##VIDEO ID:_mKlb6XXTO4## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] welcome this is the Brooklin school committee meeting and we are meeting on October 10th 20124 um you might notice a few missing faces uh Dr Giller is a little under the weather so he's going to join us remotely um and Andy and Val are both unavailable tonight for different reasons but so it'll be the seven of us go team okay so let's start with the um consent agenda I will move the consent agenda do I have a second thank you Mariah any comments or questions Helen just a quick comment to thank the teachers who are willing to go on these trips with students um it takes a lot of time a lot of effort and we appreciate it uh so for those who are wondering what trip those are ones we're voting on tonight are um students are going to Brown University uh in November to tour the campus and Pierce seventh grade uh group is going to Nature's Classroom in Charlton Mass over for couple of days November 6 to 8th okay uh we'll take a vote uh Jesse yes Steven yes Sarah yes Mariah yes Helen yes Carolyn yes and I vote Yes as well thank you uh Kon we're going to go to student report it's all yours um thank you so much um so October continues to be a busy month for BHS really we're all getting back in the thick of it um as we once knew um you know taking tests taking exams doing papers um you know that's really we're all getting back into the grind of it and so I think two important things that I want to highlight um that occurred recently um at the beginning of October um and at the end of September were our back to school night and our International parents night um so BHS hosted its annual back to school night on Thursday September 29th um so parents and Guardians um had the opportunity to go to BHS to take in their child's classes follow their child's schedules um so you know almost a return to school experience um if you will which you know for my parents at least that was something that they hadn't done in 30 years um so it was something that they really appreciated um and then on Tuesday so just two nights ago um BHS also hosted its annual uh International parents night um so that's for the parents of international students um students who came um you know from other countries um they had the opportunity to do the same thing um from 6:30 to 7:30 um you know they got to listen to uh Miss Katie Frost wette who runs the El program um at our high school um you know just talk about what the program was like what she was trying to get out of it for international students um I can say that you know having served as one of bhs's ambassadors um last year you know those are um a group of students who are tasked to help um International students acclimate to the BHS culture I can say that it's a very very important event um it's a very very worthwhile event I know um I've heard from several International students um quarter 1 ends actually for rline students it's coming up soon um I bolded it um kind of my subconscious seeping in letting me know that I have to step up my game um but iprs are going to come out tomorrow um October 11th so students and parents or Guardians will have the opportunity to um hear their teachers feedback on their academic performance their performance in class uh make any necessary changes um and then the quarter one the first quarter for BHS ends November 6th um and those report cards for quarter 1 will be uploaded to the Aspen portal about November uh November 15th so we have just less than a month just less than uh one month left in our first quarter um so you know quarter done through the school year um and even more for seniors um on a more serious note um 3 days ago was the oneye anniversary of you know the October 7th attack I mean Israel so BHS counselors and social workers um were available to any students um you know who needed um emotional any kind of support um you know following that um you know the attack do has ramifications for a lot of students at BHS um it's still left sort of a lasting imprint for many students um and so you know any students who had um you know who wanted to discuss anything with clinical staff with social workers with administrators with Deans um they could do so and they could receive drop and support um in the MLK room um and then just to conclude the report um on a uh much lighter note I would say um two of bhs's most important clubs um APAC which is the Asian Pacific American Club um and the latinx club um the latinx and allies Club um marked two important events um the latinx club held held their Spirit Week this this week um so for each of the days Monday through Friday um so it's not over yet um they held um different themed events um designed to promote um sort of the latinx and Hispanic heritage culture um in BHS so Monday white themed outfits Tuesday football jerseys um Wednesday was face paint your flag um and then uh tomorrow is latinx Club hoodies um so the latinx club and allies will be wearing those hoodies um just to show support just to raise awareness of the latinx club it's one of the most important clubs at BHS and then APAC uh two days ago on octob or one day ago um yesterday on October 9th um they held a mixer in the Freshman building um that was designed to sort of bridge the gap between um underclassman or ninth graders and upper classmen and sophomores um you know I can tell you that from personal experience when I was a nth grader it was often very very difficult to you know join clubs to sort of be part of that VHS experience um really just due to the the physical distance um between the nth grade building and the rest of the high school um so you know this mixer was quite an important event um and really helped sort of build community I would say um for all Asian-American identifying students and non Asian-American identifying students at the high school so that is the student report for October thank you very much are there any comments or questions Helen I got a kick out of your mixer that brought me back to freshman year in college but um another um sort of small piece of history when I was PTO president at the high school before I got on the school committee I actually started the international night we didn't have it before that uh and I felt there were so many parents who had no clue about our school system how it works the American system of Education um so it and it it just has kept on going so I'm really pleased to hear that okay thank you so much I appreciate it you're welcome to stay as long as you want or you're welcome to go and get that homework done it's up to you okay we're going to have uh the superintendent report I see Dr Giller is um remote and on online thank you and good evening everyone and again my sincer apologies for not being able to be there with you in person but I figure that uh the crud that I have is better to keep as local as possible rather than share it out much so with that being said we are going to uh walk through the superintendent's update thank Karan for his presentation uh October is National principles month and so we want to take this opportunity to um celebrate our outstanding School principles at Baker School s Ola beep Margaret everheart BHS Anthony Meyer Driscoll David ukus frr Candace Whitmore Lawrence Vanessa Bello Lincoln Brian denitzio Pierce Jamie yoff Roland Hayes ASA cilius and rle school down in finnean and again October is National principal month um a brief update on our mtss literacy initiative um we just want to uh share that um desie had previously we were previously identif ified uh as having significant disproportionality amongst our black and African-American students with spe specific learning disabilities um and while uh we no longer have that designation from Desi we recognize that disproportionality remains in our system and we are building um a multi-tiered system of uh support that will become our our shared approach um and what that allows us for a comprehensive framework for support for all students a process designed to maximize student achievement a method to De deliver effective interventions earlier and efficiently the focus is on outcomes and a commitment to student progress and well-being and you'll continue to hear about that as we continue to go through our literacy selection process but also as we share out various reports because this is a long-term commitment uh that's deep and far-reaching this year we're starting with grades K through five and focusing on literacy we're going to make sure uh make every effort to align this work with all of our district priorities as divined in our strategic plan and the day-to-day work of teaching and learning uh within our schools and so for the 2425 school year is to establish district and school-based mtss teams again multi tier systems of support develop a shared understanding of tier one literacy instruction and self assess our current state regarding academic behavioral and seal supports in literacy to meet these goals we will engage in a variety of formats of mtss and literacy professional learning and ensure the input and involvement of all of our PSB community members as we try to build out as we try out and build out our MTS framework work processes and methods this school year we will be setting ourselves up for success with other content areas and grade levels in the following years we want to share a staffing update um as many of you may know we're still searching for a permanent senior director of Clinical Services and non-discrimination initiatives and while that position uh some of you may remember this uh was Mel Dr marelas that held this position as last permanent person was still searching for um a permanent hire in that role and so in the interim we are um bringing in our Becky Schuster we'll be providing some on onsite um support and consultation to ensure that um these initiatives continue moving forward and so be Becky will be working uh a limited number of hours but um it's coming in to really focus on on our um discrimination um aspects that need to be taken care out of OSS for the past nine years Becky served as the assistant superintendent of equity for the Boston public schools and prior to that she was the um director of training at the mcad or Massachusetts commission against discrimination for 15 years and under her leadership Boston strategies to prevent and address incidents of bias-based and sexual misconduct were recognized as a model for the Commonwealth and the nation and so we want to welcome Becky Schuster um to the public schools of Brooklyn in this uh interim um intermittent capacity health and wellness the PSB health and wellness policy uh was updated last year as many of you know this year the wellness committee will review how well the policy is being implemented and will'll identify Focus uh areas to continue improving compliance across the district schools PSB will continue our collaboration with a school wellness coach for des's um School Wellness coaching program implementing initiatives for the 2425 school year the coaching will help us comp complete an assessment of the implementation of PSP's written wellness policy as well as the creation of action plans and identifying priorities based on assessments um as always always we just want to share publicly that we are certainly working to build initiatives building based initiatives to ensure all students have a sense of belonging within the unique uh culture of their home school and as a reminder our special education students who are placed in um programs outside of the district are valued members of their homeschool communities and to ensure that children are offered equal opportunities to participate in sports not academic extracurricular and after school programs as their District peers the communications from the child's home school will continue our focus on our focus on social emotional learning um again this is an a sort of an annual reminder at this point we continue to partner with care soless to support the well-being of student staff and their family members care soless is a confidential care coordination service that can help you quickly find mental health or substance um use treatment options match to your needs regardless of circumstance and Care soless uh can be accessed in the following ways um 1888 515 0595 and that's uh 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year in any language and then in the carol.com Brookline um for uh a web web access this month uh PSB will administer the universal social emotional screener to um survey students in grades 3 through 12 except for families who opt out this survey measures School belonging supportive relationships and emotional regulation skills uh Pleasant feeling and unpleasant feelings for students in grade 6 through 12 the survey includes the phq 4 which is a brief screening tool for anxiety and depression the survey does not measure or ask questions about engagement in risk-taking Behavior Uh substance AB abuse substance use or safety in addition to providing students with additional support the information gathered through these surveys will be used to evaluate uh to review and evaluate B Lin's uh seal programming so again this is something I think um uh you all are very uh familiar with we've seen this now uh a few years um the survey is available in a variety of languages um English Spanish Russian Hebrew Japanese French Korean Arabic and Chinese and most students complete the survey in about 5 to 10 minutes um and that concludes the superintendent's remarks I do also want to um say a special thank you to um our first and second grade uh teachers I for the past previous two weeks I was out visiting um just about all of the first grade first and second grade classrooms I missed a few and I was really impressed with the learning and engagement that I saw uh in our classrooms and so um kudos to the teachers and the par educ ators and all the school staff that are working so hard to ensure that our children are active uh and engaged in learning so with that that concludes the superintendent's report for tonight recording in progress thank you Dr gillery any questions comments Stephen oh um Sarah I always think it's good to discuss things further um to make sure that there's understanding around it so when you were on your slide where you're talking about mtss and you talked about disproportionate groups of um students of color being in special education it didn't say whether in the past we've had um a larger percentage of students in special education or a um smaller percentage and the reason why I ask is because I think that you could see the issue two ways you could say that if we have too many students of color in special education maybe it feels a little bit like we're Silo off a group or you could say that if we have two um few students that it means that people aren't getting the support that they need so because I didn't see that really explained I was wondering if you could kind of bring shed some light on that thanks yes so great great clarifying question um so on one hand there was an over representation of African-American uh students uh and more specifically I think it was Boy Lisa can chime in and give more clarity on that but then there was also the concern of the underidentification of Asian students as well so what um the trend lines generally say um what's the percentage or proportion of students that match the district's demographics and students and how uh few or how many students are identified within those uh populations of subpopulations as such so we were um flagged uh for an over representation now of African-American students now one of the things that um Lisa led a team um with OC o and I believe folks from OTL and actually did some um case study uh work uh in that area um and uh essentially did some blind um blind reviews of materials to say if if names were removed would students still be identified so I see Lisa on the screen and I'll pass the mic over to her to provide a little bit more background on that sure thank you Dr Giller I'm sorry you're not feeling well um well for historical purposes as Dr Giller just pointed out um the office of student services in response to this disproportionality report from the Department of Elementary and secondary education we created a disproportionality task force and that uh school committee presentation actually is readily available in terms of uh the the specifics of how that data was generated at the state level and how we approached our Task Force study but um We R viewed as a as a large team uh we had representation from the office of teaching and learning from uh Medco uh principles uh teachers and we looked at over 50 case studies of of students and um looked at the process of uh how students were referred to child study teams to Student Assistance teams uh we looked at uh response to intervention initiatives um we looked at uh professional development training for our staff doing actual testing um we looked at instructional practices and we had developed an action plan for uh enhancing services to all students uh whether they were eligible for special education or not so um that report may still be of interest uh because as uh the The Narrative suggests there is still great work to be done around uh student achievement and um and so we are continuing that work uh despite uh the fact that you know we're no longer flagged by Desi but I'd be happy to uh I should confirm that the the school committee report presentation um from the spring of 2023 uh remains on the website for everyone uh readability thank you thanks um I just want to First say that I thought that was thanks for such a great superintendent report I thought in just in general I think all your superintendent reports this year have been really terrific Dr Giller they've just been really substantive and useful so thank you um just a few specific questions um first on the multi-tiered systems of support I I don't remember hearing about this uh in relation to literacy before is that new did I just miss that is this a change I don't know that I think jod is there it's not new I think what we're doing is bringing attention uh greater attention and focus to it because it's an important component of the work Dr Giller is correct we wanted both initiatives to go hand in hand um so we've been um doing them concurrently okay so my link question to that is that is there is there any extension of the Strategic plans thinking of how to apply mtss that is there any additional funding of mtss that we need to think through because I know for for year one of the Strategic plan that we're in I think the goal was something like 75% now I'm going to gu wrong that there's there's some specific goal of the extension of mtss but it wasn't for the the learning goal wasn't literacy related it was CST related so is there some additional rollout of mtss that has to happen for this to work or is this just an adjacency that you can realize because it's already sitting there it's an adjacency that we can realize even because it um is already there we are partnered with NTC who's um new teacher Center who is helping us do the work thanks to a generous philanthropic grant that they um have received so any cost to the district of minimal okay that's great um really briefly also the on on the finding that we're no longer we no longer have significant disproportionality and sld I just want to know I guess this is a Lisa question um when did we stop when did Desi cease to find Brookline um when when were we when are when we stop being significantly disproportional in their in their findings because I know that for them to to to to require a change that we we had to be significantly disproportional in their findings two years in a row and you can never find that on their website but I know that we did have that finding I just never know when we stopped being that way yeah thank you Stephen um when I came aboard in August of 2022 the district had had that disproportionality finding for over two years so that is why I initiated the task force as a corrective action um so it it proceeded my arrival and then um given the initiatives that we put in place in 2223 um we again I don't want to minimize the significance of looking at student achievement for all students but in terms of this specific finding um it was no longer we we had heard by July of 23 that we uh that we did not have that um so as recently in the last school year we know no longer had a finding of significant disproportionality okay thank you yeah Mariah thank you um I want to Second what Stephen said about the um the superintendent reports this this fall they have been really needy robust I don't know what the right word is but very content fil so thank you lonus for that um I have a question about the director of Clinical Services interim position how many hours a week on average is the interim supporting that position Lisa you're on mute while you're while you're getting off mute I'll ask the second half is the job currently posted yes okay um we we posted the position for the third time this fall and we have now expanded the search by hosting the position on indeed and some additional online recruitment sites so uh fingers crossed um Miss Schuster is giving us 5 to 12 hours a week and actually I met with her today and uh she has some uh some important ideas for us uh to consider in terms of recruitment so I'm optimistic about that as well thank you anyone else I just like to put a plugin for the Wellness Plan and Trisha Lam and the work she did I happen to be on that task force but um just to remind people that we actually were recognized as a uh model plan and so we're looking forward to implementing it this year but there was a lot of work that went into it but we were recognized for it and so congratulations to that group sorry Suzanne can I ask a question about that and or Dr gillery I think the slide said and and you said um The Wellness committee is going to be doing something oh last year we updated or you updated the wellness policy now the committee is going to come back who's on that Committee just curious what the I'm not sure I can name everybody well you don't have to name them but like is it like parents andha the some uh Community people are on it um who else school committee M Trisha heads it up yeah Trisha Sasha Sasha the Food Services food and um health and wellness Department oh okay okay like is is Carlin yes Carlin's on it cool yeah awesome I should know everybody because I really didn't actually I I didn't mean sort of names just generally characteristics yeah and we do have we do have parents and Guardians on as well awesome great thank you and they open meetings if you want if you want to come you're welcome to come okay thank you Dr gillery uh rest up and I and he's still gonna stay on so thank you okay we're going to move on to public comment what a full house we have welcome everybody it's great to see you it's going to be great to hear your voices I appreciate that we typically have 15 minutes set aside for um public comment we understand there's uh uh eagerness for people to speak uh and that's great and so we're going to extend it to a half hour we have 15 people signed up so uh we're asking you to do like two and a half minutes if you can do less that's fine if someone has already said what your message is going to be you can just say didto that or I agree with that and you can then give your time to somebody else um when you when you speak come up to the podium where Betsy is and speak into the mic you may want to hold the mic because you need to speak right into it show them Betsy thank you you did that very well and if you would state your name and you might your affiliation I mean if you have a child in the in the school or if you are a student what school you go to what grade you might be in um anything else you