All right, it's six o'clock.

Welcome to the December 20th, 2023 meeting of the Sharon School Committee, an earlier than usual school committee meeting.

So hopefully anybody who has a time conflict will be able to catch us on a replay on Sharon TV.

First up, community updates.

And as always, we will begin with public comments.

Same ground rules as always applies.

Two minutes per speaker.

It can be on any topic.

And we just ask that people please adhere to that time frame.

Does anybody want to keep time or should I just do it myself?

Seeing no volunteers, I will set the clock.

Let me get my stopwatch up. All right, first up, we have Casey McLaughlin.

Hi.

Hi, Casey.

We're ready when you start. I will hit start.

All right, thank you. A bunch of us parents met with different administrators throughout the year, inquiring specifically if woke garbage was being pushed in schools.

And we were told that it wasn't. Despite citing concrete examples of our children's lived experiences in different classrooms, we were told there is nothing in the curriculum pertaining to gender ideology or Marxist dogma.

Well, what do we have here? The entire 10th grade is reading a book called Pet by Awakey Amazey.

It is the very first novel by this trans author, and I'm wondering what quality literature it displaced.

The protagonist is a Black trans girl, which is explored in the very first chapter, who simply declares herself a girl at age three.

And her parents, quote, started researching puberty blockers and the hormones she might need. When she was 10, Jam got an implant with the blockers, which she swapped out at 13 for a hormone implant, which administered estrogen to her body.

Jam was 15 when she told her parents that she wanted surgery.

It wasn't like how it used to be back when the world was different for girls like her.

She didn't have to wait to become an adult for her wants around her body to be acted on.

Her parents understood how important this was for her well-being.

The story is an Afro sci-fi fantasy of a utopian community that had once been overrun by monsters until it was saved by angels who eradicated them.

Guess who the monsters are?

Police, teachers, judges, the mayor.

And guess who the angels are?

The social justice warriors who tear down statues of rich men, rewrite laws, and prosecute, then sentence former police officers to, quote, restitution and rehabilitation.

As well as taking everyone's guns away.

This is the cancer of the guy.

White versus people of color and all the other minority groups in a gross game of oppression Olympics.

Utopia is achieved when opposing voices are eradicated.

And what this book does is basically promote division and hate and feeds the fire that leads to violence and it's happening in the community.

So thank you for letting me go a little bit over.

But this is a terrible book.

Thank you. Next up, Mira Blinky.

Hi.

Thank you.

Members of the school committee, I came here tonight.

I plan to talk about a teacher who disciplined a student for not using preferred pronouns.

The mom emailed the school and emailed you guys, but she knows that her child had a First Amendment right against compelled speech. She threatened to sue. And honestly, the matter should stop right there. Instead, I'm going to be reading a police report to you because a Sharon administrator on a Saturday morning went to the police and filed a report.

And the police came to this mom's house and terrified her child. I'm going to be cutting out people's names to avoid more humiliation.

At approximately 1350 hours, we responded to address and made contact with the mom.

The mom was informed of the concern of her email and the wording used. The mom stated that she had no time meant or intended any threats of violence towards the school or staff.

She stated to me that she meant that she would pull the trigger by contacting an attorney to sue the schools if they didn't leave her kids alone. The mom forwarded me the email correspondence she sent to school and it will be attached to this report.

After reviewing the email correspondence and its context, it was determined that the mom's use of the word pull the trigger meant taking legal actions against the school system.

There were no threat of violence made by the mom.

This report was pure retaliation by a Sharon school official.

The email was clearly a threat to sue and the police saw that once the mom, not the official who filed the report, showed them the email.

And now this lawsuit is probably even more likely.

And this is not the first time that this official retaliated.

She had leaked emails written by the mom with the mom's name on it.

And those emails ended up on Facebook and the mom was harassed.

Honestly, I don't even know what to say anymore.

All right. Thank you.

Matt McDonald.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Matt McDonald.

I'm at 237 Edge Hill Road.

And I just got on this meeting tonight.

I haven't been on a school committee meeting before. But just wanted to let the committee know that I'm part of a group of neighbors who is opposed to a proposed development on Edge Hill Road, where an applicant has applied to the town for preferential treatment under Chapter 40B to build a 20-unit subdivision, or not subdivision, but duplex community.

