Welcome to the two what? >> Is that good? Better. Thank you. Welcome to the Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 meeting of the Long Meadow School Committee. Mass 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. School committee members, when I call your name, please say here for the record. Nicole
>> here, >> Kate >> here. >> Emily >> here. >> Zach >> here. >> And I'm here. And we're we just don't have Jamie and Adam tonight. All right. So, next pledge of allegiance.
I aliance 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. >> Correspondence. >> Secondly, an email entitled Exchange
Student Enrollment Cie dated September 26th, 2025 sent by Renee. An email titled a big thank you dated September 30th, 2025 sent by Shelley Baron. Email titled Glen Brook idea further thoughts dated October 1st, 2025, sent by Link.
An email titled public correspondence request to restore access to extracurricular activities dated October 6th sent by Amber Johnson. >> Next on our agenda is public speak. Um, it doesn't look like we have anyone in the room here tonight for public speak.
Is there anyone remote that would like to participate in the public speak portion of our school committee meeting? If so, please um raise your hand. [Music] Okay. I don't think we have anyone here tonight for public speak. We also don't
have any business with guests, so we're going to move right along to the school committee announcements and recognitions. So, I just want to since our last meeting, we've passed the middle school vote. Um, and so I just want to say a big thank you to the community and all
the stakeholders, including the school administrators, the middle school building committee and everyone that worked to pass that. And it's a really exciting time to move forward in the design phase of you know creating um the
best learning environment in the new middle school for all the students. And I know um at the last SEAL meeting which is the special education alliance of Long Meadow that Dr. Rocha and Nicole Paris Crow had an opportunity to speak with some of the parents and
stakeholders in the special ed community about the planning and programming for the new middle school, which is really exciting. Um, that's all I really have. Uh, does anyone else have any other announcements or recognitions?
I'll just echo a huge thank you to everyone who came out in the community to support this project. It's been a lot of um new faces to me and a lot of work from a lot of different corners and just really appreciate everybody putting so much energy and effort into getting this project through to the next step.
>> Thank you. >> All right. So, superintendent report. >> Sure. Um yes, uh ditto. um so grateful to uh all the folks that that um came out to support the project and um I
would even say you know there's still a lot of work in front of us and to those that have some concerns about the project I'd say we want to continue to stay engaged and address uh the concerns that are out there we we still have a lot of work to do and uh the design development stage will take many many
months and um it will prepare us to hopefully break ground in the summer of 2026 open in the fall of 2028. So, we'll continue to stay engaged with the wider community. In fact, um I think this
month or next we have a meeting with the energy and sustainability committee to talk about um some of the sustainable features of the project. So, our work will continue to um be uh one where we're staying engaged with community
members and town boards and town committees to be sure that we're we're continuing to shape the design and be responsive to all the feedback that we get that's out there. So, and thanks to this school committee for its active support of the project. Uh it would not have happened without the combined
leadership of the school committee working closely with the select board and the finance committee and so many other town entities. So, um it it you don't often see that in many communities um to see that consistent support across all the uh the governing bodies. So,
that was that was great for us to see. >> So, um I have a few other items. Um sorry, I was kind of getting carried away with the bill. Um, we had just before this meeting, uh, the school committee had an opportunity to meet with our administrative team. And I'm
appreciative that the school committee gave the administrators some time and space to, um, to talk about the things that are important to them, the opportunities for growth, the challenges that they face, and it was also a time for them to hear from the committee about some of the things that were
important to the school committee. So, um it's an annual event for us to carve out some time, dedicated time, purposeful time for the school committee and the administrators to get together, talk about some some uh shared concerns. And so, thank you to the committee for making that time uh for our
administrative team. I thought it was very productive and hopefully will be a foundation uh foundational conversation for your goals conversation tonight. Um couple items u just and some of these you heard about earlier from our administrators. Um in the area of
curriculum and instruction uh we launched our new professional development committee. It's first meeting was on September 25th. Uh it's a committee that will have representatives from each of our schools and Dr. Nelson is leading that group as our director of
curriculum and instruction. Uh MCCAST scores were released at the state school and individual student level reports, individual reports went home with students last week and we're ready and prepared to do a report and presentation
to the school committee at your next meeting or an upcoming meeting if that is of interest. Uh and Dr. Nelson also is proud that we have u recently initiated a partnership with the National Center on Improving Literacy.
