10.15.2024 Policy Subcommittee

order here Mr Das here Mr Cory here per here okay this is a meeting of the policy subcommittee and before we start can we say a pledge of allegiance first I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God isible 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 again this is a a regular subcommittee meeting of the policy committee um item number one roll call we did it item number two salute to the flag open

meeting law citizens input do we have anybody signed up for Citizens input nobody so we may uh continue on to item number three and open up our first discussion item 301 discussion and vote to refer to review new policies and I think uh the following policies were recently added the Civil Rights complaint policy for Child Nutrition programs curriculum development and adoption and service animals in

school it's Brian Brian L okay Mr L yep um so these three were given to us by the the um masc massach Massachusetts Association of school committees um they sort of send out um I don't if it's monthly bonly or how often but um notices of policy updates so what I did was I I worked with Deb cabal I I just took sort of a handful of them just to

kind of look at in this meeting um so these first three that we're looking at these are all from masc um the very first one which is the Civil Rights complaint policy for Child Nutrition programs as sort of indicated on that first page it's um it's a brand new policy it's required by USDA food nutrition services this was something that they recommended um I think it was last fall when they sent out their

update so we're sort of working backwards a little bit and trying to play catchup um but this is one of those new programs that they've uh put into place or new requirements um and this is the policy that they provided to us so this is not something that we currently have in our our existing policies okay do you want me to go through all the two as well yeah give us

a briefing yep um so the next one that uh masc provided it's actually a combination of two existing policies so if you look at our policy manual we have um policy igd which is curriculum adoption and we also have policy IGA which is um curriculum development masc um said that uh you don't need to have two separate policies for this and all they did was combine the two policies they didn't make any other changes to

the language it's literally taking one policy in the um other policy combining them to have a new igig policy um so that's the the only change for the curriculum development and adoption and then the last one uh under this section service animals and schools we currently have a policy in our policy manual that's um policy IMG it's just animals and schools there is a section of that policy that deals

specifically with service animals all this new policy did was remove that section and create its own policy for service animals um so the policy right now on animals and schools is about three pages long once if this new one gets adopted we'll just have two separate policies one for animals in schools and then a totally separate one for service animals in schools um but no changes to the actual language it's just

sort of removing it from that um parent policy okay do we have any questions go ahead Mr Das yeah um I'll start with the um civil rights um policy um for the Child Nutrition programs just one quick question um towards the end of the policy where it says but not limited to explaining the steps in the complaint process is there some sort of like written like checklist of like um steps

of a complaint need to take to um like Implement some sort of complaint is there a checklist um how's the process work that I I I don't know that we have a process in place I I think that might be something that if this policy were adopted we' we'd maybe have to put into place um I yeah I I'm I'm unaware of any kind of process right now where someone can initiate a civil rights complaint for

the Child Nutrition programs so that might be something that we would need to work on right just because um it says because it's required by law it says explaining the steps in the complaint process so if someone wants to go and file a civil rights complaint um I'm assuming there's going to be a person designated by the school department to explain what that process looks like is there so there's not currently a

um like a checklist of things they they would need to complete or who would be and who would be the person like in charge of so I it's probably my role as the the director of HR uh civil rights compliance officer um I'm not aware of any checklist at this point but that's something I can look into okay I I'll definitely vote to refer to committee we could possibly get an answer on that um

when it comes to the full committee that would be great and um just one question question on the um service animals policy um so have we ever it's this like have we ever run into any complaints or issues regarding policy either um from individuals wherever either if they're um maybe like allergic reactions I know that was mentioned in the policy or if um have we ever received complaints from

people who use service animals and may have um ran to issues in the past since I've been employed in the district not to my knowledge but that's only been 3 months we've had uh not even recently I do remember requests from parents I think uh my if my daughter was able to bring her puppy into school she'd feel a lot better about being there but and those landed in conversations you know with parents

around yeah we're not going to bring our pets to school and things like that they weren't service animals they weren't you know trained as such they weren't acknowledged as such um but I haven't had anything you know in this school year say or even last school year that I remember in terms of requests around service animals okay I you thank you um I'll make a motion to refer to the full committee

second um I have a question Mr L in regard to um procedure on curriculum development and adoption I I'm I'm not sure I'm asking the right question to the right person but I'm going to throw it out there anyway uh in regard to the second paragraph on that sheet uh the school committee will rely on the professional staff to design and Implement instructional programs and courses of study that will forward our