And basically a piece of land that would support three houses by current zoning.

And one of the aspects of it is that there's going to be about 42 bedrooms in this development.

And there's a potential for a lot of students to be put into the school system from this development if it's approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals.

And their pro forma shows tax revenues around $47,000 a year.

But there's a potential for, you know, 40 plus students to be brought into the school system.

So I just wanted to make sure that your committee was aware of this. And if there's any opportunity for you to comment to the ZBA about that, that it is on the next meeting at the ZBA on January 10th.

And we feel that it's going to be, it could possibly be approved that night.

And I don't know if the committee, your committee had commented to the ZBA about it at all. But I just wanted to bring it to your attention and to the forefront because it's a preferential treatment.

It's, we don't need to do it. The town doesn't need to do it because we're over our 10% affordable housing.

And I think it's going to have a very bad effect on the taxation and such in the town. And the potential for a burden on the school system as well. So we'd appreciate your committee's position to the project, if possible.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you.

Dan Newman.

Hi, everyone.

Some quick thoughts about the social media policy, Policy BK. It's on the agenda tonight.

This is a friendly comment.

I've written to you before with policy recommendations.

A large part of what I do is policy writing.

I'm an attorney. I create policies.

I take that very seriously.

I don't think I've ever commented before on how school committee should govern itself.

Somebody fact check me on that. But I consider that your prerogative.

Officers, subcommittees, that's all you.

I think I've been respectful of the committee in that way.

But if you change your social media policy, that's different, isn't it? Because that would be more than just governing yourselves.

It would restrict everybody who serves on the committee in the future.

If I'm on the committee, it would restrict my rights. If someone else is on the committee in the future, it would restrict theirs.

It would restrict how people on school committee can talk with their constituents.

So it affects others in the community.

That's why I'm commenting on it.

I reviewed the existing policy.

It has guidelines in it. It talks about open meeting law.

It asks members to be respectful.

All that's fine.

But what would feel too far to me is if it turns into a speech code.

I don't know if that's something you would even consider.

But a speech code to me feels too far. I can tell you as an attorney, this is a very fraught and litigious area of First Amendment law.

Courts give speech restrictions strict scrutiny review.

That's the highest one.

There's a presumption speech restrictions are illegal.

I've seen policies in other towns that, in my opinion, definitely infringe on First Amendment rights of elected officials.

So in my opinion, it's just asking for a lawsuit.

If it goes that direction, maybe you're not considering that. But our district does not need any more lawsuits. I think you agree.

So my opinion is the existing policy is good.

Maybe this is just a routine review tonight and you already agree with me. But if you do update it, please just be cautious.

People don't give up rights when they're elected. I want those rights for you.

I want you to use them. And anything like a speech code, what opinions you can say or can't say, I think you'd agree that feels like it's true. Two minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Seeing no further hands, I'll throw it to Adam Shane. I'm going to do correspondence.

Although Julie is here.

Julie, were you prepared to do correspondence?

I know Adam was in the event that you were late.

I had to take my daughter to her tutor.

So I would appreciate it. I would appreciate Adam covering for me. Thank you. I just didn't want to steal your role. All right. Go ahead, Adam. So here's the school committee correspondence summary, December 20th, 2023.

The school committee received seven pieces of correspondence between December 6th, 2023 and 9 a.m.

Or at 9 a.m. Excuse me. And December 20th, 2023 at 9 a.m.

We received one edition of Millie's Metco update, which provided updates on the 39th annual Metco Directors Conference.

Metco also plans to provide several professional development opportunities through its racial equity and integration committee.

Several community members wrote to express their concerns regarding the school committee's handling of recent divisive issues within the community with suggestions that the school committee institute stronger protocols when handling complaints and to ensure that there is sufficient and comprehensive training in DEI.

There was a request to include a discussion of the social media policy on an upcoming school committee meeting. We received an inquiry regarding field trip policies, particularly related to overnight field trips.

A parent wrote to the school committee regarding their student and concerns about completed speech, particularly related to the use of pronouns.

There were several follow-up emails related to this issue.

