 community forum this evening. I have to be really transparent about the fact that we put this on the calendar and then we invited students to join us and then they informed us that Thursday in this particular week they will be at the Tumbridge Fair. I think it's bracelet night so you can buy a bracelet for one set price and then ride all the rides. And there's no school tomorrow. And there's no school tomorrow. So our planning was not, I mean like one ninth grader told us that our planning was bad. Yes. Just for kids. We've noted that for next year. What's that? Bracelet night just for kids. No, for anybody who buys a bracelet you could go buy a bracelet. Yeah you could still go. You're out. So if you wanted to come but this is only my second one. So I said, I really, I'm like let me understand the flow of these things and then like So, thank you. So I just wanted to say I hope we can do a round of introductions. So just your name and what brought you here this evening. So my name is Lisa Floyd. I'm one of the co-principals here at Randolph Union and we're really interested to hear from all of you and work with all of you this school year. And I'm Katie Sutton. I'm a co-principal with Lisa. And similar to Lisa, we're really excited to have more community participation and input into what we're doing here at the school and involve, you know, multiple stakeholders in that process. And this is kind of like our kickoff meeting to try to solicit this input and really create something that everybody feels a part of. I'm Kate Branstetter. I'm currently the librarian at Braintree Elementary. And I sort of found out about this from Heather Lawler, who was our principal last year. And now she's the, I don't even know what her official title is, Assistant Superintendent. Okay, Assistant Superintendent. Welcome. Thank you. And I am Jason Finley. After spending nine years as the career development coordinator at Randolph Tech, there was an opportunity to open up here at middle and high school for Director of Career Services. So I'm working in that program and I'm also one of the co-teachers in the Innovation Center. So I'm here really to get a sense of what folks are hoping to see happen at the Innovation Center and with helping their kids make better informed decisions about post-secondary and career education. Thank you. And I'm Tim Everhart, a former parent of two daughters at this school, retired from St. John's Church in Randolph after 30 years of pastoring there. Now chaplain at Gifford. And a member of four, which is four among racial equality. So I'm kind of interested in how we're addressing history and whatever. My name is Trista Farrington. I'm local. I actually grew up here, went to school here with my kids. I have three children, 15, eight, and four. So there's a lot of, in speaking to Sophia, sort of about her progress through high school, there are a lot of changes that I wasn't aware of that are happening because things change as time goes by. There are a lot of things that I'm definitely concerned about and it's either moved my kids out of school or get involved and really try to change things for the better. So that's why we are starting to really participate and be involved. I'm Martha Mathis and, oh boy, I started coming to the state in 77. Most of you were probably not born, at least on this side. I moved here in 84. My daughter, Myra Flynn, went to school here. I think the class of old one, I think, 2000, I'll find something. I just retired from Norwich University after 32 years. And I was dean of students there all those years. And I have always had concerns. I'm happy to say with that, though, that I have, I see some progress from the 2000s to now. It would be sad if I said I didn't, I think. So I'm not quite ready to just sit and watch, I don't know what to watch during the day. I just retired in July, so I'm not used to it yet. So I don't know what's on TV in the day. I do have a boxer, puppy. So I'm an animal person, too. So I'm anxious to see what the community is all about. I know I have become friendly with Dana Dexter. Met this wonderful young woman and trailer at 10 today. And that was glorious. And we're lucky to have you guys. Hi, everyone. My name is Jordan Stevens. I'm a special educator here. And I also co-teach with Ted Kelman, the racial justice PBL class. My name's David White. I have three kids in the school. I also went to the school. My wife went to the school. I was born in 77. Well, now. Where are you on today? 25 things that dumb people say. Yes. Well, people my age don't say that old folks are cute. My oldest, actually, he's a senior here, but he's going to early college in Norwich. So he's taking classes in Norwich. Wonderful. Wonderful. My middle son is a freshman this year. And I have a daughter who's a third grader in elementary school, which is also having their PTO thing at the exact same time. So you might have had more people if that didn't compete either. But I just like to be involved. And I like to go to school board meetings. And I was involved myself in a strategy session, I think about a year ago. And one of the outcomes that I learned is the importance of families, whether it's parents, grandparents, getting involved, coming into the school, their kids will take their education more seriously. And so just hoping to see more families join things like this. So we did just one round of introductions and what brought you here tonight. And we've had three people join us since we went around the first time. So if we could start with you, Sierra. Hi, I'm Sierra. I'm a junior here this year. And I'm new this year. So I wanted to get an idea of the community. I'm part of the racial justice class. So I wanted to get an idea. Hi, everybody. I'm Elaine. I'm an important adult in Sierra's life. So we live in Brookfield. I've not been very involved in what's happening in this area because she's been at U32 in the past. My energy was focused elsewhere. So like Sierra, I wanted to get a sense of the school community here since this is her first year here. And I wanted to see how I might be involved. In my professional life, I am a professor and program director at Champlain College. And I've been teaching there for, well, 22 years, a very long time in the traditional side. And this year I am excited to have just switched over to our adult continuing education. So I teach adults in the online environment. So I work from home. So I have a little bit more flexibility since I don't have to be up in Burlington all day to be able to be more involved. Sierra, I love your teacher. Thank you. Ben Hicken. My son is a junior here at REHS. I'm here to kind of listen and contribute if it makes sense to contribute. Welcome. So one of our goals for this year is to create a community school organization that does some meaningful work in our school and increases our partnership with the community. So this evening we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to really begin this meeting. We have an hour and a half scheduled. We might not take all that time. But begin just listening to some of the concerns and priorities that people wanted to share with us to maybe start to focus our work. We had a forum in the spring that we hoped would help us create an agenda for these meetings. And we do have some ideas from that group. But it was a small group. We had two parents and three students. We're fortunate Orca Media filmed that as well so we could go back and pull notes from our video that evening as well. But we thought we'd just begin this meeting by really listening to what some of the topics are that you might want for a community school organization to engage with this school year. I think additionally one of the things we're interested in as well is your input on how we can get more people involved in these forums and just in general at the school. Just knowing that a school is as strong as the community collaboration. So we're really interested in your input on that too because here you are, you're here. And so you're here for a reason. So how do we invite others in and how do we do this work both collaboratively as a group but also allow for, and this is kind of where we're headed tonight too, to form