by his side did she lift her head her eyes were chocolate brown and her easy smile seemed genuine suggesting a friend delighted by the arrival of her lunch date hello she said her voice so warm that Gregory half expected her to stand and hug him I he started are you here for Dr Bodkin I'm afraid he's not in today Philip Bodkin his mentor and friend who had the lease on The Suite was never in on summer Wednesdays but perhaps he'd made an exception to his weekly round of golf at the club the woman stood as if queued ignoring his question the magenta scarf drifted down her arms revealing the rest of the dress a summer shift that suggested curves without clinging to them she approached him unencumbered no purse no phone nothing left on the table except the copy of the New Yorker everything about her was vibrant against the beige backdrop of the waiting room she seemed to emit a radiant glow Dr Weber she extended her hand i'm Mera thank you for making time for me when they shook gripping longer than was customary he felt like he was tacitly agreeing to something but he didn't know what he noticed a pale scar running from her nose to the corner of her lip he wanted to tap open his calendar to see if he had scheduled this mirror months ago and overlooked the appointment he typically tried not to book anything in his one free hour in the middle of the work week but he had made some schedule vising mistakes recently an issue he attributed to his problems with live and sleep deprivation but to completely forget an appointment with someone knew this was a first so just as we're getting near the end of our time together but just I wanted to touch on um what you chose to read right there as well so we get introduced to merera who becomes a obviously very pivotal character because she is our Wednesdays at one um person as well did you have any particular inspiration when you thought came up with mea's character she came in um as part of my download with the characters she announced herself as mirror and only afterwards did I reflect on that name how she is a mirror for Gregory and many ways and she mirrors some of his shame and so she felt um she evolved as the book evolved for me I didn't know her relationship to Gregory when I started writing the book um I knew that they were connected to Gregory's past transgression but I didn't know how and so as the book unfolded and I figured out who Mira was it was a revelation to me and really fun to discover her as a character I'm not sure that it's a typical way of writing a story typically you'd have your two main characters and you would understand what their connection was but um it was all part of this really sort of strange magical process that I'm so grateful for oh fantastic that's really interesting too um so you said you working on something new what's what are you working on now it's another novel it's called the other choice and it's about a woman who isn't sure if she wants to have a child or not but her fiance who is a musician he um his one requirement is if they get married is that they don't have children so they just decide to be childfree by choice they make that decision they commit in marriage and then her Reckless younger sister gets pregnant and it throws all of Ruby's um certainty about family and children into turmoil so it's about how we choose our families and how we create families in different ways um while being sort of a a rich woman's novel are you uh uh setting that locally as well or is it of course of course of course it's so much easier it's so much easier and there is a there is a big piece set in LA and the musician goes out to LA and um I keep looking at my calendar thinking when can I sneak in four days in Santa Monica so uh do you have a projected date for that um I I told my agent I'd have it done by Thanksgiving so I'm trying to stick to that in fact I was writing this morning and I'll write again this afternoon so once I get going with a project and I get the momentum um and I start to um really sink into the story and see the story start to um start to form Then I then I just go with it so I'm in the Go With It phase now oh fantastic well I want to thank you so much for coming and being on our show today um you'll you can find Wednesdays at one uh there for you in libraries and bookstores and all the all the outlets that you normally wood as well and you know I hope that you enjoyed your time with us it was so enjoyable thank you for having me yeah absolutely and I just want to um for everybody out there who's watching please join us again the next time uh for a novel idea and we will hope to see you again soon out there in the airwav so thank you so much again I'm Noel Bach your host and we'll see you next [Music] time [Music] suicide is preventable and each of us has a role to play in suicide prevention [Music] suicide is complex there is no single cause and it's not always a mental health issue it could be loss of a job or home financial or relationship issues pain or leaving the military suicide does not discriminate it affects all ages races and genders veterans or not if you know a veteran who is struggling connect with them let them know help is available there is quick and easy access to services in times of Crisis dial 988 then press one talking about it is okay don't keep it inside don't be ashamed don't wait Reach Out find resources at va.gov slre what was released somewhere Mary was asking about it and I was trying to recreate it in my perfect thank you I was like this and we did this other line I was like I might perfect if we could just let her know because I was like it might be in the I think in the in the old packet it's still the full thing and she was just wondering which parts were released and which parts were redacted so you guys about minute but looks like two three yeah we've got enough folks here for when it's time all right so about minut and another one coming yeah give us one more minute we Marty went to go get something and hello good how are you sure yeah all set uh yes good you have what you need yes all right yes