 Seeing the presence of a quorum a cordless meeting of the area's regional school committee to order at 6 30 p.m. Our first order of business approval in the minutes of January 28th, 2020 See if you have any Corrections to them Kim, are you looking for something? Oh, you can mr. Fosher Okay, you can call me It seems like once that protocol starts it's That's actually that's a funniest thing is is it's impossible anybody who's been a teacher It's literally impossible for me or my brother and sister's teachers. It's impossible Mister or miss or miss, you know, it's just like literally impossible. They may have first names, but I don't know what they are I'm filibuster Move to approve the minutes of January 28th, 2020 as presented is their second My hair move by Demi seconded by Harrington any further Editions changes discussion. Yes, just noting I Think of misspelling of the name under seven for Mary Luke Yeah, exactly, okay, so I know it's minor, but no, no, it's good my item item seven a Yes, it's not bus that's two changes Okay, this is the people the second to look at video looking at the medicine is there anything else Okay, all those in favor of proving the minutes as amended signify I rose in your hand It carries one two three four five six seven eight to nothing Minutes are approved. Thank you very much next item on our agenda is committee announcements committee member announcements and Public comment first thing item businesses any announcements from the school committee members themselves Okay, seeing seeing none Are we welcome? Comments from members of the public if anyone has them they should come to the microphone State their name and that have three minutes to make a comment Have are we like wickedly far ahead of the agenda? I mean the stated time in the agenda two minutes ahead of time Just a little bit I mean, you know someone could be and to remind the public again we welcome both written comments by email by Traditional postal mail However, you want to get to us Welcome your views opinions and ideas Email to the whole committee can be sent to school committee one word at arps.org and then gets shared with the entire relevant committee so easy way to The public's looking to email the whole committee. That's a convenient way to do it. Great Thank you Assuming the clocks on our computers are accurate by the way Yeah, it's some eyeballing the clock on the computer over there on the monitor. Ah according to Mr. Donald's Trusty instrument in front of her it is 635. So with that after no public comment I'll close public comment with the advice again that there's other ways to get all of us For chairs update a superintendent's update. I'm sorry. I remember three So we'll be very brief part of it said there's a lengthy agenda And some of the updates played out as agenda items, but I'll mention two things I think this cunning him has one so the first is a couple I want to say two months ago or so there were students here And and you get an email Well, you being the committee got an email a couple months before that around concerns about Calendar and holidays and so one of the requests from the students In addition to the change in the actual calendar was an email or communication to go to Staff members on a monthly basis Just informing them of what holidays are coming up so that they didn't have to keep track of the holidays that all Students celebrate that there was a reminder that it could impact some students either attendance at school or ability to complete Extracurricular or homework assignments and so that started in the month of February and we got a really positive response from from staff members saying Thank you It's hard to keep track in the middle of their busy lives And so the staff are very appreciative and thank mr. Smorelin who all many of you know very well for being the organizer of that and it was communicated back to the students Who felt very positive that it was in place You know, we loosely talked about getting that going for the next school year, but we thought it was a good idea I'm very but I'm coming sooner The second piece and we'll talk about this a bit when we talk about item 6c, which is the budget But since there's a press release in an article like is that I just wanted to note that The university in the town it went through the town of Amherst were able to come to an agreement To have funding go from the university directly to both the Amherst public schools the bulk of it to the Amherst public schools also to the regional school district as a Good-faith effort to acknowledge that if there are students in tax-free housing that attend our schools This was a conversation that played out both at Amherst in the region a while ago It's about a year and a half ago. Maybe that's in some symptoms And I just want to thank both the university for their partnership on this as well as the town for facilitating the conversation And to clarify for the regional piece We looked at the last, you know, five years or so and the average percentage of students attending in tax-exempt housing who attended the Amherst public schools Compared to the regional schools and we divided up the the new funding source Appropriately and proportionately to where the students were actually attending school So the impact on the Amherst public schools much greater than the regional schools But I wanted to publicly acknowledge that fact and I think I'll turn it to Miss Cunningham for quick announcement as well Okay, so the Amherst regional middle school and the Pelham elementary school principal searches have begun and Yesterday was the last day for people to notify me as to whether they'd like to join a committee or one committee or the other So from this point on I will be notifying those who reached out to me via email as to which committee They will be a part of and the next step in the process is for them to start a training program with me on February I believe the 26th or 27th That it that's we're trying to be brief. Are there are there any Any questions for the superintendent of the superintendent Stemling can you just remind us what the general timeline is for the the middle school principal search about when public will Get to see candidates and when we expect that all to wrap up. Yeah, you asked me that when I have no big But generally so The end of February is when I'll do the training for the screening and the interview committee and then starting in March We will invite the candidates then and I believe it's about the second and third week of March that will start actually interviewing for both Pelham and for the middle school and then by the beginning Or the end of March beginning of April is when we'll have the community forums the end of April is when they'll be announced Thank you. Uh-huh any further questions Okay, seeing none chairs update I would So I would say that I've gotten some outreach and we're going to talk about this later on regional assessment but I've gotten some outreach from some of the member towns following the four-time meeting and one thing I would say is It seemed like there was substantial agreement around The suggestion that mr. Demling had at the meeting that we needed to engage our towns around The regional agreement and what comes next with all sort of options on the table and I would just say that in my experience over the last couple of years when we started the work around the Regional assessment some of the disagreements The school committee itself at times played I think early on very early on more of a passive role and many of the Elected select board and finance committee members within the the member towns were more active And I think one of the things which has worked Exceptionally well in addition to the leadership the dr. Morris and dr. Slaughter are going to be providing is from members to think about Your role here as a liaison with your member towns think about How either through this forum or through others we can constructively engage with one another around what we're trying to accomplish educationally as a district and How we can best be Both representatives as well as ambassadors to Different people in our town both neighbors People who are activists as well as others I'm I'm The thing I'm excited about is I think the committee is functioning at a high level right now and I'm excited about What we're going to be able to accomplish and I think I just think though that the reality is as we head into the summer There are going to be I think significant bumps at different points in the road and I think for all of Us and for all of you You need to think actively about how you can take that leadership role Yes, so I left out the most important superintendent update and I apologize, but Emily Grubcoe who is a 11th grade student at this school will be joining us for the next calendar year as a student reps So we want to welcome Emily to our group and we haven't had we've had a had a student rep We had a gap with that one But we're greatly appreciative. I'm greatly appreciative and I think I speak for everyone sitting up here of you joining this Group and the idea from the high school staff was that if someone can do a calendar year then we can transition someone new Because a year from now Emily will be starting to think about other things. I'm guessing About what's happening and then the spring of senior gets quite busy So we really just appreciate Emily and welcome her and I just wanted to we've tried to connect with mr. Thompson Who is the faculty liaison and we weren't able to meet before this meeting so I didn't know she was sitting in the audience So I apologize and that's my fault, but you know again really appreciate your time and coming That's wonderful and and I would say that if you If you want to say anything about an item on the agenda when we're discussing it Normally what sometimes the gestures people make are like really subtle But they're supposed to raise their hand and when they do you'll be recognized like any other member of the committee to say whatever is on your mind Thank you With if the committee is okay, I will Reopen public comment see general ascent so three three minutes, you know, it's three minutes So just make sure you identify I say yourself again, of course Yeah, so I'm Caridad Martinez and I'm a member of the equity task force and also a member of the community So I just wanted to read this, you know, we're you're in the process of looking at this budget and we had our presentation last week or the week before and So I just wanted to continue kind of like encouraging and motivating this committee and Mike and Doreen to To look at our proposal and you know really take it seriously and see what we can do about it So I just wanted to read an honor of black history month. I just wanted to read two paragraphs from Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail and You might think well, how does that connect or you might say yeah that connects really well This letter for those who don't know was a letter that he wrote from jail in response to the arrests that were made and the the response from clergy people from different denominations in response to the civil disobedience that You know, they were Doing Pro the freedom of black people Definitely connected to restorative justice and justice So I must make two honest confessions to you my Christian and Jewish brothers first I must confess that over the past few years. I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I Have always reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom It's not the white citizens counselor or the Ku Klux Klaner, but the white moderate Who is more devoted to order than to justice who prefers a negative piece Which is the absence of tension to a positive piece Which is the presence of justice who constantly says I agree with you in the goal you seek But I cannot agree with your methods of direct action Who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom Who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season? Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will Luke warm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that low and order exists for the purpose of establishing justice And that when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the south is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative piece in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight to a Substantive substantive and positive piece in which all men will respect the dignity and worthy of human personality Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with Like a boy that can never be cured so long as it is covered up But must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light Injustice must be exposed with all the tension is with all the tension It's exposure creates to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured So I just want you, you know, I just want to reiterate our commitment to restorative justice Versus punitive measures that you know, traditionally people have held not only in this school but across all all schools and Let's get out of the way of doing the right thing Thanks We we had opened up public comment after we'd closed it Did you come to make a public comment Then again three minutes as is usual role my name is Chrissy Ryan and I'm here to Address the discrimination of an African-American principal at the middle school Which has continued on since two years ago As you can see there's not much diversity on the school committee there used to be the equity director assistant superintendent hybrid position was created out of the Hard work of some members on the school committee that were working to address some disparities that occurred in the district and Diversifying the workforce was one of those initiatives. So this position was created in order to Attract retain people of color. So as you can recall that was an initiative that I took up as my kids were experiencing some despair and discipline and to be clear I met Joseph Smith as a Teacher working in Springfield He was a sped admin a pupil services director and That's the position that Faye Brady has here in the district except he was engaging with the community One day I went to school and I was complaining about how my son was suspended and he told me he used to work in the school district And I asked him why he had left and he told me that it was hard to be an assistant principal As a black man when his daughter who was a senior at the high school was experiencing some trouble So these were his colleagues But yet he didn't know how to advocate for his daughter who he felt was experiencing some race-based Discipline so he left To come back to the school district was actually an act of bravery He's been treated horribly since he's gotten here a former member of the school committee Told someone on the equity task force that my advocacy for him was resulting in inappropriate relationship that I had with him. So she's actually discrediting This relationship is completely Appropriate relationship that I had with a former administrator in Springfield it's disappointing to see that the Assistant superintendent and superintendent would continue to Jerry rig the hiring process and not fulfill the one initiative the one initiative that's coming out of The school district equity which is to retain People of color. So as a result of my advocacy, he was given a co-principal Two-year contract. It was a bone. It was a bone. We all know that and then he promptly experienced unending amounts of discrimination from the Teachers that worked there now the investments in the school district Eric I'm gonna finish The investments in the school district That you're now saying are three hundred thousand in the red and you're talking about your budget have gone to investments in White people for years to the point where now I have three people who are in middle and three children in middle and high school who have no educational opportunities here and Why I drive over the notch to bring them to a PVPA every day the tokenism that's occurring is Not working for equity. There's LGBTQ staff and Administrators that are being treated horribly for the service of a select few So the equity director position is not being fulfilled and it needs to be Separated from the HR position because it's creating discrimination against other people in the school district in order to fulfill again the select few individuals Who are benefiting from a system that is not set up for all people? I also would like to point out that the school district has four administrators that have worked here for 25 years You're under three minutes and they are all the same people that have worked here for 25 years and Not any of them have been held accountable There's no evaluation procedures in place and yet for some reason Joseph Smith is being scrutinized Unendingly while these other administrators at Wildwood At Crocker Farm, which is deemed a failing school district The Summit Academy No accountability. So that's despair and discipline. I mean despair and treatment as a result of The supposed equity initiatives that have only benefited a few small couple of Women that are friends with the assistant superintendent So I think that this needs to be addressed going forward seeing that you've renewed his contract and This is not work that I'm gonna let go there has been no change and none of you have done anything about it and And there's someone on this school committee actually who was fired for a Supported 51 a child abuse allegation at the middle school Who should not be on the school committee who was fired as a result of Joseph Smith having to be Doing his job and I would like that person to step down Kim Fonch. I would accept a move. Thank you so much Move to adjourn or for recess Second Look you don't know Okay move to recess second Is there no all those in favor of recessing We're recessing Okay, if the Amherst media is still ready Trash, yes, I would ask Of the chair to dismiss the members of the audience in order for me to respond to Ms. Ryan's comments, I don't think we can actually do that. Can I request an executive session? You can but not at this meeting No, I'm not trying to be funny. I mean, it's just I know you're not If I may have a few minutes May have a few minutes to talk To to respond to the claim if you want she's a cheese Waking my reputation over the call. We've already put this way We've already reopened public comment after it was closed so we can certainly reopen the committee member Announcement portion of the agenda so with acclimatization from the committee, which I'm seeing it Please in my capacity is a substitute in Amherst regional middle school Back in October of 19 of 2018 I was involved in a situation with this middle school student That resulted in a couple of things one my being pushed to the ground and Suffering both head and neck and shoulder problems ever since A 51 a was filed against me. It took almost a full year to get that Eliminated it was a year of extraordinary Hardship for my family and myself It was just an unbelievable experience because I knew the allegations were not true In my opinion the Manor in which the administrator in charge of that situation Mishandled the entire situation I'd be more specific if I said he did it in an incompetent fashion I Share that with the committee so that you can know where she was coming from It was brought to the DA the DA did not find any reason to charge me and dismiss the complaint I Do not want to go through that again I have to be very careful that I choose my words carefully that I don't say what I really think But if the committee wants me to resign I will because I refuse to go through that again in public It's the first time that it's been open to the public And I sincerely don't want to have to have it again. If you by majority vote want me to resign I'm okay with that. I don't want to put up with this crap anymore. Thank you. Mr. Vanch close committee Announcements and public comments also already closed and We'll move forward. We're gonna switch the order of Our items and go with item 6b And then afterwards go to a statement of interest so welcome any introduction you have Sorry 6b is HR and diversity Wondering if I could recommend to the committee that I'm sorry, I know that just happened that we'd take another recess I I'm not happy to take another recess the send of the committee seeing that ascent So if it's just interesting to me that I could end up writing out the way I came in If the Amherst media ready Yeah, I'm calling the meeting back to order again and we