##VIDEO ID:vRn8oB1sAZs## good evening everyone and welcome to the Holy Oak school committee meeting it is Monday August 19th 2024 it is 6:03 pm. roll call please is it going to be Miss Feliciano or will it be superintendent receiver stto just confirmed and it will be me today unfortunately uh mayor Garcia here miss the f present Mr Romero Miss tensley William let me just confirm that I don't have any of them online I do not have any of them online so uh Dr Rivera cologne here Dr Gloria cavalo Mr wellan here Mr Kore here Miss Wilson here you're missing one to my left oh that's thank you I'm reading off of this sheet so I apologize Mr Shen maybe it should have been miss Feliciano uh uh present I deserve that I deserve that please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance great um just a few words first on March 29th 2023 Governor Healey signed into law and 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 allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings the ACT does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st 2023 to March 31st 2025 also pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 3A section 20 I am here by informing all attendees that a video and audio recording is being made of the meeting and the meeting is being live streamed and run live on the city's Community TV channel next on the agenda is the student showcase which we do not have any listed for today um following that is public comment was anyone did anyone sign up for public comment Miss Feliciano no is there anyone on the zoom that is in the attendees section that would like to speak you may raise your hand now so that we can acknowledge you you'd have to use your raise your hand icon okay all right you're feeling fresh raise your hands okay so we're moving on we're gonna move to communication and Report student reports we do have here we don't have a Holio High School North Campus student representative but we do have our Dean campus representative so Mr Kennedy okay um first things first August 16th kicks off our 9th grade orientation beginning at 8:00 a.m. in the cafeteria next the class of 2025 yearbook theme will be a newspaper style design taking it back to the headlines and black and white print I have literally never held in a newspaper in my life so this will be interesting um this year we have we have the following elective intro to philosophy yearbook in Spanish um next senior privileges will be different this year seniors will have the opportunity to leave after their third block if they are eligible for senior privileges that is different because for the well since I've been here senior privileges have been uh where students come in late and we think it's more efficient if students come in or can leave early that way if they have a job that they want to pick up an extra shift on they can do that after school next uh and lastly Student Government will be transitioning to a student council to follow the district's model of equity and diversity that is all of my updates for today if I if you have any questions feel free to ask any questions nope okay thank you so much Mr Kennedy moving on to Vice chair reports training date um says obviously we're going to be presenting today um our local control subcommittee will be presenting the school committee capacity building plan with that being said there's going to be a lot of individualized training that we will have to start taking so the first meeting in September which is September 9th our very first school committee we're going to make this very transparent so everybody's going to see us train um we're going to go ahead and just have a short meeting where we're just going to get a quick brief update of how the start of school started and then from there we're going straight into our training uh the first one will be in finance um are there any questions in regards to that okay great the next thing is conflict of interest forms now that we're coming into the new school year making sure that um anyone who may have a conflict of interest make sure you go on to the website fill out the form um one to myself and one to um is it the city clerk I believe or no it's one to the city clerk just um and also with the school committee um you would have to file but thank you any questions on that NOP great school calendar uh dates for the upcoming meetings um so December 9th um apparently it shows that we would have our meeting on the Tuesday after that Monday um because it was a holiday but actually that's National pastry day I don't know if that's really a holiday I mean we could look at as a holiday if that's what you really want to do um but we didn't notice that there's a holiday so we're going to revert back to December 9th meeting to that Monday versus the 10th if I am wrong Ellie I know you're going to tell me okay so with that being said once it's moved back to the 9th I want you to bring your best pastry December 9th okay any questions okay so we're going to go ahead and move to the superintendent receiver reports oh we got a question Mr Sheen are we going to keep December 23rd since the schools are closed or is that going to be inconvenience me I think school's closed the 22nd 2 the 20 Friday the 21st is the or Friday the 20th I think is the last day yeah so December 23rd um actually that's the whole vacation week school committee can be nice we'll take the if that's if that that's the will of the body to take December 23rd off we'll have the meeting December 9th but obviously if the other subcommittees because the work doesn't stop meet in between the first three weeks before that vacation and then when we come back in January we can go ahead and give updates as to what we did is that good with everyone so we'll go ahead and cancel the December 23rd meeting I know our superintendent receiver wouldn't mind all right you're up all right included in your packet I have a few updates uh for our first meeting one being Staffing um so I've been able to provide all of you with a list of all of our vacancies we um we are in a little bit of better shape than we were last year the last time we reported out um on Staffing we had about 82 vacancies and that was in March 82 teaching vacancies and in your report uh what you see uh for as of last Monday was 72 the difference being that we actually have candidates in the pipeline so I believe we have about 10 candidates in the pipeline that are not part of this report that are uh uh in the process of getting onboarded um so as of 812 which is last Monday um we're we're at approximately 62 um this is consistent with what we're seeing across the state ac across the country um and uh special education continues to be one of the areas of of greatest concern in terms of being able to um hire special education position so uh our our chief of pupil Services is working closely with our finance department to evaluate um you know what vendors are out there that can help uh fill the the gaps that we see in in these vacancies um and they're going to be reporting uh to me on on on you know what the next steps are schools are also in the prog in the process of creating um alternative plans so an example that I can give uh of even as recent as today uh ideally we'd like to see in grades three to five we would like to see uh three teachers per grade level regardless of enrollment so at Lawrence as an example we you so that they can departmentalize um at Lawrence we had really small class sizes in those grades with three teachers and they're they're struggling to find teachers to fill those positions so one of the changes that that they're going to be making is collapsing instead of having three home rooms per grade um they're going to be collaps collapsing it down to two which means if we get more um more students in we probably would have to have a cap on on you know uh before we start opening a new classroom so those are that's just one plan every school is working with their supervisor to develop plans on on based on the vacancies that they have how are they going to uh make sure that they're ready for for the start of the school year um but the biggest concerns are like I said special education um you know middle schools obviously continue to be a concern there with the amount of vacancies and then Lawrence uh being a smaller school but that amount of vacancy so our team is working extremely hard we're we're seeing candidates apply to positions which is much different than what we've seen in previous years like the the last couple years we just we'd have vacancies there all year and no applicants it's it's changed um we've talked about this during our budget process that other communities are losing uh Sr funding and uh which is creating more people in the field that are are coming to hoolio to fill some of these vacancies other strategies that we've tried um so we have the ability to declare subject area critical needs or uh different schools critical needs one of the uh so we've used that so uh Sullivan has been added as one of our critical need um locations which means uh if you come to work at Sullivan you get an additional stien because it's a critical need um uh location and uh you know we've done that with a couple of our vocational programs um that are really hard to fill um uh we we've deemed them critical needs which allows us to offer the any incoming candidate an additional stipend on top of what their their base pay would be so those were some of the strategies that that we've employed to to help uh battle the to help attract people to come to Holio Public Schools Miss wison um my question is the 11 vacancies listed under pupil Services um can you help me understand what those positions are and why they're not under the schools and why they're listed under pupil Services yeah it could be districtwide itinerant service providers like uh School psychologists um or evaluation uh team leaders that they they just show up in the District budget um not at at a school-based budget um I'd be happy to provide you with a Breakout of all 11 of those positions if you be great thank you are there any other questions oh Miss Wilson so looking at dunu school that there there's three special education teacher vacancies how many teachers do they special ed teachers do they actually have on staff um I don't know that off the top of my head but I can I can certainly look up their I'm just thinking like if there's five that are slated to be there and we have three vacancies there's more than five because we have you know we do have the a program there so there's there's definitely uh special education inclusion teachers and then there's special educations for their sub separate programs um and then um under special education does that include our uh par professional par educator staff are they listed in here or or would that be separate not listed in there these are only positions that are in the uh HDA okay I would like an update on um that as well I did write in um so as of Monday we we have 39 vacancies with seven candidates in the pipeline so we are about 88% staffed with our pair of professional positions which