A member of Lafayette College Government Lab reached out to the school committee regarding participation in a survey related to public service. And a representative from DECA, DECA, reached out to the school committee to request financial support for the annual DECA competition.

As always, thank you to Jane for putting that summary together.

Thanks, Adam.

All right. Do we have an update from a student rep? If so, can they just raise their hand? I know the student rep changes from time to time.

I do not see a student rep here.

So I'll throw it over to our superintendent, Dr. Patella, for general updates and a quick overview of the calendar process.

All right.

Thank you. And thank you, Jane, for putting up the presentation.

So first of all, I just want to thank everyone for their patience and cooperation on Monday.

Certainly, the weather was very severe and very challenging with all the down trees and complications with power.

But we did the both on the town side, including the police and fire and DPW were great and communicated with us about things as they occurred so that we could try to make, you know, creative plans for them. And I especially want to thank Fran Derry, who was working out all the logistics as I sat with her. But she was doing all the hard work in order to communicate with schools and then with families about places that we couldn't get to on the buses. So I thank people for that. And thank you for the patience on Tuesday as our middle school and high school were without power. And so now we've used one of the one of our five snow days and our last day of school for now is June 14th.

So we have winter break coming up at the end of this week and we will return.

So on the Tuesday, January 2nd, our next scheduled school committee meeting is for January 17th. And some of the upcoming topics include a curriculum instruction presentation, a calendar review and approval, as well as a series of meetings on our FY25 operating budget.

So I hope everyone has a really well-deserved and relaxing break with family and friends.

As far as the calendar development process, we usually start that right around this time.

So the district will draft several draft versions of the school calendar.

We'll share that with the school committee to get feedback, but also share a draft with the SDH to obtain feedback.

In late January, district shares the SDH calendar of preference with the school committee and the school committee votes to approve.

And typically we're in early February, that is approved.

So we can be posted for families so they can make plans for the upcoming year. Because the contract requires that the work year teachers will begin no earlier than the day after Labor Day and terminate no later than June 30th, unless we have some kind of agreement with the SDH. So because we've, you know, very typically over the last 15 years started before Labor Day, part of our process to get that agreement on a starting date with the SDH, which we will again this year. We also have an extended calendar, which lists many of the cultural and religious observations, both those of which a day off of school is, is occurs as well as others, many others, which they do not.

We also have developed the school committee, developed the calendar subcommittee this year, which is really analyzing our current practices, getting input from the community, and looking to just have discussions about if any possible changes might occur, whether it be next year or in the future.

Again, our best practice is to get the calendar out by mid-February so that families can begin to plan.

And so we're shooting for that again this year. That is it for my update.

Thanks, Dr. Patel. Julie?

You got to unmute yourself, Julie.

Julie, you got to unmute.

She's not a host for some reason. Okay. Okay. We're great. Thank you. I just, Peter, I apologize for not closing the loop with you on this, but we were actually advised by council.

So we were advised by council to talk about the calendars, the proposed calendars in executive session, because it was a change.

It might be a change in working conditions, and therefore we shouldn't speak publicly.

But I would like to thank the over 850 respondents who gave us all of the data.

And I have gone through all of it, and we will be discussing it in executive session.

I just wanted the community to know that we asked for information, and we appreciate it all that you gave us.

But we're going to have to make a little bit of a different effort than have a public conversation.

Thank you.

And kind of related to that, the SDA did survey some of their members, and we're waiting for that kind of a synopsis of that to provide to Julie in the calendar subcommittee, as well as the school committee as a whole.

Awesome.

Thank you, Dr. Vitello, and thanks, Julie, for that as well.

All right. Next up, discussion items.

First up is athletic program studies.

I saw that Mike McCaffrey had just logged in.

So let's go ahead with discussion items, athletic program updates.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Am I just going to read through and review the slides as we go here?

Is that what you'd like me to do?

That works. I mean, I think you want to just give us a sort of quick summary on each slide.

You don't have to read through the... Sure.

Yeah. So, Jane, if we could go back to the top.

Folks, it's a pleasure to be here tonight, obviously, having just started in July, getting through the fall season and moving on here into the winter.

Currently have Milford in our gym, getting ready for our boys' varsity basketball home opener.