will go to Item 6b, which is HR and diversity update. Sure. So I'll just Introduce and then hand it over to miss Cunningham and her team so each year we provide an HR and diversity update and This is gonna look pretty similar to last year's based on the feedback that we received last year when when this almost the same team not quite the same team presented it and It really does relate to the goals of for me the goals of the district you know thinking about what does it mean to be a multicultural and Equity-focused district some of that's about staffing and some of it's about what you do with the staff that you have and how do you provide training? That's meaningful for all staff members so that you're both Our staff over time is getting increasingly diverse and that for all staff regardless of when they join the district Their background we're providing high quality opportunities around professional growth. And so with that I'll turn it over to miss Cunningham I think we'll introduce some other folks in her team So before I introduce them I know that we just had a public comment that talked about my role and I'm not going anywhere until I'm ready So I just want you guys So my team consists did last year of Sasha Damani Jen and myself this year Sasha decided to move to become the assistant to Dr. Morris Morris and so now I have Carol who has replaced Sasha so Without further ado, they're the ones who are going to present and I'll just interject intermittently So this has been my tenth month in the district and One of the things that I can say is that HR has tried or the district has worked as seriously to try to prevent to try to Give ensure that staff have professional development Now we have a list here of some of the things that are the initiatives that have been taken so far such as the implicit affinity bias in training On November 5th. We had what is called curriculum day and we had 22 workshops with social justice equity diversity As the theme and that I'm going to expound on about expound on it in a bit We also had you rock which is a people's Institute on doing racism Organizing collective and that's for newer admins. We have creating inclusive environment workshops Building based trainings and this has to take this takes place. Usually when a staff we have early release days We also have white fragility and this is a book group and we have cultural responsive Teaching and the brain which is another book group and we have of course our restorative circles and that's ongoing We also have Before you go ahead I just want to go back to the you rock part where she talked about newer admins last year all the other Administrators were trained. They had to go through the three-day training with the people's Institute and so the Administrators who joined us this year. They were put through the training So the plan is to have every administrator trained first and then we'll continue with assistant Admins directors and then eventually all staff were hoping to go through the training Okay, so other workshops we had was differentiation workshops. We have the second year teachers meetings We also and like I said, we're going to go back to November 5th, which is the PD day So we have some sample offerings here of workshops that were held. We had teaching this necessary History, which is American racism and inquiry. We had gender and sexual identity Inclusive classrooms strategies that build community. We had cultural humility And cross-cultural communication. We also had support systems for our staff of color Speaking honestly about white spaces and managing microaggression and that was for staff of color as I said before Now one of the things that is noteworthy is that this was a collaborative effort with HR Superintendent's office and the curriculum instruction and assessment unit Tim Shea who is the coordinator for that unit he spent most of August September and October just preparing for the workshops and for For the day in essence It took like a hundred percent of Jadira who is his assistant's time Two weeks part of the workshop just to get teachers registered on my learning plan To ensure that they did not have clashes in the workshops and so on Debbie who is the the director for communications and Operations she also work assiduously along with Erica who is an admin support to ensure that this workshop went well and funds for from the teaching and Learning budget was also used to pay presenters and to pay the keynote speaker as well as to provide food for this event Thank you Good evening. My name is Damani Gordon. I'm diversity equity specialist of human resources And just gonna develop on more of the professional development opportunities that are there for our para educators We had a district-wide PD day back in November and it was open to all the para educators as well Even though it was their day off and we had approximately 38 para educators at 10, which is a great number Considering that We also offered opportunities for para educators to attend various PDs That our teachers and administrators have on days on teacher work days where they may not be Have to work but they can come in and get paid for that as well so plenty of There have been several para educators that have been taken advantage of that as well and also like to talk about we also have a What's called the Amherst Futures Program? We are part of the diverse teachers workforce coalition Under the banner of paradigm shift and the coalitions were involved We have Holyoke public schools Springfield public schools Mount Holyoke College Springfield College You mass higher ed we get together and we as a program that we create pathways for para educators of color to get their Teaching degree master's teaching degree through Mount Holyoke College. That's the partnership that we have We just started this a couple years ago and it's in full swing now we have two of our para educators now that are co-teaching in the middle school and Do also doing their practicum hours, so they are set to graduate with their teaching license in May I believe And we are highly recruiting other para educators in a pipeline to go through with this process was so it's really beneficial To our district because it's in-house and it creates opportunities For the para educators through Mount Holyoke College. There are a lot of discounts involved. There's Intel prep tutors free of charge Intel courses free of charge and also Intel vouchers, so it's opening up the pool Of more teachers of color in our district and just Western Mass in general And we also There used to be the narrative that the para educators were not Provided an opportunity to have training alongside our teachers and so that is not as true We do offer them the opportunities like Damani mentioned to sit with the their supervising teacher or to attend any of the professional development that a teacher is able to attend and we also used to have a para educator program professional development Development coordinator that actually was the former president of the APE a she used to do that and if the need Becomes something that we have again. We will look to possibly open in that position again So the Paris are also offered an opportunity right now through the special ed department and HR To go through some modules where they are learning how to work with students who have mood disorders Oppositional defiant disorder attention deficit disorder anxiety, which is a big need in our district and autism So they are offered a lot of training because they are doing a lot of the work They are the ones that are you know the boots on the ground forefront the first person that Would would be working with the kids alongside the teachers So we do invest in making sure that they have to the trainings. Yes Someone mentioned discounts and things like that. Is this an expensive procedure for the Paris? Tell me is what an expensive procedure does it cost a lot of money to become licensed? Yeah, I mean just in general as we know higher ed is very expensive. So off the top. It's a 30% discount For our para educators as well as a teach grant that they could receive In high-need areas. So and considering to what it would cost To go through the master's the teachers program. It is significantly lower and more affordable as there's a lot of Support as well as financial support for the Paris right and we also had received the teacher Diversification grant through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed and Most of the Paris who are involved in the program have received funding through that program So many of them leave without any cost to them But there was a commitment to work with the district for another four years. Mr. Sullivan. You have a question? I'll just I can add a little bit to that as an independent student in 2011 just my student teaching class at UMass through WWW was $9,000 And that was for one semester So expensive. Yes, it's expensive. Yeah, Mr. Bunch The more parents you can get into the teaching profession the more will all be better off I do have a couple of questions if I may make sure you're on the microphone by the way, excuse me We're sure you're on the microphone. Oh, I'm sorry one is I'm curious as to what the reaction of the teachers were to white fragility and Secondly, I wonder if you could share with us apart from the number of parents who go on to a teaching profession How do you measure the success of the professional development? So I'll answer that So the white fragility book group many teachers asked for the opportunity to be a part of that and My guess is that's making a racket And the reaction is they want more so we are hoping to be able to partner with the Union to offer more professional development because we're hearing that teachers want more and based on When I first started back in 2017 I talked about all the investigations that I had to do the race base and all of those investigations I'll be proud to say that we have decreased the number of investigation based on bias and I believe that's due to some of the trainings because when we planned the trainings it was also based on the information that we received the different The different incidences that occurred so we use that to decide on what kind of topics and workshops We needed to provide for the staff so there has been a decrease in the number of bias complaints We also look at them a survey that is completed after the workshops to find out how teachers are feeling and and what Next steps would be Thank you. Thank you Morris You were gesturing like in life Active listening So along with the para educator futures program that Damani talked about that program as he mentioned is for paras with bachelors degrees This year we have started looking at Tim Sheehan and I have started looking at being able to support Paras who don't have a bachelors into getting a bachelor so that they can continue to fill into that pipeline that Damani was talking about So was there a question? Okay, so the next part is just our goal when we started the goal has always been to hire and retain diverse staff and You have the numbers from 2017 all the way up to this year as far as food service all the way to Administrators in our district and I'm proud to say Dr. Morris talked about this during convocation But this year we hired back in August or so or by the end of August We hired over 118 new people and 52 of them which is 44 percent were people of color So through the new the revamping of the hiring and screening process We were able to increase the number of people of color who are qualified sitting at the table At least getting that opportunity to interview and as you see our numbers are a result of being able to revamp that process And I think I'd like to add to what Miss Cunningham said, which is what's particularly notable about 44 percent other than It's larger than the number has been in the past is it it mirrors the student population across our three districts So, you know, that's one of the goals and we're going to have to keep at it, right? It's not like thing you do once But I just I want to highlight that that's been a goal for a long time We've never in recent memory Anyway realized having that those numbers be equal and this was the first time and really want to thank this Cunningham Her team as well as principals who do a lot of the hiring and other folks as well directors for realizing that Can you talk about some of the components you think that have Where you feel like you've made that have made the grip of the components of the things you're doing What do you think sad the most impact and what areas are you? Still paying attention to try to see how we can improve Before I answer that I just want to make sure to note that When you look at the increases and the numbers I want people to also understand that that You're not just hiring people. We are also growing people from within our district So we have had custodial staff who have moved up into administration We've had teachers as demand Paris as Damani mentioned who have moved up to become teacher of record in a classroom So we're always looking for the opportunity to grow with from within And now to answer your question When we look at the training that HR is doing with the hiring and interview process there's one Comment that we always make and it's to tell people to look at soft skills We can't teach people soft skills. We can't teach people to like kids, right? We can't teach them to be kind to kids that we can't teach them that passion They have to have it and to be able to look beyond a person using jargon Right because that's a bias that people have like well They're not sounding like I would sound if I was doing the interview or answering that question And to look beyond that and actually hear really listen to what the person is saying That I think has been a big change in How people are perceived and the opportunities that people are given to be at the table and to even be able to move forward to the next steps So when we look these are Increases now what's remarkable about those numbers is that even though we have lost staff and yes We have lost staff of color that we still are increasing in our numbers of people who are willing to come to the district and who are we are able to recruit into the district and people who do decide to stay the numbers in parentheses are the staff and Then the numbers outside of the parentheses are the percentages of students so you see at the top like African-American from the beginning of 2016-17 to 2020 you see that our African-American staff actually out numbers in the region side our student percentages We still have work to do in many categories, but we're we're doing the work and like I said our retention rates But we're working on it, you know there were things that were taking place before and People left But there are also people who are saying you know what the district is moving in the right direction And I'd like to stay and support it Just also want to note in terms of the dip for this year somebody remember that we had a unusually high number of retirees last year our Retiree event last spring had like packed the room because there were so many people and so that does affect the retention rate and You know if you pull that out the data looks pretty consistent 87.5 is about the state average so 90.8 was you know as a relative number a relative percentage quite a bit above and really the increase in retirements Reflects that that that dip reflects the retirements not staff members who didn't retire no longer work in the district I was just curious when I was looking at this earlier today at the bottom it has male percent On the page so the reason why there's data about Males is because we had a community member who was concerned that we were not looking to hire or increase the Diversity of having males in our community and if you see We have increased the number of men that are hired and our numbers still outrank the state's number of males and Thank you We do get a lot of criticism as to what we report on and what we don't report on so it may be said that we're not reporting on the Number of LGBTQ members in our community, but that's not a in our staff But that's not a question that we are legally able to ask so that's not a number that I can actually put up there So I just want everyone to know that It might be said that we don't Appreciate transgender and that is not a true narrative either. That is just not something that we can report on legally So our continued goals is to continue With the hiring and retention of qualified staff now when we talked about dr. Morris's goals at the beginning of the year I I mentioned, you know the hiring part as long as the community Continues to be accepting and welcoming and you know an open place for people to want to come to That's not going to be the hard part. The hard part is the retention if we don't fix the culture So we are working on the culture so that we can get the retention part down We have the Alana staff That we are working with to have them mentor new Alana staff members Was there a question? So we have the Alana staff and we are working with them to create action plans on how they are going to provide mentorship There's a subgroup that will be working with the hiring. There's a subgroup that will be looking at curriculum There's a subgroup that will be looking at Just the culture and you know, we have four different subgroups with with our Alana staff members We're looking at the rest of the RJ program, you know, thank you For that so we are looking at that we have used it We have trained staff There are more staff who are willing to be trained and more staff who would like to know about it and use it too So we're looking to increase the numbers of people who not only are trained but who are using it and able to train There's continued work that needs to be done when it comes to social justice This is a district that had a reputation previously and probably still for not being welcoming to people of color And so we still have a lot of work to do and so with that being said Currently we've only used the November 5th curriculum day half day as our training and then we've tried to work in different schools in just trying to do Things for the people of color in that school and to help the staff members to be more welcoming in each school But now I want to add another training half day And we'll just revamp the look at the hiring process again because now it's been two years We've seen where the results have led and so we're going to look at joining in form in another committee To review that and see is this taking us where we want to go. Can we do it better? So in about May or June, I'll be calling for people to come and assist and be part of a committee and then the one thing that When I look at the SCTF goals years ago that I really have not had a chance to Make an effect on is with students So when it talks about the AP placements and such I have a lot of great ideas on what to do But I've had because of the other work. I did not have a chance yet to Have an effect on that and so the goals is to get there to start Having that effect on actual students right now. We're working on the adults who are working with students But I want to also get to the students any questions So thank you for this presentation It's very detailed information rich which is which is excellent on reflection of the work you and your team have done I just want to thank your your team for coming here, too I think you know compared to structurally and in terms of people and leadership that we have today versus a few years ago It's it's almost night and day and so it's just it's great to see So when you talked about retention, you know, you saw right that recruitment retention It's like that the two to have the equation, right? Do we do anything specifically when staff are onboarding for the first time talked about culture and how you know Someone just starts if there's going to be you know a disconnect or a challenge. It might happen those first days or weeks How does how does HR support? Staff and buildings like on there in their first as the first coming on you know on board our district mentoring That's one of the big ways that we've been able to affect them and When Mike when dr. Morris has his principles meeting we are one of the things that are Constant on the agenda is they're talking about the culture and what they're doing to create a welcoming culture Because it's not just that you know, sorry to say it's not just HR who has to create that culture It's every person's responsibility as