--------- Good evening everyone and welcome to the Holio School Committee's local control subcommittee meeting. My apologies for the late start. Um we are going ahead and calling the meeting to order at 5:08 p.m. this
evening. we have here in person is um school committee member Devon Sheen and myself Mildred Lefave and I believe we have our mayor, Mayor Joshua Garcia on Zoom here. Okay, great.
Um, so let's go ahead and stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you everyone. And so real quickly, on March 29th, 2023, Governor Healey here, sorry, Healey signed into law an act relative to extending certain state
of emergency accommodations, which among other things extends the expiration of the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st, 2025. Specifically, this extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of
the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings. The act does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary provisions regarding remote
meetings from March 31st, 2023 to March 31st, 2025. Pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 30A section 20, I am hereby informing all attendees that a video and audio recording is being made of the
meeting and the meeting is being livereamed and run live on the city's community TV channel. We're going to go ahead and go into new business. And um our first is the introduction of the interim acting commissioner of
education. Commissioner Johnson, are you there? Uh we are very pleased that Secretary Tyler will be joining us this evening. Uh and uh mentioned just before we came on air here that uh just to repeat then for anyone tuning in tonight uh we're both
we're driving home separately from Ammerst and uh at the house with the means committee meeting today and the uh testimony went longer than expected and so he will join us soon. So maybe if we could come back to this item, but we wanted to both be here tonight to
because this will be my last meeting with you and we want he wanted to be here in order to show our continuity, show how we are. Just handing off um the baton from me to him. Um and you know I think you know we can certainly go on with business and when he joins if he wouldn't mind uh you know he'll just be
able to say maybe just a few words and and I can you know maybe start and then hand it off to him. Um but uh really this is just a gesture of wanting to just show that uh the state is still very much with you in this process and we are excited to continue to see things through to completion.
So um Miss Feliciano um is Dr. Tutweiler online because if not I will ask for a motion to put aside um items A and B and we'll move into C and come back once we have them
available. No, not yet. Okay. So, do I have a motion to put items A and B? Um we'll come back to those and we'll go ahead and get um the midway update from the community
advisory team. So we have here with us is um Eric Weiss. So I'll pass it to you to go ahead and give uh the brief update on where we're at with the community advisory team. And you can always submit it to us after
and we will definitely put it into the meeting minutes. Now the green light's on. All right. Um good evening. Um I'm Eric Weiss from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Um I have been working with a great number of people from Holio um on what's called a
community advisory team which is meant to provide advice to the local control subcommittee as well as the school committee as you go through the process of coming out of um receiverhip and also moving towards the direction of hiring a new superintendent and what could happen
there. Um, we recognize and it's been emphasized by more than one person that we're in the midst of a historic change with Holio that no town or city has ever come out of the receiverhip and and so we're here I'm hopefully helping to help move the process forward through the
meetings that we've had. Um, it is a very strong willed group that I'm working with which I appreciate very much and there's a lot of important pieces to what we're trying to do that um are that are that are needed to be accomplished by this group. Um the two main charges of the committee are one to
provide direct input and and help facilitate broadbased community input and we've done quite a bit of that already in which we've solicitated um through a series of questions information from the members of the subcommittee and we have a whole series of responses there that that obviously I will share. Um and then the next piece
which is what we're just basically starting to tackle now is to um basically f help them with the purpose of um helping with the receivers evaluation process and also what would be going forward towards the new superintendent
to help define the types of questions which need to be asked the um sort of philosophical approach they want the person to have. Um so they're they're um as well as the um necessity of of recognition of where they're coming into
Holio at what time in the process as well as um recognizing the challenge and difficulties that lay ahead to move this whole process forward. They've been great. I um they um they've been very honest um terms of what they'd like to accomplish and what we need to accomplish. We've met so far three
times, January 27th, February 10th, and March 10th. We've made really good progress on the first item in terms of de getting some input from that community um and we're moving towards the other um community um as well. And I'm I'm here to to now to say today that
after some meetings earlier in the day, we able to come up with a calendar which also meets the uh city's needs in which the next community advisory team meeting will be April 7th. Um there will be a um community forum on the 22nd. There'll
actually be two, one in upper Holio, one in lower Holio, and that was by your request. Um, those will be live and there'll be food and child care, and we're looking for the community as a whole at large to come in and give us some commentary. Um, we will also do a virtual community forum on the 29th for
those that can't make the live version. Um, and then following that, we'll bring everything to the next, um, I don't want to keep calling it CAT, but the community advisory team meeting on May 5th. So, we've ironed out the schedule for the rest of so not the rest of it, but to get us all the way to May 5th and
then and then take it from there, which I think is just fantastic. Um, I also wanted to make a point of kind at least demonstrate to the members that are here the types of comments that we've gotten back. And I'm reading them. I'm just
going to read a few of them verbatim um that we received from the group just to give you the idea. um again and I will submit this back um but that we've we're working with great schools to get comm community input and we've set up a whole schedule that goes with that and we've already heard many comments things like
the next iteration of the Holio public schools needs to take the right path. Um we need more opportunities like this to collaborate together. they've it's really been found that this this group doesn't matter to me if you keep it or not, but keeping a group involved, a
community group, I think, could be really healthy as you move this process forward. That seems to be something that um welcomes um opinion and also welcomes diversity of opinion, which is of good a good thing. Um people are feeling like um they can be part of something that
they can they can help the city. They want to be part of a positive change. Um they look they like being part of a process. the idea of gaining some more local control as they move through this process appeals to a great number of people. They also want to make sure that there's a voice for youth and families
and educators and residents that it's it's a wide array of people you're talking to. Um the sense in the room that the community spirit is amazing. It was a good one. We we we kind of dwelled on that thought for a minute. um the fact that they all believe that there's
there's a core group of people that remain very much with high regard for Holio and the Holio school system regardless of the number of people in changing positions and that they believe that Holio is both resilient and supportive. Um they really want um to do
better to empower parents to empower student. They know that the key to that um long term to whoever is superintendent has to be to encourage communication at all levels and have all different levels talk to each other. Um they like the idea of it being solutions
focused i.e. actions and not just words. Um that they all believe that Holio is a great place to live and it has a strong sense of self. Um that they believe that building pathways to communication is important and I'll wrap up with a couple more here.
um they want to see more accessibility and more opportunity for all constitu constituents to collaborate throughout the city and for there to be a message of the great worth of public education. The reason I wanted to share those with you is not I'm not saying we have solutions inside of that, but you have a
whole group of people. There's over 30 people that are part of the group that are certainly expressing what they would like and what they believe Holio can do and they all believe that Holio can do some great things and that part of this process is to make sure that it's well defined. Um, I think the next two months
worth of work we'll be able to really iron and put in place or solidify what we're looking for in terms of that type of information. I'm very much look looking forward to working with the committee over the next little while here to get get that part done. And I also know that um one of the keys to the
success of this project is for is to make sure that there's the kind of continuity and sense of belonging within it that everybody needs. I don't claim to have all the answers. I've been brought in my role as a facilitator. I don't have the all the answers for public education. Nobody does. But I
think that Holio is doing a really good um not just a good thing, but a a good piece of trying to understand the pro the problems and the challenges you'll have going forward from a multiple layer of of of positions. And I think that's going to help you and be a key part of
how you move forward with both the evaluation process and the hiring process. and know how important that is to help move the city in the right directions. So, that's where we are that I mean, we're going to get a lot of good stuff over the next next set of meetings between the next community advisory team
meeting as well as the um community forums. There's going to be a lot of people putting a lot of energy to make sure those forums come out right and we're looking forward to working with everybody on that. Thank you so much, um Mr. Weiss. So, um,
with that being said, I don't know if any of our members of the local control subcommittee have any questions or comments as to so far on the process of the community advisory team. Irene, I can't see from that end. So, if I don't
know if our mayor has his hand raised, I I'm not on the Zoom part. Maybe I'll just ask Mayor Garcia, do you have a question or a comment? at the moment. No, but I'm going to be walking in in about 30 seconds. Oh,
okay. All right. So, I'll talk real slowly just in case. Uh, Mr. Sheen, you said that the 29th is one of the forums. Is that April 29th? Yes, the uh it's the virtual one, right? Yeah. Yeah.
And so can you just go over again what the goal is out of those forums and what you're imagining those to be like? Um the the next piece is a key piece in the community um feedback piece. um that um
what we are trying to do through the through what is defined as the receiver evaluation process um is help collect and define some of the EV evidence and identification of focus of performance indicators which means we're trying to provide you with um sort of points that you can look at or or information you
can use as part of that process from the perspective of the people that are in the room. not from the administration's perspective or the school committee's perspective, but from the people that are like working in the district and and and that perspective. [Music]
So, one of the things um that I did after I attended your last meeting and I want to say it was March 10th. Okay. Um and by what I had heard um and plus the other videos that I had watched your
first two meetings uh once I took over as um chair for this for the subcommittee. I wanted to see kind of like what was it that was happening within these meetings and and making sure that
the the focus of the of what the community advisory team has tasked on that it's it's being done. Yeah. So, a lot of the focus was on the hiring process and um
uh who we'd want to hire, when would we want to do this? Um but also time's running really short, really quick. And the second piece that was in the capacity building plan was about the
evaluation, right, which we would be submitting. uh I want to say in May um on the current uh receiver slash superintendent
and so I sent them sent Eric Weiss the capacity building plan as well as Gabriella from Great Schools partnership. Correct. Yeah. Um so this way they can see what
the task of the community advisory team was. And being because of the evaluation process in during that time there was also what our current receiver had submitted which was his personal goal um the two to three two to four district
goals student goal. So they were made aware as to what those goals were because that would be part of the evaluation. Mhm. Um, so that's how that came to be and that's kind of what they're working on, going to be working on now. Exactly.
There any other questions? No. Oh, Mr. Shan. So, can you tell me um what the how the collaboration has worked with Great Schools Partnership, what they've done, what you've done um and
also when they started on the project. Um I don't have that exact date in my head to be honest, but um um they were coming in electronically for the first couple meetings, but they're going to have a strong um presence at the community meetings and at the next meetings as well in terms of being here.
