this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers welcome everybody uh to a regular session of the East Hampton school committee just to note that as we conclude the regular session we will be moving into an executive session and from there we will be adjourning for the evening um we are going to roll call into the meeting Ben hery Ben hery here Megan Harvey Megan Harvey here Laura Scott present Sam Hunter here and Mar here mayor Mayville here excellent this is being recorded this is being recorded by East Hampton media and we have um open attendance both in public and via Google meets um we are going to begin with announcements and start with correspondence okay um I only have one uh piece of Correspondence to report on we received um a really thoughtful email from a parent um who was concerned about the lack of options related to life skills at the high school um and comparing that to sort of vocational options um and sort of asking some thoughtful questions about the cost benefit of having some of those life skills go into the high school that's all I have to report for correspondence do you have any more else uh no but to that point we're going to be looking into that further um duly noted we all receive that email so we're going to move and I did call that parent we just had a conversation this afternoon good can you please forward absolutely um any gifts man I have no gifts okay and do we have student we may not have student representative updates we tend to do them about every month and I don't see them in they're not in attendance with us here in public we did just have them right before so um we always put them on the agenda just in case but we generally have really Hardy updates about once a month so we look forward to maybe later this month or early in May hearing from our student Representatives um at this time we can open the floor for public comment either in person or via Google meet if you have an interest in speaking we would just ask that you keep your statements brief tell us who you are share your thoughts understand that we can't respond in the course of this meeting and um we'll give it a minute to see if anyone is interested in speaking okay seeing no one in the room and no hands raised on Google meets we're going to close public comment for tonight the next item on our agenda is our superintendent update our Stellar above and beyond superintendent Marine Benda is out of town she is of course joining us remotely though I don't want to take up any of her time I don't think we have an actual update correct but did you have any did you want to say anything Meen or uh no we don't have an official update uh just that um yesterday it was great that we had the half day the professional development for our staff people could ipate with their families and looking at the eclipse and uh our team uh we the people are getting ready uh to go forward to compete uh we did have Congressman nail there and uh I actually got last week to go and uh again sit down with the kids and listen to them uh debate and it's really an amazing group of students and uh their teacher Kelly Brown and U there there other teacher who uh used to be uh a we people uh student also I've really got these students in really great shape and then tomorrow of course we have our group uh going off to Europe so it's it's been a really great couple of weeks and uh it's such a great District I I just really you know want people to know that I understand the story about the life skills uh program which we will certainly work on uh but I just want everyone to know that they're very talented staff and I I keep telling you this because um there's always uh information going on in the world that maybe says things aren't so great in public education but uh things are really great in eastampton dedicated staff great students and uh really great leaders both in the school and in the district office and a great school committee so thank you thank you even though even if you hadn't complimented as BS I want to take one quick second to Note One really ex just one example of um being really Adept and on your feet um super intended penda just a couple weeks ago brought to our attention the solar eclipse and how we had this opportunity because we'd already had a half PD day scheduled within the same week as that day so making that change with enough time to notify families notify students get the PD set up re I heard from a ton of other teachers that I know in different districts and families that thought was really impressed wish their own districts had thought of it so just cheers to you and um another example of the great work being done by our superintendent and our faculty and staff thank you thank you um we're going to move on to the business update uh Nick berer with the finance and Personnel updates good evening Mr berier good evening everyone um at this point um it's actually a little over 72.4% of the local appropriation either spent or encumbered there was a a payroll that wasn't posted yet when I ran that report so it's you know a couple percentages uh points higher um I'm obviously continuing to monitor the budget like I always do uh you know for transfers and and things and you know we do them on almost a daily basis at this point in the year uh areas of concern you know continue to be the same as other months such as utility bills the AO District tuition um and and special ed Transportation um we have started reclassifying some of our special ed tuition expenses to circuit breaker we did a pretty sizable journal entry today um as we've received three quarters of circuit breaker payments now so it's time to start you know moving those expenses um and you know we've also submitted our circuit break extraordinary relief claim form um and are just waiting to hear from desie regarding the uh the reimbursement we should probably know in early may I I think is their target so um my FY 23 end of the year report Amendment uh has been done based on the report that I received from our external auditor I completed the amendment a couple of weeks ago um the report's been sent to the school committee as well as to the city council president and to desie um if anybody has any questions about it I'd be happy to entertain them I haven't received any so far but um yeah I mean nothing major in the report nothing I believe I detailed it in the email I sent you it's you know nothing was material a lot of cases it's just a instance of you reported something incorrectly because you weren't sure how uh but it's easily correctable and it's been done um and it's important that those amendments get done in a timely process cuz that's how your net School spending figures actually get like certified and they you know figure out per pupil spending based on that if you remember uh looking through my budget book that I you know I'd sent you a couple weeks ago uh that data is always a couple years behind because it takes a year to get those end of the year reports done you technically have a year after your audit to amend it but I don't know why anybody would wait that long cuz the longer you wait the you know longer it's been since you actually did the report and you you know you pick it up several months later and you're like what um you know so it's it's important to get that done as soon as possible um lastly my my Personnel report um for the month of March we had four new hires we had one uh par educator uh a new special ed coordinator and two substitutes uh we had two separations one par educator at Mountain View and a district network technician uh which brings us to our current vacancies the Middle School librarian still vacant and I'm assuming it probably will remain so throughout the rest of the school year at this point but we'll continue to look to fill that going into next year uh we do have a vacant par educator position at Mountain View we still have one lunch supervisor uh vacancy and the network technician um does anybody have any questions all right thank you thank you very much thank you so much Nick um we're going to move on to school committee discussion um the first note is a policy subcommittee update uh chair Sam Hunter yes we um had uh so we've been working our way through the um massachus mass mass Association of school committee's policies um so for those of you who uh are hearing about this for the first time we essentially this is the body that um writes and updates a lot of uh kind of the boilerplate um school policy that um that then we write our own policies based on um and we have to update these um they're kept on our website um and our you know um we we have to make sure all of our own pract District practices and policies align with those policies so uh for various reasons we've been um uh