did he get to sign it we were going to have him go first okay one second while we go live on YouTube awesome okay I'm going to call us to order at
60:05 school committee welcome i'm Jen Chapner Rob School Committee we've got um Allison Taylor member on Zoom um and here in um high school is Sarah Fox and myself al Williams is not with us wish I
didn't see him no yeah um okay let's see uh first opening this pledge of allegiance i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um we have our student representative welcome hi thank you i have the update from the high school so quarter 3 just ended two
days ago everyone's super happy to have finally made it to quarter 4 i bet many seniors went on senior projects starting yesterday we can't wait to see all the things they're working on at the senior project day later this spring there's a half day Friday tomorrow for Good Friday and no school
Monday and Tuesday the school musical Hades Town was performed this past weekend and everyone did a phenomenal job i went to go see it on Sunday it was great spring sports are in full swing good luck student athletes as of April 11th girls lacrosse was 2 and three boys
lacrosse 1-1 baseball 2-1 softball 2 and 0 boys track 1 and two girls track 3 and 0 boys tennis 1 and0 girls tennis 0 and1 and co-ed sailing 2 and 0 ap exams are in just 2.5 short weeks hopefully everyone has started preparing and good
luck to everyone on those and also last but not least yesterday was the all jazz concert congrats to all our jazz musicians thank you thank you thank you um okay commendations i have one if you want to go first i have one too
go john you want to go first i was just going to um commend Steve Quiet our um our director of technology he's been uh super helpful in in a lot of the PDS um and a lot of presentations we've been doing kind of above and beyond um and he's been really helpful uh jumping in
when needed and excuse me at the last minute and I think it's really I think it's important to recognize that it's kind of just been going above and beyond lately and he does it in a way that's very under the radar and doesn't take a lot of credit for and I just wanted to take a moment to thank him for his extra efforts so thank you Allison
i just want Can you hear me can hear you i wanted to um commend Katie Fion from Village School she coordinates she does it every year but this year was the first son my year my son did it um she coordinates the trouble chorus which is
a select few um coral members from four five and six that go to perform in the northeast trouble concert their concert was a couple weeks ago um but I just wanted to commend her for just helping to put together an absolutely amazing
experience for these children um Eric Williamson was the director he was beyond phenomenal the way he was able to put all of these 200 kids from all over the place and the way they sounded you just wouldn't even believe it it was it was amazing and it's such a fantastic
experience for our village students and I just want to commend Katie Fion for providing that to them and just getting the whole thing done all the signups getting everybody there um she's just remarkable and so thank you so much for that you awesome thanks Alison sarah did
you have Oh you did oh thank you sorry um okay i'm going to move on our next um agenda item is public comment um I'm going to remind everyone our policy is that public comment is scheduled for 15 minutes um we ask individuals to try to
keep their comments to three minutes or less um which would be appreciated i have one person online and I have I think probably a few people um signed up for um in person i'm going to go first online and I see it was um I see one
hand which was Nyla can we let this gentleman back oh I'm sorry i'm sorry na hang on one second we had a um student here who would like to speak and probably want to get our student home to do homework so let me just get or soccer practice what
whatever it may be welcome this is it karen welcome let's see we typically leave an address but when it's been students in the past we don't ask them to say their address sorry Sarah what um what i just let them know that in the past when we've had students we don't require them to say
their address because they're kids they're problematic welcome welcome J go ahead um sorry um my thoughts on the policy right now
is that I feel that if you're taking say you would take the like the plants or displays off the walls i feel like it would be off the
art like in my perspective out of my perspective I just made a clay project and it's currently in the display box by the cafeteria and I was really proud of it so and a bunch of students have their
artwork hanging up in the hallway and they're like "Oh my god that's me." making part of it cuz if it's cuz if it's not like if you take the that away and then there's no artwork in the hall first of all it's going to be bland as well there's basically going to be no
point in doing art besides making the art and forgetting about it because it's not going to be hung up no one's going to see your art only you are basically going to see it besides your teacher that you give it to or people you decide to share it with and I feel like taking away the the
stuff from the halls wouldn't really help because you're taking away all the supported cuz the halls have most of the the banners and like like displays on them like in
the main lobby and village there's a Black Lives Matter banner right when you walk in and see it and I think there's also a private life somewhere um near there and I feel like if you're taking it also
still out of the classroom not just the halls cuz I guarantee you in pretty much every classroom there's going to be at least two banners or symbolic place of something cuz if you're taking away the stuff that
is say like the Black Lives Matter didn't bolt I feel like not just impacting just the general people head but like most of the student education because a lot of students like in my
classroom I um there's a like a banner that said you can do like you can do this and it has like a symbol on it it has the P symbol on it and that would like students and there's
a bunch of those all over the classroom it's like giving encouraging words it's like helping students and I feel like if you take away all the supportive like symbols and banners and
inscriptions on these banners and general entitlements I feel like the students would be like they it would be it would be a loss as well as the teachers wouldn't be I don't think the teachers would be very happy about that
cuz like they need that for the students education and I feel like it's it's not if it's just general if you want to know what the students feel like cuz this whole policy are probably just going to impact the students the most because these the
energy slaves are mostly inside schools um I feel like doing a poll or something would be better cuz we get that the people in the meetings that have been here have like usually said their
opinion and then we're like and and then they took off the opinion for that but if you do a poll we could ask the students what they think about it say you could just set up one maybe like
on our Google classroom that we have on our Chromebooks that everyone has because they need it it's been three minutes just so you know if you could kind of finish up that' be great thank you and you would set the poll students would answer and I feel like if you do that for
maybe a grade or two or like just the school in general and then you could do it for multiple schools you could understand if the student point of view is of it is for because not just the parent view you could also do a poll by emailing parents
um about what they think about it because I think they have a good portion in their speech about it and I think like if you want to know what the students think about it which will be mostly they're the majority of the people that will impact by it i feel
like that would be better if you gave them a poll to see what they Thank you um Margaret Clark is here too i'm going to go with Margaret then I'll go back to another question Margaret uh and I street
um to be clear to respond as the comments spoken by others u the last meeting I am that shy person that couldn't speak for themselves especially publicly and especially back in grade school your extreme polic policy has made me push through that barrier because this issue is so important to
the future of our school and I've been surprised to find out that I speak for others that for various reasons cannot speak out for themselves why the rush we've been taught that when you get an email or a text and it says it's urgent we should be suspicious i feel the same way about
the rush you all have in establishing your flag policy for your 43 agenda it was a flag policy 47a agenda it's a flag and banner policy but it is way broader than that and therefore not represented properly on your
agendas nor have there been any meeting minutes produced or approved when posted for any of these meetings and why has there been no broad notification to parents and students of each meeting that includes this allimportant flag banner and symbolic display policy
change the pro proposed language still puts the school committee making every individual decision on what gets displayed you are just setting up an insurmountable uh an insurmountable roadblock to anything being displayed you may write
that it is policy quote unquote but that is administering and it extends way beyond what you were elected to do i urge you to take the time to understand all implications of your policy changes and to honestly post more broadly your intentions for these policy changes to
the community you sought out input on which 10 days would be the makeup days after the strike but you seek no input on a policy that would devastate the inner workings of the school why not seek out in input via survey from all parents district parents and families by
leaving them out of the process you are not representing them in addition to the millions of symbols I noted last time you also need to consider that this symbolic display language might cover posters like the four behind you that are used for instructions in the
library also posters legally required to be posted for all employees to see their legal rights are you going to make the superintendent remove such posters and then come back to you to request that they be allowed be put back you would be requiring him to break state and federal laws while the process
while you process these requests that is just one of many examples you simply can't remove all symbolic displays that are affixed to the school building without doing so you need to make this policy appropriate for future generations and future school committee
committee members sitting in your seats if you uh if you leave the language so broad a future school committee might interpret it differently and you are excluding even yourselves from the conversation whenever that time comes spend three minutes m you are ch Yes you are choosing to erase
all culture just because there is some culture that doesn't fit your doctrine erasing the history and erasing the community is destroying the education we need to educate our children about democracy and how there are diverse cultures and diverse opinions and we need to teach acceptance and love for
each other despite those differences please center your policy around love and acceptance instead of eraser and deletion of culture be the brave leaders you are elected to be question each other on this overreaching policy and
lead our students to a better future thank you um Nyla I'm gonna [Music] Can you hear me yeah Nyla welcome okay
fantastic um I actually wrote something okay so I'm going to read it um so I'm here to request that the Marblehead Public School District leadership take immediate action to add a viewpoint
neutral clause to the existing draft flag policy that that we're working off from last week last meeting your commitment to viewpoint neutrality will ensure that Marblehead Public School maintains a values-based
developmentally appropriate consistent and legally sound approach to government speech through symbolic displays our community has spent 18 months embroiled in a contentious debate over symbolic flag displays specifically the pride
black flags matter and Israeli flags that have become permanent fixtures on lunchroom walls at Marblehead High School on some classroom walls and in other public areas many students families and educators consider these flags to be symbols of
inclusion that sense of belonging to historically marginalized groups but while many students parents and educators see some or all of these symbols as inclusive and welcoming many other students parents and educators see
some or all of these symbols as exclusive and offensive what's more such points of view are fluid and change over time based on current events such as the terrorist attacks on October 7th
national elections and evidence-based medical reviews throughout the flag debate amidst passionate public discourse two things have become abundantly clear symbolic displays are subjective and feelings about them are based on deeply
held often implacable beliefs so the question is how does the school committee expect to adjudicate which beliefs are inclusive or exclusive which beliefs are welcoming or unwelcoming which beliefs are right or
wrong especially when the target is always moving this is the crux of the flag debate and terribly important to the community now and into the future because school boards change and events happen but our children deserve stability and
consistency especially in messaging so do we really want to base our schoolboard elections on which candidate champions certain symbols and who doesn't if the school board doesn't strongly commit to viewpoint neutrality right now in this flag policy we risk
flags and symbols of inclusion becoming a political football perpetually distracting our public officials from doing the hard work of overseeing our children's education so now that the boundary between personal and government speech has been clearly defined in the flag
policy the question is based on what criteria will the school committee determine what is appropriate government speech just so you know okay well students can affix symbols um how does
the government determine what is neutral so I propose that you add a viewpoint neutrality statement that could read something like this the Marblehead Public School District affirms that all government
speech expressed through symbolic language banners flags or similar displays on school property shall be presented in a viewpoint neutral manner the district shall not use such displays to promote endorse or oppose any
particular political religious ideological or partisan viewpoint all such speech shall be limited to content that is directly related to the district's educational mission public service announcements or message of general civic unity that do not favor
one viewpoint or another and what that means in plain English is that when a flag request comes across the superintendent's desk and then eventually potentially to you you check for three things that it's
values-based that you know you ask is the requested symbolic signage aligned with our district mission and values is it curriculum based is the requested symbolic signage an integral part of the curriculum and is it viewpoint neutral in other words will
the requested symbolic signage reasonably be interpreted as a universal message that third point this is I'm finishing up that third point may be less hard to define but it does give the district leadership a reasonable leeway to course correct as needed so for
example if a student proposes a flag that the student superintendent thoughtfully determines meets all three of those criteria and is approved by the school committee but then subsequently several students or parents may call attention to points of that were
previously unconsidered by the committee or if an event takes place that changes the perception of that particular signage in these cases the committee may reconsider the signage based on new evidence and may decide to take the signage down but there should be
obviously a process for that but they have some like three specific metrics to say is this neutral right so that's all I have to say i'm writing all this to you and um you'll get it later when I
