Okay, I will call the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. on Tuesday, September 30th, 2025. Start with the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Do we have any commendations?
Okay. Uh we'll move on to public comment. Um see if anyone online wants to uh just make public comment just please raise your hand. Okay, that'll conclude public comment.
Uh Will, what do you have first? Yeah, MHS uh fall sports are in the uh mid thick of their season right now. Boys soccer is 6-2. Golf is 82-1. Volleyball is 7-2. Field hockey is 33 and2. And just an hour ago, the boys cross country
team advanced to 2 and three. And similarly, the girls cross country team advanced to 5-0. Football is 4-0. And the Early Risers basketball club began today at 6:15 in the fieldhouse. For those interested, the marching band has begun their performances, uh, including
their last performance at last Friday's football game, which was very successful. Seniors are in the midst of their college application process. Uh, school counselors and teachers are working to get recommendations in over this next month, especially before the October 15th application deadlines. College
visits to MHS are continuing. Nearly 100 schools, including Dartmouth, will be here throughout October and November to visit students. AP payments are due to debt. Um, please get them into Miss Shatford here in the library if you haven't already. Eight MHS students were
recognized in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. One of them, senior Ian Cheml, is a semi- finalist. He and the seven others in the senior class were given recognition for their scores on last year's PSAT. Speaking of which, October 22nd is this year's freshman or
sophomore and junior PSAT date. Uh freshmen will conduct their day service on that date and seniors have the option to sign up for a college essay writing seminar or visit a college. On October 8th will participate in the Mass General Hospital SU surf substance use and
riskrelated factors survey. Seniors in health class are currently doing a CPR unit that includes getting CPR certified. This unit builds upon the eighth grade CPR unit and is a useful certification for many students who may be lifeguards or camp counselors over the summer. Uh this weekend the boosters
are having their annual donation drive uh on 11:30 at 11:30 on Saturday. You'll see many student athletes walking around town in MHS gear. Um please be friendly uh and please consider donating. Thank you. Great. Thank you.
Good. Um there are no schedule of bills to be approved tonight. So, I will ask for a motion to approve the meeting minutes of July 2nd, 2025, July 31st, 2025,
and September 18th of 2025. So moved. Seconded. Is there any discussion? um the 91 18 minutes some of the names of who made and seconded motions were
missing. So I just make sure that those get added in. Um and I have notes and to I I should I have them but I'm fine approving one with All right. All those in favor?
I'm abstainating. Okay. Uh the motion passes 4 Z and one abstension. Okay. Thanks. So I'm looking for a motion to accept a
donation intended to benefit the students of Village School. The village school PTO would like to donate funds to have water bottle filling stations installed in each of the cafeterias at village. Each filling station costs $1,73
with an estimate of $800 for the plumbing. Total cost of the project is $4,26. Seconded. Any discussion on this item to the village? Yes. Donating that.
Yes. Um, all in favor? Okay. The motion passes five to zero. Okay. Um, I believe uh you're going to lead us through the update on our town charter review. Yeah. So, um, thank you. As we discussed
um at one of our meetings this summer, the town charter committee um has a draft they're calling draft B. Um and they are asking boards and committees to review the sections of that charter that describe that board of committee's duties um and composition and whatnot.
And then they're looking for corrections to factual errors in the charter. And so I reviewed article six section 6.8 fe um which covers the school committee and I had one concern which is that the section uh makes a sort of broad
statement that the school committee has the powers, duties and responsibilities given to it by state and town law and then goes on to list out four specific areas of responsibility which are responsibility for the school department facilities and property responsibility for school committee and control
revolving funds. um appointing senior district employees and as the policymaking body and my concern was that it didn't address our responsibility for overseeing the budget once it's been approved by town meeting. Um, so I had a conversation with Py
Drinker and Sean Casey. Um, and they proposed adding the section four or sentence 4.5 which is in the version of the charter that was in the packet for tonight. Um, stating that the school committee shall be responsible for
monitoring budgetary compliance with school department and that sentence tracks language from the Long Meadow Charter which is what they have based much of their charter language on it. I would note there's a entirely separate article in the charter article nine
which is specific to budgets but it's really focused on budget development and approval and not the administration budgets once once they've been approved. So, um I'm comfortable telling the charter committee that you know work against the this section of the charter
change. I'm not making any comment on this. I don't I never will or will ever have no idea. This is one tiny little snapshot of all the things that we do regarding laws and policies. So I mean
they can do it what they will but I don't personally feel that I can say that this is all-encompassing in what does this so I think it's um I think that's a challenge on this on the chart you know because for instance to your
point about budgetary compliance yes we are responsible we're also responsible with coming forward with the budget too which is not so great well there's a separate as I Yeah, which I don't know about that. So, yeah, I mean it's fine. I think, you
know, I don't I don't think this has any thing to do with it. In other words, like there's no um this has no effect on us, right? I mean, I will simply respond to them that, you know, if I read that section of charter,
you know, that they addressed the extra concern that I had. So Jim, are there any, you know, sounds like the finance one separately, but there any other major ones that you think might or that could be included? I'm a little worried about if people
look at that document as to what we do versus kind of our website. So I just want to make sure there's not something major that you think, you know, a really major thing that we do is missing. I think that it's just it it is uh
it is too u simplified and so anything could be lost missing. So that's all I mean that's why ultimately my understanding is this goes before town meeting for approval. So you know except the town meeting I don't know if they would be looking for us to approve this.
