And like the. Oh, OK, OK good evening. I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School Committee on Thursday, October 2nd, 2025 at 7 p.m. Um, this meeting is being recorded and live streamed on HWCAM. Um we do not have anyone participating remotely so.

OK, um, first order of events is we have uh an opportunity for citizens’ comments. Um, I’m first gonna just look and see, Eric, do we have anyone on Zoom? Nobody on Zoom. OK, we’ll check back with the zoom in a in a minute. We’ll leave it open um, if there’s a citizen any citizens wishing to

make a, um, comment, I will ask you to, um, identify yourself, um, and please spell your last name for us. Um, we, Amy, if you’re willing to time, um, we’ll ask you to limit your comments to 3 minutes. So great Thank you Thank you. Oh It’s OK. Thank you. 00, she’s got an extra one.

Would you like? I think so. Sure, right? Yes, OK. Um, great. So, um so, um again, we’ll let you know when we get to the 3 minutes and um, I welcome. Hi, my name’s Sue McLaughlin, and I live at um MC L A U G H L I and I live at 34 Park Street in Hamilton.

Before I read my letter, I just would like to ask a question, and I know that this is supposed to be a business meeting, but when you’re doing, this is, when you’re doing policies and procedures which you’re doing you’re updating your policies and procedures and reviewing them. And I was interested in that the last time.

um is the, is there no place in the process for, uh, citizens to have input into that? I’m not seeing that that works out that way. We welcome your input. Now is the time. Well, I’m, I didn’t come here for that, but I just was curious about it. OK, um, this is about this, the, the rainbow flag.

I’m a Catholic homeowner whose taxes helped to fund the Hamilton Wyndham Public school system. I’m writing and speaking to inform you that at the last school committee meeting, being forced to sit in this room in which the rainbow flag was prominently displayed. It was deeply disturbing experience which resulted in my feeling disenfranchised, disrespected, and unsafe.

Charlie Kirk had just been assassinated for speaking out against the morals, values, and lifestyle choices which the pride rainbow flag clearly represent. tragically, as a direct result of deeply polarizing left-wing political rhetoric, we conservative Christians and politically conservative persons are now targeted as dangerous fascist enemies of democracy itself

I was astounded by the blatant disregard of my political and religious beliefs by those who facilitated and structured this school committee meeting. and I ask you rhetorically, who do you represent The entire town or only progressive left leaning, the majority in our town. In the United States of America opposing political parties are not enemies.

We are all citizens of the United States of America and live in a freedom loving constitutional republic. I am writing to respectfully demand all rainbow flags hanging in the school properties and classrooms be removed. They represent the views of those who murdered Charlie Kirk and those who inexplicably in an abhorrently support his assassination.

The rainbow colored pride flag represents lifestyle choices, values, understandings which the school department personnel and teachers promote and impose unilaterally and indiscriminately on everyone in this town. I reject and condemn the secular values and morals, and I reject the rainbow flag which now stands for hate and

violence of those who speak out against left wing Aa to those of us who speak out against left-wing ideologies. 30 seconds. Oh, OK. Well, I, I’m, I’m here to ask you to, um, keep going. You got 30 seconds. Yeah, well, it’s, it’s a lot longer than that, so I would like to just end.

by saying everyone has the God-given right to freely choose what they do and do not believe and to live accordingly within the bounds of safety and reason, but no one person, group, or agency has the right to use government to force others to accept unquestioningly symbols which represent the demonization and hatred towards them.

By definition, this is tyranny. 3 minutes. I should be able to attend town meetings without being forced to see a rainbow flag prominently displayed. This is the United States of America. We are a diverse country in order to promote and maintain peaceful political diversity. It is imperative for all government organizations and

schools to refrain from picking and choosing winners and losers. please live up to your own published standards to fairly represent all the people in Thorton Hamilton. Take down the Mala in the school system. Thank you. It’s not like you. Thank you. um, and thank you for providing the copy. Thank you.

Hey, uh, Mr. Tracy, is there anyone on Zoom who’s interested in making a public comment. OK, um, so at this time, we will close the public comments on Zoom um, and we will close the public comments in the room. OK Um next up, um, Julia, I would ask you if you are willing to read

a portion of our, uh, protocols, please. As elected members of the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School Committee, we, including the superintendent, except 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 in conduct of

our business Number 2, the superintendent and the school committee represent the needs and interests of all students in the district and place the students’ interests above all others in their decisions while remaining within the limitations of a voter approved budget. Thank you. David, uh, would you be willing to read a portion of the mission statement? Sure.

the Hamilton Wyndham the original school district school committee’s mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with the critical skills needed to maximize their potential. The Hamilton Wyndham 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. Um, right. Next up is the consent agenda. Um, does any members have, uh, any items from the consent agenda that you would like to hold. No Uh, Julia, would you be willing to I move that the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School Committee accept the consent agenda as presented. by Jen Carr, um, all those in favor.

and that is unanimous of the 5 members present and the motion passes. OK. Um, next to you, Eric, on the MSBA Declaration of removal. Uh, so this is a document we’ve been waiting for from the state. They were. supposed to get it to us Monday or Tuesday. It did not arrived,

so I’m just going to request that we table it Um, they basically take our letter that we send asking to be removed from the project. and then they send a letter from them that outlines that all the things that have, have, uh, happened along the way. We just have not received that letter, so I don’t wanna have

you vote on something that you can’t see. So. just ask that we, we’ll put it on next meeting. We have not, we just haven’t received it yet from the MSBA. Do we need to vote on that? Um, so we had, we don’t have a motion on the table, so we don’t need to vote to table it,

but I, um, I guess I would, I would say is um unless without objection I’m just saying let’s just skip this item. If that makes sense. Um, and Eric will look forward to seeing that next time, um, again, my understanding is it’s something that they want from us, right? So yeah, don’t need to send it to us.

OK Um So next up, um, is, um, we discussed this at the last meeting. Um, this is just an update, uh, or I’m sorry, uh, sort of a reiteration of what is before you is identical to our current, um, protocols with the exception of the date that

is at the top. Um, and there was a discussion last time, um, and, um I don’t know if it makes sense to start off with emotion or if Yeah, I had a motion to amend. Um, and unfortunately, I don’t have a copy with me, but I sent it to you. in an email OK. Um hold on.

Um And, and the simplest way to implement it would be just to take that sentence and append it to um item 8. Um, all right, hold on. So um I guess, uh, I don’t I not my motion to make, so I, um I mean I can give you my list and you can read it, it’s not s.

OK, thank you So if you read um item 8, the current one and just add this sentence. Sorry, if you if you read I imagine in the current protocol and append this sentence. Uh, that was my intent. It, it reads in the event that a school committee member wishes to publicly dissent from a

school committee decision, this is permitted, so long as the dissenting school committee member clearly states that the opinion is a personal one and not stated on behalf of the school committee. OK, so I’m understanding that the motion is to amend or change item 8 to add the sentence that you just read. Is that correct?

All right, does, is there a second uncover that So right now I’m just asking if anyone has a second OK. my second OK, seconded by Julia. I’m gonna want my computer back. I feel insecure. take that away from you. think of it alone Um

OK, um, so I do, I do have it in front of me. I’m happy to read it again. Sure, so my understanding of the motion is that the motion is to, um, look at item 8, which Eric, can you scoot it up so item 8 is up there. to add a sentence to item 8.

that says in the event that a school committee member wishes to publicly dissent from a school committee decision. This is permitted so long as the dissenting school committee member clearly states that the opinion is a personal one and not stated on behalf of the school committee. So that’s a

motion that I heard and it had a second by Julia. um. so I heard a, I, I don’t know if you had a question or you want to start that’s already covered in number one. OK, so, um, scroll. I agree with that only. I feel like adding that to 8, kind of.

cancels out the beginning of 8, even though I know it’s, it feels like kind of a technicality when we say when we’re speaking publicly this is only my opinion, but the fact that you’re on the school committee has weight, I think, even though you’re saying this is only my opinion, especially on a matter that we’ve already

voted on and decided on to move forward. So I feel like having it in one kind of covers what you’re looking for, David, but also I feel like putting them in the same number kind of cancel each other out. Does that make sense? I don’t know. I, I kind of think that um

I’m really split on this. I do think we should be unified in our decisions. but I could see some decisions that I would disagree with that I would maybe not publicly say but to friends and family and community members. I would say I don’t support this. um for instance, I’m literally

thinking about the um the, the bus decision that we made that I voted against. Obviously I’m upholding it. I mean, I’m never speak out publicly against it, but if people ask me, I say, you know, I had concerns and here’s why. I’m just, I was trying to explain my no vote. So I could

see how it could be um, people would ask you like why did you vote no and you, you should be able to explain why you did, um, but then also still be respectful of the committee vote. So I don’t have a problem with that, with that sentence, um. just for that reason, because I think

you know, we’re not all, we’re not all going to agree and we, we have to be able to justify our votes, but then also say, you know, obviously I respect the committee’s decision. I’m not going to fight against it, but I, this is why I voted no or this is why I might have made a different decision.

