This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you See me a presence of a quorum. I'm calling to order this meeting of the Amherst school committee at 631 p.m. On Thursday August 20 And so I will take a roll call attendance. Please say present when I call your name. Mr. Demling Mr. Harrington Ms. Lord McDonald present and Spitzer not present miss Hall All right seeing the presence of a quorum I'll call to order this meeting of the Pelham school committee at 632 p.m. And I'll also start with roll call attendance miss Barlow Barlow present mr. Manino You know present miss Dancer Margaret just your we can't hear your audio just so you know I'll come back to you Uh miss Kenny any present and Hall present Okay, and as seeing a presence of a quorum I'm calling to order the meeting of the regional Amherst Pellum regional school committee at 632 p.m I'm going to call your name. Please state present mr. Demling Demling present mr. Harrington Here we can present miss Kenny Mrs. Lord Lord present miss Seger Miss dancer mr. Sullivan Sullivan present McDonald present Spitzer not present Miss dancer was here temporarily not present So our first order of business is to prove minutes, but I'm not sure do we I don't believe we have those either I know see Cielo sent a bunch of them late this afternoon I did not get a chance to look through them and it looks like miss Figueroa Did not get but she's we do I think for the next time we meet. Well, we'll be able to get caught up a lot She sent three or four sets of minutes great great We'll note that on our advanced our agenda planning Well, we'll need a half an hour for a meeting minutes approval Great So moving on to our next order business which is public comment. We do have a Large amount of comment I will start with the audio Hello, my name is Catherine stroke. I am a resident of Hatfield, but I teach at Wildwood elementary in Amherst I am calling because I was really hurt by the school committee's Statement that was put out on social media specifically the part that positioned teachers as unwilling to put effort into remote learning and Wanting a remote learning that looks like what we did in the spring to completely untrue speaking for myself, I know that I Worked incredibly hard and I worked very hard with my team of specialists To create engaging content during the spring and already have put in a lot of hours thinking about and planning Engaging remote learning for this upcoming fall with whatever school looks like and I know that I am not just speaking for myself when I say that also the union member I Do not appreciate that it was made to seem that the union is not negotiating When I know that that is that is not true. I Looked like a response to this and I believe that I as well as all of the other incredibly hard-working Teachers of this district deserve a public apology. Thank you. It's Josh Strossman I'm a resident of Amherst and I'm a proud member of the Amherst Pellum Education Association I am disappointed in the school committee's public response to the union's Negotiations proposal in the Gazette and on social media of some school committee members It grossly misrepresented the union's requests during negotiations and pets teachers and families against each other The APA's proposal was not accurately represented Our staff have been putting hours and hours of mostly unpaid work in to redesign learning in a way that's safe and equitable They spent hours doing outreach to families to hear from them about what their needs are You do not need to agree with all of our proposals, but you should at least show our educators the respects they deserve And please retract your statement. Thank you. It's mosaic. I reside in Holyoke, and I am an employee I work in a specialized program going into phase one and I am just going to state that I'm very uncomfortable returning back to work in the the state that has been agreed upon I strongly encourage you to please negotiate with the APA and Continue to work towards Full safety for the students and the staff Thank you. This is Victoria Monroe. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts. I am a teacher and a parent of A child in the district I'm addressing you today to express my disappointment in the statement voted on by the school committee on Tuesday August 18th This document was a public response to the APA during negotiations Rather than bringing their responses back to the bargaining table in a respectful respectful collaborative manner This time has been difficult for everyone and emotions are running high But this is no excuse for publicly trying to discredit and misrepresent the teachers and other staff Who have been working on this day and night and fighting for the safety of our students and families? We won't be discredited to make it very clear We are willing to negotiate and collaborate and have been trying to do so since June These are the things we're asking for number one for the district to invest time and resources Into proving that the air quality in our buildings is sufficient enough to protect ourselves and our students So far we have not had HVAC testing results and we should not go back into the buildings until that is Happened and any repairs have been done For the district This is number two for the district to tie reopening phases to multiple public health data metrics Looking holistically and broadly at community spread in and around our towns Number three for the district to invest time and resources Into a robust remote learning program so that no matter how the pandemic unfolds Educator's jobs will be preserved and utilized to best serve our students and families number four for the district to add a face dedicated solely to our family outreach So that we can better work with our most vulnerable families and help them get the resources they need and Number five is for the educators to be included in decision making I Feel the school committee owes the APA board its members and the families We all work for an apology for its inappropriate comments and its public response during negotiations. I Truly believe that if we stop seeing size and being divisive that we could collaborate and move forward for the sake of our students Thank you. This is my public comment. My name is Emily Pritchard. I reside in Northampton, Massachusetts And my comment is as follows. I Am a special education teacher at Amherst regional high school and a proud member of the school community and surrounding towns I live in Northampton and have taught in area school for 17 years. I'm an APA member and a building representative I've personally witnessed the incredible amount of time and energy that myself and my colleagues have put into creating a safe Supportive and educationally engaging start to the school year We have met at the bargaining table in good faith with our school committees The recent publication on one of the school committee members Facebook pages is evidence to me that this good faith has not been reciprocated In fact, it has damaged my trust in this process, which is meant to be collaborative and democratic Instead it feels as if our hard work has been weaponized against us We ask you that you meet us with your questions your ideas and dialogue with us We will continue to negotiate in the spirit of care and concern for our students their families and our community We are experienced and highly skilled educators and we only ask that you treat us with the respect we deserve The same that we have given you Thank you. Hello, my name is Amanda Lewis, and I am a Northampton resident and paraprofessional S4 years at area. I am an APA member and building rep I've been working all summer alongside my colleagues to plan for a safe and equitable return to learning That's all. I'm so grateful to work alongside such committed educators I'm grateful to every student parent community member staff member and school committee members who have shared their ideas About how best to center the holistic health and well-being of our students in this very challenging moment We do our best when we work together And however deeply disheartened by the school committee statement released yesterday that misrepresented the ap a and our position As somehow in conflict with the school committee's obligations to educate our young people We want to educate our students and we are unwilling to compromise our students our community our coworkers or our own safety We want to return to work safely and if that is not possible at this time given the freshers of an unprecedented global pandemic Then we want to collaborate and drop on the many resources of our community to develop distance learning plants that work for our students And center the needs of our most vulnerable students Please do not disrespect the educators and staff in this district We love and care about our students and we want to teach them Let's work together to share our various experiences insights and develop plans to do so Thank you very much for your time to take care So my name is Mary Kylie I am an Amherst resident I also serve as a special education and math teacher at Amherst regional high school I would like to make one point this evening The district needs to be very careful about drawing conclusions about what families want for their children's learning for the fall Based on those families responses to surveys Asking if they choose in-person or remote learning For very good reasons The district is telling families That they may change from in-person to remote learning during the first part of the year But not from remote to in-person Under those circumstances The only sensible risk averse option for parents and guardians to choose Is in-person learning Checking that box preserves all of their options for the fall The result however Is that what we may be seeing with high numbers of parents and guardians opting for in-person Is a desire to hedge their bets Rather than a clear preference for having children come into buildings We should be appropriately circumspect about what those survey results really mean And about drawing any overly simplistic conclusions Based on them Thank you. I wanted to say that I about the actions of the school committee Releasing on social media of negative and divisive mischaracterization Of the ongoing negotiations with the APEA this Statement was ill-conceived and has only served to underline The wonderful relationships between teachers and our beloved students and their families In no way has it furthered productive conversation in a time that's difficult for all of us In my opinion, it would be appropriate for the committee to publicly apologize And renew their commitment to work with the teachers Who have devoted their lives to educating Supporting and caring for the children and families of our community Thank you. I am Pat Natusky. I'm a para in the Ames program at Fort River And I live in Holyoke I'm speaking for myself, but I'm sure that I am not alone in my feelings I'm calling to let you know how utterly disappointed I am that this committee has chosen to publicly lash out against educators Rather than negotiate with us I expect more from you As a para educator My focus should be on the day to day well-being of my students My colleagues and I should be planning for next month But rather than help us with that it feels like this committee was to throw up its hands and pass the buck None of us has to be in this position. It is scary and it is difficult But educators continue to show up and do the hard work of providing an education in this pandemic I wish this committee would do the same I am just so disappointed Thank you for your time And I'm a member of the teaching staff at the Palom Amherst Regional School on public schools first, I'd like to Express my disappointment in the school committee's inability to listen to us throughout these meetings. I have felt ignored throughout this process Second, I am disappointed and have some school committee members seem to be taking things very lightly at times We've seen people laugh during all the decision making And lastly, I am