good evening and welcome to the Tuesday May 28th 2024 meeting of the long middle school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all votes while there's remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded by lctv and aired live we will begin with Pledge of Allegiance un States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all I love when we have so many students here and so many voices pitching in for that that's great great start to the evening all right we are going to begin with um correspondence turn it over to Zach correspondence the following will be recorded a memo from Mr Donald Jarvis director of Occupational education at the lore Pioneer Valley Career and Technical education center regarding the Walter E quickley Jr student of the month award for April 20124 Long Meadow student honored this month is Joseph mayolo integrated occupational prep an email from Miss Shelley Baron dated May 8th 2024 advocating to include curriculum on the Hall of cost in the middle schools an email from Miss Pamela canimi Miss Tracy Bradshaw inviting the school committee to the witness Stones installation ceremony on Wednesday May 29th at 9:30 a.m. at the first church of Long Meadow emails from the following people regarding research on cell phone free schools and requesting a ban in Long Meadow Mr Ted steager May 7 7th and 14th Amanda and Justin bzac May 15th Judy Couture May 16th Wendy lwig May 20th Jonathan bouier May 20th Liz mcbet May 20th Sarah Mony May 20th Kate Soo May 20th thank you moving on to approval of minutes we have a recommended motion I move that school committee approve the minutes to the May 7th 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion see now we'll move to a roll call vote Z yes Jamie yes Mary yes Michaela yes and yes for me as well thank you all right moving on um to our public speak portion um if we have any guests who would like to speak speak now is a great opportunity to do so if you are online and would like to speak you're welcome to turn your camera on or use the raise hand function and we'll happily call on folks oh I think we might have someone trying to do public speak here one moment Mr steer is that you are you hoping to do public speak comment I am yes all right I apologize I got out of work a bit late and so I'm in the parking lot but I will uh uh speak from here if that's okay absolutely thank you go ahead all right so I'm Ted steager I'm uh resident of long 35 Warwick Street I have uh two sons uh both in Center School in fifth and second grade and know my wife and I have been following uh all the research on on cell phones uh use we've uh you know been uh we of of their use with with you know our Our Youth and um uh just we you know we've evolved to uh in a world without cell phones and and our brains are being rewired uh you know as we can can see I think we're all a little bit addicted to our phones uh and while they bring a lot of good uh there's a lot of negative consequences especially on developing mind and uh Jonathan Height's recent book uh I think attests to that if you have not read it I highly recommend it and there's also uh a number of um you know synopsises of it online uh that are are well worth viewing uh but basically from 2010 there's a number of outcomes that affect our children that are are are in the wrong direction and uh it's been convincingly tied to the the prevalence of phon and uh what I would ask and is I'm glad to hear so many other people writing in uh that we give our students a period of time at school where they do not have to be worried about likes where they don't have to be worried about um uh cyber bullying and other things really can look someone in in the eye and have a conversation and not be distracted I think it it'll boost um uh concentration in the schools uh and uh uh reduce some of the self harm that is being uh seen statistic anxiety other things uh other districts in our area have tried this as a recent Washington Post article mentioned uh so whether it's Yonder bags or or what uh whatnot I just highly recommend we do this as soon as possible and uh uh knowing that there's a lot of support in the community obviously there's some things to work through but I have no doubt that we can come up with a solution to to get the cell phones out of out of schools and have our kids um be able to uh focus on learning and um and Social Development all right thank you very much for sharing your comment we appreciate it any additional public comments we'll just note that we are going to be discussing this a little bit later on in our agenda tonight so those who are interested this will be a returning conversation in a little bit seeing no other comments we are moving on from public speak and into business with guests we have lots of friends here visiting us from Glenbrook and Williams Middle School um I'll turn that over to you to introduce thank you so much uh yes we have um Full House with us visiting us from from Glen Glenbrook and Williams Middle School uh and invite up the uh the Educators who have led the witness Stones uh project that we've been deeply immersed in over the past year so pamin jimy Tracy Bradshaw J.R Goan John Wills uh their principles are in the chief seats here supporting the Endeavor uh as they have all year here and then I think we can also make room if we could for the students that are joining you as well um sure we can slide up some chairs excellent perfect it's like The Tonight Show yes we are uh grateful for the opportunity to present to the school committee and to The Wider Community the really the product of a year-long Endeavor to recognize uh enslaved individuals from the town of Long Meadow and our Educators have been deeply immersed in professional development to understand the experience of enslaved citizens of Long Meadow and uh to bring that learning to their students and give the students a chance to study it in uh in ways where they're exploring primary sources very deeply and in very Rich productive ways so uh I'll turn it over to our Educators either Pam or Tracy uh you can introduce the team that's with you here and I'll pull up your slide deck sure sure so I'm Tracy Bradshaw I'm here with John Wills from Glen Brook and pan K Jimmy from uh Williams and J.R Goen from Williams middle school as well and our students and our St her students um so um Somaya and um car are here joining us as well to speak from Williams from Williams middle school and GI snow GI snow from glenar all right fantastic so I'll I'll start off I I just want to mention I'm also a Community member as well um and I think that's part of the background of this project um EXC so that's okay we um we prepared a little bit of a slideshow and starting off the slideshow is um some pictures from uh a field trip that we have done historically out of Williams Middle School to the green so year after year for many years we're thinking over 12 or 13 years now at least we've taken the kids to the green um and part of that has been to go into first church and through our collaboration with ma Bert who is a member of First Church um she has always provided a background in history of Long Meadow so you can see the kids on the green we've done Colonial games on the green and we've learned about the history and we've gone in the graveyard so marik's family is I believe 14 Generations in Long Meadow um and so recently over the last couple of years with the help from The Long Meadow Historical Society we have the the church has discovered that step Williams the first pastor and minister of first church had enslaved 16 individuals in Long Meadow and through the Historical Society we have discovered that there have been 24 enslaved individuals in Long Meadow this is a part of history that we had never shared with our students before um we had always shared the names of bliss and Colton and Eli and um the names on the on the building and the homes around the green but we had no knowledge of this history of our town so ma had invited Pam and I to a meeting with Dennis culleton so Dennis is from the witness Stones project and Pam's going to speak a little bit more about the witness Stones project but we got connected with Dennis and started to think about how we could incorporate the project here in Long Meadow to honor uh the history um um and the humanity of those that were enslaved here so Pam and I went about writing a mass Humanities Grant and we were lucky enough to get that Grant and that Grant provided professional development for our teachers it provided all the materials that we would need it provided Monies to support the long meow Historical Society in their research to help us bring all of this to our classroom bring all the curriculum to the kids and we have have an amazing culminating ceremony tomorrow that we have invited you to we hope that you can come um our students are going to talk about the project but I'm going to have Pam talk a little bit about um Dennis culleton and the witness Stones project so you understand where that's coming from great thank you Tracy um so we were we were thrilled um that first meeting that we had with Dennis culleton we left um that meeting and Tracy and I were saying we've got to do this um he is such an inspiration he's passionate about this project he was a teacher who was working in Guilford um Connecticut he was an eighth grade history teacher who came across a reference to an enslaved person working or living in Guilford and he like us had no idea that there were enslaved people living in Guilford and as a social studies teacher he felt the need to do the research so he started researching he kind of went down that rabbit hole that social studies teachers can sometimes do and um he thought this would be a great project for his middle schoolers and so he was the first one to uncover the lives of two enslaved people from Guilford Phyllis and mantrose and we met a descendant of philisa monro's uh she came to speak to us it's her sixth great grandparent yeah her sixth great and just a fascinating story of how they were able to trace back this history so he became very passionate about it and it also this is toward the end of his career as an educator and he knew though that he wanted to continue doing this work so in 2017 he founded the witness Stones project and that W witness Stones project for him was modeled after the stelin um project in Germany where stones are laid in the ground where Jews once lived and where they were last seen perhaps and the idea is that you stumble across them and you discover the history of the Jewish people we we're again um restoring the the history and restoring the humanity in the same way that these witness stones are now um so the idea is that we lay these witness stones to provide an opportunity for people to discover them and to ask about them and to learn the history here in Long Meadow of the enslaved people um since he started the witness Stones project in 2017 he's partnered with more than 100 Schools churches museums and Civic organizations across five states um he currently works as far as New Jersey and in Massachusetts there are two Civic organizations that have partnered with him but we are very proud to say that we are the first school district in massachusett Massachusetts to partner with Dennis and we're super proud of that so excuse me so after Pam and Tracy got involved and and brought it back to us we started talking about it at Williams and talking about it with department meetings at Glenbrook and once we had the grant we got in touch with Dennis he provided over six hours of professional development work for the teachers to kind of get us started and here where we started and he built it all up for us um and like Pam said I I can't reiterate enough the man's passion for for this history and and putting the history out there and as as a a history teacher we always teach you know slavery existed everywhere in the United States but it's always kind of left hanging out there well it died off in the north and there's never really any exploration beyond that and this really allowed us the time to look deeper into it and and an educator I think one thing with history in particular anytime for our students we can tie it into what happened here where they live it becomes much more tangible and something more accessible to them so that was kind of the the basis for it so as we began looking into enslavement what it looked like here in New England there were five lenses that we looked at it's just a way of organizing how you look at topics how you look at people how you look at situations um that these were people but there was a dehumanization aspect that their Humanity was was taken from them and we began to explore what that may have looked like so in the classroom what we did is we did a lot of kind of background work on what enslavement looked like in New England which again no one really has any background on the students at this point in in in their careers as Learners and so we built that up so we had kind of a foundation and then we began looking more directly at the primary documents relating specifically to Phyllis and Peter to people who were enslaved here in Long Meadow and there seems to be of the people that we know were enslaved in Long Meadow there's the most information about them and this was the natural natural place to start um and so Melissa sabulski who works from the Historical Society she's really the point person in town who began really combing over the the the artifact and and and the Diaries and the tax records and everything from Long Meadow in in the mid to late well early all the way up through the late 1700s all especially Steven Williams Reverend Steven Williams kept a Daily Journal practically so we have a tremendous amount of information from him and so after we got the background and the foundation and then we started looking at the primary documents what the students were able to to pull out of all that was they began to write uh narrative biographies they began to put timelines together on what we could understand for the life of both Phyllis and Peter um and the culminating activity of all this oh so there's dehumanization the treatment of the enslaved paternalism the economics of it you know there's money behind everything and then the idea agency and resistance is agency is can you make choices for yourself you know for your own life and through some of the actions of the enslaved people we see that where they could make Choice choices they would and the idea that they didn't want to be doing what they were doing so they found ways to resist the situation they had in life and so it really kind of opened up an awful lot for us and and I recognize for the students this was argue without argument probably the most challenging thing they've had to work on up through seventh grade and the end products they that they turned out I I have to say all of us are so impressed and and proud of the work that they did at the end it's just really tremendous what they were able to put together considering the amount of information that was available and so the culmination again just to reiterate tomorrow kind of building off of Williams original field trip to the green and Glenbrook being part of it now with the witness Stones we're going to have this dedication of these two stones tomorrow one for Phyllis and one for Peter that they lived here in town that they were people and they were here and their lives mattered and when we talk about you know Long Meadow growing as a community they're part