##VIDEO ID:nsB53BrVcsM## e e good evening calling to order the school committee uh meeting of August 20th 2024 we'll all rise and salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mrs bronston Rizzo here Mr cajano here Mr Kingston here Mrs milber Ellis present Miss monteroso present Mr sella pres mayor Keefe here we have recognition none okay then we have the consent calendar motion to approve the consent calendar second Mrs bronston Rizzo yes Mr cajano yes Mr Kingston yes Mrs Milbury Ellis yes Miss monteroso yes Mr sella yes mayor Keef yes no student repres a report we have uh this this moment in time we have public speak at this time anyone wishing to public speak in the audience hearing and seeing none and anyone on our there's no one in the zoom no okay no one wish to public speak we're going to close that end of the hearing yeah motion to close public speak a second second all in favor I okay superintendent report thank you Mr Mayor we have um three items on the superintendent report and the first one is a presentation from our legal council Jennifer king um who I have to say did a phenomenal one-hour presentation to administrators this morning at our meeting um she's going to do a much briefer presentation um for the school committee about 5 to 10 minutes just to give you an overview of the differences between what Title 9 was like before and what it is now under the new regulations um so welcome Jennifer thank you Dr Kelly and thank you to the school committee for having me this evening if you bear with me a moment I do have some slides prepared to to go over some of the changes and I am happy to address any and all questions um that any committee members may have about the changes um so looks like I'm not able to share my screen um I can walk through everything verbally if that's preferable I'm trying to figure out how to give you that permission can you try one more time I think I may have just done it there we go okay all right so I'm going to go through some of these changes um I will certainly stick around at the the end we just have three slides to answer questions but if anything pops up as I'm going through just because I can't see everybody in the room um Diane if you could just let me know if somebody in the committee has a question I'm happy to address that um so sort of to to start um one thing to sort of know so Title 9 is a federal law it went into place over 50 years ago it's only 36 words and it ban sex discrimination in any educational institution that receives Federal funding previously um the Department of Education which enforces Title 9 UM and changes the regulations time to time had a very narrow definition of conduct that the district was required to investigate under its policies and procedures pursuant to Title 9 so again before very narrow definition of sexual harassment um looking at hostile environments things of that nature now Title 9 has changed to really Encompass the actual definition of sex based discrimination um the Department of Education in those regulations is now in interpreting and including sex gender identity sexual orientation and pregnancy as falling under the umbrella of um of sex discrimination previously uh the district had already been obligated to address any such complaints under these protected classes by way of Massachusetts law and regulations so it isn't changing anything that we still have a responsibility to investigate um and address those matters rather now it falls under title 99 in that process so what that is really doing and it sort of gets to the next piece here is that is increasing responsibilities for Title 9 coordinators those were previously um those types of Investigations were able to be dealt with that building Levels by assistant principles and principles so what we are seeing as a result is many districts are appointing multiple Title 9 coordinators to make sure um that we are able to timely respond to any complaints that come in and additionally some districts are even um hiring or have full-time Title 9 coordinators and that actually gets to the next piece which um speaks to sort of coordinators and the other roles in the investigative process so in the old regulations there were sort of a separation of the three main roles in the process you have your title n coordinator who coordinates the entire investigation an investigator who Gathers information and interviews parties and a decision maker to determine violations of any policies um beforehand those all had to be three separate individuals and now um those can all be the same um you know districts still should use best you know judgment in practice to determine um if we want to separate those out but at a building level that will likely make things easier if our principles and assistant principles can be both the assist the investigator and the decision maker um another change that is actually very helpful is that of supportive measures so previously the regulations had um no language addressing any specific needs for special education students um something that came up quite a bit in the last few years was was that students who receive special education services by way of an IEP or 504 plan and were part of a title 9 investigation um may have needed some types of accommodations and one receiving um the regulations now make absolutely clear that if a student does receive special education services the title 9 coordinator does need to consult with members of that student's team to determine any accommodations that they may be entitled to during an investigation process um another sort of change for for all staff is that previously the district was only obligated to um to move forward with a title 9 investigation if it had what was called actual n knowledge of conduct that could violate the policy and again would be sex based or sexual harassment um that really required individuals to fully disclose a matter and was more than just you know overhearing something now any employee that is made aware of any allegations that could reasonably constitute sex discrimination are obligated to T to contact the title n coordinator with the exception of confidential employees like counselors nurses but there is another me mechanism that they do need to support students in going to the title 9 coordinator another change is that um previously complainants had to be presently participating in the district's educational program or activity in order to Avail themselves to a title 9 investigation now complainants are able to file complaints and bring about allegations after they have left the employment volunteer or um education program of the district however respondents still need to be currently participating as an employee volunteer or student because otherwise you know there there's limited ability for the district to take um you know responsive action unless the respondent's currently enrolled another change in this more affects sort of middle school high school level is that previously districts could not investigate off school conduct unless it was school sponsored and if it had taken place outside the US like a International field trip if something happened there we couldn't do anything with that now the district does have the ability to investigate when contributing to a hostile environment so any type of you know sexual harassment assault discrimination occurring outside of the school day that's creating a hostile environment for students in school that is something that we can can look into in partnership with the um with the SRO depending on the nature of the allegations um another sort of important change is that the previous regulations had um very distinct time frames for every step of the process so you had to list out um you know I have 5 days to interview a complainant 5 days to interview a respondent another 5 days to do the remaining interviews this many days to do XY Z now we just have to set time frames for the major stages of the investigation so the actual investigation which we recommended is 25 school days um I believe it's 15 days for the decision maker to me out a decision um and then some other time frames I think the same for any type of appeal that that is pursued um another change is that previously Title 9 didn't have anything in place really for pregnant or parenting students now if the district is aware of a student who is pregnant um that student um does need to receive information on how to contact the title 9 coordinator and receive information on reasonable accommodations that will enable their access to their education during their pregnancy lastly um and another sort of positive change that we see is questioning by by parties previously parties in an investigation could submit written questions to one another this in practice was effectively like written cross-examination um so it had a bit of an impact on parties when this was occurring now this is no longer required it is no longer part of the policy however parties still maintain the ability to review and respond to evidence gathered during the investigation so they can issue that communication to the investigator but there is no um sort of complainant in responded directed Communications that are recurring so those are the major changes that we're seeing in Title 9 again I'm happy to answer any questions concerns um that any of the committee members may have any no questions okay very nice thank you oh I I just want to say I'm afraid every morning when I open up the paper I watch the news what changes and regulations are going to be made um it was nice to read yesterday about um well no it wasn't nice that the Supreme Court blocked partial enforcement so tomorrow's another day but thank you for that presentation it was very helpful absolutely thank you anyone else okay great thank you for your presentation thanks Jennifer thank you okay uh the next item on the superintendent report is actually a presentation from our friends uh Chris and Caitlyn from RE High School um when we left school in June there was still significant concern uh among the committee members around cell phones attendance and and how the support teams were working and um so I asked Chris and Caitlyn who I know have been working very hard on all three of those topics to just give a quick update before the new school year starts next week um did you want me to pull that up here or you okay can you hear me that's on okay so Caitlyn's passing out so just a quick one pager that we pulled together for you of some of the things that we're focusing on across these three areas so um My Hope was I could kind of talk through them with you briefly and then just give a can a chance to ask questions have a dialogue about kind of what your questions are or concerns are um so if it's okay I'll kind of start dropping through um Dr Kelly you're welcome to pull it up if you want to there don't want you don't have to I think it's up now Paul yep there we go pa um so I'll start with cell phones so I it is our vision for this coming school year that we are you know creating an environment where students families caregivers um teachers experience phonefree learning experiences while they're in in class and doing school at Rivier high school and so um the we spent a lot of time thinking through is sort of like what are the day-to-day steps that our administrative our leadership team needs to take to be able to support teachers have the classroom level strictness that they need to bring the policy that is written in on paper to life and so it begins with sort of our whole school messaging which is happening beginning this week um really kind of expanding our rationale to sort of like not just like what the policy is but kind of the developmental impacts of kids being so addicted to phones and so we're kind of pushing that out um we are creating slides for teachers to be able to have consistent messaging to students in class we are um having grade level assemblies on the first day of school so sort of teachers aren't the ones carrying the burden of making sure that attendance policy and cell phone policy and that stuff is you know we want to be the ones that are the first leaders and speakers of that we have purchased uh lockboxes for each classroom um so that teachers are able to securely store phones that they're confiscating following the process that we've outlined I think a lot of times students have uh resistance or conflict comes in place when students feel that their phone's going to get taken and we have had instances of like phones being on the back of the door you know all docked up and then somebody takes someone and we spend two hours trying to find the stolen phone so we're trying to kind of find a ways to securely store those in classes so we've got those ordered those should be in before the first day of school um same thing for at the grade level or at the assistant principal level um kind of ways for them to store those securely um we have a sort of more all hands- on Deck approach in terms of our administrative team's response to teachers reaching out for support in the moment um we are also trying to provide teachers sort of with language to use um if they so choose to kind of give them um guidance on how to like hold the line um with students and kind of so that all students are experiencing consistent messaging when they are not engaging with that cell phone policy um and then as our policy has we have a sort of a 10-day um phone docking in the ap's office by the second time it gets to the assistant principal and so that is sort of our uh the result of thinking that we've done with with our administrative team of like what's doable what's what's what needs improvement from last year um to be able to support teachers in having that classroom level strictness across the board so um I can keep going or I can kind of pause for questions on cell phones and so I don't know what you'd prefer yeah what ises the um all Hands-On deck look like so the idea is we have a few different like ways that teachers communicate with our administrative team we have uh an email list Serv it's called rhs admin um and it basically goes to all eight administrators in addition to all administrative assistance so operations assistance um we discourage people to use that for emergency situations but for um you know reaches uh Outreach for support on things like I have a student who I'm trying to get the phone from and they're not playing like we don't want teachers have to like fight with kids and stop the lesson and do all of that in class the idea is just send an email to rhs admin um we're all on ironically on our phone so we need to figure out how we navigate that but um we have administrative assistants who are monitoring that and will let us know oh room 209 needs support on a cell phone and then kind of it doesn't matter who the student is or who their AP is just who whichever administrator is closest and available to do that and I think the all hands on deck piece is that like this is uh implementation of this is going to be the thing that we