 Thank you all for joining us this evening. Katie Sutton should be joining any moment. She is a co-principal with me at Randolph Union High School. I am one of two co-principals there. And Lane Millington, our superintendent just joined us as well. Our focus originally for this community forum was on volunteerism. We've had some families reach out to us about, we've had some families reach out to us about wanting to volunteer at the school or help out with some projects. We had a really positive prom planning meeting about a week ago. And we see the real benefit for our students when we're able to work together in that sort of capacity. So we thought that hosting a forum focused on volunteerism would be a really positive thing to do. So that is why we planned this event for this evening. And we're hopeful that we can maintain that focus even though I know that people have other thoughts that they'd like to share this evening. So our hope is to keep the conversation civil, keep it focused on communicating positively with each other and creating community for the benefit of our students. And I'm not sure if Lane has anything by way of introduction that he would like to add or if Katie has been able to jump on yet. But we'll go ahead and get started momentarily. Yeah, no, I'm happy to be here and talking with folks. It's actually, it's good to see folks showing out. And hopefully, I can answer questions that are directly related to me. I can provide whatever insight that folks may be interested in. But again, the big thing tonight is that, keep things respectful. Let's see what we can learn from each other as we have this discussion tonight. I think that's the most important thing always. So thank you. And Katie Sutton has jumped on. Katie, I don't know if you'd like to introduce yourself. And I just framed out what we were thinking when we originally planned this forum for tonight. I'm a little preoccupied as I have to approve people coming into the meeting. So thank you all for joining us. Yeah, happy to introduce myself. Katie Sutton, co-principal at Randolph Union Middle and High School. Excited to have conversations with you all. As Lisa noted, we are hoping to discuss opportunities to further collaborate with the community at RU and open to other topics. All right, would anyone like to jump in? I can share a little bit about the ideas that community members have brought to us so far this school year in terms of volunteerism. We've had people bring up project graduation for those of you who aren't familiar with it. That's an end of year celebration aimed at having students safely celebrate their graduation together. So that's something we've been working with some families on. Prom, as I mentioned earlier, and we also had a parent talk earlier about volunteerism to help support recess, lunches, those sorts of things, just to give kids more positive adults connecting with them in their lives. I see that David Amidon has raised his hand, so I'll talk to David for a moment. Thanks, Lisa, and thanks to my administrative folks for being here and hosting. So I know that there was an email that went out and it talked about Chick-fil-A and some specifics about that. And I certainly am no fan of Chick-fil-A based on their targeting from small business owners through over-aggressive corporate copyright infringement laws. But I wanna just put something out there that is something that I've been thinking about for years and have yet to bring up. And that is just the total amount of advertising that our students are exposed to at school. I graduated high school in 1993. When I was in high school, it was a big debate to bring Channel 1 TV services into the school. The company provided the school with TVs, a closed circuit, televisions, all this stuff and the students were exposed to advertising during their school day. And that was something I fought as a student. Coke machines had the Coke logos taken out even if they sold Coke. So I don't have anything more specific to say about any specific controversies or topics or whatever, but I for one would love to see us using technological solutions to reduce overall advertising that the students are exposed to at school. And I'll just step out one step further and say, speaking as a parent, I feel that way. Speaking as a substitute teacher, I've heard students express the desire to not have all the ads, even when they're viewing, say, a legitimate educational video on YouTube. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I don't know if it needs to be discussed, but like I said, it's something that's been on my mind for a number of years. It's never felt like a huge priority but it seemed like as good a time as any to bring it up. So thank you for letting me share that. Thank you. Kristen Chandler. Oh, thanks Lisa. I just wanted, when you mentioned the prom thing, I just wanted to say like, I had never been involved with that. I didn't know it was a thing. It wasn't with my older child, but I thought it was a great example of parents getting involved, not trying to take over your and Katie's role and Kara's role as the senior advisor, but it was really nice to see a good mix of people come and really help plan that event and continue to help plan it. So I really appreciated that opportunity. Thank you. Thanks, Kristen. Thank you. Yeah, go for it. To add to what you said, Kristen, and I really appreciated that opportunity too. It was actually a lot of fun to get together with all of you for such a joyful occasion, to think of doing something special for our kids. And I really appreciated all the ideas you all brought to the table. And we could have planned it as we normally did, but I thought that this collaboration is exactly what Lisa and I are hoping for in terms of collaboration with the community to serve our kids. So, so appreciate that you came and that everyone else came and that we're continuing this collaboration at such a positive, bright spot, honestly. Yeah, Jessica Allen. Yeah, so the Chick-fil-A is the hot topic, but I think the hot topic is more than just Chick-fil-A. It's about the inconsistencies of the school and where our parents are allowed. Coming from a standpoint of supporting boosters at one point this year, it was like we had all these things planned and then we weren't allowed to have a bonfire at winter because we were told coaches didn't want it, which didn't stem to be. These kids in seventh grade should be coming into that school and looking forward to something every year. 10th grade, ninth grade should be a trip. 10th grade should be class ring. 11th grade should be something if you're not gonna do your as a junior prom. 12th grade should be a senior trip. Why are kids not starting from day one, fundraising for their 12th grade a year? Why are we not able to work as a community and hear people's thoughts