is better than where we were last year not where we' like to be all right thank you any other questions um I just have one question in regards to the special education and the services um I know that everybody's been struggling across the board especially with speech language pathology services and stuff and also with the psy psychologist there was time owed did we at at least meet that because if we're going to kind of going to be adding to it so what other measures can we be looking at to put into place so that what's written into the IEP at least those services are met plus whatever was owed to them yeah that's so that is exactly what um Maryanne is working with Sean to figure out not just how can we fill the these vacancies but how can we make sure that we're catching up on our compensatory services so um I can certain so Maryann is meeting with our finance team to figure out like here's the amount of vacancies that we have what are some vendors out there that could help support and with with you know compensatory services in mind and what could we what could we afford within the budget okay any other questions so go ahead and move on to the update on the Strategic plan yes so I did uh provide the school committee with a letter in your packet and um I believe an email last Thursday um just updating you on where we're at relative to the uh the 18 benchmarks that we set for ourselves in the previous year um we do plan on providing a much more detailed look at every you know every uh metric that we have listed in the Strategic plan and Reporting out to to the committee and the community where we're at um early indicators show that you know our early literacy work is is yielding gains our kids are growing for sure um in in grades uh K to2 if this is any indication of what we're going to see on our mcast um data you know I anticipate that you know we'll probably be relatively flat again reme reminding everyone that this was the first year that we had we we did rezone so like a comparison from school to school is going to be really difficult because Sullivan you know what it what Sullivan is today compared to what Sullivan was or last year compared to what it was the year before or metf and just all of our schools in general with all the rezoning it's it's really hard to put some um teeth to you know a comparison from one year to the next because a lot of the students are just different you know some schools had over 60% of their students are have moved from one school to another school but um early indicators you know um that that information is not really out yet but um if all of our assessment data is telling us we're going to see some some progress in in our third grade uh based on what we're seeing in early literacy uh star data and we're going to be relatively flat in um our non on non um third grade if if I had to guess based on this information but that information will come out later in the year and we'll you know we'll cover that as well uh the other data point I wanted to lift is uh that I think you know looking at closing the year um the amount of progress that our English language Learners have made uh we we're struggling definitely in in the progress they're making in high schools but non- high schools we've met our our Benchmark and the the Target that we set for the year and um we've exited more elll students than we have in the past few years so we almost doubled those numbers and when when I you know when we collect all this information and have that report ready for you uh those are just two really bright spots that I wanted to lift our early literacy work and uh the work that our academics team and Rebecca son and Jen Albury and all of our elll teachers across the district is really um is really uh coming you know showing the results for for those uh subgroups of students um we met about 12 out of the 18 benchmarks that we set and part partially met five of them the one that we didn't meet um is chronic absenteeism so we met our Benchmark for grades um for elementary schools but in in middle and high school we actually saw an increase in chronic absenteeism so it's relatively flat from last year from the year before to this year uh we met our Target in elementary but in middle and high school we saw a slight increase in chronic absenteeism and you know we just need to double down our efforts you know the states um the state has seen some progress Statewide on chronic absenteeism going down and they're put putting together some resources and best practices and just just like we went in last year on teacher retention um we're going to be going in on attendance you know it's it's something that we've been doing a lot of things around attendance we have a family engagement coordinator at every single school um they've all taken on a case load of chronic absenteeism students and just trying to troubleshoot with families you know we have an attendance task force that meets every single month um we have attendance meetings happening weekly but we really need to clearly everything that we're doing um is not yielding the results that we'd like to see so we just need to dig a little deeper and figure out what are some best practices out there what are we doing what that we need to stop doing what are we not doing that we need to start doing and even within some of our own structures how can we improve them right we have an attendance meeting every week but what do those attendance meetings look like we have an attendance task force but what's the focus of their work and um can we be utilizing that group better uh we're launching a campaign um you're going to see this a lot this year here Ai and we are like really playing with our families that um if we want to see the progress that we'd like to see for our students academic achievement we need our kids to be here over 48% of our kids are uh you know are chronically absent which means that uh they they're missing 18 or more days of school and the impact that that has on our school cultures the impact that that has on you know on the teachers ability to keep up with you know the pace of of of her teaching and and making sure that you know Anthony in the back of the classroom that's missed 25 days um how do I support Anthony and still uh and and still you know work with the other students that have been there almost every day and are ready to keep moving so those impact just you know they have a huge impact on this on on a lot of what we're trying to do and I just you know plea with families um to to make sure they're getting their kids to school you know I think about uh you know when I was a kid you guys all maybe all heard the story of uh my science teacher trying to convince my mom that I was making a mistake in eighth grade and choosing the school that I was choosing and my mom telling my science teacher well he's a grown man he can make his own decision Visions I was 12 and I have a 12-year-old son right now and I can tell you right now he's not a grown man and he's not making his own decision so when he tells me I don't want to go to school um you know we push through that and and and and we make sure that he gets to school whatever he's going through you know um and I'm just asking our families to to do put their best foot forward and make sure they're making every effort to prioritize getting their kids to school on time because it matters Mr wahan thank you for that um I know we talked about this topic you know numerous times over the last year you know from the local level to the state level to the National level so it's an issue that we've been um discussing like I said in many many ways is there like maybe a like a packet of Statistics that we can put together to provide the parents with you know um you know showing you know just the um you know the the scale of the more the more absence a person has the less likely that they're going to they're going to graduate or they're going to go to college now you can put together those those stats there's something we can put together a packet to provide the parents with some hard you know factual fact fact-based evidence you know um instead of just um uh pleading with them just you know H them that those those stats thank you yeah that that's a great Point Mr wellan and we absolutely you know we actually had a meeting this morning where we were looking at student data and one of the ways one of the ways we want to look at our student data is how our student to are chronically absent performing um in comparison to their peers so um that's a great push and I I know that initially when we launched our attendance campaign a couple of years ago the attend today achieve tomorrow that was going to be part of you know we wanted to have banners out there t-shirts made that had all of these statistics and unfortunately that just wasn't implemented in a in a way that I'd like to see and we you know we got to double down and and get back to that's a great idea and and you know we're going to it'll definitely be a part of our plan moving forward Mr colore uh what are we doing presently to improve our absenteeism yeah so I named some of the things one of the things that we've done is uh We've invested in a family engagement coordinator at every single school that's one resource that is intended to connect families to the school and when kids are out part of their role is to work with families to find out why and to support what them in particularly with a with a group of chronically absent families um that's one thing that we've done another thing that we have we're doing is that every school has regular weekly attendance meetings um I think those attendance meetings could be run better and we need to provide the support to schools to make sure that that's happening um so that's another measure that we're doing so that teams are actually getting together reviewing attendance data Maybe reviewing a list of kids and and figuring out together collectively how are we going to support uh these students one thing that we're look we're also looking to do moving forward is you guys have all seen the attendance reports that we've provided in every single one of our uh updates you know ongoing updates there's a large category of unexcused absences so one of the things that we want to do uh moving forward is is be able to collect data on why our kids absent right now probably 90% of the the absences that we see just it's in an unexcused category and that doesn't really help us get to a root cause of why is it unexcused cuz you're on vacation is it unexcused because you were sick and didn't you know didn't provide a doctor's note is it unexcused because we tried to reach you and we weren't able to get a hold of you we need to get better so um we are going to be so there's a feature that we have in our communication uh database that allows us to text the family and have them select why their kid was absent so it'll be a text that says hey we noticed that Anthony was sick today can you pick from these options why Anthony was out or I said sick but he was absent can you pick from one of these five three options or four