That’s hard. It’s a really um it’s a tough one. Yeah, I, I, um I sort of, I, the concern for me is maybe just some of the language in the sentence, not, I think we’re all, I actually think we’ve had some good conversations so that people do kind of understand that.

I mean, I think the bus discussion is a good one. because the point is you as it’s a support in item 8, right? So that you need to do what you need to do in order to support. that item being successful, being, you need to support the

success of the item. And you need to support the action of the item, even if you in other words, let’s try to take it out of sort of the real world, but in other words, it was, it was like, you know, we all voted to plant a maple tree

in the front of somewhere, let’s say, and you really thought that was a bad idea. And then if, if it wasn’t getting done, it would be up to you to say it needs to get done. even though you didn’t want it. Like it’s more than just um, but that wouldn’t prevent

you at a cocktail party from saying to someone, I didn’t think it was a good idea to plant maple tree. So I, I guess my concern about the language is not really about sort of what you’re trying to get at, but I am worried about the part where, well, two things.

I feel like our protocols are so overwhelmingly long already. But the second thing I have to say is that I’m actually a little bit concerned about where it says, if in the event that a school committee member wishes to publicly dissent from a school committee decision. While I don’t think that that is

I don’t think that your intent was to say like, um I actually think that’s where it gets really hazy, so like to Jenn’s point about protocol number 1, it lays out really clearly in protocol number one that like if you as a school committee member, wanted to stand up and make a public comment at another board,

I mean, or something like that. which is something that could really happen, that it’s really important that you clarify whether you’re speaking for the school committee or as a citizen? Um, because that’s an example of a time that you might be speaking publicly and that like I’m worried about the idea

about it being public dissent, because I think public can mean a lot of different things, but I worry about it seeming like it might mean that kind of a thing, like at you it wouldn’t be OK for you to get up and make a public statement like at another board meeting.

Uh, it would really, I mean, I under I do understand your point like it, but I, I’m worried about that, um. I don’t. I don’t know. I you talk because Yeah, no, I I, I think, um. the context in which I didn’t sign last year was, I felt pretty strongly that we were heading down the wrong

direction with the, the whole, um, consolidation project. and I felt it, it needed it needed the scent to be expressed and with, with strong reasoning. But there’s two different things there, and this is, and I’m sorry if I, that’s OK, but dissent as a like as a committee member in this room right?

that’s, you can dissent as much or as I mean that’s, there’s no rule against dissenting here. But once the vote is taken um, again to Julia’s point, it’s OK to express that, I mean, first of all, particularly if you voted in the minority in any kind of a vote people might

ask you, I think we’ve all had that experience if you vote. in the minority, people might say, well, why did you do that, you know, and it’s certainly acceptable to but what I would say and this is I’m gonna go back to my maple tree example because that’s not

a real example and doesn’t feel loaded, but like it really is my interpretation of everything I’ve learned is that, and I think in here is that it’s that you will uphold and support that decision so that you will support and get that maple tree planted, even if you didn’t want it. And I, and I think

that one thing you can do to be supportive the way I interpret it is if you cannot tolerate the idea of and again just for the public’s understanding, we’re not planning a maple tree. It’s just an example. But if you can’t tolerate that, then the best thing you can do to uphold and support is to

just keep is to not get in the way while other people. do that. So that’s my opinion. I, that’s how I interpret this, and it doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to say something as a citizen, but there uh I don’t know. So David, you don’t think number one covers what you want. No, because,

because of, because of, because of, 88 really seems to be directed at suppressing dissent I don’t think so. I think it’s uphold and support the decisions of the majority of the committee. Once a decision has been made. I mean, not and not beforehand, but once a decision has been made. right, that doesn’t prevent us from dissenting

publicly the entire time before something’s going be absolutely not OK for Julia to be continuing a campaign against electric buses right now, right? Because that would not be a polling. I’m not against electric bus. I also just for clarity, I also voted no on that, um, and I am I’ve said numerous I’ve

actually what I’ve said about that to that I know we’re not talking about that, but I’ve said many times to people in the public, you know, I voted no because I felt like it was really risky and I was worried about it and I am so excited to

be proven wrong and I’m so excited to see how this is moving forward and like that’s to me is not being dishonest about why I voted a certain way, but it’s looking forward to achieving positive results. I hope uh, other thing that concerns me is if you’re dissenting publicly

after the decision has been made and you’re using points of contention that you didn’t use in the meeting? Are we violating open meeting law? Because you have to discuss it in the meeting before you discuss it in public. Right, but once a decision is made, I don’t know that there’s

that’s why I don’t know. That was the question. Or putting, or putting something on the agenda again. trying to get something on the agenda again. which has to do it would be to get it on the agenda and express. dissent in that form, then you’re not violating an open meeting law. Um but I think otherwise that’s a

I, yeah, tricky It’s a tricky rope to walk. I think the context here is that it, it wasn’t our final decision. that it, it had to go to a town vote. and that’s a political process. and um but I think we watched, I mean, we’ve watched not just with this vote, because I think it’s

very difficult to to talk about this particular vote because this was very supercharged, but we’ve watched it at every town meeting. It’s not uncommon at all for you to see like the FICO recommends such and such an action. you know, and it was 4 to 1 or the select board recommends

such and such a favorable action, and it was 3 to 2. like. it’s present there. but they’re not, but they, they are if they’re recommending favorable action, that’s what they’re recommending. They’re not they’re not the dissenting members are not saying, this is why you shouldn’t, they’re, they just, that’s what all the board, they just, they had that

they had that conversation. It’s clear that they voted a certain, it’s posted how they voted, you know, 3 to 2 or 4-1 or whatever, um but when they speak to it at town meeting, they’re not providing the dissenting view, they’re providing the this is how we voted I don’t know.

Again, I don’t, I, I don’t see though that this is I mean. Julia made some good points about like in real life. you do have, and you do have the right to speak your mind outside of it really is. Mm um, it’s, it’s that it’s very difficult for members of the public to understand and know

whether you’re speaking as an individual or whether you’re speaking as a school committee member because you’re always a school committee member. They know you are a school committee member. I think people understand, but even, even so. you know, it’s not a flip of a switch. It, it comes from a member of the school committee.

It’s still holds a lot of wheat. So I think it’s something we have to be really careful about. I, can I ask a question and you don’t have to answer this if I feel, but I, I heard you saying if this, I, I, because I really want to stick with what you’re proposing and not, we don’t

have to talk about how you feel, but I sort of heard you saying that you felt like this, these protocols don’t allow for dissent. I guess I’m not sure or could you just tell more about that? Like I don’t like Well, that, that’s how I, I read um 8. as um and will uphold and support the

decisions of the majority of the committee once the decision’s been made, which basically, the way I read it was open and shut But you had a chance to dissent. We aren’t saying that you can’t dissent. We’re saying that once the decision is made, after you’ve done your descent. that decision has to be supported.