of the very foundations of it and and you know they've just been overlooked for too long and so this is kind of where where we're at um the stones are already laid so they are outside first church right now so we got these pictures of them um so you're you know you're welcome to walk by but we really encourage you to come to the ceremony the work is incredible and we'd love to have the kids talk a little bit about how they felt about the work so do you want to say anything about the project yeah um learning about the entire thing was kind of difficult because when I was growing up in elementary school they mostly did teach us about it all the slavery was in the South so when we learned that there is slavery in our town it just made me feel like kind of lied to and it was just really hard to take in and research about people who wen't really treated fairly when they were alive and it's just really difficult to work with that yeah um I think it was like important to learn about this cuz like we need to know the history of like Long Meadow and like we need to recognize like the people that have done enslaved work and yeah I liked learning about it because I thought it was nice to learn about like people that like people didn't know about like you didn't know that there was a Peter and a Phyllis cuz they weren't like their last name wasn't Williams and things weren't named after them even though they like helped laid the bricks for Long Meadow not can you take us through some of the activities that we're seeing pictures of here on on this slide or the next one you can tell me to Advance or or what are some of the projects that that the kids were involved with um see so basically we like write poems about um the enslave people like Phyllis and Peter and you write poems about like dehumanization and treatment of enslaved and you write like a narrative biography like about them and like how they're enslaved and how they're treated with by their enslavers and how their life was like difficult for them and what challenges they had to face and what are we seeing here are the some of the other projects is there anything else you could tell us about some of the projects I wrote the timeline and when you it was like kind of hard because like there was like only like five things about his life because he was an enslaved person and that's sad what were some of the events in his life um being baptized or being forced to be baptized too yeah his marriage to um another in like person and anything else that from the from the creative projects the kids were involved with that you'd like to mention um well everyone took the project in like their own creative ways like some people would like I know two kids in my school they made a high coup and they also did a piece of art to go with it so that's like one way to do it and everyone else like they kind of got to choose what they wanted to do and express what happened in their own ways like some people wrote poems biographies short stories and some people made art pieces that represented what life could have felt like for them and uh yeah the projects are amazing they have been put into Bailey Hall which is the downstairs of first church and they're displayed the the work is just incredible um so even if you're unable to make it to the ceremony that is going to be in Bailey Hall at First Church all day we're actually talking about how how and when we're going to dismantle it all but if you can get over and see the work it's really it's incredible and there will be pieces of the work that will be in a rotating exhibit at stores Library throughout the summer uh we'll also have some pieces at the um Long Meadow Historical Society yes we we're going to talk to Long Meadow Historical Society about a a display in stores house we're thinking about the community house we're looking and thinking about different Community places that we can display this work and throughout the summer rotate it through um I'm even talking with Reverend Doug at first church about the idea of having another Community viewing of the student work not a ceremony but a viewing of the work cuz it really um you know it shouldn't be missed by the community so thank you for having us yeah I appreciated the opportunity to see some of the Snippets of work here so really excited to hear that it's going to be available to look at in Bailey Hall the poems that you guys wrote were incredible so moving and evocative and just excellently um written so I'm really excited to see more of the work that you've done for sure um I'm very sad that I will not be able to make it tomorrow I have a prior obligation in the morning that I can't change but I am very excited to stop by later in the day um and look everything over so I'm glad to hear it'll be open throughout the day may I share too that the um the actual ceremony is being recorded and it will be available on YouTube through the first Church's YouTube channel wonderful thank you you get a chance see you later yeah perfect all right other thoughts comments from folks all righta I have a comment sorry um this is Mary hi Mary hi I this is such a meaningful way to connect classroom learning to the world around us which I think are the most powerful kinds of projects and so thank you for all your efforts I'm I'm really excited to um to hear this presentation tonight thanks definitely and I'll add in as a high school history teacher you guys are well prepared for exactly what you're going to be doing I love that you spent so much time with primary sources and doing all this research that's Fant fantastic work um and you're going to be on your way for the next round of of education but thank you this is really important to our whole community so we appreciate you taking the time to do this and I want to here thank Pam and Tracy and Jr and John and other Educators there's been um teams of Educators that have been involved with this and have been involved in the professional development to their administrators for supporting this work um it it you know to have an opportunity to you know bring that passion and see it translated to the students and to connect to local history is so so powerful so we're we're really thankful for the the chance to display and the timing of this is perfect given the uh given the ceremony tomorrow so looking forward to it definely thank you so much for coming out tonight appreciate [Music] all right thank you again to our guests very excited to see the ceremony tomorrow and check out those displays in the coming weeks thank you very much we are moving on to our next business with guests which brings us to our high school handbook we have a few changes um recommended by our handbook committee and Mr Lander is here tonight to talk to us about those so at the at the risk of offending Mr Landers this is this might be slightly less interesting than handbook language handbook language doesn't stack up to a great student presentation on on uh with their Educators so uh annually uh we bring forward changes to the either the LHS student handbook or the K8 student handbook so tonight for your consideration and potential approval are some amendments to the LHS student handbook uh this would require a school committee vote at the conclusion of Tom's explanations so and take it away you're welcome uh thanks for having me thanks for welcoming me and happy late May to everyone so our proposals this year you I know you have copies of them um but I would say that we probably are bringing forward requests for Less policy changes or acceptance than ever and and the majority of this is kind of informational and kind of trying to in a sense of transparency sharing what we do what it really looks like and and uh kind of tackling some of the some of the issues and challenges that we we are facing in schools um f so first and foremost I want to acknowledge the members of uh our school council by Statute they have the responsibility to bring forward um debate discuss and eventually vote on whatever we bring to you I want to acknowledge Andrew mados who's also not just here representing us but he's on our school council um so it I will go through briefly I can answer any questions I um the first proposal is really just a suggestion it came out of uh the media center and our library and it really represents more of what we do it's more updated um anything that is in yellow is a suggested new addition and anything a line with a line through it is existing verbiage that uh we are proposing to be struck and then uh the rest of the the text is um existing language that we would meld with that in yellow so the media center stuff is pretty straightforward and and uh self-explanatory um the updated propo or the proposal for updated verbiage about teacher detentions we looked at old language it was an acronis it wasn't applicable we tried to streamline it make it more uh easy to read and more representative of what what goes on um and then if you look at on the same page if you look at our proposal um a lot of places throughout the handbook mentioned that there had to be a parent conference The Proposal is to change parent conference to parent/guardian conference Comm a phone call or virtual meeting because there's so many ways to communicate today um so that's really it in terms of our asks for language changes um uh the rest is kind of request to I I guess I guess the next one has some changes but it's really additions so Shelley Warren who is the district uh substance use coordinator proposed this and brought this uh to the um to the ad hoc committee that meets anybody can be on it from LHS any student any employee um and then we bring those ideas if there are ideas we bring that to the school council school council can agree with that disagree with that change that Etc um but this is just Shelly is suggesting that we add some the verbiage in yellow and it just is more up to date it is more specific in the education that we do with students if they have a substance use issue she is specific on on the particular programs that she uses to uh do the educational part of consequences um moving to the next page there is a lot of discussion these days in schools and in the world about academic honesty and AI in particular we have to be fair we have um entries throughout our handbook on academic honesty academic dishonesty plagiarism cheating Etc this was just a statement that the school council they came to us as a suggestion we reworked it um rewarded it two or three different ways and this is the verbiage that the school council was comfortable with it mentioned something about artificial intelligence but doesn't just stop there and it and it is a another statement about the importance of academic honesty and clarifying for students um that while um what are some examples and while artificial artificial intelligence can be used in authorized ways they shouldn't be it shouldn't be used in unauthorized ways there was a request from students to include um the specific law regarding no discrimination against students um based on gender identity better known as the transgender law we have again we have gender identity aspects in this book throughout this book already but students asked us for that and the school council agreed uh and we and the agreement was just to include the the the mgl verbiage of the law um and then the last proposal is we are as many schools are as the state of Massachusetts is identifying CH chronic absenteeism as a important issue we wanted to add to the existing language about the importance of attendance and we wanted to explain to students and families What to Expect When You're absent so um you know kind of talk about the onus being on the student to reach out clarification about makeup work um the included some information about how mental health is improved and supported by being engaged in positive activities and and being present in school and added some information there so I mean those are the proposals tonight I'm happy to answer any questions or clarify but those are our suggested proposals if you agree all right we'll open for any questions and or conversation clarifying Andor possible motions if none of the jie for of course Julie hi um I I have questions about the um the nicotine and tobacco policy and about the AI policy um so on the nicotine and tobacco I just want to confirm is this the language around Reasonable Suspicion is that like that's like our stand language here is that an addition I guess I'm asking is that a change or is that the standard Reasonable Suspicion is a standard that has always been used okay so we're just adding more on it on that standard here right Shelley Warren wanted to explain a little bit more to families educate them educate students I add okay remember I'm sorry just remembering that um we had uh added the Vape detectors in the restrooms at the high school and so we just wanted some language to to catch up to that equipment right we had sent okay sorry go ahead no I was Julie I was just going to say we we sent some emails out to families earlier this year but that doesn't because it was new but she felt strongly and I and I agree with and and the uh the council agreed with that codifying it kind of putting it in in language in the handbook so everyone has access to the information that we that we kind of shared earlier in the year okay and so we would have always considered it to be a reason like a reason to search a students lack or our person if they were just in the bathroom where there was evidence of someone else using um tobacco or nicotine or other THC products so the the standard is reasonable suspicion remember that a principal or a vice principle would have to defend why they did a search so in and of itself it could lead to that um but but in and of itself you'd have to be prepared to make an argument if you were ever challenged on that but reasonable suspicion is the is the legal it's it's always been a legal uh parameter that schools under case law have had to follow if that answers what you're what you were asking yeah I was I was just curious I guess I was just curious about like adding those kinds of examples if we don't we don't think that that's always the standard that we would I understand that Reasonable Suspicion is always the standard that we would use but I'm just looking at the examples of like you know being in a bath room where there's evidence of use if if we don't always think that that is reasonable suspicion I would just curious why we would include it as an example here yeah I mean that like I said Shelly Warren thought that brought this verbiage forward we we looked at this as a council we did make some some changes we did not make any changes to to uh what you see here these were suggested if if you're uncomfortable with the these examples you don't have to accept them but we but the effort was trying to be transparent and and um I mean it's something that schools are dealing with it's it vaping and THC and things like that so the thought was air in the S side of being transparent yeah I totally get that I think the goal is right I would love it if we could look over the language just a little bit more because I I don't I the the thing that worries me a little bit is having language that's like over inclusive that includes things that we would not necessarily always say our Reasonable Suspicion because then it's hard to give parents or students notice of like you know like what are their rights or what are are not their rights if that Mak sense um you know like if you're like I I