Caroline Brown. meeting of June 18th at the AFL Royalsson Regional School Committee to order. Uh the first thing on the agenda this evening is the pledge of allegiance. Would you lead us to the republic for it stands one nation
indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Uh, next up, the approval of the minutes for May 21st. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Any discussion?
Seeing none. All those in favor? I don't believe there was any public input when I looked the last time. Is there a student rep tonight? No, there are. Okay, that's all right. All right. Earlier uh for the committee,
there were student recognitions as follows. From Athal High School, Jaylen Chapalonus and Aubrey Foron from arms, Alexandra Lernno and Dexter Gibson. Aces Maggie Mitchell and Lily Chapman. RCS AIA Smith, Levi Hopkins, and the Subway
scholars were Kaia Steinhart and Asia Brit. Congratulations. [Applause] Also, we do have
one recognition present and I do believe there may have been a couple of other people that had prepared some some words for some of our other retirees. Sure. Perfect. So, I'm not I don't honestly I'm not sure who's prepared what for
who. Um Sally Quinton. Excellent. Thank you. Mr. Webster, if you could come say a few words. Yes. So, I'm here uh to speak for uh our friend Sally, who uh after 28 years of
dedicated service at our middle school here, um wanted to share some thoughts that uh our staff had. And these are just a few um about Sally and the 28 years she was here. Um Sally was a rock for the school. She always knew what to
do. I'll miss stopping by and chatting with her and sad to see her go. She took everything in stride. Being a school nurse cannot possibly be easy, but she made it look that way. And her work is immeasurable. The ripples of her care for students and staff will be felt for generations to come. She was one of the
first to welcome me and continue to make me feel welcome throughout my time here at ARMS was one teacher. And working with Sally for nearly 20 years, this teacher can truly say that she has always been there whenever she needed her. Whether it was working to ensure that someone had a physical so
they could play on the football team or providing training that even helped in another job, Sally was always ready to step in. She has a genuine heart for helping others and never hesitates to lend a hand. And her dedication, kindness, and support is deeply missed. Her calm and gentle demeanor always made
students and staff feel better. Always look forward to being able to chat with Sally for a few minutes. This teacher said that she always knew Sally since the start at arms in 2002 and she had not only been the epitome of a school nurse for her students but the
glue that held the staff together during CO was a difficult time period and having to teach during CO was in itself a very hard time for this teacher. She was there for health concerns throughout this teacher's career at arms taking
blood pressure helping out with children's illnesses. It was so much the reason why she was able to be the best teacher that she could be for her students. She earned her retirement and I hope she has many, many years to enjoy this time in her life. God gave us an angel when he brought Sally to our
school. And lastly, this teacher had the pleasure of working with Sally at RCS and then here at ARMS. She's always pleasant, professional, and even with her when her office was crowded with students, she was patient and kind. I will really miss her but wish her well in her retirement. and I can echo much
of that just in the two well just over a year really. I think it was this fall that she retired, but she still stayed to help with our our new staff that came on board in the health office. Uh she's been unselfish, just a wonderful person to work with and a big smile. So, we really will miss her and thank you.
After her retirement for this past year, she continued to maintain a couple of the responsibilities from the lead nurse position, which was extremely helpful. And while she was not able to attend this evening. She was able to sneak into graduation for the eighth grade last
night. So, I think she she got to see the kids, which is certainly what she wanted to do. So, I wish her the very best to speak for us. So, thank you. We'll move down the list a little bit to uh take the opportunity to recognize
Patricia Bradley from the AFL High School. CF [Applause] always something for you to all those people up there watching with Patty's presence three and a half
years ago. She retired from her uh first job was commuting back and forth from Boston and said that was enough. She moved to the community 20 years ago and uh she joined our cafeteria staff at Athal High School and for the last three and a half years hardworking,
dependable, but more than anything a positive uh contributing employee in our school district uh every single day a smile, genuine have conversations with students. Uh you need superheroes like
Patty and the rest of our cafeteria staff. Patty, as you know, my my mother being a former cafeteria uh worker, you know, you're close to my heart and all those workers. So, I appreciate everything you've done for us and our school and our students, and we will definitely miss you, but you deserve to
retire. I'll be around. I'll be around to visit. I had a good time working. The kids, most of the kids have great attitudes. They're very polite. I enjoyed it. And I I can say that Patty not only welcomes all of the students
and makes them feel at home. But when I started here, she made me feel welcome and made me feel at home. She's just a pleasure to see at work because her spirits bring up everybody no matter what's going on. So, I want to thank you for that, Patty.
Thank you. Thank you. Jean Olsen's assistant manager words for David Bochamp, school psychologist. I believe Christie is going to come up and present.
Hi everyone. So, uh Dave Bamp is a school psychologist who actually retired in December and when we were unable to fill the position, he said, "Okay, I'll come back." And he's been working practically doing PDM work for us. So,
uh, we're really sad to see him go. Um, he started his career right here in Athal. Um, and in the years since he's done it all, he's been a special education director, a superintendent, he created an early childhood program. Um, you name it, he's done it. Um, he always
has a heart full of dedication to the children and families that he works with. Um, some of the staff have said things like, "What makes him stand out isn't just his impressive resume. It's the way he goes about day, the way he listens. Um, presenting information at
an IEP meeting about your child is sometimes a very challenging thing to hear. He, um, makes people feel heard. Um, he always listens. Um, he's knowledge about how about how school systems work. Um, and his deep commitment to what is best for kids is
what has always been his compass. Um, he helps families to understand not only what's happening now, but how it might impact their kids in the future. He's a calming presence, has a sharp mind and a thoughtful soul. He gives advice and actually sticks that actually sticks with you. Um, probably not because he's
just smart, but it's true. Outside of work, he's a builder of beautiful things out of wood. Uh, which honestly feels like the perfect metaphor. He's a builder of people, of trust, and of good things that last. So Dave, we're really happy for you that you are finally going
on your way and retiring. We're going to miss you deeply. From the bottom of my heart, I'm gonna miss you. Um, he's been doing a lot for us, so it's really sad to see him go. Um, he leaves behind a legacy of kindness, strength, and quiet leadership that we will carry with us,
and he deserves nothing but the best in the next chapter. So, congratulations, Karen Rex Road, Aces Parrofessional. Okay. And Last but not least is Dr. Kennedy. Um I will share with the committee Dr.