Probably not. I don't think they don't think so. Um you know by vote. So I I just it doesn't there's a whole bunch of stuff that we're subject to. It's not I don't know how they chose to synthesize it. I guess maybe they
went by another town chart. It's hard to put down in you know four pages everything but respons [Music] I just sit down that I report back to the committee after I reviewed it and at
least thank you. All right. Our next item is um around the school committee goals uh for this this year. Um
and uh we did circulate a little bit of you know we wanted smart goals and also uh there are six goals that have been submitted by members uh so we all have access to that. Um, I guess what I'd like to do, um, and
again, this is the will of the committee, is for the folks that submitted goals to just briefly talk about what the goal is, why it's important, and then maybe this is more for me, but just to make sure that the deliverables we're talking about are attainable in a one year because we're
really that's our time frame is one year. So, just to make sure that it's not, you know, and I like stretch goals, but I also don't want something that may not be that realistic for one year. So can I just make one comment? Sure. Sorry. Um
this document is no violation. Um this document that was shared with us is the opinion of I think two of the members. At least that was what your email told us. No, these were submitted by individual members. Yes. And then shared with us by email,
not an open meeting. with instruction not to deliberate about it but just to have sharing the opinion in and of itself is an openation like in other words normally typically what we do is we come together in
workshop in the summer this year um and we'd come to an open meeting and we bring our ideas and we would sort of synthesize it this was shared with us in advance um which is an open lightning is an open meeting
you're not supposed to share a cause with AORA in advance. So in other words, I we all saw the ideas of other of a forum of members um or it was shared with the entire committee and then we're extensively being asked to vote on it
tonight. So I'm not you know I'm not comfortable with I mean that's really what this is. So I have to do is obviously I would need to consult with our No, I think we could self-report to that
would be the logical thing to do just self-report and you would come up with the other thing is first to verify I mean I I respect your opinion you know and you're probably right but I I guess we've sh we've shared information before in the Dropbox and
then processed it we don't share our peninsula like group on so I'm going to make a motion yourself. Okay. Um All right. So, there's a a motion on the table to say that we need to self-report an open
meeting violation. So, it's been moved. Looking for a second. I'll second it for purposes of discussion. I think that I understand your concern, Jen.
I think that at the very At least you know the intention in sharing it was not to be sharing the opinions of members but to be giving the membership you know the suggested
suggested goals you know for discussion tonight. Um, so I think I think I would agree with what you know, Al seemed to be getting at this comment before, you know, that it's worth looking at and if it, you know, if it is indeed violation,
then we should Yeah, I think I I made clear. It's I think it's a good thing to bring up, Jen. And I'm not saying we have or have not, but I think it makes sense to figure out if we have first before reporting something. And if it, you know, and if legal says that was a violation, then we obviously do report.
Okay. I mean, I think it's pretty clear. Um, I don't know that we need to necessarily take on an additional cost to have this review. Um, there's no harm in self-reporting. We need to determine a remedy, which is probably pretty
simple to do. Um, wouldn't there be costs associated with uh with our lawyer handling and opening? We don't need our our self support to to to help to investigate
if we decide that we believe we I think there isn't I believe that there is an option that committee member would be the chair recall attorney general's office you can wire as to whether this
you can in advance if it's base experience. That's what you said. Yeah, I guess I still don't see the harm in doing some investigation with a commitment that if is it is indeed a violation, we self-report
and that's maybe takes a little bit longer, but I think it makes sense to because what if it really is not then and again I if it's not then they will tell us that right but then we shouldn't then we didn't need to then we didn't need to
file an open meeting law, but there's no negative repercussions to that and we're coming forward with what I believe is an over meeting violation. Okay. Is there any further discussion on the motion?
Sorry, just so I'm clear, the being uploaded onto the Dropbox ahead of the meeting specific. Yeah. So in other words, I have been a quorum of us who made aware what some members are suggesting what their opinions their
views are that is supposed to be done in I see which is why typically not just our board but other boards that are doing goals typically you know if you have a facilitator which we have in the past you don't have to have one but we have we'll usually give you know homework or
pre-work to individual members and say okay come to the open meeting with your pre-work that and then we will and develop. All right. Uh all those in favor of the motion.
Okay. Uh all against uh the motion passes 4 to one. So one thing that we will be asked to do is to self-report was to provide a remedy to this. So
I mean I have some thoughts but I have some thoughts too. Do you have toide what you're going to do to remedy this? One thing typically is you would share this right. Well I believe that's been done this afternoon. Right. So that well it
wasn't two days ago we got this if we had all received if they had been made public this would have been an open but it wasn't um so that so that's good at least now it's you know if it's public um I you know we could do any number of
things we could attend an open meeting training which I think would be a good idea to go through training again I always learned something um I think we covered it this this summer with our attorney. Um but it wasn't a full um
open meeting training which is multi-hour um training that's done by the attorney general's office. So that would be something that we can and a commitment that we won't do this. So I think there's isn't there I think
some of us have signed up for an open meeting law training seminar and I think some of us have been through it already. Would that would that meet the I think that that's what I'm referring to. They do, but I don't know if they do it one they are doing one locally. They have newly elected members do one
online. You're supposed to do it within some period of time of having been elected. So I having the one in person is actually great. Um he's really good. I can his name is Jason if he's still there. He's very very good. And doing it in person also allows you say well what about
this? What if what if what if? Um, so that's helpful, but you know, whatever. I'm willing to go through it again online or in person and we could have them come up and do it here or whatever. If that's the I think he also should commit that we're not going to do this
together. Who's going to investigate if there's a training group? Because I would be I'd love to just I think Jerry probably would do it and I'll see um there is something you
know I think there's one on might be on one of our meetings but uh se September 24th so I'll forward that information when one that's already existing. I would ask the committee to consider, we may go forward with this tonight,
that's fine, but I would ask the committee to consider bringing in a facilitator for this. Um, these are what are the superintendent goals to some degree. Um, and the school committee goals um and even school committee operating roles. those are sort of quasi
big um you know responsibilities and I don't think it would be helpful to have a facilitator help guide us through this which is again what we've done in the past but it can help synthesize and formalize
five different you know sets of opinions um I have no problem with that if that's the will of the committee just add some time to the process. But if it's going to get us to a better product, I'm fine with that. I mean, it's almost its own
uh topic for me or at least a big section of which I mean, presumably it is tonight, but um you know, yeah. And um I'm fine with facil, you know, setting
that up if that's how we want to proceed as a committee. Yeah, I think we still have an opportunity to talk about it to kind of through you may be able to make some better materials to bring to a discussion of facility. I think that makes sense.
