there we go all right great um welcome everybody um to our uh virtual school committee meeting of today is Thursday June
27th um I hope everybody is well uh I'm going to ask everybody just be patient with us as we kind of work through some uh technical challenges that we have and um I'm just dealing with some technical issues that we have
myself so just going over here um just guys give me a second because my computer is really being a problem so Amy if you could just talk talk for a minute say hello to everybody so I I am gonna this is Amy O Conor I am going to call this meeting to order it is
Thursday June 2 7th at 6:02 um and tonight we have the four of our five school committee members uh as well as uh Glenn coocher uh from the
Massachusetts Association of school committees and my question to you Mr chair is do you want me to uh promote uh Mr coocher to a panelist yes please all right all right I think I'm
back with you guys I can make this work all right so I I I I hopefully you guys can see me I can't see you but I think we can just do what we need to do give a moment it looks like uh Mr
coocher yep is there good great all right great um hey Glenn how are you I am well thank you great great thank you all right so just before we uh start talking to Mr coocher um I know
for this this um virtual meeting I don't believe we have any uh for the love of learning um and just Glenn before we get started I don't know if there's any um committee comments and Amy if you have
anything please uh Enlighten us uh I do not have any committee comments great thank you you um Suzanne I don't all right thank you Suzanne um
John uh I don't have anything Glenn no okay great um let me just get over here and again guys I apologize for uh being a little slow in the uptick with my computer today all right great there we go I can
actually now see you guys are looking good all right let me just go over here oops sorry attendees all right great all right so um have to go back over here sorry this is just painfully slow there
we are um I don't have any commune comment either I have a couple things to talk about when we get to um chair comments um I know that um there's no reports or discussions superintendent is not in attendance today uh as neither is
the director Finance so what I'd like to do is um start a conversation uh under the school committee chair um before we even get into uh a through D um I'd like to open up to the school committee and
the public what was discussed last week in which um the superintendent has let us know that um she will be retiring at the end of the next school year uh June 30 of 2025 and we certainly appreciate the
superintendent giving us this much an opportunity and we appreciate everything she has done and continues to do within the district and so what we did um M OK Conor and myself met with Glenn coocher who is the director the executive
director I should say of the Massachusetts Association of school committees um one of the things that Glenn specializes in is guiding School districts on uh moving forward and selecting of the next superintendent so we have asked Glenn to join us an open
Forum today to just have some discussions about um the process what we what we need to do what we can do and uh to any school Committee Member please feel free to ask questions as we go and
Mr coocher I will throw the microphone over to you thank you um gu this is an unusual circumstance because there are rarely two Glenn's on the call at the same time and and I I did see an email that that the board secretary sent to
Glenn and I foolishly thought it was for me and I why she was giving me all those just to expect tonight's meeting so we'll we'll figure this out so um you're in the you're in the fortunate position well the unfortunate
position of having your superintendent retire uh you're in the fortunate position of having your superintendent retire under the most honorable of circumstances uh transitioning to a district that is doing quite
well and uh a district that has been really uh free of the kind of controversy that makes it difficult to to find people who want to be a superintendent uh the other thing that you should know is that you have a year year to the transition will take place
and will end a year from now so you have plenty of time to think about what you want to do in situations like this maybe 40% of our districts just go ahead and promote
someone who may have been groomed or who has been uh coached for the superintendency uh inside a district and who was known and is a known quantity and about 60% of the districts uh there
may be an internal search process to vet internal candidates there may be an external process to vet from uh the universe of whoever is out there and would like to come to Eastern
Massachusetts uh you also have complete discretion to do whatever you feel is best so you're talking you have the superintendency on your agenda tonight uh based on the way the Attorney General interprets the law you can appoint me
right now as your superintendent that's how much discretion you have there's no requirement that you have a search there's only the expectations that your community has for you to diligently oversee the transition and in dis in districts where
things are going well there is rarely controversy about decisions that the school committee makes so you're in a very good place in that regard as I said about 40% of the districts will just make an internal
promotion uh if things are done transparently in that regard the community almost always follows the lead of the school committee sometimes on internal promotions the school committee will uh elect to do a public interview
of the internal candidates just so that the community sees the candidates or the candidate they're responding to questions uh that the community has an opportunity maybe to meet the candidate and go from there or you take another path you
advertise the vacancy collect your applications uh work through a search committee which is usually uh the way of choice and I'm going to let you in on some inside
information here um the Attorney General does not allow a majority of school committee members to serve on an initial screening and interview panel if executive session is to be utilized we believe this is an egregious
misinterpretation of the open meeting law but we don't make the rules the Attorney General does and the rules that we have in this regard are left over from the Martha kley era uh I do Glen could I interrupt this is Amy uh could
you could you say that one more time I'm not sure I followed it so the school committee cannot use school committee may not conduct the excuse me a majority of school committee members may not participate in the initial screening and interview
process if confidentiality is to be applied really wow that's interesting yeah so for example if there are uh five of you on the school committee yes right so you could put two members of the school committee on the search
committee but three members could not right and then you you'd add the other stakeholders locally if you did elect to have a search committee we believe that the open meeting law as most recently revised did
not intend to exclude the entire school committee from participating on the initial screening and interview process in collaboration with other members of the community we just believe that that's not what the law was intended to do the other part of
this which is sort of ridiculous is that if you conduct an initial screening and an initial interview the questions for the confidential interview may not be developed in executive session so wow how stupid is that but
again I'm not blaming the current attorney general nor the previous attorney general who's now the governor they just inherited the rules that Martha kley came up with and the AG's office has been reluctant to correct what I believe are absolutely indefensible Provisions
uh applied of the open meeting law so we're working on changing that so can I ask if yeah as part of this you know one of the things that we all talked about last week when the superintendent gave her um
her notice was the fact that um you know we are in the good the fortunate position of having a pretty uh strong leadership team under the superintendent you know she really has developed um a a
a strong team you know so if we were to say as a committee dis have conversations with her staff am I hearing that a we could not
do that as a committee in in um executive session but could we sort of divide uh our like and say two people will meet with with the this part of the the senior staff and two people will meet with this part of the senior staff
just so that you know that ultimately the the work is done by all of us well if you wanted to hear from the senior staff and you just wanted to have them give you
feedback I suppose you could probably do that but that's not screening the candidates that's just asking them what they okay survey them you could ask ask for that information but if you got serious
about I I'm making this up but let's say you had three really Stellar aspiring superintendent in your District uh and uh if you were that lucky or even if you only had one and
you wanted to consider that person for the superintendency and they were willing to forego confidentiality then you could just talk to them at a public meeting okay that's it Glenn can you just give us a little bit and give the
public a little bit of the landscape of superintendencies in Massachusetts yeah uh pretty much all of the districts looking for superintendent have now concluded Ed their process for September I think Brockton is just finishing up
looking for an interim now Cambridge is just appointed an interim so they'll be spending uh next fall looking for a permanent superintendent they'll be uh competing with whoever is out there looking for a superintendent there are a fewer people
around now who want to be superintendents then wanted to be superintendents uh a decade or or two ago when my first superintendent search was in 1974 and uh 110 people wanted to be
superintendent in Cambridge we had 110 applications wow the last time Cambridge went out looking for a superintendent I think maybe there were two candidates that I would consider first tier wow people out there and uh more
