Seeing that it is 6 34 p.m. And we have full quorum we will all call this meeting to order and offer the following Motion that we enter into executive session in accordance with open meeting law mass general law section chapter 30 a section 21 a pursuant to purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining Apea units a b and c because the chair finds that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the Committee and we have plans to return to open session following this executive session. Is there a second? Second it's been moved and seconded this requires a roll call vote. We'll begin on this end Kosenski I married I or don't as I knock a jima I Solo and I Spitzer I Demling abstain and just a note to the chair won't be attending the executive session since my wife is an employee of the Apea Union. Thank you Manino I okay, we are now in executive session. We'll return following the session Okay, seeing the presence of the quorum again. We will call this Session the Amherst Palombrision School Committee back to order in public session The first order of business is approval of the minutes and the minutes are for March 20th, 2018 Is there a second the moved and seconded are there any Comments changes additions. I wasn't one was it Seeing none all those in favor of approving the minutes of March 20 2018 signify I by raising your hand 67 any nays abstentions to abstention 7 0 2 the minutes are approved. Thank you very much I'm moving forward on the agenda the next item is Announcements and public comments just before we get to public comments my my first announcement would be to Welcome to new members of our school committee. Alison McDonald and Carrie Spitzer And doesn't get much more formal than that unfortunately But the so terrific to have you here And for we'll move to public comments then move back to announcements For public comments that people are not aware There are two couple things of significance one of your other public comment. You should address Come to the microphone State your name Address the committee as a whole you have up to three minutes to speak Which will which I'll time using my handy device which I'll now open up and Typically if people are not aware of this the committee does actually not typically the committee never Engages in a discussion with The public so this is an opportunity for us to hear from you so feel free to come forward and You know if there's a matter that comes up that has Is considered by the committee to have some Topical relevance to the work of the committee it would be scheduled for a future meeting or addressed in as appropriate between meetings Further as people may be aware typically in our committee meetings Due to the role of the school committee as the Contracting entity and the policymaking entity and also the manage the overseer manager of the superintendent of the district there are Rules that tend to govern the nature of the of the discussion of a conversation that occurs so typically We we refrain but also we request the public refrain from Comments that might characterize Individual employees in the district there are other vehicles or means of being able to bring forward that information, but it's something that for us Kid Particularly if it in any circumstances where it gets into sort of evaluation of personnel it can be challenging for us and so Including legally challenging for the committee and so the typically we even though we don't debate the items It's not unusual for the The chair to rule out of order comments if they did so Hopefully this helpful by the way, so we don't answer questions. We don't debate the audience We take the information back We work as a committee to address it commonly and the comments are brought forward to the committee as a whole We got everything. Okay We won't do this every time we have new members, but it's helpful occasionally to do it So public comment period is open if anyone wants to comment Please come forward up to three minutes. You could state your name and You're welcome My name is Chrissy Harmon. I'm a licensed Massachusetts educator a doctoral student at school psychology at UMass Amherst and a mother of three and Amherst mass I was recently asked to be on the parent a parent representative on the hiring committee for the Amherst regional principle search As you know the current principal at the middle school is an interim principal and has been for two years She's not licensed Has been an art teacher, but that's not an active license and she has not enrolled in a desi accredited administration education training program Despite her not meeting minimum qualifications for candidacy for principal the current interim principal's application was in the pile for candidates for the recent hiring committee Presumably because she had already held a position for two years The hiring committee was assembled to determine which of the candidates selected by the superintendent were to be finalist Our job was to select three for hire as they had been screened for qualifications such as licensure and background This was our instruction The hiring committee was led by our newly appointed director equity director And it was executed with great fidelity and comprised of qualified experienced candidates from the Amherst public schools and the community After the process was complete we debriefed rated the candidates and tallied up our first and second and third picks The current principal was not on the list for a myriad of reasons the primary being that she is not licensed Desi requires that licensed candidates must be considered first and only then can unlicensed candidates be considered Since we selected three excellent licensed candidates the current principal was not on the list a week past and on March 21st The superintendent sent out an email stating that the finalists Selected finalists were delayed due to Conductions of reference checks Two weeks later superintendents on an email saying that the background Was deemed as why the entire pool of candidates could not be recommended for hire. I Happen to have knowledge that no references were checked at all Despite this and Indicating that the next step was to bring in the candidates to meet the community the superintendent's office requested our top Pick for hire or an African-American man was to complete extensive and unreasonable assignments that night And to have them do the next day Overriding the hiring committee. I believe was an act of discrimination Our top hit pick for hire was African-American and our second pick for hire was Latina And this is taking a significant risk that special privilege be given to an unlicensed candidate Superintendent Morris wrote to the community that Patty Bodie was the interim principal for the middle school for the 2018-2019 school year But miss, but dr. Bodie does not have an administrative license which is required for the permanent position in fact a License is required for an interim principal as well pursuant to Chapter 71 no person that should be eligible for employment as a teacher unless some licensure has been granted a waiver can be granted but only if the search has been deemed to fail and Also that the first and second candidates are deemed unqualified It's it's three minutes and 17 seconds That's the length of the common period Hi, everyone, I'm Katie Elizavsky. I'm a member of the school equity task force and I can either pick up reading or seek My time with my three minutes Wanted to see your time Waivers are in a place for districts as an absolute last resort hardship Not as a loophole to help advance friends in their careers. The waiver is not guaranteed this upcoming school year and Having no waiver would be illegal as miss Bodie is not licensed the public should understand this that interim principles All must be licensed or wavered in 2016 miss Bodie was hired no white waiver or license was ever filed with desi This is problematic as the law was broken that year and in fire entire school year Suspensions expulsions and any teacher paperwork that resulted in termination can now be called into question The implications of these actions are that bias has been given towards miss Bodie privileges that if the process proceeds must Now be granted to any other educator who wants to be endorsed for administration licensed or unlicensed. I Have no personal issue with miss Bodie or nor mr. Morris. I'm simply questioning the integrity of the process Conflict of interest law describes a misuse of an official position or an amuse municipal employee Should not be using their position to help someone else. That's not properly a position That's not properly given and available to other similarly similarly situated individuals My concern is that Significant privileges have been granted to an unlicensed Caucasian woman over qualified licensed educators who also happened who happened to be of color Well, this appears to be a conflict of interest in any person in the community that Would improperly see a public official being improperly influenced public displeasure of facts must be offered Three years in a row That unqualified licensed candidates have been qualified licensed kids have been overlooked which violates desi laws The parents of children the parents of children who were suspended or expelled should be noted Notified as this first year of 2016 is akin to an educational malpractice Should she obtain her license via this non-conventional path? It must be the same path offered to every other educator who requests making this transition to administration going forward Or a case for bias can always also be made hiring committees should not be assembled to desi to give the appearance that a search occurred deep resentments and further divides occur When people of color witness this as if words like multicultural education can be used for a Caucasian person's resume But when asked to make decisions their voice is overwritten and when applying for positions of power no matter how long the list of their Qualifications they will be passed over for a Caucasian person with no minimum qualifications as defined by desi Not by Amherst with allowances that would be made for no other person. I request the hiring search committee Continue in the integrity restored in this process Thanks, are there further public comments again state your name, and I'm gonna I'd prefer it if people could keep to the three minutes I'm not yeah, I'm not criticizing him and I'm just saying please try Hi, my name is Karida Martinez a chevarrilla, and I am a member of the school equity task force and I've been on that equity task for quite quite a few years. I'm also In collaboration with a few other educators and psychiatrists and psychologists also offer our services to service special as Educational advocates for children on IEP's and for families and children who are caught up in what we call the school to prison pipeline and We try to advocate for them In that in that space so about three weeks ago I wrote a very strong letter to the administration and I copied several people in the community and in that letter I'm not going to get into a lot of detail, but in that letter what I'm requesting is a moratorium Right on all expulsions Suspensions and any kind of police activity in the middle school and in the high school, but mostly in the middle school because I We have information that I'm not going to disclose now, but we have information that there are There are the police is coming in and children are being criminalized for things like verbal altercations and You know, we have not fought for as long as we have fought for a restorative justice program For this to continue happening Not under the watchful eye of the community The only reason we get we know these things is because either I have gods and goddesses that Direct me to where I need to go because it's not public I just happen to either bump into people or people call me and they say this is what's happening And these people are willing to come forward So I'm requesting a moratorium until there's an investigation into this And if this is what what is brought up today Regarding the principal ship is true that even more so. Thank you Further public comments I am a member of the community and I just Some years ago we had to struggle to help a teacher Who was victimized in the school system to gain some measure of justice and There were different players at the time, but I am dismayed to say that the game has remained the same and We need to bring real change to our school district and if we are sitting serving the public As representatives of the public duly elected representatives of the public then the public's interest Needs to be served and so I would implore the committee to please look into these Disturbing allegations as I'm hearing them concerning the hiring of Administrators for our students in our school district that our tax dollars pay for and So thank you all for your service And I would continue to support your efforts as long as those efforts are put towards Seeing justice and rightness done Thank you Vera Zhuangmini cage. I live in Amherst and I just want to Mention the work that You know dr. Morris is involved in with the racial Imbalance committee through the department elementary and secondary education and I think we should really look into that and see if if we you know in our own institution here Practicing, you know best practices and you know the the concerns that have been raised by Ms. Harmon is concerning and I implore every single school committee member and student school committee member to investigate and to Have the school district be Transparent and come forward with the information and the facts as much as possible so that public confidence can be Restored, thank you It's good to see some old friends and neighbors and towns people I'm chairman not a jimmy My name is Trevor Baptiste from Pellum the immediate previous past chair of this committee is great to see new people on the committee We're gonna give service I first got on the school committee when my son my oldest my first born was in kindergarten with the express purpose of Unashamedly having an influence on the school system so that it wouldn't hurt my child I am sorry to say that when I got behind the scenes I saw a lot of influences that I Went through a lot of battles and trials to try to reverse and make sure would be safe for my child and safe for my Towns people and friends and neighbors I forgot to mention too in case you don't know this about me I have a firm fervent belief in democracy in People being civically engaged Taking over what is theirs and I've been preaching of how things are supposed to be when it's yours Towards that end next year my son begins in middle school. I Am sorry to say that some of the same things that I've seen through my tenure continue in terms of Folks being given the hand And try being prevented from trying to control their system when it's their system I've been through a lot of battles and I wear this hat because I've won a lot of I Won battles to make sure people like Vera could get on the school I won battles to ensure I considered when that we could have a Position for an equity director. I would consider it a loss if an equity Directest position was to find a new principal and that was overturned and I hope I'm not speaking about anybody's particular position I'm saying that systematically that I'm talking to you directly on Chivers systematically that would I would consider a loss that would be my work in vain if I spent a lot of toil to make sure There was an equity director that can have a search that could be responsive to the community and that was overturned out of hand Been through a lot of battles with unelected administrators who For whatever reasons there were People were too slow to check. So my I implore you friends neighbors Folks who are elected to represent to not be slow with Responding to what the community describes they need Please don't let the winds that I have battled with some of you guys with go in vain Any further public comments? My name is Catalan Gardner and I am a member of the community former teacher at Amherst high school I Got into the high school. I was recruited got into high school as a person of color and was forced out And it's appalling to me that I am hearing from this letter that we have qualified people of color Coming in and through some process that is in my My understanding not quite transparent that these People of color are not not given a full chance From the letter that I'm now hearing for the first time this The candidates that are qualified that have been overlooked for candidates that are not History repeating itself folks different people same problem We've got to fix it and if you do not fix it, you will hear from the community. Thank you any further public comments Okay, public. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I Wasn't I wasn't trying to gavel you down. I just didn't see you. My name is Kathleen Anderson I'm a former school committee for the town of Amherst and a regional school committee member I've been in this district since 2000 I Served on the becoming a multicultural school system committee and I'm aware of the social justice commitment document that educators in Amherst spent many hours creating that has gone on Acknowledged and unused I have been an employee in the district in the high school in the middle school in Each of the elementary schools. I Have also been a facilitator for social justice in the school for professional in the school district for professional development I am being very patient But I am outraged that this district even has anybody Representing on the what is it called the inequity Committee the racial imbalance Committee, how is that possible when what this school district does? Historically has done is run people of color out of the district There is no example that any educator in this school district has to Support or sustain people of color in an environment like this Further public comments You know what that's what I need to do Why need to pick up the gavel once I do that then I know with a public comment I'm Susan to bearish. I live in Amherst and I have two children who Attended the schools. I've been involved since I don't know the early 80s in looking at these issues You know, I do think we have a cultural problem here. It goes on and on You know, there's so many things that I could say I Don't it's hard to know where to start but this issue of I'm Understanding how to deal with the middle school middle school children and issues around Expelling children from school, you know, I take that very very seriously 13 year old, you know young children 14 15 that age and I'm trying to process that this is actually happening. I mean I worked I worked any in a college setting I was on Many a hiring committee. I ran a graduate program for school counselors and I'm trying to figure it out because first thing we have to do is there are you know, you meet with HR and there are minimum qualifications and People have to meet minimum qualifications. They're not we weren't allowed to consider people who didn't meet minimum qualifications There's two piles, you know, and that's it minimum qualifications don't meet minimum qualifications So on that level, you know, I'm I'm trying to understand I don't I don't get it because that's not how it happens. It's in public institutions And I guess also I want to say is somebody who you know directed a school counselor program Wow, you know, I school counselors go through a lot of trainings Psychologists go through a lot of training teachers do administrators do There's all kinds of nuances I mean, it was you know, I'm very aware of the work that people have to do on themselves to become effective school counselors and I guess I don't get it like with all the incredibly Qualified people and qualified people of color. I I don't I guess I don't understand how we have somebody who's not I don't I don't understand how this happened.  So maybe you don't know that we keep showing up You know when it when there's injustice, so I hope you're here in us Morris. I'm a senior at the school I don't know a ton about what's going on with this But I do know like I'm white obviously, but I know that my friends and I know that our teachers don't look like our students Like the teachers I don't know about the other schools, but in the high school our teachers They don't reflect who we are as like a student body. They reflect who I am. I'm white. I'm a woman I'm queer like all of those things exist in my teachers but like My friends who are people of color like they don't see that in their teachers and like I don't know what's going on But it sounds pretty messed up like we like I know it's a lot of adults here and like parents and Like I know most of my friends don't know about this But tomorrow they're gonna know about it and they know that their teachers are white. I don't know as I say that Okay, I'm gonna now I'm gonna close public all the awesome We also have to move on to but I'm gonna welcome the other comment if there was one of course and For members of the committee now, you know, I introduced this topic by saying we don't engage in a dialogue or answer questions It's also helpful for the public as well because given given Given the public comments, it would be a natural question as to what happens next and that point would be the committee will Figure out What's next? later Are there any announcements by the committee Yeah, I want to give a update on the charge school expansion effort The opposition to the charge school expansion working on it for Last year. So the board ruled on March 27th to uphold the commissioner's decision To not approve the expansion of PDC ICS So just you probably all know this from the news, but just a couple of points My share, you know, so one Well, what I thought it was good that for the second time they upheld the board's decision Commissioner's decision The other thing is there was a bit of a frustration expressed by the board that the school had been coming back with the same size the level of expansion the commissioner when he introduced the topic talked about how Charter schools need to be right-sized and in this especially in the part of the state with defining enrollment It's really touched on that issue the chairman of the board express frustration Associate director of Charters express frustration about trying to come up with a growth plan for the Charter school and not being on the same page of the school So so that was good. So I feel like The kind of expansion that we've been looking at the last couple years of the school Doubling in size is at the moment a non-starter So that's good. The thing that was was pretty concerning and you know, I try to keep this brief is that And we presented very clearly both in our letter and when I spoke of public comment Reiterated the demographic imbalances This is the underserving of every hiding subgroup English language learners special education low-income African-American spanish every Everyone and we showed how large the short under enrollment is and how consistent it's been and the board expressed no no concern in deliberations their deliberations were all about right-sizing the expansion and Was particularly chilling for me to hear was was when the school was talking about their explanations as to why these shortfalls aren't problems And I want to tell everyone because we've been over them One of the examples of these is well, you don't put kids with disabilities on IEP's if they're making progress as One of the reasons for why their numbers in special education were so low and to anybody with a rudimentary understanding of special education IEP's is just It was really impactful to hear that and then to hear the board not push back on that at all It made me think about you know, not just a soapbox here But to think about you know in the future when we fight these battles this particular one and more broadly the Charter School privatization push You know, we're going up against an educational force where there are people in positions of power and education who don't Care that there are schools that don't serve all the students in our community And so I think our challenge in terms of messaging isn't just to make the good data argument and logic and impact local schools but to to really to really show that this that public education Is something we value in terms of servicing all students and that it's not okay for a public school to to under enroll our highest-need students and So I think that's our challenge I think I think that the hope is that I think that support is there in the public You know and so our challenge is how do we create the message that resonates with the public that then influences the board so Thanks, any other announcements seeing We'll move to subcommittee updates and I know the superintendents by which earlier who was the Who drew the longest short straw to this spokesperson? I can do it because I So we met chiefly to look at the time possible timeline for the evaluation this year and so we were trying to balance a Timeline that's reasonable with Being able to capture the voices that are present currently who have served in serving So I can go into more detail on that part if you want but Basically kind of what we landed on would be to it's kind of a it's kind of an optimistic aggressive timeline We're on our May 8th regional meeting. Dr. Morris would present artifacts and The evaluation would open And we would have to have a two-week window for members to fill out the evaluation Having the valuation close on May 22nd Which I think is also a meeting date of ours Then by rearranging the Pellum Schedule we could have a regional meeting on June 5th to hold the evaluation the public evaluation in the vote Which would then allow For goal-setting at the late June meeting or at least presenting the goals for the for next year So that schedule would allow All the small towns current reps to participate More or less so the thinking was that Leopard and shoots very well have voted neither Steve nor I happened to be up for reelection this year So the chances that we do not come back to the region are very slim So we can push beyond the town meeting dates of leverant and shoots very but not Pellum because they're Not seeking reelection So their elections on the 15th if we open evaluations On May 8th It allows them to do the evaluation before the 15th for them when they are no longer members and Gives us a little extra time to actually do the voting so they would have a say in the Their voice would be heard in the evaluation though. They wouldn't vote on it. So it's sort of a compromise So I just kind of ask in the chair because I think I understand it's been a lot of So does that run up against the what we discovered before which is if you're not on the committee you can't contribute to the because if the votes on the 22nd we have Data and we have written input from people who are not on the committee can that be part of them I would you know, I think two things I think one before we make a firm decision on this we should run that by our attorney But but the nature when we when it was when Mark Terry had presented his emails on the subject He said that someone who is sitting as essentially it's binary either on the committee or not So if you have members on the committee who are filling out evaluations on April 1st And anyone who is a committee member on April 1st can fill out evaluations If on April 15th you're voting the evaluations and those people are no longer on it People who are on the committee even if they didn't do the earlier about written evaluations Can vote and they can vote regardless of whether they actually contributed anything in writing those people who did contribute writing Cannot vote Regardless of the fact that they were members when they filled out their writing. So I think I think the rule is just sort of an absolute The switches on see there are one or a zero and right nothing else And so I think the answer is that would work, but we'll double-check before we do it up. So it's sort of a compromise getting everybody's You know voice heard. Yeah, and not putting Extreme pressure on the superintendent though. It's a pretty aggressive schedule. When's our next meeting? Our next meeting is May 8th, really So I think the obvious question is whether Dr. Morris thinks that he can Pull together all the artifacts and everything that we would need by our next meeting by May 8th Yeah, I mean this came up and the so committee invited me to be part of the discussion and I'm a little concerned about that But I weigh that concern with the concern about how I'm not having any representation in the evaluation process Which is a possible outcome If it's not on May 8th and and that feels worse to me So I'd rather err on that side than to eliminate one town's ability to participate in the evaluation process One of the member towns, excuse me Is there anything else from the committee are there questions No, what I mean, what's well, I'm just you know, so this was we only met just this evening Right, so we this was a quick discussion and as I'm thinking about it. I Think we could push this back and still capture at least one Pellum voice because That's not going to switch until we were Pellum the organizers, you know, we hadn't really thought about that. It's true so That would that could give it, you know some more breathing room to the schedule Yeah, my actual reason I asked when the next meeting was and was surprised it was the 8th is because well There's two reasons one we never go that long without meetings So it was like it was a completely like that can't possibly be true. Must be one like tomorrow But the other reason is because normally we wouldn't make a decision that fast normally We'd have a subcommittee come back with information. We didn't think about it kick the tires and make sure we understood Whether there were any other side effects to it that were unknown and then we'd vote right or make a decision It's committee. I mean, this is a mechanical I think act in terms of the setting our calendar. Yes We have a short meeting on Friday scheduled It's not on the agenda to discuss this it might be enough time to amend the agenda Actually, I suppose it would be If we felt a few days of thinking about it before making the final decision Would you want To have an alternative timeline think about before Friday if the x-factor is whether Dr. Morris can feel comfortable putting together the information then the x-factor is whether dr. Morris feels comfortable I mean honestly, this doesn't put particular pressure on us right as a committee It really puts pressure on you And so I think the point would be if you sleep on it and think that this you'd like we'd like an alternative Then then yes, you need to come up with an alternative Suggestion and I think either way the subcommittee needs to meet in the next few weeks to put together the Questionnaire yeah, it's used so that on the 8th We would be ready if the board was so inclined to open up evaluations Which actually brings me to another question Does the board want to vote on the instrument? I would imagine so before We use it so Maybe we can't really actually open up on me on May 8th Well, unless we're coming to well, we could open on May 8th if there were no edits required to whatever I mean Yeah, we won't be able to like approve it as a board, which I think would be nice I think Miss. Mary was about to tell us what the timeline was before maybe maybe now's the time to do that Oh, you mean an alternative time already have one Do that yeah, I was gonna