um just the idea of, you know, taking something that you think you'd just throw away and turning it into even a more um precious art piece. Not that we're using real gold, but well, good luck with that. It sounds like interesting and fun. Yeah.
Yeah. The idea that things are still worth something. Yeah. Even though they appear broken. And what is being broken? Isn't that a philosophical question? And what is old? As I sit here in my old
age, quote unquote. Yeah. Beauty and imperfection. That's the that's the basic concept. So, whatever you consider imperfection. But we all have different ideas about what that is, don't we? That's true. Yeah.
Do you teach classes out of, you know, other than in the high school? Not anymore. I have in the past, but it's been quite a few years since. I used to teach um at the NSHA Center for the Arts. And that's actually where I was
there um when I met the person who hired me to teach at PG. She came in to take a class one summer because they had a a potter's kiln that um one of the brothers had he had it as a a hobby. It's a a Catholic school. So, it's the
Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Um and he had retired and and gone to Rhode Island where they they had their their home for the older brothers and she just didn't want that kil to sit there. She said we should have ceramics in our Yes. in as
part of our art curriculum. And she was just developing an art curriculum, you know, over the past few years that was just, you know, not too many years after they had merged with the the girl school. She had come from from the the um Mount St. Mary's where it was just
girls to teach over it. When they merged, she was the art teacher and she started the art department. There was no art department at Bishop Guren before then. Um, so you're part of the grassroots of the department there. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah,
she just she took that class and she said, "I I want a curriculum for this." So, I helped her develop her curriculum, told her what supplies she would need. And then the next year, she called me and she says, "The students love this." She says, "But I really don't know what I'm doing. I only had one semester of
ceramics in college." And offered me the job. So, that was that's wonderful. And What a spark of inspiration for so many people too. Yeah, it's it's been a good good experience and it's just the
department has grown, you know, in all aspects beyond pottery. And so from what you've said, your your students normally have fun in your classes. Is that an accurate uh sometimes too much fun? Yeah, I they do
uh some people like uh like the more athletic kids. I don't know if they also take this to satisfy an art requirement or something like that. Yes, very often. That's a large percentage of my students, especially the males are, you
know, hockey players, football players, you know. And do any of them end up either pursuing pottery or some other artistic thing in addition to athletics? Not to my knowledge. Actually, I take that back. I have um I heard from a
student back a few years ago who had just finished the Air Force Academy and he was going to flight training school and there was a rec center there and they had a potter's wheel and they had a college student who was the teacher
there and he said it was the most relaxing thing he could have done and his teacher also complimented him how much he knew about pottery. Wow. And then I ran not even more recently I ran into a woman who um when she saw
I was at Bishop Girtton. I forget exactly how it came about but she was a medical technician and she said that you know looking at my thing, oh do you teach pottery there? Cuz she sort of recognized the name. I said yeah. He goes, "Well, all
three of my children took classes with you and all three of them still do pottery." Oh, that's great. Wow. Yeah. I'd almost forgotten that until you mentioned it. Yeah. So, asking about athletes when I was in high school, there was a guy, big strong guy,
football player, and one day, I don't know how it happened, but I ended up, you know, at his house to visit, and he's also a metal sculptor. So, try, you know, don't assume that because somebody is, you know, looks athletic that they don't do other proced. Yeah. I mean to
be a potter, you cannot be um frail. You have to every potter I know is very very strong. Yeah. And actually just our daughter took pottery and art from Linda and um she minored in pottery in college
and is still throwing pots and she is captain and she loves it. That's great. Yeah. Two days ago, Sunday, she was throwing pots. Yeah. It's not all wheel though. Happy to hear that.
Yeah. Sorry. She keeps on asking me what I want and I have to think of things. Yeah. And I even do some sculptural things. I mean, I had um a lot of my larger pots are sculptural in nature, but they're still
vessels. But um a friend I just I'd seen these metal birds that were supposed to be like garden ornaments. I thought I almost bought them. I said, "Oh, but I can make those out of clay rather than getting them from, you know, this catalog." So I just played around. I
made a couple of birds about, you know, so big. And um that was probably almost 10 years ago. And a friend was visiting me and saw them. They were in amongst my house plants and she just thought they were wonder. She was actually one of my um
one of my pottery teachers years ago and she's the one who actually she's the one who got me teaching because she needed to um she was in the state legislature and she couldn't make um it back in time to teach the children's afternoon
classes. So she asked me to take those and then the next thing I knew she was calling me up and say, "Well, we're still in session, so can you take the adult classes?" So that's actually how I started teaching was from her needing someone to substitute for her. But anyway, she was visiting me and she goes, "You should take a whole flock of
those." Oh, wow. And each one is different. They're not And I'm not trying to replicate any kind of bird. They're totally I call them flights of fancy, you know. Um and I she told me 50 I did 25 in in one year, you know. I
just said, "Okay, I set myself this goal." So in 1920 Yeah. 1923 2023, I made 25 birds. That's a lot. And they're all different. Yeah, that's a lot. I can imagine how
they must be rather beautiful. Yeah. Well, they're whimsical more than Yeah. Well, but there's a real beauty in the in the whimsy, right? And to see them in a garden would be really neat. Yes.