Freshmen lost by one point, and the JV are holding their own right now. So, looking forward to the home opener tonight.

Athletics in review, obviously, we're middle school through high school with our programming.

Fall, winter, spring, we run some sports in the fall and the winter down at the middle school.

And looking forward to working with the folks down there to maybe develop a little bit more scheduling.

I know I've talked to some of my cohorts in the area to try to find some more middle school competitions for us across all three seasons, but certainly in the fall and in the spring.

We're members of the MIAA, Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.

We're also, as part of that, we're members of the Hockamock League, which is considered throughout the state as one of the stronger leagues.

For instance, we just had two Super Bowl football champions, King Phillip and Foxborough High School, both of which are in the Hockamock League.

Fortunately, we only played Foxborough this year. We didn't have to play KP, but we will next year, that's for sure.

Hockamock League is 12 teams in total, and it's based on enrollments by the various school systems.

Most recently, we were elevated into the Kelly Rex division, which is the large school division with our reported enrollment back in October.

It's going to be some challenges ahead for us in the Hockamock League competitively.

We did put forth a formal appeal to stay in the Davenport League in football or play an independent schedule once again.

We've done that three times throughout the history of the program.

It was denied by the league ADs and the league principals in two separate votes.

So next year, we will be members of the Kelly Rex division with Taunton, Attleboro, Franklin, Milford, King Phillip.

And what that means essentially is we'll still play Stoughton, Oliver Ames, North Attleboro, Mansfield, Canton, and Foxborough.

But in the Kelly Rex, we will play each of those aforementioned teams twice. So it could be a bit of a challenge for many of our teams.

Football, we only play once.

And we'll see where that goes.

It's a two-year cycle of scheduling.

In my appeal to the Hockamock League ADs and the principals, I tried to put forth a reconfiguration of the Hockamock League that would in total give us three divisions of four teams each to help ease some of the competitive needs or challenges, however way you want to look at it.

And do it in a geographic fashion that would also ease the burden we have currently on transportation issues to and from games. So I think there's a lot of work to be done still, but the next two years, it's going to be a challenge for many, if not all of our teams.

But I think our students and our coaches are more than capable of meeting that challenge.

As you can see on the screen right now, the sport's available throughout the fall, the winter, in the spring, always looking to maybe augment what we have or look for opportunities.

Having only been here a brief time, I've had conversations with various students.

And we're going to explore some different opportunities, as well as the Hockamock League is working hard to start a boys' volleyball division.

Several of the teams already play an independent schedule, and it's one of those sports, I think, our gym is wide open in the springtime.

It could be a nice offering to have girls' volleyball in the fall and boys' volleyball in the springtime.

So it's nothing imminent, but it is something that we're going to explore.

I also had a student in here last week proposing that we consider starting a fencing team, which I thought was very unique and different.

I do know there are several schools throughout the state of Massachusetts who field fencing teams.

And again, we'll look into that, make no commitments, no guarantees.

But as times change, we need to meet the needs of our students and our participants.

And if it makes sense and we can sustain it with good participation numbers, I think it's a great opportunity for everybody involved.

Again, the slide up currently is reflecting the middle school sports, field hockey, cross country in the fall, track in the spring. And I think speaking with Jeff Sonis, our varsity wrestling coach here at the high school, he's very excited to see this wrestling program being offered in the springtime down at the middle school.

I think wrestling, along with tennis and basketball and a few other sports, are worthy of developing at the youth level here in town. And Jeff wants to get behind those efforts, obviously, to augment his program going forward.

And then, obviously, there's a good offering of intramurals in the wintertime immediately after school at the middle school.

Participation numbers. You know, I've had a chance to take a few lookbacks in our registration system.

And, you know, I think our numbers are tracking as they traditionally have.

This fall, we were approximately 390, 400 students competing.

Those numbers get a little skewed.

Those are kind of raw numbers that you see on the screen. We have some students register who don't follow through or elect not to participate.

Or, in some instances, they're cut from a team and they elect not to try another sport.

So those registrations, those are kind of raw numbers pulled right out of the registration system. Middle school this fall, we had close to 130 kids participate in fall sports.

And that's cross-country and field hockey.