It's already the end of September. So, and we don't have a very heavy agenda tonight. So, if we can have some preliminary conversations about what members are thinking, then perhaps some time the facilitator. I think you're right. I think let's take
the long. All right. So um given that and do you want to talk about your two goals first please for us? Uh yes. So a lot of my goals are uh reactions to feedback that I heard from the community around
I'm sorry. Can I just I'm sorry. Just a second. Was there something you needed me to do technically? Do you mind having a co-host? Um really focused around better communication. Um and
part of it too is developing tools that future between those communities so that those aren't so forgotten skills. So the first one goal that I said was to tell district and committee stories. This goes into a lot of detail. So I'm
not just I'm not going to read all of this. Um but the idea is around using resources that we already have um including the superintendent update of
the student update, Will's update um and some of the have some distribution tools but we needed to develop a couple more. Uh so to to get the stories out there that sort
of already exist um as well as to develop tools to stories submitted from schools in the community. Uh and that will cover what we talk about in this meeting. It
will cover sort of what's happening. um it'll cover a lot of what's happened to schools which I know is sort of duplicate content but I think um it's good duplicate content success stories from our school. Um so
this is kind of around building a workflow and and generating tools for press releases and submissions um and newsletters. Uh, and I do have a timeline in here. I think it will need
to be adjusted if we're not setting goals tonight. And and that's true. So, uh, to answer your question, Al, this to me seems very doable. One day frame might have sort of, um, a launch date.
It's not even it would be mid November. Uh and then there's been an assessment at the end to sort of see how we're doing. But uh we're still haven't started repackaging superintendent updates uh and build a calendar so we can use
sort of what the calendar that we built that you build from what Jen provided. Uh that should help us. The goal is to make this because if it's hard, it makes it hard for us to do. It makes
it hard for future schools. Um, and I propose that I would own this, but I I'm happy to discuss further. I'd be happy to help you own it. one of
one of the ones that I'm talking about and that nicely to kind of let yours Yeah. suggest that that's fine. Yeah. Oh, this I I feel like this will need to
be built out a little more because there this is very high level. It's not there's not a there's specific steps that that I think we need to to build into this, but um I think it's a good start.
I like the idea of leveraging like information that we're already getting. There's so much that comes with school and we you know for update andformational purposes that figuring out ways to push that out community
helps us play that role of bridge between the schools and the community without doing the work of having to create the whole stream of information right it's lowhanging fruit for for for in a
lot of cases I think our discussion around enrollment numbers um in our last meeting made me think about how important it is to be able to to tell the stories rather than just
provide the data because data it's just data that you weren't able to sort of build a story around it. Um, I think this is very different from sending out our minutes and our minutes are meant to be an overview and this is sort of meant
to be more digestible for the public. So, uh, I'm hoping that people who don't attend our meetings will read our communications a little better um, and get a better sense of what we're doing sort of.
Um, so and and we need to develop some of those um some of those avenues that will build an email list. Um we talked a while ago about exploring social media seeing
that's a tool we can use together. So obviously all these things exist um that we just need to build it. Yeah. I think it's also important to understand from the community like what communication channels meet people where they are to kind of
catch them in stride so they don't have to go seek information out of something that they just kind of come across. So I think to your point it's very important for them to understand the story as we go because when I think about how this ties to with it bringing people along with the enrollment numbers and
understanding the why and the different pieces of it just will help us build that credibility right we it's tough to do that when we're so reliant on other people's questions,
discussion, right? So, my second goal is is also a communication goal, but it's it's a little more specific to communicating the work we're doing on the goals themselves. So,
um the building a goals tracker that we can use, people can track our progress and see where we are on some of these um deadlines that we're going to set for ourselves as part of smart goal process. Uh
I I can't but this one's pretty simple or pretty straightforward just communicating on our goals and and I think that helps us keep focused. It helps uh keep the community informed. So pretty straightforward. I do have a
timeline with this as well. And obviously as a goal tracker, it would need to be next to the goal of the time frame of the goals. So uh again, this would need to be adjusted, but this is sort of using some Google tools
that that um I'm accustomed to using. I can definitely, you know, teach, but luckily there's Google tools, so there's sort of there's a lot of help out there if you need guidance um sort of manage
sheet uh tracker that we could publish on our website. I think we'd have to talk to the district about, you know, whether they can build this in or what. Um, again, I would I'm hoping that it could
just be built into our existing site without any additional costs, but um I have here that the the tracker would be built by the end of October and the launch would be in mid November. Again, I think we'll need to adjust these
because that um and again, I I I don't mind owning this one. This is not one I mean, it's not strictly a communication tool. So, um again, I think the other thing that's
important for both these goals is lots of documentation. So if if u if I needed to leave school communication alarm uh this wouldn't be forgotten using
this is something that we both heard about a lot so empower important I also like I mean both of these But being overlaying the foundation of things that we can build and scale that kind of surpasses our own time so we
won't have to recreate the wheel important which just like consistency like oh we'll know what to expect. Yes. And I think trying to rely on tools that aren't going to vanish. I don't see those Google Sheets felling anymore.