catching up on kind of the last year and a half or so of those and I think we have caught up um in the last few weeks we've been doing a lot of work on this and I think we made it through uh most of what I had hop to do at the beginning of this year um which is good we still have some more from um last year to finish up um but the latest uh policies the ones that we're going to be talking about tonight uh mostly have to do with um student technology use and Technology use uh within the schools generally and again this is the policy that all of the rest of our policies have to minimally adhere to so these are generally tend to be pretty broad um and then the building administrators uh kind of set their own policy for their buildings and uh that's based on um what they feel is uh is right and kind of through their own processes so um that's what we've been working on um do you want to just mention your upcoming dates yeah we have some upcoming dates and it's a good thing that you have them right in front of you because I did not have them right in front of me that's why I mentioned it um so we do not we are not actually going to be meeting uh this week um but uh we will be meeting on the 26th of April um May 10th May 24th June 7th I believe although that is getting awfully close to like graduation end of the year the day I think is the day of graduation we'll see how we feel about it is Friday yeah that's graduation I believe that we we set up all these dates way ahead of time so that we wouldn't schedule anything else for these days um and uh we'll decide if we need that June date or not and then June 21st same thing if we need it we'll use it and if not we'll uh get rid of it and we're meeting um this actually says 9 this says 9:30 to 10:30 but it's actually 9 to 10 okay um so we're meeting first thing in the morning um up here and uh we're doing that because again it fits in best with all of our work schedules and uh it means that we're more likely to actually get stuff done I tried to we were trying to add another uh monthly or bonly evening meeting and it was uh a lot on top of everything else that we're doing in the evenings and if that changes as we move into the summer and fall we can look yeah well what we're hoping to do is to have caught up on everything from masc by the summer which it looks like we're on track to do and then um we can um we won't need to meet as often after that because we won't have as much to catch up on great uh thank you for that and the finance subcommittee update from the finance chair Megan Harvey I don't have excuse me I don't have any updates we have not met um we will meet again uh at some point uh we have upcoming work sessions where we'll touch on potentially some items that will get sent to the finance subcommittee so we don't have solid dates um but we just continue to rely on the excellent work of Mr berer and thank we had no questions because you sent us that really detailed email explaining all of it so thank you um for that great um next is the CES update so we're going to I actually have a CES update which is even it's a busy night for me tonight I guess and if you want to start by just explaining to the public I love to great um CES is another acronym that you hear thrown around here sometimes it stands for the collaborative for Educational Services and it is uh based in Northampton um it is a uh a um nonprofit that essentially um many school districts in the area uh pay for membership too we are a member district uh those of us who are member districts have representation on the board um and uh so I you know we attend the board meetings once a month um I finally was able to go to one uh earlier uh I think in February um and it was really cool we got to um kind of hear it's similar to a school committee meeting honestly we hear about um how the budget's going kind of it it's interesting because in our district we're watching the numbers go down as the year goes on and because uh we're paying people like CES we're watching their numbers go up as the year goes on so um it was kind of neat to see the business side from the other side um we also talked about um the two uh school programs that they have um right now uh Mount Tom Academy and um Hampshire education or um heck Academy rather um one thing that they said in particular that I would really like for school committee to uh to uh uh F follow up on with me is the uh mountt Academy which is a um a school for kids who uh have had their schooling interrupted in some way it's specifically not for kids with disabilities actually I mean kids with disabilities can participate but it's not actually an IEP program it's just for kids who for whatever reason have had some Interruption and need uh to finish High School in kind of a um a different setting so it's at jolio Community College um their graduation is coming up in June we will have uh at least one student graduating and so they asked if um anybody from our school committee or from um our town would like to go right um that would be super cool so I'm going to get more information about that for anybody who would like to go um and um yeah it was a really neat it it was uh there there were like 30 people in attendance at this meeting and half of them were remote and it was all done um using uh Roberts rules and it was really cool to see actually um kind of a diff a larger meeting um kind of taking on different things um nice yeah it was cool so I'm looking forward to participating more on that yeah we'll follow up with you on that date for the graduation um wonderful we are moving on to action items uh the first that we have is an outof State field trip request do you want to handle that Megan um so I can put forward a motion and then we can open up for discussion perfect okay so I make a motion that we approve an outof State field trip request um for a student from East Hampton High School to go to New York City on 612 2024 um and do we have I believe it's the band second yeah do we have a second a second thank you Sam okay so uh information that I have here is that students are going to attend a Broadway show um and it's the band and core students who are going to be learning about the Performing Arts a musical theater and a place where that is great to learn about to be a fly on the wall of that charter bus oh my gosh that'd be really oh have you seen this group of kids there's something else they're good the Bandon chor kids are great super is there anything else that we should know about no good um so we have no just yeah go ahead uh through the chair uh no just that uh they had spoken to me about it and it's such an opportunity for them to be able to go and actually uh see a live show so I I'm hoping that you do approve that uh their request tonight sounds awesome yes I I received a personal request from my child who is hoping to attend this so I'll abstaining for that reason please don't read into it any other way um so we have a motion and a second uh we ready to vote yeah yeah Ben Ben hery I Megan Megan Harvey I Sam Sam Hunter I Linda Mar I mayor mayor L hey chair Scott abstains for reasons previously stated congratulations kids that's exciting I can't wait I want to hear about it afterwards are we allowed to uh sure I will reach out to Mr you I'm sure they will come in and offer a report okay all right I have a motion to approve the school payroll dated 321 2024 in the amount of $63,750 second thank you Ben um all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion passes uh motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 321 2024 in the amount of $493,500 second thank you Ben all those in favor I I opposed extenstions motion passes motion to approve the school payroll dated 44 2024 in the amount of $ 69,7 and seven thoughts second thank you Ben all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 44224 in the amount of $3,469 second thank you Ben all those in favor I I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the minutes of the March 12th 2024 meeting with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair second thank you Ben all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes okay we are going to revert now Sam do you want to so how does this work best do you want read yeah I would say I think um your first reading and Su correct me if I'm wrong I think your first reading and then we would get a second on the first reading and then it's open for discussion like there could be some explanation um and then it typically I think is reverted back to policy if there's any questions or comments raised at discussion and then it can't pass fully until it has a second reading at a different meeting okay so just to explain to the public this is going to look very and I need to read the whole thing