districts have uh created a more ating opportunity for superintendent so there aren't a lot of people out there who want to be superintendents and the pools are are are smaller out of state candidates don't often apply and the
ones who do often apply for the wrong reason I had somebody from a Midwestern State tell me well I've just retired here and uh my wife always wanted to go to the uh to to the co and
uh we've always loved Cape Cod so uh I'll throw my application into uh you know swamp Scott how hard could it be I'll do three years and then I'll retire again well that's really not what you want right correct a lot of people are looking for oncore superintendencies
after retirement which means they're not going to be there that long uh others uh may want to get away from trouble that is attached to them uh and uh then there's the problem of lure and uh uh which is not reciprocal in
Massachusetts and then there's the issue of Regulation and the price of real estate so when someone ask me what we can do after we sell our ranch home here in mome Illinois for $320,000 um what are we going to get if
we move up to the NorthShore I'm thinking you know the shed in the back of the house maybe but not the house itself so uh as say we don't see and and we Northeast tend to
be uh let's say we joke about this you know we already have friends we don't need new ones uh or uh we you know we don't talk to strangers it's not like the Midwest where you just say hello to everybody all the time it's a culture that uh that can be daunting for some
people and as I say the regulatory climate is tough right um most of our candidat are coming from New England and in fact Massachusetts there are good people who emerge every year there are people who have left their superintendencies
uh and who are still I would insist outstanding superintendant who left where they are because uh of whatever uh whatever reasons uh drove them out some superintendents pay a price for being
courageous uh some uh pay a price for not playing the political game the way it might need to be played and and some uh you know if you're a if you're a big city superintendent that's a very different job from being a Suburban superintendent or a smaller district
superintendent so the pools haven't been that big but the pools are not are there are always three or four generally really first tier candidates who are experienced and out there but we're seeing that many
districts have been cultivating their leadership so that when these kinds of situations arise they're in a position just to look inhouse and make successful transition and U as I say
barring uh stolen money or disaster Act of God whatever it might be uh this the community respects the school committee and will follow the lead of the school committee right
that's not the case everywhere uh but I believe in swamp Scott the community is by the way I it's not that I don't know anything about swamp Scott I I have a cousin who who who says that I never call her whenever
I'm in swamp Scott and say hello so I can say hello Wendy hello Wendy they speak the people that I know speak very well swamp right and that's a really well I think we have the Good Fortune of some
uh you know for the last decade of some some really strong stability uh and consistency uh you know throughout the the superintendent team um you know and that that has done us
well um right I agree house talent I would suggest you save yourself a lot of time a lot of money and a lot of diversions and Screen your in-house person or people and just move
forward great by the way I don't I don't know who any of these people are I'm not familiar with your central office but I'm just saying in general this is the advice we've given to a lot of districts right right interesting um John Suzanne do you guys have any
questions for Glenn comments one way or another uh John so I guess not a specific one but just Glenn thank you for that I you know I
appreciate the part about the the discretion of the school committee um just curious what similarly situ situ I can't get the word out situated communities you know you know you know is is there a particular way they
approach the process or is it really District specific you know their circumstances really drive the process or is there you know kind of general advice you would give just you know for situations like ours there there are some communities who when they're looking at internal promotion will want
to give the candidate an opportunity to at least meet the community uh or encourage the community to come out and meet the candidate and that may include a uh you know a public uh Q&A with the school
committee so that they can have an opportunity to probe and the individuals in the community that have questions can feed them directly or through you that that that's the I refer to that as the Westboro plan because Westboro
successfully did that a number of times cand interviewed the candidate with the community and the community was fine uh then there's the other situation that we've had you know in in Foxboro uh they asked us to conduct some focus groups with the community and the
community told us why are you diverting us why are you not just going ahead we know the internal candidate everyone is very happy let's just move forward and let's move on so that's that's the Foxboro plan uh they had people in place
that were ready and a district that was doing well and a community that was uh very favorably disposed to the question thank in terms ofing um in terms of holding focus groups with the
community I know that I participated a few years ago with the interim um police chief when they were looking to to hire the the new police chief here in Swampscott and that that interim police chief held some focus
groups um is that something that would it would be done necessarily by you know the masc or is that something that really I feel in some ways that that the school committee should should
be um um listening you know almost like a listening tour what's been happening most of the time is that the school committee does a listening tour frequently the school committee will ask us to uh welcome everybody and turn the
floor over to uh a school committee moderator and uh we will take notes and write up a summary of what was said at the meeting sometimes the school district handles it themselves and sometimes uh they ask us to to do the
focus groups uh we also uh uh I'll tell you the biggest change of the last 20 years is that people don't like coming out in the evening to go to meetings right The Faculty is now you know they're they're away for the summer teachers will come to focus groups if we
can have them during the school day or immediately after school uh parents unless they are parents who are disgruntled or have a particular concern have not been turning up what does raise
uh a good response are uh uh ver uh online surveys okay the public can respond and you can collect all the data sometimes they ask us to set those surveys up other times the school district sets them up uh there can be a
bit of an advantage if we set it up because we and these these don't cost anything you know we right we've got a a survey license we uh and the survey will will gather the responses and all all of
the responses including written responses which are the most helpful uh but if we do it we own the data so that we can uh Delete or uh redact any comments that are made that
are inappropriate on the survey uh that's great that's very interesting um I just want to Circle back Suzanne do you have any thoughts or questions for Glenn um a couple um um so let's say there's multiple
in-house candidates so is it something you put the job offer out you sort of you sort of pick the one you think is best or or do you have the community um I'm I'm just having I'm having a hard
time because because if there was one person rising to the top and and sort of everyone was in agreement in the community and on the school committee that's one thing but if there's multiple candidates um I don't want to it I want
to keep the Harmony in the the team and in the school but I just don't understand I don't understand um the timeline for um public q&as like is that is that a c are those candidate questions or or are they things after we
sort of Ved someone said let's talk well let's say hypothetically you've got a couple of internal people who aspire to your superintendency you could uh invite them to participate in an internal vetting process process where they would
meet with the stakeholders or meet with the the community or whoever's around in the summertime well actually you could do this in the fall right and uh and invite them to uh to go to go through an interview process with you and to meet
with the community and then uh if you if you if you still felt that they were of sufficient strength that you would want one one of them as a superintendent you could hire one of them as the superintendent if you felt that they did not uh hold up to the standards that you
have you could then cast a a wide net and go outside right and then Glenn all this has to be done in public correct this would all be done in public if the school committee is participating as U full participants great okay your internal
candidates rarely seek the uh seek the status of privacy right they're not holding their candidacy candidacy back from their employer if I was the superintendent in Mayberry Massachusetts uh and and we in Mayberry
think things are going well and they find out that I'm that I'm now dancing with the with swamp Scott that can be very difficult for relationships right right right the common side you don't have the problem of confidentiality I'm sort of I'm sort of
ask about the timeline too like you're talking about um having public forums or or sort of you know listening tours is that something I mean with an internal candidate it feels like it feels like that
happens maybe after they're hired to hear what the community wants from them or I mean it has to happen then too but I just don't understand um we're trying to from those tours we're trying to gain that the characteristics we want in a
leader because because I would argue well I wouldn't I I just you know the the leadership team sort of embodies the characteristics in general of the district it's sort of it's sort of hard to it's sort of hard to um maybe maybe
