School Committee - October 11 2023
Public Comments
- Disagreement and Manipulation: A participant expressed concern that some board members have replaced disagreement with accusations and used false compassion to manipulate parents into compliance. This indicates a tension between board members and the community regarding decision-making processes.
- Previous Meeting Concerns: Another public comment highlighted an incident where the Zoom chat feature was disabled during a previous meeting when a speaker opposed masking policies, suggesting that communication channels were limited.
Meeting Logistics
- The meeting was broadcast live and recorded by SharingTV. Participants were reminded to enable their webcams if they wished to be broadcast.
- Public comments were solicited at the beginning of the agenda as part of the community update section.
Motions and Votes
- Motion to Approve Meeting: A motion was made to approve a previous meeting, but details on voting outcomes for this motion are not provided beyond that one member abstained from voting.
General Discussion Points
- Community Engagement: The board acknowledged public comments as part of their agenda, highlighting the importance of community input and discussion.
- Previous Meeting Critiques: References were made to past meetings where communication channels were restricted (e.g., disabling Zoom chat), indicating ongoing concerns about transparency and inclusivity.
Summary
The meeting focused on engaging with the community through public comments. There was significant emphasis on addressing concerns raised by participants regarding board members’ handling of disagreement, accusations, and limitations placed on communication during previous meetings. The transcript also highlights motions to approve prior meetings, although specific voting details are limited. Overall, this meeting aimed to foster a dialogue between the school committee and community members while addressing past issues related to transparency and engagement.
Transcript and Video
All right, we will get started here.
Welcome to the October 11th meeting of the Sharon School Committee.
This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom.
Attendance by board or commission members will be remote, and remote attendance shall count towards a quorum.
The meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by sharing TV.
If you would like to enable your webcam, your image and background may be broadcast with or without sound.
As is our custom here, we will be going to public comments first as part of our community update section of our agenda.
I will remind folks that we ask that their comments
first and last name be visible.
I will call on folks whose first and last names are not showing, but I would just ask that you lead off with your first and last name if that is the case.
It is a two minute.
We do have a two minute time limit that I ask everybody to please be respectful of.
And I am willing to keep time here, guys.
So I will start off with Jay O'Brien, whose hand I see raised first.
All right, hold on, Jay, not on the clock yet until you unmute.
There you go, Jay.
Thank you, Jay O'Brien.
Thank you.
Some people on the school committee have replaced disagreement with accusation and used false compassion to manipulate parents into compliance.
This is the same school committee who at my very first school committee meeting several years ago when I spoke immediately shut down the Zoom chat feature so I could not correspond with other parents who were also opposed to masking kids.
During the last meeting, after I had spoke most recently, in the August meeting, someone else then used words like undertones, transphobia, and homophobia.
First, gay people have as much in common with trans people as straight people do.
Secondly, I will not sit by and let someone besmirch my family's good name or the names of other parents in town who oppose radical gender theory in public schools.
I should not have to say this, for it goes without saying, and it cuts into my two minutes of time,
but we've always perceived trans people as valuable members of society worthy of respect and human rights.
Another horrible comment was made by a non-committee citizen who said, parents who oppose the gender cult ideology are afraid of our kids becoming trans.
What a disgusting thing to say.
These comments can't go unanswered.
Do you think someone can give you trans like it's the China virus?
We're talking about poisoning young impressionable minds.
The people are trying to rule through emotional blackmail to impose a political agenda on the rest of us.
If we dissent, we're branded as bigots and accused of lacking empathy.
The people pushing this use antagonism, emotional manipulation, and an accusatory tone that has become the staple with the gender theory and mask pushers.
The goal of this is not to arrive at answers, but to browbeat parents like me and make me feel bad for denying left-wing orthodoxy.
Dr. Patel.
We have to have new leadership.
We have to have a new leadership class that says no.
It's the most important word in the English language.
We don't say it enough.
We have to reestablish limits on behavior and reestablish authority.
Thank you.
That was exactly two minutes.
So I appreciate your brevity.
On to Tobin Aspar.
I'm sorry, Tobin, I was distracted for a second, not forgetting who you were.
Go ahead, Tobin.
I will start your time now.
Hi, my name is Tobin Asklar.
I use they, them pronouns.
I'm speaking as a parent of three children in the Sharon Public Schools and for myself.
First, I'm holding in my heart the Sharon Jewish population and Israeli friends and strangers who bore the horrific and murderous terrorist massacre on Saturday and their aftermath.
I denounce the attacks and the continued acts of antisemitism that have erupted worldwide and even locally in response to brutal killing, torture, and hostage-taking of Jewish people in Israel.
These harrowing events and now the resulting war bring not only the pain of civilian devastation and killing, but more antisemitic and anti-Islamic rhetoric in the United States.
On a personal note, I want to thank the Sharon Public Schools and Temple Sinai's Hebrew School for teaching my children and keeping them safe.
Thank you to the Sharon Police Department for looking out for everyone's safety, but especially for protecting our temples and houses of worship.
Second, today is National Coming Out Day.
I am a genderqueer non-binary lesbian mom.
To the LGBTQ plus kids who are already out and those still in the closet, I hope the world brings you joy and happiness, belonging and love.
I hope you are free to be your true selves.
May your classrooms and libraries be filled with books that present positive representations of your lives and the lives of your classmates and the beautiful diversity of America.
May your teachers and adults see you for all that you are and all that you can be.
May you have good and loving friends who hold you up and who you can equally support.
Shalom, salam.
Let us stand together and support one another.
Thank you.
You, Tobin?
Next up, I see Judy Crosby.
Hold on, we got you on the mute.
All right, go ahead.
Thank you.
First, Tobin, thank you so much for those words.
I have family missing at the moment and I really needed to hear that.
So thank you.
I'm I'm going to speak tonight about a vote that appears later on this agenda, which is for this school committee to vote to approve retroactively three and a half months into the new fiscal year transfers that occurred from cost centers.
into 24 overspent cost centers during the fiscal year 23 budget.
There's clear state law as well as clear interpretation of that state law by the Department of Revenue that the failure of this school committee and this administration to vote those transfers one by one as they were needed last year is fully in violation.
Why does that matter?
Well, Dr. Botehlo, you lied to me.
You stood in the auditorium of Sharon High School, the brand new Sharon High School, before the town meeting when I said, hey, I have questions on this part of Article 16.
I want to know
what does level budget mean are there going to be cuts you cut things from 23 to 22 and you said no level budget no problem everything's good except for what i didn't know at that time as a member of the public because you and your business manager and this school committee deprived me of the knowledge was that over a third of our supply materials budget had been redirected
more than half of our professional development budget had been redirected.
We were $600,000 over on a sped transit line item.
And the list goes on and on and on.
The reason for that state law and that Department of Revenue interpretation is to ensure that value judgments about where we redirect money from are made by those who hold the policy handle.
I see Nadia Ahmad.
Nadia, I'm just going to start your time now.
Thank you.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Nadia Ahmad.
I'm here to voice my concerns over forcing kids to listen to sex ed and LGBTQ content that has penetrated the general curriculum.
I sympathize with those who are truly struggling with gender identity, but sympathizing with one minority should not come at the expense of another.
Some would say that some would say that LGBT members are at high risk of attempting suicide.
Therefore, our kids should be forced to learn about their identities.
A study at Stanford University concluded that American Muslims have twice the rate of suicide attempts compared to others.
Based upon that,
Should we force kids at SPS to start thinking about converting to Islam?
Should we force them to start praying like Muslims?
That would be ridiculous to ask.
There is a clear difference between raising awareness about something and then forcing it on people.
This forceful attitude is making Muslims and all concerned parents feel helpless about the situation.
All we are asking is to give us the option to opt out wherever there's a discussion around sex ed and LGBTQ.
Please do not make us feel worthless.
A simple option for parents to exempt their kids out of this curriculum or out of this discussion won't hurt the LGBTQ members at all.
But not having any option is hurting a lot of us.
The decision is yours to make.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
John Mayle.
John, hang on.
Okay, start the clock.
Okay, start the clock.
Hi, Avi.
Nice to see you.
So I just real quick, I saw that you've agenda my conversation around the program of studies this evening.
And I sent a letter to you, Dr. Botello and some other people last week, just about something that I have been talking about for a couple years now, which is bringing back curricular theater at the high school level.
