[Music] [Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Okay, then actually put it on the 17th. It's a good intro. More time. I think we do because we're not on this screen yet. Give me one second. One second. All
right. We don't need much more time, but we do need another. Yep. Okay. Thank you. [Music] I'm good. Whatever. Good. Oh. Yes. Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday,
May 27th, 2025 meeting of the Long Meet Middle School Committee. Mass General Law allows for remote participation at public meetings through 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. Estelle. Oh, you know what? Addison, unmute. My bad. Apologies. So, you'll have to start over. Okay, let's start again. Welcome to the Tuesday, May 27th, 2025 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 call your name, please say here for the
record. Estelle here. Julie here. Michaela here. Zach. Zach, do we have you? Last call for Zach.
All right. Well, we'll circle back. Uh we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisibley and justice for all.
All right, we'll start with correspondence. Yep. An email from Mr. Alex Grant dated May 15, 2025, alerting the school committee to an email he sent to the select board regarding the proposed turf field at Long Meadow High School and the impact that that may have on the Long
Meadow youth track and cross country programs. Thank you. We next move on to approval of minutes. We have a recommended motion. Yep. I move the school committee approve the minutes to the May 15th, 2025 school committee meeting as presented. We have a motion.
Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Michaela. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Estelle, yes. Julie, yes. Michaela,
yes. Zach, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. Thank you. All right, that moves us on to business with guests. We are going to begin with the student handbook. I think Mr. Landers will be joining us for that
portion of the event or did you want to go in reverse? Could we do the middle school project? That works for me as well. Middle school building project. Come on down. Here we go. Thank you. This was uh this item was further down our agenda. uh and typically uh I'm in a
position to provide a report to the committee on where we are with the middle school project. But uh given the milestone that we are uh that we've just recently crossed and the point we are at the project, thought it would make sense
to uh welcome Adam Delesio is uh the project manager from Collars and of course Armen Ray is the chair of the middle school building committee. So, we have a just a very brief um slide deck that we can share with you and we
welcome your questions and and any conversation. Just give me one second here. [Music] I won't go full screen because it will it will hide all of our remote attendees. So, um, so Adam, turn it over
to you. Thanks for pulling this together for us tonight. Yeah, no problem. Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it. Of course. Um, yeah. So, as Marty mentioned, my name is Adam Delesio with Call Yours. We are the owners project manager for uh the Long Middle School project. Um and so I just wanted to have a couple slides here just to go through give an update on schedule
and kind of where we are um with the milestone with the MSBA and um financially uh the total project budget that we're working on with the MSBA as well. Uh so it's been just about actually two years now since we were uh entered into the MSBA program uh for the
middle school project. So it's it's exciting in itself that we've come such a long way in the past two years. Uh but this overall is a high level schedule here. uh you know we have the we started off the preliminary uh program and assessment where we kind of look over the uh educational visioning plan. Uh we
look at existing conditions. So we went to Glenbrook, we looked at Williams uh we looked at the building code review for both of those uh schools as well and we um did cost estimates for both of those projects as well. So the MSBA requires us to to look at all options uh
whether it's just a code upgrade uh addition renovation or a brand new building. So there was uh quite a bit of uh investigation at both schools uh cost estimates um and that brought us into the site selection and preferred option after we've gone through that entire process working uh very closely with the
school building committee. Uh we selected um the Williams site as the the main site for a consolidated uh school for 665 students. Um and then we moved into schematic design. And schematic design is bringing the project a little
bit further along. you're developing, you know, some floor plans. We're working with the district very closely on coming up with an ed plan, working with a desi submitt. Um developing, you know, kind of the flow of the class spaces, the classrooms, and how each grade is going to be set up within the school. And then we're also looking at
the site and how we have opportunities to use uh the site itself as, you know, a learning atmosphere to use inside the building, outside the building, um and how that's all going to be set up. So we're still a long way aways from a final product, but we are moving along very well um through this and that
schematic design. There was a a large submission that we had to to go through which was um submitting the educational planning uh the desi submitt um all the floor plans um cost estimates for the project. We had to develop what's called a a total project budget. And so it's a
large um Excel sheet that we went through during the school building committee meeting um that we look at all the hard costs, the soft costs for the projects and we submit that to the MSBA. There's some back and forth before that gets finalized and we'll go through that in the next slide, but um all this gets
submitted to the MSBA. That was submitted on May 1st. And so right now we're just in between schematic design and construction documents. and we have a meeting with the MSBA MSBA on June 8th where we meet with their board and
they're going to um it's the approval for the schematic design submission and sets that total project budget. And so that total project budget during this submission. Once this is approved, this is the total project budget for the remainder of the project all the way through closeout. And so that total
project budget covers everything that you would need to build the school, the site amenities, all the furniture within the school, um you know, everything that would need to, you know, to be able to operate the school um for all the students and the teachers. Uh so that's
where we are now um up until June 18th. And then after that total project budget is set, that's the number that's going to go to town meeting. Oh, go back one more, Marty. I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah, because we have two important dates. So, we have September 9th and September 30th. September 9th will be the town
meeting. It's a special town meeting for this project. And then we're going to have the uh special election on September 30th. And that is to approve the project, approve the total project budget. And from there, then we can move into construction documents where we start really getting into the details of this design. Then we bring on a
construction manager at that point to, you know, the you know, we have ourselves, we have the architect who's Jones Witz architects. And then uh we're going to be uh bringing on a construction manager as well. So that's where we are now. Construction is estimated to start in the fall of
2026 and um move in the summer of 2028 and then once the kids are moved in then we're going to start the demolition of the existing Williams school. Uh and then after that's demoed then we'll you know finish the parking lots and some of the field from there. So that's kind of where we are high level schedulewise. If
there's any questions on schedule. Yeah. Before we move to the the the project budget, u does anyone have any questions? Anyone at home? Oh, wait. Michaela. Yep.
Yeah. I just clarify. So, it says that you're going to move in um in the summer 2028, but the demo for the old school is going to start in the fall. So, how will that will the kids be
in school? Yes. When when that happens or after? No, this they'll be in school. So, I do a lot of school projects and most of the projects I do are, you know, building a new building on the same campus that's already occupied by students and teachers. Um, so what will happen is during that, you know, they'll
move in over the summer. So, that means bringing in all the new furniture, bringing over teachers belongings, those types of things, getting ready for the new year in the fall. And then in the summer, what they're going to do is then they'll move their construction fence from the new construction that they're doing and they'll put it around the existing Williams and they'll set up a
new temporary drive, all those types of things to make sure that there's safety measures in place for when the schools are are or the kids are back in school and parent drop off and and and so on and so forth. So, we'll make sure there's a full logistics plan that's set up for that demolition period. But, yes, they will be in school while the
demolition is going on, but we do it all the time. It's, you know, there's a lot of eyes on the project internally and externally. We're making sure that everybody's safe during that process. Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions? All right. Could I note one more thing
that um part of what happened uh at the beginning of May is that we had submitted to the uh Mass Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uh special education delivery methodology. It was a extensive detailed document.