We have um sort of um brought the science of reading and our understanding of high quality instructional materials uh to the elementary level and we want to continue that conversation with our middle educators this year. So, we're excited about that work. Um Michaela
mentioned uh the opportunity we had to meet with the Special Education Alliance of Long Meadow uh last week. It was a great opportunity to talk about the instruction and the support spaces available in the new school to students with disabilities. Um the say something
anonymous reporting system uh we have reactivated our uh commitment to that anonymous reporting system. Uh our administrators had a meeting with the program administrators last week and so it is there as a tool for families and
students to report anonymously on uh anything ranging from bullying to student conflict to uh urgent life safety matters. So that's the see something say something anonymous reporting system. Uh as this committee
knows, bullying prevention and intervention is an important part of our district improvement plan. Our entire administrative team, principal, central office admin and assistant principles got together to uh engage in a a refresher course uh last week um that
was directed by Miss Rosari. So u thankful to her for pulling that together. And also the committee is invited to U Long Me High School on October 30th where the ADL will formally uh designate Long Meadow High School as
a no place for hate school. Uh so there'll be a small ceremony after school. We'll uh unveil a banner designating that uh status as a no place for hate school. Again, very much in keeping with our our district goal of addressing hate and bias and bullying in
all of our schools. And finally, in the area of facility and operations, um we have a district safety meeting on Thursday. Our district safety team includes DPW, police, fire, school administrators, central office admin. Uh
and so, uh Mr. Maza coordinates our agenda uh for that meeting. Um but it will be a good time for us to debrief on the recent lockdown at Long Meadow High School. So um that's an important meeting coming up. And then finally, the
town manager has initiated the capital planning process. And uh as we do each year, we will come to the committee with a recommendation for a capital plan submission by the school committee. So if you have any thoughts or ideas on that, uh you can be in touch with Mr.
Maza or I. Um, I'm not sure off the top of my head what the timeline on that is if we have another month or so. >> Yeah, we usually submit it early November, so it might be in our next meeting packet for school committee review. >> Okay, that's it. >> Great. Thank you. Does anyone have any
questions or comments about the superintendent? >> Really excited about the literacy initiative, >> of course. >> Okay. um LPVC. >> Uh I haven't met since uh we're meeting tomorrow night.
>> We don't meet again till November. >> Okay, awesome. Seal, as has been mentioned, there was a really great meeting um this month already. And next month, the meeting is on Wednesday, November 12th, and it's a virtual
workshop with the Federation of Children with Special Needs, and it's about understanding your basic rights as a parent and a student and um understanding the IEP. It's always really informative, usually run by um an
advocate that works for that organization and it's always a well attended um conference or workshop and a lot of questions get asked and um so anyone who has any questions about IEPs or the
process or your rights I have a force too it's a really good meeting um to attend. Yeah, >> with the recent news coming out of the Department of Education, are they going to address what that might mean for
funding related to IEPs and 504s? >> I'm sure that will probably be a topic that comes up. >> Yeah, hope so. >> Yes, me too. Okay. >> Okay. Energy and sustainability. >> Um, so we met October 9th. Uh, most of the meeting we spent talking about the climate action plan that we want to
develop for the town over the next 12 to 18 months. Um, we've been looking at climate action plans from other towns in Massachusetts. Each of us kind of looked at one or two towns to see how they drafted their climate action plan, what groups were involved in creating those plans. So, how they coordinated with
different um groups in town and that could be citizen committees or that could be like our, you know, public works or our school committees. Um, so we're kind of planning out what the sections are going to be and who needs to be involved in helping us to draft those sections. Um so most of the
