good evening and welcome to the Tuesday June 4th 2024 meeting of the long meow school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter two of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all vote SS remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded by lctv and aired live we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for IT stand indivisible and justice for [Music] all we'll begin with correspondence a memo from Mr Donald Jarvis director of Occupational education at the lower Pioneer Valley Career and Technical education Center regarding the Walter E Quigley Junior student of the month award for May 2024 Long Meadow student honored this month is Cameron castner Advanced manufacturing technology and Eli txar building and Property Maintenance too emails from the following people supporting a cell phone ban in the Long Meadow Public Schools Kate and Henry Robinson May 20th Caitlyn Millet May 23rd thank you approval of minutes we have a recommend motion yeah I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the May 28th 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Mary yes Zach yes and yes for me as well all right moving on to public speak do not see any members of the public either online or with us here tonight so we'll move on um business with guests and then bringing us to school committee announcements and recognitions um for chair report I have one announcement um which is that I wanted to take a few minutes tonight to acknowledge the incredible dedication and commitment that Mary Keane has given to the town of Long Meadow during her three years of service on this committee while Mary remains on the ballot for the upcoming election she has announced that due to a recent cancer diagnosis she is not actively campaigning and will be unable to serve if reelected as tonight is her last meeting with the school committee I want to offer her our love and support but also and especially our thanks Mary can always be counted on to bring a calm and thoughtful approach to complex situations and shows up for everything from discussions on Elementary literacy to student events to updates on lpv 's new electric buses um with a contagious and cheerful enthusiasm her intelligence kindness leadership and passion for ensuring a highquality education for all of our students has been such a positive influence on our schools and has been truly inspiring it has been an honor to serve alongside you Mary and our love and support are with you and your whole family and your journey through treatment and Recovery I'll open the floor if other committee members would like to add in any recognitions or announcements Jamie yeah I don't think any more you're so amazing whenever you uh you know write speak whatever so you're great but I'll be short and sweet Mary you're you're going to be sortly missed here as Committee Member um you were amazing in the time that we were here together learned a ton uh from you from an education standpoint and just all around amazing person to serve with and have such a great perspective on kind of all aspects of life as well as within the committee and honestly you you canot you're going to be a big hole to fill with a voice that has a lot of good perspectives on so many different things and hopefully uh someday you'll be wanting to come back to the committee uh but we wish you all the best uh at least for my family as well thank you Jamie other folks yes and if I could um I can't say it I agree with Jamie I can't say it any better than Nicole did uh but Mary I will absolutely miss being able to serve together on this committee but I look forward to many more evenings on the track together yeah Andrew uh I just wanted to say how grateful I am that I've been able to work with you on this conv also I've seen the rock star you are um being friends with Greg and seeing how awesome you are everything you do not only with work but with the booster club and just really just being a true rock star when it comes to everything you do so thank you okay I feel like I should say something too thank you Mary for being such an inspiration I'm really going to miss being on the school committee with you and you're still obviously such an inspiration and I look forward to still picking your brain and uh talking to you about books that's right yep um okay we hope you're back soon um we are going to miss you a lot more than we can say on this and can't wait to hang out with you outside of committee as well but we will miss you here on an ongoing basis all right thank you everyone I just want to say what a privilege it's been to serve on this committee and I really am deeply saddened that due to some extenuating circumstances I'm not able to um um campaign and you know potentially serve another term I'm just really proud of the work that the committee has done over the past three years through some really challenging times particularly emerging from the pandemic and I'm just so confident we have a wonderful um group of uh folks in place to um help lead uh you know the district forward and I'm very grateful um to the long meow Public Schools Educators um um for all of their hard work um you know Marty thank you for your leadership of the district Tom your um knowledge um of all things financial and Beyond um really are an asset to the district um Diane I I really don't think that you can ever retire because I I don't know how the district will proceed um so you know your institutional knowledge and organization skills really help to keep um the district going and Andrew I'm just so glad to know you both from this committee and as a friend of my funds and I'm just continually impressed by your contributions um it really is when the students come forward in our meetings and they um you know give our presentations and Andrew when you share your perspective that it gives meaning to our work so thank you everyone thank you for all the nice things you just said about me I'm going to a Miss serving on this committee and I look forward to um you know hanging out at some point in the future so thanks so much thank you all right we'll turn over to other reports superintendent report sure and and uh and I wanted to save my comments for for my report and and they say that you know the the the true test is when you leave a place better than it was when you joined and and I think that's certainly describes how you've the impact you've had on Long meow public schools and the and the relationships you've built with our administrative team um the you know the focus the questions the hard work um and I've really enjoyed your sense of humor um throughout and that that that's always helped us get through some some some challenging conversations and that's just been amazing we're we're you know really an to have worked with you Mary and I I look forward to the day that you can rejoin the committee and uh see the fruits of see the fruits firsthand see the fruits of of all the work that you've put in