--------- [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Um, hi Val. I saw you enter, [music] so I'm just testing to see if you can hear us from the room here. I can hear you. Okay, great. We can hear you, too. Okay.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Um, hello Big. [music] Just checking in. We're not ready to start yet. Not ready to do the countdown, but just letting you know we're getting close. >> [music]
>> I think so, yeah. Um, okay, Big. We're going to do the countdown here from the school committee room. Uh, we're [music] counting down from five, four, three, two, one. Recording in progress.
Hello, I'd like to welcome you to >> what we're able to cover and trying to jam it all in right before the end or just having fewer review days. So that is something that's been going on with AP exams. And then something else that happened is we had our 20th day of dialogue on April
9th. So this is the 20th time this event has been held at the school. Following the changes to the CLE format, um this this day of was opt-in. So teachers got to choose whether to bring their classes
or not to the three different blocks they had. So the first block was an exam a lesson on the history of the day of dialogue, so looking into the past a few years and looking at Cypress coverage of this event and seeing how it's changed
over time. And then there was also two blocks of telling our stories where students and staff got to speak about their experiences um regarding their queer identities. So this whole all of these events were
opt-in, so some classes went and others didn't depending on the discretion of the teacher, what they had scheduled that day. And simultaneously the queer student program organized a day of silence. So people who were participating wore
stickers saying that they were being silent for the day um in support of the queer community and to in honor of the ways the queer community has been silenced historically. And at the end of the day the people being silent got to
um break their silence all together in a festival on the quad. And another thing that's been going on is we had the special awards ceremony on Tuesday night, which is basically a night where
certain students get emailed that they're receiving an award and they usually don't know the award until they go there. And then they have different awards in different categories and students are called up. And it's a really special event which um >> [snorts]
>> is in recognition of academic excellence in different areas. So there's certain awards for each subject and um there's many different awards that students get called up for. And it's also very sweet because the
announcers usually the curriculum coordinators sometimes read remarks from the various teachers who nominated the students for these awards. So it's always really touching and heartfelt to to see that. And last of all we have senior assassin happening right now. For those of you
who don't know what this is, it's a senior tradition and game that's not affiliated with the school and basically students who are participating they buy in for $10 and they receive a target and off of school
grounds and within certain time frames they're supposed to find this target and shoot them with a water gun and film it and post it to this um Instagram page. And the winner is the person who gets out the most targets. So we're currently
in round two of senior assassin and here on the screen I have the Instagram page where the kills get reported. And that's about all I have for for right now. Thank you. And so we will move on to the
superintendent's report. Thank you everyone. I have a just a brief brief report, some highlights. Um I just want to congratulate Colleen Boyle, Ryan McManus, Aaron Murdock, Ali Chappell, Tim Chasar. They are um PSB
staff and representatives that ran on behalf of um the BEF fundraiser. And I looked on the website and um they each one raised anywhere from 10 to 13,000. So collectively that's a lot that was great, 50,000 plus. And so
congratulations to all of them um running on a very cold day. Um and shout out to Brian Dinizio, principal at um Lincoln who also ran and cheered on um cheered on just so you know, the students, those of you that showed up in
the end um for all our runners really made a difference and I know that principal Dinizio was really thankful for the students that cheered that the last five miles were the hardest. And so he very much appreciated that and I know all our other runners that had students
show up and um just proclaiming fans really helped a lot. Welcome back to our students and chaperones from Taiwan and also from um Europe. And so our Chinese language
students took a took a trip over the April break to Taiwan and also we had students um from BHS that went to um Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. Um and they did visit the
memorial Auschwitz-Birkenau while they were in Poland. And so to welcome them back and thank you to all our chaperones because um for doing that over over that break. The other is just to report out that
that our contract for the um our deputy superintendent of um office for teaching and learning has been executed. The one for our deputy superintendent for OSS is um
is still in process and so I would appreciate later in the actions if you might perhaps um delegate the chair to finish the execution of that contract. Um the search process for the deputy
superintendent for OAS is in process. We've met with finalists and we're just working through the completion of that process at this time. Um all all of our administrative staff
our senior leadership team, our principals have been um hard at work over the last few weeks prior to the break and now following this week um and working on finalizing our riff
notices. So as part of the projected budget for FY27, we have a net reduction of 22.1 FTEs. And so we've been having meetings throughout the day um just to finalize and make sure our lists
are correct. Um it's quite an involved process because when one position um is eliminated there are often bumping rights into other positions. Um there are leaves of absences, there are
resignations, there are retirements. So it's all of that to to sort out. Um when someone someone may be able to bump um generally someone who has already PTS professional teaching status.
The bumping is dependent on seniority, but it also alternate licensure. So someone may be in one department but might hold Oh, sorry. Can I jump >> Yes, you have you have plenty of time.
I I know if she meant to go into public comment and she'll jump back in yet later. Did you catch what she meant? I think she's coming right back. Yep. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um so so actually that a lot of time has been um
is been involved to to do the riff notices. Um the first set of notices will go out tomorrow. And the next set of notices might will come out on on Monday. And then also by May 8th.
All right. So just so that you know that that's happening. Um I wanted to follow up on our students report. And um congratulating all the students received special awards on Tuesday evening. And um I understand it's a very special
night. And also a comment about AP exams. I'm so happy that our students do well and I know that she expressed a concern about having four or less school days in preparing. Just to know that actually the East Coast is always um at a
disadvantage of other parts of the country cuz many parts of the country start way earlier than us in August and actually some of the schools to the south also start really early and this has to do about heat.
And so there are many parts of the country actually have many more days than our students here in in the northeast and so they do really well and and even with that. So I just congratulate all of them and wish them good luck.
Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Mariah. [clears throat] Thank [snorts] you. Bella, could you Thank you for the update. Could you provide a little bit more information about the riffs, why there are three stages, how many people are in each stage? Just sort of
a little [snorts] more detail on what's going on, when and why. So some of the notices are performance meaning um regardless of where we are with the budget, some people are getting non non-renewal notices.
And then the others are related to the projected budget with the with the net reduction of 22.1 FTEs. So those are the earlier ones. The riff notices we're preparing for 5/8 um and 5/15 are related to if the override
fails. So if the override fails, there's an additional 130 I'm sorry. Yes, thank you. An additional 58 FTEs and so
it's a really complicated process in in being able to determine that list. So we've been actually working on the list for some time. And um So did you get an extension? >> but also emotionally. >> Did you and the union agree to an
extension from the May 1st deadline? >> staff generally the riff notices are May 1 and so we requested an extension. So we were granted an extension to May >> [snorts] >> Thank you.
Thank you. Okay, and so now we'll begin public comment. As many of you know, we have a 3-minute time limit limit per person. And also as many of you know, we listen really intently to everything that you say. We read all of our emails
and we're right there with you. We just don't comment after you've spoken. Can just so that you know that. Thank you. So we will begin with Stephen Ehrenberg. After that, we have Chichi Wu on Zoom. >> [clears throat] >> Testing.
Um I want to speak today to help our community appreciate what Andy and Mariah's service has meant to the public schools of Brookline and what I think the nature of their service has been. Andy and Mariah, I want to publicly welcome you to the excitingly
uninfluential world of former school committee members. >> [laughter] >> Mariah, I think has a vision for the public schools of Brookline. She sees schools where all students have access to the best learning experiences.
You might say, sure, we all have visions of excellence in Brookline especially in their schools, but I think Mariah has that vision clearly. She sees how BEEP and after-school programs can be made more accessible and more affordable. And before the state pitched in how meals should be too.
She sees how kids with IEPs and 504s can be better served and how school buildings can be the pride of their neighborhood. Her most remarkable contribution to the school committee, in my opinion, has been the way that she's translated her vision into concrete recommendations and
actions and how little shackled she is by what is so that she can advocate for what could or should be. Truly an independent mind. The way that Mariah I'm going to The way that Mariah advocates for change is also
remarkable to me. Some people like me wanted to scuttle around in the background and build fragile coalitions and socialize ideas so they don't startle people before they're announced and so on. Not Mariah. She speaks from conviction and the rest can go to hell.
I don't really understand how this works. I have often thought of her manner of creating change as a bulldozer. But Mariah is also clear-eyed and pragmatic. Her proposals are often incremental. So often more often than not they bring
a majority along with them. Mariah has been effective at creating positive change in Brookline. Mariah also sees unfortunately where Brookline bureaucratic processes can be streamlined and clarity can improve coordination so she takes that work upon herself. She spearheads communication,
she creates databases, she builds spreadsheets and drafts FAQs. She stepped in to support the administration many times when there were staffing gaps. She worked herself to exhaustion on the school committee which is why as her fan, I'm delighted to see her decline to run again.
But as a Brookline citizen, I'm horrified to see you leave service to our town. Andy envisions a healthy and well >> [laughter] >> Andy envisions a healthy and well-functioning public school system. He is a grown-up.
He does not succumb to tantrums, to high dudgeon or even my favorite, righteous indignation. He simply works at finding solutions where he can through the steady application of reason, calm, and good faith. He sounds out his colleagues, understand understands them
to the extent that we're understandable, and invites us to build solutions with him. He doesn't have to be doing this. He could be living a peaceful life. Does everyone know that Andy is a successful scientist and decided mid-service on the school committee to transition to teaching
in a school where many students are struggling. Who does this? I'll tell you who I think does this. People who when they encounter a complex and meaningful problem devote themselves to solving it. And we're lucky that Andy encountered PSB.
For the record, Andy in his tenure on the school committee faced multiple crises including leadership instability and a teacher strike. He faced them calmly, graciously, I'm almost done, accountably and accountably and he always acted with respect. I think the worst display I
ever saw from Andy was for him to put his head down on a desk. I think that's hard. Like Mariah, Andy worked non-stop for this town in ways that could not possibly been have been have been recognized or appreciated. And I'm glad for you that you can now relax and sad for Brookline that we've lost a true
leader. Thank you both of you. Thank you, Stephen. And after that, we'll have Judy Katz. Hi, am I up now? Yes, you are. Go ahead. Okay, great. Thank you. Um my name is Chichi Wu and I'm speaking today on
behalf of the Brookline Asian American Family Network where I'm the steering committee chair. I'm making these comments on behalf of BAFFN regarding tonight's potential vote on a civil rights policy for PSB. We appreciate the work of the school committee the central administration and
consultants in developing a civil rights policy that's strong, student-centered, and keeps a focus on addressing bias and discrimination. And we urge its swift adoption with such a focus. BAFFN does wish to comment on the most recent changes, particularly the
inclusion of language specifically listing certain ethnicities and religions. We're concerned that the civil rights policy specifically names particular groups but not others. With respect to the Asian American Pacific Islander community, while we appreciate the inclusion of Buddhists, South Asian
Sikhs, and Hindus, we're puzzled as to why these groups were listed in particular but not East Asians, Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, or other groups. And the failure to name anti-black or anti-Latino racism is also striking. Rather than
list individual specific races, ethnicities, or religions, we believe the best course is to list broad protected classes and categories. Um And uh I think I might have a few seconds left in my 3 minutes. So, um I
did not prepare any remarks, but I I did want to echo Steve's sentiments in um appreciating both Mariah and Andy's um service on the School Committee. Um Andy was our liaison to BAFIN for a while um and uh very supportive of BAFIN
and the uh Asian American Pacific Islander community. He will be missed. Um and I will very much miss Mariah's strong progressive voice on the School Committee. Um so, I join Steve and everyone else in appreciating them um and congratulating them um
uh in their quote unquote retirement. Thank you. Thank you, Chichi. And Judy Katz. After Judy Katz, we'll hear from Rachel Goodman. Hello. Um I'm Judy Katz. I've been a volunteer with Steps to Success Inc. for
over 15 years. I've served as a board chair, on various committees, and currently as a board member, and treasurer. During the time, I've witnessed the evolution of the program. However, the basic objectives have not changed. To ensure the children attending the Brookline schools, who happen to be from
low-income households, have the same opportunities during their educational journeys as their counterparts who happen to have financial advantages and all that that provides. Steps to Success Inc. is committed to leveling the playing field for all students and to
bridge the opportunity gap that otherwise exists. Steps to Success Inc. is a 501c3 whose sole purpose is to provide support to approximately 350 PSB students from low-income households beginning in grade three. Support is in
the form of out-of-school time programs uh during vacations, after school, and throughout the summer. These opportunities range from work and academic internships, team building, enrichment activities, assistance in negotiating the transition from middle to high school, and from high school to
post-secondary opportunities. The work is supported by the 1.5 plus million dollars annual budget that Steps Inc. raises through grants and individual donors. This programming is the only purpose for which this money is used.
Steps to Success within the schools is supported by PSB and provides in-school advisors working with the same cohort of students from third grade through high school. The goal is to have seamless support for the students in and out of school time. The commitment to ensure that there are equal opportunities for
all PSB students is at the heart of the partnership detailed in the MOU, which is before the School Committee tonight. This MOU has been in place for close to 10 years, although the program is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The Brookline Housing Authority is the third
member of the partnership. Although the BHA is not a party to this MOU, it has always served a critical role working with students and families, the majority of Steps students, providing both financial direct financial and in-kind support over the years, as well as
co-sponsoring an array of activities. The highest priority for programs that bridge gaps are the outcomes. There are numerous statistics that Steps can point to in the extraordinary value of its programming in the lives of our students. Those of you who attended our recent fundraising gala viewed a video
highlighting several our young adults who are now in their 20s and 30s who participated in Steps to Success throughout the years and are now successful in their chosen professions, all of whom continue to give back to the program. Prior to its inception in 2001,
a small fraction of low-income students graduated from high school. It has ramped risen to well over 90%. Because of Steps, BHS now produces a substantial college cohort of long low-income students with nearly 90% graduating
college within four to six years. The national I've two sentences. The national average for low-income students is approximately 11%. The success of participants in Steps experience um experiences speaks to how critical
this program continues to be. I'm always going to be a cheerleader for the program and for Steps to Success within and without the schools as long as there is a need and honestly a mandate for a school system such as PSB to ensure that all students have equal access to the
education-related benefits that are available. Thanks. Thank you. Rachel Goodman. Good evening. Is this Can you hear me? Okay, thank you. Um and I think I have enough time
that I can start um by adding my uh thank you, deep thank you, to both Mariah and to Andy uh for all of their service to the town of Brookline and to the students. And of course, I want to also thank all of the current members um
for the work that you have been doing and that you will continue to do. My name is Rachel Goodman and I'm the chair, the current chair, of the board of Steps to Success Inc. which as you heard is the 501c3 organization that works in partnership with both PSB
and the Brookline Housing Authority. We work with um approximately 350 students each year. Um and our mission is to ensure the best outcomes for our Brookline low-income students.
