2.26.2025 FRPS Parent & Community Outreach Subcommittee

call this meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.

of the parent and community outreach subcommittee ROV Mr Bailey here Mr Das here Mr pero here Su to the flag Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium

attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed a knowledge and permissible next we'll have citizens input do we have any written input today is there any member of the public that wish to speak today seeing none we'll move on to discussion first being 3-1 discussion vote to refer the

position of government efficiency Zar and the appointment of Gabriel Boomer Amaral to the position as I was the person who put this on the agenda I just wanted to make a quick statement explaining my thoughts and my rationale so the far public schools in my opinion needs to do more to increase citizens involvement and citizens who are not politically connected in the Affairs of the school department we have policies

on book good policies in my opinion that are enforced that support advisory roles and enhance citizens input citizens involvement in the fall of public schools and the school department Affairs and I think that's a good thing that increases government trans Trans parency in the system which I think something we all want to fight for policy two policies that should be in your agendas today policy Ka states

that the district should quote facilitate dialogue encourage involvement in school district and District programs and create Community advy for its public schools and quote policy KB states that the administration should be committed to involving parents as partners in the school governance including shared decision making end quote and that the far Riv school department believes that parent

participation and involvement in our schools is of utmost importance what we have here today is proposal that involves the community to help the committee and the administration to give advice and that's all it is only advice that that this is an unpaid advisory role to help us look into ways that we can cut back on our spending which and I don't think an extra pair of eyes can hurt anyone I know as one member I'm

going to look for any way possible that we can make our school department more efficient and I believe this is one of many ways to do so the person before you today Mr Amaral is a parent someone who has donated much of his time to help his community Thrive to help students he is a successful businessman and I commend him for wanting to volunteer and wanting to help out and volunteer this time to

help this school district and to help this committee um this is all this is Mr Amal is here today to answer any questions um before I yeld the four just I just want to ask Mr amral can you hear us today it's it's coming in real static over here I'm heing like every it's okay um I'll I'll speak I I'll speak slow um Mr Amro if I can um just

ask a few questions and need me to repeat um feel free um I know you've um volunteered U much of your time in the in the community um could you just tell the the committee the subcommittee today and the public what volunteer roles in the community you have done throughout your life um well I work with uh um the high school middle school elementary schools I've been coaching you Sports in the

city for over 20 years now I work guidance at dery where I would come in and teach classes and you know try to save money for the system by utilizing fre military programs that kind of you know program so I've been through the community I coaching

and same a year on average so we try to thank you Mr Amal um I yeld the floor to my colleagues if they have any questions or comments or the administration I I will point I I'm sorry um I will say this is um as everyone knows this is a recommend subcommittee just make recommendations um and refer to the full committee the committee would then have the point to vote Yes or vote no um I I

think this is well worth having a full committee vote so I'll make a motion that we refer both this item to the full committee I like get it I wasn't going to second I was going to talk if nobody's going go ahead and talk first okay so with no second can I yeah I would draw my my motion than okay so I appreciate Mr Amaral's time not going to ask him any

questions publicly because I don't think that would be polite um the questions I'd ask I don't think it would be polite so I'm not going to do that I think the conversation we should have before who we'd appoint to something would be do we need this position right cuz that's the first thing I'm starting with um I will say I just got all these documents when I sat down because they

weren't available on board docs I think you didn't get them in in time and that's fine that happens I'm not one of the committee members who sits here and flips out I didn't have the information and I'm not going to do that it's not me however I did have this information because we had already talked about this opposition so this I will touch base on I'm assuming the two policies you

referenced are not 3.1 but 3.6 is that accurate CU you have something on here 3.6 discussion and vote to refer the creation of for public schools policy and parent ADV parent advisory Council representation no that's a a separate item SE okay so 31 is dealing with the creation of the zos and then what are these right here policy this seems like policy so this isn't under 36 this is under 31 the two policies you just

talked about the beginning of the meeting yes I I and k k k yes I was referencing two policies um and the reason I did that Mr Pereira was to to make light of the fact that we should do everything in our power to create positions okay so these already our policies you're just saying hey this is why I did this it fa enough perfect okay so we're just dealing with this all

right great couple of things first of all something that we are responsible for the school committee is responsible one of the things we're tasked with which is very few I think we think we're responsible for a lot of stuff that we're not but one of the things we are responsible for is the financial management and making sure that we're spending money appropriately and that we're balancing the budget and that

we're we're doing all these things appropriately and although we are political because we're elected that's that's political in nature um our CFO Is Not Elected um and he also is PA well good for you um because he has a hard job and he has a lot of education and he's been working with us for like 10 years how long have you been with us Kevin since 2011 okay so more than 10 years okay so

he's been here more than 10 years I've only been here myself three I have not seen anything but Perfection from this man we work on a shoestring budget we have to move numbers around we have to do this we have to do that I've never seen him once not be able to navigate that or negotiate that when we were renewing his contract everybody thought he was just fantastic which is why we

renewed his contract so because we are tasked with that job and he is tasked with that job and the superintendent is tasked with that job and I being here 3 years do not see any blatant issues of fraud in front of me if you do you should speak to those issues I'm not trying to say they don't exist I'm saying I don't know where they are and if if they exist and you want to tell me

that'd be great happy to help you with that but right now I feel like we already have people doing this particular job so that's why I'm going to vote no even to refer it however with that being said if you want to get a position you're better off doing the position bringing it attached to a person makes it real challenging and to say it's not political or we need to find somebody

apolitical does that person even exist in for of a community that volunteers for anything I don't think they do Mr how many offices have you ran for I'll answer it it's at least two he might not be able to hear me I'm sorry what was that how many offices sir have you ran for public offices how many offices have you have you have you ran for two two thank you kind of political not getting elected doesn't

make it not political all right now with that being said run again we sometimes you don't get elected you should try again but to say it's not political I me oh you brought somebody here that we all know is ran for office and is literally involved in politics political Colin and for other reasons I don't think he's the financial guy even if I agreed with this piece I don't know that that would be

the person I went to and that's all I'm going to speak to on that because I don't think this is a stage to talk about people or bring I'm not going to do that um because that's not me but but I'm just going to say that aside from who you brought that that to me is inconsequential right now this something we already have people doing and unless I see the people messing it up like

Kevin's making mistakes I think he's doing something Shady then I don't need anybody to watch Kevin I think Kevin should be the one watching Everybody um so with that that's why I'm going to vote no personally um that's my reasoning and if you want to make a motion we can make a motion and you guys can do what you'd like but thank you um mror do you y i y yeah thank you and if

I can just um Mr B if I quickly just respond and I the FL to you um so a few things here one um I don't think I wasn't planning on having a conversation of fraud that wasn't a word I mentioned in my rationale I mentioned in all the emails sorry was not was not the the reason why this was brought forward um and any any is either I'll say for lack of

better words issue or dis I'll say disagreement I had with the um decision sometimes this Administration makes with spending it's not the cfo's fault the CFO is responsible for the books he's for the most part not a decision maker on where the money and goes towards am I is that a correct statement what do you mean goes towards if um what we spend the money on correct typically it's the

Departments and everybody responsible thank you um so this wasn't and and just and just since we brought up contracts I in I don't know when your contracts do Mr um however I plan on voting for as well I have no issue with the finance department um whatsoever um what I believe we need to look towards is um making positions and getting the community more involved which is why this is here today and I I commend Mr

Amro for running for positions in government it's sure political maybe but again farer has nonpar elections I I I see it as more a Civic involvement which is why we're all here and that's something that's really important and I don't think that disqualifies someone for um holding this position and just speak to the position itself just because I don't I'm assuming Mr Amaral doesn't have a degree in in finance

however I don't think that would disqualify him from making um helping the administration look at ways that we can allocate our resources differently um but I do appreciate your comments m per I really do um so I'll y the floor from my colleague to my right yeah I and I'll just be brief um for me I just I look at what are the roles and responsibilities as elected officials

that we have right um and then I look at Kevin and look at his job and we work directly together um I get why you brought this forth um I have a relationship with Mr Amaral so I know Mr Amal I think M am is great um regardless what what says my relationship's a little bit different cuz I've worked with him um you know doing programs and things of that nature but when we look

at why we're elected right is to oversee the budget um I think we should work with the community and partner with the community but I agree with Miss Pereira when she says when a name comes attached to it I think that's that's an issue um but also as she stated as well we did we I mean the emails came through but we did just receive this information um just to go over it but for me personally