focus on and that just requires us to kind of make sure we have somebody available at all times at least in the beginning of the year to be able to respond to what we anticipate is um increased conflict or also lack of understanding of students like kind of like why we're doing that so that's what that's one way that that manifests yeah and I like the idea of um of the admin's lead in the charge on this yeah one because it puts it in the students mind that um you know the teachers are just following what theyed to do so it's like somebody has to be a bad guy right some adults have to be the bad guys so it has to fallowing you I think it makes for a much um easier communication between teacher and student right think that it's your fault exactly exactly yeah Mr Mr K um Denise Mata Tony mata's wife had given me his notebook yeah and one of the things in his notebook was cell phone policy and it did stress that taking the teacher out of the equation as much as possible and kind of put it on the admin so I'm really happy to see this I'm I'm also happy to see this list I wish you the best of luck I think it's a great um it's a it's a it's a great list and I'm I'm happy to see it and I mean that I wish you the best of luck I know it's going to be a challenge but I think meeting with them in assembly in a group that was another thing that Mr Mata had in his notes he left me left me quite a few notes but that was another one um having the admins you know in kind of intervene on that so like you said it doesn't disturb the lesson in the rest of the class yeah and having an assembly those were two of the things that he had for cell phone policies and a couple of others that you've mentioned here so I think it's great Tony to for 30 years knows a lot more about teaching than I do and for him to say those things and you to say those things it puts me in a good place so I appreciate the effort and thank you of course Mr K how of are you going to be sitting down with you say assembly with parents as well as students about the new policy that we're going to be doing yeah so students we have planned uh for the first day of school so every grade level will be brought down for sort of like opening day um items and these are items that you're looking at are on that um we have uh messaging going out to families about this we've had open forums for that last year um can continue to do that I I don't anticipate widescale resistance from families on that I think families struggle with kids in their phones as much as we do um but we can we'll definitely create space for families to kind of uh partner with us sort of more i' would hope on the like developmental aspects of why cell phones and app Obsession and smartphones and all of that is is problematic sort of more from like an adolescent Public Health perspective than a policy perspective is sort of our plan but is that going to be like a continuation constantly because you know we haven't done it and now we're going forward so we need to increase education as well as be consistent in our policies now what happens when students basically want refuse yeah I mean that's that's that is the story of being a high school administrator right that we're dealing with students who refuse to do things all the time so I think 85% of students are going to do whatever we're asking them to do if we're consistently implementing the policy and 15% or some variation of that we need to figure out what to do and plan with problem solve with them families and so um I think the approach is the bigger picture messaging for everybody and then problem solve on a smaller scale abut thank you did you want to say something Miss K no I was roll if I can just compliment too because one of the things that you mentioned was the consistent messaging but the continuity between yourself and Miss Riley in the building and now you're on you're like you're on three year three yeah year three and um it's also then been that gradual change of you know we know that there was a lot of discourse four years ago on the first return and it's kind of it has steadily gotten better but it's been with consistent policies reiterating the messaging and the continuity of the two of you I I mean I come through the halls and you're very active you're very engaged you're all over the place I mean sometimes you're playing teacher sometimes you're playing security guard and and sometimes you're playing in between or you playing parent yeah you got other assistant superintendant that are also supporting you that have literally taking themselves down um because you you do you do care so I I see it progressively getting better I know it's still away from where we all want it to be but we're always striving for Perfection and I think a lot of it has to do with the two of you so good job thank you I appreciate it good m r so this will be part of the handbook um so what is in what is on paper in the handbook is is exactly the same as it was last year I think the struggle with last year was the way that we implemented that right so I think the level of nuance of like how a teacher implements that I don't think belongs in a student handbook that is kind of the back end of how how we operate as adults right um the policy is the policy which is what you guys set and what is written into our handbook um the work we do with teachers is just more kind of like what's the step by step um the second thing is with Tony's family over the weekend um discuss how adamant he was about something being implemented and I said um being strong like Tony I am going to make sure something happens and there's many on this committee that will follow through too so I'm I'm sure he would have been very happy with this so thank you so much of course thank you oh Mr sella I think it's nice to have been the bad guy as an assistant principal and it's nice to take it away from the teachers because of the fact is that they wrong one no you're fine it's just it's not working working oh all right but it it it helps with the administration end of it because no one wants to be the bad guy whether it's a parent or whatever but you can't pick up the newspaper or watch the news this is almost Nationwide it's it's taking what became a thorn in somebody's side it's now front and center and it's rewarding that we're in the Forefront we're catching the wave and it it's comforting to know but it'd be interesting to see how it progresses and the UPS the Downs um congratulations to you and your staff very good thank you thanks thank you transitioning to next topic yes um so we think about our attendance policy um our vision for the school is that we have um a culture where people students caregivers teachers see being on time being on program is essential to what it means to be on track to a successful High School experience um and sort of re we did a lot of work with faculty last year um towards the end from April vacation till June um we had some working groups of faculty and one of them we really dug into attendance and like what is the what are the different roles and responsibilities of teachers engagement coordinators family aison the operations assistants the administrators what is everyone's role in implementing the attendance policy communicating it and so forth um and so we basically came up with three outcomes that we're working towards implementing this year the first is that we have these defined role specific um responsibilities for improving attendance at the high school the second is that we have a more thorough um treny prevention program specifically for students who aren't coming to school or aren't coming to school consistently on a daily basis and that we have a better way to kind of consistently systematize what happening in terms of what kind of I refer to as in school treny students who are in school but skipping a class or picking going late um you know to think about the way that we can in increase the amount of um on program behaviors that we see um and so I just kind of want to do an overview of some of what we're doing with that so we're uh this week launching sort of some whole Community U messaging around uh September is actually attendance awareness month I'm not sure if you are aware of that but sept September as a return to school is a sept uh is attendance awareness month and so we're really trying to focus on some of the research on how to get families involved in knowing their students attendance status relative to their peers there's a lot of research out there that shows that when families are told that um Diane has been absent this many days it's this percentage and that's actually twice as much or three times as much or four times as much as the average student at the high school that that simple communication actually really increases families um kind of handle on their students attendance so we've got those blasts uh kind of teed up and ready to go out to families we're trying to stagger that communication yeah it is actually that is the exact um uh there's an article on the globe this weekend I don't know if you saw but they kind of referenced that specifically yeah exactly um and so uh those kind of nudge letters we call them are sent are sent out as well as kind of caregiver awareness campaigns something to the effect of you know missing two full school days over the course of a month um sets a student up to be significantly off track from graduation in a way that parents don't realize CU it's just two days and so that kind of bigger picture awareness um going down to really redefining what we mean by excused and unexcused absences that I think since Co has been sort of a thing of the past and sort of really um making sure that families are aware just because you call in and say Caitlyn's not coming to school today doesn't mean that it's an excused absence and so I'm pulling that there we have some uh systems that we're putting in place for um kind of reinstituting attendance points so when students are off program when students are late to class when students are late to school there's an acral of points that earn that will kind of put them in a spot where one they sort of are owing time that they need to make up assignments that are missed in that that um in that setting as well as kind of who is sort of in good standing and what that means can you practice can you play can you attend clubs can you participate in kind of school um school activities if you're not in good standing in terms of attendance and so kind of bringing back sort of a more kind that tangible impact of missing missing school um or missing class time um having better kind of consequence role Clarity on what is the teacher's job to maybe ask a kid to stay after school because they came late to class versus the assistant principle in their team's role of following up with students who Skip entire classes or those bigger patterns and kind of just getting we all of those things were happening in Pockets but not in a coordinated way where it's like this is what the teacher does this is what the AP does this is what their team does and figuring that out so we kind of we've hashed all of that out sort of in the fall in the spring shared it with faculty at our last principal meeting for some feedback on that and we're kind of going to kick off the year with that um and I'm GNA kind of jump to the next one and then I'll take questions at the end if that's okay um just kind of updating on our support team structure you know it is really our desire that the people in our school Community students teachers caregivers and and um administrators of experience our support team process as a way that we can leverage relationships that we can collaboratively problem solve to support students um when they're in trouble so that they can kind of demonstrate the resilience that we know our kids have um we did a lot of work last year taking what I'd like to point out is we had 240 support teams prior to last year we had five assistant principles there were eight guidance counselors there were seven School social workers each of those had like that if you do the math there's like 240 configurations of the way that adults worked with each other we have five now and so I think the work of last year where we have um just kind of update you on some of the things we've done we have weekly support team meetings every team every assistant principal in their team meets for the entirety of period two when one day a week to both kind of talk about the whole cohort and do individual case conferencing and support planning we bring the parent in bring the kid in bring teachers in and and we kind of were playing around with building our processes last year so last year was sort of a year of doing and also designing um one of the things we heard from teachers was that we wanted more they want more consistency across those teams right they want certain things that are what i' call public facing to be the same across the five assistant principal teams and there are certain things behind the scenes that people can their own way right and so we kind of have gotten clear over the course of last year what those things are we've had a variety of professional development series for APS and their support teams we've had uh 40 kind of individualized coaching sessions with our colleagues of Boston College that you all have supported um to come in and observe support team meetings give ap's feedback on our referral process on our action planning on our followup and so we've kind of spent a lot of time developing our handbook for student support and um have kind of tested that out and gotten feedback on that and we're sort of ready to like launch right um and uh when I think about this year our my hope is that we're if we think about last year going from 240 configurations to five My Hope Is that this year we're going from these five support teams to really functioning with like One support team process and I think the I think the when I reflect on my leadership of this last year I think one thing I had wish I had done um at the beginning of the year was sort of set people's expectations better for the fact that this is deeper work we're changing on how we're changing how people work together um based compared to how they've worked together independently for years and so there's sort of a a grow uh a growth experience of those teams working together um that we're really kind of hoping to see the benefits of this year in terms of those consistent processes so we worked with teachers to develop um routines for how faculty request support on different things when they need to collaborate with different concerns they have and that that's consistent across the school um that we have a more robust uh student action planning or student support plan process of like making the action plan for kids and sharing it with faculty and implementing it so everyone knows what different goals kids are working on when they're on a support plan um and increasing the range of supports particularly for like social emotional supports and