options why Anthony was out and hopefully if we get a lot of response we'll be able to collect a lot of information from our families that'll help us you know strategize around the the the big reasons why you know um why kids aren't showing up um I did talk about the attendance task force so we meet with local Partners like uh one hoolio uh Holio Medical Center um River Valley and on a monthly basis we bring all our family engagement coordinators and some of our attendance teams to uh to just you know review some information some it's usually us showing them the work that we're doing around um around attendance and you know we we really need to work more collaboratively with our partners to figure out like here's what we're doing and we love your feedback but how are you helping how are you supporting you know River Valley or you know Holy Oak Medical Center it could be as simple as like are all your doctors you know scheduling appointments you know at 1:00 can we change that so that they're not scheduling appointments during the school day that's one way that some of our medical Partners could could help combat this you know chronic absenteeism problem so those are those are some of the ways that we're we're trying to do it we've looked at Best Practices a lot of the things that we are doing is be best practice I I just think we need to really evaluate what we're doing and and do it better and we need this is one you know I I hear from families all the time Anthony how can we help this is one way families can help get your kids to school every day to the extent possible you can um you know that that's the support that we need from our families Mr Shen you're good um Dr Yadi Dr dad oh my God trying to blend it all together Dr AOG thank you um one thing that I want to say is that when when a when a student gets to that first five absences right um they get like I think I counted something around eight Communications that you get when when you have reached that and of course I still can see how people could miss one of them right like you get a call you get a letter you get an email you get through the app that comes through your school you get um there were like several ways that you could get that information right and um depending on how those Communications happen and what they say they might make families more likely to actually seek the help that they might need or not um when that is the first communication that you get from a school in that volume in terms to say like hey this is really important I think that at that point that is too late if that's how you're engaging with the family at that level I think that that's too late right like how about five Communications about these are resources that we have for family these are things that we can help you out with before you actually get to the adsen ism because sometimes what that what happens is that families feel like they got in trouble right in instead of seeing the school as a resource that could help even if you include in there as the last line hey we're here to help like at that point you the families may not feel at that point that they can have that so I'm just bringing that as an example I think that one of the things that would be important to think about as we are tackling this issue of attendance is how can we make sure that the schools are a resource for families that they know this in an ongoing basis rather than oh you missed this many days of school this is the first time that we're going to offer you help because this was really important right just as things to think about as we move forward thank than you thank you okay I'm not going to mess you up and I'm gonna go with Dr cero Roa thank you so much yes you were talking I was thinking um if a teachers have been trained into detecting bullying and harassment sometimes children do not open they're not open they do not disclose what is going on with them in the schools and they just one of the things that really add to for them not to go to school is because they're being bullied or harassed uh bullying doesn't have to be necessarily physical verbal there's so many ways of bullying and harassment also um could be sexual but also could be um mental and you know all this creates an environment that is hostile for Learning and um and they don't want to go to school where they say that teachers sometimes get bullied or that their friends get bullied so um so my question is well are the teachers and professionals getting the training to really um detect or know when a student is being bullied or harassed because I think that can also no help yeah I mean the answer to that question is yeah we have required training for through gcn for all of our uh staff and you know that is definitely one of the modules that they go through but um you know that so yes there is some training um I don't know that the effectiveness of that training but but all staff do get it sorry for the feedback no it's it's great thank you um oh okay Mr Shen I just have a a question on a comment you just made the you don't know the effectiveness of the training but they get it I mean let's get better training then okay I I just mean like why are we putting some like are you saying the training that we're giving isn't effective by gcn no I I we just haven't meas like we haven't it's hard to measure uh an online training platform on what is required for mandated reporting and what the bullying you know all the training that you get around bullying like I don't even know know how to begin monitoring how what the effectiveness of it how do you measure whether that worked or didn't okay so I guess my point isn't to me it doesn't even matter what the training topic is but everything that we are putting out you should consider effective if not it needs to be changed so if we're just going through steps to check a box then we're doing the wrong thing and I would hope that your senior leadership team whoever's making these recommendations to you is putting out training they believe is going to be effective and if it can't be monitored then we need to do something better okay okay so I hear the part about the the text messaging thing yeah I just have some concerns in that on that um phones do get changed a lot okay um I know I have one patient that changed it five times in three months so what would be the next step if that because when we're looking at monitoring and the data collection on it right it's about holding accountability you're you're pleading with families so then if you're not getting the response or even let's just say you're just sending the text message you're you're going to put I'm I'm going to assume your son or daughter whomever was out today um um you're not going to put a name because you also don't know who has that phone number at that time it could actually have been changed and now it was given to another person and what if that person's like okay yeah one you know and it's really not them it's kind of collecting false data but I mean we'll get that but what if you don't get a response then what are we going to do as Part B is someone going to call and try to contact the family and say hey I noticed that your child wasn't here yesterday or today um is everything okay is this something we can help you with blah blah blah blah blah don't automatically just say are they sick or anything just offer help and support first to hear what the what the response is going to be you talked about appointments the one o00 slot I'm gonna be quite honest when you're looking at Psychiatry you're going to take whatever's given to you if it's 10:00 a.m. you're going to be there at 10:00 a.m. your child's not going to the school reason being there's not enough child psychologist psychi out there so when you're getting that met appointment and you need those scripts you're going to be there you miss those appointments these people are very quick to drop you like there's no tomorrow and then who's going to be prescribing for your child because now you got to go into a wait list with another CSO agency or another Psychiatry office and the wait list is very long um expecting everyone to wait until after 3:00 mainly open till 5: so how many patients can they actually see I know and I get it it's very hard but if they have medical complex needs that they have to go see these providers and Specialists then we've also got to come up with a better way to actually still meet their needs in between because technically if they are going to these appointments and it's a required appointment um it's not for a tooth cleaning then what are we going to do to help them even if it's providing the packet for the rest of the school day or whatever so they can take and then you follow up in the morning oh go ahead yeah I mean mild I uh Miss Le fave what I was trying to articulate was an example of you know what conversations could we have with our partners that was not intended in any way of saying hey here's a solution I'm just trying I'm I was trying to describe that when we meet with our attendance task force and we meet with our partners it's usually us showing them here's what here's our data here's what we're doing and I think that one way we can improve how that task force is used is is to yes do that but also to to see how they can support and what changes they can make to help uh you know help combat this attendance issue so I used an example that that wasn't intended really to be a solution or anything like that it was just just an example that I threw out there all right thank you I have Miss Wilson then I have Mr Shen I'm fine thank you oh okay Mr Shen so I'm wondering when the thing about chronic attendance and in the start of the school year to come are you are teachers and principles pulling the data from students who are individualized students that were chronically absent last year and meeting with families now as they prepare for this school year talking about the importance of attendance um teacher aren't doing that right now over the summer are um Steven Mel who is uh you know Le who who's overseeing a lot of our all of our family engagement coordinators um that's that's something that he has been working with with our family engagement coordinators to start to to identify those families now and start uh working with them to you know to express the importance um of of getting you know changing that and that's tied into the retention conversation that we had towards before the uh before the school year ended around you know that there was a lot of discussion about you know attendance and um academic proficiency and and and looking at that more regularly and having conversations with families that was some of the work that they did um I think the the really what I wanted to raise today is that that we really have to evaluate what we're doing and figure out if if we're doing things poorly do them better if we're not doing things that we need to start doing then do that and you know I use the teacher retention um process and the rezoning process as an example of like you know we went we got stakeholder input stakeholder