all right just turned seven o'clock on my clock um see okay welcome to the september 11th 2024 meeting of the sharon school committee uh this meeting will be conducted remotely over zoom attendance by board members will be remote remote attendance shall count towards a quorum 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 before we jump right into public comments which is our first agenda item i do just want to acknowledge uh that it is september 11th um obviously that's uh an important but sad day for all of us uh i don't see i know we've got a student rep on so most of us i should say remember that day um and it's i think just important for us to take a moment to acknowledge all the lives that were lost that day um and so i just didn't want to miss an opportunity to start off with that as far as public comments go uh i need someone to keep a clock for two minutes any volunteers no volunteer oh adam shane just just in the nick of time all right so adam will keep two minutes ask everybody to uh yeah speak about whatever it is that you want just keep it to two minutes first up i see tobin asklar hi thank you avi um i'm tobin asklar i'm speaking as a parent of two middle schoolers and a high schooler and they share in public schools um with some concerns about the proposed policy to consider absences due to illnesses unexcused absences um without a doctor's note or um and not only does this seem inequitable but there are barriers to access to medical care around cost availability of providers loss of work transportation etc to get to get that doctor's note that they would need to avoid that absence it also creates a conflict with i think policy in terms of jh the student absences and excuses policy which tells us um in all events and regardless of how many absences have occurred to date students should stay home if they have a temperature of 100 degrees if they're vomiting or have diarrhea if they have a severe cold with fever sneezing thickened nasal all these things so um they're telling us to leave them home and we we know that doctors don't always um see patients until they've been sick three days or more if there is pressure in addition to avoid unexcused absences to avoid losing that academic credit um after 10 unexcused absences i understand it's a high bar but it may may make parents make decisions to send their kids to school anyway to avoid adding unexcused absences this choice then exposes all in the school to um illness which makes the kids less safe and potentially more um lead to more absences of other kids teachers and building staff i'd like to see parent notes for illnesses above above considered an excused absence we should not punish parents and children for doing the right thing for the health of the community and thank you so much avi as well for acknowledging september 11th today it is a sad day and one that we should always remember thank you judy crosby thanks avi um so i'm not going to repeat what tobin said but i agree with everything that tobin said um i did want to suggest some language um parents guardians will provide a written explanation for the absence or cardiness of a child this will be required in advance for types of absences where advance notice is possible in instances of chronic or irregular absence reportedly due to illness the school administration may request a physician statement certifying such absences to be justified so that if you get to many days or you see kids being out a lot and the parent is constantly saying it's due to illness then it's appropriate to ask them to approach a physician um so i think it's really important that this policy be changed um the other thing i wanted to ask about was in light of the really i'm sorry a really unfortunate thing that happened in winder georgia with the school shooting um one of the reasons that shooting shockingly was not as bad as it could have been was because they had panic buttons in their teacher's hands um on the back of every teacher lanyard is a button and when the teacher pushes it a certain number of times it triggers an alert that's how everybody was able to respond so quickly and stop the shooting so one question i had was do we have such a thing if we don't can it please be part of the capital outlay request for this year um it's technology that's readily available and it's not just used in instances of school shootings it can be used if there is any kind of issue happening in the classroom a student passes out a student you know there's a fight there's any of those sorts of things it will immediately alert to exactly where in the building the problem is and people can respond appropriately um so i'd like to ask that that be considered for capital outlay if we don't have that already in our schools thanks thank you i have read a an article talking about those panic buttons on the back of the lanyards also and i think a capital outlay request is a very appropriate ask thank you uh lori davis hi um i just want to um address the attendance policy uh at the high school it's being composed as well um i'm a teacher at the high school and uh i just feel um understanding that parents have some concerns i think what we need to consider as well is that 10 absences are that are unexcused are quite a lot of absences um and there will be quite a few options and availability of warnings if kids are getting close to that um i i agree that parents should keep students home if they have a fever or if they're ill um but 10 absences for like if a kid has a migraine or a kid has um an issue with like having the stomach flu um without having to see the doctor is quite a few absences for unexcused um obviously this student is ill for two or three days longer than that the