Really? It reminds me of the Chinese emperor's terracotta army. Face is different. I'm not sure if each body type is different, but they're very individual. Of course, he bunch because he was the emperor. He probably didn't make them himself.
Yeah. How have you ever done like really big sculptural pottery? Um the biggest thing I've made I'm looking at it right now. I did it just um last year I went to a workshop in
Waters at Watershed up Maine which is a ceramics center. There was a woman there giving a class on how to make large sculptures when you only have a small kiln. Oh my. Yes. So I made it's made in four
sections and they stack I did it like a totem. They stack one on top of the other and then how to you know attach them together. Very cool. So it was part of um the potter's guild ben bianial exhibition that we just had a little
while ago. Yeah. The size of the kiln is definitely limiting, isn't it? Yeah. And the biggest one prior to that was when I was taking classes at the um New Hampshire Institute of Art and my teacher um
challenged me to make a a pot that would fill the kiln and that was an arch type kil. It wasn't an electric kil. It was gas fired. So it was more spacious than what most of us deal with. So there were six five or six other students in the in
the class and they decided well they should get in on the act. So but I had the biggest piece cuz mine was going in the center and had to reach up um you know as much as it could into the arch. So was about I think it ended up being about 40 in tall.
I would guess that the bigger pieces uh I'm not quite sure how to express this. Are they more prone to cracking or breaking apart or anything? um they can be, but it's it's all in how you um as long as you keep it even if there are big discrepancies in the
thickness. That's when you're you're prone to having getting cracks. If the thing one part of the pot, you know, dries and seal or seals over more quickly in the kiln and it creates an air um it's not even an air pocket. People think air pockets what make
pottery blow up. It's not. If it's too thick and the outer surface seals in the kiln before all the gases can escape from the inside, that's when you get the explosions, you know. Wow, that's very cool. Thank you. There's a lot of
science to pottery, isn't there? There is. I don't know that much of it, but let's just I've learned it, you know, over the years, but I couldn't certainly could not teach a chemistry class. Well, thank you so much for speaking
with us today, Linda. This has been great. Really? Thank you. To see Linda's works, please join us for her art gallery during our January Art Saturday. Register on Eventbrite. And we'd also like to take a moment to thank all our generous sponsors for making these
programs possible. If you'd like to be a donor, please tell us at dragetarts@gmail.com or go to our website dragetarts.com/donate for more information about our art Saturdays.
Also, go to our website or email us. All of our programs are available on the Draket Arts YouTube channel. That's youtube.com/draketarts. Thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, thank you. January,
thank you. Thank you, Linda.
[Music]
Mom, did you really need to buy two can openers for our emergency kit? I can't help it. They're two for one. What's this? We need to keep our family communication plan safe in case of an emergency.
Thanks, Dita. [Applause] [Music] Oh man. Well, good thing we kept all the lights we used for the valley. I've got the battery pack. Keep my phone powered so we don't miss any alerts.
What about game night? Sounds good. Oh, we have to get to mom and dad's and get them somewhere safe. I've got the evacuation route loaded on my phone. I've got an updated list of dad's meds. And I've got just what we need to get them to take this seriously. If that doesn't convince them that we thought
this through, I don't know what would. Start a conversation with your family and plan together for emergencies. just to double check. Yes, when you're ready, you just give us a thumbs up. I will. Not quite yet.
Thanks, though. Good evening and welcome to the Thursday, May 15, 2025 meeting of the Long Meadow School Committee. School committees um and other public bodies may hold remote participation at public meetings until June 30th, 2027 by mass
general law. All votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote. This meeting is being recorded and aired live on LCTV. Um, since we have remote members, we'll do a roll call vote. When I say your name, please say here for the record. Julie Morgan,
here. Michaela Fitzgerald here. Adam Rosen Bloom here. Thank you very much. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We will start with correspondence. Michaelaing correspondence to be recorded. An email from Miss Kayla Morland dated May 7th, 2025 regarding
the student lead event GM for food held at the adult center on May 5th. All right. Thank you. Um and next we move on to approval of minutes. We have a recommended motion. I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the April 29th, 2025
school committee meeting as presented. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Julie, yes. Michaela, yes. Adam,
yes. And yes for me as well. Thank you. All right, that brings us to business with guests. We have our student advisory council here this evening. We'll invite uh Miss Drowick, assistant principal at Long High School to come on up with members of the assistant or the
student advisory council. So, we have a few celebrations today. So, they're going to celebrate a few things for you. One more seat down here if anybody wants or you or you can pull up additional
blue chairs from the back. Whatever. Feel free to pull up some chairs. There you go. And you guys, take it away. You're ready. All right. All right, guys. This is our five-star council award. It was presented to us for gathering and conferencing to all
the obligated meetings this year. Well done. Thank you. Up next. Um this is our book of excellence. Uh it was my job to kind of chair this. Um essentially what it is is a record of all of Long Meadow High School's student council achievements. Uh specifically those run
by the executive board. And we presented this at the conference at Hyannis over spring. Yeah. Um and it won us I have it here. Oh, it won us the gold council excellence award. So we
are like at a state level. Well done. And we also got recognized at a national level as well. Wow. My goodness. On a more spotlighted note, um we got
the opportunity to recognize somebody that is often unheard of and not really applauded as much. Um you know, behind the scenes, she does everything for our school essentially and our school runs specifically on this individual. So, you
know, we got to recognize Francesca for the unsung hero award at the state conference which um it's very exciting. [Applause] Thank you. Yes. Commonwealth awards. Who was going to talk about that?
