9.30.2026 Fall River School Committee Policy Subcommittee

Um, September 30th, 2026, Policy Subcommittee meeting to order.

We got a roll call, please.

Mr. Diaz?

Here.

Miss Riley?

Here.

Mr.— 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 unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Item 2, citizens input.

We have, um, one person that signed up.

We didn't receive any written input from him.

We have Keith Michon, um, East Providence, um, Protect Act and work from home.

Go ahead, Mr. Michon.

Well, thank you.

Uh, so I'm Keith Michon, president of the Florida Educators Association, and, um, I'm here with a few members tonight that care deeply about our immigrant families and the community.

And they're very happy to see the PROTECT Act on the agenda tonight and a policy to be in compliance with the PROTECT Act, which we're out of compliance right now.

And we're hopeful that that can get resolved and remedied quickly.

I usually don't suggest waiving a first read, but I think this is an instance that we may want to do that at the next meeting.

And then along with that, there's going to be a procedure.

And I'm very excited about the opportunity to come together with other stakeholders and have input on that procedure.

I think that's the correct way to develop procedures in a district, so I wanted to, you know, state that publicly, and I'm excited to do that work.

I also wanted to talk about the work-from-home policy that's been discussed before, and one of the things I hear everywhere that's discussed is that teachers can't work from home.

And it's kind of a disrespectful thing to say because teachers do a lot of work at home.

Now obviously they can't instruct the class live from home, but they do a lot of work at home.

There are opportunities for teachers to develop curriculum at home, participate in virtual PDs at home, and I believe that a work-from-home policy should be at the discretion of the superintendent to give opportunities where they make sense where it would be few for classroom teachers, but we now have a virtual school that has potential for ADA compliance to potentially have somebody working from home in that school where we can't hire 2 math teachers.

That might open up the pool.

So I ask you to consider all the possibilities that may come in the future and consider having some option for work from home.

Um, you know, in the district.

Thank you.

Just have one question, Keith.

Yeah, do you have a position on the— I'm not sure if you saw the backup for the draft policy for the work from home.

I have a position.

I didn't see the draft.

No, I just was talking about the, uh, the last presentation and discussion.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to discussion.

3-1, we have a discussion and vote to refer Protect Act policy.

And I'll turn it over to administration at this time.

Thank you, Chairperson.

So again, thank you to everybody for being here.

And before I begin, I'm just going to go over just a couple of— just to kind of give us an idea that the law was actually signed by Governor Healey on August 5th.

During the summer, and it includes— and I'm just doing some talking points— civil arrests, including federal immigration enforcement, which would be considered a civil arrest, are not allowed on school grounds during operating hours without a judicial warrant, and I'll explain that.

Districts, charter schools, and collaborative schools must establish a policy and procedure for interaction with civil law enforcement.

The policy must be adopted by the school committees.

They actually wanted this done in September.

We, of course, had, I think, one meeting on September 16th.

We didn't have a policy meeting where we were prepared to do that.

So we will, as Keith had stated, hopefully we, you know, have it on the agenda for the 7th, and we'll see what we're able to do.

And they talk about also the model policy, you know, we are getting from— uh, MASC has a model policy, DESE has come out with a model policy, a number of places.

So we have lots of resources.

Uh, also, uh, DESE has established a training series for superintendents, principals, and key staff.

So we actually, especially Fall River being a targeted area as we saw just recently, one of the things I will tell you is I attended 2 webinars in the past couple of weeks with my staff.

We also had outreach to Fall River from the Department of Immigration and Resources, and what they shared with us was people to come in and train, to work with our principals, to work with our staff to make sure parents, community members, you know, have opportunities whether it's virtual or offering some things in person.

So those, those are right now in progress.

And you also heard Keith mention, so Monday we're actually bringing together at Durfee High School after school, I want to say about 15 members.

And, and again, we're, you know, I don't want the group so big, but I want input.

So we're trying to make sure that we're honoring, you know, different stakeholders to make sure that we have voices.

The policies are pretty clear, or the procedures, as far as what is warranted, which is very helpful to us.

So, uh, you have the, uh, let me give you these also.

Our— we just finally got on the listserv for our own legal, Murphy, Hesitomi, and Lehane.

So they had sent this to me with, uh, the backup is the model procedures, which is what we work on, uh, on Monday with staff that in the group.

I just made copies of those.

So you have the policy, uh, ACL, interacting with law enforcement officers engaged in civil law enforcement.

And if you look through the PROTECT Act, I don't, I don't know if you want me to read or go over some of the highlights, but what it allows is, again, if a, if a civil law enforcement officer was to come on the campus or school grounds or areas that we determine during school hours, it could be at an athletic event, it could be a parking lot, One of the key takeaways from this is you must first of all— and you can imagine that one of the first people they will encounter would be, let's say, a principal, an authority at a school.

So that person immediately would have to contact a district-level supervisor, and that'll be the superintendent.

The superintendent's office, there will be a designee to determine if they in fact have a judicial warrant versus an administrative warrant.

So a judicial warrant is authorized by a court, and we have to obviously, you know, cooperate with you know, civil agents, you know, to make sure that we enforce the judicial wrongs.

But there are things that we're also trying to put in place, and those will be the procedures to make sure, depending on the age of the child or student involved, making sure we're connecting with parents and families, making sure we're cooperating, making sure we're documenting, making sure we're protecting— it's the Protect Act, you know, protecting our students.

And this is not disobedience on our end.

This is making sure that the checkboxes are done and we're, you know, protecting our students and our families as best as we can.

So you can take a look at that.

That's kind of it in a nutshell.

It also talks about, and we have quite a few, actually we have all these procedures.

We had to dig a little deep, but you have emergency plans.

And when you put those procedures in place, those are going to be considered your emergency plans for the Protect Act.

