I'm hearing no nos, so I think we're good. Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 meeting of the Log Middle School Committee. Massachusetts general law allows for remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027. All votes while there
is remote participation must be made by roll call vote. This meeting is being recorded and aired live on LCTV. Um, we don't have anybody at home today, correct? We do not. All right, we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. Oh, I'm sorry to the flag of the United States
of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Well done. All right, we will begin with correspondence. The following
correspondents will be recorded. A memo from Mr. Donald Jarvis, director of occupational education at the Lower Pioneer Valley Career and Technical Education Center, regarding the Walter E. Quigley Junior Student of the Month Award for March 2025. Long Meadow
students honored this month are Christopher Conier, building property maintenance. Livia Kelly, cosmetology, Caleb Marino, culinary arts. Thank you. And congratulations to our students. Um, we have a possible motion for recommended motion for approval of
minutes. I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the April 8th, 2025 school committee meeting as presented. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Zach, yes. Estelle, yes. Michaela,
yes. Jamie, yes. Julie, yes. And yes, for me as well. Thank you very much. All right, we have a moment for public speak. If there are any members of the public who would like to speak, I think mostly looks like everyone's here for Blueberry Hill, but if you're here for something else, now's
your chance. And we do not have do we have anybody at home who might like to speak? We have one additional member. All right, seeing no request for public speak, we move right to our honored guests of the evening, the
Blueberry Hill School Green Club. Uh we'll let you do some introductions. Yeah, thank you. Um I know it's important to the committee to uh spend some time showcasing our talented students and our our supportive educators. So tonight we're pleased to welcome the green team uh from Blueberry
Hill School and under the under the thoughtful guidance of Miss Katie Koviello and uh principal David Allen is here as well. Um, we're really proud of the work that they've done uh to become active citizens and to become aware of
how to protect our planet. So, we'll turn it over to uh Miss Koviello and I'll pull up a a slide deck that you have shared with us as well. Hello everyone. Welcome. I am Katie Coello and I'm the math specialist at Blueberry Hill School. I also have the
honor of leading the Blueberry Hill Green Club. Thank you for welcoming us to tonight's meeting and giving our students the opportunity to share the incredible initiatives that uh they've brought to both our school and greater community. Before we begin, I want to
express our sincere gratitude to Mrs. Brown and the Center School Green Club. Their inspiring work has lit the spark for us at Blueberry Hill and their continued efforts have set a powerful example of what's p possible when the students are empowered to lead. I see
some familiar faces here this evening. Parents, colleagues, and community members, some of which I've had the privilege of teaching your children or collaborating with over the years. And for those of you who know me know how deeply I care about our students and
their potential. I could go on for hours about how proud I am of the Green Club and their passion and commitment to the community, but I promise I'll try to keep it to a tight 45, 50 minutes. And I'll try my best not to tear up with pride. Um, this is the second year of
Blueberry Hills Green Club, and our group is made up of 24 enthusiastic and dedicated students in grades three through five. Their mission is simple but powerful. To serve their school and the wider community by promoting recycling, reducing waste, and raising environmental awareness. What makes this
group so special is that it's entirely student driven. Their ideas, energy, and persistence are the driving force behind every initiative we've taken on. And these students have already dedicated over 40 hours just this year, and they're not done yet. They tonight, a
few of our green club members are here to proudly share all that they've accomplished over the past two years and I can't wait for you to hear directly from them. So, I will now turn the mic over to them. All right. When starting Green Club, we had
a few goals in mind. to reduce the waste at Blueberry Hill, increase recycling efforts, and educate students and staff about the impact each of us has had on the environment. We like to think we have made a positive impact on our school and community as a whole through
the initiatives we started. Here are a few ways that we have accomplished our goals the last two years. During our first year at at Eds Green Club, we did a few schoolbased cleanup projects. First, Dr. Allen graciously tasked us with relocating
forgotten items that have been stored in a closet for years. There were even some items from the 60s and 70s. We cataloged each item on a Google doc and sent the dock to all district staff. We were able to find new owners for nearly all the
items across each school. Last year, we also committed to clean out the flower beds in the courtyard for classrooms to use. Most recently, some green club members volunteered to clean up the Molly Molly Makavoy playground. This is
a playground located behind the senior center that is dedicated to a former center school student. Over the past two years, we have done schoolwide writing utensil collection. Every month, we collect writing utensils from each classroom and
bring them to Staples. Most people don't realize that you can recycle so many items at Staples. From computers, random cords, and highlighters. To date, we have kept approximately
6,22 writing utensils out of the landfill. Hello school committee. We are Katarina Faren and Quip. Thanks to Dr. Allen, Blueberry Hill began composting this year. Green Club was tasked with educating students and staff on this new
opportunity. With the food waste we put in the compost bin, a company called Banana Company, Banana Compost picks up the picks the leftover food waste and processes it at the facility
facility. Each week we they weigh it and update us on how much food waste has been collected. Thus far, we have collected 2,564 lbs of compost. Mr. Jeff, our school custodian, shared that we went
from using four bags of garbage during lunch during lunch each day down to just one. We hope to keep composting our leftover food that we eat at BHS Elementary School and hope you consider composting
at home. Banana compost will even pick up residential food waste in Long Meadow. Do one thing or dot is a series of goal setting challenges that we created to elimmit waste and improve everyday lives in general. Every week during the month
of April, the students and staff staff in Blueberry Hill gets new challenges. The challenge this month were week one was water saver week where we encourage students and staff to
reduce water usage. Week two was kindness week where we encourage staff and students to do something kind for the environment or someone in their community. Week three, greener week, is about doing something green for the environment,
like planting flowers, trees, or cleaning up trash in your neighborhood. Finally, the last week of dot goal setting week is about setting one or more environmentally friendly goals for yourself and then fulfilling
them. Uh, okay. Is it here? Okay. Yeah. Students at Blueberry Hill Blueberry Hill made note of their dots on our do one
thing bulletin board. It is still April, so our challenge continues on. We encourage each of you to do one thing and make an impact on the environment and community this week. [Music] Well, I'm sure it's very clear why I'm
so proud of this group and all the students and staff at Blueberry Hill for their dedication to such meaningful and impactful causes. The students have done so much more than what they've outlined this evening. They've organized a candy wrapper collection which prevented over
10,000 candy wrappers from going into a landfill. They really enjoyed that. Um, and they also have collected pounds and pounds of plastic for the Next Trex Challenge. They've collected over 700 pairs of sneakers which have been recycled, reused, or donated to those in
need through a sneaker drive. And the list goes on and on. But before we close, I'd like to express our sincere appreciation to the Long Meadow community, our building administration and district administration, and the school committee for supporting clubs like ours. Your encouragement and backing have been essential to our
success. So, thank you. So, well done. We loved having you here. Um, you guys have done so many cool things. You've gotten a lot done in a really short amount of time. You should be very, very proud of yourselves. You've made a very tangible, very real difference in our community and we are really appreciative of that.