say that's funny because I was reading the exact I was reading the other way I think we could just push it all back a meeting So we have meeting Scheduled May 8th and May 22nd, so we could open the evaluation on May 22nd Dr. Marshall present Have the 20 the meeting on the 26th to do goals So I think a couple variables are one what level in the past I tried to share a lot of the artifacts with the committee beforehand I think the eighth separate from whether I can get it done in the way that I'm comfortable with I think Thing I can show you is that it wouldn't be something that could be sent the Friday before So I think I don't know if that matters to the committee But I want to be clear around expectations of what I think is feasible I hadn't considered Miss. Mary at the point around That the timeline in Pella may be not just the election, but also the reorganization and that is a useful piece of information that it I Had not was not available to me prior to her saying it. So that's the other thing. I'm thinking about so since I'm Apparently obsessed with the notion that we don't we almost don't have enough meetings on the calendar Is it possible that the door number three is that we schedule a meeting specifically for this topic at a different point? after May 8th, but before May 22nd and dead silence What I guess I'm wondering what the objective of that to move up the calendar of the What I was trying to do is try to find a way to actually not to meet me the difference in May 8th and May 22nd sounds like a big difference You can disagree I mean I Don't think that'll make a material difference Okay, I mean, I think the same players would be eligible No between May 8th and May You wouldn't be able to fill out your evaluation. I don't think anytime after May 8th. I would be able to so May 14th. How's May 14th? So, I mean, I don't think we had to schedule us around me I'm comfortable if we have at least one wrong voice You know I'd make to say this but I was actually about to make the observation That I'm not comfortable about the ideas of us jury-rigging our schedule just to accommodate your availability I delay all what I also felt and just it's just my opinion. I'm sourcing my opinion is that If we if it the reason I brought it up is if inserting another meeting somewhere to make the meeting flow work better to do this Then let's just schedule another meeting if that's not the case and we're now just doing backflips and contorting ourselves then Let's just do the 22nd and we'll move forward on that schedule unless people disagree, but I mean let's I was throwing out a Troubling I mean and under any of these situations. It's a little bit Right less than ideal in that the committee that's voting on the evaluation. There will be a reasonable number of people Who will not have had very much time on the committee, but in any situation we are stuck with that situation Yeah, so I think that's true So do you want to still move forward with the ratifying some decision on Friday? Yes, okay, then let's just do that So let's move on This was more than did an excellent job capturing our discussion of this last Meeting in the minutes. We just proved it's in our packet And there's a couple of good sentences about what we had because we talked a long time about new members About new member participation and all that so It is helpful. It's also one of the reasons why I've now Given an understanding of the process and I'm less troubled about I mean Come to a point of peace and acceptance That there's literally no calendar that exists It doesn't exclude some current member or some recent past member for me able to do the evaluation You know, so we've got to live with it and just come up with something that seems that feels workable We haven't I started a lashing laugh about this, but there's been an awful lot of time talking about this previous meetings Okay, next Superintendents update sure Given that we've got Fair bit of agenda. I'll try to be brief So I'm just going to highlight a couple of the things on here and one thing that I neglected to add so the second one What I'm going to actually mention all of them briefly And then one more so last week was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of dr. Martin Luther King And so bunch of stuff happened other schools But just note that a high school at the high school student read a statement over the PA at the beginning of the school They followed by an all-school moment of silence and honor Dr. King's work also on the fourth at the university. This is not on your piece of paper You may have said dr. John King who was the former secretary of education under president Obama Speak and actually a number of district staff members including me myself Attended and then mr. Mugano, and I actually got to have dinner with a group with him afterwards It was very powerful What stuck with me was the focus on There's a lot of political wrangling at the state level at the federal level and how do we shift those debates into? Kid focus space and student focus debates instead of politically focused debates and He's very inspiring life story and a very inspiring speaker autism aware month Here you may have seen that the If you've been and there's a lot of things that I'm not going to read everything on here but the family diversity project is focused on porches of people with disabilities and Tomorrow night Yeah, excuse me Thursday night at the high school library the CPAC and the regional schools are partnering on autism awareness night sort of last year where students Were comfortable enough shared their stories We talked about here last year, but just incredibly powerful event as well to hear from some of our students and how they experience the world and the school world and What's helpful for them? So just that people can make it it is really Appreciate CPACs work on that Health insurance. There's been ten. I attended one this afternoon Informational sessions about potential changes to employee health insurance plans. I really want to thank Jennifer tees who works in our human resources department Her Sean has also been at many of them, but miss Ortiz has a large role in presenting Both about the changes and also about She's in charge of enrollment. So there's a lot of enrollment questions like I had one myself as an employee today And so you can imagine that any change to people's insurance have a larger small Comes with lots of questions and everyone needs to be re-enrolled So she's got a lot of work in our hand, but she's communicated very effectively with school staff to thank her for that Just an update on the summit Academy move this one's tomorrow night Is there's an event for families and principal sloven's hosting that just getting ready for the move Mr. Jackson showed talked about this at the early release day last week and a joint committee of staff has been formed to try To think through that transition. So if you think back to when this was presented I know one of the questions the school can be had is so if this goes forward What's the plan around transition and that's really what a lot of the work has happened What's not on here is the level of work that mr. McPherson's done in the facility side We have been in touch with the state about the move. That was one of the questions and They're comfortable. That's moving forward They do want to do a site visit once the school is up and running and the big thing that they shared was that the separation really needs To be a separation it can't be a kind of quasi separation where it gets it back and forth unless it's indicated on students IEP's So it's a really helpful clarifying piece of information but mr. McPherson's ordering supplies materials and as you can see in the couple pages below if you Like looking at schematics or understand them. Well, you can start seeing exactly what some of the changes will be And it's trying to be color-coded to be clear. So I appreciate this work on this as well Just a question about that point that you just made dr. Morris in terms of making sure students are kept separate So how does that impact like recess and lunch or things like that where students may be you know interacting with each other? At the secondary level certainly lunch and classes Courses we do have students who do take courses have historically taken courses at the high school It's a little bit challenge of transportation, which has been a barrier So really all that's filtered through the IEP process and that was the helpful clarifier is that if students are Eating lunch in the cafeteria or taking a science class outside Summit Academy That that has to be indicated very clearly on an IEP can't be done Without a team meeting and an accepted IEP that indicates such so it puts formality to the process Which frankly I think is it's a good thing so that everybody's clear on what the plan is for every child at Summit Academy Make the potential for integration is no different than what we spoke about earlier It's just the process by which those decisions are made will be formalized through an IEP process instead of a more casual approach Mr. Slovin is still here. I saw him earlier because he could speak to us better, but in general it's five But what you'll find when you look at the space is there's a lot of rooms that are subdivided for counselors therapists principal and and really importantly of a Space that's not a classroom for students to congregate in one of the one of the true Values that the school has is around community. It's a small community and it's a community that spends a lot of time working through Positive events and working through challenges collectively and so you can't necessarily do that in the classroom So that was really integral to the thinking of the design was how do we have classroom spaces for instruction? How do we have Therapeutic spaces and then how do we have gathering spaces where that community aspect that's been such a treasure at the current site? Would continue into a new second for the questions One more just in terms of the transition the committee that's been formed We had talked before about incorporating students into that So I don't know if that's made any progress or I will get back to I'm not I've been hearing much more about the Planning on the staff end and less about the student end. I imagine that'll come up tonight at the tomorrow night excuse me at the Meeting for families and students, but I can shoot the committee in the email response for that. Great. Thank you I happen to talk to Mr. Sullivan earlier, and he said school committee members were welcome to come to the Sorry, I meant to say autism awareness night, which is Thursday night Yeah, so I went to that last year So I've been on committee about a year now the two most impactful events I've been to are that and the Summit Academy graduation So I can't recommend them highly enough They were like I mean and I have a I have a some of autism and to me it was still like world opening You know so the students and the teachers do such an amazing job of just communication and engagement It's not just like a talking, you know sitting in the back of the room stay at kind of affair. So it's excellent The last one I'll just keep briefly. This is a topic that's come up it For this body that this morning I was mr. Margano, and I actually were both at the Mars meeting the messages association of rural school should say regional schools That's my type. Oh, I apologize Not all the regional schools are rural although most are And so there was a group of superintendents. There was one school to me of representative And the Mars staff and there was an agenda item that I have to be added that they graciously offered Around advocacy for regional school budgets and regional school transportation Given that the house budget is supposed to come in tomorrow We emphasize the importance of reaching out to local legislators and there's people from Eastern Mass as well as Western Mass I think there's a perception that regional schools are only a Western mass phenomenon I could tell you from where the locations happened for Mars. That is not true more often and not on ours not in the four one three area code and It was a lot of genuine agreement. There was some disagreement on the advocacy What percentage should be advocated for should we advocate for full reimbursement or Somewhere in between full and where we are now So there's a lot of really good dialogue on the topic But there was high levels of engagement of the superintendents and the staff over there So do you feel like there's a commitment on those who are present to? Follow up with phone calls and emails to legislators and a genuine understanding and Mars staff worry But I hope with this one on the legislative process as well Miles to go Nothing on the chairs report We're obviously going to have to talk about school committee planning and planning upcoming meetings later We're sure obviously relevant to the chair First item of new and continuing business is strategic planning and I would appreciate it actually Dr. Morris and into in addition to Introducing Dr. Nussbaum any presentation discussion we're gonna have is to also textualize a little bit. I mean after a long Briefly and textualize for the current all the current members meaning those who've been here for a while those who are new What we're doing and how this fits sure so We had conversations throughout the Spring and fall about engaging a strategic planning effort that was community engaged And focused that way so that when we came up with superintendent goals things like that in district direction We got we heard from a broad group of stakeholders and had real clear vision of the district's work for the next three to five years and it's not kind of changing each year But really a long-range plan and then narrow Specifically specific steps along the way to get there And so we were planning to work on this in the fall and winter get it started I should say in the fall and winter we'd engage dr. Moussadi came to our meeting I think was in August all the way back then and then the budget hit and What I was concerned about and we talked about here was starting a process to engage faculty community when we were in the throes of At some moments it looked like more than two million dollars of budget cuts at the regional level And so I was concerned about the engagement that the space for engagement that was That was present a lot of people here a lot of staff members were spending a tremendous amount of time working Not just in the budget documents, but working with local Representatives and elected officials in the four member towns so we sort of put a pause on that process and Now that we're through we have a voted school committee budget and well of town meetings coming up in the near future Trying to re-engage the work with dr. Moussad dr. Moussad met with our administrative team last week or the week before To think about that and really what my intention Is that to re-engage as people have noted there's new members who haven't met dr. Moussad And to re-engage the timeline and the process and the work ahead Now that we're kind of formally out of the school committee budget season That took a little longer and it was a little more intense than typical years Yeah, and let me let me add a little more context to that because I think it's helpful when we actually at first started this conversation um, it was It was actually quite a while ago and I mean it was over a year ago and the intention was and this is at that point Uh, we did not know and it was not necessarily Perceivable that dr. Moussad was in fact going to be our permanent superintendent and so the initial Thought was to basically to create a baseline through community engagement data You know rich sort of interaction that was actually free which had a virtue