I had that name. Not really. Yeah, I'm just going to pick my name. I don't really have a idea. Uh, where's where what's the coldest you ever been? So, like where like what is the coldest place you've been?
Um, I'd say the coldest place I've ever been to probably be Canada. Um, definitely way colder than here in the winters. Yeah, definitely in the negatives. Mhm. But yeah, what do you usually eat for
breakfast? Protein shakes. H uh how do you make yourself sleep when you seem to get to sleep? Like if you can't sleep and you can't really and you try to sleep but you can't really to can't. Um what I do when I can't get to
sleep but I use like sound music or like cancelling noise I'd say or just like read a book. Um if you could swap lives with one friend who would it be? Oh boy. That's a
tough uh slopping. Huh? I'm not really sure. I know how swapping works, but Or like a celebrity. A celebrity. LeBron LeBron James. LeBron James. Yeah,
it's a good one. Yeah. Uh, let's see. What animal would be the most terrifying if it could speak? Oh, terrifying. Yep. H I'd say a lion. I feel like they'd be
very vicious. Yeah. Do you ever d dream dream of living somewhere else in the future? Maybe. Maybe. That's a maybe answer cuz I have no idea. That's that's that's in
the future. I don't really think that far. I stay in the present and stay there most of the time. Are you a morning person or a night owl? I'd say I'm a night owl. I hate waking up early
to go to school. Yeah, everyone does. That's why I'm excited for college so I can um choose your time and then never have to wake up. Yeah. So I can go into school later cuz I really hate waking up at like 6 or 7 in the morning.
What fictional character would you most like to be friends with? I don't know. That's a hard answer. Oh, really? Hard answer. There is, let's say, how many visual characters are
there? Exactly. A lot. Probably like overborn in a billion. I feel like, right? Yeah. Jeez. How do I pick one in a billion here? Like a superhero. Oh gosh. Or like an a character in a novel
book or something. But say Superman. Yeah. He's pretty cool. Yeah. Uh, what puts you in a good mood usually? Um, I'd say probably going to practice. Like after I've had like a
rough day, going to practice kind of takes my mind off of things and yeah, puts me in a pretty good mood. Um, what is the meal you've What is the best meal you have eaten? Best meal?
Okay. Well, I have eaten a lot of things. Um, the bestest thing, oh gosh, in my opinion, I've eaten a lot of things and some things are the best, some are the worst, but the best is the
best. I would say my mother's cooking, which is chicken dan. That sounds good. Yep. That's all the questions. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching. [Music] Just put everything on there. You know
what? I could do Did you need a few more minutes? Yeah. Did you have anybody? No, not that I'm aware of. Yeah, I just But now I can see so powerful. But it's not showing on the screen.
Yeah, I do like I think I must have extended screen. Stop. What did I do? Wonderful. And it's now at first church. Okay. I have to watch it. I could uh you want to send me the slide? I can put it up there. You just tell me when to
advance. That way you can have whatever you want. You want to do that? Sure. That way you don't mirroring. I'll just I'll email it to you or share it. Hey Brian, we just need a few more minutes to get rolling. Okay.
Sorry everybody. I'm I'm having some tech issues because I'm not used to the setup here. So, I'm going to share it with Marty so that we can have a slide that works. Okay, I just shared it through Google.
All right. are just so introduction in just a minute. I was just trying to get the pres. You put it on the next slide. Okay. All right. Thank you everybody for being here. My name is Ananda Lennox. I
am the still recently hired director of the Close Mindy Coalition. I'm coming to you from West Springfield originally and before that Northampton. Um I just learned from Brian that this is probably the first meeting that Close is going to have in about a year. So welcome back.
Um, and I have um just a few orientation things to start off with. And my first idea um that we can start doing while I hand out paperwork is just to have everybody go around. Um there's some new faces here and a lot of you are still new to me. So, if we could go around um
Chris, if you don't mind starting us off, I just want to hear people's name, how long you've been a part of the coalition, and what brings you here today. Okay. So, I'm You guys are You're all set. Yes. Thank you, Brian. Yeah. You ready? Yeah, we're ready. Okay, I'll count you in.
All right. You going to count us in? Yeah. I'll introduce myself and then we'll go. Okay. Yeah. Introduce yourself again. Okay. Stand by. What happened? All right, here we go. In five, four, three, two, one.
Good evening everybody. Um, my name is Ananda Lennox. I am the still somewhat new director of the close community coalition. I'm so happy to have you all here today. Um, full disclosure, I'm not used to being recorded, so I might be a little awkward at first, but I'll I'll get used to it. Um, according to Brian,
we haven't met together for about a year. So, I'm just glad to have everybody here. Um, and I want to start off by giving everybody a chance to introduce themselves. We do have some new faces. Um, and we are changing the structure a little bit. I'm I'm looking into doing more of a steering committee
um, setup and then we can determine as the meeting goes on who wants to stay on as a sector rep, who's maybe thinking that they've done this for a really long time and need a break um, and who's just wanting to stay on. So, I'm going to start by having Chris start us off with introductions. And everybody, I just
want you to tell us your name, um, how long you've been a part of the coalition, and what brings you here today. So, I'm Chris Rich. I've been a part of the coalition for a really long time. I don't know, five, six years.
And I am a parent. I've got I've had three kids go through the school system. and I'm here as part of the steering committee. I'm Lisa Kelly. Um ah what I
remember like being invited when everything was all Zoom. I feel like it would must have been when things opened up a bit 21 22ish something like that. Um I am a pediatrician. I work uh at Bay State
and um I'm also the mom of four, three who've made it through the schools and one uh one's getting out of middle school this year. I'm pretty sure he is. Anyway, I'm Doug Bixby. I'm the pastor of First
Church in Long Meadow. Um I this is my first meeting. Um, and Ananda asked me if I'd be interested in being on the board. Uh, I've been at First Church for 2 years now. Uh, but
I've pastored churches for 30 years, so 32 years. Um, two other churches, one in North Attboro, Massachusetts, and then one in Washington, Connecticut. But I was actively involved with the schools and
community and on this level and other places and very involved with recovery work and uh our church first church hosts many uh recovery groups and so it's part of my work here
too. I'm glad to be here. I'm Kristen Espinosa and this is my first meeting here. I just met Amanda. Um, I am a child therapist that works with kids that are really struggling pretty badly. So, really high-risisk
kids that um, struggle with trauma and substance abuse. Um, I am part of the recovery community myself. Um, so I have a lot of lived experience with all of this. I've lost people and I'm really really excited to be a part of this and get involved um, and share my knowledge
of kind of where this all comes from from a professional standpoint as well. Hi guys, I'm Haley Matthew. I'm with the Hampton District Attorney's Office in the Community Safety and Outreach Unit. Um, this is my first meeting here, so I'm brand new to the coalition. I also
oversee the Hampton County Addiction Task Force, and we have a primary prevention working group, so that's how I got connected here. Um, yeah, so I'm just grateful to be here, seeing how I can help. And our unit is also the prevention unit of the DA. We do a lot of educating and uh presentations to
elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools on substance use, healthy relationships, internet safety, things of that nature. So, just here to see how I can help and spread the word. Hi, I'm Naari. I'm um the Long Meadow Public Schools uh director of student
and family support. Um really grateful for the position. It's a new position um within Long Meadow Public Schools and it's the studentf facing side. Um, so I work a lot with different schools, whether it's teaching about bullying, whether it's, um, working with families
on bullying prevention, um, social emotional learning, um, thinking about ways that we can beef up our tier one instruction so that students have better coping strategies for their mental health. Um, I'm excited to be a part of the coalition one
because this is a wonderful group and I really think that we can come up with innovative ideas together and I'm I'm fortunate that I'm in a district that supports this kind of work. Good evening. Marty O'Shea, superintendent of schools here in Longbo and I've been with the coalition I guess
since its inception in 2018 and so I'm really excited to be here tonight. I'm excited for Anandanda's leadership and um really a chance to reinvigorate um the activity of the of the of this group. Um and I can sense that there's a
ton of energy and commitment and talent and expertise in the room. So I'm excited to be here and I'm excited to support Ananda as she gets started as our coalition director. she I can I can share with the team that she has already made an impact and and is eager to make
connections and stitch this community together in a way that that can help our prevention work. So, thanks for everybody joining us tonight. My name is Carl Mazafer. I'm a captain of the Long Police Department. Um I am also a founding member of uh Close. I was the
original law enforcement rep. I have since became captain, delegated that to my lieutenant Mike Jakowski, who's unable to be here tonight. I'm just excited to be here and get to meet everybody. And rumor has it you came up with the name. Yes. Yeah. All
right. So, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yes. So, hi, I'm Candace Healey. Um like Chris, I've been around for a while and I'm a parent and also was supposedly rec
