Thank you. Study. Ok, good evening. Can you guys hear me?

00:01:32,170	Hello? Ok. We’re gonna get started. Ok. At this time, I’m gonna call to order the meeting of the Hamilton and Regional School Committee. Um And we’ll begin by inviting you to join us in the pledge of allegiance, the United States,

00:01:54,469	my nation, my God, individual, liberty and justice.

00:02:05,530	OK. As we get started, I want to remind everyone that this meeting is being recorded and live streamed on HWC A um Jen. Uh Would you read the land acknowledgement, please? The Hamilton Wenham Regional School District would like to acknowledge the Massachusetts tribe, the tribe of indigenous peoples from whom the colony province and Commonwealth of

Massachusetts have taken their name. We would like to pay our respect to the ancestral bloodline of the Massachusetts tribe and their descendants who still inhabit historical Massachusetts tribe territories to this day. Thank you. Hi. Um Next up on our agenda, we have an opportunity for citizens

comments. Um I’ll give Mr Tracy a moment to get the Zoom link up and going to see if we have anyone there. Mhm. My third try here. Come on, there we go.

00:03:29,500	It actually comforting to see that someone else has to as many different things. Um All right. So it looks like there doesn’t appear to be anyone on the zoom um opportunity. Um If there’s anyone in the room who’s gonna offer citizens comments. Ok. Um If not, then I will um, forgo um all the information about

citizens comments because it looks like we don’t have anyone who wants to offer one. All right, and at this time we’ll close the zoom. All right. Thank you. Uh Next up, I think uh is it Amy? All right, Amy’s gonna breed a portion of our uh school committee protocols. As elected members of the

Hamilton Ham Regional School Committee, we including the superintendent, accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education possible to that end. We hereby commit to the following and the conduct of our business. Number, 10 members will refer constituent concerns and complaints

including issues related to district personnel to the appropriate person within the district chain of communication. Thank you. Um And do you Trent with a portion of the mission statement, the Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee will lead and inspire a district that attracts and retains high quality educators by acknowledging and respecting their expertise and professionalism. Thank you.

All right. Um Next up is our consent agenda. Um Does anyone have any items that they would like to have held from the consent agenda. Ok. Um hearing none, I think, oh, we are gonna be in need of a secretary for the evening. Um Yeah, both our secretary and assistant secretary are not

here. Um uh Jen, would you be willing to do those honors?

00:05:49,100	Do you need somebody to move a second? Yeah, II I just need a motion on the consent agenda. I move that we accept the consent agenda as written. Do I have a second? 2nd, 2nd by Amy Kerger. Um All those in favor and that is unanimous of the five members who are present and the motion passes.

Thank you. Um OK. Um And now to you, Mr Tracy,

00:06:33,730	thank you. This is exciting for me. I I get to present this award one time a year. Um The individual that we are presenting this award to this evening was actually my freshman and my last year’s principal. So Isabella, can you join me? Thank you, Isabel Fazio is without reservation. A standout at

Hamilton one regional high school. We can attest to her exceptional academic prowess, outstanding character and fervent commitment to making a meaning, meaningful difference in the world. In her school counselor’s 27 year career. She has rarely encountered a student as cerebral and dedicated as Bella, her drive and determination to pursue

a phd in English and become a college professor. Truly commendable. Isabella possesses a unique passion for the English language, recognizing its analytical and storytelling capacities and she approaches every endeavor with an open minded objective perspective. One of Bella’s most admirable qualities is her fierce advocacy for change, standing unwavering in her beliefs, irrespective of social pressures or peer

influence. She is a self reliant dedicated individual, deeply committed to tasks and causes that align with her interests and values. Having experienced the transformative impact of celebrating diversity firsthand, she is eager to continue using her powerful voice to facilitate growth and inclusivity within her future academic community. Bella’s intelligence and

creativity are beyond doubt. She exhibits a remarkable drive for self improvement, often utilizing her downtime to teach herself new skills, whether it be mastering the art of crochet or finding innovative ways to support others during a challenging time, her ingenuity and compassion shine through in her academic pursuits. Bella consistently challenges herself