Yeah, it doesn’t mean that you have to like write a letter in support. It just, I think it just means like publishing something that is the opposite of the way the committee is going feels like it’s in violation of number 8. I don’t know. And I guess I I don’t know how to thread this

needle because I actually feel like number 8 is fine and the protocols are fine at the same time, I actually think we don’t disagree. Like there’s like the reality is that like people can say, I’m not, I’m not, I’m saying this as an individual, and that does kind of cover it, right? Like you’ve said it.

and so I’m like I think number one, number one, but I’m even standing up at a meeting number one sort of says, if you like all you have to do is identify that you’re like I guess I’m sort of torn because in a black and white action,

and that’s kind of how I think protocols should be. Like it basically says, they, they will speak as individuals. Like you need to just get up and announce that this is how I’m speaking as an individual. separately as a person, I’m kind of trying to say, and

maybe I should not worry about it. I guess that covers it as long as that somebody says they’re an individual, they’re an individual. Separately, I’m sort of saying. living in the community we all have experienced times where you, it, someone may not understand whether you’re speaking as a school committee member or as an interview.

I’m talking about like if you’re just standing at a soccer field or you’re Mhm I don’t know. I, I agree and I also think I do agree now that I’m thinking about it, there are lots of times to, to publicly dissent in this in these meetings, so people know

how you feel and they know what you stand for, and they understand your no vote speaks louder than words, you know, louder than anything. um yeah, but I do think supporting up, I think you have a problem with supporting. So like upholding, you probably don’t have a problem with, but it’s the word support that you

probably have a problem with. OK. I think we all of us need to sort of really think about generally speaking you have to support I can’t hear a word you’re saying. Sorry, generally speaking, you’ve got support the decisions of the committee unless it is in your view, so egregious. that it’s important to communicate to

to the, the voters. Why? We can’t pick and choose like when to uphold this and when to not, like whether or not you think it’s egregious, it’s rule. Do you think the time for that would be like during campaign time? I guess what I guess all I’m trying to, I guess what, this

is what I’m trying to say. I actually think I I actually, I like I didn’t agree with the committee on this and I don’t know. And I guess what I’m trying to say, I I’m trying to thread a needle here because it’s a I don’t think it’s a good practice.

to stand up publicly and say, I voted no and no and I, but do I, there’s no such thing as school committee like they’re not gonna come and get you and put you in like school committee jail for doing something like, in other words, it’s good practice to have it be clear, like the school

committee voted in favor of X just like when we hear the select board you know. it’s but yes, like people will do things like that. In other words, like people could say like if you were in a kid, that’s a good example, and if you’re getting at a campaign, someone could say,

you know, I voted against the maple tree that you know, whatever, but you wouldn’t be able to say I don’t support it. Well, or you wouldn’t be able to say you wouldn’t be able to represent that like you couldn’t say or I think you couldn’t say like, well, you know, the school committee didn’t really want that maple

tree. Like, you know what I mean? Because that’s not what like that’s like that’s not what happened but you know, I don’t know. I, I think, I think the protocols are fine. I do think the protocols are fine. I think number one covers it. I changed my mind. I think number one covers speaking as an individual

I think we all have to make a decision on the level of support we have for votes. are we publicly going out there? I mean, like I really support this. I love it. Like this go or we just sort of dissenting publicly in a meeting and letting our, our voters, our community, everybody know how we feel, um.

I don’t know. I if it if it is my opinion, and then I really, I, but it helps like I don’t think that this sentence is a false statement. Like I think this sentence about if you wish to dissent, you need to make it, it’s basically saying you need to

make it really clear that this is your personal opinion. I like, I don’t think that that’s false. I just, I just think putting it in here under number 8, I, I think somebody sort of said it. It just makes it kind of seem like, well, you should

uphold the decisions, but if you don’t want to, you can go ahead and do it’s like, but this is not a false statement. This is the rule. Like if you want to, and this is the rule, like you need to make it really clear that you’re speaking as an individual that you so this is true.

Like, and I guess I. Mm-hmm I’m not sure and again this is none of my business, like I’m not sure why you feel like these protocols prevented you from doing this because I feel like the existing protocols. say that you can do what you want as long as you’re very clear that you’re an individual.

So I don’t know what, what you felt like you weren’t allowed to do. And I, that’s not something you have to answer. I’m just I’d like to move to vote a question All right, um, all right, so no, that’s OK. So there was a um motion to, um, end debate and

move to vote, and I think I heard a second. All right, so first we’re going to vote on whether or not we’re going to vote. All right, so the only thing we’re discussing right now, I mean, the only thing we’re going to vote on right now is whether to end so if you want to end discussion

and vote, you should vote yes. Um, if you want to continue discussion, you should vote no. Anybody have questions Right, all those in favor Right, looks like we, that is unanimous and we are ready to vote. OK, so now we’re back to the original motion which was to approve the protocols with the addition of this sentence,

which I’m happy to read again if anyone needs it. No? OK, um right, so this is, that’s the motion on the table. All those in favor? One, those opposed. 4, motion fails, uh, 1 to 4 of the 5 members present. um, Does anyone else have a any other motions on this? I we I move that we approve.

the school committee protocols. 2025, 2026 as listed in the agenda. Um, right, I heard a motion in a second. Um, is there a discussion OK. All right. All those in favor That is 4, those opposed. 1, and the motion passes 4 to 1. OK. Thank you all for doing that

Let me have a copy for everybody to sign before they leave. OK, thank you. um. thank you to you and to Janelle for that. Um, all right, next up is to you, Eric. proposed superintendent goal. s Thank you very much. um every year we do this step with our district

goals which we work on during the summer and we present. early in the school committee year and uh this is the kind of the next step of the connection back to district goals. It also serves as a connector for our school level goals as well as school improvement plans which you’ll see at, at next meeting. Um the

process for evaluation of superintendents is based around 4 standards instructional leadership, management and operations, family communic engagement and then professional culture. um, I tried to create goals that link back to some segment or indicator within each of those goals. Uh, so the first one is really improving instructional leadership. We have been, uh really working hard this summer

with the leadership team. trying to help them to improve their instructional leadership and their instructional. uh, understanding of extra instructional practices in the classroom. Uh, we worked together on a book called Now We’re Talking, and part of that is connected to weekly reflection series that uh, we send out to them to help

them to begin to understand this process that we’re moving into Essentially what happens is the principles we’ve asked them to try to get into 3 classrooms a day. which is an enormous amount of classroom time, but we feel like that’s really the priority of their job and it’s been hard to have

a principal shift from the usual strength of uh a a building principle becomes a management operations because you’re always putting out fires and doing things. We’re trying to flip that over so that their focus is already always primary instructional leadership. So it’s part of my role in doing that is uh helping them

to develop and implement their walkthrough plans. um, meeting with walking with them. We’re walking with them, um, during many of these walkthroughs. um, we schedule them, as you know, we schedule them throughout the year and then we’re we’re trying to get feedback back to the teachers more quickly, so that

principle doesn’t come into a room and then disappear and the teacher is left wondering what happened. Was it good? Was it bad? Did it, you know, uh, so we’re really trying to change our operation in, in how we communicate, um quality and the qualities that we’re looking for in good within good instruction.

The beauty of here is we have a lot of good examples. The harder part is sharing those examples, so teachers get a very really isolated. once you go into your classroom, you’re in your classroom, you know, you might go out for the lunch or bathroom, but our duty

or something, but you’re back in your classroom, so you, you, you don’t get enough opportunities to learn from each other in in the way it works. So the, the design of this is really to give me the opportunity to work 1 to 1. with the um principals, but also working with our, uh, director of teaching and

learning to connect the dots back to the, the high quality instructional materials that she’s implementing at the same time. So they need to now have a really strong understanding of these materials um, so that they can have these conversations related to the instructional things that they’re seeing in classrooms we’re even helping a new

teacher, for example, a brand new teacher is gonna need help along the way, um, giving them opportunities to pair up with a mentor teacher, giving them opportunities to, to observe other teachers in action that that may do a really good job in, in a particular, um, subject areas, so this is

really me pressing on our leadership team to, to improve their instructional leadership. specifically what it is. This is a year-long goal. Um, they get a weekly, uh, reflection that we send to them in their track we’re tracking as part of their evaluation. It is really the the the number one piece of their evaluation

during the school year and this goal outlines that whole process. um, we are working with a consultant that’s that helped us last year with our curriculum implementation. So now we’re kind of trying to thread the needle here. I don’t know if you want to do this one at a time or questions or just a quick questionnaire.