engagement supports that teachers can reach out to um support the support team members on so kind of giving teachers a list of if you're struggling with these things these are some classroom level interventions that you might try if that's not working these are some support team level interventions you might want to make a referral for and reach out to and this is the right person these are the things for the social worker these are the things for the counselor this is assistant principal and so forth um and we've kind of Flushed that out with teachers so I just these two go hand inand I think we can't think about attendance without student support so um yes I think one quick question is for the attendance and outcome three are you all you know maybe exploring I know it's work for some schools in Boston is hiring Hall monitors where it's like a part-time prision they're just more adult bodies in the hallways to help with the skipping and being out of class yeah so I we I feel very strongly supported in that we we have that I think what we're working on is sort of the routines of how uh how those home Hors better collaborate with assistant principles with our team and then like what's the followup when it's the third fourth fifth time the student is doing the same thing and just for clarification those are the campus supervisors that we were talking about earlier that the Middle School schools are now looking at how it's working at the high school and thinking we want that too yes anyone else okay can I make one point in closing I think a misconcept like I think people are often set on the fact that that there's not a failure due to attendance means there's no absent policy and like we we have attendance policy right we have there are implications for missing class there are natural consequences and sort of school developed consequences for those that we're that we are U putting in place whether it's detention or whether it's kind of this idea of being in good standing or not and I think that it' be helpful for us as a school if we as adults can kind of get on board on the same page that there is an attendance policy it it says the kids need to be in school it needs to be in class and that there's consequences and responses when they're not um I think it is somewhat detrimental to our efforts when the talk is that there's no attendance policy um I think that looks different different places and we're working to kind of have that communicated well and I think the same if kids get the same message from teachers from us from their family from you all from the community um that there is an attendance policy this is what it is and this is how we're following it like I think that is very helpful and so I'd ask your support on that thanks thank you thank you thank you both thank you good luck next week get some rest I know right okay um so Mr Mayor the last thing on the superintendent's report was I just wanted to make sure that the public at large I know the committee is aware but uh that Folks at home are aware that we updated our website and hopefully you've all had a chance to check it out um I think it's much better than it used to be um we've updated all the school Pages as well and we'll be continuing uh to update and add new content as we go forward but that's at uh Riv k12.org if anybody wants to go check that out and find some great information there Jim Mr sell through to the superintendent Diane what uh what's being done with cell phones in the middle schools and anything in place or wait to see how this works uh no we actually talked about cellones in the middle school and it's much less of a problem there um the kids are much more compliant with not having the cell phones out um than what we experienced at the high school so the administration at the middle school level feels they have that well in hand thank you thank you and then anyone else no okay next on the hearings we have none and then subcommittee reports Mr chairman Mr sow thank you um the um sub committee on plant and maintenance uh met on uh July 29th in attendance were members uh Stacy Rizzo John Kingston and Alicia also came to the meeting uh the issues that um we discussed uh as was mentioned in at the um Committee of the whole with the flip locks and um it was interesting that apparently the parent company was unaware of apparently state law that you can't have two locks on the same door and that we're as the superintendent made reference to it only works on roundo knobs not the levers so there's going to be an expense coming forth uh the Lincoln School has to be changed over and part of the high school so it was a very informative meeting um to be able to go and see them in action and to see how it works um it helps the comfort zone so uh I think that the um assistant superintendant um has to be commended because I didn't know anything about this but that doesn't mean anything but the the way normally when it breaks down it it just collapsed but this was picked up and the Continuum is well on and even when the new high school's built the middle school will have um access to this technology so that was very enlightening uh the other thing that we did discuss was the space the possibility of portable classrooms uh which is on everyone's mind as to how what when and where uh the superintendent um made it a point of specifying that in-house is trying to work out to have uh adequate um accessibility even even the school committee room um I had uh made a a discussion where Right Aid is um vacant the possibility of pro close proximity to the high school uh the possibility of classroom uh the superintendent uh mentioned different aspects would make it a little difficult but mentioned the possibility of the administration offices going over um which would free up space that are now taken by the um uh Administration um we also mentioned that the possibility of space for the city um instead of having satellite places a storefront here or something there maybe the space could be um split uh it's plenty of parking at level so this was just something that we we offered as a possibility to approach um the proudness at the high school uh of Interest also was the update of the Hill School um with the um air conditioning and the director of plant maintenance assured us that it was well underway that um it had to have been customized um to uh activate so that is a time slot but it's it's been activated and now with the school starting and everything else hopefully the weather will be more Cooperative but these were three issues that were very well received and the debate flowed um um Mr um Stacy who else was there there was Mr oh Mr Jacob oh he volunteered to come in and and he did some some figurine square footage and all that ja so so gave more insight as to what is needed and how we're going to get it on that end of it uh of Interest was uh addressing uh director of plant maintenance was the episode at school committee meeting apparent ly uh RTA was concerned with um problems of rodents and as soon as it was mentioned um director of plant maintenance stepped right up and mention as soon as it's said they have traps they have glue they they're right on top of it um those of us Citywide know that the city has a program with um rod and control and upon further investigation apparently a couple of members did make reference of seeing not mice but rats and when questioned further neither one of them have seen it they were told about it so that the more discussion we had the better it kind of played out so that the general public does not think that the P Pipers coming to town to rid us of rodents so it's well under control the the people are doing the job they're they're expected to do and I I think that they're to be commended on it also so we found it to be a very productive meeting um on four counts and the issue I guess what I want to let the committee understand as a whole that it doesn't look as though it's feasible for portable housing due number one the cost which is is astronomical but is procuring as someone mentioned earlier with the buses they're not available so this is the same thing here and if you order them by the time you get them the school's going to be half built and things are going to be on that end of it so the superintendent and her staff are looking for in-house uh the superintendent through the the mayor possibility of Right Aid to see if there's something that would be there I know plant maintenance would love to see it um I guess there would be an asset but again we can't by we can't um appropriate so if there's any questions or anything that I may have left out I would appreciate any input but it was a very productive meeting Alicia sure I would just add um with respect to the issue of rodents uh the the reminder that if somebody does see something they should report it because I recall upon investigation into into some of those instances um where individuals alleged to have seen something they had not reported it so that's the only thing I would add to to everything that you um reiterated from the meeting well I think that's what Kyle mentioned more than once as soon as soon as they're notified I immediately it's not we'll get to it tomorrow um but it's also been noted through episodes within the classrooms themselves who missed the basket and I'm not talking students who missed the basket who did this on more than one occasion they were surprised to come in and find you know so I think that it's like anything else if if everyone works at it then it shouldn't be a problem if there is a problem it can be addressed Stacy would you like to add anything to it or no thank you for having the meeting Mr Kingston did a good job but I thank you people for you know it it was it was something that had to be said something that had to be discussed and it was done beautifully aside from me in my big mouth but that's nearly here there but uh thank you for the time thank you thank you Mr Mr chairman on the subcommittee report one thing and uh I think you had a productive meeting which was nice and I and I appreciate your words um just not to throw any cold water on the theory uh the city is not going to be purchasing Right Aid I hate to break it to everyone um we just don't have the the resources and just so everyone knows in the viewing public is we're not really buyers of real estate uh we we took on a pretty big uh nut when it comes to taking on a large sum of land to build a future high school that is going to um contain us for the next number of years on top of the other projects uh it would be nice if we had the ability to and we had the riches but certainly not uh right Aid's a private uh space and we hope to see future retail and commercial space over there and uh that that complement our community Patrick and just it was it was never implied to purchase the rental if they were looking to rent for all we needed is a short period of time it kind of took a life of its own let's why not buy it you know everything does not not because of you but everything takes on a life of its own as we know and and that's how communication goes these days but just yeah we you know I I was already taking measurements U it it's it's probably best served for a great retail thank you very much Hey listen no stone unturned and it's always good good to think and discuss um but I just wanted to clarify we ain't buying right a thank you okay U the next item any other subcommittee reports Miss Rizzo thank you um health and special education subcommittee met at the Hills School on June 17th in attendance was Aisha milbery Ellis and myself and also in attendance was Dr guchi director of Comprehensive Health Jill herwig and also um our school nurse from Garfield Middle Jessica gagman and our Hill school nurse Connie Ganon was an attendance and it was an opportunity to discuss on enhancing the comprehensive um Health Department we've had trouble for many years um with school nursing keeping them um we even tried going out and having the city nurses work here um even that was not working out um City nurses start off with a higher salary even though our School nurses May reach um a higher salary later on it's a little bit easier for them to get more um but our goal um we spoke about our goals for that and we talked about maybe starting them off at a step three for the in to honor the years of experience um also to keep in mind dph recommends a school nurse um to student ratio um full-time professional school nurse with 200 50 to 500 students and that's a recommendation I'm not saying it's a mandate it's a recommendation um but we were all in agreement that we should probably start at having 14 and a half nurses within the city in the city even though um we need to eventually overshoot that number down the road um and many times um we have a float nurse but that nurse is used to cover all the absences um which last year was extremely a large amount um so our goal there was to try to reestablish the pay our R Public Schools nurses paid $140 a day whereas if you go to Malden it's 240 brain tree 260 and good old Boston at $500 so need to relook at those things we also looked into a permanent Sub sub for a nurse we have them for each school for teachers and perhaps with the um permanent sub um nurse sub that will help with the absentees and when there's no one out they can help with doing the BMI screenings the hearing and vision screenings there's many things that they could be helpful with um we also discussed um an agency to cover for an extended leave um and Jill herg was looking into that and we talked about the pick part-time nurse and if it's being utilized properly because that person is being used for administrative work paperwork um and the importance right now is having full-time nurses in all our R schools um also we talked about field trips and the goals are um to have a nurse should be and must be an attendance at all School field trips field trips forms must be submitted within the guidelines set forward by our Educators that would like to go on these field trips and there should be no excuses um we also discussed um back in the covid days about um there was supposed to be a second Hill school nurse um in and I had Dr guchi and I were going to try to look it up and we when I did find it in the minutes and then just this morning I got the um video of it because I had no notes um and it does State a second nurse for the Hill school and I realized a lot of times that second nurse is being used as a flow to cover absentee but that's not helping the situation at Hill school that principle put in back in 2021 to add a school nurse she felt there was a big need for it and I respect um that you know somehow we need to look at how we can Rectify it where add you know we talk about the money and carry forward and stuff but we need to help this department I believe um I I do have a warm spot in my hat for it I'm not going to lie but more importantly it's about the students and you know especially like field trips you can't send an educator on a field trip to give