I can do that. So, there's also um Commonwealth awards that are awarded to students for each school at um this conference. And for our school, we have Kate Carneahan who was awarded the Commonwealth award. Colobby Mackey, who's also here, and um Anna Antinoglo, she couldn't be here with us, but she um
was our um Eboard president this year. Wonderful. Well done. Well done. Well done. You guys mind if we pause and back up and just do some introductions for uh anybody that might be watching a franch?
It's okay. Franchesca, you want to kick us off? We'll go this way. Um I'm Franchesca. I'm a senior and yeah, I'm Kate Carnean. I'm a junior. Um, I'm Caitlyn. I'm a senior. I'm Treval. I'm a sophomore. I'm Colobby. I'm a sophomore. I'm Alyssa and I'm a senior. I'm Adele
and I am a senior here as well. I'm Danica and I'm a junior. So, we have another really big announcement because Kate Carnean ran for state president and she was elected. So, she is the state president for student councils for the whole state.
Wow. [Applause] First first in school history. Oh yeah. First gold council and all of those. All of these are all of these are firsts except the five-star council award we
got last year. Last year we got commonwealth awards. But this is the first year they submitted the book of excellence which takes a year to complete and a lot of hours of typing and revising and editing. Um so that was
that led us to the gold council of excellence award um which there's three different levels of it and we got the highest tier and then they also submitted for the national council of excellence which we received. Um they learned a lot through this process. So
they learned that one of the gaps that they have as a council is community outreach and community service and civic engagement. So you might have seen them at the town meeting because one of the things they want to do is to be a student government. They need to know civic governance. So they're kind of
working on that angle a little bit more. Um so you'll see them a little bit more out in the community. Um but I'm really proud of them. They are very humble. So they don't celebrate themselves very much. I do. Um, I say that they wear their superhero capes under their
clothes, but I'm just so thankful that they're a part of us, that they take on the challenges and opportunities that are presented and they attend the conferences and they lead this school, our community, and the state well. And I'm so looking forward to what Kate does for our state because um, it's amazing
when that happens. And she the the conference was amazing. Her delegation, so there were 16 students campaigning for her. It was amazing and they did a lip sync um at the conference. Fantastic. Not that I would know, but
what song? Music and it was a lot of fun. So, as you were having meetings here, if you heard some music down in the batch, that was us um practicing. But I just want to thank them for just taking the opportunities and then they have a couple more words. Thank you. We wanted
to thank you guys for allowing us to have opportunities like this to go to MASC WASC events. Um because they help grow us as a school and as leaders. Um they were really enlightening opportunities. Um I think we all learned a lot about what it means to be a student leader and like to be a good
person in general and it was amazing to like meet new people from all across the state. And so thank you very much for allowing us to do so. To add on to that, speaking from experience, you know, um I'm not sure you guys are aware of how I got into student council. Um but Miss
Joy kind of like strongly encouraged me of the camera, so I don't want to say forced cuz I consented to it. Um um but you know, since then, I have never really looked back as as an individual. Um, you know, at first I didn't see the
importance of student councils and why it was important to foster inclusive communities as a young individual, but now I see how imperative it is to have these conferences where you can go and express yourself and thrive in all the different visions of the graduate
and and be, you know, truly yourself. I know we all can agree that at MASC we didn't have to pretend that we were somebody else. we didn't have to worry about clicks because everybody was accepted, everybody was, you know, a a team. Um, I personally just stepped down
from the board. Unfortunately, you know, I do feel washed up, but no, I'm very I'm encouraged that the people that come after me will step up and do even more than what I could do. And I think I'll eternally be grateful for these
opportunities. And I'm grateful that Miss D is will continue to strongly encourage those to come. So yeah, and just for reference, Adele, because she is humble, last year you might have remembered her as being elected as the
Western Mass President. So with that, she led the region and then also served on the state board along with Zabic. So the two of them served well. Those were our first two students on the state board. Um, so it wasn't that you stepped down, it was your time was Yeah, you're
graduating. It's time for you to bring your skills to college, but um, we have amazing leaders here and they are shining the spotlight on others so that they're also learning to lead and doing that transformational leadership and we're excited. We have a lot of a lot of talent here
and they bring it to us. So, thank you for letting us do this. Thank you for giving us permission and thank you for celebrating with us because it's it's a huge accomplishment and a lot of tithe and talent that they brought. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you guys so much for everything that you bring to the
