Okay, I would like to welcome everyone to tonight's Air Shirley Regional School Committee meeting. It's Tuesday, March 1st, and um I will call this meeting to order at 6:31. Those attending tonight's
meeting should be aware that the meeting is being audio and video recorded by Apac and ASRSD. Any audience members who wish to record any part of the meeting must inform the chair who will announce the recording. This is to comply with the mass wiretap statute. the listing of matters of those reasonably anticipated
by the chair which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law. So I would ask everyone to please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag 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. Michelle, people have to sign. This is public
hearing. Michelle, will you call the role, please? Mr. Granger here. Mr. Quincy. Mrs. here. Mr. Rick here. Mrs. Simmons here. Here. Okay. So, I will um move entertain a
motion to open the public budget hearing on the fiscal year 23 proposed budget. I'll make a motion to open the public budget hearing for fiscal year 2020. Proposed budget budget. Seconded.
Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. Any opposed? All right. So, we are um now in our public budget hearing on the fiscal year 23 proposed budget. I will ask Mr. Bill Plunkett, our finance
manager, to go over a few slides with regards to our budget. Thank you, Madam Chair. I paired this down from our uh uh I think it was February 18th meeting, so you probably familiar with some of it,
but these are the slides showing our chapter 70 summary. This is the air shirley FY23 chapter 77 summary. And I want to draw your attention to the top right part for comparisons to FY22.
So we are up 16. Oh, it's hard to see. We're up 16 students in foundation enrollment and our foundation budget is up 1.4 million. So that's 7.5%. It's a significant increase. Uh and that's the
state calculation to uh incorporate all the costs uh for our students and health insurance and benefits and things like that. Um over to the left you see our calculation of chapter 70 they put uh in row one
might be easier to see on your um on the slide handout but that's last year then row one is last year chapter 70 8.35 million and they take the foundation enrollment
budget in row row two and subtract the required local contribution in row three to get the amount that they state feels would be adequate funding uh for us through chapter 70. So that is less than we got last year. So we're considered
whole harmless. So we get the minimum state aid of $30 per student. That's the 49,740 you see in row 7. And that comes through gets added the 49,000 gets added to the last year's amount. So our chapter 70
funding is 8.4,431. And the bottom chart shows you how steady it has been with the hold harmless. We don't you don't see much uh of a trend upwards. Um but that's the chapter 70 summary for the district. So, moving on to the uh foundation
enrollment and required local contributions by town. This splits it up between air and Shirley and you can see uh that we are up 16 students overall as we saw on that first slide and our total
required local contribution is $761,365. And as we go down, you can see the split between air. Air is up 30 students and Shirley is down 14. So air is absorbing or being realizing most of that increase of 761,000
at 520,000 with that increase in students. The next slide shows Shirley's aortionment of the required local contribution across air. Shirley and the show the two districts that Shirley and
air belong to. So Shirley has realized um a decrease in 14 students uh from FY22 to FY23 uh for air Shirley and a in decrease of five students from the tech. So they're
actually had a a decrease in the required local contribution for Nishobate and a very modest increase of 240,000 for the Shirley School District. Total of $223,000 increase 487 over last year.
And here is the same slide for air with the increase of 30 students for this year and an increase of 520,696 of the required local contribution and you can see there's an increase of two
students to the tech uh an increase of 53,169 over last year. Moving on now for these numbers. We have our required local contribution in row number one that's set by the state that is not a portion to the towns by the
regional agreement. Rows two and three net school spending above RLC and transportation are both aortioned uh to air and Shirley according to the regional uh agreement which is foundation enrollment a 5-year rolling average of the foundation enrollment. So
currently error is at 56.5% and Shirley is at 43.5%. For rows two and three. So this is the amount only the amount above the required local contribution gets a portion to the towns via that
calculation. In row four is the capital interest. This calculation is a little bit different because it takes into consideration where the school building is if you're uh borrowing for renovations or construction. So this is for the high school field project, the
initial borrowing. So that is a blend of a resident enrollment and a five-year BL five-year average of resident and foundation enrollment uh based on the resident and students at uh at the high school Aaron Shirley students at the high school.
So we plug those numbers in and we get our operating assessment of 20,42,000. It's a $669,000 increase over last year or 3.4%. 4.1% increase to air mainly because of
that increase in RLC and then a 2.3% increase to Shirley. Next, we add in the excluded debt, which is excluded from the uh two and a half tax levy, and it's $1.3 million. It's a 30-year uh
note on the high school for the renovation project. And it's divided between Aaron and Shirley based on that same split between resident foundation enrollment. And we see a slight increase uh to Shirley because of the middle school debt is coming off. is beginning
beginning to come off. The uh that note will be paid off completely in 2026 and air is getting a little bit of a decrease because of the the calculation is shifting a little bit uh due to some incentives. But the total operating and
assess uh debt operating assessment and debt is 21,784,951 which is an increase of 672,478 3.2% 3.7% to air and 2.5% to Shirley.
So that's a paired down version of our budget presentation just kind of focusing on the state funding and how we how that all gets plugged into our assessment to the town. Our general fund is the only uh is the only part of the budget that the assessment is based on.
Uh our grants and our revolving funds are all we use for the budget are not included in the assessment at all. And our general fund increase was only 2.6% increase over last year. with this proposal. I think that's it.
Thank you, Bill. Does anyone have any questions for Bill? Okay. So, um the I will say that um this budget was presented to both the Shirley FINCOM and board of selectmen as well as the air sher um FINCOM and boards of
selectmen. So, um, both towns have have heard this present, not this presentation, a more detailed presentation, but have been advised of the budget and how it's been determined. Yes. Okay. Correct. So, the purpose of this public hearing is to invite comments from members of the public regarding the proposed fiscal
year 2023 budget that is pending before the school committee. Uh, the committee will hear any comments from persons who wish to speak for against the budget. And so I will ask now if there's anyone in our audience here to speak about the budget.
And anyone online, if you're there and would like to speak about the budget during this budget hearing, I'd ask you to put your name in the chat and you will be recognized to speak. Nothing. All right. We'll give it a minute because this technically is supposed to be half hour. Joyce.
Um, Bill, and I probably just overlooked it. So, is the state, how much is the state sponsoring transportation this year, or do we know yet? Well, there was talk at first about being about 80%, but the governor just filed legislation for uh additional um
aid to schools, municipalities, uh to get it back up to 90 to 92%. That's what the school aid is targeted at. is for transportation for transportation. Well, that's the first $2.4 billion
package. That is additional revenue for FY22. So, we shouldn't expect that next year then because it'll all go into Well, obviously their revenues are higher than they expected, so it's always a good thing. We'll take it.
Might not get it again. So the most we've seen in recent years is 60%. Uh about 10 years ago it was always it was pretty low. Yeah. And then um we've been the legislation's been really good about kind of ramping it up a little bit at a time.
They're they're hearing it from the districts and of course charter schools are now eligible for it. So there's more more districts sharing that pot of money. Okay. Thank you. It's always a hot topic.
It is. Still no one. Okay. All right. So, having heard all comments, seeing no other board comments or public comments, this public hearing on the 1st of March, 2022 is now closed at 6:43.
Um, I will now entertain a motion uh to close the public budget hearing. And we'll do this by roll call. I should have done the first vote by roll call, but Madam Chair, I'll make a motion that we close the public hearing on the FY23 proposed budget and return to regular session.
Second. Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. If you want to roll. Oh, yeah. You're right. So, Michelle, will you call the role? Mrs. Granger.
Yep. Mr. Wendy. Hi, Mrs. Reish. Hi, Mr. Rubric. Hi, Mrs. G. Hi, M. Hi. Okay. Thank you, Michelle. Sorry, I'm experiencing technical difficulties here, so I'm trying to log
on to the Wi-Fi network. So, um, next we're going to have our high school representative, Miss Alicia Town, give us an update on what's going on at the high school. All right. Um, a lot of like sports information tonight. Um, for our track, um, IJ and Jacob both went to, um, uh, a
competition last weekend and placed uh, fifth place in the 55 meter and fourth in the 300, which is awesome. And Jacob, I believe, came home with the League Champ title, which is great. And I think they're both um, competing again this
weekend at regionals. Um, and for swimming, Laura Fulbert, the senior, um, placed fourth in the 100 fly, and that's her biggest accomplishment of this year, which is great. And for basketball, girls and boys basketball are both
competing tonight for state playoffs, which is very exciting. Um, last I heard, the girls were up um, at the end of the third um, 27 to 20. So there you go. Promising.
And they also um had the first 50 students to sign up with Mr. Kendall today. Um they got free um they got to go in the game for free. So I don't have to pay which is great. Um yeah, other than that just I'm going
to accepted students day at Marramac this weekend. Um going to see what that's all about and hopefully put a deposit down soon. It's a great school. I went there. Very exciting. That's about it.