fine-tune that with public discussions because I think that a lot of the things the public doesn't know the differences I don't I don't know what I'm trying to say you guys understand what I'm trying to say like I actually I actually yeah I actually exactly what you're Nu is like
the nuances between the whole leadership team like they're they're all like like there could be 10 candidates right I mean they're all really so strong and the nuances between them are not going to come out they're not going to come out in in
um in a public forum I don't think because I I don't know I'm just I I don't know I'm just having a hard time sort of understanding the the purpose of that other than having people around to sort of uh mock interview people or not
interview people but be part of the selection so I see so I I have to say one of the things that was that I found helpful about being a part of the um the
process in the police department for or for the police department was just sort of hearing the ethos of the town and being able to to hear what sort
of broadly was important um so like I I think I think this is an opportunity for us to not necessarily hear about a particular candidate but to
hear from uh particularly parents um but you know I guess also you know the taxpayers as well because of you know there is a lot that's going to be happening over the ne you know the coming few years you know I think it's
important for people to feel heard um and I do I like I appreciate the I the the the fact um Glenn that you know when you say that you know to be
able to do that but with um you know not necessarily in in public fors because we don't want it to necessarily be dominated by people who are disgruntled but to to to use the masc to to gather some right you
thoughtful data about you know what what's important to our community that that you know I think a lot of us know as school committee members but to to reaffirm that or to hear what may be new but um I I I don't know I I feel like
there can't I just I feel like that could could just strengthen um the community's buy and for the decisions that are made if you created a a survey instrument and put it out for people to respond if you use multiple choice
questions I can tell you in advance what the answers are going to be but right if you ask people to give you open responses you'll get us sense of why is this town different from all other towns or what are the special functions of
superintendent that are important to your community and you can pick that up from a from a survey with the with good open response opportunities and you can see you can see all the you can see all the responses occasionally what we need
to do is um uh Sometimes some people violate confidentiality in their responses so or or sometimes people uh uh you know will will will do some prank responses or something and and it is important to
protect those people who have the expectation of privacy uh not the school committee because you don't have that expectation but others so we we when I say we clean it up a bit uh we can provide uh a redacted form of the survey
uh that we can go over with the chair so that you see what acting or you can have all the answers you want and release them to the public right you will get you will get some good s of where the community is coming from if that's what you wanted to do Glenn how long does it
take if we wanted to go the survey Road and how long does that take to kind of get off the ground and because I I know just from my perspective I I don't want this to drag on um you know especially where I'm hearing you say that you know
40% from from some 40% of the districts promote from within uh more and more people do not want to go promote from within without a process they just go correct oh okay yeah it's without a process so in fact it's more districts
that just promote from within right because they prepared yeah right right um so if we were going to do a survey and I'm not saying it is or is not necessary how long would it take you guys to to to get something like that up
and run it uh we have samples of surveys that we've done we have samples of questions that go out uh so and theoretically it could be done by the end of the day tomorrow okay well it
depends on it depends on how much process you have to have and whe engage in group editing if you engage in group editing all bets are off group editing has been has been declared
by the world Court to be a crime against so Suzanne um I kind of want to I want to Circle back to your your original question and like does it does this to me this is different to me to me I think this is necessary even if we weren't hiring a superintendent this is
like a necessary sort of refocus or I mean we haven't done A needs assessment for the town or the school Community as a whole in a really long time so to me this is just like it makes sense to to have a survey just to see where people are in in what their values are and what
is important to them in their in their children's education and stuff and and the bonuses to ask what do you want in a superintendent or what quality most important I mean those are all bonus questions but that's not but that's different than than um having candidates sit with the public like I'm I'm like
I'm not sure I'm not sure if you I'm not sure I'm not sure what it does for our internal culture our leadership team if we have three or four of our leaders up against each other right and and in public sort of everyone has a chance to answer questions and then all of a
sudden it's becoming sort of like like a Hunger Games right exactly I just don't want it to turn into like that that's what I'm thinking like something like it it seems to me it's better to to sort of us or a selection
team I even a selection team sort of vet the people privately and then and then pick one before so that it's not it's not because like I'm saying that they're so much more alike and they're all really strong and and we know what their strengths are and I would hate to have
that not come through to the people that are questioning them because we know in in any circumstance anyone any one of them could be super superintendent yeah yeah saying I just don't want these people have to go back and work together
and feel any sort like um discomfort right right I I completely agree with you Suzanne 100 per uh about that um I I think a survey needs assessment with you know the extra as you said it's kind of a good thing you know what are you looking for in a superintendent I really
do like that um Glenn let me a couple questions so if we have multiple candidates in H how do they go about letting us know because we're not going to post this I I really would prefer not to post this why
would why wouldn't we post it internally so that was my next question suzan is can we post it internally I want to kind of ask and answer we can't post internally without going external correct absolutely absolutely you may want you may want to refer to your
collective bargaining agreement if your collective bargaining agreement requires that the School District post all vacancies uh you might be required by your contract with the teachers to post the vacancy even though they make no say
in what you do or less of a say or more or less of a say okay that's interesting thank you but if internally is rarely a problem in a district that's doing well because the community is not
looking for trouble If This Were A District that had a a substantial budget deficit where teachers were fleeing the system because of morale issues where uh uh maybe there had been some crimes involved or or some
fraud uh then you'd have everybody looking over your shoulder but that's not the case you've got the perfect situation we're looking for a new superintendent and the the optimal situation it sounds like for
uh doing an internal promotion with the faculty that you have at hand okay I'd like to I'd like to to put it out there that we do a A needs assessment um as Suzanne called it um I
think that we should definitely do that I think that will only benefit us uh not only in the in the search but in in the transition um well if you do that you want to plan to get it done in early
September I mean maybe the maybe your internal people like the central office is going to be around in the summer I don't know uh but uh but we don't want but we want it to go out to families anyway right so you can you can disseminate it it's harder to get it out in the summer because you don't have all
the kids in school bringing the notice well we have we have um we have a we have a great vehicle for disseminating right we have a we have a vehicle that can you know it's fine and you could you could do that and ask people to respond electronically right you could get that
up quickly and you could see the responses as they come in yeah I I would I would like to do it as really soon as humanly possible and I again I agree we we do have a great system that bursts out information to um our community uh
parents Etc um I know I know I would we've got a great sorry to interrupt we have a great system for getting that information out to our to our school Community not necessarily to the larger swamp Scott Community but I think that we have a pretty decent opportunity
there and certainly we can um you know make ourselves heard we have that town we have that town newsletter now I it's a place to put a link to have people yeah and perhaps one of us can go to the
you know select board meeting and and uh make a public announcement yeah but I think I think to everyone's Point like doing it sooner than later and letting it sort of be open for a while so like you started in the beginning of August and you know you say you have this time this summer to think about this and then
you know start yeah collecting them slowly and doing a couple reminders and saying we've gotten a 100 we want to get 400 we know we've gotten want to get 600 survey up and leave it up as long as you want take right okay that takes very little
time and it costs nobody anything so from um from a housekeeping standpoint Glenn um what how does that work and how do you work with committees on that do you have a particular Point person do you like what do what do we need to a
point person it's helpful to have a point person on the committee who might work with us to okay you know for example what I would what I would do if you putting up a survey is uh uh show you some samples right and and show you