We start in third grade and follow them through college graduation. Steps Inc. And we've been around now doing this for a little over 25 years. And one of the things that I think we're really proud of is that in these 25
years, we can look at the fruit that has been born by the thousands of students who over these 25 plus years have gone on to complete school and to start careers. Some of them are truly amazing, but whether they are doing something
major or something that's not quite so stellar, it's important that we have been able to support each of them in the journey that they have chosen. And you all are a part of that. So, um when you hear from the students
and their families, I think you'll understand um that this partnership is so important and that's why the work that we are putting into this MOU before you this evening is so important.
Uh as you've heard, we um work in the out-of-school and after-school time both during the school year and in the summers uh on an a range [clears throat] of activities that Judy already mentioned, so I'm not going to repeat them. Whereas the PSB staff,
the in-school advisors, work during the school day on the academics. And the thing that is so important and really amazing about this is that both the PSB staff and the Inc. staff are working seamlessly together, which is what the
students need to really be able to be successful. And I'm going to sum up by saying that not only in my role as board chair, but also as a member of the Development Committee, I look forward to continuing to dedicate my time to the work of Steps
to Success Inc. to ensure that all low-income students here in Brookline are able to access the best that we can offer them in terms of both academics and enrichment programs as we support each of these young people in their
journey and vision towards success. Thank you very much. And am I passing this on to someone else now? >> Yes, thank you. We'll hear from Vanessa Ortiz next. Hello. And after that, Leslie Thompson. Hello. You can hear You can hear me, right? Okay, sorry. Little nervous.
>> [laughter] >> So, my name is Vanessa Ortiz. I sit on the board as a parent on Steps to Success. Also, I sit with the um parent council as well. So, I work with a lot of the families as well. Um So, first and foremost,
thank you to Steps. I'm very very grateful for such an amazing program. Um being first generation to graduate college and being able to give my son the same opportunity is amazing. So, that's what I want to say first. But
um Steps is such a great program. I'm grateful that being part of Steps, my son has a sense of community. You know, when I first moved to Brookline 11 years ago, I didn't feel that sense of community. Once my son started in Steps, I felt
like I had a family. I had someone I can go to. My son was able to go to programs that I personally financially could not afford, and it brought joy to me. So, this year he went on a ski trip, which was amazing.
He's never done it, loved it. Um so, I'm just really grateful to have such a great program like this that supports these families that live here, that they can feel like they have a sense of community and have someone that has their back. So, I'm going to keep it light cuz I'm
getting emotional, but thank you so much and just it's a great program and I'm super grateful. Thank you. Thank you. And Leslie Thompson. Hi, everybody. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. You can go ahead, Leslie. Great. Thank you so much. Oh.
Now you can see me, too. Sorry about that. Um good evening, everyone. My name is Leslie Thompson. My pronouns are she, hers. I'm a Brookline resident, the very proud parent of a BHS student. I'm also an active school and community volunteer. Um as I shared here 2 weeks ago uh at
the first reading of the civil rights policy, I am here again to urge the public schools of Brookline school committee to adopt the civil rights policy and non-discrimination policy. For me, this is not abstract. This is about real students, our children, my
children showing up to school each day and needing to know, without question, that they are safe, respected, and protected. Students should not have to wonder if their rights apply to them that day.
Right now, that clarity does not exist in any way it should. And when policies are unclear, protections become inconsistent and students feel that they often suffer the repercussions. This policy addresses that. It sets a
clear, consistent standard so that no student's rights depend on interpretation, circumstance, or who happens to be in the room. We say we value equity. We say we prioritize prioritize student well-being.
This is the moment to prove it. Delaying action or continuing to water down versions that do nothing but harm students sends a very clear message, whether intended or not. But this policy sends one, too. One that
tells every student that you belong here. You are protected here. Brookline has the opportunity and the responsibility to lead in this area. So I ask again, please adopt this policy as proposed. Thank you so much.
Thank you. And that brings to an end public comment. Perfect segue because we're next going to hear from the Brookline Commission on Diversity, the CDEICR, and we will hear from Kevin McKenzie um uh
addressing the civil rights policy. Hi Kevin, you're on uh ready to speak when you're Go ahead and speak when you're ready. All right, wonderful. Thank you so much. Uh and uh much appreciation for putting the commission on the docket tonight. Um for school committee members, this is in reference I'm essentially just going to
do sort of an oral report of the written document that was sent to you previously and was included in the uh meeting packet. Um for members of the public, this will might be the first time you're seeing it. So I'm happy to just share that information now. Um and afterwards, I'm happy to take any questions that school committee members might have for me.
>> [clears throat] >> Um so just to be clear, I'm Kevin McKenzie. I am the chair of the Commission for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations, and I am here tonight just in that capacity only. And so I will only deal with things under that domain. Um so at our last meeting, which was held on Tuesday,
April 21st, the Commission voted by a margin of six to zero to one with one the one being an abstention to make the following recommendations to you, the Brookline School Committee. The first recommendation was that the Commission supports the current draft as presented to us that
night of the student civil rights policy uh as Dr. Schmuckler presented to us again at the April 21st meeting. And that we recommended to you as the School Committee that you vote to adopt the student rights uh student civil rights policy as presented to us without any further changes or additions
approved by uh Dr. Schmuckler so long as they reflect the spirit and letter of the draft policy that was presented to us. Um so, you know, and I I'm happy to speak to the deliberation of commissioners as well. I I won't read the entire report, but the general sense was that commissioners were very excited
and optimistic about the student civil rights policy um and the work being done by Dr. Schmuckler and her staff at OSS. Um and that also there was a desire for us to establish a partnership with the School Committee, specifically the Policy Subcommittee, so that the Commission and
the new commissioners uh recently we've had four new appointees, um which is exciting, and some of them have professional backgrounds in this, can help the School Committee and the specifically again the public the Policy Subcommittee when they reach a loggerheads and have a hard time um with this. So so we can sort of act in our
advisory capacity, which is one of the things we are charged to do under our bylaws. Um so again, my general sense is that commissioners very supportive of what was presented to us. Obviously, there are some changes that have been made since then, some additions that I I I I I'm unsure
exactly of what commissioners might think about them. Um they were not in the draft when we voted, although Dr. Schmuckler did mention that some are coming. Um so, you know, happy to just share that with you, and then I can answer any questions that uh school committee members might have. And appreciate being here tonight and
look forward to a partnership between the Commission and the School Committee. Okay, not I'm not seeing any comments. I I was there as liaison, so I just want to repeat what Kevin said is that there was this sense that they wanted to support Karen in the work of doing this. And even though they understood that
there might be a little bit different language added at some point. So thank you very much, Kevin. We will hear from Matthew Dubois um a presentation on preventing and responding to student substance use. Oh, and here he is. There he is. >> [clears throat]
>> Yep, great timing. >> [laughter] >> So I've been very much looking forward to this presentation, so thank you for being here. Of course. All right, uh good to see everybody. I just want to start with uh Ryan and Andy. I want to echo Steven's uh sentiments, and I just hope you feel the
impact that you've had on on the district. Yeah. Um so uh Sarah, thanks for that that uh introduction. So uh folks um have probably heard me talk about our broad mental health programming. Uh this evening, I want to narrow that focus to talk more specifically about
the work that we do around uh preventing and responding to student substance use. Um and as I as I go through this work, I want to be really transparent talk about how it is uh that we sort of develop uh and refine and evaluate this work. And
what I what I hope I can offer in terms of transparency is that we try to be really nimble in this work. Uh there's a lot of sources of information that we use to understand what's going to be best for for our kids. And so this is work that is always in progress, and that we're always sort of looking uh for
for feedback with. What I also uh want to offer is that this is an incredibly important issue. Uh when we think about student substance use, um early use of substances associated with a whole host of adverse outcomes for kids.
Um there's no area of child development that isn't associated with adverse outcomes when you look at early use uh for kids. What I also want to say uh very uh explicitly and very firmly is that schools are absolutely the right place to focus on this work.
Uh as the place where kids go every single day, we are incredibly well positioned to engage in all sorts of prevention work, including on helping kids make good decisions about not using substances. Uh we're also uh in a place where we get to uh partner really closely with families.
Um and I want to say that there are probably many areas where we can say this is important, but when we think about uh youth substance use, having really close partnerships with families and with schools and with community members is really really really important. Um it's not enough to just have really robust
programming within the community or just to have uh parents sort of uh advocating positive messages or for schools be engaging in prevention work, all that work needs to come together in a really systematic way. And so what I uh really really appreciate is that we're in a uh
community who is prioritizing this work, who has deep interest in understanding what it is that we do to help kids make good decisions around their substance use. Um what I think is helpful uh before getting into the exact uh what of the
work is it's happening uh into um sort of understanding what are the variables, uh what are the factors that contribute to kids using substances during adolescence. Uh the first thing um that I want to offer, and I'm sure if Dr. Bob were here, he would sort of uh he saw this
every single day in his work, is that adolescence is this really unique, incredibly important time in kids' development. Um and this sort of this pairing is that we know that kids' reward system, that is often times rewarded with novelty, is really reactive. It's really really active.
At the same time, that is paired with kids where their frontal lobe, which is really important for impulse control, that's still in development. And so you have um the the stage of development where kids seek novelty and have some difficulties with impulse control. So, those things can come together uh, to increase risk for a
whole host of risk-taking behavior, including substance use. Uh, what we also know is that throughout the lifespan, it's very common to see uh, substance use uh, present within the context of people experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, a whole host of
mental health symptoms. When we think about adolescents, there's also a time when kids are sort of seeing elevations in those areas. And so, I'm going to sort of talk about this a little bit later uh, later, but we oftentimes see substance use happening within the context of broader
mental health concerns. And so, we want to make sure that we're being really robust as we're thinking about supporting that area. Um, as we uh, know very well is that adolescence is also this this period of time where kids are heavily influenced by each other. Now, what I want to offer is that uh, we
can leverage that in really powerful ways. I want to talk about some of the peer group years uh, work that that we're doing uh, in that space. But this perception of or sort of this this this belief that you are not engaging in a behavior or you're not engaging uh, in activities that
everybody around you is engaging in is really powerful uh, for for students. And so, again, I'm going to I'm going to um, talk about this a little bit uh, later, but sort of helping kids understand that if you are making really good decisions, you're actually in the majority. So, this perception that everybody around
you is using is actually not true. And so, uh, we just know that this is a period where we really want to be uh, thinking about the messages that kids are are giving each other. Uh, and then finally, you know, um, a lot of the our a lot of our work is meant to help uh,
kids develop a whole set of skills around healthy decision-making. At the same time, we're working with young people. Uh, and the environments in which kids are developing matters a ton. And as adults, we have incredibly important uh, responsibility to make sure that kids uh, environments are are
safe. Um, as a as a parent of uh, three kids, sometimes we can doubt, you know, are our kids listening to their peers more than listening to us. The good news is is that as caretakers, as adults, we will always have more of an influence uh, long-term on kids' values and on
their decision-making. So, the things that we uh, say to our kids around decision-making broadly is absolutely incredibly incredibly important. And the messages that we give our kids around using substances absolutely has an impact um, on their on their decision-making.
Um, and then finally, uh, I know I've uh, talked uh, quite often about this idea of protective factors. How kids experience their community, how does a kids experience school matters a ton. And we know that kids, when they're feeling really connected to school, when
kids are really feeling engaged in their activities, when kids have a community that feels really good to them, that is a huge protective factor against a whole host of things, including substance use. On the inverse of that, when kids are feeling detached, when kids are feeling disengaged, when kids are feeling
hopeless, that sort of creates the conditions to make substance use more likely. And so, when when I when I sort of engage in that work of thinking about what do we want to be a part of our prevention work, what do we want to be a part of our responsive work when substance use
becomes a challenge for our students, these are the things that sort of inform what what goes on there. What I also um, sort of wanted to to sneak in here uh, is sort of this this broader picture of what it is that we want for students. Um, there and and this is sort of
informed just some recent conversations uh, that I've had. It's not uncommon when we approach mental health work, we stay in this experience of what do we not want kids to experience, right? So, we don't want kids to feel depressed, we don't want kids to to feel uh, excessive anxiety, we don't want kids uh, to engage in
substance use. For me, what I think is really important we think about sort of the more positive side of that. And when we think about positive mental health, it's indicated when these things are present in children's lives. Right? We want kids again to be deeply connected to their community. We want
kids to have supportive relationships at school with their peers, with adults, within their community, at home. Uh, we want kids to have this uh, pervasive sense of hope uh, hopefulness, right? That even if something is really really hard, I believe deeply that I have the skills, I have the persistence,
I have the environment around me where things are going to get better. And so, a consequence is when we achieve these things for our kids, a consequence is going to be reduction in mental health symptoms. A consequence is going to be reductions in use of substances. Now, second, I'm going to talk uh, more
specifically about that targeted work, but I just wanted to offer that our our substance prevention work exists within the context of these broader goals that we have for students. All right. So, um, I can. Yeah, I can. So, I guess my my question
My my question, Matt, is that every single thing you've said applies to the use of this device by children and by their parents. Yep. So, I wonder the overlay between this and Steven Ehrenberg actually and I were able to get the K to 8 um, Yeah. no so, you
know, bell to bell taking care of last year on policy and thank you, Steven, for the collaboration. He actually led it, but I we partnered and got it to happen and we're just waiting for it now to happen at the high school where perhaps perhaps as you're hitting adolescence and
especially at least according to Jonathan Haidt's work for girls more than guys, there's a significant psychological effect of being addicted and tied and anxious and everything that this device Yeah. unintentionally perhaps, at least initially, but now we
know now we know that there's a lot of intentionality in it and I think just about every single thing we're saying about substance abuse, this is just another substance and it would be interesting to see how that overlays with this presentation. >> So, neurobiologically uh, sort of identical pathways for addiction. When you if you look at some of the emerging
research uh, for the treatment of screen and tech addiction, >> [clears throat] >> it's very very similar. Um, and just and just sort of and I think uh, super relevant to this conversation is there is um, in a really important way a lot of momentum right now from families around tackling this issue and tackling it um, much earlier. So, at the end if
we have time, I can sort of sort of talk a little bit what that what that work looks like. Yeah. All right. So, um, I know I've I've said this uh, in the past when talking about our mental health work. Whenever we're thinking about child development, it is essential that we think about prevention
first. That is always going to produce better outcomes for kids. It's always a better experience. And so, of course, we have supports that we supports that we would call responsive supports. So, supports that come on uh, line for kids uh, when there is an issue, but we always want to start with prevention.