Good. Congratulations. So, just for clarification, I believe this weekend was like um a meet of champions for Massachusetts and she came in um fourth in the 55 and third. No, third in the 300. Fourth.
Fourth, I believe. Yeah. What was the 55? Uh fifth. Fifth. Okay. Um but she was she did win first at the state championship as did Jacob in the 55 meter hurdle. So that that's amazing amazing accomplishments by our um and of course Lauraai making
it to states and the basketball teams. I mean just amazing accomplishments by the winter um winter athletes and those are just you know the ones on the top of my head the I know um there's just so much to be proud of. Um so thank you for your
update. Good luck at the weekend this weekend, accepted students weekend, and hopefully that will seal the deal for you. Thank you. I hope so. Yeah, I'm feeling good about it. So, we'll see. So, I'm sure I know where you're going next. Yeah. Okay. Check text updates so we know
what's happening. I will. Thank you. All right. Thanks. All right. So, I will now move on to public comment. Um, so if anyone in our audience would like to speak, if you could come up to the podium and just say
your name and where you live. Um, also I'll open it up right now to um, our audience. If there's anyone online that would like to speak, if you could put your name in the chat so that you can be recognized, I think. All right, we'll give it a minute.
for 30 seconds. Still nothing. There's nothing in the chat. Okay. So, if if the person with their hand raised is watching, if you could please put your name in the chat so that we know who to recognize to speak. If that was an error and you don't want to
speak, if you could just put that in the chat so we're not waiting um to figure this out. There's two comments that just say chat is disabled, but it is open. So, if they'd like to speak, they can speak. Okay. So, I don't know if um if that was
heard by the audience. The chat is open. So please um put your name in this in the chat. The chat might be disabled, but the there's a way as a participant where they should be able to signal like the
ask a question, right? I'm trying to think about when I've been on this says, "My comment is about considering masks for speech delayed children. They need to be able to see their teachers mouth." That is Matthew Murphy. Okay.
Thank you, Matthew. Sure. So, just let me know when she's activated. It's not the It's not the Yeah, just go through the policy review. Technical problem.
It's true. It should okay that number is right on I have a quick question if I could. Sure. Is the public going to be able to speak after we discuss the budget to pass? No, this is the time now.
This is the time now. Y for me. Do you want to go to the podium and speak? I didn't want to cut. No, go ahead. I mean, while we figure this out, you might take 30 seconds.
My name is Mike Callahan. I'm from Massachusetts. I'm new to the area about a year and a half. Um, I have a son, Blake, who is nine. He goes to um air public schools as well. He is currently loving it. Um, the only thing I really wanted to say was I wanted to give the
kids a quick voice if they're not able to speak here in front of all you tonight and just say I think it's time that we um let the kids breathe. Um, time to take the mask off, show their faces, be happy, and uh, let them have fun and if we can, if we can do it
safely, let's do it if we can. That's all I really wanted to say. Thank you. Can I just ask you, did you say he's loving it or not loving it? He's loving it. Okay. currently loving it. Good. I I was like, "Oh, no." No, no, he loves it here. We're uh we're great. I'm from the Grafton, Massachusetts area. Was in the military
and then finally settled there. Um great place to live right near 495. So, yeah, we are both currently loving it. But I just wanted to uh give them a voice. Yeah. No, I appreciate it. And and I'm glad you're loving it. Thank you very much. Yeah. I'm gonna allow It's actually Ken, but
it's under Rachel, but his name is Ken. And I'm going to allow him to talk. Okay. Ken, once you're um activated, if you could just say hello and let us know where what town you live in. Ken, can you hear me? I can. Can you guys hear me now? Yes.
Sorry about that. Okay. So, I I I would agree with the last father. So, my name is Ken. My wife Rachel. We both live in a we have a 5-year-old uh Penny who's in kindergarten at Page Hilltop and a six-year-old Matthew in first grade.
They're also loving school as well. Uh so all good on that front. What they're not loving is the masks. And to be honest, neither neither are we, especially in the current environment when other other school systems are pulling it back. Other states, cities,
countries are pulling that back. You know, there's a wide availability of vaccines, therapeutics. Um and I think that that the data has kind of shown that kids aren't the biggest transmission factor or risk factor. But my kids to get as as the previous
gentleman said, I'd like to give them a voice. I mean, my my son and I talk about it pretty much every every day driving to school like they hate the masks. It's the one negative about school and I don't I mean I used to love school as a kid and I want them to love
every part of it and you know they're five and six and they're getting to the point where they they dread that you know like they've done their part. They're they're tough kids. But, you know, I think if there's a way to, you know, if you guys can consider, you
know, giving and I'm not saying banning masks or anything ridiculous. I'm saying giving giving them the choice to be able to choose to wear it or not, I think would be uh much welcomed by a lot of the community and certainly by us. And that's that's what I wanted to put out
there. Thank you for the time. Thank you, Ken. I'm just thinking your kids have probably not been in a school without a mask if that's if their ages are kindergarten and first grade. So that will be certainly something new for them. People know what to do. Any parents that would like to speak? Uh
David comrade. Okay. David, can you hear us? Hi, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yep. So, I commented a couple weeks ago, so I I'll make my comments brief. Um the the
only things I wanted to add to the discussion that we had a couple weeks ago is uh for me personally I don't I currently don't have to wear a mask at work, at the grocery store when I go to church, pretty much anywhere. U you know
whether you agree or just or don't agree with that. Um and so it seems like a tragedy that our kids would have to continue wearing masks when uh me and my wife don't have to wear masks anymore. Um, so, so that's one point that I wanted to make. Sorry to back up. Um, my
name is David Conrad and we live in Shirley and we have three boys that attend Laura A White. Um, the other thing I wanted to add to this is, um, it's certainly stressful, you know, having
various variants and peaks and valleys of this this pandemic that we're in. Uh and and for me, it's a lot easier to, you know, dig my heels in and work really hard and mask up and stay home and work from home and do all these
things when there's a big spike in cases and there's a lot of things going on. um if it's for a short period of time. But that implies that when things are easier, meaning there's low case counts, there's low hospitalizations, there's uh
great a availability of vaccines, etc. Uh it's nice that we have the option then to actually live life somewhat normally for at least a while. Um and that gives us the the courage, I guess, to dig our heels it back in if if things get bad again. So, I would encourage um
you to, you know, vote to no longer require masks at school. So, thank you. Thank you. No one else. Okay. So, we'll give it couple minutes. A minute. Five minutes on time.
Anything on the basketball game? The girls won. The girls won. The girls won. The girls won. As long as we're waiting, we might as well. score was 39 to 35. Awesome. Close one, too. Sweet.
Okay. Sure. Great. Um, this is Tim Muin. as a parent of an immune compromised child and survivor and survivor of dead dead siblings from COVID 19.
Please keep the mask mandate. The number of deaths did not change. The date selected was for political reasons, not based on science. Okay. Thank you. Who was I'm sorry. Did you from air didn't say? Okay. Sorry. Sorry, I didn't know if you had said it and I missed it.
Okay, thank you. Lot of people commenting now commenting on his comment wanting it to be a choice. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to if Yeah, there's no one else to speak. We're going to um move on and um move on to
our ongoing business. So, the first item is a discussion on Desi's announcement to lift the statewide mask mandate for K to2 schools. Dr. Brenda. All right. Thank you. Um, so I wanted to just take a minute and provide some of the information that we provide at every
school committee meeting and then um some follow-ups from from the last school committee meeting. So as of today we had uh three reported cases over break. There is one active case in uh
for a high school student right now. Uh, in yesterday's weekly communication, I had asked families to take the home test and try to report do their best to report before 6:30 tonight. As of right
now, I don't have any positive cases reported from today's testing. That doesn't mean there won't be some that trickle in. Um, but there isn't. As a comparison, on January 3rd, that was the first day back from
um December break, we had 24 cases in Paige Hilltop, 23 cases at Air Shirley Middle School, 14 cases at Laura White, and five cases at um the high school. Um, as of today, we have one.
