All right.

Welcome to the Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 meeting of the Sharon School Committee.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Attendance by Board of Commission members will be remote and remote attendance shall count towards a quorum. The meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV. If you elect to enable your webcam, your image and background may be broadcast with or without sound.

We're beginning the meeting off with our public hearing on school choice. The Sharon School Committee will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, April 24th, 2024 to discuss Sharon Public Schools participation in FY24.

I think, is that right?

I think school year 23, 24. I think that might be FY25, school year 24, 25 school choice program.

This hearing is being made consistent with the requirements of MGL section 12B of chapter 76. So I will open up the public hearing and look for hands from the public.

I see Judy Crosby.

Thank you, Avi.

And I apologize for any background noise.

I'm in an unusual location.

So I wanted to advocate that the school committee reconsider its straw poll stated position that it would not support school choice.

In addition to the additional funding for each student, the narrative at the last meeting was that we're bursting at the seams, our population of students is full. And in fact, by the school committee's own budget book, our population of students has declined year over year, from fiscal year 23 to fiscal year 24 by over 70 students, and is projected to do the same for next year. Unless you want to tell me the budget book information was fully inaccurate, you're going to lose approximately 140 students from fiscal year 23 to fiscal year 25. As you have all learned recently by diving in on chapter 70, that's not going to do good things for you, especially at the high school level.

So I think you really need to reconsider the idea of school choice of doing it in a limited way, with specific seats in grades where you have space, particularly at the high school, because you're you're adding fuel to your budget fire, and the building is burning.

So please consider that. And and look at those enrollment numbers, because it's in the budget book materials that you published.

Your population has not gone up, it's going down, and it's not showing signs of stopping.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, seeing no further hands.

I'll move us to a school committee vote if folks are comfortable.

Are there any questions or comments from the table?

All right, if not, then I would entertain a motion. I just wanted to ask if Peter could review the actual amount of money that we would receive per student were we to vote to to allow school choice?

How much money would we get per student, like after the town takes its share? Peter Carr, Ph.D.: Well, we haven't had it before.

So if if the town does what traditionally does with incoming funds, we would receive we could receive 75% of that 5000.

So 3750.

But we haven't done it before.

So we're not. Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

That's that's what I would expect.

But it's not. Again, it hasn't been done before.

It's not like all funds coming in from the town are always allotted in that way. And oh, may I follow up Bobby?

Sure.

Oh, so, Peter, can you tell us about the constraints for school choice that that we have? So when we we don't have the opportunity to choose?

I mean, we have the opportunity to choose the grade Peter Carr, Ph.D.: That we're allowing students into cracks, but we don't get to pick students.

Peter Carr, Ph.D.: Correct.

Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

Right.

So if somebody like regardless of what their, you know, background is like so if somebody if somebody needed an expensive outplacement, we wouldn't know that in advance and we would be responsible for the outplacement.

Is that correct? Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

No, that's not the outplacement would they if they did the funding for special education students is bore by the home district.

So what what what where Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

There, there can be factors of unpredictability, not as if, you know, if a student Peter Carr, Ph.D.: You know needed something Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

And the you know, say here in in in Sharon and reimbursement rate wasn't you know quite as high as is the actual cost that were where that can get to repeat, but it can also work the reverse way where, you know, they get an IA and that IA is not a one to one IA and they're shared with other kids and we get some benefit so it can work either way. Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

Okay, so the the what you're saying is that it's not predictable if we would actually make money on this or lose money on this. Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

Generally, we would we would we would gain money, but yes, for each particular kid, it's not completely predictable, but out if a student was placed out of the districts and that would be bore by the home district.

Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

Thank you. Peter Carr, Ph.D.:

Thanks, Julie.

Sean.

Sean O' Thanks, Avi.

Sean O' I'm sorry I have to be off the video tonight. Sean O' Just a quick point of clarification to Julie's question, Dr. Patella.