out loud correct to read it into the record for it to be a first read everybody enjoy my yeah this is buckle up everybody we got a bunch of these so this is uh file BH oh you don't I thought we did lovely okay we in the in the minutes it is in the minutes as long as it's in the minutes yeah great then I'm going to um direct everybody to go to the minutes unless you would like for me to no I think so the way we'll do this so we have a number of these tonight we have close to eight or 10 so what I'll ask you to do then is just summarize them a motion we'll get a second and then a summary to open discussion sounds good to me okay okay go ahead uh do you want me to do the Motions or somebody else do them all right um I have a motion to um for the first reading to right to approve to approve the first reading of uh file bhe use of electronic messaging by school committee members second second thank you Ben okay so now we can have discussion if you want to explain a little bit so this is just so currently um just so everybody's aware in our current um uh manual I guess it's not really well yes it is a manual in our amongst our current policies we don't actually have anything that addresses uh school committee members and the ways that they are and aren't allowed to uh communicate uh with each other and with the public using electronic messaging um so that includes email text messages social media postings internet web fors and internet chat rooms um so essentially with this uh policy which I said at before is a kind of a bare bones policy um uh we are still considered to be in a quorum when there's four uh or more of us uh texting with each other essentially um deliberation would be moving towards any kind of decision or sharing information about topics that might come before the school committee or that are before the school committee um and we're not essentially not to do any of that outside of the context of a uh school committee um and uh essentially we should only use electronic messaging between us uh for housekeeping purchases per purchases definitely not purchases purposes uh such as requesting towel agenda items meeting times uh meeting dates all of the scheduling Logistics is is fine but we need to be really careful about talking about other things um and uh that um every everything that we message to each other or to the public uh can be uh considered a public record under public records law um and so we should be using our district email addresses um and and uh they should be archived so that is essentially it um any further questions or discussion for the first reading I I was wondering uh recently was it Mor hey was going to put forth something about whether or not as a elected official you can block people or like kind of curate your friends list or something or or do you have to have do you have to accept everybody who wants to be friends with you in a social media I heard about Mora Hy taking this on I mean my understanding and we talked about this at policy a little bit and then and then I've talked to a few others um a few other folks in the note um my understanding is that if you're using like your Facebook page for instance to do your job as school committee like if you're using it to solicit information from the public to ask questions or to get feedback um then you do kind of have to more or less be open to everybody also you shouldn't do that there are and you shouldn't do that you should have if that's how you're going to you should have a dedicated page that you're a public official and even then be careful I do also want to want to point out too you know just to so the public understands this also includes you know like uh East Hampton's a very um but I you know I think sometimes people get a little bit confused about like what transparency versus um like they might think that we're not being transparent when actually we are trying to be as transparent as possible by not engaging in any of that conversation because whomever is not in Facebook or in that group or in that conversation isn't aware of that ination yeah so um I mean my my whole thing is I um I don't ever post about school committee um on Facebook um aside from you know once in a while the Logistics you know which is allowable um for example if we had to cancel a meeting due to weather or something like that we might post that on Facebook but aside from that but um but yeah so you know people's just I just want people to be aware of that um and also anytime you do con connect with any of us about anything related to school committee or work on school committee um that can become a public record right um so which is just you know it's just an important thing to remember there's a lot of really sensitive stuff that gets shared people talk about their kids that's totally um understandable and and a lot of times necessary but will you say that last piece again the what can be considered public record and any written exchange between us and a member of the public about our job in school committee so someone sends a direct message or a private message that could be requested Foy yeah okay absolutely want to clarify for them which means that if you do talk to people that way and it does come up we like live now like people text each other people send emails to the wrong email address people will message you on Facebook um I've been trying to kind of move those conversations to a more acceptable platform and then um but then also remind them you know like this is talking to be this way is public record so just they should be aware of that um or it could be public record um any other discussion I have another quick question for you about it um just to clarify so that everyone's clear and it's in you know our public meeting so things that go to our email address are already archived and accessed do they theyre okay if it's something like Facebook or text message messages that would be need to be foed uh Freedom of Information Act requested MH okay but they're public record I just want to make sure okay that's my understanding I like my email is open to administrators right so like there is no assumption of privacy or anything in in myemail excuse me um but clearly with my phone I text my partner or my child or whatever if there were to be something that comes up there would be specific here's what we're looking for from your personal well and you know to some extent but I I so I'm a state employee in my other job and one of the things that we're always warned about is that you know our if you use your personal device for school committee stuff it could be that device could be foed at some point or could be if there was some kind of Investigation it it could be taken and and um searched so you'd be served with a subpoena it would it would outline the parameters of what they're allowed to look at what they're looking for yeah I just wanted to make sure it was all but it's yeah there is you know that is worth keeping in mind this is like about it it happens yeah exactly no it does um so and we've all been all of us have been kind of aware um aware of that happening in other places too so thank you other questions any other questions or discussion on this again this is a first reading to remind us and the public that we're not adopting this tonight the process requires us to have it read in at two separate meetings pass both times before it's adopted okay so I think we're ready to vote we're going to roll call vote on these just for clarity so Ben Ben hery I Megan hi Laura Scott I Sam I Linda I mayor I okay passes unanimously um the next I love these are all just AC it's like acronyms I know no it's well and anyway um so I move to uh for to do a first reading of the uh ehaa proposed policy uh from masc District security relating to technology second thank you Ben that is second perfect um and so this this is basically again a very barebones policy um around our uh the way that we secure um uh we do um security for our technology in our schools this I believe I can't remember off the top of my head because there are so many of these I believe this is replacing a former policy mhm um and uh In My Memory they were basically the same yes different I believe so um but essentially this is basically saying that we're repl policy I thought it was but I I have them both in my packet uh yes but what you have in your packet is a copy of the m and then you have that language transcribed with a track of first second well that's why they look so similar right oh okay oh yeah the minutes are in here too right okay that would be a helpful thing to refer to the same yeah okay so anyway this is not replacing an old policy I apologize okay um so this is basically just saying that um that students and um well anybody involved in our