over the last few years it's it's really remarkable particularly your leadership of the elementary literacy adoption you you set a Northstar for this committee and for our administrative team and and uh I just appreciated how you approached that and the thoughtful questions that you asked and your contributions to that whole process so we're going to miss you but we look forward to a time that you'll you'll rejoin this committee thanks for everything yeah on to on to more mundane matters um we uh couple items for the superintendent report tonight the elementary playgrounds um which Mary was involved in uh advocating for uh along with the rest of the committee Elementary playground installation is on track and we expect that shortly after school gets out the installation will begin uh an installation contractor has been identified and uh DPW folks tell us that it will take about 8 weeks to complete the installation barring unforeseen circumstances which occasionally arise in the in the world of construction but we're looking forward to opening the 2425 school year with new Elementary playground so thanks to this committee uh for their leadership on that issue and their advocacy for that at town meeting a while back so we're very very excited to break ground on on those three projects uh graduation um appreciate the Committees uh uh who were able to join us it was a great event 220 diplomas awarded an an event that really shined a light on the many many talents of the class of 2024 uh was a great event uh and we'll save some uh comments on the school building project for later on in the agenda that's yeah sounds good other administrative reports anything on your ant no report all right the um food service contract will be tabled because we have not heard back from the state with clarification on that Amendment so okay we'll need to take action tonight more on that in the summer then yes thank you um student rip report Andrew um once again just congratulations to all the seniors on graduation on Sunday and then just a quick reminder that finals will begin on Monday and run through next Thursday and then I believe the makeup exam day is on is next Friday the 14th um and then seniors enjoyed a fun night of dancing and music at prom on Thursday at the Log Cabin uh and then there was sort of an after event at Sunny's place in summers and then congratulations to Emma ceski on placing 11th overall in the entire state in the 400 meters uh she competed in the MI a met a champions in the um on Saturday and then congratulations to the boys and girls across team um for their teams for their victories in the m round of 32 so they're they're both moving on in the tournament nice all right other um reports lpbc Zach no report we'll be meeting again June 12th all right um energy and sustainability we don't have anything from Adam on that one correct no I haven't heard and seal I think you said last week is no report all right um subcommittee reports Finance sub the only thing was the food service contract correct okay so we're tbling that and there are no other reports which brings us to ongoing business the high school student handbook and Dr o you're taking that one uh yes uh so on behalf of principal Anders and the school council uh another opportunity to review and consider the changes to the LHS student handbook for the 2425 school year uh a couple of adjustments made in response to the conversation at your last meeting uh first you'll see some updated language relative to substance use that I think captures the feedback of the committee from the last meeting so it's it would be the uh um the highlighted language under substance use it would be the last few sentences in that second paragraph that were amended uh in a way that hopefully reflects the conversation last week and then uh we had a great conversation last week about academic dishonesty with a focus on artificial intelligence and after some discussion with the administration at the high school we thought it best to just pull back on that artificial intelligence language um it is a moving Target I think we have some continued work to do in terms of gathering staff and community and student feedback on what the policy and practice implications are of artificial intelligence and as a side note uh I have a group of about 18 Educators uh that I'm leading in what's called a highquality teacher share and we activated that um in May Our intention is to continue that work into the coming school year uh one of the products I hope with that group will be really to identify bring forward some recommendations relative to uh policy and practice and pedagogi so um I think it probably if it's okay with the committee I'd recommend just kind of uh pulling back on that there's there's certainly sufficient language in the handbook right now to address academic dishonesty and as we discussed last week I think there are conversations going on probably in every classroom relative to the role of artificial intelligence so there's a lot of sort of instruction and um happening at the classroom level a lot of conversation between teachers and kids about that so if it's okay with the committee my recommendation would be we just sort of pause on adding any artificial intelligence language to the handbook the other the other reason I'd say is that right now uh the mass Association of school committees I'm my understanding is that they're working on some model policy language and so if that were to surface that would then be a sort of basis for handbook language so um if it's okay to the committee that would be our recommendation if on the other hand you felt like you really wanted to see some language in handbook for next year we could take a another run at it over the summer and bring it back to you maybe late summer early fall and and that would be okay to to do it at that stage the handbook would go to print uh without that language but we can always bring It Forward again in the fall if we need if we need to so and the handbook is um we can add on amendments at any point in yeah I think nowadays knowing it's mostly electronic it's an electronic document that in the same way that your policy manual can be amended in the middle of the school year I think it as long as we put families on sufficient notice um it's okay to amend the handbook midy year I would say we don't ordinarily do it but uh there's nothing that would prohibit us from doing that so everything else is remain the same um and for your consideration handbook all right thoughts on the updated language and or questions I like the Clarity that is included in the section on um substance use it's much more um specificity I think the feedback was was constructive and helpful on that in that area for sure so is there not going to be anything on academic disom hand there already is oh okay there's not going to be the part of yeah there's just there already is some language on the penalties associated with academic dishonesty