 In the presence of a quorum, I would like to call the meeting of the Amherst School Committee to order at 6.2 pm. Welcome everyone. We have a short meeting on the agenda tonight, only one actual item of substance, and I trust all of you have had a chance to take a look at the materials that were sent around much earlier, and we'll have a good and lively discussion on this. But first, I wanted to take a moment to direct the committee's attention to the minutes of February 26th and March 7th, and I will take a motion for both of those minutes. Mr. Nakajima. I move the approval of the minutes of February 26th, 2019. Okay, do I have a second? Second. Mr. Demling, thank you. Give me a moment to... I just noticed on the bottom of the first page of the March 7th, it said, Ms. Spitzer was able to attend and thanked Ms. Ardennes and Ms. Spitzer. I noticed that, yeah. Thank you. It's okay to thank yourself. That should read Ms. McDonald's. Yes. The other edits. Mr. Nakajima. I only moved to 26 because I don't want to be able to vote. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said both dates. No, I just said both dates. Okay, so we will hold that comment. So we have a motion and a second for February 26th. Any comments or questions or edits for that? If not, all those in favor? Thank you. It is unanimous. All right. Now, Mr. Nakajima, do the honors. Not really. I'm going to vote a abstention on that. I guess I could. I move the approval of the minutes of March 7th, 2019. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. McDonald. We have one edit. Do you want to restate that for the record? Sure. At the bottom of the first page, the sentence should read, Ms. Spitzer was able to attend two sessions and thank Ms. Ardonas and Ms. McDonald. Thank you. Any other edits or comments? Okay. All those in favor? Any nays? Any abstentions? Mr. Nakajima, one abstention. Thank you very much. Okay. The next item on the agenda is committee announcements. Are there any announcements from the committee tonight? Mr. Dunlin? Just wanted to remind all parents who may have received the special education survey that that is still open. I believe the deadline is March 22nd. So you can find it in your email. There may also be a link on our website. I'm looking at Dr. Morris and he is nodding. So yes, the council will find that. It's very important for us to get feedback. Even at a moderate volume, getting very individualized feedback is tremendous help to the staff and administrators. So you have much for that. Great. Thank you. Just something that will be emailed around. I don't think it was yet, but we're invited via Amherst College, the community, not the people here. The next Tuesday, which is March 19th at 430 at the Bernaske Museum building, which is at Amherst College, Dr. Roberto Gonzalez is coming to speak, and he is a professor of education at Harvard and an expert on immigration, and particularly on undocumented folks who are here. This talk is entitled, Live Still Limbo. It's hard to say this is better to read it, but undocumented and navigating uncertain futures. So conveniently placed right before an Amherst School committee meeting. So if you're looking for an extra hour and a half, you've got an hour and a half before the Amherst meeting, but from what I heard from my contact and was working on education programming at Amherst College, she's an incredibly impressive speaker and does work that I think is very consistent with things that have been talked about at this table. I don't know. Yep, so it's March 19th, 430 p.m., and the Bernaske Museum is the one that for people with young kids has the dinosaurs in it. So it might be a different way to say it, but that will also be shared around by an email. Great. Thank you, Dr. Morris. Okay, moving on to public comment. If anyone has a comment they would like to make, you can come up to the mic. Please introduce yourself, and you have three minutes. Good evening. I'm Jean Fay, president of the Amherst Pelham Education Association, and I wanted to start by first thanking the school committee for the responsiveness to the concerns of the educators in Amherst around the conditions of the building. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and for all the work that you've put in on this whole process. But I also want to go on record as stating that the educators in Amherst are committed to having safe and healthy schools for the students and the staff, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that that cannot be accomplished with the buildings in the state that they are in presently. So we are united in the feeling that we need to do something. The situation is dire, and we're hopeful that the MSBA process will continue, and that there will be a positive outcome to this. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Jenny Hamilton. I'm a Crocker Farm parent, and I wanted to come before it got lost in this quick-moving shuffle to just say thank you for all of your work around the listening sessions for the SOI. One of the refrains I heard a lot about the past project is that people didn't feel listened to. So this format and the facilitated small groups where townspeople got to speak and share and decision makers listened was a really good step forward. So I wanted to say thank you for that. I'm sure you'll hear plenty of constructive criticism about the process. We're really good at that in this town, and it's useful because we can always look at what we can do better, but I also think it's valuable to look at what we do well and what worked so that we can continue to use the things that were well received. I think that's just as important. So I intended the first listening session, and my small group included other parents of school children like me, some retirees including a retired teacher and a current school employee. I heard from people on all sides of the previous project that people were speaking in support of the compromise proposal you all have put together. I also heard many, many, many questions, and I do trust that what was shared and what was captured by the facilitators will be useful information that we can address as we move forward into the feasibility and planning process down the road. But in my own circles, I heard this refrain over and over. Lots of good questions, lots of varied perspectives, and near unanimous support for the compromise proposal. And I printed this out because a friend messaged me and I just thought it was so useful. He said, I was surprised to be reminded how different the dynamics of such a small group discussion are from larger public meetings which have dominated the political scene for so long. Lots of good comments. So I wanted to thank you for the significant effort that you all put in in a short period of time to pull this off. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other members of the public, I'll pose public comments. Thank you to those of you who were able to come tonight. So the next item on the agenda is new and continuing business, MSBA statement of interest vote, and of course this is what we've been leading up to now for a couple of months now. Three months. Three months, that's right. And I will say that this has been a very, I think, informative and sometimes challenging process. But with really good participation, I think as another community member just stated earlier this evening, for the most part we have heard a lot of positive feedback from folks who have attended the listening sessions, also emails, one-on-one conversations that I'm sure all of us have actually participated in at one point or another. But we've had a lot of meetings on this topic and so we're here tonight, primarily I think to, you know, if there's any remaining questions or issues that we want to address to the superintendent, we can do so tonight. We've had a chance to review the draft SOIs, a statement of interest to the MSBA, which are the actual documents that we'll be voting tonight. And I'll mention to the principles that were shared by Dr. Morris earlier this year around a proposal for these applications. And so, ultimately, I'm hoping that the committee will be voting tonight. I want to remind us that this is a very short agenda and it was done so deliberately because we've had so many meetings already where we've had, you know, a lot of conversation around this and hopeful that we can be decisive and move forward with a vote tonight. But if not, then we would be prepared to have another meeting later this week of this committee so that we could continue the conversations and discussions. And of course, we're marching towards a vote at the town council that who will also have to review these applications and our votes in order to make it their own decision. But before I turn it over to the committee, Dr. Morris, is there anything else that you want to say? Yeah, I have five sort of quick items. I'm conscious of the chairs, you know, comment at the beginning about the length of the meeting. So I just want to first of all thank Mr. Roy Clark who's here with us. He's here if there's any technical questions that he can jump in. He took prior SOIs and I think significantly improved them in terms of the level of detail, the level of documentation and the ease of reading, like embedding hyperlinks in the document. So thank you. One thing to note is that what's in front of you tonight is a PDF printout of an MSPA. I don't know how to describe it, but kind of interface. So some of the spacing looks funny and that's because the printout isn't actually what goes to MSPA. It's an electronic submission. And like many electronic submissions, when you try to make them papers, they look a little funky. So I just want to acknowledge that point that a couple people had raised it. But thank you for your work and thank you for being here. The second point is that a conversation with the MSPA on Friday and there was kind of two things I want to share. One is I just updated them on the progress in terms of engagement and community engagement so that they were aware of, you know, they were aware of what was being proposed by me and then brought to the committee, but they were updated on where we were about the listening sessions because I want to, I'm trying to keep them in the loop on every kind of major thing that's happening so there's no surprises. I also talked to them about the process moving forward. So if we were fortunate enough to have positive votes, both this body and then the town council, and then fortunate enough to get in the MSPA process, one of the questions I heard in the listening session was, you know, what does that mean once we actually get in? You know, so we'll have this kind of recommended 600 student write those five kind of statements and they explained that once we're in, that they're appreciative of going forward or appreciative of building consensus and once we're in we have the same, we don't get out of some of the other parts of the MSPA process, we still have to make sure we're exploring multiple options, including looking at the specific building as is, that yes, they want a consensus statement, they want us to have something to look at and they wanted us to build that into the deliberation that you have and the town council will have, but it's not that it absolves all the other kind of requirements of the MSPA process. So that was helpful, I thought, to just have clarity on that question and keep up multiple times at the sessions I was at. My fourth thing is just the process moving forward, the chair referenced it but I know for the town council they're anticipating having discussion about this on their meeting a week from tonight which is March 18th and think if things move forward then the chair and I will collaborate on sharing our perspectives with the council. I was really impressed with how many counselors were at each of the listening sessions as an aside, try not to belabor my talking time tonight but I think it's worth noting I was really impressed with the attendance and then potentially for them to vote on April 1st which gives Mr. Roy Clark enough time to take that, you know, insert those little pieces in there and click the submit button to the MSPA well ahead of the 12th deadline. I think the last thing I want to say is, I'm just kind of reflected in some of the chair's comments and public comment, I think the listening sessions were a really useful activity and I heard lots of feedback who were appreciative of the opportunity to just talk and, you know, the presentation was pretty time- you know, it was like the 15 minutes I added, you know, the ones I was at two or three minutes of other content and then really it was hearing from the community and the big word on listening was not just in the title it was actually indicative of what happened and I think things can always be improved