community every day. All the leadership that you have brought and the example you're setting for the students coming up behind you. Um and for our seniors who are heading off, I cannot wait to hear what you bring to your next adventures with your leadership potentially. You've you've done amazing work over the last few years. So, thank
you to all of you for the time and the energy you've put into it. And thank you to Miss Drowick and the other faculty who supported you along the way. We're really super proud of you. Well done. Thank you. So, a question for Kate and Colby. I'll start with Colobby. If I were to open
the binder and like there's a table of contents there. Highlight some of the activities that are captured in that binder for us. So, we have a whole bunch. Um, one of my personal favorites is the pep rally. So, the pep rally is in there. Um we used it for I think one
major indicator and we also we had another activity that happened during the pep rally which we used for another indicator. Um what else is in there? There's um how what was the turkey one? Anybody remember tail feather? So we had
like one of our um fundraisers for student council in there. Um and we have a whole bunch of other really fun stuff. Yeah. We talk about how we're a unified school and it and how um that plays a factor into like um one of the indicators. It essentially how it works
is however many indicators you have that's like a it's a point system. So the more points you get the closer you are to getting that gold. Um so yeah, we talk about how we're a unified school just other activities that we do. Um the community outreach as MRO was saying we're trying to grow that category for
us. um getting more volunteer opportunities in and just stuff like that. So things that we do in our school to kind of bring everybody together and show that we're one and you usually sort of have to provide some information or context. So like for the unified school
like we attended a unified bashi event in January has a council um up under two. Can you explain what unified means? It's usually um sort of a combination of um like student leaders, whatever um with um people who have mental
disabilities um and we get to play games. So there's a bunch of programs that of the unified sports of Massachusetts. They have a Bachi event, there's a track team, the MIA has a basketball program. Um yeah, there's all sorts of programs we participate in. Yeah, I really commend all of you for
embracing unified sports at Long Meadow High and it's really added a dimension of inclusivity to to an already inclusive school. So, it's very cool. Um, and then my other question was for Kate. Um, so presumably you had to offer
your platform to all the students across the state and talk about some of your goals for uh MASC. that what would you be able to explain some of the ideas you have as as you take over the presidency? Um, so I guess one of my biggest points was expanding MASC. I think Adele said
it really well. It's such an welcoming and inclusive place. And I think that expanding it to more schools and opening that opportunity up and just trying to get its name out there even more was something that was really important to me. And I think Wongo specifically because before Miss Dra came here and
presented this opportunity to us, we'd never been to any MASC or W MAC events. So if it wasn't for her bringing that to us, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. None of us would have had the opportunity that we had to go to these events and develop our skills as leaders. Um, so I think that was my
biggest goal going into it. Um, and recently we had our first meeting where all of the leaders that got elected onto the state board, we got to talk about all of our different ideas and goals for the upcoming year. Um, so I'd say another one is talking more about mental
health and having that as an aspect. Um, similar to how Special Olympics is a part of MASC, we wanted to bring um, Kyle's Cares, which is another program um, advocating for mental health awareness into the mix as well. Good
luck to you as you start your presidency. Very exciting. Yeah. Any comments or questions from folks at home? Um I just wanted to say something. Um so I have had the honor to work with all of you for the past um few years, maybe
just this year, but it's really been such an important community for me and I really just want to say thank you to each and every one of you. Um you really do feel like a second family and I'm so proud to be a part of this. Um and then to touch on our seniors, I've been so
impressed by Adele's leadership um on at the regional level. I think she's really inspiring. I appreciate your charisma and your positivity. And then same goes for Alyssa at the high school. Um, she really just brings so much energy to
everything she does. And I think that's something we can really all use in our lives. Um, and then Caitlyn, I really appreciate how organized you are and how you No, you really are. You feel like you bring you can kind of bring the energy level down a little bit. You get
us all relaxed. Um, yeah. and you're just really awesome to work with. And then Francesca, I actually had the honor of writing um a letter of recommendation for Francesca for the unsung hero award and it was one of the greatest honors I've had all high school um just because she really does go the extra mile in
everything she does. So she's the treasurer of the um senior class, which may not have, you know, the most glamorous title, but she really is always behind the scenes doing everything. Um, I take a few classes when Francesca and whenever we're not doing work in those classes, she's
always working on student council activities, trying to make sure everything's organized and ready to go. Especially even in these final weeks when many people are getting ready to relax. She's still going really hard since we have so many. Get your prom tickets in. They're due tomorrow.