schools uh do have um uh right to their own data privacy uh kind of to the degree that the law stipulates and uh we're basically just saying that we will um protect uh from unauthorized access or use um again very like very Bare Bones once we went over all of these policies it in the policy subcommittee um the superintendent did you know check with um Russ when we had questions um which I don't think they came up for any of these early ones so to be clear that was a motion in a second by Ben right and we are now in discussion okay um any other questions or discussion after that explanation this one okay uh we're going a roll call then uh Ben I Megan megy I Laura Scott I Sam I Linda I mayor I okay on to ehb all right so this is data and records retention um and this this goes along with the one that we just oh sorry i' have to propose a motion uh I have a motion to I'm making a motion to uh do a first reading for approve the first reading approve the first reading of ehb data and records retention and a second second thank you Ben go ahead now one thing here it does say uh public records of the district uh is X there's a place in here to put the actual name of the custodian of um of these uh whoever is holding this information okay um but essentially we are required as a district to um retain records for certain period of time it depends on what record you're speaking about Student Records have to be retained for a certain period of time Personnel record have to be retained for a certain period of time and we're basically saying that there's going to be one person in the district who's appointed um to do that and um that under public records law all of our like we were just saying basically all of our communication with each other electronically is considered a public record um and that's true for District employees uh as well as um school committee okay we don't have one yet yeah we don't have one yet and that has actually it's not in here that's actually a question I had about that was do we need to add for the first reading if you're adopting a policy it should be poliy so is it Poss what we may have to discuss is whether I don't love the idea of naming an individual we should name a position exactly that's what I was going to say yeah right something something like that say that the custodian of the public records of the district is appointed by the superintendent that's something to that effect I when we met we talked about the superintendent the custodian yeah we'd have to run this by Council we' just have to check with rest to pray right something like that but I don't know what exact language they would okay so a note on this one that we need to get clarification on that and does that um and we'll also get clarification if if we amend things does that mean it goes back to a first reading okay so I think also part of this was that it's supposed to be in a prominent position on the website who the person is so that just needs to happen I right so so I think do you want to withdraw the motion for this one yes okay so we're going to withdraw the motion for the let me get the acronym correct ehb ehb thank you Megan it wasn't seconded so I can just withdraw it it was seconded which is what open the discussion so that's why I would suggest you withdraw rather than we vote it down withdrawing okay the ehb okay data end record we'll get some clarity on those points that we and then we can introduce for our first reading okay reintroduce for Perfect all right pull this one out of the pile next is GB now this was another one where it says procedures motion first oh sorry that's okay um I make a motion to uh approve approve the first reading of file GBE which is Personnel use of Technology perfect second thank you Ben okay go ahead foration so this is basically another um another policy very similar to the last couple about um using staff and other Personnel at in the district using technology uh while they're at school um basically saying that there's going to be an appropriate digital use form um that uh that um they will be signing which I believe there already is I think this was what we did was we went through here we were like already doing that already doing that um that staff needs to use their school issued accounts when they're communicating with students and parents and Guardians um and also with each other uh when conducting School business so like not using your personal email to talk to parents or using your personal email to talk to um to friends or or colleagues at school um that any communication between employees is a matter of public record um and that includes the use of social media if they're doing District business so again like we were just talking about with our social media um you know teachers at our schools for instance should not be like having parents engaged with them on their own Facebook page to get information out they should be using more official channels for that um and this is all stuff by the way that like is very kind of um 101 in this world now like I really feel like if we've been having this conversation the last time I was on school committee it would have been a really different conversation but this is all very like this is how a lot of workplaces are just in general now um that um an an important point in here is about um student organization Pages or team pages where um the the student organizations can kind of create their own social media Pages Instagram Facebook or um kind of whatever uh comes up but but that there does need to be a faculty adviser um who is an administrator of that group um and that they they are kind of controlling who is using it and posting on it um and uh that if a Coach or an adviser is um is getting in touch with a student for whatever reason um unless it involves medical or academic privacy there should be um an administrator um or another or other members of the team it shouldn't just be like one coach like texting one member of a team at a time either they're texting everybody or they're texting one member of the team with another um School administrator on that um on that text um and that just in general when interacting with students online group interactions are encouraged and should include two staff members um and that there should not be one-on-one interactions between um personnel and students um outside on online so you know you shouldn't be messaging students directly um you know outside of um school email or outside of class essentially um and that kind of any kind of um failure to abide by this policy is considered misuse um which can lead to disciplinary action misuse is like kind of a big deal when we talk about State um business in general like misusing state property or misusing State uh resources um and the same thing goes for um schools which are obviously uh Municipal organizations too so um so that's essentially it it does um you know there's a bunch of cross references here that you know where it lines up with these other policies that are already in existence um and again we went through this and and kind of determined that for the most part we're all this this is kind of already expected um there were a couple of points that um particularly around like using um a team page or or an organization page a student organization page where we felt like that really needed to be uh clarified a little bit more mhm is this when we talked about comments seem to be no that was in the that was the next one okay any other questions or discussion I was just wondering does there need to be oversight or is there oversight on this I mean I don't know if it matters maybe just that the law exists is the rule exists is enough but ises anybody checking on this I mean I'm just curious if that's like would it be applied fairly right if there's potential disciplinary action is there a general like checking on social media accounts or oh I see what you yeah I don't know okay we're just sort of hoping and assuming the best which is great yeah I think brought when we discussed this in the policy committee that I think that with coaches and with things you know when things like that that that's so difficult because often times they are just dealing with one one student so how that's all going to play out you know I think I think they're in the learning curve of that too you know um because I think that is happening superintendent band do you have any thoughts on this I feel like yes through the chair so at the beginning of the year policies have gone over with all staff members so they've made aware of the policies and how they have to follow through with it uh do we regularly check to see if that happens on not usually um how we would find out there been a violation obviously if something's reported to us got it that's