educational goals of our school district my question is um is the Bill of Rights in the Constitution and listed as any introduction to any of the social studies curriculums is is it written into policy uh that I don't know the answer to um I would guess not policy because that would probably be a little more into curriculum whereas I I'm thinking the the sort of overarching policies that

we're dealing with are sort of more talking about like this one how the curriculum is developed how it gets adopted there has to be processes and things like that sure but I don't know that a policy would get into sort of that you know that depth to say that you know in in in this subject matter in this grade level where we're going to be Fus so Madam superintendent U if that's

the case as far as a policy is concerned when they're designing um matters for social studies at either the Middle School level or the high school level so secondary Social Studies is it possible to get the Bill of Rights and the constitution written in so that the the early growth and development of those ideas is with our students as they go through Through The Years in social studies so that's like a basis of

information for them to understand so our so we will always follow the curriculum Frameworks um that are supported by the department of fed so our curriculum our district curriculum apps are always reflective of those Frameworks and so where those documents where that teaching falls in the Continuum is where they would show up because we're required to deliver grade level curriculum so they're in the

Frameworks and so it's a guarantee that kids will be getting that instruction at whatever grade level it is yes that's what I wanted to know thank you do I have a motion to accept I have a motion a second we have a motion in a second clarify that are we taking all three M yes we're taking all three Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Mr perrera yes

uh for matters on uh discussion 302 uh we have the following policies have been updated that's public comment at school committee meetings development and dissemination of procedures the wellness policy and the bullying prevention policy you going to report on that Mr ly yeah so the only one that I've um dealt with was that um that first one um public comment at school committee meetings

that again was another one that was uh actually I have the first two so public comment at school committee meetings that was recommended Again by masc along with the the first three that we went over the only change that they have to this one um if you look on the first page of that draft policy uh number four um they just removed the the last three words which is or contains obscenities that was the only change

that they made to the policy um could you state that again number four could you state that again yep so they remove the words or contains obscenities from that last sentence um from Clause number four it looks like our current policy has all this language we also have some additional language in here that refers to um the Fall River City Charter so I I'm assuming that language would probably remain the same

and then we would just be looking to maybe make that Amendment if if the subcommittee votes to accept it but that was the only change to to this one so a pretty minor one good and uh the other the other issues uh development and dissemination of procedures that one as well um that was the last one that I had that was recommended by masc the only thing that they did with

that one was they did take two policies that we have CHC and Cha and they combine them um and then the only thing that I could see was um they removed one paragraph from the procedures dissemination and so that paragraph read it will be the responsibility of the superintendent to see that the procedures developed to implement school committee policies and administer the school system are

appropriately coded and included as procedures in the school committee's policy manual that was uh the only change that I saw it looks like they kept everything else that was included in those two um policies and then just combined them together thank you um before we get to the wellness and bullying policies do we want to take a motion and a vote on these to refer I'll have motion I have

some questions on go ahead Mr Das um so on the public comment um policies so I do have a few concerns um with the policy eyes that already exists and I am happy with the with the changes however I don't think they go far enough um just for my short time on the school committee um I do have a concern with the one section um public comments not part for discussion debate or

dialogue um we' we've had so many citizens input where I just you know want to get clarification on what their concerns are you know if someone comes before this school committee and has concern and we just don't say anything but we have questions or concerns about like what they're talking about and I want to get a better understanding we shouldn't have a policy in here that prohibits us from asking clarifying

questions or getting a better understanding of what that individual wants um secondly I think 3 minutes is just way too short I I think we could should extend that we've had so many people come before citizens input the last few months and they get stopped at 3 minutes when they have so much they want to say and I I don't think um raising it from 3 to five would be um unreasonable and again SE since we're

quoting the city Charter section 9-8 of the city Charter in part says the rules or policies shall consider the convenience of of the public and quote so um we should consider the convenience to the public and possibly raise the 3 minutes to the five minutes and again um I know um might be in a minority opinion here but um I do have a big concern about public comment at any special

meeting shall be limited to items on the meeting agenda um there needs to be some room for wiggle room here we've we've waved that policy before when we've had situations associated with the mold um I don't think we're doing the public ass service with having that section in there um so I like to make a motion to table uh uh the the entire motion of public comment at school committee