So, really, just thank you so much. Um, I'm sure I'll get to say some other stuff at our meeting next Friday, but really you guys do mean the world to me. Andrew, Andrew, and I think you want to say you mean the world to us, too. Um, Andrew's an incredible part of the
student council at LHS. And I know he does an amazing job um, serving with you guys and the school committee, but he also does such a great job as a student leader at LHS, whether it's through sports or just everyday life. He's always really kind, inclusive, welcoming, has a great positive
attitude. Um, and so we love you just as much as you love us. Thank you. This is a great celebration. I'm so glad you got to bring everybody here. I know folks at home are waiting. I'm going to start with Julie because I saw a couple of things go up. Julie, you want to check in? I'm so slow with the mute
button in these meetings. It really like I just want you to know that at home it's like a copy of errors. Like I keep muting unmuting myself. Um, but um I just wanted to say thank you so much to you all for um for coming to talk to us today. It's so impressive to hear what
you all are up to and so inspiring. I don't think I was uh quite as organized um and um you know ambitious as a high school student and it's really cool to see what um what you all have done and what the Longo High School is um is
building for our students. So thanks so much. All right. Thank you. And Michaela. Hi. Congratulations everybody. Hi, Francesca. Hi. How are you? I'm sad I'm not there in person, but
really sick. Um, and I think I saw a lot of you at the town meeting. And I have to add on that I'm sure many of you I don't see are involved in the community, but Francesca was at every single swim meet all all winter long, even though we
were at a different pool in Springfield, even sometimes after her own practice. and even after apparently everything she did for student government in school. So, I'm sure everybody else that I don't know has done similar things and I'm super grateful
to work for you guys and live in a community with you and support you and congratulations on um all your achievements. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, that was a lot of
awards and we're really, really proud of you all and thank you so much for coming out tonight and sharing all of this with us. We're wishing everybody well as they move on. I know I've lots of familiar faces. Very happy to see you all and not not surprised by all of the wonderful things you've accomplished and appreciate you
stepping up and leading um throughout our community and excited to see where you go next and how the community service piece of things builds. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you, Mick. Well done. [Applause]
All right, that's a hard act to follow. We're going to head into um school committee announcements and recognitions. Um a couple of quick things um for the chair report. Um the first to extend our thanks to all of the town staff um elected and appointed
boards, students, um student groups, Girl Scout groups, Boy Scout groups, and our town moderator, Rebecca Townsen, for the town meeting that we had on Tuesday of this week. There's a lot of preparation and collaboration that goes into town meeting. Um and we are very appreciative of the work that everybody does there. Um also reminder that we
have elections coming up on Tuesday, June 3rd. There are three positions open for school committee. Um, two of them are three-year terms and one two-year term. So, everybody make sure you get out um and vote on Tuesday, June 3rd. Um, and then a final note of thanks also
to um, Senator Jake Olivivera um, who has secured $75,000 worth of funding for Long Me Public Schools as part of the supplemental budget that's currently under consideration in the um, state senate. Um, this funding, if approved, will be for district-wide security um,
system upgrades and will definitely be much appreciated. So, thank you to Senator Olivivera for his uh, continued advocacy and support for our public schools. Any other school committee announcements or recognitions? All right, seeing none,
we'll head into um, reports. Superintendent report. Uh, yeah, briefly. busy end of the year. Uh May is a busy busy time for fun and busy time for families and students and staff and um just want to acknowledge all the
amazing efforts that um the staff puts together for end of year events. Um the field days, the field trips, the plays, the performances, the poetry out loud contests, the action civics projects. um so much that we can be be proud of and
so many opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in real authentic VOG aligned ways. So just really want to highlight and and underscore that. So grateful for for all the uh work that often comes together in
these culminating events in May. Um and of course we have um graduation on the horizon and and other exciting senior events. So, uh, looking forward to great conclusion to the school year. Yeah. Yep. All right. Um, additional reports.
I think the only one for tonight is SEAL. Michaela, um, actually last night the SEAL meeting was cancelled. Um, so there's no more SEAL meetings for the school year, but obviously reach out anytime to Diane or
Meg from SEAL, follow them on Facebook. Um, look out for anything. Obviously, reach out anytime, Nicole, Paris, Grout or me. Um, there's a lot of people that want to help all the kids out. And the meet and greet will be in September and
it's a really great time to come down and um meet people face to face. It's down at this park and um it's a really great event. So, look out for that in September. All right. Wonderful. Thank you. and student representative report.
Andrew, perfect. Um, so I have Danica here with me tonight and she'll start us off. Um, so to start us off, we have our spring elections for all the class council positions. Uh, they went really well. All the speeches were great and really impressive. And then we also have
our um the LHS spring music show tonight. Um, I know that they've been preparing really hard for it and I'm sure it'll go amazing. Thank you. Um, and then on Tuesday the 20th, we have our LHS art art show, which is mainly taking place in like