We had that discussion with them today. So they're very much engaged at the community level, especially when we get to the community forums, which was the intent of the way the original scope was written, that they would have more focus there. We'd back off and let them work more on that part as we worked on other
pieces. Yeah. The great schools has the the community engagement component, but I believe what was her name again? Gabrielle has been going to each of your meetings. Yes, she either electronically or physically, but it's just so from I understand I think she's going to be
helping with drafting the survey, facilitating the public meetings, all that stuff. Yes. Right. So, what I'm going to do afterwards because Gabriella did send us like a draft and that's something that we talked about on Zoom today. um myself,
Gabriella, and Eric because I think one of the one of the issues that we were seeing is just making sure that we're all on the same page. Y and so she did create the draft agenda as to their next meeting that they're going to be working
with the community advisory team. And that is in preparing for the community forums, right? Um, so I will send you all that as well so you can see what it looks like. All right, Irene, I don't I'm
sorry, Miss Feliciano. We've known to each other too long. Um, is there anyone else from the com Oh, I'm sorry, Mayor Garcia. Happy to open it up, but what was like the the thing that stuck out the most so
far? I know it's been short. We're doing a lot in a very little bit of time. Um but so far kind of you know engaging with the folks. I think the level of um belief and compassion they have in this school district there you have a group of people there that all really
want Holio to succeed and move move forward on this in the best ways possible. No surprises. What's that? No surprises. Um they were willing to tell me the truth if they didn't like something I did. I'm I'm appreciative of that. So but I don't call those surprises. that's
part of the facilitation process and but I think that it's been nobody's ever done this kind of thing as we've said before this is a really unique process of all the things I've ever been involved with. So there have been um challenges that we've overcome and we're doing well with it but it's it's important to get all that feedback and
put it all in one place so that you can see it as well. Great. Okay. Um, we do have Gabriella from Great Schools Partnership if you'd like to say
a few words. Yes, thank you so much. Um, I I was able to meet with both Mildrid and with Eric earlier today, like they said, and we have a three-part agenda for the next few sessions where we're going to be
engaging first the community advisory team as active participants in those community forums. Um, and then also a session to run after where we'll be debriefing and making recommendations based on the goals that Mildred was describing specifically around
communication. We know that that's come up, Eric and and I noticed that that came up multiple times as a theme of something that the community advisory team is especially interested in and we know that that is one of the goals um that we're going to be providing
feedback on. So, I'm really excited and it has been I know I've been participating virtually for the meetings, but it's been really great just to listen to the perspectives of the community members um and some of the really amazing programming that is happening in Holio. Um there are some
really amazing things that are in place. Well, I want to thank you both for for joining here this evening and as well providing this update because at the same time um the commissioner as well as the secretary of education who will also
be overseeing that position. They're hearing as well from you as to where we are right now with the community advisory team and what we're looking forward um in the next couple months. So, thank you again for coming. Thank
you to all the individuals members um that are currently part of the community advisory team as well as two of our very own who were appointed um school committee member Orlando Sasa and Eleanor Wilson. Um I thank everyone for
the work and the time that they're putting in for this very important. Thank you. All right, we'll see you. Been interesting to work on April 7th. Okay. I'll be at your meeting. Nope. Not yet. Huh? Did you have something or did was
do you want someone people from the public to speak from the community advisory team? Community advisory. Yeah. From the community advisory. There was no one else, right, Miss Feliciano? No. Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and move back um to the beginning of the
agenda now that we have our Secretary of Education, Dr. Tutweiler um on screen as well as our current interim acting commissioner Russell Johnston. Um so we're going to move with the first one which is the introduction. Thank you so
much for being here with us this evening and I'm going to pass the mic to you. So that Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Commissioner. No, no, no. Secretary um you know just I mentioned just before you uh joined a little earlier that
we're just pleased that you know um maintaining the continuity as I depart and this will be my last meeting with the group. So really um you know just welcome you to this group tonight. Uh just so pleased that you're able to join and um you know you you've stayed really
close with this work all throughout the team here. Maybe you wouldn't be as aware of that. So I just wanted really appreciate you being able to be here tonight. I think you got home just before me from Ammerst and so I appreciate that you can be on screen and uh just share your your words of encouragement with this group who have
done uh such good work to prepare uh for the end of receiverhip. Yeah, Commissioner, I mean you you stole my thunder. First, I'll name I broke no traffic laws getting home uh from Amherst, but I do apologize for for being late. Uh it was my intention to be
on with you uh at 5:00 pm, but uh just want to extend uh my greetings first and foremost uh Mayor Garcia and members of the committee, Superintendent uh Sodto, who I've known for for some time going back to my days as superintendent in
Lynn. Uh the commissioner and Lauren have kept me uh intimately apprised of the work happening uh in Holio and I very much look forward to partnering with you over the next period of time which I assume will be just a few months
uh before we appoint uh a a permanent uh commissioner. But look forward to to working with you as we continue to take the steps forward as you move uh out of uh receiverhip and into your your next uh uh uh step in your path forward. Um,
I uh, again, I'm happy to be here and look forward to working with you. Thank you so much for for taking the time to be here this evening. Um, I think it's really important as we're transitioning um, now that Commissioner Johnson will
not be continuing on in the role. um that that transition as well within the department is very important because again Holio wants to get out of receiverhip. We don't want no delays, right? Okay. So with that being said and
the most important part on the agenda as well is the exit assurances. So, I'm hoping that that's something that can be presented this evening um from Desi's end so that to the local control um and find out what it is exactly, what you
mean by exit asurances and what they may look like. Absolutely. So, since the beginning of this transition, we've been talking about these exit assurances and I'm happy to peer into them more closely this evening. Uh so the way that the
statute and regulations are worded relative to um you know district that's placed in receiverhip and schools as well is that when we come to the end of receiverhip the commissioner has the authority to maintain aspects of the turnaround plan for a period of two
years that can be renewed beyond two years if there's something like an additional district review. But for the purposes of this conversation, let's start with kind of a two-year mindset on the continuation of aspects of the turnaround plan with the idea that you know the improvement has occurred and
we've talked about this with Holio all along right there. We are pleased to see the effort that has been put into improving outcomes for students and uh we know that that work is not done. uh we know that student outcomes aren't where we want them to be entirely yet.
And so the our ability to um maintain aspects of the turnaround plan post receiverhip is a signal to say we need to there's there are aspects of the work that we we need to make sure are maintained postreceverhip. And if we
were to be silent on them, um, you know, there'd be a concern that, you know, would anything change? You know, we don't want this to sort of be like the end of receiverhip and then everything changes. It's more like the end of receiverhip and the improvement work that's gone on will continue to go on.
And uh so when you look at the turnaround plan, it's organized around the the strategies uh that are named for the district that re relate a lot to um you know curriculum that relate to professional development that relate to community
engagement. And so uh you know the there the commissioner will decide will determine which of those aspects of the turnaround plan are necessary to to maintain in place. And the good news about that is that uh receiver superintendent sto has developed a
strategic plan that's well aligned with the turnaround plan. So the types of things that I imagine we will maintain in the way of um initiatives and the structures that are in place are all are
well defined in the strategic plan and so there there should be some strong synergy there. Then there's a crucial part of the turnaround plan at the end. It's called appendix A and it describes the the um uh the the aspects of the turnaround
plan that relate to the work that our that are the staff do um teachers and other staff members such as how the compensation system works, how staffing decisions are made, um how disputes are resolved and that's also a part of the
turnaround plan that uh the the commissioner has the ability to maintain postreceverhip. uh it's all part of the turnaround plan and so I know that's been a you know an area where there have been uh just further you know further questions appropriately so um and we have
fortunately been able to engage with the holio teachers association on several occasions to be able to discuss their input on those exiturances most recently but let's step back you know to determine which of the exit asurances will be maintained uh we've looked at
the data in terms of the um you know the progress that the district is making and what what type of initiatives need to remain in place. Uh we've listened to the voices of um you know district leadership of even you know the work of this committee. You know just seeing how
we're setting up the uh the plan that you have. We want to make sure that there's alignment, right? That all of this just works in connection with um you know with each piece that it's not like the exit insurance is uh they need to sort of you know harmonize with the work that you're doing. And so we've
been listening really intently to to this work, you know, really everywhere we can take in information uh to determine what those extra assurances will be. And so uh they are in development. Um I I don't I didn't come I didn't know that I apologize that you wanted them to uh to be able to see them
this evening. Um but we are um you know close. This was always planned to be something that would happen um winter spring uh type of time frame. So maybe early spring uh to be able to announce what they are so that as we approach the end of receiverhip that they are able to
just be known and ready to go for uh the future of the the district post receiverhip. But glad to answer any questions you might have. any u Mayor Garcia spring. So, what are we talking about? Like next
month, couple weeks, and and how does that because I mean, Commissioner Tutweiler, great. I can't wait to work with you, but we don't know what the whether if it's Tutwaller
or the incoming commissioner, you know, how do we ensure that partnership and trying to understand if one whether or not there will be exit assurances because I think the intent here was to explore it and then make a determination and two if
there is a determination what those ex exiturances are. Who's who's coming up with that? Is it you? Is it Tutweer is going to be the new guy? Um, yeah, thank you, Mayor Garcia. So, we've been working on it. Um, and like I said, the secretary and I have been in close
conversation along with our teams. So, you know, I do anticipate within the next few weeks. Um, if not sooner, but you know, we this is not months away. uh this is close and um we are you know be glad to uh uh to kind of you know make
sure that there's a strong communication plan around like how we you know how who we talk to as they come out. Um uh when's your last day? Uh Mayor Garcia my last day is in Friday. Okay.
