##VIDEO ID:rfo_ccgQVDs## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers everybody we are going to commence with a regular session of the East Hampton school committee meeting um we will be moving into executive session at the end of this regular session and then adjourning the meeting from that executive session um we're going to roll call in uh mayor here Linda here Eric here Ben here Sam will be with us shortly Megan here and lur Scot present we're going to begin with announcements and correspondence I have no correspondence to report okay and we can open the floor for public comment if there's any in the room or joining us via Google meets if you'd like to raise your hand in person or virtually calling you one at a time right Drea bear with me while I go ahead Drea can you unmute yourself yes perfect yes yes hello hello can you hear me yes okay well thank you uh school committee members superintendent and mayor lelle um I'm speaking about concerns regarding recent changes that are our school particularly the use of specials for computer-based math instruction and the general lack of proactive communication from the school administration regarding curriculum and schedule changes I speak for myself and many parents who feel that we have been left out of the loop on these important matters for instance we only learned indirectly about the introduction of a spatial temporal math game during specials after the fact rather than through direct communication from the administration unfortunately this lack of communication from Administration is not a new issue the irony of receiving a newsletter titled in the loop is not lost on us we have a dedicated and engaged parent body that deeply cares about the quality of of Education our children receive after all this is a public school and transparency and collaboration with parents are vital when information is lacking it makes it difficult for parents to engage constructively this is not a criticism of our teachers who do a wonderful job but rather a concern about the administrative communication channels despite the creation of a position specifically to address parent communication it appears that little has changed parents are left to piece together information about their child's education from conversations with their children and amongst themselves Which is far from ideal if the administration is concerned about parents discussing School changes on social media then they need to take a more proactive and thorough approach to communication I believe that open and proactive communication would Foster a more positive relationship between the school and the parent Community we have received three newsletters thus far yet none have addressed the introduction of the ST math program or anticipated changes in the middle school schedule instead they have focused on disciplinary procedures buses lunches and cell phones while these are important topics they should not overshadow the need for Clear communication about curriculum changes and other educational matters that directly impact our children I hope this message is received in the spirit of collaboration and with the shared goal of providing the best possible education for our students thank you for your attention thank you Drea um is there anyone else joining us who would like an opportunity to speak this evening going to give it just a minute okay seeing nothing we are going to close public public comment for this evening and move to the superintendent update we um sorry I'm so sorry that I'm late it's okay did we already do gifts CU I didn't have one to report um we'll Circle back to that um at the end of the superintendent update thank you Sam okay um good evening to everybody uh we had a smooth uh back to school opening uh this year uh we had teacher training uh two days and uh we had a a guest speaker uh two guest speakers one that trained our staff on the new Title Nine Provisions that are a big change from past Title 9 so it was very important that uh we got staff trained and we actually had them trained by uh one of our lawyers who specializes in Title 9 uh we also had a guest speaker by name am merco and uh he is a person of color who uh grew up in the Boston area and he shared his story about growing up and the importance of equity uh in school and um he is um a big supporter of equity and uh and our work in that area so he's going to continue to work um also we're going to focus a little more on the Middle School this year because um that's an area that U perhaps we haven't focused on so much in the past so we want to really focus on um middle school and some of the work that's going on there actually especially in the area of math so um ST Math was introduced to the community I brought it up at a school committee meeting uh about us receiving the Grant and what that was about uh so um stmath um is a a program that's used in a lot of districts across the state it is supported also by uh desie it's on curay uh it has shown uh absolutely amazing results in bringing up math scores so uh students in the Middle School have to use it 90 minutes a week uh the cost of that program is usually about $30,000 a school uh we were very fortunate to be awarded a grant uh so we do not have to pay that that cost so a concern for me I really have to tell you are the math scores uh in the Middle School uh very concerned that out of 117 kids only 17 qualified to take uh Algebra 1 and grade 8 so we are have moved ST Math in uh program is very specific to address the needs of our students and it has um National records of bringing up math scores so uh we did begin ST Math uh in both uh K through 8 they don't have a 9 to2 program and uh we are really looking forward to see the increase in math scores that are really needed uh especially in the Middle School uh we also uh introduced a new cell phone policy that uh we discussed at a previous first meeting when we're talking about the handbooks and uh we do have uh principal Evans here tonight and I'd like him to be able to give an update to the public uh regarding uh how that cell phone policy change is going okay uh good evening folks I did uh email you some uh to the yes to the school committee email address um