meetings but kind of talking about the structure around that. Um the only other thing of note is that the committee still wants to draw attention to car idling but we haven't really finalized details yet on the awareness campaign for that. Um one member is going to talk to the chief of police about education
and outreach in the community um and see if they can maybe involve the police in um uh helping with that that education. um they're leaning towards distributing flyers or having signs that they can hold up in the car lines um just to educate parents on car idling and the
impacts to not only our environment but our kids' health. Um and our next meeting is November 13th. >> Great. Thank you, Emily. Student representative report. >> Yeah. So, next week we have a really busy week. Um we have spirit week Monday
through Friday. So that'll really get people excited and connected um for the busy week ahead. Um Monday starting off is the college fair for 11th and 12th graders which will be in the cafeteria. And I I've been last year and I found it
really helpful just to learn about colleges and um especially for 11th graders like to get them thinking about it. Um, so that'll be on Monday. And then Tuesday is the chamber concert which will be at 7:00 p.m. in SM A. Um,
and then Thursday is the homecoming dance which will be 7 to 9 in the gym. Um, it's very well advertised. I know a lot of people are going um, and are really excited for it. So, I think that'll be a big event. Um, and then Friday will be the pep rally, which I
know the pep rally committee has been working really hard on. Um, and that's usually um, a really fun event that's been happening for a few years now that I know will definitely be great. And then Saturday is the Key Club Spooktacular. I'm on the Key Club board, too. And this is one of our uh, best
events. It's a really long tradition. Um, and we get a lot of kids to come and trickor treat and uh, we have scares to scare them and it gets all the school is all decorated and it's definitely a fun event. Um and then again the no place
for hate ceremony will be um on the 30th at 2:15 in SMB and then uh the 31st quarter 1 ends. That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. Does anyone have any comments or questions? >> Okay. Subcommittee reports, curriculum
subcommittee >> only. Uh we we've lined up a meeting for Wednesday, October 22nd, and that's at 7:00. So we'll get an invite out. I think that date seemed to work for most members, if not all members of the curriculum subcommittee. And if you have
some agenda items, I think we collected some feedback from the committee already. So we'll pull that agenda together. >> And then evaluation subcommittee, >> Thursday, October 16th, that's at 4:00. So my intention would be to have a draft of an annual plan for you at that at
that meeting and then uh take some feedback from the evaluation sub and then put it together for a a final draft for the review by the full committee at your October 28th meeting. No, 28th.
28th. Yes. Yeah. >> Finance subcommittee. >> Uh we haven't met hopefully next week. Um but there is a item in your packet for consideration is the list of subsidiary accounts for our student
activity fund for the middle and high school. Um basically is a list of active accounts that will operate in fiscal year 26 highlighting accounts that are new for this fiscal year. And under the
high school um and middle school, there are of some accounts that are being inactivated because they are no longer operational. Those that have funds, the balance are being distributed to subsidiary accounts that have a negative balance as of June 30th to help decrease
that negative balance. Um and students will be able to benefit uh by those funds being transferred there. So, it is um an action we take every fall to authorize the use of the subsidiary accounts for the fiscal year.
>> Does anyone have any questions or comments or recommended motions? >> I move that the school committee approve the Long Meadow Student Activity Sub accounts as presented. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second.
>> Okay. Um, so any other comments, questions from Kate? >> Yes. >> Nicole, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Emily, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too. >> So, now we're on to policy subcommittee.