by enrolling in the most demanding courses available and excelling as a three sport athlete member of the school band and a student leader. Her work ethic and positive attitude extend beyond the classroom, evident in her role at a local restaurant and her passion for art. She also possesses a deep

understanding of the influence of coaching on a player’s love for the game. As demonstrated by her contributions as a little league coach and soccer referee, Bella’s commitment to a community to community service and advocacy is a testament to her dedication to creating a more inclusive and understanding world from participating in cultural

exchange trips to challenging cultural norms and prejudices. She consistently exhibits a passion for social progress and empathy. Moreover, her active involvement with the Hamilton, one of Human Rights Coalition and her ability to advocate for positive change, showcase her courage and conviction in promoting a just society. In Bella’s own words, she aspires to nurture generations of empathetic,

critical thinkers. Her unwavering determination, relentless work ethic and deep rooted passion for creating positive change. Make her an exceptional candidate for any academic or professional opportunity she chooses to pursue. Bella is a remarkable, remarkable individual destined to leave an indelible mark on the academic and social landscapes she becomes part of. I’m not sure you need to

go to college. I think you’re all set, but it’s, it’s my pleasure as superintendent of the Hamilton Warham Regional School District to award our valedictorian this year and a certificate of academic. Excellent from the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Isabella. Congratulations. I’m gonna, I’m gonna take a picture.

Can we do? Can we do a group picture? I was just gonna say, please, we would love a picture if you’re willing. Um And thank you for coming to be here. That was so wonderful and amazing to listen to. And we are in awe. I think I can. Um Thank

you. Um Yes, if you’re willing to do a photo op, I think this is a if you’re so, where are you going next year? Ok. Fair enough way you choose that it more. I have a friend who went to Skidmore. She really liked it, isn’t it

00:10:59,470	also? I would speak to.

No. 00:11:15,870	Great, good stuff. Ok.

No, 00:11:29,100	I’m tired of listening to the list. All my class written last night. It looks better with the nice flo and the actual,

00:11:49,669	she’s really, she’s ok. Well, that was really fun and so impressive. Very impressive. Yeah. Wow. Um, ok. Now on to more routine things, I guess. Are you ready to vote on this? Is it gonna snow some more? Yeah, after today, I was like, maybe we should wait. So this um the next step is to a vote

on the last day of school and this um actually occurs every year. Um And we feel fairly confident about the last day of school though today. Maybe cuz I put it on the agenda as soon as I put it on the agenda, it’s gonna be 60 next week.

Um uh So there is a memo there on the agenda. Oh, you have it up there. Um uh David, are you ready to give us a motion? Um It’s just really the, this, this line here, the the vote to change the law school. So I’m like looking for the date

and I think it’s gonna be wrong because Hamilton William’s getting in a full out of full week before me. We haven’t voted on it. He’s stunned. Ok, I move that Hamilton Wham regional School committee vote to make the last day of school. June 13th 2024 second by David Frankel. Uh, is there

any questions or discussion again? Just angry week before me? If something weird happens, we’ll come back. But I’m hoping, no, let’s, let’s hope not. Um, a second. Looks like we’re ready to vote. All right. All those in favor and that is unanimous of the six members present and the motion passes. Um, all

right. Uh, Next up, um As you all know, there was, um there’s been some discussion about um school start time and uh Eric’s gonna provide us with some feedback from the survey and this, tonight’s mostly informational I wanted to put out there publicly, but also to give everybody here a chance

to review it. Um 830 responses when I printed this out, I think it’s up to 855 and continuing to grow. Um Keep in mind, we, we did ask people to uh put one response in for each child because some people have a kid in elementary, a kid in middle

and a kid in high. So um it covers, it covers individual Children if you’re looking at it from that perspective. Um Interesting, some very interesting answers I think um the uh you know, the 42% of people who wake up by a person waking them up, that would be my dad yelling at us

in the morning. But um even some interesting facts on kids are eating or not at home. We’re looking at, um, the possibility of a breakfast program for next year. So this helps me feel a little bit better that we can feed 20% of our kids who may not be eating in the morning. Um, and then really