Uh, when we think about uh, the skill development that we want kids to have, that work starts when kids are in BEEP. So, our youngest kids um, and all the way uh, through fifth grade, uh, kids uh, have a SEL curriculum called Second Step. And those are broad what we call broad
SEL competencies that teach kids things like identifying what you're feeling, uh, being able to manage uh, strong emotions in really healthy and effective ways. Um, and and perhaps most relevant to this is being able to make really healthy decisions, particularly when you're feeling distressed. And so, those
skills are taught broadly, but of course, kids can apply those more specifically in terms of making uh, good decisions. When we think about our targeted uh, work with uh, substance prevention and substance use, that happens in seventh grade. Um, our health um,
programming uh, in seventh grade, in eighth grade, in ninth grade, uh, kids have a mandated wellness class that they're taking. Um, in that class, uh, we also use what we call a skills-based approach. And so, that means is that there are broad skills that kids are learning. For
example, um, kids will do a lot of work around analyzing influences. And so, thinking about what are the things that are impacting your decision-making? What are the things that are impacting your behavior? What are the things that are impacting how you think and feel? So, that skill is taught broadly and then
taught more specifically within the context of a variety of variety of things, including substance use. Um, but there are specific units, specific lessons that address um, variety of substances in seventh grade, in eighth grade, in ninth grade. And so, in uh, those curricula, kids are
taught refusal skills. Uh, what's been a newer development is we're teaching kids a lot about advertising. Um, advertising is effective, unfortunately. And so, really teaching kids sort of the science behind the advertising and what sort of the goal is of advertising, I think it's been pretty
pretty profoundly important for for kids. Um, and then we're also in a very honest, evidence-based way teaching kids about the harm of substances. I think um, this is particularly relevant within vaping where kids can sort of dismiss some of the harm and impact. And so, we want to make sure we're just
giving really honest um, information about the the harm that substances uh, can have. Um, this is sort of describe um, sort of this process that we use for this work. We heard uh, and continue to hear from community members that cannabis use uh, and vaping use are the
two biggest concerns that we have. And so, myself and Carlin, who's the coordinator of wellness uh, over the summer, we uh, pulled lessons from the Stanford REACH curriculum. Um, and so, we added uh, additional lessons on cannabis use uh, and vaping use. And so, kids are experiencing those right now. Um, and you'll see when I
present some data, we have some additional thoughts about things uh, to add, but those were specific additions in response to feedback that we received uh, from folks. What I want to uh, name and offer here is that after ninth grade, there isn't
uh, mandated health education that students students have to take. Students need to continue to earn wellness credits towards graduation, but you can earn that wellness credit by participating in this in a sport after school. And so, we know that education needs to continue past ninth grade, and so we
just understand that that's a gap. To address that, we have added a course that's called advanced wellness. That's a course that students beyond ninth grade can take. We do a lot of specific work um in that class around health promoting behaviors including around substance
use. But I just want to name that, and I hear that very much from the community that it is a gap there isn't mandated health education after ninth grade. Uh what I also want to highlight is that we have what I believe is a very strong chemical use policy. Uh that is a policy specifically related
to students' participation in athletics. Um and it's not draconian, it's not sort of a zero tolerance policy, but your use of substances or being in the presence of people who are using substances can impact your participation in athletics. And so, we know that's been kind of a pretty effective deterrent for students
and understanding that for most students who are participating in sports, it's an incredibly meaningful and important thing for your experience, and so a lot of students are making that good decision so they're not jeopardizing their participation. Um work that I'm incredibly excited about and it's usually um
some of the best meetings that I have or is being able to hang out with the the peer leaders group. Um it's this wonderful group of students at the high school uh who take on a whole host of wellness initiatives um throughout the building. Um and that group is supported in a really powerful way with folks from
the Department of Public Health. And so, this one beautiful example of many where this really close partnership between this case the high school and with the community partner DPH is coming together to think about programming for kids. Uh this year
specifically relevant to this work, the peer leaders engaged in an anti-vaping campaign. And so, they really were trying to target this idea of harm, really trying to understand um uh some of the advertising around it. And I'll talk a little bit how we're
we're thinking of using the peer leaders in the future. But we know um and it's probably overall a good thing that if I were to come in and present to students, that's probably less impactful than hearing directly from their peers. And so, we just try to try to leverage that social influence.
Uh I was presenting to a parents um group last month, and uh the stress the parents are experiencing right now is so real. Um and there's actually some pretty compelling evidence that right now being a parent might be more stressful than it's ever been in history.
And part of that is that our kids are navigating things that no kid has ever navigated before. And so, you have parents who are trying to help their kids navigate a thing that nobody knows how how to navigate, it's sort of just adding to this this immense amount of stress. And so, we want to make sure that we are giving parents the
information and support that they need to help support their their their students. And so, about quarterly we will give a workshop for parents through the Massachusetts Partnership of Youth. Uh those are two examples from this year of
supports that parents receive specifically around substance use. Uh and then finally, this year there was the start of the Brookline Wellness and Prevention Coalition or Be Well. And so, we sit on the steering committee of that work. Uh it's a beautiful
example again I think of this community approach to wellness where we have partners throughout the entire town coming together to tackle substance use. And there's a lot of very targeted and specific work that impacts our kids. And so, then thinking about the
responsive support. So, what are we doing when students are experiencing a challenge in this area? Um the first bullet you hear there is something called diversionary support. And that is something that we have provided BHS students for quite some
time. Uh there's a social worker through the Department of Public Health who actually works at the high school. Um and if a student is presenting with challenges related to substance use, they can meet directly with that person. One pathway, and it's not the only
pathway in which that student can access that person is if they are caught using substances at school or at school sanctioned event. Uh what we know doesn't work is that if a student is caught simply giving a penalty and saying don't do it again, that never works. Um I believe that substance use is
indicative of some broader concerns. And so, we want to make sure that kids are having the support that they need if that's something that's going on in their lives. Can I ask a question? Yeah, please. Just to just to clarify, what is the difference between when they would go to
that like is it medical consequences of substance use or what what are you seeing that would that would direct them to that social worker versus another social worker? Okay. >> Yeah, so this is a person who has So, if if we believe the primary concern is
related to substance use, that person has the expertise in that that area. Other social workers can certainly help support in that area, but if we're thinking that it's more narrow and that's sort of the primary presenting concern, that's where we can leverage that person. Um and again, so
like one pathway is if a student for example is caught using at school, you know, there may be a consequence, but that would be paired with support from that clinician. Um but that's not the only pathway, right? Students can say, "Hey, I'm having a challenge in this area." and can reach out directly to this person.
It's not uncommon that peers will say, "Hey, I'm really concerned about my friend." and we'll sort of leverage support in that way. So, I don't want people to think that the only pathway is through sort of getting in trouble and having a consequence. There are multiple ways that kids can access that support. Um so far, we have not seen substance
use in middle school being a challenge. However, we do want to be prepared. What you see there in that middle bullet is something called I Decide. Uh that is a a curriculum that was developed by MGH. It's meant to be a diversionary support, so a support for kids who are experiencing challenges
with substance use. Um our middle school clinical teams received training this year in that curriculum. And so, if there is a challenge in the middle school, we're prepared to help students in that area. And then finally, you know, as as I offered, it's not uncommon that
substance use challenges are happening within the constellation of broader mental health concerns. And so, we have a lot of very strong community partners where we can really work with families to make sure they're getting the care and support that they need. All right. And so, as I've talked about before in our broad
mental health programming, I believe deeply that when we are rolling out work for kids, we have a deep deep responsibility to ask the question, "Is it working?" And so, I want to offer transparency about the information that I use to answer that question.
Um as I've talked about the Youth Risk Health Survey, really powerful tool, it's something that we do every other year. Um our next administration is next spring. We also use our universal screening to measure things like protective protective factors,
looking at mental health symptoms. Those are some more broad indicators of kids' mental health. Um all of our seventh and ninth graders actually engage in very specific substance use screening. So, that's the ASBERT screening that you see there. Um if kids screen in, meaning if they
are indicating that they're using substances, uh there's a very brief intervention that happens in that moment, and then we're trying to move students into support in that area. Uh and what I want to say, um and I think this is important, is that
those are are uh more quantitative sources of data. Just as important for me is hearing about people's qualitative experiences. And so, it's really important for me that I'm hearing from deans, that I'm hearing from teachers, that I'm hearing from students, that I'm hearing from
parents, that I'm hearing from community members, and using that information in conjunction with those other sources of information to guide our programming. Can you just describe a little bit more what the ASBERT screening looks like? Who does it? Yep. Um so, it's something
that is led by our nursing department. And so, most typically it's nurses and clinicians who are running the screening. It's about a minute per student, and so there's a series of questions um that ask students about a potential use of substances.
Um and again, if a student and it it is anonymous, well, it's it's it's confidential I should say. It's not anonymous we're obviously meeting with students. Uh if a student flags in, we do have a protocol for for responding to that in a moment. Yeah.
All right. So, I do want to um in a moment uh share some data from our 2025 Youth Health Survey. Um what I want to offer is that I'm actually presenting what I may describe more as raw data. So, it's data that hasn't been cleaned yet. Uh we're
finalizing some analyses now with the Department of Public Health. When that publication comes out, we may see some differences in the percentages that I'm about to present in what's in the report cuz we haven't quite yet determined our process for cleaning the data. So, I just want to name that as I as I present
these. A couple of trends that we have observed over time, and I mentioned this before, we haven't observed students in middle school reporting meaningful levels of substance use. Um again, we want to be prepared. We want to make sure that we
are educating our students. I didn't mention this before, but I I should have. Um when we think about the timing of instruction from a research perspective, we want to teach kids skills about 2 years in advance of them needing them.
When you look at our data, we see that once kids get to ninth grade, it's really between ninth and 10th grade, where we see increases in substance use. So, that period in seventh and eighth grade is particularly important. Even if kids are not using and it's a good thing that kids are not using substances there, but we never want to wait until
kids are in those situations to use those skills. We want to make sure we're starting that work in advance of kids being in those situations. Um as we've seen in other reports, and this is uh true uh within uh research in this area, we see that uh rates of substance
use when you measure that with lifetime use or with use in last 30 days, uh those rates tend to increase between ninth and 12th grade with the highest rates in 12th grade. Uh the most common uh substances that we see are cannabis, uh alcohol, and
nicotine uh via vaping. Uh we have we don't typically see uh meaningful rates of other substances. Uh and then finally, I think this is important uh thing to name. When we uh think about our 12th graders, uh we've had uh some difficulty getting them to
participate in a variety of surveys. Um I'm working with peer leaders uh to address that issue. The reason why that's meaningful is that when you have a smaller n, it's it's more volatile when you're looking from uh time period to time period. Uh you're going to see a pretty big difference between 2023 and 2025. And so, I want to
name that that sort of the smaller n, the less reliable those data are over time. All right. So, the two areas that I get asked uh the most about are marijuana use uh and uh vaping. And so, uh these are data here from the 2025 uh Youth
Health Survey. Um over uh all when you look at the high school, uh 12% of BHS students reported lifetime use. When you move into our upper classmen, 11th and 12th grade, uh you see one in four students will report lifetime use.
What I want to name here in 2023, uh about 50% of students in 12th grade reported uh to lifetime use. Now again, our ends are smaller. So, I don't want to I don't know to what degree for example, that number is half as big. I don't know to what degree that's just a statistical anomaly from
the sample size or if that's >> I'm sorry. Can you repeat that, Matt? I feel like you said something that I don't see on the slide, so I'm feeling like I >> It's not on the slide. So, just uh so, if you look at a report from 2023, Uh-huh. uh you will see that in that report, 50% of 12th graders reported lifetime use.
Yep. So, that number is about half of that right now in Brookline, sorry. Yes, in in Brookline at at Brookline High School, uh 50% of students reported lifetime use. And so, what I just want to name there is I don't know if that's a real difference, if that's a statistical anomaly. But I think what is what is
really important I want to communicate very clearly is that when I see these data, that's still concerning. And that still provides a lot of urgency and a lot of intentionality that we want to do um in the work. Similar vein and I've and I've said this within our uh broader mental health outcomes,
when we look at our data compared uh to Massachusetts or to national data, our kids are making better choices. Our kids are, you know, are broadly sort of those health indicators um are looking really positive. But again, that's never enough, right? Our goal is not to simply have better
numbers in the state, right? Our goal is to create the experiences that we want kids to to uh that the kids the experiences that kids deserve and that we want them uh to have. In addition to looking at um kids' uh self-reported use, we also asked them
about their peer perception, so their perception of their peers using. Uh we also ask questions about their perception of harm um and risk. And both of those things are really important as we're thinking about what is the messaging that kids are taking home from the instruction.
Uh here when you look at uh peer uh perception, uh 72% of uh students reported that they believe about um 25% or fewer of their peers um are using um um uh marijuana uh in the past 30 days.
Um but about 28% believe that it's more than that. And so, you know, I think there's continuing um work here around norming people's uh experiences. And part of the work within this analysis is sort of looking at is the discrepancy between
perception and actual use a perception or is the perception potentially picking up something that self-reported use isn't, right? So, that's work that we have to um continue to dig in a little deeper. And this is um the first example of work that we need to improve. And so, when
you look at kids' uh perception of using marijuana once or twice a week, only about half of students believe that there is great or moderate risk of doing that. When we ask students about everyday use, the vast majority, I think it was over 90% of students will say, "Yes, that is a very risky thing to do." And so, this
is an example when you think about the lessons that kids are experiencing, we need to right-size this risk. The reality is is using once or twice a week is still incredibly risky for kids. And so, we want to be able to make sure um that kids are receiving that information in an accurate way. Um
I think this is a particularly uh important question when we think about creating environments that help support a healthy decision-making. When you look at access, those final uh two uh bullet points suggest that about 20%, 21% of kids reported that it was
fairly easy or very easy to access marijuana. Uh what we didn't ask is how kids are accessing. And so, one immediate change that we want to make for the survey next year is to have a better understanding of how kids are accessing cuz that's going to inform very specific interventions that we can use to help um
impact kids' uh environment. Uh and then finally, again, the the the rules that um families and caretakers set for the kids matter. Again, as the data three, sometimes you feel like it doesn't because kids are in the moment may feel like they're not listening, but they do, right? And so, for me, it's really
positive that almost 90% of kids believe that their parents would disapprove of their use. Again, I would love for that number to to be 100%. Uh that's messaging that comes out in a lot of that parent work of of uh parents really appreciating the power that they have to
inform uh kids' decision-making. All right. And then uh with vaping. So, when we look at vaping in the past 30 days uh in 2025 versus 2023, we did see some of an increase. Um the most common substance that
students reported on the survey was using caffeine uh followed by uh nicotine and cannabis. Um the top number there or um I guess uh below the below the top number. So, 2.6% of BHS students uh reported using um a
vape product on school grounds. Again, what I want to be really really clear is I hope that nobody would uh see that number posted and believe that we don't believe that's a big deal. That is a big deal. Um and so, again, I just want to highlight that I would say it's a helpful statistic and right, we we
believe that still is too high and we still have a lot of uh work that we want to do uh in that area. Similar uh information on peer perception uh with vaping use as with uh cannabis uh use. And so, there's some some interesting thinking about to what
degree is vaping overlapping with cannabis use. So, that's sort of a interesting uh finding there. Um and then again, uh a really important example of more work we have to do is that there's uh too many students who believe that there is not a risk with vaping. And so, looking back on our uh education
and in those curricula, sort of making sure sort of asking that question, what is that disconnect, right? How is it that still well over, you know, 25% of our kids believe that there is not a risk associated with vaping. And so, that's something that we need to to think about and improve uh for the future.