all set good evening and welcome to the Tuesday April 9th 2024 meeting of the long medal school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all votes SWS remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded by lctv and aired live we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance flag the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation godible liy and justice for all we'll begin the evening with correspondence a memo from Mr Donald Jarvis director of Occupational education at the lower Pioneer Valley Career and Technical education center was received regarding the Walter E Quigley junor student of the month award for March 2024 Long Meadow students honored this month are Vince uh Nathaniel Vincent from automotive technology Emily aen from graphic and visual design and Joseph mayolo integrated occupational prep thank you we're moving on to approval of minutes we have a recommended motion I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the March 26 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion see none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Mary yes Jamie yes Adam yes and yes for me as well um public speak is up next if there are any members of the public online I don't see any we have no one here those are the only folks online so we're moving on to business with guests and we are welcoming our Wolf Swamp Road principal Mr Jared Matas to our meeting this evening welcome good evening thank you for having me um I'm gonna let Marty play the video and then I'll talk a little bit about what you see and highlight some things so this is part of our uh ongoing uh um project to demonstrate how we attempt to cultivate and develop the competencies associated with the vision of The Graduate and so Jared Steven Spielberg Mata a great video for us here and uh we'll launch [Music] it [Music] [Applause] [Music] than [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] e [Music] after [Music] so hopefully you enjoyed that cuz I definitely did every time I watch it um that's the best part about being in elementary school right you get to have all these great things that are displayed around the room and put some funny music to it and um have fun with it so um thinking about what I wanted to do for tonight um you know I was trying to think of different ways to kind of highlight what's what wolf swamps all about and and what we do on a daily basis and then mold that with or bring that together with the vision of The Graduate and kind of fit those into different buckets and as you could probably see up there there's many different things that could that were displayed that we could fit into different buckets um I really tried to get everything from prek to five um all throughout the building the the beautiful part about this whole thing is this is only a small snapshot of of what you would see if you walked into the building um throughout the course of the year right it's probably about maybe 25% um a lot of the teachers switch things out throughout the year um so I got a small snapshot there uh but it's just great to see all the student work that's up there um and as I put in our title our scholarly work as we like to call it um but I want to highlight just a few things I'm going to do across the grade levels and starting with prek um if you noticed there was some work that they had up there about um creating lions and lambs and switching Seasons they had um different lions that they all made out of paper uh paper plates each student got to make one they also made um different Lambs out of paper plates so that was in prek there was many other things up there in prek as well um and kindergarten this one kind of warms my heart is if you saw up there it said if um if you give a kindergarten or pencil uh what you get and then the next slide was a um they worked in Partners where they actually picked different um friendship words for their partner and they wrote them down with each other um so that was really cool to see and and and great communication and um you know work that goes into all that um first grade was another great thing they they had um systems of the body that they had did in different groups um so they made these big human size I think the teachers actually laid down and the kids traced them out um and then they made the different systems of the body in different groups um and labeled them um second grade there there was a piece up there about um growing this year and it was all about setting goals for each other and hopes and dreams um so second grade they got to pick they got to decide at the beginning of the year what their goals were going to be what they wanted to accomplish by the end of second grade um and hold themselves accountable for that um third grade this is another favorite of mine is I got um what do we have in third grade 60 kids roughly 60 opinion letters from students on what would make Wolf Swamp better um very well written uh so i' I've read through about half of them so far a lot of them have to do with recess and lunch and uh the things you might expect but great pieces uh fourth grade uh the longer part of that video there where you might have got a little seasick if you're watching my camera skills there um they were doing parade floats so they each year this is a standing uh tradition that they do in fourth grade is and Mr Maza you would probably love this is they they budget so they have a float and they have a budget and they have to price everything out and they have to stay within their budget and then they have to build their floats and then they put them on display for all the kids to for the rest of the school to see little description of um what their Parade float was how much it cost um and everything that went into it it's really up to them to what they want to do um it's really awesome uh fifth grade this they did this this at the beginning of the year they have words of encouragement that they picked um through the guidance of their teachers um and then with that they also drew some pictures that that aligned with those words