So you have emergency plans, you have buildings and ground security, talking about security cameras in schools.

All of these are policies you already have.

Searches and interrogations, student records, visitors to the schools, relations with police authorities.

So one of the things I think we'll have to look at with the policy subcommittee going forward is when you adopt the PROTECT Act, if you adopt the PROTECT Act with the procedures in place, that we have to look to make sure these align, you know, with those procedures that we put in place.

Are you referring to the, like, the, um, the cross-reference?

Correct.

So we probably, you know, we'll put together, as we said, we have a task force.

We will fill in, you know, the so-called emergency plan for who is the designee, how they contact, you know, having all the names, making sure we have it up on our website so parents understand.

They talk about the trainings.

But we'll have to look back.

For instance, visitors to the schools.

If we're going to claim that a visitor to the school, if they come on during the school day, they're not allowed on school grounds, then that goes for everybody, not just a civil agent coming on.

So we're going to have to make sure that our policies line up with, with the PROTECT Act.

So that'll give us a chance to review that.

I also put together for you, you have the model procedures.

Here.

So it actually explains what is a civil arrest.

So this again is what we'll go over with the group on Monday.

Would you prefer questions at the end?

Or should we intervene?

It's up to you all.

I just have one question.

And I know we're gonna take a look at these backup cross-reference policy in the future.

However, we talked about having visitors to the schools.

I mean, I covers, um, like parents, that covers, um, different community partners, that can cover many different things.

So forgive me if I didn't hear you correctly, but if we can't pick and choose visitors to the schools is what you're saying?

Or— no, I'm saying if you designate a school area and you say that you're not allowed, you know, on site— I, I have to look at your policies— you're not allowed in a certain area if we're not going to allow a civil agent to come, you know, onto a playground, you know, we wouldn't allow during the school day, that would be a visitor, they would have to come in through the front, you know, we don't allow people to just be walking through our playgrounds, or we have to make sure that we're covering that as we look at what we already have in place.

And I think it gives us a chance to really, you know, take a look, you know, at those areas that we considered sacrosanct that we've just consider somebody wouldn't just walk in off the street.

So they give you, as I said, definitions.

It just describes here, Mr. Dyer, like school grounds.

What is school grounds?

What is considered the school district?

What are operating hours if you say during operating hours of a school?

So these are things we'll have to clearly have listed.

Judicial warrant, or what is a judicial order?

Who's considered a law enforcement officer?

You know, try and pick some of the others here.

And interactions, and we actually have, we have an MOA with our SROs, we have, you know, relationships with our police and our authorities here in Fall River, we have a good working relationship, we meet with them, their support, you know, to our schools if we ever need them.

And I would, again, when we have this policy, and we have our procedures, we will make sure we open the doors and have conversations with them ahead of time, not waiting for something to happen, just so we're all on the same page.

They have something called escalation protocol, which again means if somebody comes on and we're trying to examine, is it an administrative warrant, is it a judicial warrant, it talks about being able to contact our attorneys right away to make sure that we're making those determinations.

In other words, the review of the warrant.

Our principals are not, you know, lawyers, and nor do I intend them to be that, so we'll make sure that with the training will provide them with all the support that they need, or their designee.

I think one of the interesting things here, we struggle, and I'm sure you as parents know this, or working in school districts, to get people to fill out.

It's so important when you say parent or guardian, and people, you know, want to get things done really quickly.

This is one of those times where we're really going to have to reflect and make sure you have parent or guardian, you have a backup for that.

And we, and again, if they're on parent or guardians, if something also happens, then you have to make sure It's incumbent upon us to figure out ways that we make sure parents update their emergency contact to show that there is— it could be a neighbour, it could be a relative, it could be a friend, but we're going to have to make sure that we clearly have that on the documents.

I think it's interesting when you talk about documentation.

Again, this is not, you know, you just want to document— there are sheets you'll see at the end here of just documenting who came.

What's the conversation?

You know, what was the action taken?

You know, for civil law enforcement.

For civil law enforcement.

So, and again, these will be the people on site, and they tell you to document.

Notifying parents, you know, making sure parent or guardians, if a child is of an age, that's something a little bit different.

And support for families.

So, the state is certainly providing.

There are a lot of agencies, and as I said, I think we can be very sensitive to the fact the fact that not everybody is going to want to come in person.

So we'll provide opportunities virtual, we'll provide things up on our website, we will provide, you know, in-person trainings.

So I'm really pleased that they reached out to Fall River and the authorities, and we had a conversation with them last week, and we'll follow up with them after we finish up with our task force to talk about what we'd like to put together.

Discussion, Ms. Rose?

So actually, I'm gonna find myself a little shocked that this is just coming into play.

I think I've had this policy on the books for more than 6 months now, and through experience, one thing I'd ask you to think about when you work on your procedures is sometimes a student's parents are taken but the student is not, and to have a process and support system in place for the student who is now left possibly with a neighbor or a relative and doesn't— is experiencing many things in addition to needing emotional support, but also may not have access to their clothing, their supplies.

And also, I would just make sure there's someplace in the procedure where that's addressed, um, because it happens.

And so we want to make sure that we have supports in place for the students.

But I— yes, and I would, I would recommend that we do waive a first read so we can get this in place as soon as possible.

All right, when we refer this to the full committee, the committee has the option under our policy— I didn't know if we had to refer it that way or if they do it.

Either way, I'm thinking— okay, means anything?

Um, do you yield?

Um, yes.

Yep, just do it.

Yeah, my only, um, question is, so when we have in some of these Like, we have to cross-reference our policy.

I know we talked about this briefly today.

We cross-referenced some of our policies regarding emergency plans, security cameras, um, visitors.

These are all policies.

Some of these are from 2015, 2010, 2017.

So these are policies that are going to need to be updated at some point.

So I don't know, um, this is something that we should prioritize in the near future.

