Good evening and welcome to the March 24th, 2026 meeting of the Long Middle School Committee. Mass general law allows for remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027. All votes while there's remote participation must be made by roll call vote.
>> Oh, I thought you were unmuted and then you're like doing the signal. So, I was start >> Can you hear us now? Oh, >> yes. Maybe it's not. >> Hold on. We're going to need a reboot.
>> The owl is mute. >> Maybe we're back. Yes. Can you guys hear us now? >> Yeah, they may be able to hear you. >> We can definitely hear you. Can you guys hear us? >> No. Still no. >> Technology, y'all.
It's good. It's bad. It's very finicky. Let us know when you can hear us again. >> Testing, testing. >> We can hear you, but >> Oh, I can hear you. >> Oh, hey, you can hear us. >> Wait, did you mute us again?
>> It says it's muted. Can you hear us? >> Can you still hear us? No, they cannot hear us again now. Now, can you hear us? >> Yes. >> Yes. All right, take two. Let's try this again. All right, so welcome to the Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 meeting of the Long
Middle 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 say your name, please
say here for the record. Kate Bean >> here. >> Yes. Uh Zach Verden >> here. >> Emily Hansen >> here. Uh Michaela Fitzgerald >> here. >> And me as well. All right, we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge 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. >> All right, we have no correspondence. Now we'll entertain a motion to approve minutes. >> I move that the school committee approve
the minutes to March 10th, 2026 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. Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> Michaela, >> yes. >> And yes, for me as well. Thank you. That
brings us to public speak. We do not have any members of the public online. We do have lots of members of the public here, but I think they're here for something other than public speak, but if I'm wrong and anybody's here for public speak, now is your moment. Nope. All right. That brings us to school committee announcements. Oh, what? Oh,
you do. you do have a public speaker. All right, come on forward. Um, come on up to the table and you can pick any one of these tables with a microphone and start with your name and go for it. >> Okay, so I am Sophia Hernandez. I am um representing peer leadership at the LHS high school. So, we just want to bring
up more of the indigenous people's day position. So, we are supporting the recognition of the indigenous state uh people's day position at on our school calendar for the Long Meadow Public Schools to honor Indigenous People's Day. This position supports the passes of the passage of a resolution to be created and accepted by the Long Meadow
School Committee to include indigenous people's day on the second Monday of October alongside Columbus Day. Uh this con this petition is meant to increase representation for those um affected by colonization is not meant to exclude uh recognition of the accomplish sorry
accomplishments or of discrimination faced by Italian-Americans. And we also want to bring up that in our 2025 school climate survey, students who identified as Native American or indigenous um reported feeling less noticed and connected to the school community as well as increased increased rates of
bullying indigenous people's day as indigenous people's day is a meaningful symbolic gesture to begin addressing in the pain caused by native peoples. So we just want to bring that. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. That's an excellent suggestion. >> All right. Any other folks who are here
for public speak? Okay, seeing none, we head directly into business with guests. And we are starting with Long Me High School Student Advisory Council, Miss Drowick, who I saw a moment ago here somewhere.
>> Hello. Welcome. Come on in. The floor is yours. >> All right. So, my name is Colobby. >> Hi, Colobby. Come on up. Grab a seat. Hello, my name is Kobe Mackey. I'm a
junior at Long Meadow High School and I currently serve as the president of LHS student council. Um, on behalf of the LHS student council, I would like to thank all of you guys for your amazing continued uh support. We've gotten quite a few amazing opportunities from MASC
and from the conference. So, um, actually, Royce, would you mind holding up some of the awards passing down? >> Just pass. >> Oh, sure. All right. So at the conference we were given the amazing opportunity to submit a book,
sorry, this book quite a bit of time making it, but it basically cataloges all of the accomplishments we've had as a student council. Um, and it gave us quite a few awards. So we actually were able to get the five-star council award as well as
the gold council of excellence, which is a pretty high esteemed honor. So, we are very proud, but once again, it couldn't have happened without your support. So, we really do appreciate it. Um, the other thing that we got from last spring was the 2025 National Council of
Excellence Award, which we also had to submit an additional form for. So, it's another achievement that we're very proud of and once again was due to your support. So, we'd like to thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Just grade and then maybe a quick
favorite thing that you did at MSC. >> I'm going to have you come up when you do that because we might not get you on TV if you're back there. The cameras are fantastic. But if you take turns and come up that would be wonderful. Sit right next to Kobe maybe. >> Yeah. Matteo, would you like to start?