um representing some like of the civic organizations for the steering committee and then I roped somebody else into joining. Give you credit. You wrote me too. Yes. Um, I joined the board wanting to join
like to just do some of the work my wife does amazingly well. And then right when I joined they said I was no longer a board. So swung and missed right there. Um, and I'm I'm a physician as well and have
have worked over the years with lots of people with addiction disorders. And I've seen like how when I was in medical school last century, it was considered a bad choice when people did drugs and not like and
now it's much more like this is a disease that people need to to um that needs to be treated and that the treatment isn't a straight line. It's always like there's always like steps
forward, steps back, which can be really frustrating. But when you understand that, it's a lot easier. And um and we have three boys. The last one is making his way through Long Meadow High
School. I guess that's about it. Uh Brian Gazio with LCTV and been with Close since the very beginning. Um and I'm excited that it's back. Um, usually I'm behind the camera
doing the meetings, but I was asked to be part of the meeting today. Um, and we hope to do a lot uh with your leadership going forward, get more stuff uh get the word out. So, great. All right. Thanks
everybody. Um, could you do the next slide? Sure. Okay. Um, so I just wanted to orient everybody. Um, I don't have my glasses on right now, so I'm going to have to stand up and read this to you. And if anybody else needs help, you're not alone. But I just wanted to start with like doing a basic organizational
chart for everybody to understand our structure because I gave you a lot of paperwork that you could read, but we could also just go over this together. So I figured this would be helpful. So right now, because we're funded through a drug-free communities grant, which is a federal grant, there's a lot of structure that's built in because we're
a recipient of that money. If we didn't have that money, we could probably have any structure we want, but this is one of the things that we need to do. And I have to say professionally, I just find it really helpful because it reminds you to be accountable all the time. Like is this sector represented? Are we counting these dollars? Are we like marking down
everything that we've done? So, um, what you can see is we've got Vivian Welsh as our youth rep, but she's a senior. So, that's going to be a vacant position pretty much now because she couldn't make it this evening. She had one some one person that she suggested might be a good fit, but um, I haven't heard back from her yet. And then for parents, we
have Chris Rich or Kristen Espinosa or both. Um because I want more people and so I have those two people for that role. Um Rachel Craze, the um the owner of the latest craze, just signed on to be um a steering committee member, but she couldn't make it today because of
staffing issues, which I'm assuming is one of the tricky things with having a business sector rep in general is that's going to come up a lot. But she's going to meet with me um next week and I'm going to catch her up to speed and hopefully have her in person more often. Um, and then we have Brian from LCTV. Um, who usually sits behind the camera, but I was like, "No, no, no. If I'm
going to be uncomfortable, you should be uncomfortable, too." Um, and then Nilda, it represents our schools. We do have a couple vacancies. Um, our youth serving organization is currently vacant, and both um, Shelley and Candace have been really helpful in providing suggestions.
I have to say off the top of my head, I would love to have um, Barry Jarvis from the parks and rep come on board. I'm just not sure if she has the bandwidth and I haven't done a hard ask yet, but she did I did invite her to come this evening, but she was in Mitchellog some other district today um doing something
and um so she wasn't sure if she could make it, so she might um but we do need to look into that. So if not her, I think you had suggested I think you or Shel had suggested like the running club, Long Meadow Run Running Club is very active. Um the track youth track. Yeah, youth track. Um, we were trying to
get the Boy Scouts um, person, but she's she's too busy. Okay. Um, so, but I'm open to suggestions. If you know of somebody who's doing like a youth organization work that could fit on our board, um, feel free to reach out to me because these are just my first thoughts. Um, we do um, have Reverend
Doug Bsby for Faithbase coming on board. Thank you so much. Because that was a vacancy. We had had somebody before who had retired. Um, and then Candace Healey, who's been here forever and was actually in my position for a while when there was nobody here. Um, and then we have not one but two doctors. We've got
Dr. Lisa and Taylor Kelly and Dr. Andrew Haley. Do either of you work in substance use disorders by any chance? So I at Bay State I worked a lot with patients who came through a high-risisk um obstatrician and then so treating
patients and then also help generating policies. Um presently I'm at I'm in Connecticut now. Okay. Um so here I'm sorry. But you live here. But I live here. Yes. So not really okay. Doing that. I'm just saying
because you might be a soft fit for other organization with expertise in substance use disorders and so if it ever feels like we have too many doctors in one field, we can keep both of you. We used to harass each other because I'm on the receiving end. She gets the babies.
Yeah. I I work with the the babies. So I work with moms like you know from that parenting perspective but you know so that's my if Chris stays you can move me into that other that's what I was going to say that's right okay all right this is all
good you ever have parents that come in with substance use disorders oh yeah yeah yeah I I had a friend that worked on that realm too on the court side and just talking about how difficult that is if like as soon as a mother tests positive for any type of drug a lot of policy I good policy changes going on
right now. That's awesome. Yeah. All right. So, we might have no vacancies by the end of this meeting, but that's what we have. And then, um, you have me as the director and the coordinator. It's a combined position. Sometimes in coalitions, they have two that I just get to be both. And then our fiscal agent is the town of Long Meadow. And we're pretty much overseen by the school
district. They help, they provide the office space. They keep the electricity on. Um, they manage, you know, me getting paid and all of the fringe benefits that go along with it. So, that's that's who we are right now. I know in the past you had different formations for your board. You know,
there was like more parents coming in. Um I talked to all of you at one point individually about what you were hoping for moving forward. And um what I heard from you was that you want to feel like there's a reason to be here, that you're not just here to listen to somebody talk. um that you want it to be
pertinent to to what you do as well so that it's not just I showed up, I did a thing um but it doesn't mean anything to me other than I feel like I'm doing something for a good cause. Um and just being mindful of everybody's time because the other thing is like I know Candace probably the best here and I see
you everywhere like she was at the Derey. That was awesome. I loved it. I loved it. One of my favorite events. Yeah, it was it was amazing. Um, just so that I don't leave people in the dark. We were at the um the district attorney has this
youth advisory board and they takes kids is it from Hampton County exclusive? Yeah. All over Hampton County. There are at least two Long Meadow kids there that presented and I shared all their pictures with our principal and I think he shared it with you Marty. Um, and then I saw students from Westside, which was nice because I just left there and
um, I saw John Provost was there and just a whole bunch of people. And so it was nice to see all of that support and it was so well done. Um, and it's rare to go to things that have really good food and the food was also really good. The food was really good. Um, all right. So that's where we're starting from. Could you go to the next slide, Marty?
So, this is part that's going to be boring for the people watching in television land, but I wanted to make this meeting something that we could actually get work done during so that I'm not sending you home with homework. Like, I have the skills and interest inventory that's in that packet I just
passed out for you. If you flip to So, the first part is just for you to, you know, look at when you have time. Um, but if you go to Oh, wow. There's a lot of pages in here. My apologies. It's a really It's right at
the back. So, the last two pages um page 16 is a skills, interest, and availability questionnaire. And our first assignment for today is I'd like everybody to fill this out. Um we've had conversations, but it would really be helpful for me to know exactly what people are interested in doing, what you
absolutely have no interest in doing, and what kind of um time you could actually give. So, does anybody I only have two pens, but does anybody need a writing implement? You need one. Okay. Let me see. Let me see. Yeah, this is
school. That's true. Although they do. I think that is my only Let me look and see if that While you're doing that, I'm just going to pass around um a form called the coalition agreement form for each sector rep. And um if you guys are planning on
staying with the board, it'll be something that we can just sign tonight and I'm going to keep as a record so that if we ever need it for reupping our grant. Ananda, did you say you had a pen? Yes, I have a pen, too. Thank you. I think we need a brand new
one, too. Okay. I have like old pens at that point. It's funny. I haven't ordered any inventory for the colleia other than like mailings. And so I was going through my office and like I have exactly three pets. No, there's a there's a there was a pile somewhere, wasn't there? There's a bin a
big plastic bin in the bin for the table. That's where they are. Thank you. Cheers. Yes, I know. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Sorry about this.