Sean O' If a if a student's home LEA assumes responsibility for tuition costs for out and out of district placement, does our district assume transportation costs or does the students then enrollment in our school choice become void? Sean O' Right, so like I'm just thinking like if we have a student who is part of our school choice Sean O' If a student is a student who is part of our school choice, is that if a student is a student who is part of our school choice, then no longer derives benefit from our public school Sean O' setting and requires a more restrictive educational back like setting, does the student then lose their place in our school choice? Sean O' I'm 99% sure the answer is that yes, they would lose.

Sean O' If they're if they're not, if their services are not being provided by our district, Sean O' It's it's borr by the home district, including transportation.

Sean O' And so then we would have a vacancy in that seat? Sean O' Correct.

Sean O' If we open up the seat, we don't have vacancy. Sean O' Thank you. Sean O' All right.

Sean O' If anybody has a motion, I would entertain a motion.

Sean O' So moved.

Sean O' So moved. Sean O' So we have to make a full motion though. Sean O' Yeah, I just didn't know which way. Sean O' I mean, I'm happy to word the motion if folks tell me, but I mean, Sean O' We can either make a motion to say no to school to accept the superintendent's recommendation of not being school choice district, or we could make a motion to become a school's choice district. Sean O' I make a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation.

Sean O' Okay, need a second.

Sean O' Okay.

Sean O' I'm happy to hear that. Sean O' I'm happy to hear that. Sean O' Second. Sean O' All right, Veronica. Sean O' Yes. Sean O' Julie.

Sean O' Yes. Sean O' Shauna.

Sean O' No. Sean O' Okay.

Sean O' And I am a yes. Motion carries for one. Sean O' All right, next up, we have an odd agenda tonight.

Sean O' This was a hearing that was scheduled.

Sean O' And so we wanted, we needed to adhere to that time, but we are going to be coming back to open at 830, regardless of when our executive session ends. Sean O' And so, pursuant to MGLC 30A-S21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with the STA and school assistance, and pursuant to MGLC 30A-S21A7 Sean O' To comply with or act under the authority of any general or specific law or federal grant in aid requirements, 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 to return to open session. Sean O' Can I get a motion?

Sean O' So moved.

Sean O' Second.

Sean O' All right, Sean O' Shauna.

Sean O' Yes.

Sean O' Veronica.

Melissa O' Yes.

Sean O' Wend. Sean O' Yes. Sean O' Julie. Melissa O' Yes. Sean O' And I'm a yes. Motion carries 5-0.

We will move into executive session and we will see everybody at 830 sharp.

Thank you all. Sean O' All right.

Sean O' We are back.

Thank you for bearing with us here on the timing.