This is something that can go within our current time frame at MASC.

We're going to talk about our current time frame and we can still pass this, right?

This has nothing to do with this.

So the policy requires— correct me if I'm wrong— we cross-reference certain other policies on here.

And these policies are old.

So I don't know if this is something we should prioritize in a future meeting, that since we need to cross-reference policies, I don't think we should cross-reference— like having emergency plans.

This is a policy from 2015, something that administration needs to take a look at.

We as a subcommittee in the school committee need to take a look at.

So not sure if this is something we should prioritize for our next meeting or something that we just take in alphabetical order.

So we have like EBC.

Yes.

Mr. Diaz, I wonder if you and I spoke to Sean Costello today from MASC.

I wonder if they already have model policies that actually, you know, interact with the PROTECT Act.

But like, you asked him that today, we had him on the phone, right?

No, we can, in between meetings, just figure that part out.

Do we have any motions?

I make a motion to move this to the full committee and consider waiving the first reading.

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Moving on to 3-2, we have MASC update.

So I have something I just wish to read out.

So to meet with the administration today in regards to this.

So going back in time a little bit, a few months a few weeks now.

Mr. Costello asked our secretary who was here at the time for our policy manual, our org chart, and our collective bargaining agreement.

They need that information to actually start and come down here and start the full policy manual review.

I don't believe any of that information has been provided to the state.

Um, Superintendent and myself had a call with Mr. Costello today, and, uh, Superintendent administration stated that they would get over the information they requested as soon as they can.

The issue that we have that Mr. Costello noted, that MASC needs our most up-to-date policy manual, which we do not have.

I believe the administration is going to consider— and correct me if I'm wrong, Superintendent— administration is going to consider directing some staff to go through our minutes to get the most up-to-date policies.

Um, I know this is something I'm a little bit disappointed in myself because I know this is something that this subcommittee has asked for, that I have asked for as one member, just making sure that we have the most up-to-date policies in our policy manual, not just for us as a school committee.

However, so, um, parents, staff members at home can read through a policy manual that has the most up-to-date information.

I'm confident we can get this turned around quickly.

However, it's something we need to be on top of, and I'm hoping we can have that very soon.

Let's do it.

So I thought that we had all of the policies in that one spot, and then there was one other spot that had all the other stuff that we were updating.

It's the way that I took it.

I thought so too.

What spot?

So there's the policy manual, but then there was a whole other set of like policies that hadn't been either put into the policy manual.

But I thought those were all of our policies.

I believe that's complete.

You think there are other ones that aren't on either of those lists?

Absolutely.

So what was shared with me, there might have been policies in meetings that were passed that were, that were not taken out and put in these so-called— I don't know if you're going to call them folders or drives.

I can provide some examples.

So one example, School Committee 2024, and most recently under this school committee, has made changes to our, um, some of our finance policies, having a limit for what contracts come before the school committee.

You recall we had it at $25,000, we lowered it to $20,000, then we raised it back to $25,000 recently.

And these were policies— the $25,000 policy was something that was adopted, I believe, in 2024.

One other example is the, um, one of the personnel policies where we— with this subcommittee and this school committee removed the, um, language around the administrative assistant reporting directly to the superintendent.

The school committee administrative assistant.

Our attorney couldn't find that policy, as you recall.

So that was, um, just 2 examples, and I believe there's many more.

So I think there is— I think the best thing, if I'm just giving my advice as one member, is administration, um, or administration delegating this to go through the minutes from the past few years, find out any other policies that might have fallen through the cracks that have been updated, so we can have the most up-to-date information to MASC.

And that's what Mr. Costello stated on the phone today as well, because we brought up that issue and he said this will not work unless they have the most up-to-date manual with changes that the school committee has duly adopted.

Okay, so, so already I have started to work with, uh, the staff to identify org charts, making sure We have a number of work charts, so I'm approving some that we recently updated.

We've had a lot of personnel changes, collective bargaining agreements, Human Resource Office will put those together.

As you said, the policies, so I will again make a phone call to make sure I know where they all are.

And we'll start to look, as Mr. Dyer has just mentioned, if there are policies that have been passed, I'll have to, I'll have to get some guidance on that as to to how far back and how we look these up to see what we might be missing.

Also, Mr. Costello shared with the group that we have a contact at MASC.

So we talked about uploading all this really in just email form.

And then they put it in, I think, a Dropbox folder.

So yes, so we'll have a way to— and that's what they create.

And also, the timeline, I think, was very quick.

They were going to be willing to come here in November.

You will laugh, but I had said to him other meetings, and I did this in Brockton, and I said, are they 4-hour meetings?

And he said, nobody can look at policies for 4 hours other than Colin.

I think he said you could.

Yes.

So Chanel and I made a 90-minute rule.

I think that's our cap.

Well, he capped it at 2 hours, so I was actually happy to do it.

He said 2 hours tops.

All right, thank you.

So, and that would be once a month, which is a really good start as far as, you know, whether you do it, you know, by section at time, there could be some of the priority, you know, policies you're looking at.

Correct.

That's why I mentioned, um, we can have just a quick discussion on what— when he does come down, do you all have a preference on how we start?

I was thinking just going Section A, Section B, Section— I agree, except for things that might come up as a priority.

So we'll do the balancing game stuff.

Yes, that makes sense.

Okay, other than that, Superintendent, can I just ask for an update in a Friday memo or an update at the school committee meeting on where we are in the research?

Sure, hopefully we'll have uploaded quite a bit of this, at least started the process.

It's already October by the time we're in our school committee meeting, so we don't have a lot of time.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Seeing none, this is discussion items.

So we can move on to 3-3, which is a bullying update, and I'll turn it over to the administration.

Thank you.

I apologize, Dr. Barnard could not be here this evening.

Claudia Koster, I really tried to get some backup since they have been instrumental with their team on putting this together.