I feel like you should get the view. I know. [Applause] There's more. No looking at anybody else's papers. You know what's really nice about this as an observer? Kristen, are you the only left-handed
person in the room? Oh, you might as well, but you're not doing it. difficult just watching everybody. I was wondering why it was taking everybody so long. [Laughter]
We're just really into it. This is like the MCAT and you were the first one. She thought I was always there. No, I was always I always took the longest on all the tests. It doesn't matter how long you take, you
do your best. [Applause] I don't know my brain can handle this right now. [Music] You have to run a commercial during this part of the meeting or something like that. I think so. I know. I hope that's
right. You can edit. Jeffrey Jeffrey. Oh, because it's just being recorded. We are live right now. This is It's riveting television out. I don't really love the meetings being recorded. We can we can talk about that.
I'm that's one of my personal opinions cuz I don't feel like you can be as open and honest when it's being aired on TV and you have no idea. Like I had my neighbor be like, "I just saw you on TV." And I was like, "Oh, I didn't realize that everything I was saying was going
to be when Paul, you know, when Paul was in charge near the end, I think there was a lot we split it. I don't know if you remember that. So like it's good because it gets the community like your neighbor saw that which is great. That means they know close exists and I think
that's that's why we do it. It's important. But also I think near the end what he did do was he would do theformational stuff. We would broadcast that. He would end it. Yeah. And then that conversation can happen without it
being aired. Yeah. I think that's great. Like if there's like a presentation in the beginning, do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that's what he was doing near the end because he had a lot of information to give and then he they want to talk freely. So I I I think that's a good compromise because I think
that the fact that your neighbors saw it is a good thing that people know post exist. So and to have your your face show up, you know, like if it were just the presentation and then everybody was like, who are who is this coalition? They'd be like, oh, Candace is part of it. and everybody else is part of it.
That's great. Um but yeah, no, I agree. It is a bit inhibiting. Um it is ner like, you know, I don't realize until I'm here. It is nerve-wracking a little bit. Yeah. Welcome to the other side, right? I know you don't you don't get on this side of the camera. I think having the
information is good and then having the cameras go dark and then you can have that open conversation is good as well. And just because I don't want anybody to get writer's cramp, I have a sign-in sheet as well with another thing to circle, but we'll do that at the end so
that you can relax for a little bit. Should we tear these off? Yeah, you can tear those. Start collecting them. But no rush if you're not done. [Applause] [Applause] So, we'll see.
8:30 program, right? Thank you. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] the Is this the contract form? That is that's a template but I might
if you leave okay so if we just have you come on you can't be here but I will put you in so there's no pressure on you to come [Applause] in I will say I wasn't sure how you were
specifically pressure. You're going to need yourself. I have a picture of a poster that I like from the garden. Yeah. Would you mind putting it on the next
side just so I can start manually preparing? Yes. [Applause] I love you. I'm done. Were you waiting for me? I'm sorry. Good job. I thought you were first.
I'm not sure. No, Andrew still has his entire Oh, wow. I don't know if it was a competition, but a tie. Oh, it's always a competition with those two. I'm too sleepd deprived to think you
are doing great. You're in the final stretch. I was just watching track on the field. Just like kick it. You don't have to wait for me. Okay. [Music] All right. So, thank you so much
everybody um for just being good sports about all the homework. I just for me it is going to be really helpful to just know what after having conversations with most of you just to know and have notes on paper. Um it just will really sink into my brain what you're here for, what you're capable of doing and and
what you really want to avoid. Um, so without further ado, I'm going to spend a little bit of time just catching everybody up to speed with what the coalition, which at this point, sorry, is like mostly me and a few other people who have been like, "Look at this. Is this okay?" Um, but so for the people
that weren't part of the coalition before or just weren't there, I just want to catch you up. So, um, following in, um, I think this is a year long, like yearslong campaign that's been going on for close is, um, there's something called the social host laws that,
um, that you would know a lot about, but, um, there's there's laws out there that I don't think every parent is aware of, which is that it's illegal to um, host underage parties. like if you are if you own a property or you have possession of a property and there's
underage drinking and anything goes wrong goes ary, you're liable for that sort of stuff. Um and so that's something that we feel like we should really spread the word about. And the other is that um I know the community had a really big loss three years ago and um this poor teen that died is not
the first that's died in a drunk driving accident, but there's a lot of dangers that go with young people getting impaired and then making impulsive decisions to go driving. So what we have right now is a lawn sign campaign that um before I even came on board there was
a lot of um word smithing and so the text that they came up with on one side is when parents host everyone loses. uh it's illegal, it's unsafe, and it's costly. And then on the other side, it says, "I ignoring teen drinking equals allowing teen drinking. It's your home, but our problem." Um I'm curious for
people who weren't part of a co part of the coalition before if the message is clear to you because I was thinking nowhere on it does it say social host or nowhere on it, you know, like there there could be some ambiguity. So, I'm just curious for people who aren't aware of that law if it's still if you're
still getting the main message of like allowing drinking um leads to bad things. Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. I'm aware of the law. Like I know what it is, but what does that mean? What is the what really
happens if that if there was an issue? Well, there's there's a civil issue, but for criminally, it would be if you know, if depends what the situation is. I guess I guess it's it depends. You know, if a parent's hosting a party or
knowingly host a party, you can charge them with a keeper of a disorderly household. Um, but you can also procure the minors, alcohol. It really depends what what the scenario is, you know, and and what the involvement the parent has.
So, it it there it depends on the scenario, the situation. Is it true that the parent doesn't even have to have involvement? Like if somehow there's alcohol at your house that you did not provide and people
leave your house and get in an accident. You're still liable for that. Yeah. Is that civil or criminal? Could be both. You know, it could be you're definitely not a civil aspect, but it could be a criminal aspect. I mean it the knowingly
furnish the alcohol is different than somebody going in and then taking it. So that gets to the ignoring doesn't is basically allowing. Yeah. Yes. Oh, the one question I'd have and I I find it interesting. It seems like there's more and more marijuana use with Mhm. with
and and also a lack of awareness of impairment while driving under the influence. So when we say ignoring drinking, it emphasizes one form of Yes. substance, but it just seems to me that
that it's gotten broader and maybe with youth it's even a bigger problem. Yeah. Than alcohol use. So I'm just wondering, right, right, where that leads. might just mean that next year we have to look at redesigning this again and having it be more like without watering it down
too much but like impaired driving or you know something that tries to encapsulate on this 12 by 18 sign or 18 by 24 sign so many words yeah I was noticing I already put some up on the st on the street and um Carl was just
telling me that I put them up illegally so I'll fix that for Is that criminal or simple? It's the It's the uh It's our tree belts. Yeah. They just pull them out. Yes.
I put them right next to the family funfest one. So, I was just following suit. So, does that mean that there was a president set and then I'm okay? Yes. Okay. All right. Um but no, I think that's that's a really good point. Um, and I think that's something uh we could
definitely pursue next year with maybe a little bit more word smithing and trying to expand it or we could take advantage of both sides of the the the sign and maybe make the messages slightly different. You know, it could be it could address drinking and marijuana. Um, the one thing I learned my daughter
was part of the youth advisory board is and she was very passionate about vaping and in the teens and um so because they hide a lot of the marijuana into the vapes now. So datab I think one of the great things about the committee is the data that
gets collected from the school and what students are doing to you know to your point um and just making sure families are aware. Yeah. Yeah. Because it was just it wasn't that long. Well maybe it was I don't know. I feel like I think my
oldest who's now 24, but I feel like when he was in high school, there was like some awful statistic of like 36 or 38% of the seniors had either driven while high or been in the car in the car
with a high driver in the last month or something like that. It was outrageous. Yeah. But I think this was more for the hosting the parties. I don't know if Yeah. I don't know if we can put everything on the sign that needs to be said, but I think that your point is so
important because it was actually at a pack meeting, which is the high school's parent advisory council, which is parents. Um, like two months ago when a parent literally said, "I don't even know. Are you allowed to drive when
you're" And I was like, "No." But I couldn't believe it. That's the level of ignorance. That's what I'm saying. It's it's like a very well educated, very involved parent, but because it's legal, people think, well, it's harder to enforce, right? So, I
find, you know, in working with with kids, I have some parents that are now purchasing edibles for their kids because they're like, "Oh, I'd rather you have an edible than be on anti-depressants." And so, they are furnishing their kids with these. And then, you know, little kids are getting
into them by accident and like all kinds of different things are going on. So, it's widespread in a lot of different ways. So, I really liked your point with that because if you're handing your extremely high functioning AP level student with, you know, terrible anxiety
the, you know, the edibles and then they drive off, you know, they're not thinking about that. So, well, and I've had people in recovery for alcoholism and then when marijuana was legalized, they're like, "Oh, is that an option?"
