 Okay, well seeing the presence of the quorum. I would call meeting of the Amherst school committee to order at 601 p.m. Welcome everyone Great We can we can share how's that Okay, well as you may have sussed out by now we have a joint meeting today of the Amherst school committee and the regional school district planning board So welcome to members of the planning board for coming tonight. Thank you so much for trekking over here to Amherst So we want to move actually quickly because I understand a couple of members have to go to another meeting Is that right in Palom? So I just wanted to If we can take a moment to look over the minutes of August 14th Mr. Nakajima Thank you to have a second Thank you any comments edits changes Seeing none all those in favor to approve the minutes of August 14 Thank you, it's unanimous Okay Moving along to our the next item on our agenda is announcements and public comment I just want to make a Comment both for members of the the audience that are here as well as those watching we actually have two public comments set up for tonight So this is our general public comments time what we normally set up So that anyone can speak on any issue Each member of the audience has three minutes to speak But we will also come back and open up on a special issue later on in the agenda And that's related to infrastructure Concerns and questions that have come up recently So before we move into public comment though, are there any announcements from the committee? Okay, well I have two very quick announcements one So Amherst media is having their They have a fundraising gala this Saturday September 29th members of the Community but also superintendent and the committee are welcome to attend for members of the committee Tickets are free So you are welcome to one free ticket to attend. It should be a great evening I think Amherst media is obviously very well Appreciated and recognized for the work that they do here in the community So it'll be a moment to kind of reflect on that and thank them for their service The other announcement that I have is the Amherst education Foundation is actually holding their spelling bee Coming up very soon. It's the 25th. I believe the trivia bee. I'm sorry. Yeah Yeah, no, I'm thinking of the trivia bee, but thank you So that's coming up soon and typically the Amherst school committee also will Take up a Form a team So if any members of the committee are interested in forming a team for the trivia bee, please let me know It's a lot of fun. It's a great event For a good cause. So just wanted to let you know about that Okay, so if there are no other announcements We will open up for public comment a reminder that members of the audience anyone can speak on an issue Just come up to the mic announce your name And you have three minutes to speak Okay, seeing no comments Let's see we're a little bit early But since we have a second public comment period built into the agenda I guess we'll wait for a little while Later on for for people to come back if they need to okay, so Moving on to the Regional school district planning board discussion. Mr. Demling Do you want to introduce the topic and perhaps walk us through the discussion? Sure. So like you said tonight We are a joint meeting of Amherst school committee and the Amherst and Pellum regional school district planning board So explain what that needs in a second But essentially we're a six-person town board of Amherst and Pellum Exploring regionalizing possibly our three to six districts So tonight we have Tom Banning Emily Marriott Kara Castinson myself our other two members. We're unable to be here tonight. Joan Tedkin and Marilyn Talman Send their regards and so I put together some slides Set them out a little bit earlier, but I'll go through them fairly quickly So that we can leave most of the time for questions Many of you mean been meeting a lot lately, so we have a lot of a lot of in-depth discussions that won't all fit in these slides So whatever you're sitting Okay, so So the origin School district committee And so that was Castinson's or Fanning and Marriott and that same thing happened at the Amherst level of last fall and So those members are myself, Mary Latiman and Joan Tedkin, one required school committee member on each of those committees And then last week there those committees meet separately and the way that the process works We choose to form a board with one or more planning committees in this case and we want to be together and now we're a six person board exploring Regalization so So what's the purpose? So this is straight from the master on a lot It's the duty to study that this is this one educational visibility of establishing a regional school district and also Finding and recommendations to So so that's that that's the technical charge in terms of a Process of what we're looking at. We're currently Processing potential timeline Like it. I'll just say what I mean by potential in a moment But right now we're actively studying all the financial and educational issues that would impact Holding two districts into one as a regional district gathering public feedback and input Around springtime is our our target date to make a general recommendation a sort of milestone Point of checkpoint of do we want to further pursue and if we do make that recommendation? There would be a period of intense collaborative work with the Amherst School Committee and the Palm School Committee to come up with a detailed regional working agreement the document that Finds the rules of School committees composed how the assessment that is funded what not And then towards the fall there would be a town town meeting vote and Amherst It would be a townwide vote since we have we will at this point have a town council in place And if that vote is yes By the end of 2019 There's then a six-month transition period and the new district are taking effect July 1st of the phone so in terms of how we map out the time the sort of Requirement that we track back from is that a regional agreement has to be approved and completely done In the calendar year before the new region begins. So The vote has to happen by the end of 2019 2020 so The reason why we're sort of targeting a spring 2019 date is to give us enough time to thoughtfully work on the regional agreement with the school committee that also have to be submitted to Department of Education for their approval It's continues to be a time of public input feedback as you're getting all the details down So you need enough time to do that So so we're trying to hit that date, but we've said multiple times in our meetings that we well We want to be expeditious. We want to be as deliberative as necessary as possible So it may come to next February March and board might feel like we don't have enough information even to make a General recommendation moving forward or not. So we're sort of leaving that open, but this is the sort of general timeline In terms of how we really to school today, so so we're a joint town board and the primary purpose is to study make a recommendation And to gather public input and feedback and inform the public So in that process the school committees are to constituent In informing what the concerns are what questions need to be answered and then winding up the regional agreement And also raising public awareness, you know, we're only a six person volunteer board, you know So we need help getting the word out and public forums and whatnot To other people that we're working with that are resources for the board so the superintendent the central office for answering questions about different financial or educational issues Supporting our open meetings Mr. Morgano has been very helpful with the consultant contract process So then funded through a regionalization and efficiency grant that we secured last year 21,500 we have a financial consultant mark Abrams Has multiple past engagements with our school district an extensive experience looking at the financial analysis of So he's looking at the nuts and bolts of that and then we're charming our process consultant To help us dig through issues of governance and education school committee composition Things of that nature is Mars massliciation of the school committees Jay Barry so they have extensive experience consulting on these Public forums so we're still working out exactly how we want to do this, but Given the public input is a huge priority for the board The idea has been to hold a number of public forums, maybe two or more in the fault and then two or more on the early winter Where we really are able to dive deep and engage Because regionalization can be kind of a wonky issue and so to be able to describe that you can get that back So we may enlist a consultant to help us plan and run those meetings, but we're still still working through that What is regionalization So three key points that we're trying to emphasize whenever we have any opportunity to engage the public like this meeting or others One is that we're exploring a new pre-k to six region With Pelham and Amherst only so there was another effort a couple years ago to look at a region with So that's not in scope. So this is just Amherst and Pelham and in terms of what our regional school district is It's it's a would share school services buildings and have one budget with one school committee And so the Amherst school committee that owns school committee Sunset and so so what does that mean so it it triggers the exploration of questions Like the election and composition of shared school committee how do those members get selected? What are the goals who gets to vote for what? How you determine the assessment method is obviously to be a challenging case as we've seen in the region How you might work in some rules for future building use? it's a lot of Righteous and appropriate love for Pelham elementary in the town of Pelham and so that's that's concerned on Their end So that's that's an example some of the questions and another sort of big point is a Little bit of confusion over you know, aren't we already sort of joined so come on it home and Amherst We already do share superintendent curriculum in central office down through union 26 However, we don't receive the additional state funding that regional school district districts receive So the big financial carrot incentive for regionalizing is regional transportation reimbursement So depending on what level the state chooses to fund it that year For Amherst I could be anywhere from 250 to 300,000 ish ballpark. So it's it's not that's one of the main incentives on this other financial Incentives to consider that that's the main one that you don't get just because we have a super tendency So I won't go through all these remarks too small, but I just sort of Wanted to give you a taste of some of the very detailed questions that we're actively talking about right now I've already mentioned a few of these There's some other questions about What would the impact to the existing seven to 12 region we? Would what if anything would we have to change about enrollment zone policies? This is not an issue at home because it's one school, but Amherst obviously isn't so there's questions about if you're from Access to say your language program or if you're an Amherst and you're physically closest to Pell and elementary You'll be able to know on that school and so One thing that Mars has been very helpful with us so far is helping us to scope these questions in terms of what does a regional planning board? need to define prior to making a recommendation and what should be left to a future regional school And what and what if anything needs to be written? So This is our FYI information with our scpb at outside or is our email That's the shortest you are I like to come up with for for our web page at art.org And so that has our agenda packets minutes documents work on the FAQ We had forwarded in the packet. I think our one-page flyer of General info that we're trying to get out of the meeting every Thank You mr. Demling So I guess I'm I'm Curious about you know, this is obviously a really helpful update and I would love to hear from the other board members If you're so inclined to tell us maybe a little bit about the process But I'm also curious about it. You know, if there's any specific Issues or questions that you're hoping that we can help resolve tonight in this joint meeting That would be great to hear as well So I'll just say one thing we're trying to work through is what the best way to engage public is and so public forums is one Avenue we've contemplated exploring You don't know exactly what the most effective use of time We're trying to have people's time use most effectively and it's a very busy fall time for animals, right? So we know that the average school committee. There's a lot of things that we're trying to get you back on to do language So maybe there's an opportunity for for a joint form or not I'm just to think out the top of my head, but certainly help helping in terms of getting the word out of communications Any questions or comments? Just to follow up on Peter's point. I was wondering if maybe there'd be a way so Given how packed everybody's schedule is were you envisioning maybe creating Maybe even at like a survey or a way that people could I mean, I'm sure people would feel empowered to just email you directly But maybe more actively like seeking feedback Either electronically or you know rather than just in person So a survey is something we had not considered but it's a great idea So Do you have a sense of what the schedule is for deliverables and some of the answers? I mean I read through the materials you shared earlier and there's a lot of really great questions And I don't really have any pain emails like you've captured all I mean probably haven't covered all of them literally I'm sure people in the audience I was gonna think of others but it seems like an exhaustive list of questions and so one of the things that question for me is How are you gonna be? Or when are you gonna be gathering some of the not answers at least the data or whatever the what every decision point information you're gonna be gathering and What what's the point of intersection with being able to share with some of those I mean, I know you want to be able to do your group needs to be able to absorb What you learn and think about it and so presumably there's then a delay After that you had a chance to sift through it before you be sharing it with us So I'm just wondering is that November is that December is it? Yeah, so So the financial the real nuts and bolts analysis that mr. Abrams is doing hoping that that's completed in October November ish time frame. So so fairly soon in the process In terms of the sort of priority questions. So so since this packet was produced We did went through a prioritization exercise. What do we want to answer first and what do we want to die down into? We sent out tomorrow is actually this morning We went through our first high-level overview of going through each of the questions We got a lot of things things answered and sort of two or three major issues bubble to the surface of oh We want to have a full meeting on So in terms of getting the information back to this committee and back to the public So I've set a fairly lofty goal for us of wanting to get an A plus in terms of transparency So one thing we're trying to do is to publish any document That we that we talk about at our meeting almost immediately. So within 24 to 48 hours So that will include the initial answers that Marcia's produced And if you go back and you start to look at the different meetings You'll see some sort of the draft evolution where we thought this was just focus And then it came into further clarity then we prioritize and we have some answers And as we get sort of firm answers I think the idea is that we'll start putting that as an FHU on on the webpage So so that's one way to do it. We're also trying to get our minutes And we have some great in the takers Onto the webpage within a couple days as well So as those answers come in trying to codify that in the FHU on the webpage as best as we can I think one thing we're trying is kind of an organic process I think I mean because we really want to be able to engage the public soon So that we can get feedback from the public about you know that will inform our work with Consultants and so does kind of a balance to figure out like at what point can we go to the public we don't have Definite answers to some of these questions, but not wanting to wait to leave So We have to Come up as a board we have to agree on whether or not it's advisable to go forward So we have to inform ourselves of all the rules of the game And we started this morning with our consultants from Mars Who kind of just dumped a whole bunch of information on us about? the rules of the process of creating a region and All of that is something we have to work through And then get to the point where we think we understand it We think we have a process and at the same time we're sharing this information with the public and getting feedback from the public from you folks about How you feel about certain things all questions that you might have and then At some point we have to reach an agreement about whether to go forward and Create a unofficial agreement or not and And that process is as Peter described is gonna be running out over the next year Six months to a year We look we look forward to having a lot of fun conversations like the one we had today with The folks from Mars So I have a question I'm wondering if any of you have heard Are you getting a sense at all from from the community that they're from communities that there's any sense of awareness at all of what? What's actually being considered, you know, I mean we've had we had that column that was out recently There's been a lot of conversation at least on this committee About the you know the exploration of this potential Regionalization are you getting any sense at all from people that they're listening to that they're hearing that or is it just Still so far under the radar that they're Not awake to it yet it's hard to say I mean and I think I suffer from kind of an echo chamber effect then when I asked the people You know who I talked to about time. They're aware of it, but I think most of people I talk to Fall a town events pretty closely. So it's a selection bias Yeah, it's a good question. You know, we've We had an extra meeting on next week so trying to get the date about Just trying to schedule out all the individual groups that we want to meet with and joke to we have like a one-page kind of This is what regionalization is top five FAQ. There's how you contact us. We can electronically send out But we're also going to you know reach out to the PGOs and say hey, we'd like to get on your agenda I reach out to CPAP and say we'd like to get on your agenda So there's like a subset of groups within the school community We all well also want to be sensitive that this is a this is a town life issue And so, you know, we want to reach out to the senior center other groups that aren't made necessarily directly connected to School issues that we might normally think of would it would affect parents and students So yeah, I think I Think for people that don't fall town going down that closely. That's probably not Dr. Morris is there anything you'd like to add on this? No, I think well, I can't say no and then then but You know, mr. The chair and I have spoken about opportunities that we can you know access this Superintendent newsletter and I know later on the Amherst school committee and I'm conscious. It's not in this topic This is a topic of school committee forum planning and I think probably all more to say in that section about How to maybe draw in some folks because I think you're right It's as compared to some other things that this district has had forums on this is probably one level of abstraction up Not because it's not important or critically important But in terms of how would this affect my child to the Lord to a parent guardian? I think it's a longer explanation than some of the other things we've had forums on in the past So trying to think about the the way to gather that information and messaging Effectively is something that I'm happy to help with but I think I prefer to talk about in a broader context of how we're reaching out This fall to families if that's okay. I Also have just one more Question I guess I mean, you know, I think it strikes me and we've had we've sort of touched on this before We're in a unique position here in Amherst because the Amherst school committee is elected obviously by the community and It also serves a dual purpose as the Amherst school committee and then it feeds into the regional school committee and if we were to Sunset as mr. Demling mentioned before the Amherst school committee We don't really have any rule book at this point for how Members of the regional committee are selected from Amherst and what that means and so I'm just curious if you guys have talked about that if that's something that the consultant is looking into There's a lot of legal, you know pieces to this that we don't even understand yet Mr. Demling, so yes, we we actually talked about it extensively this morning. Okay Yeah, so this is one of the you know, I'd say top six questions But we're exploring you know, does it to what extent if any does this have an impact to the 7 to 12 region? And that's that's one of the subtopical questions And if we if we change the appointment does the 7 to 12 Region need to be opened and to what extent is it to be open and if it does, you know, what can the scope be limited It's actually good example of one Theme that comes up again and again with our board Which is we want to be very conscious that we have a a specific but very scope commission on the board It's it's not our job to solve different problems at the 712 region. It's not our job to offer solutions to enrollment zone issues and emmer's it's not our job to opine on Building construction and future buildings, you know, there's intersections, obviously But we want to be conscious that you know, we're sort of providing the The research and information of the public first and foremost But that is that is one and so we actually sent a number of legal questions through the emmer's town manager to the emmer's town council Who sent them back? Yesterday, so we discussed in this morning And we'll be publishing that document. It's not already it'll be on the work page shortly But yeah, so we're actively looking through those issues Yeah, so I This is there hasn't been a lot of questions and there's been a lot of comments I thought I'd just interject the point that the reason why I'm not Digging in for a lot of questions is that I don't actually think it's useful to do so Absent a set of potential answers in front of us that we can mill through but I think this is one of those things where I Think it's less than useful to have a conversation. It's entirely theoretical like a theoretical construct of like What do you think about? X or Y I don't know that I don't know a difference that makes without actually looking at you know What are the legal constraints? However other districts done this? What are the implications like what are the specific scenarios for representations on the committees for example are? How have any kind of agreements that would for example protect? Pelham elementary from being closed in the near future or ensuring the town of Pelham has a direct say You know I mean those kind of those kind of things that I saw on your list There's a really great questions, but I don't I'm not even sure it's useful to sit around talk Useful you guys to do that for us in this public forum I'm not even sure it's useful to have that conversation Absent some of the answers you're bringing in and some sort of filter that says well Let's have a structured conversation where we're trying to engage in this So I'm only expressing this because I actually think it's incredibly useful to do that It's one of the reasons I was asking earlier when you thought you'd have the information start getting information back So I think my personal bias would be sooner rather than later When your group feels like you're comfortable that you have a handle on the quality of information you've been getting and it's sort of ready for prime timeness I would then find it useful for us to have a next a next conversation Where we then you list some of these questions or even the chair and the vice chair That's not a conflict of interest. I guess Sit and try to figure out for the Amherst school committee. Let's go through a set of questions We want to talk through in a given meeting bring that information in and then have at a question We're really digging in and ideally I guess that we get some of that I'm like you did here with this PowerPoint that I get some of that information in advance so that we can Read through it dig through it then really have a rich conversation So I think that would however you however we're handling the public's engagement I actually think even having a dialogue between the Amherst school committee Maybe the Amherst and tell them and in this in this board That had that level of meet and have to it and sort of back and forth would be really instructive useful Interesting Yeah, I think I just add like before we get to that Looking through the list of kind of the key things we're looking at It's helpful for us to hear from you if there's things that you think should be on there that aren't were Things that you think will be significant concerns to Amherst community that that we should make sure we're paying really close attention to so We have had discussions about what we think those things are but it's also good to hear from other folks You know so that I think at this point in time that that kind of information is really helpful to us Just a final comment for me I think the challenge in the work and you all know this is how do you get to the specifics as Mr. Nakajima was saying and then also Don't get in the weeds and loose. I'm bad analogies. You all know that by now But just that there's small details that are critically important And then there's a larger piece of is this a good idea that some of it's based on the small I don't mean smalls and insignificant But there's also this kind of significant shift that this would result in of having one committee and joining two communities And so how to balance the kind of finer details and the larger piece without you know You can't lose either and I think you know again We think about a community engagement Keeping both of those central because you know one could imagine just having high-level conversation What it would mean to join two communities in this way and one could imagine having you know very specific detailed Conversations and I think we want to make sure that both of those happen because I think the details are important and the meta thinking this through about The larger issues that are not so temporal because some of the smaller ones you make the decision They stick and some of them are sort of long-lasting and not about transition, but actually about philosophically Changing the governance of the district and so I'm just saying it out loud that I think keeping both of those things live And active is going to be an important challenge to me But then it kind of falls off So I wasn't sure I'd like to understand better There is an impact on So the reason why it says case 6 on a particular size Oh Yeah, it's a really good point that Dr. Morris brought up about the temporal the temporal this is that it's I am very aware. I don't know what the perfect solution is to combating this bias that this proximity bias, right? So for example buildings are on the mind of the infrastructure as we'll talk about later, right? And so There's there's thoughts that come into your mind when you see of building in Pellum that is in fairly decent shape But that exists in 2018 And we're talking about a decision that could last for multiple decades that should last for And so it's a really long-term solution So it's very hard I think to put all of those short-term things aside and just philosophically like Dr. Morris is going to just say is this good educationally You know structurally organizationally for both times, so it's definitely on our mind So you be I agree with that for both the comments, but I mean I think Questions of like does Pellum have the right to hold on to its elementary school or does it not is in fact a long-range issue not just a short-term issue and The fiscal implications of ownership debt service maintenance and You know a portioning costs, which are you have on your list by the way, it's a good list For for new capital investments including new schools those are both I mean, so I'm not disagreeing with you But I'm saying some of those things that may seem like their details are in fact actually essential Long-term issues as well as short as well as immediate issues we're facing and I hope that I'm assuming the exercise you went through To prioritize basically had sort of buckets of topics you're dealing with and then you started shifting Things that are probably are genuinely more details or immediate transition issues from things But in every in Italy every topic you can think of is going to have probably long-term implications as well as short-term ones, right? I'm