So cross-country is always going to bring nice, healthy numbers and great activity for our kids to compete, no matter at the high school level or the middle school level. And I don't expect any changes in the numbers in the spring of 24.

Very similar, I would imagine, to what we have in the spring of 23.

So student participation is great.

And I think there's, you know, a lot of opportunities.

I've said to a few kids on a couple different occasions, you know, if you can't find a sport to play, you're not looking hard enough. I think, you know, trying a sport for the first time or participating in a sport that perhaps you're not an all-star in develops different characteristics and it really puts forth a competitive spirit and a leadership and develops some of that grit and desire that you need going forward.

So I tell kids, you know, athletes play sports and you're all athletes.

So play as many sports as you can because eventually you're not going to be able to play any and make the memories.

So you can see the breakdown of the varsity, the JV and the freshman levels and different commitments at each level.

Obviously varsity, you know, we're competing as, you know, as high as we can.

We're trying to put the best players out there on the field. Not necessarily putting wins over anything else, but at the same point, you need to be competitive to be out there in a varsity uniform.

JV and freshman, both instructional, trying to develop them into the varsity system.

You know, I call it the outdoor classroom.

And anytime with our students in extracurriculars, it's another classroom of their day, whether it's learning skills or learning relationships with teammates or how to cope with adversity or success.

So those are our three levels and five, six days a week.

Varsity, you know, we'll compete on the weekends, invitational cross-country meets, invitational wrestling meets and some tournaments over the holidays as well.

So a little bit more of a requirement at the varsity level. Some observations early on.

I mean, I'd like to tip my hat to our boys cross-country team. They captured first place in the Hockamock Championship this past fall, which was really thrilling and exciting.

I got to see both of our cross-country teams, our boys and girls, compete out at Fort Devons.

A couple weekends this fall and some fantastic runners, great program.

Coaches do a great job with our boys and girls out there for sure.

And then I think, you know, probably the highlight of the fall was our unified basketball team. I know there was some concerns early on and scheduling and whatnot, but, you know, having run and started unified programs at my previous school, I certainly understand that those schedules come together in October when our gyms start to open up towards the end of the volleyball seasons.

But we had a wonderful time, great coaching staff, and I think anybody who had a chance to look in on our unified season, we played three home games, three away games, and put a five-in-one record out there.

But more important than the record was just the thrill that our kids and our students also coming into the gym for the home games and supporting our unified team was something to behold and enjoyed by everyone.

So, you know, that's kind of the rough part of it.

Going forward, we have recently posted for a new football coach.

Our previous coach, longtime football coach, Dave Morris, has stepped down.

So we've begun that resume process, and we will get after it after the new year as we head into January.

We're also looking to fill roles in girls lacrosse heading into the spring, and I think it'll be positive on both regards, putting some committees together and having our student-athletes involved in interviewing our coaches and preparing for the seasons ahead.

Awesome.

That was a great overview.

Thank you so much for doing that, Mike.

And I just wanted to say, I think, you know, to your point about the unified basketball, we heard a lot of really positive feedback about the experience that our students had. And also, you know, not to put any of the other programs from the fall down at all. It was really exciting to have one of our, you know, one of our teams go out there and really kick some butt. I know we had kind of a tricky fall schedule across the board, but I know our unified basketball team had some great blowout wins, and that was exciting for the student body.

So thank you for your work on that.

See, Julie Rowe has her hand up. Yes, just a very quick question.

Thank you for the presentation.

The personnel and I had met with your predecessor a couple of years ago regarding more formal middle school sports.

And I was just wondering if that, I think it's great, all of the intramurals and the club teams, but it would be fun to start competing against other schools.

And I realized, like, most people belong to the different leagues, and those have different schedules.

So I was just wondering if that was on your radar at all.

Absolutely.

I think, you know, I got an eyeful of it this fall.

Stepping in as I did, I realized there's some things that we could certainly develop and perhaps do a little bit better in getting those programs up and running.

I did have a chance to speak with my predecessor about this a couple times throughout the fall at our AD meetings.

And, you know, I think one of the things is, number one, we need other middle schools in the area to have teams so we could play them.

It doesn't do us much good to have a team if we have nobody to compete against.