I'm going to open it up for other folks in the commu in the committee who might want to ask a question or tell you something else that they wanted to share. So, anyone else who'd like to speak? Michaela, you guys did an awesome job and um I feel so proud that my kids
go to Blueberry Hill and that you started this green club and you've been working so hard um and they have you to look up to. I know they loved doing some of these things that you started in school and I've seen it at home and they've talked to me about it and I appreciate you guys all coming and
telling us about it. Z really well done everyone. Um having gotten to know a number of you um through different activities in town. I've always been impressed with your character and your leadership and I just really think our earth is very fortunate to have you growing and leaning into
your role as future future global citizens. Absolutely. Anyone else? Jaden, you guys did a fantastic job. And I I want to learn more first. So So up here, um I'm not sure who did the writing utensils
thing, but it's Staples. I throw my pencils into my garbage can. I didn't realize they did that. So what do you do? Do you tell me about the process? Do I just bring them over to Staples? I think I think it was What was your name? Um Ava. Ava, do you want to tell me? I
think you were the one. Um, well, it wasn't exactly me who did that presentation. Okay. I thought it was you. I was going to call it Avery because I knew her name, you know. Go Um, there's a bin that we um kind
of made. It was a plastic bin that we um taped this um Yeah, it has the Staples label on it. And what you do is that every week we collect it and we put in we have the
highlighters and pens and pencils and broken crayons that you think you should put in the garbage. You put it in there instead. And that's why we have 6,202 collected cuz that's from a lot of classrooms at the school because people don't really recognize how much they put
away. So, we're trying to make use the bins to make the landfill smaller from the utensils and everything. Got it. So, you all should be doing that. Okay. Well done. I got another question for you, too. You're doing a good job. All right. So,
I have a lot of people in town who tell me that we should be doing the composting for all the schools. And there's a lot of people adults who weren't able haven't been able to get it done. So, does it sound like we should be pushing that along and maybe trying to get all of the schools doing similar
things that you're doing? Um, I There you go. There you Yeah, I would definitely suggest maybe trying to push the other schools, try and do it cuz one way we um changed the landfill again was we change from plastic utensils to metal
utensils so we wouldn't have to throw so many plastic utensils in the trash. So, I would definitely maybe suggest trying to push the other schools to change it from the plastic to metal and from doing the staples bite, which they might already do, but um definitely something
that we enjoy doing to help the world. Got it. I love it. Yes. Do we use metal? Where do we use metal or Yeah, yeah, we're still using the metal. Yeah, we're using metal everywhere now. Okay, good. Good. Very nice. That's great. And with new middle school building projects
going, maybe you guys can offer some advice for those things as we get further along in the project, too, for composting and other projects that you've been successful at in your school. Did anyone else have anything? I can't see. Sorry.
Oops. Yes. They must have got bounced out. Okay, there we go. Okay. And I think we're all back. All right. Okay. Anyone else have anything else? I'll ask one more question. Yes, go for it. I just want to know. Has
anybody started doing stuff at their own home that's similar to all this composting and things like that where you've taken it home and had your parents start doing it? Honestly, I'm but we've been definitely focusing on the impact of the school that we would definitely try doing that
more, but I don't think it's been that often, honestly, if we're talking the truth. I like the truth. That's always good. My sons usually never give me all the truth, but I like it. I like it. Okay. Um, we've definitely been trying really
hard to make the school do that because the school is definitely a huge impact on the earth. Yeah. So definitely homes we think we should think about that more. I don't think very many of us have done that. I'm pretty sure at least some of us have done that but I don't think
much of us have. So did you like to come on up to the microphone and tell us something else? I see two hands up. I do. Come on up. We have been like composting our food like our food scraps and like fruit peels and stuff like that. We've always
really done that. I like it. That's great. So, how are you com are you actually do you have a compost pile or are you just using Yeah, we live next to a wood and so my mom made like this little bin out of wood scraps and so every time a compost is full she just
puts it in there and it biodegrades into soil that she uses for gardening. I like it. Great. I like it. Impressive. [Music] Um, we do recycling and
we got to make a trip to Home Depot. Everybody's very on the spot here. No, we don't. There's always a good recycling is good, too, right? And the Home Depot.
Got it. Got it. All right. Um, I don't know. All right. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. We learned a lot. I also like um Jamie here did not know Mr. Hench that you could recycle all of your
writing implements. So, that's a great thing to know. Um, and I appreciate that extra information. Thank you so much. Um, yeah. So, also equally proud of all of you. And um how about from our students a nice round of applause for Miss Koviella who's so amazing.
All right. So big thank you to all of our students and to Miss Koviello and to um sorry Mr. Yes. for everybody coming out tonight. We really appreciate getting the chance to see you all. Thank you so much. Well done. Thank you everybody.
Thank you. All right, Mr. Alan. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great job everyone. Hey, Julie, can you hear us at home? Just checking it. Looks like we've got a connection problem. I don't know. Not sure what they doing
there. Tom, did you check with LCTV? See if um did we lose everyone at the end? We would have probably said something by now. I was trying not to cry. I know it was And half of them are like safeties, too.
Oh, yeah. They just all such good kids. We'll pause for a moment while we see if we can sort out some not been behaving. It's not even picking up. Yeah, it's not even picking up your video right now.
They're good. They can see us. We're going to reboot the owl. Okay. See if it Hang tight. We're going to reboot the owl. Well, hopefully the kids at least came through on the video, so that's good.
I was telling her I was trying not to cry again. That was so cute. Yes. had a great presentation. You're all set to go. I love how many different projects you guys have done. I mean, the sneaker thing, I couldn't believe that
was almost 800 sneakers cuz that bin was there and it kept emptying. I put a couple sneakers in there. So great cuz it's like, oh, you don't want to give them to Goodwill. You don't want to throw them away. Yeah. One of our other schools was getting ready to do composting as well, right?
Did that centers is also doing that. Yes. Interesting to see how that's working out at Blueberry Hill and Center. Oh, and the owl is back. Okay. All right. Julie, can you hear us now?
I can hear you and I can hear you. Yay. Were you able to see the presentation? Did we lose you guys for that? I I saw the good portion of it and then things degraded. Sorry. Okay. All right.
I think we're back online then and ready to move forward. Um again, a big thank you to Blueberry Hill students for coming out today with the green club. Um we're headed into school committee announcements and recognitions. Um chair club, we have our chair report. I have a couple of things to draw attention to.
Um the first is the superintendent evaluation timeline. Um it's the responsibility of the committee to evaluate the superintendent um each year and it is officially the season for that. Um so Dr. Sha will be providing his evaluation documents um and evidence
um and the form and artifacts by Friday, May 9th. Um the committee will have the opportunity to review that information, reach out with any questions, request any additional um information from um Dr. or any additional evidence. On May 15th,
um he'll be giving us a report um an endofear report um that will highlight some of the key elements of that evaluation. And then um individual evaluations will be completed by committee members and due back um to
Diane Grogantis by Tuesday, May 20th, excuse me. Um the evaluation subcommittee will meet the sometime between the 21st and the 23rd. Um and we'll then be prepared to bring a cumulative evaluation recommendation back to the committee for our May 27th
meeting. Um so keep an eye out for those documents by May 9th. Um and be prepared to go through and reach out with any questions about that process um as needed. Uh next up, we are approaching the um annual town meeting and that
brings with it the um question of the citizen of the year awards. So the town has reached out. They need a representative from each of the um committees in town for a single meeting where they will review the nominations and vote on citizen of the year. Um there are possible meeting options open
for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week with a number of choices available. Um so if anybody is willing to tackle that, it's typically one meeting and it's one uh it's usually done by Zoom. So there are a number of different timing options available as a possibility. Um if someone feels that
they are willing to be the um school committee representative, they can say something now if they want to or they can let me know later um and I can forward that along. All right. Um and then some town reminders. On Tuesday, May 6th, there will be a preliminary election held um to narrow the list of
candidates for the select board. On May 13th, Tuesday, May 13th is our annual town meeting scheduled for 700 p.m. at the Long Meadow High School auditorium. And we have full town elections rapidly approaching as well on Tuesday, June 3, where we will seat a few new uh school
committee members as well as other boards around town. That is all from me. Do any other committee members have any announcements or recognitions they would like to make? All right, seeing none, we will head into reports. Superintendent report. Uh just a couple items tonight.