I'm just mentioning this now just to make the community aware that this is something that I've brought up.
and if any interested community members would like to connect with me about this proposal or um discuss you know the possibilities of this i'm well you know i'm happy to hear anyone who has an opinion about this i think that um as we consider like ways to use the beautiful new facility we have
including the multimillion dollar black box theater, I think that bringing in curricular theater would be a very worthy discussion to have, possibly not tonight, but just in the future.
So as we continue to go through the program studies discussion, I strongly believe we should talk about curricular theater, and I have proposed to help develop that at the high school level.
Have a good night, way under two minutes.
Thanks for your brevity, John.
All right, next up, Casey McLaughlin.
Hold on, Casey.
We can hear you, I think.
Can you talk?
Yes.
All right, I will start your talk now.
Thanks.
Last meeting there was a lot of gasping and wide-eyed pearl clutching around how such hateful people in Sharon could dare speak out against non-academic, highly problematic gender ideology being promoted in classrooms.
So I did some research.
Are trans people really victimized?
Let's put it into context given the recent horrors endured by actual victims.
Did you know that there are 36 national holidays dedicated to LGBTQ plus?
In October alone, there is Intersex Awareness Day, Lesbian Day with Sunday, Pronouns Day, Spirit Day, and today is National Coming Out Day.
Guess what else?
We have Ace Week for asexuals, Gender Fluid Visibility Week, and this entire month is LGBT History Month.
And that's just October.
I've never seen such an oppressed group be so nationally celebrated.
So it is a lie that trans people are under attack, or my favorite hyperbole,
being genocided.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, there were 40 reported cases, four zero, of trans individuals losing their lives to violent incidents in 2022.
To put this in perspective, this constitutes .000025 of the 1.6
million trans-identified people in 2022.
These statistics suggest that trans people may be among the safest demographic groups when it comes to violent deaths in the United States.
So there is a big difference between tolerance, which is what it used to be, and forced celebration that some members of this board and this community really need to differentiate between.
I will end with this.
Normal adults do not get angry that they can't talk to children about sex.
predators and perverts do.
Remember that.
Richard Kramer.
Richard, I'm hitting ask to unmute.
Hit it again there.
There we go.
Can you hear me now?
There you go.
All right.
Okay.
I did hit it, but it didn't take the first time.
Okay.
Go ahead.
I'm going to start.
Go ahead.
I'm ready to start.
Okay.
You go ahead.
Sharon probably proclaims itself in lawn signs all over town that it's no place for hate.
And of course, I completely agree with that.
That's why I feel compelled to call out
the hateful intolerant disgusting comments at the last school committee meeting i'm appalled i was nauseated i won't name names you you know who you are the hateful name calling was directed at families with traditional values and complaining that a small minority of parents are somehow dominating the situation
First of all, it's not true.
In my experience, it's not a minority of parents.
It's a minority of parents that aren't afraid to be called names.
The majority of parents are afraid to even speak out because of this hateful name calling.
These are vicious attacks by school committee members.
It's embarrassing to the town.
Those people should be ashamed.
Moreover, we live in a country with a constitution that's been designed to protect minority rights.
We don't believe in the tyranny of the majority, nor did our founders.
I think apologies are in order.
I think the people who did this should be ashamed.
In my opinion, I believe they should resign.
There's no place at the school committee table for people who engage in those kinds of hateful comments.
Another member of the committee disclosed proudly that there are confidential discussions ongoing with an attorney to figure out ways to bypass opt-out so that we could get rid of opt-out.
You know, attorneys don't work for free.
I don't recall when the school committee voted to authorize spending on an attorney for secret negotiations, secret discussions to devise novel legal theories to eliminate opt-out.
I do agree that opt-out needs to go.
It doesn't work.
It's not being done in good faith.
All right, that's two minutes.
Thank you.
All right, Mira Balincki.
Hi, members of the school committee.
I just want to say that we moved to Sharon because we love our children and Sharon is a great place to raise children.
I love the narrow town.
We have families from so many different backgrounds.
We're all united in the love of their children and who are dedicated to education, who value education.
And I was very sad to hear that at the last meeting, you said, or some members of the committee said, that you felt that some families in Sharon had the wrong values and that you were looking for legal loopholes to try to change those values.
That all that the parents who are coming to these school committees want is to raise our own children according to our own values.
Thank you.
Thank you for your brevity.
Judith Weider.
Thanks.
So first off, I wanted to thank Tobin for what they said.
It's been a rough few days for everybody, so I appreciate all of your comments.
Second, I would like to say I personally am celebrating National Coming Out Day.
I'm queer, I'm not afraid to say it, and I'm proud of my queer brothers and sisters.
So I would like to read a couple of things.
First, I would like to read a statement, which Avi, I apologize, I joined the meeting like one minute late.
So you may have already said this, but at the base of every webpage that we have on the Sharon Public Schools,
at the bottom of the agenda for this very meeting.
It says that sharing public schools does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity, homelessness, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
The voices of hate that have been speaking up, and yes, that's exactly what they are.
People can teach their children whatever they want in their own houses, but when you are in a public space,
you must adhere to the public rules.
And the public rules do not say that hate speech is protected speech.
I would also like to point out that the Trevor Project has found that LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers.
And they estimate that more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth ages 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year in the US and at least one attempt suicide every 45 seconds.
So when we talk about NCOD, when we have holidays, when we have these sorts of things,
They are to make sure that people don't kill themselves over something that they don't control and that other people, voices of hate, tell them that they are wrong simply for being themselves.
And I just want to tell all the kids that might possibly be listening to this, you are loved.
You can be yourself.
We are proud of you.
At least those of us that don't preach hate are proud of you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Judith.
Right on time.
Appreciate it.
I see Khalid Issa.
I apologize if I mispronounced that.
No, that's okay.
Thank you so much.
I would like to thank the school committee members for allowing me the chance to talk.
I would like to thank you all for your efforts.
We are a Muslim family.
We live in Sharon since 2017.
We moved to Sharon for its diverse, inclusive community and excellent school system.
We were hoping to practice our religious freedom and pass our faith, religion, and principles to our children.
Matters related to sex and gender in particular are surrounded with clear morals and guidance in our faith.
As we requested to have the right to opt out of such education, which contradicts our faith, during the last school committee meeting, we were labeled as homophobic, transphobic, and people of hate by school committee members and members of the public as well.
I would like to clarify that this has nothing to do with hate.
This comes out of sincere belief in our faith and a sincere desire to raise our children on certain values.
Sharon schools do not discriminate based on religion.
It was mentioned multiple times in this meeting that we want every child to feel welcomed.
And I would like the same for my kids as well.
We request to respect our values and provide an option to adopt.
Thanks so much for giving me the chance.
Thank you.
All right, next up, I see Boris Chislovsky.
Hello, thank you, school committee, for the opportunity to speak.
And like some other people voiced, I was a bit hurt by some comments from the last school committee
by the last school committee disparaging comments equating opting out from LGBT and sex subjects to rejecting learning about other cultures and religions, such as Islam and Judaism, remember those were mentioned, and equating the LGBT lifestyle, which is pretty much a recent emergence in the world culture to ancient traditions, is kind of foolish.
And
It was disparaging to hear them call us various names, which people already mentioned.
That's all.
Thank you for your time.
And thank you for your brevity.
Charlotte Hogan.
Hi.
Thank you for letting me speak.
I wasn't going to speak about this tonight, but I changed my mind after listening to everyone else.
I have two quick points to make.
One,
At least at the high school level, parents can opt out of any sex education that they wish that they don't wish their child to attend.
So there's that.
And the other thing I wanted to say was the climate at the high school right now is so fantastic.
I have been working with Miss Keenan, Miss Andrews as a PTO member.
And for those of you who don't know, my fourth child is now a sophomore at Sharon High and
the vibe, the climate, the teachers are happy, the kids are happy, their administration has come in, and I just feel really positive, and I'm really happy that we chose her as our principal going forward, and that's it.
I just felt like I wanted to throw a little positivity in there before you start meeting, and I'm very grateful that Ms.
Keenan is on board, and I see great things ahead for Sharon High, so thank you.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you for your brevity and your positivity.
And credit to Ms.
Keenan.
I see Kristen is on this call and we appreciate the work at the high school.
So thank you.
I see next Ahmad Muhammad.
Yeah, hi.
We are a Muslim family.
I live in Sharon since 2017.
and we came here because of the diversity and we people respect different background different culture different religion and we respect all culture and every religion but we also expect people to respect ours and we really want to express our dissatisfaction of uh that the district is trying to uh
like teaching kids about LGBTQ and like, you know, different things that's not even related to their age.