Kennedy has been vehemently opposed to any type of celebration at the school for her retirement. I believe she began the the start of the year telling Jod that and it's just gotten more and more consistent since since we've moved on. I
did manage to sneak in a small celebration for her instead of one of our executive team meetings. So, she was grateful. I can say I know that everyone around this table has seen Dr. Kennedy's work and has been with her to know how
much she has contributed to this district. And I can say because she did ask me not to say much. I can say that Cindy has been a tremendous partner since I've started in this district and she has committed herself to the
students and to the staff of this district and I wish her nothing but the best in her travels. I say that because I'm not sure we're going to be able to get in touch with her frequently, at least for the next year. I believe she has six worldwide trips already booked
and I wish her nothing but the best on those and for the rest of her retirement. So congratulations to [Applause] unfinished business this evening. Moving right along to new business RCS open
school choice seats correction. Do you have do you have the numbers too? Here. Do you want this copy? Oh, yeah. Thank you. So um we neglected to send the information to the correct format. So we gave our current students and how
much room was in that space instead of saying like so we had the fifth grade kid. So the numbers technically haven't changed but we applied them to say like sixth grade will have this many spots and because when I was here and I had listened I'm like we didn't say sixth
grade. So um in our RCS kindergarten um yeah so it now is like so it says seats open for the correction. So kindergarten we still have some kiddos who are registering. Um the first grade
will have four spots. Second grade does not have any spots. Third grade has two. Um our fourth grade does not have any. That's our largest group of students. Fifth grade has five. Um in sixth grade should have at least one.
I know it looks kind donation from the Athletic Association um construction of a concession stand. I believe Dan Beas is here to speak further about that. Thank you, Mr. Um so if you haven't been
to the high school lately, our concession stand is uh seen better days. It has for a while. Um the athletic association has been talking about this for a number of years. Um, we finally took a vote on Monday to fund a
project to put a new concession stand in at the high school. Um, so we'd like the school committee to accept our donation. Um, we're looking to put it either next to the current structure or the better location, which I think is where we're kind of leaning now, is to put it in
between the pavilion and the bleachers. So it'll be more centralized to where our spectators are watching various sporting events in the fall and possibly in the spring. Um so we're looking to uh for the school committee to accept our
donation. Um that location that Dan mentioned, I believe there was some mapping out of where structures should be when there was talk about redesigning the field. And actually the the location that Dan is having this positioned in is where
the original spot was supposed to be. The plans were to have it there. Uh regarding the existing structure, it uh we were just speaking about this at facility subcommittee. I'm not sure that it's all said and done right now, but the intent is to repair that structure,
the door, and the flooring. It won't need an occupancy uh permit because we won't be serving anything. and people won't be in there. The plan is to fix it up and use it as a storage area for athletics. So, that won't go to waste either. And I
think it's also cost for the district. Um, and I think us putting it in those two locations avoids us having to take down the current concession stand, which also has a box housing the lights or the the fuses for the lights um for O'Brien Field. So, we want to try to leave that
area alone. Um, and we would be able to tie if we move it to between the pavilion and bleachers, we'd be able to tie in electricity off of the current existing light pole that's there. So, we would just need a vote from the committee to accept the gift of donating
the concession to accept the donation. Is there a second? Any discussion? At some point recently, are those repaired? And is that safe? Is that space safe now? Okay, that was it was deemed to be safe,
but we just did it out of for precautions. Was it in favor? Thank you. And thank you to the athletic association. Yes. Thank you. Okay,
moving on. Vision of a graduate. Yes. So, Some of you are, well, many of you should be familiar with this vision of graduate work. Um, I'd like to invite up Dave, Mr. King, who you all know. I also
would like to invite Have Ashley, have people met you here before? No. So, I would like to just on TV. I would like to introduce Ashley Santiago from Focus Schools. She has been helping the district facilitate this work and she's
done a tremendous job. I will say as she will tell you the work really came from the people that were involved in the process. I know um there's reference to Bobby who's not here this evening and Frank were able to attend and participate in a lot of the sessions and
it was really an entire community endeavor. We had we had focus groups with outside community partners. We had focus groups with our families. We had focus groups with our students. I may be taking away all the thunder from the
slideshow that I'm about to go through, but we we'll flip through the slides too. Um but just as a as a overall picture, the purpose of this vision of a graduate work is to identify the
essential skills and knowledge sets that we want our students to have when they cross our graduation platform. Basically, what do we want our kids to be able to do and how do we want them to
represent the district? what when are they ready to leave the district, right? And for that reason, it serves very much as a north star. Um Dave, feel free to I lost clip with Ashley, so I get to do
most of the speaking. You can kick me whenever you want to speak. All right. All right. So, yeah. Um Ashley le led our group. Um she did an outstanding job in leading our group. I think we're just looking to share what what it's looked like for the past three months, four months since we've been together. So, as
Matt said, that north star is something that we definitely needed uh here in the district. It was also one of the four things that was that we were cited at Athl High School as needing to achieve to uh retain our NASNC accreditation. So