think this is the example that is kind of like the most on my mind is like a a student who is in the B like in a bathroom where there is evidence of use right that's the example that's given here like does that necessarily always make it reasonable to search their locker or their personal effects I think we'd want to be really clear with students about what they can expect in those circumstances and so if what we have here isn't quite exactly what we think is always reasonable suici I think we should um we should tweak it or at least just look at it a little bit more yep you're you're welcome to to look at it accept it tweak it reject it outright um I think that what she was trying to ask us to consider as the school council and what we agreed to and and we know that you have to okay anything that we we bring forward to you is just to kind of you know explain every situation is different but try to give those examples of what um you know Reasonable Suspicion includes but is not limited to and then she lists those examples but if that's something I mean yeah we we don't have that in the book right now in this in this form obviously we still have the right to search but if it's if the committee is uncomfortable with it I I I respect it yeah I Nicole do obviously wantable on either way but like to me it would make sense especially you know because we're talking about students constitutional rights and it just feels like important to be super duper clear and I know I know that's what you are trying to do here but um so can I ask for clarification Julie um would language like Reasonable Suspicion may include but is not limited to be good or would your preference be to strike the part about the student being in the bathroom wholly I think I think may include is fine okay because then that gives that parameter that it doesn't necessarily mean that a search would happen it just means that it's a possibility perhaps dependent upon other circumstances can I ask um while we're in that same section um that last sentence they will be required to complete the program with the substance use response coordinator um two thoughts um one that I'm guessing that when we're saying they will be required we mean folks who are found to have nicotine or THC products on them corre which assuming that's the case that might be redundant um because it's it's stated in the next small section students found in possession may be required to participate Etc um whereas this one reads more in its placement and without being clear that it's students who are found in possession of it could read as if there was reasonable suspens we would require you to complete a pro uh program which I don't think is the intent of what you're saying am I correct in that I would say that the the intention of this is to say that um they would a student would be required to complete a program if they were found to be culpable not not um they you have suspicion to search and then if you searched and you found you you came to a conclusion so if you want to if there's could be if you need Clarity there um we would not we you always can go to see Shelly Warren you she is accessible to anyone but you're required only if you're found to be culpable of something so if we if that needs to be clear we can make that clear so by culpable of something we would mean you're either in possession of or currently under the influence of correct if you were held if you were given a consequence for one of those specific things so I would say either clarifying that to say students found in possession of or under the influence of these things will be required to print or I I don't know that you need it at all because I do think that you say it immediately following that in the next paragraph students found to be in possession of or under the influence of may be required to you could St May if you if that's going to be a requirement um either scenario so I'm hearing two things just to just to clarify Reasonable Suspicion may include on the sentence that you you mentioned before and then to say to clarify students found in possession of or found to be the under the influence of will be required Etc yes okay because the last sentence of that first paragraph there and the first sentence of the next contradict each other a little bit okay one is saying they will be required to complete a program and then in the next one it says they may be so you would strike I would strike the entirety of the last sentence and then I would change in the first sentence the word may to will if that's going to be the definitive consequence I can do that that'll probably be the cleanest okay Jamie yeah just I'm fine either way it doesn't uh but whenever you write say may include doesn't assume that some it's arbitrary as to whether you follow up on the rest of these but not limited to I I if any of those situations occur and whether it's my child or another child we should be it shouldn't be a may it should be a follow up you know what are you going to do pick and choose which child you follow up with I I don't like may like these are all circumstances where I expect us as a school to ask the question you know if somebody walks out and smells like THC we should be asking the question because you know we should be helping them you know and kind of teaching them and educating them so I don't like may but it doesn't just cuz I think it may says that all the one I would either get rid of this whole section or leave it as is is my opinion and I don't have an issue getting rid of the whole SE that whole start from reasonable and get the whole thing out you put May in there I think I'm going to let Julie speak to that a little more because I think her concern was particularly focused on the part that says a student being in the bathroom when there's evidence of use because as we all know when a vape detector goes off it's not necessarily one kid that was in there so does that mean that not always evidence of reasonable suspicion and so I'm worried about having something in there this an example that actually contravenes the legal standard like why would we do that right so like but I find with your suggestion to just strike the whole section and not have examples and maybe find it you know to provide people examples but you know to me to me it's time to believe the the sentence if you're were trying to give some context for parents to understand like what could constitute an example but I think that if you put something in there that's over inclusive you're actually not giving parents the right to challenge something that wouldn't meet the legal standard but was done as a search right Tom I'll let you answer that and then I know Andrew had a thought to unless you'd rather I didn't hear a question there I'm not okay my point is I'm fine striking it I would strike I would strike it instead of that and basically you you kind of know what to do you know if the Vape detector is going off and there's two children in there guess what you know they're probably it's reasonable suspicion that somebody was vaping and there both of those children may get asked about it so and but it's not just about I'm sorry it's it's not just about getting ACC about whether you can search their person in their locker yes and so it's like it depends on the circumstances whether it actually gives you reasonable suici to conduct the searches but to your point about like asking questions like that seems like yeah definitely wor asking the question my opinion I would scratch it and say leave it up to the principles if they have Reasonable Suspicion they need to act upon it they it's on them to defend their position to do it so and don't put examples then okay this would be my opinion is there a chance that I could like look at cuz I have work on this and I just want I have memorized there's another packet there if we that from and we'll pull out the page you there's thank you can I summarize what I think I'm hearing yes so you would scratch the sentence that begins Reasonable Suspicion includes you scratched that all the way you also scratched the sentence that says will be required to complete the program right and then the next sentence gets amended to students found to be in possession or under the influence will be required to participate will yeah I think that's I think that's what I'm hearing I would be over that yep and I think you don't lose anything by taking the examples out that that type of thing can always be communicated via correspondence from the principal to families well and as you said before there's an understanding among administrative staff already about what does and does not constitute Reasonable Suspicion Marty just for clarification so the first paragraph in yellow starts with state law prohibits you're keeping that whole thing all the way up through what you're keeping it you're keeping that through the word found okay and then you scratching if I'm hearing the committee you're scratching the sentence that says reasonable reasonable susp suspicion includes and you're also scratching the last sentence they will be required to complete and you're changing the first sentence in the next paragraph to students found in possession of or under the influence of will be required to participate thank you all right other thoughts are we all in agreement on those changes and or other feedback and I have one more question pleas when you are ready y did you uh no I I'm just going to keep on reading the go ahead Julie um my question is about the artificial intelligence section so I two questions one how do we Define artificial intelligence and then how do we communicate to students what is authorized so so every ninth and 10th grader goes through a uh a class and they English and social studies class they go into the library and media center with Carrie Kennedy and we do they do a formal lesson on that um additionally all English and social studies teachers we ask all teachers to do it but formally s social studies and English teachers um do a session on uh plagiarism academic honesty proper citation Etc we stopped this year Julie and we did a connect block on uh artificial intelligence and academic dishonesty we'll do that again next year it's important enough to stop and pause so I will lead that um and then we'll give teachers some followup so they get it this is a consistent message you you really have to repeat these things for students quite a few times we're asking um I think the superintendent is is running a a uh a ad hoc committee about artificial intelligence next year I know that that's going to have representation from every school I know that one of the things that we um have done this year and we're going to continue to do next year is is you know have teachers be very very explicit in if they with any nuances of an assignment I mean it's it's doesn't neatly fall into a package but neither does the world and neither does the do the colleges and universities we're sending our students into so I I really just think that um clarification of what can be used of of because I I can tell you that last week I saw you know some teachers either talking to students about or telling me about what they reference to students when you can use artificial intelligence so we don't want to put a ban on it we just want to make sure that we are reiterating and clarifying how how it can be used when it can't be used because they're not going to get those kind of teaching lessons when they go to college and university we want them to learn now can I ask I just but my question is is what is artificial intelligence like what's our definition of what that is so if you know particularly if we're putting it into our rules and regulations people have different understandings of what that is so when we tell kids use this or don't use this are we talking to them about specific programs are we talking to them about machine learning like what's our definition um the teacher is almost always makes it clear what is authorized was unauthorized for the most part it's usually a teach like in English a teacher would be referring to chat GPT as being unauthorized but the reason why we have this as artificial intelligence may not be used in an unauthorized way is because AI isn't everything in technology including like for example grammarly which is commonly used by students and I don't believe that the English or history department has any sort of issue with students using it they use AI in their um in their software so that's I hope that kind of explains a teacher makes very clear what you can't use and if um like if if they're telling you what is they'll tell you what is unauthorized and then that's when it would become an issue with academic dishonesty they make it clear throughout the year and they make it clear um in the syllabus at the beginning of the year and it's something Julie that thank you Andre I think it's something that we just have to really continue to hit hard um I just think that's I just think that that's part of what this the the the the intention of this is to say this is something that everyone is grappling with this is not going away we had a professional development um session run for educators by an educator at the high school in August he he uh did a great job and John Weaver English teacher and he gave another uh presentation an updated presentation uh a few months ago and it's amazing at how much changed in six months it was an entirely different presentation so I guess this is just you know a a commitment or a desire to you know continue to talk about this put more information in the hands of students and and families and let them know that we talk about this and we'll continue to try to guide and educate because the stakes are are are pretty dar high in college much higher than in high school ni any have a question is is it okay if I just follow up or do you want yeah no absolutely go for it so I just want to pick up on the point that Andrew made because machine learning is built into a lot of different programs that we use including ones where it's built in in a very subtle way um and it's in it's in programs that the kids are using even in the elementary and middle schools um the way this policy reads is that it is blanket unauthorized and considered to be plagiarism unless it is authorized but what Andrew was describing was the opposite I think where teachers are telling students what is unauthorized to use and like leaving the rest of the world because otherwise you're like any any program that a child uses that they don't understand whether it has Ai and machine learning at its basis is de facto plagiarism under the policy I don't really understand that kind of approach if you uh if I could suggest if that's okay you could almost reverse it to say students may not use artificial intelligence that's deemed to be unauthorized by a teacher I hear what you're saying yeah you right I hear what you're saying you can't you couldn't Poss possibly make a a clear list for students about all the things that are okay to use but you can make a clear list the students of things that are not okay to use so if you flip the language it has the same effect I think I'd be hesitant to make a list of things that are un not appropriate to use given how much is changing literally on a weekly basis um including I you referenced grammarly and that was a question I was going to ask you is I I feel like grammarly just sort of seems to attach itself without any choice um to almost everything um and is that something that is on our students