It's the one part of a building project where DESIE uh gets involved and they had to give a green light on our special education delivery model. So, we were excited to submit that to DESIE. We were excited um to respond to some of their
limited feedback and then ultimately get their approval. So that was a another sort of important milestone within a milestone because it was a sign that we had been thoughtful about um the special education delivery model and the spaces
that we have set up to create an even more inclusive approach to uh supporting special education students. So, so that was exciting and I'm grateful for the the time that um Nicole Paris Crow put into pulling that document together and getting it submitted to Desi along with
the help from Kers and our design team as well. So, that was that was a huge milestone that was sort of inside of some of the milestones that you see here. I'll go to the Yeah, we can move on to the next slide.
So this here uh I'll just start out by saying so these this is a draft. This is not these numbers are not approved until that uh June 18th meeting where we actually get approval from the MSBA um board. So these numbers here um is just in draft mobile. We've gone through with
um our entire team with the district with um the design team uh to come up with this budget based off the initial plan. And again these are just drafts. So, if we hear of any numbers kind of floating around out there, there's, you know, there's no um you know, those aren't set in stone yet. These numbers
are super preliminary um at this point. So, uh the total project budget that we have right now is 151,594,774. And so, again, that's what I mentioned that covers the building, the site, all the furniture that's within that building, everything to occupy the building and use it for its
intended use. Soft cost, design fees. Yeah. Architect. Yeah. our fee. Yeah. Contingencies that that's everything that's needed for the project. Uh and so the town along Meadow has a MSBA reimbursement rate. So all all MSBA
projects get assigned uh an MSBA uh reimbursement rate. So our rate which is including incentive points is 56.37%. And so this those incentive points um include you know using green materials that were um being conscious
of the environment. So this project is going geothermal. Um so that's you know a large incentive point for the project. Um you know the building envelope and how how sealed it is and um those types of things that the MSBA looks at. So if we meet that criteria we get those uh additional points. That brings us up to
56.37%. Uh the maximum total facilities grant from the MSBA is 54,779 or 79 $779,864. So that is based on the eligible cost. So that's that's the big term in there. So you get your
56% but it's off of the eligible cost. So there are going to be some costs in every project that we do that are ineligible for reimbursement. So um that's why that number is at the 54 million and change uh as the total uh facilities grant from the MSBA. In previous projects, we've been in the 90%
of um you know, receiving all those funds for the total um grant back from the MSBA. So, we have a good really good track record of you know, getting all those funds back. Um as I mentioned before, the September town meeting and then there's the ballot vote for the authorization and then we're working
with the town uh for the borrowing and timeline. Uh so they're going to look at, you know, the bonding options and market conditions and then the timeline to bond is going to be looking at, you know, the start of September of 2025. Um once we get approval for this project and then we want to go into negotiations
with a construction manager. Madam Chair, yeah. Um first, uh I'd like to say thank you to school committee for your continued support in this endeavor. Uh the school building committee could not do what it does without you. Um to
the members leaving uh at this term. I remember leaving and how emotional I was at my last meeting. So um congratulations on serving out your term. Uh the community really appreciates what you do but doesn't understand what you do. So uh
having sat in that chair I know how hard it is and what you give to this job. So So there on the project I want to say we're really proud that the total project budget is coming in right where we started from. So from day one when we came up with a preliminary estimate with collars uh we were at this we were right
about this number. Our budget was 152 million and so we're right there. Impressive. And when people say well is that number you know funny math like how did you end up at the same exact place? Well, we also had to hire two independent estimators who had nothing
to do with the project to come back look at the project and give us costs and their costs within thousands of dollars came out to the same exact estimation from the beginning. So, we feel really good about the work that went behind this, the transparency of the work that went behind this and how it was was
costed out. Um, so just want to say we're feel really good about that. What I would stress though is that we still have the meeting on the 18th. These numbers are not set in stone until the 18th. Nobody should be using these numbers as a guide to anything but a
preliminary estimate at this point. Um we feel good about the meeting on 18th. We just had a meeting on last week y with the MSBA. Um and uh they were asking us a lot of questions about the project um spaces uses. is like Marty
said, they were very um commending us on the use of space for um for special education. Uh they lauded our music and art programs in town and uh and and the use of the STEM spaces in
the schools. So, um I I can tell you that we feel pretty good about the plan right now. We can't wait until the 18th to get the go-ahhead to move to construction uh doc design documents, right? And if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to take them. Does anyone have any questions?
All right, seeing no questions. Thank you for coming out. Um, thank you, Mr. Ray, for stepping up to serve your community again and tackling uh not only just serving on this middle school building committee, but also being the chair of the middle school building committee. We appreciate your guidance and expertise over the last year. Um,
and Mr. Delio, thanks for coming out and for helping and keeping all of this chugging along at the police that's been going. Yes, very exciting. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much. All right, that brings us to our next item on the agenda, which is student handbooks. All right, Mr. Landers, we'll
invite uh Mr. Landers to come on up. Uh we so as share here the um one second. Just want to pull up a file to
get us going here. [Music] All right. So, uh, cell phones have been the the topic of considerable conversation probably going back a year, I'd say, when, uh, this committee had heard from
a number of residents and community members and and staff um about concerns about, um, sort of responsible use of of cell phones and other personal e devices. And so the conversations have
happened here at the school committee. We did uh I'd say an ambitious survey of of staff and parents and caregivers. I had a chance to uh work with an LHS student focus group uh at Long Meadow High School. Uh Tom Landers has had
considerable conversation with his school council. And as you know, school councils are responsible for um pulling together handbook recommendations for consideration by the school committee.
And so pleased tonight to um offer sort of a a comprehensive uh recommendation for you on the use of cell phones and personal e devices in schools. And so I want to note before we
get into the details that this really the recommendation that we have for you tonight, it I hope is very strongly rec reflective of the the survey that we had done earlier this year in the sense that
it is sort of an age-based tiered approach to um cell phone use in school. I think we we heard concerns obviously about uh how the distraction that cell phones create. Uh we heard from staff
about concern about students carrying cell phones in the restrooms or or on their way to the office. We we uh also heard concerns from parents that they felt that um you know they wanted
children to have access to cell phones or e devices certainly after school at least in order to contact their children. Uh we also heard from uh families that the tiered approach made sense in that you know what makes sense at the elementary level might not make
sense at the middle and might not make sense at the high school level as well. And so what we have for you tonight essentially is a recommendation that uh in all grades preK through 12 there would be an expectation that student
devices would be uh turned off and stored away meaning not carried on their person during the school day. Uh the exception to this would be uh instances uh at the high school and again Mr. Landers has had considerable
conversation with his staff and parents and the school council. Exceptions would be that uh during ice blocks uh during lunchtime or during passing time uh at the high school students would still be able to access uh their devices.