All right. So, thinking about So, much of the work that I described is ongoing work, right? So, that's work that's that's never going to that's never going to end. Uh one immediate thing that we're hopeful to do is to leverage our peer leaders and actually have them move into uh middle school health classes and actually teach them the Stanford
curriculum to students. Uh that'd be partner work with the health educator in those buildings. Um but again, we know that when middle school students are experiencing slightly older peers teaching uh that content, that can be a really positive way to leverage that that peer uh influence.
Um as and I've been promising this for a little bit, but I hope we're we're close. Um we should have the publication of the Brookline Youth Health Survey done uh this spring, and that would be a publicly available uh document that the full community will be able to uh explore. Uh the next uh round of surveying for um
the Youth Health Survey happens next spring. The development of that actually happens over the summer, so it's sort of a long process that goes into that. Uh but those specific questions that I'm highlighting there, we're going to um explore a little bit more deeply. Um and then again, uh the the Be Well, this is an ongoing uh coalition. We
actually have our next meeting uh next week and uh we'll continue to to work really closely with that group. It it's uh it's uh really exciting work. You have so many different community members coming together uh to target this problem. And so, that's work that will that will continue over time.
All right. Additional questions or thoughts? Donna. Thanks so much, Matt. I really appreciate it. I actually have a I didn't want to interrupt you as you were speaking so beautifully. So, I have a bunch of questions and you can I can we can rotate.
>> and then we'll go on to someone else. Um first of all, what was the n for middle school students in the data? So, this was just high school level data. >> Oh, okay. >> Yep. And how many And so, is it just Do you have any data where or
can be disaggregated by grade? >> That would be awesome question. So, uh the only thing that I'm presenting here is these data in the full report. It's going to be disaggregated in a number of ways. So, you'll be able to look grade by grade, demographic variables, middle school, high school, all that will be in the full report.
>> we be able to see it against historical data? >> Yep. Absolutely. Yep. Suzanne. Thank you, Matt. So, I'm I am curious about um not reporting on alcohol use. Is it just way down? Is it I mean, did
you look at it? I It just In the past, it seems that it was that's the place that high schoolers >> Yeah, and and that will definitely be uh featured on on the full report. Um in our in my in my initial analysis, again, I want to couch that in that the data have not been fully cleaned. Uh there was a slight reduction in 2025
versus 2023. Um in general, that's a trend that we've been seeing. Um it's still an an offer um that is the substance that students will report to using the most. That's most common throughout the country because of access that most households
will have some access um to to alcohol. That wasn't intentional anyway. Those are These are the two areas that I get to ask about the most, but um in the same ways that we'll disaggregate cannabis use, vaping use, alcohol use will also be segregated. Thank you. Mariah.
>> [clears throat] >> Thanks, Matt. I have one comment and one question. My comment is I want to say something out loud that you didn't say, but I think you agree with, but let's see if you do. Which is sometimes people see this type
of work, whether it's health and wellness prevention or social emotional learning, as somehow either in competition with or not related to our academic success. And I just want to say explicitly that this work is at the heart of academic
success as well and integral to academic success. And it's not on the slides, but like it's so important and all the research shows that it is the you It's like hierarchy of needs. You can't be available to learn until you have this. And so, but there is often this
community perception that we're like wasting time not not doing, you know, we should be sitting down and doing academics all the time and that this is in competition with that when it's when it couldn't be further from the truth. Okay. So, that was my comment. Just want to say that publicly. >> Can I Can I Can I respond to that real quick? >> Please. Please. Yeah.
>> Uh you're you're correct that a full-hearted uh support of of that comment. When you look at uh these bullets right here. So, all of this work is not separate from, right, it's not at the sacrifice of rigor. When we think about academic rigor, most students or
any of the we have the students in this room will describe it feels really hard. There's a huge emotional part of it. When we think about our most advanced level classes, often times your stress management is the predictor of how well you're going to do in that class. All of these are brain-based interventions of
thinking about how are you going to do your very best to do your very best at the very hardest work that we have. And what I'd offer, too, is that this is uh much of this work that we're using in schools is pulled from uh industry and organization and business. The people understand that when you incorporate
these aspects of wellness, effectiveness, efficiency, people satisfaction, all those things improve. And so, yeah, you're spot on. This work is is very much in support of not competition with any academic goal that we have. Thank you. My question is, does this data
I'm going to go back a couple years to to a practice that I don't know if it's still happening at the high school. There was an There was a desire to stamp out vaping and teachers were being asked to have students sign out of the classrooms when they went to the bathrooms to see if they could figure out if there was some sort of pattern going on.
Um I don't know if that's still happening in my It's not. I I don't think so. I I I probably shouldn't comment on that. I'm not sure. >> Okay. Well, I guess my question is, does the data help inform those kinds of decisions about practices and protocols? Because um I'm just like there's a lot
there about vaping and to the point of the 2.3% of students who are vaping in schools, um as you say, it's not we shouldn't say, "Oh, great. Like, you know, mission accomplished." But also, it might say, "Well, maybe we shouldn't
be making every single student sign in and out." Right? Like, I guess I would hope it would inform interventions or decisions around practices. >> Absolutely. Yeah, and I think we always want our response to be right-sized for the issue that it that it is. Um that qualitative piece, right? So, I
I recently I was I was speaking with some deans and some folks over at the high school to sort of to understand qualitatively, what is the experience like right now? Like, how much of an issue are you experiencing this uh to be? And I think the high school does a really really nice job at responding proportionally to
the challenges that that we're seeing, right? And so, I think they're they're probably right-sizing is that do they have that that response of we're going to be really, you know, firm and restrict kids' freedoms? No. When there are issues, for example, if there's an issue in a specific bathroom, will they try to provide additional supervision?
Of course. Um so, I think that they're pretty good at being nimble and making sure the response is is appropriate to what's going on. Yeah. Bella. I'm Donna. Oh, sorry. Um I was just going to highlight some of the comments and thank you, Matt. Another
excellent presentation. Thank you. Um So, Matt often cited the importance or the influence of um the parent, caregiver, guardians. Um so, how do we know that? It's because in the surveys, it'll say Yeah.
Has your parent, you know, indicated da da da, and then you see directly the impact. So, students that had that influence um use less. So, that's how we know the correlation. So, it's it's actually it's
it's in it's in our data. Um the other I'm just going to mention it as we think about cuz we're thinking about looking at our the models of our schools. So, Brookline uniquely has eight K-8 schools. And one of the
positives of the K-8 schools is you will see lower use. All right. Lower lower risk behaviors. And so, this is just just remember this as we look at the models looking forward. Matt in his presentation cited
uh the difference between um high school students than their ninth grade reporting lifetime use for marijuana, 4.8% in the ninth grade. In the state, it was 11%.
In 10th grade, 8.4% for BHS. In the state, 14.8%. We do a lot of great things in Brookline. All right. So, we for parent education in the curriculum, but there is there is a strong
influence of the model that that we have in our grade configurations. And also, the um MIA Well, the former MIA policy that Matt cited that um in the presence of Actually, the
that's one of the highest district standards. Um and so so, I'm going to say that PSB does a lot of things to reinforce um better decision-making and supports. But I I just wanted to highlight those
things for us. Yeah. Wait, did you say former policy? It used to be a MIA policy. >> Yeah. So, we still have it. Yeah. >> MIA got they got rid of it. In the presence I think the piece about you being in the presence of >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah.
Honest. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And again, you know, and I think this is a a beautiful thing and I was uh talking with Kyle Williams, our athletic director, not too uh far long ago, and it is a wonderful thing that we have well over 60% of our kids are participating in athletics. So, as a
just a protective factor of kids feeling really connected and engaged in a healthy activity, that is stunning and that's beautiful. I think you pair that with I don't I don't want to miss my my my game or I don't want to get suspended or I don't want to be around other students who are engaging that. It does matter. We have um actual examples
of kids describing that in their experiences of of helping them make a good decision in a particularly hard moment that they're that they're in. So, our our statistics are are good um relatively, but it's still they're still alarming that the trend. And so,
it's it's it's not I suggest that we take it any take it very seriously, but also um they're they're positive. And I know that in the future presentations, we look at trends. So, as Matt noted, there's some
improvement. And um and sh- shifts in the curriculum actually really do make a difference. So, often you can see a shift in the curriculum, and then you see an improvement in the outcomes. It's It's actually very It's reinforcing. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Yeah.
Donna. Unless anyone has other questions, I'm just going to Oh, front on. Okay, I'll ask one. Um So, so Sorry, going back to the middle school thing. You mentioned several times in your presentation, and I can't remember the word you used around the
numbers for middle school being not meaningful. You didn't use that word. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, is that was that specific to Brookline middle schools? Mhm. Oh, so would you at some point would you be able to share the the that data or the N for Okay. Yep.
Great. Yeah, and I'll say um our middle school students uh have a about a 90% response rate to the the uh youth health survey. Um and again, in that specific data in Brookline, we don't see a lot of students reporting um using. That is mirrored as qualitatively when you talk
with again I don't want to say that it's no use cuz that's I I that that's that that'd be inaccurate. But when you talk to clinicians, when you talk to administrators, when you talk to the families at that point in time, that's not the presenting most presenting concern. Phones, technology, absolutely. And we're seeing
more of that within the middle school. But substances specifically is not um what families or educators or kids are describing as being sort of a big big challenge in this moment. Jesse? This is more comment than a question. Um
I think that the work we're doing to build on what Mariah said helps to scaffold our kids so that when they leave high school and they're hitting the bigger world, right? The real world of say college or technical school, vocational, the military, whatever choices they make, that they're
prepared. And I think to the extent that we do a good job in Brookline and that the data show we're, you know, we're not going to solve every single one every day. That's life isn't like that. But to the success that we are getting, we're actually helping our kids launch. And I wonder do we
have we have we considered like talking to 13, 14 graders, meaning through alumni, you know, yeah, sort of sort of sort of what did you you know, what what kinds of stresses have you have you felt in real work now or in college? And how did your experience at BHS, for example,
um prepare you? Yeah. And what can you teach us because, you know, kids by the time they're let's say 19, 20, 21, more mature, not adolescents, we're hope and therefore um there there might be some gleanings Sure. that we could Yeah. gather that would help inform what we're doing in 9 to 12. Yeah, I mean I think
it's I think I think it's a strong idea and again, it it's one thing if you have a teacher saying, "Hey, pay attention. This is really important right now." versus somebody that graduated 2 years ago, "Hey, know that adult that's telling you that thing, that actually matters quite a bit." And so yeah, that's yeah.
Susan? Yeah, so I was curious you I know we don't have wellness what is it from 10th to 12th? It's not mandatory. Yeah, so we we have wellness wellness options. You can take health course, but It's not required. You can get your But we do have 60% of our students participating in sports. Is there any
way we could get coaches up to speed and kind of integrate the wellness with the sports? >> We are we are thinking about that very deeply of trying to let the fact that we have 60% of our kids we're sort of in a plan. I don't want to talk too much about it cuz it's sort of in the planning phases, but we are thinking
very deeply knowing that we have 60% of our kids sort of a captured audience, how can we help coaches to help reinforce and teach some of these skills? And so yeah, we're definitely Yeah. Sounds great to me. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. Donna? Okay, now I will front load last two
questions. One is I did not I don't know if this is intentional, but did not see B-PEN mentioned. And so I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about when you talk about the prevention, but also the um like future actions or partnerships,
like how your office works with B-PEN or how the high school does. Um and the second question was a little harder, but can you talk a little bit about the why in the shift from the shift to one in four
BHS students and their use the marijuana use. That's that is alarming to me, like the the the um massive shift in the numbers between in those couple of years. >> Yep. Um definitely not intentional. We work
really closely with with B-PEN and Karen and and her team. Um where we try to be just one example of what that collaboration looks like. B-PEN does a beautiful job and for folks who know what that is, it's Brookline Parent Education Network. They are they do a beautiful job providing
parents a whole suite of um um call them PDs, but they're workshops for for families. At the beginning of the year we we come together and we talk about what are all the things that we want offer families. And we try to make sure they don't happen on the same night, that they're sort of spread out so that parents can experience all of
those things. And so that that's a very important that's a that's a very close partner. Um part of the increase in 11th and 12th grade, part of it is developmental. And so when you think about the environment, so Bella talked about this. One thing that is really protective is
that when kids stay in their K to 8 schools, their environment is feeling a certain way that they're not being exposed to opportunities, right? Their environment feels very different. What is unique and beautiful about our ninth grade program is that kids are in mostly a building sort of with other ninth graders. And so that again that that's
pretty pretty protective. From a developmental stance, when kids are hitting 16, 17, 18, kids tend to get more experimental, kids tend to engage in in risk-taking behavior. So from a developmental lens, we would expect a whole host of risk-taking behaviors to increase
and including substance use. So what we don't do is saying, "Oh well, I guess that's going to happen in 11th and 12th grade." Part of what we're thinking about and where there's a gap is in knowing that 11th and 12th grade is a particularly vulnerable time for kids, how are we going to provide additional intervention and support in
those moments? And so I don't want to be up here saying we've nailed it cuz you see the data, right? We're we're still working on that. Um but for me that's sort of how how I'm thinking about so for our 11th and 12th graders, how can we leverage peer influence? How can we leverage environments? How can we leverage things like an athletics
policy? How can we leverage parents to help support this work? And so those are the things that we're we're still thinking about. Thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Matt. That was very comprehensive. Thank you. We'll move on to
the town meeting warrant articles and Susan I wondered if you would like to take over now. Sure, thank you, Sarah. So every year we look at the warrant articles, Government Relations Subcommittee I did that again this year before we came
here. And there were essentially three warrant articles that we thought might have some impact on schools or that we might want to weigh in on. One of those is about possible uh
funding or salaries for school committee and I think select board, so we took that out. Right, we that's kind of a conflict of interest. You can do your own advocacy for that if you wish. So we're not going to talk about that >> tonight. So the first one that we were
look at that we saw was warrant article 17. Um and it essentially says that uh it mentions that uh public school grounds
would not be available to um It says no I'll just read it. You have it in front of you, I think. Do you You have Okay. So I'll just read the first sentence or two. No person shall use any town facilities, including but not limited to parking lots, parks, public school grounds, police stations as a
staging area, processing location, operations base or other supporting location for civil immigration enforcement in the absence of a valid judicial warrant or court order authorizing such uses. And so we voted as a committee, although
it was very small, just two of us, but we recommend supporting this article and bringing it Carolyn. Yeah. Bob was absent. Okay. So we recommend supporting this article and bringing it to the full
committee to see if you would agree. Or whatever conversation you want with it. Yes. This is just a terminology question. Um with regards to the schools, what what constitutes a non-public? Is there any
part of a school Let me start this again. I think of schools um during the school day particularly as being non-public. And I guess I'm trying to understand, are the schools during the school day considered public spaces
of public buildings or non-public spaces of public buildings? Because they're closed off for general entry and um I guess why like what does this mean? Does this wording mean that public
spaces of public buildings are on limits or in limits to civil immigration enforcement officials? And if public spaces of public buildings are what schools are during the day, I don't want there to be immigration enforcement during our school buildings during the day. So I'm just trying to
understand how the protections apply to students in schools during the school day in particular. Obviously broadly, but that is like my um that's my core concern. And I just can't figure it out from this wording what is
going on during the school day for our schools. I wish I had answers for all of you. >> Okay. >> [laughter] >> So we don't did town council like I know this came from the select board original wording,
right? The February 10th proclamation from the select board, which is this wording. I just don't understand how it applies to the school day for schools. And I'm sorry I didn't ask this question in advance. Yeah. Um I just want to make sure that it does cover that particular case. Yeah, I think
that's the intent that it will cover. Well, it might be the intent, but I don't know that it's the fact of it. So that's all. Okay. So noted. Yeah. Yeah. Donna? You want to say something? Val has her hand Oh. Oh, okay. Val and then Donna.