laptops because while they might be acceptable use here and while our instructors here might not have a problem with it building a dependency on that there have been instances already where at the college level when students are allowing grammarly to make adjustments to them are being found guilty of plagiarism um so getting our students used to program that then might be disallowed might prove complicated down the line um and so just kind of specific programming might be trickier I kind of what you were saying about teachers being clear about what is and is not allowed and I almost wonder if maybe one of the things to address in there is artificial intelligence is continuing to change it is something that we are actively teaching on multiple occasions throughout the year and teachers will be clear with students about what does and does not constitute authorized use those things might give a little bit more clarity that is also giving Room to Grow because it is just going to keep growing does that make sense sort of clarifying exactly what the current practices are yeah is there specific language that you'd like to to suggest um I know that there was dialogue about not wanting to include specific programs and this and that because things are evolving y um and we went back and forth I think this was the probably the most Rewritten paragraph um and and but I mean sure I mean if there's specific um so could we open with something that says artificial intelligence is a continually evolving do I want to say continually evolving um just can we just say is continually evolving evolving is continually evolving education surrounding the use of artificial intelligence will be taught at the classroom level Andor schoolwide depending on what you're doing at multiple points throughout the year teachers will provide clear expectation surrounding what artificial intelligence SL language models are authorized or unauthorized and then and then the rest of it is is great I like I like that you put in not just copying another students homework but also completing work as a group without authorization right because it's it's not just about AI it's about academic honesty in general correct the last sentence the last sentence can you just clarify yeah I've I don't love how that part came out so kind of be taught multiple ways throughout the year teachers yeah we'll we'll be clear and I don't want to put the onus either on likee teachers now have to become lowkey experts in exactly which programs they do and do not approve of at that moment but um so something that's a little bit more broad any ideas I don't I what I what I could suggest is in the it's tough to write by committee as we know um we could we have some time on this this um before it sort of needs to be baked and gone to print so I think we could take the feedback I could be available for additional conversations with committee members and bring this paragraph back to you at your next meeting that's perfect we meet again next week so and the general so I the general is to say though even though it might be tweaked as of right now ai is is continually involving education around uh Ai and I would say and academic honesty yeah will be uh taught and addressed in multiple ways throughout the year and then artificial intelligence may not be used in an unauthorized way so I can rewrite that Marty submit it to you and take it from there yeah and it maybe some additional opportunities for the committee to provide URI feedback over the course of the next week but I don't um I would just suggest so are you is it written right now as did we are we keeping the authorized and unauthorized or do do you think I don't know I think unauthorized might make the most sense because it's so hard for saying if we're saying authorized there's so it's like every program out there has some sort of AI and machine learning use in it at this point especially when it comes to language models and Google Docs so I think unauthorized might be a little bit easier to put in there because that's much easier for teachers to stay and make clear about what they don't want because that that tends to be a much smaller list yeah could we kind of go slightly old school with the notion of artificial intelligence may not be used without teacher authorization or educator authoriz I'm just thinking like cell phones the the language that we used to have back about cell phones you cannot use them without explicit auth that kind of thing could that be a little bit more open to the number of ways that it would come up and be okay but Julie set her hand up yes Julie hi um I um I just had comment about artificial intelligence which is can you can you all hear me okay yes um which is we talked about um this last year in the context of an academic Integrity policy or academic honesty policy as well and just observing that what is coming to the school committee about artificial intelligence is just how we're going to hold students accountable for it and I would love to renew my request to have a presentation on how students are being taught about call responsible use of artificial intelligence because you know as you're saying apparently it's it's being taught to students along the way but like number one you know we don't know enough about it as school committee members to really I feel for myself to be able to help guide some of these conversations but also what I think parents would really like to know I mean as a parent I would like to be able to reinforce at home what the schools consider to be responsible use of artificial intelligence and I I don't think I know enough about um what our what our standards are and and I understand from what we're saying that some of that is evolving and I think that is okay but we should we should be um you know we should be as lenient with kids as we are with ourselves about the fact that we're still sort of learning and trying to figure this out that's a good idea I feel I do feel like that would be a great parents night for Community I could back there is um we actually about a month ago posted some information to the website that addresses some of what Julie mentioned which is uh there's a parent page that we've tried to make prominent on uh where we hit digital citizenship and where we hit responsible use of technology and social media in the in the K12 curriculum so there is some information that's that's available it maybe doesn't do the Deep dive into AI that that Julie's talking about but certainly we're trying to educate kids and parents uh about you know what our expectations are so good yeah all right I think what I'm hearing overall here is there are a couple of changes that might be headed back to the handbook committee and then this will come back to us again next week it will not go back to the handbook committee what I will do is I will draw this up from already send it to you guys and you guys have final say okay so you can word Smith it as you want the committee the the school council is uh done for the year but I will I can try to capture what we said send it to Marty and a Google doc and he can take it from there and we will okay we understand that the final word is here from final verbi is is from this committee okay any additional thoughts on this then other things that we've picked up on that we'd like to draw attention to now I'm just curious back on the substance the second paragraph yep students found to be in possession of and or under the influence of was it intentional to leave out the of substances as outlined above because it just kind of goes on and yeah doesn't speak about what they're in possession of or under the influence of do you know if they intended to leave out that phrase of substances as outlined above what sentence Mr M are you referring to where it says students found to be in possession of or under the influence of maybe will be required to participate but it doesn't specify what The Possession items are or under the influence of what in this proposed paragraph so I don't know if you just want to add that phrase back in I assumed it was just a oversight I think it was [Applause] yeah all right other things I would say um just to wrap up this part of it there are many you know most all districts are struggling to to pin down policy language relating to artificial intelligence so the MC uh I don't believe has put out any model language on this that's the mass Association School committees where we typically get some guidance from so that kind of I think tells us that this is a this is a difficult area to pin down uh but certainly I think as Andrew pointed out so many conversations happening at the classroom level where teachers try to make clear their expectations to kids about what's allowable and what's not allowable which is great yeah there is some language at um area colleges that might prove useful as well all right seeing nothing else on that thank you very much for coming out tonight appreciate you taking the time to be here thank you all right so I will submit that those changes to you Marty and I will wait for further directions yeah and in the interim if the committee has any direct feedback to me or you we we'll make ourselves available all right yeah all right thanks guys you so much see you at graduation soon graduation do well yes good idea um do we need to do anything to move up an item on the agenda or can we just move one up no we can just move we can just move one up all right in the interest of letting Mr Grant return to his formally scheduled evening um we are going to jump up to item 11 um on our youth track record board we have um Mr Grant has sent a proposal for the installation of a youth track record board as a donation to The District um and is available here this evening so we'll the chair will recognize you to give a brief overview of what it is you are requesting sure so um just just just to be clear uh all we're requesting and I when I say we I'm coming here as the coordinator of the Long Meadow youth track and cross country program uh for Long Meadow parks and wreck um is the permission to affix this board to the concessions building um outside of the track and the reason um that we're asking for this is the same reason that the long metal high school track team has had a board up there for decades and the two CrossCountry teams the boys and girls uh for the high school have recently put up boards and uh it's to honor the history of the uh great performances in the past but more importantly because records are made to be broken to serve as an inspiration for people going forward um one of the more touching moments uh for me is when kids walk by on the way to practice and see the high school board and they say one day I want to break the High School record in that event and of course these youth track records you know because they will be of their age will be something that's a little more attainable and kind of in the same vein as inspiration one of the names on the high school board is uh P Chapman for the 200 meter dash in 1984 that still is there she actually uh I I'm not sure whether she still works with the school district but she did a few years ago and I asked her to come to one of our practices and she spoke to our youth and she talked about the record and what it meant and being part of uh a track team so that's part of why you have a record board um the uh sort of the more nuts and bolts of it um what we're talking talking about is something the the final wording of it I I think in your packet you see the design of it the it's going to be change up at the top so it's not going to say Long Meadow high school and Lancers is going to say Long Meadow youth track however um it's using the same company in the same format as the two High School cross country boards so I think it would fit well um as being near them the board is uh 4T by 4T or if you want to be more precise I think it's 462 by 47 um the location of it um could be um below the high school board um and I I sent some pictures in so if you're familiar with that track area as you're walking up to the track you see the statue and then the high school board and you could put it underneath um it would have to be slightly lower I mean slightly smaller because it's only 45 in and it would extend all the way to the ground the other possibility would be on the back wall um between the two bathroom doors um there's plenty of space there's 9 ft between the doors and it would not be covering in that location or on below the high school board any of the bricks that are have people's names I'm assuming we don't want to cover that because people paid money for that um so I think that's I think that's kind of the the basics of it um I mean I guess one thing I'd like to address is a concern if it's out there that you know we could lead to a slippery slope and there would be a eration of boards and I guess I would say to that um you know if in the I think there's I I counted them up there are like Eight Youth Sports programs in town and if we had a total of eight 4x4 boards scattered among the entire town I I don't think that would be the end of the world I in fact I I can't think of anything wrong with it at all um so there's that and I guess the other thing is the other Sports the the numbers the records don't have the same hold um that track does so a child today can go up and try to break P Chapman's I think it's Pamela Chapman's record on equal terms um and the fact that other high school sports have not tried to duplicate that high school track board kind of indicates that you know if in the decad since that high school track board has not come up that we've not had a proliferation of high school boards we would not also have a proliferation of youth sports boards many if not most of which I would predict even if that came to pass would not they wouldn't want to put it there um you know the baseball folks would want it at a baseball field and the softball folks would wanted a softball field so um so I guess to my mind this is something that's good and no bad and all we're asking for is the permission to put it there um parks and recck would be paying uh to put it up all right thank you for coming out tonight thoughts questions um I'm a coach for the lomino track program and I coach the Middle School distance kids and I've seen how dedicated and committed they are and how talented they are and I think that this is really important to sort of grow our program and keep it going in W Meadow and this is truly it's a very competitive program we have kids who go on to do really really good things in high school and run some of the best times in the state and I think that this would really help to motivate kids and just keep this Talent going that we have thank you Andrew other thoughts Jamie I don't have any uh issue with it I mean it makes sense for swimming or for cross country and actually baseball has a bunch over at their little league stadiums they just don't they're not a part of our purview are you asking us where to put this though cuz there's a bunch of different spots or is that something well yeah the um I I mean I'm flexible you know um and I did have a conversation with uh Marty prior to the meeting and he indicated that U it might be the best approach to have some discretion in terms of below the high school board or on the back wall um and again I'm okay with either location um it you know initially I mean there are sort of pluses and minuses underneath the high school board is a little more visible you know just because people walk by it more