8.8.2023 Policy Subcommittee

okay uh welcome to the policy subcommittee is Tuesday August 8th 2023.

uh could we have a roll call please Mr Bailey yeah suits the flag pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio a video recording of this public meeting or make trans with the meeting through my through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings of Transmissions are being made whether perceived and unperceived by those present and I deemed acknowledged in terms of is there any citizens input there's not okay uh so we'll go to the first item

for discussion and vote to refer uh 3.02 thank you guys want to go into that please so the first group of policies here is similar to what we went through in the last subcommittee meeting there are a number of policies that have either had their language changed in very minor ways it either updates a legal reference because the law has been changed it updates a rank because a Reg has been

changed one of the mass regulations or it changes language from he she his her to there just to make it neutral so that there's there's no um there's no language that's uh potentially you know controversial these policies all just update existing policies with some minor changes minor grammatical changes an example I would get is one of them that refers to confidentiality and it changed the word

legal confidentiality meaning a document that's required to be kept confidential so it doesn't change the language or the intent of the policy and that is in the first group of policies that's there beginning with GBA and ending with kdd from the second page

and then we have one question so when we went this is the last time we were here we had knock on tour and you recommended this yes you've we've gone through it we've met as a team reviewed we actually separated those that had minor grammatical changes as well as those that needed some discussion which as reflected by the agenda we've met at the team and gone through them these are the ones that

we're seeing absolutely so I'm good with the ones that are in the language so on the agenda where it lists the first emotions to go forward the first batch of them and then we can discuss the other ones yeah actually that's what we would expect yes it's just all under the same agenda so that's if we approve 302 yes yes yes Mr Bailey Mr Hart yes do you want to go with now with the ECA

to LBC so the second the second group of policies here are policies that have a change that I just want to call them some companies attention to and if need to be discussed make changes or alterations before affordance the whole committee the first policy is ECA as you can see the format we've taken for you is the recommended policy from masc and then the existing policy as it stands in our current

policy manual on the second page you'll note that in the first four bullets or so of the paragraph there is no change it just says masc updated 2022. there's no change to that language however in the original Fall River policy we had items one through six that we had added that were approved by the committee in 2017 and I felt that those were all pretty Common Sense security measures that the

committee would want to keep in the policy so the suggested policy would be policy ECA including the six items to the forward policy and that's the policy as recommended

there's a yellow page that separates right are there any questions yes so that what we're seeing in yellow is the only thing that's changed is that their policy is shorter we had added those bullets in the previous class so we want to continue to keep those in the policy that's what we're saying we feel like ours is more comprehensive so we added that to the language that was that they are proposing foreign

confusion or maybe a suggestion as we move this forward to the full committee so I'm looking at the yellow so now we know this is the so you have one page it says Masa updated 2022 and then page two it says approved 1117.

so I'm assuming that both of those are in effect even though one is dated 2022.

that's the one that masc suggests just says that it's been reviewed and updated in 2022. if you look those the language on that first page is no different than the language above the number of items on the second page so we're just suggesting that you include the numbered items push it just those security measures that the committee right but like I said the last thing these this is the Fall River schools

policy book not masc so it gets confusing at least to this member when we're saying the masc updated 2022.

is what you have here what we're saying is it's no different than what we already had in place for a school committee policy dated 12 11 17.

updated their language we're proposing to keep our policy the way it was we've reviewed our policy we think that we need to include the six bullets in there we're proposing that we keep that but why even put this as my question so I'm just kind of simplified so if if what is in the first page it says masc updated 2022. that exact language based on what Mr Coogan just said is in our policy already

right it's included so as far as I'm just trying to streamline this is gone because that doesn't mean nothing because we already had the policy here with uh bullets the second page now that says we want to add the policy at keep the policy this policy doesn't need to be on the agenda the way I'm seeing it right is that am I if there's nothing different than what's in our current policy then

what you're recommending why are we going through this like why are we going through the stack we would just say we're keeping the policy as is the only thing I would suggest is that we reference that we updated about that we reviewed and updated the policy as of that date that's fine so then the page that just says we're comfortable with the to me just being honest this part isn't

altered language to the degree that they need to be reviewed by the committee for referral to the full committee this what we just did in this first one it doesn't need to go to the full committee because it's not all-term language it should be in the all we're doing is updating the date to say that it was reviewed and we want to just keep the same policy that's what I'm hearing just based on what you

just said we basically want to keep the policy that we had yeah I don't disagree with that it's just that by taking the policy that they recommended in 2022 and inserting the information that we want from you know what law rule or whatever do we have to take every policy that they recommend and put it into like a meeting paperwork or policy book or anything under what standard or what

that we only doing what they want what do we do what we want well we're not only doing what they want because we have our own policies and you're going to hear about a couple of policies that we're adding to our policy book I think it's important for us to use masc as a resource because it it's all these policies are vetted through from a legal standpoint right so we want to make sure

and it we also we need to be an internal internally be checking our existing policies and updating as needed I think that even when they just change the language and say updated that anything that's updated that changes we need to make sure so what I'm hearing from you is that if we're just changing the date and saying that it was reviewed that we put a list together of all the policies

that we reviewed that we currently have and when it was reviewed and it doesn't just inform the committee that's what you're saying well all those in the sort of like the first part of this agenda where it's more the other ones these are the ones very simple or the adjustment is the date okay because I want to like do a thorough job but then it's like I'm trying to yeah yeah

I'm trying to fish through what's new what's not new what's this and that so that would be my okay the the content I don't think was in thank you I don't think we want to go to a mall what do you want to do Tom do you want to go from uh so the EAA policy eea again their policy was just basically boilerplate from the mass law the committee had different parameters for

transportation we're just keeping the existing parameters with no change to those however updating the language before or after including the legal references down below no change in the intent of the language just updating the references around the parameters the committee has set okay I'm going to say so for the meeting on Monday when we refer these we will create another um cluster that says the ones that were

just we just updated um this year reviewed and updated will create that bucket so that people know yeah I think I think it's clearer but in this one we had talked about the mileage and the to make it to be what we did so what is different than right so when I'm looking at this I'm just looking at the page one you know the Walkers and Riders page one walk is in

