6.30.2025 FRPS Parent and Community Outreach Subcommittee

Going to call this Monday, June 30th, 2025 parent and community outreach subcommittee meeting to order. Roll call. Mr. Das here. Mr. Bailey here. Mr.

Cor here. Salute 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 unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Citizens input. Believe we have two individuals who signed up. I believe they both submitted written input. So, we'll start with Taylor. Taylor Perry.

I am absolutely appalled by what is unfolding in our school system. How is it acceptable to allow a 70-year-old man to quietly resign amid accusations of sexual assault with seemingly no further questioning, no transparency, and no accountability? Whether these incidents occurred inside the school building or not, it doesn't change the fact that children have been harmed. Not all children can not all children come

forward in silence does not mean safety.

There should have been a thorough investigation. The decision to simply let someone resign, especially under circumstances as serious as this, sends the wrong message that protecting adults and reputations take priority over protecting children. As a parent, they deeply this deeply disturbs me. My daughter attends this school and while she is still young, she should h she should never have to be exposed to this

kind of negligence or lack of action from those who are supposed to protect her. Whether it's elementary, middle, high school, or any school, ch children deserve better. We as parents deserve honesty. It's troubling to see how quick the system is to sweep things under the rug when the truth always comes out one way or another. Wouldn't it be better for the truth to come from the source

directly and with integrity rather than leaks, rumors or lawsuits? This kind of mishandling is now institution is how institutions lose trust and credibility. If the school does not take immediate steps to address this properly, transparently and respectfully, they could very well find themselves facing legal consequences once legal consequences once far greater than they may be prepared for. Get it

together. Our children, our children are not bargaining chips. They are our future and they deserve it. Taylor Perry. Next, we have um Holly Clam. Hope I said that right.

Yep. Yep. Dear school committee members, as a nurse of the far public school district, I fully support the current headlice procedure as approved at the last school committee meeting and currently posted on the nursing department website. This procedure is supported by current recommendations of multiple national and local health agencies. Furthermore, this policy allows for the school nurses to use

their clinical judgment based on their knowledge and experience on a case-byase basis. This is essential in our large and diverse district. According to the National Association of School Nurses 2025, it is the position of the National Association of School Nurses that the management of head lice infestations in school settings should not disrupt the educational process, including but not

limited to the elimination of classroom screening, forced absences from school or knits and or live lice, and broad notification that a case of headlights has been found. As the leader who bridges health care and education, the registered professional school nurse advocates for evidence-based head life management strategies that eliminate practices and promote positive student outcome, including reduced absenteeism.

These are very strong words. I agree with them. However, I also recognize the needs of our particular students as well as the concerns of our parents, guardians, and classroom teachers. Our current policy is in fact a compromise recognizing these needs and concerns and allowing our nurses to use their judgment on a case-toase basis.

Therefore, there are times when students will be sent home and when parents will be informed. However, the goal is always to keep our students in the classroom and not disrupt the educational process unnecessarily. During the last school committee meeting, it was recommended that additional resources be provided to families as available. Some information has already been shared via parent

square and posted on the nursing department website. We additionally have a plan to work together during the next school year to re to research any additional resources that we may be able to provide to families. We are listening to all parties involved in trying to respond while maintaining a sound procedure supporting the education of our students.

If there are additional concerns or questions about any or other policies or procedures involving the nursing department, whether from the school committee parents guardians administration, or other individuals, I kindly request that that the nurses are allowed the opportunity to gather, review, discuss, and reflect on the concern or question as a group. In addition to ensuring we are following

the regulations set forth by our licensing board and DESIE, we may also need time to review any new literature on the subject matter. I have confidence in our nursing department and that we will continue to provide quality evidence-based practices to all our students. We should be questioned by relevant participants in the education setting. However, we should also be allowed the time to collaborate as a

group prior to any policy change.

Agreed. Now, um thank you to um Mr. CBR.

Thank you to the individuals who submitted input. Uh Mr. Bailey. Yeah, if I can um just comment on the first citizens input around the uh resignation piece. I know um Superintendent Curley put something out in the Herald news if that was today if I'm not mistaken.

Right. This morning it came out in the Herald news. I don't know. We sent a press release out Saturday. Yeah. So, I'm not sure it wasn't published. Um, without getting into too much detail um because I know there's an investigation going on obviously um I don't know how deep um we can get. Um can you just address a little bit of that and and because I I think as I look across

social media and as I I've received a ton of calls and text messages and emails and people with questions on um you know how we handle these things. I think it's important to put it out there because um I'm trying to find the best way to say it. Bailey, I fully I'm not stopping you. I fully agree with you.

This let this this I believe pertains to the 3-1 on the agenda. So, just let me read out the agenda item first and then then continue this. So, okay, we we moved on. Um 3-1 is a discussion parental and community notification when a school committee I mean a school employee is either accused or charged with a heinous offense. Mr. Bailey, please. Yeah. So, I was just I just um if we could just get some clarification

on how that is is put out. Um I don't want you to dive as deep as you can dive into it without um you know getting too crazy because a lot of the questions for me have been how does someone uh you know do this and then immediately they resign? How are they allowed to resign?

And I know I'm not an HR specialist, right? Um, but I think it's important to actually put these out, put this information out and and let people understand how things unfold sometimes within the district. Um, because for me, I don't think that we're covering anything up, but um, it's tough for me to um, notify people on what the processes are, right? Um yeah, I mean I think that I would start by saying that

um the what I the information that I supplied to the press never said that the person resigned. Mhm. So um as far as any public statement I've made, I've never said that I did not say to the public that that the person resigned.

Yeah. So, I want to make sure that I state that um I did share information um with the school committee. I shared the information I had at that time. Yeah.

And so, and it is it was information that I had at the time and and when I shared it with the committee, I said it was like two sentences and it was literally all I had to say. Um, we were not informed of any of the I did not know the particulars of the charges. I did not know anything that transpired.

I learned when it was published by I think I first saw it from the flower reporter. Um, and so so I so and I'm not sure what else I can say. No, there are um I mean certainly based on some of the um information or you know the questions that came up in terms of citizens input, I'm not sure if there was much else I could have said legally. I'm not sure

what kind of investigation anybody would like us to conduct. I know that the charges are subject to a police investigation which have nothing to do with the fall public schools other than the fact that the person worked here. I said in my public statement, we have I don't we don't have anything to investigate. To my knowledge, nobody has offered any information. The police haven't offered any information. um our

students, our staff have not offered any information that we would then go and investigate. Yes. So, we're never in the business of saying raise your hand if you want to report anything like that. It's just not how we or anybody else conducts business. We're not I don't I don't think we can conduct business that way. So, I will be honest and say I'm not sure.

I I don't know what else um folks at this table or out in the community would like. I know that in listening to the citizens input. I I think what's being suggested is beyond what we could do legally. Well, that's why that's why I I wanted to ask that question because like I said, I'm I'm no attorney, so I can't sit here and tell you what we can say

and and not say. I just kind of wanted to wanted you to put it out from from your standpoint on the way things look so um we can get all the cards on the table and and and also know how these things um went. But that's that's pretty much all I had. Okay. Thank you, Mr.

Por.

So, uh what I learned is this this employee was not one of our pensioned or union employees. He was uh he was hired by facilities as a troubleshooter to to look at our facilities and and help analyze problems that arose such as with HVAC or with um or with any kind of windows, doors, floor issues, plumbing issues and the like. So he had little to no interaction with our children as far as I know based

on what he was doing for us.

He was Corey checked when he was hired and he had never had any previous other record. So, how are we going to be able to read the mind of a potential criminal? Cuz I I think what he did was outrageous and awful and just god awful.

And it's it's too bad that it had to happen at this time right around July 4th when everybody's trying to relax from a very intensely busy school year.

Um he was arraigned last Wednesday.

He resigned either on Thursday or Friday. It was unknown to us when he when he when he put his resignation in.

The news broke out on Saturday. And as I said before, there's no pension ties to any of our unions in the school department. And Dery was again falsely accused of housing this gentleman when he worked throughout the district. This was not a Dery high school issue. I respect the citizens input very much. I respect parents concerns. Ultimately, I'm a parent of four children that attended Fall River public schools. And

uh so I think we have to listen to the parents, but when they don't have the facts and it sounds inflammatory to um our administration, then that brings me great concern for the greater public and the way that it can play out into the public and it doesn't play out cleanly.

It plays out in in in a very uh exaggerated gaslighting sort of manner when we're really trying to get a handle on something that we nobody saw coming.

Nobody saw this coming. This this this was a criminal and and he's never ever behaved in this manner previous to this incident. With that, I yield. Thank you to you both. I'm going to take the floor because I myself have strong opinions on this. Um, and obviously I agree this was both deeply concerning and troubling to hear this that this happened. And again, this my my stance is the school

department has a duty to protect the students, the faculty, the parents, and to be fully transparent with said students, faculty, and parents. And I think it's our job to keep our community safe.