What is TNTP mean? It’s uh teaching uh teaching teachers network for teaching professionals. I think that’s right Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a consulting group that Department of Education uses to um help implement high quality instructional materials. They also do things like this with, with kind of leadership teams across districts. They’re national group.

doesn’t even say it just says DNTPNT hilariously, I just interpreted that that was gonna be the like the acronym for the book above it, which of course is nothing like it. It would be like NWA, but in my mind I was like, oh yeah, that’s related to that book. um yeah um, I think while we’re on it,

the other questions or thoughts or about this goal 2, very straightforward, completing a strategic plan, as you all know, our strategic plan will end at the end of this school year. Um, it gave us a good base and good baseline to get things like MTSS up and running and really focused this next

strategic plan will, will need to take in a whole lot of different avenues related to the future like where do we wanna go? What are we looking for? How do we want to be? uh, you know, 5 years from now or 10 years from now, so it’ll

include a lot more depth I think than the the previous one. So, um. looking at the same type of a process 3 to 5 year hoping to lean into a five year so that we can, the 3 was really quick like you started it and it was like poof, you were done.

Um, but similar process we want to do some um more community information gathering and do kind of like reverse forms to be able to say, OK, come tell us like here’s the things that we have to really get the information out there and then get that feedback. Um, and then come up with our plan so that

we have something to start next school year with, which will give us the basis for our goal setting again for the next few years. Any questions on that We last time we did this we did it with a consultant. um Jen Clifford and I really feel like we can run this in-house.

It’s it’s um it’s a lengthy process, but it’s important, I think, for the two of us to to kind of be in the middle of all this, to hear that information gather that information, trying to synthesize it all so that we can continue to keep that kind of connecting the dots for people on the way, so.

I like the focus on, you know, community information gathering and um inviting everyone to be a part of this, so I think the community needs to know that. We’re looking at feedback loops, we’re trying to figure out different ways. to get feedback loops into the general public, not the school

like I can reach the school people in an email outside of that, how do I connect that to to the people within the community, it may be, you know, somebody who’s 75 and doesn’t have any connection with the schools at all other than what they see when they drive by. So it’s, it’s, you know, I wanna

be able to connect that and also bring more kids in. Last time it was hard to get kids involved, but I’d like to see more kids involved in that process. I think it’s important for them to get their voice in the middle of it all we’re trying to

we’re gonna try to make it fit between sports seasons and all that stuff. So they can join us. This, I don’t know if this is. uh. I mean, in other words, having an existing strategic plan, like how do you what do you see as how do you use the existing plan?

for this? In other words, what is the so you really look at the outcomes. So you take the existing plans, so go back to our each the end of each year we did the district report on the district goals. so that all is connected to the strategic plan. So you’d take those 3 years of outcomes

and I think that’s where you really start like, OK, here’s, here, here’s what we set out to do. Here’s what we did Here’s what we didn’t do and then decide, do we want to continue down the road of what we didn’t do, or do we want to strengthen something we already did, or do we want to do

something totally different. So I think you, you need to use the outcomes of the current strategic plan, um as part of your, your foundational conversations. We’ll say I hear all the things that occurred. We did not hit every single goal. and here’s why, and here, you know, so I think, I think

that’s a great conversation starter for OK, where, where do we go from here? And then you all you have to connect that to that shared vision piece like what do people see? or where do people see the the school community, the school district in 10 years. That’s a hard question. I mean, we’ve been all on visioning

sessions and things like that and it’s really hard to answer. You go back to some of the visioning sessions. and, you know, 70% of it doesn’t come true, so, OK, but we still need to think big and try to figure out how do we um, pull that, that, and all the pieces together so that we

have a coherent cohesive plan. uh, to move forward Thank you. I, I just, yeah, that’s very helpful. Um, who do you want on the strategic planning committee. we would open it up to the same group we did last time. It was really everybody. We, we grabbed teachers, administrators, students, parents, we had some community

community members, school committee people, so anybody that would, would like to join us, we had, um, a group that ebbed and flowed between 45 and 60 people and it would, you know, and people came when they could come and it was, you know, it was, I think we had 6 sessions.

so it’ll be that’s similar makeup we try to get as many, as many people involved. It, it just generates more. It’s easier to generate more ideas than, you know, 10 people in a room, so. all right, goal number 3, this has been on the back burner

kind of. We want to pull this to the front burner and I will take this on. um, examine school start change, start time changes, and really, uh, trying to get this started now. You’ll see tomorrow the first survey will go out in the weekly, um, as long as the school gets approved tonight.

But the, uh, this, this survey will go out in the weekly. It’s a comparative survey to the last one we did last year. We’ll pull all that data together and start there. um, we’ll get some committee members and again, I think it’s a, a group of people in talking to other principals, they, they

a couple of people made some good points and a couple of superintendents said the same thing. You want to get people in the groups that are impacted like, OK, you need, you need elementary parents, you need middle school, you need high school parents, but you also need some of those older kids that are impacted by athletics

or jobs or things they do voluntarily and then bring in people from the, the bus company. So it’s gonna be interesting, the mix of people that would be part of this, but there are really um and it’s hard to know exactly where the bumps in the road will be because he’s just

district is different. There are some things that are very straightforward like athletics is a problem. Everybody knows that transportation is a problem. Everybody knows that. Who’s gonna pick my, you know 4th grader up at the bus stop on the way home who’s gonna be with them after school, so the

all those things, um, will be important discussions to have, and I think that’s if I can get this thing started in the next month or so and then I hit this timeline of March that buys time to bring it back to the committee determine a direction and then advertise that and really get it out there.

so. should the review existing survey data that’s dated May 2026. Is that right? No, it was 2 last year, sorry, thank you. That’s, yeah. May is incorrect. Thank you. I think May is correct. I think it’s It’s, yeah, think it’s It’s, yeah it is, sorry, thank you.

Um, I just wanted to, uh, this is a question, as you, I thought was a really thoughtful answer in our, in the, our discussion in the strategic plan talking about. broadening out and talking about community and. you know, and getting input is there, are there I don’t, I don’t know the answer, but as you, I was just

thinking about, are there, are there any, are there any other groups in the community that we should think about that might be impacted that aren’t you know, I don’t, I mean, in other words, I’m thinking like, obviously, like maybe the rec department or the community house, like, in other words that we want to have their input.

um, and there might be others that I, those are something I can think about there might it’s possible that there are other yeah, any of the after school programs, before school programs, like I mean there could even be, I can’t think of what it is, but like the instrument, musical instrument program that takes place after

school like all of those things would have to be. I’m just thinking even community wise like, you know, there could be other community impacts that we aren’t. capturing, like, I don’t know, I just would wanna think about that like come out in those discussions. It may be somebody says, well, what about this? OK, yeah,

you’re right because like, like I’m thinking about like, like it could be like a church program or, you know, something that we’re not, that isn’t within the confines of the school that we might not be realizing about or something like that that just might be important to just get as much

input about um right I think that I think there were programs it could be not necessarily negative. It could be positive. It could be programs that have like whatever early morning or late or afternoon childcare that we don’t know about that are actually flexible. I, I just, it could be. just resources could be.

Yeah, I think there are community programs that were affected by the Wednesday decision, definitely, you know, so we should talk to like the community house, the rec department, like you’re saying. I can’t come up with them because I don’t know what they might be. I’m thinking we need to think beyond those ones that

we know about and think about like are there other things that that are resources for people that who might be using that aren’t sort of part of our normal thought process, but it could be helpful or could be impacted. And part of that investigation includes like a recycling of

information that that sounds like a weird word I guess to use, but to, to get all that initial information and put it out there like, OK, take a look at this. What have we missed? Because you may have somebody that just says, oh, wait a minute, they didn’t. include this. So we’re hoping to

again expand our reach a little bit. Um, it’s more of a, um, you’re kind of guessing unless that particular thing shows up on your doorstep, so. are there, um, some quantitative um outcomes at the end of the, the 5 and 10 years that that you want to bring into focus like um the our rankings

in, in the state. I was just reading the cares of success. The 5, I’m sorry, 5 and 10 years. What? uh a quantitative scores on standardized tests of some kind or that you want to reach on average or you want to reach a certain level of ranking because of the change in school start time.