>> Sure. >> So you're fine. >> Yeah. Perfect. Yep. >> All right. Hello. My name is Matteo Besie. Um, as like KBY, I'm a junior here at LHS and on student council, I serve as my class vice president. Um,
probably my favorite part about the whole conference was really the feeling that I got when being there. It was such like a raw feeling of like confidence and just like, wow, I can really be who I want to be here and there's going to
be no judgment whatsoever. So, it was just really amazing how I was able to just almost like be free, if you will. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, hi, I'm Connor Carneahan. I'm a uh a
sophomore at um excuse me, LHS. I'm the class representative. Um, one thing that I uh took away from the uh experience at MASC was definitely like the people I met. I met a lot of amazing people and they uh shared a lot of uh ideas that
they have about student council and like information about their student council that I thought was great because then I was able to use that and uh bring it back here to LHS and um create new things with it. So yeah, >> that's great. Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Kate Carneahan. I'm a senior at
LHS and I've served the class president um for the class 2026 for the past four years. And I think my biggest takeaway from the conference um I had the opportunity to serve on the board this year that helped put the conference together. And that was a really special um opportunity for me because I'd been
going to this conference thanks to all of you guys since my freshman year. Um, and to be able to see the process in which the conference is created and also to see how much Long Meadow has grown over the past four years as a council and delegation there, um, was really special because I know Colby touched
upon all the awards, but um, and Matteo kind of talked about the feeling there, but the presence of Long Meadow was so strong and they were such a fantastic delegation to have there. I heard from so many different adviserss. um like even the executive director was speaking
so proudly and and well about the Long Meadow delegation and the way they upheld themselves and represented Long Meadow. So to be able to kind of watch all that Long Meadow got to do at the conference was really special. >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Abby Golden. I'm a
sophomore and I serve on the school committee advisory council. Um, and my favorite part of the conference this year was the workshops and keynote speakers that I got to attend and see present. Um, I got to experience a lot of different perspectives um, and ideas
from a lot of kids from different schools as well as do fun games and energizers and dances with everybody and it was a really good mood. I went last year and I always just when I walk in on the first when I walked in on the first day this year, I was like, "Oh, I am so
excited to relive this conference again." So, I had a lot of fun. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Annie Crowe. Um, I'm a junior here at LHS. I serve as a representative on my class board and as treasurer on student council. I received
an award for unsung hero, which is like doing work without the need to be recognized. Um, which I was so thankful thanks to KBY and Miss Dawick. Um, my favorite part of the conference was hearing the keynote speakers how much they believe in us as kids and student
leaders uplifting us so much to bring back such unique ideas to our school. >> Excellent. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Latau Mao. Um, I'm a current sophomore at LHS and I serve as the executive board historian. Um, my
favorite part of MASC was definitely this feeling of empowerment through all of the keynote speakers and all the great people I met. I really felt empowered to maybe run for a position I wouldn't have originally or just take more of um an involved role in student
council. So, it was great for that. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Manosi Jona Lagata and I'm a sophomore at LHS and I want to start off by thanking the school committee for allowing us to go. It was my first year going and I had a really
great time. And I think my favorite part of the conference was definitely the polar plunge because I feel like sports are a place where so much exclusion can happen just in schools like all around the country. And just I don't know how how much money was raised um through the
Polar Plunge, but I know it was a large sum. And just knowing that I was part of something that could make it so kids that otherwise wouldn't get the opportunity to do the things that they love so that they could is really special. >> Thank you. Hi, my name is Rissa Marshon. I'm a
current sophomore at LHS and I serve on, excuse me, class of 2028 class council as vice president. Um, my favorite part of the conference was the overall positive vibe that I got. Um, everybody was so uplifting, including the keynote speakers. They really made me walk away
feeling empowered and encouraged. And everyone that I met there was so nice and was able to give me ideas that I could bring back to my council. >> Thank you. >> Hello everyone. I'm glad to see you. My name is Henry Canoyer. I am the class
president of the freshman class. And if I had to pick my favorite moment from MASC, like the conference, I'd probably say like the big banquet day. And the only reason I say that is because, well, a lot of people might disagree with me, but there's just so
much togetherness and passion in that one circle from a ton of people who don't have who don't spend a lot of time together. I don't know. I just I've never felt that before and I thought it was really special. But yeah, I thank
you for letting me experience that. It was my first time going and I'm planning on going again. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dan, would you like to share? >> Yes. Hi, my name is Danica Shay. Um, I'm a senior at LHS and I serve as the school committee student representative.
Um, and my favorite part of the conference uh was seeing the student leaders really leading these workshops that we did. I know I personally them um in terms of different styles of leadership and the confidence and
bravery that a lot of these students had to lead these conferences and workshops at the conference. Um I was very inspired by. >> Thank you. >> And I'm Heidi. I'm uh the student council adviser. I'm one of the assistant principles at Long Mar High
School. And from the bottom of my heart, I just want to thank you for giving these leaders an opportunity to experience who they have the potential to be. Um, we have a very humble council, so I'm going to brag about them a little bit because there's a lot they didn't share. Um, the five-star council award, we got it, we have to get a nice
little frame for it, but this is just showing that all of the regional and state opportunities that we were offered, we attended. So, basic award. We also have three Commonwealth award winners. So, these are winners from they were selected from our school who represent leadership and they try to
make our school a better place to be for every student. Those students are Treval Jackson, Annie Crow, who you met, and Kobe Mackey. Um, our unsung hero is Annie. So, Annie was uh selected for the whole region of Western Massachusetts to receive that award. Um, so we're very
proud of her and also very thankful and grateful that she uh serves our school. We the Gold Council of Excellence Award. This is the second year that we applied for it, the second year we received it. Um, and that is an exhibit um for a full
year. So, it's February of 2025 to February of 2026. So, it's a full year of what last year's council ended with and this year's council started. They have started so many different programs here over the last couple years, including a homecoming dance that they
hope to continue uh going forward. We have been recognized as a unified school. So, Manazi talked about the polar plunge um with our unified basketball and our choose to include campaign we're running. We are a and we participate in the MASSE Botchi
tournament. We are a unified school. So it shows that we are supporting um students of all ability levels in the games um because that's what we need to do to be good human beings. Um we had Kobe Annie and Mason Daly who ran a
workshop. So their workshop was on communication. They had a great time doing that and I think it was for 50 minutes. >> 50 minutes. 50 minutes and there were about 55 kids in the workshop. So, they did a great job.
>> And this is the humbleness that our council has. Kate was not just serving on the board for the state, she was the state president last year, so she handed over the gavl. Um, but we are so proud of what she's done um for not only our
school, but our region and our state. Um, this executive director of the state couldn't speak highly about her enough. Um, so we speak often and he's gonna miss you. So you're gonna have to keep in contact with him. >> And then Colby ran a campaign. So his
campaign was keep calm and row on. And he is now on the state board for next year. So he's on it now, but he is going to be the regional delegate. So we have had kids on um the state board now for three years running. So I'm just very proud and they're very humble. They don't brag about themselves. I will brag
about them just because they are there early in the morning at school. They're here late at night just working to make our school a better place. >> So, thank you very much for your opportunity. Um, I can't thank you enough. >> Thank you so much for coming over. >> Thank you. >> Lots of familiar faces and kids who have
made such a difference over the last few years in our school community. Um, and just what Kate had mentioned earlier about the LHS presence. You guys have done such amazing work over the last like it's been a real like joy and privilege to see this grow over the six
years that I've been on this committee from something that started so small and has grown to be not just so influential in our school and our community but across the state across the region. You guys have become a real force um in school councils and we're just crazy
proud of that and also really really thankful to Miss Drowick for the work that she's put in as faculty adviser for this over the last few years. Thank you so much. >> It's my passion. I love these guys. >> It's been an awesome thing to see happen. >> And we're going to wait on one more award. So, we did apply for the national award again, but we think we might get
the gold award this year >> because we stepped up a little bit. Um, so we'll know that more in April. So, we'll keep you posted on that. >> Fantastic. >> Thank you very much. Other community or committee members want to share any thoughts or weigh in on anything?
