5.13.2026 Fall River School Committee - Policy Subcommittee

Going to call this Wednesday, May 13th, 2026, meeting to order. Can we get a roll call, please? Mr. Dines? Here. Ms.

Riley? Here. Ms. Stewart? Here. Thank you. We have Mr.

Moen is just joining as a guest if anyone has any questions. So, to the flag. I pledge allegiance 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 acknowledged and permissible. 2-1, citizens' input. Do we have any written citizens' input? We do not.

Okay, moving on to item three, discussion. 3-1, review the public comment policy of the Florida School Committee, BEDH.

This was added to the agenda at the request of of some members of the committee and we will go through it today. So the only concerns that I have with this policy is just the way we've implemented it, not necessarily the language, just speaking for myself as one member. For example, from what I've seen in the past, you have citizens'

inputs that are submitted in writing. If they're submitted to a subcommittee, The chairs of said subcommittee never see the citizens' inputs that are submitted in writing that I read out loud. The chair of the school committee has been informed in the past about some citizens' inputs that have been submitted. So there seems to be an imbalance there. I'm not sure what the process is of

looking at them beforehand. If it's selective, if we're not giving...

someone who's being called out, just the opportunity to respond. I don't have an issue with necessarily the content of what's submitted, but just more of just following due process and allowing someone the opportunity to respond if they're called out and not be surprised. Again, if the chair of the school committee is seeing the

citizens input beforehand, so should subcommittee members and so should members of the committee. It shouldn't just be the chair, in my opinion. I'd like to open it up for discussion. Whoever would like to go first.

I agree. If one gets it, everybody should get it, as far as that goes.

I think that we need to post more information. on how citizens input actually works. I think we have people that come to the meetings and they don't know exactly how it works. So they don't know that they have to be there beforehand.

They don't know that they have to sign the paper. They don't know how the process goes. It is on our website, but not everybody goes to the website. And we're in 2026. People go to social media and they go to different things. And I think we just need to put it on all spaces available. So how about I don't know currently, and maybe Deb can answer this, do we post our agendas

on our social media sites? We do not, and I think we should do that also. So that could be a place where we could post the agenda, like after we post it publicly, post it on the district Facebook or whatever we use, I don't know what we use, on the district sites, and you can attach the directions for public, like a link to the directions for public comments. I agree. People see

it, they want to come to the meeting because they want something on the agenda, they can click on the link to have the directions to it. We could even put how to submit public comment or participate in public comment, click, and then goes right to those directions. I don't know. I'm just... No, you're right. It gives the directions and it also will give Deb's email if somebody wants to submit. Because that's

what's on our website, so you can just click that and attach it as the link. Correct. But I think that people need to know... avenues on how to speak and if they want to be able to come down I think that we need to tell them exactly where they need you know to be there 15 minutes beforehand or however just to interject I agree specific I'm just at the last meeting we

had actually a member of the public that wanted to speak they didn't know where to even retrieve the document went where it was how to sign up and to miss Riley's point about The agenda, I just received a call today asking where the agenda was on the website. I know it's on the city's website, so we're meeting the law there. And I'm sure it's our agenda, I'm assuming, is posted

on the district website as well, but we need to make it easier for the public to access those documents and also access our backup as well, at least the publicly accessible documents. For example, as a member of the... I receive the city council backup all the time, even though I'm not a member of the city council. So just making the agenda in this document easier, making it easier for

citizens to sign up for public comment and just making it easier for members of the committee to be able to respond when anything is mentioned, I think is important. And also as well, and I know we want some, some members of the committee want to, not respond to public input. That's in our policy that we don't respond. It shouldn't be because we voted to take it out.

Oh, it's in there. Well, that's an issue when it's solved. It was approved on November 18th of 24th. I remember we had that discussion, but we did vote to remove the language. I think just if there's anything that is said, we should be able, instead in a mass scale that needs to be corrected either through the superintendent or through the chair, the vice chair, we need

information corrected. We need to make sure we're being respectful. And just speaking for myself, if a member, and you see it on the city council side, I think the city council runs their meetings efficiently. You occasionally see clarifying questions be asked. I don't see an issue with asking a clarifying question from time to time just to get more information. I don't think we should be that stringent in the

policy where we're hamstringing ourselves. But I think we should just know the quorum is the quorum. We know we shouldn't pass that out. We shouldn't exceed any barriers, any boundaries. Superintendent, I saw you had your hand raised if you wanted to. It was something else, but a comment to what you're saying here.

I just think you need to be careful. I'm confused. You do not respond to public comment. Is that part of the policy? That's what our policy says. That's not been the practice. I disagree. I do not think we should respond to public comment.

I also agree we should not respond. I think it's a slippery slope. Also, how come you're going to respond to her, but you're not going to respond to him or her or this one? It leads to discussion that's not on the agenda, that we haven't received preparation or backup for. So now you're just kind of speaking off the cuff to a topic that you might not have all of the information about.

I think if it's something that after the meeting we want to say to the superintendent or someone else, could we make that an agenda item? Could we talk about that at subcommittee? I'd love to know more about that or is this an issue?

Can you give me some information? But to start going back and forth with the public just leads to more. disconnect from people. Who are you going to talk to and who are you not going to talk to? And I just think the policy says we don't respond, we should not respond. You can't say in one breath, I want the chair to share all of the public comment because

that's what's supposed to happen and then say, but I'm not going to follow that part and I'm going to ask questions during public comment. We either have to all follow the policy or then nobody's following the policy. Can I ask for the administration to look at the minutes for when this was available this policy was approved because I could have sworn the committee voted four to three at the time to remove

that language. So it shouldn't be in the policy if the committee voted to remove the language. I somewhat agree with my colleague, but to an extent, however, if there's something said at a meeting that needs to be corrected, we should be able to correct it. I don't think we should go off on like lose ourselves from the agenda and go off. But I don't think we should hamstring

ourselves with language and a policy. It should just be something we should follow. But I understand your point, but Superintendent, you have something? I'm also going to say, you know, that has been the practice in the districts I've been, and we don't respond.

But there is an opportunity for the chair or through school committee members to ask the superintendent to look into something. Sometimes there's a comment made that, the superintendent needs to follow up and respond to a citizen. You can request that kind of a thing, rather than going back and forth during the meeting. So there is opportunity for that. It isn't that they speak and we never say anything, depending

on what's said. Again, you can look at other districts. I'm just telling you, and I agree with Anna, that it can really become a very slippery slope. at a time when you want to hear. You want to hear the input, you want the opportunity, which is why you give them three minutes.

You want to make sure everybody has, and people are happy with being heard at that public meeting. I always say this, it is a meeting in public. It is not a public meeting. It is a meeting of the school board with administration to receive information. And again, I think you need to be clear about that. Yeah, no, I respect that. I think, there might just be a little bit of a philosophical

disagreement. I think it's important that we keep as little hamstrings on public common policy as possible. We should allow the public to say what they need to say and say it respectfully.