and get we we created a task force we you know we reviewed all of this and ended up with some recommendations I want to you know I really want to go on attendance and chronic absenteeism this year to really pressure test some of the stuff that we're doing and make sure that you know make sure that we're the things that we are doing are our best practice and that we're we're getting better at supporting families and students to get to school more regularly thank you we'll go ahead and move on to the Yonder procedure update yeah so uh this is proced these were procedures that were already vetted through policy and uh I believe the Dei subcommittee also looked at these procedures um starting you know starting our planning uh for the for the upcoming school year our our school leaders have expressed really needing to to change adjust our practice with the Yonder bag um when when we first came to the the committee we we talked about having visited schools that have implemented this successfully one of them being Central High School over in Springfield and written into our procedures was that you know Central actually has a process where kids walk in they show that they have a Yonder bag they show they have a phone in their Yonder pouch they go through and if they don't have a Yonder bag that they're they they search their bags to make sure they don't have a phone um our school leader are expressing that if we really want this Yonder bag program to work that that is something that we need to move forward with that we need to adjust in our procedures I did not want to make a change that big uh for the upcoming school year it wouldn't be implemented anyway day one because we are looking at supply chain issues um on the Yonder bag so we we're you know we're already kind of behind and in getting these supplies in um but I I just just want to be perfectly clear that like I do not want to move forward with this Pro change in our practice if it's not something that this committee would support um but I you know I I did bring our our principal you could see uh Lori McKenna and Rue um and Lyn bashard are over there in case uh anyone had any questions for them why they think this is an important change to the procedure and and why they they are recommending that we you know that we move forward with this change hey Miss wson first of all I see it being a staffing nightmare um trying to check every student's bag as they come through a door what time are students started to go into a building and who's going to be Staffing that um and great you're going to search my bag so I'm just going to keep it on my body I mean it's it's a two second workaround a kid's going to learn after the first time a bag search that oh they're just going to search my bag so I'm just going to keep it on my person because they're they're not going to search my person so I I just don't feel that uh a search is warranted for every single student who reports they don't have a phone Mr Kennedy a few things first of all superint sto uh how approximately how much money has the district spent on y your bags this this Justice school year um I don't have that information on the top of my had I believe um 40 okay so I'm I'm getting the nod that it was $440,000 this past this past school year and I think it's going to be more next year or no no $440,000 $40,000 okay that seems like a very wise way to spend $40,000 um that was just one thing number two it's amusing to me that that the district thinks that students aren't going to get their phone past the searches um Staffing also yeah that's going to be a nightmare um because we had three searches last year here at Dean three or four searches here at Dean and it took each Stu it took the students about an hour to get through there uh so you talk about time off learning that's time off learning um and we had just our regular staff who have a hundred other things to do searching students backpacks uh also instead of looking taking a look in the mirror and wondering why students are constantly on their phones why students are constantly chronically absent why teachers don't want to work here and aren't applying for positions you said they have started applying for the positions not enough teachers have applied for the positions instead of looking why these things are happening Why students don't want to come to school you're putting more bars on the windows in these schools look at the curriculum look at the way students are taught talk to the students not three or four students four students stick to the agenda the Yonder procedure Yonder you're right Yonder I'm sorry that is still why are students on their phones all the time why don't they want to put in their on bags please just look I'm G to move it to Dr cabaya and then Mr Shen things um there are some of the school leaders here like to hear from them what they think about the this policy so we have principal r m and Miss McKenna sorry and Miss McKenna and are we bringing up the other principal or them two for right now uh Miss bashard is here as well if if and Mr Tiano if they by all means if you can come to where uh Miss Feliciano is and please make sure to that the green light is on and just state your name and your title I I have a point of order before we have a point of order what is the I have Mr she in here I'm sorry that's Mr she the chair what is the point of dealing with this tonight is the school committee making a recommendation or we just sending this to a subcommittee because if it's going to a subcommittee this discussion should happen there so what is the point because there's no motion on the floor there's no business right now so is there a motion to refer to the policy subcommittee I haven't heard anything I'll make that motion so I have a motion by Mr shien to refer to the policy subcommittee seconded by Dr Rivera cologne any discussion all those question okay Dr Cav does that mean that we won't have the respon from the school leaders now it wouldn't be now but they would be going to the policy subcommittee because they're here now so with that being said we have a motion we have a second all those in favor say I I I any opposed okay so we have two oppositions and one two three four five six yays so motion passes um the Yonder procedure update will be referred to the policy subcommittee for discussion and if the the leaders could be there um speak with the the subcommittee um any recommendations as our receiver superintendent had mentioned this is not something that's going to be implemented on Monday August 26 um there's still much that needs to be to be kind of hashed out and and done um but we hope to see you at that meeting sorry what we could do is we could pull together some information and share it with you ahead of time so you get thinking so then you can see where we're coming from and the data as well any data that you collected from last year yep absolutely great thank you so much so we're going to go ahead and move on to new business uh first on the under new new business is a superintendent receiver evaluation uh this is the evaluation that was received from Des so um is there a motion that the school committee vote to receive the superintendent reive evaluation from desie I have a motion by Mr cmore seconded by Miss Wilson um any discussion we're GNA go with Miss Wilson then we'll move on to Mr Wan so in preparation for moving out of receivership you know one thing I did look at is I was looking at the Desi form um for rating uh superintendents um for their evaluations and you know I I guess you know my question is um you know and this is just a general question I'm not asking anyone but you know I'm kind of wondering you know is there any rationale why the rating categories are different that the state is using than the one that they I'm just thinking about you know the process and trying to transfer it over to us in the future and the categories that the state uses is different than the category that's on the desie superintendent form just first and foremost so you know when I think about continuity when I think about you know understanding the process I I you know I just want to you know speak to the fact that as we are learning this skill set to transfer it over it just doesn't seem like it's going to be a smooth transition for us to move to the the Desi form that's required rather than you know the receivership form that's being used now I'm hoping that made some sense you're looking at me who I am or he is you are this Le fave sorry I am doing I'm doing one of those no because you know what um just thinking about what you were saying when when the format well the process that we're going to be hearing about in just a few it'll be not the next one but the following one the next one hopefully it'll be just as quick um is that's what our job is to do is to create that evaluation along with the community advisory team obviously for the first year like this year um they're going to want our feedback and to develop those those measures that we're going to be looking at um through data collection but after that it's really about what are we we going to be focused on so when you're creating that strategic plan after this this one finishes right and the school committee has control again then we're going to be looking and evaluating based on what we have in that strategic plan right now the the evaluation is based on the turnaround plan so what are the different sections so it's the whole child family engagement curriculum it's it's all those separate things that they're looking at those categories that obviously 10 years ago we we weren't bearing so well um so that is the focus and that's how they base theirs uh once we get into ours obviously that that will more than likely look different so that's why I was looking at you like that no I just find it I just find it interesting that the department of educ a um has set up a a process with categories for every single School employee um that goes through the evaluation process with these particular categories of ratings and yet they don't use that same scale for a receiver receiver you know what I mean as far as you know for someone understanding the process you know it doesn't seem to veryy uh the continuity is not there gotcha all right let me see if I remember correctly um I believe I had Mr Sheen or you going to tell me no I was wrong I was wrong I had and I'm not gonna mess up your name Dr Rivera clone didn't didn't you raise your hand oh my God I'm seeing things okay all right so with that be oh was Mr Wally and I was eventually Gonna Get Down the Line go for it thank you um yeah just want to thank desie for the for the hard work that they put together I know it's a challenging document hard work I just want to just um thank them for me and um I know we had a a local super um attendant out here in western Mass that was uh they got their their first um uh uh what do you call it evaluation it was like needs needs Improvement so you know it's kind of a daunting task and um you know just to have your hard work out there in the public it's uh it's hard for anyone so uh