I look at the I go back to the roles and responsibility of the school committee right um and the first thing I thought of is when she's talking about is if there were an issue um we just voted on his contract not too long ago if there's the issue how do we address that how are we supposed to address address that cuz that's what we're um elected to do um so

that's my only concern with the position within itself not the individual in the position um it's the position within itself though I I appreciate that Mr Bailey um the only thing I would add I wouldn't say it's maybe not in District but I wouldn't say it's uncommon in other districts to have an a budget advisory committee or I know that in this case it's position I and I understand your um your arguments and

and your reasoning with the name being attached to it I I full and I I fully understand that and I'm happy we're having this discussion I do believe there I I understand um I I I I I I will say um like I'll just repeat there's nothing uncommon and I think I think it's very important that we look for ways to get the community involved in the budgetary process that's uh um something that's

out of left field that's something that's been done in in many communities across the Commonwealth um I know Swansea for example has a budget budget advisory committee um and I think that's the role that we we should go in in the future um even if it's not just this one position um with that being said I know I know the administration um if I can Jin in with that I I I would just when

you say that uh the question goes is just how does that look right um I'm never closed off to any ideas um but how does that look if there's involvement and where does that leave Kevin if there's involvement where does that lead other committee members and when does that lead the public right um so it's not that I'm like okay no I'm closed off um I'm always looking for ideas to

improve but I I think we have to really see what that looks like when you say that right because for me personally um and how it looks and you can answer this when this rolled out in my eyes I was like wait is there something going on that I don't know about right and for me when I look at people's jobs and I look at our responsibility um one thing I'm going to be completely transparent about

right now in government and it's not just for river is his lack of trust but what about those working behind the scenes and get up every single day and go to work how are they supposed to feel how's he supposed to feel in his role and be confident enough to come in and do his job when we just roll things out like this and and there's you know no background no context so um I just

wanted to get that get that out because that's one of the things I always worry about like when I watch a city council meeting and people are yelling out what a people salaries and stuff um I don't think that's fair right that's not fair to the people behind the scenes that are getting up every day and doing it work I'll be honest if that was me I wouldn't handle it as lightly as some of these

people handle it um but I just that's all I wanted to say I I I'll yield with that can I have one more I just want to make it clear when I asked how many offices he were in for was nothing to do with winning or losing I think more people should run for public office this is me telling people run for school committee pull your papers let's go

let's go it can't be the same people it can't be let's go I have no problem with that but when you use the word political I didn't I didn't know what that meant because you're saying that something is political and so we need somebody not I just didn't know what it meant cuz Kevin is non-political so I that's why I was just saying I didn't know what you meant by that because this is somebody who's also

involved in politics so I don't I don't get it but you're saying that this isn't about fraud even though you have mentioned that several times in emails on the radio on Facebook countless times but okay maybe not tonight fair enough um but if that's not what this is about are you suggesting then that we have someone and this is just I think where where Bobby's coming are you suggesting

that we we get somebody from the just pick somebody from the community to come in and tell the superintendent where she's supposed to spend her money because that's that's a hard that's a hard pass you know what they can't give advice and I would also like to say they are involved with the budget if you want to find a way to involve the public more in that process I'm totally open to that

but they can be involved in it because the budget gets put out early they get to view it all our meetings are posted countless meeting they can come to the meetings they can talk is it going to change everything she needs to do for the school department because one parent makes a suggestion no but is it going to make her think for next time or this time or maybe do something different of course I

think we have a superintendent who Embraces new ideas and different information I don't think anybody wants that not to happen but sometimes you said you know more is not is not bad sometimes it is you ever heard too many cooks in a kitchen sometimes more is too much Colin in my opinion you know and I think this is really it it just it's a bad look it makes it look like we're not

doing our job he's not doing her job she needs help doing her job by somebody in the community that doesn't have a degree in education you're never going to have me I'll tell you and I don't have a degree in education but you're never going to have me say that I think we should put somebody on a board or acknowledge somebody to provide information to our superintendent or our assistant superintendent that does not

have a aggree in education no way these are the experts never going to get a yes on me for that um but I just wanted to make it clear that I am like as Bobby said I'm open to new ideas I'm open to getting the public more involved in the budget process if you find different ideas to do that besides this um I certainly you know applaud uh Mr Amal for even running for office because it

takes guts to even do it as you know right so I applaud that I applaud his involvement in the community and in in athletics with the kids and whatever he does that's wonderful nothing to do with him personal I want to make that clear I don't really know so definitely not person thank you and just and just real quickly just the two points one um this has absolutely nothing to do with the

CFO as he just said and um as I want to reiterate this is the CFO does is not the decider of where the money goes and again this was just a proposal to get the community more involved um I brought Mr Amal I asked Mr Amal to come here today because it's someone who I believe in and having and I understand the argument of attaching a name to it I felt like this was an open

process to bring Mr Amal to ask ask questions and to have a vote on and but regardless I respect the way the committee wants to go with this um Mr amaram do you have anything you would like to say iion help out you don't think I can help that's on you I am a it's not going to

change and I've shown kids howay college get College um and it's all free so

at the same time take care of our you you know the amount of money that was in the scho department is atrocious considering the the results so I'm I can help with that think I can help with

that that's a great idea I'm allbody then I thank thank you Mr Amal I can ask a quick question to the superintendent what for back lack of better words offerings or opportunities do we currently offer the public to get involved in the um in the school department either through an advisory role or um St school councils what do we currently have that we offer currently each school has a PTO a school council

we have districtwide CPAC and Alpac um we send out surveys during the school year around um we do a budget survey at the start of like at the start of our budget planning another survey will be going out um within the next couple of weeks around kind of family experiences and some you know looking for their feedback in terms of um any kind of programmatic additions or changes or things like that we do um

conditions for learning survey where we triangulate data uh it's it's three different versions of the same survey for students staff and families a lot of schools use that in their planning the district uses it in our planning in terms of A needs assessment and I know that you know that at at meetings like this one and at um meetings of the whole committee There's an opportunity for um

citizens input and then I receive emails and phone calls regularly from people who want to offer input um sometimes it's through me and other times it comes you know through principles into me so and sometimes in our joint Labor Management committees we have representations from the community as well as including family members but also DCF has been on some that I have been on um and other community members

and then and I would say that within different departments whether it's through our parent and Community engagement um you know we certainly engage parents there through our parenty individual schools outside of PTO and school council also take an opportunity to invite families in for different you know events throughout the year so I mean there's a a wide range and I think it offers a range um it's differentiated

depending on the extent and and the to the depth that people want to be involved um Mr that's a question um to go along with that do we share that information um either social media or you know do we get it out to parents like how do we share the information because I think some of the how we're getting to this point and you can correct me if I'm wrong um and I think

this is where you're at correct me from wrong this is not taking a shot or anything like that so please don't take it that way um I think what you're looking for is more transparency in some of the things that we do and getting out the information right corre um those that's why you're asking about like the budget how we do this how the community is engaged how do we work with the

community and those are all valid questions and I've been saying this for a while I think we need to do a better job pr- wise um I think that's where the issues lie um because whether it's Finance whether it's Community engagement whether it's anything to do with our families our children um if the information is not there you're leaving it up to other people to make assumptions right and and that's where

we're at now um so I'm just going to say and and I look at things from all different angles and I don't look at look at you looking at things as an attack I think you want answers and you want to be able to to provide people with answers as an elected official um which I think that's fair um but I think we need to do a better job sharing the