long as you work in this district It is your responsibility to help the next person to want to be here And then there are principles who know that there are some people who Struggle with that and so they can assist Those people to help them to be more welcoming and so like I mentioned when it comes to the hiring and interview and screening We can't teach people once again those soft skills those welcoming skills We're looking for people to come with us and join us in that process who have those skills Thank you Yeah, a couple questions in a comment if I may what percentage of students of color graduating four years That's a good question, and I don't have the answer to it Do you know the percentage of students of color who are in currently in AP classes? so last year I did a presentation that had the the students of color and The trajectory would have been able if you were there for that you would have seen the trajectory to answer that question So when you're asking a student specific question or questions about student data, I don't have student data I just have staff data with me today Just one comment if I may We've talked about the Restorted justice proposal that's been put forth. I think a couple of weeks ago And I would like to ask the committee to reconsider it. I'm not sure if it's possible this year my Cohorts and levered probably don't want to hear that But certainly put us a priority for next year So I'm just curious how we're doing on licensure is all staff and administrators not licensed in Were the where they're working? So I will definitely say that the administrators that are in front of our staff and students are Licensed or on a waiver, which is like a desi license desi. Okay them to be there and the staff members are The the majority are licensed or on a waiver So the reason for the waivers this year are we are having a lot of people who are moving in from another state or some from another Territory and so because they don't have the Massachusetts license We have to work with them to get the Massachusetts license their license in their previous location But we have to work with them and Massachusetts is one of the worst it doesn't Go with it doesn't like to be with anybody else. It's a standalone state Other questions Can I just say please but if you have a question? I really want to hear it because you know back I tell dr. Morris this that back in November of 2017 I mentioned that there were unlicensed administrators and then all of a sudden this whole thing blew up right after that And it seemed like I didn't say a word during that meeting So I would prefer if you guys ask a question now so that nothing blows up later And you say I didn't know when green sat here and you know did all the talk that is a very That is a very fair statement and I mean you said you said a moment so you said all the administrators are licensed or on a Waver that's been appropriately applied for and received all that and then you said the majority of staff are Either I guess I'd like I'd love a re-fraising of that a re-characterization or re-answering of that question Because the way you said it didn't make it clear whether or not Not administrative staff were actually whether they're all Appropriately licensed or on a waiver or whether there's a third category, right? So there is a third category meaning that we applied for the waiver and desi might have requested some more information So I don't want to tell you that they're all on a waiver when we are still submitting information to desi waiting for Approval so now I'll ask a question. It seems appropriate in our little way back machine How people ask these questions is Do you feel confident and do you have a communication plan to ensure that all since the since the Obligation for licensure is on the staff people not actually on you Is is there a good do you feel like you have a good communication? Process to ensure that those staff who are needing to follow up with desi or hearing from desi are actually following up expeditiously Yes, the reason I can say that confidently is that Desi has also reached out to us with the letter as to what is required And so we are also following up with the staff and then we're the ones submitting the actual document to desi Okay Yeah The finance director we high we approved his hiring on a waiver and the word was that by the end of January He would be licensed. Is that true? So he Has completed all the documents are being reviewed and needs to be signed off on But all the documents are in place And as you may know from your own experience sometimes when you send things in it doesn't There's not like a FedEx delivery back of a response, but all the requirements have been met And I just want everyone to also know and understand that waivers are valid until June 30th of the school year So even if desi decides until you know June 27th, he's still on a waiver and he's still perfectly fine to operate I'm just curious if it had come through. Yeah, I'll ask him personally next Is there anything else I want to make sure we ask I mean, I mean, I do think in if in a I don't know if we can do it this year still but I think Whether it's this year or next I mean, I think I think the other we've had other presentations and asked about the trend in like Discipline rates and types of discipline and things like that. I think I think any I think any of those presentations and similar to this one There's always a question out there the public's always interested and I think the committee would always be interested in knowing so I think even If it's if it's possible even for later this year, it'd be great to see maybe a less Less big less robust, you know some kind of an update right so the discipline data. I usually I won't say usually because I only did it once We report on that about May June so that we have the whole year's worth of that's what it was That's right. Okay. Well, that'd be great. It'd be wonderful to hear again Any further any further questions or comments to the committee and thank you. Thank you to your office Thanks for you coming in Great what we're on next Statement of interest middle school roof Dr. Morris you have So I apologize the in your packet the vote language in the summary is accurate, but for some reason the The attachment was last year's statement of interest and many of you may not have noticed when it was emailed because it's pretty darn identical to this year's Not much has changed in the roof or that's a year older And which is a good thing with the state It is a good thing also with the Student Opportunity Act MSPA having more funds is a good thing So the way this works from a process perspective is in your packet. It's about four pages in you'll see a summary There's one odd thing MSPA has a very Template and so it explains that and it also has required MSPA vote language Which has to be identical to what's voted tonight the submission is due on Friday this Friday the 14th And we won't have updated minutes that are get voted by by now You might see that language and the MSPA is willing to accept draft minutes that have been verified Confirmed and signed off on by the chair So we're gonna put a little bit of a rush on C. Hello. So sorry C. Hello In terms of minutes, but we'll get those and make sure that the chair signs off on them by the end of the week So it gets submitted But what you see is very similar to what was voted on by the regional school committee last year So well, it was a mistake. It's not too big a mistake because the the content has not Significantly change the morris or like slaughter. Can you find? Where the languages to be? It's in the packet. Oh, it's in the packet. I thought you were saying it was in this Sorry if I said that Mr. Roy Clark is here if there's any clarifying questions about the content of the statement of interest he Is available to answer any questions you might have Everything on your mind you want to say? Yes So The significant changes in this year from last year other than updating all the ages by a year is that we changed the language about the approval process since Since it was already approved the the borrowing authority was already approved by this school committee last year and by the four towns We changed the language there, and I think that will help us out and the only other Significant change is that we took out language about Layoffs and staff reductions because it's been over a year since that happened, right any questions You mentioned the motion language has to be exact. Do you mean it has to sound like I moved that resolved having convened in an open? I think the just reads weird Yeah Yeah, sorry, I meant the once you start saying having convened in an open meeting not the resolve part My apologies. I was actually asking the technical. He was really just asking for personal curiosity It's not even it may or may not be relevant artistic relevance Other I guess there are the questions about You're gonna ask about the motion if you want, but I really sort of mean about that I mean, we've talked a lot about the need to do the roof and we've also talked a lot about the need to do the roof Ideally with state matching funds or maybe even only the state matching We've in separately. We've talked about doing Studies and work and design to try to figure out if we can do solar and we have talked this here about Maybe the best thing to do isn't to do solar on the roof, but to do it nearby So all this stuff we've talked about Take us also every once in a while. I know so then one will type up in a meeting and say that the audience at home When we're about to move potentially a quick vote. It's like Doesn't the first time we discussed it I'm happy to to acknowledge anyone who feels like reading I move that having convened an open meeting on February 11th 2020 Prior to the SOI submission closing date the school committee of the Amherst Pellum Regional School District 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 form dated February 11th 2020 For the Amherst Regional Middle School located at 170 Chestnut Street Amherst, Massachusetts 01002 which describes and explains the following deficiencies and the priority category for which an application may be submitted To the Massachusetts School Building Authority in the future replacement of the roof Which has been failing at a higher rate in recent years I'm hereby further specifically in knowledges that by submitting this statement of interest form the Massachusetts School Building Authority In no way guarantees the acceptance of the for the approval of an application The awarding of a grant or any other funding commitment from the Massachusetts School Building Authority Or commits the regional school district to filing an application for funding with the Massachusetts School Building Authority Then moved is there a second? Second second it moved by McDonald's second of a spitzer any further discussion Seeing none all those in favor signify either raising your hand It is unanimous Thank you, so mr. Nakajima will be in touch about just certifying the minutes and they'll be remember Oh, no, you're not the Amherst. Oh, you did it last year. There's an electronic form that gets emailed to you that you have to Okay, whatever, but I can also come by and sign. Yeah in person. Whatever you want me to do. Thank you Review of the four-time meeting an FY 21 budget hearing So we're gonna have a little bit of a presentation and then we're gonna open up And so I'm gonna do more of an introduction than I typically would because I think you know the agenda was designed intentionally to do both Talk about the four-town meeting as well as talk about the regional budget. So The four-town meeting we had on February 1st very similar information was presented here was presented at that four-town meeting My summary of the four-town meeting was that there was a lot of goodwill towards the district for understanding the financial Situations that the towns were in there was not yet consensus or agreement on which assessment methodology To play out and and so I appreciated that there was I make that distinction intentionally because I think it's important to note That the towns were highly supportive of the schools in my opinion again. I'm just speaking for myself however The cost-sharing or that's layman's terms or the kind of assessment methodology used that determines The assessments for each time each four-town Was a tricky balance and it was a hard thing. I also want to note. This is a budget hearing so if You know If at the end of the hearing if anyone, you know, I think that'll be open Comment from the public because it is a hearing what this is a budget hearing. Yeah, yeah Yeah, so it means it will at some point be opening up for public. Yeah comments during the hearing was a little bit of a non-sequitur Yes So I was trying to figure out where you're going with that. It's like it's not the definition of the hearing it is And I think the only other thing I'll add before I turn it to dr. Slaughter was that this is pretty similar the one difference that you'll notice in this budget proposal versus the What was presented for town meeting was the ads cuts have much more specificity to? There's not that many of them actually but they do have more specificity to them And what was presented at the 410 meeting because of where we were in our process and when we get to that slide I'll be able to talk about them in greater detail With that I'll turn it to dr. Slaughter. Thank you So this presentation not wildly different than what you saw on Saturday if you had gone to the meeting It's not a lot different from what you saw last time we spoke about it This slide particular is almost identical. I will say You know these things are all still true by and large what is different a little bit is The second sort of large-fold point there about the overall budget increase of 1.54 There are a couple of pieces of information regarding our health insurance And the the rate of increase in our health insurance for the coming year Which is a little less than we had had put into our calculations for this number and then also Some updated information relative to regional transportation aid both of which Help the revenue side of things Essentially, and so therefore lower that overall budget increase a little bit relative to what the towns are charged and So I think that that you know helps all of the Regional school member member towns and in affording to pay their assessment for the for the coming year And again, we're still you know the we're still trying to be responsive to the information We got both earlier in the year early in the school year and as well as last week And trying to meet the needs of each of the four communities as far as their ability to meet the assessment And again, you know our budget for the coming year is is going to do the things We've been doing which is keeping our staff which you just heard about and those people are and and what we do to make them and keep them highly qualified and and And and engage our our community with the family center the bright program restorative practices that we have in place now and once we're trying to build over Over time keeping our class sizes in order and and offering a wide variety of programs and Opportunities for kids outside of the the classroom We've kept the reduction over the last Since the last meeting the same as far as what we know we need and know we can pull out of next year's planning And the proposed budget that actually those numbers are a little different and well This will be what was is on the slide that you'll see but I think if we have the moment We'll pull up a more updated slide in a few moments And I think you know one of I'm sorry one other thing I want to mention is that on the agenda We talked about having an additional hearing set in March because these are moving Targets and so I think just for dr. Slaughter on the committee I think we could stick to this presentation with that note because you know everything happens very quickly You know including just even this morning with you know getting more information health insurance all these other factors All have an impact on the on this so I think we'll stick to this and when we get to dialogue We can answer more questions about what potentially has changed and we'll continue to change from here on out so relative to that and and just saying this slide is is You know indicating how things are changing in the large areas that we have The one change will be that the orange health insurance bar will be a little shorter But it's still a dominant factor in our our budget Even being smaller than it is shown here It is still a very dominant piece of our budgeting in it and our concern around budgeting when we talk about the second quarter We'll talk to that issue again Moving ahead, this is just the schedule. We're under Currently we're we're on the budget hearing and then we'll get into March And we'll we'll look at adopting a budget and we'll hopefully be able to lock it a little tighter on some Person so we'll have things moving a little less Over time Just talking about the budget process to remind you all again We start this process in October and November and start, you know, reviewing the staff what their needs are going to be Thinking about how our our programming and our offerings are going to change and then we get into November December January we try to get information from the state about what their support is going to look like what is available for me to the communities around their resources to to support the budget and then Then we come to you guys in late January with first first presentation of the budget We come to our hearing phase, which is where we are now and then we'll we'll go ahead into our actual vote in March So this is a the picture of the revenue budget again what I'll point out here There's a number of assessment methods that we're showing across the across the multicolored Diagram there and and so the first two columns are fiscal 19 and fiscal 20 Then we everything else to the right of that in color is is for the coming year, and you'll note that the The funded budget is at 32,661,875 after taking out the reductions in the budget. That's a 1.54% increase We have a number of sources from the state and other areas that Reduce the burden on each of the member communities and then as we get to the bottom section We see what assessments are required based on those different assessment models and methodologies that we have and so In the a year ago, I think there was some agreement to have a two-year plan of approach with a 30% Use of the statutory method and then go to 40% this year I think on going dialogue around that and so it is going to be our recommendation to you to look at the 45% Method for funding funding this and as I did earlier the the numbers there are a little Different from what you're seeing on the screen, you know, they will essentially approve for for everyone as far as that's concerned And so I think that you know it will Ultimately play out In a fairly favorable way for for all the communities to be able to afford the assessments that we're we're seeking to support the budget If we move ahead here now, we've taken that 45% Statutory method and and use that and applied it to a more standard look of our revenue budget We show a few more years in the past The fiscal 21 is is posed there and we also have projections for 22 and 23 Which assumes some inflationary factors and that sort of thing and and so you get a sense of how this year fits within multiple years worth of projections relative to revenue and and the like But again, essentially the same information we had on the previous slide But just with a single type of assessment methodology applied Again, you'll see over time. You'll see that our our current year We're showing here 1.54 is very much in keeping with the with the kind of increases on a year over your basis We've shown for the last few years and so it's very much in keeping with The trend we've had relative to that I think we can There's a question. We can come back to it. Yeah, so this extent expenses in broad categories here of What we're going out and and and so again the 1.54 percent is what we're seeing in fiscal 21 relative to fiscal 20 Yeah, and I think the there's the one thing to note is that 322,000 there that's the difference between what would be a level service budget increase, which is two and a half percent and Where we're at so when we think about level services, that's we take what we have this year We roll everything forward and everything