think we might be helpful us to know okay Suzanne excuse me sorry um so I had emailed Andy and you earlier but kind of just right before the meeting so if you don't mind I'd like to just ask so two meetings ago Andy announced that we were going to have a change in practice right and limit comment to 15 minutes precisely for the reason that sometimes there's a full house and we love public comment but for various reasons it was going to emulate what the select board does so I'm just curious what the thinking is that's a good question just took that on yep no we deliberated about that and we are going we decided that we would have it all at once because it's all the same topic and sometimes that selectboard they'll have different topics and they can break it up that way and uh also because to have such a large crowd it would really be helpful to everybody if we had the crowd all at once I mean that we we go and get that done so that half of you don't have to stay I mean you're welcome to stay as long as you want of course but if you don't know when you're going to be speaking for that second group that would be hard people need to get home children need to get home so we made a deliberate decision that we would uh hear everybody for the full half hour now okay okay how do you know what the topic is oh all due respecta okay I didn't connect emails to the list of public speakers so I I had asked folks when they wrote just so I could get a sense um of what they were speaking about so we would know all together um and then I think also the school committee was considering that because it's an item that's on the agenda this evening that we didn't want to hear people after the agenda item so [Music] okay so we will begin Betsy you wantan to fisa first then we'll have es delam and then Sophia Isel so there is the um Betsy will put on the timer so you you can see it counting down I mean don't get nervous but it's just to help us to keep the flow going so we appreciate it okay thank you thank you can everyone hear me all right great thank you so um first of all thank you thank you for extending it and bringing it all together for 30 30 minutes so hello FAA Khan a mother of four Muslim PSP students who has spent 12 years 24 holy days exactly of idul fit and idul AD celebrations enduring stress and a feeling of non-belonging In This Very Town many of these years the stress was Triple and quadruple fold because three or all four of our kids were fasting for the holy month of Ramadan Eid is the first day of the new month after this holy month and we are allowed to resume eating during daylight hours which calls for celebration for each day that should have been joyous we had to decide between our religion culture and academics how did this dilemma dilute the importance of Eid in our hearts and minds and how has it impacted our views of our religion we'll never know why does our faith tradition seem less valued than those observed as category 1 holidays we all know Brook Lin's Muslim Students representing 19 different ethnicities often feel isolated due to the lack of Educators they can relate to recognizing Eid as a category one holiday would signal a commitment to equal Rec recognition of Muslim families students and Educators and Foster a more inclusive and Equitable education system this recognition would make Muslim Students feel more included and increase the chances of attracting a more diverse pool of Educators something you are always looking for and which is crucial for a truly inclusive and Equitable education system Equity is not in numbers it's about fairness and Justice it's about ensuring that each person and group has the same opportunities and resources to succeed regardless of their background people in position of power as yourselves must keep the biases in check please ask yourself if your holiday is being recognized on the PSB calendar because ours is not before you decide for the Muslim Students in Brookline Equity comes in finding Solutions and not disregarding or setting aside a community's needs for another day the school Community the school committee found solutions to provide category one holidays for other communities please do the same for us in the true Spirit of fairness and Equity thank you yes sir hi everyone is that close my name is ISM abdal Dam my family and I have called Brookline home for 14 years uh I live with my wife and two children in Precinct 2 we are a Lawrence Family um and we have a son in the High School uh first of all thank you for taking up this important issue of making it to category one holiday I wanted to use my time tonight to familiarize you with the two major Muslim holidays or Aids uh and tell you a little bit about what they are and what they mean to many of us um the first Eid uh meaning the festival the sacrifice um takes place during the week of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca which commemorates the life and actions of the prophet Abraham uh during these holy days Muslims around the world seek forgiveness and atone uh for their sins in much the same way as our Jewish neighbors do on yum Kapur uh and in the same way that Easter is a time for Christians to contemplate uh the central Act of Christianity or the sacrifice of Jesus Eid is a time for Muslims to contemplate uh the sacrifice of Abraham uh who is in fact the central figure of Islam Muslims honor this day with uh early morning congregational prayers uh by sharing meals and with their family and friends and through acts of Charity the second holiday uh marks the end of Ramadan the Islamic month of fasting for 30 days Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset and yes that includes water uh my son actually has a t-shirt that he wears uh during Ramadan that says Nope not even water so needless to say this can be a very challenging month for our kids having fasted during High School in America I know firsthand it's hard for our kids to show up for practice after a long day of fasting or sitting to take your AP exams with a dry mouth uh or staying up to write that paper when all you want to do is catch a couple hours of sleep our kids work really hard during Ramadan they burn the candle on both ends so they don't have to choose between doing their best at school and practicing their faith it takes self-discipline and sacrifice it's a major achievement for our kids and F is a celebration of that achievement these kids really put in the work and they show up and I hope that we can show up for them uhid is a joyous time for our kids and what a powerful thing it would be for them to share that Joy uh with their friends just as they share in the joy of Christmas and Hanukkah and to feel that their faith is valued by their Community one out of every four people in the world celebrates Eid and as you can see so many of our families in Brookline uh in our Brookline Community du too Brookline has always been a leader in education let's not be behind the curve on this let's join districts in Massachusetts like Cambridge Lexington Welsley as well as many other districts uh around the country my prayer tonight is that we as a Brooklyn Community can always come together to celebrate and share in the joy of each other's holidays and traditions thank you so [Applause] much uh so next we have uh Sophia Ismael and then after Sophia it'll be Asain Ley okay can everyone hear me okay good evening everyone my name is Sophia ismile and I've been a student at Pierce Baker and now I'm a junior at Brookline High School and I want to share my experience as a student and how not having eat off has affected me at every PSB School I've attended there's been unique Traditions at Baker all fifth graders put on the annual fifth grade skit at the fall at the fall assembly and try each other's food at the annual culture Fest at BHS everyone gets dressed up in their blue and red for the Powderpuff game my family and I have had our own Traditions as well since I was a little girl I remember getting up early on Eid morning to get dressed up in my brand new traditional clothes excited to see all my Muslim friends at the eat prayer my Baker best friend Nafi and I always went to the carnival outside the mosque after prayer and ate popcorn and cotton candy until we were sick I would see so many kids from Brooklyn that I would wonder who was still at school as I've gotten older it has become a day of celebrating all of the discipline that I practiced over the month of Ramadan when our energy is at a low Point especially during the school day during Ramadan as well then missing a day after struggling with school work the whole month is honestly inequitable every year when I come back everyone asks me why I missed school and I had to educate them about my holiday day but I've never had to ask any of my Jewish or Christian friends that question because everyone had the day off and everyone was aware that there was a holiday although Brooklyn is a very diverse community that diversity is not reflected in our school calendar I'm graduating in 20 2026 so this isn't for me it's for the kids after me for kids like my little sister one day hopefully soon I hope that my identity as as a proud Muslim and as a proud Brooklyn student can blend seamlessly together and I hope that I don't have to keep the Traditions that I have built with my family and with my school separate thank [Applause] you okay good evening members of school committee and members Muslim families and friends in Brookline um thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight my name isan Lei I am a proud Brookline parent to 12-year-old Nora and I am former candidate for the US House of Representatives to represent our district my daughter Nora will be entering eighth grade next year and I stand before you to voice my strong support for recognizing a as a category one holiday in the school calendar a is a significant religious celebration for Muslims around the world and by recognizing it as a category one holiday we embrace our Town's values of inclusivity and respect ensuring that Nora and many others won't have to choose between their education and their religious Traditions I understand concerns about opening the door to numerous holiday requests however acknowledging Aid is a step towards Equitable representation our school calendar already reflects the holidays of various traditions and Adin demonstrates our community to inclusive our commitment to inclusivity this is not about taking away from others but about ensuring that all students feel seen and respected we don't take away or expand in we adding more I urge you to consider the positive impact this decision will have on our community as a whole fostering an environment where diversity is celebrated thank you very much uh next we have husna abdurahim and after husna be uh good evening everyone salam alaikum peace be on to you all thank my name is hdim and I'll be um I'm in sixth grade thank you for letting me speak today I'm here to talk about why it's essential to make e a school holiday for Muslim Students like me and many others in our school e f Anda are two really important holidays in Islam they're like Christmas Thanksgiving and Hanukkah to others these days Muslims spend time with their families praying and celebrating but right now when Eid happens we still have to go to school and that that can make it hard for Muslim Students to enjoy these special days there are three big reasons why we should have eat as a holiday one it makes everyone feel included in our school we learn about different cultures and backgrounds and we're taught to respect Everyone by making eat a holiday we can show that we care about different cultures and religions that makes up our school community community it makes Muslim Students feel included and valued just like when we celebrate other holidays two it's fair for all students St right now Muslim Students have to miss school to celebrate Eid which means we have to miss essential lessons and sometimes fall behind that's unfair because other students get time off for their essential holidays by making eat a holiday we can celebrate with our families without worrying missing or missing school work or falling behind three it helps everyone learn about each other making eat a school holiday I making eat a holiday also helps everyone learn more about different cultures and traditions it's a great way to teach our classmates what makes e unique and shows that our school respects everyone traditions this helps build understanding and friendship between students from different backgrounds in conclusion making eat a school holiday would help Muslim Students feel included make them make things fair for everyone and help them learn more about each other I hope you will consider this idea to make eat a school holiday and make this world a better place thank thank you for listening uh next we have Marina Reda and then it will be sadf KMI hi everyone uh thank you for the time today uh actually my little brother uh deil RV was actually supposed to be here today to speak to all of you unfortunately he's also caught that you know turn of the Season uh illness uh luckily I'm here and I'm almost as eloquent as he and husna here who are both 11 years old um but I just wanted to tell you guys really quickly about how about a week ago my little brother came home from school with his best friend and I heard them before I saw them but they were super happy and they were having a great time until my mom came and asked them you know when they're going to start their homework or if they've even done their homework to which they gleefully replied that it's actually a Jewish holiday and that they don't have to go to school so um for the rest of the night they continued their play dat and they had a great time um of course we're all happy for them for that um but it didn't take very long for him to start wondering why the only holiday that he celebrates isn't as valued or respected in the fact that he doesn't get a day off to celebrate it um he doesn't celebrate Halloween he doesn't uh understand Thanksgiving he doesn't celebrate Christmas and he doesn't really care about Valentine's Day so it's really the only one that he actually uh you know wants to celebrate and feels as magical and growing up um Eid always fell in the summer for me so I remember that magical feeling of waking up of having the first meal and seeing my friends and you know going to prayers with my family and it kind of made me feel very sorry for him that he doesn't have that same childhood memory that same magic you know uh feeling created for him because you know he has been at school for every time that he does fallen in his youth when he actually is uh fasting so he wanted to be here today to tell you that story and hope that you know this change can come about that he might be able to join in with celebrations with his friends and tell his friends about his faith and you know why this day is special to him and um finally join me and my family in uh making this moment magical for you know not just young kids but it's it's a family memory that we all spend together it's very important to us so thank you again for your time and I we all really appreciate [Applause] it hi everybody okay to go ahead Betsy yeah all right great uh hi everyone I'm SF cosmi I'm mother of a kindergartener and a third grader at Lawrence School I'm also the product of Brooklyn Public Schools having attended Lawrence myself from kindergarten through the 8th grade when when considering where to raise our children my husband and I decided to move to Brooklyn for many reasons however two of the top reasons was the quality of the public schools which I knew about firsthand uh and also the diversity of the community which has only increased since the time that I was a child growing up as a child of immigrants and as a racial and religious minority I experienced a general sense of acceptance from my peers and the school staff but I also experiened a tremendous amount of ignorance my family is originally Pakistani and nobody seemed to know where Pakistan was or what it even was uh and when I mentioned that I didn't celebrate Christmas people would asked people would ask if I were Jewish and when I said I wasn't the consistent response from students and staff was well then what are you when Muslim holidays rolled around as a child I felt the burden of educating classmates teachers and School administration about my faith Traditions celebrations and then to seek out accommodations for my holidays to make up missed work and lessons and to reschedule exams missed in observance of major religious holidays and I while I loved growing up here I really do hope that my children have a different experience in some ways than I did I do not want my children to have the same experience when it comes to this level of understanding and diversity I've grown into an adult who's proud of my Heritage and my faith and has a strong sense of belonging in this community that I grew up as a part of and I'm also trying to instill the same pride and confidence in my own children however my kindergartner said to me a couple weeks ago mom we shouldn't talk about why the fact that we learned Arabic in Sunday school with people at school who aren't Muslim right and frankly that made me really really sad what is it about her experience one month into Lawrence School that makes her say such a thing because she didn't say that in preschool making e the category 1 holiday is a step towards properly acknowledging the diversity of this community and not making the holidays of one of the world's largest faiths a side note or something that is raised only by the most confident and engaged members of our school Community this benefits not just Muslim children but the broader town by educating all of the community m about our neighbors and the world around them so that they don't grow up into the adults that I experienced who ask questions like well then what are you and while I understand there concerns about the inclusion of an additional category one holiday and what it'll do to the school calendar I believe that there are really creative ways to solve for this concern and I also think that the real question to ask is whether we as a town believe in reinforcing principles of diversity and inclusion in our schools and I truly hope that the answer to that question is yes thank you [Applause] we have two students next Anna and Nora and after they speak it'll be ashard sadika hello everyone my name is Alia rajar and I a sophomore at Brook line High um hi I'm my name is Norah and I'm also a sophomore at Brook L high today we are here to discuss you why we believe eat all to Fe eat all feed and should be recognized as a category one holiday just to clarify there are two eats e Al Hala and E Al fer but today I will only be referring to one to provide some context eat is a deeply significant holiday for Muslims around the world marking the end of Ramadan the holy month in which Muslims fast from dawn to Sunset for 30 days this fast is not just a physical challenge but also a time for reflection spiritual growth and empathy for those who are less fortunate it is a time when we come together with families and communities to celebrate these values of compassion and generosity eat is a hot filled with love joy and togetherness we spend it in prayer giving charity dancing exchanging gifts and sharing festive meals it is truly a time to connect with our family and celebrate our faith for Muslim for Muslim Students in Brookline it is not just a day off it is a sacet and cherished time and one of the most important holidays in Islam however as things currently stand e is classified as a category 2 holiday this means while there is no homework assigned on that day students are still expected to attend school which can create significant challenges for those who observe the holiday by making e a category 1 holiday like Easter Christmas or rashash Shana we can give students the opportunity to fully participate in the religious and cultural trai Traditions without the added stress of having to catch up on missing work this change would also promote educational diversity in a meaningful way why is this important when schools recognize and accommodate the religious holidays of all students it Fosters an inclusive environment where every student feels seen and respected it acknowledges that students come from diverse background with a wide range of of cultures religions and traditions for Muslim Students allowing them the space to fully celebrate Eid without the fear of falling behind academically shows that the school values and respects their cultural identity this recognition is not just a matter of fairness it's a matter of promoting educational diversity and Equity when the schools accommodate and celebrate diverse Traditions it strengthens the sense of belonging and Community among all students the sense of belonging is crucial for a positive School experience as students who feel supported and respected are more likely to thve both both both academically and emotionally on the other hand when students are forced to choose between their education and their cultural or religious practices it can create unnecessary stress feeling of exclusion and even resentment by making e a category one Holiday Brooklyn Public Schools would be taking an important step toward creating an environment that supports the diverse needs of its student body it was signal that the school recognizes the value of all cultures and religious Traditions especially of a religion that makes up a significant portion of our town when we support the traditions of one group we support the well-being and success of all students let's work together to make sure that every student no matter their background or beliefs can celebrate their Traditions with pride and without compromise thank [Applause] you hi good evening everyone my name is Asad sadika I have been a Brooklyn resident for 24 years two of my children have done full of public school of Brooklyn and I have a third one who's a 10th grader in high school I immigrated to America about 30 years ago and out of which 24 years I've called Brooklyn my home and I always believed and experienced America to be magnanimous kind accepting everywhere having said that as you know in the past 24 years diversity has grown in Brooklyn and when we moved here it was a pretty random selection hey it's close to work let's move to Brooklyn and then we realized oh it's diverse it's got good schools etc etc etc and diversity as everyone has mentioned has increased Brookline public schools of Brookline always uh states that it is dedicated to creating and maintaining an educational and work environment that values diverse backgrounds of all people they desire to provide safe environment that allows students and employees equal access and opportunities in line with the American dream making Eid as a category one holiday is in line with those objectives Muslim Students carry a difficult choice right today and the numbers grow as I've diversity is increased between worship or should I attend school uh um we miss out on two days right oh we are supposed to attend 180 days oh we attend 170 days 178 and you miss out on curriculum even though it's Category 2 no homework you ask my kids oh we have to catch up anyway but they miss the instructions I think people have discussed various Solutions I don't want to go too much into it hey can we and and I'm going with all the other school districts around the country which has accommodated this as the population of Muslim Students diversity has increased um by eliminating one of the category one holidays that's one of the solutions I think Lexington and wellsly did or collapsing uh conferences that way we don't extend the school year which everyone is uh sensitive to um and some other you know details which