information because when I talk to you half the time whether it's a sidebar or anything else you have all of the answers and you know where things are but the issue is is I think we have a lot of people in the community that feel like they don't and that's when Mr D comes in um but I think you know this we can sa this for another time we need to

do a better job rolling out the information and making it readily available so one of the things I would just want to add and um Mr Das and I have had this conversation I think in person and via email is that the function of this committee if you take a look at the description of this subcommittee um online it reads much differently than the way this committee uh this subcommittee has been leveraged

over the years so that when um Mr Das first came to me with some things I was like is that even this committee I went to look and and sure enough it it is this commit like literally a way to engage the um engage the community so that in the we've we've used it in the past I think to vet ideas or to or you know maybe it's to share something

coming out of pace or to um kind of vet some initiative around Comm but we haven't used the meeting itself as a way to engage the community and when you read through the description it is that so that this this meeting could be a forum for and then it's like a you name it and so you know it could be let we could do things like Leverage this kind of meeting you know

in the fall prior to the budget process where people know that this is the opportunity to engage um in in a discussion so I I think put it on the agenda right put it on the agenda like this is the thing widely communicated like this is what we're going to be talking about um in the same way any of the neighborhood associations might do that you know but you put out you know

something like that um because up until like right now it hasn't been something to engage the community at all it's been uh you know we're going to announce things or we're going to vet something around Community engagement but it hasn't really engaged the community so this just is another Avenue by which to do that um and I think that's something we would want to think about moving

forward so Mr Di and I talked about this we probably ju on a larger scale need to revisit the purpose of each one of our subcommittees because even those read a little differently than how they're leveraged right now so um but I just think there's an opportunity here um as a vehicle for engagement yeah so for me and the last thing I was just saying I just if and we can talk about that later

and see what that looks like CU I I do want to expand on that but for me personally I look at parents like Mr ameral that are passionate about the kids and the kids in the city because if he wasn't he wouldn't be here um I don't want to lose those type of parents because I think they are you know key and essential to what we do on a day to

day so um but we'll we'll talk about that I think it's a good idea I think you could do a lot just with this committee that you want to if I if I ask one more question on um advisory committees I I know we have one for naming renaming do we have any more advisory committee I know we had one for like the superintendent search but I know that's the fun now so it's just the

naming renaming committee as far as a districtwide committee I think so that we haven't had um different schools like so Dy has a dorin dorfy parent advisory Council right school-based we don't have a district advisory Council no outside of the special interest CPAC lpac and I think we'll have that conversation with one of the items later today um I I will say this just to close I understand I

think I know where the vote's going to go with this however um it's I think it's really important that we Engage The broader community and get everyone that we possibly can involved and um I do appreciate and I feel like the administration is heading in that direction too with the conversations that we've had and um and hopefully some of the ideas to come down the road and I I do appreciate my colleagues um

comments on this um again I do appreciate Mr AMR again for wanting to step up to the plate and wanting to help out and um we need to encourage more parents to do that as well um perhaps just one idea I want to throw out there with this I know this naming renaming committee should be uh meeting soon if I'm not mistaken if they haven't yet um and we've had some conversations

on that committee Maybe expanding um because again just one question that I have and I know this I think this was formed before for before your time obviously but um how do we get the like we should have an open process to getting more individuals on there um I we do you want me answer that sure so it it took place in the facilities and operations and honestly the first list

of people they gave us we sent back because it wasn't well-rounded enough we wanted a variety of people on there um SE race uh affiliations within the community whatever and it just looked very too whatever cookie cutter how can they do the recruiting that though I think they asked for volunteers I believe it was something that it's an Advisory board so I'm assuming it was probably things like the superintendent

at the time the mayor maybe Kenny like people you know um you know put putting people out there nominating people what have you um so if you think that needs to be Revisited I think that's the committee to revisit it in um so are you on that any no any nobody is I was just going to say real quick we can't sit here and say a name having a name attached to this and we're sit

handpicking people well but they weren't hand they weren't handpicked we went through you can go through the process again in facilities but it was an open process people did volunteer this was a few years ago now um and I do remember initially going oh we want some difference do you remember are you talking about this remember like Maria's first year it was like Maria's first year right and do you remember like we

had they had established a list and we're like no we want some divers we want some of this some of that so we were picky in what we did but if the whole committee is is not feeling that you know maybe feeling they want to revisit that list I mean whatever go for it but I think that's a facility is an operations thing so maybe to Kevin is Kevin the chair so ask Kevin's the chair

and it's Kevin and I believe Tom me's the chair you said all right so St tell Mimi schedule a meeting put that back on you guys have that discussion if you think that that needs to be redone I mean we can do that I don't see why that couldn't happen if something positive can come out of this quickly to something um that I thought of through this conversation is maybe we can put

out some sort of um for either the the parent councils either the the local ones through the either the high school or the pto's or CPAC we will be speaking soon or any sort of advisory committee that we have is just putting out instructions on how to join um I don't know that's something we could do or maybe we can make that recommendation from this item so we have something good

moving forward so I I'll make a motion that we recom um refer and recommend to the full committee that the administration look into ways to advertise any open advisory position within the school department what do you mean I don't understand what that means like so we have um so there's a motion a second so I I'll just explain my motion so we have CPAC we have um the e L pack we have dery advisory

Council um we have all these we have many different pto's across the elementary schools and the middle schools they might be looking for some members just having the administration just put out hey if you want to apply here's the instruction what does apply cuz you don't have to apply you're saying you're you're saying it's voluntary so what you're saying is we you would like this which I think this

we should get through this agenda and discuss this maybe what B regardless you're basically saying you want the superintendent to try to figure out a different way to advertise that these things are going on and encourage people to participate correct okay I mean I that was that was the just basically for her to think about it and come up with the way that she could advertise what we already have going on for parent

engagement to try to increase parent involvement correct okay if you w it that way you got a yes like in that realm but apply is that was a weir yes this was this is referral to the full committee to have that discussion at our March meeting um so we're again we can't take any binding action within subcommittee this is just that no I know but I don't want to refer

so I don't want to refer either so how about this I make a motion to refer to the full committee that to have a discussion about the superintendent looking into ways to advertise and increase participation from parents in our all in our advisory committees okay I'll withdraw my motion second okay did you get that it was long I don't you said it do I don't think we need a

um roll call vote all in favor I all opposed motion passes all right 32 thank you Mr Amaral thank you for your time thank you thank you a have a good night item 3-2 is a presentation for one of our advisory councils who is thank you for coming tonight our CPAC um I don't know if the assistant superintendent L the lead at off sure sure thank you very much Mrs Das for

welcoming us here tonight um we have with me tonight is um Chanelle Stewart and Megan Murphy they are our hardworking presidents of our CPAC who talk about family engagement work very hard to come up with creative ways to engage parents across this District they um bring in guest speakers every single month um they remind me to remind our staff to send out parent Square reminders we've changed locations of

meetings around the city to try to get more families to come so I'm excited that they're here to speak to you guys today answer any questions that you have because um they are huge resources for me um and we have a really positive working relationship so and hopefully resources for everybody here too yep right awesome well please take it away floor is yours Flor is mine um we like she said we meet monthly you

do different things it depends to like this upcoming month we're doing able accounts and estate accounts families who think just depends on what they need we're going to do a resource Fair um we have elections every June whatever parents need they come to us and they ask us many questions parents are coming to us for different things right now our biggest problem that we're having is

parents keep asking us about the kids turning 18 they stay until 22 can they still graduate that's like our big I was there for that that's our big thing that parents are asking us right now they have busing issues they always ask us they're asking us about teachers um disability in the classrooms they're ask you know they come to us for everything we have a lot of parents there obviously

you know how many students they are on SP and they come to us and they ask us a lot of questions they email us they come to the meetings they you know however they can reach us you guys have a Facebook group that they can post on as well so they come they ask questions they have no problems coming and speaking and if I can just add Our Family Academy tomorrow is