I'm going to be straightforward.

Just to Mr. Cory's point, this individual was the Dery's facilities manager. Am I correct? Yes. Okay. So, he did work at Dery High School for most of his tenure within the building or was he throughout the district? In this current position, yes. For the last four years.

Okay. I think in his prior position through private, he worked throughout throughout the district, but for the four years, he was mainly at Derby High School. So, I think there needs to be a thorough a full and thorough investigation to see where this individual had any connections. And I think that can involve just interviewing staff that was connected with him, seeing if there was any any complaint.

But I think it really comes down just to reviewing with staff just to make sure he's never had any issues in the past or had any suspicious behavior. And I think the public deserves that. I think the community deserves that to know that we did our due diligence and that we can come out and say we looked into this. We looked at every crack and cranny there was and there was nothing there or if

there was something there, we're going to fully look into it. I think that's something I support as one member and I think that is something the mayor also said on um WPRI. He said there needs to be um an investigation to that as well.

So that's where I'm at.

again. Um I guess a few questions and concerns I have and this this isn't the only time we've heard instances about this. Um we've heard other complaints and the issue that I have and I and I've said this beforehand. I've said it strongly and I'm going to say it now.

I'm going to say it in the future. The school committee obviously cannot intervene on personnel matters. We can't hire, fire, or suspend individuals. But that doesn't mean we give away our authority to conduct oversight. And when these instances come about, I I've heard I was going to go into detail.

I've heard ve similarly dark things. Um and I and as one member, we don't need to discipline anyone, but we need to verify the administration that we oversee to make sure the right decisions were made on all levels. Um, and that's not just not saying for this specific instance, this was as a surprise, but the what other things that I hear when I hear these things that that allegedly take place, school

committee, I believe, has the right to know its disposition and to um just make sure policy was followed, which we oversee, and that state, local, and federal law was followed as well, so we don't run into any issues. Um, did you think there was an issue with local policy being followed or not on this most recent? I'm I'm speaking in in general. Um, with this specific instance, not not to my

knowledge. Um, on this specific instance that went over the weekend, I guess my question and I believe Mr. Bailey asked it and um others have asked it as well and what I hear and I also echo is um what are the the parameters and I don't know if this goes into collective bargaining when an individual resigns do we one have to accept that resignation and two um you know I'll leave it at that in general

I would say that we do not I don't think we're required to accept a resignation so so with that Being said, if um if someone resigns, I believe this individual um basically conf said that there was a situation and I have to resign and um whose decision was it made to directly to you or was it through the channels? I I don't think I'm at liberty to disclose whether or not we accepted a resignation.

I find that unfortunate. Okay. And with that being said, again, this school committee again as I just said cannot act itself. However, I believe we can verify the actions or inactions taken by our administration. And I believe with due diligence, we should do that. And that being said, and I appreciate a second, this is just a recommendation to the full committee. I'd like to make a

motion that this subcommittee recommend to the full committee the following. The school committee review all actions or inactions taken by this administration, our superintendent that relate to any allegations made by anyone of harassment bullying sexual harassments, threats, or anything other that other that constitutes criminality from an employee to student or employee to employee to ensure that the

administration is in full compliance with school committee policy in any local, state, or federal law. It's a motion. Can I ask a clarifying question?

Sure. What is it that you want? What is the word you're using? Review. Yes. At what stage? After a decision has been made. Yes. Like after investigation and correct, a decision has been made.

Correct.

So, I'll I'll second that. But, um, with and I don't know if you want to change it. Um, I think so, a few things. I think this should go to like a policy subcommittee if we're talking policy and and what that looks like and working um handtohand with the superintendent and and see what policy looks like. So, before it goes to this because if we're talking policy, they're probably going to just kick it back to

the policy subcommittee, right? Sure. I I I believe the the correct um if if we are going to do that, refer it back to policy and we've done this before as a subcommittee. We don't at this subcommittee. We review it to the full body and then we can re send it back down to policy. But I think it has to we can't cross refer it to policy. It would have to be a recommendation out of here

to the full body. But then it can go back down and we can put I can we can add that to the motion. Yeah. So this more like allegations and investigations subcommittee to work on certain policies. Right. I I guess as one member and and I know you had your hand up, Mr.

Cory, I recognize you in a second. I'm just asking questions. Um as one member, I would feel comfortable not in not being when these investigations happen, when these serious allegations are happening, just seeing what the outcome was. Um it could have been an unfounded complaint. It could have been something that was founded and just I I don't think leaving the school committee out

of it or leaving the school committee in the dark does anyone favors. And again, we have parameters and ways that we can look into this without everything being blasted public. I understand there are laws around personnel, but again, as I said, my stance as one member, I don't believe that stops the committee from looking into just making sure our administration did the right thing. And when and I've said

this before and I and like I don't think this is the first obviously you know my opinion on this. I've said this before.

I think when this came out as one member, I just really don't I don't know. I really just don't want to see this happen again. Um, I just want to be really clear though.

There's there was there is nothing to report in terms of the events of the weekend. There has been no report in the fall of the public schools and nothing for you to review, nothing to be accused in the community of sweeping it under the rug. I literally know exactly what people read in the newspaper. So, what is it that we could possibly be sweeping under the rug? Is it is it pretend my my

comments were in general to other issues that I heard? I I could go into them.

No, I will. No, I don't think you should because it would mean talking about um allegations that have been made and there are privacy issues that have to be attended to. So, that's really not something to discuss here.

Other than that, I would say that I I'd like just a general I think it's important in what if you review an investigation in a decision and you don't make the outcome. It's not just my it would be a committee. The collective you the collective me you as a committee.

That would be up to the committee. That would be a case by case basis. I couldn't make I couldn't answer that without Can I ask what you would recommend to the committee if if the committee didn't like the outcome of an investigation? That would be case by case and um it it would have to depend on the individual individual facts. Um I I wouldn't want to without reviewing something I I that would be

inappropriate for me to even make a recommendation on that. So if I can I think I think I'm let Mr. Cory speak.

So Mr. chairman. Uh I'm I'm a little bit concerned. Uh again, I'm going to use that term getting in front of the story.

I think the oversight that we're empowered with on this collaborative board is the oversight to know that our superintendent is governing the district in a very prudent manner, um an efficient manner, an honest manner. I've seen nothing, especially with our current superintendent, to lead lead me to believe otherwise. I think um it's a very honest administration. I don't believe there's any hint of trying to

cover anything up. So, as far as the term transparency is concerned, there's nothing that's not transparent so far in this particular incident that happened last week. And and I'm I'm I'm amazed that we're trying to get ahead of a story when it hasn't had a chance to even be looked at yet, especially with a person who was employed by our district long term without any prior incident. So I

don't know what happened to this gentleman along the way except that his private life is his private life and none of us have a right to interfere in that. That being said, he did what he did. It's heenous. I agree with the allegations. The allegations are heinous, but not to any respons irresponsibility on behalf of the superintendent or anybody else in our administration because nobody saw this coming. It came,

it happened, and now it needs to be investigated as I know it will be and prosecuted. I hope and and I hope that, you know, justice is served. But in the meantime, I believe that this gentleman deserves due process in the meantime without us getting in front of the story and gaslighting the issue any further just so that everybody can keep a handle on the temperament of this story. With

that, I yield. Thank you. But I can just quickly respond to that and um I I appreciate your cander and your comments and some of it I agree with. Just a few clar point clarifying remarks. one with this specific issue.

What I think should happen or what I'm pushing for and I you're right, any individual is in the criminal justice process is entitled to due process and otherwise. What I would like to see happen with this specific incident. Um, as as I just said before, we should just do a thorough review, and this is something that the mayor said himself, a thorough review, review of staff, and

just make sure this individual didn't do anything else. I think that's something we owe the public with this specific instance. What I'm referring to more in the in the greater scheme of things is I've heard similarly heinous allegations similar to this.

And as just one member, I'm going to be very vocal and and what I all I want to see is just the school committee adhere to his oversight responsibility and just verify the facts. That's it. And make its own decision as a collective body.

Mr. Bailey. So, how I'm looking at this and this this aside, this um situation aside, I'm not saying that because I don't care. I'm saying because um when I'm talking about policy and procedure, it's more of what the procedure is when the allegation is made and what that looks like. This isn't a lack of trust.

It's not a lack of anyone doing their job or anything like that. This is more for and when I say transparency, I'm not saying you're not being transparent. So, I don't want you to think it that way.

I'm saying because when something happens when I say just let the process go through and let it take its course when I'm speaking let the process go let let it go through the process and let it takes its course I know exactly what the process is so now I can explain what the process is um now as far as personnel and things of that nature no we can't get into that we all understand that um

but I I'll be honest with you I've been on this committee for four years there's been allegations made and whether I'm like hey that happened or it and someone ask me what the process is.