what I would expect makes sense and you know future iterations of the handbook could reflect um revisions that we've made to policy um any other questions another question yeah um just clarifying so this is um personel use of technology that was given by the district for use no this is all all technology for example these things like online activities that would not be considered appropriate in the classroom should not be conducted online well it not wait hold on which which uh I'm down one two three four five six any online activities would not be considered any online activities that would not be considered appropriate in the classroom should not be conducted online high standards of appropriate online communication and conduct must be maintained I'm wondering about how that what does that mean yeah that's a good question let's say a staff member comments on a post Post in the East Hampton group page um and I mean what do we mean by apprpriate you know yeah yeah feel that's a good that's a good thing to look into I would think I think the first time I read it I interpreted it as in as acting as a teacher right but that's my question it's not specific enough is it right so if you're just as a private citizen taking off your teacher role and saying well and then it's also online activities right so like that's not necessarily just using social media like you know there's there's other things that people do on the internet yeah um so and again it it triggers that question of how do you implement that fairly right can I just can I just be looking around on Facebook see a comment from a staff member and take offense to it and call superintendent binda and say well see that I feel like that makes sense to me it does is that like if somebody is is is um kind of engaging in um in Behavior online that's not um that with their real name that they work under that is that is not setting a good example that's something I think but what if another person is engaging in the same behavior in a much lesser known social media app that you don't happen to subscribe to how do you yeah I mean if you're speeding you're speeding you're speeding yeah whether you're caught or not sometimes you get a ticket sometimes you don't I mean I'll say routinely on the the city Side we have conversations with employees and volunteers and board members all the time about how they're presenting stuff on um on City matters or how their feeling that they didn't Express in a meeting I mean it's a fine line but the conversation's more around like you're uh you know representing the city of East Hampton now if it's about what color daisies you like okay well that's you um but if it's about um disparaging or or negative but can I can I piggyback on that because I'm curious how you think about this so when I'm reading any online activities that would not be considered appropriate in the classroom let me give a hypothetical example let's say a teacher would not appropriately state in a classroom endorsing a political candidate for example right but that doesn't in my view make it in any way inappropriate for them to do online right so the that's where the language to me feels a little and again and it also makes me think of um online activities you can now go online and and do um uh sports betting you know like that's completely legal very inappropriate to be doing in a classroom but like what you do in your own time like we don't have a problem with teachers doing that if that's what they want to do it's a real slippery I if it's said like if it's said like social media specifically or something I would feel better about it you know and that's what I was thinking about when we read it when we I me it's it's spaghetti to no I mean totally agree it's the level of concern I mean it's really an HR matter um you know maybe she could talk about it or what not but I know that Russ had really good guidance around it at one point it came up russes and and he had some good examples yeah just I want to make sure that if that is what's going to go through if that's what masc has proposed and what we're adopting I think that's going to have I would suspect a large impact on some members of our staff well and faculty who make who speak freely online maybe in I don't know ways that well let me um May or not be disparaging why don't we put this one aside too and then I I will um no I think this is good really good this is good I because I was I was only thinking about it in terms of like stuff that you do on social media that is traceable back to who you are that like your students might see but clearly like it's written in a much broader way than that so I think what I would like to do is actually see I would like to see what other communities are doing with this um and I think it would be good to check in with Russ about that um because that is a little more broad than uh I would like it to be okay so you want to withdraw the G as well okay to the chair can I just say one thing sure uh so us to these policies abroad and then the district uh develops procedures to back up the Poli policy so the policies are broad for a reason because there are so many things that can happen especially in social media uh what could happen is that the district would then come up with procedures that would then help us if some of these things came up so the policy is Broad but the procedur is are specific right who writes the procedure Administration Administration would write the procedures I guess the question about it is if we leave it this General it allows for a different um makeup of school committee Andor Administration to to do things like say I'm looking to see whether or not you place Sports bets or I'm right we don't want to leave it open to being weaponized or abused and we also don't want it so broad that it can't be implemented at all so that it becomes an utterly useless policy thank you for saying that that's what I'm worried about I'm worried about it its potential for going too far right or just so numb that it's meaningless and then why are we passing it right let yeah let me let me look do just me we're not throwing it away or setting it aside so we can this is why we do multiple readings yeah exactly so let me let me do some more research on that okay uh next on the docket let's see how we can Massacre this one this is uh i j and D you thought we were getting to uh well this is how this is how it always goes this is why I've scheduled so many meeting access to digital resources so we're going to start with a motion yes I have a motion to for the first to to prove the first reading of I'm going to get it by the end of it I Believe In You of uh uh policy IG andd exess of digital resources um second I will second that excellent go so um so again this involves the uh ower digital use form which we talked about a little bit earlier just kind of saying that um for students and for staff members um which basically is is uh kind of laying out what is considered to be appropriate and safe use of the internet at school um we do have to develop an Implement which I believe we already have I think that um the superintendent was talking about this at our meeting um appropriate procedures to provide guidance for Access uh to digital resources for students and for um and for uh everybody else um essentially we should uh not allow uh prohibited or illegal activities um or things that um might destroy uh parts of our Network uh so like access to things that involve malware um it'd be horrible if it happened I'm not no it's um you know my wife is a teacher she uses Teachers Pay Teachers a lot uh to get her her the amount of viruses that we've gotten of Teachers Pay Teachers is ridiculous so um so anyway uh again employees are to be using the district email devices and networks only for purposes uh directly related to education uh and their jobs um and that uh sometimes there might be uh times when our our Network or our materials are available to the community one example that we talked about at our meeting was um the fact that the Wi-Fi here is is our Wi-Fi the up here on the second floor and that when people come to meetings up here anybody can use it um we we have the password written down um but in order to use it you do have to agree that you're not going to um down download a bunch of malware or do anything illegal um so um that so these empowered digal use documents can either be like a policy that the student signed at the beginning of the year or just like that little check box that you click that says I promise I'm going to follow all the rules um that you don't read but um but they're there um so um and then also anybody who um who does uh destroy anything or loses anything um like computers um well not cell phones because we don't give those