Yeah. Um but sort of leveraging technology that that most businesses. I guess the framework you could start to work on unless you already know it's just I I just need the content and I'm familiar with the tools or Yeah. I mean if if if we want to go
ahead with this goal I I can absolutely get to work on I mean we can input the goals any time um so yeah this is something I mean I think we're I you know we also
will be getting to work on on goal one whether it's an official goal or not just because that's what we're likely status. So, yeah. What do you like about this school is that it, you know, it's easy, I think, for teams to set goals and then
you really don't look at them, right? You don't keep them evergreen and, you know, you look at them once, you know, at the end of the year. So, I I like that this kind of builds in and it's it's kept up front. We look at it uh you know, we discuss it at meetings as appropriate
on a regular schedule basis. So, which yeah, that is a good point because if we may want to set a cadence for goals checkings um and whether that's to update this tool or to update the public or both, it may be something we want to add into the
sort of rubber calendar that we established. Any other discussion around this? All right. Um I guess the next goal is Melissa enhancing community communication and engagement. Yep. Pretty similar I think to what was
just describing. Um but it just through all conversations has become evident that we had improvement um that needed on communication and bringing people along and um transparency and accountability. So I think what I'm suggesting around
that is basically doing baseline survey this fall to kind of understand how we need to think through the details but how informed folks feel with the accessibility of information the communication kind of understanding a baseline for how the community and
public feels like they're doing um and then using that and like three specific pieces um to support it. So basically trying to drive whatever the baseline of that is fire between fall and spring. Um but then another thing which ties kind of into what you're talking about was
just a post meeting instant recap within a week or 90% of the main committee meetings. Um, I think to Henry's point, the minutes are helpful, but it's not very digestible for folks that are just
kind of trying to we're doing. Um, I think this is achievable because it's again building on things that have already been done. I think it's it's important to understand a baseline of how a community thinks
we're doing. Um, and just establishing that basically we we care and we're listening and we're we're working to impact that. Um, I think it's aligned within and achievable within kind of this uh calendar this
calendar school year. Um I would say like an intermediate review kind of middle of the year spring to see how we're trending. I was suggesting that communication subcommittee all of this. I think now carrying one of these goals there's a way to double these into one
or two together. Yeah. What I'm kind of seeing is that we were I think it makes sense to create this image because there's one that's sort of outgoing information and there's one
that's focused on oncoming information and I think that both these goals have have sort of both in there and but I think if we sort of rebalance them so that one is about how do we get feedback from the community and what do we do
with it and then the other sort of how do we provide any questions for further questions over there? All right. And then there was around strengthening financial transparency and community understand.
Yeah. Um, so I think the the purpose of this, just kind of obvious by the title, but improve how Marblehead families and community members understand the school budgets. Um, making sure that folks are
clear on cost drivers, um, opportunities really offering opportunities for dialogue and building trust with the community for how we are allocating that budget. Um, we obviously have a challenging budget year upcoming and I
think it's going to be particularly important for this cycle to make sure that we are giving folks that transparency, giving folks information, um, like one pagers, public presentation decks, like kind of
public meetings to answer questions. um a couple of community forums and again kind of using a survey as the baseline like community reported understanding of the the school budget and this like fall semester versus spring semester. Um
I think there is an opportunity to collaborate with kind of off the back of this the um team putting together the budget story. Um, we're really trying to make sure we are proactive in like when
our budget subcommittee meetings are scheduled and kind of our calendar and just making sure that we are folks along. So, the intent would be to really address the challenge um of continuing to explain to the public like additional funding requests while declining
enrollment is happening and just making sure folks really understand um So I mean the deadline would be between now and March 2026 and working upwards over the next six months when um the committee has to approve the formal
budget um but taking steps direction and at this goal I think that it's not possible to overcommunicate in particular and So often times
student things seem to be harder than they get understood and so finding different ways to share the information is really feedback for how they just structure
we can and bring people along together. Any further discussion on this go five is around elevating and educating the voices.
Yeah, this one was mine if it didn't mine out quite as well as Melissa did theirs. Um, so I've been thinking about how we can make sure that the school committee is hearing from educators to inform our decision-m um, I know we get a lot of
information from the administrators, but hearing from the educators who are vulnerabilities on a daily basis is also really important. Um, so my suggestion for this year would be to jointly with the administration hold a series of listening sessions to understand our educators perspectives on the issues
that we're focusing on. Um, I think we could do that in different ways. We could, you know, do school specific listening sessions and like elementary and older student sessions. Um, and also, you know, look at specific issues. Maybe
we do a session about budget. Maybe we do a session about student services. you sort of thinking about issues that we're dealing with in our district and and making sure that we hold opportunities to hear from educators and
I think that there's a way we could structure those, you know, without using the full committee so that they wouldn't have to be held in a meeting and perhaps we could create an environment where educators would be more comfortable um speaking freely with committee members
about challenges and And um as part of elevating educator voices, I would be interested in exploring adding an educator representative to sit at the table during school committee meetings. Um and
to do that as part of, you know, I would like to see our student representative play an interactive role. Um I know in our workshop this summer, Alicia mentioned districts have other, you know, they have a CPAC representative. I think exploring who else could be part
of our conversations that we're having to help commissions and decisions. Yeah, I agree. I think there's stuff on the list too. I think before you do that, I think we
do that. We're going to need to shut legal because we do have a policy specifically prohibit any well teachers from teachers um perhaps that may be expanded um to sit on school doesn't specifically say voting members.
