##VIDEO ID:wmgBdMNLz6o## we all be on our best behavior now so Julia you said that Jose will be 15 minutes late and we know Ursula will not be here tonight so we do have four to start but uh maybe we just well it's not six yet but we can and I believe Steve will be here so I I think we should be okay great I will warn you that while Zoom screens out horns it does not screen out dog barking and my dog has been barking whenever I speak to a computer he's currently outside so I'm going to stay on mute as long as possible throughout the meeting so that you don't you're that but I apologize in advance got it hi Sarah okay well it is six o'clock um I would like to call this meeting to order uh this is the Mount Greylock Regional School District school committee meeting for Thursday December 12th 2024 we are meeting by Zoom um and this meeting will take place virtually pursuant to the law signed by Governor Healey on March 29th 2023 which extends the temporary Provisions pertaining to the open meeting law the language does not make any substantive changes to open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary Provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st 2023 to March 31st 2025 the meeting will be live streamed onet.org and broadcast live on Spectrum cable TV channel 1302 in Williamstown uh they the meetings will also be available as video on demand within 24 hours after the meeting on Mount Greylock Regional School District's YouTube channel I'm G to leave it at that without reading out the URL um so with that if we could do a call to order uh a roll call and I um just to share with the school committee as chair I who is meant to remain somewhat neutral I'm going to start putting my name at the end rather than at the beginning because um I want to make sure that I I mean in a roll call it doesn't matter but in a vote I want to make sure I'm not the first one always voting um so if we can start with a roll call with conry who I believe is the first one after me conry here delin B here green hair Steve are you here I am is Ursula not here no okay okay milder here great and Bowen here thank you so the at the mission at Mt grock Regional School District our mission is to create a community of Learners working together in a safe and challenging learning environment that encourages restorative based processes respect inclusive courtesy integrity and responsibility through high expectations and cooperation resulting in lifelong learning and personal growth with that in mind let's move to the student update and I think we have two students on the call today to give us that update so uh the students of monc uh were halfway through the second quarter we just got a little grade update back for the halfway point of the quarter Christmas break is in like a week or winter break is in like a week so we'll have a three-day spe kind of week next next week at towards the end of next week run by the peer team and the student council so that should be fun right when we get back from break we're starting midterm season uh so that's a little stressful time for everybody but um we're not really thinking about that yet um and then the phone policy is still going strong I think that students anticipated that it'd be a bigger upset than it ended up being I think some individuals have like kind of personal grievances I know some people like would like to use personal headphones and personal computers but I think that's kind of um just a certain group of people not not everybody has that issue or that um problem but the student council did just release a um a survey that asks students about how they feel about the phone policy so we should be getting back some of those responses soon um so we'll bring that up at the next meeting but it's going pretty smoothly and I think people aren't having big issues with it at least from the student perspective so yeah I'll hand it over to Sarah to talk about clubs and sports um the black student union from Williams has had a couple of Representatives come to grock during the high school lunches for the past couple of weeks and I've been to three out of four of the meetings they've gone really well I've heard a lot of positive responses from that they try to like hold discussions and they're planning an event for later in the year that's one of their main focuses but it's been going really well the leader of the BSU is one of the basketball coaches the boys basketball coaches so that's getting started and that's going really well and the musical just started um they had their auditions this week and from what I've heard they're they're going well so they're starting next week and yeah that's pretty much it that's what's been going on over the past couple of weeks thank you Sabine and thank you Sarah are there any questions from the school committee we really appreciate your updates uh thank you and that and the work that you're doing thank you all right um public comment I don't know of any um I don't know if I see anyone on here who might provide it so we'll move on uh to the approval of the minutes from November 14th 2024 do I have a motion to approve those minutes so moved thank you Curtis is our second second thank you Christina any discussion of those minutes hearing none uh let's move to a roll call vote starting with Christina conry I Elfen Bine I green I Miller I and boen I thank you those are approved I so we move to principal report and that is you principal shutz great can I share my screen you should be able to share see here yes all right here we are good evening everybody so I am going to present the school council's budget considerations for this this coming school year so here's a list of our our current School Improvement plan goals they've been Rel relatively similar for the past couple years and we've been changing some action items however this year we decided to focus on our academic goal to have the academic goal be the priority specifically when looking at budgetary implications for next year so if this is just the um the definition the objectives and the action that is um written into the school Improvement plan so each goal actually contains you know additional narrative like this this is the academic goal give me a sec just through that sorry um point of order Julia could me we maybe have Curtis read the slides for people who may not be able to uh read the screen that sounds like a great idea I it thank you Curtis uh priority goal academic capture and capitalize on the academic elements of Student Success emphasizing engagement retention and achievement objective review and improve practices