but I do think it's a model that we ought to or I plan to build on as if we're fortunate enough to move forward that these kind of interactive dialogues are incredibly important and mixing the kind of, if others, building committee or me and my role that we want to make sure that the community is getting opportunities to offer feedback throughout because something I've said consistently is there's this item to get through in terms of the statement of interest, if we're fortunate enough to get in there's going to be a slew of challenges along the way and I think what we're building in my opinion is a template or a model that we can use to continue to engage the community and we got great feedback in the last question from the facilitator about what are better ways to continue to engage the community which are varied. People have different levels of interest in clicking a button versus getting some information in another source so I think just summarize just that you know the engagement piece that was started it wasn't a start and end it was actually I'm viewing it as it was getting the motor running and then we expand on that into the future. Those are all really good points and I think you know one of the things again that we have heard consistently is the community expressing both appreciation for the listening sessions and for all the different methods that have been employed to solicit their input at this stage but also a request or in some ways a demand I think an expectation rather for us to continue doing that in whatever process moves forward and I couldn't agree with that more I think that that's incredibly important and I'll talk a little bit more about that later but before we get there I just wanted to direct the committee's attention so there are two motions for tonight one is for the Fort River application and one is for the Wildwood application so they'll have to move both of these in order to approve or not the application. And the other things that I wanted to draw to is the you should have received in your packet electronically but it hasn't been printed out just because of the sheer volume of paper the various comments that came through from the both the listening sessions that we've gathered by the facilitator Bill Lowe and his colleague Lauren Delaporta and these were shared with the committee on Friday afternoon. In addition we also shared the feedback that came from the one neighborhood association meeting on the 17th as well as the educator comments that came through and those I apologize came through a little later today they should have been sent on Friday but there was my oversight I didn't realize that the packet had not included those. So again mindful of the agenda that we've got in front of us I'm just going to open it up to the committee if there's any specific questions that you would like to make before we move to vote on this Mr. Nakajima? I apologize to the committee for not being able to be here on last Thursday so having read through the minutes and seen the discussion that you had I just wanted to add a couple of my thoughts before we proceed and I had gone to four out of the six sessions and read through the bill the entire report that Mr. Lowe presented to us as well as the other comments so one I mean if we travel back to December I had expressed that time what I considered to be a fairly strong conviction that we should proceed with an SOI for a single building that was obviously a proposal later fleshed out and changed from what I thought was going to be from by Dr. Morris which is what we've been considering so to me the initial decision of whether I would vote yes to move forward is it hasn't changed I haven't learned anything in the last few months that would make me change the conviction that I'm going to vote yes and I think we should vote yes to proceed with the SOI. I think the real critical question is whether we think this is in my view whether we think we made sufficient progress to garner consensus in town A, we could be successful in getting into the MSP process and to B whether we think we've actually started to develop a consensus that would make it more likely the project would succeed me in and you've all attended the sessions and you've read through the same things I did I would agree with what was said by the chair Dr. Morris and by Mr. Lowe that there was a really clear majority that was expressing support for moving forward, expressing support for the basic concept and I think that I think that's great I think it's really heartening to see people coming together what also has incurred to me a lot over the last few days when thinking about the timing of this particular vote is that consensus isn't really a destination it's a process and so we've made a lot of progress in as much progress as I think we could have in the last three months and I've said this before to you privately but I'll say it publicly I really appreciate the work of the chair and Ms. McDonald in putting together the communications and outreach work because I think it was just exactly what we needed but the key point for me then is in my hopefulness in voting yes but also hoping that we get in is built on the idea that if we maintain a commitment and obviously this is in some way something that we're memorializing in the minutes depending on how we vote for future school committees that could include some or all or none of us depending on what the future brings is we're really recommending forward to the future school committees and to the superintendent that they pick up lessons learned from this process pick up a commitment to community engagement at a stepped way in the way we've been we're doing here at different time points in the decision making process that would be involved then and I think if we do that I think we in fact have made a tremendous amount of progress towards building community consensus and we'll see it through by doing it throughout that process and so with that I feel good about this I feel very good about it I recognize there are a lot of questions that are unanswered I think for the public that's watching and listening I would just say it would be inevitable that we would have questions whether it's on enrollment and class sizes or whatever the heck it is location some of which we stated at the outset were undecided we know there are unknowns we can manage them together and I think we put a marker down of good faith