disappointed in the school committee's response to the union's proposal Where it misrepresented the union's request during negotiations. I believe we deserve an apology. Thank you Yes, good afternoon. My name is paula barrow and I'm a resident of amherst And I'm also the parent of an employee of the school And I am very concerned about the fact that they are That the school committee is not working with the teachers union that they are in fact um distorting Things that have been said by the union um, also I wish that they would try and go back in in negotiations with the teachers union so that both Parents can all be not only safe, but To feel like the school committee actually cares about their staff um Because without them the work doesn't get done, right? Um, thank you very much for listening and I hope that this will Change things All right Our town needs to be safe and our teachers need to be safe. Thank you school committee meeting My name is shari conklin and I work at crocker farm school As a longtime member of the teaching staff in amherst I am greatly disappointed in the school committee's public response to the union's Negotiations proposal that was in the gazette and on the social media of some school committee members It grossly misrepresented the union's request during negotiations and it takes teachers and families against each other The apea the union Their proposal was not accurately represented by the school committee in its response We would like a public apology and clarification as soon as possible. Thank you Hello, my name is trish lagrant. I live in where and I teach special education at fort river The school committee's public statement posted on facebook this week was an affront to the hardworking caring Dedicated educators who work in our district Our union is negotiating in good faith to assure that both staff and students are able to return to school in the Safeest possible way. We are in no way trying to avoid going back to work A negotiation is a two-way street and when one side disagrees with the other They're expected to come to the table to ask questions and develop better understanding of each other's position Creating an artificial conflict between educators and families and incorrectly misrepresenting our commitment to creating an improved Effective distance learning model is both unhelpful and disrespectful The educators in our district deserve an apology for being publicly shamed in this manner. My name is jonathan civil I'm an emmerced resident and a parent of a rising kindergartener and an educator at emmerced regional high school Last spring while I juggled the labors in my other family and the work of teaching the distance learning My spouse and I discussed many possible scenarios for fault reopening and what they would meet for our family It was hard to imagine at the time that school committee would put families like mine in this position But we now find ourselves in our worst case scenario I am expected to return to work under unsafe conditions While as parents we are forced to choose between sacrificing our family's health or suffering a complete lack of childcare Respectfully, it didn't have to be like this If still does not have to be like this Educators have been working tirelessly through the summer Unpaid to craft plans for remote learning and safe reopening Teachers care so much about their students that they did this work willingly and eagerly while juggling their own paperwork and family labor The multiple proposals that a pea members presented to the school committee far Exceed the district's own inadequate reopening plans Teachers have produced pages and pages of documents including up-to-date health and safety information and robust online learning strategies On tuesday august 18th in an executive session You all on the emmer school committee unanimously voted in favor of a reopening plan Based on faulty politicized health and safety information Utterly ignoring our massive public support for remote only learning to start the year It's a dirty negotiating tactic that shortcuts our agreements between the district and educators Pleading with you to hear this message from an employee and a constituent family Please trust the educators who know our students and our school operations best Emmer's regional public schools can open only when it's safe for all students and staff Until then give educators and families the time and resources we need to prepare for remote learning The only safe and effective option at this time We can't waste any more time with dirty negotiating tactics You need to come to the table and work with us as educators and we have a lot to offer Thank you for here. Thank you for your time and thank you for hearing us Are you seeing the public comment document? Yeah Um, and we have a one more that is a video We miss our students in munglegic beach A lot of families and children in emmer snow me is miss jag I teach second graders at wildwood I'm broken hearted that we can't be together at school in the way that we have been but the new way of learning in schools Would mean that we couldn't sit together at morning meeting We wouldn't be able to sit in a circle together We wouldn't be able to use pillows. We wouldn't be able to turn and talk during I'm a second grader teacher And now I play one on but until then we can see each other like this We can do lots of fun things together like this We can find lots of ways to learn together like this as soon as it's safe Okay As always we accept Email comment. Um email to mcdonalda at arps.org With the subject line public comment by 3 p.m. On the day of meetings that will then display and post on the website We also take voice message at our google phone number And then obviously if you submit a video file, please submit the file and not a link to it online. Thank you So our next order of business is our superintendent's update. So i'll turn it over to you dr Morris You're muted about that. Yeah, I'm sorry So i'll be brief. There's just two things to share one is that appreciate how many school members came Last saturday to alivia oaks and village park and I thought we had some really Conversations at that event that uh stayed with me. Um, they've stayed with me all week So just want to thank how many committee members on top of your already volunteer role Showed up and also thank that we had many of our principals there even if they were an elementary school That wasn't you know, one of them was an elementary school that wouldn't have any students in that area But still wanted to make connections in there. So Just want to thank people for that We uh today was announced. We rewarded funds for the remote learning technology essentials grant That'll help students have adequate access to technology and to strengthen instruction both in the classroom and at home The amounts are a little bit awkward to read. Um, but you know, we applied for all three districts And there's a formula based on the quality of application, but also the size of the district um, so amherst was uh, the winner in this they received just shy of 25 000 dollars, uh, which is fantastic uh amherst pelham received a little over two thousand dollars and um embarrassingly in some ways pelham we did join applications, but um As a percentage it ended up just being a very small amount. I'll just leave it at that. Um But you know, we're really happy to have those funds coming in to help us We know that most of our students are starting the year remotely and this will help us with that um The last thing I want to do is a little update. Um, I think uh at some meeting perhaps I talked about the food insecurity issue and uh federal waivers so um the Good news is that we got a waiver so that now that our summer School programs have ended. Uh, we can still do the next three weeks Um, and especially given the kind of later start of the school year that will help the not good news Is I became aware of a letter today by sonny purdue who's I think the head of the department of agriculture or something like that And they clarified that they again will not be continuing the uh to allow the waiver into the next school year that we used um, I did have a conversation this afternoon with our nutrition director, um, michael gallo-okanol We are looking at a variety of different ways that we would be able to Get around some of that. Um, but I think all of those ways are are cumbersome for Families cumbersome from staff as well in terms of being able to make direct deliveries to a site that's been established for five months Um, so it is something that we are committed to making the best of but I did feel like I needed to update the committee that The letter wasn't to me to be clear, but I did see a formal letter that was sent behalf of someone else that clarified the position of the department of agriculture and You know, it's very disappointing. I will try to see if I can get uh, that letter to the committee This is about 20 minutes ago or 20 minutes before the meeting started. Excuse me That I saw that um, and I think at our next meeting You know, mr. Gallo-okanol can come and talk a little bit about some of the ways um that we're thinking about how to Still work on the sweet scarcity issue even without the flexibility we've had for the last the last several months So, uh, we did want to update the committee on that and certainly, um You know, I think, you know, we talked a little bit tonight But I had to go to this very come to this meeting So I we didn't go into the detail that I feel comfortable exactly what the options are But uh, I think I'd want the committee to know, you know, essentially that The same flexibility does not appear to be offered and the letter I think was postmarked, you know Post or was dated this week. So it's not like, um In many states, for instance, you know School started. Um, so I don't however large hope that they'll be reversal And so we are trying to find alternate ways that we might be able to still supply food for families but none of those will be as, um Efficient at getting food to kids and families as our current model was has been excuse me So sorry to go from more positive news about grand and the negative foods about food scarcity But I know how strongly this committee feels about that particular issue So we can maybe come back the next time and and talk a little bit about what options are available to us Yeah, that that would be, um really helpful Yeah, um Anything that's it just that's it any Yeah Really short. Um any questions or comments from the committee? I'm not seeing any, okay um I do not have an update at this time, uh chair hall. Do you have any update for I don't thank you And now next item is school committee announcements Yep, um miss lord Thank you miss mcdonald As a disclaimer, I would like to say that this is not in response to the public comments. We've just heard This was a statement that was read Earlier today in a private meeting and it was Reflected that it's probably important or that it is important For it to be read in this open meeting so everyone could hear it. Thank you The school committee would like to extend our sincere and this was said to the bargaining that the unions were working with Uh apa ea The school committee would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all of you who have been working for hours on end And to acknowledge what a difficult task we all have been charged with And what a difficult time we are all living through We all want and prioritize the health and safety of our student staffing community We currently have different ideas of what that looks like And we're and we're hoping we can come to some common ground around that and thank you for your service Thank you miss lord Any other announcements from any committee members? Great that had Seeing any um, so we'll move on to new and continuing business um, and tonight is Policy night. We have three policies that this is a first read in discussion and I apologize I don't think that they were in today's packet Um, but I have them here and I'll project them Share them on screen