assuming I Think another question is just Regarding our superintendency like what happens to our superintendents, right? I mean we have you know superintendent currently who's juggling multiple districts And with this regionalization things could also could get better, but they could also get more complicated So I think it's worth exploring and thinking about publicly Because we really wouldn't want to understand, you know, what I Guess, you know what options exist out there for similar communities that are they're also undergoing regionalization like this at this level if there's I don't even know if there's any other examples of multiple Districts shared under one superintendency. We've got one of the highest. I think in the state, right? So I can't look at Dr. Morris Over there I'm trying to think of a district that where superintendent is shared between two regional districts because there's other examples Like frontier for instance where there's a region like similar models to ours Do you think of any? Do you want to I'm sorry you want to come up to that feel free to come up to the mic Nobody can hear you from Multiple examples of a superintendent serving a region Right. Yeah, and then there I think there are examples, but they're fewer Relative to a superintendent serving two regions But there's nothing that says you can't do that as long as it's Okay, thank you. That's helpful. Thanks. Thank you for raising the topic Okay, so I have two questions. I guess for the board One is you know if we have additional thoughts or questions to Miss Marriott's point earlier Should we email them to you like, you know, what's what's the best approach? Obviously, we can't continue this topic forever tonight in this meeting But you know, we will have you back and we will have additional opportunities to share publicly but in between if there is should we email you some some comments perhaps to mr. Demling that would be one thing and then second I think you know, it's Unfortunate that we're having this conversation right now on the agenda as opposed to later because we have a conversation about forum planning And so we want to mr. Demling and I have had a couple of conversations and dr. Morris as well just about how to Incorporate this issue in our discussions with the public But we also need to think about geography, you know If we're gonna be having some of these public forums here in Amherst on the dual language issue for example You know, how do we also do that in Palom right so that people have an opportunity to you know To to get to where they need to be in order to share their concerns or their thoughts So I guess those are my two questions for you Mr. Demling emails It doesn't have to be super formal, you know And you're meeting weekly bi-weekly how often do you meet now once every two weeks once every two weeks Forums so yeah, so we are so that the topic the theme for our additional meeting next week is Scheduling the logistics of which groups we want to meet up with and What the what the schedule is there and what we want to do in terms of public forums So find a side about the self-insider or not for that so we could certainly touch base like together maybe Share and chair about future plans there Okay, well, thank you very much to members of the board for for coming tonight. We really appreciate it and Mr. Demling, I don't know if you want to say anything else before returning the meeting So moved Thank you Okay, um, so moving the Amherst school committee along superintendent update Okay So it's a rather lengthy one we haven't met in a while So I apologize, but I'll try to be brief where I can be brief and that's brief where it's important to not be So it seems like a while ago, but I just want to acknowledge that we had a very successful first day celebration despite The not cool weather that we had that day So we had some water sprayers and fans and we tried to do that But just many thanks to particularly Jujira Torres who was the primary architect of the event as well as the many community agencies We had 950 slices of pizza donated by area pizza shops and all were eaten so Which is a nice number to have But you know just also all of our first respond addition to the businesses and the colleges You know having school buses and our facilities crew doing that fire department and their ladders the police horse was Gigantic hit and so just many thanks for everyone who makes that possible And UMass marching band also welcome students to wealth on the first day, which was always neat We've talked in the last couple years about the Alana cabinet and so this year the cabinet organized a kickoff event for all Alana staff members throughout the district So it's a nice is a little different, but it's particularly focused on making sure that new staff members felt welcomed and had a made a connection early on Something that's going to be at the regional on the regional agenda on Thursday But I think it's worth mentioning in Amherst as well is that we've had a request from member of the public to Conduct an ADA audit an American Disabilities Act audit so all of our school buildings were built before the most recent ADA code and So we know that our current buildings are not fully up to code and the request was can we find out in which Ways are they not up to code so that we could work on over time rectifying the issue and so dr. Brady Thank You dr. Brady has been reaching out to multiple folks who do this work Including some who've done work in neighboring towns and communities and I think at the next committee meeting in October, I'll be able to share more of where we are with that But it's really important. We know I mean multiple, you know, just even from the last building project which identified Some of the issues. There's just so all places in all our schools that were not compliant Just this is a map of the open houses and the open house schedule Last week we had Jessica Minahan came in about Reducing anxiety in kids presentation for more to eight more than 80 attendees which for a Non-quote-unquote required event like open house or structured event that way is the highest number I can remember having you know one of these types of presentations The many thanks to see back in the district for co-hosting that and the feedback was incredibly positive to the point Where she could get out of the building She also did consultation at all of our elementary schools on the days She was here just you know when she was traveling to be here So she was also working with our mental health teams and Staff on how to support that as everyone staff and families are reporting an increase not just locally, but Much more broadly about anxiety and students. So well received Yesterday we hosted a riot meeting the racial and balance advisory council here in Amherst Riac has Significantly increased its membership last year was eight or nine people were up to 20 people this year Some of the topics that were covered were desi has a rubric for district improvement So we offered feedback on that as well as the process Licensure barriers increasing the staff of color minus we learned that the new commissioner feels very passionate This issue has a working group at desi who come out with information the next couple months the para educator pathways program Which you learned about last year and supported us in the application So I'm during Cunningham and Marla Solomon who's from five colleges, Inc. Let a discussion about that As well as the current affirmative action legal case based at Harvard Which many of you are aware of and riot may take a formal position on so that was the topics But it was really nice for people to drive out We didn't have some call-ins, but since I remember me and someone from Springfield is not in the 413 area code It was really nice to people make the trip Think I'll skip over the social media update that's in writing So speak a little more about the trip to Harrisonburg, Virginia since I'd start talked about that So it's a M. San partner district James Madison University Which is a large public university is in the same town as well as Eastern Mennonite University, which they also have strong relationships with Much like what we're discussing. It's a strand model. So there's no dual language school It's a strand within now five of the six elementary schools. They've increased the number of their schools and relatively rapid succession Couple things that were notable. I'm not gonna read this. I'm just gonna speak from it. It was last week. So it's easy to remember Their public messaging was unequivocal that they were designing the program to benefit ELL students who were not Achieving at the highest level and they thought it was also and research would say that it was also Successful program for monolingual English students, but they were very intentional about the order in which they discussed those two things It's not to discourage modeling one student English speakers from participating. There's lots of benefits as we can talk Well, we'll talk about later But both Katie and I were really noticing that they're everything in their language was focused on making sure that the program Was designed to best meet the students ELL student needs based on the results of their learning And that's sometimes a hard public message, but it was something that they felt very strongly about sharing In all of their messaging throughout the program and they feel like it's actually one of the reasons they've been able to Design a program that the evidence would say it's successful that it wasn't This isn't remade with that in mind instead of other perhaps more political factors in mind There were many benefits that we have and lots of debriefing has already occurred just an example Was and we've heard this other places, but they were able to articulate it much cleaner much clearer Was they they have a waterfall model and what that means is it's a 50-50 model of Spanish English, but let's say In a day a student starts a day in Spanish and then in the morning and as English in the afternoon The student then starts the next day in English and then flips to Spanish and there were multiple reasons why that they found that to be effective One is just from a teaching perspective. There's more continuity if something happens in a day You can address it the beginning of the next day For five and six year olds not everyone is as available for learning at two o'clock as they are at nine o'clock probably for all of us but particularly for young students and Whatever was the afternoon language they were finding was getting the short shrift like the students in that cohort where the learning wasn't Going as smoothly so they've had a lot of success with that And that's one of the other key takeaways and this has been all three of the sites that I've visited is that you come up With a plan and then you constantly are evaluating the plan and they had some nice language around that That's what we do in English like nothing you do it to a language That's what you do with any implementation of anything and so you know people have to it's a larger change And so there's a little more of a leap there But the large focus having a clear rationale of why you're making the decisions you're making and then constantly assessing where those The right decisions and making adjustments over time So that was really helpful We were able to visit two elementary schools and one middle school in addition having conversations with a curriculum director ELL director, and it was really neat to see a middle school. I hadn't been to one at any of the other sites and Because it was a staggered start of their elementary schools It was the first cohort was in eighth grade and getting to see those students and Who'd been in it since kindergarten was really powerful and what that looks like in middle school, right? It doesn't look exactly like same as the elementary model, but they still retained a dual language component through eighth grade Finally having nothing to do with dual language programming This is going back a couple years since we were talking about it, but they have an ELL newcomer's program And so it was great that Katie was there for that from her ELL lens It was incredibly powerful to see students literally from all over the world They have a significant Spanish-speaking population, but they have a large influx from the Congo As well and the students in the Congo themselves speak multiple languages not all the same and to see how Students can be can enter a district not speaking Many of them any English And be nurtured for time limited six months to a year and what that looks like and and then how their transition to more mainstream was really It was fascinating to see we got to talk to some of the students talk to the teacher and talk to principals about that So I know that wasn't directly related, but I do want to say that it was eye-opening for us Finally We're scheduling a trip for some Fort River staff folks to go to Holyoke, which has a program I think they're the third or fourth year at Metcalfe school And so if any school committee members are interested you can shoot me an email We're still working on a date. It'll be sometime in October But if you have an interest, then I'll try to let you know when it's loosely being scheduled for and then when it gets closed So That was a longer one. I'll be brief with the rest So we got a federal emergency impact aid grant for displaced students This is because of the storms in the Caribbean particularly in Puerto Rico last year In addition Jean Faye is here. So when I acknowledge her she was a grant and was awarded an NEA STEM grant Which we're really excited about and the descriptions below and I know is emailed out and put out on social media But you know, thank you Jane and thank you for your work Something we talked about before on the specialized special education specialized working group I was able to sit in on a couple of the meetings They're at a place of not just consensus, but unanimity. They're still working on Writing up documents. So they did ask to be on the agenda for October 9th to make a formal recommendation To me and the school committee on what they'd like to see what they think is in the best interest of students moving forward As it relates to the location of specialized programs and Amherst They'll talk about this next week with a preview as they went through 12 or 15 different options. They truly exhausted All the different ways to think about this. They talked to other districts They did incredible amount of work for the summer and then also in the fall had CPAC representation from parents guardians, but also a significant representation of staff who teach in the specialized programs Isn't the newspaper today, but mr. Shea got on the roof So it's pretty neat article in the paper as well as neat experience For mr. Shea and the school to cheer him on to reach the challenge and miss Joyce who's also here was the Originator as mr. Shea told me yesterday. Miss Joy should has a PhD in ideas and this is one of her excellent ones and Just a lot of fun for a cracker from students and also great reinforcement for summer reading This week Thursday Mr.. Yafi and Miss Estes Brown who are the principal assistant for the wild would be filming so that'll be the next episode of Window into Arps and thank you Amherst media for your support of that And the last one I have again, I apologize about the length of this But we're working with the Amherst police department on what Alice the protocol that those of you found out about the region last year What that looks like in the elementary level students are less actively involved as you might imagine in the age But we'll be there'll be a training tomorrow during the early release day for all elementary staff and then a follow-up getting more specific And it's parent communication to come with that as well But we want to just let you know that Something we talked about working bringing to the elementary level because now the high school in the middle school I've been trained and we're bringing that to the elementary although the flavor is very different even how it's spoken about With kids and their role is different. Luckily, there's a lot of good resources Dr.. Great visited District in Eastern Mass that has had sals at the elementary level We've talked a lot of other districts have implemented how to do it in a developmentally appropriate way, right? What makes the news is when people implement things like this and develop my inappropriate ways So we're learning from both the good and the bad and implementing what makes sense here give our students in school safe Sorry, that was a lot, but no, that's great. It's been a while. Any questions from the committee for dr. Morris Sorry, if I was was here when it was talked about at the regional level, but what is Alice sure So it's a protocol that has more active engagement if there was to be an intruder situation Or safety situation so to make a very long story short and I can definitely at the next meeting maybe expand on this I'm just conscious of the agenda. I apologize. So Historically our focus was on prevention and you know, so that makes a lot of sense But if there was actually an incident we didn't really have great Directions for folks and research from places, you know, I'm not gonna mention tragedies because I can do it right now but when when particularly adults were trained to be more active and Responding to them that there's really a market difference in results So at the high school level students are more actively part of it because of their age and developmentally where they are at the elementary level It's much more reliant on the adults. So it's really giving them the skill set I was in the training at the high school two years ago And I was so impressed with both the Amherst police department on the way they trained our staff and they came to Committee before you were on I apologize to describe this but also about the staff response and Well, well not easy to talk about it made staff feel more confident that they were being given tools of how to manage And how to respond to critical situations where really all of our work historically was prevention prevention prevention Which I was left that lingering question of well, what if prevention doesn't work? What's our strategy then? Our staff members are wonderful, but they're not trained. They're not police officers We wouldn't want them to be no disrespect to police officer educators So how do we give them the appropriate tools to make the best decisions around safety? Thank you Yeah, I don't want to ask you a really long question, but this is just 50,000 foot view I just think I caught my attention with the riot meeting in Amherst the the Licensure barriers to increasing numbers of staff of color. Yeah, so like what was the sense from the group? Is there like a Do you feel do people feel like that's well understood what those barriers are and what are what are those barriers? So It's not sure yeah, I think I'll say three things in response So one is the mTel, which is our state test is everyone agrees that that's a barrier And the mTel we're a little unique in Massachusetts. Most states use something called the praxis as their licensure assessment And it's not that one test is better than the other but mTel is really uniquely specific. It is uniquely specific to Massachusetts Whereas for many states they can set their own praxis score. So Connecticut may have a different past level than Arkansas But everyone's taking the same assessment So it makes it hard for out-of-state candidates to come here and to pass and there's also some feeling of How that test plays out for particularly for folks who don't speak English as their first language Educators that we want to bring in and and there's some some data on that I think everything else that I'd say I'm just gonna actually leave it at that because it gets more in the weeds But I think we were pleased to hear that commissioner has a sort of task force working on this Who will make recommendations in coming months? Okay with the committee's permission gonna move on to the first item under new and continuing business Which is the East Street school transfer to the town of Amherst? So this is a continuation of a conversation that we started In our meeting at the lot at the end of August and it's regarding the East Street school building Property which is currently not being used by the schools by the district but was historically held by the schools for use and has been Let's say tended to by the town, but kind of left a little bit there like so Assistant town manager David Zemeck is here today to help us better understand the memo that he prepared for us Thank you very much for that and I don't think we have copies of it in our packet though Is that right miss Miss Moreland? You do have extra copies that might be really helpful because I just pulled it up on my Computer over here, but I realize it's not in the packet If you have you want to just give it to Mr. Demlin, thank you so much I'm joined tonight by the chair To be brief We have been talking about the East Street school for quite a long time Any active use of the building by the committee may recall that when Mr. Muzanti was still with us We were actually talking about and had moved forward with a plan to move LSSE Into the East Street school. Well as we dug deeper and that plan moved and of course we Decided to relocate LSSE to the middle school We began to focus with the trust and with the community a little bit more and what could be the reuse of plan for for the streets Practically speaking to schools have not needed the building nor been in the building for quite some time The town has invested significant amount of money Over a hundred thousand dollars on a new roof various other improvements And kept the building up Heated it custodial services, etc But it is still in need of a tremendous amount of work for any kind of serious reuse In that vein as many of you recall annual town meeting in 2018 earlier this year the town actually took a vote to Transfer the care custody and control of that building to the select board. So I'm here really tonight Partially on the advice of our town council sure and Everett who works for Copeland of Page Who really said as she looked back in the title having a lot of us let me back up a lot of us thought This is kind of done we're through with this but as we look back in the title We really couldn't it was a way back when as to who really had control of the building Was it the town? Was it the schools? So Sharon Everett Attorney Everett suggested that we come before you to get an affirmative vote that the schools no longer needed it Even though you have a town meeting though So really we see this as a formality But an important one to make sure that the title is clear as the town works for the trust Which is part of the town on reuse potentially for an exciting Affordable housing or mixed use affordable and other housing opportunities there We make sure that the title is clear because the town would like to Move that property on to this higher and better use So I think I'll stop there happy to answer questions about the property about the land So I Don't know if the committee has had a chance to take a look at this memo And you know we had asked Mr. Zomek to come back just to provide a little bit more background But I also attended a housing trust meeting a few weeks ago actually were the the architects who are currently considering that property And how that might be reused We're discussing the current conditions of the property and made it very clear that the property isn't in just very bad shape So not really a building that we could use very easily without significant amount of investment If we needed to to try and use it for school purposes or anything like that So there is a motion before us but before we get there. I just want to open it up for any questions or comments from the committee So now I'm going to say something I was going to read the motion Why don't you go ahead? Move the Amherst school committee hereby declares that the town owned land located at 31 South East Street Identified by the assessors as parcel 15a-20 and containing 2.4 acres More or less currently held by it for school purposes is no longer needed by the town for such purposes And it said personally be transferred to the select board for general municipal purposes and for the purpose of the Conveyance on such terms and conditions as the select board deems appropriate Do I have a second? Second Any other questions comments? Mr. Dunley. Dr. Morris, I think I asked this question the last time this came up As I recall this site was evaluated as part of the Wildwood building project the standard part of the MCBA process required Looking at all available sites and it was deemed at that time that it was not appropriate for Yep, so yeah it's Yes, so I'm restate what you said it was too small and the wetlands in the back were highly problematic for any even expansion and I'll say that I student taught in this building in 2001 and There were many many issues there We'll talk about the issues of our current building in a bit But in terms of ADA compliance and other things that I mentioned in addition to all the other pieces It was problematic and just frankly, there's just not the acreage that you would need to do much with the site and The condition the building was not great in 2001 Thank you Any other questions or comments for mr. Zomek or Everyone ready for a vote all those in favor the motion is put forth please raise your hand And it's unanimous Thank you very much I would for those in the audience or those watching at home. I would call your attention to the trust website Human Riddler architects has already drawn up some very early conceptual plans for the site Some of them we're using the Building and some of them not but I think many people would find it very interesting to look at Some concepts for affordable housing on the site and we're very excited to be working with the trust on that So thank you very much and we'll look for the next stage of that property and how it can serve the community Thank you very much. Thank you and good luck to you. Thank you Okay, so moving on to the next item on our agenda. It is a communication plan for dual language Sure Morris just want to note that you're like exactly on time. So it's pushing me to think about how to get through this I know right I acknowledge it so So I'm gonna present I'll do some of the presenting and then miss Richardson and miss Chamberlain will also come up and Do towards the end when we talk about staff engagement? So So I'm not gonna review all the school year communication last year I think you know the slides I think almost it might be in one or two edits since the packet was made But essentially the slides are in there So I'm not going to read through it But I think the two important things I want to note on this first slide is there was an enrollment working group that drafted a report that really got the ball rolling as we thought about to a language So it didn't necessarily originate or derive from me or from staff it really came from Community members one of whom was at a forum today and felt really redeemed and affirmed that the work that this member put Was realized was being realized in more deeper exploration So it was actually a really nice moment this morning for someone to Spend a lot of volunteer hours and then say oh well people are working on this right things are happening in that direction So I think that's one. I think the other one that I want to highlight There were many meetings with many people But that we keep an active website link with the catalog presentations events and sets on our website And it's you can get to it pretty easily from from there But I just want to say that we set it up last year, but it's continuing to be updated this year So for critical stakeholder groups, you know, we really think about the primary ones Not the only ones but families in the district or potential families in district and faculty staff And we really thought about three key phases of engagement The first one is going on right now Which is getting to a potential vote on November 5th about whether to move forward The second one would be After that vote to when students are enrolled or families are enrolled their children in the program And then the last phase for us that we're planning at this point is Families are enrolled. What does it look like from enrollment to this first day of school? Because each through each of those has really different in some ways different stakeholder groups So they shift a bit and different engagements that we would like to have So the key members, it is a larger group Leadership group and then larger group working on dual language programming, but we have kind of subgroups or subteams So the key members this team myself Diane Chamberlain who's the principal at Fort River Renee Greenfield is the assistant principal there Kitty Richardson our ELL coordinator, Marty Reyes Is the kindergarten teacher working in kindergarten potentially would be a kindergarten teacher in the program and Julie Myramos who's an ELL para educator as well as assisting us with outreach in this regard So we're now two fifths done with visiting Pre-schools we selected these five pre-schools because they send the greatest number of students to our