WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=IeRIIv055Yo

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: IeRIIv055Yo):
- 00:00:00: Meeting Call to Order, Roll Call, Public Comment Guidelines
- 00:01:09: Public Comment: Doug Selwin - Volunteers, MCCAST, School Funding
- 00:05:35: Closing Public Comment, Recognition of Lisa Morrison
- 00:09:13: Principal Fenmore and Morrison's Speech on Grinspoon Award
- 00:10:58: Student Representative Report: Council, Clubs, Athletics, Library
- 00:13:58: Principal & Director Reports Intro: Newton, AAL, Federal
- 00:15:12: Principal Halpin Report: Federal Street Accountability Data
- 00:18:20: Federal Street's Social-Emotional Learning and Community Collaborations
- 00:23:49: Principal Jacobs Report: Newton School Culture and Goals
- 00:29:54: Newton School's Math/Reading Performance & Student Development
- 00:36:06: Newton Success Stories, Teacher Feedback, Principal Search Update
- 00:45:23: Director Taglia Report: AAL Preschool's Vision & Goals
- 00:51:43: Building AAL's Culture of Care: Kindness, Empathy, Joy
- 01:01:21: Questions on Unfunded Mandates, Responsive Classroom, Gratitude
- 01:05:19: School Committee Member Comments and Questions
- 01:17:58: Administration Reports, Enrollment, Shout-Outs, Activities
- 01:24:16: Consent Agenda and Approval of School Choice Participation
- 01:28:58: School Committee Reports: Calling the Question Research
- 01:30:18: Budget and Finance Report: Landscaping and Social Media Costs
- 01:36:18: Policy and Program Report: Policy Review Goals and Timelines
- 01:40:43: Motion: Procedure for Drafting/Acting/Archiving Resolutions
- 01:44:26: Motion: Support Bill H1399 - Medicare Retiree Healthcare
- 01:51:10: Motion: Support Bill H560/S391 Climate Literacy Initiative
- 01:57:19: Motion: Dissolve Redistricting and Reorganizing Ad Hoc Subcommittee
- 02:06:55: Motion: Create Long-Term Facilities Use Advisory Committee
- 02:18:36: Discussion: Mediation/Conflict Resolution, Teamwork, Civility
- 02:29:59: Item D Postponed, Item E Review Budget Review
- 02:30:52: Meeting Adjournment and Executive Session


Part: 1

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Hello. Good evening. I hope everyone's doing well. Hold on. I am getting a bit of an echo. All fixed. Okay, great. Um, thank you all for joining. It is Wednesday, April 8th at

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6:30 p.m. and I'm ready to call this meeting to order. Uh, I will read the chair's statement that this meeting is being recorded by Greenfield Community Television, GCTV, and if any other persons present are doing the same, you must notify me at this time. Is anyone else recording?

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>> Great. No. All right. Secretary Webb, will you please do a roll call of members? >> Secretary Webb, I am here. Vice Chair Childs, >> here. Member Deniv >> here. >> Mayor Disorger.

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>> The mayor is unfortunately ill and will not be joining us for this meeting. >> Member Dyman >> here. >> Member Goodwin >> here. >> Chair Ston >> here. >> All right. We are uh six of us out of seven are here. We have a quorum and at

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this time I would like to welcome any public comment. Uh so if you are a member of the public and you would like to make a comment and you have registered with our recording secretary Nan, please do so. And the sort of stipulations around

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public comment are that each person gets three minutes. Um they can speak to an item. Uh it doesn't have to be on our agenda, but it does have to be related to the what the schools actually can do. Um, and we would appreciate if all or

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any members of the public giving public comment did so um, respectfully. >> All right. >> Not a chance. >> Uh, if you could give for us your name and your relationship to the schools. >> Uh, Doug Selwin. Um, I'm a community

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member. >> Great. >> Um, I have a few things to say quickly, I hope. um first of all has to do with volunteering in the schools. Um a couple of us went in to renew our quaries and

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or whatever it whatever you call it that you get the official yes you can come into schools and it was near impossible to do and we came away with the impression that you really don't want volunteers and I suspect that's not accurate. I mean, I suspect you do want

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volunteers to come in, but it was a really difficult process. So, I would just ask you to check that out and and um see if there ways to I don't know what's within your purview, what the state says, etc. So, just check that out. Secondly, I want to talk about um what

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is happening at the state level where the governor is pushing very um hard and fast to basically bring back the MCCAST 3.0. They're calling it something else. Um they're talking about it as endofcourse tests, but these are tests

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that are standardized that are prepared by the state, scored by the state, and everybody does the same thing. It's basically MCCAST 3.0. And they're going as fast as they can. And um I would urge you collectively and individually to

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contact our legislators uh this the the panel of education the the education committee at the legislature to say slow down. There's so many different moving parts to this and the fact that they're trying to move so quickly means that

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it's not going to be well thought out. the state. Um, we voted pretty decisively that we don't want those high stakes standardized tests to be part of graduation. She's trying to bring them back. So, I would urge you to be active

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in that. Um, the third piece is well and connected to that is making sure that you're arguing against any unfunded mandates. Lord knows uh we don't need more of those. Um the third piece is

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that there is um talking about funding the um the insanity of trying to figure out how to fund the schools that we are dealing with here. There are at least 270 other districts having the same conversations right now. There is not

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enough funding that is going to schools. There are 270 districts or more that are in hold harmless which means that they are essentially drowning. Um so pushing the state to reopen, look at the funding formula, um pushing

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the state to um look at the 82.5% cap that um I can go into more detail about um when I've got time. That is making sure that that poor districts are getting screwed and the wealthier districts are getting off um is part of

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why we are in such dire straits. And I think as we knock ourselves out trying to solve things here, we have to recognize that a lot of this is coming from outside of us and we've got to be active politically and in conjunction with other districts to make change.

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Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public that would wish to make public comment at this time? >> All right. Um, I have asked the same question online. I just saw a new person

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join. So, if anyone online would like to make public comment, you are welcome to either put your name in the chat virtually, raise your hand, or come off mute and say your name at this time. All right, hearing and seeing none, uh,

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let's go on ahead, close public comment, um, and go into our fourth item, recognition. One of our educators Good evening, school committee and everybody out there in TV land. Uh have a great presentation to make tonight. Um

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want to The headline is Greenfield Middle School teacher Lisa Morrison receives the 2026 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award, otherwise known as the Ginspoon Award. FEW nice things about Lisa and why she's so

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deserving of this. So Lisa has been selected by the Greenfield public schools as their sole 2026 Piner Valley Excellence in Teaching Award as many of you know it as the Grinspoon Awards as well. Lisa consistently goes above and beyond to create positive memorial

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memorable experiences for students. She leads an in leads an inter mural afterchool club even volunteering her time when it is not a paid position and organizes the highly anticipated annual student teacher dodgeball tournament. Each Friday she recognizes a student as

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the MVP celebrating not just their athletic ability but character, sportsmanship, kindness, and community mindess. By highlighting a wide range of strengths in uplifting diverse talents, Lisa fosters an inclusive environment where students feel valued and inspired

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to bring their best selves forward. According to Greenfield Middle School principal Michelle Fenmore, who is right here, I'll read a quote. Mrs. Morrison has a remarkable gift for seeing the unique strengths in every student in designing experiences that allow each

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one to shine. Whether it's building confidence in hesitant in a hesitant learner, challenging a natural athlete to lead, or finding creative ways for students to demonstrate teamwork and perseverance. She ensures that all students feel successful and valued in

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her class. Her commitment to inclusion, encouragement, and growth make physical education a place where every student can thrive. Professionally, Lisa embraces schoolwide instructional initiatives, thoughtfully adapts to the unique context of physical education.

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She designs engaging, dynamic classes that encourage full participation. Students are enthusiastic, active, and eager to be involved with a wide variety of activities that extend beyond traditional competitive team sports. She ensures that every student can find

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success in enjoyment and movement. A collaborative and positive member of the school community, Lisa exemplifies the social emotional qualities that work that she works to instill in her students each day. And we are honored to present this award to Lisa Morrison who

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will be honored in a celebratory banquet at the Log Cabin in Holio on May 6th, 2026. So, we have a nice uh small little certificate to present to her. And I know her principal, Miss Fenmore, wanted to say just a few things.

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Good evening. Um, all of that is is what Lisa exemplifies on a daily basis and she is such a gift to the students and the staff at GMS. Um, she takes such pride in what she does and her PE

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classroom is one of the most academic classrooms I've ever been in. She has very high standards for our kiddos and we are just so proud of her. >> All right. Congratulations, baby. Nice job. >> Thank you so much. Did you want to say

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any words? >> Sure. >> You got to get a green hold on. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I'd just like to say this whole experience has been really lovely. Um, obviously I don't work alone. Um, but feeling appreciated

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means a lot. Um, I have to be honest though, this really just feels like a massive win for the GMS team and I'm just this year's captain. There's so much good stuff going on at GMS and I am just one small piece. Um, every colleague that I work with just, you

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know, they work just as hard if not harder than I do on a regular basis. Um, we're really just it feels like I work in a very special place. It's like a family. Um, and I think that really starts at the top. When you have leaders like Michelle and Allan who make their staff feel supported and valued on a

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daily basis, it makes us all come to work every day wanting to show up for the kids and for each other. So, I just feel very grateful to work where I work. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. I look forward to joining you at that banquet in May.

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Excellent. So, now we are inviting up our student representative to give the student report. Thank you, Lauren. Okay, starting off strong with student council. Student council will be hosting a fancy formal wear giveaway on Friday,

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April 10th, right after school for GHS students only. And then again on Saturday, April 11th from 11 to 1 for all high school students looking for something formal to wear to prom or to another fancy event. We collect items year round. So if you have something

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you'd like to donate, please drop it off in the main office during school hours or at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas evenings and weekends. On April 29th, student council will be hosting the WASC spring conference, gathering students from all across Western Mass to discuss

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and improve students leadership qualities. The conference will run all day. Kaden Vansk will be campaigning and running for the regional board secretary position. Keycl Club. During the month of April, Key Club will focus on community service and picking up litter. There are some

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planned events to clean up downtown and the bike path on April 11th and Key Club students will be cleaning up around the ghs campus and parts of Shadic Park. The club plans to schedule another trip to AAL as part of the United Ways Read Learn Succeed program.

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Athletics spring sports started on March 27th with a 16 to1 win for softball against South Hadley. Boys and girls tennis started on April 1st and 2nd and they had their first meet on April 7th. Please come out and support our student

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athletes. Go Green Wave. French Club. Several GHS students, staff, and family members depart soon for a 10-day adventure in France during April break. Key spots visited will be Paris, Strasburg, Djon, Leon, and I'm

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going to try um Annexy. Mark your calendars for the Thursday, Mar May 7th, spring coffee house talent show from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the ghs auditorium. Admission is $5 for students and $10 for adults, which does include light refreshments.

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Library club. On Tuesday, April 7th, library club hosted the annual poetry slam and writing showcase in the ghs library. AV Club. Join us for the 2026 GHS and GM GMS Film Fest on Friday, April 17th from 5:30 to 8:30 in the GHS

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auditorium. There will be good food and good films. Submissions accepted through April 10th. Hope to see you there. And finally, we have Students of Color Club, and they are hosting a dodgeball tournament on Friday, April 10th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Pre-register by

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scanning the QR code found on the posted flyers, or you can contact Nate Wood as well. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Any comments, questions, clarifications? >> Great. Thank you. I look forward to attending some of the events that you

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outlined. Great. Moving on. Our next item is getting some reports from some of our principles and the director of AEO. So, we invite the three of you to to come on up together. Have a have a seat. Um, we've got

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>> if I I'll intro. >> Sure. Yeah, you can intro them and >> Perfect. >> take them as they come in the agenda. >> Thank you, Chair Sexton. Um we're we're happy to continue tonight what we did last month with three of our schools and we have three of our ele um elementary

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schools here as well tonight. Carol Jacobs from Newton, Jill Taglia from AAL, and Kelly Halpin from Federal Street School are here to tell you some of the great things that are happening at their school with their students and their academics and their attendance. Um and then be available obviously for any

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questions that you might have. So take it away. The way that they're listed the way that they're listed in the agenda is actually that Kelly starts first and then we have Carol and then Jill. >> So

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>> great. So uh first I'd like to just say thank you so much for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to share the wonderful things that happen in our schools. um bragging about Federal Street is one of my favorite things to do. So um this is a real pleasure.

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So it the we can jump right in to the next slide. Uh Federal Street uh enjoyed starting uh the 20 25 26 year off on a high note when we received our accountability data from DESIE. Um as

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you know DESIE sets improvement targets for each school and then tracks their progress toward those targets. This year we um were able to meet or exceed 83% of those targets. Uh the chart shows the last three years of

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progress. So in 2023 we met or exceeded 15% of the targets. 2024 62% and then in 2025 83% of the targets. So we've enjoyed a nice steady increase.

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Um the next the next slide shows some specifics about what we've been meeting or exceeding. Um so it for our elementary schools K to4 there are just three areas that Jesse um evaluates our accountability. One is academic progress

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which is solely based on third and fourth grade MCCAST growth target which for us is just one cohort of students that goes from third grade to fourth grade as well as our chronic absenteeism. So for us in 2025 we

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exceeded every math target. For our growth targets we exceeded the typical growth for our uh peers across the state. And for chronic absenteeism, we exceeded every target set for us. Our um did reveal some opportunity for

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growth and that specifically is our English language arts and literacy. And so um we've had tremendous support from the district and really trying to uh plan how we're going to provide that support. We have partnered um

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districtwide with teaching lab to focus on our literacy skills. We have implemented an early reading skills diagnostic assessments the core and pass that has allowed us to um take a more granular approach. It has been able uh

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to show us phologically and phonetically where students may have some unfinished learning. And after revealing that we're able to address those specific needs with the use of UFly um that we started implementing this year and that supports that small

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targeted um small group instruction and we have also focused our professional development on small group literacy instruction and intervention. Um so that's been done um with a whole lot of support from the district.