think um where we're at um 15 minutes right now if the committee want to go forward i've got one two three four names on the list and no long um are there any names in the list who
we haven't heard from right because um to channel you know to hear I don't think we've heard from Aaron before um Audrey How have we heard from if there's only four people I recommend
we just Yeah four we just move forward i mean that's 12 minutes I think okay if we could really keep it to three minutes I'd appreciate it um Angus McQuilin thank you very much angus McQuelen 39 Tyers Lane i just want to make three
points really questions I hope the committee will consider as you deliberate on this issue this evening the first is this at the last meeting committee member Sarah Fox asked that the language regarding additional symbolic displays be removed from the policy it has not been removed it is
still in the draft that is before you tonight it appeared to be the will of the committee that that language be removed it has not been removed so my question is that was something I was going to Why has it not been removed i probably made a mistake okay so that language is very important to remove
it's a clear violation of the constitution to say to students you can't hang your artwork in the hall it has some symbols of unity or or history or that was never the point of individual in the school so that's question number one so if that change
wasn't made then I don't think this policy is ready for prime time you should table the second reading bump it to your next meeting and continue the discussion then thank you second point the offensive and unconstitutional language that prohibits third party
petitions to the school committee remains in the draft policy this language is not in the town policy around flags because it's not necessary to include such language to be compliant with any statute or legal precedent this
language is not in the Marblehead Housing Authority policy prohibiting people from petitioning that body to make decisions about flags and banners i would note the town policy by the way only speaks to flags but in practice the way it works is that residents of this
community taxpayers homeowners voters can go to the select board and say "I'd like this flag to be flown to recognize this particular holiday recognize this particular message." That's how it works in the town policy so my question is why the extreme variance from the town flag
policy and the draft that is before you today it's clear that it's a it's a decision it's not a legal requirement decision by this committee that you want to shield yourself from public input you don't have to do that there's no law requiring you to do that and it is
unconstitutional to do it first amendment provides a right of petition to every citizen that they can petition their government frankly and due respect to John Rodo who I like a great deal he is not an elected official he is not the government i have a right to petition you so if that language is included in
the policy you are inviting very expensive constitutional litigation against the town marblehead in the public schools i would urge you to remove that language the third thing I want to ask is this is a symbol that a teacher in Idaho has been ordered to remove from their classroom it simply
says everyone is welcome here this is the banner the exact banner that is on that school classroom wall where the teachers been ordered to remove it due to a policy similar to what's being proposed here so my question is and so I think
the the concerns of teachers are wellounded they've asked the committee to cease and desist as of yesterday at least according to the marble head current they had not seen a response to their request for the committee to cease and desist i don't understand how that could be possible that the committee has
been nonresponsive to our teachers in that regard but their concern is wellounded because of what we're seeing happen elsewhere straightforward message everyone is welcome here three minutes being ordered to be removed from the wall so my question for the committee and I'll conclude with this is what are you going to do and this is a question
for the superintendent as well when teachers in Marblehead refuse to remove symbols that your policy requires them to remove because that is exactly what is going to happen teachers will refuse to comply just as this courageous teacher is doing in Idaho are you going
to fire those teachers that's my question thank you for the time uh we have a point of clarification can you please Yeah thank you i'm not I have a couple of them as well clarification for the general public i'm not going back and forth with um public comment that
would be against our policy um that first of all that I was I will go to that during um that part of the agenda i noticed that and it's just a clear glare we can strike that language again there was a motion which pre takes precedent over what is written here to strike that
language so we're we're in the clear there it's a typo we can remove that um second of all as far as the town policy just so a point of clarification the town policy no one actually appeals to the select board um the town policy is very clear that they don't go to the
select board they only go to their agent who is that keys are currently the town administrator that's the town policy happy to it to anybody that doesn't have a copy of that that's the policy that they voted i've checked with that governing body that is very clear their
policy that Kezer doesn't even bring it before their board ever he just makes the dis decision on his own um we have we have um the role of town administrator is slightly different than the role of superintendent through the school committee due to national law
chapter 70 but just as that point of clarification when someone appeals to the town it never goes before the select board it goes only in front of the town administrator so you know just to collect any correct any errors there and I'm going to move on to Aaron and um
Oper is it Oper good evening Aaron Alperman 14 Anderson Street um thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak um and I appreciate the other comments that have been on the flag policy which is also what I'd like
to address um I am here at the meeting before the committee um for two reasons and I I guess more so in two capacities one um as a lawyer concerned with the formulation of the policy um and
secondly as a queer mother of a Marblehead public school student um I am concerned by the seeming lack of understanding of what is really a simple um area of law
and that is the first amendment once this committee creates a policy it essentially controls what goes in and what goes out and it either has to let everything in or let nothing in um once a policy is created it's
essentially like the school committee um creating a box and it must keep everything out or everything in my opinion um the school committee is premature in enacting any policy at all
what I know about what has brought us to the issue of a flag policy is that um the issue was essentially created not by students um but by adults by a parent um and by a reactionary teacher and instead
of dealing with the actions of those two adults this committee risks creating an unnecessary and reactionary policy that is creating a problem that in my opinion didn't exist in the beginning um I read
the proposed policies the amendments of the policies um proposed adjustments by the community and as someone who has practiced law constitutional law for 16 years I'm really concerned that the school committee is going to get sued by one
side or another it is I it it it is black and white the first amendment on this issue and I fear that a lot of the community and possibly some of the committee members don't truly understand that my suggestion which I think echoes
other suggestions suggestions of other community members for different reasons is to simply at this point enact no policy at all i don't think it's necessary from my understanding of the schools in town the students and the
administrators and the faculty for the most part do a really great job of elevating speech that the school schools agree on um I I don't think that it is necessary for the committee to insert themselves at this point in creating a
policy that has clearly created again problems that may or may not have existed prior to this i don't think that parents and I especially don't think that community members who don't have children in Marblehead public schools should be driving the um conversation on
this topic and that is clearly what is happening now um I do also want to point out that been three minutes um I do also want to point out that um there have been a variety of different um concerns raised by the committee members
um last meeting um Sarah um asked the question of why people in the schools aren't feeling like their voices are heard or represented or protected in the first place that's very valid um but one unfortunate aspect of this um discussion
has been hearing some of the voices um of this town and of this committee um that are um offensive to be frank um and I I certainly hope um as a woman married to another woman who has two children in
town one of whom is a public school student um that this committee keeps in mind that it is offensive to hear that people are offended by the Pride flag it is offensive to hear that people think that that flag does not represent
traditional family values i assure you that not only my family but the other queer families in town have admirable family values i invite any school committee member to talk to me if you want to hear more about that um and I'm also happy to introduce you to any of
the other families in town that have been um deeply hurt by some of the comments made by community members um and committee members during this discussion um so that is my my my urging for this committee at this point thank
you thank you um I have um uh Audrey House Margaret i'm not a public speaker me but this issue is important to me um I'm here tonight to ask the
school committee to table the Brooklyn flag policy you've said this policy is about avoiding legal risk in Sherlock E boston but that case does not require this kind of broad suppression it simply says that if the government opens a space for expression it must be
viewpoint neutral that means you can create clear fair guidelines not that you need to silence every voice to avoid litigation in fact by shutting down all expression except government sanctioned messages you're inviting new legal challenges under the First Amendment and
let's be honest this is not just about the law some committee members have made it clear that this is political we've mentioned Black Lives Matter flags being problematic a member also stated that rainbow flags don't reflect traditional family values those statements reveal a
deeper agenda one that goes beyond mutual governance and into ideological gate what does this flag policy mean for academics will student art growth featuring pride symbols or calls for equity be banned unless individually approved by the school committee are we
going to scrutinize classroom displays of political subjects this opens the door to censorship that stifles both student expression and teacher autonomy policies like this push us down a slippery slope not just towards silencing voices but towards undermining
the district's commitment to diversity equity and inclusion and that in the long run supports the very portion of exclusion and division this community has always stood against please reject table this policy let's leave with fairy fairness and a commitment to all our
students thank you thank you and then I have uh Diane Flora hi Diane Bora 24 Nicholson Street i just have one question that I hope will be answered at some point um what justification do you have for taking the
enforcement of the flag policy out of the hands of the administration thank you right uh that is um one here oh I see Genie genie lamp genie you
should be able to Yep you see me or hear me okay hi uh welcome um thank you for um allowing me to join and I I joined a few minutes late so I apologize if I'm asking something that was already asked um I have three questions that I hope
you will be able to answer during your discussion one is just a clarification um what the three public readings requirement is because I'm confused if it's just three readings even as the policy is tweaked and changed so that
it's just as you at some point if you could just explain what the expectations are for those of us who are not schooled in the meeting rules um and my other two questions go to um I um I'm really um
struck by some of the comments at the last meeting that suggested that the policy is set by the school committee and it will be on the responsibility of the superintendent to uh implement procedures which as a broad division of labor or responsibility makes sense but
what I was confounded by was the notion that um you would vote on a policy without having at least had a presentation of the expected procedures that would implement said policy for the very reason that some of the uh
conversational whatifs you had the last time could actually be sort of um you know proofed a bit you know do you all share the same expectations of what various steps in the procedure should do and are you envisioning that the policy
that's in your own mind as you choose to vote is going to be enacted in a way that would be consistent so I I just would like just some discussion of um and and maybe it's not typical but this is not a typical policy as we've all
experienced over the last two years why wouldn't you have a presentation from the superintendent as to once the policy was set how it would be enacted how it would be implemented um and the last
part of that um is my third question and um a little bit of this was raised um again going to you know I don't know measure 500 times before you cut what are your expectations for accountabilities and consequences when
inevitably as in anything in life something goes wrong and the policy is violated whether inadvertently or intentionally um who is being held accountable and to what consequences for what types of v violations it just I'm
just asking now almost irrespective of the content like how do you vote for a policy if you don't have visibility to how it will be implemented and who will be held accountable with what consequences if and when the policy is violated so I appreciate it and we'll
wait to hear your comments later thank you good all right i'm going to move on to um our public hearing for school choice so I'm going to
close I'm just going to open the hearing um our public hearing for school choice for the 2520 2025 2026 school year um John I don't know if you want to speak to this i know you gave us a document in a memo i can hear that um
right here thank you um so I'll just read the memo that I shared with school committee so I don't miss anything provisions of the Educational Reform Act of 1993 the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education presumes that each school committee will admit non-resident students under the school choice program
unless there's a vote to the contrary under MGL chapter 76 section 12B the school committee is obliged to hold a public hearing and vote on school choice participation prior to June 1st of each school year so this is an annual discussion and vote um then my
recommendation is for Marblehead public schools to not participate in school choice for 2526 school year and that the school committee take action on this matter at their open meeting scheduled for April 17th um 2025 vote at this juncture will allow the district um ample time to notify the
state of our decision in accordance with the June one deadline and it's a proposed motion packed open to the public any comments anyone here at the library specific specific to
the school choice sorry Maria public you could also give us your name and architectur if you could just clarify in briefly this this suggesting that other students in other towns would not have the choice to come here is that was that
what's Yes there's a state statute um part of the the I believe it's part of every form act and chapter 70 revision or creations um that says that every district is automatically opted in to
school choice unless a district takes a vote every year prior to June 1st and then notifies the state that they've opted out um so each year the superintendent comes and makes a recommendation to the school committee and we by law have a public hearing on