So we'll start with the McDonald would it be easier since I won't be speaking to most of them I think I have all of them because they're in the packet last time and that way So which one were you planning on starting with um bedh I think that may be the one I I don't have I apologize with um EBC supplemental that I can do um, and can you Well, let's let's share it. I know that one one of the packets had The model policy and not our proposed adaptation. Um, so I Just That's the correct one. Okay. Good. Do you want me to zoom in a little bit? Sure. Do folks want zoomed in? That's good. Okay. Very good so this is um, this is a Background context on this. This is um, a supplemental policy. There is a policy. Um Just a general administrative policy EBC and this is a supplement. Um, specifically related to covid related issues um, and so What it does the sort of preamble is it acknowledges and calls out specific policies within our own district policy handbook that need to be revised or or that that have sort of um revisions or waivers or some sort of addendum to them in light of the covid related issues So rather than going through every single policy and revising all of them for this temporary hopefully, um situation Um, this supplemental policy is an is intended to provide that overview One policy that is an interim and can be rescinded at at at such time that this emergency is over and Uh, notes all of the policies that are covered or affected with this in the situation. So that's sort of the high-level overview Because this policy was on Our agenda in the past. I'm hoping that even though it wasn't in our packet today that folks have had a chance to skim it at least Um, for the most part, this is the model policy um as developed by The mass association of school committees with their policy team We the we me being the policy subcommittee along with chair hall um from hellum Have proposed some adaptation specific to our district So there were some policies that don't exist in our policy handbook that we just removed Or we updated the the specific letters of the policy that it promotes. So I will shut up and let folks skim it And obviously take any questions Clarification questions and for folks that are new to the committee um Policy is is usually handled at the region. Um and and discuss there. We usually um Our policy on policy is that we do not vote on policy at the first time it comes to the meeting our first Every every policy revision or new policy Comes twice to the committee. The first one is a read and discussion Any feedback on edits are taken? Or just questions and clarification and then the next time it comes we um, we Either take a vote or continue to discuss it if there's substantial changes Miss hall In just one more comment because there are some people new to the policy Just that they are intended to be kind of this higher level and more general and then At the administrative level it gets into a lot more detail So these are this is just sort of the way that the school committees are instructing Dr. Morris and his team for the and then he then works on the implementation and gets into the actual guidelines To implement those policies so now that we can't talk about specifics, but They are intentionally kind of at the 30 000 foot view Mr. Demily So is this different than the there was like a four or five page version of this that went through the implication of Um Of like okay, it does it does go forward. Okay, then I guess my general Comment and question is um So, I mean broadly speaking the way I interpret this kind of meta policy It's it's actually kind of a confusing policy to start on if you're new to policy because it It supersedes all other policies for for a moment. Um, the other the other funny thing about policy if you're not new to it is that because it's supposed to be this thing that um We spend a lot of time doing first reading second reading third reading and really word smith smithing and then approving is it's supposed to be really like Tight and you know well defined and and and in there for a substantial amount of time Whereas this we're sort of cutting a really broad brush and saying it's going to cut for all these policies for temporary amount of time and so we're not The way I read it is that we're not we're not going to get all hung up too much on on uh individual word smithing So so I guess that's my first sort of take on this is that and I mean I'd be interested to see how Dr Marce interprets this is that Yeah, this is kind of like granting the superintendent sort of broad discretionary authority to To manage the district on some pretty significant issues right attendance privacy students are at risk issues of route related to expulsion And whatnot. Um, and we're sort of entrusting the superintendent in this extraordinary time to exercise that authority That may in certain cases because of covet Go outside of of the actual Details of policy and broadly speaking, you know from a school committee to superintendent Relationship. I'm okay with that provided that the superintendent periodically updates us on on how that's going and if um, if if he if he you know periodically updates us and and um, especially if if he felt a need to Act with the authority of this policy, especially if it was more than straightforward, right? If there was some major override of an important policy that was only allowed To an action was only allowed by the superintendent because of what we That this happened. I would expect the school committee get updated on it, right? And then as we sort of wound down the need for it I would expect to get sort of proactively notified so that we didn't just sort of You know grant this expansion of of authority and then and then kind of forget about it. So That's where I I I landed You know, there's just so much general broad sweeping impact over these four and a half pages to so much policy I I didn't feel like we needed to get hung up too much in in wordspitting every detail But um, those were just my general thoughts But I would be really interested to hear what how the superintendent feels about how this impacts The administrative operations of the district Before you respond dr. Morris and I saw your hand mr. And you know, I just want to say at some point it's sort of in the middle before it goes into the details It does talk about when this expires And that was a question it says it Is it a scroll down a little bit? I think oh, I guess it wasn't in this one So that would be a good thing to add the other there's another policy The other one that we're looking at does say that this extends only so long as there's an emergency, but um Okay, dr. Morris Yeah, so I mean, I think what uh, we've tried to do this whole time during the pandemic Is there occasional situations that relate to health and safety and on those ones? You know, we can't really wait to a school committee meeting and I'll give the example of the school closure on march 13th uh I mean in theory, I suppose we could have had an emergency school committee meeting to talk about that but Um, that was an action I felt like I needed to take and in hindsight, right? It seems um, like the right thing to do Gladly, I mean sadly actually in some ways. I'd rather have been wrong. Um, but um I think on those ones. I think those ones are where the next committee meeting we do talk about what happened I think most of these other things would be absolutely things if you think about how often we've met since march Sorry about that. Um, but um That we've had active conversations on kind of what would typically be policy related items Tonight was a short superintendent's update. I've been doing quite long ones To make sure that the committee has been informed and that's the same type of thing that I would continue to do in the future and you know, I think we um It makes sense for the committee to be updated and be able to ask questions on these these issues because they're What we've learned is that um Nothing's quite the same Uh as it used to be and we want to you know the the kind of every time you peel the onion You find another layer of something that you have to adjust and it has to be different So, um, that would be my commitment of the committee Mr. Manino What would it take to rescind this policy? I feel like that it there was some illusion to it here, but um, there was In the next policy that we'll be looking at the the face covering policy. Um, it it um The model policy proposed that the school committee actually take action to rescind it um, and we're proposing that it actually expires when um When the state of emergency or covet emergency has been declared over um, and so Which for that one I would suggest we adopt that language for this one as well We anticipate the announcement of uh The the emergency being over sometime Well, there'll be a declaration by the governor the the emergency is ceased It's a question for discussion Um, um Do we want to put it on the school committee to have to vote to rescind these policies or would we like to have some sort of sunset clause and if so How should we phrase that I would like some kind of explicit Comment on when it ends Um miss seager you've had your hand up for a little bit and then I see your hand miss kenny Yeah, the the clause that you're speaking of is in the end of the first paragraph under general disparate goals affected by the pandemic Um, it's just down a little bit But I uh, I have two thoughts. Yeah right there go up a little bit Right there Such suspension of policy shall expire upon the end of the emergency as declared by the governor I would love more clarity around I have two comments one is I'd love more clarity around that as well because If the governor declares emergency over it may not be the point where we do want to change these back quite yet Um, you know, you might need some leeway there So I wouldn't want this to just expire and then have an awkward set of circumstances for the superintendent My other comment was um, I was very interested to see And I know how these policies come together a lot of them come from the massachusetts association of school committees and stuff And so i'm sure this is all well researched Um, but other under illness and contract tracing it prescribes what the local health department is going to do And I don't know if that's some sort of Already put together legal obligation, but it just seems to me that if it's not there Having policies in our school that tells what the health department is going to do just seems a little weird So I'm new to the regional level. Um, and maybe this all is What's typically done? I mean, none of this is with the pandemic But it just was interesting to me to Describe the response of another department in town. So maybe someone could clarify that for me Dr. Morris So, uh, I think because of the pandemic we've been in touch with the health department more often. Um Than ever frankly. Um, and I think that is intended that if the health department There are resource and and we take their advice And their guidance very seriously I think what's a little unique in a regional school district is as I think I mentioned on tuesday There's four health departments. Um, you know, because almost all of our schools are in the town of amherst That's the one we rely on because the buildings reside in the town of amherst, but I think Uh, for many, uh, when we make, um Yeah, the region is a turkey one, you know, you're right. I'm just thinking through that a little bit, you know So I think you you raise a good point But I think, you know, I think it's a nod to that we will should be And we and are doing continually connecting with our health department and you know, I talked to the health director of Uh, of amherst this week even, um, just about a particular issue to try to get information So that we're taking the most appropriate steps necessary on the safety front Sorry, I don't know if that helped but that that's I think the intent is that ensuring that there is communication between health departments and districts in this time miss kenny Oh, okay What