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Uh so beyond our ELA and math that we're assessed on, we certainly focus on other areas and at Federal Street, we do a lot of um intentional support of social and emotional learning. Uh teachers deliver weekly lessons and second step. We have

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a social competency of the month that every classroom focuses on. We have classroom buddies. So each classroom is connected with another classroom whenever possible. it's a younger classroom with an older classroom and they get together monthly and have lessons on whatever the social

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competency of the month is. So this month they'll be focusing on self-management and we are also um implementing a restorative practices learning pilot. And so the next slide has some details

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about our restorative practices pilot. So, we've taken several steps um toward implementing restorative practices at our school. We have a restorative practices team within the building. We have partnered with uh the collaborative for educational services, specifically

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um their joy and justice in schools. They have supported our professional development for our teachers. We have hired a restorative practices coordinator as well as a res a restorative practices staff person um through Americanore.

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Our teachers participate in weekly professional development that happens during their collaboration time and we have started a professional development series for our instructional assistants. That's a six-part series at this time and they just participated in their

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first um their first training on Monday. So, we're excited to add them into um the work that we're doing as they're such a valuable part of our community. Um we also have a lot of community

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collaborations with Federal Street. Um we collaborate with Playworks um as all of the elementary schools do that. Um they've done some wonderful work providing some structure support and training for our recess staff and making

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recess a productive and playful time. Uh we collaborate with dig in who brings monthly brings in samples of farm fresh uh fruits allows the children to sample them and they rate the the items and

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then if the it has a positive uh reaction then it might be found on their lunch menu in the next month. We have uh a girls on the run team that is coached by some wonderful teachers and parents. Uh and they will be uh having a 5K uh

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celebration uh in the first week in June, I believe. Uh as I mentioned, we work with the collaborative for educational services in support of our restorative practices work. We also have a wonderful collaboration with Big Brothers and Big

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Sisters. We have a lunch buddy group uh where bigs in the community and that are connected to big brothers and big sisters come in and they have lunch with their littles uh once once a week. It has really um been a a wonderful um

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connection. um some of the stories of the relationships that have developed that h extend far beyond Federal Street has really um really been touching um in so many ways and uh it was so successful that this year we were able to expand a

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bit um and we added what we call our buddies with badges. So, um, a thank you to the Greenfield Police Department who has, um, allowed some of their police officers to be a part of the program. Um, it's been wonderful. Uh, so we're

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very lucky to have, um, that collaboration as well. And, uh, lastly, I just wanted to highlight some of the fun that we have at Federal Street. We do a lot of intentional um community building and

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just really making it a happy um warm place to be. Uh we have events like our turkey trot in the fall. We have a polar express day in the winter. Uh we have monthly classroom buddies and all school meetings. We participate in a wreath

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walk which is a wonderful uh community service project that the students do. Uh we are not just schoolwide but districtwide uh all reading the same book right now with our one school one book project. They are loving it. Uh we have literacy

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and math nights. Um we are also fortunate enough to have a really amazing active PTO that um they also really prioritize uh belonging and community and they make it a priority to u create some special events for us like

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the fall family fun night. They do Valentine making. They supported the cardboard challenge. Um, and they usually end the year with a really fantastic end of the year barbecue. So, I think things are great at Federal Street.

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>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, similar to how we did it last time, we'll have all the folks give presentations and then we'll do Q&A. >> Um, >> yes. Um, I'm not sure that I have your PowerPoint. Okay, great. I'm going to stop sharing

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Miss Green then. >> Okay. >> Yes, Kelly was more ordinary. >> Oh, there you go. Thank you, Melissa. All right, so um thank you for having us. As Kelly said, you know, for me, this has been a treat, a a true treat.

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Um, so when I started at Newton last December 6th, uh, it was, you know, started out to be one of the best experiences of my career and I've been at it 47 years. Um, so the first order of business when I came on board, we had

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to really work on the culture and fostering a sense of team and community. Um, the school had experienced a number of leadership changes. um uh Mel Goodman was the last I would say long-term uh

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principal um and she you know she had a lot of things solidified but then you know new people come in things change so I would describe when I first started there as you know people were in survival mode and they just really needed um somebody to come in and just

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stabilize things and to build on the good things that were happening and then identify some lowhanging fruit that if we did it we would be very successful in terms of our goals. Um, in my first meeting, I said to them, I'm going to bring we're going to bring the joy back to Newton. Joy is a very big deal to me.

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I don't want to go to work every day in a place that is miserable or uh I want to feel joy and to me watching children and teachers learn and grow and work together is the ultimate joy. Um, so it is my hope and dream that that will

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continue with the next uh principal who's coming on board. working conditions are extremely important to me. Um so um I didn't put it up but I'm going to show you. I started with our why. So everything we do in all of our

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schools starts with our students. Our students are what we are what we are all about. So always keep every decision is like well what's going to be best for the kids. So our why um there were some major areas of focus that we did. Um my task when I came on board was to work

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with all the stakeholders build and strengthen a sense of hope and joy working together in the following areas. So we had to look at the culture um and there was a and there we also had to work at systems and structures because there were a lot of uh there was

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a lack of them I would say from dismissal arrival and dismissal to the SST process. Um and so we we started with structures and systems and then it wasn't it was there when I came it was the Newton way is our sort of uh tagline

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for what we do. Um we everything we talk about is about the Newton way. Our discipline is around the Newton way. Our our culture building activities around the Newton way. Um the students uh we recognize students following the Newton way. Um and um my job is to work with

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students to see if they're not following the Newton way, what they need to do to follow the Newton way. And I've been really proud of the kids. Um we also um PBIS and MTSS, as Kelly said, PBIS is positive behavior intervention and supports. All the systems we're doing in

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the district are tiered. So they start out with tier one, everybody gets it. Tier two is a little more supportive for the students who need more. And then tier three is sometimes a completely different uh animal, but it's all related to what the student can do and

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is having trouble doing or is being successful at. So PBIS and MTSS were something that we started to really put together this year. It is not it is a work in progress. Um but we've got some good things in place. Um small group instruction, as Kelly said, uh that's

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been a big focus for the district. And I have to say for the Newton students, um, you know, when we first looked at some of the results, it was what I'd call a C or red, which meant that they were well below grade level. When I looked at the results just the other day, I was

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pleasantly surprised how many students are now in the green and the blue, which is the top two levels. That's because we've we've been doing a better job of targeting what students really need and then instructing them based on that and then tracking their progress. So it's

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it's been a gamecher uh the work we're doing with UFly I think this year. Um and then collection of data. We do collect more data than any place I've ever been. But I have to say the data we're collecting is important and that the teachers are able to use it. Um and

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that is what I'm talking about when I'm saying we know little Johnny or Sally where they are, what they need to do. We have a way to get them what they need and then we track that and move forward. Um, you know, there's an old expression, if you don't know where you're going, any road will do. So, if you don't have

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any sense of the data, you we're just teaching, we're teaching, we're teaching the curriculum, but we're never really sure whether or not it's being effective. So, that's something that we've really worked on. And then just in general, positive youth development, helping students understand that, you know, we all make mistakes. Nobody's

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perfect, but that we have a responsibility to take care of the things that we have to take care of. And, um, funny story, I had a little boy He came into my office. This is the last year. He came and sat in my red chair and I was doing my work and this is a little boy at the beginning of the year

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who really could not regulate himself and could not admit he did anything wrong. He's sitting in the chair and I said to him, "Hey, what's what's going on?" He said, "I made a bad choice." I said, "You did? What did you what was the wrong problem?" He told me exactly what he did and I said, "Well, you know how it works. We got to fix it, right?"

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He told me what he thought he should do to fix it. He fixed it. So that's the kind of progress when I'm talking about positive youth development is you know like getting kids to think that they can control a lot of things. We have three goals just as the other schools do for school improvement. One is the first one

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is performance on reading and math. Um and again we're using the same kind of things Kelly talked about and David talked about the last time. You know our dibbles are core pass the designated intervention blocks which are sacred is the word that we use. our teachers

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ensure that they have them every day. So, it's not it's not uh an afterthought. It's a really carefully planned time. Um it targets our foundational skills and we've been conducting learning walks which I know you've probably heard

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about. Um those are really I find them to be very useful and very helpful. Um and I do share the feedback with the teachers and any suggestions that get made and they're really welcoming to that. I mean, they really have a lot of opportunities to evaluate where they are

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and what they'd like to do as teachers. So, in terms of just supporting that goal, the math goal and the and reading goal, um Beth Brady is our math interventionist, does a phenomenal job. So, I asked her, I said, "Well, what what would you what could we point to as

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some of our progress?" So, she uses something called the US uh NS math screener. Um, and she's also trained in math recovery and does a lot of those strategies, modeling them with teachers. Um, and it's really beneficial to our

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students. So, she basically pushes into classrooms, uh, 30 minutes a week in many grades. Um, and she, um, she also targets instruction based on the core skills. It's it's fascinating. She's a

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chart maker and all color codes and it is really amazing what results she's seeing with students. So the math interventionist huge support um also in terms of the school's uh literacy in every single

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class every single grade we have seen well over 50% of the students growing one or more levels. So, we still have some students in the red, but even though they're in the red, they've made progress. We're not asking for

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perfection. We're just act asking for progress, right? Um, goal two is building a school culture that supports all learners, all being capital letters. Um, so we're working, we we're trying to

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get a PBIS committee together. I hired a couple of new teachers who have a lot of experience with it and so they're really helping sort of bring the school a little further along. We work on instilling the Newton way in every aspect of the school. Um classroom

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incentives, kids love them, you know, like there's a pajama days that one day the fourth grade wanted to build forts, so they built they brought their blankets and then they built forts in their under their desks and did their work. and you know they they teachers let them know if you do these things

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you're going to earn it and they get to choose. So there's a lot of ownership and excitement about it. Um I'm focusing on a multi-tered system of discipline. Um it's it's I don't have the restorative practice training that Kelly has, but I understand we're going to get

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it next year. I'm not going to get it, but we're going to get it next year. But I am very big on logical consequences and restorative practices. So, and students owning their their problems and that's come so far this year. Um, Playworks, Kelly mentioned it. I don't need to say more. Um, but we're really

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excited about the fact that there we've seen targeted amounts of of uh improvement on the playground, especially in relationship to physical altercations and uh name calling. Um, we're em embracing the junior coach

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model for our fourth graders and the third graders. We do have classroom buddies and uh it's a it's really a blast to see the fourth graders reading with the with the kindergarten students and they do that quite a lot. Goal three, improved attendance. So if you

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don't come to school, it's hard for you to learn, right? Um, so as district we track attendance and then we do what we can to encourage and support and you know um I guess I would say when it's a problem we address the problem.

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So we our goal was at least 92% of uh attendance at an average monthly um statistics. Um we do have an attendance team that meets weekly. We track the daily attendance and we just like the district does we send letters at five absences, 10 absences

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and 15 absences and then kind of beyond 15. But one of the things that's been really effective this year has been actually contacting the parents and having parent meetings. They come in and you know every parent has been grateful actually for the call because I I think

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our goal is to ask them how can we help you not to judge you. How can we help you? What what is it we can we can do? Um, and since in I can say in every single one of those cases that people that have come in to meet with me, it's improved dramatically.

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So the the personal touch does make a big difference. Um, the other thing we post the average monthly attendance in the board in the hallway. Um, and the winning class gets recognized at our all school meeting. Um, we also recognize perfect attendance quarterly and we

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announce it at morning uh, Monday meetings, monthly meetings. But we tell people we're not asking you to come to school sick. We're asking you to come to school if you're not sick and you think, well, maybe I don't really want to go to school today. We're asking them to sort of tough it out and and be there. I meet

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with the students that I'm worried about and we talk about what strategies we can have to help them. And again, I think the conversations are making a big difference. Um, and we also meet with those students and sometimes have incentives to improve attendance.