So in your packet you have— I'm actually going to pull this up— you actually have, and we met with Dr. Barnard today in my office and just kind of went over what the procedure was for why they made these changes.

So the committee reviewed the bullying policy, and they have made some modifications to languages.

It has been reviewed by your attorney, Michael Joyce.

And they talked about the structure was going to be that you would review this policy every 2 years.

It was last reviewed, I think, in October 2024.

And I know Claudia was leading that review committee.

So if you look at the language here, you can see the different updated language and colors.

And in the bullying policy, you'll see the updates.

And what Dr. Barnhart shared with us is they're very careful to not overdo it in a policy and, you know, put things in there that there's a lot of legal language in here.

But also taking some language from, you know, other bullying policies that the states had talked about being exemplars.

I think one they mentioned was a name, I think it was Middleborough.

So you can look at some of the— I don't know if you want me to go over the changes.

You've got them in front of you there.

I have a few questions.

So where I'll start off with, and Superintendent is right.

We, um, I did meet with the superintendent and Dr. Bronhard briefly before this meeting today just, uh, because we just received this— I'm not gonna say last minute, but we did receive this suddenly— to just go over what's happening here.

So a few questions that I have.

So if I'm reading this correct, there was a review committee that was implemented in March of 2026, and they had— they met once, if I'm reading this backup correctly.

I'm sorry, Colin, where were you seeing that they met once?

Okay, so I, um, in the backup that was provided here, we have at the end of the packet— the packet, I'm sorry.

It's okay.

Um, Bullying Intervention Plan 2026 meeting dates.

I see one of March 25th, 2026.

I can't answer whether that was the only, you know, meeting.

If it says that there, I— unless they didn't update it.

But I thought she had just told us they just met.

She just said they just reviewed some survey material.

That's why I'm questioning that date.

That's also why I'm questioning that.

I thought I saw it in the same That was said to us that they had just had the survey, which is required.

I thought they reviewed the data.

I recall that.

I recall something.

I can, I can find that out for you.

I don't know.

And so the reason I requested this go on the agenda is everyone knows school committee is the body that approves policy.

And I saw, I'm sure we all saw, that there was a survey that was going around and just wanted to just touch base on where they were at with that and what was the results of the survey, what was some of the, um, information they were receiving to begin to put together this policy.

I'm assuming that's why they asked for the survey.

It seems that looking at this, the survey comment summary is blank, so I'm not sure if they And I think Dr. Barnett said to us, you know, where she wasn't able to be here, she had talked about either another policy subcommittee meeting or, you know, doing a presentation before the full school committee.

So I don't see the policy here.

This is the policy.

No, this is the plan.

Our policy is 2 pages.

This is the bullying prevention and intervention plan, which should be all of this and updated, but it is not our policy.

If you go to our policy on our website, it is policy— of course, I don't think it's numbered, but it is 1, 2, 3, 4 pages, and the last page starts the intervention plan.

But there is a policy at the front of it.

This is missing the policy.

It's just got the plan.

So we don't— the plan belongs to the district.

That's the superintendent takes the lead with this whole committee that she's got.

That's who does all that work.

We authorize the policy.

So I think this is plan policy.

That's why everyone— yeah, it's been past precedent that this would come before the committee.

It's come before the policy subcommittee.

But it should have a policy.

This isn't the actual— I'm fine if we want to show the committee the whole plan, that's fine.

But we should have a policy.

There's a model MASC policy that's 2 pages.

I, I mean, there's no— this is the plan.

We need a policy.

So I think this needs to come back with the updated Well, we'll have it from MASC, the policy, and then if you want us to review the plan, that's fine.

But that's not— this is not policy, this is a plan.

So I'm concerned about that because it says bullying intervention plan policy.

And so they— so maybe folks think this is the policy.

I wonder.

There's no way we can have this many people.

No, no, no one will ever look at it.

It's the plan.

And when someone goes to, to look— someone has a bullying issue, they would look up the plan and review what the steps are and what to do.

But the policy is very clear and then should have a link to this plan for parents.

We can review the policy.

Yeah, I think when we have NASC here, we can update our— we can match the policy to this plan, and the plan should be linked in the policy so parents can easily follow it.

But this is not a policy, this is a plan.

I will say this, and because it is in our backup, I'm going to make a brief comment on this because I think— yeah, I, I'm happy to do that also.

I think it's good.

I just was There was, um, I'm trying to find the page again.

But there was, was Miss Obershein involved in this plan policy?

She's not in the people that were in this list.

She's not in the committee, but she didn't have any— I can't answer that, Colin.

I don't know if she was or wasn't.

Because there was something in here, there was like change language, trying to find the exact page.

Oh yeah, because of special education.

Yes, and specifically it was language in there, and I'm going to paraphrase it because I can't find the exact page right this second, around if there's a student on an IEP, the student, um, might be the target of bullying, we would have to work with that student to, um, change their behavior.

And that, that's concerning to this member.

There's no student who may be a victim of bullying should have to change their behavior to avoid being bullied.

It needs to— the bullying needs to be addressed, not, not the victim.

I, I read it differently.

Um, let me just— I don't remember reading it that way, but I thought it was to strengthen their social skills so that they wouldn't be targets.

Yes, but we don't have— oh, it's students with disabilities.

It's Uh, right here.

Yes, but what does that mean?

Is that— I, I, I think what you said was correct, but what does that— what does that mean, strengthening their, their social skills?

What, what does that mean, changing a behavior?

I'm sure that we could give an example.

If there was a student who was vulnerable to bullying because of, I don't know, even their disability, you know, is there a way to strengthen not only the students that they interact with, but making sure that, you know, there's dialogue.

You want to make sure the student is not a target of bullying.

And does it mean standing up for themselves?

I think that's different, but reading the language, it was confusing.