But at the same time, I don't think... As one member, I wouldn't support removing written comment. Like I said, the issues are we need members of the school committee to be prepared. If there's written comment and it's calling out a member, that member should have the right to respond. Fully support that, but I don't support tightening up the policy per se. I

also just want to take a look at whether... We wanna keep the three minutes, the 30 minutes for citizens input, three minutes. We have to also realize we are a district that in a committee, out of all the other committees, all the other boards in the city, we received the most public comment. So I don't want to also make changes here that are going to anger the

public per se, but whatever the committee, Subcommittee here wants to change we can make recommendations to the full committee I don't mind the three minutes in the 30 minutes and then but Like the last time if we are going to extend at any point then you do have to read that at the end So I think that's what you're whatever we don't get have those 30 minutes

we have to do at the end which we know It needs to also be fine. So when we have a policy, we need to make sure this policy is also followed. That's what I'm saying. And we have to follow all of it. Not just the parts of life. So when I agree, I definitely, and that's my thing, I think that people should come to the meetings and they should be able to

speak. A hundred percent. That's their time to be able to speak in the state.

But at the same time, I think that sometimes people forget that when they come and they, to talk to us about something, it can only be something that's in our purview. So when they come to us with personnel, or something that, that's not something that we can do. And it's really not something for the school committee. It should go to the superintendent. And that's actually here in the language. But it really

isn't for us. Yes, they're going to come and they're going to say it. I'm just saying, really, that's not the time for it. They can send us an email.

They can do all that stuff. But at the end of the day, that's really not, like, it's right here, number three. It's right there. Regarding personnel or something to do with a student, it's supposed to go to the superintendent. Because that's not in our. I don't know if you know what I'm saying. People are going to come up to see what they're going to say. I'm just saying that that's

part of it. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. My only question would be if that language is constitutional, if we're putting a subject matter, a content matter restriction on citizens' input. Even if we don't have direct oversight over personnel in the district, we still fund them in a way. And I'm not arguing that point, but I just don't want to run into... situation in the future where we set ourselves

up for litigation just because we are well that's why she said says in our last number seven it does say citizens input is not a time for debate or response but it also says something about can't prevent the last sentence as the school committee does not have the authority to prevent all speech that may be upsetting and or offensive so I think what Chanel saying is like some of the things people

say, they should only be talking about what things in our purview, but obviously they don't, and we don't stop them because of that line, because we don't want to violate their free speech. We shouldn't, yes. But you also need to stop them if they start talking about something that is somebody else's protected. I think that's our attorney

or the chair's job. Individual members don't do that, but the chair or our attorney, whoever is whoever's the designated person to say that's beyond the scope.

Freedom of speech does not allow someone to go up and slander someone else. That's not freedom of speech. that's a violation. Or share student information. Or share our talk about kids or anything. Right, that has to be shut down. I think the only, but I think the only time. We have an attorney. They can decide what things are appropriate and what aren't. I'm not going to be the arbiter of what violates

the law. That's why we have an attorney on our meeting. So I think the attorney should shut down anything that would be inappropriate or whatever, not us, because I certainly don't know what things are. Right, I agree. I just want to be careful of changing language in here. I'm not changing anything. That's already what was there.

Yeah, I'm fine with this policy as is. The only thing that we had talked about, the reason to bring it to here was written input. Yeah.

That's the only thing. I mean, I think written input could just be shared with it. The purpose of sharing it is for the committee. So if we just received all of the written input, I don't know why we would have to read it, but I'm not against reading it if that's what the committee wants. I'm just thinking the purpose of getting written input is so that we hear about it, the school

committee. So why can't we just be sent them so we can read it ahead of time and know about it? I think there's some ADA concerns in there. I know the city council... Well, yeah, if you have ADA, that would be the only reason why. If you're unable to, we have... you know, a link where you can, if you have ADA issues, then you can submit something. I hear you. I think,

I'm not, and I'm not against it. If we want to keep getting it that way, that's fine. I'm just thinking, sometimes we run out of time with all of the people, and if we had all the written correspondence, we would still all get to see it. It just wouldn't get read aloud. No, I understand where you're coming from. I just think, philosophically, on my point, providing avenues for the public

to be heard, I mean, we're submitting a written input, then we'll Why don't, I'm not suggesting this, but then we just get rid of all citizens' input and just have everything in writing. But there's a public forum where the public, we have open meetings where members of the public can submit input. And then this is just another way for members to submit input, good, bad, or indifferent, just to... I guess I'm

just saying, they're commenting to the school committee. They're not commenting to the public. That's what they do on social media. They're coming to make a comment to the school committee. So if we all received their comments in writing, we would still all be getting their comments. If they don't want to write and they want to come in

person, we receive their comments because they're there in person. So that's how I'm viewing it. The letters aren't for the public. The letters are for us. So I'm just saying, and you just said we don't always get them. So what I'm saying is I think we should get them all. And I don't think we should have to read them out loud. But again, I'm not... If the rest of the committee supports

them being read aloud, I'm fine with that too. I'm just suggesting that as long as we see them all, that is the purpose of public comment. But we have to get them all. We have to get them all. We have to start them.

Yeah. We get them all, and then it goes from there. But I think that we need to bring that up, though. Because you can realize sometimes that when people do, they're sending stuff in, they're doing it like, Like a keyboard warrior. They're willing to say it and say a whole bunch of stuff on paper because somebody else is reading it for them versus them coming in, able-bodied people coming

in and saying it. I don't disagree with you. And I think that's where we have a lot of the back force. Listen, I will go out and help somebody come all the way in and talk. And I will ask for an extra hour to let people talk. I'd rather them just be there in person and talk than to send it. The letters we get, I read all of them. I read every

single one when I get them in. I know I do as well. I think we all do. I don't think I think just going back to here is so what does the subcommittee want to do with this with this document? Refer it as is, make a change? I think that the I think that we should make the change for to see what the committee as a whole has to

say as far as written input because we all we all have a thought. but let's see what the committee as a whole. Right. I mean, at the full committee, any member can make an amendment to this. But what are we recommending as some committees? Oh, this is fine. Again, yeah, I agree. I'm fine with it as is. The only thing that I think could be up for discussion is written comment

just shared directly with the school committee and not read aloud. I think that's the only option. So do we want to present that as a possible change and let the committee vote? Is that what you're asking?

can present... Or even I, like, the committee will know that they have the option to change that. Yeah. Is that the recommendation of the, like, regardless of what the motion said, we refer this as is, there's still the option there. The subcommittee is making a recommendation on this policy to the full committee. So you want us to pick one, not submit it up as an option is what you're saying.

I think that just makes more sense because the committee can make... Because then if we just submit it as an option, we're just creating a little bit more confusion.

I just think we should just pick the submitted as is or recommended as is or recommended with a change. We could still change it as is, but I'll leave it up to... What do you think, Chanel? I could go either way. So if you want to keep it as is, I'll keep it as is. I'll just make a motion. We refer the BEDH policy as is with a neutral recommendation. Okay. Okay. I'll second that.

And... But wait, did we add in there that regardless of either way, we weren't all written to be said to all of us? Well, this says we would receive it all, just not receiving it. Again, everyone should be following the policy, period, right?