from the past to expand academic opportunities throughout the Mount Greylock School Community Action review academic classroom practices from the past to determine successes and deficiencies with a focus on what to keep what to change and what to discard um and Curtis I guess I can I can definitely read the slides if that works for for everybody and then add my narrative as well works for me okay all right so really we came up with three three needs three teaching positions in FTE and wellness an FTE in specifically Spanish and an FTE in in math so um I'm going to present the going through the three needs of these three teachers and then the council thought it was also important to list our we have a top three um wants essential wants that we've decided not to list as needs even though they are they are essential so first just looking at uh Wellness currently we have three Wellness teachers and one dedicated par professional so for wellness or PE we use those simultaneously we are required to teach it to every subject or to to every student every year and so what that means for us how that looks in our program of studies are for students in grade seven eight and nine they have Wellness all all year one period a day for all year grades 10 11 12 have Wellness all day for a semester either either the first semester or the second semester um and also we are currently implicate um imp implicating um implementing excuse me the uh the new Frameworks there some comprehensive um Health in physical Ed Frameworks that um and what we're what we're doing for that is Contin continuing with our our health um classes so grade seven and eight receive a quarter of Health each year grades nine and 10 receive a semester of Health every year um grades uh grade 10 that semester of heal health is in addition to the semester of PE so we're currently short one FTE if you look back two years ago and so what we're doing is covering those gaps with other teachers teachers are allowed to cover one class outside their lure So currently we have an English teacher biology teacher history teacher and our two social workers covering um filling gaps in the wellness department and even with that we're unable to run certain classes like our creative writing our film studies intro to theater another other results are higher numbers in some of our um foundational um based classes like English n and biology you'll see those are um currently our class sizes in English n or go up to 23 and biology 24 and the other um sort of the other sort of um complication is that our elements of of English class is often taught from a teacher outside of the English Department taught by someone without a English license um our class sizes are are very large when we think about Wellness that's traditional PE um we call it being on the floor so those are the kids in the gym uh those are typically around a hundred students and you'll see the increase of the the ratios when we're talking about Middle School it's gone up from 1 to 2 6 to 1 to 44 and in grade nine you'll see it's gone up from one teacher to 17 students to one teacher and 39 students this also complicates our scheduling um because of the limited staff we need all of our Wellness staff on the floor for three out of the seven blocks of the day so whenever grad seven eight or nine are taking Wellness we need everyone in the in the classroom uh I'm sorry in in the in the gym on the floor and so that means we're not running any of our um Health classes during that time and we also um students that period aren't able to get any other other classes in uh in their schedule at time that time so it constricts their ability to get into other classes that they want we call that a a Singleton we like typically you like to offer um multiple sections of a class so people can can get the classes that they choose um we also lost the ability to provide classroom based education we used to offer Sports and Society um and we're also not able to provide all the differentiation we we'd like we we are offering unified PE but we're we're no no longer able to provide Advanced PE and the the last application listed here is that both social workers are unavailable for one block during during a day and it might not seem like a lot um right now it is essential so we can have the the right amount of coverage on the floor but um you know our social workers are um you know being called on so often that we're we're having Subs in those classes more often more often than that so their their value is really working with students in session or taking care of of Crisis um and right now they're not able to do that um as as much as we'd like so that that's the wellness request third request is for uh a Spanish teacher currently we have three Spanish teachers and one Latin teacher two of those are in extended contracts one in Spanish one in English and what that means are that these teachers are teaching six classes versus the contractual five classes uh to know teachers do not need to um they are offered these extended contracts which um cost us cost more for us to to offer however they don't have to accept them so luckily um our teachers did accept them and they are teaching those that those larger loads these can be triggered by both large class sizes or the amount of classes we offer and actually there's um the class size example is what's going on in in Spanish because our numbers are so large we need to offer additional class sizes to bring them down to act just fit into the classroom whereas um in Latin it's not the amount of students necessarily enrolled it's just the VAR a variety of classes offering Latin 7 through AP um totally we have or to date we have 700 300 70 students enrolled in World Language so that's you see the breakdown 312 in Spanish that's grades or that's Spanish 7 through AP and 8058 in Latin which is 7 through AP and in Spanish is it's an increase in 27 uh 23% over the past two years Latin it's roughly the same so there's actually an increase in our in students taking uh Spanish so so Spanish isn't a graduation requirement it is a requirement for most fouryear schools though so overall we just have an increase in the number of students taking our world languages either Spanish or Latin um we are looking at to reduce our class sizes the ideal ideal size is 15 to 18 um in languages for small group work and dialogue um currently uh only 16 of our Spanish classes or 30% meet the ideal and just uh two two notes is our Spanish two classes are up to 26 and so typically wherever you see more than 24 that's where we have had to bring in additional seats um so that