Um otherwise their expectation would be that the the devices are are often away stored in a backpack or uh stored perhaps in a cell phone hotel. And so um that would be the
expectation in in all grades. At the elementary level, what came up a lot in conversation was wearable technology, specifically smart watches. And so the elementary principles are recommending that handbook language uh disallow
students uh wearing e devices even if they're in school mode or turned off. Um too often it's created uh some discord I guess between students who leave their wearable device on or they forget to
turn it off at the elementary level. The feeling was that those that wearable technology, those e devices could be uh left stored in backpacks uh or in lockers as well. And so um for your
consideration tonight, we also know that a lot of this is about the the culture that we have to establish. And I think what also came out from this committee and from from the feedback we received
is that we really need to find places where we can continue to teach students to use cell phones responsibly. We want to continue to think about ways to engage parents in this conversation. Um I've thought about
this almost as a social norms campaign. I take that phrase from the close community where you're trying to establish shared understandings uh and shared awareness about um responsible use of cell phones or the harms that cell phones can present to
both young and old people alike. And and I and I want to put one last um underscore on the last bullet you're seeing and that is um consistent enforcement by staff and the administration so that if a student's in
Mr. Lander's class or they're in my class, they're getting a similar message and we're not making um sort of independent decisions about when we allow students to use cell phones. It has to be at the high school level. If there is an educational instance where a
staff member wants to permit cell phone use, then the staff would continue to have that discretion. And so uh included in your in your packet was the proposed language uh for K5 68 and 912. Again,
I'd say universally it's about um devices being off and away, not on their person. um and with with some exceptions at the high school that are articulated in your packet as well. So, uh for your
consideration tonight and and Tom was kind enough to come along because I think more than any of the the levels he's had to spend a considerable amount of time on this sort of understanding what his school council wanted uh and what made sense for Long Meadow High. So,
um, Tom, anything to add and then we can we can invite, uh, feedback or conversation or or questions. Sure. No, I mean, I I think you you nailed it. At the high school, we've been proactive since smartphones came out. They were they became kind of omniresent. By 2010,
2011, we never decided to be lazy fair. We did decide to regulate rather than ban. We've had we've adjusted over the years. who've come back to the committee um as needed to update language, tighten things. Um the the real proposal here
from the high school tonight is a change to say rather than you it it's the existing policy is off and away in classrooms. Um and in most we do a good job. I think our teachers, you know, manage their classrooms effectively. We
don't have a lot of referrals. We have a lot of education and reminding of students because that's part of what we do. But our our referrals have have dipped year after year after year and they've been pretty stagnant for the last few years. The difference is that
right now they have to be off and away and a teacher can separate a student from their device. The proposal is that a teacher must separate their a student from their device. That's the difference. It would do two things in our in our opinion.
Um, it would give the teacher the the authority to say you will separate from your device. You will put it in a cell phone tower or you will put it in your backpack or just because not every teacher wants to use a cell phone tower
and not every student might have a backpack or another identified place by a teacher. But it would it would move it from can separate them to everyone will to create that consistency that you mentioned Marty. But the the hope is two
byproducts. One, it's going to make our approach in the classroom even better. It's going to make it easier for teachers to manage. They do a good job, but there are only two eyes. And it gives more help to classroom management. It also takes away the the
um the tendency the habit of a student to try to reach for it if it's off of their person. And secondly, an area that we can do a good job a better job in is if there even if a student has their phone off and away in their pocket, if
they use the hall pass, it's with them in the hallway. We can do a better job of that. They're not the current policy says you're not supposed to have them in the hallway when you go to the restroom during class. It's different from uh passing time. If we separate students
from their devices in the classroom, it will help with classroom management, but it will also resolve that issue and and we can do a much better job in terms of that. Kids meeting up in the bathroom, um planning to meet up in the bathroom.
If you take that away, you take away a lot of distractions and that's what it's all about. So that's really the extent of the high school's um proposal tonight. Well, sort of and I'll just a little aster while also sort of respecting that, you know, we're working
with um folks who are becoming adults and they're they're you know 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old. And so um kind of want to provide students the opportunities to um access their device during lunchtime
or during an ice block or passing time. And we think that that kind of balances again what we heard uh in the in the surveys for staff and parents is that um they felt like you know we did hear from parents particularly of high school students that it's important for them to
be able to check in with their child about what's happening after school. a job, a club, a sport, an activity, a pickup, a ride, a younger sibling, that kind of thing. So, it has some provides some allowances in that area. Um, so,
um, I I'd say there's no perfect cell phone policy out there, period. Uh, and I also recognize that the state is um there's some legislation pending uh that that might go further than this. We're we're not sure. We're paying attention to it, but we're not quite sure what
will happen with um cell phone legislation at the state level. There are schools that are sort of doing a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones. What that means, how that plays out, I I couldn't say, but so for your for your consideration, happy to answer any
questions or uh or get additional information if it would be helpful. All right. Thank you for this work. Appreciate it. We'll open to questions, Julie. Um yeah, Marty, um I think over time when we've discussed cell phones in the committee, you've often cited to our
policies being off and away. And so I think, you know, particularly for parents who had pushed pretty hard for a a stronger ban, I think it would be very reasonable for them to read this as as not much of a change at all. Um, so I
wanted to give you some time to speak to why you think this is or to the extent that you do think it is a meaningful change um, from what is going on right now. And I would love for you to talk about that both in terms of like technically what the policy changes, but
also like what outcome do you expect at both the the middle school and the high school levels? Sure. So not it won't be in their pocket and I and I think it will be in a backpack or in a cell phone hotel. And so what a lot of the research
that I've seen is has suggested is that the proximity uh that a person has to their phone often that alone creates a distraction. It certainly creates a temptation. So, the fact that it won't be in their person and they won't be sort of, you know, they won't have that
temptation to to look down and check a message or check a post. Um, I think it it removes that temptation. It removes that distraction. The other piece of it is is the restroom piece. As Tom said,
we at the high school, we don't have um I'd say the issue at LHS is from what I've heard, what has been reported to me, it's not so much about tugof-wars in class as much as it is the the restroom piece of it and students um getting
antsy in class and wanting to leave just for the purpose of checking their phone. And so I I think it will have I think it is a significant shift for us to uh require that the cell phones not be in a
child's pocket. Um it doesn't change anything K5. At K5 that the devices were expected to be in backpacks or lockers. K5 the change is the wearable technology. Uh but I'd say at the middle school it will have a a significant
it'll be a significant shift. uh again because of that temptation that students have to check their phone during class or to um want to leave class to check their messages. And so I I do think it's
a it's a it's a subtle shift, but I think it's a a significant shift for us. And I think it's one that's reflective of again what we've heard and and sort of um how cell phone use plays out here in Long Meadow. might be different in
other schools. I know we talked a lot about the the the pouches, the cell phone pouches, and and I've frankly heard very mixed uh reviews on on the pouches. They're expensive, and I don't think they achieve what
school districts have want them to achieve in many cases. Um, so we think we have students that we don't need to have these separate pouches. We think we have students that will respect the expectation that the
device be in their backpack or in a cell phone hotel. So that's a long answer, Julie, but I do think it's a significant shift for us. Nicole, can I ask one more question? Yeah, of course. Um, uh, thanks Marty. My other question
is in you know in crafting these policies like other school districts a one of the big topics in conversation is the enforcement and the extent to which it puts burden on the staff and I think in many cases like that's where the locked pouches thing you know comes in
is where there's a lot of concern that policies like the one that you're proposing here um put put most of the enforcement responsibility on the staff. Can you speak to how how you thought about that factor here? Yeah, I I think the I think this actually will diffuse a
lot of the enforcement challenges. Um it will eliminate the instances in class where students are tempted to look at their phone. I think the the pouches come with some management challenges as
well, but I'd invite Tom's thoughts as well or certainly Andrew. Oh yeah, Andrew to add to that. A lot of the time when when we're talking about enforcement, I think this is going to make it a lot easier because for example, if you have all your students putting their phones in a phone hotel, what a teacher can do is at the
beginning of at the beginning of class, they can go through and check all the assigned phone hotel pouches because each student has a number they get assigned to for their phone. And then since the teacher's checking at the beginning of class, they don't have to worry about and they know which student had their phone in the pouch or not,
then that makes it a lot easier to enforce once instead of throughout the entire class period. That's the theory. Tom, anything? Yeah, I mean I just reiterating since phones I I was amazed
at how many districts had no policy. Um I think we don't know what Desi is going to say, but I think Desi is going to come out and say you better have a policy. We've had a we've had an approach and policies since um they started coming on the you know
in 2007208. By 2010 and 11 they were omniresent. We've always had it. We've we've never ignored it. I think we've adjusted. I think that the at the high school level I obvious can't speak for middle school but uh we enforce it.