Rises page two Walkers and writers page three what are we actually going the language on page two is the language from the existing policy it's been concerted in between the first and last paragraph and the legal references updated that's it so the legal reference says is just copied from the first page in the state law yes which we don't follow we didn't have that paragraph that was the updated

policy but if I looked at mgl 717a 71 767 that legal reference is that the reference that's on the front page right this is the new updates but this but this this on page 2 was the current policy which did not include the legal reference that legal reference was added to we still have the the the things in the middle and we have the legal reference before and after that was now

it shows the whole thing okay you can go to the first page it says Walkers and writers grades one two three students live in more than one mile from school grade four to six students living more than one and one half miles from school seven through twelve and then it has a legal reference here I'm assuming that in that legal reference it says that's what you have to do by law is what's listed there minimum

committee hasn't enhanced policy you actually surpass what's required by law right but then I would say that the legal reference is not not valid well we didn't apply with all the elements of the legal references in some cases we surpass and how would I know that from here because the policy is in compliance with the law that's the site that masc does and then the committee is there to

enhance that also our great breaks don't coincide with what's in the original policy that makes it they go pre-k through five and then we go six seven eight at the middle school level so when we had when we last met to go over the policies one of the suggestions was to make it clear for the whole committee to know what we're building on what we're not so I think we'll be when we move these

forward or another way to make this clear is to put a paragraph This Together that says file e-e-a-a here's the reason why so we extend beyond the school uh the state law this you know just explaining what this is because it does beg a question of which one we as we see these three they're not they don't all go together per se so you're trying to make it simpler which I agree with just I

would say that in for the Committees to look at to say rather than just look at an agenda and three he just and it can be an explanation of why is uh sort of like when there's a finance thing it was only that does like a little one pager of item number one here's the story we had we were over in custodians this makes more sense you know this is so that this

is actually just telling the committee that we exceed the state law minimums and that's a hold of the committee so when we vote we know we're voting to actually exceed not all right go below just declare a clarifying piece I think with each of these might help and as we go through the questions now I guess I will tell you whether we should clarify or not that's all you want to go through oh maybe not if

you want to go through more of these though but would be more importantly the ones that you added yeah we are going to we do need to get through sorry we revised our attendance policy and we're adding uh we're proposing to add a fraternization policy certainly that's still we're still vetting that through legal counsel um but that is something that we're proposing to add to it so I I don't know

I mean certainly these do you want us to I understand what Mr Aggie are saying that we need to put almost like a memo together with the reasons why we changed something or we added or or took away something to explain this batch what the changes were I think that's what you're saying right yeah as we're going through this meeting the purpose of a subcommittee so I would say we go down the things we

get the feedback but then don't just give the same right right like fold it to the full committee it'll make the meeting on Monday go a lot smoother if we know what the question was is what the thing is you might say this makes sense we need to think about it again like we did the last time absolutely yep I'm really interested in the next one so go ahead Tom

so as Mary just pointed out that the next policy we're actually waiting for legal to clear um that's the one you get referred to um okay this is the first time the committee will be seeing it so but I do before we take a vote of the whole committee I didn't want to get in front of you and I'd ask that you just hold um maybe questions and then we ask you

know the league of the player before the whole command take a vote on implementing it uh good administering yeah so I'm reading this policy and I'm trying to figure out uh why why we need it and as I'm reading it it seems to me that some of the stuff that's in it is a clear just a clear cut the inappropriate Behavior so when it talks about fraternization it's not allowed prohibited somebody

with an employee who reports to a supervisor or administrator or it has employment conditions that could be impacted by the supervisor administrator that tells me by us having this new policy without any other background that if that happened now it's okay so if we had a person an employee who reports had a relationship with a person who they report to as an immediate supervisor or an administrator

and it has employment conditions that could be impacted by the supervisor evaluation promotional pay differential on lab that now it would be not okay and I'm reading into that that if it happened already then we there's nothing we can do about it I wouldn't say that's the case management always has the right to discipline employees appropriately most School departments don't even have for organization policy

but we do have ethics and standards and we not accordingly depending on professional Behavior or you know violations of you know or infractions like we do with any right so you're saying you have the right so we don't need is that to take action free so when I read in the prior paragraph talking about staff working conditions administrative manager supervisory must be aware of relationships how they

affect the supervisor and administrator you know an employee having a relation with a supervisor a supervisor having a relationship with a relationship with somebody that they report to the last sentence of this follows he says this conduct is unacceptable and the school department will take action accordingly is that happening now yes should we take an action in all cases that's what we take action

that potentially has some exposure for the either the district or the committee we always act on legal guidance right there's no it's not acceptable no that's you're not changing that no not at all the pot of I guess just notifying people that you shouldn't have this that's what this is I would say they just have the right anyway correct so if this was going on inappropriate behaviors going on or wherever that is

however that is you have a right to just act on it find out is it true if it's true you act on it in a timely manner yes so this isn't necessarily a policy that's needed to take action so what do we do I think with those things being said I think we need to look at this policy even in a greater to determine what it is and what it's not

so like if we if we look at it and say this is the policy that's new a new policy that says well I just read doesn't mean that that was okay if if we didn't have this policy that's the same behaviors I think somehow in here it needs to be acknowledged that that's never been okay and this is a clarifying what I think I'm hearing you say is it's a clarifying of

expectations but it's not okay if it was happening before right and this is why we said we needed to vet it through legal right we want to make sure that our wording is precise and that we are very clear with our expectation yeah you're you're right it's not okay and if I can just add I think there's another element that we also discussed about this is really surfacing our staff handbook to call out the policies that

are most pertinent to the day-to-day functions and interactions within our community so that we are calling out very explicitly from the very beginning of our interactions what we are about and what we aren't about um amidst all of the policy which we will hold people accountable to but there are some that are of more heightened attention knowing the impact that they have across our schools and to

our district so that was also part of our conversation when putting this together is how do we leverage some of the most important things in our work to keep our school communities focused on teaching and learning as the priority with which we are the business of is about an agreement disclosure agreement and I'm assuming that you're going to do the same yep where does that exist where did that come from