the classrooms aren't necessarily or were not uh configured for that that many students um so we're teachers uh in our iians are just making it work bringing in um and fitting tables where you know they ideally shouldn't that be um it's been a goal to offer a um Heritage course so the Heritage course would be for native speakers these are students who already have some oral language profic proficiency um but you know need to work on listening skills writing skills speaking skills like that and then um we've also been trying to add a survey cultural survey class uh this would be a semester class and it's really an introduction class taught in English of to uh students about sort of all World cultures and histories and the importance of language so those are things we have not been able to offer and moving on to our third priority request is a math teacher currently we have seven Math teachers we are um operating one Shore as compared to two years ago sort of similar situation to the wellness uh we have absorbed uh that when one left so we're unable to run a couple courses and these courses range run the Spectrum from advanced level College Prep rep level and remedial level so specifically like this year we're not running our BC class BC Cal we're not able to run our intro to cal um we're not able to run intro to model math or as many integrated courses as we'd like um and although we do offer some enriching classes we don't offer them at the um as many levels as we would like to offer them uh we did add personal finance and elements of math um personal finance is a high school course elements of math is a middle school course um and let's see the personal finance um course was added based on the financial literacy Frameworks um and the elements of math which has about 20 students and the integrated math which is a high school class has 10 students and that's based that need so that's something we currently are being able to do um however we still want to reduce class sizes so you'll see now like some of our AP classes are um over 25 so that's both in our our stats our computer science and our um celp classes that's our AB celp um and also if you look at some of our not lower level but our our um courses offered to the younger students are algebra one which is uh for our eighth graders there's nearly 30 students in there as is in our accelerated seven class and and that's seventh grade class nearly nearly 30 so those those numbers really aren't going to change or the problem of having sort of uh these larger classes aren't going anywhere anytime soon we do have how however um we have about 10 students taking um college level math whether it's at Williams at BCC or mcla um and we have some doing like I know BC Cel specifically as independent studies and we do have students um still enrolling in the AP exam and doing these these other sort of methods of study but ideally it would be great to be able to run a class so that's um in summary our our priority requests are three teaching positions a wellness a Spanish language and and Mathematics so any proposed adjustments could you know uh could go into effect for registration next year our program of studies is set up um or will be set up I think you'll be seeing that next month where we would be able to Flex either way um should changes go into effect or should the um sort of the amount of teachers we have remain the same so we're sort of writing it with the flexibility like that so we would be able to do make changes to the schedule last minute the council did want to um make sure I also reviewed the our essential requests which we're calling our our wants and um I believe you saw these in previous years um for a behavioralist 504 coordinator in a middle school visual art teacher so the behavioralist would just be a practitioner um they would Implement real-time restorative justice practices they would be either a social worker or a bsba or a bcba with uh no case load or or classes they would consistently provide time space and Staffing to offer these remedies in Le of traditional measures uh this is something we're invested in and it's something um that we try to make happen from the lowest level all the way down um or all the way up to um you know when students are working with um Administration so restorative justice work um is ongoing but we still have our challenges increased opportunities for restorative justice practice practices and strategies while providing realtime positive behavior interventions to increase student time in classrooms so this is essentially we'd like to introduce this behavioralist um and the spot we thought this person could work would be in our student support center the second is 504 coordinator so this the vision is this would be a a district position and hiring a full-time 504 coordinator to streamline um and write plans for qualifying students this would support the inclusion of all students it would be they would be responsible for Progress monitoring plans and during ensuring teachers understand how to implement the accommodations arrange accommodated testing spaces procedures and prors during midterms finals and exams they would ensure the timeliness of all deadlines um currently we have four referrals in for 504s and over 70 active 504s our social workers and counselors manage the 504s and that that does take away time from their college career planning and their therap therapeutic interventions and last but not least is the uh visual arts teacher and so this um would be to have an articulated Visual Arts um I should just say um Middle School curriculum uh that's on par academically with other with uh other offered subjects and meets academic standards articulated by the the state of Mass so right now um you know students should receive sequential instructions and right now these standards are covered um during enrichment blacks which are which are rotations and um integrated into into core classes so um I remember there was a great presentation a couple years back about this but the um about the this last bullet but the the Crux of it was the additional Research indicates that the greater the Arts educational program um in the Middle School the higher attendance rates graduation rates and test scores are with fewer distractions so pending your questions that is the uh School council's overview of budgetary implications broken down in both um essential needs and then U priority wants K thanks Julia um thank you Jake so going to your priority requests um for the wellness and and math it sounds like we haven't replaced uh teacher who has left the district and for