They're very young kids.
And we actually, this has the values in trying to teach them actually disagree with our values.
And we want to be able to raise our kids the way we wanted to raise them.
And we expect everybody to do that, to respect that.
And we don't want to impose our values to anybody else or anybody else.
But also we expect the same from others.
Thank you.
All right, thank you for your brevity.
All right, seeing no more hands, I will look to Julie Rowe for correspondence.
Is that right, Julie?
Do I have that right?
As a matter of fact, that is correct.
The school committee received 34 pieces of correspondence between September 6th, 2023 at 9 a.m.,
and October 11th, 2023 at 9 a.m.
A couple of parents wrote to the school committee to express their concerns regarding the survey that was distributed to students at Sharon Middle School at the beginning of the school year.
A parent wrote to suggest that the schools should never reinstitute a masking policy.
A parent wrote to the school committee to express their belief that the district was not listening to parents who did not want their children exposed to LGBTQ topics and suggested that parents be provided with an opt-out option.
Several parents, community members, and students wrote to the school committee to share their thoughts on the lack of an appointment of a Sharon High School theater director and the impact on the students in the planned fall production schedule.
A parent wrote to offer their praise as easy and stress-free for the new drop-off process and traffic flow at Sharon High School.
Thank you for the praise.
A couple of parents wrote to suggest that to ensure student safety, the district provide a crossing guard for the area between the lake lot and the high school.
A community member wrote to inquire about plans for migrant students who may attend Sharon Public Schools.
A parent wrote to suggest that Sharon High School begin to hold an annual career day.
A parent wrote to the committee to object to the disclaimer that the chair shared during the opening of the previous meeting.
The school committee received several letters written that expressed their strong support for the district to continue to uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to create a school environment where a sense of belonging is fostered throughout our classrooms and school spaces.
A parent wrote to the school committee to suggest that specific analysis be completed with regards to MCAS scores and to include a comparative analysis of districts that have both consistently been doing better than Sharon and that have recently started performing better than Sharon.
The school committee received an invitation to CPAC's Assistive Technology Services Fair on Sunday, October 22nd, 2023,
from 11 a.m.
to 2 p.m.
at the SHS cafeteria.
A parent wrote to inquire about the composition of the DEI director search committee and wondered why the district's assistant and superintendent of equity engagement is not included on the committee.
A community member wrote to inquire as to whether a school committee member would be willing to assist with a Boy Scout merit badge requirement.
This requirement asks the scout to get feedback from a branch of local government that deals with an issue facing the community.
A community member wrote to share their concerns about the lack of community engagement at school committee meetings.
Several community members wrote regarding flag displays and wanted assurances that the only flags to be flown are US and Massachusetts state flag.
Several community members wrote to express concerns that as of Monday morning, October 9th, the district had not sent out any communication regarding the horrific events that occurred in Israel over the weekend.
A community member wrote to express concerns about the district budget and to ask if there would be any clarification provided from the district or the school committee about the budget status.
We received several editions of Millie's METCO Monday newsletter, which included the following highlights.
METCO participating school districts identified as top high schools in Massachusetts, Massachusetts School Superintendents Association learning opportunities in racial equity, diversity, and inclusion,
Lexington support for diversity curriculum, new school leaders and DEI directors for 2023-24, including Sharon's own Justin Wilson, and best practices spotlights on the districts of Arlington and Foxborough.
And that concludes it.
Thanks, Julie.
I know we have a school rep here, I believe, Brendan.
Do I see Brendan anywhere?
Brendan, if you can raise your hand.
Oh, I see you, Brendan.
There you go.
All right, Brendan, welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for the space.
Again, I am the Student Advisory Committee representative for tonight's meeting.
Just a few updates for the past few days.
We had a club fair on the 22nd of September that was a success.
We had a senior sunrise on the 29th of September that was also successful.
We've had a lot of club activity going on, a lot of service projects that have been ongoing, and we have picture day, which is tomorrow.
So if there are any high school students watching, just make sure to get that smile going.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Brendan.
I will now throw it over to Dr. Botello for general updates from our superintendent.
Great, thank you.
Jane, can you make sure the slides after this are included as well?
I'm not sure if they were, but.
But before I started, I just wanted to, prior to this meeting, I want to thank Avi Shemtov and Adam Shane, and I saw Julie Rowe there as well, but there was a really...
wonderful gathering in support of Israel and showed just the great community that we have here.
It was, you know, certainly members of our Jewish community were out with passion, but also various members of our interfaith community throughout the community.
And it just showed, you know, some of the very best that we have here.
We were horrified by hearing the news and the department condemned the attacks on Israel by Hamas.
Our hearts are really going out to all of our community members impacted as well as those that we know in Israel.
We're really trying hard as a district to support the kids.
I think just showing that we're there to support them, giving them some sense of normalcy,
but also giving them a place to go when they need additional assistance is incredibly important we also have made sure in addition to our jewish and israeli kids really show support to all kids including our our palestinian and muslim families who we know reject the vicious attacks by hamas this past weekend and are fearful for their family members in the region so i just wanted to pass without recognizing that we have also been
in touch with Chief Coffey at the Sharon Police Department.
We work really closely with them and it is indicated that on Friday we will have some additional presence just to promote a feeling of safety and security for all of our kids and staff on Friday.
Getting to some other general updates, enrollments continue to come in in the early fall a little bit more, certainly than typical.
New elementary enrollments have been generally restricted to cottage and heights in order to maintain some class size consistency across the three schools.
And so if you look at the enrollment in your package, you'll see that actually those numbers across even where in grades where perhaps say Easter cottage was a little bit lower than heights there now.
getting to be quite equal across the schools.
We knew that we would expect some additional enrollment, though certainly we're welcoming some new families into the community with open arms as this fall comes about.
As far as our DEI director process, we went through a rigorous process where we've identified a finalist.
The finalist will be visiting the district on Friday, and we'll continue to alert the committee and the community about that process.
We're pretty much fully staffed, except for we do have a handful of instructional assistant positions across the schools that we're looking to fill.
MCAS results will be sent home to families early next week.
It's a reminder that MCAS is one important data point, but only one data point.
You use this in collaboration with the materials and grades and assessments that you get in the schools and really engage with your children's teachers about the progress of your kids.
We'll also be doing a presentation in late November or December about MCAS and other assessments as well.
Some upcoming events.
November 9th, we have early release in all buildings.
November 14th as well.
And then 16th will be elementary and ECC early release.
And then no school on Veterans Day.
And then we'll have Thanksgiving recess coming up.
It's amazing how quickly this year is already going by.
and some upcoming school committee items.
School improvement plans we'll be reviewing on October 25th.
We'll also give a preliminary update on the elementary master plan that should be fairly complete by Flansburg.
associates that have been working on it.
And then we'll also on October 25th review our FY24, that's our current budget.
We'll look at realignment as well as a quarter one report.
Despite some of the kind of rumblings in the community, the FY24 budget looks sound and we'll be able to give you some of the details of that on October 25th.
And then November 2nd,
Dave Kuntz, November will have superintendent goals and evaluation process and then also.
Dave Kuntz, vote to approve the capital budget submission to town in late November, we have some preliminary information on that today.
Caroline Miller, Dr Botehlo I did on share that those other slides, but it didn't take in the presentation so give me if you want to give me a minute to refresh.
Dave Kuntz, yeah that'd be great.
We just have a couple more about our calendar subcommittee that has been working.
that they include Julie Rowe, Wen Tiano, and Shana Blenke.
We're looking to evaluate the calendar, especially around observances of cultural and religious holidays.
Looking to propose a calendar that adequately reflects the diversity in Sharon.
The next steps was to conduct a survey of the community regarding cultural and religious observances.
This will include family members, teachers and administrators, and also meet to evaluate the survey and create a proposal for the school committee.
So this is a chart.
that was put together by Julie Roe and the committee that kind of looks at how others have tried to balance observing our various holidays, especially religious holidays within their communities, just for reference.
And this will be included in your packet as well.
And then the survey will be sent out in the weekly dispatch and the link will be promoted to get as wide a view as possible.
So please, please, we encourage you to take that survey and encourage your friends as well so we can get as much community input as possible.
Ruben Duran, So next we're going to go to our fiscal year 2023 so that's last year as a fiscal year and Ellen when the more is going to review.
Ruben Duran, Real report.
Ruben Duran, Yes, we move out of their kind.
Ruben Duran, Just ask the committee, are there any questions or comments on the general updates.