that vision of a graduate is a component that has to happen in every school that gets accredited with the NASNC. So that's ultimately we wanted a vision we wanted a north star for our students for our district and it was also a component of that uh vision of a graduate as Matt
said is you know the knowledge skills and mindsets mindsets that we want all of our students to possess not just at Athal High School but at the middle school and at the elementary school um as they go along. Matt, if you could sneak back to that first slide because I
think that one's pretty good. Yeah. what is that vision of a graduate? So it defines the outcome that we want our students to achieve. um whatever those those skills, knowledge, mindset that clear provides a
clear roadmap for us all for our strategic plan. And I believe I' I've mentioned in the past we are in need of a new strategic plan. But first, we need to identify what our vision for
our students is and then we can we can craft the plan to match our end point. Yeah. The the second bullet there is that aligns curriculum and instruction. So when we're selecting curriculum and we're deciding on instruction, it should
align with what we've decided in the end. For instance, people probably have heard about my cap and if you haven't, it's my career and academic plan. And we're currently going under under that right now at Athal High School. We're looking to create that. And a lot of what we will do when we try to lay out
that curriculum is make sure it aligns with the four things that we have selected in regards to the vision of a graduate. So I think that's that's a perfect example when we when our staff kind of look at that scope and sequence does it meet all the all the components
of that jump in as mentioned my cap we've discussed um the the goal is to move that work down into the earlier grades and essentially that's the same for all of this work connected to the vision of a graduate. So, we have a
vision of what we want our high school graduates to look like, but we also need to develop a clearer vision of what needs to happen at the middle school in order to get them there. And then we need to identify what has to happen in our elementary schools in order to get
them there. And at each step of that work, we can continue to reflect back on our north star and say, is the work that we're doing here and now fulfilling one of these aspects of what we're looking for? And it it really tries to simplify
and hone in the work. Again, not to suggest that we're not going to continue to teach all of the core content and all of the requirements from the state, but these are the things that we want to make sure we're preparing our that we are preparing our students for.
This is the way we want them to be able to go out into the world. And when we have that clear vision, it helps us put together the road mapap to get there. Bullet for like a high school. So, personalized learning for all students. that's someplace where where we're
trying to go. Um so students get internships, work-based learning experience opportunities and does our vision of a graduate what does the learning uh personalized learning that they want does it match right so it helps my decision making
when a student comes to me and says I want to do this internship I'll go to the vision of the graduate the four components there does it align with that is it going to help them achieve being a skillful communicator is it going to help them achieve I don't have them all in my yet but I know it stands for case
is it help them be an active citizen if it aligns my decision is easy I say yes okay so I think that that document itself in the end which will give you the uh the honors of unveiling it at the end has to has to meet that and it helps
me make decisions uh so here's the group that was involved we had a nice representation of stakeholders from from AC across the our community from uh you know parents parents to um we had someone from the Lions Club that was there, we had uh
teachers that were there, administrators that were there. Um so we had open school committee members. We had it opened up to anyone. Uh we also did get a nice opportunity to bring stakeholders in and uh participate in numerous
activities that help them uh provide their input on what the vision of the graduate could be as well. So it's not just about us. uh we're trying to make sure the vision of a graduate also meets what our community wants us to actually graduate.
Not only were these right, this group was the steering committee. So the steering committee would continually come back together to assess where we were and what our next steps are and and how to format um the information we were gathering from all of the stakeholders
and the group meetings. And as I'm sure I mean I could ask for a show of hands. How many of you got my text message to take the survey? Please say. Yeah. Okay. So again, I say that not to put anyone on the spot, but just to show it wasn't
just the work of the committee or these groups that we brought together. We've been putting this information back out to the community to get feedback, input, and then the steering committee was coming back to the table with whatever input we gathered and the things that
the community were expressing they wanted to see within this vision of a graduate and and it was really it was really a comprehensive process that engaged everyone that we could have in the community. And I would
say if anyone were to turn and say we have no idea what this vision of graduate is. What if you are not aware of it then you probably weren't paying close attention because we've been putting it out. We've been pushing out the surveys. We've been advertising
about what it is and how people could get involved. And honestly, we were really thrilled with the outcome of participation that we had. So I'm not trying to disparage anyone in any sense. I just want to be clear that we've gone whole hog with communicating about this
and having people understand this is what we are looking to have our graduates be. Sure. So as um as we said we wanted to make sure that this is a document this is a vision that is true for all students. Every single student who is
walking through the doors of your schools, whether they are coming in as a pre kindergartener or whether they are walking across that graduation stage as a graduate leaving Athal High School, this is the vision of where they are headed. This does not take place take the place of any of the curriculum that