and opinions and respect to them and move forward for these kids? Thank you, Jessica. It has been several years since that sort of structure has been in place and Katie and I have been working on reinstating student leadership. We have middle school student council this year, high school student leadership. And so we are starting to make, I think, positive strides in that direction. It's still been a really challenging year in terms of beginning the year with under COVID restrictions. But we are open to hearing ideas and working along those lines. And we did actually have coaches that did say, they didn't want students out the night before a game or a meet. So that was what I heard directly from a coach related to the winter bonfire. So I think that- I was told that was all coaches. And I think there was probably some coaches on here tonight that maybe could speak to that. But it continues to be, we plan things, we try to support the school, and then we get this pushback. It's just, it's frustrating as a parent to be able to provide, these should be the best days of my life. Yeah, I have a kid who left this semester begs not to come back to RU. I have a kid who can't wait to be out of there next year. I have a eighth grader saying, please don't send me there in ninth grade. My kid takes a poop in the school because there's no doors. Everybody comes in and they have a big party in the bathroom because there's no privacy. I mean, our kids don't love that school. They're vandalizing the school. We have to figure out a way to make this a safe, fun, and exciting place and incentives to be there. That is what we need to figure out tonight. Instead of being a think tank, we need action steps. Thank you, Jessica. Other thoughts? Don't know, Katie, if you want to share a little bit about what Sam's PBL has been doing this year, I feel like that might be an opportunity for us to share a little bit about what our students have been doing to give back. Sure, I can say what they're working on right now is they're working on the community garden. There's a community member who usually takes care of the garden, who needs help. And so actually our National Honor Society students and our students from Interact will be helping to maintain that garden with the potential to maintain it over the summer as well. So some extended summer learning opportunities there, hopefully. I also can speak a little bit to what Lisa was mentioning about our attempt to have a renaissance of student leadership. We both have our own student leadership groups. Lisa works with the middle level and I work with the high school level. We have subcommittees that are developed on the basis of student interests. So we have a curriculum committee, we have an events committee, and we have a few different committees that are looking at discipline and policy. And again, this is an opportunity for students to be a part of different interests that they have in participating in the school and having agency in making decisions and informing a lot of our decisions at the school building level. So that's been a real joy. I think for both of us, we can say that, meeting with these different groups on a weekly basis and really getting student input into what it is we're determining and even into what's being offered in our course catalog and some of the decisions we're making about what we offer students on an annual basis as voice and choice in the school. So it's been really exciting and we hope to build on that. And I understand your frustration, Jessica, and we share it. We definitely have not been able to do a lot of what we've wanted to do in the past two years for sure. And this year has been a learning year for us and being back in the building altogether and addressing the various needs that we're seeing for our students and staff. Kristen? Well, I just to follow up on that, I think there's gonna be some acknowledgement that the staff are exhausted from dealing with COVID and dealing with all these, trying to think outside the box and how to deliver services and everything that they've been doing. Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with throwing out ideas. I just, I think to expect, I think what Jessica, what you said was action steps that this juncture I think is a tough, that's a tough ask. Certainly, I hope people can recover and rest and rejuvenate over the summer and start seeing things differently in the fall. The one other thing I just wanted to say was there was some, whenever there's controversy, it feels like suddenly the community is divided and Lane has to weigh in. And I gotta say this latest controversy, Lane didn't weigh in until yesterday. And that really hurt because he is a leader, he's supposed to be the face of the school and sort of giving us some direction. And it was so ironic, I think, that on Saturday in the Vermont Digger, there was an article about divisiveness up at Burlington High School and some real controversy up there. And there was a quote from the superintendent there that was just like so lovely that embraced the whole community and said something about just wanting to have an environment where everybody felt they belonged. And it was just a really nice thing. And I just think, I think that Lane is, I don't know if you don't recognize what an important figure and voice you have, I think you do, but I think it's really critical that you explain some actions to the public when you've done them so that everybody can learn from them and everybody can understand. And I don't think it's gonna fuel the fire necessarily. In fact, I think you've made some decisions in the past and then you've explained them to the public and it's sort of calm the waters. So I just, that would be my wish going forward is that you just wouldn't be, I don't know why you didn't come out sooner to say something. If you thought it would further the, sometimes I totally agree that if more people comment about something, it just kind of snowballs. But I think in your unique position, I think it was important to say something and to say it sooner. Yeah, I have that. I actually, I appreciate the thought because you and I think a lot of like exactly in what you're saying. I did address the issue when it first came up. I was in the hospital. It's been a long year for all of us a long couple of years. And so one of the reasons that I wasn't as active on the weekends and whatnot as I normally end is because I was in the hospital. Just so folks know. So it wasn't an oversight. It was the flesh just wasn't willing at that point in time. So I do apologize for that. Nope. No apology necessary. Sorry that happened to you. So thanks for explaining that. Thank you. Other thoughts this evening. If you see me looking off to the side, I'm keeping a list of what people are sharing. Dana Decker. Hi everybody. I'm here