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Challenges we still have tardy students. We tardy if you're after 8:45 and we'll have kids now they're walking in at like 8:50 as opposed to 10:30. So again, little incremental progress, but it's still a challenge. Um, and

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kindergarten attendance, many people think, well, they're kindergarten, so they don't have to go to school. Um, and but and which is true, not the mandatory attendance starts at six, but the more we can have the kindergarteners in, the better that's going to be. So, you know,

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kind of what are a couple of success stories. So, we've seen impressive growth in our first grade this year. So when we talk about moving levels, we moved five kids from below grade level to receiving title one intervention to on or above grade level. That's a big

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that's a big thing. It's not little tiny increments. That's a big show of progress. We have 12 students in the first grade um and seven at at seven are at grade level. Uh fourth grade title

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one students showed 47% growth in number numbers of words. um reading aloud during assessments. Um second grade students received title receiving title one have shown marked improvement in reading accuracy indicating um that they're making growth in their

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individual word banks going from like 50 58 to 79% all the way to 81 and 99%. third grade looking at oral reading fluency students receiving the title one programs uh support 50% of the group has

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made gains approaching grade level with 98 to 100% accuracy. So, you know, I think there's lots of work to do, but we have some important positives. Teacher feedback, as I told you, one of the things we're

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working on is culture. Um, so when I we do PD and we do things with teachers, we often we ask reflections, right? And particularly, what did you take away? What's your impact? Like, how are you a better teacher now? And I love to read those. But one of the things that I was

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excited about is that with the exception of one that I read, positive change in instructional practice and the teachers could articulate exactly what they can now do that they weren't doing before. And that that's huge. Um classroom walkthroughs

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and observations. We just did it the other day and the people from the state said, "Wow, any feedback we're giving you now, it's like tweaking it. It's not we don't see it. you have to put this in place. So that was really exciting and I did talk talk to the teachers about that

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and they were really jazzed up. Social emotional se 37% reduction in the overall incident report since the beginning of the year for physical aggression and name calling. 15 students have been issued the Newton Way awards. 25% of the fourth grade students

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were selected as junior coaches to help out for recess. So if you don't know what that is, it's uh it's kids that apply for the position. they get selected. There are certain things they have to do is to stay a junior coach. And what they do basically is they go out onto the playground and they help

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play and supervise with the younger kids trying to um trying to help them, you know, teach them the language of, you know, you have a conflict. Okay, what can you do about it? So today in the cafeteria, the two kids were arguing about who was first in line. One of the

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coaches went over and said, um, well, wait, let's stop. What what's the problem? Right? So he told him, he said, "Well, why don't you do rock paper scissors and if you do rock paper scissors, just whoever gets it gets to be first." That was that came from the kids. So I thought that was really

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pretty special. So I'm really big in and we're big on student leadership. Um parent connection. Uh we had 94 94% of people attend parent conferences, whether that was orally, you know, um uh by phone. I mean teachers were really

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generous with their time because they know it's tough for parents and so important. Um increased attendance at our all school meetings. There used to be like maybe a row of people. Now we sometimes have to get more chairs. So that's been that's a showing that people

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are feeling more connected to the community. PTO I have to recognize McKenzie. She is our PTO president and has done a lot of work at Newton. And I told her, I I tell her frequently, "Well, we doubled the participation of

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the PTA of PTO because we used to have like three and now we have like seven or eight little little steps, baby steps." Um um Full House at our our family events. Uh we did a celebration of growth last year, which I'm going to do again this year, the first week of June.

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Classroom teachers can pick um with their students and their families a day during the first week of June where they pick a 45 minute to an hour time and the the they invite their parents in and their parents come in and the students do whatever it is they want to do to

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show off the learning that they've done. So we're going to do that again this year because that was super popular and we have some parent coordinators this year which you know really is is going to help. Also in terms of next steps, we have to hire a phenomenal principal. Um,

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we always need to start with our why. Uh, increase parent communication. Um, we are going to work with is it SSOS? Is that how it goes? Kelly was talking about the progress. So, I was really excited when I learned about the work that you did and the and the progress

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that you made. Um so the school will be working with SSOS um next year and then we're just I think the goal here is to stay the course. Um focus on the needs of the students. I tell them every day we can do hard things. This is

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important. You can do this and I or we are not going to give up on you and the kids buy into that and I've noticed a lot more stamina and excitement. I do want to tell you one really special thing though. new in school in the

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calendar fundraiser raised over 600. They did 600 tickets. 617 I think was the total or something. Now that's crazy cuz our goal was 500. So the kids earned a bunch of stuff that we're scheduling. Now the kindergarteners did different

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kind of dress up. They were hysterical. They I I've never heard of a Disney princess or Disney what it was what was it? >> Disney troll. But they dressed up like Disney trolls. Lots of pink. Lots of pink, I can tell you. We have three staff members that are going to get pies

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in the face. We have six staff members that are going to do the ice bucket challenge. Um, Miss Silk has this skill of drumming, some kind of drumming thing she does. Um, she's going to do that with some students. We're going to dance party. The kids can choose the music, of

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course, with with our approval. Um, and we're talking about doing a a fourth grade uh volleyball game. Not volleyball, what is it? Dodgeball. But because they sold over 600 tickets, they have a choice. They can duct tape me to

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the wall or I will kiss a pig. Right now, the pig is winning. So, they first they thought I was going to kiss a stuffed animal pig. I said, "No, you sold 600 tickets. Had to do better than that." So anyway, I think somebody's

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getting a pig and I'm going to kiss it. So, and the last thing I just wanted to quickly tell you about is Roland had uh spoken with uh Carol, the new superintendent about the Newton principal search. And so, you know, I said, "I'm happy to help you." And so,

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Rowan said, "Yeah, let's do it." So, the position was posted, right, obviously, in the December, early January. So, to date, we've received 13 applications. 13 are certified. Um, we basically are

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going to interview seven people and Roland just actually mentioned somebody else that might be interested, so maybe eight. Um, and we screen them for certification, if they had leadership experience anywhere, right? Building base, both uh, district and building

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base. And then we looked for, you know, did somebody use PBIS? You know, all the things we're working on. if somebody had experience, we put them in the list. Um, I did go through them with my school counsel and the ones that were my may, they agreed that they weren't of the

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caliber of the ones that we're going to be interviewing. So, I put out the the call if we have a survey out there for qualities in the next principal and then search committee. Um, I've got five staff members. Uh, three parents I'm seeking and I just got from sending it

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home today, I just got at least one email. Um, and then we're goal is to select the finalists to be able to be sent uh to the superintendent on Friday the 17th before vacation. So that's all

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I have. I will want to just thank you though when I talk about joy. Uh this has been a real joy for me to be here. Uh coming back home I started here in my career many years ago. So coming back home and enjoying you know when I was a superintendent it's not a job that

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brought joy. It's a job important job and I loved it and I did it for 20 years but this is a job that brings me joy every day. So thank you for the opportunity to to be part of the Newton school community and the Greenville public schools.

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>> Here you go Jill. >> Great. Thanks so much. Um if you give me just a second I'll share my screen again. See, you're more organized, too. >> Oh, >> you could keep going. >> No, no.

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>> Um, >> thank you all for having us here, inviting us to share about our schools. Um, my name's Jill Taglia and what's that? >> Am I not talking into it enough? Is that

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better? Okay. All right. Um, going off Carol's last statement about joy, it's a joy working with you, Carol, and with Kelly, and with with all of you, I'm um yeah, so I'm excited to tell you about AEL. Um, I'd like to tell you

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a little bit about who we are and then our goals and then um how those goals work into the vision that we have for AEO. Um, we are, um, it's really unique. I've never been in any other district that

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has a preschool that is a school that is all preschool. So, this affords us a lot of really unique opportunities um, in what we do. We have um, a capacity right now to have about 105 students. Um

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usually we hover between 80 and 909 95. As um in these last months of the school as students turn three, we get more and more and more

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kiddos enrolling. So in in this February, March, April, we get really full. Um we um are we operate with a full inclusion uh model. So in every classroom we have students with and

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without disabilities. We have six classrooms this year. Five of those classrooms are full day classrooms run from you know the full school day 8:30 to 3. And we have one classroom that has split sessions an AM

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class and a PM class. And we have amazing staff, some of whom are here. Yay. Um, a wonderful team. We have six general education teachers, one special

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education teacher. Um, we have amazing team of instructional assistants this year that help us. And we're really fortunate to have amazing service providers for speech and language um, speech and language pathologists. um

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occupational therapy and a physical therapist that work with our students. Um it's an incredible team. Um also want to shout out we have amazing families. Some of our PTO and

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family members are here virtually tonight. So thank you to them. Um and as um our high school student was speaking, I was remiss in not including you know our

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community. We have um over the last couple years developed a really nice relationship with um uh ghs and they have students that come down and read with our kids and just you know hang out a a few times during the

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year. It's a great opportunity for our kids to play and be read to by older students, but it is equally wonderful for me and I think for our teachers to watch high school students and how they

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just rise to that occasion to take on that leadership and be mentors to our little people. Um, this year we have three school improvement goals. Um the first one uh revolves around standards. Um our

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teachers becoming more familiar with the prek standards and really internalizing those and how they play out in our lesson planning and class activities. Um this year also focusing intensely on

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literacy. Our second goal is around universal design for learning um which I'll talk about a little bit more later. But um because our classrooms are um in you

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know inclusive, we are trying to learn more about how to anticipate issues that students may have and build in accommodations for all students to remove barriers um so that

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everyone can access the content and learning going on. And then uh the third one is around our data collection and progress monitoring. Um we we take data usually around IEP

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goals and that kind of thing. But also um which I'll also talk about in a little bit. We are looking for a curriculum so that we can begin to take better data around um literacy, foundational literacy, that kind of thing.

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So the next um slide shows we have a this is a visual model of our vision at AAL that we have worked on for the last couple of years to develop and refine. Um

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we serve students ages 3 to five. We're a full inclusion model and we are playbased. um because play is the work of three and four and fivey olds. That's how they learn best. So if you look at this

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diagram here, um I'm going to explain each little component of it. Um we I guess let's move to the next slide so I can start just talking about the different pieces of it. So everything that we do

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is um encapsulated in building a culture of care and that we've talked a lot about what that means. Um and in that we uh are constantly talking about kindness. Um how we are interependent

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on each other. Um treating children and each other with dignity. empathy, growing that empathy and play because play, like Carol was talking about, play brings joy and joy is central um to

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everything that we do. We want students and families to enter Greenfield Public Schools and be excited about school and feel that joy of being part um of our

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district. So um also in this slide I um in creating the culture of care we are we have a new um social emotional learning curriculum this year called commois which focuses on feelings but on

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communication. It was developed by speech and language pathologists. And so unlike some other SEAL curriculums, this one focuses very much on how to communicate um how to communicate our wants and needs, how to disagree, how to make

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mistakes and have doovers, which kind of flows into um the restorative practices initiative that's happening in the older uh grades. But this keeps it this is really developmentally appropriate and one of the best um SEAL curriculums I've

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ever seen. Um so we do a lot of work with that in every classroom. Our speech and language pathologists support this curriculum and rolling it out to students and then teachers use the language. We're all trying to use the same language and build the same

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expectations for our students. Um the next piece communication is in the in the big diagram is in the middle because at the heart of every single thing that we do in preschool is communication. That's what three and

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four year olds are learning how to do. Um it is it it's central to everything. So um we uh in communication we're talking about spoken and unspoken communicating

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behaviors in three and four year olds behavior is comm I mean it's with for all of us but especially at this age behavior is communication they're trying to tell us something they might not have the words so we are helping them develop that um building social relationships

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um everything's is key to that. Our speech and language uh pathologists have developed a website that um has been pushed out to families. They can access all kinds of activities. This is one of the things that's great for every kiddo

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even if they are not receiving speech and language services. These kinds of things are building that foundational literacy, building that vocabulary, um and building the social emotional piece as well.

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Then we have three and we go back to the diagram. Three sort of bubbles of of uh that kind of all mixed together. Um one

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is around routines and expectations. We spend some time at the beginning of the year where teachers talk about what would we like to roll out in the first 20 days of school? What routines do we want to build? How can we uh be

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proactive and invest the time upfront to practice um you know what do you do at school? How do we how do we treat each other? What what routines are going to be in our day? Um so we share uh our

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teachers collaborate and come up with those things that they want to prioritize to set the tone for the year. And those things are repra uh revisited throughout the year. Every time we go on break and we come back, we kind of have

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to start over and that's okay. Um that's what we do. One of the other components I talked about mentioned earlier, universal design for learning. This is a big one. Um because we have

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such a wide variety of learners in every classroom, we want to we've done a lot of professional development around um accommodations and supports for students. It's um we want to be

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proactive and anticipate what kinds of struggles our kids may face. um things they may or may not understand and how can we build in supports for them to help them to be successful? How can we remove anything that might be a barrier for them to access what we're doing in

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the classroom? Um it's um you know it's around I said firm goals and flexible means it's we have firm expectations but we can find lots of different ways for students to access

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um and meet those goals. And then the other piece is um really working on knowing our DESIE standards and the district strategies that um we have

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worked on since I've been here, the um instructional strategies. And um this year we were lucky enough to um be awarded a chance to work with a Prism grant through Desi. And so we are

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we've been working all year long to look at different high quality instructional materials um for uh especially focused on literacy um and to there's a list of different

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curriculums that Jesse gave us and and our teachers have worked to um select from that list and narrow down which ones we would like to pilot. And so we are beginning we began Monday

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to pilot one of the curriculums that we um looked at is the it's called Boston Focus curriculum. It's an open-source curriculum and um we just rolled it out Monday. We're trying it out and we will run that for

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four weeks. Um, and then we'll we're just in the middle of discussion about, you know, like how what I don't know. We'll see how we'll see how it all goes. And then we meet and we discuss. And then we'll hopefully at the end of

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this um in the spring and June, we will uh make a selection and a commitment to something and then over the summer make sure that we have everything that we need to be able to roll it out in the fall. Um and along with this curriculum

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comes um a way for us to better collect data and show some of the things you know that around language and literacy and our progress. Um and then the last slide is just some of

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our wonderful students and the things that we do. And I think um you know people tend to think, "Oh, preschool, it's so cute." And it is. It is really,

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really, really, really super duper cute. And it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of joy, but it is a lot of work and it's a lot of intentional planning and decision making and designing by these experts back here

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behind me. Um, it's not just drop them off at school and let them go run around. It's very purposeful the work that we do. And it's um I think my time here and being in

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this role now I can have a kind of like a global view of how powerful early intervention is and how powerful these early learning years are and the impact that it truly makes and the foundation

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that it lays is incredible. when I visit um I visited the elementary schools a few weeks ago. I just kind of stopped in and when I see the kiddos that have been at AAL and what they are doing it I mean it

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I want to give every one of these guys the chance to take a day off and go see that because it is powerful and you can see the foundation that has been laid and how it how they are able to grow from that. So, thank you so much for listening.

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>> Great. Thank you all. So, appreciate hearing about the wonderful work that's happening in each of your buildings. Um, committee members, questions, comments. I got member Goodwin and then member Dman.