just want to thank Mr sorto and just want to thank DY for their hard work thank you seeing no more discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed okay so motion passes unanimously next is leadership accountability and measurement sub commmittee do I have a motion to the school committee vote to approve the reestablishment of the leadership accountability and measurement subcommittee is there motion can we just get an explanation as to the scope of this uh I didn't discuss it yet okay so real quickly leadership accountability and measurement Point order I need a mo I'm sorry I make a motion make a motion to what going back to do you hear a motion approve the reestablishment so I have a motion by Miss Wilson and second Dr Roa Roa okay so now open for discussion so I'll go back to you Miss Wilson so what's the scope of the of of the this new subcommittee so it's TR not a new subcommittee it's a committee establishment of the what's the scope of the reestablishment of this sub commmittee that's where the superintendent evaluation hiring processes so the reestablishment of it will be that will be the committee that will be working with the community advisory team when we're looking at uh the superintendent process that was one of the Committees that we had previous to to re ship um and so that I think it's very vital that we reestablish that that committee and not only that like I like we've mentioned before there's going to be a lot of work and we're going to hear about that next um so we've got to make sure that we've got the people in place really do the work make sure that we are holding these meetings and making sure that we're meeting every goal that we've got to meet so any further discussion or question Mr wahan yeah I um um agree with the um the committee being formed I'm going to vote no the committee one member that you recommended or this committee whose attendance has been for black call the better word for so I'll be voting no thank you all I haven't even gotten to that one that's a second recommendation so with the first recommendation that we have is there any further discussion for the reestablishment mayor Garcia do you heard just Mr will you heard what you said so this first one we're going to create it the second one I think approves the members so y if I mean I'm not sure how you're going to vote just want to make sure you understood so that way we can get the committee at least uh formed powerless okay so all those in favor say I I any oppos good motion passes unanimously going on to num B that the school committee vote to approve the appointments of the following members to the leadership accountability and measurement subcommittee and that would be Dr Gloria cavayero Roa leading as chair Mr Gustavo Romero and Mr Devon Shen is there a motion all moved so motion has been moved by Mr Sheen is there a second by whom by Miss Wilson now Mr wahan you want to repoint it no okay all right just asking um May Garcia have each of these members accepted the appointment to serve on these no I haven't reached out to them for acceptance we all have a job and a duty to do uh we have stretched very thin um our other members and the expectations that we've asked of them and they have a lot of work on on their plate and I think it's time that every of the other members start um stepping up and really helping out um I understand the concern from Mr wahan and again will that's why you have a vice chair that if that member is not present at any meetings if there's a member that's not present the vice chair will then be there at that meeting that's why we got to make sure Vice chair knows of when the meetings are so that that way we're there just like leadership was just here and they sat there and then they still went home right so whether they're going to be present uh participating or not we'll still have that that member that can be there to cover okay so I get the I get the concerns but um again look look at the the name of it leadership and accountability accountability is the word right there so we got to hold each other accountable making sure that we get the job done any further discussion okay all those in favor I I any opposed okay um next on the agenda is everything everybody's been waiting for and I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Dr yadet Rivera cologne on the presentation of building school committee capacity for local control plan thank you so much so today we get to talk about our holuk school committee capacity building plan to resume local control of Holio Public Schools this really encompasses professional development to assume school committee roles and responsibilities and elements of this plans may be adjusted as we need you want me to show the slides uh I don't have what she wants to share but she is a co-host so that's better here we go so one of the first things that we did in terms of updates for this plan was to change his name because originally we had it as the transition plan and that was something that was a point of confusion for the public so we wanted to change that name to the building the Holio school committee capacity to resume local control of Hol Public Schools this includes professional development for the roles and responsibilities and just to make sure that everybody knows that as we go through and we learn more and go through the process some elements of these plans may be adjusted based on any changes that occur basically the goal of this plan is to empower our school committee um in the path to local control so learning the ropes making sure that all Holio school committee members receive training in on key areas like setting educational goals for the district hiring and evaluating the superintendent fiscal responsibilities like finance and budget working with unions collective bargaining bargaining and policy making so making sure that we continue to focus on Improvement collaboration with stakeholders and maintaining legal and fiduciary responsibilities as part of the plan we established first a a timeline where we started our initial discussion back in March 15 and we scheduled eight meetings and today is our meeting where we're actually looking at the um CH now the capacity building plan but that you can see how we were building through all this plan and we had um and all these meetings were open to the public four key areas that we're going to be focused on finding the best leader developing the process to hire a strong superintendent for our schools providing effective feedback being able to have everything that we need in order to supervise and provide regular feedback managing our money wisely learning more about how to manage that budget effectively and developing strong policies making sure that we have clear rules that guide our decisions how we're getting there each area will have specific tasks and deadlines we'll be learning new skills we'll be able to know setting the goals helping setting the goals so that we know what we're looking looking for and what success looks like for our current receiver and we'll find of course ways to keep everyone informed so we had the opportunity to I'm going to switch this for one second we have the opportunity to look through this and oh my goodness I don't know I broke it here we go so we worked through all the different work streams that we were looking for like I mentioned before hiring the super super intendent evaluation finance and budget and policy development note that this plan is open to the public and available one of the things that we were still looking for or thinking more about was some of the things that we needed to update as well as the formation of our community advisory so I'm s that oh and hopefully I don't break it again there we go so the summary of the updates changes that we made to the original plan that was used in our last meeting officially changing the name to Holio school committee capacity building plan which is the goal of this plan addition of school committee legal council selection of our policy priorities and we discuss having section B board governance and operations section H negotiation and also to make sure and double check that we have our budget calendar aligned with the updated District's calendar things that we after discussing all the changes making sure that we have all the answers from um Desi and with the and I say it again thank you to our Desi Partners Lauren woo and Jennifer woo Who were amazing through this process and also to the commissioner for guidance in this process now today as part of our local Control subcommittee meeting we um one of the things that we came up together was to recommend to report report out on updates on the implementation of the plan back to Desi every two months so that's the summary of where we have been where we're coming from where we have been to and then we have also our community advisory team which at this point one thing to really point out is that is under um the guidance of the school committee they are the school committee will F will determine the direction of the commun community advisory team one example of where we can start using um the advice of our community advisory team would be um once Desi tells us that we are going to be exiting um receivership being able to come with come forward with the committee together and establish um how to support the development of competencies um from the community that they would like to see in our next superintendent of the district and with that that's my report questions concerns the purpose of discussion I'll make a motion that we vote to approve the final plan of the building school committee capacity for local control uh presented by the local control subcommittee by motion's been made thank you Devin there is there a second second seconded Dr Gloria cavayero Roa uh open for discussion questions comments thank you yeah um I just want to thank uh Dr cologne for all her hard work um getting getting the process going thank you Mrs Wilson um this was a a huge Endeavor um I don't want to say last minute but of but in some ways it was a it was a uh a a prayer a hope and then uh we hit the ground running um full out Sprint like Olympian Sprint I would actually say um to make you know to get this plan in place um in the amount of time so um you know I just want to recommend everyone who put effort into this plan um for a brighter future for the city of hoo and the local control thank you anybody else want to be part of this vote I'll I'll add a few words to myself and also I just want to recognize too that our state representative Patricia Duffy is here in the audience thank you so much Pat for being here being so incredibly supportive uh through this whole thing Pat and I we meet every two weeks and certainly this is the one item that's first on our agenda every every time we have met all the way to leading to the point where new Miss commissioner came in and set the the path forward and so certainly want to acknowledge and thank the commissioner for being such an incredible partner five beginning when it was it February or so when this kicked off