an epip pen I mean some people might think it's not a big deal but it is a big deal it's a lifethreatening illness um so we can't send a educator that has no training whatsoever and we also have to remember anyone that's going on these field trips if they're not not the nurse they're working off the nurse's license and that's not fair to them um so hopefully with some of these goals um and Dr guchi can have conversations with Dr Kelly we can um build this department to make it stronger and and that one right there Mrs Rizzo is a little bit tricky because we often have parents who will volunteer to go with their child if they have a significant Health con concern um or we have parents who happen to be nurses who volunteer to go on the trip and in those cases I think saying that you have to have a school nurse there puts an additional burden on the district because if we're sending our School nurses out on all the field trips then it just adds to the point of we don't have enough nurses covering and the the nurse that you're talking about the second position at the Hill School um we did want to put that second nurse there and said that they would float when somebody was absent we never imagined there'd be the level of absenteeism that we've seen since Co and so you're absolutely right we thought that person was mostly going to be at the hill and sometimes would travel um and the reason we thought that nurse would travel um as opposed to the other schools that have multiple nurses like the Garfield complex has two nurses but there are over 1,200 kids in that building the so the Hill school is large there's over 600 kids but we would pull a second nurse from there to make sure a school was covered before we would pull a second nurse from The Garfield or because of similar class size to second nurse from the West re complex or even here at the high school we have three nurses but there's 21,100 kids up here we need the three nurses up here you know so those are the kinds of decisions that we've been making in addition to having the float nurse um and I'll have to look into the situation at the pick um I know that it was helpful to the nurses to have somebody there who could check the medical records of new students as they come in um and there are times when there are not a lot of new students coming in and so that nurse is doing other kinds of paperwork because we're going to make sure we that all of our employees are used to the fullest um so we could eliminate that position but it would mean that our School nurses would have to go back to checking all those records like they used to it used to be that the child's record went to the school they were getting assigned to and then that nurse would have to check those medical records before the child was actually admitted and having the nurse at the piic to check those records expedited the student enrollment which meant they were in school sooner but also alleviated the responsibility of the nurses in the building where the child was being assigned to so I I just would say that we should think a little bit more about um that role it is a part-time position because we know that it's only certain times a year where enrollments Peak um and we need that kind of help and support um so I'll just leave it at that so I just want to add one more thing as far as um when I checked the videos I checked the minutes we did never said or agreed on this person being the float the second nurse at Hill School um that no that was in addition to we already had the float nurse we had the float nurse the second nurse for Hill school was never discussed to be used for um substitute nursing it was a second nurse for Hill School period agreed the the challenge is when we have a lot of people out we can't leave a school with no nurse absolutely and that's why we also talked about having such as the permanent sub maybe we can get a permanent sub as far as nursing goes um and the other thing as far as a parent going with their student that was always the best case scenario always but there was so many times that students weren't allowed to go because their parent couldn't go and you don't want to take that away from the students never ever has a child been denied a field trip because they had a medical condition we've had students maybe not in the past 10 years why I haven't been in the schools but we've had students stay back at the school because we couldn't send a nurse with them or their parent couldn't go and no one should have to correct no should be deprived yeah we would never we I know in my tenure we've not done that because that would be a violation of that child's rights that's discrimination exactly yeah Mr Kingson I'm not sure this but it's something I've thought about before could a firefighter EMT go on a field trip if we paid them it would help with the nursing shortage I would think maybe that's something we need to look into we would also have to check if they're working under the school license um nurses license um just to make sure and that would be something we could ask the um attorneys um just a talk to give us some extra bodies because I well one of the things is we're not required by law to have a licensed medical provider on a field trip we are required to have a licensed have a person who's allowed to administer medication for students who have uh long-term medical issues like diabetes or um if they need to have an EpiPen administrator if they have allergies things like that we are required to have somebody with them it could be a health aid which we don't have health aids anymore um it can be the child's parent it can be a licensed nurse who doesn't work for us it could be an EMT who is certified to administer those things but you know we can definitely think more about whether or not we have the capacity already in the district and what capacity we need to add to make that happen um M Kelly much like Mr Kingston mentioned I was going to say the same thing is a lot like the you know we didn't have par professionals 30 years ago we had teacher aids we had Parents pan helpers and now we've we professionalized a little bit more but the real reason is because you need more bodies and people that can support the students and sometimes one teacher in a room isn't enough so in a school let's just say the high school if there's three n NES if we did have a health aid or some form of an EMT um to subsidize a supplant the three nurses we we all know that not every time a student's being seen is a serious medical condition although you want to have the trained Personnel but a lot of times it's a knee scrape it's a it's a it's a stomach ache a fever which I'm I'm not I said we we all know that there's not there's we would not say disregarding the need for nurses in schools but if you took the the 100% of the calls the needs You' probably find that more than 50% of them were things like knee scrapes right um my kids went to schools in rever schools for 12 years they never had a serious health issue but they were seen by many nurses Falls scrapes the same reason at our our athletic fields where there's lots of room for serious medical needs we have an EMT or a trainer on staff not you know so I'm just saying that Mr Kingston brought up a really good idea I think would probably be something that could be helped to subsidize the need and the shortage that we see in the nursing field you know my niece is a nurse in school and I said come work for the Rev school she goes doesn't pay enough no thanks I'm going to go to I'm going to go make $120,000 a year at at a hospital rightfully so thank you Miss montoso I uh as we're uh exploring options I like the idea of a permanent substitute uh permanent substitute nurse more just because in addition to the qualifications and the licenses to be a school nurse they also have the training of working with students and having that extra step there we're also not taking away from other First Responders that are always very much needed in other areas outside of schools so I'd like to continue the conversation about a permanent sub seeing what those numbers look like with Matt and then if we also need to have the conversation about possibly increasing salary so it is competitive uh seeing what that looks like I we I met a new teacher at orientation whose wife wanted to also be a nurse here but sagus pays her way more so now he's working here and she's working in sagus so I think we all have enough examples of that that waren that further exploration in the budget Mr Mr Kingston I I didn't mean to the I didn't mean for the firefighter to replace a nurse I just know that that this the difficult struggle in hiring nurses so as a stop gap or a Band-Aid whatever word you want to use that's why I thought the the uh possibly a fire rim EMT could help I I it's just it's very difficult to hire nurses and I don't know how you know it could great to have a substitute you know we maybe we can talk about their salaries um but a lot of that's contractual especially the nurses that are on the school side um the nurses on the city Side you have a little more flexibility but I just thought the EMTs in the meantime more to cover a field trip than actually in the school but wherever we could use them um and I wasn't trying to take from the fire that would be maybe on their day off that they would sign up to work to do a a field trip that type of scenario thank you thank you Miss Milbury um just a piggyback with what um Miss montoso had said could we also in this generalized discussion um look at health aids as well I know that it may be a um uh maybe helpful to have some health aids I think there were there were health aids that were employed right right during covid we had Co funding for that and thenx we had health technicians um and we when we were getting ready to come back from uh remote learning we hired a health technician to pair up with each nurse um so that if a nurse was dealing with a covid situation the health technician would be able to deal with the scraped knee or the headache or whatever the case may be and that we could isolate um folks away from somebody that maybe we were thinking had covid um and we did pay for them through the SR funding we did bring them into our budget but as they moved on we did not replace them um so we still we still do have a handful in the district I think we have like five left so we had um I think it was 14 to begin with we've got like five left um and I know one thing that Dr guchi mentioned to me uh was really and I think this might have come from the meeting that you all were at um was looking at where they are and how they're being used and whether or not they could be deployed to better meet District needs where we have some deficits okay and that was uh definitely a discussion on their training and reassessing where they might be needed um but there's still not medical personnel that any medical they'd be working under the nurse's license which I know there were some people I would never want working under my license um and um but they're great for paperwork hearing Envision they can do here in Envision they can help out with um many screenings Mr s through to the superintendent Diane point of information is the Mass General still have a clinic here they still do yes do they staff it or are we staff no they staff the clinic themselves and um they've they've been amazing as they always have been um it's a great resource here at the high school thank you thank you it's a very good resource okay well good discussion any other subcommittee reports no close those next time we have motions motion to approve R Public Schools employee handbook do we have pardon me motion to approve oh yeah discussion no no hearing none we'll do the next one it wasn't on my it wasn't on my agenda u a roll call no Dr M just to clarify this is a roll call on the school employee handbook okay okay all in favor I okay thank you so moved okay the second motion is the motion to approve the fiscal year 2025 RPS Student Activity accounts motion to approve second any discussion none all in favor I I the next motion is to motion to approve the guide to Reve public schools for students parents and caregivers motion to approve second discussion n all in favor I I so edk and then we have unfinished business I know there are a few items that were not discussed in the committee of the whole correct Miss monteroso uh so the next two points uh were points I asked to put on the agenda the first was discussion of the professional development for the school committee and so I was just uh thinking we how we had a session in the spring we're planning one right now for the fall but I think just to have continuous learning it would be really important if we set up some type of process or structure where we have kind of a fall Retreat where we dive into the data from our schools we plan our goals and then in the spring we would have another PD of just like 2 hours hours on a topic that we all need and so I realized that we actually don't have a school committee policy for professional development for ourselves so I wanted to raise that to you all see what you thought and then um I'll make a motion to refer it to policies and procedures to further discuss it so I just that was my first update there okay sounds good so with that I'd like to make a motion to refer the creation of a school committee PD policy to the policies and procedures subcommittee do I have do we have a second second uh any discussion all in favor all in favor so order and the next point was the creation of an an onboarding handbook so um once I came in as Vice chair I started to kind of create one so whoever is the next Vice chair doesn't have to start from scratch all the new things that we do and kind of things I wish I knew when I became a school Committee Member and then I realized that it might be helpful instead of me just creating that as a resource myself that we could create an onboarding handbook for new members so I wanted to bring that to you all and then if you like it once I can just pass my ideas and the work I've already done to policies and procedures so we can build it and then hopefully have it for the next people that come on okay great so once um I'll get all of that and then I'll bring it to you all once I have it in writing thank you okay and any other unfinished business follow up on the so the followup on the vocational conversation I had emailed you all a copy of the survey that Taunton Public Schools sent out um and just bringing you back to the organization that's working to um change the ways that students are accepted into the Vocational Technical programs um and hopefully get more seats developed across the state they ask was that we send a similar survey to our students who had applied to the voke and did not get in and then the family would choose whether they want to engage or not with that organization um and so I uh the request last time we met was that I get a sample of that survey um and I sent that to everybody and so I'm back to see what you think