that we're going to do it in the interest of the kids in partnership with the professional staff the teachers and educators and but with the community and if we do that I think we can get it right and we can build a building that not only works for us but we'll be proud of and that's all I have to say thank you so I'm going to just go down the road here and I'll skip myself for now but just to see if there's any comments or questions that you have about this process no I think your comments Mr. Nakajima echoes sort of where my head was at in the comments that I made at our meeting last week which is and I really like how you phrase that it's not a destination it's a process because I do think that that was at least for me setting aside the specifics of the project the learning of the process and sort of the feedback that we've gotten outside of the actual listening sessions about how we went about this it's really powerful I think for setting the future and keeping this going even throughout the summer and the fall before we even hear so because we're going to continue having conversations about this I'm sure and I think not thinking about it is when is the right time and when should we be bringing and having bringing the community in for these kinds of listening sessions but sort of just going into it planning for those even when we don't think that there's actually a decision that has to be made and I loved the framing that Bill Logan and Lorraine put into their report about thinking about the purpose and the timing of those and I think mapping that out for the community when we get into the process I think we'll go a really long way to making it an engaging and actually enjoyable process for us to map out our vision for our kids in elementary schools so. Thank you. Miss Pitzer? Thank you I had it written down was exactly what Miss McDonald said I was you know how can we keep working on this you know for the next nine months and making sure that even though we're making the vote today and my intention is to vote yes I think we have heard loudly that there are still small but I think segment of the population who's not yet convinced that this is the best proposal and they have concerns about it that go beyond you know kind of working out the details more fundamental and I think if we don't continue to engage and continue to try to you know keep pressing that we have financial responsibility and I think responsibility to our students and our responsibility to the community to make sure we take action on this I think we you know the schools can't wait because the conditions are just going to keep deteriorating so whatever we can do to try to really make that consensus as broad as possible I'm fully for working on that though I would like to be able to spend some time working on issues beyond the school buildings you know like what's actually taking place in those buildings is really important too and the sooner we get moving on this you know hopefully the more we can focus on that too because I think it's important so thank you again for all the work you guys have done and I'd like to think this facilitator as well. Thank you. Mr. Dunlin? Yeah I mean I would echo everything everyone has just said and I would just take a minute to sort of restate and it will be very brief I promise about yeah just because one thing I came out of the listening sessions from is two things actually one is a near universal acceptance of the need for compromise which is different than how will the compromise be implemented but the need for compromise that I found very encouraging but then the open question particularly from people who are still working through whether this is something they could support is well why this proposal and why do we need to compromise and you know for me it all centers around this concept that there's a serious urgency to address both buildings as soon as possible without leaving one behind for 10 or more years and for me the detail and the statement of interest that was put together really underscores this I find it really hard to read that level of detail in some spots it's very sobering and if I would recommend if anyone is still evaluating that question of is there urgency to address both buildings as soon as possible to read that and then ask yourself the question is is that state of affairs something you're comfortable with giving to Wildwood for 10 or more years for me it's that's just a level of inequity I can't accept I can't leave Wildwood behind I say Wildwood because in the state of interest Fort River is the prioritized building and so sequential buildings would be one after the other and best case scenario about 10 years could be much longer and so that's really the one piece that is immovable for me I think has been expressed here as well and so because of that because that's the immovable piece we need to compromise because I also think there's broad acceptance that no matter what any one person prefers and that includes myself and I've said repeatedly my personal preference is still the previous project but I feel an obligation, a duty to model on the school committee letting go of my personal preference of what I feel is the best solution because I have to acknowledge that large swaths of the community don't have that same personal preference and I think you could say the same thing for any other personal preference that has been expressed and so I think what the superintendent has proposed one K56 building with a small cohort design that's built in which is something we didn't have before that addresses both as soon as possible meets that requirement and I've gotten some good feedback in the last few days about supporting the compromise in principle but the devil's in the details we're going to have to see how the public engagement process is and what the actual results of the final building proposal to which I say absolutely to support this compromise in principle for the school committee, the town council or the public is not a promise or a commitment to vote bond authorization or debt exclusion override in the future when the time comes we still have to see that that process works out appropriately so I think the superintendent, the school committee the future school building committee will have to earn the public's trust and show the commitment that what is produced is in the spirit of that compromise and I just wanted to close one comment