The 14 students that were identified as immuno compromised were all contacted by uh, Miss Payne uh, with an additional u one today that was emailed. Um, 12 of those families felt there was not any there was no need for any type of
medical plan or accommodations for the children to attend school safely. two that were nervous about it were asked to contact their uh primary care physicians for suggestions on accommodations that we could make to make them uh feel safe in school. Uh I know Miss Payne reached
out through email to a a another parent today offering the same. Um when we get that information um and a doctor's note, we can certainly put together a plan uh to to try to to do our best to make sure that everybody is safe. And for any
other parents um who may not have shared that information with us uh that we may not know about through medical records, please reach out to your school uh your school nurse so that we can um have you have a conversation with Miss Payne, our uh nurse director, so that we can do the same for you. Um but as of right now, we
are actively um creating two plans and we have reached out to help create a a third. I don't know if that parent would be interested in that. Um as of right now we have 228 staff members who are participating in the at
home testing and 640 students. The vaccination and infection rates have not changed since I emailed you this past week because they update on Wednesdays unfortunately. But air has a 31.8 8 per
100,000 infection rate and a um five uh.02 positivity rate and Shirley has a um 30.2 infection rate and an 8.6 positivity rate. Uh Air Shirley Regional High School is 70% vaccinated, fully
vaccinated. Air Shirley Regional Middle School is 65% fully vaccinated. Laura White is 42% vaccinated and Paige Hilltop is 44% vaccinated. Um, over break the CDC lifted the mask requirements on school buses. Um, I sent
out a a Sunday night email letting parents know that though the CDC has lifted their requirement and DESIE and DPH have lifted their requirement, there's still currently a policy in place through the air regional school district school committee um that
everyone is mass on school buses and in school. Um, that is the most up-to-date information that we have now, but we're we're happy to answer any questions or if um you feel I've left any out, please let me know. Anyone have any questions for Dr. Ronda?
So, how many reports did you receive this activity? None. As of right now, we don't have any. There's none through We have a Google form um Mr. that we ask parents to fill out. Right. Uh as of right now, no one has filled out that form saying that their
child is positive. That doesn't mean we'll we won't have some trickle in. So you but you have none positive. How many total reports? They don't report. So we have 640 students who should have taken the
test today when they went home and 228 staff members. If we question students might not be able to do it right when they're home from school if they happen to be on the girls basketball boys basketball team they might not right and there's other reasons but I would imagine our 228
staff the majority of them have probably already tested um and and so I can I would feel safe to say we probably don't have any staff that have tested that are positive and they're usually a pretty good indication to how the students will go. Uh for instance, when we came back
from winter break, one of the biggest issues was the number of staff that we had positive. It was it was it was tough to cover classes. Um that week was one of the um most more interesting weeks of of of my professional career. I think we
could probably all say that. Um these past two days have certainly not been anything like that. But like I said, um we we asked for people to report before 6:30. I'm sure uh some tested and didn't have to report
and there could be some students and and staff who have not tested yet and some reports may trickle in. But um you know we had as I said on January 3rd, the week of January 3rd, we had
well over 66 56 56 positive cases coming back. And right now we have one active case and it's a student at the high school. Do you feel that um the winter vacation
of course was a longer span of time longer number of days. So if people were uh contracted before um you know say the middle say Christmas um to use a date then they would have
had time to develop it in the next three or four days and then have it by the time they got back to school where this is a different shorter vacation. So the development yeah you know I'm not an expert on on virus spread so I really I don't know
how to answer that. I can tell you Christmas break typically there's a lot more gettogethers um you know Christmas and New Year's and and I would I would imagine that would have a a bigger impact in spreading than than justation period but we did we did
ask over 500 students and over 200 staff to test on Tuesday. Um so as of Tuesday uh we we didn't have Tuesday last Tuesday we asked and we had never tested over break before. Right. Right. So the one of the benefits of this at
home testing is that when you have a break you can test over break and if there are people positive they know to quarantine. So in theory that should help stop the spread you know. So we did we did ask for people to test over Tuesday. Whether or not they did it on Tuesday or on another
another time, I don't know. But we only had um three cases over three positive cases reported to us over break. I think for me too, one of the reasons of waiting till break um was to see not only what would come of our school
committee, but to see what the community around us would be because CO isn't going to attack just the air surely students. It's going to attack the the community as a whole and then it's going to spread to our students. So for me that was a big indicator of what the communities were doing and I think at
Christmas break time clearly it was the omccron spread and it was a lot more um rampant and you know we can understand why the numbers were as high as they were. So, um, you know, having not seen that type of outbreak in the last week
just among community members gives me a sense of, um, feeling as though it's, um, it's not something that we're going to see in our students necessarily. Also, in December, that was early in terms of when your elementary and
younger middle school age students were able to get vaccinated, right? um you know a lot of that age group weren't getting their second dose until around the winter break um just based on when it became available when you could get appointments and the two weeks
between um your first and second dose. So you had a greater percent of the population unvaccinated go into that break. Um and you've also had a higher percentage of the population who's been exposed or had COVID between
Thanksgiving and Yeah. End of January, early February. Yeah. Madam Chair, if I may, one thing I I did leave out, we did ask um school counselors and a Mr. Cl can you help me out? Um uh a
restor we have a a restorative justice um consultant working at the high school. Um so the restorative justice consultants and some school counselors at every level put together advisory and home room lessons on respecting differences. Uh that lesson has either
been delivered or is going to be delivered uh this week. Um part of it can be specifically about about um wearing a mask or not wearing a mask but but it's mainly about um people make different choices for different reasons and we we need to respect that.
Yeah. So that though that is always taught in our schools um it it is it's going to be gone it will be gone over again uh specifically for us. Great thanks. Do we have information from the Nishoba board of health
directly? Miss Payne, are you on? Miss Payne our director was going to join us virtually. If I can bring up that information quickly if if um she in there Erica Yes, she is.
Can you Yes. The the one thing that the board of health have shared with us was that um on February 28th when the mass mandate is lifted that mask will still be required in school health offices and settings um
will still be required by students and by individuals who work in those health offices. That is Renee. Is that Wait a minute. I just Excuse me. It scrolled and I lost her in the list. Can you hear me now? Perfect.
Oh, yay. Nice to hear your voice again. So, I missed the beginning of the question because um I apologize, but I was trying to get my speaker to connect. Renee was a question in regards to uh if we have received communication from the
board of health. Have we received communication as far as lifting the mask? Well, it and I think it was in general anything that they're saying and I'm looking at what you sent me earlier today and there though they're still recommending but it's not a requirement.
Is that pretty much sum it up? Correct. Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Renee. You're welcome. So, when they say recommending, Renee, what what does that extend to?
So, are they supposed to be are the buses now exempt from wearing masks? The CDC lifted the CDC, but CDC lifted it. So, they there on public buses, on school buses. school buses. Just buses and trains. I thought the
trains in Boston you still had to have a mask. I think in Boston you do, but Boston has uh has made that decision locally. No, I was just trying to sort the whole thing out. In Air Shirley, we still have that because we as of now we have that policy
in place. Did the Dus company have a comment or a request in any direction? They're waiting to hear which way we're going. Yes. So they can manage it.
But they're open to whatever we decide. Is that Yeah. I'd just like to say that um the one thing I found very helpful was um the input from the community both tonight and at and at the last meeting and and
the thing that rings true are people that spoke on both sides. uh the real angst in their voice and in their lives and everything they would say from the heart. I mean it's it's not easier for them to come to the meetings. We normally don't see this many people in a
lot of our meetings. Um and I think everything that went forward let us know how important it is. We're all tired of this. Everybody has pretty much had enough and there's not really a right or wrong decision. There's not some high threshold that you can get properly. Um
we also want to give people their lives back safely and um and not extend this any further than we have to. Clearly, all the trends are looking really good. You know, the the thing that's still only one minor thing in the back of my
mind is how much of the the normal high school stuff was lost in the last couple years. The things that you remember your whole life was taken away because of what we just had to went through and not really wanting to risk that. The only risk factor I see now from my standpoint is I do know some families that did go
away and they came back and of course when you go away you come back on Sunday you know and it takes a while to to get a viral load big enough that's going to test positive but I also don't want to extend this on forever because you there isn't that line that you have to cross
you know so I think given all the trends that we have here um if we just give it a couple more days then Everybody's load and test will be through, but I'd like to give people an end point. You know, I me personally,
I'd like to see us end on Monday. That would be mine. That would give anybody that came home loaded, tested, even though it may not be a great number, a couple people, they're not going to mix with other people and and it would give people some sense of closure to say that we move forward. We've been doing this for
a couple of years, you know, and I think just giving us that extra margin and requiring just three more days of mass, I think it's a reasonable place to be. You know, it's not going to make everybody happy, but it's not possible
to make everybody happy. But like in all good solutions, we can make pretty much everybody not happy with the result. like there are things that you can take away and that's usually the test when not anybody is happy you like you probably did a pretty decent job and I
think it's a fair and reasonable thing to just say look we're just going to roll with this to get some more results from the student body through the weekend and barring something crazy and then an emergency school committee meeting which nobody here sees coming that we should just select suspending
our policy effective Monday the 7th Well, I'm happy to hear that. I wasn't sure that was the reaction we were going to get, but um I don't get a lot of it. I know. I know. Really? So, Jim, seeing that we got applause. Maybe that wasn't the
um I mean, I would just um Dr. Rena, you know, before the break, we spoke about making sure that families had time if they had students who were vulnerable, making sure the teaching staff um and administrators had time to prepare. It seems like those thresholds have been
crossed. I think the CDC guidance federally is telling. Seeing other states who are more conservative in terms of um safety, Oregon, California, Washington, seeing them move away from
large mask mandates in schools, seeing similarly communities who are more conservative, Massachusetts, Welssley, conquered moving middle of the month towards no mass. It feels like again we've been threading a really fine
needle between student comfort, student um academic experience and student safety. And it's been hard to keep both of those sort of equally balanced. I think like Jim, it feels like we've reached the point where the state data
tells us we are at a place where it is safer. You know, it's not perfectly safe. there's some risk that families will incur if they decide to send their students without a mask, without vaccinations. But at this point, families have access to information. We've given them time. We've um they
again students can get vaccinated. They can wear masks and the staff is there to support them if they want to do that. And I think we'd encourage any student who feels safer to wear a mask, please wear a mask. Um but for those students and families who again it will help
academically for students to be able to see their teachers mouth. It will help teachers supporting students to be able to see their students mouth. Um it'll make for a whole lot less laundry in my house cleaning right like um so I think
like Jim I think the giving us this week again I know there are many families who wish students could have come to school yesterday without a mask. Um, but hopefully these five days are not going to be the thing that ruins any student's experience, but puts us in a position
where it's not one week without masks and then next thing we know, we need to roll back real fast. Um, it feels like a relatively reasonable and measured um response. Yeah, I I think it's time. I was gonna I
I don't know whether you know today or Monday would make much of a difference at all because the kids walk out of these buildings and all the communities around them and the church and the the birthday parties and the you know all of that. Um, I was
going to suggest Friday because fun Friday seems like it would still give teachers some time to be able to talk to the kids that may have extended vacation or or, you know, whatever. Um, I
I mean, I'm okay with it today, too. So, um, I don't know what what Yeah. Yeah. I know. I I I do want to say as a school committee, we didn't create the mask mandate and we have had close the co either.