I'll let uh the school committee and all your members to come up with it I think there are a lot of Brilliant Minds here who can come up with Solutions um but again let school school districts all over the country are moving to recognize and celebrate major holidays in their demographic population so why doesn't Brookline do that and not be a follower be a leader thank [Applause] you uh next is ha deled and then after that will be RAF Ali hi good evening everybody my name is Hagar delshad I'm a parent of a baker student and my high school student Sophie spoke earlier um I want to thank you for the time and thank you for extending the public comment period because as you can see we're a sizable population and um I hope that you'll give some consideration to adding uh one or both eids as a uh a category one holiday for Brookline schools um I want to read to you some of the language that's on the brookln public schools website and I want you to imagine reading it as someone whose holidays are not honored by the school and see how it sounds from that lens according to the website the PSB is dedicated to creating and maintaining an educational work environment that values diverse backgrounds and provides students and employees equal access and opportunities in the academic and other educational support programs this applies to all acts related to school activities or School attendance under the jurisdiction of superintendent Dr giler's message on the first week of school stated that we must commit to equity and inclusion and we must be proactive in identifying and dismantling barriers to success and we must build a culture of care and respect what other way could we show respect and honor to a group of students that are represented here besides the many who are not here um by honoring a holiday that they consider so dear to them and is so meaningful that provides uh access for everyone else in the community to learn about the holiday and and understand it's important to us it allows also for us to attract more diverse population of Educators and staff there's currently about sorry there are currently about three Muslim Educators in the entire district and as you can see we have more than three students here so the ratio is really imbalanced um if we were to attract and attain Educators who identify as Muslim that would help all of the students and everyone in the school feel more included and represented as you know representation is just as important as the education that we do deliver and we are uh hopeful that we can partner with you in finding a way to incorporate at least one of the holidays um with various ways that we can without extending the school calendar I know everyone is cognizant that we don't want to be in school until July and of course we don't eat either it is hot nobody wants to be in school we want to travel all those things um but our children deserve the same ability to celebrate their holidays just as your children do and I hope that you can hear this message loud and clear today um and just as my daughter said she'll be graduating in 2026 maybe she will get to celebrate one holiday as a category one in all of her 12 13 years as a brook line student um but again it's been really too late for her all these years hopefully her sister will get to enjoy that thank [Applause] [Music] you uh I I've kept this one brief so I will give the rest of my time to the next person after me uh my name is Rafa Ali and I am a senior at Brooklyn High uh is my favorite day of the year it's a reward for disciplining myself in fasing during Ron it's full of parties music and games and as a Muslim student at BHS I am forced to choose every Eid between celebrating the day of my family and friends and going to school the choice is always to celebrate but there's a distinct downside to this when I choose to celebrate to embrace my culture and end a month of fasting with food and laughter I also miss out on schoolwork valuable instruction and I'm forced to play catchup I'm effectively penalized on days when I have major tests I must take on the extra stress of juggling newly assigned work in school as well as making up whatever test I missed a student should not have to choose between honoring their faith and PRI prioritizing their education secondly as a student I feel disrespected by the school's refusal to acknowledge my faith as legitimate cause for Holiday I'm required to justify and defend one of the most important days on my calendar finally recognition of Eid as a holiday would lend Islam recognition in this town something it is sorely in need of recognition of Islam would Elevate its status to that of other faiths in this town as well as gaining Muslims some amount of respect or positive opinion which we've been often denied in a town and school system which Prides itself on its commitment to diversity inclusion and accommodation for a range of cultures and faiths there should be a space for Islam as well thank you uh next we have ashad Amed in the room thank you can you guys hear me uh I'm going to give a slightly different perspective uh firstly my name is Arad Ahmed I've been in Brookline for the last uh what 15 years now and my kids have two kids they both go to Lawrence um slightly different perspective um the simple point I'm going to make is that there has been a a demographic shift in Brooklyn over the past 15 years or so since since I moved here and um no one I've not seen any study done on how many Muslims actually live in Brooklyn so I've pulled some census data and I've also looked at the assessors list and made some calculations around country of origin and who might be a Muslim who might not be a rough estimate is anywhere from 2500 to 3,000 Muslims live in Brookline um representing about roughly about 5% of the population uh four to 5% not sounds low but it's not an insignificant number and so the school policy should reflect this new reality and new diversity and new demographics that we're dealing with and this is going to change uh further I mean as the population growth of the Muslim Community is much higher than other communities so over the next several years this this this is going to change quite a bit if you compare with Cambridge the Muslim population is actually almost double so it seems like they've CH changed but then as a percentage of the total population is still around 5% so we're almost there Cambridge Cambridge Massachusetts compared to Brookline there Cambridge has a much higher Muslim population so that's the reason why people cite that as the reason why they shifted but as a percentage it's very similar to Brookline if you look at other communities such as Lexington and Welsley the the percentage of Muslim population is very low it's 2% of the population but they have shifted so M that's my question to you is is other communities are shifting uh they're seeing this trend I think Brookline needs to see this trend as well um I've made this difficult Choice over the past decade or so of not sending of not going to the mosque for eat prayers because of school and so uh we hope that this choice is not there anymore that we are able to go and celebrate Eid uh when when we can so would really appreciate this request thank [Applause] you uh we have three remote speakers our first one is Ria KH R if you want to turn on your camera we'll be able to see you go right ahead can you all hear me yes we can okay so my name is Ria Khan and I am a BHS graduate now my second year at um Miami I'm home right now because I just had to evacuate due to Hurricane Milton and I'm on Zoom because I just took a midterm so despite all the craziness I'm here um because it's really important to me that I get to talk about why I think eats should be a category one holiday so I'm Muslim and I'm very proud of who I am and I'm very proud of my identity and that's thanks to my ful parents family friends the many communities I'm a part of and the way that I grew up so in middle school I moved from Houston Texas to Brooklyn and at my Elementary School in Texas the whole school always had the day off for Eve that's how I grew up I got my holiday off just like everyone else had theirs and I never had to think twice about it you know looking back I realized that it insured I would feel just as valued as my peers and truly I can't even begin to explain how formative and important growing up like that was for me you know when you're a little kid and even when you're a teenager it feels so important to fit in and personally I wanted to fit in and feel special which I know seems impossible but it's something that many many kids want and I'm grateful that I spent my childhood at a school where that was possible for me you know I remember the day before Eve all my friends were so excited about having the day off and then I was so excited about getting to tell them about my plans you know showing them pictures of my outfits and it was fun and I didn't feel singled out instead I felt special and accepted and I had a real sense of belonging so you know when I was a student at BHS I was a part of the newspaper and in my senior year I was the Dei managing editor and Dei is diversity Equity inclusion so I spent a lot of my time having conversations with students and teachers and my newspaper advisers who are great by the way and staff about how to support and how to make sure students at BHS felt a real sense of belonging too so I'm here now telling you that giving everyone the day off for Eid does that for your Muslim Students I can speak from experience it sends them the message that they are a valued member of this town and that they are a part of the fabric of our community so thank you so much for having me speak and I hope you take my experience and everyone that's spoken today into account when you make your decision uh next we have Sharif elendi with good evening everybody um sorry I couldn't be here in person because of like late work commitments so um I uh live I have been living in Brookline uh for almost 9 years now and the main reason I moved to Brookline is the uh the great it's a great school district and the reputation of being you know like a welcoming uh diverse I have an older son who graduated high school he's currently in college and I have three children in the school system in bookl um one of them goes to the hay school so when I uh drop in loss every morning I see the sign all uh it's a nice sign I I like it but it is time to uh translate more into action uh as I mentioned I have an older son who uh graduated Pol in high school and uh it has always been an issue during Eid like others described uh part of Eid is to wake up early uh go to the musque do the prayer and then go back home uh celebrate uh mostly with family then with friends and it's a it's a feast like celebration there is always food music Etc uh um for him it was hard because uh when he grew up and I asked him if you know like what he would like to do for his answer is he doesn't know because if he um missed school uh his he will miss work his homework will be doubled like I I still remember his words he said I feel I'm being punished for for for missing uh that day uh if we try to split it like wake up early in the morning because it's a it's it's like a like a sunrise prayer then it means he's waking up earlier than usual just to go to prayer and then R to school so there is you know for for a child there's no fun in that so it has always been this dilemma of like or why why can't I celebrate it why am I being uh different and um this is the main topic you're like you know children should not feel that they are being different um especially and let's be like you know Frank about this especially about being a Muslim child because as Muslims I'm talking about myself and a lot of people I know we feel like many times we're being almost targeted here you know from like very high up like top position in the country and it trickled all the way down to uh to some to some children so uh celebrating I seems like you know like a simple step or not a huge step but it is a huge step because when children in school have friends and they start learning oh we like you know kids like each other children like each other we celebrate their or we have a day off of a religious holiday we understand the religious holidays it brings children together which means it will bring communities together which also will go is like you know procline being diverse and uh welcoming to all it's hard for me to to to speak here and basically I'm defending something that I think should have been done years ago I um I read some of the minutes about uh from a meeting in August about you know like the concerns raised about you know why celebrate this I me I'm talking only for two minutes I'm not going to respond you know obviously to all of this and some of my you know like the parents he responded to that but this has already been discussed in other school districts in Massachusetts and outside Massachusetts and uh all of them were able to find easy solutions and now they have as a category one Raman so it's simply if there is a will there is a will so I'm respectfully asking you to start by you know recognizing this as a category one holiday depending you know like you know having a policy to how to inflence second uh and our last speaker is Isabella gaur hi everyone it's a lot of pressure being lost but I'll do my best um I graduated from BHS in 2019 um I attended Brookline schools from 3K until end of high school and as so many people have just discussed I think we can all you know understand how important it is for us in the Muslim Community and like all of the other students that have spoken I'd like to talk about my experience specifically being a Muslim going to school in Brooklyn in my experience whenever I talked about Islam or Ramadan or Eid it's not that people ever had anything rude or mean to say it's just people genuinely had no idea what I was talking about when I spoke about fasting about Eid or just really anything within the Muslim tradition and it felt pretty isolating every year when I had to sort of re-explain what all the holidays were why I might be out and just sort of you know all the Customs that I did with my family uh freshman year I remember uh fell on a day in September and I was really sort of going through a hard time at that moment I was feeling really anxious and overwhelmed with the transition into high school and when ID rolled around I remember my dad had to literally convince me to skip school uh usually I know I would be super excited to have the opportunity to skip school but I felt like like I couldn't um and my dad had to really convince me to skip school to celebrate Eid with him and my brother and we ended up having a lovely celebration just the three of us but you know it's hard to to really enjoy that day when you know that you have a ton of responsibilities to go back to and you're you know falling behind and uh yeah it's just not an ideal situation for any of us and I know eat is just two days out of the year it often falls on the weekend it often falls in the summer most of my life it was during the the summer um but you know those two days are really really important to us so it's seriously I know people have said this before but like truly picture yourself going to school on Thanksgiving or on Christmas like that's really how it feels for us it's just super it feels unnatural and it feels like you know it's not fair to what the holiday means for us so thanks for listening and thanks to everyone else who shared their experiences we hope you take this all into a consideration [Applause] so that concludes public comment open public comment I want to thank everyone for coming uh we do listen we don't respond during public comment those who have been here before know that I see some heads shaking but we really do listen take notes and we will have a conversation about this uh later tonight so uh probably it's um I it's it's probably another hour away before we get to this topic gives you time to go home and plug in to zoom on big if you wish or you are certainly welcome to stay as long as you would like um so thank you again uh we really appreciate hearing from you and you know I have to give you all Kudos because you really did do it in two and a half minutes each so thank you that was that was impressive so thank you very much okay we are going to move on to uh the special town meeting Warren article uh and do we have our guests here to they on zoom on Zoom okay so we are going to uh hear to the um petitioners about Article 19 am I are you ready for uh me to address uh the school committee I think we are Scott I think we're okay okay Mich Michael thank you yeah yes so I will uh we will stay Within the uh time limits that were given to us uh my name is Michael Burstein and my colleague is Scott Gladstone I I think most of the members of the scho committee know who we are we are both members of town meeting uh I'm a library trustee I have recently was chair of the trustees although I am not anymore and we did in fact file the warrant article to uh try to establish Jewish American heritage month as a much more official celebration in the town of b um we actually like to start by saying how great it was listening to the advocacy for inclusion and diversity and education that we just went through um and Scott and I want to make it clear that we actually completely support the Muslim Community and their advocacy for ID Al and ID Al being holidays on the calendar because in a way this is exactly what our own warant arle is all about um um the United States state department celebrates P Heritage and history months and we feel that the time has come for the town of Brooklyn to make a commitment to Jewish American heritage month as one of those months um this is not something that is out of line of what town meeting has done before we actually modeled our article on the one that town meeting passed about um Asian-American and Pacific Islander month two years ago Scott and I were both in that town meeting we both voted yes um and it's interesting some of the things that people have asked us about at the advisory committee at school sorry at the select board um that were in our article or things that were essentially identical from the language that was previously passed um so our goal with this warant article is basically to help the town celebrate Jewish American history and Jewish American contribution and to support the schools in their mission to educate and celebrate the diversity that we have in this town um we will admit we point out in the description that our article is partly a response to the increase in anti-Semitism that we've seen in the past year but that's not the only reason for the warant article as I mentioned town meeting has voted for past previous types of Heritage celebrations Martin Luther King Day indigenous people's day aapi month um and we actually see this as a continuing that tradition of town meeting resolutions in favor of celebrating diversity uh as we say in the explanation for this resolution which I I will quote it besides educating all people about Jews and Judaism being an effective bul workk against anti-Semitism there is also an intrinsic value in celebrating the unique contributions of Jewish residents in Brookline as part of the Mosaic of other faiths ethnicities and nationalities then make Brookline the vibrant ex Community which we all enjoy we support all efforts to educate about celebrate Embrace and celebrate every Community within Brook the more the better this proposal is just one piece of that larger effort now we know that the school committee of course has particular interest in the schools and we know that the schools already acknowledge this much uh in the same way that the select board has acknowledged it each year but we we've not we've taken a look and we've noted many cases these are prompted from outside or by others um Scott has gone to the select board uh every um or for I think for the past few years to remind the select board in you know just before May about uh Jewish American heritage month and to make a statement um and in the context of the schools uh we um we sent you a letter from a teacher at the Ridley School about her support for Jewish American Heritage Mar and how helpful she would find this resolution and I don't want to rehash all of those things but I will note that you know in the one testimony from students in the Brooklyn schools who came to the advisory committee subcommittee meeting uh they did talk about their own uh advocacy what they did in order to try to make Jewish American Heritage Month more significant uh for their school and their community um and you know we would like to be able to support um this you know we feel a town meeting resolution would make a powerful statement uh we're delighted to note that we were joined by unanimous votes of the advisor committee and the select board the advisor committee voted 23 yeses and one exstension the select board four yeses one extension to support our warrant article um and so again our hope for you guys to understand the context of the schools is that having T meeting pass such an article will help support you the school committee uh and the teachers in the overall mission of the Brooklyn schools to promote diversity um I will see if Scott has anything he wants to add but I will note if he doesn't that we're happy to answer any questions you might have uh yes thanks um mindful of the time I see there's only like two minutes left um one of the things that um we heard from the couple of students at from the F school who uh addressed the um advisory committee was that the only time the the first and only time they really learn about Jews and Judaism is when they learn about the Holocaust and while there's a lot of value in that um it certainly is not the whole story and um the value of Holocaust Education in fighting an anti-Semitism in increasing understanding of people's differences has had limited success so this is another uh route for the Brookline schools the entire School Community the entire Brookline community libraries Etc to um uh help people learn about who their neighbors are um and it's um and again more knowledge um means less misunderstanding less misunderstanding hopefully leads to less hate and in and intolerance and if this is a lesson that can be taught uh about Jewish Americans it obviously has broad application across Ross the board particularly where our Muslim brothers and sisters um and the last thing I'll say is um it's ironic that when we brought this article there was a comment from a uh Town official um worried about uh well what does it mean for the town to use its resources um backing or supporting a religion and town council's office said very clearly not a problem but just the asking of the question was indicative of of why we need this sort of Education because people think they know who their Jewish neighbors are and what they're about but they really don't um not fully I'm I'm sure the people in the audience um understand the feeling I'm talking about um and even many people in the Jewish Community don't necessarily uh understand how all all of their um brothers and sisters feel about it Judaism is not just religion Judaism is a people um for instance the Lota people are a people with their own language their own religion they don't say oh it's I practiced Lakota ISM they just practice the religion and uh but it's not all who they are um there's a whole culture there same thing with Jews and Jewish Americans Jews have their own unique languages um Hebrew is spoken by not just Jews because it is also a national language but Jews have unique languages Yiddish Latino judeo Arabic um I'm learning new ones all the time um this the just small Snippets of the kinds of things that can be taught in the schools if we