meetings yes I'm he's saying this policy he's saying table this policy it's table of policy of uh public comment yes um I don't I'm not going to vote Yes to refer it to the full committee I think and and so Madam superintendent if we table it if that's just that one section then we have to raise it again for possible um adaptation right so I'm not the expert here on procedure but it feels like if

you table it then you wouldn't be able to discuss it later correct correct if something is tabled can't discuss it it almost seems like this is just my opinion here people but if if you refer it to the committee you're referring it for and it would be open for discussion by the entire committee discussion and then a v to either approve or not yeah so um if guys question so if you were

looking I would say if you were looking to amend anything if you wanted to see any changes I think it feels like tabling would be a mistake can I say I think do you mind go I'll I'll be quick um I I understand what you're saying so um I I guess um a few questions one the reason I wanted to make a motion table is to allow you to go back and possibly look at this again

again see um there's room to um um address some of the concerns that I raised or if you um had any like agree agreement then we can come back and possibly take another vote on an amended policy um but could we is it could I make a motion if if it gets a second of course it may not but um if there's certain concerns that I had in here could I make

the motion to amend it within politics subcommittee and refer as amended oh yeah okay um I'll make a i withraw my motion to table I'd like to make a motion to um amend the policy by striking out the section that says public comment is not a discussion debate or dialogue between individuals in the school committee um the reason I wanted to table I wanted to see if there's language in there that can be

added the possibly allow for clarifying questions or comments which I think um would be appropriate can I ask a question before sure you ask you I'll hold off on the motion just so I can hear from my colleague okay okay so that comment I think it's more of just I interpret it as a statement meaning we are not obligated nor is it encouraged to start a debate with with people because it changes the dynamic of the

meeting it does not say you can't nothing in here says you cannot so although it's not encouraged to keep toor in the meeting cuz things can get out of hand you you you can still ask the question you can say I don't care I'm going to do it anyway nothing wrong with that people do it all the time so I don't think this is saying you can't I do think I understand your

concerns I'm I'm like in the middle here I feel I think there needs to be procedures in place for meetings to be effective and efficient and for us not only to be fair to the citizens who come and speak but also to be fair to all of our people here our Educators and our staff who are working all day to then come to a meeting when we're hearing something you

know I want to hear what people have to say the reality is there's a lot of ways to communicate that so we have to a lot time if you don't make it I'm I'm all for wiggle room I'm all for this being a discussion I could maybe be convinced to give 5 minutes that seems that seems reasonable to Me 3 to 5 minutes okay that's something we can talk about but

to say people can come in and talk forever and doesn't matter how many people it doesn't matter what they talk about no that chaos not organized chaos just chaos so I think that referring it isn't going to change anything Colin it's not going to pass it it'll open it for discussion for everybody else and at that time at the school committee meeting if we want to amend it there we

can also do that and I'm guessing you may have more luck at the school committee meeting a amending this policy um because I don't feel comfortable amending something personally that I'm I'm not totally against anything yet so I'm not comfortable with voting to amend it until the rest of my colleagues get a chance to look at it at the full meeting I prefer not to table it so we can

continue the discussion because I think it's an important discussion and I appreciate you for for being a leader and making sure people have their voices heard I think it's important um I respect you for that um but I think it's best if maybe we just refer it over to the full committee we have a nice healthy discussion and we go from there and if it gets amended amended table tabled whatever at that point anyway

that I Y Mr Das thank you and I respect um everything that um my colleague to my left just said um the only thing I would differ with um subcommittees are meant to have um in-depth discussions for the full committee um so I won't I won't make a motion to table I will make um a few um I do believe this needs to be clarified because um I personally have

seen myself that um I asked a clarifying question that I believe the last meeting and um I was shut down and and I'm not I'm not again I'm not saying that was nefarious or anything I'm just saying that's possibly reading the language in this policy so um I like to make a couple motions if they receive a second that's great if not that's okay um I like to make a motion that we amend the

policy by adding after the section it's an individual's opportunity to express an opinion on issues within the school committee's authority to add a line that says the committee can ask clarifying questions of the speaker I'll make that in form of an amendment a motion okay can can you just repeat that where it was Colin so I can sure um after it say it see where it says public comment