That's... The only question I would have is I still stand by the fact that this policy was not voted as written, was not the way the committee voted. And I... Encourage the I know you all weren't here at the time But I would encourage the administration to go look back at the ministers to make sure the language matches this policy Because we do we do have an issue

if I can finish we do have an issue across the board of Things the committee votes to do does not get added into the policy That that's a that's a systemic issue that we have that's not even just with this policy however now that we have it brought up just so there's no confusion and The policy that the school committee voted for in November of 2024 should be the policy that's presented

to the committee. And then we can vote at that time to change it. If like, if Ms. Riley wants to put in a language that we don't respond to input, but the committee's vote at the time should be what's in the policy.

I think that's fair, but Ms. Rumbly. So then should we be moving this until we know what the policy actually says? We're not really, then we're back to that.

We're not really making a recommendation. I'll make up with this. How about we make a motion to table and we can look at it. Yeah, let's get the minutes and verify what was voted on. I think that's, we should start there.

Can you say you're not receiving the communications? Is that from our end?

You're not getting it? It's going to the school committee website? they can write in on that website, right? Or that, your webpage, is that where it's coming from? Should we do something at our end for you to support that? Yeah, so I think what the issue is, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the written inputs that are submitted, they're read out loud. We never see those beforehand.

So if we were to, if I get access to the school committee website, And so that part, I could have them download them and get them ready for you for the meeting. Sure. So the written inputs are submitted to Ms. Cabral. Okay.

And that's the person that is on the website. So just maybe just when Ms.

Cabral sees them, just forwarding it to the school committee or here's a better idea.

Ms. Cabral, I believe, is already on the school committee generic email that we're all attached to. So maybe we can just change, we could potentially just change the language.

If we receive written input to be the school committee and be sent to the school committee or that can just be a procedure just so Miss Cabral gets this so if we do decide to have them read out loud still Miss Cabral still gets it and the committee also gets a copy at the same time. So we'll have that debate. I'm just trying to understand so in other words

presently the chair gets it and the vice chair. Presently I think they go to Miss Cabral but they're right. and then she's somebody else is the arbiter of where it goes after that. Okay. So for each member to receive. I'll just clarify that real quickly since Ms. Cabral is here. Ms. Cabral, if I can ask if when you currently receive an input, who would

receive them first? Is it an attorney aside, the chair? No one. Attorney aside doesn't? Unless there's that's mentioned, that's when Attorney Assad would review to see if there needs to be redactions done when I'm reading. But otherwise, when a citizen's input is submitted to me, it is read as is. But who's the go-to? Just her. Prior to the meetings or anything. So you guys want a copy. Okay. So we don't get

a copy because she's reading it out loud as if it were a public spoken comment. That's what you're saying, Deb? Correct. It's said to me, and they say it's citizen's input to be read for that meeting. I will look at it, and if there is an individual's name or something, then I question it.

Then I will send it to attorney Assad and have him review it. And then if he feels that it should be redacted, then he tells me that whatever portion is not to be read, most of the times it's individual's names. or if it mentions something in specific in regards to maybe an investigation or something.

Otherwise, you know, when I receive citizen's input, it is not forwarded to the mayor. The mayor doesn't tell me which ones to read or not read.

I get citizen's input and I read it as is. Okay.

Thank you. Yeah, perfect. I just want to quickly just not to hold this up longer, we'll make a motion to the table, just to add, and this is going back a few years, I'm not sure of the, and I'm happy that the process has changed what used to happen. And I can speak from firsthand experience, maybe four or five years ago was when during the COVID times, if you

were to submit a citizen's input, sign up, if you had something in writing, the mayor would take it, the mayor would go with attorney Assad, and go through them and then make redactions or say you can't read it or you get thrown out of the meeting. I can say that because it has happened to me. So just speaking from past experience, I'm glad we've gotten better

with the process. I agree, it should be everyone or no one. Sounds like we've moved past that. Let's be glad we have moved past that. So I'll entertain a motion to the table. All those in favor, aye. Aye. All those opposed. 3-2 will be fraternization policy. I'll refer to the administration on this one if they have something they wish to present. What I have for you, what I said before, it's really

Title IX that we follow. And... we would follow the Title IX rules and regulations and MASC and everybody I talked to, I did reach out to a couple superintendents. I'm sure Anna will say this, you're following Title IX, you're following the policy and then in our handbook for the school district and our policies, we can put in there conduct unbecoming, unprofessional, and we have that. In some of our languages, we

don't hand out, we don't give our personal emails, we don't talk on social media with students. We should not be giving our students Facebook, you know, access to our own, our personal Facebooks. So, and those things that I would certainly look at going forward, and I know the superintendent, we've already been talking about a couple of these things, now I'm talking about Bar River, but I did take up the whole title

lineup of of MASC, but this is what everybody's using in math pretty much. So I have in the back up here three sample staff conduct, student fraternization policies. Are you recommending that we adopt one of these?

So I have in the backup here a sample anti-fraternization policy. I don't know what I would recommend. That's up to you, but I think we gave them. I'm just saying for a public certification. We have an anti-fraternization policy from Dennis Yarmuth. Yes.

We have one from Randolph. Yes. And we have one from Manish Chester Essex Regional School Committee. I think... what we want to do is we just don't want to stop having inappropriate situations with students. Absolutely. But we don't want to trample anyone's, we don't want to go over the top with any policy. Right. When I went and reviewed MASC, it was follow Title

IX and then you can sort of put it in your code of conduct or your school handbook policy for staff handbook. and conduct policy, MGL has conduct on becoming a professional. So those are in there. The fraternization policies that some people have, they've sort of minced them together.

It's up to you. I mean, it's how you want to do it. I go by the law. I don't think that any teacher should be fraternizing with any And there was, and I can't remember the date, I'm dating myself, but MASC did a training on this, and I believe it's this one here. The one that is Manchester, but I'd have to check. This looks like what I've had. But you look

at Dennis Yamath, they've added in all kinds of additional information. 2024, they did a big on Title IX for MASC. when we were down at the Massachusetts Superintendent's Association, that's where they did all of the title, a lot of Title IX training through that week, when we go to our conference. It was all on this, it was a lot of Title IX. Ms.

Riley. I do like, and I'm gonna start by saying I usually hate law policies, but I actually like how explicit Dennis Yarkins is saying anything to question.

It's very specific on what would be considered inappropriate. It's pretty much the involvement of the title from NASC. I do like that it's so explicit because sometimes if there's not enough description, folks think they're not breaking the policy. They're looking for a little gray. So I do like the explicitness of this one and all the detail. Mr. Mullins, do we have a staff handbook? That was an excellent question.

Do we have a staff handbook? I was just going to ask that question. I don't know if there's an actual staff handbook, but I have seen some things upstairs.

I know that we need an actual staff handbook in policy, but I probably should have said, I have one in EB, but no, it should be in your staff handbook. I mean, everything should be spelled out. Right. So we don't know if we have one. So I don't know. I don't believe we do because I just looked into that recently myself after we talked about at the facilities meeting

doing potentially some changes with an attendance policy. So that's what made me look.