have a recognition that um Jewish Americans not only make a huge contribution to our culture and the society but there's value just in understanding who our neighbors are and um I'll all in there okay thank you very much do we have any public comment on this we don't okay are there any questions uh for the presenters for me yes okay do wait Sarah did you have one for the presenters oh okay go ahead Maria um thank you for the presentation uh Suzanne my recollection was that we were going to write a statement and saying that we are doing this already but the we weren't necessarily going to vote on the warrant article itself is that that's my recollection okay I just wanted to check because it had possible vote on the it is possible just in case we changed our mind that it's not expected that we would okay very good that's why we say possible okay people remember that conversation okay yes okay Sarah so oh did you hear that uh Scott Mike did you hear what we had said what we how we discussed this before I I I did hear that and we weren we weren't necessarily looking for a vote of recommendation to go the combined reports we actually are more interested in the doing of it in in you're seeing what we're trying to promote and actually taking some actions to advise the superintendent to actually make enhancements to the curriculum gotcha and sorry I'm GNA I'm going to jump because it's unless it's on this I don't remember sorry what was the conversation and because this is my first goor round with Warren articles what was our conversation about why we would or wouldn't vote on this one or other ones right without digressing too much but just give me like a bumper sticker on school committee votes on warrant articles thank so we usually try to vet the Articles we go through them the uh government relations subcommittee did that and we come forward and say these are the ones we think uh might be pertinent to us uh typically there are very few that are directly connected Ed to schools um and so when we took a look at this one I believe the conversation was that we are doing this already in our schools and that we would be willing to put forward a very short statement that said that is the case but that we were not going to take a position and vote on this as a school committee because it's actually not geared just towards schools it's more of a town uh War an article uh so okay okay also Suzanne WE schools aren't bound it's not binding to us even as a resolution that was the other thing right okay Sarah did you have a question comment yes this is just you know to extent that this can be helpful when I see number five um where it suggests that so it's the um it will be resolved the town meeting urges that the public schools of Brooklyn observe Jewish American Heritage Month by organizing activities in Celebration so you know thinking as an educator I looked at the sample um lessons which actually I am so happy to see I that's a teacher that I've celebrated for many many years and so I'm I'm just happy that her materials are getting out there as they help us all sort of think about what we're doing but I want you to in order to be really useful to the schools I want you to think about what you mean by that when you say that do you mean that a sixth grade math teacher would make sure that they would have activities or do you mean that a building would make sure that there was something in celebration I'm not looking for an answer tonight I just want you to think about that you're asking for well we can certainly give you an answer right is is but if that is a question been directed at Scott me I will make the point that this is the exact language that appeared in the AAP month resolution uh that was passed by a 10wn meeting two years ago so my feeling would be in general to say that we would expect something at the same level as any other celebration or education that is done for AIP a month or any other Heritage Month Scott did you want to add anything to that um yeah and I mean obviously just to specifically answer Sarah's question it's obviously up to the the central office and each building's um in principal as to you know what what this means um you know curriculum isn't as directive as as I think you're as you know curriculum is not as directive as you're suggesting uh from ma teachers move to do it great um but as long as that there's something so that uh Jewish Americans in the school can say can point at that and say o i was recognized and non-jewish Americans can say hm this Jewish American heritage month I wonder I well this look at this interesting poster with this new information about Jewish astronauts and uh scientists Etc and who uh oh by the way that person's an atheist and they can be Jewish yeah they can be how is that well let's that's a nice discussion starter um to to our information there is that teacher who's doing a substantial bit in Social in uh the English Second Language teacher in the frrr school in the Middle grades I know that there are a couple of school librarians who put up displays that's all I'm aware of so if you if if you're saying that in every building there has been something every May where they have had a display and no I I was wondering just for you to clarify for yourself what you meant because I wanted you to make sure that when you're putting this forward you understand what you know is if I were an educator reading this and I'm the math teacher what I feel like oh okay we're all set because the librarian has already um addressed this right I just want you to sort of have an a definition in your own head right of what that would mean well that's a leadership question if I if I could add to this uh for many years I actually was a science and math teacher uh at a variety of private schools in the area including the Cambridge School of Weston actually two PRS wasn't there um and I will tell you that during Heritage type times I actually would incorporate things into my curriculum now not a public school curriculum didn't have to worry about the mcast or state standards I completely understand about that but when I was teaching physics I would mention physicists of different backgrounds for different months that acknowledge that uh you mentioned mathematics uh I believe Emmy Norther was one of the great Jewish mathematicians and uh who doesn't get mentioned often enough um so I would say that you know teachers of all disciplines could find ways to even briefly in may even if it's simply handing out a worksheet or sending students to a website uh and making it enrichment and not disrupt their curriculum uh show that they can also celebrate um Jewish American Heritage Month you just completely got what I was looking for I I think that in your answer there I see that you understand what you mean well like I said I was a teacher for many years and I'm a lawyer so how do I know okay um so is it still the will of the committee that we do not take a vote on this particular warrant article and that we instead perhaps have a very short statement saying that um we are in fact doing doing this Jesse did you have some thoughts on that you had some earlier I didn't know if you wanted to comment on that you had because you had said something earlier not tonight the last time right so um I guess I'll say I apologize because I read Andy's U message um yesterday maybe about our decision to write the statement and then I said to myself I'm going to sit down right now and write the statement and send it back to Andy and I didn't and I apologize but I will be happy to step up to say I'll do that in the next day or two and send it back okay so we have a starting draft okay great is that okay with everybody we got thumbs up thumbs up okay thank you very much thank you very much for presenting tonight and good luck with the Warren article thank you for giving us the platform and and again if it's not just leting on laurels if you can promote it that we would love that okay we're going to move on to Mariah and the budget guidelines does that sound right thank you so you have in front of you two copies of the document one is with track changes from last time and the other is the clean version so you don't have to look at all the track changes um and I'm GNA just quickly voice over some of the key changes as I heard it one was make it shorter so we did um so you can see particularly on the first page there was a lot of scratch out um then then if you look at the track changes version that shows you that easily um at our last meeting we had talked about what would that World Language look like Helen Sarah me and Jodie um I and Jodie spoke about this today and we um and based on Jody's feedback this was the wording that um is in here and um Jody was very clear that the literacy roll out really had to take precedence through next year which is FY 26 and then there could be planning for World language in 27 to return World language in a a robust option it's not necessarily written as starting in kindergarten I think that leaves some flexibility but the idea would be that the program itself is um stronger better um does does more of what we are hoping to aligns with the um report Etc so that would be for FY 28 so you see that's 1B and then we had also talked about um putting a pin in Universal prek um and so that's what onec is um and you'll notice that there is no year identified for Universal prek because we had talked about that being tied to larger Federal um or state programming um going to to a or sorry go ahead you know I was looking at this just now yeah and I'm wondering if we should add upon the availability of town federal or state do you think there's going to be a town subsidy for pre kindergarten know we might have a windfall I don't think that would be a subsidy I don't think you would describe that as a subsidy oh okay yes certainly well one of the things I was going to say was there's nothing there's nothing that precludes Us in future years from changing what this looks like but this is our current thinking about it sorry uh that's okay um going down to 2D we added in some enrichment language as well around summer programming at the high school and then 3A um took some of Jesse's language from his document to um um make sips a little more more Majestic um and then 3C um the request had been to push dashboards out of that first text down into the budget itself since there's a budgetary impact so so that is um making sure that dashboards should be in there by this year which was what we had had before um can you repeat that last one again originally talk about driving it down into it yeah originally that was if you see it sort of at the if you look at the bottom of page one um it was scratched out there um because people said that has a budgetary impact please put it into the guidelines instead of burying it in the front text so I pushed it down and I shortened it a little bit too trying to adhere to the request to shorten but hopefully keeping the core of it so so that's the changes um just going through and it ended up a little over a page and a half now but but on that topic we're not talking about the development of dashboards as being um adding to the expense we're just someone has to do them right and so it's part of the overall budget is the development and um support yes and we're saying if it's not it it should be because we need this right whether it's the upfront expense of the dashboard development from a developer right that's what I had in mind originally exact y thank you so would you like to move this and then we could have discussion I'll second okay so moved you second okay uh let's have some conversation we before we take a vote Stephen um thanks I like I like these changes uh just a couple of things one is I I still think that literacy should be the full funding of uh the literacy curriculum and instructional upgrade should be a standalone item even though it's also represented in the Strategic plan because of it's a one-time because of the fact that it's a one-time activity and that it's such a major initiative of PSB the way it's represented in here that it's the time frame is to allow for intensive focus on literacy roll out um it seems like it's just sort of explaining World Language that is the case it's just explaining World Language so primary guideline yeah okay so I I still think that there should be a mention of the full funding of the literacy initiative of PSB in here that's my first comment and my second comment is I think we should strike everything in the introduction after conversely for two reasons one is the same reason that I objected to what was in the introduction last time I think it um forecloses the school committee's ability to make decisions I think by saying that we are going to we are committing to defunding anything not in the Strate strategy means that we are taking executive power power out of our hands in the statement and I think it's immediately contradicted um in 1B because World Language is not in the Strategic plan and yet we're committing to it so I think it's a it's immediately a contradictory statement so I think it's um I think it's a bad idea and then I think it's um it makes no sense so is that Amendment to the yeah I propos an amendment that strikes word conversely through the end of that paragraph So conversely to sustainability yes we we have a second I'll second well does does this also include the comment about literacy then too because he had Stephen had two qu two points I haven't heard from Stephen yet on that what are you doing with that um I'd like to move them separately okay i' to first move that there be a a standalone statement where we commit to fully funding the literacy initiative and secondly that we strike everything from conversely through sustainability you're doing this two separate motions yeah so we've got a second on the conversely sentences I'll second the literacy one second the literacy okay let's what is the literacy one that we add a statements but what is the words sure um and where does it go Staffing or under budget I guess under Staffing I mean we have curricular stuff under Staffing anyway so I would say a or D or whatever um ensure that the literacy I I would defer to you um Jody for phrasing but I would suggest something along the lines of ensure that the literacy curriculum and instructional upgrade is fully funded through the conclusion of the upgrade or the three-year commitment or whatever it is that we we want to call it yeah at what level K to 12 K to three k to five what was that Jody it's ultimately going to be k to8 k to eight and I was what would you recommend us wording Jody if we were to do it um the district is committed to fully funding the purchase of new materials aligned with the science of reading can I ask a followup Jody do you feel that we need this guideline to be added to this document I do because in many ways this document is a statement of our priorities and we know that literacy is one of our priorities um even though it is cloud out strategic plan the program adoption isn't necessarily as explicit in the Strategic plan as it could be can you repeat your wording again that you said that's the worst thing for anyone I know Betsy did you write it down can we roll back the tape the district is committed purchas of literacy materials K through 8 okay that align with this I would say literacy materials and professional developments um um you need so for FY 26 fully fund right the purchase why don't you say literacy initiative hold on K lit literacy materials materials and professional development align to the allign to the science of reading well do we and I would say FY 26 through 8 right it's a threeyear purchase correct Ste that's that's the part that I'm unclear about we're writing budget priorities for fiscal year 25 and yet 26 okay it's a multi-year document so it means that the priority is going to continue to show up we're committing to having it continue to show up in this document over the course of 3 years where else does a budget item that's three years long show up is do we have like we we have I don't think it's a problem all right so I happen to think it's under budget but not and not Staffing but that's fine we can put under budget I could go so for FY 26 through 27 fully fund the purchase of K8 materials and professional development can we just say the literacy initiative that's what I'm wondering for the literacy initiative yeah that all fully fund the literacy initiative materials in PD y okay perfect there we go just to round it out I sort of thought it would then belong under educational Equity since literacy affects all and it's really it's really not a fiscal broad topic it's an Omnibus okay so we'll put it somewhere do you care Stephen where it goes I definitely don't okay okay so we have the wording should we vote on that two motions yeah we need to Yeah Yeah well yeah there were two motions Jesse we're voting on both the same time no just this one literacy literacy adding the literacy yes Steven yes Sarah yes Mariah yes Helen yes Carolyn yes and I vote Yes as well okay uh on the second so I'll move to strike conversely through sustainability second second okay a vote or discussion I would like to say if it's okay that I don't agree with that quite I don't know why I'm asking if it's okay I don't agree with that um I think it's really important that um that we can't always add we have to provide a mechanism for being able to refine the focus and we have to make it clear that we are open to um staff making those recommendations and identifying those activities we're not going to be really good at what we want to be really good at if we can't let go of the things that we don't think get us where we want to be but we H we already have that power we're we're committing here to defunding anything that is deemed not aligned with the Strategic plan and I why was that a problem though because that means that we will no longer be making decisions in the future about what we can and can't fund if it is not aligned then it will not be funded do you want to strike and defunded identified or a strategy for exiting these activities will be described just the and defunded I guess I don't even want to do that I think we should have the ability to reconsider it there may be extenda circumstances I I agree with your general point that we should be committed to prioritizing the Strategic plan but I want to retain the the I want the school committee to retain the power to consider um non-aligned ideas in extenuating circumstances I don't think that this um removes that power but that's a perspective if I could add to that Helen and Carolyn I'm sorry will you no no you know this is a a more positive document of what we do want to do and I think that I I like that um tone to it rather than putting in something that is more negative um to my to my eyes are you saying that this is negative up there we may end up having to do this stuff we did last year it was hard and it was awful but to put it into our guidelines I'm not sure it helps us any my opinion Carolyn thanks I think um I think that's a helpful uh way of framing that what Helen just said and I had before the meeting um circled this section also um I circled the word defunded and wrote what is there an example and maybe more importantly I highlighted activities that are clearly not aligned with the Strategic plan um and with all due respect for the Strategic IC plan it's not super it's not filled with super tangibles um some of it is is pretty broad I think and so I feel like this it kind of just leaves a lot open to interpretation and you could say that about even the things that we are including so I'm not sure that makes sense but I I support this motion for for the reasons that Helen just said and and for the reason that Steven uh proposed it Sarah for the sake of continuing a conversation I want to support um Mariah but I want you to tell me Mariah if this is not really what you were thinking because this is the way that I'm thinking about it so um we all sort of agree that this is in reality what we do and I like these documents to help kind of educate people on the importance of the work that we do so I see the Strategic plan and having that you know come through to the budget to the school Improvement plans as really being the strength of what the school committee the work school Community is trying to do because when you have a whole system systemwide trying to align itself you get all the players together and you can actually move something and and do something so I like this language in this document as a way to kind of educate people about what we try to do with budget and what we try to do with strategic plan yes that is part of it is education but um I think the other important part is the last four words which is long-term budget sustainability and the document we had this extensive conversation about this last time about add add add and there's no representation of anything being removed and when we don't talk about removing it to me sets a little bit of a tone of um disconnection with um with our responsibilities to um to continue to hone the budget to something that hopefully can be um funded and to maximize that efficiency Jesse Yeah to that point Mariah my question is when I read the sentence it it sort of brings to mind some kind of like drift process if you know what I mean which sentence the the one we're discussing conversely in other words that that that somehow we have a strategic plan which is amorphous in some ways it's broad with of principles and themes and we're saying in this sentence that we need I'm trying to try to turn into a more positive view of it that we need to be attentive to situations in which we drift sort of off course a little bit yeah and that's where the defunding comes in you know we want to let those programs just disappear so to bring us back to our within our guidelines so we're sort of watching the things that go over the guard rails and language so that's sort of how I looked at it that pay attention that it's our responsibility at at at times to become aware of drifting and course correct so I'd be happy with some kind of statement like that that sort of touches on the to the extent possible that we need to clean things out when we see that we've moved off Target maybe we can just come up with some language like that how would you word that because I really hope we're going to vote this tonight so I'm trying to like Wordsmith in public which is my worst nightmare but so far it's been successful so so let let me let me try a few things while the conversation continues okay okay um so I think that's helpful I was going to say that Mariah I I respect your um commitment to the long-term budget sustainability I was going to ask whether that could potentially go up um like as a five somehow in your very first paragraph also appreciate the challenge of wordsmithing in real time um and this is a total aside and maybe I'll bring this up in our Workshop um with total respect for we're all busy we all try to do stuff I I wish we could have had this this isn't directed at anyone I just wish we could have had this a little sooner like I personally didn't really have time to give this a lot of consideration with the time that we received it today um and again not directed at anyone it was me it was my bad well it I didn't realize it was on the agenda for tonight till Betsy asked me where it was it's really just it's just a statement miss it I looked at the we read it already we did we had looked at it two weeks ago I read the agenda when it was first published and I missed that it was on there so um just my bad Sten sorry are you not were you done car yeah I I just have thought about some compromise language R since since this is supposed to be if I understand school committee guidance to the administration in