So it's the time that we need extra time. Is it because you need to have more conversations with people? Is it I can't imagine it would take long to pick um the the the the things that you want like is it some other more assurances
you're looking for but what's the the what's contributing to the length of time? Sure. So we have been meeting most recently with the Holo Teachers Association. I really I deeply appreciate their input. uh we had a
meeting as recent as last week and so based on the you know the feedback that we've received from them in particular just you know this is where we are in the process is uh having those discussions and you know what I've said to them that I would say to you as well is that if we ask for input uh
particularly from the hol futures association as we have most recently we have to be willing to act upon it and so that acting upon it is where we are right now taking in their their feedback their input and now determining particularly how that relates to the the
components of appendix A. Um, so like I said, we're close, but we we have been talking about this and getting input as recently as last week. And so that's why we are still in kind of final final phases of uh of developing what we will
put in writing to you all. Mr. Sheen, hello. Yes. So, at our last uh meeting, we were originally supposed to be meeting on on March 31st, and I assume it got moved up because your departure
was prior to that. Um, correct. Yes. So, at that meeting, you had indicated that your hope was to have the exit assurances by March 31st. Is that something that's not going to happen? Yeah, Mr. I appreciate the question and
I think um where I know a date I will always give it uh and so when I say that it will happen soon and we're talking about weeks not months uh because we have wanted to be attentive because we have wanted to make sure we take in additional feedback and considerations
um and like I said most recently from the hta um we think it's important that we get it right and that we do it well and so yes uh March 31st would be ideal but I don't know that we'll be able to deliver I can't say for sure if it'll be exactly by um that's why I'm saying
weeks uh as opposed to a certain a date certain as we continue to uh to finalize this work. And then I guess my next question is probably for the secretary since he takes over on Saturday if your last day is uh Friday. Um, but are you
committed that the school committee will be the first group to get those exit assurances or will they be distributed to others before those are distributed to the school committee? Uh I would actually defer to the commissioner on that uh the order of
operations there but my uh inclination is that uh you would have those uh first. Okay. Yes. Yes. And like I mentioned this is where you know just a careful communication plan uh will be important. Um and you know also
obviously including the mayor and yeah very often we want you know we ask when we communicate to a school committee we communicate through the mayor and so often they go to the mayor and then on to um on to the other members of the committee since the mayor is the chair. we go to the chair to get
to the committee. And then my hope is that if that these are ready for this next scheduled local control meeting and that we actually have these to be able to discuss at our next meeting with members from DESIE
present, not virtual but in person if we can do that. No, no, the next meeting in April like we meet every or in May because I would like to have nodding and I know Yeah, I think we can arrange that member. Absolutely. because I'd like to
have a discussion about those with this committee um to be able to discuss and ask questions about those exit assurances. And I just don't think that a virtual meeting necessarily allows for a conducive ability to discuss that and to really ask our questions regarding what those
exit assurances really look like. Isn't today the last day for the virtual thing? Has it been extended yet? It's extended till 2027. It has been extended. Mayor Garcia. Yeah, I guess so. Let me let me ask you this. Has there been a
determination made to to go forward with exit insuranceances or we thinking about still thinking about whether or not we want to put exit insuranceances in place? We believe that exitur exit assurances are necessary because we look at the all
of the the turnaround plan. And so are there components of the you know when we for example when I spoke with the holy teachers association um I said to indicate you know my level of willingness to accept input is you know around appendix A you know if if there
would be exit assurances related to appendix A uh as a because I didn't want to begin the conversation with you know that to indicate that I wasn't open to uh their feedback and so at all and but it's it's bigger than appendix Okay. Um
all of the exit assurances and u I have appreciated their constructive feedback on uh how to think about aspects of appendix A as well. So um I think you know where I would leave it right now is there are likely to be exit assurances and again they're done in the spirit of how do we continue to advance the
improvement in the district. So that that's a a yes that there will indeed be exit insurancees in place. We will have them. It's like it is likely yes. [Music] I don't see any further questions at the
moment. Um and then I'm going to assume Oh, we've got another question. I I think it's more that that the lack of question is because there's really nothing to we have nothing. So I I think that it's really just a waiting game. So I don't I
just wanted to know it's not a I think I have lots of questions but there's nothing that I can question until we have something to be able to answer on. So I just I more of I guess more of just comments. Um you know I I you know July one we have this target date
transitioning uh control from the state to the school board. And there's been there there hasn't there was never a blueprint for this. So we've been working together trying to figure this out. Um and certainly have been navigating this I feel has been um going
more or less uh pretty well. I just a little worried about what like as far as our process concerned. I know for me personally and I'm sure from other members I've heard other school committee members say it. We want to have
a as smooth as possible transition with little interruption as possible. Um and you know can there be whether or not concern if there are exit insuranceances does it is it going to disrupt or create some
uh is it going to create a situation where um you know where that smooth transition is not so smooth or if there is isn't any assurances same concern um I don't know I'm curious to see what's going to
happen when we do hear back from from the state Um he said likely um there might be a chance hearing likely that maybe not but if there are um you know we're I'm curious to see you know how that's going
to be accepted um from the school board from my other colleagues on this body um you know because it's I'm just one voice and then there's a handful of us. curious to hear how stakeholders are going to respond, how parents are going to respond um and uh and if whether or
not that's going to contribute to um our our ability to be able to achieve our end goal here, which is local control beyond July 1 to the school board. So, um, as you go forward, Commissioner, and
I mean, good luck with your with your departure and Commissioner Tuttwer, I know you guys are working hard to find a replacement. It's not an easy task in front of you to determine make these terminations and I'm you got the whole Commonwealth on your shoulders. Just understand I would like to offer you
some caution. Um, uh, and and, uh, good luck with, uh, you know, coming up with your conclusion on that. I appreciate that. And um maybe just you know one thing to remember is that the turnaround plan and the strategic plan that are in place right now work closely
in concert with each other. And that strategic plan was developed with a very extensive community engagement. And so we you know it's really just ensuring that those practices continue but those practices are well established through community input. So again I appreciate
your caution. I appreciate the the um your words of wisdom there, mayor, as I always have and uh we will make sure that we continue to stay in contact with you about this as we get to this final piece of the puzzle. Mr. Sheen. Yeah. And I guess I I just
want to voice some some concern that that I have or some worry and maybe it's unfounded, but I think that um as we went through this process and I think about back to when the committee made the decision to appoint uh Mr. Sodto as
the acting um superintendent for a year that the the whole thing was stability for the best of the district. And I guess my my caution is is that we're going from one commissioner to another commissioner to another commissioner in a very short amount of time. And I just don't want Holy Oak falling through the
cracks at all or anything like that because that's that's my biggest concern is that now we're we're transitioning um to another person and I I know that the secretary is highly capable and then at some point we'll be transitioning to another person and we don't really know
when that will be. Um but it's going to be somewhere between today and a year from today I think um that there'll be another commissioner appointed. So I just I I really worry about that transition. Uh, and I know that that Lauren has been on the ground here in
Hoyoko uh for uh the commissioner and been doing a lot of that, but I just um it's it's also something that this committee also needs the and this subcommittee and the school committee needs the same type of reach to the
commissioner's office that we shared with um with Commissioner Johnston. And I just hope that that is still going to be the case given the also lofty load that the secretary carries um serving in both those roles. Really appreciate um you sharing that
concern. Uh I understand it completely and will assure you you'll have the same access uh to me as you did to uh Commissioner Johnson. Uh I I do believe this will be a temporary role, but I care deeply about ensuring that this
process uh is as seamless as it can possibly be. Uh Lauren, to your point, uh has been uh meaningfully involved uh and will remain sort of that um that individual who has that content knowledge and context knowledge that uh
will will will be really helpful going forward. Uh but but access is is not will not be an issue. Is it gonna be you, Lauren? [Laughter] No, mayor. No, not me. He's like, I
don't think so. Um so the other the one thing that I do want to say I think some of the other concerns uh around this when it comes to exit asurances is so does that really mean local control for the school committee because it's do you still have
that oversight in the in the sense of like the control part of it. Um and that's where the worries are as well. It's how much are you really giving back to the to the school committee. So I mean we are prepared to take back full
control of our district and I think each member on this school committee has shown that their dedication is towards student success um as well as those who are working within the school system. So I thank you for being here and
hopefully our next meeting we can schedule one in April and we should be able to have the exit assurance for then. um if there are any and I am going to assume that it'll be Secretary of Education Dr. Tutweiler who
will be presenting them. Um but I'll keep in touch uh with Lauren and Jennifer Woo so that we can make sure that we can schedule something where you can come down and and present them. Great. So, I thank you again for
um being here this evening and to provide us an update introducing yourself and you were able to hear from the community advisory teams, Eric Weiss and Gabriella from Great Schools Partnership. And I am going to go ahead and entertain a motion to adj Oh, who
was waving? Oh, Russell, I couldn't even I'm sorry, Commissioner Johnson. I couldn't even tell that you had your hand up. Or is that the mouse? Commissioner Johnson, do you have your hand up? No, no, I didn't have my hand up. No, no, no, no. Okay, so that was
the cursor. Okay. And that's Capriello waving goodbye. Um, so I'm going to go ahead and entertain a motion to uh adjourn. And it is 553. Second. Great. All those in favor? I um meeting ends at 5:53 p.m. Thank you. Part: 2
welcome everybody to the H school committee meeting it is March 21st and it is 603 calling this meeting to order roll call please Garcia here
here present Mr Martinez here M Williams key Mr speak here here miss wion present all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United
States of America and to the for stand one nation godible and justice for all some housekeeping as usual on March 29 2023 Governor hilly signed into law an
act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations which among other things extends the expiration date of the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st 2025 specifically this extension allows public bodies to continue holding
meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings the ACT does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the
temporary Provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st 2023 to March 31st 2025 pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20 I'm hereby informing all attendees that a video and audio recording is being made of the
meeting and the meeting is being live streamed and run live on the city's Community TV channel so now we're moving on to public comment and before we start I would like
to remind everybody that for the public comment section you may speak for two minutes and I have my trusty old sand timer over here and you will hear the Bell when your time is
up um there would be no discussion or conversation we would listen say thank you and if it's an item pertaining to the agenda you will hear about it later in the meeting all right so
point of order do again they need to um say their name and address thank you yep so first in my list I have Gary enrite and if I said that incorrectly I
apologize am I here yes okay name and address uh Gary Enright 26 Hammer Street of course in Holio um I'm here to support report the return uh to full benefits of the union membership including collective