doesn't go away. Your math classes do not go away. That was some feedback we heard from the community. So, that was a lesson for us about how we continue to communicate about this. the curriculum that comes from the state that comes from um all of those important places that doesn't go away. This this sits in
alignment with those important core content classes that you are providing to your students, but also what else are they getting from it? So perhaps as a student, I'm sitting in a 10th grade class and I'm in geometry and I'm like, well, I know I have to pass this for graduation, but what is this doing for
me? Right? I don't want to ever work with triangles in my life. Right? That is a valid that you know a teenager may have. But that's where this vision provides an opportunity to say that's fair and you might not use the Pythagorean theorem later in life. But what this is doing is this is
challenging you to become a critical thinker. And this is helping you develop these skills aligned in our vision um to help you whatever your goals and pursuits are um both while you're in school and beyond. So, we wanted to make sure that this was something that that
was applicable um and visionary and aspirational for all students. And we also wanted to make sure that we did collect a lot of input from a lot of stakeholders. This was not just supposed to be a a group of people sitting at a table behind closed doors, but how could we bring together people from both Athl
and Royalston um sitting in a lot of different tables and talking about what's most important for our students. Not because it's what the state says, not because it's what colleges and universities say, although we looked at those pieces, but what do what's important to us, for our kids, and what
we want for our community. So, we um did just that. We assembled a steering committee of diverse stakeholders who came together and did some research. you know what what what are we currently doing and what are people saying about what are the skills that students need
to be successful in you know a post-graduation whether they're pursuing college whether they're entering the military or the workforce or some combination of those paths uh what are those skills look like we held a number of steering comm uh excuse me of focus groups where we brought in family
members students staff and community partners around tables and said in your from your perspective you You know, perhaps you are someone who might be hiring these young people when they are leaving the high school or when they are leaving um a post-secary program. What are you looking for in your employees,
in your colleagues, in your neighbors? What's most important to you? And then the steering committee took that feedback um as well as a survey, a survey that asked the same questions for folks who couldn't make it to two um focus groups. The steering committee took that information and put together a
draft. They wanted to make it accessible. They wanted to make it concise. They wanted to make it again applicable and relevant for everyone. And then they took that draft and put out another survey to the community. A huge huge thank you to the family center here who got it translated into a number of languages so that it could be
accessible to all members of your community. And we put that survey out and got feedback from your community about how the steering committee had done with that draft. At our last meeting um on Monday evening, they took one final look at what they had put together, made some revisions based on
that feedback and uh we have for you this evening a draft to take a look at. This is just a highlight reel of some of those focus groups where we were bringing again members of uh Athl High School staff, members of your community and or Athel High School
students together uh to engage in this process. So just wanted to recognize everyone who gave of their time and input uh for this process. And so here is your final product. The proposed uh vision of a graduate for
Athl Royston Regional School District has four key tenants and they do happen to spell case. So superintendent was coming up with a number of of catchy catchphrases that could be used to help remember that. But they are critical
thinkers. They are um active citizens. They are skilled communicators and they are empowered individuals. So every young person who graduates from Athl High School or spends any time in your buildings at any point will be critical thinkers, will be active citizens, will
be skilled communicators, and will be empowered individuals. And what does that mean? We break that down further into a number of I can statements. Do you see that in the second graphic? Um, yeah.
Copies that are a little that are a little easier. Are you able to click on the link there? Because if you look at the the where it says full graphic, that is a link. So, we can expand the graphic a bit more. Um, which one? Bottom right. Bottom right. And it's still small.
I know. I know. I'm trying to see. I'll maybe go across and then I I can move across too. Just so can people at least see it now? Is it Is this okay? I do want to say when we got to this
process there were 71 people that responded. Um I thought the committee was very refle reflective and took a lot of the advice from some of the people that might have been negative towards it and made sure that we word smith it to
meet the needs of all all of our stakeholders. So, you know, I was proud of that work to be able to be able to identify some of the people that might not have bought into it and be been able to make some of those those changes. So those four tenants, the critical
thinkers, active citizens, skilled communicators, and empowered individuals, that will be the thread that sort of ties everything the district does again from preK through the graduation stage. Certainly, when you look at some of the
I can statements, those are written for what we would envision for a high school graduate. Um, but a kindergartener can still be a skilled communicator in in their own right in a developmentally appropriate way, as can a middle schooler, as can a ninth grader. So,
some of the work that comes next, um, assuming that the the committee approves this as the vision to move forward, some of the work that will come next is saying, "Okay, this is our final vision. this is what we want when they cross that graduation stage is for them to be able to say I can for all of these
pieces. So if that's what we want by the end of 12th grade, well what does that mean for the end of eighth grade? What does that mean for the end of fourth or fifth or sixth grade? What does that look like? And giving it back to your amazing educators to say, well, what does this look like in my classroom?