is not a discussion debate or dialogue between individuals and the school committee at the end of that at the end of that paragraph I just want to add one sentence that says the committee can ask clarifying questions of the speaker just so we're all on the same page I just the only reason I'm not giving you a second I have no problem with clarifying questions but sometimes if we're allowed to ask questions it

might give this person more time to talk than that person because I happen to ask that so it muddies the water for me so I I just now I'm not a fan so sorry if I could weigh in uh based on um the way meetings have been conducted just this past season um with all of the issues confronting us between um The Early Childhood issues the mold issues and now the contract issues um

we've been having extreme numbers come up for public comment and um when when the three minute buzzer goes off I think that we've been extremely lenient in allowing uh the public comment to continue so that they could finish their comment I I haven't seen that we've tried to shut down anybody at any time we've allowed all the comment to come forward and we've been able to weigh that comment you know uh amongst

ourselves as a school board so um I I just get worried about I think the language is already really good and I think the way that we've been conducting ourselves um all year long has been very fair to the amount of public comment that's been coming our way um if that's in uh do we vote on that now Deborah well Mr D made a um motion I need a second to move it

forward so I'm not going to Second it that's that's fine um if um if I still have the floor um I do have two more motions I want to make if it doesn't receive a second that's fine I like to make a motion that we um increase citizens input from 3 minutes to 5 minutes can I have a clarifying question to you the limited the time limit that

is in the policy is 15 minutes so if you want to extend it to five does that mean you're willing to have just three people talk or would you rather have 3 minutes and allow us the opportunity if we want to let them finish or allow 3 minutes five people if they don't finish they can hand in the rest of their letter so it is still read and taken into consideration CU I agree I don't mind

the 5 minutes but see now then we're going to have to change the 15 minutes now we're changing the whole policy before and I'm not comfortable with that that's all I'm saying I agree with you the only thing I will say we've been going over 15 minutes for Citizens entire that's never been F I know I know but I know that's why I'm saying I think certain circumstances it

allows for if we have you know I think giving PE I think the 15 minutes maybe we can talk about extending it to a half an hour and 5 minutes I'm listen I'm I'm ready for that discussion because I'm all about hearing people too call believe me I just feel like I want to hear I I'm not ready to make that change here because I think there's nothing horrible here that I'm so against that I

need to take it out I'm willing to have the conversation with the entire committee and we can work on do I think this 100% is what's going to pass no I don't but I think it's I think it's okay that we bring it there and we talk about it and have a have a have a better idea of what works for everyone that's just my opinion thank you uh just one question to the superintendent um for

when it comes to writing policy do you think it would be more appropriate for for the administration to take a look at this or should it be the school committee taking looking at this debating it and voting right in the middle of a meeting before the administration hasn't even considered like the options like of amending will be yeah I I will say that so it this one in particular I would say is um is

difficult because it really they're all school committee policies but this really is a a school committee policy like literally in the way you conduct business and so we could certainly draft something that is that encompasses some of the things that are being discussed but I don't want it to come across as something that you know my team is moving forward as I this is how we would like you to do business

right so I think that's where it gets tricky I I am it's interesting I appreciate the oity for subcommittee in this in this time to really hash things out and discuss some things I think if if motions um aren't seconded in and the the um draft policy doesn't change on its way to full committee I think the fact that it's being discussed um more deeply here and that other people you

know even within this group of three have an opportunity to then talk about what was discussed and offer all different viewpoints having had that preparation I think it's fruitful and I don't think it's the same as if we hadn't been here and it just goes to full committee without anybody ever thinking of it so it it does feel to me that regardless of where this ends there'll be a pretty deep discussion and

there should be um at the full with the full committee and I and I do expect that there will be elements of this that I think they're very likely to change yeah I do have one last question on the policy go ahead Mr Das um so my my issue with the last sentence of U public comment at any special meeting shall be limited to items on the meeting agenda I just seen it over the years

that being selectively enforced I understand our attorney gave us um an opinion that that can be waved that there's an emergency but there should be writing in here that and I believe the administration this is Administration can determine and help us out with determining what is an emergency um is it like like I agree the mold issue was something that was urgent I'm happy that we waved it we we should just get R my

opin my personal opinion is we should just allow any comment any public comment items on the agenda or not on the agenda no matter what the meeting is but besides that so for example if someone comes and um they they give it they give an example of what determines an like what's an emergency who's going to decide that the chair is it going to be the committee as a whole there should be language in