from the teacher feedback that I thought really encapsulates the spirit from a teacher from Wildwood they say, I appreciate the transparency my hope is that community members rally together for the greater good and not take anything personally we can do better than 60-40 and I absolutely endorse that statement so I'm very happy to support this tonight thank you Mr. Demling yeah I would say I completely echo and agree with everything that's been said by the other committee members tonight and it wouldn't be a surprise I think we've been talking again so many meetings and I haven't heard anything you know during the listening sessions and the emails and all of that and the conversations that I've had with folks around town that have dissuaded me from the need both the urgent need to replace these buildings simultaneously and also the fact that we have students and we have educators that are currently in these buildings that need something from us they need action from us for me it feels like an ethical responsibility that we have to move on this quickly and I do hope that our continued listening actually does help the community feel like they are being listened to and their concerns are being listened to and their legitimate concerns I think it's very difficult for people to imagine a town with just two elementary schools and I think it's also very difficult for people to imagine a 600 student building when their schools have been smaller for at least a decade but I also understand that there's many members of the community that also feel very strongly in the opposite direction who also feel that we have to take action quickly and that our children deserve walls and they deserve natural light and I completely agree with all of that so I am heartened again by the fact that I heard so many people say that this felt like a reasonable compromise and I had my faith was a little shaken for a while there you know I think honestly I think there seemed to be so much divisiveness and so much in some ways anger and dissatisfaction expressed and this felt like a very different process and it felt like superintendent had listened to both sides if you will quote-unquote of the community it had come forth with something that felt reasonable and that also felt doable right and so that gives people hope because it makes them feel like they can actually move forward on something I also plan to vote in favor of this one thing that I would say is I completely agree with Ms. McDonald's comments about the recommendations made by Bill Loge and Ms. Della Porta I think that getting understanding and helping the community understand when and how often to engage during any kind of project is critically important for the success of that project right and the stakeholders here with different opinions and different reasons for engaging around this that we actually have to we have a responsibility to make sure that they are clearly kept up to speed on what's happening and when and when their decisions will matter so that they don't feel like they have been disenfranchised or disengaged and the other thing that I would mention is also that this came up repeatedly is the lack of diversity that we have in these rooms and in these conversations it's challenging for me because I also recognize that this is a committee made of volunteers we have a superintendent who is spread thin among three different districts and who is doing a lot of other work and we don't have huge staff and we don't have a lot of means to be able to reach out to every single individual person that said I think that with smart planning and by taking advantage of every tool that we can for wide dissemination and reaching out proactively and on purpose consciously to different groups in the community will be critically important to make sure that we're hearing those voices we had a community member at our last meeting who very explicitly stated no one person of color can speak for every person of color and that is absolutely the case and so we have a responsibility to make sure that we're reaching out to and attracting as many voices and diverse voices as we can during this process but I think that given the steps that we've taken so far the tone that we've set and also what I've heard that we can do it so I have a lot of faith in our process moving forward and hopefully the MSBA does as well because ultimately that's what we're aiming for all of this means nothing if the MSBA doesn't accept our application and hopefully this year so I think now moving forward with this vote it goes to the next really big vote which is our Town Council and hopefully our Town Council has also been listening they were in attendance at all of our listening sessions it was an incredible show of participation and support for this community and so I really hope that this conversation moving with them is also you know as productive as we had hoped so in any case I don't know if there's any other last minute questions or comments I'm sorry Morris but if not I will take a motion I just wanted to briefly thank the superintendent the facilities director for folding in all of the feedback that that we sent them over the weekend so we got to review this it's a very long document a lot of details and I think a lot of you know excellent adjustments and improvements were made it was one concern I had about knowing how fast this process was and how long of a document this was that and I feel like we have so I just wanted to thank them for that Mr. Nakajima I'd like to move resolved having convened in an open meeting on March 11, 2019 prior to the closing date the Amherst School Committee in accordance with its charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest stated March 11, 2019 for the Four River School located at 70 Southeast Street tribes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future priority one replacement or renovation of a building which structurally unsound or otherwise in a condition seriously jeopardizing the health and safety of school children where no alternatives exist to alternative exists priority five replacement, renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs pillars, heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility priority seven replacement of or addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local requirements and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits to Amherst Public