this in these opening paragraphs what about something like um the school committee encourages the administ so H whatever I'm going to move aside from the Preamble activities that are clearly not aligned with the Strategic plan we encourage the administration either to develop a strategic plan we we encourage the administration to integrate them into the Strategic plan so that they could be appropriately measured or supported or deprioritized something like that so so that we're we're we're reinforcing the idea that non-aligned activities can't remain non-aligned they have to either go into the Strategic plan or get deprioritized but issuing guidance to ourselves to doesn't make any sense to me we're not issuing guidance to ourselves I guess the way we're talking about it saying like we're going to Cur we're going to curb the excesses that that kind of language doesn't make as much sense to me this is a directive to staff okay yeah what do you think about someone said putting it up at the top paragraph what do you think about making it than like rather than having having it have it be a number five and just say like guide us as we make difficult important choices and four uh not and four enable us to main Rel this focus on our priorities comma and five support long-term budget sustainability something like that yeah I could read that would that work for you Jesse too just roll it up as a number five in the first paragraph yeah that's a great goal okay yeah it doesn't get to the drift idea but yeah sure okay yeah but well the drift is captured sorry uh Caroline the drift is sort of captured in four and three there so I think you know I think it's sort of there so that's fine and I think the drift is sort of implicit and I think that's maybe the nature of what Stephen sort of opened this conversation with it's like implicit in that we are going to invest in priorities kind of is that some things might drift and um well I guess I guess my um I get why my thought my thought on it was Caroline was more like um it's it's not the best wording but sort of committing to identify activities or initiatives that may require corrective action something like that in other words it's it's really putting some responsibility out there to to make sure we actually do it that it's a goal because we know they're going to be activities and projects that start that may not be within the strategic plan so then what so when when they're when they're identified and then the question would be how how do we identify them um and what actions do we take okay so where are we you're going to add number five well I think we should have a vote because while I suggested a solution I don't agree with it and I would vote against it so oh okay okay I'm trying to make it something that you all can rally around while I vote against it because I don't agree with it what do you think of the alternative language suggesting that non-aligned activities either be integrated into the Tre plan or or de prioritized does that get at the essence of what you were trying to say what it does but I think like this if you all can work with the sort of roll it up into number five if that works for you then I'm trying to get something that you might like though right but I'm afraid that doesn't say anything because yeah so it would be this is the um the second paragraph or the second sentence of paragraph one in accordance with our responsibilities we prevent present our suggested multi-year guidelines to one inform construction of the budget for the upcoming future fiscal years two allow us to review all spending proposals through a shared lens three guide us as we make difficult important choices four enable us to make a Relentless to maintain a Relentless focus on our priorities and five to support long-term budget sustainability I think that sounds great and then you're getting rid of all the conversely us that replaces right that goes out that's what you all would vote Yes I think that nothing else in that document nothing else if we do this nothing else in the document reports that we are actually supporting long-term budget sustainability it is a meaningless statement because we have not articulated anything that says to remove anything all we do is add well what about what about just adding number five the support thing and then taking out the conversely phrase and just start with the word activities just you know I'm I agree with what you're saying that if we put four words at the top you know uh support long-term budget sustainability what does that mean maybe the sentence that uh Steve suggested was problematic could just start after the first phrase and just say activities not aligned or something misaligned priorities whatever they are with the plan will be identified and defunded that way it doesn't start with this whole conversely and to extent possible it's it's we're articulating a goal which is to maintain a focus on looking for things that drifted let's just say and to bring them back bring them back into the plan or see I feel like medicine them well conversely was just because it's meant to tie to the fact that the primary guideline right this the flip side of the primary guideline right this is working outside and to the extent possible that mitigated all of these kinds of fears that we were giving away our power you know this is something that's saying some things aren't going to go away I don't know something that might feel like misaligned but we say in a year it's G to you know we're going to add it into the next one so don't make it disappear okay yeah right like oh we realize it got missed this time it's not here okay okay I don't know I I I would vote against these changes but okay so okay I'll make a motion we have several motions well we still have Steve Steven's motion to delete it all together delete it all together you want to withdraw Amendment okay that we deleted and put in number five to support long-term budget sustainability okay do we have a second to that second okay you ready to vote on that on the friendly Amendment yeah are we voting on The Friendly Amendment or the whole thing I'd like to vote on the whole thing if we could but that would include the friendly no no I meant I meant the whole thing I meant not just are we voting just on the amendment or are we voting on the amendment and the deltion oh no it's Amendment and the yeah yeah that one we got we ready M and then we're going to continue to we're not voting on the whole document yet we are after that okay because I I didn't I still have questions about okay perfect we're just trying to get through this part got it we'll see what we can do we'll start over here Carolyn yes yes yeah Mariah no Sarah no Stephen sorry if if the friendly Amendment doesn't pass then does the original motion then get put up for for a vote Yes No No you're voting no no see because you're following proper Robert's Rules and they're not you should be voting yes right now if you get what you you want what you would give what you want is yes I I I don't the friendly Amendment doesn't make a ton of sense to me because I don't see how we're supporting long-term budget sustainability so it seems like kind of a dangling idea to me so I I don't really want to support that friendly Amendment okay that's you just want to remove conversely and you don't want I I do want to remove the entire last sentence the last two sentences right but that's part of the friendly Amendment but he's saying he doesn't like but I don't but but putting that last unly Amendment so then you voted for I vot against it may or may not end up happening you don't like the sustainability as number five without the rest on as a standalone that you don't I don't see how our guidelines support long-term budgets you agree with that point where it's like not really present in the rest of the yeah sorry voting no on the friendly Amendment with apologies Jesse also no no no so can we got four no four Nos and two yeses my vote INE can we then vote on the it doesn't matter because it lost anyway can we vote on the original motion without the friendly Amendment yes we have to we can yeah we should sorry did you vote no I didn't vote I'm stay I just at this point I don't know just my okay so now we go back to the original Amendment which is to delete the entire paragraph from conversely through sustainability okay and we've already had that the vote I'll call the vote sorry I wanted to ask a question I'm sorry but about this about that parag voting the amendment not the whole thing I know no I know that I just still you'll get many more bites at the Apple the whole it's just what troubles me a little is this whole thing just feels vague to me like I wish I knew an example of like where people who worked on the Strategic plan which I think is very vague and or just Broad and then we're talking about activities and activities I don't think are named in the Strategic plan so then like can somebody just say like what you would anticipate defunding I don't have an example of what I would anticipate defunding but I can give an example of something that I think is unaligned with the Strategic plan and it's an opportunity to revisit it and see how we should be doing that better which is adult dead it's part of the PSB it's not present in the Strategic plan and I think that was a missed opportunity so I'm not saying we would necessarily get rid of it but there's so maybe we need to tweak that wording to say a strategy for exiting or modifying these activities or the plan or something like that right like but when things don't fit in the plan why are we doing them there are things okay there are things that won't fit in the plan that come from the federal government that come from the state but that's but base is not a mandate I'm just giving one example just picking on base for a second just like you're right there are things which are mandates base is part of the public schools that's where why in the Strategic plan yes but they're not they're a separate enti I don't they're not a separate entity I don't agree I'm not saying I'm not managing them I don't think I'm not I'm not trying to pick on them I'm pointing out that they are not present in the Strategic plan yeah but there's nothing Financial there well there was when they were there's been multiple years of financial but there used to be multiple years of them giving us money so it's goes both ways it's not about the money it's about what are the things that we're trying to do here about the budget but it's about the priorities and how so you're right it is about the money of it because it's about how and I don't want to pick on base I shouldn't have even given an example it's not a good example it's not a good example well it is a good example because it's not presentent it should be I mean you could say sports maybe I don't know that Sports actually you know but whatever it is right maybe we say you know whatever blah blah blah Ceramics I'm making it up I'm just picking on something I I love Ceramics I know there's no good my has feel from the can we just get through point is just that if something's not obviously present and and that doesn't mean that it shouldn't eventually come in it's that we should think about how it fits in the story that's good good right right and so maybe the wording could be something like um like the strategy d d for exiting or aligning these activities you know what I'm going to make a suggestion rather than word smithing here I like that does that work for you exiting oring yeah Steven to get together and we solved it exiting or aligning yeah or aligning okay okay you have it now there's some things so you're withdrawing yours um Can can I suggest exiting aligning or deprioritizing sure that's fine or de prioritizing I'm really glad that we got to this point because I think that when the Strategic plan was adopted there was a little bit of a sense of let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good right and so that evening I remember not being ready to vote Yes for the Strategic plan and then Dr Giller said we need to move forward please you know and and I I voted for it so this is our chance to amend things that need to be amended you guys are to suggest I just like to suggest that we take a vote by 8:15 we can do that so you guys are suggesting that the Strategic plan is a living document that can change over time oh yeah okay oh yeah and this I think helps that point understood thank you so the wording but now it's not required to be in the Strategic plan we we could say if it's not in there it doesn't that doesn't mean we're kicking it out it could mean that we're kicking it in that's right but there there needs to be a decision made it's it's a decision point that it's being identified either we're kicking it out we're kicking it in or we're deprioritizing it but it's not an automatic you're out yeah right that that I'm comfortable with yes okay okay so so can I suggest alternate language being that are clearly align with strategic plan will be identified and defunded aligned or deprioritized so there are three options here want to delete all the Biddle language there yeah because I thought it was important but it doesn't have to be immediate like multiyear starting and lat I thought you were going to put them after the four yeah was after the exiting that's even better comma um aligning comma or deprioritizing yeah that's what I thought was identified and defunded or a strategy multi-year Andor St for exiting comma alining comma or deprioritizing activities will that's what I wrote down that works for me okay good thanks everyone for your patience okay so we have that that's what we're here for okay so we have you withdrawn your amendment I withdraw my Amendment seconded and now we have to or and now we are friendly amending is everyone on board with the bo changes okay so we have five minutes before I'd like to vote on the whole thing is there anything else that anybody wants to bring up we have yes floor go ahead Carolyn um and I think it's important that we discuss this to until we're done discussing it um well no we're not suan this is one of our formative documents of but we're close and I agree with wanting to move it ahead yes and you chose to extend go ahead public comment for when we had yeah so we need to talk about this document um I had a few questions so in Staffing enrollment um I don't mind having the word K through2 enrollment the forecasts um but I think like at least this year have our forecasts served us well that's just sort of like a question um I know this it I keep hearing how this year's enrollment does doesn't look like um it is true to the forecast that we that the district um contracted um educational Equity oh yeah can somebody educate me about what the potential policy on life of the school so this is like a if it happens we would fund it and I don't really know that much about what that is um and then I'll throw out my other do you want to answer that or just is the question what is the policy on life of the school is that what you're asking it's just clarifying what it was yes so there it's not adopted it hasn't been adopted it's been discussed and it's sort of in a stasis period right now so so what is it dock it in okay long so um there are many activities that happen outside of the school day which um not all students can fully participate in and so this was looking at how um those activities could be fully enabled for all students to participate in but to give an example say a student has an an aid for behavior during the day and then they want to participate in the school play um how do they participate in the school play but there are certainly there's this is Falls in a very um gray area and so how of I'll say um gray area of as I understand it legal obligation and so how we are affirming our legal obligations um while also being able to afford the consequences of the decisions while also um promoting inclusion for all of our students there's a there's multiple levels there to unpack okay thank you and that makes sense [Music] um Carolyn I just linked the last draft in the long-term docket just want to take a look at it thank you awesome thank you um budget C plan driving dashboards um again late to the party on the Strategic plan and the use of the word dashboards are we talking about um metrics benchmarks and the Strategic plan doesn't have much of that we have mcast scores and a couple others it has them articulated but how we then visualize the progress against them is not um articulated okay oh thank you and so dashboards so do we does dashboards that implies metrics we don't need to say metrics benchmarks it's all in there progress there progress okay fine [Music] um in the Sip paragraph 3A spending should support the broader mission of the school be tracked against Golds and regularly measured reported maybe it's too soon to speak to this in here but there is some Brewing conversation or question about what the school budgets are and whether they're proportionate to the school size Etc so are we comfortable that this will capture that or that it would just be organically okay me to sure go ahead I mean I think that this to me felt the right level of um specific in that we don't have those answers but we sort of I think are all looking at this expecting something in that direction so there's not yeah okay fine if you're comfortable with it I'm comfortable with it thank you for the answers Mariah okay thank you let's go for a vote 16 almost it's too late I move it okay Jesse we're voting for the for the package right now what did you say he moved move it you moved it I second it you did oh you're right I did move it oh you did already move it removed it I remove friendly things yes your vote Jesse yes Steven yes Sarah yes Mariah yes Helen yes Carolyn yes and I vote Yes as well nice job thank you Mariah you guys alled but I'm thanks everyone for um working so much on this and so Betsy if it makes sense I'll just um make a fourth final like as voted version and share it with you okay thank you thanks for all your work on it Mariah thank you thank you Mariah Dr Giller are you still there or have you we lost youing off I am still here okay so what I did and I'm I'm hearing Echo but I'm not sure if you all are hearing it no um no it's okay no we're not hearing it okay great so what I did was um took tried to incorporate some of the feedback certainly not all of it was incorporated to the goals discussion and what you have before you tonight is just the actual goal last time what I gave you was um some of the benchmarks and key actions and I'm going to continue to process through some of what was shared um to be able to provide artifacts that would meet the the goals so what changed in this was in the second part um where here I'll continue to do my work with principles in the areas of student engagement because that's students leverage to um access icular materials but the broader question I think that was posed by May Mariah was looking at it at the system level so thinking about evaluations at system level what I'm going to do is use the 2324 as benchmarks for certificated uh staff members and then um grow a project of growth based on that so we're in the process of reviewing the 23 24 evaluation data and that's just on the formative and summative which are the end of year evaluations depending on if you on a well depending on where you are in the valuation cycle so that's how go one I plan to share that at the district level for goal two on coherence I don't think I made any adjustments to this one um except in the artifacts I think St may have men something about the or maybe it was Carolyn to say um sort of hone in on some the key initiatives and I think here in the key actions and benchmarks I about the work that's happening around the literacy pieces I think of what we're to hold up and then I talked about a pilot one of schools wants to try a writing a pilot for middle school students so I'm looking at incorporating that um as part of the broader worky sorry because I'm so sorry because of the Audio I didn't fully catch what you were saying there about a pilot I heard something something develop a pilot one of the one of the K8 schools is interested in looking at um doing a writing pilot to really look at how to increase middle school students writing abilities so uh I want to work with the principal on that aspect of it and so I was going to leverage that um as a part of coherence and connecting with the work that's happening um on the literacy then for goal three were internal District Communications and again not much shift shift here but again the notion of the internal staff communication has been the big one that we're really focusing on um and we got some feedback tonight on sort of the superintendent report so it will be these um this bigger push on uh increasing the quality of the communications that are going uh out both internally as well as externally and budget process um again I think this one remains primarily un actions um and indicated the key actions and benchmarks I work to incorporate some of the feedback that was provided there but the overall I think the biggest shift within go one yeah just a question Dr Gill on that one I had a question on it earlier when I wasn't sure if you were waiting till the end or no go ahead or sorry we're ready for it yeah so um I I guess my question in goal three is how that's going to be measured is is this is this for example implementing software that the district may not be using today that tells you actually how many emails sent to parents and parents and caregiver guardians or to others in the normal course if your work are actually opened for example I mean sending out communication we have that already yeah we have we have that on the on our Blackboard aspect of it and part of what we also have in the Strategic plan is increasing the um increasing our open rate as well so we are looking at some of the feedback we're getting about the length the time and those aspects of it this one is more um as you see here it's more of a professional practice goal so something that I'm looking uh forward um in my um particular work uh in the district is um this notion of staff hearing this is really more about internal but I'm also applying it externally but it's more about staff hearing directly from the superintendent or the superintendent's office which includes the Four Corners uh on the fifth floor and what information may be timely and helpful for staff as such thank you uh Mariah did you have something understand okay Sarah um as we all know we look at these goals to make sure that they're realistic um so to that end in goal one I was wondering how you are when you give staff feedback how you are with case load um could you comment on do you have the right number of evaluations that you're writing that you can be effective with or do you have too many well that's a that's a very powerful question Sarah so many years ago um when I was doing a business certificate at Rice University one of the um metrics or measurement that was used at the time was that evaluators should really have a case load of 8 to 12 individuals um but I've never had that as a as an administrator in any organization in which I've worked it's always been 20 to 25 and so with with my group I really focus intensely on the um the principles uh as well as my senior staff and part of that feedback is the ongoing um dedicated check-ins as well so it's not necessarily always uh written but it's the just in time or the ongoing consistent feedback and so in that stead because I have regularly scheduled meetings and visits I do think that it is manageable but right now my case mode as superintendent is about uh 7 17 to 18 all in with principal senior staff and then support staff and it sounds like you just are accepting that