I didn't see anything. I think it's just like a district, but I really just mainly cover students. There should be. Most districts have them. Of course.

but I agree with Ms. Riley I think when I looked at the three I liked the Dennis Yarmouth one of the most Ms. Riley So I'll make a motion that we ask Deb to replace everywhere it says just Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District we make that the Fall River Public School District and refer that to the full committee motion is still made is there a second second further discussion do you

have clarification do you have your attorney review it also there's so much in here.

We should because there's no legal reference. So that's why we should have, I just want to make sure we're not missing any of the legal. I just want to make sure that again, it all adheres to legal and also if we're taking another district's policy, just make sure it, it mirrors our policy. Could we have that done prior to it going to the full committee so

we can bring to the full committee the reviewed policy by the attorney please. So if we would talk to them we would just have the attorney review it. Will you be speaking to, you want me to speak to attorneys or do you want to? I just called him he's going to see the superintendent on Friday. Okay. So I do have one other thing when there is a change it says the purpose

of this policy students refer Students refers to all district students in grades pre-K through 12. I need to say until 22 because we have further than students. Students who go to 22. So I just need that wording to change a little bit. That's fine. We'll move that in motion.

Anything further? All those in favor, aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion passes. 3-3 is...

district travel policies, which includes field trips, student overnight travel and staff. My only question on this before we even begin as procedural. So when I reviewed this, the backup for this meeting yesterday, last night, when it was received, we had the old policies, like the current policies of the committee, not the old, the current policies of the committee and the model MASC policies. It

appears from looking at the backup now, the district policies were removed and we only have the model MASD policies. I'm not sure if something happened when we updated the agenda to a second revised or there was an error there. Sure. Yeah. You want to direct this. That was an error on my top with the second revision. I didn't put the... No, it's okay. I'm not trying.

The only concern that I have is just making sure if we're going to adopt the model policies, if there's any changes in the language from our policy to the model, what those changes would be. I don't even mind if we can even quickly...

print those out or just the old policies just so we can cross reference the two? The first one's the same. I just pulled that out. Right. I'm looking at this. Oh, awesome.

Sure. Perfect. Thank you. So my thing in field trips, so I do have a question that says for number four, they have to have educational, attachment educational program. Yeah.

Okay. So we have like the band that goes like six-wise. I don't want to stop stuff like that. Well, Typically, the band goes to Six Flags.

Typically, they perform somewhere, and then they go. It's not just Six Flags. I don't know if that's what's true here. I haven't seen their presentation. But you know what?

Eighth grade could go to, we go to Brownstone in Connecticut. There's different things like that. That's not necessarily educational. I'm sure we could find a reason. I'm telling you, they touched grass. That's enough education for them for the day. I'm just saying. I mean, it has to. The field trip itself should be approved by administration. Yes. So

they're the ones who should read it and be like, where is the educational value?

I can find an educational value in almost every way. I just want to get the administration's opinion on this. So field trips, do you believe every field trip should have an educational value attached to it? I agree, there are times in eighth grade, end of the year, the kids are excited to go to Canopy Lake Park, you know, Six Flags. I think that's wonderful, it's social emotional, and you can probably tie

it into anything. And as Anna said, it is approved by the principal before it then comes to the school committee. Only because it's here. It says it here that...

I think that's a good safeguard. We don't want a teacher saying, well, every month I'm going to do a different field trip and go here, there, and anywhere. And there's no connection. Yes. There are, I mean, I'm just thinking about my own children's experience. They go to a lot of educational field trips. They go to Pumas Plantation.

They go to Sturborn Village. There are, I think those that you're talking about are kind of like end of year celebrations. I just don't want those to end was the reason why I said that, just because of what the wording was here. I don't think those are social, emotional. Clearly, if they've been happening, this has been the policy, so. That doesn't mean it's not a lot of policy. I wish to

add to this. So the reason I included this on the agenda is one, we should update it. And secondly, to help the administration, we have routine field trips that are just day, like for the same day field trips, where students just go for the day somewhere as educational value and they come back.

When I prepared for this meeting, I looked at the cross-reference policies, and I think there was something about state law in there as well that the school committee actually has to approve overnight or late-night travel. But we approve the same-day field trips that are not overnight and are not late-night that I don't think should even come before us. If they leave the state. Or if they leave the state.

We have to know. Does that have to come before us?

If they leave the state. I thought if they left the state. For an everyday field trip? Like if, think about a school series. On a state travel request. On a state, but if you're in state going to. So my only question is, if I go to Newport, Rhode Island, I need to get permission of the school committee.

If I go to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I don't need permission. And that's state law. It's there, if you refresh it. Yeah.

No, I think that's something we need to have a conversation with our state delegation.

If we should follow the state law, that's perfectly fine. Extradition.

That's a whole other good. It could be extro. Yes, absolutely. Still the state has to function as a state. But it's the same thing with the teachers. If the teachers go somewhere, they don't always have to tell us, but they tell us when they're going out of state. Same thing. For staff reimbursements, I'm not sure.

We've had this conversation with the prior administration. I'm not sure if this administration has had time just to review the procedures around staff travel. I don't like it at all. I don't like having to reimburse anyone. I think if you're going on... I personally do not like reimbursements. I think it gets us in trouble.

And I think that the district should get an agreement with the city if that's how we're going to have to do POs and pay in advance for if we have a teacher going to a conference in Boston, we should be able to send with that teacher from the superintendent's office a check to the Marriott Hotel in the Wharf, Marriott, for ESL, MLL training. Matter of fact, here, the

superintendent and I are going to the Mass Superintendent's Conference in July, and you have to put up a credit card at first, and I've already told Kevin, Mr. Almeida, that I'll do that up front to hold the room, but I would like the city, the school district, to have a check ready for me to take with me to pay. It just covers you. and it covers me that I'm at the right

place at the right time. I like the sound of that. And I ran into a problem in my former district with reimbursements and people using an Amex card getting a lot of points. And we were paying for the Amex card right when I first got there because the Amex card was used for student activities accounts. Well, we were giving somebody a free plane ticket.

That's really not what reimbursements are for. I don't, it's... I hear what you're saying, but is the city able to do that? So I was in a city that that would not have been possible. To check in time and then that was an issue. It depends on how long it is. I think I talked to Kevin, he said he can do it for us because we

know the conference is coming up in two months. So that's how I did it.

I'm assuming the administration needs extra time to look at that policy? Yes. Okay. Ms.

Riley. could be different in different sizes of the district. This is called student overnight travel right? Is that what you're looking at? No we have 3-3 we have staff travel. The next one. DKC. So again this is I don't know if this is possible in Fallburger because again every city runs differently so we try to book all travel. So you have a district credit card,

we book the travel first. So you're going, we book your flight, your train, your whatever it is, the hotel, and then all the receipts come directly to the district because they get emailed to the card that's attached. Or points. The points all come to the district. District credit card. But that's not every district allows a credit card.

Not every city or district allows a credit card, so that's something they'd have to We had to get permission from the city. Usually it's in the hands of the business. Correct. That's who runs it. My CFO handles it. We had a credit card also, but they like to give a PO for a check to go to like.