committees among us based on our areas of interest in the school because I think that's another way to kind of get people involved because they're able to focus in on the things that really matter to them in relation to the school. So just to give you an idea of the big picture here, it's us trying to understand the topics that are important to you and then channel those into potential subcommittees we could form among you. And then throughout the year, maybe it looks like us meeting with separate committees and us being able to do that on certain nights and really kind of giving us the blueprint for how we should be organizing our group so that we get as much contribution as possible. And could you clarify, there's another meeting after this one also? Yes, so that's the district forum that the superintendent is putting out. So this is like our school based group and then he'll have the kind of superintendent or bird's eye group. I guess I'm interested in, there are some of us that are parent alums that go back, way back. I'm interested in what those of you that have kids here now, what is your, what does Randolph Union look like now? I mean, doesn't do much good if I describe what it looked like in 2000. So... I mean, I can only give you anecdotes from what my daughter tells me, right? That's what I can because not having Sophia, she's 10th, 10th grade this year. So like I said, my assumption, you know, starting through the process was things were very similar to when I was in school, right? You sort of get this idea that things aren't as stuff, as time goes by a little bit. So as we've slowly progressed, some of the things that I'm definitely concerned about is behaviors and how those are being dealt with and how those come out through my daughter. Like, because she comes home and she tells me stories about behaviors, right? And then I don't understand what happens, the repercussions from those behaviors because I feel like a lot of those behaviors, everyone's being punished versus someone who's actually having the behavior. And I just want to understand more of, because like I said, you're taking all of this from an anecdote from a 15-year-old, right? Like I don't want to understand more of what's happening. So, okay. I think I've had similar experiences. I think the behavior concern for me is, I think there's been a history of behaviors being very destructive to the academics getting done. And so, I mean, not to be to focus just on the negatives, but in this particular example, like I don't think the kids get as much academics through the school because of that. I think it's a serious, and I think the administration agrees because I hear Lane address that, and they're trying to address it at an earlier age with more counselors and interventions at earlier ages so that when they get to the high school, they can self-regulate themselves. But yeah, I think it's definitely impacted some education because of those behaviors. Can I go again? So, another observation is, you know, there's turnover over the years. It's just, I mean, sports is not academics, but just as an example, like sports boosters really tried to get going and kind of just fizzled out. And for years, there was a group of parents that just sort of took it on and did it. And even though sports is not academics, it's good for school morale. And I think the parents are struggling to organize and support the kids and support the coaches in a way that you would expect to have a good, strong community like the way we probably could. It's hard for parents to find the leadership and the time to do stuff like that, but that seems to have fizzled recently. Some of us miss the little phone books, right? Oh, right. Yes. Music boosters took that on. That's music boosters, right? Yeah. I think sports, even though you might want to lean towards the arts, I think both of those connections teach things that you're not going to get in the structure of academics. You know, all the obvious, the teamwork and the sharing and blah, blah, blah. So that's too bad. In the 2000s, sports was like, ah, here. I think it's still good. I think there's still positive things happening, but that's one aspect, you know, that's a little bit struggling. Yeah. We were just talking about that today. Katie and I went to a conference and we're talking in the car about some of our teams that have been successful recently, but, you know, I have a boosters group necessarily supporting that. Sierra, do you want to add your perspective? I hate to put you on the spot, but as the lone student here with nine days in as of today, I don't know if you have observations you'd like to share. I mean, granted, I only have, like, been at this school for about nine days, but sort of like the mention of, like, the behavior thing I've definitely noticed and how a lot of things sort of go either unnoticed or un-delt with by, like, authority figures and teachers or whatever. And, like, that can be, like, quite distracting from things and just, like, creating sort of space that doesn't necessarily feel great. Can we hear more about what you're talking about as far as behavior? I'm not sure what you're referring to. Is it bad behavior? What is it, disrespect? I think a lot of it is just the student is feeling un-dysregulated and that comes out as behavior and people don't know how to take that or how to deal with it. A lot of it is a lot of foul language. A lot of yelling, a lot of, you know, like, or like some of it, too, is students not even showing up for class. Like, I have Sophia coming in telling me, she's like, Mom, they didn't even show up for class. Like, half the time. Like, and I was like, what are you talking about? And so I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me, right? And like I said, a lot of that is just you're taking an antidote from a 15-year-old child, but it's repetitive. We're in 10th grade. I've heard these things, 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade. Now we're at 10th grade. And so I'm just really concerned about where we are. And the other thing, too, is I really want to support the teachers here. So if they need support from CUNY members from all of us to say, we will not tolerate this, right? Or how do we be supportive? How do we do that? Mm-hmm. Thank you. Yes, so asking me about, like, you know, there's like, sort of the generic, like, disruptive behaviors and things like that. But I've also noticed, like, quite a lot of, like, racism and, like, transphobic comments, like homophobic comments that I hear a lot and seem to not really be dealt with with from teachers. And, like, sometimes other students will, like, step in, but then they also don't know, like, don't necessarily feel comfortable with that. So then they just will, like, go unnoticed and un-doubted. That's concerning. That's why I'm here. Yeah, that's why I'm here. I'm here because I'm very concerned for my queer community and for the people that are in the school system. And my child is non-binary and it's all very disconcerting. So we really try in our house to be an open house. It is an open conversation that I have Sophia every day about how we are a safe space for anyone and all friends that, too. So I don't know if a lot of that doesn't happen within our community. I think there is a sense of community here of that. But then I think there's a totally other side of the community that A doesn't understand or B does not want to understand, period. So you're struggling with that. So how do you support all that? How do you support the students trying to figure out what that means, right? And, like I said, we really try. I mean, Sophia knows that. But I don't know if that's happening across the board, right? Or how often that is happening. I think for me, many moons ago, first I had to acknowledge that I didn't know something. Not at a buy. But just to say, I don't know anything. And then to get schooled up on that. So because I know my background in psychology doesn't mean I know anything about, necessarily, about LGBTQ communities, different ethnic groups. I've got to say to the principals, I know my field. But that's not enough. And I think every teacher should always have that in mind. That's not enough