##VIDEO ID:4YrTZ9AmZo0## hi good evening I'm Christy Bud chair of the Hatfield school committee calling us into session for uh the December business meeting it's the 16th of December um and as we um come to order tonight before we go to public comment I just want to note to the committee that we have the potential for a dozen votes on our agenda tonight and I'm going to do what I can to keep things moving um so if you need more time on something flag me and we'll we'll take it but otherwise I will do my best to get us through um is there anyone joining us online for public comment this evening see anyone and there's no one with us here in um as we go and so as we head into a mission moment I just I want to take a moment and recognize that um there were three killed in Madison Wisconsin today and another school shooting and six injured it was the 3 23rd Elementary or secondary school shooting in our country this year and while that's beyond devastating I also want to recognize my thankfulness um for the many ways in which we keep our kids safe um be it through our facilities that we are mindful to keep our kids safe um our online monitoring which is you know there are a lot of different ways in which we keep the um our students safe and I'm particularly thankful for that tonight are there and that's sort of a down or Mission moment but um it is in fact one of our missions that we're going to have that environment for our students so um are there others that we'd like to share there's been some good things going yeah we I was excited to um took some feedback that folks wanted to see the younger students performing so it was absolutely fantastic to have preschool in kindergarten performing this year at our concert and a huge shout out to um nurse Jean because she invited the seniors and was able to procure some coffee so it was really great that people were excited to walk in and get some free coffee if they were if they so chose to uh enjoy before they were able to sit down and enjoy our show the standing room only it was awesome and there was some true performers I'm glad we included the seniors yes my kid he was fantastic he always is so other Mission moments sure I'll do I'll Echo um we had a secondary um uh band concert uh and art show as well and it was very well attended a lot of people there um and they were they sounded great they sounded absolutely wonderful they broke out transiberian Orchestra for one of their one of their songs which was kind of incredible um so it was it was it was wonderful and then we've also kicked off our basketball season we had the girls on Friday notched a nail biting win against Smith Boke um and the boys right now uh the JV just finished their game and they were significantly in the lead when I left and then the varsity game started eight minutes ago and they're playing Hopkins tonight Hawks versus Falcons that's exciting all right anybody else anything need to come off the consent agenda okay so those minutes for our last meeting are approved um you will see a student representative report uh via email and because our students who who rep are quite busy students I appreciate that close up the zoom and we can close out Zoom because there's we' finished with public comment and if anybody wants to join us they can go to the Hatfield Community YouTube page and so that will be handy because you can make your presentation there wonderful all right dive right into it Pathways um so I kept the presentation uh relatively short um it's going to be more kind of just information about Innovation Pathways um and if you have questions I'm happy to field those as best I can present all right so we're talking about um Innovation Pathways that we are planning uh we're in the planning stage this year for implementation next fall so fall the 25 26 school year um I included a few things on the cover here here um desie because the Innovation Pathways program um has been sponsored and pushed uh through desie and funded by grants um and also Vermont State University which is our newest partner um in dual enrollment which they call concurrent enrollment which is nice to have a little bit of Separation you'll see why in just a moment um so just a brief overview as to what Innovation career pathways are uh this is from the desie slideshow um so they the the goal is really to have students identify career goals uh and and work options that they like to work to work towards starting in high school so those careers uh can include post-secondary education as part of it um and they and the pathways would include some high school cours workk some postsecondary coursework so it includes Partnerships with universities and colleges as well as uh real work experience so partnering with businesses or organizations that offer that kind of um job opportunity so so students the goal is to have students when they leave uh a high school through one of these Innovation programs to have some sort of credentialing uh an industry standard credential as they come out of it um work experience in that field uh and college coursework that prepares them to further their study in in higher education um and so it's really it's it's designed designing these pipelines to help students uh if they have an interest in these areas to um to get experience in those areas um and this is kind of talks about what I just said um the goal of innovation Pathways they're they're three-fold um and then Desi provides grants for planning and implementation of innovation Pathways so we have secured funding for the planning stage um you you will hopefully approve uh when we get to that point a $15,000 grant that we got from desie um and the goal that the planning Grant is to um develop our internal coursework so our High School courses um in programs of study that need to to to to bring students into that level uh and also to develop um post-secondary um courses that align with with college courses so students can can get that experience as well um and that's that's that's what our our goal is with this funding this year uh so our first we have two Innovation Pathways that we're looking to build um and we are hopeful and and um pretty sure that we can we can do this All both Pathways for next year for a start of the 2025 26 school year um so the first one I've talked about before um is the adventure leadership Innovation pathway uh which provides an Avenue for students who are interested in out in the outdoor industry or outdoor education um to kind of head head that direction um so uh we in inhouse we'll be developing our kind of a basic Adventure leadership course