So I think maybe having a presentation that we can have all parties, including Mr. Ovechkin, here to explain what that means.

I think that's a good point.

Yeah, really.

I read that myself, and I actually saw that as a positive.

Strengthening student social skills so that they could not be entitled to bullying.

Should we make a motion to table this and bring back the policy?

Yes.

Motion made.

Second.

Second.

Motion made.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes.

Moving on to 3-4, cash handling and accounting procedures.

I believe we just have a one-pager on this.

Um, I'll turn it over to the administration if they just wish to elaborate on it.

So again, this has come to my attention a number of times recently.

Um, you know, we finally have our chief financial officer on board.

We have had lengthy conversation about this.

So one of the things that we need to do is to come up with not only procedures or policies for handling of cash, but we're trying to get a handle on where cash lies.

I mean, it could be everywhere from 50 cents for a logo that they're collecting in schools for spirit wear to Chromebooks that are broken and you issue, you know, what's it called, destruction of property or just, you know, something broken, yonder bags, it could be gate receipts at a football game or a sporting event.

So there are even interactions with your PTOs.

So I understand that they're separate organizations, but what we can do again is take a look at, you know, making sure if you're connected with us, you have 2 signers, you know, you have a treasurer, you have a report to your organization, just making sure that we're protected in those ways.

So it's a big undertaking.

I think it's something we can do.

I can hand it over to our Chief Financial Officer.

He and I have had lengthy conversation.

I will tell you I dealt with something similar in Brockton, not as superintendent, but many years ago in a department I was overseeing, and had the help from a consultant who works with municipalities.

I have not reached out to him yet.

I had spoken to another superintendent who had used him recently in one of the neighboring cities.

So, um, that's, that's where we're headed with this.

But Alder, you can talk a little more deeply about it.

Sure.

Um, as I'm new here, the first thing I want to do is learn your procedures, and on not just cash but on everything that we do.

So one of them I went through, I was looking for a cash handling policy procedure.

I found something that's a few years old.

It's really more just a set of procedures, not just for cash but for payroll, for accounts payable, for all the different departments here in Fall River.

And it's, it's not something that my accounting side says to me is as detailed as it should be.

I'd like to see printed envelopes with a turnover.

I'd like to see spots for signatures where the person who collected it counted it, the principal signs off, and the whole procedure of how those envelopes make their way all the way to accounting and then eventually to the treasurer of the city and deposit in the bank.

So they do do a formal procedure right now with school lunch.

They do do it with the before and after daycare, but I don't see it with the other programs.

So I'm gonna put together, with or without a consultant, I'll begin the process, but hopefully with a consultant who'll go through, because now there's Venmo, there's Zelle or whatever it is.

There's all these other ways— yeah, ParentSquare.

There's all these other ways that parents want to pay.

For services.

So aside from cash, there's the, you know, the credit card, the electronic, there's checks.

So, and parents are asking for these different ways of paying the bills.

You know, if a laptop is broken, there's a bill that's generated for it.

If your underbag is missing, there isn't really a bill, but we will have a form that's filled out.

I've seen that, that goes through, but Even if they sell spirit wear, if they sell clothing, if they sell pencils at the school, the whole process I need to kind of formalize so that we don't have 38 different deposits.

We could have one set of deposits.

I want to make sure there's a place in the school.

I want to make sure every school has a safe.

I know some schools use a locked drawer or locked cabinet, but safes are not that expensive.

I want a safe at each school and then a formalized pickup, whether it's, you know, every Friday or depending on the volume of cash, a formalized pickup and a way to track it, signatures along the way.

So very tight policy.

We did this in Brockton years ago.

And I've done that in my last district.

So that's basically one of my— cash is top on my list.

Aside from all my other work, I want to get a handle on that right away.

I mean, you can't even go to, you know, not that I've been lately, but Gillette.

Somebody said to me, I tried to buy a soda.

I mean, there's no cash.

You know, when you're going up to a stand or buying something, it is cashless.

Yes.

So I think, um, and superintendent knows my position on this, I think we hired— I don't think personally, I think you're more than well capable of coming together like on your own of, um, of procedures without us having to bring in an outside consultant.

And I also believe this is something we need to have ASAP.

Without going into detail, some things that have come to my attention are extremely concerning when it comes to handling of cash, and this is something that we need sooner rather than later.

Even if we— the administration puts together some temporary procedures for the short term until we can develop either a policy or long-term procedures.

However, there needs to be something that has to be done in the short term.

So I'm hoping superintendent is open to doing something with that.

I'd still like the ability to reach out to professional on the, on the electronic stuff, on the Venmos and all of that, because I don't know enough about that.

Mr. Riley.

So is ParentSquare what we're using for the lunch program also here?

Are we using— we used to use MySchoolBucks.

Is it ParentSquare now?

Oh, you don't have free— you have lunch.

It's universal lunch now.

Universal lunch.

But there is the, the à la carte items.

Yeah.

So how do they buy their à la carte items?

I know the students could put money on an account.

Yes.

And I think it's— is it MySchoolBucks?

That's— it used to be MySchoolBucks.

My son doesn't do à la carte, so I don't know, I don't put any money anymore, but ParentSquare does it all.

So I think since they're already our vendor, sometimes it's easier that way.

But MySchoolBucks does this, so I'm confident ParentSquare does this.

MySchoolBucks does all of our Chromebook repairs, it even does our retiree payments for healthcare.

It does— we used MySchoolBucks for everything.

So there's— so MySchoolBucks or ParentSquare?

We use MySchoolBucks, but ParentSquare, since it's already in your system might be— you might want to explore ParentSquare for all the payment options, but it's something we all have access to as parents, so we already have it.

So using it to, to be the thing that pays for everything just kind of makes sense.

Sure.

Um, and since they're our vendor, they should come and meet with you.