stays the same and so we're $322,000 less than that amount. I think it's just an important thing to note when we're in these budget conversations that That inflation goes up salaries go up as they should write none of that's a critique And so we're in a position of trying to make things work with less funding Relative to this year's budget as we have you know next year and so that that's our challenge, right? You know we get to add cuts. I just wanted to note that right and as we and that's a nice segue to the next slide Where we talk about a couple of things in particular where we talk about our salaries, so these are negotiated We are our contracts currently are in place until January June 30th of 2021 and so we're we know what those steps and colas look like for the coming year But our overall increase in salaries is is 2.23% so that includes known retirements Changes in staffing etc etc that we put into into the mix and our expense accounts are about 415 almost 416,000 Which is 2.89% and again as I mentioned earlier health insurance is one of the primary drivers of That change from a year-to-year basis. There are some other things obviously that play into that, but that's one of those Primary pieces of the puzzle that we're looking at very closely each and every year and so as we look at the this is Dr. Moore talked to this piece a little bit more where we get into the specifics of how we got that 32,000 Yep, so I'll go into each of these so last year we had a capital stabilization fund So what that was was $60,000 from the operating budget that we put into a stabilization fund to fund future improvements particularly looking forward looking at the track in the fields and So that money is sitting there. It's not going anywhere till we take action on it But you know in this in this fiscal climate, we're not able to have another contribution to that fund We're being conservatives with this year's budget You'll see that with the second quarter budget update and we feel confident that we can prepay retirement incentives that are Contractually guaranteed, but can be either paid on June 30th or July 1st So this would be paying those on June 30th, which reduces next year's costs To staff turnover just these are known retirements that will You know, we assume a certain step and Education level of new hires. So we assume $41,000 in saving that way There were no sabbatical requests Contractually we have to build in a sabbatical each year in in this district and since there were no requests We're not to consider and we can reduce that budget line the alternative funding sources the UMass piece that I mentioned earlier so that'll be we're still working the final numbers But it'll be about $15,000 for the region the regional share of that and thanks to our university partners for that So budget addition There's only one it's a relatively minor addition of a point two position in math for $13,000 And that's to address and I think we talked about this at the last meeting But I think it's worth me saying again that we have a group of students in our math sequence Who we don't have a course that's really designed for them. We're around credit recovery Making sure they're on track to graduate and so our traditional course sequence doesn't allow for that level of Flexibility and we're realizing that we're we need to serve students better and well, it's not a huge number There are critical number it gets back to the question. Mr. Fonche asked perhaps earlier about Graduation percentage, which you know very frankly our graduation percent is really high and it's not a hundred and we wanted to be higher than it Is and so principal Jones's has worked in multiple high schools and then recognizes this need for And in between course and mathematics to support students Particularly as they're in 10th and 11th grade So that's the only add-on here to the budget reductions is last year we talked a lot about math speaking of math and this reduces the implementation of the Implementation support for the new curriculum and math grades 7 through 12 it says 6 on here But it's just acknowledgement that it The new curriculum was grade 6 through 12 This was originally a point 8 cut if you when was first proposed based on feedback from the committee at the last meeting It was reduced to a point 6 cut which preserves, you know preserve point 4 of that role for the region next year so it is a reduction of half because it's currently a point 8 role in the Region some of that's because we're covering it from grants So the math of it is moving point 2 of it to title 2 a grant and then maintain a point 2 of that position here And so we I heard loud and clear we heard loud and clear the committee's concerns about the kind of Steep drop from that position and within this current budget climate. We're able to reduce the percentage cut of that position The high school world language point 4 so again these aren't cuts note We never talk about cuts. We want to make their cuts that we feel like in this you know given the dollar amount we have to make and This will have an impact and mr. Sadiq at the high schools working on exact numbers You can't really get exact numbers to a student's register, but about the implication on class size for students at the high school Some of this is just a reflection that we do have declining enrollment and World language comparatively hasn't had as deep reductions as class sizes as Enrollment has declined as other departments There's one fewer para educator needed that's just based on student need at the high school That's not a that's you know could are arguably in reductions, but we put it in budget reductions Could have been adjustments excuse me, but we put in the reductions category and Looking to reduce our administrative costs whenever we can and we think we've identified $30,000 there so the net if you look at net additions reductions, so the net reduction would be a shade over to FTE totals to a reduction of three hundred twenty two thousand dollars and That's where we are with our ads and cuts list right now at the current time We'd love to have nothing on the reductions list to be very clear The para educator perhaps would stay because that's that's a student-based need But the others will have an impact, but we tried to find the areas would have the least impact on students And that's sort of what we had to do in this budget here. Dr. Morris my recollection Is that the purpose of this item in general is actually to introduce and then open up the hearing? So I'm just I'm saying that as a reminder that our next step is not to go into a bunch of questions from the Committee and comments from the committee but actually but but I but if there's questions that the committee has that they think would help Or even comments they think might clarify and support public understanding of what you've said I think that would be helpful. So I'm just reminding the committee We're not opening up to debate amongst the committee members in discussion and comments But if there's something you think would be helpful, I will recognize you know I think this is a clarifying question It's more clarifying what I think you said about the math curriculum. So am I correct in Hearing that you said that it's currently a point eight position not a one position it's currently point eight at the region at the region and That going for this year this some of the that position will be Covered by a grant as opposed to with within the spending Yeah, so two point two would be in the title two a grant title two a is a grant that's focused on professional development for for staff That's you know at the exclusion of something else to be fair But we we really feel like it's valuable and then point two would be retained from the appropriated budget So a total of point four or forty percent of someone's job would be to work on that at grade seven through twelve So forty percent as opposed to eighty percent Yeah, okay, and I'll be honest that you know we wanted to fade it And that seems like I appreciate the feedback that I received from the committee members from committee members last time And that feels like a reasonable year two of an implementation as we fade the support Thank you I'm sure the community will be curious about this as well I was just wondering if you can give any indication of which language will be affected by the world language and if You can if it will Potentially take Will it are the number of languages that we're offering so we're not intending to we will not limit the number of languages It's really until students particularly if current eighth grade students register for languages at the high school It's hard to be explicit about which language. So when you come back in March, you know the information nights in late February We'll have a lot more information. I think I'll be able to share a lot more on March 10 But the students drive the FTE's in this regard and So we don't you have a quarter of the students who we don't have information about it And some also just the way it works to get a little more detailed because I think it's a good question Informationally is that students who take for instance, I'll just choose well any language they may take let's say Spanish It's easier to talk about Spanish 1a in seventh grade and they take Spanish 2a in eighth grade Or 1b Let me start over Spanish 1a in seventh grade Spanish 1b in eighth grade They'll be ready for Spanish 2 When they're in ninth grade some students don't take a language in middle school and start with Spanish 1 or any other language 1 When they get to high school So it's not just you can look at the scatter plot of what eighth graders are taking Because there's a whole nother decision process that goes on do they want to stay with the current language Do they want to start a new language? Have they not taken a language? Do they want to start a language? So that's where when we get into like the first and second level of any of our languages It gets a little complicated to predict because we're trying not to force them in any direction More students than you would expect than I expect change language from 8th to 9th. It's actually really surprising There you go Any further clarifying questions and is that the presentation or is there more? There's just a quick on the capital which I think I can just roll through you know Absolutely, we did it last time. So there's nothing changed from the four-town meeting That we've looked at buildings grounds And potential grants, but really buildings and grounds Some of the major projects of the air conditioning the chiller replacement at the middle school with wide variance in Temperature room to room and that's some of that just because our chillers are Beyond their useful life and that's the The most significant variables. There's been a request for the field improvements to be The study for those to be not funded from the appropriated or even capital budget That the region asks for but through a different process The Community Preservation Act or CPA funds and that process is continuing some of the other ones that are Highlighted on the document or shaded on the paper copy or out of revolving funds or other sources So they don't hit the capital budget for the towns. We know that the roof project is a major capital project The town's fund we know the athletic fields will be a major capital project for the towns to fund And we've heard both at 410 meeting and I've heard offline some concerns from some of the member towns about How to afford capital projects moving forward with those two really significant needs Being met so we're trying to take care of the things that need to get taken care of in an expeditious way But also I recognize in the town's fiscal capacity to take on major projects while those two are going to hit their books That fair summary The only other thing I would add is I would I'll note that it says financing next to the 410,000 for buildings and the 15,000 which In other terms would be borrowing so if people are wondering about well how much are we going to borrow next year? That would be the amount that would be added to the to the debt burden that we have In in the coming year and that's played out in this this slide, which has what the assessments are So when the assessments go Up to in total 449,752 it's taking into account that that increased amount of borrowing As well as pre-existing borrowing that we're continuing to pay off over time Anything else Any further clarifying questions? I just want to point out $15,000 for the girls locker room renovation isn't that's for planning that the actual renovation isn't until 2025 and The boys locker room is renovated between 2014 and 2060 Thank you Your advocacy could help move that up Working on trying to soften up the new finance director Anything they can do I have softened up the last one enough that the 15,000 made it on there after five years So you have you've been mentioning that the entire time I've been on school committees Well, I've talked about you've been on school committee but the entire time I've been on And I wish you luck in getting it moved up Yeah, and to that point and this I Want to say something, you know, I know kind of you're saying that and you're right and you've advocated for it and and I think it's really important to note There's a lot more things to do if we had more funding coming our way And I'm not making excuse for the past and I agree with what you said, Mr. Sullivan and and I'm not saying towns can't afford to pay us to afford more But I think the advocacy that I would push, you know, very frankly and I don't mean to be too forward But the committee is that if we we have a long list of capital projects And if there's a perception that we need to move faster on them We're happy to move faster. You know, oh, no, no, absolutely No, absolutely. No, and we're I'm serious about appreciating your advocacy But I do want to just say that that's the conversation that perhaps need to go as staff members We're working within a budget that we're hearing from elected officials in four communities that they can afford if that number Changes you won't hear an argument from the side of the table. That's all The same thing with the athletic field, so you might get a chance out So yeah, that track can't be resurfaced. Yeah, well, we appreciate your advocacy But I'd also I'd also remind people that that's in the public as well that the reason we've reoriented Our calendar of meetings and when we take up issues is so that we can we can better engage at the appropriate moment in Depth the issues we're facing. So that's just an example We had a lot. We've had a couple of long conversations about Our athletic fields and facility planning and what that entails Because we know we we know we need to have a broader conversation Then just what we can do at this table and that's a part of doing that Another part of doing that is having a hearing on the budget And every year there's this uncomfortable moment where it seems like we talk and forgive you for saying this No, it's all useful, but we talk endlessly and then hear a little bit So it's it's an endemic issue. I would love to open the hearing And just again, I know you did so earlier, but just remind the public Community member and I'm actually I actually live in Belcher town, but my family lives here now I'm first my family here and I'm on the equity task force So yeah, wow, okay It is hard to understand as a community member what's going on So I appreciate some of the clarifications, but I want to go back to additions and reductions and so Tell me a little more. Can you explain just a little more why? the professional development around math why what what was the The thinking behind the reduction the thinking Please okay, the thinking behind the reduction was that we had a budget number to meet and that we feel passionately about the curriculum we we are teaching and The potential positive impact on students for all the reasons we talked about and you were at some of these meetings last year Karadad and And yet when we think about impact on students It's it's less direct And if the budget was different we would not be making this reduction, you know And that's my honest answer to your honest question. You mean that the curriculum is less direct That last doesn't directly affect the students in a way that you think it should yeah, let me let me be clarified I apologize for that if it's okay, please. Yeah, so the role Works with adults and not students So we all know the importance and you heard a presentation earlier about the impact of professional development That it has on the experience of students and so in the second year of implementation When we're looking at what we need to reduce not what we want to reduce We tried to balance things that were direct service to students and there are some things that are direct service to students As well as some things that are less direct and so if you're asking me to justify it I agree wholeheartedly that I would prefer this cut not to be on here And I'm working with the budget that we are hoping to get passed Okay, I still have a lot of questions about that, but we'll move on. I might be able to get answers Maybe later on a little okay, so world language So when I see world language, I just the first thing that comes from my hand It's like word language is something that has to do with equity it with diversity Maybe not equity, but maybe but diversity. So So why that and not something else so some of the things I don't see here in reductions that I as a community member having listened to other critiques from the public and the community around how the The administration is using their budget. I don't see anything here and I don't know even staffing supplies But I I took a look and so I just have to now that I have this opportunity that we have a hearing I don't think I've ever even spoken in a hearing. So this is great So I'm going to yeah so I Saw I have you know, we have access and it's public knowledge to some of the salaries and things, you know And for me my first thing is yeah, everyone needs to get paid good money We all everybody in the world we shouldn't have poverty in this world We shouldn't but we know we do and some people get paid For example power professionals I think that they should be getting paid more money and they don't especially when they work so closely with students and they're Working through it, you know much more difficult job sometimes than the actual teacher standing up from So I Don't see and then and then I saw other things like, you know Costs for Trips and things like that that you know happen in every school happen in every job and things like that So I don't see any reductions in that I would have liked to say, okay, you know what I would like to see reductions in things that Because that seems to me something that is definitely not a direct service to Students or to the community right a trip here trip there, you know Um, and I don't want to I don't want to trivialize that because when people make those decisions They think it's a good one and they think it's you know, I need to go there It's gonna be important for us, but I'm just wondering if I Would like to see and and whether it's happening or not I don't know that but I would like to see the administration Look at what they prioritize in their budget in terms of I would like the administration to figure out ways of connecting with the community to find out well, you know, what's what's your take on the way we are Looking at our budget because I don't think that happens I think that it happens with the administration and then the board and I know you are representatives of the community And maybe you go back and speak to some of your community But there's so many there's so many people that are left out of that and they may not be in agreement with the way monies are being used so I See world language and maybe you can tell me, you know, why world language? I mean, that's a big cut 35,000 and What makes that something that's disposable at this moment, you know, and I Know like you said If you had the money you wouldn't be cutting anything, but what makes that something that you want to cut and not Chips to Puerto Rico And I don't mean to trivialize that I just felt like we didn't need to go there That was something that I felt like wow We have a lot of resources here and how did they get that I wasn't part of that So I couldn't offer, you know, but I was looking from the outside and saying wow, you know, that's You know, and that actually, you know, it