I can't tell them. You know what I mean?

So that's when I say create a policy or process. Hey, we're at this point in we're at this stage in the process.

Leave it alone or I can't give you information at that time. Um so that's what I'm talking about with transparency. And I'm going to say again, I'm not saying you're not being transparent. You know me well enough to know that. Um and everyone at this table does, but um when I receive messages from people and they're like, "Hey, what's going on with this?" And I can't explain it. I'm kind of stuck um as a

school committee member when people are like, "Well, aren't you on the school committee? How don't you know this is going on?" And I know we found out at the same time. That's why I opened up and asked that question. Um because there's certain things I do find out online um before I find out. Well, it's not necessarily the full story because the story hasn't unfolded, but there's things that I find out online

first. But um I do think it's important to have procedures and policies in place um so we can address these situations.

Um and regardless whatever um the mayor said or anyone else um I do think it's also important we're not going to this isn't you know a TV show we're going to be able to identify criminals and or criminal minds or something crazy. Um it happened. It is very unfortunate. Um I'm very angry about the situation to be honest because I mean I have a I have a daughter at home and I couldn't imagine.

But um with that being said, I do think it's important that we really do take a dive and and and look at ways to address these problems when they arise because what I don't like either is people asking questions and you know you're just finding out and now everyone's looking at us and looking at this administration like we did something wrong when you know this could have happened anywhere. So um with that I

yield and thank you Mr. Chair and this um and I and I agree with Mr. Bailey, I and I this in my and I think what needs to be sorted out is what the definition of personnel here is um per the way I see personnel is um or interfere or getting school committee involving themselves in personnel is hiring, firing or disciplining an individual. I believe that is different than reviewing

facts and circumstances that took place from the administration that we oversee.

um we should be able to know what has happened and know the facts so we're not here guessing. And I I think um it would actually be helpful for the administration in my opinion if um we as a school committee as a collective body were um more in line just in terms of notification of things that happened. Um I think um it's going to it will go a long way. I would say this is probably

number one or I would say top three of issues that that I have and I and I wish to pursue as a member and seeing reform and oversight. Um, and when we are talking about personnel, um, and I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, but how we we had the, for example, the mayor, he went on the radio, I mean on WHDB and said that this person had a clean record and that this

individual had um never had an incident at Dery. How would he know that? And that's personal information right there.

So I guess when he says that I question as one member, are we being selective with the information that's going out?

Yep. You asked that via email as well and I'll give you the same answer. I informed the committee. I I offered all of the information that I had. I'm not sure what else to say. No, I'm not saying it was you, superintendent. I It may be he found out from another individual. That's not on you. But again, we need to be consistent um through from from you on on down.

Everyone needs to be consistent with that. So it shouldn't just be so I don't know if you need to speak with your team, but information shouldn't on this individual shouldn't be selectively given to certain members, but that's not I'm not blaming you. I understand that Mr. Cor. So So Mr. died.

So as as far as the questioning is concerned, are you inferring that somebody was trying to, you know, cover something up along the way in in as far as this incident or his past history is concerned? cuz I've heard that his history was also a very clean record because he's been employed by the district for quite a number of years without incident and actually was such a highly skilled worker that he was he was

really highly regarded uh throughout especially facilities uh because of his innate knowledge on how to fix things.

and he was one of these uncanny guys that could like help fix almost anything that went wrong as far as our facilities were concerned, especially Darthy High School. So, nobody saw this coming. And I'm just curious as to why you couldn't receive the mayor's remarks with a little bit more, you know, like, okay, I believe in the mayor. I believe in the mayor. I I believe I believe that what

the mayor said on the news was correct, you know, and I'm not trying to make it easy on the mayor or anybody else, but I do have faith that they're giving us the right news until otherwise found out with a deeper investigation. And right now, that investigation has not taken place. But we're getting ahead of the story again. We're getting ahead of the story. If I can just clarify, this is

not just about this one individual. my my remarks in general. I again, as I said earlier, I I've heard too many instances that um as one member, I just it it just gets that the fact that we we don't know if these things took place or not. And the fact that the committee's out of the know on certain things that are heinous, equally as heinous to to this is if I

will say I've been in education for I don't know 28 years. This is literally the worst thing. So if you are if you know about and it's the worst thing and I and it didn't even happen in our schools right that we know of and it's still very jarring obviously to our school community even though there have been no accusations no allegations of anything happening with any fallover public school students. I still put this

up there like the worst thing. No. So if you know of things that are equally heinous that are happening in the fall of our public schools, I would expect that you would tell me and you'd be on on on the line with the police if there are equally heinous things happening in our schools. Superintendent, I submitted a public records. I I'll tell you what.

So apparently from information I received the vice chair brought to this administration a complaint that a student an I'm going to stop you because I know what you're going to say. You received the investigative report on that. So you I did not you did not receive anything.

Okay.

You received No, you did. I believe you received information from our attorney in response to the public records request. I just the only thing I'm going to say is I'll I'll say nothing about this because this discussion item is around parental and community notification, not about what gets reported to the school committee. So, if we are not going to stick to this, I'm not going to participate in the

conversation. Okay. Can I just respond to what you just said? I would I'm I'm withdrawing any kind of question or comment that I made. Thank you. Well, you don't have to respond, superintendent, but if I can just clarify your remarks, what happens? I I did request information. and I had to go through as a school committee member an official public records request to get the information I was just referring to

and I believe the committee and the district hired an outside attorney to respond. I have not received any report yet. Um I have received a response um was from Mr. Cabraw, but I'm assuming that was drafted by the attorney. Am I am I correct? Yes. Okay. And um I believe they need up to 25 business days and they're going to apply so many different redactions to the report. I haven't received a thing yet. Um and

it's unfortunate I even had to go through that as a member. That's something I believe the school committee should be notified on the disposition of. But you understand that is not our like we need to make sure so that we're not all held responsible that we distribute information in accordance with the law.

And if we work with an attorney and they help us determine what kind of information can be shared with you or any member of the committee, I'm not in a position to say, "I'm sorry, attorney.

I disagree with you and I'd like to give Mr.

the keys to the kingdom. You requested information on an investigation that took place a couple of years ago. You did get a response. You're waiting for what you're assuming is going to be a heavily redacted um version of that investigation that I mean we're trying to comply with privacy laws, not anything else. Now, that goes through the attorney, not you, right? Uh we don't do any of that. The our attorney

does it. Our district pays the attorney Michael to do things correctly and that and that's what it people are waiting that's what you are waiting on right now. If imagine if you or anybody else had full access to any investigation. Many investigations people are accused and it's a false allegation or we can't substantiate the allegation. That should not be public knowledge. There's a difference between

public knowledge and providing school committee with an update. Um I'll say this whenever I've received confidential information. I have never in executive session I have never ever ever leaked it. I don't think that could be said throughout the board. Um however I don't know if that was an insinuation that I would leak something that that's just Nope. It's not an insinuation. So please

don't plant that seed that I'm trying to insinuate that you would offer confidential information. That is not what I said. I'm we're trying to comply with privacy laws here and I actually respect you as a person who is very attentive to the law and somehow when we're trying to be attentive to the law, it's put out there as something negative. I I don't understand that piece. It this doesn't have anything to

do with parental and community notification. So, you can say whatever else you're going to say. I will not respond.

Um, I'm not sure how this is a a a parent and community engagement subcommittee meeting. I I don't understand how this is the topic that we're in right now. I just don't.

Superintendent, when there is an allegation that's made, we should inform the the community and parents whether so every time there's an accusation made in our in any of our schools, what what should the notification looks like? look like that goes out to parents. It depends. It dep So, so if someone makes an allegation that they were assaulted by a teacher, I send out a parent square message that

says a student at the fill-in- thelank school alleges that they were assaulted by their teacher. That should go out.

No. No. But after an investigation, I don't see any reason why you can't say there was an allegation made against this teacher. It was a teacher name. You don't have to mention the teacher's name. But that should go out via parent square to every parent in the community.

But to that point, holy moly. But to that point, to that point, so there is a rumor that is going around saying um that this individual did this, this, and that, that's not fair for that teacher as well if it's unfounded as well. So there should be that's where the transparency comes in. Okay. Um Mr. Corey, Mr. Das, I respect your respect for the law and for state regulations.