Um, as we as we begin planning for next year, uh, I wanted to give the committee um, a heads up. One of the things that we have been talking about with our special education director, Nicole Paris Crow, is the, um, uh, sections at the preschool level. Right now, we run three
half-day sections. Um Tom and I have been in conversation with preschool staff about the possibility of uh excuse me, we run six um half-day sess sessions um discussing the possibility of running four half-day sessions and one full day
session. It wouldn't um change staffing levels. It would be a budget neutral proposal for next year, but it's something that um certainly will bring some additional information back to the committee at a future meeting. but wanted to kind of give you an early heads up that that is something that we
have been in discussion with uh the preschool staff on. So, um we'll keep you posted there. And then um we're still tracking the FY26 budget. Uh the uh House budget um appears things appear
to be trending in the right direction, although the budget won't be settled for uh quite a while. The House has proposed increasing the minimum per student chapter 7 aid from $75 per student to $150 per student. So, uh if that holds,
that would be welcome news to the town of Long Meadow. It's nothing that we could um realize before the May 13th town meeting. It's something that we would have to take up um after the the state budget is uh signed and sealed by the governor, but we'll we'll keep you
posted on that as well. So, uh, good trend potentially. So, that's it. All right. Great. Thank you. Any questions or back there? Additional reports. Um, LPVC. Yes, thank you. Um, as we've mentioned
recently, um, LPVC was recently rewarded with 25 electric buses. Um, and they have all come in. Uh, they were required to decommission 25 diesel buses. And it's been a slow process, but we have arrived, which is fantastic. Um,
unfortunately, fires destroyed four of the buses. They were a total loss. Um, but we were approved for LPBC was approved for three new buses. Um, they were also approved for um, uh, buying five new charging stations to replace.
Um, because of recent tariff conversations, they were too concerned over the risk moving forward. So, they went ahead and got five new charging stations. No. All right. Great. Thank you. Um Seal, yes. Um the next SEAL
meeting will be on May 14th and it's a mental health speaker coming to talk and um last May there was a mental health presentation also and really anyone can benefit from the presentation. It's via Zoom and it's really important
information for every kid really. Definitely. Great. Thank you. Um and no report from energy and sustainability tonight. Uh student representative report announcement. Sorry. Oh yeah, sorry. Um there's a future plan of fiesta May 3rd uh from 11:00 a.m. to 3
p.m. at Long Meadow Green. All right. Great. Thank you. Sorry. It's okay. All right. And now student representative report. Andrew. Great. Perfect. Um so as we move into May, just a couple reminders on upcoming senior events. Um, the High Meadows field trip
is this Friday, May 2nd. Prom is June 5th at the Log Cabin and graduation is June 10th at Symphony Hall. Um, the week before break, so the week of April 13th, I think. Yeah, we um LHS had our
kindness week um where we got Oh, no, it was the week of April 14th, sorry. Um we had our kindness week where each day there was a different um sort of activity that students could could participate in to promote kindness and um community. So the first day for
example we had our kindness wall which was full of flowers that had every student's name in the entire high school and each student was allowed to take their name to show our community. Tuesday, we had the take what you need wall, which was a wall full of sticky notes, full of um sort of
like just nice quotes that you can take that sort of to sort of help bring up your day a little bit. Um and then also as we move into May, we have the purple wave across our community um to remember Cat Bosavic. Um, so please participate in any way you can, either through a
purple light, a purple purple ribbon around um maybe like a column or anything at your house, just anything you can do. Um, and then good luck to all of our athletes um as we move into playoff season. All right, great. Thank you very much. Um, moving on to subcommittee
reports. Finance sub has no report, correct? Okay. Um, policy sub, excuse me. Um, yes. We have approval of minutes for March 24th, 20 25. Um, we have a recommend motion for that. Go ahead. Okay. Um, I move
that the school committee approve the minutes to the March 24th, 2025 policy subcommittee meeting as presented. We have a motion to move a second. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing no to a vote. Zach, yes. The staff. Michaela, yes. Jamie,
yes. and Julie. Thank you. And yes, for me as well. All right. Next up, there's also minutes from uh the December meeting, D. Yeah, there were there were two sets of minutes that um it's not reflected on the annotated agenda, but you have in
your meeting packet the December 30th policy subcommittee meeting minutes. So, I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the December 30th 30th 2024 right y policy subcommittee meeting
as presented we have a motion do we have a second thank you any discussion we need to vote yes yes Michaela yes Jamie yes Julie yes and yes for me as well all right
next up from policy sub so policies Your first reading, the wellness committee presents the revised policy ADF wellness for an initial reading to the committee and also you're being presented with a revised policy JLJC administering
medicines to students for the first reading as required by your policy BGB policy adoption. The revised policies are posted to the district's website. They'll be posted for 30 days to solicit public input. The policies will come back to the committee on May 27th for a
second reading and possible approval. Did you want to Yeah. So for a uh sort of a significant policy in your policy manual is is the wellness uh policy which um has some specific requirements around the review and update of that
policy on a periodic basis. And so uh we had pulled together a committee of administrators. The school committee was represented on that with Dr. Rosen Bloom uh and Nild de Rosari, our director of student and family support uh guided us and led that process and so uh Nilda is
here tonight to uh give provide an overview of the revisions to your wellness policy. I'm grateful for Nilda's work and I think the policy is really a great reflection of our strategic goals and it brings the
wellness policy uh up to date in some very very important ways. So Nilda has prepared a uh because it's such a dense policy and I know the policy subcommittee had an opportunity to kind of go through this with Nilda once before but um wanted to bring it to the
full committee because it it it is the changes are extensive. So I'll pull up the the slide deck and welcome Mililda. Thank you. All right. So the first um slide just shares the
diverse representation that we had on the committee. We had a lively group um that was representative of PE teachers, students, parents, school committee member um and our food services
staff and our nursing staff. So a little bit of our entire community was there and we still thought that we should revise the policy to include more stakeholders for the next time we approach the wellness policy. Then give me one second and I'll
pull that up for you. Okay, let's see. There we go. Take a second. Think what we need is a second computer for this.
Computer is not a friend to me. Good. All right, there we go. That's the extensive list of participants in the wellness provision policy committee. So, thank you for your patience on that.
Um so our timeline um part of the former school committee pol wellness policy said that we would meet four times um a year with a representative stakeholder group. So that process stayed consistent with the
um old version of the wellness policy. The first meeting we had, we evaluated our current um wellness policy and we started to talk about things that had shifted in the past 10 years since we reviewed the last wellness policy. And
so much has changed about mental health, what we know about wellness, nutrition, physical health, um that we noticed that there were some outdated information that was in our former wellness policy. Meeting two, we pulled out the Wellstat tool and then we evaluated our current
policy for things that were either um mentioned but didn't have strong enough language. Um so if it said we highly encourage hydration um we switched the language to make it more active that PE teachers will
actively promote hydration during physical education activities. If we said teachers in the former policy um recommend movement activities, we shifted that language to say that educators would consider movement activities during long periods of
sedentary instructional activities. So, we shifted the language to make it more active and to have each um Long Middle Public School employee sort of know their responsibilities in the wellness policy. Our third meeting, we started to
make those recommendations and every person came and made recommendations and we also had a presentation from our food services um staff and they shared some of the nutritional things that they were doing in our cafeteria. They shared an update about breakfast being at all
schools for next year and Andrew I was so happy was present for that meeting and gave the student take on our school lunches and the food. Um so I'm sure he'll share more when we get to that slide. Um and then last we finalized the wellness policy and that's why we're
here. The the um revision is very extensive. So when I look at the old policy compared to the new policy, you'll see some major shifts and that's what I'll outline for you today. Um so
it it really reads almost as if two separate documents because the philosophical shift is noticeable. Um, so I don't have to convince this school committee why wellness matters. I think um, everything that the school committee does is to promote the whole
child. But I'll just quickly highlight this. Um, the wellness policy articulates supports for the whole child um, academically, mentally, emotionally, physically. It outlines that school should be a healthy learning environment. We don't want to enter
schools where we're advertising caffeinated products, where we're advertising soda, where teachers are passing out sugary um snacks throughout the school day. So, the wellness policy really puts some require some restrictions on what teachers pass out
to kids on what's advertised within the school um and ensures that we're promoting healthy behaviors for all students. And that's why this wellness policy is important. It sets a standard for healthy behaviors not only for students, but there are some um portions of the policy that relate to the
wellness of educators as well. And that was important to our committee. Megan Roy um is the high school department chair and she is so passionate about student movement, staff nutrition, um educating staff on healthy habits. um
she wanted to ensure that educators were mentioned throughout the policy, not just um as a pro like wellness as a product for students. And the last one is strengthening community engagement and partnerships. You'll notice that the revised policy talks a bit more about
our connections to our athletic teams, connections to our human resources department and how they offer some wellness strategies for educators here as well. Um, so the old focus was really focused on healthy eating and physical activity
um to support learning. The new focus is comprehensive well-being. So you're going to see portions of the new policy that mention physical, mental, social, and emotional health. And that schools are creating habits for lifelong wellness, not just for kindergarten, but
these are habits that are going to last you um throughout your entire life. Um here's a few highlights. So at every school and thanks like to the support of the school committee and the superintendent we have and our facilities people we have hydration stations in every building and we
promote a culture of hydration. That was not mentioned in our school policy but on the well stat we do get scored on whether or not we promote hydration habits in our building. So, it was a practice that we already did, but it wasn't mentioned in our wellness policy
that has since been added. Um, you'll see students like have access to water during all classes and including at lunch. That needs to be explicitly articulated in our policy and we shifted it so that it does mention that critical literacy around food choices and
articulated guidelines for marketing. Our health classes K12 talk about healthy um habits, reading nutrition labels, understanding the difference between the food groups and how food is fuel for your body. um mental health was
now explicitly put into the wellness um policy and that is in line with the 2023 um comprehensive policy and we also followed some of the advice of our policy subcommittee to really look at the American Pediatric Association for
some of our nutrition guidelines and um for some of the mental health guidelines. So some of the re- um imagining of the wellness policy we quoted directly from um the American Pediatric Association the comprehensive
PE and health framework and other you know networks. Um and now we have articulated family faculty and student engagement efforts. We had um you know the the walk and bike to school fun events but it wasn't mentioned in our
wellness policy and the well stat scores us and gives us credit for some of those community initiatives saying like you know instead of driving to school take your bike walk to school. It's a bit of exercise and I've seen those events in our community. They're well attended our
families walk with their child and it it is a really fun community activity. Um, so I thought, you know, that's something else we need to mention in our policy. Um, so part of the policy shift was articulating things that we already did but wasn't in the wellness policy and
then reinvisioning what else could we do to make um, this policy come to life. These are the key policy enhancements. I won't read through all of it um, but I'll just highlight a few things. Um so our wellness committee
will now um have our substance use prevention coordinator that's Ananda Lennox and she would like to be a part of our wellness committee and make recommendations um that are aligned with the close community objectives and
um we had a parent Candace Healey say that she thought coaches should be a part of the wellness committee because we have a lot of teachers who are also coaches and coaches do a lot of education around physical activity, nutrition, and thought that that lens
onto the wellness policy in the future might be something that we would need on the committee. So, I thought that was a great recommendation. Um, the formal wellness policy talked about a trienal review, but our committee really enjoyed meeting with each other and talking about wellness. So they thought that
maybe we would meet annually but then revise trienally so that we wouldn't lose the spirit of monitoring the wellness policy and action and making some revisions in a timely way. Um the old wellness policy had the food um pyramid and basic nutrition. It was
outdated information that no longer is part of the guidelines. So now um the new wellness policy talks about reading nutrition labels, eating in moderation. The old policy talked about calorie counting and I think um the policy subcommittee talked a little bit about
how calorie counting is not the new way and it can um you know trigger people with eating disorders and we didn't we wanted healthy um a healthy relationship with food and practicing moderation does that and understanding food is fuel. um
our one of our um members, Megan Roy, went to Springfield College to talk um to the head of the department on nutrition and she offered some recommendations for the wellness policy. So, it was revised with best practices surrounding nutrition. Um physical
activity, I you know, love just hearing from some of our families as well. Um recess not withheld as a punishment. Um we know that students need to move and um we wanted that for it to be explicitly shared in our wellness policy
that you know students who move end up regulating their behaviors in the classroom. So when recess is used as a punishment oftentimes it exacerbates behaviors um instead of you know managing them. So we thought that we would put that explicitly in there. Um
we aligned some of the nutrition standards. The committee talked a lot about caffeine and some of the habits that students are cultivating around caffeine. Um, some of our middle school educators talked about students coming in with coffee and having it be a part
of the culture of school now. Um, so they thought some messaging about caffeine either being brought into the building, restricted beverages that have cap, we don't sell them at school, but just some messaging about what caffeine does. we need to boost that up in in our
classrooms and in our schools. Um and really sharing with students that water really is the best drink. So that was part of our conversations um when we met for celebrations. We noticed um our committee talked about food trickling in. And while having food at school is
so exciting, I think I'm sure all of us can understand why people bringing in food from different sources is, you know, problematic, especially for students with allergies, problematic for families that don't have the extra funds to donate either cupcakes or um extra
food. So, our goal was, you know, not to put the kibash on all food celebrations, but to say that non-food celebrations are encouraged. There are fun things that we can do to celebrate with students any academic achievements, whether it's going outside, whether it's giving them a fidget, um having it
non-food related, and if there are food celebrations, um that it is done with the approval of the school nurse and the school administrator. We did have an activity where it was French crepes where students learned how to make it and then they um spoke in the target language. Um and that was a fun activity
that was part of the curriculum. So now um we emphasize non-boot celebrations but there is a focus on like what's the purpose of this activity is it equitable and can everyone um be included and the last one um our old wellness policy
didn't mention employee wellness and we do do a lot for employee wellness and I'm very fortunate to be part of Long Meadow Public Schools because I've reaped the benefits of this. We have um the EAP promotion where um we do offer mental health counseling. Two sessions
are free to our employees. We have monthly health newsletters with that are hyperl with additional resources um that are sent to all faculty via email. And then we um Beth Nelson and her PGC courses and um for our summer curriculum
proposals we are con and for the August PD we're constantly looking for SEAL offerings or wellness related offerings. We do oftentimes have yoga for educators or um other activities to ensure that we're talking to staff about their own well-being.