M Rizo Dr Kelly that was with I believe with the assistance of desie I'm not sure about that it's a nonprofit group um comprised of members from a lot of different um backgrounds I know that but I thought they were working with desie on this Oh you mean uh legislatively they were working with desie to create new rules that then the legislature would have to vote on yeah right if I may uh Mr K after the last meeting uh I sat down with the administration to just go over the demographics so they put uh something together for me I'll pass out and basically it breaks down the demographics of the voke itself and at the voke we do meet and exceed all the expectations and we do have a 10% Lotter rate but if you see is it this is basically the enrollment breakdown of the uh vocational school and uh the blue part is Ria high school and the red part is Northeast and if you notice um when we go through the different demographics Latinos we have much more at Northeast is probably like 60 something per at Riv high school and almost 80% at the vul uh the r high school has more whites than Northeast as far as afro-americans is pretty much even uh the Asian uh is more at R high and as far as the other multi ethnic groups there's more a little lit Northeast I just feel talking to a lot of parents who didn't make it in I think this like Mr sella said at the last meeting it just builds a they think they have a chance and right now we do have the most students but go we don't think we're not going to be able to have these people we don't have the room I mean we have we do have the most students and uh to build up their hopes I just don't think is a is a good thing thank you m Miss milary Ellis yeah my my thought on this is that while I'd like to um while I'd like to support Citywide initiatives that are in the best interest of students I am concerned that um I think that this survey it may be suggestive um and plant a seed that perhaps the reason why one student did not get accepted into our VOC AAL school is because of these issues that are happening Citywide so I just think there might be some confusion there or misleading or provide an inference that that's the case even if it's not and that may cause more problems for us um does that make sense I mean I just feel like it's something that I just would rather not touch I just see some harm coming out of it within our district rather than good godspeed to the to the rest of the state and and their initiative I just think it might be hurtful to us and plant a seed that there's discrimination where there's none and that's the last thing that that we need in this world is more accusations you know involving race thank you any other members no can I just add one more thing yes Mr G you know when we look at everything even with the full Lottery we're still going to have almost 300 kids on the waiting list regardless of a survey or if there's a lottery or not a lot I think we need to look at what can we do in Riv to help this and I talked before and I'll talk about it again is like an after do program with Northeast so these kids on the waiting list there'll be less we will be getting additional seating in 2026 how many seats we will get the most but we don't know yet and also two is the perception of the parents is is they're not getting not these can provide a better academic than we high and I think we need to change that perception change everything I don't believe that that I don't believe at all how many of the on in Stanford University no I'm not saying that I'm just saying the perception of parents because when they don't get in I get the calls and this year was was a lot and each year keeps getting more and more I'm just saying is we like you said like the Stanford part did we put it out there we need I think we need to put out I think John mentioned it before our successes also but the perception out there you know from the parents who don't get in not all of them a lot of it is vocational education but a lot of it is is academics and then maybe we can change that also Mr chairman good good points uh I I was going to counter some of that good Mr Snell I'm just I'm just curious has a motion been made no so this discuss well we should have a motion before we do any discussion so I apologize for not bringing that up at the beginning so I will make a motion to do the survey motion to approve the survey MH do we have a second second second all in favor question you can do discussion sorry I apologies any more discussion any further discussion I withdraw I'll just reiterate um Miss Miss Aisha Ellis uh Milbury Ellis apologies um stated some opposition to that prior to the motion and I think Mr kiano did as well but uh just kind of going back to when we were talking about um the education certainly the Northeast voke is a very good school and I I I think kids um wanting to go there now I love the fact that kids want to go to vocational schools now as opposed to 20 30 years years ago they were like you know pushed into into that school so the the tides have turned clearly from the the workforce needs out there and that's been really good but when we stand uh one school up against another um a lot of times it's just I think there's an environment that people think that they're getting it's it is a small school it's a small small school and it's it's in Wakefield so I mean I'm not going to infer what it is but it's a small school in a smaller city with a little bit more of a smaller town fail and some people are going there for that that doesn't I think that that's um really not U relative to the education and I'm not suggesting you're implying that either but I'll put the superiority of the Rivier school education pretty much over all of our neighboring towns as well not just our vocational schools so um outside of that I I think that um I'll concur with Miss milary Ellis's uh inclination that the the survey probably is not necessary especially with these stats it's clear that the Northeast vocational school is accepting students of of many different races uh in backgrounds that's my faing so anyone any other questions comments concerns call roll call Mrs bronston Rizzo yes yes Mr kiano no Mr Kingston no Mrs milberry Ellis no Miss monteroso no Mr sella no mayor Keith no motion fails the any other un unfinished business we're good new business um I know we've negotiated some of the contract successfully and I think that's great I was my concern is for the folks that aren't under contract um that aren't in a union such as the subs and other positions in the district that don't fall under any particular Union I was wondering when they um when their time at the P comes I guess thank you so the the subs are usually considered separately but typically um when the school committee votes to approve the asme contract they also vote to extend the benefits of fored to the asme employees to our non-contract employees that usually happens the same night um I anticipate that asks me will is going to have their ratification vote this week um and one of the things that we had talked about um with Mr cajano and Miss uh milb Elis was having a meeting an a I don't want to say an irregular meeting but a special meeting thank you I'm like my brain's noten working anymore today but have a special meeting for the purpose of voting on that contract is you know as soon as next week once we get notification that asme has ratified um thank you then we could look at that meeting and we could also vote for the non-contract employees I appreciate that thank you very much Miss mosa um yes just one more update that didn't make it on the agenda uh last meeting you all tasked the mayor and I with exploring the transition to City Hall so I sent you all an email update that now we can discuss if anyone has questions but the city council chambers are booked up for the rest of this calendar year so the city clerk put a hold for the whenever we meet starting next calendar year if folks want to move uh so I just want to give you all an update as you asked and then if folks have questions or if you all want to discuss this at the next C it's happening or not just want to pass it back to the full committee and just to further elaborate on that the um so meaning January uh the clerk feels confident that after January 1st they can accommodate you know um it'll definitely be a good tight squeeze from the standpoint of the schedule of the weeks throughout the month uh on top of that if anyone you know knows the city council chambers uh right directly behind the city council chambers is a fairly large open space that um goes towards the human resource office we've just uh started their renovations to build out a a fairly decent sized conference room that would fit up to 20 attendees so the good news is if we do shift over to the this um city hall building we can have subcommittee meetings uh or other uh meetings scheduled in the sub the conference room that is uh will be directly behind the city council chambers oh that's great great that space thank you thank you motion to adjourn second second all in favor I thank for --------- ##VIDEO ID:K9RbCx0Hn08## okay I believe we're live great okay and thank you all welcome to the committee of the whole meeting for Tuesday August 20th we'll call it to order the mayor is in the middle of City negotiations um with the Union so he'll join us shortly but until then I will go ahead and get started so those who can please stand and salute the flag pledge aliance to the flag of of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so the first order of business is our consent calendar and under that is the approval of minutes and I believe we had some folks who wanted to discuss them so we can open it up to discussion about the minutes okay I may start for those the one who sent out the email as far as with the minutes I just felt the minutes were incomplete I mean I checked with parliamentarians uh mon uh call the city uh at the city solicitor you come monitor uh like it's August and stuff like that and and lawyers and they basically said is it should be as accurate as possible and uh I even went on with the Attorney General on the website and everything and it quotes that this is a public meeting and therefore the the event should be as accurate as possible and I just feel like I said as far as with the meetings as they ask standard right now I'd have to do a roll call because I I not to agree to it feel them incomplete um so the only thing that I would say is that I I recognize that the minutes are not supposed to they're not supposed to reflect verbatim what's said during meetings but instead more so what's happened um but I also think that as a committee person like if I say that I want the record to reflect something that I'm stating then I would appreciate it if it were in the minutes so and and that doesn't have happen often but I felt very strongly about the goals as is and I wanted that reflected and and I thought your suggestion was was fine it could have been wored differently I could have worded it differently you know so that's it my thought was send this to a committee and let them do some research what like other districts are doing and things like that and then kind of come up with a model from there and just go forward Stacy were you can add something yeah I I'm not exactly sure what came back as far as the minutes went I saw the after conversation um so maybe I missed something um I saw your conversation on it it's not for bam it's just bullets and but it also doesn't have to reflect as the committee agrees as a whole because I'll say in the minutes of last month there something I've never agreed with and I don't want my name on it but it it it's just supposed to be small it's not supposed to be a grandstand type typ of situation um and I'm not saying that that's what you were talking about because again I don't know what you're referring to um I so why don't I summarize a little bit so the the discussion came up around the piece where the committee was discussing my evaluation and at the meeting um Aisha and Anthony both made commentary about not liking the goals the district goals and um feeling like there were other things that should have been involved and so when Robin captured those minutes she articulated some school committee members SP she gave kind to the general of my evaluation first and then said some committee members felt that the district goals should have been more closely related to academics and that's how she summarized um what I think both of you were trying to articulate well that was like a that was some of it I mean as far as can't speak by Asia but all with with me but also too is you know we talked about the perception of the admissions you know I mean of our academics and how more people are going away from the public schools and uh I think we need to be more focused on the goals itself you know and having the kids want to come here for academics you know we have a sem school too so it's not just about engineering it's not about uh they're going there for if they're going there for academics and they we've had discussions about discipline and so on so let me ask would anybody be opposed that while we're in meetings if if one of us felt that they wanted what they were saying to be reflected in the minutes that they asked Robin at that moment would they be opposed to that as opposed I mean if it's a point that they wen't reflected in the minutes then I think that that that should be allowed I know talking about her evaluation if you two had that conversation as you think it could be maybe something could be put in a little bit differently as going forward we like to discuss the district plan moving forward to maybe include a and C um but I guess the issue is the minutes so I guess the point is that if you were making a motion I would say absolutely you made a motion you second it or if you brought up something yes your name should be attached to it it was your idea or whatever it should come out with your name um discussions no no lengthy discussion so I think to build I think the first in terms of processes outside of what's in the minutes if someone has corrections I think it's good that we include everyone so for example if I already crossed it off my to-do list to review the minutes and then someone went back in and added something I'd like to know to make sure I don't know someone said I said the sky was pink and it's not so I think just making sure we're including each other if there's a correction that like I didn't catch so I can do better on that so I think that's on that side in terms of the minutes I think we didn't we don't have a standard practice sometimes we quote people sometimes we don't and I think that's okay I think if someone says Hey I'm reviewing the minutes I want this point of mind to be more articulated that's fine with me in terms of consensus I would just you know if it was okay for all of us to agree that that's doesn't become the standard practice every month where everyone wants to get quoted for everything they