some some data for you to look at that I'll go over right now so um overall just um things are going really well in terms of the cell phone policy in terms of our Target of having students not use cell phones in class during lessons um so two pieces of data that I can share with you um yesterday we sent out a survey to our staff with a number of questions um asking them how basically how things are going so the first question is overall how's the new procedure working in your class and the choices were excellent very good okay and poor um and excellent got 23% and very good got 71% um with a couple of outliers one or two response one okay and one sort of an other kind of response but um so between excellent and very good you basically got almost all of the responses um about what percentage of students are regularly pouching or giving their phones to you to store in their desk in your desk so the context of that question is students um when they're coming into the classroom are asked to put their phone in our little pouches um but they have always they have been given the option of storing their phone in a locker or at the main office so um the question is are they coming in and putting the phone in the pouch or are they saying it's somewhere else so um um about 42% of the staff 13 responded that 80 to 100% of the students are putting their phones in the pouch when they come into their classroom and about 3 uh 6% 11 said that 60 to 80% of the students are doing that so um that's about 42 35 like 78 almost 80% are saying that between 60 and 80 and 100% of the students are putting the phones in the pouch so the other 40% are basically saying students are walking in and they're not putting the phone in the pouch but their phones are not coming out during the lesson so my belief is that students are saying that it's somewhere else and this may come as a shot but sometimes students don't always tell the truth to adults in schools um so they're basically saying I don't have it and then it doesn't appear uh during the lesson so we're not searching them and demanding that they prove that um we're taking them at their word and if we don't see it no harm done um the next question is do you provide regular phone breaks and we just wanted this information to see if there was a correlation between ex more phone use and whether or not a phone Brak mattered uh turns out about two-thirds of our staff are not providing U regular breaks during the class and about a third R um not sure if that is relevant giving that um virtually nobody is reporting phone use in classes uh the last question that we asked in the surveys is based on your experience where should we focus our Collective attention with regard to phone use choices were getting students to put phones in the pouches getting students to take earbuds out cu that was a question that we are addressing also phone use in the hallways and appropriate use of Chromebooks uh so about a third a little over a third said getting students put phone in pouches and about a third headphone use in hallways or bathrooms and then the other two choices were split between Chromebooks and earbuds which were pretty minimal so um the issue that um this the second issue of students using the phone in the hallway so at the end of class students can take their phone and go to the next class and use their phone when they're passing from from one class to the other but if they're in class and they want to go to the bathroom or to the nurse or down to the office or to the counseling office they're supposed to leave the phone in the pouch and not take the phone into the hallway and the reason for that is pretty simple you go into the bathroom and there's you know several students hanging out with their phones so they're not uh they're missing too much class time that's been our experience so we told them that they can't um so the second piece of data and I'm going to come back to this question in a minute is um that we sent out we um sent out a a form that teachers can use if they see a student using the phone in the hallway and if they don't know that student it may or may not be wise to approach that student and say hey your phone needs to go back into the pouch without a relationship student may or may not respond well to that so we don't want to escalate but we do want a report so we provided a a handwritten and electronic form for staff to use and so in our what 3 six seven eight days of school so far we've had um 16 reports of students using the phones and hallways bathrooms so on and so forth um of those 16 reports that's 13 individual students so there's a few students that are repeat users of phones in the hallway so when we go back to that question phone use in the hallway is one of the more important concerns so what we're seeing is most students are coming in and putting the phones in the pouches and leaving them alone for the rest of the class some students are not doing that they're keeping their phone in their bag or their pocket or somewhere but they're not taking them out in class but then when they go on a break they may come out so we do want to start focusing in on that area a little bit and cleaning that up a little bit um the main point and there's a comment section and I'm not sharing the comments with you CU I I didn't ask student staff if that was okay with them so I don't want to uh share their comments but uh the main thrust of the comments were um we're not seeing phones in classroom I'm not dealing with phones in the classroom so primary objective so far has been has certainly been met um reducing phone use altogether is still being met keeping it sort of um of the culture of the school I think or keeping it out of the the bathrooms and the hallways and that kind of thing is is the next uh next area that we probably should focus on but um I would say overall um overall things are going really well and staff I think are very pleased um last thing I want to just say for if you have any questions is that uh the next thing that we will be doing is starting to ask students regularly how this is impacting them if they feel like this is helping them or if they notice a difference for themselves and uh there the quote of the