So, we just need to narrow it down. That might um it's part of what I'm thinking of it as sort of an explore. There's lots of complications. Yes. Even some of the things you talked about the folk I mean I think that's great. The focus groups are great. Um
you know, I think there's, you know, there's always this um relationship between the superintendent and the and the and um teachers and the staff. That's staff for saying um we are
not the supervisors of anyone except the superintendent. Uh so there's a you know we need to I think just be respectful in that process of that and that's where I think we would we would want to have input from you know probably leadership
on the on the staff side and superintendent as to how that would actually work. um because I wouldn't want anyone to be put in a uncomfortable position. I agree and and may maybe
there are other ideas on as well you know if that's all that would be my only um concern. So what would you see as reasonable if if we weren't to set the goal? What would you see as sort of reasonable next steps to start that
exploration process for this one? For this particular Well, I think it would be for any of our goals. We need to probably agree on them, but them up, make them clear, and then we come up with a plan on how we're going to execute that. I think that input from leadership and the
superintendent in this particular case is powerful. And I don't think we can go forward with this poll without hearing from what the participants would like to see if they'd like to see it. Um we don't know how John feels. We
don't know how leadership deals. So I think it worth exploring that before we start discussing the you know so I mean we have a joint theater management committee. we have some sort of formal things in place that I would
not want to jeopardize in any way. You know, we we actually have come away, you know, quite a way in the last year or so. And I know we have a ways to go. But I, you know, I just want to just really be very cognizant of
all parties and how they feel about this because like I said, we would not want to put anyone either the superintendent or anybody in um on faculty or staff to in a position that is uncomfortable or on I don't know. I mean like we're on
the spot. I mean in the perfect world everyone there would be a free flow of thoughts and ideas and we could share everything but then there's the reality of you know sitting in a room with you know your supervisor
and so I just I would want to not do anything to hear you agree to say this is an exploration. It's not saying we're definitely going to do this. I'm curious. I I've heard in the past people have a similar perspective
around student representation being more than what we have right now. Can we potentially make that part of his exploration too? Will the committee be open to that or do we want to kind of What I would say about that is uh mo
many school committees have student representative and in some cases they actually are voting makers that are not but not not very many. Um and the purpose of it I'm not sure we are necessarily embracing what the purpose
of that is right is to actually share your voice. That being said, I I think that even given the small size of our um of our school district, having one student um be the voice of, you know, an entire student body is is probably
unrealistic. I would like to see, and I don't think this is a school committee goal, I would like to see as part of a district recruitment plan and a superintendent goal, which I believe is one of it's one of John's current goals. I don't know what we're going to see from the movement is is enhancing student voice.
And that in my from my perspective is really the responsibility and the um jurisdiction of and the administration and and the building administrators and his administrators to create formal ways for student voice. Usually it's high
school, probably middle school, but we've seen, you know, Mary come talk to us about leadership in the Brown School, you know, in the elementary. It's arguably not the same as you would have in a student government or student council high school. But, you know, that really to in my opinion, it's just my
opinion, is the responsibility of a superintendent to be enhancing that. and that then makes its way up to the school committee through the district improvement plan through uh potentially school advisory councils. Um and that's
probably in my opinion the best way for students to be heard, right? Because we again are not responsible, believe it or not, for students. We are responsible for budget policy host and superintendent the day-to-day operations of the school
including the operative operization of the our policies lives lives of superintendent um and his team. So that could be a goal. I think personally I don't I don't think it should be a school I don't think it should be a
school goal. I think it should be John's fault to have um however you describe it enhancing student voice, strengthening student voice, having student voice uh come with you know smart manageable smart goals.
It may be that exploring having a educator input educator voice on the school might be a good template for next year's goals of adding maybe adding
student route in a more robust capacity just seeing how it goes with the teachers seeing how John feels about it and we can sort of crawl toward that goal and see if it's appropriate in retirement. Personally, I think that strengthening your student representative is far more attainable
than this process of bringing a teacher rep onto the committee. I'm not saying that there first we can. Not sure if we can by our poly law, but if we can, again, I'm gonna my spidey sense says that
there would have to be some real clear um sort of um guidelines that's going to be and I'm sure that I'm sure that the staff would want, you know, whether the staff or the you know staff representative would want to know that too because again, you know, there is a chain of command like there, you there
is uh how how this process works and we need to I just feel like we need to be really cognizant of that we're not supervisors we are not like and we don't want to change you know damage or have any effect on the very very important
relationship between super and staff and leadership so that's you ask Alicia if there how other districts asked that question during the workshop because I remember her saying you know
some districts have CPAC rep or a metco rep you know all as non voting members you they're just at the table for discussion and I know there's mas there's a recent MASC newsletter you know talking about the intended role of
the student rep which is far more robust than what we do do in our district. And so those are all things that we currently absolutely that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Um in regards to Medco and CPAC again
in some respects I think it's you know it's we have not necessarily um maximize the gold leaison to those two areas um we haven't arguably I don't think we have set in specific
um expectations on the part of those liaison which we probably could that's one thing we could also do because again I'm not saying we necessarily could do this, but you know, offline conversations or the ability to develop a relationship between liaison and say or leazison and CPAC is really important
to be able to come back to the committee and say, you know, this is what I'm hearing. Um, you know, versus necessarily having someone at the table. I don't know. I just a lot of work um and relationship building and um I would argue progress
can take place offline outside of business. So I have and I'd like to see those relationship I'd like to see those liaison positions. Yeah, I know have a little more I have two comments. one is would it make sense to add to reaching out to MASC
for some examples as as part of our exploratory steps for this goal and then Jen do you think it might make sense to add a goal to strengthen the LEA like to add a separate goal for for the liaison so let me um take like a hundred steps
back here commented on disposal from where I not just one person I believe our goals should be focused on what our responsibility is, which is budget, policy, and over superintendent. That's our responsibility. That's our purview.
That's what I believe. That's what I believe our goals should be focused on. I don't necessarily see that in some of these goals. Um I mean, sort of tangentially, but like for instance, we have we are facing a monumental budget.