UC um everybody's welcome to join um either virtual or in: at how did how does that uh information get disseminated to parents parents Square parents Square so we send parent Square invitations um or notifications through throughout the whole District but we also have the schools doing it um through their school parents Square directly to each school and then our community facilitators actually

um will invite parents that they think you know have asked questions around special ed or or whatever the topic is sure and they generate a list every month and they personally call those families to just remind them and personally invite them okay so I'm a parent um my kids are in college but factiously I'm a parent of a middle school kid whatever I go on parent Square I only speak Creole am I going to

get that information absolutely so so our flyer is actually translated in um Portuguese uh Haitian Creole and Spanish um and then in English but we also sent like a little blur that will translate into whatever the home language is okay okay perfect now do you find that there's any reason that have parents complained or do you think technology um or access to technology is an issue or a barrier for parents and

square have you heard of that no if anything they all got their they got their okay they actually prer it because just used to the alert comes on your phone I work with the elderly so I just wanted to make sure sometimes technology can be a barrier or disconnect people whether it's financially or or whatever I just wanted to make sure that wasn't a thing I you sometimes you s too many yeah we do well

hey 98 we have a 98% connection rate oh wow that's fantastic all of our community facilitators are trained to go into parent square at their school every single week to update so if any family changes their phone number or anything they are notified that they're no longer connected they will call that family that week and reconnect them so if we're getting like 90 something per connection

rate or whatever that I'm that I'm thinking we're successful at disseminating that information and perhaps just not every parent is going to engage correct back so then that becomes why is that is that they don't need it which is fine is it that it's a time thing is it do you know what I mean well that's I was about to ask like cuz when when and it's not just here it's in

every single faet of work that we do um when I look at engagement when I look at um the amount of parents that show up for their students for um parent teacher conferences when I look compared to when I go to the you know 8th grade middle school championship and it's packed um and although we all wish that the schools could be that packed what if the disconnect sometimes for parents not to

show up is it the barriers of transportation is it they just don't care about their parents their kids education there's not one parent in the city that doesn't care about their kids I know that I know all right I just want to make sure we say that out loud but because of all the barriers to your point but I just want to make sure we know that but for me I I ask every single

question and I don't leave any stone unturned because um my wheels always get to turn in when I have events and parents don't show up right um because we all know how that feels and we know how that impacts our kids so that's why I always ask for the dad and what that looks like because the Assumption and yes we have a lot of negative NES and things that we do but the automatic

assumption is that we're not doing a job and I know that we are cuz I get offended and I'm at the point now I'm just starting to you know lose it on people a little bit but um how do we get to the information um and and that's that's a question I always go back to and I can tell you from from um our experiences we ask that almost every

single time is it location in the city is it would you prefer spiritual in person person time of day topics and really the responses that we get are varied depending on the families themselves right it's just it could be anything from like timing doesn't work you know I'm just getting the kids settled for homework or cooking dinner or you know I go to work at night or during the day doesn't work cuz I you

know go during the day um we never hear the response of I'm not interested there's always just I wish I could fit this one more thing into what's going on very quick question I just um do you all have like a a group chat like you have a Facebook group is there like in-depth discussions like if um someone has an issue are they going to mention it like in mass or they going to direct it to

not really we do have a Facebook group um where parents will send questions right and our contact information is on the floor of a page so occasionally we'll get an email but most of the time it's it's word of mouth right parents have no problem stopping us if they see us in the community and we're around um or connecting us somebody will connect us with somebody else um but Facebook page will give um you know basic

questions what do I do about this and if I don't know that answer I usually defer to Chanel or Lori um so we are often times the first line of defense if the parent doesn't feel comfortable going to the teacher or something like that hit you know reach out to one of us um and then we bring that to the next person but we can also create a next education based on that question because I know

that if somebody has that question multiple other people do so you know I think this is a great conversation with Community involvement because we're here right and we're volunteering our time um say so use us use us you know invite us make give us a seat at the table because we have experience and we have the ear of parents that you want to to hear from that's actually going to be um I was

going to ask that a later question I I'll save that for the end as is coming up in a later AG agenda I am sorry to interrupt it going to finish um just to go on that point because I know the city of Far River they and I think they do good with this they recently they have a website where the neighborhood groups um they have all labeled out every single neighborhood group The contact

information dates and times of their meetings um I know I think we've had some preliminary discussions on this but is that something we I know we post like the information but um is it organized in a way like we have neighborhood groups and like the president contact information dates of meetings for for individual councils coun yeah the councils and the PTO um I would say yes and then they'll be the exception but I

know that some schools do so in my mind they all but we don't have a policy that says everybody has to have this um I think that we I think it's something we could do there are some things that we say we need to see this thing on everybody's page um I the schools are trying so hard to engage more people in their pto's um and get people onto their

councils that it would be hard for me to believe that they don't they aren't advertising it um but something if I can clarify um I was just I was saying does the district um not not putting any mandate on on the PTO or anything but does the district like collect like okay um cpad pres this person contact here's the email here's the website dates are we definitely do but like to Megan's

point before word of mouth is really how families are getting connected with each other because we even have every every web page on our district website has the principal's name the contact information our special education supervisor's name my name my contact their name their contact but really families are talking to people or connecting over Facebook and social media that's just the way

rather than going on websites and doing searches that way I think we're easily accessible in other ways and that's what they're looking for quick and easy access question that I've asked um for a while now is and this isn't um just of you guys is when we look at our neighborhood associations around the city um we pretty much have a school in every neighborhood correct um have we taken the time to try to tap into the

neighborhood associations to almost I was planning on going to the Flint neighborhood association meeting tonight not just not just just to see because I haven't been to one right so it's like I'm interested to see what that looks like in the community and where that link is for us our schools our parents and things like that so there's one tonight at 6:30 I was going to I I have only thing yeah

I have yeah I I was just going to say my only thing is is like how do we get parents more engaged in their neighborhood association meetings and Report out because I'm going to be honest with you I've been to a few since I've been back I I went to almost you know 10 and my thing is it's it's an elderly crowd that's there how do we get the younger crowds there and the parents

who can actually tap into their neighborhoods and we can draw from that cuz that's how I look at things when I look at each neighborhood if we're talking about accessibility and we can have hubs and we use our neighborhood associations to report out information and do those things that also makes your job easier but also you have your elderly and you're talking about um you know cross Generations but um I I

definitely agree with you but I've been to a few of them like man like we need more we need need more younger people to speak what's going on in these neighborhoods cuz I don't even think I mean we have such a transient Community now I think people don't even realize there's neighborhood associations that exist so all right ready if I can um ask one last question and just to go to your

point when you discussed I'm having a seat at the table I'm sure you watch the school committee meetings um I'm sure you if you were to have something as similar to student comment period where we had the um the parent organizations come forward give um some statements um would you see that as a benefit I I can't speak for now but I think that anyone you know who has parents best interest at heart bringing

it to people who have parents and children's best interest at heart that communication is always great right so I think that communication can never be bad right I have think so I personally I think to to have a seat at the table I would think more to have a seat at like the the sped subcommittee table because I think that that's a better seat to be set at versus having it as a whole

committee there's too much that goes on in a whole committee and I think it's just personally I think to do it at at a that committee because then it'll get spoke at a regular sub at a regular committee meeting anyways and I think that will be heard differently of course I'm I was just going to say what because one thing and I you know I kept saying say a louder

you guys volunteer um first off want to commend you guys for that because it's not easy you know it's not easy to spend your time you could be doing anything else with your time but you're here um favor JZ but anyway um uh what do you guys need from us and how can we support you guys in the work that you do because you we can always do more right um

especially if we have the Manpower and we have the help um you don't have to answer that question now but if there's anything you guys need feel free to reach out to any of us they came prepared right thing yeah so I think that recommending CPAC if you have a family member or you hear of somebody we're available let them know that we're around I think having the open conversation of we have this idea

or we have this problem you know how would that interact that population do you have experience with it or have us bring stuff to you that maybe multiple families have brought of to be an issue right we bring it to Lori most of the time but if you have if there's something else just keep that dialogue open yes great all right I mean I'm ready to move on but like as far as