it um so that's kind of and I can speak a little bit more to that because sometimes a question comes up um you know why not why not um um so if we were to vote for school choice um there's a couple options one we can uh determine school committee can determine how many
slots we would have available and at which grades um that's one two we would open up the slots and say these are the slots we have open we we advertise that and then students from you know anywhere in the area that want to decide to come to Marblehead would apply to come and uh
part of that process is they would apply to come and unless there was if there was say 10 slots on one grade level and they only had eight all eight would be admitted in if there's 11 or 12 students for that slot we'd have to do a lottery um and throughout that whole process we can't ask for um the records of students
you can't ask if they have a 504 an IEP disciplinary action and none of that stuff um until or unless uh they're they come into the school and then at that point we would get records from you know whatever school they were in before so um that's part of uh the discussion that
we have um because potentially someone could come into Marblehead schools and have a great amount of need and we wouldn't necessarily know that um until they came in and and then the funding from the state is at $5,000 um per student comes through the chapter 70 um
money um per student unless they have significant special education needs and we can we can um look to get additional funding through um through a process that's a little bit more complicated than we need to go into today but for all intents and purposes many school
districts do school choice um for for various reasons and many school districts opt not to have school choice um for various reasons and those are some of some of the reasons are what I just explained some of the reasons are um you know members of the town say we pay taxes here and people coming in
don't pay taxes so why are we educating kids from other districts so those are all conversations that have been had in my previous existence as superintendent so I just share that as part of uh thatification it's also 5,000 versus the the 18 whatever that we would normally
get from the state right that's I think that's the monetary difference it is correct you don't you don't get So for every student in our um in our system we get a certain amount of money per student um and there's over $10,000 of a difference between what you get for
a student that's here from school choice um which can equal a very big financial um loss a reimbursement rate is the same for all students whether they arrive in Salem it's
just the additional portion always goes to the taxpayers and so we would be asking the taxpayers to fund other towns students which people have mixed feelings on that did you have another comment yeah I just have a follow
questions one is um what has been the previous year's policy then would if there if you did allow school choice previously would this affect students we never had so I say if we did if we did allow students to come in and then next year we said no students that we would
allow in have the ability to wait remain until through graduation we but as far as I understand we haven't done school choice so for historical perspective Marblehead has never done school choice um so I've I've always had mixed um
mixed feelings on on this because if we tr truly want to embrace diversity equity inclusion i I think that saying we we'd like to offer students from other areas to bring their life
experiences and bring them here is is a great way to do that we are a very specific homogeneous town and um I think that it's in I like the idea of school choice because it doesn't just bring
racial diversity which is important but it can also open up the doors to other forms of diversity whether that's socioeconomic diversity um religious divers diversity in all all formats so I I do like that the the part that's
always been a hardship for me is that we're not with these students we get no background information as far as the disciplinary records the IEP being the 504 while it's definitely a fiscal driver and needs to realistically be
looked at is less of a concern because um diversity within able you know ability is also important but when we talk about discipline records we have seen in the past what happens when we have students come in and you have no
idea what what their history is we're not able to properly meet their need we're not setting them up for success we're not setting their peers up for success or our staff up for success and unfortunately sometimes with programs like this you do get people who are shopping you know for districts because
they have burn through previous districts and they they just hop and hop and hop and that's certainly not setting the students up for success so until kind of we have a better way to address that also
um until we have a more stable fiscal situation in Marblehead that's that's the other big arm to this we um were able to make this work this year with our budget but we know we're up against some very significant fiscal hurdles and
we would not be doing right by anyone by saying we're going to take more on before we know that we can provide what everybody needs for who's here and one of the things we did through the collective bargaining process is um previously only our unit A had the contractual ability to bring their
students in we opened that up to all units because um the union made a very valid point that just a caveat in practice we were allowing other other units in but it wasn't memorialized in the contract yet um and for equity what
we did was we made it so that all units same as school choice space available um could bring their students in so this will be the fir this coming school year will be the first year of that so we really I think need to see how that plays out too and how that changes our census and and make sure that we are
able to adequately provide and meet the needs of all of the students we have and are going to system before we move on further so I will make a motion to Oh no i was just gonna make it up like
doing it move that the Marble Head Public Schools do not participate in school choice program for the 20 2526 school so I have a motion do I have a second second
second okay any other discussion comments i'm going to call for a vote allison Taylor not in favor right oda not in favor not in favor you want school choice no I don't want you
in i'm in favor sorry sarah Fox in favor jen Shaner in favor for two going to close the close the um public hearing at
652 okay okay uh moving on to um district updates um Miss M Miss Shaer um I guess my time to um our student oh sure yeah yeah jared welcome if it's the will of the committee we have a a
student here who is going to make a presentation on a donation and probably has other things to be doing tonight thank you welcome welcome jar Kaplich president yeah so I am Japan this is your class president i just want to thank our begin by thanking our class
because without the generous gen generosity of our class and families of our class we would not be able to uh fund as much of our funding and we are lucky to be in the situation that we're in so I want to thank class of 2025 families for that uh so we've worked closely with Dr carlson our advisor Mr
um as well as the custodial staff and Mr blood good to pose question of what does the high school need and what can we do to best you know give back to the school uh for our legacy here the last four years um and the first thing that was posed to Mr bro last year during
graduation was a new banner that goes behind the graduation stage i don't know if anyone's familiar but behind the graduation stage they put up a big banner which says I think it's at the MHS the one hanging in the front lobby right now uh the that banner was I originally donated by the class of 2017
I believe um and when they built that banner it was meant for an indoor graduation uh since then we've moved our graduation out on the field if the weather's good enough to leave it out on the field uh and the custodial staff has said that that banner is very hard to
paint and when it is windy it is it's not supportive that environment so we've looked into a new banner that's actually going to make be made out of vinyl it has wind slits in it um it's going to echo the design that's up there now just it's going to be red and black marlying
colors um and that's costs $875 that was the first thing we looked into and we said to ourselves "Okay we're going to give back more than $875 because our budget allows it." Um so one of the students at the high school actually gave us the idea of replacing
the water bubblers in the high school um and if you're not familiar the water bubblers actually have water bottle refillers on them so if you're sitting at class high school you ask this I hear it probably 10 times a week 20 times a week a kid raise their hand and say can I go fill my water bottle I think
they're probably one of the most commonly used things in the high school um and the so the ones that are most commonly used are the cafeteria the first floor A-wing and the second floor a wing math wing and English wing and they're also outside the bathrooms so the A-wings are where the bathrooms are
located on both floors uh and Mr good has actually given us this this is the one that they're trying to put in the district so it's in the entire district and that just helps for uh because people buy uh products in bulk like filters and everything so he's given us
the uh actual bubblers that they prefer us to order which we're obviously going to do that so that I mean we can save the budget of having all the supplies in in stock it so each level is 2,300 sorry 23148 cents uh for each
floor so it's total 6,000 $944 we're going to replace all three of them uh so I asked the school committee to approve our request to replace the banner and then three of the water bubblers totaling $6,000
$96944 awesome just real quick u just for a point of clarification the way it typically works is um and I'm sure Dr carlson will work this out with you you make the donation to the district and then they we procure it so the way we're going to do it is and we've worked with Mr blood on this as well is we're going
to order the banner so we'll work with uh Bin Graphic Works and Marblehead they have they'll print it for us um and then as far as the bubbler goes the facilities department will order the bubblers and they will install them and I missed this but the bubblers will also
I think it was the class of 2013 that donated them they're just getting outdated um the one in the caf the it's like a refrigerator and it it's not doesn't cool anymore so that one's completely outdated um we're going to reburse the facilities department for the cost of all perfect great perfect
okay um and then the current banner that a previous class fundraised in purchase if that's still in working order will that still stay i want to make sure I want to make sure that stays up perfect i just want to make sure it's each class really works to Yes no I want to make sure i totally agree i think we can find
a new spot in the high school for our banner to go when it's not being used for graduation but I definitely think the new banner the old banner should stay up perfect thank you yeah works really hard my daughter's class for their fifth um reunion so you
can also come back and Yeah I definitely for your fifth i think it's up and it's just showing it like I'm taking up and down and hanging in the wind that's kind of where the behind so then do we need Yeah I need a m um we
need a motion to approve the donation in the amount of $6,96944 correct so moved moved by Sarah do I have a second second i do a roll call allison Taylor in favor brian Ood in favor sarah Fox in
favor jen Shner in favor four to zero thank you Jack thank you can we um both presenting the graduation so I appreciate Yeah you'll have time right yeah so everything will be the banner will be here in time and then hopefully now that it's approved that Yeah let's cross our fingers that it can be outside i know it's fingers
crossed thank you have a good rest thank you you too okay uh back to district updates superintendent Robin you chairwoman um so I'll just go through my my updates i have several i'll try to get through
them quickly i'm mindful of time but um April's a busy month as we head into spring and all the end of the school year activities um I want to acknowledge again acknowledge uh and wish happy folks a happy Passover and also share well wishes for a happy Easter season um
we were unfortunately um unfortunately informed this week that our longtime middle school principal Matt Fox has been named the as the finalist for principal at West Middle School in Andover we anticipate that this will come to fruition so I will I think it's safe to say that our education community
will miss him and wholeheartedly thank him for his many years of service and for the stability he has provided to so many students and families in Marblehead public schools congratul Congratulations on the pending move and best wishes in your new endeavor Matt um so that's that's that's be a big loss for uh for
the district uh we're working on you know posting and we go through establishing committee etc matt's been really good about informing me of all the steps in the process the whole way through so I wholeheartedly appreciate that working with the receiving superintendent um on the transition so
just wanted to share that with the community at large uh Julia Ferrero with the support of the PTO PCOS brought project reboot to our district i was able to attend the parent presentation and was wholly impressed with the data shared and the perspectives regarding usage of devices there were middle and
high school student presentations as well and I'm hopeful that this opportunity will spark ongoing and meaningful dialogue at both home and in schools regarding safe tech usage so thank you once again to Julia and our awesome PTO PCOS for the support um Ella mentioned uh Hades Town the teen edition
ran this past weekend by all accounts it was a rousing success and a great final show for our senior students i was unfortunately unable to attend but we had many administrators and staff i think Julie went um that went through the throughout the weekend and all the feedback has been great so uh that's
awesome to see and hear um Ella gave a a good athletics update and we're excited about the prospects for a solid season i did want to share that our um unified track has had three um meet so far one was away and two were at home i was I was excited that I was able to attend
the contest against Salem last week and was proud of our athletes and the inclusivity that is such a huge part of all the unified sports so I I love that and um there was a ton of kids um from both teams over at Village Field it was just great to see um a lot of this is
about me tonight but it's about sharing student stuff i just want to share i was excited to be able to judge in Kelly Delaney's culinary arts chopped challenge last Friday at the high school teams of students produced world-class dishes from their baskets containing secret ingredients they had 30 minutes
to create cook and execute the dishes for the panel of judges i I was a a panelist for three of their students um I neglected to write down all the names so I apologize but it was really cool there's four of us um and having u been a previous restaurant owner and operator I was very impressed by the skills and
was full after sampling all the creations they saw all the aspiring chefs it was really cool it was a really really good um time i was I was thankful to be able to do that thank you to obviously all the kids last week was kindergarten orientation for parents i was able to get over the Brown School to
see Maryfield welcome the parents of the class of 2038 it's crazy uh I was so impressed with her presentation which was clear concise and contained all the pertinent information needed for a smooth transition into our school system glover School held their orientation at the same time so I couldn't speak myself
so I I apologize to Frank but um I did speak with uh Principal Kowalsski afterwards when I went to the Project Reboot um and he indicated that everything went well there so that that was great i think we're in a good place in kindergarten orientation on Monday I was able to get over to Brown again for another kindergarten related event sorry