>> I would just echo much the same as our chair. Um, fantastic work and very very inspiring. I'm glad that you were all able to be with here tonight to share that uh all that you have accomplished in person. >> And our chair, Michaela, is stricken with um a throat today that has made it
so she has lost her voice. Um, but she sent me a message to just say she's blown away by how amazing your public speaking skills are and your leadership and hearing about all of this from at home and it's just fills our whole community with pride. So, thank you so much for everything that you guys have
done. an awesome campaign idea. >> Well done. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you again. >> All right, we are headed into No Place for Hate. We have Dr. Nilda Uriari here. I think just Oh, there you are.
Uh director of student and family support coming in to talk to us tonight about the No Place for Hate initiative and has lots of folks with her as well. So, welcome. >> And Marty has some floor >> is yours. I hope Dr. O'Shea has an intro and some slides I think to. Yeah. Um I
appreciate Dr. Zari, our director of student support for um providing some critical leadership on our No Place for Hate initiative. It's been a commitment of ours to um address hate and bias in all its forums, but also to lean into
student voices as as part of that effort. So, um I'm really uh wish I could be with the whole team there tonight. Uh there's a lot of positive energy in the room and uh I'm sorry I can't be there, but I will pull up the slide deck and uh turn it over to Dr.
Iriari and their uh team of educators and students. >> Um so, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I want to thank our school committee for your continued commitment to creating schools where every student feels a sense of belonging. Thank you to our superintendent, Dr. Marty O'Shea, for
your leadership and expanding the No Place for Hate initiative across our middle schools and high school. Uh before we begin, I want to ground us in what we mean when we talk about belonging and inclusion. Inclusion means that every student is recognized,
respected, and valued for who they are. It means creating school environments where students feel safe, supported, and able to fully participate in their learning and in their community. It includes all students of cultural linguistic students of different faiths,
religious traditions, students with disabilities, students who are navigating their identities, including those who identify as LGBTQIA plus. At its core, it's about ensuring that Long Meadow, every Long Meadow student knows they have a place in our
schools and that they matter. This work ex um reflects something that we deeply value in Long Meadow. We not only prepare students for academic success, but for how they show up in this world, how they treat others, and how they lead in their communities. I want to
recognize the educators who make this possible. Meg Tucker, Mary Moresy, Carrie Daly, Shelley Warren, who have created the conditions for students to lead in meaningful and impactful ways. Their time, care, and belief in students have made this work possible. And to our
students, we thank you for your efforts. um they have stepped forward with intention. They have taken ownership of this work and committed themselves to making sure that their schools are places where everyone feels like they have a sense of belonging, where they're respected and um also valued. Tonight,
what you'll see is a reflection of their leadership. Um our next slide shows how this work is aligned with our district improvement plan. Uh this work is connected to our shared for diversity and belonging. We've made
a clear commitment in our district for how we address bullying, bias, and hate while continuing to build school communities that are grounded in respect, dignity, and belonging. We know that culture is shaped from within. Um and our students are a part of this
work. They have given themselves the opportunity to lead in their school and they have made an impact in their school communities. The no place for hate initiative has given us the structure and our students have taken that opportunity and made it their own.
Um no place uh the next slide shows um the no place for hate initiative through the anti-disamation league. It provides a framework for schools um that want to focus on inclusive communities. Three of our schools received the designation from the ADL. Um it the work in Long
Meadow has been brought to life by students. They come together to have important conversations. They share their own experiences and those of others. They plan actions that strengthen their school community. And each school approaches this work very
differently and personalized. Um but their purpose is shared. They want to create spaces in schools where every student has a sense of belonging and everyone believes that they're respected when they enter schools. Um before I turn it over, I again want to thank the
school committee and thank the Long Meadow community for always valuing diversity. We're always going to be a district that stands up against hate and bias in all forms. Um so we have our first um school that is going to come up. Williams, I think it's first.
Yes. >> Hi, I'm Megan Tucker. I'm the school adjustment counselor at Williams Middle School. Um, and we got No Place for Hate up and running um mid year between 23 24. Dr. Zari kind of introduced us to the program. So, we got familiar with it
towards the end of that school year and we really got it up and running last year when we earned our designation. Um, and it just grew so much interest. We have 19 students that are involved this year, 19 eighth graders, which is amazing. And Mrs. Morrisy joined in the efforts because we had so many students
who were interested. >> Good evening. I'm Mary Moresy. I'm the school counselor at Williams. And we want to take a moment to recognize the students who gave their time to plan activities, to listen to classmates, and to lead with kindness. Our students have
shown leadership and empathy through active allyship, taking responsibility to combat prejudice, being committed to seek understanding, speaking out against discrimination, supporting targets of hate, and promoting respect.