having a seat at the table is it something they can get an invitation so they're aware because obviously our meetings our subcommitte are public but is there a way they can get sort of a formal like is that something that needs to be like if they want to come to obviously you can come to any subcommittee meetings you want but I think to be around the table and feeling like they're part of

included that's all but I also don't want to make it like you're part of the committee you Mand to all our meetings cuz you're already volunteering your time and you may not have anything to say that particular time it could be that we're discussing things that you know and we have emails right so if you need to reach out to us right course we get in touch with but if we wanted to

add something to the agenda we can always say hey can you add something to the agenda yeah so if it's the uh yeah absolutely I would call the Mimi and then she' disseminate who that uh chair of that subcommittee was be the person um but yeah I mean I don't know that's something maybe you can you can think about how that can be included in in a great idea you know but I don't think

that's anything that's really complicated or how we have to vote on let's just do that yeah all right so I'm almost here if you want to move on sure um I was going going to I don't see it in the in the packet um maybe I'm dismissing it it was 3-6 because this is kind of intertwined I was going to make um a motion to um take the item out of order because it's actually something

that refers to CPAC and many of our parent coun all those in favor I I all those post so moving to 3-6 is a discussion and a vote to refer a the creation of a for public schools policy on the parent advisory Council representation so an idea I wanted to bring forward I don't know if it's in our magic table just because I don't see the it's not I already get to at all

there's one at the the last thing because it was the last going to be the last item so it's the last

thing we share so they have some discussion on this so this idea and um before us today actually I was going through some bills because I was looking to bring bring as the um the legislative Lea on this committee I was going to bring some bills forward at the next um full school committee meeting and I saw one that had to do with representation on committees and um similar to how we do it with the

students that we're supposed to and have them be somewhat ex official members or student delegates I believe we should also invite CPAC English pack and have all the PTO and other parent councils throughout the district be able to have some seats at the table and give some inputs at our meetings separate from the three minutes of our citizens input because these are our parents in our

schools my my personal opinion obviously I believe we should go forward with a higher citizens input but that's separate but saying with these um advisory councils they deserve more than the 3 minute citizens input that we have they should be able to um give representation they should have a higher degree of representation to the committee which is what this policy is here um I don't have

an issue either because I know this is just being brought before the committee today and I don't even think the CPAC has a copy I love for them to be able to read this I have no issue either tbling it or making the motion to refer to the full committee that i' be referred the policy subcommittee to fine-tune the language um however I I'll you the flo for my colleague I just have a question

um do we have a time limit and I mean I don't know if anyone has this answer do we have a time limit when student student delegates come up no okay so if we didn't have a time limit when student delegates came up um if we were to implement this I don't think we should you know restrict any type of time um considering the fact that they are working directly with the district If

This Were to be the case like I don't want to get up there and you know they're up there and I'm like 2 minutes left you know um when they're talking about the work that they they're doing um now obviously um once again they're volunteering their time so I think just giving them the ability to do that um when when they needed to or needed to share our information I definitely

wouldn't be opposed to that but I I agree could I just ask though could you could this committee consider um what Chanel brought up is maybe representation on the subc commmittee that's what I was just going to say so I think that that I think if you want to I just got this I I don't feel totally conf confident I I might even vote no when it gets to the full committee

that's a total huge possibility I'll be honest but I'm fine to send it there and have the discussion what I think is our school committee meetings have gone on excessively long it's it's it's an inappropriate exorbitant amount of time I'm sorry but it is and I'm I know I'm the one saying it so we can all beat Shelly down about it but everybody thinks it okay so this would just be I

think way too much however I do believe all these people deserve a seat at the table I find personally better communication happens at smaller t I go back to the too many cooks in the kitchen thing sometimes better conversation happens when it's a few knowledge knowledgeable people and I can listen and really absorb and have a good back and forth whereas we're in a big committee it's a lot of hoopla a lot of

this a lot of that a lot of stuff in my opinion doesn't get done that could get done so I do not think I'm going to vote Yes for this for to to expand our committee with X facto members but I will vote to send it and have the conversation cuz I'm one member and I don't think it's I think it is an important idea to have them at the table

I just think it's the wrong table that's all so I mean I'll motion I make a motion to refer I I was going to um make a motion to refer with the recommendation that we refer to policy subcommittee so we can maybe have those convers we do that in full committee we refer to full committee we'll have that conversation and then if you want at that time you refer it to policy and we

clean it up and change it or whatever I'll I'll second then um with a question um for superintendent I don't know if you had a chance to to read this um the conversations we're having today is that something feable was your I think so I as you were talking I was looking through some of the policies on advisory committee so there are multiple like I think you have like KB KC whatever it

was but then there's like a kcb there there's a lot of language policy language around um advisory committees to the school committee which none of them sound quite like what you're proposing but I do wonder if there is an opportunity with an existing policy to leverage the leadership from some of these fromis might or it might that what you're proposing could replace something because as I looked through these

initially and I'm scrolling through these now there's a lot that a policy that we don't take advantage of AG right um and sometimes as you read it if there are three different policies around you know our beliefs around engaging the community and engaging parents I think it we could never do all of them so it's better to identify in policy how we're going to do it yeah we I'm sure we'll have

a more defined answer by the time it gets to the full committee too all right um any further discussion no we have a motion to refer to the full committee all those in favor all those opposed motion passes thank you feel free to stay if you want to

so we on 3 three we do um so moving on to 3-3 motion to approve second it's to refer motion to refer motion to refer sorry second all those in favor iOS motion passes um 3-4 Mo um discussion with the administration to post Financial bashes to the that the school committee signs off on on the school department website um like to make a quick comment on this so um I believe implementing you know a

a policy in regards to this um Michigan's public school system their state um their state legislator passed a um I believe is a really good um great model policy um called the public Public School Financial transparency act which is included today believe would be a great crucial step for our district and in posting our batches at least most of them I know some involve student names and I wouldn't want to see that be

posted of course um but however the expenditures that we all sign off on that sometimes I receive questions on is approved by the committee post them on the school department's website I I don't see the issue with that at all we already get them all the ones that we sign off on at least for the most part the ones that aren't of critical nature that can't be disclosed I don't see any

issue of posting them on the website I can ask um in regards to the the feasibility how how would that look if I can ask the administration do you see any challenges I mean I know I know we've had I know we've had a conversation on this but in regards to the feasibility yeah I mean I think one question I would ask when you think about what you see in batches and and of

course we wouldn't be able to put anything with student names out there or anything like that but when you see the way the batches are laid out I guess maybe a question I would have is like what part of those batches are you are you looking to post because I think depending on your answer it it will impact my answer I'd say sure I would say the the general expenditures facilities and operations um the we

spend money on different contracts I would say any even if some have to be redacted any expenditure that is not of a sensitive nature that doesn't inviolate um Personnel or we don't really get that much anyway or you know any um yeah I would say anything that isn't um anything without student names on it or but I I was my my my thought process was aimed towards how much we spend through facilities and operations

um how much we spend on like the general day-to-day expenditures um administrative expenditures expenses um I I would say technology I would say um yeah those so I don't know the names of the things that we look at but when we do the batches the the first part of the batch is like this just a list of a bunch of things and then behind and then the next is all of the it's like

itemized all the invoices the invoic is behind them so are you suggesting all of it including invoices or are you suggesting that whatever it's called Bill schedule yep Bill schedule Bill schedule piece at the front like the first thing you see before you see all the invoices or are you invoices so all right so that I asked that because I do think there'd be an inordinate amount of work in terms of

redacting some things I think about silly things someone's going I'm getting reimbursed for mileage you know and then there's information about um there you know some of the forms like we have people's like names and addresses on them because we mail things home there it feels like a lot of work to be able to do all of those pieces um it feels like a lot of work I'll be

honest on the back end right so I know how many questions I get on a weekly basis when the bches go out what is this about what is this about what is this about I don't know who would field the questions from the community at large when somebody wants to know why whatever it is we paid $40 for a crate well my goodness that crate could be the size of

this room the crate I I don't know and I I can't imagine the leg work involved in Fielding those kinds of questions that that would be a concern um but so you're just talking about the Fe the feasibility so I think in terms of posting to begin with there will be work to be done that will take time and then on the back end after posting I would imagine a lot of questions that it

wouldn't be it would it would simply be because you know people don't know and I don't know who here has time to explain every expenditure and I believe there'd be a lot of questions can I can what just one Qui quick comment um I I will say um not in the feasibility but more more the back end I don't think there's an over I'm trying to think the nicest way

