School Committee - Grafton Public Schools - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening everybody and welcome to the June 10th school committee meeting. I call the meeting to order. Do we have any public comment? All right, seeing none, I'm gonna dive into our agenda tonight. It's our last meeting of the school year and we'll start with our AI task force update. start applauding.

Well, we're already excited.

Good evening. Thank you for having us. My name is Kim Dufault. I'm an elementary technology teacher here in the district. I teach at Millbury Street School, North Grafton Elementary and South Grafton Elementary. Thank you for having us tonight. So I'm going to start with an introduction and the executive summary and who we are. We are a cross-functional district AI task force. We are administrators, teachers, parents, students, and technology leaders in the district. We are focused on responsible, ethical AI implementation. Members of our committee are, the district leadership members are Crystal Lebrun, Jen Manion, Christine Martellio, and Maureen Malloy. Representatives from Grafton High School are Sarah Bruns, Tracy Callow, Peter Carlson, Michael Kielbacinski, Annalise Marfo-Massa, From Grafton Middle School, we have Anna Fitzgerald, Herdam Gotham, and from North Grafton and North Street Elementary School, myself, Kim Dufault, and Satish Kumar Mummadi. And what we have been doing is we've had a process to come together to come with a plan for AI for our district. Number one, we started with reviewing current AI landscape. The second step is we gathered the stakeholder input. Our third step was we conducted district-wide surveys. Our fourth step was we evaluated district readiness. And our fifth step was developing guidelines and a roadmap. So next is Maureen Malloy, and she'll be right up.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for having us. As Kim said, my name is Maureen Malloy. I'm the technology coordinator for the district. And I'm just going to give you just a quick overview of where we are currently. The leadership, the AI leadership team attended a summit in January through the COSEN summit group. And we had a two-day leadership workshop where we focused on seven domains. within AI and they told us to really pick two domains and dig in and see what you can do to have the district improve their AI. So we decided on the data readiness and security and that is protecting student and staff data as we use AI tools across education and we want to make sure we're building safe and compliant practices. And the other domain we focused on was academic AI literacy, and that is preparing learners for the AI-driven future. We want to establish responsible district-wide practices for students and educators. We wanted to make sure you all know that as we're developing these processes, we are not behind by any means. We are very intentional and we are proactive and we are being very flexible because as we meet, things are changing so rapidly. But those are the two domains that we will be focusing on.

So we started with a data point. We felt like it was important to get input from all stakeholders, so we did three different surveys, one with parents and guardians, one with students, and one with staff. And much of the data aligned with the self-assessment we had done when we predetermined which domains we were gonna focus on, so that was encouraging and reinforcing. You could see that 54.9% of families really feel student data privacy is a top priority, as do we. And 44.1% of educators reported low familiarity with district expectations around AI. So those two data points really gave us a platform to launch from in terms of our work as a committee. So we know the key insight from this portion is that data privacy and security remain top considerations for the work of the task force. One area of note in our data was that students were not as concerned with data privacy and security. So we know that that's important work on our part is to make sure that they understand why that's a top priority and what to do to keep themselves safe and protected. The next slide just gives you a blush of some of the ways people indicated that they're using AI currently. So students talked about getting support with studying guides and things like that. Or if they've been absent, having some reteaching teachers using for efficiency, differentiation, lesson planning, lots of different ways that's already emerging within the educational environment. So we know it's important that we create consistent frameworks for the use, try to stay abreast of changes in evolution and use of AI in education and make sure that we provide special learning supports, answers when we can, and research to back things up so that this work continues to flow here in Grafton. So I think I'm launching it back to Maureen.

So the next slide just goes over how we're making progress, what we really learned from that summit, and what our next steps would be. A couple things that we've done since then is we secured a grant for cybersecurity training through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. called Know Before, and what this has been doing is helping us identify phishing emails and where we need help with training staff to make sure that we're all secure and we're thinking before we're clicking. We also joined a data alliance agreement with tech and that is the education cooperative and what that is doing is gathering, we're building a database to gather all the applications we're using in the district and make sure vendors are signing a data privacy agreement So we'll know exactly what's going on with student data, especially data that students are logging in, if they're putting in any personal information. We'll have an agreement with these vendors about where our student data is going. We're expanding on our security training. And again, we're reaching out to vendors with those privacy agreements. developing an ethical AI policy, really more guideline policy, but we want to make sure that we are bringing students and staff up to speed on bias awareness as far as AI is concerned, and we want to make sure they're being transparent when they're using AI, they have accountability, and we continue to reach out to stakeholders, including students, families, and of course our staff.

Hi, everyone. I'm Priscilla Brennan, the integration and digital learning specialist. It's nice to see everyone again. So For the last year and a half or so, we've been working pretty hard on these AI guidelines for the district. They are linked here on our district's website as well. But we really, again, tried to make those guidelines so they will work with ever-changing and evolving AI technology. So again, the purpose, to prepare students and staff to use AI responsibly, ethically, and effectively. Our core priorities, of course, AI literacy, digital citizenship. When our students leave us, we want them to be able to use AI in a responsible, respectful way. As we mentioned already, privacy and data protection. Again, we wanna make sure that students' data is safe, and that is definitely high up there on our list. Academic integrity, of course. We want them to use it to support their learning rather than do learning for them. Equity and bias reduction. Of course, we know that AI can be biased, so just making them aware of that. And then ethical decision-making as well. So some roles and responsibilities. We want students to use AI as a learning tool, how to cite it if needed, and of course maintain that academic integrity. Staff, we want to be modeling that use, that responsible use, designing AI-aware assessments, guiding student learning. And then for parents and guardians, we want them, of course, to stay informed, keeping AI responsible at home as well and using our guidance to support. So again, as Maureen had mentioned, we're kind of developing this list of district AI approved tools. So we'll go through that, um, and just, you know, really train both students and, um, and staff how to make sure we're not putting PII or personally identifiable information into prompts to help keep them safe. Um, we are fortunate that we do have Google for education, which is, um, it has all of that privacy built right in. So we know that students and staff are protected. And then as Maureen mentioned, the FERPA and COPA compliance requirement for all tools to really make sure that whatever our students are using, and our staff, they're protected and safe. So we'll, again, we'll keep these guidelines, we'll keep reviewing them, updating them annually as things change, and just keep using educational best practices as everything keeps evolving.

Hello, my name is Ferdan Gotham and I'm going to be talking about the AI use stoplight model. This is the model we are going to be using for the following AI processes. So it again is a stoplight with three different levels of AI use. Red being AI cannot be used at all for this assignment. And if it is, it can result in disciplinary action. And it's just completely not allowed. And the work has to be 100% original. Yellow is when AI can be partially used for the task, like in a little bit. So a good example of this is in an essay where I could use AI to think of ideas to like you, like ideas of people or just a faster way of like doing research. Green is AI can be used, but not exactly, because AI shouldn't replace us in that perspective. So we don't want to give a prompt to AI and AI just do all the speaking. That just, again, removes the point. And again, in school, we want to study. We want to become better. But assignments that are green, teachers will encourage the student to use AI. An example of this is mostly if I wrote an essay, used AI to get the idea for it. I wrote the essay by myself, and I just realized some of their grammar mistakes, there's some formatting, and there's some words that I would like a better word in that perspective. instead it's more of a efficiency i can just use ai to like make it more structured make it more better and yeah that's a green light for um our stoplight system the stoplight system is a shared simple language that every student and parent and teacher can understand because it's just three simple things yes pretty obvious Teachers will communicate this stoplight model before an assignment so students can't miss it at all. The goal again, as I said, is to not restrict creativity as creativity is really important. That's why AI shouldn't completely do the assignment and we should take some part in it. And also this has already been implemented in some other areas with some schools. So we'd like just to like make our school more future proof and better. We're just adding the AI stoplight model to make our school better. And the biggest thing in this whole thing is transparency as the teacher, the student and the parent should know everything that's happening. As AI is currently, it's a really weird field as everything's changing. So yeah, that's the stop-by model.

Thank you. Thank you. That was awesome.