of encouragement and they're aligned if you walk up into our fifth grade hallway up the stairs and then up into the fifth grade hallway they're lined all the way up um so they get to see them every single day um it's it's great especially I see one particular every single day where I walk down the stairs and it's it's right there in your face um it's just great um the last one this one has to do with art where they did some abstract art and and thought bubbles so they needed they took a picture of themselves and then they did some abstract art of what their thought bubbles might look like um so you can see we have everything from art to science to math the the music um to reading to math it's just it's amazing to see throughout the day it's just a great opportunity just to give you a quick snapshot of what you would see if you walked into our building thanks well done got to give you some Applause on your production skills there I'll open for questions Andor any comments to make I loved it it was great um it shows that it's a really creative and caring Community too I saw a lot of those dates were very recent I was impressed others um I just uh commend the teachers for many examples of Project based learning activities inass collaborative assignments which are highly engaging for kids very much all right and a thanks to all the kids it's it's a very well decorated school there's so much fantastic artwork all over the hallways love that for you guys um and I love those Parade floats that'd be a really cool parade yeah yeah it would it would I think what jump what jumped out for me is this you know I've been hearing more people use this phrase that every kid has a name a story and a strength right and so all those projects kids got to represent themselves and who they are and their experiences but it was also tied to some academic standards so I thought that was I thought that was really cool and and wol swamp does a great job of public displays of and showcasing learning it's it's really powerful when you walk through so and a lot of focus on collaboration and um Community a lot of wolf pack and welcome to the wolf pack and everybody here you know it wouldn't be right if I didn't put anything in there about the Wolfpack cares very nice all right well thank you so much for coming out and we look forward to seeing you guys again soon thank you very much thanks to everyone for your help thanks Jared thank you all right we are headed into um school committee announcements and recognitions we'll start with the chair report um just an overview thanks we're heading into the busy part of the year and there are a lot of different events and Community things going on so a big thank you to all the members of our school Community for all the work they're putting in to make all of these things happen and a special shout out to Glen Brook for for some soldout performance there of Godzilla um rave reviews so congratulations um and a reminder that speaking of community events May 14th is the town meeting so we hope to see everybody there for our annual town meeting um any other school committee announcements or recognitions here um it's I just love this time of year when you drive through and see all the kids on the sporting fields and there's just such a I mean I had a hard time finding a parking spot it's just feels like an exciting time of year for kids um my own personal children were very excited about the eclipse and thank you for the glasses and um that was was cool and then the other thing is that there was also a play at Williams um murder at the Goon Squad which was great it was great so good things are happening yes anything else all right we are rolling right along into other reports superintend sure uh there's a report in your packet um went a little overboard this week so I won't hit everything in here um you can read it at your leisure um thanks to Mr Maza for bringing us together with another District safety team meeting recently uh one of the activities that we have uh before us is a final uh fourth and final safety drill and so before the end of the year each school will conduct uh an enhanced lockdown is the phrase we're using so uh a lockdown that's sort of more in line with the avoid deny defend model that we've adopted um concluding uh a professional development series that I've been involved with with uh director Neil izari uh on how to develop uh and sustain co-leadership models in the areas of Dei um I've launched uh with um with some help from uh my admin colleagues a high quality teacher share and and in the area of uh teaching and learning in the age of AI in the age of artificial intelligence it's something that want to sort of bring together some uh some thinking and some collaboration and some um exchange of ideas on that just I think we're at that place where we need to really start to pin down um some guidelines and protocols and uh for our Educators and really get us to a place where we're all exchanging best practice we have a lot of Educators that are are using um AI Tools in really responsible ways uh that promote student learning but I think bringing folks together across the district on a K12 basis hopefully will be a powerful thing for us uh the witness Stones project uh that you've heard about in the past is uh really going to get underway with students just after April vacation um that's the project that will culminate with the installment of witness stones on the uh property of the first church on the town green and those are stones to commemorate uh the experience of enslaved individuals from Long Meadow so really engaging project um Tracy Bradshaw pan can Jimmy uh Middle School Educators that have spearheaded that they've done an awesome job with that uh a lot of curriculum work underway summer curriculum uh writing proposals are being gathered we are in our second week of the in reading pilot uh and so thanks to our elementary Educators who are taking that work on um we're always looking at revising the elementary standards based report card so that is ongoing and then uh some committee