No, I mean, but we we we don't like it any any more than anybody else. Like we've had to impose something. We're not doctors. We're not infectious disease specialists and we've had to make decisions about something that aren't even in our area of expertise. So, it's been really difficult um to do that. I
do know we all love kids and we want to keep kids safe and we want to give kids a great education and a great experience in school and I do think that the time has come um to to let them smile without a mask and so we can see it. Um, so I would agree with Cheryl in the
sense that I don't know, you know, waiting makes a difference, but you know, it's it's reasonable to do that. I I think too um just the couple of days I personally probably would rather would rather see
um you know them tomorrow take it off March 2nd. But um if if it's um and and I have to bring up my other concern too is with our student athletes where MIAA now has lifted the mask mandate for athletics and now that we're
in playoffs. I don't know what I mean our teams out there are masked today because we have a mask mandate. But what if they're supposed to travel to a school that has lifted their mask mandate? What's the implication for them? Like I would hate to have them
That is a fantastic question. Um I am not sure. I I I would lean on they might have to wear it because they are representing and that bothers me to be honest that it could be under the building. So if we took them off and they went to
another school where they were wearing them, it would be that school who' make the rules, right? Think of it the other way. Yes. I I mean I don't want to give a definitive answer. I can I could get that answer for you. I am I am not sure. But there are there are certainly
policies that they when they are away on another campus um they are still bound by our policies as far as disciplinary issues. So this could be that too. But um why don't you let me research that a bit? Well, that would play into my
decision to be honest because I wouldn't want to see our boys, girls, whoever, they both are going to win. Um, go to a game on Thursday or Friday and be at a district if it's an away game um where they're not required to wear masks and they'd have to wear them. Like, I just
don't see that as being fair to them. Um, at this point, especially when we know we're lifting it, right? Like, why would we When would they be going? Well, I have no idea, but usually if this is Tuesday and they win a game, I would imagine the game would be by maybe Friday, could be
Saturday, but it would be definitely before Monday most likely in a tournament structure. And I can select Can I make a suggestion? Huh? Can I make a suggestion? You can make Yes, of course. Um, depending if if the game is Friday, uh, it would be Friday evening. You could get the same effect by voting
it off by the end of school on Friday. Oh, right. So, then it really Yeah. or the end of school on Thursday in case it's Oh yeah, if it's only two more days actually you know what if I can get online I'll bring up the MIAA bracket I mean again what's a couple of days I
you know when there every not every place but so many of them com you know out there in the community grocery stores and every are mask optional you know still there are some people still wearing masks but it's not
required and if there's this big uptick in the state or in school. We're going to hear about it and somebody else is going to step in a and inquire. Um, so sorry. No, go ahead. Okay.
So, I think it's agreed that we all are focusing on the kids. It is a difficult decision to make. the one the the things that have been mentioned before um I think are great and also we've been hearing you know parents saying that
they're taking this into their own hands you know outside of the school system that's encouraging as well so I feel like we all as a community as our students and our us doing our due diligence we're there like I I'm ready to lift it
now and and just not wait um I personally think that we all are basically coming together and having this contract that moving forward if we need to put it back we'll put it back but I I don't I don't see the the
massive value because there's always value but a massive value in holding on these couple of days um as well especially while we have the opportunity to do it here tonight. Very great. I I do too. Joyce, what do you
um so what Erica just said and I think that brings up so we let's say we see some of the numbers of cases that we saw after Christmas. Do we suddenly then say we're going back to full mask? What is the other what is the
other end point? What is the point at which you say, "Oh my god, we have 150 cases out of 1600 kids." Add the teachers into that. Um, and then do we say, "Okay, we have an emergency meeting and we put the mask mandate back in." Absolutely. Because the kids matter to us, right?
And I think that we also would have enough information gathering from not only the case load, but how it's spreading for us to come together in an e situation and put that back in place. So, I mean, it's like if you just say, "Okay, we're free and that's good." But
then, who knows? We live in an unknown thing here. And so do we say our endpoint is and we look at this we have 44 42 I can't read my writing 65 70 those are vaccinations
yes the numbers you gave back there 70 at the high school 70 at the high school is that a percentage that's a percentage y yes and the earlier thing with desi was that when we got to 80% vaccination we could lift the mandate
But they've got but but Desi has now waved. I I know what they've done now. I mean, you know, that's where they were and now they've changed that. And um you know, it's going to be damned if we do and damned if we don't. Well, the the the one one thing that I
would add is we've been served very well by following DES and DPH guidance up to this point. Um, I would say both both from what I heard happened last year, um, and how we have been able to contain it this year, I believe this district
has done an outstanding job with containing this. So, um, well, we have not transmitted any COVID in school or out out of school. It's all it's all been outside. Is that true? I don't know how we can say that definitively. Oh, I thought we reported that earlier.
I can tell you that the transmission rate in school is typically it's under under 2% and some sources would tell you that it's under a 1% transmission rate. Um so
following DEC DPH and CDC has has I believe sort of a swell and and I I would continue to use those sources as the expert sources. I mean you can go out and find any any source you want that is going to tell you anything and part of our job now and what we need to teach kids is how to figure out what is
a good source and what is not right um but um we've stuck with Destiny DPH and and CDC and it served us well and I can't see why we would deviate for from that now um also Mr. Kendall got back to us. Um, if if a if we're home, an away
team would have to wear masks, but if we are away, we have to wear masks even if they don't have a masking policy because that is that bothers me. Unless you wave it. Unless what? Unless you wave it. Yeah, that doesn't
that interpretation doesn't anywhere in our policy view of us in our building. So it's really an interpretive thing and I I will say if you're in somebody else's building you don't have to don't worry. Well, so there
you're looking at it then you're looking at what Jessie is doing and all things being equal. I mean if we were looking at the exact same data set and we didn't just have a school vacation I'd be like well let's just stop. Sure. Right. My my only case is that you know people just came back from
all sorts of places. It takes a certain amount of viral load to get a positive test case and I think it's prudent to kind of let that small portion move through. That's my only reservation. Everything else is fine. Just looking at
the data if it weren't for again Jesse's position in picking that date was not I'm still not okay with but that's what they did and we we have to live in where they live. So I'm just looking for that little extra margin from that. That's the only reason they
put the sevens. Without that, I'd be fine with tomorrow. But with that, I'm like, you know what? We can buy a little margin of safety and let people come to adjustment and say at the close of school on Friday, we're all done with this. Well, what how would you feel if we were
to to say that at the end of school, the the mask mandate now becomes lifted and it's mask optional in our schools. But if our sports teams were to travel to a place where masks aren't required, we specifically are, you know, waving the
requirement of them to follow our policy at that point. I don't know. I don't chair that the girls game, the next girls game is this Friday and we're waiting on confirmation of the next boys game. Okay. So, that would make that moot then. I don't know. That really bothers
me that we would put them at a I mean, it can't be easy it to be playing a sport with a mask on. I wouldn't want them to have to be in a um you know a position where they're they're not on a level playing field where that's concerned.