district It wasn't any disrescard I want to say publicly for small smaller pre-schools that may send students to our district It's there's a limited number of places that one can visit and we're mixing up different people So for instance, Marty Julie Maher and myself went to the one at the community child care head start a community action Amherst committee Action head start excuse me Today mr. Richardson and I were at Spring Street tomorrow Miss Chamberlain and I will be at Cushman. So depending on the group What was really nice? I want to say a public. Thank you to Amanda who runs the head start is they actually scheduled That's the only one where there's Transportation to the program so drop-offs not a lot of these are happening at drop-off But she had invited us to the open house that they had at the program and we had great participation I think it was 16 or 17 Families represented there many of them signed up and an incredibly diverse linguistically diverse Demographic as well at that one and Spring Street was wonderful this morning as well The other ones were mostly doing drop-off seems to be the best time, but it's been wonderful They've welcomed this and we've you know made phone calls. They said they've shut out communications to their families And we had a stream spring streets a smaller preschool We had a good number of families there including again linguistically diverse families in the community Can you just remind us what it is that you're running through with these families during these preschool visits? So there's a brochure which I'll get to in a second that we're handing out But it's really pretty loose question to answer because especially it was a little different at the head start because that was a formal time At Spring Street today our experience was that you know families come in some of them drop off at 8 Some of them drop up at 8 20 some of them drop off at 8 25 So you're not getting a group together to do a formal presentation But it worked especially with having more than one person there it allowed for multiple conversations to happen And what I'm finding is sort of there's some disparity But but a lot of people have the same questions and same interest and what's been wonderful again That last word is the interest that people want to know more and want to be involved and want to find out You know There's a lot of enthusiasm that we're hearing in the community both from native Spanish speakers as well as Others about the program and the questions are somewhat different for a native Spanish speakers What what we've heard so far been not native Spanish speakers I want to say English speakers because there's lots people with different first language in Spanish, but But they've been really I think hearty conversations that We're not getting out there early I'll put it that way a lot of interest and you know again The thank you to the preschools for allowing us to come so there we have brochures which includes the mission statement that are our larger group mostly of staff members is working on Has worked on as well as a benefits document which has got printed today So we'll have that for the last three of the sessions be looked at a lot of the research because we knew in this community There'd be a lot of interest and what does the research say are the benefits? And so this will be on our website tomorrow and people can click and get that I also want to thank the Fort River PGO because their preschool settings They're not really open meetings like you know preschools in general sort of frown on strangers coming in when they three or four Arriving but the PGO at Fort River, you know, we're able to have a more controlled environment So they've been wonderful. They said all are welcome at their coffee the principal. So on Friday morning The Chamberlain actually will have multiple of us at that that event and for people who are in other preschools as well It's just interested community members can come to that and that'll be a little more formal Then a question answer again because it starts at it as a start time that everyone agrees to more or less At nine o'clock So that'd be helpful and Fort River is also opening Organizing an informational session at their open house so that for families who can't come at nine o'clock But want to find out more current Fort River families have that additional opportunity as well So we'll talk about forums later. I keep on saying that but it is our agenda I appreciate the chair and vice chair's letter to the Amherst Bulletin last week I think it it generated a lot of interest a number of people that I've spoken to read that and said Oh, that's where you are So I really want to thank both of you for authoring that piece and I also thought it very neatly dovetailed with what I shared earlier About Harrisonburg where you talked about ELL students and then talked about all students and it's not either or but I think the order matters So it was I was thinking of your letter when I was in Virginia So that was thank you for that One of the Friday updates the weekly updates I do will focus much more heavily on this At the exclusion perhaps of other topics, but I think it's as we get a little closer I think it's worth sharing that with the community And one of our goals is to open a question and answer page so that public can Ask questions to get responses in that way if they can't make it to forums or other ones and we're already gathering The more forums we do there's a lot of common questions that come up I'm not going to read through all these because there's a lot of bullets But you can see we're doing this is really important to us on the family outreach component Um, especially as we get to you know all those other ones were phased on before phase one before we all come to a clear decision So at phase two, we really want to do Talk about communication and access So right at phase two a decision has been made. I'm assuming this is a positive vote, right? If it's a negative vote and phase two sort of changes quite a bit But assuming a positive or if there's a positive vote, I don't want to assume We really focus on how does everyone learn about the program now that it's Clearly happening and how does everyone have access to if there's a lottery? How do they find out about that lottery? So you can see there's a number of events that are all focused on increasing our engagement with Access to the larger community. So, you know the banner like we have for first day getting that on the town common sending information out sending home library books in spanish, you know amherst bullets in facebook advertising Really doing a heavy heavy load on that or heavy focus on that Another thing we've been talking a lot about is naming conventions. Um, one thing miss richardson and I spoke about over there is When you say like dual language and non dual language because we're also aware there'll be um A kindergarten class next year in any scenario at fort river that will not be in the dual language program Uh, and even the way i'm describing it now is really uncomfortable We don't like to define things based on what they're not we like to define things based on what there are However, monolingual isn't necessarily accurate because there may be students speak multiple languages in that class Even if the instructions monolingual there may be tutors others are speaking other languages So we're talking about naming conventions one of the things that we liked or i'll say i liked but i think there was consensus Is some some schools name there that have a strand within the school they name their program So for instance in windham connecticut, which one of our trainers is from they call it companeros program and No, so we're thinking of fun ideas and maybe there can be some community outreach that comes with that in a little more democratic process He says we like to do with naming and logos and all sorts of things as you remember from last year We also want to specifically outreach Different demographics working with the l pack which is new this year with the look act which is an el We are tasked with forming this year as a English learner parent advisory council So having them have some ownership and connection to it as well as c-pack and we ran an event last year with c-pack But as it's getting more real we want to run another event and my bae actually has some expertise And said they'd work with us on perhaps what that would look like Another piece at phase two before parents make decisions So the first decision right is what gets made by the district The second is the parents want to have their child be part of this program He's really looking for that long-term commitment and that's not because we Don't love our students and families who may be here at a more temporary basis But the research that we've read says that basically five years is a good amount of time to reap the benefits of the program And if you're in for in a dual language program for a shorter amount of time There are some questions about whether the effectiveness happens and obviously there's no commitment to stay Families move for a whole host of reasons But there may be some families who know that they're planning to be here for six months or a year or two years So many that actually every district we've spoken to has some level of compact With a commitment to stay it's not like the binding commitment, but also around family involvement For particularly from monolingual inter-speaking families, it can be daunting Now one of the questions I've gotten many times already is do I have to speak Spanish to my children? Do I have to learn Spanish myself if I'm a monolingual inter-speaking parent? And so we want to help families understand what that looks like That shouldn't be a disqualifier if the parents are monolingual or the child But particularly if the parents are monolingual speakers and be much more clear on what the expectations of parent involvement Are and I think all of this and we'll see this and you'll see this a little bit Is really about how do we develop a cohort model of families who are motivated to be have their children be part of the program Are supportive of that program? Because it's a it is a substantially different experience than their kids will realize in a Non-dual language program eventually will have a better phrase for that. Um But not yet and so the third phase three is we have students We have our cohort identified who are going to be taking part in this program and we want uh throughout but particularly as that that cohort gets emerges to have Opportunities for them to offer feedback on the program design. We'll have many things in place But there'll be many things that we want the feedback of the community um Build that cohort feel of families. That's something we heard from every single program is it's critically important that Not just that students are getting this intercultural experience, but that families are also having a mimicking a mimic experience mimic experience We want to support a smooth transition. So as enthusiastic as people will be they'll have logical questions and anxieties that come up And we want to address those and we also want I think mr. Amberlynn and her team came up with a great idea of how can some of the expertise of the cohort actually Infuse into the school whether it's spanish-speaking lunch groups or Think of new ways where parents can be connected to the school that don't really exist in our current structures So we'll be exploring that with the families So i'm going to transition um to mr. Amberlynn and um This richardson in the second to talk about staff outreach But maybe pause because that was a lot of information to see if there's questions comments or feedback on the That part of it. That's okay. Thank you. Dr. Mars any Questions or comments? So just to continue to probe in terms of like community general reaction So either from prospective parents or from community members Are you hearing any consistent? Concern or criticism of the program? I mean it's been awesome to hear the level of enthusiasm community and you know pretty excited about this But we don't want to lose the sight of the fact that we want to make a deliberative and you know Fair-minded decision. So any like common issues that like maybe you're repeatedly arising that we're not yet on our radar So a couple that i've heard and certainly other people can share if uh, mr. Chamberlain have as well One is if it would only affect a younger child this came up today You know and for families that are bilingual they're concerned about what would that do in terms of the language they communicate at home with one child learning in Half the day in spanish and the older child not having access because the program's not they're already beyond kindergarten So that's one i've heard uh number of questions about zoning. Um You know that's not lack of enthusiasm for the program That's about you know again who gets in who doesn't that kind of piece that comes up quite a bit um some questions about um 50 50 not 80 20. I wouldn't say their concerns that have come up. I think they've been you know They came up in today's conversation and I Took that as actually a good conversation There was a critique of another district that actually does have an 80 20 So it wasn't it wasn't a concern. It was more just trying to understand the rationale for that. Um Um Frankly and this is I don't mean to be slip or it's it's an awkward comment to make but concern that you know Things will get delayed sometimes in amorous things don't happen at a pace that The community would want us to have and that you know, what's the people bluntly asking today? What's the roadblocks of this happening? Um, you know, and do you think something will compromise Something political will compromise this um this from going forward and I don't that that could sound awkward But I'm trying to give an honest answer to your question. Peter. I think I think he means us. Yeah, right Of a checkpoint. Yeah, I was trying to couch it as nicely as I could I said they're really nice people. Um And that wasn't about you particularly it was actually about how Me No, no the body particularly I think it was more just about past experiences and how People have a good sighted for things exactly like that like literally this and Yet there were roadblocks and things didn't fly in the end. I mean, there's people who still remember when this came up In 2002 or whatever year it was and you know, it was perceived. I'm not saying it's real It was perceived that it got to the the policy school committee level and it didn't fly So it's not about anyone in particular. I just want to be super clear on that point Try to look at Diane katie from the community anything else other concerns that you can think of You don't have Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's other things we'll talk about for sure. Um But those are the ones that I've heard so far and I'm sure we'll hear more at the next three sessions This weekend I heard a concern that I hadn't fully thought about but it kind of came up again in your comments Which is this I did that they'll leave these two dual language programs and then there'll be that other classroom And I think a concern about Will that classroom be more And any number of issues, but I think this person in particular was concerned about In terms of students who might be participating in specialized programs or have other special needs Then maybe they'll be that classroom will be In some way significantly different than the dual language program and how is that dynamic going to play out? And should we be thinking about that as we move forward? It wasn't a reason to not move forward with this But it was something that I thought I actually hadn't Fully thought out myself either Yeah, so Oh, I'm sorry. So I've heard that from the community I've heard from staff and I think when we come back next time and when the special ed specialized working group comes back They did an incredible amount of thinking about that very question. So I without I don't think it's my place to preview that except to say that And I also want to note that both miss Richardson and miss chamberlain have been Thinking doing an awful lot of thinking about How does it stay cohesive as a school and how do we make sure not just the student demographics But that students and families feel like they're all part of a shift that it's not Yes, it happens over seven years with seven grade levels But we want our fourth graders to recognize a shift that's already happened in terms of Promoting multicultural education and how students feel in the school environment This might not be the right time to ask the question, but I thought I'd just ask it And then you can answer it whenever it's right to answer it Um, what's the road map between here in November 5th? What are the different topics we're going to talk about in the meetings? Just because it I mean over the summer we had a couple of meetings and we were digging into questions I'm just saying to the public because this is the largest audience we've had Since last spring our summer early summer that um You know, we were digging around our issues around zoning and enrollment and different alternatives and things like that and one of the things we kept talking about was um The fact that there was just a lot of information to dig in some of which You know, we're going to be learning like what Sembra la siembra Retreat and the update there's going to be a lot of information from that work that the committee needs to be able to absorb there's questions like the one that the spits are just raised that are going to come up and um, you know looking at the Communications plan is a critical piece of that But I just love for us to know As well as the public to know if we're going to have another three meetings on the topic Do we have a sense of what those three meetings look like or if we don't have it right now? Could the chair maybe share it with us afterward? You know, so it's some future point in the near future so that we can know where we're going Yeah, so I can answer that question and we did the chair We did a lot of talking about that So at the next meeting on the 9th, uh, we'll be a presentation of the academic program So that a lot of that came from la siembra, but it was a working group that met like other staff members this week This week yesterday from or correctly, yeah To really iron that you know get take more active steps That's where Harrisonburg was really helpful because the more models you have the more you can make decisions of what makes sense in your community It's sort of an odd feeling but the more you see what lots of other people are doing similar and differently Then you can say oh Well, we like that we don't like that but we like that from Princeton We like that from Connecticut and from Wyndham and so that's the active work So that'll be a big focus of that meeting will be the academic program what language is taught in which subject How does I use the waterfall piece? So how does that work into play out in things? And then the next meeting which we'll talk about the end of the meeting But probably the date will likely change was originally scheduled for the 16th That one will be focused on resources needed Because I think you know the chair and I if I can speak for both of us felt like The critical components before a vote knowing that all the fine-grained details won't necessarily work out on everything But having a clear sense of what the academic program is what's the rationale for that program And then what are the resources that will need to make the program successful as well as the communication Where the critical components well, certainly we have zoning on there as we'll look at future addendas at the end of the meeting But in terms of the front end of it in terms of the more at the school level those are the Next couple meetings I think if the committee has any recommendations or other things that you'd like to hear that haven't been touched on or you know Please feel free to All right, so I think I'd like to ask this chamberlain and mr. Resistance. There's just a couple slides on staff Pieces and engagement at each phase So before we jump into the information on the slides I just want to say kudos to the staff because I think they are embracing this with Open arms seeing it as a really a move towards equity for our students and see the value and Asset this could possibly bring for the community So just wanted to shout out to the folks that have been digging deep on this and the literature that we've been reading Conversations that we've been having are definitely steeped in research and literature on best practices So thinking about trying to create a completely inclusive model that can suit all profiles of learners as well as Integrate all the strategies that we know are essential for second language learners It's really at the core of what we're doing. So Some of the information that's happened So far that you've talked about is we did do a retreat with many staff members Led by the mabe Organization and from that became became our communication plan and early academic planning It was very fruitful and I think turned the tides around going from completely anxious to thinking about things We weren't very seeking to really coming away with an understanding of the work ahead and in feeling fortunate That we had a year to really do that critical planning We've been doing some updates at our first faculty meeting I think some more faculty here will talk about the the process of going through an entire lesson in Spanish and actually being immersed in that What that feels like for kids as well as as adults kind of stepping out of our comfort zone and experiencing it firsthand We have PLCs that are organized for this school year that people are opting into So we're going to see that in literature as well and then train our staff from within Uninstructional best practices. We're fortunate to have katie as well as our sister principal renai greenfield who are very skilled and knowledgeable and How to teach second language learners and and language instruction itself So a lot of our early release day time will be focused on those instructional strategies So we are making sure that our workshop during our instruction in the appropriate ways We've got staff that are really really excited to go look at other programs Not only holioc, but there's a program in windom that that mobby's associated with that they'd like us to go see Our mission statement is up and running and that was developed from last year as well Mike has reached out and secured some Conversational Spanish classes for our staff, which I think our staff is really really excited about We also plan to meet by discipline around Both pll special education as well as intervention services to see how we're still going to execute those Services for kids while we're still doing a dual language program What ratio is exactly down to the minute that we've been talking about this week of what's going to be instructed in english What's going to be instructed in spanish? And what kind of resources we need for that And we just we know that the step input on that will be you know in various phases Right so we're giving we're doing a bunch of sketching right now But knowing that it's a process to make sure that all the services that we delivered in a way that works for the students But also the staff schedules up the whole school right into your question So I think that's something that's on our mind a lot is thinking about integrating services across the school and across programs And we're doing a lot as the leadership team I think we're doing a lot of The deeper research so we can present it to staff and present it to families and communities and then get feedback So it's going to continue to be a successful process all the way through it. I'm so all these things that I'm talking about are not done We certainly want to do a lot of research as far as Doing a lot of event research and making sure that we open up our school As many ways as we possibly can to get people in to look at it I know one of the issues that has come up is that whole wall conversation And how we make sure we're taking care of everybody's language needs without walls And try to make the best of the environment that we're currently making it And the pbo has been on board and trying to learn as much as they can and they will partner with us and try to promote things as much as possible Any other highlights you want to make sure we mentioned I think the signage is actually I know it's a small thing But you have to talk about signage, you know So we want the place to to not be a model language building it more right So and this is something we've actually started the conversation with our facilities director over the summer It was a little swamped with the summer tasks But we're already looking around the map of the school and saying what do we need to change on In a static way to make sure that when you walk into the building you you're seeing a Spanish world as well as the English world Yeah, I think May maybe pause for a comment Any questions or comments from the committee at this time Yeah, so I can speak about that just briefly so A couple meetings with gcc. They design they have a language program, but they design Yes, I'm sorry greenfield community college and they design Workplace language courses as well. So for instance, they teach Spanish for healthcare professionals course and they'll they'll teach you this huge need in our area for that And so they are working and you know, we're going to do anything frankly and vote happens And then we can put something in place, but they're developing a course that would be specific to English speakers who want to get at a survival level of Spanish So at least they're not going to be teaching in Spanish We'd want people who are fluent and all that but there was a huge interest that we heard from staff Which is wonderful. How do we get to a place where we can communicate some in Spanish and how do we have a Gcc took that and they're developing What are the types of things that educators would want to know to be able to communicate? It's not going to be teaching scientific concepts, right? Because that that's going to be taught by someone who's fluent in Spanish And they're going to have a draft I think to us sometime in late late October Of what that looks like and then can get feedback from our educators of like does this seem right? Is this the kind of phrases you'd use is So they've been wonderful to work with and and that'd be open to anyone in the district But certainly we would house it at Fort River because it's going to be you know, presumably a significant interest at that site in particular Yeah, a broad comment off of that is that it's exciting district-wide. I've had other educators ask Other folks have asked whether There are opportunities to learn Spanish even in the upper grades Just because of the increase in our Spanish speaking population both students and And families. So just the way that this Has an opportunity to open up that conversation That's great Well, I want to thank you for coming here tonight and also just for the amount of work that you've been putting into this We really appreciate we've been hearing that And I think you know the community obviously several committee members have mentioned already are are expressing how excited they are about this possibility And so we're looking forward to continuing to explore it with you and really understand what it's going to look like And yeah, we'll we'll see what happens, but thank you so much for being here tonight for sharing with us. Really appreciate it This is just a brief comment about thank you Mabe also has written up a kind of summary findings from the La Siembra for us, and I'll be sharing that with you in time this week, I think If it's just there's a little fine-tuming and editing that has to happen at the last The last piece, but it can you know more accurately describe the work that happened and their recommendations So they've been continuing to partner with us and offer us feedback throughout which has been wonderful to have These folks who have done this in multiple districts supporting us Thank you Okay, so um Moving along, uh the next item on our agenda is infrastructure discussion and public comment So, um, I see a lot of members of the public here tonight. Thank you very much for coming For being so patient sitting through our agenda. We really appreciate it So as I hinted at the very beginning of this meeting We were opening up a second public comment today and that was so that we would have an opportunity to hear directly from uh members of staff and educators And anyone else really just regarding some concerns that have been raised recently around infrastructure conditions in our buildings in our school buildings Um, I think we've had some some challenging moments during the past couple months, especially with the start of school Uh, just in terms of climate, you know temperature control in the buildings But a lot of these are not new issues. We've been hearing about them for a very long time. So these are things that I think are Continuing to be a problem in our in our schools. Um, and so we just wanted to give an opportunity tonight to hear directly from you About what you're experiencing and what you're thinking so that uh, we can