there to decide what is an emergency topic so so we're not selectively choosing when we're going to allow people to speak on items on the agenda and when they're not and if it also applies to Executive session items it was just not too long ago a few years ago where the same committee told the public that you can't if it's a special meeting you can't comment on items that are on the executive session agenda can

only be public session at the last special meeting we had there was nothing on the public like public side of the agenda it was just executive session we still allow citizens input so we need to be fair as a committee and have rules that apply for everyone we can't selectively choose when we're going to enforce so that's another issue I have with that so um that's actually the reason I'm not going to um vote to refer

it because I think um there's still things that need to be done if I can ask a question has attorney aside looked at this at all as this policy um as amended he weigh in uh not to my knowledge no with the one that was presented with the or contains obscenities struck yes I don't not that I know of no so he hadn't wait in on on the set that particular

Amendment no I I don't think he has what part I'm sorry the just the part where they struck or contains obscenities that that was the only change that got presented from masc so um so when this masc came down with the proposed change you sorry and I'm not critiquing you I'm not trying to critique you at all but um this wasn't we we didn't consult with legal counsel when we were I I did

policy no no I I didn't the original I I allow my colleagues yeah the original policy I'm sure was because this it had to offend um but going back to this we're referring or not if we don't refer it right now then we're at a stand still we're not getting work done if if it helps I mean I I I'm not a I'm not a I'm never going to support people

speaking um off of Topic at a special meeting at a regular meeting I'm all for it that's your opportunity to come and say what you want we have one every month um we have subcommittee meetings that they can come to I I have two this week I know other people have them so there's plenty every month there's opportunities the reason I say not a special meeting is because we're having

it for an extreme circumstance usually an emergency many times people are leaving a job or taking time off to make the meeting to do this to do that so to ask that at that time I just I don't think is fair to anybody who serves on the committee are any of the people that are going to be asked to stay there because not because I don't want to hear what people have to say because there's

a time in place and there are so many times and places and if something's an actual emergency please don't wait for a meeting the our superintendent right here you call her if it's an emergency you don't wait for a meeting you call superintendent and then we deal with it immediately if it's an emergency cuz that's what an emergency is um I am all for if you want to amending like giving

5 minutes and extending to 30 minutes total but I agree with my colleague to the right we need to actually follow the policy we have it can't be willy-nilly it can't be oh today I know you cuz I'm friends okay you're going to talk longer then this one's shut down then that is not fair to the people who come up and speak because then it turns into well if

I like what you say maybe I'll let you talk longer but if I don't maybe I won't that'll be what it's interpreted not what's happening but that's how it may be interpreted so I'm all I agree 100% we need to stick to the policy and I'm all for extending it to 5 minutes and uh 5 minutes a person up to 30 minutes of citizens input that is not to say because when we say 30

minutes that's I don't want people to think oh if you didn't make the 30 minutes your opinion doesn't count that is not true you can still submit something to the complete committee and I've worked with I work with all of these uh ladies and gentlemen I there's no doubt in my mind everybody's going to read every page so the words are going to be heard by the people you want to

hear them right so I don't think that there's anything wrong with limiting time um so I mean if that's something that would help move this along otherwise we're functioning with an old policy that doesn't allow people to swear at as I guess and I want people to be able to swear if they need to swear right and also and I I say that in just but really it's it's it's a civil rights

minutes for the public comment Mr dice made that motion no one seconded at the time I don't want to Second it because we have 15 minutes and I don't want to just let three people talk that's why I'm not comfortable I I I'll I'll withdraw that motion I'll make a motion to refer to the full committee um with um citizens input being being um raised to 55 minutes and um 30 minutes total

second Mr D yes Mr cor yes Miss per yes

what's next will we take out of a confus oh well no we need to refer the CH a and CHC yeah so um we haven't spoken about it yet let's uh let's talk about development and dissemination of procedures

yes

standard Crux of this matter is it will be the responsibility of the superintendent to see that the procedures developed to implement committee policies and administer the school district are appropriately coded and included as procedures in the school committee's policy manual that's the Crux of this policy here superintendent may involve at the planning stage those who would be

affected staff members students parents Guardians and the public any discussion I'll make a motion to refer I just have a quick clarifying question um so this is this does this never existed at all no it's an existing policy it is an existing policy two policies that got combined into one okay it it's nothing really different there's nothing here no that's fine no it let's let's vote to refer it yeah yeah motion