um, I'm just going to go back to the question that a couple folks have asked about um on sort of this expiration of this policy um We could we could we could just change that to make it Is is in effect until the school committee rescinds it which um Was what was in another policy that we're reviewing tonight. Um, so if that or Um, or if somebody would like to propose some phrasing for something that could work miss hall Oh, I wasn't I didn't have specific phrasing but I do I thought that miss seeker's comment was a good one that we might not want to be Locked up with the state and have some discretion over this. So I would support that change. I don't have a specific word I I agree with that that change What about if it if all we did was change upon to after Such suspension of policy shall expire after the end of the emergency is declared by the governor Mr. Demling I guess I still prefer the what miss seeker was suggesting which is School committee or sends it like explicitly or sends it if you just completely take it out of the hands of any state level action um, like we have other policies coming up where where we might need to do this anyway, and so um You know, it's like I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons You know the pros is that you know, we're going to have to be more proactive about bringing the policy back And then putting it on the agenda and discussing it and then making a Um an action an explicit action, you know to to rescind it Um, but I think I think that's appropriate. I think I think we would want to publicly discuss that um and Lord knows we certainly had enough local decisions around the fall that have broken with the state About health and safety guidelines um to this point that we have been Resolved and defiant about that. I I I would imagine we would want to reserve full autonomy over this as well. So I guess, uh I'm open hearing other arguments, but I I'm I'm I'm not seeing a lot of cons towards the Uh retaining the autonomy of their send action or others that haven't spoken up. Um Okay, uh agreeing to that that suggested change Miss dancer Can't hear you did anybody else have uh, there you are We hear you Did anybody else have or or folks generally okay with that suggested edit?  Um at a future meeting Thank you Since we're on uh, miss kenny Sorry, I have a clarifying question about another piece further down. Are we moving on from that? Are we still talking? Sorry Yep. No go right ahead. Okay. So homeschooling and remote instruction for students in quarantine. I I'm just not sure. I thought homeschooling was something Different not district related Right, maybe no. I don't know So like there's the virtual learning piece And then there's children that are homeschooled that are not part of the school or the district I just I'm I'm just not understanding This is clarifying because there is a there is a specific district policy on homeschooling that I Believe it is ihbg um, and this this statement is Uh clarifying that if you're homebound due to illness quarantine or disability That doesn't qualify as homeschooling and all of the procedures that you have to do for homeschooling Thank you. Any other, uh, questions or clarifying questions Seeing none. Okay. Are we ready to move on? Okay Um, Dr. Morris, do you have um the ebcfa? There it is. Um, so this is also a new a new policy. Um, and this is Based on the model policy proposed by um developed by masc With their policy group. Um, and I don't believe The suggested edit that we made as the policy subcommittee we're going I'm hearing that we'll actually take that back and go with the original model policy Which is that this policy Excuse me Will be is in place until rescinded by the school committee Um, but this again is is providing guide guidance around, um, the requirement for face coverings in our schools This hall Um, so I think this maybe is more of a question for dr. Morris on the implementation side Um, there's been press about recently about first. It was, you know, gators are neck gators are terrible and then it was like, no Actually, they're not that bad. Um, but it does sound like the takeaway is that they're sort of this Minimum standard for a face covering so it's not I mean so the The sentence and the second paragraph that starts a face covering that covers the nose and mouth Is that I mean I certainly I don't want to put the district or you know individual teachers in charge of like, you know Checking fabric, but I wonder is there a way to have some sort of like other than just that it covers nose and mouth if there's some guidelines in place for Families and teachers for some minimum standard for that Yeah, so we have um, yes is the quick answer. We have a draft 36 or 38 page policy at miss consolino Oh, excuse me not policy procedure manual. Um, that uh, miss consolino has created We have adjusted it for the gator piece. Um, because I think there's enough data where that's in question for us Um, so, uh, but it is much more explicit than the policy about what face campings are allowable It's much more detailed than that sentence you read aloud And and so it's a really good point. I hadn't really thought about it. Um It's because this is more general face covering that covers the nose and mouth must be worn And in the health and safety guide it gets much more explicit about what type of covering and and those pieces I don't think they're in conflict As long as you don't feel conflict about it because I think oftentimes the way we implement things has more much more detail and specificity Than the policy but but I hear your point and if there is an adjustment that you'd like to make, you know, certainly I'd be amenable to that Okay, sorry chairman Donald. Can I just respond to that? Yes, no, I think my thing is just as long as they're not in conflict and that there's some I guess relatively simple Implementation and it sounds like that's already been established. So that's good. Thank you Mr. Manino Does the policy address what will happen if a student chooses not to wear a mask? I tried to put the scroll down to the part that Attempts to address that mr. Manino. Would it be helpful if I read that? Yes If students are in violation of this policy, the building principal will consult with the parents guardians to determine Whether an exception is appropriate or if the student may be removed from the building for in-person learning until such time They can comply with their requirement or their requirement is lifted Okay Thank you. No problem Mr. Demling Yeah, so I want to return to this This just gator single ply mask issue. So I'm glad you brought miss Constaneno My first question was has miss Constaneno read this policy because I think this is like a really interesting Place where the policy and implementation really matter And yes, technically I don't want them to conflict. That's that's to me is the minimum requirement, but This is this is a place where I think it's it's worthy possibly at our at our next read Of of some of some discussion as to whether Is is the science at a point where where we are able at a policy level For the school committee to make the policy stronger on this I don't know. I haven't read I'm sure nearly as much as miss Constaneno has and others on on the evolving science about about what is backed On on the the fabric type and and how many plies and what what actually actually constitutes Mask quality and how you could actually Describe that and put that into policy and and what we want requirements to be and and that has all sorts of implications with People bringing masks from home and what we provide and surgical masks and whatnot So I don't I don't want to try and adjudicate all that right here and an off the cuff comment Um, but but it is it is an issue that that has come up as we as we all sort of In our collective consciousness now, which is a good thing masks, right? Which is good and yet devils in the details right about One how we use them and and what do we mean by a mask? And I think it's going to be an important implementation detail as as the years ahead of us unfold You know as as we as we as we continue to live in a world with masks So I would be really interested to hear from miss Constaneno about if we could if we could Um Hear what the current state status is of the implementation Of uh, of what we're planning for the fall specifically with with the gators and that single ply stuff and how how it potentially might apply to the policy Um, I think that would be worthy of school community discussion I should add um Before you answer that dr. Marissa, but that um, we did check this and in rent. This is Nearly identical to the language that's actually in the plan that we submitted to desi. So Um, that's not a challenge. Should we get even tighter knowing because things have evolved Obviously in the week since we approved that but just to in in case anybody else is wondering, huh? This is very similar. If not identical to what was in um our plan that we submitted to desi um, the short stories. I'm happy to you know, um Try to ask miss Constaneno to either come in or collect her feedback before uh, you all would be voting on it Great miss hall Oh, I guess just really quickly related to like language and the policy and all that it just it does seem like especially if you know, this The science at least in the What I read changed in the course of sounds like two or three weeks We would just want to leave enough flexibility in the policy that then The district wouldn't have to come back to us and be like, oh, it's okay. Like like resin now. It's fine Now we have to change the policy So I think as long as there's enough flexibility while still being sort of consistent with what the science is around what best practices are any other questions or thoughts from folks that haven't spoken Miss Barlow Yes, this might be more an implementation detail but I wanted to raise it because when I think about the exemptions of Wearing the face coverings it occurs to me that that could be problematic If there was a certain percentage of the class that was granted exemptions And I just wanted to sort of put on the radar like what that communication would look like to the families who may Be aware unaware that there are many children in their classrooms with their children who are not wearing face coverings Because it's more of a comment than a question any further discussion on this I'm not sure. Um Going back to your comment miss Barlow. I'm not sure if that's a A policy statement that we that um that You'd like to see in here or if that's more of something that you'd like to see in the implementation I think in the implementation, but it just the policy is a wide berth and I think for good reasons I'm sure many people need these exemptions It just occurs to me if a certain percentage of a classroom did get the exemptions It could become problematic questions comments observations Not seeing any So I'm I'm just making note of the the one edit on here right now is at least for this for our second read is to You you can actually see the language from the model policy. It's stricken struck struck struck Strucked out The policy will remain in place until rescinded by the school committee. So we'll replace put that back in If nobody has any more questions or comments Requests then We ready to move on to the next one Okay So this next one is our um, and you don't have this one. Did you say Okay, I will project Um, so this one is our public participation at committee meetings policy um And I'm trying to find the little percent but are folks seeing this now Oh Um, so this is a current policy And so this is um, this is has the red line Um in it of where things have been added moved or deleted um, and some of it has been moved because there was um uh partly to Um in ways to align more with just general flow So it there were multiple bullet points and it seemed a little herky jerky that It was talking about groups of people um Making a comment and then it talked about it again sort of five bullet points later So just sort of combine those two the other