Not every hotel takes a PO, which is the one. Sometimes they do because if they'll take a PO, we do that. But if they don't take a PO, we have a district credit card. Because you're right. Reimbursements back and forth to staff are what? I just think they get us in murky water and especially for when you start to reimburse for gas or you start to reimburse for

somebody who said I had to run to Home Depot to get something. We should have accounts set up. The district should have accounts that whether it's Home Depot, you know, or Hank's, you know, electrical shop. We should have open accounts there so that If we're doing work in a building, they can go and sign. And then we know who signed, what time, what the activity

was for. We had to cross the street from my last district.

What I think we do currently in the district is what we do with the reimbursements. If some of the staff members go into a conference of Danvers to drive it up, we reimburse the gas. I think what our city vehicles, correct me if I'm wrong, we have a city pump. I believe we have a city pump. Not sure if they keep adequate records with that.

But the city of Fall River, I think that's like a shared service. But I think, yeah, no, I'm happy to support the direction that you... Well, I mean, if that's the direction that the committee would push us in, that's fine. I just think it's... This again is, sometimes the city will also say for reimbursement, there's so much for breakfast, there's so much for food. Well that's what I was just going to

say. We use the IRS a lot. Right, you only get this much for breakfast.

Because I did see a reimbursement for meals and I thought there's nothing, like we require the itemized receipt. None of that. So right now we're not. I'm not sure if this goes with that, but this did come up. I did not realize that we did not have maintenance vehicles for all of our maintenance, that we have a, this is something that's going to bring

up to the superintendents probably, but this seems to be in the same category. We give a stipend to use people's own vehicles.

I'm going to go back to my former district. This policy, I got rid of that stuff that you just talked about reimbursing. I did get rid of using people's own vehicles. It's a liability issue for this district. If somebody drives in their own vehicle from this building to another, I'm not talking about teachers going from building to

building. I'm talking about maintenance workers that are using their own vehicles to work from.

Because we actually, I think that actually over the last couple of years, the insurance company asked us to give everybody's where people were located in the district. I don't know if they did this to you. Maybe not. But I would bet you, we were under, not Mayflower, but anyways, they had wanted to know what the mileage was between each of our schools, which wasn't a

lot, but what teachers went back and forth, like OTPT, what their mileage was, And they had some rating on what the severity could be in a rating of the car accident or whatever. So that's just part of it. But that came up as a liability issue of allowing people. And I just had this conversation about if we lease or the city leases Ford 150s or Ford 250s, you get

five of them, they have Fall River on them. We know where people are. They're insured by us. We own them. We gas them, we do, it belongs to us.

It just tightens up some of our systems. We say they know where they are, like there's GPS on them? No, they have Fall River Public Schools.

Kathy, you had them up in Brockton. We have all kinds of vehicles. You've had them, yeah. Crazy. We had a lot of vehicles. We had a hardware shop across the street. We had our own staff. they can get back and forth, they don't have an issue with their own car and everything else, they can't get here, can't get there, or can't pick up something. Because half of them are picking things up

with their vehicle. Well that's the problem, if you put something in that truck and then you hit the brake, I mean anything, or you take it home. You have the equipment you need with you, like we have maintenance vehicles and we're actually looking to upgrade ours, but they want shells in them so they can put equipment on it, so you're not, I'm here and I need this, I gotta go back

to the shop to get this, or I gotta run to Ace to get this.

If they have a vehicle and they can put some of the regular supplies in it, that's also saving time and money and making it all more efficient. They've got everything with them they need, but if you're driving your own and you've got a little sedan or a little keel like I do, they can't fit much equipment in there anyway, or pick up at a hardware store if it's something big. That's a good idea. looking at also

we have public transportation, we have a train that can take people if they have to go up to Boston as well. Oh, back to PKC, sorry. But when you're talking about staff travel, just remember that, you're also talking about in-district travel, right?

or is this... The KC looks to be only about staff, official travel.

This isn't about... Official travel. The problem see right here is about staff travel.

But I think it was important to the conversation to bring up and we can...

Can we check with City Hall because they must again they must have staff travel and I just want to make sure that where they probably set out requirements.

Yeah I think yeah Yeah, definitely, I think we should reach out to City Hall and get more information. So we can table DKC and then we could, just going back to IJOA, the only question I have is, so is it, or should be a requirement that all field trips with students, do they get parent, they need to have parent approval? Yes, everyone. And, okay.

I guess my one last question and if we can get the answer on it.

I know once a week we have, um, we have the students go out of District of Swansea to the radio show. At least most of the time there's students there. I'm not sure if, um, how we're transferring those students or... No idea. I think they're going to a career. Oh, the career takes them? Yeah. Okay. That's what I think happens. Or if there's, um, field, if there's, um, whatchamacallit going out for

those, um, um, parent approval or who's paying for the substitute if a teacher goes as well. I just think that's something we should look into if we're gonna have a weekly show on the radio station. But it is covered under field trips. And I just wanna see what the educational value is as well. But so for the two policies that we have, do we want to adopt, refer IJOA and JJH and table DKC? Can I

just remind you to remove the notes from MASC at the bottom so that they look professional? Yes. The legal references? No, this one says, no, brief policies on field trips, such as sample above. That's like what they write for you to add in.

So somebody just didn't take that off. I just looked at mine. Everything we just said was in here. So I think we just need to take off the suggestion piece that's not actually part of the policy, just to make it look a little polished. Yes, I agree with you. So I'll entertain a motion to refer IJOA as discussed along with JJH. Motion so made.

Second. All those in favor, aye. Motion to table DKC. Motion so made.

Second. All those in favor, aye. Moving on to 3-4 is KE Public Complaints. This item...

has to be placed on the agenda is because this has been an issue in the past, not necessarily with this committee. However, what do we do if a committee, if the committee receives a complaint rather than just do nothing or hope the administration at the times addresses it? They don't. So the way I read this language, which I fully agree with the policy, this policy has written, we receive a

complaint We officially act on it by referring it down to the proper line of authority. But then once it's investigated, we get a basic cookie cutter. Okay, this has been addressed. The investigation is over without going into much detail.

But we support that. The way this policy has been read in the past, that's been implemented in the past, has not been followed. Superintendent, do you like this policy as written?

I believe things need to follow the chain of command so that is obviously in the policy and I think what you're saying is you send it back to the superintendent and whether I send it to a principal or address it at my level it certainly... Yes, I guess my only question is how do we send it back? If you're asking me it should be go on the committee agenda

either in executive session or otherwise, and we officially refer it. So it actually...

I guess if I'm reading this and I'm trying to interpret it, I would say, so we get a complaint, an email complaint, we forward it to the superintendent. Once they've resolved it or met with the president, to me, that's like in our Friday update, the superintendent says, complaint received by such and such was addressed, I met with them, or they're meeting with the principal, whatever it is, like it's

been addressed, I think that just tells us somebody addressed it. We don't, you're right, we don't need details. We don't have to know the substance of it, but I don't think we need to wait until a school committee meeting to have, and I don't think that's an agenda. I don't know. What are we discussing? She, personnel, excuse me, the superintendent, or And it might not be the superintendent, it might be the

principal who has to address it. But as long as we know it has been addressed and that if they're not happy with how the principal addressed it, they refer it to the superintendent and then the super, and only if they're not satisfied after their meeting with the superintendent would that complaint come to us. That's what I think this, the intent of this is. My only terrifying question is that we've been told

recently as a committee we cannot act outside of an official meeting, so this is why I interpreted it that way. So if we say we're referring it, who is the we in terms of referring it to the superintendent? I don't mean to be technical, but I just don't. I think if you get an email, you forward it to the superintendent. So any member forwarding it, that would be covered under policy over.

Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that we get something back knowing that it was taken care of, because that's the problem. I said no all the time, because I get complaints and stuff all the time. But if I send it, I don't know if it's been handled. So when I send it, I don't blanket send it.

I send back, hey, thank you for receiving this. I'm sending it off. But if this doesn't get handled or you have any more questions, please feel free to comment back to reach back out to me. Because at the end of the day, they're reaching out because I feel like they've, they've, gone through everybody else and they haven't gotten it, one. Or two, sometimes people think that they can jump the ladder and

it's going to help them and it really doesn't in the end because now I go to the superintendent, the superintendent has to talk to the principal, the principal has to talk to the teacher, it actually takes longer. But my problem that I have with the whole thing is that we don't ever know if something was ever handled.

That's my thing. But the last bit, the disposition never happens. Correct. That's my only thing that I have to do. And so I just want to clarify one last piece as well. Situations have happened in the past where members of the public have followed the chain of command, goes to the superintendent, and either they don't get a response or they get a response where it's inadequate.

And if a superintendent acts on an issue and they're not happy with the response, we can look into the superintendent's handling of a situation because we oversee the superintendent.

Well, we don't... Yes, but I think the through line there isn't if the superintendent has handled it, is if they're still not happy with it. So they appeal something to a principal, the principal says, nope, I'm standing firm on this. I'll just pick whatever it is, some decision. And then it goes to the superintendent. The superintendent

says, I'm going to agree with the principal. That decision stands. And now they're still not happy, and they come to us. That's the only time I think that it goes on the agenda, but it depends on what it is, because we don't do personnel and we don't do kid things. So I don't know what that thing would be that would end up with a, I guess like a dual language program. A

principal is going to close the classroom in her room. It goes to the superintendent.

The principal says, hey, I've only got three kids. I can't run this. No, I shouldn't have said dual language. I don't want to close that program. Some program wants to be closed. The superintendent says, no, I agree. They can appeal to the school committee. The facts are presented by the superintendent. Here's why we're closing that program. There

are only X number of kids. It's not fiscally responsible. It's not in line with our school improvement strategies, whatever it might be. And then we would do it. Then we would vote. Can I throw a scenario? Yeah. Sure. I was trying to think of one that made sense. There are some things that are frivolous, so let's be careful. All right. My student received a B and it should have

been an A. We wouldn't address a student issue. You're saying all the complaints coming to the superintendent. So I might say, do you received, in other words, that goes back to the principal. I'm not going to give you a full paragraph of what I'm done. I think your disposition to us would say, this is an internal matter.

I'm upholding the decision of the principal. That's it. That's it. If it's a school committee, only if it rises to a school committee decision, a program, something like that.

Program closure or something of that nature. Yeah. So only those things then go on an agenda for the school committee to hear that the superintendent would present the reasoning behind it. But if it's not a school committee level decision, we don't see it.

We're just, I'm told, it's handled. What if there's accusations that the district mishandled a bullying investigation? I've received quite a few. But those are not our business. We don't.

We don't deal with bullying issues. That's not a problem. But we oversee the superintendent of the super... We're not saying you would... No, no, that's all right. I agree.

So calling in the superintendent's evaluation, that'd be a place where we would say, in communication or support of students, whatever our sections are, that's where we would address that.

So if I just want to push back on that slightly, so that's the thing.

If there's an accusation that the superintendent mishandled a bullying issue... I don't have all the facts. I'm not going to put in an evaluation, superintendent mishandled a bullying investigation. That's why I think it's important that we review decisions of the superintendent. Sorry, I can tell you. No, no. That's where, again, if there is something, that goes on an agenda, too, where I do a presentation as

far as this is the training that we've done for staff. This is what we've done to support principals. These are our forms. They're state forms. These are the documents.

And bullying is a principle level issue? That's something the superintendent would review the bullying investigation. I'm happy to share that. Yeah, so the superintendent would be? At a public meeting or a subcommittee meeting. We haven't gotten this amount of information to pass.

I think you always have, you and Mr. Agat, you all always have some history that we don't know about. I'm always trying to figure out what got us to this point. So, no, I appreciate that. I think just keeping the committee as most informed as it can, I think it's important. Chair, I apologize. I do have to leave. Oh, yes, she said that. I'm happy to follow up. Thank you. I just

want to say for public certification, the superintendent had a prior commitment that was shared in prior and the superintendent excused. Thank you.

So we just referred? Yes, I'll make a motion to refer...

Policy KE as is the full committee positive recommendation. Motion. Motion. Motion. So move second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. Motion passes. So next item and I think these last three will go relatively smoothly is 3-5 discussion vote to refer. creation of a personnel subcommittee or including those duties with another subcommittee just a little bit back up the

committee and his policies we do have a policy that sets subcommittees it's not in the backup my first question would be whether our subcommittee should be outlined in policy and actually with the committee's identification I like to take 3-5 and 3-6 together I think it would just make sense that we're gonna have this conversation and also outlining the description so

not all of our subcommittees I did ask the administration prior just to do a little bit of research on how we've gotten to this point not all of our subcommittees including this one this subcommittee does not have an active description

And this subcommittee was approved years ago before any of us were in our position currently. So we just got to figure out if maybe there is one that when this was created in 2010, 2015, there might be one in the books. I'm wondering if there's one in here. In the minutes. But if there's not, then we should have the administration create one for us to send to the full committee or...

So if I may, Mr. Chair, in our policies, of course now, because I pressed it too fast when I scrolled, I can't see it, but I was trying to look in our policy book because there is an NSBA policy around subcommittees and their descriptions. Ah, finally popped up. So do we not have that policy at all? We could pull the MASC exemplar one, because that is a regular policy,

and then that would at least give us a starting point. I'm looking to see if we have it in ours. When I prepared for this meeting, I did not see a policy. We have a policy that shows how we create subcommittees, but they don't list the subcommittees that we have. So subcommittees of the school committee, BDE. Yes.

So that doesn't have any description. Let me pull that one up, BDE. Sorry, I don't have to scroll on my...

Even when they do, I think that they should be here. No, I'm not where you are. I think that we should have them attached to all these things. It's somewhere. If you look up... So if you look up... I'm just going to look up on yours if you don't mind. Fall River School Committee Subcommittee Descriptions. Some of them do have one, but not all of them.

It's somewhere on the way there is on the website believe it or not and I think that's something functions and do here we go functions and duties of standing subcommittees Why wouldn't it be in that same spot? That's an amazing question. So we have evaluation No, that's not a second. I agree with you. I think it needs to be there. Yes. So that's... So evaluation, we have finance,

which never meets. We have grievance, grievances committee. We have the facilities and operation, instructional and parent community outreach, but none for policy.