uh that came from a number of different sources online that's what it is acknowledgment and a voluntary disclosure form which would um hopefully set the table for somebody not claiming after the fact that it was a forced or inappropriate relationship that's voluntary on the part of anybody that's participating in that relationship and who is it meant for the people participating in a potential

employee and and the reason we're also waiting for legal on that is because we don't want to give the signal that if you sign this it's okay because it's not well that's what I was so the first thought that we were just talking about if I was reading the first book and then I had to read the second page I said well but if I sign this I'm okay no

no but we need to make sure that mechanism for disclosure yes that's all that is but we need to acknowledge the what's in the first part about a supervisor not having a relationship with a support correct so that I think needs to be clear I don't I'm not I'm just looking at this now it doesn't look like that's very clear in answering to this relationship I think that needs to refer to something

else to say between two employees that where there is no supervisement relationship I understand that that's what you're trying to disclose what I'm saying is that we don't want to give the impression that it's okay for a person if I'm supervising somebody I shouldn't have a a relationship with them to the point where now I'm going to evaluate them different I want to treat their

colleagues different like that and the first part is the first page is trying to get to that which we said we didn't need but we can still act because the consensual relationship disclosure I don't think explains that is my point I think Andy would need to clarify something to say with this being said you still can't have a relationship with this aboard that I mean anybody would have a brain

would know that that's just not something that you do and if you do that you violate risking losing your job I think that's a no-brainer for anybody but it's sad to say we should have to put some stuff in here um to go you know to go buy it and then on the first page the employees disregard or violate the policy or subject to Progressive discipline consequences up to an including suspension of

termination of employment I think that language is a little contradictory in that Progressive discipline implies that you wouldn't go to the highest level of what you would be determination but if you have certain things that are egregious you would go direct to the right pot so if we if we have subject to Progressive discipline to me when I'm reading this that implies that you won't get the the highest penalty

like if I do Progressive discipline in the school it could go from a detention in school suspension long short-term suspension long-term suspension so there has to be some mechanism for the sake of the certain things that you do don't go from attention to in schools that you earn uh put in the same way is that Progressive but in the same token Mr Edgar you have Progressive discipline in school but if

a student were to do something violent or attack another student you don't begin with a written warning or a verbal warning you go to the appropriate measure even though a progressive discipline exists you go to the appropriate measure for the consequence for the for the offense but it says that in those policies so in the policy for something that's going to get to that level I don't

believe it would if it does it shouldn't in my opinion say progressive discipline it just means you're subject to when drugs to school you're subject to a higher penalty right off the bat we'll have it sounds like so we'll have to look at the language to see to leave and again if you had some something that was not egregious but but something that just caused a disturbance in the

workplace and it implied favoritism or something I mean there could be Impressions that have taken place in the workplace Progressive discipline might be a written warning the first time or the second case you know something not quite termination but again another stepped up level addition so I think that it still gives management the right to react appropriately depending on the level I just I think it needs if you

look at it and it comes off they said yeah the lawyers say that it makes sense so it does whatever the word progresses perhaps and if you if you look at it in the same in the same vein when you're doing something in if somebody lies there's also pieces of it to deceive so if an employee lies now they're in trouble for lying so if you not only did something that

you shouldn't do then you lie about the something that you didn't do that it's like you just keep on adding up the the problems so I I just think it's I get where you're coming from and you want to make sure but whatever ways we have to explain that certain behaviors aren't tolerated and when you violate those there's a risk of termination correct so thank you

potential policy on a staff attendance earlier in the meeting just because it was a little time consuming do you want to do that or do you want to no that's okay we keep rolling okay yeah okay

the online fundraising and solicitations crowdfunding which we something very common this day and age is totally new that was that's the suggested policy through nasc we didn't have that in place no one did and obviously now the world we live in we needed there needs to be something in place to summarize what what it is and whether you agree with it because just because MSC recommends it doesn't mean

Universal agreement you're right but we had nothing in place and you know that we've had this discussion of school committee meetings right where people are going to donors shoes or GoFundMe raising money for classroom supplies Etc and what this is is putting some um constraints on how people do that and how they have to answer to school administration they have to disclose that they're doing that and

give us a rational as to why they're doing it so yeah we agree with that we think that that's something that needs to be in place arbitrarily people were they can't just with they have to submit something now right so to us and say that they want to fundraise for a particular cause and it has to be approved by the superintendent's office yes that has to be done before they do

that which is some of the issues that we run up against right we don't disagree without us knowing and then we find out after the fact oh somebody took upon themselves to do some donors choose or or GoFundMe for markers when right no I totally I mean I've been saying this with multiple years so I appreciate you bringing it forward when I'm looking at it just quickly I think it shows like the principles the reverse

approve it and then it comes to you which I've been asking for for a long time so that we know what it is sitting on the committee knowing that we have resources it really drives me off the wall when people are putting out things like I need to you know get my classroom ready and stuff like that where in my mind when the old days when we had no money and we were laying off staff

yeah we had to try to get that I think we should curve that back and I think we should make an investment into providing a lot of these things so that it's not making the school department both yourselves school committee the mayor looking like as if we're not supporting the schools so I think this is tremendous just to articulate a couple of different parts of the policy as well

at the bottom of the second paragraph It also says that if you're going to crowd crowd fundraise for um any type of technology that has to be compatible with what the system you can't bring in for example five iPads or something that require a certain kind of software that is not compatible either violates a firewall it does something inappropriate lastly it does spell out that donations to the

district belong to the district they received by the committee and they belong to the district of the property of the district despite the fact that they're going sort of outside of the lines for funding here it does still belong to the school so the people don't think that that's portable personal belongings that they could take too it was I think protocols in this I know they said this is not about like brand

new from scratch there is protocols in Fall River Public Schools for this exact thing technology with the exactly what you just explained because I'm recall in times when that happened and there was policy of proceed whatever however it was but it was like you couldn't use a whatever you couldn't get iPads if you're using Chromebooks right right things like that so I recall that and my

wife did that when she worked in the school district she got five iPads when she moved to another District who the incoming teacher got five iPads or whatever it was at that time but so there was a policy of some type but I think it's going on on the second page when it talks about cross-references and references to other policies that's where those tie-ins come in that's really some of the work that Mas does