bargaining I believe that the dev we had devastating effects of the state takeover uh prior to the Takeover I know ho Public Schools needed some help however the state provided I believe very little help and lots of uncertainty and Chaos that led to many teachers
leaving the district or retiring early and it also created quite a vacuum because younger teachers were suddenly thrust into leadership roles and mentoring roles because many people had left
um and on due to the chaos we weren't able to retain or develop new hires were forced to hire un uncertified teachers as well who stayed the less experienced Educators who lost their own mentors were thrust into these um you know
mentorship roles whether they were ready to do that or not somehow the educate the Educators survived having to do more with less so here we are today it is time to put back the pieces the Educators
deserve and have earned the right to have full union membership including collective bargaining po Educators have been um traditionally been known for being tough fair and compassionate who remain in Ho sometimes for their entire careers
they weren't afraid to work in inner city School in fact most of them loved it they did an outstanding job of educating all and extending themselves to fulfill the needs of students who are challenged by poverty special needs or devastating events such as covid please
consider reinstating please consider and reinstate the full benefits of union membership including collective bargaining our teachers deserve it I do not reflect want my comments to reflect any disappointment I have with anybody in this room including the mayor the superintendent or the school committee
my observations based on what I feel the state did to us unfortunately thank you thank you next up we have Nick cre uh hello Nick cre 7 Warner Street South Hadley um good afternoon school committee members my name is Nick Kem and I'm president of the Hoke Teachers
Association we wanted to update you on some of the work we have done this year um we apologize for not being more present with you all but we've been spending a lot of time and energy building our membership and trying to get as much input on our bargaining platform as possible this year we've had one toone conversations at people's
houses hosted two general meetings had multiple 10-minute meetings in every school and receive feedback on our bargaining priorties from hundreds of members we've signed up over a 100 new members boosting our membership from 56% this time last year to over 76% right now and growing and so when I say our
bargaining priorities I stand Here confident that I represent the vision of Holio Public Schools unit a staff we want to make it very clear to you all that we are excited to be coming out of our SE leadership and look forward to working with you all and the superintendent to continue building the best schools for the young people of Hoke we heard this from parents and
other community members at a recent Forum the HTA hosted in lass de Famas and we are excited to begin to build Bridges with families around a vision for local control which they made very clear that they want to work with the school committee to achieve we are looking forward to being part of the most essential part of our
Democratic process which takes place right here at the local level we hope that we can ensure that Holio students their families staff members and school committee members have the agency and power to make the decisions that impact their own experiences we also want to express our deeply held belief that consistent and present teachers
counselors and parent professionals are some of the most important factors in creating the schools that we need and deserve if you have ever worked in a school with young people you know it takes time to build trust once trust and a respectful relationship is established it makes a world of difference in how much a student can learn and how much a
teacher can impact a classroom environment to do this we need to be trusted we need to be listened to we need to be validated and believe when we're sharing our experiences when the vast majority of our members believe in something and decisions are made against these interests we know this is what causes disconnects and mistrust between
District leadership and the people in the classrooms actually serving our students the work we have done with our bargaining team has placed retaining the best teachers and staff at the top of our priority list because we understand how important it is to give students and Holy Oak the education they deserve thank
you thank you next upop Maria Perez good afternoon everyone thank you for your time today I would like to take a moment to introduce myself I am a proud product the hoio public schools having attended laurren school for elementary pord middle and Holo High years later I became the first gener
Maria can you say your address oh my um 195 farum driv in Holo um years later I became a first generation college student earning my associates degree from Hol Community College my bachelor's degree from Westfield State and finally my master's degree from Mount Holio my connection to
Holio Public Schools extends beyond my own education my son graduated from hokai about 10 years ago around the time discussions of a state takeover of HPS began he attended HCC where he earned an associates degree in criminal justice although he ultimately pursued a
different career path he is now an engineer working in Chae today my granddaughter is a student in Holio Public Schools further um deepening my investment in the district's future however I am not here today to Simply share my family story I'm here to speak about the importance of building strong relationships within our community over
the years I have witnessed dedicated Educators leaving Holio for neighboring districts that offer better pay shorter work days and most importantly greater teacher autonomy teachers voices matter yet in h many field they are simply being told what to do with little room for professional judgment or flexibility
if a teacher schedule dictates that they must be teaching math at a specific time they are expected to do so regardless of any crisis unfolding before them where is the empathy we teach students about social emotional skills every day yet as a district we often fail to model them
ourselves just a few weeks ago the HTA hosted a parent forum and the message from family was loud from families was loud and clear parents want to be more involved in their children's education when asked what an ideal school would look like parents emphasized a stronger
Community Connection where families feel welcome more Rees after school activities a curriculum that prioritizes student engagement and creativity improve School meals and more opportunities for students to socialize to achieve this Vision parents identify key needs including a
balance fin okay well anyways in conclusion HTA needs to have fully restored collective bargaining rights if we want to claim full local control thank you thank you next Anthony and I couldn't read the
last name sorry name and address please uh hello my name is Anthony zeroi I live at 122 Chestnut Street in Springfield I'm a history teacher at HHS North and a member of HDA so I over the
last two to three weeks have been working on aggregating all of the data that Desi often bases its decisions on such as mcast retention rates Dropout rates graduation rates
along with uh the retention rates pay rates Etc of teachers here in the district so I brought a sample of the data I've been working on unfortunately it's not super well labeled um I have a stack over there that people can take a look at
so on the final page just because I didn't really I only had two minutes I have the aggregated difference between Holio mcast scores overall including the 3 to eight and the 10th grade along with the mcast scores of the
state so by focusing on the difference I was able to eliminate changes such as the change to mcast in 2016 to 2020 along with other variations such as covid so while I was going through this data and again there's a packets over
there that everyone can take a look at there has been a marked drop in mcast scores that is the difference between hoio in the state along with this I've been going over like I said a number of other data points and many of much of
the data says the exact same thing that ultimately receivership was more harmful to hoolio than it was helpful so I'm hoping that with this data I can help implore the school committee and those involved in the decision-making process
to abandon the idea of a turnaround plan simply because leaving decision-making power in the state's hands when they've univocally harmed the school district I think would be a potentially
catastrophic mistake both as we're coming into additional bargaining or as we're going through bargaining thank you very much just so you know I will be passing that out I promise you okay it's not going to stay there I'll pass it out and all and any public comment that
was submitted via email is accessible to all the members of the school committee next up we have Rebecca chav hello members of the Hol School Community my name is Rebecca Chavi and I live at 48 oon Avenue in South Hatley I
am submitted this public comment in order to briefly share my experience as part of this District I am a science teacher at solivan school I moved to the United States in 2010 living behind a career as a wildlife biologist in order to stay
home while my two children were little once they started preschool I joined the workforce and I took a position at Pekka school as part of the family access and engagement team towards the end of my um first school year H Public School
schools went into receivership this was back in 2015 since then I have been the layers on for famous experiencing homelessness I also used to organize the rise and start event where I met some of you and then in 2018 I became part of the cohort
number three of the program called Urban teacher Pathways and that's how I started a new career as a science teacher the vast majority of my time with an HPS has been under receivership for a while I didn't know any better but
it is very difficult to live within a bubble especially once I became a Home Room teacher that experience was truly eye opening to me I learned what receivership means and what it is doing to our community of Learners and the
Educators and other staff in charge of teaching these kids I learned how little voice Educators had when it comes to compensation length of the school year professional development and curriculum to name a few I met teachers with
degrees diplomas licenses spotless performance reviews who left the district disenchanted and frustrated with the current system I have seen the most qualified well prepared dedicated professional and carrying the staff
leave our district for better options what I want to say is that this loss is a loss for every everyone I urge you to take a stand so that holu regains local control and the ability for collecting
bargaining our students deserve that thank you thank you thank you everybody for your commitment and for being here tonight if you have anything beyond the two minutes that you wanted to share with us you can always submit it to Irene
Feliciano and that communication will be put into a matter of the record as well thank you so next up we have student reports none today right superintendence report
yeah so um I'm actually going to ask Sean to come in I think he's in the hallway I'm going to shoot him a quick text um while while he's getting ready I just want to uh you know as part of the capacity building plan um we had uh I know we had given the school committee
an update on the budget process um over over a month ago um and we were scheduled to just provide the school committee with another update in March um you know I I think the the Highlight is that you know we we were able to
realize some Savings in health insurance to the tune of $400,000 right now and where we're at in the process is each Cabinet member has gone through their budget and presented their level service requests and we were
able to get from them um you know uh we had asked uh cabinet members to submit uh 10% cuts um and we're compiling all of those requests and the impact of those cuts uh we haven't implemented any of them yet uh we're going through a
process of of gathering all of the information from each of the cabinet members and uh plan in the month of April to take a look at all of those cuts and and what the impacts would be um on either service to kids whether there's impact at all um and and go
through a process of implementing those so that we can continue to Chip Away um at the at the budget deficit that we we have um and I'll let Sean kind of get into more details he did prepare a presentation for you that's in your packet
hello everybody good night or good evening are we gonna put it on the screen or not tonight Sor right and I'll try to be quick so the first two um slides of the
presentation the revenue projection that you saw last time and the expense projection um I'm going to go to the third slide which highlights the changes so the first um the first major change was we reviewed enrollment so we use an allocation based method of budgeting for
positions at the schools um it's enrollment is a key factor in how we allocate positions classroom teachers um inclusion teachers various positions um so the initial projection was based on enrollment back in uh December we did an
update to look at how enrollment has changed over the last couple months and that resulted in a couple more positions being allocated to schools um as they've increased numbers in different areas um so salaries went up there were some other minor changes but that was the major change driving it up uh about
150,000 health insurance as superintendent alluded to dropped by 440 um between our last presentation and tonight the health insurance trust reviewed the financial situation of the health insurance trust um and what claims looked like this year and we got
a projection of what claims look would look like going forward and we had an initial conversation around what premiums would have to be um to essentially cover those costs and so the premium increase projected uh for next year that the the board um approved the
working rate um was lower than expected in the first projection slide four no that's right if you go to the one in the agenda the the link should open up