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>> I think I have two questions and one is a comment that goes back to public comment about unfunded mandates. through my career with prek and all the lovely unfunded mandates

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as a NYAK administrator, as somebody who has suffered. Um, I had joy in my heart when I took oh, I can't even remember what it was called, but Joan Shell was all about it. And I took it and I threw it in the trash and it was a joy cuz it

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was a prek cake thing. And we realized that it took more time to collect data than to actually teach. So I guess never feel afraid to again remember the joy um not just the

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um they are heroes. Um they do everything from teaching children how to um not bite, not hit um to laughter. Um, I think of all of the things that, um,

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without preK wouldn't happen. Um, so again, I go back to those unfunded mandates and people who make decisions about our little children who probably shouldn't be. So find joy in that. And then I have a a question. We were very

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proud to be a responsive classroom district. Um, most of the people who worked in our schools were trained. Some people even had level four responsive classroom. And when we started talking about restorative justice, I thought I saw like a link between the two. Are we

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still a restorative justice? Are we still responsive classroom or have we walked away? >> Yeah. So, I would say that um with in the district, there are still a lot of teachers who were trained in um

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restorative um classroom, but that is not something that we continue to train our our staff in. So, we cannot say that we are a responsive classroom district. >> Yeah, I'll I'll jump in. And the reason we were looking at them kind of like huh

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who's got not a lot of history right with uh this Stephen and I here and a few of the other new principles in that sense but right going forward with the restorative approach. >> Yeah I would say we're responsive to our students needs. That's why we're

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collecting the data and trying to identify what their specific needs are. But in terms of a packaged approach, responsive classroom, we're no no longer using that >> and >> haven't been in the 18 months since I've been here.

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>> I I would say that like you said, there are parts of it. For example, rules and logical consequences. Most of us still develop the rules and relationship with the students and the consequences are logical as opposed to you're punished,

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right? Um so that's I think there's I see a lot of that right I see some morning meetings uh still happening just as a way to you know start that day the building community um but it's pockets

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right it's pockets um yeah we don't really have we're talking about right we don't really have a district curriculum but that's something that >> we use second step >> we use second step yeah >> all right thank Thank you, Member

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Diamond. >> Thank you all for being here. Um it's wonderful to hear about some of the progress that's being made um in these schools. Uh my daughter attended AAL and uh we had a wonderful experience. So, thank you. Um I have uh three points,

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some with sort of a question component. Um first of all uh there's a motion tonight uh to create an ad hoc uh committee uh to study the state of literacy in our schools. Uh it's a motion by member uh Goodwin and I hope to serve on that committee. Um very

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interested in literacy and um I'm so I'm happy to hear that we're making good progress. It is clearly one of the most important things that we can be doing um right now to prepare our students. Um and uh so I look forward to working with

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you uh more directly on that topic and um finding solutions. So I wanted to know if there's anything on uh that you want us to know uh um as we're going to be studying that data uh going forward um about the relationship between

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literacy in our schools on the one hand, right? And then there's a sort of tension that arises because um it seems to me that we're using UFly and Lexia and um programs that are pretty computer-based right now. And then I'm starting to hear from some parents who

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feel that there's their children are spending too much time on computers in schools. So if that's putting us at an impass, um I would like to open a dialogue with you all about how to possibly overcome such an impass. And um

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and then finally, the the last thing that I wanted to bring up is the issue of sugary foods in schools. Um I I think that it's our obligation to provide healthy foods for our um our kids and my uh my daughter has informed me that she

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has access to Lucky Charms at school. Um, so I'm just want to informally invite you to take a look at um the situation on that front um as as a favor to me as a member of the community. >> I think you just became part of the wellness committee.

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>> Yeah. Thank you. Uh other comments, questions? >> Go for it. Member Goodwin. Carol, if I don't see you, thank you so much. Um, the journey to

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walk from Newton, the best day was when I walked in and you were there. So, thank you. >> It's been a joy. >> All right, I've got member childs. >> A quick comment. Thank you for all of the hard data you've provided tonight.

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And more than that, thank you for caring about our kids so much. Great. Um, I'll ask you all the same questions that I asked your colleagues. How are your staff? How are they doing? And how can we help? What do you need?

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Well, I you know I I feel like our staff are hardworking. You know, they do what they need to do. They show up. Um and I think that my guys are a little anxious right now, honestly, because they don't know what's going to happen and they've had some leadership changes that haven't

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lasted long. So, um they they're sort of getting comfortable. And I said to them, you shouldn't worry because now this is part of the culture, right? So somebody coming in will see that the culture is strong and they're not going to just turn everything over. They're going to, you know, they're going to see what you

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can do. So that's what they're worried about, right? Is all the work that they're doing and have done is going to be somehow. So, you know, I just reassure him, reassure them, and I'm glad that I'm part of meeting the candidates. I think they feel some security in that cuz, you know, they

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trust me. Not that I'm picking the person, but they know that I'm involved. So, but otherwise, you know, there's not enough time, there's not enough money, right? I mean, so we have to we overcome the challenges, right, as best we can, but

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they show up and our kids are getting some great opportunities as a result. I'm a little we can ask >> first I will start by saying how grateful I am for everyone sitting

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back there. I would say honestly um our teachers are fantastic. Our pair of professionals are fantastic. Um, we have a very skilled staff and I

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would say that in all honesty, everyone is probably at capacity. Um, the need is intense. Yes. >> Um and it is growing and

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um I'm not exactly sure what the solution is to that. Um I think it is about time and it is about funding

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um to have adequate supports. Um I think something at the preschool level that um I think there is a certain um you know we're not mandated. Preschool's not mandatory there.

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Sometimes it just in our society in general, you look at preschool and kind of like, oh yeah, but it is we need um we need the supports like um we we need

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a full-time school adjustment counselor because there are intense needs um for children and families. And if we can get some of um those supports in place for children before they leave AAL and move

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on to the elementary schools, I think it will I mean it will benefit everyone. Um so I guess I just would say the investment in prek will not be wasted. any investment

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you put there will pay off. Um because these guys can do the work. Um they have the expertise and they can do it but we we need we need the supports. Um

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I guess that's it. But I would I would just uh support what Jill is saying. I can tell the students who have been to preschool when they enter kindergarten and you know I've in in this environment

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I have definitely seen fewer. So it is a there is a little learning curve and a a little bit sharp sharp curve but I I have to say that I'm so thankful that we have AAL because it is serving a very important purpose for the students who are

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>> who are here. I I have to say I I notice the difference and I'm excited that you're looking at some more of a curriculum. Maybe that can dovetail a little bit with what they're expected to do in kindergarten. >> Yeah. >> So, at Federal Street, I think my staff

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is amazing and I I'm sorry that it wasn't a part of my presentation because they really um they have been committed. They are creative. Um they've been the teaching staff has been very courageous in the last few years in my opinion in

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being willing to think outside the box to do the things that we're asking that are new implementing a lot of new um programs. They've um done so um professionally and um they've really taken ownership and they're really proud

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of the progress that they see in their students. Our instructional assistants are fantastic. Um, and I have to mention our great custodians and our kitchen staff because they're it's just such a warm place to be. And um, it I'm

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reminded of the initiative that Carol was talking about when um, we did the raffle fundraiser and the whole staff was willing to do silly things. our custodians dressed up and our kitchen staff, I forget what

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they did, but every IA volunteered to do something silly just to get the kids excited. Um, and it's because they're all here for the kids. And so I think they're really amazing. Um, what we I need from you. I think just a a

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continued commitment to early literacy um and some patience as we roll out our restorative justices, our restorative practices work um because that certainly takes a lot of time to see uh the culture shift that we're we're hoping

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for. So, thank you. >> And can I just add one thing about what um you were talking you were talking about having a committee or a task force. I think you said right. Um so I would just ask that um any task force or

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any people that work on it be really engaged with gathering information, right? Don't don't make assumptions or listen to one or two things. Just really come in and do a real look at it because I I think what if I believed what I was

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told when I went to Newton, I wouldn't see what I saw. Right. So it's super important I think to if you're studying something to really engage with the people who are actually doing the work assume positive intention and figure out okay so what's the

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problem we're trying to fix and you know please keep people engaged because they they would have a lot to say and you would get a lot of really important information from it. One more thing too. Sorry, just one one more thing.

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>> Um, >> I just want to shout out also to the leadership team in Greenfield right now. Um, Roland, you have to leave. >> Yeah. Really? >> But thank you for everything that you've

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done. Um, I think the principles and Stephen like in the time that I've been here, it has become a very cohesive leadership team and there's a lot of initiatives that I

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see really jelling and so I guess just continued support for that team and really listening because it's it's a really strong team with great ideas, but it takes time

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to pull it all together, but it's happening. And um I look at that kind of from a little distance cuz preschool's kind of like uh a little different, but I see it all. You know, there are there are

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connections being made and things are jelling and so don't don't give up. Just keep on supporting people. Thanks, Thank you all so much. Wait, you have a question? Wait, wait,

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wait, wait. >> I just have a comment. Thank you for putting a photo of my kid up on the screen. >> All right, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your evening. Thank you so much. All right, we are moving on now to reports of the administration and I'm

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going to attempt to do something a little different. I know, I know I'm going outside the box. I would love to assume that each of you have come prepared having read the materials and that we can move straight to do you have

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any questions for the administrators? And I'm going to stop sharing my screen as much as I love looking at the littles. So cute. Yeah. Do you have any questions around any of

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the reports? >> Anybody? >> Kind of do. >> You kind of do. Go for it. >> Well, maybe not. >> Um, were we getting a yonder pouch update? >> Oh, yes. I asked for that month ago, but I didn't see it on the agenda, so I was

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going to ask to have it. Yeah, sorry. I was trying to follow through. >> Great. Can we make sure that that happens in May? >> Great. No, thank you for for bringing that back up. All right, member Den is assuming that we have read the

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reports something that we are going to be doing going forward and if so, please. >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. >> Great. Happy to. Um,

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are there Okay. Any other questions? Any other things before we move on to our next set of items? Seeing none, let's move on to our consent agenda. Oh, sorry. Yes, Roland.

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>> I don't want to put in, but I do. >> Okay. >> I mention >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Please go ahead. Um, just want to acknowledge the the absence of our business manager tonight, Andy Pocket. He would be available if we

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needed him via online, but he is at the induction ceremony of his two daughters into their National Honor Society tonight. So, congratulations to he and his family for that. Um, some of the information you have before you obviously is um just some enrollment

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figures which are pretty close to the same. I do want to give a couple shoutouts during these time frames which sometimes I don't have time to and won't and chair sex and I have talked about this create some of these things but some quick shout outs to GHS senior Kza Nazala

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Nazula I don't want to kill that name so I apologize but on March 9th received the MLK junior award at GCC so congratulations to her for receiving that. Uh many of you have talked about the yellow conference or meetings that

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are coming up. Have a a brief description from Mr. Martin at GHS. Talking about that on Friday, April 17th, the history department at GHS in collaboration with dial youth and community services will host the annual yellow which is youth

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engagement with legislators and officials conference in the ghs library. A few dozen students will have the opportunity to meet and engage in discussion groups with elected officials from the Greenfield School Committee, city council, and other town committees, as well as state legislators.

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This year's main topics chosen by the students are one, municipal finances and budgeting, two, AI in schools, and three, drugs, alcohol, and vaping amongst teens. So, you are obviously all invited to that, and that's going on.

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So, thanks to Mr. barn for organizing that. I want to mention that I was able to attend a great play at the by the high school drama club, The Secret Garden, which was fantastic. Uh everything, the acting, the scenery, all things that went about it. And we did

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such they did such a nice job that they did a presentation and invited our third and fourth graders from our city schools, our elementary schools to go and see it in the daytime before they had their first run at nighttime with adults. and the students did a great job sitting there being attentive and being

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a great audience. Also have another shout out to GHS senior Ash Bigalow who pre who presented in participated in the Academy of Music's regional youth poetry slam that happened last Friday, April 3rd and many

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of other students did. Ash competed in the slam and made it to all three competitive rounds and then won third place with a cash prize. So, congratulations to all those students who performed their poems, showing great vulnerability, courage, and strength. I'd also like to mention that yesterday

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um Mr. Sullivan and I were fortunate enough to attend the Greenfield High School poetry slam after school and Miss Pollock the school librarian runs that club and does a wonderful job. all the present they had students presenting um

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written poems that they wrote faculty members as well they're doing the same thing and I mentioned to her and many of the students and participants afterwards that I was amazed at the creativity and how they could I guess you I'll just say

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write poems sometimes I don't see myself as as creative in that sense of doing it maybe I'm more of a scientific linear type of thinker in that way. But I was very impressed at what they did yesterday at Greenfield High School in their own poetry slam which they held

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they hold once a year. So shout out to all those who participated. And just a nice um acknowledgement today. I came in before this meeting. I spent a little over an hour with Coach Kashki who is our athletic director walking around over at the fields at the high school.

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They had a boys varsity baseball game and a girls varsity softball game going on. And when I left they were both winning. So hopefully they did a nice job and and what an finally a many of you know a nice day to somewhat be outside with the weather only getting better on that. So those are some of the

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brief things. Thank you chair. >> Okay. Any any other questions? Any more questions given that? >> Sweet. Uh seeing none, moving on to item eight, our consent agenda. Um, I'll look now for is are there any items that a

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member would wish to remove? Member Childs. >> So, from item A, I did not see the minutes for March 25th in our packet and I also did not see item B in our packet. So, at least I didn't see them in the drive

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and I looked for them. >> If I may, Chair. >> Yep. >> You do not have March 25th. we when we created the agenda that somewhat of a placeholder in case we had those those are still being um produced I guess you would say in that one and yes it would

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be appropriate if you would pull out B and then I could explain that after. >> All right. So the new consent agenda is item A with the exception of March 25th and no item B. We'll pull that out. Are there any other items that members would

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wish to consider separately? Okay, seeing none, I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. All right, we've got a motion and a second. >> I need to I don't think we do discussion on a consent agenda. So, please call the role.