on behalf of racial justice and NHS to announce, wait, do we have to stay on this topic Lisa, Katie, or could I do what I wanted to do in to announce that we're having an event on May 7th for Ukrainian awareness at the rec center from 11 to four. And we're gonna have music and art projects and a potluck. So I just wanted to invite everybody and know that you could reach out to any of the students that are in the RJ class or in the NHS and ask them about it and the more the merrier and any volunteers, please reach out to either Kelly Tucker or myself. And thank you. Thank you Dana. Other thoughts on ways to connect with our students with the community or for community members to push in and volunteer or surface some challenges that you think we could put more attention or pay more attention to and work with volunteers on. David White. Hi, Lisa. I'm not exactly sure what the need is for all of those things that have asked but I remember project graduation when I was a senior and there was a really positive experience. So I'll volunteer that night if you need another supervisor or whatever I'm willing to help out. Thank you. I think we're just in the very early planning stages. Katie could speak more to that since I work more with the younger kids who have a few years before they get there. Yeah, I've been talking to a community member about project graduation. We started the conversation, I would say, you know, about a month ago and she said the same thing. She said, you know, I remember project graduation. It was a lot of fun. She recollects it from a different school in another state but I think, you know, many of us probably enjoyed an opportunity to have project graduation. So we are in the beginning stages of thinking about it and I'm not quite sure that we'll roll it out this year. We really wanna think about it, you know, in a thorough way and make sure that we really have the resources and capacity to do it well. But I'm really open to that conversation too and if there is a lot of community interest in getting it off the ground this year, I'm absolutely open to hearing your thoughts and to hosting an opportunity for a committee to form and for us to focus our attention on it. So definitely have the intention to put that together. Are there other questions or thoughts that people might want to share? Jeremy Rilling. Hey there, coach Rilling, everybody hear me okay. Oh no, my dog is responding. So. Yeah, my dog is gonna get loud. I just wanna go back to what Jessica said for a minute and as a head of a program, the basketball program at the school, I know back to the winter bonfire that I was never asked the question as to whether we wanted to do that or not. All the coaches that I have spoken to were not asked as well. And I know you said that one coach responded that they didn't want to. I just wanna make sure that that's out there that that question was never asked of me and what the team wanted to do. I also wanna just quickly mention that Jessica said, you know a lot of kids are looking to bail out of school. I don't know if you have any data on the number of requests for school choice and also there's also rumors going around that even members of our own school board are sending their kids to other schools. And I think that's a really interesting topic that should be discussed. Thank you. Thank you. We do have data on the number of students requesting school choice. I was just looking, I can't pull that spreadsheet up immediately. I think I have it, I'm looking for it right now. Okay. I'm looking too, Lisa. Thank you, Kara. We've had a non-COVID cold going around school and other health issues that people have been facing. So if some of us sound a little raspy. Yeah, so we have been digging into some of that data, Jeremy, typically we have more students coming in than we have going out. But it has been a challenging time, I think in schools across our state, not only in Randolph, it's just been a really challenging year in a lot of ways. Kara has raised her hand. Sorry, I have voice nodules, I'm not sick, I just can't talk. So it's two who've requested to come in and six who have done stuff to go out, but not all of them were accepted. Thank you, Kara, for that information. And I think that speaking about what Jessica said about the bathrooms, that is an ongoing challenge. We do normally have about seven bathrooms open with doors on stalls. And we have single stall bathrooms throughout the school that are open for students. But early this school year, there was a TikTok challenge related to vandalizing bathrooms and that vandalism has continued throughout the school year. It's just been something that's been incredibly frustrating for all parties involved, especially for our facilities staff who have worked tirelessly really throughout this pandemic to make sure that the schools were clean and sanitized. And then to have breakage on top of that has just been incredibly challenging for everybody. And it's incredibly challenging to determine who exactly is responsible. Nathan? Yes, good evening. Nathan Wright graduated in 1995 with David White and Jeremy Relling. Along the topics of what Jeremy and Jessica said, I've had a son that's gone through this high school and I have a son that's coming into seventh grade next year. And my wife and I have some major concerns with some of the policies and some of the things that are going on in the middle school and high school. And one of those things is the bathroom issue. I'm just curious if the vandalism is still going on and it's not comfortable for students to use the bathrooms, what are the police finding in the investigation? And for these children or students that are vandalizing, what are we doing to prevent that and to make it safer for the students to use the bathroom when they need some? The other thing I think just looking at my list here that I've made talking to other parents in the communities and I had this fluctuation with my oldest is we try to get involved with our students' education. And one of that thing is to keep up with their grades. And what we're finding is it's very challenging for staff to keep the grade updated on the mobile app. I don't know what you guys are using now but I know it's a challenge for four years with my son Logan for us to keep on top of what work needs to be done. And I know that they have a certain expectations of responsibility that they need to do on their own. But for us to be involved in their success, it's nice to have those updated regularly. So we can question it, so we can call the teachers, college meeting with the students or our children and come up with a solution. And I know we're all very exhausted with COVID, it seems like an ongoing thing. And I applaud all the staff and teachers that keep plugging away. Just keep in mind too, for us parents, we had to sacrifice