Right? What are we already doing? Because so many of your teachers are already working towards these pieces. it's just putting it in writing and recognizing and lifting up that work they're doing. And if there are any opportunities, for example, the community was very eager to see a
greater focus on financial literacy and money management for all graduates and we know that that is available to some students at the high school, but perhaps it's not made widely available enough yet. So that may be a consideration for how do we make sure that all of our
graduates are able to make sound financial decisions for themselves moving forward. Um, as I said with the steering committee uh Monday evening, that might not happen on Thursday of school next year, right? That is a process, but this is what starts those important conversations about well, what
do we need to do? What are we already doing? And let's celebrate that. Let's lift let's lift that up. And then where are there some opportunities for us to strengthen our programs and our offerings for our students to make sure they have exactly what they need to be successful. And I will say as a little
This this vision really becomes part of our district branding, right? This becomes who we are and what we strive for our students to be. So this work was tremendously important. And even though it's not finished, this is going into
all of the classrooms next year. Maybe not all of the elementary school classrooms just yet. They probably couldn't make that much sense of it, but it it might be. My point being, we will be communicating about this and working on this and around this relentlessly,
right? This is the work we need to figure out how to get all of our students to have all of these four pillars and there's work to be done and but as Ashley said, it's a north star. We road mapap it backwards but along the
entire way this will be in front of everyone. this will go out to the community so they know what our expectations are and what our vision is for the endpoint. Um the the caveat is these are not the images that will end
up staying. So um do you guys mind if I talk a little bit about that next step? So, one of the conversations we did have um at the last meeting was we're coming to the end of the school year and we've got the meat of this vision, right? But
it's not necessarily as marketable as we'd like it with the visuals. And we were talking about, well, should we be plugging in different computer graphics? Should we get a designer? And we really were talking about, let's not try to rush that right now. Let's get the
content of what we're looking to see and then next year, maybe within the first couple of months of school, we could get the students more involved in this once they see it, once they start living this, what will their thoughts be on how
to visualize this? So we were thinking that we'll have the students engage in either a competition or some kind of joint joint process where they're involved in identifying how they see these things and then how we represent
them visually through our through our work. So that's just another piece that's forthcoming. Uh, I'm truly excited about all of the work because the more we work on this and the more everyone sees it and understands it, the
clearer our vision is, right, as a community. Everyone's on the same page. They know why we're here. They know what we're doing. And this is our expectation. It's also a commitment to the community, right? We will be graduating students this way. Not we
hope to. we are going to and as Dave mentioned having that clear guideline assists him in identifying what pieces are missing from that puzzle and that's the same all the way up down to teachers lesson planning right something as simple as that you say well how does
this impact that when teachers are designing their lessons and they're thinking I understand the standard and I the content material that the kids need to get but what are the ways I need them to exemplify their understanding understand it. That's when we go back to
are they thinking critically about this information? Can they use it uh you know in their citizenship? Can they be can they communicate it about it? Do they share with one another? And again, not every content standard is going to fit
into every single one of these aspects. But with an eye on this, it'll just keep the focus there so that our teachers are saying what are the types of activities we want our kids engaging in because then the activities become what drives our students in this direction. So I
just think it's a tremendous tool and it's a fabulous resource and I'm really excited to be launching next year with the meat of it and continue with the development of the whole program. So, I want to thank Ashley for her fabulous
work. Uh, uh, facilitating adults, as many of you know, is not the easiest task and she did a fabulous job and it really everything went very smooth. So, thank you, Ashley. It was truly I said this to the team, it was a joy and an honor to get to partner with the Athlon
Railston communities. I mean, this was so much heart work from the people that were involved. It it was really a privilege. And so, thank you for trusting Focus Schools and myself to partner with you on this project. It was really a pleasure and I I'm excited to see where this takes the school district
in the coming years. Questions about it? Then if there are no questions, we would ask that the committee uh consider and please vote whether or not you would like us to accept this draft as our
vision of a graduate so that we can move forward with the remainder of the work. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Okay. Discussion seeing none. All those in favor?
I thank you all. This is important important work. Okay. Presentation on uh proposed cell phone use protocol. Mr. King and Mr. Webster will be joining us.
Do I need to queue up a different Let him speak. We're putting put Mr. Webster in the highlight. You were just up here. Yes. He didn't take a lot. He didn't take a lot of fire. I'm ready. Some slides.
I'll I'll step aside and work the remote for All right, sounds good. So, we're here to uh discuss an update as far as where we're at with our uh cell phone policy. Uh we are looking to create a cell phone free school culture
as we're working in general to minimize the learning distractions uh with our students. And um so we can hit the next slide. Uh we're going to be talking about a policy we're developing uh in our schools. As you can see, our
district seeks to provide students with a school environment that promotes academic focus, student well-being, and joy in our shared experiences as learners. And to help our schools achieve this environment, the district school committee directs that students not have access to personal electronic
devices during the school day. And so that is what we proposed in talking with the policy subcommittee and wanted to present that to you uh and then share a little bit more. Um you're going to step in.
No, no, do this next one. Yep. Because one of the things we did was we surveyed the community and When we surveyed the community, yeah, there was definitely um some angst with the cell phone policy, us as educators, we believe uh
we have a high belief in ensuring that cell phones are away during the school day, but we wanted to also recognize that some of uh what was shared with us in that survey has some value uh has value and we respect what they said. So when we started exploring how we would
try to make that policy come to light, there's a lot of different options to keep cell phones away. And where we landed was in this pouch option. Uh this is a yonder pouch right here. Uh the pouch option addresses the big concern
of students not physically having their cell phones on them and that was expressed numerous times throughout the survey. So this option here, the pouch option is what we are recommending to if we were going to implement the uh the
policy. That cell phone goes into the pouch. It gets locked up and it is put away for the day, but it stays with the student on them. that is uh that is the most inclusive thing we could do to keep that cell phone on the student and kind of
alleviate some of the uh anxiety that goes along with being removed from their cell phone. There are many other options and if students would not be able to adequately u meet that expectation of having the pouch, they would in fact move to the next level. Uh and we'll