because you know math. That's not enough in this day and age. Probably never was, but didn't teach it back in the day. So I think how to assume that are, we had this discussion. We've had this discussion for many years at Norwich, so it's not a high school thing. It's a people thing. How do we get people to say, we're not going to dock your pay. We're not going to tell anybody on you. But how many of you need extra training in a personal stuff? Or however you want to label it. To not do that, create some of this. And create what you're hearing. Just if, luckily Norwich is private, so there's a limit to how many times I'm going to tell you that you need some assistance. And here is how you can get it. And I understand that we're talking public education, but it should not be enough. I don't know if there are evaluations at the end of the year. But surely something is added to that that goes beyond my my professional capabilities. To capture some of this. I would hope. I have found almost every teacher super enthusiastic and creative and great. I've worked here, so I'm having trouble reconciling why they're not also being more disciplinary or getting certain things. Not my area of expertise. I'm an educator. But one of my fears is just going to school board meetings and hearing who goes and what they say is I feel like there's a large population who don't believe there's racism going on or don't believe or understand that people are being disrespected and not welcomed. I'm hearing rumors that one of the new teachers has already quit. Just because of what they said in their welcoming comments before they even got here. I don't know if this is true but I'm hearing they got death threats and that they quit. It would have been a very welcoming person to the transgender community so that's concerning that they weren't even given a chance in the community. I don't know how fix a community like that. No, I know. I've known for over 40 years, I know. I guess my question with that would be and I don't know anything about public schooling but don't I have how do you just get fired? I don't understand how that happens in private education. You just don't come to school one day with your little backpack and your books and stuff and not show up ever again. So thinking about the person you're thinking about that I mean we're nine days in. How is it that I left nine days in? I don't understand that. But nor do I understand the dynamics and the politics of public education. I think some of it is coming from the school system being a little transparent about turnover and why that's happening. So I come from a profession from the health profession I think every profession is in the turnover and people are constantly leaving and not staying but especially here when you hear some of Sophia's favorite teachers just left abruptly. If there are issues really deep seated issues that we need to deal with because we are losing a very insightful and intelligent person I want to know why and I want to know why as a community member how can we help that because there are community members here that would be willing to step up and do something. Is this something that I have no idea but is this something that's happening as a regional thing? Is it happening as a national thing or is it just a RUHS thing? I don't know I'd have to ask whether I feel like we've had turnover within the school system even since Sophia's entered high school even just two years significant turnover with teachers and is that coming from behavior? Is that coming from issues that teachers are feeling unsafe? Are they feeling unsupported? Or are they just moving on for different reasons? Because if it's for the latter and there's something that we can do I really would like to do that. I feel like Katie and I can speak to the behavior piece of things when it comes to personnel matters like we're tasked with keeping things really private. We do have some teachers who might share their perspectives you know and that's up to you. I feel like I'm putting people on spot all night. I hope we can establish that as a safe place. I think we're coming from a perspective of really wanting to make some deep-seated cultural change for our children and for ourselves. This is not something that we like I said, we sit down we're either going to move our kids or move or we really need to participate and I don't want to leave here. We have to participate. This might be totally cold comfort. It is to me at least. I've purposely over the last few years joined as many networks as I can to try to address that very question Trista like is this an RU thing? Is this a regional thing? Is this a national thing? Like what is going on here? And it has been cold comfort because what I have learned is it is across the board and it is a national problem through some of those networks I've joined and again not to diminish specifically what's happening here because obviously we are here because we are identifying that this is an issue and this is a problem and this is something we want to address because what's happening outside of here that doesn't remove the obligation we have to make things better here for everybody. So not to diminish that at all but it was at least a little cold comfort of like there is solidarity how do we leverage what we can do as a community as a network, as different networks that overlap in their spheres of influence to help one another to create safe spaces like our schools should be safe spaces people should walk in here and feel relieved to be here because it's safe and I'm hearing all of you and I think it's inspiring and motivating even more to just figure this out. And I would say that the rumor going around I know that you can't talk about it but the rumor going around is that there was a teacher who did not feel safe and that is what I've heard from several people and we have to be very very aware of that. I went to high school in New Hampshire in the 80s in the 80s I guess my anecdotal account of my time there I don't remember them being much foul language at all years later in 90s 2000s I went back significant what do you call it renovations were being done I happened to be on that side of it at that point and it was very interesting to me that that same school was very profane just completely I mean these are kids who probably 98% were college bound and the other 2% were who knows I think I was the other 2% but anyway it was just fascinating to me and then that same area that professed to be my memory of it and we all remember things maybe the way we want to because we're looking here and we're ignoring what's going on over here possibly teachers were being pressured by parents to give grades that the kids didn't deserve the worst part this is me listening to conversations being at lunch in places outside of the school the teachers were someone rackwassing and giving those grades so we had kids going from that school to colleges and things like that and probably in an ideal world we're doing things because we deserve them and we want to do them so we have a bunch of people who are compelled by laws or necessity that they can't afford to go to different schools but they're required by law to go to school so we're pushed all year we have these different views and backgrounds and things like that and I feel like if it's a national thing it might be hopefully there's a pendulum analogy somewhere because what I'm going with that is just thinking about the profanity you know we're getting profanity and you got anybody who has kids who actually come home and talk to them I was the right talking my mother knows everything I couldn't wait to tell her my kids both of them they've been a great CIA agent they did well in school they did good grades and stuff but you wouldn't know anything that was going on period, nothing occasionally they bring a friend over and you'd be like so you're lucky if you have kids who come home but I didn't hear about any of this stuff and I'm not saying it wasn't going on I'm certainly know that it is just from front porch forward and sort of like you know I live in Brookfield right on the border of Williamstown so it's kind of like part of this community almost because of