some interesting data on, um, the start times and it’s, it’s, it’s individual for their kids. So it, it depends on, on their kids. You have to kind of dig in a little bit deeper which we can do as we get more information, um how kids get

to school. Most, you know, half the kids take the bus and 40% get driven to school. And then we, we ask for specific times when kids are at bus stops. I mean, we have kids at bus stops at 650 in the morning, um waiting for buses. So in

the winter that is dark and cold. Um and then, and then some feedback and I think it’s important for um for us to, to look at, you know, the, the, the, the one of many pieces is the childcare piece. There are a number of other pieces. So the feedback on the childcare piece I think is really

important. Um And then whether they can make arrangements or not. Yes. No, maybe um most people kind of just put in a like no big deal, I guess. And, and uh that was interesting and then um whether they could change the schedule or not, most people were yet. It wouldn’t be too big of a deal.

Um, and then this was, I thought, interesting, 6040 support a swap of the school start times. And if you go down to the, to the end to the feedback, you’ll see why it’s 6040 I think, because some people said I wouldn’t do an immediate swap, but I might adjust the times a little.

So there was some interesting ideas that people put in uh for feedback along the uh this the the, this part, this next part down, uh lots of support for it. You know, people understand what the research says. And I think people also understand uh some of the pieces of the puzzle like athletics, um

bussing uh childcare opportunity for kids to work, uh opportunity for older kids to watch their younger siblings or neighbors, you know, kids. So there’s a lot of pieces to that puzzle. Um I, I reached out to uh Burlington High uh Burlington public schools. They, they did a swap a couple of years back

actually and, and have been fine. The, the earth didn’t fall apart and you know, they still play their sports, they still do their thing. But it’s one of one of the interesting pieces of the person I spoke with gave me was take some time to do it because you got to give people the time to make the

adjustment. So don’t do it. Right away, dig in, get more info when you think you have enough info, dig in and get more info. So this is really round one I think is the first time we put anything out, got some great information so far. Um And we’ll continue to, we’ll continue to, to dig into this

and I just wanted everybody here to see it and I wanted the public to be able to see where, where we were going with it. Did they make an effort to, to see whether there was a, you know, since one of the hypothesis is that the, that the latest stuff for that age group uh improves the learning,

improves the test scores. Did they detect any shift in so far in, in the test scores that they, I, I didn’t ask him about test scores specifically. I was mostly talking about logistics, like what kind of logistical things that they ran into uh briefly talked to someone in Newport. They, they

are kind of a little further ahead than we are in investigating this. And, you know, it’s been AAA conversation with parents that are younger kids that like my kids up at 5 a.m. every day, you know, I could send them to school earlier where, you know, so I think people get it just

generally. Um but I think the the caveat that everybody has given me so far is like, just take your time, make sure people are aware and understand if you actually make a change, so no change being made yet, we’re just looking at what our options are and what types of things are available and then uh we’ll

continue to get feedback. And I think I wanted everybody here to be able to see it, take some time to read through. There’s some interesting people through some of the actual research, right in their responses. So that was great. Um And we can chase out some more and dig deeper into some of these other

things as, as we dig deeper into it, we may come up with some questions as a group. That’s what I would suggest if you go through it and come up with say four or five or six or seven more questions, we could push those out as kind

of a tier two survey to say, OK, here are the questions that kind of came up. How do we work with this? How do we adjust that? So interesting, good information. The other thing I noticed that he actually did spend some time going through this uh earlier this week. How many people mentioned the early

release on Wednesdays, even though it wasn’t like a topic at all. So that might be something we’re interested in following up on. I did a survey last year. Was it my fir it might have been my first year and same thing, it wasn’t specific to Wednesdays and it, it was all about Wednesdays

that whole survey. So, yeah, there’s a lot of that in here. Um, it makes it difficult for parents to all of a sudden in the middle of the week, believe it or not, it makes it difficult for us to schedule our school days too. And all of a sudden

you, you can’t fit all the pieces together. So I thought it was really interesting when I looked through it earlier, that sort of the first half of the survey, everyone was like, well, no, I kind of things are going fine. I wouldn’t. And then, then you go down, they’re like, but I understand