members may be familiar with a set of guiding principles relating to homework that we developed in 2017 uh Beth Nelson's pulling together a group of Educators just to take a look at those guiding principles to see if they need revision or updating um n deari and I have been uh sort of on a tour of our schools meeting with administrators to see where we are in relation to our dib goals uh the the PE health and wellness framework is still being unpacked by our Educators and they are um putting together revised Scopes and sequences in response to that new framework uh and it relates to um health and wellness Concepts like nutrition social emotional learning uh physical fitness uh drug and alcohol prevention education and so um I think at some point might be good idea to bring that to the curriculum subcommittee and maybe the whole committee before the end of the year our work in that area um we are uh poised to purchase an important new tool here in the district uh a data warehouse uh called Panorama and we have long tried to track and monitor students progress both academically and social emotionally and behaviorally uh Panorama uh if it's tool that we're able to onboard that will allow us to do it in a more systematic systemic way so um we'll get and let you know more about that as we as we onboard that tool and Tom has been working hard on that along with uh several of our administrators made possible by that $993,000 seal grant that we uh secured about a month and a half ago uh special education there's a seal meeting tomorrow evening uh transition meetings are underway training for educators on the new IEP form so lots happening there and this is another mcast week and I want to give a shout out to our it team that has worked really hard to make sure that we have good functioning Supply good Supply too of Chromebooks for our students to use during mcast and and they've done a nice job making sure that our our network is uh is reliable and stable as well um it's mcass as most of the folks around the table here know is a huge undertaking and it requires a lot of administrative effort a lot of uh support from our it team so thanks to them Middle School building committee meeting next week grinspoon excellence and teaching banquet on Tuesday April 30th and Zach you're able to join us that night if I remember correctly and then we have another parent engagement event on May 2nd uh centered on ways to combat anti-Semitism in schools so it's May 2nd at 7.m in the LHS Auditorium so uh as Mary said a lot going on uh it is a it's a fun busy time of year and the eclipse was amazing admittedly I was uh worried about it um and we were able to secure the glasses Tom did a ton of work on that uh making sure that we had the right glasses and the right number of glasses and the kids embraced it the teachers embraced it I was over at Williams on the fields with kids and it was it was a memorable day for sure really really fun so yeah so thank you that's it any questions have been answered there you well any questions from anyone all right we are rolling forward other administrative reports no um our student representative is not with us tonight so we'll roll ahead to um lpvc our March meeting was cancelled so our next meeting is um April 24th I believe okay um yes April 24th so I can double check but April 24th all right energy and sustainability Adam anything from you uh there was an exciting meeting on March 26th regarding building codes and the energy uh use for existing structures updating existing structures new structures and the criteria to meet massach code for those additionally we talked about um you know how things are going the PRI project yes uh with the money where the education grant we got from Mass Save and um there was an update on Municipal aggregation uh as we're trying to get some uh competitive electricity going on um it was an electric meeting to say the least uh and uh next uh month we're going to be having some input from uh the I Collegiate members of the longb community to see how we can uh improve um the community from our energy and sustainability standpoints so if you guys want to you know come to a barn burner next month that should be that's the the hot ticket in town all right thank you well placed with the ponds there all right and then seal Michaela um as was said in the superintendent report tomorrow night T there is a zoom meeting um April 10th at 700 p.m. and it's about childhood anxiety and about special ed programming for the summer all right excellent um heading into subcommittee reports we have one report from curriculum sub Mar take yes I did prepare a statement based on some information um regarding the um literacy curriculum adoption and so I'm going to read it to you so under the leadership of Dr Beth Nelson director of curriculum in instruction and assessment 30 Elementary educators are currently undergoing a pilot as Dr OA mentioned of two literacy programs that are grounded in the science of reading there is considerable public focus on literacy instruction at the national state and local levels and the evolving needs of our students as well as new understandings of how to best support today's students as they learn to read and write in 2024 so this is from your thank you to the select board um they create a compelling case for new curriculum material we are grateful to the select board who approved a warrant article directed toward funding and Elementary literacy adoption at their meeting last week a warrant article is not a mechanism we have historically used to fund a curricular curriculum adoption this is an unusual situation for us one brought about by the necessary timing of this important curricular adoption the high cost associated with adopting a reading and writing curriculum for six grade levels more than 60 Educators and over a thousand children and and a particularly challenging budget season so community members we ask that you come out to town meeting on Tuesday May 14th at 7:00 p.m. in the Long Meadow high school gymnasium to support the Warren the adoption of a new