before we take public comment which is the beginning of our agenda our post 8 30 agenda we do just need to announce that we've accepted and entered into an agreement on a contract with our building assistants so just announcing that um julie i know jeff mahoney is on the call jeff did you want i know you would ask to join the call was there something that you had wanted to say i can ask you to unmute oh absolutely i'm ecstatic and uh thank very thankful for all the hard work um all the school assistants um that i met with um meeting with avi and ellen we appreciate everything that the schools have given us uh with all the work that we do uh working with the teachers is amazing and again we appreciate uh the school committee for taking a look at the contract for the next three years thank you so much yes and i'm sorry i was remiss in naming the number of years so we've entered into a three-year contract uh thank you jeff and thank you for the hard work that all of our building assistants do we appreciate you all couldn't do this thing without you all right um public comments do i see any hands SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: um all right seeing no hands i will throw it to our secretary for correspondence thanks avi the school committee received 24 pieces of correspondence between april 3rd 24 at 9 a.m and april 24th 2024 at 9 a.m many family and community members have written to the school committee to express concerns about the changes in the kindergarten program for the upcoming 20 24 25 school year these letters raised a variety of issues related to both the decision to charge tuition and the timing of that decision as well as the proposed structure of the half-day kindergarten program several letters requested that the school committee reconsider the decision and return to a free full-day kindergarten program an essay shs teacher asked for the school committee to provide input into possible priority community service activities opportunities this request was made in conjunction with the class where students participate in a year-long community service project the school committee received a petition signed by multiple community members which asked the school committee to consider retaining dr meg do so as an employee of the district the school committee reprie received a proposal to dedicate the sharon high school football outdoor athletic facility to honor mr gary w hall for superior service to the town a community member wrote with a call to action on behalf of the sharon high school football team and to request daily use of the weight in locker room for conditioning in preparation of the 2024-25 season the letter also requested that the district prioritize the hiring of a football coach for the upcoming fall season we received several newsletters from metco to decide to highlight the upcoming living the legacy professional development day on may 10th 2024 to publicize the rei racial equity and integration grants that are available to member districts and to encourage member districts to reach out to their local legislatures to support a fully funded metco budget for the 2024-25 school year senator feeney invited school committee members to a budget roundtable with senate ways and means committee chair on friday april 19th 2024 a community member wrote to inquire how the district determines what religious celebrations and programs are permitted during school hours and how sharon public schools upholds the separation of church and state a sharon high school student shared information on their project to assist fifth grade students with the transition to middle school that's it thanks julie um do we have a student rep here with an update so please raise your hand all right no student rep update all right we will go to superintendent dr botello for general updates great thank you we have a number of things um that i'll run through first of all believe it or not we're in our the seven seven weeks uh left of school starting next week and then when one remaining day so end of the year activities field trips and events are in in process of being organized um please check your individual school news newsletters to stay informed about all those Also, today is Administrative Professionals Day, so we want to thank all of our administrative assistants, including Jane Martin and all the others who work so hard and so professionally to help our schools and our system run.

We're thankful for their awesome efforts.

We have a great, great group in that field.

End of the year school topics for school community. We have four scheduled meetings, so that will include quarter three financial updates, specific topic updates, including student services updates, naming proposal for public comment and decision that will come up today, superintendent summative year end review, restructuring of school committee appointments after elections, as well as a number of other things, but those are some of the highlights.

The education cooperative in Walpole, I've been in communication with Emily Parks, who used to be the superintendent in Westwood, and an old colleague of mine who's now the executive director there.

In Holliston, we belong to Tech or the educational cooperative.

It's called Tech, the educational cooperative, because it was the first cooperative formed in Massachusetts.

And so I wanted to bring up the discussion about a possible membership in Tech.

There's great benefits to it.

Certainly in all of my districts, we belong to cooperatives, and currently Sharon does not belong to a cooperative.

Some of the benefits include reduced tuition for public school, for public special education day programs.

So these are placements in cooperatives for students aged 3 through 22.

The benefit of reduced tuition is you get a 25% reduction in tuition, if you're a member district.

That's an average savings of approximately $16,000 per student who is placed there.

Then also you have access to Tech Online learning classes.

This is supplemental online classes for middle and high schools. So if perhaps a certain class did not fit into a kid's schedule, then they might be able to take an online class through Tech.

And as part of the membership, you get 80 free seats per year, which is approximately a $24,000 savings.

There's also student internship and career exploration programs at member rates. So these are reduced rates.

Professional development, Tech is really strong in their professional development, both online and face-to-face for teachers, IAs, and administrators.

So you get reduced rates to those.

There's job-alikes for a number of groups at no cost at all, where normally it might be $1,000 or so to join a job-alike.

Discounted tuition for master's and bachelor's degree.

Completion programs at research college. This is both for staff members in Sharon as well as their family members, which is really unique.

Then membership in the Tech Student Data Privacy Alliance, which is free for Tech members.

It's approximately $1,500.

And it's something that's really valuable to help vet all of the data privacy of vendors that we and other districts in the Commonwealth use. And there's also membership in a statewide cooperative purchasing program at no cost.

We currently pay $1,000 for food services cooperative purchasing.

Plus there's other purchasing programs through Tech that we also wouldn't have to pay any fee for. And then the significant savings by purchasing in a large group, not just the district, but many districts together.

So that allows for additional cost savings.

Now, the membership cost is any place in FY22 is any place from $10,834 to $12,785.

So, you know, and we expect it's going to be someplace in that range.