Well, we could go halfway and say Thursday. I mean, you know, again, Friday's fun Friday starts on Thursday. What? I'm fine with that. I'm I just again, it's like I I get what what you're saying, Jim. Um
yeah, but we can keep saying that same kind of stuff and the fact is this isn't going away. We have all these um options now and choices for families with choosing to wear a mask, choosing to get vaccinated,
whatever it is. And what are we what are we really avoiding? I don't I don't think we're really avoiding anything by keeping a mask on kids till Monday.
Yeah, I'm not in disagreement with that. The boys game is also Friday. There's additional uh Mr. Kendall shared additional information that um the MIA the MIAA said the boys would be able to go the teams would be able to go
massless if the policy of the way they're playing is massless. Okay. So you know if the policy live updates during yes invaluable that right? No. And it could be that wherever they're playing
I mean that that could also happen. Yeah that could happen. this with an amendment. Do we know where they're playing? I was incorrect. The MIA says if the school has a mask policy, sorry, I should have read the whole thing. If the school if our school has a
policy, the MIAA will enforce that policy. So, our boys and girls would have to wear mask if we have it. However, both games are Friday. Um, so we don't know where. Well, the boys have to win, don't they? The boys have to win and we could have
just positive thinking. The boys will win. I know they're going to, but I'm just making sure that score Michelle. So, can I make them? You might know. So, if the the school community made the choice to lift the mandate after school
on Friday, I would suggest maybe 4:00 to give the time for for buses. Um, it would not affect athletics on Friday. So, move. I can't make a motion. Let's make a full motion, Jim.
All right. I make a motion that we uh that we suspend airbor airborne virus protection policy file ECFA effective this Friday at 4 p.m. Go ahead. Say what you want to say.
Why 4 p.m.? Why not when school bus? Oh, so if that bus goes at 4:05, that kid can rip that mask off at 405. Um, what? Why does it only affect the sports teams? No, it's everybody.
No, we're lifting the policy. You're saying at 4 p.m. it would expire on a Friday. That would make it effective for only people who are playing. No, the whole policy would be out of our policy manual. There's one policy I understand what you're saying,
but what I'm stating is that you are saying to end that policy at the end of the day specifically. Yes, it would encompass everything, but specifically for those people who are playing sports. So why would you not
just have it end Friday morning instead of at the end of the day? As one suggested, make it a great Friday, fun Friday, and have everybody happy. Everybody has the choice outside of town to wear your
mask, to not wear your mask. That's fine. But it shouldn't just be a positive thing for our sports team and then they go the weekend and then they come back. In the name of equity, I 100% agree.
So, can I Yeah. Can I amend or how how does that go? I didn't get a second for you. Do anything you want. You have no second. So I'll make a motion. Motion's moot. Oh, so nobody seconding. Nobody seconded.
I am going to make a motion that we end the mask mandate starting school on Friday. What is the date? The fourth. for for all students with the or with the exception of the requirement for the um
health office and all that. Yeah, we don't have any control over that. Okay, seconded. All right, moved and seconded. Any further Oh, Erica did. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I.
Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you for your input. Um, so it will be a fun Friday at the Regional School District. Thank you for your patience with us. Honestly, anybody listening, um, I said it before, I'll say it again. This hasn't been easy. I know for parents, it hasn't been easy
for staff. It hasn't been easy, especially for our students. Um, and it's true. We're grateful to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You don't think it's true? I think that some kids, some of the kids that I saw just didn't care. They were fine. Well, I don't think you could say that.
A lot of kids just didn't care. So you can't say they're and some are going to continue to wear it though that anyone who wants to continue wearing a mask can absolutely continue wearing a mask. So it is it is mass optional. We're not banning masks. Um and if I could add the
the discourse in the two cities. Um you know I've been monitoring Facebook and some other social media platforms is really polite for for 99% of it. So, and um the public comment that we got, I'm I'm really impressed with the uh citizens of Aaron Shirley and and how
they can um have civil discourse and not arguments uh both both at the school committee meetings and and online. It's it's refreshing because that is not happening um in in all the surrounding cities and towns. So, that um thank you for that.
Um I know that we've maybe moved on. I think it also goes maybe without saying but I'll say it. I think the reality is our schools have managed this really well. Students, staff, I know it's not like
people aren't wearing like I love my mask on their mask, but by and large we have not seen significant spread in our building. Our schools have fared better than the communities at large when we think about positivity rates. And I think that speaks volume
about to the teachers, administrators, students taking policy seriously, doing their best to stay safe. And you know, I think it's great we're in this position. Hopefully these numbers stay this way and we can, you know, it's been two years since we're all saying like this
will probably be like two weeks, right? And you know, I think it, you know, the not even tenacity, but the the stamina um that you all have shown. I know I don't need to wear my mask every day. Um, so the fact that you all have been doing this, I think is is great and
thank you for managing it. And hopefully these next two days compliance isn't a nightmare, but thank you all for managing this. Thank you. We appreciate that. And if I could add, our teachers, our pair of professionals have been enforcing this
and doing a great job. Our admin assistants have done a ton of work. Our technology department has done a ton of work. are going if you watch lunch and how the cafeteria workers are administering lunch. I mean, this has been um a tremendous team effort by pretty much everybody but central
office. So, they uh they get all of the credit. It's been out it's been outstanding and hopefully it is some relief for for people um both the students and the and the educators who want to go unmask um hopefully makes a very difficult year going forward.
So, Dr. since you brought that up, does that mean that all um wearing a mask or not wearing a mask, is there still going to be some sense of uh cafeteria setup and a few other things? Social distancing is is not going away. We're leaving. I mean, I think you have to is I think
you have to bring this up. So, so the caf the way the cafeterias are set up, we have no plans to stop social distancing at this point. Um masks are going away. We're going to continue with handashing. We're going to continue with social distancing. We're going to continue with the at home
testing um for at least until April break. We're hoping that the state provides us with tests for after April break, but we don't know that yet. Um so really what's going away is the requirement to wear a mask. It is optional and anyone who wants to and that doesn't just include students.
If teachers or other staff members want to continue to wear a mask, then they absolutely should. Um so the only thing that really is changing is is the the mandate to to wear a mask. I think one of the things too and when you talked about the presentations to
the students um it wouldn't hurt to actually talk to our younger students who haven't been in a school without a mask about the safety of being able to take it off and feel okay taking it off because they haven't stepped into a building without one and and maybe just having that you know you know it's a
family decision if you're wearing if you're decided not to wear a mask it's okay you know to not wear a mask when they have never been in a building without one. Yeah, that's a great suggestion. Now, some of those uh advisory and morning meeting lessons may have included that already. They're much
better. Uh I wrote one and shared it with Lorraine. I'm sure the ones the school counselors wrote are much better than than what I did. Uh and they probably thought that through better than I did. I can tell you the one that I came up with to not include that. We could we could send out that suggestion. Yeah. I just think, you know, some of these
kids probably are like, "What do you mean I can't wear my mask?" You know, like some of them might be attached to it. Who knows? they don't seem to be as bothered by it as you know not not every student obviously I mean no one loves their mask but you know but that's the great thing about making it optional if they really are attached
to it they can take it off in their own time right um and you know parents t especially parents of kindergarten students know they're very comfortable reaching out and asking for help with that type of transition um and we'd be more than happy to to help with that
yeah because it really is a transition transition to not wearing it we can we'll certainly work with anybody. Yeah. Okay. So, I guess we did that um ongoing business. We did both at the same time. So, I think we can move on from that to our consent agenda, which
tonight is going to include the February 16th, 2022 minutes for release, as well as our warrant memo that is dated March 1st, 2022, which includes accounts payable warrant 1119 dated March 18 I mean February 18th,
2022 for $72.50. Accounts payable warrant 1120 dated February 18th, 2022 for $617,255.75. Payroll warrant 17 dated February 11th, 2022 for $864,54457. And payroll warrant 18 dated January
25th, 2022 for 7969 $796,984. So I'll educate. I'd make a motion that we accept the consent agenda as referred to the minutes and the warrants. Second. All right. Moved and seconded.
Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? None. Okay. So, the next item. Oh, boy. Think about it. Nice. Next item is going to be the formation of a policy
subcommittee. Um so um we as you know had enlisted the services of mask to work with us on our policy manual. They are now ready to meet with a policy subcommittee but we had put our subcommittees we had suspended subcommittees at the end of
our last meeting last June so or May whenever we did that. Um so we um need to start a um subcommittee to work on our policy manual. So I would ask if anyone is interested in doing that work
before I do they have a recommendation on numbers or anything? I would imagine that it would be you know two to three. She didn't say how many. No. So two to three I would say if there's interest.