No, just I thought we were talking about, no, just what, sorry, I’m, I’m probably going back to the first step, which is saying, yeah, cause you’re saying you’re gonna have a 5 and 10 year strategic plan, the strategic. The question is, at the end of the of that planning

period, how will you know that you’ve been successful? What are the metrics? Yeah, it’s part of the process and some of the metrics could be the uh ranking. on, and I, I’ve got no particular preference on the the ranking system. and, and or scores in specific. subjects, um, rankings or declared levels of where you

are right now and where, where you want to drive the school too, because then a lot of what the planning is about is, is testing it again, is that going to improve? that metric? Yep Well, and I mean, I think on on the to to the strategic plan. like the indicators of success

of the goal are listed here, but I would be within the strategic document, document right, but document, in other words, part of when we, when the strategic plan arrives, I think what you’re talking about is you’re looking for that within the strategic plan for it to have clear

benchmarks of how we would know if the strategic plan is successful, is that correct? And it’s also I have the school committee expressing what aspirations they have for the superintendent to achieve for the strategic in the strategic fund things that should be right. right Sorry, I thought you were talking about this one. I was like

uh, right, go for active advocacy and networking, uh, as I moved into my 5th year. The superintendent here, I found myself involved in many uh professional associations, including the superintendent’s Network, uh, association school superintendents. uh, member of the mass Legislative Committee, uh, graduation think tank subcommittee, which is a subcommittee of a state group that’s currently

jiggering the graduation requirements with the loss of MCAS. uh, me and vice president and offshore superintendents roundtable on board of the Northeast Consortium, and I think, uh, what I would like to do, I was trying to figure out a way to bring you more pertinent information related to some of the things that are happening at the state

level. um you know, I was thinking of once a month having, OK, these things are happening at the legislative level. This is what’s going on at the statehouse and just have kind of a one pager for part of my superintendent’s report, like, OK, here are some things that you might want to keep your eye on. I think

that’s one of the things that I have not, um, done a good job with. getting that information back to this group, so I think this would kind of. put me in that realm of thinking, but also being involved in all these groups has now given me

uh opened my eyes to a lot of things that are going on at the state level, and, uh, has given me some good insight too. I have to say I just, I love the term active advocacy. I think you know, you could just say like participate in and networking, um, but active

advocacy. I feel like is a stronger word, um. and I, I appreciated that and thank you for participating in all these committees on our behalf, but I would definitely love more updates if you can give, give them to us and how can we support you in this work?

That’s, that’s kind of the plan to to build a make that because I know I know there was a point with the free lunches that you came to us and said it would be great if we could sign something or if we could lend our support. I mean, if there’s

anything like that, I, I think we would all really love to see it. Even opportunity for feedback like state feedback, so the graduation MCAS got voted out as no longer a graduation requirement in the state is, um, doing a portrait of the graduate as a replacement, which is already bumping up against the things that we’ve done.

in our district, plus many other districts, um, but they’re moving forward with that. So what does that look like? What are the opportunities for you as committee members to speak publicly about it. Um, there are a lot of things that I have now realized and working more at the statehouse level, uh, that we could chime in on

uh, as advocates or not, you know, you may not want something, but at least making you aware of that, uh, and those opportunities. So I think that’s part of in my conversations with the group that of superintendents that I work with like trying to make that a better piece of what I do and it’s not really

been there and I think I honestly didn’t know about it until I started having a conversation with other supers about what types of information you bring back to your committee. um, so that’s where this kind of stems from, so. I think it’ll be, I think it’ll be interesting for me, but also

for you to, to kind of get a different view. Well, I, yeah, I, I mean, I spoke briefly with Eric about it. I mean, I think it is an opportunity like so I know that sometimes I get, we got I think it was today from the MASC something about graduation requirements.

and you know, oftentimes we get something like that from the MSC and you read it, but it’s sort of like, well OK, you know, it’s like too late for it to actually. Right, exactly, so it’s an opportunity for us to you know, hear what you’re doing and how we might like

might provide feedback or, um, which you know might be. challenging because, you know, we, we don’t to David’s point, we don’t always provide unified feedback, so, you know. let’s just give us an opportunity. The advocacy piece is, is, um. a role I’ve never played, but I realized in

looking at many of the bills that are being moved through. There are many school districts that advocate well um, whether they’re paying people to do it or not. It’s a different story, but they, they end up, you know, in this big long 20 page bill, you know, the town of so and so gets 100,000 to fix

this. um there’s a lot of, a lot of things tucked into bills that we may be able to take advantage of. I don’t, I don’t know, and like I said, this is new ground for me, but I think it’s important for us to at least open that door And those are my goals for this year.

a motion Um, yeah, let’s have a motion and then we could still go ahead. I move that the school committee accept the superintendent’s goals for the school year, 2025, 2026 as presented. Second I heard a second, um, I was gonna make a friendly amendment. It’s not entirely as presented because we had a date change a

date change with the friendly amendment of the date change to May 2025. Um, right, so I heard a motion and a seconded by Jen Carr. um, um, is there a further questions for discussion? No Um, a quick question on goal, uh, goal 4. you talk about for indicators of success, being members of

these groups, but I read this more as not just being a member, but communicating the information that you get as a member of these groups, but there’s nothing in your indicators about communicating that. That’s, you’re absolutely right. Can is, which is fascinating because Dana and I had a conversation about this conversation about

communication to the to the uh to once a month to the committee to my superintendents report so that people have it. So I should add that in there. um so we have motion on the table. with, with two friendly amendments maybe. Uh, well, the date change but he would have to make a

friendly amendment if they wanted to, I guess, and we’ll see. I make a friendly amendment that in the indicators of success for goal number 4 is a communication goal It’s like a right, so you were accepting that by you? You made that too friendly amendments. So is everyone

clear on what the motion is ahead of before us, which is them present as presented with an extra indicator on goal number 4 around communication and the date change that we discussed. All right, is there any further discussion? All right. Looks like we’re ready to vote. All those in favor?

That is 5 in favor, um, and that is unanimous of the 5 members present in the motion passes. Thank you, Eric Thank you Um next up, um, this is, um just informational. This is all information that you already have and has already been put out publicly, but I just want opportunities for the public to

hear us and for everybody here to remember, um, so, um, we’ve worked, uh, spoke, I’ve spoken with the, um, chair of the Wenham Select Board and we are um planning to meet jointly on Tuesday, October 21st, um, uh, that will be a joint meeting with the One Select Board at 6:30 p.m. here, I believe we’re

gonna meet here. um, and the purpose of the our participation in that meeting, um, will be to appoint a Wenham resident, um to fill the vacant, uh, school committee. seat. Um. and, um, just, just so the public can hear, I know you guys all know, but just so they can hear once again, if

anyone’s listening to this, that um that person would then serve until April, and then they could choose to run, um, that term will have 2 more years, um. so that would be the duration of that term. Um, and then, so anybody have any questions on that?

So then if you, um, the next item is the, um, these are um the interim, these are interview questions that we have used in previous appointments. Um I did, um, speak with Ben Tyman, who is the chair of the Wenham Select Board, um, because they were not involved the last time that we made an

appointment, so they haven’t done this in a little bit, um, but I did share this document with them. I know that they are going to discuss it at their next select board meeting. Um, you’ll see that two of these are in italics. This is just what we did in the past. It doesn’t mean it’s what we have

done we don’t have to do. That’s what I’m looking for feedback, but the two that are in italics, which is number 4 and number 5, in our past couple of um stints where we’ve appointed someone. We had the select board ask these two questions. They were not always worded exactly this way, but basically

one was a question regarding the budget, like the budget process and one, so that’s number 4, and then number 5 is a question around commu it was, it’s been posed as like a question around communication and community relations. Um, so I guess I’m looking for feedback and discussion about

like what we did last time, which is not necessarily what we’re going to do, but last time what we did is we, this committee sort of agreed on to answer, to ask questions 123 uh, and 6, and we sort of let the select board frame like we gave them

guidance and that it should be about the budget and communications and we kind of let them do it. Um, that’s not the only way to do it if we don’t like these questions, we can designate individuals to write questions. We can whatever. So I don’t know if you want to start at the top or

if people have reviewed the whole thing or what you think. I’ll stop talking and see what people think. I, I like what we did last time. I thought it was fine. Yeah, I feel like these questions have served us well in the past. And we’re allowed to ask additional questions during

uh, I guess we have questions we can’t stop you. I’d like to see you try. Much like the protocols, like, like these are the questions. No, there’s no rule that we’re not gonna let you talk. So, um, did you have something to say? Yeah, just to, yeah, to your point, you sometimes you want to ask a follow-up

question based on the answer you got. I think that um the only thing and then I did speak with the chair of Wenham about this is that the important thing is that each, each, each of the candidates, however many we get you wouldn’t, you couldn’t just ask a question to one candidate.