Spanish um this is coming back to the discussion about Latin in the sense that you know if we hadn't uh renewed Latin we would have had an FTE um available to teach Spanish but this is a way to talk about you know the increased need for a Spanish teacher which is great um my question about Wellness is um have we tried and are we able to add Paras to the wellness classes so that there is increased supervision is that an option for us um well we that's what we're doing right now for supervision okay that's what I thought that's that's exactly Co coach flare is in there and um and we're we're lucky we have a a pair professional that can do that and do it effectively okay and then my question on math you said that there are 30 students in some of the classes um and earlier with Spanish you said there was a classroom limit of 24 that's what so when we so yet that's correct limit of 24 being that's how that's how we sort of design and set up like if you set up the traditional classroom with rows and tables the size of tables we have um that's what I fits ideally um but now we'll have like some tables on the side some sitting uh way in the back so it's still we're looking at really crowded classrooms it's CR it's crowded um they still meet code uh Mr scy is uh you know is is pretty diligent to make sure we have those those Pathways set up okay they're they're crowded great thank you Jose thanks Julia and uh and Jake apologies that I I arrived a bit late um but what I did he was was was very uh informative and and uh helpful thank you um this is just kind of it's following on from uh car's question to you and uh and and a question in that um is in response to what you shared with us regarding you know um the pressures on like Spanish instruction uh do you do you have a sense you know because one way to um read the the numbers of the data is that um that Latin clearly isn't the draw that Spanish is but another language other than Latin or in addition to Spanish could be a draw so do you have a sense of of how or whether you know that process might look like if we you know were were curious about um whether an alternative to Latin could be provided or whether you know Spanish could be supplemented in some way uh what what might that look like I'm assuming the school council would kind of help guide guide that conversation but just just curious that's a great question we haven't actually dipped our toe in there yet so I I think um that would be the first question we asked ourselves and to come up with a game plan of trying to to how to figure that out and we haven't dipped our toe in that yet thanks yeah anything I'd say would just sort of be a conjecture and Jose one thing given a school of our size we we could certainly start into a process like that by offering seventh grade 8ighth grade and one you know the the equivalent to a ninth grade um first course that would be one way to do it with the single FTE but it's also the case that once you have enrollment within a single language that starts to increase the number of FTE in order to cover a full array a full progression um increases as well and and so that's something that we see here with with Latin that in order for us to offer the diversity of classes that that we want to so that students have the opportunity to Transit all the way through the progression um we're we're instantly looking at above a 1.0 FTE um the same thing would happen with any additional subject that we were to bring in any additional language so it's it's a it's a commitment a process and one that that really does come with some pretty pretty sign ific potentially financial implications for us too uh Carrie and then Jose um Joe could you just remind us the total cost of a new FTE um I know it varies if it's a you know depending on where people are on the grid but um salary benefits approximately um currently when we when we're doing it we're looking at 80 or 85,000 that's between salary and um health insurance thank you Jose thanks Julia I think this question is to you Joe you know as we are now entering the the budget season or thinking about next year's for next next fiscal year um well I think a narrative that I think could could come from Jake's presentation today is that uh we aren't meeting the needs of our students in the middle school middle school and high school in in ways that we would like to at least maybe you know in terms of what we're aspiring to do both in math or Visual Arts or in in the languages um but also you know all that if that is a truth or certainly one way to to view you know our curtain certain Uh current situation um what do what do you need or what does our district need to kind of help navigate these demands that I guess we're placing ourselves with the goal of you know caring for and and and providing for our students you know in the in in the context or in the light of the fact that you know things aren't getting fiscally easier anytime soon so just just just curious about like yeah what what the road looks like going forward I don't know if you can share much but sure uh you well tonight is the first step in many ways in terms of public um conversations about what the budget for next year um might look like I think it's incredibly valuable to have the the staff and the and the families um who comprise the school council along with the principal work together and talk through from their perspectives what what what they would want to prioritize I mean we we see six positions here tonight that in theory could be highly valuable additions to the school uh I don't think even in my wildest dreams we're we're going to add six positions uh between now and and next year um that said the process that that you'll see unfold and that you'll participate in sorry um January February March um will really be one of in in January I think we're we're coming back and we're looking at a potential program of study um for Mount Greylock um that will incorporate undoubtedly some of what we already have and there will be some conversation around if we were to have an additional staff member within an area here's what we would be able to do um and as we work internally on this work also going to be doing the usual dance of well could we could we do half of this here and half of this there know we we are a school district that has often times seen well can we hire a 6 in this and a point4 in that and can we make this work from a human being perspective and from a schedule perspective know trying to trying to have as as much as we can within the means that we're that we're afforded uh and so I think that will be a big part