It turns seven o'clock.

I'll go right here at seven now since the first thing is not public comments.

That way there's plenty of time for folks who would like to be part of public comment to arrive at the meeting.

I do see one hand up, but just a heads up on this agenda, we are beginning with our reorganization process.

All right.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Attendance by board members will be remote. 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.

Welcome to the June 5th, 2024 meeting of the Sharon School Committee.

First up on our agenda is reorganization of the school committee, beginning with nominations for officers of the school committee, starting with a vote for chair.

Unless there are any changes from our discussion last week, I would entertain a motion.

A motion to approve Avi as chair.

I think it's to nominate Avi. Oh, sorry.

To nominate Avi as chair.

I'll second. All right.

Thank you. Julie.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes. Yes. Shauna.

Yeah.

Yes.

Do we need to have any friendly amendment to talk about what Julie had mentioned in the kind of transition?

Not how it works.

If there was a reorganization at some point, anybody can always ask for reorganization.

If they can get a second, you can always reorganize.

Okay. Thank you. Then yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan. Yes.

Adam. Adam. Did I get you?

No. So I just showed up. Can someone reread the motion?

I apologize.

Yes.

Motion to nominate Avi as chair.

Yes.

All right. And I'm a yes. Motion carries 7-0.

Next up, I will entertain a motion to nominate Julie Rowe as vice chair.

So moved.

Moved.

Second.

Shauna.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan. Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Naomi. Yes. Motion carries 7-0.

Thank you.

Of course, looking forward to working closely with you, Julie.

Next up, I will entertain a motion to nominate Shauna Belenke as secretary.

So moved.

I think it has to be Ina.

Sorry, Ina Belenke as secretary.

So moved.

Second. Second.

All right. Shauna.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

And I'm a yes. Motion carries 7-0. All right.

All right. Next up, we've got the subcommittee and town appointments, starting with the policy subcommittee.

I would entertain.

We've got all this drawn out here.

I would entertain a motion to nominate Ina Belenke as chair of the policy subcommittee with members Dan Newman and Alan Metenko.

So moved. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: So moved. So moved.

So moved. So moved.

I need a second.

Second. Ina. All right.

All right.

Ina.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

And I am a yes. Motion carries 7-0. I will entertain a motion to nominate Adam Shane as chair of budget subcommittee with members Jeremy Kay and Ina Belenke.

So moved.

Second.

Ina.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

And I am a yes. Motion carries 7-0. I will entertain a motion to nominate Julie Rowe as chair of negotiations along with members Alan Metenko and Jeremy Kay.

So moved.

Need a second.

Second.

All right. Jeremy.

Yes.

Shauna. Ina.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

I am a yes. Motion carries 7-0.

I would hear.

We didn't discuss calendar subcommittee, but it was on the agenda here.

So I've put together here a calendar subcommittee that I would propose of Julie Rowe as chair once again, this time with Adam Shane and Dan Newman.

So moved.

Second. Second. The, I'm sorry.

I will.

Dan.

I'm sorry, Avi.

It went really fast. And I didn't hear my name on budget. We had originally discussed.

I had expressed some interest in it. I'm sorry. Did you list my name when we voted on it?

I didn't.

I think that's probably my error.

Let's correct that in a second.

Let's vote this one first.

Dan. We're talking about calendar now?

Yeah. This is currently calendar with Dan, Adam, and Julia.

I had never expressed interest in calendar, so I would remove myself.

Okay.

Fair enough.

So then let me table that vote.

Can I, I need a calendar subcommittee.

So Julie, would you be comfortable being chair?

Sure.

Adam, are you comfortable being on the calendar subcommittee?

Sure. Okay. Okay.

Do I have somebody else who would be interested in being on calendar?

I'll do it.

All right, Alan. So then I will entertain a motion on the calendar subcommittee with Julie Rowe as chair, members Adam Shane and Alan Metenko.

So I moved.

Need a second.

Second.

All right.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes. Dan.

Yes. Thank you. Shauna.

Yes.

And Alan Metenko.

Yes.