And we actually met Oh, go ahead, Nicole. Are you >> No, no, I'm not. I'm not even on policy. >> Oh, yeah. I'm happy to take it. >> Oh, it's fine. Um, so at your last meeting you had an opportunity to review some language that had been recommended collaboratively by
the Mass Association School Committees, the um our own attorney from uh Murphy Hussy Tumine Lehane uh and the Mass Association School Superintendent. So collaboratively they had offered some important handbook language. This
wouldn't have to reside in the school committee's policy manual, but because it's handbook language, it would require the approval of the school committee. And the intention of this language, uh there's a copy of it in your packet, is just to simply make it clear what and
how curriculum accommodations might be available where appropriate. Uh particularly in matters where there's um objections to curriculum based on uh religious orientation. So the language that has been suggested to us is simply
consistent with mass regulations 603 CMR 26.05 section 1 the Long Public Schools through its curriculum materials encourages respect for the human and civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, color, sex, gender
identity, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. in accordance with district guidelines, families may request information from the building principal on available accommodations related to curriculum content. Um, so it's really to uh sort of tighten up our
handbook on how those curriculum accommodations might be accessed. uh and you know uh the truth I would say this language really is reflective of the practice that's been in place for a long time in Long Meadow Public Schools where
if families have concerns about uh the content of curriculum we engage proactively with families just to understand what their concerns are and make sure they understand the intention of the of the unit or the lesson or the materials. So uh that's for the
consideration of the committee. Does anyone have any questions or comments about this policy or anything? >> I move on the recommendation that the school committee approve and support Long Public Schools to adopt the statement as presented to be included in
both the K8 handbook and the LHS student handbook. >> We have a motion. We have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Nicole, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. and a yes from you too.
>> Um, sorry, just I just appreciate the extra information um on how this is kind of reinforcing practice that already exists and clarifying in the handbook where what families might need to know if they have questions about. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. New business, school committee
goals. So the committee had submitted uh through a Google form some suggestion for goals for the 2526 school year and so the copy of each individual committee member's submission uh is available in
your packet but took the liberty of drafting a set of goals that I think represent a synthesis distillation of the individual goals that we received from committee members. And so you'll find in your packet agenda item 11A uh
draft Long Meadow School Committee goals 2526. It's reflective of the input that we received from individual committee members. We might need a few minutes just to review this as it is uh sort of hot off
the presses. So, um, hopefully each individual committee members sees their own submissions reflected in this global document. Does anyone have any comments or questions? Just want to discuss these.
Nicole, >> I think it looks great. Um I'm wondering if since we were able to meet with our administrators today um if it might be helpful to um push voting on this to next meeting so that we can kind of
review and see if there are any places where we can build out a little bit more detail based on some of the conversations that we had today. Um, that might be especially since I know we had some notes that we took during those those discussions, an opportunity to
kind of see where those line up and what we might be able to focus our goals on. But they look good. >> Does anyone else? >> Uh, could we uh the first one, second bullet point, add diversity in there?
Diversity, equity, inclusion, cultural responsiveness. Where are you? >> Uh the first curriculum instruction and the second bullet en sure that instruction and materials promote equity, inclusion, diversity, and cultural. >> Gotcha.
>> Thank you. Is this do do you agree with Nicole and want to wait and put off what we like put in what we talked about today to our next meeting? >> I don't see a problem with that. I mean, I think I think today's discussion with
the administrators and for me to see the individual responses of the individual committee members is sort of enough for me to sort of shape my annual plan. Plus, I have the feedback from last year um evaluation as well. So, I think um
unless unless your quick review of this suggests that we're it feels like it's um lines up with the discussions that we had earlier in the in the feedback that we got from individual committee members. So, I don't see a problem with waiting until your next meeting.