of the conversation come February and then in March um so so tonight is really just the the laying out from the school's perspective as opposed to from the district office's perspective or from the principal's office just just solo um here is what we would really love to see um in priority order and and then in January we're going to talk about some of the implications of that and what a program study might look like for next year and by February we're going to be talking about tradeoffs um and and a lot of that will come with um knowledge you more advanced knowledge of retirements um really having having gone through with with the guidance counselors to understand um what projections look like and where we might be able to to um maneuver a little bit whether or not there are things that we can propose um not offering for next year in order to gain some of these things um but this is I I view it as step one of probably four um there's this month which is really just a very um plain look at at here here's what the school itself would love to have January we'll get into a little bit more detail February we'll be talking about tradeoffs and and and possibilities and then come March it'll be time to um finalize that thank you Joe any other questions for Jake or discussion about this Jake I I want to say um thank you for that presentation and for that level of detail I think that the numbers you shared and the rationale and the reasoning you shared will help us have this conversation um so much so thank you so much for providing all that thank you okay next on our list is the reorganization of subcommittees in your packs you saw the list of um last year's subcommittees I I had um I've checked in with each of you and I don't see that we need a vote so maybe this is more of a discussion um and I appreciate everyone has said that they are willing to continue or interested in continuing on their current um subcommittee so that is great and as I will be stepping off of the policy and governance subcommittee Christina will be stepping in to take my place and has agreed to be the secretary um Curtis so you get you maintain the role of the voice of the committee and Christina can be the secretary for the committee thank you in advance Christina thank you thank you um so I think that is the total of the conversation unless there's anything else that people have questions about or want to discuss I wonder if there should have been a vote on the agenda um no Christina says no no isn't it that the cheer chooses with input from the committee so I don't think there's a vote for this right um but this does remind me when you said packet um can we get Jake's presentation into the packet and in future it would be just really helpful to have those in the packet in advance of the meetings for they being presented we will definitely get Jake's presentation into the packet and um we're going to make every effort in the future try to oftentimes the presentations are actually being worked on right up until the day of but um but whenever possible we will definitely make sure that they go in the packet ahead yeah even if it's there so that during the meeting we can go back to a slide in the packet while we're talking it would just be helpful thanks yes yes for that idea thank you Jake and Joe for doing your best to to make that happen um next on our agenda is the Ecuador field trip request for 2026 I who is presenting that is that you Joe yes that would be me great so you have the request within your packet you also have some background information from me um as far as uh how the school committee has recently talked about applications like this for a field trip um we are just for people who don't have the Pack in front of them we are talking about the possibility of a field trip um operated by uh Mount Greylock staff um for Mount Greylock Regional School students that would operate um at the end of June early July of um not this coming summer but the summer following um it would be a trip to Ecuador um with its um with its Keys being um introducing students to another culture cultural awareness education um as well as a community service component um just as I wrote within the notes like every other field trip to a foreign country like this um it comes with considerable cost and that considerable cost is not one that the district has any good way of um of either providing scholarships for or uh decreasing the per student cost of significantly um that said the way conversations have proceeded in the past is um the the advantages the the benefits the opportunities that this can provide to students um has traditionally outweighed um the the fact that it's these trips are not as accessible as as we want um so with that I will put it in front of you I don't know Julia did I was there anything else that we had I I think that's right I think that's what we um discussed and I think before we open it for discussion we do need a motion and a second for the discussion a motion to approve the field trip request as presented so moved thank you Curtis is there a second for that a second thank you Christina and now we can discuss thank you Joe go ahead Carrie um okay so I have a couple of questions um do we know how this Compares in cost to per per student cost to the Panama trip as reference yes it is similar in similar but let me actually pull up the numbers um so the the the cost for the trip that was approved it was a year and a half ago that it was approved and the trip is happening at the beginning of this coming summer um that total cost was around $3,200 um this trip is more expensive but it's also um headed to a country where the travel is a whole lot um farther in many ways um and it's uh the the costs are being presented and voted a couple years later um which also has an impact no I get that but it's you know $119 more that's significant um my second question is even though this trip is open to any student in the school will there be an advantage for students taking Spanish uh given that there is uh some kind of a language component here that is not a part of the of the proposal that the staff members um organizing it had laid out but I guess I'm what I'm asking is given the itinerary will Spanish students studying Spanish be more likely to apply for this trip or is it really a non issue I think that given the nature of the trip I would not be surprised if there were a larger number of students taking Spanish who were interested in the trip um that said it's not something within within the proposed um plans or marketing of the trip that would be U that would somehow lean in