consider that as we move forward in a lot of different conversations That we're having around budget and other things. So Thank you again for being here tonight Just a reminder if you have a comment you can come up to the mic Introduce yourself. Please state your name and you have three minutes And just give me one second to get the stopwatch started because I do want to make sure everyone's got Time to go Thank you for allowing us to come here and putting in the second public comment section I really appreciate it. Jean Fay, I'm president of the Amherst Palme Education Association I represent all the educators that work in the Amherst regional school system And I'm here not only as a representative of the membership, but I'm here as a taxpayer I'm here as someone who is married to a person who is a proud Product of the Amherst public school system and I'm here as a parent Of three children that went through the school system And I've got some photos to share I may ask some of the staff members to help with holding them up because I've got quite a number Of them as you said we have had a challenging Opening of the school the photos that are here. These are new pictures And I also have packets for each of you that have pictures So these are photos that were taken Recently some as recent as today But these are photos and like I said I have packets for each of you That have all of these pictures in them So These are photos of healthy ventilation systems These are photos of road rodents That are in maker space in the school library in Wildwood These are photos of Okay, carcasses of rodents that are in spaces that the students and the staff frequent On a daily basis These are photos of the crumbling infrastructure in our buildings These are photos of thermometers That show the temperature That the students and the staff were working in at the beginning of the school year And unfortunately, I don't have photos of the temperature of the thermometers that showed temperatures close to 90 degrees, but that was happening These are photos of the humidity levels in the buildings in the library in particular in Wildwood And What these photos Also represent are the learning conditions of our students What these photos also represent of the working conditions of the people that are standing here What these photos also represent Are all the times that the custodians don't have the supplies that they need or the staff that they need To keep to keep our buildings clean All of these photos represent The fact that we don't have the money to keep our schools clean And keep them healthy and safe for the staff and the students of the emmer's regional public school system This is not a new problem But this we're in a crisis right now. I want you to really look at these pictures The emmer's has always prided itself on great public schools Massachusetts has always prided itself on this public space. We can do better. We should do better and we have to do better than this Thank you. I've also been the union building representative. So I've heard many stories about the concerns of the building So I'm going to share them with you tonight Now we wanted to begin by saying that the custodial staff at Wildwood has worked very hard to fulfill all the demands of taking care of an older building But with staff cuts, it's very challenging to do all that is needed to keep our school clean and safe for students and staff They're basically understaffed When we return to the building in august this year Many educators express frustration at the amount of cleaning and organizing they had to do to get their rooms ready for the first day of school This included cleaning mold from desks and tabletops moving furniture Inside desks there was mold wiping all services and cleaning up debris that was left by the construction Our library and shampooed several carpet areas that were moldy all happening before the first paid day of the school year There continues to be a mold problem as some of the bulletin boards covered with paper have mold underneath Several staff expressed concerns about the number of live and dead rodents and feces in the building On monday morning just this monday morning two staff members found that what they described is Lots of mice species covering their desks They took pictures and then they cleaned it themselves In the sixth grade quad a mice fell from the mounds fell from the ceiling during the class A dead mouse was found last week by susan wells and this morning another dead mouse Feces has been seen consistently for the first two weeks of school and it continues to be a problem at wow good In the gymnasium and one of the special education areas have been reported to mean that there's crumbling asbestos Several staff members have removed their supplies and materials from this area until it's inspected by a qualified professional Our school nurse comments that the wildwood that wildwood has been reporting air quality and environmental issues for the 26 years He has worked for the schools Our most recent survey completed in the spring of 2018 at wildwood revealed that an elevated number of our staff reported having asthma sinus infections and skin problems during school year Thank you My name is joy. What's an i'm a fourth grade teacher at wildwood I'm here this evening to express my concern for the environment in which the staff students and individuals at wildwood have to work and learn As with any old building there are prone to big problems and difficulties within the infrastructure and with Within the infrastructure and with wildwood there have been many ranging from questionable air quality to issues of mold Within my own personal experience I've had to change rooms about five years ago from a room with carpet to one with no carpet Due to having a severe allergic reaction to the dust mites and mold spores in the air In addition I obtained an air purifier as much as I appreciated the efforts made by the made by others to attend to my help Everyone has not been as fortunate as I The working environmental conditions at wildwood continue to remain problematic Even with the vested intentions to address the numerous issues There needs to be more in the way of outside support for the wildwood community community that demonstrates transparency action plans That are initiated by district administration Follow-through and feedback that send the message of you are important We want this to be a safe and most importantly healthy place to work and learn. Thank you I'm legit beach. I teach second grade at wildwood, but I'm reading a statement from liz elder who teaches fifth grade Last year in this year, there's been a noticeable difference in the cleanliness and upkeep of the wildwood school building I'm in my 20th year here, and I've never seen it this dirty or unkempt The sinks are filthy, and I've been cleaning my own sink for the past year The pictures I've taken show that they have not been cleaned since last year along with the boot wells Vacuuming is minimal at best. I've noticed that if something can't be seen on the floor that part is not vacuumed Our building is already dumpy being as old as it is and the mishmash of furniture From tag sales in the founding of this school and castoffs from new masks some 20 years ago And now on top of all of the air quality issues. It's dirty capitalized dirty The bathroom sinks rugs and hallways are not regularly cleaned Rodents birds and bats have inhabited my room for over the last years Something needs to be done These working and learning conditions are unacceptable. I'm proud to work with this community of teachers But it's shameful that Amherst has allowed our school to deteriorate to this degree If we don't have a new school building it should at the very least be clean and safe place In which to teach and learn And I want to tell people I mean this I'm sure Liz would agree. This is not on the custodians This is on them being understaffed and really not being able to do the job that they would like to do Thank you. My name is Lori Huxenla. I teach first grade at Fort River School in Amherst I've been teaching at Fort River for over 30 years And I've seen lots of generations of children and staff go through the school. I do want to say that I've been through a lot of Changes at Fort River and certainly have seen lots of Ups and downs let's say with the Fort River maintenance I must say though that it probably has not been this bad in my experience Um, we can't really go any further without proper funding and staffing of our maintenance staff My message tonight is that we need your advocacy We have plans to teach wonderful curriculum at Fort River in both English and Spanish But the physical condition of the school in some spaces is not conducive to learning We feel supported by our administrators. We feel supported by our maintenance staff But they cannot do any more than they do I have pictures in my possession. You have pictures in front of you of the Fort River library With plastic covering their molding books With swollen and broken suspended ceiling tiles that strain to hold back water That pours onto them from the Fort River roof each time it rains Cracks in the walls that go clear through from the hallway To one of our classrooms I have a photo of the HVAC unit in my classroom that was not blowing air at all this summer And into the first three weeks of the school year The day it was turned on faulty electrical wires sent sparks flying as my first grade children sat against the unit during the lesson The teachers and staff at our school Could share accounts of mice and ants and a snake running through our classrooms and hallways Of broken windows that sometimes need to go unrepaired Of backed up pipes that send sewage into one of our custodial closets All the situations that no one would stand for in their workplace They're expecting and requiring that our children learn here and our employees work here These are unsafe and unhealthy environments. I want to be clear that we are supported We do not blame our custodial staff or our administrators who work very hard with their limited resources We need more resources We need funding to keep port river and all of the other district schools safe and viable It is unethical to allow these conditions to exist in any of our schools Any longer for our children and staff who are there every day Thank you I'm a third grade teacher at port river. I've been there 12 years Throughout my time there I've experienced personally different health issues due to I believe mold in the classrooms Some of the side effects that I've had have been red burning flesh skin sinus infections I have asthma and I do need to take A day late asthma medication as well as an allergen medication daily I find every year that I have to pack up all of the books in my room Due to mold conditions And so that obviously creates a lot of extra work, which I know other teachers are doing as well I want to say that I stay at port river because of the people I work with I really cherish the professionalism of all the teachers and the staff I appreciate the the administration And I care about this district and I know that all of you care about the children and that's why you're here Because we want the best for our children And in order to continue to provide that We need to provide healthier conditions in our school system In june, I was personally facing a lot of health issues between headaches and fatigue Which I expect suspected was from mold and ran a personal mold kit and And this is not an industrial mold kit. This is something that you get from home depots So I do want to acknowledge perhaps the quality of it is not as high As some of the air testing. However, it did come up with three different molds And I will leave this report with the board One of them is determined to be an important factor in the onset of childhood asthma Another one if there are large amounts of spores affecting individuals with asthma and those with respiratory diseases And um the last one often serves as an indicator for dampness Inside the school, which we know that we have so I will leave this with you Again, I want to reiterate what everyone has been saying. This is not on the custodial staff and it's not on our administration These are old buildings that have their own issues, but something has got to be done for the welfare Of our children most of all Thank you I'm Victoria Monroe first grade at Wildwood I just want to briefly request that we come up with some sort of policy For the heat conditions in the classrooms I was ill from it and I was also uncomfortable As a teacher knowing that my students parents did not know What their kids were exposed to on those days. I felt it was extreme and really unacceptable So I'd like the district to come up with some sort of policy so that that doesn't happen again Thank you I'll be joined by an intervention teacher at Cocker Farm School Sad to have to report that our beautiful library at Cocker Farm That's valued for Not just all of the books and resources are there But as a community space where we can meet with families and educators and our children for all kinds of programming We currently have seven leaks coming from the ceiling So we're also dealing with having to cover things with plastic and losing resources that that treasure that we don't want to have to lose Additionally, we have a classroom On our first floor that's experienced an antifreeze leak That's coming from a pipe in the ceiling that we understand has been remedied, but Um, that's concerning to us that that's occurred and Damaged tiles and other things that occurred in A classroom that was next door to where I was teaching There were leaks coming from the ceiling and the remedy of that was stringing plastic across the ceiling to catch the water And to have buckets catching things That's basically been the solution on the library as well Um, like others who've spoken tonight Um Our children and the learning conditions for our children are paramount to us It makes a difference in their attentiveness their engagement the ways in which we can engage them in learning So we know that this funding issue is one that gets at the root of not just what you're able to make available to us But what our state is able to make available to us and so We hope to be back before long to talk to you about The fact that we have a future that's really going to depend on fair funding from our state as well Thank you. Thank you There's anyone else that wants to come up and make a public comment. You're welcome to do so Okay, um with that I will close public comment And um, we'll open it up. Um Thank you again to all of you who spoke tonight. We really appreciate it. Um, very somber Sumbering comments that have been made Again, unfortunately not very surprising. We've been hearing a lot of this for for some time Dr. Morris, I just want to give you an opportunity if you want to Say anything before the committee. I want to first start by thanking everyone who came to speak tonight or to be here tonight. Um Right I spent a couple years of my life talking about these very issues. They're very real And I really appreciate people who are experiencing them on a regular basis coming in to speak to their first-hand experience So the first thing I want to say is just an acknowledgement of staff for coming in Um, this could be a really different meeting given the conditions our staff and students are experiencing and I really appreciate the The way that people express their viewpoints. Um, so I want to start by just acknowledging staff for For coming tonight and sharing um specifics of how they're experiencing things There's no doubt that it's been incredibly challenging fall summer and fall from a facilities level I'll just list some of the major primary things that have gone on Uh, so we had a major water issue at quarker farm To make a long story short the fire sprinkler piping was corroded to the point of leaking so that involved the priest Mostly affected the preschool sort of thing. So that's not the leaking from the roof This is um other sorts where we didn't have water for a day. Um, and that problem was remedied We had a cooling issue of wild which was which was referenced the chiller compressor failed So one of the challenges with these buildings isn't just the age of the building It's the age of the operational parts of these buildings, which many of which have not been updated since They're well beyond their lifespans Uh, we have a lot of problems with our electrical systems Particularly at wild in fort river which are made by federal pacific a company that doesn't exist anymore So it's very hard to make repairs and that has lots of implications For instance, we have a clock issue at wildwood, which people at wildwood know very well Which the master clock and the bell is not staying on time which I know it's not seem my team trivial to these other issues but has large implications are in the school day Um Someone referenced the the motor um the spark the univent issue at fort river So our univents are really old and getting parts for them again not the easiest thing to find parts Get them shipped because they're not in production anymore. And when the motors fail Which they're prone to do given the age of them It creates lots of problems. We're getting excess parts that fit each univent is not easy. So we keep access but That has been an ongoing challenge for many years We have had a rodent issue at wildwood You know, I've myself had a conversation with minuteman minuteman, which is our Every school in massachusetts has to have an integrated pest management system There are a vendor for the integrated pest management And they've been in four times in addition to the normal monthly sweeps to this point The building being closed and vacant for much of the summer because of the updates the boiler created a negative situation I'm learning about this. Unfortunately. I don't know that much about it in some ways But that mice have a tendency to want quiet areas where there aren't a lot of there's not a lot of people in and out And that describes pretty well wild with the summer. They're actively working with us on resolving the issue There's some limits of what they can and can do given that it's a public school and there's children involved But they they continue to come on a very regular basis to address the issues um And they're long-term. I mean, I can just very bluntly, you know, if I was at that Microphone, I would say, you know in 2004 at Fort River when I was teaching sixth grade So mice run through my room. These are, you know, they're not it's not okay that they're ongoing issues But they are ongoing issues that are Sadly not new We've had some door opening issues at Wildwood So our doors are external doors that go from the classrooms outside are not they're original to the building So they're 45 50 years old and so we've shaved them down as much as we can You remember there's a capital item last year that replaced those and that'll happen We couldn't do it this summer because of the other work that was happening and you need to sort of Quiet two three week stretch without students to do those so we've done As much as we can and resolve the issue as much as we can at the moment There's one door that we may need to do over a break because there's one door that You can't it's certainly you shave it down so much and it's not functional in the door. It gets warped um We've had roof leaks at all schools. Crocker farm had a particularly challenge one that was was referenced earlier In public comment, but Fort River is we could tell stories about Fort River as well and the roof leaks there so I don't want people to believe that this is a perfect storm This is what we're feeling like is the new nor oh No, I think I think those are the major ones that want to mention This is the new normal we have um 40 to 50 year olds 45 to 50 year old buildings two of them With a lot of deferred maintenance while the building project was going on There wasn't huge amounts of money putting being put into buildings that were hoped by some to be replaced and Now we've got a significant backlog of deferred buildings And we've got buildings that weren't particularly well maintained for many years before that There was not a lot of capital expenditures on the maintenance of the buildings throughout the history of Fort River and Wildwood um So we have significant issues that we're facing and one of the things that if you remember our our august meeting Mr. McPherson our facilities director um was Pretty honest about is how long can we maintain these buildings without huge outlays of capital Funds and is that the best approach or are we looking at new buildings? And I think that's the conversation that the town needs to have that we need to have with the town I don't mean that we're not active participants in that conversation um If the town's guidance is that we need to wait for msba to get into msba process to do something Uh, that's large then my belief is that we have to have take care of these um These issues one by one, uh over the next couple years with a high price tag and I think active conversations with the town is what we need to be involved with because none of these are small ticket items Right systems and buildings, and I'm not the best to explain this and you all know that They're interrelated So if you're going to address the cooling and the heating you're going to trust both of those if you're going to do something with the unit events That's going to affect all the other systems that are at play And that's one of the challenges of improving some of the conditions of our building I agree with all the comments or custodians working as hard as they can work our maintenance folks are working as hard as they can work I believe this past weekend was the first weekend that we didn't have a maintenance employee Working overtime in a weekend to take care of some issue at our schools since mid august It's been straight through that we've had people Working harder, you know is not going to solve the the degree of problems that we have So I want There's no, you know, I'm adding to the somberness I think that was the phrase that was used of the conversation but I just want to acknowledge the issues that were cited and Acknowledge that these are long-standing issues that don't get better over time. They get significantly worse I think as the climate changes, you know, not to get too much into that part of it But there's more likely we're going to have more days that are really hot Um, I don't anticipate that going down. It's also more likely we're going to have different weather patterns come with Kind of more extremes of weather and right now our buildings not just in the heating cooling But even if you look at the roofs, they're not well prepared To manage the weather that we're likely to experience over the next five to ten years So I feel the urgency that is in the room. I share that urgency and Working with the solution is going to be a challenge but actively working with the town on What that looks like and a direction that they can give us whether it's through capital expenditures over time or It's through another mechanism as I think highly warranted Mr. Nakademi so We've had a lot of conversations about the conditions of the of the buildings I think what's Sobering about this is seeing all the pictures and hearing about day-to-day working conditions that are not I mean not that it isn't terrible to have you know over time Building system issues that are failing and create uneven heating or cooling and things like that that are uncomfortable But this is actually a mixture of things that are sort of long-term Significant systemic challenges problems around the outdatedness of the building And then it's also about sort of day-to-day maintenance and Cleanliness of the work environment and so to me I really feel there have been a couple things that are just I'm going to throw out a couple observations immediately then The question that one I do think we probably should have the policy Are some sort of guidance around The appropriate working conditions for when buildings are open under extreme heat conditions I think that's a reasonable thing to request of the of the district or of the committee either one Figuring out and I just got to be comparable particularly given the quality of the You know the absence of good air conditioning Thinness of the walls you know what I mean as opposed to someplace that's Properly air conditioned in a different environment. So I think that's reasonable to I think we need a more granular plan and I actually felt like this when Jim McPherson talked I forget when it was but a while ago a few months ago about how Oh, hey, you know, this could all go to heck in a couple years time You know, we have the cascading series of problems that are really challenges That's true. We all I think I hope I could say that universally whether people's desired outcome is a completely new building or whatever Everyone hopefully knows at this point in this town that these buildings are not I'm thinking pilly. Obviously cracker is its own issues. We're really wild in Fort River Need to be replaced in whatever form that is and they're not adequate and we know that we've got to have a plan to do that We need to have a plan sooner rather than later to try to address the challenges of both buildings, whether that means What we've been looking at the Fort River feasibility work If that means a larger elementary school building on that site So regardless of great configuration questions that also came up that we could simply say should we be trying to solve the um the facility challenges Of both schools in one building if we get back into msba Maybe that should be a more active question and more openly discussed and we're doing now Because I think it'd be a perfectly reasonable thing for people to say look if we get back into msba Let's try to whatever whatever the curricular challenges are other ways We're trying to solve things Which I realize that we're at people's strong opinions and it opens up all sorts of cans of worms If you simply focus down on the buildings and say gosh these buildings aren't good They need to be replaced So that I think that's a that's something we should be dealing with and probably dealing with More directly than we are now particularly while we have a feasibility committee that's looking at the site of Fort River Should we be looking at a 700 enrollment? Feasibility right as opposed to 460 or something. I think that's worth talking about Beyond that though. Let me go dive to the other end um So mr. McPherson talked about a series of building systems that could fail over time Many of which are outdated the companies don't exist anymore really challenge me to do I get that And that means there needs to be a more specific plan about how to replace things even more granular than we have now But it's not acceptable to have I mean, I'm by the way, I'm not yelling I'm just saying it's completely unacceptable to have dead mice and like you know mice mouse feces And the extent we have moldy carpets or moldy books. That's unacceptable too, right? I mean so the question for us needs to be You know, how do we develop a more granular response plan? That both deals with long-term facility issues deals with the replacement of systems in which there are I remember I was on the joint capital planning committee. I remember that we looked at replacement of some of the exterior doors It was funded by town meeting awesome Um, so yeah, okay. It takes a few extra months to get it done. At least we have a plan for that That's awesome. We should have a plan for everything else that we can't have a plan for and then beyond that Do we need more custodial staff? I mean, I'm just saying if we do Let's talk about that let's talk about the staff and it looks like they try to ensure that the Facilities can be cleaned regularly and let's cost that out They don't have a conversation about how much money that would cost us either in terms of our reserves and our current budget or going back to Other people in their town and say hey it turns out because I think everyone would hopefully agree that at the point you have like mouse feces and you know Dripping tiles and stuff like that. That's an utterly unacceptable work condition our facilities We'd be ashamed of that under any circumstance And so the question is I mean, I can't imagine that's a multimillion dollar fix I'm talking in terms of the staffing and the cleaning and the maintenance But I mean to me there should be an immediate response In trying to figure out what we do and how we get to that Then there needs to be sort of this intermediate tree not showing issue Of chur to getting even more granular on building systems and getting digging into that And then the other thing needs to be us Being as realistic as we can be about what we're looking at around facilities And I'm just I'm just calling the question sort of that if we need to have a conversation about a town about what it looks like to have A larger elementary school building built in the near future if we get an msba in the next year or two Let's have that conversation if that is implications for Merging with Pelham and looking at that. Let's talk about that too if there's even talk about You know looking at changes to the configuration of the middle school in the high school Where in moving the sixth grade in