we'll show what that looks like in a few minutes. But we feel like that that pouch right there is the best thing that we could do as a school district to hear and meet some of the the concerns that we heard. Can I just jump in and say just to clarify if people haven't seen the yonder pouch the process is the
company installs these devices at specific entry points or exit points of the to of the buildings and those pouches have magnetic locks on them and when they enter the building they're required to put their phone in it and lock it and
then as they leave they can unlock it and then they're free to take their they keep their case and then they keep their phone and bring it with them so that they have access to a trans in transport to and from school. So just to be clear about that,
we good. Great. So in talking about how we might implement this, um we uh put together some information for you as far as a time frame, uh the what and the where. And so if you can follow me for a moment after uh tonight's committee
meeting, we can notify the community of uh the first reading of policy through an email. In July, the latter half of July, perhaps on the 23rd, that evening, we could have an informational session. That would be one uh the first of two
and the first we could host here in the library at the middle school. Then the second session would be in August on the 13th is where we're proposing. I knock a little link there as far as uh an additional piece to that second session
is along with informing folks. Was that uh well it's it's basically you don't have to but it's basically it's a two-minute video um kind of describing a little bit about what screenagers is. The reason why we put uh this documentary forward was we thought that educating the community is an important
step because we're going to be relying on them to support students as well uh as we're supporting them in the classroom. Uh and one experience that I've had previously was a very strong and meaningful one where there's this documentary. It's a little over an hour. And we would uh propose having uh this
be shown at the auditorium at the high school where uh families would be able to come observe the documentary. And then one option we thought of was afterwards having breakout sessions that could be um led by uh some district administrators and leadership to talk
about uh really the what the results were. the families and the parents and the guardians are watching this and thinking, "My goodness, I didn't realize how much this technology is woven into our daily lives. Not just a distraction in schools, but if we got a two-hour drive to our grandparents for
Thanksgiving back when I was a kid, I'm looking out the window and arguing with my sister." Now, it's playing Angry Birds on a, you know, an iPad and they're they're soothed for two hours. And so, that's different forms of that um really uh take shape in families in different ways. And that's an important
conversation to have. we feel uh as we educate our community so that we can work together in support of having this um uh you know minimizing distraction kind of approach to to school. So uh then after that uh on the 20th is our next school committee meeting and so
we're hoping that there would be a second policy reading and then afterwards we're looking at uh initiate initiating our our policy. So, first day of school is September 2nd and we would be introducing to our student body uh our approach for the new policy for
personal cell phone technology. Uh afterwards uh here these slides are examples of what we would implement more specifically at the this is more geared towards the secondary level obviously grades 5 through 12. I don't know if you want to speak. Yeah, I think I think what this stresses is we are giving the
students an opportunity to meet our expectations with the with the privilege of using that yonder pouch and that's what we will have to clearly explain. Right? The school committee has established the policy that cell phones are away. This is a device that we have
uh spent some money on to ensure that we're trying to meet their needs as much as possible while still keeping them away. And if they're not able to meet that expectation of using that yonder pouch responsibly, we do have to use a a tiered system uh approach for any of
these violations. So this is this is what we came at at first run. Uh these are not in stone, but these are these are still things that you know we're discussing before that first violation happens. We would make sure as schools we have done a thorough job of educating
students, making them understand that we are serious about creating a culture here where cell phones are away and at some point we would get into that first violation. It wouldn't be too long into it, right? Um with uh you know at the high school
level it would be they would see that you're not able to meet the expectation. Their phone no longer goes in the yonder pouch. goes into the locker box which we currently using at the high school for students that can't keep their cell phon. So, click to that next slide. That's what we use right now. It's um
it's on the wall in the front office. Students that don't meet our expectations of keeping their cell phones, their cell phone goes into that lock box. They take the key and it's there for the entire day. So, now it's it's that next step that they don't no longer have it on them. Uh but it still
meets the the policy expectations. And there be a progressive discipline part. Start with 10 days, go to 30 days, go to 60 days, go to searching their bags. Uh students that destroy it, the value $30 for that cell, for that uh pouch, we
we'd ask for them to to u pick up that cost. And if they can't afford it, community service hours would be required to meet that for any of those individuals that don't have the financial resources to do to pay that. Um but they still would
have to put their phone in in that lock box for whatever whatever duration of time that they they are in the violation process. As you can see in your packets, uh following that is the middle school version which is uh similar. We have
some small adjustments as far as going down the the different uh steps for violations. Um but we're following in lock step pretty much the same approach as the high school. Um, so we're work. This is really, you know, the whole district. Um, and
I mean, as far as you you have there in your pockets, for those of us uh kind of watching from home, the top reads that at the Royalston Middle School students are expected to secure or lock their personal electronic devices into their schoolisssued pouch. Uh, the yonder pouch upon entrance into the school, all
personal uh devices, and that would be cell phone. We have smartwatches now, earbuds, and different versions of earbuds. All those devices must stay secured uh until the end of the school day in the pouch. The pouches are big enough to be able to uh hold all those
items um reasonably. All schoolisssued pouches are expected to remain in a student's backpack or otherwise properly secured uh for the duration of the school day depending on the different needs of the kids. Sometimes we have different individual situations as far as how they secure things, but the idea is that they're put away but still
accessible to the student uh in an emergency situation, things like that. that pretty much reads the same for both the middle and the high school. And as I mentioned, the the three uh violation steps as well as destruction. There's some small adjustments uh just based on the middle school level uh approach
compared to the high school, but we feel that they're pretty pretty well um grouped together. And so this is a wooden version of what we currently have in our office. Uh we are essentially it's the same approach. Um, it's a little bit different at the middle
school. So, we don't know that it would be a good idea for a pre-adolescent kid to be walking around with their own key. Uh, it could end up swallowed or thrown or something like that depending on uh the students uh kind of mindset kind of tongue and cheek there, but obviously we want to make sure that they're secured and we would just use this would be