assumption would be that they would have seen a doctor anyway and those absences would be excused um clearly given the data that um mrs keenan showed us uh and showed the school committee and showed the community um about absences absences have been an issue um and and they are going to continue to be an issue um moving forward and other schools have instituted these policies with these caps of absences that were actually less a lot lower than what we're asking currently um and i think if we go ahead and we at least try it for a year and see exactly where we're at with the absences i think it could do a lot of good for for students um for student education and for the school district as a whole in light of the state's requirements for attendance so thank you thank you ms davis next up i see judith weeder hi thanks for recognizing me um also thank you for recognizing september 11th i've been so busy today and i haven't even had a chance to think about it and that's really bad um so with um with all due respect to ms davis and i do have a lot of love and respect for the teachers in sharon high school in particular um i understand that that feels like it's a lot of days the data that principal keenan showed last meeting showed a decline in the absences like they were trending in a better direction and also um frankly anything that discourages parents from keeping their kids home when they're sick particularly right now when we know that covet has certainly been spreading including in massachusetts and we also know that the cdc has relaxed the guidelines around keeping your kids at home we will see more kids coming into the school when they are not just when they're unwell and potentially going to spread uh illness to other kids but also they're they're not going to be able to participate right they're not going to be able to focus for their tests for class participation for the projects for the things that they need to get done so it's not a great situation for them either and i've already written into the school committee plus one to everything that tobin said they were fantastic in expressing all the issues around iniquity i study this for a living and i'm telling you right now the health care system is not designed to support parents in fact very little is designed to support parents so what i'm asking for is instead since principal keenan is proposing to do this google form as our way of capturing attendance changes why not get a year's worth of data under our belt with that form before we institute the new policy and then use the data to help us make an informed decision about the policy rather than implementing the policy and then backing in to the decision that we made thank you marily burke hi thank you for letting me speak um i'm also a teacher at the high school and coordinator and i i also want to be clear i believe it's nine absences per term that's allowed so it's actually 36 absences a year that's 20 of the school year um which is a significant amount and i'll share that in my own classroom last year i teach one class at the high school i tried to go back and on and get hard data for you but i would probably say less than 20 of the time of the entire school year i had my entire class for the one period a day that i have them which is concerning and it's tough to have momentum it's tough to um keep kids on track when they're not there and i as a science teacher and i understand the the guidelines and the concerns about illness um 36 absences is a lot throughout the year and i do want parents to keep their kids home when they're sick i myself live in a district that has this kind of policy and it's really i mean my son's sick i call him out sick and it's an unaccused absence he's still allowed to make up the work um and only when he's sick for a long amount of time am i going to go get a doctor's note or when my daughter has an orthodontist appointment i get the note from the orthodontist as i'm leaving um and it really has not been a barrier um i feel like this policy is just putting us back in line with what many many many other districts do in the area and i know there's a number of teachers on here just can i do a real quick straw poll and ask teachers that are on here right now to raise their hand if they are in agreement with instituting this attendance policy i just quick straw poll of the teachers that are on thank you all right seeing no further hands to speak i will move over to correspondence and i'll go to alan i think alan's gonna read this shauna since i know you were at open house but you are here if you're cool with it alan said he'd read it all right i think that'll be you alan just one quick clarification it is the the policy that's in the handbook is uh 10 absences over the full year for one credit reduction 20 over the full year for two credit reduction not 36 absences over the year go ahead alan thank you alan no problem um so the school excuse me the school committee has received 27 pieces of correspondence between june 26 2024 and august 28th of 2024 uh several community members wrote to request that the school committee assure that desi has provided written confirmation oh hold on did i pull up the wrong one i did i apologize hold on this is last week this is what you get for being a newbie please forgive me uh okay i'm starting over uh the school committee has received 12 pieces of correspondence between august 28th 2024 and september 11th 2024 uh pam wrote to request a copy of meeting notes taken in a follow-up conversation with assistant superintendent whittemore the follow-up conversation was related to a previous letter of determination we received two invitations to events sponsored by the norfolk county sheriff's department