some potential questions that have been effective then you get back to us and tell us which questions you want to post and we create the survey and put it up we send you the link so that you can share the link with everybody out there who wants to
respond and then the survey responses start coming in and when you you know and periodically we download the data and we can share them all right great yeah
UMES anybody do that so can I make a comment Glenn um just go ahead John um yeah yeah to to the chair not the other Glenn and uh okay um I'm not not opposed to what I'm
hearing here I just wanted to play devil's advocate for a second and just throw out maybe go ahead like a like a modified version of this um I guess my concern is tying the survey to the super search process superintendent search process
that you know it it kind of takes you know the autonomy that we have as far as timing and decision- making it kind of takes some of it out of our hands which I'm not thrilled about um what I I do
like the idea of A needs assessment and maybe one way to approach it would to be put one out but kind of separate the super part out from the community needs assessment part so when we get the information back you know the whoever
whoever the new superintendent is can use that as information to help them to hit the ground running or if they want to engage the community further they can use that as a basis but not not tie the two together um I I just you know I'm
I'm just going back to what Glen coocher said at the beginning about you know our our latitude here and I just my concern is it would kind of limit Us in maybe ways that we're not foreseeing at the moment so I think that I think that um I think that the timing isn't an issue
because if we can get this out and back by September we're still on it's not like we're it's not like we're opening a search today or even this summer we haven't even discussed that but I also think I also think this isn't necessarily a document for a new superintendent to use I think this is
more of a document for us to use when we're thinking about our goals or what our priori should be for this community like when we're thinking about our B budget decisions and and like what we do like I'm not I wouldn't I wouldn't presume that this was for a new Superintendent at all I mean it's it's a
data point for sure but I I but I was thinking but we' be writing this more for us and like you know this is like an inflection point we've all been together so long and functioning so long as this cohesive five of us right that it's time to sort of like just say like what like
it's like to me it feels more like asking Community for help for us but I that's like that's the slant I was thinking John not so much like we're gathering information for and again Suzanne I you know and I don't I don't
think I said it but I think I was kind of thinking that was baked into it that you know we would also consume part of it but um you know again it's it's again I was just playing devil's advocate here I just didn't want something getting in
the way of this process and our ability to conduct it the way we see fit the the um if I if I may the data and the information that you get back from focus groups or from the surveys are you you can pick up the
key General points that the community is telling you that are unique to you and you can pick up other themes that come by they don't drive the process I I don't believe they compromise the school committee ability because they're not going to tell you anything that you
don't already know or that you don't want to know the the control of the process can be at stake when you have more of an interview process uh
involving uh a search committee because the the problems that often happen with searches more come from the search committee than come from anything else because let's say h pathetically two of you were appointed to a search committee
and then you had three members of the faculty and maybe a central office administrator and a principal and the head of the sped pack and and you know you got 13 people in the room and uh you have 13 special interests all competing
with each other and frequently the The Faculty will mobilize immediately to try to take control of the process or to generate some undue influence and I I only say that because I've done 105 searches in my life and in 110 of them
that's been the case right K let me just let me ask you kind of a pointed question here of all the districts that you have assisted and you know whether directly or indirectly um if they have and I know
it's a 40% number if they have an internal candidate candidates who who they feel the school committee s that could step into that role MH do you find that the 40% who
just appoint versus the X perent who will have whether it's Community meetings or whatever it is what what process works better in your opinion what have you seen in communities where things are going well there's almost
never a controversy if they just make an appointment right you when you open up level of process you get you know the commun if there's more process the community may feel a sense of having been heard into it that that they will
appreciate having the opportunity to do uh but the more process you have the more complicated it becomes uh but uh other than the fact that we don't get a lot of people coming to focus
groups anymore especially after hours right and the reason is very simple 40 years ago you didn't have every adult in the household totally busy during the day and exhausted at night and not
wanting to go out to a meeting right now everybody's working everybody's under pressure and when you get home the last thing you want to think about doing is going to a meeting and uh listening to 20 or 30 people uh
you know talk talk to each other uh so it doesn't affect the quality of the candidate that you get right the search committee can be more important because search committees I I've been on countless search committees where some
of the best candidates never go forward right because you you know somebody forgot to cross a te or somebody uh right the wrong reference letter and or somebody doesn't like the fact that somebody went here instead of there
right that that's been that's been the upsetting element of the whole process right um okay just and I'm just throwing out questions here I if we were going to appoint
someone as you said we just we literally just have a meeting in open forum and someone makes a motion to appoint person a and it's voted on by the committee okay um so it can be as simpl
it can be as simplistic if the committee shows solidarity and consensus that sends a message to the community right okay great has been really informative
um Amy do you have any questions for Glenn um no my question comes back to to the committee in terms of who who wants to to run lead with with the the survey um with the masy um you know if we decide to do a
survey I actually would like to work with Glenn on that if that's okay with everybody you know unless someone has this really strong um desire to do it you you can make that decision Glenn and then uh okay you can work that out
with the rest of your colleagues and and great okay okay great um Suzanne do you have any last questions for Mr coo um no I was just going to say out loud to our group or to ourselves here that you know our one our one I mean
we're we're in such a great position because we have these choices and we have this time to do everything but you know we also we also don't have um much diversity in our leadership team and that's like something that I think is important too to sort of consider just
to con just to throw that out to consider um why a bigger search is I'm playing Devil's Advocate a little bit here too I just want to say that I recognize that and and that's sort of you know is is sort of something
I'm thinking about too like you know we're trying to look at every decision we make with with with a with a lens that's a little more inclusive right and I'm just just thinking about um so not like what what what is you know what happened with or is happening with the
police department leaving um uh what do you call it not Social Services uh uh just how they've changed their process so that they could cast a wider net is that what you mean well I'm just
I'm just saying that I I just want us to recognize that that we have we have a we have a pool of people that our internal pool of people that are are not necessarily um completely reflective of our population and I think it's really
important for us to consider that there's that there's people um that may not feel represented represented by by our pool and so that would be a reason to go to a broader pool is all I'm saying I'm not I'm I'm not advocating it
for it because I know I know how hard superintendencies are I know how hard the the the pool how tough the pool is and how tough it is to get someone and especially how tough it is to get diverse candidates especially to apply to to a predominantly white Community
you know whatever I I get that I just I just wanted to throw it out there and get it on the record that I'm I'm conscious of of this decision that that doesn't sort of include all the stakeholders in the same way that's all I'm saying thank you s i just to say it
all right that's go John any last comments questions for Mr Co I think we covered it thank you Glenn great um I don't have any last comments either Glenn again on behalf of the committee we really appreciate you taking the time to to join us you given us um a real lot
to think about and I have a quick question if I can jump in um absolutely sorry to interrupt you um Glenn how many um how many open positions are there for superintendent right now in Massachusetts right now uh right now I couldn't name a district
that that is about to start a process in terms of open superintendent I I think uh I I say Brockton and Cambridge will need to have somebody in place to start the school year uh couple of small districts in Western
Massachusetts but the the season is sort of over yeah right what will happen now is starting in September we'll have the announcements of retirement and uh so we're ahead of the curve because of the uh because our
superintendent was is so gracious right I didn't get that I didn't I was just saying be so we're ahead of the curve because of you are ahead of the curve at this time that's correct all