You know what I mean? No, it's not really an option. You know, it is an option. Just might not be. So, it's just it's a new gray area, I think. Yeah. So it's under driving under the influence or Yeah. is a little broader
than there. There's some signage now on 91 about driving high. Great. There is. I haven't seen it. Oh, pay attention to these not spending enough time in traffic.
No, I've definitely seen them there. Okay. In between all the dispens. Yes. Yeah. But I I cons like from my end moms uh you know interviewing moms getting the history that they often are using
marijuana because it's natural. So it's got to be better than Yes. Could you do the next slide, Marty, please? Um so that being said, we have to address marijuana. We definitely will. Um, I gotta say when I came on board and
was talking with everybody, the consensus was like Long Meadow likes to drink. Um, and so I was like, "Okay, I want to get ahead of that." Um, but this is, we can go through this real quick. This is just the postcard that's accompanying the lawn sign campaign. So,
this is going to all 9th to 12th grade families. Um, we could talk at some point of maybe dropping it down to 8th through 12th grade families. Um, I don't know this community well enough yet to know like what if parents are hosting parties for eighth graders. That sounds
insane for me, you know. Um, I I think of it more as like a graduation tradition and like that kind of coming in of age thing where this is more of a risk. Um, but this postcard goes out and it's too small to read, but we have um just a stat letting people know that most families from the the survey year
of last year um their this is from the kids actually saying that their parents don't let them drink. um and just saying, "Okay, that's great." And then some information about what you can do instead. And then um there's a link to the um the uh talk campaign um so that you just know how to talk to your kids.
And then up there there's a QR code to our parent survey that I'm trying to distribute as far and wide as possible. Um Oh, thanks Marty. I still can't read it, but that's because I need glasses. It's an eye test. Um but it goes over um the social
host law. So the law in Massachusetts is clear. Whoever furnishes alcohol to a person under 21 years of age shall be punished by a fine of up to is it $2,000 or imprisonment for up to a year or both. Um so so this postcard is trying to do like let them know we have a
survey going out there. let them know that there's a talk they hear you campaign so you can get some tips on how to have conversations with your kids about this topic the social host law and also just alternatives for what you can do to still have like a celebratory season without um feeling like you're being like I don't know making it less
fun for them. So um so that went out already. I think it went out yesterday. Has anybody seen it? I got the nlloxxone one too. I got it yesterday. Yesterday. Perfect. So has anybody seen this one yet? No. Okay. So, let me
So, you wouldn't even you wouldn't be sending it to rising high school students. No, not yet. But I'm a nobody right now. Yeah. Does anybody Well, Candace, you have a high school student, right? Correct. Yeah. Did you get this postcard
yet? No. Okay. All right. Let me know if it I'll I'll check with you in a couple days because I haven't paid the invoice yet, so I want to make sure it gets mailed. Okay. All right. Next slide, please. So in that first paragraph, I just wanted to say Oh, sure. that if you just said furnishing alcohol or other
drugs, right? Would that cover it? Well, it's not just furnishing. Yeah. If there's like if it happens in your home, even if you didn't furnish it, like here's some gummies. I mean, that that's a classic example. It just would expand the impact
of Yeah. I'm just not sure. Does the social host law address just alcohol or does it address I think it just addresss alcohol. I think it just addresses alcohol. Yeah. So I could change the language but I would be really wrong. And she doing it. Yeah. you are allowed
to. No, no, it's just that the social host law, it just pertains to alcohol. And I think it came onto the scene because of like drunk driving accidents, the amount of liability, the loss of life. And so they were like, we need to make sure that the people furnishing these young people are
actually being held accountable because we need to curb this. Um I it is illegal, as far as I know, to provide illicit substances to anybody underage. Um, alcohol is a legal substance. So, like if you wanted to, you could serve
your kid beer. Like there's actually no law saying you can't. Um, but I do think that there would might be some negligent suit, you know, filed if you're providing them opioids or, you know, like anything that I don't know where does marijuana fall on that now. Uh, well, it's
still age. Yeah. Still class D substance, but it's just legal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so if you haven't received this yet, this is a mailing that went to the entire district and um Nilda gets a lot of credit for this because we met and
she was like, "We need to make sure that everybody knows about this." Um because you had been in a meeting recently where you were kind of surprised just like you were by a parent about like, "Oh, they're asking me if it's okay to do this." And so, Nlloxxone to me, because I've been in this profession for so long, is like, "Oh, this is a great
thing. You give it to people, it revives them, whatever." Um but when we had a um a tableabling event with stand um which is the student group it's students together against negative decisions that Shelley Warren leads. On my first day of work here they had tapestry health come
in and they had a table by the exit to the high school and they had free samples of Narcan and they had little bracelets and students would come up and they're like what is this? And as soon as they heard free they're like well what are you giving away for free? And so they described that it was an opioid reversing drug and a lot of kids took it and I think you got two calls from
parents. Two calls. Yeah. Um I don't know if they were upset calls or just concerned calls. Um yeah kind of queries. Um I'd say one was you know you know why and then the other was more curious trying to understand it. Um, and it's interesting the the school
committee actually has um a policy that right now is up for public comment which sort of changes I think kind of fits with this in terms of changing perspectives on the lock zone. So yeah, we first had a Narcan distribution
policy in 2018 and it was very restrictive in terms of like you know it was treated like it was some over-the-c counter medicine almost. And so to the school committee's credit, they're they're trying to sort of ensure that it
can be more easily distributed, but I think the intention is to make sure if there is a distribution to students that it's connected to a substance use education program, you know, so that it's not just distributed in a vacuum
without any context. So, and then also some notifications to families when we are, you know, when when students have the opportunity to to get a a dosage kit. U which again I think is a good thing because it it raises awareness and perhaps changes perspectives and prompt
some conversations. Prompt some conser Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Um so when I'd heard that they had gotten a couple calls and then Nilda was like, "We need to do more communication." It made me think I was I tried to take off the professional hat and just think as a parent for a minute and just thinking about I can't send my kid in with
aspirin. Do you know what I mean? Like it has to go to the nurse and there has to be an order. And so I could see just on that level alone where a parent would be like what you know like just please explain to me what's happening here. Like I've only heard Narcan or Nlloxxone linked with fentinel. Like I could see
how that would raise a couple flags. And so, um, this design, um, other than some color changes and personalizations, is basically what the CDC put out. Um, I don't think they did a mailer. It was more like an information sheet. But I really like their language about it being a safe and life-saving medication,
like just including that word safe. Um, and then there's language in there explaining that there's no harm done by giving somebody Noloxxone. It's not going to hurt you. Um, even if you give it and there's no opioid in somebody's system, it's still not going to hurt them. It won't help them. um it's only going to help if there's an opioid
present in this in their system. But um but again, I thought that was really good. And um again, another QR code linking to our parents survey in case anybody wants to take it. Trying to give everybody every opportunity possible. Um but yeah, so um I was just really
careful like not to use any language arguing a point, but just here's some information. It's not dangerous. It's safe. Um and just put it out there. And this went through to every family in the district. So, no grade restrictions. Just everybody who has a kid in the district should get it. So, Kristen, did
you get it? I did. Good. Yeah, cuz I remember when we were doing the mailing, you want all parents or just long meadow? I'm like, no, all parents. So, I you know what's funny? I got that in the mail and I was like, I'm going to bring that to the meeting. That's awesome. They should do that. The print on the backing.