the research. So I would agree with changing it. There was some, there’s some good info in here. I, I read through it the first time I read through it. I was like, wow, this people took their time to really dig into it. Yeah, I was impressed by the number of people who responded, that has to be one

of our higher response rates. Yeah, definitely. Usually we are 100 and 50 180. We, I think we have 855 now. Dragging tins. That’s what it was this morning. It’s a lot of news. So I would, I would suggest maybe committee members after you go through this, if you have questions, send them back my way and we

can decide, kind of ok, what are some next steps? Um, talk about it at one of the next meetings to be able to just say, ok, let’s develop some next steps. What do you want to investigate? Where do we want to get more information? And I can, if people want, I can continue to dig around for other

schools that may have later starter start times. I know when I sent the questionnaire out to the North Shore superintendents group that I work with, they were all like, well, if you’re gonna do it, then let me know. So I think we all have that same vibe that we should do it together as

a, as a league if you will. That way it takes, it takes a few things off the table, you know, science league, math league, any of those after school activities, athletics. So some things to think about. Would this have any effect on the beyond just changing bus times? Would it, would it affect

our ability to get the number of buses that we need to get people where they’re going? I don’t, I don’t think so because we’re using similar numbers on both sides, both earlier, middle and high school sides and the elementary sides. We had a couple of buses on the elementary sides because of the

transfer. But generally it’s just we’re getting a, a standard bid for 14 buses, 13 buses, I think it is 13 th 14. Yeah, thank you. I have a bus question. So reading through some of these and finding yes, we do need drivers. Can I drive a bus. Um, one of the thing that kept coming up was that

some families opt to drive their kids to school cuz the bus comes at like 630. Could that be solved? I know that we need to have like a bus driver shortage. But is that something where if we had more buses, that wouldn’t be the case or is that

just how the schedule works? Well, I think two things go back to when I was talking about just making that switch. So saying, ok, all your elementary kids are now coming at 740. Well, they don’t have to, they could come at eight which would push that time later. So it’s really a derivative of when

we choose to start school and we need, we need about 50 minutes to get the kids at the, the number of stops that we’re doing, you could add more buses. It’s, it’s be expensive. Um, but yes, you could add more, but you could also just say, all right, we’ll start, I’m just, I’m not putting a time.

I’m just saying you could start elementary at eight o’clock and you could start middle and high school at 840. You know, just as an example and that automatically shifts to after seven for pickups. So it’s a little, it’s a little easier but still early. And those guys are tend to be up by like either

down by us, right? Because my, my kids get on the bus, right? At like 705 ish. So you guys are probably a couple of minutes before me down Maple Street, right? And then um up by the lake, right? All the small, right, the getting the buses around there, it can be a cause they, they, they can’t like

just drive around. It’s like back up and that takes a while. Well, it doesn’t, it also change depending on how many kindergartners we have because don’t, most of the buses, I know the one in our neighborhood doesn’t, but don’t most of the buses like drop kindergartners off at their house. Yeah.

If there’s kindergartners on there, they’re basically putting them at their door. Yeah. Right. But if we have a bunch of kindergartners then that increases the transport time. Absolutely. Yeah. It’ll often change the route. Sometimes they’ll re, they’ll re route buses depending on the concentration of kids in K. Mm. Ok. But do you have anything

else? Thank you. Coincidentally this went out and Dante missed the bus for the first time ever after this 19 years. Ever missed the bus until last week. He’s just putting a sneaker on and he’s like, oh, oops. Well, my daughter, my daughter mentioned as I was going through this cuz she was reading over my

shoulder that even though they don’t get out at three, most of the sports don’t start until three. So I’m not sure how much of an effect like getting out later would actually have on the start of sports practices after school. I think more about getting buses to get to other places. Yeah. No, that’s always

an issue. Ok. And it sounds like if people have specific questions or more questions just send them to error. Ok. Yeah, great response. Ok. Um, I don’t think we vinnie, we don’t have anything. Right. No, no, we’re just taking a rest. Um All right, moving right along, um moving on to

committee reports, uh capital finance. Um So at our last meeting, we went through um the potential projects um that are on the table with um access D and D funds and I, I’m gonna put them in, I’m gonna interrupt you. I, I believe that’s all true and I think you missed a meeting here because I think