under the supervision of staff the main office and so uh the student would be dropping it off in the main office. It would be locked in this area and secured for the day and then picked up at the end of the day. So, that's just another how we kind of modify things based on the level of responsibility at the
middle school level. Um is that I think the last slide. So that's in a nutshell. Um first the uh obviously the question will come up what about students that might
need a personal device for certain medical reasons or to monitor their you know their blood sugar levels or whatever their medical condition is. Those are clear exceptions that those students will obviously be granted the whatever access they need. Certainly if
it's able to be limited and we don't want them talking on their phones when they're supposed to be checking their, you know, their health records. But there will be those exceptions because that's one of the first questions. I know that we are going to be discussing
this through the policy conversation in a little bit. But I would also throw out, you know, Dave mentioned one of the concerns was, you know, taking the physical phone away and this was in response to this yonder pouch idea is in response to still allowing them to have
it on their person. Another big concern that was expressed through the surveys it was well what happens in an emergency right what happens in an emergency so in an emergency actually all of the phones
in all of our classrooms offices work and they go direct they can dial 911 and actually it is safer to call from one of the interior phones and much faster to get a response if anyone calls calls
from an interior phone because depending on the day if you make an emergency call from a cellular device it now in this area athol has worked so that it it does get routed to the right dispatch but I've been told even depending on where
you are that may or may not happen however all of our classroom and office phones not only have direct contact to 911 but it will tell them at dispatch the exact location and room and or
office of that phone that's that's the call is being made from. So it is a significantly safer option than using a cellular device. I did have meetings with the public safety departments in
Athal and I can say all of our public safety departments support moving in the direction of um limiting or eliminating cell phone use during the school day. One of the concerns I know I spoke with
uh at police chief and we were discussing the other aspect that comes up is people think what about a mass emergency right the cons to having cell phones during a mass emergency outweigh
any of the pros and PD would agree that the cons outweigh the pros in the sense that first of all If there were an intruder in the building, we want our students, if they're locked down, to be quiet and to
be hiding. As soon as anything gets texted or messaged out to the community via cell phone devices inside the building, those phones all across the building are going to start blowing up all over because it's parental instinct and it's
understandable, right? But it's parent instinct. I've got to check on my kid. I'm going to text him. I'm going to call him or her. And phones start blowing up all over the place while you can't, right? While you're trying to hide. Another major issue is when this
communication goes out to parents or out to the community from inside a building where there's an emergency happening, the whole community thinks it's their responsibility to respond and they've got to go get their kid or they've got to get to a certain place to make sure
they know where their kids going. That floods our streets. That blocks our actual pathways for the public safety to get access to the building. They would tell you they don't want parents and community members notified of what's
going on because everyone rushing to a scene is the exact opposite of what we want to happen. Lastly, if and when people start using their cellular devices, and this has been shown to happen, and actually the police chief
has said he's experienced it happen here, dispatch blows up, right? Those dispatch lines can become overloaded with calls from cellular devices and from parents at their homes and they literally can have issues with the the
equipment there. I'm not saying suggesting the equipment is faulty in any way, but not only does the stuff just get flooded in. There's no way for the police to respond to all of those calls and and all of that volume coming
through the dispatch. So I just want to be clear that was those were some of the concerns expressed but I have met with public safety officials in the communities here. We had both police and fire from Athal and Royalston and it was
great conversations and I believe everyone is supportive of moving in this direction. Um, and as I said, the the to say the police chief was clear, the cons outweigh the pros, even in an emergency
situation. So, I think that's something that is lasting for the for the community to understand. Just wanted to put that out there. Any questions about their presentation or process in general?
Thank you. Thank you guys very much. In your uh packet under communications, you do have um district enrollment and also the technology report. Um then do you have questions on those at all?
Moving on, MSBA update. There's uh just so everybody's aware, there's a lot of stuff that is, you know, it may look like, well, what's going on or it's slow or whatever, but there's a lot of that is actively happening behind the scenes. Um, if it's not the superintendent with
MSBA, I've been working with Senator Comfort and also Representative Whips on looking at some potential relief uh with that reserve fund. So again, you know, and there's a lot of work during the regular school day uh with Dave and TJ
and Matt. So again, a lot of things, a lot of timelines starting to come out. Can I jump in? One one good example of that work that myself, TJ, and Dave, I thank him as well. We were just at AOTV yesterday and
we actually put together an episode of the Bears Den as we were discussing and we put together a 37 minuteformational piece on the MSBA project, specifically the feasibility study portion of the
project. what led us as a district to be interested in the feasibility study and what led us to applying for this fabulous grant program in the first place. So, we're hopeful that uh we haven't reviewed it yet. We just got the link this late this afternoon from Jake
who was fabulous, but we're hopeful that it came out good enough. And I do know that the information is very valuable and pertinent for the community to hear. So, that's just a piece of some of the work that's going on. Any questions?
Move along to financial statements and approval of accounts. So the first thing you have two contracts and what I did are summarized as
anything goers both particip holiday. We just changed the word system. And then the next section goes over the So we we have already met with the
managers and the workers and they have agreed to this also approval and has also increases proposed that ends up being A little bit over
per hour. Longevity. We increase the longevity by $100. And then we just add that gives you a brief summary. I would just want to interject as well. Um I do believe everyone here is
understanding of this. The cafeteria budget does not come out of the general fund budget. So technically any of these changes that we're agreeing to are simply in support of moving in this direction for their working conditions and and their salaries. But this won't
impact the general budget at all. They have to maintain a separate cafeteria budget. And that's why this really went the route of Nancy, myself, and Carol sat down and reviewed all of the finances, tracked how things have been
going for the last few years, saw what changes Carolyn is trying to make for next year, and we're very confident that all of these all of these changes can be absorbed within their budget. So that's that's the goal and we do think that this gives them a significant increase.
It's a great thanks to them because they deserve the pay, but it's certainly not going it's not going to break the cafeteria budget either. Is there a motion um to vote on the uh cafeteria contract first?
Is there a second? discussion any okay seeing none all those in favored extensions and next the uh cafeteria workers contract
is there a motion is there a second okay discussion see none all those in favor extensions. Okay, go ahead. Mr. King.