These students are we're just so proud of them. They're amazing students. They have had just really thoughtful and really mature, especially for eighth graders. Um, a respectful dialogue about issues of bias and prejudice in our school, in the community at large. Um,
even bringing up um concerns that have happened in the community outside of school, like sporting events, for example. Um, and they're really just contributing to a more positive and inclusive schoolwide uh environment that's just free of hate. Um they are positive role models for their peers and
um they're upstanders. They are not bystanders. Um and they've showed they also showed a lot of courage in getting up in front of the entire student body, all the students and faculty to do an entire schoolwide assembly. So it's really impressive. >> So we're going to turn it over to some
of our kiddos. These are fine, too. Anywhere in the circle works. Yep. >> Do you want to follow? >> Welcome. >> Hi. >> Hello. >> Um, good evening. My name is Kay Deno. I'm an eighth grader on um Williams No
Place for Hate. Um, by the way, you'll see this logo throughout the slideshow, the Williams portion. I did design it. >> Um, why would students want to join No Place for Hate? So, I know personally for us, um, students wanted to join No
Place for Hate to make a positive impact on their school community. I wanted to join because I wanted to make a change in my school. Um, a strong desire to reduce bullying. I think that in the state of the world, we need less bullying because we need to come
together. um to solve bias and hate. Um students want to help others feel included and supported. There have been times when I didn't feel included and supported. So, it's very important to me that we lift up other students and try
to include them as much as we can. Um many no place for hate um people in our group saw this as an opportunity for leadership um and to advocate for their school. Um, some students were motivated by personal experiences. I know I was
motivated by a personal experience to join this because I wanted to feel like I had a place to belong in school. Um, and students value of being a part of a group that works towards a positive change in their school community. Hello. Um, I'm Vinnie Rolo and I am also
a member of No Place for Hate at Williams Middle School. Um, since our presentation, students have um reported increased awareness of bias and microaggression. Like I know I hear it in class and I hear other students saying it now. Like they'll I'll hear
them call out other kids for um m like microaggressions which I never heard before. I actually was unaware of the term beforehand. Um and I gained a lot of knowledge on it. Um the assemblies and presentations helped educate peers about respectful behavior. So, it showed
everyone like, you know, how to be kind to each other, which like Kay said, we need a lot more of this in this world. Um, and younger students are also showing a lot of um they're they're really encouraged to participate in No Place for Hate as they become eighth graders, which is great. We want to see
the community continue to grow and hopefully we can all become one community um who, you know, is created by kindness. Um students feel their efforts are um helping build a more inclusive environment. Um, this this means that like, you know, everyone's
being more inclusive and we're hopefully going to have that continue. So, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Next. >> Um, hi, my name is Lily. Um, I'm talking about the student vision for Williams
Middle School. Um, students want to be safe, um, included, happy, welcomed, respected, um, in school. Uh, I know I've felt that
way. Um, and I haven't felt that way at school, but, uh, I feel like our school has become better after. Hey everybody, my name is Leila Mackey and um I'm eighth grader at Williams and
I'm part of the NOA parade. So um so our hope for the next year is so um we hope that like more kindness is spread across the school community and that more comfort is spread across the community like people if they notice someone is not doing okay or if someone needs help
then they're feel comfortable to talk to our school counselors and talk to other people and without being without the fear of being judged and also less bullying cuz I know I've been through bullying and I know other people have been through bullying. It just it makes nobody feel bad. It makes you feel like
you're not part of the you don't belong in the community. And I think that if we are able to successfully eliminate that from our society, it will really help people feel more comfortable and safe. And then we also hope that the that the growth of the No Place for Hate program
um increases as more and more people recognize these issues and they keep working to fight them. And we know actually that after seeing our presentation, many skaters were very were wanting to join in it. And so we hope that they stick through that and
that the more students just continue to join and participate in these efforts. And we also want to continue ongoing efforts to create a supportive and respectful school culture because it's really important that we have a a an environment everyone feels respected and
no one feels like they don't belong. Hi. Um I'm Lizzie Barker, also part of No Place for Hate. Um I'm an eighth grader at Williams. Um when we did our assembly, um there was like um all of the school and like the teachers loved
um like learning many different things um about like microaggressions and bias and um belonging and how our school can become better um with that and become a more inclusive place. um the staff. Um we had some people say that it was one of the best assemblies
ever that they had experienced. Um and so that felt good and yeah, we hope that um in the next few years like um younger kids will still um like really want to join and help make our school a better place.
Um, so, uh, last year on, I believe it was the second to last day of the school year, we did an all day workshop. Um, I think this was a great day. It was, um, really nice because we got to spend the day together and just talk about, um,
what No Place for Hate is and what we wanted to make it. and we learned about um microaggressions and bias and things like that that we covered in our assembly this year. Um it was a great day cuz for teamwork um we built we
built our team. Um most of the kids that were in this group, it was our first time seeing each other all together as a group. Um I think this is a great group of kids, but we had to make a community before we could build our school community.