Ruben Duran, doesn't look like there are all right moving on.
All righty, I'm having some technical issues with my video this evening, so I apologize.
This evening's presentation is on the FY23 financial report for the fiscal 23 budget, which went from July 1st, 2022 through June 30th, 2023.
Next slide.
The FY23 budget was appropriated at springtime meeting in 2022 of $49,520,966.
We received a reserve fund transfer at the May 17th, 2023 finance committee for a legal settlement, revised FY23 appropriated budget, which
totaled 49,695,966 included the appropriated budget plus the reserve fund transfer.
The district expended from July 1st, 2022 to June 30th, 2023, $49,536,521.
As of June 30th, 2023, the district had $159,445,000 encumbered in purchase orders that remained opened and were carried into FY24.
The school department returned $0 to the town upon closing as the entire local budget was appropriated and fully expended and committed for FY23.
Next slide, please.
The FY23 year end fiscal review will include the general expenditure report through June 30th, 2023.
It will include the year to date budget report from UNIS which includes the appropriated budget, the revised budget which is the sum of the original appropriation plus additional any transfers, year to date expended which is the actual expenditures posted in the financial system as of June 30th, 2023 and encumbrances which posted to the financial system
as of June 30th, 2023.
The available budget would be the total remaining funds available as of June 30th, 2023.
Next slide, please.
This slide illustrates the,
fiscal review by location for each of our major areas, each of these elementary schools, as well as secondary, elementary and early childhood.
It shows that we were appropriated the $49,520,966.
There was the adjustment of the $175,000, which was reserved from transfer for a rise budget of $49,695,966.
We expended through June 30th $49,536,521 and carried forward $159,445 in open purchase orders into fiscal year 24.
And then the next slide please.
Important finance dates for us.
The town distributed on September 19th, the capital project forms and instructions.
I'm giving, providing the update to school committee this evening on the FY23 year end close.
There'll be a preliminary review this evening of capital project requests.
On October 18th,
And actually that meeting was canceled, I apologize.
On October 25th, the school committee update and realignment in quarter one update will take place.
On October 26th, the school department initial FY25 to FY2030 capital project will be submitted to the town and we will be providing the finance committee with an update on the FY23 year end, FY24 budget realignment and quarter one update.
There will also be the joint meeting of the Select Board, Finance Committee, and School Committee to review financial condition and long-range needs.
That tri-board meeting date is still to be determined.
And then the additional pages in the presentation that is in your packet includes the fiscal year-to-date review by departments.
And that's just the remainder of the slides.
If you could just flip forward.
Thank you.
And that concludes the presentation on the FY23 fiscal review by department for the local appropriated budget.
Thanks, Alan.
Dr. Mattel, appropriate time to take questions from the table.
I see Julie's hands up.
All right, go ahead, Julie.
Thanks Avi and thank you Ellen.
So there were some accusations that were on Facebook and we received one letter asking us to clarify.
My feeling is that since
these accusations did not have any calculations behind them, that it's very, very difficult to determine where the numbers were coming from.
So I can't even ask you about them since there's no analysis there.
But I do have a couple of questions that I think it would be great if you could explain for the good of the order.
So for one thing, could you talk about using a zero-based budget versus a level service budget?
I feel like we always use a level service budget.
I don't recall anyone using zero-based budgeting, but I could be wrong.
The second question I have is, could you discuss about the staff and transportation questions?
And could you discuss some of the transfers that were done?
And I appreciate if you just sort of could address some of those questions that people had.
Certainly.
So for the FY23 budget, we did have overages in the area of special education transportation.
Part of that was due to...
unanticipated transportation needs for students requiring specialized transportation.
We also were unable to obtain minivans for special education.
We had several ordered, and the orders were either canceled or did not come to fruition, or we could just not get them.
We have recently, within the last week, been able to procure six minivans and Fran Derry is working very hard to hire additional drivers.
And that will hopefully mitigate some of the issues from this past year in terms of budget process level service versus a zero based budget.
My experiences here as well as in other districts have been level service, especially in times where we are, you know, we did have a significant budget increase this past year for full day kindergarten, as well as the
COLAs and steps that are associated with personnel, which is a major driver for the school department budget.
We also did receive an additional appropriation to offset costs for special education out-of-district tuitions.
And we plan this for FY25.
I do plan to do a line-by-line three-year look back on all of our expenditure lines to make sure that they are all in good order.
Thank you.
Can I follow up, Avi?
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, Ellen.
So I was wondering if you could address the supplies and material budget and also the professional development budget.
What specific questions do you have, Joy?
Well, I mean, I believe that there was an accusation, I don't know, that
there seemed to be a problem with using certain budgets that were supplies and material that were being spent on other things, not supplies and material.
And I think also there was the same question with professional development.
So do you like those?
I'm not sure specifically again, because the original accuser did not provide
any detailed information.
So I'm just, I'm just reading off of what I got on Facebook.
Um, and I was just wondering if you could maybe try and figure out what's being said.
I could, I could speak to that, Ellen.
Over the last several years, we've been trying to, um, identify areas within the budget that have been historically, um,
um not fully utilized and have been historically used in different areas and so um you know we definitely use our supplies and our professional developments to meet our needs we also know that in times of unexpected costs whether it's special education transportation or other things we need to
uh find ways in order to uh help fund those and those can include uh numerous areas but including you know our supplies and professional development but certainly we're committed to making sure that kids have the supplies that they need and we're certainly and work very closely with the sta around uh making sure that professional development will be starting a professional development committee with our sta uh counterparts coming out of the last contract to really make sure that we continue to grow and improve in that area
So you're saying that the professional development is being worked out with the STA and have there been any complaints or like overall problems with this that are an issue?
There have not.
And the other thing that I'm saying is that we're continuing to, you know, each year realign our budget in a way that more accurately meets our needs, because historically there again have been some areas that, you know, have not been completely aligned to needs and been used in other areas, not just this past year, but in past years as well.
And I think the school committee and administration and the STA are very excited about that professional development committee.
So I was wondering if you could address the issue of the nutrition account, $50,000.
Could you describe that?
Sure.
So the...
district is permitted to charge indirect costs to grants as well as food service accounts.
In FY22, the prior finance director did calculate indirect costs for food service.
It was found during the audit of this in the spring of April of 2023, when DESE came on and audited the FY22 food service program, that the
Indirect costs were not calculated correctly and there were issues with the indirect costs.
There was a finding on the corrective action plan that DESE had issued to the district to be completed that the indirect costs for FY22 did need to be reimbursed to the food service department.
Because of the lateness in the fiscal year, it was, I want to say it was right around April, May, when we were going back and forth with them regarding the corrective action plan, I did ask if we would be permitted to do so in FY24.
And they said that that would be fine, knowing that we would be able to offset the charges going back to food service for the indirect costs for FY22 with additional indirect costs collected in FY24.
Thank you, Ellen.
You're welcome.
Oh, can I, I'm so sorry, Shauna and Adam, I just want one more question, which is, could you talk a little bit about the issue of the transfers?
So the transfers for the end of the year, we do a final budget cleanup over the summer after all of the expenditures and purchase orders are finalized.
And that usually takes place the end of July through August.
And moving forward, those transfers will be brought to school committee for school committee to review and approve prior to transfers being made.
So a final question, that is, Alan, we sat in six months of negotiations together.
Were you hiding any information from us that prevented us from making the best decision possible when we negotiated with the union?
No.
Okay.
Peter, were you lying to the public during the last town meeting?
No.
Kai, could you elaborate on the question that was asked before about like,
I guess I'm a little confused because I don't think that I saw a lie, but there's a person running rampant on Facebook making accusations that aren't described.
And I think that that's, we should at least give a chance to talk.
Dr. Mattel, can I take this for one second?
Julie, I appreciate your time.
I understand where you're coming from and I appreciate your interest in transparency here.
I think like,
sometimes it's tough like you know when we entertain social media comments on this like look at the end of the day it's not a secret that the albeit extremely briefly former chair uh i mean extremely briefly former chair um seems to have a lack of an understanding of our budget in fairness if you talk to if you talk to the folks that came into the admin after that disastrous school committee
they will tell you that like, I mean, the public saw that we brought in an outside consultant to recreate a budget because it was so, so poorly done.
And it is laughable that at this point you turn on to social media and see point after point after point of just like misinformation being spread.
And look, the public knows and it becomes almost laughable that like the public sees
these hit jobs, they understand what the motivation is.