Hi, so I'm Christine Martelio, the assistant principal over at the middle school. Um, and so I actually started on the AI task force 4 years ago. I think it's my 1st year here. Um, and so we decided this school year to really reinvigorate it. But what we thought was really important was to make sure that we created a full task force. That wasn't just staff that included students and parents. And so Kim did a great job kind of giving you an overview of all the different people. But we made sure that we talked to parents that were currently involved heavily in some of the AI outside of just the school area. So that was really important for us as a district to create a task force that varied. And we had middle school students, high school students. We involved some of our elementary folks as well. And then we did that audit. So the audit, We had already given some surveys a few years ago. So that's kind of where we started in January. As Maureen mentioned, we went to the summit. So we had a little bit of background. But as everybody knows, things keep changing. So we thought it was really important to get another ready set. So that's why we sent out those surveys, just to kind of see where we were before, where we thought we were. kind of made sense. And that's where that readiness report came from. So some of the documentation that's linked there is where some of those things came from. And then we wanted to look at where are we going? The thing is that where we're going keeps changing. So I'll be back up here in a minute to talk about phase three. But phase three really is exactly what I'm saying right now. So I might just come up here and say, see, that's what I'm going to do again. So we're really planning to do this all over again, right? So to see what happens and Anna's gonna come up and give you a nice overview of our plan for next school year and what we plan to do with kind of students, with teachers and with families. But as you can see at the bottom there, the first thing we're going to do next year, we're kind of moving it to phase two is to build a communication plan. So we did a lot of work this year. I think we met every two to three weeks And we did one hour. We really got a lot accomplished in that hour. But what we didn't get accomplished was exactly how we're going to communicate all this out. We do have a plan on how we're going to do some of the professional development, but our first step next year will be the communication plan. And so what we're doing for AI literacy, what that professional development is going to look like, what data privacy really is to the community, and then you know, kind of bringing it back to what Hurdan was saying, and that is there always has to be a human in the loop. You can't just kind of like just take it and submit it as yours because there are a lot, I think it was Maureen that mentioned, you know, there's a lot in there that you might not necessarily expect. And there's going to be bias depending on what you fed it and what it knows about you. It's always going to tell you what you want to hear. And so just getting some of those messages out there will be important work for phase two, which is what Anne is going to tell you about.

Give me a second. Hello. Anna Fitzgerald, seventh and eighth grade art teacher over at Croft and Middle. So phase two expansion where the real district-wide shift begins. Professional learning and communication will support consistent district-wide implementation. Educator readiness and ongoing community transparency are vital to this process. Expansion will be starting in August of 2026 and concluding around April of 2027. For our professional learning district-wide, for all staff, they will be participating in AI ethics and responsibly used training, whether that be through summer work, faculty meetings, or after school virtual sessions. Included in that will be role specific training on student data protection and safe tool use, as well as coaching and resources for educators, integrating AI in instruction. Our implementation goals, measuring success through concrete metrics keeps us accountable to the community. 80% of staff will ideally train, complete their training by the end of our expansion. 90% positive feedback from our stakeholders, students, staff, and families. And 100% of secondary classrooms will adopt the stoplight model if they have not already done so. The stoplight model rollout in secondary schools is a visible, tangible milestone families will recognize. Although these implementation goals are ambitious, they are fully achievable with proper support structures. Our family communication remains active throughout the entire phase as it is not a closed door process.

So as Anna mentioned, so that's a majority of what we'll do next year. And at the very end of next year, we want to look and see, how did we do? So do the students understand what privacy is, what they should and should not be implementing and putting into different AI bots? Do students understand that? Do parents understand that? Do teachers understand that? Do we understand that? Is it OK to put a first name? Is it OK to put a last initial? What is OK? What isn't OK? So we're hoping through doing more surveys again, like we did similar to this year, where are we in those two different areas? So again, the areas where the privacy and the literacy and then determining do we need to continue in that or should we be choosing some of the other of the seven? My hunch is that through the work we've done in those two, some of those others will also start to pick up. So we may not need to focus on all seven because things will continue to change. And then, so lastly, you wanna do next steps? Next steps.

Continuing staff preparation and training, expanding family and community communication, refining guidelines and policies, monitoring the ever-evolving AI technologies, and supporting responsible classroom implementation.

So hopefully the key takeaways is that AI is ever evolving. Even just as we were doing this work from February until May, we were like, oh, wow, OK, we need to revisit that sentence there, or we need to look at that again. So I anticipate that's going to continue to happen, and that's OK. Also, similar to what Haran said, we need to keep human-centered learning at the core. So it's a tool, just like a calculator was a tool. And as a former math teacher, I was like, no, they can't use calculators. Well, they're using them, right? So we know they're using them, so we want to make sure they're using them ethically and responsibly. And making sure, as we have with you all and with the community, that we're transparent about our priorities and what we're doing and how we're moving forward. And then looking at the student readiness, because that's our North Star. And he wasn't able to join us tonight, but one of our parents was telling us that he was at a symposium for AI in California last month. And they actually were teaching AI how to dream. And so, I mean, we just don't even know what's coming down the pike for us. So just keeping that, you know, looking at the future that it's going to keep changing and that's okay, but we just want to try and keep up with it as best we can. So I don't know, did you have any questions? For anybody, really.

That was great, thank you guys.

I have a quick question. So I love all the goals and one of my questions that I had before was sort of about like what steps are we gonna take to get teachers ready because it's like obviously they're the ones dealing with the students and it sounds like we have a pretty good plan for that. However, like is there a direct spot where students are going to be like whose responsibility is it to teach the students because i feel like it's kind of going to be smattered across all of their classes but is then we're sort of not directly saying this is what we want you to learn today or this is what we want you to know this year are we counting on teachers across the board to sort of be

Yeah, I think that's kind of going to be where it comes in, and it's going to be mostly at the secondary level. It's going to kind of be, okay, so we kind of educate the teachers on where it can be used in their classrooms, and then they're going to need to educate the students on how it can be responsibly used, because it's going to be different depending on each class. whether it's a math classroom versus an ELA classroom, whether it's a senior versus a seventh grader, right? So I think if we can really get into the idea of the stoplight model and then the battery model, which we didn't introduce tonight, but that is gonna be part of the professional development with the teachers, and that is, basically it's a, a continuum where the battery being full means your full battery power, you're doing it all, versus the battery being empty, which is meaning it's doing all the work for you, and where are you in that thought process? So it's not just about red, yellow, green, can you use it, can't you use it, but it's how much are you And I think that just through that education, but I do like the idea of potentially bringing it back. I know in the middle school, in some of our half days, we do workshops and so that definitely could be something that we could incorporate into a workshop model. um i think the high school also has different you would know better than i would um but does different times during their school year where they might be able to bring some of these concepts in more holistically than just classroom level but i love that yeah yeah that was my biggest concern was just like i don't want some kids kind of missing something because we're assuming they got them in one class and they maybe didn't didn't get that and so yeah i know that's great that's a great point um quite well taken and we should we'll make sure that we're We chat about that when we roll out next year. Wonderful.

Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, it was a great presentation.

You can thank Claude. He's the one who we put all the notes in. He created this.

I love Claude. Beautiful. But I just had a question around the research. Now that Google, I mean, I guess. I mean, I used to use an encyclopedia back in those days. But now we have Google, which is attached with Gemini. Will that be... Like part of the stoplight model, like, you know, you can Google it, but like, you know, but then Gemini is also inserting itself with like paragraphs of explanations on the topic. Like, you know, you pick something like, I don't know, like a state or, you know, some type of like book literature. And like you ask it like the Great Gatsby and I'll give you a whole synopsis. Like it's almost like a book report we used to do. And it's like. and it's like almost done for you when you're just googling it so you know i think having like those parameters and guidelines around like can you use that you know even can you go and google that um is that like almost not like cheating on your assignment because you're kind of getting maybe more than you asked for, for like research.

Yeah, super dry area, right? So that's going to have to also be like a component of it as to what did you use to do your research, right? And sometimes it does tell you, like, because I've done this, and it will tell you the different websites it's pulling from to give you the AI answer. So I think you just, I think students are gonna need to be really super transparent and then maybe do like a background, not just say, okay, well it showed me that, so I'm just taking it, cutting it, and I believe it for what it is. Understanding that that is also pulling from several sources.