literacy curriculum is critically important to the students of Long Meadow Public Schools excellent thank you Mary very well said all right we are moving on to ongoing business and we have um school committee assignments uh Mary is currently our representative for the lpvc collabor and is stepping down from that role so we have um three meetings remaining uh Wednesday April 24th Wednesday May 15th and Wednesday June 12th um and need someone to step into that role if anyone has any motions to appoint someone for that position I moved at the school committee appoint Zach veran to be the school committee representative to the lower Pioneer Valley educational collaborative board of directors thank you we have a motion do we have a second second second second thank you have lots of seconds awesome um any further discussion on this seeing none we'll move to a vote zth Yes Michaela yes Mary yes Jamie yes Adam yay and yes for me as well thank you very much for stepping in P we appreciate it all right wonderful Middle School building committee uh a little update on where we are I know you kind of already covered a little of that you have a little more you wanted to add certainly um yeah so I have um uh this is not a slide deck of my creation uh but a slide deck from the uh building committee meeting on uh this past last Wednesday and I thought it would be uh helpful to the whole committee to bring you up the speed on where the building committee is on this project but also just as importantly uh an opportunity for us to um convey to the community where we are where we stand Within building project intention would be to um sort of blast out the video from from this meeting so that folks kind understand um where we are and where the next Milestones are for us so um I'll pull up the the slide deck that was uh this is a a version of the slide deck that was put together by our design team our design team is Jones and witset Architects uh along with Colliers our project management team so they've been uh kind of guiding us through the this critical phase that we're in relative to the building project some of the items that we touched on at the building committee meeting on April 3rd was a report on where we stood with the community Forum envisioning some feedback that we've received from faculty uh we also spent a fair amount of time talking about exis in conditions at both Glenbrook and Williams um I won't I won't uh impose on you with that because I think that's a a familiar story to this committee that you sort of understand the the existing conditions at uh Glenbrook and Williams but we can touch on some upcoming scheduling events so this is the the detailed schedule I wouldn't expect you to read the the fine print here um I'd simply say that um there's a number of Milestones that we've crossed off and we are at uh a phase where uh it's a matter of putting together a preliminary design program that preliminary and this is sort of zoomed in what what was circled on the previous slide that preliminary design program needs to be submitted to the msba uh by May 3rd and so included in that is the outcome of the visioning sessions that we've been engaged in a very detailed educational plan that we're working on collaboratively as an administrative team it's a real heavy lift that Ed plan uh it it's it will wind up being about a I'm guessing around a 70 or 80 page document an initial space summary which is a very detailed spreadsheet of uh that records all the existing educational and operational spaces at each building and then a proposal for uh a combined Middle School arrangement we also have to submit to the msba A Renewed evaluation of existing conditions and uh jwa jwa being Jones wited AR Architects JW's uh preliminary report on the site development requirements uh for the middle school project so we kicked off on March 8th with the Middle School faculty uh they were engaged in a vision session with jwa uh and then following that our district leadership team came together uh as well to start to craft a vision for the new Middle School some of the takeaways um from the visioning session with the faculty was uh the the staff's you know sort of um understanding of what the needs of developing middle schoolers are right now um um there was a number of folks that talked about the difference between sixth graders and eighth graders and that you needed a building to account for that difference um the idea that the needs of children are are very complex uh and that in many cases children are presenting uh worry and anxiety and that we would want a building that would be responsive to that uh but also a building that is um very much uh creates rigorous learning opportunities for for kids the takeaways uh from the district leadership meeting um sort of identified some critical success factors uh we talked a lot about the the the safety of the building the the lighting the Acoustics the accessibility to the outdoors um how you can create a small building but one that is adaptable uh and Future Ready um we engaged in an activity called Postcards From the future and started to do our best at looking into the crystal ball to think about the world that kids will be moving into one that will require heightened levels of collaboration and Entrepreneurship and uh integration of Technology uh the priorities some of the priorities that we identified including being responsive to students social emotional well-being uh being mindful of uh career preparation and and sort of some life skills some conversation about how do you how do you bring back uh in modern ways some of the the skills that maybe were part of our Middle School experience uh years ago um takeaways our the the design team visited both Glenbrook and Williams they toured the buildings they observed classes they interviewed staff and came away with some important takeaways uh highlighted and bold here some of the current environmental limitations at Glenbrook there was considerable discussion about the importance of creating collaborative spaces for educators I think um Jared's presentation