I could say possible that there might be an over exag exaggeration of that fact I don't see um um a mass um Panic our Mass protest to our expenditures I think I hope not um but I think that's opportunity as I explained to you superintendent that's where we come in as we're elected by the people we're placed by the people to be in this position if there are questions I think

that's a this is an opportunity where we inform and educate the public on what we do um and I think that's very important that's a very important thing to do um we could also have the conversation of maybe if it is just the not the invoices but the the what's the the batches the batch itself and if that we post and if there's any further question as student that well that a Community member may

have they can go through a public records request to do so or reach out to a school committee member um if we want to narrow the scope in terms of um feasibility of um looking to but I think there are ways that we can engage this is a way that we can engage the community and provide transparency if I'm just for a lack of a better word so

but i y to my colleague and I M PR so I was just going to say say when we I mean and obviously this would be making um you know a decision under a short amount of time but in addition to that um I was just going to say when we even discuss that information there is some batches that do have sensitive information on them right correct um for two um for me

personally and Deb can attest to this because she's always texting me make sure you get your stuff sign right if you don't read your stuff then you should not be putting your name on it right and sometimes I take extra time and she probably wants to kill me because um I got to sign my stuff but believe me I'm worse with that being said um I think it's also uh beneficial if even ones

that you're not on just request them because although we're we're saying that there's not going to be a public crucifixion on maybe something small there probably is right I mean even me running a small athletic budget someone wants to know why I spent this money on this and there's no rationale behind is but they're not in my position right I'm pretty sure you guys get that a lot of

the times um so I think it's it's also important to to keep that in mind and I know we're running back to transparency and I know you want to be transparent with the public and everything but there's also a part of things where we have to make sure we're not putting people's information out there and creating our creating anything for ourselves as well um but also that is that that could be time consuming right

um if we're asking the superintendent to go through every single batch and handpick certain things and get it out in addition to doing her job and addition to being at meetings and doing everything else she has to do that would take her a month to do um now if they sent them forth to the committee and you we decided to go through them and you know we were transparent and wanted to

answer questions I think that's that's more something that's more feasible for us if we have the time as individuals but outside of that I I think that would be time consuming and we're asking the to do it to do even more than what they do um that's just what I got to add so I have a couple questions uh the information all that batch information I get signed is that all public knowledge

so the public can request this information at any time I can from the public call you say I want to know what you guys spend on lawn MOS and you're going to have to get that information for me yes okay so that is transparency so we use the words transparency like we need something it's it's letting people believe we're not right it's saying we're hiding it's not hiding because

it's there for them to look at um it's not hiding at all I think you would see a lot of questions of little things that you know it would be almost impossible to for the superintendent or others to trace back um the person you haven't asked about this is this guy and I feel like this would give you the most work am I wrong or would it be more on you

guys I think it's going to be AC cross the part corre me across the bear for all of you but so my number one concern will be space right off the bat because that was I was going we have a contract with the final site the company um we're actually in the process of rebranding the site which is very rich in media and content um which then may change our contract pricing because everything's

held on the cloud we no longer hold our website on a server Farm here so it's held in the cloud so it may increase depending on the size of the files it may increase our expenditure it's not me it's going it's absolutely going to increase and it's going to absolutely increase your workload so let's be honest it's going to be a lot more work right is it going

to be a lot more work it's going to be a more work it's going to be a lot more work and is it going to increase our our bandwidth or whatever issues the yeah it's going to do that too okay so we know that now the question is I always look at like I don't mind the work or doing the extra but you get the benefit out of it I just I see no benefit I see

they're going to put in a lot of work they may mess up and put something out there that shouldn't be put out oh now we got a lawsuit cuz we just put somebody's name out there oh just cost the city a million dollars because whoops we put a name it it's it's messy it makes it messy and it's doing a lot of work for little nothing because if there's one person out there or three

people who who care about the lawnmower prices or whatever they can get that information that's when nobody's hiding it they can get it and if they have a question about something that's happened recently they could call one of us cuz we have that information I think Bobby makes a point I bet you'd be real easy for her just to send out extra emails like even if I don't have to sign it

send it kind of thing right which we can look at all that we have that we have the ability to see that exactly we have the ability to see it so it's we are it is transparent anybody can call you we know Colin you Colin you send people screenshots of emails we know you disseminate information we don't need it posted and have these people do all the work to really open us up to more liability

because that's what it's going to do it's to sure as heck and to open us up to more liability for not a good enough good because somebody can call us and I'm not going to lie I don't think you're going to lie I don't think Bobby's going to lie so we can disseminate information to the public if they have it without them even needing to make a request right cuz that may be

tedious you may be able to provide that information for somebody in the community without them having to do that but at the end of the day they also can make a request and get all the information they want um so I'm going to vote no on this and with that I yield um but if I may um I'm going to vote no to refer it to just to be if I may make a

uh I I do have a question on um do we have a number on how much we have charged the public in the past for public recers requests like do we have a I don't know off hand but I I don't know could we get that number CU my my concern is okay so the public wants to make a um request for information now they have to go through a public CCT

request you have to file a formal email a letter whatnot specific information I've done it as a citizen and let me tell you something I've gone not not with dis it just back when I was a citizen um I went it it is a pain in the butt going through that process and and the attorneys I will say it that we have the attorneys that would look at that those records requests are still on our

payroll I just would hate to see that we are um I think we need to have a conversation at a later date on that process if we're um looking for every single way that we can not give out information I'm not saying that's happening right now I think that's something we should look CU that's my opinion has happened in previous administrations and I just want to make sure that that policy isn't

continuing or that practice even on the city side I think as a overall my opinion as one member as one citizen we make it very hard to make public records requests in and that's this is Citywide not just a school department to make public records requests in the city what I've seen in the past I think we should make it easier to request information then this was one idea I I I do

understand the implications would it be easier if we just post just the batch not the not the invoices just the badge that usually does not have any it would be easier but it's still going to require time to go through every single one of them and to redact every single like student information or a person's address or you know whatever whatever is that just the title has student information on it I'm sorry just the

title of the there'll be descript the descriptions will say k Al June tuition or something it's going to say something like that I think what you're trying to say I think what the the point you just um the point you just made um I'm sorry just repeat the point you just made there's quite a bit of information on the back sheet that would have to be redacted so if it's an outo District

student it would say es cab AO oh I'm sorry I know what I was saying I just got it back it's been a day okay you were saying um that what I'm hearing from you is that we it's not that we don't have Outlets or this information isn't transparent because I feel if it's available that is transparent that's what transparent means it doesn't mean it has to get handed it means you can

look into it and it's there for you to say the reason there's probably fees to public record requests is because we have to pay somebody to do those public record requests so I'm guessing that's why what I'm hearing is you think that's difficult to navigate okay I can't say that I've felt that but it's been forever in a day since I've had since I've done that maybe that's something to

to look at but I believe that's like an a policy subcommittee you know like revisit that in a policy subcommittee and that wants to be discussed maybe there's you know a a better way of doing it or maybe I don't know if there is I'm not going to say there is because quite frankly most cities and towns do have a fee what's the fee do you know you must know you've done it depends on I Haven

give me an outrange give me a Range a dollar two hours the first two hours are free okay so here we go first two hours are free that sounds pretty free to me if I'm asking for a simple thing somebody should be able to do that in two hours so we're charging when you're taking there's redactions that need to be done whatever okay but my point is you have somebody from the community