sort of the lobby area in front of the auditorium at the high school. Um, and I know that our students have also been preparing a lot for this. So, we're really excited for them to get to show off their art. Um, and then an athletics update. So, we're getting ready to move into the playoffs. Some have already started. Um, so good luck to all of our
athletes competing in that. And then in terms of senior night, softball is tonight and boys tennis is also tonight. um in addition to a variety of others that have been taking place and will take place. And then um on May 2nd, Friday, we had our High Meadow senior
picnic which was really enjoyable. I know Dr. Shay has Dr. Osha, sorry, has described it as um a really great event where we all get to kind of come together and a lot of those clicks drop. Um and I couldn't agree more with that. It was a really fun sunny day. It was
almost 80 degrees, which is unheard of. Um, in early May, as you know, weather worked out. Yeah, it did. Um, and then, um, on Friday the 9th, uh, the juniors had their spring fling where they got to at the Oaks Lodge in Springfield where they got to enjoy a night of dancing,
um, and music. That was really fun for them. Um, and then we've had a variety of senior capstone events, um, taking place throughout the month of May. Um, I was lucky enough to attend uh Rebecca Malapa's event um on Friday in the
library and she got to talk about diabetes and her research on type 1 and type two diabetes. And then any high school parents or students can look out or an email already sent from Mr. Landers um which has a list of all the capstone events. Um and then just another reminder as Franchesca SK said
to buy your prom ticket if you haven't already. The last day to do that is tomorrow. Uh prom is June 5th at the Log Cabin and then graduation is June 10th at Syne. All right. Wonderful. Thank you. Introduce Danica about her position now. Oh yes. Uh Danica will be the
student representative next year. All right. Welcome Danica. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] All right. Wonderful. Thank you. Um we're headed into subcommittee reports. Thank you all. Uh, we do not have a finance subreport
policy sub. I'm happy to take this one. Um, no action needed tonight. There are two policies up for public comment. Uh, one is policy ADF relating to wellness and the other is uh,
JLJ JC relating to the administration of medications to students. So, the school committee will consider those at your May 27th meeting. All right, perfect. Thank you. Um, and then we do not have any other subcommittee reports other
than that evaluation. We'll be meeting on May 23rd at 3:30 p.m. That brings us to ongoing business and a middle school building project update. Sure. Uh we um had a a information table at town meeting and we were able to share with
many many town residents a new um information flyer that uh we put together and so hopefully that's a helpful way for parents to understand, community members to understand the uh the project and the components. Uh we successfully
um submitted the schematic design to the MSBA. So that really puts us on the road to identifying the full project scope and budget. The schematic design includes the floor plan, the space summary. Um, and that space summary is a
detailed listing of all the the rooms and the purposes and the square footage and uh and the adjacencies. So, uh, another major milestone, uh, in the rearview mirror and we're looking ahead to residents considering the full
project scope and budget at the September meetings, uh, votes that you mentioned earlier. So, um, I'm really pleased that when I when I think back over the the many years that we've been involved with this project, we've been able to hit really every milestone as
planned and as scheduled and successfully with the MSBA. So, um things are still continue to move in the right direction with the project. All right, great. Um some community events upcoming between now and then. And in the meantime, um folks can check the website. We have an FAQ that is
continuing to grow as more information comes in. All right. Um other ongoing business is related to school choice. So, when we had our school choice or our school committee meeting on March 11th, we voted to accept three students in grade five through the school choice
program. We have a recommended update from Dr. O'Shea. Sure. Um, yeah, that we'd ask the committee to consider accepting one additional uh school choice seat in grade five for entrance
in the 25 26 school year. Uh, we have this opening given that one of the one of the students previously accepted uh has become regularly enrolled in Long Meadow Public Schools. And so um
recommending to the school committee that you consider adding one additional school choice seat grade five for next year. All right. Um any questions andor possible motions related to that? I vote that the school committee open one
additional school choice seat in grade five for entrance in the 2025 2026 school year. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a
vote. Julie, yes. Michaela, yes. Adam, two. And yes for me as well. Thank you. All right. That brings us to new business and the superintendent's end of year annual plan report. Yeah. Uh this
is the time of year where I like every other educator in the district um will um experience a summitive evaluation or most educators will experience a summitive evaluation. Uh and so in your
meeting packet is a detailed uh narrative reflection and I also provided to the school committee reflection on each of my annual goals. Uh those are the goals that were set as part of my
annual plan uh back in September or early October. And so um the evaluation subcommittee is scheduled to meet May 23rd. And so the hope would be that the individual committee members could
complete their individual evaluations uh submit those to Diane and then what typically happens is the evaluation subcommittee creates a sort of synthesized uh summary uh recommended evaluation for
the whole committee to consider. Uh, and so I'll just pause you there to just send a quick reminder to folks that those completed evaluations are going to be due by the end of day on Tuesday, May 20th, so that they're ready for the subcommittee to meet on the 23rd.