When it comes to the school department in whole, nothing's ever really perfect. During my career, there were incidences that happened and they were handled accordingly. They rose to the level of school committee scrutiny. But what you're trying to say now, what she tried to defend so staunchly was the inference that we're hiding something and we're not hiding anything. There's no lack of transparency here. There's

the the the inference is that it's on us and that it shouldn't it should be, you know, we should tell the public immediately it's impossible. It's the way that the superintendent just described it was thoroughly professional. I'm going to leave it at that. I don't know what you're going to do with that, but I'll take I'll take your remarks out of you. Just very very quickly again, when I hear from parents

um heinous stories and accusations against their children or accusations of harassment or abuse either against employees or students and I don't know as one member anything about it. I don't know how I can help them. And so that's where my I guess say lack of trust comes in. But to keep it to to the superintendent's point, to keep it to the to the point, I'll withdraw that motion. And taking what Mr. Bailey said

about policy subcommittee, I'll make a new motion that states recommending to the whole body that the policy subcommittee review the policies around um parental notification in regards to um any allegations made of any harassment.

bullying, sexual harassment, threats, or anything that constitutes criminality from employee to student or employee to employee to assure employee to employee. I'll end it at that. I'll second that with a statement.

And the statement is no, we should not report every single allegation that that happens. I can tell you I've worked in the school for a long time. There's allegations that happen are completely untrue. You're ruining someone's career um if we put that out. But also, um, if it's untrue, um, I mean, if it's untrue, it's it's just untrue, right? So, when you're looking at it across the board,

without the superintendent saying anything, there's probably allegations that consistently happen um, around the school. I can tell you, uh, my short time being on this board, I've had people come up and tell me allegations that have happened and then two weeks later they're like, "Oh, sorry. It wasn't true." Um, if we were to take every single allegation and put it public, we wouldn't have anyone working

in this district. Um, my thing is is we do need a policy and procedure in place just like sexual harassment. It would be no different um on what what it looks like, what the flow looks like when something happens, how to and that's not just for this administration. This is also for teachers. Um, I can tell you I've dealt with situations where teachers don't know what to do when an allegation is made against them. So,

this is also to protect the district.

And the transparency piece comes in is where we can be transparent with people and people can be transparent with us as well. This isn't a knock on the administration. For me, I think personally, and I don't care what anyone thinks. I think the administration is doing the best that they can. I think I don't think anyone comes wakes up in the morning and says, "How can I get over on

people and scam people and and and hide information?" I don't think that's the case. What I do think the case is is we have some holes and and we need to fill some of the holes that we have. And this is why I'm seconding that motion because I do think we need procedures in place because for me, I'll tell you right now, there's certain sometimes I'm confused on how the policy how the procedures

work and how the policy works. I can tell you from a sexual harassment standpoint, if if if an allegation is made, it elevates to here. This is what happens. But in scenarios like this, I think it's a little bit different. Um so that's why I second it. Um with that, I I agree with you, Mr. And I just want to clarify my remarks a little bit. And um and to the point is no, not every single

allegation that's made substantiated or not, should should go out there.

Definitely not. um if there is something that is credible, if there was um some sort of violence or um something like that and and it's substantiated that I do think something should go out. I don't know if that happens right now. So that's why I'm also that's why I made the motion and um so I'll leave it at at there. And um and also around and I also believe that an investigation also protects the the

person that's being accused to make sure there's nothing around that. And if someone is falsely accused, they should have their right to to due process and to be exonerated. And that's also where my comments come in as well. Um with that being said, we definitely need to review the policies around this.

Again, I believe in any setting the school committee should be notified when certain things happen so we're not blindsided. I stand by that, but we that could be a policy that could be a full committee discussion. So, I'll leave it at that. I thank you for seconding that motion and um I yield if Mr. Cory you have any I just want to make a final remark. I I respect the comments that my

colleague to the right just made. uh referring it to policy is probably the best way and um and and then we can deliberate it at that point and and try to get the right language, you know, written up so that, you know, we can address this in a more proper way in and for future incidents is because very concerned about the PR surrounding an incident like this and how it colors an entire department, but especially, you

know, the way that we handle issues like this. So, I like the fact we'll refer it to policy, we'll clarify it. That's that's a collaborative process. That's being collaborative. That's deliberating it and trying to get the right words in place. So, thank you. I yield. Okay.

Take a roll call on that. Mr. Bailey.

Yes. Mr. D. Yes. Mr. Cor. Yes. Okay. Um, we'll now go to 3-2. And, um, just want to thank everyone for being patient. We are going to get through these items.

cuz I think that was probably the most contentious out of the items today. And um not sure. Oh, we had um I believe Mr.

Ferry left. Um so just for just so it's clear um I this subcommittee invited all the local media WS hero news um far community media far reporter um spindle city straight talk um I think there there was one more all the local media organization that I could possibly think of um to this event and this was really to discuss how we interact with the media. I had um I did talk to the

superintendent about this about a week ago and um as one member and I think it'll be really beneficial to um have weekly news press releases how we get some some like our Friday updates some of it full like with the good events that happen throughout the community and some news maybe some grants that something similar and non um confidential can go to the media. We can just make a little media list. Um I

don't know. pretend you have a comment or some you support that.

Yes. Yes. I I think we could do that. We do all of the um things not the grants but all of the stories that we share I share with school committee at the weeks at week's end are it's just a list that's compiled from everything we've pushed out through our own Facebook page over the course of the week. So all of that information is available to anyone either, you know, just the average

citizen or any of the local news outlets. So anybody who wants to pick up any of those stories locally is welcome to. We've had um you know, Providence News, Boston News pick up stories um from our feed and then they reach out to us and they they'd like more information. They come in, they do some, you know, video, they do some interviews. And so we would welcome that. Um even outside of anything that

we push out, any of those um media outlets are welcome to take, you know, a look at our page and then reach out to us with any um additional information that they're seeking. And um real real quickly, do we have um like a media list um like a list of like all media contacts when we send like information out to like if we send something out to the media, do we have a specific list of

we so we push things out? No. I would say that generally no. I think there's a kind of short list um when we're doing school closures and things like that that just has carried over over time.

Um, I know that when we did the release this uh weekend on, you know, on Saturday, I was asked, you know, I asked, "Who will you send this to?"

Because we worked with a a media relations um company to do that.

Uh he referenced, you know, people that we send out, again, like Providence, Boston that we might send out to. Uh and I just requested that we send it to the Herald News. um Fall River Reporter and WSR. I did not list everyone that was on the five or six that you did. I requested that we send them to those local media outlets. Mr. Bailey, so um and you know, I always have this

conversation with you. I'm a PR major.

Um and this makes me think about my time working in pro sports where um we have a list of um a list of media outlets. Um, but who's like who would you say two-part question, who would you say would be like a beat writer for like education in the city? Someone who's um you can trust and hey, I got to get this information out. They're going to get out to the public. For one, and for two,

there's an issue in the city, and I've said this for a while. This isn't just the schools where we don't have one hub where everyone goes for information unless it's negative and then everyone wants to share it because negativity spreads a lot faster than putting something positive out. Um, I think looking at these across the board, it's no disrespect and I'm not putting one media over the other, but I do think we

need someone who we can go to. They share the information because essentially we are getting something for free. If the Hero News was our direct source, we send it to Hero News. Herald News sends it out. um or um even us having someone who works PR inside who who's a source and I bring up sports because people could connect with it much uh easily but literally they leak it out to one person then they they put

it out unfortunately you have news media outlets that are here that are like well they're holding information for me and I'm not getting the information and then that starts but the reality is is we need to be um I think we just need to be consistent but I think some of our news media outlets need to be consistent as well because the issue is is we when we post something positive, you know, it's

it gets three shares. Something like the last situation happens comes up, there's 575 shares and everyone wants to talk about what we're doing negative and and not positive. So, I think it's twofold, but I I 100% do think from a PR standpoint, we need to start getting ahead. And this isn't just the schools, it's citywide. I've had conversations with the mayor. I've had conversations

with the police department and everyone because if not, we're letting people write our own narrative, right? And there's a big issue with that. So, I also think it's something that collectively I don't know if we set up a meeting and we can do it as a committee and set up a meeting with the news outlets that clearly they're not here.

So, what's that telling you as far as taking your job serious, right? That's how I look at it. And they'll probably kill me for it. And here's the reality.

I don't care. Um, but I I think if if you're going to be that intentional to try to get information and when people invite you to the table and you don't show up, that's really telling. Um, with that, I yield. Yeah. To um, Mr. Gargo, I'm going to take you back 30 years. I'm going to give you a little brief story.

Uh we were doing so much work on campus at Dery uh promoting uh cultural diversity and we had week-long workshops with commu community speakers, guest speakers coming to the school promoting peace, love and understanding and having intellectual discussions through uh all of we would have all of the English classes attend because that was the one steady course everybody everybody had to

take. So at that week, everybody's English classes were filled with these diversity and culturally enriched workshops. And we did that. Uh the faculty pitched in, um community guests pitched in, administration pitched in, and we're promoting all of this goodness, right? We have very little press in regard, but once there was a BB gun incident somewhere in the city, it made front page news headlines and we

were scratching our heads. Why do these kind of incidences get, you know, the news in the newspaper when so much of the positive work we're doing on the ground isn't getting picked up in the media? Why is that? That's a problem with the media. I think I think I think it's yellow journalism. Call it what you want to, you know, but um I listen to the superintendent's show um on S on

Fridays at 2 p.m. and it's um positive views, you know, and it's like all the good stuff that's going on inside our school district that she reports out on every week. I've listened to several shows. The last show was about the plethora of summer programs going on throughout the summer on the campus at the high school because it can house all from everybody from the little kids to the big kids.