who's requesting information that's fine they're allowed to get it but if it takes one of our people more than 2 hours they get charged that seems reasonable it's costing us time and resources you want to talk about saving money yeah we need to pay people if they're going to use our people to research stuff we're not going to be doing that for free we're going to have to hire somebody just to do all these

things I mean so you can say whatever you want I think we can move on too after you're done unless you got something and let's Vote or go but I I will say I will say two things one and I'm not saying with just a general a public records request I I think sometimes you see individuals and this is not with this department that will inflate that oh I worked two hours or I

worked four hours but usually it takes one I I think we should I mean you know I'm going to have to say point of water on that because that's misinformation you've never done the job so if you've never done the job don't say how long it takes that's all just don't definitely not misinformation and and I will say 100% is one more point lost my my my my sorry my apologize you

were saying that they they lie to you that it takes two hours but they only do one I'm said even in the past not I'm not again um I will say this I think we should Implement a policy that we cover then the first 4 hours of work I think but I think that's something we should have a conversation in the future of so that should be let's let's move along

but that's a good idea have that discussion for sure is there any motion you want to make a motion to table or majority item I'll entertain it I mean I don't care what you do I'm going to vote now on I don't know where you guys are motion to motion to withdraw the motion okay um we have a motion to withdraw the item from the agenda to the

second we have a roll call we have S to produce Mr Bailey yes Mr Das no Perera yes moving on to um 3-5 a presentation by the administr on the homeless student numbers um if I can make a I don't know if there's a a presentation okay I'll just pass it pass follow along thank you do you want to sit here you're on the don't be afraid no no no that's

I know I do too please why

you ready yes I'm Cindy Kudo I don't know if you know me shell they do I do I remember um so I just wanted to start with the uh State's definition or the federal government's definition of mck Vendo and it's individual who lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residents due to lot of housing economic hardship or similar circumstances um some examples are shared housing motels hotels shelters

transitional housing living in automobiles living in parks and campgrounds all public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used for regular sleeping accommodations for human beings so when we have a family come in who you know is saying they're homeless we have a structure in place where we have questions that we use um and our staff are trained in that to um qualify them as mckin vento so just

looking at the landscape of our students who are currently identified as mckin vento we have um identified 342 for the entire year but we only have 279 currently active of those 185 are doubled up which means they're sharing housing with um others 133 are living in shelters State shelters um 24 are in hotels motels um we have no student identified as living unsheltered just so you know

if we have a family that shows up that identifies themselves where they have no place to stay for the night we work with that family um I've called the mayor's office on multiple occasions and they have paid for a motel for a few nights while we work with the family to get them resources and a more stable environment for them to um to stay so I just want to make that very clear that

you know we're not okay with that ever happening here um and we'll do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening um and then just to break down by like what level these students are in 71 of them are high school students 73 are midle middle school and 198 our elementary school students um how we identify these students um every student or family that comes in to register there's a series of

questions that we ask on not only around housing but any other needs they may have so that we have staff at PACE that are uh trained to help families in whatever they may need including housing um and then we follow up um you know with our with our uh Community um facilitator at PACE that is hired just to work with u McKinny vento all things McKinny vento um for our existing students we do send questionnaires out

on an annual basis um but we also train uh a lot of our staff um so students are identified through staff St including sex Teachers Community facilitators or you know anyone else in the school um but we also get a lot of Community Partners um Community providers um that identify families and then families self-identify themselves um so that those are all the ways that we identify some of the resources and assistance

that we provide transportation so if we have a child or a family that's b in a Shel uh shelter or in a motel we do provide them Transportation um to their school of origin so they they don't you know move Schools they're able to stay at their school of origin and we do get reimbursement um I think 40 to 70% of the cost is reimbursed um so we have hygiene products that we provide for for

students kits from shampoo body wash toothbrush deodorant all that stuff we have school supplies so any basic school supply that the student may need um we are able to provide that um from backpacks um to books to there been occasions where um a student needs eyelasses and their insurance isn't paying for it like we've been able to do um those things so there's really nothing off the table if a student needs

something we figure out away to get it for them on clothing so we have huge storage room with clothing pants logos for school uniforms um sweatshirts sneakers winter coats socks underwear um pretty much anything a student may need um we have it's all brand new stuff um and then basic needs um so for students that are living in a hotel motel we have created these kits because we found was

they may not have like a bowl and you know um utensils or a can opener so we have created kits for them including all those things and some like nonperishable food items that they can just warm up you know in the microwave um and this has been through the years that we've just you know is working with these families you know going to the motels myself and delivering this stuff and

just seeing what they needed and then running to Walmart getting it coming back we've just learned what they needed and creating how is this is this are we getting donations is this coming from your budget yep uh so this is no that's okay I knew that question would come up so uh we write grants every year okay so grants fund these things um 100% okay um we've had some you know Community

donations as well on occasion and we gladly take those I know a couple of years ago we had a huge donation from a shoe factory and we had like thousands of shoes you know so we'll take those um donations as well um and I I did include some pictures of our closet and you're welcome to come visit anytime and just look at you know I love a big closet

yeah so organized to walk in for sure I love organized um yes so thank so much um you know and and we we sort of have like a list of what each student gets so that it's Equitable as well um so we have a really good partnership with our uh Community Resources um you know we are part of the mayor's task force to end homelessness which are you know meetings that happen

with all the community P that service the homeless population so I'm able to make phone calls directly to any you know pretty much any agency that I have a question a concern or family's um you know potentially hitting a you know a barrier you know we're able to uh work with that agency to um address that barrier that task force still ongoing sorry y yeah um and so that's something

that you know we do on a consistent basis um we have great Partnerships with them I have had my community facilitators at PACE um just go to the Family Resource Center and just um get trained by them so that we can mimic those services that they provide um with the whole housing um application process so that when they have when they're you know booked solid we can take all that

overflow and mimic all those um you know services that are provided uh we provide families with food pantry lists too um and food you know any food resource in in the community so um you know if if people are going to souit kitchens or whatever and seeing families they know of it and that's a resource that families can um continue to um access um so if they don't have access

to online sort of like maybe a computer what have at home CU we're talking about a population that's trans right do you like if they want to apply for SNAP they could do that at your office y I think that's in here too yeah I'll get into that have we have FAQ like frequently asked questions on um these days on our website um do I think we can add it I we do have some

stuff it's just not as only reason I asked is and I'll tell you as a recently um I I have someone approach me they're like hey this kid has nowhere to go um you know parents are not around or Mom kicks him out they have nowhere to sleep they've been sleeping outside what do they do and half the time I'm like you know emptying out my phone but then sometimes I'm stuck and I'm like ah you

know and I'm trying to figure things out so um I think circumstances would also could fall not would I hate telling people would but um would be great to fall into that just because when I get those questions if I'm like hey let me call Miss Kudo and you know see see so all uh School adjustment counselors and community facilitators at each School are all trained um so they will contact us right

away we have great Partnerships with them um you know aack just called me from dery today hey this student needs this you know this is happening you know we took care of it so yeah so I would say refer them to their sack they can you can call me anytime and you know we can connect them um you know our community facilitator can meet with them and apply for everything that they're eligible for um

and come up with a plan for them to not ever you know we never want outside but I think like to to your point um that makes me think when you say that a child comes you know Mom mom kicked me out I I have to sleep outside tonight if that child's under 18 as a mandated reporter that's a 51a oh yeah so that should be immediately you know that's going to be

what happens that's going to um you know maybe it could be though could be a phone call tomorrow hey can we maybe engage in a conversation can we get Shelly back in the house she's stopped this Behavior whatever maybe that's where we could help but at the end of the day that's a 51 oh yeah but there's certain certain right here and there like a kid needs something you know

things like that but I'm saying if that if you ever sent a kid to I'm saying between us if you ever sent a kid to them that's what they would even if it was one naive to think it's that simple like oh my God let me call your mom you're back in the house oh yeah going to happen no of course not but I'm saying that's what that's what the uh I