I mean I'd be happy to help out but I'm only here till How quick is it going to be? Not that quick. Yeah, Jim, you I don't want to put you on the spot, but I know this is something you've done. Are you interested or or I
don't want to not um um I would like to help but I have a lot of uh personal demand at this time. Okay. If not, I would certainly
No, I just I know this has been your thing, so I wanted to give you the opportunity. Anybody? You want to? I will. Thank you. I can. Thank you. There you go. One, two, we're done. All right. So, there you go. We're going to um have our policy subcommittee be
Erica and Chris. Thank you both for doing that for us going into busy season. I can't take anything else on. Yeah. Okay. So, we're good. And then so, um if you could just coordinate with um
Once um is it Dorothy? Dorothy email Dorothy tomorrow and let her know and then we'll figure out what times that work. She's very good. Is a vote required to form that committee? Is a who? A vote for subcommittee. Do we have a policy to vote on a subcommittee to make a policy?
Is that what you mean? Do you need to vote to create a subcommittee? I would recommend that we that we appoint Chris and Erica to be the subcommittee to meet with Dorothy Presser to work on our whole policy book. Second.
Moved and seconded. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. None opposed. Anyone? Nobody. Thank you. You guys can report to us just about every month, every hour. I expect emails from you daily. We'll put you on our agenda once a month.
Live updates just like during school. Yeah. Yeah, live updates just like there's tweeting live tweets. Actually, you probably don't have to report every Thanks for keeping us honest. Maybe what you could do is let the chair know as you're ready to update as you know, we won't have it be something regular, but
if you whoever the chair is, just say, "Hey, you know, we have stuff to report. Can you have it put on the agenda or tell Michelle?" Okay, so moving on to the superintendence report. Dr. Brenda, much of it is is done, but we do have an
update. Um, as many of you have probably heard that we've had some Wi-Fi issues at our kite school and at to some degree PHOP. Um, there's been consistent reports, and this was from our technology director, uh, Mike Tibo. Um, there have been consistent reports from
staff and students regarding wireless connectivity issues at the high school, which have resulted in unstable internet connectivity. The timeline was approximately from February 14th to February 28th. Um the initial review of the wireless network through software and conversations with staff revealed
the following problems. Student smartphones on the network are being used for video streaming, gaming, video calls, multiple gaming social media apps, and the upload of content during school day hours. Heavy data upload burden uh burden placed on the wireless
network. Over 90% of the internet traffic is from downloading content. For some reason, our wireless network is currently experiencing experiencing a significant increase in uploading content. This is typical a sign of inappropriate use of our network. Virus
uploading and video content, Bitcoin mining, etc. Bitcoin that is great downloads using the electricity and Wi-Fi for they might not have enough to do too much. This is what's happening in hundredth of a bitcoin, right?
Thousandth of a bitcoin. So typically our download speeds are 20 times faster than our upload speeds in most environments. The the way that Mike expresses to me is that we have two 20 lane highways coming um into the school for download and we have um one lane
route 2A going out for um upload. Pretty much sum up. All right. Is that good? So in response uh to this the the tech department has reconfigured the entire high school wireless network. They are working with Hubtech on a network
analysis uh Cherry Road Technologies to discuss possibly increasing the current internet speeds in Red River Technologies to discuss Wi-Fi settings in their software that are not working as designed. So the changes to the Air Shirley Regional High School wireless
network were made on the 28th. Uh multiple changes were made over the past two weeks. That worked for a bit uh but then within a day or two um they were overloaded. So the wireless networks will be monitored throughout the academic day for inappropriate use and red flags for devices that are using
excessive data. Can they tell like what device is doing it? Yeah. Do the kids know that? Now they're all listening, right? Oh yeah, they're all listening. Yeah, they're all listening to school. You have a Chris. How old are your kids? Huh?
When shut down. Mhm. Yeah. Oh. Um I think it's great because I know that um we do have virtual classes that we offer our students and there are students that have had to leave and go home to do those classes and that we can't have that, right? You know, so I'm glad that it's being How many kids do we have doing virtual
classes? Several. 10, 20, 30, 40. I I I don't know that Erica could answer that. I There's several. I'm sure. We'll um email you that answer and uh we'll we'll quote out on that in the next uh
superintendent's report. I don't think it's a size 30. You might. Yeah. I I mean there's a lot of Well, they have to go home because it's overused, right? Because people are using it illicitly. Talking about engineering, not because it's being used properly. Correct.
Right. So, if you reduce what is improperly used, then they don't have to go home to do the virtual thing. That's that's because of people not doing it right. Right. Do I understand? Right. Yes. And that's what they're doing already in the last two weeks. That's what the last two weeks.
I actually did get a report from my student that it was better today. So that that would make sense with your timeline that maybe that um we're on the right path. And I it's nice to hear Mike Tibo's name being used again. Yeah. Right. So, didn't we do something early
on about illicit use of of cell phones and computers and stuff and no problem last year or the year before? Every time we we every time we have a fix, students figure out a way around it. Absolutely. Well, that gives them challenges. So,
what's wrong with that? They're smart. They are. So, there and that's it's not just us. That's that's pretty much everywhere. So, um this is that next fix, right? and then some of our ingenious students will find a way around it and then they like to share with their friends.
You might want to tell the the current from a communication standpoint with the current uh high school population that I was a member of the Trconian group when we created the wireless cell phone stuff
and I voted probably didn't get a second but I voted that we have a bank where you will put your cell phone when you enter the school. Now some places in inner cities have had to do that. They're actually cottage industries where they have trucks that are put into this where you have to drop off your
phone before you enter the school. So he said if Mr. Christie yourself could communicate that to the population that extensive use loading the network with and this type of use of the devices could spur us into some other policy
which will be ownorous. We we have the capability to to do this if we really wanted to do it. I mean Mr. TBO can do everything that he wants to do, but clearly we want the students in here to learn not to game and to upload personal videos and all that sort of stuff. So,
if they could somehow that work, we get out that we can take much harsher steps if we have to that maybe that will take some of the load off. That's a good point. We we could there currently is not a school community
policy on this. This is left up to individual handbooks in schools. Um, so that is we certainly could do that and we can we can share that out. The the issue is mainly at mainly what it's mainly at high school. We're not we're not having issues really
anywhere else. It affects page hilltop a bit because they're I believe they're interconnected in in a way but we could we could spread that around. I was going to say Jim one of those solutions that makes uh makes people unhappy and people happy. There you go. Um, but one of the things
I wanted to just point out to is some of the issue because now students are using their cell phones. Like for instance, in Mr. um, Moore's class when he was here, they're using their phones to do their apps and things like that. Is that part of part of the problem? I mean, it seems
like Yeah. I mean, some of the some of the classes are genuinely using their phones for for work related things. So, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what the answer is. I'm just throwing that out there. When we have kids at lunch, kids are on their phones at lunch, typically it's not an issue. But if
they're uploading uploading content or if they're Bitcoin mining, uh you know, it could be an issue. If we see I mean, if we see a student when the weather gets better drive to school in a Ferrari, we'll we'll know who's Bitcoin mining, right? You see him losing his car because he did Bitcoin.
That's like foreign to me. It's like speaking a different language. Twice in there was the people who mentioned significant increase in Yeah. And to me that means game. Mhm. Yeah. No. Right. That's what that is. So if you take that part away then everything all of a sudden the highway is big enough for what you're doing.
Right. I believe there was one instance of a Nintendo Switch. Right. That's not a small device. What? Wow. Nintendo. But I guess my question was so if someone if a student is using that you can say oh that's Jeff Brown's phone.
Not necessarily. Okay. So, sometimes the phones or the devices just have letters and numbers. Um, and you can see if it's a if it's a gaming device, you can see its device and it doesn't really matter whose it is. We're shutting it down and blocking
it from the network. Um, sometimes a phone might say, you know, would say Erica's iPhone or, you know, Shell's iPhone. Um, and if it's not staff or it's streaming or using a lot, then we can shut it down. Okay.
But there could be three eras in the school, you don't really know which Erica because it just has a name to the device. Okay. So, it really if it's using that much traffic, then you can shut it down. But you can shut it down yourselves without even going to them. You just
shut it down on your end. Yeah. Okay. I mean, if it's an Erica trying to play a video game during Erica, it doesn't matter if it's a student or a staff member. Either way, you're going to shut it down. Keep doing that.
The teachers lounge. Well, and then the and then the complaint that I heard on about cell phones is people cross sit across the lunch table from each other and text instead of talking to them
and stuff like that. I'm like really taping. We're supposed to be teaching communications all communication. That's a whole other good luck with that. All right. Check your phone at the door.
So, Adam, where were you in your report? I'm sorry. Dr. So, the Shirley Regional High School Fields fundraising campaign last week, Mr. Gleason uh presented on the high school fields fundraising campaign and you referenced three school committee policies uh that the hopefully the
subcommittee group um can take a look at first. We have included them in your packet. It is policy FF naming new facilities, policy KCD, public gifts to schools, and policy AHB advertising in schools. Yeah, I actually it
was your request that um just put those those policies in your I actually think it would be might not be a bad idea to amend that public gifts one to have a certain threshold of dollar amount that we actually have to
um accept like maybe a 5 $5,000 threshold. So that smaller gifts we would certainly be made not made made aware and would recognize but wouldn't have to formally accept. But uh that's just a suggestion I'll throw out there.