say because then it it would become a book become a transcript and so I think and it's available on the yeah it's right I think also our minutes are in good format so one that was my job before was to review districts for the state to make sure they were operating in open meeting law so for example now we've added in our list of documents in the agenda that had to be included it wasn't before so we were in violation of open meeting law so our minutes are good they're just supposed to be a summary of the discussion if someone feels their point wasn't shared I'm perfectly okay with someone you know every once in a while being hey elaborate on this uh the one thing that always does have to be recorded is um decisions made and action Takens including votes which we already do and so I think uh as we all just know what needs to be included and then I printed copies of the open meeting law handbook just for minutes if anyone wants one to see what has to be included and we do include all of that so that would just be my one let's include each other in emails if there's correction so everyone's aware and then two I'm okay with if someone wants to elaborate a point here or there as long it's not standard practice yeah me too maybe we can put in the that makes sense the minutes going forward that it's uh like weord on YouTube the date of such and such um you know what I'm saying in the minutes itself so basically it's the minutes are supported or if you need to go you mean referencing in the minutes but it but the the date on of the minutes is the date of the me or we can put on it it's also on like YouTube or yeah that's in our agendas and then we link directly on the website I think that could be something that puts is on the agenda but it's not really something that belongs in the minutes because that's just a summary of already happen yeah we with something where we can refer to that everything is on the agenda yeah all the the entire minutes and okay so I have two comments one I want to go to the accusation of us being out of order for open meting our attachments are all we have always had the attachments always it's not the attachments it's the list of documents what they don't have to be but we've always been told needs to be a list or the attachments itself for people to be able to view because if they had the list then they can come ask for the copy so we've always included the copy of the actual attachments and not just a list because if they're interested now they want the attachments my second thing is I I really there's so many things that has come up I really believe as a group we need to come up with some type of protocol worksheet on how we do business whether it's sitting in the room and how you want it set up or how we want the minutes to be done and what we would like um getting questions before the agendas come out I think we need to sit down to this group and do a checklist of what we think we might need or we might not and if we need it how do we go forward with it sorry what do you mean if we if we need what like our operating procedures to me whether it's how you want to sit in this room with an owl or um where does the superintendent sit if we're having a meeting many people don't have the superintendent and the student reps at the table so all those and those are just like public input um how we want to do deliberations at the school committee just a list of things and there is one on the masc site for samples and beliefs um and I can send it to everyone but I think we need to um look at it as a whole for a change instead of individual personalities yeah if you could share that with that could be a good starting point for that discussion thank you maybe that would be a good topic uh if the retreat happens if if we if there's a second Retreat um to talk through all of those pieces and even you know to the point that I think um Anthony and Aisha were making what happens when a new committee comes on and we're in Year Two of A Five-Year Plan um H how do things like that happen when you because that's going to happen more and more especially when the committee expands and I I from a super tenants perspective it can be really disruptive when new people come and have completely different ideas and you're halfway down a path and you've done professional devel you know what I mean like you've you've been going in One Direction and certainly as a superintendent or even the assistant superintendent I don't mind speaking for them um we want to do right by the school committee but we kind of we sometimes get in a jam when the mission and the vision is different uh because of an election and how we navigate that I think would be a great thing for the committee to think about as well operating yeah I have a few thoughts on that that tie into the PD but I'll wait till we get to that um for the next agenda I know so I think good points so for the sake of the minutes do we want to hold off to approve them next month or was every was everyone able to see the redrafted version I sent of that one sentence I'm fine tonight okay just PL of information I'm a little confused if reading the minutes as presented we feel slighted and are misquoted and are all of the above could lead to my interpretation of what was said and what was interpreted so you'll take his gospel because I object to it I want it this way either that or we go with the meeting and ver them not a challenge it it it's it's contradictory to a point they had a point they felt wasn't addressed properly uh whether it was a plus minus or whatever contributed to it we're saying collectively is that by all means you can make a change my understanding of a change in the minutes was when something was eliminated not how it was interpreted not how it was perceived or not how so I I that's what I'm I'm because I think any meeting we have I was misquoted at at a a meeting that I made they wanted to hang me um so you know you have you have a situation where where is the line drawn if if the concerns are valid which they are then it's going to have to be verbatim whoever whoever transcribes the minutes it's going to have to be and I think someone referred to you're G to have volumes yeah so I think the the question here was if someone is misquoted then that means the minutes are incorrect and when we are reviewing minutes it's our job to make sure that they're activ representing what was but who distinguishes how what the misquote is if it's about one person individually so in this example not to point you both out the quote was from one of the two members so they wanted to correct that or expand on it for the record so and it's on and it's on um stream it's on YouTube do you know what I mean so so that somebody mentioned if somebody wants to go further they can go research I think if it was a dispute if a dispute occurred as far as what was said and what wasn't said then you have clear ification of that and I don't think this issue is going to come up often I think it just did and um Anthony had you know caught that and I think that you know I don't think I think we're making probably than we need to I think that uh you know Jackie articulated what we could do moving forward as far as yeah thank you thanks yeah I think what was important for me was just to know that we all that we start to say oh I want every brilliant idea I shared on record then that creates a problem but knowing that there's people have been quoted before and so not eliminating that because then it it does it would lack substance B beside you know I caught mine caught more because I spoke but there could have been other effors you know that someone else spoke it's just the point is is they have their their minutes and they're on the record and it's slw so the point is is we need to be as accurate as possible we could be sued or something but if we put on the agenda like we turned around talked about saying all this will be on YouTube on the meeting that set going forward that should cover us any type of liability yeah and it's everyone's job to review them minute so if there was a mistake people catch it it's a collective effort so I think F everyone can focus on their quotes if they want to we all review the summative and then as long as there's an accurate summary that the public can take and we record votes then we're aligned to open meeting law okay so thank you for yeah just a a personal question to Anthony where would I find minutes for the vocational because they're not online and I was looking for something in particular they should be online I'll check with them but board talks is there but it doesn't open up so I'll get so I don't take up every find thank you the next is the warrant any questions or discussion morning uh that's a good point um the districtwide online survey Services what is that uh what page is that first page fth one down Survey Monkey that one that's what we use when we do parent surveys and student surveys and Community surveys uh that's annual fee for the districtwide account okay just that's an annual fee for unlimited okay we use it and we're using it up yeah we use it because it automatically translates so when you go into to do a survey on Survey Monkey you can pick which language you want it in so it actually saves US money because we're not sending every survey out to be translated four times yeah 46 um homeless living inside um I know that they have choice if they move they can come back and forth but if they're living in re why are we transporting them like there's like seven or eight of them yeah it works both ways Freddy so what happens is when a um student who is living in one Community becomes homeless and is living in another Community they have the choice to go back to the ascending School the two community split the transportation cost no but this is saying homeless inside and then the amount of money and homeless inside my interpretation is they're living in rer and we're transporting them correctol in reer no no no we are probably transporting them to school somewhere else outside the city here but going somewhere they might we do split it yeah is that with everyone Diane all homeless yep so even if Jas is here we split with them inv okay yeah Freddy said it and I said no you're wrong because he normally is so y if they were homeless living in Rivier they most likely wouldn't have transportation depending on what grade level they're in some they may live next door to so and so and the kids walk in the school but they're getting transport yeah thank you anyone else uh then we'll move into the financial reports quite a few subet points there I want to take it away sure so the first report that you were given is the annual financial report this is the one that just ref reflects our current year spending we want to make sure that our series stayed in the black uh we want to have a good feel for if there was surpluses what had generated that and this amount of money flows forward and contributes to what eventually becomes a reappropriation in the fall so the big idea from the front page is simply that um and I just started working on the end of year financial report so we we know we're going to be close to that uh net School spending U minimum um the biggest two surpluses was with our tuitions and we corrected that this year in the budget it's being driven by big increases in the circuit breaker reimbursement that's for those tuitions and then I know $2 million looks like a huge Surplus from our instructional series but that's about as close as we can come given all of the transients and loas and resignations and time taken to fill other positions and unspent costs and summer programs and things like that we were pretty close with a couple of these so we'll keep an eye especially on the 5,000 Series this year and um that front page just simply saying hey in working through the the current year this is this is how we did so that's the big picture I can take any questions on any details uh um we're putting the red in a we're putting the deficits in Red so that you see them but don't forget that at the end of the year there's dozens of these accounts that go slightly over and Peter pays Paul to cover within the series but if there's any questions on the details I can answer those and they're looking at a black and white copy just so know no yeah it's so the the what Matt's referring to is negative is in parentheses yeah those are the negative balances oh right that I I'm getting them In Living Color any questions on that okay so then um ke Walkers now through the carry forward estimates and the proposal from the superintendent okay so the report that we just reviewed is definite the report that we're viewing right now is my best attempt at the end of August to uh say when we deal with this year's funding the previous year's liquidations and the district Reserve that we've been amassing uh what will be available to us that will have to reappropriate in the fall the reason I try and do this work before the fiscal year is CL closed is so that we can begin to have conversation on some essential things before school starts in a you know a week and a half and feel confident about what may be there so the big thing I can answer any questions about this front page the big thing to see is where it says projected carry forward down at the bottom for net School spending eligible costs and it says $8.8 million so what we're saying there is we knew that we needed to generate at least $8 million of net School spending carry forward to uh deal with sr3 coming off and teachers coming in and using that for classroom teacher instructional purposes we agreed to that in the budget that you voted the 883 is our best guest today at saying that's additional funds that 663 yeah no no no no no uh where you see that oh I'm sorry yeah okay where you see the 8,883 th000 so when you see that number the first 8 million is accounted for you've already planned on what you're GNA do with this the remaining 880,000 in change should be available to you either to add to District Reserve or to spend on things that didn't make it in the budget that we worked on in April and May so that's the Surplus that we're seeing that will be available to school committee and superintendent to reappropriate on on things that are important to you in the fall I want to tell you now because there's always some things that would be helpful to agree on so that they're in place when the kids get back as you move your eyes forward the 663 th000 of carry forward from non eligible funds that reverts to the city because it's their money we spent it for them and so if there is a surplus there they have to get it back and then you can see that the total comparing the 9.5 million of uh both eligible accounts the final column at the top you can see it says including the district Reserve so that grows by 10 million in so we have done a budget this year and gotten to this point without having to begin to dip into our district Reserve that was our goal and so that money is going to flow into this school year and