I would think they would be very interested in sharing all of that with you, right?

I would assume they put a device at each school that you could— at the front office that you could make your payment on?

Use your student ID.

That's usually what, what we use.

But it's all online.

Parents can just go online and put money on that account, and you can send them an online bill for— like, we use it for Chromebooks.

We send the bill out via, um, MySchoolBucks because that's what we have, and they pay their Chromebook bill that way.

ParentSquare must have the exact same thing where if you want to bill them for something, it goes from ParentSquare right to that parent.

So, and I agree with you, cashless is the way to go so you don't deal with it at all.

But inevitably you're going to have some forum where cash will show up.

So you need some— we do need a policy, right?

Because if they're selling an item at the school for a dollar, then you're going to be collecting dollars.

Restore.

So my daughter spends a lot of money at Durfee à la carte, and she brings cash all the time.

And I think the problem that we were having last year is we never saw where that money was coming in.

We never physically saw any where, where that cash was actually coming in, in anything.

That would be a daily, pretty much a daily deposit to the bank.

And then we never saw it nowhere in anything, in a financial report.

We never saw any nutrition.

Exactly.

The nutrition account would be— but we never— do we get anything?

We don't think it's a nutrition account.

We never saw anything.

I never saw a nutrition account.

We asked.

We never saw where that money was coming in, the cash dollars was coming in.

Correct.

And the nutrition account, you'll see— I've never seen it.

Yeah, we asked about it last year.

Federal reimbursement, you'll see state reimbursement, you'll see grants.

Yes.

And then there should be cash.

Yeah, that's deposited.

We had, we had asked about it last year.

That's— I can get you that.

Thank you.

So, is this something that the administration could possibly bring forward in a month or two, some sort of updated procedure?

Yes.

The last question I do have is on the consulting.

Do we have a consulting line item in the budget?

Where would— is there anything for consulting?

Like, where do— because I have the concern that we should not be going to outside consultants for miscellaneous items unless it's going to come before the school committee.

We have a tight budget.

And, um, is this— I don't know if there's a line item that says consulting, but I know that, um, from my history at other districts, professional development, a lot of times you bring a consultant in who speaks to everyone.

That's under professional development.

So it depends on the category.

There's usually never a line item called consulting unless it's purposely placed in the budget.

But, um, that's a— I mean, all districts have consultants they bring in.

That's all.

Um, Mr. Riley, can I just get your opinion on consulting?

Is it something that you guys— I don't have a consulting line.

I have the same thing as Aldo.

If a consultant comes in under professional development, we pay them out of professional development.

Um, if it's capital, it's coming out of capital.

That's typically the only other place I think that I would see a consultant.

But are we talking about hiring a consultant do this for us, or you mean you're going to reach out to other folks and see what they do?

Well, I was going to reach out to a consultant about the whole electronic portion of it.

How does that work?

He works with municipalities.

Oh, I see.

So someone to tell you how it works or give us updates.

So give us updated information on how we can make it work for ourselves, because there are things in the law where if there's a 3% fee for using a credit card you would need an appropriation to cover that 3% fee.

There are things that fall into place.

So you gotta make sure on the municipal end of it you handle it right.

The treasurer's gonna say, wait a minute, you got a $100 sale here, you know, at the school store, but only $97 arrived in the bank.

Where's that 3%?

Now things start falling out of place.

So there's laws that handle that.

You might have to charge $100 plus $3 if they're gonna use a credit card.

You'll see this sometimes when you pay a bill.

They'll say, You have to pay the convenience fee or whatnot.

So those are the things that I would say.

So in Mass municipal law, the district has to eat the fee?

Yes and no.

You can't.

If you made a sale of $100, you have to put $100 in the bank.

You can't say 3% has gone to a fee.

Correct.

So, but when we get the fee for— I'm just going to give you an example of the lunch fund.

So we have parents pay.

I'm going to put $100 on my son's lunch account.

I get charged 3%.

The district doesn't get charged 3%.

Correct.

So I put $100 in, I actually have to put in $103.

Correct.

So the municipality would get the $100.

Yes.

And the $3 goes— so you kind of said it in reverse.

But that's what I'm saying is if someone comes into the school store, I'm assuming there's a store at the high school, they buy a sweatshirt.

Right.

And it's $50.

They use a credit card for $50.

On your end, you're not going to get a $50 deposit in the bank.

You would have to say it's $50 plus a fee of 3%.

You'd have to collect it on the spot so that in the end the $50 makes it to the bank.

Gotcha.

That's the part that I, I don't— I guess my own personal opinion, I wouldn't recommend dumping into Zelle, Venmo, and all that.

I would go ParentSquare.

Use a system you already have in place.

There's free structure.

They work with schools.

They know what the fee structures have to be.

So Rhode Island has a law we cannot charge more than a 2% fee to parents.

So for example, if ParentSquare says we charge 3%, the district has to find a way to cover that 1%.

So we have to build that into our budget.

So I don't know what the Massachusetts rules are, but if you have a company like ParentSquare who works with districts, yes, my bet is they're going to know how to address those issues.

So maybe starting with them, and they— since they're already our vendor, rather than paying a consultant, let's go to the people who already work for us and say, how could we make this work with you?

Yes.

Just a start.

And then if you say, that didn't give me enough info, I need something else, then maybe that's another conversation to have around what we bring in.

But I would say ParentSquare is already our vendor.

They're gonna wanna help you.

That'd be great.

Just gonna end with saying this.

I think we have bigger issues than just Tommy and Sally buying Uh, hot dog at the stand with cash.

But I think, um, but I think that we'll be getting updates as a committee in the near future on that.

So I think we can— this is a discussion, we can move on.

Is there any— no further questions?

Move on to 3-5, which is discussion, vote to refer a superintendent school community communications policy.

So I just wish to preface by stating it's important.