to it was free from the idea that This level of community exploration engagement was going to directly lead to An immediate plan where in other words, you know, dr. Moussad listened and immediately go off into a room by himself scribble away Computer and come out with a plan It was actually we thought we thought there was such a virtue to the idea that it was likely That it was possible entire other superintendent was going to take that Summary of the community engagement and then build a three to five year strategic plan around that Which should then be incorporated in annual superintendent goals goal setting Obviously given that's another reason frankly for the delay Before the budget hit and so the virtue now is that we have a process in which we can do the community engagement But as you've seen in the materials, there's a two-step part But going from that community engagement process directly into the development of a three to five year I mean whatever it is. Yeah plan, right? No, that's that's helpful. I'm sorry It nails I think other than introducing dr. Moussad and if you could I could ask you to introduce yourself Again, because not everyone here has seen you or met you. Yeah Putting anything on the overheads. I think it's just what's in the packet is my understanding and I think you know from my vantage point The goal tonight is to look through the timeline Kind of reorient ourselves to some of the work And offer feedback to both myself and dr. Moussad on steps forward Those are the three things that I hope in this time we're able to do So good evening Am I using this correctly? It's probably best not to touch it too much so much you've got it set. Okay Is that worth good evening? My name is Albert Moussad. I'm a leadership and instruction consultant at the collaborative for educational services I am a seasoned educator teacher and school administrator in new jersey public schools Uh in western massachusetts now for four years providing professional development and other technical services to public schools across the commonwealth It's been my privilege prior to this engagement related to strategic planning To work in the amherst regional schools With english teachers of english as a second language providing professional development And I contributed to a review of the district's use of interpreters or translators for students using english as an additional language in content area classes other than esl I engaged Dr. Morris reached out to our executive director and I began this engagement with several drafts of a timeline and a process that has been revised to reflect the circumstances that mr. Nakajima and dr. Morris have both described And I am delighted that we are ready to move forward and as You've heard from both folks an initial commitment to strong input And and um solicitation of that input from various constituencies From the community from the very beginning the conversation really was anchored in The intention and commitment of the community and of the school committee the superintendent and of this process to Engage deeply and significantly various constituencies of of the community I understand that you have the timeline in front of you and If you have questions Or you'd appreciate an overview Whatever is your bidding. I'm happy to respond So I think one of the main challenges when trying to engage the public on something that's so high level in general and broad Is is to just give An understanding of what the scope is because I think the initial reaction is that the scope is everything and so Without something that people can really think their teeth into I You know The tendency can be for people to be all over the place and it could be good input But you know at every level and every topic So I think talk a little bit about how do you how do you take public attention? And and give them an idea of okay. This is what we're doing You know so that people are talking at the level that we need to be talking Sure So the department of elementary and secondary education has adopted a process called planning for success Which I believe information about that process was provided and the school committee and the superintendent have decided to adopt That particular process which is flexible, right? So it's not a rigid process But precisely to your question it starts with A protocol to First to welcome constituencies members of various constituencies to A larger body called a planning team There is a smaller body called the leadership team, which is the superintendent and the folks whom he designates to serve on that team which would be a team of people who would be responsible for Really implementation Of action plans to carry out The strategic plan the planning team is comprised of a wider range of constituencies, which also necessarily includes the leadership team because of their implementation role And then begins with a with a protocol that asks folks through a series of questions to Think about what they envision from the school district Uh and and how we got there So there are a series of questions to get folks to think about In three years or five years. What does the Amherst regional Pelham school district look like? Um, what do you see? What do you hear? What does it feel like? How what steps did we take to get there? Uh, and there are a couple of other prompts in that Um, there is also another protocol that asks you that asks folks to consider The school community strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats A protocol you might be familiar with That is another way of getting folks to articulate their experiences Both I'll say subjective and objective in in the schools And then there is a process of taking all of that data and identifying recurrent themes So to your point, it's not everything that is mentioned But where do we see recurrent themes and then we engage the planning team in identifying Um, the most frequent most importance that's the themes that seem to be most pressing And it's from those themes that we then engage the development through again through a protocol of strategic objectives And it's the strategic objectives that become the foundation. I'm sorry before that identifying Outcomes for the school community over three or five years and from those outcomes emerge Objectives initiatives and then annual action plans. Thank you There are other questions I have a yes, I know we talked about this a long time ago, but I think Might be important to reiterate Sort of the the broad range of people we want to engage in this process And the means by which we will engage them Maybe we could just sort of review that quickly. So yes Let me start with yes and The superintendent and I and I imagine in concert with the school committee Identified a list of constituencies Which I happen to have handy you may have it as well For the record, I could read the list if that's useful It includes members of the Amherst regional school staff Which is the middle school the high school and summit academy And I should say that this List was has been revised and was revised in my recent meeting with the leadership team and dr. Morris The administration as well as Licensed educators and paraprofessionals then ELL parents and guardians school councils and PGOs Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Schuetsbury elementary school staff ARPS school committee the APEA executive board set if I don't know what all these acronyms mean yet. I will learn them Amherst education foundation CPAC the ARPS family center arms and arhs students And town officials specifically select boards and finance committees There also I understand that dr. Guevara serves as director of the of the family center and We also have an administrator and committee Responsible for equity initiatives, and I'm imagining that the school committee in partnership with the superintendent With the leadership team With dr. Guevara Will use their connections To begin to reach out and I understand particularly from principal sloven that he already has indicated some interest from his staff So I am imagining that the outreach effort has begun to identify Among this range of constituencies individuals who Might be interested and available to serve On the planning committee and at dr. Moore at the request of dr. Morris and the leadership team I Provided some specific guidance and tools that might be useful to them in that effort and We're underway and then I guess my other question would be maybe for dr. Morris, which is If there are people in the community that are passionate about this and would like to be involved, who should they contact? Yeah, thank you. I think this was this was one of them or me would be the logical answer and Kind of one of the things that we talked about with the leadership team Was just engaging staff and I know some of the principals started that process and there was a letter that went out Mr. Nakajima and myself last Friday Um That's more an introductory overview if like you look at this timeline It's really about getting the initial message out And as we get more into deeper levels of engagement, there'll be additional messaging To encourage that and as dr. Musad said working with the family center, particularly on Linguistically desert diverse families families who may Have more challenges getting to a specific place at a specific time And how do we do outreach where people are instead of just always where we are? So that's some of the dialogue that we had I think it was last week. Yes Thank you Any other questions So just in looking through this, um, I mean, I think this is it's great that we're engaging Uh this process and I and I like the idea of having sort of multi-year goals that we're identifying ahead of time I think just to echo mr. Demling's earlier question and just the way that I think about this kind of stuff Um, this is a very complicated kind of process You know, I worked in philanthropy for a while and this is very similar to the kind of evaluation measures that you would take Right and you know, sort of the typical grant making cycle um, and and you know, it's difficult for I think the everyday person to Take a bite of this and understand why we're even engaging this So I think it'll be really important for us to be able to articulate in very simple language Why this is an important process for us to be taking at this point in time And to really bring people along slowly for that purpose and and not expect that anyone will really be Super committed or excited or even interested in what this is quite frankly And I think you know once it's explained to them I think they can get that way but I think we can't assume that that will just happen because maybe having you know opening up You know meetings to the public and expecting them to attend when they don't understand what it is that they're going to be attending And why it matters? You just won't get the attendance, right? So, you know, I think um You know one one thing that might be helpful at even in just for the way that you know, we're engaging this too Is in having some sort of uh like outline or breakdown That explains to the school committee that explains to staff and educators What the ultimate goals are just, you know very basic outline, um before we dig in, you know, and it could be something as simple as You know, how do you what do you envision success for our students, right? Like how do you envision this moving, you know, um a community moving forward to improve education? At things like that that are kind of 30 000 foot level because You know, I I have a difficult time seeing how people will get excited about this unless they understand that it will have some General impact on their students and in their lives on a regular basis Before I recognize them, I'm gonna check in with my two second thought on that too with the piggybacking at what Is it don't need to say? If you wanted to take a trip to the Grand Canyon You might need and if you're not going to fly there, you might need a car to drive there But the problem is on some level when you're engaging this this is like a schematic of an engine Or of or like the electrical system of a car and so you say like oh well I need an electrical system and an engine for a car It's like yeah, but what are you trying to do? Well, I'm trying to take a trip to the Grand Canyon and Not very well said you said it better But the point of the better The point of the metaphor Seriously the point of the metaphor though is the reason why I introduced this whole thing Piggybacking off the superintendent of saying we're trying to get to the point that we have Durable three to five year strategies that we revisit that they are that they we embed The superintendent our annual goals for the school committee as well as for the superintendent And by the way, those two things are distinguishable Into what we're doing is in my mind that is what we're actually trying to do And so this process is really just one particular set of tools Or or map that allows us to get to that goal the goal itself Then is obviously the real goal and vision ultimately is populated with all sorts of things We want for our school for our kids and our families But the bottom line is it's useful to have a strategy and in fact one of the things that I kept hearing When I came in is that either we had one or we didn't or we did but it isn't Revisited or and it's not much time to revisit history be critical I'm just simply saying what it was clear to me was that We needed to set up a process so my point being Piggybacking off to Sidonia's is that is that and this isn't this is actually less than you Dr. Side than it is on us here in the district is we need to be able to have sort of a simple point of what are we trying to get to And accomplish and then have this sort of nested into it. I'm sorry. Mr. Devlin. It was more than a few seconds So I've actually driven to the That's right No, but um, what I wanted to say was so Yes, plus one of the things that the book you just said and that I think starting when you talk to the community about this Describing where it is that you're ending up. So what is this all driving towards? It's we want to end up with Superintendent goals and school committee goals. Why should I get a babysitter go out this week tonight? Oh, because it's going to influence the superintendent's goals Oh, that that's important to me. Okay. I think that so that helps The other concern I wanted to bring up and I talked about this a little bit before with dr. Morris is this idea of attention demand and initiative overload So being mindful that this is not an Amherst meeting, you know, most of our families are from Amherst and Um, just at the Amherst level, you know, we have other very major initiatives going on this calendar year You know the dual language slash school teams The regional school district planning board which may regionalize k-to-6 Amherst poem That's a huge thing. We want a lot of engagement on the four-year feasibility study Which while limited in scope has a lot of community interest Um, our government is changing completely. Yeah, so there's a huge cognitive overload already On the people that we're going to want to come out and I worry a little bit about how much Seconds of the day people have to engage on this and you know, it's it's so that that aside There's ways to try and Make that efficient in terms of making us being really proactive about a central place for information being crystal clear about timelines Pulsing things out on PGO blogs and such but but it is a pretty major concern when I look at the whole plate of changes Yeah, um, so three things on that one is that um, I've shared that with dr. Musad and in this timeline Perhaps still means look at the ambitiousness of it, but it's stretched out from what would be a typical timeline for most communities partially