So in your packet, you'll find the invoice included. So the total amount for the pouches are 29,548.50. We would like permission from the committee to purchase this and take it from school choice. It gives us enough
pouches for the middle school, the high school, and 15% extra um additional pouch pouches in case of damage. I'm not going to go into it anymore because I think we Yeah, the only piece that I would add with respect to the
financial aspect is we did look for other quotes to be clear. Uh we did find one other company that makes a similar product, but they're only distributed in Europe. So I believe Yonder Pouch has a
monopoly on the market here in the United States. and this other company as in the market in Europe. Um Dave did explore a couple of other options that were are he's in the process of exploring. Dave,
did they come did they come in? A rubbery plastic one. We haven't We asked for um a sample on it. I have no idea how it works. I've asked other people. No one uses them in the schools. Everyone uses yonder in the school systems. And there's a another device
called maybe new case. It's a hard plastic clear case. So you can see right through it. It clicks together. Um it opens back up. No one no one no one uses anything
besides yonder. True. And they'll see all the text messages coming through. Also, that that being said, I do just want to be clear. We're doing our financial diligence and being responsible by looking for these other products. We can, you know, if the
plastic ones from Amazon or the rubbery ones that we check out work, great. Maybe we do go in that direction. I think what we should do is potentially vote on authorizing purchase of some type of device to allow us to put the
cell phones away up to the cost of the yonder pouch. And then if we're able to find an alternative that is cheaper, we certainly and and again we would have to determine it was valuable and effective. But uh I do we haven't seen some of
these products so or had our hands on them at least. So I think that the proper thing to do would be approve the purchase of these pouches up to the cost of the pouches. One other thing I did want to also mention
to $5,000. So they they actually give us a discounted price of $20 a unit for the for the next year. And then what would happen is the seniors their devices would go down to fifth grade
fifth or sixth grade whatever the middle arms. So the cost would would be a lot less cell phone pouch up to the price of the yonder 28,731. And the last thing I have is um request
requesting to see if the school committee will vote approval for the school committee to have electronic electronic signature for our warrants. Warrants. I can't always get here during the day um to get a signature or whatever. So I
mean even in my own career we use a whether it's docuign or whatever it is on a daily basis. So I think this is a smart approach for us to uh do that and you know signatures are a lot easier from people if we can do it electronically. Any
other see not all those in favor? Okay. Thank you, Nancy. Uh reports of the chair. Uh I don't have anything this evening. We already updated MSBA. So budget and finance. If there's any additions to NY's report,
it's always easy to f to follow Nancy and say budget subcommittee because it's already reviewed and you do have the recent minutes facilities. Uh we did meet this evening and uh TJ update us on a bunch of different projects that are
going on. Um and I have to say he's doing a great job at keeping building maintenance up to date and handling problems immediately. So, I again want to give him his team uh a lot of thanks
for all they do to keep everything up and running. We'll start meeting in August. We haven't had a meeting yet, but we probably will be very soon. This month meeting meeting minutes will be included in our August agenda. Uh we
have our first reading on the cell phone policy that we spent the meeting talking about. Um this policy was taken from Pioneer Valley who already implemented the self cell phone bell-to-bell policy.
So this language was driven from that. Can I pause you before we go into the reading so I can alleviate Russ's concerns. We've had some conversations to the side. The process that we're looking to follow is we were planning on
having a first reading of the policy this evening and then we'll go on to endeavor to have those family nights and communication sessions at the middle and high school through July. And hopefully
that will bring the community out. will get all of the questions answered and then in August we would intend to have a second reading of the policy. However, we will be asking to wave the third reading of the policy. Right? So in
August we do the second reading and wave the third so that we could have the policy approved and implemented in time for the start of school uh at the end of August. So that's the plan and I just want to make that clear to the public
listening. So if because there won't be I understand it's a it's an important policy and it's a pretty big to-do in our district. It's not that we're trying to avoid having all of the readings. We don't have a meeting scheduled in July.
So instead of scheduling an emergency meeting just to read a policy, we decided to take this route. So, we will be communicating with our entire community about when these info sessions will happen. We will be getting out more
information about what the the plan is. And then in August, we would have the second and final reading of the of the policy. Yeah. And the posting would indicate that. The next posting would actually have the policy second read and
a motion to wave the third reading. So people would see that up front too if you did it that way. Is there a second? Okay. Discussion seeing none. All those in favor? Okay.
All right. Thank you. Uh next committee member referrals. Tammy. Other than to make sure that when we come back in office we about Matt's goals. Yep. Um and then just to thank all the teachers and the staff that are listening are here for an awesome year
for our kids. Um we know how hard you work and I know our kids aren't always easy. So thank you for making the end of the year fun. They're really enjoying it. So thank you for everything you do. Wanted to thank for all her hard work putting together
the slideshow today. everything she did for the fourth grade step up ceremony. She definitely brought the tears for all the parents like we were hoping. So, thank you for that. Um, I want to thank staff at the high school who took the kids to DC and the
kids had, my understanding, a really good time. And um, I want to give kudos to Andaros for all her hard work because I don't know how that trip happens without all the efforts she puts in and everything she does for that group. So,
You do, just as closing, you do have an updated school committee uh meeting schedule that you received. Um so that has been adjusted to remove the July meeting. If no other business to come before the committee, I entertain a
motion to adjourn. Sure. Always a mess up in February where we come the second week instead of the third. So if we could get that, I'll copy over. Do you got it? Okay. I know sometimes she's like, "I didn't know there was a meeting." And I'm like, "It's okay."
[Laughter] Right. Motion to. I'll make the motion. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I see you in August.