in February March April when we begin our budget and doing our budget work we will know don't forget we've reserved $1 million so if our first draft of the budget shows a deficit we're not surprised we know that at some point we're going to begin dipping into that but it was really and hopefully our goal is that we won't have to touch that until FY 27 when SOA runs out what's the max we can have in our district Reserve uh there's no maximum but it cannot be generated by missing net School spending by more than 5% so we can't take a year and say hey let's like barely spend any money and only spend 87 % of our net School sending requirement and a mass of big savings that we can then have a safety net going forward so the question is not that time the question isn't how large can the district Reserve get the question is how are we amassing it and that's where the the handcuffs would be so like the exra 883 807 we could put that into the district Reserve we could yep and we would still be comping yes uh and we and we might decide we want to spend some of it save some of it the I think a simple way to think of the reserve is that it we never want that to be more than 5% of of the total budget that's and what's helping us right now is because we're in the middle of the S SOA um dispersal of money our budget is going up significantly every year which is what's making that 5% become bigger and bigger and bigger so we're able to put more away but once s SOA stops that's where we're really going to hit that funding cliff and if we're not careful about that then uh it would be disastrous for the district yeah I think you know we've said it before but in a season where District after District isn't the news for layoffs for cut offs because they're in a deficit the work that you all have done and M the way that you've carried our district and we as a committee how we've been good stewards of our resources I think just reminds me how much I appreciate the talents we have in our district because we're not yet another one that has to lay off teachers or cut a club because we're good stewards so a kudos to you there and I had a question or when do we kind of like vote inside is it September or October and how to use if we want any of the carryover so we won't formally be able to do that carry forward appropriation most likely until the October meeting we have to give the city time to formally close the fy2 24 books in the system and have all of that be certified we can tonight in conversation say hey uh we know it's going to be in that $800,000 range of what's available to us there may be a few things that have come up between your vote in May or was it early June and the start of the year to say we know that we're going to mobilize some of this money for that it will be available don't wait until late October to make those commitments we can do that in conversation knowing that this is going to come knowing that when you take the formal vote I'll begin to put that list together of where that funding would go and what are some of those Nam St so some of them are things that we've already talked about like one of them is the the new locks at the Lincoln School we want to replace all those do door knobs to make them uh compliant with the flip blcks um the second one is at the Paul rier school as has been a persistent problem we have a couple of class sizes in grades two and three that are really large and Mr Coyle uh has requested three part-time uh Paras to help assist with those classes a third one is um so you know how we have um security people at the front desk in each school and then I think it was one year or two years ago I forget now um you approved a position called campus supervisors at the high school which was uh more extensive role it includ included campus security but they did um above and beyond that and so they had a higher salary and um it was maybe a a person who could be more dedicated or do do some uh more advanced work and the middle schools would like to model that I mean ideally I don't know that you you would go for this ideally they would like to have um an operations person like you approved to the high school who can focus on student engagement attendance and assessments um that's an administrative position it would be expensive is that Mel that's Mel that's what Mel's doing at the high school um but short of that it would helpful if they at least could convert their security person into a campus supervisor and have them do more of that student engagement and uh calling home when the kids aren't coming to school um just they what they've said is they could attract um maybe a different kind of person to stay in that role longer term if the salary was higher um so I don't know if you want to discuss it all between those two things and then um just the last thing I'll mention is redoing the district Improvement plan um we'd like to hire a consultant to do that this time uh we did it ourselves last time but I just want to make sure that everybody's feeling like it's a worthwhile process and that people are engaged in the right ways and uh it's not Diane Kelly up here making it up on her own which I think maybe is shering doesn't matter uh I I think we could probably do that for about $40,000 and I think it would be uh money well spent if it leaves the community feeling more engaged in the process than like their voices are part of what we're doing what company are there local companies that do that there are a few of them that do it we met one down at um yes at at the mass conference and we've reached out to them uh we're going to get back in touch we'll get multiple quotes it's not something that we'll just do um you know without doing the research and we'll talk to other districts and see who they've used I do have a question uh these all seem like good things like uh good initiatives I guess my only question is is that are we are we doing any type of analysis on um how we're going to sustain all of the positions that we're adding like we're talking about I get I get worried when we're talking about that money is going to become an issue at some point and I just want to know how far forward are we looking like are we projecting do you know what I mean that yes we can sustain like this POS every time we hire somebody can we sustain it like you know how far in the future we looking to make sure that so we so right now we're looking we think the $10 million that we have in the district Reserve will extend us out three years after SOA so that gets you to 2030 um after that if there's not some kind of change at the state level which there's been talked for years about um increasing the amount of money that um goes into Chapter 70 from the millionaires tax and uh other pieces like that if the state doesn't decide to do something then reevaluate you'll have to reevaluate and at that point it will be a decision about which positions yeah can we keep and which ones um do we need to let up I through you to Matt um where we're giving money back to the city yes can they come back with dips I Surplus no no so the reason that I'm breaking this report out now the way you see it in these four columns is to be explicit that that second column is dealing with the money that the city embeds in our budget and we spend on their behalf primarily around Transportation a little bit of capital and so any surplus generated from those funds that's what it it reverts back right but I'm just saying if someone got creative and said well wait you know you're looking we're funding this what about you got your own Surplus so there's no dibs on them coming after right you're speaking to the real bottom line of why net School spending law was written I was to say thatal if if if we began to um spend way over and above what the net School spending requirement is as many districts do then that amount of money can be talked about but since we're budgeted right at the net School spending minimum then the funding that we are given if we don't spend it it has to flow back to us just to meet the requirement each year thank you on the campus position what the budget for for money for salary um so if we if we just did moving from a security uh person to a camp supervisor it would be a total of about 40,000 because it would just be bumping salaries um it's about $14,000 more for a campus supervisor than for a security person um so over the three middle schools it would be a total of about uh 40,000 if we wanted to do the administrative positions that would be more it would probably be um about 350,000 uh it would give the principles the capacity to have an additional person another administrator who's doing evaluations um who's really monitoring the students and their behaviors and all of and you know all of that stuff um so would definitely give them some more capacity uh that I know they're craving yeah um and did you mention they would include um that they speak more than one language to communicate with parents when calling home if they were the campus supervisor yes yeah if we if the if it was the administrative position that wouldn't necessarily be a language person but the security person and apparently aison would still be required to have language capacity Miss so as I brought up the minutes to Richie and he passed them on to you as far as school nursing goes still need to have a deep discussion on this I was going to read the minutes at our um meeting at 6 um and the necessity in order to keep our nurses we need to have sufficient amount of nurses so I would like that thought kept in the back of your mind yep um does it oh yes and then my my last comment was um I might be in the minority here but I just have little faith in consultants and I often feel like they're a waste of money so I don't want to dissuade you I think should get some numbers but I also think that maybe we could form a committee like we do with the handbooks and and everything else um I don't think I think nobody knows us better than than we know ourselves and what we want and what we need so that's just my my two cents okay I will say they did a great job um prior with the community um and I will say it was a lot of work it was easy for me to just show up and listen um it was great we had over a hundred people that came and it was awesome and there was a lot yep and they stayed with it and they really helped us think through what the priorities were but but to get some assistance I think could be helpful because now you want to think outside the box and not just the re way um so I think it's helpful to get some new innovative ideas we can look into it and discuss it further Kelly you're talking raising salary on these positions you're talking evaluations what's the requirement for the job I mean is it a college degree is it um I mean you're given them more responsibilities at higher money but I mean you you've expanded assistant principles youve expanded I don't even know if you still have beans no but you can only create so much the system can absorb so what is the criteria for someone to hold this position so the so two different things that we were talking about let me just clarify one would be if we were just raising the salary of a security person they would that would be still a a relatively uh moderate wage position it would be each individual would be getting about um $40,000 for the annual salary is there a requirement for the job the requirement would be that they have some language skills and are able to communicate effectively with families and the principles would be uh interviewing different security existing security staff to get that job it wouldn't be creating a whole new position it would be elevating existing security people okay that's what I'm ask the positions in existing now you're looking to raise their salaries what's the criteria for those who are holding the position that would warrant more they would have additional responsibility they would be responsible for student attendance for calling home and engaging students security people don't do that right now they sit at the front desk and they check people in okay so who's going to be doing evaluations so now that's the separate position so that position that I just talked about would cost the district a total of $40,000 across the three middle schools the if we were going to do an administrative position it would be in the administrators bargaining unit it would be um like the position we created at the high school this year um um which is uh an administrator who's in charge of operations and assessment now the one thing I want to remind everybody of is the volume of assessment that we're doing in this district is through the roof compared to what it used to be we've got onethird of our students taking access testing multiple times a year our mcast retakes um especially for kids who are English Learners and they're allowed to take mcast to see if they pass if they don't then they're allowed to take a retest the testing is and the coordination of the testing has gone up exponentially from what it has been in previous years so that was why we created the position at the high school because with 2100 kids up here it's impossible for Diana Finn to do anything other than testing it was all she was doing for the whole year and the Middle School principls are saying we're in a similar boat we're spending months on end just coordinating the mcast test and the access tests that we're required to administer by the state and if we had an administrative position not only could they take that over they could also alleviate some of the um work that's falling only on right now there's three administrators at each Middle School to do all of the evaluations of everybody in their building and as we have increased teachers and we've had a strong emphasis on that as we should have for the last several years but now we're asking the same number of Administrators to evaluate 25% more teachers and that's a tremendous amount of work um with the with the regulations that came out in 2014 on what we're required to do to conduct a teacher evaluation it's so much more involved than it used to be and they're feeling the pressure of that so it will be educational requirements for the individual to hold this position those people yes would have to have an administrative license sorry okay so yeah to clarify are we are you suggesting the campus supervisors and then separate the administrative are you asking for both two separate positions it's two separate positions I am advocating for at a minimum the security ideally it would be the third administr the additional administrator and that would take care of all three middle schools yes y I don't know if the numbers changed but I know Dr Luchi sent out a thing about the pars and what still seem to be struggling even with the increase to get Paris is that true uh I don't have that data in front of me yeah I think we that's the routine par professional exam that we offer no but he sent out he was still short X number I think it was like six I think it's pretty small