Yeah. I started off bigger, but the company that we used, PIP, was like, "They need the whole bottom clear cuz they use some kind of mailing label thing." So then I had to shrink everything. So I apologize cuz I couldn't read it either. So I was like, "Well, maybe the parents of kindergarteners with younger eyes would
do okay with it." All right, next. We've been giving that out at the hospital for years. Yeah. And it's actually even more. They're like I forgot the name of the these kits where people who are actively using can take
them um which include a lot of different things just to if they're going to use to make it safer but it also includes nlloxxone and family members of those people are allowed to take it. Nice. Um, so that's been going on for years and I think it's from a medical perspective,
like god forbid some kid overdoses, like having just another kid there who has their nlloxxone is is life-saving. Yeah. Yeah. That video I sent you. Oh, thank you for making me cry first thing in the morning. I was so takenback by that. Um,
yeah. I haven't shared it with the committee yet, but I I will. Yeah, it it was a video that I saw on social media where 16-year-old boy carried another 16-year-old boy to his mother's front steps and tried to like stuff him into a chair and he was clearly unconscious.
And it turned out he was overdosing and um the mom came outside, saw this, gave him nlloxxone and um it ended up taking four hits for him to come out of it. And you know the it's all on her Ring camera
video and she's doing CPR on her front steps on her son until the police got there and took over for her and you know she was like this this child's alive because there were four of them you know even if you had one wouldn't have been enough for him. So yeah. Yeah. It was
very it was very emotional like um the just even seeing the friend who brought him there like just this another 16-year-old not knowing how to handle like he he was so clearly distressed and um and he wouldn't tell her at first what happened. Yeah. Yeah. So it was
very very very powerful. Um and when I see stuff like that I think I'd like the committee to see it because it's one of those things I'm like I mean it was on Facebook people could see it. Sometimes I get a little nervous about like whether I want the closed coalition to put it on their Facebook page. Um, and that's just me always being afraid of
like I don't know the reality though. I know. But it's you'd be surprised at what people think is the reality and what they think is like too much. But um, but anyhow, I'll share it with the group and then we can come up with it. But I found it incredibly powerful. Um, next I think it's important too with the
as a I know there have been times I've been to an event where I'm just like this is too much I can't handle. Yeah. So I think we need to be it's important to have that we're educating and providing that and having we're not
trying to we're not back in the 80s with you know like with scare tactics scare tactics to like to educate but not to scare people away. Right. Right. So, I don't know how. And I think that's a hard line to draw because like if you work with people that are
experiencing this and this is a reality you see day in and day out, you're still going to find it upsetting, but it's not shocking to you necessarily. And for other populations, it can be almost like vicariously traumatizing. And so, we don't want to traumatize our population. We just want to get the information out
there. Um, I was really happy to see, um, there's a group called Operation Parent that has a lot of webinars that are free and I've been trying to share them as widely as I can. And one that I, um, watched the recording of, there's a doctor going around that's doing, um, presentations on like kind of getting your kid to launch into college, like
what do you need to be ready for and whatever. And one of her big pushes is sending them with a first aid kit that includes Narcan. She was like, you know, these kids are going to be like global ambassadors. They're going to go to all these new worlds, all these different cultures, all these different social circles. They don't know what they're going to see. Hopefully, most of it is going to be wonderful, but wouldn't you
want your kid to be equipped to save a life if something horrible was happening, you know? And also just pressing I think parents sometimes push back on like, well, my kids never like they don't use that stuff and whatever. And it's like also trying to drive home the message that Narcan is not for personal use. Like if your kid has
Narcan, it's not cuz your kids's at risk of overdosing. You can't you can't reverse an opioid reversal for yourself, but you can do it for somebody else. So, and I think that might be helpful for parents sometimes because it does allow them to have that protective distancing like, okay, I, you know, I could see
that I want my kid to be able to help if that's the case. Um, and then the other thing that I think is going away, but it's still there, especially if you don't have a lot of opioid education is like it wasn't that long ago that remember EMTs would be on the news saying that they had secondhand fental
exposure. And then years later, a lot of that has come back to be like that was actually kind of a panic attack and that it's really hard to get, you know, exposure. But as a lay person and you hear that on the news and then you're like, wait, I'm supposed to now rescue breathe and touch this. Like there's a lot of fear around it. So just trying
to, you know, baby steps going like nlloxxone. For all of us who've been doing this for a while, we're like yes. Um but for parents, maybe even parents who have like fifth graders are like what does this have to do with me? So, it's just like what I'm hoping we're going to do is desensitize them to the
good stuff, you know, like don't be afraid of Nlloxxone. There's no reason to be afraid of Nlloxxone. Um, and I just want to normalize it. I think it should be in first aid kits. I'd like to see it in the AED boxes. Um, I just wrote to the um, fire chief to just say like, could we pick up on that conversation because I guess he tried
that a year or so ago and there was some push back from the community. Okay. not widespread but just but vocal vocal you know um and so just trying to figure out like well what what kind of um so again this is all good this is all like let's get the message about Noxan out to the
community like oh this isn't a scary thing you know like could we have a parent could we have like a parent event like to have I could do something like that what are you thinking I suppose like what do you think would be the draw
Um, I remember because I went to an anoxone event at the library probably before the pandemic. I think it was like a CPR training and they passed it out. This was years ago, but yeah, Paul put that on. Mhm. I don't know like if that
was the main draw. I don't know how helpful I, you know, people would probably be like, "Oh, we don't need that." But if it could be piggybacked onto something else so parents can know, you know, like if there were some sort of if you had a speaker then also do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought our
goal in town was everywhere there was an AED to have. That's what she's saying. Apparently there was push. I guess there was push back when they did this a year or so ago. I don't remember the timeline, but I'm revisiting it because I just feel like like there's a lot of things that people initially are like, I don't really want this. Like a medical
marijuana dispensary. I like the strategy of friends helping friends because you're like I think parents are more receptive to the idea that their kids could help somebody else with the problem. Yeah. And if you're saying that you can't even use it for yourself that you have to use
it for another person. Um that that that might be an easier tact. Yeah. To build community support that elevates their kid, right? Yeah. My kids helping the ones with the problem, right? Is it put it on their resume? They can put it on
their resume. Any parent wants their kid to help. No, I think it's great. Yeah. CPR certified on the resume. Haley, this morning one of the students did a video about this um where like they had given it was
actually a very very powerful video and it was just all acting by the students. Are those videos like available? Oh yeah, of course. I just did an article and they posted it. Um and there were a few QR codes on the back. Right. I saw that. Yes. I honestly can share those
links with Ananda and she can share with all you. I already have them and I can share them with the committee. I shared them with um uh the principal and Marty I think um because I shared photos from the Long Meadow kids and then I shared there was a link to all of the projects that all
of the YAB kids did and everything's there. Yeah. So, one of them was just really powerful because it was literally like kids who are trying to study and like how they're so how they could so easily just take a pill from a friend that
because they're told, "No, this will it's it's just going to help you stay awake longer, right?" And that was one of the videos. And so it it might be it's it was the youth advisory board and I'm not going to say it right but like their idea is it's
like peer leaders kind of being able to educate other kids and so they speak the same language as the kids and so those videos might be helpful I would think too for us to share on our you want to reach kids are going to
listen to other kids. Yeah. and the breadth of what they produced. It was like video games, books, posters, PSAs, videos. I'm probably forgetting a few other things. They had a whole booklet they created on like what are these drugs? Yeah. Like what are drugs? How do you reverse them?
Like it they did their own research, too. Yeah. Like Yeah. It was really And they're such good orators. I was like Yeah. I was like that was a dream team watching it. And now is it possible to have like in the health and maybe this is a question for you too. Is
it possible in the health classes to go over nlloxxone? They do. Um so and to hand it out like with parent, you know, like a permission slip. Um so sixth to 8th grade they're they definitely have
curriculum that talks about all different kinds of drugs. Um but opioid um usage has been a major focus within the past few years. And then 9 to 12, they definitely bring in
Nlloxxone with U. Megan Roy and they show them like how to use it. They pass out a pamphlet that says this is when you use it. This is what happens if you were to use it. Um they watch a video and they all go home like understanding
how to use it if it were um necessary in the moment. And there is a little letter that goes to the families um just sharing what they're doing within the What? Great. I've never had that. ninth grade. Um, they definitely go over it with the peer leaders and Shelley Warren
supports that this lesson. And I know junior year there's another uh focus on it. I have to I hate to say this, but I'm with Chris. I've never seen it. Um, did you have you ask them? I think there
was there was a program a few years ago where they did like mass trainings. They like everybody. They definitely still do it. Megan did. Oh, see the girl. She told you. Yeah, they definitely still told me a thing. I know peer leaders go
in and help talk about it. Students can raise questions and the peers leader um peer leaders answer each other and then an email goes home announcing it because I've seen the letter that goes to families too. Guess where have we been?