was a it was a good chunk of money So that's kind of my so why world languages and not something else Not sure what ground rules we usually set for this I If there's a clarifying answer you can provide I think that would be good if it's essentially Debating the opinion of the like in other words also when you're asking a question if you have a strong opinion That's great. What I don't want to get into a situation is in which Dr. Morris is essentially Arguing with you about whether your opinion is valid because the entire point is we're trying to hear from you and in a future meeting Actually, literally the next one. He'd have an opportunity to respond So if there's anything you want to say that's helpful to clarify, that's great But I just want to I just don't think it's helpful. It's also it's not even helpful for you That if you want to be heard if like every time you finish talking Mike then debates whether Dr. Morris then debates whether he agrees with you or something. You know what I mean? So I don't think I'm asking for an agreement. I'm asking for like an analysis like so what why world languages and sure You know why sure you understand what I'm saying, right? I do. Okay, so I'm not sure I I did but we can you can cloud Maybe you can clarify a little bit what you meant because I'm a little confused am I because you said something about ground rules So I just wanted to know I'm just I'm But I say by ground rules is that when you give the public an opportunity to speak and Then you give an opportunity for people who sit on this side of the table To respond to what the public is bringing up there is a natural risk that People who are sitting on this side of the table can start on and whether it's unintentional or intentional Can start to essentially be debating with the members of the public about what they're trying to do When they're bringing their opinions and their and their views and their values and their interests in their experiences Before us and so without actually characterizing whether that particular question was in any way problematic I was simply trying to say really to Dr. Morris But also members of the committee that we're here. We're here to listen. So as you're thinking about how to respond Please try to keep it in that spirit of answering our question not debating Yeah, so I'll just I'll answer very directly. So The way our process works and I think in a prior meeting Dr. Slaughter talked about this is Principles directors get together. We look at our budget amount and in this particular instance I don't disagree with anything you said about world language The reality was we have declining enrollment in our schools And we look at places that perhaps haven't had budget reductions or some budget reductions Over the past few years in fact world language has had budget increase at least one budget increase in recent years And we look to places where we feel like a reduction can be made with the least impact to students Not a bad word to miss spitzer's question in my response before we're not talking about reducing a language We're looking at you know class sizes and maintaining our offering of four languages In our schools. So if I didn't have to do it, would I not do it? Absolutely But that's the process that our principals and directors look at So okay, so can you thanks so can you tell me a little bit more about These budget reductions in terms of staffing supplies. Can you give me some examples of what that means? I'm not quite sure with that. So we're still working through we're in February So we're still working through but I think to the point that I mentioned I tried to mention earlier is that we always try to see if there are administrative Reductions to be made can we make them and can we still support goals of the district without them? And we feel like in a variety of areas we can make those reductions Okay So so my other question was Can you explain a little bit more about like how how the whole thing about the town budgets? Because that that's also not something that it's very clear from what I had a conversation with one of the members of this school committee and so some of the information is that And I tried to look something up in the media and there was nothing so I maybe I'm just not googling, right? I don't know but So there's four towns. There's four budgets Apparently last year or the year before the towns kind of agreed to Was it an amount or a process? I wasn't quite sure so if you can clarify that and then So Amherst is I believe it was Amherst and another town two towns were Kind of in a continue with that agreement that was made and then two other towns work I like well, we don't know we can so can you clarify a little more about What that process is and what exactly are these two two other towns? saying about You know the you know how much they can give how much they can Sure, so Anybody can answer that right I can keep going So They're different assessment methods assessment method what I mean when I say that or what we mean We say that is how the costs get divided up to each member town And so I would say over the past five or six years has been strong disagreements among the member towns about What is fair? So for some towns they've advocated for we should pay the same dollar amount per people So if your students coming from Amherst leverage you'd spare Pellum It should cost whatever the cost is it should be even across the communities and other towns have felt like that's not fair That there should be some wealth component that gets attributed to that What makes it additionally say wealth component meaning like the the percentage of wealth in those town The reason I'm speaking in vague terms is how you define wealth in a community is one of the touchpoints in this debate So I'm not gonna I can't go further most of us from poor working-class think this is I think for both Carried out as well as the public who are watching I mean so the the the district When it combined and created league the legal documents that create our district in that agreement Which is typically called the regional agreement all four towns agreed to a Methodology for you know charging each town their share of the town costs for educating their kids And the in that agreement that's sort of like the charter document It says you'll charge each town like a purpy an average per-people cost for each each kid And and that's what it's in the agreement. And so for many many years it changed one What what a couple times over like the last 50 years or 60 years, but for the most part It's been that one method for the entire time around 25 years ago 20 25 years ago the state created an alternative statutory methodology For a portioning these costs to the to the individual towns within regional school districts And what they built into that method was the concept that based on a number of factors But a lot a big driver is property wealth like some towns are just wealthier than others by the value of their property It doesn't mean you have the income to pay your property taxes, but on paper you look like you have a lot of money and And they built in the idea that that it's it's fair or reasonable to take into account the relative wealth of one town or another When when assessing those individual towns and so what you had is you had member towns of the fort of the four towns Who felt like they were getting the short end of the stick so to speak by not taking to a current wealth start to advocate for an alternative assessment methodology like the states that would Adopt that and that was like what six years ago or something Yeah, something something like something like that and so so the short the long and the short of it is over those last six years The towns have been doing a lot of work sometimes arguing Sometimes sitting down and looking over complex spreadsheets and figuring out is there really a fair way we can do this That would make all the towns happy The the short the short answer also is that the four towns have failed to ever come up with an alternative methodology That made everyone happy and they made everyone feel like they were being treated fairly And so what we've been doing is year to year the towns come up with Essentially a one-year solution or compromise we say okay We can all live with this for this year Last year the four towns all four towns agreed to do a two-year method which is what dr. Salado is mentioning earlier and Essentially because all the town budgets including these assessments are approved by town meetings, and this isn't a bad thing It's a good thing. There's a lot of democracy involved And so you can have members of finance committees or select boards or whatever Decide that they think that assessment methodology is reasonable and then they bring it back to their town meeting The town members hear about it and they have a different opinion or they have many different opinions And they argue about it themselves and essentially that's Essentially, that's what's happened is that the two-year Solution has has broken down and there's a trying to find another effort to find an alternative The interesting thing about this which I think is really really important Is that even though this is supposed to be only about apportioning? Costs to the town like we know what our budget is how much do you have to pay? The reality is it doesn't end up really working that way because if if you have Towns that for any good reason feel like they can't afford to pay what they're paying Then what you end up doing is you're getting into this Relationship between what towns think they can pay and what the budget ends up being and so just as an example In the town of Leverett they've had to cut out of their municipal budget quite a bit of money from the Leverett elementary school As well as other as well as other municipal functions It's a source of really great concern and great angst and anxiety within that community And so I'm not picking on Leverett, but I'm saying it's a great example So when Leverett comes to this conversation about the regional budget They want to be as supportive as they possibly can but they're doing it in the context in which their own town Services that are not part of the region are similarly being cut. Is that a reasonable Explanation and so and this is my last I mean Such a large group of people that have questions here tonight My so are you thinking and this doesn't I'm not trying you know trip anybody out So are you can you're continuing to think? About where to cut where to or are you like set or are you Still thinking because you know we have a proposal right so the the restorative justice has a proposal Right and our proposal is like you know almost the amount of your you know in red. So, you know 300,000 and you know, but the ideas behind it are still there and so Is Are you still thinking about like where in fact are you going to be able to? Bring in ideas and things like that within the budget that you have so are you still thinking about well Where can we cut or change? You know or use something that already exists for something else because it's not working or whatever I mean is that are you? Absolutely am I okay am I being clear because I know you're I know I am in my brain But you are you are being clear and also that's the honestly That's the point of this that's one of the points of this hearing and also dr. Morris mentioned that we're Tending to do another hearing In a couple weeks before you before you make a decision right before there's a boat and so similarly That's that's part of the point is you want to hear from people and then listen to them, right? Okay, so one of the things I didn't hear Enough and even in the equity You know that I would have liked to hear one of the things that I don't hear enough in terms of Like how money is used as I don't hear enough about how money is used with the community and How even the issue around equity how it impacts the actual community and when I say community I'm talking about the families of the children and The community the people that live where the families of the children lives, so we're talking about like the community So that's one of the things that I really you know It's kind of missing a lot. It's that connection and that's why our proposal a lot of the stuff in our proposal talks about You know incorporating and doing things that bring the community in and there's a reciprocity with the community because I You know, especially the community that doesn't show up for these or that Can't show up the communities that You know aren't part of those you know those town meetings where you know people come back and they're like What the hell are you doing over there? And we don't like that and you're supposed to be representing us There's such a large portion of the community that doesn't participate in that and So how do we you know, how do we engage and get that voice and those needs? Into you know into these spaces so that when you're making decisions, you know, you're informed Not just by six cats from the equity task force, which I think we do a pretty good job because we're we're kind of diverse And we also mix with a lot of people in the community So we are bringing a lot, you know, but that's not enough, right? So I would like to see that and especially in the equity and also I didn't hear anything around students I know Ms. Cunningham said that I don't know if that's her but the impact that These cuts are having on students could haven't I would like a little more clarity about that Like if there is an impact on the student body, what is that impact? You know and and and what are you going to do? If that impact is important, what are you going to do to? Soften the blow. Is there anything else you can do? Right? So we don't have world languages But we're making a cutting world languages But is there anything you can do with the resources that are around here? UMass and holy up Mount Holyoke and Smith and all that to buffer that So that it doesn't look like you're you're taking away But you're saying we'll take it away here because we don't have that money But we're going over here because we think that there's some resources here that we can tap into To kind of minimize the impact and that also goes with the math curriculum So many things that I you know I have all these ideas that are going on my head about things that can be done with the with the Universities that would be either low-cost or no-cost. So Yeah, thank you Thank you this picture I just think I'd really like to point the public towards the Financial documents that are available online because it's really difficult during these hearings to go into the level of detail that I think anybody in the public should be Who's interested and I'm saying everybody in the public should be reading the financial section of the budget document But but we do make that information available publicly in your mind That's really good and I appreciate that but I always want to say that these things these documents and even these hearings and those Things that that is not accessible always to like I would say probably the majority of the population that you serve This is like talk about world languages a completely other language It's a world language of itself that you've just created. So yeah, I just want to bring that to them Right next and I'm gonna interject the fact that this is the reason I said earlier about ground rules is I didn't view what you were saying is debating. No, and I was with carried out around what she was asking for And I'm just sort of clarifying you're sort of adding an additional bit of information Yeah, just because if you just turn in for the hearing You won't I mean this is also available online And I would just really encourage people to to access it as another resource Right debating point. Yeah, I would like to just make one comment. This is my first year going through this I'm sorry. Can I can I do one thing here? Are there any additional comments for this public hearing? Oh, no, no public comments not committee comments public comments I'm closing the public hearing Just answer. I'm sorry Just a piece of information from this because I was Surprised when I read it and and I'm gonna say it for anybody who might be watching or listening in fiscal year 2001 50% of our Eight we we were supported 50% by state aid and other grants other things and this year We are supported 36% by state aid and other factors So that's why the towns are getting squeezed so much and two years ago I'm from Pelham two years ago in Pelham We did not know about a charter school student until after the town meeting passed the budget So we had to cut Police officer position that hit person had just been hired We had to cut that position down and our principal took a cut in salary in Order for us to be able to meet the budget that was required for the car charter school tuition So they're difficult decisions when you get Down to these kinds of things there's just isn't enough to go around This fits for that. I feel like I interrupted you up here. Did you have anything else you wanted to add? No, I just wanted to okay. No, I just double check because I realized that was a weird interlude there on my on my part I apologize but mr. Dunlop. Yeah I mean I just wanted to echo the stanzas comments and that you know It's it's a really good big picture point to be making particularly when we're doing a public hearing and we're talking about You know, this is a brutal zero-sum game where we are cutting things that we don't want to cut and And we're having really difficult conversations that have not let success in the four towns And I think when we are all advocating and fighting together for what we value and what we feel our students need It's important to remember who the real enemy is here And the enemy is not Amherst Palma Lover of Shootsbury. The enemy is the state It's the responsibility of the state and the state's dereliction of duty to support public schools in the cities and towns in Massachusetts specifically not reforming the minimum aid policy for rural Communities and for small towns that distinguish places like Palma Leverett and Shootsbury from places like Welles Lane Sharon and the Charter School funding that Gouges our budget every year for millions of dollars And we would not be having the conversation about can we add this much for electric buses or this much for restorative justice if the Charter School funding was reformed if the minimum aid funding was reformed and so That's all you know nice bluster at the end of the day We still actually have to make these cuts and it sucks But I think it is important particularly when we're forward-facing and putting this in context for the public about what's really going At the last meeting the restorative justice people came up with a budget proposal. What's going to become of that? So I don't know if I'm looking at Miss McDonald's you want to I Mean I'm happy to answer, but I don't know if you wanted to respond I'm happy to yeah, maybe you can add to it. So we're At the at the regional at our committee meeting We were talking about ways that we can address those goals and and work on those within the current budget because so much of that work could flow into Existing resources and existing staff positions. So what we've started talking about we haven't fixed a date yet was to Pull together a group from SCTF as well as administrators the principals the family center RJ coordinators climate coordinators from the different schools to go through that and look and sort of work take take the SCTF proposal and Figure out a way to make much of that happen within our existing resources. Is that yeah? And I think that mirrors the same way Our principals and our directors come up with you know in our budget come up with budget proposals that have Significant ads and they're doing that they're mirror it that process the miss McDonald said is being mirrored in our conversations But their own administrative team and it really is the same kind of process that there's a whole lot of things that you know We would like to do and sometimes our budget doesn't allow for the kind of financial piece So how do we make active positive steps forward within our existing budget? I think actively in yeah, I think the room in my comments at the last meeting Which which I think echoed the notion that the budget didn't look particularly favorable for making significant ads was the idea that we've heard both at the secondary and at the elementary level very significant interest and also adoption of techniques