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>> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> All right. Approved. unanimously. And now, uh, Superintendent, if you wouldn't

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mind, item B from that agenda. >> Thank you. Um, each year, uh, schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, um, are presumed to be participating in school choice. And, uh, if you choose not to participate, a the public school

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system, they have to let the state know by June 1st of each year. Um we we are currently a participant in school choice. Um this is of accepting students not sending right we have uh no option in terms of doing anything that way.

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This is for taking students in from outside of students who live outside of Greenfield in that sense. So um under the school choice laws as I mentioned everybody is presumed all districts are presumed to be participating in it unless you vote not to in that sense.

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So, um, it's worded in the positive there because all your motions, as you're probably aware, with the rules need to be worded in the positive and then if you chose not to do it, you would vote no on that. Um, I would maybe assume, maybe wrongly assume that you've been a participant for years and that

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you would continue to do that. I would support that. Um, in that sense, uh, we do not have to right now tell what exact slots and what exact grades. Um, I printed some different things, but if you look at the school choice list online, you can pull up every city in town in Massachusetts that does it. And

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many will actually have a line that says, um, contact the district for the openings, etc. like that. Um, so I bring it forward to you. Not so sure if you want discussion or need it, but if we are going to do it, you really don't have to take any action. I guess if you

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wanted to not do it, you would make a motion to do it, but then vote it down in that sense. I don't know if that makes any sense. I hope it does. >> It does because of the sort of arcane rules that we're working with. Um,

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so given that would anyone choose to make a motion to bring this up and with the like the the assumption being is that if you are putting the motion on because we don't actually have to vote to do it. We have

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to vote not to do it. But you probably could vote to do it and then just >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Sure. >> All right. Then I look for a motion for that. >> Are you Are you making the motion?

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Great. >> I move that we continue to engage with school choice and follow the superintendent's recommendation for number of seats per grade. >> Excellent. I would second that. So, we have a motion. I We have a

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second. Any discussion? >> Great. Uh, will you please call the vote? >> Secretary Webb, I'm Yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Dene, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes.

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>> Excellent. Passes unanimously. Uh, you're very welcome. And now we are moving on to item nine, school committee reports. Um, mine's pretty short, but at one of our last meetings, we did have a bit of a a question came up about how we

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do this particular procedure. Um, I did do some some research about exactly how this happens when you are trying to wrap up a discussion and and you know um proceed to a vote. you actually when you are making this, if you're in discussion

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and you're noticing that the same point is being said again and again, you're like, I wish we could just wrap this up. Um, some person can make a motion to call the question. That actually does need to be voted on and needs to pass with a twothirds majority before you

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proceed to the vote on the motion itself. So, that needs to happen and there's a good reason for why that happens. It's so that if you have a majority of people who have, you know, who look like they're going to vote in in a majority, that they can't artificially stifle a minority set of

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opinion. Um, everyone needs to at least have the ability to be heard, even if they don't necessarily win the day on the main motion. Um, so that's just for our for our notes uh for the future. If that situation comes up again, uh we will

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better be equipped for how to proceed. That's my report. Um, any questions on that? Sweet. Uh, let's move on to budget and finance, please. Okay. In the packet, you've got the

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short report and also in the packet, you have the minutes from both of the subcommittee meetings that have happened since our last full one. Um, I won't go into the one in between the budget hearing and budget vote because I think we're budgeted out for at least three more days. And um the next one was about

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warrants. Um most of the questions were pretty simple. Here's a question. Here's the answer. The two places where we're still looking for more clarification. One of them was a discussion about district landscaping options that we are waiting to hear back from the

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administration for how much flexibility we have. So we're just waiting for um info there. Then the question that we really wanted to raise was about our social media expenses and communication service subscriptions. We wanted to make

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sure that we were paying for a what we're using and b what we need and what our families need. So, uh, the budget and finance and warrants subcommittee would like to request that the, uh, enga community engagement subcommittee work with the administration to obtain information on our family expectations,

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needs, and engagement metrics so that we can make sure that we are paying for what is best for the district. Okay. Um, thinking through our order of operations for just a minute that it sounds like a formal request of another body and that

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means that we all have to agree and task that that separate subcommittee with doing that work. So, is that in the form of a motion? >> Sure. >> Can you can you please state it in the form of the motion for the benefit of our recording secretary? >> Okay.

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I move that the school committee request the community engagement subcommittee to work with the administration to obtain information on our family expectations, needs, and engagement metrics so that we can ensure that we're paying for what

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best serves Greenfield families. >> Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Discussion. Yes, member Denim, >> I'm so glad that you are looking at our social media costs. Um, it's definitely

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important to send that to the community engagement subcommittee. That would be in their charge. So, I just have a comment on past history because I'm the one that brought this up a few years ago. um I believe in 2022 and we sent out a survey to see what

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parents would like and they came back saying that they would like social media. Um so I guess what I would say is I'm a little bit surprised how it's happened because it's been very expensive and the engagement has been low. But also something just to think

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about and look at in the subcommittee is that there are four or five very active Greenfield parents pages on Facebook and there's Greenfield parents hashtags on Instagram and people interact in those spaces but we do not as a district. So

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we're not posting the things in the spaces where the parents are looking. So, as a social media user, I could very easily give you all of those pages. And I used to regularly post in them when we had um subcommittee meetings and regular

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committee meetings and things that would come up because I noticed that the district was not interacting in those spaces and that's where the people are. So, when you're ready to look at that, um, shoot me a message and I'll send you all of the spaces where they are. And that's where we need to be doing the

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work and that's why we have no engagement. comment or I guess a statement. >> Sure. >> Um I just want to make a statement that all of our buildings, most of the PTO's or even ghs run their own separate

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pages. And like member Deneva says, that's where we're finding the people. We're not finding them on the Greenfield Public School Facebook page. they're more in the little niches of the friends of Discovery School or um Federal Street

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School or the Newton Friends of Newton. And a lot of those groups also support each other. Um and I think I'm wondering when people talk about they follow on social media if that's what they're referring to and maybe not the Greenville Public School page. And I

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think AEL has an Instagram. They're not on Facebook. Okay. So, it sounds like that is going to be a little bit of homework for the community engagement subcommittee and for them to find out

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what they actually would want from a district page as opposed to a page that they run themselves. Um, how would they like that interaction to be structured, if at all? uh and you know learning a little bit more about what

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types of content they're looking for, what needs to what's like a social media worthy versus what is a robocall worthy like getting getting into some nitty-gritty, but I will leave it to you all to figure that out if this motion passes. Um okay, any other comments,

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questions, concerns that you would like to raise before we vote? Seeing none, please call the vote. >> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes.

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>> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. All right. Thank you. And committee engagement, please go forth. Um, policy and program. >> All right.

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Uh we met on March 30th for our first subcommittee meeting of the year and we have agreed to meet every fourth Monday at 6:30 p.m. remote only. We set several goals, some of which are lofty.

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Um one of our goals is to search through our policies and compare and contrast them to other districts using the MASC hosting portal. and we will figure out a way to make this a digestible process and clean up any typos and grammatical errors as we go. Goal two is to add

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legal opinions we receive to the materials when they are not of a confidential nature. Goal three is to create a style procedure for attorney communication, which was a hurdle that I unexpectedly ran into. So that's something that will

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end up in the handbook so that future committee members who have to interact with council will know the best course of action to do that and how to format communication. Goal four is to add duties of the chair and vice chair to the handbook which is

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something that we discussed at our last policy meeting in 2024 and I had it on my circle back to do and then never did it. So I need to write that and add it. Um, and that's going deeper than what we actually have in our policy handbook at

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present. And then goal five is to have an endofthe-year re-evaluation of those goals and preparation of continued work for the next subcommittee members. So that would be in November or December of this year. Um, we discussed quite a few policies and we have a really big list

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for the end of this month. Um, we postponed our evaluation of the digital use policy. JNDB until our April meeting. So that'll be on the 27th, I believe. We are going to invite our IT

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specialist and um hopefully Mr. Sullivan to answer our questions regarding AI and its use in the district and that will also give us some time to look at what other districts have in place for the use of AI. We had some policies that came back for a second read that you all approved in

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the consent agenda. that was the um field trips um waiting 24 hours to sign warrants and the non- voting student member um which I think is really interesting because we had a conversation about whether or not we wanted to do that and

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how that would fit and there's already a policy that says that we should be doing that. So we shall implement. So, the next step, just so you know, is I'm going to send all of our second reads to legal and have him just take a gander and if he says they look great,

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we will adopt them as policy. If he says no, no, I will bring them back for a final read and just tell you what he says. And so, that's how the process is going to go. All of the things that you've brought up to send to policy, there's like five or six of them at this point. And he would like us to keep them

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in groups of no more than five at a time. Uh, so that's another thing to add to the handbook. Um, I will send those to him shortly and he will digest those and spit them back to us and then we will continue this wheel so that we get all of the uh things updated that we

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need to get updated. Uh, so the next step for the JIB student policy, very exciting. I hope you're all excited about a non- voting student member sitting on the uh, committee. Uh, member Dykeman is going to reach out to Angela

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Mass to coordinate with the student council and get their thoughts and find out where they are in the council process. We don't actually know if they've done any votes or met as a group yet. And I have a feeling that I'll hear more about this at the Yellow Conference

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on the 17th. So, we'll keep you apprised as to what their situation is and then hopefully we can figure out how to meet and enact this policy. That's it. If anybody has any questions, >> just an update, I did write that email.

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So, um I hope to hear back from Ms. Mass soon. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Um great. And uh at this time, I don't believe that the community engagement subcommittee has a report. Uh there was a minor technical difficulty which is

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being resolved. Um okay moving on to new business. Member Deniv. >> Yes. So um item a motion from member Den to have the school committee develop a procedure for drafting acting upon and archiving resolutions. And when you say

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school committee are you meaning policy program and handbook subcommittee? Well, it's funny you should say that because I'm not really sure, but probably yes. I think I think that that's where it's going to have to go. >> But I think that the full committee is going

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to have to give us that charge if they so choose. So I bring the motion before everybody, but um Okay. So I'll bring that motion and then I'll I'll Would you like me to rationale upon discussion or rationale now? Uh, I would like you to

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motivate the motion and then we can see if that gets a second. >> Okay. I move that the Greenfield School Committee develop a procedure for drafting, acting upon, and archiving resolutions because we are a legislative body and one of our tasks is to use our position

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as the county seat to elaborate upon what we believe to be important in our school culture, the movements we want to see in our municipality, and the things that we want to support. And so we need to put our weight behind these beliefs

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to develop our school culture and then send them somewhere. We don't just say we believe in this. Great. Where does it go? It needs to be a gift really to our legislators, to our city council, perhaps to our mayor, to our citizens.

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And there should be a formal document that says we do this. We believe in this. go forth in our name and do this and that should be forwarded. And I spoke to Senator Cford's office about this and they said they would like a formal letter. So I thought, well, okay,

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what is the formal letter? Where's the template? How do we do it? Who does this labor? So I think we need to make a procedure for that. um those of us who want to bring forward resolutions should probably write them ourselves and present them in a formal letter and then

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the chair should probably take those and do the action. So like the city council would love to have our resolutions that we passed recently so that they could adopt them as well. And the more bodies that put their names to this, the more traction it has and the more that our

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legislators can say, "Hey, we've got all these people in Western Mass that believe this. School committees, city council members, mayors, what have you. We want to show you that we have support for this particular idea, this bill or this concept." So that's one of our

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charges as a committee. >> Okay. Having heard that rationale, is there a second for this motion? >> Second. >> Great. We have a motion. We have a second. Any discussion? >> I'll just say I think it's a great idea and I do want policy and program to do

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it. >> Policy and program is happy to do it. It would probably live in the handbook >> and maybe we would see if there is already a policy for it and make those two things connect. >> Wonderful.

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All right. Uh, please call the role. >> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Denive, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> Passes unanimously. >> Woohoo. All right.

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Item B, motion for member Den, the school committee support bill H1399 to modernize retirey Medicare healthcare for municipalities. Sorry, I just closed my window. >> That's all right. Short motivation and

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then >> and then we discuss and vote. >> Okay, man. These school Chromebooks, they go real slow. All right. This is the Medicare retirees bill. >> Yes. Okay.

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Um, I move that the Greenfield School Committee support bill H1399 to modernize retirey Medicare healthc care for municipalities. Um, this is a gift that we can give to our mayor in these very difficult times.

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This is an example of how we can put our power behind this idea and give the mayor a formal resolution that says that we support this and we could also give it to the city council and to Senator Kifford. And it's a bill that proposes

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allowing municipalities to move Medicare eligible retirees from traditional group insurance to individual Medicare plans through a health reimbursement arrangement. It aims to reduce municipal costs by 20 to 30% while offering lower monthly premiums for retirees. The bill

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is currently in the House Ways and Means Committee. Um, so I think that the action that I want is to support the mayor, seek the support of the Greenfield City Council for this, and to send the resolution to

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Senator Kafford. >> Okay. Motion. Is there a second? Second. >> All right. Motion then second. Is there any discussion? >> Yes. Member Goodwin. >> So, I'm going to be voting no and

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because I've really looked at this and they haven't answered some really serious questions about what they're going to do. I think just to I agree with the concept, but the details aren't there. And so as somebody

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who is a retired educator, I kind of want the details. And so I've been looking for those. I've been reading probably following this really carefully. And I think it's a reaction to the increase in health care. So your

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retired people don't work for you anymore. So let's do this. So I I'm really feeling like the details have not been clear. Um, so I'll be voting no. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other

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questions, comments? Okay. Uh, seeing none, member Webb, will you please call a vote? >> Secretary Webb, I'm going to abstain. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Dene, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> abstain.