don't know how much they'd be able to do except for file in in in a circumstance of homelessness of a child not in other needs of a child maybe the child has other needs you could but in a situation of homelessness of just the child without parent the only option would be so whether you know would be that really we have students who are over 18 over 18 different story yeah over 18 I me

definely you still work with them and make sure that they're not sleeping outside like nobody should yeah we've had that that situation and we have always had the child you know or the adult student Place we've never like just said sorry we have nothing yeah I know I just I just like it to be put forth cuz you we do have kids who are 18 and be real it's it's it's not cheap out

here um you know there's a housing crisis in this country and you know people like to think it's isolated to for but it's you know people are looking for housing people are looking for apartments and everything else so yeah so a few questions and some to that point is what um I'm trying to figure out is and I don't know if we are allowed to collect this data or I think

it would be very useful to know is um like how many of these numbers are due to economic hardship or just due to like we discuss a domestic dispute or if it's more it just they are living with someone else but it's not an economic issue that's of like the questioning to qualify them for a mckin vinto is how did they get homeless right so we do have families every year that

it's due to a fire so um we do collect that right we it could be for domestic violence and we you know but I would say those all link back to economics if I'm in a domestic violent situation and I'm leaving I wouldn't be homeless if I had the financial ability to go purchaseing an apartment right so it all comes back to economics there is no one who has enough money to have an apartment but chooses

to live somewhere else so it's it's always economic but now it's why did that economic downfall occur right was it a tragedy like a fire that happened was it drug addiction or or something like that um was it you know a loss of a job and maybe unskilled laborhood to find another job in this job market like there's a million reasons but essentially it's all economic it's all economic you're not going to

meet a rich homeless person um or even you know somebody with my income which is pretty much above poverty level homeless right so it's always an economic thing so the question is how do we I guess how do we figure out why all we do let's say it's a fire and it doubled up with a family member temporarily they're still considered you know under mckin vento and it may not be

you know so much you know uh so there are different situations um but just so you know this may be your next question if if it is let's say domestic violence we also connect them with those resources in the community like I like that we don't just collect this information just for you know we you know we are thoughtful in you know when we do collect this information whether it's a new family coming into our

district um or family that's existing um so after family even registers that pace and we provide all the services that we do they then get um when they go to their new school there's an intake process that they they do with the school staff so that they learn um and they need their support staff in that school so it's it's um it's something that we've been doing for a few years

now um so it's sort of like an orientation to them school so um such good work so getting back to this we have the vaccine clinic that we started in November of 2023 where you know we're able to connect um our students directly uh to get all their vaccines we've administered over 1400 vaccines today um and we're pretty busy on Thursdays we're also um you know we also had the the van

at the high school with star so that's also another resource that is new this year um that we're very excited about and it's it's very busy already um we have staff at PACE that's certified um in the application process for Mass Health so if a family comes in does not have mass health we're able to get on the Mass Health Portal um apply for Mass Health and they can potentially get Mass health on the

spot um same with uh SNAP benefits so if they need any kinds of resources with that where they're also trains um in that so that they can complete that process with the family have they been trained on applying for cash assistance as well like tfdc particularly cuz you no I haven't all right I'll shoot you an email that might be a good idea um for families with minor children who have

little to no income so it might be the population of hi I'm homeless right now let's get some cash assistance and and help to get you back on your feet right as well as the DTA we have like Pathway to work programs and and different things as well you know what I mean I'll send you an email sure thank you and then our next thing is the pace on the

go so as you know uh we had a donation of an RV so this is you know specifically with you know these families in Minds where we're going to be able to once it's you know ready to to go on the road um um you know we're going to be able to go into the community into the neighborhoods and provide all the services that we provide at PA out into the neighborhoods um whatever that might be

partner with our community agencies um to provide these Services that's going to be so good so important when we talk about parent engagement or why you know community events oh my God being able to actually go to them instead of expecting them to come is so so huge huge so we do registration on the go already we are out in the community at community events doing registration we are going into our community

preschools um we're also going into like parent teacher nights at our schools offering registration there um so that's already happening but just taking it to the next level is very exciting in in offering everything that we we have available no it's it's it's good work and it's a lot of work um such good work and it's it's needed so just commend you um me too um and if I can that it's very

you know important information that we get out there um and just one just two questions on um how a student gets flat because I actually spoke to um someone today and I don't want to give out the wrong number but they said something about new beer having over a thousand students um in a similar situation in their city um so the way a student is flagged that's homeless in the system that's just

through the um I know you mentioned earlier there's a um a questionnaire that goes out um is that the only way we um or is there a way that students if they're having a situation do we have this advertise so okay we're running into a situation let's work with the school department here's here's the PACE Center number here's who you contact yeah so I mean we have like pamphlets out in the community um our

Community Partners are really good about you know connecting them with us and then like I said the school staff who work with families I definitely think we're underidentified um you know families are in to tell us you know and that's you know understandable a part of relationship building absolutely you know um so I do I think that we're under yeah could we do a better job absolutely we

always could do a better job at that so getting it out there um you know I meet with my community facilitators every month and that's always you know they've been amazing at you know really getting out there and you know talking to families and building those relationships and I think you all every obviously you all do great work and that goes without question and I think what would really help is just getting that

information out there because maybe some families don't know that these Services exist and and I think that's where having these meetings and having this public engagement that we've been having in the city is very important um one one last question and and and I have to ask and and I understand the first step in is um they they it's not for it's more for someone correct me if I'm wrong but

those who are um under addiction am I mistaken is that's that's the primary what are you talking about the first the first step in the the shelter if I'm just trying to First Step or stepping stone Ste the first step in um I didn't know if um if like there we partner with them especially if like there's parents that need that use the first step in if they um have students that like where

would the students go so that's not a family shelter that's an adult shelter shelter so that wouldn't be where our families go so our shelters in the city are basically like apartment houses that you know have been you know that has tons of Apartments let's say you know um six apartments or whatever and that that's our shelters in the city um so they they have like their own space is

there a need for more beds or more um stock always a need absolutely families in general espes the H just so you know like our shelters like are not always full River people in there so we get families let's say from Chelsea into our shelter in Fall River and then they register in Fall River so we get a lot of new students through the these shelters so when a stu when a family you

know gets accepted into a shelter they go in wherever in the state there's a shelter um you know that available for that family so they can be we transport students who are placed let's say in a shelter in Boston will transport those students every day back and forth to Boston from Fall River and um and and that was the question on Transportation um we only get reverse 40 to 70% with

mckin yeah with mckin vento and then um what what's the rest covered with um just the operational budget operation through the trans Transportation yeah the state doesn't cover the not right so right now so that's why I was so so the reimbursements it's ranged so it start the reimbursement from M started in the fiscal year 2013 was the first year we got reimbursement and it ranged from a high of like

94% when it first started because the expenses really low when it first started to a low of like 33% the last couple years um we've received more money so there's two parts of money there's mckin vent money and there's foster care money we get reimbursed a couple times I say a couple times a year twice once for one once for the other and the most recent reimbursement for last year was just under 1.4 million but

we expended 1.9 million so this year I'm sorry this year did it's G it's gone up the last several years the last and please remind me the state there's a state mandate on Transportation yeah and then I I make the argument and um that's something I'm going to be pushing for as a member that that's an unfunded mandate since it's not fully covered I think we should take every possibility to um challenge the

date on that but we'll we'll hear more from that soon I I I don't know if we I sent it an email for proposal to the committee to looking toward some funded mandates um however I'll just end with this again thank you and obviously Pace does great work in the community and obviously we're on top of it I mean with the with the um shelter issue with the with the amount of beds I think we

do since it's affecting families and school department and you know students I think we have a voice we should utilize our voice to push for any way possible to get more beds and that's something I'm going to be doing as a private citizen and as a member of this committee at my own time and I think we could all work together on that as well um I have no further questions or

comments I don't know if my colleagues do as well thank you thank you last item motion to last item on the agenda 4-1 is new business any new business from any my colleagues or the administration thank you seeing none um I make a motion to adjourn second all those in favor all those opposed I pass motion passes