Sorry. >> Thanks. Do you Do you know how this differs or if it differs from the bills that the Senate and House have going at the moment? I do not, Val. Okay. Thanks. I would I do note that on
our handouts that uh the select board did pass this 4-0-1. There was an abstention. Someone was Paul Warren was did an abstention. I don't know if he's absent. Donna? Thanks. Um I think this may be a question for Bella, but can you say
anything about what type of um training or resources is provided to people inside of the buildings to so that if they were were voting this if this is voted in by town meeting
um will there be like some information for school administrators to follow? If not If this is added or voted, then we would add it to our training. Um
So my understanding is that there was training last year and we did we committed training of the principals. And then they were to do the training for the faculty at the faculty meetings at the schools. Um but this is but that training was
more about if um if ICE showed up at the schools, what to do. But generally the the protocol is not to allow access to the building even if a federal warrant is is in hand that they call the police and they call
the district offices and then we provide support. Um this is I guess similar. And so we would be calling on our safety officers to help enforce this. All right, cuz this is
So police and fire. Yeah, I always I Yes, I always use um safety officers because um we interact generally with police more, but but um but fire is always there when we need them. It's a different circumstance when we need one versus the
other, but I include them both in my references that equally important even though we use one more often, the other is there when we need them, which is usually a more urgent situation when we need fire. Um
but this is not Yeah, this seems more general than than ICE. Yeah, Suzanne, I was just going to suggest that um the beginning of that second paragraph just say town facilities because the schools are town facilities as well and all town facilities shall be off limits.
For you know, town facilities are are public buildings, but they also have access restrictions. I don't think we can amend it, Jesse. It's not our warrant article. Yeah, we have to go to the petitioners. You could you could suggest that
We also had this redline. Is that Is that a So this is the newest version of this document? >> This is seven of the amendments, yeah. Okay. My understanding is the redlining is what was approved by select board at their April 14th meeting. So are we being asked to consider the
original or the select board or it's up to us, I guess, which one we Okay. And do we know if town council approved or the moderator, I should say, approved the changes deemed them in scope? >> so. Okay. So um
Bill, at your point earlier, the redline version does say it's off limits unless they have a a valid judicial warrant or court order, in which case they can enter. So that's not the same thing you said earlier about they cannot enter.
It's sort of uh listed as if I know you said first responders would be called first, but it does say that they can come in if they have a warrant. But our our protocol is to to hold off until other first responders have come. appear. Got it. If you can imagine um if they show
up, we have a building principal, maybe a vice principal, and it's just so they are just to hold off and request that we get back >> other support come. Of course. Yes. So Even even if a federal warrant is in hand.
So Suzanne, is the plan for us to vote as a school committee tonight on this? If Yes, if that's I mean we can vote to uh approve it or accept it or we could vote to say um we don't want to take a position on it.
We could vote no not to accept it. I mean it's up to us how we want to vote. Well, given given that the select board's already not unanimously, but overwhelmingly approved it and since they they are the executive branch of the town and the school buildings are
town buildings, I would move that we also move to take a vote on this. Okay. I'll second that. Are you looking to me to call the vote? >> I am. Okay. Which one are we Sorry, which one are we voting on? 17. 17. Yeah, but which version? The select
board? I will say that the petitioners um are are asking for a vote on the version that the select board voted, so that would help us define our narrow it down a little. So I'm going to go with Val first. How do you vote?
>> Oh, can I just get a quick clarification? Is it vote to support it, Jesse? That was a vote to support it, yes. To support the select board version. Yes, the redline version. Val, how do you vote? Yes. Donna? Yes. Suzanne? Yes. Andy? Yes.
Maria? Yes. Jesse? Yes. And I vote yes. And Betsy, is it enough for us to just write a paragraph saying we support it? We don't have to have I mean that's No, that's it. I'll create something for you to look at as the chair of the committee relations. It's very simple, but it goes
um in the combined report. And then you read it at town meeting, Suzanne? No, not usually. Well, we'll just >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I mean it's the same as the select board's version. It goes in the It goes in the school committee. You're going to submit a a statement on behalf of the school
committee for the combined report. Okay. And so the second article is article 22. Uh and uh So this is uh therefore resolved that town meeting recommends the modernization of proposition two and a
half. And they town meeting calls upon the governor and the general court to enact legislation that addresses the structural limitations of the current fixed nominal cap. And be it resolved that the town clerk is directed to transmit this resolution to the governor, the town state
legislative delegation, and the Massachusetts municipal association. Mhm. Is I I think it's just asking um if in fact we would ask them to relook to reconsider look at prop two and a half.
Yeah, of course. >> it affects the schools because Yes, clearly. Here we are, right? Here we are. Can I Can I Sorry, go back to this one? When you do our I'm sorry, when you do our write-up, can you make clear that like schools I mean maybe should double-check
this wording that schools are considered non-public spaces during the school day, so this would apply like universally to school spaces during the school day. I mean I think we need to confirm that, but I think that needs to be the position It needs to be written down, so we're all clear. Betsy, do you Yeah, and
and I think all school-based activities, right? Like you don't want during a basketball game either. That would be good. I just want to make I want it to be really clear what the protections are that that the bylaw is enshrining. And it's still a little bit unclear to me whether school committee
would need to adopt this as a separate policy because the school buildings it's a little always a bit of a gray zone to me whether they're school-owned and therefore not or whether the school schools are um the using agency and they're town-owned. But I just want to make sure like if we have to do this, we
need to do this, too. And we like all of that needs to be sort of written down so people understand what we feel about it. If if town council says that that the schools are the owner rather than the using agency, then yes, it needs to go to policy later on.
Yeah. That's my That I believe would be the shade of gray that would affect this. But otherwise, why are we supporting it if it doesn't actually like if this bylaw if the bylaw doesn't actually influence schools because it doesn't
apply to them. You see what I'm saying, right? Thank you. Sorry to interrupt in the middle of 22. I just needed to make these points. Uh so, 22. Um Carolyn and I supported it. >> [laughter] >> We're pretty inherent to the full
committee. Yeah, I would say that given the pressure that it places upon the municipality, of which um slightly more in the majority of funding goes to the goes to the district um and the pressures that it continues to exert and the pressures it will continue to exert even if the override
is passed in 3 years, um I would imagine that many municipalities across the state are raising their voices in the same way and saying not a question of enough is enough, but let's be fiscally smarter. And part of that could be um loosening a little bit the
the leash of the two and a half um given inflation and predicted inflation over the next say 5 to 10 years and given um given expenses. And so I would say we should definitely line up behind this and um uh you know, with one voice with other
districts across the the state as well, um support this. At least it should be looked at. I mean that's for sure. So that's Would you like to move that, Jesse? I would move I would move that we support Article 22 as written. I'll second. I'll second. Okay. Val, you got it. Okay. Got it. And if
there's no more discussion, I'd like to call the vote. So, Jesse, how do you vote? >> Yes. Maria? Yes. Andy? Yes. Suzanne? Yes. Donna? Yes. Val? Yes. And I vote yes. We might need to step up our game a
little bit. We are way behind. So, Okay. Um That was a long time We're way Oh, we're 15 minutes ahead. Not Okay, we're behind where I want to be, but >> [laughter] >> I I second that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um we are going to move on to [snorts]
the um Civil Rights and Non-Discrimination Policy. And um it will be led by Bella and Karen. But prior to that, I would like to ask if I could make a brief statement. If that would be allowed. That goes in it fits into this topic. Yes, it is particular to this topic.
>> Yes, go ahead. Okay. Good evening. I would like to respond briefly to the students who presented during the public comment portion of the April 14th meeting. The perspectives shared reflected very strong feelings and experiences that are important to
hear and to take seriously. I only wish there were more opportunities for direct two-way dialogue around the issues that were raised. In listening to the meeting, I accessed the recording as soon as I was physically able. I was reminded that public comment, by its current design,
limits the ability to engage in constructive exchange. As we move forward, it is worth considering how we can better support students in participating in ways that allow their voices to be clearly heard, meaningfully considered, and thoughtfully discussed
in a respectful and productive manner. In the coming weeks and months, I hope we can reflect on the topics that were raised and strengthen opportunities for real and genuine dialogue, creating space for students to share their perspectives, while also fostering an
environment where conversation leads to greater understanding and progress for all members of the school community. I personally look forward to working with Superintendent Wong and her team to better understand students' experiences, including where they may feel
marginalized or disconnected, and to explore ways we can respond more thoughtfully. As adults and community leaders, we have a responsibility to model respectful, meaningful conversation, even when the issues are
difficult, and to continue building a community where all students feel a sense of belonging. Thank you. Um so, thank you, Jesse. I also want to welcome Karen. She She was out sick today. And she is here in person.
She is in Sorry. Well, fair enough. But anyway, she made a special effort to be here in person on this important topic. Thank you. Betsy, can you share this Thank you. Thank you, Karen, for doing that.
Thanks, Val. Um good evening. Um it's good to be here again this evening to really talk about, as everyone has said, a really important topic and important policy. Like everyone, I first want to share my own personal thanks to Maria
and Andy, who I've had the really enjoyable experience of working closely with on Andy certainly on this policy, and Maria just on so many things. Um and I will both miss both of
your incisive ability to really kind of get to the the real gist of things in a way that always feels collaborative and respectful. And both of your contributions will be certainly so sorely missed by by me and
my team. I just want to thank you for everything that you've you've done for the public schools of Brookline. Um so, thank you. Next slide, Betsy. So, one of the things just a quick reminder, and I'm not going to go through a a lot of the slides that we've we've seen before. Um but I did
want to again really talk about the student Civil Rights Policy in terms of our students and our done a lot of thinking in terms of really as feedback has come in. Um really thinking about who our students are. And as Jesse
has shared, um it's so important to hear student voice. Um and to be able to have dialogue in an ongoing way, not just when we're dealing with something as important as the student Civil Rights Policy, but really
in in an ongoing way. And it really made me think about who our students are. Um we all know that Brookline is very diverse. But I actually pulled the data just to see where do our students all come from right now. And Betsy, if you want to go
to the next slide, um and so, the word cloud doesn't actually do it justice. Um we have students from 93 different countries. And so, Betsy, if you want to go to the the next slide, that sort of just gives you
the range of countries and families and ethnicities and just the enormous beautiful diversity and the Civil Rights Policy um and really the essence of Civil Rights is that it covers
and needs to make sure that we are attending to and managing and caring for the needs and rights of all of these students with all the beautiful different things that they all bring into our schools. Um
and and making sure that we're really thinking about all of our students at all times. Next slide. And so again, we really wanted to create a policy that was very affirmative and welcoming and
says you belong to all of our students. We did, as we know from our compliance perspective, it was something that we need to do in terms of improvement to compliance. And we've spoken a lot about the level of detail. As many of As many people know, there are many ways to do
policies. And again, this policy was aimed at best practices. And again, this was in response to feedback that happened over a number of months from school leaders and families both last year and this year in terms of the complexity
of this policy and the complexity of our work in schools and making sure that um student Civil Rights are protected. And it is complex and and it is nuanced. Next slide. So, one of the things I do want to
um remind people and last week we saw the title slides, right? So, the umbrella in terms of statute and regulation for this policy are Title VI and Title IX.
And I really went back and did some reading on on Title VI because things have changed and policies are very contextual, right? Title VI was a landmark policy that was heralded in in 1964, and it really was an enormously
important tool in the Civil Rights Movement. Um and it was really used to ensure that states actually abided by Brown versus the Board of Education in terms of um desegregating
and not discriminating in public education. And so, it really was a policy around racial discrimination and segregation, right? That was the essence of what that policy was. Um and that is still the the crucible of
the Civil Rights Policy. And so, when we center this policy for student Civil Rights and Non-Discrimination, that's one of the umbrella statutes that we need to pay attention to. And I share that because I'll get into some of the changes that were made with the feedback from
last last week or 2 weeks ago to now um in terms of the influence of what's happening at the state and federal level and the contemporary nature of policies in terms of um when groups get called out or not. And I'm going to spend some time talking
about that. Um so, what you'll see in terms of changes from prior, as you know, the policy was restructured. Um we added in a definition section. We consolidated certain things. And a number of the procedures were removed to a document
that's called the Student Civil Rights Protocol and Procedure Document, which is a pretty lengthy um document that really runs parallel to the policy document. Thanks, Betsy. And so, that's just the table of
contents of the document. And um and the goal of this document is really to make the procedures very transparent for students and for families and community members. The goal of this it will live on our website. Um
and really make it much more responsive. We certainly have heard feedback from families, from School Committee members in terms of feeling like what happens when there's an incident, what happens when there's an investigation, does not always feel
transparent. And we want to make sure that it it really is and that it's very thorough and comprehensive and that parents and students and community members can know what it is that we do and how do we do it um etc. And so one of the next slide, please Betsy.
Uh one of the um the first sections of the policy of the protocol is really a parent quick guide um which really just walks families through what happens, um how do we report an incident, what happens next, how do we
come to resolution and support, and how do we ensure that there's communication and transparency. So I just wanted to highlight that alongside the policy um we've really been doing a lot of work on the procedures and the implementation of the we need the
see importantly is the implementation of this policy that we are educating all our staff and our families and our students on the policy um and then we're making sure that we live the values and the requirements of the policy. Next slide.