thing that this policy updates on is some of based on a revised model policy from m asc based on some of the First amendment challenges that other massachusetts school committees have had And so our language had been actually problematic And this incorporates the new language. So you will see That so i'll scroll through that and then the other one is to enable In in policy the um what the acceptance of voice message or written comment In our in our meetings So this section is um Clarifying sort of the different ways that that um the public may Present their public comment So um the verbal statement during an in-person meeting a recorded voice message or a written email message um this also Clarifies that written remarks will be displayed on screen Um and will not be read aloud given that they are the expression of the opinion of somebody else not speaking um Voice and email messages for public comment must be received by a deadline specified in the agenda So those are the major changes um in that section Um, this is more sort of again format and flow Update that should begin their comments by stating or writing their name town of residence and affiliation of the district This section talking about length of time And this is this is really only moved and combined this about the groups of individuals and This i don't know It's showing the whole thing this part the chair of the meeting after warning reserves the right to terminate speech Which is not constitutionally protected because it constitutes true threats that are likely to provoke a violent reaction And cause a breach of the peace or incitement to imminent lawless conduct or contains obscenities in that This section that says that we will not tolerate abusive or defamatory remarks Keeping that that it's not discussion or debate or dialogue And then again, this is new language That replaces this language about complaints about The school operations or individuals So this clarifies that topics ideally should be limited to those within the school committee scope of authority Describes that our authority is the review and approval of the budget The performance of the superintendent and the educational goals and policies of the district's public schools Comments and complaints regarding school personnel apart from the superintendent or students are generally prohibited unless those comments and complaints Concern matters that are within the scope of the school committee authority And that replaces this comment that says that we will not accept any comments that are um We will not hear personal complaints about personal personal and the rest remains Well, it's the same. Liz Seeger I think a lot of these make sense. What I'm wondering about is the area where Um, we change things from public comment. Maybe it's a second bullet point Um, public comment may be presented through a verbal statement during an in-person meeting A recorded voice message or written email message Um, so I've only been on this committee since it's been online, but once we're back in person Do we do do you usually play recorded voice messages and display written email messages? No, that's sorry. I should have clarified that now that would be new um, we heard And and so we're proposing sort of making that policy to because we've heard that it's more accessible for people To be able to comment and be heard at school committees because they don't have to Show up at the building so wanted to sort of Honor that and provide that avenue for people to continue to provide public comment input Mr. Deming Yeah, um, so it's it's interesting what what formats, you know, we had our first video Comment tonight and that was that was a nice video. Um And so I think about what are the the the mechanisms for for submitting public comment were pre-covid right and it was physically showing up at the At the meeting and and verbally going up to the mic. Um, that was that was really the only Format and so so now we have The the voicemail or and the email so it's So it's so it's it's much more accessible. Um, so when we think about steady state both for the rest of our virtual meeting Uh virtual meeting time and then and then post covet um You know, I've been thinking that I I like I would I think I would like to keep the voicemail um, but drop the The written and and the and I would I'm interested to hear what other committee members think about this And I'm not totally decided on this, but that's my current feeling And it's because I I want to hear what people say Um, you know, I want to hear input and I do like the accessibility. I understand that I especially with with the region of of people finding the those meetings in the high school library and you know, it's it is Um, it is kind of a chore to get up to that mic. So just having that voicemail is easy. Um, I logistically I will say I I do find it pretty difficult to Read and absorb scrolling text Uh at the beginning of the school committee meeting now that that may be a personal issue that I'm 48 and I have You know, my eyesight is not great Um, but uh, you know, I want to give my complete undivided attention to the public comment when it's happening, right? And so I'm at the screen I'm trying to follow every line And it's it's difficult and miss mcdonald does the absolute best she can but it's it's a limited Presentation medium. Um, and it goes by and you absorb it and then you're on to the next one And then the next one the next one and it's very transient. Um, and so I feel like I it's it makes me think a little meta and and and I think, you know, well Well, what is really the purpose of public comment? And it's it's one avenue in which we hear from the public and it's not the only avenue, right? We the the other major avenue that we hear from the public is is directly for email through that that private email Which has its own advantages and disadvantages And I think the bigger advantage of direct email is that we have the opportunity at our leisure to thoughtfully More deliberately read through and and think about it and and reply if if we if we want to It's it's now that being said Public comment is part of mass general law. It does have a public Aspect to it that you don't get from a private email and I will say, you know from like my preschool committee days It does have a purpose, you know, it does serve a purpose of creating a certain level of pressure on the school committee And and I think that's totally fine legit healthy part of You know democracy and the elected process. So I don't want to take that away from from the public But at the same time, I don't find the You know multiple pages of scrolling text all that effective means I I do think there is maybe kind of a balance to be struck. Um, I do like In our agenda page at arps.org seeing that that pdf Next to the meetings. Um, when you look at our meeting history now, you can see the public comment of the written pdf So if you wanted to submit a public comment and maybe um, maybe it was difficult to to um to present Um a spoken comment because again, I will say we're trying to be accessible here, right? And it's it's it's hard to to present Um a verbal public comment even if it's just a voicemail It's it's you know, it's it's it's hard to do that And so um, I if you're more comfortable expressing yourself Just in the written word that's a way to to show the community what you feel on a specific topic When that meeting is happening at that time right be part of that conversation. So Um, those are my thoughts on it. Um, the video is nice. I don't think video is appropriate for public comment. Um going forward Um, and I also think that um The way that the chair has used her discretion To to really blow past the 15 minute max and accept all forms of public comment has been totally appropriate for The extraordinary time that we've been when we've suddenly gone online and and been in that So I think I think how we've handled it has been totally fine. It's just when we're talking about what's going forward It's it's it's a different approach The voicemail is good the Email scroll is worthless to me I try to read a couple a topic sentences and skip to the next But then being posted on the ARPS website is enormously helpful if I see Uh during the meeting something that's interesting me I go the next day or whenever it is posted and read it on the ARPS website Mr. Harrington Yeah, so I was just gonna say kind of in regard to the the email concept Yeah, I kind of agree with Mr. Demling on the idea that sometimes it's not that easy to get up there and actually Say what you have to say like It's a lot easier for some folks, you know to do that in writing But I think like logistically speaking I don't see why we couldn't include printed versions in a in a packet While we're in person and then kind of have the uh the on-screen version for the folks at home Because I I just feel like the more ways that we can get the public to engage You know the better we are are serving them, you know, I mean we're Able to respond to what they say and and I also think that there's merit to the the Direct individual or the the the group email to us that serves a different purpose so Kind of the point I'm getting at is that If we were to include Emails and within a live meeting I would think that we should have like a differentiation between you know, this is a Direct communication to the school committee versus this is a public comment Maybe even like a separate email address to respond to or something like that I um, I'll just add about the posting the pdf on the agendas page. I I Because I I get questions from from the community I know that people are people in the community and the public are going to look for those Exactly that document and want to read it afterward um A lot because they can't read it on the on the screen when it's streaming But also I think a lot of times curiosity if they if they miss the meeting they want to see what the public comment was so I I think there is um, I would agree that there's there's sort of Collateral benefit to um to accepting written public comment as well Any other thoughts on any of this Mr. Deming Yeah, just a problem. I have no solution for um And I we just sort of go and waves on this is is this this maximum time, right? So actually I'm losing it here in the in the text, but I don't know if the 15 minute max is still in the current proposed policy Yeah, okay. Um Like that's a really hard one to enforce right and we really just sort of let it enforce itself In fact, or I should say every chair I've ever worked with has just naturally let it enforce itself Which is typically we don't get 15 minutes of public comment And so we just we just have everything that we have Occasionally it spikes way out of control And so chairs this discretion and we just have all the public comment the the problem in terms of trying to Do our jobs the most effectively and our jobs at an open meeting right is to have the most effective open meeting we can which is to um You know do the business of the committee and doing the business committee and in my mind is is to really hear from My fellow members as much as I as as much as I possibly can right and it's more of an issue on the region because there's so many people Um, and so when we have a long agenda and our meetings go really long after like three hours or so I'm I'm I feel less effective. And so if we It doesn't happen a lot, but obviously it's been happening more recently when we have Really long stretches of public comment at the very beginning. It takes away from our ability to then Um more in a more in-depth manner do more work Right, like this like this is like the third or fourth meeting when we've had these policies on the agenda Because we've had very long meetings. I'm not I'm not trying to take away from You know the importance of those previous meetings. I'm just saying that um When we try and use The very limited time and this is the only legal because of open meeting laws This is the only legal time we have to talk to each other Right about these things. I can't ask you all in a group setting