Might miss someone that doesn't have any instruction. The one that never meets, I think I'm a member of it, is... Recognition. Oh yeah. The recognition and something else was attached. Remember he added it together. Yeah. He added it together to some of this. I actually just watched the minutes to that January meeting the other day. Is there anything in the charter about subcommittees? No. Okay.

Like there aren't any required ones. That's what I'm just asking. What do you need to do in there? They're not defined. like the role of the policy subcommittee is not defined anywhere. There's no fun, there's like a cookie cutter functions and do, I shouldn't say cookie cutter, it's important that we have well defined subcommittees, but there's a definition for the subcommittee that would be ideal.

And for them to be there and link together in one actual spot. So if you type in part of a school committee subcommittee, it should be there. So I think some referrals that, I think what we should recommend, staff handker It's not on our website. I think we'll... This is my... We need it on our website.

We should recommend to the committee if we're BDE, we add the... We do add the subcommittees in there, our standing subcommittees. We also...

So do we want to put BDE on our next agenda? It's not on this one, right? So do we want to put it on an ad? make a recommendation to what we want to see in BDE to bring to the full committee? Yes.

So let's put it on our next agenda. We can draft what we want it to look like. If you'd like, I can take a stab at it before our next meeting, and then we'll have something to review. I'll look at what MASC has for a model and try to add that to ours. So we should add subcommittees, and we should, like, subcommittees in general. Should we add the descriptions? Or...

I can try to add a brief description and you tell me if it's what you're looking for. I think we should add descriptions that are outlined on the website. You know what, that could be a reference to the policy. So we could have BDE and then BDER. And in R you can list out the subcommittees and put what their roles and responsibilities are. I think, sure, I agree.

BDER. I'll see what I can find from MASC and other districts and then try to make one. that we can at least have something to start from instead of just having nothing to look at right now. I agree, I agree. But just for conversations. Can I just interrupt? Is this for our next policy subcommittee meeting? Yes, yes it will be. I

just want to have a preliminary conversation. So personal subcommittee, I know something you brought up and I support it, is should actually be something, Should that be his own subcommittee or should we attach that to evaluation?

Would you chair? And I think you would be very good at looking at the job descriptions. I would say we don't have a ton of personnel things that are in our purview. It would be some job descriptions. It might be some contract regular.

What are the benefits we give everyone in a contract? Then that could be... that we would bring to policy. So everyone who's hired at the cabinet level gets 25 vacation days, whatever, six days, whatever. So there's a standard to work from, because I feel like they're not all the same. They're not. That's what my impression was from reviewing them. So we could set a policy that sets a standard for what the

benefits are in contracts. And then that could be brought to the full committee. And then I think that actually could be a policy where we say this is It lets people know what the expectations are. Well we look at all jobs, even if the individual is not in our purview, I believe we as a committee look at all job descriptions for positions. And we set wages and

benefits. Right, you set the wages and benefits. Yes, which hopefully is coming before us soon for some positions. But not to get off course. If we could get to them, you would have them. That would be great. So I'm getting some templates. Okay. We don't have anything right now for a template. Exactly. So they're all different and the wording is different. Without getting into it,

because this is policy, we just brought it up. We're going to run into issues.

And it's not fair for one employee to have one contractual template and another employee who has a different contractual. there should be standard language, and I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that, but just from the superintendent's point of view, it should be standard language for teachers, because it's a contractual, standard language for

S9s. And then when you get down to their specific duties, that's where your salary begins to change, and what they do. Vacation, that could be a template, that could be standard, that everybody gets... Or whatever level gets this. Yeah, four weeks, you start with three weeks, you're here two years or a year, you get four weeks. You're here three years, you get five weeks. You're here, you know,

up to, I don't think I give out more than 25 days. No. So, you know, I don't think any, I've seen any contracts go up that, but that's something that is standard and you can't, I don't think it's good business.

No, I fully agree with that. I think personnel. That's why I asked if there was a subcommittee listed in the chat or anything. I don't want to bring something that then somebody says, you can't do that, that's not allowed. So as long as it's allowed, I do think right now we're in a place, we might not need one forever, but I feel like we need one right now because there isn't anything

in place to create some standard or. And also the finance subcommittee, I know it used to be a three-member committee. I think it should go back to being a three-member committee. Oh, because everybody's on it, right? Everyone's on it. It doesn't meet.

And we're going off the schedule. We have to have a finance subcommittee meeting with seven members. You're going off the schedule of seven members. And you're going off having the chair of the school committee actually schedule the meeting, which hasn't happened. So I think just having a three-member subcommittee will be able to meet more

and make better referrals and look into our finances together. better you have so I'm not sure if you've done this but I did a three-member budget subcommittee and then especially when it came to the budget time because I mean you might want a subcommittee all year long but it really comes into high gear I mean I started to talk about it in September I started to key up and queue up

the the city or the town and then October you go and have that that initial directors meeting with everybody there and having you sort of get where the city is, where the town is. And then, so having the three, and then when it comes closer, because I really think, we can't come out in March next year, I think we've got to come out late January or February. Usually February vacation is on

there every day, you're there every day. creating the budget so you can come out on Friday and tell your subcommittee let's meet Friday morning on February vacation. That's really the weekend. I fully agree with you and I think just to, we have, this has been a systemic issue that the finance subcommittee hasn't been meeting over the last several months to years. So I think, so now whenever we bring it up now

and you can bring your experience and we can. I think the superintendent, does it exist?

Everybody's on it, but it's just a full committee. Yes. Yeah. I think it's better to have a finance subcommittee. I agree.

Just a moment. Mr. Kugin, pick who's on it. Who's on it, but we don't have... We're suggesting a subcommittee with only three members. So he would pick who the three members are, but we don't have one. That's another issue. To your point, we should be confirming... appointments there's nothing in the chart that says it but that's an ongoing issue that we've been discussing as a committee and we will but as

you get closer to the budget though it should open up a budget subcommittee is very helpful and then why would he get to the end invite everybody by the time we have our next up our next finance we'll be ready we'll be ready this personnel one though because the chair is in charge of subcommittees can we even a personnel subcommittee without asking or speaking to the chair we can add it to

the evaluation or we could but we could bring it as an action item to the full committee and ask if we could include either include personnel as part of the evaluation subcommittee to do the things we just said or we could say or ask him if he would like to create a person I don't want to give the chair any authority that he does not have That's not in the charter. I

don't want to give any extra authority whatsoever. I'm speaking for myself. But I think going to, he appoints members. He doesn't create subcommittees.

He created the prior superintendent one on his own without a vote of committee.

But he should have known, but he doesn't have the power to that. But I still think we still need to bring this as personnel and then he'll be able to put his in. No, I think if we add the personnel, if we add, fix the description, the name of evaluation, evaluation for the personnel. Flash personnel. Correct. We bring that as a motion to the committee. Yes, that wouldn't change anything.