Maybe we're all to read your email. Right. I did get kicked off the list at one point. I I chose that. I made that. Yeah. She complains too much. We don't want It's It's so interesting to see that the
uh the uh synergy that is on around this because So, we had the the activity that Mila described happening in our health classes and then we had the the Narcan distribution table that Anand described where kids were able to pick up the
kits. And then that led to a policy discussion at the school committee where they really wanted to support Narcan distribution but do it in a way that ensured that we notified parents and everything. And then that led to a conversation to do the mailing and then
that led to a conversation where we're um Nilda and Ananda are doing a training with our administrators this month uh our principles and assistant principles on our can. So it it's just interesting from my perch just to see the synergy
and then to hear about it at the youth advisory board. So um and credit to Ananda for kind of initiating this chain reaction in Hilda and sort of making it happen. So, it's a lot of it's a lot of just positive motion on this, which is
and then all of our conversations have led to we want to host a webinar for families because the last time we held a webinar, we had 38 or so families tune in. um because we're finding now that sometimes the evening events families
can't make it to but just a quick hour um you know either off from work or a recording that's sent out to families that they could watch at any time. We saw that families did click on the link. They did register for the event. And so we we thought talking either to Megan
Roy who would share what we do in our health classes regarding um opioid usage and then we could have Ananda speak, maybe me, maybe a student sort of share. Um we were even thinking of maybe having um someone in recovery just share the experience. But now we have a parent who
could also be on our panel. Yeah. So, um, you know, that's our hope before the end of the year, just to host a spring webinar and have it be a recording that we also send out to families. That's still in the works, but that's the next level of this conversation that keeps
going. Yeah. And then, um, Detective Lieutenant Mike Draowski and I are doing a pop-up Narcan training on May 25th. I keep forgetting if it's the 25th or the 29th because we're doing one in September as well at the Long Meadow Shops. So that's going to be
where we table for three hours under a tent and just any walker buys were like, "Hey, do you want a a free thing of Narcan? Have you ever like learned how it administered it?" And this is something Paul used to do with Mike in the past. So I was like, "That sounds great. Let's keep it up." Um, so once we get our license agreement signed with
the Long Meadow Shops, we're good to go. Um, so yeah, I think that's it. I think we've got the ball moving in the right direction. And there's also another group. Was it like Allan or Timmy's kids or something like Strong? Yeah, they also do Narcan training with the youth.
Yeah. And I think that's 10th grade. Okay. Um, so they are getting hit at different ages and stages with the information. Um, but it is interesting to hear what trickles down to the parents and what doesn't. I'm also a mom of three boys, so I know nothing. Never. Ever. I know when they're hungry and
when they want me to pick them up from practice early and when they need money. Yeah. Yeah. Very true. Um, so if we don't get through this whole agenda, I'm not worried about it. But, um, I did want to go through this real quick. Um, this is
like a campaign I saw years ago that really stuck with me because even though I grew up in Attelboroough, which was not far from North Attboro, um, and it was mostly suburban. I had an uncle who had a landscaping company and he used to always give us rides on his tractor and it was like the coolest thing. So when I
saw this this campaign probably about 10 years ago talking about how dangerous this tradition is and how it needs to stop, I I remember my first initial reaction was this emotional one of like, oh, but it was so much fun. But then I looked at it and I'm like, wow, it's easier to bury a tradition than a child.
And then that that image right there of like the huge tire with the small child and just the comparison and stuff like that. Um, I don't know if this falls under scare tactics, but it's definitely something that makes you think. You know, when you have something that your emotional reaction is really positive and then somebody posits it with like
data that's like, you know, it might might have been nice for you, but there's actually like these tragedies that have happened. um was kind of what I was thinking about when I started thinking about um the issue that I haven't really talked about with the group, but I was talking to you about it, so I feel like I've already posited
it is um when I was meeting with all the different members of the community, I talked to the athletic director and um Barry Jarvis of Parks and Wreck and then various parents. And what I kept hearing was that we have some work to do around like parents modeling good behavior with alcohol. And where it was becoming a
problem was at athletic events because what would happen athletic events like if anybody has kids in sports is already like kind of an emotional event like you see your kid performing and you want them to do really well. And so even though it's still a minority of the population, what I was hearing from the AD and from Barry was that these parents
are making these events really unpleasant because what they do is they'll drink during the the athletic event, get a little rowdy, start arguing with the coach, and just kind of cause bad feelings and and not behave their best. So, um, it made me think of like,
you know, there's a tradition of like if you're in the summer and you're hanging out and there's just a sporting event going on that people pair it with a beer. Like, that's not an unusual tradition. It's not something that people I think would bat an eye at, but um but it this made me think about um
what could we do as a coalition and do we even want to take this on as a coalition to try to curb some of these behaviors since we're hearing that it's kind of causing um some negative energy at what I think is one of like the central hubs of this community. Like athletics seem to be like a really big
thing like academics as well, but every time I go outside there's a track meet going on, people playing tennis, like it everybody's walking their dogs. It's like it's a really good healthy positive thing. And from what I've heard, there's only a small amount of people that are causing these problems, but it's it's a small enough group that's loud enough
that it's causing issues. I think with something like this, I I interpret this as a scare tactic. Yeah. As I read it, but the way what I've learned to do is not make it about what I'm saying or
about me, but what is the data? Mhm. You know, 10 kids are killed every summer from tractor accidents. Then the next thing is it's, you know, then you have a statement like that. But it it's the data and not about the person.
Does that help it be more digestible? I think it to me then the person isn't like, well, I don't like that guy or that lady. Like they're always trying to tell us something. Well, no, I'm just sharing this information with you. Right. Right. Yeah. And to your point
about that data, what I thought was powerful on the postcard said like 91% I forgot of um families do not Yeah. post in their homes. Um and then if there is a stat on I when I look at our um
sporting events and the families that go, it it is a beautiful event. I see so many families, their younger kids are there. They bring their own lawn chairs. I see a lot of positivity and socialization. So, I I didn't even know that was an issue. So, I to draw
awareness to something while reinforcing that a lot of positive things happen at our athletic events. Um, oh, sorry. Go ahead. I This isn't a school issue, but I was on Halloween that I was walking down Green Acre and it's gone. It feels
like you're walking through a frat like on a university campus with little cute kids in compet in costumes and all the parents are walking around with their red solo cup. It was shocking just like wait a minute what what is this? Yeah.