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>> Member Goodwin, >> no. Chair Saxon >> abstain. >> Does it pass? >> Yeah. >> There were two yeses, three abstensions, and one no, then yes, technically.

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>> You sure about that? >> Yes, because abstaining is the same as not being present. >> Okay. Does that mean >> I'm sorry, point of order. I don't agree with that interpretation. Stephanie, too close on Chapman Street. I'm I'm sorry, but members of the public do not have

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the ability to make points of order. We do have points of order when they regard actual policy in our ordinance. Please refresh yourself on Robert's rules. I'm saying that you might want to look at the interpretation of what an abstaining

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vote is. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I might ask that we actually table like we we we took this vote, but I might actually ask us to lay this on the table and come back to

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it again um when we have a better sense, unless someone wants to look at Robert's rules right now and get a better understanding for us um about what that actually means to have an abstension. I am always for being a being better at

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Robert's rules. Um I would say that the school committee is one of the best bodies in this city using Robert's rules and I often feel really proud of how aware we are of Robert's rules. I've

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taken multiple classes on it. Um, so anytime we need to stop and look up Robert's rules to make sure that we fully understand, I fully support that and I have no problem tableling it. This was something that I thought the mayor would really appreciate. So

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I don't know if it's timesensitive, but yeah, I I'm not sure either. Um, one of the reasons that I abstained was because I don't really know a lot about this bill specifically. I would support tableling it because maybe they'll get the details by

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>> Secretary Webb and effective. >> I also abstain because I'm not as familiar with this as I would like to be. Um, and I feel like having the mayor here would be very helpful. So, I don't know if we can resend the vote and possibly table this.

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>> I think we can. We can vote to rescend the vote. >> Motion to rescend that vote. >> Second. >> Great. Can you call the vote about rescending the vote? >> Sure. >> We love municipality

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>> politics and rules. >> Secretary Webb, I am a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Denive, >> yes. >> Mayor, she's not here. All right. Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. Okay. So, we have rescended the

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vote on item B. And now I would like to say we're going to put that on our May agenda and revisit. Yes, Nan >> seconded the motion to resend the vote. >> I believe member Goodwin. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay, we'll come back to that item B.

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Um, >> do we have to have a motion to table it? >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> That's all right. It takes us all of >> in the spirit of Robert's rules and I'm glad that we're rescending things and changing things like we should not be

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afraid to use Robert's rules and flex it. >> We're flexing our little our little muscles. Um >> yes, >> if if I may. Um I am not an expert on Robert's rules, but I think I we did hear this the last meeting um that tableabling

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>> Oh, right. Postponing it has to You're so right. You're so right. We have to postpone, not table. >> That's right. Great. We are postponing and not tableabling because at the end of a meeting if it's on the table the table gets wiped clean. >> Yeah. The table gets turned.

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>> It's postponed till our May meeting. >> Very good. Um I think that I might actually have the the ability to just do that. >> I do not know that. Do we want to look that up and learn? >> We will look that up and learn. And for now we'll vote.

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>> Please call the vote about postponing. You seconded the I have member Denise the motion to postpone. >> I'll second it. >> Thank you. >> Very good. >> Thank you, Dan. >> Please call the vote about postponing this item to our May agenda.

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>> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Denive, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Moving on. Um item C, motion for member DE to have the school

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committee support bill H560S391 about climate literacy brought to us by Mass Ottabbon Statewide Youth Climate Leadership Program. >> Sorry, me again. All right. So, this came to me from an email from a constituent um

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who asked that we would support bill H560 S391 about climate literacy. So, I move that the Greenfield School Committee support this bill about climate literacy brought to us by Mass Ottabon Statewide

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Youth Climate Leadership Program. It aligns with our values. It aligns with our mission statement. Um, it tells our youth that we support their climate initiatives and that we understand that their planet is suffering and we are

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going to work with them as adults to preserve life on this planet is really what it says. So, I think that it's really lovely that that the Mass Audabon um I'm going to get their whole thing correct

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that their Mass Audabon statewide youth climate leadership program contacted us. That's that's really nice. That means that they understand that we're a body that can lend support and the email did say that they understood that we have a sustainability club at the high school

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and that they have worked with Greenfield students on these projects. So that's why I brought it forward at the behest of a of this group. >> Great. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second?

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I will second this. discussion. I see you, member Goodwin. >> A, is there a cost? And B, do they have a a structured curriculum that they want us to use or is it up to us?

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I am not sure that I can answer that question, but I could forward you, >> okay, >> this constituent's email and you could ask them personally those questions if you like. I think that what they're gathering is um support statewide from

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many school committees that they've worked with in Western Massachusetts particularly maybe. Um, that's what I got from the email, but I can forward that to you and you can pursue those questions, but I think that they're just looking to gather as much support as possible.

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>> Okay. >> Yes. To to my knowledge, because this is supporting um legislation, not necessarily supporting a mandate for us that we would enact at this exact moment. There's not a specific curriculum. this

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is sort of supporting a broad like another state sort of initiative. Um >> it comes from that I'm sure then would go through another >> three or four years of implementation, regulation, promulgation, that sort of

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thing. So this is not a this is not something that we will have to to turn around in the fall. What we would be doing really is just supporting our Ammerst neighbors and the and representative Dom of Ammerst and saying, "Hey, your neighbors also support similar things and we stand with

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you in solidarity." Often these resolutions are just that. It's not really anything more than showing solidarity and support in a formal way, but it is our charge as a body. >> Okay. for information. I'm looking at

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the text of the bill right now and um it it calls for creating a fund um for creating a separate fund known as the interdisciplinary climate literacy trust fund. So um this is all a state level initiative.

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>> So the states making the funds. >> Yes, that the bill calls for the state to create the fund. Yes. >> Great. Thank you. Any further discussion on this item before we vote?

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>> Okay, please call the RO. >> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Child, >> yes. >> Member Dene, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> All right, passes unanimously. Thank

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you. Um, item D I just had a quick question about because I was pretty sure that at our last meeting we actually voted we did this one already and we empowered Nan and the superintendent to do their thing and I believe they've started doing it. >> Um, great. I could we just get like a in

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in May could we get a just how's that going? >> Yes, >> in May. >> Perfect. Yeah, you got time. No worries. Uh, so moving on. Uh, I think we can get this last one done and take a break before we go to old business. Um, e

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I would like to make a motion that we dissolve the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. This is a formal >> Okay, we've got a second. Um, just a little bit of rationale. This is the pre-existing body to do essentially what

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I'm asking us to do uh in item A under old business. And so in order to do the correct procedure, we dissolve one in order to bring another forward. Um >> could you read the motion fully?

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>> Yes. Um I move that we dissolve as that the school committee dissolve the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. Um if we do that then that entity that named entity no longer exists. uh and

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then we can choose to have something come in its place that is roughly equivalent which was item A under old business or if we don't do item A then we don't have a body that does that kind of work at all. Um or if we choose to

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not dissolve then that body uh would still exist and we would need to double check that the members who were part of it last time which I believe were member Deniv myself and the mayor would still be willing to serve on that like there would be a we would we would see if that

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is still functional and viable and if its mission is still aligned with what we need currently. So that's the consequence of the vote. we either dissolve it and move on and do something new which is related but a little different um or we don't dissolve it and

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we proceed from there. So just to give a sense so I've made the motion to dissolve the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. >> We've got a second discussion. >> I think we already had a second.

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>> Oh sorry we had a second >> discussion. Yes. Sorry, member Goodwin. Member Den, >> I think that the ad hoc was a good start, but now we need to look at all of

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the different options that are out there. I mean, so many people are having conversations about um buildings and, you know, declining enrollment. We're not alone. Um, and I think listening to there are people who've

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been talking the talk for 10 years and looking at all of the bigger picture of our county and I think we need to be part of those conversations. This was looking at within um I think it's not just within. We need

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to look at our neighbors as well. I mean there's different ways to stand by your neighbor. Um, and the one thing I've learned by subbing at a high school is all these children know each other. Um, they are

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friends. It doesn't seem to matter where they go to school. So, I would say, um, I'm a yes for dissolving it because I think we're going to end up creating something that's bigger than that.

433
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>> All right. Thank you. member Deniv, >> I'm fine dissolving it. Um, but I think that something that has to be

434
02:01:32.000 --> 02:01:48.320
really truly digested is that this was the first subcommittee ever that reached out to the public and had listening sessions. and interacted with constituents and parents

435
02:01:48.320 --> 02:02:04.639
and teachers to find out what they really wanted. This is the first time that as a body we really interacted with people to find out what they wanted um from the perspective of a subcommittee. There were other things before there was

436
02:02:04.639 --> 02:02:20.320
the star group. You all did work on that. Um, but the amount of data that we compiled and the amount of information and preferences of the people that we serve that we compiled is really

437
02:02:20.320 --> 02:02:37.280
valuable. And when I talk to people about redistricting, there's this feeling of like, oh, well, that was just like stuff you just did and we don't care what that was. And so, it's really left behind all of that work. And that kind of makes me really

438
02:02:37.280 --> 02:02:52.320
sad because we gathered a lot of good information and we really heard where people were coming from. So I would say that as this new entity moves forward to make sure that you get that information before you begin because

439
02:02:52.320 --> 02:03:08.639
we have sort of this history I've noticed of collecting information and then nobody knows where it went. Nobody compiled it and nobody has put it out there for the public. So we really were diligent about compiling that information and it is there and

440
02:03:08.639 --> 02:03:25.199
there are outlines and information and bus routes and walking routes and lines, you know, um school boundary lines, all of that was done and it is all compiled and available. And so do not turn away from

441
02:03:25.199 --> 02:03:39.520
that information because a good portion of the work is already done for you and you could build upon that in a new way. and do not reinvent the wheel. >> Noted. Thank you.

442
02:03:39.520 --> 02:03:57.440
Any other comments, discussion? Seeing none, member web, will you please call the vote? >> What am I call >> item E? We're we're calling the vote. >> Sorry. Item E under

443
02:03:57.440 --> 02:04:14.480
>> vote to dissolve the redistricting >> reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. >> Secretary Webb, I am a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. With an honor to all the

444
02:04:14.480 --> 02:04:30.960
information that came before. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. Absolutely. >> Passes unanimously. >> Great. Thank you. All right. At this time, we will have a fivem minute break. uh or generously 6 minutes. Please come back at 8:40 uh and we'll get get on to the rest of our business.

445
02:04:30.960 --> 02:04:46.560
>> So to answer the question about the majority of the votes cast, if two people vote yes and one votes no intent of states, the motion will pass. However, it says if it's a tie vote with more extensions than actual voters, it

446
02:04:46.560 --> 02:05:03.199
fails. But it says local organizations such as city councils, etc., etc. have rules that treat an absention as a yes or a no vote. >> I found our rules um BF voting methods.

447
02:05:03.199 --> 02:05:19.760
All actions will require a majority vote of all members present in voting except as state law Roberts of order newly revised or policies of this committee require a larger majority. A majority of the school of members of school committee will constitute a quorum. >> So it's ambiguous.

448
02:05:19.760 --> 02:05:36.639
>> Yeah. Uh the stuff I see says it p it would pass. >> Yeah. N says if you abain it's like you're not there. >> But it says if it's a title. So if it was like two nos and two yeses and threeens. >> But if we go with the not there then

449
02:05:36.639 --> 02:06:55.840
four people aren't there. So you don't have a quorum >> because the mayor's not here. Um, so I was just >> We found one of the weirdest edge cases. All right, it is 8:41 and we are resuming after our

450
02:06:55.840 --> 02:07:12.320
break. Uh getting ready to take care of some old business. Uh so we're on the set of items under 11. Um, and starting with item A, picking up a little bit where we just left off, a motion from Chair Ston to have the Greenfield School

451
02:07:12.320 --> 02:07:27.840
Committee create a long-term facilities use advisory committee. Um, there should be a whole plan that actually articulates and and this for the first time that I've ever seen follows all of the things that are listed in our policy

452
02:07:27.840 --> 02:07:43.840
manual for what in what sections are needed to describe the creation of an advisory committee. um to really directly respond to to the uh discussion that was had on the last item. Part of what I wrote in the creation of this is

453
02:07:43.840 --> 02:08:00.639
that we would use the information generated from the prior redistricting or reorganizing subcommittees as a starting point and assess from there what additional information we might need um in order to help us make decisions. Um, I am purposefully wanting to create

454
02:08:00.639 --> 02:08:17.679
this also as an advisory committee because that gives us the ability to pull in members of the public. So, this would have representation from the school committee. There would be I'm proposing three of us and the three members that uh that I had listed back in January were actually myself, member

455
02:08:17.679 --> 02:08:33.599
Den and Member Webb to be on this committee. Um, and then kind of how we did the superintendent search, we would put out a process whereby members of the public and we could decide, you know, how many teachers do we want, how many, you know, parents do we want, are there

456
02:08:33.599 --> 02:08:48.880
other members of the community that we might want, um, who have, you know, who represent special knowledge or skills related to potentially like real estate or other things like that that that we might not have on our own. um but that we would create the process whereby those people could apply and then we

457
02:08:48.880 --> 02:09:04.880
would decide and create that advisory committee. Um there is a deadline that I've put in here of next May. So I believe next May to give us about a year to to do the study, get the information, talk with people, like get real work

458
02:09:04.880 --> 02:09:21.840
done, have a recommendation to come before the fuller body about what are we doing, like what is our long-term vision, what what are we are there any big choices that we need to make? Um and then it would be sort of on us from there to take that recommendation, take any votes that we need to and proceed.