Um so the changes from last school committee to this school committee um is we added we added a section regarding shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics that comes straight from
title six. And with that because we have a definition section, there were three definitions added: anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism. And I want to address the concern and we're certainly a concern that Part: 2
At the next [clears throat] paragraph, it does have anti-semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination. I'm not worried about it either way. I just wanted to know what we were actually being recommended to do by staff. Could I move the Could I move the the amendment to strike the first
paragraph and keep the second that's on the slide now? Seconded. Second. Bella? I know that we were working on a student civil rights policy, but I did appreciate that the first paragraph extended to students and school community members. So,
I guess we can just keep that in mind when we go when we Yeah. Write the next >> counterpart. Okay. >> Sure. But I I think that's an important clause. >> Mhm. But the same the same second paragraph would apply to staff.
So, But this one's written specific The second one Right, but it's written specifically with >> Oh, with students, I guess. >> Only students. Yeah. So, I I just pointed out that was another difference. And and it wouldn't apply exactly the same to staff because there are different statutes that apply to
employment situations. >> That's right. Donna? Um Karen, thank you again for all of your work. Um just a small typo, there's an extra bullet point on page four. Thank you. Um I want I was just hoping that you could talk a little
bit You mentioned briefly the training um in schools. So, once we If this policy's approved, what happens next in terms of um school buildings and how and how the information cascades. >> Sure. Um so, we um we would do some training
now in the spring, and then like we did this last summer, we would do a full training as part of our retreat uh with all our uh principals, and then we meet with all our all our administrators uh in August, and this would be part of it as well. And it's it's never a
one-and-done. This is something we're always constantly having to to work on and revise and look at practice and learn from, you know, what's happening uh on the field and in and and in schools, um but that's that's what sort
of would be the rollout in terms of both the policy and as I said, many of the protocols have been really clarified in great detail, um and that's actually where, you know, the rubber meets the road, so to speak. And so, we would do a lot of training on that both Here's what's in the policy,
but here's what's in our um protocols. And then, we're also thinking um around different ways of engaging our students um more pro- proactively in um in the policy, right? I think we work with our students reactively after something's happened, um but we also
know that similar to what Matt shared earlier, um engaging students proactively in understanding This is the policy in the public schools of Brookline, and how are you being bystanders and upstanders and all of the all of the ways and
particularly at middle and high school students are integral um parts of making sure that we have a system where the civil rights policy lives and breathes every day in our schools. So, we're also thinking about How do we engage our students in that? And our and our family
and community members. Thank you. Um I also just want to say I think this is a school committee function, and we talked about this last time. Um but when we are posting this policy, I think it's really important in the index section
of the policy manual itself that we also include um terms like non-discrimination or sexual harassment when we're so that people who are seeking redress can find those so so that it's not just listed under the civil rights policy.
We added non-discrimination non-discrimination >> Non-discrimination. Non-discrimination to the name Right. last time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so we we'll see it. >> Right, but so sexual harassment and retaliation. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Andy, will you clarify when you um the motion that's on the table currently
is about a change. It's not about a change and adoption Actually, since there isn't any motion There wasn't any motion before the one I tried to make, so let's make the motion actually to accept this policy with the one change um that we just discussed, the removal of the first paragraph that's on the slide there.
>> So moved. Any further discussion? Uh yeah, actually. I I would like to really thank um Karen for working on this really quickly and working hard and collaboratively with all of us to get this over the
finish line. I would like to thank the community members who um have come out to speak to us. It's They're really important perspectives for uh us to hear, and um really vulnerable um
statements for us for us to hear, and I think um certainly impacted the way that many of us are thinking about this policy as um not just an enforcement tool, but a tool about belonging and who we are as a district and
um coming together around um supporting that diversity and inclusion in our schools. Thanks. I think we need a second. Or I think I motioned I made the motion and you seconded, maybe? It was the other way around. Oh. Okay, fine. Good.
No, Andy made the motion, you seconded, Jess. >> it. Cool. And are you ready to vote? I am. Okay. How do you vote, Jess? >> Yes. Ryan? Yes, with all the appreciation that Val mentioned as well. Thank you. Andy? Yes, also with many thanks to
Karen for the incredible amount of work and commitment that you put into these drafts. My pleasure. Thank you. Suzanne? Yes. Donna? Yes. Val? Enthusiastic yes. And I vote yes. Thank you very much.
Congratulations, everybody. >> [applause] >> Excellent. Thank you, Karen. Congratulations to the committee and also thank you to the members of the policy sub committee that supported this work as well. And so, Bella, you are up again. We're going to talk about the memo of
understanding between the public schools of Brookline and Steps to Success. Okay. Um I've worked in many communities, and I've never actually experienced an organization such as STS.
>> [clears throat] >> Okay. I've never worked in a in a community that that didn't that had an entity such as STS to support students that are under the housing authority, but also
extends beyond. And um it's So, I I just think the town of Brookline is really lucky to have such a group. And so, I am presenting the memorandum of understanding between PSB and STS, and I just wanted
to read the memorandum so that people understand the context of why the memorandum of understanding exists, excuse me. I guess [clears throat] we're all coughing tonight. Um
in recognition of the continued evolution of the program known as Steps to Success, STS Inc., and in support of its ongoing growth, its financial stability, and its future sustainability, the public schools of Brookline, PSB,
through its leadership, school administration, and school committee membership, and STS Inc., through its board of directors, intend to, through this memorandum of understanding, MOU, work strategically
and thoughtfully toward a mutually agreed-upon collaboration. The intent of this MOU is to affirm the mutual commitment and coordination of PSB and STS Inc. to work towards bridging this achievement gap
and fostering educational equity for students from low-income families who are enrolled in the public schools of Brookline. So, this is the the mission and the purpose of the MOU. Historically,
um as So, I just want to thank also the chair of the board of directors, Rachel Goodman, who's here, and also Nia Jacobs, the executive director of STS Inc., who are here, and other members in the audience that are supportive. Um as Rachel Goodman stated, the MOU has
been in place for the last decade, but STS in fact has celebrated its 25th year. And um so, this memorandum of understanding actually is from July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2028.
When I arrived, the There was a draft that had been that in existence, but it hadn't been brought to the school committee for approval or execution. And so, it's So, my apologies, it's taken um most of the year to go ahead and do
that, but I but I'm working collaboratively with Nia and also with the support of Robin Benoit, who is our main representative of PSB to the STS board, which meets monthly. >> [snorts] >> That's right, right? Monthly?
But every other month. Yeah, sorry. So, Robin Benoit, our deputy superintendent, who's our main representative to um STS. So, what you have before you for the school committee is the MOU, and what is in red
are the changes that are different from the prior version. So, everything else carries forward as it exists. So, one One notable change is that it used to say grades 4 through 8. Now says grades 3 through 8, so
expanding to the younger grades and I think the hope is that it will continue to incorporate the um earlier grades as well. So, this one is >> [snorts] >> is grade 3 through 8. On the second page
um it says PSB will and this is more about program. >> [clears throat] >> It states that we that PSB will provide after-school academic support for STS elementary and middle school students. In fact, this has been
happening. So, this is new language in the MOU, but this is not actually a new practice. This has been the commitment of PSB to support the after-school programming. On the next page, page 3, use of space.
Um separated out into PSB will and PSB may. PSB will provide STS Inc. with appropriate dedicated desk and office space to be used by its executive director and STS Inc. staff. PSB will
determine the location of the space. This in fact already exists. All right. So, we welcome the presence of STS in our schools and it's actually that presence that best supports our students um in that are being served by
STS. So, this when I office space is a desk. It's a working space. It's a place where maybe they can close the door because as you can imagine there are times where you need to um protect privacy in phone calls or in communication with
families or staff. So, this is not this is a work a work space. Um it's already being done and so we're just saying that it's it's a commitment that it will always be. Um the last part where the in red
provide STS Inc. staff with ID badges that allow appropriate year-round access to school buildings used for office space and programming. STS offers year-round programming. It's not just during the school year, it's also summer. This is a practical
addition to the MOU that they be able to access the buildings year-round. Um so so just um just a These are not big changes really. Um a continuation of our support for STS.
In the section that PSB may all of these things actually are happening. It's It's that um it's just instead of shall it's just understanding that we have to prioritize space for
the main educational program as it exists, but actually all of this we have been able to accommodate even though it it says may. And so in the may items, if possible, such space to include regular access to private space for the executive director to conduct personnel
meetings and meetings of a confidential nature. We're able to do that at this time. Provide such space if possible such space may include space at Brookline High School for high school and CSI program staff. That is happening at this time.
When circumstances allow, space for the executive director, administrative staff, and K8 program staff will be located out of school with Steps to Success programming. That is happening at this time. The other STS Inc. staff with office
space at PSB schools will be included in that school's parking permit procedures when feasible. All that means is that in the lottery for spaces that they are included cuz obviously they need to also have the same accommodations for parking as all
our staff for PSB. So, that's just that's a practical accommodation. And I think that may That's it. >> That is it. Yeah, that's it for the changes. Um it was brought to my attention in the data sharing agreement
that um we identified for PSB the data um the data contact would be the senior director of data and strategy. Actually, the position does not exist. So, I just wanted to amend tonight that I'm going to put Sorry, I
didn't ask you first, Robin. That it should be the deputy superintendent of the office of teaching and learning and through her it will be access to um hopefully what will be a new director of data and information systems. All right. So, it's
just a correction to to identify the right person for PSB. Make [snorts] it say or their designate. Yeah. >> Or their designate. Sure, I can do that. >> Um but thank you. Actually, it's Carolyn Thall that pointed that out. So, thank you to Carolyn for pointing that out. It
was you? Oh. [laughter] It was you. So sorry. Sorry. Oh my gosh. We have And don't take away my critical reading skills. >> [laughter] >> Of of which of which there yes, we've benefited a lot.
Can I ask a question? Oh, I'm just letting the chair recognize. You're pointing at Jesse cuz he he raised his hand first. Is that what's going on, Bella? Or >> I was just letting you know that the chair recognized them after >> I was already in a conversations so go ahead, please. All right. I I guess um what the neat part of um the PSB will
number four with the ID badges. This has come up throughout the last year and a half in discussions with many after-school programs in the district. And um although on the soon to be very diminished policy subcommittee that you're seeing here minus two people. Um
so, maybe I'll get to work on building access and usage even more now as a committee of one until we add more people, but the point is ID badges and access for people that are doing after-school has become has has is a common request from many other
organizations that use the buildings after hours. Um so, that they're not calling on security guards, they're not calling on parents that happen to be inside. Kids need to use the bathroom. Someone they need to to take a after-school program and station someone FRL like at the door on the inside just to open the door for people. This is a
consistent and common request we've gotten and hopefully maybe over this coming year we can find some ways to address it as we did here for STS. Right. I will note that STS staff are CORI'd and so they and actually many of them >> about extended days. The extended days are routinely telling us that they have
problems with getting badges that get them into the building. >> I'm withholding that I'm just saying STS staff are they're CORI'd and they're our staff. >> Yeah, I believe many of the other programs are having >> security. So, that's something we can evaluate. >> Exactly. That's the only reason I was
bringing it up. Thank you. Other than that, I would move that we accept the memorandum of understanding with the one change you made. That was my word. >> Wait, what happened to me? Oh. Jeez. Okay. Sorry, Donna. You're going to have to wait a minute. Um
I just have a couple of questions. Why do we need this MOU? Like why do we have MOUs with Steps in general as opposed to I don't know, maybe some of the other Are they the only partnering organization with a structure? And then what is the
is there any sort of like legally um I guess my question is with like it makes me think of extended days and again for some similar reasons, but just um
like do we have to bid this out so to speak? We don't have to do that, right? This falls under some exemption. I'm just trying to understand what the legal um requirements are. If this is extra or if this is required, what is >> actually it's an important document for
clarification because we actually share staff. So, this one is unique. Man many of our staff that So, our academic support, when we are covering the academic support, those
staff are being paid by PSB. They often are um PSB staff that are with us during the day and they transition with the students um for the after-school. So, this one this memorandum of understanding and as I heard um
Rachel Goodman say it it came about about a decade ago. It probably was to clarify this the the sharing. So, some of what we do um is in our budget. Much of what
happens for STS is in their budget. And that's covered through the fundraising or other ways they generate revenue for the program. So, this one I feel is not like any other partnership we have for extended day. It
is unique. I didn't even mean just extended days. Just in general, did we have any partner other partnerships like this? And you're saying no. I'm saying this one is unique. >> Um we do have other documented agreements for use of space, but this goes beyond use of space.
It goes to our partnership with STS. Mhm. Um I will say I kind of wish there were more clarifying documents in place. Um so, I appreciate that this one exists. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um
What is Is AHU considered enrichment or academic. Which? Both. So So um how do you know whether or not it's supposed to be charged for? So um we are This is um part of our
shared conversations. Yes. And so we we definitely we support the academic program. >> No, but but Steps charges for AHU, right? Oh, you don't? It's entirely free? Did it used to be charged for? Hm, okay. Then I Do you Do you like need
to come to the podium or no? >> No, I don't think I just have a couple questions. And And then under number one on programming um it says PSB advisors. And are those Steps to Success advisors? It cuz it says unit B STS director and then PSB
advisors. I'm just wondering what PSB advisors are. So PSB advisors are often our paraprofessionals, unit C, that are working with students directly during the day and then transition with our students to the after school programming. There's also other
work that the advisors do and so it's kind of a shared Do you want to It's It's Yeah. Shared expense. Okay. Just like during That was my last question. I just wanted to understand the big picture of like were we doing this legally because we
had to or was this just a good idea? You're saying it's a good idea to have this document. That's helpful to know. >> There is This is a unique This is a unique relationship um as I said, you know, other towns have um program like have um housing authorities and other
students that are are students that are identified to be um low income. And STS provides a support that really should be a model for other places. >> Totally. Um because it makes sense that our staff
in the building during the school day are able to transition support students in the after school program. So I think it made sense to have an MOU to clarify that. Thank you. And anytime we talk about a paraprofessional that's linked to one
program, it always is important to honor their work by saying, of course, if they're in the building, they don't take care of only those students. They end up being a support to everybody. Yes? Um Bella, on the last page
on page eight I just wanted to ask if it says this agreement shall automatically renew for for Oh, uh I think I misunderstood. So this agreement shall automatically renew for another one-year term after the three-year after the 2028 expiration.
Is that right? It also says >> where you're at. On page eight. Sorry. >> data sharing. Okay. This So I didn't change the data sharing agreement. It's the same as it was.