And then secondly is coaching. Coaching is, you know, it's a valuable asset no matter what the level of activity or athletics.

And I think we need to try to devise or develop more interest amongst our staff at the middle school to get behind some of these teams and lead them. Trying to find outside coaches to come in and work the hours at a middle school in the afternoon is a challenge.

And it's a challenge here at the high school as well. You know, there's nothing like having faculty or staff coach our teams immediately after school.

In fact, I think it's, I hate to say it, but I think it's one of those things that's kind of melting away on us. And so I think those are the challenges at the middle school.

They can certainly be overcome and they can certainly be developed, you know, over time and scheduling.

I know that I reached out up the 495 belt trying to find track meets and field hockey games for our team this year.

And, you know, the time that I did it in September was a little bit late, but I'm ahead of that curve now. And I've contacted those people who helped us in the fall to pick up a few games to perhaps get in that cycle with some of those teams that we can play, you know, six or eight games over the two months that we're there.

So it's a work in progress for sure. It's going to take, you know, some resources.

Quite frankly, it adds to my load. But at the same point, I think it's worthwhile because ultimately it benefits all of our programs up here. If we can get the kids involved sooner.

Awesome.

All right. Thank you so much for that presentation.

I appreciate your time and I hope you enjoy the home opener that Jim should rock.

I think.

Awesome.

All right. Thanks so much.

All right. Go Eagles.

Go Eagles.

There you go.

All right. Next up.

Oh, thank you. So next up on our agenda, I've got the SHS gymnasium naming Dudley Davenport review and updated plan. So I do just want to say that after I don't see anybody on the call, I believe, who was looking to say anything.

I had spoken to Luke Kafka, who was part of the group who had approached us in the first place.

If you'll remember, this committee voted unanimously to approve naming the gym after Dudley after a long time Sharon educator and coach Dudley Davenport.

And so this this was just an agenda item around a possible presentation around the signage.

Dr. Botello and I, I think we're on the same page.

That's an operational item that belongs to administration.

We had voted to approve.

So I don't think there was any need for them to come before us. I see Dr. Dusell has her hand up.

Go ahead, Dr. Dusell.

Oh, that's weird. So the committee that is working on this asked me to speak on their behalf if they weren't able to be here.

Basically, what in their plans has changed is there was an understanding that they had. And I think that I don't want to speak for what where you guys all thought, but that it was going to be a plaque. What they are now proposing, and this is the change and they just want to make sure before they go ahead with this plan that it is 100 percent vetted, is actually including Mr. Davenport's signature on the court.

So on the court, you would see I would say it's probably going to be about a four four foot by one foot. And it is his full signature.

And it would be on both sides of the court, you know, the north side and the south side.

And their organization is paying for it. It's part of the fundraising that they did. They just want to make sure that that is when the naming rights were given, that signage, whatever signage they might want, was part of that.

Thank you. Yeah. So, I mean, I, for one, think that's a very cool idea.

It is definitely in line with how a lot of universities named courts.

That was what had been explained to me when I spoke to Luke Kafka.

I think the only clarification here just about not coming to the table is that what we voted really wasn't necessarily around how they were going to name it. We voted to name the gym. And so, again, like we would just defer to administration on how they choose to decorate the court, not to oversimplify, but the logos, things like that on the scoreboard, et cetera, don't come in front of the school committee.

And I think we're in a dangerous position if we start sort of bringing to this table and thereby giving the impression to the public that this committee oversees signage in the buildings.

So I appreciate for sure where you're coming from, Dr. Dussaud and that committee.

And actually, I think it's very cool for the public to hear exactly how that's going to be done here at the table, because I think that's a very cool way to honor Dudley Davenport.

But again, we'll leave this as a discussion item because I don't think there's anything for us to vote here.

So thank you for your work on that committee.

Thank you to that committee. And I'm looking forward to seeing Dudley Davenport's signature on the Sharon Eagles court.

Next up, we have the school committee social media policy BK review and discussion.

So I was asked, as it has been read during correspondence, I was asked by members of the public in an email to consider changes to our social media policy.

I agreed that, you know, there was a large enough contingent of people asking that question that I decided to agenda it.