because of the reasons you shared I think the second thing uh Is that I think getting anyone's attention on something like the points that were raised around strategic planning Even superintendent goals for much of the community the connection between Frankly district goals superintendent goals and what my kids experience is Not entirely clear for some people disagree and there's definitely people who would be interested But I I can't say the majority would see that as like ooh, that's a draw So I think um, I don't disagree with anything that people said but framing is in How do we Use this process to find goals that are going to influence the students as opposed to The people here tonight Abigail excluded. Um, and John, sorry Jack, um, you know, perhaps would be a reframing that might engender more involvement I think finally in terms of um, Some of the elementary and one could argue the same about Pelham and I'm sure she's fairly elaborate One thing that I'm continually amazed at that and perhaps it's because I have a larger No one needs to know this but I have a larger than perhaps typical gap between my two children's ages Um, is that for families who are in the elementary schools? They're really focused on the elementary schools for families who are in the secondary level They remember the elementary schools fondly And they're fully engaged in the secondary school. So we have this artificial governance distinction You know, and it's not like that like kid doesn't leave sixth grade and say like oh, but by district, right? He's like I'm going to the next school, right? Um, but I do think for families there is a difference and because so many of the uh Initiatives at the elementary level are going to be Not immediate they take time and and the students who are most affected and families are most affected or families of young children I think there's actually a way to to cut a distinction between something that might be starting For five year olds in 2019 And what's happening with your 14 year old now? There certainly are some families who live in both camps, but um The thing that I think is how do we cut that distinction really publicly so that people are clear Which engagement's going to be more influential for them as a family and their child? So is that to disagree with your point? It's just to To make it more complex. I think one of the challenges on this too is I was just thinking about this that when we get down to item number three on our agenda and sort of the follow-on series of um sc tf Goals that we've discussed talking about a lot of those um Are specific to the secondary level and so then the question ends up being In i'm actually i'm not actually disagreeing at all. Mr. I actually agree with him that there's there's a real challenge around Our own sort of the bandwidth we have as a community to be able to engage around things and do things well I think that's actually a real issue and so sequencing and being thoughtful about that. I think it's a really good idea But I think the challenge is since we have a lot of priorities that we're engaging with at the elementary level Actually in all of our communities, I think we can say that generally um That doesn't mean we then set aside The secondary ones until we have time to get to them. I so we're gonna have to figure this out I'm not so you're suggesting it's either by the show. I'm just thinking we have to figure this out. Anyway, um, are you is there Let me ask for additional feedback now And then is there another mechanism to get feedback on the timeline to you? Outside of this. Absolutely. So I think any I mean individual conversation certainly or by email and I can filter it to dr Masad Okay, so you would welcome an individual feedback so not group level but individual Comments on the timeline for members of the committee afterwards that could be utilized And actually just to just to share the feedback that we heard tonight around communication about how to like that feedback is Is equally as helpful if not more help I want to compare it as a comparative tool, but um, it's it's Very helpful as well. So I think don't feel I don't want the committee to feel like the timeline's the only thing to offer feedback on I think the the dialogue has been really helpful for myself and I would like guess dr. Masad agrees with that as well Okay, is there anything further from any member of the committee that at this time questions or comments? I have one comment if I may when it's my turn I to the question about what is the It sounds like what is the compelling sound bite? That will rally folks to this work When I was involved in an early draft of the letter that went to the community The phrase that was in an early draft was to achieve the strategic planning to achieve major priorities for improved programs and student outcomes So that kind of came back to me as folks might be engaged Goes back to budget and stuff too Just kind of a thought As far as um people having the space to engage with this process with all the other things like I think in some ways this is more approachable because Aside from the the teams, but just engaging the public We're not asking for them to follow along with the kind of the minutiae of the process necessarily I mean, I think we want people to feel confident that their input Is not just going to sit in the report and not get used But basically we do just in some I think some capacity want kind of the Upper view, you know, they're of the vision, right? So that can happen at, you know, discrete points without having to like Necessarily engage long term, right? So I think that's a strength maybe So I want to move on that's okay um We don't We don't allow this, but you know better than anyone that we don't normally do this No, it's literally no. No, you have to go to microphone now, you know I know that I know I wanted to say this is um very nostalgic. I appreciate um Your uh Metaphor and so I'm going to connect your metaphor and add to the conversation by saying the reason that people go to the Grand Cavian is because they want to see a big site That's one of the wonders of the world the reason you would want people to connect with this Is something that we've talked about on this committee before to be part of the brand of Amherst So to develop a brand this whole process is to develop the brand You quickly succinctly have that model Figure out how to what the brand of our public education is and now everybody wants to engage to be part of distilling What the brand is and that's the reason why people would come to this Is there anything else we're actually going to move on if that's okay We have a vehicle now for people to get additional comment Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We still by the way have a lot of agenda left You know, I'd like to do I'd like to take a two-minute recess. It's all right So we are All we've moved all the way to item two on our agenda Pretty good telling you every time we meet I always say try to move up things like accepting gifts And people are like, why do you want to leave? It's like you want to sell a journal? It's like, no It's because we can do it so fast and it feels so good to get something done fast uh item two marijuana dispens- It's called marijuana dispensaries, but obviously this is about um retail A retail activity around marijuana, so it's not necessarily about medical marijuana It's more about the implementation of the recreational marijuana law in the town of Amherst And because there are three resolutions that were shared with the committee, I would actually appreciate it if The superintendent could provide some introduction that frames those resolutions Before we open it up to a more general conversation. I also think one thing I'd add is that it Forgive me. I'm blanking on it. But if you look through the minutes, there was also a very robust conversation about this topic At our at our last meeting as well. And so You know while obviously the debate is open for people to debate whatever they want You know, we had we had a long conversation previously about the general concern. Do you want to introduce? Yeah, I'd be too So including by the way if you want introduced like if you want to walk even through the resolutions Yeah, I think it'd be helpful to do that first not Later. Yeah, that's I'll plan to do that. So Just to to connect last meeting to this meeting in the document and I'm sorry There's multiple copies, but the copy that I'm looking at was the one that I sent out today And I'll get to that in a very brief narrative as to the trajectory of what's in front of you So when I looked at last the conversation the robust conversation we had last time It seemed like from my vantage point there were three particular areas of interest from the school committee and the superintendent and talking to mr Jackson who spoke last time that we had three particular interests around this One was around just the zoning and by zoning. I'm not you know To be explicit. I'm talking about zoning near schools, right? I'm not talking about zoning near libraries or Higher educational institutions, right? I mean there may be people who are interested in that but for the purview that I feel That seemed like something that school committee and myself would want to engage in The second was really about how it's enforced because we know that there are recreational shops. I think there's Some disagreement even at the state level There has been in the past. It's getting a little clear whether they're going to be regulated like alcohol and alcohol stores Or like tobacco Which is sold in massachusetts in more casual institutions in ways that minors can there's no distinction necessarily There's a significant buying tobacco But not necessarily being in establishments that sell tobacco and try and understand that distinction and the last was Was really about the educational aspect and what's the what onus do we face? What ethical obligation do we have to educate our students and shift how we're providing health education for our students? In this conversation, we'll say seven through 12 But certainly as as I look at it from my vantage point Pre-k through 12 given that there's a change in the law How do we respond in giving students accurate? robust information so they can make the best decisions That they they can make so The first version again not to go too narrative, but the first version were draft motions I shared with mr. Nakajima. He offered feedback And meeting with town staff and particularly the town manager I have received feedback About some of those that added that led us to the adjusted motions So I'll just briefly go through your adjusted one. So the first one's on the zoning There's a warrant article at the Amherst town meeting. I want to do a side note I think it's relevant no matter if you're an Amherst ref or non-Amherst ref because all your students attend middle school and high school They turn their schools in the town of Amherst So I see no distinction and that was really clear in the town staff also Saw no distinction between how an Amherst school committee member or a Lovret school committee member on the region would feel on this issue But it's on the Amherst town meeting that mandates a 500 foot buffer When we had the conversation with mr. Kravitz last time There was it was 300 feet that was discussed and it was from the entrance to the school This is 500 foot buffer and it's from the entrance Excuse me from the property line Worth noting and mr. Demling has a visual that I think he'll want to share later from the town There's on the high school what Layman's would think the town like myself would think is the high school property Some of that is town owned and some of that is school owned mr Sullivan certainly knows this from his work on the recreational working group So that'll become a little more visible in a second bless you the second one Cited um that there are two state law requirements that prohibit minors From entering the premises of marijuana dispensaries and it's really just the focus that that gets enforced with fidelity Um And the last one gets the resource piece It's too early to say what the what revenue source will come in how that's going to be played out I know the town of Amherst has expressly mandated that the three percent revenue that goes to Towns because of the increased cost of having The believed to be three percent Cost in terms of having retailers Uh comes to them not to a non-for-profit There's Some towns doing this a little differently because the town feels like it'll best distribute where the needs are whether it's police schools fire Non-for-profits around addiction, right? So they're going to sort that out So it's not specific intentionally because right now it's hard to Have a specific ass because there's too many unknowns So I think a legitimate critique of number three at the moment that I have and I wrote it is well Is that all that helpful right now? My personal opinion is getting a statement out there from the school district That we see ourselves as part of the affected population Before decisions are made is better than waiting till decisions are made and then saying oh, what about us? So that's some of the thinking about the perhaps vague language in number three So then so just to to repeat again item one Would effectively Be a resolution of the school committee Uh supporting passage of a warrant article Uh that we anticipate being before the town meeting in amherst this spring And the draft language presumably follows what's in the warrant itself Number two in number three are further resolutions Which are intended as guidance from the regional school committee to the town of amherst more generally that we a Want to encourage rigorous or strict enforcement of the prohibition on minors entering premises of marijuana Sales or dispensary It says dispensary and then three that we think there's a compelling interest In the school district receiving funds when they are received For the purposes of health well-being other of the kinds of programming associated with the legalization of marijuana, right? That's perfect. Okay So first before we get to any debate are there Questions about what has been offered by Dr. Morris at this point With regards to number three, I was just wondering if we're required to suggest that they're for health and well-being is that Or could we make it even vaguer and ask for the funds for any type of school related programs? Um, so I don't think I think we the committee would have discretion over that I think the reason I added that language, which again, I'm not wed to Is because the 3% tax is specifically responding to the impact of The change in legislation so I tried to Make it vague enough where it's not like oh, this is going to go to this curriculum at this grade level because that feels that felt First of all, there's no process with the staff to decide that Health and well-being things are things that we do in general. So I do think it gives us flexibility, but I'm certainly open to Feedback We'll have lots of feedback on these. Um, but it's a it's a good point to raise. Okay. Well, there are other questions Seeing no questions. Are there any comments? Mr. Manino I see no problem With supporting number one But number two, it's an already existing law. I mean What are we telling people to to enforce the law in general? Why don't we tell them enforce traffic laws and stuff like that? And number three I'm not sure. Um We request a budget We defend a budget The the Town of Amherst reviews the budget The seems artificial, you know, sort of like a a carve out. I don't know So I I could support one two makes no sense to tell people to obey the law and three, uh, sort of like it's a prescriptive Um budgetary item where we already have a budget process Yeah, just to respond and again, this