the kids going to school here which is great we actually moved from Barrie to Brookfield for the school at that time I know people in Williamstown were at Barrie because of the school because of the football program we were all on we were winning spelling bees left and right who beat us, you know, Barrie this is all kinds of you got enough people in one place you got great diversity you got fewer people I'm not sure where I was going with that sorry I forgot off the rails a little bit that's fine yeah I think I think about how glad we were that Sharon had not been born yet because I think Sharon Academy and I really support them and I've got to get down there and now that I have more time just kind of focus in on what they do so well it sounds like but I think it was a reaction to what some families were not receiving here because I think Sharon was born around when my daughter graduated 2000s maybe early 2000s and I'd hate for another Sharon to happen or the two families that I know that are Brookfield families that are taking their kids out of Randolph to go someplace else not to Sharon but to go someplace else so I guess I'm wondering what kind of exit information do we get from our families whether they feel comfortable and all this openness and that sort of thing but there needs to be somebody needs to ask why are you leaving is there anything that we I'm behind the A-ball I confess I'm a big confessor learn that from 18-year-olds I'm a big confessor what could I have done what could the school have done it's too late you've already made your deposit you got your transcript and that sort of thing not so much for that they're not going to change your mind in Brookfield but it's valuable information to the school Sharon Academy just didn't wake up one day I think I'll just create Sharon Academy it came from someplace and I think we those of us that might not know that history need to just remind ourselves of that and it's thriving and all those kids going to college all over the country or trade schools or whatever they're going to do in life they should have been here in my humble opinion so why weren't they I just had to who in here are teachers here okay two couple okay awesome so getting new to the community I'd be really interested to be here what's happening in your classroom because I think the exit interview for parents the exit interview for teachers where you can anonymize the information but have some data points can be really helpful but I'd love to hear your experience what's happening in the classroom I want to go first no no really I got a big mouth so I can go first like I really I take what Sophia tells me on a daily basis and that's her perspective but I really would like to hear from her perspective as a leader here in teaching our kids do you mind just introducing yourself my name is Tav Kalman I teach English and social studies at the high school mostly 11th and 12th grade Sierra and a couple of my classes are you Sophia Farrington's mom anybody else and I'm also the union president so I have some of that broader perspective although feel like there are obviously also things that I would be prudent for me to get into I mean there's a lot of things I wanted to touch on I really appreciate what I'm hearing from some of you about wanting to know more information about why folks are leaving the district I think I can definitely say that you deserve to know and I think you're better positioned than us to seek that public information if that makes sense but I definitely encourage you and would love to chat with any of you over the phone or over a cup of coffee or something about more details in that inside the classroom I mean it's been a really hard several years and I think it's important to not like the pandemic obviously is like a core driver of that and not just the masks and the so many aspects of it right like both just the logistics of teaching school online or with the safety protocols the politicization of it the trauma of it on many levels in many different ways the different kinds of kids yeah and just you know need to like show up and you know keep making some sort of learning happen which honestly I'm quite proud of how we did in this district which is not to say that you know yeah I think we see lots and lots of flaws and lots and lots of determined learning loss but certainly like anomalous learning stuff and behavioral stuff and developmental stuff and frankly like that's going to be the case for a while like this is a generational disruption for me personally I think the thing that has been hardest though has been the given all of that like this the speed at which it seems like and I think to what you were saying this is not just a Randolph thing this is at all about but I think we also have done it in this community have just gone back to like okay businesses you know it feels to me like there are things the pandemic revealed about yeah just like spots in our community fabric that have worn pretty thin that need to be attended to and it doesn't feel like that conversation is being had in the same way that it was I also feel like prior to the pandemic yeah I mean I feel like the pandemic was a hard thing in terms of relationship between parents and teachers and all these school employees as well even though many of us are both right you know which is like one of the like real ironies of it but it felt like yeah and you know I have a lot of empathy I think for how hard it was as a parent through the pandemic and to have schools closed and what that does to you know to your life and your ability to work and your ability to feel sane but I think just like there isn't there's rough school board meetings there is some like rough rhetoric being thrown around I think a lot of folks did maybe for the first time we're feeling like oh yeah like they like they value me as long as you know doing what they what they need and you know my physical safety or my mental health is not as high a priority as perhaps it seemed in less tough times so fair so I think yeah so that's been hard you know and then obviously yeah there's some national political trends that are certainly servicing and then you know too I think what was being talked about before and you want to just jump in and thank you for talking please too but like I also want to speak a little bit to like the racism, the homophobia which you know I mean that has been a thing forever and I think honestly one of the things that has changed around the same time frame is that I think you know people particularly students or like recent alums who had lived that feeling much more empowered than they ever have before to speak the truth and to push back and I think that some of what we're seeing right now is the backlash to that right to you know which you know I'm a history guy but I think like I show me an instance of positive social change that expanded rights and degraded more people where there wasn't that right so I think I think to the question of like what do we need from the community I think I don't know exactly but I think like one of the forms it takes is like a really visible demonstration that those actually are our values and a rejection of the idea that inclusivity or embracing diversity is like a political stance for it like that's our job like we can't do our job without those being the baseline conditions just like brookers don't work without safety gear and scaffolding you know it's just like those are like the necessary things that you need to do your job so yeah it just seems to me that it would be helpful to have more voices saying like you can politicize those things as a citizen all you want but like that's not that's not the consensus here and we don't actually have to have a debate on those terms of whether creating spaces that are specifically or curriculum or whatever it is they're specifically designed to make students who have had a specific experience of being unsafe or feeling unwelcome because of the race because of their gender identity because of their class background like no like that's not your business frankly so I think like again that is I think a core belief that virtually everybody who works in the school shares but it hasn't