You’d need to ask all the candidates have an opportunity to answer each question and then every and then each candidate gets a chance sometime to go first, to go second, like, so even if I mean it would be a tricky thing if you just were like, can you explain how being a, you know,

whatever your job is is related to this. You wouldn’t ask it to just one person, you’d have to ask it. everyone can, can we add a question that asks them if they have any questions. Oh, you know what, it’s interesting. That used to be on here and I don’t know why it’s not.

Maybe we didn’t ask it last time. It didn’t get asked for the, for, um, the, the last time, but I think it shows us something about the candidates. so that, yes, that was, it was on for and I don’t this is just a um. so that’s something you we can

vote on, um, do people have other things they want No um I mean one thing we could do is we could um, well, I don’t know how you, I don’t know how you want to do this. We could, I mean, I guess my two questions are are we comfortable with these, the 123, and 6 questions.

I heard an interest in adding one more. That’s one question. The second thing is, are we comfortable with having the Wenham select board ask those two questions and letting them like Wordsmith how they want to. um so are they using to change it a lot? I, I mean, I don’t, I genuinely don’t know and neither, in

other words, the chair doesn’t know because he hasn’t brought it to them yet. I mean, what, what we sort of said, I mean, I think in general in other words, a question about budget and a question about communications and community seem like it’s a good question. It seemed like good questions, um, you know.

um. I’m comfortable with that All right, so let’s look at Julia and see what you’ve got for a motion. Oh, there we have to vote on these questions. Um I move that we are we voting on the the seat procedures and timing? We’re just voting on the questions on the questions. OK, yeah, no,

the procedures have already because I know the listed thing on the agenda. OK, I vote, um, I move that the school committee approve the questions for the vacant school committee seat. applicants as presented. OK, so I heard a motion in a second. Well, we have a couple of things with the amendments of

an additional question that says, do you have any questions? OK discussion OK, so I have some discussion So I’m worried about, I don’t, I don’t want our, I don’t want our motion, and this is just in the weeds, but I don’t want our motion to make it seem like that those questions 4 and 5 can’t be.

wordsmith by the one I select board. Do you see what I’m saying So we’re just voting on 123, and 6. I was not making myself clear because everyone had a blank look on their face. So we’re just voting on 123, and 6. Um, well, no, right now the motion on the table is to approve this document.

us. plus the additional question of do you have any more questions I think we can do that and then give it to them and then I don’t know what they’re gonna do with it, but that’s a that’s right, that’s OK. and then we can, that I think that works that we’re comfortable with these questions. These are the

questions that we are comfortable with. OK, but in other words, we’re hoping that they will be as well. Well, no, but. I, we can go ahead and vote, but I’m gonna, but I’m preparing you that I’m gonna vote no because why? Because I’m not making myself clear.

OK. What I’m saying, do we need to rescind the motion you do what you want to do. I want to hear what my concern is that what I was trying to present is that I was trying to present that what we did this with the Hamilton Select Board, we allowed the Hamiltons, we

allowed the Hamilton Select Board to write questions 4 and 5 which are in italics, how they wanted to. We did say to them we’d like them to be a question about budget and a question about community communications, but we didn’t say these are the this is the wording, and I’m

fearful that the thing that we have before us is saying this is the word of this. No, we just, I think the motion on the table is we approve these questions. I mean, to me that we’re not concerned if they choose to ask a different question, OK. that’s fair. Yes. Right Alright

Ready to vote Yes. All right, um, everybody’s clear on the motion with the addition of the extra question about. more questions Yes, I don’t have a question about the question. The question about the questions. All right, all those in favor. right, and that is unanimous of the 5 members present. I will

strive heartily to accurately communicate that to the when I’m select what you’re saying. um OK, uh uh, give me one second here OK, um so next and everybody’s good to go on that date, the October 21st date, and I know I’m hoping you’re gonna be able to come to zoom in, maybe I should be able

to zoom in. so that would be good Yeah um So yeah, um and it’ll be here, so the like it’ll be the same as if you were just zooming into a school committee meeting. um there’s one applicant so far, so far we have one, but there’s when is the deadline again?

plenty of time. It’s um October 15th, October 15th, OK, is that right? I don’t wanna say it wrong. Let’s just pull it up to make sure. I certainly don’t want to get that wrong. Um. Yeah, October they have until October 15th. Um, so there’s still plenty of time for people to get applications in.

Um OK, so next up, um, we put this on here because we sort of talked about it last time. We are down. Um, we do need a member to fill in on the negotiations subcommittee and a member to fill the space on the policy subcommittee, um I, given that we know we’ll

have a new member on October 21st, uh, like I’m do we want a table those because Megan is not here and because we’re going to have a new member. I think we should table them, but I don’t know how urgent it is. Go ahead and make a motion.

OK. I, I move that we table items E and F. appointing members to fill the negotiation subcommittee and the policy subcommittee until we have all members present and we have the new school committee member appointed. in But, but with but with that, I would say, um is this something we definitely

need to do? Like you need these people now motion to table and we have a second, so I mean we can discuss. I can discuss that. I have no problem. I have no concern about the timing my the cringe I made is that, is that I’m hesitant to table

something and require that all members are present. Oh, that could mean it’ll never happen. That’s like um so, so I will do a friendly amendment 7 members Until we have 7 members on the committee I’m comfortable with that, but like I’m not I I, I will, I can amend that to not

all members being present, but until we have a full committee of 7 members. It is a good distinction. Um, do you guys need somebody on negotiations because I know they’re ongoing. well, we’re not, no, we’re not in active negotiations, right this second, um, so, um.

so no, but I would say I would like, I mean, you could say too, I would like someone I’m OK tabling this, but I would like someone. quickly right after that, um, because of the regional, yeah, there are things that would be and what about, what about

policy? I think we can I’m not worried about policy. I was worried about negotiations. Yeah, I mean, I, I guess I’m saying I would because I made that motion to do it without asking a question. without thinking. No, that’s why I already have a discussion that’s good. Yeah, we, right, we, it was motion. It wasn’t so,

um, all right, is there further discussion on that? All right, so this is a motion to table the two, filling the two, subcommittee vacancy seats until we have a full um seven-member school committee All the seats filled on school All right? All those in favor That is 5 in favor and the motion to table passes.

OK. Um, next up, I’m gonna give a super brief update on the regional agreement be good if I could find my notes. Here it is. Um, OK So I just wanted to give sort of an update. I don’t think any of this is actually going to be really new information. I think if you guys have been, it’s

been going on a really long time, but I just, we’re at the stage that we’re on right now is that um we’ve all put our proposals out there. So I wanted to just sort of tell you where we, what we have put forward the committee has put in the district have put forward as our proposals.

So basically the proposals we are looking in several areas of the agreement to align several portions of the regional agreement with mass general law and to align with our current practices and procedures. So, um, we have made proposals, um, to the election procedures, um, which is specifically the way in which school committee members are.

elected and we’re looking to align that language with mass general law and also with current practice. Um, so that’s, and that’s something that is um we’re trying to update language throughout to modernize the language, to reflect current laws and current practices. That’s our goal throughout the document. Um and the, so the, I just

mentioned the election procedures that that is a very specific thing that we are looking for. The other thing that we have talked about many times here is changing the, um, apportionment, the way, um, so currently apportionment is based on the enrollment numbers, number of students enrolled in our schools from each town.