Thank you so much. Um great overview of a a very active purposeful committee. Um, no action needed by the committee tonight. This is simply the first reading and we would put it out with the committee's consent. We'd put it out for um public um public feedback. Uh we post
it to the website for 30 days. Is it uh 30 days and then bring it back to the committee at a future meeting. So, but happy to if you have any questions or feedback for us uh at this stage. Oh, was there more? I'm sorry. I thought there was one more. My apologies. Oh, this one. Sorry. I just thought this
would be Yeah, maybe I said I wouldn't talk to each one and then I proceeded to talk about my my apologies. Um um so Fresh Pix did a presentation for us, but I thought I could put Andrew on the spot because he was there for this presentation and he shared a little bit
about um the student reaction to some of their promotions. So I don't know if you have any highlights that you wanted to share about that. Yeah, sure. So, I don't know if it says on here, but Freshpick has done a variety of like more specialty um meals or like maybe once a month um this year. And they've
been really popular with students. They've included um a Nashville like spicy chicken sandwich. Um they've done a wing bar. Um, so really like kind of even like restaurant quality food in the LHS cafeteria and students have responded of course very well to that
and um I'm very grateful to have such a good program in town. And then I also think it's very um important for us to be offering breakfast in the morning because many students don't either they wake they're waking up late or they're not eating breakfast in the morning. And
I think it's important for everybody to of course be having food before they're in the classroom for at least three hours in the morning. So yeah, I couldn't um endorse that more. Um and then they did talk about um having like the farmtot option. So
they're partnering with local farms um to ensure they have some produce. This year they did it with the potato and offering some potato wedges with those delicious wings um that students loved. And um they are offering more vegan options. So by 2027 they'll have 33 more
vegan options for our students that are vegan. I think that was it. But there we go. Make sure questions for us. Thank you. Questions feedback committee. Can I just give quick? Can you go back to the previous slide real
quick? Just share an opinion. So physical activity there I I my my opinion on the encouraging movement breaks especially in elementary school should be requiring movement breaks. Uh so personally I
don't think that encouraging them really gets you to where you should we should be going from you know for the for the children. If you give the option to the teacher, you know, some will go out and do things and kind of create an activity either in the room or where, you know, requiring that I think is where where we
should be leaning into. Yeah. The other thing I don't think we really can let me um speak to that movement. Um you're 100% right. Um so this is just an overview, but in the policy itself, it does talk about extra recess. So, every
elementary school has two extra movement breaks that are scheduled within the school day and teachers will be like they take them out during that time and they get that extra they call it an extra recess um but it's extra movement.
So each school has that and then they limit the lunch time to about 20 minutes to allow students to go outside for the subsequent um part of lunch which is their real recess. Um so all students have that recess time, the extra recess
and then if they have um PE that would be their third like movement block for that and some of them have it two days a week and then luckily our students um not all but um the majority of them are participating in after school movement activities. to your point, um, our
principles put in those extra movement breaks, um, structured right into their day. And then the encouraging the movement breaks was more for the secondary schools, um, where students are transitioning from class to class,
but sitting a bit, you know, more often. We thought that during instructional activities when those instructional activities allow just sort of allowing students to get up, move around the classroom, learn while moving. Um, but if when you look at the language, it's
definitely more structured for elementary and then there is stronger language than in the previous policy for secondary um schools. Got it. Yeah. So, as long as we have it framed because I I they don't move enough, my opinion. and they they just don't Can I ask they sit
around before you go on to your next point? Just what about indoor recess? Because I feel like it's great to have two outdoor recesses, but I find it's really hard to have that kinesthetic movement break inside, especially
without using a screen. I mean, it's really easy for me to put on Danny go and the kids move around, but that's also not something I want to rely on every day. Is there a plan to work on how you have them moving those two times because a lot of times they're not moving during indoor recess. They're at
their desk or on their computer. Yeah. So um luckily um Dr. O'Shea encouraged all central office staff to have um like a day on the floor. It's, you know, it's the bal I'm going to bore you, but the balcony idea is that like district
leaders are looking at the big picture and oftentimes you lose sight of what's happening um at the fine grain approach at school level. But he encouraged us to go down um to the buildings and like spend a day like engaging with students and seeing like what's actually
happening. So, I did um do an indoor recess duty and that is very challenging and I give it to our elementary educators because one students are very disappointed when they can't go outside. So, now you have to shift their thinking that we're going to have indoor recess. The one that I saw and I can't speak to
practices uniform, but that's something I could ask more about. The teacher had arranged stations so that students cycled through the different stations and you couldn't spend too much time at any one given station. So, one had fidgets and movement and stretching. The
next station had arts and crafts. One station was like if you wanted to extend on your writing assignment or write a poem or color or draw, but um there was movement there, but it was to your point sort of like restricted in the classroom and the cycling through the stations
allowed one group to do their stretching and a bit of movement. So, um, I do think that there are are always ways to make indoor recess a little more dynamic because it's hard for students, especially when they're so excited. They don't care if it's raining. They don't care if there's a snowstorm outside or
an ice storm. They're ready to just head out there. So, um, but I have seen the teachers. Yeah. I have seen our teachers just um for that experience that I had teachers really trying to be creative with how indoor recess can be versatile
and fun for kids and is it always a teacher who's monitoring recess because sometimes it's not. So are are those people those other staff members who are are they putting in that much time to are they being aware of the um wellness
policy and the importance of um pair are from what I've seen I've seen our pair of professionals do it our kindergarten assistants I've seen our lunch monitors and I've seen like they pretty much do follow like the same they know the kids really deeply they know what the
students prefer um but again it that could always be improved like indoor recesses and making it more exciting for kids. And you're talking about inclement weather days when it's raining outside. Is that or Yeah. when you can't go outside because it's too cold. Like we had a period of time and I mean I started to have to like go back to the
drawing board like okay let's cuz it was like so many cold days and I mean I go from preschool and I was trying to come up with ideas on how to move them and keep them stimulated and not you know getting out of control. And then I was coming home and my kids were like, you
know, they need they all I think I think you raised a good point with the sort of unpredictable weather we're dealing with these days. You know, how can how can we support our teachers to provide meaningful indoor recess experiences? And I'm sure a long stretch. So, it's
one thing if you have like one day, great. But if it's a long stretch of like a cold snap and like even giving teachers like a a tool box of activities that they like they don't have to come up with something it's there for them and it's engages all the kids. We'll
we'll bring that back for sure. Yeah. Thank you. Our playgrounds are so amazing that I don't I love to play there. There's I don't I don't think you could craft an indoor recess that's ever going to compete with no uh our dynamic playgrounds.