That's a great question. So this is something we have learned is that AI is everywhere now. It's not just you have to go out here and find a tool and use it. It's implemented everywhere. So that is something we'll have to teach them. We also really are leaning into the Google sphere, the whole Gemini, because they don't use their models. They don't use student information to train their models or anything like that. There's nothing saved. So we are leaning into the Gemini Google, because we do pay for the Google Chrome education license. But that is a great question. And it is something we learned. AI is just everywhere. Every day, it's showing up somewhere different. It's in your toolbar. It's everywhere.

And unfortunately, too, that's if they're using our devices. They can go home and use their parents' device or a different Microsoft or whatever and have access to all of this. They can go to the library and have access to it. So I do think that the literacy part, that educational piece, is going to be important for them to understand that some of these things that they're finding even on the internet are not necessarily going to be true. So they may have to vet their sources a little bit better. And that, I think, will just come as they get older as well. And that's not new, like that isn't new. As long as we've had the internet, we've had kind of like these are the websites you can go to, these are the websites you can't. And so that's just going to continue to get complicated, unfortunately.

Yeah, and then I like the part about like teaching, you know, families, because, you know, not everybody's, you know, aggressive the topic and, you know, how to use it. And obviously it's changing. So having that resource of like, you know, can my student use, you know, these sites or these apps to do their work?

and we were pleasantly surprised with the community stakeholder responses to our survey a lot was very positive we just really had a couple that were not positive but overall we got really positive feedback in really looking for more information and help from us so that is something to concentrate on

Thank you. Well, thank you so much. First of all, thanks for all your input to the policy that we created. We took a lot of information and guidance from you. And I know it will continue to evolve. And I liked that that was a big theme of your presentation, was being flexible and evolving. And I think that's going to be something just new for Grace, for the students, for the teachers, for ourselves, because they're bound to make mistakes. I think that's why you're in school, why you're young. You can learn and things like that. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned the calculator. You mentioned encyclopedias. But I mean, growing up, we had CliffsNotes. That was the big thing. Are you going to use your CliffsNotes or are you going to read the book? It's not the same by any means. AI is challenging. There's a lot of fear with it, too, because there's a lot of mistrust and people are afraid. But I think in a way, it's always been that same thing. Is this going to take away from the actual education? And you summed it up so well when you said the human piece has to always be there. And that's what we're already seeing it. Companies that have laid off people have brought them back because it cannot replace people. So I think that's just, I think it's really important. And then I was very impressed with the group that you had. I love that we have an artist. That's so important because that's a huge fear. I think of AI is pulling away from the arts, right? Like to have that mindset, that creativeness is so important to have students, to have professionals. You know, I use AI a lot for my work. I have a lot of clients that are developing AI and all of those things to have that voice there is great. And of course, to have our educators and technologists who are in and day out. So great job. I'm super impressed and really glad to see glad we're not running away from it. because we can't, because it's everywhere. And glad that we're going to hopefully be with our students and learn together. And every step of the way, it's going to evolve quicker than encyclopedias did. So yeah, a little bit, a little bit. So it's great to see. And I think at the end of the day, once we get through the hype cycle of this, I'm really hoping that it stays as a tool and that it never takes away from the glorious things of education, like reading the great Gatsby, painting that picture, listening to the music. So thanks.

Yeah, of course, thank you.

So this was tremendous and you absolutely stole my point about an art teacher being an, no, it's great, I mean, When I saw you on the committee, I was like, oh, thank God. So you talked a little bit about using Google and Gemini. Has there been any other thought to other tools? Because you didn't talk specifically about any tools. Over time, are we kind of moving to a strategy of using student-focused platform like Conmigo or something else. I understand those things are expensive. That's a whole other can of worms, but I worry a little bit about just being like, you can use AI tools. I know they have to be FERPA and COPA. compliant but are have we given any thought to like the longer term strategy of having a platform so that a we can detect if kids are using ai inappropriately where there might be some guard rails or it's set up to function properly is that in the plan at all or have we contemplated that we did talk about that a lot at the ai summit in january um about specific tools we did learn that a lot of

not a lot, but some districts had already purchased tools, but then they were finding, I don't know how to say it.

Yeah, it wasn't what they needed or it wasn't giving them what they needed. It wasn't what they thought it was going to be. We've had some teachers pilot some things too. We have had some teachers pilot a few things as well.

So on our district's website, I did create an AI for educators website. And you'll see some different tools on there. Again, all of them following the privacy laws and everything. But yeah, it really comes down to convenience with a lot of the tools. So again, like Maureen stated, the Gemini tools and the Google for Education suite that we have does have that protection and everything built in. We are able to see how they're using Gemini, what they're prompting Gemini. And Google keeps coming out with new things every week. They're updating it. It's constantly changing for the better, which is wonderful. But yeah, we do have other tools that teachers are starting to use. A lot of the free features, of course, at this point. We had special ed department, special ed teachers working on how they can use AI to help differentiate content. Which has been great, but I think it's really just about how to use So in the stoplight model or when a student is given an assignment and they're told they can use AI are they directed to a particular tool or a Particular use of a tool

Or would they be?

Yeah.

I think that's going to be a question that we probably will be able to answer this time next year once the teachers really start digging into it because I think that some of the teachers are really using it regularly and most are not. think that because there's a lot of fear around it because maybe they just aren't quite sure you know I do I know that a lot of the teachers in our building you know use it to help to you know help to fix an email and like kind of some of those surface level things which are great because they're time savers but maybe they aren't digging into like I created a gem for a student that needed modifications to assessments and make me a menu of four different options for this particular student. These are their likes, these are their dislikes, this is their disability area, da, da, da, da. Once they start really getting into those things and understanding how to do that, but in a way that protects the student's privacy, they can put information in there but we don't want it to be identifiable to that particular student and then how are they using that and then how they able to do that to help the students make their assignments that much richer i think that's going to just take a lot of time to figure out what tools and they keep changing which doesn't help us okay great anyone have anything else

Thank you. Obviously put a ton of work in. This was a great presentation. We appreciate you guys.

Thank you. And thanks, Maureen, for the tech support. Thank you, Jay Cummings, for the tech support.

Yes. We always look to you for tech support.

I know. I was like, Maureen, help me.

But Maureen came over. I didn't even see this. I went across the hall, for the record. You got more steps.

Thanks, everybody. All right. So we did have post override discussion on the agenda. I'd like to delve into that a little bit more over the summer, I think, maybe touch base with like the FinCom and select board and sort of get ourselves ready to really dive into that maybe in the fall if everyone's cool with that.

Yeah. I had asked for it and maybe I was definitely premature, but I was just thinking out loud, I didn't wanna lose it. I think my, and I think it's a bigger discussion, but my initial goal for just asking it is, I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page of expectations between committees, because I felt like. Last year, we walked out of that committee. At least. I did expecting something and then this year heard hearing something different that they were that the select board was expecting us to do that. We didn't know that was, you know. what they were recommending for us to do. You know what I mean? I just wanna make sure the majority of boards are kind of at least moving forward and it's obviously gonna change every year, year to year, but just thinking about that. So I think it's great to have more communication and better, but we don't have to have a big discussion about it tonight. That was just my thoughts and it was just mostly that. I don't want people thinking we're doing something

that we think we're not doing or that we don't agree with that's best for students right right people come at it with different angles and that's okay but no i think you know it makes sense to kick off the school year maybe with uh sort of tricom type meeting or at least you know spending the summer gathering what are what we think from a strategic standpoint and sharing with the other committees right

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Of course. Yeah.

Can I say something, which is somewhat related, somewhat not related, but I was also thinking, I know earlier this year there had been some talk about possibly getting together with other towns and or other school districts to talk about things. I was thinking that would be a really useful thing to potentially reach out to some other districts in our area over the summer when all of us have a little bit more time. And so this is our last meeting. So I just wanted to say like, maybe we should talk about that at some point because I.

Can I bring that up at the last meeting and we were gonna talk about it at this meeting? Yeah.

Are we talking about it later?

So no, we're not. So maybe we can talk about it through the override. Cause I do.

It's like to get right. Like they're paired, but they're not directly paired. Cause it's sort of.