It's frustrating.
So again, Julie, I appreciate like where you're coming from here.
I just would say that like, also, like if we're going to entertain any and all attacks from that person, then really what was the benefit of the public very,
very clearly making their decision about the committee going in a different direction.
Like this person is not a member of this committee as much as they desperately try to be the eighth member.
They are not.
And therefore their voice is essentially a, you know, one of 18 plus thousand.
They can talk, they can talk, they can talk.
I don't think that this table is the place for us to go point through point of their Facebook troll job.
Well, you know, I think you're right, Avi, because at the end of that, I think it was supposed to generate a bunch of mail, but we got one fairly, you know, anodyne letter that was just like, could you discuss this?
So I feel like I've responded to the citizen who requested that we discuss it.
And I appreciate Ellen and Peter for you explaining all this.
And I will, I'm sorry, I took up so much time, Shauna and Avi.
Thanks, Julie.
Sean, I see you.
Adam, I see you.
Meg, I see that your hand is up.
I can come to you first.
I just want to caution us.
Some of the things that you just said
Meg, this is the school committee's meeting and it's the school committee's table.
I understand that, but I'm just going to be perfectly honest.
What you just said insulted me.
And whether that was your intention or not, I take it really personally.
A lot of this is just watching you all sling mud at each other.
That is not appropriate for our children who watch these meetings over and over.
I get it's the meeting.
We've talked about this topic before.
Everybody has a soapbox.
All I'm saying is,
You just really insulted me.
I need to call it out.
And I need to say, I live in town with all of you people.
I hate that I go to events like tonight's beautiful event.
I see all of the people that are at this room and you all do this to each other.
It totally negates what we just were all standing at the lake trying to do.
That's it.
Shawna.
Thank you.
I have a question, Ellen.
You had brought up transportation.
I'm just wondering, and it doesn't have to be now, and maybe it can be an agenda item with Fran at another meeting, just to explain the amount of vans and small buses that we have in fleet.
It seems like between Community Ed and Sharon Public, we have many vans.
I know that buses are expensive, but it seems like there's an overabundance of small vehicles that is owned by Sharon, between Sharon Council on Aging, Sharon Community Ed, Sharon Public Schools.
I just wonder if there's a...
better way for us to use resources amongst the divisions if we're all paying into a insurance policy that I would imagine is covered by Sharon, the town of Sharon.
So I just wonder if...
We could look at that at some point because, again, transportation, we know the cost of transportation is high.
Renting buses are high.
I know the cost of out of district transportation from being a former out of district coordinator.
But I just I just think it's something that we don't always
necessarily look at with a fine tooth comb um as as much maybe we can going forward so that was my my question um to you and to Fran and to Dr. Patel if that makes sense I don't know I just like I drop off
I drop off at the middle school and I'm like, I'm always amazed as to how many vans we have and oohing and aahing over like, I wish we had another one in Canton.
Yeah, we can certainly review that in another meeting.
What we have as far as our fleet, what we're adding to our fleet, what is being, what is kind of obsolete within our fleet and what the benefits are financially as well as the costs.
That'd be that'd be great and also like if if parts of our fleet aren't being utilized like if they're off road I don't know if they're just parked there or whatnot, but I think that's also important to to note, so thank you so much for everything.
Adam.
Yeah, thank you.
I just had a quick note because I think the question was raised about the kind of level versus zero-based budgeting.
I think my memory on this is not expansive, but I think over the course of the last several years, I think we have years where we have had level budget and years where we have zero-based.
So I think historically, the district has gone back and forth depending on the year or business manager, etc.,
All right, no more questions from the table.
We have a vote to approve.
If there's no more questions, I will entertain a motion.
Shauna, do you still have a question?
Because your hand is up.
No, I'm just really bad with Zoom.
And not feeling good, sorry.
I would entertain a motion.
There is no motion.
I'll move that we, I just lost my train of thought, sorry.
I'll move that we accept the report.
So the motion to approve the FY 23 budget realignment to reflect all transfers.
Thank you.
That said, it's so much better.
And I move that.
A second.
All right, Adam.
Yes.
When?
Yes.
Shauna.
Abstain.
Wait.
Yeah.
vote for, no.
Okay, Fresnel.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
And I'm a yes, motion carries, five, one.
Moving forward, we have a capital budget presentation, preliminary review and discussion.
Yeah, so this is a preliminary review.
I'm going to just refer to the document that's in your packet, which Jane has put up on the screen, which is great.
When we start off with technology areas, we're looking for approval for 500.
Can you make it a little bit smaller just so you can see the bottom line too?
$574,500 worth of technology.
This is a small reduction from last year, $645,000.
All in all, it's very, very similar to our asks in the previous years.
The one significant area that has allowed us to decrease it is classroom audio systems.
They have been now all of our schools and classrooms have been
configured with those audio systems.
So we do not need funding for this year.
And then going forward into future years, we'll be looking for $25,000 each year, instead of the 130 we asked for when we were equipping the systems just for maintenance and replacements of both parts, but also
of some audio systems that need to be replaced.
But right now, our systems are really high, high quality for our students, especially students with special needs.
And it's a great system, but we fully equip that.
So that's our technology asks for this year.
And again, this will be the first time we're looking at this.
Then we would get into facilities.
Our total ask in facilities is $610,987.
But what this does not include yet is some facilities requests that will come out of the elementary master plan and largely based upon
um ways to reconfigure space uh in order to gain more classroom spaces um especially in the short term the next you know three to you know well next one to five years um so though that has been elementary math plan
um by Flansburg Associates is being completed we'll look at that and in our next round include that we also as we um include that there is a chance a strong chance that some of the asks within that 610 000 will be reduced
uh because of what comes out of the elementary master plan so there might be something that we're requesting at this point uh that might not be necessary or prudent considering the short and long-term plans that come out of the elementary master plan so
where we see there being some increases in that ask due to, again, facilities improvements to gain greater space.
There also might be some reductions in some of the areas where we have indicated right now we would be asking.
And then we have replacement of vehicles for special education.
We're looking this year actually to go from
from actually what are probably our greatest need is to have some small buses.
And so that's the $198,000 in order to help support some of the special education transportation, especially more in the local area.
And then the vans would be used more for further about which might have less kids on them.
So that's our current plan.
preliminary look at the FY25 capital.
And again, as we get the finalized complete master plan with all its information, we'll be adding to this as well as perhaps reducing some areas.
We wanted to be able to get you to see this and digest it.
And you can ask some questions now if you have them, but you can also ask them in the next meeting.
Are there any questions from the table?
Chris Wanner, All right, seeing no questions.
Chris Wanner, We will move to our first discussion item, which is the program studies process procedure updates highlighted anticipated changes.
Chris Wanner, Others before a.
Mr.
Palmer and Ms.
Keenan begin.
I just want to remind like, so when we were looking at the program of studies this year, there was a couple different things.
First of all, I wanted to get it to people early.
So we weren't having these discussions at the later time where we felt that time crunch.
The second thing that was emphasized is that we're really looking at the committee putting together a new schedule for next September.
So we weren't,
James Heiting.
Miss Keenan and the team there wasn't looking to make significant changes in the programs of studies this year.
That is something we as we develop the new schedule and see how that operates next year.
Next year will be the time for really looking at as we add additional classes or add additional sections.
the opportunities for additional electives and opportunities.
But first, we have to make meaning of what does the schedule look like?
How does it work?
What opportunities are available?
So there won't be significant changes in the program study.
So therefore, you actually get, for the most part, the complete suggested changes in the program that Mr. Palmer and Ms.
Keenan will present.
Well, Mr. Palmer, do you want me to share the presentation?
I'm not sure how you would like me to help you right now.
That would be great if you wouldn't mind sharing the second slide really is the main piece of it.
Hi, Bob.
Hi, Kristen.
Good.
I just wanted to mention before Mr. Palmer gets started, I want to piggyback on what Dr. Bertello said, which is that I think we've done a really good job this year so far.
Getting together as both an ILT, a counseling team.
and an administrative team to try to see what priorities we wanna focus on this year as a school.
And certainly to get a new schedule off the ground that is developed in the best interest of students certainly is our priority.
So to reiterate what Dr.
Botello said,
Bob and I have talked a bit about this, that we want to focus our time working with the scheduling committee.
We will be meeting biweekly for the rest of the school year.
Our first meeting is next week.
I've also met with them individually, leaders from that group.
to get their perspective and to get some insight in the work that they've done prior to this.