is yours to consider. Um, I'm not wed to this as I said for number two, I think Also, for myself personally not for the committee or any language. I would like to see a system where the there's a number of ways to Prohibit minors from entering premises and my interest is that it's at the front door and not Only when it's close to a purchase time I think there's a number of ways to that and I have no information how amersons can interpret this And I don't want that to be read into it But my interest is being in my role in supporting students is that It's really clear to them that they don't gain access at the front door. Um, I think it's it Yeah, I'll just leave it at that Should I like um, so I had a fairly productive discussion with the um Planning director in town and and she put a draft Visual together. I don't know if this would be a good time to To show that it's always a good time for a visual what it is. Um, so basically this is from Christine Brescher. Yeah, so let me just set it up. Um, so this is she wants to emphasize this. This is a draft Draft draft draft. She it's actually nine hours old. She put it together for me after we spoke on the phone I basically wanted to get a visual of what downtown the prohibited areas Uh, of downtown amers look like when you combine the basically the two restrictions one is the 300 feet from the jones and um pharmacy parking lots and residences um, and so what defines a residence is you know is um, they're still like Getting the all those t's crossed on that. Um, and then the other rule is what's 500 feet from from the high school Um property line and so the red area is is what is is her her current draft Um, maybe we can kill the lights for the overhead. Um, but basically, um Going right Maybe this would be a little helpful. So this is this is um Okay, so here's the here's the edge of the high school field Right, and then here is the camber park rotary and then here's downtown. And so basically As as Pleasant street comes up here. You have this one little section here and this one little section here that's currently Not covered by those zones So again, it's draft, right? So these circles might move a little bit, but the basic take-home I got from that Sorry, the basic take-home I got from that is that with with this proposal most of downtown And certainly the road from the high school that leads downtown Is covered. It's not it's not all of the side streets in downtown And you know just to interject my personal opinion, you know, I I would given the number of unknowns Ideally, I would love to know the lessons that we're going to learn in the coming year about what legal pot looks like In Massachusetts before we roll out in downtown, but that being said, I think this is a notable improvement from from what the current zoning law entails and Yes, so that was from planning director Christine Breastrup And she said that anyone on school committee could reach out to her as well as um a comic developer I Jeff Kravitz It's helpful draft map Um Are there further Questions or comments They don't have to be completely fully You've increased the property values for all those white zones Depending on what you're into, right Mr. Damlin, one question I had so this goes to mr. Meadows for question about number two To legislatively prohibit minors from entering the premises Oh, are we so is that our current understanding? I don't know if you don't know this dr. Morse. Um Does does the proposed or current Massachusetts state law not prohibit minors from entering the premises? In other words, this would be more restrictive than the default state law so The way it's been described to me is that all these laws and regulations are coming together really quickly and that the statewide cannabis commission um Is working incredibly hard and um I don't want to use a metaphor because I don't think that's fair, but um that things are happening really fast Even the difference 300 and 500 that happened just last month right after Some some dialogue and some talented already voted in the what the original recommendation of 300 and then they Changed it to five friends. So I think that's the sense I get is that's happening frequently with this and so As it relates to number two, these are the laws and the guidance that have come out recently around the minor piece But I think and I'm again, I'm not wed to any of this I I think how that there's different interpretations of how that could be enforced So the the the specific point would be though that your understanding is that The resolution as presented to the school committee Is the reinforcing The current state of law and if there's a guidance to it the guidance to the town Is that if there are a variety of interpretations as to how you define admittance of a minor to an area um The guidance is essentially encouraging This a stricter or the strictest And I'm not parsing the difference between these two, but I'm just saying a strict or interpretation of access um and just to you could imagine I don't know how long anyone's been here in Amherst, but I remember when I was a kid there was a place called faces of called faces that had a record store on the back and a bunch of Clothing and I think there was a head shop in there or something like that um In all that kind of stuff and so if you wanted to get records like I did You had to walk through the back of the store and it's right by where ren's mobile is where this is decrepit Looking bullying old former bowling alley in the back that now looks like a you know Danger zone for walking into you remember that yes, you do remember. There you go. Anyways records you remember that And so anyways the point is though you could imagine. I'm serious about this. I mean, so you could imagine My stories are not just stories. They actually Is that you could you could imagine Um a store like that for example, and I'm quite confident 40 years ago or 30 years ago Faces definitely would have sold pot if it could have Um That that they you could imagine having an interpretation in which there is a section of Of that store x store that would sell marijuana So then the question is Under the interpretation law, would you need to have that section of the store? Walled off from the rest of the store so that in order to gain admittance to the section of the store You have to pass through a secure area not a rope Where you're like leaning over a rope or crawling under a rope but actually real walls Or not or are you going to go sort of the other direction and say well, there's like the dress section over here And the beads and macrame section over here You remember how many decades ago this was and then over here is like the pot section And there's like nothing stopping anyone from wandering into it But you know, but nominally you're not supposed to go in there because it's illegal And so i'm saying my point at this is that the guidance under that circumstance Is not it's not really superfluous right because it's trying to say Was the town's looking to review construction when they're looking to review practices of stores and sort of Educate the community around how we're how we're implementing the law It's giving guidance on that should be more. I mean, I'm not saying we'll have people to vote I'm saying this is the point of it is to say we should be thinking about The more more strict interpretation about whether children get minors get any access to that Right So doing this so I um I actually I find myself agreeing with mr. Monino in terms of um Number one absolutely makes sense. And I think you know If anything, it's it's our place as a school committee to to help make a decision like that And then I you know, I think also number three. I actually feel that That's another place where we we definitely need to have a voice and you know, I've talked with dr. Morris about this before um, you know in in terms of identifying As as much as we possibly can The percentage of the revenue that we could potentially get from sales And earmarking that in some way or at least having the town, you know Connecting with us to help us figure that out is incredibly important because one reason that we have for passing this legislation in the first place is to ensure that The you know, uh legitimate legal sales of marijuana marijuana products actually benefit You know local communities and benefit education to a certain degree Much the same way that other states have passed these laws previously. So I think that makes an incredible amount of sense And I I mean in terms of you know health and well-being or you know more general I think we'll figure that out as we go along. I don't necessarily have a sense of that I think with number two, um You know, I I had a lot of questions when um, I'm sorry. I'm forgetting his name right now Mr. Kravitz came and presented on the you know, sort of the the planning process looks like here in town around the dispensaries And had asked specifically about you know, whether um, there would be any kind of You know, how we could be sure that that laws were being enforced to ensure that minors aren't walking through the front door Anything like that. Um, and after conversations with him and then I attended the, um, you know, the planning board meeting Um, I I feel pretty comfortable at this point that I think that the town is thinking about this in the right way in the sense that The decision-making that goes into establishments like this or liquor stores or the other, you know, metaphors that you do earlier People are already thinking about that and making sure that you're not going to have minors just walking in the door I don't have any and I said this also previously in another meeting I don't have any interest in in further criminalizing marijuana use and making sure that People somehow feel this, you know, sense of this barrier, right? Or that parents now suddenly can't take their kids into retail establishment It's already been legalized. I have that dilemma all the time. I go into a liquor store Do I bring my kids? Do I not? You know, there's always like this you feel so guilty about all of those different decisions I don't think it's our place to be making those kinds of decisions for families I think that the town and the state have already made those kinds of decisions or in the process of making those decisions so I feel like I'm I personally am very comfortable with one and three and And think those are good resolutions for us to put forth. I'm not as convinced about number two So by the way, just as a good opportunity To mention that we're not voting on this tonight. We're actually voting on this on Friday at the Friday noon meeting at the professional development center at the middle school Seriously, because I mean otherwise, you know And the other thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go around the table and let people talk who haven't already They otherwise talked before I call upon anyone else who's already spoken One thing that we did talk about at our last meeting That I would like the board to consider is to express formally to the towns That we would like to be made aware and we'd like to be part of the process Of when people are pulling permits so that we can evaluate and provide feedback on what the impact of a particular proposed location might mean to our students and so to me more important than number two is to Ensure that we're part of the process if we're part of the process then we can be comfortable in knowing How they're excluding minors or how, you know, they're not marketing to minors or students or otherwise You know, I just It'd be more important for us to have a voice in the long term Whether it's through the superintendent or through the school committee to make sure that we have long-term impact I'm gonna move around the table and no one has to speak but I'm just wanting to make sure we have a chance Yeah, I just want to point out that you know when the town Sent their their point person last to the last meeting That the buffer zone was off right off the corner of the building and I was out there before this meeting tonight with a wheel And I was I was you know to me it meant where students congregate that meant to me that meant the track And the soccer field and I learned from Dr. Morris that that was untrue, but now they have the it's actually the perimeter of the fence For the most part So the buffer has actually gotten a little bit bigger Right, I I would be very comfortable supporting one and three and have similar reservations to Mr. Gronis on number two That's one well I just I I can't vote but I also support one and three for number two I understand objections that That it's not really necessary to pass the bill that I mean to pass a You know a motion that Supports something that already exists But also I think Mr. Morris mentioned before that these laws are being developed very quickly and they might change and also Even if we do pass a motion that doesn't effectively do anything. I don't I'm not sure if there's a disadvantage to that And also I just about number one I think I've written this correctly, but does it only affect the bigger dots not the smaller dots? Which is interesting to me because the smaller dots it seemed to be the ones that really cover most of the shocks Yes, I think that'd be true Uh, mr. Manina I just like to comment on my opposition to item three. We already have this one syntax In method you just the percentage of the lottery go to the town A second syntax, um the lot percentage of the marijuana waiver who goes to the town For cemetery, I believe in cemetery Okay, mr. Della So just a quick point the reason why the circle is near the school got bigger is because it's It's the proposed change is 500 feet from the property line Which is like the end of the field right and supposed to free the people in the building You know, I guess I just want to make one last pitch for number two I I I totally hear what mr. Donies is talking about with You know you if this is legal and you don't want to make people feel bad that they have someone Who is underage and not wanting to creating that barrier You know, I still worry about Kids going downtown by themselves middle school and high school kids and and in what precedent we set And so if this was if this was a proposed Zoning I would I would say that might be over each but because of there's so much Unknown and moving parts, you know, not having any direction makes me a little hesitant You know that being said we can always see how things go you visit things if But you know, I guess that's my only My My my view of it is I guess twofold one I actually agree with this Cassensis comment that having the schools Engaged on an ongoing Conversation so actively participating in reviews of projects But I think that's sort of echo something mr. Dunlinks had about being actively engaged in revisiting what the impact of this law is As it's implemented over time Is probably more important than any I mean then for example number two Like is literally what what you think the right interpretation of that is Apart from being profoundly subjective in terms as I think mr. Donies said but different people's perspective on on parenting Just for example But also in terms of what the impact ends of being as a practical matter about the management oversight of the stores I think being engaged is probably more important than drawing a hard line right now on item three I Still would make a pitch for supporting it simply because I think putting your oar in the water That the schools are regardless of specific language on it the idea that we should receive some level of revenue I'll go. Um, I didn't share this with the committee. I know I shared it with a couple of the dr. Morris and maybe someone else I was looking at a study from the state of colorado on a survey healthy kids survey, I think it