felt terribly safe to you know to say that in public then how do you share it and how do you of yours or of mine if I don't feel safe to say it and live it so that when I hear something in the hallway excuse it hold that thought so I can go out there and say hey Betty what is going on I think the safety goes all over the place not just with the kids but with the faculty gosh I suspect that as well just to know that I think but don't feel safe enough to say at a meeting let's talk about how we can have turned that around I think the demographic at this meeting is pretty different from some of the meetings that we've had in the past and that has been really yes that has been really chilling and hard for a lot of our staff there are meetings where we had students who identify as part of the LGBTQ plus community speak up so people's children you know speaking up about their lived experience being shouted down by adults in the community that's it so one of the things that I think can be really challenging is that kids come here and we talk to them about the difference between free speech and hate speech and harassment and all of those different things and then you look at the national political scene and the ways in which adults treat each other and the ways in which they may experience being mistreated in their lives and so we try to help them gain understanding and develop empathy and we're in this environment where some of the adults who teach empathy and I would say love these kids really deeply regardless of their ideology try to do that work and just feel really defeated in a lot of ways and not supported so I really appreciate all of you coming out tonight I think continuing to engage beyond this one meeting because you could get the impression from some of the meetings that have been held before and you can find them online that our community is very different from what we're talking about this evening as a matter of fact in one of our interviews last spring we were interviewing a math teacher very highly qualified candidate and one of the first things she asked us so right we do our interview we have our committee and we ask all our questions and then we ask people if they have questions for us and this woman who did not take a job here and I don't think that it was that her spouse was going to work at UVM so they wanted to be closer to Burlington anyway her question was I looked for school board meetings online and I found this meeting from last spring and she said you know I was just going to watch for a minute to get a little bit of a feel for the community and then she said I ended up watching the whole thing and I couldn't believe what I was seeing and tell me about that and I think that was a hard introduction to our community and that was hard to have to address what exactly was happening in that setting and still feel like we would be appealing to this candidate who might want to come teach here so I think one of the solutions is just having community members remain engaged and so that's why we're really interested in having these forums in creating groups that are interested in different parts of the community or maybe like a group this size we could all just continue meeting as one group but if we had more people I think we can continue to talk about our community and talk about the ways in which community outside the school can support the school because I feel like the school is very much a part of the community we're educating the community's children and so we can't exist on like a parallel track we have to work together and we need for people who you know have strong values and want to be a part of the school community to come out and have conversations with us so one thing I would recommend is having them more often and really Sophia wanted to come but I said I've only been to one of and I really want to understand what kind of space this is before I invite her to come and I will bring her I mean she is an independent person and she has her own thoughts and feelings and she is more than welcome we don't have to agree she feels safe to talk about these things and is heard by her teachers is really like I don't know if it's every other week if it's once a month because at the last one I came to Lane did like it was months ago so and it was the summertime it was before in the auditorium no it was here it was here and it was a very small handful of people but if I know they're going to happen more often like I will be a voice for outside of here and tell people to be involved like I said my family my parents went here my grandparents went here we went here my children are here we have very deep seated roots here and I'm not saying some of them are good either and not but we have to do something about it I was just going to add that I think I think it would be awesome to get more regular conversations specifically between parents and teachers and other staff like I think we don't also turn out to these meetings and all that often so yeah I don't I don't know if the answer is like more things like this or if there are also like other ways we can organize just yeah I don't know a meal that is a community just something that is like not so formal not that this is I was there earlier I'm not like afraid to speak to you people I feel very safe in this circle so but but yeah but again I do want to speak to like I think part of the reason why there aren't more people here is because some of the meetings that this could be have not been so fun right and I think figuring out how to like break that down and I both ways too because the other thing is like I know there's lots of parents perhaps not the ones in this room maybe you who like going to school building is like a little traumatic right because that wasn't the best part of your life or the best you said you might have been more the two percent so could you give some examples of the meetings that did not go well just so I have some sort of idea what what was said or the tone I can speak a little bit to the one that happened in the spring because it happened in the library I just I want to understand when it happened I had to leave because I was like I will cry so I left but I then watched the video after because I was just like this this cannot be the community that I signed up for and that's why I came tonight sort of a little bit like and I had a couple friends want to come with me and I'm like I don't know what vibe we're going to walk into so yeah it was pretty people I was at that meeting too and yeah it was it was very partisan from a certain group attacking the school board and the superintendent about a particular issue I've also been meetings here a year or so ago no a couple years ago when the group talk about the small group that the racial justice class before the black flags black lives matter flag was put up that was a wonderful meeting in a sense because those who opposed were very outspoken and those who but it was a dialogue and they were able to share also was it the big meeting in the auditorium when Lane gave a presentation about the emotions and it was very effective I thought how we have red zones on each side we need to be more calm in the middle and discuss so I think more of those kind of meetings they're I would I think hot topic issues like I would suggest what is being taught in American history here at Randolph Union would bring out a large group on for many diverse opinions and that would be good if it was well managed but that's the kind of thing that needs to happen in this community I think you're right and I think someone who is skilled at moderating right such forms just not somebody who just wants who has the goodness for all there's a certain skill set that is needed I think what you're setting guidelines and you're setting guidelines for the meeting right you're going to set them at the beginning and you're going to say this is how we're going to do this and we can agree to disagree we can have open dialogue we're not going to agree but we're going to stay respectful within this space and then once we leave here I can still look at David and say we can be friends even though we disagree right like that's okay and that will grow with