Can I do two more comments just from you you we talk about nutrition education, but we're leaving out a really big thing about nutrition on there. Is it somewhere else in here? So, it's not actually what you're eating, but it's what you're using and what you're consuming from toothpaste,
deodorants, hairsprays, and teaching these kids about that stuff because that's probably more harmful than the food they're eating in many cases. Is that a part of that education? Because that I I consider that nutrition. If you're brushing your teeth with something, you're consuming it. Do they
understand what they're consuming? You know, either that or from deodorant. And a lot of the research right now, you know, a lot of those that we're using is causing a lot of the downstream problems. I mean, it's stat proven at this point. Is that a part of nutrition
education or where is it in your wellness? It it's certainly something that they talk about in health and um I would say it's starts in kindergarten. They do talk about like what is a healthy product and how to read something that like what to
ingest that is healthy, what's like what's food and what's not food is how they frame it. Yeah. And then as they get older it might be would you take this product from someone you know? Why or why not? And then it starts to
transition around third and fifth grade where they start talking about more hygiene related products. Um, but I would say those conversations are really happening 6th through 12th grade. Are our educators educated on it? Do they understand the deodorants and things
like that and to teach these kids? Yeah, I would say our health teachers definitely, but I don't know about I've talked to a few of them and I would I would I would challenge on some certain ideas where they really follow the chemicals that are in some of these things and whether we're really teaching
the kids about that side of it. So, I think a lot of people just don't understand what's in these. I think we should include that as part of the wellness education. Yeah. Be interested to we we could take a look at the um at the framework, the PE and health framework to see if it addresses the things you're talking about. I just
doubt it. I' I've talked to a couple of the PE I don't think they really understand. My thought is they just go and they put their deodorant on and they go, you know what you're putting into your body right now? No, it's just deodorant. No, they're not all the same. There's different chemicals in these. And are you teaching the kids that? Yeah. My my my sense is that the
framework probably hasn't caught up yet. So my last one because this is new research on this that is a very big part of this that I think we should get ahead of is it all goes it's almost like the ingesting something. They told us to you know use margarine but we should have really stayed with butter kind of thing.
And it's changed. The other big thing that's changing right now where I I can guarantee it because I've talked to teachers and the way they frame things this the research behind it has completely flipped on it and it all has to do with stress. Stanford is one of
the leading ones and so is Harvard. The way the framework they where they say stress is bad for you. That's not true anymore. That's not what stats are saying. That's not what Harvard and Stanford are saying. They're saying stress is good. It's the mindset. It's the framework of whatever you do. when
you have a teacher going, "Oh, I can't stress these kids out. I can't stress these kids out." That's harming them more than actually teaching them how to deal with it and kind of working through the stress. So, the research behind that, which I bet we have not kept up with, that side of it is goes back to
wellness and it's Stanford is the leader on this. There's a handful of professors over there that are driving us to saying you got it all wrong. Just like we had the butter and margarine all wrong, we shouldn't eat be margin. We should only be eating butter. you know, the whole eggs and there's that big debate. It's all flipped back to stress is good. So,
I think we're talking there kind of a little bit about the difference between like ustress and distress here. And I'm going to guess from what I've seen from the Yel Ruler curriculum so far, um, that it involves a decent amount of talking about managing stress and when
stress is is productive, productive struggle, stress that's kind of stress that helps you move forward and achieve versus distress. I agree. But I think just the way you frame it, like if you go read the Stanford research is different than anything you've said and
it's opposite of what everybody's been telling me my whole life of like, "Oh, just avoid stress. Stress is going to cross the health problem. Oh, don't do this." And that's just not that's not what they're saying is the truth anymore. You know, they're saying the truth is something very different. And
it all goes all the way down the line to as we get older and older where it's leading to dementia, different other things that we didn't even think of. It's really interesting study if you haven't seen it where that goes back to wellness of like how are we teaching the
teachers to teach the kids about the stress side of it because it's it's changing very quickly. That would be my other I think what it probably shows up is conversations about resilience and perseverance. I'd say that surfaces quite a bit in our classrooms nowadays. So that it's it's it's Yeah. How do you
work through those productive challenges? How do you work through those productive as long as we're focusing on I I just think the product I think um just for the you know I'm glad that it's a period of like just taking another look at it. Um and then if you
notice from the policy itself like maybe looking at it with that lens like where is stress mentioned where um in terms of like nutrition and healthy and harmful products or toxins is there some language related to that because I would
be interested in seeing like if there is you know room to mention that. I know that there's like bullets that um Megan put in and I just wonder I'll go back and take a look at it to see if there's language that is open enough or broad
enough that addresses some of the things that you mentioned and then some of the comments about indoor recess. I think we talk about like requiring recess but not really dictating how much movement is related to recess. Um but like if you
know a line saying that if indoor recess is recommended due to inclement weather that there will be a focus on physical movement while students are indoors or something like that so they wouldn't be sedentary during indoor. Those are all like recommendations that we can make. I like the idea of a toolbox that that
folks so that everybody doesn't have to kind of go their own way and figure out things to do. Yeah. Something that's just you know here's a here's a collection of possible activities. still folks on that particular day, but not at
the last minute that might possibly work today, but be like, "Oh, we have this collection of resources that might be there might be something great in there that we haven't tried yet. Let's check that out." That could be really useful for them. while it's open and you um have all this great information, all
these like new lenses, if you want to take a closer look and maybe let me know some of the revisions, those are things that we could always Is there a real long pol I don't think I've ever read this. It's lengthy. Is it Can you send it out? Just It should be in your meeting packet. The both the original
and the revise and and again, so no action tonight really. This is a period where we just kick off the public comment period and we can we can make adjustments and I posted it to our website um along with all of our meeting agendas. So if the public goes to um the
director of student and family support link, there's an image that links directly to our wellness policy. And at first when I was in charge of this wellness policy, I kept thinking, well, this this is not going to be that like exciting of a committee, but people really do care so much about every topic
in the wellness policy. So, I I'm excited to hear um feedback if you have it and then we'll make some of those final changes before we vote in May is the final May 27th, I think, is our is our final vote. I it's helpful too, Jave, if you look policy page two links
to the um 2023 health and physical education frameworks which might provide to a little bit more information for community members who might be interested in finding out what do we talk about say for sixth graders related to stress or related to personal hygiene
etc at varying ages because that'll have good information about what those frameworks are um at the state level and what might be happening discussion-wise in classes based on that. Um I just wanted to add um when I was read uh when I was listening to you, the first thing came
up in my head was you know how are our kids coping with social media and during the digital age and all these other activities you mentioned like physical wellness and nutrition. Those are some of the ways to navigate and combat the
stress they're dealing with um online or just showing different ways to um like move and you know just be social. I feel like it's you know like awesome. So yeah, thank you. And that digital piece that's like another lens that I wonder
you know and American Pediatric Association has recommendations on that too much like all those things right just you know I watch um like kittens to you know make myself like happy or whatever you know just they're
so cute and like friendly but that's not the appropriate way to sometimes you know combat stress like it's not always online is not always the solution that's what I'm trying So just introducing the different activities I think is really awesome. Yeah. And that goes back to Jamie's
point about like not eliminating stress because there's no way to eliminate it, but how do we students to cope and to manage it? Great. Also, one more thing I know something you're already doing at the schools is making sure that they're learning how to play
sports and like I we talked about this earlier. I think we were talking about physical education. I can't remember if it was in a curriculum meeting or here at the broader school committee, but and I know Mave came home being like, "We're working on basketball." And she was so excited cuz she really likes to be
focused on a sport rather than like a madeup game during her movement. And back to what Jamie is saying, another huge study in research is that 98% of females that are in corporate leadership or political leadership played sports.