processes and philosophy around restorative justice and The the question I had had Well, which is echoed. I think it was McDonald's saying what you're saying is that I mean we know that To me the reality is if everything is always and I'm not saying it is but I'm saying if one only looks at the bottom line of a Light-eyed line item, then you're not really seeing whether there's commitment to move something forward Because line items go up line items go down and in fact, you know, we talked about a meeting or two ago Mr.. Nothing if we had an unexpected recession We would get walloped with additional cuts that we'd have to absorb and those things happen as a pointed out by miss dancer We've had cuts that happened back in the 2001 recession that have been that essentially been never was never been restored Let alone additionally it's we got in the 2008 recession. So the question ends up being what's the daily work? That's going on for principles directors and staff people How are we engaging with the public around seeing what are the creative ways? We can continue to make progress on these goals adopting techniques Maybe with the second professional development day. There's some workshops that can be put in there additionally And also the reality is sometimes funding doesn't Even funding plans don't always work out in year the way you think they're going to and so if you know If you take this as a static moment, it can seem negative if we engage together on this Then you may find that in September or October. There's some Some federal grant money or something that you that you didn't realize could be Available and fungible that would allow some resources to go in ways that are supportive and helpful, right? So you keep at it and you keep out the dialogue, and I think that actually is a way of maintaining a real commitment and One that can be tested I guess we're looking to move on since I've just gotten an item that suggests we're moving on So maybe we are Thank you very much. Thanks, but actually the next item on the agenda is second quarter budget update So Although in the black-and-white copy you can't see the little colored circles They're all green except for one Which is yellow. So what we've done here on on the second quarter update is is taking our our budget Applied those known expenditures we've done to date and in in most categories as realizing as I was looking at this a little bit more and putting this together that you know some of the projected Conferences for in particular Health benefits, which sort of risk and benefits price a bit low Which is also why it's highlighted in yellow because it looks like we have one point nine million available to spend through the rest of the year We know that we have a number of Obligations to fund our health insurance for folks and so that's going to chew that up So the the long story short on that the reason why that one is yellow in particular is because we are Right at Sort of what we budgeted versus what we what we expect to spend in the course of the year And so it's just going to need close monitoring as we go through the rest of the year That in the other categories within I mean the other expenditures within that category We're keeping a close eye But that area may need ultimately some support from some other areas that might have a more positive More positive outcome over the course of the of the remainder of the fiscal year and we get to end fiscal quarter three which will be the end of March One of a much clearer picture about where we set We are in the fortunate circumstance and I go into this a little bit in the top of the second page about Our special education costs have come in Under what we expected not to the extent we thought when mr. Mangano talked to us at the end of quarter one You know there have been some changing demographics within our school and that's Reduced that but we're still in a positive place relative to our overall budget So that will help us out and will probably help us to support fiscal year 21 in some ways And so in general I think that the short story is things are all right We got to keep a close eye on on our on our risk of benefits and and how those play out over the course of the rest of the year and and you know keep a close eye on on You know our other expenditures generally I mean for example payrolls on target, but there's not a lot of wiggle room there either so You know if someone moves into the district and it changes our need around staffing That's going to make that one a tough area as well. And so You know it's an ongoing you know But it's an ongoing Evaluation of where we sit in our budget relative to what our our circumstances are and so we keep a close eye on those things Again, things are generally in good shape But a couple things to keep an eye on so I think that I'm open to any questions you might have Realizing we're actually Not quite halfway through our agenda, so I'm gonna keep it rolling So the next item is the school choice hearing So I think I'm just going to read aloud the review the superintendent's recommendation for that accept school choice students for FY 21 I often receive feedback on this recommendation So the thing I want to note and there's a memo in the packet for me on this topic that this is a bit of a different recommendation that I've made in in previous years and have been made before me and I'm just going to read it out loud so that everyone has and maybe watching has a packet in front and because it is a change Based on enrollment estimated enrollments in grades 7 through 12 The administration is recommending that the school committee vote not to participate in the school choice program in the 2020 2021 school year acceptance of choice school choice students in the regional district has historically been based strictly on availability of seats while retaining preferred class sizes We do not anticipate having such seats available in the coming year We estimate that there will be a total of 120 choice school choice students Excuse me in the regional district next year compared to 102 this year This is based on having six graduating seniors and estimated 24 incoming seventh graders who are school choice students from our Member for member communities It's important to note that the current sixth grade students enrolled in Amherst Helm Leverter shoots paying elementary schools through school choice We'll still automatically matriculate in the seventh grade at arms Even if the district does not participate in the school choice program that coming year and I'll go more nutshell on this one which is When we open up school choice and don't open up seats It's really frustrating and not fair to families who apply and call back and say are you gonna open up seats? and we've had the experience last year we didn't open up many seats and We only only open up at seventh and ninth grade. I believe and you know We did a lottery for all the grade levels and for families to be waiting Didn't feel great to us It felt like we weren't being we tried to be as candid as we could be and in this particular year We're talking to the principals of both the middle school and high school given the size of the incoming sixth grade class We're not looking like it does not appear that there are choice seats available in other words We're looking like in terms of in terms of maintaining class size We're at capacity and our choice numbers will go up which is healthy for our school choice balance So it's a different recommendation for you all. I'm very open if you want to you know, the committee feels differently That's fine, but at this point I'm None of the administration is looking that will open up seats And I don't want to have a false dynamic where we say we're a school choice district and then Don't open up slots. So can I just ask a couple clarifying questions? Please and I think they're helpful just because of the use of language Yeah, we've talked about this before offline that that you that if we're if we're in a position where we don't think We're going to be able to accept any new school choice students this coming year at the secondary district And therefore we don't participate in this year's program Which would open up seats for new students in the school choice program Program the way that's described publicly is that we're not Participating in the school choice program, right? That is correct. Okay, but there's no functional impact In any way on any students and families that are currently enrolled in the school of choice in our district Not in that's correct. Yes. Okay, and a decision to not participate in school choice this year does not This is kind of double. I don't want to double or triple negative if we don't participate in school choice this year We could still choose this coming year We could still choose to participate in the following year doesn't make any permanent decisions around this There it's a yearly vote that's required of school committees. Yes, okay Is there anything else of a similar sort of FAQ section question that the public might that you might have? Can I try even more short and concise so not participating in school choice for 2021 Means we're not accepting any new choice students beyond those that are already in the district or rising into seventh grade from sixth grade in Member towns correct. Okay. That was an awesome job That was exact. I was just I was I was envisioning parents out there and folks out there sitting like wait a minute What are they? What are they talking about doing? And what about my kid or what about my green kid or whatever? It's raining as long as it's a one-year vote. I favor it because the town of Pelham school depends Depends on school choice for now. I don't this is a hearing right it is So we're not actually going to be where the committee itself is not going to be debating the subject Although they can ask questions or make a comment. That's correct at the next meeting It would be on the agenda for the committee to debate and make a decision, okay and Are there any other clarifying questions from the committee members that would be helpful or whatever? Yes, Mr. Domenico do we currently get and do we project to get from school choice for the students that are currently back The revenue is greater than than what we're going to use so we'll be building our school choice balance That's the short answer that doesn't get to the specifics. It's over half a million. Oh, yeah, okay For public understanding of what does school choice do for us? He gives us a half a million dollars well at least for the next year's projected budget on to the budget That's correct. Yeah, and and actually I guess dr. Morris What work do you do to try to make sure that there isn't a net additional cost for an added student So it's exactly the work that's resulted in here as we look at the class size What what we want our projected class size to look like and if we took school choice students Would they actually have a choice of electives, right? So some of the core classes are easier to predict because most students enter our typical core sequence But what we were finding last year and why we took so few is that there weren't empty seats in most of the elective courses So I didn't feel like we were Doing that but I think to the broader question now that I think about I'm sorry your specific question We don't add sections or we add courses based on that so we're only filling empty seats in our schools We're not looking to say oh if we take four more choice students We can have one more section of this math course or something like that It's looking really are there gonna be vacant seats in classes how many and how do we fill them? Point of clarification you said Next-year school choice students. I'll be larger than this year school choice Students the number of students will be greater next year than this year And that's due to rising students. Yeah, okay Yeah, the delta between rising sixth grade students and graduating 12th grade students. Okay, so I I'm gonna open up the school. Yes, I just want to I'm recalling the spreadsheet that has the case for the coming year with the 120 Projected it's close to seven hundred thousand dollars of income and that that is there's a base amount for each student and then If they have special education needs that also is added into it That tends to be a bit of a zero-sum game as they say relative to that It's concerned but but the total number of of incoming dollars about seven hundred thousand with this size Student population, okay And so the committee will take this up at the next meeting and I'll open up the hearing and also say this time because we'd last time We just sort of opened it up more broadly if If comments or questions could be limited to around three to five minutes to be great Okay, so what are some of the reasons people Want want choice What are some of the reasons people want to you know choose to go to another you know have their child go to another school so I Anybody Yes, so when we asked that question a few years ago because we surveyed choice families The three things that came up were diversity of the students the elective course offerings and a wide range of Extracurricular activities those are the three things that I remember. I'm citing two years ago off top my head So I could be missing something But those were three things that came up Consistently as I recall some mr. Sullivan was here then does that sound about right? Okay, so when we said revenue what somebody Translate that word language for me like you make money off of so when when school choice students Come to your district School choice to wait before we even go this just a more clarification school choice children can come also from another district Is that correct? School choice is a state program where students who don't live in member towns or communities Attend school in those member towns and communities. Okay, so it's not an internal school choice You know how some people want to go to this is different from the internal school choice. We're talking about other districts outside of the Amherst regional and you're asking you're saying we shouldn't do that this year. Okay, so now my question So the way the state calculator do you want to talk about the Now I think now I actually think I understand a little bit for the benefit of the public watching I think it's a little closer though. So, you know sure so the state system is that for every student who comes from another community $5,000 Comes from comes with that student and as mr. Slaughter said there's if the student has special needs There's an increment that's attached to that and the state gives you that but does it come from the district comes from the other district? It comes from the other district So All right, so missing out on some money if you don't do it but then you might be Messing with some other districts if you do I mean the way I see it just black and white like that You might be affecting another poorer district that may not have the same wealth or whatever it is that people oh this wording, okay So the three things the reason I asked the the three things is because I want to go back to what I said before So if you know that something has Well in this case it wouldn't be that because then the other so Yeah, so I I guess I'm a little I guess I'll go back to why And and I'll try to make it brief so in the restorative justice proposal we talked about kind of being a leader That's the that the district has the actually you are taking leadership There aren't a lot of schools that are doing restorative justice and not many of them have immediately moved into like another Grade which you did which is great. You know you went to the middle school and that was great and so I just I worry that That Amherst that this district, you know the issue of diversity is so big. I know that that's why people come here Even though I would question what that really means because you just you know getting in a room because there's like a lot of people of color Or something doesn't actually make the room Essentially diverse or just for that matter, but so like how does that play into? The mission right so this school has a mission around social justice and multiculturalism and other people from other districts Who just don't have that? Because of the way those schools are structured and those communities are structured Want to come here because we can offer that So I just want to put that out there that that you know when you say no Then you're Kind of saying hmm, you know, you're you're you're not addressing that issue So I just wanted to put that out When you don't any further comments of the school of choice hearing with that I will close the school of choice hearing And as I said to the committee members earlier or my review You will in fact have a bite at the apple to talk about this next meeting I'm sorry, Mr. Sullivan. Do you have a hand up? No, okay. You were scratching or pointing or something Okay Warrant review Okay Item G we are going to table and talk about the next meeting Grinham H grade span advisory board so Given the hour see if I can make up a little bit of time without short changing the topic So where the great spend advisory is we thought we had our last meeting It's famous last words in our community I think we think we have our last meeting and sometimes we find out we didn't and Good news part of that is that last Friday? There was a group of those one parent guardian and a number of staff members from the middle school and also from the sixth grades Who went and visited JFK Middle School, which is the middle school in Northampton that covers grades six through eight in that? Community and I want to publicly thank their principal Leslie Wilson as well as their staff they went out of their way to Give us time in classrooms as well as conversations with Parents guardians who are on their parent counsel the counseling team because one of the thing that keeps coming up is had a students in grade six social emotionally what's the best setting for them and so we had an opportunity to meet with their counselor and Their administrative team as well as some of their sixth and seventh grade teachers We got in about eight classrooms as well to be able to observe what middle school look like in a grade six Great school Northampton was a particularly good proxy for us because it has relatively similar demographics And also from a school-sized perspective their schools a little over 600 students If this change was to occur our middle school would be a little under 600 but in the overall scheme of things pretty darn similar and so it was a really helpful day and one of the community members who Went suggested that we pull one more meeting of the grade span advisory back just to share what we learned because it was you know We did all this kind of theoretical work and reading and trying to put things together And then you actually go to a middle school that's six through eight And you learn things that you can't learn from you know even really good dialogue and really excellent literature and research So we are going to meet one more time in early March But where we are is that we have received reports Starting to work on an executive summary and a summary presentation We have a report preface document and a comparison factors document and I think it's worth noting the group worked on a Document that when it says comparison factors put you know We're looking at areas of consideration potential attributes possibilities and priorities and certain considerations and challenges that Looked at a variety different areas I'm going to mention them quickly because I think it actually brings it to light a little more and what would be the impact of six graders Were educated in a sixth grade a kid of six school versus a six through eight school So the areas that and this was a large group exercise Was academic and curricular programming special education elective options Staffing social emotional well-being family engagement governance by governance. They're talking about middle school administration infrastructure and facilities district viability and the finances Transportation food service and transition planning. So it's pretty comprehensive thorough document that the group put together additionally And a subgroup on the academics put together report I think it's like 24 pages and it has a variety of different information about what potential academic models Schedules and feedback from middle school teachers as well as elementary sixth grade teachers and finally there was a Feedback