it was really it's been really busy this spring um this one featured all of our kinders uh performing outside in the area next to the playground it was like the one and only sunny day um up until then in like two weeks it was perfect it was beautiful um was the highlight of my week and great job by Eileen Deore who was actually battling an illness but
hung in there for the kids she was really struggling but she did a great job yeah um but uh it was you know over 100 kindergarters and she had them while singing it was it was really cool great great time on Tuesday April 15th third grade parents and guardians were welcomed to the village school to learn
about all the awesome things that will be happening as their rising fourth graders transition next year go Ducks um late this morning seventh graders uh from Dr judkins and Mr shaffen's class called Holmes at the Pack which featured original moving poetry by um Adeline
Hamilton Vivy Gable Wilmer Ba Bae I believe Brooke Griffin Finn Walsh Hudson Allen Beatatrix Mary Mave Corgi Fiona Anderson and Morgan Patterson the students did a great job reciting their poems for their peers staff parents and
grandparents it was a great break in the middle of a busy day and I it was it was it was great to listen to some very talented poets Dr johnson and Mr sha were homes pretty good too yeah they they kicked it off but the kids were amazing um so that was great and finally
next Tuesday is Earth Day this is a great time to reflect on ways we can help protect our resources and keep our earth clean i know there are activities happening throughout the schools in the town but one I'd like to highlight is the village school service project where classes go out and clean around the uh areas around the school and neighborhoods to help keep Marblehead
beautiful while calling attention to the importance of being green the service project is causally linked to state standards grade four earth science in earth and space science grade five physical science grade life science uh life grade six life science as well as crosscurricular connections to
environmental literacy civic engagement and social responsibility thanks to our point point people Andy Madden grade four Christine Gro grade five and nai grade six for the coordination and efforts thank you madam chair for press thank you district updates
y um so when you talked about for the track meet that another phrase the unified um last year when we had a chance to come down and see your your then home district they were having the unified games it really was an amazing
experience to see an entire school community come around and support and truly truly have you know an inclusive environment um and that was that's one of the things that I would be so excited i know it's been a super crazy year we
have another year with you know some funding challenges but as we move forward and you develop um your next strategic plan i would love if we can expand the unify um games if you will if you would call it because I it was it
was such an amazing program and I think that you know we should be embracing that and I say you know and I thank you for mentioning that um we were actually the one of the first um towns in all of Massachusetts were fully unified when I was in Swansea so I was very proud of
that uh takes a lot of work to to get there and it really has to do with not just unified sports or athletics at the middle school and high school has to do with establishing and there's criteria that's through special Olympics explain so people might not know what unified sports are yeah sorry my specialized
background I know I just think everybody knows so unified sports is where you know students um that are differently aabled are are paired up with um typically developing students and you know there's unified you know basketball volleyball uh bate um track and field a bunch of different
um um athletics and uh we partner partner the typically developing students with the kids that need some extra assistance and uh they they play they play games against other districts um uh just like you would uh typical athletics um you know there's generally less less contests and less practices
but it still affords them the opportunity to participate in in sports where they may not otherwise be able to do that and it takes a lot of coordination a lot of effort because you need the staff that's willing to do it hopefully developing students that are willing to be the partners the peer partners um but it's really cool when it
comes together and there's a bunch of different ways to be unified it's not just athletics it's different activities within the schools i think when you came down it was the three to five school and they were doing like little like a mini Olympus thing outside there like do balance beams and uh all sorts of cool activities and they all got medals and
it was really neat and um you know there's very specific criteria from Special Olympics that that you have to meet to be able to be a unified school and then a unified district so it's definitely something on the docket i don't lease me like please don't give me anything else but I think I think on as
as we move forward and you know um you know I think that's something that's definitely be my brothers and I'm sure Sam would agree that it would be great to have here in Marland i mean I truly it it a lot of times when we talk about some of these ways to bring more
inclusivity and equity it sometimes starts to present itself almost like a little bit of tokenism if you will th this this truly felt like equity watching these kids watching parents come community members I think there are
some police officers there um every single child in that school was cheering on everyone it It was beautiful and I would just I would love to see us move closer to that
that was the stage for you guys it was It was amazing thank you all right um I'm going to move on to our schedule bills um I am looking for a motion to approve the schedule bills for $958,3652 so move
Moved by Sarah uh do I have a second second second all right I'm going do a roll call uh Alison Taylor in favor byodota in favor sarah Fog in favor jen Shatner in favor
420 thank you okay going to move on to our school committee communication and discussion items uh the first thing we have on our um committee communication discussion items is we have a representative um from Power App who is the founder
oh wait she was on Megan all right give me one second we can't hear you guys you should be okay can you hear us now Alison you can
text right megan Sweeney are you there i am sorry all right we can hear you you got you're a little echoey Jen jen did you want me to share screen or are you going to present over there what are
we What do you want me to do uh give me one second to restart oh no okay um Frank are you all set oh Frank okay so no we're gonna have we have your slide deck so we're going to pull that up right now on the screen and I see you see that if you want to and I'll just Should I just yell frank should I just
yell at you and say change slides yes that would be fine he can definitely do that he can hear you so this is going to be a presentation and then um there's an ask here in regards to a proclamation that Megan's presenting to us tonight that she's asked us to consider um we are the third board in town to be
considering it this month go ahead Megan welcome thank you thank you yes um hello everybody uh I am Megan Sweeney and as Jen said I am the founder of Power Up thank you very much for letting me speak and yes this is the third time um this
topic has been presented which is a difficult topic but I think it's important that we have these conversations so thank you very much um with that regard I tried to be careful with language use in um in the presentation but for us who are
survivors I know sometimes things can be triggering but I I just wanted to throw that that throw that out there before I began all right so again Megan Sweeney tonight here's a little bit of the agenda um I'd like to talk to you a little bit about how we got here and the
foundation we've set um talk about some potential next steps as Jen mentioned and how we can deepen our impact um from a community uh a community level which I think is really important frank when you're ready
all set thank you um so in October 2023 we had our first conversation we hosted um an event just a an informal gathering with faith leaders activists survivors healers elected officials law enforcement and subject matter experts i
think for those of us who were there it was a very powerful evening and um a great start to this journey to where we are tonight in the months that followed we spent um time educating inviting and creating empathy around gender violence
and the unique needs of girls and women there was some discomfort and it was palpable but we kept pushing because connections were being made and discomfort means growth i'm 37 years into my healing journey oop sorry Frank go back
i sorry I needed a second um I'm 37 years into my healing journey um after assault and um for me and for many others the pain is at a cellular level it's it's tonight for instance I I am not sure why but tonight is is a little
difficult for me so I I apologize if I'm not um fluid or if I pause pretending all right let me try again i I I know that it's difficult to hear and I it shouldn't be necessary for me or anybody to share our most intimate pain
u for others in order to make you care to make you listen or to make you act but I'm willing to do so if it means breaking the cycle pretending Marblehead or any place is somehow magically immune to gender violence is perpetuating harm
we all know a survivor we all know an abuser silence around the violence compounds the pain deepens our isolation silences our voices increases the likelihood for self harm and self-destructive
behaviors alternatively as abusers our abusers live on succeed register to vote um campaign without the fear of publicizing an address and maybe even has a public space named for him silence and
pretending amplify harm like this one leads to healing next Frank no other way no this is No we're good i think that's good we're good the the select board heard us the board
of health heard us and together with the Marblehead Police Department we have denounced violence through formal proclamation which you will reviewing and hopefully voting on um positively tonight and affirming that April is sexual assault month we are also just as a a seed planter we are going to come
back in October and talk about domestic violence but we're going to wait a little bit longer for that andrew Petty the health director has set up resources outside of his office in Mary Alley building so you can quietly look at whatever resources you need and grab a
pamphlet if you need help and together he and I will hopefully be able to talk about a safe bars initiative for next we have support at the state house with both representative Armeni and Senator Kiteon we have the Essex County Commission on the Status of Women who wrote a formal letter of endorsement of
this proclamation hawk and Jane Doe who is the state level for both sexual and domestic violence and many others have expressed support we have Chief Dennis and Detective Gay collaborating to create a campaign on how to educate and empower our community we have met with a
district attorney who made himself accessible and we talked together about how maybe his victim's uh services unit could possibly help us at at a community level all of this was presented and the select board was very appreciated um for the work that was done the conversations
that were started and for the proposals that we made together we we will continue to listen learn and adjust we shared a lot and we learned a lot for example in the preparation uh I learned that there is not one affinity group
dedicated to gender equality or gender violence anywhere in the board structure or excuse me in the town structure and similar to the COVID health disaster that we all experienced a few years ago climate disasters make us especially vulnerable to violence while at the same
time restricting our access to the resources that we need for the school community I see an opportunity to build off what you've already created when you're ready Frank there is already a gender equity platform in place thanks to this board
and I'm very appreciative of that you've by establishing menstrual equity or excuse me establishing menstrual equity is addressed by providing free menstrual products in the schools that is amazing thank you very much removing the shame and blame narrative
is addressed by hosting these type of conversations as they challenge the misplaced shame assigned to girls and women's bodies and functions and even gender violence challenges the rumors and rejects objectification in favor of our shared
humanity by signing on additionally just in case people don't know additionally by signing on to support the IM registration this school committee is modeling how local leaders can influence state house priorities around gender equity raising awareness of sexual
assault is boosted by hosting the YW.CA every year to teach consent in the schools all of these contribute to empowering our young girls reducing harm and creating space for conversations around causes of violence and the need for
equity let's take the next steps when you're ready Frank with the with this amazing foundation that we have created I invite us to dig a little bit deeper and to deepen our impact as a result consider
the YWCA programming on a more regular basis not just second semester of your senior year and why is that because the dozen or so Marblehead High School survivors that I've spoken to said they had already been assaulted at least once
by the time the senior program came about let's make that happen earlier and more timely let's create an opportunity for a tableabling event during lunchtime where students take the accountability pledge uh the New York schools as well as St
john's Prep does does something similar where the students invite their peers to sign a pledge saying that they will denounce violence learn more about it and hold themselves and their peers accountable it's very powerful way to bring men and boys into the
conversation consider including uh a gender awareness workshops in your professional development plans and this one I'm a little bit passionate about so forgive me but how about we sponsor a feminist student organization or some sort of affinity group for discussion community outreach and
educational programming on gender equality let's create a space where next generation leaders are free and encouraged to challenge any narrative which tells them they are too loud too strong too much too weak too emotional or to blame for the violence exacted
upon them invite them to consider gendered norms hierarchies of power intersections of oppression as well as egalitarian and relational-based cultures we could plant the seeds for gender equality and violence free communities to be the norm and we could
start with this next generation but no one should have to disclose their personal trauma in public like this to make people care and take action i thank you so much for this opportunity i think that this is a a a
great sort of deepening to use the same words I used in my presentation just a deepening of what we've already set already put in motion i just think we can go one step further and I thank you so much thank you Megan thank you so much any um
comments or questions for Miss Sweeney i just want to thank you for all the work you've done in this i think I feel like it was you know over a year ago maybe even closer to two years ago where we you had that first meeting and there was quite a large group that was there and some really wonderful conversations that
ensued and how you bring this forward as a town and and you've kept with it you've done this work you're a huge advocate for golf and it's it's so impactful and empowering so I do appreciate that one question I had I don't know if this is a Julia or a John
conversation um it was probably about five or six years ago we had um one of our school school psychologists write a grant to friends of the Marblehead public schools Amanda Lockerby she at the time was at Glover she's no longer with the district she wrote a friends
grant and brought in a speaker she did a portion of professional development for the staff but then was able much like um the one that we had last week in technology spoke to parents at night and it was about how to identify victims of