as the reality because of the organizational chart you see those people as being the people that you want to be in touch with and giving feedback to absolutely and you know certainly you'd like to be able to spread wider um but that's just an unrealistic um goal and as of right now I mean it's an unrealistic um um goal to try to to take on more as such so but I'm I've been a principal a long time um so this this case load isn't one that I'm not saying it's necessarily right but I'm just saying that it's it's is what it is at this juncture and so you make the best of it we hav I'm waiting for him to get I think he we didn't talk about he went oh he said it was about the same did you have anything else to say about go four no I think it was pretty much the same I said what I would do is under the the um the benchmarks and key actions was um incorporate some of the feedback around how might that be measured because I think one of the questions here was about like the budget book and certainly we're going to work to continue to refine it um but what we're really looking at is getting our um our budget managers uh ensuring that they are in sync with um the notion of budgeting and managing budgets well throughout the entire process as such um we also talked about this notion of uh working with our or in this case our building principles for their schools side councils Ensure of their input in the budgeting process and I think you all saw that through this uh SI presentation this year um as well and then is looking at um many of our schools already look at um po their populations that may be struggling to demonstrate academic proficiency or and engagement in other aspects of the school and so they have either after school clubs or either um break spring break or we call them the break clubs and break supports and those types of things as well so we'll try to capture some examples of that as we go along go ahead thank you lonus I um really appreciate these goals I have one question and one comment my first comment is on goal one and just how you're measuring success so that I'm clear the you wrote increase in the number of completed formative and summative evaluations and that's districtwide as opposed to your direct reports okay the only thing I would suggest there is maybe to just clarify that it's districtwide um and also rather that be number you make it a percent because imagine we were to lose 10 staff or I don't know two staff whatever it was right you would you might end up reducing the number while actually doing a more comprehensive job and just want to make it percent not number um and then for number two um can I just make sure I understand what we're talking about for the successes so for example Improvement in student outcomes tied to strategic initiative so the Strategic initiative might be the literacy initiative and the Improvement in student outcomes might be an increase in ela assessments of whatever flavor of assessment we are using is that accurate to say that that's your those would be the types of measures that would be success measures under go two yeah so that's so even like with our benchmark text testing um that we're going to be launching and then um you all were having the conversation early about the benchmarks so what we're going to try to do is Elevate um and and this is it's it's difficult because those those exams weren't designed for that so I want to make sure that I'm careful not to try to in overly infer something from a assessment that wasn't designed that way but what I what I really want to think about here in terms of um is really this notion of the connectivity um that we're seeing between um really the offices I think and I don't have my my key indicators in here but I think this is the part where I really talked about um the office interplay um working with one another I think is what we're going to try to hi highlight here well I think if there are other ideas that you all have that will think that you think will be measur I'd be happy to incorporate those as I would I because there could be a billion literally probably different measures that could fit under this I think it would be valuable for at least me if you identified an advance sort of some key I'll say like you know Touchstone measures that you think really accurately pull you know might cut across multiple offices and help you sort of would be like a great synthesis of do you feel you're going in the right direction I would find it really valuable to have that sense and not to say you might not call out other measures but just sort of identifying Advance a couple of in advance a couple of measures would be very valuable because this is such a broad goal um it would crystallize it for me okay it's always hard if we end up identifying based on what we can measure right that that I have a lot of trouble with data in schools on that particular issue and then does that mean that we then push ourselves towards that which we can measure instead of what we actually want well but at the end of the day this is like that's how he's defined success so if that's how he's defining success then we should I agree with you that all these measures are flaw um on the other hand I don't think we should rely on any single one of them to be like the truth right there so it's a blended approach I have Caroline um I also have a question in this section now that we're here I just find myself um rereading and so I think struggling a little bit to understand the sentence to promote Equity special attention will be given to ensuring that all schools particularly those with historically underserved student populations are fully engaged in the coherence building process so I'm first of all I think I keep rereading that because I'm not I'm sorry I'm such a tangible nuts and bolts person I just don't fully understand what that means and I also just would be interested in when you're saying to promote sort of what the your thinking of equity is here and especially special attention all schools particularly those with historically underserved student populations and I'm not sure what that means and I think that all of our schools are wouldn't that mean all of our schools I'm just struggling with like I wish that sentence was a little more specific and clear thanks so I think um to try to bring a little Clarity to it so yes all of our schools do have historically undisturbed populations and historically historically undisturbed un underserved populations has typically meant um low students on with um that are identified as low sces uh students that um uh um are um uh serviced in with uh some some groups of students that are marginalized students on IEPs or and then some students uh based on their race or ethnic background so all of our schools do um fit that bill and so I just wrote it sort of in this uh in the broader sense uh in that regard so um as an example uh one of the things that we did last year um and we saw um in our and again I don't necessarily like to tie our state scores to this but we saw tremendous growth um in our student populations this year um even our um even our higher achieving students and that's um really unheard of to get the growth percentiles that we we did this year and so part of that is digging in and understanding what work was happening there and how can we continue to to replicate that so um I'm thinking about the group that's traditionally defined as under underserved populations but I'm also thinking about um the students that um that are higher achieving students and then how can we also ensure that they are being um their needs are being attended to and so again this this notion of coherence is how do we ensure that all parts of our system are working together um to uh Ser in service of our schools and their needs um so I can try to make that a little clear but that's the way that I'm thinking about it thanks and sorry I'll follow up and this might not be right so are you talking about sort of ensuring that like we have parity across all of our I'll say the K through eights in terms of access Etc well those things we see as a baseline given okay yeah so but when not necessarily parody because each School needs something different based on their student their student makeup and they're you know their population some of our schools have uh specialized programs and so they have a greater need than a school that doesn't have that so okay thanks okay Stephen then Jesse it's really short question first I really like how you define success and progress for each of these goals it's really appreciated just a small question about goal number one I'm just I'm supposing that um we won't be able to uh look at the evaluations because they'll probably be HR confidential correct and I would really I'd really I would I would like to have some I think the school committee should have something more than um the number of valuations completed so that they could have a deeper understanding of the evaluation process is there is there some kind of artifact you could submit to the school committee other than or maybe in addition to a number that could provide some insight maybe like an analysis of the evaluations or or um just some way you could provide an anonymized window into the evaluations themselves so we can understand something about the evaluation process that you're um that you're doing let let me think about that Stephen because what what I what I always sort of end up thinking about is the final ridden evaluation but the manner in which I've described this I mean I think you get it to some degree but you're not you're not necessarily seeing what's happening in those sessions so you get the the visitation schedules or when I'm in buildings um how we are walking around the classrooms and then again when I'm visiting class class rooms I'm not um there uh evaluating it's not my role to evaluate a teacher my uh role is to evaluate the principles so when we walk out of classroom so this is why it's harder for you to sort of see what's going on we have a discussion or have a discussion with the principal what did you see in there what how does that fit with where that that particular body of students should be so I'm really pushing or pressing that principle on what they're thinking about their school and how instruction is moving what are the artifacts that they are looking at U to ensure that instruction what data are they considering all of those types of things so I'll think about a way to um give greater insight into that process it could be anything like some some maybe description of criteria or maybe like a range of observations that you made that aren't that aren't uh that we can't identify anything by just just so we have a a sense of what what the evaluations comprise I think that because otherwise I I feel like I would struggle to know how to um understand your work in that area otherwise I think this is really clear and helpful so thank you I just want to make sure that you remember that we had last time around we had an evaluation with the name struck out so that we could see some of the language did you see that part okay so I think that there this might be something that you're already doing but we'll go back and look at it again yeah and I was thank you for adding that Sarah I was going um was going to say that that's that's one component but that's the that's the at the end of the year that's the formative or the summative but there's a lot of work or evaluation that goes in or principal may say I'm having this particular issue and we go through um my son has now discovered the Socratic method or they've been talking about it in his sixth grade classroom and uh he was asking my wife the other night about it and so they were going back and forth and he says oh well Dad does that a lot with me already so it's a it's a lot of that iterative process with the principal to say here's here's a problem of practice that I have and they say well what do you think about it and so I go through a series of questions with them I check in with them periodically um and then on the next visit we dig into it a little bit more deeply as well but again it's part of individ ual based on what the principal uh is experiencing or the school is experiencing rather than one size it's all and just to flesh that out for us there isn't a place where you take notes on that that's all in your head because I I have it written down the issue you do have it written down yeah I have it in my little handy dandy um electronic notebook but what I've been trying to do and this is where where I've always struggled for years as administrator is how then to turn these notes um into because what I do is I gather these notes and then I I rewrite them or retype them um so if there was an easier mechanism to capture these things so that real time it fed into the um to the to the evaluations uh Dr funa and I actually had a conversation um earlier this week about that um because in the systems um at least with the observations that would happen they would roll up into the summited but my handwritten notes I have to figure out how to take better advantage of those goal number five no more goals follow up and then we'll get to you Jesse um I do have a followup one measure that I've seen used Linus which you might want to consider is just percent of observations that were um I don't remember what the four categories are but exceptional whatever the forecast yeah proficient proficient right needs Improvement right so that's one one possible measure that might give a sort of General Arc of the evaluations that you might want to consider um the other thing I was going to say and this goes back to the success measurement is I think if formative and summative are Blended together it'll be really hard to measure year on-ear and formative is so dependent of the relationship but I think summative is probably the key evaluation we want to measure well in this case what formative means is it's depending on the cycle that a person is on so if a person is on a twoyear cycle at the end of year one okay they get a formative evaluation which so these are still the formal evaluations that they get not just like a check-in evaluation that we might think okay great thank you for clarifying okay we're going to go to Jesse and then we're going to think about taking a vote on the goals so Jesse and then we'll mhm yeah yeah um I had a question in um go four towards the end you mentioned um to ensure inclusivity the budgeting process will actively involve historically underrepresented groups ensuring their input is reflected in decisions Equity will be prioritized which I read as inclusivity as well by allocating resources to schools and programs serving High need students so the first time I read that through I see high need reflecting back into the prior sentence basically historically underrepresented groups is that what was meant yes so my question then comes back then or comment that you made earlier in the discussion tonight where you said also the students that are high Achievers so I read I reread this paragraph and I said to myself what you probably meant was Equity be prioritized by allocating resources to schools and program serving so high need is on both ends of the spectrum yes yes okay so I think it needs to be a little clearer because um it could read as a continuation of the prior sentence which is historically underrepresented groups but actually the sentence could stand alone I mean even if you didn't have the one beforehand you know Equity be prioritized Alan resources schoolism program serving students from his you know if you want to focus on historically underrepresenting groups but at the same time the whole Echelon of students who are um High Achievers and you want to provide them with you know phenomenal challenges let's say those would also be I think High need students I think yeah and that's sort of what our when we were talking about the mtss aspects uh of the work um because it gives students multiple access points uh to come in sort of where they are and take them at the next level um and we also see some of that with um with some of the assessments um that are being utilized as well so well I think it's yeah I would just say as as long as it's clear that it is that Equity here means both um actively involving decisions that impact historically underrepresented groups for sure and high achieving echelons of students for sure as well okay on both ends yeah I I'll make it clear thank you okay I'd like to move that we uh accept these goals thank you Mariah she did a second uh I'm ready to take a vote Jesse yes sorry oh I'm sorry I have a discussion point but we just responded and Dr Giller said he was going to make some changes so to the draft why don't we vote it and look at the changes and we can always he can send them out and you can send him additional feedback if you wish or we could or you could bring it if you vote in the positive you can always vote to re bring it up you mean do sorry I'm not following you mean to dock it re-reviewing we just gave feedback and in several things Dr Giller said that he it wasn't sub I don't I didn't believe it was substantially changing the goals I agree yeah so if you can't vote for it that's okay not as as to be yeah okay oh okay so not the words but the goals yeah well I mean the goals yes but with what did you said as discussed as discussed we made suggestions he said sounds good so we're sort of assuming those will be incorporated you know maybe not word by word but okay thank you can I just I ha I mean maybe if I can't say so I had one question from the last time we discussed this that I didn't see here okay may I well hold the vote go ahead okay so I believe um Dr Giller the last time we talked about this I think I asked a question about how come there's not a goal about curriculum or even as a subset of it literacy in other words these are these are you know internal District communication I got it was sort of central office and getting to people the budget we've of course uh super supervision is of staff and coherence I understand but I I thought that there was a gap in the space of curriculumlearning so did is is there space for that or do you see it I see that as go one that's that's my whole that's the work that I do in terms of supervising schools um and you see quite a bit of that work that's already happening in the office of teaching and learning as well okay thank you okay we'll try take to okay we're going to vote on this as as moved by Mariah second or I moved it that's right Jesse yes Stephen yes Sarah yes marah yes Helen yes Carolyn yes and I vote Yes as well thank you very much thank you all uh now what everybody's been so patiently waiting for sorry that we're running late um um just question do we have a timeline for when the goals will come back to us like or not they're not coming back to us so we won't see them as Modified by by the discussion send them out yeah what's that yes how how much time you need to do a little modification Dr Giller I mean by the next school committee meeting I don't know something two weeks I don't know that that seems to me a little bit overkilled because we do we visit them you know halfway through the year and everything do you why would would you want to see them because you'd like to further edit them because we will we will be updated right at midyear point when we right address we'll look at them again well I guess I was thinking okay that's fine if there if there were things that in new on didn't get captured it' give us an opportunity to correct now rather than in some months down the road but we do that mid year is okay we do a touch problem touch I'm a newbie at this I know first time good it's all good okay we're going to take a look at the school calendar if you remember was it last summer we had this Con we started this conversation um we have and we're looking at the 2526 school year it's not next year it's the following year so we have time we don't get it right right away or if we don't make a final we don't have to have a vote tonight is what I'm suggesting um we've certainly had a lot of input today so um it is next year no it's not 25 2 this is 24 oh it is next year oh it's next year yeah oh sheesh gosh I'm we already voted 20 didn't we vote 20 didn't we vote two years we did but this one got delayed this one got delayed right it had issues with it 25 no you're right you're right that's what that's what was confusing us yeah so we don't have as much time but we do have we don't I think we need to do something very quickly because people make vacation plans people you know figure on things I know okay I wouldn't wait to do this I am going to open up FL suggest okay go ahead question sure wait I was going to something uhuh that we might want to think about you know in the next month or so to do the following year so we do get on a two-year and then have you know this add a year than every time y rather than I think that's being asked for by our families yeah that's helps families I think to know what's going to happen people have been asking me where this one is it's right here yeah okay Mariah did you want to say something my question is actually for some of the members of the audience Hagar I think you said that you wanted one you said at least one and what was the which one were you asking for was it we would really like two yes I think you need to go to the mic I'm sorry because otherwise people I just wanted to get clarity because um there was different messages and I just wanted to make sure I understood what was what the conversation or what the requests were so I think the Muslim Community would really like to have two high holidays recognized but I think we are open to having a phased approach where maybe we do one the this coming year 25 26 because I I marched out the calendar in the following five years um there are multiple years in which one of the holidays falls on a weekend or existing holiday the only one that does not do that is 2526 I see so I think um what would be a good compromise would be to include the first holiday which is which follows Ramadan which would follow March 31st I believe of sorry it's March 31st for this year the following year the March 20th would be 2026 we have on um and then for the following year uh incorporate both thank you you're welcome that's helpful okay Stephen um so I'd like to propose moving ad Al fer to a category one holiday on this calendar and I'd like to bear in mind uh our discussion from the workshop where we agreed that it's not a good idea to continually add to the calendar and push it beyond the third week of June so I think we should be looking to um to look to remove a day also so I also want to suggest um moving the [Music] um I'm not seeing it all of a sudden it's good Friday I going to propose moving that to a category two April 3rd to a category 2 holiday and keeping our our end date the same go ahead Mariah um I'm on board with what you said except I don't believe in Category 2 holidays because I think they're like the worst of all outcomes where it's not a full I would prefer to have a day taken as a category one day where we then I don't love adding days at the end of the year but I do want to have a day that is a full day of school as opposed to a day that does not allow Educators and students to um take advantage of the full day so so that's I guess like I'm not sure I want it to be a category 2 day either I guess I'd rather just have it be a day or a category 3 day I guess should be the option for good Friday and that works out really well because it's always Friday that's true there's something to be said for that but yeah that I I generally agree with that I just wouldn't make Good Friday category two fully agree with your sentiments about Category 2 days so but with category one no homework will be