on the other hand it's kind of it would go all the way to the ground which would kind of make it less visible um and then on the back wall there would be plenty of space yeah if it went all the way to the ground would it be I'm just thinking snow and yeah yeah the line yeah um yeah I think you're probably looking we would be there' probably be a little bit more damage so you know like I said I don't want to make the perfect the enemy of the good you know so um I'm flexible as the location you know the more I've thought about it I kind of think maybe the back wall is the best place um you know but and and I guess part of part of this would be the Judgment of Marty and or other people at the high school got it so you Marty you would still determine work I'm I'm a big the back wall I think makes the most sense too and it just puts the high school at a different level right you know you get a record on the high school versus the middle you know the element it's a bigger deal right somebody from 1984 still has their name up there it's pretty impressive so I like the back wall but I didn't know if you need a I don't have an issue with it I just was I think we have doesn't it says that it can be a location determined by the superintendent or his design or the high school so if that's a language that we're comfortable with then if we have a specific motion that would recommend a space we could vote on that or we could vote to approve it and give Dr Shay last call about where it goes I'm good with ltitude you yeah I I there's there's location the the sort of more exact size of it you know how big actually will this be um the other thing we didn't talk about is installation who's doing the work who who's going to do the install and what what might be the cost to doing the install we we did get a a projected cost on the um you know what the what the value of the board would be but I think we and assuming the committee is okay with us figuring some of those things out then we're happy to run with the direction that you provide but there's still a lot that I I don't fully understand about it the having a final rendering before we move forward and F you know who's doing the installation and and what the exact size but those are things presumably that we could we could figure out if the committee's comfortable with that do you have information already about how it would be installed yeah so I mean I I guess I have two points one is uh Barry Jarvis uh had sent an email to Marty just uh uh kick this process off and before she had done that she had conferred with DPW and with the town manager so I guess uh I'm I'm going with the assumption that DPW would be installing it um the the other thing that I would say is that because the two High School cross country boards were um these are this would be virtually identical it's the same company the same size and and I guess in in terms of the size it's literally it's either 48x 48 or 462 by 47 you know so do it is it is it the right thing to do to have it the same size as the high school board or should it be a different size again those are things that you know we can we can figure out for sure but yeah I mean I guess I guess in terms of the size it would I think it would need to be about the same to have the number of Records on it um so anyway I guess my point is that I was involved with the girls Cross Country Board which I I don't even think came before you all um and I I could because we funded it the cross country girls booster club funded that board and um how it got on there I'm not sure but you know we could figure that one out and so I mean obviously it wasn't a problem CU they're there now all right if I may I may State what I think could happen and we'll see if everybody's on board with this um I don't know that there is I think that for for the most part there seems to be an acknowledgement that this might be a nice idea um however um I would be hesitant to move or accept a motion that accepts the donation of something that we do not yet have the details on related to size installation maintenance Etc that doesn't mean that once that information is available that we couldn't move that along um it just means that without that information I'm not I'm not sure now is the time to make a motion without the information that is kind of pertinent to it um so if we got that information could we bring it back at a future meeting with more excuse me more detail about what the planned size like once you guys have had a chance to confirm figure out the things like what the sizing is um where the location is who will be responsible for installation um Etc then I think we might be in a position to really make this Motion in in a more thorough and and responsible way if that makes sense could I just y so you're saying size maintenance location and installation I'm not sure maintenance does maintenance factor into these it's kind of seems like it falls under the general well somebody's got to maintain the recor I'm that's just so that's again this is very simple I mean with the cross country boards if there's a new record you buy it's not going to change that much put a new thing on I assume maintenance is group would take that I would I was more thinking the size the location and the installation okay so I mean I guess with the size I I I sent photographs of me literally putting a tape measure I I I guess I'm a little I'm I'm a little bit at a loss as to what the mystery is the um the the quote that we have they call it 4T by 4T the literal measurement of the two High School boards are 47 by 462 so I I'm not sure what more information could be provided with respect to size um so and and I guess with respect to location you know to the extent that the school committee which is is to fix that before making a vote um I would propose that back wall location um again there were photographs indicating that um just with respect to the timing of this um the funds that are aail that are available for this are are going to turn into a pumpkin at the end of the month the end of May or the end of June just to J end of June June um so I would hate for this you know to to founder on that I I I I hope I hope there isn't any more questioning about the size um you know CU like I said um I'm I'm not sure what more information we could provide um yeah I think just concern about SI my thoughts on size it should be identical to the other thing up there and look just like it it might not be a half inch off but I would make it similar consistent so we look like we're one full team from kindergarten all the way up so one's youth one's adult or not adult high school um Nicole yes Mary um in terms of installation can we make a motion that has um the uh Long Meadow track program incur the cost of installation I don't know because they have an annual budget so I believe right Alex you do no that's yeah that's the Assumption uh you know the the email that started this off from Barry to Marty was that this was being funded by perks there was never any requests from the school committee for any amount of money so the funding is there for installation from your from your program yes and for the purchase price and the shipping yes yes and so we're trying to figure out who would install not necessarily with what funding but couldn't we be appr so they could buy it with the funding that's available and if they can't install it they just have it you know what I'm saying like I guess they're basically it sounds like they're asking us to approve this so they can make the purchase do we to approve purch no right right right not not not to not to approve the purchase but if they do buy it they want to be able to hang it up we just want to say yes and they have to work out the details that's question right that that's exactly it just right I mean because we wouldn't purchase it if we couldn't put it up that's all right and so I think the figuring out how it sounds like the money piece is not the question correct it's who will be installing it not with what funds correct but I mean could could could you make a motion to approve the affixing of it with the manner of affixing to be determined at a later it in the discretion of town officials and the school superintendent I mean like this seems like kind of so yes but my concern just goes back I don't want us to say we're going to accept a donation that then we run into as you pointed out stumbling blocks that lead to us being unable to and I don't predict that there are I just I would love to see like we already know that DPW is a yes they will install it we know that the funding is there we know that we're going to put it in X location I think the back wall totally makes sense as well um and then we know for sure that we're not accepting something without knowing for sure how we're installing it does that make sense yeah yeah I mean I guess but I guess but I guess the worst case scenario would be that if for whatever reason there's a delay in installing it or something then then then we're just maintaining the status quo right I like like nobody's the worst off I mean again I don't expect there's going to it's just that what we're trying to do is get an assurance that we can put it up before we buy it yes okay so how would we that so there is a draft motion there is your um but I would add to that yeah um that the school committee accept the donation of the youth track board to be in installed and funded by the youth track organization on the LHS concession stand uh concession building in a location to be determined by the superintendent or is designate and the long M High School principal but I would add in that and funded by the youth track um organization that's what I put you're an organization right well you have your it's no it's part it's it's actually part of parks and wck so this is so that's why Barry the parks and W director was emailing and so do you have final say on on use of funds to install or does parks and wreck have final say and they have given or not given final say that they will be financing installation I haven't gotten that far in a conversation I mean I I don't know I mean presum ably I guess installation's probably at the end of the day not a big deal I mean DPW can do it or or the vendor I don't know if the vendor that that you purchases from does install perhaps they do it as well but I mean I'm happy to work with with Barry so we couldn't say or funded by the youth track organization because technically it would be funded by Park and rag right parks and Rag and and that's can we make a motion that says that Park and wreck will fund something if we don't have approval from Park and wreck saying that they will fund something well the the email party sorry can we just say that the school will not fund it or do we have to not to be funded by the school that would that would be more broad I like that could potentially work so I think we have two choices if we're going to do that then that might be the cleanest way to do that because I don't feel great about saying something will be funded by parks and wreck if we don't have their permission to say that something will be funded by parks and wck um could you make the acceptance of the gift to include installation without regard to who's doing installation or where the funding is coming from that W metal school committee accepts the gift including installation of the designated plaque or board um as presented with the criteria of the size and location including the installation of that way you don't have to worry about who they get to install it whether it be DPW or the vendor but it's all part of what we're accepting okay so we would then be accepting the donation of the youth track record board including the installation of the board on the concession board building that could work thoughts I'm good you're good you're good other folks other thoughts and could I ask you yes could you approve the 4ot by 4ot size so that that's I mean need to approve it's their donations it's not a bad idea though if we're worried about it being smaller or larger than yeah what's already there 4et by 4 feet is what it says of a 4x4 uh youth track record okay so um I feel like at this point since I've been the one taking the notes I'm going to just go ahead and make the motion myself unless anybody else wants to jump on that all right then um I move that the school committee accept the donation of a 4 foot by4 foot youth track record board including the installation of the board on the concession board building in a location to be determined by the superintendent or his designate and the long meal High School principal we have a motion do we have a second it's just concession stand concession stand building okay um thank you Mary um as amended to read concession stand building um I'm pretty sure that was Mary was it yes uh yeah thank you Mary okay so we have a motion we have a second do we have any discussion related to I'm just impressed you got it all we only missed one this is a nice little like this is like from years ago when we had to make motions on the Fly I like it any last thoughts seeing I think this is great all right thank you Julie that's my only thought seeing no further discussion we'll move to a vote Zach yes Jamie yes Michaela yes Mary yes Julie yes and yes for me as well thank you Mr Graham for being patient while we figured that out um we appreciate you coming out tonight and look forward to seeing the finished board thank you all right all right we were on 11 we are headed back to where were we seven um school committee announcements and recognitions uh chair report first to start out um just saying as the end of the year approaches uh there are a lot of wonderful milestones and events planned across the district I could not possibly call them all out individually so um instead I will say to all of our Educators and family volunteers um thank you so much for the extra time and effort and work that goes into making all of these concerts Field Days field trips showcases prom graduations and more happen they're incredibly meaningful to all of us um to our students thank you for putting your best foot forward at all of these concerts community events and sporting um games you help our whole Community to shine and finally to our graduating seniors we are immensely proud of you for everything you've done and most importantly for who you are and as your next chapter begins we hope that you build a life full of happiness and adventure and we cannot wait to celebrate you this weekend so other school committee announcements or recognitions anyone else all right seeing none we'll move on to other reports superintendent so the book The bookend event to uh to the graduation of our seniors on Sunday June 2nd was uh welcoming the class of 2037 uh so we are uh kindergarten teachers School psychologists or nurses L coordinator uh a handful of others um screened 126 incoming LPS kindergarteners last week so class of 2037 um wow yes right long way away um we uh some some uh other nuts and bols things Personnel letters uh in accordance with contractual obligations uh we issued uh Personnel letters to staff on May 24th uh those would be letters associated with uh employees who might need transfer or were subject to reduction in force or a lure uh action and so 21 of those letters were issued on Friday uh as we wind down this year we're already winding up next year uh particularly in the area of curriculum and instruction so we have a trainer from amplifi joining the district on June 5th to work with Elementary