Trent updated us on that and we haven’t met since then. So as long as you talk about it, I’m good. Sorry about that. I was, you were giving me identical information. So that’s good. As long as you need to know exactly. Um All right. Thank you for that. Um And do you guys have a next meeting

date or not? Yes, we do. It’s Monday, April 22nd at 1 p.m. Ok, great. Um Policy. Nothing going. Yeah, we haven’t been assigned anything from here and uh if, if there is gonna be next meeting, it could derive from what we’re going to put on the agenda for this meeting. So I and I want, I want some

you’re looking for a to be the next meeting and what is the title of the agenda item? One of a better one is uh healthy buildings policy. And is that the reason I ask is because I, I have felt like um so I guess that can you just clarify for

me that the policy subcomittee? And we don’t have Julia, right? But we have John here, right? So the policy subcomittee voted to move an agenda item to ask the committee the full committee to review it. Is that correct? It was actually to, to um see whether the full committee wanted to delegate to the

sub-committee and the superintendent, the creation of a policy. And what was the, I, I guess one of the real reasons I’m asking so thank you for that clarification. So the sub-committee had a vote and they said to may to vote to move that to ask the sub the full committee if we want

policy to pursue that further. And, but I guess I’m just want clarification because I don’t think before when we spoke, it was called healthy buildings. So what, so what did you all vote on? It was uh it was, I think it was called indoor air quality, but I thought we probably should make a little

broader than that because it’s really all related to health. Um Well, so I guess I just might it is like, what did, what did you all vote on because I wanna do what you voted on. Yeah. Well, it was pretty sure it was indoor air quality policy. I’m pulling up the, the agenda eight months too. I’ll clarify

that. That, that was my recollection of it. Um, yeah, that’s, I mean, if you have it at your fingertips done, that’s great. If not, you guys can get back to. Uh, I thought I did. Um, yeah, I think we should use the exact, um, wording from the agenda once I find that I don’t think we

should change the wording in between what the committee voted on and uh, what we’re suggesting there. So can one of you or I guess Julia, um, if one of you could just send that to me so that we get it right for the agenda, but it sounds like

it’s something along the lines of indoor air quality. Is that correct? Ok. It’s right here IQ policy discussion, I policy, that’s what the agenda, that was, what the agenda item was and, and I guess maybe I’d be looking in. Ok, you guys look and see what the vote was. Um, it was unanimous to move it

forward. Yeah. Oh, no, I didn’t mean that I thank you for that. I really just meant was it called indoor air quality? Great. Thank you for that clarity. I appreciate you walking through that helped me. Um ok. Uh negotiations, David. Um We are, we’re gonna have a, we have an executive

session at the end of the meeting. But, uh, on Monday we did come up with a tentative agreement with the office personnel and then we are meeting again on Tuesday with the teachers. We got him the teacher’s contract, but we can go more in depth on all of that in our executive session later.

Thank you. Thank you. Um All right to you, Eric. Ok, great. I um just wanna take a moment to demonstrate something we have. Uh our website, people are consistently saying to me, I can’t ever find anything. There’s no calendar on the website. Well, I just wanted to show people that this is

the first page of the website when you open up our website HW, schools.net. Here you are, scroll down and you’ll see the news and events and on the right hand side, there are a few items that are the week of the calendar, but you can also click on the full calendar. Um and it also gives some upcoming

things. So it’s a couple of things I was going to talk about. Anyway, is town meeting is this Saturday um, nine o’clock for Hamilton at the high school and one o’clock for Wham at the Bucher. Um Always exciting time that we invite people to come to the, to the uh town meeting, talk

about. Uh we’re gonna put our, our budget forward uh that we approved back in February So that’s exciting. And we’ll also, uh, in, in Hamilton. Anyway, have some, uh, citizens petitions to discuss with the community, uh, related to the field project. Um There is babysitting, you have one more