And so, um, there's, like I said, some some detailed, uh, reflections in in a narrative and, uh, in your in your meeting packet, but just as a, uh, a quick overview, um, I I just have a few
slides that I wanted to share. It is important that the, uh, evaluation of a superintendent in Massachusetts be conducted as a as a public event. And so, uh, Oops. So, I'll just share uh an overview of
some of my reflections on the annual plan. Just give me one second. So, some of the uh things that have been um major reflection on my the goals and projects for the year included uh the middle school, the development of a new
three-year district improvement plan, the uh progress we've made relative to collective bargaining uh with all seven bargaining units uh and I think a a really firm and reinvigorated focus on student safety and well-being. and then
I can share some thoughts on some of the curriculum renewal work that we've done, some of the curriculum coordination that has happened as well. So again, briefly, um this is not news necessarily to the committee, but a summary of some of the
work that's been done in connection with the middle school project. And I I'll pause for a minute and say that uh though this is a reflection of my annual plan, the truth is all of these things happen as as a result of uh the team of
administrators that I'm surrounded by uh the support of Diane uh as executive my executive assistant and frankly the work of hundreds of educators and staff members across the district. So this is really, you know,
um my work is the work of our educators and the work of our educators is is my work. So we we share uh in our commitment to so many of these things. Uh the middle school project, the education plan that was submitted uh back in September as part of the um PSR
phase, the space summary, including the final site and floor plans, the schematic design that we mentioned earlier. Uh I'm really proud of how we have built consensus on the project. I feel like there's uh some wind in our sales as we prepare for the September
votes. Uh we've worked hard uh as a building committee uh as an administrative team to uh educate the public on the project and and explain the the benefits and the needs of the project as well. Most recently, um, we
submitted a a special education methodology statement to, uh, to DESIE, and this was, um, before the MSBA will establish and vote on the project scope and budget, uh, the Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education has to review our special education delivery methodology for the proposed middle school. And so once Desessie uh reviews that and provides feedback that will lead us towards the full consideration
of the schematic design. So uh that was um you know that report that we submitted was a reflection of frankly a couple of years worth of planning and thought and uh and feedback as we think about how this building can create uh
the type of inclusive environment that we're looking for. the type of environment that will support special education students for decades to come. Uh beyond the the middle school project, um I'm pleased and proud of the development of our district improvement
plan. I think it charts the course for us for the next three years. Uh it was uh there were there were many inputs into the development of that plan uh including staff and community survey focus groups. We reviewed Desi's
standards for district effectiveness. Uh we had a school committee retreat earlier in the year and of course we looked at uh a lot of the data that's available to help us identify how we can better support students. And so I'm pleased that we have um established a
roadmap for uh the years ahead with a a strong focus on curriculum renewal, strong focus on students safety and well-being, and a strong focus on creating inclusive uh learning environments. So um I'm also really
pleased that we have been able to sort of get all of our strategic arrows pointed in the right direction. I think the the goals of the district improvement plan are reflective of the goals and uh direction of the school committee uh and they're also reflected
in individual school improvement plans as well. Um in the area of curriculum instruction, um the uh the adoption of CKLA, CKLA, our elementary literacy curriculum, uh has been uh Abby left a
lot of credit to Beth Nelson for the critical leadership she provided in this area. uh and really grateful for the way our educators have embraced uh that program and really made it work for
students locally here. Uh we uh started down the road towards the implementation of Panorama. This is a a data platform that will help us monitor and guide students academic growth, their social emotional growth, their behavioral uh
growth. And so, um, we're in year one of the adoption of Panorama. Uh, it will be a a multi-year journey, but, uh, I'm pleased with the progress that we have made. It, it really is a powerful tool
to help align our work and, um, ensure that we are regularly monitoring student progress. And we hope that it continues. We want to continue to work towards Panorama being a place that makes our uh
our work more efficient and it makes our work more purposeful. Um curriculum renewal process. I know this has been uh a critical uh direction provided by the school committee that we have an articulated uh curriculum renewal
process. And so one glance at our our curriculum website will will show the the curriculum maps that are in place and the 5-year curriculum renewal plans that uh we have uh ready to go as well.
And then another um major focus this year for our educators, for our administrators has been the uh implementation of the new IEP. and we're really pleased that it's a student centered process uh and it gives voice
to their goals and ambitions. Um student safety and well-being uh Yale ruler uh we have um been very purposeful about getting to each school to update
staff on hate and bias protocols and and um uh bullying response protocols. We have reintroduced uh see something say something which as recently as this week uh proved to be a a a critical resource
protect uh student safety. Uh avoid deny defend drills. We we just completed our spring safety drills and uh credit to our partnership with the LPD LFD for
helping us define those drills. And increasingly we're interested in in um encouraging educators to be responsive to uh safety events based on the best information that is available to them.
Uh and securely classroom is a um uh Chromebook management tool. It helps us uh both monitor student Chromebook use but also organize uh instruction uh if Chromebooks are being used in a classroom. I'd say and you know that
last bullet that is an area that um you know we we have some room to grow in. Um we want to make sure that our educators understand the the potential benefits of the tool. We want to make sure that we support them uh if they choose to use
that to to manage and instruct in their classrooms. And so um that continues to be an area of focus for us. Um, all of us are on a, you know, an improvement journey. Um, we're we're all
actively seeking to grow and get better. I I think one of the things that I want to continue to focus on is my active participatory leadership. I want to, you know, make sure that I'm um being purposeful about getting into schools and classrooms. Um, candidly, it's been
a challenge this year with uh lots on our plates, but uh it's important for me to be present. uh to our administrators, our educators, and to students. And so I'll continue to work on that. Uh, one of the things that, uh,
I had hoped to get to more purposely this year was our district improvement plan, creating a sort of an accessible, uh, image, infographic of the district improvement plan so that it becomes
noticeable and known to our educators and to the wider community. So, that's something that I'll anticipate that I'll roll over into uh future um future goals and plans. Uh cell phones, we we have we conducted a fairly ambitious uh survey
of staff and students and uh staff and parents rather and uh did a focus group with some students that Mrs. Drowick organized and that was really helpful for me to understand the student perspective. Uh and then um Yale ruler is something that we'll continue to um
work uh toward appropriate implementation of. We are in year one with Y ruler and again that's that a multi-year uh journey to make sure that we're implementing it in ways that match
um schedules and our capacity and our resources etc etc. Um, just to back back up to the cell phones, I do anticipate that we will have some language for the school committee to consider at your May
27th meeting. Um, some adjustments at the high school, middle, and elementary level. So, um, I'm grateful for the the support of the school committee. I'm
grateful for the clear direction they've provided me and our administrative team. Um I'm grateful that we have plans uh that are in sync frankly. So um we'll have an opportunity. So next step in the
process of uh superintendent evaluation is for the evaluation subcommittee to meet on the 23rd and then individual evaluations and then at your next meeting May 27th uh you'll have an opportunity to consider a summitive synthesized recommendation uh from that
subcommittee. So uh happy to answer any questions but I know we'll have an opportunity to do a deeper dive with the evaluation subcommittee as well. All right, questions to kick us off. Okay, couple of reminders then that all of the materials related to um Dr.