um what I call kind of a an outdoor education light course um and so that would be available for students it's a high school course to take um and it would it would likely run during an X block time and include um weekend sort of outings as well that students would as they become more comfortable with the material and and the in the skill set um take a leadership role in leading those those outings uh it would involve industry credentialing through uh Wilderness first aid and Wilderness first responder uh outdoor or outdoor emergency care for students who are more interested in in going kind of a um to the front country realm of things that's that's what oec is for um that's kind of those are kind of the Baseline Baseline standards for anyone going into that field is having that that background and then if students are interested in sort of specializing we can work with uh Partnerships through our industry Partners places like Burk sheres the department of conservation and Recreation uh we're working and we have a very great connection uh to the AMC as well the appalation mountain Club um so students uh really will be able to kind of focus on what their area of um interest is uh and then we also have postsecondary Partnerships that we're developing through and for this particular Innovation pathway those are through Vermont State University and through Greenfield Community College um GCC has a really fantastic uh outdoor education program they have it's wonderful um and they they've been doing a lot of what we're we're hoping to do as well at that that higher level uh and then Vermont State University also has a really uh a couple really fantastic programs they offer bachelor's programs in um things like res management uh that that kind of thing so more of the kind of the the industry side of um of outdoor outdoor education uh the the second Innovation pathway is not quite as far along in the planning stage yet um but it's a mental health Innovation pathway we've had a lot of students who have expressed interest in uh psychology and um sort of therapy or counseling and kind of going into that field Feld um so again we would be creating in-house coursework around psychology so we already have a psychology course that we've run um we'd be looking to partner with uh universities and colleges for for dual enrollment um or uh develop those courses inhouse which we'll talk about in a second and and we have a number of um area organizations that are interested uh have expressed interest in partnering with us uh specifically around the student work opportunities and that could be everything from um you know students who are interested in in maybe early childhood working in our elementary school um students who are interested in working with uh population with disabilities we have area organizations in the area that are focused on that um and so again that would be the place where it would really allow students to sort of um kind of specialize into what they what their interest is can I ask a question before you sure in yeah is this a separate pathway then it is then your first sentence there uh Avenue for students interested in outdoor education and an outdoor industry I copied that first sentence and I never changed it that's why I didn't know if it was supposed to be for students not interested in uh no it's for students who are interested in Psychology or or or mental health thank you yes I didn't know if that was an offshoot of the first one or if it's an entirely no this one really came from student interest um so we had a lot of students uh re recently uh we we got feedback from students about kind of courses that they would be interested in seeing us offer uh and this was really at the top of the list for a number of students um as well as some other other ones which we're able to develop and we'll talk about those just a second too um so in terms of where we are now and what the next steps are for these Innovation Pathways so um right now we're firming up and the Partnerships with Vermont State University and Greenfield Community College I'm happy to announce that we are able to publicly declare now that we are a partner with Vermont State University um that we are developing uh concurrent enrollment courses uh these are our own in-house courses uh with Vermont State University so that we'll be able to run those courses at Smith Academy um taught by teachers who have been certified through Vermont State University to offer those courses uh which means students will be able to graduate having taken their High School requirements but also uh if they choose uh they'll be able to graduate with a a transcript for the cours workk that they've done from Vermont State University uh and the goal really is um well I'll get there in a second but right now to focus on the Innovation Pathways um so we we're developing our in-house courses um so those are the courses that aren't the college level courses too so we we have a couple of courses that we'll be offering um or Pathways that include courses that we already offer to help guide students toward um toward the toward their their in interest in the industries and then in terms of concurrent enrollment courses I put a little asteris on that um because this this last side last slide here is not necessarily related to Innovation Pathways but it came out of the Innovation pathway kind of um preparing for it and so one of the things that uh when we we were speaking with Vermont State University uh one of the things that came up was that they offer something called concurrent enrollment which is different than dual enrollment uh because students don't have to travel there and we found that that is a pretty significant barrier for our students enrolling in a college course um couple things have to align a their schedule has to allow for it uh there's only a certain number of courses that are offered during that time so they have to choose from that pretty limited selection uh and then the student has to be willing to miss part of the course before uh their their classes at Smith Academy before and after as they travel to and from um and so that's been been a bit of a barrier we've found uh we've had number of students take advantage of it um but what concurrent enrollment does is it allows us to choose some courses that are offered through Vermont State University uh develop those courses um to align with the with the the level of rigor and work that is expected at the college level and have our own teachers certified to teach those inous so students will be able to take courses at Smith Academy