we are going to be faced with um a pretty sign I think a pretty significant uh ask of the town and that is the outl I I mean and I think at the very least
one of our goals ought to be we secure adequate funding for our school to make it about basic as we possibly can um which is not just which is a lot that goes into Um, I also believe that and I think this
is sort of back to your you had a goal around budget and I I I think your your my what I read into that goal was around um output of information versus input of information. I have this is my seventh year on finally on school committee. Um
I have been asking for all of those years for a zerobased budget and for several of those years for staff accountability and we don't have a Um the data is imperative for us to be able to make the argument to this town
as to why we need the budget that we're going to do. And I believe somehow that needs to be probably reflected in our goal for this year is um what we are going to do to build this
budget that will be able to be sold to the town to get support from the voters of of town and potentially from your town. Um that's very important. The next is
basically around I think around the superintendent right our responsibility um and again I don't know what the wording is but we're coming out of what was arguably um we're going into the development of a
district improvement that is going potentially will be the proper roadmap for budgets going forward staffing going forward and one thing that none of us have talked about is student achieving is maximizing student achievement because that's what we're here for. And
so for me, I think one goal probably should be how we're going to work with the superintendent on on those and probably the uh the tool for that or the map for that is the
distribution. Personally I think that should probably so I I think and then I think also around communication which is not our point of view but it's our responsibility right is communication and so I think maybe you know one of
those goals if we were to have three let's just say we have three goals um and one of them could be around that mitigation and I have to figure out how to how to communicate that I think the idea of setting goal tracking is imperative with whether
it tracking the goals that you set should be you know I guess we can sort of argue whether that's true or not I think tracking the goals is our responsibility not you know we don't do a good job of sharing that you know right so
yes I think that I I see what you're saying I think that in particular communication is is essential to all of these goals if you're talking about I mean if you're talking about the budget and going to the town with the budget. We don't
really have a lot of really good tools to communicate with the with the community about our budget. I think we need to build those tools so that we can effectively do those core responsibilities. So I I I completely
agree with you, but I also think that we may be sort of rowing in the same direction with this communication versus a budget or not first but together with the budget. So I think back to your original
question around involvement of MASC to get an idea of maybe what happens elsewhere in other districts on certain things. I think we'll we'll get that inherently because they will probably be the facilitators helping us with this going forward. So I think I would expect
them not only to help us facilitate putting together our goals but then also provide information around how maybe how other districts are doing things and what the percentage of districts might be around that. Yeah. Thanks. So I think we'll we'll now build that in given that we'll have a facilitator help
us with this going forward. If I can jump ahead and talk about the other goal that I had submitted because Jen really dove tales with what you're talking about. Um kind of at the heart of the goal is supporting the superintendent and the completion of the district improvement plan which I think
is imperative that it be done um and that it be understood by the public. I think that committee has a difficult role to play there in making sure that people understand why the plan is what it is and where where we are and where it is
taking us. But I also see that as part of a reentering of the committee's role in sort of high level planning and strategy which not to get in to the history of strategic planning
in the district but you know the district improvement plan as I understand it is sort of based on planning work that was maybe done several years ago you know so well John's working on a district quickly right now which is nothing to do with
so my understanding is that it did but I it doesn't we have quite conversations but leave that under um I I mean he's doing his own surveys his own data and maybe it's worth I mean he's given
us an update it's worth another update so we understand that I think it's important to understand where it stands right now and then I I think we're in a bit of a limbo period of like there is no strategic plan of where we're headed
while he's preparing this staff is 26 current right so it is there and then he's developing his different which was originally they talked about having it done by October he's now talking about
that spring I think we can have that conversation so I see it as sort of twofold you know supporting him in the completion of that processing and making sure that it's, you know, understood and that there's, you know, the appropriate level of input from the community and
whatnot. But also thinking as a committee about strategic planning going forward and you know what the committee's role is in that. Um, how we make sure things like
setting our goals, it should be more clear in the future. Hopefully there's a district improvement plan and everybody's goals are lading into that. And I think part of why this conversation is disjointed in a way is that we aren't all looking at the same document and saying this is where we're
going, right? And this is our role in helping the district get um but sort of thinking through once the once the district improvement plan is done, what does the committee want to see the next steps? Yeah, I mean the district of Kuba in my my understanding doesn't mean
super smooth goals, right? So I think that that they're sort of scaffolded above that is that our role to help um once we've approved the district approval plan which is our job to do that um is to our goal should should be
supported, right? But I'm not sure that it's going to be I don't know if it's going to be we don't usually have a section on the district. I don't think specifically it's my understanding develops it. It's a plan for the
district and then our little theories that our responsibility to set responsibility. So it sounds like um sort of next steps I need to reach out to MASC
ask for a person to help us facilitate getting to the you know goals that we will vote on. So uh I will do that. Is there anything else that we need to discuss or talk about our goals right now? I would just caution or I shouldn't say caution ask committee members as we
go forward with this and if we come you know we come back together it's an open meeting um and we talk about because a lot of this stuff is great stuff but I think we need to be aware of um the resources that will be needed for these goals um particularly around issues
around communication issues around data we have a very lean organization here at garblehead um you look at other school districts across you know Commonwealth, some our size, some bigger that have, you know, amazing amounts of support and resources. We don't have that. Um, we
are very limited in what we are going to be able to ask of the administration and support. Um, we have a little bit of admin support. Um, we get some support from task from it, but there's not a lot of extra damage. So, I think we just I
want to be careful that we're not over and under delivery. I think you're absolutely right, Jen. I mean, I always aim to do things with no cost involved hopefully. I think I think that's also important for
add like building longevity into this so that we're not if we have a recurring cost and that cost starts to drop off and we're not being able to decide to cancel a subscription to a tool or something that doesn't empower future school communities to to use. Yeah, I'm just concerned about that. I'm
not really afraid to tell talk about like human resources. depending on asking for admin support, central admin support. There's just not a lot of band there. There just isn't. We don't have Yeah,
we do not have, you know, excess. I mean, I'm sure the teachers can attest to that. We don't have excess capacity. Um, I think everyone, the community, the administration would will appreciate us being a little scrappy here, right? Which is why I'm saying just that
like We need to make sure we don't overpromise what we do. So, what's good about I think track, we talked about tracking those. I think that helps with that because, you know, it's it's we're making decisions right now looking potentially, you know, say 12 months out. Well, a
couple of months in, we're going to know a lot more and we may know what's realistic and maybe what's not that realistic. Then I think we we alter things as a result of that. So I think we have an obligation as we go through this if John's not here to be
working closely with John uh particularly you know for instance you know some of the things you're talking about in terms of you know press releases and news about like be talking with John like exactly what are we going to need in yes resources um to support that and and and
don't question people be honest with us you know as to what he what he can give and what you know what what's available and what's not and then you're going have to be sure we adjust our goals to be able to deliver what was there. Absolutely. And I think that the what I was trying to get across in my first
goal aroundation was that we're using things that wouldn't acquire require any additional work. So he already delivered updates. We just need to find a way to repackage nothing. Um I agree. We
Yes. Anyway, I agree. We're on the same when you say repackage. to be like the newsletter. It somebody has to do that. Yes. Someone has to do that. Write it, format it, send it like it, you know, it takes hours. Yeah. Believe me, I know. And we don't have to staff that have hours to give us just that's all I'm
saying. It's all let's just make sure that we talk with about what's realistic so nobody is surprised, which I think we've been guilty of in the past, right? Yeah. So, absolutely. Yeah. He should be part of the conversation. Why also and I've gone back and forth with this I've
often thought social media you know is actually a time effective way of communicating um because it you know it tends not to be a huge time suck in terms of you know getting pushing out information um members can you know do
that um it is a way to and to a you know potentially large number of people without agreed I think we definitely need to explore that and and my intention is that members of the school committee would be responsible for these communications, not the administration.