assigned in off well I'm just reading what I see here no instructions no homework will be assigned in in any class for all students on the last day of school before category 1 holiday no assignments projects presentations or other assignments cannot be due until at least the second school day after the holiday even in the case of a longer school vacation the same policy applies for the administration of tests so I'm just not sure does that sort of how does that fit with your concern well my general I mean honestly like I'll repeat what I said at the summer thing I think we should be not doing all of the holidays with that I understand because I'm concerned about the extension of the school year I'm concerned about um not really having a definition for why a holiday is included or excluded however um I was really fixated numbers earlier and then fisa is fisa still here yes you said earlier you I miss Equity is not in numbers and I wrote that down I appreciated that so thank you for saying that um I'm struggling with it all and I kind of want to get rid of all holidays and also I feel like uh that makes it really hard for a whole bunch for a lot of people to participate and how do we make it easier and more joyful how do we incorporate holidays as a part of the life of the school and celebrate them and educate people about all the different holidays so that's my attention yeah but I think at least trading a category one for a category one sort of feels yeah net neutral so to the to what you just said about having no holidays I do want to go back to the conversation that we had I was it in the fall the summer summer workshop so and we also have two members who aren't here two important members the chair and somebody who expressed a strong opinion about this which was also to have no holidays um so I just want to sort of note that I'd also like to note my recollection of Dr giler's contribution to that conversation which I found really helpful um which was that he brought um anecdotal feedback I believe it was from principles um and my understanding of that feedback as characterized was that there was concern about adding holidays in terms of academics um and what it does to the school year um I mean we have a great town that's incredibly diverse and we have a lot of ways um that we acknowledge that we are inclusive our school calendar is an expression of what we are providing academically it's interesting to me to see in the in the context of this conversation like that Easter I don't know if it there was always this link well there's a couple things first of all just graphically it's incredible how much more real estate the list has than it used to and now we click on something that takes us to this explanation of the one two and three um and I was struck by the fact that Easter is included as a category one holiday on a document that tells us when school is in session and not and obviously school is never in session on Easter because it's always a Sunday um so that just got me that sort of underscored something that I'm that we talked about or that I'm thinking about as I look at this and it's the concern that this document is starting to express something that that it's moving in a direction of of doing something other than what it's it's meant to do and that that might be oversimplified but the inclusion of Easter and there are people in my family who celebrate Easter so this is nothing to do with what's on the list or what's not on the list or competitions between everybody but it's um it's a lot and our School District needs to have a robust um a robust system of delivering education so it concerns me if if I don't know if the conversation about holidays being acknowledged and inclusion and Equity is really exactly the same as the calendar as a functional document Sarah we did have a conversation recently about not having holidays on um religious holidays off and my understanding in order to try to kind of like streamline this process a little bit is that we didn't decide to do that yet and I think sometimes I feel like you need to say out loud what everybody understands and doesn't say so I'm just going to say it one of the reasons why we didn't get rid of religious holidays when we had that conversation is because the Christian holidays would be protected and the Jewish holidays wouldn't and I don't believe that right now in Brooklyn we are going to stop celebrating stop um taking the school day off for Jewish holidays so I thought that that was kind of a decision that was sort of made and so now we're at the point in my mind where we have a school calendar in front of us where there are going to be religious holidays on it and the question for tonight is should we add one and so I'm very comfortable with Stephen's um suggestion because that's sort of like the work I've already done to get here so yeah go ahead Helen then I'll say I'm going to show my ignorance what happens on Good Friday and I'm looking at you guys because I was the one who confused Good Friday with Ash oh that's the problem I know ashw today you get the it is a somber Christian holiday well holy days I mean I know what happened on Good Friday it's not that's not the question it's more I would be reluctant to just swap I I just it gives the wrong message I just don't you would I it seems wrong on many levels to say we'll take one from you but give one to you I mean we're not I don't think we're trying to do that I also am reluctant to change the Good Friday category until again we get some input in some ways I mean just to do that across the board when it's been there for years and decades it doesn't mean I I couldn't agree to do that but I just feel like bringing it up for the first time or the second time tonight I am not ready to do that I am ready to figure out or to give it back to Dr Giller just as my vote would be to say yes at let's add a day we can do that and if it puts us over an extra day it puts us over an extra day until we figure things out I mean maybe we're moving to something like this would be heresy you know fewer vacation days in February or April I mean may I mean that's trying to think outside the box but we're not ready to do that yet this we talked about it last time too well there's ramifications around that because you've got staff who have children in other districts and you know people count on that so but I'm just saying um anyway that's my my point of view I I would be glad to add a day we could give it back to Dr Gill and say please find a day you know maybe it's I don't know what it is a day it's an extra day you add it to the end of the year that's what we always do as long as we're done by the 30th we're okay no the 30th is not okay well Tech legally we can go to the 30th nobody wants to go to the 30th Carolyn I don't want to go to the 30th I was a teacher for years I still work in school so I don't really want to go to the 30th but I'm just saying it gives us we can take added day yeah just to say if we do that people leave like that means that we have every single day that people don't come right is 7,000 kids so like two two two that last week the 29 30th I'm just saying like that's 14,000 student days that are gone so I do think we need to be super thoughtful about that part I'm willing to go with what we think we can do to add a day so I'm just for that I would like Helen then Sarah then Jesse there's one possible opportunity and I'm not sure if uh the administration would like it but the uh professional development day on the 4th of November there's no election this coming year could that be moved to the 11th and then it's well it's the 11th of November when it's when yeah yeah I mean I I don't know when I grew up we didn't have veterans stay off so I don't know uh and I'm not sure if we have to have veterans stay off or not federal holiday okay let's throw some do we have to have federal holidays off all the federal holidays I don't think or maybe we do and I don't know we may have to send this back to Dr Giller uh we have to have Dr Gill do you want to jump in well I was just to chime in on what um Helen was saying that um and the the I think it the legislation has recently changed that says that the federal holiday has to be observed on the day it falls during the during the day of the week um as well so for Veterans Day it's the only one I think in July 4th I think it was Sarah then Ste then Jesse then Steven then Carolyn Sarah remember the two kids are just quickly we also have we talking about different possibilities the possibility of starting the school year earlier is another possibility uh that's contract issues Ste stepen Jesse's next Jesse then stepen then Caroline yeah I just have a um I guess a comment um I'm a product as an orthodox Jew of the public school system as well not in Brooklyn but public schools and growing up the um awareness or realization that we were going to miss up to 13 days of school depending on how the Jewish holy days turned out in the year was present for myself and my three siblings and other friends of ours um in the Orthodox Community who uh attended public school with me as well it was just you knew it you knew you weren't going to be in school it didn't really matter what happened um you you had to deal with it um I am not saying that to um affect the outcome of this discussion um what I what I I'm saying though is that even I'll give you an example so last Friday my grandchildren were walking past he school and they were dressed up a little bit nice and some students it happened to be around 3:30 4:00 and some of their friends or upper kids a little older than them walked over to them and said uh why weren't you in school today and they said it's Russia Shana and the kid said that was yesterday so they said no this is this is Russia Shana today same as yesterday and kids had no clue so they talked about it they're fifth graders right and they contined on their way and when they got home and they told us the story it it it was fine it didn't move the needle either way it was fine I mean that's exactly what you'd expect to happen someone would come over and say why are you dressed up so nicely why you weren't in school today well it was Jewish holy day the same thing happens even in the current calendar for all Orthodox kids throughout the system from k312 is that um next week Thursday and Friday they just won't be in school the following Thursday and Friday they won't be in school and the second day Passover they won't be in school and shavuo late May early June two days they won't be in school so you can miss like 13 days uh at the maximum if it doesn't come if these don't come out on a weekend there is a um decision I'm not going to call it a sacrifice a decision you make in terms of the in-class instructional uh learning you're going to miss or lose if you want to look at it that way by observing your faith in the public school system and so I think we and at the same time many um Jewish parents will tell me how can how come we have so many days off and prend PD days and everything else that cuts away at the calendar so I certainly don't want to Advocate that we should um add Lots you know add lots more days I think we need to find ways of providing more instructional time rather than but for people who have to make a decision that goes to the core of who they are um that's more important than what than you know than uh than education I mean that's education from your family education from your faith that's Rock Solid no no no um there there no there's no alternative if you put yourself into the public school system that's what's going to happen um you know other kids in other parts of my family that go to parochial schools it's not a problem because that's all those days are respected so I just think that we need to um be aware of the fact that adding any days takes away from instructional time but at the same time needing to respect the needs of our diverse community so it's a tough it's a tough thing to decide how to do um but be aware of the fact that um for any of the Orthodox kids in the in the district there are going to miss you know it's it's it's certainly positive that there are two or three that are um represented uh when they don't come out on weekends but there are 10 to 12 more that they're taking off anyway because there is there there is no option and so and the and this um you know just to make a comment about earlier does not include Kaneka it's not a it's not even in the same ballpark um as a holiday and so um we're talking about you know biblically sourced um uh holy days as compared to things that that were that that that transpired later in history I just wanted to make make sure we understood the dynamic there thank you Steven and then Carolyn um thanks Jesse I I guess I just wanted to offer um uh the rationals that I'm using for thinking about this rather than um uh specific tweaks to the calendar so I I'm following two basic rationals right now one is that um I'm really disinclined to push the calendar further into June uh because I think it's uh I think it's getting hotter climate change is making it less and less feasible for us to go further into June um and and in that same category of rationale I'm mindful of how Mariah was treating the the idea of living within our means in the budget book I I I I think here on the school committee we all have a weakness to want to add and not subtract so I'm trying to be mindful of that and not propose something without paying for it at the same time so that's my first rationale the second rationale is that I think the way we've treated um calendaring in the past is um by by looking at category one days based on um days of low attendance and I think that's an insufficiently inclusive Criterion for determining category 1 holidays um I I recognize that by pulling back that rationale days of low attendance we're opening it up for we talked about this at the summer workshop for um any number of proposed ethnic cultural religious and other holidays but I don't think that's a reason to not have a more inclusive Criterion for category one holidays and certainly I think if we have Jewish and Christian category one holidays we should also have uh Muslim category 1 holiday um I'm comfortable proposing although I'm certainly not wed to uh proposing Good Friday as the day that would compensate for adding ID Al fit because in this rationale it seems to me that each of these major world religions should have major holidays representing them in the calendar and as long as they're well represented it seems to me that we we're we're fulfilling an inclusion r for category 1 holidays so I I I wouldn't want to I'm I wouldn't want to get into the Weeds on the solemnity or the Holiness of any particular holiday I would just want to make sure that each of the religions is represented as long as we're deeming religion to be uh uh something that we want to use as a mode of inclusion in the calendar so I'm just offering that as a way of thinking about this rather than um trying to propose any particular way of solving it if there's a another day or a consolidation of of PD days Dr Giller that you think is preferable um I certainly defer to you on that I I only meant to propose Good Friday in the spirit of trying to um pay for what I wanted to um buy sorry for the mix just trying to balance the budget of the the calendar thanks Carn thanks um um and my mic's not working here here I can't I can't hear whoever's talking okay it's Carn hi I have a mic now thanks to Helen um so just to respond to what you just said Stephen so again and this like this is not a this is not a moral or ethical or document or exercise I'm not sure if this um list from the the link that you click on from the calendar now click here for the overview is a policy but so Stephen it's like it um you know I love you I listen to everything you say and you're saying if in if religious inclusion is the rationale where're using for category 1 holidays then but I'm not sure that I haven't heard that as a decision and I don't read that here as the rationale and maybe we need to have a separate conversation but what and this I think was part of what we covered in the previous conversation was that right now we have something that says category 1 means absences by staff and students impact the ability to conduct classes on this date or during this time and then there was a conversation about low attendance whether we had data that really supported even our current days of low attendance um again funny that Christmas which is a Federal holiday and Easter which is a Sunday are included in there so that just seems a little perplexing to me and maybe could use some clarification I'm not sure that the adoption of Lunar New Year I wasn't part of that conversation I don't know if that was databased in terms of low attendance and we had a whole it was okay so we had data that students were not coming to school my recollection I wasn't on school committee was because Lunar New Year um is not necessarily A religious holiday and it impacts the um Asian students who celebrate it which are 19% of the school population so it's a different and that I totally get and I remember the conversation about why many people wanted it off which is different than whether we have evidence that students aren't coming are choosing not to come to school on that day because it's that important to them and I think to some extent what Stephen sorry what Jesse was saying sort of applies there and and ties into what Val was saying about Scorch the Earth let's not have any separate church and state if you don't want to come you get an exception etc etc and then I just would also say my my takeaway from our summer conversation um and I'm not proposing what Val talked about um and I'm not sure where I would land on it were we to have a whole robust conversation about having no holidays my takeaway was not that that was a resolved conversation but that we sort of said like oo this is hard let's come back to it and here we are and again with respect to our chair and Val who's an important and Veteran member um I mean I would almost say like maybe we don't vote this calendar tonight but figure out what the conversation is that we want to have that's a separate conversation so those are just a few thoughts that I hope are helpful to the conversation I would agree with you that I don't think it's time to vote it and I think part of what you got at Stephen too is that and that you're pointing to Carolyn is that the definitions of what makes category 1 2 3 are not right but also I wonder if If part of the um how we've structured like what can happen near category 1 near Category 2 near a category 3 is perhaps um too extensive and so I wonder if there's an opportunity to rethink some of those things especially if we're thinking about what defines a category one or any of these holidays what what what defines a day that we don't want to have school then you know and if it's not about x% of the school being missing but wanting to celebrate then we make space to celebrate without completely disrupting and the sort of without while being able to address the the concerns of the principles which is the disruption of the school year and so how we can continue to make space so maybe it's that we don't have homework the night before or one of the nights but that we um but that we can still have tests you know like within two days or something like that I'm just thinking of how we can make it to give space for people to celebrate without putting an entire pause in a school for those days cuz we do want to be able to have people to have time to celebrate and also continue to be students right so it's both of those things and sorry Sarah I know your hands up but for those of us with children in the high school and I think this is what you and I sort of agreed on last time too I mean it's it's a little distressing how often kids come home saying I don't have homework it's a holiday I don't have homework we don't have any homework this week CU it's a holiday um so it's a lot and so I think trying to balance all of those needs is important we'll take Sarah and then I think we're going to wrap up the discussion for tonight because I think we're I don't think we're gonna have a big We're not gonna have a vote tonight I'm sure of that um Sarah I really don't want to go against what you just said but I'm going to say I think we could have a vote tonight really because I think that it takes us a long time to figure out that we might not have religious holidays anymore and I'm very willing to have that conversation with everybody and I would I would be somebody that would support it but during this time while we still have religious holidays I believe that we should add in an additional one and so I wondered if you would and I and I really like respect your leadership Suzanne I wondered if you would consider us having a vote on this now with the understanding that we do have a lot to still solve so I would I would consider a vote uh to add this one to add the one day and to send it back to Dr gillery to figure out how to make that work and sorry I have a question that I had from the very beginning when you said this is on the agenda adding a category one holiday is not not on the agenda unless that's implied in this draft which does not have Eid as category one holidays well it was what so it would be we would actually I guess kind of reject this calendar and ask them to come back with another calendar that would have this holiday on it and and I'm like I I was authentically confused because I didn't see that I was I don't feel like it needs to I mean this is the calendar that would be a decision within the calendar right I don't know I I don't think that it would need to cite on Y is it possible that we vote to add the holiday and ask this Con because we are sort of behind the apall at this point that we make this decision for this year and this conversation goes out a year yeah I think we could do that can can we just ask for Dr Gill's feedback before we do that to see if there's any guidance you have for us so um very enlightening conversation tonight for sure um but whatever so what I was more intrigued uh in hearing is given sort of what the committee where the committee was in August and based on the feedback that the committee received tonight um through public comment what what would be your pleasure in terms of of driving this I mean I think the thing that I have a lot to say about this but I think the thing that I'm thinking about is what I think Mariah was just talking about sort of the the amount of real estate right now that category one takes up and I think Carolyn was saying this in terms of um the impact on high school students sort of this notion of um because it's a holiday therefore I don't have these particular assignments I think figuring that aspect of it out but it doesn't need to be set tonight but that's something that I do want to keep on the table and I think Stephen sort of suggested or several of you have suggested this notion of relooking at uh the definitions of um the various categories as such but I'm happy to take the calendar back um if it's the the will of the body to add um the eat holiday and bring back a draft and I think shortly well early in the spring what we'll do is um bring back well probably February March bring back the calendar for um 2026 27 just so that we can get a running start on that so that we can get back to having our two calendars on the books um but I felt I really appreciated the public comment tonight as well as the discussion that the committee has had because again I I certainly don't want to pose my educational experience on on those that are here now but uh there wasn't a weekend whether it was a holiday of some sort that I didn't have some project or something to do over the course of that but