when we didn't feel like we were Partners at all uh in this whole process and just acknowledging the fact that it's never been done and none of us knew what to do but we were going to figure it out together and and agree to come to the table himself and and that was it was a brand new day after that and so certainly what's in front of us has been a total of eight meetings that took place between the local control subcommittee and a commissioner to come up with this path forward now the big question that folks ask me all the time is all right so when are we getting out of receivership is it going to be tomorrow is it going to be the start of the scho here uh well so it's going to be as quickly as um this board can move in capacity building uh and this plan outlines what it is we need to do and the vice chair is going to keep a a tight rope on each and every one of us to make sure that we hit our Target so that we get trained up and ready because once we are in control just so that the public understands a lot of the members here on this side of the table haven't been on a board while we were in control and there is a level of responsibility to it that is critical um to support the day-to-day operations of the district um and stumbling in that process there's no time or room for that so we want to make sure we're fully prepared capable and ready uh when that transition starts that we can be as fluid as possible um so yes good job Dr yadet um and every members who helped get us to this Point um and you know let's let's approve this thing so that we can start focusing on building this advisory committee and and start engaging the stakeholders through implementation just follow thank you I would also like to thank the members of the school committee that were here before me because this school committee kept meeting kept working hard so that now J had that path you know built by all the these people who really were here working hard and was easier for you because the school committee continue being an active committee even though they were in receivership so do we H is the recommendation is that the school committee vote oh I'm oh we already did made the motion we in the mo and we didn't we were kind of stalling till you got back so we didn't vote without you but sorry thank you for stalling let's make it unanimous all those in favor say I I any opposed great motion passes unanimously excellent thank you again Dr Rivera cologne but your job doesn't stop there um because the local control subcommittee will continue um doing the work that they've been doing all right moving on to section D policy revision as you can see here we have one two three four policies we have oh Dr Rivera colone sorry I forgot one thing oh go for it so one of the things that we did was to recommend to report out to Desi every two months so oh every two months yes oh every other month right okay okay starting September yes okay yep I wrote that down okay thank making sure yeah all right so for policy revisions we have ba school committee operational goals baa evaluation of school committee operational procedures um evaluation of school committee operation oh that's what I just said um BB school committee legal status and bbaa school Committee Member Authority if you looked at the attachments you will see that anything that was highlighted with a line across is the words that we're going to Omit everything read in caps is the words that we would like to put in there to replace so with that being said um the recommendation is that the school committee vote to recommend that the superintendent receiver review the recommendations and post for feedback comments for two weeks do we have a motion so moved okay so I have Mr colore seconded by Miss Wilson any discussion yes um um Miss Wilson on bbaa um one of our members came to us bbaa bbaa School Committee Member Authority and um there was just a recommendation that we change um bullet number nine to refer questions and complaints to the property School Personnel Department instead of the term so removing the term authorities and replacing that with Personnel Department okay let me it was recommended I'm not sure how the full body feels about that um Mr Shen I think it should just be to refer whatever that Line's going to be to the superintendent so refer that individual school committee members shouldn't be going the department like we have one person to go to and that's the superintendent so that recommendation will then be to write that down Mr Mr soda so it be may I clarify go ahead so number nine would be to refer questions and complaints to the superintendent and that's with regards to our Authority school committee members Authority school committee will function as a body the duties and obligations of the individual Committee Member may be enumerated as follows to refer questions and complaints to the oh I can't change on here so yeah I need access to I don't know who's the owner of this document not no that would be that would be me that would be you not me I'll work with you on that okay okay okay so well not here I have to go from the outside as a matter of fact let me do that right now because I know myself can I BBA you said B AA bbaa number nine what I'm gonna may I speak further absolutely thank you um it does say the duties and obligations of the individual Committee Member may be enumerated as follows and then if we were to say to refer questions and complaints to the would individually we' go to the superintendent or individually would we go to the chair Vice chair I'm just asking a you know the pro a process uh from the standpoint what each one of us be directing our questions to the superintendent and would that be maybe burdensome where some could be directed to the chair Vice chair just for process perspective I'm wondering if it has to do with District concerns say that you get reached out by a constituent I think I UND I'm sorry I'm getting my brain's starting to defuzz I think it's actually if there's a concern over any of our programs any of our the laws any of you know things of that sort so I think the proper School authorities I think would be able to say remain back to uh the superintendent as was previously spoken so I'm changing it we haven't voted on that yet okay so kind of amending that one so should we take these separately or then should we just substitute um authorities to to superintendent y questions and complaints to the superintendent superintendant it's part of the policy yeah these are the policies that we we reviewed and there we didn't get through all of them at the um Retreat um and obviously these are not all the ones that we've reviewed um but as we've made the changes um we were taking them in pieces so that it's not becoming overwhelming so we P brought forth the first four our next meeting I have one two three more um we're just going section by section and kind of not to overwhelm okay all right is there any further discussion so with the amendment to change section nine on BB AA School member Authority all those in favor say I I I any opposed we have one absent one absent okay all right great moving on to orders section e introduced by Committee Member John wahan that the school committee referred to the receiver superintendent on having students lead the school committee meetings on the Pledge of Allegiance once a month thank you uh this topic came up at our last joint meeting with the city council um just a little background the city council may had made a um order around 10 10 years ago or so to invite uh one one student each meeting to assist the city council in the Pledge of Allegiance okay so that was that was the heart of the order and whatever reason that order was never fulfilled the obligations were never performed okay so I think in their I think the council is reviewing their orders and that order just for whatever reason went by the wayside so it was referred to the Joint meeting and we suggested that maybe the schools Department the school committee can school department school committee can maybe take this take this over um I think we recommended maybe I would like to see a like a class you know each meeting the school can have a you know one home room or one one class assist city counil with the Pledge of Allegiance um so I don't know whether uh this body want to refer that to the policy committee do we want to discuss it here I know the uh Mr SoDo was at the meeting not sure if had any concerns but that was our thought that maybe um instead of one um one student just to make it more Broad and have have a class and a um like a rotating uh schedule you know e school you know can just take a turn at it so those are what those are our thoughts um Mar Garcia a motion to forward recommendation Anthony SoDo yeah that's that's what yeah is that what the okay yeah so okay so so I have a motion by the mayor is there a second Gloria so hold on May and Gloria Mr Shen okay so just so I understand the order CU I'm not sure what's written is what you said so this says to have students lead the Pledge of Allegiance at school committee meetings which I'm fine with that obviously but is this should this be to organize for students to lead the Pledge of Allegiance City Council meetings no I think it's just okay just so um what I will say is that that would be the city council to decide because that is their meeting it's not for them to go during The Joint City Council school committee I know that I believe we had a talk about this and you mentioned you know even here if we you know we start moving that forward so one of the things that I was thinking when I put this on here is we have the student showcase so we could have the students that are here for the student showcase to to lead us off in the pledge of Alle agents and at least the students every month um at least doing that um but when it comes to the city council and what we do I think they should handle that Mr wahan my only question is what is the capacity of this room for the number of people based on the fire department I get concerned when there's 60 70 people did you want to answer that or I mean if it if we have to move I I think we've moved before um but I mean the Pledge of Allegiance well excuse me if we're bringing in a class like I'm envisioning of you know 30 30 students and their parents you know I know we had a student Showcase in here a month ago or so there had to be plus us and 60 people in here I I I like to know what what the what the capacity is for for um the fire regulations in this room um we can get that we can get that information I I think it's going to be hard to get like a lot of people to come just for the Pledge of Allegiance it would be more feasible to get a student on a rotating basis to do that um but even then like you know it I I anticipate there being some challenges with with making that happen but uh that's much more feasible than getting an entire class Mr colore I'm just your question of who is going to coordinate this I don't believe the city the school committee it have to be someone from Administration to coordinate who's going to come here