They have their own tools. They have their own messages. I just think we're we are probably rebroadcasting that stuff on uh channels. But uh yeah, okay.
Anything else around our goals? Okay. Um, the next item is just discussing process. Another important thing that we need to do outside of setting our goals is doing the superintendent evaluation. Um, and again, I believe this is
something that we've used a facility in the past and likely makes sense to to to do so going forward. So I'm not going to talk a lot in detail um other than you know there is a end of cycle summit of evaluation that our superintendent it's kind of the
first step where he fills out how he's progressing versus his goals right and that's his words and then there's components of this that we then would individually you know write as to what we think about that and there's also several things that we need to there's
performance standards and there's actual goals that we need to evaluate as a committee and that's where facilitation is very important. So you know do we all individually do it um not violating open meeting law right and then uh facilitate
doing a composite what's called a composite that would then take into account all our all our ratings and comments. So um just want to let people know that's you know was put in the Dropbox. It's just the process overview. It's the actual form that both the
superintendent and us will use to evaluate him. And so I just want to give everyone, you know, that'll be over the next few meetings. I think you we have two big priorities over our goals, school duty goals, and then obviously the evaluation of the superintendent and his goals for
this year. Yeah. Keep in mind that Bob he's on kind of an offsite on an October to October cycle. Well, we're almost October. Um, so lest the community thinks we're well into the school year and hit our goals, it's definitely it's kind of a long long
cycle. Um, I think the other thing to keep in mind is yeah, we again we're not going to come together to share our evaluations. Um, it is not an open meeting. Um and in the past as I recall
there have been evaluations that have been done where one or two of committee members have come together but you are allowed to do this and compile composite separately you know separately and come
together to the committee with the deposit. Um last time I think the last two evaluation at least the last evaluation we did not do that. I strongly discourage that. I think we should come together each with our evaluation and
talk about it and compile it together so we all know you know we're being heard. Yep. I have no problem with that approach. The most comments are is it the same evaluation every year like reinventing the wheel to create a
new evaluation? No, it's the same. It's the same. It's Yeah. And guess who's got certain requirements for John being a non um um superintendent. We I believe we don't have to use DES for it during the mids.
You do two you do cycle and then a final. I don't think we have to use it for the midcycle. I think we did in in this past spring and but then you do have to I think for the summitative and it gets submitted to destiny. So it's we don't choice. It's actually um as you
get into it, it's a little bit um it's not all that Melissa just you know you you may see as you're looking through this the midcles that Jen talked to like Desi and N will call it a authorative got it assessment and then a summit of
assessment is anticycle formative basic for some reason it was the principal one here I don't know if that was meant it was yeah taken out yeah it was no we're stick it. Yes, it's just the one that says you know superintendent and evaluator at the
top and it would be John's responsibility he does his self I believe my understanding is not here um is when he does his selfassessment that he will provide the word you know you might some members
might be looking for specific data but generally he should be providing it for the for the specific goals then we can use obviously we can use anecdotal we can use our experience with him etc but they'll should be providing that
and it be one of those things that you know for for much newer members you know if you're not comfortable you have been here long enough to be it's honestly something I don't you know fill out so any other questions on it
okay um subcommittee and lison on updates we have any of those um I have That's all right. I I do I did meet the CPAC. Um it was a great meeting. It was nice to meet them. Um
I think one thing that I was discussing with them was what what do they want to get out of the relationship, you know, leaison between the school community and CPAC? I think that's something we're going to discuss.
I think the obviously discussions around the special education budget will be important to them and I offered to uh possibly invite some other members of this committee, you know, someone from the budget committee, Jen Melissa, who
would like to join that uh CPAC meeting when they're sort of ready to have that discussion. I think they find that valuable. Um and also that they are looking for members. So if anyone in the public wants that.
Um any questions before I have another update but uh so the other update I have was that we had our first meeting of the roof committee which again went very well. We had another presentation from
um left field and um RDA was there as well. Um, we were focused on sort of introductions and and looking at the inner timeline for upcoming decisions that we need to make. Um,
mostly around the liquid apply versus the recover. So, uh, again, that went really well. It is a really great and knowledgeable group of people. So, uh, thank you for helping assemble that.
Uh, and that that's it. Anybody has any questions on the case up on our YouTube page wants to watch. Um, we had a policy subcommittee meeting this morning. Um, and very deeply
related revisions to the next meeting. talk to Alan about which agenda you know makes the most sense but yeah I just wanted to say yeah we got a meeting we're going to be meeting a couple months um unless there's a there's a couple holiday
um I just wanted to say I don't know if you know me from any subcommittee including the policy subcommittee takes direction from the full committee director so you know if there are any policies that uh anyone has you know questions on are looking to
modify or or add add a policy or resend a policy or or whatever. Um, you know, come forward, you know, that this is the place to do that. Give us the direction, you know, beyond what we're doing. We have sort of ministry work, which is
updating um policies for kind of some minor stuff. Um but and then when hopefully we get to it, we'll start a full review. Um but again, you know, anything that anybody wants to remember to do.