when they've had a policy so that you can find those cross references to the kind of things that you're talking about if um I might ask that and it's not something that's if we can get a list from the principles of who has done this and like just so we can get some data on it and know how I know the ones that I see on social media myself or whatever

but if we can get some data on it is this 20. things across the whole district is it 10 is it at one school not other school just so I guess everybody's gonna have to follow this but it might it might um lend itself to us knowing which places maybe don't you're a principal of one school and you support the classroom with X Y and Z for this so the teachers

wouldn't go with it I'm a different person and I say no I'm spending that time out so if we look at the data and say one school two schools are the ones doing this I would and therefore ask what's happening they're different than the other places is it yeah I'll be honest just thinking about putting my principal hat on for a second prior to this policy there was nothing that required staff to tell you that they

were putting these things out there so I'm not quite certain how much of a pulse folks have on the depth of that um because whether or not it might have been posted publicly but if it wasn't posted publicly there was no system that I ever had that said you have to let me know if you're going out for classroom donations I think this is another one of those policies that needs to live in the

staff handbook yeah to really bring it alive for people but to reiterate it to your point that we have resources we are not in the same stone age as we used to be at um I just don't know necessarily that principals have a pulse on that because we haven't had a system of requesting that information people just attempt to get what they need from their own networks and relationships to fill their classrooms

when a need arises right um so I I believe I would just say I'm not telling you what to do but like an email to the from the principles to the staff saying please let me know if you did it go find me over the last three years yeah they'll tell you whether they did it it's not like we can hold them to did it happen a lot when you were at

Henry what do you know I mean maybe in the beginning just because I didn't know the pr I didn't you know six years ago we were in a different place financially too right but once things started rolling where my the needs were being met the requests were being met because the funds were here um oftentimes you know I would push back on people when they would put that out there having heard the statements that

school committee meetings like no we don't need to go there let's put a request in um and you know Kevin Almeida has been great in relationship to just my fluidity with my books and supplies wanting and really being able to be flexible as the year rolls the principals to meet their you know priorities as they as they move along the school year as things come up so I know I've spoken about that with my

principal colleagues and with my mentor principals around no reach out to Kevin they've got the funding they can help you figure out a way to get your needs met um but I think it's become more of a traditional way of speaking among leadership where it wasn't that way necessarily in the very beginning if I could be honest about it I mean has it happened often like I think that in the past it happened a

lot more I think that we have put parameters on I've communicated with principles consistently about um your people should not be crowd funding and if they are they should be meeting with you to talk about what it is that they're raising money for um because for basic supplies no one should be reaching out to the community because we have a means the means to do that so we have communicated I mean

there's always you see that there are always some and sometimes there's you know agencies or Community Partners that donate different things or say what do you need and give it to them but I there's no reason for us to be going to donors choose to get markers and pencils and crayons and keeping in mind when we think about the community partner element of it too it's a reciprocal relationship right like we're

in the business of education and serving our students with the resources with which those Community or agencies are built upon we think of just their philanthropic mission and vision we become the Grateful recipients of that but I look at in context of this I look at that completely different as opposed to someone putting something out there to say I can't get the money for this help me get the money for that

um that's a different request than what we than what I've experienced when it comes to community partner donations in this reciprocal relationship um from you know merchandise or or items and and whatnot right so I I do look at them a little bit differently right so one other thing that drives me up the wall on this is that um when we take donations yeah when Nick Fisher was the superintendent

here which was a long time ago a committee who made a motion to create our own non-profit that we were going to control some things so we don't have to use conduits and this and that from non-profits and I don't think we've done anything with it so at the next meeting I'd like an updated okay you want to continue with uh drug-free workplace uh there are elements in our policy that we want to

keep our Styles out we'll know them accordingly our policy was quite wrong that masc is um focusing simply on the elements that require somebody if they're in trouble in the workplace but we'll spell out the pieces that we want to keep from The Forum one and make that quickness for the vote is um

be for that that it you would have to do the discipline piece somebody brought alcohol to school that would be a problem it's spread it around for the grounds so yeah I'm just I I don't I'm not looking for an answer per se right now but yeah it's begging the question of we added it here now anybody with half a brain as I said before would know you don't bring alcohol into a school

if we get we get information we get proof that somebody brought alcohol into school there should be a consequence of that yeah and for future I'm just curious what the consequences employees for that before without sharing any details yeah just a one-pager on the answer the question of you know if somebody did this is what the thing is and I'm not trying to say people have problems substance abuse I

get all that stuff but there has to be something of the sanctity of you don't bring alcohol into a school so Tom want to go to the next one and point out the principles um there's a little difference between the committee and the other one however I think the modified version captures the intent of the community a little bit more you've set parameters for the contractor of principles and uh well you know bar

somebody from going outside of those parameters if they do they have to bring that to the attention committee otherwise the superintendent hires and follows the direction of committee because the programs as they've set up our previous policy was only a two paragraphs and a sentence in between it's a little better spelled out articulated anymore I'd like to add to what we what we used

to do with the with these contracts were when um to the end of the income whatever the timing was there would be a dollar figure that this committee had to approve prior to the superintendent negotiating with individuals so that we knew at least we were holding some sort of uh check and balance on how much was going to be spent I'd like to see something like that added back in you

you give me parameters anyway from the parameters but I'm talking about like a financial parameter so let's I'm just going to throw a round number up you said for this body of 10 principal 20 principles you can go you can't go over fifty thousand dollars so when you're talking to the principal you know okay this committee's giving me 50 000 to live within my ranges I know I gotta

live within those ranges or come back to the committee have more it helps us to at least have a full amount of you have this to spend so how you choose to spend it on is a percentage right you win at least in the old days it was we at least had some sort of uh parameter of how much money we were going through a lot towards that so then you negotiate down stay within that

thing until you felt listen I need to go a little over it because of X Y and Z then it just felt it basically gives the committee some Authority on controlling the budget which is part of our purview better than just you just spend what you want in it and then not that you would spend it willy-nilly but you know what I'm saying I think the committee should have a say in all budget line items but