This consideration would be for the beginning of not this fall, not September of 2024, but be the fall of 2025.

And by, so just by having one student in a tech program, you would make up the membership costs.

And by, you know, doing 30 online courses, we currently pay for 30 online courses, where we could take advantage of many more, 50 more.

We currently pay over $11,000 for that.

So we basically could make up the cost with one student or with the online courses that we use with Tech, make up the cost for the annual membership.

Some of the member districts include all the ones that are listed there. So a lot of great districts in the region.

And then the steps would be for you to vote to request that we explore membership from Tech.

Then the Tech Board of Directors would vote to approve.

And then you would then approve the membership by school committee.

Yeah, the school committee would approve the membership. And then it also goes finally through the commissioner of education.

So I know that ideally you would give permission to, you know, for us to, for me to approach Tech and say we would be like you to consider approving our membership.

That would happen this spring before, you know, before July 1st. And then they would go about their process in summer or fall.

And then if we got approval, then we would approve.

And then we'd send it to the state for their approval.

It's just something I want to open up that conversation and, and have us consider that.

Because I think it would be a great opportunity.

And I was surprised when I joined here that we were not part of the cooperative because there's great benefits.

Great. We can agenda that for a future meeting.

Are there any questions from the table about that before we go to the football update?

All right.

Football update it is, Dr. Patel.

Okay.

So we, we posted the high school football coach position and we are accepting applications.

We currently have 25 applications that have been submitted.

The hiring committee is being established.

And Kristen Keenan will chair that committee.

She'll be reaching out to people this week and beginning of next week to, to start to look at those applications and to interview in the first round screen, a first round of those candidates, starting with any internal candidates that we have in the district.

The committee will include building and district admin, teachers, coaches, students, parent guardians, as well as at least one school committee member. And the second, there's been some questions about the weight room and we have been having some difficulty, whether it's for the football team or even potentially other teams that don't currently have a coach having supervision.

Usually coaches will volunteer time to supervise.

And usually that has worked out in the past, but since we have some vacancies, there haven't been all the opportunities that we want. So I've approached our district council to develop a waiver form in order to allow parent guardian volunteers to supervise the weight room because we've gotten some people who have said that they'd be willing to do that. So we just have to develop that form. I asked them to get that to me by the end of the week and we hope to start that, you know, as early as next week. People will have to be Corey, but they'd also have to, anyone who's participating in the weight room would have to sign this form recognizing that the volunteer is really not a trained weight room person, but it's just a supervisor.

And the person who is supervising would sign, you know, based upon their responsibilities as well. Great.

Jane, do we freeze?

No, I don't think so.

I just, I did stop the present.

Did I miss? Oh, okay. Okay. No, you stopped the present. Okay. I thought I saw people freezing.

So I was... Yeah. Sorry.

Javi looks frozen.

Camera tonight just got a lot going on.

So any questions on that part before we go into calendar?

We can move forward.

I think if Shauna is able to join, like, I mean, she's joined, but if she's able... No, I have a question.

All right, perfect.

I'm actually raising my hand.

Yeah, we saw you try.

Just a question.

Like, I know that you just said that we would have parents, Corey.

Are we not concerned about having a weight room available to students and not having trained staff there?

I just feel like that's concerning to me.

Traditionally, we have kind of coaches that are rotating through.

And, you know, so I think that would be ideal, but we're trying to work creatively within, you know, within our confines to allow for it to be more open.

So whenever we... I get creativity.

Yeah.

I get creativity.

I just worry about the safety of our students.

If we have parents just supervising a space versus trained coaches to work on appropriate use of equipment and safety.

We could...

I guess there would be accommodation.

I think this would create greater access, but certainly it's something to consider.

But I...

I...

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: I... I would like to consider a combination, again, of coaches and of volunteers so we can have greater access for our kids.

Veronica?

Yeah.

Thanks, Dr. Botello.

Just building on what Shauna mentioned, when you're... As you're devising the waiver, you know, clearly stipulate to parents whose children are going to be participating that the parent volunteer coverage is, you know, not a trained coach, right? And so those open hours would be understood.