Is there like a demographic that fits the behavior? Like cuz I was this is me just going off on a limb but I remember hearing about Tent City. Was that about 20 years ago? No. No, that was about 10 years. I would I would say you know less than the last 10 city eight years ago I
was gonna say 10 years ago. I would say around a co maybe we stopped right because my daughter graduated in 2020 and I think it was the year like right before that I mean city does have history less issues at the
schools had cuz I was definitely did tent city and so her kids were seniors when I were freshman because I don't know this is just a guess on my part but you know like when we look at data with youth a lot sometimes what we'll see is like a cohort effect you you know, where it's like this eighth grade class from
the beginning just had more issues, right? And the drinking rates are higher and whatever. Um, started in kindergarten, but I'm wondering, you know, Long Meadow seems like they've moved away from some of the wilder drinking party type scenes, but I'm wondering if there's a residual, you know, like if if there's
like because it's so hard because the group right here, everybody's like, "We're not tent citying, you know, we're not, but we know that people do." Um, but is it something that was bigger in the past and they now have children? Like, is there this I'm just wondering if there's any connection there between
when these kids came of age, like were there 18-year-olds during Tent City that are now 28 or 38-year-olds who were trick-or-treating with solo cups, or is there no connection? I don't know. But it was like it was shocking how I mean, it looked like it looked like a frat party. Wow. And the tensity was actually
meant for them not to drink. It's the kids would go and buy alcohol. It wasn't Yeah. It wasn't like the parents were like, "Drink up." It was I mean, I'm sure it was the ignoring is allowing. Yeah. But it wasn't It was meant for them to have a safe place in theory. Um
Yeah. But I don't know. I I mean this the sporting events I I it's I haven't seen as much of I mean I'm not saying it doesn't happen the obnoxious behavior. Um, but I I hate
that that is the modeling. That's what I mean my one of one of my boys was a lacrosse player and I just thought, good lord, getting through that whole experience. Um, I'm
the only living parent, you know, of these four kids. It was traumatizing because Yeah, man. It was every we get you get to the playoff season and there had to be like a parent gathering. I'm
totally gonna get shot by somebody when I can't record. But yeah, but there you know that was there were a couple parents who were but that was they had to pregame and I really there were emails telling parents where to go to
drink before the games. Um, what I was explaining where cases that we've had school events here where we've had issues, there's always that collaboration between the schools and the police department um with the athletic director, you know, and we work together to take care of that when it
has happened. So, um, but there is that collaboration between the two two organizations. So, I just like wish that it was just like you can enjoy the game without substances. Well, now there's the problem that at hockey there's an
open bar. There's a bar at the hockey rink. Oh, okay. So, people go to the bar during the games and then they drive their kids home. Uhhuh. Is that the one in West Springfield? Yeah. Olympia. Okay. So, I
have And apparently some of the principles or superintendents have asked for the bar to be closed and they said no. Yeah. We're going to run out of time to get through this, but if you could go to the next slide. Um, this is something I do want to dig into. I I'm glad that you mentioned lacrosse, even if it's a dangerous thing to say because what I
heard from a lot of different interviews is that it's hockey, lacrosse, and more of the like hyper masculineized sports. And what I heard from other people I interviewed is that, you know, um it can be tricky with lacrosse because the
athletic department and other organizations um respect to a certain extent how much money they raise. you know, like lacrosse has done a really good job of like providing for their student athletes and making it happen, but because of that, there's a little less sway, you know, that other
community members who are involved have over it because like they're so independent, you know, and it can be hard to um try to rein in the traditions that they've decided to adopt as a group. Um, so I was thinking, um, it almost might be helpful if there was
like a a youth lacrosse league to get them involved in the coalition. There is a youth. There is there's definitely a youth. But also, I would say I think also the whole thing that started happening when our kids were young with
the um, club sports and tournaments, right? Yeah. That's like a It's a whole cultural thing of like you go away for the weekend. I still remember the first tournament I went to, our kid was in fifth grade. We go to this tournament and the parents literally all brought
alcohol to just like hang out at the hotel. And I was like, what is going on right now? But that's what that was what their plan was to do. Go to the games and then they were just going to like get drunk at the hotel. And that that's a culture that goes with
a lot of like the club sports tournaments. Okay. So I don't know how to Yeah, I don't either. I think we got to start with local control. Give you a contact for Long Meadow Little League who I think joined the coalition, but um I don't
know the lacrosse they use lacrosse. Um so this is the part where I was like at in my mind we were only going to be 20 minutes into the meeting. I'd be like, "Okay, we're going to have this huge brainstorm session about like how to identif how how to like target this issue." So, I'll I'll rush through this and we can get into it deeper before,
but like um I just found this graphic about like good sport parents and bad sport parents just talking about behavioral patterns. And so, what I identified as the issue through conversations is that intoxicated parents are behaving poorly at youth sporting events. It's a minority, but they're loud. Um the what I heard from
both the AD and Barry is that no one really wants to address the troublemakers. like if you're in a position of authority, it just kind of antagonizes them. But historically, there used to be parents involved in the same sport that had enough social sway that they could interrupt the behavior. Um, which I thought was really
interesting and I thought that was like an interesting angle to explore, you know, like if we had more athletic involvement with our coalition, perhaps we could identify those people, you know, like cuz if it's like let's say there's only 5% of parents, like maybe not with lacrosse and this and the the
traveling teams and stuff like that, but let's say like there's a small percentage of like football parents, you know, that are tailgating or something like that and they're causing problems, but there's a couple parents in the group that are able to be like, "Hey, cut it out like that would be really helpful especially if other people in
authority can't do so. Um but I wouldn't know how to identify those people yet but I just wanted to put it out there in case there's connections. Um the other thing is just needing to determine if this is something that the community wants to support seeing a change happen in this area. And if you go to the next
slide Marty I have just the beginnings of what we have been asking in the parent survey. And you'll notice in case we ran out of time, you have this handout. There's a QR code on it. If you could just get your friends to do this survey and maybe your friends who don't
live like you, you know, to get a different perspective and also to try to get dads to do it because historically we get a lot of moms doing surveys, but it's harder to get dads to weigh in. Um, so the dads that are here, thank you. Um, but so so far I only have 48 people who've done our survey and it's been out
for a couple months. I've share it every week on social media. Um, Marty has sent it out, Tom has sent it out. Um, I've sent it to the middle schools. And what usually happens is when it goes out in a newsletter or an email blast, I'll get about 10 responses, which is cool. Um, but I'm certainly not reaching like what
is the population for the high school at least, 900 or uh, a little under 900 students. Yeah. You know, so it's hard to go out by this data because it's so tiny. Um, what if it were an assignment for the kids to get their parents to do it?
cuz think of like the first week of school, my kids always come home and they're like, "Here's your homework. Fill out the forms." And I'm like, "For sure." And I'm I'm going to be honest, I haven't filled out the survey. I've seen all the emails. I'm like, "I don't have time for this." But if it was an assignment that my son's like, "I need
this." You better do it. Sorry. Is that Is that something we could do? Be honest. I mean, I don't know. Maybe that high school health classes, you know? I don't know. I don't know that it could be a universal thing, but but for high school but maybe high
school classes for like a homework credit or like does that ever happen? I'd say if it's Well, I did I think having having a child's a grade of a child dependent on something a parent does, it's generally
not considered to be good practice. She doesn't mean disagree. She means try putting it out at the beginning of the year with all the rest for what I would say. Go against your child, but it's like if I see it in there, I'm like, "Okay, I need to do this." I did do the
surveys. It's really long. And I took it on my phone. Oh, it's very long and it's hard on your phone to do it. Okay. Yeah. I just sent it to people. Did you? Thank you. Just say don't do it on their phone. Yeah, that would have been good.
I sent it out in like two 15 groups. groups, but it all moms. Yeah. And I did. People said they would do it. I don't know. They they maybe they actually did, but they're they're all moms. I don't have a dad group. Just to go back to the the I don't know what's I
Okay. I think the athletic director finally told some of the booster groups, you can't be promoting drinking on your emails that are going out to people. And I think that that like needs to be done. Okay. But I think and I haven't personally seen at youth sports people
like being rowdy because they were drinking. But I do think that there are people who don't understand what they're modeling to their kids and that if they did understand they would stop that behavior. So I just think if we could do some education around that, I think that
that would probably be effective. I think a lot of people just don't realize like if every time you go to your kids little league game you're drinking then they think that that's what you're supposed to do. So I think if they just kind of there
was that the the football ad that closes in the past something like that I think just and if we get parents when they have younger kids I think would be really effective because by the time they get to high school then they're like oh this is right they kind of treat
high schoolers differently. Well I think I think it's easier to do as you just said like like as a fellow boy mom you're just sort of like they don't even hear anything I say. Like I think it can be easy to convince yourself like they're not really watching me anymore, but they are, right? Yeah. So that would be maybe the different messaging you
should do when they're in high school because you're right. Like you do start to be like, "Oh, they don't even want to talk to me." No, they do want to talk to you. They just don't know how to do it. So, right, you need to create different opportunities. This does appear to be pretty long to look at. I'm like, yeah,
it's hard to look at the survey. Yeah. Sorry. There's always more questions. Paper would be easier. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, that's what you were kind of saying that if you got it as a form, right? Uh, not
a process. Yeah. Not so much the form, but if it was like as part of this, please fill out the survey. You know, it's like I have a checklist of I need to sign this, this, and this. I need to take the survey. I know. I tried. Well, maybe we could um could we do it at the beginning of the school year mailing?