And um it's like I'm going to refer to one other story. This past year uh Dery's marching band became the national champions. It received little to no press, but yet some kid gets, you know, screwed up downtown somewhere and it's front page news. So, that's the kind of thing that maybe we could create a little bit of movement with our news media allies in this area and try to get them a little bit more interested in

some of the positive things that are being cut out. I mean, if you were to talk, okay, to uh to the people at the Pace Center, she could tell you that there's a million good things happening and and they're working with a very, you know, very intense population. Yeah, we're going to get But but they get but they they're they're developing healthy protocols all along the way, but that

stuff never gets picked up anywhere.

That's what I'm trying to yield. No, thank thank you, Mr. Corey. Um, two points that both my colleagues brought up. one on the PR piece. How much do we pay John Gilfo again? I know you gave the contractors, but I forgot the the number and um have to check. That's Yeah, that's fine. The point I'm going to bring up if it's um I don't know, it's not 30. It's I think it's in the

20s. It's 20 something,000. Yeah, maybe like 2,000 a month or something. The point the point I was going to bring up um is maybe to Mr. Bailey's point, we can hire a in-house part-time PR specialist or communication specialist.

So again, save money and have someone in house that you or whoever directly oversees, they're in the district and they can again get the information out.

We do have that person that is the person who is in charge of our social media. So that is the person who goes out to all of our school events and posts, you know, she's the person who supplies all of the information that I share with the committee each week of everything positive that's happening.

press releases as well. And yeah, they do. Yeah, I mean she Yes. So, if I can real quick, um I think this this should be a collaborative approach along with the city. Um the reason why I say that is because um we don't have if we looked across this table and I asked everyone what's the one hub in the city that you know you can go to for information for whether an event's going on any

anything. and I went across this table, no one no one would even say the same thing and no one knows, right? Um and 90% of the time it is the fall of a reporter whether good, bad or indifferent. They do a great job getting stories out, but we don't have anywhere where we can go and receive information.

And and I've said this since I've came back and moved back to the city. There's information over here. Someone's doing something great. There's information over here. Someone's doing something great. and they're doing the exact same thing on the exact same time at the exact and on the same day and it's hard to keep up with. So although we have someone I I do think this is something maybe even talking to the school

committee about because this is important no matter how people look at it. This is important. Um getting information out there is important.

Informing parents on what's going on is important. We continuously talk about the the partnership between the communities and the school, but there's there's no communication and we can't rely on just the schools to do the work and we can't rely on just the city. The partnership has to happen. So whether we have someone in place or not, they can only go so far if we're not working with

the community. Um this is why I think this committee is important. This is why even when this committee was developed, I was excited to be on this committee because I felt that's the type of work I wanted to do and it's been little to no movement. Um, not saying we're not getting anything done, but there's been little to no movement because everyone's working and trying to get things done.

And on top of that, you're trying to do the PRP piece yourself or we hire someone who, you know, they can they can reach our parents, but it's tough to connect with the community. And that's not a fault of the schools, that's not a fault of the cities, but we do need to combine efforts. Yeah. No, Mr. B, I agree with you. That's why I was also in part to your point, it was trying to

advocate to the administration that we should have a centralized list that we send information out and um and whoever the um PR specialist is and I see the post. They do a great job with that. I didn't want me asking that. I wasn't trying to knock them anyway. I just want that they're watching. I just want to make sure they know that. Um and to your point also, Mr. Bailey, at the next

meeting, um because this would be a great avenue as well and um we can definitely expand. And I know we've had conversations about um reviewing the um the what the list of the the duties of the subcommittee. So um we could definitely have that conversation at the next meeting, see how we can tweak this this subcommittee up a little bit. Um last question I'm going to ask um last two two questions. One,

so for the Herald News, and I have nothing against the Heron News. I like the Heron News a lot. Great um staff there. Um I believe they're the only individuals that we send our um our when we have our public hearings where we only send it to the newspaper I believe. Um we only send it to them and um radio and paper. Yeah. And too who else is table media different. Yeah. And so to that

point, I think we could should expand that list. Um, and thank you for bringing that up. We should definitely expand that list at least the follow reporter. Um, because as Mr. Bailey said, they get do get stories out there and we have these public hearings like our public hearing on our budget and no one shows up and I and I find that sad as one member and I think we could

definitely do a lot more at advertising our public hearings. Um, last comment I'm going to mention. I know um and it's Mr. Cory brought up the um WS show is would you ever also expand that? I don't know what their viewership is anymore. I don't know if they still have all the like they have a high viewership if we're looking to have a show and get um a lot of um pay and what's I guess let

me ask this. What is the point of the show? And I'm I'm not against the show.

It started before I was the superintendent and the idea was to promote positive things happening. So it's called good news and positive use from the Fall River public schools.

Should should we also look for either another venue? I think we should also compare if we're looking to engage with the community and engage with the media.

um we should get the best bang for our buck and make sure we're if we're looking to spread that message, which we should absolutely should be. If we're doing it with organizations that um we're getting the most response responsiveness for that, I think we should just at least review the viewership and compare that to other news sites and organizations maybe if we went went elsewhere. I think it's just a

conversation to be had just making sure we're getting the best viewership and reaching out to the most people we can or an additional show as well, but obviously we don't want you being on five different shows.

But if I can I I think I think it's important. Um, Superintendent Curley, I'll tell you straightforward, I've never heard the show. Um, would I be interested in the show? Absolutely. Um, and and I don't know if this is what Colin is trying to I'm not trying to take words out of his mouth. Um I'm not telling you to move the show or anything like that, but if we can get I wasn't either. I know. I

know. I'm I'm just saying for me. Um but I think if we can get and even if I mean I would before I don't know if anyone else would be, but even if we could get some type of production behind it, I do think these things are important. Um if you did the show on radio and I can't watch it, I would love to go back and just watch it on YouTube. And the reason

why I say that is because whether people think it or they don't, I think you bring a lot of importance to the city. I think you bring a lot of importance to education obviously. Um, but I also think there's a lot of positive things that go on where obviously we get the Friday emails and we get updates, but it's also good to actually hear from you sometimes, right? Um, and I think some

of the message that you that you would say and that you would share would resonate with a lot of people in the community, but it would also empower some of the teachers and education educators that we have here because if you're doing it at Friday at 2:00 on a Friday, they're still at work. Sure. Um, so, um, and like I said, I've been extremely vocal and I don't know if

you're camera shy, so I'm not trying to put you out there for that, but if you could if we could find out a way and I would if if they were like, "Hey, it costs X amount of dollars to to to get equipment and and or have the team come down." Once again, I'll say people are going to kill me for it, but it's needed. I don't I don't care. I think

it's needed. I think what you have to say is important. I also think it alleviates some of the things that people say when certain things happen.

And I think it alleviates some of that because people know you as a person now instead of hey email went out and this person went out and and I think I think we've reached a time where people don't connect with personality they just connect with words behind pages and and I think it it it'll get us a little bit away from that. A quick comment then I'll turn over to Mr. Corey just um just

to respond. Yeah, that was pretty much what um I was saying um some of and just to maybe even one we do have like the in in-house team as well. We can, we were just talking about live streaming on Facebook. Um, so even live streaming on social media the um events as well, but if we're sticking with WS, I know they have um Facebook live as well. So, and people can go back and watch the

meetings. So, I think we should um I'm assuming there's an extra fee or something, but that's something we should inquire about. So, just having the opportunity for people can easily go and access. I'm sure they save the videos and they post them to some on demand page. But um if we this making it easier. So I think maybe just inquiring about the Facebook live function. Is that something we can do? When we do

live shows sometimes we have to tape them because we have guests that aren't available at 2 o'clock on Friday. So when we do the live shows they are live streamed. Not on Facebook though. Oh yeah. I don't know how they are done.

Okay. So, um, and we have talked about doing something here where we actually produce the show at Dery in the studio and share the audio. There's that opportunity as well because then there would be an opportunity to do some kind of video um, feed. Yeah. Yeah. Just to Mr. Mr. Bailey's point, just looking for ways that we can um, just get more viewership and people can go back and

watch Mr. Corey. Thank so Thank you. uh Miss Bailey's PR expert and when we talk about being a collaborative board, we can all learn from one another, right?