earlier from Wolf Swamp sort of demonstrated what can happen when you have those opportunities for collaboration across disciplines uh modern special education spaces modern spaces for uh supporting so social emotional programs and again centering the importance of uh collaboration between subjects similarly at Williams uh they observed classes interviewed staff and students um and spent a considerable amount of time uh developing some of the ways that you see here some of them are are similar to what we heard uh at uh from from the Glenbrook team uh but I think one of the things that struck our design team was the related arts swing at Glenbrook I think they were um impressed that that was an area where the related arts were very much on display and showcased and available and could be seen and they could contrasted that with Williams where some of the related art spaces are sort of tucked away in ways that aren't visible to students and staff and the public so I think they were really I think that was one of the things that was an aha moment for them and and even for all of us as they as they gave us that feedback they sort of held up a mirror and and pointed out some things that us that they seemed to think resonated with them when they were when they were touring the buildings um the students had an opportunity to engage in some visioning uh one of the neat activities they did was to they laid out uh pictures uh for the students and the students could gravitate towards uh certain pictures and use those pictures to convey what they uh thought would be important an important part of a a newly designed building so cool opportunity for kids to be involved in the design process at this early stage uh again some of the takeaways more globally um how a Consolidated Middle School could uh increase the availability of programs particularly in the in the specials the related arts uh creating opportunities for really deep learning for Project based learning for highly engaging learning opportunities um an emphasis on Community Pride an emphasis on creating opportunities for collaboration and socialization for staff and students and ensuring that we have a building that can promote creativity uh and love of learning so those are some of the the key takeaways there and then uh a need event a few weeks back a community visioning session this was March 27th we held it in the business in technology Center and we had about 50 folks signed up and we had about 40 ATT es and uh similarly they engaged in the photo activity and uh had a chance to uh convey to the design team what what their hopes and dreams were for a new facility and some of the takeaways from that Community visioning session are listed here um the outcome should be student autonomy opportunities for exploration and Discovery I thought those were were powerful phrases uh how do we create space that gives kids appropriate amounts of autonomy at at that age creating opportunities for Hands-On learning for celebration for Showcases of of of their learning safe modern clean safety came out quite a bit naturally and I think what we heard really loud and clear from the community attendees was creating the school as a community Hub that if we do wind up with a Consolidated Middle School at a single site that it's an amazing opportunity to create uh a community Hub in the same way that long met high is a is a community Hub um and again creating spaces that that provide opportunity for creativity and inspiration so they they sort of boiled it down to four key themes the idea of the community Hub the idea of giving kids uh choice in ways that create engaging learning opportunities uh ensuring that we promote educator collaboration and Ethos of place I think it was sort of their hope the design team's hope that we will have a building that is reflective of the of the community and culture of Long Meadow um some of the quotes that came out of the the design the visioning look forward to a space that the entire Community feels comfortable using and accessing both inside and out I hope it brings our community together and that all stakeholders feel heard and represented a space that best supports student learning a space that allows teachers to use best practices to optimize learning opportunity for students to learn in a comfortable enjoyable and collaborative environment space for students to experience new different Hands-On learning opportunities a safe and inclusive space that provides flexibility ility to support diverse Learners those were some of the powerful quotes place where everyone is safe a welcoming space safety Comfort place where kids are happy to learn a modern Place accessible to all again I I feel like there's a tie into to what Jared tried to represent at wol swamp the The Pride The Joy the the learning on display that that his video captured earlier for wol swamp so this is where this is probably of interest to the to the school committee and to The Wider Community jwa um is is sort of still wrestling with some critical design questions and how do we make sure that we we design a building that creates Equitable learning experiences that drive deep learning Drive engaging learning Drive Universal Design for Learning which is really a Timeless approach to pedagogy and then building a building that that promotes that is committed to students well-being having spaces and places where kids uh can have their uh their whole being attended to um note that last bullet supporting interdisiplinary teaching spaces that engaged multi multiple intelligences I thought that was a sort of a powerful bullet uh on on that again these are two of the questions that that jwa is continuing to work through with there'll be additional opportunities for uh staff and students to engage in this process and for the wider community and the building committee uh one of the things that we have we have an amazing opportunity to create a place of full accessibility for special education students so we want to be thoughtful about how we plan special education spaces and how can that design