sexual violence and what it was very it was a very very hard talk to to sit through quite frankly it was a little terrifying but it was true and it needed to be heard um so I would
I I know we've had a lot of new people in and out and I think you know it's not something that we we would ever need to do every year but um I I think it's been a long enough that if we could potentially look at at um doing that
again or something like that again um I can put you in touch with um I'm happy to connect you with Amanda and I know she still has all she's no longer with district but she worked very hard at that this was going back many years maryanne was still here to get this able
to come in um and I think it was great for parents to see what what things to look for what but it's also really important for our staff because you know they spent so much time with our students you know what what are some things that can help identify students
that may have been um in these situations and then get them some help so if we can take this to the next step and and look at some type of professional development for that that then we bring to the community I think it would um put more action to this
proclamation i hope that we will endorse do you have any no I think um I I agree with Sarah and um thank you for the presentation i think it's important i think it's a it's a situation that we don't talk about until something happens and that's always a bad thing right i'm
all about trying to be proactive versus reactive and I think the more we can have the conversations to have conversations um I love the thought of bringing the boys into the conversation um and how we do that i've seen that i I want to say my son's school did that
when he was in high school or something similar and it's pretty impactful because I think you know we have to address those things so you know Julie and I can uh talk some more about the PD and what we look like and when timing and all that stuff i do also agree that the
YW.CA doing that in the senior year is probably a little too late um so we can look at that timing as well um it's just a matter of when it makes sense and I would look to you know so that experts on that you know what what what grade level does that make truly make sense in
just like a lot of other things we address things a little bit too late technology piece a lot of times it's a little bit too late the vaping piece a little too late I think uh it's always good to understand that we have to start these things Allison you had your hand up
yeah I I just want to say I'm really proud of this Megan and of you for doing this i know the courage that it takes to talk about this kind of stuff um particularly if there's any personal you know reference to it and as a survivor I fully support this i'm really proud of
the other committees in town and groups in town that have already um supported this for you and I'm really excited for us to do that too i just want to know well hopefully it's the will of the committee sorry just to be I think it's important or someone
misquatistically females are much at a much higher rate it does being a male does not preclude you from having this horrible experience and as we saw you know several years back particularly in one of our um affiliations with a
particular youth sport you know it it was our our male students um that that you know had this experience so I just want to make sure that to to Megan's point your your gender should minimize this so I just
wanted to make sure that we're acknowledging this is not something that happens just to one yeah no that's a really good point and thank you and again thank you Megan uh for coming tonight and sharing this with us and I do also thank the other boards in town and I think as a school personally I
feel when Megan came and asked me about this um to have it on the agenda you know it's not lost on me that our um our committee is you know responsible for or or works with you know children that are
even more vulnerable um versus you know adults i mean everyone can can be vulnerable but we also have children and I think what we've seen particularly recently in the media even today there was a student I don't know if anyone's seeing this I'm not going to use the name but it was a former student here in town who has come forward she worked
with our state representative and our state senator to get legislation passed around this who had was a victim of um sexual abuse and violence from a physician and we also have had a recent case which um was dismissed but it was
uh from decades ago um with an adult perpetrator um to children in Marblehead um again decades ago um but this is you know obviously this is this is real um and we're not immune we're not immune and you know the old saying that when you you know know better you when you
know better you do better um so again thank you Megan and what Megan provided us was a proclamation that the select board um read into the record and did vote um in the case select board approved as well as the board of health um did it as well i took this the select
one i made a couple of changes um to make it more I think more appropriate for the um school committee um particularly in terms of what our scope is and and and and also the verbiage so I I'm going to read this into the record and I will ask for a motion to approve
this proclamation so um going to read the sexual assault awareness month April 2025 whereas sexual violence is a pervasive issue that affects individuals of all ages backgrounds and communities with lasting and profound effects on survivors families and society as a whole and whereas the month of April is
nationally recognized as sexual assault awareness month a time to raise awareness educate communities and promote prevention efforts to end sexual violence and whereas according to national statistics one in three women and one in six men experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime
highlighting the urgent need for awareness support and action and whereas organizations such as hawk healing abuse working for change the national sexual violence resource center and local crisis centers provide vital services advocacy and education to support
survivors and prevent future incidents and whereas every member of our community can play a role in preventing sexual violence by promoting a culture of respect consent and safety and by standing in solidarity with survivors and whereas the town of Marblehead joins advocates survivors and organizations
across the nation in recognizing the importance of sexual assault awareness month and reaffirms its commitment to supporting survivors and working toward a future free from sexual violence now therefore we the Marblehead School Committee do hereby proclaim April 2025 as sexual assault awareness month in
Marblehead public schools and encourage all residents to participate in activities educational programs and initiatives that raise awareness and foster a community dedicated to ending sexual violence in witness thereof we have unto set our hand on this day and then we would sign that so that's the
proclamation that I read into the record i'm asking for a motion to approve this uh proclamation so moved so moved by Sarah and a second second second i will give it I'm gonna give it a vote um I'm gonna call for a vote ryan
Oda in favor sarah Fox in favor ellison Taylor in favor jen Shaner in favor pass four to zero thank you question and we will sign this um hard copy megan will have a signature we'll have it in and we'll have it into the record i'll share
it with the press um whatever else you need us to do oh no that's great and if anybody has any questions too about because we did I know um we talked to the YW.CA and we've talked about anybody that needs a followup and I I I just didn't want to take up more time in your
meeting just Jen's got my contact information follow up with you and the superintendent the assistant superintendent on some and also probably the high school principal and the um current and soon to be um possibly new middle school principal probably makes sense too so I'll follow up for sure on
that okay great oh and the pledge that was the other thing I forgot to give you so I'll do that as well just to give you a template of what others have done the accountability pledge so I'll send that to you all right guys thank you very much you made my my my heart so thank you thank you i will ask that we include
this in our um newsletter and when we include it can we also include a link um I think maybe reach out to Megan find out which one is best i'm thinking maybe that link in the path for resources and just have a an easy clickable link
because you know for someone who may have had um one of these terrible experiences whereas reading about it and not yet engaged in in outreach for help reading it if it's right there they make they may click absolutely do that okay great
thank you everyone appreciate that um okay moving on in our agenda i'm going to move to the uh proposed policy IMDb the flag policy policy um which is down here as
our second reading um so I'm going to read this into the record now I will say there were there was an error in my not removing it so I'm going to read it as it is and then we'll No I will not no we already took a vote on a motion to
strike and similar symbolic displays so since that was moved it would take a motion to overrule that okay so I'll read it without that but the other two items that I were Yeah you you captured the other one so you should Yeah read it to reflect the so yes I will read it to
reflect the question so we have policy IMDb policy regarding display of flags and banners marlin School Committee as the governing and policymaking body of the Marvel public schools has the sole authority to determine the flags and banners uh affixed on school district property reflect the mission vision and
values of a school district and constitute the school district's government speech committee has therefore adopted this policy which is subject to the following rules one flags that have official legal status the US United States flag the Massachusetts state flag and the P MIA flag MIA flag
shall be displayed on school property two in addition flags and banners that reflect the school district's mission vision and values shall be displayed at such times and locations on school district property as determined by the school committee um the superintendent acting in their sole discretion in pursuant to their responsibilities
day-to-day operations of the school district and at schools may recommend to the committee that adopt a flag um banner display as a school district's government speech and three the Marwood school committee will not accept any third party requests so um just for a point of clarification
to the young man who spoke earlier and I I applaud him it's not easy to come as a student and I think um is that I think he's at practice um and I absolutely love when we see students putting into work um there obligation to get involved
and to speak up and I and I think that's great um so I but to that point artwork and all things like that in the displays he was talking about would not at all be affected by this um it truly is flags
and banners permanently affixed um so those rotating displays for our class would not at all be touched by this um and then as far I I just want to be clear too that our attorneys are drafting this
um we are not members of the bar we are not practicing attorneys we are not pretending to be attorneys um so we we rely on our legal counsel to produce documents to us that are within the
confines of the law um so as members of the bar and as our council if we were to act against a recommendation of council we would be calling into question our identification we've seen this in other
legal avenues that have come through the town in the last few months where we you know our indemnification has not stood up because there's documentation from
legal counsel saying do this don't do this and the parties went the other way so that's you know where I stand on this um but I it was very important to me to take make sure it said a fixed so we clear up any ambiguity there and that symbolic displays be taken out as far as
um not accepting any third party requests that was to comply my understanding as the brief that was given to us to comply with the shirtlift case um because and again this is just referencing the brief that was given to
us um if if it is then it would not be our government speech it would be this free speech of the third party and then we get into all means all or none means none i personally do not like the all means all
none means none um I think there needs to be a mechanism and that's why I was very happy to see this go through the superintendent he is our agent for for recommending what is academically appropriate and appropriate to our
student body um I trust him if I didn't I I you know vote accordingly um but I trust him and um I would think any superintendent that the school committee is employing we would need to hit we would need to have faith in that they
would be bringing us recommendations that they feel are approp so that's great um I Yeah um a couple a couple things um it is the the school committee's one of our three
responsibilities to create policy and it is the administration's responsibility to oper operationalize them we don't talk about that oper operationalization we don't talk about that with them we don't give them guidance on that they
determine how to operationalize policies whether it's this one or any of the other ones that that we have out there because there are certainly plenty of them um a couple things that I was thinking would be really good to be more to make it abundantly more clear because again we keep hearing the same kind of
misconstring um responses um which are disheartening from the audience so one thing is and I think Sarah you had brought this up last time and we kind of agreed not to include any language like this simply because it was part of operationalizing but since that is
something that we are just constantly being told you're you know you're not going to allow our artwork or the flags for the fun run or what they wear in their t-shirt or what they cover their book with um I think we and I we might be towing the line
here but my personal thought is that we should make it very clear in this policy that we are talking about things that are permanently affixed to the walls that have a political or activist type of relation we're not talking and I and I explicitly mean using these words not
just assuming that because we use the word affixed people are going to understand that's what it means because it's it's clear that's that is not enough uh so putting verbiage in there and I'm just spitballing so bear with me um this policy does not apply to sports
banners graduation banners student artwork personal attire locker decorations notebook covers or any personal items that a student may bring to class or use for or during transportation to and from school i'm thinking someone had mentioned bumper stickers on a car maybe a sticker on a
bike um I think we were also really clear so something like that I would like to have added because I do think that it needs to be that explicit um we also it is it is legal for us to kind of I just again trying to address
some of the things that continue to be said at our meetings we are allowed to modify in our readings we are allowed to modify that is how the process works that's how all policies are are done and read through their readings
um I also think something along the lines of you know that that we do allow because we were very clear about this in our last meeting but um I'm not sure if people were still on by the time we got to our discussion point um that that positive affirmations such as everyone
is welcome here we're happy you're here i think Mary McCarrison made us um a a doormat um that said that or put a doormat outside those type of you know positive affirmations would would not be removed we're not going to
remove the no food in the library sign um please again those are those are those are things that I think we need to to explicitly call out um in
addition I want to thank um Cindy Sheer for her email she had emailed us about uh a a policy in another town where they are they have put in their policy that they are going to rec federally