right if but if you have a candidate who is outstanding in your mind mind you may not want that candidate uh uh looking elsewhere yeah especially in the fall when other announcements are made right youve got somebody that's
really good and I find out who it is some other district is gonna say well who's out there that's really good right you don't want me mentioning there in can you're right
exactly it's a very good point Glen it's actually a really good point and something I think that's something we should all really consider as well um all right Glenn thank you so much um I'll be in touch just for for your information the best way to reach me is
usually on the cell phone because cell pH calls don't fall through the cracks email has has uh email and social media have just overwhelmed everybody right so don't hesitate to pick up the phone and call I won't thank
you so much appreciate it everybody happy fiscal New Year to everyone thank you thank you for your expertise thank you um all right so that was that was great that was a lot of great information um does does anyone
have any thoughts about what we just talked about um John let's start with you um I I I think um just kind of coming back I'm just thinking over some of the themes we talked about here with
Glenn and it it sounds like just based on some of the criteria that he outlined comparing us to other districts that you know we we we have a lot of advantages going right now as far as um you know a
a bench to look at and and make make an internal selection and would decide to go that route right you know you know I think my lean would be to to do this in a um in an expedited
fashion uh not drag it out for months and months um just very clear about the succession planning that way you know everybody knows um know what we're thinking what we've decided and can accordingly that's you know I know it's
kind of high level but you know those are my thoughts just you know kind of processing what I just heard great thank you John uh Amy any thoughts I I really I agree with what you just said John and I think also you know because of the opening of our new elementary school
that's going to take a lot of um that's going to take a lot of effort particularly on the part of our superintendent and her team and so I think as as we I don't want to squander our our
opportunity um because I feel like you know the superintendent gave us a great opportunity by giving us the amount of notice that she did so just that we just keep at it great thank you Amy suzan yep feeling feeling the same way you know
figuring this out sooner than later I mean I think our goal should be you know you know to to give whoever stepping in um time to sort of um have some guidance or sort of Step into the role part-time or something to
I think that's a really important thing to to try to right try to um allow that person to do yeah like well we have our super you know of 10 years here right um yeah I mean I I agree with everybody I I really would like this um a relatively
quick process I think that's the best thing for the potential candidate I think it's the best thing for the current superintendent I also think it's the best thing for the community um to to to fill the role to identify um
really as as soon as possible I I I really think that I think um Glenn coocher you know definitely gave us some talking points some things to think about again you know things that just St you know stand out at me um you know
40% promote from within they just do it um you know we talked about a survey um which I think can get up and running fairly quickly and um so I I think I I think there's a lot for us to do but I I do think this should be done in a Rel in
a relative quick manner so um that was great I uh I I appreciate everybody's thoughts thoughts about that and uh feel free to you know continue to talk so let me just get back
over here we continue can continue on the agenda uh um I mean look I think that just because I think we have a tremendous resource with the masc right and it's not a resource that
we use a lot but look here's this is the most important thing that the school committee does you know is identify the the superintendent so I would say that we should I I definitely hear
what you're saying uh John in terms of you know not letting it um run the process but I do think that that as Suzanne said what that we're really at an inflection point so to be able to to make use of the masc and get a um get a
survey done uh sooner than later I think would be really helpful for all of us all right great thanks Amy um all right so just real real quick um onto the uh school committee chair uh try
chair up um myself uh the chair of the select board and the chair of the finance committee um had a meeting last week uh the first uh for um for us as a group um
we talked a lot about um whether it's do we continue with TR chair we really all agree that if we are going to continue with TR chair we want it to be a a fruitful experience um you know what I said to
the group was you know we want to be or I want to be specifically as transparent as possible as we go through um the upcoming um negotiations with the schoolc me with the swans Education
Association um the there was a lot of discussions that if we needed assistance with that that that could happen as well um you know I did tell the group that you know between the five of us we've been through many many contracts and
we're uh we're fairly confident in our ability to um keep everybody focused to reach a solution um that will need to be reached
over the next time period um and um but I appreciate the meeting um I hope we continue with those meetings and uh again found both both chairs of the finance committee and the the select board to be open to be honest um with
their thoughts and their comments and so I I look forward to hopefully continuing that um okay I know that um I know that Mary alen Fletcher is the new chair is there any change in the finance
committee no there is no change to my knowledge that the the the current chair um is remaining as the chair good great great question all right um although Karen's just is uh is
away um let's just have a go at um the appointment of school committee subcommittees and Lea on um again is can you guys I'm not sure if I'm sharing or not if not could someone share the screen just so the public can see what
we're talking about my zoom is just not working great I'm sorry what what is it that you want to share the um just a list of subcommittees that we have um let me see if I can do
that and if you can't we can talk it through it it that's perfectly fine I just not I cannot share there you go can everybody see that Amy can you see that no okay so so we just talk it through it's fine um just for everybody
out there um every year we just go through the subcommittees that that we have um there we don't have many to be perfectly honest with you um what we have is uh bargaining and John and and Amy have done that this past year uh I
do know that hopefully as we get to the Sea contract we'll have uh similarly to what we did uh the last contract we have a meeting of the whole which means all of us are part of that um bargaining
committee um but for for anything else uh John and Amy are you are you happy just picking up the Reigns if we need to go to a subcommittee um or you want make a change I would like to stay uh in this role I
um a I have the time to do it and it's something that's pretty time consuming um b i um you know having gone through you know I've just been doing this for a while and I feel like the more I do it the more exper you know the
the the the better the better it is um but to your point you know I think you know it is my hope that when we have these conversations um with the sea um It's My Hope and you know I think I I can't speak for them but I
feel like they are in agreement that um the interest based bargaining process that we did last year last time around was successful um not just in terms of you know creating a better contract but also just in terms
of really identifying what's best for our students right you know I think that that was a win for all of us so um okay I'd like to do I I would like to say that if you guys would have me sure
Amy that's fine with me you didn't even need to sell yourself I I guess I could just say listen this is really timec consuming and that Maks a lot out right away all right um John do you want to continue on bargaining or um I know
we're going to get down to policy do you want to focus more on the policy side of things yeah I like I said I I would like to continue on policy um okay not sure on the bargaining um I'm I'm a little
torn only because um I like doing it uh was a little it was actually very challenging schedule-wise with um some of the last go rounds um right so you know if if
we're going to be participating as a whole with the teachers then um you know I will definitely be part of that I mean I know there's some yeah others that are coming up as well um again you know if
if someone else wants to put their hand up fine but if if you know I guess my lean at this point is you know I would like to try to continue doing it if if it is a problem um doing it then I'll come back um and let the committee that
it's a problem and okay we can do something at that point but um okay I will say this John I know that that participating uh was was difficult from a schedule standpoint but having your um sort of uh I don't know if I'd say is it I
don't know if it's legal document but you you definitely have a um an attention to detail on these contracts and like the language of it that is very helpful so you know we can make sure that you are still um well I I
appreciate it you know I I always call like you know advising from the side or from you know whatever uh yeah thank you okay all right um so we'll leave it at John and Amy um uh in the last several years we've not
had budget uh or Finance subcommittee um uh Andor Communications and I think unless someone feels otherwise I think we can kind of leave those uh to you know we don't need to appoint anybody to that well I'm gonna jump in here I think Suzanne might her her jaw might hang
open on this one I I'm having some some thoughts about communication and about um particular L you know I'm just having thoughts about communication and trying to figure out