And and sharing from or using his expertise in that matter and and and exactly what we had. You just stole the words out of my mouth, Madam Superintendent, when I'm you say that you do the shows at Dery at Florida River Educational Television, Fred TV, right? No, I think that's pretty cool, actually. Uh so you do your show. So, I'm not asking you to do anything extra, but let's let's connect the feeds. Let's

get it on Fred TV. Let them run it a few times throughout the week at different times so everybody has a chance to see it. And it it'd be on YouTube, too, because they're on YouTube as well. They got their own YouTube thing. And uh then people can hear it at 2:00 on like they do normally on the radio because it's a great show. And I have to say that you come across really, really well. you

come across casually, you know, intelligently, you know, very comfortably on the air. So, I'm all for something like that. I think it'd be great for us. Yeah. Just going to end it on this. Um, think I think this is a conversation that should be had with the full full committee as well because we have contracts around PR firms. So, I like to make a motion that we refer to the full committee a discussion on the

district's public relations plan.

Second.

take a roll call on that unless there's comment on the motion.

Um, seeing none, we'll take a roll call.

Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Dar? Yes. Mr. Cor?

Yep. Okay. Moving on to um 3-3. Miss Obchain, were you here for um five or six by any chance or are we here? No, I'm just here. Oh, you're just here.

Okay. So um for sake we're going to do three and I believe everyone here is for the remaining people are here for three and four um when we after three and four we'll um we'll most likely table five and six. So um 3-3 is a presentation by the pace center. I know um and thank you for patiently waiting miss Kudo and I know um you wanted you were wanted to give

this the last time so I'm happy you were to come back and give the presentation.

Um, so I I printed it visually just so that you had it. Um, so I I looked at what our workflow just to kind of put things in perspective uh of what it looks like at pace. Um, and I ran numbers from July of last summer until today. Um, and since then we've had 8,741 families come through PACE.

um 2540 were new registrations compared to um SY 2324 were up by 37. So it's pretty even. Um 1146 of those new students that registered came from outside the US. So I thought that was pretty staggering. um when we look at those numbers and what you know what our schools are looking like and how the demographic has changed over the last couple of years. Um SY 2324 we had 1,236 so it's it's about the same.

Um some of the supports that we offer at PACE um include referrals to community partners, mass health applications, uh SNAP applications, vaccine clinic, housing application supports. We set up students with doctor's appointments, uh support basic needs to start school.

So students who are McKinno um that require you know from uniforms to school supplies, shoes, hygiene products, those kinds of things. Uh we offer translation supports not only to families coming in. Um all of my registration clerks speak other languages so they are very much um able to support pretty much any language that we have um coming in. if if one of our staff can't, we have several different

types of devices um to support that work. Can I ask you one quick question on translation? Um what because this has been a little bit of a topic with the committee. What translation services do you do you use? Um trying to think of the one we lion bridge. Yes, I believe we we sent a report on what that looks like. So we absolutely need lime bridge because if you seen in that report it

did show like all the languages that we off that you know throughout the schools that we use that we don't have the capacity for. So at any given moment and I'll go a little bit into I didn't mean to throw you off. Um but we've done a very deep dive into Lionbridge to make sure that we're getting the best bang for our buck. We've compared it to other districts in in um Massachusetts. Um and

we looked at different agencies that are used for the same kind of services. Um and I can get a little bit more into that in a couple slides down. Can I just um comment question um when we talk about um Linebridge is um is that a translation service is someone on the other side or is that a SNAP? So, it's it's actually something that we we call So, you call into Lionbridge and then

they put somebody on on the phone that can translate. Okay. Um conversation. The reason why I say that, I know there's a shortage of um and this isn't just forward district, there's a shortage of um translators across the across this the the country. Um I I do like, and this is just me speaking by myself, I do like the translation services and with someone on the other line. um although everyone will

understand it, I do think when someone's on the other line, there's not just language barriers, it's also cultural differences that um that I think we don't take into consideration. Um you know, there's when we talk about language and cultural differences, there's certain ways that someone on the other line could talk to a parent that someone else wouldn't necessarily be able to talk to that parent um outside

of not just translating that. Um, and I think the second question would be um, are you noticing a difference in um, student outcomes when it comes to these translation services of certain um, kids? And you don't have to answer that right now. Um, it's just something I I would love to see. And this has nothing to do with me trying to take the services away or not. It's it all all

goes back to me um, as someone who works in the education system on what that looks like moving forward. Um I like I said I do know there's a shortage but I just always wonder what that looks like and is it affecting um the student outcomes and is it moving the needle? So as I've been writing grants um I have been um writing in um requesting um support around that. So that um I

actually am in the process of training all of our community resource uh facilitators that speak another language in um you know a translation course. um that was identified by Desi as one of the ones that they recommended that um so absolutely we are committed to really building up the staff that we have but also as we hire new staff really looking um to hire staff with the language

capacity and the cultural background of our our families. Absolutely. It's not easy. Um, you know, we actually just hired uh a clerk about a month ago who's Haitian Creole and she's amazing. I've sent her out to schools. So, as we do different screenings in schools, we've used her to speak with the students. So, we had somebody there dur spent the entire day there during those screenings

to support those students. So, we're not using translation devices or services. We are using humans anytime we can. Um so last last thing not to cut you off. Do we highlight that? Um let me go back to what we were just saying. Do we highlight that when we onboard certain staff? Like we highlighted like Julie was hired today.

She speaks Haitian Creole. She does AB and C. She's a new to the district. Um do we do those type of things? So I started um Yes. So I we started a translation department at um coming out of PACE this year. This is new. Uh we currently have two community facilitators that that's all they do. Um and then she'll be our third. But we created a um request service through our

incident IQ just as you would request um you know tech support. you would the whole, you know, the whole district has access to this um where they can just go in and create a ticket and that person would be going out to the school um in whatever they need translated or um you know if there's a document that needs to be translated for families, all of that.

Quick question on that. Um and I I haven't I asked the administration but I haven't asked you directly. Do we try do we utilize or have looked into like AI services? So, like I maybe that's just me, but yeah, I know they're um up and coming and there's a lot of different like there's different headphones that translate for you. There's different apps that that translate, but I know

there's a lot to go through. We do use Google Translate. We have uh Magic School that also does some translations.

Um so, we can I initially use those, but then when you read it culturally, some words are wrong. So, you really need a native speaker to do that work. It's completely different. Um, you know, I'm I'm Portuguese was my first language.

It's very different. I'm from the islands. Um, when I speak to a Brazilian Portuguese person, there's different words. It's it's really different dialect cultural barriers. You need those cultural, you know, certain words that I might use, you know, on in the island, you cannot use, you know, it's very offensive. So, I will not vote against Lionbridge again on my word.

Uh, and just know that we are very much like committed to making sure we have the best bang for our buck and getting these services because that's super important and a human is always the best um option. So, as we have we build our staff, we are training them to do this work so that we're providing, you know, the best possible outcome for families and students.

Um, couple other things that we do, registration on the go, and I'll get a little bit more into that. Mckin Vento support, which uh also includes transportation for our homeless um students. Um, we do have these welcome packets that we do, and I just brought one just sort of an option when new families come into our district. um you know, we have pretty much, you know, flyers or whatever from any support

service that we have. Um and I'll just pass that around so that families really feel connected to our to our city and our schools. Um so we do that with families coming in.

Uh we also do work permits at Pace for students that are at Jery. They can get them there. They don't need to come to PACE. Um but we do have it uh available you know during the summer after school hours for every student. Um some of the things that we are also doing and I think that was in one of your um agenda items that I noticed um is really going

out into the community. Um and that's been a task that you know we started a couple of years ago but have really built upon that doing registrations on the go. So, any community event that we can possibly set up a table um and I have staff available, I send them out and we're there to not only do uh registrations but also, you know, um troubleshoot or support families in any

way that we can. Um you know, we we did do our annual holiday fundraiser this year again where we were able to support students uh for the holidays. Um, we run bingo for books at our elementary schools where it's really, you know, families come in, they get, you know, dinner served and we play bingo and every child gets books and they walk out with books. Um, and then we tra we launched our

translation district team. So, currently we have two staff members. So, uh, we took two community facilitators, uh, one Portuguese, one Spanish, but like I said, I have a clerk now that speaks Haitian creole, so we are now, um, able to support in that in that um, language capacity as well. And that's really um, you know, been exciting for me. And just, you know, being able to support

our schools in any way that we can um, you know, meetings to translating you know permission slips and anything you know in between.

So our family academy I know we talked about you know live streaming our family academy happens once a month it is live streamed it is also translated in three languages in real time. So what we do is whatever the presentation um is, the presenter will send us a copy of their presentation ahead of time. Um three three of my staff will translate it into Portuguese, Spanish, and Haitian Creole.

And we have these translation devices where each of those translators uh talk into a transmitter and the families who are there um are listening in receivers.

So they're listening to the presentation in real time in their native language.