459
02:09:21.840 --> 02:09:38.000
Um I'm really interested in making sure that any option that we have is given like serious consideration that we do like our due diligence. We do deliberation

460
02:09:38.000 --> 02:09:53.920
and that the decisions that we're making are both grounded in current feeling and sentiment as well as long-term like actual real projections. what is going to happen to our community. We can't necessarily know, but we can gather

461
02:09:53.920 --> 02:10:08.320
information that can help us know that can at least help us have a good g like a good guess um and that can provide some rationale for why we are moving forward in the ways that we might move forward. So this

462
02:10:08.320 --> 02:10:23.360
is sort of my my uh rationale for why I think that this structure is a good one for us to move forward with um with the understanding that it is going to be fully like with the public with us. Not just consulting them but having them be

463
02:10:23.360 --> 02:10:40.239
part of the process. um as well as uh making sure that we are building off of what has come before and that we are you know not engaging in that process of of having data that we don't actually use or feeling like we need to recollect.

464
02:10:40.239 --> 02:10:57.920
Um the rest of it that I that put in there I believe is in the proposal I've made itself. So at this time I would be looking for a second. >> Second. >> All right. discussion. Remember Den member Goodwin?

465
02:10:57.920 --> 02:11:14.560
>> I just want to confirm that this is an updated proposal because I actually didn't I actually didn't read this one cuz I read the one that you had previously in the packet which was different. So I just want to this is updated. >> So this is updated and I can tell you exactly what those updates were. they

466
02:11:14.560 --> 02:11:30.880
were changing the date like the due date for when we would have because I actually >> when I was thinking about order of operations, I would love for us to either have a strategic plan or this plan in place first so that one could be incorporated into the other and I

467
02:11:30.880 --> 02:11:46.560
figured this might as we can get this to come first and that give ourselves like the rest of 2027 to work on a strategic plan. Um, the other thing that I believe that I updated was adding in having a

468
02:11:46.560 --> 02:12:02.719
dedicated thing that we want to know about be regionalization. So, there are a few things that I name in here >> um that I would like us to like I don't know exactly how we will organize this in our advisory group, but potentially that looks like a task force of two or

469
02:12:02.719 --> 02:12:19.199
three people that goes and does research and presents to us as an advisory committee and then we sort of summarize all of that and bring it here. Um about think regionalization is one. Um there's some specific language in there about building closures or even like

470
02:12:19.199 --> 02:12:35.679
building new buildings if that is a like essentially not committing to anyone at this time but doing the leg work that we know we're going to need to do to make an informed decision and then sifting through all of that saying we think that this might be our best fit moving

471
02:12:35.679 --> 02:12:50.480
forward and then we bring that recommendation back here in about a year. I really appreciate you explaining that and I'm sorry that I didn't read this because I was like it's the same thing as the one that I read before. I've got it now. I've got it now. Okay.

472
02:12:50.480 --> 02:13:04.560
Cuz I was like I was reading the other one and you had something about a two-year thing and I was like I wanted to I wasn't sure. So I'm glad that all you I'm Thank you for referencing the policies >> and I want my motion templates to look

473
02:13:04.560 --> 02:13:21.440
as nice. Um, and I just want to say that I'm really thankful that you are doing these kinds of templates and ration. And I really like doing the motion templates and ration. And I'm sneakily saying to all of you that you should do motions

474
02:13:21.440 --> 02:13:38.239
and ration so that we can all read it ahead of time and know what you're thinking and be prepared and do our research prior to the meeting. And that's really important and that's, I think, a hallmark of a really good school committee. And that's what Pioneer Valley Regional does and that's

475
02:13:38.239 --> 02:13:55.360
what they told us we should do and their meetings are only two hours. So, uh, yay. >> God bless. >> And, and if if at some point in time you want to have like a Timotion template for all of us like in a Google doc that we all use, that would

476
02:13:55.360 --> 02:14:13.040
be really really smart and would make us a more functional school committee. So, thank you for >> slowly but surely >> for doing Yes. Slowly but surely. And I will be voting yes. Great. Thank you. And then member Deniv or sorry not member member Goodwin. >> I guess I just have been talking to

477
02:14:13.040 --> 02:14:29.199
people who've been looking at this for over 10 years. Um, and when you started to explain, it sounded like a really big group. And I don't think a really big group is going to like my sense is it's going to have to be small dedicated

478
02:14:29.199 --> 02:14:44.719
people who this is their like how can we best use our our buildings to serve the children? Um, may you think? Well, you can always continue

479
02:14:44.719 --> 02:15:02.159
>> if if need be, but I honestly think that a year's worth of solid meetings. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Um, yeah. And I think that in the proposal I actually name or I I list the specific

480
02:15:02.159 --> 02:15:18.000
number. I want to say it's 12, 11, 11 or 12. Maybe 13 somewhere between 11 and 13. um uh members of that advisory committee in 10. Great. Even less than that. >> An additional 10 advisory committee members.

481
02:15:18.000 --> 02:15:32.960
>> Yes. And plus three of us school committee members. Um >> 13 childs. >> I really like having the community directly involved. And I really like that we can make sure that the community involved do represent the community and

482
02:15:32.960 --> 02:15:49.679
it's not just all weighted all parents from one school. Um, and I don't think the size of 10 plus the three is an issue simply because realistically 10 people committing over a year. You're going to have some people who can't make

483
02:15:49.679 --> 02:16:06.599
it to all of them and some people probably not very many, but some who will have to drop. So, I would be hesitant to go a lower number because then you might end up with a committee that no longer reflects the community.

484
02:16:08.239 --> 02:16:22.639
have a good one. >> I would just encourage you to look at whoever was on building and sites last. >> Good. Thank you. All right. It looks like we might be ready to call the vote.

485
02:16:22.639 --> 02:16:41.200
Let's do it. Wait. Is there is there a sorry I could use my eyes and read this and probably answer my own question but is there a provision to perhaps have somebody from city council involved in this? I think that that would be really helpful if somebody from ways and means

486
02:16:41.200 --> 02:16:58.399
>> um or capital planning would be involved in this if I don't know if you have a liaison in mind. >> Um I do not have a particular like person in mind. I definitely uh we as the three named school committee members

487
02:16:58.399 --> 02:17:13.760
who would essentially comprise a kind of steering committee of sorts for this advisory committee um would have broad discretion of creating the call for other participants and choosing those participants and certainly I think

488
02:17:13.760 --> 02:17:29.359
strongly advertising and encouraging um our city council people like at least one like do some dedicated outreach should be like, "Hey, you should be on this with us." Um, is part of that. Yes, member Webb.

489
02:17:29.359 --> 02:17:44.559
>> Um, it does it list I don't see I'm looking at a quick overview. It doesn't list myself and member Den and you on this committee in it does. >> I am referring back to the subcommittee and representative assignments from

490
02:17:44.559 --> 02:18:01.519
January where I had initially listed myself, you and member Deniv. And I would still support having the three of us be that that small group. >> Okay. So when we are voting, we're voting on the also on the three of us being on this committee. >> Yes.

491
02:18:01.519 --> 02:18:20.800
>> Thank you. >> Any further questions? That was a good clarification. Thank you. >> All right. Please call the vote. >> Secretary Webb, I am a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. Member Dyman, >> yes.

492
02:18:20.800 --> 02:18:36.160
>> Member Goodwin, >> abstain. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> Passes with five yeses and one abstension. >> Great. Thank you very much. Um,

493
02:18:36.160 --> 02:18:53.120
this next item, um, item B is a discussion about if and how to proceed with mediation or conflict resolution for us as a body. Um, you might remember that we did vote to sort of engage in a

494
02:18:53.120 --> 02:19:10.000
contracting process, but then discovered that the executive session rationale that we wanted to use to make sure that we were having um these kinds of discussions amongst ourselves in private because I don't think being in the public would have suited actually having

495
02:19:10.000 --> 02:19:27.920
good good discussions. Um, so we were not able to proceed in that way. We have done some further digging about like ways that we might structure this so that it's not um, it wouldn't be a formal mediation, but it could be a place for us to generally talk about the

496
02:19:27.920 --> 02:19:44.080
relationship that we have as members together, which I think is honestly good practice. And I think any healthy partnership or group should talk about how they're doing as a group at least at least once a year. I mean I I do this in my own like friendships and other groups

497
02:19:44.080 --> 02:20:00.960
that I am part of that are not necessarily based in friendship but are based in common goal and aim which we do share a common aim and a common goal to steward the resources of our schools um our school district. Um

498
02:20:00.960 --> 02:20:18.720
and so you know given that I would like to just ask the question is this something that we as a group would still like to try to pursue one and then if so how would we like to do it?

499
02:20:18.720 --> 02:20:34.960
So um for this particular item I would love to open it up and have more of a free discussion. And I'm still happy to keep stack to make sure that no one's talking over other people. But yeah.

500
02:20:34.960 --> 02:20:55.760
So if yes, no. If so, how do we want to do it? I'm seeing some confused faces. um our options after doing some some digging. We are allowed to have working

501
02:20:55.760 --> 02:21:13.040
sessions where we do not deliberate on specific items that would need to come before the public, but it is in general talking about how we work together as a team. Um

502
02:21:13.040 --> 02:21:31.520
those do not require public session. Yes. Member D. >> Did you include my letter to the attorney general and his response in the materials? >> Did those get included in the materials? I don't believe they might not have,

503
02:21:31.520 --> 02:21:47.200
>> which means that we would need probably to talk about this in a month and have those materials there. >> Um, I mean, I published my letter online. I did. It It was It was fine. It was nice. They

504
02:21:47.200 --> 02:22:05.600
were very kind and they encouraged us to do this with a mediator if we want to. But to be honest with you, um, in order to get work done, we don't have to do it harmoniously. Like people don't have to have harmony to get work done.

505
02:22:05.600 --> 02:22:22.000
You can get work done in conflict. And like if if like all the negative emotions, if like anger and conflict and passion is what gets a fire under our asses to work

506
02:22:22.000 --> 02:22:38.720
for the students, then so be it. Like I'm not afraid of conflict with with any of you all. So like bring it if you want. It doesn't bother me. If that's what makes us work, then great. because I've been trying the harmony road for like a long time and it doesn't work. So

507
02:22:38.720 --> 02:22:56.160
maybe as a body we don't need that. But also I have learned the lesson recently that you don't have to like agree with or trust the people around you in order to get work done. So,

508
02:22:56.160 --> 02:23:12.720
I don't necessarily know that mediation is going to help the vibes not be bad, but um and that's okay. Um I don't expect that I will ever get what I need like personally from this committee. So,

509
02:23:12.720 --> 02:23:30.479
I do not seek it anymore. Um and that's fine for me. But if people want to engage to in order to create better vibes and better experience together as a group, I am all for it and I am here to support that and engage with that in any way you

510
02:23:30.479 --> 02:23:56.960
want. And we can do it and our attorney would not have allowed us to violate open meeting law in such a flagrant way. Um, and I think that's also important to state Great. All right.

511
02:23:56.960 --> 02:24:13.520
Yep. Member what? Um I'm just going to say that I feel that as a committee we have definitely done a lot of work since January um without mediation involved and I think a lot of members are I think

512
02:24:13.520 --> 02:24:32.000
everyone is doing their best to put their best foot forward. >> Have a good one. >> I guess I agree with everything that's being said. I mean, I feel like we're all sort of working really hard to to

513
02:24:32.000 --> 02:24:49.600
move forward. So, I mean, I haven't even thought about this. I mean, when I saw it, I was kind of like, I forgot all about it. So, sorry. >> I actually love to hear that. I will just say that for my experience tonight, I haven't felt bad vibes.

514
02:24:49.600 --> 02:25:06.560
Tonight has actually been kind of nice. Um, and I feel like that has has been the case for our meetings for the past maybe with one exception, a couple for for our past couple of meetings. Um, but even then, to the point, conflict in and of itself is not a

515
02:25:06.560 --> 02:25:23.200
problem. Like people are going to have conflict when we have differing opinions. That's um that's not an issue. making sure that we do have the kinds of processes to resolve and then continue productive collaboration

516
02:25:23.200 --> 02:25:41.120
during and after conflict that that that is important to me. But if I'm hearing that folks feel like we actually are fine and that we have these mechanisms in place, they are being utilized and folks are feeling great, then that delights me and I would say let's move

517
02:25:41.120 --> 02:25:57.359
on. Are there any other people who would like to make a comment or who have like strong feelings or All right, Member Childs and member Denise. I agree with what's been said. Um, if we feel the need for team

518
02:25:57.359 --> 02:26:12.399
building or direct conflict, I have a really big video game library and I am happy to set something up for us. >> Excellent. Remember Den? I mean, I guess

519
02:26:12.399 --> 02:26:30.479
I mean, I'm not like into spilling tea, but if I came to mediation, I would come with screenshots. Like, I have screenshots of abusive and harassing behavior from members. So, like, I can live with that. I'm an adult, but like

520
02:26:30.479 --> 02:26:46.880
that kind of stuff shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. I shouldn't have that, but I do. So like if me saying this right now means that it won't happen again then great. But if it continues

521
02:26:46.880 --> 02:27:03.359
then I'm going to pursue mediation because I don't want that to happen not just to me but to anybody on the committee. So, I guess if we could cast our minds back to our training with Liz Leond, who said like don't spread rumors

522
02:27:03.359 --> 02:27:20.720
and say nasty things about people online, that would be great. And maybe like we could be a more mature body because it doesn't it reflects on all of us and it causes like not just hurt feelings but damage. So,

523
02:27:20.720 --> 02:27:36.560
we're all on a path together. We're moving forward. We can conflict. We don't have to like each other, but like civility is really important. And we've seen in civility, but we've

524
02:27:36.560 --> 02:27:53.120
also done more work than I've ever seen this committee ever do before, like ever. Like, we're doing massive amounts of work. So, like, I commend us for that. But like, let us be good examples to our students.