out but computers other materials um they they are going to be uh responsible for replacing them or fixing them and this is again an update to a previous policy the different the um differences were very slight I think they just added additional we have the current one we have the masc one you specify what the changes are because the minutes weren't clear oh okay I don't know if we have the updated policy which is much much more detailed two pages versus the N policy right right I have no idea what you're looking to change didn't we talk I hold on I need to take this apart oh no these are this is uh I have mine in the cor this was the Mas and this is the current policy yeah so this this was the one that they they sliced up this was the one that they um so what they did was they took this IG and D um and they turned it into JJ and they they this was the problem that we ended up having with the way that we did this just for the so on our list for tonight we have like yeah access to digital resources use of technology and instruction acceptable use of digital resources all of these were one before so all of these were IGN and d and now they've been broken out and this actually we had trouble with this n DC okay that's making way more sense yes no it it was hard for us to par at trust me when I was printing all these things out and trying to like come up with all this stuff I'm going to steal this back or it's going to mess me up for so we have the current one that combines them all and the suggestion is that we go to as masc like lays out to bust versions yeah I mean I I mean well I mean I guess we could or I guess our I mean hold on this was the exact same problem I had when we went over this before they're not making it easy I uh they did not know and then um some of them one of at least one of them the letters were reversed so I think that maybe what we need to do if we look at K through M yeah as one unit this needs to be withdrawn and okay and reviewed which is again for the public we can't do this outside of these meetings yes exactly we're going to withdraw and um so we're going to withdraw K and we are not going to introduce L&M tonight wait hold on we might actually be able to do those wait now I've lost my your agenda right okay so that's going to be the i j n d b and i j n d c yes you're not going to review no we're going to yeah we're going to so we're going to remand all of those back to policy to figure out what exactly policy the policy subcommittee is recommending to the full committee as far as breaking out our current right yeah that was the problem drawing your motion and second for the and D also correct and then we are not going to be reading B and C tonight right I so many letters dear Lord yeah no this was this was it's very and I mean this is let me just make this point too because people watching this might think this is a dumpster fire so these policies are very exacting there's a lot of detail and our policy subcommittee attacked this head on like they were looking at a ton of material in a really short period of time in the interest of expedience so now we're seeing some of these can clearly get moved on some of these need further review and some of these we have to figure out do we want to keep them broken down do we want to keep them so that's the the discussion so the next one can I do a motion for ji CJ for the first to approve the first reading that's item n under action items everyone the jic CJ so so this is student use of Technology so motion sorry that's okay motion for the first reading for approval for first reading do we have a second from Ben so go ahead so this is again um this pertains to student use of technology in schools um and essentially this is an extremely broad policy around student use of all technology and again this is supposed to kind of underpin the uh policies that are set by building administrators um so essentially it's saying that students have to sign that appropriate digital use form uh that they have to use digital resources in responsible efficient ethical and legal manners they have to follow the district code of conduct um there's no expectation of privacy so if they have their cell phone or their computer at school um they can't assume that what they're doing on it is private or that the um that they um deserve any kind of privacy in their use that's not what this says students are reminded that there is no expectation of privacy in the use of District digital resources I just want to be clear cuz cell phones is a different that count WiFi I'm just saying what this policy says is a district digital resource right I'm wondering if our a school um what's the words Wi-Fi counts as a district digital I think it does that's how I was read so that's that's why cell phon yeah that's why cell phones given unless you have somehow managed to get 5G inside the I don't think it's possible if your phone connects to our internet then it this applies well I got a lot of questions about that then I do um no absolutely and and this is like I said this is really broad right like and and also like the one that we were just talking about about the public use of Wi-Fi too is is the same thing essentially yeah um so basically one thing that I appreciate about this is that it is so broad um and it does kind of establish that like students need to learn how to use technology as a part of their education who who teaches them that like I they might know but I was thinking like you know students shall utilize digital resources in a responsible efficient ethical legal manner that's a procedure not a policy okay yeah that's up to the school mhm that's up to administrators School Community or um super administrators and I think it happens at home also that's like parents are having to sign these digital use forms as well on behalf of their kids at the beginning of the year right so I think it's a partnership well and they also It also says in here yeah they're required to abide by the district code of conduct both on and offline of District digital resources which should be regarded as an extension of the classroom so that also includes you know if they're using if they if they are using internet resources for to turn in coursework for instance they do have to follow that if I don't know if we have Chromebooks going home with kids anymore but if they're bringing Chromebooks home to to work on you know and then they're also using those books to harass somebody or to to kind of um engage in in problematic Behavior towards other students you know they're they're subject to the same rules and uh expectations does this include AI like does that include AI like this well this is digital digital you digital resources from the school te technology from the school it's very broad like and again it's very broad because we're supposed to be putting additional policies and procedures on top of it that's going to match the needs of the buildings and and of the community I have another question Meg has a question y so the fact that this is sort of going back to this but I just I'm interested in the clarification um because it says in this policy teaching students appropriate use of technology is part of the responsibility of the district we wouldn't say how that happens but we would we can ask for clarification that it's happening or evidence that is happening needs to happen right like who is doing it we can just ask for the clarification not as part of the policy but because it's in here I don't understand can you say that one more time so if we are curious excuse me about how te this is a new policy okay go ahead okay so it's not necessarily has it doesn't have to happen because it's a new okay that I can clarifies I'm saying it doesn't necessarily exist today because what they're proposing doing it but because it doesn't exist we can't well we can well and we do have you know we does that make sense no we do have if you my brain's magic if you go through so when when I when we brought this up for the for the policy subcommittee meeting I actually moved the meetings to the evening because it seemed like there might be some interest um in um from the community in it and I brought the cell phone policies from because that seems to be you know what what has been causing a lot of the issues I brought the cell phone policies along to that meeting only one person showed up um but I brought the cell phone policies along and um they're very clear like no cell phone use in school period so we already have existing policies that involve and and we have an existing procedure well we have an exist is it isn't it a policy if it's in the handbook though if it's a school committee policy with a code on it and it's in the policy manual it's a school committee policy but