We've we we enforced it so much that we had a lot of battles. Those would I think what Marty said is you put it into the culture. You you start like I do every year in the August newsletter. I I chat about it very candidly at the opening day uh class assemblies. We hit
it hard through communication with students and teachers and staff the first week and month. So we have done that. We will continue to do that. I think that this adjustment at the high school makes sense. Um I do not think that I think that you
know there are a lot of districts that wanted to go the the pouch. I think that those districts are having their own challenges. It's expensive. There are magnets to open those. There are ways that you can get around that. Um,
and in the real world, we're trying to, at least at the high school level, we're trying to teach students to be responsible and and be independent. And there are a lot of good reasons for phones that we all have them. But we do think that the frontal lobe of an
adolescent brain is is helped and supported when you when you make this adjustment to to separate them from this. And and like I said, I I just want to clarify there are the majority of teachers at LHS in the classroom either
use a backpack approach or a cell phone approach anyway. But we can get better and we can tighten up and and this is for the teachers who may not um you know don't do that or may be a little lax and bringing it
into more consistency is going to help kids at the end of the end of the day we think. So it's it's an adjustment but it's also on top of policy that's been enforced um pretty consistently and we educate educate educate on this as well. We talk
about this is in our health curriculum. We talk about um how it is addictive when we teach other addictions in the health curriculum. So it's a multifaceted approach and um we you know at the high school at least we hope that
you think that it makes sense. Tom, how do you feel about like the enforcement of this approach versus the enforcement of of you know just off and away but it's in their pocket? I mean, do you feel like it this is it it relieves? I think it's going to I think it's going
to make it easier for classroom teachers to manage. It's their it's a classroom teachers job to manage their classroom. I think it's going to make it easier because kids are resourceful. Drew is on our uh on our school council and we chatted a lot about that and um you know, you never
know where a kids thumbs are when when their you know, hands are in their pockets. This will help that. Um, it'll make it easier for a child to avoid temptation. It'll help the teacher and it will if they get up to
use the the hallway pass, they can't go to their backpack or go to the cell hotel or they we're we're going to enforce that. So, it'll help with that as well. So, I mean, I think it'll help on a couple of fronts. I think we have a
good approach right now. a a age appropriate response approach at the high school, but I think this will improve it. Um because we can get better a little bit better in the classroom. We can get a lot better in the hallways
during classroom time in my opinion. Andrew, um I just want to reiterate, correct me if I'm wrong, that but the majority of parents, students, teachers, etc. um didn't want a allout ban in terms of phones at the high school. Correct. Yeah, I'll let I'll let the
superintendent verify. The parents, the the teachers, we had two different votes. We had a lot of dialogue. They they support doing more, but they there wasn't a call for banning them entirely. Yeah, I'd agree. I I think it was we the
the responses were very mixed. They were more mixed than I anticipated. Um, I expected that there would be um kind of a ground swell for full-on ban, but I I think what what came out was um again
trying the probably the most the two things that jumped out of the survey most frequently for me were um consistent enforcement. A lot of this is on us um administratively or our classroom teachers. and then also um sort of a tiered approach, not a
one-sizefits-all. So, yeah, I I think what you're saying is true. Yeah. So, in addition to that, I think this is provides a nice compromise with a lot of the parents who are concerned about distraction in the classroom because that's ultimately what this is meant to reduce, but it still helps in terms of
after school activities at lunch. So, it's kind of a nice in the middle. I think it's a much better sweet spot than what we had before. Other questions, thoughts? Yeah, Jamie. I don't have an issue with the high school side of this. I don't
think most people do. I think this is a fair compromise. You know, as long as we enforce it the way we're talking about, I think it's going to be fine. Um, I do think we're not talking about elementary and middle in this. Is it strictly high school this conversation or Well, I think we're talking about all we're
there's elementary and middle are included in this, but it's it's not on their person for any reason at elementary and middle at the high school. They potentially could use it during lunch or an ice block. Middle and
elementary, not on their person. And and I like short of checking backpacks of kids on their way in the door or short of the pouches. I'm not sure how we could like keep cell phone I would love to keep cell phones out of school at that level. I'm not sure how we can do
that short of the you know checking backpacks or the or the magnetic pouches. But I would say I agree like you don't know what they have or what watch they have in there. But if you make it a bad I mean I I just look at this as go I I don't know why a child
needs a cell phone in elementary school or watch. I mean I get the high school thing. There is a there is a sense of kind of figuring things out like where am I who's picking up who where are we going that side of it but elementary school I I have yet to hear a good reason to have cell phone in there. So
ban them if they have them there. principal gets to take it, have the parent come in and let them know what the policy is. Again, like I don't understand elementary school. They should never Let me put No one sold me on this idea. Let me put it this way. A a cell phone or a personal e device
should never see the light of day at the elementary level. More than that, actually, it does. This language actually says that it can't be turned on at any point. And if it's found to be turned on, then it would go to the office. We don't we don't do anything detention, suspension, anything. No,
there would be there would be consequences. They do use them. I don't think we enforce Well, and again, I think that's where I think like you said earlier, some of this is on us just to make sure that we are as long as we're going to enforce that. I just don't I don't see
like I can go middle school. Okay, maybe a little bit of a reason. You know, you're you're doing really dumb things in middle school. high school, they're being somewhat sensible and doing a little bit of dumb stuff is basically what it is. So, there's like a little bit dumb. Then there's a whole lot of dumb in middle school. And why did you
ever let them bring like number actually here, I'll give Hey, parent, why did you ever buy them a $1,000 phone in the first place? What do they need it for? I mean, give me a break. So, it just makes no sense. I mean, if you if you as a parent think that makes sense, then you don't make any sense. They should never
It just doesn't. They should never surface. They should never be should not. So they do as long as we enforce that in a way that's fair. Like I mean the kid obviously shouldn't be like hey we don't expect these to hear hey parent please stop sending the phone. I will tell you the the number of uh elementary
students that we're we're seeing with smartwatches has increased significantly and so this will be this will be a a shift uh significant shift for many families. It's not only previously we said that if you're
going to have wearable technology you had to be off or in school mode. Now we're saying there is no wearable technology. Again these personal devices should not see the light of day. I'm good with that to be turned on and I liked this part that the first time and this is at the elementary level the
student could pick it up at the end of the day but anytime after that the parent has to come in and pick it up. Yeah I think that's fair. I mean that's and and just being like upfront with it. I mean, hey, don't bring we don't want to see this. Yeah. The high school here's where it's fair. I mean, that's that's fair enough. Obviously, a nice