that direction and then my final question is I didn't see anything and I might have missed it but I didn't see anything in the proposal that um talked about students with disabilities and I wonder if there are any accommodations made by this travel program for students with dis builings um I don't have a detailed answer to that question um EF Educational Tours is one of the major K through 12 um tour companies um so I can definitely take a look at um yeah I would just like to see it on their promotional material or the the information for the trip that goes out to the students at least they do offer something thank you it's a great great Point J thanks Julia and uh and thank you Joe for and walking us through this um I can't recall what how how many of these proposals I've seen since being on the committee um but my my thoughts and impressions of them have evolved uh and I think I'm I'm concerned about the role that our district has playing and sanctioning these trips um effectively they're they're for-profit trips where we are encouraging students to or or families um to direct funds to you know a company to you know care for our students but in actuality our district place other than our teachers you know chaperoning and parent chaperoning students it's not clear to me what what role our district is or should be playing other than sanctioning the trip and that's concerning to me because our responsibility responsibilities are to to all of the students in our district um not just those whose families have the means to to go on these seemingly exciting trips um you know they I think clearly benefit just a small subset of the students that we are charged to care for and uh you know I don't know what advantage families have by going through the district for guided you know companies guided tour you know what what's stopping families from you know organizing their efforts together and and doing this trip on their own I I don't know if if the experience would be any different for them um so you know I'd love to to hear from others but that's sort of my my thinking now as if you know we're we're presented with another proposal that I think you know will benefit certainly the the students who have the means or the Privileges to to be able to to go on this trip but and I I just don't know what role our district should be playing in this okay I I'll add one bit of um commentary I I asked a a different form of the of the same question um as this request came in before it came to you which was um given that it's happening outside of the school year and that it is not tied to our curriculum um is this something that that really should be regarded like any summer camp or or other type of opportunity um our legal council's response was that given that um we have staff members who are interested in coordinating it and that they are interested in limiting the participation to students who are attending Mount klock Regional School those two details make it so that really it is a trip that is either Allowed by the school committee or that would not be happening and and we would need to try very hard to distance ourselves from its existence aside from just you know writing it up the same way we would um a summer camp somewhere um so that that's it isn't a super satisfying answer to your question but it is the the other angle of detail as to why um why a school district would be voting on this um at at this level so thanks um it helps seeing the cost of the other trips to put things in context do we know roughly you know are we getting a significant discount by having a large group of students go versus what individuals would have done if they went um otherwis I would assume that there's a much stronger educational component to the experience by going through something like this but it would just be good to have that confirmed thank you Joe is that something you can respond to or is that uh I cannot respond to it in the moment um because trying to do a comparable produce you know uh airline tickets and hotel stays and um different cultural experiences and things like that I I just don't quite honestly that's part of why the tour guide companies exist is to is to do that but to try to figure out the analysis um it's something that we could try to estimate I don't know even if I were to spend 20 hours on it if I would get to the point where I was confident um to be honest well one way to think about it is that if a family of four did this trip you know it would the four times the amount of the student who is doing the trip and in that in that sense um the opportunity May that may go part way to answering your question Jose about whether you know a family may not be able to afford taking this trip but they may be able to figure out a way for one family member to take this trip through fundraising and um other means um and if it's important enough for the family they may be able to figure it's not a good answer I have a lot of qualms about this I've raised them in the past I've continued to support educational trips um because I do think that it is a way for students to expand their education and a valuable way um much to what Joe had said earlier um but not all families are going to be able to do this and um I still find that problematic Steve building on what Carrie said I I [Music] see you know the potential you know benefits of a trip like this to some students I also see that not everybody in the family might want to go on a trip like this but the idea of multiplying this by four for family afford toy what the cost would be there's a convenience in Booking through an organization to deal with all the hassles and all the stuff to just make it go seamlessly and not have to deal with it but if we're sending a large number of students students the price per student just seems a bit high and it was nice to see this in context with some of the other trips I'm just you know concerned about the price per student and what we're getting I would have expected to have had a bit more of a volume discount forening this many people thank you say thanks Julia and you just want to thank Carrie for you know her comments ear which resonated with me I think kind of speaks to how how I'm torn certainly um a concern I have and I don't know this is you know I don't know how it's going to play out with this particular trip but you know from a knowledge of of how a previous trip has played out uh you know the tour company requires a certain number of students to sign up pretty quickly so that you know they can you know can guarantee and and and book the trip um and they you know in my