for college credit um and so the the goal is um that if students choose to by the time they graduate if they've gone up through and they're eligible their Junior and Senior year to take these courses that they could have finished a full semester of uh College Study um with with these credits um so uh we discovered that this option existed through through the the pathways um but then expanded from it they said you know it doesn't have to be just our outdoor education you know courses that you can you can do this wide open so we've requested 24 courses um descriptions from them are that that came from our teachers who are interested in all those courses uh and so we have those course descriptions now um and then from those 24 staff are going to work work on pairing that down to see what they're they're really interested in offering um and so we'll rotate those through every you know every other year we'll have some different courses so students have you know they can take a couple courses their junior year and a couple courses their senior year which are different so they won't have to have to take the same thing over um so that's pretty exciting it's I don't know of any other school that is um going to be doing that um and I I haven't heard yet that um universities in Mass USS are are doing this yet I think one of the reasons that Vermont State University is doing it is because their campuses are largely rural um and they are they're looking to kind of create traction to get get students in line to come there um and so they've developed this option which really fits with what what our needs are as well so I think it could be a really great opportunity for our students it could really help kind of push our um push our students to you know get involved in these in these higher level courses questions uh just like a really short logistical question regarding the concurrent enrollment um are those like yearlong courses they are yeah yeah so we can develop them either as semester based courses or year-long courses uh for our schedule the the general feeling among staff is that it would make more sense to do them as yearlong courses U rather than semester based courses um but that you know that that we we could decide to to shift that too I mean I think it sounds great yeah yeah go ahead um as I asked earlier the psychology one is a separate and that was largely driven by student interest the outdoor leadership Adventure path is that also driven by our students or is that something from desie saying there's a need in this field and this is an Avenue to look at no there we have we have some interest um so if there wasn't interest we wouldn't be developing it um it's not not considered one of the Avenues that desie has said that these are Innovation Pathways um but they have that being said they still gave us the grant to say develop this pathway um and you can do it you can kind of do it internally um really this came from um some of our staff have a a background in this and they they have um had pretty powerful experiences with it uh and and think it could be a a good um kind of Niche to explore uh which which isn't currently being done part of the part of the reason why right right yeah this is very unique yeah so part of the part of that the reason was because you know the Innovation pathways are gaining traction now so there's a lot of these Pathways that exists around um but this has seemed like an area where we you know we we know that is there is need um you can talk to any any ski patroller and they're always looking for people or um and so that that we're we're excited to be able to offer it to I am so excited and pleased to hear the enthusiasm from our staff yeah at wanting to do this and that you're even exploring 24 options to narrow down that's more than I had imagined would be yeah so I think it was more than they imag okay it's gonna take us some time to get these descriptions and great so looking at each of the Innovation Pathways how many students do we need to have participating for us to feel like it's successful or to keep it to be for the juice to be worth the squeeze I guess so for once the pathway is is rolling you don't need many um you need to be able to have a enough students in the classes that we offer internally to run the classes um that's part of the reason that we're looking to to create kind of a rotation in among those college level courses is to to be able to have the critical mass of students to offer those um once students are you know once they're either enrolled in uh dual enrollment or concurrent enrollment and once they're looking for their um their uh business partners or or organizations uh that's really student by student so we might have one student who wants to take advantage of a work study or internship um and we can offer that one student the you know that that opportunity we might have five or 10 students that want to do that we can do that as well um so really it's there's you know once you have the pathway developed it exists and you're able to you're able to run it as long as you're able to to run the courses and our schedule typically would allow us to run courses it would fairly small y interest level it would yeah and some of these program grows exactly while it grows um in some of the courses that we're looking truthfully uh may replace some of the courses that we currently offer so if we have AP Calculus which we run which is designed to be a college level course anyway and we have college calculus um that we develop we can have students take College calculus instead of AP they can still take the AP test at at the end of it and be prepared to do it and regardless of whether they get a four or five or whatever on the AP test they will still have that college credit already because it's a college level course can Juniors and seniors take the class together or is it separated by grade yep they can take they can take them together most of our elective blocks are are um grouped such that Juniors and seniors can take them together anything else I mean I think I just want to say this sounds really good I think especially like as a small District like are aware that we cannot do everything but for like many years we have talked about these like small things that we would like to do really well and differently and I think this really good so and something that we can kind of own right yeah right like something that's a little different that other school because like this is going to require a lot of like one-on-one Guidance with students and that's something that we can offer in a small