to refer motion to refer oh I said that made the motion second I thought he said I'm going to but I have a question for I Mr D yes Mr Cory yep M pero yes okay next item is is the wellness policy motion to refer second any discussion just for the public edification if you just want to explain what was changed right if we can uh thank you for

allowing us to be here my name is Mara pkard and along with Mary Gustaf we co-chair the wellness advisory Council that's been in existence for like 12 years now um it is comprised of a number of community members that are involved with health and fitness and medical um concerns and issues as well as some School staff um it's our responsibility to look at the wellness policy from time

to time and to make any revisions we feel are necessary uh we did this in the spring we had multiple meetings in the spring and did a deep dive into the policies um to see any changes that we felt were necessary to be made and basically the U the information that we're providing to you as relative to changes relate to social emotional Wellness for the most part the policies related to physical health and

Nutritional Health did not really address the social emotional Wellness so th that phraseology was um added to a number of the articles there were some semantic changes there were several places where we made references to schools doing this and schools doing that basically schools are an inanimate object and can't do anything so we basically added School staff yeah we met as I say in the spring and presented the

um our revisions our total Revis policy doc doent um we submitted it in June with the hope that it was going to be on the agenda for the August meeting July or August full committee meeting um so that it would be in place for September right the start of the new year we have so many new staff members who probably have no idea that this policy even exists uh when we saw it was it on the

July or the August menu we understand it's because your committee hadn't had a chance to meet we understand that so one request we have is if you do submit it to the full committee it's my understanding from having been at or watching school committee meetings for the past 10 or 12 years when it comes to a policy change policy change you have a first read and you have a second read

which is one meeting and then the next meeting but I also have seen where they wave these the multiple readings so it gets approved at the very first meeting so that we can get this in place as quickly as possible again if you um if you support all the changes we made I will and no pressure Mr Das but with the youth candidates night that we had before you were elected your one minute

pledge was to be an advocate for mental health so so we thought that you would be advocate for what we've already done in here what we want to do too eventually um and Miss Costa sits on this committee as well is to eventually do a deeper dive into the social emotional Wellness as aspect of the changes to the policy so that we dig a little bit deeper into specifically what we would do rather relative again to

social emotional Wellness but that's that's uh you know nothing controversial we don't feel that there's anything controversial there uh and we would hope that you would refer it to the whole committee as you just um uh chose to do um but also to wave the multiple readings so it doesn't get delayed another couple of months we'd like we've already have got a plan in action for disseminating it uh through Dan Fitz

darl who's the head of the health and physical education department who sits on our committee as well he is homesick with his children which is why he's not here today but we have a whole plan as far as getting it out to principls and education teachers Etc so as soon as that we can get it into motion um as the revised policy um the better things will be we think do I just have um questions go

ahead Mr Das um um one for the um the Highlight sections does that mean this being remove that means be add I'm not if you got the cheat sheet that we presented that it's all in blue specifically um to ensure um on School Meal program um ensure that all eligible children receive free or reduced um price meals they already do so that's why we changed the wording on that one right that this was from a long

time ago when the polic when we first got the policy it was so long and there were so many uh when possible if you can which pretty much says you don't have to follow the policies so we took out a lot of that wording we also took out a lot of wording relative to uh the school nutrition program once we started Contracting with outside um um with with Wiens rather than when it was inhouse

when it was inhouse and we had we have had a lot of policy de with training the staff and so forth in the in the Food Services a lot of that went away so we got down to the what we need to do no I'm going to support this and um thank you for all the work that you put into this and um reminding me of um my pledge

um I do have one last question I don't know if we're allowed to like we're going to refer to the full committee but I don't know if we can within subcommittee um take a vote to wave all readings I think that would have to be done at the first meeting um is presented yeah that's it's as long as there's no changes I have a question cuz I the highlighted is actually what

you've added not what you've taken out so what he referred to was something that was added which you're right they do all receive am I correct or wrong there are two what am I correct there's the old one and what's highlighted in here was removed right wait a minute this one right here the one that says draft is the new one is the new one what's highlighted what's added or what's added okay that's the one I'm