I would ask if there's anybody here that's a member of this committee that has any appetite to make any changes to our social, our current social media policy, which does cover essentially the legalities around open meeting law and how use of social media should be sort of regulated or watched for that purpose.

Unless there's an appetite here to to make any changes.

I don't necessarily know if there's a robust discussion that has to happen. And I will just say one thing that I did consult counsel on their view on any policy like this.

And I was told that, you know, to keep in mind that the policy.

Should be enforceable.

And there is there are statutes regarding freedom of speech, as a member of the public commented on earlier.

You know, so you can certainly have policies.

There's there's really a question of how they would be enforced.

So, again, I would just ask if there's anybody on this committee that feels like this is something that they would like to see a change on. Speak. Feel free to speak up.

All right. Adam. Yeah, I'll say so.

I don't know that or I don't think we need any change.

I just wanted to note. So I reviewed the MASC, which the Massachusetts Association of School Committees maintains a policy reference manual and it contains links to a large number of other districts in the state.

So you can kind of review their policies. All the policies in this area really mirror kind of what we have in place already, primarily focusing on ensuring that there's compliance with the open meeting law.

And then there's also generally a separate policy that deals with kind of staff and whatnot in terms of interaction with students and things of that nature.

So I think our our current policies are in line with with the MASC, which is as a practice what we generally try to do.

Makes sense.

All right. Thank you to our policy chair, Adam Shane.

All right. Next up, we have agenda to town of Sharon planning board potential bylaw change discussion.

We did hear back from our town administrator earlier today.

I think we members of administration heard from our town administrator.

This is apparently a little bit cart before the horse.

I think perhaps I misjudged where we were in the process.

And it sounds like there's some there's some likelihood that this is not something we'd ever even have to discuss. But certainly there's some time before.

And if this does become something for us to discuss, we'll take it again.

And for now, I'm going to table that item.

So now going to decision items, I would entertain a vote to approve the minutes of November 29th, 2023.

So moved.

Second.

Veronica.

Yes.

Fresnel.

Yes.

Gwen.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Motion carries.

6-0.

Would entertain a motion to approve the minutes of December 6th, 2023.

So moved.

Second.

Fresnel.

Yes.

Veronica.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Gwen.

Yes.

And Adam.

Yes.

I'm a yes. Motion carries.

6-0. Are there any announcements or updates?

Bobby. I just wanted to say, like, Sharon basketball is hot this week because Nate Katznelson was named Hakamak Player of the Week. So that's pretty exciting for him and for our basketball program.

And on Monday, the Boston Globe wrote an entire article about Andrew Ferguson, the coach, and the team, and how our stunning success on the hard court is rooted in hard work and a winning culture.

So I commend that to anyone.

And I just wanted to point out that the girls varsity is having a pack the nest basketball game on Friday.

So I think it's 6 o'clock or 6 o'clock.

So if people want to come and see the girls play, come on Friday.

Absolutely.

I've been lucky to call a few of the Sharon girls basketball games for Sharon TV.

And they are an exciting bunch.

They are loaded with some talent.

They're exciting to watch. And so I certainly hope we pack the gym for them on Friday night.

And, yes, as Julie mentioned, Nate Katznelson was named Hakamak Player of the Year. I think he had 47 points just shy of the all-time Sharon single-game record on opening night.

And I think he hit six three-pointers in both of the first two Eagles games. So I hope the Eagles keep rolling.

I hope that the girls team starts finding some wins because they are a talented bunch that is playing hard.

And if that's all the announcements we have, then I will move us into executive session.

Just say quickly, Player of the Week.

I think you said Player of the Week.

Oh, well, sorry.

Again, speaking of... Getting ahead of yourself.

Getting excited about Nate.

All right.

Pursuant to MGLC 30A S21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with the STA, if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the Sharon School Committee, and the chair so declares not to return to open session.

So moved.

Okay.

All right.

Julie.

Yes.

Lynn.

Yes.

Veronica.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Pursuant.

Yes.

Naomi, yes.

Motion carries.

We will see you on the executive session.

Everybody else, have a terrific holiday season and holiday break.

And we will see everybody on the other side.

Thank you. Thank you. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.