And so Bob and I, in looking at the program studies, really agreed that we need to focus on building a schedule out that's not only in the best interest of students and staff,
but really highlights all of the wonderful offerings that we currently have at the high school.
And how do we build upon them in the future after solidifying this new schedule?
So Mr. Palmer is going to take you through this slideshow.
He's worked really hard on this as well as a million other things.
So I do have to give him a shout out.
It's been wonderful working with him so far this year and
If you have any questions, you can direct them to both Bob and I. So thank you, Bob, take it away.
Thank you, Kristen.
And thanks, Jane, for getting that up here.
Good evening, everybody.
So I guess I'll reiterate, we're not looking to make any huge changes this year.
And so, you know, I was able to sort of condense everything down here to
a single page of what we're looking at as far as policy and procedure adjustments to the program of studies.
And I guess those that are to me of greatest substance are looking at the PE requirement for their graduating class of 2026 and beyond and including that in sort of a different
Where we had highlighted beginning with class of 2026 now we're sort of saying to the exclusion of class of 25 and everybody beyond that so it's not a huge change but, but one that I thought was important.
Really, the meat of changes are in regards to scheduling process and course overrides and.
And then just clarification around.
course changes at start of school year.
And many of you will recall here in January, February, we were talking about course selection process and having this past year, we changed things around so that students made their course requests prior to hearing teacher recommendations.
And the feedback that I got anecdotally from students, from parents was really that they wanted to hear what teachers thought.
They wanted to have those conversations in advance of students making their course requests.
We've also run into some challenges with the schedule that I think are a direct or indirect result of sort of that reversed recommending and course selection where we have some challenges with some kids who
appear to be sort of misplaced in particular courses, but they don't have anywhere to move at this point because we didn't have sufficient course requests in those areas to run particular courses.
So returning to the students having a conversation with their teachers
hearing what the teacher's recommendation is while the teacher is listening to what the student is interested in taking in the following year, and then the students making their course selections with that information in hand.
Obviously the continuing conversation is, we encourage that conversation beyond that one moment for parents and guardians to communicate with teachers, for students to carry on those conversations beyond until the course selection window closes.
But that's one big thing, I think.
Secondly, just some clarification around overriding
a maximum of one level, essentially not being recommended for standard and then skipping honors and overriding into AP, but that it is really a one step by one step override process to just ensure that students are placed in a place where we think they're going to be challenged, but that they're not going to be beyond where they need to be.
And then finally, it's around the beginning of the school year and clarifying because this has come up a little bit more frequently in the last couple of years that the override process
comes to a conclusion in the late March, early April timeline, and that when students are looking to make adjustments to their schedule if they need to at the beginning of the school year, that we're not entertaining due requests for override at that point in the process, that that is, you know, we build the schedule based on
the timeline that we've established that allows us to consider those things when determining staffing and courses running and that sort of thing.
And so the override process really does need to stick to the timeline that we have established there.
That
And then really outlining at the beginning of the school year that our focus as a counseling department, as a school, is ensuring that students have full schedules, that they're where they are supposed to be, and that that's really what the first six days of school year, when we require students to, I say, live in the schedule that they have, that that's when we're dealing with
A student who may have completed summer school and was misplaced in a course or completed an override and somewhere along the process it was missed.
Those kinds of things that we want to make those adjustments.
A student missing a course in their schedule or not having a graduation requirement, that those are our priorities during week one.
And then after that, we can look to what other adjustments are necessary to schedule corrections.
It's just a clarification.
It's not a change in process of policy.
So these are, as it happens, this is your first time coming to you in October to talk about these changes.
But I'm also coming to you without a long list of adjustments that we're proposing at this point to program studies.
So Kristen, unless you want to add anything, I feel like that's, I've sung my song here.
Thanks, Bob.
No, I think unless anybody has any questions that we can answer, we can go from there.
Adam, I guess you're first.
Yeah, Adam.
Thank you.
So I had a couple of questions.
Well, actually, I guess one note.
I know we're super early in the process.
So I think when you talk about the recommendations and the change of order, so I think that it makes sense to me.
And I understand kind of the thought process there.
My one note would be having children who have just really started to go through this process and their friends going through this process.
I feel like there's always a question in terms of some students, it's very clear kind of which course makes sense.
And in other cases, it's a little unclear.
It's a little more on the line.
And so I think in those cases, to the extent that we can ask teachers to say, here's how kind of,
a maybe more challenging course could work.
If you are committed to this level or this is what it's going to take, then choose this course.
If that isn't something that's going to work for you, for your schedule, for your extracurriculars, for your stress level, et cetera, then here is the other course or the other alternative that we recommend.
But trying to make it more of here's how we can be successful in different places for those students.
Thanks for that.
If I can address that one real quick.
Yeah, certainly.
You know, it's not unusual for teachers to, after a conversation with students, enter two recommendations, right, that standard and accelerated or whatever it happens to be, to, again, give the student that choice of either encouraging in either direction.
But that is the intent of those conversations with the teacher is to understand where the student's strengths might allow them to lead them towards success and where their challenges might provide greater challenge.
So I hear what you're saying.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Thank you.
My next question is around the override going from the kind of like two levels basically.
I was just curious, how often is that something we see a lot?
Like, how often does that happen?
I guess often enough that I wanted to highlight it.
It's not a super frequent thing, but I think it's, I just, you know, it came up a handful of times this year and I just thought it was important to put it there explicitly.
It would happen most frequently in math because we have the more, we have more levels in math.
But I, I,
We did see a couple, I think, in social studies this year as well.
So, you know, up to 10 maybe.
And so just wanted to make sure that it was there explicit and clear.
Okay.
I guess I would love to know how those students do.
And if we're actually seeing, like, do they try to skip both levels and it's really unsuccessful and, you know, 90% of them end up trying to shift classes and
which becomes a real challenge from a scheduling perspective, or are they doing okay and not shifting classes?
I don't know.
I guess that's the information that I would want to see just as we continue through this process and think about making that change.
So it's not a change per se.
It's not something that we've allowed.
It's just I wanted to make that
explicit in the program of study.
We had a number of conversations this year with students and families that this was not permitted to do the double override.
That's what I call it anyways.
It's not a change, it's simply noting it so that it
it doesn't become more frequent than it has been already.
I guess I'm a little confused, only because I thought you said that it happens enough that it's a problem that we want to address, but that also we don't do it.
So the request happens often enough.
We wanted to address it.
I think because it saves us having that conversation, you know, a half dozen or a dozen times each spring so that we can simply point to the wording of it and or it won't come up as frequently because students will know that it's not an option.
Gotcha.
So it's not something we do.
And I guess to that point, in terms of my earlier request,
we don't have data then on how those students do or if they drop or shift because it's not something we do.
Is that correct?
Thank you.
And my last question was just around the change in timeline during the beginning of the year.
So I just want to make sure I understood, like, what do students do at that point if they are misplaced and they feel like they can challenge themselves or should be in a higher course, but the
Are we allowing that override or are we effectively trying to encourage students to say, hey, if you think you can, you should be overriding in the spring and then dropping down if it's not appropriate.
Is that how we'd prefer to handle those cases?
So ideally, yes, I mean, so ideally the student chooses the override and it works out, you know, or near, you know, they go into that well-informed that this is going to be challenging, right?
That it is, it may touch upon some of the areas of challenge for them.
And again, it comes back to our,
creating the, identifying the number of sections we're going to run as distribution of staff and creating a schedule that we hope will have classes that are fairly equally distributed across different levels and that, you know,
if we were to then sort of allow students to just on their choice change levels at the start of the school year, all of that planning, all of our allocation of resources kind of gets thrown up in the air and it becomes, it just isn't the way that,
It doesn't work for a lot of us and for a lot of students, certainly, so it has a lot of impact, I should say, on students.
The override process has a timeline for a reason, and that's, again, so that we can allocate our resources appropriately and predict what our classes are going to look like size-wise in the fall.
And so, yeah, so we don't honor requests for override after that timeline.
But had a number of requests at the start of the school year that really provided some challenge.
We do expect students, if they override, to
remain in the override course through at least the first quarter in the override form that the student fills out.
They indicate the steps that they're going to take if and when they find a challenge in their course.
So we do expect the students to follow those steps, whatever they happen to be, if that's spending time with the teacher at ACES or before or after school, or if they say that you're in a
if they indicate with the parent that they're gonna get some tutoring outside, that those are, you know, come from the family as indicators and that we expect students to do those things, again, to honor the process.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
All right, Julie.