Yeah.

Right. It's.

But I didn't, maybe I was supposed to write it. No, I thought we were going to talk about it.

Yeah, I thought we were going to talk about it too. Yeah. But I just don't want that piece to get lost because it's in the same category, but it's not the rest of our town. It's other towns.

Well, I think it's because part of it was, sorry, was advocating, right? I think people want to see more advocate.

Yeah.

Advocacy.

Advocacy. Yeah.

Advocacy. And there's better power in numbers. Agreed. For sure.

Agreed.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Less screaming into the void.

Yeah.

yeah i think we've talked we've kind of talked about that a few times right i mean it's someplace we definitely want to go right and we've talked about your position on mase and how that would work

Yeah, I guess I'm just not sure how it works as a committee member too. Like. I know me, I could just go full speed ahead, but that's not really. As a committee member, you know, well, I think like, I can see me just reaching out to all the people I know.

Well, I think we have to, I mean, my hope would be to kind of, as a committee anyway, we're through the override, to meet this summer to kind of do some goal setting, and I think that's part of that discussion, right? Awesome. To me, it's going to be a key goal is to figure out that advocacy piece, so. um so that's i guess where i want to delve into it more to do kind of a goal setting workshop for the committee i would love that i would love that also and maybe we can make it like closer to the beginning of the summer because i like we just get underwater so fast during the school year so i just want to make sure we have yeah and if we can if it takes multiple meetings or whatever that's great exactly yeah love that but i do know when um

I connected I think I talked about this connected with the Sutton school committee or some members of the school committee and they really were talking about how they'd like to kind of do more with us either of its trainings or getting people to come in and speak and things like that and I think it was just it was eye-opening watching North Bridge Menden Upton us all doing the same thing at the same time and I know we all kind of Helped each other a little bit at least if it wasn't at the very least swiping social media ideas, but, you know, it felt like, whoa, we're kind of missing a. Missing something here that we can't all help each other. Agreed, you know, and it's different and it's not, I think Stella asked, like, division division 4, it's different because, you know, Marlboro is in our division. Worcester's in our division. They're not asking different challenges. They're not asking for overrides. they're you know doing other things right so it is kind of and for me i'd almost you know so it's reaching out to all of those and we all have that power like so although i'd be very passionate and would want a part of it but i would love to talk more about that perfect thank you for remembering that rebecca thank you laura no thank you no no

Yeah.

All right.

The next thing on the agenda was the operating principles. I do feel I'd love to hear if anyone had any comments on the updated draft. I don't want to take a vote on them without the full committee here because I think we all have to agree to them because we all have to live with them. So I'll probably put off a vote on them. But if anybody has had any comments on the updated draft, that would be great. and if not, also great. I mean, do you guys agree with kind of holding so that we all kind of vote? I mean, I feel we all have to be comfortable with it, right?

Yeah, I thought you were talking about the subcommittee scopes, and I was like, no, but I missed that.

Nope, I'm talking about the operating principles specifically.

Yeah, just in case you saw my face be confused. No, I thought the revisions were- I did, but then I saw you click afterwards.

Yeah, I was happy with the revisions. I think they're in a better focus path.

We got rid of some of the repetitive stuff.

Yeah, I guess for me, my concern that I, it's not a concern about what's there. I like what's there, but what I would love feedback on is did we truncate it too much so that we're missing things or it's unclear? It doesn't seem like it is to me, but that was my only concern.

I did, before this meeting, accept the changes and put a clean version in the drive as well, just to make it a little easier to read.

But I appreciate that the non-clean one is in there.

It was a lot of changes.

A lot of work went into it.

Yeah, thank you both for doing that. I think it's super important. I also pulled up again the MASC norms and protocols for school meetings, best practices.

it is mostly based on that.

Yeah. I almost think it's worth recirculating too. I know for me, like it's been a long time since I really read it. It was a good reminder for me. Um, so i don't know maybe we can put that just maybe when we do our like just the goals and everything yeah i think we did some of it this is some of what we did in our workshop yeah so maybe not um you know just talking now i thought it was good i think it's great i think there's a lot of gray area on being on a school committee i think it's tricky it's hard when you're a parent in the district as well and you have an issue with your child and You can't as I said that 1 meeting, like, you're always seen as a school committee member, and you have to be careful of what you say and how you behave. And it's hard to remember that all the time. I think social media is extremely tricky. And I think we're always in kind of a difficult situation. So to have some more guidelines is great. I think that conduct of meetings piece is very important. We strive to act in a way that could serve as a model for our students. It's like, I almost wanna have them like.

Or like some highlights from them.

Yeah, it's just an important for all of us to remember. Let's get the old teacher.

well paper yeah i don't know like we say it every day before the meeting jay leads us we're good enough and smart enough and people like us we will operate transparently and respectfully yeah so we can cite them number four no um no i yeah i mean i think it's it's a lot tighter i think it's good yeah

And I guess for me, obviously, like, we're not going to do that, you know, like, oh, remember number four, Laura, you just interrupted Leora. But when things get heated, as they sometimes do, one of us can perhaps step back and say, hey, remember our operating principles. And that can be a good reminder, depending on who is not heated at the moment. There probably won't be me. So thank you both, Rebecca and Leora, and yeah, I'd love to just bring it back when we're all here. Let's do that.

I think so.

Okay.

Thank you.

Awesome. All right, so now we are getting to the chargers and the subcommittees. Great. I am going to... take the budget subcommittee first I know Christy isn't here she and I wrote it together we spent a good amount of we had a meeting and we we are both happy with it so I feel comfortable voting on it without her here because her imprint and okay is on it Did anyone have any questions? Also, Kathleen is very comfortable with it. I spent some time with her. She was in our meeting. She was happy with the draft and the charge as well. So since she will probably be working with us most closely on the committee. So anyone have any comments or thoughts on this one?

I do. Great. OK. So thank you. Actually kind of broke them out because I had a few changes. So I just this is a great draft. I think it's moving in the right direction. I appreciate it. I think it. The 1 thing is, I think that we need to really further emphasize that the subcommittee's roles to review information and make recommendations rather than oversee the committee itself. I felt like there was. Some language in there that. was looking like it was trying to govern the whole committee. Oh, okay. Sorry, I have like little edits.

Yeah, can you just tell me where they are?

Yeah, so of course, so it says review. Can you tell me what section?

You cannot. I could, it's just going to be awkward as I find it. All right, just tell me the words. Review.

Review the budget process to ensure the school committee is exercising proper oversight. Okay. Okay. I would recommend, and I could just, well, I could read them out loud. Review the budget process and identify opportunities to strengthen transparency, communication.

Is that your edit to that particular one?

Yeah.

Okay, I'm sorry.

I made this a little difficult.

Okay.

Can you, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I could. Yeah, I'm sorry. I mean, we can do, I mean, this is just my suggestion. Right? Yeah. So it just the way it says to ensure the school committee is exercising proper oversight makes it sound like to me, we've been doing something wrong. And this committee is coming in to fix it. I totally understand that. That's not.

Like what the goal is. So maybe it's just.

I'm softening it a bit with, like, review the budget process and identifying opportunities to strengthen transparency, communication, and...

I think those might be different thoughts, though, than what's... Yeah.

Well, yeah. Well, then, I can think of different ways. I think that reviewing to ensure... I don't like the word ensure. I know that's a word I use in policy a lot, so...

To assist the school committee in exercising proper oversight?

I don't know if it's, maybe it's proper, proper too. That word proper oversight makes it sound like before we weren't doing proper oversight.

Okay, we're at a proper, who cares? Yeah, so. Review the budget process to ensure.

I don't know. What's that?

I guess my question is like a first line of defense or like as a first like what first look goal of this I got like I don't know I think it's to I mean it goes back to the You know the process Building the process and the calendar of how we're doing it. So are we you know building the calendar that says we're reviewing So that centers monthly or quarterly or whatever.

It's just, it's. And I feel like the first bullet says that. It does. And you almost don't even need the second bullet. OK. Would be how I would feel more comfortable, because I think that's right. Are we reviewing the current timeline, procedures, and communication processes, which I think is great. So if we're doing those, like, yeah, you know what, we haven't been talking about transfers as much as we probably should. OK. Here's our advice.