some careers so we can stay home with our kids too. And we're all very exhausted. But as of now between the drug dealing that's going on in the school and some of these bathrooms that get locked single stall, the random hookups and sexual activity in these bathrooms, the cell phone usage in the school is a big issue for me. I saw a downfall of my oldest son being exposed to content on other kids' phones when they're supposed to be learning that we had not been ready to expose him to, mostly pornography, videos that are inappropriate and even music choices in the summer and eighth grade level. I really feel as a community in the school we need to really focus on what content is being brought in. And even though they're not on the school Wi-Fi, they still have access to it on school time and can expose other students to it. And quite frankly, I'm very concerned to the point where I'm not really comfortable sending my kids to school in seventh grade next year. Based on what he's gonna be exposed to back, based on the lack of action of the vandalism that's going on, it's very concerning. Thank you. I'd like to say we have taken action related to the vandalism. Sometimes the vandalism happens again so facilities will fix it and then something else occurs. It is a frustration. I would appreciate an email or some direct communication if you have information about drug sales at school or any of those sorts of things. We do have a persistent problem with vape. I think it's a problem that exists in our communities and in many schools. And I'm not naive to the fact that other things can happen at schools. It's just that vape has been our most persistent challenge so far this school year. But I appreciate the concerns that you're raising and I'd love to have a conversation that's a little more detailed that's not in a public forum. Thank you. Kate, we have you yet. So if you would like to share and then Jeremy I see that your hand is raised again. I just wanted to, of course my kids are a senior and a junior and we didn't give them phones until they were in eighth and ninth grade. And I know times change very quickly. And when they were in eighth grade it's different from society wise compared to eighth graders now. But I think we as parents bear some responsibility about children, our children and the exposure of what they are seeing on TikTok or whatever else is out there. Yes, there is some responsibility in the school but when I've been in the halls and such I see a lot of teachers saying put your phone away or explaining why their students have phones out. They're doing a project and they need to look something up but they're being monitored or whatever it might be. But I think as parents we bear some serious responsibility as to what content our children are bringing into the schools. And when I say that I'm relating to the bathrooms I'm relating to what other kind of bullying may be going on. What other kind of programs they may be using. I don't know, because I'm not an eighth grade student I'm not an eighth grader, but I know I have a responsibility to make sure that my children are not exposing others or getting exposed to things they shouldn't be. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you. Jeremy. Just real quick, I just wanted to touch base I know we were talking about facilities and such and as a varsity basketball coach we get to visit whatever 10, 11 schools a year and I will say that our staff does a great job. Some of the locker rooms and such that we go into are not always the nicest and clean and again I just wanted to add that our staff does a good job there. Thank you. Thank you. Dana. Hi. So, I've been a teacher, a special educator and a teacher at the high school for 11 years. I'm at RTCC now. I have two kids that RAS. And I come to these community meetings because I care and I love these kids but at what point do we start talking about how the issues that are happening in schools a community problem too? The lack of social resources and the lack of mental health resources in our community is not helping. And there's only so much we can do as teachers at the school. There, I know that myself and my colleagues I can't think of one teacher that works at RTCC or RUHS that does not care deeply for these kids. And we are trying, but sometimes the trauma that has happened to these kids especially over the past two years especially growing up and the lack of support that some of our students have it makes for a very hard school day. And so I know that our students come to school and they depend on us and it's a safe place for them. And we're trying to make it a safe environment for them but we do not have it's really hard to catch people while they're vaping. Some people don't smell it. It happens in all sorts of places. You can't have cameras in the bathroom. It's really hard to help students that can't access their education at the time and find a place for them. So we could talk things out so that other people don't see the trouble that they're going through. And now I'm rambling but like I think it's important for the community to know that this is a community problem too. And we have to take it as a whole village and figure out what is going on and how we could get to the bottom of it and how we could get more resources in the community in order to help. And I think that's my bottom line. Thank you Dana, Kristen and then Kara. A couple of things. One is a while ago, I wanna say it was pre-COVID. We teamed up, the high school teamed up with Gifford and brought in some people who were experts in the field of vaping and had some really great discussions about that. And I was part of some other, I don't know if it was this community forum or something else where it was like me and one other parent who showed up and there were some folks from Gifford and it feels like that was like maybe four or five months ago. And it is a community problem Dana and we have this great resource right here in the community which is Gifford and they have some experts in the field. And from my work, I just know that the peer to peer thing is what I think is really gonna help. And kids aren't gonna listen, they're not gonna listen to the parents and they're not gonna listen to adults. They're gonna listen to each other about the dangers of vaping once. And there's a way to, there's a couple different programs where kids can become educators of their peers. So there's that. The other thing Dana, I don't know if you're aware but a year ago we had a community event where we around mental health and we showed a short film ahead of discussion. And as a result of that here in Randolph there's a monthly group of people that gets together including Steph Leonard, the nurse from RTCC. Sadie has signed up but she's never been able to come but there's different community folks who just