but the but if it's just something practiced daily in the schools even if it's in the school handbook that doesn't NE procedure in the school so it's a procedure even if it's like written down in a handbook it's a procedure policy as a term of art is strictly stuff that's in our book and approved by the school that's that's slightly different from my understanding of it but that's because as the term of art right so yeah so that's the procedure the building administrators come up with the procedures for the buildings which are like pretty um black and white right now to be honest and pretty straightforward so whether or not you know we're happy with the procedures or whether or not the community feels like those are the appropriate procedures or that theyve that's that's a different conversation than this um very Bare Bones policy which masc has put together for the first time in 2024 so it's me it's meant to be the guard rails right exactly exactly so um so and which is why I wanted I wanted to clarify that because I think like there's there seems to be some um misunderstanding about like what is within the school committee's purview and honestly like what I think we should be allowed able to do and I don't actually think we should have that kind of power to be honest um so um so that so that's um kind of where that one is at it's a very this is a very broad policy yeah um that I would love a little more just to have somebody in the know clarify what what will qualify as District digital resource aside from that I think the policy makes a lot of sense does anybody have a question or a yeah I I mean I would just I was trying to find some definition here I I think it's purposely broad because we just don't know what it is I mean there are there are school districts departments classes or whatnot that have Tik Tok accounts and have lessons on it you know and what will come next I I you know we don't know I mean that's the um I'd be interested to hear what other committees I mean I think that you know we probably know one tiny scooch of what's going on um and how could affect policies or things we want to let the school go and I I will say there's like this is an area this is a a sector where we see a lot of changes really quickly and um as we have all seen tonight it takes a lot of work to keep up with um with changes that happen this quickly there I I do think it's worth pointing out too you know I there's a lot of um I think there's there's a lot of concerns in general right now like anytime you hear if you're I'm a parent like I here um there's a lot of things to be worried about as a parent right now um the the the one the parent who did come to that that meeting that we had um who did speak it was really um interesting to to hear her perspective as the parent of a kid with a disab who uses his phone to help um participate more in school um concerned that any changes to that policy we going to make him feel even more isolated and ostracized than he already feels so I think it's really important too to remember like as we're adopting a policy right now um and then but then the technology keeps going and when we return to this whenever masc updates it or whenever we feel like we need to update it we don't even know really what we're going to be talking about or who we're going to be talking about so um so I would be I'm for this is like you said there's kind of a question around this District digital resources I think that can be clarified even after we pass the policy absolutely um but this is just a very basic um you know I think my perspective on like raising a point like that would be if I'm questioned in the future about a policy we may well be the ones asked to interpret it in the issue of a conflict say so I would hate to see us trip into that situation like oh you know I'd never stop to consider what that might mean right exactly well and it's also important I I feel like too just the our role on school committee it's important to be like the problem that you're illustr that you're talking about right now who is whose jurisdiction does that fall under um have we tried the normal like the actual way that that this problem is supposed to be solved and and kind of where where is the missing link or like where are the um the holes that we're stepping into and it's less about like us saying this is right or this is wrong and it's more like kind of making sure that everybody's got kind of a a path that they can follow to to get to a place where they feel like um they they know what to expect more or less yeah um any further questions discussion on this are we ready to vote Ben beny I I L Scott I Sam Hunter I and de Marque I um niol Chappelle mayor Chappelle I okay guard rails thank you um I want to make a suggestion to which I would have done at the end but I'm afraid I'll forget in the future what would be great and um one of us that's not me could probably help you with the tech side of this I think for future first and second readings let's be prepared with slides so we can project the text I think that would be great yeah no I think that's a great idea do you want me to put this up there I can do that just didn't think of it sure we've only got we've only got for the last two we've only got two I'm just saying in Future Let's make that a part of the that's really good idea okay and I'd like to get the old ones up to and I'm going to look into I made a note for myself to create a PDF of each first reading that's approved tonight I'll make a PDF of all of those if we could post those on the website yeah just as one PDF if I send a PDF out somebody can post it on the website of the ones that we approved tonight the text I just want to make that immediately and doesn't get posted until it's approved the second reading is appr it can't be posted as an approved first reading we have not done that because it's not official I will look into that because we don't want to mislead people to think that it's a current policy but I just want people if there are questions for that space between a first and second reading they are all a they are available on the masc website but it is not intuitive to find it but because they are available on the masc website I feel like it must be possible for us to somehow because we're we'll just have to make it clear these are not approved these are pending something to that I can also see I want to do it because I I hear you I'm it's G to confuse me way too much because I have to get each one of these for a first reading and I have to take the our current policy I have to take the masc and I have to make the changes into a first reading and then keep track of it for a second reading it's going on the agenda for a first reading it's going into your minutes for your first reading and then it's going to the next meeting on the agenda for a second me and then it's going in the minutes for a second raing and then it gets posted on the website want to add another yeah I'll think about that that's not putting onerous work on anyone else but that is making sure that people who are interested in this conversation yeah um can participate in a way in an informed way so we'll keep that when you have your sub committee meetings you're putting your agenda out and you're letting the public know that that's going for discussion your discussions are usually done in the subcommittee meetings agreed and then it's brought sent the changes are made there and then it's sent here for approval for a first reading and then a second reading so it's out there the the policies are out there on the agendas for the meetings and I think typically none of this would have been a huge issue I think all of these newer kind of tech privacy I am expecting I'm going to get some feedback after tonight from people who weren't really following what the policy subcommittee is up to so I just want to find a better way to communicate to the public either follow this track through policy or to you know we've got to I want to make sure that people are able to access what's happening in real time I don't know exactly what that looks like but I mean it's hard enough for me to follow with all of the I mean too all right next is uh KC yes I was going to start with the O which is going to make it even more KDC the community use of digital resources yes um so again this is this oh sorry thank you L you got two more to go I move to uh approve the first reading perect KC Ben thank you so much okay um so again this is what we were talking about earlier in terms of using um uh the community using digital resources uh that we might make available to them in particular the Wi-Fi network um agreeing to the digital use form um and if there's ever an a time where we would like to um use share other equipment or