Yeah, we could. Um, we don't there's not a lot of hard copy stuff we send out. It could be electronic still, but maybe if it's just packaged with, you know, other school related like, oh, like cuz I'm the same way. Like I'll see things and I'm like, "Oh
my goodness." But then you're like, "Oh, I have the bundle." It's like doing your taxes. You're like, "Okay, Tuesday's the day." Yeah. I think if if sometime if if it's a blast and it's going to everybody, then no one feels special about getting that survey. If you can make people feel special about getting a
survey, like this survey is going to uh parents of children enrolled in a ninth grade health class. You know, we're trying to Yeah. shape our programming for your child over their next four years. I sometimes you might get a better response if you think it's being sent to you in some personal way. Um I
also think we just need to put fewer questions on it. Yeah, I know. Like even though you may want answers to all of them, if you care more about response rate, then you just have to make it a shorter survey. Or is there an incentive like some sort of a drawing or Well,
when we get into the budget, we could talk about why there wasn't an incentive so far, but first thing I always want to know when I open a survey is how long is this going to take? Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. like um I was going through it and I I used a template that
Paul used before and I think I took some questions out and added like I didn't make it any longer but it's long. It is long. Like the first line is please complete this survey. It will only take you like 45 minutes. It better take five minutes or less. People
are not a very short period of time. Um I think I think that's really good feedback and I think we can do that. Um, and it almost might be worth shortening the survey now and redistributing it and just having different data because I only have 48 responses from the first one, so it wouldn't be that jarring. Um,
so anyhow, um, we can go through this really fast. Um, we won't spend a lot of time on this, but some of my ideas around like any kind of like changing social norms is like we already have the laws in place. Like I I did a bunch of prep work for this meeting and I was
like what do we have as Long Meadow as far as like parents modeling bad behavior and d and I think the biggest thing that I was surprised by is just that like there's laws all over um bylaws that just say like no alcohol or drug use is allowed on town property. Like you can get a special permit for an
event, but you're not allowed to do it. You're not allowed to do it on school property. So the fact that this is happening I was like shouldn't people just know this? Um, so then Shelley and I did a drive around town and then I've done a couple walks on my own and I got to say there's no signage about alcohol
or substance use on most of the fields. So that could be a really easy fix. Like we could just go around like I if you go to the next slide I started taking pictures. So like Wolf Swamp, which is like one of the newer, more renovated fields, um does
have language about um Oh wait, sorry that's not Wolf Swamp. That's the tennis courts. So, the tennis courts, all it says is like no food allowed on the courts and no skateboarding and stuff like that, but there's nothing about alcohol. Not that I think tennis courts are a high-risisk area for drinking and partying. I I I don't think it is. Um,
but what I thought was interesting is that, you know, Long Meta will tell you about no food. Um, but we're obviously really concerned about dogs because like contact the police if you see dogs and don't or snowmobiles or no snowmobiles problem. So, so it was interesting. There were if you look at Wolf Swamp,
there were so many signs worried about the grass. Um, but like only one sign, which if you click through again, Marty, one more. So, Wolf Swamp, I circled the parts where it does address alcohol. It's the very first thing on the list. So, it's not that they don't do it. And then there was also language about like
no profanity, bad behavior, whatever, but it was much easier to see where you could park, what grass couldn't be trot on, where dogs are allowed, da da da da. And then I just um also showed some other pictures because even though I'm looking for areas where we can make it
more robust, I also wanted to point out like they had a great thing about everybody's scores for cross country and track conservation area has s such a nice sign. But I did I was hoping Barry would show up because her AED box over at Wolf Swamp was empty which I thought was interesting. Um I'm not sure. So I
wanted her to be here to talk about like I'm not sure if it's a seasonal thing, you know, do they only stock it when like the fields are being used more actively? Um, and then I just wrote Narcan there because that's one of my passions is that we start getting Narcan in these like little emergency boxes. Um, so my thought I know we're Oh, we're
already over time. I'm so sorry. Um, can you go to the next one, Marty? Um, you can skip this. Um, so this is like the only thing I came up with so far, which I don't think, but like you know, trying to find
a way to, you know, communicate like, you know, we're not judging your behavior. We just want you to know like you can't do it here, you know, like so trying to craft some messaging and it could be as simple right now of just making sure that there's signage up reminding people like alcohol's not here
because what I heard from like Barry was this is like they're doing it on the down low like they're putting in their Stanley cups like they're they're not flaunting it but so there's some people that know it they shouldn't but they are and if like you said like if they knew that they were modeling they would probably want to do better. So if we also just reminded them like you really
shouldn't do that there you're like okay you know like it it might make it a little bit easier just starting there. Could you do the next one? What's in your Stanley cup? So we will definitely table this for another meeting but I did want to say
that um just give you an overview of how we're funded. So we are in year eight of our like so we had a five-year grant and now we're in the second five-year grant. So, we're like working towards year 10. We're currently in year 8. We have um
$625,000 that were given for a 5year time period, giving us $125,000 budget. So, the salary for the director coordinator is 83 grand. Fringe benefits on average have been costing us around 35,000 and change. And um I'm going to need to sit down with Tom Maza because I
might not be understanding the numbers all the time correctly. But when I tried to go through Munis and figure out what the rhyme or reason is around the fringe benefits, they vary. Like sometimes it's 31%, sometimes it's 55%. And I don't understand the variation. And I also
don't want to be quoted as saying this because maybe it could be an accounting issue. Like we are a fiscal year that goes from September to September. They go from what is it? July to July, you know, like so there there could be some wiggle room that I'm not quite understanding. Um, but I did just want
to make the group aware that this is something I'm trying to figure out because it leaves us very very little money for any programming. Um, we only have $125,000. So, um, we have some carryover, which is why I've been able to do all these mailings and postcards and Nilda was able to share some
community engagement fund money. Um, and next year I have the budget already set up with whatever carryover money is left. But after that, then it's kind of like I'm not really sure what to do. We can certainly apply for other grants, but I was hoping that there would be some way that we could work with the
town to figure out if there was a way to just reduce the fringe because um it just is really high. Um what is fringe? What does that even mean? Oh, sorry. Um, fringe is like what they charge. Like usually there's a percentage rate that like I don't I wish I could explain this
better, but like you have retirement taken out of your you know you have retirement benefits, you have health insurance benefits and like when you have a employer you pay a certain percentage of your health out of pocket and then they cover a certain percentage. And so some municipalities will have a flat rate like retirement is
9%. And so if that's getting taken out of the grant, then 9% of the salary is taken out of the grant. And then health insurance might be different. And I don't know, I don't I don't fully understand it is part I don't think they're charging you just fringe. I think they're charging you like an indirect rate, which is like fringe
benefits, but it's also like office space, you know, like things like that. It's like basically the non-tangible like um So that wasn't negotiated as an inind. Yeah, I I'm I'm not Yeah, I think we we'll explore it further. I did get
some preliminary information from the town manager and the finance director. Ananda and I have been talking about it. So, I think we're still trying to understand the um the fringe charge back to the grant. Um if there is any wiggle room um we're working through that to
see because to the extent that we can reduce the fringe charge that would free up funding for grant activity. Yeah. Yeah. Which would be great. Um and I remember I shared the agenda and Haley immediately was like sending me grant
opportunities. I'm like oh that's right. I didn't think about the RISE grants, you know. So there's there's other options. And I was hoping Finn would get here was would be here tonight too because there's also the question of like opioid abatement funds which the town does have. And I think for right now it's just being held, you know, because I think that there's a lot of
concern about who would benefit more from it. And um if we have a prevention coalition that's already well entrenched and doing work for the last nine or however many years, um it might be a way to expand our our program work. Um but this is all that we can talk about later because we've already gone 10 minutes
over time and you guys have been so patient. Thank you so much. The last thing I did want to say though is I do have lawn signs and I was hoping that everybody would take some to put on their lawns. And if you have friends that want a lawn sign as well to take enough for your friends, um I sent out
an electronic form um that if you take like let's say you take five signs um and you actually give them out to friends, just fill out the form with their addresses so that at the end of June I can collect them and bring them back. Um but come get a sign. I've got
to go meet a bus, but I've got I can probably a dozen signs. I've got I'll put a dozen aside for you. Oh, you mean you want They can't all go on. I didn't even That's my neighborhood. I was very strategic. I live on a
Saturday, so I can't like Let's go down.