I don't have an issue. I do want Christy to weigh in on anything that's like that. So I'm putting that the committee suggests removal of this one. I agree with you. I don't have any issue with that.

Well, then should we hold? Because I have several comments. You said that we didn't need to hold because she wasn't here.

I guess I thought if we were going to vote on it, I was comfortable voting. But if we're going to make substantive changes, I do want her input. Mm-hmm. Fair. And I think it's okay to discuss the changes. Okay.

I feel like you could potentially add a word maybe to the first bullet, like review the district's current annual budget development timeline, procedure, oversight, and communication, or something like that.

I am actually fine with removing it because you're right, if we're doing everything in the first bullet, we are continuing to exercise oversight. So I have no issue with removing it. that was a Christie addition. So I want to make sure she understands. Sure. You know, I mean, absolutely. Is the goal to work like closely with like Kathleen on it's really, so we're the subcommittee has a zero authority, right? Right. To work with Kathleen, to lay out what our process is, to make sure we've got a calendar that everyone agrees to, that we're going to review as a committee X, Y, and Z at certain times in the budget process.

Right, and then Kathleen knows what is expected.

Yeah, correct. And we all know what is expected. Kathleen's not fielding, you know, this person's coming to our office to dive into the budget and then this other person comes with a totally different point of view. Like it's really standardizing so that the experts Kathleen, Dr. Cummings are doing their work. We are providing, you know, the guidance and the oversight that we do, and everybody's doing it appropriately and in unison.

Right. So yes, that's exactly what I, when I suggested this subcommittee, that was my number one concern. I felt like our budget process was very messy last year and that it kept changing and it wasn't by committee, by full committee advice. I don't, this feels, More than what you just said, I guess.

Okay. Tell me where else it reads that way.

I mean, I feel pretty good about it. Okay. And obviously we're going to see how it goes and we can always change it. It's great work. Just so, just to be transparent, I reached out to a bunch of my contacts at MASC, just curious on what other people did. I said, we're looking to revise our budget subcommittee. Can you send me your charge? They were all over the map, which leads me to the next bullet. I've seen some that were like,

super prescriptive and some that were like, we're going to have a budget subcommittee. That's it. Yeah. Which was kind of us. Right. Yeah.

And like a lot of them were like, Nope, the whole committee does it. So it was interesting. So it's interesting. So I guess I don't have a ton, but my other thing is along those lines is the benchmarking, how peer peer Massachusetts. I know because there are so many different ways. I was thinking maybe it would be to research and benchmark financial reporting practices used by mere peer Massachusetts district to support transparency and informed decision making or something. I just, my concern is it's gonna be like, well, district X does it. We're gonna cherry pick. Somebody is gonna love how Shrewsbury does it.

Again, I think the first bullet here, Encompasses so under research and benchmarking, there's a general, I think so too. And then there's a more specific bullet. So, yeah, I'm going to mark that again. Committee would like to see that removed. Perfect to do that.

Yeah. And I think that's, I think it's great to look at others for best practices for sure. But, like, I want to give you guys some. I mean, there's 300 and whatever 6 lines. Yeah. District.

Oh, right. Well, the other thing too is, I think. You know. the meeting was public, so I'll just share, like my sort of additions to this document were very general, were sort of the first bullet, right? And Christie's were often the second bullet because she was very focused on a particular, something like a budget transfer, which we're not even sure, you know, we had some back and forth with Kathleen about how those are represented. So keeping it less prescriptive is comfortable to me. I just want to make sure,

yeah that we share this feedback with christy before we vote on the doc but i want it all here totally fair absolutely yeah especially because she's going to be half of the subcommittee correct um i think it's totally fair i just want to you know yeah school committee governs subcommittees advise administration and ministers yeah so it would be like me going off and just writing me and stella writing policies and you know i just want to make sure that we're still able and involved to do our job and that yeah and um think that was it the only had I think the only thing I ever had and this was for you guys just in general it felt like you were meeting like a lot but you know that's on you I guess yeah you know like quarterly like to me this I don't know I mean I don't I want to make sure that we're all in agreement on what is happening I guess once the budgets created well so if you see in the duration yeah i did yeah i liked that but then was that different than like you're still presenting quarterly then it says so you enter a period of reason i mean here's the thing the budget process does take most of the year you know what i mean okay we're we're approving budgets in the march time frame and then so that in may are you going to

Yeah. Good point.

I mean, I mean, make it may present as needed. I would just, but that's up to you guys again. I'm happy to listen.

Yeah. I took that actually from, I can't forget what town. Yeah. I thought that I was like, you know what? It keeps that, it keeps the committee moving and it keeps the committee meeting as opposed to again, Going off or drop, you know, dropping off. So, okay, fair.

That's yeah, whatever works.

I think it's fine for the committee to say, we have nothing this quarter too. That's okay too. But okay.

I can, I'm going to make a note to a minimum quarterly. So.

I just, because I feel like at certain times of the year, it might be more often. Right.

I don't know. So maybe it's. Well, whatever I am in this language quarterly, is there going to be an issue that the subcommittee didn't do its job because they're present in Q. 3, for instance.

Okay, I've made a note to examine this language. I'm sorry.

No, it's good. All good. I think this is all terrific. And thank you so much. Both you and Christie for doing this and I'm excited to have a smoother budget season. Thank you.

Will the quarterly tie back to Kathleen's quarterly report? Probably, yes.

I think that's what the thinking was there. So we'd meet with her beforehand. So it was sort of tied to that originally. But I see your point, so we'll.

I mean, I'm not gonna argue whenever you want to come. I just don't want you held to coming if you don't, you know what I mean? That's my point. If there's no reason to go. It's not that I want you to present less. You could present at every meeting. You're the chair, put it on the budget. I mean, put it on the agenda, that's awesome. I just don't want you to, you know what I mean? And I'm talking too much about like one little thing, which is really not gonna make or break it. Fair. Rebecca?

I have two things. In 2.3, I feel like the second bullet point is a deliverable. That just felt like that doesn't really need to be there. Because it's sort of you're drafting a process, which is

Well, I do think there shouldn't be a deliverable. Do you not think so?

No, I do. I just don't know. Does it need to be there in addition to in deliverables? That's all. I think it's very, I like that as a deliverable. It's repetitive. Yes, that's all. And then the third bullet point on there, the language doesn't make sense, or maybe I'm reading it in a weird way, but recommend a process for school.

There's a word missing.

Yeah, there's a word missing, and I just want to make sure that it's not an issue.

And I also think it's, again, one of those very specific things. Yeah. like this should be addressed in the process as opposed to calling out agree line by line item budget transfer so i'm going to yeah mark that in the same way i marked the ones laura pointed out that were similar right because this is part of the process that you're looking at which i think is okay it's not in the print says it's in the process okay great Anything else? I think that's it. Thank you. Stella. No. Okay.

Awesome work.

All right. So, uh, those are actually pretty much, you know, they're just minor. I just, again, I just don't want to unilaterally make them. So we will not vote on this tonight, but I think we're close.

So, I mean, do we need to vote on it? Cause I'm just gonna say we have a quorum. So, Is it going to help you from doing any work?

No.

Okay.

Okay.

I mean, we have committees that don't even have a charge.

I know. It's kind of new, right?

So I don't feel like, you know, also how much is there to do in the summer? It really heats up in the... I don't know.

I just don't want to stop you from doing work. We want you to work and present early, weekly to us.

we will not be presenting in July or August. Um, but if we do meet, maybe we can vote on it then if we have a meeting. So if we, you know, if we do goals or something, but I would prefer not to vote on it.

Okay, but let's talk about and now you made me go first or second so you could I need tonight to have no desire to get even Is that in our norm no Joe knows no getting you know, we want jokes Sorry, I want to pull this up I haven't in a PDF, but if we have edits, I want to make sure I can make those I'll put it in the PDF. Okay. Okay, sorry. All right, go ahead. I don't know where it is in Google Drops. I'll just make notes. Does anybody have anything? I'm supposed to print it out, is it?

Yeah, it's in the book.