whatever with the with the public um and it's the superintendent and the director of Technology who are kind of making these determinations so this is really just codifying our current procedure yes um and you'll see that both the two cross reference policies are both I in JD and I jdc so anybody have questions about this one this one is thankfully very straightforward all right uh do we want to vote Ben Ben I Megan Meg I Laura Scott I Sam H Linda mayor mayor Le great pretty reasonable yeah and then the next one is um oh sorry um I move to approve the first reading of a KD CB District and social media excellent I did it right one time that's all that matters so this is a piggyback off of KDC cuz this is KD CB I think Ben second did it you did I I I did not oh I heard you I lied about it sorry remember Ben second second um go so this is um this is around our website and our social media sites um that are associated with our school district um and so basically we are saying that we will maintain the district website um and social media accounts um as authorized by the superintendent and that District staff acting in professional capacities are going to be maintaining those platforms um so the XX is that just is East Hampton okay yep um in order so additionally commenting should be turned off and this was like the one thing when we were kind of looking through what's already um in school what's already being used uh we noticed that this was something we would have to be more consistent about but so like if um can I read this section out loud so the public understands in order this is the section from the middle of this proposed policy in order for Public Communication with the school committee and District Personnel to be responded to in a timely manner in line with the legal requirements for Public Communication commenting on all district and school sites will be turned off yes and again that kind of goes back to what we were discussing earlier about fairness you know if um we can't if there's one person who's online a whole lot or who's on Facebook whole lot and they're essentially like getting to kind of um have direct access to someone in the district through commenting on Facebook it's like not fair to people who don't use that platform don't want to or or can't communicate that way for whatever reason so um we need to make sure that those um comments are turned off if they're able to be turned off essentially um and we did kind of do like a brief look through during our meeting we were like oh I wonder like are the comments turned off and uh at the time they were on some in some pages and not on others so that is something that uh superintendent said she would be um updating um staff about um but that was kind of the only the only part where we were kind of like well what we're everything else in this we're pretty much already doing um and also I I like the last sentence here which is that a high priority is placed on such platforms being accessible frequently updated and user friendly so um we definitely want that going forward um uh so that anybody who's accessing any and actually this doesn't just apply to the website because we' thought about the website but I think about how how often now you see like old social media pages that just kind of get abandoned for whatever reason so like we should just remember you know if we've got a website set up set up or a a page set up on whatever like the latest social media site is for like one of our schools and then everybody stops using that site for some reason we should remember to either keep upd updating it or take it down like just to make sure that we're not um kind of you know we don't want to see a page that hasn't been updated in four years trash yeah exactly anybody have questions I sort of do but I'm not sure yet uh like how to say it intriguing anyone else again this is a bu B some time no this is just a a a basic policy uh to to just kind of basically professionalize our existing this one you can understand immediately which is ref I think my concern is just with the website like I it has perpetually been a place that feels like a confusing maze for for a lot of people and that I don't know what that's procedure not policy okay if we say here that it's accessible frequently updated user friendly does that mean that we have to make sure it is not that we enact how it is we don't right but does that mean that we could say we need to get the website I think you direct the superintendent and administration to look into the matter and resolve it to comport with policy and I also think too you know if a member of the public says hey I've tried to find this thing on the website and I couldn't find it that really gives if if we're if we hear about this and and and we're hearing this a lot it's it it gives us something else you know we can go to the superintendent and say hey we know on our policy it says that we're supposed to be able to easily navigate the website parents are really having a hard time finding the school lunch menu you know could we could we try to locate it or make it easier to find so I think like that that's kind of what the the policy does you know it's it's new it helps us understand the expectations we can hold someone accountable for making it up yeah i' would love to solve that problem it's well and I I I do have to use a lot of school websites for my job and they are like there is a lot of information that has to be put up on a school website like legally and um a lot of it is is written in a way that is it has to be written in a way that is kind of harder for people to understand and then there's some of it that's written in a way that's more accessible and links break and I think that this is something that um I would like to kind of do some research around like how how districts do kind of have best practices around maintaining um userfriendly websites because it is not just like maintaining uh a personal website or like a personal like there's a lot that has to go into oh yeah absolutely so at least I'd love to I I agree with you it's one of those things that comes up uh pretty frequently um and I think it comes up pretty frequently despite the fact that people are working so hard on it so um you know whatever whatever we can do to kind of help make that easier I'd like to procedure stuff we direct exactly that's great any other questions about this first reading vote Ben beny I I Laur Scott I Sam Hunter i i i great well that's some good progress yeah and some more work for the future which is great um love work yes our next meeting dates uh April 23rd May 14 May 28th and June 11th we also have a work session scheduled for this Wednesday today is Tuesday I'm pretty sure the work session is tomorrow again reasonably sure at it'll begin at 600 p.m. in the back room um and it's going to be a bit of a brainstorming session focused on Mountain View School uh what's working what's not regarding um programming curriculum issues that people have we're going to try to collect information and then um not overstep our bounds but bring that information to the attention of the people whose expertise it is to handle those issues um we are about to move yes oh I thought I sent it I will email it tonight it's a one item agenda I'll check I'll check into it okay thank you I'm not sure if it's on the agenda Center if I'm not mistaken I don't know where the agenda Center is um it's not on the school districts oh it's not have agenda for tomorrow okay is it do we need to cancel that meeting if there's not an agenda posted today it had to have been posted um yesterday it's 48 hours in ADV I sent that stuff out last week I don't know where I sent it okay we will look into that and keep you all Madam shair yes it's on the on the city website it's on theity there uh it was like a one item agenda there was nothing no there is no agenda it's just the yeah my apologies okay yeah know we'll keep you updated on that um there's no meeting tomorrow so we can't okay it has to be posted okay unless it's an emergency I don't know how that happened okay we shall send out a rescheduled date yes for that initial idea of a meeting that was never we do have a couple more dates so I'll make those public at our next meeting our regular session will be April 23rd so April 23rd we'll have a Full Slate of um meetings that we had scheduled through July for those work session focuses folky if you will all right um executive session pursuant to mgl c30a S21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares regarding the EA teacher unit and support unit so we'll be moving into the back room we'll be adjourning our meeting at the conclusion of our executive session and thank you so much everybody in the public uh Mike's everybody thank you e