recognized heritage months and they're going to during those months hang those flags um and I think that that would be a wonderful addition again I understand some may think that that's u part of operationalizing it i think that we are I think it is in our purview to be able
to be as explicit as possible here again to make sure that folks understand in our community this isn't a flag ban um you know people use words and that tends to set out a narrative and when the wrong words are used it it sets the wrong narrative this isn't a ban this is
a policy that we unfortunately have to create none of us wants to be in this position i can assure you um so things like African-American History Month in February Women's History Month in March Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in
May uh LGBTQ Pride Month in June Hispanic Hispanic Heritage Month which actually spans from September the middle of September to the middle of October um and then Native American Heritage Month which is in October being able to fly a banner to support those federally
recognized um months I think would be a wonderful addition um to this policy and I don't and I would like to have that written in there rather than expect it to come from oper operationalization those are my
two three ads did you write I didn't you have it written i do yes I can send it to you um one other thing that came up in public comment because again we try to we try to respond or touch on the
questions asked in public comment during the appropriate part of business meeting um one of the things that was asked about was what about if people are not complying like any of our policies is the superintendent who operationalizes that i'll give you the example of we
have a policy about no um alcohol use and things like that and if a student does that that never comes before the school committee the superintendent our administrators handle that operationalize it take whatever action is appropriate they don't notify us
they've taken action we don't know who's involved or should we that is operational they take care of it and we trust they don't now if something if they took care of something and it wasn't in in accordance people we do have a policy K which is will be
evidently and blazed on my brain that talks about um chain of command there is a mechanism for people to follow a chain of command and bring a complaint to us in my time here it's only been used once um but to to that point once we make a
policy we do not it goes to the superintendent to to implement and he does that through his administration as is approp are there any thoughts on my two suggestions or ads like for discussion
right I tend to support what Allison had said earlier I think what goes on the walls affects to the walls in the public spaces like cafeteria sports banners all the school banners whatever happens within the school i also think though that a lot of people brought up this
idea that we're going to ban shirts backpacks that's never been part of my look i mean it that's I think the perfect place for people to express their opinion as long as it doesn't interfere with the smooth operation of school i think that's in your handbooks
actually it says you can't wear a shirt it's offensive blah blah blah blah so I think if we can put language like that in there that Allison suggests that I'm comfortable with it you know I think that that would take a lot of the hyperbole out of the system about what
we're trying to do from my understanding also that is that they're they have the legal right to wear that that's the whole point of what they on their body on their car or whatever in their lockers on their car i'm not discounting that i just am trying
to I don't know trying to be even more clear because it um I can hear you know the pain the anguish and the fear um sometimes when people talk about this and and that's this is not what it is carry your pencil you know I don't I
have no problem um with the language that you've read um the the uh document Cindy sent us with the the month i also Yeah no problem
um I would I'm up to feedback though John if you have stuff no no i actually I think this is kind of what I was leaning towards last time we were having a conversation about how we operationalize it and you know me having to make a kind of a decision based upon
information so before I go to the school bait and I don't want that to be like how what my feelings are and that's up to me to make sure but I think Alice to Allison your point um kind of um delineating some of those things a little bit more clearly is something
that I think I've heard from a lot of people that have come up in in front of the microphone and maybe they didn't say those words exactly but I think that was the intent of words or some of the the dialogue um because realistically I' we've heard a lot about the fear of like you censorship and all that and you know
we're always going to have that part of the conversation because someone will always feel like they're being censored when we kind of you know give some clear guidance but I think I would agree that you know some of that language you said or you know all of it um makes sense to put in the policy to just help the ling
it's it's going to help clarify so and I want to make sure that I'm clear because I guess there's something else circulating around about trust it has nothing to do with me not trusting John or his administration to be able to um operationalize this and all that will
you know all the other things that will end up coming out of of this I'm sure um I do think it's important for his voice to be heard as well he is our CEO as as we always say and so you know and I trust that and I I I wanted I think the
the public to be honest and I wasn't at that particular meeting because I had my son's coral concert but I believe that the public wants to hear your opinion at times as well and I think that that's important for them to see and I don't I don't want to take away from that or or for there to be any thoughts that I'm
not trusting that I just think there are some pieces that could be a little bit more explicit i like that word and I would and I think and I thank you for that because honestly I think when I'm operationalizing things and there's there's a little bit clearer avenue to do that it just makes it that much right
um you know not easier but it makes it better to kind of follow steps and then we can point to and say hey John like yeah you operationalize but you missed this part of the policy or this part of the policy wasn't clear so what was your interpretation of that I just think it lends a little bit more depth to the
conversation so it's all said Sarah if we're going to put the language in um that Misha had sent in can I make the one request um choose my words very carefully because I try very hard not to get
political that's not our role here um the way it was drafted that she sent us it said federally recognized months like American History Month Women's History Month can we not write and limit it to federally because things are shifting
and I don't want if something shifts for those pieces to they are no longer fedally that's what my concern is i don't I don't want that to then preclude us from still recognizing those months that have always not always traditionally traditionally been
recognized so if we can just remove that word federally because Yeah you get your point um for the um committee did um Nyla had made a comment earlier around viewpoint neutrality is there any
interest in that have a problem with the the my understanding is viewpoint neutrality is to that's the whole reason for the shirt case yeah um so it would just it's to to Allison's point where Allison has
identified we know this from this language but we're in it all the time so it's obvious to us that's another piece that's already embedded in all of this but if it's helpful to write it then it's that's that's fine as well i think to have it in practice is is really the
piece to actually like write it identify a scale but yeah I would agree making any any chance you can have to kind of smooth smooth the edges out and I just want to make one more comment if I can about the the the monthly things so I I agree with like celebrating you know
national you know heritage month or whatever the month is um I personally think that that that doesn't negate so if Pride month is June and we're hanging up you know Pride Month banner I don't think that means that we can't hang or have Pride you know other Pride banners
or things at other times of the year because what I've already heard is oh so if we only hang it in June that's the only time that we're cared about that's we can't have that narrative either so it's a it's a balance but I think recognizing those once for how they're
recognized um in general is great but it also doesn't in my opinion doesn't negate some other areas we can have in an ongoing way so I just want to share my opinion well yeah i mean it I don't I I think that I think it's divisive to
for anyone to think that just because we're hanging the banner in October or in June that we don't celebrate it any any of the other months and we could even put that language in there to you know um to recognize um whatever i'm not sure let me see how
just taking out that word federally um sorry I didn't mean to throw that around i just I I recognizing heritage months you know noting that these aren't the only times of the year that we celebrate these heritages i mean or you know I
don't I don't um I think we could add that in too right as my daughter comes home every year and says during Women's History Month like why is it that we get one month a year and the other 11 months a year
all right so um a couple things um I did just want to address um and I think S did it i think it was Genie that had asked earlier about the three beatings so the policy um or I think it's actually a statute it requires any policy change Well new policy or change in a policy has has at least three
readings um and they can change each time so that the final one is the one that will be voted on so mean you could take four or five however many but at least three and the final one is the one that then is voted on um the other thing that I think was asked and again I think
Sarah you touched on it was this idea of procedure versus policy and again um what the process is is we set policy or we amend policies and then it is the responsibility of this administration superintendent to set up the procedures
and operationalize it there are some policies that have specific procedures sort of written into them one I know was the um library book reconigitation yeah the media resource or library book reconsideration or I don't even remember what it's called um if there's a question about an item in a library
there's a specific procedure and I remember that being um part and parcel to the policy but most policies do not include a procedure with it and that was one was very specific at the time it was Sarah Gold and Tom Mathers on the
subcommittee and the librarians in the district actually came to them and had drafted the procedure they I I feel like they worked several months the librarians did drafting that procedure as subject matter experts and brought it forth through the the m not all but many
of the procedures according to our policy um are found in our handbooks and then the school committee approves the handbook so it's this is sort of how the you know sauces made in um not all but some some of our points while I understand why this is getting longer to
give all those explanations and this is a very unique situation and so I don't have an answer with that typically our policies are not very intricate and long because we want to make sure that we are giving an overarching policy and then
giving latitude to our administration to to do what is in their purview according to ED format again I understand why we are getting more specific here um and and it's really not changing the body it's just giving clarifications to to
language that we already you know understand the intent of but I I want to make sure moving forward we stay with those very more highlevel policies that give our administrators the latitude that is afforded to them by national yeah the other point I wanted to make
too because I think this also came up during public comment i can't remember who said it is that um policies that we adopt or amend um the policy manual is a um living document because things change all the time so we we set policy we
establish policy and we amend policy as we are advised by our you know by council and by our association of school committees based on changes in statute or changes in you know federal or state um statutes so I know I've given this
example when I did the policy overview back in 2018 we still had oh we had we had a policy that required um students with HIV to be have a doctor's clearance to be able to go come to school i mean that was illegal you know but that was
establish established in like 1995 or something you know so we you know things change over time um and and so we we passed policy and established policy based on what we have currently front of us from a legal so um so what I'm going
to do is I'm going to Allison um if you could send me I don't want to have us deliberate on offline um but if you could send me your writing and then um I'll take Cindy She Miss Sheepers as well um and I'm going to just I'm just going to send that to our council i'm
going to I'm going to draft it and I'll send it just to get sort of a sort of a final blessing that I'm not we're not doing something wrong and I will bring it back um so that Yeah so that's it 77 and that will be the third reading and now we'll see what happens in in our
policy says we have a minimum of three readings it doesn't mandate us to vote after the third if it comes back and all these consent in there and everyone's happy then you know you may see that happen but if we feel we're still not fully baked I have no problem with
asking and making a motion to bring it to a fourth reading because I want to make sure we we get it where it needs to be and where Superintendent Rob yes so great anything else on that so I will do that work offline and I'll bring
it back at the next meeting um okay we're moving on to the English language curriculum welcome assistant super rare thank you so much um I want to begin just giving a little context so um last January January 2nd 2024 the Office of
Teaching and Learning inherited happily inherited um our English learner education um program in North Public Schools um we then had the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education visit the district on January 17th so it was a very quick turnaround um but we did uh
have the tiered focus monitoring um we 24 23 24 we received the um so last school year um so we received feedback from um Desi and um around May of last year and immediately um put into place
um action steps based off of recommendations one of their findings was that the district does not consistently support NSL which stands for English as second language curriculum for all English proficiency levels in high school so as a result of that finding we launched a curriculum
review process and we um are here I'm here today to share with you that now after many months um we've selected a curriculum we are very proud of the process um so I'm going to share a little about that and share about the program we've selected um so DESIE outlines four pillars um that they look
for in English learner education programs so the pillar we focused on was pillar three english learners have equitable access to meaningful and rigorous learning opportunities that build on their cultural and ling linguistic assets and the academic linguistic social and emotional supports
they need to excel so we were able to um as an English learner education department come together we um we spent as I said many months on this we looked at the um ratings from Desi we looked at the review of rubrics and um we've consulted with local districts like
Beverly Public Schools and G um and we are pleased to announce that we selected Holton Mifflin Parks English 3D curriculum um as I submitted to you in the memorandum um we have budgeted uh for this and we are seeking your approval um for it to be fully implemented in grades 7 through 12 at
the start of the next school year the curriculum committee selected English 3D because the high quality instructional materials reflect linguist linguistically and culturally sustainable pedagogies and leverage multilingual learners strengths english 3D supports teachers in providing a safe respectful classroom environment in