Is it? Yep. Oh my gosh, amazing. I love the book. Great. Great. I'll just make handwritten notes. All right. So here's my thought on this. I think in some ways, originally, it's not to help Jay communicate, right? Because that's not our job. But I think there could be ways that as a committee, we could communicate better. Although I do think the channel and how we communicate is a little tricky. So this was just again, kind of. I don't know, like a thought or some, I, again, I looked at what other committees did, and they weren't that helpful. I put in an example of a newsletter that Franklin sends out, which I really liked again, nothing would get done without the committee. I was going to ask.

So the subcommittee writing the, if the subcommittee were to recommend a newsletter, would they also be charged with writing it?

My recommendation would be yes, they would write it. for approval. So it wouldn't so it's going to be a slower process. We're not going to have a weekly newsletter because it's not going to happen. Right. But a quarterly newsletter might come in, you know, with the new policies or things like that. Franklin's is very district deep. Also, so yeah, it's a I don't know, like, I don't know, this might be an idea that we look at and we're like, you know, because also,

I felt like it kind of gets repetitive with, like, what Jay sends out.

Right exactly. Yeah. So there's obviously like, this isn't what I would say we should do. This was just an example of what, like, they did the budget highlights. Um, capital improvement things, um, you talked a little bit about a joint budget subcommittee. Like, we could have subcommittee blurbs.

That's what I like the, like, what I don't like about that 1 is when it gets into some of the nitty gritty of like. And scheduling and stuff, it's like, yeah, we're inundating people with that information in other places. Yeah, this should be information. They are not getting somewhere else for the people who aren't paying attention.

Exactly. Yeah. Like, and my thought was, we would have Jay distribute it. Via his channels, because we don't have a channel to reach everybody. We don't have a school. Franklin has, like, a school committee Facebook page. Suppose that's something we could talk about, but to me, that would be the chair. Like, I don't yeah. Yeah. It doesn't seem like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't think we want to get into social media and I think that's okay. And I don't want this to replace the chair's role, which we've approved. It's in our policy. It's in, which is if the media calls, that's the chair speaks like, it's not to replace the chair. It's just to help. And again, it's advising and, um. And really, I think my only idea at this point was a newsletter, but this, we don't even have an official subcommittee yet with people on it.

So, um, let me say something else about the newsletter idea.

Thank you. Madam chair.

Um, I, I like the idea also of the newsletter. Like, if it was just. Even if it was a link attachment that Jay was sending just because then. It's like a place where people can go back and be like, oh, they said they talked about this in November, because it is very cumbersome to go back and watch meetings and read minutes. So it is kind of like, here's some highlights, and it would be a little bit more accessible to people, I think, which would be great.

I'd like to see whatever it is, and maybe it isn't a newsletter. Maybe it's changing our web page to have a new tab or in a place where all of these things live as a history. I don't know. Maybe we're blogging on our page.

In the past, it depends who's been on the committee, but somebody hasn't been dedicated to work on it. And I guess that's my thought for the subcommittee is to be the ones who are just dedicated Again, we're not doing it and just People don't have a voice, but to say, okay, hey. Even like, can you write like a little blurb about your subcommittee and hey, we're establishing the subcommittee of the budget subcommittee to do this and this and that. And I think it's important, especially post override for people to see all the work that we've done and give it another opportunity. And I love that. That's a great idea. You know, like, maybe it isn't a newsletter, but maybe it's updating. But again, like, who's updating the website? That's my only thought too is. That means somebody in the admin in the district, even if we write, it has to do it. We're a newsletter. We can just send Jay a link to it to assume we get to do with some more, or we could do something like that.

But what my concern with that is, I do think particularly having just gone through the override that there are a lot of people who may not.

have students in the district who are interested in what we're doing and our budget process and they should have a view into all the work that's being done and if it's going out in a newsletter from jay it's going to school well i think it also means that's one of my concerns also so i do also think it needs to be linked but i feel like a link is easier than adding a block you know what i mean like i think that's just logistics and i think we need to talk about it and yeah if we can actually establish the committee can determine that yeah and delve right into that because I don't want it to create extra, too much extra work, right? But yes, I think we need to have, yes.

The town as a whole has to see the work that's done.

So is it, you know, making... Well, see, again, that has a budget. So, but, like, how is this being distributed? And that's something to think about. We don't really have a town, but maybe it is. It's reaching out to the community advocate and, you know, can you publish this for us? I mean, it's thinking about it. And right now, I don't think we're thinking about it because it's nobody's.

job.

Particularly think about so I don't think this is going to be an instant like we're in September 1, we're gonna have a newsletter or whatever. But I would this was my thoughts on a charge and I'm welcome to I would also love a committee and then we could work on the charge and bring it back. Whatever it is, we technically right now don't have a subcommittee. So I guess those are those are my thoughts. I do think this is going to change. And yeah,

but even like a newsletter can start out small, you know, little bits of information, then you can just add to it. So I'm sure like Franklin's probably started out smaller, you know, and then they adapt.

Working with the news, with the cable access and going in and, you know, but it, you know, it should like, we could write this script for the chair to deliver. Like, again, like there's ways to do it and we could utilize all the things that we have. It's just, somebody has to,

Do it, I'm just thinking when, like, people, like, repost, like, uh, the meeting and budget discussion starts at 30 minutes, you know, so it's like, you give them a point versus them fast forwarding to, like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I think generally this is.

Great, I agree. I think it's it's. vague isn't really the right word. But it is it's vague enough that you can hone it as you're figuring it out. Yeah.

My concern was that I didn't want that out of scope stuff. I did not want people thinking that that was what I was recommending. Because it is not it is definitely not. That is a concern. But it's more just like sharing the work, you know, like that AI presentation. You know, I mean, You could do a summary. I used to do a summary with Bob, and he would post it. I would just write him bullet points. There's other things. Anyway. It makes sense. I would say one thing.

Kristi and I removed when we did the budget one is the membership thing where you say who's a member.

Oh.

I don't think it's necessary.

Oh, yeah. Okay.

So I think we all did it because the first one, you know, Kristi got it and we all just copied hers because it was a really good format. But in the end, who cares?

Right.

It doesn't need to be in the church. Okay, cool. So that was my only edit.

It's a good edit. It's fine with me. So are you saying that number four?

Yes, I mean, talking about who the membership is is fine, but the actual insert name section.

Oh, agreed. Yes, I understand. That should not be in the charge.

No.

That's okay.

So I think the next step is a motion to accept the charge.

Yes, and then we have to nominate people to be on. Yes, all right.

Madam Chair? Yes. I move that the committee approve the communications subcommittee charge as written.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All right, all in favor?

Great.

Nominations for the subcommittee. I think there are some natural ones.

I do too. I would like to nominate Laura often.

Second. I'm honored. I would love that, thank you.

All right, anyone have it all in favor of Laura being on the subcommittee? Great.

I would, I'd like to nominate Leora. A couple reasons. I don't think the chair needs to be on it always. but i do think it's helpful for the chair to be on it and also that's we were as a professional communicator but i you know don't want to take it away from other people but for like the first um iteration of this i think it would be great second she has time i am happy to do it great all right all in favor great thanks guys all right don't worry we won't do anything no i mean that's the whole point the subcommittees don't do anything without

everybody involved all right staff handbook time oh yeah so we're just wrapping things up at the high school so not too much going on but we have the seniors are graduated so congratulations to all of them

GHS is offering AP Macroeconomics for the next upcoming school year. So that's exciting, it's a new addition. Class elections are ongoing for all grades. And NG term is coming up soon for Grafton, so. Ooh, whatcha doing? I think I'm doing the Freedom Trail this year. That's all I have today. Awesome.

Thank you. Have a great summer. See you next year. Anything fun?

Yeah, I'm going to go visit my family back in India.

Nice. Wonderful.

All right, good night.

Thank you. Have a good night.

All right, so staff and book and rights and responsibilities.

Yep, so two handbooks to put before you, both fairly minor revisions to both updated, of course, all of the dates. In the process of updating names, that's like both documents have the individuals, be it contact people or just people in different positions. That's going to develop over the next couple weeks. Chris Kitchell, our assistant special ed director, got a position in Westboro. And that just went out, we just posted for it today. So that's one example. There are gonna be changes over the next few weeks. And about half a dozen policies in total were revised, nothing dramatic. Everything went before you, but had either new mass general law or just some slight variation in wording. Christie was fantastic in identifying those for me, so that made life very easy. I appreciated it. And those, the actual policies aren't in either of those documents. We have summaries and then links to our page or your page with all the policies, which is great. So overall, very minor changes and yeah, that's it. I don't think we need a vote on it. I think I just need to put it before you.

Right, great, all good. Both of them?

Yeah, we've covered both of them. Correct, they had the same policies were in both. I think the staff handbook really only had one change and five in the other, but in total six. Great, thank you.

So we'll go right into your update.

All right, we can talk about anything you like. I didn't get any feedback on what people wanted, so I just went with it. I think we've talked about Grafton Games in between, but that was one thing on my mind I wanted to make sure that we hit on. Julie Flynn, principal at North Grafton Elementary School took the lead with this and just did a fantastic job. We had... It was well over 100 students participate from Mendon Upton, Millbury and Grafton. They had to reschedule it once for rain, once for heat, but it still worked out great. We did remote parking and we had the vans going and just a great turnout. It was just an awesome day. As you all know, because you were there, this past Friday, GHS graduation at the Hanover Theater. A little over 200 students graduated. Did a fantastic job. They always do a nice job at Hanover. I want to thank all of the parents, the Bon Voyage. We had so many volunteers that chipped in to fundraise and support these students. And the students did such a wonderful job. As far as I know, we had zero incidents throughout the even the lead up to graduation and then graduation night. Everything was just super positive. A great group of kids and they're gonna be missed. We've got seven retirements this year, Kathy Bowman, She is a special education teacher at Millbury Street Elementary School. Sharon Buckley, who's been with us for seven years. And she is the departing director of counseling based at the high school. Sue DaCosta is a paraprofessional at South Grafton Elementary. Jenny Peters, a long time PE teacher at North Street Elementary School. Roseanne Kurposka, currently co-principal at North Street Elementary School and previously was principal at the middle school. Deb Faithold, third grade teacher at Millberry Street, and last but not least, Dawn Martell, who's a kindergarten teacher at North Grafton. You couldn't find a better group of people and educators, and they're gonna be tremendously missed. We put out a newsletter, I think on Monday or Tuesday, that had a write-up for each of them. So, they're, they're excited about I've talked to most of them recently about retirement and they're all very excited and. Said kind of sad to go, but excited as well, which is awesome. I think the school communities have done a really nice job recognizing all of them as well. In terms of hiring, we're definitely very much in the process now. We were able to hire Laura Cahill, who is absolutely fantastic as the next Director of Human Resources. She's the current Director of Human Resources in the Worcester Public Schools. Just phenomenal experience. The fact that we can get her to come to Grafton is, almost surreal um i just she already is hired but i just want her in her office and happy assistant principal at north street elementary school replacing rosanna kroposka we've got amber stewart and assistant principal at the high school heather russo We'll be coming in. Deb Goodwill, who you know has been dealing with some medical issues. When she came to us and transitioned into administration, she had been, for over 20 years, a health teacher at the high school level. That was her bread and butter. I've never seen her teach health, but I know she's phenomenal. We had an opening and she decided that that would work for her just in terms of what she's dealing with right now. And she's doing pretty well, but a change of pace and a change of scope should help her. So that opened up a position for Heather Russo. We are hopefully tomorrow finalizing the assistant principal at Milbury Street Elementary School. Paul Schwab will be leaving us for another opportunity at a school in Worcester. I talked to you about the assistant director of special ed opening, and then we have a bunch of teaching positions open. This isn't, probably 100% accurate. But right now, we have grade three at Millbury Street Elementary School, team chair position at Millbury Street, math at Grafton High School, Spanish at Grafton High School, business teacher at Grafton High School, and special ed at Millbury Street. So people will leave, they'll decide to move, go to a different district, we will have some additional movement, but the bulk of it, I feel like we have a really good handle on right now.

Okay. One question, are we rehiring for Sharon Buckley?

Yes. Okay. Yep, I just didn't put that there. Okay, that's fine. No, no, that's totally on me.

Was hoping we weren't losing a guidance conversation.

No, no. That is, I think we maybe start interviewing as soon as tomorrow. We posted probably a week, week and a half ago.

Great. And my other, just a shot, I met Amber Stewart. She came to Fun Fair, which was amazing. And I was working concessions by myself and she just jumped in and started filling popcorn containers. And she was lovely and made a friend for life because she was right there. So it was great to meet her. And it was nice to see her already kind of just, she came with her son and it was great to meet her.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I look forward to welcoming her.

I've been thrilled with our new hires. So things are looking good right now. And then last but not least, just for upcoming work, obviously we've got ESY and enrichment. It starts right up after the 4th. With the turf field, that's tied to capital money. We get capital money on July 1st, access to it. At that point, we're all ready to go. We have the plans. We have everything we need. Then we go out to bid. There's probably a 1% chance that a company is going to... just have nothing going on in the summer, a turf field replacement. This has got to be by far their busiest season. There's an outside chance that actually happens. Assuming it doesn't, what we would do is bring one of the companies that we already have a really great relationship in with. They'd come in over the summer and we would have to, we will have to spend money. It would be under $10,000, but we're gonna have to make an investment. into the field to get us through the fall season in a safe manner. So they'll patch, they'll put more of those black beads down. They do a whole process. It makes a big difference, but it will last really for a season. Like, that's not if it was that easy, everybody would just do that every few years and. That'd be great, but it doesn't work like that. So. We're ready to go with plan B. But our plan B is looking to me like, that's what we're going to have to do. if we go that route they'll come in as soon as the snow is basically gone say early march replace the field and we'll be ready to go for spring sports with the roof yep sorry so will that i guess what's the cost we don't know what the cost of plan b would be would that Plan B would be under $10,000. Thanks.

I worry that's not like, is it really going to be safe for kids to plant? I know it is. We're not going to do it.

Yeah, we would open it if not. But they come out on a pretty regular basis as is. And this is what they do for a living. I have a lot of faith in what they're telling us. The roof, we are ready to go. We're about to go out to bid for that. The goal will be obviously to get as much of You guys know all the sections by now, but the section over the classrooms, priority one, do that over the summer with as much of that center portion as we possibly can. That's goal one. Later in the fall, if needed, they could work on the cafeteria and the auditorium and gymnasium.

That's not a big worry for us.

But that group, that GRLA group we've been working with have been just awesome to work with. So we feel really good about the roof. As we do every post override, we reset with the strategic plan. We've got three or four years of relative stability ahead of us. So dive back into the strategic plan. My hope is we can... have some kind of joint meeting, a workshop with school committee and with the leadership team probably in August before the school year starts and get everybody on the same page. And then obviously HR transition with Laura starting July 1st. We wanna get her up to speed as quickly as possible without driving her out.

Are you gonna be sad to give that up?

I cannot tell you how. I think it's going to be just such a game changer. And I do want to just throw out the fact that Marita has been unbelievable and will continue to be unbelievable and supporting the efforts of Frank and I, and just keeping us afloat over the course of this past year. And Frank Rothwell has been terrific too. He does a lot of the, I do a lot of the HR stuff, but he does the, like the worst parts. He does the sub orientations. He does so much of the MTRS paperwork, which is just the worst. He's taken a lot of the very time consuming, tedious, but important tasks over the course of the past 10 months. And it's been, I don't know what we would have done without that additional help. And that's all I have. And I can answer any questions you have about anything.

No, that was great.

Thank you. Perfect.

Thank you. Okay.

I did ask, send an email asking about retirees. So I put in some input just to say. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And you said, yeah, and you did it. It was amazing. So thanks. Thanks for that.

That was great. So future agenda. So this is the Wednesday versus Tuesday discussion. Because right now we have an agenda for next year based on Wednesdays. And Jay, you kind of just pulled over what we had, right?

This is like the most non-binding, probably non-accurate things just to help just start the conversation. I took out the pieces that were obviously just about like override related, anything I saw, but I don't think I spent more than 10 minutes on it. And then I went with Wednesdays, but again, that was not even direction from the chair. It was, that's as far as I got.