And I think I can say this, where it's been advised that whenever we have communications with whoever the superintendent is, we make sure we have something that we all are agreeing on.

So I think it, it goes to an accountability going both ways.

I'll speak for myself as, um, the only member on the committee here currently that has Um, served under 2 superintendents.

I know we both served under the prior administration for a short amount of time, but for a bigger amount of time, the communication styles were— I'll leave that just different.

Um, in some ways better than the others for one administration, some ways better than the other for, for this administration.

I think it's important that we have a baseline, a written baseline of our expectations from the superintendent, from the administration, on what should be communicated to us.

So we're duly notified, and when it comes to an evaluation or it comes to whenever the contract renewal for whoever the next superintendent is, we have data that can support this.

Um, I think this is a policy that is When you read the language, it's common sense.

I don't think it goes overbroad, and I think this is something that we should consider adopting.

With that, I yield, Ms. Riley.

Just, Superintendent, have you had time to review this?

I have.

Did it seem reasonable to you?

Um, I looked at it quickly.

It seems to give you some discretion on timeline and, and how to communicate and when to communicate.

I just didn't know if there was something that stuck out to you that was— Yeah, I'm not going to really comment on it at this point.

You know, I will continue to communicate if there are things I need to improve.

I certainly stand by the fact, and thank you, Colin, as you said, there are some things that, you know, are— you consider a way of communication that might be better in both the superintendents that you've served under.

Our goal is obviously to support a district of, I'll say, 11,000 kids, 2,700 employees, all kinds of departments being out in the schools.

So it has to be reasonable, a reasonable, you know, I'm trying to make sure, and you have to react very quickly.

For instance, this morning we had a bus fire, and, you know, the bus company through Ken contacted Liz, they contacted me, That's something we get out to you immediately.

I mean, that was impacting kids.

So again, you do the best you can.

It's all day long.

I want to make sure that I communicate with you in a way that's effective, you have information to do your jobs respectfully, and at the same time you give me the latitude to be able to do my job.

So that's all I'll say.

I'll take a look at it, find out— you'll have to share with me the areas that are of real concern.

One thing that Colin and I discussed was at the end of the day, and I do this for a reason, I send out not in an email form, I send it out in a confidential phone message to each of you.

And it's not a landline phone, it's something that only you can get, or you have a voicemail to get that.

And it's sent out to you each day to update you on, you know, many things that happen in the district.

And there was question about, well, why couldn't it be an email?

And, you know, I have my reasons right now, and I'm going to continue to do this.

If we have a discussion and I can share with you if I need to do it both ways, then I guess that's an easy fix.

So I just need a little bit of latitude for some of the decisions I'm making.

Sure.

And I think just to wrap up this conversation, if there's ever a question as to whether what the superintendent should or should not communicate, we have a written baseline, a policy that we can go to.

So there can never be any questions.

And again, this is something that, as you said, Mr. Riley, doesn't go— it's reasonable, doesn't go over the top, and just keeps things that I need to know and just keep us, um, informed.

And it's not necessarily just because they're— they're not— us adopting this policy is not saying that there's these systemic issues right now with communication.

Is it developing a baseline?

Because we Again, I've noticed if one member is serving under for a long period of time too, or serving with 2 superintendents, how communication can be so different.

So keeping it in a model format that makes sense, I think, will be helpful for all of us moving forward.

So any further questions?

No?

I'll make a motion to refer to the full committee.

Second.

Okay, um, further discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor, aye.

All those opposed?

Motion passes.

Okay, moving on to the last items.

3-6 is the work from home policy, and I just quickly want to preface, and the reason I asked, um, Mr. Mishan why, if he received the backup policy.

One, I believe we should get in the habit— so if anyone wants to see our backup for any meeting, full school committee meeting, like the public backup for full school committee meeting or subcommittee, the, um, anyone in the public should have that ability to view that backup.

I have the ability as a citizen to review like city council backup, and I know other school committees and school departments around the Commonwealth have it.

So when you click on their agenda you can see the backup.

Um, so moving into the actual policy, the policy that is before us today— I know this is something that we tabled from the last meeting to allow the administration to review.

I, I don't believe the administration took— made any changes to this policy.

The policy that's presented does give the administration certain discretion and certain extenuating circumstances, um, with items that have come to our attention throughout the last few years of things that shouldn't have happened.

Like staff members, um, not in, not in this bargaining union, but others like this S9 employees working from Portugal, working from other, um, other places.

We had a situation recently where A staff member was working from home working on grants.

Grants, it was the end of their tenure and they were working from home on grants.

So I think just having a baseline policy, which is something I know many members of the committee are looking for, would be helpful.

Um, but that's my comments.

I'll turn it over to the administration if they wish to add or— Well, in the discussion about a work from home policy.

First of all, we couldn't find this with MASC.

They don't seem to have a model policy.

I'm not sure what other districts do other than leave it at the discretion of the superintendent.

I think this is clear as far as eligibility or expectations.

And as I mentioned, there are times where there could be a reason I can't give you every example, but I could have a family member not well, the staff member staying home, something that we need in the district.

If they're able to, you know, give me a timeline what they're able to do.

So I've actually dealt with that since I have been here with employees.

It could be a medical situation.

I work with HR.

There are times that they are able to perform a duty that we actually need.

And that they have a particular skill for.

So I think it's a case-by-case basis, and that's really what I can say about it.

And there would be, I think the most important thing, it mentions expectations and accountability.

So, you know, if you're doing something, then there's a product or a way for, you know, the district to say, yes, that's your work time, this is what you accomplished, and there was, you know, some accountability for oversight.

The only thing I would add, and I recall this conversation when we had this debate in 2025, it was a debate whether or not adding language in there, whether or not the superintendent notifies the school committee when they place— when they allow someone to work from home.