Um that's also live streamed but posted on YouTube. So if families miss it and they watch it on YouTube, they can put close captioning in their own native language. So that's um something that we've built, you know, in the last couple years. Kind of just um added some flyers of our academy just kind of showing some of our topics.

um adult ESL classes. So, we started this last year and uh we continue to offer that through grants, completely funded through grants. Um this year, I believe that we've enrolled almost 300 family uh parents and caregivers in this. And this is really about um teaching these families English so that they're able to communicate with their school personnel, you know, go into the community and do what they need

to do um for their child um in doing this too. One of our goals has been to potentially get some staffing out of them. So we have hired um quite a few staff from these classes who now work for us and they're becoming you know um this connection of you know having you know students coming into school and really seeing themselves and our staff that's you know um extremely important

to us and that's something that you know has started and we hope to grow that Mr.

P. Oh, sorry. Did I read continue if you weren't done? Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So, vaccine clinic um to date we've we've partnered with um EMS and they are providing a vaccine clinic on Thursdays at PACE. Uh to date they have um given served over 1,200 students and administered over,200 vaccines.

A next hope is that we are able to grow the vaccine clinic into potentially more health services for for students. That's my goal for this coming year. Um we have the stop and shop pantry. So uh we are able to provide groceries for approximately 140 to 160 families per um month. And these families are identified by school adjustment counselors and community facilitators.

Um, and these groceries are delivered.

Do you purchase the groceries or do you get them donated? Stop and shop. Oh, you go for Yeah. So, it's a it's a partnership with Stop and Shop. They provide the groceries and then we have um our staff identify families and then their staff that deliver the groceries to families. Yes.

Um, I did do a slide on some of the work that the community facilitators do throughout our schools. So, I meet with all of our community facilitators monthly so that we can review any new services in the community, educate them on services that the community offers.

Sometimes we bring in community partners to just talk about, you know, different things that they're offering um for families that they have available so that they're always up to date with everything that um you know families may need. This is also the opportunity where they come back and share with us services that u service gaps that might be in the community. So then we can work

um you know with the community partners to create those services. Um so that's how we sort of also identify what the topics of our ummies might be.

So if there's you know a hot topic in the community where we're able to educate families on that. Just curious what are some hot topics that come up?

Well like uh digital literacy. Um I know in January we had the immigration uh rights um um academy. So we brought in Mera to support families and just um you know educate them on the laws. Sure. Uh so that was that came directly from that um family orientation forum. So beside our welcome packets, we connect families with the schools and schools will then as a new family come in, they

will meet with the family and the community facilitator and this the team that's going to be supporting that student so that that family knows right away who to contact if they have any kind of need. Um they also sort of do like a secondary assessment of potentially any services that the family may need so that we can connect them with those services um just in case we missed it at pace.

Um community calendar. So this was something that we created in 2023 but we continue to um monitor that and update that as we get any um event that comes our way. So, any community member that is um having an event, they can just email us and we'll put that up on our community calendar. So, our families can go at any given time on that community calendar on our website and see what's happening for us.

Um Pace on the Go RV. So, that's exciting. That's going to be complete.

It's fixed up. It's fixed up. Good.

Yeah. So we it's getting wrapped right now. It should be ready within a week to two tops. Um the hope is that or the plan is that we will offer our registration services on the go um throughout the community at events but also at schools. We're hoping to really build that as we go. Um, I really want to get um more of a partnership to provide more health services for for students because that's

a that's a need that we're really, you know, struggling with at PACE when we're registering students. Um, you know, a lot of students are coming in with missing vaccines, not having, you know, physicals and really needing those services. So, if we can build those in into the RV, um you know, that would that would be a huge win for our community. So, that's um I think, you know, where I'm at as far as you know,

my big goal for this coming next few months to build that into um you know, a pace. And then that I just sent I'll put in a picture of what the case on the go band will look like. That's the actual wrap that uh we went with.

Um, and that's it. Any questions? I know. Yeah, Mr. M. Cory has hand up first.

Uh, Miss Kudos. So, um, a lot of kudos to you, no pun implied. Uh but um I'm I'm recalling the days um in my first term on the school board when we were talking about how could we reach out, you know, to kids who lived far away and and we we did we did an outreach thing at Sunset Hill. You remember that night that we went there? We we brought pizzas. We brought counselors with us to

distribute report cards and and the like just to try to engage more parents and and try to get kids on the go. So for me to remember that night and how humble that was and it wasn't much of a success cuz we put a big word out but very few people responded to that event and now I see what you're doing now. And then I heard you use the word connection many

times in your descriptions here. I'm really proud uh that the Pace Center uh parent engagement center has really, you know, stuck its neck out to reach out to those in our community that need all of these additional services and we're doing it. Um as far as your community uh facilitators are concerned, especially the ones that speak uh different languages, what's the retention rate on on on that pos? Are

they sticking around or um can we rely on them for you know at least five or six years or so of their service? Yeah, I mean we've we've maintained at least more than half of them. Good. um you know uh they are so critical to our community and our schools and you know um so yeah I mean most of them love the position um you know and and want to stay. That's awesome. Um

and is there going to be a nurse on the RV once you get that thing going so that they can do the clinical thing or you the hygiene thing or whatever? Um, so the hope is that we will, you know, continue to partner with EMS and, um, you know, I don't want to just say it, but like I really hope that potentially we are going to have somebody there, um,

you know, that's going to be able to provide, you know, even well checks and and you know, those kinds of things.

Point of clarification, it's a little premature because it, you know, but just in the talk, just to Mr. Cory's point, um, you have a nurse in that you oversee, correct? Yeah. So, I mean that's Yep. So, we do have a nurse that that um you know monitors all of the medical stuff that comes through um for registration and um she actually works very close with EMS in the vaccine clinic. So, she's she's the one who's

really um taken that on. So, uh we hope to grow that and she's you know a key piece in that in growing that.

I've had the opportunity to work with you on a couple of cases a few years ago. I see the hard work that's going on inside the parent engagement center and I'm really proud to see its growth and development to this stage right now.

It's still a work in progress, but I I think you've brought it a real long way.

This was an awesome report and thank you. I yield, Mr. Bailey. Um I think your report was just okay. It was joking.

No. Um no, I think this is great work.

Um, you know, I definitely think, um, we really need to drive home how much work it takes to get this thing off the ground. Um, I don't think people realize, um, from a few months ago when we were talking about, you know, putting this together and all the hard work that your team did, um, whether it's the it's the, you know, the mobile vehicle, the wrapping of it, making sure everything

was straight. Um, and in in addition to that, some of the programs that we offer the community. Um, that's why I asked the question like, are we highlighting certain personnel and things of that nature, it's not to, you know, pinpoint anything that we're doing wrong. I think it's more to highlight um that we really need to get these people out there um and get the work done. Um, because with

a lot of the ideas that we have here, there's a bunch of great ideas and I think you guys are doing a good job putting them together. Um, I just think we need to really share um, what's going on because there's a lot of great work behind the scenes and I know you guys are working tirelessly tirelessly um, to make sure some of these things that come to fruition. And this goes back to what

I was saying earlier. I don't think we as a district um, we get the credit deserved when these things happen. And it's not that we need credit, but sometimes we do, right? Because it's tough when you're in the trenches um, for someone to say that you did a good job. So, I just wanted to give you guys kudos um for this and acknowledge some of the work that you guys are doing.

Thank you for support. Uh just a friendly suggestion to uh to the superintendent and to Miss Kudo be great content for maybe a a positive views program, maybe a TV. We had we were f it was what November, December, we came on and um that was when we first had like the hint I think that we might be able to get. Yeah, that'd be great content.

followup. Absolutely. Yeah, it'd be great content. And if uh you can get uh the mobile camera like maybe Craig with his camera, you know, to show the vehicle, you know, the bus all and it's full regalia, that that'd be that'd be a real novel thing for the community to be able to see and make people feel really good about what we're trying to do to connect with our families and our students. It's really good. I yield.

Thank you. Um just going to very quickly I concur with my colleagues. Obviously the work that you and your team does that I hear about is very um beneficial and it's important for the community.

Obviously it's very important work that you all do to um provide services to those who are coming in. Um just one question as I went through the packet I saw um information on SERTA and um I didn't know if your your team is working um with the administration in regards to I know we had some conversations on expanding um transportation um with SAR to the middle school level.

I didn't know if you had any opinions on that um or I don't I mean, I think personally I I think it's always great to teach our kids to be, you know, um connected with the community and use our community resources. Um I think there's always some positive in that. Uh but no, I don't I don't really We provide serta bus routes so that families can access Certa. It's free. Um, and so I think

it's, you know, a great service for our families who don't have transportation to use and sometimes they're just a little intimidated by it. So we're able to sit down with them and, you know, kind of go through some routes and show them take this bus, you know, and show them like what to do and they stop, you know, they feel a little more confident in doing that. So that's why we there.