All right. I, in my notes here, had put Shauna down as budget.

I apologize.

Dan is right. He had.

He had.

Yep. Are you comfortable with that, Shauna? I can. Yes, please.

I apologize.

That's my, that was not intentional.

That was just an error. It's fun for the team, and I should have spoken up, but yeah.

Yeah. I apologize.

That's my fault. Um, so I would entertain a motion to reorganize the budget subcommittee.

I mean, Adam Shane as chair, Jeremy Kay as member, and Dan Newman as member.

I'll second that.

So moved.

Second.

Jeremy Kay.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Shauna.

Yes, please.

Alan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Naomi. Yes. Motion carries 7-0.

All right. On to town committees.

We didn't express that, I don't believe, talk about audit.

Jeremy, would you be willing to go to the audit committee?

I think it's one meeting.

Well, what's that one involved?

So it's one meeting.

It's, it's generally a presentation by our town finance director and town administrator.

It's mostly, I mean, there is a voting privilege.

Um, it's educational as far as the back end financials of the town.

Sure.

All right. I would nominate Jeremy.

I would entertain a motion to nominate Jeremy Kay to be the school member on audit committee.

So moved.

Second.

Let me take, all right, I'll accept that and then table this vote for one moment for discussion.

I see Dan's hand is up. Dan, go ahead. Uh, yeah, this is a voting committee as I understand it. So I can say, reserve my comment for non-voting roles if that's okay.

Or we can just talk about it now.

Yeah.

Let me, let me call the voting ones first and then we can go ahead.

So I will now take that vote, um, for Jeremy Kay and audit.

Shauna.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

I am. Yes. Motion carries seven. Oh, um, for priorities.

I would entertain a motion to name myself and Adam.

Shane has the members of priorities.

Second.

Second.

All right.

Shauna.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

I'm a yes. Motion carries seven. Oh, um, for capital outlay.

I've got Julie, Adam and Jeremy down as, um, all interested in two voting members, one alternate.

Is there any discussion around preferences around being the alternate versus being the voting members?

I'll be a voting member.

Yeah. I'll be a voting too. I think that's where we landed the last time.

Okay.

I'm going to entertain a motion to name Jeremy Kay and Julie Rhodes, capital outlay with Adam Shane as alternate.

So moved.

So moved.

Sorry. Did I get a second?

Second.

Okay.

Uh, Dan.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Shauna.

Yes.

Okay. Julie.

Yes.

I'm a yes. Motion carries seven. Oh, all right, Dan.

The floor is yours or I'm calling on you.

You can put it that way.

All right. Thanks, Avi.

Congratulations to all our new officers.

When it comes to other committees, I have a recommendation.

It'll just take a couple of minutes. I promise.

And I want to know what everyone else thinks.

Uh, so there are two ways that I see that we participate in other committees.

One is when we have a vote.

Uh, we just talked about some of those positions, uh, like we do on priorities committee, for example.

And the other is where we don't have a vote.

Uh, and I looked in there are 39 different committees in town and every single one of them has some interest in our schools.

I think it's safe to say disabilities commission, uh, governance, cultural council, and you can go down the list. They all touch our schools in some way. So, uh, just some questions I have, uh, I want your thoughts are why do we create liaisons for some committees and not others?

Uh, if five more committees wanted us to be liaisons, how do we then say no to some and not to others?

Uh, I don't want to have those conversations personally.

Uh, and if we're a liaison to another committee, if they want to be a liaison to us, how do we tell them no when they said yes to us? So I know we can't have 39 liaisons to school committees.

It's not workable. So, uh, I just wanted to raise the issue.

If we go down this path of creating liaisons to non-voting committees, uh, it seems to create a lot of commitments for us and a lot of all these awkward questions.

Uh, and from what I can tell, being a liaison just means you're committing to attend their meetings. That's all liaison is you're promising to attend their meetings.

So we can already do that. So it kind of raises the question for me of why we're making that commitment when we can just go to all the other meetings we want and we retain the option. So, uh, just my recommendation as one member would be to keep things simple and not create any liaisons has nothing to do with any other committees in particular.