other words ways in which we could we could rationally Organize something that could get us to better facilities sooner. Let's put it out on the table. Let's look at it and let's talk about it That's by the way. Sorry. That was really long I'm gonna Sort of abuse my chair position. I guess right now just because this this has been an issue that You know when I first started having conversations with some of the people in this room And with dr. Morris about the concerns that have been raised Um, I actually haven't been able to sleep. I mean there's been lots of times where I've been uh, just so overwhelmed with empathy for Uh, you know the people that are working in this environment day in and day out And for our students. I mean ultimately speaking, you know, we're all parents here. Um, you know, we have We're living and breathing this situation, right? And I think again, you know, none of us are new to the concerns and the critiques that have been raised here But at the same time, you know, with all due respect for a comment that was made earlier The poor conditions cannot be the new normal, right? We cannot allow this to just continue You know going back and looking at the conditions that have existed here for the past few years I was reviewing some old fire department reports and we've had continuous for for years now The same reports over and over and over again, and it predates this committee. It predates us in this administration Um, it's something that's been going on and as I think dr. Morris mentioned before, you know maintenance and Taking care of the infrastructure is just something that keeps getting pushed to the back burner over and over and over again And at a certain point you're going to pay the piper. There has to be, uh, you know, uh Realization that you can't just keep deferring that so I completely agree with mr. Nakajima that we need You know, there's there's two tiers almost there's a maintenance and then there's the emergency issues and I hear that The emergency issues keep coming up so frequently that it's taking up more and more of the time of staff But at the same time we still have these other conditions that have to be taken care of and accounted for Um, and I really feel that, you know, again one of the reasons why I had brought to the committee at our last meeting this discussion about budget priorities And setting goals for the district and including infrastructure in one of those is because there are definitely budget implications Right that again, you know, if we have to have a conversation with the town, let's have a conversation with the town Right, I think we're all here. We've all been more than happy to advocate on behalf of our schools And we need to at this point because we keep having different conversations about, you know, some of the Problems with the the infrastructure and then some of the programs that we're trying to improve upon But we also recognize that we cannot allow this to continue the way that it's been going So I want to have that conversation. I want to figure out how we have that in the most Constructive way possible But I think we had to do that sooner rather than later Ms. McDonald and mr. Dunling Um, I'm not going to repeat everything you guys said because I I agree with Most everything there and what I was sort of said another way. It's really easy to feel sleepless at night and feel overwhelmed by all of this and that's why I'm here and There's I feel a real need for us to chunk this down and chunk it out As you suggested and you know where my head was going is what are the things that we can impact I'm going to say easily and I don't really mean easily but sort of without The need for msba funds. There there's some things that are near term immediate Challenges that we need to tackle and it's a matter of us prioritizing within our budget planning for this for this upcoming year What are the ones that are sort of again near to medium term? That we need to be advocating and and getting and working with the town and getting that budget priority prioritization from a town-wide perspective At that don't require again msba or long-term Capital planning but more again sort of the nearer term things And and outline not just what those things are but what the impact is going to be for our staff and faculty and for our for our students Because it I think it's really hard for people to connect these these kinds of things to Doors needing shaving right that gets very abstract very quickly And I think sort of putting together the list and then describing here's a chunk of things that we can work on immediately within our current budget Here's things where we need More budget to do those and here's the impact if we do these six things This is what that's going to look like and then there's the whole other aspect of waiting Which again building on what you just said miss or don't use is We can't wait for these things we have to be planning and and outlining what our plan is to do that Knowing that it's quite possible. Hopefully likely that we are going to have something You know 10 years down the road in a new building But what is our plan and how are we going to to make that happen until we get there? So I agree with a lot of what's already been said. Um, I think I think my objective analysis in terms of like How do we officially move forward is is to help organize like these sort of things we're looking at and I sort of break it into you know, how much of this is because of under staffing How much of this is because of deferred maintenance that we can do and how much of it is because of just aspects of these Really old buildings that we can't do anything more about Right. I think I think trying to organize in that fashion at first will help particularly the staffing issue We heard from staff that they feel like there is under staffing of custodial services I don't know enough to say whether that's true or not. We should definitely answer that question Sooner rather than later that seems like something really achievable that the school could do itself In terms of the deferred maintenance, it sounds like we need expert facilities analysis on what that is I remember a year and a half ago and during our first couple meetings after the the building project didn't pass We talked a little bit about this and okay now. We know that A new building isn't coming soon. You know, what what do we need to do in the interim? So I think Analyzing that question is what is what needs to happen? I think I think we really need to set a very ambitious goal about having that Done and ready to go for this year's joint capital planning cycle with the town. It's a pretty tall order You know given how long it takes to get experts and contracts and analysis, but We should see absolutely how far we can get you know, we've I Echo and agree with the sentiments expressed that it's it's this can't be the new normal But it's it's and I don't know the technical definition of a crisis But if we're not there then it sounds like based on what we heard tonight where it's close And you know, so so we need to not be doing this in terms of let's do a study and then let's plan and then You know, we need to take action In a in a phased approach So and I feel pretty strongly that that needs to be part of the communication that the schools have With the town in terms of our our joint capital planning It may be that for a year or a number of years the school Takes a bigger chunk of the capital pie than is normal It may be that the budget itself takes a bigger chunk in order to address these issues But I think I think we need to make that case Um and and make it as as quickly as we can um You know the other thing I wanted to mention and this is hard for me to express so I'll just do the best I can It's it's it's really hard to hear this with and not be thinking about the building project The the failed building project from a year and a half ago Um that I was a big supporter of um And it was a really weird thing for me to be elected on the very day that it failed So I had this odd experience of being very supportive of it and um And immediately flipping into okay, what do we do in the future and just having absolutely no sort of morning time, right? um And so I I feel like if if we're going to as a town Come together on at least this point on at least this point that that this condition is not acceptable And that we need to that spending the money jointly as a town is is the correct and right thing to do That we need to let go of any residence with that past project like because I I can Feel it as as we're talking about all these problems, you know the the resistance Of of of it resonating and saying see I told you so we should have passed that building project and And I would just like all of branch reach out, you know to the to the people I've talked with in the past who have been strong opposers of the building project and and just say like this This is not about that like we we can talk about the design of a project when we when we get there Um, but you know, we let's that that's a side this this is right in front of us This is about a capital investment that we need to Collectively make the case to the town To that that needs to be supported now So I don't know if I expressed that well, but I wanted to be able to address the Dr. Morrison Well, can we do Dr. Morris carry and then mr. Nakajima. Is that okay? Okay So I want to clarify, you know because a couple people have made note of it Which was fine what I described the new normal I didn't mean the normal into the future No, I just want to say it for everyone here. I don't I didn't take it your comment that way But I just want to explain that Is that the number of accumulating issues That all are interrelated Is concerning and that's a different I should have stated that was inarticulately stated But I just want to make sure I'm being really clear about that that these issues Yes, they're distinct, but they're actually they're they're not distinct enough that there are relationships between You know Some systems fail and then that taxes other systems that have to overcompensate and so that's what I was trying to express Is when you have buildings that are 45 45 to 50 years old weren't perhaps the finest construction when they were built Were built with issues that teachers were reporting day one of wildwood in 1970 because I knew someone who did that And he expressed that and it weren't just about the open classrooms. It was broader than that That's the the conundrum So I just wanted to be really clear on that point because I wish I had said it differently and I want to be clear on what I was attempting to say And I think you know, I like a lot of the feedback that I'm getting from the committee and I think the challenge will be how to do investigate all that Work And in a more independent manner perhaps that if we're really you know, what I hear from mr. Demling I'm just not picking on you but your last comment about prioritizing the schools over other capital projects That's easy to say in the school committee meeting and that's not I'm not suggesting that as a negative But it's perhaps harder when you get to jcpc or other needs because if they were at a library board of trustees meeting I could imagine a similar concern expressed about the library if we're at another meeting I could imagine a similar concern expressed about the roads and by no means am I suggesting that I don't want to prioritize the schools but I do think If the if the conversation with the town is to express how dire the schools aren't to develop a plan for how to remedy that That's a different capital request process than what we've used in the past Which has been facilities director doing really different facilities director doing really articulate jobs Understanding issues because we're talking about systems issues at this point which are which are broader So I think when we come to the financing issue, I don't I don't know enough to give a clear answer But I think we'd have to have a conversation about the funds it would take to Have work done to then present a report that would justify the expenses that we're all talking about I don't think it's I don't think it's the same process we've used in the past so so I yeah, I I was motivated to run for school committee because In large part I care so much about the infrastructure and wasn't disappointed Also with the failure of the building project, but I think you raise a really good point that we need to move beyond that and start thinking you know towards the future and You know one of the things but I think we also need to learn from why that potentially failed Um, you know what what were some of the causes of that and one of the things I think is that I don't think everybody in the town is aware Of what we just talked about in this room. I think everybody, you know with kids in these schools You know and even then you know like my my son's first grade teacher was among the people who just spoke And I have to admit I you know Did not get any you know information about the conditions that she thought were unacceptable for our kids And so I want to say thank you to everybody who spoke out, but I think we we need to Find a way especially given the competing capital Projects in this town to get this message out loudly and clearly Well at the same time and this is where I think it's difficult is to emphasize that you know These are not I love our school. I'm a graduate of the the schools I use and my kids here and I you know could choose to go out there But I but I love Amherst and I don't want to put this All of these negatives to say that you know, we're not giving our kids a great education But it just does seem like the people who work there and the people who go to school there deserve a lot better So how can we get there in a shorter period as time is possible in a town like Amherst? Where things, you know, often don't move as fast as we like so I would second the like let's do whatever we can to find a way to get the staff The support they need if that supplies or if that's more people, I don't know We hopefully could do that in the shorter term But how and then maybe Using our column or I don't know what other platforms we have But I think we need to get this message out there because I don't think you know as a parent at wildlife An Allison member of the school committee. I was taken aback by some of the Information we got today and I think it's also nobody's raised this yet, but I mean last time we got the report on the air quality My sense was yes, we've got five years and we don't know how long we can You know band you know bandage this and keep it together But I also got the sense that things are weren't actually that bad when these tests were run It seems like something changed dramatically Over the summer potentially because of the conditions you're talking about with the buildings being closed But or something like about the the way those reports were run. I mean they caused me to question You know the information we got on the Fort River in the wild It's it's it's the qualitative data. We're getting from people today is Also valid and I think it is then It calls into question in my mind what whether or not The conditions that were measured in those reports We're typical or or not. I don't I don't um, so I'm rambling a bit but um So anyways, I I just I I think my my final point is that We really just need to find a way to make this case and and do it in a way that doesn't You know take away from all of the positive things that are happening in our schools in terms of the amazing teachers and the amazing students and staff so But I'm feeling this feels like a wake-up call to me and um, I'd like to Not lose whatever momentum we have to try to start getting things moving in a way that that we should Thank you So a couple things. I mean one I I think that if the school committee has to ask for uh, an integrated capital plan around maintaining These schools in a state of as good a repair as we can I guess and certainly a sufficient one to be able to meet The needs of the of the academic and work environment So whether that's a new approach for jcpc or not I don't know how we do our work and how we do our work with All of you and the staff and everyone else if we don't have that information, right? And so we just simply need to have that And I recognize then the game. I don't want to call it a game. It's not the way we're phrasing it The challenge ends up being the negotiation over how fast and well you can fund things But at least we know what we need to do. We know what we're looking at in terms of our A multi-year plan That's one thing Uh, the next thing to me would be and I'm echoing something that has been said before and by mitzvitzer just immediately is I think I would feel most comfortable. I'll put it this way because I want to be respectful Because one of the things that everyone said in the audience was they love the administration And they love the staff and they love the maintenance staff. So I'm not trying to be critical Uh of anyone But we need a more immediate response like over the next next meeting the next two meetings Of what's the plan to get these buildings more clean on a regular basis and do we need an in-year Budget request or budget alteration to do that or bring or what do we need to do? What's the scope of it? But we need like an immediate response Because regardless of when the doors are replaced or filed down or the hell is to go on I mean if we have people coming in with dead mice and My mouse feces on the carpets. It's got to be cleaned, right? I mean we that's not acceptable And so we need to understand how to respond to that and we need to respond to that Like immediately really I mean I'd rather I'd be more comfortable if you came back to us and said You found a way to do it and you're requesting the alteration And it's already being you know what I mean like I'd be more happier if you said I'm already implementing it but by the way Cover my rear end And improve this shift of a line at him Right like because I you know, I don't even want it to go on a month Right, but the bottom line is whenever that needs to happen that happens. It needs to meet to me I'd love to know whether the committee agrees, but I think that needs to happen as soon as possible And then the only way we wouldn't want to try to proceed with that is if it really did cost like some godly amount of money, right? Um Actually, I'm gonna leave I'm gonna leave it at that because I think the third point I would agree with what was said before I I think I think the this committee should be thinking actively with you and others Uh and possibly with the town manager and others around what does the future look like over the next few years if we agree that it's not um If there's a general sentiment that it's not acceptable to maintain wildwood and Fort river And triage this indefinitely regardless of what the long-term prospects for replacing the buildings are on the sequencing MSBA funding and all that kind of stuff Um, how do we get to a better place in six seven in seven years, right? What does that mean? And let's have a conversation with the town about what it means and then let's work to get consensus I'm going to say that word again consensus in the town about what that future looks like So that we can get it done. We can get it funded and we can get better facilities in the next seven years I'm saying seven only because I think that might line up with an msba Um, and let's figure that out But let's let's but I think I think the committee needs to lean in on that As a as a point along with this new capital plan and this immediate response to get into place cleaner And I would I would second that I think and I've spoken with with you, dr. Morris You know, it's really about uh, what can we do to support you and your staff? To make sure that this happens that this rises to a level of urgency that we feel that it requires Um, and that I know you believe And so whatever it is that we need to do let's let's just do it right We need to you know to get this moving as quickly as we possibly can You know, we need a plan for action for maintenance. We need to understand what's involved, you know at a budget level For all the different pieces that we've talked about and and I think it's you know, it's a great opportunity for us to have this conversation now Um, you know, it feels for for various reasons. We're kind of getting out of an emergency Sort of an you know environment where we were over the summer given the high temperatures and all of that But it still means we it still is urgent and it still needs to be taken care of soon So maybe we can do that in the next, you know, a couple of meetings And help establish a budget process moving forward that for those longer range plans, you know If it requires adding more money for you know, uh for staff, you know, if it requires adding more money for capital, you know, improvement Projects, you know, what would that look like, right? So we want to be able to support you and your staff in doing that Yeah, oh, i'm sorry. Mr. Demling. I understand. Just a couple brief follow-up. So plus one in Ms. Spitzer's comment about the apparent disconnect between the quantitative air quality report that we received and the continued qualitative Evidence that we continue to hear that there's there's something that doesn't Add up between it's with the term mold Right and if you just read the air quality report molds not an issue If you listen to the comments, mold is definitely an issue. So so what's the story, right? And And I don't know enough about the the science in order to say what what is true or not, but but something is is a missed there and um I'm glad that we're a year and a half removed from the building project because it no longer It doesn't matter. There's no building project that we're going to vote on anytime soon So, you know, we can feel free to say there is a mold problem Even if you, you know previously opposed the project Feel free to say there isn't even if you previously supported that doesn't make any difference So hopefully that's completely unbounded and we can actually figure that out because it seems to me kind of a We heard it a lot in the comments and I understand what you're saying about You know jcpc you can't just walk in and say, ah, it's a crisis fund anything you want um And and I do think there is something about the long-term relationship The schools have built up with the town that we've you know in almost every circumstance stayed within our guidance We've been very respectful about the capital planning and and working together and as a result When it's been needed the town has has come to our aid and given us an increased budget in times when we needed and So, you know that being said extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary actions and Again, if this isn't an extraordinary circumstance, it's in the ballpark So we should do what we can to be as prepared as possible to say We can reasonably say that this is what we need In this capital year, right? So while we're working on those short-term items that you know mentioned by other members, you know, we can we can have something that um That we can sink our teeth into and and fun for the next next year So I just want to appreciate the level support that the committee's offered in terms of taking next steps I think it's a false dichotomy But but it's It's worth mentioning that there's custodial issues and there's maintenance issues And there's a relationship between those and that's why I say it's a false dichotomy, but but they're they're related but not the same thing um And to the last point, um I mean, I think I understand where you're coming from mr. Demling. Um, I just um What I don't want to do is put anyone in facilities up in front of town to try to describe Some of the issues that really need more professional expertise of how you'd handle because there's such large systems issue It's one thing of the roof We're fine doing that, right? But this is not we do have ruse issues right as you heard and we have ongoing issues Roof issues at fort river, which you've seen along their report which priced out what it would take to fix it Um, but I do think a more comprehensive plan which I hear the committee talking about which I agree with is not something that I think We necessarily can do fully internally and we may need some additional support of how to do how to approach that task um, so it's not a disagreement with That the schools are in, you know, pretty close to a crisis place I'm fully in agreement with all the people here who spoke and committee members. It's actually how do we Show that to miss pitzer's point to a larger community And how do we do that in a way that shows kind of I like the language of short-term mid-term and long-term? um aspects and So I agree with that So what I can definitely do is come back at the next meeting with just some more thoughts about what's happened in the Immediate level as well as you know some thoughts about on the the larger capital level of what what that would mean What would it mean to bring in somebody to help us think through? The implications of the short medium and long term on the maintenance end because there's a relationship And I'll just be very honest and it's probably not a popular thing for me to say But if you look at a per square foot basis And custodians that's one way to analyze things another way is what are this? How easy or clean how hard is it to clean a per square foot? Depending on where the square foot are Or I think it's the right Been working for a while today. So it's a late night And so I think when we look at square foot because that's our typical the typical measure that people look is How many custodians per square foot of a building and we do that both across our buildings as well as some You know general standards And I think that what that doesn't take into account is that some buildings are easier to clean than other buildings You know, and I think that's the piece we have to add to our calculus that Is not typically used but I think in this situation Is certainly warranted because the maintenance issues are certainly bleeding over into what the custodians are having to handle Not that they're doing maintenance things, but because the maintenance issues are so problematic It actually affects the ongoing custodial work in the building So that we will certainly come back in the next meeting with some thoughts More clear thoughts on that as well as what it would look like plan forward to To assess our current conditions in a much deeper way Not looking at new buildings or renovated buildings. I want to be really clear on that I'm not looking for a feasibility study right. There's an ongoing one. There was one in the past But it's much more about assuming not assuming any changes in terms of renovation or rebuilding What are the approaches that would change the working conditions and environment for our students and staff? So I think um, it looks like the the committee is in full agreement We'll bring this back on the next agenda and we'll continue bringing it back Until we've addressed all the the different issues that we've talked about And then I think you know, we'll look to you and dr. Morris to You know help us understand where the different places are that connect up with jcpc in the town So that we can do what we need to do to to get this up to level of Okay Again, thank you to all of you who came tonight. We really appreciate it. And um, and I was going to ask for a five minute Resets So can I get a motion? Okay, second Okay, um, so Calling meeting of the amherst school committee back to order at 841 And we'll move on to the next item on the agenda which we sort of hinted at in the last Item and that is budget priorities and superintendent goals discussion So there is a sheet in your packets Everyone has seen take a look at And as a reminder this came from the last conversation that we had during our meeting in august Where we initiated a conversation about how we can You know Call to attention for the committee and for for the superintendent Some of the issues that we've been talking about and working on During the past few months from last academic year into this one and hopefully provide some continuity, right? And the point of You know focus for us or several points of focus for us and so just as a reminder I'm going to review the the major bullet points first. Dr. Morris and I sat down went through some of these kind of Pulled them out a little bit upon recommendations from other committee members and others And hopefully came up with something that kind of starts getting us in a place where We feel more comfortable, but the first item is the meeting district's equity mission and diverse learners needs And that includes things like a climate survey, but also professional development across the district continuous curriculum improvement Which includes, you know exploration of improved curriculum offerings. We've been talking about Fort River and dual language program, but also looking at Wildwood and core farm and other Ways that we might be improving in those curricula Implementing a qualitative data collection protocol The third bullet point is building an enrollment working group recommendations So it's a carryover from the enrollment working group that did that excellent work last spring And involves