O'Shea's evaluation are in the um Google Drive. Um please look those over and um review what you have for you. Um the evaluation paperwork is also in there. Um, and if anyone has any questions, needs any additional information, would
like to see further evidence on something, um, don't hesitate to reach out to Dr. O'Shea. Um, and we'll look forward to getting all of those in by Tuesday of next week so that we can pull them together into a summitative and be prepared to present that to the full
committee on the 27th. 27th. Yes. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Um, budget reports. Uh just a note that uh Mr. Maza provided some year-to-date uh FY25 budget reports and FY25 revolving account reports. They'reformational.
They are also in your packets. Um if you have any questions or any additional information needed from those, you can reach out to Mr. Maza directly. And that brings us to building use requests. We have one in our packet. Yeah. One uh Oh, I was just going to get
a recommendation. I'll take we'll get to it. Try and find the paper for it. There we go. All right. Take it away. Do you want to explain it? Uh not much explained. The the u this is a request from CAP kids
for the use of LHS gymnasium on uh some a number of dates that are listed in the building use form that is in your meeting packet. So this has uh Mr. Naz's recommendation. All right. For some
sports clinics, then questions andor possible motions. I enthusiastic enthusiastically move that the school committee approve the building use request for cap kids for use of the Long Meadow High School gymnasium on a number of dates as
outlined on the request form dated April 9th, 2025. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Julie, yes. Michaela,
yes. Adam, yes. And yes for me as well. Next item on the agenda is the tuition rate um request. That's not going. We are anticipating a request for tuition.
Happy to happy to take that. We um have we are in conversation with a family that resides in Connecticut that uh will likely be interested in having their student attend Long Meadow High School.
Uh Mr. Grantis had put the family in touch with Mr. Landers. He is uh comfortable um and feels that there's plenty of capacity to accept this student. on a tuition basis. Uh in the
past, the tuition for outofstate residents has been equal to the district's per people expenditure uh rate. And so if we wanted to follow that past practice, the tuition for out of state resident would be $17,
uh $275. And that's based on the most recent per pupil expenditure uh rate available to us. All right. Any questions related to that and or possible motions?
I move that the school committee set the tuition rate for students residing outside the state of Massachusetts to $17,275 for the 2025 2026 school year. We have a motion. Do we have a second?
Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Julie, yes. Michaela, yes. Adam, yes. And yes from you as well. Um, so
we'll see if that request comes through. We'll see that on a different night. Um, and next up, full day preschool tuition. So, the school committee has already previously set the half-day preschool rate for the 2526 school year to $3,000. We have a possible motion here related
to the full day preschool annual tuition rate. The the recommend Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Just going to recommend it. Yeah, I love full day preschool. I move that the school committee set the
full day preschool annual tuition rate to $6,000 for the 2025 2026 school year. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you. Any additional information or discussion?
Did you want to? No, we'll uh once the um school committee sets the rate, we we we're prepared to uh send a letter off to families. We anticipate that there will be considerable interest in the full day option and um there would be we
would conduct a lottery for uh interested families. The preference would be given to those who are coming back for a second year of preschool with us. So, um, I can tell you that the preschool staff is is very excited to offer this option. It's something that's
been on their minds for some time. Funny. Any further discussion and or questions? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Julie, yes. Michaela, yes. Adam,
yes. And yes for me as well. All right, that brings us to one more thing before executive session. I think in my eagerness to get to the um student council folks who were here, I neglected to ask if anyone had any interest in public speak. We do not have anyone online. We do not have anyone here, but
just for proform. All right. All right. Occurred to me after that I think I went right by that. I'm just ready to dive into the student council. Um, so that brings us to our final possible recommended motion related to executive session if someone would like to make that
motion. Anyone at all? I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh, you go. You could do it. No, it's really fine. I'm just going to fumble my way through it. Go for it. I move that the school committee meet in executive session pursuant of Mass
General Law Chapter 30A section 21A purpose to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective bargaining with units A, B, C, D, E, F, and H and non-UN personnel, independent contract
administrators and purpose consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings to reconvene into open session. All right. And note that we will be reconvening into open session. We have a motion. Do we have a second?
Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll go to a roll call vote. Julie, yes. Michaela, yes. Adam, yes. And yes for me as well. Um, so we are officially headed into executive
session. Thank you. Hang tight, guys. swap some things [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.