Currently, that’s a 3-year rolling average, um, and we, the district has put forward that we’d like to move that to a five-year rolling average and the purpose of that is to smooth out some of the swings, um, as the apportionment could swing, um, back and forth, um, it’s not to say that those shifts wouldn’t happen. They would

just happen more gradually and provide, um, sort of less sort of shock waves to each district, I mean, to each. community. Um, so both towns are have made proposals as well. Legal counsels, uh, for us and the towns are reviewing the proposals and the next steps will be to kind of see where

there are areas of agreement, disagreement, um, and ultimately, the ultimate, ultimately the changes would be need to be approved by each um, you know, this committee, the SL boards, we need to look at them. Um, they need to be approved by DESE and in the end, they need to be approved by the

voters at town meeting, um, so just so everyone knows like it’s all gonna be out there um a step some of the updates Oh go a new step. I can’t, I still can’t figure out why they did it this way, but there’s a department in DESE that has to approve it and then the commissioner then

has to approve it. then it goes to the gets to do a two-step in DESE. Those things have to happen before it goes to the boat. Yeah, they just updated that this past summer, but I think that would happen. My understanding is that what happened after it got brought to all three entities. So like that’s

select boards and the school committee. collectively. Let’s send it to DESE. and then So if because Desi needs to approve the document. So if DESE were to say this isn’t of, uh, you know, whatever, then we couldn’t bring it to the voters because it wouldn’t have been approved by

But if it gets stuck or if it doesn’t doesn’t pass a town meeting. we have to amend it. We have to start back at 2 so I don’t, I don’t, um, the, the, it’s a great question and I don’t know the answer, but I will say that as with a, you know,

like we have a current agreement. So that agreement is in place standing. So if yeah, I don’t think we would be without a regional agreement. I just mean. at what point in that process do we have to like go back to I guess, I guess we’ll just figure it out if that happens.

It’s a long, complicated process. So, it’s very complicated. Thank you for all the work, it’s been, yeah, it’s been, it’s bef before, I mean this started before I was on the committee this has been a long time. So this is, yeah. So. um anybody else have any questions? on that Thanks for the update.

All right to you, Vinnie Uh, so I will be briefed tonight. Uh, thank you for letting me speak. I’m here to request a transfer. from our capital stabilization Fund to our athletic complex fun. uh, for some background and for those of you, excuse me, who are not on the committee, uh, at the time and as I laid out

in the memo that’s linked to the exhibit. Uh, during the calendar year 2023, annual TA meeting. The district requested an appropriation of $15 million for upgrades to our athletic complex. At that same town meeting, uh, we sought approval for our FY 24 operating budget, uh, within that operating budget was a contribution to

our capital stabilization fund for $1,698,0287. And at that same town meeting, uh, there was a promise that was made uh unofficial at the time that we would put that $1.6 million towards the project ultimately, uh, lowering the overall tax burden that that project would have on the community. Uh, so

tonight, all I’m simply asking is that if you want to make that promise official, we have to take a vote. I have included an example, uh, motion for you to take and can answer any questions you might have. Do you want the motion first. I appreciate you spelling out the numbers also. I move that

the Hamilton-Wynham Regional District appropriate the sum of $1,698,00287 from the Hamilton Wyndham Regional School District Capitals stabilization fund. which was established pursuant to MGL chapter 71, Section 16G.5 for the Hamilton 1ham Regional High School Athletic Complex Improvement Project Fund for the purpose of constructing equipping, and making improvements to the athletic complex. Do we have a second? 2nd.

Second by Jenar. All right? Anybody have questions for Vinnie? Capo Um, so how much does that leave us in our capitalization stabilization fund approximately 500 million, so about 400,000. There is subject to the roof feasibility study, which uh we’re estimating is gonna be around 150, so at the end, it could be

about 350-ish. Uh, it is still collecting interest that hasn’t, uh, been accumulated yet this year, so it will be a little bit higher than that, but OK, and if we don’t transfer this, what are the consequences? Uh, the community would ultimately have to borrow the funds under a long-term borrowing and uh pay back that

additional 1.6 million and be taxed to do so Last question, do we know what the final bill on the project is yet? Not yet? OK. We’re, we’re closing out the project now. We still have a punch list items that we’re doing. In fact, one of them is fairly substantial. We’re having the

soits removed from the amenities building because we didn’t like the way they were, they, they weren’t staying where they were supposed to, so that work’s being done this week. Uh, so little things like that just trying to get things nailed down. We had to do, uh, some paving behind the building.

so that we had the fire lane at the correct width and so there’s some small things, but we’re hoping to close it out by mid to late October because we want to move forward. uh, and take out the long-term bond. uh, by, I think it’s 3rd week in October, I think we were targeting.

The idea also, sorry, just, just there’s this money, there’s the donation money or like $1.2 million. There’s also the CPC funds of 1.2 million. um that were pledged for $800,000 from Hamilton and 400,000 from one MCPCs. Those are all reduce the overall cost Um, once we, once we actually between donations this and CPC.

And the donations did come in just a little bit under what we estimated, but I believe it was either 50 or 70,000 under. but still a substantial portion. OK, OK. Anybody else have any questions? No. All right. Looks like we’re ready to vote. Um, all those in favor?

Uh, is unanimous of the five members present, and the motion passes. Thank you guys. Just before I sit down, I’d like to just take a moment to honor Don Gallant, who sadly passed away this week. Uh, Dawn proudly served on the school committee for nearly 20

years and then he was hired by the business office to act as the regional school district treasurer, uh, where he served for another 10 years. Uh, Don did a lot in helping pass the middle school vote in the early 90s and throughout his uh 30 years with the district, and he will be missed.

Oh, thanks for telling us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys 20 years on the school committee. Yeah. Wow. That’s Wow. That’s amazing Wow. That’s. Wow. Incredible. All right. Um OK, thank you for that, um, committee reports uh, Capital Finance, um, we meet Monday. Excellent right um do you have anything more to

share about that or just that’s it. I think, aren’t we looking at first budget drafts? And we’re looking at END too. END and the structure of the debt for the turf field. Right. Excellent. Thank you. uh, policy, uh, we met this past Monday. Great. He approved some minutes.

We went over the voting threshold document, which came out a lot more complicated than I thought it would, so I, I thought it was complicated of um bringing something to the full meeting. that we can approve. Um, I want to just take a little more time with the way it’s organized, but all the

information is in there. Uh, so we’ll bring that to the 1016 meeting for approval by this body. Is it gonna be graphically designed. Typography will be great, but it won’t be. She did format it much nicer than my Excel spreadsheet. It’ll be like clickable and searchable. Oh, great. Thank you.

Um. and what was the other thing I wanted to mention. Sorry, I had this written down. Oh, we discussed the graduation requirements. um given the change in MCAS. or removal of MCAS and that conversation is moving forward. And I think we still need to make a meeting date. Did we say? Yeah, we’re gonna.

need to what? Make a next meeting date still. I’m losing the last part of that sentence. We still need to make a meeting date for next time, yeah. So I’ll do that Yeah I like to say that’s one of the things you can talk about as much as you want. It’s the meeting date. You can even

argue about it if you want to. I don’t want to. Thank you. um. uh, negotiations uh. we did meet I think, since the last time we sat, we did, um, and get some updates on the regional agreements and um. yeah, oh yeah Yes, and, and we’ll update you on, um, the collective bargaining during executive session.

Thank you. Uh, do we have a secretary report? No. OK. Will we have one next time? Yes. Excellent. All right, um, so yeah, uh, that is, I will talk to you about what you would like to see in that because I don’t really remember, but yes. Basically, yeah, but, but yes, we can talk about it,

but it would be great to get just a regular, maybe every other meeting secretary report so we know what minutes are missing and keeping, keeping ourselves on top of things. Yes. Um, so I noticed that the in our inboxes is on here. I don’t know if our intent was really to put it on every time, but it

is on here and I didn’t really consult with you, so I don’t know if you have anything, but I don’t. We, we did not receive any. I didn’t receive any, um, and you’re, you can feel free to leave it on every time. You don’t have to ask me first.