November 4th is the MASC conference starts that day.

We will not have a meeting then.

which is in a new location. Yes. I already signed up and booked my hotel. Yeah.

Is that the Danvers one? Yeah. There's a water park.

With the lazy river.

I did not hear about the lazy river. Lazy rivers are my favorite. I had birthday parties there.

Yes. I don't know, what are our thoughts about Wednesday? I mean, I think there are definitely benefits to not being the same night as the select board, but I don't know. I'm used to Tuesdays at the same, my whole family life works around two Tuesdays a month, but.

It does not matter to me in the least, so.

I mean, it's a little bit of a conflict for you.

Yeah, it's a little bit, but you know what? I'll figure it out, I guess. I mean, we don't meet every month on Wednesdays. Since I've been elected, we haven't met on a Wednesday. We met off-site on a Saturday. So it could be like one or two meetings that I potentially miss, and our vice chair can go. It's not that big a deal. It really isn't. It's not that big a deal. I think it does. I mean, I think it's a good idea, except, you know, it was strange how it really seemed to conflict this year. Because also we've been meeting at the same time as the select board for years and to get work done without them pulling our superintendent down. Yeah, like it just was a strange year. But that being said, you know, I don't know. I like it. I mean, if the room's free, I'd like to stay up here. I know.

I do too.

I like it up here. I like it up here as well. I know Room A has its, I mean, now that they fixed it up, and I know we don't have, like the Zoom is still an issue, but it would be an issue down there anyway because it comes down to staffing, the Zoom.

Correct. Our real Zoom issue is staffing. I think so.

so i mean i'm not you know i don't know it's fine i'm not gonna i won't vote against it i guess if we're voting i'm not gonna fight i think if i had my preference i'd stick with tuesdays but if everybody else is like nope i'm that's gonna be fine i'll show up i'll come and i'll be prepared and yeah you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome for that does anybody have a strong preference

I kind of like Wednesdays. It's fair. I have no strong preference. I'm planning to try and finagle to have the day off of work whatever day we choose. So that's my plan. So I can like be really.

My Wednesday mornings are usually really busy so it would be nice to have that Thursday after to be like could work on the communications or something. Right, right. So that might be nice. I don't know.

Yeah.

I kind of like the Wednesday. Okay. You want to do Wednesday?

I just don't want to mess up other people's schedules because they were counting on it being Tuesday. You know what I mean? But I feel like you're okay.

Yeah. And it was Christie's suggestion. So I'm thinking she's probably okay with it. No, like I said, I'm not, I'm not gonna, you know, if I can't make a Wednesday meeting, then I won't be able to make a Wednesday meeting.

We all miss sometimes, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Uh, all right. i think i'm we're down with wednesday we'll keep these dates except for the fourth yeah we'll have to move that one uh that'll be weird because that can't yeah that's a weird month too you can't do it on the 11th that's a holiday the next week is the day before thanksgiving yeah so what are we having one in march in november yeah one no school november we could do a tuesday the third we could do a tuesday the third that might be election day is that election day i think oh it is election day we can't do that okay we might just have one meeting in november i don't think that's terrible is it terrible it's a weird month it is a weird month

I think it's like one in December, too. Yeah. I know.

I'm like, should we try and add one in December, then? Or I don't know. Yeah, it is election day, November 3rd. I know. There's no time. There's no.

We'd have the same issue if it was on Tuesdays, though, it seems like. Yeah. We would do the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which is terrible.

Yeah.

Oh, could we do the 10th, maybe? And just have back to back? Tuesday the 10th?

Yeah, you could do that.

I know you don't love back to backs, but.

That's great.

Yeah.

We just want to say that one more time.

November. So Tuesday. November 10th. So we're not on. We need a calendar.

But people are traveling. Sometimes people take their kids to Disney.

No, it's November 10th. Well, they have the 11th off, so. Oh, I see. I will be traveling. Disney? No, actually.

I will miss the 18th, actually, because I'll be in Vegas at a show, I think. So the 10th is fine.

I don't know.

We can see how things are going, too. But as a placeholder? Because the budget's going to be farther along because we have the new subcommittee.

Will it? Don't commit us to that.

We could also meet December 2nd, theoretically. We could meet December 2nd. Yeah.

Then we still have a back-to-back.

Yeah, that would make more sense.

I would do that. Let's do December 2nd. is that a wednesday or yeah it's a wednesday okay just so yeah i just got lost there so we're getting rid of november 4th yep we're doing november 18th december 2nd december 9th got it and sort of moving things appropriately yeah okay we're keeping november 18th yes we are keeping november 18th

You're on deck, Rebecca. I will be here for that one.

Yes, you will be. I am not traveling then either, so that will be perfect. It looks like I will be away at the moment. Thank goodness.

All right, I'll reach out to Cindy.

Okay, great. Thanks, let us know if that's an issue.

Yep.

Otherwise, looks great.

Cool. I'm sure we will change topics a million times, but for now it looks great. I love that. Great. All right. I will take a motion to approve the minutes of May 27th. So moved. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion, comments on the minutes? Seeing none, all in favor? Great. I didn't have any questions on any warrants. Did anybody else?

I would just like to say thank you to Kathleen for all the beautiful emails we've had back and forth over the years. I miss signing warrants.

I was thinking of you. Who took over that?

Christy. Christy. All right, so contracts.

Yes, so tonight I am asking the school committee to approve a 3% salary increase for 26-27 for all employees who are not in a bargaining unit. So in that 3% mirrors the COLA that is being received by the four bargaining units.

I'll take a motion.

Madam Chair, I move that the school committee accept the 3% raise admin as presented.

It's sloppy, sorry. It's okay. Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Mirrors the bargaining units. I think it's in line with everybody else's COLA. It's appropriate. It's in the budget. It's in the budget. We planned for it, so all in favor? Great, passes unanimously. Policy.

Okay, hopefully this will be pretty quick. JFBB School Choice, this was presented as a second read. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve JFBB School Choice as a second read.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?

Okay, JKA, Madam Chair. I'd like to present, I'd like to make a motion to approve JKA, physical restraint of students, an updated version as a first read. We did not review it last time to give people more time.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? I, yeah, this one I just, I have a lot of discomfort with the topic in general. I feel comfortable that Nicole has gone through it. It's MASC policy. I feel like professionals have looked at it. It's just a subject matter I just wish we didn't have to even think about. And, you know, I always worry about

abuse or or concerns with it but i am comfortable with the policy itself so agree same those concerns to me would be their policy or not correct correct right and i'm confident that that's just why i wanted to take more time with it yeah yeah all right all right and you'll get more time with it because we'll bring it back for a second read fair all right so that's in favor Yeah. No, and thank you for reminding. So we did have Nicole look at the policy because that's appropriate. I'd like to make a motion to approve JLCD Administrating Medicines to students as a second reading.

Second.

Again, this we sent. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Sorry, Leora. It's all good. Really? I don't care.

We had Jackie look at this. Great.

Excellent. Anyone else?

All in favor? Great. Thank you. And then I'd like to make a motion to approve JLCDC self-administration and self-carry of medications as a second reading.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?

Agree. All right. And then I'd like to make a motion to approve KBG Parent Advisory Council's PACS as a second rate. Second.

Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor?

Agree. Now, KHB, we talked about and looked at last time, but apparently, according to Rebecca Mahoney, thank you, we never made a name.

Actually voted.

We never voted. Okay, and we discussed it like pretty passionately. Jay had recommended we do it as a first and second. I think we could just do it as a first, bring it back again, or we can go ahead and approve it as presented, which we have done in the past and it's perfectly fine.

I'm completely comfortable approving as presented. Yeah, that seems fair.

Okay, Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to approve KHB Advisoring and Sponsorship in Schools as presented.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Great.

Thanks again, Rebecca.

Thanks, everybody.

And thank you, and thanks to Christy for her great work on policy.

Organizing policies.

Yes, amazing. Yes. Stella, big shoes to fill.

And cute shoes. Yes, the nicest shoes on the committee. Sorry, you have to up your shoe game. All right, we do not have correspondence, and we do not need executive session, so I will take a motion for adjournment.

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Good night, Grant. Have a great summer.