things like preschool options enrollment And dual language programming and then finally and again the topic that we were just talking about which is capital improvements Across the district and highlighting and bringing those up to Level of priority for us both through our budget planning process But also for the superintendent and for the committee as we think through the things that we want to accomplish in this year Um, so dr. Morrison. I don't know if there's anything else that you want to add about this These bullet points in this process Yeah, I mean I think very briefly. I think the only thing I'll add to it the chair said Is that you know, it was trying to find the right buckets of work that kind of I appreciate the chair's point of view that we want to align our budget priorities and the superintendent goals to be linked instead of kind of independent objects that may or may not have a direct relationship and so And also to think about what agenda items do we have in future agendas for amor school community meetings? So as goals are developed and executed it feels like a natural flow to be having regular updates on these items So it's not waiting till an artifact document gets produced sometime in The spring but that the school committee is kept oppressed that we're having active conversations throughout the year on these topics so, um any I don't know if the committee has had a chance to reflect on These things that we started talking about at the last meeting If what we've put together here Brings up any additional questions or thoughts This is definitely the time to bring them up Ms. McDowell um, we and I think we talked about this maybe not at the last meeting, but maybe just offline and one thing I think these are the right buckets. I think one thing that that sort of spreads across all four of the buckets is and as part of the implementation plan and that it's not spelled out explicitly and I think it should be is Communication it's a communication bringing we've talked already multiple times about bringing the broader community along and not just You know, you know the first sort of order of business is the the school community But then also so many of these things we need to bring the broader community along and how are we going to address that and I don't see it as a fifth bucket necessarily, but maybe as something that's a thread that sort of is Part of each one of these buckets of things is sort of the the two prong Plan for bringing the school community along as well as the broader community because so many of these the success is going to be dependent on that town-wide Engagement and support That's all I had. Thank you Any other thoughts or Mr. Dunlap? Um, so first couple low-level thoughts um I'd be curious as to The reason for the inclusion of improving landscaping and physical exteriors of buildings not that I don't support that but it's um It's interesting to me that it it's on a top priority kind of goals list. Um, so if you can maybe speak to that, um Ensuring all students have access to technological logically rich classrooms that reflect 21st century learning um So this is kind of related to um something I've wanted to talk about for a little while um, and I thought it had mostly a relationship to um to maybe health Class and I'm not sure exactly where it fits, but um, like if I was coming up with a more like a specific, you know goal um the the impact of of technology and in particularly um attention demanding and distracting sources um from all pervasive internet um devices Is a particularly concerning development to me for um a number of reasons it really relates to how uh attention is developed and and how we develop and maintain our ability to focus um Which is obviously a core skill for students to to learn and this is the first time in which um human beings are growing up with this is the default You know we as adults. I'm sure we struggle with you know putting our cell phones down and staying away from Facebook and all these other things that are specifically engineered to capture your specific attention and to hold it as long as possible and um If I'm if I'm sort of thinking 20 30 years ahead about gee what what something I would love A school committee to have been really progressive and forward about it's it's seeing this this effect of of uh Of what technology is having on our attention and being able to empower students with The right behaviors and skills to be able to manage that effectively and not having The technology manage you um because that really is the core essence of the problem is that You know you have this attention and are you in control of it? Or is the technology itself in control of it? And it's it I see I see this concern bubbling up across all age groups and different aspects of society and so um I don't want to get anti technology, but um Uh something as as generic as just promoting technology in 21st century. You know, I mean, yeah, I get that let's have Chromebooks and all that but um To me the more urgent need is is this uh, um, you know empowerment of how you manage technology Anyway, that's a very low level detail, but it was a low level item And then the other sort of thread that isn't called out here But we've talked about it before is just preserving and protecting the budget because you know this A whole house of cards falls over if your budget goes away. Um relates to charter expansion later on in the agenda So I don't know if that has to be called out as a specific item But it's it's something that's always on my mind sure I Says it's not really in here. I'd also just say I actually think the question of trying to understand the impact on of technology On people but particularly in this case children although might be relevant for staff too actually for the for the learning environment Is an absolutely fascinating question I've been hearing for years that the introduction of various technologies have have impacted Intention I mean some ways There's some learning skills that are picked up that are new that are created by the interactivity An activity of devices that may may be positive for all I know But there are others around attention span and concentration that appear to be negatively impacted by technology And so I know this is off topic because it's not really actually able to get one of the goals But it'd be fascinating to see whether whether our district has or could in fact even look to try to engage Foundations experts You know research scientists and trying to figure out how do how could we be a positive environment around learning what those best practices would be And how they impact classroom because in the classroom and also the learning environment I think it's actually a fascinating it's actually a fascinating question and an important one. Um Having said that back on to the agenda Um Number one, I think is great Having I think we having continuity a number of these things actually it's kind of like the budget point that mr. Delming just made having continuity around goals, and I know mr. Dennis said the same thing too is really really important So the first one around equity mission. I think is really important I think calling out the enrollment working group recommendations continuity is also important For the capital acts improvements In my mind Uh, we'll be voting tonight. Are you taking feedback? Just feedback these aren't okay, so yeah these can I maybe take a step back because I think your question I don't mean interrupt, but I think your question Highlighted or highlight the fact I didn't do a good job explaining Okay, I think I understand now though. Okay Sounds good. Well, I just want to make sure the committee members, you know You know say whatever you want me to say. I mean I can pause. Yeah, so mr. Don't just sort of draft I mean just I think it's good to be transparent We're so donors were to draft effort feedback as priorities and I would take the feedback I got tonight to then draft goals that were aligned to the rubric and standards and all that awesome So anyway, so for example on the last one on capital improvements across district I would substitute the conversation we just had for this Because I mean even just what mr. Demling said around why you talking about landscaping I honestly could care less if your goal calls out landscaping What I would actually what's more important for me Is what are we trying to do on our capital plan if they're short medium long-term things? What is that are we doing of a commitment to try to do that this year? Are you going to be an educational leader in doing that? Put that into words and then I'm assuming that in the same way that you're talking about Working with the town and figuring out how this conversation develops with town staff and leadership I do the same thing internally and so I'm sure that people who get answers or don't think this question around Why landscaping and appearance is really important and you'll talk to them and you'll include it So that'd be great. So I think so in this one I would just read I mean in my view my feedback could be rewrite it to reflect the conversation we just had And some of the urgency around that I don't really understand what implement a qualitative data collection protocol to capture the effects Of recent changes to guidelines and policies recommend a plan for adjustment as needed and begin to execute against it um I could infer all sorts of meanings to that but I have no idea what you're talking about So I'll let miss I mean I can answer but if you would like to Uh, I mean this got expanded out a little bit from what I had written initially, right? So I think the the idea was To sort of carry on a conversation that we actually started the regional school committee Which was you know, how do we capture data about what's happening in our schools and and apply that To our process for both superintendent valuation goals But also just what we're doing, you know here in the committee level and in a policymaking level um, and so this was an attempt to try to initially at least Understanding that you know, perhaps at the elementary school level We can't go about collecting survey data from students in particular in the same way that we do For older from older students But we can get qualitative data and we can talk with teachers and we can talk with parents and sort of get a different Uh Sense of what's what's happening in the schools That would then help inform a lot of our our process That was the initial thinking So I would rewrite it to sound more like that No, because I mean it's reasonable obviously I mean it's actually critically important that we figure out how we um develop replicable Not own dually expensive It's just like the sick the golden fleece or whatever. There's a holy grail like no one ever gets this right But the goal of the goal of every social research project science research project is always to have like a replicable low cost data set You can do longitudinally, you know and marginally improve That'd be awesome. And if it tied eventually like it was explicitly tried to receive your goals, that'd be even better So you're gonna work on that Maybe I'll share some of the comments I shared with you that Individually, so I think the other thing I shared with mr. Donas my actually significant caution my only significant caution about what you drafted. I offered feedback is that um This is a really expensive budget priority and superintendent goals list And I'm gonna be very honest with the same I was with mr. Donas I like all many of these things in here. I believe in them and I think what I'm looking for you not in a yes No Binary answer is that if I'm gonna draft goals based on these that that's going to be significant amount of work for the committee To be advocating for funding to do these things, right? So I could I can't quantify each one of these four kind of bucket areas in specific dollars and set at the moment But a lot of them have significant financial implications and so what I don't want to do is I don't want to set up the committee By working on these goals drafting these things get to budget season and then have the committee Sort of caught between a rock and a hard place You're like well, we wanted to do these things, but could you do them a little less expensive, right? Or maybe that's okay, but but that was my caution that I shared with the chair is um I think these are the right things. I think that the right things to do. I think the right thing for students There's no There's not a lot of disagreement from where I sit in terms of what needs to happen and what's on this page And and I get the feedback I've heard and I'm taking notes on that But this is not an inexpensive list of things to be working on and doing and so I share that with mr Donas and I was shared in public with the committee Because I don't want I don't want it to be a setup for you all, you know I'm not so worried about me, but I'm particularly worried. I don't want to be a setup For the committee to say yes, we you know, I write goals based on these they get endorsed and then I come back on this budget season And you know, it creates some cognitive dissonance between the school committee and the right and all that and and that was the concern I expressed or the primary concern I expressed. I hope it's okay. They expressed it here. But yeah Well, yeah, just to clarify because I think when you and I spoke You're usually have concerns about the capital improvements in particular being perhaps more expensive than some because the other things are Actually things that we've talked about so there's not really very many surprises and maybe you feel a little differently now Um, and and I agreed. I said, you know, I think that yes the the capital improvements could even especially the conversation that we just had tonight Um, if we're going to go down that road that you know, there will be budget implications and some of them could be fairly expensive Um, the other one that stands out is the preschool. Yeah, I'm sorry just to be and I apologize if I didn't share that when we spoke prior Yeah, well, yeah, I guess we had talked about something different that we talked about advocating for other solutions Right, right. Absolutely. Um, but just that has the potential of someone paying for Something right and so whether that's school committee or advocacy on that front I just wanted to make sure that there was no illusions that Do I believe in preschool options? Absolutely. Do I believe in the capital Improvements absolutely need to happen. Absolutely. But but I also just I want to be explicit on the front end that Some of these goals may end up with price tags that are challenging and then we have to manage through it But I didn't want you to I didn't want to get to January and presenting here's here's my sense of where we can go on capital and then lead to some disagreements or Where did this come from from the committee and me and I want to all be working on the same page on that front I'm sorry to follow up as so the the first bullet under continuous curriculum improvement Direct exploration of improved curriculum offers including specialized mining instruction Is that a another way of phrasing? Hey everybody remember how we talked about doing dual language at Fort river and something clever at crocker and wildwood This is the something clever at crocker and wildwood. Is that what I'm using simple language. I apologize But I mean people have been to our meetings and we've talked about yes encouraging wildwood. I mean is that it? Yes Okay, so um my comment would be so my comment would be first off by the way I would reorganize these things to be more explicit about what they are. I mean if that's if that's supporting The development of specialized curriculum or programming Whatever it is whatever phrase you'd use at wildwood and crocker. I would just say that as opposed to using language It's a euphemism for that The second thing I'd say is don't be scared of multi-year goals So if something's expensive and it seems hard to do In year one Then you could accomplish year one of your superintendent goals by at least getting us along the path Even if it's a multi-year path if it's the right journey and it's the right destination Then the fact that it takes more than one fiscal year So that's being realistic. We got to get there. We're working on getting there. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you These microphones by the way are picking up like crazy It's like your booming sort of voice of god stuff here. I'm gonna care for really Oh to us then that's weird to us. It's yeah the feedback is so weird So, um, so what do we what do we think we're looking for here in terms of process schedule? I'm always thinking about okay What's the final date that we are voting here are your goals like what are we marching towards? I think that would help focus our I think we could wander and have interesting discussions about goals for a long time until we actually have to get down to Picking them. So if we sort of had I'd ask the question before what's the latest we want to approve these to So that you know it's fair to both School committee superintendent You know if we have an updated answer Yeah, so I thought you know I'd propose I'd bring specific goals drawn from this Conversation as well as a document at the next meeting on the 9th and perhaps approve on the 16th That's what I was thinking I'm open to other feedback I guess I'm kind of going back to this issue. I feel like there are two constraints one is Can we afford to do these and are we setting realistic goals? But the other would be kind of like When you initially look at this does this seem like A reasonable amount of things to do in a year. I guess getting some feedback about what is It would be good to have reasonable Expectations both in terms of budget and also like there are all sorts of other constraints So I guess getting an initial read on should we be thinking about what are laying this down or should we be thinking about adding to it because Certainly, I think we could all do both of those. Yeah I mean I'll share my thoughts which is This feels different than the last couple years and I'm not talking interim versus permanent So what feels a little different and not in a bad way is these goals with exception perhaps of the first one Pretty uniquely specific to the Amherst elementary district, right? So if you think about enrollment working group recommendations capital improvement, yes We could talk about that in secondary. We will actually but it's a different conversation. Thankfully It's a different conversation. I'm not saying things are perfect at the middle school and high school But it's a different conversation Um, and so I appreciate the question it came up in Pelham to just understanding that, you know You have 43 of a superintendent working on these goals And so I do have that concern as well. I mean, I think when there are goals there are goals with a more of a through line Precated 12 and three districts that Matters, you know, and I think the equity mission and diverse learners needs not that we won't look specifically at elementary level But it is To a certain extent in every one goal The other three feel Mr. Mungan is correct to me. It's 44 of a superintendent. I apologize Speaking of technology use distracting you And so I do have a little bit of caution and as I was going to draft the goals I was going to draft it with that in mind to be very candid, you know And Pelham this same item came up and their percentage is not 44 And you know, I don't want to go back into the realization conversation but there is a reality that These goals are not going to be shared with Pelham and they're not going to be shared with the region for the most part and I don't mean to be I mean, I work really hard all those things and there's some finite limit of what can be done well And so my concern always is quality versus quantity, you know, and I see the same thing with my the staff I supervise which is And I'm not suggesting you need to follow my lead. I wouldn't be clear on that But I'd rather a fewer goals that are more important and done well than more goals Even if they're things that I like like there's lots of things that all employees do that are not listed on their goals document So I think the Excuse, you know, Mr. Nakajima use it slightly in a different way, but I don't mean simple in terms of simple in terms of the content but clear understandable goals that are actionable that are Understandable to all that are easy to understand metrics of how you do assess them You know, that would be my preference would be to take some of these pieces and I want about landscaping But that just becomes like a low-hanging fruit example of something that wouldn't necessarily be in my goal, right? Do we have some areas we need to address? Absolutely with that and actually has implications of Facilities of some of our landscaping because it affects. I don't want to get into the weeds We talked about facilities. I think enough tonight Um of that and a bad pun that was unintentional, but um It's like the third time today. I've had horrible unintentional puns. So Mr. Magano caught one earlier. I think so So I think I want to try to draft something That's why I'm not asking for the committee to vote at the next meeting And I don't mean to be flip about the 44 but that is a reality And you know to be frank, we've also reduced its central office. So we have less people doing The work and and that's a reality and we'll manage it and this work needs to get done None of none of my commentary is Uh a critique of that some of this work needs to get done It's just how do we do it effectively and how do we do it? Well, because I don't want to do any of these things Less than well because they're they're that important. So how do we frame them? And just to you know, I think to add to that This was meant to be a dialogue, right? Um among the committee and with the superintendent And this is not all supposed to be superintendent goals, right? There's also supposed to be budget priorities. And so, you know, I think it's it is I think we're looking to dr. Morris to help advise on what feels more like a, you know An actual goal to evaluate him on in the upcoming year or multiple years Um, but also where should we be thinking in terms of our budget? You know priorities, right and some of this a lot of this actually is stuff that we've already been talking about So this should most of the the things on this paper should not be a surprise Um, and I just want to mention the uh because mr. Demling brought up the landscaping piece That came from a conversation that we were having around infrastructure And just the facilities but just general maintenance around our buildings And you know, you do walk-throughs or walk-arounds, you know, you see a lot of Problems there, right? And so it's a way of articulating, you know, all the exterior of the building Which is just as important as the interior if for a lot of people, especially when first impressions matter a lot You're coming into these, you know buildings So it's not to say that we want to spend thousands of dollars Redoing the exterior of these buildings when again, we have so many pressing problems in the interior of the buildings uh health related and others but it is, you know, not to lose sight of Some of these other things as well that you know, that could be if we have room for it It'd be great to to figure out how to deal with it. Can I give a tangible response to support your assertion? So one of the positive things you heard a lot of negative things about schools, you know tonight in terms of facilities And I want to acknowledge that one of the positive things that we recognize is when there was overgrowth near where the vents were It was actually then backing into the vents and contributing to negative air quality And we've solved that problem to a certain, you know, to a large extent and that is a really positive thing And I'm not saying things are perfect now by any stretch of the imagination, but there is an interplay between landscaping and The building that's not some of its aesthetics, but there's there's some functional aspects of it as well So I just want to make sure you feel supported there I mean the level of Not the harp on this, but I think the level of the goals I'm looking for also Um, that's why it's what that I'm doubly landscaping the physical exterior buildings is actually very important like technology and other things to me though It's the wrong level of the goal to focus on that as opposed to Hey at the end of the year Do we actually have a multi-year capital plan that deals with long term median term and short term things? Do we feel like we effectively responded to immediate Challenges or having a building conditions Like to me that that you could boil that into like two sentences and make it somewhat actionable and My god, that'd be incredibly important and I'm sure you'll deal with some landscaping issues where they're relevant in there And we'll talk about them when we need to but but they mean that's the level that's the level of the goal absolutely So I'm I'm I reckon it um, so what I'm hearing you Ask for and and I don't know if it's So I'm put the question back to you is um Help in prioritizing these so yes, it's budget prioritization But what I'm hearing is also it's also your goals. What are the priorities for your goals? um Is That what we plan to talk about at the the next time when you bring sort of your revised Goals back or is that what we want to try and tackle tonight? I guess is the question So my process requests given a whole bunch of variables is if people in the next week Have thoughts on that question. Do you either give me a buzz shoot me an email? and talk through that because I think That'd be really helpful for me to know Before I start drafting. I mean, I think I'd a sense from the conversation certainly But I think if people have specific thoughts, I'm really open to hearing to hearing them individually and sometimes people are more comfortable sharing that and Not on camera and sometimes people feel comfortable doing that So people should feel free to get in touch with me in any way that makes sense of them to share You know if you had to pick, you know, what's the the thing that you feel passionate about that? You might feel like might get lost in the shuffle here or might not get lost But you just want to re-emphasize that point. I'm very open to that kind of feedback and be very helpful. Okay Okay. Thank you very much All right, uh moving us along to the next item. So school committee forum planning Which we've been uh touching on here and there um So dr. Morris, do you want to take us off on this? Yeah, and I think I'll be brief to say that we've been to two preschools already and people are highly interested in You know being able to talk through as more details are developed And I'm not sure all of our preschool families that I've spoken to actually I know all of our preschool families Wouldn't necessarily see a school committee meeting with the presentation as being the right opportunity For them and that's not a critique of our meetings or your meetings or you know, it's just It's it's more formalized. They're not looking for the presentation. You'll all receive next time in the academic program They're looking for more more nuts and bolts and asking questions I did to mr. Demling's point earlier. You'll be pleased to know We may actually include some regionalization talks and people said what's regionalization So I I'm trying to find small areas to to maybe emphasize that there's other things going on of them Do a language programming in our schools? But I do think when we get to october particularly on the academic program side of things I think there'll be a lot of interest in that And I do think having some opportunities for people to weigh in and offer feedback not that it would be Impossible afterwards, but I think just it makes more sense to Is what's been proposed what feedback do people have and and have that process play out a bit Going to the preschools has been great And we now have a long list of email addresses and phone calls where people said when you do another forum Here's how to get in touch with me. I'm highly interested So I think figuring out a way to do that and you know loosely talked about whether We can include some regionalization information in there as well so that we're not running multiple forums on multiple topics You know, maybe not every day's for both you can't predict that but um, I'm open to that idea because I'm imagining Less presenting and more question and answer and conversation As opposed to our school committee, which would be much more presentation mode and that seems to work well so far for the outreach thoughts comments from the committee so the The preschool parent and it makes perfect sense the way you have identified the preschools to date and I'm glad that we're going out and reaching them But I think there are a lot of people who use like myself, you know family-based daycares and they're much smaller and I guess they'd be welcome to attend the PGO meeting but that's occurring at the same time that you'd be dropping off your preschool So I'm just wondering given that preschool families are the most Likely folks to have opinions and want to get feedback on this. Are we gonna are there any other? Forms planned or ways of