What what do you all think about public comment policy without breaking open meeting law? So this is the only time we get to have a back and forth on this as opposed to public Input which which there are multiple avenues. So that's the only Challenge I see with with uh, you know Expanding every single mode and then Having all that in the front To to to any maximum extent possible the challenge of course is then well, how do you pick if you get an hour of public comment How do you randomly show 15 minutes of that? It's really really difficult. So there's also I think an in-between um, that sorry, I saw your hand Ms. Barlow, but I would just want to before I forget this because I think um Keeping the 15 minutes keeping in the discretion of the chair And also knowing that if any written public comment is also published online And available at any time If the chair has their act together it might even be published before that, you know by the meeting by the time the meeting is happens um But I think it could be that we prioritize actual, you know verbal in-person or recorded voice messages and if there's significant volume of written comment then we sort of just Pose that and say and the written um written public comment is available Right now or first thing tomorrow morning on our agenda's web page because then it's still getting the public airing um and CL has been doing a really nice job of incorporating the written comment directly into the minutes as well So it it it does get seen it doesn't get sort of lost which is another advantage of written. Ms. Barlow This may be a little naive to him a newer member, but maybe um because I think it's valuable to have both But I was wondering if it's an issue and we can't get the um public comment read prior to the meeting If it'd be appropriate for someone on the committee to to read aloud just so people are actually retaining and really processing the written comment Well, that's an interesting discussion point because this policy we actually wrote Not a lot have asked, um, but we have been asked to read it. Um And in this policy we've actually i'm pointing to it, but not We actually said that it because it's the expression of the views of the writer and not anybody on the committee Um, that we won't actually read them aloud um I think you know having a committee member. This is my personal opinion. So I'm care I want to hear what the rest of the committee hears, but I think when you When a committee member reads the comment it gives it a weight that's different Not stronger or weaker, but just different than um the voice of the of the actual writer. And so That's my thought on that. Um miss lord Yes, thank you. I have a question a couple of families have asked me when they submitted a public comment and haven't gotten a response What is the best way if you want more of a dialogue than just dating your opinion? Is it reaching out to individuals All of us do have a preferred method for if someone wants to engage more in a dialogue than just give their opinion um Any committee member is welcome to respond Individually to any public commenter. Um, but from the public's perspective um It would say it depends on their objective because if you if you if The priority is good is having a dialogue and opening the dialogue um And not necessarily having it be heard by by the full community Um, then either into writing to an individual or to the school committee at Arps.org. Thank you. I think that helps make it clear for some Yeah And I will say just a sort of experiencing both the volume of the email and the volume of the public comment we get um that it is hard so for me to To be able to tell like did you intend this to be public comment or not? Um And because of the volume and because I work full time That's why it's like if it if it doesn't say public comment in the subject line It's not going to be in public comment. Um, so You know now in scouncing that into policy. Um, I think uh can help but Any other That's how to what do other folks feel about the reading aloud? I just I don't want it to just Not hearing the comments on that but mr. Harrington Can you hear me now? Yeah Okay, I'm on the phone um I have a question sort of following up on this barlow's about It's never been clear to me whether we are supposed to respond to the emails that come into the committee And if somebody does respond If if a committee member responds should they be telling the other committee members that they've responded to a particular email That's that has never been clear at all to me Mr. Deming um You know, it's it's it's an interesting question. It's it's a little off topic from our agenda. So but Just because it really I'll answer it really quickly because it's not really on the agenda, but um It it it dovetails into sort of two questions. One is what's the role of the Of the chair and speaking for the committee and then and then how do you um make sure you're following open meeting law um You know, we have a policy that the chair speaks for the committee Um, that that being said any individual committee member can can speak You know in email or voicemail or in person And so uh, there's nothing preventing any of us from having a dialogue with a member or multiple members of the community If i'm ever expressing an opinion Um, I always say i'm speaking for myself and not the committee just to make it exceptionally abundantly clear Then you're kind of off the hook It's up to you as to whether you want to share that There's certainly no policy. I'm aware that you're obligated To do that, you know, it's it's one of those Um, we're all elected officials. We're making it up as we go along, you know, how do we approach the job and and whatnot? um But in terms of you know, how what what we do and and how we sort of delegate it responsibility It's it's probably more of a general committee discussion responsibility thingy. That's probably about as long as I should go on Mr. Hangton, you had your hand up earlier yeah, I was just gonna say like uh With as far as the idea of us reading the community's emails aloud. I think um There's probably a million reasons that we shouldn't do that Like, you know, we're probably each perceived differently by different people and that might color how somebody hears what we're saying They might think that we're you know Being dismissive in the way we say something or that we're like championing someone's someone's cause but I mean is it possible to have You know an independent party come in and read these things or Could somebody like perhaps read them and record them in advance or something like that But I know I just wouldn't feel comfortable reading someone else's words aloud Because I think I might I might give the wrong tone in tenor If if we did if we weren't also offering the option a voice message That it just requires a phone and if some you know, I I would say yeah, that makes I would think that would be fine um, and if somebody you know, there's no if somebody is um has um You know is uncomfortable speaking and has a you know challenges with speaking on a phone Um, you know for whom writing is easier than speaking um, I would think that they could also if they really wanted it to be heard they could ask A friend or family member to read it for them. Um, I mean we have no way of knowing when somebody says my name is you know, Cindy Lou that that really is Cindy Lou so um Uh, you know, I think that you know or the or the reader could sit The speaker could say I'm calling, you know on behalf of so-and-so So that their voice could be heard so If we didn't have the voice message then I would be a little bit more concerned about that but My personal perspective is that we're we're offering so many ways for people to To speak and be heard um or write and be heard and seen um that I think It's good. Mr. Manino you are raising your hand I agree that no committee member should read someone else's email for all kinds of reasons We have thoughts. Did you have your hand up miss Kenny? No So this is a first read. We don't have to take a vote on this but um, if Uh before we move on does anybody have other edits comments things we want to change Mr. Deming Just real quick if for for the future agendas if we could put then like what the policy is uh on the posting just for so the public understands what The edc whatever of the letters What it was You don't keep a copy of the policy handbook next to your bed It's a great suggestion. Thank you any other Okay, so next up on our agenda is the superintendent evaluation timeline I mean since miss spitzer isn't here miss dancer. Are you prepared to Talk about that. Thank you miss spitzer and I had a conversation with uh superintendent morris after our last meeting and the proposal that i'm bringing forward on behalf of kerry miss spitzer from that meeting is that And doing this for several reasons one is that our meetings are tending to be very very long and and And also because superintendent morris is spending much of his time More time than he would normally spend i'm sure on school business That we would abbreviate the way we do it this year He superintendent morris would Provide us with a bulleted list of his goals and this would vary because all three committees have their own goals They're not all in common So it would be a bulleted list and where there is already written documentation of some kind In regards to that goal it would be linked And we would be able then to access that when we're writing his evaluation in the case cases where There is not current written documentation To support the goal he would provide us with a brief statement for that goal about where things stood In march when school closed and and everything just changed He So this is just a proposal for tonight the timeline would be That at our next meeting He if you agree, and this is not something we have to vote. It's just something we can agree or not agree on He would provide us with the list And then we would have the time until our next meeting To write our evaluation for him and then probably The way that we would do the The discussion and the vote would be in brief individual committee meetings as Close to trying to do this all in the joint meetings that we've been having So that's sort of what we came up with I think superintendent morris. Is that Encompass what we said do you think? I think so the only thing that I Was a little and I'm not I don't have an opinion on it was Whether the artifacts would be shared with Committees I thought we talked and maybe you said this but not you talked about the committee's meeting separately to complete the evaluation But on the front end Since the goals are really different almost all the goals are unique to each district We were trying to figure out. How do we have? Meetings where we could you know and as you noted it would be much briefer conversations than and presentation than what we've done in the Past it's just kind of a one-pager But you know, I think you know for pelham for instance There's a bunch of goals in amherst the region that don't apply And vice versa more than in past years. So I think that's the other logistical hurdle is how do we actually How does that actually happen? In the next few weeks with individual meetings and I think we come up We came up we talked about loosely some scenarios, but I think just This conversation is mostly about logistics and I think that's one that's just hanging I guess what I thought we came away from it was there would not be a Presentation that you would just provide us with the bulleted list It's going to be a little bit more work on our part because we're going to have to go then and and access those materials But I that I thought was what we came up with not okay There would be an Yeah, yep. No, I think that's right. I think that you're right Thank you're jogging my memory on that that is really just a one-pager for the districts just with a couple artifacts and and you know, there was some As you noted, it would be a bit more work on committee members to go back to previous meetings and previous presentations But