day to sign up if you would like to, uh, have somebody watch your child or Children. Uh, the National Honor Society. Does that at the Cutler School during the Hamilton Wenham town meetings? Does it suggest a donation of $10 per child? Um They, they will uh entertain your Children while you were

at town meeting. So if you need uh ba daycare or babysitting, I should say, please um jump on the link on the web page and sign up. You need to sign up by Friday. They don’t take walk ins because they organize around the numbers that they have uh on Friday. Um Big day coming up for the elementary

school kids. It was hugely successful last year, May 17th will be our bike to school day. Um It was a lot of fun. We had police and fire and all kinds of other volunteers working with kids and making sure kids got to school safely, parents

on bikes and it was a lot of fun. And um we’ll do the similar sim similar type of uh an opportunity for kids. And Abby Bello once, once again, uh they’ll be providing bike checks. They came to every school went through any bike that was marked to be checked and, and did it right there

on site, which was great, make sure their, the kids brakes worked and, uh, some of the things that need to be lubricated or adjusted were done. And then, um, the annual C PAC Five Sons pizza fundraiser is coming up, uh, the end of the month, April 30th. And that’s where, uh, the police

and fire again work with the, uh, Five Sons Pizza to, they’ll do your delivery. So if you order a pizza and you want it delivered, it’ll probably be delivered by uh one of our first responders. Um So usually Hamilton, one, them, both Hamilton and one of them police and fire. Uh, and they volunteer

their time to do that to raise funds. Uh The funds have been always donated to the uh C PAC uh special ed, um Special ed, uh Parent. Thank you, Parent Association. Um And they use that for speakers. We just had a speaker that, that was in a couple weeks ago. That was used the money. Last year’s

money was used to pay for it. So it’s a good opportunity. Um Also the, the, this week we did a uh forum for uh last week. Excuse me, we did a forum on Wednesday evening for the uh Cutler school project. Again. We had, uh, sent out postcards

this time to every house in both communities. Uh We got, I think 63 people total showed up for the, for the forum. Get a little feisty at the end. But it was, it was good. It was, it was all good. Um, good information. Um, and we’ll continue to do

them, we’ll do more forums. We’ll probably do one every six or eight weeks or so. Um, to get more information out. I also got to meet with the, um, young mothers group on Friday and hold babies, which was even more fun. Uh, I did get to, to hold young Graham who was probably fit in my hand.

Um But it was, it was also good to be able to meet with um um parents who have kids who may not yet be in our schools, but are coming to kind of help them to understand the changes that we are looking towards making to give them an opportunity

to ask questions about what’s currently here versus you know, what we’re looking at. Um So it’s a nice opportunity to kind of make a connection with them and open the doors a little bit to getting more people in the community understanding what’s happening with the, the elementary school project.

Um And I think that’s it for me. The lights are, it’s like the Grammys, anybody have any questions?

00:36:02,199	Ok. Um I don’t think I have much. I um was just gonna also remind you all about town meeting. Um It’s gonna be a fun time. Um I don’t think I have an, oh, the only, the only other thing I wanted to report on is I have been emailing um regarding the Regional Agreement um

discussions. Um and there is gonna be some turnover on or potential turnover on both select boards. And so, um, the request was made to start uh after the elections once they get um, reconstituted and that the chairs um, will all get chairs of each committee, our committee and the two select

boards will get together and um, start having some conversations about the regional agreement after the election. Do you have any questions for me? Ok. Uh, topics for future meetings? I have yours. Ok. All right. Um, does anybody have anything else before I make the motion? I’m gonna move into executive session unless anybody has anything else.

Um. 00:37:21,000	Oh, no, I’m gonna, I’m gonna read it. Yeah. Um, I moved to adjourn into executive session for purpose number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with office personnel and the teachers union where an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so

declares and not to return to open session. Do I have a second, 2nd, 2nd by J Carr? Um, and this needs to be a roll call vote. Uh, Trent. Yes. All right. And that is unanimous and the motion passes and we are adjourned into exec executive session.