my kids I hope right like if I'm teaching them I don't have to hate David just because it isn't like history about something right like that's what we have to do and I don't I think what I'm seeing in the schools is our schools are a product of the culture of our community right I don't know I mean that's what I'm feeling it's like kind of like it doesn't feel good I'm juicing because it just struck me picking up on that one of the good things about that initial meeting about the racial again I can't remember the term the racial justice class the racial justice class was that they in a sense were presenting it came from the school the kids telling the process of how they were getting to this point and what they've been doing and we as a community were responding so any topic that comes from within the school would be good for the school as well as the community that's listening and learning to be respectful in their response I think having some of these forums and spaces in the community that would be open to housing us so you know some of the new businesses like if they had space I mean obviously we're not very big right now but obviously some spaces that would be open to forming or having these forums so that students could see and having open conversations about these things, these topics they would know then that the cafe is a safe place or the gym is a safe place right just by know that we are housing we are under somewhere that is safe and we can talk about these safe things and so they know they can go there one of the things that kept me at Norwich for 32 years was that we have something called guiding values and so if you can't meet those then you really should not apply to work there we respect the rights of others diverse opinions health and fitness of course not me but most others health and fitness there is 10, 12 different values it's not religious based it's humanity based and without those if you pull up Norwich's web page it's going to be right there so if your kid cannot live this way then we are probably not the right school because you are not going to be able to scream at people yell at people diverse points of view but you have to learn how to talk about your point of view so I was at some meeting I don't know what it was but one of the school board people members said what do we want a Randolph union high school graduate to look like and I think if we start there if we start there we can certainly what do we want our kids to look like couple seats here so is there something in the school that says this is what a Randolph union high school graduate looks like pass for getting the diploma that is so not enough or we wouldn't be here so I don't know because it's been over 20 years since I've been here it's an interesting thing if the Norwich employer the Norwich student the Norwich fill in the blank I don't think we're talking about Norwich University and not Norwich Vermont but it could be visitors in Norwich Vermont so as you put it as a private so up comes Sharon and maybe Sharon is a good fit we have a tech center when I went to school it was done this way our tech was integrated with high school which I advocate that the same person who's playing the violin going to I don't know Wellesley is down in auto shop learning how to repair her vehicle because she doesn't want to be jipped by mechanics later on down the road or fill in the blank it was not integrated when my room was here it was not when my daughter was here I don't think it is now we have some opportunities for integration right here in our innovation center and our project based learning challenges but the tech center is a much more immersive world if you know which field you want to go into and there's advantages to that so if I'm not sure the right term for it if the majority of I don't know around kids are at Sharon and I'm just throwing that out as a possibility I don't know that or if there's a type that's particularly sensitive to whatever well first of all thank goodness that we do have these options because this is public our kids don't have a choice well although they kind of do but I came from a family who picked and we were economically blessed enough we could pick a community at that time there really wasn't any clear prejudices within the school because we didn't have any clear things to be prejudiced about and we had that community and we had the economic whatever to be able to live in that community and kind of ignore out of luck of living in New England we're an island in some way even though we're certainly not a diverse wonderland I don't know where it's going with that either I'm getting off track so I apologize but I was just thinking about I guess where it's going with this is we are dealing with a situation where people are here not by choice I mean they're sort of like well you can always do this maybe you can it still takes a lot of effort to pick up and move your kids to the Sharon Academy or do the lottery thing now you have to bust them to Woodstock or whatever Sharon Academy is not free right it's very expensive so if the options are you pinch your pennies and hope that your kid can go to Sharon Academy or feel like have whatever's going on for example here there has to be more equity because that's just not on the table it's just not on the table for the majority of our students that's not an option they have to be able to save when I say that that may actually be a good thing I'm the trades guy I was the electrician I was the HVAC guy I got good grades at the school it was a very high ranked school and I got into a very good college I didn't know why I was there when I got there it certainly wasn't a fit for me but that's what everybody did from that fishbowl that I went to school at and I'm not sure where I was going oh I know where I was going it's a public school so my son came home junior and asked me to interview me about what I thought was politically important or something like that and one of the questions was Jeff and one of the questions was something like what kind of history should we be teaching and my answer was whatever the government says where I'm going with that is public schools it's more like teaching a common language and the common language can be cultural embracing differences how to handle conflicts how to handle fear I think fear is probably at the heart of a lot of this stuff do you feel safe? what do you do when you don't feel safe? well you're certainly not learning because you're like this and as an adolescent you're like this anyway because you're looking in a mirror and just picking out all the problems that you're having so go ahead I think one of the things so my son is 2021 alumni from Randolph Union High School and I think one of the things that we joke about but that I value most that he came away from here with aside from the fact that right now he dresses almost exactly like Tuv Kilman he's in Tuv's advisory I can show you pictures it's a real thing but he can craft almost any argument you throw at him with evidence to support his point of view so they start socratic seminars in seventh grade, eighth grade right up through and even points of view because he's got an adolescent brain so sometimes he will just poke at something that he knows I value just to rattle me a little bit but he can do that with evidence from good reputable sources and I really as a parent value that because we may not always agree with our kids but in order to live and exist in this world they need to be able to create a claim and defend that and have that come from a place of knowledge and be able to spot you know the information that isn't reputable because there is so much of it that just comes at them every minute of every day so to pick up on your point this is a public school but that doesn't rule out excellence values and the kind of what we were describing as forums right and the kind of learning that your son has done who the government doesn't say you should have socratic forums discussions I mean I think a common standard is inquiry and research and so we sort of put our own brand on that right but at the same time that is a standard that's out there and I would argue whether you go to a trade school