we give you a number to live within it and that's articulate that line in there well it says about timing when I was reading it it showed about like what goes first something is like a step order principles like that you we tell you what the range is or whatever then you negotiate it rather than have you would negotiate with somebody and then go back to us after the fact and that was a

rubber stamp because now you say well I already negotiated with Joe while uh Johnny or whatever the name is and then it should come before okay my only question to that becomes the time between school committee meetings where principles need to be hired negotiations need to be made and then does that hold up the hiring of principals because I I just want to make sure we don't box ourselves boxes this

is uh I'm referring to increases right Arena Wilson it'll be like six months early when you stop using negotiating yeah I'm sorry yeah we already have the range gotcha yes this is for continuation a continuation beyond that I got you okay because you understand where I'm coming from right if that happens beforehand and that was part of the initial onboarding language that would slow

things up but then yeah you know we have like we've done a better job I think of having some control over the silos of money so there's a line item that Mr Almeda creates that says you gotta you can't go over that line item but there's usually enough money to give you some yeah so we'll rework those paragraphs to make sure that it indicates the order that's what I'm hearing for feedback

from one right and to be specific around contract extensions right like because that's what we're talking about for that particular piece that Mr radial is referring to it's for contract extensions or renewals rather probably a better word renewal a point of renewal you would provide a forecast of total Financial increase at the principal level to clear with you guys yeah I think it's a good quality to have across

all we do that with the individual contract people we've gotten away from it but we used to always have a number that said okay we're going to give you some latitude to do what you need to do but you can't go over a certain number we used to do that with everything and I think that worked out much better than being shocked by oh well how did this happen foreign policy on the list is GCF professional

staff hiring it's very similar to our current policy although there's some languages added to Bullet number three and that just gives the committee the ability to direct the superintendent about the makeup of those uh of a screening committee for those positions that the committee controls examples or assistant superintendents CFO nurses the tennis officers but the committee wishes to have a representative screening

committee and pushes a certain membership on that committee they can do that to them it actually just puts our practice into policy so on this you this hasn't been followed with Fidelity over the years so that's sort of where I come from as far as having some issue with it so if committees for hiring you mean yeah so I've served on several committees myself that I was asked to serve on other

members of the committee have been served over the years have been asked to serve on other committees to say we're hiring live we want to put a person in and uh this is same this is basically prohibiting that practice and it's not calling it out it doesn't prevent that box it just gives the practice it just defines which practice that your the committee has control over that's all which is already

in place it's the practice what it says is that committee can make suggestions in regards to setting up the committee we set up committees now and we try to have Representatives this system that you actually make the hire them it's about the committee saying I understand that but what I'm it's silent when it's the title says professional staff hiring talks about at the top about the

superintendent persons they can delegate responsibility Personnel needs of the school district to locate suitable candidates where in here does it say that the school committee will have a representative or can have a representative or not it doesn't mean says so I think it needs to clarify it so are you saying that for every committee do I need to have a member of the school committee on May

choose to how do you want us to award that like I know what you're saying you're saying that school committee members can sit on those hiring committees as what we have in the past right so what I'm saying is when we take this policy the new policy which I'm assuming is the one that has the yellow at the top and about correctly creating a policy on professional staff hiring the only thing

where it talks about school committee members being on positions on uh search committee screening committees is that bottom sentence that says positions by the hiring Authority arrest with the school committee it doesn't it's silent to the other piece but the whole policy is about professional staff minor at the beginning where it says the uh I think it's highlighted because it's no it is the responsibility of the

superintendent of persons to delegate responsibility to determine the personality District whatever so I think it needs to be clarified we our school committee members gonna go on it knock on it it shouldn't be just whenever I think that uh it's it's one of those things right if you're going to say if we're going to make a policy and say that for every single hire you're saying it's been I I personally

sometimes it's a conflict right because if I'm hiring an assistant superintendent and you're going to vote on it I feel like it's a little bit of a thing you if let's say I have both of you on that committee along with principals and a whole bunch of other people like you will have an edge over your people and you're voting on that so I think that it depends on the position

right I mean let's just keep it at the discussion we can talk that through I'm just trying to figure out how I want to make sure that we do things without doing doing things the right way right I understand and um so if we're going to say that school committee member needs to sit on every single hiring committee okay so that's what all positions are for that's not what I'm certain positions that's not

what I'm saying I'm saying take advantage of the opportunity when we're looking at a new policy yeah to clarify so there's no confusion over what can and can't happen is what I'm saying right and I hear you when we vote on an assistant superintendent just being transparent yeah if I didn't sit on an assistant superintendent committee to vet the candidates to know ask the questions to get an impression

of the person to talk to other professional colleagues and to work through the thing I wouldn't be in the same position if I wasn't on that committee because then you make the direct Commendation however so I say I'm not serving that you submit a number we do an interview supposedly in public right we don't even ask questions of the interview candidates it's a rubber stamp it's we don't even know yet to see the other

candidates we don't get to see the whole list of who applied there's a floor in the whole yeah thing so in the ones that you have listed here at the end for the positions we have you know somebody can ask you to be on or whatever the committee can I I like to find Value in that I find Value in other members sitting on it to know what is I've learned a lot about people and

the candidates and what the so it's a benefit to be on those committees when asked to be on that it's been valuable as well but what I'm saying is this is your opportunity now as a superintendent to take a very clear stand on what's going to happen with the other hiring I don't want to serve on all these I'm not suggesting that the school committee service on them but I'm just saying put

whatever your feeling is talking to your team if it's that the school committee members will sit on only the positions that they have with the within their jurisdiction two members or whatever because you can't do a quorum if that's the policy fine then they're done the same in the same policy I think it should say the other stuff is not period can you get off of you don't have anybody but we can

clarify that every single position needs to be we need to have a committee together yeah just yeah I I just think together I think what's happened is without saying it without articulating it we had gone in the past for school community members to sit on when it was a reason to do because of their interests likes whatever else then the same position now gets another committee for the same position again no

school committee members around yeah so that's confusing to me because I say wait a minute I was good enough to be on for that position a year ago or two years ago and take my time and study the candidates and ask tough questions and do what I needed to do two years ago now with the same exact committee's phone now is maybe half an hour half the amount of people and no school committee

