um I met with our teacher Advisory Group to get feedback from them on February 15th uh we had a community meeting on March 12th um held on Zoom so that anybody uh we had a dpack CPAC lpac groups we we tried to rearrange the schedule so that that we can host them all together and then open it up to members of the community um and uh you know we're we're seeking feedback from the school committee you could email me and Sean um so that prior to submitting the plan your feedback is incorporated we did present the information at the finance subcommittee meeting as well which was held on March 8th um and and did a survey so uh you all have that information um and we want to make sure you have an opportunity to provide us with any input and I'm no um so the the other thing is you know some of the things that we heard from the community were uh just finding more ways to get uh more parents and caregivers to be actively involved in key decisions there was a lot of conversations around social emotional learning supports uh particularly for for our subgroups and uh there a lot of support for for improve improving inclusion opportunities for for students in our subgroups and as part of the survey there were six uh top priorities that were identified um you know uh promoting student physical and mental health and wellness implementation of strong mtss system um Implement academic support and interventions uh particularly for students with disabilities and multilingual learning ERS um and implementing high quality and engaging instructional materials and sustaining and retaining diverse staff so all of that feedback that we received is going to be incorporated into this plan and you have a draft in your packet all right thank you so much all right any discussion or questions seeing none uh thank you so much um announcements uh again my fair lady is coming up at H High School uh North Campus is the where the the Productions will take place they are on April 4th 5th 6th and 7 encourage you all to buy your tickets in advance I'm assuming like the regular plays they're cheaper in advance online and then a little bit more expensive at the door um I'm pretty sure they're also still looking for sponsors um so if you want a sponsor you can buy a half page ad uh just reach out to any one of us particularly Miss Wilson would know or Mr Todd directly um or Hoy Kai uh middle school building committee meeting is April 4th if youall haven't driven by lately you should drive by um ho school committee meeting Monday April 8th uh keeping in mind now we have a subcommittee meeting that will start at 5: uh Dean um El pack District meeting April 8th at 6 DPAC meeting Tuesday April 9th at 6 those are both via Zoom um I don't think we have two middle school meetings uh in April so I'll confirm that um attendance celebration for the district April 23rd at 5:30 p.m. HB Lawrence and hoo school committee meeting Tuesday April 23rd uh Vice chairs of subcommittees please let me know um after this if you have any meetings coming up and we'll make sure they get publicized and does anybody else have any other announcements I will go in order of sitting next to me so miss lefave thank you Miss Bruno um and I'm sorry because I should have G let you know so you can just put it on there but um we're part of division five and she's stealing your glory she is stealing my thunder I am going to pass it over to Miss Wilson so um Wednesday uh at 6:30 um uh the division five is uh hosting an event at Greenfield um and it's uh advocating for our Public Schools preparing for the day on the hill um the agenda is going to be engaging with legislators and staff um with John uh Jason sorry Jason Frasier he's a president-elect and legislative chair for mask maintaining relationships uh with legislators is another par portion uh the state budget highlights as well as maximizing your time um for the day on the hill so again that is going to be uh Wednesday at 6:30 this Wednesday 6:30 at the Greenfield Public Library conference room let me repeat myself because I wasn't on microphone thank you Miss Wilson did you have anything else miss the fave you know what I'm gonna talk with our receiver superintendent and is just a an information from Senator Mary's office in regards to like like the green New Deal and the inflation reduction act and um there are some grants is it grants I'm going to have him read this email but it's a way like tax credits that we can access and districts can access so funding I'll have him review it and see how that can benefit feel free to wrap in Mr willan it can be talked about at Finance uh Dr Cabo uh before I was a member of the finance committee uh and we talked about no no we talked about something that that is going to affect many of our families and children here which is the um connectivity act um connectivity act yeah many of them are going to well the program is going to cease existing April 1st so the more we reach out to our legislators and people who really have to do with uh disenfranchising our students and families from all this world of connectivity and internet Etc the better because it is also true that if we want them to perform and their families to be viable and there sustainability they need to be connected to the internet this was enacted during the pandemic but now they're just saying it's going to be cut off April 1st so we need to move fast and I don't know how we can support these families that are going to lose you know access to Internet but this is critical thing in our city can you please email me some information I'll share it with the committee Def and then um I'd recommend you meet with Mr Mayor and get a meeting with Comcast I mean we own a Comcast channel like we have agreements with Comcast like let's find a way to at least make sure our community is protected if we can and protect the entire Commonwealth um you know we're also fighting to get Vios with the oil gas electric so what can we do to encourage that so thank you for bringing this up please share some information so I can share it um anybody else have any announcements Mr colore yeah just just one thing that I'd like to thank microphone please I'd like to thank all the members here for participating in the St Patrick's Day Parade H it was my whatever I the first sh Patrick did you lose count on how many you've done Mr colore the the first St Patrick's Day Parade we marched from uh South Street down to the city hall oh wow and uh I've been in every single parade since then except the two uh that I was in the service but thank you very much for really having a good time I wa I watched all of you marching and stay everyone staying in in Step I know that but uh believe me believe me it's a wonderful feeling to see the school committee show up in good hands thank you thank you sorry I couldn't attend my daughter had volleyball practice in the middle of the parade I could have killed her coaches uh Mr willan did you have one more thing no all right I will entertain a motion to adjourn thank you Mrs I need somebody to make the motion motion Mr Romero on the motion teny Williams with the second all those in favor I I any oppos thank you all