again the notion of the the impact of not being able to give assignments or not being able to assess and again there's there's some reasons I can understand why the previous administration probably put those stipulations in place um because it could be a sense of overloading or giving too much um stress onto the students or families but I think we just have to really look at this as an organization and redefine it so I'm happy to take the take this calendar back and figure out how might we incorporate um the day if that's the vote of the the committee L is if oh sorry go ahead I didn't inter you that was it if if we were to vote this calendar with Eid added would that work for you because you'd still you wouldn't have to take it back you would this one would be done and and then you could turn towards the questions that we've raised for the following year well what what I would have to do is um I think procedurally we send we send the calendar um over to the union to give them reaction period or time to it as well so this current version the union has had they wouldn't have had one with the E day in it but contractually that would be uh a procedural step that we'd have to take and I'm happy to have that conversation with the president so it would have to come back to us anyway you're saying no no no he takes well I mean if you vote it but um we could vote it and that could happen after it doesn't have to happen before okay yeah because what I think what I think what would make sense is for you to send it back to me let me send it over to the union give them their their period to review it and then bring it back to you in short order for a vote so do you need to vote tonight or you just need the direction that we'd like you to add the H the holiday the Hol um go ahead and vote it and then what I'll do because I still have to find the date you don't have the date so you still need to come back and approve the calendar re-approve it as such just do it what what dates don't you have I'm not sure I understand well I'd have to actually identify the specific day where it sits on the calendar it wasn't it already there as a category two it's March March 20th you have the date I mean it's already listed in the calendar it's just not ceg I'm saying is I have to I have to figure out what I might be taking away I mean I can just certainly add it and bump it out that was going to be my question exactly that question that the difficulty I would have with voting it tonight is that you you have already committed I agree with you to look to analyze the calendar and make some kind of other adjustment and so we shouldn't really be voting on it until we see what your proposed adjustment is because the committee might have a problem with the way you know with the options you give us on how you might want to adjust it I assumed we were just rolling it out to the 22nd as the last day that was my assumption right exactly that was my assumption because we mention doing it for this one year okay let's just give it back to lus then yeah I think we work better with nuance and complexity when we don't have votes because you know we can't um we can't address all the different issues unless we do a series of votes but um with understanding that the school that some members of the school committee are saying we would really like to see Eid on this calendar let's resubmit it to superintendent is that okay and voted or not and not V vot it not voted he told us okay okay okay so you have to put your mic on yeah I I think I think what where we landed is that Dr gillery agreed to promote e all fitter to a category one and come up with a way of making potential adjustment and then bring it back let's just say at our next meeting which is certainly plenty of time for next year to uh to vote it to to review it discuss it and vote it so I would like us to vot hopefully have to Carol you know Andy and but we still have a chance to vote the whole calendar but I would like us to vote for the for Eid to be uh category one at least for next year so L but that's not on the agenda I mean I'm just being like adding Eid as a category one holiday is not on the agenda discussion and vote of the calendar is on the agenda and I'm gonna say one more thing and this is again not about I'm a fairly secular person this is not about one thing or another we'll be back here having this conversation again next year and the year after and the year after well we're going to try and bring it up as we said February March and have a lengthier discussion about this and perhaps it even goes do I dare say policy or something to look at the categories so it it is going to be there'll be another and that's addition that's lobbied and another and another and another as long as this so think sorry I'm just going to finish as long as this is being treated as an expression of something other than when we have school okay which is where we're going think that as an amendment to the school calendar we make this vote and then we send that to Dr gillery for him to come back yeah so it's an amendment to the calendar also I don't think it actually matters that it's not on the agenda because those who it does I'm just saying actually I don't think it does matter because there's not a decision being made around that that hasn't already been expressed so so I'm going to suggest we have that on the floor the motion on the floor yeah Helen so our next meeting is the workshop yes so we would be voting it then no so I I really think we need to vote the calendar I'm sorry it's not fair to families well we're going to try and do it and we can and you know right now we can vot a calendar with the 29 uh 22nd being the extra day and then if we decide to change it we'll change that one day but I think people need to know when the calendar is going to be I think the problem with that is that still leaves open uncertainty for people how one day yeah but you're talk it'll be the next one is October 30th the next meeting that's the end of October that's more that's a year what are the parts sorry I'll try and talk loud do you no you can't is thank you is your concern Helen um with sort of first day of school last day of school because the big holidays are set by the federal holidays that fall in them right so first day last day yeah okay okay but Helen I think that lus said that he needs to go back to the union anyway before it can be officially yeah that's finally so I don't think that I appreciate change it as long as we're within the the contract it's the courtesy of showing them but I don't think lonus can promulgate it to the community as official until he has that confidence I would presume lonus you wouldn't want to Bandy it about as final should there be a concern okay we have a motion on the I've seconded your motion what's my motion your motion was to um Express to the superintendent of the school committee's desire to add e fitter to the calendar that's it well to to upgrade it to a category one yes sorry thank you yeah just it's just changing it from category two so we're going to take a vote we're calling the calling the motion uh Jesse yes Stephen yes Sarah yes Mariah yes and I have other comments on the calendar oh sorry I know let's do this firsten yes Carolyn no and I vote Yes as well my other comments okay before before Mariah before you go um yeah just Suzanne bet to tell me what we just did there just so that I'm clear go go right ahead you've got it down right what we we said to basically we were just directing to you Linus to just add e to the calendar um as it or to shift it from category 2 to category one okay and um can I go ahead with my other comments and then so Mariah has some other comments um just gener this is like sorry that was e Al fitter yes fitter yeah um generally my other comments are um to sort of clean up some of them say things like school closed and some of them say things like school that don't say school closed when it's still a school closed holiday I think um I could be wrong but I feel like there's a couple which don't say school closed and maybe I missed it professional development day yeah yeah or some like exactly like school it just needs to be super cleared when school is closed cuz some of them November 4th yeah and um some of them say category one and Category 2 and other ones don't um and then this is me harping on my perennial harping of things which is I just want to confirm that any day we have an early dismissal it's because there's actually an activity happening that day that requires early dismissal for those grades so for example like prek through 8 early dismissal on on November 12th or 6th or 20th these prek days are there is there prek conferences I know those got added I just want to make sure that like those students if they're missing this is my harping on every hour is 7,000 hours right so um if the Stu if there is no I don't want them just to get lumped into K8 just as one example just because but there's no conferences happening or anywhere here like I want it to be super clear that if there's an early dismissal it's because something is actually happening so maybe that's universally true but last time we looked at this I think we still hadn't merged the prek timing and schedules in with the early with the K8 and I just want to make sure that now they're absolutely um we know what's happening that's good yeah Stephen I just wanted to comment also Dr Giller and maybe Suzanne that I it also seems to me from this conversation that there's a lot of openness in the school committee please correct me if I'm speaking for more than my myself incorrectly speaking for more than myself there's a lot of openness to uh a clarified definition of the category categories of the holidays maybe maybe that's the school committee convers at some later date um yeah maybe maybe that's yeah maybe that's a a conversation with the principles maybe that's a conversation at policy but um I I think that would be a that that seems to be another follow-up step Jesse I just a um question I guess did we we said this was for the the the vote we just took was for 2526 calendar yes okay that's all it was yes because I'm just concerned that it's this is published live so the world's watching and then it gets um represented in social media as Brooklyn now has this I think it's pretty it does it it does but it's for one year I you know until the next calendar in other words we didn't vote that this is the per a permanent holiday going to the 26 27 the 2728 or is it I just want to be clear I don't think any holidays are any no calendars are published for a future year so that okay so the just so that I'm clear okay maybe so that so we will assume that all the things that are in the calendar here just the dates on which the days on which they fall based on the the calculations of when they show up will all project into the next year to that's that should that should be our our working assumption now okay yes okay good okay good that's okay good because there was some discussion earlier about it being for one year Sor just for clarity sake my assumption is that the vote we we just took carries forward perpetuity until it's changed by a subsequent vote okay good I understand good that's that's correct I mean that's that's my that's how I would build future calendars based on that Thank You Caroline Dr Giller in terms of this question of this um religious and cultural observances the document that's linked from the calendar that defines the categories and lists some I don't know who who creates this is this language from our policy or or where does this come from and who like where this is dated 51723 not trying to put anyone on the spot just trying to understand where this comes from in terms of future conversations the best expert to actually answer that is sitting to your left but uh okay but from but the wording but this so this this originated Betsy correct me if I'm wrong under Dr lup's time when we were looking to um start when the when the system was looking to categorize the days so this has been sort of just carried over each year with updates and so the conversation tonight open into the door to start redefining um those types of things so um I think it's going to take a broader look it's not something that's just going to be quick and easy because again we really have to think about the intent and the impact and how this lives and Breeze with in the organization as such so bety did I miss anything there oh I think I have a working mic here um so I will check with Kathleen just to be sure that that's the most updated and really what it should refer to is it all these holidays were categorized this way as part of the homework policy so the superintendent at the time to address concerns that were coming in from families you know we're trying to' got these holidays this this is really the home the administration of the homework policy okay so that's why it's all that so is this in our policy manual Stephen no so I think there's a policy about there's a policy about homework but then the administration was charged with okay okay so this is sort of like a working document that's connected to the Guin guidelines connected to the okay perfect thank you perfect thank you so much okay so we've done a lot of hard work tonight it's now 9:40 an hour and a half after I know it's was going to be early that's okay uh we can decide whether we want to hear about subcommittee and layers on reports now or not I have a couple of you have a couple I just have dates okay okay so let's if those everybody can stay can stay it'll be like five minutes okay that's good and we'll get you on a five minute I just have I have two well it's really one important um update which is at Finance at our last meeting um thank you for staying so late um at Finance at our last meeting we started a new process which would be pre-approval of Grants and the idea would be that rather pre-approval of Grants rather than grants being approved after the fact and us having some sort of question or whatever that becomes an irresolvable issue we have the chance to pre-approve them and that way we can put our inputs in before they um before they go to the sponsor and so we had this for uh two grants I think at our last Finance meeting in whatever September I know my brain's turned off at this point yeah um and it went pretty smoothly and we'll still work out a couple of the details but um but that's generally the idea is we would pre-approve them and then we they just come to consent agenda for the full committee unless there's some sort of substantive like say say for example they submit a grant for $100,000 it's only awarded for 50,000 and they need to modify the scope of work it would come back to us for a reapprovals go ahead well I'll say the staff came back last week and said there's times where have grants which are time sensitive and can we have a process by which um they get approved off cycle and I said I would go to the school committee to seek their okay to approve off cycle and then report back to the committee like what we do with the accounts payable um so they would basically email me and I would give them the okay and then I'll report it out to the committee in the meantime we already had one come in this week and so I sort of just did it and I want to but it hasn't been submitted yet so we've still got time to um because they needed yeah anyway so here we are it was yesterday um and I just wanted to give a quick report out if that's okay so it was a grant to this uh a grant funding being requested from the state for $100,000 um to support the mtss work as well and about half of it was being proposed for a um subcontract to suffk University um and my I'm so tired at this point I can't remember what that was for anymore but it was for PD no so it was for you're right it was to develop the PD they were developing the PD and then the other half was essentially funding to enable Educators to participate in the PD by paying them Workshop rate or whatever their relevant um charge was and the comments that I gave back to staff were um concerns about sustainability if we don't have funds for Workshop rate in the future how do we continue to sort of engage teachers or Educators in this work if we don't have that fund sort of making sure that this was a sustainable program because we don't want to develop the PD and then not be able to have people access it so having them think about if there was ways to improve that and then the second thing was a required portion of the grant was to have Partnerships with community- based organizations or other local education authorities and they did not have that in there they had a partnership with suffk and a partnership with two private companies so they weren't actually actually in my interpretation compliant with the requirements of the grant so that's the update I um and I but in general I still need to get proved it I said it's okay but I just want to give you these two up like I wanted to give them the feedback of I think that we would the school committee generally would want to make sure we're sustainable and um I thought that they were not compliant with the specific requirement this is what I do for work right so I like read I know I wonder how you can be you can work with another educational entity for this sort of thing you could but it has to be a local education Authority or you know something like you know Brookline Center for mental health might be a the Brookline you know there's like different programs that might be community- based organizations they did not have either one of those in the program so anyway that's that's my update but generally I'm hoping um to get the okay from the committee to when they're off cycled like this and can't wait to to be able to approve them and then I would report out just the way I do with the accounts pay if there was anything okay is that any objections do you need a vote I have no idea I think we need a vote to authorize the chair of the finance subcommittee to approve um uh grants that are time sensitive pre-approve yeah or Grant approve Grant pre-approvals or whatever yeah to pre-approve uh grants that are time sensitive uh in order to be able to maximize our ability to get Grant I second that did I say that wrong you got that Betsy well let's vote it now and if we need to revote it we can revote it yeah it's under repeat the motion I she's letting the chair of Finance be the person just like the the chair of Finance does it for accounts payable when it's time sensitive they have like this person in in my role this role has the ability to approve the Grant application on behalf of the committee the Grant application yes okay yes okay got it so and as and I we talked about this at Finance I like this maybe I'll abstain and I'm only saying this because it's my understanding of oml is that if it's not on the agenda like that specifically votes aren't supposed to be taken if they're not on the agenda that's my understanding of oml I'm not an expert I want I obviously support this I just that's why I'm bringing up when it said possible vote why why were you saying that it wasn't on the agenda it's almost 10 o' can we not get into it thank [Laughter] you because that's how things are noticed discussion and possible v as long there objection I'll take that isn't okay until the next time we have a noticed vote okay Sor I don't care either way so post yeah [Laughter] noen sure um so uh couple things uh first of all there's a peer School building committee meeting on Tuesday where we will be voting uh the reconciliation actually was happening today in terms of the uh two estimates for 90% documents um at the it and it the reconciled budget should be posted soon um uh the I know that the building commission will be meeting to discuss it and I think it's on Tuesday also I hope it's it can't be at the same time but the building committee needs to submit it to the mass School building authority so all that will happen the approval of of this um reconciled 90% documents and budget will be submitted to the msba that doesn't mean that's the number that will eventually be because it will go out to bid and then we'll know for sure sure what the market is and where things are at though I've been told that the market is looking good much better than it has in the past and that bids have been coming in under um estimates but I'm not holding my breath yet um so that's on October 15th Tuesday on October 24th we'll have a capital subcommittee meeting and one of the things I was um thinking is we may want to have in the past we've had Charlie come and report to the school committee about summer work with pictures and stuff I don't know if he or Sarah could do that this year just because well I think they probably can um so we might want to ask them when they when you know I know Charlie's just back from you know sick leave uh but maybe um when he's able or Sarah is able they could come and report to the school committee in one of our meetings um and the last piece is the preservation commission uh approved unanimously the friezes as being historical artifacts and so now it's on to writing a grant which my favorite grant writer uh to the CPA okay um can all the other wait can I say a small thing yes I just want to give a quick pre review of the policy subcommittee docket because I don't think we're going to meet again before then um just want to say we're going to be reviewing parts of section J tenants policy I could sense the excitement in the room already the student code of conduct but I what I really wanted to promote is that the climate and sustainability task force is going to give their first readout of their recommendations the the subcommittee readout is going to be more of a workshop where they're going to be looking for feedback um and hopefully they going to be a few of these um possibly in curriculum also possibly also with some Civil Society groups before the full uh school committee presentation docketed TBD so I just wanted to um hype that to the school Community that's it and I just want to announce uh just to the public at large that uh indigenous people's day is Monday and there is a really nice looking program a celebration it's 1 to four at the Brookline Health Building and it includes uh crafts and goods and free food from native kitchen and uh our own Dr seelas is speaking as well as some other people so just to pass that on if you're in town and that oh I have a new business that's okay or do can we do new business I just thought of this when Stephen was giving the policy update um I feel obliged as I've brought up other things that we've heard from the community about and I heard from somebody a second time about this um and sorry I just got to go back in my memory I did write to the chair and vice chair a couple weeks ago um with language that was suggested to me by somebody on the town side we've had some inquiries especially following recent incidents at the high school um about um surveillance cameras we talked about this a tiny bit I'm not pro con but I've we've had questions that have been sort of circular when I've inquired of like how do we even have this conversation Town School Town Meeting select board um so I had asked the chair and co-chair if uh Vice chair if we could dock it for a future meeting uh a discussion and possible vote of recommending to the select board that they reconvene um their committee on surveillance technology so just wanted to put that out there as a possible way that I've been thinking about um responding to that um request from the community to just like where they go why don't we have cameras and I don't have an answer and nobody seems to have an answer so thanks okay fine well okay that's it you are now adjourned thank you very much everybody nice work tonight thank you lus recording stopped good night rest up lus