The parent would understand that they're giving permission for their child to be in a place where there's supervision, making sure that, you know, that there's adult eyes in the room, but not someone who is trained in the use. So is there a possibility of those athletes being on a list that are cleared by the coach to use the facility?

Like, in other words, can we do something that enables us to know that those kids who are part of that group are on a team and they're using that for the purpose of getting the extra time in, but... And everyone understands what they're agreeing to, right?

The waiver would absolutely state that.

Yeah. We also can, you know, in the communication with the waiver, we can perhaps open up some opportunities for kids who need some additional training.

I'm going back years and years, but I know that in high school, you know, using weight weight rooms with my friends, we did use it.

Back then, you didn't have to be supervised.

We, you know, but if there are kids who haven't, who aren't accustomed to it and who need some, you know, some coaching in order to use it safely, we could certainly open up opportunities for that. Not every time they're in there, but, you know, we could communicate some of that in the communications, but the waiver itself would clearly state that we have supervisors not necessarily trained people to work with kids at all times.

Shauna?

So, I appreciate the parent, I appreciate the parent creativity.

Have we looked at other departments within our school, like within our town?

So, enlisting the help of Linda Berger in the rec department, looking at community education, looking to see if we have any of the local gyms who want to come in, kind of like we outsource our athletic trainers.

I mean, the parent piece of this really, really is weighing heavily on me, quite possibly, because I know all that goes into weight training, and especially you get a high school kid in there who wants to, you know, show off that he's going to bench 300 pounds and God forbid, right, what's an untrained parent going to do despite a liability waiver that's signed off?

Have we looked at other avenues to get other people involved in this?

We certainly can look at avenues that are paid, right, you know, again, in the past it had worked without having a paid, you know, weight room supervisor of sorts, and we don't have that, you know, currently as part of our budget, but we certainly could look into that. We also could look into part of the process of being able to use the weight rooms to go through at least some kind of orientation training that could be something to be considered as well.

What about having the rec department or community ed staff it and then it being like a weight room class that's offered?

Yeah, we'd have to either pay them or we'd have to have people that are using the weight room pay the person.

Like, we wouldn't get that for free.

We would have to...

Right.

Okay.

Julie?

The onus wouldn't be on us, sir.

So, no, you're okay, John. Sorry, I didn't, I don't mean to cut you off if there was more.

Go ahead. I didn't.

I think that there's already kids kind of using the weight room on the DL.

So, I actually think having a parent there under these circumstances would probably actually increase the safety in the weight room.

I think that if a parent is really concerned about their child being in there, then that they don't have to let them participate.

So, I think, I just feel like it's, I feel like it would be an improvement to have a parent in there versus no one or people sneaking in.

I think if there's not a coach, I mean, obviously, it's not the ideal situation and generally the coaches do accompany the kids, but I think having a parent there is a good in-between measure until we can get the coaches in there. and so I would definitely be for it.

Thanks, Julie.

I raised my hand just to hold my place so I can chime in.

I actually, I respect and understand where Shauna's coming from and what Shauna's viewpoint is here.

For me, I guess I have a couple things and I'm trying to tread lightly here because I don't want to in any way disrespect any of our coaches district-wide or any rec department or community ed, but I guess I just want to add, I guess I just want to chime in a little bit, Shauna, that for me, I think just knowing a little bit about the hiring process for coaches and what sort of qualifications are required and then certainly rec as well and then also actually community ed is the one that I know the least about.

I'm not sure that while those might feel more official, not sure that those qualifications are any different than some parents who might be volunteering as far as their expertise in the weight room.

So the idea is to find folks who specifically have qualifications regarding, you know, being around kids in the weight room and I guess for me I would teeter a little on that need only because I've been a high schooler who use gyms.

I've also had kids that I've been involved in coaching use gyms.

For me, I think it's not uncommon for high school age athletes to use gyms, public gyms, gyms where, not public, but gyms where they're paying a membership without specific supervision.