wanna talk about what mental health resources are available in our community. And there's a lot of focus right now on the school. And we've talked a lot about mental health first aid as a free offering for staff, for coaches, for administration and the program that is also a peer to peer thing for high school juniors and seniors to get trained in mental health first aid so they can be the peer support for their colleagues, their friends given the high rate of suicide among adolescents in Vermont. You know, we're way too high. I think we're fourth in the country as far as our statistics on adolescent suicide. So somebody mentioned that it would have to happen at an in-service day or something but it has to be a priority of the administration to like actually have mental health first aid be a thing that's an eight hour class that everybody could take. And I will just say one more time that when I was a coach I was required to take CPR and concussion protocol. And I really think coaches ought to be required to take mental health first aid. They're such a sometimes the only positive adult for kids. They can have such an influence over kids. And I think it's a great resource that we have right here that's available for free. And it is time consuming. It's a whole day, it's an eight hour program but it's invaluable when you think about our students' health. Thank you, Kristen, for that reminder about mental health first aid. I think I joined the initial showing of that film and then lost the thread but I appreciate that reminder. Kara, you raised your hand. Yeah, and I'm going to try to talk for those of you who don't know me I'm the director of student services. And I work with seventh and eighth graders as their school counselor and then half of the 11th and 12th grade. I also oversee all of our student services support. So that includes a licensed social worker, a licensed mental health counselor and two school counselors and SAP. Additionally, I've done things like campus life and I'm a cross country coach. And I guess a couple of things that come to mind one Kristen, I have been in collaboration and talks with Clara Martin about getting us the first aid training and my understanding is 10 of us, if 10 of us do it, then we can actually train ourselves after that. So we have been working to make that happen for 10 of us. And we are trying to collaborate more and more from our end with Clara Martin. The other thing I just wanted to point out is like I've been at Randolph for 15 years. I care deeply for the community. I don't happen to live in the community. I have a daughter who is in sixth grade who will be going to Harwood next year based on where I live. This is not a community problem either. It's a state problem. Harwood has the same issues happening. They have vaping happening in the bathroom. It's not just us, however, it does take a village to think through what we're going to do to address the problem. And if it becomes blaming one group over another, over another, that's not problem solving. That's citing blame when there's, I don't think there's blame to be cited. I think it's just an issue right now of people are very dysregulated after two years of isolation. And how do we work together? How do we come together? How do we collaborate and show kids that we ourselves are ready to be self-regulated? If I lived in Randolph, I would certainly feel comfortable sending my seventh grader to Randolph. In fact, she joined our middle school ski trip and was part of an eighth grade group and thought the kids were great. So it saddens me for us to think that it's something's wrong with our school, I think, or our community. I think it's, we need to expand our thinking to think through there's been a global pandemic and the aftermath of a global pandemic is going to be that mental health has suffered. And how do we think through that? So anyway, I appreciate all of you. I love the Randolph community. I'm sorry that my voice is wonky. And if anyone has questions specific to mental health services at RU, certainly I'm the person to contact. I think the only other thing I would add, Kristen, to what you were saying about Gifford is that we have started a partnership with Gifford and we have been working with them on cessation and we actually just rolled out our high school group last week and we're gonna offer a middle level group as well. And through Gifford, we're also offering that as a resource for our students to meet with the experts who work at Gifford as well so that they can also have direct services for cessation through Gifford also. Yeah, I don't know if she's willing to speak to it but Katja Evans is on with us this evening and she has been an important part of that partnership with Colin Andresic. So Katja, if you're able to, it would be great if you could share a little bit about the work that you and Colin have been doing. Sure, I'd be happy to answer some questions about that and give a little insight into that group. So that arose out of recognizing that there is kind of a need for support for students in school and meeting kids where they are as well rather than into outside resources. So we have created a group. We actually are leading two groups now. We have started last week in school, a middle school time and a high school time. These are currently open sessions that students can participate in where they can come and either if they themselves are concerned about their habit, they can meet with us individually in a supportive and confidential environment to discuss that or if they have concerns about friends or family member usage, we can talk to them about that as well. So we are just really trying to help create areas and avenues for kids to be able to explore this, understand, ask questions and feel that they can come forward if they choose to. And on that note, we are still trying to work on expanding other supports that we can make possible for students that have been identified as wanting to quit and making sure that those supports are readily available and basically there when they make that decision to help them out. So we will continue to work on that and we'll be seeing kind of what's working in the school and for the students and staff and faculty and where we need to make improvements or changes or work that structure differently. So we have started that as well. Thank you, Katja. And it does feel really positive when we connect with students who share that they're working really hard on quitting and that they hadn't realized how addictive Vape was. And we are beginning to hear some of that. So that feels really hopeful to me. Amy Ferris, I see that your hand is up. Amy, would you like to share? Oh, sorry. I didn't do it. So I have two thoughts slash questions and I would agree with much of what I've already heard. I have two graduates from