assortment of teachers, parents, representatives, you know, and then adapt as we go. If that doesn't work and we see more issues than not, then we make it more and and that was a conversation Tom and I had. I said, well, do you think we're going to see, you know, some the wearable technology at the high school? And I think that's
something that we'll have to monitor. Yeah. Yeah. And and tighten up if need be. Julie, um, you just said something about like the bombs really not seeing the light of day at the middle school. Maybe maybe you didn't mean that, but I just had a
question about that because the policy says that they can be used at the teacher's discretion at the middle school and can you walk us through like how that would work for home? Yeah, at at the elementary level, it shouldn't see the light of day. At the middle school, it would only be if the teacher
um, let's say in a There could be a bunch of different examples and I asked Tom to help me out even though he's not a middle school principal, but uh a student in a um a special education classroom who has, you know, some assisted application on their phone or
if there is a classroom where um the children are, you know, they need some quick access to information or they want to ask their teacher if they can check their schedule for something. It's pretty
rare. My expectation would be it' be few and far between the number of times where a teacher provided uh that direct permission to a student to take their phone out of a backpack or a phone hotel and it would have to be for some part of the reason. Oh yeah,
sorry. It would have to be for some Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I I was just going to clarify like at the at least I have not followed this year to year, but at least at the sixth grade level, they don't bring their backpacks around with them, right? I don't know about the older kids, but like is it I guess what
I'm asking is like are you kind of asking for kids to get in trouble if some teachers say you can use it in my class, but they don't actually have a way to carry it around with them? I think if it were the position of the
committee that you wanted to strike that language around uh situation where a teacher might give permission to a student to take their phone out of the backpack. I I I think it's like it could be a counselor who is working with a child and the child needs to contact
home. It could be um it could be I I'm I'm not providing a good list of examples here. Well, just a note to say that one one part of the language too, Julie does say as part of a structured learning activity with direct permission of the teacher. So there shouldn't be an
instance where a teacher says you're allowed to use my phone or your phone in my class in a more generic way. It would have to be on Tuesday there will be this activity or today I'm going to invite you to. Yeah. The the one that comes up
most frequently is in my experience is the kids use them to tune their instruments in orchestra. Yeah. So, I guess I'm just I I don't have I don't really care about the language one way or another as long as it's not something that kind of asks for kids to end up
with a phone in their pocket that they get in trouble for. I appreciate you giving me a much much better example than than I was able to provide, but yeah, a kid setting a timer, tuning an instrument. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Other thoughts,
questions suggested? Seeing none, we are not taking a vote on this because it's handbook language. Uh, no. To well, the high school by statute, high school handbook language has to be approved. I believe school councils have to approve it, but ultimately has to be approved by
the school committee. Our practice historically has been to um run all handbook language, even K8 language through the school committee. So, um, if you're if you feel like you have enough information to vote, um, you could tonight if you felt like I didn't craft
a motion. A motion. Okay, there we go. have to be on the fly. Yeah. Okay. No, that's okay. Um, we could also circle back to it another time. Um, we've already approved the handbook for this coming year. So, this would be an amendment. Correct. No, you have not.
You approved the educational opportunities book, but not the handbook. Okay. So, is that coming to us when? June 17th. This is the handbook changes. This is these are the only changes. Gotcha. That's okay. Wasn't sure if there was another step. All
right. Um, then other questions and or possible motions that anyone might want to make? Oh, follow-up question. Um, because of how we uh typically approve the high school one, do we need to do that separately?
I think you could do it in a single vote if you wanted, let's say. So the changes to the high school 202526 school hand uh student handbook and the K8 student handbook amendments
amendment. Okay. Thank you. All right. Questions and or possible motions? What exactly did you say there? I move to approve the 2020. Yep. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. I just I can you just answer I I'm not sure if you answered the
question I was asking. Are kids gonna end up practically with phones in their pocket to do to comply with teacher requests? No. If you're fine with it, then I'm with it, but I don't understand
how that gets enforced in case No, there certainly would never be a requirement. It would it would be if there was some educational moment that was structured and the teacher gave explicit direct permission. I think she's asking about so for example with the sixth graders if the sixth graders
are leaving their backpacks in their lockers all day. Yeah. Then how would they have them for music? The seventh and eighth graders maybe carry their backpacks around. I'm not 100%. And it's probably different. Whereas the sixth graders leave them in their back in their lockers. So they would have to
carry them in their pockets in order to bring them to music class. Am I clarifying that correctly, Julie? That's exactly right. I see. Yeah. No, we we wouldn't they just use some other tool to Yeah. I mean I think increasingly I think but I feel like
this my experience has been that this is teacher by teacher and the kids get a little bit stuck in the middle. Gotcha. Yeah. Can look up. Can you can you use a Chromebook to tune an instrument? That I don't know. Yeah, I I think often time Yeah. Finding a a viable substitute for
times when kids might think they need to use a cell phone probably makes a lot of sense. I I see it happening very very infrequently. I also don't want to jam a kid up the other way where we have a
completely black and white inflexible policy that that wouldn't allow a child to ask a teacher to use their cell phone in the middle of a counseling session or a special education session or a music session where it might like the example
you gave. I think it's it's it would happen pretty infrequently. I mean, if you felt like you wanted us to tighten up that 68 language, I'm happy to take another run at that. But I I see this as trying to eliminate I'm trying to
eliminate the time the the situations where there's not that clarity. Andrew success. You can use a Chromebook. Yes. To tune in to tune in. There you go. There you go. Andrew, in a in a very meta moment, used his cell phone. Used the cell phone to find
out. If I had my Chrome picture, I would have used my Chromebook. You and I were chatting earlier today, Marty, about places where the kids are getting a sense of injustice because the rules are getting enforced in weird ways. So, to me, it does it, you
know, I I don't I don't love things where it's weird. It It puts it on the kids to navigate lack of clarity. Um but so I I can I'm happy to I'll just vote no on this. It's fine. Yeah. You
guys should should proceed. Good. If you wanted to approve the 912 handbook and we could we could take the feedback back and and bring you back, you know, some thoughts. We can also amend a vote after or amend a motion if a motion is made and enough
people would like to amend a motion to exclude six through eight language or we can vote and see what the folk committee thinks and go from there. Number of options. Jamie, do you want to kick us off with the motion? With a motion. Go for
it. Whichever one you Yep. would like to start with. I move the school committee approved the Long Meadow High School student handbook and the Long Meadow K through8 student handbook for the 2025 2026 school year with the new cell phone language and personal e device language.