So it's less of a concern to me, but I will say that if that is the concern and I don't think it's outrageous at all, like I actually totally get where Shauna's coming from, it might just help us to ask for volunteers from the parent group of football parents who are offering the volunteer who have this experience.

I know specifically, for example, a couple of the parents who had reached out with questions about this access were personal trainers or had experience having coached kids at different levels.

So perhaps, you know, maybe the midpoint here is just asking if some of those parents could have, you know, some form of expertise. I still think the waiver is crucial from a liability standpoint here in the district.

I think we've been asked by the football parents to get access to the weight room for their kids.

And I think these kids would otherwise be using weight rooms elsewhere it's either A, a membership issue, or B, a convenience and time issue, given that they go to school.

So, you know, those parents feel like their athletes are falling behind other schools' programs, and I think they're looking to get access to these weight rooms. I don't think it's not a legit concern.

I think Shauna's concern is really important. We have to address it.

I just also think we can work with in the framework of the volunteers still possibly.

I'm not sure that involving record community ed makes sense.

Adam?

Thanks, Avi, and thank you, Dr. Patello.

So, I don't have concerns.

I'm comfortable with a responsible adult and the waivers.

I think that's a good solution.

Point of clarification, if we wanted to move forward with something that was paid, given that we haven't budgeted for that, is that something that boosters or parents could pay for?

Is that something if they want to do that, would that be allowed?

I can look into that.

Okay, thank you.

Marwen?

Yeah, so I'm hearing football a lot. we do have other athletic teams in Sharon.

Should I assume that they will also have the same access to the weight room?

Yeah, I kind of separated out.

So, with weight room, it says including football players as far as the weight room portion.

So, some teams have coaches that are supervising.

It might be all set, but if there are other teams that are trying to get access, yes, they would be able to use the weight room. It's not just football players.

We're talking about before school hours, that's one of the requests and things like that.

Yeah, I guess it's just sort of, I don't actually know the capacity of the weight room. I don't know the demand.

I just want to make sure that everyone who needs to use the weight room will have some access and they won't be edged out by another team scheduling it or occupying the space.

Yeah, I think if there's other teams that are on the team and other teams have some times and there is a restriction on space, they might be asked to use it during the times they already have.

But if they don't have a set time, perhaps because they don't have a coach who either have a coach right now or has a coach that's able to supervise it in the offseason, then they would be able to use it at these times where we have parent volunteers. Yes.

Thank you.

All right, moving to discussion items, school choice is out of the way.

We voted for one in favor of accepting the superintendent's recommendation not to enter in the school choice earlier in the evening.

All right, request to dedicate the Sharon High School football outdoor athletic facility to honor Mr. Gary W. Hall.

This is the announcement and proposal to do that.

This is the official opening and public comment period April 24th, 2024 until May 8th, 2024.

And there will be a public comment period on the agenda for May 8th, 2024.

I'm not sure. It says that.

Do we have a meeting?

Oh, yeah, we do. Right? Do we have a meeting on May 8th?

We do.

Yes. Just making sure.

So with that said, anybody who has a feeling one way or the other about naming the football outdoor facility after Mr.

Gary W. Hall can contact the school committee or myself as the chair officially between now and May 8th, 2024.

So please do.

All right, next up, school year 2024, 2025 calendar just addressing administrative calendar issues, having a discussion and a possible vote.

Sorry, I see Joseph Blansfield is here. I'm going to assume that that's that has to do with Mr. Gary Hall.

So I'm going to call on Mr.

Blansfield.

And I hope if I apologize in advance, Mr. Blansfield, this isn't regarding Mr. Hall.

I will, I assume, I know you're part of the presentation.

Go ahead.

Actually, this is George and call if Joe's letting me use this computer.

And I thought you'd want some background now.

And we'd, basically, our purpose is to recognize Mr. Gary Hall's 32 years of service to public education, the Civic Action Group and Sharon, and the cardiopulmonary resuscitation program, adult health education programs, as an administrator, coach, and teacher from 1955 through 1987.