thinking about how we can reach out to those other preschool families who may not Yeah Yeah, so what we found last year was that um has Getting old. I guess it sounds strange to say the um The best way the because we asked people how they found out about the meetings We had last spring on this topic and facebook advertising and I'm not like pro facebook advertising it actually To be fully disclosure. I mean you can track who you're advertising to by age and all that and I'm sure that's really effective It feels very big brother to me and I feel really uncomfortable about it and Many families um linguistically diverse families because we can target that as well responded. I saw it on facebook And so I think if we do have forums making sure we're not just advertising through traditional sources But last year's feedback was that we actually did some and I'm not going to mention them because I don't want to Speak negatively of the other ways we did it, but that was by far the most effective way More than ways that I would have thought would have been better So I think you know newsletters posters all those things, but actually Really investing a bit of a bit of money into facebook advertising to gather more of those families What's to do the email list for preschools and they seem to be willing to work with us? Um, I think we don't have a list of all the home-based preschool Centers, um, so we'll have to work with you know, perhaps others to develop that list a little more fully Um, I mean, I just think there are all these Like I'm on a Amherst mom's list for kids around my son's age Sex, but there are lots of moms on it who have younger children Especially because they have siblings who are younger and then also thinking like I would be happy to Share information with the lists of both the preschools, but the family-based ones So I mean if there's any way we can help and Through our social connections or just taking advantage of that I think that would be really useful because I think facebook is great With the copy I said you list sorry to be so negative about it, but it just I know I know lots of people use it and No, but I mean that's the thing Just finding out about these forums, um, you know, I saw the posting of the The preschool ones and I actually had that question of like are these open or not right and it wasn't explicit necessarily on there So, um, I just use I would love to volunteer my services and I'm sure everybody else on this I guess I won't speak for you, but I as a parent of preschoolers Please don't hesitate to forward us any information that we can help get out to our Our communities because I I've been learning about some of them myself as a community member Rather than as a school committee member, but I'd be happy to use my role as a school committee member to get out the word Yeah Sorry, there's one other piece that I mentioned the feedback I've received so far is that it'd be helpful to have one morning meeting and then one Afternoon or early evening meeting not not our typical start times necessarily for school committee, but sort of late afternoon Uh meeting and that's the feedback I've gotten that if we did two duplicated sessions But different families that's going to work a little differently for particularly for families with young children um That was the feedback I received today and the last week One other idea just like at the jones library. There's sing with your baby, you know And I could just imagine that would be a really good time to piggyback on or even just go there and have somebody there giving out information I mean there are these community events that Reliably draw large numbers of your parents would even this weekend like at the amherst Family crafts thing is is there gonna be any I'm not saying It's short it's short notice to do something like that But there are these events that um might be a good place to kind of just Have a presence even if it's just some that even if it's one of us, you know Yeah, be there and be like happy to answer your question I don't know if that's a role you want the school committee to do But I feel like we've Been through this process with you and maybe we shouldn't be sharing information about it in this way But if there's brochures, we can just hand out or just have a presence there. I'd be happy to I'd be very open to sharing the work I mean, I think to my point earlier, right There's five or six of us doing this between multiple preschools and multiple sites and the more people who can share it out And at this point, you know, again when I was describing the format earlier It's because we're a certain way along the path and there's still lots of opportunities for people to share So it is much more conversational getting feedback It's not that we're we don't have any idea what we're talking about But I think, you know, I'd like to think about the forums happening after the ninth when we are very much more public about Here's what the academic I mean, I think for the average parent That's the much more than the communication much more for the resources That's the piece that they're going to want to see what does that day actually look like for my child Who would my child's teachers be? What subjects would be divided how right those are the kind of things that the questions I receive now So I was anticipating trying to do those forums After the ninth so that we're We're satisfying those questions a bit more than we can at the moment And getting feedback authentic that's a little different than we can before we present something And I think just to add to that last point um, you know to me, I think there's there's um A distinction that we need to make too with providing information soliciting information soliciting feedback Right and the forums can help play that role because obviously you're having that conversation In real time with families in the community And I think that you know part of the This agenda item was also just to think about A few of the other items that we've been talking about that we want to bring to the community and solicit some of that feedback on right So I think dual language is definitely one of those things that a lot of people are really excited about But we we also have to communicate with a lot of families to let them know that This won't apply to them necessarily right this is going to be you know for you know At least in the beginning and probably for quite some time for much younger children coming in to the school system And so if there is an expectation or a hope that some community members and families are holding on to that Their kids may be able to you know to do this We have to to be able to share with them that that's not going to be a case We also want to share with them, you know again the magnet school idea that we've been talking about You know for wildwood and for crocker farm like what does that look like So that's an opportunity to share information and also get their thinking back on that to see if that makes sense We're not going to hear a lot of those presentations until the spring But at least floating the idea and getting some input you know seems to make a lot of sense at this point in time But then I just want to bring the committee back to the the question that we raised earlier about the regionalization with That you know, this is an opportunity if we were to have imagine a larger forum, you know Among the community and I'm just I'm actually I think it's a question for us to think about Would we want to do something like that where we actually raise Several of these different issues or questions that we're currently grappling with Um and not just you know, I think strictly speaking can provide us with a lot of good information It's also just another touch point with the community, right where they don't necessarily if they're not coming to a meeting They don't get to hear from us. They don't get to see what we're thinking talking about You know a forum offers that more informal kind of opportunity. It's like a you know A town hall, I guess that you'd think about with a lot of Uh, you know elected officials that will hold in their campaigning. We're not campaigning clearly But we we are you know eager to hear from the community on a bunch of different things. So With that, uh, mr. Nakajima and miss mcdonald. So, uh, um, I think I understand better what we're talking about than I did at the beginning. I feel like I missed a meeting or something It was also confused Well, I let's not shoehorn everything into every meeting I think the I think the idea of engaging the public and doing forums Over the course of this coming year is a really good goal for us to have as a committee Um, they're going to be different topics. I think that'll be right For discussion at different points Um, just for example, I don't even know how we didn't I don't know how we would get through this year And survive as committee members if we didn't at some point have a discussion with the public around capital And improvements to the buildings right but we're obviously utterly unprepared. I mean, I don't mean in a negative way We just started talking about needing to do this tonight We know we can't even have that conversation probably until late winter or something like that or whatever It's something like that time frame So that would be a good time to have that discussion around facilities facilities plan And how we're approaching that that's also something where a lot of the work we're doing to be further down the line Um, but obviously we should be doing to a language Next month. I mean, I still think I still think though And this goes to something that Mr. Jones is just saying The the conversations we had previously around how wildwood and crocker were sort of internally thinking through their aspirations Seems to do In terms of where it intersects with the public conversation And I think we need to find different ways of talking about it because I worry especially with the comment they made around We're talking about kindergartners next fall. Maybe in like two sections or something like that That leaves out an awful lot leaves almost all Kids in our district and families in our district And so we've got to have a conversation where even if it's being alluded to discussed previewed We've got to do something even at these early forums to to engage people around the fact that there is More going on than just this So I I love I I personally love the idea of having sort of multi-topic forums um, because I think that There's a lot of people that are a little bit interested in multiple topics But not enough to sort of get out and go out to the high school or the middle school at 7 o'clock on a weeknight to hear about Just one thing or to ask their one question that they have and I think sort of pooling a couple topics together on you know, I'll select the idea of the sort of maybe a quarterly basis That thing rotating topics could be really interesting That can get more people engaged here a little bit about multiple things And might encourage folks to engage more because they're they're not committing and you know a weeknight to just one Thing but they'll hear a little bit about several things that they're really curious and interested in about um, and I do think pairing the regional elementary regionalization is a good one because I I do get the sense that It's it's abstract How is it going to impact me and people aren't really engaging in it and The idea of drawing people into that conversation just on regionalization seems like will have a small group and yet Everybody's going to be a little bit interested in that topic as well So I do like the idea and I for some reason it popped in my head the c-pack event that was here You know having stations right so it could be a true forum Or it could be sort of a round robin station set up and sort of a give and take and people can sort of move around And have conversations or formal presentation in q&a So I think having the multi-topics opens up sort of other creative ways to really engage Personally with that's a community So, um, yeah, I really like that idea that sort of the idea of like having a regularly pulsed opportunity for the community to engage with the school committee Uh on an informal basis and people talk all the time about how it's great that you have public comment But it's really a strained structure. You know, it's not the most Conducive to harmonious back and forth dialogue because there is no back and forth dialogue, right? And I have great conversations with members of the community about school committee topics But that's just because I meet them somewhere or I know them and then we have like an in-depth back and forth So wouldn't it be great if everybody had that opportunity and didn't have to like, you know Have a personal relationship with the school committee member or um, or be so Intensely affected by one issue that you would get the babysitter and move out And and I think also, you know, increasing the visibility of the school committee and not for our own personal education but But we're the interface with with what's going on in the schools and so Whether it's um, you know, I I think it can be it can be done where you say, okay The primary theme of tonight is dual language and you give a short like a five minute Something a react to thing and then um, yeah, and then open it up for q&a or you give two Really short presentations, then you open it up to q&a and have it back and forth. I'm I'm thinking about the um The time when we did do this a year Was a year ago now? Um on the the school building port rivers feasibility study committee and we had forums. Yeah Yeah, and that was interesting because it was still in a fairly tense time After the school building project and so there was there was that extra layer of But even then I I thought people reacted to it Positively it and more of an open-ended flow than obviously a strict agenda has and So yeah, I really like that and i'm climbing this challenge. Dr. Jima said he was confused as well because He started talking about preschool outreach and I didn't know what we're talking about but so Yeah, so maybe we can continue this conversation. Um As I go back and so next week we're talking about public forums and how we engage that and I could certainly imagine Like both things happening, you know, we have something very specific about Utilization and yet we also try and piggyback off of a school committee. Um more open-ended forum Yeah, the only caveat I'd put on it. Sorry. I'm doing a lot of that tonight, but um Is that I think the distinction between some of these items into a language is there's a vote And so one thing I'm hearing in the community is like when is a vote happening and how do I influence a vote and so I get the piece and I get the concern about, you know, we're not talking about wildwood and and crocker farm as much at the moment I think things will shift after a vote happens. Um, but I do think A lot of the resources are being marshaled To do the work that gets Myself as well as you know, hopefully the community and you all Comfortable with moving forward with that and so I think that's the tension point for me Is not that at the exclusion of those schools, but how many things can we fit an agenda? How many things can we present and I know it's I'm pushing a false dichotomy to a certain extent But there is some element of what I'm hearing in the community It's not that people are dissatisfied of wildwood or Crocker farm, but people are like is this going to happen like what I said earlier and I think that's Perhaps the only caution point about combining it is a multi topic is that That's a single topic issue that some people are only going to come because that's the topic because they want to influence Or voice concerns or support or whatever they want to do on something That's a formal vote of the school committee as part of a normal agenda that would occur So to me, this is like a Communications or a rhetoric challenge, right? Um, I just think at the beginning I I don't disagree. I don't disagree about focusing on dual language and maybe regionalization is two more topics, let's say But I don't see any reason Why I mean so the question is if you have a 15 slide deck You can mention the fact we're doing planning with crocker and wildwood on slide 14 right after people are already like Zoned out and basically everything they've learned And then it both looks feels and acts like an afterthought right Um, or at the beginning you can say they're really exciting things happening right at all three of our elementary schools And who knows maybe it'll be a fourth one in your future, but we'll get to that in a few minutes And you know and and here's what they are Um in in november or december or whenever it's going to be we're going to come back to you with what's going on A crocker or wildwood And we're really excited about it, but tonight we really are trying to focus on and I think if that framing happens that way Then everyone gets it. They they hear what's going on, but they also feel valued and they say oh, okay There's there is something going on and you know Agreed so to me. That's so I put it on slide one. That's like 14. Yeah. Yeah, and just frame it out that way Yeah, makes a lot of sense Can I ask a logistical question about forums um an open meeting law I guess part of you know The reason we do the things we the way we do them is to be in compliance with that and so with these forums if Would we have to make sure we don't have a quorum of us there? Or just call call a meeting we call a meeting and then do we need to have minutes taken at the meeting and so so they're just going to be Or it looks like maybe you've got a response. Yeah, there's a policy Yeah, about forums and so we would be called as a meeting of the amherst school committee There would be you know, it's taken and you'd be able to participate in that but it would be like, you know formally agendaed The notes are often for forums or not They're a little different because we're mostly hearing from the public as opposed to having conversations but um Just as a follow-up to that so then we would have to kind of set a boundary on what we're going to talk about We couldn't hold it as a forum where come meet your school committee members and we'll answer your questions about the amherst public schools We'd have to be like we're talking about dual language. We're talking about Regionalization and we're talking about x and if anybody brought up an issue that was outside of that we could We couldn't really have the back and forth that we'd like to have It's I just want to make sure I understand that so here's the boundaries of Yeah, here's what I remember from in dr. Murris will correct me if I'm wrong with the the form that we did last year as mr. Deming mentioned And it was following the school building project vote The idea was that the You know public comment was open for pretty much anything that that folks wanted to talk about we may or may not respond But we have a you know set agenda in the sense that we are asking the community to come and talk about specific topics But they can pretty much bring up anything that we want that would that they want so I think in that sense it functions a little bit differently than Meetings, although, you know, we do the same thing with our public comments right too, right? So I think also that if If you have an identified section for q&a on an agenda and The public asks a question And there's a straightforward answer to it You can absolutely answer the question And that's not a violation of a meeting The challenge gets to when you're actually starting to discuss or debate So so it's the challenge is you've got to be like really careful You've got to really only answer the factual question directly Because like if I if I do that then I editorialize at the end of that. Mr. Demling raises his hand And he starts, you know, and I don't mean there's a negative or an argument I'm just saying you start all pining on my little editorial then then we're dead So, you know, just to remind us of those before we hold any of these I think That's a that's a valid point. Yeah, I think so in the interest of time just looking You know, we still have a few other agenda items to get through I'm wondering if maybe it makes sense for the committee for us to come back You know, I'm happy to work with dr. Morris or somebody else wants to volunteer into this too Is just to take a look at, you know, some possible options For forum planning. So maybe it's putting together a couple of ideas for the committee to chew on We can talk about it our next meeting spend a few minutes thinking about what kind of format makes the most sense Um, and then we can go from there. Does that does that work? I'll also send the policy that I was referencing to the our school committee to all of you so that you can Meet through what the policy has because it is actually quite helpful to look through In my opinion. Thank you Okay, thank you. We're showing you get some more feedback. It feels like at this point I think it's giving me a message Okay, so uh, uh, the next topic for discussion is a discussion of recent election day procedures And I think this is a fairly short item, but it's a letter that's in your pocket And dr. Morris will let you Sure, so this is a letter that um in my conversation with the chair You know, we wanted to we decided to be good to bring up here People can either decide to vote and support the letter or not. That's certainly the committee's Discussion, it'll be sent regardless and I'll have the signatures of myself and three elementary principles on it and Without belaboring the point because of the hour there were multiple problems that emerged in the september 4th Election at our site and they weren't the typical patterns the problems that we've had before that We felt like we're manageable and we work for the town particularly a crock of farm to manage they really were that candidates were Using their constitutional right to be within the right amount of distance from the voting precincts More historically, we've never had that everyone is sort of respected that we don't want People we don't have query checks on in front of the schools and there's no critique It's just been the past practice that people would often be you may have seen them at the entrance of the school buildings So we had multiple situations with candidates or candidates proxies more often actually being Directly on the school in front of the school buildings If you're very candid we had some challenging conversations about Yes, 150 feet or whatever it is But you know, that's not an okay 150 feet because approximately students The only thing I could say about the saving grace of the heat at the beginning of the school year is we didn't have outdoor recess If we had outdoor recess we would have to put multiple other Systems in place we had multiple conversations with the town clerk that day. It was incredibly responsive to me and principles so I want to compliment her but In my opinion and the principles the time has come where we just say we're not going to have this at our elementary schools If if candidates are going to be on site From our opinion, it's a safety risk That this doesn't outweigh looking at other options other communities and I've talked to the town clerk about this And she she knows about it. She came from the town clerk elsewhere have other voting precincts and other ways to do this I'm certainly not an expert on a solution except I don't want the status quo to continue I also think it's worth noting this is not a concern for November 6th Which is the next major election because students are not present. It's a professional development day We put that in place around this very topic, but The town manager and town manager knows this coming like there's no Like totally transparent. They know that's on the you know, mr. Bachman knows this is on the agenda tonight But the principles and I felt very strongly about the this has now become a safety risk for students and We think the town needs to figure out another solution Stanley I moved to endorse the letter from superintendent Morris to our town manager in town clerk second Any further discussion sure I was I was at for river on a couple of occasions and I was We blunt startled to see that there were candidates and campaigns over by the gymnasium entrance Where I'd never seen people standing before and I guess I guess previously the voting entrance is on the other side The building uh, it was it was on the music room, which was yeah, yeah the side of the building um But even then you didn't see people standing out in front of the music room or whatever or what I wanted to see if He would be and so I thought it was to use the colloquial expression messed up and It's interesting to me because I saw it as also being a function The reason why it's a worthy letter to send back to the motion that was made Is is that it was a combination of To blunt a bunch of the writing candidates and stuff that we're Really trying to get the message out about the procedure for voting and then also a bunch of town council people running and What that just points to is that in the future We may have just a lot of candidates running for a lot of stuff In places and people who are very enthusiastic and it's all well intended on their part And hopefully it'll always be well intended on their part, but It's messed up I just have a simple question and it um, I Support the the the letter so don't take my question the wrong way But you mentioned that the upcoming election. There's no school So kids aren't the students aren't going to be there. Is that an option as an alternative to not having the polling places at the schools So, um, it's an option if we had one election each school year But the way our primary system works is we're guaranteed to have and this this was unusual because of the Jewish holidays And the election calendar shifted, but we typically will have primaries And then full elections and we don't have enough PD days to go around. Yeah, I also don't love No, I'm gonna leave it there. Yeah, but yeah That's my answer Any other questions or comments? We're ready for vote All those in favor Okay, it's unanimous Thank you very much and I'll keep you keep the committee abreast of any developments. Thank you stem for us So, uh, dr. Morris, my name's on here as a chair for the the committee Do we need to put the committee listed on there is my name enough as a chair What I was thinking I'd ask miss miss woolen to do is um, just add one sentence with the committee's approval that says that this Letter was supported by an anonymous vote of the emmer school committee and then I think your signature will be sufficient to Respond, but I think that one sentence For yes, that's good. Okay. Great. Yeah, thank you. Get in touch with you. Just the signature and we'll get it off Thank you very much Okay, uh next item on the agenda is a big one. Um, this is related to charter school Our local charter schools that has multiple times now requested expansion From the state and I think mr. Demling you have Been meeting this conversation for the committee. So I'm going to turn it over to you Uh, because I understand you've prepared some materials for us. Yeah, so yeah, thank you So I could have gone one way which is a presentation as long as the uh proposal to expand Um, but I decided to offer a couple of slides at this point. Um, so Uh, if so you have the electronic version of the proposal It's it's very long. And so I tried to distill Two things one, what's the financial impact to our district? and then two What's going on with this whole equity piece that is, um Promoted as the reason for the expansion. So, um, I wanted I wanted that as like kind of a shared basis of information Um, so we can talk about you know, what we do going forward So just so the first slide on the financial impact to Amherst So the expansion as proposed immediately doubles the number of kindergarten classes from two to four This is like specifically laid out on the proposal So at at their class sizes, which has been consistent the last A few years that's an additional 44 seats that gets added on every year, right? So in Less than a year from now, they would have expand from two to four kindergarten classes than the next Um kindergarten class coming in the year after that expands from two to four So they're they're adding an additional 44 seats every year until they get Um for seven years, um So what's the impact to our district? Well, so right now 23 percent of the school's k to six enrollment comes from Amherst So if you if you just presume for the moment, uh, they draw at the same rate That takes an additional 10 students from Amherst every year um And if you look at the rates of charter tuition that we're spending it creates an immediate charter tuition increase So starting next fall of another 200 3 7 10 turn 3 000 And then an additional similarly sized increase every year until we eventually hit the state maximum Which is nine percent of our school spending. So right now. We're at last year. It was 1.4 1.5 million approximately charter tuition We have another 600 ish to go before we hit the The 2.1 million um 9 cap um So that's that's the impact. Um, so it really is like a second charter school opening from the perspective of our district Um, and the way that the process works, you know, if you followed it last