District absolutely I love it thank you so much and so next step is just getting the word out yep get and that's and that's a big part of our um push in January we're going to be having a a significant push for um everything that we're offering uh school choice open houses that kind of that kind of thing which is covered to some degree in your report so um I'm not going to ask you to repeat that but if there's anything the committee wants to bring off of reports to ask questions about anything you guys want to speak to that was in your report that you want to make sure speak to you don't have a copy of all of that but I do have a copy of but I do have viewers okay uh nothing that is jumping out at me so I did get one question Miss Petra yeah um from our our wayward Committee Member who could not join us tonight um has received some parent questions about report cards is it with report card jsan y um what is the do you know when the last time Hatfield Elementary looked at the report card it uses it's been a while and I can tell you that our staff would love to redo them because they're not truly written standards based like they would like them to be um but it literally would take a committee and a group of people to sit down and to take the time to rewrite them but they are definitely wanting to and are open to that idea I think if they were looking for other support there are many who would offer their time and help okay I think generally parents find them confusing probably not just parents so okay they've been this way for a long time and before that it was the old folded and you're checking off all the little yeah card stock yeah it this is the first upgrade from the card stock one P's and bgs all I think the the lack of like just teacher comments is a little hard because you don't know like what does it mean that my kid is meeting expectation like what is the expect like it does say on the side what is but like it it's not very clear how well your kid is doing what needs to be worked on unless you you've had a meeting with the teacher which there isn't a meeting with the teacher right before the report cards or after the report cards um and that's for up to third grade I think after in fourth grade it becomes a bit more clear on I would say yes I find it clearer now that mid is in in fifth grade I know where he's at than I know my third grader I have no clue I think he's doing okay like that's yeah I'm sure there are a lot of work to prepare yeah yes but at the same time like I said since I've started they have been like we would love to just sit down and revamp the report card we would love them to is there anything that's holding that back time time right okay I would just maybe it's yeah trying to figure out and carving out times do that so I have the one other anything about Smith Academy report cards ever that's all right um can I can I pull one thing off of my thing to highlight it's just a thank you to the town um we received word that um so so earlier we had shifted our um freezer project the capital project to the uh kitchen boiler at the elementary school because it was in it was a similarly priced fix that needed to occur and it needed to occur immediately we're were able to do that and then um the town has now uh generously allowed us to use arpa funding for the freezer project so that's back on track as well at the um at the elementary school as well as the HVAC upgrades at Smith Academy so we're all those those projects are all now under contract and um the boiler should be coming any anytime now uh and and then the the other projects will be done when students aren't in the building because they're more significant awesome job it's nice to pull those off the capital plan yep yeah again just thank you thank you to the town for allowing that yes appreciate their Opa funds okay did you have something else um answered my own question but I think it'll be a comment um in this case it's specific to the Student Services report there were a lot of acronyms in there and they weren't all I I think we might have a future meeting that has a little more time from student services so why don't we just put that on an agenda I'm I'm just thinking you know just give us a little coded guide on the side that says we need an education glossery there's a lot mean you guys rattle off but we we're trying to keep up yeah some of them we miss um so with that I'm going to move on to the school Finance subcommittee report and in Mr Sullivan's absence I will do a quick rundown that um fiscal 25 is still on track uh when we come back next year we're going to do some transfers and that's really just because we had to hire a little bit differently than we had planned in the budget so things are shifting from one line to another so they aren't salaried positions um our star room is is supported through the field Center this year so it's most of those transfers are that shift um there's always the PO potential for out of District placements um and Adam and I just want to give you a heads up that we have been signing warrants for additional HVAC repairs um and those costs continue um boil repairs as well so everything at this time is within what we allotted in the budget as you know we budgeted for more significant repairs because we've been seeing that Trend um but we know that we are on last legs with some facility issues so the roof the boilers and and HVAC stuff so just being mindful that that's all there um as we turn we're we're heading into fiscal 26 planning and um the town's in fact ready for us to share our budget we are not quite ready for that um particularly we have teacher negotiations coming up which will have some impact to that budget um but we've been preparing for that so that we can hopefully know what know what we have going into those conversations um and have those conversations prior to budget season so that we don't have any surprises as we get to town meeting um and we've been you a shout out to both Dr Driscoll and to Riley for a lot of work in pulling together and looking at that budget particularly early um we know we have some increases coming Transportation will be another um 4600 from what it was this year our tech services are going to be up about 8,000 um software and subscription rates continue to go up uh we're watching to see where utilities are because we did the last few years we had some really big spikes in utilities despite the fact that we have solar um and participate in the Cal credit program which is really cool um but those are continued to go up so we're watching to see if we've got enough in the