Um, after the assembly, we've gotten questions about bias and how students can stop bullying. Um, we've helped the best we can when they've approached us with these questions, but we also
advised them to, um, Miss Tucker. >> And Lily created that poster up there, by the way. She's modest, but she made that poster. >> Well done. I love that poster. Very nice. >> Is that all for this group? >> Oh, sorry. Okay. >> So, we talked about the schoolwide
assembly a little bit, but just to give a brief overview again. Um, it just sort of explained, you know, what microaggressions and bias are and um how we can all like be more kind to each other and also what no place for hate really is. Um it really like brought
everyone together and kind of taught a lot of people about it and like what Lizzie said um you know we had teachers and staff and students who have worked here a long time who um um all said it was the best assembly they'd ever been to which was a huge honor for us. Um and
uh yeah and there was Mhm. >> So one of the things during assembly that really stuck out to me was after we were done there was probably 15 extra minutes after where kids were just asking questions and it wasn't like silly questions or questions that we
were just repeating ourselves. They were real genuine questions that people were like actually wondering. And like one of the questions that stuck out to me was like how do we stand up to someone when you know they're being mean but they're our friends. And it was really like it was an honor for me to be able to answer
those questions for other people to be able to answer these questions because it felt like people understand what these like the effects it can have the effects these comments can have on people and it just makes us feel like we're not the only ones trying to make change and people are working towards
that as well. So these are the kindness cards. Um they b they're giving out um every every week to um teachers will give out um these cards to kids who are making a difference and you know making this our school no place for hate by um you know
being kind to other students being kind to teachers and we have had um over uh we've had 40 in total um given out so far um they're read over the announcements uh every Friday and um at the end of this year there will be an award award given out to the um it's
like a prize. It's a secret. Um it's going to be given out to the grade with um the most kindness cards. So yeah, >> it's awesome. >> Excellent work to all of you. Thank you so much. It's great to see you taking such an active role in leadership in
your school as eighth graders. Look forward to continuing to see you here in the future as high school students. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have >> Hi everyone. Uh thank you so much for the opportunity to share our No Place for Hatework uh at Glen Brook Middle
School. Um as a wellness teacher, I'm Carrie Daly by the way. Um uh as a wellness teacher, I have the privilege of helping students build self-awareness, empathy, and healthy relationships every day. So serving as the No Place for Hate adviser connects directly to that work. Uh middle school is such a formative time and every
student deserves to feel safe, valued, and like they belong. I want to acknowledge the students who I have here with me and uh we still have about another 12 that joined us as well um who dedicated their time to support this initiative. They stepped into leadership
roles by planning activities uh encouraging inclusive conversations and modeling kindness for their peers. What impressed me the most was their courage, especially their willingness to engage in meaningful conversations about bias and inclusion. They showed
responsibility, followth through, and real growth in their confidence as leaders. Their efforts truly make a difference. When students lead this work, it strengthens our school culture and helps ensure that every student feels seen, heard, and respected. And that kind of culture change happens
through consistent intentional action. Exactly what these students demonstrated this year. >> And now I'll just let them speak a little bit about what the experience was like for them. >> Hi, I'm Gata Wintol. Um, Miss Dailyaly
asked us why we were proud to be a pl a part of No Place for Hate. And some of the most common answers were creating community, seeing the impact, teaching real problems, and leading change. >> Um, my name is Mento and Miss Ellie
asked us why we joined. A lot of people wanted to ensure that nobody had to go through the experiences they have gone through at school and they wanted to promote kindness to take part in doing kind acts and spread kindness throughout our school and just like bring people
together. And they also want to stand for change to stop all forms of like unfair biases and like microaggressions and stuff in our school. and they wanted to make sure people felt accepted and
comfortable in school because it is really important place and we want to make sure everyone feels included and feels like happy to come to school. Hi, my name is Annaise Burns. Um, here are some of the things that we noticed after we took action, No Place for Hate.
So, a lot of people, we all know how everyone has like social groups that they talk to and hang out with every day. And that's fine, but we noticed some people were talking to some people they don't normally talk to, like popular kids were talking to quiet kids and getting to know them. And that's what I noticed when I was doing my little web activity with them is that
people had a lot of things in common with some people I didn't think they would. >> Some other things we noticed is people were starting to realize that the things they say aren't okay. like you can't go around stereotyping people based off the color of their skin or like the color of their hair or their size because we're
in middle school. You know what I mean? So, um they were realizing, wait, we can't say that. Like they were realizing some of the things they say that it's fine. They didn't hear us. Like what are you doing? It wasn't fine. And people would call them out and be like, hey, like that's rude. Put that away. Like
don't think that. Don't say it. Especially cuz you're making that person feel bad. Why would they would say I heard some kid in like my Spanish class say like hey that's making them feel bad don't say that and they were like what and it's like that's a microaggression they were definitely using like someone else
said they're using microaggressions and micro affirmations and saying hey put that away. Um, another thing was our environment. I noticably myself got very better. Like it got um a lot of people were socializing with people that they
normally don't and people felt safer. They actually I like a couple of my friends told me like, "Wow, you did really good." Like I felt more open and like myself in my school and I really took that to heart and that was really amazing. And yeah, and some teachers noticed it as well. Um, other things we
noticed were people were starting to come out of their shell and express themselves. And especially in middle school, I think that's a very important thing. We should all express ourselves. We're all finding ourselves. We're all growing. And a lot of people were starting to wear different things. And people would compliment them and be like, "Oh, thanks." And some people,
I've even noticed, are starting to wear their hair differently um, and talk to different people and state their mind because a lot of people like to kind of stay in there. And that's okay. Some people are shy. Um but people who are shy have been starting to speak up and participate in class activities and
class discussions. So those are just some of the things that we noticed. >> And then our next few slides are some of our activities. So I'll just speak a little on them and let anyone else who wants to speak from their own perspective talk as well. So, um, our first slide here is just our antibbias
training that we participated in with the collaborative. And we also, um, just kind of took all of our voices and put them together to put together a belonging poster to hand out to all of our educators, um, at one of the faculty meetings this year. And it was just gave