experience as one of these companies they put a lot of pressure on families to sign up quickly because there's only a certain number of students that can go um and if you were a family who may not know if you have the means to you know you'd love to but you may need the time to fund raise or to save or before you can commit the finances which does involve putting it down payment you know um I think it I think I worry you know the concerns that I think I've heard Carrie raised and I certainly have have um The process by which these companies go about and I get it they they it's a big commitment to run these trips and you know um and then it comes at Financial Risk and all kinds of risks so I mean I get it but I I I do wonder if we as a district could be doing this differently and perhaps more equitably you know in terms of a process that would allow families um time to prepare and and you know uh and and it's great an opportunity for for their children is this um do people feel ready to vote on this there are a couple outstanding questions um but otherwise do people feel ready to vote go ahead Jose I don't don't know uh I given the information that we have available to us I'm ready to vote um I don't know how this process will play out but if more information were provided to us that might help address the concerns that were raised today you know my I don't know what I don't know how I suspect my vote might might change you know um so it could be could be informed by uh new information that could be provided so don't don't know if yeah that's that's just that's just you know where where I'm at at the moment okay well we have a motion in a second um I think we move to a vote if there's no more disc um and I believe if there were additional information to provide to address the concerns it could come back before us is that is that fair Joe um yes I I don't think we have a policy against against that I I also don't I honestly do not know of the timing of um okay I know that everybody wants to get it organized earlier than later um I'm not sure what what January would do so far I've got two major questions one is um making sure to annotate the accessibility options um and then the other one is trying to do a comparison of cost between um using the tour operator and some alternative or organizing ourselves I I do not um I don't think given the volumes of money the the all of the different logistical needs is a good is a viable option quite honestly um but we could I could indicate that people would need to bring a couple of different cost competitive type options um in order for it to be reviewed I I also think that if that were the stance of the school committee it would be helpful to in future months um try to craft some kind of a policy around what what needs to happen in order for a trip to be approved given that there's a fair amount of leg work that a staff member might do in advance of this um and I know that bringing an application like this um even just given the notes that I presented it it it's not a it's not an obvious if you check off the various boxes then then we can fully support it um okay I just want to note that too okay Julia just a clarification on something I said earlier I looked further down in the application and the cost for an adult to attend is 5,000 as compared to the 4,300 so when I was talking about my family of four times four it would actually be higher so I just wanted to make that point that's all thank you all right so we have a motion a second um we've had discussion can we move to a role roll call vote please starting with Christina conry I things seem all upside down uh Constantine no Elfen Bine I green I Miller I B and [Music] I so that motion passes can I just say one thing now that we're done voting yes go ahead Steve for future trips it might be useful to have I don't know if this is possible but multiple bids multiple agencies contacted to see if we actually getting the best price point just like we have more than one bidder for a lot of the big projects at the school to just get a sense of are these reasonable numbers thanks thank you thank yeah I mean maybe kick this over to policy and see if there may need to be um some policy revisions that incorporate some of this you know information thanks great idea thank you all right the masc division 6 report to you Carrie yeah yeah so uh thank you Julia in the packet you'll see that there is a um a piece about uh from the the Department of Education about student competency competency determinations um it's some guidance that they're offering I know masc is also preparing to offer guidance to school committees and to work with the Department of educ a and many other um you know bodies throughout the state to offer guidance um and I think if you read through that FAQ from desie you'll maybe um find some answers to questions that you might have Joe this went to superintendent so I don't know if you found it helpful but it's certainly something that we as a district are going to need to start thinking about soon and I had suggested to Julian an email that maybe it be um an agenda item um in a on a for a future committee I don't know if we have a subcommittee that is really appropriate for this but the superintendent could always um form an advisory committee or the school committee could form a subcommittee to um you know look into this as well one of the other things that we talked about was um that the masc has contracted I think I've told you this before has contracted with a diversity Equity um inclusion um person who spoke at the conference not this past year but the year before and she's great and um she and is working with masc I believe to develop a training program for public employees because this is going to be part of you know some a mandate that's coming down the pike um so um that would be us a training for school committee members and other public employees to get certified um for uh Dei at the state level so just a heads up on that it's something that I think I'm going to be able to do at the end of January and then I think the trainees become the trainers so I'll I'll keep you posted on that um and the last thing is that um for those of you who have been to the conference it's been held in hyanis Forever which is hard for folks from Western Mass um as it turns out the convention center where it's held has been sold so uh to a special needs school so after next year it will no longer be the venue for the joint masc Mass conference that means that um their masc is looking for a new conference venue so all you Realtors out there if you know of venues that