looking at and what he mentioned is highlighted in what I'm looking at right what Colin mentioned yeah because I can see we added social emotional you know y y we get we get all the way to what were you asking again it was it was myror you just looked at the okay I wanted to make sure so that was okay I can give you and the other thing is this

is just a random question I'm not saying it's going to affect me you know supporting this policy but why is music lessons added was this an issue or something that kids cuz it's added twice instruments and music it used to say instrument lessons Okay and now it says music lessons so I think the idea is it it used to read that students couldn't be pulled when they had like special

time with someone coming to teach them how to play the flute now it covers all music lessons not just instrument right so if it's chorus or something like that it's still you still can't take somebody out of chorus I mean you still can't take somebody out of physical education to be to make up chorus work or what happen so it's just it's just more general make up anyway got you it was

just instrument okay very good that's why I wasn't was like well if it wasn't in before what brought it about to be in okay it was just word changes okay so I got a question for you Mara so in regard to the nutrition standards uh are you guys looking over all of those policies as well that as far as nutritional standards that's completely in the hands of witson and the administration because

they're all contracted as opposed to Ino like when you and I were here years ago all you're on the wellness committee so I still have a couple of questions about the nutritional value of certain institutional Foods being served to our students so is that something that that your committee would look into that would be something that the administration would look into with witson directly because of the contract

that they have exclusively with witson okay that's not something that we look into thank you very much uh so do I have a motion to uh refer the let's get it going Mr Das yes Mr Cory yep Mr perrera yes thank you thank you

next item is uh bullying prevention policy so you'll have in front of you just so I can um share the layout of the document we the document might look a little bit different than the first read when we were about to meet two weeks ago because we had received our attorney's feedback um since the first uh sharing so as you'll notice there's a chart there's a couple of charts leading into

the document and Claudia Costa will take the lead on explaining but the first chart outlines the timeline of our bullying Review Committee the second chart outlines the changes in the document and then the POC then the policy itself will read on some of the sections based on some of our attorneys recommendations we've adjusted some of the sections to come in a different order so that the document read with

more more fluidity than it did previously but Claudia will take you through the process that we uh went through last spring as well sure we actually started in March um as part of our policy we have to do a bullying needs assessment every four years so we did that in all of our students in grades 2 through 12 really looking at the prevalence of bullying in our building buildings um with that

information we then as a district scl team we met to discuss and and analyze some of that data um from there we started in April recruiting um to meet uh to review our bullying policy as we do every two years um so we we did get a student in the middle school as part of our uh members and a high school student um a parent Community member um school resource officer and School staff um

School adjustment councils guidance councils VPS um and and others as well to to review the policy we met for five um five Fridays consecutively to go over the policy and really reading it script by Script uh we did also um have a print out of the Dy model plan as well too just to see where it looked in comparison to ours um after we reviewed our policy um our team um we then

presented it for our attorney to review it as Dr brard had mentioned there were some changes that were recommended from our attorney like uh like she had said um and on there you'll see it a lot of it was um some of the changes he shifted the order of some of the language um one other change that was made as well too from our attorney was um our prior um our prior policy had read that parents

had a right to um reconsideration hearing and that was changed because now it will be something that could be heard during the appeal hearing for the consequence if there's a consequence that is um rendered um but um the next pH of this bullying of of the bullying policy review if after today is that it will be up for public comment as well to and you'll notice in the changes chart um we've outlined the section

we've bookmarked the section but then also looking at what the committee changeed summary notes were so as an example for the annual staff training it was outlined in September for it to be the school-based training as well as a module based in our arcs Ed platform because that would be an added piece of training for staff we also noted ongoing professional development where we would have restorative and Equitable

approaches to bullying prevention that would be ongoing over the course of the year and not just at the beginning of the school year um added the section to the district handbook as well um as a notice to staff so you'll note some of the some of those changes right there in the change chart summary any question but this is very much in line with with our previous bullying prevention plan with minor

changes um but we feel an easier read now the way that it is it is laid out out any questions Mr D yes um this policy who's this policy cover with regards to who is a f who would be consider is it just students no no students and staff and it breaks it down within the policy thank you on what page would that be on

um page 10 looks like there definitions like within the definitions okay so under bullying um so under bullying not limited to um School member School staff um and superintendent please don't think I'm Point does this also cover like the superintendent yes y sure all right that was my only question I I believe it was students to students students to staff staff to students and staff to staff yes all inclusive it's