Yeah, for, let’s, I mean, I think we talked about doing it as sort of a test run, so we’ll leave it on for a bit. There it goes. And anyone else could. It was actually surprisingly quiet. Yes, that’s OK. Yeah, that’s all right. And that’s, and that’s we certainly encourage, encourage feedback,

but certainly not required, so if you have something to say. Um, thank you for that. Um. Eric. uh, superintendent’s report, lots of interesting things happening. One of the things that I do want to address is there was an article in the Hamilton Wyndham News, a local newspaper, uh, written by a student at the

high school uh, well done. article is really well done, really well researched. I think she did a fantastic job and also um opened some eyes, but also reminded us that, you know, we, we can never kind of sit still and wait for things to happen. Um, I responded to that to the community, but I wanna also

kind of read this into the record. I think it’s important to address um publicly but also to continue working towards some things and I’ll tell you in a second some of the other things we’re looking at, um so I sent out this, this letter the following Monday, and I, I, it says I’m ready to address

the recent article in the local news about anti-Semitic incidents that occurred at the Hamilton Wyndham Regional High School during the 2425 school year. These reports are deeply troubling and were addressed by the high school administration. I want to be absolutely clear, anti-Semitism, racism, or any form of hate has no place in our schools

We also recognize the valid concerns raised in the article, particularly the need to clearly name these incidents for what they are. anti-Semitism. It is important to ensure our response is both visible and impactful, and we encourage everyone to report incidents that occur within our schools or at school events to any staff members.

There are procedures in place to guide appropriate disciplinary responses, education, and prevention. As outlined in the article, the staff is trained to ensure prompt response to all incidents. In fact, over the last few years we focused on addressing bias within our curriculum in classroom practices. A recent highlight was a student letter presentation to our high school

staff on the topic of microaggressions. We recognize that this is an ongoing effort and remain committed to continuous review and improvement. I’d like to thank Cassie for writing the article on the HW News. It presents an opportunity to review our protocols and responses to incidents of hate, ensuring that all of our

students feel a sense of belonging in our schools. Uh, we will also, well, two things. The, the first thing is this the the the article actually gave people the opportunity to write to us. and, um kind of tell us how they felt and if they, you know, in some cases wanted to know more, um.

which is generally where we get stuck because a lot of that, the school discipline is, is, uh, covered under uh confidentiality, but the, the the good thing is it helps us to have that conversation. OK, where are we going? What are we doing? Um some people even said, hey,

just so you know this happened here and this happened here so. to give us another, uh, look at. talking with some other groups of kids, bringing kids involved, uh, super. the principal, uh, Brian Managgoni is working on kind of a group to he’s not sure what he’s going

to call it, but a group of, uh, trusted individuals to be able to say, OK, this is what happened. How are we going to respond based on our protocols. Um, we’re also gonna talk with kids next week. Brian and I will meet with each of the classes next week because it’s

in it’s important to help them to understand it, but also to underscore the district’s stance in this that this, this stuff will not be tolerated. It’s not funny. It’s not cute. It’s not foolish. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s exactly what it, it, it, it turns out to be as anti-Semitism in this case, but

whether it’s racism or whatever, um, it won’t, won’t be tolerated and, and part of that is again educating our kids, helping them to understand it, um. and then really working with um we have opportunities to work with groups in our community. We have several groups who are who are involved in this work

as well. They can kind of help us out. We’ve talked to the Lappin Foundation, we’ve talked to people at the ADL and trying to just get some resources so that we can take advantage of that and get those out. So I just wanted, I just wanted to make sure that was public, you know, again, those things that

kind of stick. I believe HW News will print this letter. They did ask for my permission to print it, which was fine, um. I just wanted to have it here as well. I think it’s important to make sure everybody’s on the same page and it it’s hard to understand from uh a community perspective how,

you know, how this information gets out there if it doesn’t, so I’m just trying to use any avenue we can to get this information out there. Yeah, no, I, I appreciated that letter and I also appreciate the fact that you are using the word anti-Semitism and calling

it out and, you know, I think a lot of schools, uh, or a lot of leaders would kind of make excuses and deflect, but taking accountability and and saying there’s there’s no excuse for this in our schools, and we’re holding ourselves accountable. I think it’s really powerful statement. So I appreciate it.

Um, I appreciate that it was so forceful. Um, I felt that some of the administration’s statements in that article. were to a certain extent pooh-poohing it. Oh, kids will be kids. Kids are never kids when it’s anti-Semitism and racism. Like you have to take that seriously every time it happens. So I liked your seamanner.

Anybody else Thank you Um, did you have other things? That is all for now. Yeah, just one thing, the, um, there was a, although this was in England today, there was a multiple stabbing at a, at a synagogue. Um, and so there’s a heightened fear of violence, associated with with anti-Semitism, is anything

that we’re doing from a security point of view. Specific to that, no, I mean we do have security protocols oddly last week we met with all of our leadership team members, um, as you know, I go around to all the buildings and I had to underscore the fact that doors need to be closed and locked at

all times during the school day. So simple things like that, making sure our doors are closed and locked, making sure people have, you know, not pegging doors so that they can get back in because they forgot their access card. Um, we do have an active camera system. We have connection with the police departments, uh, fire

departments if we need them. and we just, we really consider what we do to be, uh, the kind of the first line of defense, if you will, and it’s really like see something, say something. If you see something unusual, um, we’re pretty fortunate, even our youngest kids will say, who is that?

Um, they know us by what we wear and they, you know, they can identify the differences so that’s, that’s also helpful. Uh, we’ve done a lot of work too with our vendors and our, our, um workers with identifying them with quarries and fingerprints and making sure they’re escorted when they need to be.

Uh, so there, there are things in, in place, uh, we, we have school resource officer on site every day. She’s generally goes around to school to school throughout the day. Uh, so that’s also an added, uh, I mean, we, it’s the, the beauty of two small communities is that the police departments are right.

in our back door backyard um, so they can respond fairly quickly if we do have incidents, but yeah, it’s a, it’s a scary time scary time thank you OK um so I don’t really, I don’t have much of a chairs report. I do want to just mention, um, David,

I just wanted to mention David is intending to go to the MASC conference. I’m booked. You’re booked. Excellent. Um, so that will mean, and I did already send you in, you’re already the alternate delegate, so you’ll be fine. I don’t intend to go, um so you’re all signed up for

that. It does mean for the committee to, I will do, um, I will put on our next agenda, the or the agenda an agenda before the conference, um, MASC has resolutions usually and we would need to vote to direct David um, how to, um, so I will figure out what those are and we’ll put them on.

the agenda um you may have any questions for me um, topics for future meetings. I guess that was one I guess I put those on there, yeah, and then the vote on the voting threshold guide. OK. These, and that’s for next meeting you’re gonna be, right? OK. Is that what we’re calling it voting threshold? Yes, threshold guide.

guide OK Anybody have anything else Well they’re, they’re gonna also have the graduation Oh, you’re gonna have the graduation, uh competency policy. It’s a, it’s a right? It’s be a policy it’s a new policy, yeah. to be voted and then submitted to the state. OK I look forward to at some point

in time, do we want to discuss that policy about anonymous reports. with the whole committee because I just, I wasn’t on on policy when those were gone through. us and so I’m not sure the history of that. I have an email in MASe just to get guidance on, OK, so we can

handle a negotiations and put it on later in policy. Yeah, about it before you here. And yeah, I mean, and obviously policy can always decide to bring it to the whole committee if you ever want to, that’s up to you. Um, OK I move to adjourn. You can’t move to adjourn. I mean to executive

session. You can, but, but I’m gonna jump in and move, uh, so unless anybody has anything else, OK. Uh, I move to adjourn into executive session under uh GLC 30A, Section 21A, number 2, to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel, Eric Tracy, or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract

or contract negotiations with non-union personnel and executive session under GLC 30A Section 2 Section 21A number 3, to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining, the AFSCME. or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares to not and not to

return to open session. by Julia, by by Julia by by Julia by, possibly reluctantly. Um, um, it, we need a roll call vote to adjourn into executive session. Yes, Dane is a yes, Amy, yes, yes, yes, and it’s unanimous