A position is he clearly deserves this honor, as his impact and service was across a wide myriad of those who have already been so honored, which I knew Mr.

Peckham and Mr.

Davenport coaches, for example.

Due to his assignments, he contributed to numerous too-mentioned details.

I can't go into detail and I won't take up the time on that, but he served for 32 years as an administrator teaching and coaching in roles in an outstanding manner and served Sharon beyond schools by providing a CPI program in adult fitness and recreation activities.

He created procedures for the athletic director.

He created standard procedures and trained as replacement, which was Mr. Davenport, which he mentored.

He's also the first chairperson of physical education and he supervised all the schools and helped bring along all the teachers in all schools and physical education health facilities.

He developed his body, mind, and spirit. I was one of his students and one of his people on the gymnastics team.

Soccer teams, he introduced that. They became the perennial Hockamock League champions.

A lot of the gymnasts went on to athletic scholarships.

I feel it's a direct result of his coaching and enthusiasm instilling in us.

Prior to this, he served in World War II as an Army combat medic and was twice decorated for Ballet with the Bronze Star and Purple Hearts, which he suffered rescuing people in a minefield.

It's impossible to overstate how much impact he had on students like myself and others in preparing us for the future. and I've always felt whether I was a professional teacher, a retired Massachusetts teacher, and before that as a professional Army officer, infantry mostly, and I felt the background that he gave us and the confidence he still in us helped me through many tasks in my fellow members graduating in that period of 1966.

so our conclusion was he'd be honored with remarkable service by dedicating that facility mentioned in front, you know, the football field area, and recommendation was to name it after him, and I'd like to thank the committee for providing us this time to advance our position tonight.

Thank you very much. If you have any questions, I can answer them, provided a booklet.

I think everything's in there, but it'll certainly be available in person. any way you want, I can help any other way to influence this. Thank you very much.

So first off, thank you very much for your service.

Also, thank you for the information in the packet that you provided, and I think, I'm sure like many of my colleagues, I look forward to after this time period of public comment, being able to honor Mr. Hall.

I think he did a beautiful job explaining the impact that he made on the school district. So thank you very much to you and to anybody else involved in bringing this forward.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

All right.

the school year, 2025, 2024, 2025 calendar, addressing administrative calendar issues, discussion, possible vote.

Dr.

Patel?

Yeah, just give me one second. I'm going to sure.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Yeah. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Sure.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Sure.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Sure.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Yeah. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Yeah. Okay, sorry about that.

So, yeah, as we've been kind of processing the school committee vote to a new calendar focused on federal holidays, we've been doing some research to ensure that we have sufficient staffing to support the daily functioning of school during the religious and cultural holidays, especially those days that we have traditionally had off. And there's definitely some concern that staff, you know, especially when we think about functioning as a school, but also student absences to some degree could be problematic.

So I've been looking over the historical data as far as absences.

And we've also asked the STA to do a survey on what we could expect as far as absences.

And so just to give you a little bit of a summary, on an average day, we have approximately 8% of our teachers and IAs absent.

This is pretty typical, actually, of data across a number of districts, pretty typical in this calendar year.

But we have a high of any place around 12 to 13% on one of those really bad days, say, in January, where there's a lot of flu going around, or, you know, as well as, you know, days like that.

And so as the STA has done some preliminary data collection, they've gotten responses by about 70% of teachers and IAs. And they're reporting that between 12% to 19% would expect to be absent on Rosh Hashanah.

The 12%, I think, is more around, like, strict observance.

And the additional 7% is partly around observance and also partly around managing child care for kids that they might have whose districts have the day off. Rosh Hashanah is, you know, day two is less.

It's around, it's around 6%, 6% to 11%.

But then Good Friday is a day where we could expect between 17% and 40% absent.

Again, that's, you know, largely because of observance.

And then the other part that's a maybe.

So they did yes, no, maybe. So that's where I'm getting that range is partly because of observance, but also partly because of, you know, kind of managing child care for their kids who have school.

On Eid, Diwali, and Lunar New Year, as far as staff absences, it was any place from 1% to 4%. And then on Yom Kippur, it was between 13% to 20%.

So a little bit higher on the yes category, but similar in the yes or maybe category.

So with that in mind, I just want to express concern about whether or not we will have capacity to have enough people.

Because I think, you know, there'll be some overlap with traditional absences.

But say even we have kind of an average day of about 8 absences, 8% absences.

And maybe that's a little bit less, you know, because there'll be overlap with people who are off because of religious observance.

But we could expect, you know, that we're going to have above what people are going to plan for as far as being absent, having at least another 4% or 5% absent just because of illness or other things that go on. So I am, you know, I am concerned about, especially with respect to functioning, about Rosh Hashanah Day 1 and Good Friday.

And just something that I want to make sure that we're considering, you know, prior to those days as we look at next year's calendar.

Veronica?

Thanks, Avi. Thanks, Dr. Pitello.

It sounds like Yom Kippur data was similar to, unless I was not clear as you were describing, but it sounds like Yom Kippur, First Day Rosh Hashanah and Good Friday.

But this calendar year, there is no day off for Yom Kippur. Or is that?

Yeah, so that's where I wasn't really highlighting.

Okay, just to clarify.

This coming year, because we just have this, because yes, it's on a weekend.

So it's not going to impact during the, you know, 24, 25 year.

Right. So that we wouldn't be needing to alter the calendar for Yom Kippur this year. But based on the numbers, it would be consistent with Good Friday and First Day Rosh Hashanah.

Yeah. And I do want to make it like the numbers that people say yes are, I think are really, I think our SDA members are being sincere in their desire to observe.

And, you know, I don't think they thought through when they were, you know, proposing, you know, kind of inequitable ways to do mostly federal holidays that there still might be a practical barrier to that with respect to still wanting to allow both students and staff to observe as needed.

Yeah, understood.

Thank you.

Anybody else have anything?

All right.

Go ahead, Adam.

Thanks.

So I just wanted to clarify for next steps. It sounds like we're still collecting information or is there an action that kind of we're looking to do at this point?

I would say just the current information makes it, you know, makes it seem like Good Friday would not be functioning even based upon the number of absences and that Rosh Hashanah seems very, very problematic.

Because we ultimately, if we get 100% of people to respond, that will give us a very good sense of what are the planned absences.

But we are going to have someplace between 5% and 8% absence on top of that, you know, or 4% to 8%. Because again, there'll be overlap of people who are sick and observing.

So we won't be able to predict it. But I have great concerns about, based upon 70% of respondents of, you know, Rosh Hashanah and Rosh Hashanah Day 1 and Good Friday, I think will be, again, Good Friday, I just couldn't even, it just seems like it is, unfortunately, you know, as far as equitable, you know, trying to be equitable.

It doesn't seem like that's going to be a functioning day. And Rosh Hashanah, you know, I think we would be racing ourselves and hoping greatly that the only absences were because of religious observance and that, you know, the majority of the people or at least, you know, a lot of the people who are trying to cobble together childcare would be able to do so. So I think that's a very, very risky day as well, as far as functioning.

And let me just make clear that, you know, theoretically, I like the idea of, you know, having all the holidays represented.

So this is really just presenting the practical end of functioning right now.

That's not a stance on my philosophy on the whole picture.

I think we have to continue to have these discussions going forward.

Yeah, thank you. And I know, and I think the school committee was clear about our desire to have, you know, to incorporate as many holidays and represent kind of as many cultures and communities as possible.

And I appreciate you kind of bringing up this concern.

I think I read recently, I forget which district.

There was a district just had to kind of, right. So Mansfield had to cancel school on Good Friday because they couldn't, they didn't have enough staff.

Right.

And that was on short notice, right?

Correct.

Okay. Well, so I am certainly in favor of getting ahead of, of those concerns if possible so that we don't end up in that situation where, yeah, we're, we're canceling school kind of just a couple of days beforehand.