no, I'm sorry. Thank you. You said that, you know, I just I heard it a little differently. My apologies All right, and mith hall. Did you want to say anything or About pelham or you're going to work on that and then let tell him no Yeah, so the plan in pelham is to just work with a superintendent and figure out Time frame that's most manageable. So we will talk separately and figure that out I think in a lot of the ways we can really streamline our process to just minimize Impact and still get it done. So yes, so I guess people have questions or comments and Is that seem like a reasonable way to try to get this accomplished this year? Mr. Sullivan Oh Wrong my batteries dying. So now it's getting hard. But anyway, I just want to piggyback on what miss stanzer said that this evaluation is something that ran from July 1st last year till mid-march We even though we'd like to all fill in about your response to this pandemic It's really about the the goals that were set Last year and there but there is a spot at the end where you can fill in and talk about what's going on now because we we spent hours and hours Figuring out how this evaluation actually works and how to do it properly. And that's just how it goes Mr. Menino Am I to understand that this evaluation is not going to cover Mike Morris's exemplary performance during the kovat crisis that would be disappointing That is correct except there is a spot at the end where you can write whatever Because I'm I'm tempted to give him fives across the board Period for exemplary performance He's amazing A miss lord miss lord and the mr. Sullivan I'm trying to understand. Um If we're if we're doing the evaluation through march, I joined the committee in april So then would it not be appropriate for me to do an evaluation? Um, I think it's Normally we do the evaluation in june Um, and so, um, you know, it might start we might have an artifacts presentation in may but it's usually it's it's usually after april Um, I think what mr. Sullivan is is proposing though that that we we need to be evaluating on the and I'm not trying to put actually I'm trying to Replay and make sure that I heard you correctly mr. Sullivan not put words in your mouth But I think what you're suggesting is that The the time frame is is from july 1 and we where the evaluation is on the goals that we have for the school year Not on some new unnamed goals That happened after march The short answer is yes, if you if you're on the committee at the time of the evaluation But you can only write to the parts that you have Of the parts of the year that you have experience working with them. So I Yeah, mr. Sullivan So i'm not i'm not saying that it that the goals ended in march But it just you know what's occurred since then because we spent as the committee I think it was four years ago eight or ten hours just discussing this and finding out from the Mass associate school committees that we were we were doing our evaluations wrong for many years And so you have to stick to the goals And if you want to as mr. Manino has pointed out Do some writing at the end? Please do miss segar I'm wondering since I joined the committee in march. I believe And if my predecessor is allowed to fill it out, I imagine not right? um It's the same frustration I've felt in our own towns when people cycle off the committee and they're sort of the best people to be in In the position of of evaluating people, but so be it. Thank you Mr. Demling Yeah, I was just going to speak to that I remember this conversation precisely about cycling on cycling off and it's just the nature of the beast We got explicit legal guidance on this that as soon as you're off the committee. You absolutely cannot evaluate But to to mr. Salvin's point, um, there is that sort of miscellaneous bucket at the end So if even if you are on the committee Only for a period After the goals the defined goals are no longer active or in your opinion They were no longer active then you are free to evaluate, you know The other explicit legal guidance that we that we got is that if you're a current member of the committee, you have an absolute right An unassailable right to submit the evaluation. That's it's totally up to you. You don't have to but it's it's not a matter of debate or discussion or Vote or chairs anything. It's you have an absolute Legal right to submit the evaluation because you're an elected member of the committee Whether you choose to and to what extent you do And what parts you fill out is totally up to you. Um, but but you have you have a right to do so the um The thought that I would add um on the the goals And the and the extra paragraph. I think the the way that I would think of Any sort of post march scenario how it might Be bleed, you know bleed into some of the other goals is If for example a goal didn't get complete Right, so or you know, there was some actions or items that were supposed to happen after march and they didn't happen Obviously, you wouldn't not mention why they didn't happen. Um, and so you could you know You could be weaving sort of that and sort of a recognition of why you're not gonna Doc the superintendent for not finishing it, right? You know, oh this Didn't finish every one of these things. You're not going to give them a zero on it because there was This pandemic that happened, right? So I think It's not that you don't even mention it. It's just you don't evaluate the performance of in the pandemic except in the sort of extra bubble miss hall Yeah, I just I just think that's a really important point the you know, the purpose of the whole evaluation rubric is to kind of keep everything inside of a box which can be Really helpful when you have smart bowls and all of that, but I mean Community members who are filling these out can at their discretion put in comments and it is your choice Based on what you know about the superintendent's performance To rate him accordingly. So it is not like it's I mean it is a tool that should help guide um, it was not created With a global pandemic in mind and remote learning and you know the world being turned upside down So I just I mean if folks are uncertain I think it's just important to keep that in mind that it's a it's a tool But it's not it's not meant to sort of lead you to some obvious conclusion Mr. Manino This section at the end of the evaluation that where we can make a comment Does this have a number like a three four five? Do we are are we able to give them a number on that too? I know I don't have the rubric in front of me That or the dip or the tool how I would suggest that we Create a number for it We could give it a numerical evaluation the way we can on the other goals, too I believe I believe we've already voted on the on the device Already we we wouldn't be able to do that But you're welcome to write a number in I will I can't I saw hands anything it was mr. Sullivan and mishall that I'm not No, you can ignore mine. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Demling. Yeah, the other brief point. I'll I'll make is that um Yeah, in addition to having an unassailable right to to pro to make this evaluation Um, no, there is also no one has a right to criticize you no legal right. I should let me take that back Anybody has a right to criticize you Of your evaluation, but um, but once you make it, um, there's there's no um, what am I trying to say like, um You're not going to break any laws with uh with the way in which you you choose the manner in which you feel Is appropriate to fault the evaluation Obviously, we're all going to approach this in the way that we feel is appropriate Right, that might be a little different. Um based on our discussion.  We're all public officials. This is the tools. This is the rubric that mishall described Um, we obviously understand the the world has been turned upside down and and um, and now we we may give it what we will Based on the situation. I think um Yeah, I I I guess mishall said a lot more eloquently than I did so I'll just leave it at that So, um, trying to move us along on the on the timeline. Um Did you um, what was the Well, we've said it already and I've just forgotten. Sorry Function was we would be having another meeting next week Um, and that that would be the point at which the superintendent would provide us with the Bulleted list we would then do our work Bring that back to our individual committees. We would have to schedule something for our individual committees just for that specific purpose I think would be better than trying to do it in a joint meeting Okay, and hopefully that would be some time in that beginning of september Right. So there would be time for the committees to complete the evaluation instrument and submit them and then time for the chairs To synthesize that into the memo to bring it back to the report back to the committees Yeah, and it could even be a couple of weeks. I guess between the time we get the list and the time that that happens but Yeah, I would I would think that if we're if we're If there isn't a presentation and we're we're You need to go back and refresh our memories and and read the artifacts That we'll want to give ourselves probably about two weeks for that Does that sound we'll incorporate that when we get to our future at meeting planning, which is next Any more comments on the evaluation timeline that's before we move on Okay, and dr. Morris you're comfortable with The that timing for preparing the the links to the assets Yeah, I mean, I really appreciate the committee and then miss dancer and miss spitzer being really clear that really it's it's Um a shell of what I have produced for prior years and and they kept on emphasizing one pager You know and I would do say say something else and they really clarified that that's really what they mean so, you know, I do apologize the committee you're all very busy and it involved you going back to Agendas and all that but I think in this time with the ramp up to Staff coming back in a week and a half and students a couple weeks after that You know, I think it's it's reasonably able to pull things And not have narrative and that you know one thing I shared with both of them I believe is that if any individual committee member also wants to have a conversation That's something that I'd be open to like, you know jog my memory. I wasn't on the committee then can you you know All of those things are okay. I think it's also worth noting for the committee that if there's um There's you don't have to fill in every section You know that that I know this comes up every year and I'm not encouraging people not to but I do think Uh, sometimes You know, there's some urgency. There are sections you have to fill in you have to have an overall rating for goals and and and um an overall rating for standards and an overall rating Uh, but I do think that there's some, you know For people who mentioned before that they came on the committee late again. That is your discretion but um, it's not like a multiple choice test where you get counted off for you know Not filling in a bubble. Um, some bubbles you do But there's plenty of debubbles you don't and so, you know, I think it's obviously going to be a very awkward Thing because we're in the midst of a pandemic as we continue to mention And I want the honest feedback because that makes me better And I think there's evidence of that that you know honest feedback both positive and critical has made me better my role And I look forward to that authentically But also just recognizing The situation is a little different this year and and um So I just appreciate the committee and then miss dancer and miss fitzer for kind of reinforcing that in my conversations with the two of them and Appreciate your everyone's flexibility Given where we are great Okay Uh, next up is a future agenda planning So I noted Oh, we sorry, Dr. Morris. You can go ahead and then I'll see if our mat or list matched Um, I noticed that we were going to talk about food service. Um What what flexibility or what we might be doing? Um, uh, a future one. I don't know if that would be next week Um, and