a family wrote to request that the school committee consider moving back the back to school start date prior to labor day uh we received a few letters from parents related to the shs handbook proposal these letters were primarily focused on the language related to excuse absences and also raised a concern regarding how this language was discussed with a sharon high school students during an assembly a parent wrote expressing their concerns regarding some of the questions in the back to school surveys that teachers may ask their students to complete we received a letter that questioned the use of boars head deli meat in the sharon public school cafeterias we received the back to school edition of millie's medco monday newsletter which focused on events held through medco a parent wrote to request clarification on bus stops and bus route schedules and we received information from a parent regarding uh an organization called escape the waste which is an educational organization focused on sustainability those are the correspondence thank you alan um i know we do have a student rep here today we've got isha agarwal isha are you here just raise your hand hand oh i see you hi i'm isha agarwal and i'll be the student representative today thank you so much okay to begin student involvement showed how excited students were to return to school and connect with peers over 60 student volunteers entered the new student orientation and freshman orientation on august 28th a great turnout for an event that welcomes new eagles with a lot of spirit and excitement to provide tours and to answer questions about activities and clubs for parents as well as students there was a well attended athletic information night on thursday august 22nd with a new athletic director students kept themselves busy this summer with camp travel work athletics and internships and of course service key cup for example worked to harvest vegetables from a community garden to donate to a local food pantry in addition dust and strong student leaders organized a blood drive on friday august 31st at the sharon public safety building sharon high school eagles joined students from other towns to plant flags on the foxborough common on saturday august 24th to recognize overdose awareness month and the debate team received chartered recognition by the national speech and debate league as a top performing high school over the past three years and has already started practicing for the upcoming fall competitions senior class officers are preparing for an informational session for senior parents of parent open house tonight next week and are excited to start their year with senior sunrise and homecoming dance both on a september 27th seniors had a meeting with counseling today about the process and parents are invited this evening to hear a presentation as well students are adjusting to the new schedule and rules pertaining to attendance during class meetings administrators reviewed the rules and addressed questions so far students are adjusting and recognize the importance of getting to school on time as clubs are getting into the swing of the school year they are preparing for club fair which will be held on october 9th this is a great way for students to learn about getting involved and to end the freshman class will be holding their class officer election soon thank you thank you um that was a great update appreciate your time all right next up i'll throw it to our superintendent dr botello for his updates yeah great thank you and i appreciate that student update as well it was a very uh informative and detailed and appreciate the participation of our group this uh this year um we definitely had an awesome really um exciting enthusiastic uh school opening throughout the district got to go around to uh the elementary schools middle school and the high school as well as the ecc that started up the and uh definitely a lot of excited uh both staff um students and also parents who are uh ready to have their kiddos you know kind of um um in school and in in in busy again after a great summer um some of the um welcoming activities included uh an ecc meeting greet uh the middle school has uh done its first community uh day uh back on september 6th we had fire drills which are mandated across our schools and during the first full week um assemblies at the high school uh with the the theme be curious uh with the theme be curious and also a great event where we invited our um boston resident families um to uh sharon uh which was which was uh you know run by uh carla hands our our meko director after school clubs and activities as our student representative said are are ready to get started and also just that we're really working out we always work out the kinks with uh transportation during the first couple weeks adjusting routes and stops and stuff and so we thank families for being patient as we try to uh get everything rolling smoothly um open houses are are happening we have a the grade six happening tonight um and grade seven and eight on the uh tomorrow night then we have our high school on the the 19th our elementary schools on the 26th and our ecc will be on october 15th so we uh we love the the strong attendance of our parents and guardians there just some of the work that's being done already we had a great group of staff members uh participate in a training on restorative circles which really gives students a voice into uh their community and in their education uh we have um you know translation services we have a lot a large growing uh english language uh learner population and really working to support them to through translation services we did a bullying investigation training with our um cabinet and