might meet the needs meaning like a thousand people and I don't know how many hotel rooms but masc I think was advised by board members to put together an RFP and um shop it out to folks so if anyone who's listening uh knows of conference venues that could accommodate um and is interested just contact masc so this would be for fall of 2026 I that's it go ahead Jeff just a quick on the on the competency determination topic um that document from desie was just released yesterday and the the staff at Mount Greylock are already pulling it apart to um figure out different ways and angles to to view it um and we'll definitely be pulling together a team over the next month um eventually it does need to gain approval of the school committee and and we will certainly um include the school committee at the ground level of of that process too but we are we are getting underway now that we've got um some more uh meat around the bones of of what possibilities are and um what uh what direction the state is trying to guide school districts in um two questions about that one is is does it make sense to from a school committee perspective an engagement that feels like a policy uh a graduation policy um and Carrie you suggested it' be you didn't suggest that I'm wondering if there was a reason you didn't suggest the policy and governance subcommittee are you are you asking me or I was asking Carrie so I'm I'm not sure is it in our J policies what the graduation requirement is because it hasn't really been up to districts um the competency determination yeah um is it a policy well that's a really good question I think you know I think the folks in the administration need to chew on this first of course of course right um and then maybe it should go to policy before it comes to school committee yeah that makes sense that would that would be my thought um and then Joe a clarification um as I read it since the law goes into effect in December if there are students today who have not met their competency determination by retaking the the mcast there is no alternative path before June is that am I reading that correctly unless we have something else in place no student will be required to take a retest at this point okay however um there is some leeway there for school districts that that's my initial reading of it and quite honestly the the FAQ does it does have some language that seems to leave some questions open for answers I I'll just put it that way okay yeah and it does sound like looking at the emails that have gone through the masc list serve some districts are voting to keep the masc test as a graduation requirement or sorry the mcast test as a graduation requirement so you know that's not off the table either okay yeah any other questions for Carrie around the masc division six report okay oh I guess the only other thing to report is that I will be continuing on um as the chair of division six and Bill Cameron will be continuing on as the secretary and Alice castron nois from uh Hancock will continue on for one more year I think he's not planning to run again but he'll be on for next year excellent thank you for your service Carrie um we now need to go into um executive session um we need a motion to go in executive session with the intent to return to open session pursuant to mgl chapter 30A so moved thank you I think we need to read out loud it's to just to discuss the reputation character physical condition or mental health rather than professional competence of an individual for sick leave bank so we have a motion from Curtis and do we have a second Mill a second Miller second um and we need a roll call vote starting with Christina conry i constantina i alen b ey green I Miller I Bowen I now from a purely um logistical perspective um I think I need to put everybody into the breakout room I created a breakout room and I assigned everybody that I could to it okay Julia you will need to opt in you will need to join it okay excellent excellent thank you and I've great and this is at 10 I'm sorry not 109 I'm in a different9 709 for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay um we uh I am going to be looking for a motion to approve the sick leave Bank request as presented so moved thank you Curtis second thank you Christina I and let's go to a roll call vote hry I Constantine I Elfen b i green IA I Bowen I and that motion passes thank you next up on the agenda is uh just a review of the upcoming meetings we have uh the finance subcommittee meeting is meeting on December 18th at 5:00 pm policy subcommittee it has a TBD so I think the the policy subcommittee will be meeting in December or January um when it is determined uh thank you for it couldn't be determined until it was clear who was on the committee so thank you subcommittee um and we next meet on January 9th at 6: p.m. and Julie if I could since there wasn't a finance committee report tonight I just want to let folks know that the um town of Williamstown Town manager reached out to me and Joe today to schedule a town uh a TW town bus Mount Greylock Regional School District um preliminary meeting at the end of January I believe um which is a meeting that has been happening each year I think now for maybe a couple of years to get both towns in the same leadership from both towns in the same room um and um involving the district um as well so that's in the works whether that date works or not it will be Happ great and I'll just be representing as chair of Finance thank you um I do not have any other items for discussion that were not reasonably anticipated 48 hours before the meeting do we have any agenda requests Julia do we want to remember to start to have a discussion about [Music] March remote meeting H yes um absolutely what wasn't it extended to 26 it is currently through March of 2025 Oh I thought it was through 26 my bad no it's through 2025 and I and there's been talk potentially of it being extended or being changed but there's no action has been taken so we should be thinking about what we do if nothing changes do we want to send a letter of uh views to our Representatives I so I'm just trying to make sure we stick to our agenda and say we should talk about that yes okay exactly um all right any other agenda requests all right then I will look for a motion to adjourn so moved thank you C oh St beat me thank you Steve um and we'll go out with a roll call vote I Elfin b i green eye congratulations Julia I oh and I thanks everyone thank you 23 another record Julia nice job yeah can I um this is not really about the meeting itself but you wantan to stop recording I can stop recording yeah