of the week was a teacher saying to me it was the end of class we were done with the lesson there was a couple minutes left but I weren't I wasn't letting them get their phones and there was all this noise I couldn't understand why it was so loud and then I realized they were talking to each other wow I thought that was pretty so uh if anybody has any questions any you have that data in your email if you want to Prov it I just I appreciate you reporting reporting back so soon those might need to be on oh um I just wanted to say um I appreciate you for reporting back with data so soon I feel like we just went back to school and that was a lot of information um well Morin texted me over the weekend and said hey the school committee like to know how it's going the survey for staff I had a staff meeting yesterday it was easy enough to get out there but sure no more really good can't wait to hear what the students think yeah I was just going to say my feeling is that from having older cousins that they they do want this to be the case they just need to understand what it feels like and then realize oh yeah it is nice to talk to my friends but if they have the option they're going to look at their phones just like I do the same thing I mean if I put it away then it forces me to go what's going on so they'll they'll appreciate it I think over the long term also they just need to see what it feels like first I think I I would agree um you as I said to them in all my I think I mentioned this to you all uh last time we met um in our first day class meetings I said to each group I said I know you know in your hearts that this is the right thing to do and um I think the general feeling was yeah you're right Mr admond um but you know again we'll ask and see how they're how they're feeling about it so thank you again thank you thank you thank you I just wanted uh to mention also that there's a lot of uh social media uh work being done at high school too where they're trying to post and get the information out uh almost on a daily basis and um now also with the do you want to say anything about that first talking about about all the messages that you're getting out about the good things that are happening to families and kids and posting and there's a big effort for to get the information out yeah um so I can talk about that just a little bit so um I'm sure you're all astute followers of our Facebook page but uh if you're not um daily announcements get posted and they also get posted on our website at the high school um and we do get a lot of great feedback on that the weird thing is like sometimes people will come to me in the community and say my student doesn't go there anymore but I still watch the announcements um just really disturbing but um so between that and you know we tried to get out a an update a full update um out to people at least once every 10 days or so I don't hold myself to a hard calendar on that but when things are coming up so we have open house coming up on Thursday I'm looking forward to meeting some PE some folks then but yeah so far flow of communication I think has been pretty positive yeah my freshman appreciated the birthday shout out FR first year apologies thank you nth grade um yeah that's fun thank you so much all right thanks folks so the open house is is the this Thursday starts at 6 o00 yes and also uh the elementary is sending up out also in the Middle School um a newsletter and actually um there is a newsletter that went out today that actually talks a little bit more about ST Math so that people could learn a little bit more about it also before we get to the Joint conference um Sam did you want to report that gift so I don't forget yes um that's that's all right so we did receive a gift um from uh Comics and More which is the comic book store uh down in um on um Cottage Street in in East Hampton um we were gifted um a I forget exactly how many it was but it was I believe it was over a 100 highquality uh masks uh for students to wear if they want to at the high school which will be available for them um to grab when they feel like they might need one and then we also um had a generous donation of um some unexpired covid uh rapid tests that students can also take and they can bring them home if they want to um and this was a small donation um but these are uh you know as as you all know the co rates do continue to go up um and it's going to be around for a while so uh for students at the high school who are looking for masks or tests they are uh available I believe through the nurses office a small amount and um and in general if you guys are looking for free masks and tests they are um the comic book store is giving them away uh to folks who who want them so um that's available as a community resource too and we really appreciate it it's been hard to Source those things since uh the pandemic funding um dried up so we get a motion to uh approve motion to approve I have a second second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed exensions thank you very much to Comics more another hot spot that my first year really enjoyed there you go um the owner of Comics and More I'll just say this has always been incredibly supportive of the schools and of public Community safety and so just I'm not at all surprised to hear that that gift was donated but it's such a kind thing to do bear that in mind as we look at the holidays and you consider your options for holiday shopping that's right is that that might be illegal don't you know I wasn't going to say it it didn't it didn't happen nothing was it came from a good place soups unethical so we want to talk about the joint conference so every year um masc MTH Association of school committees and Mas Mass Association of school superintendents have a joint conference at the cape uh this year it's November 6 to 9th um so myself and um CM Hunter and laa Scott will be attending that conference uh it is uh a lot of information about Innovative practices uh but there also are opportunities for school committees to meet other school committees and have conversation and to vote on some items that masc uh need to have voted so that again is No 6th to the 9th great and we will report back with