Joyce, I'm sorry. I saw you. Go ahead. No, that's all I was going to say. It's something to think about. Okay. Well, and the trick is here that and we should bring Bill and the world of finance into this um because everything has to be recorded and um I
would think that the danger if uh making it public. I mean you can have a list. We had 25 uh things one from you, one from you, one from you, one from you. But it still should be we have to approve all the expenditures in the school and all the money coming in. This
is what we do. Finances, you know, that's what we do. It keeps everybody out of trouble. Oh, well, I forgot to record that. Oh, well, you know, it's happened in other districts. And one of the districts that we know very well had a problem with some money that went arry, you know. So, it's it's very
tricky. And I think this may be close to what they're setting an amount. Well, if we get $40,000 in in dollar bills, that's a lot of money floating around that someone could have some accusations about and we don't need accusations for people.
But just we don't approve every dollar that if someone is having a field trip and they're, you know, paying for a field trip, we don't approve all that money coming in. We don't No, but that's a different that's a different account. That's a special account and it's used for a special purpose and it's designated to be for
that student for that amount. Right. But talk tell me S. Well, this this would be a revolving fund what we would accept donation into for the field project. Field project only that was would be earmarked for and we could we could separate them if we wanted to. You could pull all the
smaller donations into one fund and then we could have the larger ones in another fund. uh that would be approved if you set a c a dollar amount. So your perspective I I guess you know we are going to be maybe getting $25 donations towards the fields project. Is
all of those donations going to have to come to to us to be approved? That's something to consider and if you what would your position be on having us have some sort of cap on what we I like the cap because it is it's going to be a lot of it's going to be a burden on you guys.
Yeah, I agree. We have to approve every single but then who but then do we approve those expenditures for the field who who then says these are spent right so once you establish I just want to keep this out I'm not going to get into something once we establish the revolving fund
then you're free to spend that those monies without further appropriation so that's but it has to go to the field so that revolving fund is how descriptive is that revolving fund it's not descriptive restrict descriptive whichever word you want to use.
That's like Norton's Mr. Norton's donation. Uh it earmarked for the field project, but that is it has a note on it. It says not restrictive uh just to that. So it could be for other uses as well with that notation, but we would we
it would be for the fields only. Wouldn't coingle with any other No. We just want to keep everybody out of trouble. Mhm. And um this is where you can get into serious trouble without realizing it. So
we don't want the scandal that you know somebody walked off with $25 because that would be bad. Uh yeah, but the fact that we approve a donation doesn't mean that we're out of scandal. It means No, no, we're accept but we accept the donations as money coming in which is not coming in from the state. It's not
coming in from the towns, right? And there's some reason for that. What's the reason for that? We want the money to flow. We know that. But at the same point, this is not this is public money, right? You can you can establish a
revolving fund to accept this money and then expend it as you see fit. Okay. So, is this something that can be reviewed once we actually look at the policy? Once you actually what? I'm sorry. Once we actually look at the policy and come back with the recommendations.
Well, it can, but this just this one specifically because fundraising is going to start on the fields within the next month or so. Okay. So, help me out here so that I'm I'm trying to make sure I'm understanding what what's being said. So, if we have this revolving fund, then that way it would lessen us having
having to approve every dollar amount that comes. Well, donations under donations under the amount could go right in. Correct. Without your approval, but a certain amount and above would have to come for your approval. Okay. That's what I thought. And if we have um those smaller amounts can be
used towards expenditures which would then assist us as we're trying to pay for um the development of the fields. Okay. I believe I believe what the issue is is if you had $225 contributions currently
we'd be moving and seconding a whole bunch of $25 donations. Okay. That that's what I thought the issue was. I just wanted to make sure. To me, reading this policy, this to me reads as though we're talking gifts and um offers of equipment is is something
this was intended to be something a little bit more than a $25 donation. This was more going to be like a large gift. If it's going to change the school plant or site, it's subject to our approval. The gifts become our our um property of us. like it it to me doesn't
think it doesn't read as if it was intended to be every single dollar that's donated has to be approved by the school committee. It's more of large donations is what I read it as. I mean it doesn't say that obviously. So, we're been following this policy and accepting
everything. But I think when we're starting a, you know, buy a brick program and hoping to sell 800 bricks at, you know, $300 or $100 or $500, whatever the amounts become, it's going to be a lot of things that we're going to have to approve. And certainly, everyone should be recognized. We want
to recognize people that donate to us and and they'll be recognized in one way or another through Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. Or, you know, however it is. But um it just it's going to be cumbersome with this policy in place. So I want everyone
to be aware of that. I I don't think so because if you read the third uh set third sentence there, gifts will automatically become the property of the school district. Good. We're not giving it back. Any gift of cash whether or not intended by the donor for a specific purpose will be handled as a separate account. And that's what Bill
is saying. Have a revolving account, right? And so then and expended at the discretion of the regional school committee is provided by law. So there's a law that comes into here that has nothing to do with with this, right? And since I haven't read the law, uh
MLG71.37A, which I should go read, uh but I think that's what you're saying. You put it in one account. It doesn't go any other accounts. It doesn't spent any other way. At some point, do you say here is a report of revolving fund number 92 which is the
field revolving fund and we have an amount in there which is being um released to the builders architects or whatever. Didn't we have reports like that when we were doing this building whether we were moving money in or getting it from the state and then it was notified that it
was being moved out or did we I don't we didn't do fundraising so that would be different. I mean, maybe I don't I don't remember. We approved financing, but I don't remember ever saying, "Okay, we're gonna pay." I mean, aside from the warrants where we write off, we sign off. We
didn't vote to pay, you know, um, well, when we review the bills and they're where they're coming from and where they're going to, right? So, it could be the general fund, it could be from a revolving account. Mhm.
Um, and of course we were talking about taking some money out of our I'm going to say it wrong. Um, taking money out of our um END. Thank you. And putting it into the fields. So there
is transfers to be made there. Yep. Once it's certified by the DO. Yep. Yep. We'll be bringing that forward, right? And so then you would be transferring that to that revolving fund for the field construction basically. Yes.
The section that you're that the policy refers to is just saying the same as what our policy says that it's going to be held in a separate account. Um so it's actually in there already. Yeah. Without doing anything else. Given given Michelle's problem in fact, I think that
just looking at our policy KC public schools, we could tonight just put in the $5,000 threshold voted in. There'll be a a more extensive policy review that will be upcoming, but for right now, given their time in the fields and stuff, I think we should
put that in place and just move along. Yeah. And I'm I threw out that 5,000. I mean, it could be a thousand. It could be whatever you guys are comfortable with. Yeah, I don't think so. I just threw that out there. You would just need it. Does that mean everybody sitting here is giving 5,000? We can we can amend the last paragraph now. Vote it in and that's that's our
policy. I agree. Okay. Well, I would like to review the law first. We have a meeting on the 9th and I think we can finish that on this because um this is money is money, baby. And that's all you need to do is have somebody have a
problem. I gave $5,000 and I don't know what happened. When when are we starting this fundraising time? Well, we're not Yeah, we're not. I mean, we can do it on the 9th. We're not ready to It's not going to happen imminently, but Joyce, literally, this is the section right here. No, I'm reading it right here, right? Isn't that this?
Yeah, that's what this is. This is 37A. Oh, okay. It's literally saying what our policy what our policy says. So, it's a word for word. Well, not word. I mean I'm you know but school committees and cities and towns and regional school districts may accept grants or gifts for educational purposes from federal, state, county and
municipal governments or agencies thereof. Charitable foundations and private corporation and disperse the same for such purposes. Any amount so received by a school committee of a city or town shall be deposited with the treasurer of such city and town and should be held as a separate account and expended by the school committee without
further appropriation notwithstanding the provisions of section 53 of chapter 44. Any amount so received by a regional school district school committee should shall be deposited with the treasure of such regional school district and held as a separate account and expended by said committee. So it's basically what
our policy says, right? So there's nothing really that we need to change here to accept gifts. Just a threshold. No, we're adding a threshold that we don't have to approve gifts because the approval is something that we added unique or
to the state law, right? The state law is that we can accept and spend. It needs to be kept in a separate account. We've added through our policy that we also want to have an approval in after it's been accepted. That's not to say that we wouldn't want that superintendent will think
appropriately. Well, because always if someone gives a $100 from Mrs. McGillicu's muffin house, um, then we accept that, right? We wouldn't be forced. That is not that is not designated for the fields.
So, do we need a separate policy about the field construction, the field production? No, because we wouldn't we wouldn't have to formally accept Miss Blueberry Muffins $100. We could just if it's growing for the fields, we don't have to accept it for anything.