>> It does at first glance look like it lines up. By the way, just be nicer to really >> priorities. I mean it's sort of laid out you know the curriculum the policy the finance and operations is there one and then the community engagement is there
out of those five topics or four topics do we prioritize or or emphasize one over others or >> I mean in my opinion a lot of these are interconnected you know even our
conversations today facilities came up in every single group and that wasn't n't lost on me and I know I was trying to incorporate that in some other like that's underneath the umbrella of finance and operations but like what kind of whole child outcomes can you have if you don't have a learning
environment with updated facilities. So >> I guess that's what was top of my mind when I asked the question. >> Yeah. So I think that they're all tied in to be a >> and just maybe giving it a little more thought into how >> the our conversations with the
administrators tie into also. Yeah. >> How has the school committee measured uh achievement or growth towards these goals in the past? >> That's a good question. I I'd say I've seen committees sort of have an endofear
wrap-up where they just sort of you know I I think the goals >> as I've seen them over the years they tend to be directional as opposed and they're and they're reflective of the consensus of the committee. Um as
opposed to goals that are you know have discrete measurements tied to it. I'm not saying you couldn't do that, but >> uh I think they are meant to >> point us as an administrative team in a certain direction, you know, or or point
me as a superintendent in a certain direction. So, >> I'd say you certainly could spend some time thinking about ways to measure these, >> but I think it's the directional nature of them that that I've found to be really valuable over the years. >> I think that's true. There are there are
uh goals in here where there would be uh something we would want to check against. Like if we say we want to establish a policy for this thing, we need to check off that we've established that policy. >> Um my recommendation would be for us to pick out any of the goals where there is something tangible that should an
outcome that should be um created as a result of that goal and then making sure that we have check-in points. It could be halfway through the year to say are have have we done this yet? because that's still something we need to do so we don't lose sight of these goals before the end of the year. >> Yeah, that's a good idea. And I think
too part of like back to the whole I think a lot of them like the curriculum review cycle and the policy um I've sat on the policy subcommittee for this is my third year and we're always if something is released from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, we're meeting and and
reflecting on that change. And so that like continuous monitoring and review is kind of like important in all areas too. >> Um I actually like planning for these looked at about 20 different school districts school committees and read
their goals and some school committees don't even set their own goals. They really actually use the district's strategic plan and goals and align their work to that. And that's where I think we kind of get in this process in the
fall where there's like, well, this is what administrators are saying. This is what the goals of the school district are going to be. How does that align with our roles and responsibilities >> to support this? >> Yeah. >> Your questions?
>> I'm done. >> Okay. So, we'll just wait until our next meeting. Not a problem. >> Okay. Now, we have some building use requests. >> Uh yes, tonight there is a consent agenda item including three building use
requests. The first is uh submitted from the for the raise of hope for use of the high school parking lot on October 19th from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. as part of the raise a hope uh walk over at Forest
Park. The second request is from the Long Meadow Youth Basketball Association for use of uh the gym at Glen Brook on various dates um on Saturday starting on December 6th running through February
14th from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Uh this is a annual request that we get from the basketball association. And the third request is from the National Multiple Scoliosis Society for use of the high
school cafeteria and parking lot for a um a walk on Sunday, May 3rd um from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Again, this is a uh annual request for use of space to
support their walk. Does anyone have any questions or discussion about the consent agenda? And if if there's anything you want out of the consent agenda to talk about, otherwise we're going to vote on them
all together and we can have a recommended motion. >> I move that the school committee approve the consent agenda for the October 14th, 2025 school committee meeting as presented. There is no discussion of items on a consent agenda. If a committee member would like one or more items on the consent agenda discussed,
the committee would have to vote to remove the items from the consent agenda. >> Does anybody want to second that motion or second? >> Second. Thank you. >> Um Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Nicole, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes.
>> And yes for me, too. >> So, next on the agenda is middle school building project. No, no major updates. Um, since the successful vote on September 30th, uh, the design team has
begun to really purposefully engage our staff at Glenbrook and Williams. So, on November 3rd and 4th, uh, the design team will uh be at each school to meet with teachers who have very specialized
classrooms with specialized furniture and equipment. Uh and then we're also in the process of putting together a design advisory group where um sort of a representative group of teachers can advise the design team on
some of the more universal aspects of the of furniture, fixtures, and equipment across the school building. So that's for staff. And then there'll be additional opportunities for the middle school building committee and for community members and various town
public committees. So that engagement will is continuing. So that's it. >> Thank you for the update. It's really exciting to get these updates. >> This is this is uh it's it's been a it's been a a great ride, labor of love for all of us. Um but to to really dive into
the design work is very exciting. Does anyone have any questions about the middle school building project? >> Okay. So, now on our agenda is our executive session. I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant to mass
general law chapter 30A section 21A purpose two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for collective bargaining sessions with units BDF and non union personnel and three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation and
seven approval of minutes to not reconvene into open session. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Great. Um, Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Nicole, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> And a yes for me, too.
>> So, that ends our meeting for tonight. Thank you. Have a good evening.