principals and we'll be holding that with our assistant principals and other administrators we're working out our pd calendar for um for the district and also um we're able to give uh new backpacks to 46 students for uh some of our new students um as well as start to um inform um our elementary teachers about uh the pilot we'll be doing and train those who are going to be involved with that pilot um you know we definitely we're we're working to partner with our families it's so incredibly important as we um try to uh realize uh the our vision for education which includes a really positive and vibrant school culture really seeking educational excellence in the form of student-centered learning for all our kids and also really trying to amplify the sense of belonging so that all kids feel that they belong in school and with that sense of belonging it gives them a much greater opportunity for them to to embrace their education and learn we've got extraordinary things being done by our um administration faculty and staff to work towards this vision uh we we know teaching and parenting has gotten more and more complex over the last you know 10-15 years and we look forward to partnering with our families uh really strongly working collaboratively assuming a positive intent we know as educators that every parent cares deeply about uh their kiddos and when they're advocating for them it's because of that caring and we um we we know uh that we're trying to instill and and and show an understanding but also um uh show that we care deeply about their kids too and really working in their best interest so you look to model kindness understanding mutual respect and humility in our partnership and so over the next uh several meetings we have a bunch of different things to look forward to uh just recommended policy updates as well as other policy updates pd planning overview my goals for the year school improvement plan and the goals embedded in those as well as some beginning our um first quarter financial report uh for fyo25 as well as looking at capital review and proposals in fyo26 so those will be coming up in the next several meetings um great thank you are there any questions from the table all right seeing no questions we'll go to our first discussion item final review and vote to approve student handbooks uh we'll start with elementary go to middle high and early childhood will be last actually you know what let's do early childhood then middle then elementary then high were there questions on the early childhood oh sorry it looks like yeah miss canin has her hand up um i have no problem waiting till you get to the high school one um i apologize so i just want to give some clarification prior to the high school absolutely thank you um all right uh is there any are there any questions on the ecc handbook are we ready to vote it i'd entertain a motion motion to approve oh sorry alan you go motion to approve the uh ecc uh handbook second all right adam yes jeremy yes alan yes julie yes dan yes shana yes i am a yes motion carries seven oh all right next up middle school were there any questions on the middle school any discussion or if not i would entertain a motion oh second oh oh all right oh i should have said i will entertain a motion to approve the middle school handbook but motion's removed alan yes jeremy yes adam yes julie yes dan yes jana yes yes motion carries seven oh all right elementary is there any are there any questions or discussion i see dan's hand yeah thanks avi in our last meeting um i had raised the topic of homework within the elementary handbook and uh we had a short discussion about it um particularly that um what was in the handbook might not align to what families are actually experiencing on the ground in terms of the amount and type of homework in different classes um i see in the updated version that the administration has done what they said they would do and taken a first crack at bringing it more into alignment i appreciate that uh what i like about these handbook discussions is um they give you an opportunity to align and collect connect with each other about all these different topics quickly and then um they can help i think at least identify areas for additional focus um i don't want to hold up the handbooks because i understand their importance um and they cover many different topics so i don't want to put the admission i never want to put the administration on the spot um as part of this discussion but for me that discussion did raise a lot of more general questions around homework and what our posture towards homework is and should be uh particularly in the elementary context and uh what i heard is that there has been a laissez-faire approach to homework at least in the elementary schools where some people might be getting no homework from their teacher and other people's might be getting quite a bit um so i think every what i heard is everybody agreed that that warranted additional discussion i don't want to hold up the handbook today but um what i wanted to ask is is this something that we can uh work on and talk about more throughout this year uh with with school committee with the administration i think good policy comes from the bottom up so um is this something we can continue the conversation about with a potential goal about reducing that variation for next year uh is the administration open to that uh yeah i think we could um we can provide uh begin to provide first of our rationale for the adjustments that were made and uh further explain uh the degree of consistency that we're expecting from uh faculty as well as look at some of the research on on homework and in in doing so have a discussion that will um you know help inform