School District to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority Okay, we have a motion. This is for Fort River as a reminder. Do I have a second? Second. Ms. McDonald Any further questions or comments? All those in favor? Thank you. It's unanimous. I will take a motion for Wildwood Ms. Bitzel I move to Resolved Having convened an open meeting on March 11, 2019 prior to the closing date the Amherst School Committee in accordance with its charter by-laws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the statement of interest dated March 11, 2019 to the Wildwood School located at 71 Strong Street which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority categories for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority of the future. Priority one Replacement or renovation of a building which is structurally unsound or otherwise in a condition seriously jeopardizing the health and safety of school children where no alternative exists. Priority five Replacement of school facility systems such as roofs, windows, boilers heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related costs in a school facility. Priority seven Replacement of or addition to obsolete buildings in order to provide for a full range of programs consistent with state and approved local requirements and hereby further specifically acknowledges that by submitting the statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or the approval of an application the awarding of the grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority or commits the Amherst Public School District to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Mr. Demling, thank you. Any other questions or comments on the motion regarding Wildwood? In favor? It is unanimous. Thank you very much. So Dr. Morris, can you walk the committee through what this technically has to happen? Sure. So the next steps are this topic will then go to the Amherst Town Council next Monday night. They'll receive the documents that you have in front of you in terms of the statements of interest that have been voted. I think it also is worthwhile sharing full report from consultant from Bigelow because they were so present at the listening sessions. And the educator including the educator feedback, thank you. And which is very consistent with what's in the report, but I think the artifact is to your point, the direct artifact is really helpful as well. And Mr. Sardonez and I have to figure out what we're going to share with them next Monday night. They do plan to deliberate. They do plan to have public comment on the 18th and then their next meeting is April 1st in which time they plan to vote. If they do vote in the affirmative what will have to happen is Mr. Roy Clark will have some work to do on his end and then the way it works is the chair of the school committee, myself and then the town manager will do the official sign-offs and the report will electronically get whisked away to Boston. December 11th of this calendar year is when they respond with decisions, but they being, I'm sorry, the MSBA responds with decisions about acceptance into the core program and I think at a future meeting I have some thoughts about, you know, a number of committee members talk about, you know, if that's a long whatever that is, eight months, nine months and what can be done in that time. And I do appreciate the lens of like, let's also talk about what's happening right now in our school. So I felt that I'm sure we're not alone but that's sort of the next steps along the way. Thank you. Thank you. Unless the committee objects, I just wanted to say bluntly that sometimes when the superintendent or the chair speaks for the committee, you might say, I think I can say for the committee X or I think I can speak Y and I know you say that a lot and unless the committee rejects, I would prefer you be really declarative that all of us have said we're fully, this committee is fully committed to continuing. Well, we voted. I don't mean the SOI, I know that. What I'm saying is we all, because it's not really in the SOI, that we're going to maintain a commitment to this sort of consensus building, community outreach and engagement process. But I thought I heard unanimity from the committee, even though we didn't vote a resolution to that effect, we didn't have unanimity from the committee on that. And I'm hoping that if there are members of the town council that are wavering, hearing that not only are we really happy we did this, we've learned a lot from it, but also we're wanting to directly embed whatever improved version of this into our future work, including whatever we do between now and December, could actually help comfort? Not a good word. I don't want to use the word convince. But it might comfort them that if they buy into this, they're not going to regret it later by saying well, then we walked away from, you know what I mean? And I just heard, I mean, from the minutes and then from what everyone said tonight, it just seems like there's unanimity on that. Thank you, Mr. Nakajima. Yeah, I'm glad Mr. Nakajima brought that up because I think sometimes chairs will very politely be very guarded in how they say the committee in general, unless there's specifically voted, but I think in this case there's probably, we don't have to iterate through them, but things like the need for compromise, the urgency to take care of both at the same time, these are like, and this will happen as well, themes that we've all very strongly stated that even though we haven't specifically have voted resolutions on them, I think you can very comfortably and freely speak about the committee's resolution on those items. Thank you. We'll do that, yeah, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Roy Clark, also for being here tonight and for all of your work on this SOI. It is, as Mr. Dilling mentioned before, a very long document, so we've seen it, we appreciate it, and I guess you have, you'd like to make a statement or something. I'd just like to thank all of you who put in all the extra hours to correct the errors and refine the statement. I really appreciate your input and thanks for helping. Thank you. Okay, so all that, that was everything we had on the agenda for tonight. I will take a motion. Mr. Nakajima. Move to adjourn. Do I have a second? I second. Ms. Spitzer, all those in favor. Thank you very much. We are adjourned. That was even this too.