which students contributions in linguistic and cultural assets are valued and leveraged in teaching the content uses strengths based positive language and recognizing that speaking a language other than English is an asset the students bring to school so I'd like to any questions happy to answer them for you i love that when it comes to
questions you automatically just give me um so will this curriculum be develop classroom or would it be delivered in the general education setting great question so um it will be
delivered in the English learner program classes so um in grades 7 through 12 those are separate classes that just like a regular class they go to um so this would be the curriculum that the middle school and high school PSL would be okay and then um what is the PD
timeline to make sure that everybody's up to speed and ready to go with this um start of school years so great question we've already had some PD um from the vendor obviously they wanted us to buy the curriculum but we've had several sessions with the vendor um so the um teachers both teachers were very
involved in this through all the curriculum review process they're very excited they've even piloted lessons and that was one of the things that we asked um the teachers to do before selecting the curriculum to see how the students responded that was very important for us so they're very excited about that um
the funding we have allocated um the what we have from the company includes professional development as well as the materials online and the hard cover textbooks as well and you have time in your schedule for the amount or will we stip no it will be included within um so
the the pay the fee for the professional development will pay for and then that will be embedded through the school year through our professional development sessions and our K um six curriculum for this does this street is it streamlined into the 72 curriculum that you're
asking us to approve so K6 is a little bit different so with the work that we've done over the last few years especially with integrating wisdom our K6 um are integrating um lessons based off of what wisdom so it's an aligned in that way um we don't have a curriculum that's aligned that way 7 through 12 so
that's why we're looking to implement the this English 3D program for them um it will be it's differentiated so when we look at our the goal of our ESL program is for students to exit and by the time they're in middle school and high school this is going to really help them develop those that English proficiency they need to exit that
program so if we have someone that you know comes into our system and and potentially you know in a as a non-English-speaking student say in the sixth grade they're not going to master that in one year can they flow from their curriculum the way we're using the Wit and Wisdom piece in that
sixth grade year and then into the seventh grade year is that going to kind of feel like a an abrupt transition the goal is for it to not feel that way and we do have we call it newcomer so we have a separate newcomer curriculum that we use to build those foundational skills um regardless of when they start
we have it adopt and adapted from the grade oh perfect thank you we assess them we assess the students and find out where they are where they are ability what was the refresh us how many um EL students do we currently have in
district 17 EL students in the district um I want to take a moment to thank Shelley Burns she's our English learner education program coordinator um she receives a significant work and has done a phenomenal job and just yesterday Shelley and I presented to the entire school district of professional
development on our English learners so uh we are doing a lot to support the um instructional practices of our educators to ensure that our our LS have the access they need to make the curriculum the right thank you very much brian did you have any questions
elen okay I just had a couple quick questions um so the English language does not because that's fall under recently or now falls under Julia okay and then I just want to make sure the um comment you made about the DESIE finding
is that part of the overall other DESIE findings we had so that was part so we last year we had two separate was our special year of having two separate tiered focus monitoring from DESIE so the English learner program falls under the office of language acquisition they
call OLA so that group did the tier focused modern assessment um then we did have the group from soup services through um that special education came in for a separate one they did find they do collaborate sometime okay so there were findings which we know we've made
some amazing progress there and it sounds like we've responded absolutely um from that as well yeah this is one of the last pieces that um we've already got the clearance for about half of the findings they already found um this is they will not do this until this bill
goes to the school committee is finalized and they are a actually was to be adopted school year okay great thank you is any portion of our EL program whether it be this or other funded through federal grants and is that something we should be
considering yeah we do receive title three so title three is allocated for our English learners um we are able to use some of that funding to Stephan Shelley um who oversees the program and does a phenomenal job at that um part of Shel's role is uh working with the EL
teachers sending progress reports monitoring she does a lot of the um looking at the home language survey and then screening new students um she helps support with translation services and meetings and she's just amazing um so she receives a stipen through that and then we also get to pay um some
professional development so our teachers that go to Matsil um one of the biggest conferences for multilingual teachers um and we also I'm very proud of we've done a really great job of strengthening our ELPAC that's our English learners parent advisory council so we use some funds to
support those meetings you didn't even know it didn't exist until we started it this year all right is that a result of some of the findings yeah and so okay um in my previous school district I oversaw the um English learner department so I was really happy to take on this and and
really grow it to where it needs to be so we use some of the funds for our ELPAC meetings to support like we'll buy um last year we had in June a um ELPAC meeting where we bought a summer reading books for students so they could come and have pizza and hang out and take home free summer reading books that were
on the summer reading list um so we do use some funds for that and then we also use some funds for additional tutoring for students that we feel that need that extra funding that extra support my question is basically being prepared because I don't think it's entirely far-fetched to think that that form of
federal funding may disappear so I just want us to be pray prepared because the work that's happening will still need to happen it's important work um well it's not just I mean it's title three title one is a lot of work so yeah so that we're looking ahead um and I just want to also commend you and thank you uh let
me talk about when this this came onto your plate last May um when we think back I try not to think back too much last spring but um you were drinking from a fire hose at that time and you took on yet one more thing and graciously did so and um I commend you
for that and thank you because this is an important um part of our our district um it touches many students and so I just want to thank you for your work on this thank you i think it's important to% of our students here yeah and it's important to know that many districts have it's a
whole separate department separate managing separate salary separate everything so I also want to thank Julia for her hard work and you know it's a collaboration with leis there is some overapping for here at focus monitoring and some of the students have special and so you know it's it's all
collaboration but it's really um I wasn't here when Julia was drinking from think it's more of a it's a trickle now I think but I'm definitely uh I actually picked up a lot of that stuff so I appreciate you recognizing that and I appreciate you for doing extra work but it's I would be remiss if I didn't
mention it a lot of districts especially that how many students we have a whole separate department so is this a foreshadowing maybe no okay so I'm looking for a motion to approve the English 3D curriculum as the new English learner education curriculum
for grades 7 through 12 in Marvel public school so move Sarah do I have a second second taylor any discussion okay brian Oda in favor sarah Fox in favor allison Taylor in favor and Jen
Chaner in favor four to zero that's it thank you thank you so much thanks for coming thank you okay uh moving on um where are we we are at the Oh the securing dates for the superintendent evaluation workshop i had um again we don't necessarily have to pull our
calendars i had sub um put a document out for dates for the committee members to consider for the u process of um moving forward with the superintendent's evaluation and contract negotiation um I did get some feedback from Al that he's got a couple of discrepancies so
um do in general do these dates work for folks um Allison do you have any discrepancies what I maybe what I'll do is I'll I won't we don't have to do it at the meeting i'll send out a Google survey and we'll try try to nail this down what I'm looking to do um just so
the public knows um we we had sent out surveys um to various stakeholders um so we would need to get those surveys back and read those i know Allison was going to work on doing a summary document I believe for us um and then we also have
our own evaluation form that we are we developed that we need to fill out and Sarah will work with you on getting that button digging that out of my emails and sending that out to the committee members so um I had proposed you know between now and April 28th uh school
committee members doing that work um we would then meet to compile the results that would be in an open meeting um but it would be specifically just to compile the results and I believe create the evaluation i had us tentative typically on the ACE
yeah i just I don't know why we're I'm just going these eight i don't I just don't know what why if why it needs to it's going out that far that's why I just because I'm back next right so So Right so I was saying
between and if you need more time that's what you know that's what I need to hear from um the idea was that in theory we could have presented the evaluation on the 1 if that's too soon then we could present the evaluation on the 15th um we would need to do an executive session probably pretty quickly the next day um
to review you know the the um parameters of the contract we give the chair authority to negotiate and then we would come back um to open it in another I am not so we have a meeting on the
first y um which if you were going to do our workshop prior to that would be on the I am not prepared to do the workshop that okay that Monday or two so the Monday the 28th yeah so when Okay all right so
then what do you think it would be i had I mean I had earmarked our original time frame of the 8th in my schedule i mean is anybody opposed to that we we originally earmarked the 8th as a
um workshop for us to then present on the 15th is anybody opposed to keeping to the eth i think we're just worried about time timing what's left but I mean I want to make sure that you know this is well thought out well like I I would like to
stay to the eight okay well and I know and by the way Al does have uh he had he had um yeah he looked like he had various um issues because he's he's going to be away until the third so yeah and I mean
I think maybe that's where we came up with the E2 all right so we could stick with that we could stick with the ETH as a U meeting i think we were going to do that during the day either the morning or the day or the afternoon um for some reason I thought we were
All right well we can you can talk then we would vote it the 15th we'd vote it in theory we would present and vote the 15th i would suggest we go into executive session the next day yeah we can go into executive s in the past right after the well in the past
when we've approved something we've gone into executive session at the end of that meeting except that's a regular school committee meeting so I don't mind if it's late I don't want to I don't I don't mind doing it the next morning that's absolutely fine um and then and then we can vote it and it will be
negotiated um and then it's just a performance you we could have a meeting anytime y and we've done too in the Yeah just actually that's been our standard practice is we call a meeting for approval okay so we can do that within All right so I'll send this timing um
non-negotiable okay so that could be the evening all right she'll send that on the schedule yep for present and vote i could do the morning of the 7th and morning of the nine oh okay all right i'll send that
out all right great i just think the morning is Yeah I have no problem with doing it it's just more of like a That's not an appointment i get to pick a date it gets signed good okay all right so I'll get those dates back out and Al's not here but I think
those dates are gonna based on his email those dates should work um okay moving on uh recreation and parks memorandum of understanding john Park yep i So I met with uh Keep going okay i met with uh Rexen
Park Jamie Block and I met um we met a couple times over uh some some discussions around facility stuff for the summer but we we did talk we looked at the current memorandum understanding and um there's really no major issues with what's in there change it be always
changing and just changing the dates um so that board and uh if if it's the will of the committee um have the mad chair will sign it and then their chair will sign it and that will run from uh April it's not going to be April 15 it's 2025
to August 31st 2026 so what I did I when I met with park we talked a lot about my expectations around some of the things that they do for the school rounds and and what that needs to look like and what it's look like the sled in the year talk a little bit more about that um we
talked about sometimes this summer they utilize Glover School for when it rains and stuff and part of the discussion is um you know area where the library was and having them there during the summer during inclement weather versus getting
just trying to figure out how to get the kids over to Glover and potentially disrupting any you know red deal with the floors and stuff there so I think that would be a win-win i prefer to have somebody in that building rather than sitting idle so I'm working with folks on that we're collaborating with our maintenance and Rexen Park to finish
clean up the library stuff because there's still a decent amount of things in there um the thought process was to get a metal metal dumpster or two it's a lot of metals uh shelving over there that we got to get rid of it's been to disposition I think three times and a we get some revenue for that uh I don't
know how that works it doesn't cost us anything so generally the the revenue goes to the metal dumpster people because the the dumpsters were free they take the metal they scrap so um we're going to partner with our folks in Rex Park um and then the remaining um things that we need to get
rid of will go in a dumpster and then that will um be built back to the library because there will be Yeah i want to I want to close that because when the library came to us we gave them that space rentree we were happy to partner with them and help them during
their transition but it was crystal clear i was when I had those meetings that they were to leave it um in the state they found it and they kind of did one of the move out and take want leave anything you don't want behind and I know that sounds a little harsh but I am
frustrated with that and um I think that it it would behoove us to reach out to them and if we're working with parks and rack which I'm very grateful for to get that stuff physically out I can the library can be part of that process too yes that's fine