That makes sense. And hopefully it stays free as well. Um, I know there was some talk, but I know there's some bills in play at the state level. Um, I guess I was just referring to you. You more mainly help families with every day.

It's not really the the student transportation. Okay. Um, well, thank you, Miss Kudo, for the presentation and for coming back. Thank you as always.

And, um, we'll move on to the last discussion item, which is 3-4. and um and we're going to discuss the parental and community outreach regarding diseases, adverse conditions, and other health related matters. I'll just quickly take the floor on this one um because I know there was a citizen's input about this. This isn't um to change any policies. It's more and it's nothing not specifically for headlights

either. There's more just to get an understanding of where the um district is coming at in regards to reaching out not even just for headlights. Um I heard a parental concern on scabies um and whatever any communical disease and what we're doing as a district to either provide information, educate parents on um best practices and that was really the um point of this agenda item. Um

would you like to introduce yourself?

Yes, I'm Brenda Vanziel. I'm a school nurse at Doran School. I've been here for about 11 years at Doran. Thank you for coming. Thank you um for your patience as well. Um I didn't know if um for your patience for waiting throughout throughout all this. Um I didn't know if the administration had um or if you would like to comment or the administration would like to um what? So I think the way it read was around

policy um or maybe when we spoke um about it like any kind of policy and so sometimes I think that our like policy that's in the policy manual kind of gives something broad but I think it's it I was I was happy that we were going to have a nurse here um to actually talk about like what it looks like in practice when there is some kind of communicable disease um or or anything

related to that in a school and what kind of outreach we do make to families in a particular classroom where you know what are the expectations around that right well we've never I've never encountered scapees I think it's extremely rare um I haven't heard of any cases um but obviously the student would be dismissed and we would refer them to a physician and go by the physician's recommendations

uh for headlight iz as you all know we um notify the um classroom the parents of all the students in the class. Um at one point we did um exclude the student until they were u lice free. They could be in school with knits.

Um that was years ago. Now we um allow them in school um and we work with the parents um you know teaching them and we also examine the child before they come back and and on a regular basis. If a student was covered in headlights then obviously we would have to exclude them because it there'd be a higher chance of another student getting it. Yeah. No, I'll just speak quickly. Um and thank you for

coming. Um and we heard from and and I wish um when this whole process started, we heard from you from you and the entire nursing staff in the beginning um when we had this conversation and we and as I said at at the main stage when we're making policies with this, we should hear the full story both from parents and the nursing to get a complete picture when we're deciding on

policy. I guess where um specifically on headlights where I'm coming from and reading again reading the um the different criteria material out there from like the um National Nurses Association and different um and the CDC.

And I guess the only I guess question, common concern I would have with the current policy that was adopted is if a student attracts headlights, no matter how much it is, if a parent may have their own either they may have treatments at the house or they just may want to go send their child to the doctor. I know that's like you don't really go to the doctor for that, but

you also have to get the treatments as well. And I'm not sure if that's something that's prescribed by a doctor.

Some parents will do that. Yes. Right.

So, and thank you for saying that. So, I guess where it comes to me, and this isn't necessarily you, this is a policy.

If a student wants to um a parent wants to pick up a student and go get the um the treatment and then just go home for the day and get them treated, I don't believe that student should be penalized under the Dboard policy. That's where I stand. We exclude that absence or that and that dismissal. Really? Yeah. Okay.

Yes. And I think um glad you said that. I think that's where a lot of the um questions I received from parents was around that. That was one of the main contentions and I think um I wish we knew that going forward is that and you you're from Dorne and that's and that that's districtwide.

Yes. So I think a lot of the um instances come out of the elementary level where we don't have there isn't a D4 policy at at the elementary level that's something that is that happens at the secondary level well middle dor but right so I secondary like beginning seventh and eighth grade so they do but I think a lot of the concerns that were raised in a lot of the discussion was

around you know instances examples of small children hugging you you know, head-to-head in and how we could it would easily spread. So, so much of the conversation was spent on the ele at really at the elementary, even the lower grades of elementary, but so that D4 policy doesn't apply there. It does apply sixth grade on, okay, the secondary level. Um, but yes, we can exclude absences locally

for those kinds of purposes.

And if it's a dismissal halfway through the day and they were marked present for school, that doesn't necessarily enter into the discussion around chronic absenteeism or anything like that. But when students are absent from school for any reason, even if they're hospitalized, if they have an illness that's keeping them out under a doctor's care, those absences are not excused by the state. We excuse them locally, but

they are not excused at at the state level. Okay. I mean, yeah. Um, I mean I think that provides a lot of clarification there. I guess my last question I'll turn over to my colleagues if they have any questions is just around like communical diseases such as like maybe there a common cold. Um, is there like information going out there just like wash your hands like the germs like um like just best practices sort

of? I guess that's where I'll leave it at if we're sending it that out there as a district. Um, and maybe if that would be helpful. I guess um I guess what I would ask you is um as we're a policym body, what how could we help you is what I would like to Don't mean to put you on the spot. No, I'm just thinking I haven't really thought about that. Um I know that our

director of nursing puts out um information on parent square. Okay. So that's a good way for parents to um be aware of, you know, diseases and COVID we had a lot obviously um right yeah a lot of communication with parents um do we if if a child gets co today what's I know it's different now that it was it's just fever and it's the same with any um virus if you're feverree for 24

hours you can return to school okay but we will dismiss with a fever and then um excuse the following day okay without a doctor's Mr. Gordon, Mr. Das, in my tenure as um school adjustment counselor, I worked at all levels. I worked elementary, middle, and high. So, I worked primary and secondary level.

Um, some of my closest colleagues on the job day in and day out were the school nurses that I had to interact with because there were so many clinical issues involving uh the psychological and mental health of a student that you you we always needed to collaborate with the school nurses and and know exactly what's going on. And there's all other kind of issues that arise. I mean very

hardworking body. I've never I never met a nurse in my career that you can say was like uh not not doing the due diligence of the job. Every school nurse I ever had a chance to interact with in my career in the Fall River public schools, every nurse did their due diligence and they did so with uh compassion and uh I was really I'm really touched by the work that we had

to do. I even injured myself once um responding to an emergency and running down the stairs. I I hurt my Achilles tendon uh landing on a step the wrong way because u it was it was a a an urgent call from the nurse's office that they needed everybody's response to uh those that serve the student like like pe like counselors like myself. And so I I just remember the overall affect of uh

how they would treat a case by case by case by case, you know, and and the constant understanding that it took. And there were some kids there are some kids in our schools that are are frequent flyers to the nurse's office and they have to manage that too amongst everything else that they're, you know, trying to to manage. But I'm really proud of the fact that uh we've had strong nursing in our schools for many

years. I I applaud you and and all of your colleagues for the work that you do, putting it on the line every day. Um and um you know, just the issue that came up last month um it got to be a very heated issue, but um coming out of the system, I've always been in touch with headlights issues. Uh, I respect our parents deeply, uh, as I respect my own parenthood. Like I said, I raised

four kids that went through the Fall River schools.

And of course, we're going to be concerned with uh, hygienic issues such as head lice, you know. Um my daughter even contracted them one year in the middle school, you know, but I remember um you know her coming home and uh came home with notification and I remember how we had to go out and get what we had to get from CVS or whatever, you know, to like make sure that her scalp was totally

clean, you know, before she returned to school the next day. So again, I'm going to take this opportunity to lord our school nurses in for the work they do. I know the work that they do dayto-day because I have so much experience with it myself, but also uh to put this um out to the parents in our school community all over the city that the responsibility I believe lies with them

for any condition that their child may bring to school. and and I really appreciate the communication back and forth that parents would have with a school nurse so that they can take care of their child in the best way possible.

And I can tell you that the principles of these schools as well as the vice principles, the counselors and the specific teachers involved all know about those issues. They're all relayed in very business-like fashion. So everybody's on the same page with all those issues. And for that, I'm really proud of our school district for handling those cases in that manner. No, I I agree with you, Mr. Cory. If I can

add to that, and I think going forward, um, and just what I said before is if there's ever something health related, obviously we want to hear from your director of nursing, but also you and anyone else as well, if you have um an opinion or information you could share, please feel free to reach out to us. And that goes to parent as well. If they have an opinion, we should be able to

hear from all sides. So, um I do appreciate the feedback from the nursing team and I don't know if you sent a letter as well, but you did. Thank you.

No, that was Holly, one of my colleagues, but yeah, I don't we we received a few, but um and again, thank you um for all the work that that you do in the district and the team. I'd like to second that, too. Thank you for all that you do. I appreciate it very third that. Thank you. Mr. Bailey, you have anything to add? No, I don't. Um well, I think that's really it. um like

to entertain a motion to table 3-53-6.

Second. Uh I'll just take we'll take a voice vote. All those in favor say I. I.

All those opposed. And um 4-1 new business. Any new business to come today? Seeing none, I'll entertain no motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone.