6.5.2025 Fall River School Committee Technology Subcommittee

All right. Like to call to order this uh technology subcommittee meeting of June 5th, 2025. You please call the role. Mr.

A here. Mr. Bailey here. Mr. Miss Larab, I'm sorry.

Salute the flag, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First 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 meeting. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present may be acknowledged and permissible. There is no citizen but I'm correct. Correct. Okay. We'll proceed to

3.01 one vote to refer a discussion on bait detect disputes and I'm assuming it's Mr.

Caball Dr. Hi. Hi. Let's go right to him or do you want to leave? Yeah, sure.

Yeah. Yeah, I'll start there and I think I can help with questions if there are any, but sure. Mr. Cabo, good evening everyone. So, this this was referred back to committee while I was on medical leave. Um to give some context, uh we had a trial at the Talbet Middle School um for about 8 months with this product.

Um it's installed in the center of the bathroom and it just basically looks for any sign of vape uh smoke uh steam, anything. And what will happen is um you set the thresholds from maybe zero to a 100 um or they have recommended settings for school bathrooms. Um and what it'll do is it'll send a text and or an email to the school personnel. And then what we do is if I went into the bathroom and

was using a vape at 9:37 in the morning, it would send the text. They usually at Talbert they would send a security guard and then we had sometimes there were two students that went into the bathroom at that time via the camera outside the bathroom or there was only one student.

So most of the time you know the one student said yeah I was vaping or you know the two one would of course admit who was doing it. Um it's been very successful at Talbet. Um, assistant superintendent Reposo uh was the one that had requested it at the time when he was the principal at Talvet. Um, and knowing what he seen and what we are seeing in some of our other middle

school bathrooms. Um, we had title one monies that were earmarked for this. Um, so it is a five. What was nice is they're getting us a 5year um, licensing fee. A lot of the technology hardware now is all licensed by the year. So, it's a five-year license fee. Um, it's an overnight replacement. Um, we've been working with Briada for a while now, so we've become very familiar with their

warranty um return policy. Uh, if it gets kicked or dropped, they, you know, they'll replace it. Uh, and we'll be saving a significant amount of funding because all of this work will be done in house. It does not require 120. It just requires a typical network cable and 24 volts off of the network switch. Um, so I'm hoping, the only note that I wrote to myself to let you all know is

I'm hoping that I'll be able to secure these relatively quickly. Um, but with the tariffs, some of the specialized equipment has been difficult to get here quick. Um, but if I can get them here, they'll be ready to go for September.

and uh superintendent proposal and I would go around to the middle schools and give a training based off of his experience with the product and my expertise in the back end.

Um there's a lot of extra just information there for your um you know for you guys to you know look at and also just to note this is um state contract pricing um through EN um they are one of the only vendors that um state contract pricing with the BCA equipment.

So I just have a few questions um because I do think this is great. I know they use it over at a dime. They use Fly Sense. Um um a few questions I had was um for one um when the kids get caught, obviously it sends text messages and emails to the phone. Is there any type of search protocol that goes on with this? Because the only reason why I

asked this if we're in stone, what type of policy are we creating to protect ourselves when it comes to this? So that piece I'm in the back end in the tech world, I'd have to refer to Superintendent Curley. I mean, I think it's treated with the same due process that anything would be. So, if there's a suspicion of and that we would follow protocols. Um, I it's not treated as a

we know it was you. So, you're getting you know this consequence there's due process and students have you know opportunity to represent themselves and bring others to do the same. So, um is the concern that what what's the primary concern?

So, typically when when a student gets caught vaping over there, let's say you had three kids in the bathroom and kids, 90% of the time a student's not going to be like, "Oh, it was with me. I was vaping." Them two wasn't. So, usually a search process goes on with a metal detector. They they find it and then from there um obviously you got your discipline in place and how that looks.

So, that's why I asked because obviously if this if you're searching kids and all this is going on, you know, there has to be some policy behind it. You can't just tell a kid you're going to search them without cause, right? Yeah. Um, so that's that's where that question came from. Um, and the second question was why the middle schools and why not the high schools as well? And maybe I missed

that. I wasn't there. That was my question. So right now, um, the plan was to start at the high at the middle schools cuz they were seeing more of it and then eventually possibly bring them into the high school. But I can say at the high school there is more staff. So there are security guards that are typically outside the bathrooms that are you know the high usage ones and there

it's all new construction you can see the vaping coming out uh you know at Talbet and if you ever been in one of those bathrooms the very ends the the very dark in there so sometimes the the vape actually you can't see it. So, I know that assistant um superintendent Raposo and Brownhard were talking about possibly adding those the high school in the future, but we had the funding for

enough for the middle school to title one. So, we wanted to start there. Um at the high school, if we were to do it, we'd be looking at probably 60 plus just because of the amount of bathrooms.

Yeah. I just and this is just me speaking alone. I would like to see it start at the high school as well. And the reason why I say that is I do believe it's happening at an alarming rate at the high school with the school being a new school um and some of these new vapes and all the education we're putting behind it. Um I would love to

see it there as well. Um and like I said that's just me speaking. And then secondly was um like these installed. Oh, so like another thing that I thought is is how are we recording the data to um support some of these? Like how do we know that it's just at the middle school or it's an army at the middle school, not the high school? Do we have data that backs

this up? Um, but I think that's also beneficial when we look at this across the board cuz if we install them, I would also like to see, okay, we install them at the elementary at the middle schools and it's increase this amount of kids vaping and you know, just to go with some of the educational stuff. But that's pretty much all I had to add um when it comes to this. But I do think

they're great. I know for a fact they work because I've seen them in action and I've seen them, you know, um, you know, obviously help out our security team and and decline with them on the kids in school. What I will do just because it does peique your interest is I will have account um for the high school and we can talk about at a future tech meeting um and also like an anticipated cost.

The one plus at the high school is when I was involved in the actual buildout, we have spare wiring in the bathrooms thinking ahead. So that would literally just be a plug-andplay model at the high school. So I will do some research and then possibly look for grant funding for that project. Yeah. And that that's that's all I have, but I do I do think this is great and thank you for bringing

this forth because I think it's beneficial to our to our students and um related to Mr. H's question was about data and referrals. So I would assume that if this is being brought up that there's been a lot of referrals for the over the this is going on over a year ago, right? Correct. So some historical perspective on how many Yeah. what the referrals are. I think for the full

committee I do think that this needs to be um done quick and I would say that we need that price for the high school by Monday so we can know what uh is happening.

Okay. Miss Larry. Yeah. And I I was actually going to speak about that as well. So, as far I don't think it should just be referrals because there's there's a few steps before there's a referral into the past program, right?

There's are we are you talking about those referrals into the past program?

Nope.

Student at middle school uses a vape up.

That's a conduct referral. Oh, referral to contact. I'm talking referral into pass. Yeah, I'm just looking referral.

Okay. So regardless, I I do think we need data just especially for what Bobby uh brought up. I No, I think that makes sense. And I do think that when we think about like this the start at a particular school and then going across middle schools, I think it started with a with a request from a principal like, hey, can we try this because we've got this issue at the school. Um and so

that's why where the pilot started and then going across middle schools is a logical next step obviously or could have been a you know coinciding this step into the high school. I don't know. Um I don't know that's like it's not less of a problem. I don't think I just think it was not something that at that particular time we didn't have you know high school principal administration saying like hey we really

need this thing. Um it was a pilot that was introduced to us. um you know requested at a particular school. But yeah, if we could get the data that that would be great. Um as far as um the visual verification and the the surveillance. So it it's on phones, correct? It's on phones. It's on administrator phones. Are they on uh monitors as well? No. So um we um security cameras have gotten different.

So, in the past, we've had um you know, the old analog monitors up on the screen. Now, what happens is um it's all cloud-based, so you just click up, you can bring everything up, but what usually will happen is um Scott went into the bathroom at 9:07 a.m. They go into the office, they pull up 9:07, they pull up 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after. The thing that I like about this

product is when the alert goes out, usually they're there before they leave the bathroom because it literally picks it up at I don't I don't know the vapes very well, but like as they turn it on, it's so sensitive. It's picking it up.

So, they're vaping and they're walking in to the bathroom and they're seeing the student actually vaping because they're so sophisticated. I get it. Who is who is they who who who is getting these um alerts currently right now at Talbet where it was piloted where the vice principles the principal um and the security officers on first shift had uh they would get the alert. Okay. And they

double it up. It would piggyback so it would go to the phone as well as it would go to their email. Okay. I the uh one question I had was on the false alarms but in the past that technology I think wasn't there but it sounds like they've improved the technology of these devices to other places a few years ago would say no we're just not there yet.

Is that accurate or so? Uh so initially when we put the product in there were some false alarms but right at the time when we got the devices there was also a major firmware upgrade. Um, so we did the firmware upgrade and we noticed that Talvet being one of the older schools that the concrete was setting some things off. So we worked with the company, we got the level set correctly and there haven't

been any faults alarm since. So nice guys. Yeah, I'll be um very brief. Um the reason I'm only speaking on this one is because I was one of the members to um was supportive in referring this back to committee. Um a lot of my questions were answers in regards to um data and where data comes from and and collecting that and I can curve with my colleagues who brought up those points. Um two um

two points I um want to hit on here is um one on actually on the tariffs. Um what countries are we is is it um specific products? Is it like metals or electronics? It it's every so it pretty much anything that lives in my world is coming from overseas. nothing is made in the US as far as like some of this technology. Um, so the boards that are made, they're they're made in China. Um,

and that's why I had put it in early cuz we were hoping, but I just wanted to let people know if this goes through on Monday. We may be looking at a backlog of getting the product. My intention is to have them installed for September 1 so we're ready for school, but we're at the hands of whether or not they get there in time. and we're going to be

looking at a a higher price or is the contract that was the price. So this pricing the the quote that's in here is from March um but he's guaranteed the pricing. Okay. No, that's good. And last question is um and I believe Mr. Bailey was alluding to it a little earlier is um health and safety. Can you just um we talked about just a little bit but superintendent if um a student is caught

with a vape, what is the punishment?

Does it go by school or No, I mean I'll have to look it up to be honest with you. I don't know like off the top of my head what it is. Um but it's it's uniform across schools is part of the the district um handbook. I can look it up for you. Is it is it a suspension or would it usually be like a detention first time?

I'm going to look it up for you and if you have other questions I'll grab them for you. Yeah, sure. know this more um why I'm asking that is more quickly of a comment is obviously we ban these this product because it's not good for our students not good for the health and safety of our students and I just want to make sure um and I believe we talked

about this as a committee in the past is making sure that we have um adequate training and um awareness to students when it comes to how this can affect them. Mhm. And um I think first priority is um education on the product and how this can um negatively affect a student.

I think that should be first before we go into discipline. But of course we need to crack down on this. I'm not advocating against that. I just want to make sure and maybe this can be provided to the committee on Monday. I just want to make sure that there is enough education. I'm sorry.

Oh. Um, I just want to make sure there's enough education for students knowing the pros and no pros, but the cons for um, for inhaling vape products, either nicotine, marijuana, um, ecigarettes or otherwise. I think it's really important that students know the negative consequences of that. And I Mr. Chair said, correct. So I'm I'm just going to be very brief and very clear that I firmly believe that there are

subcommittees put in place for a reason.

There is no reason that Mr. Das could not ask these questions at a full committee. A full committee meeting Mr.

M. Miss Lar do you have anything on the ENA date? I do not. Thank you. Do you yield? I yield. Thank you. Uh Dr.

Curley. So for Monday, what I would like to have is policies. You know, we're going to see some numbers on relative to consequences at that point. What are the policies in each of the schools? Are they being enforced? What is that? You know, a little bit of background information. Okay. We have that for my schedule. Yes. And um I just want to I I'll say this now, the fact that we um

it is part of our health curriculum. Um, so we we do have and I can we can send that again um where this shows up in the health curriculum at the middle and high school level. And then we do have we can get more information out in terms of like the past program and what happens there. You know when students are referred based on um you know based on incidents in the school and potentially there's multiple

instances and what that looks like when students are there in terms of that education piece. So that there's, you know, there's a consequence piece as well as an education piece happening simultaneously. So we can do that. Um, the one thing I want to say out loud because I'm not exactly how sure this sure how this works. This is not on the agenda for Monday.

Point of clarification.

Um, for the the meeting on Monday, I believe it would be, of course, it would be depending on um the ruling of the chair and that can go any way of course.

However, I believe it's fair game for um a vape detector purchase to asssure that we have policies in place when it comes to vaping.

Oh, this Oh, let me clarify. So, this won't be on the agenda Monday. Oh, is is the contract itself on the agenda for Monday? No, I I I don't believe it is cuz we would need we needed the vote here and it missed the deadline. Um correct. And the last time we did something like that, it was brought to our attention that we weren't meeting. The chair, I don't believe could reasonably understand whether we

want to do this. So, this is within 48 hours of something that we didn't know.

So, as far as I'm concerned, this stuff could be added to the agenda because it's within 48 hours in my mind. My my only concern, too, is if we're looking at this and he's saying that there's going to be a back order in time in ordering it. It's kind of an emergency that we get. I just wanted some clarification in terms because I I right having you know you guys saw the agenda

in this um we'd have to get this posted under contracts uh for I can speak with Kevin tomorrow but we'll take care of it and if it's not once you do due diligence and it's not it's not but we're going to make a vote. Uh does anybody want to make a motion to refer this? I'll make a motion. Mr. Bailey second seconded. Uh and I would say we consider this an emergency. Yeah. Um, so if you

move to July, the vote to refer as an emergency of this uh bait detector purchase and roll call, please. Mr. A.

Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. M. Flower. Yes.

3.02.

Mr. A. Yeah. May I speak? Sure. Okay.

So, 3.02.

So, if it's not about 3.02, no, you can't. Okay. So, I'm going to I'm going to leave. You have enough You have enough people here. Okay. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. So 3.02 Mr. Kur.

Okay. So um these next two um items on the agenda um Superintendent Curley asked me to start thinking outside the box because we've built the department up. Um we've built the team up and now it's time to start getting creative and looking for new ways to use our technologies. Um so before you and these are just I believe uh discussion um and we can come back at our next t uh tech

subcommittee or however you guys like to move forward. Um there are two um possibilities for grants. The first one here is the the development of a studentrun help desk. And what that student run help desk if you look through the documentation would basically be um we can ask one just a clarifying question any glance that the greater development core corporations give us does it go before us eventually

it does no like at the start this sounds like it's from the start um which I I like and I think it's a good communication piece you have to do it that way but is that typically how things are done? No, generally if we're applying for a grant, we let um there's communication in writing for that we're applying for a grant and then um if the grant is approved, then it comes before

the committee for approval. I think just I'm totally fine with more food but I just think there should be practice moving forward bringing all grants to so like we for instance if you all your team said we would like to go go forward with a recommendation for a grant from this whatever any company 1 all these foundations we typically get it on the back end so we're like oh we got this

grant from the 1A foundation then we either want to approve it or not I like the idea be it ahead of time do you think this is somewhere we want to go to look forward to like if we said that the committ He said, "No, we don't want an esports program." You would know not to go forward with the information rather than go through, get the grant, and then say, "Hey, by the way, we're going to

start an eports program." Not saying anybody would approve it. They just I just think the process is uh sort of the right thing. So, I would do a very brief explanation of it. And the second one and then we can refer, you know, you get the guidance from there or something like that. So, the kind of the 50,000, you know, foot overview would be studentr run help desk that would start

at Derby High School. Uh we would also have a small um kind of basically the same type of thing in a smaller way at RPA. Um they would learn the basics of Chromebook repair, um printer repair, um LED screens like we have in the classroom that would be overseen by our techs that work in the buildings. Um and then we would also um try to put them on course to get a um A+ certification

which is kind of the break fix first certification that you can get and then build your resume from there. Um the anticipation being that we can get some students a network plus certification by the time they leave high school in four years. Um so uh it basically just states all that. There's a memo here and it just gives you some ideas on where we can go um what they would be doing, implementation timeline,

um the curriculum because it would be overseen by um like I said the technicians um and I would hope that at the end of four years it would be a career path. Some of the students would continue towards BCC, get an associates, others may decide that college is not for them. But then this also gives us the opportunity to have a little bank of people that we've trained um to possibly hire as junior technicians in the

district.

So that's that's the overview um first step and let you know the grant for the student run help desk. Any questions?

Um, so this just discussion, but I do think um I mean I'm in favor of moving forward with it, but I I think the um trying to think of what the mechanism would be to uh have the full committee weigh in on and I don't think this one's as timesensitive as so I would say we should look for a motion to uh move this forward to the full committee so they

can give you a stamp of approval before you're wasting time and it's probably going to go nice and smooth, but um and however that process works Um then I would request I think if that's the way that you gentlemen would like to do this the July meeting can be very um time consuming as far as contracts and new fiscal year. I would suggest that if we're going to do that

that we refer it in the month of August.

We can do it as soon as possible and then you can do it whenever it's just getting before them so that everyone has a chance to weigh in. This is where we're heading and I think that's a good way for us to be part of the process. So whatever that next go uh you know so the motion would be to uh refer this to the full committee at the next appropriate uh

meeting and all in favor I so voted. So just for the record is Mr. Bailey and I both voted yes. Okay. Can I ask the question? Of course. So generally so I just want to make sure I get this straight.

Um this referral to the full committee is to like we generally when we're applying for grants we don't usually get permission to apply for a grant. We send notice that we're applying and then when we are granted it comes before the committee to accept the grant. So I would say the policy that we are not following. Oh, okay. Is that the school committee is supposed to know ahead of

time that we're applying for a grant we do that we do that through like a memo that comes through uh we put out your weekly update in the update.

But I think the purpose of that is and it's not necessarily one that looks like this. Mhm. Many grants for instance have funding attached to it. So, if we apply for a grant for something that says it's going to cost us $500,000, the committee is supposed to take a vote before that grant gets uh submitted that we want to go forward with at that rate knowing that we have matching funds or whatever

it is. Yeah. Just so you can say we know this is going to cost or this is the reason why. So, I believe that's the reason why the policy is written the way it is. Okay. It's supposed to be an approval, not an acknowledgement. Got it. And if it doesn't, I would say we should look at that policy because the point of it is exactly what I just said that in the past we've had situations

where we as the committee didn't know that we were bound by if we got this grant we now had to spend x amount of dollars. I understand. It's a little different now that we have actual money.

But in the past when we didn't it would be like we authorize that. So that's the to me that's the reason why but if you find something different so if you find that the policy doesn't reflect that or whoever between now and then just bring it forward to say here's what we got what do you think and then we can vote on that at a future meeting right okay no that makes sense what

you're saying we could actually incur costs by taking on a grant so okay so 3.02 is the um relative to 3.03 general heat sports. So on this one, um this was thinking out of the box just in terms of actually seeing my 14-year-old son who not necessarily very athletic, um but is in front of the computer playing games and learning how to code. If you look at our student demographics, you'd see the

same thing at Dury as well as RPA. There are gamers out there. Um, so this would be to create an esports program, but not just an esports through the MIAA, which they offer. Um, it would also be on the back end as far as learning how to code, learning how to make basic games with softwares that we already use in house.

Um, this would be not necessarily someone on my team. Um, you know, we would have we create it as a club with, you know, a stipen perhaps for the person. But this would all be after school. So when you look at just in the budget request for this, you know, I have listed as a standard between 10 and 15,000 cuz this would be a full year club knowing basically how long it could

take to program and to work on a game.

But you'll notice that I have right now set up for 15 units. Um if it's something that we wanted to knock down to try and only go with seven, you know, seven beefed up computer and gaming machines. Um and then it would be um to the perview of the superintendent and I to go through an interview process on who would be that advisor. This one I would want to make sure that we have the

correct person in that seat and not just kind of babysitting the group but being involved. Um, and something just to note, um 85% um, of kids that are playing video games right now could go on to, um, a college, um, for esport development and then come out of college with an engineering degree because of it. So, it's something to gain um more involvement from a different um demographic area at the

high school of students in hopes that they gain the um knowledge and understanding. We would also encourage these students to take um some of the classes in Scratch and those programs to become certified in those programs based off of the esport platform.

Questions. So first question is which department would this fall? It would fall under your department. It wouldn't fall in the athletics and if we're not looking at it from like an MIA school.

So I I I think that it would be a joint juncture between um athletics and technology um where it would be I almost envision that the the stipen may be split between two individuals. You'd have a coach because they actually do have matches where they travel to other schools and they do these games. And then the backend stuff as far as learning the programs would be tech. So

I think it would be a joint uh joint um venture. Thank you. Venture um for this initially and then we would see where it would go. I do anticipate that this would be very popular. Um I've seen it to the point where at some schools there's varsity and JP esports. Yeah, I know it's big around the state right now. Um, I would just and I' I've read up on a little bit, not much just in my

role, but I would and I can do it on my own, but just for the committee, if you can get a little bit more information if this is referred forward and then um what um I was looking at it and if we're talking about some of the coding and and the computer gaming aspect and kids receiving certificates and stuff, would that not fall under like the vocational side of on chapter 74 or or would it not

just because it's like considered after school? I mean, I think that there is the possibility for it to grow into that, you know, even as you know, Mr.

Garall and I have discussed kind of the visioning like around this help desk like startup kind of thing. Yeah. Um when we think about the trajectory um for some students that seems like it would be a viable program over time. Um so I think in that respect I think it's it's a startup. I think um even when we think about the athletic piece to it. I know that in general if you're starting

a sports program at a school, you don't just raise your hand and say, "Hey, we want to have a varsity program." We have to establish intramurals club sport kind of thing. So, I think this would be the startup of that. Yeah. And that's that's what I was thinking cuz when I think about this, I mean, we all know the emergence of AI and the direction everything's going and you know,

equipping our kids with these tools. Um it's just something I really want to see build. I don't want us to just buy computers and the dies because we don't get an instructor and then next thing you know, you know, two years down the line we're we're we're just sitting with, you know, 15 gaming computers that we're trying to auction off. But, um, I don't I don't see a problem with it cuz

I do know, you know, the impact and I know it's becoming big around the state.

Um, I would just like to see how it's going to be aligned and and how we're going to bring things down and provide a little bit more information and insight.

So, this doesn't seem like we're just taking computers and going to play someone in Call of Duty at another school um or something like that. As long as the kids are receiving like some type of certificate out of it, you know, we can we can give them some type of opportunity. I'll provide more document.

Yeah. No, I'm actually um very excited to see this and I just wanted to commend you, Mr. Gabro, superintendent, for bringing this forward. And I actually want to um speak to Mr. Bailey's point because I actually have um personal experience in um gaming and um esports as well. And just to um give one bit of advice for you and making sure this a successful program, I know the colleges

who run esports programs, you have a club, you have um a faculty member who is the faculty advisor for said club and they focus on advertisement throughout the schools. And just to the point you were making, Mr. abroad is definitely um an appetite in um I forot exactly the word you said but there is definitely going to be an interest in this program I think just from gaming and just to IT

and um cyber security so you have um a lot of different um pools of um interested people you can pull into this so um yeah I think it's just making sure this is advertised throughout the entire student body and just getting a core group with students, making sure this is student run and um training the future students who come in going throughout the years. I think you're going to see a

good program out of this. So, bravo and I yield. Thank you. The uh I think that the um I think it's something we should follow the same way. One of the things that is in here relative to an advisor, I think that's something this district has to fund and not a one kind. So, this is more like startup they can assist with, but we would have to run it by club. like all of our clubs shouldn't

there should be some kind of uh you know you have a club for three kids and you get paid x amount of dollars by contract and you've got a club with 87 kids there has to be some sort of how does this fit within the confines of we need to look at that across all the sports as well but in this one I would say if it does go forward I will pull out the piece of

the um advice is because we have to have some uh investment in it and I think that's going to strengthen the task for their foundation. I agree there. I I know that their requirement is that there has to be a plan moving forward um once they grant. So, okay.

And I do think we shouldn't uh wipe out the MIAA piece ahead of time. I think we should put it all on the table to see how it goes because if this one might be something we could ramp up quicker than a velocity sport as it said. So, uh Mr. You want to make a motion? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to refer to committee. Second. All in favor? I also voted. Miss B is right.

Yeah.

Yes. Uh 3.04 meeting live stream options. Okay. So, this has been um just so we can get a quick overview.

Mr. Das had brought this to one of his committees. Um and I'm not sure if the meeting never happened or if I was out, something happened to the point where we brought it to this committee. that was referred back I believe to this committee so that we could talk about it at the tech level. Um what's um actually excellent is um Mr. Cotchman who has been doing the Fred TV side of um

operations for god seems like 30 years now. Um I was one of his students is here tonight actually with the camera.

So if there are questions you can ask um the expert as well.

But what the request was was that all subcommittee meetings be streamed um live. There are some difficulties internally in doing that. So typically what happens now is the camera is shooting the video. Mr. Cotchman will go back to the high school. He'll ingest it into our system. He'll do what's called encoding it. He'll name it. He'll program it and it'll go back out there.

Um, a regular school committee meeting is done kind of opposite because the output of all the devices are streaming to Facebook. They're also going out to channel our local peg channels. Um, and then they're recorded as well and then they're, you know, rebroadcast. There are some hurdles internally for us to do a live stream meeting like this. So now, as you can see, a typical subcommittee meeting has

Then you have an audio technician. That audio technician also doubles as the network technician to make sure that the stream is going out live where it has to and that everything is safe on the network side. Um, so typically that increased cost because you have between three and four bodies. We're bringing equipment in and out wear and tear on equipment. With the way we do it now, it's one camera, one small

bag. Most of the time the technicians if they don't go back to the high school, you know, during the meeting, they take it home and they encode it at home and upload it from home. So they're doing that in the background. Now at government center and I think this is why it was asked all subcommittee meetings do tend to be live because the council chambers are wired as such. So the equipment sits there it never

leaves. You turn the equipment on. There are two people that need to be at a typical meeting there because one is running the audio site and the other is watching the stream. So there are a bunch of different options in here. Um and Mr. the codman can speak to him as well. There's estimated costs in here based on where we would like to have the meetings take place. I need some guidance from you guys because Mr.

Bailey um so just a question that I have just for clarification. What would be the difference? And maybe it's it's um it's the uh software whatever the case may be. What's the difference when like like Evelyn student live streams a basketball game compared to this live stream? Is it just is it the software?

Is it the Cuz he he shows up with the headset and the So Evan has mastered the oneman band technique, but Evan has also been doing this for quite some time. Um, what that requires is a $4,000 computer because it has to have the memory and the RAM and the space because it's recording directly to the laptop and then streaming out from the laptop. Um, we're using audio and video input

devices and then he travels with a little almost power box because if there's no power, that's what he's plugging into. Now, here is the only caveat to that. Depending on where he is, does the internet work? because that's all cellular based unless he's made prior arrangements with the visiting gym that he's going to or where he's going. He's using a cellular based just basically hotspot. Yeah. So, you

notice a lot of dropping with that. When he's at Derby, he's mimicking the same thing. However, our network is so robust there, we have outside access points, so he's able to jump on that way. Um, there had been talk in past um, administrations of having one room somewhere in the district where Renee and his team could build out the correct way because right now when you do a one camera shoot, there are no rules that

are broken, but there are broadcast rules that we teach our students at Fred TV that in a room like this where we're cross shooting, we really should have a third camera cuz it breaks the rule of thirds. So, we're really not teaching the kids correctly. Now, we'd love to have more involvement with the kids and having more people involved. The kids could probably get involved, but my

biggest concern is wear and tear on the equipment. Also, um we we just open ourselves up to a it could be a cluster of different, you know, issues to go live with them. I mean, right now, when he's going live to his point, when he's going live, he's on Facebook. He's just on Facebook. That's it. that's not live meaning on the channel correct or anything. So I think we have to differentiate between is that

what we're looking for is that sufficient to tape the meeting live on like anybody could probably if you had the right technology tape any of our meetings on Facebook live so we could be sitting in the audience with so I I don't think that's necessarily where we're at but I think we have to get to that point. So I'm going to let Mr. Das who brought this up originally uh to ask

his questions and then I think it's a pretty clear direction where we need to go and it's not going to be that complicated guys. Yeah. No, thank you.

And um it's first time I'm reviewing this right now and going through it.

It's um definitely very detailed. Um to your point, so all three of these options um if we decide each one will lead to live streaming in some capacity. Am I correct? Okay. Um, I'm just going to speak as one member as the direction I would want and looking at the prices, it's minuscule compared to the entire budget. I we got to understand why we're pushing for these live stream meetings.

It's to have the public be more engaged in the discussions of the school committee. You can go back and watch a YouTube video. However, I believe the evidence would show and the evidence being city council meetings which the subcommittees are live streamed currently along with the the full meeting is you see more engagement you see more community members asking questions and that's a good thing and

that's something that I support as one member in terms of like I see here like the u multi-grade camera streaming I don't think we need all that I believe just one camera case just live streaming the meeting is sufficient for this for this member of the committee. Um I don't think we need to go convoluted for just our subcommittee meetings as long as it's live stream one camera facing I

think um that that would be a good thing and I believe that would be with an option one um that's currently that's currently how the meetings are recorded now so it's the one camera one operator um the only addition here would be um again the laptop we'd have to train up some individuals because some of them are not used to that extra piece. But that's what you're seeing now minus the live

piece, right? So, what would um make that camera go live right now? So, we need um to buy um a high-end another high-end laptop. We're probably going to have to have multiple kits because there are nights where there are multiple um live events that are happening. So, that's the other piece. So, you have to also look at scheduling. We have FRGTV that comes in as well as Fred TV and Facebook. So if

there is another event happening uh let's say city council is happening right now um we would only be able to go live on Fall River um public friend TV's Facebook page. We wouldn't be able to go put that out on channel 9 because the city would be using our other streams.

So we have to be very careful also of how it's scheduled because the equipment can only split those so many ways. And of course there's going to there may be days where you might have to prioritize subcommittee meeting being live stream versus graduation or sporting event. Um I don't really have a strong opinion right now. However, I understand that's an open open-ended question. Um going back to an important

point and I believe um this was brought up by a former superintendent. It's probably one of the only things I um support from that former superintendent and I believe um some colleagues do as well is the um a meet a a meeting room having one room and so you can put all the cameras and they be live stream they be for subcommittee meetings or normal meetings. And I think we need to explore

not just the admin building. We have plenty of schools in the district. Maybe we should just have all our meetings at CUS and just put all the equipment at CUS. Just one option. We could go to city hall. Um have a city council meetings are usually on Tuesdays. Our meetings are usually on Mondays. Maybe this can also go to hand inand when we're discussing having a set schedule for subcommittee meetings. I think

that's where um that can be helpful in in scheduling purposes for Mr. Cabraw's team as well in specific days and where they are. So I think the administration should look into um different buildings and work and and work with the IT team to narrow down on one building for our for our regular meetings. We obviously can't have a full school committee meeting within this building. It just wouldn't be possible.

We have so many people that come in from the audience. We have um members of the administration. We have full school committee. So I think um or would it be just Dery High School be where we place all of our equipment? Maybe not because there's the auditorium's used for other purposes as so I believe we need a specific school committee room. And well Mr. D not to interrupt you but if that's

the case then it's already here. it can be done here. We just have to buy the equipment because when we were doing it during co um we were kind of I don't say Mickey mousing the equipment together but if Renee and his team I of course will be involved we can build something out that will stay here. We have two cameras we need an additional camera on this side and then the room is covered

and it has the ability to go live. The network closet is right down the hall from it and we're good. For subcommittee meetings that might be fine. We couldn't do that for a normal school committee meeting. No, normal school committee meeting it would have to be either Dery or CUS. Now Dery is set up as far as the robotic cameras. We have to add one on a tripod. I would like to keep it at Dery

because that's what it was kind of built for. Might we look at adding that camera that's on a tripod on the wall?

Something that Renee and I can, you know, we can talk about. I would not look at CUS at this point because at CUS it would be a complete rebuild. Uh the audio system there is ready to be replaced. The lighting grid has been replaced. We're doing it in steps, but that would be a complete wire of cameras and then getting the equipment there. So I would not look at CUS at this point

just knowing where we are with the budget and moving forward. Center, what's your thoughts on the pay center after it's renovated? Um if it gets renovated. We don't know what's happened with that. The problem with the pay center, I'll be honest, is this the the rooms that are left that could be turned into prek rooms, the ceilings are so high that it becomes a very echoey and very difficult place for the audio to be

controlled. Um, so I would I would kind of scratch that one off. Um, I really would if we're going to do and we're going to set something moving forward, it would be Dery would be the place for the full meetings because that's where the equipment is set up correctly. It's all brand new. We can do many things there. Get it back to the uh the head end at Derpy and send it out to Facebook

and to the channel at the same time. And then like I said, if we're looking at somewhere to do subcommittee meetings live, Renee, we're 85% of the way there here. Um I would just look at quoting out the equipment that would be needed and just doing those here. It's ADA compatible uh here with the RAM. I think this would be the place that if you wanted to do it live, this would be the easiest and most

cost effective at the moment for subcommittee meetings. And that's where I'm that's pretty much where I'm at. I agree with you as a school committee member. I think that would be the best option. Just wanted to throw one um I had one more want to throw one more option. I had one last question. So, um, city hall, um, any rooms in there like, um, sewer commission rooms, um, the coun, not the council chambers, but the

council hearing room. Pro the problem there, uh, is going to be getting the wiring to where our output goes back.

They don't have purview with the city council, so the city site. So, I think we shouldn't even bother with Snap on it. Yeah, sure. Um, all right. Um I my last question was kind is this about your your funding you so far for government TV is fully um supplied by the school department budget. So FRGTV and FRE you know Fred TV are the um monies that come in from Comcast and

they are run together as one. Funding comes in here and Renee handles the budget and pays out depending on you know what side of the house the money is coming from.

So some some of the so some of those monies could go into the city budget.

Some of those money do go to FRGTV as far as where he built out the the equipment that is in um council chambers, but then the rest of it goes to salaries. Yeah, the money actually comes into the city first. So Comcast cuts a check to the city, that money is transferred over to the school department for us to manage both both the government channel and the educational channel and that's that's

been historic since I started in 30 years. I'm I'm going to leave Yeah. No, I'm going to leave it at this. I think we're all pretty much on the same page of building this up, the live stream meetings. plan B. I think we should go to the city and um ask for one of their rooms if um things don't work out here.

But I'm I'm pretty I'm gonna leave it at that. I Mr. Chair, thank you. Mr. C, I I just wanted to throw something out. I mean, this room would would be ideal for the smaller meetings like these subcommittee meetings where you don't have a lot of audience members. Um, Dery is a great location obviously for the regular meetings, but we've had issues in terms of scheduling as as Deb can

attest to. Um, you know, when we have, you know, either coral events or plays or performances quite often we can't use the auditorium. Um, we do have more accessibility upstairs in the library.

And you know, I I toss that out only because we were there on Monday. Um and and we were able to to do a a larger meeting. We do have a a bigger space there. Um that might be a consideration, you know, down the road if if the committee has the will to do that. And I think, you know, Scott and we can we can talk about how is that for subcommittee

meetings or just you know, school committee? Well, I mean, if the room is set up, you know, as long as it's set up and the network is solid and the equipment is there, it could really be for both. I mean, you know, I think I honestly I think building out this room would be the most cost effective and would make the most sense. Um, one thing I look at as well is the superintendent's time. She's coming

directly from a meeting. She's coming downstairs. She's already here. It's a 4:30 meeting. You know, um, what's her day look like? And granted, we have meetings and it it takes priority, but also if we can set this room up and it's a room that we already have, you can hardwire everything and get things done.

My only fear is doing that at the high school or in a library. If a wire trips or someone does something now, we're dealing with an entire situation. I mean, how many meetings do you really hold in this room where you're using the cameras, right? So, be specific. Right.

I mean, I I think that the the room makes sense. I mean I think this is established as like the school committee room right the school committee meeting room it makes sense in that way I will say that there have been times with some of the larger meetings um and you know I think a lot of times it happens with um the instructional subcommittee meeting I think it can happen with um um special ed aled

because of the kind of what's under the umbrella that uh we do have a number of people sitting in the room now could people sit there if it's not their agenda item absolutely people could sit out in the hallway, come on in. Um, but I mean it it is an ideal space, especially where some of it is already um, you know, installed. I think that makes sense. Yeah, I agree. The the

money uh, that was mentioned. So, the city hall uh, the Comcast money was used to purchase the cameras in city hall and infrastructure. Yes. if we could get a copy of that uh what that looks like, what that budget looks like, what the money looks like, uh because I do think that the equal amount of money that was spent over there is probably years ago, so it's probably a little more expensive

now, but we should be getting equal access as elected officials to be the live meetings or whatever, just like the city council does. Mr. Das asked one time to have a meeting in in the council chambers to try it out and he was denied by the council president. I find that to be unacceptable. Uh but we I think we need to see throw it on the table of what the money is and what it looks

like. I think we should look at multiple phases of this. If this is easier right now, I think we should do it because it's the infrastructure is already here.

But I do think we need to look at a place like the CUS um uh community room where we can set that up as a meeting room. Like that's the only place we need. I I don't like to see people breaking down uh all this equipment, moving it back and forth.

Once and for all we can get a place with the cameras, everything's set up.

They're not moving the wear and tear on the stuff as best situation that you could have. I think a place like that is where we should meet all the time. If there's, you know, you could fit 200 people in there, whatever, 100 people in there. So, we should make it maybe a longer term project to say we want to be able to go live from that building and everyone knows this is where we're at.

We get caught up sometimes in trying to appease everybody by saying, "Oh, let's go to all different areas of the city, not understanding that there's a lot of other things that happen and nobody shows up to the meeting anyway." So, the purpose of the live is so they can watch it from their home. So, why are we keep on worrying about, well, why don't we go to this end of the city or that end of

the city? I think we need to have a home. And I agree. Matt Malone, one of the only things he said was right was we were going to have a room in the back of the pay center, but we have now something different there. So that has to go away. When I looked at all the list here, there's not many options, but I would encourage you to sort of take

the direction from us to say this is the angle we want to go in. How much is it going to cost to get this room light?

And then what is it going to take to get that uh uh the cusp building? And if it's not that, then come up with something different. But money should not be an issue when you're looking at what we need to do because it's not you're not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars on any of these proposals. So money we have money the government the Comcast has money well you know it's not

unlimited but there is money for that.

So so um just what I'll what I'll do is I'll sit down with Renee um and Alex who really is kind of the the engineering side of this and we'll look at what's here. We'll look at what's needed. Um, and we'll provide that to the committee.

Um, it's the busiest time of the year right now for Fred TV with graduations and events. So, it'll take us a little bit of time to get a list together. uh we'll get a list together, but I could anticipate um knowing that July is a slower month for Alex and Fred TV that we could do the buildout in July in the room and be ready for subcommittee meetings moving forward to be live in

this location. Um, and then, um, like you said, long term, we will, um, have, that's something that a company's going to have to come down do, a vendor, because we'd probably have to have some piping done and have cameras installed robotically so that they're not always in the way that can just be turned on from that back area where the kitchen is. We'll figure out a way to to work

the the cuss area and I'll get Mr. P Chico involved in that cuz um he you know that sounds like something that some of his crew could help us with. Um so what we'll do is we'll plan for this to be a go for September one but we'll give you the pricing. We'll show you what it looks like and then longterm um by September October is we should have a

long-term plan in place um as far as what it looks like moneywise and moving forward for the cus community.

Two just thank you. Just two final points. um one on on the money issue. I believe it's um 25 or 30,000 if it's below that does not have to come before the school committee. So I think this um I mean we never sent any contracts below that in the past. So I believe um just um taking the guidance today and this going forward like you said on September 1st I think is sufficient

unless there unless it requires school committee approve on the contract if it's over that certain threshold. I don't know the number off top of my head. Um just want to get one final clarification unless I misunderstood you superintendent on the um when you're speaking about individuals coming out and coming in. Were you speaking about a full committee meeting or subcommittees?

Subcommittee. Okay, never mind. I So I think the um thing that we have to do is get this to the full committee as well.

So for the same reason as before that we don't we're only in the subcommittee but we have to get this to the committee for the purposes of saying that we want one subcommittee room and one school committee room because if the committee doesn't agree to that then don't waste your time trying to do all this work. So I think uh I'd look for a motion to refer this to the full committee to let

them know where we're at. What we recommended was one of each and then let them just say yes or no and then we can go from there and if it takes six months it takes six months but I don't want you doing work that once you get it all done now everybody's going to say oh no I want to have a meeting at such and such school right okay so it's just going to

give you direction and not have you waste your time so motion made by Mr.

Bailey, seconded by myself. All in favor? I oppose. So voted. Thank you very much. 05 Comcast redundancy connection.

So this was just an FYI for you um at the table. Um I've been talking about this um for quite some time um at looking at a redundant connection for the district knowing how important the internet is. Um we had a couple of instances over the past years. I will say, knocking on wood, that light speeded, which is our main inter um ISP has been phenomenal. They've been one of the best um providers that we've ever

worked with. Um however, Comcast has come a long way in the city with their backbone. And what I've done um is I've installed a redundant connection at the Dery head end. And it'll it'll be used for twofold. um when there's an outside event um a lot of the event people want to use our internet and that is something that we have to stop because it's an issue for our network a very sec

you know on a security based reasons. So we're going to install that Comcast connection. So if there's a dance recital they'll be given the username and password to the Comcast connection um and they won't be touching our school network. Um, anything on the outside that comes in to do a presentation, Superintendent Curley has a software company in, they would be given connection to the outside world via the

Comcast and not our internal. But it's twofold now. So now, let's say there's an issue with light speeded and light speed goes down. We're in the middle of MCCast. With a click of a button, we can go over and I can divert all traffic out of the Comcast one. And when I do that, it takes all of the secure functionality of Chromebooks and everything with it.

So now we have a So instead of being down for 3 hours, we're down for 3/10en of a second. Um that's at the cost of about 1,800 bucks a month. It is not irradable. Um just because it's a redundant connection. However, um I have a line item in my budget that I use utilities, but it's really not. It's cell phones and such. So that's where it'll fit in. Um, so I just wanted to

give you all an update that the Comcast connection is up. It's been finalized.

Um, and we are starting to do initial testing and for this recital season we'll start using it which is already started. Any questions? So guys, just just one question. Um, and know a lot of this is um your your wheelhouse. So a lot of this um I'm just going to go take take you at face value for it. Um just one question on cost for um for extra for companies that come in

like you mentioned dance recital for example. Um I just received a bill um from one of these dance companies and I saw the bill and I my head was going to explode. Is there going to be a specific extra cost to um outside organizations who um there is built into the um building in use um pricing matrix. Um it's already there. Um a lot of them opt not to use

it because they'll use a hot spot. Um but they're charged for the AV usage as far as the teleprompter and everything.

So they tend not to use it because um we have so many strongholds on our network that they can't get to what they need to get to. So this will be an option for them now to say we do have an internet connection that you can get out to to get your graphics and then they would probably pay for at that point. Okay. Um just want to advise um just going

through um the school use policy. There is language within the school use policy that states that any fees are supposed to be regularly reviewed by the school committee and I don't recall reviewing the fees since I joined this committee.

So I just wanted to bring that to the administration's attention. I just want to make sure I think it probably came up shortly before you uh yeah over the last two years we've had um an update to that. So we could probably just get a copy of that for you to look at but it's good to regularly look at it. Um I think we regularly looked at it because the turf fields uh repairs were the issue.

So use of schools and whether are we actually expending money or we just allow somebody to use our facility. So that's where uh there is a pretty good sum of money in in that account right now. So if we need something we purchase it without taking out the budget. So we can definitely get that to you. Thank you for your work on that. I think it sounds sounds like a plan to me. uh 306

summer project. So this was just an FYI as well. Um I know Mr. Agier likes to keep his uh you know keep a pulse on what's happening in technology. I broke it down into the main categories of infrastructure and networking device management, telecom, phones and audio systems, security systems, staff support and onboarding and strategic projects and special initiatives. The list is

quite long. Um okay there is of course a um rating system here of what are more um not say more important because everything is important for our staff and students but stuff that is um priority one and then the remaining um on the list will be continued into early fall. Uh we never stop in technology anyway but this was just to give you an example of what we have on track coming

up for the summer season. Any questions?

Yes.

So, this um this pace cleanup um with the um the cabling and this this has already took place. No, no, this is all stuff to happen this summer. That's going to happen this summer. Um any for the PACE one when you have a date when you're looking to start that? Would that be more of like a temperature question?

No, no, that that's me. So, that's so just so we're clear that's not above the ceiling wiring. This is just our network room. Um, in the past, well before my time, they used to use 8ft patch cables, which is a strain on the equipment as well as jacks. No, no, no. In the actual network closets, so they get replaced with 1 ft cables. Everything is nice and neat. Um, that's all that means. I I I

just recommend because it will be on the agenda for Monday that we're um receiving an update on opera funds for the pay center and supposed to be more than just for the roof. It's supposed to be more of a more comprehensive project for many different things. So, I just wanted to say maybe save your bills and see if um you don't have to go through your own technology budget. See if you

can go through um Aqua funding. Just wanted to throw throw that out there.

And just for your edification, Mr. Das, this is not this would not be a cost to us. Um the cabling that we're using, um I actually got um probably about 60% of it donated um from Dharm if they were getting rid of the cabling. Um so this is just technically my OCD needing to clean the closet and make sure all the wires are the same size. Good point then. Thank you. I think uh when it

comes to some of the projects, I I like to get these updates quarterly so we don't have to go over the list, but I think by listing them makes us makes you makes the superintendent makes everyone on the same page. This is what needs to be done by this time. And I think you've been pretty good with when we say we're going to do something, we do it. We had meetings about those security cameras,

things like that that the committee, subcommittee and the full committee expect that when something's going to get done, it's going to get done. If it doesn't get done, then somebody's got to let us know we couldn't get the material in. And I think that's some of the oversight that the summer do. I I think it's a a good thing you have a busy uh you know, summer here. For the other

members, I just want to make sure that when we look at the trajectory of staffing for where we've been for the last 5 years, let's say, Mr. Gaball has received a lot of uh additional staff that is needed because of what we're dealing with. So it isn't a cost outside when we say our cost and we add a position or we have somebody that's in this industry that we need to have

experience and and that that costs money but it's valuable because we're not paying somebody else to do every single thing we want. So just keep that in mind that these positions are technical, highly technical and they cost money but we're we're saving money by having them.

So just as we go forward, please understand that they're they're doing the best they can with what they have, but at some point we have to pay real money to get real quality workers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one final question um because I know this has been um brought up in the past before the committee. Could you speak um briefly just on the expanded board doc usage? Is that for maybe the school committee? Uh

say that again, Mr. D. I didn't understand. Oh, no worries. the um it's under staff support on boarding and documentation of activate new website and board docs features. Okay. So um the new website is going to be activated in the coming weeks. That's been a very long process for the district. For the district um basically a theme change getting rid of some of the minutiae stuff that doesn't need to be there.

Making it a little more user friendly for staff, students, families, wall, you know. Um and then board docs. I know that's been a vote of contention with um some members on the committee. Um I was not the person that made the initial purchase on that. That was made in a former administr you know administration. However, um in talking with many districts out there, it is definitely the tool of choice. It is not

owned by MASC anymore. It's owned by a company called Diligent. Um and it is going to be my recommendation that we continue to move forward with them. uh because there are many more features that diligent the company is going to offer. I was actually speaking with Mrs.

Kabra um earlier um and one of the things that's great is um there's a transparency feature where when you click on school committee now it brings you to the board docs page where you can navigate through past meetings, you can navigate through the agendas.

The big piece for me is you can actually now when the meeting is live, it's going to actually show on the side of the screen the agenda and where we are on the agenda as to what's being spoken about and it'll do subtitling for people that need the subtitling. So when we're live, there's another avenue for someone to watch it. So it's not just Facebook part of our board docs yearly cost. We

now have this option. So that school committee page is going to look different as well. Um, and the thing that is very important to me after what we've gone through this year is the security of our documents. Um, they're backed up in three separate locations with Diligent, all off-site and cloud-based. So that way if something were to happen here locally, we have backups of everything that um, Miss

Cabraw has done historically through her time here and anyone else that has used Board Docs as the administrator. Um, that's something for a different day. I did not put that on this um agenda because we still were um conversing back and forth and I was just able to after coming back from um medical leave sit down um in the past few days with that vendor. Um but that'll be something that

I'll be bringing um to the full committee um in the coming months um to discuss. No, I'm glad I'm glad you're on top of it. And um last comment I'm going to say and I'm going to I'm going to yield is um on the website and I'm just going through um a few um different district websites um on another topic I brought up earlier is a tip line. I think it's important that we have um as

a district a tip line may be either a phone number or an email to put on the website to report whatever the issue is.

It could be um something internal for HR. It could be something a parent wishes to um bring forward if there's an issue in the classroom. Um but I know um different um districts like in the south coast have the tip line. I might I think I might have shared it with you some in the past. If not, I'll make sure to share it.

Um some near Boston. So it's something actually that's a common um trend among districts that I believe would be beneficial for fall public schools and I yield Mr. We can get a one page on what we do offer. I I think there's some variation of what Mr. guys is talking about just so we are all on the same page for tipline tip line or like informationational like this place like

if you have a concern you know uh relatives are asking there's places that we so it's not like we're doing nip nothing uh just on board I'll say first I don't use it I'm not a fan but I'm not opposed to seeing what else the application does um but some of the things that you're talking about if we can also get some information on that Um because some of the things you're talking to do peak my

interest. I know that. So that meeting sometimes and I look down the stage and this was saying I talked about this in this meeting. If I can reference some of that stuff and pull it out, I think it would be helpful too for some of the things that school committee members are talking about just so we can reference ours. This superintendent is making a certain point.

Um I think it would be beneficial cuz I'll be honest on I'm one member who didn't support it and was like let's just get rid of it cuz I don't use it.

I'm not opposed to looking into it. Um but if we're not using it, I do think it's a waste of funding. Um so I I would like to explore that. And and just just to just to further expand on that for a moment, um the idea behind that, the software is actually pretty neat because um it's recommended for an iPad. So, we would take back the Chromebooks that you guys use, give you all iPads. You'd have

your district email on there with a keyboard. But in the meeting, um you can actually follow along in the meeting by swiping across to the left and it will keep you up. Or you can put it in what's called um guided meeting mode. I'm at most meetings and I can keep up and I can swipe and it will move all your iPad screens for you. So, you have that option if you wanted. And then

there's also that control F feature. So, like you said, if there was something that was said at an April 11th meeting, you type in April 11th, you type in the word, it finds it for you. Yeah. I just think it's it's great for reference.

Like I said, if I'm looking down the stage and Mr. Aguio is talking about something or the superintendent is talking about something, it's always great. I find myself on my iPad typing notes and then I'm going back and I can't find something and, you know, I'm jumping through. But it it just makes it streamlines what we do. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Is there um is there a feature where people can take

notes like in with like in their system in the update this diligent software company that bought them they're a huge software company they have their feet in many different places but I was quite amazed at what their updates were just very quickly on on one point I guess um just hearing that for the first time as one member it's not personally in support of um giving the Chromebook

for an iPad. I think um just for I think we need to be um just for some of the um different same arguments I gave for the meals that we receive. I think we need to um lead by example and be frugal and it's just um this is just first glance maybe. Um but I know I know there's some arguments that could be made that be better to keep track during the meeting.

However, um I guess if we're getting iPads, maybe get cheaper ones. Well, actually, I can tell you that right now they're about 30% cheaper than a typical Chromebook that you have. Um, and they're already in house, so it's not a cost. They would purchase um to use um and I have some set aside cuz my plan was to go to iPads for you guys because it makes it easier um and the batteries

last longer. Um so, there's actually a cost savings in using the iPads over the Chromebooks. All right. Make sure we have that in writing because I I know what people can say out there. So, I think it's important. Thank you. The only comment I would make is that I I've not been a fan of the board docks, but I also don't think we've done anything that they've told us they were going to

do back when they came in. So, I would encourage you as sort of like you're taking the lead on this, I guess, is to go back, look at the meetings, figure out what they actually said when we bought board docs. We haven't done 10% of what they said it was going to do.

So, that's why it's not usable. You know, it's a waste of time. I'd rather have a Google doc where I can actually see something or I can search my own minutes. I I send things to M cab all the time. Can you search this for me?

Because I don't have access to to you know find a word or go to find these things. So I have to ask her that she's got to go near the things and attach them because we're looking at PDFs on the site and you can't search a PDF in that way. You know, it's like a different type of thing. I don't have all the software. But ultimately, go back and look, please, what they said

they were going to do, and if it's $15,000 for that, I'm not in favor of it. You come back and say, "This new company has this and there's a feature, great. But if it's not going to be worth the $15,000, I'm still not going to be in favor of it." So, understood. Anybody have any new business? I just on the new business, the only thing was a few months ago, we

had an issue with security cards. Um, we had a lockdown situation. Uh I don't want to necessarily get into the the that discussion, but my recollection is that in the past we've had people all over like who's in charge. So we don't know who to go to and say this is your thing. Now my recollection was that prior to you being superintendent, Mr. Cabraw was in charge of the security guards. So the access

like the doors the So we didn't have well he's doing one part, you're doing another part, you're doing one part. So we at whatever time, correct me if I'm wrong, we said the point person on security doors and the swipe cards is him. And I just want to make sure that that's still happening because when the incident happened, I don't think I starting to get, oh, this one was doing

it, that one was doing it, this one. We started to hear different things than I thought it would have been. Mr. Carl is the CIO. He's the uh security card guy.

Everything goes to him. So I would say why did that not I'm not asking for the answer but be simple Mr. Gro how does this happen and uh we can talk offline on that was actually just a human error it was nothing um drastic at all it was a a human error but I'm saying are you in charge of the security and the doors so what happens right now is I'm the one

that programs the doors I'm the one that makes sure the schedules are intact based off of what superintendent Curley and Mr. Pico as far as staff members in and out. And then there are uh for student IDs which have no they're just a blank card. They're printed in their respective grade level office and are at the schools. And then staff cards are printed but once staff cards are printed

on the props card I have to go in and activate all of that. So they have access to print the card but I'm still activating it. And any decisions on doors uh security directly in charge of that or not? Um I work directly with Mr.

Ventura. Um I am in charge I am in charge of the cameras. Um Mr. Ventur will call and say, "Hey, is it possible to change that view?" And then what we do is we talk about it. If we agree that the view should be changed, then my technician that does the cameras will go and change the view. But the bottom line is you're in charge. I am at during that

time. I don't think that was the case.

for what it's worth. Um that's one one not not to that point but I just have one um question for new business that um I asked um a few months prior and I believe it's a technology related. So um the when Derby High School the scanning devices or the the magnetometers um the evolve system. Yes. Yeah. Okay.

So what what exactly is it searching for? metal.

Um, so and just so we're clear, that is a U Mr. Pacho and Mr. Ventur piece, but I can speak to the fact that it's looking for metal and it's looking objects that are in the shape of a weapon. Um, there are changes in the software coming up um over the summer and they're constantly updating things, but a specific question to that nature, you would be better off in facilities

with Mr. Pac or Mr. Ventura. uh just because my plate was becoming so full that actually superintendent Curley was nice enough to move that piece to Mr.

Pico and Mr. Ventura which has been great so they would have the answers you need. I'd say uh forward that email. I think you send an email every now and again. So if you can just send one to the superintendent with that specific question so that she can get the answer and then um send it out to the full committee. Sure. And um I'll just say I just for the record I um I'm going to

yield. I um have concerns over the system either concerns um how we use it for outside of school hours and concerns that um I believe the committee has heard from students before but I'll yield that for now. Thank you. Not hearing any other new business.

Uh 5.01 01 is a request for executive session uh for the purpose of mass channel law chapter 38 section 2184 to discuss the deployment of security personnel or devices or strategies with respect to there too like to make have a motion made to go into executive session made a second all in favor I post so voted Mr. Chair I recommend I believe um Mr. A yes Mr. Bailey. Yes.

Miss Larson.

Uh, so we'll be in executive session.

Okay. We're going to reconvene this subcommittee meeting. Roll call, please.

Mr. Aar here. Mr. Bailey, here. Mr. Ly.

We have a motion to agend.

Mr. Bailey makes a motion to adjurnn.

Mr. A second it. Roll call. Mr. A. Yes.

Mr. Bailey. Yeah. Miss Ly. Thank you all very much. Have a great night. Thank you.

This is this is my time of night.