No, we we accept them all the time. I know, but we don't we wouldn't have to if we put a threshold in. It wouldn't come before us. Yeah. Mr. Renley could eat the muffins and not tell us and we'd be okay with it. So, somebody could say, "I'm giving $100
or $500 specifically for the fields." That would be in there and we wouldn't have to approve that. But when you're depositing it, you know what that that that money is for, right? Because the other ones many times you can put them in a general fund or
you can put them as the person designates it, right? And we need to accept those, right? There are other revolving funds that are designated for other purposes that we we receive gifts to. But Joyce, it to you. No, no, I'm just like Beis is a good example.
Yeah, Beis is a good example. But that would be above a $5,000 threshold. We would we would accept that if if something even if after the fields project is over. Bill wouldn't have to bring us, you know. No, Adam is the one who's going to jail.
So Adam wouldn't have to bring us. Well, the life touch $1,000 donation. No one's going to jail. If if Adam's taken off with $1,000, Adam's got, you know, he's not going very far. So Oh my god. Facebook will be on it.
No, I mean I think that 5,000 because first of all, many people want to know where their money's coming, where their money is going, and they want it publicly announced. Okay. Well, it says right in Oh, I'm sorry. No, go ahead. It says right in here that the committee directs the superintendent to asssure
that an appropriate expression of thanks is given to all donors. So, in some way, the donor is going to get some sort of thank you. It doesn't necessarily have to be announced. Yeah. Here. And the purpose of the school committee approval is not the gratitude,
right? I'm not exactly sure actually and I don't know if other folks know like what the actual mechanism or purpose is of the school committee approval. Well, we we approve all expenditures, right? But in terms of us approving when she reads these warrants, those
have been approved by us, right? So those are the expenses in terms of the revenue coming in. Generally your revenue is like from two streams, right? No, but we approve the budget and ex and then they have to vote that they're
going to give it to us. So in here are the numbers that we're getting from the towns, right? And from the state and so then there there there is a transfer thing going on. Yes. So when we approve this budget and then
the money comes in, we have know what comes in from the towns, we know what comes in from the states, we know what comes in from the buses and this is all goes through the purpose of the school committee is fiscal is your first I guess like we are
reviewing it in generally we review things in chunks as opposed to individual personal donations, right? And why wouldn't we say we want a quarterly report on any donations that are made and and that's what we would get and not it doesn't daily not hourly but
well it doesn't make any sense to me that that the burden is on our office staff to say oh let's bring this $25 donation to school committee so they can approve you know no but they could who said quarterly reports of what's come in
me that's what I just said we could ask for that and so we would see oh we donations in this amount if we could read that at school committee to recognize people but we wouldn't be we wouldn't be obligated to accept those donations. So that that puts you know I mean it
just seems to me it's going to be a lot of work if well the line that says the superintendent will bring the donations to the committee for their formal approval. So if it's quarterly we would still make an approval of that. No but we want to put a cap on like a Right. So, so with all due respect,
Joyce, I completely respect what you're saying, but it sounds like five out of the six of us are in agreement. So, I feel like we just need to move forward because conversation is circling the drain. Okay. And no one's moving. Nobody's really changing anything. So, I think at this point, why don't we just go ahead and
make the motion, vote in the amendment that we want to put in there, the change we want to put in there, and we just move forward. Well, then that would be first reading of a new policy. Whatever we need to do to do it. No, I mean really. Sorry guys. You know, you're trying to be short-handed because we all want the
money for the fields and that's good. But that's great. Not to have reserved. I understand what you're saying, but we're circling the drain for 20 minutes and no one has changed what they're doing. So, whatever we need to do to get it done. Well, somebody
if I knew how to do it, I would do it. someone who knows how to do it, please start. Okay, I I will Okay, are we making Is this a motion? Okay, and make a motion that we add to the sentence that says the
superintendent will bring donations to the committee for their formal approval somewhere in there. We need to word Smith. will bring donations in excess of above $5,000 to the committee for their formal
approval and then yeah and then expose Oh yeah okay that's perfect yeah okay so moved and seconded any further discussion please all those in favor please say I any opposed
so okay so one opposed so be brief we'll move we'll Um that passes. Okay. But that is So you're changing the policy. Yep. Yeah. So then that would be the first reading of that policy and it has to come back
for second reading of policy because you've changed the policy. We just changed it over. Can Can we be done? Y we we need to be done. Yeah. I will check on that. Okay. Okay. So was there anything else with the other policies, Adam, that those
were just you bringing to us to because we asked for them. Is that it? Those are the three that we thought may affect the fundraising. Um, from reading the policies, it's really it was the accepting of gifts. That was really the the um
the big issue. There is some some issues if we look at the advertising in schools, but it's really it's really common sense. We're not going to advertise alcohol or marijuana on a school campus and some other um But is it doesn't hurt to leave that in there? No, absolutely leave it in. Okay.
I'm not saying to take it out. Um so we wanted to review it to to see um but um essentially you have to approve any advertising. Right. Okay. So really in in in
your eyes the only action that really was limiting was the the one we just acted on. Yes. And I think it would it would make sense for the for the subcommittee to take a look at at these policies. Yeah. Okay,
that was the one we needed acted on in in short order. All right. So, was that it for your report? I'm not trying to rush you. That is that is it for superintendent report? Yes. Okay. So, policy review report, there are none. Chairperson's notes, there are
none. Are there any topics for discussion not reasonably anticipated 48 hours in advance of this meeting? Jim, yes. one com the uh won the uh we talked earlier about the the state swim meet and I just want to say that the uh the
medley relay girls medley relay team finished I believe 11th but in in the swim world there's no division ABC so you're swimming against Wells Lee I mean just you're going everywhere and the four girls that broke the brownfield
record are swimw just wanted to give them. Thank you. And um the the other thing I wanted to bring up, you know, we we're finally coming to the end of our of our mass thing and I
just wanted to um if you could express our leave my and I'm sure all of our sincere appreciation to uh the high school especially uh Spencard and the good doctor because as the last
couple years went I mean it was a big upheaval for a lot of the kids that are in the high school and they worked really hard to try to craft ways to make it somewhat fun, right? And they were very innovative in what they did. And
that happened in a lot of places. But the one thing I think people don't realize is that when they're putting all this stuff together and working hard to try to get something that's okay, they know when they started that no matter what they do, it's going to suck compared to not having maths. Right?
Right off the get-go, it's going to be compared against what the world was like without Mac. And it's hard to continually work in that environment for, you know, get togethers and pros and awards awards and all that sort of stuff. So, it's a really like a two-year
beatd down for them, but they were unfl flagged. They stayed on top of it, on point, and they didn't listen to the stuff on the sidelines, and they just kept moving forward. And I I just want them to know that uh we recognize and appreciate all the efforts in that.
So, can I just clarify when you say the good doctor, you mean Dr. Meyer? I do. Just wanted to clarify in case she's not sure that you meant her. Anyone else? anything? Not okay. So, thanks, Jim. And I apologize if I've left anyone out when I was making my
comments about our excellent athletes and their success over the course of the vacation. I just was just going off of what I had on the top of my head from what I had heard. So, um, thank you for letting us know about the relay team. Cheryl, okay, communications. Communications.
So, tomorrow, um, March 2nd is the Shirley Regional High School 8th grade parent virtual open house. That's at 6:00 p.m. And then on Friday, fun Friday, is the 8th grade students are visiting the high school for move up
day. That's so exciting. Um Monday, March 7th, progress reports issued for grades 9 through 12. Tuesday, March 8th is the PTO meeting at 7 p.m. at the um library in the middle school. Wednesday,
March 9th, there's a 90minute early release. Lunch will be served. Dismissal times for high school and middle school is 12:50 and for the elementary schools is 1:45. Wednesday, March 9th as well is that there's a school committee meeting at
6:30 at the um middle school in the library. Wednesday, March 9th is also um the AR Shirley Education Foundation meeting at 700 p.m. at the high school media center. Wednesday, March 16th, is a half a day
of school for grades preschool through 12 and professional development for teachers. There's going to be a graband-go lunch um for students. Parents and guardians will receive an email to sign up for the grab-and-go lunch a few days prior. Uh high school
and middle school is dismissed at 11:20 and both elementary schools are dismissed at 12:15. Then Friday, March 18th, trimester 2 ends for grades preschool through 8. That's it.
All right. So, um, thank you, Cheryl. There is no need for executive session tonight. So, um, I want to thank all of you guys, though, for as much thought and, um, consideration as we put into, um, this mass mandate. actually to
everything we've had to do with regards to COVID and coming back to school and hybrid or remote or you know it's been a long two years and um I think it helped that we had each other um so thanks for that
and um I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second Cheryl. All right. I love that. So moved and seconded. All those in favor please say I. Any opposed? All right. Right. We're ajourned at 8:20.