Like, that wouldn't have anything to do with the chair. That's the vote of the committee. Yeah. So the committee votes for it. It will just be attached to the evaluation. I don't think it's going to be a controversial thing anyway, but you never know. I don't think it is. I think we've been talking about job descriptions and contracts and I don't think it's a secret that they're not standard

and we need to create something. Just having a subcommittee that can look at those and has the jurisdiction to. Still going to bring them to the full committee. So if they're not doing it, if the personnel subcommittee is not going to do anything, it's going to go to the full committee. So I'll entertain a motion to table 3-5 and 3-6. And Deb, for our June meeting,

if you just want to combine them as one item since we're and just put on just BDE for the next item and now in BD ER for the next item but we're gonna table those and add those to the next agenda I'll send you a draft before the next meeting that motion doing motion so made second all those in favor aye aye all those opposed

Alright, we're coming up on the end. 3-7 is an update on next steps and policy manual spreadsheets. So if I can ask for an update on where we are at with the spreadsheet that the subcommittee asked for. Liz, can I speak on that? Sure. So Ms. Riley shared...

spreadsheet we are actively working on that looking at what we have that has been outdated and moving forward from that great so we're hoping to have a semi updated policy spreadsheet for the June meeting for the committee is it possible that we I guess what And I've never made a spreadsheet like this before, like on my own. I'm just trying to understand

the timeline. I'm presenting the full spreadsheet to the subcommittee. Is it like a lot of work to create it, Ms. Riley? It's a big task. I'm sorry, didn't mean to interrupt you. Sure. It's okay, Deb. I was just going to say why it was a big task. So I pulled the policy book for you, but Deb has to go back and look at all the dates

of when they were approved and then break those up into the five years. So what takes a little longer is she's going to have to look at every one of those policies to input the last date it was approved, and then we'll start marking when we reapprove them to get on that five year. So I'm just thinking what takes a long time is we have many, many 400 pages worth of policies

for Deb to look through and put those dates on. Have you thought about bringing MASC in to do the thing? They won't do this. Yeah, they won't help you make this part. No, but they'll come in and say, they'll come in with a book and say that there could be a policy in there that you may not need anymore. So we have the MASC. Oh, you got it. Yes.

You know what it is. But what we're doing is, we weren't reviewing some policies regularly. So really, ideally, we should be on a five-year cycle of review. Yeah, I do the same thing. Yeah. So what we've asked, what I tried to help Deb do, I'm sorry, Deb, I did my best with that spreadsheet, was pull all of our policies into one spreadsheet. so that then we can date them all and then

divide them into five years and start checking off that list as we go through.

It's an arduous task. It is an arduous task. I've done it. The spreadsheet was the easy part. Filling in the dates is the hardest part. You're right. It takes a long time. because this subcommittee and this administration wants to, I'm happy we're addressing this now because we've allowed the policy manual to go so outdated over the years.

So I know it takes a lot to get everything back in motion. I think just to throw it out there, maybe if like IT, it could assist with Ms.

Cabral or assist with the administration. It's not like, it's not just pulling it out like that. It's you've got to go through the book and sort of turn the page and say, oh, we did it May 5th. 2016.

Or we did it June 4th, 2022. We did it, you know, 1964. This was the last time we saw this. I mean, there's going to be policies you're going to come across. You're going to be like, we had a policy on this. There was no easy electronic way to do it. I know what you're thinking. I tried to sort it that way. The AI got so confused on sorting the dates because

some policies have multiple dates or they might have a date in there from a year of a law that was adopted. So it was confusing all the dates. But Anna, remember they used to They used to go revised, revised, like revised 20. So we have that on some of ours. So that's why it was getting confused and it was showing up multiple times. So I took the dates out

and just had it lowered all our policies. That's why it's taking Debra a long time. She's got to go through everything. But Talyn, if you want to come in and pull up. I mean, if you want to come in, I'll get you a laptop or I will get you... can use my office you can sit in there with me I'm not never there I'm not running around but you can sit there

if you want and help I'm willing to work with you or share it with us I'm willing to do it when we can if Debbie if what if you want to share the updated spreadsheet whenever I have time I'm happy to do some of them so that we can try to get it ready for June so we have or start going through and just putting the dates on it yeah that's what

I'm saying I guess I didn't realize how long It's tedious. It's tedious. It's an arduous test because you have to go to the last page to see revised, revised, revised. 400 pages of policy. We have a lot of policies, some of which we might not need anymore. Some of them might be outdated. Because it's long. So you don't need any policy anymore. We had one with the old gas from the science

labs. That was the policy is how the gas was turned on in the fall and how to turn it off. I was like, do we even use these anymore?

I'm like, they took those tables out. We don't have those spigots. They don't do that anymore. I don't even have gas in my new high school.

Everything's electric. It's green. No, that's good. So I think also just in terms of the next steps for where we're going, I just speak to the superintendent this week.

And I think she's going to be doing this. I know she stepped away, but I think she's going to be meeting with all the subcommittee chairs that meet often just to get on the same page before we create the agenda and before we implement the agenda, which is good. We haven't had a system in place before. And the only thing I think would be beneficial with any policy that is

requested by a member to be on the agenda we include both the current policy and the model policy as a starter and and also I think just getting that out just a few days before kind of only miss Riley has a very busy schedule I know mr. has a busy schedule and just just so we could time just a little more time to review I think would be beneficial but

yeah I just want to throw this out there just an idea in terms of just one day in the summer we're all off and having like a like a like one long session of just going through multiple policies and banging out many on the way I just want to throw it out there can we see what our what our list looks like yeah I'm not saying

I could commit to something like that but I'm saying let's see what our list looks like so again just in terms of organization once we divide it by five if our year one is 20 policies we can easily divvy that up over the months we have our meetings. If our year one is a hundred policies we may have to do a few marathon sessions even if the marathon session is just I

don't think we need this policy we make a stack of those to bring to a you know what I mean? So let's if we could see what the five year looks like and we look at how many are in each year maybe that will help us decide if we need something like that and then that will we can kind of weed out all the ones that are And then we can make

a few stats. We can make that we don't need this anymore. We can make that I think this is good as is and these need revision. And those might be the ones that we bring to us. So just a thought to organize, especially a long day. I don't think we want to be making edits because by the end of a long day, I don't think our minds will be fresh. But that

could be a day to organize and we could sort through them and say, I think this is, we don't need to look at this anymore. This one is fine and this one needs revision. And then that would help us organize our year. would be probably a good summer project. Very well. Yeah, I agree. Okay. All right. Very good. I'll take you up on that. I'm going to look through it myself. What

I'm saying is don't go crazy. Come in and look in the policy book here.

Don't take it with you. Just come in and do 10 a day. Or go through the book and say this is... I mean like you just said, the high risk or importance. This is of major importance to us. Down to

you can't bring kittens to school. You know, to less importance. Like, yes, it's important that somebody wants, or teddy bears to school. It's something that we want to get away from, but yet, does it really need to be in our policies? Right. I mean, yes. Right. Yes. Absolutely. Very good. All right, we don't need any. That was an update, so we can move on to new business. Just want to bring

up one item for new business. So watching the Fall River City Council meeting last night, We have a walkers and riders policy. It's important that policy is fully funded. Has the administration received anything from the city in terms of cuts to the transportation budget? Not that I'm aware of. Okay, just encourage the administration just to reach out, just make sure there's

no cuts. But I hope not. We need students going to school. We need...

make sure to go into school safely and it's important that we keep that fully funded. So any other new business? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion made second. All those in favor, aye. Thank you everyone.