And I think it's so important to teach them that that kind of movement because that is how you learn. I mean, that's how you learn how to cope with stress and learn how to fail because guess what? You're going to do it sometimes. You got you're not going to win every game. You're not always going to be the
best. Very true. Yeah. for our elementary schools. Just to that point, um we did um have some support to purchase um some resources from Sparked, which is um like more competitive and cooperative games. And it just helps
teachers have a toolbox of many different types of games to choose from. And they've started piloting a few lessons this year to blend those in. K5. This is great though. I love that and thank you to everybody who served on the committee for it as well. Appreciate
that. I love I love that everybody's going to get together annually to look this over again as well. Andrew, um just to maybe provide a clarification, I don't know. I'm sure many of you are aware of this. Um but when we talked about the secondary encouraging movement in the secondary um classrooms, I just
sort of maybe want to provide some examples because I think that may be kind of confusing in terms of how we would do that. For example, in many math department classrooms at the high school, stu the teacher will have students get up and do a problem out on the whiteboard. Just a good way to get students to get out of their seats. I know in the English department oftent
times in my class, we'll go and write like our thesis statements up on the board for an essay we're working on. So, there's really easy ways to integrate this into the classroom. And I don't know, I just wanted to sort of make sure everyone could sort of um visualize how this could work at the secondary level.
Thank you. Do you guys go outside at all ever or no? Um, you can sit outside at lunch but or during ice if the weather's good, but that's about it. Does gym class go outside ever? So, um, gym class, yeah, usually during the warmer months, but that's usually only one to two days a
week. So, yeah, other questions or thoughts? Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Appreciate all the work. Thank you. And then we'll make talking about this again on the 27th. Okay. Thank you. Encourage community members. Any ideas for indoor recess? I've had to get
really creative. So, encouraging community members to check out the wellness policy that is posted online and on our website through uh May 27th for 30 days um and open for public comment. Um I see no other
subcommittee meetings or reports rather. And that brings us to new business. Just a quick note on U policy JLCD. This is the administering medications to students. So that was also I'm sorry to interrupt. No. Uh that was also
considered by policy sub. Um the portion of that policy under under consideration in which with committee's consent we would put out for public comment is uh relates to the uh potential distribution of nlloxxone. So
periodically um in conjunction with our substance use prevention and education program we have periodically um provided nlloxxone doses narcan doses to high school students. It's done um um under the leadership of the school
administration with our substance abuse response coordinator Shelley Warren. Um the committee uh wanted to ensure that if this is done in conjunction with our educational program that we were making proper notification to families. And so
that's the intent of the the language that's proposed for policy JL CD so that we would provide proper notification to the school committee uh and to parents and that parents would have an opportunity to decline participation for
their child if they so chose. So um again no action required out for public uh comment for the next 30 days. But of course, if you have any feedback tonight or questions tonight, happy to to answer those. Any questions related to that?
Seeing none. Thank you. All right. All right. We shall return to this that will also be posted publicly um online. All right. Um so that brings us to the middle school building project update briefly. Uh some great new resources uh and information has been
posted to our website. encourage uh community members to take a look at that. The we will be submitting our schematic design to the MSBA on May 1st. So that's a a major milestone. The schematic design was approved by the
school building committee at its last meeting. So that really uh stitches together our educational plan with the schematic design, the floor plan of the school and the um project cost estimates
as we currently understand them. So all that information is posted to our district website. Encourage folks to take a look at that. Um we will have hopefully anformational table uh for community members at our at the May 13th
town meeting. So, we put that request into the town moderator. So, uh expect to have use that as another opportunity to engage community members on the progress we've made on the middle school building project. So, that's it. All right.
Excellent. All right. That brings us to um new business gifts to the schools. All right. So, I'm happy to take it. you have um there should be a spreadsheet in your packet that captures
uh some proposed gifts to Long Meadow Public Schools. Uh is that that's in the packet D? And so there are uh four gifts I believe for your consideration. Can you pass me that copy Jamie?
Um so one is uh we received a uh generous proposal from um a former Long Meadow resident to um donate um in memory of his friend and former community member Steven Langieri. Um
uh the the donor Bradford Cohen uh was looking for a way to honor his friend and to honor Steven's uh contributions to youth sports in Long Meadow. And so after some productive conversation between me and the donor, Mr. Cohen, uh
we had settled on the idea, he generously has offered to fund the purchase of ticket booths. We our ticket booths are sort of in disrepair. Uh and so um Mr. Cohen has agreed to make a contribution in the amount of it'll be
approximately about $30,000 uh for the purchase of those ticket booths. So that's for the committee's consideration. Uh we also had been approached by uh Dick Jones, class of 1974. Mr. Jones lives, I believe, in
Georgia, and he wanted to honor the who he had identified as the founders of the Long Meadow High School uh lacrosse program, the boys lacrosse program. And so, uh, Mr. Jones has generously offered to donate a plaque to commemorate the founders of the boys lacrosse program.
Our intention would be also to install a comparable plaque for the founders of the girls lacrosse program. So, uh, that is for your consideration as well. Um, Mr. Allen has been working with his, uh,
PTO to, um, receive a donation, uh, for new carpeting at Blueberry Hill. That's in memory of Alexander Cassanis, um, who was, um, who whose name is recognized in the library currently. And so, um, that
carpet donation would be in the amount of about $17,000. So, we're grateful for that contribution from the Blueberry Hill PTO. Uh, and then finally, um, the district attorney's office had awarded Long High School funds to purchase
iPads, and it was because of students participation in a public service announcement campaign. So um those donations are for your consideration. Would they need to be recognized one by one or that would it be possible to do
that as a consent item or I think our one is just to recognize the gifts recognize. Yeah. That's way we've done it recently. Recognize the gifts. Questions related to any of these Jamie? The first one are we naming it? Are we boost? No. The the there would be no
naming associated. just give us 30 grand to we would we would commemorate um Mr. um on a plaque, a small plaque, but it wouldn't be like it would be a naming proposal. Go that the next ones. Not are
we sure the these are the founders? Uh we we are sure they're the founders and boys like people show up. We're still working on the girls program, but we have identified the the three individuals on the founders plaque for the boys program is the principal at the time, the
athletic director at the time, and the coach at the time. So, okay. So, that we know, but we don't know the girls. Yeah, we're working on the girls. Yeah, that that'll be something that we'll just have to pursue on. We're like going to double check that just so we don't it's a yeah see people showing up I haven't
found it and and maybe make sure it's equitable timing that like when you do the plaque for the the boys lacrosse the girls lacrosse happens at the this is probably likely install is sometime you know in the summer or even next spring.