Randolph and one, I'm a graduate myself and a sophomore. So my two concerns or thoughts, one is I'd like to see the Tech Center and the High School work together more. You know, having a student athlete, having a child who's played sports for other schools because we didn't offer those sports, I've seen a lot of schools, I've seen a lot of collaboration between schools, tech centers and their high schools, which definitely adds to the spirit of a school. When you can get posters or flyers or technology to record ball games or what have you, I'd like to see the Tech Center and the High School work together more. I think that would do a lot for our students and I think that would do a lot for the school itself and the community, really. And if there's anything these last two years have taught us, it's that the Tech Center jobs are just as important as the four year degrees. So that's one thought. The other thought is I would like to know for the end of this school year where we've been talking about community and how community is important. Well, at least for some of the kids that I've talked with and for my own son, having the eighth grade passage ceremony and senior awards and high school graduation and then expecting them to come back for three and a half student days is not really embracing community. And the kids at least that I've spoken with and my son are not excited that you're gonna have these celebrations and then the kids have to come back for three and a half days. And I'd like to know how the kids are gonna come back and feel like they should come back. How are those three and a half days gonna be productive if they know that graduation's already happened and the passage ceremony's already happened? Because in their minds, school is over once those celebrations happen. Thank you for those questions. I was taking notes and I wanted to note that Katie and I have begun meeting weekly with Felicia at the Tech Center. So we've been really working on tightening up that partnership because we agree that collaboration makes us all stronger. So I appreciate you noting that and that is something that is in progress. In terms of the end of the school year, we were hearing from RES that their graduation is being bumped a little bit later and we're talking about the eighth grade passage ceremony as well, the eighth grade team agrees that we should move that to the next week now that we know when the final day of school will be. So those are things that we're talking about. We also have been talking about ways to make that final week of school feel productive and celebratory and like a fitting way to wrap up this school year. I think we can either look at that as something that's like drudgery and we have to drag ourselves through those last few days or we can look at it as an opportunity and I know that I at least am choosing to view that as an opportunity. And again, I apologize about my vocal puppy in the background. Katie, I don't know if you wanted to add to that. We have another parent with a hand raised. Yeah, I think the only thing I would add to it is as Lisa noted, we just had a leadership team meeting today and that was a topic of conversation. What do these weeks need to look like? What do we need to balance? What can we infuse in that time with our kids that would be engaging knowing that you're right? It's going to be a challenge because it's later than it has been. I do think we have a lot of agency and control over what that balance looks like and how we engage kids. And so as Lisa noted, I think we're all looking at it as an opportunity because we do get these extra days with kids that we don't normally have an opportunity to have with them. And so it is going to be important that we're thoughtful and purposeful and strategic about the way in which that time is laid out. And so that's what we are focusing our energy on at the leadership team level. Thank you. John Hellfant. Hi, John Hellfant, parent of three children at RUHS and RTC. I just want to be clear on the facts first. So first a question that the Chick-fil-A fundraiser was canceled by the superintendent. I strongly recommended to the coach to choose a different vendor for the fundraising. So you can call it, yes, I put pressure on him to do that. But he did agree to do that, which I thought was very gracious of him. Okay, so I guess my comment is that I think the school probably shouldn't get involved in canceling fundraisers unless, and I think there are some situations where the fundraiser is so egregious that adults should step in and shut it down. I don't think Chick-fil-A is one of those situations. And I think we lost a really good teaching moment for kids and that teaching moment is the fact that the world is made up of a lot of different mores, a lot of different ways of doing things, a lot of different beliefs. And we could have taught them that in America, capitalism, economics are things that kind of run our country. And if they were allowed to have the Chick-fil-A fundraiser and people that don't believe in that company didn't come and they didn't raise a lot of money, they would have learned a lesson in economics that you have to basically provide a product that people want. And if it was successful, then they would have learned that it's something that can make them money. So I think we really just lost a good teaching moment there. And I think we're kind of sheltering our kids some, we gotta send them out to the world and the world is full of a lot of different dangers, pitfalls, good things, bad things. And I think we kind of did some sheltering here with canceling the fundraiser. And they need to learn how to live in the world that they're about to enter on their own. And I think when we cancel fundraisers, we're kind of telling them, we're gonna make those decisions for you and they don't get to learn. Lisa, I think you muted. Great. Thank you, John, for your perspective. Laurie, Sergeant, you're unmuted. I don't know if that was because you wanted to share or? Yes, this is their husband, Mike, and I do want to share, please. Okay. This is Mike Sargent and my wife, Laurie. We were both born here at Gifford Hospital. We both graduated from Randolph Union High School in 79. Our son graduated in 99. Our daughter graduated in 2004. Through, my son played little league, played all the high school ball. He played legion baseball. He played five years of legion baseball. And I'm really having a hard time with this Chick-fil-A thing because my son and our family are proud owners. My son owns a Chick-fil-A franchise. And I'm really disappointed to think that our own town will not accept our son's Chick-fil-A franchise or any other Chick-fil-A franchise to sponsor fundraisers for kids. I just can't, it just floors me. I know that there was issues in their beliefs. You know, their beliefs is in