budget um and continuing to budget for repairs we wanted to make sure that New Capital planning which is also a part of that so Capital planning is the portion where school as a part of town puts in our budget items that are $10,000 or more that would require Capital planning approval um the boilers at hes are the top priority um and we continue to look for grants that would help that as well the roof at hes has been on the capital plan I think as long as I've been on the school committee and probably longer um and it's yeah it it's there and it's holding for the moment uh the parking lots also have been on that Capital plan list for some time almost as long as I've been on yeah those parking lots have been around huh so and and the new ad for this year is that the bleachers at Smith Academy that the motors um are on their last breath and it would cost more to retrofit the bleachers to work with with different Motors than it would to get new bleachers we had the wrong with that just of itself but we had the bleachers redone with school choice money early in the school choice years okay um that we refurbished them and got them all nice and pretty because they hadn't been done in forever so that was a long time ago and it's not surprising to me that the motors are going yeah and the issue is not that the bleachers necessarily are unsafe it's just a matter of not being able to get them back move them yeah so just facilities age and we have a responsibility to keep them going um the prechool town census indicates we have numbers to support two preschool classrooms next year so you've got some information there on budgeting for two classrooms um we would need 14 full-time tuition pain students to fully cover a second classroom um so and we of course reserve room for students with needs but it does look promising to have two rooms and at a pretty minimal cost and it helps feed our pipeline so those are the things we've talked about in school Finance related to all of that are Grant approvals because always a portion of our budget is money that we get from outside of our town or school choice and that's through grants um part of the school committee's responsibility is to approve grants um and so basically the reason for that is that they want to make sure that grants always come with with work right and so if you're taking the money you're you're taking on the responsibility of of agreeing to the conditions and requirements that come with those funds and so it's the committee's job to make sure that we're approving those um I can say that Dr Driscoll and I looked at the list and we are currently staffed and budgeted to meet all of the needs that are conditioned by any of the grants on this list um and so we could take this as a block group you've got it printed in your handouts just because it was a bunch of numbers I wanted to make sure you had it handy so um there is one that was I would unshare Dr Driscoll there's the nutrition equipment assistance FC 722 it says requested do we know if we have that I don't know if we have it uh yet or not that's a uh I don't believe we have heard back because I think we just submitted about a week and a half two weeks ago okay so I've given the committee totals with and without that just in case because I wasn't sure if we had that in so would anyone like to make a motion to accept these grants I'll make a motion to accept the grants as presented and are we excluding FC 722 I think we have to if we don't yes so the total amount of the grants is 27,200 52 I second all in favor I I the opposed thank you we have our grants approved so doing our duty what's on the screen first of it's It's the agenda it's the agenda um so that was our first of what is going to be many votes as we look at the second half of the agenda um so next up Miss bench policy subcommittee report yep so uh policy is hard at work as always um you'll see on your written report that I put at the top sort of the plan the plan that we have come up with for revising the student conduct policies um our first step that we would like to focus on is to revise policy JK which is the student code of conduct this policy focuses on the positive EXP expectations that we hold for students it outlines our values our philosophy and our theoretical approach as a district so we feel like we'd like to solidify that before I move on to anything that goes into things a little more nitty-gritty um after that policy is done our plan is to look further at policy jic this policy is more specific to addressing conduct concerns it includes our legal requirements regarding student discipline that has things like suspensions that are sort of Legally um regulated and then after that with all our free time um we will look at the other adjacent policies related to conduct um our overall goal which I believe I've mentioned before but I wanted to include here is to have at least those core policies updated and ready to go for the 2526 school year um as part of this so sort of earlier in the month we had finalized this plan we thought this is you know we've read through all these tons and tons of policies and decided this is the approach we wanted to take um last week we actually sat down and we had our policy subcommittee meeting in conjunction with the district Seal Team um theal committee um so we had many additional attendees besides the policy subcommittee um Miss P was there um as well as Emily Anderson nicolea Flur Jee Hobby and Kim Tran who heads that committee um so it was great we discussed with them sort of we wanted to hear from theal committee um or the team about their sort of values and philosophies that they're already holding regarding conduct um we looked at posit um at policy JK together and discuss things that maybe we want to keep or might want to revise um and we had an extensive conversation regarding um restorative practices and how these are already being implemented at various levels talked about the strengths and limitations of that framework and um there was sort of like a overall consensus like a loose consensus is in favor of incorporating that approach into our policy so um we in the subcommittee are looking into things further and hope to be presenting drafts soon um do we have any questions about that update portion okay so for today this is like a hopefully the simplest vote of the night although you know things surprise me um currently in our policy manual policy JK and J say are both named student conduct which is silly and confusing yes both so we would like to just for the time being we would propose to change the name of jic to