We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Now would be a moment if anyone would like to make any amendments or propose any amendments or move to make an amendment. Seeing no amendments, we'll
move to a discussion. Any further discussion, seeing no discussion, we'll move to a vote. Estelle, yes. Julie, Michaela, yes. Zach,
yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. All right. Thank you. Appreciate your time, Mr. Landers. Appreciate it. Thanks. All right. That brings us to school committee announcements and recognitions. All
right, we have some folks who are finishing their terms with us. Um, and so we're going to do a little bit of a goodbye thing for those folks. Um, and Estelle and Julie, we have these lovely plaques that are going to be headed your way. Um, so I'll touch base with you
about getting that to you. Um, and we'll start there. All right. So, first up, Estelle. Um, Estelle, thank you so much for stepping up to serve your community in a moment of need. We really appreciate your um willingness to serve. It has been a joy to work alongside you
this last year. Um, we appreciate the energy and the attention that you have brought to this role as well as your technological insight. Very useful. Um, and we wish you all the best moving forward and hope to see you back on school committee maybe in a few more years.
Next. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. appreciate you serving. Um, next up is Julie. Another plaque for Julie. All right. Um, Julie, you've been here with us for the last three years, and it has been a huge pleasure and honor to serve alongside you for those last three years. Um, you bring an amazing amount
of experience to the role and education to this role, and you've been a wonderful resource for us all throughout um, and along the way. Um, we appreciate the years that you devoted to this role, your careful attention to policy and your insights as a parent and as an education professional. Um, you can
always be counted on to carefully listen to all sides of an issue and then thoughtfully offer a reasoned opinion. Um, and you have impressed all of us in so many ways over the last few years. We've been lucky to have you. Um, and we will miss your expertise and attention to detail and thoughtfulness and wish
you all the best moving forward. Thank you. Um, and can I Yeah, absolutely. Can I say something? Nicole, you absolutely can. Um, I just wanted to Sorry I'm not there in person. Um, I think the reason why I'm
not there in person is also the reason why I'm not running for reelection. I I took a new job um in um April that requires a lot of travel. Um and um it's like really bittersweet for me because I
think being on the school committee was um just a really nice connection to the community um for someone who who works who spends you know most of my time um in Washington DC or now um in New York as well. Um, so anyway, I just wanted to
say thank you um to the rest of the committee and particular to Nicole and Marty for um for making this a really meaningful experience for me. Um, and I just I think the school committee is such a critical piece of the town's infrastructure. It's just really really
important. Um, you know, our town is run in this kind of volunteer participatory way and to me this is one of the the most important roles that people can serve in and you know like like what we're seeing in schools across the country, the quality of the education
that we're able to provide and the accessibility of that education to every student. you know, the ability for students to show up as their full selves and have access to um you know, real um and meaningful educational material is just like it's not a sure thing. It's
not set in stone. It's only really as good as the community's commitment and as the the leaders who show up. Um so, you know, I really I just think it's really important to have school committee members who are champions for education and whole push um to support educators um and to get the funding that
we need. And so I just appreciate all of you for staying on the committee. Um, and I'll really miss working with you all. We'll miss working with you as well. Um, for those who don't know, Julie also has done this work for a number of years at a federal level. Um, so she brings an extra insight and a lot
of service um, not just to the town of Long Meadow, but to the United States as a whole. Um, so thank you very much for all of that. All right. And then lastly, Andrew Maderos, headed off for college. Um, it's been an honor to work alongside you
for the last two years. Glad you were able to be with us. Uh, you've been an amazing ambassador for the high school, for the town as a whole. Um, and you've your work with student council has been nothing short of amazing. Um, you guys have over the last few years just completely reshaped student council and student government for the town of Long
Meadow. That's all Mr. Alick. That's not me. I think the legacy of that will move forward and you guys as students have done a lot of that work. She definitely has been an amazing resource and you guys have brought a great amount of energy to that role. So, we wish you all the best at Colby next year and we look forward to hearing wonderful things about you in the future. Thank you very
much. I'm a little bit more prepared in my final report, but thank you all so much. Love that. All right. And if I could uh just on behalf of the administration um and Diane, I want to thank uh Julie
and Estelle uh as well and grateful for the feedback and the support and the and the openness and the opportunity to work through um a lot of different issues over the last couple of years and and to Andrew, I I've I've been amazed by some
of our student reps over the years, but I would say that uh you've left my my jaw hanging open sometimes with some of your insightful um really intelligent well put together comments. So we we're we're grateful for your ability to kind
of represent student voices here in Long Meadow because I know that's important to the committee as well. So thanks for all your time. We're going to miss you a lot as well. Thank you guys. I'm going to miss you guys. Yeah. Thank you Jamie. Yep. And you you are amazing. Just to echo what but the fact that you left I don't even know what these say. they can
say nothing. Uh but the fact that you took the time to do something like this shows you what kind of person you are. Um this is these things these is an important part of anything whether it's next job or whatever it is and what you said in here I'm sure is fantastic but
the actual effort of doing those that's incredible. It tells you kind of who you are and the fact that you're doing that already. You're going to be super successful in whatever you do. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Any other committee members with announcements or recognitions?