same-sex marriage. Well, there's at least two Chick-fil-A franchise in New England that are owned and operated by same-sex marriage people. So I don't see how you can hold that against them. It's no different than Black Lives Matter flags. We all have to do our changes. We have to forgive and we have to move on. We can't just let something like that go like the Boston thing that happened back in 2012. It's just wrong that we hold that against our society today. Thank you. Thank you. I said, I'm happy to respond on Chick-fil-A but nobody's really asked me a direct question about it. So I also wanna respect the comments that folks have made but if folks do have direct questions I'm happy to answer anything that folks have. Yeah. If there are questions or closing thoughts on volunteerism and opportunities at school, I'd appreciate it. And Hannah Arias, I see that you have raised your hand. Thank you. I have, thank you. I just have a response to a phrase used and that phrase was move on. And I think it's important to note that it is present. Homophobia and transphobia is present and it is present at Randolph Union High School. It is damaging. It is currently damaging. So the thought that we need to move on from something like that happened two decades ago is that triggered me. So that's all I have to say. Thank you, Hannah. David Amadon, you have a raised hand. David. Hi, I'm sorry about that. Can you hear me? Am I on? Yes, okay. The talk about the kids not liking the school. I mean, I've heard that a lot. You know, I was there 10 years ago. I've had nieces and nephews that have gone through that school, the last one graduating last year and I've got kids in that school. And my son comes home expressing real deep anger that I don't remember feeling when I was 14 at the homophobia and transphobia he hears in the school from kids that he likes to think are his friends and how he doesn't know how to deal with that to the level that he's seeking as a cisgendered straight white male the most privileged category he can be in in seeking mental health care because of a hate he's exposed to. And Hannah, I echo that. And Lisa and Katie, this is not a criticism of your leadership. The school has gone through some challenges. The world has gone through some challenges. We've had some not created administrators who have done truly bad things. I'm sorry to say that, but you know, there's a lot of truth that's being said here and it needs to be respected. I wanna echo what Hannah said. I really appreciate her saying that. I appreciate the decisions that were made. And I think that the nadir is past and we are on an upswing. And I appreciate the work that's being done there. Thank you. Thank you. Dana? Yeah, and I couldn't just sit here and not talk to go along with what Hannah said, the racism in our school is out of control and hurtful too. And you can't just walk away or turn off being black or brown or Asian or a BIPOC student at our school. And so you can't walk away from what is, you can't walk away from LGBTQ, you can't walk away from your identity. And we have to start worrying about, I'm not saying feeling sorry for or enabling, but we have to start worrying about all students. And thank you, Hannah, for raising that awareness. Thank you, Dana. Other thoughts? This hour has gone by pretty quickly from my perspective. John Hellfatt? I think on this topic, since we got into the nitty gritty on it a little bit, I think we need to, look, we're all created equal. We're all equal people in the United States of America. We're supposed to be. And I think there's people with Christian values. There's people with non-Christian values. And I think the school's job is to teach these children how to respect one another, even though you have different values, that we treat each other with kindness. And even if we discuss, maybe we need some discussions on these issues where kids actually get together. Christian kids, kids that have differing beliefs, kids that may have, I don't know, maybe some kids don't wanna talk about their homosexuality or any other gender issues that they may have, gender identities that they may have. And kids need to learn to negotiate these. They gotta go out into the world and live among a hugely diverse population. And they gotta learn how to talk to one another. And if kids are coming home angry from one side or the other, I mean, Christian kids can come home and feel like certain things are being shoved down their throat. And that creates them to be upset as well. So somewhere in here, we're missing the boat that we're not getting these kids to communicate with one another and treat each other with respect. Thank you. Nathan Wright? One thing I just wanna add, and I think David White and Jeremy and some of the older alumni can attest that Roger Ennis used to be a teacher, or RUHS, and he was probably my favorite teacher. And one of the classes he taught was humanities, which talked about basically respecting one another, how to debate how to walk a mile in another person's shoes and really teach that and really open up and students think it. And it probably was one of the most effective classes for me personally that Roger taught on how to cope outside of school and how to deal with different personalities and different types of people even though you disagree how to respect them. So as far as an academic standpoint, maybe, I don't know if you guys offer classes like that, but having it in a controlled environment like a classroom, being able to discuss it, not so much a committee, but a class that people can take. And I think the other thing that should be brought back if you don't have it is Mrs. Hutchison, you teach on your own, where you learn the basic necessities of what interest rates are and taxes and the basic life stuff. But, you know, back to Mr. Ennis just having those kind of classes. He had a few others that just talked about human personalities and how to deal and respect one another is maybe something that we need to look at bringing back in for students to access. Thank you, Nathan. I was fortunate to get to teach with Roger Ennis at the beginning of my career and I always really appreciated his perspective on things. I was going to speak to some of what you said about teaching, about how to respectfully have conversation, but I noticed that social studies English teacher, Tev Kelman, raised his hand, so I'm hopeful that he'll address a little bit of that. Yeah, I'll go because I'm here with Ozzie and he's giving me a moment of silence. So if I have to pass it to you in a hurry, at least I will. But yeah, I wasn't going to speak tonight, but when I heard Roger's name, I thought I had to. Because Roger was also my mentor in my first couple of years here. And Nathan, I hear that from time to time for folks around town. I never really got to see him teach, but