So whoever that superintendent is, I'm not saying Dr. Smith would do this, but whoever the superintendent is can't abuse— allow that work from home to be abused.

Like allowing a staff member to work from Portugal on certain things.

That's something— and if it came to my attention as a member of the school committee, I'm noting that in an evaluation, that that's, um, a misuse.

But I'm sure there are limited but a few situations where it would, it would make sense.

Very limited.

However, that's something that should be a case-by-case, and then we will How's that?

I guess evaluate from there.

Um, that's my thought.

So, um, Miss Stewart, I'm gonna tell you, my only issue that I have is an illness.

If somebody is sick in their home and they're ill, I have the issue.

If you're that ill in your home, why are you working?

You're ill. And I have an issue if you're working because you're that ill that you, you're too ill to come into work.

You're too ill to be working.

From home.

So today I'm ill. Obviously everybody knows that I have a cold.

I'm not that big of a— like, it's not that dramatic.

But 2 days ago, right?

But if I was like sick sick, I wouldn't have been here, and I, I shouldn't have come to work because you're too sick and you shouldn't be in work.

So like on here it says illness, injury or illness.

But if my right foot, I broke it and I shouldn't drive, I understand because you can't drive.

So it's a different kind of a thing.

But just like teachers, yes, I understand teachers are going to be working from— they do all kinds of different stuff.

That's a complete— yeah, that literally has nothing to do with them.

But I, I'm sorry, an illness is completely different.

I don't think you should work from home if you are ill. Just don't.

Listen, I'm ill. You're too much.

It's just you're sick, you're tired.

It's just— I think it's just different.

I think there is— we have teachers here, representatives, and I think it is worth noting, having been a teacher, as, you know, a number of us have, yeah, the work from home is, you know, might not be a policy, but it's happening.

You work at Apple.

You work here and then you work at home.

No, it's not.

That's different.

Yeah, I think so.

It's out of superintendent's judgment.

Yes.

Yes.

I think just to address Mr. Michon's point, I think the items that why we're considering policy had nothing to do with some of the circumstances that Mr. Michon might have brought up.

It's to do with, with other more administrative factors from, from higher up positions.

Well, the other thing that we talked about in here with your superintendent Because it's important to have knowledge.

So again, it's not a policy, it's not something that we do on a regular basis, as we've all agreed.

You know, we need people to come into work to do their job, to be accountable, to be part of a team.

So on here you'll see a written request to their supervisor and not or, so, and the superintendent or designee.

So if there is somebody allowing that, you know, and again, I'll share this with staff staff, you know, comes to the superintendent.

So we develop a form that has to be signed.

I can't tell you how many things I sign every day.

So, and take, and I signed them.

So this would be something we would develop a form and make sure that it's fine for the superintendent before it's approved.

If in fact that happened, like I said, it's just, it's not a common practice or has not been.

I guess I'm gonna agree with Superintendent Smith.

I've never seen it as a policy.

I mean, if someone needs to work from home, that's at my discretion in my district.

I think it would be at our superintendent's discretion in this district, because this for me creates a lot of parameters, right?

For one or more days.

Well, what's more?

Today and 100 more days?

Today and 30 more days?

Like, I just feel like it's so individual.

You gave a couple of perfect examples.

You can be sick.

I've got pneumonia, I'm coughing, of course I can't work from home.

But I broke my foot and they won't let me drive for 6 weeks and I'm the one working on policy subcommittee meeting minutes and agendas.

I could do that from home.

I can type on my computer.

And I think the superintendent can say, if you could give me 2 hours a day to do X, Y, and Z, we could figure out how to compensate for that or only deduct so much sick time or whatever it might be.

I just feel like when you set up a policy, it's almost like it becomes an expectation, and that's what worries me because we're in a district, we work with kids that we, we just had an attendance policy that came through.

So I just worry that making it a policy makes it an expectation versus a superintendent has the discretion to decide decide if someone can work from home for whatever, from any level of employee depending on what the work is, that that would be at the superintendent's discretion.

And for me, I thought we tabled this to talk with MASC about it.

I didn't realize we were bringing it back, but if MASC agrees that we don't need a policy, I think we should listen to their advice.

I'm not saying they didn't, I just— we couldn't get a policy from MASC.

There's no baseline model.

This was originally referred by the school committee at the time, I believe more than once, to the policy subcommittee to develop a policy.

The only reason why I'll push back, then the policy should just be superintendent notifies the school committee.

So I agree there are instances, I agree with you, instances where it would make sense in limited capacities.

However, It's been abused in the past.

It's been abused by super— and we had no idea.

And what was the defense at the time?

We don't have a policy, so we need something to cover ourselves.

But how do you think this policy stops that from happening?

I'm going to go back to we're only responsible for one person.

And if we find that people— that work from home is being abused all over the place and the superintendent is the only one who can grant that, then that's who we would have to hold accountable.

Putting this— I don't know how putting this policy in place stops what you just said.

So what the defense— well, how would you address the issue?

By holding the superintendent accountable.

It's easier said than done.

It's easy when you have the committee.

However, at the time, the defense was, I can't tell you that.

It's not none of your— it's not in the school committee's purview.

I can't let you know what decisions I made as superintendent.

That's the defense because, and it's no policy on it.

That was the defense at the time.

So yeah, I still don't know how that's going to come back.

I think we should let the committee have at least a full discussion on this again because this was referred from the committee.

So even if we don't take a recommendation, I think we should refer to discussion up.

Okay, so we can get more committee members to at least weigh in.

So I'll make a motion to refer the policy with no recommendation on adoption.

With no recommendation of adoption.

No recommendation.

Second, no recommendation.

Discussion on the motion.

All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

All right, motion passes.

All right, item number 4, new business.

Do we have any new business today?

Seeing none, I'll just hand a motion to adjourn.

Second.

All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

Thank you, thank you everyone, thank you.