525
02:27:53.120 --> 02:28:16.080
about the things maybe not to do to each other. That would be great. All right. Thank you. Um, yep. I agree that we as a baseline,

526
02:28:16.080 --> 02:28:35.680
it is incumbent upon all of us to treat each other with dignity and respect like we would any other human being. Um and in the absence of people wanting to specifically resolve things right now or feeling like we can uh move

527
02:28:35.680 --> 02:28:51.359
forward and if other specific instances arise, we can deal with them as needed. Uh I would suggest that we maybe move on from this discussion um and go to item C. I really appreciate everyone for

528
02:28:51.359 --> 02:29:11.520
sharing their perspective. Um, and I appreciate this committee and its willingness to move forward and get work done on behalf of our students uh, and our community. So, thank you all for that. Let's set some meeting dates for our

529
02:29:11.520 --> 02:29:27.520
budget. We don't need to do that. Do we need to do that? >> Uh, no. I've been in constant communication with the mayor's office and they're working with the city council office if that makes any sense to you and they do not have dates yet from the city council in terms of what

530
02:29:27.520 --> 02:29:43.200
order of things would be happening in on what dates. Okay. >> Um they're going to be presented with the budget on April 22nd. They believe most things would have be happening in May and June. So once we get those they are working on that right now. Once we get those uh we'll be in contact with

531
02:29:43.200 --> 02:29:59.760
everybody if there are if there are additional dates in May that we may have to discuss and and or pass or do things with the budget. So nothing tonight. >> Great. Thank you. Um I actually would like to postpone item D

532
02:29:59.760 --> 02:30:17.040
again. Um, mostly because I think I was supposed to be bringing this as trying to resolve something that was brought up under the last chair, but I actually need to refresh my own self on what we're what we're actually doing with that motion uh before I present it to

533
02:30:17.040 --> 02:30:35.920
you. Um, so can I get a vote to take uh postpone item D to May? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Great. A motion to second. >> Good one. >> Good one. >> Can you please call that vote?

534
02:30:35.920 --> 02:30:52.080
>> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deneive, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. >> Passes unanimously. >> All right. Um, okay. Revisiting item E. Motion from member Den to support the

535
02:30:52.080 --> 02:31:10.200
Mass Foundation Budget Review Commission. >> I think that this one is not in the materials again. which is fine. Um, I mean, I'm happy to read it. It'll just take me a second to find it.

536
02:31:10.399 --> 02:31:27.520
>> Why Why would that not be there? >> Uh, I sent it the month before and then it didn't make it in. So, I was saying, uh, this is based on the public comment that we received. We were all here for that public comment. >> No.

537
02:31:27.520 --> 02:31:55.359
Okay, >> it's like lost lost in my drive. Um, what does that bill? Oh, I have my motion pulled up. I'm I'm happy to read it to y'all.

538
02:31:55.359 --> 02:32:12.000
Please proceed. >> Okay. I move that the Greenfield School Committee create a resolution to convene a new Massachusetts Foundation budget review uh budget review commission and then send that resolution to the city council for approval and send it to

539
02:32:12.000 --> 02:32:28.240
Kumafford. So, this came from a public comment about um the Massachusetts Foundation Budget Review Commission, which was created in 2014 to evaluate and recommend updates to the chapter 70 school funding formula. So, this is

540
02:32:28.240 --> 02:32:45.520
about revisiting chapter 70. Um and we haven't done like the state has not done that in a very long time. And we have gone like we went to we went to the state house three three years I've went and talked

541
02:32:45.520 --> 02:33:02.640
to them about this. We've organized meetings with other school committees. We rallied the school committees. I won like an award for this. Like we went, we talked, we did, we dined, we lunched, all the senators, all the reps, like did the whole thing um to try to get

542
02:33:02.640 --> 02:33:19.040
momentum for reopening chapter 70. And Kafford wants to do this. I think that it would be really good if we as the county seat say yes. Yes, we've been fighting for this. We want this. Um the city council wants this.

543
02:33:19.040 --> 02:33:35.120
You know, we all want this. It will make other school committees in the surrounding areas also sit up and take notice, especially if um our local newspaper writes about it and says that we're willing to support this so that we can get a little bit more momentum on

544
02:33:35.120 --> 02:33:50.560
chapter 70 funding reform, which we badly badly badly need um in this budget crisis. So, I added the bill tracker, I believe, or no, this one doesn't have a bill tracker. I'm sorry. I added the bill

545
02:33:50.560 --> 02:34:07.680
number so that you can look it over. I hope everybody looked it over. Um I'd sure love to do this, you know. Um so that's my motion.

546
02:34:07.680 --> 02:34:25.200
>> I guess I need a second. >> Second. >> Yes. Member Goodwin. >> So I've been writing to people. I'm all over this. This I feel like I dream about chapter 70 formulas. Um

547
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I just think there might be a different name. Does it have a different name? Like the the group that's saying redo chapter 70. I thought it was more I don't know. I'll go with it if that's what you think it's called. But I just

548
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wasn't sure because I thought it had the title like it was more >> down with chapter 70. It was sort of like >> oh >> a little more aggressive. >> I don't know. This is what prompted my resolutions thing because I was talking

549
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to member Dykeman about it and we were like we got to write a thing >> and I sent a letter to Senator Cumberford and she's like please write a thing. >> Write the thing on a formal thing. put your like header on it and GPS on it and like do the thing and we had no like

550
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formal way to do that. >> So I was like okay so here we are trying to do this stuff we don't have a way to do it. So this is the very first one that bumped me up against that and but when I wrote to them I used foundation budget review com commission and they wrote back and were like yeah the

551
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foundation budget review commission and in public comment they use that. So if but if there's another name that you're used to like send it over or if you want to write the resolution >> and or do this labor great. >> Um I just would love the word equity

552
02:35:46.560 --> 02:36:01.840
after budget because that's the whole issue that chapter 70 is not equitable to all school districts. Um so it's an equity issue for me. Well, it would be great if you were interested in

553
02:36:01.840 --> 02:36:17.359
writing it or like um adjusting it. Uh because we've done a lot of this. >> Well, let's just go with what it is. And I will continue to write things to everybody

554
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about the bad math they're doing. >> Um and I think it's also important to lend our voice to this because we're not a rural school. >> No. and we're that in between district. And so we're not going to benefit from the rural schools built, but yet we go

555
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and we support our sister districts who will benefit because rising tide lifts all boats, but we also need to advocate for ourselves. And so that's going to come through chapter 70. So that's my rationale. >> Um Senator Comfort today sent an email

556
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that said she had gotten money for Greenfield, >> right? The supplemental budget of 250,000. I was going to ask you about that. >> My question was that go to us or to the mayor? >> Okay, just checking. >> We love that. >> Um, member child, >> I remember just a few months ago, uh,

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Commer invited us to a big event, Greenfield High School. Um, it was packed. I was there with member Goodwin and we both spoke on this topic. The auditorium was packed with people from schools all around Western Massachusetts. I think it's important

558
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that we keep the pressure on them because if we ease up at that gives them uh an excuse to stop looking at it, they're not going to do anything unless they're forced to. So, we need to make sure we force them to or if anything, it's the threat of more emails from me,

559
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which hopefully will scare them. >> Great. Further discussion? >> Yes. to to be clear, um the the Foundation Review Commission, I'm learning about all of this, right?

560
02:37:55.439 --> 02:38:11.920
Um it existed, it did its work, it gave a report in 2015. >> Is that all correct? >> 2014. >> Okay. Um >> No. Yes, you're right. 2015 it issued its final report. >> Mhm. >> And there has been no such commission

561
02:38:11.920 --> 02:38:26.479
since then. >> They have not revisited anything since then. Right. >> So what we >> Roland's got it. Well, that the speakout you you're all talking about that people went to I believe November it may have happened in that since they did four across the state and we were fortunate

562
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to host one here that is a review commission that is the first time in the last 11 years I think we mentioned this as well before that by the time they even do any of this and produce this report they're they're hoping from what we heard to produce it in June

563
02:38:43.840 --> 02:38:58.479
>> at some hoping >> to take everything they learned from any emails that you may send, from what they heard at the public speakout, etc. any studies that they've done, hoping, you understand what I'm saying, to produce it to the legislature in June,

564
02:38:58.479 --> 02:39:14.160
legislators in June, who will then go on break for two months. >> Mhm. >> And then not touch that until the fall >> 28 >> at that point. Um, and should anything happen throughout this coming fall and winter,

565
02:39:14.160 --> 02:39:29.920
many believe you would not see any action in a change of any type of review even for the FY28 change. Would not see it. Maybe the slightest possibility of that happening for that next cycle, but this current

566
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FY27 that we're starting to budget for, no, you will not see any review or any change in that. >> Yeah. They said FY 29 or 30 at the earliest on the Zoom. >> Like I had mentioned probably not not even 28. So yeah, you are correct, member Denise.

567
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>> Yes, but to be clear, this is just one opportunity that we have to continue to show our support >> for us and our neighbors to get what we deserve from the state because they need to pay their what like they need to pay

568
02:40:00.960 --> 02:40:16.000
the lion share of education um if they want to keep their preeminent place. Um and the the formula that we use um needs to be equitable because right now it is producing desperate outcomes for

569
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districts. Um okay, I think we're ready to vote. Please call the role. >> Secretary Webb, I'm a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. Member Gene, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes.

570
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>> Chair Ston, >> yes. passes unanimously. >> Wonderful. All right. We are now on section 11, item F, a motion from member Goodwin that the school committee form an ad hoc committee to study the current state of literacy in our schools. Um, I

571
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will say that I am not against this motion, but I might actually ask that you, and presumably I think you're working on this together, you and member Dyman, um, >> produce a written document that has a little bit more of a rationale and also

572
02:41:05.439 --> 02:41:20.960
a plan for this ad hoc committee. It needs to have a very specific charge and we need to know like what is the final outcome that you're going to produce? Um, and just give us a little bit more shape. So we know really what we're voting on um and how you want that

573
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committee to sort of be uh form like what yeah just the shape that it's going to take um deadlines, due dates, all of that sort of stuff. So uh I might ask respectfully ask that you do that and come back to us in May. Is that reasonable?

574
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>> Sure. >> Thank you very much. Um so in the meantime, can we get a motion to postpone this item till May? >> Still moved. >> Second. Great. Please uh call the vote. >> Secretary Webb, yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes.

575
02:41:52.560 --> 02:42:07.840
>> Member Dene, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Saxton, >> yes. >> Passes unanimously. >> I'm happy to work with you on that drafting that. >> Great. Thank you very much for that. Um, all right. Item G, motion from Vice

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Chair Childs to revise policies BEDH, public comment at school committee meetings and beed e guidelines for public comment to remove reference to address and replace it with relationship to the schools. >> Well, first thank you to whoever looked

577
02:42:24.960 --> 02:42:41.760
up the specific policies because I was just vague. This is going back to what Liz Lefon said about best practices and also it's really invasive to ask someone their address and not as useful as asking them how they are related to the school be that Greenfield community

578
02:42:41.760 --> 02:42:58.479
member, educator, family. So I think it's pretty straightforward. >> Great. I'll second this motion. Any discussion? Yes. I already have this on the list for

579
02:42:58.479 --> 02:43:15.760
policy for April 27th. So, we'll re it and change it and bring it back for a second read. >> Sweet. >> Do we Do we need >> So, we can just withdraw the motion. >> I thought we had to vote. >> Well, not if it's withdrawn. We don't

580
02:43:15.760 --> 02:43:32.560
have to vote. Oh, wait. Are we voting to send it to a sub or did we already >> We already voted to send it to policy. So, I have it on my list of policy to-dos. Then we can just >> Yep. >> It's gone. >> It's gone. >> Sweet. We'll just >> really It'll resurface in May.

581
02:43:32.560 --> 02:43:49.920
>> Yes. >> Following the proper channels. >> That's right. >> Perfect. Um Okay. Um >> same with uh H. >> Same with H. So that's already >> same with H. Yep. I have >> these are continuing to be like this.

582
02:43:49.920 --> 02:44:04.960
>> So they're being handled. Okay. So then we can move on to number 12. A vote to enter executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A subsection 21A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with non-UN personnel or to conduct collective

583
02:44:04.960 --> 02:44:20.720
bargaining sessions or contract uh negotiations with with non blah blah non-union personnel. And item three, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares, I do declare the

584
02:44:20.720 --> 02:44:36.640
committee will return to open session to do the vote that you see uh as item 13. So looking for a vote. >> Second, no vote. >> I think we just vote to enter executive session. >> So moved.

585
02:44:36.640 --> 02:44:53.279
>> Great. Uh second move. Second, whatever. Um, please call the vote. >> Secretary Webb, yes. >> Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, yes. Chair Saxton,

586
02:44:53.279 --> 02:45:31.040
>> yes. >> Passes. >> All right. We are entering executive session at 9:19. We will return to open session. Welcome back everyone. It is 9:49 and we are resuming public session. Um, moving

587
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along to item 13, a vote to instruct the chair to sign the memorandum of agreement from the Greenfield Education Association. >> So moved. Second. >> Great. We have a motion and a second. Um, any discussion on that. All right. Will we please call the vote?

588
02:45:48.560 --> 02:46:03.840
>> Secretary Webb, yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. All right. passes unanimously. I will sign that. Uh, now I'm looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved.

589
02:46:03.840 --> 02:46:19.120
>> Great. All right. Motion and a second. Um, please call a vote. >> Secretary Webb, yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes. >> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. >> Chair Sexton, >> yes. We are adjourned at 9:50 p.m. Thank

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you, everyone.