was and It was done in 20 2013 and 2015 And it was a scientifically valid rigorous confidential survey that was done randomly sampling kids and They legalized recreational marijuana back in 2012 and what they what they found was that The experimentation as well as a one-time usage as well as also the ongoing usage of marijuana By minors in colorado didn't actually change between 20 to that before it was legal to when it was legal There was around 38 of kids that apparently tried marijuana once There was around 20 19 or 20 percent depending on the year That tried it on an ongoing basis That by the way was well below the percentage that drank alcohol or binge drank binge drank which sort of points to Point I was making at the previous meeting around wellness and wellness education But the point is there was sort of like nationally as well as in colorado There was a durable like 19 or 20 percent of kids nationally Who whether it's legal or not in their state have access to marijuana utilize marijuana regularly? And so to me that goes back to something that I've heard dr. Morris say more than once about how One of the number one indicators of childhood success is whether there's a caring adult in that child's life My point being on this is that I I would fairly well guarantee you that if you delve deeply into the 19 percent Nationally or in colorado that are using marijuana or other substances on a regular basis You're going to find all sorts of other kinds of complicating risk factors in their lives That are affecting their ability to cope to deal to Socialize well to feel supported and to succeed in their lives and so While There are general Educationers or supervision sort of interventions We might think about as a society For the in this case the 62 percent of kids that weren't hadn't even tried marijuana In colorado in this case or in roughly parallel is the national number Apparently something's working already in a lot of those kids lives where they're not doing so It's interesting to me though. How when you think about where there are Complicate people have complicated lives. They seem to have complicated lives everywhere So part of me part of me thinks not sound funny about this But when I think about the diversion of resources, I think about how that overlaps with The kids and the families that we most want to otherwise reach in our community And find pathways to support them to make To help them make good decisions, but also feel supported to make those decisions. So So my point on this is I think there's a real pitch regardless of what that money is used for there's a real pitch for Asking the town to to vert in the same way they're going to spend money on police or other things they need to do With that three percent Thank you morris. Yeah, just briefly to add to that. I know in colorado There has been a direct increase from the marijuana tax to education spending as well Both actually like their version of MSPA Which is not what we're talking about like state building authority as well as to local districts Coming from that because there's an understanding that The education piece is really important. It probably hasn't been funded at the level It should be historically and that perhaps this is both an opportunity in terms of moment in time as well as a funding stream That's new to support that work enhance that work. I had a question about I mean We don't have this how is this phrased on we don't have this thing on here as a vote We don't know that there is not a vote. We just have it frankly I'm trying to figure out how you know, what's our what's our number for friday, you know I'm gonna ask the committee. How many people are going to be at the friday meeting? I can call in So no keep your hands raised. I'm serious Okay So almost almost everyone but not everyone I do have a relatively limited time. Okay, like my lunch break Uh, I'm just I'm just trying to I was just trying to figure mr. Denner It is It's a 12 12 new and it was other why it was frankly it was otherwise called to have a vote on a series of contracts That we need to approve But then the question the normal practice of the committee is to talk about an item one meeting and then vote another meeting And I was just I was just trying to get a sense Of whether the committee felt it was going to benefit by waiting till friday or whether it felt they needed it Dude that actually wears where I was heading That's exactly where I was heading with this, uh, are people feel comfortable moving forward with the vote? All right, then we should take this serially Um Someone want to take the first one? She doesn't like Can you read the the motion sheet for the amendment sheet? I did not recognize Article 31 section 3d1a for this spring's emmerced town meeting that mandates a 500 foot buffer from public school property lines For the location of marijuana dispensaries in the town of emmerced Consistent with the recommended buffer distances in massachusetts regulation 935 cmr 500 110 Is there a second for this motion? It's been moved and seconded. Is there any further discussion on the motion? Seeing none all those in favor signify by raising your hand The motion carries unanimously. Thank you Anyone want to read number two Move to request that the town of emmerced strictly enforce the requirements in mgl c 94 g section 4a one half x x i And 935 cmr 500 dot 140 parentheses 2 that prohibit miners from entering the premises Of marijuana dispensaries located in the town. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. I'll make at least one comment that seems like a gag motion just to get you to Say a lot of ridiculous letters in a row But it wasn't it's really it's serious Is there any further debate on this motion? Seeing none all those in favor of the motion as read signify by raising your hand Okay There's three eyes Nays raise your hand One two three four five six, so it's Three to six. So the motion fails For number three anyone want to read this? Move to request that the town of emmerced distribute to the emmerced pelham regional school district a portion of the tax revenue From the sale of marijuana to support educational programs about health and well-being Given the increase of products in town that are illegal for miners. Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Is any further discussion on this item? All those in favor of the motion as read please signify by raising your hand Okay, that's eight and against One against eight to one motion carries. Thank you very much And our agenda in front. He has done just that much easier. Yes, sir Sorry, I don't want to delay this cutting hams presentation, but I just want to clarify in terms of the two motions that pass where you'd like me and mrs. Westmoreland to Share these I mean is there a quest for us to share these past motions with any other body or people You should so you should send them probably to the select board to the planning board to the town meeting coordinating committee I don't think you need to I don't think I guess finance committee because there's a financial element too, right? It's great. I just wanted to make sure we Had a clear directive of where and obviously Yeah, it would be kind of you to send it to planning director Brestrup and economic development director Kravitz As well as to the town manager You can also get in the fund if you have an exhaustive list of people you want to see this time I think I saw a website Twitter Is that good that's exactly what I was looking for. Okay, great Uh, okay item number three sctf goal presentation So I'll do a very very brief introduction, which is that um a couple months ago the school equity task force presented five goal areas that There were genuine endorsement from the school administration and the school committee as well And there was a request for a report to be done to share our current progress and future work in each of those areas As you'll see in the I think second or third slide that there's a timeline for not just today's The one that's being captured today, but also for the upcoming ones at Regional school committee meetings this spring and that I think I'll pass it to this Cunningham Who's done the work of putting this together to thank you So it's dr. Morris mentioned the sctf did ask for us to Go over these goals and put together a timeline And initially when I met with the school committee, I did have a timeline that Um did not take into account all the snow days that we would have Insulations of the school committee meetings. So there's a new timeline set For some of the other goals So goal one i'm presenting on today goal two and three because they talk more about the ap and honors data And the plan that we would have as a district to address the information that's found within the data I've combined them together for the may 8th meeting Goal four which talks about the discipline data and a plan And um that'll be the may 22nd and then go five which talks about hiring and retention of the diverse staff That'll be the one that we'll have in in june So goal one Talked about broadening and deepening the learning of faculty staff and administration about race and racism With a special emphasis on systemic racism and unconscious bias And what they asked us to do was to add 30 000 dollars to our budget also to um submit recommendations About how these funds could be used most effectively They wanted policy decisions made that ongoing learning about race and other equity issues Would be provided for all staff throughout their tenure here in in amherst And that this goal would be included in the school improvement plan or the district improvement plan and the superintendent's goals And now that we've talked to dr. Masat I'm figuring we would also included in the strategic plan So since they were asking What were some of the things that we have done in the district? I've put together just two slides with samples of some of the workshops that we have Many of our teachers and staff have participated in So you have the district equity committee which is um comprised of teachers who participated in the u rock the undoing racism Program they created this committee so that they can provide ongoing learning To the staffs and other schools regarding equity and all areas with discipline and curriculum and such Then we have clear a clear p.d. Which took place at ford river, which um The presenter talked about white White um basically white privilege and the way Relate the way white people relate to um certain Topics and how they perceive certain things in relations to how other people Relate and perceive certain things so This professional development has been taking place at ford river and hopefully will be extended to other schools at varying points in times Then the fsne Which is Which is called the food solutions new england They have a racial equity challenge for 21 days And in this challenge they offer Ways for you to look at whatever bias and prejudice or privilege and oppression that you may have in your life And to reflect on it. They offer articles and and other Development opportunities so that you know people who are interested in In accepting and joining this challenge are able to join and participate in Then we've had the mass circles, which were for restorative justice Practices trade many of our teachers and our staff on restorative justice Then the cultivating student social justice thinking was a workshop provided through mount holyogue with paul gorski And he taught how to lesson plan around the concept of social justice Then of course the conversation with dr. Beverly tatum And embrace race that came about shortly after many of the Um tragic events that were taking place early in the school year Parents were looking for an opportunity in a safe space to have conversations around race and and um Just all the events that were taking place. So that's another thing that was offered to our parents and our staff to attend urock Which is the undoing racism May focus on understanding what racism is where it comes from How it functions why it persists and how it can be undone and so many of our Administrators and our teachers have attended this workshop and even our clerical staff have attended The bias free school training Was a training for administrators deans of students and others And we use that to teach them how to prevent bias bias base instances and how to Prevent bullying and harassment some sexual harassment and just harassment in general too Then we've had the restorative justice practices and alternative to violence That I believe was put on by self-help university in boston And that was another opportunity for restorative justice training We've had the um immersion best practices that is an upcoming workshop that's taking place in the boston schools It's a two-day workshop that many of our staff will be attending And then the classroom strategies To support students with emotional and behavioral challenges That's a course offered through our arps university and I believe previously we talked about arps university is basically teacher led And teacher created workshops so Our teachers are getting professional development through arps u for this course Then um many of our teachers have also presented on topics such as Diversifying texts diversifying reading and one of these teachers just happened to be jasmine robinson at hawker She presented it through the holy oaks the village program and they um the program explores issues in education And then finally we have our large march 9th districtwide professional development that took place So now to talk about this um professional development. I want to read first a comment that was made by our Speaker who who introduced the workshop or that professional development day and so The person and i'm just going to read what they said and then i'll tell you who said it so um The march 9th professional development topics were based on a survey that was sent to all of our faculty and staff And um just to ask them what they were interested in learning about and being able to offer so The individual said It's a caution for all of us to avoid when activists and community organizer elizabeth martinez calls the oppression olympics Which is a vicious cycle in which marginalized groups are pitted against each other As she stated about the movement for equity There are various forms of working together A coalition is one a network is another and alliance is yet another But the general idea is no competition of hierarchies should prevail No oppression olympics Or as writer and civil rights activist audrey lord when describing the intersectionality of how she identified In terms of race gender orientation and economic status stated There is no hierarchy of oppression There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives Over time we need to address a wide variety of concerns and issues related to equity If we are to successfully realize our vision of becoming a district that is fully equitable for students and staff members and so That was a quote from dr. Morris as he opened our session our pd day And so I just want I brought that up just to say that as we look at The list Here we offered we sent a survey out to all staff once again just asking them questions as to what they Thought would be topics that would be best for our district And so one of the questions was on which of the following areas you think the amherst regional public schools should focus for diversity and equity and professional development And so once again, these are not listed in order of the oppressed It's basically an alphabetical order So The presented percentages also shows We received 159 responses and these were the percentage that shows each of those topics We had also looked at information from documents such as the becoming a multicultural school district or bams And