strengthen the Middle School Community I like the second bullet here uh designing shared spaces and circulation that encourage interaction rather than isolation but note the parenthetical without an open plan concept right not not not to create the uh the Open Spaces that we have at Glenbrook but creating welcoming spaces where learning is on display I think that's what our design team heard over and over and over a lot of conversation around outdoor space uh the fields that surround the building um having a connection having the building be connected to the outdoors in visual ways so those are some of the big design questions that are are surfacing um to continue you know supporting that trajectory of a child from elementary school through High School and you know creating that place where kids have uh opportunities for enrichment and growth um how do you build a building that supports the growth and development of clubs and activities you know I mean we we we know that those hours after school are critical to a child's growth and development so we want a building that that allows for those extracurricular activities um and notice this the the second bullet here making specialized classrooms meeting rooms and media spaces more visible and Central I think that that goes back to what I said earlier about how they were they were sort of captivated by that related art swing at Glenbrook um so those are some of the questions that the design team is working through I'm going to there's a there's a number of slides on existing conditions at both Glenbrook and Williams um I'll I'll spare you that because it it really is just a um a recitation of the challenges that we're facing the facility challenges that we're facing at both buildings so next steps uh are here for you notice this is an incredibly busy time for us and we have a building committee meeting next Wednesday it is during vacation week hoping we can pull together a quorum but the important task of reviewing the initial Ed plan reviewing the space summary uh all headed towards the submission of that preliminary design proposal report on May 6 and that goes right to the msba that will require a vote of the school building committee at its meeting on May 1 so again some sort of where the rubber hits the road types of information for you uh the jwa engaged the building Committee in a conversation about what options to explore so what's going to happen is on on on May 6 what we submit to the msba will be um a uh evaluation of possible solutions the possible solutions the possible options that will be evaluated or are being evaluated uh and will be submitted to the msba include number 1 5 6 7 and 8 I think the the building committee felt strongly that the idea of just addressing one school would be in their view sort of a nonstarter for this community that it would create um some fiscal challenges and some uh Equity issues um and and perhaps even be divisive if just the needs of one of the schools was addressed so it basically directed The Design Team to to really look at um solutions that would be available to students from from both middle schools the exception is number one which is it's required the msba requires that we uh study how we could bring what it would cost to bring Glenbrook alone up to code just a reminder to folks who might be watching this that the the SOI statement of interest to the msba was submitted just for glennbrook but it's been clear right along that we're we're looking at a a two- School solution so that's where we are um and if you have any feedback that you'd like us to convey to the building committee or the design team or if there are any important questions you have we're happy to pass those along so thought it was important to bring the committee up to speed and and the community up to speed on on where we are with this amazing project so Happ to answer any questions or questions thoughts comments all right um it's been a great project to be able to be a part of every meeting there's so much to learn and just a thank you to um jwa for the work they put into pulling this presentation together um and all of the work they've done so far with the visioning for the community um and just to let folks know in case they're not sure what these 1 five six 7 and eight numbers mean um we will not be by May 1st deciding one of these over another um it would rather be a proposal that goes into what each of these things would entail um and then that moves forward to msba and then down the road um is when some final decisions get made with much more many more Community opportunities for engagement along the way important footnote yes all right um seeing no other comments we will move on to new business thank you very much Dr um gifts to the school we had um received our um a donation of eclipse viewing glasses from the University of Massachusetts so big thank you for that um and we have a possible recommended motion related to that I move that the school committee accept with genuine appreciation the gifts to the Long Meadow Public Schools as presented on the document dated April 9th 2024 we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none one move to a vote zth Yes Michaela yes Mary yes Jamie yes Adam yay and yes for me as well thank you very much again to the University of Massachusetts um it was much appreciated and also thank you to the elementary principles and the group that are collecting those to recycle and be able to use them again at Future um Eclipse events all right moving on to our final motion we have a recommended motion for move to Executive session I move that the school committee meet an executive session pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 30A section 21A purpose 7 consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings not to reconvene into open session we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion being none we'll move to a vote Zach yes Michaela yes Mary yes Jamie yes Adam yay and yes for me as well thank you very much everybody have a love evening and we will see you again in a few weeks