student discipline that's the one that is going to be more focused on the consequences of uh not meeting behavioral expectations and that is kind of what that policy focuses on currently so we're just hoping to make that quick name change to make things more clear going forward and also for any interested parties who are like wow you're looking at the conduct policy they will not discover that we have two that are the same name yeah and it's a placeholder you know once we get to jic we may change the name again based on the content of the policy give you Clarity while you're working so I'd like to make a motion to adopt the name student discipline to our existing policy jic is there a second I'll second that thank you Aman all in favor I I any opposed it'll just make things really clear like back and forth and back and forth we were like student conduct one or two no and it's and I think two clarify both is yeah great and I'm really excited to hear the team coming in like that's great progress I'll just add that there was the agreement that we really wanted to focus on the positive and and you know a lot of it was negative of do not do this and this won't be allowed and we want to kind of flip that a little bit and add more positivity to it great and having two distinct policies will really make that easier nice okay anything else on that policy team great so we're going to talk about semi- related to the handbook updates for the smithad Academy handbook MH there were a handful of highlighted places can you speak too briefly I sure can what's going on yep so right now we are in the middle of what's called a tiered focused monitor monitoring or TFM um uh audit I guess uh where the state comes in and they look at our um civil rights and special education policies and practice I mean they give us feedback if anything needs um needs dating and part of the feedback they gave us were uh on three different spots in the handbook um which are on pages 25 30 and 35 so I will open this up real quick and it's just language changes to uh to basically update what we have here um sorry if you get seasick while I'm doing this uh so 25 on page 25 uh we needed to include the use of positive behavioral interventions and Trauma sensitive learning um as part of what we do to try and re-engage uh students in their learning prior to any suspensions or um expulsions so this is new language not changed language this is new language that uh uh lines up with uh the new law 37h and3 quarters which is the new discipline law that took effect I believe not last November but the November before um so that is one uh one language U addition that they any comments on this before we leave this page just that policy is on it additionally okay yeah talking about the handbook today but we're also aware okay anything else on that I just don't want to have to come back to the page y yeah you know yeah close for a second if you'd like page 30 uh page 30 um we have to include language again this is to line up with that that law and practice um emergency removal uh to which presents a danger to property substantially disrupts the order of the school and in the principal's judgment there is no alternative available to alleviate the danger of disruption um so those are that that's Again part of that law um around emergency removals and that language is specific that needs to be ined leading up to that um concern about the infliction of serious bodily injury or other serious harm upon another person is this all about harming someone else or is there anything about um um concern for serious bodily injury or harm to self is that addressed elsewhere that that's not part of that's not part of this law okay um in typically what would happen is if we had concerns about someone uh causing self harm or being self-injures is we would we would work with crisis Services through CSO um and and the family to to get get that student the help that they that they need this law is specific around uh removing if there's emergency removal um based around a disciplinary infraction if the disciplinary infraction is at risk of causing bodily harm to others or um substantial disruption that kind of thing I thought so but I wanted to clarify anything else okay Right add more pages all right and so on page 35 this is an update to the Discrimination U portion we were asked to include um gender as well as gender identity uh in the Discrimination statement and then uh we removed policy AB acab b-r are because we have removed that policy that's a procedure um and then we also um added the uh race color sex gender gender identity sexual orientation religion disability or national origin um to the Discrimination statement so this uh this previously had been just the title line which had been sex sex based harassment discrimination um and the they request that we and it to include um all of that all of the protected classes in our discrimination statement I bet I'm not the only one that has a slight tweak to that okay anybody else catch that um we have there's a duplic there's a duplication of the word sex in the in so if we could just there is anywhere you want to take it out but so that that part is discrimination and sex-based harassment correct yep [Music] okay any conversation here is there any other spot no I don't believe so I think those are the three spots is there a motion to approve the updates in the Smith Academy handbook so moved second I'll second all in favor I okay just cruising on through these votes next up thank you that lined up um do we need to make the same updates in the elementary we we will need to yeah okay so that will come back next up we can talk about school choice seats by grade so at our last meeting we approved opening school choice up for the 2526 school year we voted to approve at least one seat per grade um and so the goal of tonight is because those applications are due the 14th of February we want to make sure that we're deciding how many spots are going to be open so there is a recommended number of choice openings highlighted this is unchanged from our last meeting on that fact we just didn't vote on this portion the only place where there's significant limitation is what is the current first grade will be second grade the class size is currently 31 we're open we're saying we're opening up one seat there well I'll make a motion to approve the recommended recommended Choice spots would you like me to list them or can I say as presented I'll do either I we should probably list them out so people understand what's available okay um that it's public but before we get to