and outreach subcommittee report which had recommendations that were more process based moving forward I had a solicit more feedback from our community and different stakeholders as well as a Frequently asked questions document which they asked me to edit because there's some things that just administratively I have tend to have more information on certain things So they put that together and it needs my attention which I have yet to get to and There'll be a lot of appendices as well of all the presentations and information other documents related to this This project so it does push our timeline back a little bit to think about having one more meeting And I agree with the community member. It's time. We'll spend and there's work happening on putting this final presentation together In the interim it's not slowing things down But I think having that group come together once more both through review So the executive summary summary presentation But also be able to hear about the direct experience of a group of I think nine or ten people who went to JFK It would be incredibly valuable So that's sort of where we are. I think Longer term, you know, we hope to get that out. We will get that out in March or April And that really engaged one of the primary recommendations of the outreach subcommittee which this McDonald's a part of was To have some initial surveying so that there's a group in the summer who can take that feedback from the Great Span advisory Feedback from the larger community and put together more of an actual on the ground proposal That can be brought to all four communities as well as to all five school committees, I suppose In the fall that's a little more tangible, but really to get one round of feedback now And to use that to put together a more tangible practical proposal So I tried to capture a lot in short amount of time given the time, but miss mcdonald Am I missing anything? So a couple things is there a quorum of Bellamere? There is not. Okay Aren't you lucky? Definitely a quorum on Amherst The Amherst Elementary Committee so I'm just reminding people to just Do me do me and us a favor and don't talk about the relative benefits or impacts on elementary schools Just don't they'll take it up at a different meeting where you that is legally properly posted So let's step back for a second in the big picture last year you presented sort of a timeline of how you thought You were proposing to approach this and how it interacted with the different committees this committee and with The member towns could you remind You can either remind people of what that timeline was or telling me what that timeline is With with the caveat that by seeing it you're not saying you're recommending moving sixth grade to the middle school at all It's simply there's got to be some General process calendar of how you would engage if at different gating points you move forward we move forward Yeah, I think so that Originally we talked about having a report in February and I think that was a good Aspirational goal. It's not quite where we are But I think for good reason because the engage in the community is worthwhile and rushing that to get to even a process Outcome doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense. We've been additional experience that we're Looking forward to and said, you know getting the group back together again Well some additional information at that point and moving forward looking to get a first round of surveying done this spring for the larger community Which is again not the do you support this change or not because we're not recommending a change We don't even have a specific model to recommend change But what are people's thoughts? What do people see as potential advantages? What are people see as? Things that need to be resolved and that's a really critical component to gaps for that We've got a pretty nice set of cross-section of stakeholders on the Great Span advisory but bringing that out It also Bring much more information to the larger community one of the benefits of having a survey that goes out to a lot of People is they're like wow this is being studied even though we've talked about it here and other ways when people are asked Directly it highlights that this is something that's under consideration Have a group in the summer to Take a look at that feedback the Great Span advisory Come up with something much more tangible Come back in the fall with something tangible for your consideration If you're approval because it's gonna have to come here first in my opinion because it's if you all say like now We don't want six graders in the middle school. It's a kind of a moot point But then really doing much more outreach and I'm not saying you should or shouldn't say that I just want to be really clear process wise that You all have this this committee because you mentioned other committees this committee has a large role in the fall To see how they think about it. What are the potential implications do additional rounds of surveying and feedback and really coming to a decision? Sometime in about a year from now This would be at least at first the regional school committee So what are we doing in the fall and the fall would be you know really around engagement around? with the larger community about whether this thing is the worth pursuing or not and Let me take a step back because I think your question I'm also wanting you if you'll forgive me. Yeah, you're I mean I was trying to get you to give a concise Timeline so that people could follow it and I'm feeling you're getting the weeds again Yeah, and people are gonna continue to lose the like if you know what I mean Like there's sort of the topic bullet of what we're doing. Yeah, then underneath that. I think the public I Mean I'm not up by the way. I don't mean this in a bad way Oh, I'm too for anybody watching at home They should be impressed by the fact that for the committee and for you you're doing a lot of work There's a lot of thought there are a lot of process points and steps a lot of check-ins And I think people should feel good and confident that you're gonna be doing that right so I'm just asking like yeah Yeah, I got you please Okay, would you like sure I'd love for someone else to do this So what I have here, and I'm happy to we can we can send it to the committee after after this evening and Potentially, but so it's a rough timeline That sort of has a bullet points pretty succinct not a lot of detail and So we had the report in February moving that a little bit to the spring But in the bucket of the spring that's the focus is really on having Getting initial feedback initial concerns desires and considerations reaction based on the Report that is going to be shared at the region school committee So that and the FAQ will be posted on the middle school Gradespan advisory board website and then shared to collect feedback from both community and staff That then over the summer and we we sort of likened it to the process that we had with the dual language At a in the Amherst school committee which in that one there was a Discussion about whether we wanted to explore The dual language in in the Amherst elementary school So the discussion would happen here about whether this was something that we wanted to explore and then over the summer That group would work together. There would be a group a new group as Primarily of staff that would put together a more concrete plan for how it could work in the Amherst middle school from there in the fall we would be Collecting additional feedback and input from community and staff on that detailed plan. So again very similar to the process that we had with the with the dual language program in Amherst and then Decisions would be made by the individual school committees in 2021 January February time frame in 2021 for a potential, you know If it were approved by anybody in the region first and then any of the individual elementary school committees Would happen in the fall of 2022 You said in the fall you collect information does that mean that there'd be actual meetings of Parents assembled in the fall for them to express their opinion. Yes Stands it Could you clarify again so the school committees would vote It's down the road you said when would that be so first the Our committee right whether we wanted to have sixth grade or enable sixth grade to be in the middle school Then the individual elementary Committees would need to take it up and and have those deliberations and discussions and make decisions And I don't know that there's a fixed timeline on that I think fall So I guess my question then is so for example in Pelham Would that then also have to go to town meeting or is that strictly a school committee decision? There's two ways That if this was pursued and desirable that it could happen one is a rental agreement Which would not need to go to town meetings because it wouldn't affect the regional agreement The other is to fully and particularly in a scenario to be very blunt about it where all four towns sent their sixth graders My personal opinion is then you really a rental agreement for space doesn't make a whole lot of sense if all the towns are sending Their students and then if it was an adjustment to the regional agreement it would have to go to town meetings in town council on the emers, okay I'm not sure if I should feel this way, but given the schedule that you outlined I sort of feel as if the bus has already left the station if this committee is going to be making the first decision regarding this issue then the smaller communities are left with a fear to complete and Explain to me why you're shaking your head can it Do you have any I guess I have a question Do you have an answer to that question and then Yeah, so no decisions been made really what miss mcdonald if I if I can because it's the document we've both worked on is Really the region has to open the door for the small towns for all four towns not the small towns all towns To engage in the dialogue and debate because of the regional school committee says we don't want six graders in our middle school It doesn't really matter what the elementary district say because the region owns the middle school and the region as an entity owns it No decisions been made and I'll be very blunt with you There's a lot of diversity of opinion right now in the larger community as well as on the grade span advisory Around that topic so the reason the region has a more significant initial role is because they are the owner of the building that If this was to occur six graders would be educated in I understand that but that doesn't mean that the Decision might not be made initially by this group which puts the pressure on the elementary schools to Make a decision that they might not originally have wanted to make So mr. Timley actually has a floor next home so I mean, I'll just make me another attempt to explain mr. Dr. Mars said I think I like the analogy It's you know if if the sixth grade is going to come to the middle school at this committee Overseas the middle school building right the physical building that is the Amherst regional middle school building gamma So if it's our job to open the door. It's it's it's making the invitation right it unlocks the door It's completely up to the and individual elementary school committees of Amherst Pell and Levin Jutesbury to decide independently if they would like to At that point sit let's let's say in a scenario in which this committee says yes We'll allow sixth grade in the middle school It's up to those four communities then to to make their own decisions about whether to come or not Well, you know like independently the thing I want to say though, so I don't But the comment I want to make before is on the schedule it does seem kind of long I know it's a huge change But it feels kind of long to me the only maybe tweak I would suggest is to shoot for this committee making a decision by December of this year as opposed to starting School committee starting to make decisions in January. So it's only a month But since this is the first domino that has to fall and if we say no, then that's it I think it would be a natural sort of conclusion point and we've already had Experiences where if you want to get something it's proper do will allow dates to to slip So I think that would be a little more I would like to ask my question so I thought I understood miss mcdonald to say we would vote on oh on Considering it it didn't say we would vote on doing it. It was a vote on opening up the exploration That is that correct Yes, okay. Thank you. I Thought you said you I I thought though that I Thought there was a vote like at the end of this academic year to on the exploration question And then there's a second vote that could be in January or as mr. Demling said maybe December That would there would be a more formal vote of we are officially saying we would enter into agreements That allows six grade kids to come here Correct. There's there would be two votes of this committee one to explore it and Work on devising and develop a potential plan It begin begin I'm just reading again in the sub for so for summer of 2020 pending a positive vote from this committee to explore it That plan would a staff working group would be convened to develop a concrete proposal to bring back to the community Staff would also engage elected officials in the member towns and ways to implement the change So that's where the discussion about rental agreement or change to regional agreement and then This district would consider what capital needs we would need to make to where we to make that shift and then in the fall is when Deliberations happen and a decision here whether we're opening the door for six graders Would happen. Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna call on myself The One of the I was I was really excited to get this on the agenda And one of the reasons I was excited to get on the agenda is You know There's I don't know. I'm trying to think of what metaphor analogy to use and I'm so I'm not going to bother one This is an enormously complicated process with many moving pieces Different communities that are going to have significant interest in the topic and There are so many ways I don't even know what going wrong means Because the entire point is you'd have to have a position that you believed in in order to say it was had gone wrong And I don't even know that we have a I mean, I don't mean I mean I don't mean as a group We clearly don't know as a group, but I mean even as individuals I'm not even sure we have anything in front of us that would allow us to say we have an opinion to know Whether it worked or not so what I do know we could say is that some processes work better than others and that is Definitely possible to say that this process could work well or work poorly Irrespective of the outcome we come to and so I think you've obviously done a ton of work Up into this point and what I would beg I guess I'll see you talk to you Dr. Chris. I'll beg you to do Is you got to you got to come up with a much more defined process and a much more defined Timeline and much more defined language about how you're engaging Different communities of interest and stakeholders and official bodies so that people can understand this process What's going it's actually by the way? Why I wanted to the agenda is I knew that once we entertain this topic either This wonderful flow of words would come out and everything would seem simple and easy and you know Even if we all disagree with each other we'd be like well, I totally understand what's happening. This is amazing Or the opposite would happen and it'd be like well I kind of understand what's going on, but it seems like it's raised even more questions than I need answers right and That's obviously the ladder that's happened right So I just I don't know. I don't mean whether we need Some I don't know how you do it or what assistance we need to do it But I I I beg us to do that because I think otherwise we're not gonna have the conversation We think we want to have I think mr. We know what his hand up and then miss Pitzer Somewhere along the line in the future I wish you to be specific about what votes would be what arrangement would have to take place for the to be a town meeting Vote and pillow on the issue. You said there were a rental agreement and whatever it that now sometime What arrangement would prompt a town meeting vote because it's nothing else the regional assessment is gonna go up When you use the term surveying I My mind went back to that survey ages ago about looking at moving folks to the high school I think and and and I wasn't on the committee. I was a community member with a kid in preschool. I think so I was glad I got it and had an opportunity, but I also feel like I didn't have the context and I'm really concerned That as all of us clearly here are missing some context that surveying the public about their opinions on this without more information about the process could potentially really backfire and we'd have people's opinions about things and How you design that survey who you survey how you get it out is really important. So I I Red flags are going up for me a little bit and kind of had the opposite reaction to Peter actually which is making a decision on this When I'm in January without kind of laying that groundwork of getting word out to this committee Let alone the larger community It's gonna be hard work and I think we need to Be careful as we move forward and I I've worked on Surveys have been in the past and so I'd be I I don't know if the entire committee needs to see it but like I personally would love to Take a look at it Hey, mr. Your response just very briefly so thank you and and the subgroup that worked on it Kind of indicated that they didn't draft a survey because they don't have the Background our expertise. They had some links to other surveys that were used and I think I think it's important to note that we think about surveys We want to the intention of having one in the spring is having it in conjunction with Executive summary and reports so that it's providing not that everyone reads everything that you send them But you're giving it's not just a random survey with no context But actually the reason we're holding off on Soliciting feedback in that way as we want to actually have the report done and have a summary that people can read and Respond to with it and that it's not like do you think this is a good idea or not? It's really trying to get qualitative data about people's interest concerns Questions as opposed to like yay. Nay because we're not there so I thought it was relevant to the question ad I'm not trying to extend I just have a follow-up because as a Mixed methanology PhD and research so I'm just sorry I'm gonna But I'm curious about like maybe focus groups or maybe not doing a survey like the listening sessions were kind of nice in that I think they allowed everybody to go out and Listen, so I'm just curious if that's been considered and maybe in conjunction or I'm just And I apologize because there wasn't any material in the So having been on that outreach group that like that's exactly sort of what is it being entertained Is that very similar to the approach that the Amherst school committee make took in terms of the listening session? supplemented with an online survey that's You know whether it would be as formal as the listening sessions that we did with the Amherst school committee did on that building project or more sort of forums like a couple forums TBD, but yes, it was it would be built off of sort of what we learned in the Amherst school committee process Mr. Sullivan Yeah, it's um It hasn't come up as an official item at the shoots very school committee But unofficially I can assure mr. Fonch the Representative from Leverett that you can hide behind shoots Barry because shoots very Will not be sending their sixth graders down this down the hill Although I would be the first to vote to open those doors wide open to anyone that Would want to send their sixth graders to the middle school Mr. Fonch I Guess I should thank you mr. Sullivan But be that as it may I would wonder if the advisory group has had lengthy conversations about the impact on assessment If Amherst is the only community that goes for this and costs go up What happens to the assessment of the other three towns? Another hypothetical if one of the smaller towns decides to go same question What happens to the assessment of the other two towns that decide not to go and just wondering if you've had