any further adjustments that might be happening in future years uh sorry just to piggyback on that i i just want to caution us from from doing that and and thinking about the larger picture because it's not just an elementary school it doesn't then just become an elementary school discussion it becomes a district-wide discussion because there there are middle school classes that don't give homework there are high school classes that don't give homework right so like we we want to make sure that our district leaders that we have in front of us our principals our building-based administration are leading their buildings and we're consistent across you know the three the three elementary schools yes but also in terms of like our philosophy as a district right like i believe that miss keenan and i'm i only have you on my screen right now right is running her school in such a way that she empowers her teachers to do what is best for her students educationally right so if a class needs to have homework or needs to finish an assignment that hasn't been finished then okay they're going to assign that but to they have to have that autonomy so i just i i just worry dan about us getting into something that really isn't our purview and really does lead to um it lies at the school-based administration level dan yeah thanks shauna um i absolutely agree um one of the reasons i suggested kicking this back to the administration is so that exactly what you're talking about we're not imposing from the top down i would want to see what the administration comes up with to rectify some of these issues that we raised in the last discussion and see what they recommend i think that should always be the starting point um i i do think this is our purview many districts have um school committee policies actually specific on homework there is a mask uh policy around homework so it's not at all unusual whether that's ultimately where this ends up i don't have an opinion on that whether that needs to be a district-wide policy or what the solution is i i would want to hear more about that and get the recommendation coming from the principals and the administration first um but i also uh it's it's clear to me at least that um the way we've been going the past couple years um where there are these wild disparities in parent experiences just based on what teacher they get in fourth grade and fifth grade um i think i think this is is something that's ripe for attention um so i i would like to um explore that with the administration if they're willing over the next year yeah i'll just make a comment i i mean we're definitely willing to have a discussion i do agree i think that the um the policy at the at the school committee level should be uh broad and philosophical but it can talk about things like consistency and then the actual uh more prescriptive guidelines should be done at the um be a small p policy or guidelines at the um the building level but we can you know again share a rationale and have conversations is fine thank you all right so seeing no more hands before you vote i actually have something i'd like to weigh in on and maybe an ask of admin um at the elementary level so for me i see the answer as in line with what shauna just said but and also what dan just said and i don't think that they're at odds in that i think that dan is pointing out as we as we both did in the last meeting that these guidelines that exist right now and these expectations were not set by school committee they were they were set by building admin what what dan is pointing out what i've pointed out what many parents in this district point out that those guidelines and expectations which are in a handbook are not being met by many educators in our district and to be fair and honest and transparent they're not being attempted to be met um we all know of teachers and we won't name them on this call who our kids know two grades before they get them won't give them homework they are not doing that because of a uh a case-by-case basis they're not doing that because they're reading the group that's in front of them how do i know that because again year after year after year that teacher doesn't give homework this teacher gives an immense amount of homework it's a very different experience being had by our students depending on what teacher in the building they get so to me what i would ask for out of this handbook if if the committee wanted to ask along with me is some sort of a remedy given to the parents like what is because these handbooks are meant to be prescriptive for the parents what what is it that you are supposed to do in the event of x y or z and to me if these are the expectations at the building level of our elementary school principals of their staff their their educators what is a parent to do if they're seeing that this is not what's going on for their student i would assume that that is for them to contact building a building leader and so for me i would want something in this handbook that said something to the effect of if these if these guidelines if it is the feeling of the parents that these guidelines are not what is being experienced by the student please contact building leadership i agree that it should not be the school committee i imagine that it should not be district leadership but i think that building leadership should either be saying look here's why and i'm okay with it or saying hey let me look into that but i don't i don't think parents should just be expected to just accept that the teacher that their student got essentially by lottery is going to give them a very different perhaps harder perhaps less hard perhaps better perhaps worse but a different experience than if they've gotten another teacher yeah i can tell but first of all with the revisions that we've made the the expectations that are forward is that this is going to be reviewed by building a leader leaders with their teachers and that they will meet those expectations because we've made them flexible enough um that we think they are reasonable and good guidelines so that's the first thing that will happen the second we can add a sentence in in what i would say would be if a parent finds that you know they're not experiencing this please communicate with the teacher and if they're if that does not work then go to the building leader we can add that sentence for sure that's all that's great thank you shauna so i think i think we've i think we've unraveled this like microcosm of an issue that we're we're now saying and and i think the word that we're all looking for is experience especially at the elementary school level because when all of our kids come together at the melting pot of the middle school and they're put into three teams randomly assigned by school they all have john i don't think we can hear you i think you're cutting out SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: uh oh shauna you know you're not coming in clear i think what i think what i'm hearing shauna say is that they the kids in the elementary should have a similar experience because they all end up in the house right now for my own don island okay no can you we can hear you now i i think i think shauna's saying that the three different elementary schools pour into one middle school and the kids are all jumbled up and if they've had a different experience at each school level then it will um you know be shown in the middle school which i you know i can i i totally agree with that that it should it should try to be a little bit more consistent so that when they do get to sixth grade um everybody's kind of starting from the same experience and i hope i that's how i feel i think that's what shauna was saying yes sorry can you hear me yes can you hear me yes we can hear you okay sorry yes julie thank you for capturing that i think i think the word that we're looking for is experience and the second one that we're looking for is cons absolutely all right you're coming back out there i see dr vitello has his hand up and i don't know that he has to raise his hand in these meetings so i'll take i would say i think we we are i mean the elementary uh principles uh since i've been here working together much more so than in the past and we are certainly striving uh for a a certain level of consistency we actually want to balance between i mean i think we talk about what is tight and what is loose so we want a large degree of consistency kids should not experience a vastly different we also want to give some autonomy to educators to make judgments so we're looking for that balance but when we create guidelines that have a reasonableness to them and have some flexibility but not too much that's what we're striving for and we'll continue to do so thank you all right dan then adam and then we'll vote go ahead dan thanks i'll close out my piece with one more question um i i liked everything i just heard dr vitello explain in terms of next steps and i want him to have an opportunity to go back and meet with his team and talk about this and figure out what makes sense um he used the word expectations that i really like um in the handbook one of the things i noticed right off the bat is it says these are not expectations uh which to me means you can ignore them in the middle school handbook it says these are expectations and in the in this high school handbook too so i noticed that inconsistency right off the bat and i think that might be driving um why people treat these as really optional and can be ignored is the administration if if you're going to be taking that approach and these are kind of being expressed as yeah we all get their guidelines but they are also expectations um can we remove that sentence that just says these are not expectations is that a reasonable first step that that is fair yeah because we're we're meeting we're meeting to make them be more you know reasonable and and realistic but that they become it they are expectations so we can make a change to that thank you all right adam i saw you saw your your hand down you have your hand down so i will entertain a motion to with these revisions dr botello's agreed to here in this meeting uh approve the elementary school handbook so moved second second all right shauna yes dan yes julie yes jeremy yes adam yes alan yes yes now i'm a yes motion carries seven oh all right and now ms keenan it's uh it's on you uh are there any questions i imagine there are probably no questions or comments to be made about the high school handbook if not i'll entertain a motion uh but if somebody has questions or comments now's the time jeremy yeah i think on two items one on smartphone usage similar to dan's note like i don't want to hold up this the handbook getting approved and i think we're making steps in the right direction but i think over the course of the year we should dig into whether or not a stricter policy would be appropriate to get most data suggests that limiting phone usage throughout the entire day has a more better impact for students both academically and for mental wellness so similar to dan's asking homework i think we should take a more focused look at smartphone usage in that policy um on the attendance policy i've talked to a bunch of teachers and looked at neighboring towns um mansfield foxborough medfield well call can all require a doctor's note and teachers are generally supportive of it that said i'm wondering if there's a way that we could revise the language to be more targeted at when it's an issue um looking at like massachusetts materials on approaches to improving attendance like multi-tiered approaches seem to be best so i wouldn't want to play place a large burden on many parents and i know that they get 10 per year but it is a pain especially when we have stuff like covet tests and doctors won't see kids if they haven't been sick for a number of days so i wonder if there are methods that we could use to target students that we believe are going to be on the path to chronic absence um versus kind of this broad strokes approach all right miss keeney do you want to take that yeah i i can speak to that i mean from a logistical standpoint i think tracking that would be very very difficult um but i i understand what you're saying i i guess i just want to backtrack a little bit and talk about this process this was a year-long process with the school council that was made up of parents community members teachers students and myself that looked at um the data from all different schools around us and what they're doing and this was a real middle of the road approach you know also we're giving a restorative piece to this to help students if they lose a credit to get that back none of us at the high school there's no adult at the high school that does not want students to succeed and we recognize that there are things in students life health things whether they're mental health physical health that happens and and we want to work with families but that being said we have to live within the means of of how desi looks at chronic attendance and the issues last year at sharon high school we had over 12 000 absences so that averaged about 10.4

absences per year per student um but simultaneously we had about 12 of our student population that were chronically absent meaning more than 18 days and so i guess that speaks a little to what you were saying that this is not the whole community of students that are excessively meeting missing school but there is a pattern here and i do think we need to understand that um desi looks at each school and we get an accountability rating and that is made up of a a variety of factors which include mcas scores which include how we um work with our high needs students but a large part of it also is our attendance and when our accountability rating goes down that has implications for the community as a whole and i think it's important to understand that you know at the end of the end of the day honestly what we're trying to do is when students graduate from sharon high school they are human beings that are resilient that they're persistent that um they have the skills to persevere in college or any post-secondary pursuit that they want and unfortunately covid created a situation where we have created really bad attendance habits i mean i want sharon high school to be the best high school in the state you know and we can we have the faculty they are incredibly talented we have the students they are incredibly talented but we as adults have to put up some guardrails and routines in place um i think that show that we we mean what we say when we say attendance um is is almost 100 of the battle and being successful and we know that through research so um this wasn't taken lightly by any stretch of the imagination um we did talk about you know the struggles of parents and trying to get doctors appointments and and we've we've built in some flexibility there particularly with kids that have chronic illnesses and things of that nature um but respectfully i think this is a really good middle of the road approach and like i mentioned to you two weeks ago my goal is to get that chronic attendance rate back to where it was in the 17 18 school year to six percent or less as it should be i mean sharon high school should have 96 97 percent attendance rate last year we had 94 the year before 93 so um i'm hoping that that you will approve this um i'm happy to reflect on it throughout the year with members of the school council as well as our faculty and other administrators but i do think that this a lot of thought was put into this on all sides and i just want to comment on the this the certainly um both the state and other research talks about that monthly tiered support and this is part of that so by having this one portion of our attendance strategy we're having you know this is kind of our tier one this is you know this is for most students it's going to work well in encouraging them to come to school when they can and getting those doctor notes when they need them then when we see those kids who are creeping up towards that 10 or coming over that 10 we work with those intensively to support them in order to be able to uh meet the expectations if necessary get doctors know if it's something uh chronic or um help them with whatever is getting in the way beyond sickness that is resulting in their attendance so those supports i i would not support this approach if we weren't coupling it with uh using our counseling staff and others to support kids who are having attendance issues but by minimizing that group by having a strong you know system as far as accountability that allows us to do that more effectively uh thank you uh and thank you principal keenan and dr patello both for your comments that i had the chance we've had to speak offline uh like jeremy i did some some research as well and i know and respect that this is a policy developed through the school council process um i want to say up front i'm going to support the the policy and i just want to speak briefly to to why um because i do hear and understand the feedback from the community about the notion that these absences written by uh or or proved or supported by parents is going to be now labeled as unexcused and i i wrestle with that a lot because i think you know we want to have a collaborative relationship with parents i think we we want to trust parents that they're going to be um uh correct and fair and reasonable in how they um call out their students um i think when you look at what other districts have done and the fact that this is consistent with that and i also think the fact that um not all parents are are uh as scrupulous as we'd want them to be and there are parents who will take advantage of this of the of the rules and write notes for their kids for for just about anything and so um i thought about well what if we made it you know 10 excused absences and then it became uh a doctor's note required and the reality is that's just semantics that the issue here is really the cap right and that there has to be a line drawn somewhere that the school can say there's been a certain number of absences above which it is no longer reasonable and that if that's the case we have to be able to take action um and so i think that call them unexcused call them excused parents can make decisions about their children to keep them out of school for 10 occasions and if they need more absences than that then they can go to their child's doctor um and we all know that if the child has a chronic medical condition that uh there's the ability to get medical notes that speak to the chronic nature of that condition there's the 504 plan process there's the iep process so i'm i'm not concerned about students with chronic medical conditions being disadvantaged by this policy i know it's a change i know it's an adjustment i know it's a a linguistic change that feels very significant but i really believe that the district is going to benefit i think the administration is going to support and enforce this policy in a fair and equitable way and as principal keenan said i think if it helps contribute to us being the best district in the state and providing the best education for students hopefully that's our foremost responsibility and we have to trust that our educators and our school council have looked at this carefully made the best decision and so i'm going to support their decision thank you thanks alan all right seeing no other hands i'll just say before we vote that i know um i just i feel like i should clarify since i said in the last meeting that i would not vote for this policy i did have an opportunity to have a conversation with building admin over the high school and similar to what alan has had to say you know for me and just in weighing it was made clear that these things were also concerns of the high school admin but that the need uh to have firm policies and to create a culture of taking academia academic pursuits seriously at our high school this is something that's important and i know that this community very much shares uh principal keenan's belief that we can be the best high school in the state and so i i can't see in good conscience tying our educators hands behind their back when we're asking them to deliver rigidity um and rigor for for our students and to deliver results so that's why my vote will be changing uh dan i saw your hands back up thanks i have a quick uh question for miss keenan um some parents were asking about college visits and um if you could please clarify um how you're approaching college visits that might be across multiple days um i think parents were reading the language and weren't totally sure about what that meant in terms of being excused versus unexcused could you talk about that a little bit um and i i apologize because i don't have the handbook right in front of me um but we do allow for a certain amount of excused absences both in junior and senior year for college visits um because we we want students to take that opportunity with their families to explore their post-secondary pursuit so we feel that and that's that's in line with almost every high school in the state that allows that to be an excused absence now you know when you're getting to 10 days out because because you're visiting schools now you're taking away you know from the very thing we're trying to avoid uh but we have put in place days for both junior and senior year and clearly you know if there's a situation that comes up where there's you know someone decides they want to go to california to look at a school um we have the flexibility to to to meet with those families individually and and and and look at that um as an excuse to absence but um yeah we we believe that is important it's important part of their high school experience is to explore colleges Adam sorry just as a quick follow-up to Dan's question um so in the in the handbook i just pulled it up when it talks about the college visits it says up to five kind of two junior year three senior year and i think the question that was raised was just does that mean two visits that could span multiple days or is that two days and then three days gotcha um two and three days thank you yeah yeah all right i will entertain a motion to approve the high school handbook so moved i'll second all right adam yes julie yes jeremy no dan yes allen yes shauna yes nami yes motion carries six to one all right next up we have a proposal to name the sharon high school met co-office discussion impossible vote uh dr botella do you want to take the lead here sure yes we're uh proposing to um name the uh space on the second floor um uh that uh our boston students and metco students attend uh is the mcmullen trailblazing center and this is named after um the founding director of metco here in sharon and our first graduating class of 1971.