Educators who were not part of uh the elementary literacy pilot we had um trainer from advanced math recovery joined us on May 23rd we have Educators that are working on revising potentially our homework guiding principles that's a document that goes back at the middle and uh Elementary level next year um the new individualized education plan template uh included in your packet of presentation that was provided to the special education Alliance of Long Meadow uh you can take a look at that if you are interested also um thankful to Nicole Paris Crow for cultivating a number of Partnerships to support uh student mental health and uh social emotional well-being um particularly with the Department of Developmental Services um CHD and mass rehab so a number of outside agencies that we're working with to wrap services around uh children who are who need them and and uh as Nicole mentioned the the number of end of year events is is really staggering far too many to list for the committee and the community I would mention one uh additional event and that is the senior citizen luncheon and concert on Wednesday June 5th thanks to Diane for working with our food service vendor music department and the uh Council on Aging to arrange that event we always got a huge turnout Wednesday June 5th um if the committee's schedules allow so thank you 135 what's that 135 135 registrants wow awesome excellent very good yeah thank you um other administrative reports Mr M I think you've got something for us yeah just briefly we are working with the Department of Elementary and secondary education on our renewal for our food service vendor if you recall we had a few glitches during the bidding process at the beginning of the school year so uh this is our first renewal option with them and the state has a very specific process so I'm hopeful that it'll be resolved by next week to bring forward the amendment but if not it might have to be at our later meeting in June so and there's additional things coming up on the agenda all right awesome all right um Mr student rep report Andrew okay so just a couple reminders to start prom is on Thursday May 30th graduation is Sunday June 2nd um and then the seniors had their last day on Thursday the 23rd with the senior picnic that afternoon uh things got a little rocky with the rain but they were to move things inside it believe Le to the BTC in the gym um and then the LA test end of the year art show will be held at the school's front lobby on Thursday June oh wait no Tuesday June 4th from 6:00 to 8 and then um just a quick update from the Key Club for like information on how they did this year um so me Members totaled 4,483 hours of Comm of community service this year which is two which is over 200 more hours than last year um and then members also participated in over 55 um Service events one of which includes um the Center School tutoring program um which allows um LHS students from Key Club to go tutor uh student elementary students um on a weekly basis and then to move into Athletics there's a lot going on um the congratulations to the boys and girls tennis teams on their western Mass victories and then a huge congratulations to Emma caspari for winning the 400 meters at the Mia division 3 track championships on Saturday wonderful thank you all right um other reports lpvc Z no report no report energy and sustainability um no report and seal Michaela um our meetings are all done for the school year uh but just again if you haven't seen the presentation on the new IEP that's been sent out um it's really good to look at and if you have any questions you can always reach out to seal or email me too I'd be glad had to help all right thank you thank you subcommittee reports Finance sub you guys have a good collection of things to go through tonight we'll turn it over to you so the finance subcommittee met on May 10th uh included in your packet tonight are a number of budget reports related to the FY 204 fiscal year uh the first is a year-to-date budget report um kind of showing our current activity in our line items and a projection June 30th um kind of tracking where we have been all year with a uh projected a small projected deficit at this point the report was dated May 2nd has us with a deficit of about $137,000 and again there's still a number of variables that uh will play out over the course of the final two months in the fiscal year that aren't reflected here but best guess in probably conservatively high in terms of my projection um but I think as I've been saying all year I'm not overly worried I think we'll probably just come in uh right about where we're budgeted um based on uh some additional developments that have occurred and one of those is related to a document in your packet which is um from the Department of elementary elementary and secondary education informing the district that we are being uh we're receiving an additional allocation from the state related to the circuit breaker relief funding um the the district is going to receive a total of $322,200 uh programs and placements of students that exceed a certain threshold and they reimburse based on a percentage uh upwards of 75% of those costs and each year you can apply you can um submit a claim for additional relief there's certain criteria that qualify for this relief and uh for this year we happen to qualify for some additional funding so it's good news it will help us with that deficit that I just mentioned on the previous report um and so the 174 will be part of a budget transfer that you'll uh that's on your agenda a little later $148,700 will be part of our fy2 budget to help offset costs related to uh special education programming uh so that's very good news um this the other report in your packet related to the FY 24 um budget is the revolving accounts and again this is dated May 2nd and showing activity through that date of our special Revenue accounts uh so school choice the circuit breaker fund uh Athletics school lunch all of those are tracking uh where we would expect the one unknown variable um related to Athletics is that we will have to wait till all of the spring charges invoices our process to understand exactly how um that fund performed and whether or not for what additional assistance might be needed um to support that through June 30th I would say our revenue is definitely tracked much higher than we had in FY 23 um some of that is due to the increase we've seen in the rates that the school committee approved last year and some of it is increased uh participation so um we're keeping an eyee on that and just lastly on that report our food service program is continues to operate uh very strongly participation continues to be very high and continues to grow slightly every month which is a good sign um so we'll be using those funds to reinvest into the program in terms of equipment needs uh offerings to support uh this uh this the lunch program we offer and then the last item which would need uh consideration for approval would be two two budget transfers for FY 24 um the first is for a general fund budget transfer number two dated May 10th um and this would be um steps taking towards moving money around to address some of the current shortfalls we have and light line items within our budget uh some salary some are uh expenditure line items um there are approximately page and a half or so of transfers that are being proposed in addressing uh pre-close out transfers that would be needed and the second set of transfers is related to our grants and special revenues this would be our third revision to our grants and special revenues also dated May 10th did just want to um just note that it does reflect the additional circuit breaker amount that was um that I mentioned earlier of $1 174,00 85 so the total increase to the budget for fy4 is $17 825 um that we would be adding to the FY 25 24 budget all right wonderful thank you um those two budget transfers are two different motions um so if anyone would like to kick us off we can start with the first one y I can do uh I move on the recommendation of the finance subc commmittee that the school committee approv the budget transfer as indicated on the document titled fy4 general fund budget transfer number two dated May 10th 2024 we have a motion do we have a second second thank second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach Jamie yes Michaela yes Mary yes Julie yes and yes for me as well next one is related to the budget revision yep I move on the recommendation of the finance subcommittee that the school committee approved the budget revision as outlined in the document titled fy4 grants and special revenues revision number three dated May 10th 2024 thank you we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Jamie yes Michaela yes Mary yes Julie yes and yes for me as well thank you anything else from Finance sub uh there's one more item but it's up on their new business a little later on the agenda okay sounds good thank you all right moving on no report from policy sub no report from curriculum sub um we'll move into evaluation sub um the evaluation sub commmittee met on May 15th 2024 to um aggregate the individual school committee members um evaluations of the superintendent the super or the school committee is required each year to evaluate the superintendent's performance over the last year um particularly focused on professional practice and student learning goals as well as the district Improvement goal and four standards um the first standard in instructional leadership the second in management and operations the third in family and Community engagement and the fourth in professional culture um thank you to um Jamie and Micha for um working on that committee as well um we had um a good afternoon's worth of discussion reviewing all of the evaluations thank you to each of the committee members for um submitting evaluations we were able to pull together a um summative document that reflects the evaluations of the committee as a whole um before we dive into an overview of those evaluations we wanted to offer Dr OA the opportunity to give a brief overview of what his annual plan was and some Reflections on that plan all right well thank thank you and and to Echo uh what Nicole mentioned I appreciate the time and commitment of the committee and the evaluation sub to um reviewing my performance relative to the annual plan and as the committee knows there are and as Nicole mentioned there are three components to a superintendent's annual plan a professional practice goal student learning goal and then just more generally the district Improvement plan uh the cycle that is represented on this slide is the cycle that all Educators in Massachusetts uh follow and so we're at about 9:00 on that cycle where this is an opportunity for the committee to complete the summit of evaluation u based on the individual evaluations that that the committee submitted and so what I I thought I'd do is just sort of um site for summarize for the committee some of the uh items that were noted as progress in my annual plan and then also I will identify some of the areas that the committee noted as um steps forward so or next steps and so I think when the intention would be that when I develop an annual plan next year it would reflect the recommendations of this year's plan so uh briefly in the area of professional practice one of the best things that I had an opportunity involved with this year was a a series sponsored by the mass Association of school committees or School superintendents rather uh and it was an opportunity for me to work with District our district Dei leader on strengthening our capacity for a partnership in the name of equity was um an extensive year-long program I was pleased to have the opportunity to participate in that with with nild de arari it give us a chance to really establish a productive working relationship as she was new to the central office team one of the one of the uh recommendations last year from the committee was to really focus on supporting early career and aspiring administrators that was this time last year is one of the things that the committee mentioned and so uh we we were very purposeful in doing that this year I think it's more important now than ever to support early career and aspiring administrators the work is difficult the pipeline is narrower than it's ever been and so um I appreciate the direction the committee provided in in terms of the importance of that uh reorganizing the central office and introducing the the office of student and family support I think was a important step forward for us this year uh we have begun work towards the development of a a new District Improvement plan embedding the vision of The Graduate um I think that's ongoing work and uh I'll come back to that in one of the recommendations that was cited by the uh by the school committee uh and then one of the things obviously that's occupied a considerable amount of our time was is the um establishing future of our middle school program and and the submission of the preliminary design program just a few weeks ago in the area of uh student learning uh I think we've made some important steps forward the committee has been very purposeful in um again this time last year um uh requiring that we are are more purposeful in uh developing an articulated curriculum review renewal and adoption process uh we have moved forward with the Yale ruler program the elementary literacy adoption I am especially excit excited next year for the adoption of Panorama this represents a data warehouse that will hopefully easily allow us to stack to track student progress uh track student academic progress and uh their progress uh social emotionally and uh and along with many many other indicators that has been a goal of our district Improvement plan and we're realizing it as we begin next year our professional development in recent years really has focused on multi-tiered systems of support uh with Universal Design being an important component of TSS it's been the strong focus of the professional development that we have provided all staff this year and previous years uh in the summit of evaluation that uh the uh evaluation subcommittee produced there were a number of recommendations for next steps all of which uh certainly makes sense to me and all of which will be incorporated into my annual plan next year uh specific spefically um you know how do we gauge the success of the new Elementary literacy program uh there was the committee had articulated the importance of ensuring that we're providing the time the resources and the Staffing for these these new adoptions so that as we get out of the gate we're giving our Educators the time they need uh to thoughtfully implement uh continued growth of student centered and Competency Based approaches to assessment parenthetically I I add it aligned with the vog uh this is an ongoing this is ongoing for us and as we uh highlight and showcase the vog and as we line it up with the learner behaviors that we're expecting from students we also want to think about how can we embed embed it in um assessment at the really at the almost at the course level at the at the end of unit level perhaps um a curriculum review blueprint that is reflected in the budget cycle I think we're we are very very very close to being uh able to make that a reality as you plan for the as you begin to plan next year for the FY 26 budget um again the committee emphasized The Importance of Being intentional about building up a leadership Pipeline