that is there any other conversation we can have it after we've got it on the table right I just thought I'd get it on the table unless somebody wants to change it then we'll have to amend it that's okay I don't have any other comments okay so go ahead and make a motion all right to approve the recommended choice spots as follows you start with what will be actually no it'll be kindergarten it'll be kindergarten 14 first 4 second 1 3D 10 fourth 10 fifth 6 six 8 7 7 8 22 9 11 10 31 11 23 12 20 okay is there a second no second okay so for those those that are playing along at home that puts those Smith Academy classes the largest on that list would move up to be 43 students if we got all those if everybody came in um and at the elementary those class sizes are still 32 and under so it's still really small class sizes with that list um and I I think we've got some stuff going on at Smith Academy I could see us getting more students in can I ask um I think last meeting we talked about that there were some applications for the January admission for the current year yep are those numbers reflected already in here or not until those students cross threshold and in which case would those numbers need to be changed after January I believe those are included in here um we have two students starting in January awesome anybody else interested in making a pitch for adding more than one kid to the what will be second grade class well as with other times if there is a sibling or more interest we look at it at that time open up yeah um I have one other question about the ninth grade and it says accounts for loss to Smith voke have current eighth graders already applied to Smith voke has that already happened I thought that happened after the first of the year it no it happened starting around November awesome Yep so we already know and we're well prepared for it good that's it for my questions okay you guys ready to vote um all in favor for approving the choice spots as reviewed and recommended say I I I any opposed okay so we know how many seats and now for the fun conversation about the 252 school year calendar um so it turns out that we had a we we sent Dr jcll away to follow up on one big question and he got some news back which was um so there will be no Regional um professional development next year run through the collaborative so the November um full day uh professional development day we are we can move as we will so that on the previous draft had been on the 4th of November the 4th we had had a conversation in our meeting that if that didn't happen we might look to move that to line it up with Veterans Day because Veterans Day falls on a Tuesday so for the sake of moving the conversation forward I did that on draft two so you can see it would mean that we would have the 10th and 11th off together I think families will like having a full week of school uh instead of all those short weeks yeah um we heard back from the HTA who was very much in favor of the December break schedule and so were they in favor of the 10th and 11th piece or we didn't know that prior um so but the 11th comes when it does we can't right can't Veterans Day so um they had an interest in having the Wednesday before Thanksgiving be a whole day instead of a half day but that would require us to either start earlier or stay later we've tried that in the past and it really had mixed results and people really wanted to just go back to the half day like half day is nice because like if people are traveling then they can like head out early and the kids are not missing a whole yeah it counts as a day of school staff cannot travel travel I think there's a there's a rule that they only so many people can be out on right before three people can be out before if they're choosing personal yes so okay additional conversation um I would like the 19th of December to have a notation that it is a full day of school because I'm sure families will question that given that it's always been the half day the last day before that winter break I think it's reasonable to have a full day and I just want to be clear about it for families um I know it's said in December that the 22nd through January 2nd is no school I don't I don't know if it's worth repeating in the month of January that the first and second is still winter break I don't know I think I think they're red I hope so but um plus it goes out in letters and yeah all right but as long as the 19th is there I just this very minor um things when we do the final draft can we just notate what the green days are I mean I they're on the side but just at the bottom just maybe Community event sure or something and then um is August on August 28th or 29th are those still the like orientation days for prek Garten or I'm assuming yeah they have been previously we used them to test right um that' be good to have on it would just be helpful to notate that agree um I do want I love having the open houses on there by the way I would like to make sure that we have we did it last year too to make sure that we have our Winter concert dates on there so and and when we can to start including the time of those concerts smithmy is it night so it's a little bit different but the ones that are in the day to have a window for those so there are families who have to put in for vacation I know I was talking to one family they put in for vacation in April and they took time off for the Winter concert thinking they could take the afternoon so just having it on here now I think that caught some people by surprise that it was morning instead of afternoon I know it did at our house people that are creatures of habit also right well then we didn't this particular year we didn't share we don't share um Leah Garder she's at the Smith Academy so the that our concert was the day before the evening of their concert and the moving of students and having them have their dress rehearsal it was problematic for her to switch because I had had a meeting with both of them saying is it possible to move this and she's like I would be pulling out students more out of their academic time blocks at Smith Academy if we did it that way so so it was a learning curve year yeah that we'll know next year to tell people when we put the calendar out so then at what point because I think it would be helpful to both have Sean and Leah have some input and say as Leah may not want to do backto back performances that might have been that be really challenging moving forward but I mean I I agree it's helpful to have these pre-written down but I think I definitely would like to have some conversation