There is that So there is a overarching purpose that we're trying to prove the outcomes and so there is a lot of um We're looking at I believe we're looking at academic data, other outcomes, graduation rates, all attendance, all of that.
Is it possible or reasonable do either side want to make the MOU itself um basically a perpetually renewing agreement unless there is a need to I don't think you're allowed. Are you allowed to do more than and I don't
know, Susan, are we allowed to do I just seems like >> This isn't a contract. This is a MOU, right? Well, your data sharing agreement is perpetually renewing. Right. So that I just wanted to point out That's Yeah, I mean Okay. the data sharing agreement
[clears throat] and the the the um and and the MOU itself. So I don't know if that was intentional or not. So one one automatically renews and one doesn't. It's just the first line. Just this.
This image shall be ef- it should be effect- It's meant to be effective for these two three years. I am sorry. I didn't I missed that there was a renewing part. So only for the data. Only for the data. Okay. I mean, it doesn't make sense for it to
be different than the MOU if that's the point. Yeah. So So do you want C to be stra- struck? I think I think I I think they have to be in alignment, the two pieces of the agreement. So I'll defer
to to you or to Neon what or Susan about or Susan, right. Yeah, the language should be symbiotic, for sure. Um but contracts should be three years.
Um unless you um have special uh I I So I'm going to say typically I I don't recommend contracts that that um Yeah, that self-renew. And so um
Yeah. Did we second it already? Sorry, I have a couple of other like Okay. Donna? Typo-ish thing. >> Okay. On page three um Oh, are they numbered differently?
Well, there's two documents. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Sorry, I assumed. Um is it meant Is it meant to say if possible such space to in number one under PSB may? So number one reads if PSB may, if
possible, such space to include regular access. Right. Is that how what it's supposed to say? I mean, you can take out one of the mays or just leave it as is or put another may in. Okay.
I just didn't know if there was a word missing. >> be parallel, you can Okay. such space to include. So you can replace the second one may with a two. Okay. All right. Um I thought And then the other a number four, I
think you're just we're missing the ink. >> Yeah, the ink. I saw that. That's only one. Uh so are we doing the two documents separately or together? Together. I'll second the motion that I Jesse make a motion, Betsy. I'll second the motion. So this time
we'll start with Val. How do you vote? Yes. Donna? And are we voting to remove the one year >> to accept the two documents. As amended. As amended. Okay. Yes. Susan? >> Yes. Andy? Yes. Raya?
>> Yes. And I vote yes. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. >> Bella, that brings us to talking about um Karen. The MOU Oh, oh, the town. Yep. So um the memorandum of agreement
between the town of Brookline and the public schools of Brookline PSB. In the um final report for the ERSC, there was a recommendation to extend um sort of an agreement about
future outlook. And so I think the town administrator, Chaz Carey, working on a a first draft together. And then um as discussed in School Committee Val Raya and Carolyn were able to give
feedback on that draft. And then we um proposed um actually this version. It was shared with the town administrator and it's been shared with the Select Board. And so the Select Board hasn't um
They see I think that in concept they support the memorandum of agreement. My recommendation to you, if you're amenable, is to approve pending mutual approval by the Select
Board. Um but I um am open to what your additional comments might be. But this has been This has gone to the Select Board and we haven't heard back if they wanted any changes or not. Andy?
Um does this Is this really an agreement between the School Committee and the Select Board? Is it between the superintendent and the town administrator? And in the second case, do we even need to approve it? And does the select board even need to approve it? It may be um something that can be executed by the town administrator
myself. Um so it would be for you to determine. I And you might know better what was the intention of ERSC. Our initial memorandum of understanding following the CLA report
was executed by the town administrator myself. But we discussed it, and I think we did maybe vote to support it. I think like um I think it's helpful that the school committee endorses it so that people understand that it's shared like the
elected officials agree with the point of doing this. So I don't I think it's good that we also vote to support their their signing it. And I guess I would move favorable action or move to express support, whatever you
want the wording, Bella. Pending approval. I mean I you know, pending mutual approval by the select board. Sure. Yeah. >> Something like that. >> Something like that. >> Yeah. Yes. Okay. I guess it was >> Write that down, Betsy. It means um
Yeah. I think I was allowing some >> Members expressed. I was I was trying to allow some space if they if that they if they had something more to say. Yeah. Well, I mean I guess we give you the authority to to
uh go along with the final Sure. Right. Right. You know, but if you have questions about it, you can come back bring it back to us and ask us. Yeah, what what Susan said. >> [laughter] >> So is that to vote or is that just >> That's That's to vote, but to Okay. I'll
second that. All right. >> Okay. Donna? Yes. Susan? >> Yes. Andy? Yes. Raya? Yes. Val? Yes. Great, and I vote yes.
Is this where we want to put in to designate the chair to finalize the contract? No, that's that's we're going to put in to designate the chair >> Yeah. >> It's already in the Oh, I thought you meant this. Oh. No, so I I um so
Where is Karen? She is here. So she's So we So she's committed to um commit for a multi-year commitment, and I'm was wondering if I could ask the committee to delegate to the chair to um
finish negotiations and execute the contract. >> Yeah, I think first Bella, we have to appoint. So I think the motion is that school committee um I'll I'll make the motion that we appoint Karen Smucker to the position of deputy superintendent for the office of student services
for a three-year term um contract to be negotiated uh by the school committee chair. And I will second that. Okay, [snorts] does anybody want to say anything? All right, Jesse, what we're doing is
we're approving the appointment of Dr. Karen Smucker. You got that. So how do you vote? >> Yes. Raya? >> Thank you. Um I didn't get the chance to say it, but how wonderful. Thank you, Karen. >> [snorts] >> Andy? Yes. Oh, and I didn't say yes, so yes. >> Yes. >> Oh, yes. It wasn't even a question.
>> Susan? Enthusiastic yes. Welcome aboard officially. Donna? Yes. And Val? Yes, welcome glad back you glutton for punishment. Thank [clears throat and laughter] you. And I vote yes. So separately, do we also
have to designate the chair or is that something that That's part of the motion, so that's all set. Okay. That's the part that I didn't understand. So thank you. All right. Um we are going to um
now if it's possible, um do our farewell to our departing school committee members, um Andy, Lou, and Raya Noreika. So I would like to start out with Andy, and um just to kind of explain the process, I'm going to start by saying something, and then pass it around,
right? And then um we will talk about Raya, and Susan will start and pass it around that way, okay? Just so that you can get ready for when you want to speak. All right. So um Andy, I want to really thank you for your service to the school committee,
and I think um what I really want to talk about is your wisdom. And you sort of share with a lot of other very wise people that you spend a lot of time thinking and observing before you speak. And I have really appreciated that because when you speak up, we all learn something, and it's really of value.
And I think you're also my favorite person to disagree with because it's always um with grace that you hold your strong opinions, and so even if I don't have to happen to see them the way that you do, it's um something that I learn from and I'm enriched by. So that's what
I wanted to say. I'm passing it around this way to Raya. Oh. My turn. Andy, it's been such a pleasure. >> [laughter] >> That day that I cajoled you to
join me Every time I walk or drive by the intersection, I think of that conversation. >> [laughter] >> Um and actually, one of the things that I most enjoy is what you just said, Sarah, is I think sometimes people think that Andy
and I agree on things. And we so do not agree on things, and we have wonderful conversations, and it's such a hallmark of our relationship that we can completely disagree, and at least on my part, and I presume on your part, deeply appreciate the other
person's perspective, and really um really value the conversation and the um the dialogue that we have around it. So it's been a pleasure. You're an amazing amazing person. Um
and I'm sure we'll see each other on the other side. >> [laughter] >> Thanks. Yes, um Andy, when I think about my overlapping time in this committee with you, uh three words come to mind: steady, careful, and leader. Andy, you served as the chair of our
committee when I joined the school committee in my first year, and your leadership was manifestly evident as we navigated very troubled budget waters and central office turmoil. You carefully considered the options, you took your role very seriously, and
modeled steady and careful forward progress. I'll miss your quiet yet determined attitude, and I wish you the very best in your retirement. >> [laughter] >> Val? Okay. >> [laughter] >> I I pass. Okay.
Donna? >> [laughter] >> Oh, that's funny. Um I just I will echo what everybody else has said. I'm I haven't um sat across the table from you very long, but I really do appreciate um your thoughtfulness and your kindness
and the respect with which you disagree with your colleagues. Um and uh I hope we'll see you in the audience and at public comment often. Susan? Yes, Andy, I have worked with you for
six years, right? Part is vice chair to your chair. And um you know, I've I've enjoyed your leadership. Uh you were very clear in your mind where you wanted to go on
issues. You had a north star, you stuck with it. Even if we disagreed, you stuck with it, but could explain what your thinking was. And I'm actually excited you've become a teacher. I think you were using your teacher voice even before you were a teacher. So you
Right? You had this authority uh that you brought to your leadership, and I do appreciate it even during the turmoil that we have, but and and I'm beginning to believe every year's kind of like a turmoil. But perhaps not. Perhaps as we were now going into something
that's not, but I do appreciate so much uh working with you, and and learning from from your calmness and your determination, and your persistence with your beliefs and how you share them. So I do wish you well, and I hope to see you at Griggs
Park. Bella? Thank you. Um when when I was thinking about whether I would come to Brookline or not, I watched all those school committee
meetings, so really my my my impressions were very influenced by the then chair of the school committee, and I would say he was a very important factor
in influencing my decision to come to Brookline. And um and I So I just I wanted to say that that that it was really his leadership as I saw him demonstrate in that role through what was a very
challenging time, and um marathon sessions of public comment, and I was just so impressed by the um equanimity,
um the measure of just respect for everyone that came to the podium, and I think that made a big difference um in where the public was at the at the end of the spring. And um as with with Maria, so I'm going
to say to both of you, I've worked with so many School Committee members, more than any of you have. >> [laughter] >> And um >> more than Helen has. Oh, yeah, maybe not more than yes. Um and so you are definitely you know in
the in the top of of um what members can offer in terms of intellect, your commitment, hard work, um but also the core values that you bring to to that role. Anyway, so I'm I'm
yeah, I'm I'm I regret, but I I will come back to you too. But um but I I'm sad that both of you are leaving. Um and again, it was the outward face that that Andy offered. That was the biggest influence, so as much as you regret or
think that I'm here, he's a big part of it. Yeah, so thank you. I promised that you could start off with Maria. Oh, okay. >> [laughter] >> Did you want to say something, Andy? No? Oh, okay. Okay. Well, Maria's also been
with me for 6 years or I've been with her for 6 years. So, we were a slate 6 years ago, Andy, Maria, and I were on a slate together. And we've been pretty true to what we went what we were saying back then 6 years ago. Over 6 years, we've stayed true. And Maria certainly has. Core
values are very strong uh and consistent, always going to student-centered student work, uh and thinking outside of the box, Maria. We would look at you so that goes to your critical reading skills, right? You
read that and we think we're all reading the same thing, and then Maria comes up with questions that are really important and critical and pertinent to the situation. And so, I thank you. You Those are going to be big shoes to fill for new people coming in and for those
staying on. You have done tremendous work in finance. You saw a hole, a gap, work that needed to be done. We're in transition. You've helped Susan tremendously. Uh I think that's the past 3 years, if I remember, but before that, we had
several people and uh you've always been there for finance. You know your numbers. You know how to look at them. You know how to make them work. And you know the important questions to ask, and that's really important. And then I have to just add your care and warmth are really important to the committee.
Um you have a great laugh, you know. You know when to laugh because sometimes things are tense, and you can break it with your smile and your laugh. Not that you're not taking it seriously, but you know you know when to bring that to the table. And for all of that, I say thank
you. I uh hope to see you around the village. You will? And uh thank you for all your service. Donna. Um so excited. So, for those that don't know, Maria has been my mentor this
year. Um judge for yourselves whether she's done a good job or not. >> [laughter] >> Uh but I will say I so appreciate I've have appreciated the opportunity to get to know you. Um I don't think I knew you very well
before. Um I really appreciate your sense of humor. Um and your uh the efficiency with which you tackle everything in front of you. Amazing.
Um and I just want to say thank you. I'm going to miss I'm going to miss um texting you a few days before finance subcommittee. I might still do that. Okay. To say, "Can you explain everything to me?" Okay. Um but thank
you really. Val. Thank you. Um Maria, I I don't know where to begin with your finance work. Um it has been it it It's not just knowing the numbers, it's how to talk about the numbers to
different audiences that I think is this sort of translator function that you have that uh is going to be I think irreplaceable um for a while anyway. Um so, you know, thank you for doing that. But most of all, I'm going to miss my
3:00 a.m. text buddy because nobody else is up at 3:00 a.m. to text with me, so. Um thank you for uh not endorsing me the first time I ran, You're welcome.
>> [laughter] >> but becoming an amazing friend and I just want to say >> [laughter] >> uh and an amazing friend. And you know, that's what I want to take with me is is um an amazing friend these past 5 years, so. And I know where you live, so we're not
going to be gone. Sorry, I'm totally inarticulate and not feeling well, but Maria, you rock. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Jesse. Um I'll start by saying that in the in the year-ish prior to running for the School Committee, I watched a lot of School
Committee meetings um in advance. And whenever some financial or other programmatic activity came up to be discussed, there was one person who seemed to have all the extensive knowledge of every aspect of the fiscal picture and the program that was being discussed. And um I feel
really blessed, really blessed that I can call myself a Maria mentee this past year. Um and I've had the privilege um in working so closely with you in finance and capital and on our stack of
weekly or every weekly warrants that um we talked a lot more. We uh prepared in advance for subcommittee meetings together. Um all the capital questions I had, and Bella and I spoke about it earlier this week. We have a lot of capital questions. We're probably going to keep calling you, but we're going to try to try to
get our arms a little bit more around the capital. I know I >> going to call Helen. >> I was going to say. And I know exactly where you live because I walk by your house all week long. Um and so I did I I I was able to ask you all kinds of fiscally, you know, related questions, but yet when we talked about building
access and you just seemed to know everything about every program that had to do with after-school program, for example, or extended day. >> [snorts] >> And you had all this district knowledge in your head. Like you don't go looking for something. Although you and I did go to interview Helen last year, and we have a golden list at your house.
Remember we had tea. [laughter] And we made a list of this is sort of how the year proceeds. Okay. [laughter] Okay. All right. And and while I did this, I I want to say that I marveled at how you, Maria, simultaneously and seamlessly maintained the budget, the program, the knowledge,
and everything, and then still look at other sides of the issues that you would somehow like see in the crack somewhere, and you just pull it right out. So, um and and all those were done with respect and dignity and and professionalism with everyone. So, I have one request.