Thank you, Avi.
I have a question about the sequence of the teacher recommendations moving that back to before the student course selection.
So I believe that back in the 2020-21 school year that the school committee voted to reach the status quo right now because we were very concerned that there might be some students that were somewhere in the middle
might be intimidated to try a harder class.
So we chose at the time to put that in the power with the student and their families.
So in order to help facilitate
what we hoped would be more diversity.
So my first question is, did you notice that this was successful in that sense?
And second, if it was successful in bringing in more diversity to the classes, then can you explain what we're going to do if we get rid of this sequence?
So great questions.
did not see a dramatic change in who was selecting, I should say, in the diversity of students moving into honors or AP courses.
Again, I think what I said earlier, what we found was that there were a lot of students who wanted to, who felt like their decision-making process was lacking
information and that the feedback from the teacher was really an important part of, you know, that person had spent, you know, 120 school days with the student and had a sense of their strengths and challenges, that their input was important.
We, as part of this process, every student meets with their counselor to discuss their course requests before the override process happens.
And, you know, to verify that they're on track for graduation, but also to have those kinds of conversations.
Have you thought about challenging yourself in this area?
You know, you seem to do well in the social studies classes.
What about, you know,
honored?
Is that something you want to think about?
So we're not in those conversations.
We're being frank with students about where they might want to solicit or look for an additional challenge.
And I think that's where, again, it's another adult perspective, another person who is providing that encouragement to a student who might not otherwise think about taking on that additional challenge.
So
So I don't think it's something that's missing in the process.
I think it is, you know, we're going towards providing more information to give students more feedback to consider when they're, you know, in the end, making those choices for themselves.
Okay, well, thank you.
I mean, that sort of is interesting.
I guess you didn't, I guess it would have been kind of hard to collect data on that.
I just, I'm concerned because we, at the time, and I just, I understand what you said and I appreciate your answer very much.
I just want to just say one thing, which is, I feel like a lot of times we're changing.
We're, you know, there's like these very complicated, like we're going to get rid of honors and everyone's going to do this and this is going to happen and everything.
And I feel like we did try something and,
that we thought would be pretty much an easy fix and it sounds to me like that that did not work and so i just think that it's interesting because going forward when we're asked to make these changes um we should you know really think about like whether they're achieving the goals that that we really want our children to achieve so thank you very much i appreciate it when
Thanks um I think, given the shift that we just enacted with the contract, it makes a lot of sense to not make huge curricular shifts and sort of assess where we are, I would love to see a fairly detailed account of you know.
All the classes were that we have how many kids are you know, trying to sorry.
i'm.
just how many students are trying to get into classes.
We've often heard in the past of not having enough sections.
So I'm hoping that we can really clear that up and that anyone who wants to get into the course will have that opportunity.
I do think that if we're going to explicitly forbid, I'm sorry, how did you call it?
The double...
double override.
I guess my question is, what do we expect these students to do if they are not allowed to have an exception?
Because I can understand that there are going to be very few cases where this is appropriate, but there will be cases where this is appropriate.
And in those cases, what are we going to expect those students to do if one level of override is not sufficient to meet their needs?
Well,
it's hard to to I mean that's really a difficult example to come up with right, I mean a student who is not meeting the the recommending standard in a standard course.
What is our projection to say that they are going to be prepared to meet a higher level of success in an honors course?
And then we're further projecting that that student then is going to take a college level course, an AP course, and meet success there.
I think the answer is fairly simple.
We just create courses.
We just create tests for them.
So I mean, I can give you an example, which is very old.
It's for myself.
I did a two-year jump in both in math, and that was very appropriate for me.
I was not able to take a two-year jump in chemistry because that wasn't available.
And what happened was that I took the most advanced chemistry course that was available to me, which was a curved course, and I set the curve, which was neither helpful to my fellow students nor to myself.
And so I understand that this is going to happen very rarely, but it will happen.
There are going to be some students where that double jump is appropriate.
And I'm just wondering, what do we suggest they do if this is something that we're not going to allow?
We're building this program of studies for 1150 students.
Sure.
And the vast majority of those students in the vast majority of their courses are going to find that an override by a single section, by a single level, is the furthest override that is appropriate.
Definitely.
There are
You know, I don't expect that there are going to be 10 kids a year who are finding that this is an appropriate situation.
So I think it makes sense to for eleven hundred and forty eight of those students that we have the policy as it's written.
You know, there are.
Dr. extenuating circumstances and strange situations that we deal with every day.
Dr. That may fall outside of the typical lines.
Dr. And when those circumstances come up, we have the conversation about it and we determine as a team of educators what makes the most sense for that individual student, but the program of studies is is you know that's for all of us, and so I think it's we're legislating for for the broad demographic.
Okay, that's fair.
All right, thank you.
Adam, I see your hands back up.
Thank you.
I did, because I realized I just, I hadn't let off with this note.
And I just wanted to say, I know I asked for the early presentation.
I know that's something that we haven't done in the past.
I just wanted to really just say thank you to Dr. Botehlo, Mr. Palmer, Ms.
Keenan for kick-starting this process early.
and working with us here.
So just thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thanks, Adam.
I see Julie, you got your hand up again?
Oh, just, okay.
So Adam, I'm going to throw it over to you for policies, which is next up on our agenda here.
We've got discussion and possible vote to approve EBCF, EBCS, JLCC, and CB.
Thank you, Avi.
And Jane, I just did have a question.
I thought within the changes that we had discussed to kind of COVID related policies, we noted that we'd also kind of make inclusions to student handbooks and whatnot.
In the policy, what I have in my notes was that when
And I think I put it in the minutes, is that when you take the vote that you're going to vote, and this was something Veronica said, I think, that you're going to vote to also include it in the handbooks.
But I didn't note that you wanted to have the policy also say in the handbooks.
No, sorry, not the policy.
Yeah, I just want to make sure, because I know the agenda did not include any changes to the handbook.
So I just wanted to make sure that we were okay approving...
both kind of the second read, like approving policies, as well as the change within the handbook.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the minutes said that when you took the vote today, you were going to do it that way.
And I've got to find, let me see if I can find the minutes.
No, I'm curious in the minutes.
I just want to make sure that that is, uh,
Are we in a good place from the agenda as we are voting kind of the, right?
We have just a discussion possible for the policies.
I don't know if we need to list the corresponding changes to the handbook that would accompany the approval of the policies.
Make the motion to say, that's going to be your call.
Yeah, Adam, I think if you make that motion pending changes to the handbook, we can then just vote that handbook in the next meeting.
That's a fair point.
It doesn't have, we don't, I apologize, we didn't agenda the actual change to the handbook.
So we can vote that pending, that change to the handbook, and then go ahead and vote that handbook as a formality in the next meeting.
So I think if it's okay, if we're going to,
if we were gonna do that way, I'd rather just hold those policies as well.
And then just, we can do them all at the same time.
But you want me to not, you don't wanna vote on any second read tonight and you want me to on the next agenda have a separate item that calls for a vote in the change of the handbooks as well?
The only policy I'd like to vote tonight is CB, school superintendent, because that was unrelated.
Is there any discussion around that policy?
All right, if there's no discussion, I would entertain a motion to approve.
So moved.
Second.
All right, Adam.
Yes.
When?
Yes.
There's now.
Yes.
Julie.
I'm going to say no.
Okay, Shauna.
Yes.
And I'm a yes.
Motion carries 5-1.
All right, next up is school lunch liaison discussion and possible vote.
So I had agended this just because there's been a lot of discussion around school lunch.
It's something that I think is no secret.
I've been having conversations with administration and including our food service director over the last,
year plus about.
And I think as a formality, if we were to create a liaison for this committee, we might be able to gain some insights directly from our food service manager and also staff, sorry, director and also staff.
um, you know, a little bit more directly what we can be doing, how, what the ins and outs are.
I would say that, um, I know when is indicated to me that she also is interested in this field.
And, you know, I know personally when's background, um,
in the culinary fields is impressive and she knows a good deal about that as well.
And so I think perhaps maybe if the committee had the appetite for it, perhaps both Wen and I could serve as liaisons for this committee to our food lunch program, our school lunch program.
Go ahead, Julie.
Thanks Avi and thanks to both of you for offering to work
on this.
And I guess my question, I don't, I want to be very like kind of legalistic about this is we have four clearly delined areas of what we're supposed to be working on.
And school lunches, I don't, I mean, I don't really think we're directly supposed to be working on school lunches.