I've heard a lot of people um say that they need more information about us and our process um I have always taken the standpoint that it's not the school committee that is newsworthy but the schools themselves so really the school
committee shouldn't be communicating out um but I think particularly as it relates to budget that we it does it's going to behoove us to to to share more information and make sure more people get
it so you know I I don't I don't know really what that means but I I I'm feeling like maybe this is something that needs to be revived I don't know suzan um yeah do anyone have any
thoughts on that well of course I do um I tried to push Pam at one point last year when they started that town newsletter to always have a page for the school and sort of say this is what's
happening at the school and blah blah blah and I think that that should still happen I mean I think that that's really important because like you said um our school Community gets news but our Our Town doesn't at least not yet until that new
newspaper up and running but right but I think that I think that there's a good place to have sort of like um a collaboration between the school and the school committee to do like two-thirds of the page School news and the bottom third something you can
learn from the school committee or something like like you know it's a monthly it's a monthly sentence or blurb or something or like here's the upcoming meeting dates or anything like that you know so I do think there's I do think it's something that we should that we
should be doing a little bit more religiously for sure okay um I don't disagree with with what you guys are saying John do you have a thought one way or another about um reintroducing a communication
subcommittee yeah I I actually like the idea um um I agree with what what everyone has said so far and um I know I shouldn't even suggest this because you guys are going to hate me for it but uh I know at some point one of you
suggested you know um like office hours or you know doing something at the farmers's market just you know sitting there and taking feedback and bring it back to the rest of the committee um I don't know you know I don't know if that falls under communication but you know
communication is a two-way street you know in in and out so you know going down that route you know maybe explore that as well yeah no I completely agree with you John I know that um especially after town meeting I was flooded with
phone calls um with people just asking questions um about our budget that you know never came up during our budget process I don't know if holding office hours would change that but I think I feel like it perhaps could or at least
open the door for people to know who to call um um and um I'm loathed to to do it but it I mean I really heard loud and clear that people are looking for information
on Facebook um you know my uh I don't know how things have evolved but originally when we talked about having a Facebook page you know the the council that we received was that it not be a place for discussion but really one C
you know sending information out so that there was no um violation of open meeting laws um and you know so that if there are questions that it does come back to us
directly rather than just um you know be a place where where people can can share misinformation so you know I think that's something we should talk about over the coming months yeah yeah um so I I I amum I if we decide to do this I
would definitely want to get just an opinion um from Council just to make sure because yes we cannot have any debate going back and forth but I agree with both um with with everybody that I think Communications is really a pretty good idea
so um but also I you know with the found at a town meeting they um you know they announced this new newspaper or online you know Zen for swamp Scout which is really exciting um you know and
I think that it's going to to uh be incumbent on us to make sure that that we're communicating information out so that they can share as well right um so you know I am I'm all for it you know I'm all for it and um suzan and Amy
would you guys like to tackle this I think so yeah all right great uh really to to me as long as we you know we have to be careful obviously of open meeting law violation but if we the more communication we have going out to parents in the community that's not
that's never bad it's actually never ever bad it's it's good thing you know the more transparent we can be the absolute better so that's a great idea thank you Amy and Suzanne I appreciate that um on the policy side John I know this is a big Forte for you so would you
and we're going to we're going to let Karen stay on policy as well if that's good for you John Karen is Karen is not here and I don't want to speak for her but I think that she would love to not be doing this okay I think that she has felt that she just did not have the
bandwidth to be that um the the specificity of of policy was beyond her um help me out here was not not her forte um I again I can't speak to Karen but
John let's start with that John are you interested in continuing with the policy yes all great okay so with John um again I have not spoken to Karen about this so I think what I'd like to
do if it's okay with everybody let's leave Karen on there for now if Karen you know says this is just not something I want to do then we can just at you know at a freeer meeting just revisit and and appoint you know or ask volunteers for this subcommittee if
that's okay with everybody um I just texted her and said do you want off policy and she said yes please okay all right that is that is about as forthright could have I don't I don't want to dump things on your lap Suzanne
but honestly you're really good at this right yeah I was gonna say that to John John I'm happy to be your um your sub chair whatever Vice chair great can um just leave the call and tell me what you want me to do that would be fine okay
great all right thank you to Karen out there in the in the lands of wherever Karen is and thank you to John and Suzanne um suzan I'm gonna throw I I really have no idea what Wellness entailed that's legal that we have to
have that okay there we go yeah there has there has to be someone on the wellness policy from the school committee all right and honestly I mean I mean there's there's three there's
two a teacher a nurse and um sometimes one other person shows up they're working on getting it together they have a schedule for the meetings for the year so it's it's um
it's coming together I mean it's a it's a committee that um has some has a lot of great ideas so okay just do you do you want to continue with that I'm happy to stay on it or John if you're interested because um
your your chairing policy feel free because you tell me Suzanne I'm happy to let you keep doing it that's okay y all right great thank you suzan thank you for that that
I'm gonna come back and and um nominate uh Karen to be on the budget committee the budget subcommittee um this is something that she just texted me that she would like to do um so why don't we if um if we
could put her there and then just use another conversation at another meeting to discuss what that means um you know because you know I think this is is going to be a big issue this coming year and and I think that
your work with tri chair is going to be really important um but I also think that we're going to need somebody who can really sort of hold this from a from our our
um from our committee perspective um you know and whether or not that's you know somebody who I don't I don't really know what it means right now because obviously it's something that we're all involved in um but but I don't I don't like the idea that we have a committee
there that does not have a name attached to it um and I know that Karen would like to do it so I would I'm gonna nominate her all right so before we do that I guess my question is do we have any idea when the last time we actually
had a Budget Finance subcommittee honestly I think like two years ago because there's somebody who has to sort of hold it and even if it's a budget if if it's a committee of the whole it can't be um
from a legal perspective it cannot be um run by the same person that runs the school committee so just as a matter of you know running the meetings if we have a committee of the whole it cannot be the chair who runs it it has to be a
subcommittee all right um much the same way as the um the negotiations like when we're in you know that's a committee of the whole when we're all doing interest based bargaining and so that can't be led by the
chair because then it just becomes a school committee meeting um Suzanne do you have any insight of why we stopped doing budget fin I I don't have any insight whatsoever I don't know if you have any I I'm not
exactly sure because um I I don't I don't know why we started I think maybe the tri chair and then we had those um Committee of the whole meetings about the budget you know we'd have right you know Miss Stella or before that Miss cyber giving us like
sort of we'd have those Committees of the whole so we didn't we need them and right point I mean you don't it doesn't need to be a subcommittee that runs the meeting it just needs to be someone other than the chair running running a
committee of the whole meeting okay all right that's that's that's fine I mean all right so seems like we don't it seems like that's one of the ones I think we should keep on the books because it's potentially you know important but also I mean at this point
I would say um bargaining and um you know is is a much more is is something that we'll use and finance committee Finance sub commmittee I don't it's not like it's not like back in the day where you guys were just the two of
you going to meetings and Reporting back or whatever right don't operate like that right now so right all right so why don't we put Karen's name in there and we we're gonna have to talk about this at a future meeting to see what that what that quote unquote
subcommittee does or does not do whether we need it or not but let's just let's toss Karen's name in there for now yeah I think it's too important to have it as a a blink this is you know when you think about what it is that the school committee