information from meetings from with robert principi and pat romney as they had initially Years ago met with our our faculty and staff just to talk to them about what they felt or what the staff felt the district needed So all of this combined and the responses led us to Creating this survey and the information that we provided for the march nine So another question That we asked that um, please describe any recent examples of diversity and equity work that you have found useful And would like to pursue further So if you look at the first one it says those that are led by students Then as you go further down teachers teaching teachers is a great model And then the other one right below that says working with professionals from other districts and learning about their approaches To challenging issues would be helpful And so taking all of that into consideration, we you know planned the march ninth day Another question That was on the survey was what other thoughts or suggestions. Do you think Would you offer related to this work? And the first one says diversity learning is not a one workshop deal so Even all of that in mind The following workshops the following nine workshops were offered So there were panel discussions with our cosbox students Or led by a cosbox students and our group um saga Which is a high school I don't want to butcher the organization's name, but saga's at the high school And it's also a student led organization So um, then we had difficult conversations about race We had classroom management for diversity equity We met the needs or talked about meeting the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students The impact of poverty in class on learning Mental health issues in the classroom identifying racial and challenging microaggressions Gender inclusive classrooms and restorative circles in the classroom These workshops were led by our staff And students and we had only two individuals from outside agencies or Area local so community members and college professors So before we get to the comments, I'll tell you more about the march 9th PD Started at 8 and ended at 11 20 All staff so that included our custodial staff our maintenance staff our clerical staff and teachers Signed up for two workshops each so Because the topic of diversity and equity was so important And that was also a day when principles already had other things scheduled and other Like the clerical staff also had things that they had scheduled we tried to all Basically Do some workshops and make sure our staff were trained on the same day. So although The majority of the the staff did sign up for two people such as the clerical staff signed up for one equity one Equity and diversity workshop, and then they had to sign up for something related to their position in clerical The same was true of our food service staff They also were able to sign up for an equity diversity workshop and then do some training regarding food services So each workshop was approximately an hour and 15 minutes Breakfast was served and I know later on we'll look at some of the gifts and and say thank you The opening remarks once again was by dr. Morris Our keynote speaker was to shawnee widlow from channel 22 news. She came in and Also channel 22 news covered the event and information about the event was sent to the gazette So after the keynote all the staffs went to their workshops and there was so much buzzing and hugs and It was so much happening. It was it was a great opportunity. So at the end of PD day The staff were to return to their respective buildings where the principles continued with the theme of diversity and equity training And as a follow-up many plc's or professional learning communities were created So we have at wildwood where there's a group that's reading books by tana hisi coats and books like the um the jim crow I forgot the new jim crow the new jim crow So after the professional development These were some of the comments that we received. First of all I you know the staff told me that they had never had an opportunity Where the whole district were able to come together as a bond and learn together so people that let's say Amherst elementary was learning alongside people in pelham who were also learning alongside people at the high school and Um They were just so excited that they were able to all learn the same things and that they had a choice so You know bullet number three talked about they loved the teaching model of teachers leading workshops They talked about it was good to have clerical and the diverse school staff invited to these workshops they um Said please keep offering this type of professional development And that um some of their comments that we're working on is that paraprofessionals needed to be included Just to clarify um, this happened during our professional development day and The educators don't work on that day. I just want to clarify that they weren't in a different space doing something else it's because contractually they don't work on the day that um On on curriculum days. Thank you for that language, but I just wanted to make sure that there was no ambiguity on that So what are our next steps? No problem. What are the next steps for? What we've been doing we put down, you know, there were things about um If you go back to some of the other thoughts it says Remember that this is not a one workshop deal that doing diversity and equity work needs to be continuous So we're looking for a fall workshop. We've identified november 6th as a potential date and and um What our plan is is to use technology Some way shape or form maybe create a video to remind the staff in In august when they come back about the work and the importance of the work and the importance of what they're doing And why we're doing it and then have the large district-wide workshop in the fall And then have something maybe technology again to continue in the spring. So We're looking to provide the trainings consistently so throughout the year We're looking for ways to include the paraprofessionals We are looking to continue with the option of them having choice um Having continuing with the inside and outside presenters Include more students and student opportunities to to lead workshops Continue with teachers leading teachers and continuing to make it a district-wide practice Then we're looking to also address some of the other topics that were listed in the Survey We are going to continue with surveying our staff to find out where they're at and what we continually need to improve on and so after the workshops we met with the presenters And they gave us feedback as to Things that went very well and things that you know can can be done differently So we're going to look to incorporate their feedback and once again, we know and understand that this is just a first step and through the collaboration with possibly the alana cabinet the professional development or arps committee And many others who are continually Committed to this work. We're looking to provide quite a bit more of Of these kind of workshops for the district So with that being said To you guys have any questions or suggestions So very impressive alignment and um Yeah, I really like how how the the survey was thoughtfully taken into constructing the day and then getting the feedback It's um I think the way that you organized it is a great example of that comment of this isn't just a one-shot deal, um I was I was kind of wondering about um Uh, what the the maximum attendee capacity is for these things because I'm thinking about Um, maybe this is too much about like school committee possibly having the opportunity If you know depending on availability to attendees or or other Maybe community groups, you know sc tf, you know other Like community members who have worked with the schools on on these issues That you know, I mean, I wouldn't want to disrupt the all the teachers Working the staff working together. It sounds like a pretty awesome community building thing, but I don't feel any thoughts on So I will say that that is one of the um things that we're working on is finding a venue that will um fit everyone who Would like to attend I did have people at different colleges reach out and say I'd like to be a part of this Especially since I'm part of the para change program or you know para pathways There were some things that we were doing as a district that would be um great to include in that And so people wanted to see and so yes We're going to look for a larger venue to be able to invite more people and the school committee and anyone else From the community who'd like to join Feel it coming Thank you so much Doreen. I mean, this is this is fantastic and I also have to commend Both you and dr. Morris and all the staff that worked on this You know, this this has been years in coming and I think a lot of people have felt that there is um A thirst for this, you know to have this degree of of attention and Um An effort placed on this kind of professional development It's incredibly important not just to educators and staff but also to the students right who end up benefiting directly from you know the The more that we have things like this And I just you know, I I actually uh, I'm looking forward to the future presentations on some of the other sc tf goals that have been discussed I think you know, uh We have had uh Even within the apa conversations the uni negotiations that were going on there were a lot of questions around professional development And you've touched on a lot of these during your presentation tonight Um, and so yeah, I think this is this is fantastic. I'm really happy to hear that you're going to be doing this again in the fall So, you know, I if there's any way that um, we can help, you know With anything I would love to hear that so thank you So my um, I I deeply appreciate the presentation and thoughtfulness of the presentation itself um, one of the things that we um Have talked a lot about as a committee is in trying to improve the level Of dialogue on the committee itself as well as also with the public And one of the area, I mean, you know this already I'm sort of saying this is much of a public benefit is to you. You know, this is very well That a lot of the topics that are brought are identified in the sc tf goals are topics that have been specifically Among the most bedeviling in terms of being able to find the appropriate time and venue To to discuss in a very well organized way in thoughtful way What the district's doing what the progress is and rather than looking at it as a point in time, but also What have we been doing? How do we understand what we're doing and where are we going with this and so to me you've said You've got a good bar for yourself. I think today in terms of our expectations for the other presentations I don't want to be funny about it But it's sort of like just like because I mean there the topics are are unique in their own way But they're also as you well know self reinforcing in terms of a lot of them the Both the objects of analysis as well as also the ultimate goods we're trying to obtain Self-reinforced in terms of these different elements. So I think that's wonderful. I also think that a lot of your emphasis on Looking at this as really an ongoing program That's organically developed with multiple with the with the entire staff But is well organized and thoughtful and then also is disciplined in terms of sort of feedback loops to to do continual learning and sort of Understand what impact or change it's had over time. I think Is is really critically important You know in other words In a different life. I remember once asking Organizations what impact they were making in what are called gateway cities Which are some of the older mill cities in the commonwealth that have high immigrant populations in high level of poverty And one of the most irritating things that groups would do and some of them were very august large institutions Is they'd come in with a laundry list Of so like what your early thing around the different workshops they come with a laundry list of activities And then they would essentially look for You know a figurative pattern ahead like aren't we a great organization? Look at all the things we're doing and then like that would be it right sort of the presentation would be done You know we everyone would have checked the box of what they were supposed to do And then we could all move on to their lives and and to me the entire point is this the you're you're already in your job Doing the exact opposite of that in terms of thinking very systematically in very organized way about how to approach This topic and do it in a way which is engaging the staff So I just I I applaud you for that but also I'm putting a fine point just on things that I think in particular Are it's good for the public to know It's good for them to engage to the extent that people watch your presentation and it's made available In other ones. I think they should Partially because a lot of what you were saying. I think this is referenced earlier by mr. Demling Isn't also just the exclusive province of the staff and of Of the district professionals. This is something that the community as a whole Wants to know about that was long, but you know why it was long.  It's I'm saying this. I'm not trying to belabor this. This is these these are topics That kind of echoing the beginning of our meeting during announcements period. These are topics that have been extremely weighty and important in the community and the building blocks Of what I think needs to occur is what's occurring and part of it is what we're doing here now So We've been at that I I agree with all the other comments and want to thank you again, mr. Cunningham It's really great to see the detail of what went on that day and I think What I especially appreciate is the ongoing nature of this work and that you taking that into account with Building this professional development. I think if you know, it's it's hard but important You know when we think about what are we trying to accomplish? And then how do we know if we've accomplished it right and especially in a process Recurring and the serving that you you're doing post and pre and post is great one kind of thought Which I think you guys are probably capturing this in some way is To me it'd be interesting to hear What students would say as far as what the needs are that they see from staff in this area Just because they might have a different perspective than how you know The adults are viewing the situation. So just it might be an interesting comparison And might be to maybe other other topics So Mr. Morris So two thoughts on that I think Three perhaps but one would be In the sessions that Ms. Cunningham mentioned where the students the cause box students in particular led So both of us got to every session I saw a lot eyes open to hearing what students had to say and what their experience was so I think it Just supporting your Point about having the student voice in there is being really essential I think the second is that as we've talked about earlier in the year there We are I think one school's done one school's about to be done with climate surveys that have went to all students and that data Well, not exactly focus on professional development will be a really fantastic data source for us to use to say How are different groups? How is the aggregate group of students experiencing and how are different groups of students because there is himself a identifying demographic questions Their experience about the middle school and high school and how can that Lead us and drive some of the professional development because that's a more formal context where all students are participating and third at the risk of Overstepping just I wonder since we do have a student rep and that's a question not that to put jack on