Oh, I I have to add one more thing. And through this process of >> [snorts] >> talking so much and things like that, I got to know Rita a little better, and I also got to know your husband Ardo in different ways now as well. And so, um on a frequent basis. So, that's just a That's a super blessing with a capital
B. So, my one request is, please don't change your cell phone number >> [laughter] >> because that's that's I I have it like, you know, really there. It'll be a lifeline as some other folks mentioned, too, as we as you move forward. So, thank you very much. You know, this is a volunteer job we do, and it it as Ann
and I were saying before the meeting this evening, a lot of what you get out of working for School Committee is what you put in. And so, in your case, I'm just going to sort of say that a lot of the work that you put in and all those times we met when you were sitting in a Northeastern workspace cubicle or
something was really reflective of the amount of the amount of joy, in a sense, you got out of managing a very complicated process, but as a volunteer. And so, the town the whole town really, you were on E R S C with me as well later on. So, the town's in your debt as well because and you should continue to
stay involved because you're like one of these very um thoughtful and problem-solving and data-driven people that we need as we move forward. So, thank you very much and stay active. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Andy.
Yeah, thank you. Um It's um yeah, Maria, I was going to start out about you the way you started out about me, which is that we disagree a lot. And in fact, you may actually be the School Committee member I've disagreed with the most over the years, but uh that has not stopped me from always thinking of you as my buddy on
the School Committee. Um And there's so much to admire about you. Um uh there's well, I I I don't even know where to start, but um I mean, you're [snorts] always full of interesting ideas. You're heroically hard working. And most of all, I think
you're courageous in speaking on behalf of people who may not have a seat at this table. You've always been that way. So, uh thank you for for roping me into this, and thank you for being for being sort of a moral compass throughout our time on the School Committee together.
I think what you've heard around the table is that we're not really ready to say goodbye. And um I do want to point out that Maria does kind of answer any question all the time by memory. You know, she always has that. But in the very instances that she can't answer something, she does have an incredible
um collection of emails that she goes back to. And that is something that's going to be hard to live without because there is a little bit of a record in those emails that helps us out. >> that. Yes, I know. That's going to be tough. >> [laughter] >> It's been said before, but it's your
deep knowledge, your intellect, your professionalism and hard work and warmth that like together form an approach. And I think what's so special for all of us is to be able to honor that approach like and keep you with us in trying to think of how we're going to do this
without you. So, thank you very much. Bella wanted to speak. So, in in all my years working with different school committee members, there has never been a Mariah. >> [laughter] >> There has never been a Mariah.
For better or for worse? No, this is like there has never been a Mariah in terms of um your your ability to recall and file away and pull it up in all aspects, not just finance, but it
really in all operations. And for for me coming in in a very critical time I don't know how we I don't know how we would have gotten through to where we are now on the cusp of something.
>> Yeah. Um without your everything that you offered. All right, your intellect, everything, your political acumen. And um you you gave me buffer
when I needed to be able to come up to speed and to be able to think deeply and think about, you know, be able to problem solve. You you gave that buffer. And you know what that means that by that and
you you have a capacity to look at things sort of um multidimensionally and um be able to come at it from different ways. You've been an amazing partner um to be able to get to where we are
today. Um um the district is indebted. You know, to to what that depth of institutional knowledge and just um that whole being able to think creatively to
solve problems. Um Yeah, so I so on behalf of the district, right? I'm I'm grateful for that financial acumen that you everything. And here's the other thing that's very special about Mariah.
She she powers through and and and uh in a heartbeat, she will stop and give you the empathy that you need. You somehow just recognize when you're at that emotional moment. And and you you just are able to do that
and then just [snorts] not I've never met anyone like you. Okay? [laughter] So, thank you. Thank you, Bella. Do you want to Do you I'm talking to you, Helen. Did you want to approach? Yeah. I say yep.
I just want to say thank you so much. I mean it's just been such a joy. You you really struck the the nail on the head, Jesse, when you said like it's work, but it's work done for joy and you know
love of the community and collaboration with a wonderful set of people, the people who are here at the table now and the people who have been at the table along the way um who are all at some level also motivated by that sort of same sense of community service um
and love for students and love for learning. So it's just been wonderful and I'm ready for a break, but >> [laughter] >> but it's been um it's just been such a pleasure. Thank you all. I really appreciate it.
>> [applause] >> Yeah, I also just wanted to say what a what a privilege and a joy it's been over the years to be working with so many incredibly dedicated and selfless um professional staff in PSB, uh fellow
school committee members past and present, members of the community who did incredible work during the pandemic and beyond. Panel four mug. And all right, Mariah has her panel four mug here with her and I still have mine at home, too. Um yeah, I mean it it it's felt like a turbulent period. I think during our 6
years we've overlapped with four superintendents and at least three occupants, uh three deputy superintendents in each of the other corner offices. And COVID. And there was COVID. >> COVID, yeah. There was that. >> [laughter] >> So, yeah, but I I I do feel very good
about the the leadership team that we have now and I hope that future school committee school committees will have the wisdom to to work well with our outstanding current superintendent and and her team. >> [applause] >> I I also cannot leave without saying
thank you to Betsy Fitzpatrick and Robin Coin who who have been uh just amazing support to the school committee as a whole and certainly to me when I was chair. It's Yeah, I I don't think I'll ever experience this again in my
lifetime. Um so yeah, thank you. And our former school committee member Helen Charlupski is going to say something. So, I just I when I saw the docket that you guys were going to be honored tonight, I wanted to
make sure I was here to do that because the two of you have been incredible school committee members. The brilliance that you guys see here you can't imagine. The The amount of IQ YOU'RE LOSING >> [laughter] >> ABSOLUTELY
A HUGE loss and the amount of EQ that both of them have is just as important. And I think I understand what you're doing, you know, and but I'm sorry for the school committee because I think it will
be a huge loss. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next. Okay, moving on. Moving on. So, at this point um we have sub committee and liaison reports and um curriculum.
>> [laughter] >> Helen, your 3 minutes are up. >> [laughter] >> Um curriculum did not have a quorum this month. People were traveling, so we will meet someone will meet >> [laughter] >> the sub committee will meet in May.
Finance and capital. So, I didn't I'm just mentioning something which is no one has stepped up to partner with Jesse on signing the warrant going forward. Oh, okay. Sarah has stepped up to partner with Jesse on sign. Thank you. Perfect. That's what I needed to bring
up and we got the Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Sarah. We'll be in touch. My pleasure. This one's already been done. This one's done. Oh, thank you. I could have >> [laughter] >> I could have volunteered a second earlier. Oops. Thank you. Um government relations was already covered. You feel like okay.
Um negotiations. We did have a negotiations meeting this week. And um we actually have one topic we want to talk about in executive session. So. So, we'll get to that. Um Do you feel like Do you feel that policy
was covered or Okay. And um any additional liaison reports, expenditures and revenues? Um so, we have not been meeting. Yeah. Oh, so we're not meeting. Okay. No. >> [cough and laughter] >> There was a meeting next week. Actually,
I did check in with you about that and didn't get an answer, so maybe I'll I'll come back to you. >> All right. And um so, I would like to open up for new business. I just I just have an announcement. I think the Cavelty Award uh ceremony is coming up on May 5th.
>> Right. And it's for those who have not been and for those who have, it's a wonderful it's a wonderful event. So, if you have a moment uh it's on Tuesday, which is also voting day. I'll just throw that out there. And um
so, if you can attend, it's it's really worthwhile. It's really it's really a great experience. I forget what time. Who Does everyone know? We got an email about it. 3:00 to 5:00. Is it 3:00 to 5:00 at the high school? 3:30.
Thank you. Okay, at the high school, Helen? Okay. Oh, it's in the STEM building. That's right. It's a different place. Thank Jesse. I sent uh Betsy pair of slides for new business. Can I go before Jesse?
Please. Thank you. Sorry, mine's the quick. For new business, I was hoping that we could um raise for discussion something that I've been thinking about for quite some time, the frequency of schedule variations at BHS um
from an equity perspective um and an efficacy perspective. I really want to understand the impact particularly for students who struggle with executive function, attendance issues, um, maybe reduced engagement, or have
less support at home. Um, I think we have a I'm not sure, but I would love to see the data on how many schedule variations we have, how often they're going in at the HFS, um, how the decision-making is made, or
monitoring any data related to student groups, um, what the impact is, and and also like what best practices are [snorts] in terms of changing schedules. Thank you. All right. I think she I think, um, Betsy's
bringing up the slide. Right. So, um, in uh to continue where we left off two or three weeks ago, um, I'll start from the bottom. So, um, back in back about two months ago, I brought up the issue about, um, BHS's cell phone
policy. Again, to follow up with what, um, Steven and I did last year in getting a K-8 policy implemented, um, and obviously the enforcement part of it was not that strong, but the was mentioned that it should be enforced. And to the extent that it is or is not working, that's something we'd have to
go back to the um, to the building leaders, uh, in the K-8 schools, and sort of understand how is it working? Is it not working? Are they wearing smartphones? Are they, you know, are they putting their phones away or what? Um, but certainly it was a welcome change. So, this one has to do
with the high school. Bella and I did meet earlier, and, um, if I can just share what you told me then, Bella, is that it's still with Anthony and team to look at issues really around how to enforce it. And so, and at the same time we we're all aware of the fact that the state legislature is rolling towards
banning them bell to bell across all high schools in the state, which will then effectively close this issue. So, in the meanwhile, it's a known um it's a known, um, question, but there is no uh further update at this time as they consider the enforcement side.
Um, the second one has to do with requesting, um, several [snorts] of us on the school committee have wanted to see an attendance report. Um, I believe there is a system by which all building leaders collect, um, attendance every day and send it to sort of like a chief
attendance officer, and, um, that those data should be available in Aspen or one of the other systems that a panel >> somewhere where we collect, uh, digitally the data. I know that it's available digitally because we asked Hal Mason
last year after doors to provide the data, and within about a week he was able to provide the data of what the BHS attendance was by day, and we could look at trends and changes and spikes and drops. So, it's available, and, um, rather than having to sort of go to a
administrator each time and say we'd like it, I think it would be maybe we can discuss moving ahead in the next school committee term, a, um, an approach where either through the data director or through the chief attendance officer she is a woman, I don't remember her name. Maybe her first name is Elizabeth, I'm not 100% sure. She did
give us a presentation once from her living room about attendance. I just don't remember her name. Do you recall, Mindy? There's a woman who does who who look who gets the attendance numbers and types them in, and they're in the system. It happened. But in any case, we're going to we're we're we're going to follow up on that and see if we can somehow get it gain access to where
>> Can I let Bella jump in? Yes. Or actually let him finish, and then I will state my opinion about this process. Oh, sure. Okay. Okay. Okay. >> Um, the, um, the OEF director I you know, we'd asked about because several school committee members were concerned that we
were getting closer and closer to the time in which it'd be difficult to do handoffs from a new person to Susan because we're already, um, you know, grazing May May 1st already. Um, the expense tracker app didn't really get to finance and capital because of my inability to be at the meeting, and so
that'll push into the next term. Um, we had a when Jen Martin presented to us back in back in early March, she said that the data would be available to the school committee in mid-March. And so, I
added this on because, um, while it's possible that individuals, um, from curriculum or some other part have received the information, the school committee as a whole didn't get, um, you know, didn't get looped back in as to whether that data are available and how we'd be able to access it. And
the final one was that I think Donna and I had discussed, um, finding out a little more detail about genocide education curriculum. This was a specific request that I made over a year ago when I was on curriculum, and nothing ever happened. And this year I don't know what's happened cuz I'm not
on curriculum, but I haven't heard it in reading the curriculum agendas, I haven't seen it on any agenda, and so a docket, and so, um, there is general interest within at least a segment of the Jewish community within the district to understand what the curriculum is,
and so, um, it's on the list. And there are a couple on the other side that are done, so we don't even have to go through them. Thank you. Yeah. So, this Oh, yeah, that those are finished. Those are complete, so we're So, um, with respect to to you, Jessie, I find this
disrespectful to have a tracker from committee meeting to committee meeting. Okay. >> New business is really for a school committee to put forth idea that concepts that they want to see further discussed at an agenda in school committee. It's disrespectful to not
acknowledge everything we've been working on for the last couple months. I appreciate that things are brought forth, and then it should be offered to my discretion to figure out how to prioritize. Mhm. But this is So, I
I resent being tracked from meeting to meeting, and I really hope that this is not a practice that will continue. Um, and it I I will I it you can tell I am upset about it. Um, there I feel that
things that are brought to my attention, I incorporate, and I try to work through them as I can. Um, but these are these are things that are not respectful of all that we are trying to work or of
or of my time in managing the district. I really hope this does not continue as a practice. May I respond? Go ahead. I appreciate your comment, and I appreciate your honesty in explaining
it. Um, my frustration as a volunteer school committee member is that questions are asked both in subcommittee and in new business in the past. Maybe it'll be different now. And we wait and wait and wait, and weeks and months go by, and things don't happen. So, the intent was to try to maintain some light
on some of the things that just seem to get pushed out months, and, you know, we're we're only here for a term generally, or maybe another term, but some of the questions that come up, um, because everyone's so busy, get, um, shelved or put in the back burner, and
it's not to criticize anyone. We're No one is ever, God forbid, saying that people aren't working hard, people aren't prioritizing the work. We've all been working heads down on the ERSC and the budget for months and staffing, and lots of big decisions have to be made.
But at the same time, we're running a school system, and there are occasionally questions that need to be asked, and when the delays get to be a half year or a year, you can understand from a school committee member's perspective so a sense of frustration in never getting an answer. So, if we can
come up with I I assume, and I'm going to commit to come up with a a different way of presenting these kinds of questions, not this way, so that we can get get both. We can raise them, and then find a way
to, um, to get a response. Through you. I mean, you know, we're not going to go to we're not going to go down >> going to be able to report on a dime, and again, you have to respect that I am managing the priorities of the district. Some of these things depend on staff
time to work on these, and I have to be mindful >> Of course. of the priorities of the prioritization of their time. >> I totally respect your position. Thank you. Oh, sorry. I disregard forgot this is not a discussion.
Okay. I'm glad I went before Jessie. That's all I wanted to There you go. And with that, we will adjourn this meeting. We are Sorry, I have to read the thing about executive session. All right. Um, so, we have a proposed exec executive
session, the motion to meet in executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 30A, section 21A for the following purposes. Purpose three, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Brookline Educators Union unit A, unit B, and
professional, um, paraprofessional unit. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee, and the chair so declares, and purpose seven, to review and approve minutes from the March 19th, 2026 executive session. I'll second.
Thank you. Um, how do you vote, Val? Um, Donna? Yes. Suzanne? >> Yes. Andy? Yes. Um, Mariah? >> Yes. Jessie? >> Yes. And I vote yes. And with that, we will And we're not returning to open session. And with that, we will adjourn. Thank
you. >> Mhm.