year Um, the expansion can be proposed every single year until it passes once it passes. That's it so Um, you know, not just somewhere to you know 10 years ago The school committee had one opportunity to oppose the expansion was unsuccessful This is our one opportunity to influence the process So those are kind of the stakes for for our district, which I mean every year we want to oppose charter expansion, but this is particularly uh targeted To our budget. So so the next slide um What's really hard to understand is um Is the reasoning for this so on the first page of the proposal um I'm just quoting the text from the proposal is that the board is making the change to satisfy unmet demand for seats expand opportunity for students to attend desegregated integrated public schools Uh an increased integration of staffing pvc has proven to be An engine of integration in handshift county. So That's the reasoning for the expansion. So I just compare this to the available data from desi. So um, there's rhetoric the last couple of years talking about um Our responses and responses from other school districts and the public about opposition mythology and and talking about myths. This is just The data it's this straight up data I've sourced it all so anybody can reproduce it if they want and the three bars you're looking at here It's a little hard to look at in the black and white, but but the top bar is the average um the percentage uh in in the service region. So our charter school has Uh an identified number of towns that it services and there's 30 odd Towns for pvc. So the average percentage of high-need students is so for using the top example is 59.2 and high needs as a technical term it means special ed or uh economically disadvantaged or el or el within the previous two years So it rolls those up Um, the second bar is the comparison index So the department of ed derives this comparison index, which they say is a more statistically relevant Bar that where a charter school should be you'll notice that in every case. It's uh quite a bit lower than the average of the region Um, so it's it's a fairly conservative bar Um, and then the third is is is the school and so you see with the high needs population the low income Hispanic special ed el Um, they're they're below and in some cases far far below um So, you know, the juxtaposition of this data and and and this claim for expansion It would be comical if if the if the consequences weren't so serious Um, so, you know, we we hope that the new commissioner, uh, we'll listen to reasons. So the process is that you know Um, the public and committees and boards have the opportunity at least until november 1st We haven't heard if the deadline is later. It may be At least until november 1st. We provide input to the commissioner and the commissioner will Make a ruling if if he does not approve the expansion the school almost certainly appeal to the board and then there's another Appeal there. So, you know, hopefully the idea that the lottery is no excuse for these kinds of disparities that That the schools have an obligation for recruitment and retention of all these subgroups Um, we'll we'll resonate with commissioner. Um, as as hopefully the desi's past statements, um rejecting the expansions Saying why, um Talking about that they're not servicing the the population um But it's it's it's to me just shocking The the the audacity of this statement to To have that be the data to have been told repeatedly by the department What you need to do to correct and then to attack public schools in this way It's it's it's appalling and so so yes, we should write our reason letter We should we should make the data case. We should give the commissioner the opportunity to see reason, but I feel like You know, we we need to do everything we can to To be frank sound the alarm in our community Um, and and in the other communities about about what this is because what what they're saying is wrong It's it's wrong what they're claiming. It's it's it's wrong to educate some children at the expense of others And and and uh, and and it's it's wrong not to call it out. And so I I hope that we can You know prevail on this, but I feel like something has to happen differently than just some letters and You know this the the same level of advocacy in the past years Judge morris. Yeah, so just I'll make three brief comments. Um, my understanding from desi Well, it's not final is I do believe that november 1st deadline will probably hold this year they're trying to expedite that process and so probably It's not specific to this charter expansion, but for all charter expansions to be Um, heard by the board sooner at an earlier date in the calendar year than it has been the last couple So if you extrapolate what I'm extrapolating from that, it's probably that the october 1st or the november 1st deadline will probably hold in terms of feedback The second thing and and mr. Dunlinks said it But I want to put a finer point on it one key difference between this proposal as Prior as compared to prior three is those are mostly focused on the high expanding the secondary population This is expanding the elementary population for the hammers public schools The impact is much greater in this proposal If it was followed if it was supported as opposed to the last few And the final point and it's sort of just a different way to say what mr. Dunlinks saying, but it's I think it's worth stating So there's um, if you look in the report, uh, or the the um, their application they have to present on the demographics and then gap closing targets in other words because they're not in all of these areas. They're not at the Um, the comparison index. There's a there's an index that's formed to say, okay Well, we don't expect you to get there immediately. What's a reasonable path that you can That the schools can change that gap index and and the gap between Their gap index keeps growing in other words The steps that one would take logically to get to where desi is asking them to go Is expanding where they are and where they theoretically should be on that slope Continues to expand year after year after year. So um, and I can highlight that a little more I'm going to write about that in my letter which I'll share with the committee But it's in there. It's not any math that I'm doing I love the charts that mr. Dunlinks does it's no critique But it's literally in their expansion proposal because they're required to do that You can see that the gap of the demographics from what it Needs to be from desi setting those gap closing targets Is uh expanding to the point where I don't I I wonder if it's even possible to make up the gaps because they're getting so large So um, and that's not again that's directly in their expansion proposals not On desi's website. It's directly there So do we have a uh target for when we're going to have a letter before the committee to approve and send off Well, I mean, I think it's clearly before uh, november 1st But we've got two meetings in october set october 9th and october Probably a 16th will change. Yeah. Yeah, um, but most likely two two meetings, so We've got until then So we should probably get a drafted by the ninth so that we can review it revise it and approve it No later than the following meeting I think that sounds reasonable to me I do I do want to just you know add to that and mr. Dunlinks point about you know, maybe Another level of advocacy is needed I think that what we've been hearing from other school committees in the region Is that they're equally as concerned? And that could potentially turn into, you know, um a higher level of advocacy both, you know, some sort of joint effort or Who knows right? We you know, no idea But I think that there's an opportunity to help educate the community and help educate the public and You know and if the community is interested in participating in this and I hope they are because they should be able to see sort of the natural you know sequence of events that leads to You know the hurting our schools if this expansion goes through Um, that hopefully the public will also get involved and want to take some action, you know, but I think um, what I'm hopeful for is that we see some You know parents and families and community members of public school students Uh not to attack families that have chosen to go to the charter school But instead to help send the strong message to the commissioner that this expansion is it is hugely problematic for our community Uh and ends up taking away from from our schools, you know, so I'm not sure what that translates into at this level for the committee I think individually we probably all have our own thoughts and ideas on how we might be able to you know help uh Share information and share resources and all that but to the degree possible that we can at this committee level I guess writing a letter Uh, you know having these this on the agenda at our at our meetings and talking with uh with members of the public about You know what this means is helpful Mr. Napa Jima, so no, I was asking just because I think to me the I mean one I'm gonna was I'm gonna I don't know what the commissioner will do and that that's a big open question because it's a new commissioner I'm going to assume the board is not going to end up being happy with pvc scs Only because they seem to be increasingly irritated year-over-year that the that the school doesn't seem to be listening to them and so um You know, I there to me there's two different levels of advocacy one is communicating from our committee or the superintendent and By definition that ends up being a more button-down kind of communication Then one might otherwise want to do just because it's what's appropriate And also most likely to convince them to agree with us And I think things like this slide and what superintendent talk about makes sense I just wanted to know what the calendar for that was so we don't lose the force for the trees Because we actually do need to write a letter Review it approve it and submit it and that's sort of one thing. I think beyond that. I think the idea I mean I I think and I think we've heard this from town meeting when we went before town meeting with the resolution or whatever it was that Um, I think I think they should be a teachable moment I think there's a we can have a letter opposing this I think we should be using this as a teachable moment to the broader issues of what's wrong with How we're organizing organizing and funding charter schools because there's sort of two related but discrete issues one is the resegregation of our schools And the pernicious way in which the the way charter schools are organized are are leaving out and Balkanizing our populations in ways that are really Unfair to the kids and the families but also unfair to the traditional public school districts. The other issue is it's um It's it's it's putting enormous pressure on our towns our town budgets I mean just enormous pressure that pops up everywhere You know if you think about a lot of the pressure we have in our traditional municipal budget Some of it's because of Of these pressures we're having here and then even we get I know this is a elementary and not a regional meeting but The levered elementary school continues to be a source of like major attack and conflict within leverant and that spills over to the regional assessment regional budgets Most of that issue. Yes, they're underlying philosophical issues Educationally, I guarantee you if we had another two or three million bucks kicking around That money would grease a lot of disagreements so that they weren't popping up in the way that they are now And so this is this it The reality is we need to use I think we should be using this to teach a moment To really attack the entire way in which this is this is affecting our local budgets property taxpayers in schools and we should be organizing with select boards and finance committees In the entire what is it called? These full service region And the entire full service region and we should be calling on people to write letters But also we should have the support of all the political leaders all the local committees and boards all collectively sending a message That enough's enough Just one one Thought to add in in that campaign and I don't know if it's appropriate in a letter to desi because I don't know sort of how they make what facts and and criteria they look to at to make their decision on this Following what they've asked them to do was probably a big one, but they um for me what really stuck out was the $200,000 and I think you know when in a teachable moment when we're talking about the broader community spelling that out and putting that into context as to What proportion what's the opportunity cost of that 200,000 right? What what what can we not do if we don't have that in our budget because I I think everybody recognizes It's a it's a large sum of money But it's also at the point where like it's really hard to grasp what that means and what that looks like Oh, it's 200, you know, there's x million dollars in the budget, you know, we'll probably you know Miss some after school project or something But I think it's putting that into that context and from a percentage, but also the opportunity cost I think can really help us particularly when we're looking at all of these big budget items Um, you know infrastructure things that we all have big price tags, right? I think You know that really impacts us Uh, actually no, no, please. Yeah I guess my only comment was I feel like one of our allies Would be other local elected officials and given that right now we're in this weird country where We have multiple seats where we have people who we know will I guess for now we have Solomon But I mean we've got so many people who are running for town council so um I don't think town I'm just trying to think of how we can get these voices To align with ours and potentially it's a little bit more challenging because some of them are not yet seated in their positions or their lame ducks or They're actively running But if there's a way that all of us as we're Out in Amherst can try to get at least the conversation that's happening in During these all because there's so much political activity right now that if there's a way we can insert this Conversation into it and getting people to come out publicly either, you know, obviously for Opposing this I think we should all be asking our town council candidates. How do you feel about this? and then if we can trying to Push those who are about to be seated in their new positions But I mean the election's not even gonna happen by the time we need to do this So it's just too bad that we don't have that clear Pathway, but if we can I think we should try to get it to be part of any forums that are going on or any Conversations they can still write letters. Yeah, no, we should but we should be asking them to and take a public stance Yeah So just on the first point or one of the points, um I think the the dollar amount matters a lot to the community My personal experiences that is not a As salient appointed desi as it is to So like for instance the fact that charter reimbursements wildly underfunded. That's not desi You know They agree that that's a problem even the most ardent charter supporter desi agrees that that's a problem But it's not a problem. They can solve. It's a legislature problem. Never, you know, that's who so, um, I think that tricky balance in some of this is it's okay to mention that but I that's true for every community where any charter school is trying to be either settled or expanded like if you fell out west springfield of the last year that's been A complicated situation For a whole host of reasons actually So I think it's okay to mention, but I wouldn't have that be the lead Because I don't think there's people who have a very different educational philosophy from those of us. I think in the room who See choice as a Panacea to write and they could write and so and a lot of those people are the people who are Going to be reading this So I just I hope you ask it as a question as an open question. I wanted to answer from just from my experience On the other piece. I do think there's other elected officials both in amersand neighboring communities I know that in the past there were multiple communities including some of the members of the regional towns and otherwise So I do think there's an opportunity if the committee wants that's a logical way to get More communities involved. I know desi reads The num and looks at the number of communities who have weighed in pro or con I've been at meetings where they say well, we didn't hear we didn't get any letters from any superintendents or school committees on this Expansion to this new charter and that matters for them. So I don't want to minimize the impact of a letter that the amerschool committee might have but I also don't want to Minimize the impact that Other school communities might just need to be reminded they might not be having this conversation tonight And that they might feel equally as passionately, but they just perhaps need to be connected to the cost I think we should actively organize. I mean, I think we should you know, we have there's got to be a Sheddling probably has a list of all the towns that are in the what is it coming in full service region Let's list them and let's go out and let's let's affirmatively engage The different political actors and bodies Of those places and let's get them to see if they're willing to sign on I think I think there should be two different messages one This is why I asked what the letter to begin with I already knew that the letter that goes to desi or besi Needs to be no the board or the or the department. Yeah, so I meant what I said as dumb as it sounded That the letter that goes to them needs to be drained of the fiscal stuff and only focus on like the The service issues and you know, and the what you said the Gap to closing the gap the gap the increasing gap to closing the gap and all that kind of stuff And there's lots we can throw in there that'll be really good I actually as a matter of the public discussion. I completely disagree with you I think the public discussion to get I mean, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to argue with you Whether you meant to or not what I'm simply saying is the public strategy To engage the select boards finance committees other school committees and then parents the public at large Should absolutely go after the fiscal issue as well as The resegregation pedagogical educational program issues. I mean, we should absolutely go after both of them. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say Perhaps not that's particularly as I'd like So mr. Dunley, and then I think we need to wrap this yeah, so just couple of my points. Um, so What the board's disposition in is really an open question like they have expressed frustration in the past. They've also expressed Ideological support and that board is shifting over time and more Baker appointees go on as a whole tangent on Republican conservative privatization that it will not go into right now But that's shifting right and so um, we can't We can't bank on the fact that they're just going to be like oh here. They are again Thus the reason for additional Creating additional external visible political pressure and not just oh, there's the number of letters But like oh look this guided in the news The here's these new state reps that are are pounding the pavement and saying like this, you know That being being loud and heard um and in terms of engaging like the local candidates and how we do that Um, I actually think most of the political attention in town right now is focused on those town council candidates So let's make this an issue and not like an issue in terms of like what do you support? But bring it up right and let's let's have Saying because it affects the municipal side of things as well Even if you don't care about the second slide, you know There's hundreds of thousands of dollars that are leaving that the town would have to fill fill the gap and not be filling yet on other things Um, and you know for a lot of the town candidates, they're green and they don't understand all the mechanisms yet of of town finances And how it relates to schools So it's an educational opportunity for them as well. And so while the public is paying paying attention to these campaigns Let's let's make that as as much as possible part of that So just to uh wrap up this conversation I think that you know what we formally can do here in the committee is as mr. Nakajima mentioned before and as we've done Previously is to prepare a letter um have that letter, you know signed by whomever here in the committee wants to do that So we'll work on draft um Mr. Dimling i'm looking to you to Help us put together something that has all the data and everything that we need in there Um, and then I think we can you know share Individually with with committee members, you know if there's other opportunities for You know engaging the public or doing other things like that that we can we can do that So is that um, is that work for? Okay Okay, thank you very much uh, so moving on we uh Are on to gifts And we have some gifts. It looks like very neat ones. Yes. Those are great gifts I will take a motion if anybody wants to I move that the uh in our school committee accept the following gifts as specified Sanjero Wadi and mary clark supplement our budget for for river singer 500 dollars Stacy Leonard steven succanian Family center summer student assistance 500 dollars Amherst educational foundation year-round garden project wildwood for river and crocker farm $2,500 sanjero wadi for river pgo fundraiser pgo purchased 30 sets of cross-country skis and storage units at a cost of 22,523 dollars in southern poverty law teaching tolerance educator grant For elementary the amount of $5,000 for a total number of gifts amount of gifts of 11,023 dollars Take a second Any comments all those in favor to accept the gifts? Thank you very much And thank you to everyone who uh, just made some generous donations. I really appreciate it Uh, okay, so school committee planning Yeah, um, so if you look at um, try to fill in this calendar document which hopefully everyone has in front of them So for the next meeting in the night We had kind of as I mentioned earlier the academic program for dual language It seems like we need to come back. So we had communication for the forums Parker from space needs it's a topic. We said we'd come back to PVC ICS letters not written on there, but I added it and handwriting dual language zoning I'm starting to feel like this meeting is getting overwhelming with terms of agenda topics So we'll think about that and the goals. I'll have a draft of Last year 10 meeting approved additional funds 15,000 And we said we'd come back to talking about that that it was too preliminary to have that conversation So we feel like we have enough information to have that conversation The special education program so that group wants to get together Um, and the umass study can't happen on the 9th. So that should be crossed off which then leads to perhaps We're still waiting to get back from the town But the chair and I've talked about that instead of the 16th, perhaps the 22nd would be a meeting Where we would be able to receive the umass report perhaps in a joint way with the select board Um, and we put some other topics on there But I just want to highlight that they're the 16th. It's not possible to receive the umass report We don't want to wait too long to receive that on November So we may be moving the meeting of the 16th to the 22nd or some time Still wouldn't hear back from the the town about whether that would work Um So I assume we want to add in some update on meeting ends in this studio. Yeah I mean, how do people feel about not doing the zoning? On the 9th just given the quantity and quality of other topics and pushing that to be a larger topic on the 22nd or whatever that meeting is I'm just concerned that we'll get to that at 10 o'clock and Well, I have wondering if it could be move the Kroger farm space discussion to The later meeting Or is that I think that's actually going to be a very brief agenda item. Really? Yeah That's a little forecasting but um Or foreshadowing but it'll be a very brief agenda item I mean we have we have to do this vote though right on on dual language And I feel like the zoning piece is going to be a big part of that So the reason this was on here is because of the implications for the dual language piece because if we talked about well If Kroger farm runs out of space, then how do we where did the kids go? So that's why we put on I'm okay Putting it I'm totally fine moving it down My concern about the space at Kroger farm after meeting with mr. Shane walk in the building is it's not as high as it Was a couple weeks ago. So I'm fine moving it down Sorry just a question of clarification. So the the dual language vote is going to be on both The question of do we do this as well as how are we zoning it? So my understanding was that we decided to separate those two things So that we'd vote on kind of the programming Do we feel like the program is in place and those pieces and the resources needed and come back to the zoning for a vote Perhaps in the late fall early winter I thought that was the discussion and I could be remembering it wrong But I don't remember us separating it out completely because the two are connected Right. I mean, I think it was more about figuring out how we do it like the technical piece of it, but not Having it be too separate I mean, it's a question for the committee, right? Like, you know, if we're going to be voting on dual language programming Um, how separate do we want to have a conversation or not have a conversation around zoning? in relation to that I do feel like that Separate but maybe you know, maybe not too broadly temporarily, right? But I do feel like they're they're definitely related conversations But it's sort of cart before the horse if we're talking about zoning at the same time And we haven't really locked up and decided are we doing this? Are we moving forward? So it does feel It and you know, I don't want to assume but you know at all signs point to that You know lean more towards yes versus not But I I do feel like it's a it could be premature to be Finalizing a zoning decision before we've actually finalized all of the other pieces But does that happen on two separate meetings or in the same meeting separate votes? I that question. I don't know I guess my I guess my view would be I wonder whether these things have to be Entirely binary There may be a framework for how we're going to engage zoning That we would need to consider and vote Concurrent to approving the program moving forward That might not mean every little detail is worked out of the zoning proposal But but to me I've kind of said this before so I'm not saying anything really new um I think everyone wants to do this So the key of whether we do this or not boils down to whether we can figure out how feasible and pragmatic it is to implement right And so then to me putting off the discussion of zoning at least at least at a framework level of these are the basic way or pro or concept of how we're going to implement it Seems to me to be foolhardy because Since most of our concerns are pragmatic if we can't figure out a way to do the zoning Or you know the enrollment within that program that makes sense to everyone and gets broad support from the community Then we shouldn't be doing it That's that's what I understood as well. Yeah, that's fine with me. Yeah, okay Yeah, I mean we talked about it a bunch of summer. Um I'll be honest to say at this point. Maybe it's some late and being too candid not much has changed in our thinking From where we were but I think we need to re-engage that at a larger level But think about what I mean I'm sorry to throw this out But just think about what I just said a moment ago that if there's a ways of chunking out How specific the plan you're putting forward for us It's what you've talked about with the whole thing, right? You've said this whole thing is going to be like this slow rolling movement towards implementing it It was some things aren't going to be finalized until like next august But but you're working on it every day, right? Yeah, that may be the same thing with zoning through february Or january or whatever But and that's okay So the question is what do what do we need to and I know that you know It's unfair because you can see like but why isn't the committee telling you what you want to know But I'm saying the point is the dialogue should be what do we need to know and decide By some november 5th, right to make this a reasonable and also responsible like on our part Like I don't want someone hate to say this. I don't want somebody a year from now being like What on earth were you thinking? Why didn't you like ask questions and think this through, right? Yeah, no that totally makes sense to me. Yeah Okay, I think we've exhausted this Exhausted might be the word this agenda. Yes, and we're exhausted so Dr. Morris you and I can meet later on and go through some of the finer points of the next meeting agendas And with that, um, I will take a motion Move to adjourn second Thank you all those in favor All right. Thank you very much Thanks to amherst media