and and providing mentoring to early career uh Educators and administrators the importance of establishing ing data protocols and then strengthening uh family and Community Access to information whether it be our uh website or um other platforms that we use to deliver information to families we want it to be easily accessible so a lot of the verbiage from this slide was pulled directly from the summit of evaluation that the evaluation subcommittee put together and and uh once again you know grateful for the conversation I had with the evaluation subcommittee and how thorough they were in reviewing uh the individual submissions of individual committee members so uh we're all a work in progress and uh you know there's there's work here that uh will always be in front of us but we'll continue to to work towards many of these North Stars so thanks for the chance to to go through that all right wonderful um so everybody has been given the opportunity to look over the summative evaluation I'll just quickly run through excuse me that overall the committee found that Dr Shay um exceeded his professional practice goal and met both his student learning goal and the district Improvement goal um he was also rated proficient in instructional leadership exemplary in management and operations proficient in family and Community engagement and in professional culture um and the entirety of these are made available for the public to look over after the meeting um is ended um any thoughts feedback um or suggested edits from anyone on the committee can you do aor justen I can see yeah thank you oh sorry one moment realize that was missing there we go you want to know the yes oh I forgot that one thank you yes um and overall the overall um summative performance is rated um proficient all right any thoughts or feedback from anyone at home and or seeing none we have a possible motion yep I move on the recommend ation sorry of the evaluation subcommittee that the school committee approved the summative unified evaluation of the superintendent for 2023 2024 as presented and authorize the chair to sign we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote is that yes Jamie yes Michaela yes Mary yes Julie yes and yes for me as well thank you very much um Dr Shay always nice to get a chance to look back over the year and how very much happened over the course of it um and to be commended for leaders throughout the year and it's really a reflection of you know my work is a reflection of the work of our Educators and our administrators and the whole staff so um so it's it's a pleasure to represent the progress we've made we have made as a as a district and as a as a school staff so thanks well said thank you all right moving on we are into ongoing business middle school project um do you have a quick update that you wanted to share uh nothing you know we at we had submitted the preliminary design program our next step is to submit the preferred uh program submission another acronym from the msba uh and we'll be meeting with the msba um hopefully soon within the next week or so to to get some additional Direction on that so uh a bit of a lull period right now before we move to the next stage all right wonderful I um meant to send you the link to the next thing um so I'm just going to look it up so I can make sure that I'm sharing that um all right so um next up new business long range planning um it has been my privilege to work on the longrange planning committee over the last couple of years and that process has come to a close um and a big thank you to um Cheryl Tipo for all of the work that she put into that um committee and also to um Ken um mson um I might be Miss saying her name I'm sorry Karin um if I am um for all of the work that she put in as well um that plan is available and posted on the town website um if you go to the um planning and Community um development section there is a subheading for long metal long range planning and that full draft is available for public comment through June 6th 2024 um there is a very specific process to provide comments there is a comment um resolution Matrix Word document um or a comment resolution Matrix available on the Google drive if you would like to provide um feedback on the long range plan which covers a breadth of information related to the town's Planning and Development over the next 10 years um comments need to be submitted through that comment resolution Matrix um so encourage folks to review the plan um whether that is the entire very large and lengthy plan or just a particular chapter a section that is of particular interest to you um and then if you would like to submit a um comment to um Karin um Ms um then you are able to do that using the website information um there have been a couple of great um community events related to longrange planning as well so thanks to the folks who put the time and energy into planning those and also the people who came out to share their thoughts and feedback along the way that is all on that all right um moving on our next order of business is end ofe transfer Authority and I'm guessing Mr Ma you have something to add on that yeah every year about this time um we request authorization to give the superintendent the ability to to approve end ofe budget transfers um and that would be in accordance with policy dbja um this the policy kind of sets the thresholds when a transfer is required and that um those parameters are when a line has a deficit of at least 10% and is of of more than $1,000 doll or if the deficit is more than $10,000 um this just kind of helps expedite the process as we're trying to close out the fiscal year FY 24's budget by moving funds around uh to address any shortfalls to close out the books with um unsure when school committee will have meetings so it's an annual um request that we have of school committee to Grant this authority to the superintendent all right wonderful we have a POS motion related to that Authority and or questions if folks have them I move that as specified in the school committee policy dbja that the school committee Grant authority to the superintended to approve the necessary budget transfers between munus budgetary lines in order to close the FY 2024 accounts we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll vote Z yes yes Michaela yes Julie yes and yes for me as well thank you very much I'm going to return to long range planning just long enough to say that it is Karen mice Ms and I'm very sorry that I said the wrong name earlier um who is our director of community planning so thank you to Karan also um we are headed into a discussion related to cell phones for anyone who um was here at the beginning of the meeting we saw that we had a lot of community um feedback related to um research on cell phone free schools and we wanted to open up an opportunity to discuss some of that feedback and maybe an opportunity to provide some direction to the um Administration related to possible plans for that moving forward so I'll mention as as your thinking about this and um to helpfully create an informed discussion we've included uh policies or handbook language or even language from a middle school sort of school-based guide relating to um cell phones or other personal electronic devices so this is a a compilation of the the current language and so certainly as our as our uh commentator mentioned that we kicked off the meeting there been a lot of attention on this um folks from on both sides of the issues on all sides of the issues talking to us about you know how we can promote the responsible use of Technology here in school so um happy to gather any information that the committee might find to be helpful or or take any other directions that you might have on this important topic so thoughts to kick us off anything anyone would like to jump in with I can kick us off Julia oh sorry j can I go first you sure actually she can go first go ahead Julie are you sure okay Julie no go ahead so just these three different um agenda items 11 so do we have three different policy documents for the three different schools I read this right or not you had so um yes and no so you have one one of the documents is from the LHS student handbook y the other is um an acceptable use agreement that uh several years ago was actually part of your policy manual but to make it more Nimble and because we felt that it was more operational than policy it was removed from the policy manual that was back in 2017 we've amended it a couple of time since so this acceptable use agreement sits in both the LHS student handbook and the K8 handbook and then the last two documents are from our middle schools and I believe these are you help me out there and these might be from our family or school-based family guides yes and there's some language relating to electronic devices in there so okay um yeah the the high school I'd say just generally takes the position that um students can only and Andrew you can help me out with this but students can only use cell phones with the with the uh approval of a classroom teacher and it needs to be directed towards some educational Pursuit yes um also for the most so how it the rules vary by teacher um some teachers will just let you have it out no matter basically all you need to know um for the most part teachers have what they call phone hotels which is essentially like Pockets that usually tend to be it's like picture like a shoe holder at yes and you put your phone in it during class and you get assigned a number um to put your phone in and when teachers enforce it they tend to work perfectly like they're in the're obviously they're in the holder on the other side of the room for the entire class um and then if a student is found they didn't put it in the phone holder a teacher will usually remind the student and then if a if a student tends to not be obeying what the teacher what the rules that teacher has set out the teacher can always take the phone away for class or send it to the office till the end of the day so in terms of sort of like how we're looking at um like any sort of ban in school or whatever I think teachers seem to have obviously this coming from a student not a teacher but the resources to manage phone use in the classroom and I think there are a lot of benefits that need to be considered in terms of Stu stud student phone use in school um student schedules are very complex now things get cancelled throughout the day and students need to find a way to communicate with parents during the school day or friends in terms of maybe getting a ride home during the school day if practice gets cancered or they now have to attend a club and they can't take the bus home anymore how are they going to get home so I think these are all things we need to be considering when we're looking at phone use in school because I do think from my perspective teachers are do have the tools to manage phone use in their classrooms all right thank you so on these different policies though is that the is the middle schools and the elementary schools mid middle and elementary are the same off and away at the middle and elementary level with quite honestly the what's what's popped up for us is is um the uh Apple watches okay which I think our practice at our middle and elementary schools is they just need to be off so we don't tell students that those have to be away but phones have to be off and away at the middle and elementary level okay and they're they're really off and away at the high school level unless there's direct permission provided by the teacher got it yeah so I guess my initial thought would be to really get feedback from everybody in town both children's survey I'm talking way down to kindergarten because there's kindergarteners with phones now um all the way up to high school survey is whether they need phones at school or not and then also the parents so I get that scenario but that scenario didn't exists 20 years ago and everybody was fine so I think it takes away from you know the teaching so I think there's too much babysitting happening I get it there may be some classrooms that are fine and some you're just adding jobs to the teachers and you're taking away from time you know whether it's one time a week two times a week if you set it up so that just phones aren't acceptable in the school it may give more time for the teachers to educate our children so that would be one initial thought but that's me you know giving my opinion on it um and I also just think it takes away from any uh interaction you know so you know I I I haven't been to a high school uh cafeteria yet but um I can imagine it looks just like when I go out to eat and I see a family sitting there where all five of them are only looking at their phones and not having a conversation so you take that away the distraction I think it might be a positive thing so I personally would like to hear about the studies of I think it's chipe who does it um you know you know what you know whether we can get somebody here that works with chape somebody in town who does to get feedback really from there but then also from all the different interested parties uh in town uh including including the kids I I think they deserve a right to you know voices to be heard but I also think that they don't know the previous version of this before 2010 when they weren't available um so and I think this may be a you know thing we look at school by school you know a kindergarten with a $1,000 phone school I I don't know whether that what positive does that bring to the kids's education um or any elementary school kid or middle school kid don't really see why they need phones high school you know maybe that's something that we should be thinking about different cuz they are grown adults and they should be starting to be able to learn when to use it when not to um but that would be my like initial thought process um but I think there's so many studies out there both probably pro and con that I'd love to just get feedback on hey where do we think we should go and the people that are already making these changes what are they experiencing and what you know you know pauses and negatives came from it that'd be my initial truie yeah um I uh I think first of all I really appreciate the parents to have written in about this I think it's so cool to see parents um reaching out about issues like this and I think um you know one of the things that was interesting to me was to see how many parents feel feel strongly that we ought to consider Banning cell phones I think it to me it was cool because you know in talking to other parents in town I think people sometimes think they're the only one um who wants limits and that that that would be a minority of opinion but I think more more and more we're hearing that um you know this is something that that parents um want I think you know to Jamie's point maybe you know opening this up a little bit more essentially by talking about it in these meetings giving people who might feel differently or have like a more you know like a nuanced opinion about what we allow which schools is very helpful to get a a broader sense of public opinion but I think you know I mean the research on this does sh go that you can get obviously like it's all different depending on the context of the schools where the studies are taking place but you can get academic gains out of it that kids can get mental health gains out of um not having cell phones in school and I think also to Jamie's Point having um you know taking the burden off