Michaela, I just wanted to say thank you to Andrew for it's been a pleasure to work with you on the school committee and um I agree with everything everybody said, but I just wanted to add you are truly a natural advocate for um students and for
your community and I hope that you continue to advocate because you're really great at it. Thank you, Michaela. I'll definitely Don't worry, this isn't this is my final stopping point for this kind of stuff. Any other
thoughts? All right, we're headed into the superintendent report then. Uh just a couple of quick items. Uh we have a senior citizen lunchon uh scheduled on Thursday. Uh 160 some odd signups. Nice. Um might be
an all-time high. Um, and so attendees are treated to a performance by uh the the Coral students here in Long Meadow and then uh barbecue lunch inside of our cafeteria put on by our fruit service company. So uh looking forward to that event. It's always really uplifting. If
any committee members, if your schedules allow, we'd love to have you. Uh and then um the witness stones uh presentation is happening on Wednesday the 29th. This is a a middle school project where where students after having researched the experience of
enslaved individuals from Long Meadows past uh have an opportunity to um u memorialize them with the witness stones in the center of town. So it's a a moving event if anybody has an opportunity to join. That's Thursday at
9:30. So, um, two really uplifting events scheduled, uh, this week. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Um, additional reports, LPVC, Zach. Okay. I don't think there was a report, so we'll keep going. Seal
Michaela, I think they had their last meeting if I remember correctly. Yes. Uh, no report, but keep your eye out for when the uh, Bliss Park meet and greet in the fall will be in September. It's a really good time to meet everybody on SEO and connect with
parents. All right. Wonderful. And energy and sustainability. Any last report of sale? Um, next meeting is scheduled either June 9th or 12th. All right. Wonderful. Student rep report. Andrew. Okay, the final one. Last one. Um, just to start
out, um, last Tuesday, May 20th, we had our AP art show, and it was really awesome to see all of the awesome art that our students have put together. It's really creative and impressive. Um, and then congratulations to the LHS boys volleyball team on their Western Mass win. And then good luck to all of our
athletics teams as they head into the state tournament. Um, and then just a final reminder for senior events, uh, June 3rd is the awards ceremony. Um, and then that evening is the senior social. June 5th is prom at the log cabin. Students, it starts at 600. Students
must be inside the log cabin by 7. And then, uh, graduation is June 10th at Symphony Hall. And then finally, I just want to say thank you all so much for these last two years. I feel like I've grown a lot as a person, as a result of hearing you guys speak. I feel like I've learned a lot from you. Um, thank you
for sticking with me in those early days. I've maybe when those reports were a little bit botched or not hopefully a little bit more high quality now. Um but you guys have really taught me a lot and I'll always be grateful for this this experience. Um this experience will carry on with me as I move on throughout
my life and just thank you for everything you guys. Thank you Andrew. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Subcommittee reports. We're headed into those. Uh no report from finance sub policy sub. We have some
policies that are ready to move forward on Michaela. Yes. Um, so we have a second reading and possible approval of the policy ADF wellness which is posted to the district's website and it seems no
public input and we did have quite a detailed discussion about the wellness policy and um know that Isari has incorporated the recommendation the recommended changes into the current second reading of the
policy. So, we have a possible motion for that one. We'll pause for that. Can I make a motion? You totally can. Okay, I'll do it. I move on the recommendation of at the school approve policy ADF
wellness as presented and dated May 20th, 2023. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion on this policy? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela, yes. Julie,
yes. Estelle, yes. Zack, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. All right, Michaela. Next up. All right. Next up, policy JLJ administering
medicines to students was also posted to the district's website in accordance with policy BGB policy adoption. That policy received public input which was passed. All right. We have a motion for that
one, too. Yep. Or any discussion or anything or just go for it? Well, you can make the motion and then we'll see if anybody has any discussion. Okay. I move on the recommendation of the policy subcommittee that the school committee approved policy JLJC administering medicines to students as presented and
dated April 29th. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? May I? Yes, please. I just I want to represent the um the public comment that we did receive um on the on the
nlloxxone policy. the um I think the the committee felt strongly and and I agreed that parents ought to have the ability to sort of opt out if if they chose for their child not to um be able to pick up one of the Narcan kits that's done um
that are distributed in in conjunction with um our drug prevention education program at the high school. And so the respondent was concerned about sort of the logistics of that, but I I think I can work that through with Mr. Landers.
And then your policy also makes reference to sort of um trained and and uh trained non-medical personnel. I think the the training is is quite simple and and I think our drug education
uh classes kind of orient students to how to use Narcan if they were ever in that position. And so and uh I think close community has been very purposeful about providing some u Narcan education to the wider community as well. So, I
just wanted to represent the feedback that we received uh that the school committee received regarding uh policy JLC D. So, I think we can um it it could be something that continues to evolve, but I think we can sort of work through
some of the concerns that were uh represented in the feedback that you received. Okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela, yes. Julie,
yes. Estelle, yes. Zack, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. Thank you. And I think Oh, no. I'm sorry. There's another one. This one's a first
reading. Uh, student activity accounts. Did that make it into the packet? Okay. Yeah, the documents are in there. It's um it's an update to policy AJF in uh regarding student activity
accounts and it is uh revising the policy to uh put some safeguards in uh regarding the handling of the funds. We've eliminated building level checkbooks which would now require all
dispersements to be processed through the warrant process through the town. Um I know it's online. It's online but I didn't get the printed paper physical copy electronic copy. Okay. Um it also adds a requirement for an audit to be
conducted at least once every 3 years of the account. Um so those are the primary changes. There are also in the electronic uh packet a copy of the guidelines that kind of go along in more detail of the processing and the
procedures related to handling of receipts and dispersements related to student activity accounts. uh they are a separate document and would uh I would request that when we vote the updated policy we would then also adopt the
updated guidelines. All right, perfect. So this is a first reading which means we do not need to take any action tonight. Um it will be posted to the district's website for 30 days um and we'll return to it in the summer. Yes.
Thank you. All right. No um report from curriculum subcommittee. That brings us to evaluation subcommittee and Michaela, that's you again. Yes. So, we had um our evaluation subcommittee meeting on Friday, May
23rd, and we took all the we went through all the individual school committee members evaluations and formed one summit document that it's always kind of fun to do because it's so reflective and it really highlights um
how lucky we are to have a really um strong academic superintendent that stays on top of everything and so we have unified the evaluation and it is up for a consideration tonight and we
can make a motion. All right. So, we'll open to um discussion if everyone wants to kind of peek through and talk a little bit about the evaluation and or if anyone has any questions about any portion of
it and or if there are no questions yet, we can kick off with a motion and then circle around to questions. I move on the recommendation of the evaluation subcommittee that the school committee approve the summitive unified evaluation of the superintendent for the
2024 2025 school year as presented and authorized the chair to sign. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. All right. I'll do a very brief kind of uh maybe walk through
of some of the main points here. Um the superintendent's evaluated on three things. A professional practice goal um which the subcommittee um is recommending that we um have a unified position of met, a student learning goal
with the same met and a district improvement goal which we unified to exceeded. um not because the district improvement goal is completed but because the progress that was made on the district improvement goal over the last year exceeded the expectations of where we would have expected it to be in
year one. Um there are then four standards. The first is on instructional leadership which we rated proficient. The second on management and operations which we rated exemplary, the third on family and community engagement which we rated proficient and the fourth on
professional culture which we rated exemplary. Um in the completed evaluation you'll see that it begins with comments which I'm going to circle back to so we can read together. Um and then notes on each of those goals, the professional practice and student learning goal and district improvement
plan. And then under the standards section, we provided um commendations and recommendations for each of those four standards along the way. Um so before we head into a vote, I'll just read the overview comments which are um
Dr. O'Reay does a fantastic job meeting the myriad needs of the school district and community. We are fortunate to have him. Overall, Dr. O'Shea has shown a level of leadership that is unmatched as compared to the surrounding towns in Western Massachusetts. Dr. Dr. Shay has continually demonstrated his ability to not only assemble the best team of
educators possible in a state with significant educational restrictions, but also to lead by example in fostering a safe space for rigorous student achievement. Success starts at the top, and Dr. Sheay sets his district up for success by reminding us that we can daily keep trying to do better. Dr. Sheay has demonstrated steady and
thoughtful management during a dynamic and demanding year. His work in developing a comprehensive district improvement plan presented on schedule, advancing the middle school building project, leading inclusive negotiations and prioritizing student well-being reflects a clear strategic vision and collaborative leadership
style. So those are the notes for the comments and the rest of the committee is able to see the entire recommended evaluation. Um other thoughts, comments or feedback? All right, seeing none, we can move to a
vote. Michaela. Oh, we lost Julie, but she's coming back. Yes. Thank you, Zach. Yes. Estelle, yes. Julie, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well.