members on it that's where I'm coming from is that I feel like the unwritten policy now is that school committee members aren't going to be part of it unless it's this and if that's fine I would just articulate it so we know what's happening right and then we vote Yes or no um pretty clean one gcia our previous policy had five bullets in it the last two items that were left out of the masc

policy but out of any consequence but I'm thinking it's not objectionable and it's a benefit to us to have them in so that's it keep the existing policy just update the reference any questions yep exactly that's what we'll add it to that person because that's not really it doesn't sound like if you looked at and saw three bullets and five votes like what what's changed it really could go but at some point

we've got to trust you too that when you say it's not anything pertinent if we gotta buy that too so it just eliminates it some field trips home the next policy I think captures the um the quality committee the policy down below the paragraph below number five but if you could just go through that I believe that's intended to capture what the committee was trying to distinguish

on field trips without relinquishing any of their Authority just given the ability for the superintendent to be a little more responsive in those you know shorten those situations where the you know the other things are involved that's good to me this was just the one that made no sense when they're going to play a game and they got like a scrimmages yes Rhode Island right yeah because it was

if you recall there was a situation where it was a scrimmage in Portsmouth yeah last minute you can do it yes all right Tom okay um JH is the student attendance policy it's listed in the masc mineral as a student absences and excuses um and then it's been updated by uh Dr bronaughey which is in the back if you noticed um and try to just be really clear with where the modifications were across a

rather lengthy document back but yeah and any questions Mr Avenue a quick summary of what the changes were so there really aren't any changes um outside of language changes when I had the opportunity to meet with the attendance officers back in the spring we felt as though the policy in its eight-page document was too lengthy and too long and had some repetitive language that made it confusing for families to follow

um and so then thinking about also you know being more explanative around unexcused absences excused absences the Buy-Back policy as it relates to um the secondary level particularly and how that's connected to grades so really we've just tightened up the language made it more apparent family friendly and then as you noted if you can notice that the blue is in the policy um where those changes were made the

word smithing specifically and then I took the time to chart it out for you to be able to see what was added and what was deleted and the rationale on the right column there I am at the very end because I didn't want to give you two eight page policies to have to go back and forth so I tried to create the chart to show you the yellow is where we removed language that we felt was

redundant in the rationale for that um and then when I did cross-reference this policy and its final version with that of masc all of the key primary areas were included within our policy so nothing was omitted just this is probably the most complicated of the bunch that's here today and I commend you for like this is how a policy should go here's what it's clear the committee wants to know why is it say what an

unexcused absences what we wonder why the comment on the right says newly proposed language to explain for most relevant examples but isn't it this is how a policy should be like tweak vetted so we know exactly what it is very clear for anybody can see so kudos to in this world the attendance policy at the end is that just for us like the last uh that was the old language that was the original

policy this one started from correct just for you to have as a Fame you know cross reference point if you needed it um but that's where it started from and so now this is the piece that we're looking to get translated and then publicize out and then create one more quick reference sheet for all staff and buildings to be able to use with families and with students um yeah no it makes sense my only question

is on that and it might be a protocol instead in the policy I used to say like uh students absent phone call will go home straight India somewhere but it wasn't tweaked it was just taken we just tighten that up as well um so that if you notice if you go I think the last two pages of that first piece the tiers are still listed within it um and then we got really specific about

some of the tiered pieces were not really realistic in the original policy and we knew Point Blank it was not happening in buildings when we think about the systems that were then employed um after speaking with the attendance offices and cross-referencing this with principles in the spring folks felt as though the actionable steps that are in there are manageable this past week at our admin Institute

it's just today alone we've begun really digging deep into one of the systems around attendance looking at the investment that we've made in the form of public school as it relates to the SEL support staff in our buildings um and really working with schools to lay down some high expectations around attendance um and some Unapologetic expectations going into next school year because if

our kids are not in school nothing else we do matters so I just want you to know like the tiered piece was shared already in sort of hypothesized language because we had to come before the committee but ultimately there are no major changes it's more about the system we use to affect the policy yeah and I um the only thing I would ask is that we get a as simple a version of what that

protocol looks like would be like kind of even is the five steps just so that everybody's on we've said it I've asked you that in public meetings you've told everybody you got to follow the policy and we have cases that are not so I think you're on the right track trying to make sure everybody is but a simple like something to say here's what happens kids absent but somebody asked Mr hot

myself any other committee members how do we track the attendance what do we know yep go to that thing and say look the first step is this second step is that so when the parent calls listen says nobody's contacted my student who has been absent for three weeks we know this is the policy send them the away send them to the principal but this should be followed that's what I'm looking for something simple as that

thank you okay uh Tom want to go to the uh the student that's called the suggested policy updates language from Mass generalized and if they talk about language called the clown act which basically just emphasizes the right of free speech however I do suggest that the committee keep the Bold section at the bottom of our policies which basically just says when it comes to dress code any manner address which

presents a health or safety hazard to a student or others it's potentially damaged to school property or distracting to the process it's prohibited it just gives us a little more teeth in terms of the ability to control things that really shouldn't be happening the masc policy leans a little more towards the rights of free speech however we're not trying to infringe on that we're just

trying to go in the opposite direction and say that there are some consequences for right so what I guess doesn't really bother me but I get confused sometimes when you have the dress code and it's not enforced so I mean it just sometimes it's it's not enforced at all um what happens then when it's not enforced well I think that we have Defiance from adults as well as from kids regards the dress code so certainly

that doesn't mean that it wasn't addressed but I think there are times when somebody I I've gotten calls from parents parents um who was very vocal about it and said we shouldn't we can't have a dress code we can what because we checked with our attorney and what we have to do is we have to make sure we enforce it the same way for every student right we can't just enforce it for some students and

not others it has to be enforced across them and I'm not saying it happens often but there are times where there are incidences when I'll get a call from the parent and if I haven't been one haven't gotten one in a while but they they're not enforced like you said across the board that's all can I ask for the which will clarify what Mr hot ass for the number of dress code violations in all schools

it should be coded in X2 and readily available all right Tom student Publications um the second policy the existing policy excuse me the third pack wrapped on I suggest we keep it just says that student publication will be encouraged to comply with the rules of responsible journalism students shall fix their names to articles or editors written or contributed by them it just basically says you're going to

follow the same rules that we expect professional journalists to do and the rest of the policy is unchanged so it's just that third paragraph that I um that I suggest retain okay so the page two of this student publication says the profit 2010 the front page says updated 2021 correct and then we're getting to announce 2023 that's what it was released by MSC to us in 2023 yes it came in this package of