does um okay um I will I will ask the superintendent if she has any insight on um what the some committees have done in the past and but let's put Karen's name in there and we can we can certainly revisit it this is these aren't etched
in stone in any stretchy imagination y all right um Lea's on for for Meto suzan are you okay with continuing with that yep great uh Amy will fill in a sub as
needed uh sure I feel like I didn't do that at all um this past year um so I would rather my name not be on it just because I don't want to look like I'm not doing okay all right well we can we can
scratch your name and just leave suzan's on there yeah and you know obviously if anybody needs a fill in for any position you know we there's only five minutes right and then um if it's okay with everybody I will continue as a Lea's on to the district for the sped pack if
that's okay looks for me all right great all right so let it be written so let it be done okay um school committee protocols I know we put it off because the last time uh
Karen or I think a couple people weren't around I I do like to do the same thing I really want to discuss the protocols when everyone is available and so I'm I'm hoping that everyone will at least uh will allow me to just to put that off as just a until our next meeting when
hopefully all five of us are uh are around and that's okay with everybody so in the past that's something that we've done uh during our August Retreat right well exact don't we just evaluate ourselves during that Retreat or I can't
remember I think so I guess actually that's not true last year we added one I me we did we did we added um a communication protocol um yeah so if it's okay with every I really would like I really want everybody involved in the protocols you know just to go through it
and I I think that's just a good idea if that's okay y great all right um prop poos school committee dates for 2425 um hold on let me and I know the
community can't see this but I'll quickly read through gonna try to I I I've got this thing working hopefully yeah can you John that'd be awesome thank you let me know if you guys can see this yes thank you
um you know right now there's nothing on the schedule for July um given just some of the topics regarding the superintendent we we we probably should have a July meeting um you know and there's just a lot going on
right there's the new schools coming there's uh a new superintendent thing new superintendency we want to talk about so um I definitely would like to have a meeting in July I know a lot of people are away um throughout so uh I
don't want to put pen to paper on on this document but um if I could ask that everybody just uh drop me you know kind of what their vacation plans are for July see if we can you know again we can
meet via Zoom it's that's fine uh but I'd like to have at least one meeting in July just given especially some of the stuff we talked about today uh I completely agree with you uh I think that a month is a long way to go without for without a touch and base
with each other right um so then that leads us to August we'll we'll work on a retreat um again again I know vacations are are such but let's we'll try we'll we definitely should have a retreat wait do you want wait before you go on do you
want to set a July date so that yes I'd love to actually either the 11 the 18th the 25th so um I hate to be the buzz kill here I am actually um traveling on each one of those
days lucky for you um some of it is some of it not so much um so I don't know if if people are open to having any other days um because I can't call in either on those um sure um I know that the
select board is on Wednesday so we don't want to conflict with that right um how about Tuesday um I know I can't do the 9th um is it is it the the 16th or the
23rd how's that work for Suzanne how's that work for you either one of those um one of those is a school building committee night I'm not sure which one it is can't find my notes from last night does anybody know which day is the sup the um the select board what
Wednesdays they meet because then maybe we could just do the opposite uh um hold on while Suzanne's looking I'll look on here how about yourself John um what's good for you I think the
23d works what I'm sorry what time are we talking about six six o'clock okay and again it may may end up being virtual I'm I'm trying to find the meeting dates for
them I don't see it on here I mean I could do I can do July 23rd Suzanne is that good for you I don't know I can't I can't find my notes from last night I mean we just sat in the exact same place that I'm sitting right now where they are anyway I'll
double check it's either the 16th and 23rd so okay so so why don't we do that why don't we have um just ask uh um the 16 right there does that work for both people and then I'll just ask n
see what dat yeah that's perfect that's fine yeah we'll just let we'll wait to hear from you then that's that's fine GL can a touch base with Nancy then yeah I will all right great um and then again just the public can see um in August we'll
have a retreat we'll schedule that date at our next meeting if not sooner um then we had meet on August 22nd September uh 12th and 26th October 10th and 24th um November 7th and 21st thank you
John um December 5th and 19th uh January will the 9th the 23rd and the 30th is as needed that we talk about budget same thing for potentially February 6th if needed and the 13th and
27th and then for the public again March 13th 27th April 10th 24th May and June and again we can always um as we as we do things come up we can play with the dates and but these are just these are really at least this is a start um for
the community to see the dates thank you everybody um let me go back here oh thank you John all right oops okay um we obviously already talked
about the superintendent search um any update from the bargaining subcommittee none since we voted on contracts last okay any update from the policy subcommittee not since we talked
about pushing the discussion to tonight which is in the next agenda item okay um all right so let's hold on to that then um anything from the school building committee you'd like to chat about suzan um
nope same all same all it's getting exciting that's awesome it's it's great all right um let me try to get over here uh Paul uh is there any folks out
there who would like to make public comment if you could just raise your hand I'm going to go with the attendees list anybody would like to make a comment got so many people all right I've the attendees list open and so far nobody has but also about a
dozen people dropped off we were up we were we had a bunch more people and us okay all right we will then uh hop over back to the um agenda so uh actions and votes so we have to do three votes this
evening um cell phone policy the transportation policy and the uh swans Public School building use policy um can we take the cell phone policy off there because the one that was in the packet that we're looking at is the draft that not not what John shared last
week and it should really be a first read it really should be a first read of the of the draft John's shared because um I mean aren't I right John didn't you share you shared that policy that you put together or that you before the last meeting I shared it and we
deferred it to this meeting correct yeah and so the pack the school okay that wasn't in our that wasn't in our packet that's not the one yeah like it should it should say first read it should it also is the wrong it's the wrong policy that was in the packet
okay I do know that I got a um a question today um from the um the teachers union about whether or not this was specific to our students
versus uh everybody in the district and um I I could not I couldn't answer it having not had looked at it um but also I want to make sure that it is in fact you know that that they have the opportunity to to look at
it okay um so do we have anything to discuss tonight about the cell phone policy or just because it's it's wrong in the packet should we just put this off to our next meeting so we we can put it off
um if if the committee wants I can take a minute or two and just High Lev talk about what is different in this one versus the original one just so um when when you folks pick it up you'll kind of
it won't be shock or anything like that you'll kind of know what to expect okay John please feel free so Amy to your question this one is student focused um and I believe the original one was also
just student Focus but um uh it's it's yeah it's one page and it basically it's it it builds on what the original was it it basically sets out
and says um that you know everybody gets a device in the onet to1 program however um there will be um a policy uh dictating about phones and
headphones and watches so um it mentions that um because of special needs there might be um some discretion as to uh what is
allowed um beyond beyond this policy um It also says that teachers will be given autonomy to to um determine if they want to use phones or devices during a class session for teaching so uh basically
what this says is is that um phones watches headphones will be put away during class and put on um mute mode okay um and again unless some
exception is made um for the high school um and again you know we can talk about this um next session but for the high school um I did put in there that the phones or
devices could be used in the cafeteria during lunch I know that's different than the original um again that's something we can we can discuss and get a consensus on um next it talks about elementary school
device use for again phones um watches headphones and it's basically the same as the high school except they're put away and they don't come out during lunch they're put away for the day and un again unless there's a
special accommodation or the teacher is going to use them for class um the last section um talks about uh consequences for violations um and it's kind of a tiered
approach and it talk talks about verbal warnings which then could lead to confiscation um and if policy violations continue to occur than other disciplinary action um the thing here I just wanted to point out that's
different than the original language um is that what I put in here is um is the word as appropriate the term as appropriate um when it came to um additional potential disciplinary action