all called out any other questions I have a question okay so I think the policy is great and I'm glad you made these little changes I I have a question probably to you Claudia um I remember when uh the bullying policy was instituted uh when it was there were a few heinous incidences in in our state up in different cities and then desie stepped in and created this policy but at the

time I was um very involved with another program called second step now second step I found to be an incredibly proactive program especially our our Elementary uh uh you know kindergarten students first grade second grade third grade and fourth grade because it was a form of teaching tolerance and it was incredible uh it was teaching listening skills it was teaching tolerance and respect to different

ethnicities um different uh intelligence levels it didn't matter it just built respect it was a great program I was running it and uh we had workshops all over the district back then it was really highly effective but when the bullying uh law was passed by the state legislature and desie um imposed it on the public schools it was an it was almost like a death Nell to the second step

program um could you speak to is there any second step being carried out at the primary level in our schools so we're we're actually really fortunate that this year we've invested really heavily on positive action which is our curriculum which has amazing like like you said teaching pro-social skills yeah but part of that purchase that we made we also purchased um the anti-bullying curriculum that came from positive

action as well too which is built in um for all of our kids in the elementary school and then for our secondary schools we've been work we''ve been we purchased ship program uh which has an empowering upstanders curriculum because it is important to teach those pro-social skills but there's also the anti-bullying curriculum that's um super yeah that's great sorry if if if it could all be

intertwined that's perfect but I was hoping it wasn't going to be at the expense of teaching tolerance to the kids in those pro-social skills very very important especially uh in uh the Elementary grades uh because they absorb all of that deeply and hopefully uh that ethic carries on with them into the secondary you know their secondary years and uh and and there's a lot less name

calling lot less bullying as a result of that that's what I'm kind of hoping I would just say one other thing Mr Cory is that in the timeline that we shared with you back in June of 2024 we had the opportunity to take our bullying needs assessment data data as well as our conditions for learning data uh we will be running the bullying needs assessment we will be taking some specific

questions to be able to run an annual survey of students so that we are monitoring the conditions within our building and really monitoring our students ability to identify that sense of belonging in our school communities so schools were able to really dig deep into their data so that they could understand what is the landscape of social emotional needs in our building what is the landscape of our kids

feeling connected to our buildings feeling connected to the adults um and really also being responsive in the areas of both the conditions for Learning and the bullying needs assessment where maybe we didn't yield the results we were looking for so schools are action planning every six weeks Mr raposo and myself we've got anal goal as well as an academic goal uh really pushing schools to think about a

six- we cycle and how are we collecting data as it relates to both social emotional Learning and Development curriculum implementation and monitoring the sense of belonging that is happening across all of our schools on theal side specifically and I know Mr raposo is doing something similar with um academics so this wasn't a one snapshot of an experience but quite the reverse we are revisiting the data um and

pushing and encouraging our leaders in the buildings to be responding to that data and thinking through many of the different systems and structures and routines within buildings that will help our kids feel connected know know that they've got an adult in the building a trusted adult that if they are struggling with anything that's going on that they can reach out for support um

so this wasn't just a survey that then landed on the Shelf but last year we did some really good action planning around the results of these surveys school specific so Dr B that was a great assessment uh I'm glad that you guys have your eye on that Target uh the thing that concerns me um is over the past several years I've seen mcast uh standards and and and and taking the exam preempt so many other important

virtues for the holistic education of our kids and so what you just explained sounded great uh all of principals on board with that and all of the school adjustment counselors are on board with that and so and teachers and teachers and teachers and so we have buddy groups little social groups happening at the elementary level little lunch group groups stuff like that so the kids are

talking to a caring adult as well as to each other in respectful manners and they learn those mannerisms and carry those mannerisms with them into their secondary level of education at which point you know they get a little bit more sassy and a little bit more autonomous and they test the barriers even more it's even so important to have that carrying adult in the middle school and at the high school level as well so

thanks for keeping your eye on that please keep us surprised of how that's going that really concerns me I like to see that area really solidify and not to lose track of how important it is to have caring adults and that connection in the building with the students and pro-social behavior thank you I second Mr D yes yep yes I believe that takes care of our agenda uh for item number four new

business is there any new business that we must entertain today none being said I'll make a motion to adjourn do I have a second so moved so moved Mr Das yes Mr Cory yes Mr car yes than