us the opportunity to really have student voice on what belonging feels like in school. And you can see just, you know, on the poster all of all of these words were put out there which I think were fantastic. Does anybody want to share on the training or
>> Yeah. Um, I just want to say that we've I've noticed like a lot of people connecting or just like changing and at our school a lot of people were like thanking people in No Place for Hate for speaking up about things they couldn't say themselves and just like
complimenting our work to help like speak out for people who are too scared to say anything and kind of just have to hold in all the stuff um mean like people have said to them And it just like help it helps us feel good knowing
that we made a change for the better in our school and help people about it. >> Absolutely. And our second site here is our um first activity we did here. We had a full
school, but we did it by grade level um presentation on uh belonging and we brought up uh just really the definitions of microaggressions and microaffirmations and we had some scenarios also in there that we had the students run through and which really
gave them a voice to okay if this specific scenario happens within the building, if it happens in our halls, if it happens in class, what can I do in the moment? Um, and then we ended with a positive affirmation wall where each student was able to put up a micro affirmation or just an affirmation in
general of what can we what can we say that is going to make people feel included, make people feel like they belong um feel accepted and, you know, feel special and supported in our school at Glenbrook. And does anyone want to say more on that? >> Uh, yeah. When we did the assembly, I
noticed there was a group of kids that were being like very biased and when we wrote down their cards and we saw them, we were like, "Oh." And so we asked people like, "Hey, do you know who this was?" Cuz you know, we had to call them out cuz you can't be saying stuff like that. And our amazing teacher, Miss
Dailyy, over here, corrected them. and she um said like she informed them on stuff that we learned and No Place for Hate and how what they said cannot be tolerated. Um it was when they were given a scenario about a kid I think having a different language in an accent
and some people not being able to understand them and they said something along the lines of like just learn English it's not that hard. And when we told Miss Daly about this, cuz I think it was M Tom's group that had those
kids, um Tom had the courage to go up to Miss Daly and say like, "Call these kids out." And so Miss Dailyy did that. And ever since then, I think a lot of kids have been realizing that what they say isn't okay, which is very important for middle schoolers because some people just speak their mind without thinking
before they speak and thinking about how it will impact the people around them. Yeah, it just we like to educate people on their wrongdoings. Like they they now understand what they did wasn't right and like see it from other people's perspective and can really like
understand like we shouldn't be doing that, >> right? That value of words matter, right? And then our last activity, um this is just a snapshot of our no place for hate day. Um, we definitely took on a lot with this one, but the students
absolutely crushed it. We took the entire half day, um, and we took every single student and teacher and staff member in the building and we sent them through workshops, um, which were all led by our student leaders uh, for No
Place for Hate. So each student um ran a room of about 20 or more students through different topics uh including connection and belonging, stereotypes and identity, impact of microaggressions, kindness and empathy and diversity and inclusion. They all
planned activities that supported uh these different topics. And it all finished with um this community art project on the right, which was a way for each student to have their voice um heard and seen in the hallway. This is
in our main hallway in Glenbrook. And um yeah, just know that they're supported, that we stand by them, and um that the things that they will do to make Glen Brook a no place for hate. Wonderful. I've seen some of our other folks up here in some of the pictures as
well. Would you like to introduce yourselves or share anything about your participation? >> It looks like you've taken the lead in some of these projects, too. >> No. >> Yeah. I'm Gabby. And >> so for this um teaching scenario, I did
an activity where students came together and um wrote down things they had in common with with each other just so um they can like find a group of people that they relate with and that they share things with rather than um separating people based on things they have um different from each other. And I
think a lot of people um took away from that that everyone can find like a space where they feel definitely included and they can find a space where people relate to them and share things that they like to do in common and things that like they relate to or they just
love to do in general. >> Thank you for sharing. Um, my name is Issa Ren. And so basically me and one of like another member from No Place to Hate did like sort of like a class on this and we did an activity where like on the inside you
things that represented you and on the outside like things that people had said to you that was like very hurtful. And I think me and my partner were very surprised of the things like on the outside because the things were very negative and hateful and yeah it was like very like surprising and I really
want to like make a community where everyone feels like respected and safe. >> That's excellent. >> Thank you. >> We thank you so much for your support and so proud of all these. So thank you so much. >> Yeah. Thank you guys for coming out. It was wonderful to hear from you and keep up all the good work.
amazing groups of eighth graders here. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. >> Do you want tobody else? >> Y go ahead. >> Um if I could um I just like to share that uh a few years ago in town, I was part of a task force um that provided recommendations um to our elected
leaders in town hate and bias and discrimination in town. Um, and after what I've heard from all of you tonight and the good work um that you're doing in our schools, um, it sounds to me like you've made more progress than our elected leaders have,
of which I am one. I will own that. Um, but, uh, I just wanted to share that with all of you. The work that you're doing is very important. Um, and you have a lot to be proud of and you are to be commended. So, thank you. >> Excellent job.
>> Okay. I'm Shelley Warren. I'm the adviser um for No Place for Hate at the high school and um we our situation's a little different because we've had a peer leadership program at the high school for longer than I've been there, like 20some years. Um and so in our peer
leadership program already was under the ADL's um curriculum, a world of difference. And in that program, we would train peer leaders to go in and teach um health classes um on some of these topics. So, we've been doing that for a long time and then the ADL
discontinued um a world of difference and kind of segueed everything over to No Place for Hate. So, we're kind of like refitting um peer leadership or letting No Place for Hate fall under the leadership of peer leadership without undoing what's already been um become a
part of our embedded curriculum. So, um, so yes, I've been there since 2010, um, engaged in that work and, um, and we've always viewed that work as part of like, um, primary prevention and tier one support, um, for students. Um, the students who take peer leadership take
it as a class that they get one credit for, that meets once per week, and then in addition to that, they give up um, time out of their ice blocks to go in um, to facilitate the the wellness classes in nth grade. and we'll we'll describe what those are like in a little bit. Um they also are a part of like
kind of paying it forward the welcome that they received as students. They help design um the new student orientation and then help lead the activities that are involved in that. Um and then each year the students in peer leadership also have their own ideas um based on what they assess the needs of