with with them to find out specifically scheduling wise what that might potentially look like as far as timing if if we could vote on this tonight because we get the vacation day set but before this gets published have them commit to what those states are sure um I would be I would be fine on my part if we did all of that and that came in after yeah it just needs to get on there before it goes out there's almost three full weeks in December yes and it can happen any week yes yeah I agree completely though I would like to get these dates out for amilies but the community events I mean it it would be great to have them early but we don't need them now we don't need them to vote right they can come on after but let's agree that we're going to get them on the calendar by say the 1 of January's because people start making plans yeah accordingly in that case then would we want to also add as community events it would be the 20 of December which is the luminarium because part of the band participates in that and Memorial Day have something in there about um the parade which is on the 24th of May and I know those are weekends and and all of that but if it's on the school calendar then parents will see oh my band kid because it has a school going to say required scho so those two things there is a component of band kids needing to be there and also the uh declamation declamation winner winner winners first and second okay also reminds them that the 20th is an opportunity for volunteering and helping with the luminarium or the parade with the flags in the cemeteries so maybe by mid January we could get all that yeah abely um other than that I will make a motion to accept the 2025 2026 calendar with those changes noted okay is there a second a second all in favor I I any opposed okay next up is correspondence and resolution um there was some correspondence from a group of students in Northampton but the timeline for that has actually passed so I'm not going to worry about that tonight so um they've filmed they're doing some advocacy around um supporting public education which is awesome and Dr Driscoll's following up with them to see if the school can give some commentary to them as opposed to the committee um but we do have an opportunity to put in a letter to the State Board of Education uh to speak to the request from the pioneer Chinese emerging Charter School who as you know is looking to expand by 100 seats um when we met last we we took a look at Dr Driscoll's letter um we had some conversation about whether we would have our own or we would sign with Dr Driscoll and there was a thought that when it comes to sending letters to the state board that maybe more is better just a sheer volume of communication um so I have drafted a letter on behalf of the committee um and have shared that with the committee members and it's writing to express opposition and I will just summarize it by the last sentence of the first paragraph which is it's a high cost for a small District to Bear coming at a time of decreased Regional student population for a program that doesn't equitably meet students needs s of some of it is that b a r e or b e a r i will look that up I believe it's b a r it is be weight or be the burden so I will fix that typo thank you there may be one more underl oh that's because my computer isn't doing that for me anymore so I will fix that typo as well thank you for diplomacy is there any anything you want to change in in [Music] um tenor or content does it speak for your interests yes it looks great thank you for doing this sure see okay okay um it feels to me like I don't know that we technically have to have a vote on that it feels like we should have a vote on that I think we should I've been jumping on them all I don't want to be greedy sure oh motion um I would like to make a motion to uh approve this letter okay I'll second it all in favor I I so that passes with a four o and um not really will thanks I will make sure with Mr Sullivan that he is okay with his name going on there as well and we will get those letters out the door because I think they are starting to deliberate that near appreciate and there will also be a copy going to RB sabadosa and Senator gford okay we are cruising along we have gotten to number 14 on our agenda which is about scholarship approval so you had a chance to read um A really lovely tribute from the sheay family um who are interested in adding a scholarship you want to speak to that would you like you have a copy have a copy yeah um yeah I just I think it's very generous and um and a very nice tribute to someone who had a significant impact on Smith Academy um as uh president of the trustees he he continued to add add to the community add to the school um for for a number of years um so I think what I have to say is just thank you thank you to them and yeah nice tribute to them I appreciate the way this was written yes um key points in the past we have had issue with the older scholarships that didn't more clearly Define like this one does what happens when you know the money is is depleted um some of the old ones were written that and back in the 70s you know interest rates were good and you were awarding the interest on the scholarship and then it became pennies so I really appreciate how the Shay family has written this um it is a lovely tribute and I really like their specification of who it goes to and that it embodies um the spirit and the personality of Mr Shay so I will make a motion to approve uh the memorial Shay scholarship has presented I'll second that I'll in favor I I awesome I will do what I can to write a letter to go along we'll say thank you from the as well okay um with that I would entertain a roll call vote to enter into executive session with the intent to return to public meeting but not necessarily to return on camera because it will be a very short vote coming out of that and we can we can let everybody else go for the evening that way um so pursuant to master law Chapter 30 section a uh 21A to conduct strategy sessions to prepare for negotiations um with Union or non-union Personnel to collect to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations um to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if any open meeting may have a detrimental effect so we need a roll call vote to enter into executive session need we had a motion which to make and a second which Becca just gave totally I hear um so I will say bud I Engle heart I bench ey green I great so with that we're going to close out our evening on video um and move to Executive session thank you