85 or 90 policies I'm just noticing that yeah for two year reference like I would say that would mean it's updated in 20 if we got it in 2023 it makes it look like as if we didn't do it for two years so thank you okay Tom uh co-curricular and extracurricular activities

foreign you'll note that the masc policy has three bullets the forward policy has five bullets the last two bullets um I'm sorry actually the first two bullets are the ones that were added by the committee uh it just says it should be a collaborative uh process and it should have a complimentary relationship between the Home and Community and the second bullet says that we we would welcome preparing assistance and

planning activities so it just has to do with Community input those two items for the nature of the co-curricular and extracurricular activities so we're going with the one at the second page I would say the committee wants to retain those two two expressions and pull up one and two this is not about the content just the con uh I'm looking at this I'm looking at this how do I know which one showed up what

he just said so the recommended policy is this one just uh here's what they recommended here's what we recommend and then it makes it simpler to know foreign Student Activity accounts that's actually a finance question so the updated policy by the masc is what we're going with here and the policy by the the updated policy talks about what's supposed to happen with graduating class funds and Student

Activity accounts uh it talks about the procedure and what to do there it talks about what happens with the inactivity inactive Student Activity accounts or what happens at that point and in addition it talks about Student Activity deficits and how how those are handled so those are all items that were not originally disclosed in our policy so I'm recommending that we move forward with this this policy

you know as I said 2010 so I feel like we've been sort of not adequate with keeping on top of it but the piece of the on the note is that all audit audited exactly what I said but it basically said that I mean is that happening so I can tell you that procedures have changed over the years since since I've been here so when we first when I first came on board uh

there used to be individual Student Activity accounts and they all used to be held at the schools and so we changed we moved away from that you know shortly after I got on board and um we've made the process now centralized so every single school has a savings account the high school has a lot more because they have a lot of clubs that go on at the high school about every single every column

organization has its own Student Activity account and whenever the bills have paid out the school submit the schools will submit all the bills directly to you know in our office to Stacy who will review every bill to make sure that it's appropriate to be paid out of the Student Activity account and once that's done it's then processed and paid and you know it's paid pretty pretty timely but our controls are a lot

better you know I would say than they are used so so is it audited or it's not it's reviewed by the orders every year

you know but is it required that's my so where I'm just looking at if we did the not the 2010 one is oh we're gonna get rid of that if we'd now adopt this one here in the policy that we're going to vote to approve it says the ESC audit guidelines for Student Activity accounts require an annual audit for a sentence yep so I'm gonna have to invest in this year I'm waiting for our Auditors to

finalize the audit we gave them the information so it's okay to keep that so we're going to audit every single one of those little accounts every year the it's by decimals so what what they require is that me myself being in this position that I require I I review one or two Student Activity accounts a year and so I have to do that every three years and as part of the audit the Student

Activity accounts are reviewed it's not required that we have a full-scale audit of the Student Activity accounts every year but the Auditors that we have have recommended that yeah I'm only looking at it as I'm not suggesting that you're doing anything wrong with anybody is but the first sentence I'm still having a hard time with the person who's saying that they require an annual audit It also says in

the last line districts with large numbers of schools May rotate the schools through the audit process right so which gives us that's exactly what Kevin was just saying that you can do some each year but there has to be audits every year as a as a regulation right I mean personally I would strike that something I don't think the benefit of having that in our policy does anything other than bind you in the district

because that's what you you have to file a little bit but you have to file Desi on it like you have to file a decision so this is saying we're going to follow the desert rose but it's saying in a more confusing way if we just scratch it out then you don't have to worry about this and we say Mr helmet do you following the dusty rules yep okay otherwise you'd say oh where's the audit

what is the order what does it look like so yeah I'm always trying to help you I appreciate it okay public gifts to the schools uh public gifts to the schools we had physical restraints so with a physical restraint um this first page actually just kind of calls out you know the line between corporal punishment and restraint and physical spells the practice of mechanical strain of physical industry

um restraints prohibited physical restraints there are certain conditions is allowed all of the documentation you see on the back is the product of Michael Joyce's review last time those are all policies and procedure I think the committee would want to keep so we're suggesting that that we keep the documents in the exhibits that are attached because it spells out some of the procedures that

are followed by The District in order to stay in compliance with the State Banks so well they give their updated policy in the first two pages I think we want to stay with this stuff underneath and just you know reform that activities it doesn't add to the look of the handbook underneath but it is the policy so there's a difference between policy and procedure yep so if this is going in

our policy book yep personally I think we should put policy so if we have a procedure manual that the principals use and the administrators that's that's different so there's a way to do that in your policy manual without changing the policy what you do is call it an exhibit or a reference you add the word er to the end of it that's the way misc suggests you do it and we have examples

of that from previous policies we've passed so that distinguishes between what's policy and what's procedure procedural stuff is just called up this in the procedure at this time an example would be our use of schools policy but we have a price list for for certain rentals Etc so we can change that and update that from time to time that's the procedural piece but the policy my only

point is that's why I policy manual is this thick when it doesn't need to be because this is the policy right here the first two pages that you you're asking us to recommend these this is five times as many pages of procedures not in the policy that's how I'm not disagreeing with what's hitting I'm assuming that this open chain is probably the lead person on the train so I'm sure she looked at this to make sure

that it's it's good but it the policy manual is too big in my opinion hold on okay now it's public gifts to the schools uh the only piece that's called out in ours versus theirs is that if the if the uh gift is going to involve changing school plans for sites but it has to come before the school exam I guess we'll keep that really I'm just uh I'm looking at the

ones that says Google fees fines and charges the next one's on my list but they're not listed on the agenda okay I'm not sure why that was excluding last month for the month before Scott Cabral came to you with a price list on similar to the discussion we just had a price list for those items that there would be cost to the students power cords things that they they might break