uh what we experienced when we there and don't come back with co uh it was pneumonia that I came back with so I will do my best to avoid that this time um great looking forward to we had the election that week it was the election and then that and then I had stop it Comics and More exactly I'll just mask up the whole time'll be all set um business update I think we're being joined virtually by a business manager Nick Bernier Nick are you ready good evening hello can everyone hear me oh we can hear you beautifully go ahead great um so I don't have a ton on the business report this month as we you know just met two weeks ago um I did want to inform the committee that we're in the process of upgrading our dishwasher in the eastampton high school kitchen um the current one just can't handle the amount of you know dishes it has to wash efficiently um so we're looking at at one of those like conveyor belt style models um I've obtained quotes from three vendors um I'm just waiting for desie to approve the purchase because they have to approve everything over $5,000 um the estimated cost is around 64,000 uh and will be funded with the cafeteria revolving account um you heard me say many times during budget season that that account is healthy um and you know we've actually gotten memos from desie about you know how you can spend it um so we uh we thought that upgrading you know some kitchen equipment um would be something appropriate to do so um I'm just waiting for Desy to give the okay they asked me for the quotes as well as our most current balance sheet which they have so just waiting to hear uh back from them um the estimated timeline for that would be probably during the December Break um just because I I mean you you can't do that when there's students there it's going to take a couple of days to do they have to move a little bit of wiring and um you know take the old dishwasher out and everything like that that would just shut down operations um so probably during the December break would be the timeline for that um my uh end of the year report really is my focus since September I'm still working on it um I've got most of the info I need at this point um now I'm just doing the calculations and entering the data which you know does take the bulk of the month but we're uh on a good pace so not worried about that um I don't have the final summer uh Food Service program numbers I mentioned that last time we met um I did email our food service director and said put a rush delivery on that please um but I should be able to report that at our first October meeting uh with no problem um and then lastly the Personnel report for August you'll see it's much longer than uh the usual ones just because all of the new hires for the new school year are listed um we hired over almost 30 new staff members over the summer um you know which was was very good I was able to meet several of them at the new teacher orientation day August 23rd um which I do enjoy going to that it's you know I like to see the the new staff at um and you know I think it's important that they meet some central office folks as well because you know sometimes we like you know people behind the curtain uh you know we're not seen all the time but it's important that people know who we are um during August we did have uh six separations in the district as well um a couple of which we're we're still trying to fill um we did have two transfers we had um a former par educator um stepp into a special ed teacher role um as well as another former par educator step into a health Wellness teacher role at the high school um currently uh in terms of vacancies we've got uh two special education teachers at Mountain View a special education coordinator at Mountain view um whose uh job would be to run team meetings and write IEPs and uh related work such as that um I've got two par Educators at Mountain View a speech pathologist um at Mountain View um still have a vacant lunch supervisor um that we've been trying to fill since last year um I don't believe they've been able to find one yet um and then lastly uh an IT computer technician um however I believe interviews for that will take place next week so that will hopefully be filled soon um does anybody have any questions I have one Nick can you just speak briefly to clarify for the committee and the public the limitations on that um the school lunch revolving account and what we are allowed to spend that money on and not um I can spend it on basically expenditures that go back into the program right um I can buy kitchen equipment with it um we can you know use funds to try to Source more locally produced or grown food um you know we pay our Our Food Service vendor through that account um you know our contract with the food service management company um you know really anything related to the Food Service program um I could get cafeteria tables or chairs should we you know need them um anything like that um you know anything not related to food service I I can't you know I can't use those funds for that just want to clarify that while we have the funds to buy the dishwasher it's not like we're not hiring staff because we're buying a dishwasher anybody else have questions about the finance or personel reports great point no no appreciate it thank you so much Nick thanks Nick thank you okay moving on to school committee discussion uh the policy subcommittee update Sam do you have um any updates we do not have an update do you have a meeting schedule we I'm trying to schedule a meeting but then I forgot who was on the committee because we moved we did just have a change we will announce again cuz I don't think we had a recording at our last meeting although we have minutes but we have had a little shift in the committee so Erica Gat will be joining policy and Linda Mary will be joining Finance so I just have to check with Eric after this meeting about the date that we're hoping for um Finance do we have a update no update and no meeting scheduled we will meet in October November after the Dy end of the aort exactly great wonderful um CEO have not have not met we'll be meeting uh at the end of September next meeting end of September and then the superintendent search update uh we do have some big updates there September so our posting for our permanent um superintendent um or Vanetta as we know was serving as an interim and we were um told in no uncertain terms that we would not be able to get a waiver for an additional year um so uh the search uh is beginning in Earnest uh the job posting went live late last week early this week it's on the website it is on the website for those interested in applying for the position um simultaneous to that we have the kickoff for the superintendent search committee um that is also an a brief online application that is on the district website um we will later this week be sending a link to that to make it even easier we're going to send it to um all staff high school students and all the families that we have access to email addresses uh just a reminder for the public that that committee is going to be a 10 person volunteer committee um the dates basically run through the end of October and early November the specific commitment dates are listed right on the application and uh there will be three parent volunteers one from each School level so the elementary middle and high school and the same for three volunteer staff members one each from the elementary middle and high school levels with preference for each of those groups of three for at least one to have had um either a student with um an IEP or in the staff case to be an instructor working with students on an IEP um and the last would be a student volunteer that we would be a student from East Hampton High School curent student and then three members of our Administration um Nick Bernier who is our uh business manager also atany Lively our special coordinator and Emily Russo um who is an expert in Human Resources Works um works with us for the city so those applications are due um by the end of business on Friday October 4th our next school committee meeting is October 8th where we will be reviewing those applications and making a selection and voting so we should have that Committee in place by the end of our next meeting in October 8 anybody have questions about I just have a question about um the October 8th meeting yes um are we're not are we just that meeting is is open to the public are we discussing the names in public or unclear unclear I have a note in to our attorney about how best to handle that all I can tell you at this point is it will begin about 6:00 p.m. October 8th okay good yeah any other questions so if that is of importance in your consideration of applying then feel free to reach out to us to you well if you are named to the committee that's going to be public it's true there be like deliberations and I don't know what that would look like but we'll find out for eternity I mean first of all there is the assumption that you have more applicants than you do slots to fill great point it's a good assumption to make I I hope let's hope I would love an adequate well well-rounded team I ask for nothing more than that so we shall see a quick question I had is on that 108 was when we're going to do the mcast update do you want us to postpone that till another day it's about 20 minutes I think we can do it we'll just do it toward the end of the meeting okay we'll try to get that um try to get the search committee done first because I think they might even want us to do it as a public hearing I'm waiting to get some direction from Russ on that okay um I just don't want to keep putting things cuz then we're going to get these meetings later in the month get we b um okay so that is it for the superintendent search update we're moving on to action items Eric don't forget okay go ahead Megan okay um sorry take your time uh let's see I have a motion to approve sign to sneeze oh look at the lights don't happen or not about TR exting this is really thing to watch yeah um a motion to approve the accounts payable off ization for payment dated 822 2024 in the amount of $221,800 second second thank you Sam all those in favor I I opposed extensions abion ER thank you uh next um a motion to approve the school payroll dated 822 2024 in the amount of 38966 a94 second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions abion thank you a motion to approve the school committee work session minutes of July 9th 20124 second thank you Sam all those in favor I post exensions passes you don't have to those are just those are minutes just the first two that's true sorry about that that's you're you're perfect okay I appr um motion to approve the school committee regular session minutes of August 27th 2024 with the stipulation to withhold executive session minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair second thank you Sam all those in favor I opposed extensions motion passes motion to approve the executive session minutes of September 3rd 2024 with the stipulation to withhold these minutes until matters are resolved reviewed and released by the chair second thank you Sam all those in favor oppos extensions motion passes okay um our next meeting dates We Touch briefly we'll be meeting next for a regular session on October 8th during that meeting either beginning at 6:00 or partway into that meeting will be the selection of the superintendent search committee and also the mcast update so if you're interested in that information tune in on the 8th after that will be October 22nd November 12th and a slight change for December uh we originally had scheduled a meeting for December 10th we have moved that meeting to December 17th drum roll please that is the meeting where we anticipate selecting our next superintendent w wow that feels very soon gy up y'all gy up just in time for the holidays um we have also reserved a meeting date for December 18th if the December 17th deliberations run long and people are tired and want asleep we have that option available to us so December 1718 we would expect to have an announcement pending successful contract negotiations okay um at this point um we are going to move into executive session presant to Mass General law 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 this chair so declared we will be adjourning our meeting from that executive session and we will see you all on October 8th e