teachers of having to pleas this I think you know I mean I I don't Mar if you would agree but I think my experience as a parent is that off in a way it's not working as a policy right it's not it's incredibly hard to enforce and um and and to be honest I think it's a it's a tough burden to put on kids where like phones are specifically designed to gain your attention and to keep it right to to ask a kid who's new to having a cell phone you know to to monitor that for themselves um and modulate it themselves is is really difficult um so I'm I'm looking forward to us talking about this more I would definitely be in favor of placing limits on cell phones I I hear what Andrew saying about the high I think it's like you know to me I I think we should consider um Fanning all the way through the high school but I do like the idea of kind of getting some feedback from students and teachers about what practices might have changed in the past few years where cell phones have been more prevalent so that we understand you know what we might need to put in place I think I think what we've heard from some of the school Personnel um especially the lower grades is that the um some of the interruptions that kids are getting during school are from parents and so kind of thinking about like what do we need to do to make sure that parents are using the right panels to contact the school where they need to reach their kid during the day or things like that um to just kind of if you know if we do something like this to kind of bring us back to basics and you know what what we did um to contact our kids before um cell phone use but uh to me it's it's a would be a really positive step for kids I think even just the like you know the the mental um break of knowing that you're not going to be doing anything on your phone and the people around you aren't going to be doing anything on their phones for a period of time um is really helpful for opening up um an opportunity to learn thank you Julie other thoughts yeah one other thought can I can I say something y sure Michaela go ahead um I just uh age very much with Julie and Jamie that uh it's been really great to get the emails and uh I feel like I've been engaged in a lot of conversations with community members about this and the more feedback that we get from all the community stakeholders with the different research and the different sides of the conversation um is going to help us make the best decision for our schools and I think that also you know when we're talking about the younger Elementary School School level we really do have to think not just of cell phones but of those devices like I'm hearing a lot of stories about you know I've heard stories about second graders who accidentally or maybe not accidentally called their grandparents in a different state from their their watches in the middle of the day and then you know the the parent getting a car thinking there's an absolute emergency so it does just seem like a complete unnecessary thing in my opinion um in elementary school and in the research and articles that I've read um and also I think when you think of the context of the American Pediatric Association and their guidelines of screen time and how detrimental is to um a developing brain and that kids really in in younger Elementary School grades are supposed to be under 2 hours of screen time a day and are remaking that the screen time that's even appropriate to use in our schools like a computer going onl watching something um on the Epson is it is that all aligning to meet the guidelines of the American Pediatric Association thank you Michaela Zach yeah I I would just offer that um I appreciate one as other folks have mentioned uh the amount of community engagement on this topic uh and two um something to be mindful of as we're exploring survey data research uh what have you and creating a broader conversation around our community because people are going to fall across the Spectrum on this topic um is that in the classroom and in our schools we entrust our Educators to be in charge of instruction academics culture and Care um and the use of cell phones or SmartWatches can introduce an element of communication among students that goes unmonitored by the school they can't tell what kiddos are talking about and what might be taking place uh it's been my experience as both a parent and an educator is sometimes um it can be um pretty uncomfortable to see what kind of communications can take place um across those devices that students or sorry that teachers and Educators don't have access to um so I think it's really important that we wrestle with this as a community all right thank you um agree and love that we've had some great communication on this from the community as a whole um I think we might be in a good sort of starting place to begin discussions on this and so to that end I'm kind of consolidating what some folks have asked for um some information on overviews of research um a reminder maybe of what the AAP recommendations look like and then maybe branching out in ways that could include the community um beginning perhaps with some surveys but also maybe we could discuss um asking Dr Rocha to pull together um a Review Committee or task force of some kind composed of community stakeholders Educators students family members um Etc who could convene and discuss what some of the findings of those surveys and research studies are um and maybe build towards bringing some information back to the committee as a whole um sometime later this year realistically we're at summer now so I would imagine those uh task for would really not be likely to get started until fall um and then maybe begin some conversations about what might be a good fit for our community based on what sort of feedback we get from all of our community stakeholders because there are things that we not necessarily going to think of that our Educators might think of or our students might think of or our family members might think of that could help us to weigh our way towards some kind of policy or overview Andrew um I just want to add on to say like when we're talking with community members and surveying students and teachers something I think that we should be emphasizing is phone use inside versus outside the classroom while still in school I think that's really really important to this conversation so I think there's rules that we could be changing with in classroom use in terms of phones like maybe just getting rid of this rule Al together that teachers would have more control and just say no phone use in the classroom whatsoever I think that might be a little bit a better way to go about this but maybe still allowing it at lunch or during passing um just because I think like I think that just sort of has somebody to has to deal and I don't want to sound like the teenager whose phone obsessed but I do think this is the reality of it um it's phones are almost I would say critical when it comes to communication throughout the school day like I'm a cross country captain and I constantly have to text the kids throughout if it's a rainy day throughout the school day say this is what we're doing at practice could we we meet in a different spot cuz if it's raining we'll meet inside in the cafeteria at a different time than we would if it wasn't raining and I think that stuff that would if we were to ban phones all together in school that would cause a lot of chaos for almost every team every Club out there and I think it's just a better way to meet in the middle with students and cause less contention if we can sort of survey those differently with like how phones are being used um at launch or in passing versus in the classroom no that's good and also to think about um if a one- siiz fits-all approach is right across all grade levels I would argue and I think everyone would agree that there might be very different guidelines and rules for an elementary student versus a high school student um and even within the high school years that there might need to be different um approaches to technology usage with 9th graders compared to 12th graders um Etc so beginning those Community discussions I think would be a good way for us to to get a feel for sort of where our guidelines might be best um directed and what that could look like Jamie completely agree can I just say one I would just expand it more than cell I would just say devices because I even look at just the devices that everyone is using um both from a budgetary reason and from a I don't want them at my house anymore reason and I want my kids learning on them reason is another reason why we should just look at it in total do we need Chromebooks you know do we need these things you know we're spending a fortune on them and are they giving us the bang for the buck to educate our kids for that next way yes they need to know how to use computers but they need to bring them home with them all the time do they need to be in front you know if you just think about it from parenting policing these things as a parent at home I feel bad for the teachers to be able to police them in the schools and know what's going on and I completely agree with you the high school is very different from the Middle School which is very different from and it may be different but just look at all devices I whether what's appropriate at school and what's not so all right other thoughts Julie Nicole I um I'm just trying to piece together you know what you were saying about pulling together um a task force on this does that mean that we wouldn't I'm just in terms of like setting expectations and being responsive to parents does that mean we wouldn't consider a change of policy for another year or would we consider changing the policy like mid year I think we could we could say that timing wise I don't know that we would be in any position to Institute any new policy for beginning in September but I don't think that that has to mean that we would wait all the way until the following September either I think I think we could see see what our initial information turns up see what kind of recommendations that task force comes back with after sort of of aggregating that data and giving us some overview and then maybe send what that discuss as a committee and then maybe send towards policy sub to then bring back to the committee as a whole um and then see where we are at that point um there would also have to be conversations related to if we did decide that we were going to discuss things like Yonder pouches Etc what sort of funding that would look like there are a lot of factors to sort of consider there so I I don't think that uh waiting until member to get started means waiting a whole another year um at all there's no reason to think that um but I don't know that we're in a position to do anything for this coming school year okay I I would just urge as like not to make the perfect the enemy of the good on this one just in terms of like you know solving all of the problems together it sounds like there's more Nuance at certain levels of schools or with you know to Jam's Point like Chromebook versus phone so like if we find pieces that we can Implement sooner rather than later it seems like we should sort of try find a way to separate those out and just you know kind of piece by piece um get some of this into place yeah that's a good thought thank you other thoughts do we all agree with the idea do we make a motion on that on a the idea of a task force or we just we would like you to make that happen does anybody have any thoughts about that you don't need you don't you don't need one unless unless you think it would help with the position of the Community the committee you know to to the community if you felt like it was important to say that the committee was explicit in uh directing the administration to set up a task force or to conduct a survey or um I'd kind of like to see both but maybe the task force can help create the survey so that would probably be a good first step um then I would entertain a motion to direct the superintendent to help um establish a task force related to the topic of cell phone usage at schools so moved there we go second and a second any discussion seeing none can just device usage at schools in absolutely that's a good point thank you Michaela as amended then as amended yes all right um any further discussion okay can I clarifying question that the uh when we say device uses are we talking about school issued devices or are we talking about um say I would say we be smart watches I would say we begin with that we can we can broaden out as needed yeah but I would I would begin with the cell phone technology smart watches whatever else people are bringing um from home start there and then work your way in let's see where we go from there yeah and I and I would actually agree with Julie that there may be some handbook changes that we would want to bring forward short of the completion of the work of a task force you know so I mean there you know for example um not allowing students to wear smart watches at a certain grade level and Below might be something that's that's low hanging fruit po the only the only reason why I say I'm I'm have my viewpoint on it I just don't know the temperature of the entire Community we've gotten a bunch of emails but that just might we might get a bunch of emails on the other side I don't really know it's a it's a weird topic um you know whether I agreee with it or not you know there is definitely people on the other side of is that like it has to have that and I kind of go how does your why is your fourth grader really need that it doesn't make sense to me but they they it's logical to them there's a lot of them too so let's I would say don't rush exactly so hear from folks first see what see what kind of thoughts we have and then we can begin to work with our Educators and our Administration to craft something that makes sense y for us okay all right other thoughts related to the motion to um direct the superintendent to establish a task force related to the topic of uh device usage at school all right seeing none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Jamie yes Michaela yes Julie yes and yes for me as well all right um so we can plan to maybe see some information going out related to establishing that by late summer early fall and started I think we can there might be some existing tried and true validated surveys out there that we can tap into and perhaps that can go out in advance of establishing a task force we'll do some we'll do some like work on it for sure sounds good all right um so we are moving on we have an executive session and a uh recommended motion um we're going to are we going to change that to not reconvene we're not going to and it's um with collective bargaining units a and f as well okay collective bargaining units am okay got it okay I move that the school committee meet an executive session persuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21A purpose to conduct a strategy session in preparation with nonunion Personnel independent contract administrators section A and section F and purpose s consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings to not reconvene into Open session we have a motion do we have a second yeah can we clarify unit corre unit correct we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a roll call vote Zach yes Jamie yes Michaela yes Julie yes and yes for me as well um this meeting is adjourned and we will see everyone next week thanks