and what time and uh the whole business so that's what we have Miss um Feliciano for but student showcase is always on our agenda Mr caller we have students coming that you know some have come for singing some have come for to show us their cheerleading their dance routines it's been a wide array of things we can use those same students that are here for that purpose to lead us off in the in the Pledge of Allegiance it's not us asking for another school to send grade three over here to to lead us off in the Pledge of Allegiance it's whomever is on our student showcase which we're always um it's it's spread out so it's not just one school all the time it's different schools different types of programs they come out and they they start us off on the Pledge of Allegiance and then right after that guess what it's time for them to Showcase you know so that's basically what it is so whoever is going to be up for student showcase then obviously we' let them know that they have to be here punctual because they're going to be leading off the The Pledge of Allegiance and again it's all based on on um the the receiver superintendent you know if this is something that can be done then it's just gonna say to me that every meeting we're gonna have a showcase no we we've always had showcase today we don't have one cuz School hasn't started but there they always well sometimes there hasn't been but at least once a month because that's something that we discussed at least once a month that we can have a student showcase then those would be the students to um lead us off in the Pledge of Allegiance and I'll tell you one thing if one month we don't have any student showcase we got student reps they can lead us off in the in the Pledge of Allegiance so I'm sure we can find somebody um to do that any further question okay so the motion was to refer oh oh the motion was I'm sorry to refer to the receiver superintendent on having students lead the school committee meetings on the Pledge of Allegiance once a month and then something that I had mentioned was one great way that we could do this and incorporate It Is by utilizing student showcase participants but we're just referring it for him and having Stu students lead the school committee meetings on the Pledge of Allegiance once a month so we had the motion by mayor Garcia seconded by Dr uh cavayero Hoka any further discussion all those in favor I I any opposed okay so motion passes unanimously the next one introduced by Committee Member Milda faave that the school committee refer the parochial schools Mill program to the finance and operations committee for discussion so I have second Mr shien seconded by Mr colore any discussion no great all those in oh Dr Rivera cologne just as the function of the school committee is to educate the public can you tell us more about what this means so as you know this has been out I'm going to go ahead with you you want to yeah this is this is uh on the agenda because um letter went out to the parochial schools um that we are basically giving them two options on how to continue in our free meal program um one of them being just paying for the meals flat out and the other being hey we're happy to continue to provide the free meal program for you but if we incur any losses to the district um that you know that you agree to cover those losses so um I admittedly like I I feel like that was like that communication was a little too fast and we are slowing that down working with them this year and eventually coming up with a plan uh you know long story short like it cost the district $40,000 last year to run the meal program for them we provide Staffing we provide drivers um there's some waste um involved in hey we need 50 meals but only 30 kids are eating stuff like that that actually ends up costing Holio public schools to something to the tune of $440,000 so we need to come up with a plan with them um to make sure that you know there's different strategies that we can minimize that that that cost or that loss to the Holio Public School Meal program um and we're going to work with them this year to figure that out but kind of this upcoming school year is really going to be business as usual we're going to continue to operate like we have but be very transparent with them here's how you did this month here are some strategies that you can Implement to to reduce um the cost and and and then eventually come up with a plan where you know they're agreeing to cover any costs because it's not you know our our Our intention is not to harm them in any way we want to be partners with them and support uh but we also can't lose uh are are funding for uh in within Holio public schools to support that program thank you Mr colore yeah that's a question right now you're just talking about uh perial schools is there any other people out there that we uh deals with um one that I could think think of I'm not sure if we're still doing it but we were providing meals to the senior center program um so you know and we work with them on minimizing those costs but uh any any programs like that we we we're happy to support and be good partners uh but we we just can't do it at a at an operating loss that's that's one of my question operating cost uh is it going to snowball here and go to other uh schools or whatever that they want to get into the same thing that we we're going to need to support them this is only we're only you know the we're putting we're referring this to the finance and operations committee because I think that's that's a huge discussion that needs to happen there um I mean if there's further discussion that that you guys feel with the Joint City Council school committee then that's something something that if one of the counselors wants to bring forward because the senior center as well if that's part of it that's something that they're they're involved with then um I think that's important as well but right now the it's to refer to the to the finance and operations um committee to look at the financial aspect of it and the the effectiveness of the program and making sure that we're still you know trying our hardest to to work with the parochial schools but it's got to be you know 5050 here um any further questions nope great all those in favor I I any opposed okay motion passed next is the meeting minutes um un whatever so that the school committee approved the regular school committee meeting minutes of June 10th is there a motion motion so moved Okay so Miss Wilson is there a second second Mr colore any discussion Mr wahan thank you yeah the um I mean the open meeting law states that the minutes are supposed to be supposed to um record our votes here and a they're also supposed to capture the discussion of the meetings and you know some of these minutes I see just the vote being taken and there's nothing nothing on the discussion that was set forth from the the members they all sit here for couple hours discussing um merits of an issue back and forth and I don't see that in these minutes so I'm hoping to you know to me it's almost a violation okay because again you're supposed to capture supposed to capture know the discuss just can't record the votes two-prong thing I'm hoping that our minutes going forward will capture I keep saying the same thing discussion and some of the thoughts and or and or concerns of our members here thank you thank you Mr wahan and just so you're aware um my family will tell you I'm a proud hoarder of paper so I have our books from 2014 and now will be handing them over to miss Feliciano so that she can see how they were typed up so that it does capture everything um you know we're trying as hard as we can right now with you know and so moving forward they should be as clearly you can see how the agenda came out today is this the agenda that you've been seeing all the other months no no because the agenda now shows the action and it it it identifies specifically what we're here to do and how we're going to take a vote so we're trying to move forward and again and it's all part of that process with the building school committee capacity um but it's one day at a time so hopefully these minutes starting as of August 19th will look a whole lot better thank thank you absolutely so is there any further discussion all those in favor I I any opposed great motion passes unanimously reports committees Finance operations subcommittee that the school committee vote to accept and approve the minutes of the 38 Finance operations subcommittee meeting committe so that's Miss Wilson is second by Dr Rivera cologne any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed okay the local control subcommittee that the school committee vote to accept and approve the minutes of the 610 local Control subcommittee meeting subc commmittee minutes okay so I have it by Dr reric cologne seconded by Mr colore Right any discussion the local control oh okay all those in favor I I any opposed so motion passes great moving on to ongoing business update from subcommittees policy and governance subcommittee Miss Wilson um so uh with the policy and governance subcommittee um I'm still I'm are I'm still waiting to get an update um on our tracking system as to what's been posted online um to have that be updated um so we can then in a Time ly manner after it's gone for public comment be able to come back and move the um the discussion and vote to um have the new policy be uh adopted um and we're still waiting for quite a few I believe for that process so the time is lagging so I um you know so going forward you know I would be hoping that if we take a vote um to send it to the superintendent then then um and then post and then we have the two weeks and then as soon as that two weeks is up it should be um that we can get it back on the agenda for discussion of any public comment that was made and any make any changes and then the adoption um it just seems to be taking um an extensive period of time to get policies updated um so I I'm I'm just expressing that concern and um I'll be working with the the subcommittee members to schedule um monthly meetings so I just wanted everyone to know and that we are focusing on the bees um which were and then also um we will be hearing about that uh referral for the Yonder and section H I believe it was for negoti y b first yes all right great thank you very much Finance operations subcommittee thank you uh I spoke at our finance director in was hoping to have a meeting in this month August and he recommended that we have it in September that will be more in line with his uh quarterly reports so I EnV Vision a meeting in September and uh we will add um topic tonight that we discussed on the uh the meals to that agenda so I'll I'll inform um membership or I'll poll membership of when our next meeting will be thank you great thank you diversity equity and inclusion subcommittee update on naming of new middle school thank you so we didn't meet last time because we had some technical difficulties our next meeting is going to be September 11th at uh 57 Soo and hopefully we will be all set with technology in terms of