in not in PDF format Irene I could I could drop the Google Docs version in the put it in in g chat sorry I just I linked in the slide version of it so you can open
it up it should be in presentation mode think the link you have in there is a PDF uh Google Chat e we got to find some ways to entertain ourselves great
right and then uh FY 26 level service expenses there we go one more yeah one more Yep that one right there thank you so um so yeah health insurance um
what we have what we had in the budget this year we looked at our current enrollment in different plan types projected it out with the new anticipated premium rates and we believe that the budget this year is sufficient and won't need an increase um so that
reduced what we were projecting for health insurance for next year utilities we also uh reduced a little bit we were projecting about a quar million doll increase in utilities it was an anticipation of the new Middle School opening um and just new utilities coming
on board with that we did an analysis of our utility costs this year and how we're trending vers budget and we're trending very well I think it's um a side effect of all the windows and door projects that we've done the HVAC projects that we've done and we've done a lot of lighting um but we were looking
really good with this year's budget so we've adjusted down that estimate that we're um including the budget for next year and we'll continue to look at that closely as we finish this kind of winter spring um heating season and electricity
um so those are the three main factors that uh mostly went in the positive direction and they reduced our anticipated budget Gap by about 400,000 any questions on the update those are so the numbers I'll do really quickly some other things um of where
we're at in the budget process but any questions on what changed Miss Wilson can you just recoup for everyone um what what the projected uh budget Gap is for this upcoming year because it is saying it's decreased but what is that budget Gap so our I'll just
go through kind of the timeline of how things have evolved so our initial budget Gap was at 3.9 million that was from December then in January when we got the governor's budget Chapter 70 came in better than anticipated based on
some of the assumptions they used around inflation and our enrollment did not drop by as much as we were projecting so that closed the Gap significantly down to about 1.9 million and then with these uh most recent adjustments to what we're projecting it gets our gap down to 1.5
million y any other questions on that before I finish up Miss Le Martinez and you mentioned um that the the health insurance um projection also decreased is that due to the uh best teachers involved or um so this
decrease is just related to when we were projecting health insurance we were being Ultra conservative because I was hearing some large health insurance groups like Maya come out with 15 20% increases for some of their their communities um so we're being super conservative now that we've seen our own
data so we're self-insured now so we aren't affected by what goes on out in the health like in other communities we're really local now um so we looked at our own data and our consultant who works with the health insurance trust um gave us our numbers and what we need for
next year in order to stay balanced um and so we adjusted that that projection down um based on our own data and that happened in um about two meetings ago so between when I last came and uh shared this projection and now um we got that data good
so um another uh I think superintendent Soto talked about where we are in the budget process but we wrapped up um budget hearings with our Cabinet departments um again as we mentioned Cabinet departments have been asked to identify 10% reductions we're going through those reductions right now uh
and principales just received their budget packages and are starting to put together their budget documents and their hearings will um start taking place in a week or so uh the next slide on the capacity building plan so uh kind of just popped in here everything that is in that
capacity building plan related to the budget we've presented the full Outlook to the the school committee back on February uh 10th tonight's the update and then there's a few more items that are part of that plan that we will be uh hitting coming up and then the only other update is
that we did form a budget Advisory Group this year that has represent representation from teachers um and Pa of professionals it also has uh city council and Mr wellan from the school committee um and then a few principles are on that group and so we had our
first meeting last week and we shared sort of this type of information with that group to kind of bring everybody up to speed and we had an initial conversation on what we thought would be the key points in the budget this year and what types of things we should look at um there were a few different things I'd say the biggest one as you might
expect is transportation um as that's going going up significantly uh so that group is going to meet again next month and we're going to di dig into Transportation a little bit more and we'll definitely bring back that that group's discussion to this group um and then we have finance committee on
Thursday where we'll dive into the budget a little deeper uh but we're we're in the middle of it happy to answer any questions on the budget Miss Wilson so with each cabinet um identifying a 10% reduction um is that
anticipated to fill that Gap or is there going to be looking at additional um cuts in other forms so I think it will close some of that Gap um there's some other pluses and minuses so there's things that we're looking to do which will that are new for next year that
would increase the Gap there's other ways that we're looking to reduce the Gap that won't have impact on operations so one thing we did last year um that we're going to monitor again this year we use carryover to help support the budget um for FY 25 right now the numbers you're seeing for 26 don't
include any carryover um so that's why you know we share the quarterly budget reports with the finance committee we kind of have those conversations then about what what we think we might have at the end of this year um so our hope is to keep classrooms as far away from the the or reductions as far away from
the classrooms as possible um to close that Gap yeah and and you know just again for context I I know we've been talking about this for the last four years we got one more year of of student Opportunity Act
implementation um so this this budget cycle that we're looking at for next year is year five out of six so um if we do Implement like a one-time strategy like Sean mentioned the the goal would
be um you know to minimize the the like we'll get another year of of hopefully Chapter 70 increases as part of implementation of the student Opportunity Act assuming that the state you know the you know we we do follow
the state budget process very closely and um all indications that we're hearing from the state is that they they plan on protecting the investment in the student Opportunity Act um but you know we we got to continue to just keep our ears to the ground and and hear what's
going on at the state level because unlike other communities whatever happens at the state level it has a significant impact on us you know um I hate to use this as an example but like school districts like Cambridge that are funded you know three times above the
net School spending requirement they don't necessarily need to wait for the budget the state budget process they they could probably balance their budget in December because very little of their budget is coming from state aid and most of their money is coming from local and
um and and so they're they're not as um as as tied to the state budget process as we are so we we'll continue to monitor that um and even throughout next year uh we're we're very hopeful that the the state continues to be able to
fund the student Opportunity Act which again we'll have one more one more year of increases Mr Shen yes with the uh Insanity going on down Washington DC um what impact do we think of any
have we heard on any federal funds and I don't I mean right now I know that entitlement money is probably okay um and we'll see what happens around Title One and title two but I'm just curious about other things we saw the elimination of departments dealing with
multilanguage Learners we've seen all these types of things have we heard anything yet or we have any concerns that title 3 money will be impacted at all yeah title 3 is the one that we've heard some Rumblings about nothing official um that one we're you know
monitoring um our school bus grant were also monitoring um I Heard recently that Springfield may have lost their school bus Grant um I think they may have been a different round than us we might have been in there earlier early enough the last update I got was that the the school bus Grant was still okay um but
that was a $7 million Grant to bring in 19 electric school buses so it's a very large impact on the district um and yeah other than that we haven't heard we had an impact to sort of an in-kind grant that we had with UMass that we think is being restored um but we haven't had any
direct loss of Grant funds yet so we're projecting level funding right now but having contingency plans in place in case there is a a last second um reduction or even like a change to the scope of what the funds can be used for that's always sort of in the back of my mind too there might be a change in scope and things that we have on the
grant now would no longer be eligible um so we're planning for it right now in the budget itself level funding is what we're projecting just for the public when we talk about title three what do we mean what does that uh so it's a grant to help English language Learners
uh support um their acquisition of the language thank you Mr Shen yeah and has there been any money that we have been expecting to get paid on that we haven't gotten yet or has been
delayed the only one that I'm aware of is the we and it wasn't a grant directly to us but it was a partnership we had with UMass around um was I think it was UMass yeah it was a teacher diversification Grant yeah and it was we had some Paras that are in the pipeline
to get their um either their license or get the education need to get their license um and there was concern that there was we were told it was frozen or paused um and the last update I got was that I believe they retooled some things to get it back going again um but we can
give you a formal update from Beth gaug on that Mr willan thank you yeah um yeah just to follow up on what Mr um shean said um with the grants um do
you have like a rough um guesstimate on what percent what percentage um of our grants are from the federal government versus nonprofits so if you look at everything Federal it's probably in the realm of 10% of our budget I mean if you
including Food Services as well you know I think people forget that most of our food service budget is federally funded through the USDA um so you know it's near $10 million roughly if you include food services Title One Ida um and all
the the smaller federal grants it's a large number sometimes I hear these articles where they talk about Federal funding and they they say it's like 10% and they but they kind of minimize that like it's only 10% I'm like well you don't realize like that 10% is a big number for school districts especially if you have $100
million budget um that's a big impact if you were to lose that so Miss Wilson so you know I do want to recognize that um we are in a the city of Holo is in a much better uh stance
with the budget um compared to some of our local um areas where they're talking about significant reduction in force which directly impacts students and I I do appreciate hearing um that that is not the intention um and that we're trying to um maintain the staff that we
current H currently have as well as we have positions you know listed that we're still looking for so um I just want to recognize the hard work um that's been done um to be thoughtful um when these federal grants and other
state grants came in recognizing that they were not going to be forever and that we cannot build a budget based on that and so I do want to recognize for your hard work and your Force it into budgeting thank
you thank you so much thank you Sean um and then the other piece of the uh superintendent report is just our quarterly to update um you know we go through a process every every quarter
uh where we look at student data whether it's uh DNA data or Star data um we actually engaged this quarter in uh this past quarter in like an attendance root cause analysis and met with different stakeholder groups to try to get a better understanding of some of the root
causes of attendance we we look at our walkthrough tool um which some of you have have actually seen um from from the last request that was made at the end of last year to get a better understanding of what that walkthrough tool looks like
um and we our district team actually goes to every single School sits down with each principal um uh the some of the expert teachers some of the assistant principles basically the dis the school leadership team School
instructional leadership team and uh we you know they prepare ahead of time and uh they they give us an update on their progress towards their school Improvement plan um and we're also able to help them with a problem of practice
that's grounded in data so each school has identified their own problem of practice like this is what we want to get better at whether it be um you know the the priority standards lessons that they you know they want to support
teachers in or it's if it's use of exemplars or if it's support with uh student support or School culture each school is able to work with their own team and develop uh what their problem of practice is for the upcoming quarter
and our team you know kind of wraps around and supports and helps come up with ideas on how we're going to support them and then that gets monitored and that becomes the focus of the uh edel's visits with their principles every year so we went through that process and
included in the the update is the stoplight reporting that you guys are all used to seeing we had 15 benchmarks that were established at the end of last school year you know we're at a time of the school year right now where we're not only looking at this year's uh benchmarks and providing updates to all