or whether you go to a four year university that ability to research something and support your idea or your values or your assertion with reputable sources and evidence is really important and how to get that out so that I'm not perceived as some bully right is part of that we always just ask the question what kind of kid do we want out in the world you know she went to college she did all that stuff boy I certainly would cringe to have one that's not some way embracing humanity somehow and that's what you do at home I would think because we're public you can't force that in public education but I would think we all would ask what kind of kid when they graduate away from high school and they go off to college do you want coming home for that October break which at Norwich was five days and then after that a week and a half of Thanksgiving and then after that almost a month of Christmas break you know you want somebody to respect for you you want somebody at least we did and so when I say what kind of kid do we want besides the good education I'm thinking that's not good enough to take into the world now it just isn't I mean I don't know I'm a product of the 60s so I had the luxury of being able to learn how to listen all kinds of sides I had that luxury as turbulent as it was so I guess I don't know all right I have hope I have hope a quick question and maybe a statement what are we talking about when we say somebody is feeling safe or we're trying to make an environment where people feel safe what does that mean that's a question I think do you want to feel that first I mean I think when I think about safety for our kids is that they walk in the building and feel good about being here and that's because they feel free to be who they are without judgment and you know with the ability to like walk down the hallways and be in their classrooms and access learning and of course they're going to be pretty typical things that get in the way of that all adolescence experience but that to me is a barrier that is insurmountable to learning and that's what we're here to do so that should never be in the way and it is in the way right now of kids being able to learn of kids being able to access spaces I think about kids who don't want to walk into the cafeteria you know which is a place of anxiety anyway and as many have mentioned tonight we've experienced this time of this pandemic that has exacerbated things like anxiety and depression for sure but those things can be further exacerbated if you feel like because you are who you are you are going to be persecuted or judged or targeted just by walking into a space that should be accessible to everybody so that's why I think we're working toward you know not all kids are going to love coming to school right but like in my utopian world they walk in this building and they like breathe a sigh of relief I'm glad I'm here so where is that undertow coming from so if that feeling is happening and if that feeling is here where do you think I mean if it's that palpable of being unsafe so where is that coming from I think yeah as a student thinking about like walking on my first day of school for my classes I walked in and we were doing an introduction activity and afterwards we were walking back and people had their side conversations and behind me there was a group of students having a conversation about another student and saying like really really transphobic things about that student and so then just hearing that in this classroom it sort of made me feel like okay I feel like I need to like put up some walls where like you know I don't necessarily feel exactly like being able to let out a breath you can't be who you are yeah like I just like hearing these conversations from people who like you know those are very hurtful things to like anybody people I would know and so just like being in that environment whereas then contrasting like like the racial justice class you know I walk in there and it's a group of people who are all thinking the same thing people who are all wanting to work for the same thing and so it's just like a very different environment and like you can really feel a difference in each class I think I'm observing just that there's been some email communication I guess the form tonight with the superintendent is all about school safety and physical representations of safety like a doorway or a street somewhere I don't even know I don't have a sense of the school yet somewhere that's dark or scary or we don't like or cars come through or something but I'm not seeing email communication from the superintendent or really addressing psychological safety right and as an educator myself the most important thing that I can do in a classroom is create an environment where people feel safe to learn where they can shut the door and in that space we can learn together and that doesn't happen in a day you have to create that space as college professor I get 15 weeks some of you get a whole year some of you get half a year sometimes you get to see the students more or less but if there isn't that psychological safety of knowing that I don't have to be afraid to be who I am to say what I feel I need to and I don't have to be afraid of physical harm or emotional harm from others and so I mean it is literally no different than being in one of those meetings that you were talking about from the spring as adults and we're in a space and somebody says things that are hurtful or harmful and then what is our reaction we kind of shut down and walk away we don't engage because it becomes a threatening kind of environment or you get angry and the other off-response that I have is anger and then you have conflict and so I think that what I'm hearing is that there's opportunity for members who want to help create safe spaces and both physical and psychological safety to partner with you and the teachers to figure out ways that we can do that and does that mean that if there's a board meeting and there's a certain vocal group of people that there's a different vocal group of people that's able to step up and say those values and it's just not resting on the shoulders of teachers like how are we going to show up in that support and what does that look like what do you need from us to be able to do that and then if there's four or five of us who are willing to go in and dispute or not be angry but kind of try to shut down some of these voices that are disrespectful and angry and spouting things that are coming from a place of you said fear a place of fear rather than a place of community and we can help kind of I don't know if I want to say we're going to turn the tide stem the tide but we can at least help our teachers and your staff to feel that they have support and then help our students to feel that there's a safety net and to help some of our other students who are trying to find their way caught in between some of that to maybe hear and listen other points of view yeah I think staying engaged is really important David I was going to say that's a valiant goal I think it could be important to also simultaneously try to engage students themselves to hear that story as much as you do at a school board level it's only going to impact kids so much so when I think about how do I impact kids like my kids or my kids they don't talk very much so I don't hear all that and when I go to some of these school board meetings if I'm playing devil's advocates some of those people honestly didn't know what it's like like what those comments in Apple think some of them even believed that they're happening so I guess one idea there were some really brave students who spoke up at some of those meetings could or should there be some sort of anonymous reporting system someone like this junior could report without you know to a safe safe teacher and then right I thought I read that and those then be published so that parents like me and other parents in the community can hear that I'm hopeful that I think the majority of parents in this community would be supportive of a safe culture here and if they heard these things that are known things going on maybe they would speak up to their kids more often and encourage their kids to