the school to be at that time um for unique projects that change from year to year. Um, and we lost um Sophia, uh, who's trying to be in two places at once, as a lot of high schoolers tend to do. Um, so I'll turn over to Kendall for this part. >> Hello everyone. My name is Kendall
Broton. Uh, I'm in 10th grade and I am a member of peer leadership. Uh, I am very, very proud to be a part of peer leadership because I feel like I'm taking a very important role in my school's community. Um, I joined peer leadership to help people feel safer in their school environment and to help
everyone feel included. Uh this year we've brought a petition to the school committee for Indigenous People's Day and we're planning to do a lesson on intellectual disability and to stop the use of the Rword. Um we also have um an extension or I
don't want I don't if I want to call it an extension um another arm of No Place for Hate um that was recently started by Sophia who had to step out um and that's an afterchool um committee that is really designed to allow more access for
students to be involved in this even if they can't fit peer leadership in their schedule. So we recently started that and it has over 20 students who you know have been attending and they have they have their own ideas now to bring forward in addition to what peer leadership already does. So that's a pretty exciting um thing that's just
started. So we have um really three standing lessons that we do as a part of wellness. Um one is called the blind maze and it's um where students are led out into the woods with blindfolds on and we have a rope maze set up and they have to find their way out of the maze. And I'm not going to do the spoiler on
on the secret of the maze because some of you will come up and do this, but it's it's a mental health lesson, but the peer leaders help um facilitate that um with Negan Roy, the health teacher. And then we also do um a lesson on it's called the diversity iceberg um and it
really helps students a to identify kind of common inclusive language. So we go through obviously language is always evolving. Um so we make sure that people understand like you know current language um so that everybody can be included and how you know and not be offended by word choices that you might
make in ignorance. Um and then we reflect on like what parts of someone's identity you might be able to easily tell just by encountering them in the hall. Um, and then what you might may or may not be able to tell and then what parts somebody might have below the surface and then why they might be below
the surface and how people could be targeted for different parts of their identity and how like the school um the safety or not of the school culture affects like how much of people's identities they might surface in that environment. So we kind of do that in
the the first um the first lesson and then the second one that follows it. >> Um so we do a lesson called the voices of LHS. um allyship with an allyship lesson. Um so what we've done throughout like the past years, students have taken
a piece of paper and written down like personal experiences that they have faced like with bullying and Miss Warren will uh collect them and we will read put them in a jar and read them aloud to a 9th grade wellness class. Um, it's all anonymous, so nobody knows like what the
real situation was and who like who said what and where, but it really helps students grow like empathy and show how real that bullying is even in LHS. And it seems perfect and unharmed and all that, but it goes on 100% and it shows
like how strongly it can affect other students who have faced it. And then after we've read the statements, we um have students, you know, speak with each other about what would you want to say to somebody who wrote that in the jar. And that really gets them talking about like allied
behaviors. And um and some of the things in the jar actually show allied behaviors as well. Like actually this this card that we put up um shows somebody coming back after they made a really offensive statement and apologizing for it. Um and that you know there are you know mistakes and people
can own them and you know and so on. So, um, something else that we do each year is called LHS Unite. It used to be called Unmask LHS before the pandemic. Um, and then we had to rename it for obvious reasons. So, it's now LHS Unite. And we also had to move it outside
because of the pandemic. So, when we had to have people outdoors or six feet apart, we um ended up taking it out to King Phillips stockade. And now the students like having it there. So um so one year in one day in the spring we host like 65 um ninth or tth graders who
are first we take nominations from staff if they recognize like some leadership and somebody for attending that and then um then we open it to anybody in ninth and tth grade first come first serve um to come and we do it similar to what you described um as your no place for hate half day at Glen Brook the we have a
series of activities that we you know put the students through in that full they experience and it's, you know, a combination of um team building and fun and games, but also then more like deeper dives on issues of community and belonging. Um and last year the last
year's peer leadership um wanted to address increased use of slurs that they perceived in the student body, not just our student body, but just in youth culture in general, maybe the broader culture. Um, so we had added some an activity that addressed like the use of the n-word, the rword, and the fslur and
like giving background on the origins of those and why they're offensive and um how to address it if you see it. And and this year the group is deciding to really focus on the rword and created a whole other lesson um to be done in the ninth grade. So we're adding adding to our repertoire. So, we have one on
intellectual disability and um um the rword and other offensive language that's used uh related to neurodiversity that will be rolling out this spring. And then um if you want to speak about the LHSite experience. So, I was recommended for the LHS Unite field trip
last year and I can say that it is one of like I enjoyed it so so much and I cannot wait for when we do it again this year, but I'll be a bigger like part of a bigger hole and um it's really what
got me into wanting to join peer leadership because I saw what we were learning about and what we were discussing and I wanted to be able to confront those issues that we see in the school and improve on them just like we did in now with SUA. >> Thank you. I think I think that's it.
>> All right. Thank you so much for coming out on camp as well. We look forward to hearing about this in the spring again. Glad you got to take the role. >> Thank you. >> Um excellent work. >> So I just wanted to close once again by thanking our students, thanking um our administrators. We have Nicole Allen
here with us tonight. um our principles that supported this work and um very often as a school committee or even as you know Dr. O'Shea often gets asked what are our schools doing to fight hate and bias. Um and this I recommend anyone
to watch back this school committee meeting to hear about the great work that our students are doing. It's it's them saying that their schools are not going to be a place that tolerate hate. We know that in Long Meadow we're not perfect. we have incidents just like every other school district, but what you heard tonight are students and
educators saying we are willing to do something about it. Um, and that's what matters. So, thank you so much. I know it went long, but it was important. >> Thank you very much for the work that you've done bringing this to the community. Um, and I know that it's been
a source of a lot of discussion even in the larger community um, as well and appreciate the work that you've done getting this here and supporting these students and educators and in the work that they're doing. and to all of you. Just excellent, excellent work to see you building community um at your school
before you're building community out and look forward to continuing to see you as you move forward in uh towards high school and and eventually into your later years of school. You guys are doing really important work and it's it's very impactful and meaningful. So, we appreciate that.