then we have the three policies Uh, and this uh You wouldn't be presenting it but delivering. I think the the uh the artifact one pagers um Yeah, I had fall 2020 update because I think they'll be at that point thinking to share and and potentially another executive session um And perhaps at the beginning of the meeting. I don't know how people felt last time as opposed to this time um but um I think my My suggestion would be doing it at the beginning. Um Might be preferable. Um, I know that's hard for Well, I don't know. Is this a joint meeting or is it not a joint meeting? I guess that's an open question The fall 2020 update probably would we'd want it to be a joint meeting. Um I think everything except the superintendent evaluation feels like it could be a joint meeting Actually, it cannot well it depends what day we do it. It cannot be a joint meeting in Pelham unless We're able to get it posted tomorrow Oh for tuesday If we maintain the tuesday date, um Yeah, sorry, you know It's because of the it's not because of anything about Pelham just for the public It's because of the hours of the clerk. Um, it's not a full-time position in Pelham. So, um, that's what I was Referencing it wasn't anything negative about my Pelham friends That would be a region meeting on tuesday Is hall, uh, I mean I can It did not work out last time. I can check to see um, if she's working tomorrow and can get something Posted for tuesday. So we I mean if we could do tentatively joint depending on what I learned tomorrow morning And then if not the fall back would be region only Yeah Or would we want to make a joint region in amherst? I can talk to the committee chair Okay Anything more on people's minds for agendas? No, okay Oh, mr. Sullivan. Sorry That's all right. I just um As we're talking about all this remote type things We've never we never got an update about how the six to eight math has gone since it went To the open source and because I can't complain about ipm anymore because It's gone imp ipm. Yeah integrated pest management Um, so I just like a quick update on how That went and how is it gonna go? So perhaps, you know, we I'm not sure I can do that for tuesday given that it's thursday now But I'm gonna put that in the queue if that's okay to come back to because I think it is a really good point And even at the high school the new math program, you know, I think it's going smoother than imp Thankfully, mr. Sullivan in terms of I think the teachers did a fabulous job in terms of rollout Uh and taking it on because as you know, there was consensus, but it wasn't unanimity About the change, but uh, I think having an update on the math programming Uh, it would be a good idea to future denda and and I love the idea of getting back to talking about curriculum So I appreciate that mr. Sullivan warrant report I do have um some warrants That I will pull up I alison mcdonald authorized by my signature to payables the amount of $1,562 and 71 cents for warrant dated august 5th 2020 This includes general fund expenses of $418 and 71 cents grant fund expenses of $1,144 And that's it and I signed that on august 16th. I alison mcdonald authorized Uh payables in the amount of 54,491 and 78 cents for a warrant dated august 3rd This includes general fund expenses of $15,921 and 22 cents grant fund expenses of $8,567 and 46 cents other funds of $944 and 10 cents capital of $29,059 and I signed that on august 6th and august 5th I signed um payroll warrant Um, this is for the amherst school committee for wages subject to medicare of $529,453 and 83 cents I also signed um uh 15 By my signature to payables in the amount of $15,138 and 12 cents for a warrant dated june 29th 20 This is general fund expenses of $14,127 and 19 cents Grant fund of 909 and 48 cents and a gift to the school of $101 and 45 cents And that I signed on august 4th and last uh, I authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of $24 and 97 cents for a warrant dated june 30th That was general fund expenses of $24 and 97 cents and I signed that on august 4th and I don't believe we have any gifts this evening so Does somebody from amherst want to make a motion? I moved through it during the amherst school committee Uh, second that moved by demling seconded by mcdonald's. There's no discussions and roll call vote. Mr. Demling Demling aye Mr. Harrington Harrington aye Ms. Lord lord aye And mcdonald aye, um that passes four to zero and we are the amherst school committee is adjourned Chair hall All right, is there a motion from the palin school committee move that we adjourn All right Every second second All right, uh roll call vote. Uh, miss dancer Miss barlow Barlow. I miss kenny Kenny. I Mr. Manino Manino. I And hall. I hellum is adjourned. Thank you Thank you um, and now I uh Will move to adjourn the regional school committee and enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining bargaining or litigation of a pea afsc me and ufc w if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body And the chair so declares. I do declare with no intention of returning to open session Is there a second Lord second Um moved by mcdonald and seconded by lord and this has to be a roll call vote Mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I miss kenny Kenny I Miss lord Lord I Miss seager Seager I Miss stancer Answer I Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I And mcdonald I We're adjourned and moving into executive session


Hello friends, I am Dr. Kunal Das and I am consultant and head of the department, department of gastroenterology and hepatology in Manipal Hospital, Dwarkam. Today we are going to talk about a new instrument which has come in the armamentarium of the gastroenterologist which is endoscopic ultrasound. As it is formed of two words, endoscopic and ultrasound. It is a machine which is a flexible tube with an endoscope which has a light and a camera attached to it. And it has an important advance that it has an ultrasound probe at the tip of it. That is why it is known as endoscopic ultrasound. So what are the uses of this new and very funky looking machine? This machine is available to us and it is very useful for evaluation of various diseases of the GI tract like esophageal tumours, esophageal diseases, stomach diseases, early gastric cancer, various submicosal lesions of the stomach, duodenal lesions. As well as it is very important for the biliary and the pancreatic tumours and lesions like bilded cancers, pancreatic cancers, pancreatic cysts which are like water balloons in the pancreas. So these are the two various important causes where we utilize the endoscopic ultrasound. It is being used today both for a diagnostic as well as therapeutic purposes. For therapeutic purposes means that we are utilizing for the treatment. We have a specialized instrument known as endoscopic fine needle aspiration which is a specialized needle which goes through the endoscopic ultrasound machine. The uses of this fine needle aspiration is to take cytology and biopsies from the lesions like bilded cancers and pancreatic cancer lesions.


Good afternoon everybody I'm Tommy O'Brien coming to you live from TFNN 1 p.m. Eastern time on Friday three hours left to go in the trading week as we come into the holiday Christmas week and quite a market we have right now folks S&Ps positive by 17 points trading at 32 22 we got the Nasdaq up 38 points trading at 89 26 Dow Jones positive by 125 28502 and the Russell positive by six points trading at 1673 as we start things off let's jump over to the VIX this morning as you would expect all the markets besides the Russell right now but all of them reaching all-time highs the VIX hovering at around 1235 you can expect very little volatility unless we get a surprise out of nowhere before the end of 2019 we'll jump over to the charts we'll start things off started off with the S&Ps quite an acceleration even from just 730 this morning we're at 32 10 S&Ps make it up to a high just about an hour and a half ago of 32 28 looking at the March futures contract currently trading just off that level 32 26 Nasdaq 100 little bit of volatility right around the opening bell spikes up to 87 22 currently trading 87 10 Dow 30 28505 as I mentioned just off the highs we made at the opening bell of 2800 521 crude oil trading a bit lower this afternoon crude trading at $60 and 30 cents you get the gold contract trading at 14 81 right now had reached a high of just above 14 84 and a couple occasions earlier this morning and the Euro US dollar we're getting some dollar strength Euro weakness Euro trading one 10 69 terms of what else you have happening out there fundamentally we got third quarter economic growth on revise 2.1% that number coming in at 8 30 a.m. this morning Boeing with a couple negative stories today as their Starliner spacecraft may have failed a key test flying into the wrong orbit at a time when Boeing could use some good headlines not exactly what they're looking for and the pain continues as united pulls the 737 Max from its schedule into early June it is December that's a solid six months that United will not be flying that aircraft in terms of what else we come into the end of 2019 pretty banner year 27% the S&P was up coming into today and we're approaching on the S&P's more than a half a percent in the positive wrapping things up to highlighted Boeing on that news down about 1% Nike with their earnings last night but down about 1% as well stay tuned for Steve Rhodes at one Dave White at two Tom O'Brien at three we'll be right back folks


As of May 26, 2020, the World Health Organization reported a total of 5,404,512 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, with 343,514 deaths. Within the region of the Americas, there was a total of 2,454,452 cases, with the number of new cases across the region still trending upwards. On May 27, 2020, the Ministry of Health and Wellness received the results of 41 COVID-19 tests that were conducted, all of which returned as negative. This is the 24th consecutive day out of a total of 382 tests conducted that we have received no positive cases since our last case was recorded on May 3, 2020. Though this data is encouraging, our healthcare providers continue to remain vigilant, screening and testing people who present at our facilities with flu-like symptoms as we know the public health threat posed by COVID-19 is not over. We encourage everyone to monitor the individual state of health and that of their loved ones. If experiencing symptoms which include fever, cough, sore throat, loss of smell, take no chances, please seek care at our community respiratory clinics or outside of their normal operations at the Victoria Hospital and the St. Jude Hospital. In the coming week, we'll have the return of our grade 6 and 4 and 5 students in preparation for their exams. During that week, we also have the reopening of the national borders to travelers. These changes will result in a greater movement of people and with that, we note the potential for increased transmission of the virus. As such, the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the relevant sectors has been preparing for these changes and the risks that potentially accompany them. This includes instituting of protocols, site assessments to determine capacity for infection prevention and control, as well as the surging of our stocks of personal protective equipment. With all of this in place, we also require the support of every citizen in maintaining the recommended infection prevention and control measures to further strengthen our readiness. We ask that everyone continues to sanitize their hands by using hand washing or an alcohol-based hand sanitizers, the wearing of masks while undertaking daily activities out of home and to maintain the required six-foot distance. Also, be sure to cover your mouth and nose with disposable tissues when coughing and sneezing. These simple and inexpensive actions will make a meaningful difference in preventing the spread of infection. The Department of Health and Wellness will continue providing regular updates on COVID-19.