That's like something we've delegated.
So under what like
umbrella would we be having a liaison?
Because I don't think we should be necessarily in there recommending
foods or suppliers or anything like that.
I think maybe it would reasonably fall under our budgeting power, but I really am concerned that we're overstepping our bounds.
And then in a future situation, we might also be asked to overstep our bounds and then maybe it would be a time we would be uncomfortable.
So I was just wondering if you had any thoughts about that.
Adam?
Yeah, I guess my only thought would be if we have policies, and I believe actually we do have policies related to healthy food, sugary drinks, things of that nature, that there could be a policy relationship as well as we think about the food that we want to serve within the schools.
Yeah, I guess...
Julie, is that your hand back up?
OK.
I mean, I guess for me, my answer to that, Julie, I guess would be a liaison relationship doesn't change this board's authority in any way.
And then we have budget authority as it relates to the school food program.
I think we have policy to Adam's point around the school food.
I think we serve as liaisons to a lot of things that are not directly in our purview or things that we do delegate.
But still, I mean one example I would throw out Julie like not to make this a back and forth with something that does matter to you, but I would say that like calendar for example is something we traditionally allow our administration to work out and then bring to us for a vote.
And I think as a committee, we've decided that creating a committee for that could serve a benefit for our community and sort of open a new angle and looking at that.
So again, I want to be clear, just like other liaison relationships that we have from this board, it would be clear there's no authority being granted to Wynn and I in this example, merely a formalizing of a relationship.
Go ahead, Wynn.
I mean, you know, in our wellness program and our policies, we do actually explicitly say the school district will have a wellness committee, which consists of blah, blah, blah, parent, student, nurse, school, food service representative, school committee members, school administrator, member of the public.
So, you know, we do, I mean, I don't know if the wellness committee is currently on hiatus or if there is one, but certainly there is a spot for a school committee member.
Sure.
Chrisnell?
Yeah, actually, I appreciate the question from Julie.
I want to say, and I might have this drawn out, you'll have to correct me if I have it wrong, but the calendar group was a task force and there's like a couple of policies.
Was it a subcommittee?
Yeah.
Okay.
So then I guess would, you're using the term liaison and I guess, could it be a subcommittee?
That's kind of what I'm wondering.
Oh.
Can I just say one thing with the calendar subcommittee?
And I mean, I think that was, to the extent that we delegate that power, yes, but it's because we received a great deal of interest in Diwali as a holiday.
And I believe what we said was that the way to discuss this would be to be in a subcommittee that would do all the research and delegate the information so that it wouldn't have to be
debated because at the end of the day, we still have to approve the calendar.
So I think that was the purpose of the subcommittee, but I mean, I'm willing to be persuaded.
I'm just saying like, I just, I'm just concerned that, you know, for future precedents that were, you know, I don't want us to be overreaching a little bit and then sometime like not want to do something and then be like, well, you did this.
So I just want to make sure that everybody's comfortable with that.
So if you're comfortable.
I mean, I've heard, I get the sense where Julie is.
Adam, I don't know about where you're at.
Again, I would entertain a motion if people are comfortable voting this.
If not, this is certainly something we can table.
I'll make a motion to appoint Avi and Wen as liaisons to the Food Services Department.
I'll second it.
Thanks, Sean.
I don't know why you're falling to the bottom of my screen here.
So I apologize, Sean.
All right.
When?
Sorry, I shouldn't have.
Then you wouldn't have heard my chuckle.
No, it's OK.
I think we should table this, so no.
Right.
Point as to what to do here.
I guess we'll take the vote, Shawna.
Can I ask a question?
I'm really good at this.
Go ahead.
Can't you just volunteer as a parent?
Like a not a school committee member?
And i'm not i'm not trying to be like.
flipping but like.
If you just took your school committee hat off like can't you volunteer your knowledge and your time.
I don't think you can quite just turn just take your school committee hat off um.
I mean.
it's a question I don't have the answer to, I guess, do you.
But I vote yes, I vote yes again.
Adam.
Yes.
All right, Julie.
I mean, if we'll hear some updates that are relevant to policy and budget, then yes.
Okay.
I mean, I'm a yes.
I suppose when you can always withdraw.
I mean, I feel weird about the fact that one of the two people being appointed is the no vote.
You want my vote?
Oh yeah, sorry, personnel.
That's all right, I'm gonna know.
I actually wanna have more conversation around it and fit it in the right bucket, but I'm gonna know on where we're at right now.
Okay.
So counting the votes that passes four to two in one of the stranger votes, a better part of here.
Not sure what to do with that, but it passes four to two.
Next up is disposal of surplus property discussion and possible vote.
Dr. Patel, do you want to brief us on that?
Or Ellen, sorry, I saw you come off mute.
I'm happy to.
This is to dispose of the old Steinway from the high school.
Policy says that we do need school committee to approve the item.
Sure.
So if there are questions or discussion, we can certainly entertain that now, or we could, I would entertain a motion.
Shawna, do you have your hand up right now?
Do not.
Okay.
All right.
It's showing up.
All right.
I'll entertain a motion to approve.
So moved.
Second.
All right.
Adam.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Nguyen.
Yes.
Shawna.
Yes.
Now.
Yes.
And I'm a yes.
Motion carries 6-0.
One of the cleaner.
uh, boats of the night.
Next up, decision items.
I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of September 6th, 2023.
So moved.
Second.
All right, Julie.
I wasn't here.
Abstention.
Which is now.
Yeah.
Shauna.
I think I was out too.
Abstain.
Adam.
Yes.
When?
Yes.
And I am a yes, motion carries 4-0 with two abstentions.
All right, a vote to approve out-of-state field trip to Rhode Island, Sharon High School, sorry, to RISD, November 3rd, 2023.
So moved.
Second.
Chris Now.
Yes.
Shawna.
Yes.
Adam.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Gwen.
Yes.
And I'm a yes.
Motion carries 6-0.
Vote to, I need a motion to approve out of state overnight field trip request middle school grade eight to Washington, D.C.
June 4th to June 7th.
Oh, yes.
So moved.
Second.
All right, personnel.
Yes.
Adam.
Yes.
Gwen.
Yes.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Donna.
I give up, yes.
And I'm a yes, motion carries 6-0.
I need a motion to approve out-of-state overnight field trip request sharing high school model UN Brown University November 10th to 12th, 2023.
So moved.
Second.
All right, personnel.
Yes.
Donna.
Yes.
Adam.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Gwen.
Yes.
Nine to yes.
Motion carries, 6-0.
I need a vote to approve out-of-state overnight field trip request, Sharon High School grade 12 and 11, space permitting, Quebec, January 12th to 15th, 2024.
So moved.
Second.
Grisnell.
Yes.
Shawna.
Yes.
Adam.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Gwen.
Yes.
And I'm a yes.
Motion carries 6-0.
I need a vote to approve and authorize changes of dates for the Sharon High School French Exchange Program.
So moved.
Prisoner No.
Yes.
Adam.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Gwen.
Yes.
Donna.
Yes.
And I'm a yes, motion carries 6-0.
Are there any announcements or updates?
Can I say something?
Yeah.
Oh, great.
So I just want to congratulate the varsity soccer players.
The girls varsity team had their senior night this past Friday and the boys have their senior night this coming Friday.
So it'd be great if everybody wanted to come out and watch the boys play.
Go Sharon Eagles.
All right.
And I see Robert Hutton.
Hi, how are you?
I'm good.
Do you have an announcement or update?
No.
Well, good thing I didn't have to raise my hand in real life.
It's been 10 minutes.
But I just wanted to thank Wen for mentioning about that wellness committee.
And if there is a way that, you know, the public... All right.
The executive session...
Mark Benthien, ECA- pursuing to mgl see 30 a s 21 a three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with the FDA if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining and litigation position of the Sharon school committee and the Chair so declares not to return to open session.
Leah Wilson, WPE Co- Before you make the motion of the i'm not sure unless you know something I don't know or Dr Botehlo i'm not sure there is a need for executive session tonight is there, Dr Botehlo.
We discussed possibly going into executive session.
Do we have that need?
We can pass.
We can do it next time.
It's fine.
All right.
Skip that.
I will entertain a motion to adjourn.
So moved.
Second.
All right.
Adam.
Yes.
Sorry.
Fresnel.
Yes.
Julie.
Yes.
Wen.
Yes.
Shawna.
Yes.
And I'm a yes.
Motion carries 6-0.
And have a nice night, everybody.