>> Um and Dr. O, back to you. Yeah, if I if I could have said earlier, I I I really regret not being able to be with the team tonight. Um an amazing amount of positive energy, you know, grateful to to Dr. Zari, our educators who lead this work, our principles who support it, but
uh most especially to the students who have made this uh an important part of their experience uh in Long Meadow Public Schools. It's a proud moment. Um I I have proud moments all the time as superintendent, but this is right up there as as one of my my proudest moments of of my career. Um to see the
alignment across all three schools. Um we take our um our goal of addressing hate and bias in all its forms very seriously and we we acknowledge it when it happens and we address it headon and it's a great great example of how we can
use student voice to address hate and bias in all its forms. So, thanks to everybody. Thanks to the school committee for uh encouraging us in this direction and uh giving us an opportunity to share this with the wider community. Great stuff. >> Excellent. Any other thoughts or
comments from anyone else? >> All right. Great. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. We look forward to hearing more from you as the year progresses. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. We are headed into administrative
reports. Um, there's not a chair report for this evening. Dr. Shay, do you have a report? >> Uh, oh, >> oops. There you are. >> Yeah. A couple uh just a couple of quick items. Um, and I will have to step away after this portion of the meeting, but
um I wanted to mention uh that the center school principal search is still underway. We hope to identify finalists uh by the end of this week or early next week. uh also mentioned that the town manager uh presented her recommended budget to
the select board last evening and so the school committee uh school committee's voted budget was incorporated into that and I was appreciative that the town manager kind of expressed um her belief that you know there's been a good partnership between the school committee
and the select board and between town officials and school administrators to put together a uh a manageable budget that maintains services. we're in a we're in a good position here in Long Meadow compared to the the fiscal struggles that a lot of communities are facing. So, um really appreciative for
that. And then finally, just um couple of notes on the building project. Uh there's a zoning board of appeals meeting tonight, a planning board meeting coming up uh at the end of March where the planning board will have an opportunity to review uh the site and make recommendations to the building
committee. We are starting to dive into furniture fixture and equipment discussions and also we are beginning to re-engage uh abutters to the project. Fontaine is reaching out to all the abutters uh to
do a sort of a documentation of existing conditions and so that's really important work. Uh and then uh by June the community will start to see some of the off-site improvements uh taking shape. So, um it's been a busy month of
work with the design team and the staff and uh we're excited to hit a point in May when we will have 60% uh design completed and 60% uh cost estimates completed. So, uh we're we're making a
lot of headway and we continue to hit all the milestones along the way. So, thank you for that chance to to update you on the building project. You have any questions? Happy to happy to answer those now. >> All right. Wonderful. Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Oshay?
All right. Seeing none, we'll move on. >> Miss Shay, do Danica, do you have a report today? >> I do. Yes. Go >> for it. Um, I'll keep it quick. Um, so the senior class, we completed our senior class play which was March 12th, 13th, and 14th. Uh, it went better than
expected. Coming from someone who was in the play, we were a little bit nervous. excellent things. >> But I was I was very happy with how it did. I think we definitely >> we did amazing. I'm happy. >> Thank you. >> We had really good energy and the group was really close by the end of it which
I loved. Um and then also there was a DA assembly for the 10th graders about dating safety and healthy relationships which I remember from when I was in 10th grade it was very important to make sure like how to manage violence in
relationships. So, that's good that that's still going. And then on St. Patrick's Day, there was a leprechaun hunt. Um, so unfortunately, I was sick, so I couldn't participate, but um I know there was leprechauns around the school that, um, students could find and then
trade in for a prize in the main office. And that's about it. >> Thanks. Wonderful. >> Thank you. And congratulations on a successful senior book. >> All right, that brings us to other reports. Um, LPVC board of directors, Kate. Yes, I unfortunately um had a
conflict this month, so I will be attending next month. >> All right, thank you. LPVC board of governors, Emily. Um we met on the 18th. Um our previous board president um was uh her term ended, so our board dissolved. We had to reelect a
president, a vice president, and a clerk through June 30th. I'm vice president through June 30th. >> All right. Um and then we just got some quick updates from um LPBC about the electric bus program um including some improvements to the garages around town
and and other places um that house those buses. Uh there were some security updates. Um there are 25 electric buses five in Long Meadow and any of the ones with the Green Bird, those are the electric buses. So I'm looking out for them now. Um, and I don't think we have another meeting scheduled um until I
don't actually don't think we have another meeting scheduled for our board at all the rest of the year. There might be an ad hoc one that comes up, but I don't think we have anything scheduled for the rest of the year. Um, yeah. So, that's that one. >> All right, great. Um, SEAL, Special Education Alliance of Log Meadow.
Michaela has asked me to share that the next SEAL meeting is on April 8th. Um, and the topic will be the special education budget. So folks are invited to join for that. And then energy and sustainability. We're back to you. >> We met on the 12th and um I got an update about the plastic people
documentary. I wasn't able to attend. My house had the illness. Um and they said that eight uh 80 to 100 people attended. There were lots of questions from the audience. Um and they're looking at maybe doing another viewing at some point. There were some people who were interested in in coming that couldn't
make that date, but um so they're looking at maybe doing a second viewing at some point. Um, and then, uh, they're still working on doing a lot of outreach and education on the specialized opt-in code. That's, um, that new construction building code that's about energy efficiency. They're trying to, um, get
this on an upcoming town vote. So, they want to make sure people understand what it is and what it means. There's no cost associated to anybody, but, it's just about any new construction projects need to fit into this specialized um, opt-in code for energy efficiencies. Um they'll also have a booth at the future fiesta
on May 9th. Um and then we meet again in a couple weeks. >> All right. Wonderful. Subcommittee reports. I don't see any subcommittee reports for this evening. >> Um Michaela asked me to um
discuss um the policy subcommittee. >> Yep. Um, we had um a discussion about one-on-one electronic communication um and what the district actually does
um uh mostly around um communication between uh coaches and sports teams. Um and we didn't come up with um uh recommendation but discussed um the appropriateness of different kinds of
communication. >> Okay. So, possible policy changes forthcoming >> to reflect updated technology in needs of correation. >> All right. Excellent. Look forward to that in the future. Uh that brings us to item 11, building use requests. We have one use request, Mr. Maza.
>> Yes. Good evening. Uh in your packet is a request from the park and recck department for a volleyball uh camp for grades 5 through 9 from July 20th through July 22nd. Uh they are requesting use of the high school gym
from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on those dates. >> All right. Any questions and possible motions? >> Uh I move that the school committee approve the building use request for the March 24th, 2026 school committee as
presented. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Um any discussion? >> Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Emily, >> yes. Zack. >> Yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> Michaela, >> she can't speak. Thumbs up. I know she
can't speak. Sorry. And yes for me as well. Um, that brings us to our final motion for this evening. >> I move that the school committee adjourn the March 24th, 2026 school committee meeting. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second.
>> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move your vote. Emily, >> yes. >> Zach, >> yes. >> Kate, >> yes. >> Michaela, >> thumbs up. and yes for me as well. Thank you very much. Have a good evening everyone and we'll see you in a few weeks. >> Thank you.