Uh, we wouldn't need to vote to do that. We could just not create them and keep it simple and attend as we each wanted. So that's my discussion.

That's my suggestion.

And I want to know what all of you think about it.

Adam.

Yeah. Thanks, Dan. So you, you raised an interesting question.

I think from my perspective and what I've seen the last few years, the more, the closer we can work with other town committees, um, the better.

Like, I feel like we've gotten into trouble when, um, we aren't necessarily as connected with, uh, the finance committee or select board or whichever committees in town. Um, and then we have to kind of close that gap or give them more context because they didn't have it originally.

So I would say that to the extent possible, we should try to liaise with those other committees or have them liaise with us. And I think having a designated point of contact makes it easier than either funneling everything through the chair or, uh, of their committee or of our committee, um, or something else, right? Like it, it just can get very messy that way. Certainly if, if multiple people are attending meetings. So, um, I would be in favor of it. I know I've spoken to other town committee members who don't have a formal liaison and, and they would like to have a stronger relationship with the school committee.

Um, particularly where there is kind of shared interest.

So, uh, the example I'll use is, uh, the planning board, right? The planning board would like to have a closer relationship with us. As we think about things like, um, the elementary school master plan, they would like to know how to be more involved.

Um, so I think having a liaison would be better than not.

Are there any other thoughts, Julie? Um, I actually can totally see where Dan is coming from on this, but I will say the difference between being a, like a non-voting member and a member of the public is that as a non-voting member, you, you still get to participate in the conversations, um, in a way that I don't know if you can participate as like a member of the public.

It depends, I would guess it would depend on the, how, how they run that particular meeting, but that that's one benefit to being the sort of official liaison.

Alan.

Is there any record or information as to the committees that we currently have liaisons to how those came about?

Um, so I actually called Fred Turkington to learn that, um, we had a conversation, um, that, you know, neither of us can say, uh, and we certainly didn't go through every single committee.

Um, but it appears as though essentially at the formation of these committees, they've, they've chosen to create liaison positions for our committee.

And so, you know, obviously at the time of that creation, it was the purview of the school committee to decide, you know, I guess if it was the will of that current committee, not to send a liaison, but.

You know, in speaking to Fred and certainly my philosophy.

Is as Julie just mentioned, there are benefits to having to being a liaison.

Um, you know, these committees, as Adam said, are, are important committees in town that we then build strong relationships with.

Um, but to be clear, like the relationships we build with these other committees.

Are, you know, to Dan's point committees, we build, we can sort of build relationships with either way.

Kiana, for example, mentioned when select board spoke at their last open meeting about possibly creating a liaison to us. That the communication has sort of always been chair to chair for select board and school committee.

I think these other committees are committees that would like a school voice at their table.

For me personally, I think that that's incredibly valuable.

I think that it is different.

For example, I personally think there are some committees in town that having their voice at this table at times would be very impactful and important.

Um, whereas there are other committees where maybe we don't intersect in the same way or we don't need a liaison at the table. For me, I would hate to give up a voice that is given to us on behalf of the voters.

You know, because at the end of the day, I always circle back to, we represent the people of this town.

The community of this town has elected each and every one of us to sit at this table. And the fact that that voice can be amplified in some cases in a small way, in some cases in a big way by sitting at other town committees and representing this committee's voice there.

I only view that as a positive.

And for me, I always go back to whenever making any decision, are we, what is the benefit to the children of this district?

And what is the negative impact?

I don't see negative impact to, in being liaisons.

Um, maybe on individual basis is some people have, you know, they're, uh, we all have limited bandwidth to some degree.

And obviously I can understand that it taxes us on our bandwidth, but I think that's why we all have an opportunity to step up to certain roles or not to other roles. There are ways to be very impactful on this committee in very efficient ways.

And then there, there are tasks that take quite a bit of lifting for me personally.

I don't, I don't see a downside to being liaisons.

Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate everyone's thoughts.

Um, I, I, I, I still struggling with these questions that I teed up, you know, are we prepared to say no to other committees when they want us to liaison to them? And how do we sort out which committees have a valid interest in which don't, I don't even know how to approach that problem.

And I'm not comfortable saying yes to some committees and no to others.

So I'd just be interested in hearing how people want to approach that.

So just a point of order, Dan, um, just do me a favor, raise, just raise your hand and let me call you. Um, but as far as, I think that's a fair point.

I guess what I would ask is in this moment where we're not looking to add, like there's no new liaison that hasn't existed in this vote.

There's simply, uh, filling the spots that already do exist.

I'm, I, I'm not sure what the need for this now is. Go ahead, Shawna. Dan, I get what you're saying more on like a philosophical point of view.

I don't know that we're like necessarily there.

Um, I, I appreciate your question.

Um, I do kind of go back to what other members say in terms of like the value added of a school, um, uh, school committee member sitting on that board.

And again, like, yes, we only have a certain amount of bandwidth as personnel, right?

Like we're each a person. We're also, uh, a parent or a brother or a sister, right?

Or, right.

Like we all have different roles that we fulfill. Um, and so, you know, some of us can take on more and some of us can't.

Um, I think that philosophically I see like the, the difficulty in saying, no, I don't know that we're there right now. So I don't know how kind of, you know, poignant it is to talk about it right now. I think when it happens, it's, it's worth a conversation, but it's also worth exploration as to, you know, what, what is the committee that is, what is coming to us asking for and the why, right?

Um, so I think, I think when we come across it, then we'll, then we'll talk about it further.

Now, I guess two things.

One, I hear Dan, you're concerned loud and clear.

I think the distinguishing feature from what Bobby has said about his conversation with Fred is that these are committees that have already carved out within their organization a role for us, as opposed to anyone that would come forward at this point. They'd be doing that anew.

But I guess my bigger concern is, you know, if I'm being blunt, we all ran, uh, in an election where I think I'll speak for myself.

There was a strong desire to see the school committee be more communicative, engaged and transparent with the community.

And I think removing ourselves from other town committees at this point sends the exact opposite message.

Um, and I certainly, you know, can see where maybe the liaison role doesn't mean that we are able to attend every single meeting or something of that nature in terms of bandwidth.

But to send the message that we're going to take areas of engagement where we've been engaged and suddenly disengage, I just don't, I don't think that sends the right message to the town.

Adam?

I guess just to answer Dan's question very directly, I think it's at the discretion of, of the committee and the members, right? Like if there is a, uh, uh, a town committee that says, Hey, we'd, we'd like to have a school committee liaison, uh, and no one is either interested or able to attend, um, then that liaison position will go on filled.

So it's really a question of, I think, interest of school committee members and availability.

But I'm comfortable saying, look, there's, you know, let's pretend there was a committee that met at 7am Tuesday mornings and no one in the committee could attend that meeting saying, look, we would, we're happy to be in touch with you and to work with you, but we're not going to be able to attend your meetings.

Jeremy?

I guess like as a liaison on these committees, are we only speaking to school related things?

Because when I do think about us as like elected officials, I want to make sure that we're weighing in on the school angle and that whichever committee we're liaisoning with has a big relationship with the school.

So I could see where there is an overlap, but if it's one that doesn't really have a large impact on the school, I could see not including that. So I think it'd be more case by case.

All right. Are we comfortable moving to some of these appointments?

All right.

Let's start with rec advisory.

Need a volunteer for that.

Alan, I see your hand.

Yeah, that's the one I'd like to be appointed to.

I would entertain a motion to appoint Alan Maitago to rec advisory.

So moved.

Second.

All right, Dan.

I don't like the precedent.

So for the reasons I just said, so I'm a no, it's nothing particular to any particular committee.

All right. Shauna.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Naomi. Yes. Motion carries. Six. One.

Need a volunteer for standing building.

I'll do it.

I'll do it. The project's wrapping up, but I'll do it. I'll continue.

I would entertain a motion.

So moved.

Julie.

With Julie Rowe to standing building.

So moved.

Second.

All right. Jeremy.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

Dan.

No.

Oh, can I just, can I just say one thing is that I do have a vote on school related topics.

Yep.

I'm a yes then.

Okay.

Dan of the yes. Shauna.

Yes.

Alan.

Yes.

Julie.

Yes.

I'm a yes. Motion carries seven. Oh, I need a volunteer for municipal vulnerability.

Municipal vulnerability.

What's the purpose of that committee?

No, sorry.

Can somebody speak to that?

I know. I think it was prison now that was on it most recently.

Go ahead, Julie.

Does that have to do with like the civil defense things?

I believe so.

I don't, I don't know how often they meet. I'm not sure either.

I'll look it up.

Okay.

Give me a second.

Okay. In the meantime, I do want to clarify.

Rec is a voting role.

Okay. Going now to, I need a volunteer for the DIC.

Jeremy.

Is that one a voting role? What's the role of school committee there?

It's a non-voting role.

If no one wants to volunteer, go ahead, Jeremy. You volunteer? Yeah. So what would be the role of the school committee there as liaison?

I'm not sure what, I mean, to inform and advocate, I suppose, on behalf of the schools.

Is there somebody who would like to volunteer for that role?

Otherwise, I certainly will.

Nobody?

All right. I would entertain a motion to appoint me, Avi Shemtov, to the DIC.

So moved.

Second.

Adam?

Adam?

Yes.

Alan?

Yes.

Jeremy?

I'm going to say no. I agree with Dan.

This doesn't seem like a one of which is liaison.

All right. Dan?

No.

Julie?

Yes.

Naomi, yes.

Motion carries.

Four to three.

I didn't vote. Sorry, Shauna.

Yes.

Motion carries five to two.

All right. I think that we're just waiting to find out about municipal vulnerability.

Did you find an answer on that, Julie? I don't actually see anything that says vulnerability, but I see there is a local emergency planning committee.

Yeah.

But it doesn't show up any meetings.

I mean, I'll find out.

I can do it.

I don't mind. I mean, if it turns out to be a huge time commitment, I will deprioritize it.

Because I've got a whole bunch of other stuff.

But I can follow up on it.

That's fine.

All right. Entertain a motion to appoint Julie Rhodes municipal vulnerability.

So moved.

Second.

All right. Dan?

This is a voting roll.

I'm sorry.

That's a good question. Should we table it?

We can table it. Why don't we table it to find out more information?

All right. I will follow up and try and find out what exactly it is. That's fine. Guys, I would remind.

Let's just please.

Let's keep in order here. Raise hands. I'll call.

Alan? Oh, sorry. I just wanted to say, although I didn't sign up for either one, both the DEIC and municipal vulnerability are things that I have both professional and personal interest in. So if either of the folks that ultimately get appointed to those roles need a backup, I'm happy to serve in those capacities.

Understood.

Understood.

All right. Thank you.

And I did see Fred Turgenton just joined the meeting.

Fred, I see that you're here.

If you can speak to municipal vulnerability committee.

I don't know if you could raise your hand.

Oh, I see that you're a co-host now.

I'm not sure if Fred was joining for that purpose or is prepared to speak to that.

But if you are Fred, certainly feel free to join in.

All right. We will leave that tabled.

All right. Next up on our agenda is.

Oh, it looks like.

Hold on. Sorry. We've got to go to the warrant article designated signatories.

That's a position that I appoint.

Are there anybody?

Is there anybody interested in signing the warrants? The big thing here is just efficiency.

It's really important that those warrants be turned around very quickly.

I know that Jane and certainly the town are in need of the warrants being reviewed and signed quickly.

They are digital.

It's a fairly clean and easy process.

I know personnel have done it really efficiently. Adam had done it really well in the past.

I think in my first year, I was a little bit less efficient about it.

Anybody interested and available to volunteer to be the warrant signers?

Go ahead, Julie.

Thank you.

Is it like you have to go in and sign it or were they signing it digitally?

They're signing digitally? I mean, I read them anyway, so I can do it.

Okay.

Julie's one person.

So I will appoint Julie Rowe.

We need a second person. Go ahead, Adam.

Yeah, I'm happy to stay as a backup.

That would be terrific. All right. So Julie Rowe will be the signer and Adam Sheen will be the backup. And then we have a proposed 2024-2025 school committee meeting schedule.

Have folks had an opportunity to take a look at that?

Do you have any thoughts on it?

I think it looks good.

And it leaves enough time in case we need to schedule another meeting.

Oh, sorry. I didn't raise my hand, Robbie. I apologize.

I didn't even catch that. So you're good.

Adam. Yeah, thanks.

So I apologize.

I didn't have a chance to review that schedule, but I'm happy to look at the dates afterwards.

One question I did want to have is whether we wanted to have a school committee retreat over the summer and add that.

So let's go. Let's put.

That's a fair question.

Go ahead, Julie.

Well, I think that what we were looking at. Oh, I see. You would like it in the summer so that it would be in the new fiscal year. Is that what you're saying, Adam?

Correct.

Are there anybody with thoughts on a retreat?

Dan?

I just have a question about what that would mean. Is that something we fund and do ourselves?

Is that something the district would be funding?

What's involved in a retreat? Adam, can you explain what you're looking for?

Yeah. So we haven't done this actually ever while I've been on the committee, but I think it used to be a practice that they held annually.

I think we have some flexibility in terms of what we'd want to do, but I would imagine it would be a day in person kind of workshopping, you know, a little bit of relationship building, maybe workshopping some goals or things of that nature.

It would be noticed as a public meeting, but I think this has historically been when it occurred generally was just kind of with school committee and maybe central admin.

All right.

Well, we have one more meeting for the end of this fiscal year.

So, and Adam, I heard you say that you hadn't had a chance to look at the calendar.

Are there folks that have looked at the meeting calendar and want to vote that tonight or would folks prefer?

Unless I see people adamantly saying that they'd like to vote that tonight, we'll agenda that vote next meeting. Please, everybody, take a look at the meeting calendar and be prepared to speak to that. Does that work?

All right.

Okay.

Next up, we will go to our regular agenda, starting with public comments.

So is there someone that was willing to keep the two-minute time?

All right, Adam, you'll keep time.

Everybody, let's keep it to two minutes and let's have some fun. All right, I see Ahmed Mohamed up first.

Thanks, Avi.

Yeah, I just have a couple things to say. Actually, given that the upcoming school budget challenges and the budget subcommittee will have the current or like the next budget subcommittee will have significant amount of work ahead of them. And the next budget will be actually need to account for actually more increase because of future contracts.

So I actually went to a short-term to do TV to locate the budget subcommittee meeting.

I didn't find any for this year or last year. So I have the fact that the committee members campaigned on a platform to increase transparency of the budget process and prioritize school programs and expense.

And identify areas of potential cuts if necessary.

So I hope to see the budget subcommittee will have a commitment to meet regularly in person on a monthly basis to closely monitor the budget.

And identify actually area that will, you know, be able to make cuts.

Also, I want to, I hope actually that, you know, instead of solely focusing on budget cuts, I hope that it's important for the superintendent to analyze why Sharon Pabllo's performance as measured by data is not meeting expectation.

And I hope you can identify areas of improvement.

Thank you.

You're on mute.

Sorry.

Casey McLaughlin.

Hi.

I noticed the enormous pride flag hanging from the front doorway of the middle school. And I propose you vote again to remove that and all of them in light of the controversial topics policy.

I'll assume that you have no clue what the flag was either then or now.

Back in the 70s, even gay men and lesbians found the idea of a single community pretty challenging.

Lesbians had very different needs, demands, and restrictions than their gay male counterparts.

And nobody trusted the bisexuals.

I remember in the 90s when it finally became acceptable that gays were born this way and shouldn't be punished for it until the transgender unicorn nonsense emerged where literally any and every confusing form of degenerative fetish sexuality suddenly became a brave choice.

In the past few years, this flag and everything it represents has morphed into a cultist symbol and really should be treated as any improper religious symbol on a public building.

Even worse, every week there's a new version of it. Now it's black and brown and pink and blue baby colors and new symbols no one understands.

It is not an all-inclusive and loving community as they falsely promote.

If you don't share precisely the same views in lockstep with the dogma, then you're considered a traitor, a TERF, MAGA, justifiably subjected to exclusion.

And trust me, I know intimately how these hypocrites operate.

Flying the flag is the first test of who will kiss the ring and obey. June is the holy month of worship, their own manufactured Ramadan, to publicly evaluate the faithful believers while more importantly outing those who don't comply.

What are we even celebrating?

Triumph over discriminatory laws that no longer exist?

Is it servicing a queer kitchen sink cult, narcissistically starving for adulation, attention?

Like I seriously don't get it. Regardless, it's controversial, it's divisive, and the only flag that should be flown from any public school building is the American flag.

Thank you.

Judy Crosby.

Thanks.

First, I'm going to ask the chair to consider doing what he did earlier this year, which is starting the meeting, or at least the open forum, with the anti-discriminatory policy of the district.

Based on the comments we just heard, this is not a safe space for students and families who identify as LGBTQIA.

My actual comments.

One, please return to meeting in person.

Two, if you are going to meet on Zoom, everybody should please have SC or school committee after their name if they serve on the school committee.

The superintendent, the assistant superintendent, et cetera, should all have their titles. To assume that everyone knows who everyone is is really wrong.

Three, 603 Code of Mass Regs 27.05 provides that, notwithstanding the minimum school year requirements set forth in Massachusetts regs, at the discretion of the school committee, the scheduled school year for the graduating senior class of a high school or vocational technical school may conclude, and the school graduation be held up to 12 school days before the regular scheduled closing date of that school.

Because of the delightful mess that your newly re-envoted chair of the calendar subcommittee created, your school year now ends on June 20th.

That means you cannot hold graduation on the Sunday following the week following Memorial Day.

That's 14 school days.

You're violating mask law.

So you're going to need to re-look at graduation.

You'll need to look at when your prom is and everything else. Those dates are planned a year ahead and really matter to the seniors.

So please get on top of it and stop ignoring it. Lastly, something else the seniors, as well as everyone else, cares about, but you all seem not to, is getting a theater director.

You focused a lot on getting your football coach.

And of course, he or she needs to be there before the start of school, but so does your theater director.

There is no show chosen.

It takes a while to secure rights.

You have chosen to oust your theater director.

You need one. Jennifer McLaughlin- Spence.

Jennifer McLaughlin- Thank you so much, school committee, for allowing me to speak.

And welcome to the new school committee members.

I'm Jennifer Spence, and I am a fourth grade teacher at East Elementary.

Due to some hasty decision-making, we were asked to consider a third potential calendar as a school community.

To remedy the consequences of these hasty decisions, teachers and families faced the hard decision of weighing in to either change the educational staff's start date to two days before Labor Day or to move graduation a week later.

It is a matter of collective concern that parents, teachers and the staff of Sharon Public Schools are shouldering the burden of rectifying the consequences of a decision they had no part in making.

I would like the school committee to consider the first calendar proposed, which included a start date after Labor Day and recognized only federal holidays.

This would solve the teachers and staff start date problem and keep graduation where it is. I'd also like to address that while there was some concern about staffing on two specific religious holidays, there was never a delineation between those employees needing coverage or substitute teachers and the bulk of our school educators and staff not requiring coverage when absence.

Your time and consideration is greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And next week.

We appreciate the update at the end. We appreciate the update at the end. It's good to hear that for the most part folks are happy, but we're here for as many updates as you'll have where people might not be thrilled and we'll work together hopefully to rectify those situations.

So we appreciate you. Thank you for being here. Great update.

Thank you.

Sorry.

And just, I just have one inquiry.

Sure. So, yeah.

So, yeah.

So, yeah.

He is the class of the year. He is the class of the year.

He is the class of 2020.

He is the class of 2025 class president. So, obviously, the graduating senior year for next year. And he was wondering if school committee has decided on to vote on finalizing the school calendar as to whether it's going to end later in June or if it's going to end early like this year.

Sure.

And so I will, that is a great question.

I think that he is far from alone in wondering the answer to that question.

Dr. Botello, can you speak to that or? Well, I think our intention is to discuss a couple of options and have school committee if they're ready to vote on and finalize the decision today.

Okay.

So, stay tuned, Brendan.

Hopefully, we'll have an answer for you very shortly here. Thank you so much. All right.

Thank you. All right.

Next up, I'll throw it to you, Dr. Botello, for general updates.

Great.

I'll definitely concur with Brendan's sentiments with respect to, you know, kids really finishing off the year strong and especially our seniors.

We want to congratulate our seniors on an awesome graduation last week.

Their speeches and their performances were awesome.

Their kind of graciousness towards their, the teachers who they appreciated so much and the administration was really touching as well. And, and that was a culminating event after a week long senior week where the seniors just did an awesome job of really soaking it up, enjoying themselves and really dealing with stuff in a fun, fun way, but being responsible and really appreciate it. And we showed them a charity, but also a great degree of spirit and fun. It was great to be part of. Senior Recognition Night on May 30th was an awesome event. I had the pleasure of giving out two superintendents awards to kids who were both going to my alma mater up at Dartmouth College, which was, which was fun. Just happened to happen that way. And we also had really thanked all those who provide scholarships.

We, we, we presented all those scholarships to each of the students this year, which was a bit of a change instead of having it. You just shown at the end of the event.

And we also have begun a tradition of highlighting two donors each year. And this year it was Robert and Joan Darnell who provided an awesome scholarship $21,000 this year and a 400, over a $400,000 donation to a scholarship fund. And then Robert J. Fishman and, and, and, and his family, which was awesome as well. And we also want to really recognize our retirees that are finishing up this year.

So it's not only our seniors, but it's our senior veteran teachers.

And they include Cheryl Berlingo from the ECC. Michelle Potash, who's a van driver in the district.

Steve Danino, physical education at Cottage.

Patty Enright-Perillo, who's grade one at Cottage.

Kathy Friedman, who retired earlier this year as a nurse at Heights.

Mara Georgie, social studies at the high school.

Tom Gorsuch, who retired earlier this year as, as a math teacher at the high school. Patricia Kelly, a special educator at the high school.

Sarah Keough, our occupational therapist at the ECC and a really spirited person.

And Mazahari, our speech and language professional at Heights.

Ruthie Miller, grade six at the middle school.

And Bernadette Murphy, social studies at the high school. So we wish them all the very best in their retirement.

And thank you. Thank them for their, you'll see their years of service to the district and to the kids of Sharon.

Hiring update.

We hired a new athletic director who also have assistant principal duties as well. And that is Mike Vitelli.

He's scheduled to start officially on July 1st. He is participating in the football coach interviews and jumping in really strongly.

He worked previously at Bishop Dean, Severian, and Norton High in athletics and earlier in his career as a physical education teacher.

And he'll be working with Kristen Keenan to develop and implement a thorough onboarding process as he jumps into the athletic world here in Sharon and in the, with our competitors.

Height's elementary finalists visited today and yesterday, and we hope to announce a new principal by next week. And we're also beginning assistant superintendent interviews over the next week. So there's a screening committee that is participating in that. And then finalists will be forwarded to me who will meet with me as well as other stakeholders before a final decision is made by the end of June. And then the calendar, as has been discussed, our last day of school is currently scheduled for June 20th.

And the department regulations do not allow for graduation more than 12 days before the final scheduled last day. And we're out of compliance by that. By two days, we've been reaching out to the Department of Education over the last several weeks and looking into solutions.

And going to next a couple, there's really, we did reach out to the SDA and with, you know, things that are already planned for the end of August.

They were not able to kind of support an earlier start for teachers.

So the options that we have are to leave the calendar as is and move graduation to June 8th, the second Sunday in June. The second option, I talked to Ann Marie Stronack at the Department of Education.

She's the person who was heading up the COVID efforts a couple of years ago, as well as has been really working strongly on support of our new families throughout the state. And one thing that she suggested as an option was apply for a waiver.