be safer I don't know maybe that's a fight to remember or maybe mixing it up with your parents and different opportunities so maybe if David's kids wanted to say something to me at a certain place right because sometimes it feels awkward to talk to your parents about the thing maybe it's not the time where you don't want to but maybe if you had another opportunity with another adult in a safe place you would say something I don't know I'm only troubleshooting I'm only trying to think on a broad view of what different things that we can do to engage with it just before we adjourn because there's another meeting following us in about 10 minutes the superintendent's forum I think we also wanted to generate some ideas about some committees that we might be able to form based on some of what we're hearing tonight the concerns that you're bringing to us the topics that you're interested in we have heard of committees in the past that are focused on things like there could be like an academic focus and maybe it's also looking at the course catalog and thinking about what we're offering the student body there are committees that are based around equity there are committees that are based around school culture and climate just to give you an idea of what I've seen in terms of committees that have formed before and that are based on some of what I've heard today it would be helpful to us if maybe we could generate some of those ideas what we could form around and then maybe when we meet next we could again present some of what came up and maybe start to organize ourselves what do we have now what committees do we have now right now we don't have any oh okay so we're starting with a clean slate listening to all of you this evening thank you for coming and having this conversation it feels like a committee focused on culture and folding into that behavior and equity could be one direction it feels like a committee focused on athletics and activities so like a revival of boosters could be another direction and then I'm hearing a lot about curriculum or that kept it kept being a thread that we came back to so I would sort of propose three committees moving forward I'm wondering if you feel like I've left anything off that list I would say had most thriving colleges you can't work without a parents association a family association I would quit 32 years ago without looking at them as allies not troublemakers of course they're paying big bucks to be allies but I don't know how we do that with our community members because we want that information to come it's just that I'm appalled that any meetings would bully kids I'm appalled at that I just I know it's true Midwestern that I am I can't believe it so you know to have tell us what's on your mind community but you got to do it civilly you cannot just do it in the old kind of way so I think I don't know back in the day here was parents association I don't know if we want to leave that dead and come up with a different title when's the last time there was a PTO or PTA or whatever it's called I think like 2007 so nobody knows it okay what did we talk about at the cap of any last week yeah the same thing forming is sort of organization well you can't leave the community out in these discussions it won't work especially this particular community it'd be really great to have another form like this when it's not timers fair just to have see if we could get more students here to hear what they want and bring up some of the ideas that we came from your three committee ideas and see kind of what their input is as well and move forward from there everybody bring a friend I think it's October 19th yeah we're just checking we have them calendared for the whole year our community forums I think our next one is October 19th Thursday and every month I'd really like to hear from more teachers we were talking about safe classrooms feeling safe things like that we had classes where we feel particularly safer than let's say a community environment like the cafeteria or something so this kind of makes sense because different people have different objectives and goals and things that they're interested in they're actually talking a similar language in those areas so I would like to hear from teachers really if they hear something objectionable like we were talking about we sort of dabbled on the profanity aspect and I'm thinking that that's more of a universal language now than it used to be and then maybe that's something that I have to what are the guidelines I hear something a bad joke about somebody I think it's a bad joke I'm a teacher are there clear cut mechanisms if A then B then C now I can focus on I'm made to feel secure and safe as a teacher in my classroom so the hopefully 5 to 30 students in California we had 30 students in each classroom plus so we'd like to see that here because I feel safe as a teacher to either to work here or that I have mechanisms to deal with these things well now I'm able to I'm guessing I'm not a teacher but I'm guessing that now I can focus and my students are going to either feel safe in the environment I can provide them because I'd like to hear more from teachers about not so much are they being supported I don't even know what that means but do they have guidelines what are the rules of the game is there common language maybe try and understand what that person on the other side is saying when they're using profanity do I hear because some of us are we can't hear that those words that's reality maybe we come to the table a little bit and say okay what are we actually trying to say and if the words are unacceptable whether they're LGBTQ jokes that are bad I mean these are cultural sips too they can be but that's been my experience 50-some-odd years old doesn't mean they're ever appropriate for any any time especially in a school how do we say to everybody including the community whether it's front porch forum stuff or whatever this is the game we're playing and the game we're playing has certain rules you know and if you can't play by these rules that's fine but these are the results of that decision I think rules are a better term than I used as values but I meant the same thing and that is if whatever random union comes up with this is how we live in this structure this is how we live and it's on your web page it's an employment page it's parent newsletter giving people the option to opt out not based on anything else but oh gosh I can't live like that and you cannot probably more universal language would be rules instead of values but I meant the same thing could you please invite student council we can invite student council and NHS and the captain's council any other leadership groups I'm just wondering do we have do you have all of our names yes we've written them all down there's way that we want to make sure that there's a way to continue that and one thing that we are dedicated to doing is capturing some summarized notes of our discussion this evening so of course this meeting has been filmed by Orca Media so that will be available online and then we will share our notes from this meeting so that people understand what we've discussed and I just would appreciate any follow up if you want to send an email or call Katie or I we're always excited to hear from the community and happy to have more of a conversation there is an anonymous line to report harassment when you witness it it's linked on the OSSD web page and in our last newsletter we shared that again just so that families hopefully would see that and take note and I don't want to run over time wise so that we don't pump Elaine's meeting and make that leader so again I can come in and sit down and we can do a transition because my guess is some of the topics that you're touching on and other people that are coming in and out what I'm hearing is that the next one is October 19 20th and we'll invite students and more community members and more parents and more anyone to sort of set up a plan yes just concrete so yes it's the 20th it's a 5 30 to 7 meeting on the 20th of October yep yep thank you all for joining us this evening we really appreciate your input thank you yeah and I hope you'll stay for the next meeting too