that conversation within the group No is the short answer, but Yeah, I think that really gets it some of the work in the summer not just on creating An educational vision and profile but also on looking at the two options whether it's changing the regional agreement or if it's a rental agreement To your point that's different than affecting the regional assessments But that rental agreement would have to have some funds coming from the Amherst schools going to the region and how that gets distributed So just there's a lot of different variables to go to play at play And that's why we really need time without school and session to be able to work through all those So that would that conversation would be in the summer is Their thought of having additional members say of this committee be Involved in that conversation or at least in the audience The Great Span advisory would is what's the sunsetting that's the right term. Yeah So this would be kind of more of a staff group But I think if there are if the school committee I know this is a topic that we didn't talk about tonight But if there wanted to be if there was a desire for school members because this is really a governance issue It's not a staff issue per se who wanted to form a subcommittee do some work with me and others in the summer on the governance side of it I'd be happy to have that group to think about this way. I think I think that's part of I Would strong I would I would strongly urge The collective you to map out where this is going and not what going like we know what the answer is We're predicting the answer it's telegraph, but what's the what's the process and decision map for this and Thinking about the public facing documents inputs information in engagement Because I think it's I just I You know, it's I think this has been a healthy conversation because it points out that we definitely don't have that now And and if we don't get it Then then I mean it's it's like a great example of the discussion of surveys and methodologies and The ways the methods of reaching and engaging the public what information do they have you can you can see how an example of a major Process point that's really a critical point for engagement and and inputs and stuff can suddenly blow up if a number of other different Either deliverables or communication just an example of that I would I the whole vision of should school community members be engaged in some summer working group That really opens up the can of worms of who are the decision makers and stakeholders From the different towns at different levels that would be involved in this decision How should any one of those stakeholders be engaged on a on a periodic and regular basis or engage or for an individual possibly engage deeply in the process so that You're sort of building that circuit of communication and feedback Rather than having periodic moments where people then have sort of this all-or-nothing thing They've got to engage in and I'm not saying what the answer well I'm implying with part of the answer in the same way that the Spitzer clearly was but I'm just saying you We got to see that map It's got to be much much more detailed than it is now and and then I think I think what I appreciated about was said earlier Was there's also resources here, too So rather than simply saying let's throw work on you or for work on you and Mr. Donald There's it is also a question of how do we resource this in a way that we can all contribute to its success All right, we believe it or not. We're still not actually done with our agenda. We have more exciting Superintendent evaluation update goal review which is then also Connected to our timeline I'm putting it over this way. Yes as the chair of the superintendent's evaluation subcommittee. I Just want to kick start a conversation as Just to remind the public one of our primary Responsibilities as school committee members is to annually evaluate the superintendent and there's very Clear guidelines from Desi on how we do that we've kind of developed this process where at the end of the year we go through and Debbie Westmoreland's been great in creating an electronic evaluation tool that we use typically the superintendent has created what we call the artifacts document, which is really I find incredibly useful and It presents kind of evidence and documentation of Progress made with regard to each of the goals. So in the packet, sorry, it's two pieces So in the packet we have the the goals that we voted on And we're approved. So that's this page here. They approve original goals and then the piece that I think Looking for a little bit of feedback on But also just because our superintendent also works for the Pellum and the Amherst elementary school districts and is evaluated by those districts as well I want to say that I've I've shared these with both Elementary committees, but I haven't yet heard back on whether or not this kind of timeline works generally with theirs But we should be coordinating for everybody's benefit so In the past this is often gotten done I think a little bit later than what would be the preference for everyone just because it's nice to kind of end the year I think with an opportunity to discuss what the potential goals would be for next year Not necessarily to have them set in stone But to at least give the superintendent an idea of like these are the things we'd like you to be working on next year So I kind of worked backwards with Mr. Sullivan on The date where our last meeting would be and then I'm sorry. It was actually mr. Funch But anyways, we worked backwards and this was a proposal. So I'd love feedback with the caveat that We haven't heard back from Amherst and Pellum really so this could potentially not work for them if anything they'd want to do it The word is that Pellum might have an interest in doing it a little bit earlier And did you get the superintendent weigh in? Yeah, I mean I'm happy to share the feedback I should you know share with you and with Pellum which is Pellum is interested in having the Evaluation happens sooner primarily because they have an election and a spring election and the past couple years We've had the unfortunate situation where Folks who have been on the committee all year miss the deadline to participate in the super in evaluation by like a week and That hasn't felt great to folks in Deemings faster than this schedule or that this schedule represents a faster schedule They would want to get it to be earlier earlier than this earlier than okay, and I think for a whole host of reasons I think it'd be Come It'd be complicated to do off. There's no good solution. So I'll put it out there like you know I'm just gonna create Tension points in the conversation without without coming up with a tangible suggestion But I think I think that makes sense in Pellum the goals this year and the standards covered are more different than they ever have been which is Both gonna be cumbersome in terms of how this all plays out for people on multiple committees It'd be frankly, you know just the artifact document. I'm not sure it's possible to have one artifact document this year And so I just think I may have to scale down So what that looks like just to be very candid with the committee if I'm doing three artifact documents that probably not gonna be as lengthy as It was in the past so actually I Oddly enough it sort of like they don't have to align because I don't think it really matters if they align or not The downside from workflow conversations if I'm doing three distinct documents I actually having a little bit of gap between them would be Not the worst thing if I was doing one document actually you'd like them to be aligned So again just creating tension points not necessarily solving Solving issues. The other thing I'd say is This doesn't capture if there are any regional members from member towns who have spring elections who either choose not to run again or are not reelected For this role and I think that's probably somewhat unavoidable at the regional level when there's multiple election points You know between the four towns. It's just it's hard to pull off But I would say that I'd be open to thinking about Instead of If there was an interest in pushing this back a little bit That having the retreat perhaps in late June or early July instead of in August that might be an opportunity To do that conversation about goals Historically we've done it in August, but there's no rhyme or reason to that And so if pushing it back was better for the committees or made made more sense I'd be very open to an earlier summer retreat We're actually pushing as an aside our Administrative retreat earlier for the same reason sometimes you do the retreats right before the school year It it it's both like really good to get to think about the school year But so much of the planning works already done that it doesn't help as much as you think it would so Lots of just information to consider on that mr. Punch. Yeah, I agree with dr. Morris. I don't think there's a Solution to this madness other than possibly thinking about Allowing people who are off the committee due to not being reelected Be allowed to vote on officially be allowed to vote on the evaluation to the exclusion of new members We've actually gotten legal advice Attorney that we're not allowed to do that So people who have been on the committee but are gone have no right to participate in the evaluation correct I mean it's it's literally like a statutory matter that The world is binary in terms of school committee status It either are or you're not a member of the school committee And if you're a former member you might as well be on the moon or a former NFL player or anything else you want to be I mean, it's just it does doesn't it they in it. They're very explicit about that very very explicit about that You're welcome. Is there any I know the hour is late, but this is important Is there any feedback on on this? I mean it sounds like you're getting you're gonna get feedback from the other committees and You can revise it for next time. Yeah, the other two tension points that I've seen in the last couple years One is that if we do this too early, then the year actually isn't over yet You know, so we're evaluating you on things that are still in progress and that you're sort of projecting So I mean we could start the evaluation now, but then that you know, you'd be missing four or five months And then if we do it too late and we and we keep pushing then that that delays the starting next year's process Which is something we've always we've all we've also complained about and that it wouldn't it be great if we had Directions over the summer, so I'd say whatever timing I guess I would I would lean a lot on on how you feel you can provide reasonable feedback for your for your year That isn't too unreasonably early, but also gives us an opportunity even if it is a Retreat focused thing in July-ish to set the direction for the following year and I don't think there's any solution to member cycling off and on if we try to avoid that then I think we just pull our hair There is a Pellum school committee meeting Thursday This this week is no we had yeah because it All right, then can you please clarify all those emails about the school committee meeting because we didn't meet last week Yeah, okay, I was just gonna say yeah that it could be discussed at the next Pellum school committee meeting, which I thought was Thursday, but it's not Yeah For some of these goals particularly goal number four, which is the one which around strategic planning work at the school-based plans. I think It's not feedback. It's not our recommendation, but I think it depends what the committee wants to see so that's the one out of all of the These four that probably the later you go the better the quality of the product will be and the better the assessment will be and The earlier will be much more process pieces than it will be more tangible It's really what the committee would want it'll be Earlier later won't change it won't speed up or slow down the process that we have going at the schools around that It's just gonna give functionally different information to the committee. I think it'd be great So it generally I appreciate the work that went into this I think it's good. I think the points that were raised were good and I think finding a way The the golden fleece that we've pursued for a few years is finding a way at the end of the year to start Thinking about the next year in a way that informs summer planning and I think last year we did that and Kind of a fake-out way by sort of like while we're discussing the evaluation People both voted and done a time done what they would like to see worked on which at least by inference gave you a sense of what to What would should be focused on it'd be great to be more deliberate about that if that means an earlier retreat I don't really care, but then again as we know going into The middle of February people are already starting to plan Depending on what they do for a living when you know if their kids get out of school or something when they like Drive or jet whatever place they want to get and so if we don't plan on The retreat like literally I would counter the retreat we start doing that soon because otherwise it'll never happen You'll get close to the 4th of July and everyone will just disappear and then it'll be August Cool So we will move on Agenda planning we do have a gift by the way just to be clear preview of coming attractors But agenda plan what we had for the March 10th meeting which is next meeting Mr. Sullivan has In our facilitator To work to have high school students interested in coming and making a presentation and much like we did with the msans students We think it worked well to have them at the very very beginning for any other topics because as we found out tonight High school students are very busy So we budget hearing and vote food service Is a request for a presentation about food service? Bus contract approval so we actually that's just timely because we have to actually vote to approve that contract Warrant review school choice vote The Student Opportunity Act was passed by the legislature as part of that I have to develop for all three districts a Student Opportunity Act plan Which details how the funds that we're getting from the Student Opportunity Act will be used It's an awkward conversation because you all just had a budget hearing when you talked about but we primarily talked about budget cuts But it is a requirement of the legislature, so we will do that So March 10th it gives an opportunity to see it perhaps a draft of a plan to be voted on March 24th It needs to be voted by April 1st in every district in Massachusetts Pretty for districts like ours that didn't get huge amounts of money. It's pretty small. It's not a huge huge deal But there was a quest for overdue balance discussion for food and athletic that can be linked to the food service piece And then I wanted a yes to come back with green school ideas at the last meeting after we talked about electric bus And I think in March 10th. We'll be able to have a more detailed conversation Mr. Nellman, I'd like to see At the next meeting public comment management, I don't think we need to have a extended long-ranging policy discussion, but just in terms of specific public management Acts and approaches in terms of people sharing time people going over time We've talked a little bit about this before but I think I think You know we've actually it's funny because we we when I was talking to dr. Morris And it was a colonel there was a question about whether like the policy committee should develop a policy But I think you're making a good point mr. Demling that Even before that committee might choose to develop and adopt a policy This committee has never actually had the opportunity to express an opinion on the subject and given a direction to that Direction so to speak it doesn't have to be a vote, but it needs but their opinion their views to provide input So I think that's a good idea. Yeah, it's just in terms of the narrow scope of agenda planning I think it's fine if people want to comment on policy, but my idea for this item would be It would be in addition to policy, you know Like there's a lot of chair discretion for example that goes on with yeah How public comment is managed and how a lot of policies are implemented But it doesn't I don't think it necessarily has to be narrowly focused to you know what what wording do we want Sure, you know of course So I just the other thing I'd say is that we have a lot of stuff on March 10th That is much on the 24th one thing to be useful to do is figure out not that that agenda that I didn't accepted how to like balance the meetings because probably people are hoping that our next meeting doesn't go till 945 We got to figure that out Because we made a promise to ourselves a long time ago. We succeeded for a while. So I don't want to un-succeed I'm wondering so we tabled the subcommittee rolls discussion. Is that something that could be moved to the retreat? Or does that have to be done in open meeting? Who knows what I was gonna say So I think I think it depends on the scope of the conversation so retreats This is a reminder and I know you know this but I'll say for the public. There are no votes taken and this shouldn't be sort of Debating items that potentially might get to a vote So I think if that's clean then that'd be up. Yeah, that's cool. By the way, that's kind of what I was gonna say Depends on how the item was treated You know Okay, so we have a gift It doesn't I'm not looking for a specific time, but I think we're gonna have to have a discussion about icing roads and winter conditions and what happens because Four winters ago. There was one ice storm Three winters ago. There was a week in shoot spray where the roads every morning were iced up last winter There were probably seven or eight and we're already Getting close to that now. We're like yesterday the superintendent Put a two-hour delay on and we were able to get the snow off the roads But by the time though at the same time the regional buses started running It started to rain and so they were except for one that went into a ditch Which I was able to pull out with my truck, but The elementary buses then were all sliding off the road I mean it wasn't it just the timing and it's just it's getting worse So we're gonna have to really talk about what you know, what the implications are, you know One-town affecting an entire school day You know Yeah I was just gonna say I support that and part of the reason I'm tired and cranky and not clear is as Michelle Sullivan knows if We've got more coming. Well, it's like this morning. I went out at 4 30 and checked. Yes Haved roads and dirt roads and they were all fine and at 6 o'clock We suddenly had black ice and shoots berry and then at 6 30 All every single 16 miles of dirt road turned to ice and buses were sliding again I'd be very open. I have that conversation great Thank you for agenda planning just in terms of like The finite set of the meeting and yet it's bursting from so if school committee roles is going to be a discussion Which I don't want to discuss it But I kind of feel like maybe it is Green school ideas is something that could that could go off towards another meeting. Maybe I'm not saying it's not a priority I definitely think it's priority but in terms of time urgency. Yeah, it might not be So so much on the partner. I Don't mean in general Well, I mean, I think there needs to be some balancing in general of the meeting So make sure their genders are more manageable. I think you can do that offline. Yeah, and I think I appreciate that Yeah, I agree and I think it brings up a larger point. That's not actually specific to agenda planning, which is just Agendas are what we're prioritizing to talk about and and so, you know, perhaps Not so much now, but maybe at the retreat I think we did a pretty good job in the past of just kind of resetting that of what are the priorities and Being focused on those priorities, right? All right, so Anyone want to read gifts? From Jones group realtors number seven one seven three eight to support the 2020 Jones group realtor scholarship in the amount of five hundred dollars So we're second Move by spitzer second by stanza. Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor signify on carries unanimously Entertain a further motion spitzer move to adjourn second move by spitzer second to the mcdonald not debatable all those in favor carries unanimously