because the way it read to me it was just uh it was too open-ended uh as as it kind of read so I just wanted to put the word appropriate to what we were what we were allowing
for for the policy there so uh very high level that is um what this one reads and again just to give you a heads up when when you take a look at the actual document great thank you I that you I think we talked about this last week but
I can't recall um who who was involved with the crafting of This was um were the principles no what they involved so the original version which is half a page is um I think the
superintendent said that Mr CAD had put that together so again I took that version and added on um you know another half a Page worth of of um of language again just kind of um
building on that original Foundation but providing just more clarity in detail so you guys when we when we write a policy especially or when we change a policy like substantially not just like
um you know language changes or or you know sort of routine things um we usually have a policy subcommittee meeting um that's something that has to be posted and we usually um are inviting
the people that sort of the stakeholders in the policy and in this case since it's a student policy and it like I think I think we should have a subcommittee meeting and we should have have um three principles um invited to it
um and maybe Mrs Raymond too to make sure it's it seems fair to um all students and um I think we should I think we should have a meeting because I think once we draft something with all
those people we would want we can have a first read next week but we would want definitely want legal to look at it too before we vote on it especially since we're drafting something that's new so agree that would be my recommendation
like to to have Nancy set up meeting and invite some I I don't know if there's other people you think that should be invited I mean at some point I mean I think there should be a teacher telephone policy too I mean we heard that enough through the Yonder debates
so I mean that's obviously a different different thing although there are po cell phone policies that include both like that i' that I've seen but yeah suzan I I don't disagree with any of that and you know unfortunately this this thing was kind of a casualty
of some very very long previous meetings the last couple of meetings so yeah no I think I know I think you have an awesome start here it's like it's million times better than than just the one that just is just about the consequences basically so I mean I think it's I think it's
great but I think it's like now time to right he needs to go through a governance process I I don't but I also think like you know usually I mean I think it's really important that the stakeholders are involved in this so that so that they are you know aware of sure what they're being asked to do or
if if you know maybe Mr HOH has a reason there's no in the cafeteria or something I don't know so I'm just I'm just saying I think that I think that Nancy could set up a meeting if you just tell her you know who to invite and then everyone
gets this draft ahead of time so we can so we can discuss and and then and then bring to this committee sort of something that's a little more fully vetted um um for a first read and then and then have the lawyer look at it before before the
vote that's all I'm saying yeah I I I agree again for me the only thing is I just want to make sure that we get this policy in place you know prior to the start of the school year so everybody kind of knows what the expectations are but I I I agree with Suzanne same thing
with the bus policy I mean I think that but I think that this one I mean I think that this one was written by by um Cheryl and fam and maybe Martha too I don't know if Martha had anything to do with it but um like at least they've
already sort of vetted this well the transportation policy I thought we had to have that done sooner because of the growth of our transportation
program yeah yeah I was under that impression myself that this this needed to be voted on and that it was fully vetted yeah I think we I think we had the first read I I don't remember what I don't remember
what um changes we made though I don't have a I didn't get a copy that had red lining I don't even didn't get a Redline copy that's why I just was like that's that's all I'm
um like would that would that be who would have that version well if we made changes last time or added things like I know oh actually we never even talked about it last week was supposed to be our first read and we didn't even talk about it right we didn't have the first read
right because we so there is no red line so so I had some things that like the first paragraph to me I mean we say three different times about not as the clo fries walking distance blah blah blah but it
also we say it differently in different places so I think that language just needs to be cleaned up and and I looked at Mass General law and you're allowed to put um rail Trails as as a measurable
distance you know so I think that I think that we should have that in here that that we can use Community or or Public public pathways or something to to measure distance and um so I think that was an important
thing to put in here somehow and um we should have a date where you have to register by and then it's first come first Ser I mean or then like if you don't register by a
certain date do you lose your seat because if you're if you're um um no because I think that's what um that's what uh we were talking about
last week that in fact because it's by law two two miles is by law yes go ahead but then I was sort of thinking about that one the extras yeah like we don't talk
about I mean and I think it's important that that is not two 2.0 is mandatory 1.6 is a gift and I and honestly I mean it cost us $100,000 a bus so you know might not it's not a gift in puru yeah
right so go ahead Su I'm sorry so and the other thing I was just thinking is um we haven't talked at all about is the 1.6 going to apply to Middle School too because this PO bus policy as it's written I mean it's it's Middle School
too and have we even talked about if four buses are available for Middle School Riders uh we have definitely not talked about that at all that's a very good point by you no but that's not I mean that's not for that's not a decision I believe that we've made I think that
that is in the business office yes I agree with you but this policy reads like we're offering whatever we offer to the elementary we're offering it's the same policy for elementary through um sixth grade yeah so the
policy has to be I'm just saying I'm just saying if it's if it's not that way we should say it's it's only only one point it's only it's always only over two for middle school or something right saying like we just haven't delineated that here and I just don't want there to
be confusion like people thinking I mean especially I'm sure there's people out there that have sixth graders and and elementary school kids that live 1.6 miles away that are thinking both their kids are going next year right yeah that's a really right
that's a good point so could I ask the the updated policy subcommittee to contact uh the business office and let's get some clarity on that because that's a very good point is who actually is going to be on that 1.6 miles so I could
if I could ask there's no one there's no 1.6 miles on here mean it only talks about 2.0 and and the district may may lessen that right but there's no statement saying that's only for elementary school
or whatever like if it lessens is it does it lessen for f fifth of sixth graders too is that's what I'm saying but whatever I mean I think I think that a PO a bus a sub a Swampscott bus policy subcommittee would be appropriate to do too too just so we can clean the
language up and um and answer those questions before um we do a final read all right I completely agreed is everybody is everybody okay with that all right okay uh policy subcommittee has uh
some stuff to do that's fine um okay so um what about the the building excuse me SPS Building use policy John
so refresh my memory I thought we didn't we have the first read on this one the last time yeah this this is definitely one we could vote on yeah all right excellent excellent can someone then make a motion just you know what hey you know what that's that's why they pay us the big
bucks to make sure all the stuff works um would someone like to make a motion please to uh accept this policy I'll make it um I'll make the motion to approve the SPS Building use policy as discussed in the first read
anyone second I'll second it okay all in favor um actually have to do a roll call because we're online John yes Suzanne yes Amy yes and I will vote Yes as well it is unanimous it is passed thank you
thank you to John for doing all this work we really appreciate it all right and then the consent agenda um the consent agenda sorry I got to do this I can actually see it the consent agenda is designed to expedite
the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the district the school committee May adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion at the request of any Committee Member any item or items may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular
agenda for discussion we only have one item on the agenda this evening that's regular session minutes from June 13th and someone make a motion to accept those minutes I'll make a motion uh second a second all right I'll in
actually we have to do roll call again John yes Amy yes Suzanne yes and I vote Yes as well it is unanimous and then uh lastly we will vote to adjourn I really
appreciate everybody uh allowing us to do on Zoom tonight thank you can someone make a motion to adjourn I will make a motion to adjourn someone second please second all right again we have to do roll call John yes Amy yes
Suzanne Suzanne yes there you go okay that's okay uh and I will vote Yes uh so we are officially adjourned everybody thank you very very much appreciate it great shout out to who made it all the way to the end yes Mara amazing uh and
please everybody out there please be safe this July 4th weekend okay let's let's have no no problems coming out of this this weekend everybody please be safe night thank you good night every night everybody