so and and I have had several conversations with Kim Brad um we we talked about her making sure that they did disposition so she did actually have a buyer for all the shelving which is a vast amount of what's left in there um and then when the people came they only end up purchasing part of it so she let
me know that um a lot of the other stuff that was in there is going really what's in there right now is the stuff that So the town is usually two of the classrooms for their scanning stuff there's another class where we have some things that we've stored on the school to get off the stage so it's neck um and
then perpets what's left in there is some some mainly shelving vibrate shelving not as nice as this and then um you know a bunch of metal shovel so it's it looks worse than I think once we get the metal out of there we'll have an idea um Kim and her library will get
development okay because that's important yep um and then so the only thing changed in here is dates because we've met um myself the head of uh facilities department their
board members i think it last time it was K and Matt who came in the fall back with them um and we I think we've met maybe every six months the last year and a half i'm not looking necessarily to do that but I want to make sure not too much has
changed because uh we have we did have a situation where we really worked on getting it exactly where it needed to be and um it was brought to us and then park and recck came back and said what you voted on is not what we agreed to so
I just want to make sure so this document in front of you is is the is the document that was voted down last year was June 11th I think it was the signatures and we changed the dates and we talked about putting specific language to Eve in there but we decided not to because there is language that
says we allow we can discuss the um the facility usage during the summer that's outside the program okay so we'll cover that so I feel comfortable with that jamie and I have had some good collaboration so I I feel 100% comfortable she's really easy to work with they wanted her park and wreck
wants to be has her board has their board so my understanding is she was bringing this to her board i was bring so that so that we didn't have to have the grand pua meeting about it just really and then as far as I know I haven't heard whether we all
so there's an issue I can always put back just try to streamline them thank you so can I have a motion to approve the memorand memorandum of voucher to stand in with the recreation marble recreation and parks department for the period ending April 17th 2025 through
August 31st 2026 so yes moved by Sarah Allison second Brian OD in favor Alison Taylor in favor in favor in favor um school committee subcommittee and
leazison updates do we have any updates i'm going to reverse this really quick one thing that came up in this leazison meeting that Jamie shared with us where a lot of our administration is new they just weren't aware so you just might want to give them a a heads up that as we enter the spring there's a lot of
important nights coming off prom or graduation um they are willing to spruce up those areas if they know ahead of time so just letting our principles know if you're going to have you know XYZ event let Park and Recre know and Jamie will work with Peter to make sure they
do their I think so far that's I've seen them doing some of that clean up and sprucing up work as I've been out but yeah I'll definitely Jimmy and I had that conversation too so I'll bring that up to because the new principles may not know they can reach out yeah so yeah I appreciate that reminder so I'll I'll
reach out to them thank you um subcommittee updates Brian yeah we uh have moved away from coffee with the small coffee groups in the school committee looking at communication sub
communication yeah and we're looking at office hours a lot of districts have that once a month two school committee members not on the same committee subcommittee would meet for an hour somewhere and then the public is invited to come in and ask questions and get
clarity from us um we think once a month just two of us have to do it would not be a heavy burden on any of us but then again it's up to the school if they want to I love the idea something for a long time we'll see how it does i mean when I did the coffee with principles it worked
for the first couple of months of school and then after that I dropped off so yeah that's something that we've been asking for for a long time so I think this is great sarah wants Do you want to start April or do you want to wait well I would start in April why wait coming
on pretty much um I would like to start in May yes yeah I think so why can't we start in April but we could well we could do it the week you want it's May the So I think starting it now we want to make sure we can give
people notice our newsletter goes out the last week of the month so I think we would want to note the dates in our newsletter i don't think we should I mean I get that but I don't I don't think that that should be a reason for skipping the month well the so the issue of next week is
effectively vacation week um so probably be the follow i'm fine to be overruled i just I think if we really want to do this then let's let's just start it we can find two of us that are free the 28th the 29th or the 30th all right i'll send out an email asking
for to make sure we're not correct we also still like the idea of um probably not this year but next year having the school committee meetings at least once within each school you know and that the whole school committee meets in there and that would be like
their student voice would be a good place for that to happen but this way the parents will get to see the school committee in their own buildings so I think it's a some of the other districts do that we thought that looked like a pretty good idea we like to maul that around a little bit and then um Al was
supposed to do Facebook today but he's not here and since we just did it yesterday I can speak to it we like the idea of Facebook page um the question came up some districts that have them do not allow replies it's strictly a posting of a Facebook and then we
decided that that's more like just a school newsletter basically if you're just gonna Yeah another platform for that kind of platform so we think it should have applies trying to figure out how you prevent yourself getting into the
negativity that can some of these topics are actually allowed to MASC guidelines on this that they put out about three to four years ago and they have strict I would say pretty clear guidelines on it and their guideline is to not have commenting
really um yes because because it can get you into deliberation very easily so their recommendation is to have it but have it no commenting people can share your post and then com create a thread on that but
then that's their doing and we don't own any potential violations of well it's like having a town meeting the school committee you know where people post questions at us and then it could be deliberation question that's why we're really reticent about doing that they recommend having it a no commenting page
more as um a an on the- moment announcement page okay we'll take a look at it al and I you know again I was very strong opinion that we should have replies and if everyone else is saying don't I did look at schools that have
open they have replies but a lot of them there weren't any posts from I think we'd have that problem yeah I feel very strongly following NASC guidelines yeah maybe re look at that just to make sure
it's still standard yeah to Yeah I can talk i'm hesitant about replies on Facebook allison what are your thoughts i I would want comments and I would want to be able to reply um but obviously if there are you
know rules policies violation that is crystal clear it's deliberation in open yeah in the public like well depending on what you said right if it's your opinion it's
this was discussed at the last school committee meeting and this was the finding that I think would be acceptable because it's already a public record where that decision was taken why don't I get else i mean the problem with that is it it just the problem with the whole thing about having a group Facebook page
is that it's the way the words that you choose have to be very specific versus putting something on your own personal page or making a personal post about your thoughts about something that happened um I completely obviously respect that and would not want to
violate anything like that so I don't I'm not sure of what the how big a use case it is if it's not if we're not able to comment back because the whole idea would be that people would you know want to count so what my thoughts were because I actually attended the subcommittee meeting um and
we and we talked about this and what my thoughts were is because we also talked about our website so we have the website which is what I describe as basically static right i mean we certainly could do some work on the website but it's it's pretty static in terms of it's got you know our calendar of meetings and
it's who we are and our subcommittee and our meetings and agendas and minutes and agendas so that's pretty much almost like a year-long thing and then you have the newsletter and it's a monthly newsletter so the newsletter says "Okay this is what happened this month and this is what's going to happen
potentially next month." Then your so Facebook could be again not not a dialogue but it could be what's happening like today and this week like here's the you know the school play is happening the you know plurals the class is playing and they won and um you know
the the concert that you're saying whatever we can you know we can be putting out sort of more you know um immediate uh things that are happening in the district or things that folks need to know the surveys coming out to your mail mailbox tomorrow once it happened so a school committee meeting
you know this week tomorrow so that's that was what my my thoughts were just one more place to be able to push out information this was one of our goals right was communication and transparency this year um so I understand the desire to want to be able to do dialogue and
reply i just I we'll get a meeting on first of all yeah i'd like to get a response from MASC and council okay uh right so do that and Okay um so there I just had a question for Brian are you you have a question for Brian Sarah or
are you moving on to a different I just had a question for Brian are is there any um discussion about having like forums Brian i think one thing that from the comments uh on the survey
as well as comments that people have just made offhand or on Facebook um the misinformation is a little bit frustrating and so I think it would be really great um to have a a start our forums i know we had some
craziness this year i know it's something you and I talked about a long time ago as well with all the craziness um sometimes it's hard to have things happen but I think that we should revisit that it would be great to have a budget um forum i have a one-pager
um that I need Mike Piperling to bless that I'll be posting because it's very clear from comments that people don't really understand how our budget process works um I know we have shared it a number of times i know it's in your FAQ
also Brian right um but that's still very very clear from comments that are everywhere um and so maybe having a forum where we discuss that so you know can be kind of written
in stone for people or we can address them to go back to that and where people can ask specific questions so the sub commmittee did talk about did talk about like a town hall we did talk about is that something is that what you're thinking about
um so that be something you think we could think about doing this spring or I would absolutely do it like the beginning of May first couple of weeks in May i know there's a lot but I think this is what we signed up for these things are important because if
people are not understanding or you know misinformation can spread like wildfire and I think it's our this is a way to to help stop that okay so um what if I throw a couple of dates to consider the when are you meeting there you meeting
next week no we usually meet every Okay so I'll send that out but I'm gonna um put out there like the maybe the second week of May at maybe the week after town meeting allison okay and then if that's we see how it goes and and then we can think about
doing in the fall to maybe be a seasonal thing or something like that yeah i mean once a quarter I think that would be great just have a different subject every time got it okay i will send that out to the subcommittee to consider and then um well okay
um we are going to be having a meeting um I think it's two weeks from today or tomorrow um Mike Pipper has worked with um there's a gentleman in town I should put us in touch with um he actually does owners project management through the
MSBA specializing um in roof projects and he's a resident here So we have he has brought a lot of insight and um some good ideas one of the ideas was this sealing uh sealant um so Mike had
reached out to the vendor the vendor has come already come in to do a test patch at their expense um they wanted it to sit a certain amount of time um and then they'll come back and and look at that so um we will have that data and that
information and we'll be having the meeting again to look at it um as as just another layer of data this this is primarily coming from we want to make sure when we're presenting at town meeting that we have we have looked at
every option um to be to get the best product and be fiscally responsible so I'm appreciative of of Mike um for working with this gentleman and um giving us that information so we'll be
doing that in two weeks that that time period we've been sitting and waiting out the time period for that test patch that will be up by then and so we'll have the full report on that um to present to the subcommittee as well as to answer any questions or concerns people may have at home
um we also this isn't necessarily um a finance leaison's update um but the warrant hearing did happen and um part of the warrant hearing was as everybody knows they go through every
single article and anything that has to do with um any type of financial impact makes a recommendation so FINCOM did vote unanimously to adopt the town budget which ours is a part of and they also voted unanimously um to recommend
the adoption of the override article to fund the HVAC addition to the group project so I just wanted to give a little the other uh other items that had Oh and then there was a capital request um item that would cover um playground
material or equipment at the Glover School as well as the pack um painting and reupholstering the seats anybody who has and that's going to be an easy one because anybody sitting in that room during town meeting when it's time to raise your hand all they have to do is
look up or look at what they're sitting on and that's going to be a real easy one to raise their hands for i I would hope if Mike's prepared just meeting block off Monday Tuesday and Wednesday folks well he has a morning hearing of
what F four hour five hours mondays any other um subcommittee or le updates um you anybody that will be coming you and Mike you'll want to touch base with Robin and let her know um because any
non-resident that will be part of the presenting team needs to get approval to not sit on the stage i will Yeah the chair will usually Okay um any new business any
announcements and then correspondence yeah sorry go ahead Alex sorry I was muted i apologize um I think we were going to schedule a policy subcommittee a policy uh subcommittee meeting to discuss um just some of the
review but also the recessed policy creating a recess policy i will send that out we'll we should probably be able to do that next week we could do it late next week and we'll still check back in session yep perfect mid to late next week okay and the only thing in correspondence which was in the package
was um we did submit or added the letter that was issued from the acting commissioner of um the department of elementary and secondary education to the secretary of education in Washington um in response to a dear colleague
letter so just we put that into the packet so folks can see um and that letter was sent on behalf of all school districts in Massachusetts okay um anything else all right i'm going to adjourn us at 8:31 thank you everyone thank you yes