whether it be homework or a major assessment there's some language that disting is between those two things you know remarkably I think it's a testament to the job the teachers are doing with students um remarkably it hasn't really risen frankly to my level I haven't really you know let's say uh heard some um feedback from families or parents on this so I think we're navigating it right now but really to fully understand the implications I think we just need to sort of step back maybe maybe get maybe get some districtwide policy in place for first and then work on some handbook language so if that makes sense thoughts from anyone else just a quick question whenever comes to the teachers providing that you know instructional the guidance around that yeah is that written or is that do we have like a kind of like hey this is what we would expect is it all verbal yeah I might defer to Andrew even if it's okay whether I'd say some teachers are probably putting it in a in a syllabus or in a written document perhaps some of them are it's more of a you know just a a classroom instructional moment ver something we're looking at too as to what like what's the best you know what I mean like that could be where it because well you didn't say that what's written here it says hey don't use this versus the verbal you know you say something I say something everybody might think we said different things you know and and and that type of you know that that is long before artificial intelligence I suppose that that Dynamic existed right in other words there was that conversation between teachers and kids about well I I didn't know I couldn't I couldn't you know borrow my friend's homework um You didn't tell us that so you really it really is dependent on kids being fully advised and having clear teachers delivering clear expectations to kids but I don't Andrew is that um for the most part there's almost always a portion in the syllabus every year that talks about academic dishonesty and then occasionally I know Mr wild tends to do it the most out of my teachers um if he wants to be more specific they can also include it when they assign the assignment they'll usually like put the document on Google classroom and that tends to be more specific in terms of the rules for especially with English just because that's I think where teachers are seeing the most issues when it comes to Ai and academic dishonesty in general but for the most and then sometimes there is mentions of it in class but I would say officially It's usually put either it's always in the C best and that can also be in Google Classroom all right any other discussion questions and or possible motions if none yep I move on the recommendation of the long metal high school council that the school committee approved the revisions to the long medal high school student handbook for the 2425 school year we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any further discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes Mary yes and yes for me as well all right Middle School building project did you have an update you want only uh that we had a productive meeting with the msba today that uh our chair joined us on and got some feedback on our preliminary design proposal that we submitted to the msba they they want to make sure that we essentially cost out all the various options and I think it's it was a really I'm glad that they are directing our design team in that way because it will ensure that we've got the best information to share with the public um the the next major Milestone is the submission of the preferred schematic design in October so that's when we really um narrow Whittle down the list further and we identify a single preferred design option um so October is the date for that um we are also Al looking to pull together on June 18th a middle school building Forum over at the senior center at the adult center uh it is the night of a a school committee meeting so we could if it's okay with the committee we could start the Forum at 7 o' and start the building committee excuse me and start the school committee at 6 o'clock um I would anticipate that your meeting on the 18th would be a a short reorganization meeting so um working on a community survey just to you know in some ways steer people towards the information that's on the website but also to give the design team and the administrative team some information to guide the the next steps so that's June 18th Middle School building Forum at The Adult Center 7 o'cl all right thank you that's it all right we have no new business and we are headed towards an executive session and we'll be reconvening into Open session we have a possible motion for that yep I move that the school committee meet an executive session persuant to Master General Law chapter 30 uh a section 21A purpose 2 to conduct a strategy session in preparation for nonunion personnel superintendent assistant superintendent and director of special education and purpose seven consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings to to reconvene into Open Session correct we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Mary yes Zach yes and yes for me all right we are officially in executive session we will return to open session should I stay you can head out it's okay happy summer we'll see you in the fall 3 two 1 good evening and welcome back we are reconvened into Open Session and we have a few memorandum of agreements to approve I'll entertain a motion for the first yep I move that the school committee approve the memorandum of agreement with the Long Meadow Education Association unit F dated March 26 26 20124 as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes Mary yes and yes for me as well we have another motion yep I move that the school committee approved the memorandum of agreement with a long metal Education Association Unit A regarding the advisor position for a Dungeons and Dragons Club as presented we have a motion do we have a second second all right any discussion Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes Mary yes and yes for me as well have fun with that um and last we have one final motion yep I move that the school committee approve the contract amendments for the superintendent assistant superintendent and the director of special education for the 2024 2025 school year be approved as presented and authorized as presented and amended and authorize the school committee chair to sign the amendment we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes Mary yes and yes for me as well we have one final motion to close out our meeting this evening I mve the school committee adjourn the June 4th 2024 school committee meeting we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes Mary yes and yes for me as well have lovely summer we hope to see everyone out to the election next week on the 11th and we will return on June 18th thank you thank you everyone bye Mary good night than you Z [Music]