So, is this actually I think they were thinking about next spring because it's in in in conjunction with a uh a lacrosse event, which I can't remember what it was, but it so we'll have plenty of time to do it in conjunction with the girls plaque. Yeah. Do we do this with
all of our sports? No, we don't. Um, but it's I don't know. We would as a gift as a gift. I mean, we would we would be open to we have plaques in various places in display cabinets and Okay.
um in various places on our campuses across the district. So, okay. Yeah. But we don't do it across all sports. It's just like Yeah. If the donations surface, we're we're happy to support. Yeah. Other questions related to
this and or possible motions? I move that this Oh, do you have another question? I do have one other question. The uh the carpeting and blueberry go back to our wellness. Yeah. Mr. Mazic, can you help me out with that? You're talking about the the type of carpeting that we're installing is the the
wellness of this stuff versus other stuff for the breathing of the students. Going back to your wellness, what type of carpeting we putting in? Yeah. I mean, I think it's always a debate of the noise versus the product you're putting down on the floor and the carpet
specifically. We try to stay away from carpeting as much as possible. It's I'd say the one area of the building where we uh usually compromise and install carpeting to address the quietness of the space. Are they putting healthy
carpeting? I'm not sure of the material. I'd have to get back to you on that. I mean, just going to wellness, just it's tying it into what we were just talking about. I mean, generally speaking, it's not good for kids to kick up this kind of stuff from a health perspective. Probably one of the worst things you can
put in your house. Yeah. I think I think we in in my time in the district I think we could fill a room with the amount of carpeting that we've removed from elementary classrooms. It's we we definitely moving toward would they be willing to do something other like do like good because you can do cornbased
that's non you know synthetic stuff. Yeah. I'm not sure how far along they are in identifying the 17 grand seems pretty How big of an area is this? It's pretty large area. That's pretty cheap. Yeah, I curious about that. I'm curious
about it. I'm just thinking from the health like if my kid was there and they were putting that carpeting in, I want to know how long they're like. It's one thing it's outside and you're off gasing something, you're doing it in a thing. It's not exactly the healthiest thing to do and the libraries are usually sitting on the market. Yeah. I mean, I would
just So, Principal Allen's been working with the donor related to this. Um, and might be able to answer questions about what the specifics of the carpet are and or we can get more information. Yeah, it might not be a bad one just to know what
we're putting in there. I'm Do you have any more questions? I'm I'm sorry. That's okay. I thought you were going to have another one for this meeting. No. I move that the school committee accept with genuine appreciation the gift to Long Meadow High School as described on the gifts to the school document dated April 29th,
2025. I should say public schools. Oh yeah. Okay. Long me public schools as described on the gifts to the school document dated April 29th, 2025. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any other
discussion? We'll move to a vote. Zach, yes. Estelle, yes. Michaela, yes. Jamie, yes. Julie, yes. And yes, for me as well. Thank you very much to each of our donors for your generosity. Um, we appreciate it. We
have another agenda item on grants and special rights budget revision. I'm guessing that's you, Miss. Yep. Thank you. And good evening. Um, in your packet is a request for uh, revision number three to a few of our grants that
are part of our FY25 budget. So, three grants, title one, METCO, and our uh, drug-free community grant. We are um, requesting a reallocation of the grant um, award to reflect our spending
priorities. no increase or decrease in the actual total grant amount. And then the fourth grant, which is a cooler communities grant at center school in the amount of $2,000, is a new grant. Um through your
vote, you would be accepting the grant which would support their efforts for uh food waste composting uh and their participation in the future Planet Fiesta program. May 3rd, uh they're going to have a booth and they are, I
believe, raffling off a home composting bin as part of their efforts to promote composting the community. So that 2,000 grant would be new to the FY25 budget. So the total revision would
be a net $2,000 increase to the budget. Fantastic. Thank you. Um we have a possible motion related to the budget and or questions. I move that the school committee approve the budget revision titled FY25 grants
and special revenues revision number three dated April 23rd 2025. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing vote. Zach, yes. Michelle, yes. Michaela, yes. Jamie, yes. Julie,
yes. And yes for me as well. All right, that brings us to some building use requests. There are two requests in your packet tonight. One is a request from the parks and recck department for a uh youth
soccer clinic to be held at the Williams uh middle school fields uh the week of July 7th through the 11th and the week of July 14th through the 18th from 9:00 am to 11:45. Uh this is a recurring
uh event at that site. So the space will be available for this year but in the subsequent years we will have to work with them on another uh possible location for that clinic. And the second request is from the dance company for a
dance recital um at the high school auditorium on June 20th, 21st and 22nd for various times. All right, we have a possible motion on
that related to a consent agenda. I move on the recommendation of the finance subcommittee that the school committee approved the consent agenda for the April 29th, 2025 school committee as presented. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. All right. So, as a reminder, there is no discussion of items on a consent agenda.
If a committee member would like one or more of the items on the consent agenda discussed, the committee will vote to remove the item from the consent agenda. Would anyone like to remove either item one or item two from the consent agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to a
vote on the consent agenda. Zack, yes. Estelle, yes. Michaela, yes. Jamie, yes. Julie, yes. And yes for me as well. Thank you very much. Um, school committee meeting schedule. So, a couple of things to note on the
calendar. Our town election is um currently scheduled for June 3rd, 2025. You also have on your calendars already a school committee meeting for that same night. We cannot host a school committee meeting on the same night as the election. Um so go ahead and remove that from your calendar. Um on your notes, it
references some possibilities of rescheduling. Um but we did note that there is already a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 17th. That should be in everyone's calendar. Um and that would be our opportunity to do um
reorganization of the committee and at that time we can discuss what we'd like our summer schedule to look like as well. So June 17th is our meeting um after the June 3rd election. Um also a reminder that
the um town meeting is Tuesday, May 13th. So our school committee meeting scheduled for that week is on Thursday, May 15th. that should also already be in calendars. Um and then we'll meet again on Tuesday, May 27th. So those are our
two dates um for those coming up. Questions about any of those dates? Not about the dates. Um just curious. I I think it still reads 2425 school year through the document. I think this is showing the it's for this agenda item
if I'm understanding correctly. Right. Yeah. showing us the changes to what May and June look like for your uh for your committee meeting schedule. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So, our next meeting will not be on a Tuesday. It will be Thursday, May 15th and then May
27th followed by June 17th. The June 3rd date is canled 12. Uh we spoke earlier. We're going to actually just keep that since we have the 17th already scheduled. That makes more sense than adding in a new one and trying for the Thursday evening again.
All right. Um, seeing no other agenda items, we have a possible last motion related to an executive session. I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21A purpose to conduct a strategy session in
preparation with collective bargaining with units A, B, C, D, E, F, and H. And purpose seven, 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? None. We'll move to a roll call vote. Zach, yes. Estelle, yes. Michaela, yes. Jamie, yes. Julie, and yes for me as well. Thank you very much. Have a lovely evening. We will see everyone again on May
15th. Thank you.