So Jong along those lines, uh one thing I've heard about or just a lot of people have asked me about is the when um students can start kindergarten. And right now, I believe we do it based upon turning certain age by the start of
the school year. Um and so that can be interesting in certain years like this year right where we started before September 1st. Um so and it can vary from year to year depending on when your birthday is. So I guess I'm just I don't think it varies. I think we have
been reversed. It's not it's by the start of the school year I believe. Um so I guess I'm just asking that's not a policy is my understanding. That's that that I believe is the the superintendent.
I I I'll have to go back. I thought I read I thought it was in the the details was in one of the policies. So I guess I'm just asking could that be explored? It seems like a lot of a lot of districts in the state use a specific date of September 1st or August 31st. So So what's the concern
that others if it's earlier? I think the concern is that if if the what it's tied to is the first day of school then in a year when we start school on September 5th. Oh okay. September I got to go versus this year as you said.
Yeah. Um yeah I think um we can really guess that we have stop. Yeah. I'm just asking to as you said just a suggestion to me and actually has you heard from parents or have you heard from teachers? Parents
we probably want to hear from teachers too among that they may have thoughts too. I did hear some feedback in the CPAC meeting around the target policy that I know just about you know heard this. So
but I was I'll bring it right. Yeah. Tell them I tried. I 100% don't agree with it. That um it's not that the policy does not special. Um so that
issue aroundness around getting the school on floor or students who who just need different accommodations. Well, if they have that accommodation, then that policy doesn't apply it.
So, probably somebody would need to by hand on that. It's my understanding. Okay. I'll I'll pass that back to Cat or to Lisa Maris. Was she does she attend the meeting? Uh, yes. Yeah. All right. So, she Yeah, she would be the one to address that. That's my understanding. You have accommodation in
IP um 454, I guess. um the that should that should not take that would supersede I believe um but I you know I've made my feelings very clear on the attempt to
policy not so much charter but I guess that policy and you know the superintendent and I don't agree on or the majority committees Anything else? All right. Um, is there any new
business? Oh, wait. Um, facilities. I was trying to remember if we Yeah, we haven't we didn't meet since the last meeting. So, yeah. So, we Well, we met on our last meeting.
Yes. So, um, actually most of the, uh, updates were provided by Mike in our last meeting and sort of went through an exhaustive list of everything we did over the summer. Um, again, I was really impressed with the work that he was doing. Uh,
yeah, we met on last on the 5th. He gave an update on the team and we haven't met. We didn't do updates last time. So, um, one thing we're going to take a look at is school signage, which I think is a a nice little project I'm excited to
dive into. I've already started started doing some of my background research and um, I I Yeah, you know, look into that. I'm excited to All right. Um, any new business?
Is there any correspondence? I have I might have business. I have a sorry I have a question around the charter school. So, I got a comment that there is me and I didn't I didn't do any
investigation. But there's meant to be a liaison to the charter schools in our school community. There's also meant to be a leazison to indust. So I I think this well this person was was interested in in sort of a
rekindling of that relationship between our committee and is it the committee or the superintendent? I I have to look into I mean this was one person's comment. you know, so I I think
I'm going to do a little bit of research into it and if I may come back to our next meeting with the findings of that. I'm just I I want to respond to this person's I would talk to John and who who sits on the security
committee meeting. So have you guys had he was moving to orderly meetings and stuff and I know charter does sit on that. Um, yeah, I guess this falls under new business, but I know several of us are going to the MAS and ASC
uh conference in November. Um, if we want to have someone vote at the delegate assembly, um, we need to submit a delegate and that has to be formally voted upon by the school committee. So, I believe the delegate form must be submitted by
10:20. So at our next meeting we would if we want to have a delegate we would need to vote him or her in at that time. So I guess between now and then if you're interested in doing something like that think about it and you know we'll address it.
Yes. But the other thing you have to do is they are going to have a slate of question or yeah slate of questions to that the delegate will vote. So we also would need to review those and give forward on what we want the delegate how
we want the delegate. No, we haven't. I think J. We haven't had a Is that the reason why we haven't had a delegate up to this point or in the last couple years? We've never had as far as I know or that's our I think vacation whatever. Um
just as a note to yourself, delegate is on the very last afternoon of the lost game. I'll leave it there. So I guess I'll have to add that we don't I should I should have started with this. We don't have to have a
delegate. If we do want a delegate or we need we need to act upon it like the next meeting. It might be worth um just taking a look at like I don't know if they probably come out with the slate. All right. To take a look at what it is that's being voted on um
um often they're sort of the um things that are being voted on are sort of aspirational. the things that MAS messages that the members of the delegates of MAC want to send to Jessie or the legislature and so
it's not generally um things that are going to actually have effective dayto-day so I just maybe take a look at it I'm sure they have them out already um with the agenda and if that's if there's something there that this committee
feels we really feel very strongly we want to you I'll send it out to be able to vote if someone wants to stay and drive. All right. Uh okay. I am looking for a motion and vote to meet in executive
session for the following reasons. So pursuant to chapter 3A section 21A3 purpose to discuss litigation Marblehead school committee and Marblehead teachers association MUPL24-10570 as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating
position of the school committee and the chair so declares without intent to return to open session. Also uh going into executive session pursuant to chapter 38A section 21A3 and purpose 3 to discuss threatened litigation by former student services
chairperson Lawrence Skelton Leard as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the school committee and the chair so declares without intent to return to open session. So move seconded.
Um a roll call is needed for this. Jen favor. Melissa in favor. Kate in favor. Henry in favor. Al Williams in favor. The motion passes 5 to zero. So we will now meet in executive session pursuant to chapter 38 section 2183
purpose 3 to discuss litigation Marblehead school committee and marblehead teachers association ml 24-10570 as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the school committee and the chair so declares without intent to
return to open session. Also, executive session pursuant to chapter 3A, section 21A3, purpose three, to discuss threatened litigation by former student services chairperson Lawrence Scalden Leard is an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on
the litigating position of the school committee and the chair so declares without intent to return to open session. And we are now in executive session. Back this weekend, we can move into this room.