technology names Etc but I would suggest we do with the policy of student funds and procedures is referred to an exhibit which can be updated again a price list of things that way if if we switch a piece of equipment and it becomes a more costly item to replace or less costly item to replace you can do that without having to change the policy so the policy itself was okay what I

would just suggest we do is have an exhibit for a reference to a separate price list which could be updated in a student handbook if need be it doesn't necessarily have to say that box foreign

sheet that's the one you recommended yes we should put the recommended policy first and then that's the only policy after so that committee knows that all the ones that are first are the ones that we're recommending uh what just one other thing to call the Committees um attention to in the new policy it suggested in paragraph three uh it's a second paragraph below the bulleted items there's a line over to the right

in the last line that says included the dial of participation in extra class activities and graduation exercises and activities while the student is enrolled in the district so if there was some significant of resolved matter it does give the committee some protection that you know the administration can act on that without being a violation of a policy bottom line is you're gonna if you

damage something you owe us money you got to pay it otherwise you don't go to anything but that has to be with fidelity okay uh public complaints I found the complaints the public gifts to schools policy I know you said it was updated for what the committee wanted um KCT that's done hang on a second is it is a line in our policy right below the first paragraph it says gifts that involve changes in school

plans or sites will be subject to the school committee approval that's just to prevent somebody from saying hey don't don't use them an apple tree and you're going to put it put it someplace it's going to be approved if it's going to be something that's a significant I'm donating a piece of equipment that we may not want on the school grounds or something we've updated uh by Road of

the committee what gets accepted and not like how it comes before us so I think that now that we're doing this we should put the language in to acknowledge the prior vote so we avoided to say like if you you would have to you'd have to accept everything over 100 500 whatever the number was we used should go in here because it says it'll be accepted and then you would read that I mean you got

to bring that committee to get accepted so if there's 14.85 sounds very t-shirts it shouldn't have to come there's a number I don't know what it is but it should come isn't it I don't know we got rid of something because it was like you would have to read 15.

whatever it is it should be reflected in the policy yeah and we put we went by the what the state right I think so yeah taking any public complaints the only thing it did suggest was that that the complaints be in writing uh which is in the second paragraph below um the bulleted items and this uh this is what you recommended the first page yes any thoughts on that and I'm superintendent

but I do think that we need to have a formalized system because anybody can call me and say hey Dr B's not doing her job I mean we we need to take them it's different levels of complaints right or something that's going to be investigated I do think that we need to have something in writing I I use I usually say to people all right let's let's put in writing so that we

can launch an investigation I do think that that needs to happen so the way I'm reading this now complaints about school Personnel will be investigated fully in failing period next sentence however before any such complaint is investigated the complaint must submit their complaint in arriving yep that's what this new policies recommended and based on the prior nonsense that we had to address with the

private superintendent this is not okay in my opinion because you have people that connect inappropriate to other people that might not feel like they need to make a complaint so if somebody makes a complaint there's a way to write that everything will be fully investigated but we can only do something as much as we know or whatever like this a level of by putting however before any such

complaint is investigated the complaint must submit their complaint in writing I think is a little too the tenor of what I you want to get is if you want to file a complaint put it in right somebody could file a complaint to you as the superintendent that says uh you know I'm a teacher and I'm being inappropriate with kids whatever it is something right whatever if this is the policy then you're saying

I'm not investigating them let's put him right you know I think it's just going I understand what you're trying to get at but I just think if if we're making policy then it's an absolute when you put the word must and there's situations that are taken much more serious if you put a name behind it have you gone to the principle like all those pieces that we talk about but if somebody's doing

something egregious like the old superintendent was and people verbally say or if people even legally verbally see if an administrator sees another administrator harassing somebody treating them inappropriate there's no complaint needed it's our duty in the law that we have to investigate that situation but if I read this all all employees would say no I can't do that because nobody nobody wrote a complaint so when

superintendent was acting like a jerk treat people like crap oh we we see it but we don't have that because nobody filed a complaints file complaint that's not fair and that's not right and I'm only using that as the most recent example of inappropriate behavior I mean so I would be careful how that's just my two cents on it I'm not looking stop it will push these forward at the

end and then you do what you got to do before the final one if that comes in with the full one I'm not voting for it like that I can tell you that but I want to vote to support always to go to the full committee okay um and last one relations with non-public schools our policy underneath was very simple it was two paragraphs um the masc suggested policy uh has a

number of uh steps required for approval of a private school I have to confess I was not aware of any of the eight steps that they require here and I suggest that um they say the law down below Mass General law this is a referenced that the committee you could get a little further legal advice or consider this because obviously our policy was very available in football based on what

the masc suggested and now there's these procedural steps that they suggest so on file if they're using this law which I don't know what the date was but I'm assuming they're not recent it says the legal reference it doesn't say what year those were right so any new school that's come into the district over the last 15 years the superintendent has a letter on file of their application to open a school

that's what this is saying right as I said I have to plead ignorance on this because I wasn't aware of anything it makes me sound like that's but it does make it sound like there's a procedure where the committee has to get involved in the approval process for the other school so and they would have to make a presentation to the school committee and all that so I haven't seen that happen

in my um in my University period maybe maybe check the reference it might be something that it's more recent than like check the legal references because if that's the case then the other schools haven't been doing what they need to do I know about like diamond and when they had a new program they got to get approval from sure I didn't know that either but we should at least know and as I said if you look

at the policy that we had underneath we got that from Monday we'll see one of those steps are in there so I'm kind of amazed at the expansion the problem is we also have it says adopted December 13 2010 so we got 13 years of laws changing that we didn't either they didn't tell us we were asleep at the switch or if people started submitting presentations to us we would know right so I think

everybody missed it 15 years old the last time

roll call yes Mr Bailey yes any new business I'd like to request I don't know which policy it is and I don't know where it is but there's I'm sure there's a policy around theft and if a individual takes school supplies or equipment and keeps them at their house I'd like to know what the penalty is there's got to be some sort of policy somehow motion to adjourn second roll call

let's try again yes Bailey yes thank you everyone have a good night