of you but we're also starting to think about what's the focus going to what are the benchmarks going to be for next year um you could see in there that about nine nine out of the 15 are on track n nine out of the 15 benchmarks are on
track and uh six of them are slightly behind um we have identified in in the report that that you have in your packet some strengths from this quarterly uh review um most notably you know the the
middle school project PEC is going really well it's on time it's um under budget things are going really well it seems like every week uh something you know you know there the progress that's being made on that school building is
just incredible um you know we're we're looking for an opportunity to get school committee members in there to take a look at the building um sometime in April and and we're we're going to be ready for the school year next year we did have the Middle School uh working group um work
over a series of meeting and provide meetings and provided some recommendations on strengthening the Middle School experience um and we we also you know one of the things that we did this year you know it came came pretty loud and
clear out of the whole teacher retention work group um uh one of the things that that we needed to strengthen was professional development and this pilot schedule that we had with the shorter days on Wednesdays instead of piecing
together the you know 40 minutes here 40 minutes there 40 minutes throughout the course of four days um this pilot schedule we've gotten some pretty really positive feedback on the professional development sessions that we have and that that data is also included in your
packet and then there are things that are are slightly behind uh the the projects that are slightly behind you know we put a lot there was a lot going on in early literacy one of them being a brand new curriculum implementation and
um you know we we feel really good about how that's going and how teachers are supported in that new um that new curriculum but uh in terms of uh fully uh implementing the early lit practices
some of our walkthrough data isn't quite where we'd like to see it uh but our student data around early literacy is great like we've seen a lot of growth with uh with our ear youngest students in terms of their progress from the beginning of the year to the middle of
the year um the work around high quality lessons is is slightly behind um using student uh data to guide and implement uh mtss strategies is slightly behind although we've we've seen a lot of
positive um you efforts in our around the culture of our schools you guys heard from our students last uh last school committee meeting that participated in the in the The High School Summit and all the things that they have had to say about how the the
school culture is definitely different since that um so part of it was that that Summit and then some of the strategies that the mtss teams have been working on uh at the beginning of the school year and throughout the school year and the the resets that had happened on on January
3rd and then um last last uh school committee meeting as well you all received the the sped reorg and and um rorg uh at the request of um Mrs Wilson uh you were able to see in more
detail the sped reorg that one slightly behind it's big it's a it's a big I think this is more of a multi-year type of uh re uh reorg of our of our special ed Department um but definitely this is year one of that um a lot of
effort made around chronic absenteeism we haven't seen the a drastic reduction in chronic absenteeism but our attendance teams and our school teams have been working really hard at you know trying to celebrate student attendance trying to come up with strategies to engage students one of
them being like we just talked about the the um the High School Summit that they just did and and working directly with students to try to figure out um you know what's keeping them home and what actually excites them about coming to school and then there's uh one slightly
behind around retention for non non-teachers we put a lot of work based on the teacher retention work group and one of the goals we set out to this year was to do uh a similar analysis for for non-teachers um and you know we've been
we've been working on on plans to come up but there hasn't been a ton of movement on on that on that front um I think the you know the hold on go ahead we got questions go Miss Wilson so I'm I'm just going to ask that in the future um if we could refer to to
it being special education and not sped there's so many negative connotations we try um you know we don't want our students saying I'm a sped kid so if we could just um not use that terminology going forward thank you Miss Le
Martinez I'm curious about the abmm um I understand that it you're sharing that there is a lot of analysis being done with the teachers what is actually doing directly with the family to understand what is happening um in regards to why is it you
know social economic issues I want to know more about that area than what we can analyze inside because if they're coming and they're getting um how do you say uh applauded for showing up at least
they're showing up I want to know where's the ones that are not showing up what is happening that their home for what reason yeah I think you know part of the root cause analysis one of the one of the things that we you know we're coming to the realization that Focus
really has to be on middle and high school um when you look at our chronic absenteeism in elementary schools um it's not it's you know it's it's where we would like the district chronic AB you know it's it's well below where
we're at in middle and high school so I think that the you know as as a district and what we can see next year is a a a shift in Focus as opposed to talking about attendance and chronic absenteeism um for the entire District we got we got
to really you know uh really look at what's going on at the middle school level and at the high school level that uh keeps kids uh staying home you know some of the and and it's in your your uh in the report as well uh there's you
know after having all of these meetings we've met with uh the teacher Advisory Group we've met we've had a meeting with principls we had meeting with uh our parents Advisory Group we I've had a meeting with students themselves you
know uh uh attendance was also a big conversation at the High School Summit that that was featured last last year and a lot of the feedback that we're getting is at the root cause is um a lack of timely two-way Comm
communication and collaboration between school school staff related to attendance so um a lack of collaboration trust and engagement between teachers School staff and families about student attendance and progress lack of middle
and high school student belonging and engagement in school and a lack of accurate and timely attendance data in the middle and high school so those are like those are the four like when we when we had conversations there those were the four common themes that continued to come up
so one of the things that we're doing is we're going to end up you know part of our action planning for next year is to take a look at each of those uh primary symptoms that we've identified and build plans around that so you know a good
example of that is you know uh the the the one around the lack of middle and high school belonging and engagement in school you know the High School Summit was an example of how we're getting feedback from students and things that that we can do based on what we're hearing from students and what we're
hearing from teachers um so uh you know part of the part part of the thought you know an action plan that we could develop for next year how do we do that more not just at the high school but at the middle schools um you you may have heard the at the last meeting um I
thought the the you know the principal at Sullivan did something that I I really appreciated um where he had a he had a student you know basically a whole school assembly um where he shared student data with with students um and
you know just kept it real said like this is where we're at this is where the state state average is at this isn't to knock anybody but it's like we know we can do better and I thought that was a real um a real way to get students involved and to let them see and then at stem they did the same thing during the
advisory blocks they you know they they presented each student with with their own attendance data right and and allowed them to reflect on their own attendance data and then come up with a goal for the upcoming quarter so those are some like
really like cool ways to get students voice heard and to get them involved in tackling some of these issues and um for each one of these symptoms we we plan on developing some plans uh for next year to to combat
chronic absenteeism Miss LEF I want to thank Miss Wilson for her comment um as a parent of students who were with special education and growing up as well
hearing um students that were part of that um it it hurts you know just hearing that because then they start feeling that same way um personally I don't even like the word special because there's nothing special about it when you're
fighting for 90% of the time just to get 25% of what your child needs um so yeah if we can just use the whole word versus the abbreviated term I greatly appreciate it thank
you Miss densley Williams U Mr Soo answered my question sometimes as we listen a little more we could hear so the question that Miss Martin has asked he just answered it thank Youk you Mr
is I want to hear a little more about early literacy I read an article in Mass life maybe 10 days ago or so that I believe it was titled something like uh Massachusetts rank number one in
education in the nation but not for all and then he goes on to say that uh only 40% uh of the students in Massachusetts in grade four uh were proficient and within that
40% only 20% of black Latino and lowi income or from lwi income family students um actually achieve proficiency so basically we have a major crisis given
the fact that early literacy is a critical factor in Student Success so how extraordinary is our effort now to deal with that extraordinarily incredible
challenge yeah I think you know this is one of the you know if when you look at student data I think this is one of our bright spots in terms of the progress that our earliest Learners are making we made a significant investment as all of
you know um in the you know developing our school leaders on instructional leadership um and and the strategies that you all hear about have heard about over the last three years and another major investment that we've made is in a
partnership with Hill for literacy uh around developing both our leaders and our teachers and and the science of reading strategies and the this this has been ongoing this is the third year right now um that we're involved in that partnership um and you know there's
there's a lot of good things happening in the in the really early grades um you could see in the report that that you know I think our goal was uh around early literacy around star data was to go from uh 24% to 50% at the be from
beginning of year to end of year and our middle of year data shows that 46% of students are already there so um we've we've exceeded that Target in that aspect um and I think that you know I I I've said this a bunch of times like I
think that that is going to be you know while it's a very it is a very long-term strategy um you don't get the you know you don't see a lot of the student results a lot of student results are are lagging but when you see our earliest
Learners are actually learning to read um you know that that's going to have a a significant impact on their educational career throughout the polio Public Schools so we're happy that that's you know we're again we're in our third year of that we just got awarded a
prism Grant which is very exciting was a super competitive Grant um and uh I think it's it's starting with a $20,000 investment um to come up with a multi-year uh literacy plan for Holy Oak
so um while while we're talking about early literacy um the work that we're going to be engaging with in this very competitive grant that we just got is going to is going to help us develop a five-year literacy plan you know there'll be a review of curriculum
there'll be a review of strategies there'll be a review of everything that we're doing and they'll be able to um come out with some key recommendations not just recommendations but but also financial support to help Implement some of those recommendations and you know I I'd be
remiss to not give a shout out to um the the Davis Family for their investment in Holy Oak 2o um the Davis Family gave holy o $850,000 just this year to Implement high dosage tutoring in the earlier grades at um at
some of our elementary schools so layering on what we're you know what what we've already done over the last three years with that high dosage tutoring and then this prism Grant that's coming down the pipeline and the planning that's happening with that um we're really
excited Miss Wilson so when I was hearing about um you know the lack of Engagement or collaboration or you know whatever um with the middle school and high school you know while reviewing policies one
policy I'm really excited to um get back in practice as school councils um where our students are engaging um with the principles on a monthly basis I think that um once you know when we come out of receivership
and um you know we're ho public schools are allowed to follow their policies I think think that that school council will really lead um you know students to feel more engaged they'll be able to contact the people who are attending those meetings in order to share their
thoughts in order to get that um not just to the principles but to any any other pertinent individuals so they are feeling heard and so that's my thoughts yeah I I agree Miss Wilson and you know it's it's not for a lack of
effort we you know we have some school council's in place right now I got to say that you know attendance hasn't been great but every every principal is is trying to engage uh both create a system to have school councils and get people to attend uh meetings and and some
schools are just you know some engagement at some schools from Community Partners and from uh families is a little different than others but I am equally excited to uh do anything that we can to to get you know more
people on these school councils and I always know that that's a hard thing to do but we need to do better and we need to figure out how to engage people and how to give them an incentive to show up and give them a
reason to be there right because for a long time and this is not about you just receivership and everything else like you're not going to show up to speak and do something if you know nothing is going to come out of it why would you
show up right so we have to as we are transitioning back and we're thinking about school councils and how do we engage people we need to come up with some concrete goals that are going to be specific that the students that the
families that the Community Partners are going to be able to see themselves in them and then be able to have ownership over that so that way we can continue moving forward and actually affect change because otherwise it's it's harder to get people engaged and get
people at the table if they don't think things are going to actually change so that's that's definitely an important thing that we want to stride for Miss Denley Williams Mr SoDo I know that all students matter and I know you treat us
all the same can you tell me what percentage of black students of students of color that we have in the system from uh kindergarten all the way to to high school what is the percentage of people of color that have um I don't have that statistic off the top of my head but I
can certainly look it up thank you okay uh I know it's 80% Hispanic but I um I can get into the dashboard and get you into fairly quickly thank you Miss
Le Martinez I gotta continue to come back to this H do we still have leaz on that used to work in the schools and because I have not been in the systems for only since October 4.9% thank you Devon he's a lot quicker than I am on on his feet do we
still have the leoon that used to work like coming to the families checking up on the families to make sure and see what may be some of the barriers about you know the asmm um I I like to always bring history to the reason why
I'm actually a school Committee Member I came here in 1969 with a mother of a second grade level education my days and I remember how hard it was for me to be assisted with the reading of any kind of education or assisted with homework at home because
she didn't have the language but she was a working woman to continue to support four children and a single mom and I give her that credit but at the same time my struggles was Unreal that during the time because I was the only one who first learned the
language I was also used as their interpreter and be you know taken out of school for needs that the community or the the family had because she was the uh The Matriarch and also brought other family members who made it to you know
here because of her but luckily I did find somebody who was mentoring me who assisted me through throughout my time while my mother never learned English because that was my struggle but I also remember that no one ever checked up on
why was I being absent yet I had great grades when I was in class I made it through I graduated and all but nobody ever questioned that right and I think that I always think about that so I don't I don't blame our
system I blame the fact that root caes we talk about root caes but we don't never look into those root caes what are they they could be many right and I wonder why you know this child may not show up today that something could have happened over the weekend something
could be happening right now where parent may be working and they think that the child is off to school or something and staying home or I don't know there's so many reasons I don't know what it is because I don't want to generalize but that is why I'm asking
there a liazon because if there's a a plan for next year to try to address the chronic and attendance issues whether it be middle school or not or high school I think to me that's one of the ways of intervening and determining what can be
helped you know these families can be helped um because if they're showing up in school and we're asking them later sometimes you know it's like you also been taught don't tell don't say don't say nothing about what's happening at home but you showing up at home home at
one of these homes but more showing support than the judgmental kind of way um families will open up and saying this is what I'm facing this is what's happening like you know this weekend I whatever could have been the reason I had to leave or I just had a a family
issue whatever you know and we continue to educate them the importance of that because if they didn't have an education they cannot understand or match it up how important it is to be in school every day every second every moment every day that they lose school it's a
lack it's less education for them so I think for me when we talk root caes I want to get deeper to the root caes than the root caes that are coming at the school setting because that those analysis are more Visual and are able to be seen but what we don't see we do not know and I think it's not more to inter
you know to go into people's business I don't want to look at it that way I want to see how what we can support these children what ways can we support these families to get them back into the schools and that's all I'm talking about thank you yeah so to answer your
question we have a family engagement coordinator at every single school every single school has attendance teams that meet regularly and we have a district attendance task force that meets once a month over at en lass um we've
restructured that meeting which I I really appreciate the shifts that we've made and the improvements that we've made over the course of the last couple of years so every school is able to do a presentation to the other schools on their own attendance data and we kind of
treat it like the quarterly SI reviews that we that we we do with principles where we they look at their own data they uh work on a problem of practice and then they ask they whip around and ask if everybody anybody has ideas so we've structured it in that way where
every school has an opportunity to go in front of the attendants task force share their data share what they've been working on share some of the things that they've implemented that is either helping move the needle for attendance or that um that they've tried and and
are just not getting the traction that they'd like to see and then they're able to turn to their colleagues and and say Here's what we're thinking we haven't done this and we're thinking of of doing XYZ and go around the room and hear from
other schools and what we've seen is a lot of uh you know best practice sharing right like we did this at stem on Fridays you know uh we're doing something fun in the lunchroom um and we've seen uh you know
because Friday is a day where where we probably have the worst attendance we've seen an increase in attendance because we've implemented this particular strategy and another school's listening and they're like oh we haven't tried that um so those are all those are just
some of the pieces that are in place right now and it's not just the family engagement coordinators our teachers are are working really hard are communicating with families are checking in with kids uh one of the things that I'd like to see for next year that we're we're talking about is you know a a
oneperson model where every single kid has has one person that they can check in with at the school level particularly in the middle and high schools um and when you know when when Anthony is is absent there their one
person knows about it and can check in with them and say hey I noticed you weren't here yesterday is everything okay this one is a hard one for me because attendance is really important and we know this and we try to tell everybody that this is
important but when a kid is not in school you would get when Anthony's not in school Anthony's mom is going to get a text message a robo call an email a paper in their backpack
um what else I know there were seven things I just can't remember of the top of my head right now telling you why this is important and after the communication tells you why this is
important why you're you're not doing what you're supposed to do and it feels very judgmental all the way till the end then if you need anything let us know and we can help you and that doesn't feel like oh yes I'm GNA go now after I've been scolded
to go and then say Oh yeah I need help and that's that's hard right like that's not going to be an inviting easy communication I know that there have been times and of course there's different efforts that we have done in
the past some with more success than others but I want to see that there's a good level of communication for the family nights so that I can build the relationship with the people from the building so that then when
something happens I know who I'm going to talk to I want to see that paper in the backpack I want to see that message hey come tonight oh don't worry you didn't register show up anyway I want to be feeling like I'm a part of that community and be welcomed to that part
of that community so that way when I need something or when something is not going well then I'm already there because I'm I've already been there and you don't have to invite me because I know that I can go in and get what I need because it's part of a whole
community so I think that when we look at absenteeism and we look at all the things that we're doing we're missing a bit of that Community Building piece that is going to lead for a better belonging that is going to feel
more welcoming there are times that I see in different buildings where you go in as a parent and you might not feel as welcome and sometimes you already have trauma because in that school in the past you were already treated poorly and
now You' bring yourself with all the trauma that you carry with you as a parent and now you have to check in and then you may not hear from someone in a little bit and then you're super anxious and then by the time you see someone you're gone you didn't wait for meeting
the right person so there's different experiences for different parents out there in the district and I just want to urge that as part of the planning for absenteeism is not just focusing on the being in school is important but it's
also so hey we're a full service school we are here for you we are here with everybody else and we are working together as a team to educate your child but also to reach out and help out when
you need something and I think that that that has to be part of our absentees and pl so that we can be there miss Denley Williams uh do you have any suggestions that how we could actually get the neighborhoods invite um in invited because I remember I had a meeting a
long time ago I invited over 600 people and one uh parent came but if you got some ideas please let us know because I'll be the first to try it and again we've had some places in the past that have really robust awesome
family nights that I have attended right that um at some point at some Moran school at Sal liven school I have attended once that there were hundreds of people and we were able to eat together and all this stuff but then lots of things changed and we had
redistricting and we had different leaders in the buildings and now you have new communities and now if you do the same event it's not going to be working the same way because the community changed and you have to rebuild those relationships again so thank you sweetheart that's part of that
too thank you Miss Wilson and I think we need to recognize that our communities are going to change again you know with the reopening of PEC you know there's going to be a you know significant shift again um where families and you know building that
Community um you know Sullivan you know rebuilding a community based upon the changes I I think it's important to recognize that thank you so much is that the end of your report yes thank you so
much Mr Shen y so so just thinking about that and I know as we as a district will be transitioning yet again um this Summer that I know there has been a real conscious push to allow some great
building autonomy around principles but I think to help with this transition we might need a little bit more hand on approach from central office because at times like it's not always I think it was a great point that was brought up by the the vice chair that like there were
schools that had great programs going communities change programs change it doesn't happen again and then there's you're looking at these new leaders and they may not have the the knowledge or what was done in the past or what what needs be done for the community and I think there needs to be a lot more
instead of just going and saying go fly and figure this out there needs to be a more unified plan because and and I'm not saying that we need to have a one- siiz fits-all approach because that doesn't it is not that everyone's doing the exact same thing because that
doesn't work either I just think there needs to be a little bit more Direction and support both financially and support like Mentor mentee or whatever it may take wise with this transition because opening new schools and merging
communities is really hard and it's really hard on staff it's really hard on students and I'll say it again it's really hard on staff I mean it's it's just that because when I mean we know students are resilient um with
these things I know that staff is resilient too but it's a lot harder to learn new things to learn new students to learn new communities to learn where the bathroom is in the new building like just all these things so I just think we need to have a really really concerted effort with that
community building and both for the staff that is new community and for the students that are new community and I just and and all of that will help build on the attendance programs those types of things but we just need I think at a certain point like it's great to allow
autonomy for for the stuff to be successful moving forward but I think the district needs to say like here's what we'll do to help you just to get your foot off the ground with this because it's going to be hard um over the next year yeah thank you so much moving on to new
business school committee budget transfer and I'll ask Mr Wan about this one thank you yeah this has been um hanging out there the um finance committee voted on this back
in January came here first back to the finance committee now it's going back here for a final um um approval so we're just looking to um transfer $109,000 from the um teacher
salaries um to um for um contacted services for three um uh registered Behavior technicians I think they're for three schools Mr sordo
is that correct um stem stem D and Morgan second motion made by Mr isasa seconded by Mr colore discussion Mr Sheen so just so clear this recommendation is a
recommendation that was voted on and passed by the finance committee yeah back in uh January I believe okay thank you Miss Wilson I'm I'm just um the wording that we received in our packet I'm I'm just not
understanding because it says in order to contract for registered Behavior technicians and able program it's like so I I is it for the registered Behavior technicians that are in the a program it's to support the a
program so that's okay all right and um I did verify that those positions are posted um I didn't see them because the heading was first pair professional Dash um you know registered Behavior technician so um they are being posted so we are continuing to try to fill
those internally yes right seeing no more discussion all those in favor I any opposed so move thank you updates from committee
policy and Governor South committee Miss Wilson we are chugging our way through all of the policies um we are going to continue with section g and H this Wednesday it was originally scheduled to run at 5:30 to start but it's going to start at 6 pm
and um there's also the topic of um how do I want to frame this properly because I don't have my notes in front of me but the um for uh uh CTE programs uh which is uh
I'm just drawing a complete blank I know you got a tuition policy we're looking to have the school committee so when a when a student um applies for through a chapter 74 application to go to uh uh
Westfield Tech or to Smith voke um there's there's what's written into uh you know state regulations but um different communities are adapting you know uh different MH they're they're
they're all following the law but like they they they interpret it a little differently so I think it would be a really good idea to get some clarity on what what the school committee stance should be around that application process and what should get approved
what should get denied um because it you know some some communities are a little more strict y than than Holy Oak M when it comes to that and so Dr um Rivera cologne is going to lead that discussion uh based upon a potential conflict of
interest um so I will not be leading that conversation or voting in any of that matter um our next uh subcommittee meeting is April 2nd uh it's again it's going to be at 6 pm and again this is the first uh review of our current
policies we intend to move to section I which is instruction on April 2nd which is is a very hearty section so it's probably going to take us more than uh one day thank you so much next up finance
and operations subcommittee Mr willan thank you um our next meeting is scheduled for this Thursday the 27th um down at the central office um got a question for Mr stto regarding the the
audio equipment we're sort of falling behind in the minutes there's issues with the recordings is that being addressed yeah I mean the the equipment works we just got to make sure someone knows how to turn it on and operate it um you know um we'll we'll make sure
that that gets tested and set up before the meeting we're kind of behind in the minutes if I did the minutes myself we'd be we'd be accurate so we're I don't want to keep it falling behind on the minute that's that's my concern thank you so much next up join city
council school committee any updates okay local control subcommittee miss lefave all right so we met this evening uh we had uh first we're going to start with Eric Weiss and and um Gabriella with uh Great
Schools partnership they gave their mid well Eric gave the Midway update on the community advisory team and so far what they've done in their work which they've met three times um when taking over the role of chair I looked back at the two videos of the
community advisory team kind of to see what exactly they were working on um and and it was get to know you type moments um for both meetings the third meeting
uh well let's just say was still getting to know one another but um they also talked about questions for the superintendent hiring process now because I heard so much about that and I think they they also lost the focus or were not aware of the focus also had to
be on the evaluation I did provide Eric Weiss and Gabriella with the uh capacity building plan to make sure that everybody's on the same page and they also know what their work is going to entail so but that being said the
community advisory team will meet on April 7th Now with an agenda that's also going to be talking about the superintendent evaluation um and so that when they go out to the community forums which will
be happening so because the time from when um the community advisory team was approved and to where we are now um a lot of time has passed and so time
if everybody's noticing is going by really quick and before school goes out again for the summer it's like we're rushing to try to hope to get these Community forums so the first forums and one of the suggestions I had made should be
because it's the inperson one should be two simultaneous one to hit the lower Ward the other one to hit the upper Ward same time Time same information and you're getting um
feedback from both ends right and this way um you're providing kind of like the Midway Point um the other one is going to be a virtual one and that would be for April 29th so anyone who wasn't able
to attend has the the ability to attend virtual we also discuss timing it's so funny how we a lot of meetings are done during working hours I don't know if the assumption is is that we're all at home watching soap operas that's not what we're doing a lot of people
work so I told them that it's better evening 6:00 pm the same way you know and um the good part is you know if families had to bring their kids to practice or whatever or make dinner get home make dinner and then be able to
attend so those were some of the things that we talked about uh some of the feedback that they've heard um so far from the community advisory team is to continue keeping a community advisory team after
receivership um that way we're getting they're getting more involved as well as um we're working as a partnership empowering parents and students um then we went into what everybody's been waiting for um so it has to do with
the the exit assurances as everyone is aware we originally had it for March 31st the meeting the expectation was that they were going to have it by then once I heard of the announcement that there was
a strong possibility that the current interim act acting interim commissioner was not going to be there I reached out and requested and up you know more closer before he leaves so March 24th was the day
we do not have those now mind you it was asked will the exit assurances if that's what you're planning to provide are you going to talk to us about it um because that's what's on the agenda unfortunately there there wasn't anything we don't know like he said that
the mayor had mentioned you keep saying um what they could be but there's still likelihood that we might not have any so we're un sure yet we're hoping he said for early spring a spring happened
couple couple days ago so I maybe sometime I know it's going to be weeks not months that was mentioned three times um so I'm putting out there for April hopefully um Mr Shen had requested that
they be in person at that time if that's what their plan is to do is provide exit assurances and they can be here in person where we could have a more fruitful effective discussion um but I'll be sending an email out to Jennifer woo and Lauren wo and see how we can
schedule something um obviously it won't be the commissioner the current acting commissioner that would be providing it providing us what those are if there are any it would then be obviously the
Secretary of Education who will also oversee that role uh one of the things that he did say and he kept emphasizing is that post receivership that the commissioner has the ability to keep aspects yeah of the
turnaround plan for two years and then they can extend it if they needed to um he did mention that our current strategic plan is in in place the
current strategic plan in place aligns with much of what's in the turnaround plan um we just have to wait and see what happens um but once I have a date I will
definitely be sending out that out to the vice chair and to our Administrative Assistant to make sure that we have that posted with ample time so that the community is aware as well as um other
members who may want to be a part of it Miss Wilson so I'm just thinking I'm thinking that there could be a greater presence um at that
meeting um based upon uh Community interest in exiting receivership and the fact that the assurances uh are not meeting what was initially anticipated so I would just like us to be thoughtful
about having an overflow area um where the meeting could be shared maybe in the cafeteria down at Dean down here um so the video um since there's no public comment at those meetings or historically has not but just so people
if they wanted to um see it in real time be able to uh witness what's going on um I'd just like an overflow thought process Mr Sheen I think that the um Vice chair and
the chair of the committee should also probably have a discussion if it's really of greatest benefit that it goes to the local control um committee or just to the full committee it just seems I mean why have
the the subcommittee talk about it when other board members are going to want to participate anyways and have to do the meeting all over again so it might just make more sense to be a regular meeting rather than a sub and I I know normally that just isn't how good government should operate but we really I mean
we're also now going to be getting this much later and there's going to be six other members that aren't part of that seven other members that aren't part of that committee that may want to engage and it would just be silly if we have them here in person for that meeting and
not miss Le which that was one of the things that I was thinking about or if it was to stay Within the local control I wouldn't want it to be right before our full committee that way we're not restricted
to time um but if we do go that route um the route of it being to the full board I don't know how others
feel but because there's still so much work to do then it should be more of a special meeting where it's only that on the agenda and that's it um and we still have our regular tool two school committee
meetings that that makes a lot of sense because that's going to be a fruitful Hy discussion for sure can may I ask another question go ahead M just for just for process um
if it is a special meeting um for the school committee is public comment allowed typically at special meetings yes all right so again we would need to be thoughtful in order to ensure that um
community members um are able to speak and you know share their information again if we have the over flow we have to be thoughtful about being able to call people up in a timely manner to speak thank you thank you so
much right next up we have leadership accountability and measurement subcommittee Mr Shen my report will be under old business ongoing business timeline for superintendent evaluation cycle um
the sub a recommendation that we approve a timeline on a normal Academic Year for the next valuation cycle I'll I'll make that motion second
discussion sense all those in favor I I any oppos extensions motion passes unanimously next up we have legal services for General Council
and collective bargaining RFP Mr jeen so as you know we have to uh pursue our um general councel for after July 1 and this is just a RFP that the superintendent and business manager can
share and work with our procurement department just to move this forward so this was recommended from the sub committee we have a motion to I'll make the motion seconded by missley Williams discussion Miss Wilson what does RFP
stand for uh request proposals any other discussion all those in favor I oppos MO passes unanimously out of state field trips Yukon Mr stto yeah this this is a field trip
request to um visit Yukon to get our um uh engineering and Life Sciences Academy a college tour uh we're looking at about 40 students for shaon and um there will be zero costs on the student um all of
it is covered within within the budget budget already um I am looking at you know based on feedback that I've gotten with these out ofate uh travel requests I'm looking at just updating the form so that when a request comes to school
committee there's more information one that I heard loud and clear is whether or not uh student cost there's student costs associated like student out of pocket cost uh but if there's any other recommendations that any school Committee Member would like to see these
requests um please reach out to me so that we can update our forms and uh the folks requesting these at the school level um provide the information that school committee is interested in in hearing thank you so
much and for the announcements they those were made as the hey we need the motion oh sorry I'm so sorry yeah again all those in favor I second I got the
second any opposed so move okay I thought you said listen this is a long night yeah a long day we're good all
right so the announcements were made as the committee's updates were done so we're done with with that which one I we need a correction um you have March 31st local Control subcommittee meeting at 5: we got to remove that there will not
be okay thank you and then just the um policies at 6 PM yes this weekend next Wednesday Mr Sheen I'll make a motion to enter executive session because a open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public
body for the purposes of uh non-union Personnel um interm superintendent contract and discussions of collective bargaining work Teachers Association second second then by Miss Denley Williams roll call vote starting with Mr
colore oh you get to go first today look at you living the high life Mr colore thank youon yes um mayor Garcia yes Miss U Dr Rivera colon yes Mr Sheen yes Miss Le fa yes
Miss glad LeBron yes uh Miss teny William see Mr isaza yes Mr wellan yes okay