from everything I hear, he's an amazing teacher. And I like to flatter myself that I've tried to follow in his footsteps as far as what you're talking about. I'm certainly not the only one. So I think what I wanted to say to that is I agree with you 100%. I think that the piece that we have to think about as humanities teachers or just people who work with young people and are trying to navigate these discussions is how you balance the opportunity for growth with people's safety. And how you do that when everybody's opportunity for growth and everybody's potential, the things that might potentially make them feel unsafe are so different. And we have incomplete information. I think one of the ground rules I try to follow around debate is that we're not gonna debate anybody's identity, you know what I mean? Like anybody's right to exist or be seen as good. And I think that applies very much to LGBTQ plus people. And I think we got to be honest with ourselves that LGBTQ plus people experience some very specific and unique and dangerous threats in our society. And as people have spoken to that, that I'm ashamed to say is very, very much true at our school, despite a lot of effort on behalf of a lot of folks with a lot of skill and best intentions, but it's a real thing and there are hundreds of years of history behind that. Well, I would apply the same principle to a student debating whether Christianity is okay. You know, like I think if, or rather whether somebody being a Christian makes them a bad person as soon as we cross into that line where somebody's humanity is being debated, in my opinion, it's time to shut it down because there's no room for growth for those people in that situation. I don't know if that makes sense, right? Once you're in a defensive posture and feel like folks are, you know like you're not welcome because of who you are in a community that's not, those aren't conditions that we can teach in. So I just want to like shed that light at least into my thought process and maybe there's others that, yeah we are making judgment calls all the time. I don't know, I like, I hope I've never heard from a student today, but I'll be honest I've heard once or twice like in the heat of a moment that kids felt like maybe I wasn't playing, but I, sorry, honestly just muted me. What I've been hearing is, you know mostly the kids do feel safe and do feel like there's a chance to debate ideas. And sometimes kids come into a class expecting to be shouted down or to be made to feel unsafe. I don't think that kids are leaving classes that are you feeling that way. And to the extent that they are, I agree with you that that's a problem. So I just wanted to share that and pass it back to Lisa. Thank you, Tev. One of the things that we do starting in seventh grade is prepare students for Socratic seminars. And those are opportunities for kids to use evidence to have conversations with one another. Some of the kids love the evidence collecting part and the writing is really important for them. And some of them really appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation. But those are things that we do, whether it's a social studies English partnership like the Roger Ennis Humanities Model was or at the eighth grade level it's a social studies science pairing where kids are collecting evidence from both classes in order to have those conversations. So we work hard to create those opportunities. But after listening to everyone this evening it feels as if that work still is really important and relevant and we need to focus on it perhaps just a little bit more. I don't know if there's anyone else who would like to share at this point in time. If you have specific questions or concerns you can reach out to Katie or I directly and we would love to meet with you or have a conversation. I really appreciate the people who churned out this evening. This has been our most well attended forum of the year and I have four pages of notes from this meeting. I really appreciate everyone making the time to come out and share your thoughts with us. So I'll hang out in the grid if anyone wants to follow up or please feel free to send an email. Thank you for your time. Thank you, John. Thanks, John. Matt. Hey guys, I'm sitting on an airplane in the sky so I hope you can hear me okay. One of the things is I sent some information back in November about the program called Dads of Great Students. And at the time I was supposed to get a response back and I had some considerations and thoughts and I know this community piece is a part of that but I've been in and out on the calls. I apologize just for my travel. But it seems to me like the teachers are working their butts off. You guys are working your butts off. There's all this stuff happening, these parental concerns and safety and some of the stuff going on in the school. Again, they offer out there that we can help to coordinate and bring folks together just to be there in the hallways, be there when the kids get to school, sit there during lunch or cafeteria time just to listen to the kids and talk to the kids and be a resource that teachers can have a little breather. So I just wanted to bring that up again because, you know, and again, I know you guys have been swamped with a million things in organizing this is something I'm willing to help with or get from. Thank you for that, Matt. I did, we did read that when we received it and we created a survey to see how many parents felt like they had the capacity to volunteer. I think there were only two responses to that. So it felt like maybe the community was too tapped out to really launch something well, but I think that is a program that showed a lot of promise and really was the catalyst for continuing to focus on volunteerism and how we can include the community more in terms of supporting the school and supporting our students. So I really appreciate your focus on that. I don't know if my screen just froze. No, okay. No, I appreciate the comment back. I guess, you know, sometimes surveys are buried in emails and folks don't get through them all. Yeah. I'm willing to spread the word and start finding people who are willing to raise their hand and really take action and submit a list to you all of those folks for evaluation background checks, whatever. And then if we can get the community interested, and obviously I said dads, but it could be moms too, right? Or folks and get that list together. And then we could really put a plan together in collaboration with you all about how that may work. So I'm willing to do whatever needed. Okay, thank you for that. I appreciate it. Well, we're just wrapping up. If you have a question, Burstein family, we're here, right? I feel like I'm going to go ahead and end the call. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a wonderful night.