Um, thank you to all of the committee members for putting together your individual evaluations. Um, and all of these documents will be public moving forward. Now, may I? Yes, please. Um, just appreciate the the committee's thoughtful attention to the process and
and the um the constructive feedback that I received in a number of areas. And as I've said, um, my work is the work of our administrative team. amidst the work of educators and staff across the district and none of this I I I
can't do anything on my own. I can only do um the work that um all of us are involved with including the school committee. So I will certainly take the the specific recommendations that are here and incorporate them into my annual
plan next year. Um, I look forward to taking our next steps with the district improvement plan, with the with the uh middle school project and um really want to take um you know, purposely the committee's recommendation to kind of stay engaged, continue to stay engaged
uh at the classroom level because that is what brings me a lot of joy and um finding time for that is something that I want to continue to prioritize. So, I appreciate the the committee's thoughtful feedback and and attention to a a rigorous process. This is not easy
um for school committee members um to pull all this together and um I appreciate the the synthesis and I think all of the individual um evaluations are reflected in the summit of documents. So I appreciate the support of the committee through this
process and throughout the year and and the support that and feedback and guidance and direction that they give our administrative team. So thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. That brings us to new business. End of year transfer authority. Mr. Mass, I'm guessing that's
you. Yes. Um, tonight we are asking school committee to consider granting authority to the superintendent to approve the endofear budget transfers that would be needed to close out the FY24 budget. Um the transfers would be
done in accordance with school committee policy DBJA which outlines the um the deficit threshold in which a transfer would be needed in a sub subcontrol group line. Uh that criteria is that the deficit
needs to be at least 10% and is more than $1,000 or the deficit is more than 10,000 subcontrol group. We actually go a little farther. We basically try to zero out every line so there's no deficits at the end of the year. Uh it
is an annual thing that the school committee does vote uh the authority to allow us to get the transfers processed in a timely manner once the fiscal year closes after June 30th. All right. Any questions related to the
FY25 end ofear transfer authority and or possible motions? I move that as specified in the school committee policy DBJA that the school committee grant authority to the superintendent to approve the necessary budget transfers between munis budgetary
lines in order to close the FY2025 accounts. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela,
yes. Zach, yes. Estelle, yes. Julie, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. Next up is gifts to the school.
Uh so consistent with your policy requiring the school committee to accept um tangible gifts, uh we had received a $1,000 gift for the LHS art department to purchase a specialized printer uh and
$1,000 to the social studies department to apply for civics education materials and additionally $1,000 uh gift from the Han County DA's uh office to uh support uh purchasing IT related materials that
promote healthy choices and student safety. So uh recommend to the committee that you accept these gifts uh on behalf of the district and we'll be sure to circle back with the donors to thank them. The art department and social
studies gift came from the LHS pack and the uh student technology for student safety came from the Hamn County DA's office focused on public service and um safety. So, all right. Any discussion andor possible
motions? 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 May 25th, 2025. Slight correction. May 27th, 2025. May
27th, 2025. Thank you. I had 20th in my hand. Um, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela,
yes. Zach, yes. Estelle, yes. Julie, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. Uh, we have a motion for executive session. We will be returning to
um public meeting after the executive session. I move that school committee meet in executive session persuant to mass general law chapter 30A section 21A purpose 2 to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective
bargaining with units A B C D E F and H and non-UN personnel independent contract administrators purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if o if in open session it
may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position in purpose 7, consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings to reconvene into open session. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Could
I ask a clarifying question? Um, and Diane, you might be able to help out. If the committee um they've indicated they potentially could return to open session if the committee chose not to come in back into open session. If you move to go into you have to come out come out
then the meeting and then the meeting. Okay. Yes. Great. Okay. All right. Uh any other discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela. Yes. Yes. Thank you. me. Zach,
yes. Estelle, yes. Julie, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes, for me as well. We will return as soon as possible. I would love to take them. Thank you. Thank you.
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Heat. Heat. Oh, yes. No, no, not at home, Brian. All right. Oh, there you are. You guys ready? We are ready. Can you count us in? Yes. Thank you. Stand by. And five 4 3 2 1. Welcome back to the Long Middle School Committee meeting. Um, we are
returned to session and have some new business related to independent uh administrator contracts and amendments. We'll entertain a motion. Is is the M supposed to be doctor assuming or is that really M and Martin? Yes, it is. Okay. Do you want me to
fully pronounce it? I do. I just making sure. I move the school committee approve the contract for superintendent M. Martin O'Shea for a three-year period from July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented for the 2026 and
authorized the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the committee. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela Yes, Zach.
Yes, Estelle. Yes, Julie. Yes, Jamie. Yes. And yes, for me as well. We have another possible motion. I move the school committee approve the contract amendments for the assistant superintendent for finance and the operations and director of special
education as presented and authorized the chair to sign the amendments. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Michaela. Michaela. We'll circle back to Michaela.
Zach. Yes. Sorry, you guys froze. That's okay. Um, I was calling on you for your vote. Oh, yes, Zach. One more time. Yes. Thank you, Estelle.
Estelle, you came on very briefly, but we did not hear you. Can you try one more time? Yes. Thank you, Julie. Yes. Jamie. Yes. And yes for me as well. All right. Right. We have one final motion to end out the evening. I move the school committee adjourn the May
27th, 2025 school committee meeting. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move for vote. Michaela, yes. Zach, yes. Estelle,
Julie, yes. Jamie, yes. And yes for me as well. Have a lovely evening. Thank you. Good night. Thank you all.
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