naming of the the new school uh survey has gone out requesting um the recommendations for naming in the first couple of days we had over a 100 responses which was really amazing and we're still um we're going to have a meeting soon to look over the results of the survey so far um and yeah so we will be discussing that in our next meeting great thank you so much and you get to speak again on oh wait one moment uh Mr wahan sorry about that thank you um thanks again for your work on this uh Dr clone um this topic was discussed at the Joint um our last joint meeting and um just for the public to understand that the naming of any um building sorry goe the naming of any Municipal Building comes under the preview of the city Council so that so the public should be aware of that I think I think we can make any recommendations we want as a body here and I know we um discussed that during the meeting I know um the members from both the school committee and the city council um had a lot of history on Dr peek know his his bios he was a well respected guy even a 100 years later know his Legacy continues so um I just want to make that known thank you mayor Garcia so a a colleague on this body actually revealed some information to me that I'm going to I just want folks to know that I will pursue and look into that Although our ordinance might say city council has confirmation or last say Mass General law says otherwise um that's news to me I just want to let the folks know that I will actively look into it and if it turns out that that's I I just want to do the right way now if this body doesn't mind then that's fine I don't care one way or another we can go in front of the council they can be the last pick um but if it turns out that this body does indeed have that control um then there will be a new uh communication coming to the members of the council as well as this board just to clarify that even further to make sure that we're following the proper steps and so I'll look into that and keep you guys posted thank you get to speak again Dr Rivera cologne lo oh wait one moment Mr colore uh I don't know where this came from this has been at least 50 years that the naming of a school building is the prerogative of school committee uh maybe maybe down the road in the last 50 years they made a change in the state house and didn't notify us or or did notify us and I haven't heard any Communications or seen any communication out effect so I think history has to be looked back to when this was changed or wasn't it ever be school committee so you said the the the prerogative of the school board right yes right so that's that's that's what was brought to my attention as far as Master law concerns this concern and confirms that which is now in conflict with what our ordinance read so I just want to verify I just got this just from the start of the meeting I want to verify that because if that is the case you're absolutely right I want to follow the laws um and and again if this body doesn't mind and wants to count then so be it but certainly want to it's important for us to know that right and that we that we do the right thing so I'll look into that confirm that for you bring that information information back so we can be sure we understand the path we're going forward here okay got it all right great okay one more time Dr Rivera cologne local control so Cody well I already gave an update of what we just did but um just reiterating that the work is not done we will have some meetings planned in the future for implementation and the way of reporting as well so stay tuned sounds great uh Miss Wilson so I know it's every other month and I'm just um if you could let us know which meeting date are you looking at the first or the second meeting date because then that would help subcommittees if any subcommittee wanted to meet prior to we would then be able to establish that date and time thank you all right um moving on to the Joint City Council school committee Mr Colmore just a word and I want to ask the superintendent are we having any problems with any of our boilers in the in the school system at the present time yeah currently um so as part of you know how we planned on using our Esser funds there were some significant upgrades we wanted to do at some schools one of the schools in particular that we looked at um was McMahon school so we wanted to uh Implement not a a boiler replacement but a different type of way of of of heating the buildings um and you know after we got all the bids back it was just way too uh expensive for for us to be able to do it but in doing that due diligence the boiler itself and that system is a lot worse than than um initially reported to us they found like a hole in in in this big tank that holds water that then Heats gets heated and then distributes heat throughout the building so um there's there's a heightened level of urgency to address this problem um and um you know we're going to be working with our facilities team to come up with what those options are um and a communication was uh sent to Mr wellan from our from our uh executive director Finance um explaining what the uh what you know that there is an issue and that a much more formal communication will go but we are looking to get that in front of the joint uh Council uh at in in the very near future so you're feeling as though we should wait until it comes out of Mr Wan's uh committee to find out whether we should bring it to the city council committee um should we move on right away start to moving on with it I'd like to get it in front of either committee I'd like to get that ball rolling um the sooner the better so I know there's already a joint city council school committee meeting coming up in September yeah I thought there was [Music] September I'll find out um but my our intent our hopes um in communicating that to Mr wellan is that we we get this in front of the school committee and city council as soon as possible obviously school committee you know uh being the first body but if there's a joint committee I think that's that also makes sense but I'll I'll leave that to the members of this body to decide who hears that that issue great thank you so much so we're going to go ahead move on Middle School building update that's the packet that's an FYI no out ofate field trips and no Student Activity approvals announcements first day of school already next week how exciting for grades 1 through 12th and September 4th for kindergarten and preschool are we doing that welcome welcome W welcome back welcome back back so his last year we actually uh one Holio stepped up and organized this whole thing I haven't heard from them but we'll we'll organize something and and get something out um it already is okay no like no we're talking about meet and greet on the first day of school no we're we're referring to just uh you know making sure there's uh people welcoming students on the first day of school so um I haven't talked to one holy o that was something that they wanted to do last year but if they're if they're not coordinating something we'll put something together and and send something out to the committee um uh to I would say obviously if you're award choose a school in your award and and then that's how we're we're going to approach it great thank you communication team Awards and you want to do all yeah do your announce no I just wanted to shout out our our Communications team um you know and Aon lynville and Jenny ostriker and and Company uh there there is you know uh a national communic school Communications uh you know group and board and we submitted uh seven publica Publications or let me see one two three four five yes seven Publications and received an award from the um from uh the national school public relations Association um you know on some of the public ations that we put out one of them being a video that we did about rezoning um another one being the video that we made around our strategic plan moving forward together uh included in that is the link that shows you what uh Publications we put out our team put out there that we got recognized for but um this is really just on here as as an FYI to all of you that our our Communications team is really strong and they're doing some good work and getting recognized for it and uh the last piece was convocation is uh scheduled for Friday at 8:30 we're working to get like buses so that staff can get busted from their schools it's going to be in person on Friday at 8:30 in the morning it'll be the first time that we've done it in person since the pandemic since prior to the pandemic um it's not something that's open to the public but obviously uh school committee me uh members are welcome to join and that's just an opportunity where we get to address all of the staff and uh it's the day before uh the school uh before the start of the school year um and you know we hope it's going to be a fun inspiring event um getting you know getting the kickoff the start of the school year with all staff um and I just wanted to make sure you're all aware you're all in invited and if you can uh I hope to see you there Mr wahan thank you yeah um I just want to um acknowledge the media team um for their uh recent achievement and their award I um read about that in the paper so I was happy to see it as on the agenda I think there's a lot of good things in our schools um system either the students or the teachers that um some of the positives don't make it to our our meeting agenda I know recently I just read um where the dean Tech students are involved with um making the historical plaques throughout the city to acknowledge historical buildings so again that's something then I've read in the paper I don't see it as you know part of any dialogue here in our school committee either as a showcase or a announcement of some sort I know maybe even our team can come in and do a demonstration to us going forward and H you know how do they attract students again I just want I know I talked to um Mr sod about this before just sort of getting some of the positives in in the city in this room you know we hear a lot of lot of negatives out there in the press and etc etc um so I just want to maybe refocus our look going forward thank you thank you Mr Wan so seeing no more further motion to Dr you wait always till the very end no no quick go for it it's just a um an announcement that St Paul's um church is having a back to school event DJ uh Barber is going to cut children's hair um manicure pedicure you know bouncing house and um backpacks with a lot of stuff so it's a lot of uh fun September 7th from 10:00 a.m to 2 PM please go and bring your children 10 to 2 September 7th September 7th y 10 to two great there actually a few backpack fairs coming yeah I know the one the the mcnali field that's every year with the South Holio safe neighborhood initiative um will be this Saturday I believe Saturday 11 to three 11 to three this Saturday y all righty and that's with um our wonderful partnership with Ed Case all righty so motion to adjourn got it so um uh meeting ends at 8 800m Bravo two hours good job we made it