yeah I can text is it's been really good only because we discussed my thought was should should we decide to I think getting the three pairs of the part is more of a um I think the other stuff's great I don't have a problem with it but I think getting the three pars phone for them because um that directly relates to to the kids yeah that would be help I would like to see let maybe that go to Ways and Means as quickly as we could and then I'm sure it'll be favorable and then Goot to the committee so that we can hire those three cars that's more to me it's all great stuff but that's something that's going to hit you know hit a student right away the the locks at the Lincoln School I would say same thing I mean I don't have a problem with any of what you said just the pars to me was more of an immediate I guess that's my PL yeah in the locks are fine too I have no problem with anything so then no I gave my comments I I'd like to see this list go to ways means once you've given us some numbers you know cost yeah so that we can act on this quickly especially the three pars because you know school's going to startop next Tuesday and you know they seem like they're already won't see behind but they're already a little you know St in a tough year okay so I'm hearing the next steps are getting projections on these four different things and then it'll be referred to Ways and Means and we'll schedule a meeting forth very good I appreciate that thank you and then I want to acknowledge the mayor is here so I'm going ask my question and pass it to you for the next item so you can flow it my other question for you Matt was for the September meeting could you get us a so I guess my question is I would like to know how much it would cost the district if we changed our transportation requirement from 2 miles to one mile uh and so I'd just like to know what that number looks like when we're talking about the carry forward the problem um the problem as far as I understand it is it's not even a question of money it's we won't be able to find the facility to do it right I don't even think it's a money thing I think if we threw a million dollars at it it's still not going to help because they can't find the drivers and the buses so I mean it's a great question and I I totally agree um I went to the freshman orientation last night and three parents that was the thing they talked about they were concerned about the K walking if I could if I'm out a line I apologize maybe this isn't the time with place but you brought up busing um I was wondering if if I if the mayor would consider a a Crossing guide at like Bell Circle I know they can't maybe cross a 100 kids but at least if there's an adult there I I see it not every day but I go through Bell Circle a lot because I'm coming from the that for work I'm coming that way everyone sees it yeah and it's literally I'm not exaggerating I think hundreds of kids I don't think that's an exaggeration um Crossing and I know they won't don't all cross at the same point I've seen them I've been at the light watching them but I think if there was one adult there or maybe two adults I don't know just and I know they have a hard time firing Crossing Gods too but it's just a thought just to have an adult there yeah I don't I don't disagree with uh the you know you look at a big um intersection or a rotary for that matter and you see the amount of people that go through there you in order to do it right you probably need six yeah like you know so with one we well one one would be like honestly it's like throwing a drop in the bucket because you got so many different spots two different so even even just one and then to the island to the to the other side I mean to do it right it would probably be need that many and I think that the priorities tend to be the students of the younger ages that don't know how to cross most often you see the students that are crossing Unfortunately they know how to cross and then they still don't do it properly they cut across the highway looking down they they they take the most direct route to Starbucks or to whoever so and as we all know crossing guards are typically um someone that's retire position or um is maybe a working a parent that's uh just doing it's three and a half hour a day job so it's not the most um lucrative position so uh we can I will definitely talk to Zach so it isn't we do have our parking Department who controls that and see if that's something that's why I was asking you sir we will see that and um see if we can do it and educating them to and can never educate a teenageer because the RMA and the high school cross right there behind the football field and the soccer field instead of going to the rotary and Crossing with the lights it's just they do the other end too with the fence stops they cross instead of another 50 yards to the Cross but I felt Ser I think the issue is that the one walkway that they have available is it is further away do you know what I mean it's like down because if you start stopping every intersection every in between lights you're going to have a tremendous tremendous back of them if I could I I honestly believe and I don't mean to be mean but I honestly believe it's a miracle no one's ever gotten hit oh I think we're in a court but it's going to take a little more not going to school waving the magic one yes good points I think just to finish off my request I I would like no you're fine I would like to see that I think you know we can't find busing that's separate but our first step is knowing if we can afford it because we all know that's an issue for students and that's been the top PR priority for our student council so I think the first step is just seeing those numbers y just a reminder when we're dealing with the transportation reality that's a joint always a joint conversation with Citys side because they're actually the ones who pay for it um have to get the kids to school but to do that work and to get something to start the conversation is great but as a point of information all you have is one company bidy that's that's the major problem and even other lines who may have it they won't bid against another I mean that's my observation that's if the money's there and it's agreed upon that's still going to create there is a bill in legislation for that but that's been sitting there for two years so but Matt isn't there a question on how much power away they have from the school for reimbursement so if we go one mile is might not be reimbursable right that's the kind that's the work that I'll be able to do with with with Denise yeah yeah that's what than so pass to you Mayer we are now on the Student Activity accounts report yep so each year we're required to do two things with the committee one is make sure you know who has fiduciary responsibility for each of the existing local Student Activity checking accounts and what the maximum amount of local money can be in that account and you approve appr that right now we've got them all slotted at 10: and the high schools moved up primarily because of big costs that hit in that month of May June we don't want to handcuff them I'm gonna uh reach out this year to the three Middle School principles and just make sure that the 10,000 is not causing them any kind of an issue with the parts that could be associated with that but for now we're just going to vote them where they are I haven't received any complaints but I can seek that out and then the second thing you are the ones who approve or just have just have to be in the know about these are the activities that the students are operating out of our high school um just so that you're aware that the principal is managing this but you know the different clubs that exist so at the six o'clock meeting we just need you to take a vote each August to say yes this is a good plan and go ahead with it so when we approve a consent calendar that means we are approving the account someone has issues with it f service financials now Communications so one is uh this request from Jonathan Ferrara to get rid of old technology equipment he's done his du diligence to determine whether any of it is salvageable or could be sold off um and and is just requesting permission to get rid of the stuff that that that cannot um be repurposed at all and then um the second you probably haven't even seen these yet because I know Robin was still um getting them into mailboxes just before you were all arriving but it's the annual review for our two Innovation schools uh which I completed and I do want to point out that it does say that it was due August 1st it's actually not due till September 1st um but I'm required to review that review their work and uh submit this to desie and submit it to you all as well so I'm going to be sending that on to desie I want to give you all a copy uh if you have any questions on them um they give you feedback of any sort uh I think that maybe if they had a little more capacity they would but uh typically no we don't and if we were knew it to the yeah they might they'll be more involved in City lab because this is only their third year uh but Paul R because they've been through multiple Cycles they're kind of uh flying on their own on the back end what they do is that they do save them so every time they renew someone have to read through all these someone does actually sit read gather evidence and then use that when they do the focus groups and then interview for the renewals yeah okay enrollment John thank you for pointing out I had a stroke the error I was like what we're down by ,000 students and then I'm like this math is off somewhere but so we found it um the math math teacher pardon me says the math teacher yes yes um but overall I'll just say that our class sizes are looking um pretty good as I mentioned earlier there are those hiccups at the Paul Rivier school um where class Siz is larger than what we would like uh and you see the difference there especially around grades two three and four um compared to our other schools um but otherwise pretty good yeah yep that much better than they had been when we had 28s and 29s everywhere from the middle oh real quickly on the middle schools on the RMA they what what is the middle middle schools are those home rooms those are home rooms yes and um they team up is that what yes so at Garfield Middle look yeah that's why Garfield Middle the numbers look much smaller because it's an individual who's in charge at um SBA at Romney they pair them up yeah and at SBA they do that also but they only list the name of the primary person whose home room it is in so rney ry's enrollment is higher because they house a lot of the special education programming personel any questions on our 100 new teachers on some of the tires um their background doesn't match what you hire them for people still get granted waivers and stuff like that in some cases yes y so that would be yep thank you far fewer than what we've had in the past and two renew it's more difficult to renew a waiver you have to show progress in the area I well I know they keep changing what's done but I mean it had to be something that because it didn't match than you and it's nice to see that some of them have come back because yeah they're all set now yeah that's a good thing y yeah uh what about uh donations so one um is is a great one and I actually can add to this as well but um so Jet Blue uh does a book donation program through Scholastic and they're donating a hundred books to the Beachmont school and they're also connecting with uh Matt Costa because they're going to be doing a stem program for female students and uh we're going to connect with him and and get some of the young ladies in the district um engaged in that stem program so it should be pretty interesting interesting um so we're very thankful to Jeff blue for their support um we also just found out about a program that actually uh just janino championed at the state house to get it's another program through Scholastic and what they do is they partner with us they're going to partner with us at all of our elementaries and all of our middle schools um and it's called the read across the American I'm going to get the name wrong so let me try not to do it off the top of my head I'll find it for you in a minute um but they're going to give every single student in the elementary middle schools is each going to be able to buy 10 books free get 10 books free um and they do it through the Scholastic book clubs which we use at many of the elementary schools already so the the families are familiar with it but they won't have to pay a dime for them and the kids can go on and pick what books they're interested in and then their parent approves them and they're going to also give every teacher 25 books for their classroom libraries that the teachers can pick and then they're going to continue to do this every year going forward wow yeah so they've got a lot of um Phil philanthropical groups that they're working with um but also conv convincing state legislators um to participate and donate some of the funding so I know um the state of massachusett uh under Jess's leadership gave $750,000 for for Massachusetts alone and it's just going to be a handful of districts um that are participating in this and and rier gets to be one of them so we're really excited about that and uh we're gonna be scheduling soon a meeting with the principls to figure out the logistics of it all but we'll be kicking that off probably around November and doing some media around that and we'll invite you all but certainly justifies the cost the book you know books you know how expensive they are but I guess now having an understand of the give back it's yeah it's well worth it right yeah yeah very ex the stem program that you were talking about for women is that at Beachmont also or it's at the airport it's at the Jet Blue hanger and so they'll they us on all the students who we want to send over there for a full day are there certain students how are they going Pi them we are still going to connect uh with them to get the logistics on that uh and once we speak to jeppo more specifically we'll uh identify students and do the typical field trip kind of thing with parent permission and um and it's on a Saturday I believe in October and uh so the jet connection is actually an Alum of our district he went uh to the beach mon school which is so we could do that so big thank you to Donnie from J blue for remembering um the school and everything yeah uh Mr Mayor it is 5:58 so I was wondering if maybe everyone's is okay with moving what's left to unfinished business at the 6: p.m. since there's still um three points are folks okay with yes I have one last request when I spoke about the nursing if we can look into it to go towards Ways and Means um if maybe you could collaborate with um Dr guchi on what we have talked about y okay and then um when John coordinates that meeting I can mention to him to get on the agenda absolutely okay so I'd like to make a motion to adjourn second second all in favor